Chemical weapons in Syria, which Russia and the United States won the showdown?
Published on Saturday, September 14, 2013
6:24 PM //
Defence
John Kerry and Sergei Lavrov have reached an agreement on the dismantling of Syrian chemical weapons. After three days of negotiations, which party has the more concessions?
John Kerry and Sergei Lavrov have reached an agreement on the Syrian chemical weapons. But which of them has the most steps back?
After three days of talks in Geneva, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov have reached an agreement for the dismantling of the Syrian chemical arsenal .
Who won the showdown?
Diplomacy outweighs the military option. But in this showdown turned into negotiations, Russia seems to get away cheaply. The "Russian proposal" for supervised chemical weapons regime in Damascus seemed to come from nowhere, but it was actually discussed at the G20 summit. Therefore, the great powers had paved the way for the negotiations, opposing the need to pose a military threat to Damascus . But after two days of talks in Geneva, Washington said Friday that the United States would not insist on that point. Sign of a willingness to find common ground, or the natural reluctance of President Obama to intervene in the conflict.
Vladimir Putin strongly opposed, since the end of August to punitive strikes against Damascus with this agreement, Russia is able to both prevent these air strikes and mean, once again, its political weight on the scene international.
-What is it strikes?
The agreement signed between John Kerry and Lavrov he really evokes the Chapter VII of the Charter of the Security Council of the UN , which allows an intervention?
Alongside the agreement, the Security Council of the UN to adopt a resolution to strengthen the plan OPCW says Le Monde . The role of the Security Council will be primarily to monitor the implementation of the plan. And it is only in case of non-compliance that "the Security Council should impose measures under Chapter VII of the UN Charter," says the agreement. For Kerry, Chapter VII is referred to Lavrov threats are discussed in conditional .
The question is whether Russia will be in favor of measures that the Security Council may wish to take, if Syria does not respect its commitments. Nothing is less certain, given the systematic veto Moscow on these issues.
