Here's the latest, heard at 5:00AM PDT:
The Syrian government has accepted a Russian proposal to turn over its chemical weapons to international control, Syria's foreign minister said Tuesday in a statement.
"Yesterday [Monday] we held a round of very fruitful negotiations with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and he put forward an initiative regarding chemical weapons. Already in the evening we accepted Russia's initiative," Walid Muallem said, according to the Russian news agency and RT.com. The report was also carried by the Associated Press and the Russian news agency Interfax reports.
The statement came as France said it would put before the United Nations Security Council a resolution appealing to the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad to make public the details of its chemical weapons program.The Arab League also announced that it would back the Russian proposal, AFP reports.
I don't know where this is going to lead but I sure hope it defuses the situation. The USA does not deserve or want another war, not even a little one
5:58 AM PT: This just in;
Speaking in Moscow, Walid al-Moallem said his government quickly agreed to the plan to "derail U.S. aggression" — an allusion to possible U.S.-led strikes over a deadly Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack near Damascus that Western powers blame on the Syrian regime. Syrian President Bashar Assad has denied the claim.
Russia, Syria's most powerful ally, is now working with Damascus to prepare a detailed plan of action that will be presented soon, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. Russia will then be ready to finalize the plan with U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.