Assad's regime. Recent diplomatic events could create momentum toward a planned peace conference with Syrian government and opposition representatives, Lavrov said. Kerry and Lavrov, whose delegations include US and Russian chemical weapons experts, were expected to continue talks at least through Friday. Russia has proposed four steps, Kommersant newspaper reported: Syrian membership in the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which implements the Chemical Weapons Convention, followed by the declaration, inspection and destruction of the weapons. Kerry said that "technical challenges of trying to do this in the context of a civil war are obviously immense" but not impossible, noting that the US had prepared its own set of principles for chemical disarmament in Syria. Damascus agreed Tuesday to the Russian proposal, which came in the face of a push by the US and France for a military strike to punish Syria's allegedly use of chemical weapons. US President Barack Obamaput military action on hold to allow time for the diplomatic track, leading to the Geneva meeting. --More 23:40 LOCAL TIME 20:40 GMT تغريد
