{{The United States and Russia began high-stakes talks on Thursday on Moscow\u2019s plan for Syria to surrender its chemical weapons as Damascus formally applied to join a global poison gas ban, but Secretary of State John Kerry underscored that U.S. military force may still be necessary if diplomacy fails.}}<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not a game,\u201d Kerry said in an appearance with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov after opening talks in Geneva aimed at fleshing out Russia\u2019s plan to secure and dispose of Syria\u2019s stockpiles of chemical arms.<\/p>\n
The talks were part of a diplomatic push that prompted President Barack Obama to put on hold plans for U.S. air strikes in response to a chemical weapons attack on civilians near Damascus on Aug. 21.<\/p>\n
The United States and its allies say Syrian President Bashar al-Assad\u2019s forces carried out the attack with sarin nerve gas, killing more than 1,400 people, including 400 children. Russia and Assad blame rebel forces.<\/p>\n
The United Nations said it received a document from Syria on joining the global anti-chemical weapons treaty, a move Assad promised as part of a deal to avoid U.S. air strikes.<\/p>\n
The move would end Syria\u2019s status as one of only seven nations outside the 1997 international convention that outlaws stockpiling chemical weapons. Other holdouts include neighbours Egypt and Israel, as well as North Korea.<\/p>\n
The United States immediately warned Syria against stalling tactics to avoid military strikes. Assad told Russian state television in an interview broadcast on Thursday he would finalise plans to abandon his chemical arsenal only when the United States stops threatening to attack him.<\/p>\n
Kerry expressed some optimism about the talks in Geneva – expected to last two days – saying, \u201cWe do believe there is a way to get this done\u201d and that the United States was \u201cgrateful\u201d for ideas put forward by Russia to resolve the crisis.<\/p>\n
But he and Lavrov differed sharply on U.S. military threats.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe proceed from the fact that the solution of this problem will make unnecessary any strike on the Syrian Arab Republic,\u201d Lavrov said during the appearance with Kerry.<\/p>\n
Russian President Vladimir Putin\u2019s Russia has been Assad\u2019s most powerful backer during the civil war, which has killed more than 100,000 people since 2011, delivering arms and – with China – blocking three U.N. resolutions meant to pressure Assad.<\/p>\n
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