US President Barack Obama has postponed a Congress vote on military action in Syria, vowing to pursue diplomacy to remove the regime’s chemical weapons. Damascus has admitted for the first time that it has chemical weapons, and has agreed to abide by a Russian plan to have the arsenal destroyed.
The US threatened strikes after a gas attack killed hundreds last month. Mr Obama said the US military would respond if talks failed.
Syria blames rebels for the attack near Damascus. More than 100,000 people have died since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in 2011. Russia announced the plan on Monday and Syria quickly responded, saying it “welcomed” the initiative.
Late on Tuesday, Foreign Minister Walid Muallem then made the fullest public admission of the regime’s stockpile and a much clearer commitment to the Russian plan.
“We are ready to inform about the location of chemical weapons, halt the production of chemical weapons, and show these objects to representatives of Russia, other states and the United Nations,” he said.
“Our adherence to the Russian initiative has a goal of halting the possession of all chemical weapons.”
Until Tuesday morning, Mr Obama’s government had been lobbying hard for support in Congress for military strikes.
But surveys of politicians had shown he was unlikely to win the planned vote.
In a televised speech from the White House, President Obama said the Russian plan and the regime’s admission that it held chemical weapons were “encouraging signs”.
“It’s too early to tell whether [the Russian plan] will succeed, and any agreement must verify that the Assad regime keeps its commitments,” he said
“But this initiative has the potential to remove the threat of chemical weapons without the use of force, particularly because Russia is one of Assad’s strongest allies.”
He said the diplomatic movements were in part a result of the credible threat of US military action, but that he was willing to postpone the Congress vote to allow diplomacy to be pursued.
During his speech, Mr Obama restated the US position that Mr Assad’s government was responsible for the 21 August attack, which he described as “sickening”.
He said that such an attack was not only a violation of international law it was also a danger to US national security.
He confirmed earlier reports that US Secretary of State John Kerry would meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Geneva on Thursday, adding: “I will continue my own discussions with President Putin.”
“I’ve spoken to the leaders of two of our closest allies, France and the United Kingdom. And we will work together in consultation with Russia and China to put forward a resolution at the UN Security Council requiring Assad to give up his chemical weapons and to ultimately destroy them under international control.”
He added: “Meanwhile, I’ve ordered our military to maintain their current posture, to keep the pressure on Assad and to be in a position to respond if diplomacy fails.”
The BBC’s North America Editor Mark Mardell said the president’s address was clear but almost entirely lacking in passion and devoid of new arguments.
There were heated debates at the UN all through Tuesday, with the UK, US and France calling for a timetable and the consequences of a Syrian failure to comply with any resolution spelt out.
Washington had warned it would “not fall for stalling tactics”.
Russia said any draft resolution putting the blame on the Syrian government was unacceptable and urged a non-binding declaration backing its initiative.
UK government sources have told the BBC that the exact wording of the joint US, French and British resolution on Syria’s chemical weapons is still to be agreed.
BBC Middle East
