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France to take Syria chemical weapons issue to UN

A Russian proposal to put Syria's chemical weapons stockpile under international control has revived international diplomacy on Syria.

By Whitney Eulich, Staff writer

鈥 A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

After weeks of talk about imminent military intervention in Syria, a new Russian proposal to collect and destroy Syria鈥檚 chemical weapons stockpile has rallied war weary and often opposing international players.

Today, France announced it will put a resolution for bringing Syria's chemical weapons stockpile under outside control before the United Nations Security Council, and China, Iran, and the Arab League expressed support for the initiative. The plan is a 鈥減otential breakthrough,鈥 said US President Obama.

鈥淲e are calling on the Syrian leadership to not only agree to place chemical weapons storage sites under international control, but also on their subsequent destruction and the fully joining of the treaty on the prohibition of chemical weapons," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday in a statement.

鈥淚nternational pressure鈥 led to Russia鈥檚 proposal, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said, according to French daily Le Monde and Agence France-Presse.

鈥淚nternational pressure worked,鈥 said Mr. Drian. 鈥淚f there had not been pressure from France and the United States to ... oppose the use of [chemical weapons], there would not have been this reaction.鈥

He added that, "We are in no way dropping the pressure. Our entire military system is ready."

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Marzieh Afkham said in a news conference, "The initiative that was expressed by Moscow regarding putting an end to the Syrian crisis at this stage, the Islamic Republic of Iran favors that initiative and we find this to be within the framework of putting a halt to militarism in the region."

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius says France could put a proposal before the Security Council in the next day, and will likely invoke Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, 鈥渁 clause that allows member states to use all possible means to enforce a resolution,鈥 according to The Wall Street Journal.

Invoking Chapter 7 could again raise Russian resistance, despite the fact that France is backing a Russian proposal.

Russia, a close ally of Syria that holds veto power, has blocked all previous French-led resolutions at the Security Council, reports the BBC. The Security Council has failed to reach a consensus on any action regarding Syria since violence began there in 2011.聽

According to The New York Times 鈥渢he rapid-fire developments鈥 on the destruction and monitoring of Syria鈥檚 chemical weapons stockpiles came on the tail of a Human Rights Watch report that 鈥渟upported conclusions by Western governments that only the government of Mr. Assad could have launched the attack that killed hundreds of people, many of them children.鈥

A separate BBC story outlines the challenges the international community could still face聽if France鈥檚 resolution passes at the UN.

Though there is more vocal support in the international community for this non-militarized step in the Syrian conflict, rebels in the country have denounced the proposal as 鈥渁 political maneuver鈥 to keep Assad in power, reports the Times.