Obama Warns Damascus to Comply the Accord

After Russia reached an accord with Washington, US President Barack Obama has welcomed the deal to strip Syria of chemical weapons, but said much remains to be done.

In a statement, Obama has warned Damascus to comply with the accord saying that if the regime of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad does not live up to the deal Washington has reached with Syria’s ally Russia, “the United States remains prepared to act,” Al Jazeera.net reported.

Reports said the accord was made possible “in part” by what Obama has called his credible threat to use force against Syria as punishment for its alleged use of chemical weapons against civilians last month. The US estimates said the attack has killed about 1,400 people. “We now have the opportunity to achieve our objectives through diplomacy” Obama said.

After talks with Russia’s Sergey Lavrov in Geneva, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Syria has a week to declare its chemical weapons and must allow international inspections, as these are part of the demand of a six-point plan aimed at eliminating Syria’s stockpiles by mid-2014.

Reports added this was agreed by the US and Russia after three days of negotiations in Geneva.

Speaking at a news conference with Lavrov, Kerry said that weapons inspectors should be on the ground in Syria by November with the goal of eliminating President al-Assad’s stockpiles by mid-2014, Al Jazeera.net said.

Reports said the agreement did not mention any threat of force if Syria failed to comply, instead stating that the regime would become the subject of an as-yet unwritten UN Security Council resolution. Efforts earlier this week to draft a resolution were complicated by Russia and the West’s differences on the threat of force.

Earlier, Syrian government has denied using chemical weapons on civilians, and instead placed the blame on the rebels for the deadly attack.

Al Jazeera’s diplomatic editor James Bays has said that the lack of agreement on the content of a resolution would be troubling to some nations, and there would be differing opinions on what constituted a violation.

“We certainly know that the UK-French plan was to come up with a very tough resolution … that would include all of this deal but it would automatically trigger the use of force if there was a violation.” Bays said.

Accordingly, there has been no formal reaction from the Syrian regime, Al Jazeera.net reported.

Source: Al Jazeera.net