Traces of sarin nerve agent - Times say. 

A secret British operation has smuggled out a soil sample which provides the first forensic evidence of the use of chemical weapons in Syria, it was reported last night.

Government scientists working at the Ministry of Defence’s research facility at Porton Down, Wiltshere, found traces of “some kind of chemical weapon” after performing tests, according to The Times.

The tests at Porton Down reportedly concluded that the chemical traces were from a weapon rather than gas sometimes used by the Syrian security forces to put down protests.

“There have been some reports that it was just a strong riot-control agent but that is not the case - it’s something else although it can’t definitively be said to be sarin nerve agent,” one source told the newspaper.

The sample was reportedly smuggled out of Syria in a mission involving MI6 last month.

It was not clear whether the sample was from Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, where more than 20 people were alleged to have been killed in a chemical attack last month.

Both the Syrian regime and rebel groups accused the other side of using chemical weapons but definitive evidence has not yet emerged to support either claim, or even to prove that chemical weapons were used at all.

The Ministry of Defence declined to comment on the reported tests at Porton Down.

Saudi Arabia is backing a push by Syrian opposition rebels to carve out a “liberated” area in southern Syria, opening a key route of attack on Damascus.

To secure Damascus - from South, also to contain if crazies come rushing down.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration has no evidence to back up a claim by Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime that the U.S.-backed Syrian rebels used chemical weapons, the White House said Tuesday.

A U.S. official told the AP there was no evidence either side had used such weapons Tuesday in an attack in northern Syria, disputing a competing claim by rebels that it was regime forces who fired the chemical weapon.

The origin of the attack is still unclear, the official added. But the official noted that the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons also is reporting no independent information of chemical weapons use. The official wasn’t authorized to speak publicly on the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity to the AP.

“In the first month and a half the rebels were really a united revolutionary group,” Abu Ismael said. “But now they are different. There are those who are here only to loot and make money, and some still fight.” Did Abu Ismael’s unit loot? “Of course. How do you think we feed the men? Where do you think we get all our sugar, for example?”

In the chaotic economics of the war, everything has become a commodity. Abu Ismael’s unit, for example, took a supply of diesel from a school compound, and every day his unit exchanges a few jerrycans of the precious liquid for bread.

Because Abu Ismael has a supply of food and fuel his battalion is more desirable than others in the sector. Commanders who are unable to feed their men tend to lose them; they desert and join other groups.

Bullets are equally important. When military installations and warehouses are looted the battalion that captures ammunition grows by cannibalising smaller, less well-equipped units that have no bullets to hand.

In a dark apartment in the Salahuddin neighbourhood of Aleppo we sat with a group of commanders who were discussing the formation of a new brigade that would bring their various battalions together. They soon turned to the topic of loot.

One of the commanders present had led an operation into the predominantly Kurdish neighbourhood of Ashrafiya in Aleppo, but according to several fighters who were there the action failed when the army counterattacked because the rebel support units that were supposed to reinforce the front instead turned their attention to looting.

“I want to know exactly what you took that day,” the commander of a small unit told the leader of the assault. The commander opened a notebook to write, while another man held a flashlight above his head. “As long as one fights while the others are busy collecting loot we can’t advance,” he said. “The loot has to be divided equally.”

The leader started to list the luxury cars and the weapons his units had found and taken, while the other commander wrote them down in the notebook. Some of the cars would be sold back to the owners – if they paid out a hefty ransom.

How to explain all this - is the issue to me. Though I expect the world and so called Syrian experts or Middle East experts - just really go as ‘That is the reality over there’.

Why can’t - do interviews on people - all or many people actually went through all this - and see how this ‘sectarianism’ - (or lack of ‘overall coordination capacity’) emerges and plays out - and sustains and solidifies? 

Should be doable. 

Moscow would probably prefer Syria’s vice president, Farouk al-Sharaa, as an interim leader, but informed Russian sources say that the Kremlin would most likely accept a rebel leader who is not an Islamic extremist — a goal that dovetails with American aims.

[*Dimitri K. Simes is the president and Paul J. Saunders is the executive director of the Center for the National Interest.]

I’m really not sure Obama admin can push - all of a sudden - such active diplomacy. It makes sense to take (of course) relations with Russia and China - into real considerations over post-Assad Syria’s situation . (There also are issues with Israel and Iran etc.) 

There are probably more activities on the ground by American side - than public perception or public are informed - but

let’s see how it goes.

• Does Obama admin really have ‘brain’ - and is smartly calculating around this ‘lead from behind’ stance. (While there are many voices saying US’s involvement in Syria has been too little and now it is more like all too late.) 
• Or plainly being just passive, and can’t switch gears. 

Syria’s Assad regime dispatched two senior diplomats to Moscow, it is reported the purpose is to discuss/seek advice on Brahimi plan. 

There is a separate report that Brahimi is also going to Moscow this Saturday. 

Though much of the predictions have been ruling out the possibility of negotiated transition. Predictions have been: 

• Assad will fight to the end,
• or Alawite intra coup (Alawite toppling Assad),
• or Alawite retreating back into their coastal enclave/homeland in the west.

Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad and Assistant Foreign Minister Ahmad Arnous flew early Wednesday to Moscow, airport officials in Beirut told The Associated Press. 

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/12/26/16165202-assad-officials-head-to-moscow-to-discuss-end-to-syrian-civil-war?lite

Then Reuters reporting a Lebanese official’s account: 

Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Makdad flew to Moscow to discuss the details of the talks with Brahimi, said a Syrian security source, who would not say if a deal was in the works.

However, a Lebanese official close to Damascus said Makdad had been sent to seek Russian advice on a possible agreement.

He said Syrian officials were upbeat after talks with Brahimi, the U.N.-Arab League envoy, who met Foreign Minister Walid Moualem on Tuesday a day after his session with Assad, but who has not outlined his ideas in public.

“There is a new mood now and something good is happening,” the official said, asking not to be named. He gave no details.

Syria loads chemical weapons into bombs; military awaits Assad’s order nbcnews.to/YPPNad

— NBC News (@NBCNews) December 5, 2012

The Syrian military is prepared to use chemical weapons against its own people and is awaiting final orders from President Bashar Assad, U.S. officials told NBC News on Wednesday.

The military has loaded the precursor chemicals for sarin, a deadly nerve gas, into aerial bombs that could be dropped onto the Syrian people from dozens of fighter-bombers, the officials said. 

As recently as Tuesday, officials had said there was as yet no evidence that the process of mixing the “precursor” chemicals had begun. But Wednesday, they said their worst fears had been confirmed: The nerve agents were locked and loaded inside the bombs.

Sarin is an extraordinarily lethal agent. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein’s forces killed 5,000 Kurds with a single sarin attack on Halabja in 1988.

U.S. officials stressed that as of now, the sarin bombs hadn’t been loaded onto planes and that Assad hadn’t issued a final order to use them. But if he does, one of the officials said, “there’s little the outside world can do to stop it.”

Not sure this follow up by this ABC reporter means just relaying NBC or ABC also confirmed the report with US officials. 

U.S. Official confirms Syria loaded components of sarin gas into bombs on or near airfields. But no movement since. Warnings working so far.

— Martha Raddatz (@MarthaRaddatz) December 6, 2012

Also USA Today: 

On Monday, a senior Pentagon official told the Associated Press that U.S. intelligence had detectedmovement of chemical weapon components at one site.

Fox News cites a senior U.S. official as saying the bombs must be used within 60 days or the chemical expires and must be destroyed.

At least three facilities produce Syria’s chemical weapons, according to Global Security. They are located near Damascus, Hama, and Safira, near Aleppo, the heart of the opposition.