DHAKA: French foreign minister Laurent Fabius is visiting Moscow to try to persuade Russia to support a UN Security Council resolution on Syria.

On Monday, UN weapons inspectors said the nerve gas sarin was used against civilians on a relatively large scale in a suburb of Damascus last month.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon described it as a war crime.

France is now trying to win support for a UN resolution with the threat of serious consequences.

But Russia, which is Syria’s strongest ally, says the government of president Bashar al-Assad should first be given the chance to give up its chemical weapons.

Fabius will discuss with Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov a possible UN Security Council resolution on the agreement to place Syria’s chemical arsenal under international control, reports the BBC.

BDST: 1337 HRS, SEPT 17, 2013
RoR/BSK