The US and Russia yesterday agreed on a proposal to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal, averting the possibility of any immediate US military action against President Bashar al-Assad’s government.
US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced the agreement after nearly three days of talks in Geneva.
Kerry said that under the pact, Syria must submit a “comprehensive listing” of its chemical weapons stockpiles within one week.
He told a news conference with Lavrov that UN weapons inspectors must be on the ground in Syria no later than November. The goal, he said, was the complete destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons by the middle of 2014.
Kerry said that if Syria did not comply with the agreement, which must be finalised by the Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons, it would face consequences under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, the part that covers sanctions and military action.
There was no agreement on what those measures would be. US President Barack Obama reserves the right to use military force in Syria, Kerry said.
“There’s no diminution of options,” Kerry said.
Lavrov said of the agreement: “There (is) nothing said about the use of force and not about any automatic sanctions.”
Obama had threatened the use of force in response to an August 21 chemical weapons attack in Syria that US officials say killed about 1,400 people. The US has blamed Assad’s government for the attack, while Russia and Assad say it was the work of rebel forces.
In Istanbul, the head of the opposition Syrian Supreme Military Council, General Selim Idris, said the rebels regarded the deal as a blow to their struggle to oust Assad. But they would cooperate to facilitate the work of any international inspectors on the ground, he told Reuters.
But another military council official, Qassim Saadeddine, said the opposite.
“Let the Kerry-Lavrov plan go to hell. We reject it and we will not protect the inspectors or let them enter Syria.”
Despite the diplomatic breakthrough, chemical weapons only account for around two per cent of deaths in a civil war in which 100,000 people have been killed.
Yesterday, Syrian warplanes struck against rebel-held suburbs of the capital Damascus and government forces clashed with rebels on the frontlines, according to residents.
The residents and opposition activists asked about the deal said that it would not benefit normal Syrians.
“The regime has been killing people for more than two years with all types of weapons. Assad has used chemical weapons six or seven times. The killing will continue. No change will happen. That is it,” said an opposition activist in a rebel-held suburb of Damascus who uses the name Tariq al-Dimashqi.
“The most important point is the act of killing, no matter what is the weapon,” he said.
Syrian state media broadcast the Kerry and Lavrov news conference live, indicating that Damascus is satisfied with the deal.
Kerry said that under the pact, Syria must submit a ‘comprehensive listing’ of its chemical weapons stockpiles within one week
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said earlier that a report by UN chemical weapons experts would confirm that poison gas was used in the August 21 attack.
Ban also said that Assad “has committed many crimes against humanity”, although he did not say whether it was Assad’s forces or rebels who used the gas.
The original drive for a political solution to the conflict, dubbed the ‘Geneva Plan’ and calling for a transitional government, went nowhere as Assad refused to cede power and the opposition insisted he could not be a part of any new political order.
The latest talks prompted Obama to put on hold his plans for US air strikes in response to the chemical weapons attack. Obama is now also spared facing a vote in Congress on military action that he had appeared increasingly likely to lose at this stage.
In a statement issued yesterday by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Maltese Government welcomed the US-Russia deal on chemical weapons in Syria.