Syria will respect UN accord on chemical weapons, says Assad

Syria will respect United Nations accords on chemical weapons, president Bashar al-Assad told Italian television station RaiNews24 today.

“We joined the international agreement against the acquisition and use of chemical weapons even before this resolution was passed,” he said when asked if Syria would comply with Friday’s resolution.

The UN Security Council adopted a resolution on Friday that demands the eradication of Syria's chemical weapons but does not threaten automatic punitive action against Dr Assad's government if it does not comply.

Government warplanes today bombed a high school in northern Syria, killing at least 12 people, most of them students, according to an activist group. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the regime airstrike took place in the city of Raqqa, which is the only Syrian provincial capital under rebel control.

The Observatory said the death toll is likely to rise because many of the wounded have serious injuries. The Assad regime has relied heavily on its air force to strike rebel-held areas in the country’s two-and-a-half-year-old conflict.

Yesterday, Syria's foreign minister Walid al-Moallem said the government would not accept any transition peace plan that excludes Dr Assad.

Mr al-Moallem spoke in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, a day after the UN Security Council approved a resolution that obliges Syria's government to comply with an international plan to destroy its chemical weapons arsenal.

The resolution also endorsed the outcome of the Geneva conference between the government and the opposition in June 2012, which called for the establishment of a transitional government with full executive powers.

The Syrian opposition, which has been embroiled in a bloody conflict with Dr Assad’s forces for two and a half years, has repeatedly said it will not take part in any transition government that includes the president.

The latest statement from Mr al-Moallem could mean that efforts to organise a second meeting of the opposition and the government later this year in Geneva, Switzerland, may fail. "For the Syrian people, Bashar Assad is the elected president until mid-2014, when presidential elections will be held," Mr al-Moallem said.

Reuters