Russia on Wednesday handed the United States its plan for taking away Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal — but officials in Moscow said Russia will now arm another US enemy, Iran.
“We handed over to Americans a plan to place chemical weapons in Syria under international control, we expect to discuss it in Geneva,” state news agency ITAR-Tass quoted a diplomatic source as saying.
Details were not disclosed but The US is expected to voice its reaction Thursday when Secretary of State John Kerry discusses Syria with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in the Swiss city.
The Russian newspaper Kommersant, which has strong Kremlin connections, reported Wednesday that the Kremlin has decided to sign a new deal to deliver air defense missile systems to Iran.
The deal would replace a 2007 contract that Russia scrapped in 2010 under US and Israeli pressure. Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to discuss it when he meets with Iran’s President Hasan Rouhani in Kyrgyzstan during a security summit later this week.
President Obama appeared to put a US bombing campaign of Syria on hold Tuesday night when he cited “encouraging signs” in the Russian plan, during his nationally televised address.
Meanwhile in Washington, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid publicly put off the vote, originally planned for today, to authorize Obama to use military force against the Assad regime.
“Leader in Damascus and Moscow should understand that Congress will be watching these negotiations very closely,” said Reid, a Nevada Democrat.
Sen. John McCain warned that if no agreement is reached on the Russian plan in a few days it “would strengthen the president’s hand to go back to Congress and say, ‘Look, I tried this avenue and it’s been rejected.’”
“I worry we have a kind of a game of rope-a-dope for awhile and the slaughter goes on” during diplomatic negotiations over Russia’s proposal, McCain told reporters at a Wall Street Journal breakfast.
The US and France are still pushing for a UN Security Council resolution to verify Syria’s disposal of its poison gas stockpiles.
The latest French proposal would set a 15-day deadline for Syria to produced a complete declaration of its chemical weapons, according to the British newspaper the Telegraph.
But the French proposal, contained in a draft United Nations resolution, also blames the regime of Bashar al-Assad for carrying out the poison gas attack of Aug. 21. Russia has warned that it would veto such a provision.
In Damascus, cabinet minister Ali Haidar said the Russian proposal is still a “broad headline” that needs to be developed. He said Syria’s chemical weapons, which he described as “the nuclear of the poor,” were meant to achieve strategic balance against Israel, “an enemy that we’ve been fighting for more than 60 years.”