White House Backs Global Push to Secure Syria’s Arsenal
Doug Mills/The New York Times
President Obama walked toward the Oval Office of the White House on Tuesday.
By JONATHAN WEISMAN and ALAN COWELL
Published: September 10, 2013 415 Comments
WASHINGTON — The White House and a bipartisan group of senators joined the international diplomatic momentum on Tuesday to avert an American military attack on Syria over its use of chemical munitions in that country’s civil war, responding positively to a Russian proposal aimed at securing and destroying those weapons.
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A group of experts and ome of President Obama’s biggest supporters and critics, were drafting an alternative Congressional resolution that would give the United Nations time to take control of the Syrian government’s arsenal of the internationally banned weapons.
If the alternative resolution gained political traction, it could stave off a Congressional vote — and possibly a debilitating defeat for the Obama administration — in the coming days on a more immediate resolution authorizing the use of force, which a majority of Americans appear to oppose. That resolution, approved by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week, had been losing ground in both parties in recent days. Passage appeared increasingly difficult in the House and possibly the Senate as well.
At the same time, a senior White House official said Tuesday that administration officials — who just last week had been dismissing the United Nations as ineffective in the Syrian conflict — had begun working with American allies at the United Nations to further explore the viability of the Russian plan, in which the international community would take control of the Syrian weapons stockpile.
The official said the discussions, including possible elements of a Security Council resolution, followed discussions among President Obama, President François Hollande of France and Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain.
“They agreed to work closely together, and in consultation with Russia and China, to explore seriously the viability of the Russian proposal to put all Syrian chemical weapons and related materials fully under international control in order to ensure their verifiable and enforceable destruction,” the White House official said.
Mr. Cameron, speaking to a parliamentary committee in London, promised Britain’s full cooperation in pursuing diplomacy at the United Nations but said a timetable for compliance would be needed.
“If this is a serious proposal then we should act accordingly and I think a U.N. Security Council Resolution is a good idea,” Mr. Cameron said.
Diplomats at the United Nations said the French had begun to share the text of a resolution drafted by France, which the French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, announced earlier Tuesday, that would include the threat of force to ensure compliance. One of the diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said of the discussions that “we’re looking at a process that will last a few days.”
However, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, told Mr. Fabius in a phone call that the threat of force was “unacceptable,” according to the Russian Foreign Ministry. The ministry said Russia would make its own proposal at the Security Council that allowed only for political and diplomatic settlement to the conflict.
The diplomacy at the United Nations could prove awkward for Russia, which started the process with its proposal on Syria’s chemical munitions. As a permanent Security Council member, it has thrice vetoed previous Western-sponsored resolutions that would authorize force to help resolve the conflict in Syria, now in its third year.
The alternative Senate resolution is far from complete, but a Senate aide familiar with the talks said the negotiations were being conducted in consultation with the White House. It would require passage of a Security Council resolution condemning the use of chemical weapons by the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and would set a deadline for establishing United Nations control of the arsenal. If that deadline is not met, the resolution would authorize the use of military force.
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