Diplomats Agree on New Peace Effort for Syria; U.S. to Deploy Special Forces Troops to Syria.
HOWELL: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm George Howell. We continue to follow breaking news, a Russian passenger plane traveling from the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh to St. Petersburg, Russia, has crashed in the central Sinai Peninsula. This is according to a statement from Egypt's prime minister. A source in Russia's federal air transport authority tells Russia state-run news agency that Kogalymavia Flight 9268 was carrying 217 passengers and it was carrying seven crew members on board. It reportedly vanished from radar about 23 minutes after taking off from Sharm el-sheikh. Sinai state-run newspaper reports there are 20 ambulances presently on their way to the crash site. We are expecting more information this hour and will bring to it you as we learn more on CNN. Let's turn to our meteorologist Derek Van Dam who has been checking the weather situation in that region. Derek now joins us at the weather center. Derek, what have you learned?</s>DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: George, I think it's very important as sparse information that we have at the moment, we start to eliminate all the possibilities including the weather at the time of the last point of contact with Flight KGL 9268. So, what we use at these moments in time is a service called flightaware.com. It tracks the worldwide flights, including this particular airliner. Just to put this into perspective, where we are geographically, this is the Gulf of Aqaba, this is the Sinai Peninsula. We have Israel to the north and east, the Red Sea to the south. You can see the last point of contact and the actual plane's path for that brief 23-minute flight. Now, when we talk about the weather patterns across that area, I look at lower-level winds and upper-level winds. Remember, airliners typically fly anywhere between 30,000 and 40,000 feet above the sea. Looking at all possible weather scenarios across that region, it appears that upper-level winds were near normal with what we would expect for this part of the world, and at the surface. So you can see very calm winds across the Sinai Peninsula. In fact, Cairo only reporting winds sustained at about 10 to 11 kilometers per hour, so roughly 5 to 7 miles per hour. Now, in terms of cloud cover, not much in that region as well. Remember, we're still tracking a major tropical cyclone across the Arabian Sea, but you can see that is far away from the Sharm el-Sheikh region in the Sinai Peninsula where the last point of contact with this particular plane is. This is a satellite image. In fact, I went to NASA's world view website. This is a high-resolution satellite image of this particular region. You can see very little cloud cover over this region. So, from my professional standpoint as a meteorologist, it does not appear, George, that weather was a factor within this plane's disappearance or crash. But, of course, all the facts still need to be found out. But from my standpoint, it looks as if the weather was not a factor. Back to you.</s>HOWELL: Covering all angles on it. Derek, of course, thank you so much for the insight there on the weather front. And also our own Nic Robertson just a short time ago told us in a report that as Russians wake up and turn on the televisions, as they look into media reports, many are hearing from Russian state media that one of the pilots or both pilots may have contacted the ground to report technical issues. Again, that is according to Nic Robertson's reporting of what is being said in Russian state media. CNN is continuing to gather information and confirm facts as we know them and we'll pass that information along to you as we get it. Now, we move on to the war in Syria. Diplomats from the United States, from Iran and Russia and other countries, have agreed on a new peace effort after meeting in Vienna on Friday. The talks led to an understanding on key points, including rights for all Syrians. But the leaders are still very far apart on the future of the Syrian President Bashar al Assad. CNN senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen has more from Vienna.</s>FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The meeting in Vienna by itself did not produce a political solution that could pave the way for peace in Syria. However, all sides that were involved did say they find the meeting was very important, also of course, because, for the very first time, the Iranians were at the table. Now, Secretary of State John Kerry said afterwards that he believed there were many points that the international community does agree on that are important to try and stop the fighting in Syria. He says all sides agree on the fact that Syria needs to be preserved as a unified and secular state, that the Syrian government institutions need to remain intact, that the priority has to be to defeat ISIS, and also that there needs to be a transitional political process, at the end of which there needs to be elections that include all facets of Syrian society. Now, of course, the big question is how could elections be possible in a country that first of all, to a very large part, is occupied by ISIS forces, but also one that is very much ravaged by fighting? I spoke a little earlier to Staffan de Mistura, who is the U.N. envoy for the Syria conflict, and he explained how he believes it can work.</s>STAFFAN DE MISTURA, U.N. SPECIAL ENVOY TO SYRIA: Elections can take place only at the later stage. But they need to be seen being ready for the later stage. The first thing will be the meeting between the opposition and the government. In order to come up with a form of governance which is actually all-inclusive, that one can propose a new constitution and a new constitution can prepare for the elections. All that in a rather short time.</s>PLEITGEN: There was a big point of disagreement and all sides talked about it, the future of the Syrian president. How can you narrow it down? How can you get either side to budge on that?</s>DE MISTURA: First of all, by not talking too much and openly in discussing that issue, which is clearly an issue of contention.</s>PLEITGEN: Now, of course, that point, de Mistura was talking about was probably the largest point of disagreement among all of those in the room today. And that is, of course, the future of Syria's President Bashar al Assad. On the one hand, you have the Russians and Iranian hot say they believe if there is a transitional process in Syria that Assad needs to be part of that process, and also should participate in any elections that could happen in the future. Whereas the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey say that Assad has no place in Syria and needs to step down if there is going to be any sort of meaningful reconciliation in that country. Now, the meeting here in Vienna is one that produced some results, however, of course, Secretary of State Kerry said he believes this is only the beginning of the diplomatic effort to try and stop the crisis in Syria and the parties did agree to meet again in about two weeks. Fred Pleitgen, CNN Vienna.</s>HOWELL: The Vienna talks wrapped up as news broke out Friday that the U.S. will deploy some Special Forces troops to Syria. The White House says the plan is to send fewer than 50 Special Forces personnel to northern Syria to help train and advise rebel groups that are fighting on the ground against ISIS. Not for a combat role put we're told they will defend themselves if necessary. But CNN intelligence and security analyst Bob Baer says the U.S. isn't sending enough troops to make a difference. Listen.</s>BOB BAER, CNN INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY ANALYST: The president's policy had been, you know, hands-off, pull our troops out of the Middle East, it will take care of itself. What he didn't count on was the refugees and the fact that Syria, even Iraq, would even get worse. You know, and right now they're casting around for anything. This is the best they can come up with. Because the Kurds are fairly good fighters and their feeling is with enough weapons and enough training they might be able to make some inroads into the Islamic state, and it collapses. But I think frankly it's a Hail Mary pass.</s>HOWELL: And that reference, a Hail Mary pass, is a reference to American football play when the quarterback throws a long pass in a desperate effort to score a touchdown but the completion of that pass is likely unsuccessful for the touchdown. Friday also brought a devastating attack on a market near Damascus. A Syrian activist group says dozens were killed when regime rockets slammed into a crowded street in Duma. ITN reporter Dan Rivers has more. And we do warn you, parts of this report contain graphic images.</s>DAN RIVERS, ITN REPORTER: On a day when peace was being discussed in Vienna, war was being waged with all its hideous consequences in Syria. The day had barely begun when the missiles slammed into the market in Duma. Amid the smoldering wreckage, more than 40 bodies. "Duma is destroyed," shouts this man. "Where is the world?", a question Syrians have been asking for four bloody years. Across the front line in government-held territory, we can just pick out Duma and the other besieged suburbs. Sign posted by pools of smoke. The war has reached such levels of depravity that a massacre on today's scale is now routine. A jet circles overhead. Fatima watches and prays. The neighborhood has been destroyed in this war. Her family has been ripped apart. She's been left to look after her grandchildren while her four sons fight in Assad's army. She hasn't seen them for two years, but it's the fate of her parents that troubles her the most. Both died in I.S.-controlled territory. She says, "I wasn't able to pay my last respects, I don't know where they're buried." Her husband Mahmoud shows me the upper floors of their home, what's left of it. (on camera): What's your message to the West? (voice-over): "My message is to let them see the Syrian people as human beings like any other citizens, people are dying, we need humanity, we need them to stop supporting terrorists." (on camera): Over the last four and a half years, Mahmoud and his family have lost much of what they own. This is what remains of their house. It used to be three apartments but it's been heavily damaged, all the power cables have been looted from it. Look at the state of the neighborhood in which they live. How many more years of this can they and all the other people in Syria take before finally some sort of political solution is found? (voice-over): And even if that distant dream is realized, Syria will take decades to recover -- a shattered country with a generation whose childhoods are defined by war. Dan Rivers, ITV News, Damascus.</s>HOWELL: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. And we continue to follow breaking news: a Russian passenger jet traveling from Egypt to Russia has crashed, possibly killing more than 200 people that are said to be on board. We continue to follow this story as the news continues around the world this hour on CNN International and CNN USA. Stay with us.