Russia Wants Syria to Join Chemical Weapons Convention

Logo of the Organisation for the
Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in
the Hague, the Netherlands.

As a possible outcome of President Obama's meeting with President Putin of Russia, Russia is proposing a UN draft declaration backing an initiative to put Syrian chemical weapons under international control.

France is independently seeking a UN response under Chapter VII of the UN Charter.

But Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said the initial French draft resolution is "unacceptable" because it simply holds the Syrian government responsible for the use of chemical weapons.

Obama, according to the NY Times, is prepared to pursue control of chemical weapons in Syria by working through the UN.

Besides Obama - for whom the Russian proposal provides a face-saving alternative to a military strike - French President Francois Hollande and British Prime Minister David Cameron have said they will review the Russian proposal seriously.

The UN Security Council is scheduled to meet in an emergency session at 4 p.m. to discuss Syrian use of chemical weapons. President Obama will address the nation on Syria this evening at 9 pm Eastern Time - at WH.Gov/Syria.

While little-mentioned in the Mainstream Media so far, Russia appears to want to give the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) more authority, and in particular wants Syria to join in the membership. He also told Russian television today that the United States and its allies should "pledge to renounce the use of force" as world powers work to deal with the Syrian chemical weapons issue. He said:

It is difficult to make any country -- Syria or any other country -- unilaterally disarm if there is military action against it under consideration.

According to Interfax (Russia's news agency), Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Moallem says that it is willing to disclose the location of its chemical weapons, stop producing more of it, and allow inspection by representatives of Russia, the UN, and other unspecified states, according to a report today from Russia's Interfax news agency. Reuters says Syria promises to give up chemical weapons, but there is no deal on the table yet at the UN.

WEAPONS TREATIES | Nuclear v. Chemical – Similar, Different

UNODA pursues disarmament issues.

The treaties on nuclear and chemical weapons have some similarities, but the differences are great.

Similarities. They both have approximately 189 countries signed up. The Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) was signed as of 1970. (China and France agreed to abide by the NPT in 1992. North Korea subsequently withdrew. Signers are therefore 188 U.N. members plus the Holy See/Vatican and Taiwan, an as-yet unrecognized country. Key countries that did not sign: India, Israel, Pakistan. These countries often state, however, they favor nonproliferation - for example, Pakistan this week.) The chemical weapons convention, administered by the Organisation for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), was signed in 1993.

Differences.  The nuclear nonproliferation convention is part of the U.N. constellation, with the International Atomic Energy Agency providing inspection services to ensure that peaceful uses of atomic energy are not a military resource. The 2010 meeting of the parties to the convention met at U.N. headquarters in New York. The convention is reviewed every five years. For the last review, President Obama in April 2009 described the basic bargain at the core of the Treaty as follows:

- countries with nuclear weapons will move towards disarmament;
- countries without nuclear weapons will not acquire them; and
- all countries can access peaceful nuclear energy.

The chemical weapons convention is not a U.N. agency although it was convened under U.N. auspices. Enforcement is by the OPCW, headquartered in the Hague in the Netherlands. Unlike the NPT, the OPCW is seeking zero chemical weapons, and the convention includes a schedule for destruction of all chemical weapons by 2007 that was not fully met.

Syria. Since the topic of the day is the alleged Syrian use of the chemical sarin as a weapon against its citizens, it is worth noting that Syria signed the NPT but is not a membert if OPCW. (It devoted 4.1 percent of its GDP to military spending as of the latest available year, according to the SIPRI database. This was not an especially high percentage among Middle Eastern countries, but the latest year reported is 2010.)