Calling Kerry's bluff? Russian official floats plan to avert military strike on Syria
Unknown - FoxNews.com, September 9th, 2013
Just hours after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry made an off-hand comment about how Syria could avert a military strike by turning over its chemical weapons program, Russia's foreign minister is proposing that the Assad regime do just that.
Sergey Lavrov said Monday that Russia will push Syria to place its chemical weapons under international control. He said that if such a move would help avert a possible U.S. strike on Syria, Russia will start work “immediately” to persuade Syria to relinquish control over its chemical arsenals.
The plan could challenge Kerry over comments he made during an earlier press conference in London. Kerry said early Monday morning that if Bashar Assad wanted to defuse the crisis, “he could turn every single bit of his chemical weapons over to the international community” within a week.
But Kerry claimed that Assad “isn't about to do it” — and an aide suggested the secretary was not being serious.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki clarified that Kerry “was making a rhetorical argument about the impossibility and unlikelihood of Asad turning over chemical weapons he has denied he used.”
She added: “His point was that this brutal dictator with a history of playing fast and loose with the facts cannot be trusted to turn over chemical weapons otherwise he would have done so long ago.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for commenting. Your comments are needed for helping to improve the discussion.