U.S. and Russia at a ‘pivotal point’ in Syria talks

U.S.-Russian talks on eliminating Syria’s chemical weapons program have reached a “pivotal point,” a U.S. official said, and both nations said on Friday they wanted to renew efforts to negotiate a peaceful end to the war in Syria.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met in Geneva to discuss a Russian proposal under which Syria would sign international treaties banning chemical weapons and hand over its stocks of such weapons to the international community for destruction.

The U.S. official said the two sides were “coming to agreement” on the size of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles and talks were continuing into Saturday.

U.S. President Barack Obama, after a meeting in Washington with Kuwait’s emir, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, reiterated that he would insist any deal on Syria’s chemical weapons be “verifiable and enforceable.

In Washington, senior Obama administration officials said the United States did not expect a U.N. Security Council resolution formalising the deal to include potential use of military force. But officials said Obama retained that option.

Independent of the United Nations, Obama has threatened the use of force in response to an August 21 chemical weapons attack in Syria that U.S. officials say killed about 1,400 people. But as part of negotiations toward a U.N. resolution, the United States sees no benefit in trying to include the potential use of force.

The reason is that Washington does not see Russia ever agreeing to such a step and could use its veto power to nix such a resolution, the officials said.

Russia holds a veto on the Security Council and previously used it on three occasions when Western powers sought to condemn Assad over the war in Syria. President Vladimir Putin has said the proposal on chemical weapons will only succeed if the United States and its allies rule out the use of force.

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