KERRY CALLS ON UN TO MOVE QUICKLY ON SYRIA WEAPONS
Washington, 15 Dzulqa’idah 1434/21 September 2013 (MINA) – The US Secretary of State said on Thursday that it is necessary to implement the US-Russia agreement on Syrian chemical weapons. John Kerry called upon the UN Security Council to move quickly on the issue.
“The Security Council has to get ready to move next week,” said Kerry. “It is necessary for the whole international community to wake up and speak out in the strongest possible terms about the importance of saving the world from Syria’s chemical weapons.” according to Middle East Monitor (MEMO) report monitored by Mi’raj News Agency (MINA), Saturday
Russian president Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, expressed his optimism when asked whether the Syrian regime would abide with the agreement and would disclose everything about its stockpile of weapons.
“I cannot be 100 per cent sure that we will bring it [the weapons issue] to the end,” he said, “but what we have seen in the past few days has given us confidence that it will be accomplished.”
Commenting on the remarks of the new Iranian president Hassan Rouhani that his country would never produce nuclear weapons under any condition, Kerry said that they are “positive”.
He insisted, however, that caution is needed when speaking about this issue. “Everything must be proved by practice,” he added.
“The Security Council must be prepared to act next week. It is vital for the international community to stand up and speak out in the strongest possible terms about the importance of enforceable action to rid the world of Syria’s chemical weapons,” Kerry said at a press conference
“When we said we know what is true, we meant it. And now before I head to New York for the U.N. General Assembly, we have a definitive U.N. report strengthening the case and solidifying our resolve,”Kerry said.
“So I would say to the community of nations, time is short. Let’s not spend time debating what we already know.”
Kerry pointed out “Instead, we have to recognize that the world is watching to see whether we can avert military action and achieve through peaceful means even more than what those military strikes promise.”
“As we head into next week’s General Assembly meeting in New York of the United Nations, we really don’t have time today to pretend that anyone can have their own set of facts approaching the issue of chemical weapons in Syria,” Kerry said.
“This fight about Syria’s chemical weapons is not a game. It’s real. It’s important. It’s important to the lives of people in Syria, it’s important to the region, it’s important to the world that this be enforced — this agreement that we came out of Geneva with,” said Kerry.
About UN report on Syria, Kerry said, “The findings in the Sellstrom report were as categorical as they were convincing. Every single data point — the types of munitions and launchers that were used, their origins, their trajectory, their markings, and the confirmation of sarin — every single bit of it confirms what we already knew and what we told America and the world. It confirms what we have brought to the attention of our Congress, the American people and the rest of the world.”
“Despite the regime’s best efforts to shell the area and destroy the evidence, the U.N. interviewed more than 50 survivors — patients, victims, health workers, first responders. They documented munitions and subcomponents. They assessed symptoms of survivors, analyzed hair, urine, blood samples, and they analyzed 30 soil and environmental samples,” Kerry added. (T/P012/P04)
Mi’raj News Agency (MINA)
