Hague holds Syria talks as Hollande hails U.S.-Russia deal

PanARMENIAN.Net - UK Foreign Secretary William Hague is holding further talks on Syria with his U.S. and French counterparts as the United Nations inspectors' report on a widely-suspected chemical weapons attack is published, Belfast Telegraph said.

At a meeting in Paris, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will brief Hague and French foreign minister Laurent Fabius on his deal with Russia for the international community to take control of President Bashar al Assad's chemical weapons.

Under the agreement hammered out between Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Geneva, the regime is required to submit a full inventory of its chemical stockpile by the end of the week, allow international inspectors into the country by November, and complete the surrender of its arsenal by mid 2014.

According to BBC News, French President Francois Hollande has described the U.S.-Russia deal on Syria's chemical weapons as an "important step" towards the much bigger goal of a political solution to the civil war.

But in a TV address Hollande said: "The military option must remain; otherwise there will be no pressure."

Hollande said a vote on a new UN Security Council resolution on Syria could be agreed by the end of the week. On Monday, September 16 he will meet U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to discuss the issue.

The president said sanctions will be enforced to coerce Syria into dismantling or handing over its chemical weapons if Damascus fails to comply.

"It is necessary to include the threat of sanctions if the agreement and the aims of the Security Council resolution aren't carried out,'' he said." But the next step has to be finding a political solution to the Syrian crisis."