U.S., Russia agree to framework on Syria chemical weapons
15 September, 2013 CNN
Russia and the United States, in their third day of talks in Switzerland, said Saturday they have reached a groundbreaking deal on a framework to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons.
Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stood side by side in Geneva as they set out a series of steps the Syrian government must follow.
Syria must submit a comprehensive list of its chemical weapons stockpile within one week, Kerry said, and international inspectors must be on the ground no later than November.
President Barack Obama said in a statement that the framework “represents an important concrete step toward the goal of moving Syria’s chemical weapons under international control so that they may ultimately be destroyed.”
Thousands of children dying in Syria He added, “There are consequences should the Assad regime not comply with the framework agreed today. And, if diplomacy fails, the United States remains prepared to act.”
Senior U.S. State Department officials said that according to the timeline, initial inspections of declared chemical weapons sites must be completed by November; all production and mixing and filling equipment must be destroyed by November; and all chemical weapons material must be eliminated by mid-2014.
The best way to ensure international control of Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal will be to remove as much as is feasible and to destroy it outside Syria, if possible, the framework document says.
Read the framework of the agreement
Kerry said the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad must allow “immediate and unfettered” access to international inspectors.
He said the inspectors should be able to get to Syria’s chemical weapons sites despite the ongoing civil war, provided the al-Assad regime cooperates, since Syria has moved its chemical weapons into areas where it has tight control.
The United States and Russia reached a shared assessment on the amount and type of chemical weapons possessed by the al-Assad regime, Kerry said.
“Providing this framework is fully implemented, it can end the threat these weapons pose not only to the Syrian people but also their neighbors,” and the wider world, he said.
Syrian Prime Minister Wael Nader al-Halqi welcomed the deal, saying his country is bent on implementing the political program as the “sole exit” from the crisis, according to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency.
Enforcement measures
The verification and destruction process will be carried out by personnel from both the United Nations and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the body that implements the international ban on chemical weapons use, according to the framework agreement.
Russia and the United States will now work to get a U.N. Security Council resolution that will keep the process under review and allow the Council to consider the use of force if Syria fails to comply.
Hopes for peace
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the U.S.-Russian agreement “constitutes an important step forward,” a sentiment echoed by UK Foreign Secretary William Hague.
The two plan to meet Kerry on Monday in Paris to discuss the framework and its implementation.
Ban pledged U.N. support for the plan, his spokesman said, and expressed hope that it would both prevent any future use of chemical weapons and pave the way for a political solution in Syria.
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The Secretary-General
In a separate statement released earlier today, the Secretary-General Mr. Ban welcomed the agreement reached by Russian Federation Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and United States Secretary of State John Kerry on a framework for the safeguarding and destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles.
“The Secretary-General expresses his fervent hope that the agreement will, first, prevent any future use of chemical weapons in Syria and, second, help pave the path for a political solution to stop the appalling suffering inflicted on the Syrian people,” says the statement. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
Russia and US agree fast-track plan to eliminate stockpiles from war-torn country. Al Jazeera and agencies
Photograph: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, left, and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, make statements to the media following meetings regarding Syria, at a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland, Saturday Sept. 14, 2013. AP Photo / Larry Downing
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