For me there were no surprises at the press conference in Paris. All the harsh statements by Fabius, Hague and Kerry were to safe face after being outmaneuvered by Putin last week. Kerry tried his best to present the three as a strong coalition having identical goals. I found nothing disturbing in their statements, as all three had to backtrack from earlier war rhetoric and having their credibility undermined.

It doesn't seem Russian FM Lavrov appreciated the hard talk by the three and gave a rebuttal from Moscow.

Force rebels to talk peace - Russia

(RT) - Meanwhile Lavrov said it may be time for the West to force the Syrian opposition to attend the planned Geneva conference. He was speaking in Moscow after meeting Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy. He added that the plan that Russia agreed to follow did not involve any automatic use of military force against Syria unless sanctioned by the UN Security Council.

Lavrov stressed that the exact details of the terms for the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons stockpile are yet to be determined by the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC), while the future UNSC resolution is to endorse the decision of that organization rather than enforce particular terms on its own. This is part of the agreement the US and Russia reached, he said.

The destruction of the stockpiles would be the responsibility of the Syrian government and the CWC [meant to say OPCW in The Hague - Oui], the Russian minister pointed out, but international community may be required to provide "additional international personnel" to provide security at the sites where the weapons would be scrapped.

'Best way to get rid of Assad': France urges strong UN resolution

○ UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria probing 14 cases of alleged chemical weapon attacks
○ Ban Ki-moon will present UN Inspection Report to Security Council members at 15:15GMT today

'Sapere aude'