The Syrian Crisis

[Kunal Biswas]

:dancemasti:

 

[asianobserve]

:dancemasti:

Syrian James Bond eh? :cool2:

 

[W.G.Ewald]

Beginning of the end?

Syria 'ready to discuss' Assad's resignation, deputy PM says - World News

Syria is ready to discuss the resignation of President Bashar Assad through negotiations with the opposition, Syrian Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil said Tuesday in Moscow, according to AFP.

"The resignation (of Assad) as a condition to be fulfilled before the start of a dialogue means it will be impossible to start the dialogue. Any issue can be discussed during the dialogue," Jamil said, according to Reuters.

"We are ready to discuss even that issue (the resignation of Assad). But resignation before finding the mechanisms acceptable for Syrian people - is that a real democracy?" Jamil added.

Assad resigns ... then what for Syria? A massacre of Alawis?

 

[W.G.Ewald]

'Russia certain Syria won't use chemical w... JPost - Middle East

Russia believes Syria has no intention of using its chemical weapons and is able to safeguard them, the Russian newspaper Kommersant reported on Wednesday, citing a unidentified Foreign Ministry official.

The report seemed aimed at reassuring the West that Syrian President Bashar Assad will not use chemical weapons against rebels after US President Barack Obama threatened "enormous consequences" if Damascus even moved them in a menacing way.

 

[SajeevJino]

A Sunni Muslim gunman aims his rifle from the neighborhood of Bab al-Tebbaneh in Tripoli, northern Lebanon, during clashes between Sunni Muslims and Alawites. (Reuters)

 

[KS]

What we thought Obama was going to do about Assad vs. What he actually did

What we thought he would do:

What he did:

 

[Iamanidiot]

Obama is certainly a smart chap when compared to his predecessors

 

[IBSA]

I'm surprised how this tear gas bomb made by a Brazilian company called Condor was dropped in the Syria conflict.

I believe that Turkish army or police left it to leak for the FSA.

 

[W.G.Ewald]

A breezy article by Pepe Escobar.

Asia Times Online :: Realpolitik blurs US red line on Syria

...not WMDs as the pretext for an invasion and occupation, but WMDs as a pretext for whatever euphemism the Obama administration comes up with to define "kinetic military activity".

The whole thing is especially suspicious considering Damascus has been on the record stressing it will never use chemical weapons against the "rebels".

...Obama also stressed Washington's "fears" of Syria's WMDs "falling into the hands of the wrong people". Considering the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is in the business - alongside Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) stalwarts Saudi Arabia and Qatar - of weaponizing the myriad gangs that constitute the Not Exactly Free Syrian Army (FSA), including hundreds of Salafi-jihadis, this is a stark admission that in fact they are the "wrong people". Ergo, the "right people" is the Assad regime...

Was that an Obama coded message to Turkey - implying that if you invade northwest Syria, now practically an autonomous Kurdish area, you will have to do it alone, without the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and without the Pentagon? Was that a message to the "wrong people", aka the "rebels", that apart from dubiously effective covert CIA shenanigans, you are on your own? ...

Yet it may have finally dawned on the Obama administration that a possible post-Assad Syria ruled by the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood (MB) - which is infinitely more ruthless and sectarian than the Egyptian version - is not exactly an enlightened bet.

The White House and the State Department are livid over Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi's purge of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces leadership and his upcoming diplomatic trips to - heaven forbid - Beijing and the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Tehran. If the MB in Egypt can pull that off, imagine in Syria, which was not under Washington's sphere of influence to begin with.

 

[The Messiah]

I'm surprised how this tear gas bomb made by a Brazilian company called Condor was dropped in the Syria conflict.

I believe that Turkish army or police left it to leak for the FSA.

Brazil should take up the matter with the turks.

Time has come that south american countries assert themselves rather than be a backyard of the yanks.

 

[W.G.Ewald]

Brazil should take up the matter with the turks.

Time has come that south american countries assert themselves rather than be a backyard of the yanks.

Oh, bullshit. Brazil is in the business of those kinds of munitions, having nothing to do with US. Do you have evidence otherwise?

This kind of monomania is so tedious.

By the way...

Condor S.A. Indústria Química

 

[IBSA]

Brazil should take up the matter with the turks.

I have my doubts if this will happens. Our politicians even not shall to know Brazilian weapons can to be deviated for FSA rebels . Toward the Syria crisis our attitude is passive and a mere spectator.

Time has come that south american countries assert themselves rather than be a backyard of the yanks.

I agree, and we are walking some steps, erecting regional organizations such as UNASUL (Union of the South American Nations), CDS (South American Defence Council).

But we lack regional leadership to guide South American nations toward this goal. Chavez is very agressive and dont please all countries. This leadership-paper should belong to Brazil, for it is the most strong, has good relations and border with almost all countries. However our politicians has lack of strategic view and our people are as stupid and narrow-minded as our politicians . But I hope bit by bit this reality will change a day.

 

[pmaitra]

Why single out Brazil alone? How about Japan? Toyota is the single largest supplier of pick-up trucks to all kinds of terrorists and Jihadis. Pakistan, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria; you name it.

 

[W.G.Ewald]

Syria Developments

Paris Backs Syria No-Fly Zone as Fighting Grows - ABC News

France signaled Thursday that it was prepared to take part in enforcing a partial no-fly zone over Syria, piling pressure on President Bashar Assad's embattled regime as it widens a major offensive against rebels in Damascus and surrounding areas.

French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian urged the international community to consider backing a no-fly zone over parts of Syria, but cautioned that closing the Arab nation's entire air space would be tantamount to "going to war" and require a willing international coalition that does not yet exist.

He told France 24 television that Paris would participate in a full no-fly operation if it followed international legal principles. But for now, he suggested that a partial closure — which U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Washington was considering — should be studied.

Syria's chief backer, Russia, meanwhile, said it was working closely with the Damascus government to ensure that its arsenal of chemical weapons stays under firm control and has won promises that it will not be used or moved.

 

[W.G.Ewald]

Time for a fresh thread about Syria since this one has been diverted to South America.

http://defenceforumindia.com/forum/west-asia-africa/40773-syria-developments.html#post563466

 

[W.G.Ewald]

Re: Syria Developments

Syria forces continue to attack rebels in Damascus, Aleppo - latimes.com

Syrian forces on Thursday renewed attacks against rebel strongholds in the nation's two largest cities, highlighting the determination of President Bashar Assad's government to crush resistance in Damascus and the northern city of Aleppo.

For a second consecutive day, opposition activists said, the military used mortars and airstrikes in Daraya, a suburb south of Damascus, the capital.

"They are shelling it at an insane pace," said Moaz Shami, a Damascus-based activist.

About two dozen civilians have been killed in the area, the opposition said. As is often the case in Syria, there was no independent corroboration of the fighting or death toll.

The reported onslaught appears to be part of a government effort to root out insurgents and sympathizers throughout the greater Damascus area. The government has already swept through many city districts in a bid to crush rebels who rose up there last month.

The rebel offensive in the capital raised the specter that it could fall into rebel hands, or at least veer largely out of government control, but Assad's security forces appear to have beaten back rebel forces.

 

[W.G.Ewald]

Re: Syria Developments

Syrian Forces Carry Out Assault on Damascus

Syrian government forces intensified efforts Thursday to seize control of parts of the capital and its surrounding areas from rebel fighters.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the military bombed Daraya, on the edge of Damascus, and nearby Moadamiyeh. The London-based group also reported house-to-house raids in Daraya and fierce clashes in the Hajar al-Aswad district of Damascus.

The Observatory said about 100 people were killed in violence across Syria Thursday, including nearly 50 civilians in Damascus and its surrounding areas.

The death toll also included more than 20 government troops.

Fighting also continued in the northern city of Aleppo, where some foreign fighters are reported to have joined the opposition.

"‹"‹Fresh fighting between pro- and anti-Assad gunmen erupted for a fourth day Thursday in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli, leaving one dead and at least two wounded. The clashes breached a truce agreed to by political leaders less than 24 hours earlier in a bid to halt fighting fueled by tensions in neighboring Syria.

Sunni Muslims have led the revolt against Syria's President Bashar al-Assad, whose minority Alawite sect has mostly stood with him. Sunni-Alawite tensions have been growing in parts of Lebanon as well, like Tripoli, where the two groups live in neighboring districts.

 

[pmaitra]

CrossTalk: Syrian Puzzle

 

[Armand2REP]

Syrian Rebels make gains in key border town

In the eastern part of the country, Syrian rebels fought with regime troops in the town of al-Bukamal, across the border from the Iraqi town of Qaim.

The border crossing has been in rebel hands since last month, but wresting control of al-Bukamal itself from regime troops would expand the opposition foothold along the frontier.

The opposition already controls a wide swath of territory along the border with Turkey in the north, as well as pockets along the frontier with Jordan to the south and Lebanon to the west. Together, they have proven key to ferrying people and supplies into and out of the country.

Rebels have been fighting troops for days in al-Bukamal and early Thursday took over several checkpoints, the main police station and the local command of the Political Security Directorate, one of Syria's powerful intelligence agencies, according to Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Observatory.

"There is an attempt to take full control of al-Bukamal," Abdul-Rahman said.

Paris backs Syria no-fly zone as fighting grows

 

[Kunal Biswas]