º£½Ç´óÉñ

– A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

Diplomacy is enjoying a high-profile heyday in the Middle East this week as the United Nations Security Council struck a deal on a draft resolution on Syria's use of chemical weapons, and discussion of Iran's nuclear program is gaining fresh momentum.

Over the course of Syria's more than two-year-old civil war, it's shown little sign of abating, and a recent move by nearly a dozen rebel groups to form an Islamist alliance suggests a radicalization of the fighters resisting the government of Bashar al Assad. But, in a positive step, President Assad has expressed a willingness to acknowledge the existence of and negotiate the destruction of his country's chemical weapons arsenal.

A deal struck on a draft resolution Thursday at the United Nations Security Council on chemical-weapons reduction represents the rare backing by Russia of a plan to curb Syrian weapons. Russia is a staunch supporter of Syria's government, and in the past has been a bulwark between Syria and any unified outside pressure. The UN's draft resolution would require Syria to turn over its chemical weapons and is legally binding, but it doesn't contain an automatic recourse of sanctions or military actions. Despite that lack of teeth, a US State Department official quoted in the Globe and Mail described the deal as a "breakthrough:"

Earlier this month, US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, testifying before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, suggested that Russia, however, could be the original source of some of Syria's chemical arsenal:

All of this wrangling over Syrian chemical arms came to the fore after the Aug. 21 Sarin nerve gas attack on the Ghouta agricultural belt around Damascus.  UN weapons inspectors said the chemicals were delivered by means of surface-to-surface rockets, weapons not known to be possessed by rebel fighters.

The UN inspectors have begun to probe allegations of seven other chemical or biological weapons attacks in Syria, three of which may have occurred after the deadly incident on Aug. 21, Reuters reports.

And while the attack points to the importance of decommissioning the Syrian stockpile, US experience suggests that the effort is an almost-certain case of "easier said than done." The Guardian notes:

That pessimism is not publicly shared by the Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, however. The group released a statement earlier this month saying:

Atomic negotiations with Iran

Meanwhile in Iran, talks on the country's controversial atomic program are proceeding even as, the Jerusalem Post reports, Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) sounded a note of caution:

This doesn't particularly clash with an interview by the Washington Post with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani about the atomic program's negotiation timeline:

Iran's sometimes rocky relationship with the international community and the IAEA could easily rear up again, of course, and the country has its own demands: sanctions relief is high on the list, as well as Israel signing the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.