WORLD POWERS QUARREL OVER SYRIA

Just days after Russia and the United States reached a deal on getting Syria to give up its chemical weapons, world powers are quarreling over the details.

The agreement, reached by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry over the weekend, calls for a UN resolution demanding that Syria turn over its chemical weapons to international control in a specific time frame.

Russia won’t support any resolution that would authorise the use of force against Syria if it doesn’t comply, Lavrov said on Tuesday.

But the United States and France want to keep the threat of force on the table if Syria doesn’t comply. Those allies say they are convinced that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime was behind a chemical weapons attack in opposition areas that, according to US estimates, killed more than 1,400 people.

The French analysis of a UN chemical weapons report shows the Syrian regime was responsible for the August 21 massacre near Damascus, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told reporters on Tuesday.

But, at the same news conference, Lavrov brushed aside a question about blame. He noted that the UN inspectors in Syria were not tasked with figuring out who was responsible and that that was not the point of the UN report.

Russia has suggested Syrian rebels may have been behind the attack, though critics have said rebels did not have the means to unleash chemical weapons.