Russia urges US not to launch military strike
Live• John Kerry warns Syria it has a week to hand over chemical weapons or face attack
• Kerry, after talks in London, says it is clear chemical attack was launched by Assad forces
• Russian and Syrian foreign ministers hold joint press conference to warn against US military action
• UN rights commissioner calls chemical weapons "one of the gravest crimes" but warns about risks of military action
• Kerry, after talks in London, says it is clear chemical attack was launched by Assad forces
• Russian and Syrian foreign ministers hold joint press conference to warn against US military action
• UN rights commissioner calls chemical weapons "one of the gravest crimes" but warns about risks of military action
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A minor front in the disagreements between the US and Russia over
Syria has been the latter's request for the International Atomic Energy
Agency to examine the potential impact if an American strike affcted a
research reactor near Damascus.
AP is reporting that Russia is pressing the IAEA to take action, while Reuters quotes an unnamed US diplomat as saying "requests for comprehensive risk analyses of hypothetical scenarios are beyond the IAEA's statutory authority".
AP is reporting that Russia is pressing the IAEA to take action, while Reuters quotes an unnamed US diplomat as saying "requests for comprehensive risk analyses of hypothetical scenarios are beyond the IAEA's statutory authority".
Summary
Now for a lunchtime (UK time) rundown of where we are currently:
• John Kerry has used a visit to London to maintain the pressure over a military strike against Syria. The US secretary of state warned Bashar al-Assad's government to hand over its chemical weapons within a week or face attack, though officials later said he was speaking rhetorically.
• Barack Obama is to begin his own PR campaign over action against Syria later, beginning with a round of US TV interviews later today.
• Assad himself has warned of potentially dire consequences for the US if it attacks. In a US TV interview he said America should "expect everything" in the way of possible reprisals. In the same interview he again insisted his forces had not used chemical weapons.
• The Syrian and Russian foreign ministers have warned against US action in a joint press conference in Moscow.
• The UN's high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, has said there seems little doubt chemical weapons were used in Syria, but warned of the dangers of military intervention.
• John Kerry has used a visit to London to maintain the pressure over a military strike against Syria. The US secretary of state warned Bashar al-Assad's government to hand over its chemical weapons within a week or face attack, though officials later said he was speaking rhetorically.
• Barack Obama is to begin his own PR campaign over action against Syria later, beginning with a round of US TV interviews later today.
• Assad himself has warned of potentially dire consequences for the US if it attacks. In a US TV interview he said America should "expect everything" in the way of possible reprisals. In the same interview he again insisted his forces had not used chemical weapons.
• The Syrian and Russian foreign ministers have warned against US action in a joint press conference in Moscow.
• The UN's high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, has said there seems little doubt chemical weapons were used in Syria, but warned of the dangers of military intervention.
CBS have also put up quotes from Assad from the same interview, in which he insists he had no prior knowledge of the presumed chemical weapons attack:
We - we're not in the area where... the alleged chemical attack was happened, as is alleged. We're not sure that anything happened.Assad disputed John Kerry's claim that the US has intelligence showing it was Assad's forces who were to blame:
Our soldiers in another area were attacked chemically, our soldiers. They went to the hospital, as casualties because of chemical weapons. But in the area where they said the government used chemical weapons, we only had video and we only have pictures and allegations. We're not there.
Our forces – our police, our institutions don't exist. How can you talk about what happened if you don't have evidences? We're not like the American administration. We're not social media administration or government. We are the government that deals with reality.
He presented his confidence and he presented his convictions. It's not about confidence, it's about evidence. The... Russians have completely opposite evidence that the missiles were thrown from area where the rebels controlled.
Updated
CBS has put up some clips of Charlie Rose interviewing Assad. In this section Rose asked the Syrian president
about whether the US should expect reprisal attacks against its bases
in the Middle East should it launch strikes on Syria. Assad answers:
You should expect everything, Not necessarily through governments. The governments are not the only player in this region, you have different parties, you have different factions, you have different ideologies.Asked whether talk of "every action" could include chemical attacks, Assad said this would depend if rebel or Islamist groups had access to them:
It could happen, I don't know. I'm not a fortune teller.
Snippets are emerging of comments made by Assad during an interview
with CBS television in Damascus, and clearly aimed at a US audience.
Denying again his forces had any involvement in the presumed chemical weapons attack on 21 August, Assad warned the US of likely reprisals if it attacked his country, saying Americans should "expect every action".
More quotes soon.
Denying again his forces had any involvement in the presumed chemical weapons attack on 21 August, Assad warned the US of likely reprisals if it attacked his country, saying Americans should "expect every action".
More quotes soon.
It seems that when John Kerry told Syria it could only avoid
military attack if it handed over its stocks of chemical weapons within a
week, the most eye-catching line from his comments in London this
morning, he was not being literal.
In an emailed statement of clarification the state department said:
In an emailed statement of clarification the state department said:
Secretary Kerry was making a rhetorical argument about the impossibility and unlikelihood of Assad turning over chemical weapons he has denied he used.
His point was that this brutal dictator with a history of playing fast and loose with the facts cannot be trusted to turn over chemical weapons, otherwise he would have done so long ago. That's why the world faces this moment.
Later today, Barack Obama is set to begin an intensive push to
persuade both US lawmakers and the wider American public of the case for
action in Syria.
He's due to begin the day with a round of TV appearances, and will then meet Senate Democrats on Tuesday. More here from the Washington Post.
He's due to begin the day with a round of TV appearances, and will then meet Senate Democrats on Tuesday. More here from the Washington Post.
Simon Jenkins has given his reaction to the Kerry words from earlier:
his verdict is that in planning a response to the presumed chemical
weapons attack, "international law is confused with American pride". He
writes:
Missiles are poor law enforcers. They rarely kill the right people. They cause vast destruction, wrecking the lives of civilians and increasing their dependency on their oppressors. Missile attacks are mere displays of power, usually as a spectacular alternative to a ground assault. Their military ineffectiveness makes them susceptible to mission creep.
Already Obama has shifted from threatening a "surgical punitive strike" to a massively destructive one, intended to aid the insurgency and thus assist in regime change. This happens to be against international law. More to the point, such missile attacks did not "work" in Serbia, Iraq or Afghanistan. They merely served as a prelude to chaos on the ground and pressure for ground intervention.
If Obama means to achieve regime change in Syria he should be ready to invade. Since he lacks the will and the means for this, he is merely heading for a second humiliation. He should back off and deploy diplomacy and humanitarian relief instead. It is not much, but it is better than bombing.
If you've not read it yet, my colleague, Martin Chulov, has sent a fascinating story from the north of Syria,
where Islamist militants fighting Assad's forces have something of a
mixed reaction to the prospect of US involvement in the conflict:
While Syria's mainstream rebels are enthusiastically welcoming talk of an American attack as a chance to break the stalemate, the jihadist groups among them see things through a very different prism, in which my enemy's enemy is not necessarily my friend.
All across the north, al-Qaida and its affiliates are on a war footing; a rank and file convinced that an old foe is coming their way and that if and when the US air force does attack, they will have little trouble staying out of its way.
"There are many among us [who] fought in Iraq and Afghanistan," said a second jihadist, a 26-year-old softly spoken Saudi, who called himself Abu Abid. "Our emir knows how to deal with them. And all know that while the Americans say they want to attack the regime, we are their real enemy."
We also now have a story, by Patrick Wintour, on Kerry's comments in London. Here's a flavour:
The US secretary of state has said that President Bashar al-Assad has one week to hand over his entire stock of chemical weapons to avoid a military attack, but said he had no expectation that the Syrian leader would comply.
John Kerry also said he had no doubt that Assad was responsible for the chemical weapons attack in east Damascus on 21 August, saying that only three people are responsible for the chemical weapons inside Syria – Assad himself, one of his brothers and a senior general. He said the entire US intelligence commnity was united in believing Assad was responsible.
Kerry was speaking alongside William Hague, who was forced to deny that he had been pushed to the sidelines by the House of Commons decision 10 days ago to reject the use of UK force in Syria.
The US Senate is due to vote this week on whether to approve an attack and Kerry was ambivalent over whether Barack Obama would use his powers to ignore the Senate, if it were to reject an attack.
Kerry said the US had tracked the Syrian chemical weapons stock for many years, adding that it "was controlled in a very tight manner by the Assad regime … Bashar al-Assad and his brother Maher al-Assad, and a general are the three people that have the control over the movement and use of chemical weapons.
"But under any circumstances, the Assad regime is the Assad regime, and the regime issues orders, and we have regime members giving these instructions and engaging in these preparations with results going directly to President Assad.
"We are aware of that so we have no issue here about responsibility. They have a very threatening level of stocks remaining."
In Geneva, the UN's high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay,
has been saying there seems little doubt chemical weapons were used in
Syria, while not speculating on who might have used them. She also
warned of the dangers of outside military intervention.
AP quotes her as telling the UN human rights council:
AP quotes her as telling the UN human rights council:
The use of chemical weapons has long been identified as one of the gravest crimes that can be committed, yet their use in Syria seems now to be in little doubt, even if all the circumstances and responsibilities remain to be clarified...
The international community is late, very late to take serious joint action to halt the downward spiral that has gripped Syria, slaughtering its people and destroying its cities. This appalling situation cries out for international action, yet a military response or the continued supply of arms risk igniting a regional conflagration, possibly resulting in many more deaths and even more widespread misery.
Andrew Sparrow has just posted a very thorough summary of John Kerry's comments
at the press conference. The summary of the summary is that Kerry is
still very much pressing the case for US military action against Syria.
He argued that not responding militarily would bring its own dangers, said (see quotes at 11.02am) that Assad was responsible for a chemical weapons attack, and – in comments aimed very much at US and UK audiences – that any US attack would be "very limited, very targeted [and] short-term".
He argued that not responding militarily would bring its own dangers, said (see quotes at 11.02am) that Assad was responsible for a chemical weapons attack, and – in comments aimed very much at US and UK audiences – that any US attack would be "very limited, very targeted [and] short-term".
A pointer to the comments section below, where the Syria blogger Eliot Higgins, aka Brown Moses, has posted a link to his own blog which now has more close-up photos of munitions allegedly used in the presumed chemical weapons attack.
The Kerry-Hague press conference has finished, and I'll post a link
to Amdrew Sparrow's summary on his live blog when it's up. But as a
taster, Kerry said the US believed chemical weapons stocks in Syria were
under the control of just three people: Assad himself, his brother
Maher, commander of Syria's Republican Guard, and an unnamed general.
Kerry said:
The chemical weapons in Syria ... are controlled in very tight manner by the Assad regime. It is Bashar al-Assad, Maher al-Assad, his brother, and a general who are the three people who have control over the movement and use of chemical weapons.
But under any circumstances, the Assad regime is the Assad regime and the regime issues orders and we have high level regime (members) that have been caught giving these instructions and engaging in these preparations.
AP have more from the Moscow press conference, with Lavrov and
Moualem saying they will press for the return of UN inspectors to Syria
to continue their investigation into a presumed chemical weapons attack
last month which the US says killed more than 1,000 civilians in a
Damascus suburb.
Both are talking up the idea of peace negotiations, with Lavrov saying these would be completely derailed by a US strike.
Both are talking up the idea of peace negotiations, with Lavrov saying these would be completely derailed by a US strike.
Some more details now from the press conference in Moscow, where
Moualem said before his talks with Lavrov that "the war drums are being
beaten" by the US.
At the subsequent press conference, Lavrov warned that a US attack on Syria could boost terrorism, while the Syrian foreign minister warned also about the involvement in rebel groups of Islamist militants:
Those quotes came via Reuters.
At the subsequent press conference, Lavrov warned that a US attack on Syria could boost terrorism, while the Syrian foreign minister warned also about the involvement in rebel groups of Islamist militants:
We are asking ourselves how Obama can ... support those who in their time blew up the World Trade Center in New York.Moualem also expressed Syria's tahnks for Russia's support, saying Assad "ordered me to give President Putin his regards and express gratitude for the position taken before and after the G20".
Those quotes came via Reuters.
Updated
Summary
Welcome to Middle East Live on a day dominated by yet more
diplomatic wrangling over Syria, with the day kicked off with a pair of
notably contrasting meetings in London and Moscow.
• The US secretary of state, John Kerry, is in London for talks with his British counterpart, the foreign secretary, William Hague. The pair are currently holding a joint press conference which you can follow over on our politics blog with my colleague, Andrew Sparrow. I'll post a summary later.
• Meanwhile in Moscow, Syria's foreign minister, Walid al-Moualem, has held talks with his Russia counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, with the pair now also holding a press conference. In initial comments, both have warned the US against taking any military action against Syria.
• In Syria, the bloodshed continues. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights activist group says Syria's army is currently attacking hills overlooking a rebel-held Christian-majority village near Damascus.
• If you've not seen it, Bashar al-Assad, Syria's president, has given an interview to US TV, to be aired on Monday night.
COPY http://www.theguardian.com
• The US secretary of state, John Kerry, is in London for talks with his British counterpart, the foreign secretary, William Hague. The pair are currently holding a joint press conference which you can follow over on our politics blog with my colleague, Andrew Sparrow. I'll post a summary later.
• Meanwhile in Moscow, Syria's foreign minister, Walid al-Moualem, has held talks with his Russia counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, with the pair now also holding a press conference. In initial comments, both have warned the US against taking any military action against Syria.
• In Syria, the bloodshed continues. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights activist group says Syria's army is currently attacking hills overlooking a rebel-held Christian-majority village near Damascus.
• If you've not seen it, Bashar al-Assad, Syria's president, has given an interview to US TV, to be aired on Monday night.
COPY http://www.theguardian.com
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