Moscow urges Syria to put its chemical weapons under international control
STRINGER
/ REUTERS
A Free Syrian Army fighter sets up homemade rockets to be launched
towards forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar Assad based in the
Kwers military airport in Aleppo on Monday.
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MOSCOW- Russia urged
Syria on Monday to put its chemical weapons under international control
in the hope that this would avert U.S. military strikes over an alleged
gas attack, and President Bashar Assad's government said it welcomed the
proposal.
Foreign Minister
Sergei Lavrov said he conveyed the idea to Syrian Foreign Minister Walid
al-Moualem at talks in Moscow and that Russia expected “a quick and, I
hope, a positive answer.”
“If the establishment
of international control over chemical weapons in (Syria) makes it
possible to avoid strikes, then we will immediately get to work with
Damascus,” Lavrov said.
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Moualem later
told reporters Syria welcomed the proposal. He stopped short of saying
explicitly that it agreed to carry it out, but seemed to indicate it
would if it meant the United Sates would not launch military strikes.
“I state that the
Syrian Arab Republic welcomes the Russian initiative, motivated by the
Syrian leadership's concern for the lives of our citizens and the
security of our country, and also motivated by our confidence in the
wisdom of the Russian leadership, which is attempting to prevent
American aggression against our people,” Moualem said through an
interpreter.
Russia, which is
Syria's most powerful ally, appeared to seize on an idea voiced by U.S.
Secretary of State John Kerry, even though the American swiftly made
clear he had not been making a serious offer.
Kerry was asked by a
reporter in London whether there was anything Assad's government could
do or offer to stop a military strike.
Kerry answered: “Sure,
he could turn over every single bit of his chemical weapons to the
international community in the next week—turn it over, all of it without
delay and allow the full and total accounting, but he isn't about to do
it and it can't be done.”
The State Department
later said Kerry had been making a rhetorical argument about the
impossibility of Assad turning over chemical weapons, which the Syrian
president denies his forces used in an Aug. 21 poison gas attack on
rebel-held suburbs of Damascus.
But Russia, which opposes U.S. strikes and has blamed rebels for the chemical attack, appeared to have called Kerry's bluff.
Lavrov said that in
addition to putting its chemical arsenal under international control,
Russia was urging Syria to eventually destroy the weapons and become a
full member of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
(OPCW).
The Russian proposal
appeared to be aimed, at least in part, at putting the United States
under pressure to show that its concerns about chemical weapons are
genuine and it is not just using the Aug. 21 attack as a pretext for
military intervention.
At a news conference
with Lavrov following their talks earlier on Monday, Moualem questioned
the U.S. motives and said “diplomatic channels to resolve this issue
have not been exhausted.” He did not elaborate.
Moualem accused Obama
of backing Islamist extremists, apparently drawing comparisons with the
attacks on the United States on Sept. 11, 2001.
“We are asking
ourselves how Obama can ... support those who in their time blew up the
World Trade Center in New York,” Moualem told the news conference with
Lavrov after their talks.
Moualem also conveyed
Assad's gratitude for support from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who
pressed Russia's case against military strikes on Syria at a G20 summit
attended by Obama in Russia last week.
Russia has been
Assad's most influential supporter during the conflict, supplying
weapons and, with China, blocking three U.N. Security Council
resolutions condemning Assad.
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