Updated at 8:52 a.m. Eastern
PARIS France announced Tuesday it would put forward a resolution in the U.N. Security Council aimed at forcing Syria to ultimately dismantle its chemical weapons program, seizing on a diplomatic opening from Syrian ally Russia amid Western threats of force against President Bashar Assad's regime.
France, a permanent member of the 15-nation council, was to start the resolution process on Tuesday under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which is militarily enforceable, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters at a quickly arranged news conference.
The proposal would also condemn a chemical weapons attack near Damascus on Aug. 21 that Western powers allege was carried out by Assad's regime ? a claim he has denied.
CBS Radio News correspondent Elaine Cobbe reports that France has thus far steered-clear of U.N. resolutions on Syria, knowing that Russia would veto any significant measures. But with this new Russian proposal on the table, Fabius saw an opportunity. The move by Paris is seen as an effort to guarantee Assad follows through with what the Russians have proposed, and will include provisions for "extremely serious consequences" if he doesn't, according to Fabius.
Kerry suggests a way for Syria to avoid U.S. strikes
On Monday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Assad could resolve the crisis by surrendering control of his chemical arsenal to the international community. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov responded by promising to push Syria to place its chemical weapons under international control and then dismantle them quickly, to avert U.S. strikes.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem appeared Tuesday to strengthen his nation's support for the deal even as his Russian allies worked to hammer out the details of the proposal.
After meeting with the speaker of the Russian parliament, al-Moallem said his government quickly "agreed to the Russian initiative," adding that Syria did so to "uproot U.S. aggression." His statement sounded more definitive than his remarks Monday, when he said that Damascus welcomed Russia's initiative.
In response to al-Mouallem's comments Tuesday, White House press secretary Jay Carney told CBS News the Russian proposal still represented only "the potential for positive development and has only come about because of the credible U.S. military threat that is out there."
"I think we have to be skeptical, but cautiously optimistic because this is a positive development," added Carney.
Russia said Tuesday it was working to flesh out the details of its proposal. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia was working with Syria to prepare a "effective, concrete" plan of action, which would be presented shortly.
"The plan developed together with the Syrian side will be submitted to all interested parties, including the United States," Lavrov was quoted as saying by the Itar-Tass news agency. "We maintain constant contacts with Secretary of State Kerry, in particular, yesterday we had a telephone conversation on this issue."
Russia, also a veto-wielding permanent member of the Security Council, has thus-far blocked any measures which included the possibility of foreign military intervention in Syria, but President Vladimir Putin said last week his government didn't "exclude" supporting a U.N. resolution on punitive military strikes -- if it is proven that the Assad regime used poison gas on its own people.
Obama: Russia's chemical weapon proposal must be verified, enforced
President Obama called the yet-to-be formulated plan a "potentially positive development" in an interview Monday with CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley.
"Let's see if they're serious," Mr. Obama said in the White House interview. "But we have to make sure that we can verify it and enforce it, and if in fact we're able to achieve that kind of agreement that has Russia's agreement and the [United Nations] Security Council's agreement, then my central concern in this whole episode is resolved."
The president said it would be premature at this point to detail the terms of an agreement that he would accept, but he said the U.S. would be discussing the idea this week with Russia and the rest of the international community.
Hours after President Obama's remarks, the international divide over the significance of the Russian proposal became clear, with Israel voicing even more skepticism than Washington, and Assad's longtime ally Iran offering its backing for the deal.
Avigdor Lieberman, who chairs the Israeli parliament's foreign affairs and defense committee, told Israel Radio on Tuesday that Syria could use the proposal to "buy time."
He said Syrian President Bashar was "winning time and lots of it."
Iranian foreign ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham, on the other hand, said the Islamic Republic and longtime Israeli adversary "favors" the Russian initiative and found it "to be within putting a halt to militarism in the region."
China, which along with Russia has blocked harsh punitive action against Assad from the United Nations Security Council until now, also welcomed the Russian proposal and said it would support the 11th-hour diplomatic effort.
In Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said: "As long as it eases the tension and helps maintain Syrian and regional peace and stability, and helps politically settle the issue, the global community should consider it positively."
Assad: "Not (a) single shred of evidence" on chemical weapons use
Syria's response marked the first official acknowledgement from the Assad regime that it even possesses chemical weapons. In an interview conducted Sunday by Charlie Rose, Assad again refused to admit that his government has stockpiles of chemical weapons estimated by many observers to include hundreds of tons of lethal chemical agents.
Noting their refusal up until Monday to acknowledge the existence of the weapons, White House spokesman Jay Carney said that while the U.S. would "work with the Russians and speak with them" about their proposal, "we would have some skepticism about the Assad regime's credibility."
Source: http://feeds.cbsnews.com/~r/cbsnews/feed/~3/Gt5NBtdA5-8/
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