林中斌 部落格 / Blog Chong-Pin Lin

Pope Francis will host a peace vigil in St Peter’s Square on Saturday. Photograph: Rex Features

President Obama shakes hands with Russia's President Vladimir Putin during arrivals for the G-20 summit at the Konstantin Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia.(Photo: Alexander Zemlianichenko, AP)

九月五日，教宗呼籲G20各國領袖不能坐視敘利亞殺戮，應避免使用武力，並用對話和協商謀求世界和平。大概是九月六日，普丁私下會歐巴馬，對歐一年前所提敘利亞交出化學武器表示興趣，希望換取美國不用武。歐巴馬正面回應，並說將指示國務卿與額外長落實此事。九月七日週六，教宗主持為和平祈禱，歡迎天主教、基督教、其他宗教、和無神論者一起參加。那天下午，他呼籲九月八日週日，有心人共同為世界和平絕食一天。

九月九日週一，美俄外長磋商。九月十日週二，敘利亞接受提議，願交出化武。

請參考所附新聞報導 “Pope urges G20 leaders to seek Syria peace talks” Guardian September 5, 2013;  “How the Syria solution developed: The inside story”  USA Today September 10, 2013

               林中斌 2013.9.13/Chong-Pin Lin September 13, 2013

Pope urges G20 leaders to seek Syria peace talks

Francis urges leaders to abandon 'futile pursuit' of military solution and work instead for dialogue

The Guardian, Thursday 5 September 2013 13.23 BST

Pope Francis has urged world leaders meeting at the G20 summit in St Petersburg to overcome their differences on Syria and agree to abandon "the futile pursuit of a military solution".

In a letter addressed to the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, reiterated his strong opposition to any military intervention in the country, writing that "armed conflicts … create profound divisions and deep wounds which require many years to heal".

The pope was understood to have written to Putin – one of the Damascus regime's key allies – in his capacity as head of state of the nation currently holding the G20 presidency.

The pontiff's spokesman, Federico Lombardi, denied a report in an Argentinian newspaper that he had contacted Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad.

In the latest salvo in a growing anti-war movement within the Vatican, Francis called on world leaders to seek a peaceful solution to the crisis.

Among those gathering in St Petersburg are the British prime minister, David Cameron, the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, and the US president, Barack Obama, who is planning a "limited" military strike on Syria.

The pope wrote: "It is regrettable that, from the very beginning of the conflict in Syria, one-sided interests have prevailed and in fact hindered the search for a solution that would have avoided the senseless massacre now unfolding.

"To the leaders present, to each and every one, I make a heartfelt appeal for them to help find ways to overcome the conflicting positions and to lay aside the futile pursuit of a military solution.

"Rather, let there be a renewed commitment to seek, with courage and determination, a peaceful solution through dialogue and negotiation of the parties, unanimously supported by the international community."

Syria is not officially on the agenda of the G20 summit but Francis urged world leaders to see the conflict as, among many things, an obstacle to economic development.

"Without peace, there can be no form of economic development," he wrote. "Violence never begets peace, the necessary condition for development."

The international deliberations over Syria have led the Vatican to flex its diplomatic muscle in recent days.

The Argentinian pontiff used his Angelus blessing on Sunday to insist: "It is never the use of violence that leads to peace."

Later in the week, he sent a series of tweets reinforcing his stance, one of them declaring, in its English version: "War never again! Never again war!"

On Saturday evening, the efforts will come to a climax with a prayer vigil for peace led by Francis in St Peter's Square. The vigil, which is expected to last until 11pm, will be open to all people of "good will", the pope said, whether they are Catholics, Christians, people of different religions or no religion.

He also called for a day of fasting for peace around the world.

How the Syria solution developed: The inside story

Source: AP, USA TODAY research

Kevin A. Kepple, Anne R. Carey, Emaun Kashfipour, Tory Hargro, Jerry Mosemak and Oren Dorell, USA TODAY

Aamer Madhani, USA TODAY 8:54 p.m. EDT September 10, 2013

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/09/10/syria-proposal-chemical-weapons-inside/2795877/ accessed September 12, 2013

The plan for securing Syria's chemical weapons has been developing for more than a year.

Story Highlights

˙     Putin and Obama first discussed securing Syria's chemical weapons at an economic summit in Mexico

˙     At the G-20 summit, both leaders repeated their belief that a political solution was the way to resolve the conflict

˙     Kerry will go to Geneva on Thursday to continue discussions with his Russian counterpart

WASHINGTON — The idea of coming up with a plan to secure Syria's chemical weapons dates back more than a year, when President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin first discussed the matter on the sidelines of an economic summit in Los Cabos, Mexico.

At the time, the two — as they've been for much of the 2½-year Syrian civil war — remained far apart in their views on the conflict. During their talks in Los Cabos, Obama complained to Russia that its arms sale to Syria perpetuated the bloody conflict, while Putin argued that the sales were part of a longstanding relationship with the Bashar Assad regime, according a senior administration official, who was not authorized to discuss the deliberations and spoke on condition of anonymity.

But the two leaders seemed to find some common ground on the need to secure Syria's chemical weapons stockpile, although no agreement was reached.

"I suggested the need for the United States and Russia to work together to deal with this particular problem," Obama recalled to Fox News in an interview that aired Monday. "It doesn't solve the underlying Syrian conflict. But if we can solve this chemical weapons issue — which is a threat to us and the world — then it does potentially lay the groundwork for further discussions around how you can bring about a political settlement inside of Syria."

OBAMA ADDRESSES NATION: Now pursuing a U.N. deal

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The administration official, who offered a detailed timeline of U.S.-Russian exchanges on how to best contain the chemical weapons stockpiles, said Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavarov first discussed the concept when Kerry visited Moscow in April and then again the following month over a long dinner at the Russian ministry of foreign policy on the eve of Russia's Victory Day, the anniversary of Nazi Germany's capitulation to the Soviet Union.

The two spoke of looking at the dissolution of Libya's nuclear program — Moammar Gadhafi dismantled the program under international agreement in 2003 and 2004.

"At the time, it was more aspirational and less urgent and the regime was not under pressure to cooperate because the world had not yet turned on them," according the official.

Kerry and Lavrov continued to talk about the role Russia could play facilitating a plan to secure Syria's weapons. The two, along with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, discussed the prospect again when the Russian leaders visited Washington on Aug. 9, just days after the White House announced Obama was scratching a September visit in Moscow for bilateral meetings with Putin.

Obama had decided to cancel the meeting with Putin after a series of disputes with the Russians, including frustration with their Syria policy and the decision to grant temporary asylum to former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden.

After the Syrians' alleged attack on the outskirts of Damascus on Aug. 21, which would eventually trigger Obama's decision to call on Congress to endorse a limited military strike against Syria, conversations between Kerry and Lavrov picked up. The two have spoken nine times since Aug. 21.

"There is no question that the seriousness of Russia's interest in playing a role in securing the chemical weapons increased following the attack," the official said.

Late last week, days after announcing his desire to carry out a punitive strike on Syria, Obama was in St. Petersburg, Russia, for this year's meeting of the G-20. There was no plan for Putin and Obama to hold formal discussions, but the two chatted informally at the tail end of the first plenary session.

The two leaders then decided to go into a corner of the room and spoke about Syria for 20 to 30 minutes, the official said.

Both leaders repeated their longstanding belief that a political solution was the only reasonable end to a civil war that has killed more than 100,000 Syrians, but they remained at odds about Assad's role in the process.

They did, however, agree something had to be done about chemical weapons, and Putin again broached the idea about finding a path for an international agreement to remove chemical weapons from Syria, according to official.

Obama agreed it was a path worth exploring, and both leaders agreed that Kerry and Lavrov should follow up.

On Monday, Kerry said at a London news conference that a military confrontation could be avoided if Syria gave up its chemical weapons. At the time, the comment seemed to be an offhanded one, and State Department officials immediately described it as a "rhetorical" statement.

But later Monday, Kerry spoke by telephone with Lavrov and told him the United States was not ready to embrace such a proposal but was willing to take a hard look if it was credible, the official said.

Soon after the phone call, Lavrov announced that Russia was willing to play a role in securing the Syrian chemical weapons. The proposal was quickly embraced by Syrian government officials and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon.

On Tuesday, Obama told lawmakers that he wanted to give the Russian proposal a chance to succeed and was putting consideration of the strike on hold.

Later Tuesday, Obama spoke by phone with France's President Francois Hollande and British Prime Minister David Cameron to discuss whether the Russian proposal was workable.

Putin, meanwhile, told reporters he would agree only to a Syrian chemical weapons hand-off if Obama renounced the use of military force against that country — even as Obama told senators in a pair of meetings that the military option must remain open.

"It is difficult to make any country — Syria or any other country in the world — to unilaterally disarm if there is military action against it under consideration," Putin said.