The international community as a whole worked together on that deal, with the U.S. and particularly Russia — which also happened to be Assad’s strongest ally — in the lead. Without Moscow’s consistent pressure on Assad, the deal would never have happened, said Alexandra Bell, senior policy director at the Center for Arms Control and Nonproliferation who was a senior adviser within the State Department at at the time of the agreement.
“Russia was integral in the implementation of the original deal,” Bell told CBS News.
The very fact that the deal could be reached was hailed as a success. Bell conceded, however, that “the accountability and implementation ever since has been difficult.”
