Agreement on Syrian chemical weapons resolution

UN security council agrees wording of resolution on Syria chemical weapons

Agreement reached on wording of United Nations resolution on Syria after foreign ministers meet with secretary general

the Guardian,

26 September, 2013

The five permanent members of the UN security council reached an agreement on Thursday over the wording of a "binding and enforceable" resolution to eliminate Syria's stockpiles of chemical weapons.

British and US officials announced the breakthrough after a fast-moving day of diplomacy on the margins of the United Nations general assembly in New York.

But the agreement does not authorise the use of force if Syria does not comply – the sticking point that had prevented diplomatic progress on the conflict that has lasted more than two years and killed more than 100,000 people.

The British ambassador to the UN, Mark Lyall Grant, said in a post on Twitter that the five permanent members of the security council – Britain, France, the US, Russia and China – agreed on a "binding and enforceable draft" of a resolution.

He said the text would be introduced to the 10 other members of the security council at a meeting later on Thursday night.

The development was announced after hastily convened talks between the US secretary of state, John Kerry, and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. If the resolution is adopted, it would be the first legally binding resolution on the Syrian conflict.

US officials said the deal was significant. The administration, in a statement attributed to a state department official, said it was "historic and unprecedented". The statement said: "This is a breakthrough arrived at through hard-fought diplomacy. Just two weeks ago, no one thought this was in the vicinity of possible."

However, in order to get the agreement, the US had to concede that the wording of the resolution would not fall under chapter 7 of the UN charter, which allow it to be enforced by military action. Neither did the resolution ascribe blame for the 21 August chemical attack that killed hundreds of people in a Damascus suburb, and which prompted the latest crisis.

As part of the deal, Russia agreed to send troops to Syria to guard sites where chemical weapons are to be destroyed.

Sergei Ryabkov, a deputy foreign minister, said that other former Soviet republics that were part of the Russian-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation would also deploy soldiers to provide security for an international team of weapons inspectors who would oversee the task of destroying Syria's stockpile of poison gases and nerve agents.

The alliance includes Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

Ryabkov said that Moscow would not allow the Syrian arsenal to be transferred to Russia for dismantling.

"We believe that it should be dismantled on Syrian territory," Ryabkov was quoted as saying while attending an arms show in Nizhny Tagil. "We undoubtedly won't deal with it. We believe that the process of its destruction could be efficiently organised on the territory of Syria."

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, based in the Hague, is expected to agree to a provisional verification and disarmament plan on Sunday, following Syria's formal declaration of its chemical weapons, delivery systems and production facilities.

The frenzied diplomacy came in response to a gas attack that killed hundreds in a suburb of Damascus on 21 August. The US had threatened air strikes, but these were delayed as president Barack Obama struggled with flagging political and public support at home