The diplomatic scramble to avert military intervention in Syria continues, as an August 21 gas attack in a Damascus suburb has sparked international efforts to bring the country’s chemical weapons stockpile under control.

Friday, October 11

08:00 GMT: This year's Nobel Peace Prize is set to go to the OPCW, the organization currently tasked with overseeing Syria's chemical weapons arsenal handover to international hands - according to a Norwegian public broadcaster.



03:25 GMT: Nearly two dozen of the commentators who appeared on major media outlets to discuss a possible US military strike on Syria had relationships with contractors and other organizations with a vested interest in the conflict, according to a new report.



Wednesday, October 9

18:00 GMT: The Syrian government has been “quite cooperative” in the early stages of the destruction of its poison gas stockpiles, global chemical weapons watchdog OPCW said, adding that its experts would need to check some 20 weapons sites in the country.

“The cooperation has been quite constructive and I would say the Syrian authorities have been cooperative," Ahmet Uzumcu, director-general of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, told reporters in The Hague.



Tuesday, October 8

21:00 GMT: A second team of inspectors will be sent to Syria to help those already working there to destroy the state’s stockpile of toxic munitions, the global chemical weapons watchdog said. This comes as Damascus releases footage of the first mission at work.



03:00 GMT: A joint mission of the UN and the OPCW should include some 100 experts deployed both in Damascus and in Cyprus – to provide additional “operational capabilities” – in order to destroy Syria’s chemical arsenal, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon proposed. "I propose the establishment of an OPCW - UN Joint Mission to eliminate the chemical weapons program of the Syrian Arab Republic," Ban Ki-moon wrote in a letter to the UN Security Council.

The mission "will seek to conduct an operation the likes of which, quite simply, have never been tried before," Ban said, in a report to the United Nations Security Council, according to AFP.



Monday, October 7

13:00 GMT: US Secretary of State, John Kerry, has said that Syria's compliance with the chemical weapons handover deal is a "credit to Assad's regime."

Kerry and Russian Foreign Minster Sergey Lavrov met on the sidelines of the APEC summit in Bali, Indonesia on Monday morning.

"The process has begun in record time and we are appreciative for the Russian co-operation and obviously for the Syrian compliance," Kerry added.



12:45 GMT: People in countries whose governments are not directly involved in the Syrian crisis mostly oppose military intervention against the government of President Bashar Assad, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed. Overall, 52 percent of people surveyed in September favored military intervention and 57 percent were against their own country taking part in such an operation.

The survey was conducted in 15, mostly European countries, but excluded Iran, Russia and China, which are supporting Damascus in the ongoing crisis, as well as Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar, which are most directly involved in the rebels’ fight against the Syrian government.

In the survey, Argentina was the country most strongly opposed to military intervention in Syria, with 68 percent of people against it.

Some 36 percent of people surveyed said that Assad’s government was responsible for the use of chemical weapons, the accusation which the US voiced as a reason for a possible strike in Syria. About a quarter believe that both the Syrian army and the opposition used chemical weapons at some point of time, while another quarter said they didn’t know who was behind the attacks.



12:37 GMT: The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has posted a statement on its website, saying that Syria is being “cooperative” in the operation to destroy its chemical weapons arsenal.



"Discussions were held with the Syrian authorities on the disclosure which Syria earlier provided to the OPCW on its chemical weapons program," the statement said, adding that the talks were “constructive.”



Saturday, October 5



6:00 GMT: The Syrian government has gone beyond its pledge and handed over additional information on its chemical weapons program to international experts. UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said the new data had been received by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and the OPCW countries should expect an update by Tuesday.



Thursday, October 3



18:00 GMT: The initial United Nations report on how Syria will dispose of its chemical weapons will be presented on October 7, says Russian UN envoy Vitaly Churkin.

"The chemical weapons experts are already in place in Syria, and have started work" Churkin told Rossiya-24, a Russian news channel.

"The UN Secretary General's report on October 7 will indicate what role the United Nations will play in the carrying out of the chemical weapons resolution passed by the Security Council."



16:26 GMT: An international team of chemical weapons experts who arrived in Damascus on Tuesday has been making "encouraging initial progress" according to the UN. It is working towards the full elimination of Syria's chemical weapons stockpiles - a task they believe to be achievable by mid-2014.



"Documents handed over yesterday by the Syrian Government look promising, according to team members, but further analysis, particularly of technical diagrams, will be necessary and some more questions remain to be answered," said the UN statement.



Tuesday, October 1



14:50 GMT: The Israeli ambassador to Moscow, Dorit Golender, has said that her country backs the plan to place Syrian chemical weapons under international control.“Israel has welcomed the US-Russia plan. But results are determined by deeds,” Golender told RIA Novosti.



12:26 GMT: The team of twenty international OPCW inspectors who are tasked with the elimination of chemical weapons in Syria have entered the country from Lebanon over the Masnaa border.

11:30 GMT: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has expressed doubts that the West will be successful in getting the Syrian opposition to take part in the ‘Geneva-2’ peace conference due to be held mid-November.



“Regarding opposition representation – this remains to be settled. Until recently we have been relying on our Western partners who pledged to push the opposition to the negotiations table and we hoped they would manage it quickly. But so far they have not succeeded. And I am not sure they will by mid-November” Lavrov told reporters at a press conference.



11:00 GMT: Russian representatives will work alongside the OPCW inspectors in Syria and take active part in the operation to dismantle chemical weapons in the country, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov told reporters.



Monday, September 30

20:43 GMT: Work on the destruction of chemical weapons in Syria will begin October 1, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky confirmed. “The beginning of this joint operation is scheduled for tomorrow,” he stated at a briefing in New York. Nesirky added that a group of UN experts have returned from Syria and said their report will be completed by the end of October.



20:19 GMT: Turkey’s parliament will debate the motion to authorize military strikes on Syria this Thursday, Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc told Turkish media.



15:05 GMT: China says that it will send its experts to oversee the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons arsenal.

13:45 GMT: China has condemned an attack on its embassy in Damascus, in which one embassy staff was injured. A spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry has also demanded that “all parties in Syria strictly adhere to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and ensure the safety of diplomatic organizations and their members in a proper way.”

Earlier on Monday, Chinese media reported that an area adjacent to the country’s embassy in Damascus was shelled by mortar rounds, and that one of the shells exploded in the embassy’s yard, damaging one building and injuring at least one member of staff. The diplomatic mission temporarily suspended its work, but no evacuation of staff was reported.



11:31 GMT: The team of UN experts investigating use of chemical weapons in Syrian civil war left Damascus on Monday after completing their six-day mission to investigate several cases of alleged chemical weapons use in the country. The investigators’ report, on seven separate cases of alleged use of chemical weapons during the Syrian conflict, is due to be presented sometime in October.

09:38 GMT: France was ready to launch air strikes against Syria’s chemical weapons facilities on Sept. 1, Le Nouvel Observateur reported, but the country’s president, Francois Hollande, had to call the operation off after President Barack Obama decided to seek approval from the US Congress for a military operation against Syria. France’s Rafale fighter jets had planned to launch missiles while flying the Mediterranean, without entering Syrian airspace, the news magazine reported.



08:56 GMT: The Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly, which advises the European Union on human rights issues, plans to hold an urgent debate on Syria on Oct. 3 in Strasbourg, France.



Russia’s representative to the assembly, Duma Foreign Affairs committee chairman Aleksey Pushkov, told journalists that the assembly should pass a resolution on the conflict.

“Syria is the key issue in international politics and there is no doubt that PACE should have a resolution,” Pushkov said, adding that there had been a “serious evolution” in the country. “While two years ago, the prevailing view was that there was a democratic revolution in Syria and people are fighting tyranny, now opinions have changed toward Russia’s stance on this issue,” Pushkov said.



Sunday, September 29

21:13 GMT: The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) have seen a "positive start" to their work in Syria, Itar-Tass reports, citing an OPCW brief in the Hague. "So far our interaction with the Syrians has been very businesslike and very efficient," said an OPCW official. Both parties' intention is to develop a relationship based on mutual trust, saying that the OPCW team of experts have no reason to believe that the Syrian government is trying to hide its chemical weapons. The OPCW brief also said that no unannounced inspections of chemical weapons sites are planned, as that would facilitate mistrust between the two sides.



Saturday, September 28



20:07 GMT: Damascus will not accept any transition plan that excludes President Bashar Assad, Foreign Minister Walid al Moallem told AP Saturday on the sideline of the UN General Assembly. "For the Syrian people, Bashar Assad is the elected president until mid-2014, when presidential elections will be held," al Moallem said. Earlier the foreign minister told RT that the Syrian civil war could end in weeks if the West and Gulf States stopped supporting the insurgents on the ground.

18:50 GMT: Russia reached its aim of making sure professionals from the international chemical weapons watchdog are the main actors regarding the UN resolution on Syria, and that there are no loopholes for military action, Russian FM Sergey Lavrov told Russia’s Channel One News.



Lavrov admitted the Russian-American compromise on the UNSC resolution “did not come easy.” But the Russian side has “achieved its goal” in that the resolution on Syria, supporting another document by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), “remains within the framework of the Geneva Communiqué.”



00:17: GMT: The UN Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution outlining the details of taking under international control and ultimately destroying Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal.



The target date for a new peace conference in Geneva was set for mid-November. However, the Syrian opposition should be represented at the Geneva peace talks in a single delegation, the Secretary-General said.



The adopted resolution calls for consequences if inspectors decide that Syria has failed to fulfill its obligations.



Friday, September 27

22:50 GMT: The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has adopted a decision on Syria chemical arms by consensus, the UK ambassador to the UN said.

The Executive Council has adopted the decision regarding #Syria — OPCW (@OPCW) September 27, 2013





22:30 GMT: The meeting of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is taking place several hours later than planned. This could push back the timeframe of the Security Council vote on a draft resolution even further.

The UK ambassador to the UN has announced that the meeting of OPCW in the Hague has been delayed until delayed until 00:30 local time or 18:30pm EDT. The OPCW Executive Council was earlier planning to meet at 22:00 Friday.

The UN Security Council is scheduled to meet at 20:00 EDT for a ministerial level vote on a draft resolution on Syrian chemical weapons.

Thursday, September 26

17:10 GMT: France has stated that progress is being made over a UN Security Council resolution on Syria's chemical weapons.



Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said that "France's demands have been satisfied at this point," and that talks have "progressed overall," following Wednesday's meeting of five powers. However, there remain "some issues to clarify" before a resolution is adopted, he told reporters.

17:00 GMT: Martin Nesirky, the spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Martin Ban Ki-Moon said that the format of a meeting on Syria involving Ban Ki-moon, Lavrov and Kerry is broadening and will naturally involve United Nations and Arab League Special Envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi. “We already said that a trilateral meeting with Minister Lavrov, Secretary of State Kerry, as well as the Secretary General, and naturally Mr. Brahimi, would take place. This format is now expanding,” he said.



15:55 GMT: UN chemical arms experts have started their mission the day after returning to Syria. For security reasons, their schedule and the sites they will visit have not being disclosed. According to UN spokesman Martin Nesirky, the UN experts’ agenda will depend on the situation. Syria initially agreed to allow UN experts to visit three different locations. The teams will focus on examining 14 alleged attacks when chemical weapons or chemical agents were used.



Wednesday, September 25

08:54 GMT: UN chemical experts have once again returned to Damascus, AFP says.



Tuesday, September 24

17:15 GMT: People are rallying in support of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and Syrian President Bashar Assad in the city of Latakia.

Митинг в поддержку Башара Асада и Владимира Путина в Сирии pic.twitter.com/TLuxFNd4LW — РИА Новости (@rianru) September 26, 2013

17:00 GMT: The solution to the Syrian conflict must be a political one, as too much time has been wasted in solving the country’s crisis, French President Francois Hollande said in his speech at the opening day of the UN General Assembly.



But the French president reiterated that the UN Security Council resolution on Syria should include the application of Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which allows the use of military force.



16:44 GMT: The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has approved a draft resolution on Syria, a diplomatic source told the RIA Novosti news agency. The source added that the organization did not have any outstanding issues with the proposal, and added that the UN Security Council would draft a resolution only after the OPCW presented its version.



14:00 GMT: Military victory in Syria is “an illusion,” with “political settlement” being the only way out of the crisis in the country, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said as he addressed world leaders in his opening speech at the General Assembly.



The UN chief has called on Syrian President Bashar Assad, the country’s opposition and “all those in this hall with influence over them” to work immediately to arrange a second Geneva peace conference aimed at reaching a political solution.

13:28 GMT: While concentrating on chemical weapons, the international community mustn’t forget that the flow of conventional weapons to Syria also remains a pressing issue, UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, said at the opening of the organization’s General Assembly in New York.



"We can hardly be satisfied with destroying chemical weapons, while a wider war is still destroying Syria. The majority of the deaths in Syria were caused by normal weapons and I call on foreign powers to halt the flow of arms into the country,” he said.



“The Syrian government must commit to its pledges over its chemical weapons arsenal,” Ban added.



07:30 GMT: UN chemical weapons inspectors are to return to Syria on Wednesday to continue their mission, said Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov.

The experts were sent to investigate several cases of alleged use of chemical weapons, but their work was disrupted by the August 21 attack, which killed an estimated 1,400 people. The team was redirected to the location of the new incident to conduct a probe and produce an intermediate report on it. However, they were expected to continue their initial mission later.

“We are satisfied that our persistent calls for the return of the UN inspectors for an investigation of the previous episodes have finally borne fruit,” the Russian diplomat commented.

Russia criticized the intermediate report presented at the UN last week, which some Western countries took as blaming the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad for the attack. Moscow says the evidence is not conclusive and argued that a more comprehensive assessment of the situation would prove that Syrian rebels could have been involved in both this and previous attacks.

Saturday, September 20

09:30 GMT: Russia could change its position on Syria if it is discovered that President Bashar Assad is “cheating”, the head of the Russian Presidential Administration Sergey Ivanov said.



"I’m speaking theoretically and hypothetically, but if it appears certain to us that Assad is cheating, we may change our position,” Ivanov said at the International Institute for Strategic Studies 'Global Strategic Review' conference in Stockholm.

Ivanov also questioned how the world would respond if it turns out that both Damascus and the Syrian opposition had deployed chemical weapons.

“Just imagine what the international community would do then,” he questioned.

Ivanov reiterated that Russia saw no other option than to navigate the ongoing crisis in Syria diplomatically, adding that within a week the full extent of Assad’s chemical weapons arsenal would be known.

Friday, September 20

18:10 GMT: The US will thoroughly examine data on Syria’s chemical arsenal, which the government of Bashar Assad passed to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said. Syria has already forwarded the OPCW a draft record of its chemical arsenal, she added.





14:29 GMT: Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, and US Secretary of State, John Kerry, have held telephone consultations on the situation in Syria in view of the agreement to place all the country’s chemical weapons under international supervision. The call was initiated by the American side, the Russian Foreign ministry said.



13:18 GMT: Damascus has submitted a detailed index of its chemical weapons stockpiles and production facilities to the Hague-based Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the group told Reuters on Friday. The OPCW won't release details of what it has received, AP reports.

On Saturday, Russia and the United States reached a deal on a framework that will see the destruction or removal of Syria’s chemical weapons by mid- 2014. Under the plan, the Assad government had one week to hand over an inventory of its chemical weapons arsenal. Syria is believed to have around 1,000 metric tonnes of chemical agents.



Meanwhile, the OPCW has postponed a meeting on Syria originally set for this Sunday, AFP reports. No new date has been given for the meeting.

12:40 GMT: RT’s Maria Finoshina, currently in Syria has spoken to Maaloula residents who were forced to flee their predominantly Christian village when it was seized by jihadists. Having found temporary asylum in Damascus, they still live in fear having not overcome the shock of what had happened. They are also worried about the fate of their missing relatives. Very few are ready to speak to journalists as a result.



12:20 GMT: Finland is ready to provide its experts for destroying the Syrian chemical weapons arsenal, according to the country’s Foreign Ministry statement, cited by Itar-Tass news agency.



11:50 GMT: The Syrian government is expected to submit data concerning its chemical weapons to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) by September 22, according to the spokesman for the watchdog, Michael Luhan.



11:20 GMT: Up to 400 Russian citizens could be fighting in Syria now, according to Sergey Smirnov, first deputy head of the Federal Security Service (FSB).



“We estimate that around 300-400 people have left Russia for Syria. They will come back and that represents a big threat,” he said.



Thursday, September 19

20:00 GMT: French President Francois Hollande has suggested that Paris could arm Syrian rebels, but do it carefully enough to avoid the weapons falling into the hands of jihadists.



"On delivering weapons, we have always said that we want to control these supplies so that they do indeed go to the Free Syrian Army ... because they represent the Syrian National Coalition that we recognize as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people and today they are caught between a hammer and an anvil. The hammer is the air strikes and actions of the Syrian regime and the anvil is radical Islam," Hollande said as cited by Reuters.

The French president highlighted Russia supplying arms to the Syrian government as one of the reasons for his decision to provide the rebels with arms.



19:26 GMT: US Secretary of State John Kerry urged the UN Security Council to take action on Syria next week.



"The Security Council must be prepared to act next week," Kerry told reporters. "It is vital for the international community to stand up and speak out in the strongest possible terms about the importance of enforceable action to rid the world of Syria's chemical weapons."



Kerry said that although the UN mission in Syria had no mandate to determine who was behind the Ghouta chemical attack which claimed hundreds of lives in August, the facts provided by inspectors clearly implicate that Bashar Assad’s government is to blame.

18:30 GMT: Christian leaders from the World Council of Churches (WCC) are planning a summit on Syria, similar to the Geneva II negotiations world powers have long been trying to hold.



"There is no military solution to Syria,” the general secretary of the WCC, Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit, told journalists. "Now is the time to say everyone has failed and there has to be a change and that change has to include all parties and that includes the president [of Syria]."



17:45 GMT: The World Bank has said that the refugee crisis engulfing Lebanon as a result of the Syrian civil war will cost the country $7.5 billion.

17:40 GMT: The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the world's chemical weapons watchdog, will meet Sunday to discuss the Russian-US plan to destroy Syria's arsenal, it said.

17:30 GMT: Bulgaria has asked the EU for aid to help it cope with Syrian refugees, the interior minister said Thursday. Over 4,000 illegal immigrants, about half of them from Syria, are seeking asylum in Bulgaria and Sofia says its capacity is at breaking point.

17:25 GMT: NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said he doesn't foresee NATO playing a role in the agreement to destroy Syria's chemical weapons, but said that individual NATO countries may help to implement it.

14:15 GMT: Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that he believes the use of chemical weapons in Damascus on August 21 was a provocation on the part of the Syrian rebels.



“We have every grounds to believe that it was a provocation. Of course, it was adroit and clever, but, at the same time, primitive in terms of technical performance. They took an old Soviet-made missile, which was taken out of service in the Syrian army long ago. It was most important to have ‘made in the USSR’ written [on the missile],” Putin said at the Valdai discussion forum on Thursday.

12:30 GMT: Russia is ready to take part in the transportation and destruction of Syrian chemical weapons, according to Russia’s Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu.

“What awaits us is a huge and serious task to fulfill, and we are only at the beginning of the process,” said Shoigu as cited by Vesti24. “Whatever role we get when it comes to international control [of Syrian chemical weapons] – be it transportation or destruction – Russia and its military forces are naturally ready to take it on.”

12:15 GMT: An estimated 130 French nationals or immigrants are now fighting in Syria, according to the country’s Interior Minister, Manuel Valls.

“It worries me because they could represent a potential threat [to France] upon their return,” Valls said, as cited by France 24.

The Minister specified that the number is bigger than in other recent conflicts in the region, such as Iraq or Afghanistan.

12:00 GMT: Turkey has shut one of its border gates to Syria following fighting, which took place in the Syrian town of Azaz near the Turkish frontier. Two rebel groups reportedly confronted each other - an Al-Qaeda affiliated group clashed with the Western-backed Free Syrian Army, according to a Turkish official, cited by Reuters.

"The Oncupinar border gate has been closed for security reasons as there is still confusion about what is happening on the Syrian side. All humanitarian assistance that normally goes through the gate has ceased," the official said.

11:25 GMT: Russia is completely ready for the possible evacuation of its citizens from Syria in case it is needed, according to Russia’s Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, cited by RIA news agency. Seven thousand Russian citizens are currently in Syria. The Minister said he was ordered by President Putin to prepare the evacuation plans.



Wednesday, September 18

23:58 GMT: The US is working with Syrians to collect evidence to use against President Bashar Assad, who should “absolutely” be tried for crimes against humanity, a top US official on war crimes said.

“Enormous crimes have been committed that can be traced directly to the highest levels of the Syrian regime,” Stephen Rapp, the US ambassador-at-large for war crimes issues, told Yahoo News on Wednesday.

Rapp added that the mounting evidence would make prosecution easier than cases “we’ve seen at the international level against a chief of state.”

“Without question, there are credible, very credible allegations of crimes against humanity, murder, rape, mutilation, other crimes,” Rapp said. “And, of course, since we now have a civil war these become war crimes as well.”

Rapp said that Syrian partners have obtained more than 200,000 pages of documents which are now being analyzed in a special location that the US helped establish in Europe.

“We’re working with Syrian groups, educating them, training them in how to find this information, identifying it, and measuring shell holes, and determining what direction the shells came from, other things like that ” Rapp said.

Rapp acknowledged the hurdles surrounding a possible criminal case, including reservations from Russia. In the meantime, the accumulation of evidence will go on.

“Our preference is to work with Syrians, with people in the region, with international players and work toward establishing some kind of hybrid, or mixed court,” he said. “That will take time, [but] it could be begun even before there was an end to the conflict.”



Tuesday, September 17

16:50 GMT: In response to Russia’s criticism of the recent report on the Aug.21 chemical weapon attack, the UN says it is “indisputable” and “thoroughly objective”.

"The findings in that report are indisputable," UN spokesman Martin Nesirky told reporters. "They speak for themselves and this was a thoroughly objective report on that specific incident."



16:42 GMT: NATO's Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen says military options should remain "on the table" in negotiations with Syria.



Rasmussen said he supports the recent US-Russian agreement under which the Assad regime says it will give up its chemical weapons arsenal.



"I would expect the Syrian regime to fully comply with the demands of the international community and in the case of non-compliance we will need a very firm international response," NATO chief said after meeting British Prime Minister David Cameron in London.



Rasmussen stressed that it is "crucial that the UN Security Council expeditiously adopts a firm resolution that can constitute the framework for a swift, secure and verifiable elimination of all chemical weapons in Syria"



"I do believe that the credible threat of military action was the reason why diplomacy got a chance and I think in order to keep momentum in the diplomatic and political process the military option should still be on the table," he told reporters.



12:47 GMT: The chief UN chemical weapons inspector Ake Sellstrom says his experts will return to Syria "within weeks" to complete the investigation that was interrupted by August 21 attack in Damascus suburb. The team will evaluate "allegations of chemical weapons use from both sides, but perhaps mainly from the Syrian government’s side."



Sellstrom said he does not see a need for more investigations of the August 21 attacks, but if the team “receives any additional information it will be included next time we report," he added.



12:30 GMT: President Assad thanked Russia for helping Syria confront a "savage attack", AFP reported.

12:25 GMT: Syrian government says it is sure the UN will not vote for the resolution on Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, regulating the use of military force on behalf of the council, AFP reported citing Faisal Mekdad, the deputy foreign minister of Syria.



“I think it’s a lie that Western countries use. We think this will never be used. There is no justification for that,” Mekdad said.



21:53 GMT: Syria has handed over new evidence to Russia that the chemical weapons were used by the armed opposition, Russian deputy foreign minister Sergey Ryabkov told RIA Novosti. “That is really true. Just now we were given evidence. We need to analyze it.”

21:33 GMT: Russian deputy foreign minister Sergey Ryabkov stated that Russia is disappointed that the UN inspectors’ findings are “politicized” and “biased” in nature, adding that without the complete picture of what is happening in Syria, the conclusions can only be described as one-sided.

"We were disappointed to say the least, with the approach adopted by the UN and the UN inspectors, who were in Syria, which was very selective and incomplete, without regard to the circumstances, and was compiled without the collection of materials in the other three sites,” Ryabkov said.

20:55 GMT: In response to a question from a journalist on whether the chemical weapons deal gives Syrian President Bashar Assad job security, State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki said that any government in place would be in charge of seeing it to the end.

“Any individual, any government that is in place, whether that’s a transitional government, whatever it may be, would be in charge of implementing this. And that is the body that would work through this,” she said.

20:40 GMT: The draft UN Security Council resolution on chemical weapons in Syria was presented at the meeting of the five permanent UN members, RIA Novosti cited a UN source as saying. "France, Great Britain and the United States introduced a draft resolution today at a meeting of the five in New York," the source said, adding that Russia and China will be studying the resolution.

20:36 GMT: Russian deputy foreign minister Sergey Ryabkov stated that the first round of talks with Syrian foreign minister Walid Moualem in Damascus was constructive. There are hopes for more positive discussions on Wednesday, Ryabkov said.

19:39 GMT: Syria’s army has confirmed that its military helicopter, which was shot down by Turkish forces on September 16, violated the neighboring country’s air space.



The helicopter was on a reconnaissance mission, inspecting the infiltration of terrorists across the border, and mistakenly entered Turkish airspace, the military said in a statement released by Syria’s SANA news agency.



The harsh reaction from Turkish side – particularly, the fact that the helicopter, not tasked with any fighting mission, was downed as it headed back to Syria – reveals the real intentions of Erdogan's government, which is seeking escalation at the Syrian border, the statement added.



18:50 GMT: Russia urges the interested parties not to hurry with throwing unsubstantiated accusations of chemical weapons use against the Syrian government of Bashar Assad, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Aleksandr Lukashevich said.



“Simplistic and groundless accusations against the Syrian authorities, which, in fact, remove all responsibility from the opposition, are childish and inappropriate,” he stressed. “As it’s thorough and, more importantly, professional establishment of cases of chemical weapons use in Syria, for which the fresh UN inspectors’ report stands for.”



18:43 GMT: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has held a phone conversation with UK Foreign Secretary William Hague, discussing the details of the US-Russia deal, which calls for the Syrian government’s chemical arsenal to be placed under international supervision and subsequently destroyed.



"We hope that our British partners would get seriously involved in the implementation” of the Syrian chemical weapons accord, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Aleksandr Lukashevich said.



18:00 GMT: The UNSC resolution on Syrian chemical weapons should be binding and guarantee that the chemical arsenal will be destroyed in accordance with the agreement reached between the US and Russia in Geneva, Ban Ki-moon said.

17:09 GMT: The UN report on the Syrian chemical attack on August 21 does not show that Assad forces used sarin gas, the UN Secretary General said. The statement came in response to Western countries, which said the report proves the chemical weapon attack was perpetrated by government forces.



“If you read the report, you will understand that there are no conclusions on where those rockets were fired from,” Ban said.



16:36 GMT: The United States, Russia, Britain, France and China are expected to meet in New York to discuss a draft resolution on destroying Syria's chemical arsenal based on a US-Russian agreement, Reuters reports citing a US official.



"Today, the P5 members of the UN Security Council (US, UK, France, Russia, China) will meet to discuss the joint P3 (US, UK, France) draft Security Council Resolution on Syria's chemical weapons program," Erin Pelton, spokeswoman for the US mission to the UN, said in an email.



16:34 GMT: While Russia's deputy foreign minister is negotiating with the Syrian foreign minister, Walid Moualem, there are media reports emerging saying that the Syrian government passed its allies evidence that proves that the rebels were behind the attack in Ghouta on August 21.



However, RT’s Maria Finoshina, who is currently at the meeting, says there are no details about the report.

14:41 GMT: Russian deputy foreign minister, Sergey Ryabkov, will arrive in the Syrian capital Damascus on Tuesday to hold talks with the country’s foreign minister, Walid Moualem, Russia's Foreign Ministry told RT.



14:18 GMT: The implementation of the US-Russia deal on chemical weapons in Syria has topped the agenda of the Moscow meeting between the Russian President’s plenipotentiary for Middle East issues, Mikhail Bogdanov, and the Syrian ambassador to the country, Riyadh Haddad.



The officials also shared the view that a political settlement to the crisis in the Middle eastern state must be reached as soon as possible based on the Geneva Communique, which calls for a peace conference on Syria, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.



Monday, September 16

19:06 GMT: Russia expects the draft UNSC resolution on Syrian chemical weapons, which is now being prepared by France, Britain and the US, will be based on agreements reached at the meeting between Russia’s Foreign Minister Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry.



"I hope, this draft resolution will be based on what was agreed in Geneva and will not contain elements they [France, Britain and the US] sometimes introduce in public statements,” Russia’s UN envoy Vitaly Churkin said.



18:21 GMT: The inspection team concluded that the munitions linked to one of the impact sites, called Site 1 in the report, matched types of the Soviet-made M14 artillery rocket, “with either an original or improvised warhead." The UN experts suggested that based on the “orientation and impact craters” and other damage in the area, the rockets were fired from an unspecified area to the northwest.



18:36 GMT: After the presentation of the UN report, Samantha Power, the US Ambassador to the United Nations, said that she was convinced, based on the technical details from the inspectors, the weapons belonged to forces loyal to President Assad's regime.



“Now the mandate of the UN chemical weapons team was, as you well know, not to investigate capability. But the technical details of the UN report make clear that only the regime could have carried out this large-scale chemical weapons attack,” Power told reporters at a news conference.

16:23 GMT: The UN Secretary General said the conclusions drawn in the report are “overwhelming and indisputable”.

“The facts speak for themselves,” he added.

Ban called the attack in Ghouta “the most significant confirmed use of chemical weapons against civilians since Saddam Hussein used them in Halabja in 1988.”



15:35 GMT: Turkish warplanes have shot down a Syrian helicopter after it crossed 2 km into Turkish air space, Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister, Bulent Arinc, has admitted.

"It was continuously warned by our air defense but as the violation continued, it fell on Syrian soil at 2:25 pm [1125 GMT], having been hit by missiles from our planes," he told assembled journalists.



Arinc said that the fate of the pilots was unclear. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based NGO, claimed that one of the men has been captured by anti-Assad rebels.



12:50 GMT: The head of the UN panel on war crimes in Syria claims that 14 cases of chemical attacks are currently being investigated.

12:40 GMT: The US, UK and France are pushing for more aid to the Syrian rebels, while also pressing President Assad to deliver on his promise of handing the chemical weapons arsenal over to international hands.



But they still argue that no end to the conflict is in sight, unless Assad leaves.



08:44 GMT: France, Britain and the US will press for a strong UN Security Council resolution on Syrian chemical weapons, the French president's office says. They want the document to include detailed and binding dates for the planned dismantling of the stockpile.

01:23 GMT: A Russian newspaper Kommersant has published a response from Rep. Steve Israel to President Vladimir Putin's editorial in the New York Times last week that stirred a lot of controversy among US officials while generally getting support among the American public.

In his letter Israel says that if diplomacy fails the US should act to prevent the spread of chemical weapons “without boots on the ground and in a limited, focused and swift way.” He argues that “Bashar al-Assad has used chemical weapons repeatedly” and that “we don't want Syria’s chemical weapons to fall into the wrong hands -including some elements of the rebel forces in Syria.”



In regards to Putin’s comment on American exceptionalism, Israel wrote:



“If your leaders are serious about truly creating a regimen to control and contain chemical weapons in Syria under international supervision in a transparent, verifiable and effective way, then we will be able to add this to the latest example of exceptional achievements partnered by our two nations.”



Sunday, September 15

19:28 GMT: On Monday, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon will present a report by the UN team on the chemical weapons in Syria.



Ban earlier revealed the report will give "overwhelming" confirmation that arms of mass destruction were used in an attack near Damascus on August 21.



"Therefore, I'm sure that there will be surely the process of accountability when everything is over," he said.



However, the UN team is not expected to say who was responsible for the attack as it was only tasked to either confirm or deny the use of chemical agents.



19:15 GMT: Iran has information that it’s the rebels, not the government forces, who used chemical weapon in Syria, according to Iran’s new Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif.



“The chemical weapons are still in the possession of extremists and terrorists in Syria, which threatens not only Syria,” Zariff told Lebanese TV channel, Al-Mayadin.



Iran condemns the use of weapons of mass destruction – no matter, who resorted to using it and who suffered from it, the Foreign Minister added.



19:02 GMT: French President Francois Hollande has said military action against the Assad regime in Syria is still an option. France insists the UNSC resolution on Syria should include sanctions in case Damascus failed to hand over it chemical weapons to international control. However, Hollande did not specify what sanctions.



“There should be the possibility of using military force, otherwise the resolution will not have power,” Hollande said.

Speaking on French prime-time television, he said resolution could be voted by the end of the week.

13:10 GMT: Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed the country’s hope that the Russian-US deal for bringing Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal under international control would result in its “complete destruction”, Reuters reports.



"We hope the understandings reached between the United States and Russia regarding the Syrian chemical weapons will yield results," the PM said, speaking at a ceremony to commemorate the Israeli soldiers killed in the 1973 Middle East war.



"These understandings will be judged by their result - the complete destruction of all of the chemical weapons stockpiles that the Syrian regime has used against its own people," Netanyahu added.

12:26 GMT: The Arab League welcomed Saturday’s agreement between the US and Russia to dismantle Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile by mid-2014 in exchange for military non-intervention, AFP reports.

07:27 GMT: Syrian opposition group National Coaltion of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces demanded that the international community forced the Syrian Army to stop using its air superiority, after Damascus agreed to dispose of its chemical weapons stockpile.

“The prohibition of chemical weapons, the use of which has left more than 1,400 civilians dead, [should] be extended to the use of ballistic missiles and aircraft against urban areas,” the coalition said in a statement.

07:00 GMT: Iran said the deal between Russia and the US for the removal of Syria's chemical arsenal was a sign of "rationality" in American behavior, Iranian ISNA news agency quotes.



Ali Larijani, a speaker at the Iranian parliament, spoke at a Saturday news conference, saying that a US strike would only result in larger regional conflict and would constitute a breach of itnernational law, and that the US has realised this.

"We are hopeful that American politicians have some rationality so they avoid extremist behavior, and the events of the last few days and the decisions that have been taken indicate this rationality," he said.

5:37 GMT: US Secretary of State John Kerry is to make a brief stop in Jerusalem on Sunday for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the US-Russia deal to secure Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles.

He will then travel to Paris for further discussion on Syria with his French and British counterparts Laurent Fabius and William Hague, respectively. Kerry is also scheduled to meet with Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Saud Al Faisal, while in Paris.

04:53 GMT: China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi has welcomed the deal between Russia and the United States concerning the elimination of Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal, AFP reports.



"The Chinese side welcomes the general agreement between the US and Russia. This agreement will enable tensions in Syria to be eased," he said during the visit of his French counterpart Laurent Fabius.



The French FM, who arrived to Beijing Sunday morning, called this “a significant step forward”, adding that “we must move forward on the basis of this general agreement.”

Saturday, September 14

21:03 GMT: Syria has welcomed the agreement reached in Geneva between the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his US counterpart John Kerry. In a statement by the Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi, Damascus has assured the implementation of the deal as the “sole exit” from the crisis, expressing Syria's welcome of the ''credible international initiatives, first and foremost the Geneva 2 conference."



20:30 GMT: The Syrian National Coalition has appointed a new interim Prime Minister. The main Western-supported opposition alliance has named Ahmad Saleh Touma, a dentist and a political activist, to be their leader during a meeting in Istanbul. Touma is the second politician to fill the leader’s post after Ghassan Hitto resigned in July.



“Syria will be the republic of humans where there will be no place for killers and criminals,” Touma said shortly after his appointment.



20:12 GMT: NATO has welcomed the breakthrough in negotiations on Syria, praising the diplomatic effort of the US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov.

"This is an important step towards the goal of ensuring the swift, secure and verifiable elimination of Syria's stocks of chemical weapons. Full and unreserved Syrian compliance is now key,” Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said.



19:58 GMT: In its first reaction to a deal struck between John Kerry and Sergey Lavrov in Geneva, Iran – the main ally of the Syrian government said that Washington now has no excuse to attack Syria.



“The new situation means in fact that any pretext for the United States and certain countries to engage in military action against Syria has been removed,” Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister said.



19:35 GMT: US Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham have criticized Russian-American agreement on the Syrian chemical weapons calling it a start down a “diplomatic blind alley,” reports Reuters.

The senior lawmakers said in a statement that the deal reached between Lavrov and Kerry in Geneva will afford Syria’s Assad months to “delay and deceive” while more people die in the Syrian war.

“It requires a willful suspension of disbelief to see this agreement as anything other than the start of a diplomatic blind alley, and the Obama administration is being led into it by Bashar Assad and Vladimir Putin,” the statement reads.

18:40 GMT: The UN has confirmed receiving the documents that Syria submitted for joining the Chemical Weapons Convention.

“The Convention will enter into force for the Syrian Arab Republic on the 30th day following the date of deposit of this instrument of accession, namely on 14 October 2013,” the UN press office said in a statement, Reuters cites.



18:00 GMT: The European Union said Saturday it welcomed the Russian-US deal to destroy Syria's chemical weapons stockpiles and offered to help in implementing the agreement.



"I welcome the agreement reached today between the United States and the Russian Federation to ensure the swift and secure destruction of Syria's chemical weapons and programme," EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in a statement.

GMT 16:43: The Syrian opposition to embattled President Assad, an umbrella group led by the Syrian National Coalition, has elected the moderate Islamist Ahmad Tumeh as their provisional prime minister. Tumeh, a 48-year old former political prisoner from the east of Syria, received 75 votes out of the 97 cast in a ballot in Istanbul.

The move is seen by analysts as an attempt to raise its credibility as high stakes diplomacy plays out between the US and Russia to try and resolve Syria’s two year civil war. Tumeh is an independent Islamist and has been appointed to run rebel-held areas where a slide into chaos has threatened to undermine the opposition to President Assad.



16:10 GMT: US President Barack Obama has said he welcomes progress reached between Moscow and Washington on Syrian chemical weapons. However, if diplomacy fails the US remains prepared to act.



15:55 GMT: Fidel Castro, the former president of Cuba, has applauded a Russian-led proposal to destroy Syria's chemical weapons. The former leader wrote "the intelligent Russian initiative" meant "the risk that the conflict explodes with its lamentable consequences seems to have diminished."

The US and Russia reached an agreement Saturday at talks in Geneva to implement the plan.



15:49 GMT: US military has not made any changes to force posture following the American-Russian agreement on Syria, the Pentagon says as cited by Reuters.



“The credible threat of military force has been key to driving diplomatic progress, and it's important that the Assad regime lives up to its obligations under the framework agreement,” Pentagon spokesman George Little said in a statement.

15:01 GMT: There are 45 facilities in Syria that develop or store chemical weapons,believe US experts according to the French newspaper Le Figaro.

"Most likely, there are 45 facilities associated with the chemical weapons’ program ", the newspaper quoted an unnamed US official. The official added that the US and Russia agree on the fact that the stockpile of chemical weapons in Syria is estimated at about one million tons.



14:46 GMT: A representative of the Syrian top-brass has dismissed as groundless earlier statements by the head of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) regarding the alleged moving of part of Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal to neighboring Iraq and Lebanon.

“This is an absolutely groundless lie,” a senior member of the Armed forces told RIA Novosti.

13:23 GMT:



Have spoken to Secretary Kerry. UK welcomes US-Russia agreement on #Syria chemical weapons. Urgent work on implementation now to take place — William Hague (@WilliamJHague) September 14, 2013





13:06 GMT: The head of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) has accused the government of President Bashar Assad of moving part of its chemical weapons to neighboring Iraq and Lebanon over the last few days in a bit to avoid detection by international inspectors.



Damascus did not immediately reply to the accusations.



FSA chief General Selim Idriss earlier in the day refused a US-Russian deal to place its chemical weapons arsenal under international control so as to avert the potential of a Western strike against the country.



"The Russian-American initiative does not concern us. It only seeks to gain time," Idriss said.



"We completely ignore this initiative and will continue to fight to bring down the regime," he told a press conference Saturday in the Turkish city of Istanbul.

Idris considers the US-Russia plan as a blow to rebel forces, who have been battling for two-and-a-half-years to topple the Assad government.

12:57 GMT: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has promised his full support in implementing the Geneva agreement reached Saturday by Russia and the US on eliminating Syrian chemical weapons.



12:42 GMT: France has welcomed the deal between Russia and the United States on destroying Syria's chemical weapons.



"The draft agreement reached in Geneva about eliminating the Syrian regime's chemical weapons is an important step forward," Reuters reported French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius as saying in a statement.



11:43 GMT: The President of Syria’s Supreme Military Opposition has said the Russian initiative on the Assad government’s chemical weapons will not solve the conflict that has raged for two years.

10:41 GMT: The US is ready for military action if diplomacy fails on Syria, President Obama said.



Friday, September 13

20:50 GMT: The United States has accepted that Russia will block any efforts at the UN Security Council to authorize military action against the Syrian government, senior White House officials conceded Friday, AFP reports.



The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that a UN report on a chemical weapons attack that occurred in a Damascus suburb will chip away at Moscow’s claim rebel forces were responsible. They admitted, however, that the new findings set to be published Monday will do little to persuade the Kremlin that military action is the right course.



The officials maintain the US still has the option of acting unilaterally or cobbling together a coalition if the Russian backed initiative to put Syria’s chemical weapons under international control falls through. They further said Western powers would beef up a draft resolution against Syria with tougher sanctions, but not military action,in the hope that Moscow will drop its veto.

20:40 GMT: The United States and Russia will enter their third day of negotiations on ending Syria’s chemical weapons program, a US official said. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his US counterpart John Kerry will join negotiators before holding a joint press conference later on Saturday.

"This morning's meeting has started," Reuters cites the US official as saying.



Both sides view the elimination of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles as a necessary precursor to finding a political solution in a country that has been embroiled in civil war for over two years.



22:14 GMT: Republican Senator John McCain said he would love to write a response to Vladimir Putin’s recent Op-Ed in the New York Times and his spokesman, Brian Rogers, confirmed that McCain will submit a piece in the Russian newspaper Pravda.

“We would be only pleased to publish a story penned by such a prominent politician as John McCain," Dmitry Sudakov, the English editor of Pravda, told Foreign Policy.

McCain’s submission in both Russian and English is expected by next Wednesday at the latest.

18:45 GMT: France, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan have agreed to strengthen the Syrian opposition in its battle with President Assad.

The Elysee said in a statement Friday that President Hollande and the ministers from the three countries "agreed on the need to strengthen international support for the democratic opposition."

18:30 GMT: President Barak Obama said Friday, after a meeting in the White House with the emir of Kuwait Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, that he hopes talks on the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons will be successful but he will insist that any deal is "verifiable and enforceable".

18:15 GMT: The US State Department said Friday it is confident that the UN report on the 21 August chemical weapons attack in Damascus will say that they were used but is unlikely to assign blame.

18:10 GMT: The Russian Foreign Ministry announced Friday that US Secretary of State John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi agreed at a meeting in Geneva that only a political solution will end the civil war in Syria.

The ministry also said that they had agreed to meet in New York at the end of the month for more talks on Syria on the sidelines of UN General Assembly meeting.

18:00 GMT: The French, British and US foreign ministers will meet for lunch in Paris Monday to discuss the Syrian crisis, France's foreign ministry announced Friday.

17:35 GMT: Speaking by phone to AP from the Netherlands the head of the UN chemical weapons inspection team, Ake Sellstrom, says he has completed his report on Syria and will deliver it to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon over the weekend.

"It’s done, but when to present it is up to the Secretary General," he said.

17:30 GMT: A UN report will show that chemical weapons were used on August 21 in Syria, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Friday.

Ban’s comments at the UN Development Forum in New York said that the inspectors’ report will be released “as soon as possible.”

"I believe that the report will be an overwhelming, overwhelming report that chemical weapons (were) used, even though I cannot publicly say at this time before I receive this report," he said.



A UN team has been analyzing evidence gathered in Syria about the attack, which the US government says was launched by Assad’s forces and killed 1,400 people.

However, the chief UN weapons inspector, after confirming to AP that the report was completed, declined to comment on its conclusions.

Ban said he was “very much troubled” by divisions over Syria among members of the US Security Council, which has been unable to adopt any resolutions on Syria during the now 2 1/2-year civil war.

He said that if the deadlock at the UN continues, it will represent a “failure.”

Ban said that Syrian President Bashar Assad had “committed many crimes against humanity” and should be held accountable when the conflict is over.



16:50 GMT: Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, argued against premature forecasts and speculation about what the international community would do to resolve the Syrian crisis.



"Any arguments outside of the current dialogue in Geneva between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry should not have the right to exist," Peskov said. "The stakes are so high, so ghostly is the glimmer of hope, that it is better to refrain from commenting on the modalities of possible proposals."



16:48 GMT: Egypt supports neither of the parties in the Syrian conflict, Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy told RIA Novosti news agency, but instead is calling for a political solution to the crisis within the framework of the so-called “Geneva-2” peace conference.



''We want to achieve a political solution to this problem based on the principles of Geneva-2 that will preserve the integrity of the Syrian state,” Fahmy said.

“We have no authority, and we do not seek to support any particular government there, it is a Syrian decision. We want to preserve Syria, a state that is threatened with break-up. We have supported the Syrian revolution in the sense of the aspirations of the Syrians to a better, free and democratic life. We have condemned many steps of the Syrian government, but we are against the division of Syria, its division on religious principles. There is no military solution to the Syrian crisis.”

Fahmy added: “The former president [Mohamed Morsi] said that he wanted to start a holy war in Syria. We're not going to wage it. This is an irresponsible statement that does not correspond with our national interests.”



16:20 GMT: Al-Qaeda linked rebels in Syria have declared an offensive against two other insurgent factions in the Syrian opposition. The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) have accused each other of attacks and collaborating with the government. Analysts have reported an inclease in clashes between rebels in recent months mainly over territory and the spoils of war.

16:15 GMT: UN chief Ban Ki Moon has said that Syrian President Assad has committed many crimes against humanity.

Referring to a UN report into the use of chemical weapons he said, "I believe that the report will be an overwhelming report that chemical weapons (were) used even though I cannot publicly say at this time before i receive the report."

16:00 GMT: The UN has said that Syria's application to the chemical weapons treaty is not complete. The UN has asked Syria for more information in order to join the chemical weapons convention. The UN declined to say what information was actually missing.



15:50 GMT: A new report from the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on Syria has documented the brutal tactics used by the Syrian government are using against civilians, including electrocution, rape and getting medical professionals to torture hospital detainees. It also fingers the rebels for using brutal methods but to a lesser degree.



15:45 GMT: Human Rights Watch accused Syrian government forces and pro-regime militias Friday of carrying out summary executions in predominately Sunni Muslim towns along the Mediterranean coast in May in which at least 248 people died.



15:40 GMT: Around 3,300 Syrians have arrived in Italy by boat over recent weeks the UN refugee agency said Friday. Many have come from troubled Egypt, where they at first found a haven from violence and bloodshed.



15:33 GMT: The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said that Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad had requested technical assistance in joining the group.



12:11 GMT: The UN has asked Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry to help a team investigating human rights violations get into Syria.



“The Human Rights Council has repeatedly called upon the Syrian authorities to grant access to the members of the commission of inquiry,” wrote U.N. Human Rights Council president, Remigiusz Henczel, in a letter to the two diplomats, adding that previous requests had fallen on deaf ears.







12:00 GMT: Unnamed US officials talking to the Wall Street Journal allege that a secret Syrian military outfit has been dividing the countries chemical weapons arsenal between up to 50 different sites. The top secret group, known as Unit 450, has been moving stocks around for months in the hope of avoiding detection, in the event of US airstrikes.

09:14 GMT: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his US counterpart John Kerry have agreed to meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly on September 28 to further discuss kick starting the stalled Geneva II peace conference on Syria.

Speaking alongside Kerry and Lavrov in Geneva on Friday, Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations and Arab League Special Envoy to Syria, said ongoing work to hand to put Syria’s chemical weapons under international control was a necessary step for convening the Geneva II conference.



"We look forward to working on the chemical weapons [issue] in Syria. This is extremely important in itself, and it is important for us in trying to successfully organize the Geneva II conference,” Brahimi said.



Lavrov and Kerry both expressed hopes that talks on Syria’s chemical weapons would revive efforts at coming to a political settlement in the country.



08:45 GMT: Iran has backed Russia’s initiative to place Syria’s chemical weapons under international control and the decision by Syria to sign the Chemical Weapons Convention



"We would like to support all these efforts ... the Russian initiative and Syria's decision to join the convention focused on chemical weapons," Reuters cites President Hassan Rouhani as saying at a summit of a regional security group led by China and Russia.



08:25 GMT: China’s Foreign Ministry welcomed on Friday a decision by Syria to sign the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Damascus has promised to submit all of the documents to the United Nations needed to join the treaty over the next several days. A month after signing the convention, Syria says it will hand over all the information regarding its chemical weapons stockpiles to relevant international bodies.



Syrian President Bashar Assad said his decision to place the country’s chemical weapons under international control was prompted by Russia, and a US threat to attack the country following an August 21 attack in a Damascus suburb did not “influence the decision.”



08:16 GMT: Secretary of State John Kerry said talks with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Geneva on Thursday night regarding the ongoing crisis in Syria were “constructive.”



Kerry, who met with Lavrov and Lakhdar Brahimi, the United Nations and Arab League Special Envoy to Syria, kicked off the first round of negotiations regarding Russia’s initiative to see Syria’s chemical weapons brought under international control.



Lavrov, who also met with his Kazakh counterpart Erlan Idrisov in Astana on Thursday, said “I'm positive there is a chance for peace in Syria, and it cannot be missed.”



“It is necessary ensure Syria’s adherence to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, which would entail a declaration of Syria’s chemical weapons storage sites and the disclosure of its chemical [weapons] program," he said.

Russia remains opposed to efforts within the UN Security Council to force Syria to hand over its chemical weapons arsenal under the threat of force.



07:12 GMT: Russia welcomes Syria's decision to join the Chemical Weapons Convention, which is aimed at prohibiting chemical weapons use, President Putin said.

Putin said, “I think we should welcome this decision of the Syrian leadership and I would like to hope that this will be an important step in dealing with the crisis.”

Russia’s President stated, “This confirms the serious intentions of the Syrian partners.” The leader underlined, “We consider intolerable any foreign military intervention into this country without the UN Security Council sanctions.” He also stressed, “The efforts that have been recently made have permitted to decrease the direct threat of a military operation.”



Thursday, September 12

23:15 GMT: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Secretary of State John Kerry and UN Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, will meet in Geneva for talks on Syria on Friday, a diplomatic source told RIA Novosti.



20:14 GMT: After the UN accepted documents from Damascus concerning Syria joining the Chemical Weapons Convention, Syria has “legally speaking” become a full member of the treaty, Syrian UN Ambassador Bashar Jaafari said.

"Legally speaking Syria has become, starting today, a full member of the convention," Ambassador Bashar Jaafari told reporters in New York.

18:30 GMT: White House Press Secretary Jay Carney has repeated the view of the Pentagon that Russia is "isolated and alone" in denying Assad has used chemical weapons.



17:55 GMT: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said now that Syria has agreed to Moscow’s proposal to put its chemical weapons stockpiles under international control, there is a chance to convene the peace talks on Syria, Geneva-2, that will help end the ongoing conflict.



“We proceed from the premise that the solution to this problem makes any military strike against Syria unnecessary,” he said at a media conference in Geneva, ahead of talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry.



17:50 GMT: The US says there is no change in its position that Bashar al-Assad absolutely must not be part of Syria’s political future, despite Washington’s willingness to work with Assad on chemical weapons removal.

17:45 GMT: The US says it accepts that the removal of chemical weapons from Syria is complicated and will "take some time".



17:40 GMT: The US has said that it will not allow Syria to use accession to the anti-chemical weapons treaty as a stalling tactic and that the option of military strikes is still on the table.



16:30 GMT: A spokesman for the UN has said that they have received documents from Damascus concerning Syria joining the Chemical Weapons Convention. The Convention came into force on 29 April 1997 and is signed by 189 countries.

"In the past few hours we have received a document from the government of Syria that is being translated, which is to be an accession document concerning the Chemical Weapons Convention," UN spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters



16:00 GMT: The US has said that Russia is "isolated and alone" in blaming the Syrian rebels for the Chemical attack in a Damascus suburb that killed almost 1500 people on the August 21.

"Russia is isolated and alone in blaming the opposition. We've seen no credible reporting that the opposition has used chemical weapons in Syria," Pentagon press secretary George Little told reporters Thursday.



15:30 GMT: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has arrived in Geneva for talks with Secretary of State John Kerry. The US President, Barak Obama, has said he hopes the outcome will be positive, according to a statement issued by the White House Thursday.

14:30 GMT: Syria will start passing information on its chemical weapons to international organizations a month after it signs the Chemical Weapons Convention, President Bashar Assad said in an interview with Rossiya-24 TV channel.

It does not mean though that mean the country “will sign the documents, fulfill the obligations and that’s it,” Assad said. “It’s a bilateral process aimed, first of all, at making the US stop pursuing its policy of threats against Syria.” He added that a lot would also depend on the extent to which Russia’s proposal is accepted.

No country in the Middle East, including Israel, should possess weapons of mass destruction, Assad said, adding that removing WMD would protect the region and the world from devastating and expensive wars in future.

11:30 GMT: The European parliament has passed a resolution welcoming the proposal for Syria to put its chemical weapons arsenal under international control. The document urges a similar UN resolution to be passed in order to ensure Syria’s compliance with its pledge to cooperate with the international community.



11:15 GMT: Britain's Foreign Secretary William Hague says any Syrian chemical weapons deal must identify all such arms and ensure they don't fall into the wrong hands, according to Reuters.



11:00 GMT: Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan says he does not believe that Damascus is sincere in its pledge to surrender Syria's chemical weapons to international control.

"The Assad regime has not lived up to any of its pledges, it has won time for new massacres and continues to do so," Erdogan said in a speech, as cited by Reuters. "We are doubtful that the promises regarding chemical weapons will be met."



10:48 GMT: Aleksey Pushkov, the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Russian Duma, said the US’s participation in international military campaigns has only been making the country weaker.



“All of the recent wars have made the US weaker, not stronger. You don’t have to be Einstein to understand: a new war will once again hit America itself,” Pushkov tweeted.



10:40 GMT: Prior to his meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry due later in the day, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov welcomed Syria’s readiness to place its chemical weapons under international control.



"I am certain that there's a chance for peace in Syria," said Lavrov at a meeting with students in Kazakhstan. He added the military intervention would only further destabilize Syria and the region, according to Interfax news agency.



The US has called on Syria to quickly declare the size and scope of its chemical weapons.



"It's doable, but difficult," a US official was cited by AFP.



7:40 GMT: The primary western-backed Syrian rebel leadership council has rejected a Russian initiative to put Syria’s chemical weapons under international control, the group said in a video statement.

"We announce our definitive rejection of the Russian initiative to place chemical weapons under international custody," Reuters cites Salim Idriss, head of the rebel Supreme Military Council, as saying in a video posted online late on Wednesday.

On Monday, Russia called on Syria to turn over its chemical weapons for destruction and sign on to the Chemical Weapons Convention so as to avert Western military intervention in the country. The Syrian leadership agreed to the Russian initiative later that evening.

06:21 GMT: Russian and US chemical weapons experts are set to participate in negotiations between Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry. The talks are to focus on the chemical weapons crisis in Syria.

05:34 GMT: A senior Israeli official has said that Russia’s plan to remove chemical weapons from Syria could be a solution to the conflict. Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz said that the international community would need a guarantee from Moscow that “Syria is cleansed of chemical weaponry."



"I cannot say that we have full faith, but if this Russian proposal ... will really remove the chemical weaponry from Syria, first of all, and will then dismantle it ... then this is a way to end this tragedy and a way to end this threat too," Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz said on Israel’s Army Radio.



Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad to be “stripped of its chemical weapons” on Wednesday, but stopped short of openly voicing his support of the Russian initiative. Damascus has accepted the proposal and agreed to hand over its chemical weapons stash to international control.



01:55 GMT: Over the past two weeks the CIA has started delivering weapons to the Syrian opposition, the Washington Post cites US officials and Syrian figures. Vehicles, communications equipment and advanced combat medical kits also been given to Syria by the US State Department.

The arms shipments, which include light weapons and munitions, started arriving in Syria at the time when President Obama was expected to order missile strikes against Damascus.

01:17 GMT: The potential strike by the United States against Syria, despite strong opposition from all over the world, will result in more innocent victims and escalation of the conflict beyond Syria’s borders, President Putin wrote in the New York Times.



In a lengthy piece titled A Plea for Caution from Russia, the President reminded that the United Nations was created as a universal instrument for preventing devastating wars and that taking military action without Security Council authorization would be against international law.



“It is alarming that military intervention in internal conflicts in foreign countries has become commonplace for the United States,” Putin added.



Wednesday, September 11

20:32 GMT: The five permanent members of the UN Security Council have started a closed-door meeting on the situation in Syria. The meeting where the envoys are expected to discuss the French proposed resolution, it follows a gathering of representatives from Britain, France and the US earlier on Wednesday.

18:50 GMT: Russia has submitted to the UN Security Council documents providing evidence that chemical weapons were used by rebel forces, Russian Ambassador to Lebanon Aleksandr Zasypkin told Al Mayadeen channel, reports RIA Novosti.



18:41 GMT: The US Administration insists that Syrian President Assad should resign from power, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki says. She added that this “political decision” would require a dialogue between Syria’s conflicting sides.



17:46 GMT: American arms experts are going to Geneva with US Secretary of State John Kerry, where he will meet on Thursday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov for talks on Syria, AFP reports.

The talks are expected to last for at least two days, possibly more, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told a media briefing, Reuters reports.

While in Geneva, Kerry also plans to meet with UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi.

16:53 GMT: The five permanent UN Security Council members – Russia, China, Britain, France and the US – will hold a closed-door meeting to discuss France’s draft resolution on chemical weapons in Syria, a UN source told Itar-Tass.

16:20 GMT: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has urged the US and Russia to tackle the obstacles to delivering aid in Syria. US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov are to meet in Geneva on Thursday to discuss Russia’s plan to transfer Syrian chemical weapons to international control.



Both Syrian government forces and rebels are preventing medical assistance from reaching the sick and wounded, Reuters cited Red Cross president Peter Maurer as saying.

“We need political and diplomatic support for independent humanitarian action,” Maurer told journalists.



14:53 GMT: Russia has formally handed over a plan for “establishing international control of chemical weapons in Syria” to the United States, Russia’s Interfax and Itar-Tass news agencies reported, citing sources.



“We are hoping to discuss it in Geneva," a source in the Russian delegation said.

14:10 GMT: Israeli president Shimon Peres said he trusts the Russian and American presidents regarding a deal to reach a peaceful solution to the Syrian chemical weapon problem.

“I know both President Obama and President Putin, and I am convinced that if an agreement is reached it will be reliable, explicit and significant,” he said at an Israeli Navy graduation ceremony, reports The Times of Israel.

Diplomacy is always preferable to war but the main issue at present is integrity and in particular the integrity of the #Syrian regime. — PresidentPeres (@PresidentPeres) September 11, 2013

12:03 GMT: NATO supports efforts to control and eliminate Syrian chemical weapons, an official in the alliance told Itar-Tass, commenting on Russia’s proposal to Damascus to put its chemical weapons arsenal under international control.



“Efforts to ensure the control of and ultimate destruction of Syria's chemical weapons are positive and we support the UN in this area; however, the details of these proposals are not yet clear,” the source said. “The international community has a responsibility to make sure that the longstanding norm and practice against the use of chemical weapons is maintained, and violators are held accountable.”

11:23 GMT: Syria’s National Coordination Committee (NCC) has suggested placing chemical weapons under Russia’s control, the rebel Syrian organization said in a statement.

The NCC said that it has submitted its proposal to the Russian ambassador to Beirut as well as to the foreign ministries of Egypt and Iraq. The organization – which is at odds over a number of key issues with another opposition group, the Syrian National Council (SNC) – also called for the so-called “Geneva-2” peace talks on Syria to begin immediately.

07:46 GMT: Russia has handed the evidence over to the UN Security Council, the head of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Russian Duma, Aleksey Pushkov, stressed.



“We have the basis to think not only the Syrian government has them [chemical weapons]…but we suspect that those weapons have been used by the rebels several times,” he indicated.



01:43 GMT: Addressing the nation, the US president has asked Congress to postpone a vote on military action in Syria as diplomacy is pursued to put chemical weapons beyond the regime's reach, but called on the military to maintain pressure on the Syrian government.

Tuesday, September 10

20:19 GMT: A total of 33 countries have now signed a joint statement on Syria condemning the chemical attack on August 21 and blaming the Syrian government for it, the White House said. Eight more countries voiced their support of the “efforts undertaken by the United States and other countries to reinforce the prohibition on the use of chemical weapons.”

20:07 GMT: US Secretary of State John Kerry will meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva to discuss Syria's chemical weapons on Thursday, US officials told Reuters. Lavrov is expected to share Russia’s proposals on securing Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles under international control for review by the US administration.



19:14 GMT: The Russian Foreign Ministry said that Secretary of State John Kerry and Minister Sergey Lavrov have agreed on a possible bilateral meeting soon to discuss initiative on Syria’s chemical weapons.



“The two have agreed to work together, including the possibility of holding a bilateral meeting in the coming days to discuss concrete ways of fulfilling the initiative of putting Syrian chemical weapons under international control,” the Foreign Ministry said following a phone call between Lavrov and Kerry.

Russia’s proposal to remove Syrian chemical weapons is expected to be formally sent to the US later on Tuesday, John Kerry said after the call.



19:03 GMT: UN Security Council closed-door meeting called by Russia has been canceled, according to the Council's current president Australia's Ambassador to the UN, Gary Quinlan.

Following withdrawal of the request for consultations, Security Council meeting scheduled for 4pm will not proceed #OzPrez#UNSC — Gary Quinlan (@AustraliaUN) September 10, 2013





18:45 GMT: President Obama has reportedly called on the US Senate to postpone the vote on possible military actions in Syria until the diplomatic solution is discussed, according Politico newspaper which cited a source from the closed-door meeting.



18:43 GMT: John Kerry said that any Syria weapons deal must be struck in a binding UN Security Council resolution.



17:20 GMT: Barack Obama and Francois Hollande have refused to rule out the possibility of a military strike against Syria, following a telephone conversation.

"The heads of state highlighted their preference for a diplomatic solution but they also underlined the importance of keeping all options open," said a statement from Hollande's press office.



17:15 GMT: Moscow has called an emergency closed-door consultations at the UN Security Council to discuss its chemical weapon removal plan. The round-table is expected to begin at 8 pm GMT Tuesday.



16:45 GMT: Moscow will propose a draft statement by the chairman of the UN Security Council, supporting the initiative to transfer Syria’s chemical weapons to international control, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.



The issue was discussed during a phone conversation between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his French counterpart, Laurent Fabius.



“[Lavrov] said that Russia, on its part, is submitting a draft statement for the UN Security Council’s chairman, welcoming the… initiative and calling on the UN Secretary General, the general director of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, and all the interested parties to make efforts to facilitate the implementation of this proposal,” the ministry’s statement said.



During the call, Lavrov said described as “unacceptable” a French proposal to adopt a Security Council resolution blaming President Assad’s government for the chemical weapons attack.

15:32 GMT: With regards to the size of a US strike on Syria, Sec. Kerry told lawmakers in the House that the White House wants a limited strike that would pale in comparison to other recent military operations. "It's not Iraq, it’s not Iran, it’s not a years’ war,” he said.

“I have said that this will be meaningful, it will be serious, the Assad regime will feel it,” Kerry said, “…but compared to Iraq, Kosovo, Libya—it’s small. It is not any of those things.”

15:28 GMT: Britain and France, along with the US, are expected to table a resolution on Syrian chemical weapons to the UN Security Council later Tuesday, UK Prime Minister David Cameron said.



"If this is a serious proposal then we should act accordingly and I think a UN Security Council resolution is a good idea," Cameron said.

14:47 GMT: The US is waiting to see a real and verifiable plan from Russia for removing chemical weapons from Syria, but it won’t wait long and won’t allow President Bashar Assad to use it as a delaying tactic, Secretary of State John Kerry said.



"We're waiting for that proposal. But we're not waiting for long," Kerry told a hearing of the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee. "President Obama will take a hard look at it. But it has to be swift, it has to be real, it has to be verifiable. It can’t be a delaying tactic."

14:46 GMT: Answering to how America should proceed with regards to a strike on Syria following news of a possible compromise brokered by Russia, Sec. Kerry said, “The use of force should absolutely not be off the table.”

14:38 GMT: Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told representatives in Congress that a US strike on Syria, as outlined by President Barack Obama, would degrade the Assad regime’s chemical weapons capabilities without jeopardizing America’s security interests any further.

Hagel also said that authorizing the use of military force would not open the door for an indefinite operation overseas. “We will not send America’s sons and daughters to fight another country’s civil war,” Hagel said. “We are not contemplating any kind of open ended intervention or an operation involving American ground troops. A political solution created by the Syrian people is the only way to ultimately end the violence in Syria.”

14:25 GMT: US Secretary of State John Kerry is speaking before a House panel in an attempt to garner congressional approval for a strike against Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria. “Thirty-one countries support US holding Syria accountable,” Kerry told lawmakers. Should the US not launch a military strike, he cautioned, America’s “ambivalence” and “weakness” would not be projected onto its adversaries.

“The risk of not acting is much greater than the risk of acting,” Kerry said.

14:02 GMT: The US Senate may not vote this week on the authorization for military strike against Syria, congressional aides said. Congressional leaders also said they want to wait for the public's response to President Barack Obama's address to the American people, which is expected Tuesday night. The House Democratic lawmaker said that White House aides told House Democrats that diplomacy, rather than military action, is now the priority on Syria.

14:01 GMT: As international attention switched to the discussions between Russian and Syria, activists said that Syrian government warplanes have bombed rebellious districts of Damascus for the first time since the August 21 poison gas attack.



Rebels said the air strikes were a demonstration that the government now believed the West had lost its nerve.



"By sending the planes back, the regime is sending the message that it no longer feels international pressure," Reuters reported Wasim Ahmad, a rebel activist in the Mouadamiya district of Damascus, as saying.

13:37 GMT: Syria said it has signed "major contracts" with Iran that would cover its needs for food, medical and other supplies, state television in Damascus reported.





11:45 GMT: British Prime Minister David Cameron says serious questions need to be answered about the Russian proposal for Syrian chemical weapons handover, his spokesman said. Meanwhile Foreign Secretary William Hague said the UK has to “make sure that this is not just a device to fool the world."

11:35 GMT: The Arab League supports Russia’s initiative on putting over Syrian chemical weapons stockpile under international control, the organization’s chief Nabil el-Araby said, according to AFP. He told reporters in Cairo the League will "soon issue a statement announcing its support officially" of the Russian plan.

11:05 GMT: Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Barack Obama discussed the idea of putting Syria's chemical weapons arsenal under international control at the time of the G20 summit, Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov told Reuters, without giving further details.

09:53 GMT: Iran now has strong proof of terrorists using chemical weapons in August's attack, the country's deputy foreign minister said in Moscow today.

"As far as chemical weapons use by terrorist groups is concerned, we, together with Russia, have strong proof... some of it is obvious. For example, in December of last year we received information that two capsules containing sarin gas are being transported inside Syria by terrorists."



09:49 GMT: Despite news that France is on-board with the decision to place Syria's chemical arsenal under international control, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said at a press conference on Tuesday that this does not exclude the possibility of a military strike on the country, RIA Novosti says.

"Following Russia's lead, we saw our determination to act supplemented by a new path. We will follow this path, but we do not wish for it to become an evasive maneuver. Therefore, all options remain on the table."



09:35 GMT: Tehran says it is certain that the Syrian regime has not participated in August's chemical attack. This comes from Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister, Hosseyn Amir Abdollahian's statement in Moscow.



"We believe the Syrian government has not used chemical weapons [and that] Damascus will give the utmost consideration to any political decision," the Deputy FM said.



09:30 GMT: Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has announced that Russia, together with Syria, is working on a concrete plan for putting its chemical arsenal under control.

09:25 GMT: According to AFP, France is to propose its own Syria resolution at the UN Security Council on Tuesday.



09:20 GMT: China promises to back Russia’s proposal for Syria to hand over its chemical weapons arsenal over for international control – Reuters reports.



GMT 07:50: Members of a UN human rights conference in Geneva were presented accounts of international experts, Syrian public figures and Russian news reporters covering the Syrian conflict, which back Russia’s opposition to the US plans for a military intervention in Syria, the Russian Foreign Ministry reports.

The speakers argued that the suspected sarin gas attack near Damascus on August 21 was likely a provocation of the rebel forces and that a military action against the President Bashar Assad government will likely result in civilian casualties and a humanitarian catastrophe affecting the entire region.

Evidence for the Russian case, including numerous eyewitness reports and results of investigations of the chemical weapon incident by activists, were handed over to a UN commission of experts probing the Syrian crisis, the ministry said.

Monday, September 9

23:14 GMT: Hardline Republican Senator John McCain said the US should get on board with Russia’s proposal for Syria to hand over control of its chemical weapons to the international community.



“If there is an international [agreement], if you have the guidelines, the requirements, the reporting, the dates— all of that guided by a very detailed resolution to the UN Security Council, I think that you can’t say no to it even though I’m very dubious that this is a real proposal,” McCain told Time magazine. “I think it’s just a stalling tactic but to reject it out of hand is obviously not something that you can do.”

22:19 GMT: President Obama said he is willing to “absolutely” put on pause the limited strike option on Syria if President Bashar Assad accepts Russia’s proposal to hand over control of the country’s chemical weapons to the international community.

"Let's see if we can come up with language that avoids a strike but accomplishes our key goals to make sure that these chemical weapons are not used," the US president said during an ABC News interview with Diane Sawyer – one of many he gave on Monday.



Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced that a test vote on a resolution to strike Syria will be postponed.



20:50 GMT: American public opinion is mounting against US military strikes against Syria, according to a new poll by Pew Research and USA Today.



In the past week, Pew has found in its surveys the contingent of those polled that are opposed to missile strikes has gone up 15 percent in a week to 63 percent. The number who favor action in Syria has basically held consistent in that time period at 28 percent, from 29 percent last week. The number of undecideds on the matter has gone down to 9 percent from 23 percent.



Seventy percent of self-identified Republicans, 66 percent of independents and 53 percent of Democrats are against US aggression in Syria. The number of those opposed to strikes has gone up among all three political identities.

The new poll was conducted Sept. 4-8, among 1,506 adults nationwide.



19:52 GMT: Chemical weapons being handed over under international control is “worthy of close scrutiny” but acceptable “under at least three conditions," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said in a statement. The conditions include a quick handover of control over the weapons and permission to further destroy them. He also said the operation should only take place after a UN Security Council resolution. Fabius added that Assad will face consequences if he fails to comply.



19:48 GMT: In response to Russia’s proposal, Syria's top rebel commander has accused President Bashar Assad's regime and Moscow of deceit.

"We call for strikes and we warn the international community that this [Assad] regime tells lies, and the liar [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is its teacher. Putin is the biggest liar," Free Syrian Army chief Selim Idriss told Al Jazeera.



"The regime wants to buy time to save itself," Idriss added. He also warned “decision makers” against falling into Assad’s “trap of deceit and dishonesty.”



18:44 GMT: Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she is taking Russia’s proposal to Syria very seriously, adding that a Syrian chemical arms handover would be an “important” step.

"This is about protecting the Syrian people... and our friends in the regions... If the regime immediately surrendered its stockpiles to international control... that would be an important step. But this cannot be another excuse for delay or obstruction,” she said.

However, Clinton then said that she supports President Barack Obama's attempts to seek military action against Syria and called on Congress to approve it.



18:41 GMT: The US Senate has set a procedural vote to take place on Wednesday on whether to authorize President Barack Obama to use "limited military action" against Syria.



17:59 GMT: Deputy National Security Adviser Tony Blinken echoed Harf's statement indicating that the US will take a "hard look" at the Russian proposal.



“We haven't had a chance to look at it yet, we haven't had a chance to talk to the Russians about it,” he said. “We would welcome Assad giving up his chemical weapons...that's the whole unfortunately the track record to date...doesn't give you a lot of confidence...that said we want to look hard at what the Russians have proposed.”



17:54 GMT: State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said the US has "serious and deep skepticism” about the statements from Russia and Syria.



"If we see any indication that this latest statement has any merit, the US will look at it," Harf said. But "everything we have seen from the Assad regime points in the opposite direction."

"We'll have to take a hard look at the Russian statement ... so we understand exactly what the Russians are proposing here," State Department spokeswoman said. "Clearly we have some serious skepticism."



17:46 GMT: A new poll conducted by AP, September 6-8, shows that a majority of Americans oppose a US strike on Syria. Most of those who took part in the survey said they are sure that even a limited attack that President Obama is seeking approval for will drag the US into a long-term commitment of military force in Syria.



At the same time, some 20 percent of respondents said they believe that US military involvement would prevent other countries from using their own weapons of mass destruction in the future.



17:44 GMT: Cyprus said it will not take part in any kind of strike on Syria, if it comes to that.



"It's clear that in no case will it become a launch pad of military operations, or a target of attacks," Cypriot government spokesman Christos Stylianides said.

At the same time, Nicosia would be ready to offer assistance to third-country nationals evacuated from the Middle East as a significant number of countries asked Cyprus to host its nationals and offer humanitarian aid if necessary.



17:12 GMT: Fourteen more countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Kosovo, which is not universally recognized as an independent state, have backed a statement condemning the Assad regime for an alleged chemical weapons attack on August 21 and called for a strong international response to bring the Syrian government to account, the White House said.



In total, 25 countries are now supporting the statement as the US is seeking an international coalition for military strikes against Syria.



15:43 GMT: Damascus welcomed Russia’s initiative, “based on the Syrian’s government care about the lives of our people and security of our country,” Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem said.

14:16 GMT: Russia has urged Syria to put its chemical weapons under international control for subsequent destruction to avert a possible military strike.

“We are calling on the Syrian authorities not only agree on putting chemical weapons storages under international control, but also for its further destruction and then joining the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons,” Lavrov said. “We have passed our offer to [Syrian Foreign Minister] Walid al-Muallem and hope to receive a fast and positive answer.”

12:27 GMT: Freed after being kidnapped in Syria, Belgian teacher and writer, Pierre Piccinin da Prata, has said that the Syrian regime did not use chemical weapons. “This is my moral duty to tell [sic] about this,” he said in an interview with the RTL-TV channel. “This is not Assad’s government who used sarin gas or any other combat gas in [the] Damascus area. We are sure about this after we accidently heard a conversation between rebels.”



12:08 GMT: US Secretary of State John Kerry has said that the Syrian President “could turn over every single bit of his chemical weapons to the international community” to avoid a military strike on the country.



Following Kerry’s statement, a US State Department spokeswoman clarified that “Secretary Kerry was making a rhetorical argument about the impossibility and unlikelihood of Assad turning over chemical weapons”.



"His (Kerry's) point was that this brutal dictator with a history of playing fast and loose with the facts cannot be trusted to turn over chemical weapons, otherwise he would have done so long ago. That's why the world faces this moment," the spokeswoman said.

09:10 GMT: During a media briefing in London with US Secretary of State John Kerry, the UK Foreign Secretary William Hague said that the UK and the US will continue working with all sides, including Russia, to overcome the crisis in Syria.

Hague also noted that UK's objectives and efforts on solving Syria conflict remain "closely aligned" with US.

Sunday, September 8

17:35 GMT: Israel has deployed its Iron Dome defense shield west of Jerusalem, AFP reports. A military spokeswoman declined to comment on the move, saying only that "defense systems are deployed in accordance with situation assessments."



17:01 GMT: Russia has evacuated 7