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Syria Weapons Talks

September 14, 2013 by · Comments Off on Syria Weapons Talks 

Syria Weapons Talks, Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov have reached an agreement on a framework for securing Syria’s chemical weapons on the third day of intense negotiations in Geneva.

Syria has one week to comply. And if Syrian leaders fail to comply, the United States and Russia will seek a United Nations Security Council resolution, Kerry and Lavrov said.

At a news conference Saturday, Kerry said the pair and their teams of experts had reached “a shared assessment” of the existing stockpile and that Syria must destroy all of its weapons.

Kerry said, “we have committed to a standard that says, verify and verify.” The negotiations between the United States and Russia on securing Syria’s chemical weapons also are considered key to a resumption of peace talks to end the 2 1/2-year Syrian civil war.

A spokesman for the U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said after the announcement: “The secretary-general looks forward to learning more of this framework agreement and pledges the support of the United Nations in its implementation. The Secretary-General expresses his fervent hope that the agreement will, first, prevent any future use of chemical weapons in Syria and, second, help pave the path for a political solution to stop the appalling suffering inflicted on the Syrian people.”

The Obama administration welcomed the agreement but made clear that the use of military force is still an option.

“While we have made important progress, much more work remains to be done,” President Obama said. “The United States will continue working with Russia, the United Kingdom, France, the United Nations and others to ensure that this process is verifiable, and that there are consequences should the Assad regime not comply with the framework agreed today. And, if diplomacy fails, the United States remains prepared to act.”

Pentagon spokesman George Little said: “We haven’t made any changes to our force posture to this point. The credible threat of military force has been key to driving diplomatic progress. And it’s important that the Assad regime lives up to its obligations under the framework agreement.

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