Tracking the Syrian Crisis and the International Response
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
The Times will provide updates, analysis and public reaction from around the world.
- 14 More Countries Sign Statement Condemning Syria
- Kerry Suggests Assad Hand Over Chemical Arsenal
- Palestinian Official Calls Idea of Strike 'Disastrous'
Latest Crisis in Syria
Tracking the Syrian crisis and the international response.
Highlights
- Latest
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WASHINGTON — The White House said Monday that 14 additional countries have signed on to a statement condemning Syria for using chemical weapons against its own citizens.
The statement, which was originally released by the United States and 10 other countries at the Group of 20 economic summit meeting in Russia last week, does not explicitly call for military action against Syria.
“We call for a strong international response to this grave violation of the world’s rules and conscience that will send a clear message that this kind of atrocity can never be repeated,” the statement says. “Those who perpetrated these crimes must be held accountable.”Read More
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Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that if President Bashar al-Assad wanted to avert an attack on Syria, he should hand over all of his chemical weapons within one week.
There was no indication that Mr. Kerry was searching for a political settlement to the Syrian crisis, as he immediately dismissed the idea that Mr. Assad would comply and expressed doubt about whether it was even feasible as a civil war rages in Syria.
Asked if there were steps the Syrian president could take to avert an American-led attack, Mr. Kerry said, “Sure, he could turn over every single bit of his chemical weapons to the international community in the next week — turn it over, all of it, without delay and allow the full and total accounting.”
“But he isn’t about to do it, and it can’t be done,” Mr. Kerry added.
In a joint news conference with William Hague, Britain’s foreign secretary, Mr. Kerry also sought to play down the magnitude of any American military strike directed at the forces of Mr. Assad.
“We will be able to hold Bashar al-Assad accountable without engaging in troops on the ground or any other prolonged kind of effort in a very limited, very targeted, very short-term effort that degrades his capacity to deliver chemical weapons without assuming responsibility for Syria’s civil war,” Mr. Kerry said. “That is exactly what we are talking about doing — unbelievably small, limited kind of effort.”
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RAMALLAH, West Bank — A senior Palestinian official said Monday that an American strike would be “disastrous” for the situation in Syria and also harm the Washington-brokered peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians that began last month.
Nabil A. Shaath, the Palestinian commissioner for international relations, echoed previous Palestinian statements against a potential strike, and cited United States involvement in Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia as previous “disasters” that yielded few results. His comments, in a briefing for international reporters at the headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Organization, came a day after Secretary of State John Kerry announced that he had won support for foreign intervention from Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and was hopeful that additional Arab countries would join them in the coming days.
“Every time you have the United States thinking that it can resolve a problem with a massive show of force, it just ends up killing people,” Mr. Shaath said at the briefing. “Have they solved the problem of Iraq today? Have they solved the problem of Afghanistan? Somalia? Where have they solved problems with massive force?
“What will happen? Just to destroy Syria for its own people.”
Beyond the impact in Syria, Mr. Shaath said a strike could threaten the nascent peace talks that Mr. Kerry pressed Israel and the Palestinians into starting this summer, because “the United States will be totally busy.” Even the White House’s current lobbying effort for Congressional support harms the negotiations, he said.
“Getting senators and House members to vote is far more important than convincing them to do anything about Palestinian-Israeli peace,” Mr. Shaath said. “The means to get United States backing will become even less if a war in Syria takes place.”
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MOSCOW — Syria’s foreign minister says his country welcomes Russia’s proposal for it to place its chemical weapons under international control and then dismantle them quickly to avert United States strikes.
The statement from the minister, Walid al-Moallem, came a few hours after Secretary of State John Kerry said President Bashar al-Assad could resolve the crisis surrounding the alleged use of chemical weapons by his forces by surrendering control of “every single bit” of his arsenal to the international community by the end of the week. Mr. Kerry did not appear to be searching for a political solution when he made the comment, as he immediately dismissed the idea that Mr. Assad would comply.
But after Mr. Kerry’s statement, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said Moscow would urge Syria to quickly put its chemical weapons under international control, then dismantle them.
Mr. Lavrov, who held talks with Mr. Moallem in Moscow earlier in the day, said he expected a quick positive answer from Damascus.
Mr. Moallem, however, would not give any further details in his brief statement and did not take any questions.
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The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, on Monday called for the creation of United Nations-supervised zones in Syria where the country’s chemical weapons can be destroyed.
Mr. Ban told reporters he may propose the zones to the United Nations Security Council in a bid to overcome the 15-nation Council’s “embarrassing paralysis” over the Syria conflict.
“I am considering urging the Security Council to demand the immediate transfer of Syria’s chemical weapons and chemical precursor stocks to places inside Syria where they can be safely stored and destroyed,” Mr. Ban said.
His announcement came after the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, urged Syria to place its chemical weapons under international supervision to head off the threat of a Western military strike.
Mr. Ban welcomed the Russian idea and said Syria should “agree to these proposals.” He added that there would be “very swift action” by the international community to make sure the stocks are destroyed.
But Mr. Ban warned, “First and foremost, Syria must agree positively to this.”
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President Bashar al-Assad of Syria has granted only a handful of interviews to Western journalists over the course of the conflict in Syria, now well into its third year.
CBS News Charlie Rose, left, a co-host of “CBS This Morning,” interviewing President Bashar al-Assad of Syria. The interview is to be broadcast Monday on CBS and PBS.
But with the possibility that the Obama administration will order an American military strike on Syrian targets in response to what it has called the Syrian government’s use of chemical weapons on Aug. 21, Mr. Assad agreed to an interview in response to a longstanding request by Charlie Rose of PBS and CBS News. The interview was conducted on Sunday in Damascus at Mr. Assad’s presidential palace, CBS said.
Mr. Rose previewed the interview on the CBS program “Face the Nation” on Sunday after his meeting with Mr. Assad, segments were broadcast on Monday by CBS News, and the full interview was to be broadcast on Monday at 9 p.m. Eastern time on PBS’s “Charlie Rose Show.”
Following is a transcript released by CBS on Monday morning, with video clips.Read More
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MOSCOW — In Moscow, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said Monday that Russia would join any effort to put Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons under international control and ultimate to destroy them, welcoming a suggestion made by Secretary of State John Kerry in London.
Mr. Lavrov appeared at a previously unscheduled briefing only hours after Mr. Kerry made his statement in London. Although Mr. Kerry appeared to treat the idea that Syria would give up its stockpile as improbable, and there was no sense that he was searching for a political settlement, Mr. Lavrov seized on his comment as a possible compromise that Russia was prepared to propose to the Syrians.
“We don’t know whether Syria will agree with this, but if the establishment of international control over chemical weapons in the country will prevent attacks, then we will immediately begin work with Damascus,” he said at the Foreign Ministry. “And we call on the Syrian leadership to not only agree to setting the chemical weapons storage sites under international control, but also to their subsequent destruction.”
Mr. Lavrov met Syria’s foreign minister, Walid al-Moallem, here in Moscow only moments before Mr. Kerry spoke in London, and during a joint appearance at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, both ministers excoriated the United States for rushing to launch military strikes. The shift in tone between Mr. Lavrov’s two appearances was striking.
Mr. Lavrov said he made the proposal to put Syria’s weapons under international control directly to Mr. Moallem, but it was not immediately clear how the Syrian government might respond. Mr. Lavrov went into more detail than Mr. Kerry’s suggestion — which his own spokeswoman described as a rhetorical exercise rather than a proposal. He said Russia was proposing that Syria join the international Convention on Chemical Weapons, which bars the manufacture, stockpiling and use of poison gas. Syria is one of seven nations that have not signed the treaty, the others being Angola, Egypt, Israel, Myanmar, North Korea and South Sudan.Read More
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As Secretary of State John Kerry pursued efforts to mobilize international support for military action against the Syrian government, the United Nations top human rights official spoke out firmly against it on Monday and urged global powers to find ways to bring warring parties to negotiations to end the conflict.
The appalling suffering in Syria “cries out for international action,” Navi Pillay, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said on Monday in a speech in Geneva. Employing chemical weapons was “one of the gravest crimes that can be committed” and their use in Syria “seems to be in little doubt,” even if the circumstances and the party responsible remained to be clarified, Ms. Pillay said. Read more »
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Hillary Rodham Clinton will use a previously scheduled visit to the White House on Monday as an opportunity to comment on the crisis in Syria, a topic she has quietly advised government officials on, but has avoided speaking publicly about.
Both Mrs. Clinton and her daughter, Chelsea, will attend a White House event on Monday to discuss wildlife trafficking, a topic that the former secretary of state has adopted as part of an array of charitable causes. But the visit will also serve as an opportunity for Mrs. Clinton to reinforce her support for President Obama’s decision to strike Syria and urge lawmakers to authorize at the move.
Last week, a Clinton aide released a statement saying “Secretary Clinton supports the president’s effort to enlist the Congress in pursuing a strong and targeted response to the Assad regime’s horrific use of chemical weapons.”
Although she has not made public statements about Syria, Mrs. Clinton has been in close contact with White House officials, said one person with knowledge of those discussions who could not discuss private conversations for attribution.
“She’s mindful of letting her successor do his job the same way her predecessor let her do her job,” this person said.
The topic also could prove a political minefield as Mrs. Clinton contemplates another run at the presidency, political pundits say. The White House has not asked Mrs. Clinton to personally reach out to lawmakers or make televised appearances in support of Mr. Obama’s decision, said two people with knowledge of the matter.
Mrs. Clinton is also expected to briefly address the Syria strike in her remarks in Philadelphia on Tuesday when Jeb Bush, the former Republican governor of Florida who is also a potential 2016 presidential candidate, presents her with the National Constitution Center’s Liberty Medal award.
As part of her paid speaking circuit, Mrs. Clinton–who earns roughly $200,000 per speech–will also deliver remarks on Monday at a gathering of investors at the Carlyle Group.
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DÜSSELDORF, Germany – Chancellor Angela Merkel caused some diplomatic consternation last week when she did not join other European countries at the Group of 20 summit meeting outside St. Petersburg – Britain, France, Italy and Spain – in signing on to a statement condemning the Aug. 21 chemical weapons attack near Damascus and holding the government of President Bashar al-Assad responsible.
On Sunday, Mrs. Merkel, who is seeking a third four-year term in federal elections on Sept. 22, seemed in good humor in front of about 7,000 supporters in a sports and convention center on the outskirts of Düsseldorf, one of the main cities in the crucial state of North Rhine-Westphalia. She did not mention the criticism over her decision not to sign the statement, but she deviated from her usual stump speech to say she wants to see action on Syria after the ‘’terrible deaths.’’
She had hesitated in Russia, she said, only because the 28 foreign ministers of the European Union were meeting the next day in Lithuania, and she did not want to speak on their behalf. “I don’t believe it’s right for five countries to agree on a united stance without the other 23 that can’t be there, knowing that 24 hours later all 28 will be gathering around the same table,” Mrs. Merkel said. “That’s why I said, ‘Let’s see to it that we have a united stance by all 28.’”
On Saturday, Germany joined the European Union’s call for United Nations action, which was missing from the statement in Russia, and then belatedly signed on to the statement issued at the Group of 20 meeting.
Mrs. Merkel’s critics accuse her of not being resolute enough in foreign policy. There is no support in Germany for participating in any military action against Syria, and none of the parties would like the issue to loom large in a domestically focused and somewhat lackluster campaign.
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