REPORT: Syrias Assad says to send documents shortly to join anti...

35^min

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Damascus will send in the next couple days documents to the United Nations and an anti-chemical arms body needed in order to join a convention that prohibits chemical weapons.

"In the next couple of days, Syria will send a petition to the United Nations and Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons," Assad said in an interview on Russian state television on Thursday.

"The petition will contain technical documents required to sign the agreement. After that, work will start that will lead to the signing of the convention prohibiting chemical weapons," he said in comments translated into Russian.

Earlier, RIA news agency quoted President Bashar al-Assad as saying in a television interview that Syria will fulfill an initiative to hand over its chemical weapons only when the United States stops threatening to strike Syria.

"When we see the United States really wants stability in our region and stops threatening, striving to attack, and also ceases arms deliveries to terrorists, then we will believe that the necessary processes can be finalized," he was quoted as saying in an interview with Russian state television.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was also quoted by Interfax news agency as saying that "Syria's decision to cede control of its chemical weapons was the result of a Russian proposal, not the threat of U.S. military intervention".

For his part, Secretary of State John Kerry reiterated the U.S. position that force might be needed against Syria if diplomacy over President Bashar al-Assad's chemical weapons stockpile fails.

"President Obama has made clear that should diplomacy fail force might be necessary to deter and degrade Assad's capacity to deliver these weapons," Kerry said in Geneva at the start of talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

The U.S. State Department said that documents that Syria sent to the United Nations on joining the global anti-chemical weapons treaty as part of a deal to avoid U.S. air strikes cannot be a substitute for disarmament or a stalling tactic.

State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf said the U.S. option to use military force remains on the table while discussions proceed with Russia on how to remove Syria's chemical weapons stockpile.

In turn, President Barack Obama said he is focusing on domestic priorities after a tense period during which he sought congressional approval to use military force against Syria for its suspected use of chemical weapons.

"Even as we have been spending a lot of time on the Syria issue and making sure that international attention is focused on the horrible tragedy that occurred there, it is still important to recognize that we've got a lot more stuff to do here in this government," the president said before a meeting with his Cabinet at the White House.

For his part, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying that there is a still a chance for peace in Syria and the world must not let it pass.

Speaking to students in Kazakhstan, Lavrov welcomed the Syrian government's acceptance of Russia's proposal that Damascus place its chemical weapons under international control.

On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin warned against a US strike on Syria, saying such action risked escalating the conflict beyond that country and unleashing terrorist attacks.

Writing in the New York Times, Putin said there were "few champions of democracy" in the 2-1/2-year-old civil war in Syria, "but there are more than enough Qaeda fighters and extremists of all types battling the government."

On another note, the Washington Post reported late Wednesday that the CIA has begun delivering light weapons and other munitions to the rebels over the past two weeks, along with separate deliveries by the State Department of vehicles and other gear.

The deliveries have lagged, the newspaper said, because of logistical challenges and US fears that any assistance could wind up in the hands of extremists.

President Barack Obama wants to hold Assad accountable for the suspected attack in a Damascus neighborhood on Aug. 21 that US officials say killed about 1,400 people, including 400 children.

Positions:

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Thursday any deal to place Syria's chemical weapons under international control had to be enforceable and ensure the arsenal did not fall into the wrong hands.

The British government also said "the United States' decision to weigh military action against Syria and growing evidence the government there was behind a chemical weapons attack prompted Russia to change its stance towards its Middle East ally".

This as a Western-backed Syrian rebel leadership council has rejected the Russian initiative to place Syria's chemical weapons under international control, the group said in a video statement.

"We announce our definitive rejection of the Russian initiative to place chemical weapons under international custody," Salim Idriss, head of the rebel Supreme Military Council, said in a video posted online late on Wednesday.

For his part, a senior Israeli official voiced cautious support for Syria giving up its chemical weaponry under a Russian proposal being considered by the United States.

In turn, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said he was doubtful that President Bashar al-Assad would fulfill his pledge to put Syria's chemical weapons under international control, and said he was buying time for new "massacres".

On the field:

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebels fighting Assad's forces in Syria captured Thursday the village of Imm al-Lokas in the southern region of Quneitra near Syria's Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

The Britain-based activist group added that rebels also captured several army posts in the area in heavy fighting that caused casualties on both sides.

Syrian state media said government troops advanced in the predominantly Christian village of Maaloula near Damascus, capturing the main square as well as the Mar Takla convent where several nuns were staying.

Government troops are trying to flush out rebel units, including two linked to al-Qaeda, from the hilltop enclave the rebels broke into last week.

REUTERS/AP

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