Category: chemical weapons

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chemical weapons News Syria war

U.S Begins Destroying Syria’s Chemical Weapons

Aljazeera is reporting that the US container ship Cape Ray has started to neutralise chemical materials that were once part of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s weapons arsenal, the US Defence Department has said.

The ship, located in international waters in the Mediterranean Sea, began processing about 600 metric tonnes of chemical weapons and the raw materials that could be used in them, Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren said on Monday,

The US government has said the materials include mustard gas and components for the nerve agent sarin.

The materials were transferred to the Cape Ray earlier in July from a vessel that brought them out of Syria, the Reuters news agency reported.

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chemical weapons Syria Syria

Amazing Deal Reached On Syria’s Weapons – Republicans However, Not Amused

This is a big deal! Russia and Syria has not only agreed that Syria has chemical weapons, a huge deal was reached on Saturday calling for these chemical weapons to be accounted for and destroyed by the middle of 2014!

The joint announcement, on the third day of intensive talks in Geneva, also set the stage for one of the most challenging undertakings in the history of arms control.

“This situation has no precedent,” said Amy E. Smithson, an expert on chemical weapons at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies. “They are cramming what would probably be five or six years’ worth of work into a period of several months, and they are undertaking this in an extremely difficult security environment due to the ongoing civil war.”

Although the agreement explicitly includes the United Nations Security Council for the first time in determining possible international action in Syria, Russia has maintained its opposition to any military action.

But George Little, the Pentagon press secretary, emphasized that the possibility of unilateral American military force was still on the table. “We haven’t made any changes to our force posture to this point,” Mr. Little said. “The credible threat of military force has been key to driving diplomatic progress, and it’s important that the Assad regime lives up to its obligations under the framework agreement.”

Republicans however, are not having it. Moment after the news broke that an agreement was reached, Senator John McCain and Lindsey Graham issued a statement saying, the deal allows Syrian leader Bashar Assad”to delay and deceive” while the country’s civil war continued.

The statement said: “It requires a willful suspension of disbelief to see this agreement as anything other than the start of a diplomatic blind alley, and the Obama administration is being led into it by Bashar Assad and [Russian president] Vladimir Putin.”

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chemical weapons News Politics syrian invasion

Yes Little Olivia, There Is A God

“…but he isn’t about to do it — and It can’t be done, obviously.”

A couple more faux pas like the one Secretary of State John Kerry made at a briefing on Syria earlier this week and we’ll have achieved World Peace in no time!

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chemical weapons Politics Syria

President’s Weekly Address – Possible Diplomacy in Syria

President Obama continued his call for action in Syria whether it be military or diplomatic, and he called on the leaders of Russia and Syria to continue talks with Sec. Kerry on securing and destroying Syria’s chemical weapons. “We’re making it clear that this can’t be a stalling tactic,” the president said. “We need to see concrete actions to demonstrate that Assad is serious about giving up his chemical weapons.”

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chemical weapons Politics Syria

White House: President Will Back Efforts to Secure Syria’s Chemical Weapons

President Obama will back a United Nations effort to secure Syria’s chemical weapons stockpiles, the White House said Tuesday.

Separately, a group of senators said they were working on a new use-of-force resolution that would only authorize military action if Syria refuses to relinquish its stockpile of chemical weapons to international control.

This development took place a day after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) canceled a procedural vote scheduled for Wednesday on authorizing a limited military strike on Syria.
The outline under discussion by the nine lawmakers would require the United Nations to pass a resolution stating that Syrian President Bashar Assad gassed his own people. It would also call on the U.N. to remove all of Syria’s chemical weapons by a certain date.
The resolution would authorize U.S. military action if those goals are not met, according to a source familiar with the negotiations.

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chemical weapons Politics

German Intelligence – Assad May Not Have Authorized Chemical Weapons

To add even more confusion to this whole Syrian conflict, German intelligence is now coming forth claiming that they have proof that Basher al-Assad may not have authorized the use of chemical weapons.

Syrian government forces may have carried out a chemical weapons attack close to Damascus without the personal permission of President Bashar al-Assad, Germany’s Bild am Sonntag paper reported on Sunday, citing German intelligence.

Syrian brigade and division commanders had been asking the Presidential Palace to allow them to use chemical weapons for the last four-and-a-half months, according to radio messages intercepted by German spies, but permission had always been denied, the paper said.

This could mean Assad may not have personally approved the attack close to Damascus on August 21 in which more than 1,400 are estimated to have been killed, intelligence officers suggested.

Germany’s foreign intelligence agency (BND) could not be reached for comment.

Bild said the radio traffic was intercepted by a German naval reconnaissance vessel, the Oker, sailing close to the Syrian coast.

Last week the head of the BND, Gerhard Schindler, gave confidential briefings to the German parliament’s defense and foreign affairs committees. Bild said Schindler told the defense committee that Syria’s civil war could continue for years.

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