Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

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Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basin Ozeti ïltraUSSSrt'"1'" WEPNESDAY- MARCH 20, 2013 Damascus and rebels accuse each BEIRUT BY ANNE BARNARD other of a chemical attack The Syrian government and Syrian rebels traded accusations on Tuesday about an attack in the northern province of Aleppo, with each side saying the oth¬ er had used chemical weapons. But neither camp presented clear documentation, and two American offi¬ cials said there was no evidence to sug¬ gest that chemical weapons had been used. A U.S. Defense Department offi¬ cial said the claim should be treated with caution, if not outright skepticism. The first report came from the Syrian state news agency, SANA, which said terrorists, its term for armed rebels, had fired a rocket "containing chemical ma¬ terials" on Tuesday into the Khan al-As- sal area of Aleppo Province, killing 16 people and wounding 86. It later raised the death toll to 25. The news agency displayed photo¬ graphs of what it said were the victims, but there was no immediate indication in the photographs that they had suffered a chemical attack, such as burns, skin discoloration or chemical quarantine measures. A senior, rebel commander and spokesman, Qassem Saadeddine, later accused the government of using chem¬ ical weapons in the attack, citing reports of breathing difficulties and bluish skin among victims, but acknowledged that the reports were secondhand and that he could provide no documentation. Each side has an incentive to accuse the other of using chemical weapons. President Barack Obama has said that a chemical attack by President Bashar al- Assad's government would cross a "red line" that could prompt military inter¬ vention against him by the United States. The Syrian government seeks to por¬ tray its opponents as extremists who are a threat to regional stability. Israel has said it would intervene to stop chemical weapons from slipping out of the Syrian government's control and into the hands of either the rebels or Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group allied with the Syrian government. Use or seizure of chemical weapons by rebel forces would embarrass the United States, particularly now, as Mr. Obama has declared that he will not stand in the way of allies' efforts to increase military aid to the rebels. The Syrian rebel forces are not known to possess chemical weapons, while American officials say the government harbors large stockpiles of them. Syria has generally neither confirmed nor #v ^A. r#- £rfS Jr r > *r A Syrian Army soldier on his way to a hospital Tuesday near Aleppo after what residents and medical staff said was a rebel chemical strike. Foreign officials were skeptical of the claim. denied their existence, but last year Ji¬ had Makdissi, then the Foreign Min¬ istry spokesman, said that Syria would only use them to repel a foreign attack, not against its own people. There has long been a fear on all sides in the Syrian government, in neigh¬ boring Israel and among the rebels' western backers that rebel groups could seize chemical weapons, but it is unclear whether any such weapons have been loaded onto rockets or mis¬ siles for use, or whether the rebels had the technical ability to fire them. Rebel factions have accused the gov¬ ernment of using chemical weapons many times, but there have been no con¬ firmed cases. The term "chemical weapons" has sometimes appeared to be used loosely to include not just deadly nerve agents like sarin gas but also tear gas and other nonlethal irrit¬ ants used for crowd control. The Russian Foreign Ministry indi¬ cated that it was taking the govern¬ ment's claim seriously, calling the al¬ leged use of chemical weapons by the opposition an "extremely dangerous development" and a new reason to refo- cus energy on finding a political solution to the conflict. Moscow is Mr. Assad's most powerful international backer. A Syrian official told state television that the Aleppo attack would be report¬ ed to human rights organizations and to Syria has generally neither confirmed nor denied the existence of chemical weapons. countries supporting the rebels. A Reuters photographer was quoted in a report by the news agency as saying that he had visited victims in Aleppo hospitals, and that they were suffering breathing problems. "I saw mostly women and children," said the photographer, who Reuters said it could not identify by name out of concern for his safety. "They said that people were suffocating in the streets and the air smelt strongly of chlorine." Rebels have long tried, without suc¬ cess, to overrun a weapons plant near Safira, in Aleppo Province, where chem¬ ical weapons are believed to be stored. The government alleged in December that rebels had plundered stores of chlorine gas, but the Syrian govern¬ ment's stores are believed by American officials to consist of other types of chemical weapons. An Obama administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the White House had "no informa¬ tion suggesting opposition groups have chemical weapons capability." Some American officials worried aloud whether the Syrian government was accusing rebels of using the 55
56 Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basin Ozeti weapons to prepare cover for its own fu¬ ture use of them. Anti-government ac¬ tivists suggested that the government might have concocted the chemical at¬ tack story to cover up an incident in which it accidentally fired a Scud mis¬ sile on a government-held area. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a watchdog group based in Brit¬ ain, said witnesses had heard over walkie-talkies that 26 people were killed, including 16 government soldiers and 10 civilians, after a rocket landed on DOtUSATTOMM. Khan al-Assal. Activists said the government had. tried to hit the police academy there, which had recently been taken by rebel forces, with a Scud missile, but it acci¬ dentally fell on a government-con¬ trolled area instead. In Washington, the White House cast doubt on claims that the opposition had used chemical weapons, and said it was evaluating the possibility that the gov¬ ernment had used them. "We're looking carefully at allegations THURSDAY, MARCH 21, 2013 AN ILL-CONCEIVED WAR AT A DEVASTATING COST Begun 10 years ago, the Iraq war unnecessary and damaging on every level came to be one of the worst strategic blunders in U.S. foreign policy. Ten years after it began, the Iraq war still haunts the United States in the nearly 4,500 troops who died there ; the more than 30,000 American wounded who have now come home; the more than $2 trillion spent on combat operations and re¬ construction, which inflated the U.S. deficit; and in the les¬ sons learned about the limits of American leadership and power. It haunts Iraq too, where the total number of casualties is believed to have surpassed 100,000 but has never been offi¬ cially determined ; and where one strongman was traded for another, albeit under a more pluralistic system with a demo¬ cratic veneer. The country is increasingly influenced by Iran and buffeted by the regional turmoil caused by the Arab Spring. In 2003, President George W. Bush and Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy defense secretary, used the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, to wage pre-emptive war against Saddam Hussein and a nu¬ clear arsenal that did not exist. They promised a "free and peaceful Iraq" that would be a model of democracy and sta¬ bility in the Arab world. While no one laments Saddam's passing and violence is down from peak war levels, the coun¬ try is fragile, with grave tensions between Sunnis and Shiites and Arabs and Kurds that could yet erupt into civil war or tear the state apart. A State Department travel warning last month described Iraq as dangerous, with numerous insurgents, including Al Qaeda in Iraq, still active, and said Americans were "at risk for kidnapping and terrorist violence." On Tuesday, a wave of car bombings and other attacks in Baghdad killed more than 50 people and wounded nearly 200. Yet none of the Bush administration's war architects have been called to account for their mistakes, and even now, many are invited to speak on policy issues as if they were not responsible for one of the worst strategic blunders in Ameri¬ can foreign policy. In a video posted recently by the conservative American Enterprise Institute, Mr. Wolfowitz said he still believed the of C. W. use, chemical weapons use," said Jay Carney, the White House press sec¬ retary. "The use of chemical weapons would be totally unacceptable." Isabel Kershner contributed reporting fromRamallah, West Bank; Peter Baker, Michael R. Gordon and Eric Schmittfrom Washington; Hwaida Saadfrom Beirut; and Rick Gladstone from New York. EDITORIAL war was the right thing to do. Will he and his partners ever have the humility to admit that it was wrong to prosecute this war? President Obama opposed the Iraq war from the start and has been single-minded about ending it, withdrawing the last combat troops in 2011. American influence in Iraq has greatly declined since then and Mr. Obama's attention, like that of most Americans, has shifted to other priorities. Iraqis are re¬ sponsible for their own future. But the country is a front line in the conflict between mod¬ erate Islam and Al Qaeda, not to mention its role as an oil pro¬ ducer. It requires more sustained American involvement than we have recently seen. Iraq is a reminder of the need for political leaders to ask the right questions before allowing military action and to listen honestly rather than acting on ideological or political im¬ pulses. Mr. Bush led the war, but Democrats as well as Re¬ publicans in Congress endorsed it. Iraq also shows the limits of America's influence in regions where sectarian enmity re¬ mains strong and where democracy has no real history. That experience is informing American policy judgments more generally. It has affected decisions about Syria, where President Obama has been right to move cautiously. For a long time the Syrian opposition was divided, and it was hard to know which group, if any, deserved help. It also made sense not to rush into another costly war in another Arab country that could fuel new anti-American animosities and embroil the United States for another de¬ cade. But with the Syrian conflict in its third year, the fighting has already spilled over the borders, destabilizing its neigh¬ bors, even as Al Qaeda-affiliated rebels play a bigger role. The reasons for opposing direct American involvement in Syria remain strong, but the United States needs to calibrate its policies continually and should not allow the Iraq experi¬ ence to paralyze its response to different circumstances. The lessons of Iraq, however, seem to fade when it comes to Iran. Many of the conservatives who strongly supported the charge into Iraq are fanning calls for U.S. military action to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. President Obama has also been threatening "all options" if negoti¬ ations to curb Iran's ambitions are not successful, and many lawmakers seem ready to take action against Iran soon. The Iraq war was unnecessary, costly and damaging on every level. It was based on faulty intelligence manipulated for ideological reasons. The terrible human and economic costs over the past 10 years show why that must never hap¬ pen again.
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