WarSclerotic

Israel Hints at New Strikes, Warning Syria Not to Retaliate | World | Ammon News.

( This feels like Netanyhu’s chess move after meeting with Putin.  I wonder whether he cleared it with Putin first.  The Russian business is strange.  I think there’s a lot going on that we don’t know. – JW )

US explores new ways to press Iran on nuke program | The Times of Israel.

State Department’s nuclear negotiator with Tehran presents Congress with new range of options to deter Islamic Republic

May 15, 2013, 7:23 pm

Wendy Sherman, the State Department’s nuclear negotiator with Iran (photo credit: CC-BY dbking, Flickr)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration on Wednesday said it was looking at new ways to pressure Iran over its nuclear program.

The State Department’s nuclear negotiator with Iran, Wendy Sherman, and the Treasury Department’s sanctions chief, David Cohen, told Congress that the US is exploring different ways to press Tehran into making nuclear concessions.

These range from possible executive orders to military signals to US efforts to end the civil war in Syria, a key Iranian ally.

Their comments came as the Treasury Department on Wednesday added two Dubai-based companies to an American blacklist of firms accused of supporting Iran’s weapons proliferation activities.

The action bans Americans from doing business with Al Fida International General Trading or Al Hilal Exchange. Any assets held by those companies in the US are now blocked.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press

Has Iran Crossed Netanyahu’s ‘Red Line’? | FrontPage Magazine.

In one the most important and overlooked articles written about the Iranian nuclear threat, the Jerusalem Post’s Gil Hoffman recently qualified statements made by former Military Intelligence chief Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amos Yadlin that Tehran had crossed the “red line” delineated by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in his speech to the UN General Assembly in September.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Jerusalem Post conference in New York, Yadlin explained to reporters that the perception that Iran had diverted to civilian purposes a significant portion of its uranium enriched to 20% was partially flawed. Yadlin clarified that while Iran had indeed converted some of this stockpile into nuclear fuel rods—generally used in nuclear reactors to produce nuclear energy—the majority was in fact made into oxidized uranium, or yellowcake, which can be readily transformed into fissile material.

“Within a week, [yellowcake] could be turned into nuclear material for a bomb,” Yadlin is on record as saying.

To fully comprehend the significance of Yadlin’s assertion, some context, while dense, is necessary.

In August 2012, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that Iran had, since Tehran began refining uranium to this concentration in 2010, produced nearly 190 kilograms of uranium enriched to 20%. At the time, there was widespread speculation of an imminent Israeli attack on Iran; talk of which infuriated Netanyahu to such an extent that he accused the media of perpetrating a “worldwide scandal” in order to “prevent Israel from independent action.”

Weeks later, Netanyahu appeared before the UNGA to delineate his “red line” on Iran’s nuclear progress, his now-infamous caricature of a bomb in hand.

One month later, then-defense minister Ehud Barak gave an interview to the British Telegraph, in which he confirmed that Iran had delayed the “moment of truth” by converting approximately forty percent, or 70 kg, of its 190 kg stockpile of higher-grade uranium to other forms; thereby leaving Tehran with 120 kg of the substance, well below the 250 kg threshold required to build a nuclear bomb.

By February, however, the IAEA disclosed that Iran’s total production of 20% enriched uranium had reached 280 kilograms, an addition of 90 kg in the preceding six months. Its stockpile stood, at that point, at 170 kg (up from 120 kg in August); meaning that another 40 kg had been diverted towards other purposes.

Overall, then, the IAEA extrapolated that Iran had converted to other forms some 110 kg (70 kg + 40 kg) of the 280 kg of higher-grade uranium it had produced since 2010.

Yadlin’s “blockbuster” was to reveal that, contrary to popular belief, only 30 kg of this had been transformed into fuel rods, whereas 80 kg was turned into yellowcake, which, as Yadlin cautioned, can be converted expeditiously into bomb-grade material. He therefore concluded that Iran had crossed Netanyahu’s red line, as the 80 kg of yellowcake in question, when added to Iran’s stockpile (as of February) of 170 kg of 20% enriched uranium, exceeds Netanyahu’s 250 kg threshold; or, in Gil Hoffman’s words, what we have is “a crossed red line, an undermined prime minister and a serious problem.”

Ironically, despite the enormous publicity generated by Yadlin’s comments, the fact of the matter is that this information was already outlined by the IAEA in its February report: “28.3 kg of UF6 enriched up to 20% U-235 were fed into the conversion process at FPFP [Fuel Plate Fabrication Plant],” while the rest was transformed into U3O8, a form of yellowcake.

Given these facts, the question arises: Has Iran crossed Netanyahu’s “red line”?

In his speech to the UNGA, Netanyahu specifically stated that “a red line must be drawn, first and foremost, in one vital part of [Iran’s] program—on Iran’s efforts to enrich uranium.” Netanyahu reasoned that “the only way that you can credibly prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon is to prevent Iran from amassing enough enriched uranium for a bomb,” since Tehran could covertly produce other components of a nuclear weapon, such as a nuclear detonator, for example, with relative ease and without the knowledge of the international community.

Netanyahu thus asserted that “a red line should be drawn before Iran completes the second stage of nuclear enrichment [to 20%] necessary to make a bomb.” Specifically, “before Iran gets to a point where it’s a few months away or a few weeks away from amassing enough [higher-grade] enriched uranium to make a nuclear weapon.”

While debatable, it seems, then, that Iran has indeed technically crossed Netanyahu’s limit, as the country has to date manufactured more uranium enriched to 20% (280 kg+) than is required to build a nuclear weapon (even though its current stockpile allegedly remains below the 250 kg threshold required to build a nuke). Most importantly, as Yadlin noted, Iran has shortened the time required for it to reach “breakout” capacity to mere days, a significantly shorter timeframe than the “few months” or “few weeks” outlined by Netanyahu in September.

Iran is thus on the brink of achieving nuclear weapons capability, having reached the stage whereby it can decide at any moment to make a week-long dash towards a point of no return; an interval which is, “red lines” aside, too close for comfort.

In his interview last October, Barak claimed that Iran had rolled back its nuclear progress by “eight to ten months,” and stressed that Tehran would likely reach the “zone of immunity,” depriving Israel of its military option, by the “spring or early summer.” This prediction coincides with Yadlin’s recent assertion that the Islamic Republic could reach nuclear breakout capacity as early as June.

Likewise, Netanyahu stated in his speech to the UNGA that Iran will have produced enough higher-grade enriched uranium for its first bomb “by next spring, at most by next summer.” This reality, Netanyahu said, precipitated his delineation of limits on Iran’s nuclear program, as “red lines don’t lead to war, red lines prevent war.”

The evidence suggests that we’ll soon find out if he’s right.

The author recently made aliya from Canada.

Rocket hits Eshkol Council; no injuries – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Gaza rocket explodes in open area on holiday of Shavuot. ‘This hasn’t stopped us from celebrating,’ council head says

Ilana Curiel

A rocket exploded Wednesday – the holiday of Shavuot – in an open area at the Eshkol Regional Council. No injuries or damage were reported. A Color Red siren sounded prior to the hit.

Eshkol Regional Council head Chaim Yalin said the rocket did not stop the residents from enjoying the holiday. “Not the weather or the rockets will ruin our holiday,” he said. “The farmers worked all year ling to celebrate their holiday.”

Earlier this month, another rocket hit the council. In later April, on the holiday of Lag B’Omer a rocket fired from Gaza exploded in an open area at the Sdot Negev Regional Council. No injuries or damage were reported.

A few hours later, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit announced that Israeli aircraft attacked a terror facility and a weapons cache in south Gaza. Direct hits were confirmed.

Meanwhile, Wednesday also saw at least two mortar shells fired into Israeli territory in the Mount Hermon region in the Golan Heights.

According to assessments they were stray mortars mistakenly fired at Israel as part of the Syrian conflict between rebels and Bashar Assad‘s army. No injuries or damage were reported. The IDF decided to close the Hermon site’s upper part to visitors. Israel has also lodged a complaint with the UN’s peacekeeping force in the Golan.

Is it a peace or war plan for Syria? – Alarabiya.net English | Front Page.

It is as if 100,000 people killed is not enough to justify international intervention in Syria’s brutal war. It is as if the dozens of attempts made to find a solution with President Bashar al-Assad, and his continuing resistance to ceding power, means nothing.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry’s stance supporting the Russian plan took many by surprise in the Arab world. The public opinion senses a dangerous change in the American government’s stance which adopted Russia’s and Iran’s positions. America’s move strengthened suspicions that it has completely retreated from its old stance of politically supporting the Syrian people.

Arab anger

Despite the angry feelings of most Arabs, this is also a huge mistake for at least one reason; the peace conference will fail to convince Bashar al-Assad of stepping down. Even if he appears convinced, he would only be maneuvering and lying by convincing others that he should stay until the end of his term next year, after which he will break his promises.

What is the value of a conference when it is impossible to convince Assad of immediately stepping down and when it is impossible to stop the revolution against him?

 

Abdulrahman al-Rashed

For Assad and his Iranian allies, the conference is yet another scam, similar to that which he pulled with the international observers, Kofi Annan and Lakhdar Brahimi. This is his policy, misleading others as he awaits for some sort of change that turns the situation to his favor.

At the same time as the conference is being imposed on the Syrian opposition – which does not dare reject the conference for well-known reasons such as its need for international support – the regime will, during these months, expand its military operations to gain back liberated lands.

Accepting the Russian plan is a huge mistake because it grants hope to a besieged regime which supposedly must be further pressured and not given room to breathe! The regime will only make concessions amidst overpowering circumstances and it is only then that true peace can be established in Syria.

The value of the conference

What is the value of a conference when it is impossible to convince Assad of immediately stepping down and when it is impossible to stop the revolution against him? Both aspects are certain truths. Imposing the conference on the fighters will only increase anger and weaken moderate powers that will lose popular support. Thus, the winds will change and the public mood will shift in favor of extremist fighters.

Has anyone asked the question of what will happen when Russia imposes the idea of the partial departure of the regime by having Assad exit at the end of his term next year? How will it be possible to convince millions of Syrians to return to their homes and lives in a country run by suppressive security apparatuses? And who will believe that Assad will in fact step down next year? And who said that even if he does step down – which is almost impossible – his leaders, who committed the gravest of massacres in the region’s history, will leave with him?

The Russians appeal to everyone’s sentiment by speaking of maintaining the unity of Syria and maintaining the regime’s structure in order to prevent chaos and civil war. This is noble concept which we do not expect a man, one who uses warplanes, tanks, missiles and cannons to shell cities and towns on almost daily basis, to commit to. A few days ago, he set off booby-trapped car in a public market in Turkey. His forces still attack refugees and border towns with Jordan and still trespass Lebanon’s borders to kidnap and kill refugees. Are these the practices of a president willing to step down? What is the American interest in backing the Russians’ poisoned idea which will only further complicate the situation?

The Americans have either of two choices. Either support the Syrian majority that hates the regime and refuses to live under the shadow of Assad and his regime’s governance, or completely back off and let the Syrians handle their situation. To these Syrians, imposing the conference is a means to support Assad and not force him out.

____________________

Abdulrahman al-Rashed is the General Manager of Al Arabiya News Channel. A veteran and internationally acclaimed journalist, he is a former editor-in-chief of the London-based leading Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat, where he still regularly writes a political column. He has also served as the editor of Asharq al-Awsat’s sister publication, al-Majalla. Throughout his career, Rashed has interviewed several world leaders, with his articles garnering worldwide recognition, and he has successfully led Al Arabiya to the highly regarded, thriving and influential position it is in today.

Fierce fighting erupts at Syria’s Aleppo prison, says NGO – Alarabiya.net English | Front Page.

Grisly Killings in Syrian Towns Dim Hopes for Peace Talks – NYTimes.com.

By ANNE BARNARD and HANIA MOURTADA

Omar survived what residents, antigovernment activists and human rights monitors are calling one of the darkest recent episodes in the Syrian war, a massacre in government-held Tartus Province that has inflamed sectarian divisions, revealed new depths of depravity and made the prospect of stitching the country back together appear increasingly difficult.

That mass killing this month was one in a series of recent sectarian-tinged attacks that Syrians on both sides have seized on to demonize each other. Government and rebel fighters have filmed themselves committing atrocities for the world to see.

Footage routinely shows pro-government fighters beating, killing and mutilating Sunni rebel detainees, forcing them to refer to President Bashar al-Assad as God. One rebel commander recently filmed himself cutting out an organ of a dead pro-government fighter, biting it and promising the same fate to Alawites, members of Mr. Assad’s Shiite Muslim sect.

That lurid violence has fueled pessimism about international efforts to end the fighting. As the United States and Russia work to organize peace talks next month between Mr. Assad and his opponents, the ever more extreme carnage makes reconciliation seem more remote.

Nadim Houry, the director of Human Rights Watch in Beirut, said he sensed “a complete disconnect between diplomacy and events on the ground.”

“The conflict is getting more visceral,” he said. Without concrete confidence-building measures, he said, and with more people “seeing it as an existential struggle, it’s hard to imagine what the negotiations would look like.”

The recent executions, reconstructed by speaking with residents and human rights monitors, unfolded over three days in two Sunni enclaves in the largely Alawite and Christian province, first in the village of Bayda and then in the Ras al-Nabeh district of the nearby city of Baniyas.

Government troops and supporting militias went house to house, killing entire families and smashing men’s heads with concrete blocks.

Antigovernment activists provided lists of 322 victims they said had been identified. Videos showed at least a dozen dead children. Hundreds more people are reported missing.

“How can we reach a point of national forgiveness?” said Ahmad Abu al-Khair, a well-known blogger from Bayda. He said that the attacks had begun there, and that 800 of about 6,000 residents were missing.

Multiple video images that residents said they had recorded in Bayda and Ras al-Nabeh — of small children lying where they died, some embracing one another or their parents — were so searing that even some government supporters rejected Syrian television’s official version of events, that the army had “crushed a number of terrorists.”

One prominent pro-government writer, Bassam al-Qadi, took the unusual, risky step of publicly blaming loyalist gunmen for the killings and accusing the government of “turning a blind eye to criminals and murderers in the name of ‘defending the homeland.’ “

Images of the killings in and around Baniyas have transfixed Syrians. In one video that residents say shows victims in Ras al-Nabeh, the bodies of at least seven children and several adults lie tangled and bloody on a rain-soaked street. A baby girl, naked from the waist down, stares skyward, tiny hands balled into fists. Her round face is unblemished, but her belly is darkened and her legs and feet are charred into black cinders.

Opposition leaders called the Baniyas killings sectarian “cleansing” aimed at pushing Sunnis out of territory that may form part of an Alawite rump state if Syria ultimately fractures. Mr. Houry said the killings inevitably raised such fears, though there was no evidence of such a broad policy. Tens of thousands of displaced Sunnis are staying in the province, largely safe.

Not all reactions followed sectarian lines. Survivors said Christian neighbors had helped survivors escape, and on Tuesday, Alawite and Christian residents of the province said they were starting an aid campaign for victims to “defy the sectarian wind.”

Mr. Qadi, the pro-government writer, labeled the killers “criminals who do not represent the Alawites” and called on the government to immediately “acknowledge what happened” and arrest “those hyenas.”

He added: “This has happened in a lot of places. Baniyas is only the most recent one.”

When the uprising began in March 2011 as a peaceful movement, Sunnis in Bayda raised banners denouncing Sunni extremists, seeking to reassure Alawites that they opposed Mr. Assad, not his sect, said Mr. Abu al-Khair, the blogger.

In May 2011, security forces stormed the village, killing demonstrators, including women.

After that, Bayda remained largely quiet. Most activists and would-be fighters left. But residents said they often helped defecting soldiers escape, a pattern they believe set off the violence.

Activists said that on May 2, around 4 a.m., security forces came to detain defectors, and were ambushed in a fight that killed several government fighters — the first known armed clash in Baniyas. The government called in reinforcements and, by 7 a.m., began shelling the village.

A pro-government television channel showed a reporter on a hill above Bayda. Smoke rose from green slopes and houses below, where, the reporter said, “terrorists” were hiding. A group of men the reporter described as government fighters walked unhurriedly through a square.

“God willing, Bayda will be finished today,” a uniformed man said on camera.

What happened next was described in Skype interviews with four survivors who for their safety gave only nicknames, an activist in Baniyas, and Mr. Abu al-Khair, who said he had spoken from Damascus with more than 30 witnesses.

Men in partial or full military dress went door to door, separating men — and boys 10 and older — from women and younger children.

Residents said some gunmen were from the National Defense Forces, the new framework for pro-government militias, mainly Alawites in the Baniyas area. They bludgeoned and shot men, shot or stabbed families to death and burned houses and bodies.

The activist in Baniyas, Abu Obada, said security forces had told people to gather in the square, and some Bayda villagers, fearing a massacre, attacked them with weapons abandoned by defectors. Other residents disputed that or were unsure because they had been hiding.

A cousin of Mr. Abu al-Khair’s, who gave her name as Warda al-Hurra, or the Free Rose, said her female relatives had described being herded to a bedroom with children, and heard male relatives crying out in pain nearby. At one point, her cousin Ahmed, 10, and brother Othman, 16, were brought in, injured and “limp as a towel,” she said.

Her aunt begged a guard to let them stay, but he said, “They’ll kill me if I make one single mistake.”

Soon another gunman shouted at him and took the boys away. They are still missing.

The gunmen brought more women, until there were 100 in the room. He ordered the guard to kill them. The guard said: “Don’t be rash! Take a breath.”

The man relented. The women heard gunmen celebrating in the square; later they were released. When they ventured out, there were “bodies on every corner,” Ms. Hurra said.

Another resident, Abu Abdullah, said he had fled his house and returned after dark to find stabbed, charred bodies of women and children dumped in the square, and 30 of his relatives dead.

Omar, of nearby Ras al-Nabeh, the man who had dragged dozens of bodies from the streets, said he had helped Bayda residents pick up bodies, placing 46 in two houses and the rest in a mosque, then had run away, fearing the return of the killers. He said he had recognized some bodies, including the village sheik, Omar al-Bayassi, whom some considered pro-government.

One video said to be from Bayda showed eight dead children on a bed. Two toddlers cuddled face to face; a baby rested on a dead woman’s shoulder.

On May 4, shelling and gunfire began to hit Ras al-Nabeh. Abu Yehya, a resident, hid in his house with his wife and two children, who stayed quiet: “Their instincts took over.” Two days later, he said, he emerged to find his neighbors, a family of 13, shot dead against a wall.

On May 6, security forces allowed in Red Crescent workers. Bodies were tossed and bulldozed into trucks and dumped in a mass grave, Mr. Abu al-Khair said.

Residents posted smiling pictures of children they said had been killed: Moaz al-Biassi, 1 year old, and his sister Afnan, 3. Three sisters, Halima, Sara, and Aisha. Curly-haired Noor, and Fatima, too little to have much hair but already sporting earrings.

Mr. Obada said residents on Tuesday were indignant when a government delegation offered compensation for damaged houses, saying, “What do you get if you rebuild the house and the whole family is dead?”

Displaced Sunnis who had sheltered there are fleeing, and some say Alawites are no longer welcome.

“It’s now impossible for them to stay in Syria,” Omar said.

Iran in parallel talks in Vienna, Istanbul over nuclear dispute – Alarabiya.net English | Front Page.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visits the Natanz nuclear site. Tehran has more than 10,000 centrifuges enriching uranium at its main plant at Natanz, to fuel grade at below 4 percent. (Reuters File Photo)

Ahead of next month’s elections in the Islamic republic, Iran held two sets of talks on Wednesday aimed at easing tensions over its nuclear program in Vienna and Istanbul.

The U.N. atomic agency, the IAEA, in Vienna pressed Iranian officials to grant access to sites, documents and scientists involved in Tehran’s alleged efforts to develop atomic weapons.

Separate but linked Wednesday evening talks in Istanbul will see EU foreign policy head Catherine Ashton meet Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili for the first time since fruitless six-party negotiations in Kazakhstan in April.

The International Atomic Energy Agency says that there is “overall, credible” evidence that until 2003, and possibly since, Iranian scientists conducted research into developing the bomb.

Iran says the IAEA’s findings are based on faulty intelligence from foreign spy agencies such as the U.S. CIA and Israel’s Mossad — intelligence it complains it has not even been allowed to see.

Nine rounds of talks since the publication of a major IAEA report in November 2011 have produced no breakthrough.

“As you know differences remain, but we are committed to dialogue and we are determined to solve these issues,” IAEA chief inspector Herman Nackaerts told reporters as he went into the talks at Iran’s embassy in the Austrian capital, according to AFP.

“We will be working hard today to resolve the differences.”

Parallel diplomatic efforts meanwhile between Iran and six major powers — the U.S., China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany — are focused more on Iran’s current activities, most notably uranium enrichment.

Enriched uranium is at the heart of the international community’s concerns since it can be used not only for peaceful purposes such as power generation but also — when highly purified — in a nuclear bomb.

The latest round with the “P5+1” in Almaty, Kazakhstan in early April ended with lead negotiator Ashton saying the two sides remained “far apart” despite the P5+1 having sweetened an earlier offer.

According to Reuters, the European Union’s top diplomat Catherine Ashton will meet Iran’s Jalili – also now a presidential candidate in Istanbul – to discuss a broader diplomatic effort bid to resolve a row that could ignite war in the Middle East.

Hezbollah to open ‘new front’ in Golan Heights | The Times of Israel.

Iran reportedly convinces Assad to let Lebanese group attack Israel from Syrian territory, calls on ‘all Arabs and Muslims’ to unite and join fight

Poster of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah from 2006 (photo credit: Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

The London-based Arabic-language newspaper al-Hayat reported Wednesday that Tehran has convinced Syria to allow Hezbollah to open a “new front” against Israel in the Golan Heights.

Tehran, seeking to prevent the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government, asked Damascus if Hezbollah could set up a new military front against Israel in the Golan.

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“All Arabs and Muslims” are requested to join the fight against Israel, Tehran said, according to Israel Radio.

The Palestinian newspaper al-Quds reported Wednesday that Tehran had persuaded Damascus “to open the door to jihad” in the Golan Heights in an effort enable Arab and Muslim fighters to unite and confront Israel, so that they’re “ready” if Israel strikes Syria again.

According to unnamed Israeli and American sources, Israeli planes struck sites outside Damascus twice during the first weekend in May, targeting weapons transfers from Iran to Hezbollah. The Syrian regime warned a few days later that it would retaliate immediately to future Israeli attacks on its soil.

The al-Quds website wrote that Iran also discussed the issue with other Arab leaders, namely Jordan’s King Abdullah, who expressed his own “concerns” about the surge of radical Islamist groups, such as the Jabhat al-Nusra, in Syria.

The Lebanese daily al-Akhbar suggested last week that Iran had “reached a final decision” to respond to Israel’s reported strike on Syria by “turning the Golan into a new Fatah-land. The front has become open to Syrians and Palestinians and anyone who wants to fight Israel.”

A message to that effect was conveyed to Assad by Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi on behalf of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, reported al-Akhbar.

Arabic media reports also suggested Syria had allowed Palestinians living there to attack Israel from the Golan Heights. However, Fatah spokesman Amad Assaf dismissed the claim by saying that Palestinians don’t take their orders from the Syrian president, according to al-Quds al-Arabi, another London-based paper.

Earlier this week, the Syrian government announced that it reserves the right to invade the Israeli-held Golan Heights at any time, and accused Jerusalem of violating the terms of the 1974 ceasefire that ended the Yom Kippur War.

During a speech in Damascus, Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi accused Israel of attacking sites near the Syrian capital, allowing rebel groups to operate in the demilitarized zone separating Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights, and letting those groups kidnap UN observers on multiple occasions.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow Tuesday in what was described as a bid to prevent Moscow from selling the cutting-edge missile defense system, the S-300, to Damascus. Jerusalem fears that the advanced weaponry could fall into the hands of Hezbollah, Syria’s key ally in neighboring Lebanon.

Elhanan Miller and Ilan Ben Zion contributed to this report.

US, Russian officials: Syria peace conference in June | The Times of Israel.

Kerry says ‘enormous plans are being laid’ for bid to negotiate political transition, warns Assad not to make more ‘gross miscalculations’

By Times of Israel staff and AP May 15, 2013, 9:27

US Secretary of State John Kerry (back to camera) speaks to Russian President Vladimir Putin during their meeting in the Kremlin in Moscow, Tuesday, May 7, 2013. (photo credit: AP)

Russia and the US are aiming to hold their joint peace conference, which would bring together Syrian President Bashar Assad and opposition members, to negotiate a peaceful political transition and bring about an end to the bloody Syrian conflict, in June, AFP reported early Wednesday.

US Secretary of State John Kerry warned Assad that “enormous plans are being laid” for the peace drive and warned him not to miss these opportunities. Kerry was speaking in Sweden where he met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of talks surrounding the Arctic region.

“If he decides not to come to the table, it would be another one of President [Bashar] Assad’s gross miscalculations,” Reuters quoted Kerry as telling reporters during the visit.

Kerry said that Lavrov “already given him the names of people who will negotiate.”

The US secretary of state also said the exact timing was up to the United Nations, but he expected the conference to be underway by early June.

It is not yet known where the conference will be held, with some anticipating that Geneva, where the first round of talks was held last year, could be the venue.

Washington and Moscow called last week for an international conference to bring representatives of the Syrian regime and opposition to the negotiating table with the aim of setting up a transitional government and a ceasefire. The US and Russia back opposing sides in Syria’s civil war, and the diplomatic push marks the countries’ first serious joint attempt to resolve the crisis in a year.

The Syrian government on Tuesday said it wanted more details before deciding whether to take part in the proposed US-Russian initiative, the country’s information minister said, staking out a similar position to the main opposition group.

Syria’s Information Minister Omran al-Zoubi said in an interview late Monday with Lebanon’s Al-Manar TV — excerpts of which were published Tuesday by the Syrian state news agency — that the government’s participation in the proposed talks “depends on knowing the details and developments.”

But Zoubi stressed that Damascus will not take part in any political dialogue that infringes on the country’s sovereignty, and stressed that the president, constitution and the form of political system are among the sovereign matters and will be only decided by the “Syrian people and ballot boxes.”

“Syria’s political decision is clear, which is to go toward a political solution and support positive international efforts while fighting terrorism at the same time,” he said.

The two-year-long Syrian civil war has claimed the lives of over 80,000 people, according to opposition estimates, and has been marked by sectarian fighting including gruesome massacres of women and children.