Turkey’s Davutoglu condemns Russia for strikes on Syria’s Idlib

The security council met after the latest round of talks by the International Syria Support Group, which had gathered in NY to renew its push for peace.

It was one of the strongest appeals for peace by the security council since Russian Federation and China began vetoing a series of western-drafted resolutions on the conflict in October 2011.

In his almost 7,000-word article, Hersh wrote that the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, then led by General Martin Dempsey, made a decision to deliberately subvert Obama’s foreign policy and form a secret alliance with Assad and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Pessimistically, as members of the opposition point out, Assad may find a way to hold onto power and thus don’t see it possible to sign onto a political process with the Syrian president still being part of it.

A transitional government is to be formed in six months, says Mr Kerry, who added that demands for Mr Assad’s immediate departure were “prolonging the war”.

Second, the resolution recognized Saudi Arabia’s steps in organizing the opposition for the expected January Vienna talks between the opposition and President Assad’s government.

“We intend and hope … that we will be able to do it in January”. He said the Russian military operation in Syria was a contribution to that fight.

There is still no agreement on a definitive list of terrorist groups now present in Syria.

For example, the draft resolution recognizes the UN’s role in monitoring and implementing the ceasefire between Damascus and the opposition, but avoids touching on how the United Nations should operate in areas where the opposition is blended with groups such as Ahrar al-Sham, which Moscow recognizes as a terrorist group and has targeted.

Mr Kerry said there were still sharp disagreements between the ISSG parties – some of which sponsor armed factions on the ground – as to which groups should be banned.

For the resolution to have any meaning, however, Russia and Iran must be willing to impose its terms on Mr. Assad and drop their campaign to destroy opposition groups backed by the West. Following Sunday’s events, we’ll go with the assessment of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who said of the new resolution: “I’m not too optimistic about what has been achieved”.

It said that the more “precise” the Russian strikes, the more “clamor” had been observed in foreign mass media sources.

“Terrorist groups have no place in this national dialogue”, he said.