Damascus hit by deadly blast

PanARMENIAN.Net - Several people have been killed and wounded in an explosion in the Syrian capital, Damascus, BBC News reported citing Syrian state TV.

The state new agency Sana said a "terrorist bombing" attack had taken place in the Tadamon district in the south of the capital.

Tadamon has been a battleground between rebel forces and the army for months.

The UN General Assembly is due to meet, with much of its focus on the Syria crisis.

The UK-based activist group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, says a car bomb killed at least seven people and wounded 15, some of them critically.

More than 100,000 people have died in the conflict, according to the UN, and millions have fled the country or been made homeless.

According to RT, during a meeting on the sidelines of UNGA, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov have agreed to continue pushing towards destruction of “all” chemical weapons in Syria under international supervision. “There are some serious concerns that the Syrian opposition may possess components of chemical weapons,” Lavrov told the press after the meeting with his counterpart. “All chemical weapons must be destroyed in Syria including hazardous materials in possession of the opposition,” he was quoted by Interfax.

Lavrov also stressed that work on the UN Security Council resolution on Syria will be conducted “within a framework that had been agreed between Russia and U.S. in Geneva.”

Russia hopes that the UN Security Council resolution on Syria’s chemical weapons will be adopted immediately after the decision of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in the Hague in the coming days.

According to Lavrov, the sideline discussions with Kerry touched on many issues, but the main topic of discussion was the UN Security Council resolution in support of the OPCW decision.

One of the main sticking points is a possible Security Council resolution that would include possibility of the use of force under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter. Russia as well as China have continually opposed the inclusion of any such reference in a draft UN resolution.