Kerry on Syria: ‘This Is Not a Game’

Secretary of State John Kerry reaffirmed today the U.S. desire for diplomacy in dealing with the Syrian crisis, but warned there would be consequences, including military force, if negotiations over the country’s chemical weapons failed. “This is not a game,” he said, in a joint statement with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov today in Geneva. “It has to be real ... it has to be credible.” Kerry also rejected Syria’s proposed 30-day timetable for declaring its stockpile because, he said, “there is nothing standard about this process at this moment ... The words of the regime, in our judgment, is simply not enough."