Nevertheless, although the U.S., its European allies, Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations have insisted that Mr Assad must go, Mr Kerry said “everyone” has by now realised that demanding the president’s departure up front in the process was “prolonging the war”. “That transitional process needs to try to be achieved within the target time of six months”, Kerry said, arguing that the United Nations vote gave the plan legal force.
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Chelsea In Talks With Montreal Over Drogba
That’s one way to win back the dressing room I suppose. “It is a few years ago I was here in a similar situation”, he said . But then we’ll see. “We are now in contact with Didier Drogba and Chelsea FC”, the MLS club said .
Assad and his wife chatted with the men and women of the “Joy Choir”, who were practicing ahead of a performance on Christmas Eve, state media said Saturday.
Brussels police detain two in raids linked to Paris attacks
The two Belgians arrived in Paris at 6am the day after the massacre and picked up Abdeslam at an address where he was hiding. The prosecutor’s office, without giving details, said an analysis of phone records led to Sunday’s search.
Absent from the text is any mention of the future of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad – a key point of contention among Russian Federation and the Western powers that remains unresolved. In a dig at Saudi Arabia, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wrote in The Guardian on Friday it was “utterly absurd that those who have denied their own population the most rudimentary tenets of democracy are now self-declared champions of democracy in Syria”.
Taliban ‘push further’ into Sangin town in Helmand
The insurgents are prone to exaggerating its battlefield successes, and Kabul officials denied that Sangin had fallen. The battle continues between Afghan forces and the Taliban as the Afghan Taliban gain ground on Helmand Province.
“We had a series of inconsistent claims about ‘Assad must go, ‘ ‘Assad doesn’t have to go, ‘ ‘US is not after regime change.’ It’s absurd for the United States to suggest it’s not after regime change yet Assad must go”, he added.
Talks between Syria’s government and opposition should begin in early January, the resolution said, though US Secretary of State John Kerry said mid-to-late January was more likely.
The council’s adoption of the resolution on Syria is significant because it marked the first time in the almost five-year-long conflict that the 15-nation body had overcome its deep divisions and spoken in one voice on the Mideast nation’s political situation.
“I think that Assad is going to have to leave in order for the country to stop the blood(shed), for all the parties involved to be able to move forward in a nonsectarian way”, Obama said at a year-end news conference.
On Friday, the UN Security Council adopted a resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire, endorsing a previously agreed timeline of a transitional government in Syria, holding UN-monitored elections and reiterating the call for the Syrian people to decide the future of Syria.
The conflict in Syria has killed upwards of 300,000 people and displaced millions more, creating the world’s worst refugee crisis since the second world war.
Syria’s main opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition (SNC), warned that hopes for a ceasefire by January 1 were unrealistic and demanded that Russian Federation halt its air strikes as part of that truce.
Asked about a definition of what constitutes a terrorist organization, Shoukry said that the Syria Support Group (SSG) has been seeking to make a list of terrorist organizations that should be excluded.
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He says that his administration is an example of tolerance that contrasts with the behaviour of militants, including the Islamic State group that has seized large swathes of the war-torn country.
