Obama’s Syria Plan Teams Up American and Russian Forces by Josh Rogin, Washington Post
The Obama administration’s new proposal to Russia on Syria is more extensive than previously known. It would open the way for deep cooperation between U.S. and Russian military and intelligence agencies and coordinated air attacks by American and Russian planes on Syrian rebels deemed to be terrorists, according to the text of the proposal I obtained.
Secretary of State John F. Kerry plans to discuss the plan with top Russian officials in a visit to Moscow on Thursday. As I first reported last month, the administration is proposing joining with Russia in a ramped-up bombing campaign against Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda’s Syria branch, which is also known as the Nusrah Front. What hasn’t been previously reported is that the United States is suggesting a new military command-and-control headquarters to coordinate the air campaign that would house U.S. and Russian military officers, intelligence officials and subject-matter experts.
Overall, the proposal would dramatically shift the United States’ Syria policy by directing more American military power against Jabhat al-Nusra, which unlike the Islamic State is focused on fighting the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. While this would expand the U.S. counterterrorism mission in Syria, it would also be a boon for the Assad regime, which could see the forces it is fighting dramatically weakened. The plan also represents a big change in U.S.-Russia policy. It would give Russian President Vladimir Putin something he has long wanted: closer military relations with the United States and a thawing of his international isolation. That’s why the Pentagon was initially opposed to the plan…
Comments
A woman and her two children are killed by cluster bombs dropped on their home in west #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqpOQ3MyhME…
Footage
#AssadPutin air strikes on Jarjanaz in #Idlib province injured this innocent baby girl today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehX8ueI2L3Y…
A #Russian air strike hit and destroyed a pharmaceutical factory west of #Aleppo today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bvtT4SlJWY…
#Mansoura #Syria
Footage
#Russian air force Tu-204 and Su-35 over #Syria today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pi1tgJkuJaI…
Airstrike on Abtaa, #Daraa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yea7QrQ3Bus…
Warplanes hit Shamico farms in Western #Aleppo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE3doOGDO9s…
Graphic: 3 dead and 5 wounded after the town of Tafas, #Daraa targeted by airstrikes
https://youtu.be/qzxTQ0hh9Dw
Airstrikes hit the village of Touama, West #Aleppo
https://youtu.be/K4-kArlVws4
Syria #Rastan town in northern #Homs under attack by air
https://youtu.be/Jmqg-6JkmdE
.@Doranimated explained in 2014 Obama's response when politico-media pressure to act gets too much: "Syria two-step"
http://brook.gs/2dBXBbN
HIGHLY interesting as it explains the typical Obama/Rhodes WH spin, dive and duck for the last eight years....WITH the exception of their Iran Deal where they were fully engaged but spun that as well....
BUT it does not explain that in the art of negotiations one side must have some sort of leverage to get the other side to even think about moving...WHEN the US has had repeated evidence, clear and concise evidence of Russian misdeeds in eastern Ukraine and now Syria ...THIS administration chooses not to use that leverage and just talks and talks and talks...WHY is that???
WHY is this administration so set in giving up the ME to an Iranian/Russian hegemony and ditching 70 year old allies in the process????
EVEN the Europeans are sensing this and privately questioning the intent of Obama and Kerry....
BUT AGAIN....the In has never been good with numbers when it comes to Syria and especially the fighting strength of the anti Assad opposition....
UN figures on besieged East #Aleppo:
- 275,000 people
- 8,000 opposition fighters
- 900 JFS militants
= 0.33% terrorists
Interesting is the simple fact that 9,000 anti Assad forces have been largely able to defend eastern Aleppo for over 48 months and have beaten back a massive Assad regime Shia militia and Hezbollah attack after one of the heaviest ever Russia air strike campaigns on eastern Aleppo......
WW2 proved you cannot simply bomb a civilian population into submission....
Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09
UN De Mistura says the presence of #JFS is an "easy alibi" for the pro-#Assad coalition's conduct in #Aleppo ... mixes up cause and effect.
De Mistura offers to personally lead the #JFS jihadis out of #Aleppo City to guarantee their safety and to remove #Assad's bombing excuse.
No more than 900 of the 8,000 insurgents in Aleppo city are #JFS (al-Qaeda), according to Staffan de Mistura, who encouraged them to leave.
BUT WAIT...that will not stop the bombing as Assad has declared anyone carrying a rifle is in fact a terrorist and the Assad regime has dropped leaflets to that effect.....
NOTE
Can't stop thinking about the small talk on a Nusra - De Mistura bus ride.
Sputnik
Verified account
@SputnikInt
#S300 & #S400 operators won't have time to identify any airstrikes' origin and will respond immediately -@mod_russia
http://sptnkne.ws/cvtx
Here we have our #NFZ over #Syria ...
Or rather a #OBGATFZ - "Only Bad Guys Allowed To Fly Zone".
Great job, West!
JUST another day in the Assad/Putin killing machine and the Obama WH says nor does anything to stop the ongoing genocide, war crimes and starvation .....
Heavy Airstrikes today on rebel held towns in southern #Syria
Only 12 km to terminate the threat of #Marea, being encircled by #ISIS or the #YPG.
But does the Russian-Turkish deal allow this?
See how #Putin's #BunkerBuster bombs & co. have 'shaped' the surface of eastern #Aleppo in only 7 days.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...btn_tw#…
Footage
Large crater after #Russian air strike west of #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMLduUkaMPc#…
Footage
#Russian regular and cluster bomb attacks on towns west of #Aleppo today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BE3doOGDO9s#…
South of #Damascus today.
Syrians need MANPADS to stop the horror!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WJD0w54Vlo#…
Footage
More brutal air strikes on towns west of #Aleppo by #AssadPutin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5ZYfiSnHEI#…
Footage
Air strikes west of #Aleppo today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jc8Y...utu.be#…
Footage
Air strikes all around a Syrian opposition media reporter in northern #Hama province.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auqRINqWnsA#…
81 civilians were killed by #AssadPutin on Wednesday in #Syria, incl. 15 children
48 of the victims died in and around #Aleppo
- LCC
Seriously afraid the UN has basically been siding with Assad since 2011...and aid deliveries by the UN .....basically have never happened as well...
BUT just like the Obama/Rhodes/Kerry WH...the UN is great with words.....
UN De Mistura says not willing to passively accept another #Rwanda or #Srebrenica
( #Aleppo #Syria)
It is already happening and there is nothing he nor Obama can and or will do.....
How pathetic is the current Obama/Rhodes/Kerry WH Syrian FP WHEN a Syrian basically "calls you out as a fraud"??????
Remember the Syrian civil society peacefully in 2011 asked for democracy, the rule of law and good governance THE very same things the US professes to believe in as well AND in return they got genocide, war crimes and starvation....
AND the Obama WH.......did nothing.....
QUOTE
Following the discussion, a Syrian who had sat in on the conversation summed up the Secretary’s position to the New York Times : “You have to fight for us, but we will not fight for you. How can this be accepted by anyone? It’s unbelievable.” Dishonorable, too.
UNQUOTE
CAN anyone here at SWJ explain to me exactly what Obama got his Nobel Peace Prize for???
At least the Syrian Civil Defense who have been nominated ARE doing something for humanity WHILE Obama is/has not.....
Footage
Cluster bomb attackn near #Lataminah this afternoon.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCmFWs4OauY#…
Footage
#Russian air strikes hits #Saraqib.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3B62UmAVkBU#…
Footage
#Russian air strike west of #Aleppo today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVtY_UN-yyQ#…
Footage
Intense #AssadPutin air strikes on #KafrZita today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78IXZfw6qGU#…
Listen in!
#ClusterBomb attack on sleeping civilians in #EastGhouta last night.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivEbzT4ukYI#…
THIS is a direct result of a fully disconnected WH lack of a FP BUT WAIT they do have one..."doing nothing stupid"....
WHAT we are now watching with this Obama/Rhodes/Kerry WH is a foundering and failing FP which was based on "doing nothing stupid" AND a full scale FP tilt to Iran as the new ME regional hegemon backed by Russia......
Embarrassing to say the least as this single event will override any Obama "legacy" for years to come....going down in history as a US President that turned his back on genocide and war crimes being committed in his face will be to hard for historians to ignore....
Putin issued an insulting ultimatum to the US, while launching a brutal miitary campaign in Syria. Kerry responded, "Let's be friends."
The lack of Democratic outrage about this is what makes their recent hawkishness vis-a-vis Moscow seem so cynical and insincere.
Great by @alexjlockie: "The Iran deal has Obama 'held hostage' while the MidEast descends into chaos"
http://read.bi/2dywu19#
NEW: The Obama admin's plan to save Aleppo is ... well, there isn't one.
http://pllqt.it/n2fD8D
Obama Has No Plan to Save Aleppo From Putin and Assad
The White House is weighing options to slow down the joint Russian-Syrian advance on a rebel stronghold. But none of those options involve saving the country’s largest city.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/article...source=twitter
IMHO this Obama WH has since 2012 not really cared what happens in Syria, including genocide, war crimes and starvation
Iran had the Obama WH's full attention...WHY I am still not exactly sure as it makes no sense short, medium and or long term....
Opinion How Did the World Remain Silent During the Holocaust? Exactly the Way It’s Doing in Aleppo
President Obama, at the end of his term, must enforce a no-fly zone if the massacre is to end.
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/.prem...ticle-comments
Behind a paywall.....
When Israeli's start using the "H" word THEN the Obama/Rhodes/Kerry WH should stand up and take note.......
SAD state of US FP when another country has to point out to the Obama WH what is or is not genocide....OR war crimes.....
TRUELY APPEARS that both Obama and Kerry will "sell" their Grandmothers bathtub in order to get "something for their legacy".....
SINCE when did US FP start groveling to get anything.....this Obama/Rhodes/Kerry WH has no morals, no values and not much else YET they claim they have the greatest US FP since sliced white bread.....
-@JohnKerry: „NO MORE TALKS ON SYRIA W/RUSSIA!“
-calls @mfa_russia: „sorry guys. just for the show. don't tell.“
-#Russia: "HE CALLED US!“
Charles Lister @Charles_Lister
I... just... don't... even know what to say anymore...
Have we got any backbone left at all?
Less than 48 hours after suspending US/Russian talks
Quote:
Secretary of State John Kerry discussed the situation in Syria with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday, less than 48 hours after the State Department announced a suspension in “bilateral channels with Russia” related to reducing the violence in Syria.
The Wednesday phone call between the two diplomats, first disclosed by the Russian Foreign Ministry, raised immediate questions about whether the United States was already backtracking on its threat to cut off ties with Moscow.
In acknowledging the phone call, State Department spokesman Mark Toner defended the high-level contact. “They did talk about the situation on the ground in Syria,” he said, “my argument back to you would be it would be irresponsible for Secretary Kerry not to raise what’s happening in Syria and make our concerns clear about what’s happening there.”
Toner faced stiff push back from reporters seeking to understand the practical extent of the suspension of ties. “You tell the Russians one thing, and then you turn around and don’t follow through on it,” Associated Press reporter Matt Lee said.
Toner said the suspension only applied to a diplomatic channel setup to sustain a cessation of hostilities in the country. Such a suspension apparently did not preclude talks between Kerry and Lavrov on Syria who have remained in near constant contact throughout the deadly civil war.
“While that particular bilateral channel has been suspended we’re not going to just walk away from what’s happening in Syria,” Toner said.
The State Department announced the halting of talks with Russia on Monday after a relentless bombing campaign by Russian and Syrian jets on the besieged city of Aleppo.
“This is not a decision that was taken lightly,” State Department spokesman John Kirby said at the time.
The U.S. also cancelled plans to share military intelligence to target the Islamic State and the al Qaeda affiliate Nusra Front.
Republicans, such as Sen. John McCain of Arizona, continue to call for military action against the Syrian government but U.S. officials have warned that regime change in Damascus could empower Sunni extremist groups and lead to even more chaos in the country.
NOTICE the last sentence...THIS is telling as the DoS and the Obama WH does not seem to fully understand that 1)Assad's genocide supported by Russian war crimes are the root causes of radicalization in Syria and 2) BY not stepping up and protecting Syrian Sunni's and allowing JFS to appear to be the protectors of Syrian Sunni's THIS WH is actually aiding and abetting the growth of the former AQ roup now JFS......
DOES in fact this WH actually want to protect and defend Assad as a war criminal and genocidal dictator??????
2138 DEAD IN SYRIA DURING SEPTEMBER 2016, including 359 CHILDREN and 293 WOMEN
359 CHILDREN!
NOTE:...in 2012 the Obama WH had a chance to do something...virtually anything in Syria....THEN the death toll stood at 7,000 NOW in 2016 WHEN he cannot do anything and he is complicit in supporting the ongoing genocide, war crimes and starvation being committed against Syrian Sunni's the DEATH TOLL is now at 500,000 and still raising.....
This counts as a highly successful WH eight years of ME FP?????
THIS is a KEY article by a very good Syrian/ME SME who gets little attention inside the so called DC "Belt Way".....
https://kyleorton1991.wordpress.com/...erican-policy/
Al-Qaeda in Syria and American Policy
By#Kyle Orton#(@KyleWOrton) on October 4, 2016
Quote:
The evidence of collaboration between al-Qaeda and Iran was novel and sketchy at the time. Nearly two decades later it is not so. In 1992, al-Qaeda and Iran came to an agreement to collaborate against the West. This deal was personally sealed between Imad Mughniyeh, an officer of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and the military leader of its Lebanese proxy, and Bin Ladin in Sudan. Al-Qaeda members were trained in the Bekaa by Hizballah and training provided#by Iran was key in making the strikes in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam possible. Up to half of the 9/11 death pilots passed through Iran and the attack’s operational planner, Khalid Shaykh Muhammad, lived in Iran for long stretches of the 1990s. In 2011, the U.S. exposed the “secret deal” between Iran and al-Qaeda that allows an extensive#al-Qaeda network to shelter from U.S. drones on Iranian soil and feeds al-Qaeda’s global branches, including in Syria, where Tehran is supposedly “fighting terrorists” like al-Qaeda. The 9/11 Commission recommended “further investigation” into the Islamic Republic’s dealings with al-Qaeda; sadly that never occurred.
SERIOUS NOTE:
Ahmad Mabruk was there at the creation with al-Qaeda, became a JFS official in #Syria, struck down with a drone...AS he was allegedly going to meet Iranian intelligence....is what is being said on the ground.
When the administration is talking about the formidable impediment of the UNSC, you know they're not serious.
The CIA and the Joint Staff have said that the fall of Aleppo [to #Assad] would undermine America's counterterrorism goals in #Syria."
"Administration officials [say] that Obama is no more willing to commit U.S. military force inside #Syria than he was previously".
THUS Obama is just a complicit in the ongoing genocide inside Syria as is Assad and Putin.....
MORE EVIDENCE that the US Kurdish supported proxy YPG/PYD/SDF/PKK is in fact working together with Assad and Putin AND not fighting IS as they always tell the US.....
PYD hand over Furat University and other government buildings in Hasakah back to Assad regime is another sign of the increased cooperation
YPG fight with Assad/IRGC to tighten the siege on Aleppo & attack FSA near Azaz in the same day but call themselves peoples protection units
Owaji district disputed, Al Pasha water treatment plant recaptured by rebels. YPG and SAA jointly control buildings in Shuqqayif district.
PYD flag on one of Al Shqif building #Aleppo #PYD took advantage of the #Russian raids and advanced
WashPost’s Richard Cohen on #Obama’s “hallucinatory” excuses on #Syria
http://wpo.st/9sR22
Charles Lister @Charles_Lister
#Moscow is doing everything in its power to indicate self-escalation - in order to deter the U.S. from confronting its war crimes in #Syria.
Charles Lister @Charles_Lister
1yr of #Russia operations in #Syria:
- 3,264 civilians dead
(inc. 911 children & 619 women)
- 147 cluster attacks
- 48 incendiary attacks
Charles Lister @Charles_Lister
What an embarrassment for admin #Syria policy.
7+ months of negotiations w. an actor we *now* label a “war criminal"
Cost = 33,000+ dead.
For the first time ever, the Russian regime admits to bomb hospitals in #Syria.
And gives an excuse for it, of course.
Russian UK Ambassador....QUOTE: most field hospitals are unmarked field facilities for rebels using civilians as human shields....UNQUOTE:
BUT WAIT...ALL those civilians killed and wounded by Russian air strikes occurred in non rebel areas inside eastern Aleppo....
BUT WAIT....the Russians have the exact coordinates of the field hospitals and still hit them with air strikes.....SO Russia is lying again.....
BUT WAIT........
Russian Forces TV @zvezdanews & @mod_russia: Russian bombing of hospitals and terrorism is all the fault of the USA!
https://twitter.com/zvezdanews/statu...7697591062528#
…
SO are all SWJ readers and commenters finally able to accept what I have been saying since Crimea....this Obama/Rhodes/Kerry WH has absolutely no national level strategic strategy for anything including fighting mice in the WH basement itself.....
I have never seen such a disaster in the making, but when one has the FP of "doing nothing stupid" then I guess one has not failed as the success bar laid actually on the ground.....so everything was simply rosy and a total success....
AND all of those US comments that the US would never allow another Rwanda WHAT do we now have again ......a "Rwanda" that is in front of the WH's face and yet they still do nothing.....called Syrian Sunni genocide, war crimes and starvation....
To argue the WH never thought it possible to undertake anything...well they lie just as much as does Putin...Obama had a serious chance in 2012 and yet he walked away and never attempted anything other than "talking" and "spinning"...which is all this WH FP consists of anyway these days.....
I could post here the running links to the Syrian thread depicting the genocide but it is time to close this one out as it points clearly to the failure of this article.
WHICH many outside SMEs stated would be the end result anyway....
The UN drops aid over DeirEzzor, Iranian AF C130s drops aid over Fuah and Kefraya (video)...only Aleppo keeps starving.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WksjG9f7Rzs#…
AND STILL silence out of the Obama/Rhodes/Kerry WH....why is that??? Normally Rhodes spins everything on Twitter but this time he is even strangely silent....
Rastan in #Homs today.
#Assad's Su-22 pound the city.
MANPADS could end the horror within hours ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9Czk2nQ81w#…
And much more from #Huraytan.
"Artillery and helicopters" as the filmer says.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMljpHrxs5w#…
But also #Aleppo itself was hit by a couple of air strikes again, killing more than 20.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqe60qx7pN4#…
Huraytan today.
What didn't rain down on #Aleppo was dropped on its suburbs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m26WB5c1iXI#…
Mosque was also targeted and hit as well in this strike
BUT WAIT....when still the Ukrainian military is facing over 700 Russian tanks, over 1200 IFVs and over 1000 artillery pieces and the TOW/Javelin would be massive defense weapons..... the Obama/Rhodes/Kerry WH argued falsely that both are "offensive weapons"...EVEN in Syria it has been used mainly in the defensive role UNLESS targeting key positions on the Assad regime front lines prior to an attack to protect the attacking forces....
DID the Obama/Rhodes/Kerry WH really think that after their massive and repeated failures at a ceasefire and no humanitarian aid and now the Russian deliberate destruction of Aleppo and the unlimited killing of civilians a la Gronzy THAT the Sunni Front States WOULD HONESTY NOT ACT....
DID the Obama/Rhodes/Kerry WH not think the photos and videos of the deliberate killing of women and children WOULD NOT HAVE AN IMPACT on the global Sunni community led by Turkey and KSA????
IF they did not then they should not be in the positions they are in.....
US officials getting more jittery that Gulf states/Turkey will start funneling MANPADS into Syria.
http://uk.mobile.reuters.com/article/idUKKCN11W2N7#
…
Gulf may arm rebels now Syria truce is dead -U.S. officials
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reu...fficials.html#
…
ESPECIALLY since there never was a true PLAN B.....
THERE would be no "jitters" if they would establish a NFZ over Aleppo and other key besieged locations and stopped the sheer destruction and deliberate killing of civilians...BUT THEY WILL NOT......thus the "jitters"......
2 Syrian Docs look Rouhani in the face & question Iran's Syria policy, Show more guts than most powerful diplomats sitting in UNSC or DC.
http://bv.ms/2cN7z8l
Talk, talk, talk, and MORE talk...that is all the UNSC, US, France, Germany, UK are really good for in the face of blatant genocide .....I have never seen in the last 50 years such a run for the exit mentality from the WEST led by the Obama/Rhodes/Kerry WH as the main leaders to the exit.....
IF nothing is done to stop this massive and in your face genocide....we will actually be creating a jihad against the US for tens of years to come....and it would be our fault not the jihadi's....
Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09
Syria Night airstrikes with cluster bombs on al-Farahaniah/ #Talbisah in northern #Homs
Another #Russian cluster bomb attack also hit a bus in #Aleppo today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jheYl59fRuI#…
Seems from this video Russia backs SDF/YPG offensives near Efrin, but no official confirmation
Russian air strike/drone video.....
https://youtu.be/efk2LYKG8Uk
Video from @Daretezzamedia showing a cluster bomb strike. Reportedly in Daret Izza, 18 miles northwest of #Aleppo. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob86Nneklt4#…
Footage
More incendiary attacks on rural #Aleppo tonight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lyniu3nhog8#…
Footage
#Assad's Su-22 bombed northern #Homs province today.
Both, the dictator and #Russia want more blood.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkdBmXXQBGU#…
Syrien heute.
So nutzt #Russland seinen "Einfluss" auf das #Assad-Regime, Herr FM #Steinmeier ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTqx62gOOK0#…
Very graphic. Severely injured child after the #AssadPutin air strikes on #Aleppo today.
Dozens dies again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dmxd3uRER8I#…
Footage
Several air strikes on besieged #Homs province today.
Locals call them "Russian".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrXS2Ley5n4#…
Footage
#Putin's killers dropped more incendiary bombs on #Aleppo CITY this afternoon!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl6dhzVIlKs#…
BreakingFootage
Darat Izza near #Aleppo right now.
Night time #ClusterBomb attacks on the city.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ob86Nneklt4#…
Russia bombs aid convoys.
Islamist rebels let them reach regime areas.
#WhoIsTheTerrorist?!
Charles Lister @Charles_Lister
Diplomatic thinking in the US & EU is beginning to shift on #Syria.
#Russia’s attack on aid convoy & #Aleppo onslaught is having an effect.
Hawkish voices from UK, France (+ regional states) beginning to show some foresight in #Washington.
180° shift in assessment of #Russia.
The idea that a regime victory would lead to enforced stability in #Syria is a *total* fantasy.
Status quo is *not* sustainable.
BUT WAIT...the Obama WH is only smiling and nodding their heads nothing else happens though.....
The Russian version of their Syrian "truth" released by the Russian UK Embassy which has had the lead in English propaganda statements about both eastern Ukraine and now it seems Syria...........
Watch how Russian 6Ds propaganda works...and try to pick out how many are used.....Distort, Deflect, Dismay, Deflect all designed to create Doubt and Distrust....
24.09.2016
Why not give the Syrians a break? (by Ambassador Yakovenko for RBTH)
Quote:
It was in the fertile soil of the ongoing civil conflict that ISIS expanded to Syria. Ever since, Russia has been urging the establishment of a common front of the international community against terrorists, including the al-Qaeda linked Jabhat al-Nusra, which despite its recent rebranding continues to be a terrorist organization. We agree on that with our U.S. partners, as testified to by the Lavrov-Kerry accords, reached in Geneva along the lines agreed by presidents Putin and Obama. Russia insists on declassifying this deal, so that there is not the slightest whiff of secret diplomacy about it. Terrorists played a key and leading role in the fight against government forces.
The battle for Aleppo is a case in point. The fight against terrorism creates common ground for all Syrians. Most of the terrorist fighters in Syria are foreigners, whose agenda has nothing to do with the interests and aspirations of the Syrian people. In fact, the terrorists have hijacked the cause of the opposition. This major factor distorting the entire Syrian situation has to be eliminated.
As agreed by Russia and the U.S. in their capacity as co-chairs of the International Syria Support Group, the opposition groups ought to disentangle themselves from the terrorists on the ground, to be part of the cessation of hostilities (CofH) and to sit at the table of inclusive negotiations on Syria’s future, as provided for in the UN Security Council resolution 2254. That is a key priority in making the CofH sustainable.
Russia and the U.S. have agreed to co-ordinate their strikes at terrorist targets in Syria and, for that purpose, help the true opposition sever its unholy alliances with terrorists. This will go a long way in ensuring that humanitarian aid reaches all those in need throughout Syria.
The Centre for Reconciliation of the Opposing Sides, established by the Russian military, has been brokering support for the ceasefire at the grassroots and delivering humanitarian assistance. As a result, about 600 villages and 69 armed groups now abide by the cessation of hostilities co-sponsored by Russia and the U.S. in February.
The Syrian situation is complicated by regional rivalries. The conflict is being used to reorder regional politics along the lines of Sunni-Shia confrontation. That is why some insist on turning Syria into a Sunni state, not a secular democracy. So far, all the attempts to impose a “Sunni alternative” on Syria proved to be a cover-up for a terrorist takeover.
No one in Syria expected the conflict to be of such magnitude and to last so long. From the outset, many in Syria were misled by the precedent of Western military intervention in Libya, which the Foreign Affairs Committee in its latest report strongly condemns as a blunder. Had it not been for that, people on both sides of the civil conflict would have acted more responsibly. People know now what life under terrorist rule is like. There are more than enough grounds for a sober reassessment of the situation by all, including outside players. Why not give the Syrians a break and let them decide for themselves?
There is no reasonable alternative to a moderate politics of reconciliation and return to a peaceful life. Regional players and the international community at large should help in the economic reconstruction and social rehabilitation of this country. The world let the Syrians down in the past. We cannot fail them now.
NOTICE the Russian Ambassador refers to the recent US/Russia so called ceasefire as if it was a done deal....BUT he utterly failed to mention both Assad and the Russian MoD cancelled the ceasefire AND then proceeded to air strike a agreed to UN/SRC aid convoy....claiming it was hit by a US drone carrying 250lb Russian bombs.....and that drone dropped over 18 bombs......
WOW...the Brits say what apparently the Obama WH cannot seem to utter or say....."war crimes against humanity"...BUT when one is "doing nothing stupid"...at least one can tell the truth BUT the truth is distinctly missing from this Obama WH....especially the truth about the Iran Deal...
Al Arabiya English
✔
@AlArabiya_Eng
#BREAKING: #British FM Johnson: #Russia is guilty of protracting war in #Syria and of war crimes
“[Russian Pres. Vladimir Putin’s] regime is not only handing Assad the revolver, he is using the revolver himself,”
- @BorisJohnson
NOW in their full tilt to Iran and Russia the Obama is completely rewriting the rules of warfare and the so called protection for civilian populations....
WHY is that?????
Daraa: Heavy #Assad airstrikes on #Dael town now.
Damascus: Heavy #Assad & #Russia|n airstrikes on #Douma now.
Mohammad Hamadi, a nurse in a makeshift hospital in #Aleppo, died in a #Russia(n) airstrike on Tareeq Al Bab in #Aleppo city yesterday
Report
129 civilians were killed by #AssadPutin on Saturday, incl. 27 children.
106 of the victims died in and around #Aleppo.
- LCC
See this!
The #Russian bombs hit so deep and heavy, they even destroy the canalisation under rebel-held #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0winVCBqNF8#…
Footage
Total devastation and children in the ruins after #Russia's yesterday war crimes in #Aleppo city.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMvV8VwTcGM#…
Footage
For the whole night, #Huraytan (near #Aleppo) was hit by #Russian incendiary bomb attacks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1UDVG_I9uM#…
In the face of pure genocide and war crimes the silence out of this Obama WH is deafening....WHY is that????/
Charles Lister
✔
@Charles_Lister
200+ civilians killed & 300+ wounded in 48hrs of sustained aerial & ground-to-ground bombing of besieged eastern #Aleppo
= more war crimes.
Al Jazeera News
✔
@AJENews
"The situation is catastrophic. Destruction and death, everywhere around us."
http://aje.io/8yzr
AND the response from the Obama/Rhodes/Kerry WH......is ABSOLUTLY nothing........ not even a small comment.......not even a whimper.....
Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09
First possible comment concerning possible Russian mercenaries, PMC and or Russian troops being involved in direct combat fighting.....
Aleppo24 @24Aleppo
Local armed groups regain control of parts of HandaratCamp. RU fighting unit retreated east to SheikhNajjar industrial city.
These are either Russian mercenaries, Russian PMC and or actual Russian combat troops....
Confirmed now...5 Russian tanks and 6 heavy artillery cannons were involved in the fighting.......
Video by @redsteeze on the radical disconnect between the US administration's rhetoric and action in Syria:
https://youtu.be/DW0L-bvza7k
Overheard at the Pentagon: "Russia didn't call our bluff. They just said f#### you."
US failures in #Syria don't exist in vacuum; "embolden extremists like #AQ as adversaries turn them into victories."
Syria Street scene today in #Aleppo
https://youtu.be/JqZ_Mz0yiJQ
New York, 2001
Aleppo, TODAY
#TerrorIsTerror
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-McPGv_thE#…
IMAGE of father & son pulled from under rubble #Aleppo #Syria after #Russia bombs fell- Father lived,son died #Putin #Assad
Russia brings peace and "humanitarian aid" from the skies to #Aleppo
Attached Images
Watch this & tell me we couldn’t be doing more:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZicIQpLKXI#…
#Assad & #Russia senselessly destroying #Aleppo & we watch on...
One former U.S. official told @JonathanLanday that the “consequences of inaction” on #Syria were never considered:
"As #Syria's ceasefire fails, #Obama may leave his successor a 'problem from Hell’”
by @JonathanLanday
http://news.trust.org/item/20160923225035-mc7em/#…
Charles Lister @Charles_Lister
Western diplomat to me:
‘#Russia’s attack on aid convoy was so sustained & deliberate, “evil” doesn’t qualify. All assessments out window.'
Also Al-Atarib and other towns in #Aleppo province were burning after such #Russian war crimes over the day.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRlvCuDqFog#…
BreakingFootage
#Russian air force incendiary ammunition attack on #Huraytan, just N of #Aleppo, one hour ago.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NBNASoWirw#…
After a #Russian attack on civilians in #Aleppo today.
COUNT THE CHILDREN!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_z5z1Qw4BE#…
Footage
Just one of uncountable #Russian air strikes on #Aleppo city today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AXNOwD2fb0#…
Senior military advisor to Khamenei, Yahya Rahim Safavi: “We hope the Americans don’t deceive the Russians in Syria” http://www.tehrantimes.com/news/406621/Ex-IRGC-chief-warns-Russians-of-… …
Iran is worried of a bad deal between Russia & U.S. in Syria
The current rate of Iranian expansion from Yemen to Afghanistan will ensure Saudi Arabia ceases to exist within the next 10 years.
.@MSF statement on the increasing number of war-wounded in #Syria's E. #Aleppo as a result of the indiscriminate bombing on the city
"The world has watched #Aleppo under siege and civilians killed and trapped and done nothing" #Syria
The rules of war and the protection of the civilian populations under the Obama WH no longer apply...for that they be thanked as part of their legacy.....
Kyle W. Orton @KyleWOrton
#Russia's goal is to leave #IS and al-Qaeda as #Assad's only opponents. Everything they do is toward that end, inc pretend ceasefires.
.@Charles_Lister: Peace in #Syria requires exactly what President Obama won't do: punish #Assad for violations.
https://youtu.be/itfpQ1HOvZY
"Syria haunts Obama. So why isn't he involved?"
http://nyti.ms/2cs0myl#
For the billionth time: Because Iran
HAS actually and this question needs to be seriously asked of a US sitting President...did the President "sell out" US FP just to get a "legacy"????
Syria // #Aleppo // Large scale clashes are now erupting all over Aleppo city. SAA pushing everywhere.
REMEMBER the Russian Syrian ambassador recently stated...."Assad is not going to attack Aleppo".....
AND this is the same Russia Obama/Kerry are bowing down to in the face of an ongoing genocide driven by Assad and Putin.....
THIS attack on the northeastern side of eastern Aleppo is being carried out by Iraqi Shia militias AND this is not now a true sectarian war....95% of the Sunni population inside this pocket ARE NOT ARMED.....
WHAT exactly ARE IRAQI SHIA militias doing inside Syria and not fighting IS inside Iraq...HAs the Obama/Kerry WH an answer for this...NO THEY DO NOT....
Syrian civilians continue to pay the price for Obama's absurd and deeply flawed Iran nuclear deal
ALL in the name of a "legacy" and a "do nothing stupid" ethical FP......
Good luck convincing Syrian civilians and rebels to divorce from extremists while the Assad regime and Russia are killing their children and women who try to protect them
Hospitals in east Aleppo overwhelmed by number of injured reaching them due to regime & Russia bombings. Since this morning over 200 injured
I have started posting more of these graphic photos as a not so subtle reminder of EXACTLY what the face of genocide looks like...EVEN if the Obama/Rhodes/Kerry appears to think it is not ongoing WHEN IT IS EXACTLY in front of their faces.....up close and personal....
It is a sad day when the US which has repeatedly claimed they will never allow genocide to occur in fact allows it if not actively supports it by their silence and non action tied to "doing nothing stupid"......
Attached Images have been posted on the Syrian thread today....
http://securityobserver.org/is-an-et...e-think-it-is/
Is an ethical foreign policy what we think it is?
By Peter Kelly on June 19, 2012
Quote:
As the second decade of the new millennium begins, foreign policy is very different to the century which has preceded it. In the past century the British Empire has fallen, the totalitarian states of Germany, Japan and the USSR rose and fell, the United States rose to become a global super power, and was followed by a gradual slide towards a plurality of world powers over the turn of the century. The emergence of a more complex and morally ambiguous international system, and the years of dominance by western liberal-democratic powers, has made ethical questions of foreign policy both more present and yet more difficult. The divide between idealist notions of absolutely ethical foreign policy and cynicism of the place of ethics in this realm of politics has never been broader.
What is Ethical?
For a state to be able to strive for a foreign affairs which centres on ethics in this international system, there needs to be an understanding of what it is to be ethical. Unfortunately the international system does not provide any easy answers to this question, as there are no “internationally accepted standards of morality” to which a government can turn in order to ensure their foreign policy are based on a set of universal ethics.[i]
The development of ethics in foreign affairs was never more evident than in the rhetoric used in the 2003 war in Iraq. Western states fell back upon declarations of freedom, democracy and multilateralism to explain the use of overwhelming force in the region, and it began two decades of US military action in the Middle East. This language would continue to be used throughout the conflict, even as protests against the conflict began to grow in western states.[ii]#The protesters rallied on the basis that the war was not ethical, despite the rhetoric, and similar protests accompany most western acts of war.[iii] [iv] [v]#So what results in this disengagement between the rhetoric of governments and that of protesters?
Generally protesters have very hard-and-fast rules on what can be considered ethical and what cannot be. Arms sales, engagements with “dictators” and foreign interventions are considered nothing more than selfish realpolitik and imperialism.[vi]#Any sign that states may involve a mixed set of interests not solely based in ethical values of their people results in resistance from such groups, who oppose any form of mixed motives.[vii]#These groups often place absolute emphasis on the efforts of humanitarian groups and development work, seeing any resort to military action as causing more harm than it could possibly help. But in an international system where governments are the primary actors, can this trust possibly be repaid? As neutral actors without self-defence capabilities or protective ones there are limitations to what humanitarian groups can do, ones which do not match the expectations of anti-war groups, and may even cause the same kind of damage through trying to help that they accuse militaries of. As part of specific groups of very specific backgrounds, these humanitarians are no more the solution to the concept of universal ethics than any other partial system of internationally accepted rules of the international system.[viii]
If it is accepted that there is no universal code of ethics to refer to, and a foreign policy based solely on the ethics of humanitarianism and development is not possible, is it possible for a foreign policy to be judged as both legitimately ethical and yet perform unethical acts?
It would seem so in some cases. Actions like the invasion of Afghanistan, though resulting in protests, developed the support of the international community and public opinion in intervening states.[ix]#In these situations, a state with enough support can find solutions to political problems and foreign policy matters which “may be both uncontroversially unjust and uncontroversially legitimate”[x]#The “War on Terror” is a prime example of this situation, where what would be normally ethically acceptable shifted considerably in the wake of the 9/11 attacks to allow measures which previously would have been opposed to become ethically justified.[xi]
Any policy faced with a purely human dimension faces the fact that the most efficient way to prevent human rights abuses is to prevent any form of violent conflict, even if this means supporting autocratic regimes.[xii]#With humanitarianism rife with problems, can there be another concept of ethics?
A Domestic Foreign Policy
Ethics and foreign policy are often shifted and turned as much for popular support as international success. In fact, foreign policy can be described as being framed for domestic consumption.[xiii] This can re-frame foreign policy not as fully ethical or fully selfish, but in terms of whether it is legitimate. In most democratic systems and in the international arena, “the more actors believe an act to be legitimate, the more legitimate it is”[xiv]
This concept of legitimacy in foreign affairs needs some kind of basis which links state to populace within a nation. By what standard can this legitimacy be judged if humanitarian ethics cannot be relied upon on a universal basis?
The key of a shift of focus to legitimacy using domestic support is one which requires placing a discriminatory preference for a domestic audience#over internationals in a way never envisaged under humanitarian conceptions of ethics which use only the humanity of individuals as their identity. Instead there emerges an exclusive property to foreign policy in which it centres on a domestic audience at the expense of others. This legitimacy, therefore, is based on a form of obligation of the state to concentrate on the welfare of its citizens alone.[xv]#This stays consistent with a foreign policy which places emphasis on “military security, the integrity of its political life and the well-being of its people”,[xvi]#even when this may involve behaving in an unethical manner to the people of other states.
Under this dominant emphasis on the domestic audience acts such as arms sales, often considered absolutely unethical to humanitarian organisations, become fully legitimate. Selling weapons to dictatorial regimes known for breaking human rights agreements may become necessary for the economic prosperity of the domestic public.[xvii]
However this refocus onto legitimacy of the state has so far only referred to the military or economic security of the domestic public. There is a final factor to take into consideration, that of the ideological values of this public. Although US security may well be maintained by supporting dictators worldwide in order to enforce stability and loyal regimes propped up by military and economic agreements, this may halt or even significantly damage the particular value-system of their public and its position in the international system. As a champion of the interests of the domestic population in all other regards, should the government act with significantly different ideological values to the population, its position as a representation of them is damaged.
This issue has different implications to different cultures. To Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan, an emphasis on the superiority of their own people over those of other states permitted an internally legitimate difference between the treatment of their own people and those of other states.[xviii] [xix]#However, to western states which have increasingly stressed equality of all, emancipation of communities, universal suffrage and other such stresses on a humanitarian emphasis on humanity as the sole identity of importance in national policy and rights, showing such discrimination can be internally dissonant. An idea of mutual respect between all individuals becomes inconsistent should the state show no such consistent values on the international stage.[xx]
Continued.....
Lavrov: US apologised to Assad for coalition airstrike that killed regime forces in DairEzzor.
NOW this is highly interesting..... a US apology to Assad a genocidal dictator announced by a Russia that has for all practical purposes constantly lied to Kerry and Obama and WHO has never fulfilled a single ceasefire in eastern Ukraine and or Syria.....
WHEN Obama could have engaged the US in Syria the death toll stood at 7,000 in 2012...NOW in 2016 it is at 500,000 and really climbing....
SO when will the Obama WH apologize to the Syrian Sunni population for being complicit in their genocide, starvation and war crimes.....???
Interesting question is it not and it reflects badly on that so called Obama "ethnical FP" strategy which really is called "doing nothing stupid"...
Relentless Russian bombing raids on #Aleppo for two days now. Since morning today, airstrikes killed 51 people according to local reports.