Chemical Weapons Inspectors Face “Unprecedented Danger, as 100 Specialists Work to Dismantle Syria’s Arsenal. The New York Times reports that “one hundred specialists drawn from the United Nations and the organization that polices the global ban on chemical weapons will be sent to Syria over the next eight months to help dismantle and destroy its roughly 1,000-ton arsenal, an extremely hazardous task that has never been tried and that could fail without Syria’s cooperation.”
In a report to the U.N. Security Council, Ban Ki-moon set out a blueprint for “the most dangerous disarmament operation ever staged,” AFP reports. He warned that experts will have to work in “dangerous and volatile” conditions. “Heavy artillery, air strikes, mortar barrages and the indiscriminate shelling of civilians areas are commonplace and battle lines shift quickly.”
Erdogan: Assad is a “Terrorist.” Turkey’s Hurriyet Daily News reports that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called his Syrian rival a “terrorist” who has killed thousands of his own citizens.
“I don’t regard Bashar al-Assad as a politician any more. He is a terrorist carrying out state terrorism. A person who killed 110,000 of his people is a terrorist. There’s state terrorism [in Syria], I’m speaking frankly,” he said. Erdogan and Assad were once allies and friends; they parted political ways after Syria’s revolution, since then Erdogan has led the charge to oust the Syrian President. Assad, in return, said last week that Turkey will pay for backing Syrian rebels. The two countries share a border more than 500 miles long, which has seen an occasional exchange of fire. Turkey says it’s now building a wall along part of its Syrian frontier.
Regime Air Strikes on Idlib, As Rebels Launch “Earthquake” Offensive. On Tuesday the Syrian government launched airstrikes against rebels in northwestern Idlib province, after they began an assault against two key military bases, AFP reports.
“War planes carried out two air strikes on areas in the town of Maaret al-Numan as clashes continued around the Wadi Deif military base between rebels and regime troops,” the report said, citing the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“The strikes came a day after rebel fighters launched a major assault against the two government bases in Syria’s Idlib province, which is largely controlled by the opposition. The offensive – dubbed ’The Earthquake’ – aims to seize the Wadi Deif and Hamidiyeh bases, which rebels have laid siege to for almost a year.”
Russia, U.S. ‘Reach ‘Common Understanding.’ Russia and the United States have reached a ‘common understanding’ on how to eliminate chemical weapons in Syria, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday, after meeting U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
The two leaders talked and then shook hands Tuesday at the APEC trade summit in Bali.
“We have a common understanding of what needs to be done and how. I am very glad that President Obama is occupying this position” on chemical arms,” Putin later told reporters, according to Reuters and NBC.
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