US Secretary of State John Kerry began crucial talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on putting Syria’s chemical weapons under international control.
US Secretary of State John Kerry began crucial talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday evening on putting Syria’s chemical weapons under international control.
Kerry said before the meeting that diplomacy is and always has been the first resort, and achieving a peaceful resolution is clearly preferable to military action, Xinhua reported.
He said US considered the words of the Syrian regime were simply not enough, so they came to Geneva in order to work with Russia to make certain that this could be achieved.
“The Russian delegation has put some ideas forward and we are grateful for that and we have prepared our own principles that any plan to accomplish this needs to encompass,” he said.
“Expectations are high. They are high for the US, perhaps even more so for Russia to deliver on the promise of this moment,” said Kerry.
“This is not a game”, he said, adding that “it has to be real, comprehensive, verifiable, credible, and has to be implemented in a timely fashion”.
“Finally, there ought to be consequences if it doesn’t take place,” he said.
Lavrov said that “we should get down to a very serious work”.
“The development of the events gives us an additional opportunity for Geneva-II,” he said.
-IANS
