Just a day after President Obama addressed the United States to discuss his views on the Syria crisis, U.S. representatives and those from four other United Nations Security Council members will meet Wednesday to discuss the resolution put forth by Russia calling for Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad to surrender every last arm of his chemical weapons arsenal.
The resolution has already been agreed to by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem though a similar agreement brokered by French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius that stated, according to CBS, that “Syria open its chemical weapons program to inspection, place it under international control, and ultimately dismantle it” within a 15-day time limit.
It was aptly rejected by both Syria and Russia on the grounds that the civil war-ridden country take full responsibility for the August 21 attacks on Damascus that killed over 1,400 citizens.
This isn’t the first time Russia has shot down attempts by other countries looking to amend the rift between the Syrian government, the rebels, and the rest of the world. As a permanent member on the U.N. Security Council, Russia has blocked U.N. intervention attempts of its own and issued warnings to President Obama that a military strike in Syria would go against the United Nations.
It seems the reason that Russia isn’t willing to pin 100% of the August 21 blame on Assad and his regime is because the United Nations independent international Commission of Inquiry recently conducted an investigation citing that war crimes and inhumane atrocities have occurred on both the side of Assad and the rebel opposition.
President Obama’s national address last night outlined to the American public why it’s necessary for Syria to surrender its weapons while urging Congress to continue considering a succinct and contained military strike in the region should Syria not see ways of international diplomacy.
Current it’s unclear as to when the U.N. Security Council members will finalize a resolution and when Syria might comply, but support of the President’s firm stance is quickly waning. CNN reported today that “According to a new study by the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism in Israel, ‘Syria has accumulated since the 1980s a stockpile of approximately 1,000 tons of chemical weapons, stored in some 50 different sites.'” Further, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov estimates it will take some 70,000 troops to properly secure the weaponry.
Those are 70,000 pairs of boots on the ground that Obama has pledged won’t be of the U.S. variety, and a similar kind of direct intervention that the worldwide community has yet to come to positive terms with.
