Syria has given its agreement to the Russian proposal to place its chemical arsenal under international control. This was stated by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, according to Russian news agencies. "Yesterday we had a fruitful negotiating session with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and already in the evening we gave our assent to the Russian initiative", declared Muallem. Bringing the arsenal of chemical weapons under international control would be the first step in a process that would lead to its destruction.
The Syrian crisis really seems to be at a turning point. Barack Obama, who will speak to the nation tonight, called it "a potentially positive development", reinvigorating the hopes of Moscow and Damascus to avoid US military intervention, a motion whose vote in the US Senate has been postponed. For the anti-Assad opposition, the Russian plan is instead only a delaying tactic, "a political maneuver" that will postpone a possible military intervention "causing more deaths and destruction for the Syrian people".
