and verification that this is actually gone through? well, you have already, i mean, listed some of the major hurdles and difficulties. to say it is complex and difficult is an understatement as you know. no one is suggesting that it s going to be easy. and simple. and done very quickly. that s not the question. first now the focus has shifted from war to diplomatic negotiations between the united states and russia. and russia is very serious because remember, russia has a vested interest in not chemical weapons being used, not just syria, anywhere in the world. this is a common interest between the united states and russia. and i think both of united states and russia would like to see a way out inside syria. how do you carry out this particular initiative is a difficult part. in particular when you have
force, particularly because russia is one of assad s strongest allies. just the idea of a possible diplomatic resolution to a situation with no answers, you ve been promoting this for day one. how skeptical should we be for russia playing us a fool? do you think it will work out in the end? well, first of all, i don t think russia is playing the united states fool. i know there are many skeptical voices in the united states and they should be. we have seen russia s in transit in the last two years and a half. but remember, russia has big stakes involved inside syria. we keep talking about the credibility of american foreign policy inside syria, well, the credibility of russia is on the line inside syria. if america decides to attack syria, this would really undermine russia s credibility because russia would be exposed. that doesn t worldwide it
for american diplomacy? look, the bottom line is that you and i know the president didn t have the votes for authorization, but he s going to need these votes in order to keep the russians and syrians feet to the fire. somehow or other in the sausage making going on, there s going to have to be some agreement with congress to hold in abayance to understand that even if they are reluctant to give the president the authorization, this is the best insurance policy they have to in effect prevent a strike by getting the president the authority he needs at least to have that appear to the russians and syrians. we talked about russia and their role and you mentioned the u.n. security resolution that is being drafted as we speak. what is china s role in this and how are they viewing this whole situation? the chinese have largely been quiet. they ve been more or less lock step with the russians because they have only really one major interest in syria and that s
cannot protect its ally. so russia has an interest in preventing u.s. military action and protecting its ally and also carrying out its initiative in order to arm syria s chemical weapons. russia has a vested interest here and assad has a vested interest in not having us come in and help the rebels. somebody is going to have to verify that syria s weapons stockpile is gone. chemical weapons inspector was shot out in damascus last month. it would take at least 75,000 troops to safeguard any inspectors who would go into the nation, france intelligence says they have 1,000 tons of weapons. who in the world thinks assad will tell us about his entire stockpile easily and right away. how do you possibly and reasonably oversee the removal
as president obama keeps plans for an attack on syria active but on hold, the battle will now play out at the u.n. talks there are under way among the members on a proposed resolution to put syria s chemical weapons into international control. if we can trust assad to comply, how would a weapons hand overwork. back with us today, professor, this is how the president left it last night. let s take a look. it s too early to tell whether this offer will succeed. any agreement must verify that the assad regime keeps its commitments. but this initiative has the potential to remove chemical weapons without the use of