Archive for the ‘Syria’ Category
Posted by seumasach on May 19, 2013
M.K.Bhadrakumar
Indian Punchline
18th May, 2013
The Turkish prime minister Recep Erdogan’s visit to Washington on Thursday was expected to put pressure on the Obama administration to take a tougher stance against the Syrian regime. Erdogan was quoted as seeking the imposition of a US-led ‘no-fly-zone’ in Syria and increased arms supplies to the rebel fighters. In the event, however, Obama stood his ground and insisted there is no “magic formula” to resolve the crisis. Of course, he couched the rebuff in extravagant diplomatic niceties during the joint press conference in the White House, but it was a rebuff nonetheless.
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Posted in Syria | Tagged: End of empire, global peace process, Obama agenda, Obama's realist turn, Russian diplomacy | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on May 18, 2013
PressTV
18th May, 2013
On 11 May, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed that his country was completing its delivery of surface-to-air missiles to Syria. “Russia is not planning to sell – Russia has sold and signed contracts a long time ago, and is completing supplies of the equipment – which is anti-aircraft systems, according to the already signed contracts,” Lavrov told reporters in Warsaw.
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Posted by seumasach on May 18, 2013
PressTV
18th May, 2013
Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Erdogan went to Washington this week with a shopping list for more direct American intervention in the NATO regime-change operation in Syria.
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Posted in Syria | Tagged: neo-Ottoman imperialism | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on May 16, 2013
The problem with miscalculating, as the Americans have over Syria, is that you end up mired in double-speak. To translate Kerry’s bizarre “war on terror” rhetoric: if you don’t negotiate with Al Qaida, who have no intention of negotiating with you, then we will increase our support for Al Qaida. In practice, of course, the Americans will come up with some more or less respectable “opposition” leader to front negotiations with Assad but are worried that the Syrians won’t bother to show up since they are winning anyway. The Americans need the peace conference to cover for their defeat
More Help to Rebels If You Do Not Negotiate
John Glaser
Antiwar
Secretary of State John Kerry warned the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad that if it chooses not to participate in upcoming international negotiations aimed at ending the country’s two-year conflict, then “the opposition will be receiving additional support.”
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Posted by seumasach on May 16, 2013
British journalists of integrity are few and far between: Neil Clark is one of them.
Neil Clark
RT
15th May, 2013
The prospects of a peaceful solution to the Syrian crisis is still a long way off. We won’t get an end to the violence until the foreign powers who have been fuelling the conflict, the US included, radically change their policies towards the country.
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Posted by seumasach on May 16, 2013
Could this be the beginning of the long role-back against corporate encroachments into every aspect of British society and economy. As always there is some unaccountable body, here the so-called The Office of Fair Trading playing a somewhat questionable role. There is an obvious prima facie case for price fixing since pump prices only go up whilst oil prices go up and down. Instead of politician-bashing all the time we urgently need to focus attention on regulatory and supervisory bodies
Telegraph
15th May, 2013
The Prime Minister said he will urgently look at “extending criminal offences” to cover market manipulation in the energy sector, after BP and Shell were raided by European authorities on suspicion of rigging oil prices.
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Posted by seumasach on May 16, 2013
All five BRICS, Brazil,Russia,India,China and South Africa voted against or abstained, reflecting the inexorable shift in global power away from the West. The commentaries of Amnesty International represent an a priori position and can be discounted. This resolution is as the Russians pointed out destructive but not nearly as destructive as the remaining wreckers would have wished. By the way, the “regime” in Syria certainly doesn’t appear to be “tottering”
Skeptics multiply as UN vote condemns Syria
Thalif Deen
Asia Times
16th May, 2013
UNITED NATIONS – When the 193-member General Assembly voted on Wednesday to condemn the beleaguered government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, there was an increase in the number of skeptics who neither supported nor opposed the tottering regime in Damascus.The resolution, which is legally non-binding, was adopted by a vote of 107-12, compared with 133-12 last August.
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Posted in Syria | Tagged: BRICS(Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa), Russian diplomacy, The UN General Assembly | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on May 16, 2013
Explaining India’s decision to abstain on the resolution, the Indian Ambassador to the UN Asoke Kumar Mukerji cautioned the members of the General Assembly that unilateral action of any kind would not resolve the crisis.
“It will only exacerbate the problem and cause greater instability and violence even beyond Syria’s borders,” he said.
“Whether a group, any group, is the legitimate representative of the Syrian people or not can only be determined by the Syrian people, not this Assembly,” Mukerji stressed.
“Therefore certain provisions of this resolution can be interpreted as effecting regime change by sleight of hand. This is a dangerous precedent which we cannot acquiesce in.
“We would once again reiterate our position that the leadership of Syria is a matter for Syrians to decide themselves,” said the Indian Ambassador.
India abstains from voting on Syria resolution
Hindu
16th May, 2013
UNITED NATIONS, MAY 16:
India abstained from voting on the Arab-backed, US supported resolution on Syria in the UN General Assembly, which called for a political transition.
Posted in Syria | Tagged: Joint Communique of the Geneva Action Group, The UN General Assembly | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on May 15, 2013
Shamus Cooke
Counterpunch
13th May, 2013
The tempo of events in Syria has accelerated in recent weeks. The government forces have scored significant battlefield victories over the rebels, and this has provoked a mixture of war provocations and peace offers from the U.S. and its anti-Assad allies.
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Posted in Syria | Tagged: End of empire, global peace process, Obama agenda, Obama's realist turn | Leave a Comment »
Posted by seumasach on May 15, 2013
Austria says UK push to arm Syrian rebels would violate international law
Guardian
14th May, 2013
“Die Briten sind not amused,” is how Die Presse reported it today. “The Brits are not amused.” The Austrian foreign ministry circulated a discussion paper (known in Brussels jargon as a non-paper) among the EU member states yesterday forcefully rebutting British and French arguments for amending the European embargo on Syria to allow weapons shipments to the rebels.
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Posted by seumasach on May 13, 2013
The mood music of the Salafist, regime change in Syria groove has stopped but the Saudis are still standing- an appropriate moment to suddenly remember “9/11 hijacker” Mohamed Atta after all those years
Saudi Arabia – ally of the UK and US – is inciting Syria’s civil war
Nabila Ramdani
Evening Standard
13th May, 2013
As massacre follows massacre in Syria, the civil war there will be a central focus for David Cameron as he meets President Obama in Washington today. Not only have 70,000 died since the start of the fighting in 2011 but the conflict now threatens the stability of the Middle East and the wider world. Yet while concentrating on Assad’s Syria, Cameron and Obama should not underestimate the destructive potential of a country to which they are diplomatically far closer: Saudi Arabia.
Posted in Syria | Tagged: The fall of the house of Saud | Leave a Comment »
