Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — Congress has begun to question the U.S.-Russian accord
that suspended plans to attack Syria.

Two leading senators have dismissed the U.S.-Russian accord designed to
eliminate Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal. Sen. Lindsey Graham and Sen.
John McCain asserted that the CW agreement was meaningless.

“I wish I could see the recent agreement between Russia and the United States to rid the [President Bashar] Assad regime of its chemical weapons as a major breakthrough,” McCain said. “Unfortunately, I cannot.”

In an address to the Council on Foreign Relations on Sept. 17, McCain said he was concerned that President Barack Obama mishandled the crisis with Syria after its alleged CW attack that killed nearly 1,500 people on Aug. 21. The senator, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he envisioned Assad cheating and lying in an attempt to implement the plan to end Syria’s CW program.

“The fact is, the Assad regime will likely avoid any meaningful punishment for its use — not just possession, but use — of weapons of mass destruction,” McCain said.

On Sept. 18, the United States backed away from a key element of the
accord: that Assad declare his CW arsenal within a week. The State
Department said the administration would only want to see “forward momentum”
by Sept. 21.

“We’ve never said it was a hard and fast deadline,” State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said.

Earlier, Graham and McCain, who lobbied Congress to support Obama’s
initial decision to attack Syria, warned that the U.S.-Russian agreement
sent an alarming signal to America’s allies. They said the suspension of
U.S. plans to attack Syria would only embolden Iran.

“What concerns us most is that our friends and enemies will take the
same lessons from this agreement: They see it as an act of provocative
weakness on America’s part,” the two senators said. “We cannot imagine a
worse signal to send to Iran as it continues its push for a nuclear weapon.”

The joint statement was not believed to reflect a majority of Congress.
Both Democrats and Republicans have cast doubts on the effectiveness of any
U.S. strike on the Assad regime and expressed preference for a diplomatic
solution.

McCain said the U.S.-Russian agreement would intensify the war in Syria
and make it impossible for the United Nations to monitor Assad’s CW arsenal.
He also cited a report that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was
accelerating training of Shi’ites throughout the Middle East to fight for
the Assad regime.

“Americans need to care about the conflict in Syria because it is
becoming a failed state in the heart of the Middle East; because it is a
growth hormone for Al Qaida and its terrorist allies; because it is now a
regional catastrophe that threatens the very existence of some of our
closest friends and allies, who are indispensable to the safety of every
American; and because it is the central front of the Iranian regime’s battle
to dominate the Middle East,” McCain said.

  Sen. John McCain, Sen. Lindsey Graham, Syria’s chemical weapons, U.S.-Russia deal on Syria decried in Congress as ‘act of provocative weakness’