around its stockpiles ahead of any potential investigative team arriving in country, or it very well could be that they are consolidating them for that very purpose, easier access if and when inspectors do arrive. this is going to be a very short timeline though. one that the organization that deals with accountability when it comes to a country s chemical weaponry has never dealt with before. normally countries have 60 days to declare their chemical weapon stockpiles. these syrians had a week. the big challenge of course is going to be getting into the country and the logistics of actually trying to see if the assad regime did declare all of its stockpiles. and of course the even bigger task of trying to eventually destroy them, wolf. arwa, what about the fighting that s going on apparently between various factions, different factions among the rebels themselves not fighting against the syrian army but fighting amongst themselves? what are you hearing on that
suggesting it will. you know, i guess what a lot of people are wondering, i want you to weigh in first, fareed. there are now these reports that even as the syrians supposedly were going to alert the world where their stockpiles are and that they re going to go ahead and eventually allow them to be destroyed, suggestions are they are being moved around, concealing, hiding some of these chemical weapons. what s your assessment? is this deal going to work? i m sure they are hiding some of these. but i still hold out hope for the deal. here s why, wolf. if you are concerned about these chemical weapons and the precedent it sets and the dangers, and i think sebastian and i both agree this is a real problem, then anything we can do to secure some large part of this arsenal and potentially destroy it is a good thing. remember, the military strikes don t do that. the military strikes are purely punishment. you don t ever attack a chemical weapons depot because that would actually release
the machinery of death and isolationist becomes a form of genocide. it s not a matter of how we re going to explain this to the syrians. it s a matter of how we re going to explain this to our kids. you re saying that war actually may be the answer to what s going on in syria right now. explain. my first war was in bosnia and every war i ve covered since then has been ended or drastically reduced by u.s. military action, by nato military action. i think a true anti-war position doesn t just mean ignoring a civil war like we did in rwanda. it means eventually after all diplomatic efforts have failed to use military threat and eventually military action. in bosnia, a two-week nato campaign ended a genocide. amazingly, in the united states, the only people i knew who are against that were my fellow liberals who thought there was never a reason to use violence,
good to see you. hi, alex. good to see you. eleanor, we just heard president obama saying that confiscating syria s chemical weapons could lead to that often cited political solution. do you think syria s closer to that than it was a week ago? well, i think the negotiations over the chemical weapons have opened the door to a potentially wider dialogue because you ve got the russians. you have president putin involved. they have leverage over the syrians. prime minister lavrov seems very actively engaged with secretary of state kerry. and president assad is now a player. maybe some people think as a brutal dictator he shouldn t have a seat at the negotiating table, but he has a vested interest, i think, in maybe bringing this to a settlement because he sees a path to stay in power. i don t hear president obama saying assad must go. he s saying, well, i don t see
words for iran. the world needs to ensure that radical regimes don t have weapons of mass destruction because as we ve learned once again in syria, if regimes have weapons of mass destruction, they will use them. the determination of the international community shows regarding syria will have a direct impact on the syrian regime s patron, iran. reporter: alex, as i mentioned, most israeli officials would be very happy if syria did get stripped of all its chemical weapons, including one retired major general, who had a briefing with journalists and said this is a, quote, win, win, win situation for the syrians, for the u.s., and for israel, but it s a losing situation for the rebels. on that note, he also mentioned that it has to be done because