Kerry to Syria: This Is Not a Game
A U.S. threat to attack Syria for gassing its own people remains an option, stresses Secretary of State John Kerry.
By Elad Benari -- ArutzSheva 7
First Publish: 9/13/2013, 2:14 AM
John Kerry
Flash 90
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry made it clear to
Syria on Thursday that his country was serious about Syria giving up
its stockpiles of chemical weapons.
"This is not a game," Kerry said during a meeting in Geneva with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, quoted CNN.
He stressed that a U.S. threat to attack Syria for
allegedly gassing its own people remained an option if the negotiations
failed to prove Syria and its ally Russia were serious about the Syrian
regime handing over its chemical weapons stockpiles.
Any agreement reached must be "comprehensive,"
"verifiable," "credible" and "able to be implemented in a timely
fashion," Kerry said, adding that "there ought to be consequences if it
doesn't take place."
Lavrov, speaking in Russian, called for following
established rules and protocols in the process for Syria to join the
Chemical Weapons Convention and said that a solution "will make unnecessary" a military strike on Syria.
Earlier Thursday, Syria’s envoy to the United Nations announced that his country had become a full member of the global anti-chemical weapons treaty.
“Legally speaking Syria has become, starting today,
a full member of the [chemical weapons] convention,” Syrian UN
Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari told reporters in New York after the relevant
documents were submitted to the UN.
"With this, the chapter of the so-called chemical weapons should be ended," he added.
However, the challenge facing negotiators was made clear by Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, who told Russian TV
that his country would only agree to turn over control of its chemical
weapons when the United States drops its threat to attack.
"This does not mean that Syria will sign these documents, carry out the conditions
and that's it," Assad said, referring to the global convention against
chemical weapons. "This bilateral process is based, first of all, on the
United States stopping its policy of threatening Syria."
In the interview, Assad said joining the convention
gives Syria a standard 30 days to provide information on its stockpiles
to the international community. Kerry appeared to reject that in his
opening remarks for the talks with Lavrov.
Referring to Assad's comment on the convention,
Kerry said, "We believe there is nothing standard about this process"
because of the August 21 chemical weapons attack in suburban Damascus
that killed more than 1,400 people.
Reiterating the U.S. contention that Assad's regime
was responsible, Kerry said "we have in no uncertain terms made it
clear that we cannot allow that to happen again."
Palmor said that the existing 20-year-old Chemical Weapons Convention, which has been proposed as the tool for verifying Syrian compliance, has failed to attract the multilateral support that would allow it to work.
Labels: Chemical Weapons, Conflict, Intervention, Russia, Syria, United States
posted by Pieface @ Friday, September 13, 2013
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