On the night of September 28, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution demanding the destruction of Syrian chemical weapons. According to the Associated Press , the document was unanimously supported by all 15 members of the UN Security Council.

The resolution provides for harsh consequences for the Syrian authorities in case of non-compliance, however, foreign military intervention in this situation will be possible only if the UN Security Council adopts a separate resolution.

In addition, the document also calls on the government of Bashar al-Assad and opposition groups to begin a dialogue with a view to a political settlement of the conflict.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the adoption of the resolution “the first encouraging news on Syria in a long time.”

The conflict in Syria began in March 2011 with protests against the government of Bashar al-Assad and soon escalated first into armed clashes between rebels and troops, and then into a full-fledged civil war. According to the UN, more than 100 thousand people became its victims.

For a long time, the international community could not develop a unified approach to resolving the issue: while Western countries and the monarchies of the Persian Gulf declared their support for the rebels and blamed the bloodshed on the regime of Bashar al-Assad, Russia and China insisted on the legitimacy of the ruling regime and on resolving the conflict diplomatically way. Due to differences in the positions of the permanent members of the UN Security Council, all resolutions on Syria submitted for its consideration were rejected.

In August 2013, after the use of chemical weapons in the suburbs of Damascus, which killed one and a half thousand people, US authorities began planning a military strike on Syria. Under these conditions, official Damascus accepted Russia’s proposal to transfer chemical weapons under international control with a view to their subsequent destruction.

The UN Security Council adopted a resolution on Syria