‘US lost pretext for war on Syria’

An Iranian deputy Foreign Minister says the US no longer has a pretext to attack on Syria given a recent agreement reached between Washington and Moscow on a plan to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons.

According to Press TV, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said Saturday “Given the new circumstance in Syria, the US and certain sides … have lost of the pretext for military action against the country.”
Calling for measures to stop the flow of foreign militants and terrorists into Syria, he added “Currently, the ball is in the court of the other side and they need to take confidence-building measures toward Syrians.”

On Saturday, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reached an agreement on a framework for Syria to verify it is eliminating all its chemical weapons.
They also agreed to immediately press for UN penalties if Damascus fails to comply.
Under the agreement, the government of President Bashar al-Assad must destroy its stockpile of chemical weapons by mid-2014.