Syria told: hand over chemical weapons in one week or face attack

Syrian president Bashar Assad was today given a week by America to hand over his regime’s chemical weapons or risk attack.

US secretary of state John Kerry issued the deadline after talks with the British Government in London.

Asked at a press conference at the Foreign Office what Mr Assad could do to avoid US-led military strikes, Mr Kerry said: “Sure, he could turn over every single bit of his chemical weapons to the international community in the next week — turn it over, all of it without delay and allow the full and total accounting [of the weapons].”

But he dismissed the likelihood of this happening, adding: “He isn’t about to do it and it can’t be done.”

He argued that there was compelling evidence the Assad regime used chemical weapons, believed to be the nerve agent sarin, in an attack last month on the outskirts of Damascus. The US says 1,429 people were killed, including more than 400 children. “We know that his regime gave orders to prepare for a chemical attack. We know they deployed forces,” Mr Kerry added.

Foreign Secretary William Hague warned there must be “no impunity for the first use of chemical warfare in the 21st century”, despite the vote in Parliament against Britain joining military intervention. “As an international community, we must deter further attacks and hold those responsible for them accountable,” he said.

Mr Assad denies his regime carried out the attack and is reported to have warned of possible “retaliation” against missile strikes. In an interview with US broadcaster PBS, to be aired today, he is said to have “suggested that there would be, among people that are aligned with him, some kind of retaliation if a strike was made”.

President Barack Obama faces a battle to convince Congress to support military action. His secretary of state will brief Congress on Syria later today, ahead of a White House address by Mr Obama tomorrow.

Russia and Syria urged the US to focus on efforts to convene a peace conference. French President François Hollande, under pressure at home and among European partners to obtain a UN mandate before any military intervention, has suggested he could seek a resolution at the Security Council.

An Italian reporter and a Belgian writer kidnapped in Syria in April were freed yesterday. Domenico Quirico, a journalist for La Stampa, and academic Pierre Piccinin, flew to Rome, where Quirico was embraced by Italy’s foreign minister Emma Bonino. It was unclear who had been holding them. Quirico said he had been “treated badly” and felt as if he had “been living on Mars”.