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Syria opposition lays preconditions for peace talks
Syria opposition says Iran must not attend, calls for more weapons
Thomson Reuters
Posted: Nov 03, 2013 5:40 PM ET| Last Updated: Nov 03, 2013 5:40 PM ET
Members of the Syrian Opposition Coalition, including the group's president, Ahmed Jarba, centre, say the group won't attend peace talks to end the Syrian civil war unless there is a clear timeframe for President Bashar al-Assad to leave power. (Alastair Grant/Associated Press) (Alastair Grant/Associated Press)
The Syrian opposition set terms on Sunday for attending peace talks to end the Syrian civil war, in a move that throws the proposed conference into further confusion after the international envoy said there should be no preconditions.
The long-delayed talks — known as Geneva 2 — are meant to bring Syria's warring sides to the negotiating table, but have been repeatedly delayed because of disputes between world powers, divisions among the opposition and irreconcilable positions of Assad and the rebels.
Syrian National Coalition President Ahmad Jarba said the opposition would not attend unless there was a clear timeframe for President Bashar al-Assad to leave power. He also said they could not accept the presence of Iran.
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Syria’s civil war: key facts, important players
■
UN envoy to Syria says no preconditions to peace talks
"We have decided not to enter Geneva talks unless it is with dignity, and unless there is a successful transfer of power with a specific timeframe, and without the occupier Iran at the negotiating table," Jarba told an Arab League emergency meeting of foreign minister in Cairo.
Lakhdar Brahimi, the international envoy for Syria, has said he hoped the conference could still be held in the next few weeks despite obstacles.
Though he had in the past said he thought Assad would not be part of a transitional government that Geneva 2 would attempt to install, he said on Friday that his opinions had no bearing on the parameters for the conference.
There is also discord among world powers over whether Iran should be invited to the talks. Tehran has said it is ready to come and Brahimi says the UN preferred that Iran attend but there had been no agreement on that yet.
A senior State Department official, speaking ahead of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's visit to Cairo and Riyadh, said the top U.S. diplomat would make clear to the Saudis that Iran would not be welcome to attend the Syria peace talks unless it endorsed a past agreement that would see Assad give up power.
"Iran has not done that, and without that even we couldn't consider the possibility of their participating," the official added, stressing: "It is a question of just making sure they understand the details of how firm our position is."
Call for weapons
In Cairo, an Arab League draft communique called on the Syrian opposition to attend the conference.
"It [Arab League] decided to call on all sides of the Syrian opposition under the leadership of the Syrian National Coalition ... to accelerate the formation of the negotiating delegation."
In Cairo, Jarba urged world powers to supply Syrians fighting Assad with weapons in the conflict that has so far claimed the lives of more than 100,000 people.
"We demand a clear decision on supplying the Syrian people with weapons to fight the hostility which gets worse hour by hour ... We guarantee that these weapons will not fall into the wrong hands."
The growing influence of radical Islamist fighters and the disarray of rebel forces have made Western powers wary of intervening directly in the civil war by supplying weapons or troops.
While some rebel tensions stem from contrasting ideological outlooks, most infighting centres around rival claims over the control of territory, smuggling and other spoils of war.
Arab and Western officials have said that international powers were unlikely to meet their goal of holding the conference in November.
Even if Jarba were to attend the Geneva 2 meetings, he has no authority over the rebel brigades battling to overthrow Assad.
The main rebel brigades have announced their opposition to the conference if it does not result in Assad's removal.
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/syria-opposition-lays-preconditions-for-peace-talks-1.2350553
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
04112013
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
Analysis: Did Syria's Assad get away with chemical weapons attack?
10 hours ago
By Richard Engel, Chief Foreign Correspondent, NBC News
News analysis
CAIRO -- Bashar Assad got away with it.
Only a few months ago, Syria's president was a widely-condemned rogue leader whose police state had just launched poison gas on commuter villages outside Damascus. Fourteen-hundred people, including hundreds of children, were choked to death, their nervous systems shut down by the gas that seeped into their homes. And the world watched it happen in unprecedented detail. Images of the attack seeped into even far corners of the Internet.
It took more than a year to determine the extent of the vicious shelling in the Syrian city of Hama in 1982 by Assad’s father. The death toll from that massacre remains disputed, but estimates from news agencies and non-governmental organizations put the total at around 20,000. This time, however, cellphones, tablets and social media exposed the horrors of what happened outside Damascus, almost in real time. Syrian activists posted live updates as bodies were buried in rows in mass graves. The hours of graphic videos of dead babies on hospital floors are accessible for free to anyone with an Internet connection.
Yet, somehow, Assad not only got away with the gas attack, but appears to have also emerged stronger after it. How is that possible?
Russian President Vladimir Putin had a lot to do with it. By stepping into the standoff between Syria and the U.S., he tossed Assad a lifeline that also allowed President Barack Obama to forgo intervening in a conflict most Americans wanted no part in after a decade of costly wars in distant Muslim lands.
Assad’s price for the monstrous attack, his punishment, was to give up his chemical weapons in an internationally-supervised process. Destroying the weapons is a net positive for the world -- fewer deadly tools in the hands of a dangerous regime -- but it’s not much of a price for Syria to pay. It’s like getting away with mass murder with only a fine.
In exchange for destroying the poison gas and the factories that make it -- a process that’s almost impossible to verify -- there would be no U.S. military strike. Assad would get to stay in power and continue his war with "conventional weapons," including artillery and Scud missile attacks on civilian areas, napalm dropped on schools, and starving the opposition into submission. Even more shocking is that Assad has weathered the crisis appearing to the world as reasonable, rational and ready to compromise.
While Putin threw Assad -- and Obama -- a lifeline, it was the rebels themselves who helped the Syrian president rehabilitate his image. The rebels are increasingly associated with al Qaeda fanatics who have hijacked their revolution. The al Qaeda rebels kidnap journalists who want to tell their story, and aid workers who try to bring food and medicine.
Assad’s government says it will take part in peace talks. The rebels refuse.
Assad says he’s fighting terrorists. Some of the rebels make him look like he has a point. This Ramadan, Assad should send Putin and al Qaeda fruit baskets.
This isn’t the first time a dictator is getting a second chance, and even coming off looking better after committing heinous crimes. Saddam Hussein was never punished for the gassing in Halabja that left 5,000 people dead; the U.S. didn’t intervene until he invaded oil-rich Kuwait two years later. Assad’s father, Hafez, remained in power for nearly two decades after Hama. He grew to become a fixture of stability in the Middle East who kept his border with Israel quiet and peaceful.
President Obama used to say it was a matter of "when," not "if" Assad’s regime would fall. Its inevitable collapse now, however, seems far less certain, even after the most watched war crime in history.
____________
What do you think?
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
04112013
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
Việt Nam_ Đại tặc võ nguyên giáp đích thực là TỘI ĐỒ của dân tộc Việt .
Đọc bài viết của Thanh Quang phỏng vấn nhà nghiên cứu lịch sử Trần Gia Phụng ngày 31-10-2013, là một người Việt Nam tỵ nạn cộng sản, không bao giờ chấp nhận bè lũ BÁN NƯỚC DIỆT NÒI, rước giặc về thờ, lăng nhục Tổ Tiên Nòi Giống là bè lũ phản quốc cướp nước diệt chủng bán nước việt gian cộng sản Việt Nam, có bất cứ cái gì gọi là "chính danh" như những tên văn thi nô và bọn "đánh đĩ bằng chữ viết", conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang một lần nữa ghi lại nơi đây ý kiến của mình, của một con dân nước Việt rằng đại tặc võ nguyên giáp chính là một trong những TỘI ĐỒ hàng đầu của dân tộc Việt, sau quốc tặc hồ chí minh .
Trích:
Thanh Quang: Thưa ông, có lẽ nhắc tới nhân vật Võ Nguyên Giáp thì điều hẳn cần thiết – và công luận muốn nghe – là vai trò lịch sử của Võ Nguyên Giáp. Ông nhận xét như thế nào về vai trò lịch sử của tướng Võ Nguyên Giáp?
Trần Gia Phụng: Về vai trò lịch sử của Đại tướng Võ Nguyên Giáp, theo tôi nghĩ, tướng Giáp là một người có công đối với đảng Cộng Sản, nhưng có tội với dân tộc Việt Nam. Ông ta có tội vì:
- Tướng Võ Nguyên Giáp góp công xây dựng đảng Cộng Sản là đảng đã áp đặt chủ nghĩa cộng sản lên dân tộc Việt Nam, đày đọa dân tộc Việt Nam mấy chục năm nay.
-Tướng Võ Nguyên Giáp tiếp tay với Hồ Chí Minh sát hại dân tộc Việt Nam. Báo Polska Times tức Thời Báo Ba Lan ngày 5-3-2013 đưa ra bảng xếp hạng 13 nhà độc tài đẵm máu nhất thế kỷ 20, trong đó có Hồ Chí Minh. Chắc chắn trong số 1,7 triệu người Việt bị Hồ Chí Minh sát hại, có bàn tay của Giáp nhúng vào.
-Hồ Chí Minh và Võ Nguyên Giáp đã nhờ Trung Cộng đánh Pháp, không khác gì người ta nhờ một tên ăn cướp đuổi một tên ăn trộm. Tên ăn trộm bỏ chạy thì tên ăn cướp vào chiếm nhà. Đó là tình trạng Việt Nam hiện tại. Đó là tội lỗi của Hồ Chí Minh, Võ Nguyên Giáp và đám lãnh đạo đảng Cộng sản.
-Có vay thì có trả nên đảng Cộng sản đã nhượng đất, nhượng biển cho Trung Cộng, nghĩa là đã trắng trợn phản quốc. Tướng Võ Nguyên Giáp xây dựng một đảng phản quốc thì tướng Võ Nguyên Giáp là một tội đồ dân tộc giống như Hồ Chí Minh.
Hết trích .
Đúng như ông Trần Gia Phụng đã nhận xét, đại tặc võ nguyên giáp đã có công xây dựng cái đảng phản quốc BÁN NƯỚC DIỆT NÒI là đảng cộng sản VN, đã BÁN NƯỚC có văn tự cho bọn tàu để cầu vinh, rước giặc tàu về lăng nhục Tổ Tiên, đem chủ nghĩa cộng sản về tàn hại dân Việt và hủy diệt đất nước, đưa dân Việt xuống hàng chó ngựa để ngày hôm nay cả thế giới coi thường, khinh bỉ .
Quốc tặc hồ chí minh, đại tặc võ nguyên giáp và tất cả những thằng giặc trong cái đảng chó má BÁN NƯỚC DIỆT NÒI cộng sản VN đã từng nhúng tay vào MÁU dân Việt và ngày nay chúng vẫn còn tiếp tục GIẾT dân Việt, tiếp tục BÁN NƯỚC Việt, bọn súc sinh này chính là TỘI ĐỒ truyền kiếp của dân tộc Việt .
Xin mời Quý Anh Chị đọc toàn bài phỏng vấn của Thanh Quang từ RFA:
http://www.rfa.org/vietnamese/in_depth/historian-remarks-on-general-giap-tq-10312013135140.html
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
03112013
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
Assad's Campaign Of Starvation
The Syrian government has been blocking nearly all aid, including food and medicine.
VOA
11/02/2013
The Assad regime’s violence against the Syrian people is all too well known, and the international community has condemned its brutal tactics of using chemical weapons and bombing schools, bakeries, hospitals, and refugee camps. But the regime’s usage of one of the cruelest weapons against entire communities within Syria — starvation — has up to now largely gone unnoticed by the global community.
Assad's Campaign Of Starvation
In what some Assad regime supporters have reportedly called the "starvation until submission campaign", the Syrian government has been blocking nearly all aid, including food and medicine, from reaching several thousand civilians who remain trapped in besieged areas, particularly in the Damascus suburb of Mouadhamiyah.
Writing in a recent editorial column, Secretary of State John Kerry noted that both sides of the conflict are causing problems. The U.N. and non-governmental organizations have observed extremist opposition fighters preventing aid from reaching those in need and violating the human rights of the people trying to deliver them.
“But it is the regime's policies that threaten to take a humanitarian disaster into the abyss,” wrote Secretary Kerry. “The Assad government is refusing to register legitimate aid agencies. It is blocking assistance at its borders. It is requiring U.N. convoys to travel circuitous routes through scores of checkpoints to reach people in need. The regime has systematically blocked food shipments to strategically located districts, leading to a rising toll of death and misery.”
In response to the deteriorating humanitarian situation inside Syria, the United Nations Security Council issued a Presidential Statement October 2 calling on all parties to facilitate immediate humanitarian assistance to affected persons, including through safe and unhindered access to such populations in all areas under their control and across conflict lines.
“To bolster the U.N.'s position, every nation needs to demand action on the ground -- right now.
Simply put, the world must act quickly and decisively to get life-saving assistance to the innocent civilians who are bearing the brunt of the civil war. To do anything less risks a lost generation of Syrian children traumatized, orphaned, and starved by this barbaric war,” wrote Secretary of State Kerry.
“With winter approaching quickly, and the rolls of the starving and sick growing daily, we can waste no time. Aid workers must have full access to do their jobs now. The world cannot sit by watching innocents die.”
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
03112013
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
The Saudis are engaged in a great gamble
To stave off Islamists and liberals at home, the royal family is willing to lose old allies
By Con Coughlin
8:10PM GMT 31 Oct 2013
Comments 305
The inhabitants of the desert kingdom of Saudi Arabia are not renowned for their sense of humour. In a country where public executions by beheading are commonplace, and even relatively minor transgressions such as drinking alcohol can be punished by the lash, the kingdom’s all-powerful religious police do not engender an atmosphere of levity.
So the fact that a video poking fun at Saudi Arabia’s long-standing ban on women drivers has gone viral, with nearly seven million hits registered since it was uploaded a few days ago, suggests that profound changes are taking place in the world’s most conservative country.
Called No Woman, No Drive, the pastiche of Bob Marley’s reggae classic was released by a group of Saudi comedians to support a protest by women drivers. Whether or not they succeed, the fact that women have publicly dared to challenge the authority of the all-powerful mutawa, the religious police, by posting videos of themselves driving to the local store provides a rare glimpse of the mounting resentment that many Saudis feel towards the domestic policies of perhaps the world’s last absolute monarchy.
The disinclination of the younger generation of Saudis (many of whom have been educated at some of the best universities in the West) to tolerate the royal family’s autocratic style of government certainly helps to explain the dramatic changes taking place in Riyadh’s dealings with the outside world.
Faced with growing internal tension – from Islamist radicals as well as liberal reformers – the ruling family is determined to defend its interests by whatever means necessary. This is reflected by a new assertiveness on the world stage – seen most vividly in the surprise decision to reject a seat on the UN Security Council earlier this month. The Saudis turned down this prestigious opportunity – greatly offending their US allies – in protest at the Obama administration’s failure to take military action against Bashar al‑Assad and its recent overtures to Iran, a sworn enemy of the House of Saud.
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From the outset of the Syrian conflict, the Saudis have invested heavily in supporting the rebel groups seeking the overthrow of Assad, not least because he is Iran’s closest ally in the region. They regard getting rid of the Syrian dictator as the best means of dissuading the Iranians from meddling in Saudi affairs – particularly by attempting to incite rebellion against the Sunni monarchy among the predominantly Shia inhabitants of Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province.
Russian diplomats, who have a strategic interest in Assad’s survival, have even suggested that it was the Saudis who were responsible for the chemical weapons attack on the outskirts of Damascus last August, which came close to provoking a military response from the West. Russian intelligence sources claim the Saudis used a “black ops” team to infiltrate Syria via Jordan and instigated the attack to provoke an international response.
If these allegations appear more like the plot from a bad spy novel, they nevertheless illustrate the new mood of self-interested resolve that is driving Saudi Arabia’s dealings with the outside world. Ever since Western powers sided with pro-democracy demonstrators in Egypt’s Tahrir Square and backed the removal of President Mubarak in 2011, there has been a growing sense among the Saudi ruling family that they can no longer trust their allies to protect their interests. If Washington would not support a friend like Mr Mubarak, who had backed America through thick and thin – from the first Gulf War to the September 11 attacks – then what chance would others have of withstanding internal calls for reform?
Anxious to head off any possible hint of anti-government dissent in their own country, the Saudis have embarked on a carefully orchestrated campaign to shore up the Arab world’s anciens régimes, rather than allowing revolution to flourish. They helped to overthrow the short-lived Islamist government of Mohammed Morsi in Egypt, and are working hard to ensure that other monarchies in Bahrain, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates survive the tremors sweeping the region.
The mastermind of this strategy is Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the former darling of Washington’s cocktail party circuit, where he served for many years as Saudi ambassador before becoming the country’s intelligence chief. By alienating long-standing allies such as the US, he and his colleagues are clearly taking a huge gamble, since it is unlikely that the likes of China and Russia would ever give them the same level of protection. But with the entire Arab world in such a state of flux, the Saudis are taking the fight to protect their interests very seriously indeed.
Follow Con Coughlin on Twitter @concoughlin
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
03112013
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
Air raids on rebel areas near Damascus, Kurds advance: NGO
AFP
Updated November 3, 2013, 8:32 am
Beirut (AFP) - Syrian air and land forces pressed efforts to crush rebel-held pockets around Damascus on Saturday, as Kurdish fighters in the country's north drove home advances against jihadist groups, monitors said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the air force carried out raids on Sbeineh, south of the capital, as regime troops shelled the town.
Rebels on the capital's southern front were battling government troops backed by both pro-regime militias and fighters from the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah, it said.
"The strike was part of the regime's offensive against rebel areas in and around southern Damascus," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
There has been a marked escalation along Damascus' southern belt, which has been under a suffocating siege for months, giving rise to widespread malnutrition especially among children.
The regime has for months been trying to secure the capital, which is surrounded by rebel positions.
State news agency SANA, meanwhile, said two people were wounded in shelling by "terrorists" of the Bab Jabieh neighbourhood of central Damascus.
Southeast of Damascus, several mortar rounds smashed into the majority Christian-Druze neighbourhood of Jaramana, wounding nine people, said SANA.
In rebel-held Yabrud, northeast of the capital, one person was killed and several others were wounded in a car bomb explosion, according to the Britain-based Observatory.
Elsewhere, Kurdish fighters pressed an advance against the Al-Qaeda-linked Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in the majority Kurdish province of Hasake, said the Observatory.
On Saturday, they took over several villages and military positions surrounding Ras al-Ain, which borders Turkey.
According to the Observatory, Kurdish militia are now in control of a stretch of 25 kilometres (15 miles) along the Syrian-Turkish border, to the west of Ras al-Ain.
The advance comes less than a week after Kurdish fighters drove out the jihadists and took over the Yaarubiyeh border crossing with Iraq.
In the Christian village of Sadad in central Homs province, scene of fierce clashes as rebels and jihadists fought to seize massive government arms warehouses, the bodies of six civilians were found in a well, among them two children, said the Observatory.
The group, which relies on a network of activists and medics on the ground for its information, had earlier reported a higher civilian death toll of seven.
The latest documented deaths took the total number of dead found in Sadad to 45, including 15 women, the monitoring group said.
Clashes in the area began on October 21, and in the week that followed killed 100 regime troops and at least 80 jihadists fighting alongside the rebels, it added.
In the northern province of Aleppo, meanwhile, regime troops took over the village of Aziziyeh, days after seizing the strategic town of Sfeira from rebel hands, according to the Aleppo Media Centre, a network of activists.
Syria's conflict, which has killed more than 120,000 people and forced millions more to flee their homes in 31 months, followed a regime crackdown on pro-democracy protests.
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
03112013
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
Israel hits Russian missiles in Syria
John Lyons
THE AUSTRALIAN
November 02, 2013 12:00AM
Stop weapons exports . . . Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, left, meets Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Moscow Source: AP
ISRAEL is reported to have launched another airstrike on a supply of weapons in Syria.
In what would be Israel's fifth such reported intervention this year, a supply of Russian-made surface-to-air missiles at a military base near Latakia, a stronghold of the Assad regime, was hit late this week. CNN quoted a US administration source as saying Israel had launched the attack.
The report came as the international agency charged with overseeing the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons announced it had disabled all sites known to manufacture such weapons.
Israel's biggest-selling newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, reported that the leak to CNN revealed a deep rift between Washington and Jerusalem.
"Officials in Washington say that the timing of the strike was not good, to say the least, because yesterday Assad had kept his commitment and enabled the chemical weapons installations to be dismantled," it said.
"Senior officials in Jerusalem said yesterday that the leaks express the Americans' fear that the region will be set ablaze."
The paper said Israeli officials regarded the leak as "particularly severe, particularly since it came from a strategic ally".
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flew to Moscow in May to urge President Vladimir Putin to cease exports of certain missiles to Syria, particularly the long-range S-300 missiles.
According to Israel's Maariv newspaper at the time, Mr Netanyahu suggested to Mr Putin that should Russia go ahead with such exports, Israel would consider destroying them before they became operational.
Israel's concern about these missiles is that they could be used to shoot down civilian aircraft flying into and out of Israel.
Mr Putin gave no commitment to stop such exports. After that visit, Syria's President Bashar al-Assad claimed that Russia was honouring all its weapons contracts with Syria.
Israel has a policy of not confirming such attacks, but it also has a stated policy that it will strike any weapons that it believes are destined for Hezbollah.
"My policy is to prevent the transfer of dangerous weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon and other terror groups as well," Mr Netanyahu said when asked about another possible Israeli strike in July.
In May, a series of airstrikes destroyed Iranian-made missiles at a site near Damascus.
Since the Syrian conflict began in March 2011, Israel has been keen not to become militarily involved but has said it cannot allow weapons to end up with Hezbollah, which is committed to the destruction of Israel.
Apart from reported airstrikes, Israel has become involved periodically when missiles have been fired from Syria into the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.
Israeli doctors have also been treating injured Syrians who have made their way to the Golan Heights.
Syria is believed to have about 1000 tonnes of mustard, sarin and nerve gas.
Ralf Trapp, a chemical weapons expert, said that up to now it had been "a job very well done" by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
"I would be very satisfied at this point of time but very concerned about the future," he said.
Dr Trapp told Sky News if there were any continuing suspicions from the international community, they could be followed up.
He said the re-establishment of Syria's weapons program would require the setting up of new testing, training and other facilities.
"We are only at the beginning of the dismantling," Dr Trapp said.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING: AGENCIES -
Read more: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/israel-hits-russian-missiles-in-syria/story-e6frg6so-1226751587709
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More NSA Leakers Followed Snowden’s Footsteps, Whistleblower Lawyer Says
By ABC News
Oct 31, 2013 6:06pm
By BRIAN ROSS and RHONDA SCHWARTZ
Several more current and former National Security Agency insiders, inspired by American fugitive Edward Snowden, have come forward as whistleblowers with details of the shadowy agency’s operations, according to an attorney at a whistleblower protection organization.
“I think the government hopes to chill speech by employees in the national security and intelligence fields, especially those at the NSA and CIA, but the unintended consequence is [that] more and more whistleblowers are coming through the doors of the Government Accountability Project (GAP),” said Jesselyn Radack, referring to the organization where she works as the National Security and Human Rights Director. “I think courage is contagious, and we see more and more people from the NSA coming through our door after Snowden made these revelations.”
Radack, an attorney who has met with and been in communication with Snowden, said “a handful” of people in the intelligence community have come forward since this summer when several major international newspapers began writing about the NSA’s classified foreign and domestic surveillance programs – stories based on thousands of secret NSA documents allegedly stolen by Snowden, a former NSA contractor.
FULL COVERAGE: NSA Surveillance
Snowden has been charged in the U.S. with espionage-related crimes, and America’s top intelligence officials said he is a traitor who has put America’s national security in jeopardy.
But the legal threats and high-level condemnation haven’t kept others from coming forward with new information, Radack said.
“There definitely could be more revelations in addition to those that Snowden has revealed and that are continuing to come out,” she told ABC News.
Snowden is currently living in Russia, after being granted temporary asylum there. Today his Russian lawyer said he had gotten a job at a major Russian website. Radack said she was unaware of any new employment for Snowden.
WATCH: Radack Speaks at Anti-Surveillance Rally at the Nation’s Capital
The NSA declined to offer immediate comment in response to an after-hours request by ABC News.
ABC News’ Lee Ferran contributed to this report.
VIDEO:
Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2013/10/more-nsa-leakers-followed-snowdens-footsteps-whistleblower-lawyer-says/
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Syria Peace Envoy: No Talks Without Opposition
DAMASCUS, Syria November 1, 2013 (AP)
By ALBERT AJI and BASSEM MROUE Associated Press
abc NEWS
The international envoy to Syria called on the divided opposition Friday to overcome differences and agree to attend peace talks with President Bashar Assad's government, warning the negotiations cannot go forward without them.
Lakhdar Brahimi, who wrapped up his five-day visit to Damascus, appeared uncertain about prospects for the meeting expected to take place later this month in Geneva.
The deeply fractured Syrian opposition groups are split on whether to attend the talks. They also disagree over conditions for taking part — from demands that Assad steps down right away to guarantees that he would not be part of a negotiated solution for the country's future. The opposition is also split between Damascus-based groups, who have said they will attend without preconditions, and the exiled opposition, which is more hard-line.
The government has rejected demands that Assad step aside, saying he will stay at least until the end of his term in mid-2014, and will then decide whether to seek re-election. Assad also has said he will not negotiate with armed rebels.
"The Syrian national opposition, armed and unarmed, have all been invited to form a convincing delegation," Brahimi said in Beirut after arriving from Syria. "I am counting on the Syrian people and those who claim to represent the Syrian people to realize the danger of the situation and for all sides to seek to save Syria and to save their country."
In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told reporters the aim was to convene the talks "within the month of November."
U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said "a great deal is being done" to try to unite the opposition.
"Everybody knows that this is difficult," he said.
Nesirky said Brahimi will meet U.S. and Russian officials in Geneva on Nov. 5 for further discussions. They then will be joined by the other permanent members of the Security Council — Britain, China and France, he said. The U.S. and Russia have been pushing for a peace conference in November.
The Syrian opposition is made up of different factions, many of them politicians based in exile — the majority of whom are part of the main umbrella group, the Syrian National Coalition. The rebels themselves are a mix of various groups, from the mainstream Free Syrian Army to the extremist but powerful and effective al-Qaida-linked groups. That's made negotiations difficult.
The push for peace talks came as Syrian troops captured a strategic northern town Friday after weeks of intense battles, pushing rebels from a sprawling military complex believed to store chemical weapons.
The capture of Safira follows recent victories by government forces mainly around the capital Damascus and the embattled northern province of Aleppo where the town is located. Earlier this month, troops captured the nearby town of Khanaser, opening a key road linking the central heartland with Aleppo.
Rebels had been in control of Safira for more than a year.
Government forces also have pushed rebels further from the desert road used to send supplies to government-held areas in the north.
"The main aim of the offensive was to secure the Defense Factories and the second to secure the road used to send army supplies," said an Aleppo-based activist who goes with the name Abu Raed.
"The battle over the Defense Factories is over," said the man, suggesting it would not be possible for rebels to attack the complex after government troops captured Safira.
More than 120,000 people have been killed so far in the war, now in its third year, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Observatory, a Britain-based watchdog that closely monitors the war through a network of activists in the country. The U.N. said in July that 100,000 Syrians have been killed, and has not updated that figure since. Millions of Syrians have fled their homes because of the fighting.
————
Mroue reported from Beirut. Associated Press writer Edith Lederer contributed to this report from New York.
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Israel 'bombs' Syria as envoy presses peace talks bid
AFP
48 minutes ago
Damascus (AFP) - Israel has reportedly bombed a Syrian base to halt an arms shipment to Hezbollah, while the UN-Arab League envoy said Friday there could be no peace talks without the opposition.
The reported air strike on a military base in regime stronghold Latakia on Wednesday would be the first Israeli strike on Syria since a US-Russian accord on chemical weapons averted punitive US military action last month.
Israel did not comment on the reports, but has struck Syria in the past and warned it will continue to take action to prevent weapons from falling into the hands of Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah.
Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya television said Israel hit a shipment of surface-to-surface missiles destined for Hezbollah, which is fighting alongside the regime.
A US official confirmed to AFP that "there was an Israeli strike" but gave no details on the location or the target.
Syria, which has cooperated with international disarmament efforts, has vowed to retaliate against any attack but did not respond when Israel carried out two air strikes in May.
Hoping to build on the momentum of last month's US-Russian accord to destroy Syria's chemical arsenal by mid-2014, envoy Lakhdar Brahimi has been criss-crossing the region to rally support for the so-called Geneva II talks.
Syria's opposition has refused to attend unless President Bashar al-Assad's resignation is on the table -- a demand rejected by Damascus. Rebel groups have warned that participants would be considered traitors.
"If the opposition does not participate there will be no Geneva conference," Brahimi said in Damascus before travelling to Beirut.
The veteran Algerian diplomat met Assad on Wednesday and said the Syrian government had agreed to take part in the talks and that the opposition was "trying to find a way to be represented".
The main opposition National Coalition plans to meet November 9 to decide whether to attend the Geneva talks, but key bloc member Syrian National Council threatened to quit if it does so.
On Friday the Coalition criticised the Assad regime for its "lack of courage to respond" to the reported Israeli strikes and described the loyalist army as "a tool that kills people rather than protecting them".
Chemical arms under 'tamper proof' seals
Meanwhile the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said all of Syria's chemical arms were under "tamper proof" seals.
Some 1,000 tonnes of chemical agents and 290 tonnes of chemical weapons "have been placed under seals that are impossible to break," OPCW spokesman Christian Chartier said Thursday.
The OPCW also said Syria's chemical arms production equipment had been destroyed.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was briefed Friday on the operation by Sigrid Kaag, the Dutch diplomat heading the risky mission, media reported.
After the briefing Ryabkov said Syria's chemical arsenal could be taken out of the country for destruction, RIA Novosti news agency reported.
Inspectors had until Friday to destroy all production and filling equipment, according to a timeline laid down by the OPCW and a UN Security Council resolution.
But how nations go about actually destroying the weapons by a mid-2014 deadline, has been a point of debate.
The Security Council resolution was adopted after a deal was struck between Russia and the United States to avert military strikes on Syria following deadly August chemical attacks near Damascus.
Assad has denied he ordered the attacks and blames rebels for them.
More than 120,000 people have been killed in the 31-month rebellion against the Assad regime triggered by his bloody crackdown on Arab Spring-inspired democracy protests.
The war has also triggered a massive humanitarian crisis and on Friday the UN's food aid agency voiced concern about food shortages and malnutrition among children in besieged areas of Syria.
"The World Food Programme is concerned about the fate of many Syrians trapped in conflict areas and still in need of urgent food assistance," spokeswoman Elisabeth Byrs told reporters in Geneva.
"We are monitoring worrying reports emerging of malnutrition among children in besieged areas," she said.
Hundred of women, children and the elderly were evacuated this week from the besieged town of Moadamiyet al-Sham southwest of Damascus.
But many other areas are still surrounded by loyalist troops and Friday many such districts in the southern belt of Damascus came under fierce bombardment, activists said.
Assad forces meanwhile seized control of the rebel held town of Sfeira in the northern Aleppo province after a 27-day siege, activist said.
Sfeira is strategic because chemical and other heavy weapon stockpiles are kept there.
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Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/syrias-chemical-arms-production-equipment-destroyed-085121737.html
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Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
