President Barack Obama expressed hope Thursday that talks underway between high-level Russian and U.S. envoys lead to a workable plan to strip Syria of its chemical weapons.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov were to meet in Geneva to discuss Moscow's proposal to destroy Bashar Assad's banned poison gas arsenal.
Washington has expressed caution about the plan, but Obama has agreed to put a threat of U.S.-led military strikes against the Syrian regime on hold while officials study it.
"John Kerry is overseas and meeting on the topic that we spent a lot of time on over the last several weeks, the situation in Syria and how we can make sure that chemical weapons are not used against innocent people," Obama said.
In brief remarks to his cabinet at the White House before reporters were ushered from the room, Obama expressed guarded optimism.
"I am hopeful that the discussions that Secretary Kerry has with Foreign Minister Lavrov as well as some of the other players in this can yield a concrete result and I know that he is going to be working very hard over the next several days over the possibilities there," he said.
Kerry and Lavrov were to meet later in the day, shortly after Assad confirmed that his government would surrender its chemical weapons under the Russian initiative.
Meanwhile, the Pentagon announced on Thursday that Russia is "isolated and alone" in accusing Syrian rebels of staging a chemical weapons attack that the United States believes was carried out by the Damascus regime.
"Russia is isolated and alone in blaming the opposition. We've seen no credible reporting that the opposition has used chemical weapons in Syria," Pentagon press secretary George Little told reporters.
All evidence from the August 21 attack indicates that President Bashar Assad's forces unleashed deadly sarin gas, and dozens of other countries share Washington's view, Pentagon press secretary George Little told reporters.
"We've been joined by more than 30 other countries in declaring that the Assad regime is responsible for the use of chemical weapons on August 21," he said.
The Pentagon spokesman dismissed Moscow's allegation that the rebels had fired the chemical agent.
"It's common sense that the opposition does not have the capabilities to carry out such a large-scale, coordinated rocket and artillery attack from a regime held-neighborhood targeting a rebel-held neighborhood," Little said.
He also suggested Russia's President Vladimir Putin's credibility was on the line after his government proposed placing Assad's chemical arsenal under international control.
"President Putin has invested his credibility in transferring Assad's chemical weapons to international control and ultimately destroying them. The world will know whether Russia can follow through with that commitment," Little added.
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