France said on Monday it was confident that a deal could be reached with Russia on a U.N. resolution over Syria's chemical weapons program.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told RTL radio that the U.N. inspectors report regarding an Aug. 21 chemical attack that was published on Monday showed there was "no doubt" the Syrian government was behind it.
This as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov said it may be time to consider efforts to force foes of
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to attend an international peace conference
instead of just urging them to do so.
Lavrov said after talks with
Egypt's foreign minister that any calls for a swift UN resolution threatening
potential punishment for Syria under Chapter VII of the UN Charter - which can
include the use of force - showed a "lack of understanding" of an
agreement reached for Syria to abandon its chemical arms.
The said chapter was not included
in the agreement, he added.
Earlier, US Secretary of
State John Kerry briefed some of the United States' closest allies on a broad
agreement to end Syria's chemical weapons program, pressing for broad support
for the plan that averted US military
strikes.
A day after visiting Israeli leaders, Kerry met
in Paris with his counterparts from France, Britain, Turkey and Saudi Arabia,
who had pressed for strikes against the government of Bashar Assad after an
Aug. 21 alleged poison gas attack that killed hundreds.
Following the meeting, US' Kerry said the
United States, Britain, France and Russia agreed that Syria must face
consequences if it does not fully comply with a UN resolution to ensure a
handover of its chemical weapons.
"If Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad fails in
time to abide by the terms of this framework, make no mistake, we are all
agreed - and that includes Russia - that there will be consequences,"
Kerry said at a news conference in Paris.
US and Russian officials reached an ambitious
agreement over the weekend calling for an inventory of Syria's chemical weapons
program within a week, with the program eradicated by
mid-2014.
An official close to French President Francois
Hollande said there was firm agreement among France, Britain and the United
States that the resolution must be "strong, robust, and precise" and
must include a calendar of benchmarks for
Assad.
On another note, Iranian President Hasan
Rouhani said his country will accept anyone as ruler of Syria who is elected by
the Syrian people.
His remarks reported by the official news
agency IRNA are considered as a slight change of emphasis from comments by
other Iranian leaders, which have often emphasized Iran's support for its ally,
Syrian President Bashar Assad, and blamed the West for the rebellion against
him.
The Monday report quotes Rouhani as saying,
"Whoever Syrian citizens vote for to rule their country, we'll agree with
it."
Syria plans a presidential election in 2014,
but few in the opposition take the vote seriously or believe it can be held
amid the country's civil war.
UN:
The
UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria is investigating 14 alleged attacks with
chemical weapons or chemical agents in Syria since it began monitoring Syrian
human rights abuses in Sept 2011, the commission's chairman Paulo Pinheiro told
a news conference on Monday.
Pinheiro also said Syria had
invited commission member Carla del Ponte to visit Syria in a personal
capacity, but the commission wanted an official visit, including him. Del Ponte
said it was assumed she had been invited because she said in May it had
allegations that opposition groups had used chemical weapons.
This as UN human rights
investigators said that militant opposition groups in Syria, including foreign
fighters invoking jihad or holy war, have stepped up killings and other crimes
in the north.
"Across northern Syria, there has been an
upsurge in crimes and abuses committed by extremist anti-government armed
groups along with an influx of rebel foreign fighters. Entire brigades are now
made up from fighters who have crossed into Syria, with Al Muhajireen being one
of the most active," Paulo Pinheiro, chair of the independent inquiry,
told the UN Human Rights Council.
Reporting on suspected war crimes since July
15, he also said the Syrian government had continued its "relentless
campaign of air bombardment and artillery shelling across the country".
Attacks against 3 villages in Homs:
Turkey will provide the U.N. Security Council and fellow members of the NATO military alliance with details of the circumstances of its shooting down on Monday of a Syrian helicopter, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said.
Turkish warplanes shot down the Syrian Mi-17 helicopter after it violated Turkish airspace following repeated warnings, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said earlier.
This as Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al-Nusra
Front claimed responsibility for attacks against three villages in Homs Tuesday, where
at least 30 people were reportedly killed.
In an online statement, the
group said that its militants entered the villages of Massudiyeh, Maksar
al-Hissan and Jab al-Jerah in Homs province and carried out the attacks.
Syria has been gripped by deadly unrest since March 2011,
where more than 100,000 people have been killed and a total of 7.8 million of
others displaced due to the violence, according to the United Nations' reports.
REUTERS/LBCI
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