Lavrov Says Syria Arms Handover Makes Strike 'Unnecessary', Kerry Rejects Assad Timetable
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Thursday that Syria handing over chemical weapons and joining the treaty banning them would make U.S. strikes against the country "unnecessary," as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry rejected a 30-day timetable suggested by Syrian President Bashar Assad to begin submitting data on his chemical arsenal.
Lavrov told journalists ahead of talks with Kerry that their goal is to agree how to "solve once and for all the problem of chemical weapons in Syria" through the country's joining of the chemical weapons convention.
"The solution of this problem makes unnecessary any strikes on Syria, and I am sure that our American partners... are strongly in favor of a peaceful way to regulate chemical weapons in Syria," Lavrov said, speaking alongside Kerry in Geneva.
The United Nations earlier said that Syria has formally applied to join the convention banning chemical arms, sending relevant documents.
"We will have to see, together with experts... what further actions to take so that this process is not delayed and is proceeding in accordance with the strict rules of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons," Lavrov said.
He added that the talks also give a chance to discuss the potential international Geneva conference to "take the current situation out of the stage of military confrontation" and bring the warring sides together for negotiations on a transitional government.
"That is our common goal and I hope that work today and tomorrow... will help get closer to it," he said.
For his part, Kerry said Washington is not prepared to trust the word of the Syrian regime alone that it will rid itself of chemical weapons.
"The words of the Syrian regime in our judgment are simply not enough, which is why we've come here in order to work with the Russians," Kerry told reporters in Geneva ahead of the high-stakes talks with Lavrov.
He warned it was also up to Russians to show that they could "deliver on the promise of the moment" after Moscow proposed a plan earlier this week to eliminate Syria's deadly weapons stock.
But Kerry highlighted that the U.S. and Russia still disagreed on who carried out a suspected sarin gas attack near Damascus last month, which Washington says killed 1,400 people.
The attack came in the midst of a brutal civil war which began as a popular uprising to topple Assad, and which is said to have cost some 110,000 lives in about two and a half years.
"The Russian delegation has put some ideas forward and we're grateful for that. We respect it. And we have prepared our own principles that any plan to accomplish this needs to encompass," Kerry stressed, before a room packed with reporters from around the world.
"Expectations are high. They are high for the United States, perhaps even more so for Russia to deliver on the promise of this moment. This is not a game," he said.
Any deal to bring Syria's chemical weapons stockpile under international control "has to be credible. It has to be timely and implemented in a timely fashion," he said.
Kerry and Lavrov, who have both brought a team of top-level weapons experts with them to pore over the details of the Russian plan, will be making a posh Geneva hotel their operating base until Saturday for the closed-door talks.
The top U.S. diplomat told Lavrov that the United States was "serious as you are, engaging in substantive meaningful negotiations".
"Despite how difficult this is, with the collaboration of our experts, and only with the compliance from the Assad regime, we do believe there is a way to get this done," he said.
"Together we will test the Assad regime's commitment to follow through on its promises."
Pending the talks, U.S. President Barack Obama has put on hold plans for limited military strikes against the Syrian regime to disable its chemical weapons capability.
Lavrov told Kerry, speaking through a translator, that "I hope we will achieve all the successes."
But Kerry quipped: "You want me to take your word for it? It's a little early for that."
Source: Agence France Presse
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