Kerry 'pleased' with Syria chemical disarmament

[AmjadS]

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that the United States and Russia are "very pleased" with the progress made so far in destroying Syria's chemical weapons stocks.

Kerry, speaking at a press conference with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, said Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime deserves credit for its compliance with the U.N. Security Council resolution calling for the elimination of the weapons. Kerry said Assad was not off the hook, but needs to continue to comply with U.N. demands.

He said it was "extremely significant" that the first weapons were destroyed Sunday, just a few weeks after the resolution passed the U.N. "It is a good beginning, and we should welcome a good beginning," Kerry said.

Kerry and Lavrov met Monday on the sidelines of an economic summit on the Indonesian resort island of Bali. Their meeting represented the first high-level talks between the two nations since they sealed a deal to secure and destroy Syria's chemical weapons.

International disarmament inspectors began work Sunday to destroy Syria's estimated 1,000-ton stockpile of chemical weapons. They're working against a Nov. 1 deadline set by the United Nations last month to destroy the Assad government's capability to produce the weapons.

Kerry and Lavrov also discussed Iran and its nuclear program. Officials from the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — the U.S., China, the Russian Federation, France and the United Kingdom — and Germany will meet with representatives from Iran in Geneva on Oct. 15 to hold renewed talks on Iran's nuclear program.

Tehran insists its nuclear program is peaceful and says it is enriching uranium to levels needed for medical isotopes and reactor fuel.

Western powers, including the U.S., fear Iran is trying to build a nuclear bomb and have imposed crippling economic sanctions to encourage Iran to curb its enrichment program.

Source: ZAMAN ALWSL News Website

 

[SherriMunnerlyn]

All positive developments being reported.

Just hoping no more false flag operations come along aimed at destroying hopes for peace.

Now, let us hope we soon see talks in Syria between Assad and factions from the Opposition to try to stop the fighting in Syria

 

[SherriMunnerlyn]

The article is a little old, September 22, hope this is still their position.

I know all opposition groups do not feel this way.


Syrian opposition group says it willing to attend Geneva talks

AMMAN (Reuters) - The head of the Syrian National Coalition has said the group is ready to attend a proposed Geneva conference to end the civil war, if the talks aim to establish a transitional government.It was the first clear commitment by the Western- and Arab-backed coalition to attend the proposed conference, but other opposition voices, including rebels inside Syria, said they were against talks as long as Bashar al-Assad remains president.

Syrian opposition group says it willing to attend Geneva talks

 

[irosie91]

enriched Uranium is not used in the making of isotopes for medical uses----
the jihadist pigs of Iran tailor their comments to the deficient minds of their
co-religionist morons

 

[SherriMunnerlyn]

Iran has diverted much of its enriched uranium to*peaceful scientific research and medical isotopes, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency’s latest report and intelligence obtained by Israeli sources.


Iran Diverts Much of its Uranium for Peaceful Medical Research, Israeli Intel Says -- News from Antiwar.com

 

[SherriMunnerlyn]

enriched Uranium is not used in the making of isotopes for medical uses----
the jihadist pigs of Iran tailor their comments to the deficient minds of their
co-religionist morons

The IAEA says otherwise.

See Post 5

 

[irosie91]

enriched Uranium is not used in the making of isotopes for medical uses----
the jihadist pigs of Iran tailor their comments to the deficient minds of their
co-religionist morons

The IAEA says otherwise.

See Post 5

Wrong again----the ---the process of enriching Uranium as to its concentration
of U235 being undertaken by Iran is UTTERLY UNNECESSARY for the production
of medical isotopes --------using U235 --enriched Uranium of the type the Iranians are
making CAN be used to make medical isotopes-----but doing so is both a dangerous
and unnecessarily expensive process. A claim that a country engages in the process just
to get medical isotopes out of it------is absurd and a lot more dangerous than using the
DEPLETED uranium as a very dense metal in weapons and shields

I used to decorate my pumpkin pies with diamonds-----but I abandoned the practice---
SIMPLY NOT NECESSARY OR PRACTICAL and actually dangerous----to dental work

 

[waltky]

Obama gonna put the hurt on Assad if he don't comply...

White House Will ‘Make Sure’ Syria Meets Its Chemical Weapons Obligations
February 3, 2014 -– As Syrian President Bashar Assad continues to defy the U.N. Security Council and undermine an Obama administration foreign policy achievement by dragging out a timeline for surrendering his chemical weapons stockpiles, the White House said Sunday the U.S. would “make sure” the regime complies.

White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough also disputed the notion that the U.S. was dependent on Russia to influence Assad. “We’re not dependent on anybody in particular,” he said. “We’re going to make sure that the Syrians live up to their obligations. They have an obligation to the international community to do exactly what they said they’d do.” Asked what would happen if Assad fails to do what they said they would, McDonough declined to elaborate. “I’m not going to get into any ‘or whats’ here,” he told CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

U.S. officials for several days have been expressing dismay that Syria has handed over just four percent of its declared chemical weapons stocks so far. Wednesday February 5 marks the deadline by which the regime is meant to have transported all of the toxic chemicals to the Mediterranean port of Latakia, for removal by foreign vessel. Syria also missed an earlier deadline, Dec. 31, for handing over its most dangerous materiel – so-called “class A” chemicals making up 700 metric tons of the total 1,300-ton stockpile.

The U.S. and Western allies had hoped that Russia, Assad’s closest ally on the Security Council, would pressure him into meeting the obligations, but Moscow has displayed little inclination to do so, in public at least. On the contrary, the Interfax news agency quoted Russia’s top disarmament official, Mikhail Ulyanov, as saying no additional pressure was necessary as the Syrians were acting “in good faith” to fulfil their commitments. (The U.S. has dismissed the regime’s claims that security and weather difficulties held up progress.)

It was Russia’s intervention in the first place that led to an agreement negotiated with the U.S. last fall to destroy the weapons. The Obama administration characterized the deal as a triumph of diplomacy, enabling the president to back away from threats to launch missile strikes in response to a deadly chemical weapons attack near Damascus last August. Four months later, the agreement is way behind schedule, both the U.S. and Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) agree.

MORE

 

[Mr. H.]

Obama is all blow and no go.

Fuck that turd.

 

[jon_berzerk]

that is what leading from behind gets ya

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - Assad takin' his sweet time, thumbin' his nose at Obama...

OPCW: Only 11% of chemical weapons removed from Syria
February 12th, 2014 ~ Syria has shipped out 11% of its chemical weapons stockpile - falling far short of the February 5 deadline to have all such arms removed from the country, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons told CNN Wednesday.

The slow pace of removal prompted U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to warn last month that all options remain available to force compliance. The OPCW is now in touch with senior Syrian officials to discuss a new schedule going forward. Meanwhile, groups of civilians were evacuating a besieged city Wednesday as opposition leaders unveiled a diplomatic road map they hope will lead their country out of a brutal civil war. At least 200 people had registered to evacuate the Old City of Homs on Wednesday, the Syrian Arab Red Crescent Society said in a Twitter post.

Rasmus Tantholdt, a TV2 Denmark reporter inside the ancient quarter, told CNN he saw two buses packed with civilians arrive at a government-controlled transit point there. While some got ready to leave the quarter where they have been trapped as violence surges, a shipment of humanitarian assistance was delivered to those who decided to stay, the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency reported. Elsewhere, nearly two dozen airstrikes were carried out on the Yabroud area of the Damascus suburbs, opposition activists said. Subsequent clashes left 11 regime forces dead, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. Syrian state media made no mention of the deaths, but said the strikes targeted terrorist hide-outs.

Both sides continue to meet for peace talks in Geneva, Switzerland, where opposition leaders presented their proposal for a transitional government, Syrian National Coalition spokesman Louay Safi told reporters. Key steps for the proposed government would include: ending violence, releasing prisoners of conscience, maintaining law and order, bringing justice to those responsible for violence and protecting human rights. "This transitional body is the hope for the Syrian people," Safi said. But Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose forces have regained momentum against a now-fractured opposition, has said he's not looking at the talks as a way to transition out of power.

Bouthaina Shaaban, al-Assad's media adviser, said "not much progress" had been made in the peace talks. "We have been discussing trying to reach a joint agenda with the other side. Unfortunately, they came this morning and started talking about the transitional government body," she said. "The first item on the agenda should be combating terrorism, so our delegation did not discuss the transitional government." Stopping terrorism, she said, is the Syrian people's top priority. "We want the other side to put this as a primary objective in the agenda," she said, "and unfortunately, so far, we have not succeeded."

The U.N. envoy leading Geneva talks met together with opposition and government representatives Wednesday, the United Nations said. Earlier in the day, he met with Gennady Gatilov, Russia's deputy minister of foreign affairs, the United Nations said. Meanwhile, British investigators from the South East Counter Terrorism Unit searched a home Wednesday in Crawley, Sussex, in connection with last week's suicide bombing in Syria's Aleppo Prison. British public broadcaster BBC reported that the bombing suspect was from Crawley. British authorities declined to comment.

OPCW: Only 11% of chemical weapons removed from Syria ? CNN Security Clearance - CNN.com Blogs

See also:

Syria, al Qaeda: U.S. officials offer grim assessment
February 11th, 2014 ~ A security vacuum over vast areas of Syria could allow extremists to access weapons of mass destruction, a top U.S. intelligence official said.

"The current instability in Syria presents a perfect opportunity for al Qaeda and associated groups," to acquire Syrian stockpiles of chemical weapons that are scheduled to be destroyed," Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told a Senate committee on Tuesday. "There is a very real possibility that extremists in the Syrian opposition could overrun and exploit chemical and biological weapons storage facilities before all of these materials are removed," he said. Flynn and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testified on the worldwide threat situation before the Senate Armed Services Committee.

While calling the humanitarian situation in Syria an "apocalyptic disaster," Clapper said the estimated 7,500 foreign fighters in Syria, from as many as 50 countries, pose a significant security challenge. "Among them are a small group al Qaida veterans (from Afghanistan and Pakistan) who have aspirations for external attack in Europe, if not the homeland itself." And with the de-centralization of command within the al Qaeda structure, both officials offered sobering assessments of whether the organization was on a path to defeat. "No, it is morphing and franchising itself and not only (in North Africa), but other parts of the world," Clapper said. "They are not," Flynn added. With ongoing support from Russia, Iran and its proxy, Hezbollah, to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and a splintered opposition movement, Clapper cautioned against any optimism for a near-term negotiated solution. "I think what we are facing right now is kind of a prolonged stalemate."

There was also bipartisan rancor directed at the President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan for stalling on a bilateral security agreement with the United States along with a host of other security related issues. "It's my own view, not necessarily company policy, is I don't believe President Karzai is going to sign," the agreement that would allow for a small number of U.S. forces to remain in the country beyond the current NATO mandate Clapper said. "President Karzai, in my view, is singlehandedly destroying this relationship," Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said of a decision by the Afghan government to release dozens of prisoners believed to be involved in terrorism. "Actions like this make it very hard for an American politician to do business as usual in Afghanistan," he said. Both Clapper and Flynn continued to stress the damage done to the intelligence community by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden whose leaks they contend have opened a window to terrorist organizations. "We're beginning to see changes in the communications behavior of adversaries, particularly terrorists," Clapper said, while assessing Snowden had accessed over 1.7 million intelligence related documents. "A disturbing trend which I anticipate will continue." "I have no doubt that [Snowden] has placed the men and women of our armed services at risk, and that his disclosures will cost lives on our future battlefields," Flynn said.

http://security.blogs.cnn.com/2014/02/11/syria-al-qaeda-u-s-officials-offer-grim-assessment/

 

[EconChick]

I can hardly wait to see how they outdo themselves in the "foreign policy stupidy" category again. It's getting pretty hard to think of much that could beat it.

 

[aris2chat]

Please with a spit from syria?

 

[Wyatt earp]

Some disarmament...



Another failure by Obama



.

 

[Meane]

Some disarmament...



Another failure by Obama



.

Kerry always was a fool.

 

[jon_berzerk]

Exactly the obama team assured the world that they

brokered a deal that rid a 100 percent of the chemical weapons

what a bunch of liars they are

 

[irosie91]

wasn't the disarmament program supervised by the fantastic duo ----the
HellKat/Kerry team?

 

[Moonglow]

Some disarmament...



Another failure by Obama



.

You don't think they could have created or scored more since 2013?

 

[Moonglow]

wasn't the disarmament program supervised by the fantastic duo ----the
HellKat/Kerry team?

You noticed they didn't wear their spectacles at all times??