Middle East U.S., Russia hope Syria chemical talks will revive peace conference

[مستر محمد سلام]

Middle East

U.S., Russia hope Syria chemical talks will revive peace conference

After meeting with UN envoy Brahimi on Russia's plan to remove Assad's chemical weapons, Kerry and Lavrov agree to push for 'Geneva 2' conference to end the conflict


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U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday they hoped that talks on Syria's chemical weapons would help revive an international plan for a "Geneva 2" conference to end the war in Syria.

After meeting UN special envoy on Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, in Geneva, where they are trying to confirm a Russian plan to remove Syria's chemical weapons and avert U.S. military action, Lavrov and Kerry said they agreed to try and make progress on a broader effort to end a conflict that has divided the Middle East and world powers.

Kerry, who said the ongoing talks on chemical weapons were "constructive," told a news conference in Geneva that he and Lavrov planned to meet in New York later this month and hoped to agree a date for the Geneva 2 conference then.

Russia and the United States were working hard to find the common ground needed for a negotiated solution to the crisis, but both needed to do some "homework" first, Kerry said, without giving any details.

"We've both agreed to do that homework and meet again in New York around the time of the UN General Assembly, around the 28th (of September), in order to see if it is if possible to find a date for that conference, much of which will depend on the capacity to have success here in the next hours, days, on the subject of the chemical weapons."

Lavrov said Russian and U.S. experts needed to engage with the UN Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to design a roadmap to resolve the issue as soon as practical.

He said the work on chemical weapons would go on in parallel with preparatory work for the Geneva peace conference. "We agreed to meet in New York on the margins of the General Assembly and see where we are and see what the Syrian parties think about it and do about it, and we hope we would be able to be a bit more specific when we meet with you in New York."

Kerry cautioned after meeting Lavrov on Thursday that the United States could still carry out a threat to attack President Bashar Assad in retaliation for a poison gas attack last month if Washington was not satisfied with Syria's response.

Brahimi, who also represents the Arab League, said working to remove chemical weapons from Syria would form an important element in efforts to hold new peace talks, following an earlier failed attempt at Geneva last year.

As the diplomacy continued in Switzerland, Assad's forces were on the offensive against rebel-held suburbs of Damascus, opposition activists and residents said. Warplanes and artillery were bombing and shelling, notably in the Barzeh neighbourhood, where activists said there were also clashes on the ground.

"It seems that the government is back to its old routine after the past couple of weeks of taking a defensive posture from a U.S. strike," said one resident of central Damascus, who opposes Assad. She heard jets overhead and artillery in action.

Weapons ban

Damascus formally applied to join a global poison gas ban - a move welcomed on Friday by Russian President Vladimir Putin. He called it "an important step towards the resolution of the Syrian crisis" and added: "This confirms the serious intention of our Syrian partners to follow this path."

China, too, hailed Assad's decision, as did Iran, Assad's key ally in a regional confrontation with sectarian overtones between Shi'ite Tehran and Sunni Muslim Arab states.

But Kerry has underscored that Washington could still attack: "This is not a game," he said on Thursday.

The talks were part of a diplomatic push that prompted President Barack Obama to put on hold his plans for U.S. air strikes in response to a chemical weapons attack on August 21. Moscow's proposal also spared Obama facing a vote in Congress on military action that he appeared likely to lose at this stage.

The United States and its allies say Assad's forces carried out the attack with sarin nerve gas, killing more than 1,400 people. Putin and Assad have blamed rebel forces.

The United Nations said it received a document from Syria on joining the global anti-chemical weapons treaty, a move Assad promised as part of a deal to avoid U.S. air strikes.

Assad told Russian state television in an interview broadcast on Thursday that he would finalise plans to abandon his chemical arsenal only when the United States stops threatening to attack him.

Lavrov said on Thursday: "We proceed from the fact that the solution of this problem will make unnecessary any strike on the Syrian Arab Republic."

Along with other world powers, Moscow and Washington see the instability in Syria as fuelling wider security threats, but differ sharply on how to respond. Western powers say that Assad is a tyrant who should be overthrown. Russia, like Assad, highlights the presence in rebel ranks of Islamist militants.

In an audio recording released a day after the 12th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri referred to Islamist fighters in Syria among other battlegrounds as he urged supporters to carry out attacks in the United States to "bleed America economically".

Putin's Russia has been Assad's most powerful backer during the civil war, which has killed more than 100,000 people since 2011, delivering arms and - with China - blocking three UN resolutions meant to pressure Assad.

Kerry said any agreement must be comprehensive, verifiable, credible and implemented in a "timely" way - "and finally, there ought to be consequences if it doesn't take place." Kerry called a peaceful resolution "clearly preferable" to military action.

Assad told Russian TV: "When we see the United States really wants stability in our region and stops threatening, striving to attack, and also ceases arms deliveries to terrorists, then we will believe that the necessary processes can be finalised."

Assad said Syria would provide an accounting of chemical weapons stocks in 30 days, standard practice under the treaty.