UN Special Envoy for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi has formally taken over his position this week, replacing Kofi Annan, who resigned after the ceasefire he negotiated collapsed. Both rebels and regime have criticized the selection of Brahimi.
Brahimi, a long time Algerian diplomat, conceded that the job is “nearly impossible” but promised to hold talks with President Bashar Assad soon, and seems to be pushing for a new ceasefire.
But while the Annan ceasefire was difficult to implement and poorly received, a new one would be dramatically harder to pull off, as fighting has escalated nationwide and both rebels and regime are contesting several major cities, including Aleppo and Damascus.
Rebels reported an air strike today against al-Bab, on the outskirts of Aleppo, killed at least 25 people and destroyed a building. They blamed regime warplanes. The state media reported a car bombing on the outskirts of Damascus which killed five, and was blamed on rebels.
Brahimi’s problem will be made doubly difficult because neither side seems to have much interest in a ceasefire at the moment, with both believing that they will eventually prevail in the ongoing war.
"There will be no dialogue with the opposition prior to the Syrian army's imposition of security and stability in all parts of the country," Information Minister Omran al-Zoebi told reporters at a news conference in Damascus" Nor the Syrian should because this war was not supported by the majority of the Syrian people, nor the Syrian people wanted to have anything to do with these "oppositions", they got their money and live in Paris, London and WDC now they can go and have a good time crying for what they have lost, an honorable, honest discussions, dialogue with Syrian people represented by the Syrian government. We said that long time ago when Hillary Clinton announced that she is betting on the regime change in Syria that: this is yet another lost case for US no matter how you look at it. Now is time for Hillary Clinton to resign, but we also know that she is not going to do it, because she already have said that: this is her last jobs in politics and we believe her and hope that is true.
Ditz,
These 'terrorist' scum "rebels" responsible for the current bloodshed in Syria have no political support of any significance in Syria. They do not hold "territory" of any significance relative to size and population of the Nation of Syria, and they do not even have any sort of identifiable "leadership" which could make decisions on their behalf, much less could "negotiate" for them.
Have you not yet figured this out???
On top of everything, they are bad faith actors unwilling to even "talk"–which, I believe, the Syrian Government has offered over and over again (which was more symbolic than anything, as "the rebels" have no true 'leadership'")… What more could the Syrian Government do here–in your mind??? Unilaterally "ceasefire" (which they have done in the past) and allow the "rebels" to attack them?
Think of this as sort of like 2003 Iraq and the "rebels" are the US military; however, the rebels do not have any sort of cohesive organization, and they do not have leadership–on top of that, they are getting their asses handed to them and do not "occupy" anything except maybe a small town here or there (which could be "retaken" quickly)….and perhaps a "neighborhood" or two…. Also, they (the "rebels"), unlike the US military, simply do not have the capability of "defeating the Nation of Syria's military… They ("the rebels") also seem to be complete morons…
Who is Assad even supposed to "negotiate" with and/or hand the Nation over to? Hillary Clinton??? Barack Obama doesn't even seem to have an answer for this question himself at this point, as he advised France last week that" 'it's too early to form a provisional government because of the divided opposition'…or something or other… Speaking of which, when will Barack Obama and Hillary 'demand' the "rebels" stop fighting????
Do you 'get it' yet???
I guess Jason Ditz will never have figured this out. and I also believe that his job is to cheat the US antiwar movement. With some language cosmetics he writes as any other mainstream media – most references are from mainstream media.
Most reader will only read the articles and not the comments, which are much more relevant and informative. So they do a good job for the defense industry. Disabling US antiwar movement is very important.
I would just appreciate "Truth" here….meaning "full truth"… Jason Ditz continually saying the "regime is unwilling" to do this that or the other, when this is not in fact the case…repeating this line (the US 'official' line) over and over, without providing context, background, and history is not "accuracy" or "truth" of the 'situation'. It is a distortion (perversion) of reality which serves an agenda…which is the one being pushed by the US right now–which is "regime change".
I prefer critical realism. Process of negation, until we can most realistically define what is in front of us. That's the closest we can come to "the truth" and why, as we collect more information, more data, we constantly must adapt. For "truth" is fluid and always dependent on new information.
For example. If this is truthfully accurate, and 'rebels' FSA salafist wahabist Turk-Saudi-Qatar forces led with German and US and GB intel are blowing up an entire hospital simply because Syrian troops were treated there, doesn't that constitute war crime? Information was coming back these same 'freedom fighters' used ambulances to transport fighters and ammo back and forth across Turkish borders…anyway. enjoy
and, why do those guys keep saying 'all you can eat snack bar"? I mean who can think of eating when destroying a hospital?
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middlee…
UN is a tool of USA. Not only the Security council, since all those leaders, resisting USA wants, within the UN Assembly, are already killed or on the target list now.
This even has been confirmed by high ranking USA government staff recently again (tenor: we pay the UN, so we want US interests being respected).
So the UN NEVER IS A SOLUTION, but A PART OF THE PROBLEM.
They surely will try to make again safe zones for the US terrorists -and possibly repeat staging a Srebrenica-like massacre fake, in order to reach their "justification for their " humanitarian bombs".