U.S. and Russia unite to target Islamic State's revenue sources

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In a rare show of unity, the United States and Russia on Thursday led 13 nations to unanimous approval of a United Nations plan to choke off revenue sources for the militant group Islamic State, including oil, cotton and antiquities that are smuggled out of Syria to thriving black markets.

The Security Council vote, attended by finance ministers from all 15 countries, signaled that Moscow and Washington are narrowing their differences on how to confront the crisis in Syria, where Islamic State has consolidated power and territory despite more than 5,000 airstrikes from U.S., Russian and other warplanes.

"If we can get at [Islamic State's] wallet and its financial coffers in an intensified and even more aggressive way, that's going to have a material effect on their ability to prosecute war," U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power said.

The goal "is to put more pressure on the countries that are not acting aggressively enough, or at all, to cut off the funds flowing to terrorists," she said. "Such inaction puts all of our nations at risk, including the United States."

http://www.latimes.com/world/europe/la-fg-us-russia-20151218-story.html

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1. John Kerry’s fevered fantasy of a Syrian peace

Syria is broken — irreparably. Yet on Friday, Secretary of State John Kerry is gathering the world’s top diplomats to try to put the pieces back in place.

Kerry’s purpose is to get the assembled envoys and representatives of Syria’s civil-war factions to agree to what one of them described as “creative language” to promote an end to Syria’s civil war and unite all in fighting ISIS. The goal: to have such an agreement ready to present as a UN Security Council resolution, to be adopted later today by powerful foreign ministers.

Kerry and fellow diplomats worked for weeks. In Moscow he tried to paper over our disagreements with President Vladimir Putin.

Those valiant attempts at diplomacy are designed to move us away from the current chaotic civil war (more than 200,000 dead, over 6 million displaced) and into a “transition” period that would usher in a functioning, perhaps even democratic, Syrian government.

http://nypost.com/2015/12/17/john-kerrys-fevered-fantasy-of-a-syrian-peace/

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2. 'Era Of Destruction Starts' Against 'Weak' IS

Refugees fleeing Islamic State's self-proclaimed capital in Raqqa have told Sky News the terror group is committing genocide as its grip on the city weakens because of coalition airstrikes.

We meet Mazlan, who has just fled from the city, in an area controlled by the secular Popular Protection Units (YPG) - a Kurdish militia fighting IS.

He is terrified and will only speak to us wearing a disguise. He tells me IS fighters murdered his uncle after accusing him of being a spy.

http://news.sky.com/story/1608046/era-of-destruction-starts-against-weak-is

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3. Kerry To Chair UN Effort To Forge Syrian Peace December 18

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will chair a meeting of the United Nations Security Council December 18 in a major effort to end the four-year civil war in Syria.

Before chairing the UN meeting in the afternoon, Kerry will host a meeting of the International Syria Support Group to try to pull together support for a Syrian cease-fire and political negotiations, State Department spokesman John Kirby said.

The importance of the meeting was underscored by a UN report December 17 that the Syrian conflict likely drove the number of refugees and displaced persons in the world to a new record of over 60 million this year.

Kerry traveled to Moscow earlier this week to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a supporter of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and try to pave the way for the UN meeting.

http://www.rferl.org/content/us-secretary-kerry-chair-un-security-council-effort-forge-syrian-peace-december-18/27434961.html

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4. Russia calling the shots as nations lock down Syria plan

WASHINGTON: As the United States and world powers gather again in a bid to end Syria's civil war, Russia appears to be calling the shots.

Nations meeting Friday in New York and the U.N. will essentially be negotiating a Russian plan for a ``political transition,'' based on the Syrian government's consent and with no clear reference to President Bashar Assad's departure.

And as they look for a way to secure and enforce a peace that has proved all too elusive since 2011, Russia's recent military intervention appears to be providing the key leverage. As President Barack Obama said earlier this month, rebels who join the process could enjoy ``pockets of cease-fire'' where they no longer face Syrian or Russian bombs. The implication was that those who refuse could still be targeted.

In any event, diplomats from East and West say the chances for ending the conflict between Assad's military and moderate rebel forces are better now than they've been for a long while. All speak of seizing the momentum of several groundbreaking meetings in recent months.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/russia-calling-the-shots-as-nations-lock-down-syria-plan/articleshow/50228681.cms

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5. Spotlight: Retired Turkish generals push for talks with Syrian gov't

ISTANBUL, Dec. 17 (Xinhua) -- Contrary to what their government is doing, three decorated retired Turkish generals are pushing for talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as part of the efforts to return peace to his war-torn country.

A Turkish military delegation, headed by Ismail Hakki Pekin, former head of the intelligence unit of the Chief of Staff, is scheduled to make a trip to the Syrian capital Damascus on Friday, the highest-level visit ever made by the Turks since Syria was plunged into chaos in March 2011.

The delegation is trying to find a "negotiable" ground for a possible meeting between the Turkish and Syrian authorities, just as the world powers will meet in New York on Friday over how to end the Syrian war in a peaceful way.

"The aim of the visit is to find a negotiable ground where the two sides will work on how they are going to repair their broken relations for the sake of the region," Pekin told Xinhua in an interview.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015-12/18/c_134928300.htm

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6. UN Security Council adopts resolution to disrupt ISIL funds

The United Nations Security Council on Thursday unanimously adopted a resolution aimed at disrupting revenue that Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) gets from oil and antiquities sales, ransom payments and other criminal activities.

The Security Council's move comes after the United States, Turkey and Iraq announced that they were actively targeting the armed group's revenue sources.

The new resolution, which was sponsored by the U.S. and Russia, puts ISIL in the same category as Al-Qaeda, reflecting the growing threat the armed group poses, especially in the Middle East and North Africa.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew — who chaired Thursday's Security Council meeting, the first-ever to be composed of finance ministers from the council’s member countries — has said that cutting ISIL off from the international financial system is "critical to effectively combating this violent terrorist group."

http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/12/17/united-nations-adopts-resolution-to-disrupt-isil-funds.html

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8. The most unconventional weapon in Syria: Wheat

BEIRUT

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In the fall of 2012, fighters from the Free Syrian Army took over Eastern Ghouta, a semi-agricultural area about eight miles northeast of Damascus. Government forces responded by placing the area under siege, cutting off water, electricity, gas, medical assistance and bread.

The regime’s goal was to starve the people of Eastern Ghouta into submission, and it was working: The price of bread and rice went up 50 times. Locals were living on animal feed or sometimes eating nothing at all. “They began to wage war against the people even through their daily bread,” says Majd al-Dik, an aid worker for a Syrian humanitarian group called Spring of Life.

Nine months later, the Free Syrian Army mounted a military operation in a regime-controlled area called al-Matahin, the Mills, just outside Eastern Ghouta. Its objective was a flour mill, flanked by two rows of grain silos that housed part of the Syrian government’s strategic wheat reserves— a potent weapon in the conflict, which now, after 4 1/2 years, has killed at least a quarter of a million people. If the opposition could capture the mill, it could keep the wheat, break the siege, gain a strategic point on the airport road — and perhaps even make some money.

The firefight lasted a day and a half. Before the battle ended on the second day, anti-government fighters sent a message via walkie-talkie to aid workers waiting inside Eastern Ghouta: We are in partial control of the mill. Come and help us get the flour. Dik and other volunteers drove toward the mill, taking a back road to avoid government snipers.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-most-unconventional-weapon-in-syria-wheat/2015/12/18/781a0ae0-9cf4-11e5-bce4-708fe33e3288_story.html

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9. World Powers Agree Upon Draft UN Resolution On Syria

By RFE/RL

December 18, 2015

A draft UN resolution to be presented to the Security Council that calls for Syrian peace talks to begin in early January has been agreed upon by some 20 foreign ministers who've met in New York.

The draft text, to be voted upon by the UN Security Council later on December 18, was hammered out at a meeting convened by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, and UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura.

It calls on the United Nations to bring together representatives of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government and moderate opposition groups that have been fighting Assad's regime for nearly five years.

Russia and the West have remained divided over a central issue in discussions of a political transition: the fate of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

http://www.rferl.org/content/un-syria-draft-resolution/27436373.html

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10. News Analysis: New York meeting on Syria reflects fresh Russian-American understanding

DAMASCUS, Dec. 18 (Xinhua) -- The undergoing world powers' meeting in New York to push for a solution to the Syrian crisis reflects a recently established U.S.-Russian understanding, analysts here said.

During the meeting in New York, world powers are working to bring close the gaps that have for long been preventing reaching a solution in Syria.

One of those snags is the issue of the Syrian presidency, one of the thorniest issues that are widening the gaps between the American and Russian camps.

Two days ago visiting U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Kerry urged a focus not on removing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, but instead on developing greater cooperation in Syria, a move that reflected a change in the long-adopted "Assad must go" rhetoric by the United States since summer 2011.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2015-12/19/c_134931871.htm

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11. In first political resolution on war-torn Syria, Security Council gives UN major role in seeking pea

18 December 2015 – In its first resolution to focus on the politics of ending Syria’s five-year-long war, the Security Council today gave the United Nations an enhanced role in shepherding the opposing sides to talks for a political transition, with a timetable for a ceasefire, a new constitution and elections, all under UN auspices.

Meeting at Foreign Minister level, the Council asked Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to convene Government and opposition representatives in formal negotiations early next month on a political transition as a step to lasting peace, in line with the 2012 Geneva Communiqué and consistent with the 14 November 2015 International Syria Support Group (ISSG) on the issue.

The resolution was adopted unanimously after Mr. Ban briefed the 15-member body on his meeting earlier in the day with the International Syria Support Group, comprised of the Arab League, the European Union, the United Nations, and 17 countries, including the United States and Russia, which has been seeking a path forward for several months.

“As the first resolution to focus on the political path to resolving the crisis, this marks a very important step on which we must build,” the Secretary-General told the Council, calling on ISSG States to pressure the sides to immediately implement confidence-building measures, including an end to the use of indiscriminate weapons against civilians, unimpeded access for aid convoys and the release of all detainees.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=52863#.VnSUznqIbY4

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12. Exclusive: Iran to match stance with Russia in push for Syria deal

Iran has decided to unify its stance with Russia's in the push for a political deal to end Syria's civil war, Iranian officials said, in a sign it could ease its opposition to the departure of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as part of the agreement.

While maintaining its firm backing for Assad in public, Russia has recently made clear to Western nations that it has no objection to him stepping down as part of the peace process, diplomats said.

Iran's decision to step up its coordination with Russia was made after a meeting last month between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran, according to a senior Iranian official with knowledge of the discussions.

Like Russia, Iran has insisted publicly that Assad should only step down if he is voted out in an eventual election.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-russia-iran-idUSKBN0U12OM20151218?rpc=401