Putin: Syria to Hand Chemical Weapons If US Renounced Attacking Syria

Local Editor

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Syria's chemical arms handover will only work if the US and its allies renounce the use of force against Damascus.

"Of course, all of this will only mean anything if the United States and other nations supporting it tell us that they're giving up their plan to use force against Syria. You can't really ask Syria, or any other country, to disarm unilaterally while military action against it is being contemplated," Putin said on Tuesday.
In parallel, he added that the matter of bringing Syria's chemical weapons under international control has long been a subject of discussion by experts and politicians.

Putin confirmed that he and President Barack Obama had "indeed discussed" such a possibility on the sidelines of the G20 summit in St. Petersburg last week.
It was agreed, Putin said, "to instruct Secretary of State [John Kerry] and Foreign Minister [Sergei Lavrov] to work together and see if they can achieve some progress in this regard."

President Putin's comments came shortly after the Syrian government said it would agree to place its chemical weapons arsenal under international control.
On Tuesday, Britain, France and the US said they would table a resolution on Syrian chemical weapons to the UN Security Council later in the day.
"If this is a serious proposal, then we should act accordingly and I think a UN Security Council resolution is a good idea," British Prime Minister David Cameron said.

According to the news agency, "the presidents of France and the US reiterated that they would prefer a diplomatic solution, but they have also expressed willingness to retain any other options to neutralize the Syrian chemical weapons arsenal."
Russia's Foreign Ministry will propose a draft statement by the chairman of the UN Security Council, supporting the initiative to transfer Syria's chemical weapons to international control.

The issue was discussed during a phone conversation between Lavrov and his French counterpart, Laurent Fabius.
"[Lavrov] said that Russia, on its part, is submitting a draft statement for the UN Security Council's chairman, welcoming the... initiative and calling on the UN Secretary General, the general director of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, and all the interested parties to make efforts to facilitate the implementation of this proposal," the ministry's statement said.

At the same time, Syria said it was ready to completely give up chemical weapons and sign the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Syria wants to join the chemical weapons ban treaty and is ready to give other countries and the United Nations access to its arsenal, Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said Tuesday.
"We are ready to state where the chemical weapons are, to halt production of chemical weapons and show these installations to representatives of Russia, other countries and the UN," al-Moallem said in a statement sent to Russia's Interfax news agency.
"We want to join the chemical weapons ban treaty. We will respect our commitments in relation to the treaty, including providing information on these weapons."

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team