Republicans slam Syria Deal

Iran Press TV

Sun Sep 15, 2013 6:10PM GMT

Key US Republican lawmakers say they are skeptical about whether a joint US-Russia deal to destroy Syria's chemical weapons could work in the absence of a credible threat of force against the Syrian government.

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers has said the deal serves the Russian interests. “Obviously, I'm skeptical … This is a Russian plan for Russian interests. And we should be very, very concerned … They got exactly what they wanted -- they wanted [Syrian President Bashar] Assad here for a year, or at least extended for a year and they got that,” Rogers told CNN.

He said Russia took advantage of President Barack Obama's “indeciveness” on Syria.

“If the president believes like I do that a credible military force helps you get a diplomatic solution -- they gave that away in this deal.”

Sen. John McCain who is a ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told NBC television the deal “is a loser ... We’re going to see Russians facilitating the departure of chemical weapons while plane load after plane load of Russian aircraft coming into Damascus were full of weapons and devices to kill Syrians.”

Tennessee Senator Bob Corker, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also voiced skepticism over the deal saying that “I think we should be skeptical until we see how this unfolds.”

Corker accused US Secretary of State John Kerry having a “weak hand” in drafting the deal with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.

The joint US-Russia agreement which was reached on Saturday after three days of talks in Geneva will seek to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons.

Syria says its “chemical weapons are a deterrence against the Israeli nuclear arsenal.”

“It's a deterrent weapon and now the time has come for the Syrian government to join the CWC as a gesture to show our willingness to be against all weapons of mass destruction,” Syrian Ambassador to the UN Bashar Jaafari has said.

Foreign Policy magazine has reported that “A newly discovered CIA document indicates that Israel likely built up a chemical arsenal of its own.”

It reported that “Israel secretly manufactured a stockpile of chemical and biological weapons to complement its nuclear arsenal. Much of the attention has been focused on the research and development work being conducted at the Israeli government's secretive Israel Institute for Biological Research at Ness Ziona, located 20 kilometers south of Tel Aviv.”

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