Obama’s decision not to push for a UN Security Council resolution threatening Syria with the use of force came after a second day of negotiations between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva, unnamed White House officials told The New York Times on Friday.

On Thursday and Friday, Kerry and Lavrov discussed a Russian proposal for putting Syria’s chemical weapons under the control of the UN, a proposal that was welcomed by the Syrian government, and will continue their negotiations for a third day on Saturday.

After Russia offered its diplomatic proposal on Monday, the US, France, and Britain pushed for the authorization to use military force. However, Moscow rejected a proposed UN resolution announced by France, arguing the Russian diplomatic proposal would work only if Washington and its allies “tell us they’re giving up their plan to use force against Syria.”

The US has accused the Syrian government of using chemical weapons in an attack near capital Damascus on August 21.

The Syrian government has categorically rejected the accusations and even Obama’s top aide, White House chief of staff Denis McDonough, has admitted that Washington’s claims are based on a “common-sense test” not any “irrefutable” evidence.

Moreover, a classified document from the US intelligence community’s National Ground Intelligence Center obtained by WND has shown the US military knew that foreign-backed militants in Syria had sarin gas and used it in an attack on civilians and Syrian government forces last March.

The leaked document suggests, former director of the US Congressional Task Force on Terrorism and Unconventional Warfare Yossef Bodansky indicated, that the alleged chemical attack of August 21 near Damascus was perpetrated by the militants to provoke a US military intervention in the Middle Eastern country.

NTJ/SHI