Middle East: Kurds fear Isis use of chemical weapon in Kobani - by Emma Graham-Harrison

Kurds battling Islamic State militants for control of Kobani fear the extremist group may have used an unidentified chemical weapon, according to officials and one of the few doctors still working in the besieged Syrian town.

Patients with blisters, burning eyes and breathing difficulties turned up at a clinic after a blast was heard on Tuesday evening, Dr Walat Omar said. He described the symptoms as abnormal and said he could not identify their cause, but suspected a chemical weapon.

“After a loud explosion [on Tuesday night], we received some patients with abnormal symptoms. They reported a bad smell which produced some kind of allergic reaction,” Omar said in a telephone interview that was periodically disrupted by heavy explosions.


Read more: Kurds fear Isis use of chemical weapon in Kobani | World news | The Guardian

The Netherlands: Chemical Weapos: Weapons body OPCW pressures US, Russia after Nobel award - by Peter Cluskey

The global chemical weapons watchdog whose inspectors are monitoring the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize – with an admonishment to both the United States and Russia that they must follow suit and eliminate their own stockpiles.

Experts from the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) were dispatched to Syria last month after a sarin gas attack in a Damascus suburb killed some 1,400 people, a last-minute deployment that helped to prevent a US missile attack on President Bashar al-Assad.

The OPCW mission in Syria is unprecedented because the civil war there has already killed as many as 100,000 people, but also because its fast-track aim is to destroy Mr Assad’s chemical weapons production capability by November 1st and the stockpiles themselves by the mid-2014.

The Peace Prize Committee praised the OPCW for creating an environment in which it might be possible “to eliminate an entire category of deadly weapons”, adding: “The conventions and work of the OPCW have defined the use of chemical weapons as a taboo under international law.”

The committee’s chairman, Thorbjorn Jagland, singled out the US and Russia – ironically, the two countries that brokered the Syrian chemical disarmament plan – for having failed to meet a deadline of April 2012 for completing the destruction of their own remaining chemical agents.

Mr Jagland said both countries now had a moral obligation to complete their destruction programmes “especially because they are demanding that other countries, such as Syria, should do the same”.

Read more: Weapons body pressures US, Russia after Nobel award - European News | Latest News from Across Europe | The Irish Times - Sat, Oct 12, 2013

Russia: We have 'common understanding' with US over Syria weapons - by Alastair Jamieson and Catherine Chomiak

Russia and the United States have reached a “common understanding” on how to eliminate chemical weapons in Syria, President Vladimir Putin reportedly said Tuesday after meeting Secretary of State John Kerry.

The pair chatted and shook hands in front of reporters at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation trade summit on the Indonesian island of Bali.

"We have a common understanding of what needs to be done and how. I am very glad that President (Barack) Obama is occupying this position (on chemical arms)," Putin later told reporters, according to Reuters.

Kerry said: “We’re very pleased with the pace of what has happened with respect to chemical weapons in a record amount of time.”

Read more: Russia: We have 'common understanding' with US over Syria weapons - World News

UN unanimously adopts Syria arms resolution

The UN Security Council has voted unanimously to secure and destroy Syria's chemical weapons stockpile.

The vote late on Friday was the first resolution passed on the Syrian conflict since it began in March 2011, after Russia and China had previously vetoed three Western-backed resolutions pressuring President Bashar Assad's regime to end the violence.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the council immediately after the vote that he aimed to hold long-sought talks aimed at organising a political transition in Syria in mid-November.

For the first time, the UNSC endorsed the roadmap for a political transition in Syria adopted by key nations in June 2012 and called for an international conference to be convened "as soon as possible" to implement it.

The resolution calls for consequences if Syria fails to comply, but those will depend on the council passing another resolution in the event of non-compliance.

Sergei Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, said after the vote the UN Security Council would be prepared to take punitive steps in the event of confirmed violations of a resolution demanding the elimination of Syria's chemical weapons arsenal.

Note EU-Digest: Kudos to President's Putin and Obama to pull this off !


 Read more: UN unanimously adopts Syria arms resolution - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

Syria: U.S., Russia agree on Syria U.N. chemical arms measure -

Ending weeks of diplomatic deadlock, the United States and Russia agreed on Thursday on a U.N. Security Council draft resolution that would demand Syria give up its chemical arms, but does not threaten military force if it fails to comply.

Samantha Power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said a deal was struck with Russia "legally obligating" Syria to give up its chemical stockpile and the measure went to the full Security Council in a closed-door meeting on Thursday night. U.N. diplomats said a vote could come within 24 hours.

U.S., Russian, French and British diplomats told reporters the vote could come as early as Friday evening, provided the Executive Council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons in The Hague approves a plan for the destruction of Syria's poison gas arsenal beforehand.

"I know that some (foreign) ministers are extending their stay in New York in order to participate in that vote," Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told reporters.

The agreement emerged from intense negotiations at the United Nations with Russia, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's chief ally. The aim was to craft a measure to require destruction of Syria's chemical arsenal in line with a U.S.-Russian deal reached earlier this month that averted American strikes on Assad's forces in the midst of a bloody civil war.

Read more: U.S., Russia agree on Syria U.N. chemical arms measure - chicagotribune.com

Syria meets deadline and submits chemical arms data to watchdog

Syria has disclosed the information on its chemical weapons programme that was expected under an agreed Saturday deadline, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said.

"The Technical Secretariat is currently reviewing the information received," a statement on the Hague-based OPCW's website said.

The disclosure is a crucial stage in the process that should lead to the weapons' destruction. Syria is believed to possess about 1,000 tonnes of toxins, and has agreed to destroy them under a joint Russian-US proposal designed to avert a US military strike on Syria.

Earlier on Saturday, OPCW said it had begun to examine the first details of Syria's chemical arsenal supplied by the government of President Bashar al-Assad.

Meanwhile, the Syrian regime has distanced itself from comments made by Qadri Jamil, one of three of its deputy prime ministers, who told the Guardian on Thursday that his government would consider a ceasefire if peace talks were organized.

Jamil told the Guardian: "Neither the armed opposition nor the regime is capable of defeating the other side.”

The newspaper reported that Jamil as saying that for the government to enter talks, it would seek "an end to external intervention, a ceasefire and the launching of a peaceful political process in a way that the Syrian people can enjoy self-determination without outside intervention and in a democratic way."

However, Jamil's party said on Friday that his comments did not represent the position of the government, only those of his Peoples' Needs Party.

Read more: Syria submits chemical arms data to watchdog - Middle East - Al Jazeera En

Syria's Assad: Removing chemicals a sensitive operation but syas he will comply with demands - by Melanie Eversley

Syrian President Bashar Assad wants to cooperate with diplomatic agreements that would compel his country to be rid of chemical weapons within a year, but there are technical issues to consider about such a sensitive operation, he said Wednesday night during an interview on Fox News.

Facing questions at the presidential palace in Damascus, from former U.S. representative Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, and Fox News senior foreign affairs correspondent Greg Palkot, Assad said during the hour-long conversation that his government is committed to the agreement hammered out in talks with Russia.

"It's a very complicated operation technically and it takes a lot of money," Assad said, later elaborating that the price tag would be about $1 billion because the chemicals would be detrimental to the environment.

Read more: Syria's Assad: Removing chemicals a sensitive operation

Syria: EU offers to help destroy Syria weapons

EU countries have offered to help destroy Syria's chemical weapons as part of a Russia-US deal.

Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov and US secretary of state John Kerry agreed the plan on Saturday (14 September) in Geneva after three days of talks.

It says Syria must in one week disclose details of its chemical arsenal to the Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), an intergovernmental body created in 1997 and based in The Hague.

It must give OPCW staff full access to it facilities.

Read more: EUobserver.com / Foreign Affairs / EU offers to help destroy Syria weapons

Syria: President Obama's roller-coaster Syrian gamble

The last few weeks have been a roller-coaster ride as President Obama's tactical approach to the Syrian dilemma twisted first one way, then another. 

As the hair-raising ride seemingly slows down, he has not lost. He may even have won. Through a series of highly unlikely gambles, he has come close to getting what he wanted.

The Syrians have promised to get rid of chemical weapons, and it looks highly likely it was American threats that pushed them to a deal. But no military action has been taken.

Read more: BBC News - President Obama's roller-coaster Syrian gamble

Syria, US, Russia: Diplomacy works

The Unites States-Russia agreement to provide a “framework” for the inspection, removal and eventual destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons proves diplomacy is not a spent force in international politics: it has been creatively deployed in this case to not only stave off potentially disastrous military intervention, but also break new ground in troubleshooting the Syrian crisis politically.

The deal — signed Saturday in Geneva by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his U.S. counterpart John Kerry — requires Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to allow for immediate “on-site inspections of all declared sites” which produce and stockpile chemical munitions.

The agreement proposes to “eliminate” all WMD material in Syria within the “first half of 2014.” With Syria having formally acceded to the Chemical Weapons Convention, the inspection will be supervised by the treaty’s watchdog, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, as well as the U.N.

These remarkable developments, which come barely a week after a West-led attack on Syria seemed all but inevitable, represent a stunning victory for Russian President Vladimir Putin, who urged the U.S. via an op-ed in the New York Times to “stop using the language of force and return to the path of diplomatic settlement.”

His attempt marks one of the most politically savvy gestures by a head of state to reach across the aisle to a foreign audience in recent years. 

Diplomacy works - The Hindu

U.S., Russia cut deal on Syria's chemical weapons

The U.S. and Russia announced an agreement Saturday aimed at setting a timetable for destruction of Syria's chemical weapons and averting a proposed U.S. military strike against the war-torn Middle Eastern nation.

Under the agreement, hammered out on the third day of tense talks in Geneva, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons and the United Nations will be responsible for dismantling Syria's chemical weapons capabilities.

Syrian President Bashar Assad would be required to provide an accounting of those weapons within a week.
"The world will now expect the Assad regime to live up to its public commitments," Secretary of State John Kerry said in announcing the deal in Geneva. "And as I said at the outset of these negotiatons, there can be no games, no room for avoidance, or anything less than full compliance by the Assad regime."

President Obama called the deal a "concrete step toward the goal of moving Syria's chemical weapons under international control."

"This framework provides the opportunity for the elimination of Syrian chemical weapons in a transparent, expeditious and verifiable manner, which could end the threat these weapons pose not only to the Syrian people but to the region and the world," Obama said in a statement.

Note EU-Digest: this is a step in the right direction !

Read more: U.S., Russia cut deal on Syria's chemical weapons

Syria: Obama Keeps Campaign Promise - Diplomacy Preferable Over War - Watch Live: Presidents Address to the Nation

President Obama

President Obama said in his speech he will use diplomacy to remove Syria's chemical weapons. However, he warned that the United States must be prepared to take military action if diplomatic efforts fail. 

An international survey of speech-watchers conducted immediately after the conclusion of Obama's Tuesday address indicates that 61% support the president's position on Syria, with 37% opposing his response to the Syrian government's alleged use of chemical weapons against its own citizens.

The poll indicates that nearly two-thirds of those who watched the speech think that the situation in Syria is likely to be resolved through diplomatic efforts, with 35% disagreeing ... According to the poll, those who watched the president were divided on whether Obama made a convincing case in his speech for U.S. military action in Syria, with 47% saying he did and 50% saying he didn't."

Watch Live: President Obama's Address to the Nation on Syria | The White House

Syria conflict: Disputes flare over UN resolution

A Russian plan for Syria's chemical weapons to be put under international control has sparked immediate disputes over resolutions at the United Nations.

The UK, US and France want a timetable and consequences of failure spelt out, and Washington has warned it will "not fall for stalling tactics".

Russia said any draft putting the blame on Syria was unacceptable and urged a declaration backing its initiative.

Syria has said it accepts the Russian proposal on its chemical stockpile.

Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem said on Tuesday that Damascus was willing to become a party to the Chemical Weapons Convention, Russian Interfax news agency reported,

Read more: BBC News - Syria conflict: Disputes flare over UN resolution

Syria crisis: Russia urges Assad to give up chemical weapons

Russia has asked Syria to put its chemical weapons stockpiles under international control and then have them destroyed, in an attempt to avoid US military strikes.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the offer was made during talks with his Syrian counterpart, Walid Muallem, who welcomed the initiative.

The US said it was sceptical, but would have a "hard look" at the plan. The US accuses Damascus of war crimes, allegations denied by the regime.

US Secretary of State John Kerry, in Europe to garner support for the military action, has once again warned that taking no action is riskier than launching strikes.

When asked at a news conference whether there was anything Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could do to avoid military action, Mr Kerry replied that he could hand over his entire stockpile of chemical weapons within the next week.

Read more: BBC News - Syria crisis: Russia urges Assad to give up chemical weapons

Syria: Obama’s Syria Plan May Not Have the Votes – Will He Attack Anyway?

Suggesting an uphill fight for President Barack Obama, House members staking out positions are either opposed to or leaning against his plan for a U.S. military strike against Syria by more than a 6-1 margin, a survey by The Associated Press shows. The Senate is more evenly divided ahead of its vote next week.

Still, the situation is very fluid. Nearly half of the 433-member House and a third of the 100-member Senate remain undecided.

By their statements or those of aides, only 30 members of the Republican-led House support intervention or are leaning in favor of authorizing the president to use force against Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government in response to a chemical weapons attack last month. Some 192 House members outright oppose U.S. involvement or are leaning against authorization, according to the AP survey.

The situation in the Democrat-controlled Senate is better for Obama but hardly conclusive ahead of a potential vote next week. The AP survey showed those who support or are leaning in favor of military action holding a slight 34-32 advantage over those opposed or leaning against it.

Read more: Obama’s Syria Plan May Not Have the Votes – Will He Attack Anyway? | TheBlaze.com

Syria: Britain sold nerve gas chemicals to Syria 10 months after war began

Britain allowed firms to sell chemicals to Syria capable of being used to make nerve gas, the Sunday Mail revealed today.

Export licences for potassium fluoride and sodium fluoride were granted months after the bloody civil war in the Middle East began.

Yesterday, politicians and anti-arms trade campaigners urged Prime Minister David Cameron to explain why the licences were granted.

Dunfermline and West Fife Labour MP Thomas Docherty, who sits on the House of Commons’ Committees on Arms Export Controls, plans to lodge Parliamentary questions tomorrow and write to Cable.

He said: “At best it has been negligent and at worst reckless to export material that could have been used to create chemical weapons.

“MPs will be horrified and furious that the UK Government has been allowing the sale of these ingredients to Syria.  “What the hell were they doing granting a licence in the first place?

The chemical is capable of being used to make weapons such as sarin, thought to be the nerve gas used in the attack on a rebel-held Damascus suburb which killed nearly 1500 people, including 426 children, 10 days ago.

President Bashar Assad’s forces have been blamed for the attack, leading to calls for an armed response from the West.

British MPs voted against joining America in a strike. But last night, President Barack Obama said he will seek the approval of Congress to take military action.

The chemical export licences were granted by Business Secretary Vince Cable’s Department for Business, Innovation and Skills last January – 10 months after the Syrian uprising began.

They were only revoked six months later, when the European Union imposed tough sanctions on Assad’s regime.

Read more: Britain sold nerve gas chemicals to Syria 10 months after war began - Daily Record

Syria: France, following US and UK, applies brakes on Syrian war rhetoric

Following Washington and London’s lead, French President Francois Hollande said he would wait for a parliamentary vote before committing France to a military attack on Syria.

The announcement comes as NATO countries reconsider whether to take military action against the Syrian government over a chemical weapons attack that killed hundreds of people in Damascus, amid growing public opposition to a US-led military intervention.

Paris backed off immediate military action against Syria after MPs in the UK House of Commons defeated Prime Minister David Cameron’s proposal that British forces take part in military action over the alleged use of chemical weapons by Assad’s government. The war vote – the first lost by a British prime minister since 1782 – was followed by US President Barack Obama saying Saturday that he would wait until he receives authorization from the US Congress before taking military action on Syria.

Surprisingly, given France’s past hesitation to join in military adventures, Hollande has been the most vocal supporter of a US military operation, which Obama said would not include “boots on the ground.”

The French president, unlike the British prime minister, does not require permission from the country’s parliament, the National Assembly, to order military action.

Read more: France, following US and UK, applies brakes on Syrian war rhetoric — RT News

Miracles In Syria: Insurgents attacked by ‘chemical bombs’ walk freely in contaminated areas without any harm

Wow. The miracles of Allah are plenty. Especially during Muslim slaughter of their own people. Chemical “bombs” fall over victim terrorists in Syria, yet mainly children are killed while the rest of them seem to do well. Amazing! 

Maybe the UN should do a couple of autopsies and chemical tests on all those ‘dead’ people.
Yesterday we reported on the fake ‘Assad did it!’ claim coming from Syria, where Sunni extremists who forced their way into the country from neighbouring Arab countries to commit jihad (exactly like the ‘palestinians’ when they occupied Gaza and West Bank), fake it and churn propaganda. 

They have no qualms about killing their own people, and don’t even mind killing children because children look better dead on TV than adults. 

Dead children tend to bring more sympathy and reaction from Europe, UK and the U.S., who then step in and do the the dirty work for these savages in the Muslim Brotherhood. And of course, the Saudi’s add a lot of pressures to encourage the “evil and meddling west” to remove their Shia enemy.

If Western powers had any sense at all, they would stay put and just leave them to handle their battles themselves and stay out of it. With no one to step in and support them, no one to give funds and military supplies, what are they to do? No one can stop them from killing anyways. Muslims have been murdering their own people on a daily basis since the birth of pedo-prophet Mohammed. They are always in quarrels with someone or the other. In fact, in fifty years Muslims have murdered around 10 million other Muslims. It’s not really a loss. Who mourns the loss of another Muslim in the world? Know anyone?? The more of their own they kill, the more reasons to celebrate.

Read more: Miracles In Syria: Insurgents attacked by ‘chemical bombs’ walk freely in contaminated areas without any harm |

Russia's Vladimir Putin challenges US on Syria claims

Russian President Vladimir Putin has challenged the US to present to the UN evidence that Syria attacked rebels with chemical weapons near Damascus.

Mr Putin said it would be "utter nonsense" for Syria's government to provoke opponents with such attacks.
US President Barack Obama says he is considering military action against Syria after intelligence reports that 1,429 people were killed on 21 August.

UN weapons inspectors have left Syria after gathering evidence for four days.

They crossed into neighbouring Lebanon. They are due to go to the headquarters of the Organisation for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons in the Netherlands.

Read more: BBC News - Russia's Vladimir Putin challenges US on Syria claims

Germany - Poll: Most Germans and Americans against military strike on Syria

According to Forschungsgruppe Wahlen polling group, which conducted the poll for Germany’s ZDF television, 58 percent of the respondents voiced opposition to a military strike on Syria.

The poll also indicated that 55 percent of the interviewees believed that Germany should not lend financial or material support to such a move.

The survey whose results were released on August 29 was carried out from August 26 through August 28 on 1,348 people in Germany.

On August 21, the militants operating inside Syria and the foreign-backed Syrian opposition claimed that hundreds had been killed in a government chemical attack on militant strongholds in the Damascus suburbs of Ain Tarma, Zamalka and Jobar. 

A recent poll conducted by Reuters/Ipsos in the US found that about 60 percent of Americans believe that the United States should not get militarily involved in the Syrian conflict.  

Read more: PressTV - Poll: Most Germans against military strike on Syria