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Syria conflict: France to float tough UN resolution | |
(35 minutes later) | |
France will put a resolution to the UN Security Council to place Syria's chemical weapons under international control so they can be destroyed, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius says. | France will put a resolution to the UN Security Council to place Syria's chemical weapons under international control so they can be destroyed, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius says. |
He said it would threaten "extremely serious" consequences if Syria breached its conditions. | He said it would threaten "extremely serious" consequences if Syria breached its conditions. |
There would be a request for a complete inspection of all chemical weapons. | There would be a request for a complete inspection of all chemical weapons. |
Russia also has a plan to put Syria's chemical weapons under international control, it says. | |
Mr Fabius, who was speaking at a news conference in Paris, said the resolution, based around five points, would demand that Syria "bring fully to light" its chemical weapons programme. | |
The measure would also set up international inspections and controls of the dismantling process. | |
The resolution would be tabled under Chapter 7 of the UN charter covering possible military and non-military action to restore peace, Mr Fabius added. | |
The plan had been discussed before, he said, but has probably been advanced by the pressure applied in recent weeks. | |
The Russians have blocked all previous French-led efforts at the Security Council, says the BBC's Christian Fraser in Paris. | The Russians have blocked all previous French-led efforts at the Security Council, says the BBC's Christian Fraser in Paris. |
Both France and the United States are wary of an Iraq-style game of cat and mouse - but they are prepared to give the Moscow-backed plan a chance, our correspondent adds. | |
What the French are keen to avoid, Mr Fabius said, is a plan that is only there as a delaying tactic, which is why all options, including the threat of a strike, will remain on the table, our correspondent says. | |
Moscow plan | |
In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, at a press conference with the Libyan foreign minister, has been speaking about Moscow's plan to put Syrian's chemical weapons stockpiles under international control. | |
There have been few details so far, but Mr Lavrov said Moscow was "preparing a concrete proposal which will be presented to all interested sides, including the US... a workable, specific, concrete plan". | |
He said he had spoken to US Secretary of State John Kerry on the telephone about this on Monday. | |
Mr Lavrov said the Russian initiative was "not a purely Russian initiative... It grew out of contacts we've had with the Americans". | |
Mr Lavrov noted US President Barack Obama's suggestion in a US TV interview that this may be a "breakthrough". | |
Overnight, Mr Obama said the Russian proposal could be a breakthrough, but that he remained sceptical. | |
On Monday, Mr Kerry warned that not responding to the alleged use of chemical weapons by Syrian forces would be riskier than taking action. |