Russian ultimatum to Assad: Give up chemical arsenal – or face US attack alone

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report September 9, 2013, 6:36 PM (IDT)

Tags:  Russia,  Syria,  chemical weapons,  John Kerry,  US military action,

Russian FM Sergey Lavrov: Assad must surrender chemical arsenal

In an unexpected turn of events along the road to a US military strike on Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Monday afternoon, Sept. 9  that he had urged Syria to hand over its nuclear arsenal to international custody, if that would stop an American attack. 

 

Moscow had lost no time in picking up the gauntlet thrown down by US Secretary of State John Kerry in London a short time before. Asked in London if there were steps the Syrian president could take to avert an American-led attack, Kerry replied: “Sure, he could turn over every single bit of his chemical weapons to the international community in the next week — turn it over, all of it, without delay and allow the full and total accounting.”

The Obama administration in this way gave Bashar Assad a week to surrender his chemical weapons to an international team that would no doubt be put together by the US, Russia and the United Nations.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem, who arrived in Moscow earlier Monday, was informed that the Kremlin expected a positive and expeditious answer from President Assad.

Sunday, debkafile reported that a secret US proposal had been presented to Assad and that negotiations were in progress on a deal for a way out of the crisis generated by the chemical attack east of Damascus on Aug. 21. The transfer of Syria’s entire chemical stockpile to international custody was a part of that proposition.

 Our military sources add that Assad is in no position to flatly rebuff the Russian ultimatum; only to try and maneuver to buy time. If Moscow stops the air corridor lifting military supplies to Damascus, the Syrian army will quickly run out of ordnance for fighting the rebels.