Syrian President Bashar al-Assad set what may be unacceptable conditions for the U.S. in negotiating a chemical-weapons deal, saying it must be a “two-way street” in which the Obama administration drops its military threats and stops arming Syrian rebels.
Assad set out his terms as Secretary of State John Kerry told top Syrian opposition figures in a phone call that the option of a U.S. military strike remains on the table and that the U.S. will continue to stand by the rebels, according to a State Department official who asked not to be named because the talks were private.
Assad commented in an interview broadcast today by Russia’s state Rossiya 24 news channel as Kerry opened talks in Geneva with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. The diplomatic initiative by Russia has led President Barack Obama to put off moves toward military strikes on Syria even as he and other officials have said they are uncertain whether the talks will be successful.
While Obama said today at the start of a cabinet meeting that he’s hopeful talks will “yield a concrete result,” Assad’s comments highlight the obstacles to an agreement under which international monitors would take control of Syria’s chemical-weapons arsenal until those arms can be destroyed.
[h=2]Stop Threats[/h]“First of all, the U.S. needs to stop its policy of threats against Syria,” Assad said, according to a translation of his first public comments since Russia announced its diplomatic initiative this week. “It also depends on whether Russia’s proposal is accepted. When we see that the U.S. really wants stability in our region and stops threatening and moving towards strikes, and also stops supplying weapons to terrorists, then we will see that we complete the necessary processes and they’ll be acceptable to Syria.”
Syria today submitted to the United Nations a document to begin the process of joining the Chemical Weapons Convention, a UN spokesman, Farhan Haq, told reporters. The international accord bans the use of chemical weapons and requires the disclosure and elimination of such arms.
Syria would start providing information on its chemical weapons about a month after it signs the accord, Assad said in the interview with the Russian broadcaster.
[h=2]Opposition Leaders[/h]In Geneva, Kerry told the opposition leaders by phone that he is seeking tangible commitments that the Russians are interested in achieving a strong, credible and enforceable agreement to rapidly identify, verify, secure and ultimately destroy Assad’s chemical weapons stockpile, the State Department official said.
Kerry said he is entering the talks from a position of skepticism, the official said of the call with Syrian Opposition Coalition President Ahmad al-Jarba and the top rebel commander, General Salim Idris.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a rare direct appeal to the American people, used a New York Times opinion piece to urge the Obama administration to take the diplomatic instead of the military route to solving the Syrian crisis.
“A strike would increase violence and unleash a new wave of terrorism,” Putin said in his article, released late yesterday. “It is alarming that military intervention in internal conflicts in foreign countries has become commonplace for the United States. Is it in America’s long-term interest? I doubt it.”
The next twist in the 2 1/2-year civil war in Syria, a Russian client state since the 1970s and home to Russia’s only Mediterranean Sea naval base, now hinges on diplomacy between Washington and Moscow with echoes of the confrontation as well as the cooperation of the Cold War era.
[h=2]Destroying Arsenal[/h]Kerry and Lavrov are scheduled to meet for talks through tomorrow. The focus will be on the practicalities of securing, transporting, destroying and monitoring Syria’s chemical arsenal, according to a second U.S. official, who also asked not to be named. Talks won’t be about the text of a UN resolution that could govern the enforcement of any disarmament plan, the official said.
One test would be how quickly Assad discloses his full 1,000-ton inventory of chemical weapons, the official said. The official also said it will be difficult to provide security for weapons inspectors in the middle of a Syrian civil war that has killed more than 100,000 people.
Syria agreed to go ahead with the chemical-decommissioning plan because it was a Russian idea, not out of fear of U.S. reprisals, Assad said, according to Rossiya 24.
[h=2]U.S. Poised[/h]U.S. intelligence says Assad’s regime was behind one of the most gruesome episodes of the war, a chemical attack east of Damascus on Aug. 21 that killed more than 1,400 people, including more than 400 children.
Obama has cited Syria’s use of chemical weapons as the rationale for a potential attack on Assad’s war-making capacity. While Russia’s proposed compromise led Obama on Sept. 10 to postpone votes in Congress on a use-of-force resolution, he said the U.S. remains poised to execute targeted strikes.
Oil traders wary of the outcome of the U.S.-Russian diplomacy pushed up the price of West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery by 1.3 percent to $108.98 a barrel at 1:33 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Kerry brought a staff of technical experts with him to Geneva to discuss details of the Assad regime’s stockpile and better assess the credibility of Russia’s plan, the American official said. Syrian opposition groups say they don’t trust a chemical-weapons disarmament plan that would prolong Assad’s rule.
[h=2]International Control[/h]En route to Geneva, Lavrov told reporters that there is widespread support for establishing “multilateral international control over Syrian chemical weapons with the understanding that this will make it possible to avoid the use of force.”
Russia’s four-stage proposal foresees Syria signing on to the Chemical Weapons Convention, then disclosing its chemical production and storage sites, followed by inviting in UN inspectors and then working out a mechanism for moving and destroying the stockpiles, said Alexei Pushkov, head of the parliament’s foreign affairs committee.
“It will be extremely difficult to set rigid timetables at this stage,” Pushkov said in a telephone interview from Moscow. “This is a very serious process. It will take several years to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons.”
Another question is whether Russia will stand by Putin’s statement on Sept. 10 saying that the U.S. and its allies must renounce the use of force against Assad’s regime.
[h=2]Arming Rebels[/h]Obama’s postponement of a military response has revived attention to sending arms to the Syrian rebels, an amalgam of groups ranging from Syrian army defectors to foreign jihadists. The Central Intelligence Agency has started delivering arms promised by Obama in June, the Washington Post reported.
The aid, which two U.S. officials familiar with the program told Bloomberg News consists of automatic rifles, other small arms and ammunition, was held up largely because U.S. intelligence agencies had difficulty sorting out competing rebel factions and identifying those with extremist links.
U.S. supporters in the duel with Assad include France, which has pledged to join in airstrikes, and Britain, which was barred by its parliament from getting involved militarily. Turkey, which shares a 910-kilometer (566-mile) border with Syria, has led calls for Assad’s ouster.
Assad’s government “must pay” for the suffering it has caused, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said today in Istanbul. “We’re doubtful about promises on chemical weapons.”
To contact the reporters on this story: David Lerman in Washington at [email protected]; Henry Meyer in Moscow at [email protected]; Torrey Clark in Moscow at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at [email protected]
Assad set out his terms as Secretary of State John Kerry told top Syrian opposition figures in a phone call that the option of a U.S. military strike remains on the table and that the U.S. will continue to stand by the rebels, according to a State Department official who asked not to be named because the talks were private.
Assad commented in an interview broadcast today by Russia’s state Rossiya 24 news channel as Kerry opened talks in Geneva with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. The diplomatic initiative by Russia has led President Barack Obama to put off moves toward military strikes on Syria even as he and other officials have said they are uncertain whether the talks will be successful.
While Obama said today at the start of a cabinet meeting that he’s hopeful talks will “yield a concrete result,” Assad’s comments highlight the obstacles to an agreement under which international monitors would take control of Syria’s chemical-weapons arsenal until those arms can be destroyed.
[h=2]Stop Threats[/h]“First of all, the U.S. needs to stop its policy of threats against Syria,” Assad said, according to a translation of his first public comments since Russia announced its diplomatic initiative this week. “It also depends on whether Russia’s proposal is accepted. When we see that the U.S. really wants stability in our region and stops threatening and moving towards strikes, and also stops supplying weapons to terrorists, then we will see that we complete the necessary processes and they’ll be acceptable to Syria.”
Syria today submitted to the United Nations a document to begin the process of joining the Chemical Weapons Convention, a UN spokesman, Farhan Haq, told reporters. The international accord bans the use of chemical weapons and requires the disclosure and elimination of such arms.
Syria would start providing information on its chemical weapons about a month after it signs the accord, Assad said in the interview with the Russian broadcaster.
[h=2]Opposition Leaders[/h]In Geneva, Kerry told the opposition leaders by phone that he is seeking tangible commitments that the Russians are interested in achieving a strong, credible and enforceable agreement to rapidly identify, verify, secure and ultimately destroy Assad’s chemical weapons stockpile, the State Department official said.
Kerry said he is entering the talks from a position of skepticism, the official said of the call with Syrian Opposition Coalition President Ahmad al-Jarba and the top rebel commander, General Salim Idris.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a rare direct appeal to the American people, used a New York Times opinion piece to urge the Obama administration to take the diplomatic instead of the military route to solving the Syrian crisis.
“A strike would increase violence and unleash a new wave of terrorism,” Putin said in his article, released late yesterday. “It is alarming that military intervention in internal conflicts in foreign countries has become commonplace for the United States. Is it in America’s long-term interest? I doubt it.”
The next twist in the 2 1/2-year civil war in Syria, a Russian client state since the 1970s and home to Russia’s only Mediterranean Sea naval base, now hinges on diplomacy between Washington and Moscow with echoes of the confrontation as well as the cooperation of the Cold War era.
[h=2]Destroying Arsenal[/h]Kerry and Lavrov are scheduled to meet for talks through tomorrow. The focus will be on the practicalities of securing, transporting, destroying and monitoring Syria’s chemical arsenal, according to a second U.S. official, who also asked not to be named. Talks won’t be about the text of a UN resolution that could govern the enforcement of any disarmament plan, the official said.
One test would be how quickly Assad discloses his full 1,000-ton inventory of chemical weapons, the official said. The official also said it will be difficult to provide security for weapons inspectors in the middle of a Syrian civil war that has killed more than 100,000 people.
Syria agreed to go ahead with the chemical-decommissioning plan because it was a Russian idea, not out of fear of U.S. reprisals, Assad said, according to Rossiya 24.
[h=2]U.S. Poised[/h]U.S. intelligence says Assad’s regime was behind one of the most gruesome episodes of the war, a chemical attack east of Damascus on Aug. 21 that killed more than 1,400 people, including more than 400 children.
Obama has cited Syria’s use of chemical weapons as the rationale for a potential attack on Assad’s war-making capacity. While Russia’s proposed compromise led Obama on Sept. 10 to postpone votes in Congress on a use-of-force resolution, he said the U.S. remains poised to execute targeted strikes.
Oil traders wary of the outcome of the U.S.-Russian diplomacy pushed up the price of West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery by 1.3 percent to $108.98 a barrel at 1:33 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Kerry brought a staff of technical experts with him to Geneva to discuss details of the Assad regime’s stockpile and better assess the credibility of Russia’s plan, the American official said. Syrian opposition groups say they don’t trust a chemical-weapons disarmament plan that would prolong Assad’s rule.
[h=2]International Control[/h]En route to Geneva, Lavrov told reporters that there is widespread support for establishing “multilateral international control over Syrian chemical weapons with the understanding that this will make it possible to avoid the use of force.”
Russia’s four-stage proposal foresees Syria signing on to the Chemical Weapons Convention, then disclosing its chemical production and storage sites, followed by inviting in UN inspectors and then working out a mechanism for moving and destroying the stockpiles, said Alexei Pushkov, head of the parliament’s foreign affairs committee.
“It will be extremely difficult to set rigid timetables at this stage,” Pushkov said in a telephone interview from Moscow. “This is a very serious process. It will take several years to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons.”
Another question is whether Russia will stand by Putin’s statement on Sept. 10 saying that the U.S. and its allies must renounce the use of force against Assad’s regime.
[h=2]Arming Rebels[/h]Obama’s postponement of a military response has revived attention to sending arms to the Syrian rebels, an amalgam of groups ranging from Syrian army defectors to foreign jihadists. The Central Intelligence Agency has started delivering arms promised by Obama in June, the Washington Post reported.
The aid, which two U.S. officials familiar with the program told Bloomberg News consists of automatic rifles, other small arms and ammunition, was held up largely because U.S. intelligence agencies had difficulty sorting out competing rebel factions and identifying those with extremist links.
U.S. supporters in the duel with Assad include France, which has pledged to join in airstrikes, and Britain, which was barred by its parliament from getting involved militarily. Turkey, which shares a 910-kilometer (566-mile) border with Syria, has led calls for Assad’s ouster.
Assad’s government “must pay” for the suffering it has caused, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said today in Istanbul. “We’re doubtful about promises on chemical weapons.”
To contact the reporters on this story: David Lerman in Washington at [email protected]; Henry Meyer in Moscow at [email protected]; Torrey Clark in Moscow at [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at [email protected]