Syria
Al Qaeda-linked rebels in Syria have declared an offensive against two other insurgent factions, underlining growing turmoil and infighting in the 2-1/2-year-old conflict.
The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) accused the two other groups of attacking its forces and suggested they may have even collaborated with the government.
Activists and analysts have reported a surge in clashes between rebels in recent months, saying they were more to do with rivalry over territory and spoils of war than ideology.
Syria's opposition has struggled to unify its fractious forces throughout the increasingly sectarian revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.
The divisions have added to Western reluctance to step in directly or provide arms.
ISIL in the eastern district of Aleppo announces the launch of the military offensive 'Cleansing Evil'," the group said in a statement on Thursday.
[Reuters]
Syria
Many Syrian opposition activists feel the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's regime has been hijacked.
Some are frustrated that the international community has not resorted to military action against the government.
Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr met some activists who were among the first to challenge the regime and have since fled across the border to Lebanon.
Some are frustrated that the international community has not resorted to military action against the government.
Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr met some activists who were among the first to challenge the regime and have since fled across the border to Lebanon.
Syria
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said on Friday that Syria's deputy foreign minister, Faisal Mekdad, had contacted it with a request for technical assistance.
Syria became a full member of the global anti-chemical weapons treaty on Thursday, the country's UN envoy said, a move that the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had promised as part of a Russian plan to avoid US strikes.
[Reuters]
Syria
Sweden on Friday advised Syrians against rushing to its embassies in a futile bid for asylum, saying only those travelling to the Scandinavian country could apply.
In early September, Sweden became the first and so far only European Union country to promise blanket asylum to all Syrian citizens already within Sweden and who apply, citing the violence in the Middle Eastern country.
"More Syrians have come to Sweden's embassies in the countries around Syria to ask for asylum," said Camilla Aakesson Lindblom, a spokeswoman for the Swedish foreign ministry.
Sophia Oehvall Lindberg, a spokeswoman for the Swedish Migration Board, said that Syrians can only apply for asylum after they have reached Sweden.
In the period from September 4 to 11, we have received 2,000 applications for asylum, which is really a lot, including 700 from Syrians."
Syria
US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov have agreed to meet later this month to try to set a date for a long-delayed peace conference for Syria. They are currently focusing on a way to secure Syria's chemical weapons.
Al Jazeera's Neave Barker reports from Geneva.
syria, USA, Russia, peace, talks, Neave Barker,Geneva
Syria
Human Rights Watch has presented new evidence of mass killings in Syria.
The US-based right group's report says government forces killed at least 248 people in Bayda and Baniyas in May.
Rebels say the number is even higher.
Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelbarra reports.
Syria
These images show some FSA members preparing to fight, in action, and resting. The images were released on September 13th and were taken in Aleppo.
All picture credits go to Reuters news agency.
Syria
Syria's opposition National Coalition has said it was “deeply skeptical” about the government's decision to join a chemical weapons ban and urged a tough UN resolution to enforce the measure.
Its Friday statement came a day after Damascus filed documents at the United Nations seeking to join the international convention banning chemical weapons.
“The Syrian Coalition is deeply sceptical about the Assad regime's signing of the Chemical Weapons Convention on Thursday,” the umbrella group said in a statement.
The group said any UN Security Council resolution should “enforce compliance through clearly defined timelines and consequences.”
“It is vital the threat of force stays on the table. For a UNSC resolution to be anything other than a get-out-of-jail-free card for the regime, it must be enforceable under Chapter 7,” allowing military action, the statement said.
[AFP]
Syria
US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov have said they were hopeful that talks on Syria's chemical weapons would help revive an international plan for a “Geneva 2” conference to end the war in Syria.
Kerry, who said the ongoing talks on chemical weapons were “constructive”, told a news conference in Geneva on Friday that he and Lavrov planned to meet in New York around September 28 and hoped to agree a date for the Geneva 2 conference then.
The announcement has come after the UN-Arab league Syrian envoy Lakhdar Brahimi met both John Kerry and Sergei Lavrov jointly earlier in the morning.
Brahimi has been trying to convene “Geneva 2” to broker a political solution to the Syrian crisis.
[Reuters]
Syria
Al Jazeera’s Neave Barker, who is in Geneva, says the UN-Arab League Syrian envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russia’s Sergei Lavrov have met earlier this morning "but very little has come out from the meeting".
“However, what we do know is there are two very large delegations from both US and Russia, including experts and diplomats of both countries. The plan is largely technical involving procedures to be able to share and collate whatever information both sides have on Syria’s chemical weapons capabilities with a view to, of course, pave way for potentially hundreds of international scientist to destroy Assad’s chemical weapons arsenal,” he says.
Syria
Russian President Vladimir Putin has welcomed Syria's announcement that it had joined a global anti-chemical weapons treaty, saying it showed Damascus was serious in its intention to resolve the conflict.
“I believe we should welcome such a decision,” he told a Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit on Friday.
“(It) is an important step towards the resolution of the Syrian crisis; this confirms the serious intention of our Syrian partners to follow this path.”
China's Foreign Ministry too has said that it welcomed a decision by Syria to join the global anti-chemical weapons treaty.
The United Nations said it received a document from Syria on joining the pact, a move Syrian President Bashar al-Assad promised as part of a deal to avoid US air strikes.
The move would end Syria's status as one of only seven nations outside the 1997 international convention that outlaws stockpiling chemical weapons.
Other holdouts include Syria's neighbours Egypt and Israel, as well as North Korea.
[REUTERS]
Syria
UN-Arab league Syrian envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is meeting US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russia’s Sergei Lavrov jointly in Geneva on Friday, a UN official has confirmed to Reuters news agency.
"They will have a joint meeting this morning at 09:30 (0730GMT)," the official in the Swiss city told Reuters.
Brahimi has been trying to convene an international conference, known as Geneva 2, to broker a political solution to the Syrian crisis.
Earlier on Thursday, he met separately with Kerry and Lavrov, who are in the Swiss city to discuss a Russian plan to put Syria's chemical weapons under international control.
[Reuters]
Syria
Russia and the United States' top diplomats are entering a second day of talks as they attempt to devise a strategy for disarming the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad of chemical weapons.
Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, and his US counterpart John Kerry will resume discussions on Friday in Geneva, after the first day of talks in which the Russians said led to agreements on how talks will proceed.
Read more on this story.
Syria
Professor Christopher Swift of National Security Studies at Georgetown University told Al Jazeera that Syria's decision to sign chemical weapons decree is a tactical and strategic move.
He said that Syrian regime wants to make it more difficult for the US to intervene in Syria so this move helps some of the messaging around that.
Syria
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Human Rights Lawyer Jared Genser said that focusing on chemical weapons almost give a license to Assad regime to continue its conventional weapons campaign against the rebels.
Syria
The Pentagon is spending about $27 million a week to maintain the increased US Navy presence in the Mediterranean Sea and Middle East region to keep watch over Syria and be prepared to strike if needed.
The Navy has two aircraft carrier strike groups in the region and four destroyers and an amphibious warship in the eastern Mediterranean. One carrier group and one destroyer had been scheduled to leave but were told to stay.
Navy officials say it costs about $25 million a week for the carrier group and $2 million a week for each destroyer. [Associated Press]
Syria
The UN Secretary-General has said it received a letter from Syrian regime, informing that President Bashar al-Assad has signed the legislative decree providing for the accession of Syria to the Convention on the Prohibition of the Development, Production, Stockpiling and Use of Chemical Weapons and on their Destruction of 1992.
"In their letter, the Syrian authorities have expressed their commitment to observe the obligations entailed by the Convention even before its entry into force for Syria" the UN statement said.
"The Secretary-General welcomes this development, noting that, as depository of the Convention, he has long called for universal accession to the Chemical Weapons Convention".
Read more on this story.
Syria
Syria's UN envoy says "legally speaking" Syria is now a full member of the global anti-chemical weapons treaty, Reuters reports.
Bashar Jafari told reporters in New York after submitting relevant documents to the United Nations that Syria has "legally" become a part of the Chemical Weapons Convention .
Syria was one of only seven countries not to have joined the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention, which commits members to completely destroying their stockpiles. (Since our Twitter followers always ask us who the other 6 are: Egypt, North Korea, South Sudan, Angola, Myanmar and Israel)
Upon having received the documents earlier, the UN had said "the document from the government of Syria is being translated, [and it] is to be an accession document concerning the Chemical Weapons Convention."
Syria
Agencies have been filing new lines from US State Department spokespeople, most of which reiterate the positions of the US with regards to Russia's proposal. Let's take a look at how twitter is reacting to the Kerry-Lavrov presser. Here's a collection of tweets (the content of which, as always, does not reflect Al Jazeera's view).
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