GENEVA: International powers on Saturday give a week to declare Syria, its stock of chemical weapons, and must allow international inspections.
The demands are part of a six-point plan on eliminating the stockpiles, agreed on Saturday by the US and Russia after three days of negotiations in Geneva.
Talking to a joint press conference with Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov, US Secretary of State John Kerry said weapons inspectors should be on the ground in Syria by November with the goal of eliminating President Bashar al-Assad’s stockpiles by mid-2014.
“Providing this framework is fully implemented it can end the threat these weapons pose not only to the Syrian people but also to their neighbors”, Kerry said.
“Because of the threat of proliferation this framework can provide greater protection and security to the world.
“The world will now expect Assad’s regime to live up to its commitments… There can be no room for games. Or anything less than full compliance by the Assad regime,” he added.
Kerry and Lavrov said Syria must comply with the agreed deal and that any failure would result in a Security Council resolution.
Lavrov said their decision was based upon “consensus and compromise”, pointing out that the deal contained nothing about the potential use of force if Syria fails to comply.
But Kerry said there was no pre-agreement on what action the Security Council would take if Syria failed to comply with the plan, which envisages a complete destruction of its chemical weapons by mid-2014.
The US accuses the Assad regime of killing 1,429 people in a chemical assault on a suburb of Damascus on August 21. Assad denies involvement in the attack. The US at first pushed for military action against Assad, but later agreed to try to find a diplomatic solution after the intervention of Assad’s ally, Russia.
The US-Russia deal could also pave the way for the resumption of peace talks to end the civil war, now in its third year. More than 100,000 people have been killed, and millions have fled to other countries or to safer areas within Syria.
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