The drumbell of war over Syria's possession and use of chemical weapon has finally faded as the main gladiators; US and Russia have both agreed to disarm the Assad led government.
Both countries have agreed on an ambitious plan to eliminate Syria's chemical weapons by the middle of next year and left the door open to sanctions if Damascus failed to comply.
The landmark deal on Saturday was hailed by the West, but rejected by rebels who warn that it would not halt the bloodshed in the conflict which has killed more than 110,000 people and displaced millions in two and a half years.
Under the accord drawn up after talks spanning three days between US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad now has a week to hand over details of his regime's stockpile.
Kerry said Assad's regime must also provide 'immediate and unfettered' access to inspectors from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).
'The inspectors must be on the ground no later than November ... and the goal is to establish the removal by halfway through next year,' said Kerry, flanked by Lavrov.
The pressure is now on Assad to deliver, with Obama warning that 'the United States remains prepared to act' if Damascus failed to comply.
'While we have made important progress, much more work remains to be done,' Obama said.
Echoing Obama's warning, Kerry said that there must be 'no games, no room for avoidance of anything less than full compliance by the Assad regime'.
But while Britain, France and the OPCW welcomed the deal, the rebels fighting Assad's regime greeted it with dismay, fearing it has scuppered any chance of Western intervention on their side.
'We cannot accept any part of this initiative,' General Selim Idriss, the head of the Free Syrian Army, told reporters in Istanbul.
'Are we Syrians supposed to wait until mid-2014, to continue being killed every day, and to accept (the deal) just because the chemical arms will be destroyed in 2014.'
Kerry said the steps agreed on Saturday would be encapsulated in a UN Security Council resolution drawn up under Chapter Seven of the organisation's charter, which provides for enforcement through sanctions including the possible use of military force.
But with Russia strongly opposed to the use of military threats against its long-term ally, and wielding a veto on the Security Council, Kerry acknowledged it was 'impossible to have a pre-agreement' on what would happen in the event of non-compliance.
Lavrov signalled that Moscow would back some form of sanction, saying the Security Council would act under Chapter Seven if Syria fails to meet its demands.
Kerry said that Syria's bloody civil war could only be ended through negotiations.
That was another nod to Russia's opposition to military intervention and could be interpreted as the United States backing away from providing support for the rebels to help them force Assad from power.
For Lavrov, Saturday's accord was an 'excellent' agreement 'whose significance is hard to overestimate'.
Washington and Moscow hope to revive plans for peace talks in Geneva that would bring together the two Syrian sides to agree a political transition to end the conflict that began in March 2011 with peaceful protests against the Assad regime and quickly turned violent following a brutal government crackdown of the demonstrations.
Russia's surprise announcement that Syria could hand over its chemical arsenal prompted Obama to put on hold military strikes the United States and France had threatened in response to an August chemical attack near Damascus, which Washington blames on the regime and says killed about 1400 people.
The United States has estimated that Syria possesses around 1000 metric tonnes of various chemical agents, including mustard and sarin gas, sulfur and VX.
The Russian estimates had been initially much lower, according to US officials, but Kerry said Saturday that the two countries had reconciled their different assessments.
US officials said there were around 45 sites that inspectors would have to check out and Kerry said it would be feasible to do that, despite the fighting.
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton offered the bloc's help with 'securing sites and in dismantling and destroying certain chemical agents'.
Credits: Sky Newa
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