Can
anyone of those who attended the Geneva Conference explain to pro-democracy
protesters in Syria how will their proposed plan end the massacres, the ethnic
cleansing and the ongoing partition of the country? I have read the full
text of their final communiqué and I still can’t understand how they
plan to accomplish this.
Monday July 02, 2012
Today’s Death toll: 114. The Breakdown:
32 in Damascus (30 in the Suburbs and 2 in the City), 27 in Hama, 20 in
Homs, 13 in Deir Ezzor, 6 in Idlib, 4 in Aleppo, 4 in Daraa and 1 in Lattakia.
In a new provocation of Turkish authorities, pro-Assad militias
shell the refugee camp of Kilis right across the border http://youtu.be/Fk3w1RT6zgY
News
Recent
weeks have seen an escalation in the number of Syrian troops fleeing the
country. The troops flee as the international community has failed to decide on
a unified response to the crisis in Syria.
Op-Eds
& Special Reports
Mounting
Pressure on the Syrian Army Unless the army finds a way to relieve growing
pressure on its capabilities and cohesion, it will likely collapse, sweeping
away much of the regime in the process.
“A combination of
military operations by the local resistance with aerial cover from the U.S. and
allies will shortly provide a separation of forces between the few real areas
that are still loyal to the regime and the majority of the country which has
joined the revolution. It’s at this stage that talks over transition can truly
begin.”
Putin’s Gambit
I agree
that Russia’s position on Syria is not about Syria. But it’s not simply about the
question of who makes the call on international issues either. Russians have
their own doublespeak as well, and we just have to find ways to decipher it
which the Russians themselves often provide. In my conversations with Russian policy
experts back in late May, mention of Saudi Arabia was as frequent as that of
Syria and the U.S. The bottom line was: “what can you (the opposition) and the
Saudis can offer us to help us change our position?” Some did indeed put it as
bluntly as this, so I didn’t really have to struggle to piece things together.
Putin views
developments in Syria as a new front for the struggle between Saudi Arabia and
Iran, and he believes that Saudi is the main sponsor of the Syrian opposition. If
Saudi wants to prevail on this front Russia would like to help for a price.
And the
price is not a port along the Syrian coast, Russia already has that and has no
plans to give it up, nor do they see that a need for such a move could seriously
arise. The opposition, in their view, will never be able to control the coastal
areas and force such a development.
And the
price is not a multi-billion dollar arms deal with Saudi, albeit they wouldn’t mind
that. But that is not as urgent a need as this stage as that other thing that
Putin really needs: driving oil prices up! Current oil prices coupled with chronic
mismanagement and corruption in Russian circles will soon translate into an economic
nightmare for Russia where the elite has until recently lived in the same kind
of cocoon that the Ben Alis, the Mubaraks, the Salehs, the Gaddafis and the Assads
have been living in: they thought they were invincible. Then came the Arab Re-Awakening,
and Putin and his crowd saw in that, rightly, a clear warning sign.
In order
to avoid what happened to Arab regimes, Russian officials knew they had little
time to tackle some very knotty economic and developmental problems in record
time. But for that, they need cash, and plenty of it, and for this they need
higher oil prices which constitute the quickest possible fix to their problems.
But Saudi
cannot deliver on that without American approval, and Obama cannot give his
approval on something like this during elections season, and so long as the
economic situation in the U.S. and the E.U. remains as problematic as it is
today. Higher oil prices might good for Russia among few other countries, not
to mention oil companies, but, at this stage, they are bad for the world.
So, Russia
cannot have what it wants at this stage, and that means that Russia cannot be
part of the solution in Syria.
Video Highlights
This
leaked video shows how pro-Assad troops are pounding the Damascene Suburb of Daraya
from a square in the Midan District http://youtu.be/iFFupmLA-Yo
The pounding leaves many dead http://youtu.be/hLJ0PNFgOg0
, http://youtu.be/ZKtlea7ssAE
Pro-Assad
militias transform the Damascene Suburb of Douma into another ghost town
http://youtu.be/M9Jic0FnRbw Local
activists retrieve the bodies of people who seem to have been executed in their
homes by pro-Assad militias http://youtu.be/7ARu2nj4wIQ
, http://youtu.be/U3v7OWbOePM , http://youtu.be/K9GeK_MSE6k , http://youtu.be/-T9Li1XWVuE , http://youtu.be/QcA9HSpKmKk A body that
lies unclaimed in the stairwell http://youtu.be/E9IzcCPxKJw
The pounding
of Deir Ezzor City in the northeastern parts of the country continues http://youtu.be/nbAAS8ZTOHI A mortar round
lands on a passing car disintegrating the inhabitants http://youtu.be/se4QIRNjd3A Homes catch
fire http://youtu.be/BrHFXxp7qGA The
impact of pounding http://youtu.be/NGPZCqQE_Tc
Lattakia:
fires started by pro-regime militias continue to rage in Al-Akrad Mountains
driving locals out finishing the job of ethnic cleansing http://youtu.be/9lNYs-_pBCs
The
pounding of Talbisseh, Homs Province, continues http://youtu.be/VLe1jdOEEtc So does the
pounding of Rastan http://youtu.be/fp1KqcUrnks
, http://youtu.be/mF3JJINpUqo
The pounding
of Naeemah, Daraa Province, continues http://youtu.be/fQtwkbMza20 , http://youtu.be/bxj1Ik4J5wA
Russia has only one purpose with its Syria politics. And it is to stop ALL planes that Syria could, would or might do or will do in the future. It is their place in the first row the don't want to miss. The harbour of Taurus is build and maintained by former Soviet Union and today Russia. And it is their doorway into Syria..And they don't want to lose Assad whatever they say. He is a truly friend to the Kremlin leaders, and Assad needs all friends he can get.
ReplyDeleteStig-Åke Persson
Sweden