Diplomatic clown show or 11th-dimensional chess?
By You make the call.
It’s a stunning turn of events that could change everything on Syria — if it pans out.
Facing the threat of a U.S. military strike, the country’s leaders Tuesday reportedly accepted a Russian proposal to turn over its chemical weapons.
The development, reported by Syrian state television and Russia’s Interfax news agency, came a day after the idea bubbled up in the wake of what appeared to be an off-the-cuff comment by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry . . .
Details of such a transfer have yet to be worked out, such as where the arms would go, who would safeguard them and how the world could be sure Syria had handed over its entire stockpile of chemical weapons.
But President Barack Obama worked the idea in earnest on Tuesday, speaking with French and British leaders to explore the viability of the Russian proposal. . .
The idea surfaced Monday, when Kerry — responding to a reporter asking what Syria could do to stop a U.S. attack — suggested that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad “could turn over every single bit of his chemical weapons to the international community in the next week.”
“He isn’t about to do it, and it can’t be done, obviously,” Kerry added.
His spokeswoman, Jen Psaki, sought to roll back the comments, saying the secretary was simply responding to a “hypothetical.”
But Lavrov quickly seized on the comment, suggesting publicly that it would be a way to avoid a U.S. strike on Syria.
Administration officials at first batted down the proposal.
A U.S. official who declined to be identified by name said Monday afternoon that no one in the administration was taking the proposal seriously.
But before long, deputy State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf was saying the United States would take a “hard look” at the idea. White House spokesman Jay Carney said administration officials were “highly skeptical” but had to take a look.
By Monday night, in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, Obama was calling the idea a “potentially positive development.”
“We’re going to run this to ground,” Obama said. He said the United States will work “to see if we can arrive at something that is enforceable and serious.”
. . . snarkiness aside, if Kerry’s bumbling over the past couple of days has forestalled more unnecessary carnage, that’s all to the good.