An Unlikely Evolution, From Casual Proposal to Possible Resolution
By PETER BAKER and MICHAEL R. GORDON, NYT
WASHINGTON — The afternoon gathering of world leaders was just breaking up in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Friday when President Vladimir V. Putin walked over to President Obama and began chatting casually. Mr. Obama suggested they sit down, and the two pulled chairs into a corner of the room.
They had been at odds over Mr. Obama’s plans to launch airstrikes against Syria in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack on civilians. But now Mr. Putin brought up an idea. What if Syria surrendered its stockpiles of poison gas to the international community? Mr. Obama suggested that they have their top diplomats explore it further.
While the proposal appeared to come out of the blue when Russia made it public on Monday after a seemingly offhand comment by Secretary of State John Kerry, it had actually grown out of conversations between Mr. Obama and Mr. Putin going back more than a year. But Mr. Kerry’s remark gave Mr. Putin the opening to spring the idea on the world, seize control of the Syria debate and effectively derail Mr. Obama’s planned strike.
Although skeptical of his Russian counterpart, Mr. Obama has now tentatively embraced the proposal as a possible resolution to his confrontation with President Bashar al-Assad — and at the same time as an escape from a showdown with a Congress poised to reject military action. But as Washington contemplated the many obstacles to the plan on Tuesday, many officials, including some in the White House, wondered whether Mr. Putin was playing Mr. Obama rather than helping out.
(More here.)
WASHINGTON — The afternoon gathering of world leaders was just breaking up in St. Petersburg, Russia, on Friday when President Vladimir V. Putin walked over to President Obama and began chatting casually. Mr. Obama suggested they sit down, and the two pulled chairs into a corner of the room.
They had been at odds over Mr. Obama’s plans to launch airstrikes against Syria in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack on civilians. But now Mr. Putin brought up an idea. What if Syria surrendered its stockpiles of poison gas to the international community? Mr. Obama suggested that they have their top diplomats explore it further.
While the proposal appeared to come out of the blue when Russia made it public on Monday after a seemingly offhand comment by Secretary of State John Kerry, it had actually grown out of conversations between Mr. Obama and Mr. Putin going back more than a year. But Mr. Kerry’s remark gave Mr. Putin the opening to spring the idea on the world, seize control of the Syria debate and effectively derail Mr. Obama’s planned strike.
Although skeptical of his Russian counterpart, Mr. Obama has now tentatively embraced the proposal as a possible resolution to his confrontation with President Bashar al-Assad — and at the same time as an escape from a showdown with a Congress poised to reject military action. But as Washington contemplated the many obstacles to the plan on Tuesday, many officials, including some in the White House, wondered whether Mr. Putin was playing Mr. Obama rather than helping out.
(More here.)
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