PRESS RELEASE : Right that Assad be judged by actions more than simply by words – Douglas Alexander [September 2013]

The press release issued by the Labour Party on 12 September 2013.

Douglas Alexander MP, Labour’s Shadow Foreign Secretary, responding to President al-Assad’s assurances that Syria’s chemical weapons will be placed under international control, said:

“No one should be in any doubt as to the murderous nature of the Assad regime and so it is right that Assad be judged by his actions more than simply by his words.

“The challenge confronting Secretary Kerry and Foreign Minister Lavrov today in Geneva is to agree a means to identify, verify, secure and ultimately remove from Assad’s possession those weapons – with the final goal of destroying them altogether.

“Their task over the coming days is to prove that a goal that is desirable, is also doable.”