UN inspectors begin destroying Syrian chemical weapons

<h3>Weapons inspectors begin destroying Syrian chemical stockpile and machinery.</h3><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.publimetro.us/" target="_blank"><img abp="422" alt="A convoy of inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons prepares cross into Syria at the Lebanese border crossing point of Masnaa, eastern Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013. An advance group of 20 inspectors from a Netherlands-based chemical weapons watchdog arrived in Syria on Tuesday to begin their complex mission of finding, dismantling and ultimately destroying an estimated 1,000-ton chemical arsenal. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)" class="vlz" height="444" src="http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/amHZJmlzJsaZurL7CAgGSw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9aW5zZXQ7aD0zNTY7cT03NTt3PTUxMg--/http://media.zenfs.com/en_ca/News/Capress/XBH102-101_2013_144333_high.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" title="A convoy of inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons prepares cross into Syria at the Lebanese border crossing point of Masnaa, eastern Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, Tuesday, Oct. 1, 2013. An advance group of 20 inspectors from a Netherlands-based chemical weapons watchdog arrived in Syria on Tuesday to begin their complex mission of finding, dismantling and ultimately destroying an estimated 1,000-ton chemical arsenal. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.publimetro.us/" target="_blank">A convoy of inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons prepares cross into Syria at the Lebanese border crossing point of Masnaa, eastern Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, Tuesday, ...more </a></td></tr></tbody></table>BEIRUT - International disarmament experts on Sunday began dismantling and destroying Syria's chemical weapons arsenal and the equipment used to produce it, taking the first concrete step in their colossal task of eliminating the country's chemical stockpile by mid-2014, an official said.<br /><br />The inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons have about nine months to purge President Bashar Assad's regime of its chemical program. The mission, endorsed by the U.N. Security Council, faces the tightest deadline in the watchdog group's history and must simultaneously navigate Syria's bloody civil war.<br /><br />Sunday marked the fifth day that an advance team of around 20 inspectors have been in the country and the first day that involved actually disabling and destroying weapons and machinery, an official on the joint OPCW-U.N. mission said.<br /><br />The production equipment included filling and mixing machinery, some of it mobile, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.<br /><br />The Syrians are responsible for the actual physical demolition of the materials, while OPCW inspectors monitor the process and verify what is being destroyed, the official said. He declined to provide details or say where the work took place.<br /><br />This is just the beginning of a complicated process to eliminate Syria's estimated 1,000-ton chemical weapons stockpile and the facilities that created it. Damascus developed its chemical program in the 1980s and 1990s, building an arsenal that is believed to contain mustard gas and the nerve agents sarin VX and tabun.<br /><br />The production and storage facilities are understood to be scattered around the country.<br /><br />The OPCW-U.N. advance team arrived last week to lay the foundations for a broader operation of nearly 100 inspectors. Those already in Syria have been double-checking the Assad regime's initial disclosure of what weapons and chemical precursors it has and where they are located.<br /><br />Members of the team are planning visits to every location where chemicals or weapons are stored — from trucks loaded with munitions up to full-on production sites.<br /><br />Inspectors can use any means to destroy equipment, including crude techniques like taking sledgehammers to control panels or driving tanks over empty vats. But the second phase — destroying battle-ready weapons — is more difficult, time-consuming and expensive. It can be done by incinerating materials in sealed furnaces at ultra-high temperatures or by transforming precursor chemicals or diluting them with water.<br /><br />It's an arduous task in the best of times, and Syria offers anything but an easy work environment.<br /><br />The civil war has laid waste to the country's cities, shattered its economy, killed around 100,000 people and driven more than 2 million people to seek shelter abroad. Another nearly 5 million people have been displaced within the country, which has become a patchwork of rebel-held and regime-held territory.<br /><br />Underscoring the physical perils the inspectors face, four mortar shells landed Sunday in the Christian quarter of al-Qasaa, killing at least eight people, according to Syria's state news agency. It was unclear whether any OPCW experts were close to the explosions.<br /><br />The disarmament mission stems from a deadly Aug. 21 attack on opposition-held suburbs of Damascus in which the U.N. has determined the nerve agent sarin was used. Hundreds of people were killed, including many children. The U.S. and Western allies accuse the Syrian government of being responsible, while Damascus blames the rebels.<br /><br />The Obama administration threatened to launch punitive missile strikes against Syria, prompting frantic diplomatic efforts to forestall an attack. Those efforts concluded with September's unanimous U.N. Security Council resolution endorsing the elimination of Syria's chemical weapons.<br /><br />In an interview in a state-run newspaper Sunday, Assad said the Syrian regime began producing chemical weapons in the 1980s to "fill the technical gap in the traditional weapons between Syria and Israel." He said production of chemical weapons was halted in the late 1990s but provided no further information.<br /><div><br /></div>

UN inspectors begin destroying Syrian chemical weapons

Weapons inspectors begin destroying Syrian chemical stockpile and machinery. A convoy of inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibitio...

'Terrorists from 83 countries fighting in Syria'

<h3>Syrian FM to UN: 'Terrorists from 83 countries fighting in Syria'.</h3><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy0NO_yR4v4ODBxGgKFkqEdiWzekvfYEuRFcZqth5c9-w04vV6H_MTZh_ydweZ8AObpygrBAuS3s8y-zSOLbueKgQn4ljMb3oevNxi6skyZSxHc26d7pZTwVDltK_DMg5WugGTgsUShyU/s1600/Syrian+Foreign+Minister+Walid+Moallem.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="359" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgy0NO_yR4v4ODBxGgKFkqEdiWzekvfYEuRFcZqth5c9-w04vV6H_MTZh_ydweZ8AObpygrBAuS3s8y-zSOLbueKgQn4ljMb3oevNxi6skyZSxHc26d7pZTwVDltK_DMg5WugGTgsUShyU/s1600/Syrian+Foreign+Minister+Walid+Moallem.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />The Syrian government is fighting against “terrorist groups from 83 countries” as part of its “constitutional right” to protect the country’s people, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem told the UN General Assembly in New York.<br /><br />In his speech to the UN Assembly, Muallem on Monday dismissed the definition of the Syrian conflict as a civil war, saying that the Syrian government is engaged in a “war against terrorism that recognizes no values, nor justice, nor equality, and disregards any rights or laws.”<br /><br />“Confronting this terror in my country requires the international community to act in accordance with relevant resolutions on countering terrorism, particularly the UNSC resolution No. 1373 of 2001,” he said. <br /><br />Muallem described some Al-Qaeda-linked militants who eat human hearts and dismember people that are still alive, sending limbs out to family members.<br /><br />"The scenes of murder, manslaughter and eating human hearts were shown on TV screens, but did not touch blind consciences," Moallem said. "There are innocent civilians whose heads are put on the grill just because they violate the extremist ideology and deviant views of Al-Qaeda. In Syria...there are murderers who dismember human bodies into pieces while still alive and send their limbs to their families, just because those citizens are defending a unified and secular Syria."<br /><br />The Syrian Foreign Minister said that “terrorists from more than 83 countries are engaged in the killing of our people and our army under the appeal of global Takfiri jihad.”<br /><br />Terrorist groups, including those linked to Al-Qaeda, who are violating Syrian people’s human rights “on a daily basis,” he stressed. Any Syrians who do not share the extremist ideology risk being “killed, slaughtered,” with the women also taken as “captives on the basis of perverted concepts of religion that have nothing to do with Islam." <br /><br /><h3>'Foreign countries supply rebels with chemical agents' </h3>“We are the ones who were targeted by poisonous gases in Khan Al-Assal, near Aleppo,” Muallem asserted, saying that Syria asked the UN inspectors to include in its mandate the ability to determine who used chemical weapons, but that it was omitted due to pressure from the US, the UK and France.<br /><br />Syria had “waited for five months” for the UN chemical inspectors to arrive, and even before the completion of their work “certain states began beating the drums of war,” Muallem said. He added that Syria was committed to fully implement the provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention and cooperate closely with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).<br /><br />Syria’s top diplomat went on to question whether those countries “supplying terrorists” with weapons would “abide by their legal commitments,” saying there “remains the challenge” that they would not do so.<br /><br />Muallem then accused “regional and Western countries that are well known to all of us” of supplying chemical agents to “terrorists who used poisonous gases” in Syria.<br /><br />Syria calls for “necessary and prompt measures to compel those well-known countries that finance, arm, train and provide a safe haven and passage for terrorists coming from different countries of the world,” Muallem said.<br /><br /><h3>'Geneva-2 talks should start without preconditions' </h3>At the same time, Muallem called on the United States, as well as European and other countries, “to refrain from adopting immoral, unilateral economic measures that contradict the rules of international law and the principles of free trade.”<br /><br />He called on the US to stop “all unilateral coercive measures” imposed on Syria, Venezuela, Belarus, Iran and North Korea, as well to lift the economic blockade of Cuba.<br /><br />Syria has “repeatedly announced that she embraces a political solution of its crisis,” Muallem said, saying that now it is time for “those who claim to support” such a solution “to stop all hostile practices and policies against Syria, and to head to Geneva without preconditions.”<br /><br />President Assad’s government has said it is ready to take part in a so-called “Geneva-2” peace conference – UN-backed talks with the participation of the Syrian government, the Syrian opposition, Russia, the US and other regional players – called to implement the Geneva Communiqué of June 30, 2012. However, the Syrian National Coalition (SNC), which has been proposed to represent the opposition, demanded that Assad would not be part of a transitional government discussed at the talks – a precondition Damascus rejects.<br /><br />Despite SNC President Ahmad Jarba’s recent letter to the UN saying that the coalition “reaffirms its willingness” to take part in the Geneva-2 conference, the UN and Arab League Special Envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi is still “having trouble gathering the opposition” in Geneva, Syrian FM Muallem said in an interview with Sky News Arabia on Saturday.

'Terrorists from 83 countries fighting in Syria'

Syrian FM to UN: 'Terrorists from 83 countries fighting in Syria'. The Syrian government is fighting against “terrorist groups from ...

Syrian school hit in air strike, at least nine dead: monitors

BEIRUT - At least nine people, most of them students, were killed in an air strike that hit a secondary school in the rebel-held Syrian city of Raqqa on Sunday, activists said.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfht8ku_n0twrrlLCbqOOolnZB-bGL4dtAdesBfyVssuhcGb_OldjZzb5MIyYJESR6vqK1U8JDqEbHLCmPx8BLrMS1V4CHHP9175NeUaBCga0gURIn5qBCiJy6bRYVve9Jrsnk9WHBCKw/s1600/raqqa.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfht8ku_n0twrrlLCbqOOolnZB-bGL4dtAdesBfyVssuhcGb_OldjZzb5MIyYJESR6vqK1U8JDqEbHLCmPx8BLrMS1V4CHHP9175NeUaBCga0gURIn5qBCiJy6bRYVve9Jrsnk9WHBCKw/s1600/raqqa.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Raqqa in northeastern Syria has been under the control of insurgents fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad since March but the city remains subject to regular aerial bombardment by government forces.<br /><br />Opposition activists based in Raqqa, a city of around 250,000 people, published a list of 13 names they said were victims of the strike on the school and said there were more than 30 others wounded.<br /><br />The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group with a network of sources across the country, said the death toll was at least nine but that the number was likely to rise because some people were critically wounded.<br /><br />More than 100,000 people have been killed in Syria's conflict, which started as a peaceful uprising in March 2011 and turned into a civil war after a violent government crackdown on civilian demonstrators.<br /><br />Reporting restrictions make it difficult to independently verify events inside Syria.

Syrian school hit in air strike, at least nine dead: monitors

BEIRUT - At least nine people, most of them students, were killed in an air strike that hit a secondary school in the rebel-held Syrian city...

Russia expects Syria resolution in next 2 days

UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council, long paralyzed by deep divisions over how to deal with the Syrian conflict, is about two days away from agreeing on a resolution to require Damascus to dismantle its chemical weapons stockpiles, Russia's deputy foreign minister said Wednesday.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img abp="105" alt="" class="article-picture-large" height="438" src="http://i2.mail.com/960/2357960,h=425,pd=1,w=620.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A Syrian man walks among rubble of destroyed residential buildings minutes after an airstrike hit Habit village, in the Syrian central province of Hama, Wednesday, Sep. 25, 2013.</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Gennady Gatilov told The Associated Press that the text of the resolution will include a reference to Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter, which allows for military and nonmilitary actions to promote peace and security.<br /><br />But he stressed that there will not be an automatic trigger for such measures, which means the council will have to follow up with another resolution if Syria fails to comply. The U.S. and Russia had been at odds on how to enforce the resolution. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov met for nearly 90 minutes late Tuesday at the United Nations, and American officials said that while there had been progress in some areas, they couldn't agree on the text, which the U.S. had been insisting be enforceable.<br /><br />President Barack Obama's threatened U.S. strikes against President Bashar Assad's regime following an Aug. 21 suspected poison gas attack has led to a flurry of diplomatic activity. Kerry made a surprise offer that Syria could avert U.S. military action by turning over "every single bit of his chemical weapons" to international control within a week. Russia, Syria's most important ally, and Assad's government quickly agreed on the broad proposal.<br /><br />Kerry and Lavrov then signed an agreement in Geneva on Sept. 14, but it has taken time and tough negotiations to work out the details. The five permanent veto-wielding members of the Security Council — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain and France — known as the P-5 have been discussing for the past few weeks what to include in a new resolution requiring that Syria's chemical weapons stockpile be secured and dismantled. The council has been blocked on Syria, with Russia and China vetoing three Western-backed resolutions aimed at pressuring Assad to end the violence which has killed over 100,000 people.<br /><br />But Gatilov told AP the negotiations are "going quite well" and the draft resolution should be finalized "very soon — within the next two days, I think." As for Chapter 7, he said, "It will be mentioned but there is the understanding, of course, (that) there is no automaticity in engaging Chapter 7."<br /><br />French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius agreed that there are still "a few details to solve, but I think we shall reach a common resolution, maybe today, or tomorrow." "I'm pretty optimistic because there were three elements which were a bit difficult, really difficult," he told students at Columbia University on Wednesday evening.<br /><br />"The first one was to include a sentence which would say that the use of chemical weapons everywhere, particularly in Syria, were crimes" that the Security Council can address, Fabius said. "That is accepted."<br /><br />The second was the Chapter 7 issue, and France proposed using the same wording that is in the U.S.-Russian agreement reached in Geneva, he said, "and this, too, has been accepted." That agreement said the U.S. and Russia concur that a Security Council resolution should provide for a regular review of Syria's implementation, "and in the event of non-compliance ... or any use of chemical weapons by anyone in Syria, the U.N. Security Council should impose measures under Chapter 7 of the U.N. Charter."<br /><br />Fabius said the third issue "is to say that there is accountability of people who have committed this sort of crime, and it is accepted." Britain's U.N. Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant also reported progress.<br /><br />"But there are still some differences," he told AP. "We hope to be able to iron them out, maybe even today, but certainly in the next few days." A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity because negotiations are continuing, said the two sides were "very, very close" and the U.S. "fully expects to have a resolution by the end of the week."<br /><br />Work on the U.N. resolution is going on at the same time as the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the body that will be in charge of securing and destroying the arms, is working on its own document to lay out its exact duties. The U.N. resolution will include the text of the OPCW's declaration and make it legally binding — so the OPCW must act first.<br /><br />The Security Council is scheduled to meet Thursday and Friday, with many ministers attending the U.N. General Assembly present, and diplomats had hoped to be able to approve the Syria resolution this week.<br /><br />But a U.N. diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because consultations have been private, said the executive board of the OPCW isn't likely to meet before Sunday, which means that Security Council adoption of the resolution likely won't take place until next week.<br /><br />Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu called Syria's decision to abandon its chemical weapons "promising" but stressed that the elimination of chemical weapons is not a solution to the Syrian conflict, where most people have been killed by other weapons including air bombardment, artillery, tanks and snipers.<br /><br />France's Fabius agreed that a new resolution "doesn't solve the problem of Syria, but it's a step."<br /><div><br /></div>

Russia expects Syria resolution in next 2 days

UNITED NATIONS — The U.N. Security Council, long paralyzed by deep divisions over how to deal with the Syrian conflict, is about two days aw...

Mass starvation feared in Syria: 'We have no food'

<a href="http://newsbcpcol.stb.s-msn.com/amnews/i/bb/4fee7240541a8e3277748b8d3562/_h0_w295_m6_otrue_lfalse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img abp="124" alt="Mass starvation feared in Syria: Displaced Syrian women comfort their babies in Idlib, Syria, Sept. 22." border="0" class="image articleimage" data-class="img1" height="213" src="http://newsbcpcol.stb.s-msn.com/amnews/i/bb/4fee7240541a8e3277748b8d3562/_h0_w295_m6_otrue_lfalse.jpg" width="320" /></a>BEIRUT — Syrian opposition groups and international relief organizations are warning of the risk of mass starvation across the country, especially in the besieged Damascus suburbs where a gas attack killed hundreds last month.<br /><br /><span abp="123" class="media hover"></span><br /><br />With the world's attention focused on the regime's chemical weapons, activists said six people — including an 18-month girl — have died for lack of food in one of the stricken suburbs in recent weeks.<br /><br />Save the Children said in an appeal Monday that more than 4 million Syrians, more than half of them children, do not have enough to eat. Food shortages have been compounded by an explosion in prices.<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">Syria again seeking rice after failed tender</blockquote><br />"The world has stood and watched as the children of Syria have been shot, shelled and traumatized by the horror of war," said Roger Hearn, Save the Children's regional director for the Middle East. "The conflict has already left thousands of children dead, and is now threatening their means of staying alive."<br /><br />Thousands of people are believed trapped in suburbs east and west of the capital that have been held for months by rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad. Regime troops are besieging the areas, and residents say food is increasingly had to find. Rebels say they are trying to break the blockade.<br /><br />The suburbs were the site of the Aug. 21 attack that a U.N. report found included the use of the nerve gas sarin. They were home to more than 2 million people before the war, but it is unclear how many are there now.<br />In some hard-hit areas such as the western suburb of Moadamiyeh, people are running out of food and are mostly relying on lentils, olives and dried figs, according to residents and activists.<br /><br />"We have no food, no milk and no medicine," said a woman from Moadamiyeh, who identified herself by her nickname Um Lujain for fear of government reprisals. "We are surviving on one meal a day"<br /><br />Um Lujain said her 18-month-old daughter has lost half her weight and spends most of her days sleeping. The woman said her daughter's diet is based on the liquid she makes by boiling lentils.<br /><br />"There has been no children formula or bread for about a year," the woman said. She added that sometimes rebels find expired boxes of powdered milk in abandoned shops or pharmacies, and people still give it to their children for lack of food.<br /><br />According to the Moadamiyeh Media Center, six people have died of starvation over the past 20 days: two women and four children ages 18 months to 7 years. It added that 15 other children are in intensive care in clinics, suffering from malnutrition.<br /><br />Related: Fears of food and water poisoning after Damascus gassings<br /><br />On Monday, the opposition Syrian National Coalition accused government forces of tightening their months-long siege. "Assad's forces are starving people to death in those areas," the coalition claimed. "Famine looms in the horizon."<br /><br />Rana Obeid, the 18-month-old girl, was the latest to die Monday. An amateur video showed her lying on a bed, her ribs visible and her stomach bloated.<br /><br />The video appeared genuine and corresponded to other AP reporting on the events depicted.<br /><br />Mahmoud Abu Ali, an activist in Moadamiyeh, said the suburb has been under siege for 307 days. He added that most of the cows, sheep and goats died as a result of shelling or lack of feed, and people cannot plant their land because of daily bombardment.<br /><br />"People wake up in the morning and there is no food to have breakfast. At noon there is no food for people to have lunch," Abu Ali said.<br /><br />Khaled Iriqsousi, head of Syrian Arab Red Crescent, told The Associated Press that the organization has not entered suburbs of Damascus for five months because of the fighting.<br /><br />Iriqsousi said by telephone that one of the most serious problems is that children are not getting vaccinated. "This will affect generations," he warned.<br /><br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">Renewed push at UN for Syria resolution followed by peace talks</blockquote><br />The United States and Russia brokered an agreement for Syria to give up its chemical weapons, but U.N. diplomats are at odds over details of a Security Council resolution spelling out how it should be done and the possible consequences if Syria doesn't comply.<br /><br />In a speech at the U.N. Tuesday, President Barack Obama challenged the Security Council to hold Syria accountable if it fails to live up to its pledges.<br /><br />"If we cannot agree even on this," Obama said, "then it will show that the United Nations is incapable of enforcing the most basic of international laws."<br /><br />Ertharin Cousin, head of the U.N.'s World Food Program, demanded that a potential cease-fire for the benefit of the experts who will secure Syria's chemical weapons include access for aid workers.<br /><br />WFP is feeding 3 million people inside Syria.<br /><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img abp="83" alt="Mass starvation feared in Syria: Syrians gather at the scene of a car bomb explosion in Damascus Sept. 24.: Warfare in Damascus is keeping away food shipments and scrapping planting, putting Damascenes and suburbanites in danger of starving." class="image" height="359" src="http://newsbcpcol.stb.s-msn.com/amnews/i/b1/d414ba13ba4ed92469b6922e7727c2/_h353_w628_m6_otrue_lfalse.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><blockquote class="tr_bq">Warfare in Damascus is keeping away food shipments and scrapping planting, putting Damascenes and suburbanites in danger of starving.</blockquote></td></tr></tbody></table>

Mass starvation feared in Syria: 'We have no food'

BEIRUT — Syrian opposition groups and international relief organizations are warning of the risk of mass starvation across the country, espe...

U.S. and allies target Hezbollah financing, ties in Africa

DAKAR - The United States and its allies are clamping down on suspected Hezbollah activity in West Africa, which Washington says is a major source of cash for the Lebanese group as its patron Iran feels the pinch of sanctions.<br /><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img height="400" src="http://preview.reuters.com/api/dev/items/523bea3ef0d46b079ef39192/versions/1/sizes/640~16-10" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ammunition and explosives seized from suspected members of Hezbollah are displayed after a raid of a building in Nigeria's northern city of Kano</td></tr></tbody></table>The push coincides with Hezbollah's deepening role in Syria, where it has dispatched thousands of fighters to back President Bashar al-Assad. It also comes in the wake of attacks outside Lebanon linked to Hezbollah that Western experts say are part of global campaign that could soon include Africa.<br /><br />Critics, however, argue that Washington and its allies may be exaggerating the threat and failing to distinguish between different forms of support for various elements of the Shi'ite Islamist guerrilla and political movement, which was founded with Iran's help after Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982.<br /><br />U.S. officials say that while most Lebanese in West Africa have few links to the group, Washington's financial sanctions have reduced an annual flow of millions of dollars which Hezbollah receives from people and businesses in the region.<br /><br />Iran remains the main sponsor and armourer of a group which fought Israel with missiles in a month-long war in 2006. But Western sanctions imposed on Tehran over its nuclear plans add significance to Hezbollah's other income, U.S. officials say.<br /><br />"(West Africa) is more important in the sense that what they're getting from Iran is squeezed. Iran's capacity to fund Hezbollah has been impaired," said David Cohen, U.S. treasury undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.<br /><br />"There's reason to think Hezbollah is not just collecting money but it is also using these outposts as places where they can plan and conduct activities," he added.<br /><br />Nigeria, with support from Israel, says it has uncovered a Hezbollah cell and arms cache and arrested has locals it accuses of spying for Iran. A resource-rich but poorly policed part of the world, which already sees al Qaeda-linked activity, could see future Hezbollah attacks, some Western experts say.<br /><br />While there are disputes over the scale of the support Hezbollah receives from West Africa, there is little doubt over how important Lebanese businesses are to the region.<br /><br />With interests ranging from mobile phones, import-export and heavy industry to street stalls and fast-food joints, Lebanese-owned businesses are present at every level of the economy.<br /><br />But Western security officials and Lebanese businessmen say common use of cash and informal transfers by such enterprises makes it hard to detect whether any engage in money laundering. Businesses move money across borders through friends and family rather than banks. Some may even send cash by the suitcase load.<br /><br />Individuals targeted in the most recent wave of U.S. sanctions have denied the accusations and complain Washington is penalising charity and family ties with Shi'ite areas of Lebanon where Hezbollah plays a major social and political role.<br /><br />Rudy Atallah, a former Africa Counterterrorism Director in the U.S. Defense Department said the United States viewed Hezbollah as "the linchpin in all sort of activities - money laundering, drug trafficking and weapons".<br /><br />"They feel if they can clamp down on them in West Africa it would have some sort of impact on them back home," added Atallah, who now is now a private security consultant.<br /><br />Representatives of Hezbollah in Beirut did not respond to requests for comment. The group gives no detail on its financial arrangements. It has elected members in parliament but its leadership, facing a permanent threat of Israeli attack, generally stays undercover and limits public comment.<br /><br />MONEY TRAIL<br /><br />West Africa has for a century or more been home to Lebanese communities built around trade. Many also retain close ties to Lebanon and especially to the Shi'ite heartlands of the south.<br /><br />Senegal alone has some 30,000 Lebanese. Their businesses account for 70 percent of domestic industry, according Abdul Monem El Zein, the senior figure in the Shi'ite community, which he says make up around 90 percent of all Lebanese in Senegal.<br /><br />Washington fears that some funds generated in these weak and often unregulated economies are channelled back to Hezbollah.<br /><br />Magnus Ranstorp, a Hezbollah expert at the Swedish National Defence College, said West Africa's lack of regulations had offered the group a "free run", but Washington was catching up.<br /><br />"There is a greater activity in listing individuals and getting at the financial assets," he said of U.S. efforts to clamp down on those it saw as organising funding for Hezbollah.<br /><br />U.S. investigations led to a 2011 criminal case in New York accusing Hezbollah of involvement in a money laundering network that funnelled hundreds of millions of dollars to Lebanon through a web of banks, used car businesses and drug traffickers in the United States, Latin America, West Africa and Lebanon.<br /><br />Cohen said the network was not run by Hezbollah but was a web that the group was able to tap into. He declined to say how much Hezbollah received but called it "not insubstantial".<br /><br />In June this year, the Beirut-based Lebanese Canadian Bank agreed to pay $102 million to settle the case.<br /><br />Hezbollah members in Lebanon have said the movement does not promote activities contrary to Islamic teaching, like drugs and money laundering. Some observers say the movement may not run such crime gangs but may use its power within Lebanon to help enable some activities and it may accept payments from criminals.<br /><br />The U.S. Treasury accuses some African Lebanese of actively raising funds for Hezbollah. It imposed sanctions in June this year on four Lebanese citizens, living in Senegal, Gambia, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast, accusing them of being involved in operations to raise money and recruit members in the region.<br /><br />The main thrust of such sanctions is to deny their targets access to U.S. banks, effectively blacklisting them throughout much of the global financial system due to the central role the U.S. dollar plays in all international banking transactions.<br /><br />Money that is found can also be frozen or seized. While some effects can be mitigated - for example, by having transactions handled by associates - financial sanctions have hit income and trade for governments including Hezbollah allies Iran and Syria.<br /><br />Also in June, Gambia expelled Husayn Tajideen, one of three Lebanese brothers who control large stakes in the local economy and, through interests reaching as far as Angola and Democratic Republic of Congo, were accused in a previous U.S. investigation of being among Hezbollah's top financiers in Africa.<br /><br />Gambia accused Husayn, a major food importer, of profiteering. But Cohen said he believed the expulsion of Tajideen was linked to U.S. sanctions. The governments of Angola and Nigeria have also investigated the brothers, he added.<br /><br />The Tajideens could not be reached for comment.<br /><br />Cohen said pressure on the network had reduced their annual contributions to Hezbollah to below $10 million, down from tens of millions of dollars before.<br /><br />DENIALS<br /><br />The European Union put Hezbollah's "military wing" on its terrorism blacklist in July due to concerns over its involvement in Syria, where EU governments back rebels against Assad, and a bus bombing in Bulgaria last year that killed Israeli tourists. Other elements of the movement are not under EU sanctions.<br /><br />The United States and Israel make no such distinction between parts of Hezbollah, arguing that its welfare services and elected political role in the government of Lebanon are part and parcel of a project to destroy the Jewish state.<br /><br />Ranstorp in Stockholm said such divisions were artificial. "The terrorism unit is controlled entirely by the top," he said. "All these three dimensions are pistons in an engine."<br /><br />Individuals complain this means they are wrongly targeted.<br /><br />Ali Ibrahim al-Watfa, one of the four Lebanese in West Africa barred by Washington in June from access to U.S. dollars and the U.S. banking system, denied having any role for the group in Sierra Leone, where the United States accused him of being a permanent liaison and coordinator of cash transfers.<br /><br />"This is a big surprise to me," he told Reuters at his home on a busy market street in the capital, Freetown.<br /><br />Ibrahim, secretary general of the local Lebanese community organisation, suggested that he had been set up: "Maybe there is someone who doesn't like me, who put this on me?"<br /><br />In Senegal, El Zein, for 30 years the leading Shi'ite figure in the country, said the U.S. charges had no foundation: "I have never heard of there being a Hezbollah group here in Senegal," he said at his Islamic Social Institution, which runs a mosque, health clinics and a network of religious schools.<br /><br />A retired Israeli intelligence official who has access to current assessments also played down the importance of African cash to Hezbollah, calling diaspora contributions "negligible".<br /><br />The official estimated Iran accounted for 70-90 percent of an annual Hezbollah income of $800 million to $1 billion.<br /><br />The U.S. approach is questioned by academics like Augustus Richard Norton. He says that the reality is muddied by those raising cash for Hezbollah and many Lebanese sending money to communities at home using the same informal money networks.<br /><br />"If a person is found to have given one dollar to a designated terrorist, the entire sum is poisoned," Norton, a professor at Boston University who has written extensively on Hezbollah, said of the U.S. legal view of sanctioned funds.<br /><br />NEW FRONT?<br /><br />Along with dispatching fighters to the frontline in Syria, Hezbollah has been linked to plots to attack Israelis in Thailand and Cyprus as well as in the Bulgarian city of Burgas.<br /><br />Matthew Levitt, a former U.S. counter-terrorism official who has written a book on Hezbollah, says this is a sign that Hezbollah and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) are embarking on a new wave of violence targeting the interests of Israel, the United States and other Western states.<br /><br />U.S. attacks on Syria, or on Iran's nuclear sites, could trigger further Hezbollah action abroad, Levitt believes.<br /><br />Other security experts question the extent of a threat in Africa, though Nigeria this year said it uncovered a Hezbollah cell in the northern city of Kano and charged two Nigerians with helping Iranians plan attacks on Israeli targets.<br /><br />Western governments fear their enemies have found a haven and security sources say Israel is countering efforts by Hezbollah to build contacts with impoverished West African governments by offering its own security training and equipment.<br /><br />"It is very easy to operate in Africa. Money can buy anything," said a diplomat in the region, adding that the Kano seizure indicated that Hezbollah was in a position to carry out attacks in Nigeria. "They will wait for the right moment."<br /><br />Few Lebanese discuss openly with outsiders any support for Hezbollah. A quick glance at Facebook profiles of some living in the region reveals many images of its yellow, Kalashnikov-emblazoned flag and of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, its leader.<br /><br />But El Zein said Lebanese in Senegal see Hezbollah, as it portrays itself, as a humanitarian organisation and opponent of U.S. and Israeli policy; they do not consider that charitable giving to the movement is funding aggressive guerrilla warfare.<br /><br />"There may be ten, a hundred, even a thousand people in these communities who support orphanages in Lebanon - orphanages for children whose parents were killed by weapons the West gave Israel," El Zein said.<br /><br />"But to think that the community in Senegal can buy weapons and send money back to Hezbollah is crazy."

U.S. and allies target Hezbollah financing, ties in Africa

DAKAR - The United States and its allies are clamping down on suspected Hezbollah activity in West Africa, which Washington says is a major ...

Tunisian women waging 'sex jihad' in Syria

<div><b>TUNISIAN women have travelled to Syria to wage 'sex jihad' by comforting Islamist fighters battling the regime there, Interior Minister Lotfi ben Jeddou has told MPs.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><img alt="Tunisia Rally" height="360" src="http://resources2.news.com.au/images/2013/09/20/1226724/086918-tunisia-rally.jpg" width="640" /></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>'They have sexual relations with 20, 30, 100' militants, the minister told members of the National Constituent Assembly yesterday.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>'After the sexual liaisons they have there in the name of 'jihad al-nikah' - (sexual holy war in Arabic) - they come home pregnant,' Ben Jeddou told the MPs.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>He did not elaborate on how many Tunisian women had returned to the country pregnant with the children of jihadist fighters.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Jihad al-nikah, permitting extramarital sexual relations with multiple partners, is considered by some hardline Sunni Muslim Salafists as a legitimate form of holy war.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>The minister also did not say how many Tunisian women were thought to have gone to Syria for such a purpose, although media reports have said hundreds have done so.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Hundreds of Tunisian men have also gone to join the ranks of the jihadists fighting to bring down the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>However, Ben Jeddou also said that since he assumed office in March, 'six thousand of our young people have been prevented from going there' to Syria.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>He has said in the past that border controls have been boosted to intercept young Tunisians seeking to travel to Syria.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Media reports say thousands of Tunisians have, over the past 15 years, joined jihadists across the world in Afghanistan Iraq and Syria, mainly travelling via Turkey or Libya.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Abu Iyadh, who leads the country's main Salafist movement Ansar al-Sharia, is the suspected organiser of a deadly attack last year on the US embassy in Tunis and an Afghanistan veteran.</b></div><div><b>He was joint leader of a group responsible for the September 9, 2001 assassination in Afghanistan of anti-Taliban Northern Alliance leader Ahmad Shah Massoud by suicide bombers.</b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>That attack came just two days before the deadly al-Qaeda attacks on the World Trade Centre in New York and Pentagon in Washington.</b><br /><b><br /></b><img height="423" src="http://en.starafrica.com/news/files/2013/09/afp/photo_1379666707433-1-0.jpg" width="640" /></div>

Tunisian women waging 'sex jihad' in Syria

TUNISIAN women have travelled to Syria to wage 'sex jihad' by comforting Islamist fighters battling the regime there, Interior Minis...

U.N. fails to break Syria deadlock...(WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT)

(WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT) Sept. 19 - No breakthrough among U.N. Security Council ambassadors after three days of talks on Syria chemical weapons. Paul Chapman reports.<br /><br /><br /><br /><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="480" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/XIq7HqxCU0w?rel=0" width="640"></iframe> ---------- <iframe src ="http://video.news.com.au/embed/2407527984/UN-fails-to-break-Syria-deadlock?player=narrow" width="330" height="365" frameborder="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" scrolling="no"><p><a href="http://video.news.com.au/2407527984/UN-fails-to-break-Syria-deadlock">VIDEO: U.N. fails to break Syria deadlock</a></p></iframe>

U.N. fails to break Syria deadlock...(WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT)

(WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT) Sept. 19 - No breakthrough among U.N. Security Council ambassadors after three days of talks on Syria chemical we...

France suggests it is ready to give weapons to Syria rebels

PARIS - French President Francois Hollande suggested for the first time on Thursday that Paris could arm Syrian rebels in a "controlled framework," given that they were now caught between the Syrian government on one side and radical Islamists on the other.<br /><br /><br /><a href="http://preview.reuters.com/api/dev/items/523b8c37964bfd07a0bd76fc/versions/1/sizes/310~16-10" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="French President Francois Hollande speaks at the inauguration ceremony of Mali's new President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita at the Stade du 26 Mars stadium in Bamako September 19, 2013. REUTERS/Thierry Gouegnon" border="0" src="http://preview.reuters.com/api/dev/items/523b8c37964bfd07a0bd76fc/versions/1/sizes/310~16-10" /></a>Noting that Russia was supplying arms to the Syrian government, Hollande, speaking in Mali, said France could provide arms to rebels, "but we will do it in a broader context with a number of countries and in a framework that can be controlled because we cannot accept that weapons could fall into the hands of jihadists that we have fought against here."<br /><br />Hollande spoke at a news conference in Bamako where he was attending a ceremony to mark the swearing-in of the country's new president.<br /><br />France, one of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's fiercest critics, has until now held back from arming the rebels despite the lifting of a European Union arms embargo in June, fearing that weapons could get into the Islamist hands.<br /><br />Paris has so far provided non-lethal aid ranging from bullet-proof vests, night-vision goggles or communications equipment. Its main focus has been helping to structure the Free Syrian Army's leadership, providing training to rebels in Jordan as well as sharing intelligence.<br /><br />"On delivering weapons we have always said that we want to control these supplies if we do them so that they do indeed go to the Free Syrian Army ... because they represent the Syrian National Coalition that we recognize as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people and today they are caught between a hammer and an anvil," Hollande said.<br /><br />"The hammer is the air strikes and actions of the Syrian regime and the anvil is radical Islam," he said.<br /><br />Hollande has been U.S. President Barack Obama's closest ally on Syria since an August 21 chemical attack on the outskirts of Damascus that Paris and Washington say Assad's government is responsible for.<br /><br />France, which had been set to join U.S. strikes originally aimed at punishing Assad, fears the Syrian president may play for time by accepting a U.S.-Russian plan to put Syria's chemical weapons under international control.<br /><br />Hollande has over the past week held meetings in Paris with senior Saudi Arabian and Qatari officials, two countries that already supply weapons to the rebels, and has vowed to increase military support to help change the balance of power on the ground.<br /><br />The leader of the Free Syrian Army, Salim Idriss, who has called for the international community to provide his forces with heavy weapons, is due in the French capital next week to meet defense and intelligence officials.

France suggests it is ready to give weapons to Syria rebels

PARIS - French President Francois Hollande suggested for the first time on Thursday that Paris could arm Syrian rebels in a "controlled...

Turkish warplanes shoot down Syrian helicopter

ANKARA — Turkish warplanes shot down a Syrian helicopter Monday after it violated Turkish airspace and are continuing to patrol the border, Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arinc said.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxhkQTMeIYOgCSdNVXf73qiEKtTQS6VOX6q6E__P9IzzSxyeIlwMCaNCZDvRy3ZK1gjxoleNKlemiJgSU43s_R94jHtDsneY1ItopCkj9nhJA_0PA-OVHhc8Z23-c_AdZVOyz-_CXCpwA/s1600/m17.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="362" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxhkQTMeIYOgCSdNVXf73qiEKtTQS6VOX6q6E__P9IzzSxyeIlwMCaNCZDvRy3ZK1gjxoleNKlemiJgSU43s_R94jHtDsneY1ItopCkj9nhJA_0PA-OVHhc8Z23-c_AdZVOyz-_CXCpwA/s1600/m17.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />"Today at 1420 (7:20 p.m. EDT) an Mi-17 helicopter belonging to Syria violated the Turkish border in the Guvecci area of Yayladagi in Hatay province by 2 km (about 1½ miles)," Arinc told reporters in Ankara after a regular cabinet meeting.<br /><br />"It was repeatedly warned by our air defense elements. When the violation continued, our planes ... hit the helicopter at 1425 with a missile, causing it to fall on Syrian soil."<br /><br />The U.N. Security Council and fellow members of the NATO military alliance will be provided with details of the circumstances of shooting down the helicopter, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said<br /><br /><br />Turkey, one of Syrian President Bashar Assad's fiercest critics, has advocated military intervention in Syria and grown frustrated over what it sees as Western indecisiveness.<br /><br />Turkey, which shares a 560-mile border with Syria, is sheltering a quarter of the 2 million people who have fled the Syrian conflict.<br /><div><br /></div>

Turkish warplanes shoot down Syrian helicopter

ANKARA — Turkish warplanes shot down a Syrian helicopter Monday after it violated Turkish airspace and are continuing to patrol the border, ...

UN report confirms sarin used in Syria gas attack

UNITED NATIONS — U.N. chemical investigators Monday confirmed the use of sarin gas in an Aug. 21 poison gas attack in the suburbs of Damascus, noting that weather conditions at the time ensured the maximum number of people were killed.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBr-L3dqn4RPPBBonSKi00xVYUcYBc3hYkfaj58RwY4abxkzkdHBaL9_S_rHFB52z5LoCX-jT_YPjkhd74fATu5iI1xBb7vSBJXkVEjcgrIr0vrZOO9oL6oN_Jt6aKJ11UEc9t89BUuGM/s1600/redlines.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBr-L3dqn4RPPBBonSKi00xVYUcYBc3hYkfaj58RwY4abxkzkdHBaL9_S_rHFB52z5LoCX-jT_YPjkhd74fATu5iI1xBb7vSBJXkVEjcgrIr0vrZOO9oL6oN_Jt6aKJ11UEc9t89BUuGM/s1600/redlines.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />As expected, the report does not say who launched the attack in the rebel-held Damascus suburb of Ghouta.<br /><br />"On the basis of the evidence obtained during the investigation of the Ghouta incident, the conclusion is that chemical weapons have been used in the ongoing conflict between the parties in the Syrian Arab Republic, also against civilians, including children, on a relatively large scale," said the report by chief U.N. investigator Ake Sellstrom of Sweden.<br /><div><div>"In particular, the environmental, chemical and medical samples we have collected provide clear and convincing evidence that surface-to-surface rockets containing the nerve agent sarin were used," it said.</div><div><br /></div><div>The report said the weather conditions Aug. 21 ensured that as many people as possible were injured or killed. Temperatures were falling between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m., it said, which meant that air was not moving upwards but downwards toward the ground.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Chemical weapons use in such meteorological conditions maximizes their potential impact as the heavy gas can stay close to the ground and penetrate into lower levels of buildings and constructions where many people were seeking shelter," it said.</div><div><br /></div><div>The results of Sellstrom's investigation are not surprising. Several weeks ago U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced that sarin had been used in the chemical attack on the Ghouta region. The United States said 1,400 people were killed, including more than 400 children.</div><div><br /></div><div>"The United Nations Mission has now confirmed, unequivocally and objectively, that chemical weapons have been used in Syria," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Security Council.</div><div><br /></div><h3>The report is to be posted at <a href="http://www.un.org/disarmament.">http://www.un.org/disarmament.</a></h3><div><br /></div><div>Ban is expected to brief the press around 12:50 p.m. EDT.</div><div><br /></div><div>Ban said Friday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad "has committed many crimes against humanity," though he did not say whether it was Assad's forces or rebels who were behind the Ghouta attack. He added that Assad would be held to account for his crimes.</div><div><br /></div><h3>RESPONSIBILITY UNCLEAR</h3><div><br /></div><div>Syria and Russia have blamed the Aug. 21 attack on the rebels. The rebels, the United States and other Western powers blame forces loyal to Assad for the Ghouta attack.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>It is not immediately clear whether any of the details in the report suggested culpability. Sellstrom's mandate is limited to investigating the facts, not assigning blame.</div><div><br /></div><div>French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, however, said the U.N. report showed there was "no doubt" the Assad government was responsible for the chemical attack.</div><div><br /></div><div>Ban told the council on Monday that 85 percent of the blood samples taken by investigators tested positive for sarin, while almost all the biomedical samples taken tested positive for exposure to sarin.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Survivors reported that following an attack with shelling, they quickly experienced a range of symptoms, including shortness of breath, disorientation, eye irritation, blurred vision, nausea, vomiting and general weakness," Ban said.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Many eventually lost consciousness," he added. "First responders described seeing a large number of individuals lying on the ground, many of them dead or unconscious."</div><div><br /></div><div>The U.N. confirmation of the use of sarin gas Aug. 21 comes as France, Britain and the United States agreed at three-way Paris talks on Monday to seek a "strong and robust" U.N. resolution that sets precise and binding deadlines on removal of chemical weapons.</div><div><br /></div><div>Those talks followed a weekend deal on Syria's chemical weapons reached by the United States and Russia that could avert U.S. military action.</div><div><br /></div><div>Ban urged the Security Council consider ways to ensure enforcement and compliance with the U.S.-Russia plan. "I agree there should be consequences for non-compliance. Any use of chemical weapons by anyone, anywhere, is a crime," he said.</div><div><br /></div><div>Some Western diplomats have said on condition of anonymity that information about the type of weapons and other details Sellstrom might possess could hint at government responsibility for the attack. But rebels have seized all kinds of weapons from military depots across the country in the 2 1/2-year civil war.</div><div><br /></div><div>The United Nations says more than 100,000 people have died in Syria since March 2011.</div><div><br /></div><div>In related news, the head of a U.N. panel on war crimes in Syria says it is investigating 14 suspected chemical attacks.</div></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYs0rjg3_UYBXavzYDWH-kZo4LLLyzYNdlJp4Ej8JDp6RHTVMwOuwfOhwJvKAk1oefiQzFwQ5are-ZBUXA_4kU78kLpGFuH_UuIF5PJv4OtRT2845VAdN5pKhziB2fWYqlAQNu-aCUpf8/s1600/Professor-Ake-Sellstrom-Ban.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="324" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYs0rjg3_UYBXavzYDWH-kZo4LLLyzYNdlJp4Ej8JDp6RHTVMwOuwfOhwJvKAk1oefiQzFwQ5are-ZBUXA_4kU78kLpGFuH_UuIF5PJv4OtRT2845VAdN5pKhziB2fWYqlAQNu-aCUpf8/s1600/Professor-Ake-Sellstrom-Ban.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div>

UN report confirms sarin used in Syria gas attack

UNITED NATIONS — U.N. chemical investigators Monday confirmed the use of sarin gas in an Aug. 21 poison gas attack in the suburbs of Damascu...

Ban Receives Report On Chemical Weapons Attack In Syria

<h3>United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has received a report by UN experts on a chemical weapons attack that allegedly killed hundreds of people in the suburbs of Damascus last month.</h3><h3><br />UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said on Sunday that Ban will brief the UN Security Council on the findings on Monday morning.</h3><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjflqh8QB-oI_kHLlvPbtm5KFXZ5vv87esSQo6iSksLj3x7VCUS6MEN7yU5R52rgPSrm63iw1MZ3ehg56xwI4xOpdZJeGL_ymFlZaSSLQ4CBdMBdFE32f3JSYmspa92MyGQShheVnVVwIY/s1600/Professor-Ake-Sellstrom-Ban.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="324" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjflqh8QB-oI_kHLlvPbtm5KFXZ5vv87esSQo6iSksLj3x7VCUS6MEN7yU5R52rgPSrm63iw1MZ3ehg56xwI4xOpdZJeGL_ymFlZaSSLQ4CBdMBdFE32f3JSYmspa92MyGQShheVnVVwIY/s1600/Professor-Ake-Sellstrom-Ban.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />“The report by the United Nations Mission to Investigate Allegations of the Use of Chemical Weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic has been turned over to the secretary general,” Nesirky said.<br /><br />“It was transmitted today, September 15, to the secretary general by Professor Ake Sellstrom, the head of the mission, and the secretary general will provide it to the member states tomorrow morning,” the spokesman said.<br /><br />“On Monday morning, the secretary general will brief the Security Council on the report during its closed consultations,” he added.<br /><br />The war rhetoric against Syria intensified after foreign-backed opposition forces accused the government of President Bashar al-Assad of launching a chemical attack on militant strongholds in the suburbs of Damascus on August 21.<br /><br />Damascus has vehemently denied the accusations, saying the attack was carried out by the militants themselves as a false-flag operation.<br /><br />On September 10, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem said Damascus is ready to implement a Russian proposal to place its chemical weapons arsenal under international control.<br /><br />The Russian government proposed the initiative during a meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Muallem in Moscow on September 9.<br /><br />“We want to join the convention on the prohibition of chemical weapons. We are ready to observe our obligations in accordance with that convention, including providing all information about these weapons,” Muallem said.<br /><br />In response, US President Barack Obama asked Congress to delay a vote on authorizing military action against Syria in order to give the Russian proposal a chance to play out.<br /><br />On September 3, the UN secretary general said that only the Security Council can authorize any use of force against Syria over the alleged chemical weapons attack.<br /><br />“As I have repeatedly said, the Security Council has primary responsibility for international peace and security,” Ban Ki-moon told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York.<br /><br />“The use of force is lawful only when in exercise of self-defense in accordance with article 51 of the United Nations Charter and or when the Security Council approves such action,” Ban said in remarks that appeared to challenge the legality of US plans to launch a military offensive against Syria without a UN mandate.

Ban Receives Report On Chemical Weapons Attack In Syria

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has received a report by UN experts on a chemical weapons attack that allegedly killed hundreds...

President Bashar al-Assad's jets and artillery hit rebel suburbs of the capital again

<h3>Assad government hails 'victory' in arms deal, troops attack.</h3><br /><img abp="1" height="389" src="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/files/2013/01/102618864.jpg" width="640" /><br />BEIRUT - Syria's government hailed as a "victory" a Russian-brokered deal that has averted U.S. strikes, while President Barack Obama defended a chemical weapons pact that the rebels fear has bolstered their enemy in the civil war.<br /><br />President Bashar al-Assad's jets and artillery hit rebel suburbs of the capital again on Sunday in an offensive that residents said began last week when Obama delayed air strikes in the face of opposition from Moscow and his own electorate.<br /><br /><img abp="1" height="399" src="http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02283/assadPrivateJet_2283532b.jpg" width="640" /><br /><br />Speaking of the U.S.-Russian deal, Syrian minister Ali Haidar told Moscow's RIA news agency: "These agreements ... are a victory for Syria, achieved thanks to our Russian friends.<br /><br />Though not close to Assad, Ali was the first Syrian official to react to Saturday's accord in Geneva by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. Bridging an angry East-West rift over Syria, they agreed to back a nine-month U.N. programme to destroy Assad's chemical arsenal.<br /><br />The deal has put off the threat of air strikes Obama made after poison gas killed hundreds of Syrians on August 21, although he has stressed that force remains an option if Assad reneges. U.S. forces remain in position. Russia still opposes military action but now backs possible U.N. sanctions for non-compliance.<br /><br /><img abp="1" height="399" src="http://925.nl/images/2012-07/familie-assad.jpg" width="640" /><br /><br />French President Francois Hollande called for a U.N. resolution on Syria backed by the threat of punitive action to be voted by the end of this week. Hollande also said the option of military strikes must remain on the table.<br /><br />Kerry, visiting Israel, responded to widespread doubts about the feasibility of the "the most far-reaching chemical weapons removal ever" by insisting the plan could work. And he and Obama sought to reassure Israelis the decision to hold fire on Syria does not mean Iran can pursue nuclear weapons with impunity.<br /><br />Obama embraced the Syria disarmament proposal floated last week by Russian President Vladimir Putin after his plan for U.S. military action hit resistance in Congress. Lawmakers feared an open-ended new entanglement in the Middle East and were troubled by the presence of al Qaeda followers among Assad's opponents.<br /><br /><img abp="1" height="396" src="http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/images/stories/large/2012/01/30/117837519.jpg" width="640" /><br /><br />Obama dismissed critics of his quick-changing tactics on Syria for focusing on "style" not substance. And while thanking Putin for pressing his "client the Assad regime" to disarm, he chided Russia for questioning Assad's guilt over the gas attack.<br /><br />Responding to concerns, notably in Israel, that a display of American weakness toward Assad could encourage his Iranian backers to develop nuclear weapons, Obama said Tehran's nuclear programme was a "far larger issue" for him than Assad's toxins.<br /><br />"They shouldn't draw a lesson, that we haven't struck, to think we won't strike Iran," he told ABC television, disclosing he had exchanged letters with Iran's new president. "On the other hand, what they should draw from this lesson is that there is the potential of resolving these issues diplomatically."<br /><br />Obama had no lack of critics, however, at home and abroad.<br /><br />U.S. Republican Representative Mike Rogers was sceptical the deal will work. "If the president believes, like I do, that a credible military force helps you get a diplomatic solution, they gave that away in this deal. I'm really concerned about that," Rogers said.<br /><br />Even Obama's Democratic supporters are wary. If Assad scorns his commitments, said Senator Robert Menendez, "We're back to where we started - except Assad has bought more time on the battlefield and has continued to ravage innocent civilians."<br /><br />REBELS DISMISS TALKS<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAb38V56AOYvSJGohMsJ4ywuNWiXMRpP3adNz-iE6CTiCllbKYuY-8GxzuJVyOC1_OHib3-rD-0hD4K8EivRh_F-jsB8voBcrTbYhBvQ_W2RSBFY3z3pvL-LSYljmdgY-zXXLlfkrdMew/s1600/ss1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAb38V56AOYvSJGohMsJ4ywuNWiXMRpP3adNz-iE6CTiCllbKYuY-8GxzuJVyOC1_OHib3-rD-0hD4K8EivRh_F-jsB8voBcrTbYhBvQ_W2RSBFY3z3pvL-LSYljmdgY-zXXLlfkrdMew/s1600/ss1.png" width="640" /></a></div><br />Syrian National Reconciliation Minister Ali said Syria welcomed the deal: "They have prevented a war against Syria by denying a pretext to those who wanted to unleash it."<br /><br />He also echoed Kerry and Lavrov in saying it might help Syrians "sit round one table to settle their internal problems".<br /><br />But rebels, calling the international focus on poison gas a sideshow, have dismissed talk the arms pact might herald peace talks and said Assad has stepped up an offensive with ordinary weaponry now that the threat of U.S. air strikes has receded.<br /><br />A spokesman for the opposition Syrian National Coalition repeated that it wanted world powers to prevent Assad from using his air force, tanks and artillery on civilian areas.<br /><br />"Assad is effectively being rewarded for the use of chemical weapons," Shadi Hamid of the Brookings Doha Center wrote in the Atlantic magazine. "Now, he can get away with nearly anything - as long as he sticks to using good old conventional weapons."<br /><br />International responses to the accord were also guarded. Western governments, wary of Assad and familiar with the years frustrated U.N. weapons inspectors spent in Saddam Hussein's Iraq, noted the huge technical difficulties in destroying one of the world's biggest chemical arsenals in the midst of civil war.<br /><br />Iran hailed a U.S. retreat from "extremist behaviour" and welcomed its "rationality". Israel said the deal would be judged on results. China, which like Russia opposes U.S. readiness to use force against sovereign states, was glad of the renewed role for the U.N. Security Council, where Beijing too has a veto.<br /><br />The Syrian government has formally told the United Nations it will adhere to a treaty banning chemical weapons. The U.S.-Russian framework agreement calls for the United Nations to enforce the removal of existing stockpiles by the middle of next year.<br /><br />BOMBARDMENTS<br /><br />Air strikes, shelling and ground attacks on Damascus suburbs on Sunday backed up statements from Assad's supporters and opponents that he is back on the offensive after a lull in which his troops took up defensive positions, expecting U.S. strikes.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDPvdDSPRR0Y-TILkCtWNwLiOmYi-x4z60Cp6gr0xSDCSGanCuHIPqELZ2tg9_mjXV8Xb_ef4jv_66Q-eA1esviet31VczVaewhbuXq6wiqHHKEzxBfFohCPu46bdgumaws2nnPuIc6fs/s1600/c5b9.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDPvdDSPRR0Y-TILkCtWNwLiOmYi-x4z60Cp6gr0xSDCSGanCuHIPqELZ2tg9_mjXV8Xb_ef4jv_66Q-eA1esviet31VczVaewhbuXq6wiqHHKEzxBfFohCPu46bdgumaws2nnPuIc6fs/s1600/c5b9.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />"It's a clever proposal from Russia to prevent the attacks," said an Assad supporter from the port city of Tartous.<br /><br />An opposition activist in Damascus echoed disappointment among rebel leaders: "Helping Syrians would mean stopping the bloodshed," he said. Poison gas is estimated to have killed only hundreds of the more than 100,000 dead in a war that has also forced a third of the population to flee their homes since 2011.<br /><br />Russia says it is not specifically supporting Assad - though it has provided much of his weaponry. Its concern, it says, is to prevent Assad's Western and Arab enemies from imposing their will on a sovereign state. And Moscow, like Assad, highlights the role of al Qaeda-linked Islamists among the rebel forces.<br /><br />Their presence, and divisions among Assad's opponents in a war that has inflamed sectarian passions across the region, have tempered Western support. Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri urged followers on Sunday not to cooperate with other Syrian rebels.<br /><br />The opposition Syrian National Coalition elected a moderate Islamist on Saturday as prime minister of an exile government - a move some members said was opposed by Western powers who want to see an international peace conference bring the warring sides together to produce a compromise transitional administration.<br /><br />Previous attempts to revive peace efforts begun last year at Geneva have foundered on the bitter hostilities among Syrians.<br /><br />Newly elected coalition leader Ahmad Tumeh, a moderate Islamist, told Reuters he wanted to form a government that could bring order to rebel-held areas and to challenge al Qaeda there.<br /><br />SCHEDULE<br /><br /><a href="http://media1.policymic.com/site/articles/5931/photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img abp="1" border="0" src="http://media1.policymic.com/site/articles/5931/photo.jpg" /></a>Assad has just a week to begin complying with the U.S.-Russian deal by handing over a full account of his chemical arsenal.<br /><br />He must allow U.N.-backed inspectors from the Hague-based Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to complete their initial on-site checks by November.<br /><br /><br />Under the Geneva pact, the United States and Russia will back a U.N. enforcement mechanism. But its terms are not yet set. Russia is unlikely to support the military option that Obama said he was still ready to use: "If diplomacy fails, the United States remains prepared to act," he said on Saturday.<br /><br />Assad told Russian state television last week that his cooperation was dependent on an end to such threats and U.S. support for rebel fighters. But it seems likely that Moscow can prevail on him to comply, at least initially, with a deal in which Putin has invested considerable personal prestige.<br /><br />While Lavrov stressed in Geneva that the pact did not include any automatic use of force in the event of Syria's failure to comply, Western leaders said only the credible prospect of being bombed had persuaded Assad to agree to give up weaponry which he had long denied ever having, let alone using.<br /><br />Kerry and Lavrov plan to meet the U.N. envoy on Syria at the end of the month to review progress toward peace talks. Lavrov spoke of an international peace conference as early as October.<br /><br /><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTMgExv-6VK98_UQYbfwoCNEJrhvgKRg5Jh41HThXcUt0c3hRSQjEoLTI4f5fpGkHxJOewvzW1jutuH_yumCw4zslZ3Ket8xiIf8YpxciLqJEYjdMKzx6C_pSmxVeMDC6bwP1WuglreTU/s1600/c_jet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="454" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTMgExv-6VK98_UQYbfwoCNEJrhvgKRg5Jh41HThXcUt0c3hRSQjEoLTI4f5fpGkHxJOewvzW1jutuH_yumCw4zslZ3Ket8xiIf8YpxciLqJEYjdMKzx6C_pSmxVeMDC6bwP1WuglreTU/s1600/c_jet.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /></div>

President Bashar al-Assad's jets and artillery hit rebel suburbs of the capital again

Assad government hails 'victory' in arms deal, troops attack. BEIRUT - Syria's government hailed as a "victory" a Russ...

US, Russia reach deal on Syria chemical weapons

<h3>GENEVA — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reached agreement Saturday on a framework for Syria to destroy all of its chemical weapons, and said they would seek a U.N. Security Council resolution that could authorize sanctions — short of military action — if Syrian President Bashar Assad's government fails to comply.</h3><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img abp="83" alt="Syria negotiations reach 'pivotal point': US Secretary of State John Kerry, left, shakes hands with Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN Joint Special Representative for Syria, next to Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister: US Secretary of State John Kerry, left, shakes hands with Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN Joint Special Representative for Syria, next to Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, during a press conference after their meeting at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva on Friday." class="image" height="359" src="http://newsbcpcol.stb.s-msn.com/amnews/i/85/c8c43e496c70f78da9a7485339bdc2/_h353_w628_m6_otrue_lfalse.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="640" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">US Secretary of State John Kerry, left, shakes hands with Lakhdar Brahimi, the UN Joint Special Representative for Syria, next to Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, during a press conference after their meeting at the European headquarters of the United Nations in Geneva on Friday.</td></tr></tbody></table>The deal announced by the diplomats on the third day of intense negotiations in Geneva includes what Kerry called "a shared assessment" of Syria's weapons stockpile, and a timetable and measures for Assad's government to comply.<br /><br />"The world will now expect the Assad regime to live up to its public commitment," Kerry told a packed news conference in the Intercontinental Hotel in Geneva, where he has been staying and the negotiations were conducted since Thursday night. "There can be no games, no room for avoidance, or anything less than full compliance by the Assad regime."<br /><br />The deal calls for international inspectors to be on the ground in Syria by November and to complete their initial work by the end of that month. All of Syria's chemical weapons stocks, material and equipment would have to be destroyed or removed by mid-2014.<br /><br /><br />Administration officials had said that President Barack Obama was open to a Security Council resolution that did not include military force as a punishment if Assad doesn't follow through on promises regarding the weapons. While Russia would be all but certain to veto any measure with such a penalty, Obama's willingness to concede the point — after threatening a U.S.-led military strike with or without approval by the U.S. Congress — provided a step forward.<br /><br />"I have no doubt that the combination of the threat of force and the willingness to pursue diplomacy helped to bring us to this moment," Kerry said.<br /><br />"Providing this framework is fully implemented, it can end the threat these weapons pose, not only to the Syrian people, but also to their neighbors, to the region, and because of the threat of proliferation, this framework can provide greater protection and security to the world," he said.<br /><br />But the stakes have been especially high in Geneva, because the negotiations between the United States and Russia on securing Syria's chemical weapons also are considered key to breaking the international stalemate that has so far blocked a resumption of peace talks to end the Syrian civil war, now in its third year.<br /><br />"We have committed to a standard that says, verify and verify," Kerry said.<br /><br />Among the highlights of the agreement is that the U.S. and Russia would agree to work together on a new, binding Security Council resolution that would ensure verification of the agreement to secure and destroy Syria's chemical weapons stocks and remove its capability to produce such weapons.<br /><br /><br />The resolution would allow for punitive measures for non-compliance, but stop short of military action, if the 15-nation Security Council approves them. The U.S. and Russia are two of the five permanent Security Council members with a veto. The others are Britain, China, and France.<br /><br />Another major feature of the agreement is that the U.S. and Russia plan to give Syria one week, until Sept. 21, to submit "a comprehensive listing, including names, types and quantities of its chemical weapons agents, types of munitions, and local and form of storage, production, and research and development facilities."<br /><br />In addition, the U.S. and Russia have agreed that international inspectors should be on the ground in Syria by November and complete their initial work by the end of the month. They must be given "immediate and unfettered" access to inspect all sites.<br /><br />Notably, Kerry said they had agreed on grounds under which they might request a Security Council "Chapter 7" resolution at the United Nations, which is a measure that could include military and non-military sanctions.<br /><br />But Lavrov, who said the agreement was "based on consensus and compromise and professionalism," indicated there would be limits to using a Chapter 7 resolution, which Russia would almost certainly veto if it specifically authorized a military strike such as what President Barack Obama has threatened.<br /><br />"Any violations of procedures ... would be looked at by the Security Council and if they are approved, the Security Council would take the required measures, concrete measures," Lavrov said.<br /><br />"Nothing is said about the use of force or about any automatic sanctions. All violations should be approved by the Security Council," he added.<br /><br />Kerry also said any violations will result in "measures" from the Security Council, while Lavrov said the violations must be sent to the Security Council from the board of the chemical weapons convention before sanctions — short of the use of force — would be considered.<br /><br />Kerry said the pair and their teams of experts had come to agreement on the exact size of Syria's weapons stockpile, which had been a sticking point before their meetings in Geneva. But in marathon sessions into early morning hours, the U.S. and Russia succeeded in narrowing their differences.<br /><br />The agreement over the Russian proposal to inventory, isolate and eventually destroy Syria's chemical weapons stocks comes as the Obama administration warned that there is a timetable for a diplomatic resolution of the weapons issue.<br /><br />Administration officials have said that Obama would retain the authority to order U.S. airstrikes against Syria. Obama himself said that any agreement to remove Syria's chemical weapons stockpile "needs to be verifiable and enforceable."<br /><br />U.N. inspectors prepared to turn in their own poison gas report this weekend. Two U.N. diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because the time was not yet final, said Friday night that Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon was expected to brief the Security Council about the report on Monday morning.<br /><br />Ban said Friday that he expected "an overwhelming report" that chemical weapons were indeed used on the outskirts of Damascus on Aug. 21. Obama called for a limited military strike against Assad's forces in response, then deferred seeking congressional approval to consider the Russian proposal.<br /><br />Kerry and Lavrov also met Friday with U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi about the potential for a new peace conference in the Swiss city. Kerry said he, Lavrov and Brahimi agreed to meet around Sept. 28 on the sidelines of the annual U.N. General Assembly meetings in New York.<br /><br />"We are committed to try to work together, beginning with this initiative on the chemical weapons, in hopes that those efforts could pay off and bring peace and stability to a war-torn part of the world," Kerry said.<br /><br />Kerry, flanked by Lavrov and Brahimi, told reporters after an hour-long meeting that the chances for a second peace conference in Geneva will require success first with the chemical weapons talks.<br /><br />Kerry planned to travel to Jerusalem Sunday to discuss the situation in Syria with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He will then go to Paris to see French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius and British Foreign Secretary William Hague on Monday about the Syrian war. In Paris, he will meet separately with Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal.<br /><div><br /></div>

US, Russia reach deal on Syria chemical weapons

GENEVA — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reached agreement Saturday on a framework for Syria t...

Syria’s chemical weapons treaty application incomplete – UN

The UN has asked Syria for more information before it can join the chemical weapons convention, holding off the country’s accession to the treaty.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnHS3ILep6lwM8b-y70g8gD-c_IZp77_lGk3zsVVNArykJ9M5XBZBPw2eNhdn9awJIyW34sR9YfkN9zOMBDduWmCsRbHG0T2Gk_7aMcTjgtQ4k7GYOoj5vuFmTqIfy0Ol9LPKgPF3MsaQ/s1600/U.N..jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnHS3ILep6lwM8b-y70g8gD-c_IZp77_lGk3zsVVNArykJ9M5XBZBPw2eNhdn9awJIyW34sR9YfkN9zOMBDduWmCsRbHG0T2Gk_7aMcTjgtQ4k7GYOoj5vuFmTqIfy0Ol9LPKgPF3MsaQ/s1600/U.N..jpg" /></a></div><br />Syria applied to join the convention Thursday as part of a Russian led diplomatic effort to avert Western military action against the Assad government.<br /><br />The US accuses Assad of using chemical weapons on August 21 in a Damascus suburb where hundreds of people died.<br /><br />The Syrian government and Russia blame the rebels for the attack. Damascus had hitherto refused to sign up to the 1993 convention banning the production and stockpiling of chemical weapons.

Syria’s chemical weapons treaty application incomplete – UN

The UN has asked Syria for more information before it can join the chemical weapons convention, holding off the country’s accession to the t...

SYRIA CHEMICAL ATTACK REPORT COMPLETE – CHIEF UN INSPECTOR

<h3>Syria 'chemical weapons' crisis: UPDATES</h3><div><img height="400" src="http://www.un.org/News/dh/photos/large/2013/March/544668secretarygeneral.jpg" width="640" /></div><h3>U.N. report expected to confirm chemical arms used in Syria: Ban Ki-moon</h3><div><br /></div>A report by U.N. chemical weapons experts will likely confirm that poison gas was used in an August 21 attack on Damascus suburbs that killed hundreds of people, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Friday.<br /><br />"I believe that the report will be an overwhelming, overwhelming report that chemical weapons (were) used, even though I cannot publicly say at this time before I receive this report," Ban said at a U.N. meeting.<br /><br />He was referring to an eagerly awaited report by the U.N. expert team led by Ake Sellstrom of Sweden.<br /><br />U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq said that Ban does not have Sellstrom's report yet. Ban has said previously, however, that he was in contact with Sellstrom and had urged him to expedite his conclusions.<br /><br />France's U.N. ambassador, Gerard Araud, told reporters Monday is the tentative date for Ban to present Sellstrom's report to the Security Council and other U.N. member states.<br /><br />Ban also said on Friday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad "has committed many crimes against humanity," though he did not say whether it was Assad's forces or rebels who used the chemical weapons in the August 21 attack.<br /><br />While Sellstrom's report will not explicitly pin the blame on either side, diplomats say the facts they gathered could suggest which side in the 2-1/2 year civil war was responsible.<br /><br />The United States and other Western powers blame forces loyal to Assad for the attack. Russian President Vladimir Putin asserts there is "every reason to believe" it was carried out by rebels.<br /><br />Two Western diplomats said they strongly expect Sellstrom's report will confirm the U.S. view that sarin gas was used in the attack, which the United States says killed over 1,400 people, many of them children.<br /><br />The diplomats added they expected the report would indirectly implicate the Syrian government. They declined to elaborate, but the details that the report could include are types of weapons used and trajectories.<br /><br />Sellstrom's report could become a bargaining chip in talks between Russia and Western powers on conditions for Syria to give up its chemical weapons and the terms of a U.N. Security Council resolution on the matter.<br /><br />

SYRIA CHEMICAL ATTACK REPORT COMPLETE – CHIEF UN INSPECTOR

Syria 'chemical weapons' crisis: UPDATES U.N. report expected to confirm chemical arms used in Syria: Ban Ki-moon A report by U.N. c...

Russia to expand Mediterranean fleet to 10 warships – Navy chief

The Russian Navy intends to build its presence in the Mediterranean Sea - particularly in the area close to Syrian shores - to up to 10 battleships, announced Admiral of the Fleet Viktor Chirkov.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8vk3avngsl30N9vYadg0gIMzy5n78Oz3oTiz82MjW89SIEm9Me13djjUzcLmDwt8uFMLhDQvD-7IM6O3g9U9Iv58CoW-1E8KXUOiozBjdZDTDd7DgKupMkKCvU40Mg3UjH2JPjfdi8n0/s1600/Admiral+Panteleyev.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8vk3avngsl30N9vYadg0gIMzy5n78Oz3oTiz82MjW89SIEm9Me13djjUzcLmDwt8uFMLhDQvD-7IM6O3g9U9Iv58CoW-1E8KXUOiozBjdZDTDd7DgKupMkKCvU40Mg3UjH2JPjfdi8n0/s1600/Admiral+Panteleyev.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />“The task is crystal clear: to avoid a slightest threat to the security of the state. This is a general practice of all fleets around the world, to be there when a tension level increases. They are all going to act on operational command plan of the offshore maritime zone,” Chirkov told journalists on Friday. "Russia will be building up its Mediterranean fleet until it is deemed sufficient to perform the task set."<br /><br />Russia began military build-up in the Mediterranean in 2012, and starting from December last year the Navy established a constant presence in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea.<br /><br />On May 1, 2013 all Russian battleships operating in the area were assigned to a single task force under special offshore maritime zone operation command.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1BcmrPUdRG9qVqw5bBqBLhiNG2LGkV2z4lbZeTY6tenCli28xIzRDsLuqthRlkAeIfiO3Zl0mUnvyixX9G2fBewOPVpVEol-Wdkhm49u9MR70pJJ9pTxHSImnASw5zhg-ndg-GIiOj2E/s1600/Moskva.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1BcmrPUdRG9qVqw5bBqBLhiNG2LGkV2z4lbZeTY6tenCli28xIzRDsLuqthRlkAeIfiO3Zl0mUnvyixX9G2fBewOPVpVEol-Wdkhm49u9MR70pJJ9pTxHSImnASw5zhg-ndg-GIiOj2E/s1600/Moskva.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Currently there are seven warships deployed in the area: landing craft carriers 'Aleksandr Shabalin’, ‘Admiral Nevelskoy’, ‘Peresvet’, ‘Novocherkassk’ and ‘Minsk’ from Russia’s Black and Baltic Sea Fleets, as well as the escort vessel ‘Neustrashimy’, and large anti-submarine ship ‘Admiral Panteleyev’.<br />According to previous reports, the missile-carrying cruiser ‘Moskva’ passed the Straits of Gibraltar on September 10 and is expected to arrive at its final destination in eastern Mediterranean on September 15 or 16.<br /><br />Two battleships of the Russia’s Black Fleet, guided missile destroyer ‘Smetlivy’ and landing craft carrier ‘Nikolay Filchenkov’ left their bases in Sevastopol and Novorossiysk respectively and early on Friday morning have passed the Bosphorus Strait, heading to the eastern Mediterranean.<br /><br />The SSV-201 reconnaissance ship ‘Priazovye’ also reportedly joined the group in the Eastern Mediterranean in early September.<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC54sbY8g9TVLMMwOnH_GH5_dcTZTvQzh7T8wDVBQOg2yJ-kn_8au4yE27S7coriHFKX17YNdQht22OoWwY4y_eIquq9dneSv2qy2g2uck3l_J3Q9WyAuowyn9xMpVTsuQawQskXK5Ru0/s1600/peter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="196" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC54sbY8g9TVLMMwOnH_GH5_dcTZTvQzh7T8wDVBQOg2yJ-kn_8au4yE27S7coriHFKX17YNdQht22OoWwY4y_eIquq9dneSv2qy2g2uck3l_J3Q9WyAuowyn9xMpVTsuQawQskXK5Ru0/s1600/peter.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Upon the arrival of the ‘Moskva’, its commander, Sergey Tronev, will assume operative command of the task force.<br /><br />Commander Admiral Viktor Chirkov also informed that more than 80 Russian battleships and support vessels are currently offshore in various parts of the global ocean.<br />“In time of peace Navy’s duty and main application is military service, constant naval presence in the zones of military-political tension where interests of the Russian Federation are concentrated,” Chirkov said.<br /><br />Admiral Chirkov recalled that a group of ships headed by the ‘Moskva’ missile cruiser recently called into ports of Cuba and Venezuela and for the first time ever passed into the Pacific Ocean via the Panama Canal, calling into ports in Nicaragua and Panama.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0Z973M7YmMI8v_dHWv-bPSf1QqzUFm_nCj-d4Ik7LPayzy2BQasHEEgfw3ToaN4i_iss5top3oAqrCMw4OdUwZQVTSARY9pwGWExsC9SJHLUS8eOK0hQ7s78xv4x_RJcGsUbgYLU9ZIk/s1600/Smetlivy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0Z973M7YmMI8v_dHWv-bPSf1QqzUFm_nCj-d4Ik7LPayzy2BQasHEEgfw3ToaN4i_iss5top3oAqrCMw4OdUwZQVTSARY9pwGWExsC9SJHLUS8eOK0hQ7s78xv4x_RJcGsUbgYLU9ZIk/s1600/Smetlivy.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>Chirkov also informed that a group of 10 warships and support vessels accompanied by four nuclear icebreakers right now are training on the Northern Sea Route. This task group is headed by Russia’s most powerful battleship and the flagship of the Northern Fleet, cruiser ‘Pyotr Veliky’ (Peter the Great).<br />“For the first time ever all Russia’s nuclear surface ships - heavy nuclear missile cruiser ‘Pyotr Veliky' and nuclear icebreakers ‘Yamal’, ‘Vaigach’, ‘Taimyr’ and ‘50 Let Pobedy’, were combined in to perform a joined task,” Chirkov said, adding that the icebreakers assisted the taskforce to pass the strait between the Taimyr Peninsula and the Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago, and now the group is continuing to move forward to the east, crossing the Laptev Sea.<br /><br />Chirkov also mentioned that a group of battleships of the Pacific Fleet headed by the missile cruiser ‘Varyag’ is currently deployed in the southern-western Pacific performing an operational readiness exercise.<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwFbMYrXY5amw-9xRv6S3NS9kn15QYxf7RWzT7cv3h-6FWzZ3HQwNSEN6403jgfXKsowP3O8_uJaF0bKm-BvI-2i5EPnPsW39HGeUJ-KUyTqSFQDDbYEaC-11bBLvUNB4Uegd0rwnfS08/s1600/varyag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="174" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwFbMYrXY5amw-9xRv6S3NS9kn15QYxf7RWzT7cv3h-6FWzZ3HQwNSEN6403jgfXKsowP3O8_uJaF0bKm-BvI-2i5EPnPsW39HGeUJ-KUyTqSFQDDbYEaC-11bBLvUNB4Uegd0rwnfS08/s1600/varyag.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />“This group will take part in international exercises of the naval forces of the countries of the Asia-Pacific region and later will take part in the centenary celebration of the [Royal] Australian Navy,” said Chirkov.<br />The Russian Navy also continues to battle maritime piracy, deploying task force groups off the coasts of Somalia. In 2013 two naval task groups, one from the Northern Fleet and another from the Pacific Fleet, have been protecting sea routes near the Horn of Africa.<br /><br />Russian warships accompanied 19 convoys through the dangerous waters, maintaining security of 105 vessels from 27 countries and once preventing capture of a merchant vessel.

Russia to expand Mediterranean fleet to 10 warships – Navy chief

The Russian Navy intends to build its presence in the Mediterranean Sea - particularly in the area close to Syrian shores - to up to 10 batt...

Obama's Syria case still lacks proof

<h3>Fact check: Obama's Syria case still lacks proof.</h3><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img abp="86" alt="Fact checking Obama's Syria speech: John Merry watches President Barack Obama deliver a speech about Syria on Sept. 10, 2013, in Coronado, Calif." class="image" src="http://newsbcpcol.stb.s-msn.com/amnews/i/e1/208dd0b2541698bf15efca89369a9/_h353_w628_m6_otrue_lfalse.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Merry watches President Barack Obama deliver a speech about Syria on Sept. 10, 2013, in Coronado, Calif.</td></tr></tbody></table>WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama voiced his conviction Tuesday night that Syrian President Bashar Assad was to blame for deadly chemical attacks against civilians, but again he offered no proof.<br /><br />A look at his remarks to the nation, seeking support for a military strike against Syria, and how they compare with the facts as publicly known:<br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCMPZS8_cYfYrqb5rHnesureicc4SgATycz-DF4rn00piCVvdsvUmz48h7a_38xPu-8I9lemcXPA00uwv9rOsuoMb6FLtU3yiAx42gXERfq55FmPI0bYI_5HSSLccKVbiiU2z6yl0alXk/s1600/tech1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCMPZS8_cYfYrqb5rHnesureicc4SgATycz-DF4rn00piCVvdsvUmz48h7a_38xPu-8I9lemcXPA00uwv9rOsuoMb6FLtU3yiAx42gXERfq55FmPI0bYI_5HSSLccKVbiiU2z6yl0alXk/s1600/tech1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><h3>OBAMA: "We know the Assad regime was responsible. ... The facts cannot be denied."</h3><br /><h3>THE FACTS: The Obama administration has not laid out proof Assad was behind the attack.</h3><br />The administration has cited satellite imagery and communications intercepts, backed by social media and intelligence reports from sources in Syria, as the basis for blaming the Assad government. But the only evidence the administration has made public is a collection of videos it has verified of the victims. The videos do not demonstrate who launched the attacks.<br /><div><br /></div><div><div>Administration officials have not shared the satellite imagery they say shows rockets and artillery fire leaving government-held areas and landing in 12 rebel-held neighborhoods outside Damascus where chemical attacks were reported. Nor have they shared transcripts of the Syrian officials allegedly warning units to ready gas masks or discussing how to handle U.N. investigators after it happened.</div><div><br /></div><div>The White House has declined to explain where it came up with the figure of at least 1,429 dead, including 400 children — a figure far higher than estimates by nongovernmental agencies such as the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has counted only victims identified by name, with a current total of 502. In his remarks, Obama more generally accused Assad's forces of gassing to death "over 1,000 people, including hundreds of children."</div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg699zRkG05RvkkbZn7L7IT-AMCXrnBq7KmQ4gRcCsVe9cXpFBxSSy3G6pOokhRTiznP06BuPXGGP5LCWCDraitZszIRCnza3BZmvsjqGynWJDl7o7G-05Sh51p4q-50-tv8NsCDqCBmyk/s1600/Joe_Biden.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="478" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg699zRkG05RvkkbZn7L7IT-AMCXrnBq7KmQ4gRcCsVe9cXpFBxSSy3G6pOokhRTiznP06BuPXGGP5LCWCDraitZszIRCnza3BZmvsjqGynWJDl7o7G-05Sh51p4q-50-tv8NsCDqCBmyk/s1600/Joe_Biden.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>___</div><div><br /></div><div><h3>OBAMA: "So even though I possess the authority to order military strikes, I believed it was right in the absence of a direct or imminent threat to our security to take this debate to Congress."</h3></div><div><br /></div><div><h3>THE FACTS: Obama's statement that he has the authority to launch military action is par for the course for presidents, and historically disputed by Congress. The issue never gets settled.</h3></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT-FhxNjuQhFiDtNf8X00DxC_OXkKPsburHb3QjiHkCSGsQQcp-FMRlGmCa8SD_RAaVjVcLOssTSRr0mlhELhz2EyAGHiQnRVhm6-EyVrhLG4sM6kNN3XbysYhECiUM48bo6eiobDOzh4/s1600/1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhT-FhxNjuQhFiDtNf8X00DxC_OXkKPsburHb3QjiHkCSGsQQcp-FMRlGmCa8SD_RAaVjVcLOssTSRr0mlhELhz2EyAGHiQnRVhm6-EyVrhLG4sM6kNN3XbysYhECiUM48bo6eiobDOzh4/s1600/1.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>The Constitution delineates power between the president, who serves as commander in chief of the armed forces, and Congress, which has the ability to declare war. Over time, however, questions arose over where the president's authority ends and where Congress' begins.</div><div><br /></div><div>The 1973 War Powers Resolution sought to end the debate, but it has only fueled arguments between Republican and Democratic administrations alike and those who consider themselves constitutional purists.</div><div><br /></div><div>The law gives the president the power to act without congressional approval in cases of national emergency for up to 60 days. In such a case, the president must consult with Congress.<br /><br />And if the deadline passes without congressional authorization, the president has 30 additional days to remove troops.</div><div><br /></div><div>But what constitutes a national emergency and what consultation means remain subjects of continued disputes.</div></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik-tUhbNav80Oge7BnE50DxOCNawxSpIm7kb_hA1jsCSm2urr6JSXj3IOIR9POts-T0ZUmmlO1LK6OMInhAzRwOZBb0TSrAKep_2-HXMLkVUEEPIEk6aFsRzORcq6doiBTMe5IuhYZzXo/s1600/john-mccain.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik-tUhbNav80Oge7BnE50DxOCNawxSpIm7kb_hA1jsCSm2urr6JSXj3IOIR9POts-T0ZUmmlO1LK6OMInhAzRwOZBb0TSrAKep_2-HXMLkVUEEPIEk6aFsRzORcq6doiBTMe5IuhYZzXo/s1600/john-mccain.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><div><br /></div>

Obama's Syria case still lacks proof

Fact check: Obama's Syria case still lacks proof. John Merry watches President Barack Obama deliver a speech about Syria on Sept. 10, 20...

Palin: 'Enough of this foreign fiasco distraction. It is time to bomb Obamacare'

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/H402Y7z0SdMCJB60Sn.JSQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTY0MDtweW9mZj0wO3E9ODU7dz05NjA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/gettyimages.com/indianapolis-500-20130526-182653-099.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Indianapolis 500" border="0" height="426" src="http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/H402Y7z0SdMCJB60Sn.JSQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTY0MDtweW9mZj0wO3E9ODU7dz05NjA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/gettyimages.com/indianapolis-500-20130526-182653-099.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br /><h3><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">Sarah Palin is sick of hearing about Syria.</span></h3><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">A little more</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"> than a week after the former Alaska governor suggested the world "let Allah sort it out" in Syria's civil war, Palin </span><a data-rapid_p="14" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hgt87inKDUE#t=71" style="background-color: white; color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">posted a video</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"> to her various social media accounts urging U.S. lawmakers to ignore "this foreign fiasco distraction" and "get back to work."</span><br /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">"It is time to bomb Obamacare," Palin </span><a data-rapid_p="15" href="https://www.facebook.com/sarahpalin/posts/10151853868928588" style="background-color: white; color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">wrote on her Facebook page</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"> above the video. The message, posted late Monday, has generated more than 56,000 likes.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">The two-minute video, titled "</span><a data-rapid_p="16" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hgt87inKDUE#t=71" style="background-color: white; color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Just Sayin'</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">," includes clips of political pundits debating Palin's controversial claim that the Affordable Care Act would lead to "death panels," and ends with the message "to be continued ... sadly."</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">Late last month, Palin criticized Obama's plan to strike Syria over the Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack that killed more than 1,000 people in the suburbs of Damascus. </span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">“So we’re bombing Syria because Syria is bombing Syria? And I’m the idiot?” Palin wrote in a Facebook message. “Bottom line is that this is about President Obama saving political face because of his ‘red line’ promise regarding chemical weapons."</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;" /><br style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">The </span><a data-rapid_p="17" href="http://obamacosts.gop.com/video/medical-device-maker-lays-1000-people-due-obamacare/" style="background-color: white; color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">tea party's efforts to defund Obamacare</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">, </span><a data-rapid_p="18" href="http://www.politico.com/story/2013/09/sarah-palin-obamacare-96529.html#ixzz2eVTGpEzG" style="background-color: white; color: #324fe1; cursor: pointer; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Politico notes</a><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;">, have largely been pushed off the table on Capitol Hill as lawmakers grapple with the question of authorizing U.S. military intervention in Syria.</span><br /><span style="background-color: white; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue', HelveticaNeue, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; line-height: 24px;"><br /></span><img alt="Miami Heat v Indiana Pacers - Game Three" height="426" src="http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/j5m13YVcXj2cu3MnSCswEQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTY0MDtweW9mZj0wO3E9ODU7dz05NjA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/gettyimages.com/miami-heat-v-indiana-pacers-20130527-045131-855.jpg" width="640" />

Palin: 'Enough of this foreign fiasco distraction. It is time to bomb Obamacare'

Sarah Palin is sick of hearing about Syria. A little more  than a week after the former Alaska governor suggested the world "let Allah ...