“Any step which will avert invasion on Syria and which the Syrians approve is considered to be helpful,” Chairman of Iran Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee Alaeddin Boroujerdi said on Tuesday.
He added that the Americans were looking for a pretext to reconsider their planned military action on Syria, adding that Syria’s agreement to place its chemical weapons under international control provided the US government with a justification to that effect.
The Iranian legislator further noted that US President Barack Obama, given the Congress opposition, was trying to backtrack on his plan for military action.
The Russian initiative, which has been “welcomed” by Damascus, was made during a meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Syrian counterpart Walid Muallem in Moscow on Monday.
The initiative came shortly after US Secretary of State John Kerry told reporters in London that the only way for Syria to avert US military action is to hand over its entire stockpile of chemical weapons.
The US has based its recent threat of striking Syria on the unsubstantiated accusation that the Syrian government was behind a chemical attack near Damascus on August 21. The Syrian government has categorically rejected the allegation.
The White House, however, says it has no “irrefutable” evidence of the Syrian government's use of chemical weapons and that only a “strong common-sense test irrespective of the intelligence” suggests the Syrian army was responsible for the August poison gas attack.
Syria has been gripped by deadly unrest since 2011. The United Nations has reported that more than 100,000 people have been killed and millions displaced due to the violence.
