If Saddam Hussein\’s Iraq is anything to go by, destroying Syria\’s massive chemical weapons arsenal will mean checking dozens of far-flung sites in a war zone while the government employs delaying tactics to hide the banned munitions, an expert involved in past U.N. disarmament missions said.
The United Nations on Friday said it could not accept Russia\’s offer to replace peacekeepers from Austria in the Golan Heights because an agreement between Israel and Syria bars permanent members of the Security Council from the U.N. observer mission.
Israel played down weekend air strikes close to Damascus reported to have killed dozens of Syrian soldiers, saying they were not aimed at influencing its neighbor\’s civil war but only at stopping Iranian missiles reaching Lebanese Hezbollah militants.
Syrian rebels held 20 U.N. officials who monitor the Israel-Syria ceasefire, the first time such officials have been targeted in the insurgency.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Iran and Russia on Thursday to rethink their support for Syria, saying the most dire scenarios of the conflict spilling beyond its borders could come to pass.
Participation in United Nations forums that refer to a \”State of Palestine\” does not constitute U.S. recognition of Palestinian statehood, U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice said.
Israel\’s U.N. envoy urged the Security Council on Thursday to condemn what he described as significant rearming by Hezbollah, saying the Lebanese militant group now possessed an arsenal of tens of thousands of missiles capable of hitting Israel.
The Palestinians appealed to the United Nations Security Council to stop Israel from making plans to build 3,000 apartments in a controversial area outside of Jerusalem.
The Palestinians accused Israel in a letter to the United Nations of planning to commit further \”war crimes\” by expanding Jewish settlements after the Palestinians won de facto U.N. recognition of statehood and warned that Jerusalem must be held accountable.
The Syrian government is violating a 1974 disengagement agreement with Israel, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said.
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