"Kerry's Syria Switch May Not Have Been Offhanded After All"

[applegrove]

Kerry's Syria Switch May Not Have Been Offhanded After All

Robert Siegel talks with Peter Nicholas, White House reporter for The Wall Street Journal, about the chain of events that led to a U.S.-backed Russian plan to have Syria hand over its chemical weapons at NPR

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=221460804

"SNIP......................................


NICHOLAS: Yes, at the time, Secretary Kerry's remarks seemed ad hoc and it didn't look like this was fully fleshed out. But what we've learned, through our reporting, is that the administration has had high level conversations with Russian counterparts on this issue for over a year. President Obama, President Putin at a G-20 Summit meeting in Las Cabos, Mexico a year ago, talked about this idea of placing chemical weapons stockpile - controlled by Assad - placing it in international control. And so, this is intermittently over the past year, Secretary Kerry and Lavrov have discussed this and here we are.

SIEGEL: Kerry went to Moscow, his first trip as Secretary of State, in the spring. You believe that he and Lavrov discussed it at that point?

NICHOLAS: Yes, they had a marathon dinner that lasted till 2:30 in the morning. And they discussed this very idea of placing chemical weapons under international control.

SIEGEL: Then comes the G-20 Summit this year in St. Petersburg, Russia. This is the one where President Obama actually canceled a special summit with Vladimir Putin because of Edward Snowden having been welcomed by the Russians. They actually did talk and they talked about this, you say.


.....................................SNIP"

[Thinkingabout]

1. More than likely solutions had been discussed prior to August, Assad must have thought he could lie

His way out of this by blaming the rebels but evidence pointed to Assad. I heard another theory today, if the chemical weapons fell into the hands of bad groups then they would not be far away from Russia and their allies and I don't think Putin would want this to happen.

[applegrove]

2. Yeah. That is why the US says they want a political solution...with everyone at the table. That

way al Qaeda's voice will be diluted. If the rebels win, al Qaeda will have half a say in what Syria becomes. Which is why the USA doesn't want a military solution in Syria. Thought they are arming the rebels...so that Assad will not be winning militarily anymore..... and he might then go to the table for that 'political solution'. No doubt nobody wants al Qaeda to have access to chemical weapons. They already lost rocket propelled launchers to god knows who in Libya.

[Sand Wind]

3. We know that Obama is the kind of leader who play every sides at the same time.

He say it in his first campaign : military and diplomacy at the same time.

[pampango]

4. The right prefers the "Kerry as buffoon; Putin as diplomatic genius" view of events.

Thank goodness the left is buying none of that.