– Kerry says Syria could be ‘weeks away’ from transition
– France deploys aircraft carrier to support Syria raids
– Russia ‘outraged’ at accusations it killed civilians in Syria
– Syrian Kurdish-Arab alliance captures nearly 200 villages from ISIS
– US ground invasion out of the question; US, Turkey launch operation to take border with Syria 
– Kurdistan continues to bypass Baghdad and sell oil on the global market
– Yazidi mass grave discovered in Sinjar

Kerry says Syria could be ‘weeks away’ from transition

US Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday that Syria could be weeks away from a “big transition,” following on from international talks in Vienna this weekend. “We are weeks away conceivably from the possibility of a big transition for Syria,” Kerry said, and that there is now a “genuine process with possibilities” to unlock the war in Syria. He continued, “We have found a common agreement on principles (and) established a concept of giving life to a negotiation with Iran and Russia at the table, which is unique in the last four and a half years.” Saudi Arabia is expected to host a meeting of Syrian opposition figures by mid-December, at which they are to agree on a delegation to send to talks with representatives from President Bashar al-Assad’s government. Once those negotiations begin, a ceasefire is to take effect, according to the agreement reached in Vienna. [AP, AFP, 11/17/2015]

France deploys aircraft carrier to support Syria raids
French President Francois Hollande said Monday its Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier would be deployed to the eastern Mediterranean to boost operations in Syria as Paris intensifies a bombing campaign against Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL). The vessel, the flagship of the French navy, will take a few days to reach its destination, near Syria or Lebanon, whereas it was not due to reach the Gulf, its original destination, until next month. With twenty-six fighter jets on board, the nuclear-powered carrier will dramatically increase France’s capacity to carry out air strikes adding to the twelve French planes currently stationed in the United Arab Emirates and Jordan overall. With thirty-eight fighters, France will be able to “intensify its operations in Syria,” Hollande said following Friday’s deadly attacks in Paris. [AFP, 11/17/2015]

Russia ‘outraged’ at accusations it killed civilians in Syria
Russia has told the United Nations on Monday it was “outraged” by allegations that it had killed civilians in Syria and destroyed civilian infrastructure as a US-based rights group accused Moscow’s air force of bombing ten medical facilities in October. Physicians for Human Rights said there had been sixteen attacks on medical facilities in Syria in October. It blamed at least ten of those attacks and one death on Russian air strikes. “We are outraged by different types of information regarding alleged civilian deaths and destruction of civilian infrastructure as a result of missile and air strikes by the Russian armed forces,” Russian Deputy UN Ambassador Vladimir Safronkov said. [Reuters, 11/17/2015]

Syrian Kurdish-Arab alliance captures nearly 200 villages from ISIS
An alliance of Kurdish and Arab forces fighting ISIS in Syria has driven the militants out of nearly 200 villages, its spokeman Talal Ali Sello said. Sello added at a press conference that “between October 30 and November 13, an area of 1,362 square kilometers was cleansed of ISIS”. That area included 196 towns and villages, among them Al-Hol which lies along a strategic ISIS supply route and where Sello made his comments. He said these “victories” had been achieved with air support from a US-led coalition striking ISIS targets in Syria over the past year. The offensive south of the city of Hasaka, where control is divided between Syria’s regime and Kurdish militia, saw the alliance take several villages before seizing Al-Hol on Thursday. [AFP, 11/16/2015]

US ground invasion out of the question; US, Turkey launch operation to take border with Syria
US President Barack Obama rejected calls for a US-led ground invasion in Syria on Monday. In the wake of the deadly attacks in Paris on Friday, public pressure for a strong military intervention in Syria has risen steeply. The president insisted that a patient approach was needed and committed the United States only to “intensify” its current strategy. US Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday the United States is starting an operation with Turkey to finish securing the northern Syrian border, an area that ISIS militants have used as a lucrative smuggling route. “The entire border of northern Syria – 75 percent of it has now been shut off. And we are entering an operation with the Turks to shut off the other remaining 98 km (61 miles),” he said in an interview. [The Guardian, 11/16/2015]

Kurdistan continues to bypass Baghdad and sell oil on the global market
Kurdistan has for the first time detailed its secretive oil exports operations and said it plans to sell more, whether Baghdad likes it or not, as it needs money to survive and fight ISIS. In order to avoid detection, oil was often funneled through Israel, transferred directly between ships off the coast of Malta, and decoy ships used to make it harder for Baghdad to track. Kurdistan says it had been forced to bypass Baghdad and begin exporting oil directly because the latter refused to respect budgets in 2014 and 2015. The Iraqi central government said the Kurds have failed to respect deals to transfer agreed volumes of oil to Baghdad. The region plans to increase exports to as much as 1 million barrels and wants also to become a significant gas exporter. [Reuters, 11/17/2015]

Yazidi mass grave discovered in Sinjar
A mass grave believed to contain the remains of more than seventy members of Iraq’s Yazidi minority was discovered east of Sinjar town after Kurdish forces claimed victory over ISIS militants in the area, the mayor and locals have said.The mayor of Sinjar and local Yazidis said they believe those buried were older women from the village of Kocho whom the militants had separated from younger women during their onslaught. Kurdish forces retook Sinjar town on Friday in a two-day offensive backed by US-coalition air strikes. Most of Iraq’s Yazidi population are still living in camps in the Kurdistan region, and more than 2,000 women remain in ISIS captivity. [The Guardian, 11/15/2015]