A political commentator says Russia’s proposal to Syria to put its chemical weapons under UN supervision has placed the United States ‘in an awkward position’, Press TV reports.
In a Wednesday interview with Press TV, James Jatras, former US Senate policy analyst, said the Russian initiative put Washington in “a very awkward position” as “the American people and the Congress were not supporting [US] President [Barack] Obama in his desire to launch a military strike against Syria.”
“They [the US] had no choice but to accept the Russian offer and are largely tied to Russia’s initiative on this matter,” added the analyst.
Jatras further said there is a “strong” possibility that Takfiri groups operating inside Syria were behind the deadly chemical attack near Damascus on August 21 because they have both the “motivation” and the “capability” of carrying out such an attack.

The US and its allies have blamed the Syrian government for the chemical attack. Russia, however, maintains that foreign-backed militants staged the attack to incriminate President Bashar al-Assad.

Washington said on Tuesday that Moscow is “swimming against the tide” by ignoring “facts” about the use of chemical weapons in Syria after Russia described the attack near Damascus as a "provocation."

On September 10, Syria said Damascus is ready to implement a Russian proposal to place its chemical weapons arsenal under international control.

On September 14, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov announced an agreement that would eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons by mid-2014.

UN Security Council members are planning to come up with a resolution aimed at enforcing the American-Russian deal, which was reached following three days of talks in Geneva.

Barack Obama has also asked the Congress to delay a vote on authorizing military action against Syria in order to give the Russian proposal a chance to play out.

By Press TV

 

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