)
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 Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government if it does not comply.
The unanimous vote by the 15-member Security Council capped weeks of intense diplomacy between Russia and the United States. It was based on a deal between the two countries reached in Geneva earlier this month following an August 21 sarin nerve gas attack on a Damascus suburb that killed hundreds.
The US-Russia deal averted punitive US military action against Assad's government, which Washington blamed for the August attack. The Syrian government and its ally, Russia, blamed anti-government rebels for the attack.
One provision of the resolution, described by council diplomats as significant, formally endorses a plan for a political transition in Syria agreed on at an international conference in Geneva in June 2012.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said after the vote that the big powers hoped to hold a peace conference on Syria in mid-November in Geneva.
He told the council the plan to eradicate Syria's chemical weapons was "not a license to kill with conventional weapons."
"As we mark this important step, we must never forget that the catalog of horrors in Syria continues with bombs and tanks, grenades and guns," he said. "A red light for one form of weapons does not mean a green light for others."
US Secretary of State John Kerry said the vote showed that "actions have consequences."
"Our original objective was to degrade and deter Syria's chemical weapons capability. And, the option of military force that President Obama has kept on the table could have achieved that. But tonight's resolution accomplishes even more - through peaceful means, it will for the first time seek to eliminate entirely a nation's chemical weapons capability," he said.
The resolution does not allow for automatic punitive action in the form of military strikes or sanctions if Syria does not comply. At Russia's insistence, Friday's resolution makes clear a second council decision would be needed for that.
But Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Security Council would be prepared to take punitive steps in the event of confirmed violations of the resolution by either side in the conflict.
"The United Nations Security Council ... will stand ready to take action under Chapter 7 of the (UN) charter, quite clearly," he said.
A major sticking point to the resolution had been Russia's opposition to writing it under Chapter 7 of the UN charter, which covers the council's authority to enforce its decisions with measures such as sanctions or military force.
Russia has made clear, however, it would not support the use of force against Assad's government, a major importer of Russian weapons.
Syria's ambassador to the United Nations, Bashar Ja'afari, said Turkey, Saudi Arabia, France, Qatar and the United States must abide by the resolution and be held accountable if they continued assisting the rebels, who Assad's government has accused of using poison gas against the government army.
"You can't bring terrorists from all over the world and send them into Syria in the name of jihad and then pretend that you are working for peace," he said.
Ja'afari said the government was "fully committed to going to Geneva" for the planned peace talks, which the rebels have also suggested they would attend.
US President Barack Obama earlier called the draft UN resolution a "potentially huge victory for the international community" and described it as legally binding, verifiable and enforceable.
A Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the resolution deflected attention from Obama's wavering on the Syrian conflict. "For the US, this resolution turns the attention away from its powerlessness," he said.
Assad agreed to destroy Syria's chemical weapons following global outrage over a sarin gas attack in the Damascus suburbs last month - the world's deadliest chemical attack in 25 years - and the US military threat.
Protesters demand Bashir resignation
More than 3,000 protesters took to the streets of the Sudanese capital Khartoum on Saturday to demand President Omar Hassan al-Bashir quit, witnesses said, after days of unrest in which dozens of people have been killed. Daily demonstrations this week followed the government cutting fuel and cooking gas subsidies on Monday when pump prices doubled overnight.
Four protesters were shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Friday, police said, bringing the official death toll to 33. In Khartoum's Burri district, home to a top government official, more than 1,000 people gathered for the funeral of one of the victims, Salah Sanhuri, a doctor from a prominent merchant family with strong ties to the government. More than 2,000 people joined the funeral procession, shouting, "Freedom, freedom," and "The people want to overthrow the regime", blocking a main road, witnesses said.
