GIOVANNI DIFFIDENTI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES
Voices
G
DANIEL
WAGNER
HUFFINGTON
09.15.13
Why Syria’s Offer
Is Unlikely to Work
IVEN THE DECADES of denials about the existence of a chemical weapons program by the Assad
regime, the West’s first inclination to Mr. Assad’s
offer to come clean about Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles, join the Chemical Weapons Convention, and turn the weapons over to international oversight for control and destruction is naturally
to be skeptical. Only when backed into a corner,
faced with the threat of overwhelming attack, and
with no other feasible option at his disposal, is Mr.
Assad agreeing to the proposal brokered by Russia.
Yet there is good reason to believe that Mr. Assad
A man walks
through a
destroyed
residential
area of
Saraquib,
Syria,
southwest
of Aleppo,
following
airstrikes by
Al-Assad’s
government
fighter jets.