Syria pushed on chemical weapons

The surprise announcement by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov came a few hours after US Secretary of State John Kerry said that Syrian president Bashar Assad could resolve the crisis by surrendering control of “every single bit” of his arsenal to the international community by the end of the week.

Mr Kerry added that he thought Assad “isn’t about to do it”, but Mr Lavrov, who just ended a round of talks in Moscow with his Syrian counterpart Walid al-Moallem, said that Moscow would try to convince the Syrians.

“If the establishment of international control over chemical weapons in that country would allow avoiding strikes, we will immediately start working with Damascus,” Mr Lavrov said.

“We are calling on the Syrian leadership to not only agree on placing chemical weapons storage sites under international control, but also on its subsequent destruction and fully joining the treaty on prohibition of chemical weapons,” he said.

Mr Lavrov said that he has already handed over the proposal to Mr al-Moallem and expects a “quick, and, hopefully, positive answer”.

His statement followed media reports alleging that Russian president Vladimir Putin, who discussed Syria with president Barack Obama during the group of 20 summit in St Petersburg last week, sought to negotiate a deal that would have Assad hand over control of chemical weapons.

Speaking earlier, Mr Lavrov denied that Russia was trying to sponsor any deal “behind the back of the Syrian people”.

The Russian move comes as Mr Obama, who has blamed Assad for killing hundreds of his own people in a chemical attack last month, is pressing for a limited strike against the Syrian government.

Mr Lavrov and Mr al-Moallem said after their talks that UN chemical weapons experts should complete their probe and present their findings to the UN Security Council.

Mr Al-Moallem said his government was ready to host the UN team, and insisted that Syria is ready to use all channels to convince the Americans that it wasn’t behind the attack. He added that Syria was ready for “full cooperation with Russia to remove any pretext for aggression”.

Neither Minister, however, offered any evidence to back their claim of rebel involvement in the chemical attack.

Mr Lavrov said that Russia will continue to promote a peaceful settlement and may try to convene a gathering of all Syrian opposition figures to join in negotiations. He added that a US attack on Syria would deal a fatal blow to peace efforts.

Meanwhile British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Britain will continue to “work closely” with the USA on finding a solution to the civil war in Syria, despite Parliament’s vote against joining President Barack Obama in military action.

Mr Hague was speaking after talks at the Foreign Office in London with US Secretary of State John Kerry at the end of his whirlwind tour of Europe to drum up support for punitive action against the regime of President Bashar Assad for its use of chemical weapons on civilians in a suburb of Damascus last month.

Mr Kerry insisted that Britain’s decision not to join the US in military strikes would not damage the special relationship between the countries, insisting that Washington had “no better partner” than the UK. The Secretary of State said he appreciated the feelings of those on both sides of the Atlantic who are reluctant to get embroiled in the two-and-a-half year civil war in Syria. But he said: “I think it would be good to hear people saying to a dictator ‘Keep your hands off chemical weapons that kill your own people. Protect your own people’.”