- #UNSG Ban Ki-moon speaking to press after #UNSC adopts resolution to rid#Syria of chemical weapons pic.twitter.com/7CPcAiaVXlSep. 28, 2013
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by AJE Staff 8:59 AM - The world's chemical watchdog has adopted a plan to dismantleChemical arms watchdog adopts Syria plan ahead of UN vote
Syria's chemical arsenal, shortly before the the UN Security Council votes
on a resolution including the blueprint.
"The decision is adopted and it is
effective immediately," Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons
spokesman Michael Luhan told journalists after the Executive Council
meeting.
"After a last-moment unexpected delay our Executive Council has met
and at 12:38 this morning (2238 GMT) has adopted a decision on an
accelerated programme by the OPCW to destroy Syria's chemical weapons,"
Luhan said.
US Secretary of State John Kerry has called the OPCW document the
"rules and regulations" of Syria's chemical disarmament to be enshrined in
the UN resolution that is to be voted on at 0000 GMT Saturday.
Luhan said
that a there was a "very minor change" to a draft document seen by AFP and
"the timetable was not disturbed."
The draft OPCW document said the watchdog
will start inspections no later than October 1 and eliminate all of Syria's
chemical weapons by mid-2014.
"The decision is effective immediately and we
expect an advance team on the ground in Syria by next week," Luhan said. - AFPby AJE Staff 7:14 AM - Have just adopted a historic decision @OPCW - chemical weapons convention in now applicable to Syria http://pbs.twimg.com/media/BVNC7qfIEAAxLyS.jpg
- Syria disarmament talks stall at chemical watchdogby AJE StaffTalks at the world's chemical watchdog on a draft plan to dismantle Syria's chemical arsenal ha stalled, a spokesman has said.Michael Luhan, spokesman for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons' (OPCW) Executive Council, said on Friday that the discussion might be
put off to Saturday.The OPCW meeting, tasked with approving a blueprint to be
incorporated in a key UN Security Council resolution, will resume at 2230
GMT, "or it will be postponed until tomorrow," OPCW Luhan
said. - AFP [Photo AFP/ Abo Shuja]by AJE Staff 6:00 AM - Iran wants to "actively" take part in any new Syria peace conference, Iran's President Hassan
Rouhani said Friday.
"For Geneva or any other international gathering ... should Iran participate, it will actively accept that invitation and participate for the sake of the Syrian people," Rouhani told a press conference on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
[AFP] - Syria's Mufti, Ahmad Bader al-Din al-Hassoun, calls on the UN to exercise "international justice" and says the very fact that Syria decided to open its chemical arsenal proves the country "has not used chemical weapons against anybody"."I am with the UN resolution that is not against Syria as they expect but
it is with Syria in its daring decision to open its chemical arsenal pointing
that we have not used chemical weapons against anybody. These weapons were
used upon us. So I am with the United Nations if they really have
international justice. Let them begin this international justice."
The problem is not with Syria. Our problem is with the others and the countries that back those who called themselves opposition. Do these countries agree for the opposition to attend the conference? And if they agreed would they have the ability to stop those who are using arms in Syria to stop the killing? We are with every conference that calls for reconciliation not only for Syria but for any country that suffers from troubles."[Reuters]by AJE Staff 1:41 AM - Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday accused western nations of blaming Syria's President Bashar al-Assad of staging chemical weapons attacks without proof.
"The use of chemical weapons is inadmissible. This does not mean, however, that one can usurp the right to accuse and pass verdicts," Lavrov told the UN General Assembly.
[AFP]by AJE Staff 1:33 AM - US President Barack Obama on Friday hailed a UN resolution that provides for the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons arsenal as "a huge victory" for the world.
But Obama acknowledged legitimate concerns over the dismantling of Syria's chemical weapons arsenal and whether the Assad regime would live up to its commitments.
The UN Security Council was to meet at 8:00 pm (0000 GMT) on Friday to vote on the resolution, which will follow a Russia-US plan on the disarmament of Syria's chemical weapons.
"This is something that we have long sought," Obama told reporters as he met Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the Oval Office.
Obama hailed the resolution and disarmament plans as a "legally binding" and "verifiable" initiative which threatens consequences if Syria did not adhere to conditions.
He described the plan as a "huge victory for the international community."
"Realistically, it is doubtful we would have arrived at this point had it not been for a credible threat of US action in the aftermath of the horrific tragedy that took place on August 21," Obama said, referring to a chemical weapons attack on a Damascus suburb.
Obama said he was hopeful about what the accord could achieve but added that he understood there were concerns about how to implement it.
"Rightly, people have been concerned about whether Syria would follow through on commitments.
[AFP]by AJE Staff 1:29 AM - Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Mouallem has told Al Jazeera his country is determined to go forward with the destruction its chemical weapons stockpile.
Speaking to our diplomatic editor James Bays on Friday, Muallem also said he hoped that the UN assembly can pave the way for a deal that would bring the two warring sides in Syria to the negotiation table.
“We will commit because we are determined to go forward in the respect of [the agreement of] destroying the chemical weapons,” Mouallem said in an on-the- run interview at the UN headquarters in New York.by AJE Staff 1:17 AM - A group of international war crimes experts is calling for the creation of a special tribunal in Damascus to try any top-ranking officials, soldiers or rebels who may have committed atrocities.
Professor Michael Scharf of Case Western Reserve University, acting as spokesman, showed The Associated Press a copy of the draft statutes that have been quietly under development for nearly two years. They could serve as a template for such a tribunal after the civil war ends.
He said Friday that US diplomats also have copies of the 30-page document, and are sympathetic to the idea of a Syrian war crimes court.
"We believe it's playing a role in closed-door discussions throughout the US government," Scharf said.
He said the group wants to push the issue of accountability for war crimes into the ongoing international discussions over Syria, and hopes the prospect will deter combatants from committing further atrocities, such as the violation of the Geneva Protocol in the August 21 use of chemical weapons in Syria.
Syria is not a party to the International Criminal Court - the permanent war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands. The ICC doesn't have jurisdiction over war crimes committed there unless the U.N. Security Council grants it.
However, conflict-specific war crime courts such as the proposed Syrian court have been created in individual countries in recent years. Scharf himself was an adviser to judges at the Iraqi High Tribunal, which tried Saddam Hussein.
The experts who participated in creating the Syrian draft statutes, which are to be formally introduced at the National Press Club in Washington on Thursday, have no political power, though they are well-respected figures internationally.
They include Egyptian-born legal scholar Mahmoud Cherif Bassiouni, who chaired the drafting of the ICC's statutes, and South Africa's Richard Goldstone, the first prosecutor of the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, among others.
Human Rights Watch spokesman Richard Dicker in New York said Friday his organisation supports prosecution of war crimes, but top suspects should be tried in The Hague because if they have been on the losing side of a conflict they are unlikely to receive a fair trial at home.
[AP]by AJE Staff 11:36 PM yesterday - French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said he hopes the five permanent members of the UN Security Council will be able to set a date on Friday for so-called Geneva 2 peace talks on the Syrian conflict.
The five - France, Britain, Russia, China and the United States - are due to meet with UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon and international Syria mediator Lakhdar Brahimi later on Friday on the sidelines of the annual U.N. gathering of world leaders.
"I hope that we will be able to fix a date this evening for Geneva 2," Fabius said.
[Reuters]by AJE Staff 9:38 PM yesterday - A car bomb killed at least 20 people and wounded dozens more on Friday when it exploded in Rankus, a town 30 km north of the Syrian capital Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Activists in a nearby town said the blast occurred in front of a mosque soon after Friday prayers. They gave a higher death toll of 37 dead and said more than 100 had been wounded.
One of the activists told Reuters news agency that government forces began shelling the same area soon after the explosion occurred, causing at least one more death.by AJE Staff 9:17 PM yesterday - Opposition groups are trying to break an army blockade of rebel-held areas of Damascus. For almost a year, a number of suburbs have been choked by Assad's forces, cutting off food and medicine from people that live there. Now aid agencies are warning of the risk of mass starvation. Al Jazeera's Zeina Khodr reports from Beirut.by AlJazeeraEnglish on 2:06 PMby AJE Staff 7:37 PM yesterday
onFollowing an intense two-week diplomatic drive, Russia and the US signed off on the draft text of a UN resolution to ensure the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons.by AJE StaffThe UN Security Council may vote on the resolution as early as today (Friday), and it is expected it will be approved.The negotiations between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov began in Geneva two weeks ago, and were completed last night in the UN headquarters in New York."It's been, some would say, a rather productive day, certainly some
important things have happened here today," the State Department official
said.-- AFP [photo: Reuters]by AJE Staff 7:36 PM yesterday- UN experts currently on the ground in Syria will visit seven sites of alleged chemical weapons attacks around the country, the UN has announced.
The experts aim to prepare a comprehensive report "by late October" that would be "based on a number of allegations... of which seven have been found to warrant investigation," it said in a statement.
It will complete its work in Syria by Monday, the statement said.by Asad Hashim 7:08 PM yesterday - by AJE StaffExperts from the world's chemical weapons watchdog will begin inspecting Syria's stockpile of toxic munitions by Tuesday, according to a draft agreement obtained by Reuters.The 41-member executive council of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) is due to discuss and vote on the proposal at 20:00GMT Friday night. It needs a simple majority to be passed, but decisions at the body are normally agreed upon by consensus.It requests urgent funding to hire inspectors and technical experts to destroy what Western intelligence agencies believe is about 1,000 tonnes of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agents, built up over decades and spread over dozens of locations.The OPCW was established to enforce the 1997 Chemical Weapons Convention. It has an annual budget of under $100 million and less than 500 staff.-- Reutersby AJE Staff 6:47 PM yesterday
- The Iraqi government is taking measures to provide accommodation, foodby AJE Staff
and security for a surging number of displaced Syrians in that country.Iraq has received 210,000 Syrian refugees so far, a sudden increase from 160,000 just over a month ago. The huge flow of Syrians into Iraq began on August 15 when the Kurdish region started to open its border to Syrians.
Kawergosk, the largest refugee camp in Erbil Province, was built after the flow of Syrians, which accommodates 15,000 Syrian refugees currently.According to local officials, the number of refugees entering Iraq will continue to rise in the coming months.-- AP [photo: Reuters]by AJE Staff 5:23 PM yesterday - The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the global chemical weapons watchdog, is due to hold a meeting to discuss the US-Russia brokered plan to rapidly verify, secure and destroy Syria's arsenal of poison gas and nerve agents, today.The meeting will take place late on Friday to sign off on the plan, which has gone through nearly two weeks of strenuous negotiation.The discussions have run parallel with talks in New York on the text of a United Nations Security Council resolution that is to underpin the destruction plan.The text of that resolution was agreed Thursday by the five permanent Security Council members. An OPCW decision on its plan of action would clear the way for a vote on the resolution later Friday.- APby Asad Hashim 3:50 PM yesterday
- Following an intense two-week diplomatic drive, Russia and the US signed off on the draft text of a UN resolution to ensure the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons.by AJE StaffThe UN Security Council may vote on the resolution as early as today (Friday), and it is expected it will be approved.The negotiations between US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov began in Geneva two weeks ago, and were completed last night in the UN headquarters in New York."It's been, some would say, a rather productive day, certainly some important things have happened here today," the State Department official said.-- AFP [photo: Reuters]
- UK commits extra £100m aid for #SyriaCrisis . Suffering shows urgency for political solution & peace conference ow.ly/pf1kY #syria
- Iran's President Rouhani warns of Syria extremismby AJE StaffIran's President Hassan Rouhani has warned that Syria could become an extremist haven like Taliban-era Afghanistan as he called for cooperation to end the civil war.
Iran considers Syrian President Bashar al Assad its closest regional ally and has not accepted US intelligence that the regime killed some 1,400 people in a chemical weapons attack last month."My government strongly condemns the use of chemical weapons in Syria," Rouhani told a New York think tank forum on Thursday, without assigning blame.
"I am also concerned about the breeding ground created in parts of Syrian territory for
extremist ideology and a rally point for terrorists, which is reminiscent of
another region adjacent to our eastern borders in the 1990s.
"This is an issue of concern not only to us but also to many other countries, which requires cooperation and joint efforts aimed at finding a durable, inter-Syrian political solution."- AFP [Photo: AFP/ Emmanuel Dunand] - UN draft resolution explained: Part V21. Decides, in the event of non-compliance with this resolution, including unauthorized transfer of chemical weapons, or any use of chemical weapons by anyone in the Syrian Arab Republic, to impose measures under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter;22. Decides to remain actively seized of the matter. - Reuters [Photo: AFP PHOTO/Stan Honda]by AJE Staff
- UN draft resolution explained: Part IV16. Endorses fully the Geneva Communique of June 30, 2012 (Annex II), which sets
out a number of key steps beginning with the establishment of a transitional governing body exercising full executive powers, which could include members of the present Government and the opposition and other groups and shall be formed on the basis of mutual consent;
17. Calls for the convening, as soon as possible, of an international conference on Syria
to implement the Geneva Communique, and calls upon all Syrian parties to engage seriously and constructively at the Geneva Conference on Syria, and underscores that they should be fully representative of the Syrian people and committed to the implementation of the
Geneva Communique and to the achievement of stability and reconciliation;
18. Reaffirms that all Member States shall refrain from providing any form of support to non-State
actors that attempt to develop, acquire, manufacture, possess, transport, transfer
or use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons and their means of delivery, and calls upon all Member States, in particular Member States neighbouring the Syrian Arab Republic, to report
any violations of this paragraph to the Security Council immediately;
19. Demands that non-State actors not develop, acquire, manufacture, possess, transport,
transfer, or use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons and their means of
delivery, and calls upon all Member States, in particular Member States neighbouring the Syrian Arab Republic, to report any actions inconsistent with this paragraph to the Security
Council immediately;
20. Decides that all Member States shall prohibit the procurement of chemical weapons, related equipment, goods and technology or assistance from the Syrian Arab Republic by
their nationals, or using their flagged vessels or aircraft, whether or not originating in the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic; - Reuters
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