Touch wood, it's looking possible we might get out of this without a potentially catastrophic military strike by the US. It's a bit reminiscent of the Cuban missiles crisis.

If the chemical weapon stocks are destroyed and Syria signs up to the ban on their possession the only justification for an attack would be symbolic punishment, aimed at proxy victims rather than the actual culprits - whoever they might be. That wouldn't make any kind of sense, moral or pragmatic.

The key thing to remember in all this is that Russia doesn't want chemical weapons being used or being liable to be use any more than anyone else. And getting rid of the stocks in Syria would eliminate the nightmare of them becoming available to the kind of regume we can likely expect if the opposition wins.