RT: Saudi black op team behind Damascus chem weapons attack – diplomatic sources Archives

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has suggested that he and his Greek counterpart, Antonis Samaras, should meet for a spot of tea on both sides of Cyprus to find a solution to the divided island’s longstanding problems.

“If Mr. Greek Prime Minister [Samaras] is ready, we can first go to the southern [Greek] side of the island, drink tea together and have a chat. Then we can go to the northern side and again spend time together,” he said during his official visit to Turkish Cyprus after being elected, as visiting Cyprus as a first foreign destination is a tradition for presidents and Turkish prime ministers.

“The Mediterranean Sea has been the common sea for many civilizations,” Davutoğlu said in a joint press meeting with Turkish Cypriot President Derviş Eroğlu, calling on Samaras to jointly build peace there.

Turkey wanted to sit together with northern Cyprus, southern Cyprus and Greece to discuss how to develop peace in the region but this was not well-received, he said.

The latest talks started on Feb. 11 with a joint declaration by Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders, as hydrocarbon discoveries seem like a game-changer that could bring the parties closer to a solution. Still, security, property rights, and power-sharing are still on the table.

Davutoğlu also urged Greek Cypriot President Nikos Anastasiadis to take action for peace as fast as possible. “I am calling on Mr. Anastasiadis,” he said. “Let’s make peace right now, not tomorrow but today, not next week but this week, not next year but this year. All delayed solutions are deepening the deadlock.”

Turkish Cyprus has reached democratic maturity in its 40-year struggle and 30-year experience as a state, Davutoğlu said.

An ongoing fresh water project is one indicator of Turkey’s support for northern Cyprus, he also said.
The Turkish Cypriot leader was scheduled to meet Anastasiadis for the first time since July 7. Davutoğlu noted that “his precious friend,” former Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide, would accompany them as a United Nations representative. “Thus, there lies an opportunity to make a nice start,” he said.

Eide, the new United Nations envoy for Cyprus, said earlier this month that he would unveil new ideas on nudging forward faltering talks aimed at reunifying the ethnically divided island.

Barth said talks had not gone as expected when the island’s rival leaders agreed on a joint declaration in February that inaugurated a fresh round of negotiations.

He said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon wanted to see talks make headway so that the decades-old dispute could finally be resolved.

Before Davutoğlu, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also visited the island after being elected on Aug. 10, pledging solidarity.

September/16/2014

The August chemical weapons attack in the Syrian capital’s suburbs was done by a Saudi Arabian black operations team, Russian diplomatic sources have told a Russian news agency.

“Based on data from a number of sources a picture can be pieced together. The criminal provocation in Eastern Ghouta was done by a black op team that the Saudi’s sent through Jordan and which acted with support of the Liwa Al-Islam group,” a source in the diplomatic circles told Interfax.

The attack and its consequences had a huge impact on the Syrian situation, another source said.

“Syrians of various political views, including some opposition fighters, are seeking to inform diplomats and members of international organizations working in Syria what they know about the crime and the forces which inspired it,” he told the agency.

Liwa Al-Islam is an Islamist armed group operating near Damascus headed by the son of a Saudi-based Salafi cleric. The group claimed responsibility for the bombing of a secret governmental meeting in Damascus in July 2012 that killed a number of top Syrian officials, including Defense Minister Dawoud Rajiha, his deputy Asef Shawkat, and Assistant Vice President Hassan Turkmani.

The allegations mirror a number of earlier reports, which pointed to Saudi Arabia as the mastermind behind the sarin gas attack, which almost led to US military action against Syrian government. Proponents of this scenario say intelligence services in Riyadh needed a false flag operation to provoke an American attack in Syria, which would tip the balance in favor of the armed opposition supported by Saudi Arabia.

While the majority of Western countries say they are certain that the Syrian government carries the blame for the attack, Damascus maintains that the rebel forces must be behind it. Russia shares this conviction too, calling the incident a provocation.

Back in March US President Barack Obama said the use of chemical weapons would be a ‘red line’ for the Syrian government, crossing which would prompt America’s intervention into the bloody Syrian conflict. After the August attack, which the US believes has claimed some 1,400 lives, the president was called on his words by many supporters of the Syrian opposition both at home and outside of the US.

The plan for military action was put on pause after a Russia-brokered deal with Damascus, which agreed to join the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) and destroy its stockpile of chemical weapons. Experts from OPCW are currently in Syria preparing for the disarmament.