Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in Geneva on Thursday and Friday. State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki told reporters Wednesday that the goal was to “test the seriousness” of a proposal to have Syria turn over its chemical weapons.
The potential diplomatic solution seemed to stall Tuesday afternoon when Russia canceled an emergency UN Security Council session. Russia dismissed U.S. and French plans to include an enforcement trigger as part of a resolution (such as military action if Syria failed to relinquish its weapons). That echoed the position that Russian President Vladimir Putin took earlier Tuesday, saying, “It is difficult to make any country…unilaterally disarm if there is military action against it under consideration.”
In the video above, Alex Wagner speaks with NBC’s Andrea Mitchell about the chances of a diplomatic solution over Syria’s chemical weapons, and the feasibility of destroying President Assad’s weapons cache in the middle of a civil war.
Joshua Chaffee