Talks Over Syria Are Set to Begin, Without Iran

The New York Times reports on Iran’s invitation (and subsequent shutout) to this week’s peace talks in Montreux.

“The possible presence of the Iranians infuriated Syrian opposition leaders, who said they would not attend the conference. But after a day of intensive consultations in which American officials made clear their unhappiness with Mr. Ban’s move, Iran was disinvited, and diplomats affirmed the conference will begin in Switzerland on Wednesday,” it says.

“The 24-hour controversy, while a diversion from the main issues about Syria’s future that will be on the table there, seemed a fitting prelude for what even the most optimistic American diplomats say will be prolonged, grinding and uncertain negotiations in which the combatants in the Syrian civil war are scheduled to meet face to face for the first time.

“’I don’t think that anyone who’s dealt with Syrian officials has any false expectations of rapid progress,’ a senior official at the State Department said on Monday, in one of the day’s more optimistic assessments. ‘This is the beginning of a process. It is not going to be fast.’”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Syrian peace talks are hypocritical if they do not include Iran.

Syria’s Assad Accused of Boosting al-Qaida with Secret Oil Deals

Ruth Sherlock and Richard Spencer of the Telegraph say that “Jabhat al-Nusra, and the even more extreme Islamic State of Iraq and al-Shams (ISIS), the two al-Qaida affiliates operating in Syria, have both been financed by selling oil and gas from wells under their control to and through the regime.”

Intelligence officials tell the paper that “the regime began collaborating actively with these groups again in the spring of 2013. When Jabhat al-Nusra seized control of Syria’s most lucrative oil fields in the eastern province of Deir al-Zour, it began funding its operations in Syria by selling crude oil, with sums raised in the millions of dollars.

“’The regime is paying al-Nusra to protect oil and gas pipelines under al-Nusra’s control in the north and east of the country, and is also allowing the transport of oil to regime-held areas,’ the source said. ‘We are also now starting to see evidence of oil and gas facilities under ISIS control.’

“The source accepted that the regime and the al-Qaida affiliates were still hostile to each other and the relationship was opportunistic, but added that the deals confirmed that ‘despite Assad’s finger-pointing’ his regime was to blame for the rise of al-Qaida in Syria.”

New Report Cites Allegations of Torture, Starvation and Executions

The BBC says that a new report from war crimes experts, commissioned by Qatar (a major financier of the Syrian opposition), has produced proof of torture and starvation by the Assad regime.

The report “is based on the evidence of a defected military police photographer, referred to only as Caesar, who along with others reportedly smuggled about 55,000 digital images of some 11,000 dead detainees out of Syria. He told investigators his job had been to take photographs of corpses, both to allow a death certificate to be produced and to confirm that execution orders had been carried out.

“All but one of the bodies shown were male. Investigators say most of the bodies were emaciated; many had been beaten or strangled … some showed signs of electrocution. One of the authors of the report, Prof Sir Geoffrey Nice, told the BBC’s ‘Newsday’ program that the scale and consistency of the killings provided strong evidence of government involvement that could support a criminal prosecution.”

Suggested Reads from Our Editorial Team:

AFP: Al-Nusra Front in Lebanon Claims Beirut Bombing

Buzzfeed: The Speech That Changed Syria

Reuters: Lawyers See War Crimes Charges for Syrian Officials

NY Times: HRW Assails Inaction in Syria

Time: What ISIS Really Wants

NPR: Framework of Syria Peace Talks Divides Interested Parties

AP: Russia: Rescinding Invitation to Iran Was a Mistake