BICOM

Prominent Israeli leaders expressed cautious optimism over the US-Russia plan to bring Syria’s nuclear stockpile under international control, which was announced over the weekend by US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

The plan requires the Assad regime to disclose full details of its chemical weapons within seven days and demands unfettered access for inspectors to relevant locations by November with weapons scheduled to be removed for destruction by mid-2014. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu commented on the plan yesterday during a speech at a military memorial ceremony, saying “We hope the understandings reached between the United States and Russia regarding the Syrian chemical weapons will yield results… the complete destruction of all of the chemical weapons stockpiles that the Syrian regime has used against its own people.”

Later in the day, Netanyahu discussed the plan with Kerry in Jerusalem and at a joint press conference said, “The world needs to ensure that radical regimes don’t have weapons of mass destruction” as Syria has shown that rogue regimes will use them. Kerry said that the agreement “set a marker for the standard of behaviour” across the world and adamantly warned that “the threat of force is real” if the Assad regime fails to comply.

Meanwhile, Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz echoed Netanyahu’s comments, telling Army Radio “Like any deal it will be judged on its results. We hope it will succeed.” Steinitz said that “The deal has advantages and disadvantages” but praised the requirement for Syria to comprehensively “dismantle the manufacturing facilities and to never again produce chemical weapons.” Meanwhile, Yisrael Beitenu leader and former-Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman also spoke to Army Radio saying “The arrangement with Syria is good for Israel in principle if it means Syria will have no chemical weapons, but the test will be in its implementation.”