Tornado Alley (PROG)

[StephanieVanbryce]

Iran’s Foreign Minister Visits Syria for Talks With Assad

Ben Hubbard | AUG. 12, 2015

This is so exciting! I pray that some good will come of all these meetings that are taking place between US and Iran and Saudi and Hezbollah! ...Talking is the only way to make this slaughter stop.. KILLING SURE hasn't helped.

ANTAKYA, Turkey — The foreign minister of Iran arrived in Damascus, Syria, on Wednesday to discuss the civil war in Syria with President Bashar al-Assad, while rebel shelling and government airstrikes killed more than 30 people nearby.

The visit by the Iranian minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, came amid intensified diplomacy among Russia, the United States and several Middle Eastern powers seeking to end the conflict, which has raged for more than four years.

The flurry of meetings has raised hopes in some circles that international players are willing to seek a compromise — propelled, perhaps, by the brutality and intractability of the conflict, which has killed more than a quarter-million people, displaced millions more and allowed the extremists of the Islamic State to take root and thrive.

In Damascus, Mr. Zarif spoke to Mr. Assad about an Iranian plan to end the conflict. Iran has proposed an immediate cease-fire, the formation of a national unity government, protections for Syrian minorities and internationally supervised elections.

“It is time for the other players and our neighbors to take note of reality, listen to the demands of the Syrian people and work for combating extremism and terrorism,” Mr. Zarif said, according to Syrian state television.

Rebel forces appeared to time their shelling of parts of Damascus, the capital, to coincide with Mr. Zarif’s arrival, signaling the rebels’ anger at Iran for its staunch support of Mr. Assad.

Various insurgent groups, including Islamic extremists, control substantial areas of Syria, including a number of suburbs of the capital. The shelling on Wednesday came from the suburbs and killed five people, according to state television and antigovernment activists.

The government responded with intensive airstrikes that left 31 people dead, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the conflict from London through a network of contacts in Syria.

There is no unified political leadership or military command among the insurgent groups, which often clash with one another as well as with the government. So it could be difficult to get them all to stop fighting, even if a diplomatic agreement is reached to halt the conflict.

Before going to Damascus, Mr. Zarif met in Lebanon with Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, the Shiite militant group. Hezbollah supports Mr. Assad and has sent thousands of fighters to Syria to assist his forces.

Early Wednesday, a 48-hour humanitarian cease-fire between Hezbollah fighters and rebel and militant groups started in Zabadani, a Syrian town near the border with Lebanon, and in two villages in Idlib Province in northern Syria, The Associated Press reported, citing Syrian activists and Hezbollah’s television station.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/13/world/middleeast/irans-foreign-minister-visits-syria-for-talks-with-assad.html?ref=middleeast

Then on the Eleventh! __New Diplomacy Seen on U.S.-Russian Efforts to End Syrian Civil War

By ANNE BARNARDAUG. 11, 2015


The Saudi foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir, met with the Russian foreign minister, V. Sergey Lavrov on Tuesday in Moscow.
Credit Maxim Shemetov/Reuters

BEIRUT, Lebanon — With President Bashar al-Assad of Syria facing battlefield setbacks, diplomats from Russia, the United States and several Middle Eastern powers are engaged in a burst of diplomatic activity, trying to head off a deeper collapse of the country that could further strengthen the militant group Islamic State.

Russia, Mr. Assad’s most powerful backer, has built new ties with Saudi Arabia, a fervent opponent, and even brokered a meeting between high-ranking Saudi and Syrian intelligence officials. On Tuesday, the Saudi foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir, met with the Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, in Moscow, wrangling over the fate of Mr. Assad.

Unusual meetings have come in quick succession. Last week, the top Russian, American and Saudi envoys held their first three-way meeting on Syria; Russian officials briefed Syria’s foreign minister, Walid al-Moallem. He then met officials in Oman, whose ties to both Saudi Arabia and Iran raised the prospect of talks between those archrivals. Russia stopped blocking an international inquiry into who has used chemical weapons in Syria, a longstanding American priority.

The flurry of diplomacy suggests that Russia and the United States, whose differences have long jammed efforts to resolve the conflict, are making newly concerted strides toward goals they have long claimed to share: a political solution to Syria’s multisided civil war and better strategies to fight the Islamic State.

Go Read the whole article, there's much left. Maybe it's just me, but I had NO idea all this was going on .. .
I don't want to get my hopes up....but my hopes are UP!
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/12/world/middleeast/new-diplomacy-seen-on-us-russian-efforts-to-end-syrian-civil-war.html