Russia, US agree on UN draft resolution on Syria

The UN Security Council (UNSC) has discussed a draft resolution on Syria chemical weapons after the US and Russia voiced their agreement over the text, media reports said. A vote in the 15-member UNSC could now take place later on Friday, diplomats at the UN in New York said. The agreement breaks a two-and-a-half year deadlock in the UN over Syria, the BBC News reported. It is seen as a key step in a US-Russia brokered plan earlier this month under which Syria agreed to disclose its arsenal and eliminate it by mid-2014. Russia and China have three times blocked Western-backed resolutions in the Security Council against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The council discussed the draft resolution on Thursday evening at the UN headquarters. The draft resolution under discussion at UNSC says that the use of chemical weapons anywhere constitutes a threat to peace and security. It condemns in the strongest terms any use of chemical weapons in Syria. It decides, in the event of non-compliance with this resolution, to impose measures under Chapter VII. Moscow and Washington had earlier disagreed over the wording of the draft. The US - backed by France and the UK - had pushed for a resolution carrying the threat of military action. Russia had opposed this, but a deal was struck on Thursday. On Wednesday, during a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov agreed to continue pushing towards destruction of "all" chemical weapons in Syria under international supervision. "There are some serious concerns that the Syrian opposition may possess components of chemical weapons," Lavrov told the press after the meeting with his counterpart. "All chemical weapons must be destroyed in Syria including hazardous materials in possession of the opposition," he was quoted by Interfax. Lavrov also stressed that work on the UNSC resolution on Syria will be conducted "within a framework that had been agreed between Russia and US in Geneva". Russia hopes that the UNSC resolution on Syria’s chemical weapons will be adopted immediately after the decision of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in the Hague in the coming days. "The talks were productive. We have a common understanding of how to move forward," Lavrov said.  He also stressed that "the OPCW plays a major role in these matters." His counterpart John Kerry agreed saying, "we had a very constructive meeting". "We are proceeding based on facts. And the facts are that the Syrian government has signed the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, immediately expressed its willingness to meet its obligations under this document and provided a declaration to the OPCW on their stockpiles of chemical weapons and their locations," the Russian Foreign Minister said. According to Lavrov, the sideline discussions with Kerry touched on many issues, but the main topic of discussion was the UNSC resolution in support of the OPCW decision. One of the main sticking points is a possible Security Council resolution that would include possibility of the use of force under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter. Russia as well as China have continually opposed the inclusion of any such reference in a draft UN resolution. Washington had threatened to take military action against Syria over the unsubstantiated claim that the Syrian government carried out a deadly chemical attack near Damascus on August 21. Damascus has repeatedly rejected the accusation. Syria has been gripped by deadly unrest since March 2011. A very large number of the militants operating inside Syria are reportedly foreign nationals. According to reports, the western powers and their regional allies, specially Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey, are supporting the militants operating inside Syria.