Saudi Still Backs Syria Talks Despite Iran Rift
The recent break in relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran will not affect the ongoing Syria peace process, a Saudi diplomat said Tuesday.
Speaking in Riyadh with U.N. special envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura, foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir was quoted by the official Saudi press agency: “The recent tensions that impacted the region negatively will not affect … the operations that the United Nations carries out alongside the international community to achieve a political solution in Geneva soon.”
Although the arch rivals support opposite sides in Syria’s civil war, both Riyadh and Tehran have attended previous talks aimed at ending the nearly five-year conflict. There is concern that the new rift between the two regional powers may wreck diplomatic efforts to bring peace to Syria, Reuters reports.
Saudi Arabia’s execution of a prominent Shiite cleric last weekend was met with huge demonstrations in Tehran, during which protesters stormed the Saudi embassy and set the building on fire. Shortly thereafter, Saudi Arabia and many other Sunni Muslim countries officially broke ties with Iran.
Jubeir said Riyadh continues to back a solution in Syria based on the Geneva I communiqué, a joint 2012 document that establishes guidelines toward peace including a transitional government.
Syria’s Declared Chemical Arsenal ‘100 Percent Destroyed’: Watchdog
After more than two years of work, Syria’s declared chemical weapons arsenal has been entirely destroyed, AFP reports.
Tuesday’s declaration by global arms watchdog the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) comes amid concerns that sarin gas is still being used in Syria’s civil war.
“One hundred percent has been destroyed,” OPCW spokesman Malik Ellahi said Tuesday.
The OPCW supervised the removal and destruction of Syria’s declared stockpile, but has for months been warning of the continued use of chlorine, mustard and sarin gas throughout the country, although it has avoided placing responsibility on the Syrian government, the rebels or the so-called Islamic State (ISIS).
President Bashar al-Assad’s government agreed in September 2013 to turn over its chemical weapons stockpile to the OPCW for destruction.
The move came after a deadly sarin gas attack in August that year on rebel-held areas of the capital during which hundreds of civilians were killed.
ISIS Has Lost One-Third of Its Territory, Coalition Says
ISIS has lost nearly one-third of the territory it once controlled in Syria and Iraq, the U.S.-led coalition announced Tuesday.
“In Iraq, it’s about 40 percent,” spokesman for the international coalition Steve Warren told reporters in Baghdad. “In Syria … we think it’s around 20 percent.”
“Taking together Iraq and Syria … they lost 30 percent of the territory they once held,” Warren said, according to AFP.
ISIS has been on the retreat in many areas since taking control of Palmyra and Ramadi in the spring of 2015.
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- Newsweek: ISIS Executes First Female Journalist in Syria
- VICE News: The Man Behind the Mask? When We Met Islamic State’s Suspected New Executioner
- The Washington Post: ‘Jihadi Junior,’ Young Boy in New Islamic State Video, Identified by Grandfather
Top image: A volunteer adjusts a student’s gas mask and protective suit during a session on reacting to a chemical weapons attack, in Aleppo, Syria on Wednesday, Sept. 18, 2013. (AP Photo via AP video)