Arab and Western leaders are scheduled to meet with Syrian opposition leaders in London this week in an attempt to get them to the bargaining table.
A key group in the Syrian opposition, the Syrian National Council, is refusing to attend the next round of formal peace talks scheduled to take place in Geneva next month.
Foreign ministers of 11 nations are trying to lay the groundwork for what is being called the Geneva II conference. The leaders, which include representatives from the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, are reaffirming their position that any peace process should be political in nature and move away from the current Syrian regime.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry sent a strong message to Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad that he would have to step down if he wants peace to come to his country.
“I don’t know anybody who believes the opposition will ever consent to Bashar al-Assad being part of the government,” Kerry said after talks with Arab officials. “He has bombed and gassed people in his country.”
Assad recently told a Lebanese television station he saw no reason why he could not stand for re-election in 2014.
More than 100,000 people have died since the civil war began in 2011.
In the midst of the Syrian civil war, World Health Organization officials are noting an increase in deadly diseases and a flesh-eating parasite.
The WHO has recorded the first suspected outbreak of polio in the Syria in 14 years along with flare-ups of typhoid and hepatitis. They have also found the flesh-eating paraiste leishmaniasis and are blaming the infections on the collapse of the health care system in the country which is prohibiting vaccinations in many parts of the nation.
Oliver Rosenbawer of the WHO Global Polio Eradication Initiative told the London Daily Telegraph that while they haven’t yet received official laboratory confirmation, there are at least 22 people in the northeast province of Deir Ezzor showing symptoms of polio.
“The tragedy [of polio] is that there is no cure,” Rosenbawer said. “Once you have polio, it is for life. So the only way to tackle it is through vaccination.”
The WHO is also concerned about the mass exodus of refugees from the war-torn nation. They are worried that unvaccinated refugees could take diseases like polio to nations where the virus had been eradicated.
The WHO reports that at least 35 percent of Syria’s hospitals have been damaged or destroyed in the civil war and that up to 70 percent of health care workers have fled the country.
Chemical weapons inspectors in Syria for the dismantling of that country’s supplies have found themselves blocked from parts of their mission due to the ongoing violence.
Over the weekend, mortar attacks took place near the hotel where inspectors are staying and several IEDs were detonated in vehicles during visits to inspection sites.
The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons says this is the first time their inspectors have been unable to complete a scheduled visit.
The OPCW is being asked for the first time in their history to destroy a chemical weapons armory while an active war is taking place within a nation. According to the group’s reports to the UN, nearly half of the 20 sites have been inspected and equipment destroyed.
The UN resolution requires the destruction of all stockpiles by the end of June 2014.
Turkey has raised concerns about the number of al-Qaeda related terrorists in northern Syria.
Turkish officials say that the “indiscriminate terror” which is the normal tactics of the al-Qaeda related fighters could be turned north toward Turkish military troops and U.S. soldiers who are based their to help protect Turkish airspace.
The al-Qaeda fighters call themselves ISIS, which they translate into “Greater Syria”. They have aligned with the Free Syrian Army to oust President Bashir al-Assad. However, the group has stated a goal of turning the nation into a key piece of a radical Sunni Islamic empire.
The group sees Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan as not a “real Muslim” because he is a moderate leader.
The group has also been fighting against rebel groups that are pro-west in nature. Last month they destroyed a pro-western rebel group called Northern Storm in the city of Azaz. ISIS has repeatedly torn down churches and Christian symbols.
A second team of chemical weapons experts is heading to Syria to boost the efforts to destroy the country’s weapon stockpile.
Under the terms of a UN resolution all chemical weapons mixing and filling equipment in Syria must be destroyed by the beginning of November.
The head of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said the Syrian government has submitted additional information updating the original weapons disclosure. He called the actions a “constructive beginning [of] a long and difficult process.”
Members of the OPCW reported on Sunday that members of the Syrian government were using cutting torches and angle grinders to destroy warheads, aerial bombs and equipment that could mix chemical weapons.
International monitors reported over the weekend that destruction of chemical weapons in Syria is underway.
The team of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said that weapon destruction is taking place according to the terms of their United Nations mandate. The U.N. approved a joint U.S.-Russia resolution that would remove all chemical weapons from Syrian storehouses.
“The first day of destruction and disabling is over and missile warheads, aerial bombs, along with mobile and static mixing and filling units, were dealt with. Work continues tomorrow and in the next few days,” an official with OPCW reported to the BBC.
The U.N. resolution calls for the total destruction of Syria’s chemical weapon stockpiles by mid-2014.
The Free Syrian Army, who have been fighting to overthrow the al-Assad government, is claiming that the Syrian regime has moved most of their chemical stockpile to their associates in the terrorist group Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Meanwhile, Syrian President Bashir al-Assad reportedly told Germany’s Der Spiegel magazine he would welcome German negotiators in an attempt to end the 30-month-old civil war.
A team of international chemical weapon disarmament experts has arrived in Syria to begin their work on removing the country’s chemical weapon stockpile.
The mission was set up after a joint U.S.-Russia deal supported by the UN.
The experts with the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons are tasked to destroy chemical weapons during an active war for the first time. Syria’s foreign minister said that seven of the 19 sites that contain chemical weapons are in active combat areas.
The BBC is reporting that truces between the government and local militia will likely be necessary to reach the seven locations.
The country is believed to possess more than 1,000 tons of chemical weapons. While not confirmed, Syria is believed to also have the extremely deadly VX nerve agent.
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem told the United Nations General Assembly that “terrorists from more than 83 countries” are attacking Syrian soldiers and that the “invasion” was similar to the 9/11 attacks on New York.
He also told the BBC that peace talks would not succeed while Turks, Saudis and Qataris are helping the rebels in their battle with the government. Continue reading →
Syrian state TV is reporting a major explosion in Damascus has left at least seven people dead and wounded over a dozen others.
The state news agency is claiming the bombing to be a “terrorist” attack. Continue reading →
UN chemical weapon inspectors are going to be returning to Syria on Wednesday according to statements from the Russian government.
Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov told news outlets the investigators would focus on chemical weapons attacks at Khan al-Assal, Sheikh Maqsoud and Saraqueb. The locations were the initial destinations of the inspectors until the attack on a Damascus suburb August 21st that resulted in the deaths of hundreds of civilians. Continue reading →