"We Informed US of Chemical Weapons Transfer to Syria 9 Months Ago"

Sunday, September 01, 2013

Interview with Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif
By: Aseman Weekly

http://www.iranreview.org/file/cms/files/=_UTF-8_B_aGFtaWQgZm9yb290YW4tMjItOC5qcGc=_=%281%29.jpg

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the Islamic Republic had sent an official memo to the United States through the Swiss Embassy in Tehran (which serves as the US interests section in Iran) last December, in which Washington had been forewarned that “handmade articles of chemical weapons, including sarin gas, are being transferred into Syria.”

In an interview with Aseman (Sky) weekly in Tehran, Zarif added, “In the same note, we warned [Washington] that radical groups might be planning to use these chemical agents. During this period [of war in Syria] Takfiri groups have been encouraged to continue their fratricide and war the result of which has been human catastrophes some photos of which we have already seen in the media.” the Iranian foreign minister, however, stated that the Americans have given no answer to that letter.

As put by Zarif, “Now, after the supporters of radical groups saw that such groups have gained nothing inside Syria, they have joined hands to lay a trap for the entire region and the United States as well to wage a new war in cooperation with those groups whose interests are tied to the war.”

In another part of the interview, Zarif emphasized that due to encouragement from Iran and Russia, the Syrian government accepted to offer full cooperation with the United Nations inspectors who aimed to take samples from the sites where the alleged chemical attack had taken place.

The Iranian foreign minister continued by saying that just in the same way that “we encouraged Syria to fully cooperate with the United Nations, we think that Syria should also hand in all [available evidence] it has [to UN authorities], so that, it would become clear under what conditions the chemical weapons have been used.” In this way, Zarif added, the trap that has been laid for the government of Syria as well as for those who want to launch military strike against this country will be thwarted.

“Apart from a warmongering group and a political group which has made wrong choices in the past, nobody would benefit from military action [against Syria]. By the way, that political group which has made wrong choices, may just find a temporary breathing space [as a result of waging war against Syria] without getting its main problem solves [through such a war],” the Iranian foreign minister said.

Asked about the impact of direct contacts between Iran and the United States on efforts made to find a solution to Syria crisis, Zarif said, “The Islamic Republic of Iran has communicated its positions [on the situation in Syria] to the American officials through notes which have been sent through the Switzerland Embassy [in Tehran]. Unfortunately, there is one big problem with the American leaders. Instead of being [true] leaders [for their people] they are followers of specific political currents and certain interest groups.”

“We are trying to make the Americans understand that when a government takes its vote from its people to lead their country, it should not become a follower of specific groups,” the Iranian foreign minister emphasized.

As for the role of [the incumbent Syrian President] Bashar Assad in the evolution of the ongoing crisis in Syria, Zarif said, “We believe that the government in Syria has made grave mistakes and, unfortunately, [those mistakes] have paved the way for the situation in the country to be abused [by foreign powers]. However, let’s not forget that these conditions are actually being abused [for the wrong purpose]. The measures which have been taken by the opposition in Syria during the past two years, firstly, have not been taken by a democratic group seeking freedom, and secondly, have been taken by radical Takfiri groups that seek intensification of the conflict, violence and sectarianism. These groups form a minority, which unfortunately, has a loud voice.”

The Iranian foreign minister added, “We hope that logic and wisdom would finally prevail and prevent [a new] war [from being waged in the region]. The realities on the ground, however, show that the drums of war are being beaten. When the war drums are beaten there is usually no more room for logic and wisdom.”

The Iranian foreign minister continued by saying that the best practical initiative that Iran can take to prevent a war is “to show the pure realities of the region [to the American leaders].”

“Some people think that the Americans know everything. However, as we have already seen both in Afghanistan and in Iraq that the Americans happen to be unaware of many real conditions and easily fall into traps. Therefore, enlightenment is very important in this regard. The powerful countries are sometimes plagued so direly with their own delusions that they think they can solve all problems through mere reliance on brute force,” Zarif added.

Key Words: US, Chemical Weapons, Syria, Iran, Swiss Embassy, Sectarianism, Military Action, Zarif 

Source: Aseman Weekly
http://www.asemanweekly.com
Excerpted & Translated By:
Iran Review.Org

More By Mohammad Javad Zarif:

*“It’s US Turn to Show Political Resolve”: http://www.iranreview.org/content/Documents/-It-s-US-Turn-to-Show-Political-Resolve-.htm

*Photo Credit: ISNA (Iranian Student's News Agency)

 

Quelle :

http://www.iranreview.org/content/Documents/We-Informed-US-of-Chemical-Weapons-Transfer-to-Syria-9-Months-Ago.htm


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2)

http://www.infowars.com/rebels-admit-responsibility-for-chemical-weapons-attack/

Rebels Admit Responsibility for Chemical Weapons Attack 

Militants tell AP reporter they mishandled Saudi-supplied chemical weapons, causing accident

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
August 30, 2013

Syrian rebels in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta have admitted to Associated Press correspondent Dale Gavlak that they were responsible for last week’s chemical weapons incident which western powers have blamed on Bashar Al-Assad’s forces, revealing that the casualties were the result of an accident caused by rebels mishandling chemical weapons provided to them by Saudi Arabia.

http://static.prisonplanet.com/p/images/august2013/300813rebels.jpg

Image: YouTube

“From numerous interviews with doctors, Ghouta residents, rebel fighters and their families….many believe that certain rebels received chemical weapons via the Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, and were responsible for carrying out the (deadly) gas attack,” writes Gavlak. (back up version here).

Rebels told Gavlak that they were not properly trained on how to handle the chemical weapons or even told what they were. It appears as though the weapons were initially supposed to be given to the Al-Qaeda offshoot Jabhat al-Nusra.

“We were very curious about these arms. And unfortunately, some of the fighters handled the weapons improperly and set off the explosions,” one militant named ‘J’ told Gavlak.

His claims are echoed by another female fighter named ‘K’, who told Gavlak, “They didn’t tell us what these arms were or how to use them. We didn’t know they were chemical weapons. We never imagined they were chemical weapons.”

Abu Abdel-Moneim, the father of an opposition rebel, also told Gavlak, “My son came to me two weeks ago asking what I thought the weapons were that he had been asked to carry,” describing them as having a “tube-like structure” while others were like a “huge gas bottle.” The father names the Saudi militant who provided the weapons as Abu Ayesha.

According to Abdel-Moneim, the weapons exploded inside a tunnel, killing 12 rebels.

“More than a dozen rebels interviewed reported that their salaries came from the Saudi government,” writes Gavlak.

If accurate, this story could completely derail the United States’ rush to attack Syria which has been founded on the “undeniable” justification that Assad was behind the chemical weapons attack. Dale Gavlak’s credibility is very impressive. He has been a Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press for two decades and has also worked for National Public Radio (NPR) and written articles for BBC News.

The website on which the story originally appeared - Mint Press (which is currently down as a result of huge traffic it is attracting to the article) is a legitimate media organization based in Minnesota. The Minnesota Post did a profile on them last year.

Saudi Arabia’s alleged role in providing rebels, whom they have vehemently backed at every turn, with chemical weapons, is no surprise given the revelations earlier this week that the Saudis threatened Russia with terror attacks at next year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi unless they abandoned support for the Syrian President.

“I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us,” Prince Bandar allegedly told Vladimir Putin, the Telegraph reports.

The Obama administration is set to present its intelligence findings today in an effort prove that Assad’s forces were behind last week’s attack, despite American officials admitting to the New York Times that there is no “smoking gun” that directly links President Assad to the attack.

US intelligence officials also told the Associated Press that the intelligence proving Assad’s culpability is “no slam dunk.”

As we reported earlier this week, intercepted intelligence revealed that the Syrian Defense Ministry was making “panicked” phone calls to Syria’s chemical weapons department demanding answers in the hours after the attack, suggesting that it was not ordered by Assad’s forces.

UPDATE: Associated Press contacted us to confirm that Dave Gavlak is an AP correspondent, but that her story was not published under the banner of the Associated Press. We didn’t claim this was the case, we merely pointed to Gavlak’s credentials to stress that she is a credible source, being not only an AP correspondent, but also having written for PBS, BBC and Salon.com.

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*********************

Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a host for Infowars Nightly News.

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3)

http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2013_08_30/Syrian-rebels-take-responsibility-for-the-chemical-attack-admitting-the-weapons-were-provided-by-Saudis-1203/

 

'Syrian rebels take responsibility for the chemical attack admitting the weapons were provided by Saudis' - source

24.07.2012 Сирия повстанцы мятежник оппозиция война оружие боевик

Photo: EPA

In an interview with Dale Gavlak, a Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press and Mint Press News, Syrian rebels tacitly implied that they were responsible for last week’s chemical attack. Some information could not immediately be independently verified.

“From numerous interviews with doctors, Ghouta residents, rebel fighters and their families….many believe that certain rebels received chemical weapons via the Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, and were responsible for carrying out the (deadly) gas attack,” he writes in the article.

The rebels noted it was a result of an accident caused by rebels mishandling chemical weapons provided to them.

“My son came to me two weeks ago asking what I thought the weapons were that he had been asked to carry,” said Abu Abdel-Moneim, the father of a rebel fighting to unseat Assad, who lives in Ghouta.

As Gavlak reports, Abdel-Moneim said his son and 12 other rebels died in a weapons storage tunnel. The father stated the weapons were provided to rebel forces by a Saudi militant, known as Abu Ayesha, describing them as having a “tube-like structure” while others were like a “huge gas bottle.”

“They didn’t tell us what these arms were or how to use them,” complained a female fighter named ‘K’. “We didn’t know they were chemical weapons. We never imagined they were chemical weapons.”

“When Saudi Prince Bandar gives such weapons to people, he must give them to those who know how to handle and use them,” she warned. She, like other Syrians, do not want to use their full names for fear of retribution.

Gavlak also refers to an article in the UK’s Daily Telegraph about secret Russian-Saudi talks stating that Prince Bandar threatened Russian President Vladimir Putin with terror attacks at next year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi if Russia doesn’t agree to change its stance on Syria.

“Prince Bandar pledged to safeguard Russia’s naval base in Syria if the Assad regime is toppled, but he also hinted at Chechen terrorist attacks on Russia’s Winter Olympics in Sochi if there is no accord,” the article stated.

“I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us,” Saudi Prince allegedly told Vladimir Putin.

Mint Press News stated that some of the information couldn’t be independently verified and pledged to continue providing updates on this topic.

Voice of Russia might be more credible than US government – Internet users

Recent publication by the Voice of Russia 'Syrian rebels take responsibility for the chemical attack admitting the weapons were provided by Saudis' received a strong outcry among the Internet users as some of them claiming that the company’s reports are more credible than allegations against Syrian government made by US authorities.

‘It's more credible than the US saying we have real evidence of Assad using them [chemical weapons]. Assad doesn't get weapons from Saudi Arabia. They don't have ties. The US will use any reason it can to go to war. Even if it means creating one’, writesDylanJamesCo on Reddit.

Meanwhile, not everyone shares such this point of view.

KoreyYrvaI writes that ‘The Voice of Russia wants us to believe that the Rebels totally were responsible for the chemical attack, and it was an accident… because Russia has been impartial throughout all of this and I don't think America(or anyone) needs another war, but this is hardly credible’.

But one thing unites the users: they believe the US government wants and needs another war in the Middle East.

‘America is just getting better at proxy wars. They have firm ties with the Saudis, and they would have no problem destabilizing Syria if it meant the US could eventually target Iran and its oil reserve’, writes NineteenEightyTwo.

Voice of Russia, Mint Press News


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4)


http://www.mintpressnews.com/witnesses-of-gas-attack-say-saudis-supplied-rebels-with-chemical-weapons/168135/

EXCLUSIVE: Syrians In Ghouta Claim Saudi-Supplied Rebels Behind Chemical Attack

Rebels and local residents in Ghouta accuse Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan of providing chemical weapons to an al-Qaida linked rebel group.

By Dale Gavlak and Yahya Ababneh | August 29, 2013

This image provided by by Shaam News Network on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2013, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, purports to show several bodies being buried in a suburb of Damascus, Syria during a funeral on Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2013. Syrian government forces pressed their offensive in eastern Damascus on Thursday, bombing rebel-held suburbs where the opposition said the regime had killed more than 100 people the day before in a chemical weapons attack. The government has denied allegations it used chemical weapons in artillery barrages on the area known as eastern Ghouta on Wednesday as "absolutely baseless." (AP Photo/Shaam News Network)

This image provided by by Shaam News Network on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2013, purports to show several bodies being buried in a suburb of Damascus, Syria during a funeral on Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2013, following allegations of a chemical weapons attack that reportedly killed 355 people. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network)

Clarification: Dale Gavlak assisted in the research and writing process of this article, but was not on the ground in Syria. Reporter Yahya Ababneh, with whom the report was written in collaboration, was the correspondent on the ground in Ghouta who spoke directly with the rebels, their family members, victims of the chemical weapons attacks and local residents. 

Gavlak is a MintPress News Middle East correspondent who has been freelancing for the AP as a Amman, Jordan correspondent for nearly a decade. This report is not an Associated Press article; rather it is exclusive to MintPress News. 

Ghouta, Syria — As the machinery for a U.S.-led military intervention in Syria gathers pace following last week’s chemical weapons attack, the U.S. and its allies may be targeting the wrong culprit.

Interviews with people in Damascus and Ghouta, a suburb of the Syrian capital, where the humanitarian agency Doctors Without Borders said at least 355 people had died last week from what it believed to be a neurotoxic agent, appear to indicate as much.

The U.S., Britain, and France as well as the Arab League have accused the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for carrying out the chemical weapons attack, which mainly targeted civilians. U.S. warships are stationed in the Mediterranean Sea to launch military strikes against Syria in punishment for carrying out a massive chemical weapons attack. The U.S. and others are not interested in examining any contrary evidence, with U.S Secretary of State John Kerry saying Monday that Assad’s guilt was “a judgment … already clear to the world.”

However, from numerous interviews with doctors, Ghouta residents, rebel fighters and their families, a different picture emerges. Many believe that certain rebels received chemical weapons via the Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, and were responsible for carrying out the dealing gas attack.

“My son came to me two weeks ago asking what I thought the weapons were that he had been asked to carry,” said Abu Abdel-Moneim, the father of a rebel fighting to unseat Assad, who lives in Ghouta.

Abdel-Moneim said his son and 12 other rebels were killed inside of a tunnel used to store weapons provided by a Saudi militant, known as Abu Ayesha, who was leading a fighting battalion. The father described the weapons as having a “tube-like structure” while others were like a “huge gas bottle.”

Ghouta townspeople said the rebels were using mosques and private houses to sleep while storing their weapons in tunnels.

Abdel-Moneim said his son and the others died during the chemical weapons attack. That same day, the militant group Jabhat al-Nusra, which is linked to al-Qaida, announced that it would similarly attack civilians in the Assad regime’s heartland of Latakia on Syria’s western coast, in purported retaliation.

“They didn’t tell us what these arms were or how to use them,” complained a female fighter named ‘K.’ “We didn’t know they were chemical weapons. We never imagined they were chemical weapons.”

“When Saudi Prince Bandar gives such weapons to people, he must give them to those who know how to handle and use them,” she warned. She, like other Syrians, do not want to use their full names for fear of retribution.

A well-known rebel leader in Ghouta named ‘J’ agreed. “Jabhat al-Nusra militants do not cooperate with other rebels, except with fighting on the ground. They do not share secret information. They merely used some ordinary rebels to carry and operate this material,” he said.

“We were very curious about these arms. And unfortunately, some of the fighters handled the weapons improperly and set off the explosions,” ‘J’ said.

Doctors who treated the chemical weapons attack victims cautioned interviewers to be careful about asking questions regarding who, exactly, was responsible for the deadly assault.

The humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders added that health workers aiding 3,600 patients also reported experiencing similar symptoms, including frothing at the mouth, respiratory distress, convulsions and blurry vision. The group has not been able to independently verify the information.

More than a dozen rebels interviewed reported that their salaries came from the Saudi government.

 

Saudi involvement

In a recent article for Business Insider, reporter Geoffrey Ingersoll highlighted Saudi Prince Bandar’s role in the two-and-a-half year Syrian civil war. Many observers believe Bandar, with his close ties to Washington, has been at the very heart of the push for war by the U.S. against Assad.

Ingersoll referred to an article in the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph about secret Russian-Saudi talks alleging that Bandar offered Russian President Vladimir Putin cheap oil in exchange for dumping Assad.

“Prince Bandar pledged to safeguard Russia’s naval base in Syria if the Assad regime is toppled, but he also hinted at Chechen terrorist attacks on Russia’s Winter Olympics in Sochi if there is no accord,” Ingersoll wrote.

“I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us,” Bandar allegedly told the Russians.

“Along with Saudi officials, the U.S. allegedly gave the Saudi intelligence chief the thumbs up to conduct these talks with Russia, which comes as no surprise,” Ingersoll wrote.

“Bandar is American-educated, both military and collegiate, served as a highly influential Saudi Ambassador to the U.S., and the CIA totally loves this guy,” he added.

According to U.K.’s Independent newspaper, it was Prince Bandar’s intelligence agency that first brought allegations of the use of sarin gas by the regime to the attention of Western allies in February.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the CIA realized Saudi Arabia was “serious” about toppling Assad when the Saudi king named Prince Bandar to lead the effort.

“They believed that Prince Bandar, a veteran of the diplomatic intrigues of Washington and the Arab world, could deliver what the CIA couldn’t: planeloads of money and arms, and, as one U.S. diplomat put it, wasta, Arabic for under-the-table clout,” it said.

Bandar has been advancing Saudi Arabia’s top foreign policy goal, WSJ reported, of defeating Assad and his Iranian and Hezbollah allies.

To that aim, Bandar worked Washington to back a program to arm and train rebels out of a planned military base in Jordan.

The newspaper reports that he met with the “uneasy Jordanians about such a base”:

His meetings in Amman with Jordan’s King Abdullah sometimes ran to eight hours in a single sitting. “The king would joke: ‘Oh, Bandar’s coming again? Let’s clear two days for the meeting,’ ” said a person familiar with the meetings.

Jordan’s financial dependence on Saudi Arabia may have given the Saudis strong leverage. An operations center in Jordan started going online in the summer of 2012, including an airstrip and warehouses for arms. Saudi-procured AK-47s and ammunition arrived, WSJ reported, citing Arab officials.

Although Saudi Arabia has officially maintained that it supported more moderate rebels, the newspaper reported that “funds and arms were being funneled to radicals on the side, simply to counter the influence of rival Islamists backed by Qatar.”

But rebels interviewed said Prince Bandar is referred to as “al-Habib” or ‘the lover’ by al-Qaida militants fighting in Syria.

Peter Oborne, writing in the Daily Telegraph on Thursday, has issued a word of caution about Washington’s rush to punish the Assad regime with so-called ‘limited’ strikes not meant to overthrow the Syrian leader but diminish his capacity to use chemical weapons:

Consider this: the only beneficiaries from the atrocity were the rebels, previously losing the war, who now have Britain and America ready to intervene on their side. While there seems to be little doubt that chemical weapons were used, there is doubt about who deployed them.

It is important to remember that Assad has been accused of using poison gas against civilians before. But on that occasion, Carla del Ponte, a U.N. commissioner on Syria, concluded that the rebels, not Assad, were probably responsible.

Some information in this article could not be independently verified. Mint Press News will continue to provide further information and updates . 

Dale Gavlak is a Middle East correspondent for Mint Press News and has reported from Amman, Jordan, writing for the Associated Press, NPR and BBC. An expert in Middle Eastern affairs, Gavlak covers the Levant region, writing on topics including politics, social issues and economic trends. Dale holds a M.A. in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Chicago. Contact Dale at dgavlak@mintpressnews.com

Yahya Ababneh is a Jordanian freelance journalist and is currently working on a master’s degree in journalism,  He has covered events in Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Libya. His stories have appeared on Amman Net, Saraya News, Gerasa News and elsewhere.

==================================

5)


http://www.iranreview.org/content/Documents/Chemical-Catastrophe-in-Damascus.htm

Chemical Catastrophe in Damascus

Sunday, September 01, 2013

Seyyed Mohammad Sadeq Kharrazi
Former Iranian Ambassador to France and the United Nations

The Middle East region is currently contaminated with blood and violence, horror and hatred. The true nature as well as the reasons behind the ongoing developments should be considered within framework of covert and overt realities of the region.

On the one hand, the government of Turkey, which has become weak and is stalled by the strategic mistakes that it has made during the past two years, has lost many regional and global opportunities. As a result, along with radical Arab regimes in the region, Ankara has unconsciously become the big loser of the regional conflicts. On the other hand, the government of Qatar is seriously involved in regional developments with Sheikh Tamim (bin Hamad Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar) has made the same mistakes of the past.

The radical Arab groups such as Al-Qaeda, Al-Nusra Front and other Salafi militia forces that are under the command of the Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, have also chosen a dangerous path.

In Egypt, the legitimate, but debilitated government of Mohamed Morsi has been toppled. Following his overthrow, political forces that were under the command of the radical tribal prince of Saudi Arabia, managed to reorganize militarily. As a result, the new militia forces had a new opportunity to enter Syria through the country’s common border with Jordan. This is why the ongoing massacre and crimes on the southern suburbs of [the Syrian capital] Damascus is directly related to developments that are currently under way in the region. [The Syrian President] Bashar Assad has denied any role of his government in the latest chemical attack [near the capital Damascus]. His forces were making relative headways in [clashes with militants in the suburbs] of Aleppo while Al-Nusra Front was busy reorganizing its military forces in and around Latakia when reports of this ominous chemical attack broke out to divert the world public opinion in another direction.

The mass murder of the Syrian people by forces that are supported by the Saudi Bandar bin Sultan and other security establishments of the region, has created a sudden bloody atmosphere within the international community. As a result of that atmosphere, a huge global propaganda campaign has been launched against the government of Syria. Meanwhile, the US State Department along with the United States National Security Council and the White House are apparently falling prey to the apparent influence of Bandar.

It seems that a special ground had been already laid in the United States and Europe in order to create global consensus ahead of a military strike against Syria. [Senator John] McCain and certain other radical American politicians are holding up war rhetoric against Syria at a time that [US President] Barack Obama, in his usual patient mood, is talking about the need for more scrutiny of the incident while drawing attention to the crisis in Egypt and possible crossing of the red line by the Syrian government.

While showing high regard for human sentiments, he has been hesitant about what interests the United States may seek to be met by entering a new war with conspicuous prospects. The evil and inhuman move of launching a chemical attack is, in fact, a staged plot which has been hatched by illegitimate powers in the region. The militia under the command of Bandar bin Sultan is actually trying to fan the flames of crisis in Syria and Egypt in a bid to curb Iran's influence at the current juncture. Therefore, for them, preventing further increase in Iran's regional clout is the foremost priority.

This is why [former US Secretary of State Henry] Kissinger has been quoted as saying that the crisis in Syria will continue until 2014 elections.

Analysts have asserted that a recent visit to Moscow by Bandar bin Sultan and failure of his secret negotiations with [the Russian President Vladimir] Putin, has been related to the chemical attack in Damascus. They also allege that during the meeting, Bandar has told Putin that new developments are in the offing across the Middle East. It was immediately after his return from Moscow that the deplorable chemical attack occurred in Syria.

There are three suspicious elements with respect to the chemical attack in Syria which should be taken into consideration here:

1. At the beginning of the past week, Prime Minister of Jordan Abdullah Ensour talked about receiving technical aid from the United States by Jordan due to concerns about possible breakout of chemical conflicts in the region. It took only 48 hour after that revelation that the photos of the Syrian chemical attack victims were published by news services worldwide.

2. The new militia force, whose members included up to 25,000 voluntary militants, entered Syria secretly under the cover that had been provided to them by Saudi Arabia’s intelligence and secret services led by Bandar bin Sultan.

3. The chemical attack on the suburbs of Damascus took place only a few days after the failure of secret talks between Bandar and Putin in Moscow and Bandar’s threat that a catastrophic incident was expected in the region.

[Following the attack, the French President Francois] Hollande and [his Russian counterpart] President Putin expressed concern about the use of chemical weapons in Syria, but emphasized the need to forgo a military option on Syria. In this way, Hollande stepped back from the position he had taken two days earlier when he announced that France will go to war with Syria.

According to a new plan, which has been formulated by Israel and Bandar bin Sultan in cahoots with the Western intelligence and military bodies, they seek to kindle the flames of a proxy war in the region in a bid to control the regional clout of Iran and Shias.

Therefore, Al-Qaeda as well as Al-Nusra Front and other radical Sunni groups have been seriously present in Syria developments. In Egypt, certain tribal forces waged a proxy war [against the legitimate government] in cooperation with the [Egyptian armed forces that launched] the coup d’état. The new plan drawn up by Bandar and the secret service of Saudi Arabia aims to create a so-called “Sunni Hezbollah” as counterbalance to the Lebanese Hezbollah movement. The main goal of a meeting that Bandar held with Samir Geagea [a senior figure in the March 14 Alliance], Walid Jumblatt [the current leader of the Progressive Socialist Party], and Saad Hariri [a former Lebanese prime minister] was to form military resistance forces against the Lebanese Hezbollah.

All told, the Achilles’ heel of the Middle East crisis has been already clearly seen in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. The government of Turkey has also lost its influence on regional developments and even developments inside Turkey as a result of the strategic mistakes that it has already made. Therefore, in addition to international sanctions, the containment of Iran [by the anti-Iran front] is sought through introducing a new security structure for the region.

In the meantime, the Islamic Republic of Iran's foreign policy officials should remain vigilant and know that at the core of the ongoing crises in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, is a joint conspiracy by Saudi Arabia and Israel whose main goal is to contain Iran in the region.

Key Words: Chemical Catastrophe, Damascus, Syria, Turkey, Iran, Russia, Al-Qaeda, Bandar bin Sultan, Al-Nusra Front, Egypt, Lebanon, Kharrazi

Source: Ettelaat Newspaper
http://www.ettelaat.com
Translated By:
Iran Review.Org

More By Seyyed Mohammad Sadeq Kharrazi:

*Gaza Crisis: Goals and Consequences: http://www.iranreview.org/content/Documents/Gaza-Crisis-Goals-and-Consequences.htm

*Iran Should Revise its Middle East Policy: http://www.iranreview.org/content/Documents/Iran_Should_Revise_its_Middle_East_Policy.htm

*Baghdad Talks: Lessons for All: http://www.iranreview.org/content/Documents/Baghdad_Talks_Lessons_for_All.htm

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6)



http://www.payvand.com/news/13/aug/1269.html

08/31/13

 

 

 

Iran's Guards Commander warns of regional consequences of US attack on Syria

Source: Press TV

Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari has warned against the regional consequences of a US military attack on Syria. "The US opinion about its ability to limit a military intervention to Syria is nothing more than an illusion. The reactions will go beyond Syrian borders," Jafari said on Saturday.

http://news.payvand.netdna-cdn.com/news/13/aug/IRGC-Chief-Major-General-Mohammad-Ali-Jafari.jpg
 

Commander of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari

Jafari added that Washington's failure to create a coalition to wage a new war in the Middle East region has led the US to seek a military intervention limited to Syria.

The Iranian commander advised Washington to learn from its experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Just as US meddling in the Muslim world has led to the spread of extremism, violence and terrorism, attacking Syria will intensify the spread of extremism," Jafari added.

On August 21, the militants operating inside Syria accused the government of launching a chemical attack on the militants' stronghold, which claimed 1,300 lives in the Damascus suburbs of Ain Tarma, Zamalka and Jobar.

A number of Western countries, including the US, France, and the UK, were quick to adopt the rhetoric of war against Syria despite the fact that Damascus has categorically rejected the claim as baseless, announcing later the chemical attack had actually been carried out by militants themselves as a false flag operation.

The UN said earlier that an analysis over the use of chemical weapons in Syria would take time after the inspectors collected samples from the site of the attack.

Any US attack on Syria to engulf entire Middle East: Rafsanjani

Chairman of Iran's Expediency Council Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani says a potential US strike on Syria will not be limited to the Arab country and would engulf the entire region.

http://news.payvand.netdna-cdn.com/news/13/aug/Hassan-Rohani-with-Hashemi-Rafsanjani.jpg
 

Hashemi Rafsanjani (R) with President Hassan Rohani at the Expediency Council session

Rafsanjani on Saturday expressed concern about mounting tensions in Muslim countries, saying the height of these tensions were in Syria.

"It seems that the main objective of US adventurism in the region is not limited to Syria and engulfs the entire region."

"...a US attack and aggression will probably not be confined to Syria and the outbreak of war in this country and in fact their dangerous warmongering game could engulf the entire region," he said.

Rafsanjani warned the US and its allies against attacking Syria and said they might start the war of their own will but the end of this war would be out of their control.

He also underlined the strategic significance of Syria in the region and said Damascus was the stronghold of resistance against the Zionist regime.

The rhetoric of war against Syria primarily intensified after foreign-backed opposition forces accused the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of launching a chemical attack on militant strongholds in the suburbs of Damascus on August 21.

However, Damascus has categorically rejected the claim, and announced that the chemical attack had actually been carried out by the militants themselves as a black operation.

US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Friday that Washington is still seeking an "international coalition" for a potential attack on Syria.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for a diplomatic solution to the crisis in Syria that started in 2011.

On Wednesday, the British government, the closest US ally, had announced that its support for military intervention in Syria would require a second vote in the country's parliament. A first non-binding vote in the British legislature on August 29 rejected British presence in a potential war on Syria.

On Friday, NATO also distanced itself from participating in any military intervention in Syria, with the chief of the Western military coalition, Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, saying he did not "foresee any NATO role" in an international war on Syria.

Syria has been gripped by deadly unrest since 2011.

Related Articles:

 

http://www.iranreview.org/content/Documents/We-Informed-US-of-Chemical-Weapons-Transfer-to-Syria-9-Months-Ago.htm

"We Informed US of Chemical Weapons Transfer to Syria 9 Months Ago"

Sunday, September 01, 2013

Interview with Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif
By: Aseman Weekly

http://www.iranreview.org/file/cms/files/=_UTF-8_B_aGFtaWQgZm9yb290YW4tMjItOC5qcGc=_=%281%29.jpg

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif says the Islamic Republic had sent an official memo to the United States through the Swiss Embassy in Tehran (which serves as the US interests section in Iran) last December, in which Washington had been forewarned that “handmade articles of chemical weapons, including sarin gas, are being transferred into Syria.”

In an interview with Aseman (Sky) weekly in Tehran, Zarif added, “In the same note, we warned [Washington] that radical groups might be planning to use these chemical agents. During this period [of war in Syria] Takfiri groups have been encouraged to continue their fratricide and war the result of which has been human catastrophes some photos of which we have already seen in the media.” the Iranian foreign minister, however, stated that the Americans have given no answer to that letter.

As put by Zarif, “Now, after the supporters of radical groups saw that such groups have gained nothing inside Syria, they have joined hands to lay a trap for the entire region and the United States as well to wage a new war in cooperation with those groups whose interests are tied to the war.”

In another part of the interview, Zarif emphasized that due to encouragement from Iran and Russia, the Syrian government accepted to offer full cooperation with the United Nations inspectors who aimed to take samples from the sites where the alleged chemical attack had taken place.

The Iranian foreign minister continued by saying that just in the same way that “we encouraged Syria to fully cooperate with the United Nations, we think that Syria should also hand in all [available evidence] it has [to UN authorities], so that, it would become clear under what conditions the chemical weapons have been used.” In this way, Zarif added, the trap that has been laid for the government of Syria as well as for those who want to launch military strike against this country will be thwarted.

“Apart from a warmongering group and a political group which has made wrong choices in the past, nobody would benefit from military action [against Syria]. By the way, that political group which has made wrong choices, may just find a temporary breathing space [as a result of waging war against Syria] without getting its main problem solves [through such a war],” the Iranian foreign minister said.

Asked about the impact of direct contacts between Iran and the United States on efforts made to find a solution to Syria crisis, Zarif said, “The Islamic Republic of Iran has communicated its positions [on the situation in Syria] to the American officials through notes which have been sent through the Switzerland Embassy [in Tehran]. Unfortunately, there is one big problem with the American leaders. Instead of being [true] leaders [for their people] they are followers of specific political currents and certain interest groups.”

“We are trying to make the Americans understand that when a government takes its vote from its people to lead their country, it should not become a follower of specific groups,” the Iranian foreign minister emphasized.

As for the role of [the incumbent Syrian President] Bashar Assad in the evolution of the ongoing crisis in Syria, Zarif said, “We believe that the government in Syria has made grave mistakes and, unfortunately, [those mistakes] have paved the way for the situation in the country to be abused [by foreign powers]. However, let’s not forget that these conditions are actually being abused [for the wrong purpose]. The measures which have been taken by the opposition in Syria during the past two years, firstly, have not been taken by a democratic group seeking freedom, and secondly, have been taken by radical Takfiri groups that seek intensification of the conflict, violence and sectarianism. These groups form a minority, which unfortunately, has a loud voice.”

The Iranian foreign minister added, “We hope that logic and wisdom would finally prevail and prevent [a new] war [from being waged in the region]. The realities on the ground, however, show that the drums of war are being beaten. When the war drums are beaten there is usually no more room for logic and wisdom.”

The Iranian foreign minister continued by saying that the best practical initiative that Iran can take to prevent a war is “to show the pure realities of the region [to the American leaders].”

“Some people think that the Americans know everything. However, as we have already seen both in Afghanistan and in Iraq that the Americans happen to be unaware of many real conditions and easily fall into traps. Therefore, enlightenment is very important in this regard. The powerful countries are sometimes plagued so direly with their own delusions that they think they can solve all problems through mere reliance on brute force,” Zarif added.

Key Words: US, Chemical Weapons, Syria, Iran, Swiss Embassy, Sectarianism, Military Action, Zarif 

Source: Aseman Weekly
http://www.asemanweekly.com
Excerpted & Translated By:
Iran Review.Org

More By Mohammad Javad Zarif:

*“It’s US Turn to Show Political Resolve”: http://www.iranreview.org/content/Documents/-It-s-US-Turn-to-Show-Political-Resolve-.htm

*Photo Credit: ISNA (Iranian Student's News Agency)


=======================

2)

http://www.infowars.com/rebels-admit-responsibility-for-chemical-weapons-attack/

Rebels Admit Responsibility for Chemical Weapons Attack 

Militants tell AP reporter they mishandled Saudi-supplied chemical weapons, causing accident

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
August 30, 2013

Syrian rebels in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta have admitted to Associated Press correspondent Dale Gavlak that they were responsible for last week’s chemical weapons incident which western powers have blamed on Bashar Al-Assad’s forces, revealing that the casualties were the result of an accident caused by rebels mishandling chemical weapons provided to them by Saudi Arabia.

http://static.prisonplanet.com/p/images/august2013/300813rebels.jpg

Image: YouTube

“From numerous interviews with doctors, Ghouta residents, rebel fighters and their families….many believe that certain rebels received chemical weapons via the Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, and were responsible for carrying out the (deadly) gas attack,” writes Gavlak. (back up version here).

Rebels told Gavlak that they were not properly trained on how to handle the chemical weapons or even told what they were. It appears as though the weapons were initially supposed to be given to the Al-Qaeda offshoot Jabhat al-Nusra.

“We were very curious about these arms. And unfortunately, some of the fighters handled the weapons improperly and set off the explosions,” one militant named ‘J’ told Gavlak.

His claims are echoed by another female fighter named ‘K’, who told Gavlak, “They didn’t tell us what these arms were or how to use them. We didn’t know they were chemical weapons. We never imagined they were chemical weapons.”

Abu Abdel-Moneim, the father of an opposition rebel, also told Gavlak, “My son came to me two weeks ago asking what I thought the weapons were that he had been asked to carry,” describing them as having a “tube-like structure” while others were like a “huge gas bottle.” The father names the Saudi militant who provided the weapons as Abu Ayesha.

According to Abdel-Moneim, the weapons exploded inside a tunnel, killing 12 rebels.

“More than a dozen rebels interviewed reported that their salaries came from the Saudi government,” writes Gavlak.

If accurate, this story could completely derail the United States’ rush to attack Syria which has been founded on the “undeniable” justification that Assad was behind the chemical weapons attack. Dale Gavlak’s credibility is very impressive. He has been a Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press for two decades and has also worked for National Public Radio (NPR) and written articles for BBC News.

The website on which the story originally appeared - Mint Press (which is currently down as a result of huge traffic it is attracting to the article) is a legitimate media organization based in Minnesota. The Minnesota Post did a profile on them last year.

Saudi Arabia’s alleged role in providing rebels, whom they have vehemently backed at every turn, with chemical weapons, is no surprise given the revelations earlier this week that the Saudis threatened Russia with terror attacks at next year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi unless they abandoned support for the Syrian President.

“I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us,” Prince Bandar allegedly told Vladimir Putin, the Telegraph reports.

The Obama administration is set to present its intelligence findings today in an effort prove that Assad’s forces were behind last week’s attack, despite American officials admitting to the New York Times that there is no “smoking gun” that directly links President Assad to the attack.

US intelligence officials also told the Associated Press that the intelligence proving Assad’s culpability is “no slam dunk.”

As we reported earlier this week, intercepted intelligence revealed that the Syrian Defense Ministry was making “panicked” phone calls to Syria’s chemical weapons department demanding answers in the hours after the attack, suggesting that it was not ordered by Assad’s forces.

UPDATE: Associated Press contacted us to confirm that Dave Gavlak is an AP correspondent, but that her story was not published under the banner of the Associated Press. We didn’t claim this was the case, we merely pointed to Gavlak’s credentials to stress that she is a credible source, being not only an AP correspondent, but also having written for PBS, BBC and Salon.com.

Facebook @ https://www.facebook.com/paul.j.watson.71
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https://twitter.com/PrisonPlanet

*********************

Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a host for Infowars Nightly News.

================================================================

3)

http://voiceofrussia.com/news/2013_08_30/Syrian-rebels-take-responsibility-for-the-chemical-attack-admitting-the-weapons-were-provided-by-Saudis-1203/

'Syrian rebels take responsibility for the chemical attack admitting the weapons were provided by Saudis' - source

24.07.2012 Сирия повстанцы мятежник оппозиция война оружие боевик

Photo: EPA

In an interview with Dale Gavlak, a Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press and Mint Press News, Syrian rebels tacitly implied that they were responsible for last week’s chemical attack. Some information could not immediately be independently verified.

“From numerous interviews with doctors, Ghouta residents, rebel fighters and their families….many believe that certain rebels received chemical weapons via the Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, and were responsible for carrying out the (deadly) gas attack,” he writes in the article.

The rebels noted it was a result of an accident caused by rebels mishandling chemical weapons provided to them.

“My son came to me two weeks ago asking what I thought the weapons were that he had been asked to carry,” said Abu Abdel-Moneim, the father of a rebel fighting to unseat Assad, who lives in Ghouta.

As Gavlak reports, Abdel-Moneim said his son and 12 other rebels died in a weapons storage tunnel. The father stated the weapons were provided to rebel forces by a Saudi militant, known as Abu Ayesha, describing them as having a “tube-like structure” while others were like a “huge gas bottle.”

“They didn’t tell us what these arms were or how to use them,” complained a female fighter named ‘K’. “We didn’t know they were chemical weapons. We never imagined they were chemical weapons.”

“When Saudi Prince Bandar gives such weapons to people, he must give them to those who know how to handle and use them,” she warned. She, like other Syrians, do not want to use their full names for fear of retribution.

Gavlak also refers to an article in the UK’s Daily Telegraph about secret Russian-Saudi talks stating that Prince Bandar threatened Russian President Vladimir Putin with terror attacks at next year’s Winter Olympics in Sochi if Russia doesn’t agree to change its stance on Syria.

“Prince Bandar pledged to safeguard Russia’s naval base in Syria if the Assad regime is toppled, but he also hinted at Chechen terrorist attacks on Russia’s Winter Olympics in Sochi if there is no accord,” the article stated.

“I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us,” Saudi Prince allegedly told Vladimir Putin.

Mint Press News stated that some of the information couldn’t be independently verified and pledged to continue providing updates on this topic.

Voice of Russia might be more credible than US government – Internet users

Recent publication by the Voice of Russia 'Syrian rebels take responsibility for the chemical attack admitting the weapons were provided by Saudis' received a strong outcry among the Internet users as some of them claiming that the company’s reports are more credible than allegations against Syrian government made by US authorities.

‘It's more credible than the US saying we have real evidence of Assad using them [chemical weapons]. Assad doesn't get weapons from Saudi Arabia. They don't have ties. The US will use any reason it can to go to war. Even if it means creating one’, writesDylanJamesCo on Reddit.

Meanwhile, not everyone shares such this point of view.

KoreyYrvaI writes that ‘The Voice of Russia wants us to believe that the Rebels totally were responsible for the chemical attack, and it was an accident… because Russia has been impartial throughout all of this and I don't think America(or anyone) needs another war, but this is hardly credible’.

But one thing unites the users: they believe the US government wants and needs another war in the Middle East.

‘America is just getting better at proxy wars. They have firm ties with the Saudis, and they would have no problem destabilizing Syria if it meant the US could eventually target Iran and its oil reserve’, writes NineteenEightyTwo.

Voice of Russia, Mint Press News


================================================================

4)


http://www.mintpressnews.com/witnesses-of-gas-attack-say-saudis-supplied-rebels-with-chemical-weapons/168135/

EXCLUSIVE: Syrians In Ghouta Claim Saudi-Supplied Rebels Behind Chemical Attack

Rebels and local residents in Ghouta accuse Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan of providing chemical weapons to an al-Qaida linked rebel group.

By Dale Gavlak and Yahya Ababneh | August 29, 2013

This image provided by by Shaam News Network on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2013, which has been authenticated based on its contents and other AP reporting, purports to show several bodies being buried in a suburb of Damascus, Syria during a funeral on Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2013. Syrian government forces pressed their offensive in eastern Damascus on Thursday, bombing rebel-held suburbs where the opposition said the regime had killed more than 100 people the day before in a chemical weapons attack. The government has denied allegations it used chemical weapons in artillery barrages on the area known as eastern Ghouta on Wednesday as "absolutely baseless." (AP Photo/Shaam News Network)

This image provided by by Shaam News Network on Thursday, Aug. 22, 2013, purports to show several bodies being buried in a suburb of Damascus, Syria during a funeral on Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2013, following allegations of a chemical weapons attack that reportedly killed 355 people. (AP Photo/Shaam News Network)

Clarification: Dale Gavlak assisted in the research and writing process of this article, but was not on the ground in Syria. Reporter Yahya Ababneh, with whom the report was written in collaboration, was the correspondent on the ground in Ghouta who spoke directly with the rebels, their family members, victims of the chemical weapons attacks and local residents. 

Gavlak is a MintPress News Middle East correspondent who has been freelancing for the AP as a Amman, Jordan correspondent for nearly a decade. This report is not an Associated Press article; rather it is exclusive to MintPress News. 

Ghouta, Syria — As the machinery for a U.S.-led military intervention in Syria gathers pace following last week’s chemical weapons attack, the U.S. and its allies may be targeting the wrong culprit.

Interviews with people in Damascus and Ghouta, a suburb of the Syrian capital, where the humanitarian agency Doctors Without Borders said at least 355 people had died last week from what it believed to be a neurotoxic agent, appear to indicate as much.

The U.S., Britain, and France as well as the Arab League have accused the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for carrying out the chemical weapons attack, which mainly targeted civilians. U.S. warships are stationed in the Mediterranean Sea to launch military strikes against Syria in punishment for carrying out a massive chemical weapons attack. The U.S. and others are not interested in examining any contrary evidence, with U.S Secretary of State John Kerry saying Monday that Assad’s guilt was “a judgment … already clear to the world.”

However, from numerous interviews with doctors, Ghouta residents, rebel fighters and their families, a different picture emerges. Many believe that certain rebels received chemical weapons via the Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, and were responsible for carrying out the dealing gas attack.

“My son came to me two weeks ago asking what I thought the weapons were that he had been asked to carry,” said Abu Abdel-Moneim, the father of a rebel fighting to unseat Assad, who lives in Ghouta.

Abdel-Moneim said his son and 12 other rebels were killed inside of a tunnel used to store weapons provided by a Saudi militant, known as Abu Ayesha, who was leading a fighting battalion. The father described the weapons as having a “tube-like structure” while others were like a “huge gas bottle.”

Ghouta townspeople said the rebels were using mosques and private houses to sleep while storing their weapons in tunnels.

Abdel-Moneim said his son and the others died during the chemical weapons attack. That same day, the militant group Jabhat al-Nusra, which is linked to al-Qaida, announced that it would similarly attack civilians in the Assad regime’s heartland of Latakia on Syria’s western coast, in purported retaliation.

“They didn’t tell us what these arms were or how to use them,” complained a female fighter named ‘K.’ “We didn’t know they were chemical weapons. We never imagined they were chemical weapons.”

“When Saudi Prince Bandar gives such weapons to people, he must give them to those who know how to handle and use them,” she warned. She, like other Syrians, do not want to use their full names for fear of retribution.

A well-known rebel leader in Ghouta named ‘J’ agreed. “Jabhat al-Nusra militants do not cooperate with other rebels, except with fighting on the ground. They do not share secret information. They merely used some ordinary rebels to carry and operate this material,” he said.

“We were very curious about these arms. And unfortunately, some of the fighters handled the weapons improperly and set off the explosions,” ‘J’ said.

Doctors who treated the chemical weapons attack victims cautioned interviewers to be careful about asking questions regarding who, exactly, was responsible for the deadly assault.

The humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders added that health workers aiding 3,600 patients also reported experiencing similar symptoms, including frothing at the mouth, respiratory distress, convulsions and blurry vision. The group has not been able to independently verify the information.

More than a dozen rebels interviewed reported that their salaries came from the Saudi government.

 

Saudi involvement

In a recent article for Business Insider, reporter Geoffrey Ingersoll highlighted Saudi Prince Bandar’s role in the two-and-a-half year Syrian civil war. Many observers believe Bandar, with his close ties to Washington, has been at the very heart of the push for war by the U.S. against Assad.

Ingersoll referred to an article in the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph about secret Russian-Saudi talks alleging that Bandar offered Russian President Vladimir Putin cheap oil in exchange for dumping Assad.

“Prince Bandar pledged to safeguard Russia’s naval base in Syria if the Assad regime is toppled, but he also hinted at Chechen terrorist attacks on Russia’s Winter Olympics in Sochi if there is no accord,” Ingersoll wrote.

“I can give you a guarantee to protect the Winter Olympics next year. The Chechen groups that threaten the security of the games are controlled by us,” Bandar allegedly told the Russians.

“Along with Saudi officials, the U.S. allegedly gave the Saudi intelligence chief the thumbs up to conduct these talks with Russia, which comes as no surprise,” Ingersoll wrote.

“Bandar is American-educated, both military and collegiate, served as a highly influential Saudi Ambassador to the U.S., and the CIA totally loves this guy,” he added.

According to U.K.’s Independent newspaper, it was Prince Bandar’s intelligence agency that first brought allegations of the use of sarin gas by the regime to the attention of Western allies in February.

The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the CIA realized Saudi Arabia was “serious” about toppling Assad when the Saudi king named Prince Bandar to lead the effort.

“They believed that Prince Bandar, a veteran of the diplomatic intrigues of Washington and the Arab world, could deliver what the CIA couldn’t: planeloads of money and arms, and, as one U.S. diplomat put it, wasta, Arabic for under-the-table clout,” it said.

Bandar has been advancing Saudi Arabia’s top foreign policy goal, WSJ reported, of defeating Assad and his Iranian and Hezbollah allies.

To that aim, Bandar worked Washington to back a program to arm and train rebels out of a planned military base in Jordan.

The newspaper reports that he met with the “uneasy Jordanians about such a base”:

His meetings in Amman with Jordan’s King Abdullah sometimes ran to eight hours in a single sitting. “The king would joke: ‘Oh, Bandar’s coming again? Let’s clear two days for the meeting,’ ” said a person familiar with the meetings.

Jordan’s financial dependence on Saudi Arabia may have given the Saudis strong leverage. An operations center in Jordan started going online in the summer of 2012, including an airstrip and warehouses for arms. Saudi-procured AK-47s and ammunition arrived, WSJ reported, citing Arab officials.

Although Saudi Arabia has officially maintained that it supported more moderate rebels, the newspaper reported that “funds and arms were being funneled to radicals on the side, simply to counter the influence of rival Islamists backed by Qatar.”

But rebels interviewed said Prince Bandar is referred to as “al-Habib” or ‘the lover’ by al-Qaida militants fighting in Syria.

Peter Oborne, writing in the Daily Telegraph on Thursday, has issued a word of caution about Washington’s rush to punish the Assad regime with so-called ‘limited’ strikes not meant to overthrow the Syrian leader but diminish his capacity to use chemical weapons:

Consider this: the only beneficiaries from the atrocity were the rebels, previously losing the war, who now have Britain and America ready to intervene on their side. While there seems to be little doubt that chemical weapons were used, there is doubt about who deployed them.

It is important to remember that Assad has been accused of using poison gas against civilians before. But on that occasion, Carla del Ponte, a U.N. commissioner on Syria, concluded that the rebels, not Assad, were probably responsible.

Some information in this article could not be independently verified. Mint Press News will continue to provide further information and updates . 

Dale Gavlak is a Middle East correspondent for Mint Press News and has reported from Amman, Jordan, writing for the Associated Press, NPR and BBC. An expert in Middle Eastern affairs, Gavlak covers the Levant region, writing on topics including politics, social issues and economic trends. Dale holds a M.A. in Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Chicago. Contact Dale at dgavlak@mintpressnews.com

Yahya Ababneh is a Jordanian freelance journalist and is currently working on a master’s degree in journalism,  He has covered events in Jordan, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Libya. His stories have appeared on Amman Net, Saraya News, Gerasa News and elsewhere.

==================================

5)


http://www.iranreview.org/content/Documents/Chemical-Catastrophe-in-Damascus.htm

 

Chemical Catastrophe in Damascus

Sunday, September 01, 2013

Seyyed Mohammad Sadeq Kharrazi
Former Iranian Ambassador to France and the United Nations

The Middle East region is currently contaminated with blood and violence, horror and hatred. The true nature as well as the reasons behind the ongoing developments should be considered within framework of covert and overt realities of the region.

On the one hand, the government of Turkey, which has become weak and is stalled by the strategic mistakes that it has made during the past two years, has lost many regional and global opportunities. As a result, along with radical Arab regimes in the region, Ankara has unconsciously become the big loser of the regional conflicts. On the other hand, the government of Qatar is seriously involved in regional developments with Sheikh Tamim (bin Hamad Al Thani, the Emir of Qatar) has made the same mistakes of the past.

The radical Arab groups such as Al-Qaeda, Al-Nusra Front and other Salafi militia forces that are under the command of the Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan, have also chosen a dangerous path.

In Egypt, the legitimate, but debilitated government of Mohamed Morsi has been toppled. Following his overthrow, political forces that were under the command of the radical tribal prince of Saudi Arabia, managed to reorganize militarily. As a result, the new militia forces had a new opportunity to enter Syria through the country’s common border with Jordan. This is why the ongoing massacre and crimes on the southern suburbs of [the Syrian capital] Damascus is directly related to developments that are currently under way in the region. [The Syrian President] Bashar Assad has denied any role of his government in the latest chemical attack [near the capital Damascus]. His forces were making relative headways in [clashes with militants in the suburbs] of Aleppo while Al-Nusra Front was busy reorganizing its military forces in and around Latakia when reports of this ominous chemical attack broke out to divert the world public opinion in another direction.

The mass murder of the Syrian people by forces that are supported by the Saudi Bandar bin Sultan and other security establishments of the region, has created a sudden bloody atmosphere within the international community. As a result of that atmosphere, a huge global propaganda campaign has been launched against the government of Syria. Meanwhile, the US State Department along with the United States National Security Council and the White House are apparently falling prey to the apparent influence of Bandar.

It seems that a special ground had been already laid in the United States and Europe in order to create global consensus ahead of a military strike against Syria. [Senator John] McCain and certain other radical American politicians are holding up war rhetoric against Syria at a time that [US President] Barack Obama, in his usual patient mood, is talking about the need for more scrutiny of the incident while drawing attention to the crisis in Egypt and possible crossing of the red line by the Syrian government.

While showing high regard for human sentiments, he has been hesitant about what interests the United States may seek to be met by entering a new war with conspicuous prospects. The evil and inhuman move of launching a chemical attack is, in fact, a staged plot which has been hatched by illegitimate powers in the region. The militia under the command of Bandar bin Sultan is actually trying to fan the flames of crisis in Syria and Egypt in a bid to curb Iran's influence at the current juncture. Therefore, for them, preventing further increase in Iran's regional clout is the foremost priority.

This is why [former US Secretary of State Henry] Kissinger has been quoted as saying that the crisis in Syria will continue until 2014 elections.

Analysts have asserted that a recent visit to Moscow by Bandar bin Sultan and failure of his secret negotiations with [the Russian President Vladimir] Putin, has been related to the chemical attack in Damascus. They also allege that during the meeting, Bandar has told Putin that new developments are in the offing across the Middle East. It was immediately after his return from Moscow that the deplorable chemical attack occurred in Syria.

There are three suspicious elements with respect to the chemical attack in Syria which should be taken into consideration here:

1. At the beginning of the past week, Prime Minister of Jordan Abdullah Ensour talked about receiving technical aid from the United States by Jordan due to concerns about possible breakout of chemical conflicts in the region. It took only 48 hour after that revelation that the photos of the Syrian chemical attack victims were published by news services worldwide.

2. The new militia force, whose members included up to 25,000 voluntary militants, entered Syria secretly under the cover that had been provided to them by Saudi Arabia’s intelligence and secret services led by Bandar bin Sultan.

3. The chemical attack on the suburbs of Damascus took place only a few days after the failure of secret talks between Bandar and Putin in Moscow and Bandar’s threat that a catastrophic incident was expected in the region.

[Following the attack, the French President Francois] Hollande and [his Russian counterpart] President Putin expressed concern about the use of chemical weapons in Syria, but emphasized the need to forgo a military option on Syria. In this way, Hollande stepped back from the position he had taken two days earlier when he announced that France will go to war with Syria.

According to a new plan, which has been formulated by Israel and Bandar bin Sultan in cahoots with the Western intelligence and military bodies, they seek to kindle the flames of a proxy war in the region in a bid to control the regional clout of Iran and Shias.

Therefore, Al-Qaeda as well as Al-Nusra Front and other radical Sunni groups have been seriously present in Syria developments. In Egypt, certain tribal forces waged a proxy war [against the legitimate government] in cooperation with the [Egyptian armed forces that launched] the coup d’état. The new plan drawn up by Bandar and the secret service of Saudi Arabia aims to create a so-called “Sunni Hezbollah” as counterbalance to the Lebanese Hezbollah movement. The main goal of a meeting that Bandar held with Samir Geagea [a senior figure in the March 14 Alliance], Walid Jumblatt [the current leader of the Progressive Socialist Party], and Saad Hariri [a former Lebanese prime minister] was to form military resistance forces against the Lebanese Hezbollah.

All told, the Achilles’ heel of the Middle East crisis has been already clearly seen in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. The government of Turkey has also lost its influence on regional developments and even developments inside Turkey as a result of the strategic mistakes that it has already made. Therefore, in addition to international sanctions, the containment of Iran [by the anti-Iran front] is sought through introducing a new security structure for the region.

In the meantime, the Islamic Republic of Iran's foreign policy officials should remain vigilant and know that at the core of the ongoing crises in Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Iraq, is a joint conspiracy by Saudi Arabia and Israel whose main goal is to contain Iran in the region.

Key Words: Chemical Catastrophe, Damascus, Syria, Turkey, Iran, Russia, Al-Qaeda, Bandar bin Sultan, Al-Nusra Front, Egypt, Lebanon, Kharrazi

Source: Ettelaat Newspaper
http://www.ettelaat.com
Translated By:
Iran Review.Org

More By Seyyed Mohammad Sadeq Kharrazi:

*Gaza Crisis: Goals and Consequences: http://www.iranreview.org/content/Documents/Gaza-Crisis-Goals-and-Consequences.htm

*Iran Should Revise its Middle East Policy: http://www.iranreview.org/content/Documents/Iran_Should_Revise_its_Middle_East_Policy.htm

*Baghdad Talks: Lessons for All: http://www.iranreview.org/content/Documents/Baghdad_Talks_Lessons_for_All.htm

========================

6)



http://www.payvand.com/news/13/aug/1269.html

08/31/13

 

Bookmark and Share

 

Iran's Guards Commander warns of regional consequences of US attack on Syria

Source: Press TV

Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari has warned against the regional consequences of a US military attack on Syria. "The US opinion about its ability to limit a military intervention to Syria is nothing more than an illusion. The reactions will go beyond Syrian borders," Jafari said on Saturday.

http://news.payvand.netdna-cdn.com/news/13/aug/IRGC-Chief-Major-General-Mohammad-Ali-Jafari.jpg
Commander of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari

Jafari added that Washington's failure to create a coalition to wage a new war in the Middle East region has led the US to seek a military intervention limited to Syria.

The Iranian commander advised Washington to learn from its experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Just as US meddling in the Muslim world has led to the spread of extremism, violence and terrorism, attacking Syria will intensify the spread of extremism," Jafari added.

On August 21, the militants operating inside Syria accused the government of launching a chemical attack on the militants' stronghold, which claimed 1,300 lives in the Damascus suburbs of Ain Tarma, Zamalka and Jobar.

A number of Western countries, including the US, France, and the UK, were quick to adopt the rhetoric of war against Syria despite the fact that Damascus has categorically rejected the claim as baseless, announcing later the chemical attack had actually been carried out by militants themselves as a false flag operation.

The UN said earlier that an analysis over the use of chemical weapons in Syria would take time after the inspectors collected samples from the site of the attack.

Any US attack on Syria to engulf entire Middle East: Rafsanjani

Chairman of Iran's Expediency Council Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani says a potential US strike on Syria will not be limited to the Arab country and would engulf the entire region.

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Hashemi Rafsanjani (R) with President Hassan Rohani at the Expediency Council session

Rafsanjani on Saturday expressed concern about mounting tensions in Muslim countries, saying the height of these tensions were in Syria.

"It seems that the main objective of US adventurism in the region is not limited to Syria and engulfs the entire region."

"...a US attack and aggression will probably not be confined to Syria and the outbreak of war in this country and in fact their dangerous warmongering game could engulf the entire region," he said.

Rafsanjani warned the US and its allies against attacking Syria and said they might start the war of their own will but the end of this war would be out of their control.

He also underlined the strategic significance of Syria in the region and said Damascus was the stronghold of resistance against the Zionist regime.

The rhetoric of war against Syria primarily intensified after foreign-backed opposition forces accused the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of launching a chemical attack on militant strongholds in the suburbs of Damascus on August 21.

However, Damascus has categorically rejected the claim, and announced that the chemical attack had actually been carried out by the militants themselves as a black operation.

US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Friday that Washington is still seeking an "international coalition" for a potential attack on Syria.

Meanwhile, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has called for a diplomatic solution to the crisis in Syria that started in 2011.

On Wednesday, the British government, the closest US ally, had announced that its support for military intervention in Syria would require a second vote in the country's parliament. A first non-binding vote in the British legislature on August 29 rejected British presence in a potential war on Syria.

On Friday, NATO also distanced itself from participating in any military intervention in Syria, with the chief of the Western military coalition, Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, saying he did not "foresee any NATO role" in an international war on Syria.

Syria has been gripped by deadly unrest since 2011.

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Quelle :

http://www.iranreview.org/content/Documents/We-Informed-US-of-Chemical-Weapons-Transfer-to-Syria-9-Months-Ago.htm