>> of course, watch his interview with prince william this sunday 10:00 p.m. eastern on cnn. you're not going to want to miss that one. >> thanks for watching "around the world." >> "cnn newsroom" starts right now. >> see you tomorrow. right now the united states is trying to determine if syria's serious about giving up its chemical weapons. crucial talks and a plan to avoid u.s. military action about to get under way. also, the white house press secretary preparing for some tough questions on the syria crisis and the president's policies. today's white house briefing expected to start within this hour. also right now, emergency crews in colorado are responding to dozens of calls from people trapped by raging floodwaters. you'll see dramatic rescue that played out on live tv a little while ago.

i'm wolf blitzer in washington. we'll have a live report on the deadly flooding in colorado in a few minutes. first, it's a high stakes diplomatic effort to deal with the kris and in syria. secretary of state john kerry about to meet with his russian counterpart in switzerland. hoping for opening statements to bring you live. talks aimed at getting rid of syria's chemical weapons and avoiding a u.s. military strike. kerry and the ruren foreign inst minister meeting this hour. bashar al assad said syria would only turn over its weapons if the u.s. drops its threat of military action. still, president obama says he's ready to give diplomacy a chance. >> i am hopeful that the discussions that senator -- secretary kerry had with foreign minister lavrov as well as some of the other players in this can

yield a concrete result. and i know that he is going to be working very hard over the next several days to see what the possibilities are there. >> chief national security correspondent jim sciutto's traveling with the secretary in geneva. first, our senior international correspondent nick paton walsh at the united nations where there are important developments unfolding. nick, tell our views are what you've learned. >> reporter: a very big deal here. the u.n. confirmed to us that the syrian mission has sent to them a letter in which they ask to join the chemical weapons convention of 1993. now the terms of that basically say a country has to get rid of all of its stockpiles of chemical weapons, anything used to create them within a period of ten years. i've been speaking to an expert who explained a little more how this works now. he said that the act of actually joining this convention means you accept all of its terms, you are agreeing to the destruction of all of the weapons and that

within 30 days of joining, those provisions within that particular convention become binding. so syria's stuck with what it's agreed to hear within 30 days. we've had a lot of caveats from bashar al assad in interviews he's been giving. we haven't seen the full text of the letter, but the u.n. is confirming this secession which is quite a big game changer here, wolf. >> also, once again, within the past few days, the syrian regime of bashar al assad, they're finally acknowledging publicly they do in fact have chemical weapons. earlier they wouldn't confirm that. u.s. officials, i can tell you and all of our viewers, think think is a big deal, the syrians are telling the world, yes, syria has chemical weapons stockpiles and, yes, syria's now ready to destroy those chemical weapons under certain conditions. i assume at the united nations, they're pleased by these developments? >> reporter: well, certainly if this inds up being what it says on being on the can, on the tin,

it a big deal because syria's saying they will hand over weapons and it's maybe the peaceful outcome all parties wanted. how would you bring this through? i have spoken to a diplomat familiar with the resolution, france, america, britain have put forward and that's continuing separately. that would give syria 15 days to declare its stockpiles and under the part of the u.n. charter known as chapter 7, complicated here, but you can use all necessary measures for humanitarian issues under a resolution like that. the pressure certainly up. but syria, if this letter of asecession proves or the u.n. says it actually is, making a substantial move here, wolf. >> thank you very much. let's go to geneva now, jim sciut sciutto. we're told the secretary and foreign minister, they will be making opening statements at the bottom of this hour.

we'll have live coverage of that here on cnn. but set the scene for us. i know you flew over from washington to geneva with the secretary. what are they saying to you, he and his aides? >> reporter: well, we were quizzing them on the flight to see how seriously they're taking this russian proposal. their answer is they wouldn't be here if they didn't think there was potential. that said, it's safe to say they're coming here with a healthy dose of skepticism. in their view a chance for the russians and syrians to show their card. one u.s. official said it's a chance to see if the russians and syrians are saying. this depends on bashar al assad's cooperation. how will you know he's a willing and responsible participant? the first step is how forthcoming he is with all of the details about syria's chemical weapons sites. that will be a first step to move this from the 30,000-foot level to nitty-gritty how to

collect the weapons, catalog them, and destroy them. >> did you get a sense they were encouraged, upbeat, still skeptical, that this diplomatic arrangement might bear some serious fruit? give us a little flavor behind the scenes. >> reporter: i wouldn't say upbeat. look at this team, we saw secretary kerry on the flight as well, in the last ten days, really, he was giving a speech last friday, a week ago friday, preparing for an imminent military strike, then spending a week on the hill pushing congress to give authorization for force. now plan c in effect, this peaceful diplomatic solution to it. they're in a show-me mood, show me the money mood, they want to see immediate proof that the russians are serious and the syrians are serious. >> jim sciutto, we'll be checking back with you. john kerry and sergey lavrov making opening statements at the bottom of the hour.

live coverage, that's coming up. if you happen to be going through "the new york times" today you may have noticed an interesting op-ed. there was -- it was wrint by tt the president vladimir putin, explaining russia's involvement and goals in the syria peace plan it's put forward. here's part of what the russian president said. from the outset, russia advocated peaceful dialogue, enabling syrians to develop a compromised plan for their own future. we are not protecting the syrian government but international law. the law is still the law. and we must follow it, when we like it or not. forces permitted only in self-defense or by the decision of the security council. anything else is unacceptable. that's a direct quote from the article. putin seemed to take exception with this comment from president obama's address to the nation the other night. here's what the president had to say. >> america's not the world's

policeman. terrible things happen across the globe and it is beyond our means to right every wrong. but when with modest effort and risk we can stop children from being gassed to death and theres by make our own children safer over the long run, i believe we should act. that's what makes america different. that's what makes us exceptional. >> exceptional, key word. putin's rebuttal, i would disagree with a case he made on american exceptionalism, stating that the united states' policy is what makes america different. it's what makes us exceptional. it is extremely dangerous, putin writes to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional whatever the motivation. so what was the reaction to this supposed slam? the white house official said, i'm quoting, that's all irrelevant. they want to see diplomacy clearly work. let's bring in cnn's fareed

zakaria, host of "fareed zakaria gps" which airs sundays here on cnn. this op-ed on syria, it's extraordinary when you think about it, that putin is directly anxious to speak to the american people. what's your take on what's going on? >> we've always known that putin has wanted to set himself up in some way in opposition to the idea of a kind of benign american leadership of the world. he's always viewed that as being part of his role to revive and restore russia to its position of power but also as kind of another poll. i'm not -- it's not the opposite poll, but he wants it to be another voice and another center of power in the world. and this is very much in keeping with that. you see it's very smart. it's well-argued. but it's relentless in its opposition to the united states

and that part you picked up on, the dig about american exceptionalism was one part of it. >> could this be the best path, at least from his perspective, bashar al assad, to saying, you know what? i'm going to give up my chemical weapons, acknowledge i have chemical weapons, let the u.n. come in destroy those chemical weapons? assuming he's thinking maybe this is the only way i remain in power in damascus? do you think he's thinking along those lines? >> you know, for assad, clearly it is some kind of an exit strategy that might allow him to stay in power. i wouldn't say it's the best case for him because he built up this enormous chemical weapons arsenal and it's huge, largely because it was aware of threatening people, scaring people, of keeping people in line. it's also in part meant to be a deterrent against israel, the feeling waser. has nuclear weapons, israel has a much stronger military force, the syrians always wanted to have something that they thought the israelis would be scared of.

so he's giving up all of that. but you're right, it seems to be a way of somehow getting the international community to view him as a negotiating partner because after all he would have to guarantee the safety of inspectors, he would have to be the guarantor of these agreements and as such he becomes more clearly recognized as the sovereign authority in syria. >> there may have been some zigs and zags, sloppy statements over the past couple of weeks, but you're ready to give the president some credit now for where the situation stands right now, is that right? >> i think he salvaged the situation. look, the whole year has been much too much ad hoc improvisation, there's been a lot of muddling. but what he has done in the last few days, i think, has been smart where he's taken the russian proposal seriously and clarified what exactly it is he wants to do in syria.

it's never been entirely clear. he now that in speech made clear we want to deal with chemical weapons, we want to deter their further use, we're not going for regime change. if you focus in on that, he's already achieved some success, right? you already have international public opinion mobilized on this issue. he's raised awareness on it. and as you pointed out, the syrian government saying it will sign the chemical weapons treaty, the russians are encouraging them to do so, that requires they do a full accounting of all chemical weapons, it requires that they show inspectors where they are. so they may not do all of it, but you're already much further than you would have been with strikes. air strikes don't destroy chemical weapons. you never try to hit the chemical weapons sites because that would release toxins in the atmosphere. the air strikes are purely punitive. this strategy has the possibility within it of actually getting rid of the weapons. >> it's one thing to deter the

syrians from using chemical weapons, it's one thing to degrade their capability to use chemical weapons, but it's a totally different thing to completely eliminate and destroy all of their chemical weapons. you make a good point, fareed. thanks very, very much. remember, we're standing by to hear from the secretary of state john kerry and the russian foreign minister, sergey lavrov, both in geneva ready to begin their important discussions. both getting ready to make statemented to the news media. live coverage right here in the "cnn newsroom." don't go too far away. much more on the crisis in syria coming up. into but there's another story, an extremely frightening situation in northern colorado. torrential downpours have triggered deadly flash flooding in boulder county. the raging waters are washing away homes, setting off rock and mudslides that are closing roads. at least three people have been killed.

rescue crews getting calls all day from people trapped in water and under debris. one of those amazing rescues captured on videotape. look at this.

>> what an amazing rescue. ana cabrera joining us live in boulder. ana, it just great to see that they rescued this individual. how many of those dramatic rescues, as far as we know, have been carried out today alone? >> reporter: we know about at least a few, but certainly there are likely countless others. and there are still dozens of people who need to be rescued that officials that are there trying to get to them just can't get access just yet. we heard in one case, the national weather service reporting a 20-foot wall of

water coming down trapping a firefighter in a tree. the water you see rushing over the roadway behind me here inside the city of boulder is six inches deep. this is mild. really not anything compared to the stories that we're hearing. hearing of water 6 to 8 feet deep, debris walls up to 10 feet high. the national guard is now on its way. we have new information about their numbers. 65 national guard troops on their way to the boulder area to assist in some emergency rescue efforts. entire communities isolated, cut off, from anybody coming and going because of the dangerous and deep floodwaters. in fact, one town without water, without electricity, and there are actually emergency crews also stranded in those towns. there are other places where they have lost homes. we know of several house collapsing. however they couldn't give us numbers we asked how many there might be, how many people may be

trapped and they said right now they're still trying to wrap their heads around the scope of this disaster and the number of people who need help. they've been getting inundated by call from people saying help me, help me, and they describe their response as frustrating because rescue crews say they're frustrated. they can't get to the people who need help. it's just as dangerous for them to get into those areas as it is for the residents who are trapped in those particular zones. so, this is a disaster that is likely to continue to play out and we continue to learn more and get new pictures we'll be sharing with you on cnn. stay with us throughout the day and even into tomorrow or the next day as rain continues to fall and these flash floodwaters continue to ripple through the city and county of boulder and across colorado. wolf? >> be careful over there. ana cabrera reporting from the scene, dramatic video, indeed. coming up, is congress now out of the equation when it comes to syria? the democratic, the minority

whip of the house of representatives, steny hoyer, standing by live. we'll talk about that. also ask him about the impending domestic agenda, what moves to the front burner right now? there's a lot going on. stay with us. we'll be right back. just by talking to a helmet. it grabbed the patient's record before we even picked him up. it found out the doctor we needed was at st. anne's. wiggle your toes. [ driver ] and it got his okay on treatment from miles away. it even pulled strings with the stoplights. my ambulance talks with smoke alarms and pilots and stadiums. but, of course, it's a good listener too. [ female announcer ] today cisco is connecting the internet of everything. so everything works like never before.

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in from geneva, switzerland. secretary of state john kerry and the russian foreign minister lavrov ready to meet, getting ready to discuss the russian peace proposal. designed to destroy syria's chemical weapons stockpile. certainly discuss dominating the discussions on syria right now, dominating those discussions from the kremlin to capitol hill hre in washington. joining us now, the house minority whip, steny hoyer, the democrat from maryland. congressman, thanks for coming in. >> glad to be with you, wolf. >> let's talk about this russian plan to destroy syria's chemical weapons. i assume you think this is all positive that potentially it could bear fruit, is that right in. >> certainly i think it's a very positive possibility. and if it bears fruit, it's going to be a very good resolution of this issue.

as you said earlier, talking to fareed, not just the deterring, but the removal of chemical weapons and the inability to use them at all. that's a very positive prospect. let's hope it it's real and that's what, of course, secretary kerry is now trying to determine. the syrians have sent a letter to the united nations saying that they're going to sign the convention on chemical weapons. that is very great progress. in my view, all made because the president was willing to use force, use military force, to dissuade and to degrade the ability of the syrians to use their chemical weapons. so, yes, i think this is a positive possibility but it's only a possibility. we'll see whether or not it's real. as reagan said, you've got to trust but verify. we're in the process of verifying at this point in time. >> we should get clues in the

next few hours as how this meeting goes between kerry and lavrov in geneva. we're getting ready to hear what they have to say at start of the negotiations, presumably come up with compromise language that could be brought before the united nations security council. >> wolf -- >> i want to move on to domestic issues. quickly, congressman, if you would have had to vote on a resolution authorizing the use of force in syria, you would have voted yea, correct? >> that's correct. i believe it was necessary to give the president authority to act. first of all, it was warranted because of the use of these weapons which, for a century now, had been weapons in which the international community said must not be used because of their terrible, terrible aspects and indiscriminate impact on people and children and families unrelated to any kind of warfare. as a result, i think the president took the right action and i'm pleased to see that it's

had a very positive result so far. clearly the russians would never, never have interceded in this way. the syrians would never have responded with respect to the chemical convention on warfare but for the president's willingness to act. >> at the end of the month, the federal government runs out of money. you've got to pass this continuing resolution to keep the government running, otherwise there's going to be a government shutdown. we all remember in the '90s what happened twice on those occasions. a lot of republicans in the house are ready to authorize completely fund the government. but they don't want to fund obama care, the health care law. in order to keep the government running and have no government shut down, are you ready to skep that condition? >> no. you know this obsessive focus on the repeal of the affordable care act and using -- taking

that hostage for -- to fiscal responsibility is simply unacceptable. the president has no intention of doing that. very frankly, all of the reasonable republicans that i've talked to know that it's a nonstarter. john boehner and eric cantor know it's a nonstarter. they talk about it but they try to set up a procedure where they would make their point for the 41st time that they want to see at fordable care act repealed and then go on with a cr, with a continuing resolution, which would be supportable by the united states senate. i have issues with it, but that aside, it is the obsession with saying, either do what i want you to do or i am going to act in a fiscally irresponsible way. >> what about delaying implementation for a year? the president has delayed some parts of the implementation for a year. what about that compromise? in i don't think that's a compromise. the affordable care act was

given three, four years to be implemented. it's now about to be implemented october 1, where the market place will be open people will be able to choose health care and give affordable quality health care to at least 30 million more people than have availability to it now. we think that's very important. it's been a tough fight. very frankly, we need to see how it works, correct it where it doesn't, and make sure it works properly to do what we want it to do and that's provide affordable health care to our people. >> we've got to leave it however, congressman. in order to keep the government running and not see a shutdown, to fund the government for another year, this is a nonstarter as far as you're concerned. you'd rather see the government shut down than delay implementation of obama care for a year? >> nobody wants to see the government shut down. nobody ought to put it in that context. we had an election in 2012.

na election the affordable le health care act was a major issue. the american people elected obama. the losers to the presidential elections to say unless you do what we want you to do, that we lost at the ballot box, unless you do that, we're going to shut down government. that is not an acceptable alternative. >> steny hoyer, minority whip in the house of representatives. congressman, thanks for joining us. >> you bet. thank you, wolf. we're standing by to hear from the secretary of state john kerry. also the russian for minister sergey lavrov, there they are, not yet, but walking into the room in geneva, switzerland, making statement as the start of their negotiations on eliminating, destroying syria's chemical weapons stockpiles. live coverage continues right after this. [ female announcer ] it's simple physics... a body at rest tends to stay at rest... while a body in motion tends to stay in motion. staying active can actually ease arthritis symptoms.

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at this hour an exercise in crisis diplomacy history unfolding at geneva, switzerland, right now. the secretary of state, john kerry, ready to meet with his russian counterpart sergey

lavrov, making statements momentarily. live coverage coming up in the "cnn newsroom." they will try to iron out the details of russia's plan to put syria's chemical weapons stockpiles under international control. let's bring in our foreign affairs correspondent jill dougherty in moscow watching what's going on. jill, russia clearly taking the lead role right now in getting syrian president bashar al assad to not only put his chemical weapons under control, but eventually destroy them. and bashar al assad is now speaking out. >> reporter: right. he was in an interview on russia 24 television and in that interview he went through the stages, he said, wolf, they will hand over documents to the united nations and to the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons, that they'll sign the convention on that, that it would go into effect within a month of signing, giving information about you know the stores of

chemical weapons that they have. but there's a part in there, a caveat, where he says, when we see that the united nations really wants stability in our region and has not -- will stop threatening and striving to attack and stop providing weapons to the terrorists, then we'll consider that we can carry out these necessary processes to the end. in other words, what he's saying is, we'll do it if the united states stops threatening us. let's listen to bashar al assad. >> translator: i want to clearly express to everyone that these mechanisms will not be carried out unilaterally. this is not mean syria will sign these documents, carry out the conditions and that's it. this bilateral process is based, first of all, on the united states stopping its policy of threatening syria. also, to the degree that the russian proposal is accepted. >> reporter: yeah, so wolf, that's a question, is that a

sticking point? is that going to become a problem in geneva? after all, president putin in fact, just a day or two ago, said very same thing, you can't expect syria to disarm if the united states is still holding the threat of military action. so we'll have to see how this plays at that meeting in geneva. >> well, we're waiting to hear directly from the secretary of state and the russian foreign minister, they're making statements. we'll have live coverage of that. how much play, if any, jill, is putin's op-ed in "the new york times" getting in russia? >> reporter: quite a lot. and a lot of people are standing and applauding, saying that you know, what he's saying in that is really what he's been saying all along, is that this would be a big mistake for the united states to take military action. but other side to it, wolf, where he's essentially saying, president obama, it would be a mistake for the united states to take that action.

and also that comment about alarming that the united states intervenes militarily in other countries and he says, is it in america's long-term interests? i don't think so. there's a lot of personal chastising of the united states, which isn't going down well obviously, in washington. >> let them do the personal chastising, if they can destroy syria's chemical weapons stockpiles that would be worth the personal chastising, as you say. thanks very much. standing by to hear from secretary of state john kerry, the russian foreign minister lavrov. live coverage of their remarks at the top of the meetings. gloria borger standing by, william cohen is here as well. full reporting and analysis after this. i'm a careful investor. when you do what i do, you think about risk. i don't like the ups and downs of the market, but i can't just sit on my cash.

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together with secretary of state, he has just started speaking in geneva. sergey lavrov. let's listen in translator. >> translator: ideas about what we're going to do. you understand well before we start to tell you what we are going to do. we should get down to a very serious work, the work which is dedicated to principal agreement to solve once and until the end, the syrian problem and syria to the convention, chemical weapons convention to the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons these documents are officially tabled by damascus to the corresponding agencies and we'll have to have a look at corresponding documents with the participation of experts that have all all the qualifications and to work further, not to

postpone this process in strict compliance with the rules that are established by the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons. we proceed from the fact that this solution of the problem will make unnecessary any strike on the republic and i'm convinced that our american colleagues as president obama stated firmly convinced that we should follow the peaceful way of resolution of the conflict in syria and i should say that we spoke by phone several times when we prepared for this meeting. we think that the development of the events gives us an additional opportunity for geneva, too, in order to move this situation from this stage of military confrontation and to prevent any terrorist threats

which is expanding in syria and in the region and convene the conference to reach the syrian in accordance with -- should agree on the creation of the transition bodies that we'll have all of the executive functions and this is our common objectives. and i hope that our today's and tomorrow efforts and all other efforts we continue will help to move on and achieve this objective. thank you for your attention. >> well, thank you very much, mr. lavrov. my privilege to be here with our delegation. i want to thank you and your delegation on behalf of all of the people who hoped that diplomacy can avoid military action and we thank you for

coming quickly to geneva in order to have this important conversation that we will engage in. over one year ago, president obama and president putin directed high-level experts in our governments, both of our governments, to work together to prepare contingencies involving syria's chemical weapons. prime minister lavrov and i have been in regular contact about this issue since my visit to moscow earlier this year. and as foreign minister lavrov said to me it a phone conversation, after st. petersburg and meeting there's, president putin and president obama thought it would be worthwhile for us to work together to determine if there is life in this concept. this challenge obviously took on grave urgency on august 21st when the syrian regime used

chemical weapons in a massive and indiscriminate way against its own citizens. president obama and dozens of our partners believe that that action is unacceptable and we have in no uncertain terms made it clear that we cannot allow that to happen again. in light of what has happened, the world wonders and watches closely whether or not the assad regime will live up to its public commitments that it's made to give up their chemical weapons and whether two of the world's most powerful nations can, together, take a critical step forward in order to hold the regime to its stated promises. i have seen reports that the syrian regime has suggested that as part of the standard process they ought to have 30 days to submit data on their

technical -- on their chemical weapons stockpile. we believe there is nothing standard about this process at this moment because of the way the regime has behaved because not only existence of these weapons but they have been used. and the words of the syrian regime in our judgment are simply not enough, which is why we've come here in order to work with the russians and work with sergey lavrov and his delegation in order to make certain this can be achieved. the united states and russia have had and continue to have our share of disagreements about the situation in syria, including a difference as to the judgment we just offered with respect to who may have done that.

but what's important as we come here is that there's much that we agree on. we agree that on august 21st syrian men, women and children died grotesque deaths due to chemical weapons. we agree that no one, anywhere, at any time, should employ chemical weapons. and we agree that our joining together with the international community to eliminate stockpiles of these weapons in syria would be an historic moment for the multilateral nonproliferation efforts. we agree on those things. we agree that it would help to save lives if we can accomplish this. that it would reduce the threat to the region, that it would uphold the norm that was established here in geneva almost a century ago, and that it would achieve the best of our -- all of our aspirations

for curbing weapons of mass destruction. prime minister lavrov and i have come to geneva today to begin to test these propositions, not just on behalf of each of our countries but on behalf of everybody who is interested in a peaceful resolution. so i welcome the distinguished russian delegation and i am proud that at president obama's direction we have a delegation here which i lead of some of our nation's foremost chemical weapons experts, people who dedicate their lives every day to countering the proliferation of these weapons and to bringing about their eventual elimination from this earth. the russian delegation has put some ideas forward and we're grateful for that. we respect it. and we have prepared our own principles that any plan to accomplish this needs to

encompass. expectations are high. they are high for the united states, perhaps even more so for russia to deliver on the promise of this moment. this is not a game. and i said that to my friend when we talked about it initially. it has to be real. it has to be comprehensive. it has to be verifiable. it has to be credible. it has to be timely and implemented in a timely fashion. finally, there ought to be consequences. if it doesn't take place. diplomacy is and always has been president obama's and this administration's first resort. achieving a peaceful resolution is clearly preferable to military action. president obama has said that, again and again. it's too early to tell whether

or not these efforts will succeed. but the technical challenges of trying to do this in the context of the civil war are obviously immense. but despite how difficult this is, with the collaboration of our experts, and only with the compliance from the assad regime, we do believe there is a way to get this done. we have come here to define a potential path forward that we can share with our international partners. and together we will test the assad regime's commitment to follow through on its promises. we are serious, mr. prime minister, we are serious as you are, engaging in substantive meaningful negotiations, even as our military maintains its current posture to keep up the

pressure on the assad regime. only the credibe threat of force and the intervention of president putin and russia based on that has brought the assad regime to acknowledge for the first time that it even has chemical weapons and an arsenal and that is now prepared to relinquish it. president obama has made clear that should diplomacy fail, force might be necessary to defer and degrade assad's capacity to deliver these weapons. it won't get rid of them, but it could change his willingness to use them. the best thing to do, we agree, is remove them altogether. our challenge here in geneva is to test the viability of placing assad's chemical weapons under international control, removing them from syria, and destroying them forever. that the united states has

always made clear that the deaths of more than 100,000 syrians and the displacement of millions either intuernally or s refugees remains a stain on the world's conscience. we all need to keep that in mind and deal with it. and that is why, foreign minister lav love and i continue to work with joint special envoy and ourselves around the auspices of the geneva communique, the foreign secretary mentioned this in his hopes, we share those hopes that could foster a political solution to a civil war that undermines the stability of the region, threatens our own national security interests, and compels us to act. that is our hope and that is what we fervently hope can come out of this meeting and these negotiations. thank you very much.

>> two words. >> translator: i'm not prepared with the political statement today of the syrian problem because of our approaches are clear and they have and in his article in the "new york times," and all of you read this article, and i decided not to lay out here our diplomatic decision. and trying to find compromises and i'm sure that in his presentation of the american position also showed that they would like to find mutual consensus and be moving forward this way. i hope we will achieve all the successes. >> can you give me the last part of the translation, please? hello? >> translator: yes, hello. >> you want me to take your word

for it? a little early for that. >> thank you. >> thanks. >> so they obviously know each other. they seem to be friendly there, the russian foreign minister, the secretary of state, john kerry. they met on numerous occasions, had numerous phone conversations, but they came to an agreement, there is a potential opportunity to do away with syria's chemical weapons stockpiles. gloria borger is here, william cohen, the former defense secretary during the clinton administration is here. what do you think? is there a serious chance right now they can do what they both apparently want, destroy syria's chemical weapons in. >> they're starting from completely different positions. secretary kerry laid out the case that assad has in fact used chemical weapons and killed at least 1500 people, 400 being children. foreign minister lavrov has said read the putin op-ed page in the

"new york times," which i think was an exercise in huchutzpah, invoke the pope and god in making his arguments on whether the united states should take action, but clearly in that article, president putin was saying it was the rebels who did it and not assad. you have a situation in which the russians basically are pleading like a crimial lawyer. my client wasn't there, if he was there, he didn't do knngs. if he did something, he was acting in self defense. that's the framework they're both acting under. is it serious? secretary kerry said it must be serious, real time, and enforceable. can that be done under the circumstances with the civil war? we have to take a lot of cold showers on the way to resolving this because the u.s. position is we have a credible threat of military action in the event assad is simply going through the motions and the russians have taken the position of

taking away the force. hopefully diplomacy can prevail and we can see asad having, number one, admitted he has chemical weapons, and number two, being willing to destroy them. >> today, sent a letter to the united nations saying he's willing to sign on to the int international convention banning nuclear weapons. >> it was very clear from listen to john kerry that the use of force is not going to be removed, period. i mean, he couldn't have stated it any more clearly. only the credible threat of force has brought assad to the table. even though assad himself said it was russia that brought him to the table. well, what brought russia to the table? and secondly, who is responsible for the use of chemical weapons? now, if they can somehow come out with some agreement that has a conspiracy of silence on certain of these issues, then maybe they'll be able -- then maybe they'll be able to agree

to something. listening to their opening positions today, it's kind of hard to see. >> not unusual when you're dealing with big issues like this, but the real concern is what happens in the meantime? because if the threat of force, by the way, it has to be a credible threat of force. i'm not sure president obama has a credible threat of force, given the division on capitol hill. which raises another issue. does he go back to congress and say now that we've got this agreement, will you support me by the potential use of force if assad doesn't comply, or does he say, i have enough authority and i'm going to do it inherent as my position in commander in chief, i will take action. >> i want to point out, you're a former defense secretary. you worked at the pentagon for a long time. the u.s. military has a credible capability -- >> absolutely. >> -- to deal with a lot of. they have ships in the eastern mediterranean and red sea. they have a lot of aircraft. they could do it if the commander in chief gives them the order to to it. whether or not blitically that's going to happen, that's another

matter. if you're bashar al assad, you have to assume, if the president of the united states wants to attack you, that's a credible threat, and he doesn't want to end up by moammar gadhafi? >> he balked himself in because he went to the american public, made the case for use of force, and couldn't he do what bill clinton did inico kosovo, which go to the senate, which clinton did, and the house vote goes against him? that happened in the mid-'90s. >> the president of the united states has inherent power to take immediate action and comply with the war powers resolution, but in this particular case, president obama went to congress seeking, quote, their authority. they apparently have not -- are not prepared to give him that authority. we have the power. there's no one who can contest the power. by the way, we wouldn't be attacking chemical weapon sites. we would be taking down air fields, aircraft.

delivery systems. >> very quickly, mr. secretary. you know sergei lavrov. you have dealt with him as a secretary of defense. take us into that room. what is he like to negotiate? let's saying they're working on a language that could jointly submit to the u.n. security council? >> mr. lavrov is very, very skilled. he's bright, eloquent, articulate, and clever, and a sense of lawyer like. he's very determined in the use of words and very hard -- very tough negotiator. this is not going to be easy. he's going to be tough to deal with. >> he spoke in russian, but he's fluent in english. i assume when he's speaking to john kerry, he spoke in english. you spoke to him in english. >> when you're in a private ceremony, you can drop the formality of an interpreter. >> in terms of a timeline, some people have been saying a couple weeks. how will you know something is actually working in these meetings? do you know it immediately? do you --

>> no, not immediately. this is going to take several weeks, i think. two weeks at least initially because you're going to go through the wordsmithing, plus you have the u.n. -- >> hold on, jay carney, press secretary. let's see if he opens up with q & a or house keeping. >> as some of you saw secretary kerry and his counterpart spoke in geneva. i wanted to allow you the opportunity to see that before i came out. before i take your questions, i wanted to make two statements. first, on wednesday, this coming wednesday at 10:45 a.m., the president will address business leaders at the quarterly meeting of the business roundtable. the event will take place in d.c. at the business roundtable office. secondly, if i may, i would like to point you to a new report that was released today by the department of health -- >> wihile we're waiting for the q & a to begin, i interrupted

the former secretary of defense. you were trying to make your point about lavrov being a tough negotiator. >> very tough negotiator and he's starting off in the position, number one, of assad is not responsible for this. yes, he's now declared he will submit to the chemical weapons treaty. inherent in the submission is also an enforcement mechanism, i believe under chapter seven, which says the u.n. can then use any means necessary to its enforcement, which would have an implied use of military force in and of itself. that's why he's saying no use of force. i'll do this voluntarily over a ten year period of time, and by the way, don't you keep supporting the syrian rebels because that also is implicit in his commitment to this agreement. no support for the rebels during this time. i think that's -- >> you have -- gloria, i think you'll agree. it's tough. it's enormously, even if they all agree in the middle of the civil war, going in there, getting the stockpiles is going to be very, very difficult. but it's certainly a positive

development that at least the united states and russia are trying to do something. >> absolutely. >> and that the syrian president, bashar al assad has finally admitted he has it and he's willing to sign on to an international convention. >> he admits it's there. he doesn't admit he has it. he says the rebels have it. >> syria has chemical weapons stockpiles. >> but he doesn't admit who was using them. >> no, not on august 21st, but he admitted for the first time that syria does have chemical weapons. >> i think the president of the united states has said he does have the authority to use this force, even if he does not go to the congress. >> they're doing some q & a on syria right now. >> i wonder what the president thought of it. >> well, let me say this. both in his op-ed and in the statements and actions that we've seen from president putin and his foreign minister, it is clear that president putin has invested his credibility in

transferring assad's chemical weapons to international control. and ultimately destroying them. this is significant. russia is assad's patron and protector. and the world will note whether russia can follow through on the commitments that it's made. as for the editorial, you know, we're not surprised by president putin's words. but the fact is that russia offers a stark contrast that demonstrates why america is exceptional. unlike russia, the united states stands up for democratic values and human rights in our own country and around the world and we believe that our global security is advanced when children cannot be gassed to death by a dictator. it is also weather noting that russia is isolated and alone in blaming the opposition for the chemical weapons attack on august 21st. there is no credible reporting, and we have seen no credible reporting, that the opposition has used chemical weapons in syria. and we have been joined