Syria to offer data on chemical weapons: Assad

Data will be submitted a month after signing the convention banning such weapons

Syrian President Bashar Assad said today that his government will start submitting data on its chemical weapons stockpile a month after signing the convention banning such weapons.

He also said a Russian proposal for securing Syria's chemical weapons can work only if the US halts threats of military action against his country.

Assad's remarks to Russia's state Rossiya 24 news channel were his first since the Russian plan was announced Monday as a way to avert a potential US military strike in response to the August 21 chemical weapons attack that killed hundreds near Damascus.

They came as American officials, meeting with their Russian counterparts in Geneva, were expected to demand a speedy Syrian accounting of their stockpiles.

In the interview set to be broadcast in full today, Assad said that Syria is relinquishing control over its chemical weapons because of Russia.

"We agreed to put Syria's chemical weapons under international supervision in response to Russia's request and not because of American threats," he said.

"In my view, the agreement will begin to take effect a month after its signing, and Syria will begin turning over to international organizations data about its chemical weapons," Assad added. He said this is "standard procedure" and that Syria will stick to it.

"This is a two-sided process and we are counting, first of all, on the United States stop conducting the policy of threats regarding Syria," he said.

Syria's Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil also suggested today that the Russian proposal will succeed only if the United States and its allies pledge not to attack Syria in the future.

"We want a pledge that neither it (the US) nor anyone else will launch an aggression against Syria," Jamil told The Associated Press in Damascus.

Syria's top rebel commander, meanwhile, slammed the Russian proposal, calling for Assad to be put on trial for allegedly ordering the August 21 attack. Many rebels had held out hopes that US-led punitive strikes on Assad's forces would help tip the scales in their favor in Syria's civil war, which has claimed over 100,000 lives so far.

Gen Salim Idris' statement was broadcast on pan-Arab satellite channels hours before talks in Geneva between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

The man, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals, said most of the fighting today was taking place in the western part of the village.