– Putin meets with Obama to discuss Syria on sidelines of Paris climate conference
– Assad accuses France of ‘supporting terrorism’; UK to vote Wednesday on Syria air strikes
– Syria denies using chemical weapons in civil war
– Syria’s al-Qaeda branch releases captive Lebanese soldiers
– Deal reached over last Syria rebel exit from Homs city
– Turkey detains 11 ISIL members near Syrian border
– Iraqi Kurdistan minister says no link between oil sales and islamic state

Putin meets with Obama to discuss Syria on sidelines of Paris climate conference
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday that he and President Barack Obama have a shared understanding on how to move toward a political settlement in Syria, but added that incidents like the recent downing of a Russian warplane by a Turkish fighter jet stymie broader cooperation against extremism. Putin and Obama had a half-hour meeting on the sidelines of a climate summit near Paris, and the Russian leader told reporters they discussed efforts to compile a list of extremist groups and another one of members of legitimate political opposition. Putin said, “We have an understanding how we should proceed if we talk about a political settlement. We need to work on a new [Syrian] constitution, new elections and the control over their outcome.” [AP, 12/1/2015]

Assad accuses France of ‘supporting terrorism’; UK to vote Wednesday on Syria air strikes
Syrian President Bashar Assad was asked whether he could see a peace deal being signed in Prague, as Czech President Milos Zeman had suggested in September. “Naturally, if you ask Syrians they will tell you they don’t want a peace conference in France, for example, because France supports terrorism and war, not peace,” he said on the CT public station. In other news, Britain’s parliament is to hold a vote Wednesday on joining air strikes against Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL) in Syria, Prime Minister David Cameron said Monday. “I can announce that I will be recommending to cabinet tomorrow that we hold a debate and a vote in the House of Commons to extend the air strikes,” Cameron said. The Prime Minister added that Britain wanted to “answer the call from our allies and work with them because ISIL is a threat to our country and this is the right thing to do.” [AFP, 12/1/2015]

Syria denies using chemical weapons in civil war
Syria on Monday denied ever using chemical weapons in its civil war, telling the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) it was cooperating fully with the destruction of its toxic stockpile. Damascus’s rebuttal comes amid growing accusations it is not being transparent with the world’s chemical watchdog and UN efforts are stepped up to track down the perpetrators of deadly chlorine gas attacks in the country last year. “We wish here to state categorically that we have never used chlorine or any other toxic chemicals during any incidents or any other operations in the Syrian Arab Republic since the beginning of the crisis and up to this very day,” Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Moqdad told the OPCW at their annual meeting. [AFP, 12/1/2015]

Syria’s al-Qaeda branch releases captive Lebanese soldiers
Syria’s al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front on Tuesday released a group of Lebanese troops held captive for over a year as part of a swap that involved Lebanon setting free at least eleven prisoners wanted by the militants, including a former wife of ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. The swap, brokered by Qatar, took place in the northeastern Lebanese town of Arsal, where the three soldiers and 13 policemen were captured during fighting in August 2014 between Lebanese security forces and militant Islamist groups. Nine other Lebanese soldiers were still being held by ISIS, said Lebanese army spokesman Col. Anis Khoury. [WSJ, AP, 12/1/2015]

Deal reached over last Syria rebel exit from Homs city
A deal has been reached for the evacuation of Syrian opposition fighters from the last district under their control in the central city of Homs, said provincial governor Talal Barazi on Tuesday. “We will implement the agreed deal in stages, with 200-300 armed men leaving in the first stage … starting on Saturday,” Barazi said. On Monday, Barazi said that negotiations are underway between the Syrian regime and rebels for the evacuation of opposition forces from the last area they hold in Homs city. Waer is the only part of the city, which is the capital of Homs province, which remains in the hands of the rebels after opposition forces were evacuated from the Old City in May 2014. [Al-Arabiya, 12/1/2015]

Turkey detains 11 ISIL members near Syrian border
Eleven foreign nationals suspected of planning to join ISIS have been captured by police in Turkey’s southern province of Kilis. More than 2,500 ISIS members have been captured across the country over the past three years, with 837 of them from non-Turkish origin, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported. Having added ISIS to the official list of terrorist organizations in 2013, Turkish security forces have since detained 2,627 suspected ISIS members in anti-terror operations. Some 632 among the 2,627 detained individuals were subsequently arrested and 120 tons of bomb-making material was seized. More than 100 of the arrested suspects were foreign nationals. [Hurriyet, 12/1/2015]

Iraqi Kurdistan minister says no link between oil sales and islamic state
The Iraqi Kurdish minister for natural resources said on Tuesday reports that the regional government was helping smuggle oil from fields controlled by Islamic State militants were “wild imagination and unsubstantiated.” Kurdistan began bypassing Baghdad and exporting oil directly in 2014 following a dispute with the federal government about its share of the budget. It is currently exporting more than 500,000 barrels per day (bpd) of oil. “We are dealing with Daesh [ISIS] on the front line. We have bombed their infrastructure. Not one drop of oil came in [from ISIS],” he said. The KRG said on Monday all crude oil that moved through its pipeline to the Turkish port of Ceyhan, as well as all cargoes loaded at that point, had been verified and there was no question as to their origin, in response to reports that it was enabling oil produced in Islamic State-held areas to be sold along with its own output. [NYT, 12/1/2015]