Syria .....
“There has to be a transition government, there has to be a new governing entity in Syria in order to permit the possibility of peace,” insisted Kerry, adding that President Bashar Assad would not be allowed to play any role in the new, US-imposed government.
Darkush is part of the key transit route for rebel weapons and fighters coming from neighboring Turkey, and the town has been under control of certain rebel factions for months. There has been no claim of credit for the attack.
Reports of the casualties in the aftermath of the incident have been wildly conflicting, with the Taliban’s own statement claiming the rockets destroyed a plane before targeting a residential complex for troops on the base and killed “dozens,” while provincial officials claimed they had no news of any casualties at all.
Details of this “road map” are not yet publicly known, and several different reports as to their content have emerged, though Iran is apparently planning a broad deal involving limitations of their civilian enrichment, and agreeing to additional “transparency” measures above and beyond those required by their safeguards agreement with the IAEA.
Kerry: Urgent to Set Date for Geneva II, Establish ‘Transitional’ Syrian Govt
Insists Assad Has 'Lost All Legitimacy'
by Jason Ditz, October 14, 2013
Secretary of State John Kerry is calling on the international community for an “urgent” approval of an official date for the Geneva II conference on Syria’s Civil War, saying it is time to install a new “transitional” government in power.
“There has to be a transition government, there has to be a new governing entity in Syria in order to permit the possibility of peace,” insisted Kerry, adding that President Bashar Assad would not be allowed to play any role in the new, US-imposed government.
This is another round of Kerry setting the stage for US intervention in Syria, but the Geneva II conference was supposed to be in June but the US was unable to convince any Syrian rebels to go along with it. Much of the rebellion has similarly ruled outparticipating in the conference now.
Given this situation, it’s hard to imagine what Kerry hopes to realistically accomplish, as a Geneva summit which includes only Assad government officials and no rebels seems like a particularly unlikely place to try to install a new, Assad-less government.
With the OPCW engaged in chemical weapons disarmament in Syria for the next year it also seems like a particularly complicated time for the US to try to install an entirely new government.
Car Bomb Kills 27 in NW Syria, Near Turkish Border
No Group Claims Responsibility Yet
by Jason Ditz, October 14, 2013
A car bomb detonated in the marketplace in the Syrian town of Darkush, in Idlib Province today, killing at least 27 people and wounding a large number of others. Locals say the toll may yet rise as a number of the wounded are not expected to survive.
Darkush is part of the key transit route for rebel weapons and fighters coming from neighboring Turkey, and the town has been under control of certain rebel factions for months. There has been no claim of credit for the attack.
The Syrian National Coalition (SNC), the pro-US rebel umbrella, insisted that they are blaming the Assad government for the strike, but the military has not been using car bombings in the past. Rather, al-Qaeda seems the more likely suspect, and they have been fighting with the SNC over control of other border areas.
Darkush is typical of a growing portion of Syria in that it has been a site of sectarian cleansing in the civil war, with the town’s Alawite residents having been chased out and a number of Sunnis, themselves displaced from other towns, taking up residence in their homes.
Afghanistan......
Taliban Attacks US Bagram Base: Conflicting Reports on Death Toll
Taliban Claims Dozens Killed in Airfield Strike
by Jason Ditz, October 14, 2013
Late Sunday night Taliban fighters in the Parwan Province attacked the US military base at Bagram Airfield, firing at least a dozen and by some accounts 20 missiles against targets on the base.
Reports of the casualties in the aftermath of the incident have been wildly conflicting, with the Taliban’s own statement claiming the rockets destroyed a plane before targeting a residential complex for troops on the base and killed “dozens,” while provincial officials claimed they had no news of any casualties at all.
NATO’s own statement dubbed the attacks “ineffective” and claimed that not only were their no casualties among NATO troops, but that none of the missiles even caused any damage. They claimed a single attacker was killed.
While it’s not unusual for NATO and the Taliban to tell dramatically different stories, the reality likely falls somewhere in between, and it seems extremely unlikely that a dozen rockets fired at an air base would cause no damage at all.
Iran nuclear talks open with opposition to any deal forming here in the US and Israel.........
Details of the proposal remain unclear, as the nations have agreed to keep the details of the talks “confidential” for the time being, but reports leading up to the talks suggested Iran was going to offer to reduce its enrichment of uranium and agree to additional transparency of the process, above and beyond that required in its IAEA safeguards agreement.
and....
Iran Nuclear Talks Open With ‘Very Detailed’ Proposal
Israel Warns Against Any Deal to Lift Sanctions
by Jason Ditz, October 15, 2013
The first day of a two-day Geneva nuclear conference between Iran and the P5+1 opened today with high hopes and a “very detailed” hour-long presentation of Iran’s new proposal for a final settlement of the issue.
Details of the proposal remain unclear, as the nations have agreed to keep the details of the talks “confidential” for the time being, but reports leading up to the talks suggested Iran was going to offer to reduce its enrichment of uranium and agree to additional transparency of the process, above and beyond that required in its IAEA safeguards agreement.
The morning presentation gave way to “detailed technical discussions” of the Iranian proposal throughout the afternoon, and Iran’s negotiator, deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi, says that the goal is to get to a settlement deal in six months.
US officials also said they would “welcome” an additional bilateral meeting on the side of the Geneva conference, though it is unclear whether or not that will actually happen. US and Iranian officials met at the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in September.
Israeli officials are angrily opposed to the talks, and have warned against any deal that would involve lifting sanctions on Iran. Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz today claimed Israel wanted the Geneva talks to succeed, but only yesterday likened the exact same talks to appeasement of Nazi Germany, and closed both comments with calls for “credible military threats” to attack Iran.
Iranian delegate Abbas Araghchi to Geneva nuclear talks
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report Oct 15, 2013, 7:56 PM (IDT)
The Iranian negotiators arrived in Geneva Tuesday, Oct. 15, armed with inflexible positions for the talks with the six powers in Geneva on their country’s nuclear program. Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi insisted on the (P5+1) powers accepting the Supreme Leader’s 2006 fatwa banning the development of nuclear weapons – an edict devoid of religious value. DEBKAfile: This ploy was meant to make the powers accept Khamenei’s standing as a world leader. The Obama administration had not yet relayed a word to Binyamin Netanyahu from Geneva.
More>and....
Iran to Offer ‘Road Map’ at Geneva Nuclear Conference
US Downplays Chances of 'Breakthrough'
by Jason Ditz, October 14, 2013
The P5+1 talks with Iran are set to resume again Tuesday in Geneva, with Iranian officials planning to offer a “road map” to a complete resolution of the ongoing dispute on their civilian nuclear program.
Details of this “road map” are not yet publicly known, and several different reports as to their content have emerged, though Iran is apparently planning a broad deal involving limitations of their civilian enrichment, and agreeing to additional “transparency” measures above and beyond those required by their safeguards agreement with the IAEA.
But Iran’s not going to make such major concessions without anything in return, and while the US is on the one hand holding out the prospect of lifting some of the sanctions against the nation, they are also downplaying the chances of any real “breakthrough” at the talks, and saying any sanction relief would be “targeted.”
This of course is going to be problematic, and reflects the difficulty of “partial” deals, as Iran is unlikely to agree to give up too much in return for too little, since it would lead to a future position where much of the sanctions remain intact, and they don’t have anything left to offer the US to ease them.
That’s why the road map is seen as essential for the Iranian government, allowing both sides to set a schedule for future rapprochement including scheduled sanctions relief as the process moves forward.
There is a lot of hope that such a deal can be reached, as the Rouhani government is looking for a final deal in a way that his predecessors had neither the domestic support nor international credibility to put together. The big question is where the Obama Administration comes out on this, with a very real possibility that the rest of the P5 will endorse the Iranian plan and the US will not simply to avoid offending Israel, which is against any deal.
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