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Kerry Gaffe Opens Door To Averting War

In an off-the-cuff remark that John Kerry’s office later said was not a proposal, but a rhetorical exercise, the Secretary of State said Assad could avoid war if he would hand over all his chemical weapons. The Russians jumped on this. From the NYT: In Moscow, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said in response […]

In an off-the-cuff remark that John Kerry’s office later said was not a proposal, but a rhetorical exercise, the Secretary of State said Assad could avoid war if he would hand over all his chemical weapons. The Russians jumped on this. From the NYT:

In Moscow, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said in response to Mr. Kerry’s remarks that Russia would join any effort to put Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons under international control and ultimately destroy them.

Mr. Lavrov appeared at a previously unscheduled briefing only hours after Mr. Kerry made his statement in London. Although Mr. Kerry appeared to treat the idea that Syria would give up its stockpile as improbable, Mr. Lavrov seized on it as a possible compromise that Russia was prepared to propose to the Syrians.

“We don’t know whether Syria will agree with this, but if the establishment of international control over chemical weapons in the country will prevent attacks, then we will immediately begin work with Damascus,” Mr. Lavrov said at the Foreign Ministry. “And we call on the Syrian leadership to not only agree to setting the chemical weapons storage sites under international control, but also to their subsequent destruction.”

Mr. Lavrov met Syria’s foreign minister, Walid al-Moallem, in Moscow only moments before Mr. Kerry spoke in London, and during a joint appearance at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, both ministers excoriated the United States for rushing to launch military strikes.

But the shift in tone between Mr. Lavrov’s two appearances was striking. Mr. Lavrov said he made the proposal to put Syria’s weapons under international control directly to Mr. Moallem, who remained in Moscow, but it was not immediately clear how the Syrian government might respond.

Russia is Syria’s major ally; if Russia is pushing Syria to get rid of its chemical weapons, Syria is going to have to take it seriously. If Damascus agrees to the Russian proposal, we may be able to avoid this war.

Why would the Obama administration walk back Kerry’s statement, especially if the Russians are on board with it? I thought that the US goal here was simply to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons capabilities. If we can get a verifiable international operation to peacefully disarm Syria’s chemical stockpiles, why not?

Unless the Obama administration is using “chemical weapons” as cover for regime change. It sounds like Moscow is calling Washington’s bluff.

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