A handout undated picture obtained by AFP news agency shows Major General Jameh Jameh at an undisclosed location. [AFP]
by AJE Staffby AJE Staff 2:51 AM- Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday that he hoped the Syrian government's chemical weapons will be rapidly consolidated into one location, put on a ship and removed from the region.
Kerry said in an interview with National Public Radio that the locations of the weapons have been declared and are being secured.
On Tuesday, Kerry will meet in London with ministers of 10 other nations who back the opposition in Syria and are trying to hold an international conference in Geneva to set up a transition government and end the bloody civil war in Syria, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
He also will be meeting in London with opposition leaders. The main alliance of political opposition groups has said it will only negotiate if it is agreed from the start that Syrian President Bashar Assad will leave power at the end of a transition period.
On Monday, Kerry will be in Paris to meet with representatives of the Arab League and update them on peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians and see Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal.
After London, Kerry will travel to Rome to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
[AP]by AJE Staff 2:47 AM - A top Syrian army general has been killed in fighting with rebels, state-run Syrian television reported on Thursday, as the country's deputy prime minister floated November 23-24 as possible dates for talks on a political solution to the conflict.
The television report said General Jameh Jameh was killed while on duty in eastern Syria. It said Jameh, who was the head of the military intelligence directorate in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour, was killed by rebels in
the provincial capital that carries the same name.
Jameh was one of the most powerful Syrian army officers in the country and played a major role in Lebanon when Damascus dominated its smaller neighbour.
The TV report did not say when Jameh was killed. It said he died "while he was carrying out his mission in defending Syria and its people".
The city of Deir el-Zour has witnessed clashes between troops and rebels for more than a year.
[AP]by AJE Staff 1:39 AM 
Syrian Foreign Ministry says Canadian UN worker who was kidnapped in February has been handed over to the United Nations in Syria
[Source: State TV-Reuters]by AJE Staff 7:30 PM yesterday- The world's chemical weapons watchdog said Thursday that it had completed nearly half its inspections of Syria's arsenal, despite working against a background of car bombings and mortar attacks.
"We have done nearly 50 percent of the verification work of the facilities that have been declared
to us," Malik Ellahi, a political advisor on Syria for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, told journalists in The Hague.
Despite the progress towards destroying Syria's arsenal by mid-2014, Ellahi said security remained a concern for the unprecedented mission in a war zone.
Several car bombs exploded near the inspectors' Damascus hotel on Saturday, and mortars fell as recently as Wednesday night, giving "some cause for concern", said Ellahi, who advises OPCW Director-General Ahmet Uzumcu.
Nevertheless, the "security situation has not impeded any of their work," he said.
[Source: AFP]by AJE Staff 6:00 PM yesterday - Car bombs and mortars have exploded close to the hotel where chemical weapons inspectors are staying in the Syrian capital in recent days, but officials say there is no way of knowing if the team is being deliberately targeted.
Malik Ellahi, a senior official at the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, said Thursday the latest "mortar incident'' happened late on Wednesday close to the team's Damascus hotel.
He says car bombs and mortars also detonated close to the hotel on October 12.
Ellahi says security for the team working in the midst of the Syrian civil war "is a concern'' but has not impeded its work.
The OPCW won Nobel Peace Prize last week for their work in attempting to rid the world of chemical weapons.
[Source: AP]by AJE Staff 5:34 PM yesterday - #Syria Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil said Geneva 2 conference scheduled to be held Nov. 23-24.Oct. 17, 2013
- Reply
- Retweet
- Favorite
by AJE Staff 4:32 PM yesterday - Syrian Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil said on Thursday that a long-delayed international conference aimed to bring the Syrian government and opposition together to seek an end to the country's civil war is scheduled to be held Nov. 23-24.
Jamil named the dates when he was asked at a news conference in Moscow whether plans for the "Geneva 2" conference, which Russia and the United States have been trying to organise since May, had been pushed back from mid-November to late November or December.
[Source: Reuters]by AJE Staff 4:14 PM yesterday - Sky News Arabia says that it has lost contact with its team of reporters in the contested city of Aleppo in northern Syria.
The Abu Dhabi-based channel said in a statement on Thursday that reporter Ishak Moctar, cameraman Samir Kassab and a Syrian driver whose name is being withheld at his family's
request have been missing since Tuesday morning.
Sky News Arabia chief Nart Bouran says the crew is on assignment primarily to focus on the humanitarian aspects of the conflict in Aleppo, where rebels and Syrian government troops
have been locked in a bloody battle since mid-2012.
The channel appealed for any information on the team's whereabouts and for help to ensure the
journalists' safe return.
Sky News Arabia said Moctar is a Mauritanian national, while Kassab is Lebanese.
[Source: AP]by AJE Staff 3:13 PM yesterday - Turkish Army fired at al-Qaeda bases in Northern Syria.
Turkey's army said it had fired on al-Qaeda-linked fighters
over the border in northern Syria on Tuesday in response to a stray mortar
shell which struck Turkish territory.In a second statement Turkish army said 85 Syrian fighters
from the North Storm Brigade crossed the border and surrendered.
They laid down their arms at the border police department.by AJE Staff 3:03 PM yesterday - Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon appointed Dutch Mideast expert Sigrid Kaag on Wednesday to lead the team charged with destroying Syria's chemical weapons and announced stepped up efforts to hold a peace conference on Syria in mid-November.
The UN chief appeared with Kaag shortly after UN spokesman Martin Nesirky announced her appointment and the official establishment of the joint mission of the UN and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons that she will lead.
Its goal is to destroy Syria's chemical weapons stockpile, all chemical precursors, and the equipment to produce the deadly weapons by mid-2014.
"We have no illusions on the challenges ahead," the secretary-general said. "The situation in Syria remains dangerous and unpredictable. The cooperation of all parties in Syria is required."
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said on Wednesday that an advance team of inspectors have so far visited 11 of more than 20 sites linked to Syria's chemical weapons programme.
The team destroyed "critical equipment" at six sites as well as unloaded chemical weapons munitions, said the OPWC.
[AP]by AJE Staff 2:57 AM yesterday - A Syrian girl blows a balloon beside ruins they fled to in fear of shelling, on the second day of Eid al-Adha in Jabal Al-Zawiya near Idlib on October 16. [Reuters]
by AJE Staffby AJE Staff 2:53 AM yesterday - France on Wednesday committed to taking in 500 Syrian refugees at the United Nations' request, the UN refugee agency said.
The announcement followed talks in Paris between French President Francois Hollande and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres, the agency's local representative Philippe Leclerc told AFP.
These refugees are among those considered "particularly vulnerable", he said, adding that the United Nations had asked all EU states to help offer shelter to Syrians fleeing their war-torn country.
More than two million Syrians have left their country since the fighting first erupted in March 2011, mainly seeking refuge in neighbouring Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey, placing a huge burden on these nations.
Details of the refugee agreement with France will be discussed "in coming days", Leclerc said.
[AFP]by AJE Staff 2:51 AM yesterday - Several dozen rebel groups in southern Syria have broken with the main political opposition group in exile, a commander said in a video posted on Wednesday, dealing a potential new setback to Western efforts to unify moderates battling President Bashar Assad's regime.
The Turkey-based Syrian National Coalition, the political arm of the Free Syrian Army rebel group, has long struggled to win respect and recognition from the fighters.
It is widely seen as cut off from events on the ground and ineffective in funneling aid and weapons to the rebels.
In the video, a rebel, later identified by a Free Syrian Army official as a captain in a local brigade, read a statement with about two dozen fighters standing behind him, some holding a banner with FSA emblems.
The man said political opposition leaders have failed to represent those trying to bring down Assad.
"We announce that we withdraw our recognition from any political group that claims to represents us, first among them the Coalition and its leadership which have relinquished the principles of the homeland and the revolution," he said.
The man suggested rebel groups would reorganise, saying that "we are unifying the forces of the revolution militarily and politically," but did not explain further.
The claims made in the video could not be confirmed independently, including that the statement is backed by dozens of rebel groups.
[AP]by AJE Staff 2:50 AM yesterday 
A powerful blast ripped through a pickup truck in the south Syria province of Deraa early Wednesday, killing 21 people including four children, a monitoring group said."Twenty-one people were killed in the Nawa area (of Deraa), among them four children and six women, in a blast that detonated as their vehicle went past Tal al-Jumua," where a battalion of troops loyal to President Bashar al-Assad is positioned, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.- AFPby Amna Bagadi October 16 at 2:07 PM- The AFP news agency has reported citing a local NGO that a bomb has killed at least 21 people in south Syria. More soon...by Amna Bagadi October 16 at 2:00 PM
- An image grab taken from a video released by Syrian state TV on October 15, 2013, allegedly shows Syria's first lady Asma al-Assad (L) talking to a woman before planting olive trees with children at an undisclosed location in Syria [AFP]
by Amna Bagadi
Syria's first lady Asma al-Assad laughed off claims she has fled the war-hit country in footage broadcast on Tuesday, saying she was standing by her embattled husband President Basharal-Assad.The British-educated Asma has rarely appeared in public since the beginning of the conflict in Syria, where more than 115,000 people have been killed since March 2011 according to a watchdog.But on Tuesday, hours after her husband attended prayers to mark the Muslim Eid al-Adha feast in Damascus, Syrian state television broadcast a clip of the first lady.The mini-feature showed her comforting the bereaved and planting olive trees with children, dressed in black trousers and a grey T-shirt with the Syrian flag on the front."I am here, my husband and my children are here in Syria. It's obvious that I'd be here with them," she told reporters, when asked of claims that she had left the country."How can I teach my children to love Syria if they don't live here?" she added with a smile."I was here yesterday, I'm here today and I will be here tomorrow."There was no indication of when the footage was recorded or where.- AFPby Amna Bagadi October 16 at 12:46 PM - A girl with a Syrian national flag painted on her face sings with other children during a day of activities organised by a volunteer group on the first day of Eid al-Adha at the historic al-Azem Palace in Damascus on October 15. [Reuters]
by AJE Staffby AJE Staff October 16 at 12:35 AM - A general director of Doctors Without Borders is calling for greater access for humanitarian aid in Syria to help people affected by the country's civil war.
Christopher Stokes also urged the international community to show the same urgency to secure access for such assistance as it did to rid Syria of its chemical weapons.
Stokes said the recent access granted to weapons inspectors proves areas that have long been sealed-off can be opened if the political will exists.
Doctors Without Borders currently operates four clinics in opposition-held areas, and clandestinely supports 70 in government-controlled territory.
Stokes said Tuesday that the government has not authorised the group to work in Syria.
[AP]by AJE Staff October 16 at 12:33 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment