Saturday, August 31, 2013
Erdogan wants Syria regime change, not limited strikes
Al Arabiya
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that any international military intervention against Syria should be aimed at overthrowing the President Bashar al-Assad from power.
“A limited operation cannot be satisfactory for us,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan was quoted as saying by the NTV news channel.
“An intervention akin to that decided for Kosovo must be launched. An operation of one or two days will not be enough. The goal should be to force the regime out,” he said.
U.S. President Barack Obama said Friday that his administration and the military were looking at a “wide range of options” in Syria but had ruled out “boots on the ground” or a “long-term campaign.”
“We are looking at the possibility of a limited, narrow act,” he said.
Erdogan, whose country shares a long border with Syria, was once an ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad but is now one of his fiercest critics.
U.S. President Barack Obama said on Friday that he is considering a “narrow” and “limited” attack on Syria. Obama said the ground forces would not take part in the attack.
Obama stressed that the main goal of an operation would be uphold the international norm that using chemical weapons is a red line. He said the conflict in Syria should be ultimately resolved diplomatically.
Obama’s efforts to put together an international coalition to support military action have been more down than up.
French President Francois Hollande has endorsed punitive strikes, and told the newspaper Le Monde that the “chemical massacre of Damascus cannot and must not remain unpunished.”
But British Prime Minister David Cameron’s attempt to win a vote of approval in Parliament for military action ended in ignominious defeat on Thursday. American attempts to secure backing at the United Nations have been blocked by Russia, long an ally of Syria.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged a delay in any military action until the inspectors can present their findings to U.N. member states and the Security Council.
(With AFP and Reuters)
Friday, August 30, 2013
Russian Navy Assault Ships Ready to Evacuate Nationals From Syria
MOSCOW, August 30 (RIA Novosti) – Russian Navy assault ships are ready, if necessary, to rapidly evacuate Russian citizens from Syria, a senior navy official said Friday.
Western nations have been actively discussing possible military intervention in Syria following reports that chemical weapons were used last week near Damascus. The US claims Syrian government forces were responsible, while Damascus says Islamist rebels were responsible.
The Russian embassy in Syria said in February there were an estimated 30,000 Russians living in the country, but other reports suggest the figure could be higher.
Russia has six assault ships stationed in the Black Sea that could move rapidly to the Mediterranean Sea if needed, the navy official told RIA Novosti. “Ships from the Baltic fleet and Northern fleet could join them as well,” he said.
Even ships from Russia’s Pacific fleet, which are currently on anti- piracy patrols off the Horn of Africa, could also be enlisted if needed to ensure a safe evacuation, he added.
A UN inspections team is still compiling evidence on the reported chemical weapon attack. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told journalists that the team will leave Syria on Saturday and release its findings after it has time to analyze the results.
Pending the UN report, several governments have stated they will wait for the team’s findings on whether the Syrian government itself used the chemical weapons. Russian officials maintain that there is no clear evidence that the Syrian military was responsible for the attack, and blocked British attempts Wednesday to get the UN Security Council to issue a resolution against Damascus.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said earlier this week the evidence that the Syrian government was responsible is “undeniable.” Though the US has urged its international allies to push for a strike, President Barack Obama has yet to announce a decision on military intervention.
Possible British military involvement was blocked Thursday after UK Prime Minister David Cameron suffered a historic defeat in a vote in the UK parliament, when a motion calling for a “strong humanitarian response” on Syria was defeated by 285 to 272 votes, The Guardian reported.
France’s President Francois Hollande said Friday the British vote would not stop Paris taking from military action if necessary, Le Figaro reported.
From RIA Novosti
U.N. chemical weapons inspection team wraps up work in Syria
BEIRUT—The United Nations chemical weapons inspection team in Syria was reported to have wrapped up its field work Friday and was preparing to leave the war-torn country on Saturday.
U.N. officials have generally described the 20-member contingent’s work as a success. The inspectors visited several sites of the suspected Aug. 21 poison gas attack and gathered samples, apparently of possibly contaminated soil, tissue and other evidence, and also interviewed victims, witnesses, doctors and others in and around Damascus, the Syrian capital.
The U.N. team spent four working days on the ground in the Damascus area, crossing rebel lines to collect evidence in areas that are, in effect, war zones. The team fell prey to one sniper attack but there were no casualties, officials said.
The Syrian government and the opposition expressed public support for the U.N. mission. Each side blames the other for the incident, which reportedly killed hundreds of civilians, sparking international outrage. Some experts say images uploaded on the Internet of the victims suggest a nerve agent was unleashed, though the photographic record was not conclusive.
The collected samples are expected to be analyzed at laboratories in Europe for traces of chemical agents. Whether the process will take days or weeks is unclear. The team’s mandate is limited to determining whether chemical agents were released, not apportioning blame for the use of toxic substances. Experts, however, have said the findings could provide important clues about who was responsible for the incident.
Earlier this week, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon urged U.S. and other Western officials to give the U.N. an opportunity to do its work before resorting to a military strike on Syria.
“Give peace a chance,” Ban said Wednesday in a speech in the Hague. “Give diplomacy a chance. Stop fighting and stop talking.”
Amid reports of an impending U.S. retaliatory missile assault on Syrian government targets, some have suggested that Washington would prefer to wait until the U.N. contingent departs before mounting any attack. The U.N. says the team plans to leave Syria on Saturday.
From LAtimes
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