The international community gave Syria praise on Monday, after officials in Damascus begun destroying its chemical arsenal.
According to Reuters, an official sent to monitor the removal of the stockpile said President Bashar al-Assad's government had made great strides on Sunday, acting quickly and efficiently in agreement with a resolution written by the U.N. on destroying the chemical weaponry.
This, the chemical experts said, was a hugely significant event, since Syria has been largely combative against Western demands, ever since President Obama said in August the regime's use of chemical weapons against its citizens would be his "red line."
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that both the United States and Russia are "very pleased" with the moves Syria has made to get rid of its stock of chemical weapons during a news conference with his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Indonesia, according to NPR. Despite the fact that Kerry gave Assad some rare applause, he still stressed that the leader of Syria wasn't out of the woods just yet.
"Let me be crystal clear," Kerry told reporters at the media conference. "We're very pleased with the pace of what has happened with respect to chemical weapons...I think it is...credit to the Assad regime for complying rapidly as they are supposed to. We hope that will continue. Now, I am not going to vouch today for what happens months down the road. But it is a good beginning and we should welcome a good beginning."
Disarmament inspectors began working on Sunday to get rid of the estimated 1,000 tons of chemical weapons that Syria was believed to possess. The United Nations set a Nov. 1 deadline for international workers to destroy the Assad government's ability to make weapons, NPR reported.
Lavrov said that the regime, an ally to Russia, was complying with all requests made by the international community. He stressed that the Western and Arab-supported rebel forces must also follow rules, and that it was important to make sure that no one got a hold of the chemical weapons.
"The responsibility is not only on the Syrian government, but also on the opposition and all the states in this sphere, should of course, not allow these weapons to fall into the hands of non-state actors," Lavrov told NPR.
Kerry and Lavrov also discussed methods to bring the deeply divided sides of Syria together for potential peace talks. According to Reuters, a series of conversations have been scheduled for next month in Geneva.
"We re-committed today very specific efforts to move the Geneva process as rapidly as possible," Kerry stated, adding that both the regime and the opposition forces would "lay the groundwork for a round of talks."
