U.S. and Russia extend Syria talks another day

(CNN) -- Talks about talks on Syria provided no answers on Friday to the main question: Will the United States launch a military attack?

Yet the discussions in Geneva involving Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart did produce at least one result -- what was supposed to be a two-day meeting has been extended to Saturday.

"If there was no opening, we wouldn't still be here," a senior State Department official said.

An Obama administration official said separately that "we are coming closer to agreement on the scope of Syria's chemical weapons stockpile."

Yet that's not to say all of the many outstanding issues have been resolved.

Senior U.S. administration officials told reporters on condition of not being identified that the main sticking point was what consequences Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his government should face.

According to the officials, they have no expectations that Russia would agree to any U.N. resolution that included authorization for possible military force against Syria. The United States, therefore, will not insist it be included.

That runs counter to Obama's call for the international community to take action, including a potential military strike, for what the United States and allies call a chemical weapons attack by the al-Assad regime last month that killed more than 1,400 people in suburban Damascus.

Obama has threatened to act alone if necessary, and his administration credits that threat with Russia's surprise proposal last week for Syria to turn over its chemical weapons arsenal to international control.

Outside of the United Nations, however, administration officials insisted they would not take the military threat off the table.

A senior defense official said there has been "no change" in the military's planning or readiness levels and commanders have not been instructed to change their "posture" in any way.

The senior administration officials said the United States wants a U.N. resolution on Syria in coming weeks, signaling the possibility of capitulation to what they called Russia's opposition to any language authorizing military force.

A second round of talks

Even before news came out that the Switzerland talks would stretch into Saturday, Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov signaled their intent to meet again: later this month in New York on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly.

The mind-numbing prospect of yet another round of negotiations in the next few weeks signaled a potentially bigger endgame for the United States and Russia in the hastily arranged meeting they began on Thursday in Geneva and continued Friday.

At first, the Geneva talks were about Russia's proposal Monday for Syria to give up control of its chemical weapons, which the United States had demanded in order for Obama to drop plans to launch military strikes.

Now the stakes have gotten higher, with Kerry telling reporters that progress in the broader peace process will largely depend on whether the current Geneva negotiations on Syria's chemical weapons succeed.

A communique from last year's Syrian peace talks attended by all parties called for a ceasefire and establishing a fully inclusive transitional government to write a new constitution.

Weapons experts say the already major challenge of putting Syria's chemical stockpile under international control would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, amid an active civil war.

The August 21 gas attack that the United States blames on al-Assad's regime caused Obama to threaten a military strike intended to prevent further use of banned chemical weapons.

After months of blocking U.N. action against Syria sought by the United States and European allies, Russia reversed itself with its proposal on Syria's chemical weapons stockpiles.

Al-Assad quickly agreed, leading to the talks between Kerry and Lavrov in Geneva that began Thursday. Syria also told the United Nations on Thursday that it has sent the paperwork for joining the Chemical Weapons Convention, which bans such armaments.

The Syrian submission was being reviewed by U.N. lawyers. If deemed sufficient, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon would register it and Syria would officially be a member state in the convention.

However, al-Assad also insisted Thursday that Obama must drop his threat of military action, a demand echoed by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"A criminal act"

To keep up pressure on al-Assad, Obama told reporters on Friday that last month's alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria was a "criminal" act, and Ban said the Syrian leader "has committed many crimes against humanity, and therefore I am sure there will be surely a process of accountability when everything is over."

In addition, U.S. officials say the mere existence of talks with Russia on the matter is progress, noting that such a prospect would not have been considered just a week ago due to Moscow's repeated efforts to block U.N. action against Syria.

Speaking to reporters Friday after he and Lavrov met with Lakhdar Brahimi, the joint U.N. and Arab League envoy for Syria, Kerry said conversations about Syria's chemical weapons had been "constructive."

Kerry and Lavrov also said they would meet at some point amid the upcoming U.N. General Assembly, which begins September 24, to try to set up a second round of Syrian peace talks.

"We are working hard to find common ground to be able to make that happen. And we discussed some of the homework that we both need to do," Kerry said.

Lavrov said Russia had promoted a peaceful solution to Syria's civil war from when it started in 2011, adding that the communique agreed to in last year's first round of peace talks involving all the parties had been "basically abandoned."

On chemical weapons, Lavrov said international officials had to work together "to design a road which would make sure that this issue is resolved quickly, professionally, as soon as practical."

Al-Assad: Stop the threats

While the Obama administration and its allies accuse the Syrian regime of carrying out the August attack, the Syrian government blames opposition forces.

In response, U.S. officials point out that the rockets that carried the poison gas came from territory controlled by the regime and landed in opposition or contested territory, and that the opposition lacked the capability or access to such armaments to have been responsible.

Citing regulations

Syria has since acknowledged that it possesses chemical weapons and wants to join the global convention that bans them.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh reports that the convention would become legally binding on Syria 30 days after it formally joins, meaning al-Assad's government would have to permit inspections at that time.

After another 30 days -- which would be 60 days from when it formally joined the convention -- Syria would have to declare its chemical weapons stockpiles.

On Thursday, al-Assad noted that joining the convention would give Syria the standard 30 days from compliance to declare its stockpiles, but Kerry responded by expressing concern about that long a time period, saying "we believe there is nothing standard about this process."

At the State Department on Friday, spokeswoman Marie Harf said that "verifying, accounting for securing and destroying a large stockpile of chemical weapons takes time," adding that "it's very difficult to do, particularly in an active war zone."

"If we keep forward momentum, if we believe there's a credible and verifiable plan on the table to do just that, we'll keep moving forward with that process, because resolving this issue diplomatically is certainly preferable to resolving it or to dealing with it with military action," Harf said.

Negotiation beginnings

Kerry publicly broached the idea of Syria turning over control of its chemical weapons in response to a journalist's question Monday that such a step would prevent a U.S. attack.

In a move that appeared to catch the Obama administration by surprise, Russia then formally proposed putting the Syrian chemical arsenal under international control.

The Kerry-Lavrov talks seek to develop a resolution that would go to the U.N. Security Council.

However, Russia's steadfast opposition to any U.N. action on Syria raises questions about whether the Geneva talks are merely a stall tactic to put off any military intervention.

As a permanent member of the Security Council, Russia has blocked previous U.N. action sought by the United States and NATO allies against Syria.

Political hurdles

Obama had tried to put together a NATO coalition to attack Syria, but the British Parliament voted against taking part, denying him a normally reliable ally. Other allies said they wanted U.N. authorization in the form of a Security Council resolution before they would join a coalition.

The president then asked Congress to authorize a military response in Syria but appeared in danger of losing that vote until the Russian proposal Monday provided a diplomatic opening.

In a speech to the nation Tuesday night, Obama made moral and strategic arguments for taking action on Syria, challenging Congress and the American public to look at video footage of victims of the chemical attack.

A U.N. report by inspectors who visited the site of last month's attack is due next week, and Ban said Friday he expected it would show that chemical weapons were used.

While the report won't cast blame, the United States and other nations say all evidence and logic show that al-Assad's regime must have been behind the attack.

Meanwhile, a U.S. official told CNN that CIA-funded weapons have begun flowing to Syrian rebels, as pledged by the administration in June, although some opposition figures said they had yet to receive such weapons.

Some in Washington see the arming of rebel forces as a counterweight to Russia's supplying of al-Assad's government with arms. But there are fears that weapons provided by the United States could end up in the hands of rebel groups affiliated with al Qaeda.