Putin Says U.S. Must Renounce Use of Force for Syria Plan to Work as Senators Draft New Measure
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday the United States should renounce the option of using force in Syria to allow checks on Damascus' chemical weapons to go ahead.
"It all makes sense and can work if the U.S. side and all those who support it renounce the use of force," he said according to Russian television.
Putin, whose proposal Monday to secure Syria's chemical weapons was welcomed by Western powers, said Syrians viewed the arsenal as an "alternative" to Israel's nuclear arms.
"It is difficult to constrain Syria or another country to disarm unilaterally while military action against that country is being prepared.
"Russia's position on this question is well known: we are against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, chemical or nuclear," he added.
The United States, which accuses the Syrian regime of using chemical weapons on its people, has insisted that military action to punish the regime remains on the table.
But Putin said he hoped that by working with Syria in tandem with the Americans, a peaceful solution could be reached.
Meanwhile, a group of U.S. senators were crafting a new measure Tuesday that ties authorization for a military strike on Syria to action by the United Nations.
The lawmakers, including allies and foes of President Barack Obama, were drafting language that would alter a resolution currently under debate which would green-light limited U.S. strikes to punish President Bashar Assad's regime for its alleged use of chemical weapons.
The new measure, according to congressional aides familiar with it, would require the immediate initiation of the transfer of Syria's chemical weapons stockpile to international control, as proposed by Russia in an initiative which is being closely studied by the White House.
"Basically, the AUMF (authorization for use of military force) would be conditional and triggered only if the Russian plan fails," a Senate aide told Agence France Presse.
The measure would grant such authority, the aide said, "only in the absence of certification by the president that a U.N. Security Council resolution had passed that includes specific conditions, and that those conditions were being met along a specified timeline."
A second Senate aide said the measure aimed to establish a timeline to ensure Assad and Moscow were not using their initiative as a stalling tactic.
Obama has agreed to test the viability of Russia's plan at the United Nations, a move that could head off contentious use-of-force votes in Congress, where lawmakers remain intensely skeptical of a military strike on Syria.
On Tuesday top Republican Senator Mitch McConnell, who remained largely silent on Syria last week, came out opposed to the intervention.
"A vital national security risk is clearly not at play (and) there are just too many unanswered questions about our long-term strategy in Syria, including the fact that this proposal is utterly detached from a wider strategy to end the civil war there," McConnell said on the Senate floor.
But House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi said she was urging her members to back use of force authority, saying Obama's threat of U.S. force is what compelled Russia to put forward its initiative.
"We don't want the Russians to think his leverage is diminished," Pelosi told reporters after White House Chief of Staff Dennis McDonough held a packed classified briefing with Democratic members.
As to whether Russia might be merely seeking to delay action, Pelosi said Washington needed to stand firm.
"We can't have rope-a-dope," she said. The Russian initiative and its verification "can't be endless, but I don't think it can ignored."
Source: Agence France Presse, Naharnet
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