The Russian-American plan to eliminate Syria's chemical weapons — now embodied in the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2118 — may open a more constructive approach to ending the country's civil war, because the Security Council is also demanding that the long-planned Geneva II conference on Syria convene as soon as possible.
Rightly so. Elimination of Syria's chemical-weapons stockpiles and a political process to end the war must occur simultaneously.
As a practical matter, efforts to verify, secure and eventually destroy Syria's huge supply of chemical weapons cannot be implemented without a lasting ceasefire. But synchronizing the two processes is necessary for other reasons, too.