US-Russian talks on eliminating Syria’s chemical weapons programme have reached a “pivotal point,” a US official said, and both nations said on Friday they wanted to renew efforts to negotiate a peaceful end to the war in Syria.
US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met in Geneva to discuss a Russian proposal under which Syria would sign international treaties banning chemical weapons and hand over its stocks of such weapons to the international community for destruction.
The US official said the two sides were “coming to agreement” on the size of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles and talks were continuing into Saturday.
US President Barack Obama, after a meeting in Washington with Kuwait’s emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, reiterated that he will insist any deal on Syria’s chemical weapons is “verifiable and enforceable.
In Washington, senior Obama administration officials said the United States does not expect a UN Security Council resolution formalising the deal to include potential use of military force due to Russian opposition.
Independently of the United Nations, Obama has threatened the use of force in response to an August 21 chemical weapons attack in Syria that US officials say killed around 1,400 people. But as part of negotiations toward a UN resolution, the United States sees no benefit in trying to include the potential use of force.
Russia holds a veto on the Security Council and has previously used it on three occasions when Western powers sought to condemn Assad over the war in Syria. President Vladimir Putin has said the proposal on chemical weapons will only succeed if the United States and its allies rule out the use of force.
The US officials who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity said the UN resolution could include a range of consequences should Syria refuse to give up chemical weapons in a verifiable way. Those consequences could include increased sanctions.
After meeting UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, Lavrov and Kerry said they hoped to meet in New York in about two weeks, around September 28 during the UN General Assembly, to see if they could schedule a new international peace conference on Syria.
The talks between teams led by Kerry and Lavrov, which began on Thursday, are at a “pivotal point” and are continuing into Saturday, the US official told reporters in Geneva.
Kerry told a joint news conference: “We are committed to trying to work together, beginning with this initiative on the chemical weapons, in hopes that those efforts could pay off and bring peace and stability to a war-torn part of the world.”
He hoped a date might be set for peace talks, but added: “Much ... will depend on the capacity to have success here in the next hours, days, on the subject of the chemical weapons.”
Lavrov, voicing regret at the failure of an international accord reached in Geneva last year, said he hoped a “Geneva 2” meeting could lead to a political settlement for Syria.
“We agreed ... to see where we are and see what the Syrian parties think about it and do about it,” he said.
Opposition disheartened
Assad’s Syrian opponents, many of them disheartened by Obama’s failure to make good on threats to launch military strikes in response to the August 21 gas attack, say they see no place for Assad after the war.
However, neither side has been able to finish the fighting, leaving the country’s territory divided and its people in misery, including 2 million who are now refugees abroad.
The Syrian opposition coalition, which has struggled to form a coherent response to the Russian proposal, said it would appoint a provisional prime minister on Saturday to raise its international credibility.
The original drive for a political solution to the conflict, dubbed the “Geneva” plan and calling for a transitional government with full power, went nowhere as Assad refused to cede power, and the opposition insisted that he could not be a part of any new political order in the country.
National Coalition member Khaled Khoja said the opposition was still willing to enter into talks with the Assad government if the balance of military power was redressed.
“We are not against Geneva 2, but not under these conditions. The balance of power is not right now. What would restore it is either an air strike or weapons for the Free Syrian Army,” Khoja said, referring to more sophisticated anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons that rebel brigades generally lack.
