President Obama called on the United Nations to pass a “strong” resolution to ensure Syrian President Bashar al-Assad surrenders his chemical weapon stockpiles in a speech before the General Assembly Tuesday.
US President Barack Obama is seen on a monitor as he addresses the 68th United Nations General Assembly at the UN in New York on September 24, 2013. (Photo by Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images)
President Obama called on the United Nations to pass a “strong” resolution to ensure Syrian President Bashar al-Assad surrenders his chemical weapon stockpiles in a speech before the General Assembly Tuesday.
Members of the U.N. Security Council will vote on a draft resolution this week to enforce the tentative U.S.-Syria deal that would prevent military strikes against the Assad regime as long as it cedes control of its chemical weapons stockpiles to the international community.
“There must be a strong Security Council Resolution to verify that the Assad regime is keeping its commitments, and there must be consequences if they fail to do so,” Obama said. “If we cannot agree even on this, then it will show that the U.N. is incapable of enforcing the most basic of international laws.”
Last week, the Syrian government turned over an accounting of its chemical arms. But the agreement is just words on paper without the backing of the Security Council, which has failed to take action against the Assad regime in the past thanks to the veto power of Russia, his regime’s main protector.
Obama reiterated Tuesday that he was not calling for regime change, but implored Russia and Iran to stop propping up Assad.
“A leader who slaughtered his citizens and gassed children to death cannot regain the legitimacy to lead a badly fractured country,” Obama said, referencing the August 21 sarin nerve gas attack against civilians in a suburb of Damascus that killed nearly 1,500 people.
“The notion that Syria can return to a pre-war status quo is a fantasy. It’s time for Russia and Iran to realize that insisting on Assad’s rule will lead directly to the outcome they fear: an increasingly violent space for extremists to operate,” Obama said.
Two issues have held up drafting a resolution: the first is how exactly the U.N. would enforce the agreement if Assad violated the terms of the deal, and the second is how that violation would be defined. The U.S., United Kingdom, and France back a resolution invoking the Chapter Seven clause of the UN charter, which allows the use of force—Russia opposes that tack.
Obama made no mention of the Chapter Seven clause Tuesday morning. The president had called for limited military strikes against the Assad regime after the chemical attack—which violated his “red line”—but sought congressional approval. He embraced the diplomatic solution proposed by Kerry after both the Congress and the public signaled there was little support for a military strike.
Secretary of State John Kerry, who made an impassioned call for intervention in Syria after the Aug. 21 attack, will meet with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, on Tuesday to flesh out the details of a draft resolution.
A team of U.N. weapons inspectors will be returning to Syria on Wednesday to investigate alleged chemical weapons attacks at three separate sites, according to Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov.
More than 100,000 people have been killed, and a third of Syria’s population has been displaced, in the country’s nearly three-year-old civil war. The ensuing refugee crisis has strained resources in neighboring countries, including Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq.
