Commentaries, Opinons, And Editorials -- September 18, 2013

Will UN Vote Hold Syria Accountable? New Gridlock Same As The Old Gridlock. -- Howard Lafranchi, Christian Science Monitor

Security Council member France expresses dismay at the Russian charge that the UN weapons inspectors’ report on the use of sarin gas in Syria was biased.

Mirroring the split in the council that has prevented any UN action on Syria over the course of its 2-1/2-year-old civil war, Western powers and Russia are at loggerheads over what a resolution should say about the consequences for noncompliance with the plan to rid Syria of one of the world’s largest stockpiles of chemical weapons.

The speed bumps on the road to Security Council action only seemed to get higher Wednesday as Russia slammed a UN weapons inspectors’ report on Syria issued Monday, saying it was biased against the Syrian government – Moscow’s ally – and tainted by politics.

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Commentaries, Opinions, And Editorials

Chemical weapons and hard diplomacy -- Globe and Mail editorial

It is only the credible threat of force that has muscled Syria into a deal -- David Blair, The Telegraph

The president’s bait-and-switch on Syria will turn out badly for the U.S. -- Jonah Goldberg, National

Is The U.S. A Paper Tiger? -- Daily Star editorial

Trust Iran’s No Nuke Pledge? -- Michael Rubin, Commentary

The Sources of the Sino-American Spiral -- Jennifer Lind, National Interest

Is Africa really a drunken continent? -- Hannah Barnes, BBC News

Putin's New York Times Blunder -- Buck McKeon, Moscow Times

Top House Republican authors Moscow Times rebuttal to Putin op-ed -- Susan Ferrechio, Washington Examiner

Fraud and the City: Russia’s Manhattan Money Laundering -- Michael Daly, Daily Beast

The Loneliest Man in Greece -- Chanan Tigay, New Yorker

The Repentant Radical -- Michael Moynihan, The Daily Beast

The international system is still working — sort of. -- Richard Gwyn, Toronto Star

The United States and the Remaking of the Global Energy Economy -- Amy Myers Jaffe and Edward L. Morse, Foreign Affairs