Kerry Says Russia to Send U.S. Syria Plan Tuesday

Russia will send the United States details of a proposal to secure Syria's chemical weapons stockpile later Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said, as he urged Damascus to seize the change for "peace."

The details would come during the "course of the day," Kerry said, shortly after talking with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. But he insisted that any plan must contain "consequences" if it turns out to be a delaying tactic to avoid U.S. military action.

Earlier on Tuesday, Kerry said the United States was waiting for Russia's proposal but will not wait for long.

While everyone was hopeful the move could be "a real solution to the crisis," said Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, he warned the threat of "credible, real" U.S. military action had to remain on the table.

Kerry alleged Syria had about "1,000 metric tons of numerous chemical weapons" including components for mustard and sarin gas, some of which was unmixed, and some of which was stored in tanks.

"Yesterday, we challenged the regime to turn them over to the secure control of the international community so that they could be destroyed," he told lawmakers.

Such a move "would be the ultimate way to degrade and deter" the arsenal held by Syrian President Bashar Assad, he told the House Armed Services Committee.

Later on Tuesday, Kerry urged the Syrian regime to "genuinely reach out" and seize the opportunity "to try to make peace" in their country.

Speaking just after Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem said his country wanted to join the ban on chemical arms, Kerry said he hoped the regime would stand by that and "help us in the next days working with Russia to work out the formula by which those weapons can be transferred to international control."

U.S. experts were already working on how to carry out such an "exceedingly difficult" task, he said, as Lavrov mulls a proposal on reining in Syria's chemical weapons.

"We're waiting for that proposal. But we're not waiting for long," Kerry said.

President Barack Obama -- who is due to address the nation later Tuesday -- "will take a hard look at it, but it has to be swift. It has to be real. It has to be verifiable,"Kerry insisted.

He added, however, that "nothing had changed" with respect to Obama's call for Congress to vote to approve a limited military strike on the Syrian regime, accused of using sarin gas in an attack near Damascus last month.

"We must be very clear-eyed and ensure that it is not a stalling tactic by Syria and its Russian patrons," Hagel said of the Russian proposal.

"The threat of a U.S. military action, the credible, real threat of U.S. military action, must continue as we are talking today," he insisted.

The United States had "a full range of options" in any military action aimed at degrading Syria's chemical weapons stock which could target "the command and control of those who chose to use them, the means of delivery, and some of the other resources that the regime uses to protect itself," said top military officer General Martin Dempsey.

"Importantly, the president has not yet given me the final decision on those target packages," he told lawmakers.

Asked whether innocent people could be killed in any U.S. strike, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said "you can make that assumption because war is an imperfect science."

But he assured that every effort would be made to protect civilians.

"You can also be sure that part of the targeting criteria I've been given by the president is to achieve a collateral damage estimate of low."