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Henry Kissinger believes Syria will comply with 90% of demands on chemical weapons

He believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin has firmly decided that removing the chemical weapons out of Syria is in Russia’s interests
Photo EPA/LAURENT GILLIERON
Photo EPA/LAURENT GILLIERON

WASHINGTON, September 22 (Itar-Tass) -- Administration of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will “comply with 90%” of what it is supposed to do under the terms of the Russian-U.S. agreement to place the arsenals of Syrian chemical weapons under international control, believes the former U.S. Secretary of State, Nobel Peace Prize winner Henry Kissinger.

He said it Sunday in an interview with the CBS.

“My guess would be they would comply with 90% of what they are supposed to do,” Kissinger said.

He believes that Russian President Vladimir Putin has firmly decided that removing the chemical weapons out of Syria is in Russia’s interests. “Trust the Russians to pursue their own interests,” he said.

Kissinger stressed the fact he was in the minority of those thinking a solution of the Syrian crisis through the removal of Assad “was not the best way to go.”

In the first place, he said he did not find the conflict in Syria to be a struggle between Assad and the masses of people. He viewed it as fighting between the Alawite and Sunni groups and “therefore the removal of one man would not solve the problem.”

Syria’s paradox, according to Kissinger, is that civil peace there relies on the coexistence of both groups, and hence “a total victory for one side would lead to a high probability of a massacre.”

“I think we now have a possibility that we can talk about elements of peace and Russia and we together other interested countries can distill some sort of peace process out of the removal of chemical weapons,” he said.