Are the Russians to be trusted?

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov (L) and his Syrian counterpart, Walid al-Mouallem, arrive for a news conference after their talks in Moscow on Monday. (Photo: AP, Ivan Sekretarev)

The fact that the likelihood of a US-led military operation against the Syrian regime has decreased over the past few days is clearly disappointing for those who campaigned in favor of it in Washington.

As it is for the Syrian rebels, who were readying to embark on a decisive assault following the strikes that they hoped would weaken the regime's forces, rather than being a mere face-saving operation for the administration of US President Barack Obama.

Now we are discussing whether or not a Russian proposal for Syria's chemical weaponry to be opened to international inspection and ultimately dismantled will succeed. The question is if the Russians are to be trusted after they have vetoed all three UN Security Council resolutions meant to pressure Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and after they did not hesitate to make a sovereign decision to provide considerable military support to the Syrian regime while it is slaughtering its own people by the thousands every month. It is debatable if Moscow is genuine in its proposal to cleanse Syria of deadly gasses.

Well, I certainly don't feel like entrusting all my hopes for a solution in Syria to Moscow and very much dislike the general Russian approach to the deadly civil war there, but diplomacy is more about the ability to engage with those with whom you disagree than cooperating with your traditional allies. If there is a chance to remove all the chemical weapons from Syria, it should definitely be seized. But this must be done in a very professional fashion, based on a speedy, detailed and credible investigation of these weapons of mass destruction. And the threat of military force if Assad does not comply should remain intact, in contrast to the Russian offer.

We have understood time and again that the US has no clear interest in helping the rebels remove Assad from power. Its strategy is to help them when they are being defeated and not help them when they are winning. Expecting Washington to come put a quick end to a fight when it has enemies on both sides (Iran and Hezbollah on the one hand; extremists on the other) is purely unrealistic. The US is not taking a clear side in this civil war and it is no moral leader for the world. Just like any other government, it is acting based on its own interests and those interests obviously do not necessitate toppling Assad. Let's at least get rid of the chemical weapons. We can still distrust the Russians after that.