Framework text: US, Russia reach deal to remove Syria chemical arms
After three days of negotiations in Geneva, the US and Russia have reached an agreement which requires Syria to declare all of its chemical weapons sites within seven days and submit to the removal and destruction of its chemical arms by mid-2014.
The United States and Russia have reached a deal on a framework for removing all of Syria's chemical weapons by mid-2014, Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced in Geneva Saturday.
Under the framework agreed after three days of negotiations in Geneva, Syria would declare all of its chemical weapons sites within seven days, allow inspectors on the ground and access to any site by November, and the removal of the weapons from Syria for destruction by mid-2014. (Full framework text, released by the State Department, below the jump).
"The world will now expect the Assad regime to live up to its public commitment," Kerry told a packed news conference in the Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva Saturday, the Associated Press reports. "There can be no games, no room for avoidance, or anything less than full compliance by the Assad regime."
"We have committed to a standard that says, verify and verify," Kerry said.
