SYRIA CRISIS - Obama to consider Syria disarmament plan

US president says Russian offer for Syria to give up chemical weapons 'positive', as Senate delays vote on use of force.

Last Modified: 10 Sep 2013 01:01

US President Barack Obama has said he will consider a "potentially positive" Russian offer for Syria to give up its chemical weapons, as plans for military action began to lose momentum among US politicians.

Obama's comments came in interviews late on Monday as the US Senate decided to delay its vote on military action - capping a day of shifting positions from within the adminsitration and on Capitol Hill.

It began with Secretery of State John Kerry saying, in response to a reporter's question, that there would be no need for military action if President Bashar al-Assad handed over his chemical weapons - an answer that was then presented by Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, as a workable plan.

The US adminsitration at first stated that Kerry's response was only rhetorical, but within hours the president was using interviews with six US networks to say that a diplomatic solution should be sought.

Obama told CNN that the Russian plan was "a potentially positive development", and NBC that it could be a "significant breakthrough", while on Fox News he said: "If we can exhaust these diplomatic efforts and come up with an ... enforceable mechanism to deal with these chemical weapons in Syria, then I'm all for it."

However, he was adamant that the offer would not have surfaced if, he told NBC, "a credible threat of a military strike from the United States" had not been made.

The president said he had asked Kerry to work with Russia to see if Moscow's offer for Syria to hand over its stockpiles to international observers was workable.

Obama's comments were broadcast as the Senate majority leader Harry Reid delayed a vote scheduled for Wednesday on military action, and Democratic senators Dianne Feinstein and Carl Levin released statements calling for the Russian solution to be considered. The House of Representatives has yet to schedule its vote.

Obama meets senators on Tuesday, after which he is due to address the nation.

Lavrov said Syria, as well as handing over the weapons and having them destroyed, should also become a full member of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general, said he too welcomed Russia's proposals and called for the creation of UN-supervised zones in Syria where chemical weapons could be destroyed. "I am considering urging the Security Council to demand the immediate transfer of Syria's chemical weapons and chemical precursor stocks to places inside Syria where they can be safely stored and destroyed," Ban said, adding that the step would overcome the Security Council's "embarrassing paralysis". Kerry's original comments were earlier weclomed by Walid al-Muallem, the Syrian foreign minister. Muallem's response, however, has not been confirmed by the Syrian government.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies