US and Russia reached a deal that calls for Syria to destroy all of its chemical weapons

Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart have reached a deal that calls for Syria to destroy all of its chemical weapons. The plan, which Kerry announced in a news conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Geneva on Saturday, gives Syria a week to detail its chemical arsenal.

“The world will now expect the Assad regime to live up to its public commitments,” Kerry said. “And as I said at the outset of these negotiations, there can be no games, no room for avoidance, or anything less than full compliance by the Assad regime.”

The apparent breakthrough comes on the third day of talks between Kerry and Lavrov, which began in Geneva on Thursday. It includes a contingency plan to authorize sanctions on Syria if the country does not comply with the deal’s requirements that it list, and then destroy, its complete stockpile of chemical weapons.

Syria would have until the middle of 2014 to finish destroying all of the weapons, Kerry said Saturday. He said that international inspectors must be given access to the arsenal by November.

Chemical weapons inspectors are expected to brief senior U.N. officials this weekend about their report on what the U.S. and others have called an Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack that left more than 1,000 Syrian citizens dead.

“I believe that the report will be an overwhelming, overwhelming report that chemical weapons (were) used, even though I cannot publicly say at this time before I receive this report,” Ban said during a U.N. meeting Friday, Reuters reports.

The U.N. inspection team is led by Sweden’s Ake Sellstrom; many of its conclusions might be made public Monday, after Ban briefs the Security Council, the AP says. Sellstrom told the new agency that he is presenting his findings to Ban this weekend.

–AP