Brussels, 12/09/2013 (Agence Europe) - Michael Mann, the spokesman for EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton, said on Thursday 12 September that the EU was reflecting on ways to implement the plan to place chemical weapons under controlled surveillance prior to destruction. The EU side is already assessing ways to set the plan in place and to identify potential contributions with member states, he said, without giving more detail. He explained that options will be studied in the light of the outcome of the Geneva meeting between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Mann also pointed out that the EU supports a draft resolution at the United Nations Security Council on the Syrian issue, without wishing to say whether this comprised support for mentioning Chapter 7 of the United Nations Charter on possible use of force. British Foreign Minister William Hague explained that a draft resolution is under discussion and that the five permanent members of the UN Security Council met to debate the matter on the evening of 11 September. “A resolution must establish a binding commitment for the Syrian regime to give up its chemical weapons within a specific timeframe”, he said, adding that further discussion will be held once the report from the UN inspectors is published. According to French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, the report is due to be published on Monday 16 September. “It will say that there was a chemical massacre. (…) It will certainly give indications as to the origin of that massacre committed on 21 August near Damascus, which left hundreds dead”, he explained on 12 September. Next week, he went on to add, “we shall have a good idea of what the initial intentions were, and on whether the Syrian chemical arsenal can be controlled or not, as the Russians have proposed” (our translation).
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad confirmed on 12 September that Syria would place its chemical arsenal under international control and send documents to the United Nations for the signing of an agreement, and also specifying that the threat of strikes did not motivate his decision. According to the Russian daily, Kommersant, the plan is made up of four parts: - 1) obtain Syrian's accession to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW); - 2) reveal the location of the chemical weapons arsenal and the place where they are produced by Syria; - 3) authorise OPCW inspectors to enter Syria to investigate; and - 4) finally decide, in cooperation with those inspectors, how the weapons should be destroyed. (CG/transl.jl)