Syria just "winning time" with Russia proposal?

JERUSALEM Senior Israeli politicians voiced skepticism about Russia's proposal for Syria to surrender its chemical weapons to international control.

Avigdor Lieberman, who chairs the parliament's foreign affairs and defense committee, told Israel Radio on Tuesday that Syria could use the proposal to "buy time."

He said Syrian President Bashar "is winning time and lots of it."

Play Video

Obama: Russia's chemical weapon proposal must be verified, enforced

President Obama called the yet-to-be formulated plan a "potentially positive development" in an interview Monday with CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley.

"Let's see if they're serious," Mr. Obama said in the White House interview. "But we have to make sure that we can verify it and enforce it, and if in fact we're able to achieve that kind of agreement that has Russia's agreement and the [United Nations] Security Council's agreement, then my central concern in this whole episode is resolved."

The president said it would be premature at this point to detail the terms of an agreement that he would accept, but he said the U.S. would be discussing the idea this week with Russia and the rest of the international community.

Hours after President Obama's remarks, the international divide over the significance of the Russian proposal became clear with Israel voicing its skepticism, and Assad's longtime ally Iran offering backing for the deal.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran favors that initiative and we find this to be within putting a halt to militarism in the region," Iranian foreign ministry spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham said Tuesday.

China, which along with Russia has blocked harsh punitive action against Assad from the United Nations Security Council, also welcomed the Russian proposal and said it would support the 11th-hour diplomatic effort.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei made the comments at a regular news briefing, adding that a Syrian opposition delegation was due to visit China from Tuesday.

Syria's foreign minister on Monday said his country welcomed Russia's proposal to avert U.S. military action, and United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon also said he welcomed the proposal.

Syria's response marked the first official acknowledgement from the Assad regime that it even possesses chemical weapons. In an interview conducted Sunday by Charlie Rose, Assad again refused to admit that his government has stockpiles of chemical weapons estimated by many observers to include hundreds of tons of lethal chemical agents.

Noting their refusal up until Monday to acknowledge the existence of the weapons, White House spokesman Jay Carney said that while the U.S. would "work with the Russians and speak with them" about their proposal, "we would have some skepticism about the Assad regime's credibility."