The Syrian government has accepted Russia's proposal to place its chemical weapons under international control, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Mualem announced.
"Yesterday, we had a very fruitful round of talks with the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Sergey Lavrov, who proposed an initiative regarding chemical weapons. That evening, we accepted the Russian initiative," the Interfax agency quoted Mualema as saying to the Speaker of the Lower House of the Russian Parliament.
Mualem said that Syria accepted the proposal because it would "remove the basis for American aggression", Reuters reported.
Vladimir Putin's spokesman said today that the Russian and American presidents discussed bringing Syrian chemical weapons under control on the sidelines of last week's G20 summit.
"That issue has been discussed," Dmitry Peskov said, but he did not want to say who initiated it, nor to disclose any other details about this conversation, Reuters reports.
US President Barack Obama said that it is possible that there will be no attack on Syria if its leader Bashar al-Assad accepts and implements the Russian proposal.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says Moscow is working with Damascus to prepare a plan to bring chemical weapons under international control.
Let's recall that Russia proposed to Damascus that the stockpile of chemical weapons in Syria be placed under international control.
Gulf countries: Russian proposal will not stop bloodshed
The ministers of foreign affairs of the Gulf countries assessed that the Russian proposal to put chemical weapons under international control will not stop the bloodshed in Syria.
"It will not stop the bloodshed in Syria," Bahraini Foreign Minister Khaled al-Khalifa told a news conference after a meeting of Gulf foreign ministers.
He added that it is not just one type of weapon. "Bloodshed has been going on for two years and we are asking for it to stop. We are tired of procrastination," said Khalif.
The Gulf countries want "the suffering of the Syrian people to end," Khalif said.
The member countries of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar and Oman) supported the idea of an American intervention against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
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