Egypt posts record EGP629b primary surplus in 2024/25    EGP swings vs. USD in early Sunday trade    EGX launches 1st phone app    Egypt achieves record primary budget surplus of EGP 629bn despite sharp fall in Suez Canal revenues    Escalation in Gaza, West Bank as Israeli strikes continue amid mounting international criticism    Egypt recovers collection of ancient artefacts from Netherlands    Resumption of production at El Nasr marks strategic step towards localising automotive industry: El-Shimy    Egypt harvests 315,000 cubic metres of rainwater in Sinai as part of flash flood protection measures    Egypt, UNDP discuss outcomes of joint projects, future environmental cooperation    United Bank achieves EGP 1.51bn net profit in H1 2025, up 26.9% year-on-year    After Putin summit, Trump says peace deal is best way to end Ukraine war    Egypt, Namibia explore closer pharmaceutical cooperation    Jordan condemns Israeli PM remarks on 'Greater Israel'    Renowned Egyptian novelist Sonallah Ibrahim dies at 88    Egypt's FM discusses Gaza, bilateral ties in calls with Saudi, South African counterparts    Egypt prepares to tackle seasonal air pollution in Nile Delta    Al-Sisi says any party thinking Egypt will neglect water rights is 'completely mistaken'    Egyptian, Ugandan Presidents open business forum to boost trade    Egypt's Sisi, Uganda's Museveni discuss boosting ties    Egypt's Sisi warns against unilateral Nile measures, reaffirms Egypt's water security stance    Egypt, Colombia discuss medical support for Palestinians injured in Gaza    Egypt, Huawei explore healthcare digital transformation cooperation    Egypt's Sisi, Sudan's Idris discuss strategic ties, stability    Egypt's govt. issues licensing controls for used cooking oil activities    Egypt to inaugurate Grand Egyptian Museum on 1 November    Egypt's Sisi: Egypt is gateway for aid to Gaza, not displacement    Greco-Roman rock-cut tombs unearthed in Egypt's Aswan    Egypt reveals heritage e-training portal    Sisi launches new support initiative for families of war, terrorism victims    Egypt expands e-ticketing to 110 heritage sites, adds self-service kiosks at Saqqara    Palm Hills Squash Open debuts with 48 international stars, $250,000 prize pool    On Sport to broadcast Pan Arab Golf Championship for Juniors and Ladies in Egypt    Golf Festival in Cairo to mark Arab Golf Federation's 50th anniversary    Germany among EU's priciest labour markets – official data    Paris Olympic gold '24 medals hit record value    A minute of silence for Egyptian sports    Russia says it's in sync with US, China, Pakistan on Taliban    It's a bit frustrating to draw at home: Real Madrid keeper after Villarreal game    Shoukry reviews with Guterres Egypt's efforts to achieve SDGs, promote human rights    Sudan says countries must cooperate on vaccines    Johnson & Johnson: Second shot boosts antibodies and protection against COVID-19    Egypt to tax bloggers, YouTubers    Egypt's FM asserts importance of stability in Libya, holding elections as scheduled    We mustn't lose touch: Muller after Bayern win in Bundesliga    Egypt records 36 new deaths from Covid-19, highest since mid June    Egypt sells $3 bln US-dollar dominated eurobonds    Gamal Hanafy's ceramic exhibition at Gezira Arts Centre is a must go    Italian Institute Director Davide Scalmani presents activities of the Cairo Institute for ITALIANA.IT platform    







Thank you for reporting!
This image will be automatically disabled when it gets reported by several people.



U.S. Signals UN Wouldn't Have To Threaten Syria Force
Published in Amwal Al Ghad on 14 - 09 - 2013

The U.S. may accept a United Nations Security Council resolution that stops short of authorizing military action for Syrian violations of a chemical-weapons deal, according to U.S. officials.
The move would overcome objections from Russia and contribute to talks in Geneva, which resume today, and New York on a Syrian disarmament accord. A resolution acceptable to the U.S. could impose other consequences for Syrian violations, including economic sanctions and a provision for the council to revisit military authorization, said the officials, who asked not to be identified in briefing reporters.
Such a resolution wouldn't foreclose unilateral U.S. military strikes, as President Barack Obama threatened after what his administration said was an Aug. 21 attack by the Syrian regime with the nerve agent sarin that killed more than 1,400 people, including more than 400 children, near Damascus.
"The use of chemical weapons that we saw in Syria was a criminal act," Obama said yesterday. "It is absolutely important for the international community to respond in not only deterring repeated use of chemical weapons but hopefully getting those chemical weapons outside of Syria."
An agreement on securing and destroying Syria's chemical weapons must be "verifiable and enforceable," Obama said, as U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry reported "constructive conversations" in Geneva with his Russian counterpart.
‘Bear Fruit'
Obama, who put his threat of military action against Syria on hold this week, said he hopes that talks between Kerry and Lavrov will "bear fruit." He commented at the end of a meeting at the White House with Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah, the emir of Kuwait, one of the Persian Gulf nations sending arms to Syrian rebels seeking to topple President Bashar al-Assad.
The Geneva talks will continue for a third day today because Kerry and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov are addressing "some serious stuff," Russian spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in Geneva.
U.S. and Russian experts made progress narrowing the gap between their estimates about the size of Syria's chemical arsenal, according to a U.S. official in Geneva. Syria didn't officially acknowledge it has such weapons until this week.
Kerry has put the stockpile at 1,000 metric tons, while Russia has used a lower figure. Consensus on the size of the arsenal is necessary to ensure that Assad doesn't hide some of his weapons from international inspectors.
Kerry's Travels
Kerry yesterday added plans to go to Paris on Sept. 16 for meetings with the British, French and Saudi foreign ministers, following a stop the previous day in Israel to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Agreement in Geneva on an approach to securing the weapons would shift the focus to the UN for Security Council action to mandate implementation.
In Washington, the U.S. officials indicated a lengthening timeline for action that extends for months under a potential accord. Syria is unlikely to embarrass its main ally, Russia, by conducting further chemical attacks in the meantime, the officials said.
It may take several weeks to pass a UN Security Council resolution embodying a disarmament plan and then months to see progress in bringing Syria's chemical arms under international control to be destroyed, according to the officials. Even so, they portrayed that outcome as better than if the U.S. took military action, which couldn't destroy Syria's chemical arsenal.
U.S. Demand
The current round of diplomacy was initiated by Russia after a Sept. 9 comment in London by Kerry that Assad could avert a threatened U.S. attack by turning over "every single bit of his chemical weapons to the international community in the next week." While Kerry added immediately that Assad "isn't about to do it, and it can't be done, obviously," the idea took on a life of its own.
In New York, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon said yesterday that a report by UN inspectors will confirm that chemical weapons were used on Aug. 21 in an opposition-controlled area near Damascus. The UN team wasn't allowed under its mandate to assign responsibility for the attack, and Syria and Russia have blamed anti-regime "terrorists."
While it's up to the Syrian people to decide whether to oust Assad, Ban said at a UN development forum in New York, the regime's leader has "committed many crimes against humanity" and will be held accountable when the conflict is over.
Peace Conference
Looking beyond the immediate focus on efforts to turn over Syria's chemical arsenal to international control, Kerry and Lavrov also discussed yesterday prospects for convening a long-proposed peace conference on Syria.
West Texas Intermediate crude for October delivery slid 39 cents, or 0.4 percent, to settle at $108.21 a barrel yesterday on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Prices declined 2.1 percent this week, the most since the five days ended July 26.
Obama has delayed possible U.S. military action twice: first, on Aug. 31, to consult Congress, and then on Sept. 10 to take up Russia's proposal for international oversight of Syria's chemicals arsenal.
Assad and Russia, Syria's principal great-power ally since the 1970s, have exploited Obama's focus on ridding the country of chemical weapons while seeking to keep the U.S. out of the civil war.
The goal is to "design a road that makes sure this issue is resolved quickly, professionally, as soon as practical," Lavrov said of the chemical weapons talks.
‘One-Way Street'
Assad appeared on Russian television on Sept. 12 to announce that Syria would sign an international protocol known as the Chemical Weapons Convention banning chemical weapons and to warn the U.S. that the solution to the strife wouldn't be a "one-way street." Assad said the U.S. must forswear any military strike and cease arming the rebel "terrorists" fighting to overthrow his regime.
The U.S. will "retain the military option and we will maintain our military readiness while the Geneva process is ongoing," Pentagon spokesman George Little told reporters yesterday in Washington. Earlier this week, Kerry called Syrian opposition leaders to say they will continue to have U.S. support.
France, the main U.S. ally in any military operation, has pressed for a strongly worded UN Security Council resolution to govern Syria's behavior, including a military-action trigger
Syria's Application
The head of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the world body that administers the convention, said in a statement yesterday that Syria's application to join the accord and to obtain technical assistance is being reviewed. At the UN on Sept. 12, Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari said his country now considers itself bound by the accord as it undertakes the process necessary to become the 190th signatory nation.
U.S.-Russian talks over chemical weapons were entwined with a broader diplomatic push to end the hostilities by bringing Assad and the opposition to the negotiating table.
In that effort, Kerry and Lavrov met yesterday with UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi. The prospects for a Geneva peace conference "obviously depend" on whether current talks to have Syria surrender control of its chemical weapons succeed, Kerry told reporters.
Putting together intra-Syrian peace talks is "extremely important," Brahimi said. Efforts to get Assad and the opposition talking have failed since world powers met in Geneva in June 2012.
Diplomatic Push
The U.S. should use talks on weapons with Russia and Syria to help forge a political solution, Edward Djerejian, a former ambassador to Syria and Israel, said yesterday in an interview at Bloomberg's Houston office.
For that to work, the administration should support moderate elements of the opposition forces, level the playing field against Assad's military advantages and ensure that military strikes remain on the table to boost the incentives for discussions, said Djerejian, founder director of the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University.
"There's no military solution to the Syrian crisis," he said. ‘There's not a military solution, there's only a political solution. The task of diplomacy is how to get to that political solution.''
Source : bloomberg


Clic here to read the story from its source.