AT LAST, SYRIA SURRENDERS CHEMICAL WEAPON TO WORLD POWERS

An unexpected Russianproposal for Syria to avert a U.S. military strike by transferring control of its chemical weapons appeared to be gaining traction Tuesday, as Syria embraced it, France said it would draft a U.N. Security Council resolution to put the plan into effect, and China and Iran voiced support.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said bringing the proposal to the Security Council would enable the world to judge the intentions of Russia

and China, which until now have blocked efforts to sanction Syria for any actions during its 21 / 2-year-long civil conflict.

But major questions remain over whether Syria’s longtime patrons and critics will be able to agree on the specifics of a resolution and how Syria’s banned

chemical stockpiles could be transferred to international monitors in the midst of a bloody and protracted civil war that has claimed more than 100,000 lives.

Russia floated the idea of handing over the weapons Monday, after a seemingly off-hand remark by U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry that such a move would be the only way for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to avoid a U.S. military strike.

President Obama has been urging world leaders and U.S. lawmakers to endorse military action as a way of sending a message of condemnation and deterrence to Assad, whose government allegedly authorized nerve gas attacks outside Damascus on Aug. 21 that killed more than 1,400 civilians.

But on Monday evening, after Russia and Syria embraced Kerry’s weapons-transfer scenario, Obama said that the idea of monitoring and ultimately destroying Syria’s arsenal “could potentially be a significant breakthrough.” The Senate postponed a vote scheduled for Wednesday on whether to back a proposed strike.

“I think you have to take it with a grain of salt, initially,” Obama said in an interview with NBC that was among several he gave Monday in pursuit of public support for a military strike. “We’re going to make sure that we see how serious these proposals are.”

Obama is scheduled to address the nation Tuesday evening at 9 p.m. Eastern time. His speech was originally planned as the capstone of a newly focused effort to rally a skeptical public and reluctant lawmakers in favor of a military strike. That approach could change, however, given the new proposal.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moalem told State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin in Moscow on Tuesday that his country would accept Russia’s proposal for establishing international control over its chemical weapons, Interfax reported. Moalem said the Syrian government decided Monday evening to accept the plan “to stave off American aggression.”

But it was not clear whether the resolution language proposed on Tuesday by Fabius would be acceptable to Russian officials, who have voiced doubts about whether the Syrian government was responsible for the Aug. 21 attacks and who can veto any Security Council resolution.

The resolution will “condemn the massacre of August 21 committed by the Syrian regime,” Fabius told reporters in Paris, and “require that this regime sheds light without delay on its chemical weapons program, that they be placed under international control and that they be dismantled.”