I spoke with BBC West Midlands on Friday afternoon — before last night’s meeting of the UN Security Council — about the resolution mandating inspection and handover of Syria’s chemical weapons.

There is also some conversation about the context and aftermath of this week’s deadly attacks in a Kenyan shopping mall by the Somalian group al-Shabaab.

Listen to discussion from 10:04

Take-away points on Syria:

1. “This is the first step in a long process. I don’t expect it to go smoothly.”
2. “We already had a test case last month — the inspectors were in Damascus when the chemical weapons attacks occurred. They were not allowed to carry out a full investigation then. Will they now?”

On Kenya and Somalia:

“The easy part is condemning the terrorism of al-Shabaab. The hard part, given that the group claiming it is reacting to Kenyan troops inside Somalia, is what you do next: are you willing to go to war in Somalia if this escalates?”