After the speech

There has been a complete change of narrative. Gone are the propaganda statements every morning – now the talk is of the Russian diplomatic initiative. The empire has been faced down.

Obama addresses nation, outlines position on Syria

United States President Barack Obama says the US will work with Russia on its proposal to persuade Syria to destroy its chemical weapons stockpile.

Radio NZ,

12 September, 2013

In a televised address to the American people, Mr Obama said the initiative has the potential to remove the threat of chemical weapons without the use of force.

However, Mr Obama said it is too early to tell whether the plan will succeed, and the US will maintain the threat of force should diplomacy fail.

"If we fail to act, the Assad regime will see no reason to stop using chemical weapons," he said.

Mr Obama said if the ban against such weapons erodes, other "tyrants" would have no reason to think twice about acquiring and using them.

"Over time our troops would again face the prospect of chemical warfare on the battlefield."

Mr Obama said any agreement would need to verify that the Assad regime keeps its commitments.

Syria weapons plan talks begin

Radio NZ,

12 September, 2013

Diplomats have begun working on plans to place Syria's chemical stockpile under international control.

Russia's proposal for the weapon handover has reportedly been handed over to United States officials for consideration and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council are also set to discuss it shortly.

US President Barack Obama put plans for military action against Syria in reponse to a chemical attack in Damascus on hold after Syria said it would accept the proposal.

However, Mr Obama says the use of force is still a possibility.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry are scheduled to meet in Geneva on Thursday to discuss the Russian plan, the BBC reports.

It is expected the talks may take several days.

Moscow had earlier rejected a binding Security Council resolution backed by France and the United States that carried very severe consequences if Syria did not comply.

Syria crisis: Russia 'hands chemical arms plan to US'

Russia has now handed over to the US its plans for making Syria's chemical weapons safe, Russian media say.

BBC,

11 September, 2013

Russia announced its plans for placing Syria's stockpile under international control on Monday and Syria said it welcomed the initiative.

The proposal led US President Barack Obama to put military action against Syria on hold in favour of diplomacy.

Tense negotiations will now follow at the United Nations on the nature of any Security Council resolution.

The UN envoys of the permanent council members - the UK, US, France, China and Russia - are meeting in New York on Wednesday, diplomats say. One said the meeting had been set for 16:00 local time (20:00 GMT).

More than 100,000 people have died since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in 2011.

Even without President Obama's uphill struggle to win over the US Congress and people, there's a strong feeling in the region that the psychological moment was lost in the few days after Parliament took Britain out of the picture on 29 August. The head of steam that seemed to herald an imminent attack has dissipated, and it is hard to imagine it being recreated.

"If they had hit then, when the moment was hot, they might have got away with it in terms of repercussions," said one diplomat. "But to come back cold, weeks later, would be something else."

Syrian rebels had been poised to exploit an American blow by trying to advance. Now they've suffered the double disappointment of seeing Mr Obama mired in domestic woes and then seizing the lifeline thrown by the Russian initiative, dismissed by the opposition coalition as a trick to win time.

Mr Obama has also made it clear throughout that he was not pushing for regime change, more cold water for rebel hopes. The chemical weapons crisis has not stopped the conflict grinding on in almost all parts of the country, with about 100 people killed daily and no end in sight.

In other developments:

On the ground, the Syrian army is trying to retake the Christian town of Maaloula. The BBC's Jeremy Bowen, who has been at the scene, says heavy fighting continued throughout the day. Maaloula was overrun by rebel forces, including members of the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front, at the weeken

The latest report by UN rights experts, released on Wednesday, says torture and rape are widespread and war crimes are being committed by both sides

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the UN and its members must share a "heavy burden" for their "collective failure to prevent atrocity crimes in Syria"

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said Syria had to be stripped of its chemical weapons and that those who had used them must "pay a price"

The UK-based pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said an air strike on a field hospital in Aleppo province had killed at least 11 people

'Bilateral'

Russian news agencies quoted one Russian source as saying: "We handed over to the Americans a plan to place chemical weapons in Syria under international control. We expect to discuss it in Geneva."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry are scheduled to meet in the Swiss city on Thursday to discuss the proposal. They spoke by telephone on Wednesday.

One Russian source told the Itar-Tass news agency the meeting would be bilateral and not involve the UN.

US President Barack Obama: "I have a deeply held preference for peaceful solutions"

The source added: "It appears that the meeting should start on Thursday and end on Friday, although it is not ruled out that it may last until Saturday."

No further details of the proposal have been made public.

However, US state department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that Moscow had so far "put forward ideas" rather than a "lengthy package".

She also confirmed that Mr Kerry would meet UN-Arab League special envoy on Syria Lakhdar Brahimi in Geneva.

The BBC's Daniel Sandford in Moscow says there appears to be disagreement between the Russians and the Syrians over whether the weapons should be destroyed.

He says the Syrians are eventually likely to concede the point and allow the arsenal to be dismantled because the Russians will argue that is the only way to gain broader acceptance of the plan.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem on Tuesday made the fullest public admission so far that Syria owned a chemical weapons stockpile and gave a clear commitment to the Russian plan.

"We are ready to inform about the location of chemical weapons, halt the production of chemical weapons, and show these objects to representatives of Russia, other states and the United Nations," he said.

"Our adherence to the Russian initiative has a goal of halting the possession of all chemical weapons."

The US holds the Syrian government responsible for a chemical weapons attack in Damascus on 21 August, saying it killed 1,429 people. The Syrian government blames the attack on rebels.

Until Tuesday morning, Mr Obama's government had been lobbying hard for support in Congress for military strikes.

But surveys of politicians had shown he was unlikely to win the planned vote.

In a televised speech from the White House, President Obama said the Russian plan and the regime's admission that it held chemical weapons were "encouraging signs".

"It's too early to tell whether [the Russian plan] will succeed, and any agreement must verify that the Assad regime keeps its commitments," he said.

Speaking at the Pentagon on Wednesday amid ceremonies to mark the anniversary of the 11 September 2001 attacks, Mr Obama said: "Let us have the wisdom to know that while force is at times necessary, force alone cannot build the world we seek."

There have already been heated debates at the UN over a possible Security Council resolution on Syria.

The French put forward a draft resolution that would be enforced by Chapter VII of the UN charter, which would in effect sanction the use of force if Syria failed in its obligations.

The draft resolution, obtained by Reuters, sets a 15-day deadline for Syria to provide a full account of the types and location of its chemical weapons.

Correspondents say Moscow opposes any resolution that would be authorised under Chapter VII.

Russia has also said any draft resolution putting the blame on the Syrian government would be unacceptable, and urged a non-binding declaration backing its initiative.

France insists military action remains an option.

President Francois Hollande said on Wednesday: "France will remain in permanent contact with its partners, mobilised to punish the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime and to deter them from using them again."

Reading the full article, despite the U.S. spin about what the UN "found". it is clear that an attack if being pulled further and further away from the table.

With each passing day any option for the U.S. to use military force, without appearing to have gone berserk, evaporates into non-existence. Diplomatic options are being written in all over the place. And those -- plus those already standing and acquiesced to by Barack the Bloody last night -- will have to be exhausted before there can be any military move.

To do otherwise would be to issue a patently illegal order and -- given what we have seen -- a military mutiny would be inches away.

• Mike Ruppert

Diplomatic efforts intensify on corralling Syrian chemical arms

Diplomatic efforts toward placing Syria's chemical weapons under international control intensified on Wednesday and U.N. investigators concluded Syrian government forces were almost certainly responsible for two May massacres that killed up to 450 civilians in the bloody civil war.

Reuters,

26 January, 2013

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke by phone, the State Department said in Washington, one day before they meet in Geneva to try to agree a joint strategy on eliminating Syria's chemical arsenal.

In New York, envoys from the five permanent U.N. Security Council member states - the United States, Britain, China, France and Russia - were due to meet to discuss the Russian plan for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government to give up its chemical weapons.

U.S., French and British diplomats conferred before the five-way talks, trying to come up with common language for a resolution. An initial French draft, seen by Reuters on Tuesday, called for giving Assad an ultimatum to hand over his chemical weapons or face punitive measures, an approach Russia rejects.

The three Western powers are now trying to combine various drafts to come up with one they all can agree on before presenting it to Russia and China. "I think we'll come to an agreement (among the three Western powers)," a diplomat from one of the three nations said on condition of anonymity.

President Barack Obama said in a speech on Tuesday that he had asked Congress to put off a vote on his request to authorize military action in Syria to let diplomacy play out, although he still said the threat was needed to ensure Syria complies.

Obama cited "encouraging signs" in recent days, in part because of the U.S. threat of military action to punish Assad for what the United States and other Western powers say was the Syrian government's use of poison gas to kill 1,400 civilians in Damascus on August 21. Assad's government blames the attack on the rebel forces.

"We are doing the responsible thing here which is testing the potential there for success," White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters, referring to the diplomatic push. "I suspect this will take some time," he added.

U.S. lawmakers said the Senate could start voting as soon as next week on a resolution to authorize military force if efforts to find a diplomatic solution fail. Obama has struggled for support in Congress for the plan.

Kerry also planned to meet U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi while in Geneva, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Wednesday. At least two days of U.S.-Russian talks are expected there, possibly more, Psaki said.

Russia has given the United States its plan for placing Syria's chemical weapons arsenal under international control and intends to discuss it at the Geneva meeting, the Interfax news agency cited a Russian source as saying.

Russia has been Assad's most powerful backer during the civil war that has killed more than 100,000 people since 2011, delivering arms and - with China - blocking three U.N. resolutions meant to pressure Assad. Syria accepted a Russian proposal on Tuesday to give up chemical weapons.

MAY MASSACRES

In a reminder of the mounting atrocities in Syria, a report by a U.N. commission of inquiry released in Geneva documented eight mass killings, attributing all but one to Assad's forces.

The U.N. report, largely covering incidents between May and July, said government and rebel fighters committed war crimes including murder, hostage-taking and shelling of civilians. It accused forces loyal to Assad of bombing schools and hospitals, and rebels of carrying out summary executions.

The commission, led by Paulo Pinheiro of Brazil, urged the U.N. Security Council to hold perpetrators accountable for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The May killings in Baida and Ras al-Nabaa, two pockets of rebel sympathizers surrounded by villages loyal to Assad on the outskirts of the town of Banias, did not involve fighting with rebels and appeared designed to send a message of deterrence.

In Baida, the report said between 150 and 250 civilians were allegedly killed, including 30 women, apparently executed, found in one house. It said armed rebels were not then active in the area. It gave a figure of 150 to 200 dead in Ras al-Nabaa.

The Syria conflict began in March 2011 as an uprising against Assad and descended into a civil war in which mostly Sunni Muslim rebels are pitted against Assad's forces, who are backed by Shi'ite Muslim Iran and Hezbollah.

In Moscow, Russia's parliament urged the United States not to strike Syria, saying in a unanimous declaration that military action could be a "crime against the Syrian people."

The non-binding declaration by the State Duma, the lower chamber dominated by the Kremlin-controlled United Russia party, echoed the vociferous opposition by President Vladimir Putin to U.S. military action.

The Duma expressed support for Russia's proposal to place Syria's chemical arsenal under international control, which Putin said on Tuesday would only succeed if the United States and its allies abandoned plans for possible military action.

The French government said it remained determined to punish Assad over chemical weapons if diplomacy fails, and called a military strike still possible.

VIOLENCE CONTINUES

The violence continued inside Syria. Fighters from an al Qaeda-linked rebel group killed 12 members of the minority Alawite sect in central Syria after seizing their village, an opposition monitoring group said.

Alawites are an offshoot sect of Shi'ite Islam and have been increasingly targeted by radical fighters among the Sunni Muslim-dominated opposition in the 2-1/2 year revolt against Assad, himself an Alawite.

In Geneva, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) called on the United States and Russia to address the obstacles to delivering aid in Syria at their talks on Thursday.

Syrian government forces and rebels are both preventing medical assistance in particular from reaching the sick and wounded, ICRC President Peter Maurer said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu kept up pressure for action, saying Syria must be stripped of its chemical weapons and that the international community must make sure those who use weapons of mass destruction pay a price.

Netanyahu said Syria had carried out a "crime against humanity" by killing innocent civilians with chemical weapons and that Syria's ally Iran, which is at odds with the West over its nuclear program, was watching to see how the world acted.

"The message that is received in Syria will be received loudly in Iran," Netanyahu said.

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said he hoped that a U.S. promise to pursue diplomacy to remove the threat of chemical weapons in Syria was "serious and not a game with the media," the state news agency IRNA reported.