Kerry briefs US allies on Syria deal with Russia

Iran Press TV

Mon Sep 16, 2013 12:33PM GMT

US Secretary of State John Kerry met with top diplomats from France and Britain in Paris on Monday to brief them on a deal he reached with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov two days earlier over Syria’s chemical weapons.

Kerry headed to Paris to meet with US allies in Europe after he met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem al-Quds in order to assure Washington’s staunch ally in the Middle East that the deal would be capable of removing Syria’s chemical weapons.

On the final day of three days of intense negotiations, Kerry and Lavrov reached an agreement Saturday on a framework for Syria to verify it is eliminating all its chemical weapons.

Under the agreement, Syria would give up its chemical weapons in a bid to deter any foreign strike on the country.

The US, Britain, and France are now calling for a tough UN resolution with binding deadlines.

The three Western veto holders of the United Nations Security Council have also threatened the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad with the use of force if it fails to stick to the recent deal.

Wrapping up his trip to Paris, Kerry also held a private meeting with his Turkish counterpart on Monday and had lunch with Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal.

Prior to his meetings with his counterparts from Saudi Arabia and Turkey, the US Secretary of State warned that “there will be consequences” if “Assad fails to comply.”

The administration of President Obama has accused the Syrian government of using chemical weapons in an attack near capital Damascus on August 21.

Damascus has categorically rejected the allegations and even Obama’s top aide, White House chief of staff Denis McDonough, has admitted that Washington’s claims are based on a “common-sense test” not any “irrefutable” evidence.

Moreover, a classified document from the US intelligence community’s National Ground Intelligence Center obtained by WND has shown the US military knew that foreign-backed militants in Syria had sarin gas and used it in an attack on civilians and Syrian government forces last March.

The leaked document suggests, former director of the US Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare Yossef Bodansky indicated, that the alleged chemical attack of August 21 near Damascus was perpetrated by the militants to provoke a US military intervention in the Middle Eastern country.

ISH/ISH