SADDAM WANTED ISRAEL CHEMICAL WEAPONED IF TOPPLED

JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.

1 THESSALONIANS 5:3
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

ISAIAH 33:8
8  The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth: he hath broken the covenant,(7 YR TREATY) he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man.(THE WORLD LEADER-WAR MONGER CALLS HIMSELF GOD)

JERUSALEM DIVIDED

GENESIS 25:20-26
20  And Isaac was forty years old (A BIBLE GENERATION NUMBER=1967 + 40=2007+) when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian.
21  And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
22  And the children (2 NATIONS IN HER-ISRAEL-ARABS) struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the LORD.
23  And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels;(ISRAEL AND THE ARABS) and the one people shall be stronger than the other people;(ISRAEL STRONGER THAN ARABS) and the elder shall serve the younger.(LITERALLY ISRAEL THE YOUNGER RULES (ISSAC)(JACOB-LATER NAME CHANGED TO ISRAEL) OVER THE OLDER ARABS (ISHMAEL)(ESAU)
24  And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.
25  And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau.(THE OLDER AN ARAB)
26  And after that came his brother out, and his hand took hold on Esau's heel; and his name was called Jacob:(THE YOUNGER-ISRAELI) and Isaac was threescore (60) years old when she bare them.(1967 + 60=2027)(COULD BE THE LAST GENERATION WHEN JERUSALEM IS DIVIDED AMOUNG THE 2 TWINS)(THE 2 TWINS WANT JERUSALEM-THE DIVISION OF JERUSALEM TODAY)(AND WHOS IN CONTROL OF JERUSALEM TODAY-THE YOUNGER ISSAC-JACOB-ISRAEL)(AND WHO WANTS JERUSALEM DIVIDED-THE OLDER,ESAU-ISHMAEL (THE ARABS)

ISAIAH 28:14-19 (THIS IS THE 7 YR TREATY COVENANT OF DANIEL 9:27)
14 Wherefore hear the word of the LORD, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.
15 Because ye have said, We have made a covenant with death, and with hell are we at agreement; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us: for we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves:
16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.
17 Judgment also will I lay to the line, and righteousness to the plummet: and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters shall overflow the hiding place.
18 And your covenant with death shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge shall pass through, then ye shall be trodden down by it.
19 From the time that it goeth forth it shall take you: for morning by morning shall it pass over, by day and by night: and it shall be a vexation only to understand the report.

Kerry: Peace ultimately requires full IDF pullout from Palestinian areas

US secretary of state tells Davos conference that benefits of talks’ success, dangers of their failure, are enormous for whole world

By Ilan Ben Zion January 24, 2014, 9:01 pm 16-The Times of Israel

US Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday that a permanent peace agreement must ultimately involve the full withdrawal of Israeli troops from Palestinian territories, and warned that the failure of the current round of talks to yield an accord would be catastrophic for both parties.In a far-ranging speech to participants at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Kerry dismissed claims that the US was withdrawing from the Middle East, called for Syrian President Bashar Assad’s removal from power, and said Iran must back up its words with actions if it truly seeks better relations with the world. “If you are serious about a peaceful [nuclear] program,” he said of Iran, “it is not hard to prove to the world that your intentions are peaceful.”

The bulk of his address, however, focused on the US commitment to resolving ”this intractable conflict [that] has confounded administration after administration,” and the “unprecedented” efforts made by the US in the past year toward reaching an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord.Everyone knows what the endgame to the conflict looks like, Kerry said, hinting at the outline of a possible framework agreement: “An independent state for Palestinians wherever they may be; security arrangements for Israel that leave it more secure, not less; a full, phased, final withdrawal of the Israeli army; a just and agreed solution to the Palestinian refugee problem; an end to the conflict and all claims and mutual recognition of the nation-state of the Palestinian people and the nation-state of the Jewish people.”For their part, Kerry said, the Palestinians need assurances ”that at the end of the day their territory is going to be free of Israeli troops, that occupation ends.”“But the Israelis rightfully will not withdraw unless they know the West Bank will not become a new Gaza, and nobody can blame any leader of Israel for being concerned about that reality,” he said. Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in 2007, two years after Israel withdrew unilaterally from the Strip.While the top American diplomat did not detail the content of the current negotiations between the two sides, which he has been brokering since last July, he said that a central obstacle in the way of an accord was the resolution of security issues. US President Barack Obama shared his view, Kerry said, “that there cannot be peace unless Israel’s security and its needs are met.”“Security is a priority, because we understand that Israel has to be strong to make peace. But we also believe that peace will make Israel stronger,” he said.Kerry mentioned that the US, Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians have discussed the creation of a high-tech “security structure that meets the highest standards anywhere in the world” along the border with Jordan, capable of thwarting “an individual terrorist or a conventional armed force.”But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stated that an agreement with the Palestinians must involve Israeli security forces stationed along the strategically critical Jordan Valley even after Palestinian statehood; Netanyahu said earlier Friday that he would not dismantle settlements either. And Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon has derided Kerry’s high-tech security package as inadequate to fight terrorism on the ground.Critical to an agreement, said Kerry on Friday, was managing to get the leaders on either side to make the “courageous decisions necessary to embrace what would be fair and what would work.”Kerry warned that a breakdown in talks would be catastrophic. According to recent reports, the Palestinian leadership has already decided in principle to reject Kerry’s framework proposals for a deal and instead launch a global diplomatic and legal assault on Israel.

“The benefits of success and the dangers of failure are enormous for the United States, for the world, for the region and, most importantly of all, for the Israeli and Palestinian people,” he said.Kerry lauded Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s commitment to nonviolence and negotiations, and warned that failure “will only embolden extremists and empower hardliners at the expense of the moderates.” He said a deterioration in security would jeopardize Israel’s economic juggernaut and increase isolation, and bring the Palestinians no closer to the independence they seek.“If they fail to achieve statehood now, there’s no guarantee another opportunity will follow anytime soon,” he said.Kerry added that “this issue cannot be resolved at the United Nations,” a path the Palestinians have attempted previously by seeking international recognition of statehood. “It can only be resolved between the parties.” He warned that unilateral acts by either side would precipitate a spiraling return to conflict.The secretary of state emphasized the benefits both sides stood to gain through a peace agreement, pointing out that the Palestinians would achieve statehood and economic prosperity.“For Israel, the benefits of peace are enormous as well, perhaps even more significant,” he said, stating that Israel would have immediate diplomatic recognition and economic ties with the Arab and Muslim world. It would potentially see a six percent increase in GDP per year, he argued.

“There are some people that assert this may be the last shot,” Kerry said of the current talks. “I don’t know the answer to that. I don’t want to find out the hard way.”

JEREMEIAH 49:35-37 (IN IRAN AT THE BUSHEHR OR ARAK NUKE SITE SOME BELIEVE)
35  Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Behold, I will break the bow of Elam,(IRAN/BUSHEHR NUCLEAR SITE) the chief of their might.(MOST DANGEROUS NUKE SITE IN IRAN)
36  And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven,(IRANIANS SCATTERED OR MASS IMIGARATION) and will scatter them toward all those winds; and there shall be no nation whither the outcasts of Elam shall not come.(WORLD IMMIGRATION)
37  For I will cause Elam (IRAN-BUSHEHR NUKE SITE) to be dismayed before their enemies, and before them that seek their life: and I will bring evil upon them, even my fierce anger,(ISRAELS NUKES POSSIBLY) saith the LORD; and I will send the sword after them, till I have consumed them:(IRAN AND ITS NUKE SITES DESTROYED)

EZEKIEL 35:3-6,11-15
3  And say unto it, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O mount Seir,(ARABS) I am against thee, and I will stretch out mine hand against thee, and I will make thee most desolate.
4  I will lay thy cities waste, and thou shalt be desolate, and thou shalt know that I am the LORD.
5  Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred,(AGAINST ISRAEL) and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had an end:
6  Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will prepare thee unto blood, and blood shall pursue thee: sith thou hast not hated blood, even blood shall pursue thee.
11  Therefore, as I live, saith the Lord GOD, I will even do according to thine anger, and according to thine envy which thou hast used out of thy hatred against them; and I will make myself known among them, when I have judged thee.
12  And thou shalt know that I am the LORD, and that I have heard all thy blasphemies which thou hast spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying, They are laid desolate, they are given us to consume.
13  Thus with your mouth ye have boasted against me, and have multiplied your words against me: I have heard them.
14  Thus saith the Lord GOD; When the whole earth rejoiceth, I will make thee desolate.(ARAB,MUSLIMS)
15  As thou didst rejoice at the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so will I do unto thee: thou shalt be desolate, O mount Seir,(ARABS) and all Idumea,(ARAB,MUSLIMS) even all of it: and they shall know that I am the LORD.

ISAIAH 17:1,11-14
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.
11  In the day shalt thou make thy plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.
12  Woe to the multitude of many people, which make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations,(USELESS U.N) that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!
13  The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.
14  And behold at evening tide trouble; and before the morning he is not.(ASSAD KILLED IN OVERNIGHT RAID) This is the portion of them that spoil us,(ISRAEL) and the lot of them that rob us.

AMOS 1:5
5  I will break also the bar of Damascus, and cut off the inhabitant from the plain of Aven, and him that holdeth the sceptre from the house of Eden:(IRAQ) and the people of Syria shall go into captivity unto Kir,(JORDAN) saith the LORD.

JEREMEIAH 49:23-27
23  Concerning Damascus.(SYRIA) Hamath is confounded, and Arpad: for they have heard evil tidings: they are fainthearted; there is sorrow on the sea;(WAR SHIPS WITH NUKES COMING ON SYRIA) it cannot be quiet.
24  Damascus is waxed feeble, and turneth herself to flee, and fear hath seized on her: anguish and sorrows have taken her, as a woman in travail.
25  How is the city of praise not left, the city of my joy!
26  Therefore her young men shall fall in her streets, and all the men of war shall be cut off in that day, saith the LORD of hosts.
27  And I will kindle a fire (NUKES OR BOMBS) in the wall of Damascus, and it shall consume the palaces of Benhadad.(ASSADS PALACES POSSIBLY IN DAMASCUS)

PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they (MUSLIMS) have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,(JORDAN) and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, PALESTINIANS,JORDAN) and the Hagarenes;(EGYPT)
7 Gebal,(HEZZBALLOH,LEBANON) and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA,ARABS,SINAI) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)

Israel fears it is next target of al-Qaeda-linked jihadis in Syria

Concern at spillover terrorism from 30,000 fighters is prompting Jerusalem to re-evaluate its neutrality on Syrian war

By Aron Heller January 25, 2014, 3:11 am 2-The Times of Israel

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — A sharp increase in the number of al-Qaeda linked fighters joining the fight against President Bashar Assad in Syria is threatening to spill over the borders and prompting the Jewish state to re-evaluate its policy of neutrality in the civil war next door, a senior Israeli intelligence official warned on Friday.The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because military regulations prevent him from releasing the information, claimed more than 30,000 al-Qaeda linked fighters are active in Syria, a huge increase over previous Western estimates. He did not disclose how Israel reached the figure or specify which groups were included in the count, only defining the fighters as believers in “global jihad,” which he said meant a mix of those linked to al-Qaeda or inspired by the terror network.The Israeli official estimated that just two years ago there were only about 2,000 jihadis in Syria but claimed the number has mushroomed to more than 30,000 as the conflict has dragged on, presenting the Middle East with a far more dangerous threat. He claimed that the Islamic rebel groups in Syria currently focused on toppling Assad intend to turn their sites on Israel after dispatching the Syrian government.“After Assad and after establishing or strengthening their foothold in Syria they are going to move and deflect their effort and attack Israel,” he told The Associated Press.Israeli officials cite at least two cases of recent rocket fire from Lebanon they attribute to the al-Qaeda-linked groups — although independent observers widely interpreted those as an attempt by extremist groups to prompt Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon, where the Assad-allied Lebanese Hezbollah militant group has a strong presence.Aside from a few airstrikes against what were believed to be advanced weapons shipments from Syria into Lebanon, Israel has kept a low profile since the uprising against Assad began in March 2011, hoping to avoid being dragged into the conflict.With the absence of any potential ally and any hope that a good resolution could come from the fighting, Israeli conventional wisdom has held that it was better off with it continuing and having the rival forces stay busy butchering each other rather than noticing Israel.But that may not be the case anymore. “The longer the war in Syria continues, the more jihadists and radicals are coming to this territory,” the official said.Israel, which borders southwestern Syria, has periodically called for Assad’s ouster, particularly after reports of his use of chemical weapons and other atrocities against civilians. But at the same time it has been wary of saying or doing anything more fearing that any group that supplants him would be a far more dangerous adversary.“Formally it hasn’t changed,” the high-ranking officer said of Israel’s policy. But, he said, many discussions are taking place behind closed doors about the possibility of rethinking that strategy.The jihadis currently control most of the Syrian territory that directly borders Israel, although they have not fired rockets or missiles at Israeli territory.Two al-Qaeda-linked groups are known to operate in Syria — Jabhat al-Nusra, also known as Nusra Front, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant. The groups, which have both been designated terrorist organizations by the United States, have been bolstered by the influx of thousands of foreign fighters from across the Muslim world as well as Europe and North America who have flocked to Syria to take up arms against Assad.

Other rebel groups that are generally included in Israel’s definition, including Ahrar al-Sham and Jaish al-Islam, follow an ultraconservative ideology and call for the creation of an Islamic state, but have a more nationalist bent than the al-Qaeda-affiliated factions and are not proponents of so-called “global jihad.”

Aron Lund, editor of the Carnegie Endowment’s “Syria in Crisis” website, said the home-grown rebel groups such as Arhar al-Sham and Jaish al-Islam are focused on fighting in Syria and toppling Assad, not staging global attacks.Lund was also wary of any figures for al-Qaeda-linked fighters in Syria, noting the difficulty in accurately determining such numbers amid the blurry lines of the country’s chaotic conflict.

“I don’t even know how you calculate that. Who’s a fighter? Is it anyone with a gun, or is it anyone fighting at the front lines? Is it anyone helping out doing media work and medical work and organization?” he said. “I’m very skeptical of the comparisons that the uprising is X percent this and X percent that.”To Israel, Assad is a bitter enemy, an ally of Iran and a major backer of Lebanese Hezbollah guerrilla attacks against it. But like his father whom he succeeded as president, he has faithfully observed U.S.-brokered accords that ended the 1973 war with Israel. The Golan Heights frontier has remained quiet for the past 40 years, with only recent instances of cross-border fire disturbing the peace. To this point Israel believes most of the fire against it has been accidental, spillover from internal battles.The officer said 1,200 fighters belonging to five radical Islamic groups, including three with direct links to al-Qaeda and the Nusra Front, were already in the Gaza Strip and have fired rockets at Israel from the Palestinian territory.He said the infiltration has thus far been largely kept out of Israel and the West Bank, thanks to joint Israeli and Palestinian efforts. But dangers loom on that front too.Just this week, Israel said it had broken up an al-Qaeda plot to bomb the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and major convention center in Jerusalem — the first time Israel explicitly accused the group of being behind an attempted attack. Palestinian security forces recently arrested about 20 young men who allegedly tried to set up an organization of ultraconservative Salafis.Last November, Israeli forces killed three members of that group in a shootout in the city of Hebron. Israeli security officials say there is some cooperation with their Palestinian counterparts in the West Bank to keep the Salafis under watch.Associated Press writer Ryan Lucas in Beirut contributed to this report.

Israeli PM states Rouhani engaged in ‘campaign of fraud’; also says his government won’t dismantle settlements

By Times of Israel staff January 24, 2014, 5:47 pm 14

Israel estimates that Iran has spent at least $160 billion on its drive to nuclear weapons, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday.At a press conference in Davos, where he is attending the World Economic Forum, Netanyahu dismissed Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s claim that Iran is not seeking the bomb, and said Iran was engaged in a “campaign of fraud” to mislead the world about its nuclear weapons aspirations.Referring to Rouhani’s speech in Davos on Thursday, Netanyahu was witheringly critical: “He said they have no intention to develop nuclear weapons. Come on. Does anybody really believe that? Does anybody really think that? They’re investing these tens of billions. By our estimation, they have invested $160-170 billion dollars. What for? To develop medical isotopes to despatch on ballistic missiles to sick Iranians orbiting the Earth? Of course they intend to develop nuclear weapons.”Iran’s national budget for 2013 was a reported $453 billion.Netanyahu, who also met in Davos with US Secretary of State John Kerry, said the principles of a future potential agreement with the Palestinians would become clear in the next few days — a reference to a “framework” agreement which Kerry is finalizing to guide the ongoing peace talks. Once those principles were made clear, Netanyahu said, it would be possible to assess whether the Palestinian leadership is truly seeking a breakthrough.He stressed that Kerry’s “framework” agreement was not a binding peace deal, but rather that “the Americans are speaking about their proposal” — a path forward for further negotiations, he said.Kerry and Netanyahu met for 90 minutes. Netanyahu told the secretary he had no intention of evacuating any Israeli settlements in the Jordan Valley or uprooting Israelis who live there. “I’ve said in the past and I repeat today: I do not intend to evacuate any settlements, I don’t intend to uproot any Israeli,” he said. He was responding to a question about the Jordan Valley, and it was not clear whether he was speaking only in that context or about settlements in general.Israel’s insistence on maintaining a security presence in the Jordan Valley, the area of the West Bank bordering the Hashemite Kingdom, has been a sticking point for the two sides in the six months of negotiations that began at the end of July.Last month, the Palestinians reportedly rejected a proposal by Kerry for an Israeli security presence to remain in the Jordan Valley for the first 10 years after the signing of a peace deal.Netanyahu added that international economic pressure on Israel over settlements would not advance the peace process but, rather, harm it by encouraging the Palestinians to toughen their stance.Kerry, earlier, told Saudi news outlet Al Arabiya that he was skeptical as to whether such a framework accord could be finalized in the coming month.“I’m not sure when it will be,” Kerry said. “It will be when we’re finished with the work we have to do to get there. We’re still negotiating. We’re working in good faith with both of the parties. The leaders have been very, very committed to this process. My hope is we can achieve the framework for final status negotiations. But it’s very, very difficult and we have a lot of work to do.”The secretary of state said that if a peace agreement was not reached soon, “the risks for everybody are much greater — the risk of confrontation, the risk of violence, the risk of continued conflict.”Last week London-based Arabic daily al-Hayat reported that Kerry was to present a memorandum of understanding between Israel and the Palestinians at a conference in Jordan at the end of the month.Later Friday, Kerry was to deliver a speech in which US officials said he would counter criticism that the United States is pulling back from the Mideast.

Kerry would argue it’s a “myth” that Washington has disengaged from the region, pointing out major diplomatic initiatives with the Israelis and Palestinians, Syria and Iran, they said.Kerry came to Davos after attending a Syria peace conference in Montreux, Switzerland on Wednesday.AP contributed to this report.

Saddam gave orders to fire chemical weapons at Tel Aviv if he was toppled in First Gulf War’

Tapes reveal Iraqi dictator told generals to launch missiles with WMD warheads at Jewish state should he be cut off from his military staff

By Times of Israel staff January 25, 2014, 12:14 am 11

Saddam Hussein gave orders to his subordinates to launch missiles with chemical warheads at Israel should he start to lose power during the First Gulf War, Israel’s Channel 2 reported Friday, citing tapes from the late Iraqi president’s archives.According to the report, Hussein dispersed missiles armed with chemical weapons at bases across the country and gave orders to have them launched at the Jewish state should his regime collapse or he be cut off from his general staff. The list of strategic Israeli targets was drawn up and included, curiously, Haifa’s leading high-tech university, The Technion.A professor from the university recounted in the report that a Jordanian official who visited the school told him that Saddam insisted the Technion be added to the list of strategic targets because a teacher at the school had spoken ill of him.Hussein tape-recorded many of his meetings with senior Iraqi officials and foreign dignitaries. The trove of audio archives was captured by the United States in 2003 and some were analyzed by Avner Golov of the Institute of National Security Studies, a think tank at Tel Aviv University.According to Golov, Hussein ultimately never launched biological or chemical weapons at Israel “because he never thought he had reached the point that he felt his regime was under threat.”Hussein did fire 39 Scud missiles armed with conventional warheads at Israel during the First Gulf War, killing one Israeli. Fears that he might use chemical warheads on the Scuds led to the Israeli authorities distributing gas masks, and ordering the populace into sealed rooms when the Scuds were heading toward Israel.On one of the tapes broadcast on Friday night, the Iraqi dictator told the visiting Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in April 1990 — four months before Saddam invaded Kuwait — that “Iraq has chemical weapons it successfully used against the Iranians” during the eight-year Iran-Iraq War, “and Iraq won’t hesitate to use them against Tel Aviv.”In another recording from 1991 broadcast by the news outlet, Hussein orders Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, his vice president, to launch missile strikes at Israel at night. When al-Douri asks whether he means military targets, Hussein replies, “I consider every city in Israel a target.”Analysis of Hussein’s tapes showed that he considered chemical weapons a trump card, “to be held in reserve to deter American or Israeli use of chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons and to prevent coalition forces from marching on Baghdad” in 1991, according to Foreign Policy.

In Geneva, Syria’s warring sides meet face-to-face

For the first time since negotiations began, rival delegations sit silently in same room as UN envoy lays groundwork for talks

By AFP and AP January 25, 2014, 1:09 pm 1-The times of Israel

GENEVA — The first face-to-face meeting between Syria’s government and the opposition hoping to overthrow Bashar Assad started and ended after barely a half-hour Saturday, with the two sides facing each other silently as a UN mediator split the distance between them and laid the groundwork for talks intended to lead Syria out of civil war.After tense days spent avoiding each other and meeting separately with the mediator, Assad’s handpicked delegation and representatives of the Syrian National Coalition gathered briefly at a single U-shaped table, then emerged and went separate ways, using different doors to avert contact.Only the mediator, Lakhdar Brahimi, spoke, according to Anas al-Abdeh, who was among the coalition’s representatives.The two sides were distant going into the meeting, with the Damascus delegation denying it had accepted the premise of a transitional leadership, and the opposition saying it would accept nothing less. Diplomats have said even getting them to the same table can be considered an accomplishment three years into the uprising that left 130,000 people dead.“Today we shall start with modest ideas and we will build on them to achieve something and we move gradually to bigger and bigger issues,” Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Mikdad said going into the meeting.Al-Abdeh said the antagonists would face each other again later Saturday but would only address Brahimi, not each other. First on the agenda was a cease-fire in the city of Homs, which has been under government siege for more than a year and where reports of starvation deaths have emerged.It was very difficult to “sit at the table with the killers,” al-Abdeh said.The first day of peace talks in Geneva stumbled, with the regime threatening to walk out. However, after meeting with both sides, UN-Arab League Syria envoy Lakhdar Brahimi said Friday they had agreed to “meet in the same room”.Pulled together by the United Nations, Russia and the United States, the delegations had been due to sit down early Friday at UN headquarters in Geneva for their first direct talks.

But that plan fell apart after the opposition insisted the regime must be prepared to discuss Assad leaving power.“We never expected this to be easy,” Brahimi told reporters, adding that “I think the two parties understand what is at stake.”Foreign Minister Walid Muallem had earlier warned Brahimi that the Syrian delegation would leave Geneva if no “serious sessions” took place Saturday.Still, Brahimi appeared confident no one would be immediately quitting the talks, insisting that “both parties are going to be here tomorrow and they will be meeting.”The talks have yet to touch on concrete issues.“We have not discussed the core matters yet,” Brahimi said, adding: “we hope that both parties will give concessions that will be to the benefit of the process.”Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Muqdad blamed the opposition for obstructing Friday’s talks.Nazir al-Hakim, a member of the opposition National Coalition’s delegation, told AFP it would only accept negotiations based on the agreement reached at the “Geneva I” peace conference in 2012, which called for the creation of a transitional government.“We need guarantees that Geneva I will be discussed,” he said.The regime has said it supports Geneva I, but rejects the opposition’s contention that the agreement requires Assad to go.Brahimi admitted there were “some differences on the interpretation” of parts of the document, saying he hoped the talks would help “clarify the ambiguity.”Talks to touch on ‘siege of Homs’

Expectations are very low for a breakthrough at the Geneva II discussions, which are expected to last about a week.At the World Economic Forum in the Swiss town of Davos, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki described the agreement on Saturday’s meeting as “a positive step forward in what we expect will be a long and complicated process.”With no one appearing ready for serious concessions, mediators will be focusing on short-term deals to keep the process moving forward, including on localised ceasefires, freer humanitarian access and prisoner exchanges.Opposition Coalition official Ahmad Ramadan told AFP talks on Saturday and Sunday would focus on the central city of Homs, where hundreds of families are living under siege with near-daily shelling and the barest of supplies.“We will talk exclusively about… how to put an end to the siege of Homs, ensuring humanitarian corridors to besieged areas and stopping the regime’s bombing and killing,” Ramadan said.The start of the conference in the Swiss town of Montreux on Wednesday was marked by fiery exchanges, with Muallem labelling the opposition “traitors” and agents of foreign governments.Erupting after the regime cracked down on protests inspired by the Arab Spring, Syria’s civil war has claimed more than 130,000 lives and forced millions from their homes.Pitting Assad’s regime, dominated by the Alawite offshoot of Shi’ite Islam, against largely Sunni Muslim rebels, the war has unsettled large parts of the Middle East.