November 6, 2013

Updates On Syria: Date of Peace Conference Pushed Back, Turkey Ramps Up Border Control, Assad's Advisor Is Hopeful About A Political Settlement

An excerpt from, "Damascus blasts kill 8 as Syria peace talks languish" CBS News, November 6:
Meanwhile, the international effort to get both sides of the conflict to the negotiating table to find a political solution to the crisis hit yet another stumbling block Tuesday, as diplomats failed to agree on a date for a long-anticipated peace summit in Geneva.

The world powers strongly disagreed over what diplomatic steps to take to resolve the fighting and what any future Syrian leadership beyond President Assad's government should look like.
An excerpt from, "Turkey mostly mum on chemicals seized on Syria border" by Fehim Taştekin, Al-Monitor, November 5:
Turkey, which has adhered to an "open border" policy for the Syrian opposition forces since the eruption of the civil war in Syria, has finally started to take some visible measures along its border after accusations of being the “country that allows passage to al-Qaeda." One of those measures is the wall being erected at Nusaybin. This barrier, already labeled “the wall of shame," is actually targeting not al-Qaeda, but the Kurds who are fighting Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham. Another measure of note has been the increasing control of border crossings by the Turkish army.
An excerpt from, "Assad advisor: With political will, Syrian crisis over in 2 weeks" RT, November 5:
There’s a chance to end the Syrian crisis in two weeks if there’s political will on all sides, according to Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban, political and media advisor to the Syrian president.

“If the various parties have the political will to put an end to the Syrian suffering, to the Syrian crisis, they can do it within weeks. If they can only stop financing the arming [of Syrian rebels] and the smuggling of terrorists across the border from Turkey, 50 percent of the Syrian crisis would be over in two weeks’ time,” Dr. Shaaban said in an exclusive interview to RT. 

She said that the Syrian government was ready to take part in Geneva-2 peace talks without any preconditions. President Bashar Assad’s government is ready to sit down for peace talks with “people who represent the political opposition” of the Syrian population, but not the armed rebel groups, Dr. Shaaban said.