United Nations ambassadors from the five
permanent members of the UN security council – Britain, France, the US,
Russia and China – announce on Thursday they have agreed the wording of
an enforceable resolution to eliminating Syria's chemical weapons. It
is the first time since the conflict in Syria began that the security
council has imposed binding obligations on Syria
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Summary
Welcome to Middle East Live.
We are resuming our live coverage to follow the aftermath of an agreed draft resolution on Syria's chemical weapons.
Here's a roundup of the latest developments:
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 ... Decides to remain actively seized of the matter.
Tens of thousands of people trying to flee the violence in Syria are
being denied their right to seek asylum abroad by illegal border
restrictions imposed by neighbouring countries, according to a UN
report. The report [pdf],
by Chaloka Beyani the UN's special rapporteur on the human rights of
internally displace persons [IDPs], reminds countries neighbouring Syria
(Iraq, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan) of their duty under
international refuge law to maintain open borders.
It says there are "increasing concerns" that border restrictions are
preventing IDPs fleeing Syria and forcing them into makeshift camps on
the Syrian side of the border.
More than 2.1 million people have fled Syria since the conflict began, according to UN figures, but Beyani's reports says tens of thousand more would-be refugees are being prevented from leaving.
Beyani accused neighbouring countries of breaching the international
principle of non-refoulement which is designed to guarantee a safe haven
for the victims of persecution.
Launching his report Beyani said: "I am concerned about restrictions
on entry imposed by neighbouring countries on people fleeing Syria. IDPs
have the right to seek asylum in other countries, and I appeal to these
countries to continue to respect the institution of asylum and apply
the principle of non-refoulement without any discrimination”.
Refugee campaigners have repeatedly warned that countries neighbouring Syria have imposed illegal border restrictions, but to date the UN has been reluctant to publicly criticise those countries as they are already shouldering the brunt of the refugee problem.
Last November Erika Feller, assistant commissioner for refugees at the UNHCR, told the Guardian that the UN accepted Turkey's insistence that its borders were open after travelling to Ankara to discuss the issue.
Since then frustration has grown over continuing reports of border
restrictions and the danger they pose to internally displaced people.
Beyani's report is the most explicit criticism of neighbouring countries
to date from a UN official. It said:
Increasingly, there are serious concerns regarding restrictions on
entry imposed by neighbouring countries on Syrians fleeing the country,
undermining the right of internally displaced persons to seek asylum ...
As a result, tens of thousands of Syrians have been forced to settle in
makeshift internally displaced person camps in the border areas of
Turkey and Iraq. The protection risks associated with the camps are
illustrated by incidents such as the shelling of the border area with
Turkey.
It added:
The establishment of makeshift camps on Syrian territory, even if
provided with humanitarian assistance across international borders,
cannot be a substitute for the right of internally displaced persons to
seek asylum.
The report also reminds the Syrian government and opposition forces
of their duty to protect civilians trying to flee the conflict. It said:
The Special Rapporteur also tresses the obligation on the part of all
competent authorities, including the Government of the Syrian Arab
Republic and dissident armed groups, to respect the right of internally
displaced persons to seek safety in another part of the country, to
leave their country and to seek asylum.
A Syrian refugee family in a makeshift tent
wait to enter an official refugee camp at Oncupinar border gate, across
the border from Azaz, Syria, in Kilis. The UN said that the Syrian civil
war had displaced 6.25 million people - the world's largest refugee
population. Some 2 million Syrians - more than half of them children -
have fled the country, and 4.25 million are internally displaced.
Photograph: Tolga Bozoglu/EPA
Reaction to draft resolution
The draft resolution agreed
by the UN's permanent five is being widely seen as toothless because
although it mentions chapter 7 of the UN charter it contains no threat
of force without a further resolution.
The US and Britain have been trying to spin the agreement tough and binding. The US ambassador to the UN, Samantha Power, said:
This resolution will make clear that there are going to be consequences for noncompliance.
This is very significant. This is the first time since the Syria
conflict began 2 ½ years ago that the Security Council has imposed
binding obligations on Syria – binding obligations of any kind. The
first time. The resolution also establishes what President Obama has
been emphasizing for many months: that the use of chemical weapons
anywhere constitutes a threat to international peace and security. By
establishing this, the Security Council is establishing a new
international norm.
As you know, we went into these negotiations with a fundamental red
line, which is that we would get in this resolution a reference to
Chapter VII in the event of non-compliance, that we would get the
Council committing to impose measures under Chapter VII if the Syrians
did not comply with their binding, legal obligations.
If implemented fully, this resolution will eliminate one of the
largest previously undeclared chemical weapons programs in the world,
and this is a chemical weapons program – I don’t have to tell you – that
has sat precariously in one of the most volatile countries and in one
of the most horrific civil wars the world has seen in a very long time.
The deal was cinched following Kerry's meeting today with Lavrov. US
officials lauded the agreement as a landmark pact that strengthened the
international effort to halt the use of chemical weapons. Kerry voiced
hope that "this resolution can now give life hopefully to the removal
and destruction of chemical weapons in Syria." If Syria complies, the
arrangement would mark a major diplomatic achievement for President
Obama and for Kerry.
But if Syria cheats, the president will find himself constrained from
acting. Under the terms of the resolution, a committee of diplomats and
functionaries from the United Nations and the Organization on the
Prohibition of Chemical Weapons will determine whether Syria has
violated the terms of the agreement.
The matter would then be taken up by the U.N. Security Council. In
principle, Russia has agreed that in the event of a Syrian violation it
is prepared to impose measures under Chapter Seven of the U.N. Charter
-- a provision that is used to authorize sanctions or the use of
military force.
But it doesn't have to. A provision of a confidential draft
resolution proposed last week by Russia suggests how difficult it may be
to convince Russia to press ahead with any stern measures. First,
Russia insisted that evidence of a violation be "indisputable and
proved" and that it must be of a particular "gravity" to merit the
adoption of a new resolution
Robert Danin, a former US state department advise and now at the Council on Foreign Relations, tweets:
Rebel divisions
Salim Idris, the head of the opposition Syrian Supreme Military
Council, has cut short a visit to France on Thursday and said he would
head to Syria on Friday for talks with Islamist brigades that broke with
the Western-backed coalition, Reuters reports.
Idris, who commands the coalition's military wing known as the Free
Syrian Army, or FSA, said he would meet with fighters from the 13 groups
that rejected on Tuesday the authority of the Turkey-based coalition.
The rebel groups, including at least three considered to be under the
FSA umbrella, called on Tuesday for the rebel forces to be reorganized
under an Islamic framework and to be run only by groups fighting inside
Syria.
Thousands of Syrian rebels have broken with the Western-backed
coalition and called for a new Islamist front, undermining international
efforts to build up a pro-Western military force to replace Assad.
Respected Syria watcher Joshua Landis points out that more rebel
brigades have since rejected the leadership of the Syrian National
Coalition and Idris' military council.
Rebel divisions
Salim Idris, the head of the opposition Syrian Supreme Military
Council, has cut short a visit to France on Thursday and said he would
head to Syria on Friday for talks with Islamist brigades that broke with
the Western-backed coalition, Reuters reports.
Idris, who commands the coalition's military wing known as the Free
Syrian Army, or FSA, said he would meet with fighters from the 13 groups
that rejected on Tuesday the authority of the Turkey-based coalition.
The rebel groups, including at least three considered to be under the
FSA umbrella, called on Tuesday for the rebel forces to be reorganized
under an Islamic framework and to be run only by groups fighting inside
Syria.
Thousands of Syrian rebels have broken with the Western-backed
coalition and called for a new Islamist front, undermining international
efforts to build up a pro-Western military force to replace Assad.
Respected Syria watcher Joshua Landis points out that more rebel
brigades have since rejected the leadership of the Syrian National
Coalition and Idris' military council.
Syrian National Coalition spokesman Khaled Saleh tried to explain
away the rejection of the coalition by some of the rebel groups as a
misunderstanding. But speaking to Inner City Press he confirmed that the coalition rejected the extremism of some rebel groups.
Chemical weapons inspections
Inspectors from an international watchdog on chemical weapons will
begin inspecting Syria's stockpile of toxic munitions by Tuesday,
according to a draft agreement obtained by Reuters.
The draft, which is due to be voted on Friday night, calls on members
of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to
make cash donations to fund Syria's fast-tracked destruction operation.
The 41-member executive council of the OPCW has bought forward a meeting to later today.
The plan to be discussed 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.
Reuters reports:
An OPCW official said an advance team would head for Syria on Monday.
The OPCW inspectors will have 30 days to visit all chemical weapons
facilities declared by Syria to the organisation last week, it [the
draft UN resolution] states.
It is still unclear where and how the chemicals stockpile, the
details of which have not been made public by the OPCW, will be
destroyed. For most countries, the process often takes years, but Syria
has been given until mid 2014.
The draft contains roughly the same destruction deadlines in a Russian-American deal brokered earlier this month.
Syria must submit additional details of its arsenal, including
munition types, amounts of precursors and toxins, and the location of
all storage and production sites within a week.
Syria will appoint a point person within the Syrian regime for
chemical weapons and by November 1 must have completed the destruction
of all chemical weapon production and mixing/filling facilities, the
draft states.
Meanwhile, Russia's foreign ministry, points out that the agreed
draft does not involved action under Chapter 7 of the UN charter.
This week's rejection of the western-backed Syrian opposition by
rebel groups is partly the result of the west reluctance to arm the
rebels, according to journalist Rania Abouzeid. Writing in the New Yorker she says:
The current situation has emerged because the supplies either never
came or were inconsistent and small, prompting fighters to buy weapons
inside Syria, smuggle them from abroad, or manufacture their own.
They also turned to more hardcore Islamist elements, who—with their
superior funding, supplies, and discipline—have been pivotal in securing
many rebel victories. This contributed to a vicious circle: the United
States has long expressed fears that any weapons it might send to
Syria’s rebels will end up in the hands of extremists; the lack of
weapons shipments has made the extremists stronger.
It wasn’t hard to see that it would come to this. The Syrian people
have long dubbed theirs a revolution of orphans because of the lack of
robust foreign support. The chants of “God, we have nobody but you” were
common even in the early days of the protest movement, when the daily
death tolls were still in the low double digits, before they pooled into
more than a hundred thousand dead in the span of some two and a half
years.
People who are being shot at are likely to try and shoot back, to plead for support—from any quarter.
AP has more detail on the chemical disarmament plan for Syria, from a
draft decision by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical
Weapons.
The draft decision authorises the body to inspect "any other site
identified by a State Party as having been involved in the Syrian
chemical weapons program, unless deemed unwarranted by the
Director-General."
That goes beyond usual practice as the organization has only
previously inspected sites that have been declared by member states.
The draft, being discussed by the OPCW's executive council Friday
night, calls for the organization's secretariat to, "as soon as possible
and no later than 1 October 2013, initiate inspections in the Syrian
Arab Republic." And it lays out the target of destroying all of Syria's
chemical weapons and equipment by "the first half of 2014."
AP also sets out what happens next:
If the OPCW executive council approves the draft decision later, the
Security Council could vote late Friday at the earliest on its
resolution.
The OPCW plan says the organisation should consider reporting any
delay or lack of cooperation by Syria to the Security Council. The draft
decision also sets out a clear and ambitious timeline for the
verification and destruction of Syria's weapons and production
facilities.
According to the plan, Damascus must, within a week of the decision
being approved, provide more detailed information on its arsenal
including the name and quantity of all chemicals in its weapons
stockpile including precursor chemicals; the type of and quantity of
munitions that can be used to fire chemical weapons; the location of the
weapons, storage facilities and production facilities.
And the destruction of all chemical weapons production and mixing or
filling equipment has to be completed no later than 1 November.
A group of international war crimes experts is calling for the
creation of a war crimes court in Damascus to try top-ranking Syrian
politicians and soldiers when the country's civil war ends, AP reports.
Professor Michael Scharf of Case Western Reserve University, acting
as spokesman, told The Associated Press that a draft for such a court
been quietly under development for nearly two years by many of the key
figures from other national and international war crimes tribunals, as
well as Syrian jurists, politicians and leaders.
Scharf said the group is going public now to push the issue of
accountability for war crimes into the ongoing international discussions
over Syria, and in hopes the prospect will deter combatants from
committing further atrocities such as the Aug. 21 use of chemical
weapons.
The UK and France had been pushing for including a call to refer
members of the Assad regime to the international criminal court for
ordering chemical weapons attacks as part of a UN resolution. But they
agreed to drop the passage in favour of avaguer statement about holding
those responsible to account.
Under the draft text, agreed by the permanent five, the security council:
Expresses its strong conviction that those individuals responsible
for the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic should be
held accountable.
The US did not support referral to the ICC for fear that this would give Assad no incentive to agree to relinquish power.
UN team to investigate alleged rebel attacks
Reuters reports that UN weapons inspectors expected
to start work in Syria early next week are to investigate three further
claims of chemical or biological attacks.
UN chemical weapons inspectors in Syria are investigating seven cases
of alleged chemical or biological weapons use, including three
incidents around Damascus after the Aug. 21 attack which almost
triggered US air strikes.
Guardian diplomatic editor Julian Borgerreported on Thursday
that the three incidents in late August are claimed by the Syrian
regime to be linked to rebel forces. "The government claims it has
passed evidence to Moscow showing rebel involvement in chemical attacks,
but that evidence has not been published," he wrote.
What the two sides agreed to as a compromise in the draft resolution agreed to on Thursday is
elegant in its simplicity and tremendously important for future
resolutions. Rather than the preferred language of “Acting under Chapter
VII of the United Nations Charter” to indicate its binding nature, the
draft resolution instead reads “Underscoring that Member States are
obligated under Article 25 [...] to accept and carry out the Council’s
decisions.” Which is true and plain as can be within the Charter.
The use of that language clearly managed to win over the Russians and
Chinese and allow for a much stronger resolution than would otherwise
be expected given the high stakes. In particular, the draft makes
judicious use of some of the strongest phrasing available to the Council
— such as “Demands,” “Decides,” and “shall: — that give the decisions
made heft under international law and indicates commitments that the
international community doesn’t just recommend but fully requires Syria
to follow through on.
The demands placed on Syria are quite extensive ...
The language used throughout the resolution does not, as some have pointed out,
allow for the automatic reprisals against Syria should it use chemical
weapons in the future than many wanted. Instead, it at the end makes
clear that any violation would require a second resolution under Chapter
VII to approve of any repercussions. It also includes portions that
refer obliquely to the possibility that it was the Syrian opposition
that carried out the chemical weapons attack on Aug. 21 that killed
hundreds of civilians — a possibility that Russia still actively
promotes, despite ample evidence to the contrary.
That, however, matters less than one would think due to the
resolution’s wording. There is some ambiguity baked in as to whether it
will be the OPCW’s Executive Council who has to determine that Syria is in non-compliance or
if its Director-General could do so unilaterally, or if the Council
could decide so on its own based on the numerous items that Syria could
foreseeably be in violation of. It also has the not to be overlooked
factor of locking in Moscow to ensuring that its ally actually follow
through with the requirements its being asked to fulfill, which in turn
could actually increase the leverage of the U.S. in the event of a
further breach from Syria that would surely embarrass Russia.
Christopher Meyer, Britain's ambassador to the US in the run up to the Iraq invasion, also approves.
Activists have posted video footage purporting to show the aftermath of that car bomb attack in Rankus north of Damascus (see earlier).
Initial reports said at least 20 people were killed. Activists in a
nearby town in a nearby town, gave a higher death toll of 37 dead and
said more than 100 had been wounded, Reuters reprots.
One of the activists told Reuters that government forces began
shelling the same area soon after the explosion occurred, causing at
least one more death.
OPCW briefs the Pope
Ahmet Üzümcü, the director general of the Organisation for the
Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has briefed Pope Francis on the agency's
plan for overseeing the disarmament of Syria's chemical stockpiles.
In a statement the OPCW said:
The Holy Father expressed his full support for the OPCW’s important
work and underlined its humanitarian imperatives. He stressed that the
international community must stand united in its abhorrence of chemical
weapons.
Updated
Geneva 2
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said he hopes the five
permanent members of the security council will be able to agree a date a
long-delayed the Geneva 2 peace talks on.
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," Reuters reported Fabius saying.
The agreed draft urges both sides in the conflict to agree to the Geneva 2 talks. Under the draft the security council:
Calls for the convening, as soon as possible, of an international
conference on Syria to implement the Geneva Communiqué, 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 Communiqué and to the achievement of stability and
reconciliation.
The Syrian opposition has repeatedly refused to negotiate until Assad agrees to stand down. French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius after
a meeting of the five permanent members of the United Nations security
council. Photograph: Thomas Koehler/Photothek via Getty Images
The Iranian president is about to speak to the press. Guardian diplomatic editor Julian Borger is there. Jeremy Bowen is BBC Middle East editor:
This is Tom McCarthy in New York taking over the blog from my colleagues in London.
copy http://www.theguardian.com/world
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