Syria To Miss First Deadline In U.S.-Russia Chemical Arms Deal

WASHINGTON — The ambitious U.S.-Russian deal to eliminate Syria's chemical weapons, hailed as a diplomatic breakthrough just days ago, hit its first delay Wednesday with indications that the Syrian government will not submit an inventory of its toxic stockpiles and facilities to international inspectors by this weekend's deadline.

The State Department signaled that it would not insist that Syrian President Bashar Assad produce the list Saturday, the end of a seven-day period spelled out in the framework deal that Washington and Moscow announced last weekend in Geneva.

Marie Harf, a State Department spokeswoman, said Wednesday that "our goal is to see forward momentum" by Saturday, not the full list. "We've never said it was a hard and fast deadline."

Via: LA Times

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Humiliated by Putin

Spooked because their constituents strongly oppose intervening in Syria's civil war and alarmed by President Barack Obama's inept handling of the crisis, members of Congress were about to vote down a resolution authorizing military strikes.

Mr. Obama was spared a humiliating defeat when Russian President Vladimir Putin tossed him a lifeline. Like a trout dazzled by a fisherman's lure, our president snapped up the bait.

"Putin openly despises your president," Russian political analyst Andrei A. Piontovsky told The New York Times. So why would he help Mr. Obama out of a jam?

The Russian leader was following sage advice offered by a Chinese general 2,500 years ago.

"Do not press a desperate foe too hard," advises Sun Tzu in "The Art of War." "Build your opponent a golden bridge to retreat across." If you know your enemy and you know yourself, you'll win all your battles, Sun Tzu said.

As Con Coughlin, defense editor of the London Telegraph, wrote, Mr. Putin knows that "Mr. Obama will grab any excuse he can find to avoid military action against Damascus."

And Mr. Putin knows that because he's so vain, Mr. Obama is more likely to act to protect his own reputation than America's. So when another stupid thing Secretary of State John Kerry said provided an opening, the Russians pounced.

In response to a reporter's question, Mr. Kerry said Syrian dictator Bashar Assad could avert a U.S. military strike -- which earlier in the day he said would be an "unbelievably small, limited kind of effort" -- if his regime gave up its chemical weapons.

This was a "major goof," one official told CNN. He "clearly went off script."

What a swell idea, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. We'll ask our ally to turn his chemical weapons over to an international body. Mr. Assad readily agreed.

Via Real Clear Politics

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Elite Syrian Unit Scatters Chemical Arms Stockpile

A secretive Syrian military unit at the center of the Assad regime's chemical weapons program has been moving stocks of poison gases and munitions to as many as 50 sites to make them harder for the U.S. to track, according to American and Middle Eastern officials.

The movements of chemical weapons by Syria's elite Unit 450 could complicate any U.S. bombing campaign in Syria over its alleged chemical attacks, officials said. It also raises questions about implementation of a Russian proposal that calls for the regime to surrender control of its stockpile, they said.

U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies still believe they know where most of the Syrian regime's chemical weapons are located, but with less confidence than six months ago, U.S. officials said.

Secretary of State John Kerry met Thursday in Geneva with his Russian counterpart to discuss a road map for ending the weapons program. The challenges are immense, Mr. Kerry said.

Via: WSJ

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Secret Assad Forces Hiding Chemical Weapons

A secretive Syrian military unit has been moving stocks of poison gases and munitions to as many as 50 sites to make them harder for the U.S. to track, American and Middle Eastern officials said on Thursday.

The movements of chemical weapons by Syria's elite Unit 450 could complicate any U.S. bombing campaign in Syria over its chemical attacks, the officials told The Wall Street Journal .

Further, the activity raises questions about the implementation of a Russian proposal that calls for the regime to surrender control of its stockpiles, they said.

The U.S. estimates Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime has 1,000 metric tons of chemical and biological agents.

"That is what we know about," a senior U.S. official told the Journal. "There might be more."

U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies said they still believe they know where most of the chemical weapons are located, but with less confidence than six months ago.

Secretary of State John Kerry met on Thursday in Geneva with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to discuss a proposal by President Vladimir Putin to turn over the weapons to international control.

Kerry bluntly rejected a Syrian pledge to begin a "standard process" by turning over information rather than weapons — and nothing immediately.

Via: Newsmax

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Putin Didn't Save Obama, He Beat Him

With the Russian proposal on Syrian chemical weapons, the United States is being escorted out of the Middle East.

Maybe Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin really did discuss the idea of putting Syrian chemical weapons under international control last week on the sidelines of the G20 conference. Putin sure doesn’t care that Obama’s taking credit for the proposal, or that the administration is posturing like a Mob enforcer.  “The only reason why we are seeing this proposal,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney, “is because of the U.S. threat of military action.”

Right, Putin is laughing to himself. Whatever. If Obama wants to sell it like a Christmas miracle on Pennsylvania Avenue that’s fine with Putin, because Putin won.

Reset with Russia was originally a strategic priority for the Obama administration because it saw Moscow as the key to getting Iran to come to the negotiating table. Putin, from the White House’s perspective, was destined for the role of junior partner. Now Putin has turned “Reset” upside down. By helping Obama out of a jam with Syria, Putin has made himself the senior partner to whom the White House is now beholden. Accordingly, when Putin proposes the same sort of deal with Iran, with Russia having established its bona fides as an interlocutor for Syria, Obama is almost certain to jump at it.

What’s unclear is whether Obama understands that his foreign policy legacy will be to have ruined the American position in the Middle East, our patrimony of the last seven decades. If the 1979 takeover of the U.S. embassy in Tehran signaled weakness, the Russian deal screams surrender. The real surprise is that it’s not Iran kicking the United States out of the region under Obama’s watch, but Putin.

Via: Weekly Standard

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Syria welcomes international control over chemical weapons

After meeting Syrian counterpart, Russian foreign minister says he’ll push Assad to give up WMDs to avoid airstrikes; Kerry: Attack can be averted if Damascus agrees to cede ‘every single bit’ of its chemical arsenal by week’s end

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem on Monday welcomed Moscow’s proposal to submit Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles to international control, Reuters reported. The surprise announcement came following a meeting between Moallem Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, hours after US Secretary of State John Kerry said such a move could avert a limited US strike on the country in retaliation for a lethal August 21 chemical weapons attack.

“Syria welcomes the Russian proposal out of concern for the lives of the Syrian people, the security of our country and because it believes in the wisdom of the Russian leadership that seeks to avert American aggression against our people,” Moallem said.

British Prime Minister David Cameron, a key US ally, reacted favorably to Syria’s declaration, saying the notion of putting the Assad regime’s stockpile of chemical weapons under international supervision was “a big step forward.” He warned, however, that “we have to be careful, though, to make sure this is not a distraction tactic to discuss something else rather than the problem on the table.”

Via: The Times of Israel

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Is The United States Going To Go To War With Syria Over A Natural Gas Pipeline?

Is The United States Going To Go To War With Syria Over A Natural Gas Pipeline?

 

Why has the little nation of Qatar spent 3 billion dollars to support the rebels in Syria?  Could it be because Qatar is the largest exporter of liquid natural gas in the world and Assad won't let them build a natural gas pipeline through Syria?  Of course.  Qatar wants to install a puppet regime in Syria that will allow them to build a pipeline which will enable them to sell lots and lots of natural gas to Europe.  Why is Saudi Arabia spending huge amounts of money to help the rebels and why has Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan been "jetting from covert command centers near the Syrian front lines to the Élysée Palace in Paris and the Kremlin in Moscow, seeking to undermine the Assad regime"?  Well, it turns out that Saudi Arabia intends to install their own puppet government in Syria which will allow the Saudis to control the flow of energy through the region.  On the other side, Russia very much prefers the Assad regime for a whole bunch of reasons.  One of those reasons is that Assad is helping to block the flow of natural gas out of the Persian Gulf into Europe, thus ensuring higher profits for Gazprom.  Now the United States is getting directly involved in the conflict.  If the U.S. is successful in getting rid of the Assad regime, it will be good for either the Saudis or Qatar (and possibly for both), and it will be really bad for Russia.  This is a strategic geopolitical conflict about natural resources, religion and money, and it really has nothing to do with chemical weapons at all.

 

It has been common knowledge that Qatar has desperately wanted to construct a natural gas pipeline that will enable it to get natural gas to Europe for a very long time...

Via: The Economic Collapse

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Russia gave UN 100-page report in July blaming Syrian rebels for Aleppo sarin attack syria

BERLIN — Russia says a deadly March sarin attack in an Aleppo suburb was carried out by Syrian rebels, not forces loyal to President Bashar Assad, and it has delivered a 100-page report laying out its evidence to the United Nations.

A statement posted on the Russian Foreign Ministry website late Wednesday said the report included detailed scientific analysis of samples that Russian technicians collected at the site of the alleged attack, Khan al Asal in northern Syria. The attack killed 26 people.

A U.N. spokesman, Farhan Haq, confirmed that Russia delivered the report in July.

The report itself was not released. But the statement drew a pointed comparison between what it said was the scientific detail of the report and the far shorter intelligence summaries that the United States, Britain and France have released to justify their assertion that the Syrian government launched chemical weapons against Damascus suburbs on Aug. 21. The longest of those summaries, by the French, ran nine pages. Each relies primarily on circumstantial evidence to make its case, and they disagree with one another on some details, including the number of people who died in the attack.

The Russian statement warned the United States and its allies not to conduct a military strike against Syria until the United Nations had completed a similarly detailed scientific study into the Aug. 21 attack. It charged that what it called the current “hysteria” about a possible military strike in the West was similar to the false claims and poor intelligence that preceded the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Via: McClatchey

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Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/09/05/201268/russia-releases-100-page-report.html#.UikG6MakqFk#storylink=cpy

Intel report cites evidence of Syria attack, Kerry says 'no doubt' Assad responsible

The Obama administration cranked up its call for intervention in Syria on Friday, releasing a detailed intelligence report on last week's chemical weapons attack as Secretary of State John Kerry said there's "no doubt" the Assad regime was behind this "crime against humanity." 

Kerry issued a robust call for action in Syria, despite British lawmakers voting a day earlier not to get involved. He cited the findings of an intelligence assessment that was released shortly after he began speaking, saying there's clear evidence chemical weapons were used by the Assad regime last week. 

"I'm not asking you to take my word for it," Kerry said, urging people to read the report. "This is what Assad did to his own people." 

Kerry called Bashar Assad a "thug" and a "murderer" who must not be allowed to escape retribution for the attack. 

The intelligence assessment said the U.S. government has "high confidence" that the Syrian government carried out the chemical attack using a nerve agent. 

The report said preliminary findings show 1,429 people were killed in the attack, including at least 426 children.

Via: Fox News

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