Yahoo! News: Iraq

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• White House defends Biden from brutal Gates hit
• US Air Force copter crashes in England, killing 4
• Former U.S. Defense Secretary Gates criticizes Obama in memoir
• Syria ships out first batch of chemical weapons materials
• Gates: Obama grew frustrated over Afghanistan
• Obama didn't believe his own war strategy: Gates
• War policies tested from Mideast, Afghanistan
• United States sending more troops and tanks to South Korea
• Obama and Hillary Clinton said opposition to Iraq surge was political, ex-defense secretary claims
• Mideast tumult tests Obama approach in the region
• First chemical arms material shipped out of Syria
• Fall of Fallujah reverberates in Washington. But will US help Iraq?
• Oil prices boosted by US cold snap
• ISIL threatens Syria opposition politicians: audio
• Qaeda-linked group urges Iraq Sunnis to keep fighting
• Robert Gates Thinks Joe Biden Hasn't Stopped Being Wrong for 40 Years
• Iraqi government: airstrike kills 25 militants
• U.S. outlook too uncertain for M&A rush: Airbus exec
• Gunmen kill 12 at Baghdad brothel
• Iraqi Sunnis flee Anbar turmoil for Shiite Karbala
• First batch of chemical weapons taken out of Syria
• Florida congressman's wife seeks divorce
• Suspected Qaeda Syria militant remanded in custody in Spain
• Gunmen kill 7 police in attack on Iraq checkpoint
• Turkey's pro-Kurdish MPs sworn in after freed from prison
• Syrian Rebels Battle With al-Qaeda Fighters as Iraq Implodes Next Door
• The Syria effect: Lebanese Sunnis begin to strap on bombs
• Obama backs repeal of law that green-lighted Iraq War
• Frist Center Pairs Work of Francisco Goya and Steve Mumford in Exhibitions Exploring Conflict as Seen Through Artists' Eyes
• Radical Syria rebel pleads for infighting to stop
• Iraq moves up tanks, guns for looming Falluja assault
• 5 takeaways from Joe Trippi on the political landscape in 2014 and 2016
• Syria's Nusra Front chief urges end to jihadist-rebel clashes
• Turkey: Case dropped over botched air raid
• Urgent call for champions to prevent lost generation of Syrian children
• Syrian Qaeda branch urges truce to halt rebel infighting
• '274 dead' in four days of Syria rebel-jihadist clashes
• Syrian al Qaeda branch calls for truce to halt rebel infighting
• Oil prices bolstered by severe US cold snap
• Is Iran the United States' new best friend in the Middle East?

White House defends Biden from brutal Gates hit Posted: 07 Jan 2014 04:28 PM PST The former defense secretary calls Biden clueless. The White House calls him "one of the leading statesmen of his time."

US Air Force copter crashes in England, killing 4 Posted: 07 Jan 2014 04:23 PM PST LONDON (AP) — A U.S. Air Force Pave Hawk helicopter crashed in the coastal marshes of eastern England during a training mission on Tuesday night, killing all four crew members aboard, officials said.

Former U.S. Defense Secretary Gates criticizes Obama in memoir Posted: 07 Jan 2014 04:13 PM PST U.S. President Barack Obama lacked belief in his administration's policy toward the war in Afghanistan and was skeptical it would even succeed, his former defense secretary, Robert Gates, writes in a memoir to be published next week. Gates, who served as Pentagon chief from 2006 to 2011 under Obama and his Republican predecessor, George W. Bush, is critical of Obama's leadership on several defense-related issues, especially Afghanistan, according to a review of "Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War" in the Washington Post on Tuesday. According to the Post, Gates wrote that he concluded by early 2010 that Obama, who had ordered his own troop "surge" in Afghanistan like Bush's in the Iraq war, "doesn't believe in his own strategy, and doesn't consider the war to be his.

Syria ships out first batch of chemical weapons materials Posted: 07 Jan 2014 04:09 PM PST By Oliver Holmes and Erika Solomon BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria has started moving chemical weapons materials out of the country in a crucial phase of an internationally backed disarmament program that has been delayed by war and technical problems. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons said on Tuesday that "priority chemical materials" were transported to the port of Latakia and onto a Danish vessel which was now sailing towards international waters. Syria agreed to abandon its chemical weapons by June under a deal proposed by Russia and agreed with the United States after an August 21 sarin gas attack that Western nations blamed on President Bashar al-Assad's forces. Damascus blames rebels for the attack.

Gates: Obama grew frustrated over Afghanistan Posted: 07 Jan 2014 03:52 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates asserts in a new memoir that President Barack Obama grew frustrated with U.S. policy in Afghanistan and that Vice President Joe Biden has been wrong on nearly every foreign policy and national security issue. He also accuses members of Congress of inquisition-like treatment of administration officials.

Obama didn't believe his own war strategy: Gates Posted: 07 Jan 2014 03:50 PM PST Former defense secretary Robert Gates has delivered a scathing critique of President Barack Obama's handling of the war in Afghanistan in a revealing new memoir, US media reported Tuesday. In "Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary of War," Gates recounts how Obama appeared to lack faith in a war strategy he had approved and the commander he named to lead it, General David Petraeus, and did not like Afghan President Hamid Karzai, according to The New York Times and The Washington Post. "As I sat there, I thought: the president doesn't trust his commander, can't stand Karzai, doesn't believe in his own strategy and doesn't consider the war to be his," Gates writes of a March 2011 meeting in the White House. Having approved deploying more than 30,000 forces after an acrimonious White House debate, the US president seemed plagued by doubts and surrounded by civilian aides who sowed distrust with the military, Gates writes.

War policies tested from Mideast, Afghanistan Posted: 07 Jan 2014 03:47 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is confronted with a recent burst of strength by al-Qaida that is chipping away at the remains of Mideast stability, testing his hands-off approach to conflicts in Iraq and Syria at the same time he pushes to keep thousands of U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

United States sending more troops and tanks to South Korea Posted: 07 Jan 2014 03:38 PM PST The United States said on Tuesday it will send 800 more soldiers and about 40 Abrams main battle tanks and other armored vehicles to South Korea next month as part of a military rebalance to East Asia after more than a decade of war in Afghanistan and Iraq. The battalion of troops and M1A2 tanks and about 40 Bradley fighting vehicles from the 1st U.S. Cavalry Division based at Fort Hood, Texas, will begin a nine-month deployment in South Korea on February 1. "This addition of forces to Korea is part of the rebalance to the Pacific. It's been long planned and is part of our enduring commitment to security on the Korean peninsula," Army Colonel Steve Warren said.

Obama and Hillary Clinton said opposition to Iraq surge was political, ex-defense secretary claims Posted: 07 Jan 2014 03:21 PM PST A new memoir by former Defense Secretary Robert Gates claims that President Obama and then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told each other that opposition to the Iraq surge in 2006 was a purely political move.

Mideast tumult tests Obama approach in the region Posted: 07 Jan 2014 02:51 PM PST WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is confronted with a recent burst of strength by al-Qaida that is chipping away at the remains of Mideast stability, testing his hands-off approach to conflicts in Iraq and Syria at the same time he pushes to keep thousands of U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

First chemical arms material shipped out of Syria Posted: 07 Jan 2014 02:29 PM PST The first shipment of chemical weapons materials left Latakia port Tuesday under a deal to rid Syria of its chemical arsenal, the joint mission overseeing the disarmament said. On the ground, the head of Syrian Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front urged an end to four days of clashes between rebels and the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant that has killed at least 274 people. "A first quantity of priority chemical materials was moved from two sites to the port of Latakia for verification and was then loaded onto a Danish commercial vessel today," the UN-Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (UN-OPCW) mission said. Escorted by Chinese, Danish, Norwegian and Russian naval vessels, the ship will stand offshore until more chemicals arrive at Latakia and then return to collect them.

Fall of Fallujah reverberates in Washington. But will US help Iraq? Posted: 07 Jan 2014 02:04 PM PST Al Qaeda's resurgence in Iraq's Sunni regions and growing concerns over the return of civil conflict to a country the US military left just two years ago are spawning a debate over who's to blame for the renewed strife – and what the US should do about it. Two Republican senators – Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Arizona's John McCain – were quick to blame President Obama when Al Qaeda-affiliated militants seized key cities in Iraq over the weekend. Among them was Fallujah, a city US Marines retook from militants in 2004 in some of the most intense and bloody fighting the US military had seen since Vietnam. "When President Obama withdrew all US forces [from Iraq] … many of us predicted that the vacuum would be filled by America's enemies and would emerge as a threat to US national security interests," they said in a statement Saturday.

Oil prices boosted by US cold snap Posted: 07 Jan 2014 02:02 PM PST The price of oil rose to near $94 a barrel Tuesday as unusually cold weather in the U.S. was expected to fuel demand in the world's largest market for energy.

ISIL threatens Syria opposition politicians: audio Posted: 07 Jan 2014 01:55 PM PST The jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant Tuesday called members of the opposition Syrian National Coalition a "legitimate target" in an audio message from an ISIL spokesman. Abu Mohammed al-Adnani said in the message published on a jihadist website that ISIL considers the opposition Syrian National "Coalition and national council and the chief of staff and military council (...) have declared and begun a war on it".

Qaeda-linked group urges Iraq Sunnis to keep fighting Posted: 07 Jan 2014 01:43 PM PST Ramadi (Iraq) (AFP) - An Al-Qaeda-linked group called on Iraqi Sunnis who have seized one city and part of another to keep battling government forces, as fighting and attacks killed 56 people Tuesday. Parts of Anbar provincial capital Ramadi west of Baghdad and all of Fallujah have been outside government control since last week. "Oh Sunni people, you were forced to take up the weapon," Abu Mohammed al-Adnani, spokesman for Al-Qaeda-linked group the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), said in an audio recording released Tuesday. "Do not lay the weapon down, because if you put it down this time, the (Shiites) will enslave you and you will not rise again," he urged Iraqi Sunnis, referring to the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.

Robert Gates Thinks Joe Biden Hasn't Stopped Being Wrong for 40 Years Posted: 07 Jan 2014 01:26 PM PST "I think he has been wrong on nearly every major foreign policy and national security issue over the past four decades," former Defense Secretary Robert Gates says of Vice President Joe Biden in his new book coming out later this month. Gates' assessment of Biden's boss is only slightly better, depicting an Obama administration with very murky lines of communication on military issues. Gates, as The New York Times notes in its review of Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War, served under every president since Nixon, save Bill Clinton. When President Obama took office in 2009, he (somewhat controversially) decided that Gates would stay as defense secretary, a position to which he was appointed by George W. Bush in 2006.

Iraqi government: airstrike kills 25 militants Posted: 07 Jan 2014 01:19 PM PST BAGHDAD (AP) — A government airstrike killed 25 al-Qaida-linked militants in a besieged province west of Baghdad amid fierce clashes Tuesday between Iraqi special forces and insurgents battling for control of the key cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, Iraqi officials said.

U.S. outlook too uncertain for M&A rush: Airbus exec Posted: 07 Jan 2014 01:12 PM PST By Andrea Shalal-Esa WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Uncertainty about U.S. budget levels is limiting the prospects for increased merger and acquisition activity in the defense industry, Sean O'Keefe, chief executive officer of the U.S. operations of Europe's Airbus, said on Tuesday. "There's lots of churn, but I don't get the sense that there's going to be a lot of immediate action," O'Keefe told Reuters in an interview after announcing that he will resign, effective March 1, for health reasons. O'Keefe said a U.S. congressional budget agreement provided some greater insight into the Pentagon's budget for fiscal 2014 and 2015, but many specifics remained unclear, which made it difficult for companies to assess potential acquisitions. He said the two-year budget agreement left mandatory budget cuts in place beyond 2015, and overall U.S. military spending looked set to drop 7 percent to 8 percent from current levels.

Gunmen kill 12 at Baghdad brothel Posted: 07 Jan 2014 12:38 PM PST Gunmen killed seven women and five men at a brothel in the Iraqi capital on Tuesday, security and medical officials said. The attack took place at an apartment in the Zayouna area of east Baghdad, where a similar attack took place last year.

Iraqi Sunnis flee Anbar turmoil for Shiite Karbala Posted: 07 Jan 2014 12:31 PM PST Ain Tamr (Iraq) (AFP) - A steady stream of families fleeing fighting in Ramadi and Fallujah is arriving at a checkpoint in Iraq's Karbala province, seeking shelter from the deadly violence. As militants hold parts of Ramadi and all of Fallujah, in Anbar province, Sunni families are now seeking safety in the Shiite-majority Karbala province, in a country that has been plagued by sharp sectarian divisions. The checkpoint in the Ain Tamr district has the look of a border crossing, manned by police and soldiers supported by armoured vehicles.

First batch of chemical weapons taken out of Syria Posted: 07 Jan 2014 12:04 PM PST BEIRUT (AP) — The first batch of the most dangerous chemicals in Syria's arsenal was loaded onto a Danish ship and taken out of the country Tuesday under tight security, an important milestone in the international operation to rid President Bashar Assad of the weapons by midyear.

Florida congressman's wife seeks divorce Posted: 07 Jan 2014 11:35 AM PST By Barbara Liston ORLANDO (Reuters) - Central Florida Congressman Alan Grayson's wife filed for divorce in Orlando on Monday in a petition calling the marriage "irretrievably broken." The Democratic lawmaker's office confirmed Tuesday that Grayson and his wife Lolita were separated and experiencing "a very difficult transition for everyone involved." The couple has been married for 23 years and has five children aged 8-18. "Congressman Grayson's priority remains caring for his five children and protecting their well-being, particularly during this difficult period. To that end, we ask that you respect the privacy of all members of the Grayson family as they work through this challenging time, and we thank you for your support," Grayson spokeswoman Lauren Doney said in a statement. Known during his first term in Congress from 2009-2011 as a fire-breathing Democrat, he famously summed up the Republican plan for healthcare as "if you do get sick, die quickly." Soundly defeated for re-election in the 2010 midterm elections by Daniel Webster during a Republican sweep of national and local offices, Grayson came back in 2012 to win a newly drawn congressional district seat awarded to central Florida following reapportionment.

Suspected Qaeda Syria militant remanded in custody in Spain Posted: 07 Jan 2014 11:31 AM PST A Spanish judge on Tuesday remanded in custody a man suspected of belonging to an Al-Qaeda linked militant group taking part in the Syrian conflict. The judge ordered Abdelwahid Sadik Mohamed, 28, to be held in custody while he is investigated for the suspected crime of membership of a terrorist organisation because of the risk that he would flee or try to destroy evidence, according to a written ruling from the National Court. Police arrested Mohamed, who was born in the north African Spanish territory of Ceuta, which borders Morocco, on Sunday at the airport in Malaga, southern Spain, where he had arrived on a flight from Istanbul. He is suspected of having trained in Syria in a camp belonging to the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), a jihadist faction in Syria with roots in Al-Qaeda's Iraqi affiliate.

Gunmen kill 7 police in attack on Iraq checkpoint Posted: 07 Jan 2014 11:21 AM PST Tikrit (Iraq) (AFP) - Gunmen attacked a police checkpoint north of the Iraqi capital on Tuesday, killing seven including a captain, a police officer and a doctor said.

Turkey's pro-Kurdish MPs sworn in after freed from prison Posted: 07 Jan 2014 11:04 AM PST Turkey's parliament swore in five pro-Kurdish lawmakers on Tuesday after they were freed from prison during their trial on charges linking them to armed militants, lifting hopes for a shaky peace process. Two courts ruled last week that the lengthy imprisonment of Peace and Democracy Party lawmakers Selma Irmak, Faysal Sariyildiz, Gulser Yildirim and Ibrahim Ayhan and independent MP Kemal Aktas had violated their rights as elected officials. Parliamentarians enjoy immunity from prosecution in Turkey. "I hope our release can contribute to the peace process, but it's really just a first step," Irmak told Reuters.

Syrian Rebels Battle With al-Qaeda Fighters as Iraq Implodes Next Door Posted: 07 Jan 2014 09:42 AM PST But in the case of Raqqa, in northern Syria, the 50 prisoners in question were not captives of the government, but of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria [ISIS], an al-Qaeda franchise ostensibly aligned with rebels pushing for the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad. Even as ISIS, which got its start as al-Qaeda in Iraq back in the days of the American war, regains territory in the Iraqi province of Anbar, it is slowly being pushed out of its northern Syrian strongholds by a broad coalition of moderate and Islamist groups fed up with its draconian interpretations of Islamic law and its abuses of power. The violent schism between ISIS and other insurgents within the rebellion may lead to a recalibration of Western attitudes towards the Syrian opposition, which has long been tainted by its links to terror groups. "This is not the end of ISIS by any means," says Charles Lister, a visiting fellow at the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar, an international think tank with a special focus on conflict in the Middle East.

The Syria effect: Lebanese Sunnis begin to strap on bombs Posted: 07 Jan 2014 09:37 AM PST When Qutaiba Satem, a 19-year-old engineering student, drove an explosives-laden car into a Shiite suburb of Beirut last week and blew himself up, he became the first Lebanese Sunni to commit an apparently sectarian-driven suicide bombing against Shiite civilians in Lebanon.  But Lebanon remained untouched by such tactics. Now, the Jan. 2 bomb attack underlines how the grinding civil war in Syria, which has repeatedly spilled into Lebanon, is radicalizing a Sunni community traditionally more comfortable with commerce and trade than jihad.

Obama backs repeal of law that green-lighted Iraq War Posted: 07 Jan 2014 09:29 AM PST The law that green-lighted the March 2003 invasion of Iraq is still on the books – but maybe not for much longer if President Barack Obama has his way, the White House said Tuesday.

Frist Center Pairs Work of Francisco Goya and Steve Mumford in Exhibitions Exploring Conflict as Seen Through Artists' Eyes Posted: 07 Jan 2014 09:15 AM PST NASHVILLE, Tenn., Jan. 7, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Through the pairing of the exhibitions Goya: The Disasters of War, and Steve Mumford's War Journals, 2003–2013, the Frist Center for the Visual Arts offers two powerful artistic portrayals of conflict and life in a combat zone. In The Disasters of War, the eminent Spanish painter and printmaker Goya graphically depicts the ravages of war as a means of expressing his horror with humanity's capacity to inflict harm, whereas the contemporary American artist Steve Mumford takes a more journalistic approach to his paintings of 21st Century combat. Both exhibitions will be on view in the Frist Center's Upper-Level Galleries from February 28 through June 8, 2014.

Radical Syria rebel pleads for infighting to stop Posted: 07 Jan 2014 08:52 AM PST BEIRUT (AP) — The shadowy leader of one of Syria's most powerful rebel groups pleaded with his comrades to stop the spread of rebel infighting in opposition-held territories, warning it threatened to upend gains made against Syrian government forces.

Iraq moves up tanks, guns for looming Falluja assault Posted: 07 Jan 2014 08:27 AM PST By Ahmed Rasheed BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The Iraqi army deployed tanks and artillery around Falluja on Tuesday, security officials said, as local leaders in the besieged city urged al Qaeda-linked militants to leave in order to avert an impending military assault. Security officials and tribal leaders have said that Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki agreed to hold off an offensive to give people in Falluja time to push the militants out. But it is not clear how long they have before troops storm the town, close to Baghdad, where U.S. forces fought notable battles a decade ago. "Tribal leaders appealed to the prime minister to halt the attack and stop shelling Falluja," an Iraqi special forces officer told Reuters.

5 takeaways from Joe Trippi on the political landscape in 2014 and 2016 Posted: 07 Jan 2014 08:20 AM PST In the latest episode of Political Wire's podcast, we sat down with Democratic consultant and media strategist Joe Trippi for a look at the 2014 elections, the future of the political parties, and the potential for technology to disturb the reigning two-party paradigm. 1. Republicans stand to gain seats in 2014 — maybe win the Senate — if they don't shoot themselves again: After taking a beating in the government shutdown battle, Republicans have pulled even or edged ahead in the generic congressional polls, with the botched ObamaCare rollout hurting the Democratic Party and taking its toll on President Obama's favorability and approval ratings. Said Trippi: "If they're as low as they are today, regardless of whether it's because of ObamaCare or an economy that hasn't recovered ... that will probably mean losing the Senate." But it also could be déjà vu all over again for Republicans: "The last two cycles they should have won the Senate, but those opportunities were essentially blown in Republican primaries."

Syria's Nusra Front chief urges end to jihadist-rebel clashes Posted: 07 Jan 2014 08:13 AM PST The chief of Syria's Al-Nusra Front, an Al-Qaeda affiliate, called Tuesday for an end to fighting between rebel groups and the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). The message came as the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group, said at least 274 people had been killed in the clashes that erupted last Friday. In an audio recording posted on Twitter, Abu Mohamed al-Jolani announced an initiative to end the fighting, including a "ceasefire" and the establishment of an independent Islamic committee to serve as mediator.

Turkey: Case dropped over botched air raid Posted: 07 Jan 2014 08:05 AM PST ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkish military prosecutors dropped a case against five military officers who were being investigated for negligence in the military air strike in 2011 that killed 34 smugglers mistaken for Kurdish rebels, saying there was no ground for any legal action, the state-run agency reported Tuesday.

Urgent call for champions to prevent lost generation of Syrian children Posted: 07 Jan 2014 07:47 AM PST "I am talking on behalf of Syrian children, calling on you -- the people of the other world. Have you ever thought of Syria? Have you ever thought of the children of Syria? The organizations are so concerned about the situation facing millions of Syrian children that they are uniting behind a call for donor and public support to fund critical education and protection programs to lift Syrian children out of misery, isolation, and emotional and mental distress.

Syrian Qaeda branch urges truce to halt rebel infighting Posted: 07 Jan 2014 07:36 AM PST The head of an al Qaeda-linked rebel group in Syria called on Tuesday for a ceasefire between opposition factions who have clashed for five days in the bloodiest bout of infighting since the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad began. An audio recording from the leader of the powerful Nusra Front, who goes by the name Abu Mohammed al-Golani, also laid much of the blame for the fighting on an al Qaeda splinter group known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). While both groups have roots in the global Islamist network and welcome foreign militants, the Nusra Front has cooperated more with other rebel groups and has largely avoided the power struggles that ISIL has faced since wresting control of many opposition-held areas from other groups.

'274 dead' in four days of Syria rebel-jihadist clashes Posted: 07 Jan 2014 07:22 AM PST Beirut (AFP) - At least 274 people have been killed in four days in Syria since the outbreak of fighting between rebels and jihadists, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Tuesday.

Syrian al Qaeda branch calls for truce to halt rebel infighting Posted: 07 Jan 2014 07:02 AM PST The head of an al Qaeda-linked rebel group in Syria called on Tuesday for a ceasefire between opposition factions who have clashed for five days in the bloodiest episode of infighting since the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad began. The audio recording from the leader of the powerful Nusra Front, who goes by the name Abu Mohammed al-Golani, also laid much of the blame for the fighting on an al Qaeda splinter group known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). While both groups have roots in the global Islamist network and welcome foreign militants, the Nusra Front has cooperated more with other rebel groups and has largely avoided the power struggles that ISIL has dealt with since wresting control of many opposition-held areas from other groups. "Many rebel units have committed transgressions, just as the mistaken policies followed by played a prominent role in fuelling the conflict," he said.

Oil prices bolstered by severe US cold snap Posted: 07 Jan 2014 06:29 AM PST The price of oil rose to near $94 a barrel Tuesday as unusually cold weather in the U.S. was expected to fuel demand in the world's largest market for energy. By mid-afternoon in Europe, benchmark U.S. ...

Is Iran the United States' new best friend in the Middle East? Posted: 07 Jan 2014 06:05 AM PST Iran denounced the US suggestion that it play a role on the sidelines of the second United Nations Syria peace conference this month because the minimal role "does not respect its dignity," a foreign ministry spokeswoman said Monday. But with skyrocketing sectarian violence throughout the region, particularly in Syria and Iraq, and the US beginning to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, Iran's active involvement in the region is seen as increasingly important, The New York Times reports, describing Iran as an "island of stability." The UN special envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, supports Iran's participation in the Syrian peace process, and on Sunday, US Secretary of State John Kerry said Tehran could "participate very easily" in the talks if they accept that the Assad regime must be replaced by a transitional government. "If Iran doesn't support that, it's difficult to see how they are going to be a ministerial partner in the process," Mr. Kerry said, noting that there are ways they could "conceivably" contribute from the sidelines.

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