– France to present UN resolution banning use of Syrian barrel bombs
– Russia says it wants Syria elections, ready to help Free Syrian Army
– New FSA alliance formed in southern Syria; Syrian regime battles ISIS for Aleppo supply line
– United States, Saudi Arabia to bolster support for moderate Syrian opposition
– Nine killed in raid on ISIS cell in Turkey
– Suicide bomber targets Shia pilgrims, killing seven in Baghdad
– Tony Blair says Iraq war contributed to rise of ISIS; new envoy for Anti-ISIS Coalition

France to present UN resolution banning use of Syrian barrel bombs
France will present a draft UN Security Council resolution in the next few days seeking to ban the use of barrel bombs by the Syrian regime, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius confirmed Friday.  “We have to ensure that the regime stops bombing the civilian population,” Fabius said after talks with UN Envoy to Syria Staffan de Mistura. It remains highly unlikely that Russia would support such a measure. Fabius also announced that he will hold talks on Syria with his counterparts from the United States, Britain, Germany, and Saudi Arabia in Paris at an unspecified time next week. [AFP, 10/24/2015]

Russia says it wants Syria elections, ready to help Free Syrian Army
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Kremlin wanted Syria to prepare for parliamentary and presidential elections. He also said that Russia’s air force, which has been reportedly bombing the Islamic State (ISIS or ISIL), would be ready to help Western-backed Free Syrian Army rebels if it knew where they were. The Kremlin has spoken broadly about the need for elections in Syria before. Lavrov’s comments were Russia’s most specific call for political renewal yet and came just days after a surprise visit by Assad to Moscow. State news agency SANA’s initial report on the meeting made no mention of the proposal floated by Russia for the new presidential and parliamentary elections. President Bashar al-Assad said Sunday his country must “eradicate terrorism” to find a political solution to its civil war. [Reuters, Al Arabiya, 10/25/2015]

New FSA alliance formed in southern Syria; Syrian regime battles ISIS for Aleppo supply line
A new Free Syrian Army coalition has been formed in southern Syria, where the FSA-affiliated Southern Front and Islamist rebels have been battling the regime. “The new military formation raises the FSA flag and [shares] its goals of toppling the regime and confronting the Russian occupation as well as all forms of terrorism,” the pro-rebel Baladi News announced Monday morning, days after two dozen factions formed the coalition. In a video statement on October 23, representatives of the FSA-affiliated fighting groups said they had created Jaysh al-Janoub (The Army of the South), which will operate in the Damascus, Rif Dimashq, Quneitra, Deraa, and Sweida provinces. At the same time, Syrian troops backed by Russian air strikes battled ISIS fighters on Saturday in a bid to restore a key supply line to second city Aleppo, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.  [NOW, 10/26/2015]

United States, Saudi Arabia to bolster support for moderate Syrian opposition
The United States and Saudi Arabia agreed to increase support to Syria’s moderate opposition while seeking a political resolution of the four-year conflict, the US State Department said after Secretary of State John Kerry met King Salman on Saturday. Kerry was in Riyadh for meetings with the Saudi Monarch, Crown Prince, Deputy Crown Prince and Foreign Minister. “They pledged to continue and intensify support to the moderate Syrian opposition while the political track is being pursued,” the State Department statement said after Kerry’s meetings in Saudi Arabia. It did not spell out what kind of support would be offered. Rebels have appealed for more military support from foreign backers, including Saudi Arabia, to confront major Syrian army offensives. Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir insisted on Sunday that Bashar al-Assad should have no role in Syria’s future, adding there had been some progress in international talks on resolving the conflict. [Reuters, 10/25/2015]

Nine killed in raid on ISIS cell in Turkey
Turkey claimed it struck a major blow against an ISIS cell in a raid Monday in which seven militants reportedly were killed. Two police officers also died in the clash in southeastern Turkey, police said. The police officers were killed by booby-trap bombs as they broke down a door during a pre-dawn operation launched on “three or four houses” used by an ISIS cell in the city of Diyarbakir, Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus said. A dozen suspected militants were detained. Five other police officers were wounded during the raid. [AP, 10/26/2015]

Suicide bomber targets Shia pilgrims, killing seven in Baghdad
An Iraqi police official reported a man wearing a suicide belt attacked a tent serving refreshments to pilgrims in Baghdad observing an annual Shia ritual, killing at least seven people. The attack happened in Baghdad’s eastern al-Shaab neighborhood. The police official said at least two police officers were among the dead. At least nineteen people were wounded in the attack. ISIS has already claimed a number of attacks on pilgrims and other Shia gatherings since the start of the holy period of Muharrem, commemorating the death of the Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Muhammed and an iconic Shia martyr. [AP, 10/26/2015]

Tony Blair says Iraq war contributed to rise of ISIS; new envoy for Anti-ISIS Coalition
Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said the US-led invasion of Iraq was partly responsible for the emergence of ISIS in the Middle East, but insisted that toppling dictator Saddam Hussein had been the right thing to do. “I apologize for the fact that the intelligence we received was wrong,” he said in clips released by CNN before the broadcast on Sunday. “I also apologize for some of the mistakes in planning and, certainly, our mistake in our understanding of what would happen once you removed the regime.” On Friday, Secretary of State John Kerry announced Brett McGurk to replace General John Allen as the Special Presidential Envoy to the Anti-ISIL Coalition. [CNN, WSJ, Reuters, 10/26/2015]

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