Syria agrees to chemical weapons surrender

Syrian president Bashar al-Assad confirmed his country will hand over its chemical weapons to international control.

Mr Assad says his government has agreed to surrender its chemical weapons in response to Russia's initiative and not because of the US threat of attack.

He told Russia’s state Rossiya 24 news channel in an interview that is set to be broadcast fully later that “Syria is transferring chemical weapons under international control because of Russia.”

He said the US's threat of military action had not been a factor in his decision.

Earlier, US Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Geneva to test the seriousness of the Russian proposal to secure Syria’s chemical weapons.

Mr Kerry and a team of US experts had scheduled at least two days of meetings with their Russian counterparts today and tomorrow.

The meetings, which are liekly to proceed, hope to emerge with an outline of how some 1,000 tons of chemical weapons stocks and precursor materials as well as potential delivery systems can be safely inventoried and isolated under international control in an active war zone and then destroyed.