Russia on Monday, Sept 9, threw its backing behind a proposal that Syria’s chemical weapons be put under international control, leading Damascus to say it “welcomes the … initiative” if it would indeed help prevent a U.S. strike on the war-torn country – a suggestion floated by Washington earlier in the day.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters in Moscow that “if putting chemical weapons in that country [Syria] under international control would prevent strikes, we’re immediately beginning to work with Damascus,” and that a proposal had already been passed on to Syria’s Foreign Minister Walid Muallem.
Lavrov and Muallem had met earlier on Monday, though it was not clear when or whether they discussed the proposal, RIA Novosti reported.
Muallem, in turn, said that Syria “welcomes the Russian initiative” and is “confident in the wisdom of the Russian leadership, which is trying to prevent American aggression against our people,” according to a Russian translation of the Arabic.
The text of the Russian proposal was not made public, but Lavrov said: “We are calling on the Syrian leadership not only to agree to the placement of chemical weapons storage sites under international control, but also to [their] eventual destruction, and to full accession to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.”
U.S. President Barack Obama, seeking to boost support for military action against Syria, said Monday that Russia's offer to work with Damascus to put its chemical weapons under international control could be a big deal – if it is serious, according to Reuters.
"This could potentially be a significant breakthrough," Obama told NBC News in an interview. "But we have to be skeptical because this is not how we've seen them operate over the last couple of years."
The president said he had explored the possibility of a proposal for Syria to cede control of its chemical weapons stockpile to international authorities with Russian President Vladimir Putin at a meeting last week in Russia.
If Syria did so, that would "absolutely" put any U.S. military strike on pause, Obama told ABC News.
Obama gave six television interviews Monday to press his case that Congress should grant him authority to take action against Syria in response to an alleged August 21 chemical weapons attack that killed more than 1,400 people.
Syria is one of five UN member states that have not signed the 1993 Chemical Weapons Convention outlawing chemical weapons. The other four are Angola, Egypt, North Korea and South Sudan. (Israel and Myanmar have signed but not ratified the convention.)
Obama told CNN that any diplomatic effort to resolve the crisis must be serious and not just a bid to buy time.
"We don't want just a stalling or delaying tactic to put off the pressure that we have on there right now," he said. "We have to maintain this pressure, which is why I'll still be speaking to the nation tomorrow about why I think this is so important."
Obama cautioned that a breakthrough on control of Syrian chemical weapons would not solve the country's civil war, but resolving concerns about the weapons without having to resort to force would be welcome.
"If we can accomplish this limited goal without taking military action, that would be my preference," he told CNN.
Obama said he has not made up his mind whether he will forge ahead with military action if Congress votes his proposal down.
"It's fair to say that I haven't decided," he told NBC.
Still, the president faces an uphill struggle to win approval from lawmakers, and he acknowledged that he has doubts about how the vote will turn out.
"You know, I wouldn't say I'm confident," he said in the NBC interview.
