US, Russia Take Major Step Forward on Syria Crisis | WPN World People News

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is in Jerusalem to brief Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the latest developments concerning troubled neighbor Syria.

Ahead of Sunday's meeting, Netanyahu said he hopes the new U.S. and Russian deal to rid Syria of all chemical weapons will lead to the "complete destruction" of the entire arsenal.

After his brief stop in Israel, Kerry will head to Paris for talks Monday with his counterparts from France, Britain and Saudi Arabia concerning Syria.

On Sunday, China became the latest country to welcome the deal. In Beijing, Foreign Minister Wang Yi told his visiting French counterpart, Laurent Fabius, that the agreement on chemical weapons will ease tensions in Syria. China's approval is important as Beijing has veto power in the the U.N. Security Council.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said he hopes the deal will lead to efforts to end the "appalling suffering inflicted on the Syrian people."

However, opposition groups in Syria say the plan does not go far enough.

The United States and Russia announced in Geneva Saturday they had reached agreement on the plan for ending Syria's chemical weapons program, including a requirement for the Assad government to submit a comprehensive list of such weapons in one week.

Putting aside differences between the two countries, Kerry outlined the plan during a joint news conference in Geneva with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.

"We have reached a shared assessment of the amount and type of chemical weapons possessed by the Assad regime and we are committed to the rapid assumption of control by the international community of those weapons."

Kerry said they agreed that Syria must provide the immediate right to inspect all such weapons sites, which he says will lead to the destruction of the weapons outside of Syria.

The plan calls for the elimination or removal of all chemical weapons material and equipment by mid-2014.

The agreement on the proposal followed three days of talks between the top U.S. and Russian diplomats, and U.N.-Arab League envoy for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi.

During the talks, U.S. and Russian officials agreed that Syria currently holds about 1,000 tons of chemical agents and precursors, including sulfur mustard and sarin gas. U.S. officials believe there are about 45 sites where those munitions and related equipment are stored but say Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime may have moved some of those supplies.

Syrian compliance with the agreement could avert a U.S. military strike in retaliation for the Syrian government's alleged poison gas attack on civilians last month near Damascus.

The United States says it has confirmed that more than 1,400 people died in the attack, and that there is no doubt the Syrian military was responsible. The Assad government contends rebels carried out the gas attack.

Syria said Thursday it will join an international ban on chemical weapons, but says it will take a month to list all of its chemical weapons stockpile. Until this past week, Syria had repeatedly denied possessing any chemical weapons.

President Bashar al-Assad has said he will only transfer his chemical weapons arsenal to international control if the U.S. drops its threat of military action against him.

Source: Voice of Aemirca