Full coverage: The debate over military strikes in Syria

BEIRUT — Inspectors working under a tight deadline to destroy Syria’s extensive chemical arsenal are off to an encouraging start but may need limited cease-fires to complete their task in the midst of a raging civil war, the head of the international agency overseeing the effort said Wednesday.

BEIRUT -- U.S. Secretary of State John F.

BEIRUT—The historic destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal began on Sunday, as a team of disarmament experts hastened to comply with an international mandate to eliminate the nation’s massive chemical stockpiles by mid-2014.

Nearly a dozen of the largest Syrian rebel groups decry the U.S.-backed Syrian National Coalition, which they say is out of touch.

Syrian President Bashar Assad’s document is surprisingly thorough, say officials familiar with the closely guarded information.

Experts expect more documents detailing the chemical stockpile, which Syria agreed to hand over under a U.S.-Russia deal.

The ambitious agreement is challenged as indications arise that the Syrian government will not submit a toxic-stockpile inventory this weekend.

With its unsurprising confirmation that chemical weapons have been used in Syria, the United Nations’ report Monday that an Aug. 21 attack in the Damascus suburbs involved sarin gas has been met with a consistent global reaction: Now what?

A civil conflict has raged in Syria for more than three years, costing tens of thousands of lives and leaving vast swaths of the nation in ruins.

LONDON – Secretary of State John F.

He invoked God, the pope and the rule of law, and recalled a time when the United States and Russia were allies “and defeated the Nazis together.�

MOSCOW -- In the unlikely role of good cop to President Obama’s bad one, Russian President Vladimir Putin has seemingly talked his Syrian allies into surrendering their banned chemical weapons as a way to escape threatened U.S. airstrikes.

PARIS -- France said Tuesday it would initiate a resolution in the United Nations Security Council demanding that Syria reveal the extent of its chemical weapons program and turn its arsenal over to international inspectors to be neutralized.

BEIRUT — The Syrian government said Monday that it backed a Russian proposal calling for Damascus to hand over its arsenal of chemical weapons to international authorities in a bid to avoid a U.S. attack.

Either use it or lose it, lawmakers.

Failure to win lawmakers’ approval for punitive strikes in Syria could harm President Obama’s agenda not only in foreign affairs, but also in domestic policy.

Many in Syria’s capital worry that rebels could retaliate against minorities, perceived government collaborators and those who simply didn’t join the rebellion.

Officials cite a far bigger stream of intelligence than was reported. Some question the delay; others say a case had to be built.

MOSCOW -- Russia will continue to supply weapons to Syria in the event of a U.S. military strike, President Vladimir Putin said Friday, as three naval ships headed to the eastern Mediterranean to bolster the country’s fleet near the Syrian coast.

As recently as 2010, Syria’s Roman ruins, Crusader castles, Ottoman souks and sandy beaches appeared in travel magazines and were a huge tourist draw.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee votes 10 to 7 to authorize a punitive missile attack. The House appears far more reluctant.

There is a certain freedom in knowing that, no matter what you do, you will make someone mad.

MOSCOW -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused Washington of applying a double standard in its approach to Syria and said its evidence that President Bashar Assad’s regime used chemical weapons is unconvincing.

WASHINGTON – President Obama has to persuade not just Congress on military intervention in Syria.

OK, John Kerry, you convinced me: Let’s go bomb Syria! Just kidding.

As President Obama weighs options for sanctioning Syria over alleged chemical weapons use, France, which defiantly opposed U.S. intervention in Iraq a decade ago, has emerged as Washington’s staunchest supporter for punitive air strikes.

The ghost of “Curveball� is haunting the Obama administration and undermining its efforts to marshal strong foreign and domestic support for military strikes on Syria.

The moves are a setback for the U.S. bid to strike Syria militarily for its alleged chemical weapons use.

If new reports of a government chemical weapons attack are confirmed, the U.S. must act.