UNITED NATIONS (AFP) ― Russia-U.S. wrangling over a resolution to enforce the destruction of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons cast a shadow Monday over the start of the United Nations General Assembly.
Western diplomats said Moscow’s refusal to support a Security Council resolution giving legal backing to Syria’s disarmament had held up a plan to put the war-torn country’s chemical arms under international control.
A meeting between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday could prove decisive for the plan they agreed earlier this month to head off a U.S. military strike.
Kerry is also to meet Syrian opposition leaders on Tuesday.
Russia has accused the United States and its allies of using “blackmail” over the resolution and of seeking approval for military force in Syria.
With world leaders gathering to make speeches dominated by Syria at the U.N. General Assembly this week, the deadlock is a new blow to international efforts to halt the 30-month-old conflict.
Russia and the United States agreed the disarmament plan on Sept. 14 after an Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack in Damascus in which hundreds died.
koreaherald@heraldcorp.com
