"The OPCW team had to drive from Beirut into Syria because of clashes on the airport road in Damascus
A team of international disarmament experts has arrived in Syria to begin work on dismantling the country's stockpile of chemical weapons.
...Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Muallem has said that seven out of the 19 chemical weapons sites declared by the government last month are in combat zones.
...A spokesman for the opposition Syrian National Coalition, Monzer Akbik, told the BBC that the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) would ensure that inspectors "will be protected, and granted access to all locations".
However, the FSA is only one of several rebel factions operating in Syria, and its local commanders have often displayed a high degree of autonomy."
I feel cautiously optimistic. Is this a step toward world peace? I wonder how much leeway will be given for the inevitable uncontrolled-rebel strike?
7 comments:
These are the guys hooked up with Al Qaeda, right?
Oh, yeah, makes me feel safe.
From the link:
Also on Tuesday, campaign group Human Rights Watch reported that a secondary school in the rebel-held town of Raqqa had been hit on 29 September by "a Syrian government airstrike using fuel-air explosive bombs", killing 14 civilians.
Twelve of the dead were students attending their first day of classes, according to the group.
The group has also documented the use of incendiary devices suspected to contain substances like napalm elsewhere in the conflict.
Like fuel-air explosive bombs, the weapons allegedly used in the Raqqa attack are not classified as chemical weapons but rights groups have condemned their use in populated areas as causing widespread civilian casualties.
what a mess.
I see our foreign policy as basically a lot of dangerous tyrants taking advantage of naivete. I believe this Syria WMD plan is just Assad's way of guaranteeing his survival by making himself seem too cooperative to depose or attack. Basically the same strategy as Iran is using. I expect it to work. It's possible that events will work out that make Obama look like a genius, but those of us watching know how it happened. However it turns out, it was obviously not by design, at least not our leaders' design.
All this is, is a way for these weapon stockpiles to come under fire and end up missing and being used elsewhere. These guys are going to get overrun by the rebels while CW dismantlers lead them to the locations so they can get ambushed. And Russia/Putin look like they did something right and Urkel looks like a giant douche again.
"I believe this Syria WMD plan is just Assad's way of guaranteeing his survival by making himself seem too cooperative to depose or attack. Basically the same strategy as Iran is using. I expect it to work."
Yes.
Meth, I don't see how Russia looks good in that scenario...unless you mean good to the rebels.
deborah said...
"I believe this Syria WMD plan is just Assad's way of guaranteeing his survival by making himself seem too cooperative to depose or attack. Basically the same strategy as Iran is using. I expect it to work."
Yes.
Meth, I don't see how Russia looks good in that scenario...unless you mean good to the rebels
I don't see how Russia looks bad either way. Russia looks good because they facilitated this handover of CW's and allowed Assad to negotiate the terms. And since Assad basically came to the table with Russia/Putin holding his hand, it looks really good to the UN and that perception is all that matters. If the rebels do in fact hit or capture any of these weapons or sites, then Assad can point to them and say, "See we told you so. They've been getting CW's from stockpiles and using them. They are the bad people." regardless of the proof presented by anyone. It will be ignored.
Hell for all we know, most of those weapons are in Iran's safekeeping.
Thanks :)
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