Interrogated this morning, when in London, about what would allow Syria to avoid war, the Secretary of State John Kerry answered : ’’Of course, he (Bashar el-Assad) could surrender every element of his chemical arsenal to the international community in the week to come – to surrender it, without delay and authorize a complete verification, but he does not intend to and it is impossible to do so’’.

Seizing on what was originally meant as a wisecrack, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov decided to broach the subject with his Syrian counterpart, currently in Moscow.

At 15h30 (Universal time), Walid Mouallem gave a press conference in which he indicated that, for the purpose of pacification, his country would agree to hand over for destruction all of its chemical arsenal to the United-Nation and to adhere to the International convention prohibiting these kind of weapons.

Translation
Alizée Ville