The tornado which was as much as 1.6 kilometres wide has flattened entire neighbourhoods, set buildings on fire and landed a direct blow on an elementary school.

More to come.

White House press secretary Jay Carney says Kathryn Ruemmler notified Denis McDonough, the chief of staff to President Barack Obama. “appropriately” decided not to tell Obama at the time because the audit was ongoing

The audit by a Treasury Department inspector general found that IRS employees singled out groups with names like “tea party” and “patriots” for special scrutiny that delayed their applications for tax exempt status.

Carney said no one in the White House intervened in the inspector general’s audit. He says Obama did not learn of the probe until there were news reports about it.

Carney noted that the practice by the IRS workers ended in May 2012.

A French commission holding public consultations on the project says the historical significance of the sites fully justifies the participation of any Canadian, British and American nationals who may have concerns.

The proposed turbines will be about 10 kilometres off the shore of Juno Beach, where 359 Canadians died during the D-Day attacks that marked a turning point in the Second World War.

The entire proposal rankles at least one Canadian who fought at Juno Beach.

Roy E. Eddy says he’s personally very much against the plan because he thinks the project is going to be disrespectful to the memory of those who died.

The federal government says it understands and shares the concerns of those who fought for freedom.

Veterans Affairs Canada is tracking the progress of the proposed wind farm.

The consultations in France run till July 20.

Canadians can write in their opinions and register for updates on the debates being held over the project.

The personal annotations from Rowling included comments on the process of writing and a section from an early draft of the novel.

They also included a note on how the bestselling author came to invent the game of “Quidditch.”

Rowling’s 22 illustrations included a sleeping baby Harry on a door step and an Albus Dumbledore Chocolate Frog card.

Tuesday’s auction at Sotheby’s London will also include other personalized books including Kazuo Ishiguro’s “The Remains of the Day” and Yann Martel’s “Life of Pi.”

Sotheby’s said Monday the funds raised will benefit the writer’s association English PEN.

According to his aunt, Amanda Morales, 22-year-old Diego Hernandez was seen 13 days ago being shoved into a car and then again seen on surveillance video at at ATM with two men standing by his side.

“Overseas you look to your government, to the Canadian Consulate for assistance, but all they can say is the local authorities are doing something,” but Morales says she hasn’t had much cooperation from police in Puerto Vallarta.

Hernandez is a martial arts teacher and moved to the country two years to organize an MMA event.

“It’s the most terrifying feeling to have when one of your children, one of your family members is missing, because we don’t know what has happened to him.”

Morales believes his American business partner, Craig Silva, 31 was also kidnapped.

“We hear about it on the news all the time, that people are abducted in these countries.  They are taking money out of Silva’s accounts.  They haven’t called and asked for a ransom which is not normal in these situations, we thought we would have had that call a while ago.”

AHNA O’REILLY FETED AS SHE CELEBRATES TWO CANNES FILMS

Along the water on the yachts where many of the Cannes Film Festival’s uber-exclusive parties are thrown, guests are required to take off their shoes before stepping on the boat And for that, “Fruitvale Station” actress Ahna O’Reilly is grateful.

“I can’t be in heels for that long — I’m so uncomfortable!” the smiling actress said Sunday evening aboard the posh Jettee Albert Edouard. “But it’s amazing, I love seeing people all dolled up, it’s fine.”

This is O’Reilly’s first trip to the Cannes Film Festival, and she has two films on display. The actress, who was also in “The Help,” is starring in “Fruitvale” with good friend Octavia Spencer and also in “As I Lay Dying,” in which she was directed by another friend, James Franco, who also stars in the film. Both were in attendance as she was the guest of honour at the event, hosted by the charity Art of Elysium.

“I’m just pinching myself, I can’t believe it, and I’m here with some of my best friends in the world representing projects that I’m deeply passionate about, and also here tonight representing the ‘Art of Elysium, an organization I care a lot about,” she said. “So it’s just all of these people that I love in the most beautiful setting where everybody is celebrating their love of cinema, so it’s a total dream.”

The Art of Elysium has thrown events at Cannes for the past five years. The charity brings artists into hospitals to entertain children afflicted with life-threatening diseases like cancer.

Founder Jennifer Howell said it was a natural to have the event at a film festival: “We’re so artist-centric that we want to be tied into what are artists actually do as fundraisers.”

O’Reilly is in Cannes for a week as she promotes her two films. She hasn’t had much down time to explore the area, but had one to-do on her wish list:

“I’m dying to go to the Hotel du Cap,” she said of the ritzy hotel outside of Cannes where some of the festival’s top events are held. “Everyone says it’s the most beautiful location.”

— Nekesa Mumbi Moody, http://www.twitter.com/nekesamumbi

‘INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS’ AFTER-PARTY

What was inside the “Inside Llewyn Davis” after-party? Plenty of bold-faced names and of course, more folk music.

The movie, which got a rapturous reception when it premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on Sunday night, is about the folk-music scene in 1960s New York. The Coen brothers film features Justin Timberlake, Carey Mulligan, Garrett Hudland and stars Oscar Isaac.

Timberlake was on hand with wife Jessica Biel, while Hudland cozied with his girlfriend, Kirsten Dunst. Others at the party include Frances McDormand, Grammy-winning producer T Bone Burnett, CBS head Les Moonves and his wife, Julie Chen.

A DJ played music from the film, which is in competition at the festival.

— Nekesa Mumbi Moody, http://www.twitter.com/nekesamumbi

LARS ULRICH WORKING HARDER THAN EXPECTED IN CANNES

Metallica’s Lars Ulrich is used to fast-paced action, but even he was a bit taken aback by the pace at the Cannes Film Festival.

“Most people have a romantic notion of Cannes,” said Ulrich, who was promoting the band’s upcoming film “Metallica Through the Never.

“(But) there is a lot of work that goes on here. And I was a little bit unprepared for. basically the whole infrastructure of worldwide cinema and the movie business is here,” he said in an interview on Friday.

“People have a tendency to think that is just red carpet and movie stars and sipping champagne but people come here to work. People come here to sell their films, people come here to finance their films, people come here to create hype.”

“Metallica Through the Never” marries the concert film format with a dramatic narrative. Directed by Nimrod Antal and released by Picturehouse, the film stars young “Chronicle” actor Dane DeHann as a member of Metallica’s concert tour crew who’s sent on a special mission by the band. The movie blends concert footage with a plot that includes CGI effects.

“We wanted to challenge ourselves a little bit and try and do something different and try and bring a little bit more of a film element into it,” explains Ulrich.

“Whether anybody loves the film as much as we do we’ll have to wait and see in a few months, but the one thing I can guarantee you, which there is no question about, is that it is a very unique film. Nobody has ever seen a film quite like this.”

“Metallica Through the Never” is scheduled for release on Sept. 27.

— Nekesa Mumbi Moody and Adam Egan, (http://www.twittercom/nekesamumbi)

A Department of Veterans Affairs accounting released in response to inquiries from The Associated Press shows a heavy financial and emotional cost involving vets from Iraq, Afghanistan and even back to Vietnam, and lasting long after a victim leaves the service.

Sexual assault or repeated sexual harassment can trigger a variety of health problems, primarily post-traumatic stress disorder and depression. While women are more likely to be victims, men made up nearly 40 per cent of the patients the VA treated last year for conditions connected to what it calls “military sexual trauma.”

It took years for Ruth Moore of Milbridge, Maine, to begin getting treatment from a VA counsellingcentre in 2003 — 16 years after she was raped twice while she was stationed in Europe with the Navy. She continues to get counselling at least monthly for PTSD linked to the attacks and is also considered fully disabled.

“We can’t cure me, but we can work on stability in my life and work on issues as they arrive,” Moore said.

VA officials stress that any veteran who claims to have suffered military sexual trauma has access to free health care.

“It really is the case that a veteran can simply walk through the door, say they’ve had this experience, and we will get them hooked up with care. There’s no documentation required. They don’t need to have reported it at the time,” said Dr. Margret Bell, a member of the VA’s military sexual trauma team. “The emphasis is really on helping people get the treatment that they need.”

However, the hurdles are steeper for those who seek disability compensation — too steep for some veterans groups and lawmakers who support legislation designed to make it easier for veterans to get a monthly disability payment.

“Right now, the burden of proof is stacked against sexual trauma survivors,” said Anu Bhagwati, executive director of the Service Women’s Action Network. “Ninety per cent of 26,000 cases last year weren’t even reported. So where is that evidence supposed to come from?”

Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel has said reducing the incidence of sexual assaults in the military is a top priority. But it’s a decades-old problem with no easy fix, as made even more apparent when an Air Force officer who headed a sexual assault prevention office was arrested on sexual battery charges.

“We will not stop until we’ve seen this scourge, from what is the greatest military in the world, eliminated,” Obama said after summoning top Pentagon officials to the White House last week to talk about the problem. “Not only is it a crime, not only is it shameful and disgraceful, but it also is going to make and has made the military less effective than it can be.”

The VA says 1 in 5 women and 1 in 100 men screen positive for military sexual trauma, which the VA defines as “any sexual activity where you are involved against your will.” Some report that they were victims of rape, while others say they were groped or subjected to verbal abuse or other forms of sexual harassment.

But not all those veterans seek health care or disability benefits related to the attacks. The 85,000 who sought outpatient care linked to military sexual trauma during the latest fiscal year are among nearly 22 million veterans around the country.

The VA statistics underscore that the problems for victims of sexual abuse do not end when someone leaves the service.

Psychological issues, including PTSD, depression and anxiety, are most common, according to the agency. Victims also can develop substance abuse problems.

Some victims like Moore are so disabled that they are unable to work. Others need ongoing care at VA outpatient clinics and hospitals.

In the final six months of 2011, an average of 248 veterans per month filed for disability benefits related to sexual trauma. That rose by about a third, to 334 veterans per month in 2012, an increase the VA attributed in part to better screening for the ongoing trauma associated with sexual assault. Of those who filed in 2012, about two-thirds were women and nearly a third were men.

“We do a lot more awareness, and as we educate everyone on the potential benefits and that it’s OK to come forward, I think you see an increase in reporting,” said Edna MacDonald, director of the VA’s regional office in Nashville.

To get disability benefits related to sexual trauma, veterans must be diagnosed with a health problem such as PTSD, submit proof that they were assaulted or sexually harassed in a threatening manner and have a VA examiner confirm a link to their health condition.

Many lawmakers and veterans groups support allowing a veteran’s statement alone to serve as the proof that an assault or harassment occurred. An examiner would still have to find there’s a link to the health condition diagnosed.

The VA’s records indicate that veterans seeking compensation related to military sexual trauma had about a 1 in 2 chance of getting their claim approved last year, up from about 34 per cent in June 2011.

The VA does not break out the cost of treating and compensating individual veterans for sexual abuse or trauma. A veterans combination of disabilities are unique to each individual, so it’s not able to attribute specific spending levels for individual disabilities.

Benefits depend on the severity of the disability. For example, a veteran with a 50 per cent rating and no dependents would get $810 a month. A veteran with a 100 per cent rating and a spouse and child to support would get nearly $3,088 a month.

Moore estimates the government’s cost for her disability benefits and treatment could well exceed $500,000 over the course of her lifetime.

It wasn’t until June 2011 that the VA began recording monthly disability claims related specifically to military sexual trauma. Veterans file claims for conditions that are a result of the trauma, not for MST itself, which made it particularly difficult to track. The VA came up with a special process for doing so in 2010.

There’s no time limit to filing a claim. “We have veterans who call our help line who have been assaulted way back in time. They’re still suffering from the effects of World War II or Vietnam. I wish I were exaggerating,” said Bhagwati, whose organization advocates for female veterans.

The VA’s undersecretary for benefits, Allison Hickey, a 27-year veteran and former Air Force general, has required all workers handling disability claims to undergo sensitivity training in dealing with military sexual trauma.

Hickey also assembled a task force to review the claims process for veterans claiming sexual assault or harassment while serving in the military. The group looked at 400 claims and determined that nearly a quarter were denied before all the evidence was presented. That led to another training program on the evidence needed or establishing a PTSD claim connected to military sexual trauma. The approval rate is now much closer, though still slightly behind that for other PTSD claims.

Even though the VA’s statistics indicate that a greater percentage of military sexual trauma are getting benefits, lawmakers believe more action is required.

“If half of them are being denied their claims, that’s still a lot of people, said Congressman Chellie Pingree. Pingree and Sen. Jon Tester are the lead sponsors of the legislation that would allow the veteran’s word to serve as sufficient proof that an assault occurred. The legislation is named after Moore, who spent years fighting for disability benefits.

The VA originally opposed Pingree’s bill, saying the legislation didn’t allow for the minimal evidence “needed to maintain the integrity of the claims process.” But VA spokesman Josh Taylor said Thursday that there’s been a change of heart and that the VA no longer opposes the legislation.

“VA supports the goals of the legislation, and will continue to work with Congress on the best approach to accomplish it,” Taylor said.

An amended version of Pingree’s bill passed the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs two weeks ago and could go to the full House as early as this week. The bill no longer requires the department to alter its regulations for military sexual trauma claims. Instead, the bill says that it’s Congress’ sense that the VA should update and improve its regulations regarding military sexual trauma. And until it does, it must meet extensive reporting requirements, which include a monthly report to all veterans who have submitted a claim that would, among other things, detail the number of claims relating to MST that were granted or denied, the three most common reasons for a denial and the average time it took to process a claim.

Supporters are hoping that the reporting requirements prove so cumbersome that the VA agrees to ease the evidentiary burden for the veterans.

The latest spiral of violence — which has claimed more than 240 lives in the past week — carries the hallmarks of the two sides that brought nearly nonstop chaos to Iraq for years: Sunni insurgents, including al-Qaida’s branch in Iraq, and Shiite militias defending their newfound power after Saddam Hussein’s fall.

But the widening shadow and regional brinksmanship from Syria’s conflict now increasingly threaten to feed into Iraq’s sectarian strife, heightening concerns that Iraq could be turning toward civil war.

The Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki must balance its close ties with Iran — the main regional ally of Syria’s Bashar Assad — and its position among fellow Arab League members and neighbouring Turkey, which strongly back Syria’s mainly Sunni opposition.

Al-Maliki appears determined to boost security crackdowns to keep Iraq’s minority Sunnis from taking a more high-profile role in the anti-Assad forces, which have received pledges of support from the longtime insurgent group al-Qaida in Iraq.

There have been no claims of responsibility for the current flare-up of violence, capped by Monday’s body count that was the highest death toll for a single day in 10 months. Yet some analysts believe it’s difficult to separate Iraq’s deep sectarian suspicions from the Shiite-Sunni split over Assad, which has also led to clashes in Lebanon.

“Iraq now has moved into a bigger circle that covers Syria and Lebanon,” said Baghdad-based political affairs analyst Hadi Jalo.

Al-Maliki is not only worried about his Sunni rivals possibly deepening their involvement in the rebel cause in Syria, said Patrick Clawson, director of research at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Al-Maliki’s worries extend to Iraq’s semiautonomous northern Kurdish region, which has close links to Assad foe Turkey.

“Al-Maliki believes this is the time to be tough and show he is in control of the country,” said Clawson. “What we are seeing is the backlash to that.”

The U.S. and its Western allies strongly support Syria’s political opposition, but have been reluctant to significantly boost weapons flow to rebel fighters because of worries over Islamic militants who have joined the anti-Assad brigades. But the deepening refugee crisis in the region, along with concern over spillover violence, is often cited by Arab states and Turkey urging greater Western intervention.

Sectarian tensions have been worsening since Iraq’s minority Sunnis began expanding protests over what they say is mistreatment at the hands of the Shiite-led government. Many Sunnis contend that much of the country’s current turmoil is rooted in the policies of al-Maliki’s government, which they accuse of feeding sectarian tension by becoming more aggressive toward Sunnis after the U.S. military withdrawal in December 2011.

Mass demonstrations by Sunnis, which began in December, have largely been peaceful. However, the number of attacks rose sharply after a deadly security crackdown on a Sunni protest camp in northern Iraq on April 23.

Hours after Monday’s stunning blitz of attacks — stretching from north of Baghdad to the southern city of Basra — al-Maliki accused militant groups of trying to exploit Iraq’s political instability and vowed to resist attempts to “bring back the atmosphere of the sectarian war.”

He also blamed the recent spike in violence on the wider unrest in the region, particularly Syria.

“You cannot remove the Syrian element from what’s happening in Iraq,” said Sami al-Faraj, director of the Kuwait Center for Strategic Studies. “The outcome of the war in Syria has big consequences for both Iraq’s Sunnis and Shiites. What we see now is an extension of that in some respects.”

The worst of Monday’s violence took place in Baghdad, where 10 car bombs ripped through open-air markets and other areas of Shiite neighbourhoods, killing at least 48 people and wounding more than 150, police officials said.

In Balad, about 50 miles (80 kilometres) north of Baghdad, a car bomb exploded next to a bus carrying Iranian pilgrims, killing 13 Iranians and one Iraqi, a police officer said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media.

Meanwhile, in the predominantly Shiite city of Basra in southern Iraq, twin car bombings — outside a restaurant and at the city’s main bus station — killed at least 13 people and wounded 40, according to provincial police spokesman Col. Abdul-Karim al-Zaidi and the head of the city’s health directorate, Riadh Abdul-Amir.

“All of a sudden, a thunderous explosion lifted my car and put it back on the ground,” said Sami Saadon, a Basra taxi driver who suffered shrapnel injuries in his chest. “I could barely open the door and I crawled outside the car, where smoke and dust were everywhere.”

A car bomb later struck Shiite worshippers as they were leaving a mosque in the southern city of Hillah, killing nine and wounding 26, police and health officials said.

Monday’s violence also struck Sunni areas.

A car bomb in Samarra, north of Baghdad, went off near a gathering of pro-government Sunni militia waiting outside a military base to receive salaries, killing three and wounding 13. In the western province of Anbar, the hub of Sunni power, gunmen ambushed two police patrols near the town of Haditha, killing eight policemen, officials said.

Also in Anbar, authorities found 13 bodies dumped in a remote desert area. The victims, who included eight policemen kidnapped by gunmen on Friday, had been killed by a gunshot to the head, officials said.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

The surge in bloodshed has exasperated Iraqis, who have lived for years with the fear and uncertainty bred of random violence.

“How long do we have to continue living like this, with all the lies from the government?” asked 23-year-old Baghdad resident Malik Ibrahim. “Whenever they say they have reached a solution, the bombings come back stronger than before.”

___

Associated Press writers Nabil Al-Jurani in Basra and Brian Murphy in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, contributed to this report.

The tornadoes that touched down in Oklahoma, Kansas and Iowa were part of a massive, northeastward-moving storm system that stretched from Texas to Minnesota.

At least four separate tornadoes touched down in central Oklahoma late Sunday afternoon, including the one near the town of Shawnee, 35 miles southeast of Oklahoma City, that laid waste to much of a mobile home park.

Reports of injuries in that tornado strike couldn’t immediately be confirmed, as getting into the area was made difficult by the overturned tractor-trailers that forced the closure of a section of Interstate 40.

A storm spotter told the National Weather Service that the tornado left the earth “scoured” at the mobile home park.

Forecasters had been warning for days that the weekend storm system could produce tornadoes, and emergency responders throughout the region were keeping a close eye on it Sunday night as it moved northeastward. Tornado watches or warnings were in effect through late Sunday in several states.

Dozens of homes were damaged by the other tornadoes that touched down in Oklahoma, but emergency officials had no immediate reports of injuries caused by any of them, including the first of the afternoon that hit Edmond, a suburb north of Oklahoma City, before making its way toward Tulsa, 90 miles to the northeast.

“I knew it was coming,” said Randy Grau, who huddled with his wife and two young sons in their Edmond home’s safe room when the tornado hit. He said he peered out his window as the weather worsened and believed he saw a flock of birds heading down the street.

“Then I realized it was swirling debris. That’s when we shut the door of the safe room,” said Grau, adding that they remained in the room for 10 minutes.

In Wichita, Kan., a tornado touched down near Mid-Content Airport on the city’s southwest side shortly before 4 p.m., knocking out power to thousands of homes and businesses but bypassing the most populated areas of Kansas’ biggest city.

“At this point, there are very few reports of damage and no reports of fatalities or injuries, and we’re very grateful for that,” said Sedgwick County Emergency Management Director Randy Duncan.

There were also two reports of tornadoes touching down in Iowa Sunday night, including one near Huxley, about 20 miles north of Des Moines, and one in Grundy County, which is northeast of Des Moines, according to the Des Moines Register. There were no immediate reports of major damage or injuries.

In Oklahoma, aerial television news footage showed homes that appeared to have suffered significant damage northeast of Oklahoma City. Some outbuildings appeared to have been levelled, and some homes’ roofs or walls had been knocked down.

“When I first drove into the neighbourhood, I didn’t see any major damage until I pulled into the front of my house,” said Csabe Mathe, of Edmond, who found a part of his neighbour’s fence in his swimming pool. “My reaction was: I hope insurance pays for the cleaning.”

“I typically have two trash cans, and now I have five in my driveway.”

The Storm Prediction Center had been warning about severe weather in the region since Wednesday, and on Friday, it zeroed in on Sunday as the day the storm system would likely pass through.

“They’ve been calling for this all day,” Edmond resident Anita Wright said after riding out the twister in an underground shelter. She and her husband Ed emerged from their hiding place to find uprooted trees, downed limbs and damaged gutters in their home.

In Katie Leathers’ backyard, the family’s trampoline was tossed through a section of fence and a giant tree uprooted.

“I saw all the trees waving, and that’s when I grabbed everyone and got into two closets,” Leathers said. “All these trees just snapped.”

___

Associated Press writers Heather Hollingsworth in Kansas City, Mo., and Kelly P. Kissel in Little Rock, Ark., contributed to this report.

The town of Qusair has been besieged for weeks by regime troops and pro-government gunmen backed by the Lebanese militant Hezbollah group. The siege is part of a regime offensive that aims to regain control of the towns and villages along the frontier with Lebanon.

The border region’s strategic value is twofold: it links Damascus with the Mediterranean coastal enclave that is the heartland of President Bashar Assad’s Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam; and rebels smuggle weapons and supplies from Lebanon across the porous frontier to opposition fighters inside Syria.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 30 people, including 16 rebel fighters and one woman, were killed in Qusair in fighting Sunday morning, but that the death toll was expected to rise as government troops continue to try to push into the town.

A government official in the nearby provincial capital of Homs said that regime troops have encircled the town and that “the offensive to liberate Qusair has begun.”

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief the media, said the army has built up its forces on three fronts around Qusair while leaving one clear for “safe passage for fleeing civilians and the armed terrorists who want to surrender.”

The official said government forces have advanced into the town, taking over the municipality building and other vital government institutions.

But Hadi Abdullah, an activist in Qusair reached on Skype, denied the regime made any advances on the ground. He said the municipality was destroyed in fighting six months ago, and that there’s no government building left to take over.

He said heavy shelling began late Saturday and continued through Sunday, and that civilians have sought shelter in basements

“It’s the heaviest since the beginning of the revolution,” he said, adding that at least 17 houses have been destroyed.

The discrepancy in the accounts could not be immediately verified.

Separately, an official at the Homs governor’s office said two suicide bombings in the town of Deir Balbaa just outside of Homs killed at least three people and wounded 15 others. The official declined to be identified because he is not allowed to make public comments.

Another pair of bombings struck near a factory on a different Homs highway, killing four people and wounding 13, the state news agency reported.

The regime’ offensive on Qusair comes as the United States and Russia push a joint effort to get Assad and his opponents to negotiate an end to the country’s civil war. Previous attempts to solve the conflict peacefully have failed.

The U.S.-Russian plan, similar to one set out last year in Geneva, calls for talks on a transition government and an open-ended cease-fire.

More than 70,000 people have been killed and several million displaced since the uprising against Assad erupted in March 2011 and escalated into a civil war. The fighting has also spilled over into neighbouring states, including Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon and Israel, all of which are anxious about the ripple effect of Syria’s conflict on their own nations.

On Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned at a weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday that the Jewish state was prepared to act if there were more shipments to Hezbollah from Syria.

“We are following the developments and changes there closely and we are prepared for every scenario,” he said.

Israeli warplanes carried out two rounds of airstrikes on Damascus early this month on what officials have said were sophisticated missiles bound for Hezbollah.

On Saturday, Assad said in a newspaper interview that he won’t step down before elections and that the United States has no right to interfere in his country’s politics.

Assad’s comments to the Argentine newspaper Clarin were the first about his political future since Washington and Moscow agreed earlier this month to try to bring the regime and the opposition to an international conference for talks about a peaceful resolution to the conflict. The U.S. and Russia have backed opposite sides in the conflict, but appear to have found common ground in the diplomatic push.

The White House and the Kremlin envision holding the meeting next month, but no date has been set. Neither Assad nor the Syrian National Coalition, the main Western-backed opposition coalition group, has made a firm commitment to attend.

In the interview, Assad seemed to play down the importance of such a conference, saying a decision on Syria’s future is up to the Syrian people, not the U.S. He also said a decision on his political future must be made in elections, and not during such a conference.

As the regime and opposition decides whether to even take part in the conference, the planning for the potential talks looked set to move forward.

Jordan is to host Western and Arab foreign ministers, including U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, for a meeting Wednesday that brings together the Syrian opposition’s foreign supporters to plan for the peace talks.

In Egypt, the Arab League said its ministerial committee on Syria will meet Thursday to discuss ways to convene the international conference on Syria. The Syrian opposition said they will meet in Turkey that same day to discuss whether to take part in an international conference on the conflict.

___

Associated Press writers Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, Aron Heller in Jerusalem, Maamoun Youssef in Cairo, Egypt, and Yasmine Saker in Beirut contributed to this report.