In what may be a major turning point in the war in Syria, the United States and Russia struck a deal over the weekend that, for the moment, takes American military strikes off the table.
The two countries agreed on a plan to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal, requiring Syria to turn over a complete accounting of its weapons within a week. International inspectors will be sent in to collect and destroy those weapons by the end of November, with the complete elimination of Syria’s chemical weapons capabilities by the first half of 2014.
But there’s still the potential for much to go wrong–and President Barack Obama has ordered American destroyers to stand ready in the eastern Mediterranean Sea for the possibility of a military strike.
While the deal is being hailed as a success, some rebel fighters believe the United States has fallen short, handing a victory to regime leader Bashar al-Assad while doing nothing to stop the war or the killings in Syria every day.
With us to discuss this is Dr. Amr Al-Azm, Associate Professor Middle East History and Anthropology at Shawnee State University, and a member of the Syrian opposition.