Sergey Lavrov

Interview by the Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to The Washington Post, Syria [ENG]

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• published: 26 Sep 2013
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Question: What was your reaction to President Obama's speech this week at the United Nations? Sergey Lavrov: It addressed important issues, and we hope that the stated willingness to cooperate on resolving the problems in the Middle East would help us to find common approaches, which is the key for today's functioning of the international community. Only common action can resolve issues. No one country can solve problems which are becoming transborder, transnational, common threat and challenges for all of us. Question: President Obama spoke about enforcement, about Syria and on the chemical weapons agreement you and Secretary Kerry came up with. Where do you think the Security Council resolution on Syria will end? Do you see some enforcement mechanism being built into the Security Council resolution or not? Sergey Lavrov: The chemical weapon problem in Syria is, first of all, the issue for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). The President of Syria addressed the Secretary General of the United Nations and the Director General of the OPCW with a formal request to accede to the Chemical Weapons Convention. Question: You're speaking of President Bashar al-Assad? Sergey Lavrov: Yes, President Assad. He asked formally to accede to the Convention, and now Syria is under a legal obligation derived from this Convention. So this is already a binding arrangement, and the steps of the Syrian government indicated clearly that they were fulfilling their obligations under that Convention. The OPCW developed a draft decision -- that was agreed by John Kerry and myself in Geneva on September 14, and the draft decision will be submitted soon for the Executive Council of the OPCW and this would be the main instrument to resolve the problem of chemical weapons in Syria as a member of the Chemical Weapons Convention. We also agreed in Geneva with John Kerry that we will initiate a Security Council resolution which will support and reinforce the decision of the Chemical Weapons Convention. And we set in that framework which we agreed in Geneva that we would be very serious about any violation of the obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention, we would be very serious about any use of chemical weapons by anyone in Syria and that those issues would be brought to the Security Council under Chapter VII. This is the framework in which we were working both in The Hague, in the OPCW headquarters and in the UN Security Council. Question: Secretary Kerry claims that an enforcement mechanism under Chapter VII should be part of the UN resolution and you apparently disagree. Sergey Lavrov: The Geneva framework is available and anyone can read what's in it. We agreed today with John Kerry that we would follow that understanding in drafting the Security Council resolution. Question: So there's no difference between the American and the Russian position? Sergey Lavrov: As these positions are reflected in the Geneva framework of September 14, no. Question: In President Obama's speech today, he spoke of consequences if the Syrians fail to comply. Sergey Lavrov: I cannot speak about individual position of any UN member. I can only speak about arrangements to which Russia is a party, and we are a party to the Geneva framework of September 14, and are committed to implementing this fully. Question: So if there were violations you would go back to the Security Council and get another resolution to do something about it? Sergey Lavrov: Exactly. Question: How did this chemical weapons agreement come about? The White House said President Vladimir Putin and President Obama discussed chemical weapons several times, starting at the G20 summit in Mexico last year. Then there's the story that Secretary Kerry just threw out this remark that if President Assad were to agree give up chemical weapons, then the U.S. wouldn't use force. Then, Russia quickly produced this chemical weapons proposal. @ source :http://www.mid.ru/brp_4.nsf/0/F357D88AA0CB547844257BF20028CA04