There are nine NATO warships in the Black Sea now, a record high number
in decades, the RIA Novosti news agency reports citing a
military-diplomatic source.
These include the US Vella Gulf
Aegis-guided missile cruiser, the French Surcouf frigate and two
reconnaissance ships – France’s Dupuy de Lome and Italy’s Elettra.
In
addition, there’s a group of NATO minesweepers taking part in the
Breeze-2014 naval exercises off the Bulgarian coast. Led by Italy’s ITS
Aviere, it also comprises an Italian and Turkish minesweepers, ITS
Rimini and TCG Akcay, and the Chiddingfold anti-mine ship of the British
Royal navy.
MONTREUX (Switzerland): Peace talks intended to carve a path out of Syria's civil war got off to a rocky start on Wednesday as a bitter clash over President Bashar Assad's future threatened to collapse the negotiations even before they really begin.
The dispute over Assad cast a pall over the start of an international peace conference that aims to map out a transitional government and ultimately a democratic election for the war-torn Middle East nation.
While diplomats sparred against a pristine Alpine backdrop, Syrian forces and opposition fighters clashed across a wide area from Aleppo and Idlib in the north to Daraa in the south, where the uprising against Assad began three years ago, activists and state media said.
MAE Hellénique, lundi, 20 janvier 2014
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Suite à l’invitation du Secrétaire général de l’Organisation des Nations
Unies, Ban Ki-moon, le vice-Premier ministre et ministre des Affaires
étrangères, Evangelos Vénizélos se rendra à Montreux, Suisse, en vue de
participer à la réunion de haut niveau qui donnera le coup d’envoi de la
conférence de Genève sur la Syrie (Genève II) qui se tiendra mercredi
22 janvier 2014.
Syria has handed Russia plans for a ceasefire in Syria’s biggest
city, Aleppo, and was ready to exchange lists with rebel forces on a
possible prisoner swap, its foreign minister Walid Muallem told a joint
news conference in Moscow with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov before a
planned peace conference on Syria in Switzerland next week
“I
count on the success of this plan if all sides carry out their
obligations,” Reuters quoted Muallem as saying following talks with
Lavrov.
“We would like this to serve as an example to other towns,” Muallem said of the plan for Aleppo.
Die
Außenminister Russlands und der USA, Sergej Lawrow und John Kerry,
haben am Montag, nach ihrem Treffen mit dem Syrien-Beauftragten Lahdar
Brahimi in Paris, zur Feuereinstellung in einigen Regionen Syriens
aufgerufen.
„Wir haben darüber gesprochen, wie man die
Konferenz ‚Genf-2‘ erfolgreich machen kann“, sagte Kerry. „Wir werden
unser Äußerstes tun, damit die Seiten eine Feuereinstellung zumindest in
einer Region, beispielsweise in Aleppo, vereinbaren könnten.“