chemical weapons

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Assad: I Won't Make Peace Deal With Rebels

But admits his gov't has made mistakes

(Newser) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad admits he's made mistakes ... but gassing his own people wasn't one of them. "We did not use chemical weapons," he insists in a new interview with German magazine Der Spiegel . "This is a misstatement. So is the picture you paint of...

Syria's Assad: I'll Comply With UN Resolution

Says he's open to talks with opposition if they give up their arms

(Newser) - Bashar al-Assad is vowing to stand by the terms of the United Nations' resolution last week to destroy Syria's chemical weapons, reports the AP . "Of course we have to comply," he told Italian television in an interview today. "This is our history to comply with every...

Syria's Weapons Inspections Start Next Week

Security Council adopts resolution, though it doesn't include penalties

(Newser) - The first international inspectors will be on the ground in Syria Tuesday to start assessing the nation's chemical weapons, reports Reuters . The move is part of a UN resolution adopted unanimously last night by the 15-member Security Council demanding that Bashar al-Assad's illegal arsenal be destroyed. The AP...

Russia Will Send Troops to Syria's Chemical Sites

5 key members of Security Council reach a deal on resolution

(Newser) - The five permanent members of the UN Security Council have finally agreed on the wording of a resolution that requires Syria to destroy its chemical weapons, reports the New York Times . As part of the deal worked out mainly between the US and Russia, Moscow and some former Soviet republics...

Assad's Chemical Weapons List 'Surprisingly Thorough'

Officials call it a 'serious document'

(Newser) - Bashar al-Assad handed over a document containing the locations of "dozens" of chemical weapons sites over the weekend, and it's apparently not half bad. Western officials yesterday categorized it as a "serious document" that's many pages in length and, in the words of the Los Angeles ...

Can Syria Really Wipe Out Chemical Weapons in a Year?

After all, US has spent decades on the process

(Newser) - The US has spent decades ridding itself of a chemical weapons stash that dates back to 1917, using all sorts of methods to achieve disarmament—yet the plan for Syria calls for wiping out its chemical weapons by next year. What's more, Syria's got to take action amid...

Looks Like Syria Will Miss First Arms-Deal Deadline

Plus: Pentagon says US could train some rebels

(Newser) - Syria probably won't get a full inventory of its chemical weapons to international authorities by Saturday, as proposed—but the US, it seems, isn't panicking. "Our goal is to see forward momentum," rather than the whole inventory, by Saturday, says a State Department rep. "We'...

Assad Scoffs: 'Anyone Can Make Sarin in His House'

He tells Fox News his regime isn't to blame

(Newser) - Bashar al-Assad continues making the interview rounds and denying that his regime used chemical weapons. In the latest sit-down—conducted by Fox News , with former congressman Dennis Kucinich as one of the interviewers—the Syrian leader said it will take about a year to destroy his chemical stockpile, reports NPR...

Russia Rips UN's Syria Report: 'Biased,' 'One-Sided'

Says it has evidence rebels used chemical weapons—courtesy of Assad

(Newser) - Just when it seemed like the US and Russia were suspiciously close to seeing eye-to-eye on Syria, things move back to more familiar territory. A Russian government minister has slammed the UN report findings that chemical weapons were used in Syria as "biased and one-sided," while claiming it...

Assad Comes Out on Top in Syria Deal
 Assad Comes 
 Out on Top in 
 Syria Deal 
OPINION
Sep 16, 2013 11:47 AM CDT

Assad Comes Out on Top in Syria Deal

Putin now 'US ambassador to Syria': GOP senator

(Newser) - Following the US-Russia agreement on Syrian chemical disarmament, plenty of political insiders are furious with the Obama administration—but the White House has its defenders. What the media is saying:
  • At Bloomberg , Jeffrey Goldberg sees a major victory for Bashar al-Assad: "The US has in a perverse way made
...

UN: 'Clear, Convincing' Proof of Chemical Attack

Both sides have committed war crimes, another panel concludes

(Newser) - There's "clear and convincing evidence" that surface-to-air rockets loaded with sarin gas rained down on the Ghouta area of Damascus last month, UN weapons inspectors announced today. The panel concluded that chemical weapons have been used "against civilians, including children, on a relatively large scale." The...

Kerry to Syria: 'Threat of Force Is Real'

Secretary warns of consequences if US-Russia deal isn't carried out

(Newser) - Secretary of State John Kerry today sent a strong warning to Syria, saying "the threat of force is real" if it does not carry out an internationally brokered agreement to hand over its chemical weapons. Kerry issued the warning during a stop in Jerusalem, where he briefed jittery Israeli...

Obama: Syria Deal Not About &#39;Style&#39;
 Obama: 
 Syria Deal 
 Not About 'Style' 
ABC INTERVIEW
Sep 15, 2013 8:52 AM CDT

Obama: Syria Deal Not About 'Style'

Emphasizes it was more important to get the policy right

(Newser) - The road to the Syria chemical weapons deal may have been bumpy, but President Obama insists that he's "less concerned about style points" and "much more concerned with getting the policy right," he tells George Stephanopoulos this morning on ABC's This Week . “Folks here...

US Won't Demand Use of Force in UN Resolution

But White House will keep open possibility of strike on its own

(Newser) - The New York Times reports that the White House is bowing to reality: Because Russia will never agree to any UN resolution that calls for the possibility of military action against Syria, the US won't insist on such a clause. (The Russians already have balked at a draft proposal...

This Elite Unit Is Hiding Syria's Chemical Weapons

WSJ looks at 'Unit 450'

(Newser) - Last week, as the US prepared for military strikes, an elite Syrian military unit once again moved the Assad regime's chemical stockpiles. Unit 450, an all-Alawite squad so secretive that even high-ranking military defectors aren't aware of its existence, has been divvying up and dispersing its stockpiles for...

Kerry Looking to Nail Down Syria as Russia Talks Begin

Rebels, meanwhile, despair over lack of strike

(Newser) - John Kerry arrived in Geneva today for two days of talks with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov over the Syrian disarmament plan they sort of created together. Kerry's top goal, one official tells Reuters , "is to see if there's reality here or not." To do that he'...

Ex-Hostage: Syria Rebels Are 'Bandits,' Fanatics

After 5 months captive, says US strike would only make them stronger

(Newser) - An Italian war reporter held hostage for five months by rebel forces in Syria has written a damning denunciation of the anti-Assad movement. "It is not the revolution that I encountered two years ago in Aleppo—secular, tolerant. It has become something else," Domenico Quirico wrote in his...

Experts Explain: Disarming Syria Could Be a Nightmare

Could take years to secure chemical weapons, require many troops

(Newser) - As the world rallies around the idea of getting Syria to hand over its chemical weapons, weapons experts tell the New York Times there's much more than a "here you go" involved. "It’s a gargantuan task for the inspectors to mothball production, install padlocks, inventory the...

Obama&#39;s Syria Speech Wowed No One

 Obama's 
 Syria Speech 
 Wowed No One 
reactions
Sep 11, 2013 8:00 AM CDT

Obama's Syria Speech Wowed No One

Reactions pour in, and most are not good

(Newser) - President Obama's Syria speech last night was only 15 minutes long, but it "will be analyzed for a LOT longer than that," writes Chris Cillizza in the Washington Post . But—because Congress isn't onboard with a strike on Syria and we don't yet know how...

For First Time, Syria Admits It Has Chemical Arsenal

Will sign arms pact; also, Putin says US must renounce threat of force

(Newser) - President Obama's speech-writers are probably a stressed-out bunch right about now because Syria developments are coming quickly ahead of Obama's prime-time address:
  • Disclosing sites: Syria is ready to disclose the locations of its chemical stockpiles to the UN, Russia, and other unspecified nations, says Foreign Minister Walid Moallem,
...

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