When US President Barack Obama latched onto the proposed Russian compromise to back off his Syrian attack plans, he was acting in accordance with the ancient Jewish saying, “When you need a thief, take one down from the gallows.” Just a few weeks ago, on Aug. 8, the US president canceled a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin that was to take place at last week’s G20 summit as “punishment” for his Russian counterpart’s decision to provide political asylum to Edward Snowden, who leaked classified information about the US National Security Agency’s surveillance programs.

Russia’s steadfast support of the Bashar al-Assad regime, along with that of Iran and Hezbollah, was reminiscent of the bad old days when the Middle East was a central arena in the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union. And now, overnight, Putin has turned from war monger to Obama’s guardian angel. On the other hand, it’s safe to assume that absent the US threat to attack Syria over Russia’s head, Putin would not have volunteered to extricate Obama at home from a controversial military adventure and from the international portrayal of the United States as an isolated and toothless giant.

Obama would be shirking his moral duty if he fails to enlist Russia in the effort to find a comprehensive political solution to the crisis in Syria. The Russian compromise formula for the destruction of Syria’s chemical-weapons arsenals cannot provide an approval stamp for attacks on population centers using cluster bombs and “ordinary” rockets. The 2009 Nobel Peace Prize laureate would not be fulfilling his diplomatic-defense duty if he did not make use of the US-Russian channel for a decisive handling of the uncontrolled proliferation of all types of weapons of mass destruction — first and foremost by cleaning up the Middle East.

The Nobel Committee explained that its decision was based on Obama’s vision and activity toward a nuclear-free world. That work reached its peak on Sept. 23, 2009, when Obama himself initiated and conducted a special session of the UN Security Council dedicated to the issue of nuclear weapons. At the heads-of-state meeting, held for the first time in history with the attendance of the president of the United States, Obama declared that the unanimous decision “reaffirms our joint commitment to a world free of nuclear weapons.”