The international consensus that the regime was responsible [for the chemical attack] is growing. During the G20 eleven nations including the UK signed a statement condemning the regime’s use of chemical weapons and supporting efforts by the US and other countries to reinforce the prohibition against chemical weapons use. A week later that statement has now been signed by 25 countries.



On Saturday I attended the EU Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Vilnius, which unanimously agreed that there was strong evidence of regime culpability, and that ‘in the face of this cynical use of chemical weapons, the international community cannot remain idle.’



This growing international pressure, including the threat of military action by the US, has had an impact.



On Monday I hosted Secretary Kerry for detailed discussions on the way forward. On the same day the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov announced that Russia would urge the Syrian regime to sign up to a proposal which would place their chemical weapons stocks under international control for destruction. In response, the regime announced that it supported the initiative and was ready to cooperate; and that it intended to join the Chemical Weapons Convention, open up its sites and give up its chemical weapons.



Given their track record, any commitment made by the Syrian regime must be treated with great caution. This is a regime that has lied for years about possessing chemical weapons, that still denies it has used them, and that refused for four months to allow UN inspectors into Syria.



Nevertheless, as the Prime Minister has said, we have to take this proposal seriously and test its sincerity. If the Syrian regime verifiably gave up its chemical weapons stockpiles this would obviously be a major step forward. We agree with President Obama that this initiative has the potential to remove the threat of chemical weapons without the use of force.

Intensive discussions are now taking place about how to achieve this, and Secretary Kerry is meeting Foreign Minister Lavrov in Geneva today to discuss the proposal.



Our diplomats in New York are in close discussion about a draft Security Council resolution, and the five permanent members of the Security Council met for consultations last night. A resolution must establish a binding commitment for the Syrian regime to give up its chemical weapons within a specific timeframe. We will hold further discussions in the Security Council once the UN inspectors have reported.



The United Kingdom will make every effort to negotiate an enforceable agreement that credibly, reliably, and promptly places the regime’s chemical weapons stocks under international control for destruction.



The House should be in no doubt of the scale of the challenge and the immense practical difficulties that would need to be overcome.



It would require the genuine cooperation of a regime that denied until recently that it possessed these weapons and has used them ruthlessly against its own people on at least 14 occasions, killing many hundreds of people including women and children. The regime has a large number of sites – possibly the largest stock of chemical weapons possessed by any nation in the world – in numerous different locations in a country that is a contested battlefield. We would need to have confidence that all chemical weapons had been identified and secured and that they could not fall into the wrong hands.



These issues can all be overcome with sufficient international unity and goodwill, and provided there is a complete change of approach by the Assad regime to all of its past practices and deceptions.



So we will approach these negotiations with determination and resolve, knowing that if successful it would be an important breakthrough, but that overcoming all these issues will not be easy and that in the meantime thousands of Syrians are dying every month from conventional weapons in this worsening conflict.



It is abundantly clear that this diplomatic opening would not have come about had the international community shown complacency or disregard for the use of chemical weapons in Syria, and that pressure on the regime must be maintained.

