Syria - Russian news coverage

US, Russia Ramp up Syria Diplomacy at Geneva Talks

RIA Novosti,

11September, 2013

WASHINGTON, September 11 (by Karin Zeitvogel for RIA Novosti) – US Secretary of State John Kerry meets Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Geneva on Thursday for hastily organized talks on a Russian plan to prevent a US attack on Syria by placing the war-torn country’s chemical weapons under international control.

The White House said Kerry and Lavrov would “explore the path forward” on Syria during their discussions in Geneva while the State Department said Kerry would be accompanied by a team of US technical experts who would “test the seriousness of the proposal” from Moscow.

In Moscow, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Kerry and Lavrov spoke by phone on Wednesday shortly before Kerry was to depart from Washington. In a statement, the ministry said the two men discussed the “situation surrounding Syria” but provided no further substantive details.

The top Russian and US diplomats and their delegations planned to “talk specifics of how to get it done and the mechanics of verifying, securing and ultimately destroying Syria’s chemical weapons,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters.

Psaki played down reports from Russia that said Moscow has sent its proposal for Syria to the Washington, saying what the State Department has received was “ideas that will be part of the discussion” in Geneva, and not a fully developed proposal.

The Geneva talks are scheduled to start Thursday and run for at least two days, with pundits predicting that they could run into next week.

They came about amid US threats to launch a military strike on Syria in response to an attack on August 21, apparently involving chemical weapons, that Washington blames on Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Those threats were put on hold this week when Russia jumped on a comment made by Kerry in London saying that the only way for Syria to avert an imminent US military strike was to turn its chemical weapons over to international control. Lavrov said Russia was prepared to pressure Syria to do so.

Lavrov quickly put the idea to Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, who was visiting Moscow, and a little over an hour after Kerry had made his comment, the Syrians had embraced what Muallem called a “Russian initiative” that could prevent “US aggression” against Syria.

Diplomacy moved rapidly after that. Debate on a resolution on Syria’s chemical weapons, which France brought before the UN Security Council, was due to begin later Wednesday.

In a televised address to the nation on Tuesday, US President Barack Obama said he asked Congress to delay a planned vote on whether to authorize use of US military force in Syria while Kerry and Lavrov “pursue this diplomatic path” opened up by the Russian proposal.

Obama also said that “constructive talks” he had held with Russian President Vladimir Putin were at least partly responsible for the US shift from preparing to launch a limited strike on Syria to using diplomacy in an effort to remove the possibility for Assad’s regime to use chemical weapons in future.

Psaki said Obama and Putin first discussed how to remove the threat of Syria’s chemical weapons at the G-20 meeting in Mexico last year and have held further talks on the issue since then, including last week on the sidelines of the G-20 in St. Petersburg.

But Russia’s “willingness to be a facilitator” in getting Syria to hand over its chemical weapons stocks “increased significantly since the attack of August 21st” and increased even more when the United States threatened to use military force against Syria, she said.

Obama said in his speech Tuesday that US forces will maintain their “current posture to keep the pressure on Assad, and be in a position to respond if diplomacy fails.”

Russia has signaled that it wants the US threat of military force against Syria to be taken out of the equation, something analysts said could prove to be a sticking point in Geneva, and two Russian lawmakers said Moscow should send new “defensive weapons” to Iran should the US attack Syria.

Another potential complication in Geneva, experts said, could be figuring out how to ensure the safety of outside experts who could be sent into Syria in the midst of a civil war that has killed more than 100,000 people to verify and safeguard what is said to be one of the largest chemical weapons stockpiles in the world.

“That will be part of the discussion” in Geneva, Psaki said.

“If this was a simple step without pros and cons, it would have been done long ago. But I’m sure the safety of anyone involved will be part of the discussion,” she said.

Syrian Opposition Wants to Put Chemical Arms Under Russian Control

RIA Novosti,

11September, 2013

BEIRUT, September 11 (RIA Novosti) – The Syrian opposition’s National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change said Wednesday that it had proposed that Russia oversee the war-torn country’s chemical weapons until a transitional government is formed.

“We have proposed placing chemical weapons under Russia’s supervision until a transitional government is formed,” the group’s spokesman, Haytham Manna, said in an interview with the Al-Mayadeen pan-Arabic satellite television channel.

“We realize that [US President Barack] Obama needs to find a way out of the impasse he has reached,” said Manna, who represents Syria’s moderate opposition.

Speaking on the same TV channel, Russia’s ambassador to Lebanon, Alexander Zasypkin, said Moscow had handed over to the UN Security Council evidence that chemical weapons in Syria were used by rebel forces.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that his country’s plan to place Syria’s chemical weapons under international control would be feasible only if the United States and its allies pledged not to use force.

Putin added that Moscow hoped Syria would accept international control over its chemical weapon stockpiles and also join the convention forbidding the use of chemical weapons.

‘Advantage Putin’ in Syria Diplomacy ‘Tennis’ – US Senator

RIA Novosti,

11 September, 2013

WASHINGTON, September 11 (RIA Novosti) – If global wrangling over Syria’s chemical weapons were a tennis match, Russian President Vladimir Putin would be up a point on his American counterpart Barack Obama, US Senator Rand Paul said Wednesday.

“It would be the umpire shouting: ‘Advantage Putin.’ He seems to be running circles around this administration,” Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, said on conservative talk show host Glenn Beck’s radio program as Russian and US diplomats headed to Geneva for talks on a Russian plan to prevent a possible US attack on Syria.

Russia floated the plan Monday after US Secretary of State John Kerry said in a seemingly off-the-cuff statement that Syria could avert a US military action by surrendering its chemical weapons to the international community.

After Syria quickly embraced the plan, the United States shifted from a military stance to a diplomatic one on Syria, with Obama asking US lawmakers to postpone a vote authorizing the use of force against and dispatching Kerry for talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov set to begin Thursday.

Obama “appears to have backed into this through some sort of lucky 

happenstance,” Paul said, adding that he hoped the Russian proposal would turn out to be “true and sincere” so that “maybe some resolution comes to the conflict” in Syria, where more than 100,000 people have died during two years of civil war.

But Paul stopped short of agreeing with Beck that Russia was eclipsing the United States as the world’s sole superpower, saying Moscow was merely “grasping to try to continue to look like the superpower that they once were” while the United States was still “truly a superpower,” but “a little confused and stumbling” at the moment.