France Seeks to Condition Chemical Deal on UN Support for Syria War

Russia Spurns Resolution Calling for Military Action

Syria is set to join the Chemical Weapons Convention and is planning a deal to place all of its arsenal under international control pending its destruction. Still, there is a UN resolution being debated supporting this idea, and it’s facing some serious roadblocks.

The problem is the French government is trying to shoehorn an authorization to attack Syria in the resolution, saying that the UN Security Council’s support for the deal needs to be conditioned on placing “extremely serious consequences” if the plan stalls.

The French plan has support from British and US officials, with British PM David Cameron saying the Syrian deal may be a “ruse,” but the resolution as written is a non-starter, with Russia refusing to go along with any deal that doesn’t explicitly take war off the table.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says that Syria’s willingness to renounce its significant strategic arsenal wouldn’t make much sense if the US continues to threaten to attack them, and that suggests the UN resolution may simply not happen, and the disarmament plan is going to have to be worked out absent the UN’s specific endorsement in any resolutions.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.