The United States and Russia on Saturday agreed on an ambitious plan to eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons by the middle of next year.
In a landmark deal thrashed out in talks spanning three days, the two powers gave Syrian President Bashar al-Assad a week to hand over details of his regime’s stockpile. US secretary of state John Kerry said Mr Assad’s regime must also provide “immediate and unfettered” access to inspectors from the Organis-ation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. “The inspectors must be on the ground no later than November... And the goal is to establish the removal by halfway thro-ugh next year,” Mr Kerry said at a press conference with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. US President Barack Obama has that military action remained an option if diplomacy fails.