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Just posted my new diary about the worsening crisis in Syria and the rebels fighting for the spoils of war (looting in Aleppo) and a disregard for human rights.
Syrian Rebel Leader Abu Jameel, Dying for a Good Cause.
Clinton Addresses Syria With Russian Counterpart
(IHT/AP) – Diplomatic efforts to end Syria’s civil war moved forward Thursday with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton joining Russia’s foreign minister and the U.N. peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi to the Arab country for extraordinary three-way talks that suggested Washington and Moscow might finally unite behind a strategy as the Assad regime weakens.
In Washington, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said intelligence reports raise fears that an increasingly desperate Syrian President Bashar Assad is considering using his chemical weapons arsenal — which the U.S. and Russia agree is unacceptable. It was unclear whether he might target rebels within Syria or bordering countries, but growing concern over such a scenario was clearly adding urgency to discussions an ocean away in Ireland’s capital.
Syria accuses the US of using chemical weapons as pretext for intervention
(The Guardian) – But the gathering of the three key international figures suggests a possible compromise. At the least, it confirms what officials describe as an easing of some of the acrimony that has raged between Moscow and Washington over the future of a Syria, whose stability is seen as critical given its proximity to Iraq, Lebanon and Israel.
The threat of Syria’s government using some of its vast stockpiles of chemical weapons is also adding urgency to diplomatic efforts. Western governments have cited the rising danger of such a scenario this week, and officials say Russia, too, shares great concern on this point.
On Thursday, Syria’s deputy foreign minister Faisal Mekdad accused the United States and Europe of using the issue of chemical weapons to justify a future military intervention against Syria. He warned that any such intervention would be “catastrophic.”
Israel Asked Jordan for Approval to Bomb Syrian WMD Sites
(The Atlantic) – Anxiety is increasing about the prospect of a desperate Bashar al-Assad using chemical weapons against his rapidly proliferating enemies. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Assad that such chemical weapons use would cross a U.S. red line: “I’m not going to telegraph in any specifics what we would do in the event of credible evidence that the Assad regime has resorted to using chemical weapons against their own people. But suffice to say we are certainly planning to take action.”
This new level of anxiety was prompted by reports that Assad’s forces have been moving chemical weapons, according to David Sanger and Eric Schmitt in The Times.
The U.S. is not the only country worried about the possible use of chemical weapons. Intelligence officials in two countries told me recently that the Israeli government has twice come to the Jordanian government with a plan to take out many of Syria’s chemical weapons sites. According to these two officials, Israel has been seeking Jordan’s “permission” to bomb these sites, but the Jordanians have so far declined to grant such permission.
- Is David Sanger Judy Miller deja vu, without the neocon fixins?
- SourceWatch: David Sanger is a neocon and warmonger