quote:

ORIGINAL: Owner59
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/10/06/us-syria-crisis-experts-idUSBRE99508920131006
International experts began overseeing the destruction of Syria's chemical weapons arsenal on Sunday, said an official from the mission that has averted a U.S. strike but could rob President Bashar al-Assad of his most feared weapon.
The process is being conducted amid a civil war in which 120,000 people have been killed, fragmenting Syria along sectarian and ethnic lines and drawing in Iran and Hezbollah on the side of Assad and his Alawite minority and Arab Sunni powers on the side of the mostly Sunni Muslim rebels.
The official, a member of a joint team from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague and the United Nations, said Syrian forces used cutting torches and angle grinders to begin "destroying munitions such as missile warheads and aerial bombs and disabling mobile and static mixing and filling units".

quote:

ORIGINAL: Owner59

World leaders coming together to avert a tragedy, while at the same time saving us from having to put our service men and woman in harm`s way is a huge success.



A success for the UN and for us and our allies two.



Whining about putin`s involvement implies being ok with the WMDs being used.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Owner59
World leaders coming together to avert a tragedy, while at the same time saving us from having to put our service men and woman in harm`s way is a huge success.
A success for the UN and for us and our allies two.
Whining about putin`s involvement implies being ok with the WMDs being used.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Yachtie

FR -



Until a few weeks ago, Saudi Arabia was riding high. Its regional policies, based on countering revolutionary fervour and containing Iran, appeared to be bearing fruit. Egypt’s army ousted the Islamist president, to plaudits and generous funding from Riyadh; the Syrian opposition elected a new pro-Saudi leadership; and the US seemed poised to launch military strikes on the regime in Damascus that Saudi Arabia has tried to dislodge.

But Riyadh’s satisfaction turned to dismay as a US and Russian deal to destroy Syria’s chemical weapons removed the need for military strikes; leading rebel factions turned against the leadership of the Syrian National Coalition; and relations between the US and Iran appear to be warming as the new president, Hassan Rouhani, pledged to negotiate over Tehran’s nuclear programme.

s the challenges in Syria grow, there are fears in Riyadh that the war could drag on for more than a decade, draining Saudi coffers and destabilising the region. There are also concerns in Tehran that the proxy conflict between the two countries is getting out of control.

“Regional tensions will not ease if Iran and Saudi Arabia do not reach some kind of agreement over Syria and Iraq,” said one senior adviser to the Iranian government. “If such hostilities are not contained, Saudis will continue doing their best to sabotage any nuclear deal between Iran and the US.”