The major powers overcame a prolonged deadlock to approve the first council resolution on the conflict, which is now 30 months old with more than 100,000 dead.
UN leader
the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
, who called the resolution "the first hopeful news on Syria in a long time," said he hopes to convene a peace conference in mid-November.
Resolution 2118, the result of bruising negotiations between the United States and Russia, gives international binding force to a plan drawn up by the two to eliminate
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneckal-Assad
Lord of the Baath...
's chemical arms.
The plan calls for Syria's estimated 1,000 tonnes of chemical weapons to be put under international control by mid-2014.
International experts are expected to start work in Syria to meet the tight deadline next week. Britannia and China offered to finance to the disarmament operation.