Syria set to send docs for joining chemical arms ban to UN: Assad

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says Damascus will in a few days submit to the United Nations all documents needed for joining a convention that bans chemical weapons.

“In the next couple of days, Syria will send a petition to the United Nations and Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons,” Assad said in an interview with Rossiya 24 news channel on Thursday.

“The petition will contain technical documents required to sign the agreement. After that, work will start that will lead to the signing of the convention prohibiting chemical weapons,” he added.

Assad also said his government’s decision to put the country’s chemical weapons under international control was the result of Russia’s proposal and that “the US threats did not influence the decision.”

The Syrian president called on the US administration to stop supplying arms to militants in Syria if it wants the Russian proposal to work.

“When we see that the United States truly desires stability in our region and stops threatening and seeking to invade, as well as stops arms supplies to terrorists then we can believe that we can follow through with the necessary processes,” Assad also said, adding that the US must drop its “politics of threats.”

He accused foreign-backed militants of trying to provoke a US-led military strike on Syria, noting that armed groups have obtained chemical weapons from abroad.

On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov put forward the proposal during a meeting with his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem in Moscow. Lavrov called on Damascus to place its chemical arms under international supervision.

Muallem later announced that Damascus has accepted the Russian initiative, agreeing to join the Chemical Weapons Convention.

Following the remarks, US President Barack Obama asked the Congress to delay a scheduled vote on authorizing military action against the Arab country.

The US war rhetoric against Syria gained momentum on August 21, when the militants operating inside the country and the foreign-backed Syrian opposition claimed that over a thousand people had been killed in a government chemical attack on the outskirts of Damascus.

The Syrian government categorically rejects the claim and says the attack had been carried out by the militants to draw in military intervention.