MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin says that a plan for Syria to turn over its chemical weapons stockpile will only work if the United States agrees not to use force.
Putin told reporters on Tuesday that the plan “can work, only in the event that we hear that the American side and those who support the U.S.A, in this sense, reject the use of force.”
President Barack Obama has thrown his support behind a French resolution to the U.N. Security Council even as he pushes the idea of U.S. airstrikes against Assad’s regime if that effort fails.
The resolution would demand that Syria open its chemical weapons program to inspection, place it under international control, and ultimately dismantle it.