Diplomatic Push for Assad to Give up Chemical Weapons Could Prevent Military Strike
Talking to the press in London yesterday, Secretary of State John Kerry said that U.S. strikes might be prevented if Syrian President Bashar al-Assad were to “turn over every single bit of his chemical weapons to the international community in the next week.” The comment was initially called a gaffe and the State Department tried to walk back the comments almost immediately, emphasizing that Kerry was making a rhetorical argument. But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrovresponded to the comments by saying his government would press Assad to give up his chemical weapons stockpile.
As the new diplomatic push developed throughout the day — possibly a revival of a previous U.S.-Russian diplomatic initiative — Sen. Harry Reid delayed a vote in the Senate on Syria scheduled for Wednesday. By the end of Monday, President Obamaseemed receptive to the Russian proposal, calling it a “potentially positive development” and saying that a diplomatic resolution to the current crisis is “overwhelmingly my preference.” The U.S. government (and the Israeli government, for that matter) have nonetheless expressed skepticism about the plan’s viability.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius announced this morning that he would press the issue by presenting a resolution at the U.N. Security Council calling on the Syrian government to cede its chemical weapons to international control.
