Syria accepted Russian proposal to hand over chemical weapons

The Syrian government has accepted a Russian proposal to put its chemical weapons under international control to avoid a possible US military strike, Interfax news agency quoted Syria’s foreign minister as saying on Tuesday.

“We held a very fruitful round of talks with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov yesterday, and he proposed an initiative relating to chemical weapons. And in the evening we agreed to he Russian initiative,” Interfax quoted the minister, Walid al-Moualem, as telling the speaker of Russia’s lower house parliament house in Moscow.

He said Syria had agreed because this would “remove the grounds for American aggression,” the report said.