Meeting with UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov urged the international community to get together and decide on a formal list of “legitimate” Syrian rebel organizations before the next round of talks in Vienna.
This might seem an odd request, but since the participants in the last Vienna talks agreed to invite legitimate opposition groups for this round, the lack of identification for who those groups are going to be has made inviting them pretty much impossible.
Russia is keen to hold talks with those factions on its long-standing desire to unify the secular rebels with the Syrian government in a unity faction to fight ISIS and al-Qaeda. Having them invited to the talks would be a big step toward getting them sold on such a plan.
The ambiguity about which rebels are “the good guys” has also complicated the narrative on Russia’s airstrikes in Syria, with the US complaining that everyone Russia attacks who isn’t explicitly ISIS is an unacceptable target. Russia has insisted that many of these targets are al-Qaeda or their allies, and indeed with many of the non-ISIS strikes centering on al-Qaeda territory, there is reason to believe that is often the case.
I guess that's his job as a diplomat. One would imagine the Russian admin couldn't and shouldn't care about who the West considers legitimate. Whoever is out there committed to toppling Assad should be a target.
This sums up in a nutshell Putin's Syrian disaster. He has now committed himself to Assad. If Assad goes, he loses his naval base, which could well bring him down at home and will certainly encourage the Ukrainians to get tough. If Assad stays, he's bogged down in an unending and unwinnable war against ISIS and whoever else opposes Assad. The situation hasn't changed since the day Putin grabbed Crimea: heads Ukraine wins, tails Putin loses.
Putin didn't 'grab' Crimea. Crimea seceded from Ukraine after the legitimately elected government was toppled by a US funded coup, using Nazi scumbags as muscle. Crimea subsequently joined the Russian federation after holding a referendum. Given the subsequent developments, the people of Crimea are most unlikely to regret that decision.
Just as predicted at the time, the secession of Kosovo from Serbia has set a precedent which has bolstered seperatist movements throughout the world. Hypocrite that you are, you have never suggested that Kosovo should be returned to Serbia.
Putin is seriously on the defensive. That suggests that his much-vaunted military campaign has failed (like all the other attempts to crush an insurgency by military means). Don't forget that Putin doesn't actually want to attack anybody. He just wants to hang on to his precious naval base. So he's trying to get everybody and anybody on his side.
America wants to hang onto its seven to eight hundred foreign Military bases and does some seriously reprehensible things to do so!
Just realise that your America is funding Al Nusra which Americans know better as AL QAEDA, you know the same group of Terrorists that blew up the Pentagon, and the New York trade towers! Now who is the desperado's here Putin or America who have again got into bed with Al Qaeda to overthrow another country!
Oh and don't blame Obama here this goes Multi generational and Multi Presidential with at least 3 republican and two democrats as President! want to bet the same CIA and Pentagon leadership with their protégés though! the senator for Boeing taught them all well!
Simple the US is calling it a civil war, if the fighter from a faction is not a Syrian citizen, he is unless fighting for Government forces an UNLAWFUL combatant! Governments for centuries have had the ability to bring in foreign Armies making them lawful by decree or legislation!
America when it invaded Afghanistan made some claims as to the legitimacy of troops on the ground and even there they made massive mistakes even under Geneva, no lesser authority than the US Supreme Court ruled thus in Hamden V Rumsfeld! I also believe that treating Taliban as unlawful Combatants was unlawful as well, The US had by several actions recognised the Taliban as the Government of Afghanistan! Bush gave 160 million to the Taliban in early 2001 due to their burning of Opium fields, and the US asked the UN to deal with the Taliban as a Government claiming that they had those powers to deal with Bin Ladin and others! That would make the Taliban a lawful military and yes they were identifiable on the battle field NO ONE else wore Black turbans, and the Taliban carried their weapons openly!
Back to Syria, It is not a civil war when foreign countries put foreign fighters into a foreign country to destabilise the Government, it is what America calls State sponsored terrorism if it happens to them, or one of their allies, in this case it is America and its Allies the Saudis and Turks and others that funding these terrorists, interestingly the US is funding a group called Al Nusra better known as Al Qaeda in Iraq, and calling them to be less radical than ISIS, which is a splinter group of Al Nusra that has Grown, the Saudis are said to be funding them although there are claims that they are getting there money from selling oil! The ONLY place to sell oil by the way is Turkey!
Fact is this, Syria as the Government with the UN seat has the right to claim who are the Belligerent parties NO ONE ELSE, NOT America, Not Russia, not anyone! If it says that all parties other than its allies are belligerent then those parties are the enemy, and Syria and its allies have the right to defend against them! It is Syria's sovereign right to defend its borders against all aggressors, whether they be great or small! Note that there has been NO UN Resolution allowing foreign countries any rights as to attack Syria, so all actions against it are UNLAWFUL! Syria however can ask foreign nations to help defend it from enemies both Foreign and Domestic, WITHOUT a reference to the UN!!
Why Russia is negociating with the rebel? Putin is a traitor and No one should trust Putin. Assad was elected by his own people and they don't need a fool like Putin or Obama to determine who should rule Syria. Sryia is for Syrian people not criminals and terrorists. Take your terrorists, IS, Al Qaeda and the rest and f*ck off from the region