Foreign Minister Serguei Lavrov today announced Russia’s proposal to establish international control over chemical weapons in Syria, in another effort to avoid a U.S. military strike on the Arab nation.
Lavrov made the announcement through an urgent press release following his meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem earlier today.
“We do not know if Syria agrees to this, but if placing the chemical weapons under international control helps avoid military strikes, then we will immediately join in that task with Damascus,” Lavrov said.
He referred to Syria’s promise to destroy its chemical arsenals and to become a full member of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
Russia has handed over this proposal to the Syrian foreign minister, who was in Moscow to discuss the delicate situation that has resulted from U.S. plans for an imminent attack, Lavrov said.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry today defended a possible attack against Syria as limited and very brief, which was seen here as an attempt to reduce opposition in his country and abroad to such an attack.
In Germany, debate continued about Chancellor Angela Merkel’s signing of the so-called Saint Petersburg Declaration, which supports Western intervention in Syria.
On the threshold of a week considered decisive for French-U.S. plans to intervene in Syria, the anti-war clamor was growing, as were demands for a political solution to the Syrian conflict.
Most French Citizens Oppose War in Syria
About 70 percent of French citizens are against France’s involvement in a military aggression against Syria, according to a poll by the Ifop Institute published last Saturday.
Questioned on their position on a hypothetical intervention of allied forces in Syria, 68 percent of those surveyed said that they rejected any military intervention to solve the conflict.
This accounts for an increase of 9 points compared to another poll carried out on August 29.
The survey included 732 people over 18 years of age in representation of the French population.
The idea of an attack on Damascus fostered by Presidents Barack Obama and Francois Hollande has not gained explicit support in France, not even in the European Union.
Via PL