Senate may vote to give Syria time to join chemical weapons pact

WASHINGTON -- A proposal that would delay a possible U.S. military strike and give Syria’s government 45 days to come into compliance with an international chemical weapons treaty could get a vote in the Senate as it considers the president’s request to authorize force.

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said the Senate will hold its first procedural vote on Wednesday on the resolution passed last week by the Foreign Relations Committee to authorize force against Syria. That resolution faces an uncertain fate as still more senators announced their opposition to the plan as it is currently written.

But Senate aides said a separate proposal from Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) to first seek a diplomatic resolution to the crisis could be offered as an amendment, which could bolster the chances of adopting a measure that falls short of President Obama’s initial goals but leave open the possibility of a military response.

Manchin’s proposal calls for Syria’s government to become a signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention and to take “concrete steps to comply” with its terms. If it fails to do so within 45 days of the resolution’s enactment, “all elements of national power will be considered by the United States Government,” the resolution states.

The plan could gain momentum with the news that the Syrian government is open to Russia’s call for it to hand over its arsenal of chemical weapons to international authorities.

Obama is set to come to Capitol Hill on Tuesday for a meeting with Senate Democrats. Republicans have also been invited to attend, Reid said. Obama dined with six Republican senators Sunday night at Vice President Joe Biden’s official residence.

On Monday, Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.), who developed the proposal with Manchin, said she would vote against the existing resolution to authorize force. A senior Republican, Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, also said Monday he opposed the current proposal, arguing in a statement that “there should be other ways, more appropriate to America’s vital national security interests, to discourage and show our disgust with the Syrian government’s apparent use of chemical weapons on its own people.”

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michael.memoli@latimes.com

Twitter: @mikememoli