Brussels, 25/09/2013 (Agence Europe) - During her meeting with Russia's Minister for Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov on 24 September, High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Catherine Ashton called on Russia to build on the positive momentum from the agreement on chemical weapons in Syria to support the international endeavours for a negotiated solution to the crisis. She did not give further detail.
However, the political solution seems to be becoming more complicated. Thirteen important groups of Syrian Islamist rebels have announced that they do not recognise the Syrian National Coalition. Some of the groups, such as al-Nosra, have called for the fighters to unite under the flag of Islam and Sharia.
The United Nations Security Council has not yet found an agreement on a resolution on the chemical weapons. France, the UK and the USA want a binding resolution under Chapter VII but Russia is opposed to this. Russia's Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs Sergei Riabkov announced on 24 September that this chapter, which allows the use of force, “can only be mentioned as an element of the range of measures, if facts are detected (…) like the refusal of cooperation, the non-application of commitments, or if someone - it doesn't matter who - uses chemical weapons”. He reiterated, however, that it “is not a question of adopting a resolution at the Security Council under Chapter VII, nor of the automatic application of sanctions, or less still of force” (our translation).
The UN inspectors returned to Syria on 25 September to investigate a dozen attacks that are presumed to have been made with chemical weapons. The inspectors hope to be able to present a final report by the end of October on all the accusations of the use of chemical weapons. (CG/transl.fl)