Chemical arms: Assad reliability in doubt

Russian President Vladimir Putin said he isn’t “100 percent” certain that Syrian President Bashar Assad will fulfill his commitment to give up chemical weapons.
Putin’s published remarks may indicate that Russia, Syria’s arms provider and ally, harbors doubts about Assad’s reliability, though less so than the US, which has demanded a quick and intrusive process to prevent the use of Syria’s chemical arsenal and to test whether the Syrian leader will give it up.
According to news agencies, Putin said Syria has taken “practical steps” by joining the Chemical Weapons Convention barring such arms and it now faces a disarmament process under a US-Russia accord reached last week in Geneva that begins with an accounting of the weapons inventory due Sept. 21.
“Will it be possible to bring everything to a conclusion?” Putin said in Valdai, Russia. “I can’t say 100 percent.”
Assad said earlier that he envisions it will take about a year to destroy his chemical weapons and related equipment.
US Secretary of State John Kerry, meanwhile, acknowledged a sharp disagreement with China over how the international community should respond to the use of chemical weapons in Syria and urged Beijing to play a “positive” role in the UN Security Council on the issue.
Kerry spoke at the State Department before a meeting and working lunch with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
“While we appreciate China’s support for a political solution — the only solution we believe is ultimately available and possible — we do have differences between our nations and have disagreed sharply over how the international community should respond to the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons,” Kerry said.