A Russian-backed proposal for Syrian President Bashar Assad to cede his chemical weapons to international control was slammed by opposition leader Salim Idriss.
Idriss, head of the Syrian opposition's Supreme Military Council, says the effort, proposed by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Monday, only seeks to fend off U.S. military strikes in response to evidence that Assad's forces gassed hundreds of Syrians Aug. 21 in an attack on Damascus suburbs, Time magazine reported Thursday.
"We announce our definitive rejection of the Russian initiative to place chemical weapons under international custody," Idriss said in a video posted online.
"We ask that the international community not be content with withdrawing chemical weapons, which are a criminal instrument, but to hold the perpetrator accountable and prosecute him at the International Criminal Court," Idriss said, blaming the Assad regime for the chemical attack that the Obama administration says left at least 1,400 people dead, many of them children.
After President Obama announced Tuesday, during a prime-time televised speech, he would delay a military strike against Assad's forces, fighting broke out across Syria, including a renewed drive by government troops to reclaim the Christian town of Maaloula.
Meanwhile U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry traveled to Geneva, Switzerland, Thursday to meet with Lavrov to begin the daunting task of developing a plan that will allow Assad's government to turnover its chemical weapons cache.
A U.S. official said during Kerry's flight to Geneva the Obama administration would use the meeting as a barometer to "see if in fact we can test whether there is a credible and authentic way forward here, that the Russians mean what they say, as importantly, probably more importantly, that Assad means what he says and that in fact we can move forward with a program that is verifiable, that can happen expeditiously, so that Assad cannot have access to and continue to use chemical weapons against his own people."
U.S. officials told The Wall Street Journal the two diplomats would not try to resolve a key point of contention between Russia and Western powers concerning whether the resolution to take control of Syria's chemical weapons should be accompanied by a threat of force.
The Obama administration and its allies want a "self-enforcing," binding Security Council resolution authorizing military action if Assad balks. Moscow says the agreement, which it wants non-binding, would work only if Washington withdraws the force threat.
At the very least, the White House said Wednesday, any diplomatic solution must include a way to verify the removal of the weapons from Assad's control, CBS News said. The administration did not outline any other conditions or offer a timeline for negotiations.
White House spokesman Jay Carney said Russia's stepping forward and saying it wanted to hold Assad accountable, "after two years of blocking efforts at the United Nations and elsewhere," was "significant."
"It demonstrates that Russia is now putting its prestige on the line when it comes to moving further along this diplomatic avenue," Carney said.
"We are very interested in having a U.N. Security Council resolution," Carney said. "And I think this whole process will test the seriousness of all participants, and it is absolutely the right thing to do to pursue this and see if it can bear fruit."
Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told CBS News a potential timeline could emerge from the Kerry-Lavrov meeting.
The meeting should provide "a much clearer picture of, number one, the real possibility of this -- the seriousness of the Russians, the seriousness of the Syrians in accepting any proposal that might come forth," Menendez said, "and ... how we might look at time frames as part of the resolution."
Also Thursday, a French envoy is to present to Russian and Chinese delegations at the U.N. Security Council a draft resolution calling for Assad to surrender his chemical weapons stockpiles immediately. The draft already was approved by the United States and Great Britain. However, Time said, Russian officials have expressed concerns about the draft, which reportedly blames the Aug. 21 gas attack on forces loyal to the regime, and leaves a military option on the table if Assad's regime does not comply -- a condition Russia has dismissed.
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Thursday a U.N. team of chemical weapons inspectors likely would report its findings on the Aug. 21 attacks Monday, CBS News reported.
The team spent three days collecting evidence and interviewing people in the area with a mandate to determine exactly what was used, but not who used the chemical weapons.
During an interview with Iran's government-backed Press TV broadcast Thursday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said he still doubted that Assad's government gassed its own citizens.
"There was and still is no proof that the use of chemical weapons was perpetrated by the government," Zarif said.
The Washington Post reported the CIA has begun delivering weapons to the Syrian rebels.
The shipments of light weapons and other traceable munitions started being shipped about two weeks ago, along with separate State Department deliveries of vehicles and other equipment, the Post said.
Washington also started shipping new types of non-lethal gear to the rebels, such as sophisticated communications equipment and advanced combat medical kits, the Post said.
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