Syria crisis: Obama says any UN deal must be 'verifiable and enforceable' - as it happened

This article is more than 10 years old
• UN has 'overwhelming' proof of chemical weapons – Ban
• UN accuses regime of 'war crimes' for bombing hospitals
Kerry, Lavrov talks continue late into night
• Read the latest summary
US secretary of state John Kerry and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov issue a statement on Friday, following their discussions in Geneva over how best to secure Syria's chemical weapons arsenal. Both have hopes of reviving Geneva 2, an international conference aimed at ending Syria's civil war

Summary

We're going to wrap up our live blog coverage for the day. Here's a summary of where things stand:

The White House said military force in Syria was still an option if a UN deal fails to emerge. President Obama said any UN deal "needs to be verifiable and enforceable." 

US secretary of state John Kerry and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov continued their negotiations in Geneva late into Friday night. "They are working on some real substance," a Lavrov spokeswoman said. Kerry will meet with the French and British foreign ministers in Paris on Monday, the state department said.

UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon said the UN has "overwhelming" evidence chemical weapons were used in Syria. The UN does not intend to identify a perpetrator but the evidence implicates Assad, a "Western official" said. Ban was overheard saying that Assad "has committed many crimes against humanity."

The activist Local Coordination Committees counted 60 deaths on the opposition side from violence in Syria on Friday, including 21 in Daraa and 13 in Damascus and environs.

Human Rights Watch and Channel 4 News released a documentary on the May 2013 massacre of at least 169 men, women and children in the northern village of al-Bayda by Assad regime forces. A UN report accused the regime of war crimes for bombing and shelling hospitals in opposition-controlled areas.

 The Syrian opposition coalition will appoint a provisional prime minister on Saturday to raise its international credibility, National Coalition officials were quoted as saying.

Updated

Lavrov and Kerry will continue negotiations on Friday night in search of a deal, Lavrov's spokeswoman said. Reuters reports:

"We are staying, probably they will finalise it through the night," she told reporters in Geneva where Lavrov was meeting U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. "I am not sure about tomorrow (Saturday), but they will go through the night."

"It is a sign that we are going on, that we proceed with talking and negotiating. Now it is like a real negotiating process, they are working on some real substance," she said. 

Updated

 President Barack Obama said on Friday that he hopes talks on a plan to destroy Syria's chemical weapons are successful, but said that he will insist any deal is "verifiable and enforceable." Reuters reports:

Obama made his comments after meeting in the Oval Office of the White House with Kuwait's emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah.

"I shared with the emir my hope that the negotiations that are currently taking place between Secretary of State Kerry and Foreign Minister Lavrov in Geneva bear fruit," Obama said.

"But I repeated what I've said publicly, which is any agreement needs to be verifiable and enforceable," he said. 

The president is scheduled to appear on ABC News' Sunday show, This Week with George Stephanopoulos.

Amir of Kuwait, Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah (L) meets with U.S. President Barack Obama in the Oval Office September 13, 2013 in Washigton, DC.
Amir of Kuwait, Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah (L) meets with U.S. President Barack Obama in the Oval Office September 13, 2013 in Washigton, DC. Photograph: Pool/Getty Images

CBS correspondent Mark Knoller quotes an anonymous White House official as saying that military action against Syria remains an option if no deal is reached on surrender of its CW arsenal.

Mark Knoller (@markknoller)

Briefing reporters, senior admin officials say the US will reject any UN resolution on Syria that seeks to eliminate the military option.

September 13, 2013

Knoller continues: "The officials say Pres Obama will still seek Congresssional authorization for mil. action if a satisfactory UN resolution is not reached."

And if he cannot win congressional authorization?

Updated

The Syrian opposition coalition will appoint a provisional prime minister on Saturday to raise its international credibility, Reuters quotes National Coalition officials as saying:

After a week of intense international negotiations that threatened to sideline the Western and Arab backed coalition in the wake of a nerve gas attack on Damascus that killed hundreds of people, coalition officials said they reached consensus that Ahmad Tumeh, an independent Islamist, will be appointed to run rebel-held areas where a decline into chaos threatens to undermine the opposition to President Bashar al-Assad.

"We will be appointing a new prime minister tomorrow. It will be the first item on the agenda," coalition spokesman Khaled Saleh told reporters after the first day of a meeting of the 115-member coalition. 

"U.S. Can Take In More Than 33 Syrian Refugees," by Morton Abramowitz in Bloomberg News:

 So far this fiscal year, the U.S. has admitted just 33 Syrian refugees. The new fiscal year will permit President Barack Obama to provide for a significant number of Syrian refugees within the 70,000 total allotted to the U.S. refugee program. In turn, the U.S. willingness to accept more refugees can also help accelerate resettlement efforts by other Western countries. Under normal U.S. procedures, resettlement could take a few years. So as the U.S. has done with Indochinese and other refugee groups, it must expedite processing.

Who will pay for all the humanitarian requirements? Funding shortages have been chronic. A succession of UN conferences have gotten most of the necessary pledges, but they have not been fulfilled, especially by rich Arab states that are quicker to supply weapons to jihadists. Russia and China, meanwhile, have contributed a paltry $17.8 million and $1.2 million, respectively. The U.S. pledge of almost $1 billion has been the biggest, but that’s not overwhelming given the growing magnitude of the problem. Right now, the UN refugee agency estimates requirements of $3.1 billion through the end of this year, only 40 percent of which has been delivered.

Read the full piece here.

Bloomberg View (@BloombergView)

There are 7 million displaced Syrians. The U.S. has taken in 33. http://t.co/mh4gXJYSBF

September 13, 2013

UN chemical weapons inspectors in Syria gathered evidence of the use of nerve agents that implicate the Assad regime in the attack, a "senior Western official" tells Foreign Policy:

"I know they have gotten very rich samples -- biomedical and environmental -- and they have interviewed victims, doctors and nurses," said the Western official. "It seems they are very happy with the wealth of evidence they got." The official, who declined to speak on the record because of the secrecy surrounding the U.N. investigation, could not identify the specific agents detected by the inspector team, but said, "You can conclude from the type of evidence the [identity of the] author."

Read the full piece here.

The Guardian's Martin Chulov points to a 14-minute film, Anatomy of a Crime, produced by Channel 4 News (UK) and Human Rights Watch.

The film documents the massacre by pro-Assad forces in May of at least 169 men, women and children in the northwestern village of al-Bayda. The overwhelming majority of the victims were executed after military clashes ended and opposition fighters had retreated, HRW said.

For the project HRW interviewed 20 witnesses and collected video footage. A UN investigation has corroborated the details of the massacre.

Warning: graphic.

Martin Chulov (@martinchulov)

Powerful, haunting, essential work from @channel4News & @hrw on Banias and al-Bayda massacres #Syria http://t.co/ZRQY4bgJZP #news

September 13, 2013

The 2013 Pulitzer Prize for breaking news photography went to an Associated Press series of 20 photographs of fighting in Syria and the human toll. Here they are in a slide show. Graphic. 

Martin Chulov (@martinchulov)

The agony of northern #Syria in vivid, raw. reality. 20 award winning pics. http://t.co/RsRwIMfCu5 #news

September 13, 2013

Updated

Summary

Here's a summary of where things stand:

UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon said he believes investigators have "overwhelming, overwhelming" evidence that chemical weapons were used in Syria. Separately Ban said he believes that president Bashar Assad "has committed many crimes against humanity." The UN report, not yet released, does not assign culpability for chemical weapons use.

However a separate UN investigation found the Assad regime is bombing and shelling hospitals in opposition areas to prevent the sick and wounded from receiving treatment. The conduct constitutes a war crime, UN investigators said. Video emerged of a strike on a field hospital near Aleppo on Wednesday. The strike killed a visiting Yemeni doctor.

Talks between US secretary of state John Kerry and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva continued Friday. The two sides announced a renewed intention of convening a Geneva 2 conference to seek an overarching peace deal in Syria. Russia said all sides had agreed that a political solution to the Syrian crisis was the only realistic way to stop violence.

Scant details have emerged from the Geneva talks. "We're having in-depth discussions, trying to get a better sense of the Russian proposal," spokeswoman Marie Harf said. "We believe there's been enough put on the table that we had a responsibility" to pursue talks. She said technical experts were holding side meetings to figure out how the process of disposing of Syria's chemical weapons would work.

Kerry will meet with the French and British foreign ministers in Paris on Monday, following a meeting Sunday in Jerusalem with Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, the state department said.

Russian president Vladimir Putin met with Iranian president Hassan Rouhani to discuss the Syria crisis.

Updated

After visiting Jerusalem Sunday, Kerry will return to Europe for a three-way meeting with the French and British foreign ministers to take place in Paris Monday, Reuters reports.

Harf is unimpressed with the new Syrian membership in the international convention banning chemical weapons:

This isn't about signing a piece of paper. .. we're kind of past the point of its being enough to sign a piece of paper... we have to see verifiable action taken.

She repeats a Kerry line from yesterday:

We believe that there's actually nothing standard about this process at this moment because of the way the regime has behaved.

Updated

The Geneva talks between the US, Russia and UN have produced a joint statement, Reuters reports. The sides say a political solution is the only way to stop violence:

Russian foreign ministry says Russia's Lavrov, Washington's Kerry, UN's Brahimi agreed in meeting that political solution to Syrian crisis is only realistic way to stop violence.

Harf, the state department spokeswoman, says she doesn't have any announcement about what will happen to US-Russian negotiations on Syria's chemical weapons in the coming weeks. Talks in Geneva between Kerry and Lavrov are still going on, Harf said.

The next scheduled meeting between the sides is at the UN general assembly session in New York on 28 September.

And meanwhile?

"We just don't have those details firmed up yet," Harf says. 

US state department spokeswoman Marie Harf describes the Geneva conversation between Kerry and Lavrov. Not many any details:

"We're having in-depth discussions, trying to get a better sense of the Russian proposal." These include technical discussions, she says.

"We believe there's been enough put on the table that we had a responsibility" to pursue talks, Harf says.

Updated

A congressman, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA), once lost an arm-wrestling match against Russian president Vladimir Putin, and now he has told the world about it. TPM's Igor Bobic caught the interview on California radio.

A Russian delegation including Putin was visiting Washington in the early 1990s. Everybody got to drinking. Then:

"So we got down to these arm-wrestling matches and I ended up being paired off with Putin!" he continued. "And he's a little guy but boy I tell ya -- he put me down in a millisecond. He is tough! He just - muscles were just unbelievable."

Read it here. 

Boston Globe reporter Matt Viser says Ban apparently did not know he was being recorded when he accused Assad of crimes against humanity.

UPDATE: AP explains:

The secretary-general thought his speech and response to questions from a women's group were not being broadcast, but they were shown on U.N. television.

The US state department is about to hold a daily briefing. We're likely to learn more. 

Matt Viser (@mviser)

UN Secretary General, apparently not realizing he was being recorded, said Syria's Assad "has committed many crimes against humanity."

September 13, 2013

Updated

Syrian government forces are bombing and shelling hospitals in rebel-held areas to stop sick and wounded people getting treatment, acts which constitute war crimes, U.N. investigators said on Friday. Reuters reports:

Fighters loyal to President Bashar al-Assad purposefully denied people medical care as a "weapon of war" and had also tortured people in their own medical centres, the independent investigators said.

The U.N. team had details of a smaller number of incidents when rebel forces attacked hospitals.

"The pattern of attacks indicates that government forces deliberately targeted hospitals and medical units to gain military advantage by depriving anti-government armed groups and their perceived supporters of medical assistance," the report said.

The attacks started as violence mounted in Syria's conflict in early 2012 and were continuing, it added.

Neither Assad's forces nor rebel groups immediately responded to the allegations.

The Syrian army has occupied hospitals, using them as bases for snipers, tanks and soldiers, according to the report. Ambulance drivers, nurses and doctors have been attacked, arrested, tortured or disappeared in "insidious" violations of international law.

"Intentionally directing attacks against hospitals and places containing the sick and the wounded and against medical units using the Red Cross or Red Crescent emblem is a war crime in non-international armed conflict," the investigators said, referring to a legal term for civil war. 

Read the full report here.

Activist groups are circulating footage that appears to depict, based on its source, time of posting and content, the aftermath of a strike on a field hospital in the town of al-Bab near the northern city of Aleppo, first reported Wednesday.

The strike reportedly killed a Yemeni doctor. Warning: the YouTube footage linked to in the tweet is graphic.

Syrian Revolution (@RevolutionSyria)

RIP Dr Abdul Fattah Shayef Numaan Al-Yemeni. Came from #Yemen to help; killed by Assad. #Syria http://t.co/4p0SaWUaln pic.twitter.com/4iEXPeoiJ0

September 13, 2013

Updated

...

Paul Adams (@BBCPaulAdams)

Lavrov said last night "diplomacy likes silence." Plenty of both today.

September 13, 2013

Quite a photo gallery. Via al-Aan correspondent Jenan Moussa:

Jenan Moussa (@jenanmoussa)

I asked a rebel sniper in #Syria: Drop ur rifle for a day & document life through lens of a camera. Here his pics: http://t.co/YY3dez6iuh

September 13, 2013

The UN secretary-general says he can't comment "publicly" about the upcoming UN report on potential chemical weapons use in Syria because it hasn't been published yet. 

Ban Ki-moon said he believes the report will show "overwhelming, overwhelming" evidence that chemical weapons were used and Ban says Assad "has committed many crimes against humanity," although the report does not finger a perpetrator. Reuters:

"I believe that the report will be an overwhelming, overwhelming report that chemical weapons (were) used even though I cannot publicly say at this time before I receive this report," Ban said at a U.N. meeting.

He was referring to a report by the U.N. expert team led by Ake Sellstrom of Sweden. Ban also said that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad "has committed many crimes against humanity," though he did not say whether it was Assad's forces or rebels who used chemical toxins in the Aug. 21 attack. 

Ban: Assad 'has committed many crimes against humanity'

Reuters moves two news bulletins:

UN chief Ban Ki-moon says he expects UN investigators' report will confirm chemical weapons were used

Ban says Syria's Assad "has committed many crimes against humanity"

Updated

The Guardian's Jonathan Steele in Damascus reported Thursday about life returning to the streets of the capital as fears of imminent US strikes recede: 

In the better-off districts of central Damascus, relief clearly outweighs such grim despair. Two weeks ago, when a US attack seemed imminent, people rushed to the shops to stock up on essentials. They stayed at home in the evenings. But now the cafes are full again and mothers push babies in buggies in the cool after dusk along tree-lined streets. Young people window-gaze in a pedestrian area full of fashion boutiques near the parliament building.

Even as the poorer districts fill up with escapees from the bombing of Ghouta and other outlying areas to the south and west, the city centre is emptier than it was in February. The wealthy have gone to Beirut or the Gulf.

Read the full piece here

Updated

The White House has announced there will be no daily briefing today. 

The state department says Kerry travels to Jerusalem Sunday to meet Netanyahu. Netanyahu has backed the US-Russian negotiations to dismantle Assad's chemical weapons. 

Department of State (@StateDept)

#SecKerry will travel to Jerusalem this Sunday to meet with #Israel's PM Netanyahu. http://t.co/aJ6CVnjQwY

September 13, 2013

Here is a transcript of remarks by Lavrov and Kerry calling for a Geneva 2 conference to seek a peace deal in Syria.

This is Tom McCarthy in New York taking over the blog from my colleagues in London. 

Summary

Here's a roundup of the latest developments:

Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, has held talks on the crisis in Syria with his new Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani. The Kremlin quoted Rouhani praising Russia's diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis. Earlier Putin welcomed Bashar al-Assad's announcement that he signed up to an international convention banning chemical weapons as a sign of Syria's good faith.

 The US secretary of state, John Kerry, and the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, have said they hoped that talks on chemical weapons would help revive an international plan for a "Geneva 2" conference to end the war in Syria. Kerry, who described the talks as "constructive", told a news conference in Geneva that he and Lavrov planned to meet in New York later this month and hoped to agree a date for the Geneva 2 conference then.

Assad has insisted that the chemical weapons initiative had to be a two-way process that included the US withdrawing its threat of military action. In a transcript of latest TV interview Syria's state news agency quotes Assad saying: "When we see the US genuinely working towards stability in the region and stop threatening, striving to attack, and delivering arms to terrorists then we will believe that the necessary processes can be finalised."

 Syria has scattered its chemical weapons stockpiles to up to 50 sites to frustrate efforts to track them, according to the Wall Street Journal citing US officials. "We know a lot less than we did six months ago about where the chemical weapons are," one official was quoted as saying.

 Syria's main opposition group has dismissed the Assad regime's decision to sign up to the chemical weapons convention as an empty gesture. The Syrian National Coalition also called for a binding UN resolution threatening the use of force if Syria did not hand over its chemical stockpiles.

 Pro-Assad forces executed almost 250 people in the towns of al-Bayda and Baniyas in May, according to an investigation by Human Rights Watch based on interviews with 20 eyewitnesses and video footage. The overwhelming majority were executed after military clashes ended and opposition fighters had retreated, it said.

Putin and Rouhani in Syria talks

While the chemical weapons talks in Geneva continue, Assad's key allies Russia and Iran have been holding talks on the Syria crisis at a summit in Kyrgyzstan.

The Kremlin announced that Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, held talks with his new Iranian counterpart Hassan Rouhani to "discuss bilateral cooperation and crisis in Syria."

The Kremlin said Rouhani praised Russia's diplomacy on Syria. It quoted him saying:

The Russian Federation’s initiative on Syria and the steps the Syrian government has taken give us hope that we will be able to avoid a new war in the region.

President of Russia (@KremlinRussia_E)

Vladimir Putin has met with President of Iran Hassan Rouhani to discuss bilateral cooperation and the crisis in Syria http://t.co/dJbsiIvDzp

September 13, 2013
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
Russian President Vladimir Putin meets Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Photograph: Mikhail Klimentyev/RIA Novosti/Kremlin Pool/EPA

Russia sends yet more ships

Russia is sending yet more ships to the eastern Mediterranean, according to Russia Today.

Russia's admiral of the fleet Viktor Chirkov said up to 10 battleships could be deployed near Syria's coast.

Chirkov is quoted as saying: 

The task is crystal clear: to avoid a slightest threat to the security of the state. This is a general practice of all fleets around the world, to be there when a tension level increases. They are all going to act on operational command plan of the offshore maritime zone. Russia will be building up its Mediterranean fleet until it is deemed sufficient to perform the task set.

Russian destroyer Smetlivy leaves the harbour at the Crimean port of Sevastopol on 12 September.  The ship left the Black Sea port on Thursday to undertake missions in the eastern Mediterranean, local media reported.
Russian destroyer Smetlivy leaves the harbour at the Crimean port of Sevastopol on 12 September. The ship left the Black Sea port on Thursday to undertake missions in the eastern Mediterranean, local media reported. Photograph: Stringer/reuters

Geneva 2 prospects

There's been no more word from Geneva as the Lavrov and Kerry talks on Syria's chemical weapons continue. The US state department has released a transcript of remarks made both men and Syria envoy Lakhdar Brahimi.

None of them said that much, and they didn't answer questions. Read into that what you will.

Both Kerry and Lavrov did confirm they were still committed to the much delayed Geneva 2 peace conference on Syria. But reading between the lines neither sounded particularly hopeful.

Kerry said:

President Obama is deeply committed to a negotiated solution with respect to Syria, and we know that Russia is likewise. We are working hard to find the common ground to be able to make that happen and we discussed some of the homework that we both need to do. I’m not going to go into it in any detail today. We both agreed to do that homework and meet again in New York around the time of the UN General Assembly.

Lavrov said:

It is very unfortunate that for a long period the [first] Geneva communique was basically abandoned and we were not able to have endorsement of this very important document in the Security Council, as is as adopted.

Brahimi was even more terse, saying little more than that discussions had been "useful".

Stuck in the middle with you ... UN-Arab League envoy on Syria, flanked by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry
Stuck in the middle with you ... UN-Arab League envoy on Syria, flanked by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry Photograph: Larry Downing/AFP/Getty Images

Negotiating with Iran on an end to the broader conflict, rather than Russia on the narrower issue of chemical weapons, is the key to solving the Syria crisis, according to New Yorker writers George Packer and Jon Lee Anderson.

Speaking on the magazine's Political Scene podcast, Packer pointed out that the current stalemate in the fighting is not in Iran's interests. Tehran under the new more moderate president, Hassan Rouhani, maybe looking for a way out. Packer warned that any negotiations with Iran would be "tortuous" but offered the "most likely way for there to be a true political solution."

Packer said Barack Obama should holds talks with Rouhani about Syria when he visits New York at the end of the month for the UN's General Assembly.

Anderson agreed. "The idea that these two leaders could meet - breaking received protocol – could do much to lessen the tension and make other sorts of bargain seem possible," he said.

Anderson added that there would be no way to secure Syria's weapons without a parallel deal with the sponsors of the conflict, including both Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Rouhani continues to sound open to negotiations.

Hassan Rouhani (@HassanRouhani)

Human #tragedy in #Syria can only be resolved through political means. #No2War

September 13, 2013

Updated

Here's today's Friday message on chemical weapons from the protesters in the northern Syrian town of Kafranbel.

Rami al-Lolah (@RamiAlLolah)

A message to #Obama from #Kafranbel #Idlib protests: Leave us to die peacefully with #CW! #Assad #US #Syria pic.twitter.com/g6js2OyAG3

September 13, 2013

Summary

Here's where things currently stand:

The US secretary of state, John Kerry, and the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, have said they hoped that talks on chemical weapons would help revive an international plan for a "Geneva 2" conference to end the war in Syria. Kerry, who described the talks as "constructive", told a news conference in Geneva that he and Lavrov planned to meet in New York later this month and hoped to agree a date for the Geneva 2 conference then.

Bashar al-Assad has insisted that the chemical weapons initiative had to be a two-way process that included the US withdrawing its threat of military action. In a transcript of latest TV interview Syria's state news agency quotes Assad saying: "When we see the US genuinely working towards stability in the region and stop threatening, striving to attack, and delivering arms to terrorists then we will believe that the necessary processes can be finalised."

 Syria has scattered its chemical weapons stockpiles to up to 50 sites to frustrate efforts to track them, according to the Wall Street Journal citing US officials. "We know a lot less than we did six months ago about where the chemical weapons are," one official was quoted as saying.

Syria's main opposition group has dismissed the Assad regime's decision to sign up to the chemical weapons convention as an empty gesture. The Syrian National Coalition also called for a binding UN resolution threatening the use of force if Syria did not hand over its chemical stockpiles.

Pro-Assad forces executed almost 250 people in the towns of al-Bayda and Baniyas in May, according to an investigation by Human Rights Watch based on interviews with 20 eyewitnesses and video footage. The overwhelming majority were executed after military clashes ended and opposition fighters had retreated, it said.

Updated

Assad's conditions

Syria's state news agency has released a transcript of Assad's interview with Russian TV making it clear that Syria will only agree to a chemical weapons plan if the US withdraws a threat of military action. Discussing Syria pledge to sign up to the chemical weapons convention, Assad said:

It does not mean that Syria will sign the documents, fulfil the obligations and that’s it. It is a bilateral process aimed principally at making the US cease pursuing its policy of aggression against Syria and proceed in compliance with the Russian initiative. When we see the US genuinely working towards stability in the region and stop threatening, striving to attack, and delivering arms to terrorists then we will believe that the necessary processes can be finalised. From a Syrian perspective, we perceive that this is achievable and can be implemented; however this is not a single-track process.

The transcript also confirms Assad's view that Syria would only be obliged to abide by the terms of treaty a month after signing up. "I believe the agreement will come into effect a month after signing it and Syria will start submitting data regarding its chemical weapons stockpile to international organisations," it quotes Assad saying.

US Secretary of State John Kerry said the standard terms of the treaty do not apply in this case.

"We believe there is nothing standard about this process at this moment because of the way the regime has behaved," Kerry said. "And the words of the Syrian regime, in our judgment, are simply not enough."

In his interview Assad also appeared to accuse Turkey or Saudi Arabia of supplying Syrian rebels with chemical weapons.

The reality is that the West and particular countries in the region, including Turkey and Saudi Arabia, maintain direct contact with the terrorists and supply them with all measure of arms. We believe that one of these countries has supplied the terrorists with chemical weapons. One would assume that these states can cease supplying the terrorists with such weapons; nevertheless there are terrorists who would never comply. When they have arms and the opportunity to inflict havoc, they would never submit, even to those who provided them with weapons and money.

President Bashar al-Assad attending an interview with Russian television Rossiya 24 in Damascus.
President Bashar al-Assad attending an interview with Russian television Rossiya 24 in Damascus. Photograph: Handout/AFP/Getty Images

Putin says Syria has shown good faith

Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Syria's move to join the international convention banning chemical weapons has proven its good faith and reaffirmed a strong warning to the US not to use force, AP reports.

Speaking at a summit of an international security grouping dominated by Russia and China, Putin said the move showed that Syria has "serious intentions to follow this path."

"I would like to voice hope that this will mark a serious step toward the settlement of the Syrian crisis," Putin said.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin at the Council of the Heads of Member States of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation on 13 September in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin at the Council of the Heads of Member States of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation on 13 September in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Photograph: ITAR-TASS/Barcroft Media

Updated

Kerry and Lavrov hope for Geneva 2

Kerry and Lavrov have been making more optimistic noises after meeting the international envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi.

They told a press conference they were hopeful that talks on Syria's chemical weapons would help revive an international plan for a "Geneva 2" conference to end the war in Syria.

Kerry, who said the ongoing talks on chemical weapons were "constructive", said he and Lavrov planned to meet in New York around the 28 September and hoped to agree a date for the Geneva 2 conference then.

The date of a Geneva 2 conference has been slipping back since it was first pencilled in for June.

US Secretary of State John Kerry next to United Nations-Arab League special envoy for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi and Russian Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov during a press conference after their high-stakes talks on Syria's chemical weapons at the UN headquarters in Geneva.
US Secretary of State John Kerry next to United Nations-Arab League special envoy for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi and Russian Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov during a press conference after their high-stakes talks on Syria's chemical weapons at the UN headquarters in Geneva. Photograph: PHILIPPE DESMAZES/AFP/Getty Images

Opposition dismisses Syria's weapons 'gesture'

Syria's main opposition group has dismissed the Assad regime's decision to sign up to the chemical weapons convention as an empty gesture. The Syrian National Coalition also called for a binding UN resolution threatening the use of force if Syria did not hand over its chemical stockpiles.

In a statement it said:

The Syrian Coalition is deeply skeptical about the Assad regime's signing of the Chemical Weapons Convention on Thursday. Such a gesture comes as too little too late to save civilians from the regime's murderous intent and is clearly an attempt to evade international action as well as accountability in front of the Syrian people.
A UN Security Council resolution on the matter must enforce compliance through clearly defined timelines and consequences.
The Chemical Weapons Convention requires a state to act in good faith. Considering the regime's actions, this is not something the Syrian people can afford to grant the regime. It is vital the threat of force stays on the table. For a UNSC resolution to be anything other than a get-out-of-jail free card for the regime it must be enforceable under Chapter 7.
The regime cannot be allowed to use diplomatic activity to indefinitely stall international action while it continues its policy of widespread violence against civilians. This can only be accomplished by making it clear to the regime it must fulfil obligations within a set time period, and that international military action will be the consequence of non-compliance.
 
The Coalition is also clear that in the unlikely event the regime does turn its weapons of mass destruction over to the international community to be destroyed, the Syrian people will not consider the regime absolved of its guilt.
 

It wouldn't have happened in Sir Humphrey's day ...

Whitehall's top civil servant on Syria has turned to social media to take a Hollywood star to task for criticising the west's approach to the crisis.

Actor John Cusack used his Twitter account to question what he sees as a rush to war over Syria.

John Cusack (@johncusack)

frankly whether serin gas or laser guided missile its a nuance that's lost on me. more war more murder more hate spreading through world

September 11, 2013
John Cusack (@johncusack)

He needs to show how tough he is -- world is well aware that America knows how to bomb people mr president http://t.co/CaWTQhgB03

September 11, 2013

Comments like this appear to have provoked Reza Afshar, head of the Syria team at the foreign office, to respond. "But nobody was talking about war," he tweeted Cusack, adding: "In fact it was explicitly ruled out. Where's outrage over use of chems & 5k dead per month?"

Reza Afshar (@RezaMac)

But nobody was talking about war, @johncusack. In fact it was explicitly ruled out. Where's outrage over use of chems & 5k dead per month?

September 13, 2013

Cusack hasn't replied.

Afshar, who was previously part of the British team at the UN, is gaining a reputation for using undiplomatic language, that comes close to being hawkish, on the subject of Syria.

In May he virtually endorsed arming the Syrian opposition when he said all sides in the Syrian conflict have access to weapons "except the good guys".

On the day MPs rejected taking military action against Syria's use of chemical weapons, Afshar only tweeted once to say: "Disaster. #Syria."

On Thursday he also took umbrage at Vladimir Putin's New York Times op-ed criticising US militarism.

Reza Afshar (@RezaMac)

#Putin @nytimes: "No one wants #UN to suffer the fate of League of Nations." But #Russia has systematically neutered Sec Council on #Syria.

September 12, 2013
Reza Afshar (@RezaMac)

#Putin: "poison gas used..but by opposition". Gives no evidence, unlike @hrw report implicating #Syria regime - http://t.co/T6iwVWVhhZ

September 12, 2013

Afshar insists he is not being political.

Reza Afshar (@RezaMac)

@raymonddelauney - err? Civil servants are not to be party political, and I am not. I serve (and have served) whatever is govt of the day.

September 6, 2013

The foreign office encourages its staff to use social media. Is this what it means by digital diplomacy?

Massacres documented

Pro-Assad forces executed almost 250 people in the towns of al-Bayda and Baniyas in May, according to an investigation by Human Rights Watch based on interviews with 20 eyewitnesses and video footage.

The overwhelming majority were executed after military clashes ended and opposition fighters had retreated, it said.

Earlier this week a UN inquiry also concluded that pro-government forces were responsible for the massacres in the area.

Summary

Welcome to Middle East Live. US and Russian talks on Syria's chemical weapons continue for a second day in Geneva.

Here's a roundup of the latest developments:

US Secretary of State, John Kerry, expressed cautious optimism that a deal could be reached to guarantee the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons, as he began talks on the issue in Geneva with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. But appearing alongside Lavrov, shortly after the beginning of two days of negotiations, Kerry rejected Bashar al-Assad's suggestion that he would have 30 days, under the standard terms of the chemical weapons treaty, to declare his stockpiles.

While in Geneva Kerry is due to meet the international envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, according to the US state department. Brahimi is attempting to revive flagging efforts to convene a international peace conference on Syria in the Swiss city 

The United Nations announced that Assad had signed a legislative decree making his country party to the chemical weapons convention. UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon welcomed the move.

Syria has scattered its chemical weapons stockpiles to up to 50 sites to frustrate efforts to track them, according to the Wall Street Journal citing US officials. "We know a lot less than we did six months ago about where the chemical weapons are," one official was quoted as saying.

Assad insisted that the chemical weapons initiative had to be a two-way process that included the US withdrawing its threat of military action. He also accused the US of of jumping on the plan and wanting "to look like winners".

Some Damascenes expressed surprise at Assad's agreement to hand over chemical weapons, Jonathan Steele reports from the Syrian capital. 

One activist said: "In one move, Assad has thrown away years of effort in building [the chemical weapons] up, as well as his claim to be part of the resistance to Israel. They always said they needed them because Israel has nuclear weapons. Now he's giving them up to save his skin. It shows his cynicism."

A hotel receptionist said she was unhappy that Syria had abandoned its chemical weapons. "We don't believe our president or the Syrian army used them, but it's not good to give them up. Israel has the biggest arsenal of chemical weapons in the world, as well as nuclear ones. The US has their defences. Why should we give ours up? I hope we have peace. If there is a peace agreement, then we won't need to use them."