It would seem Poland, not Kerry or Putin, deserves the credit for the potential Syrian solution

[BelgianMadCow]

It would seem, from a detailed article in the Frankfurter Allgemeine titled "The father of the Syrian CW control proposal", that the idea to put forward CW disarmament came from polish foreign affairs minister Radoslaw Sikorski. He suggested the avenue to Kerry already on the 29th of august.

Sorry, the article is in german.

Nach Darstellung seines Ministeriums hat er diesen Vorschlag bereits am 29. August in einem Telefonat mit Kerry gemacht. Kerry habe daraufhin zugesagt, mit dem russischen Außenminister Sergej Lawrow über die Idee zu reden. Am 7. September dann, beim Treffen Kerrys mit den EU-Außenministern in Vilnius, sei es abermals Sikorski gewesen, der im Namen der Kollegen aus der EVP dem Amerikaner den Vorschlag übermittelt habe, „mit Russlands Beteiligung“ Assad per „Ultimatum“ aufzufordern, „seine Bestände an chemischen Waffen internationaler Kontrolle zu unterstellen“. Zwei Tage später sei es dann zu jenem denkwürdigen „spontanen“ Vorschlag Kerrys in London gekommen.

An article I've been meaning to post, since it can help put an end to the DU debate of whether Obama or Putin deserve credit for the current road to non-ruin. Now, given we now know who was the broker, it still remains a very good thing that both parties (US/Russia) have responded as they did. So I think the credit has to be split anyway.

[temporary311]

1. Oh, Poland, we always seem to forget you.

[liberal_at_heart]

2. Because lord knows someone has to have a ticker tape parade at the end of this.

Will it be Putin, Obama, Sikorski? Frankly, I don't care. They can give themselves a ticker tape parade for all I care. Let them pat themselves on the back. Let them stroke their own egos. All I care about is not igniting a full blown regional civil war that would kill tens or even hundreds of thousands of people. How about a ticker tape parade for all of those waiting to return to their lives sitting in those awful refugee camps? How about giving those people an award for simply surviving the horrifying things that world leaders make them endure?

Sorry not yelling at you BelgianMadCow. Just mad at the situation.

[BelgianMadCow]

3. "just mad at the situation"

I understand.

I am no more than guardedly, cautiously optimistic, myself. And it would seem, from the article, that Sikorski is downplaying his own role and being modest about it. He IS looking for positions like EU rep for foreign affairs or NATO head, though...

[morningfog]

4. kick