European Union officials are set to put more pressure on a reluctant Russia to push Syria‘s government to end the violence in that country, even as the West and its Gulf Arab allies continue to aid the rebel militias battling the Syrian regime.
The EU-Russia summit in St. Petersburg on Monday focused largely on the conflict in Syria. Moscow has leverage over the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad because they support Damascus with arms and money, just as Washington supports its own favored dictators as clients.
“We need to make sure that Russia is using fully its leverage in convincing the regime to implement [the UN peace plan],” an EU official who declined to be named told Reuters.
“The Russian side has certainly not been very helpful in finding solutions in terms of a political way out,” the official said.
This comes just one day after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told a conference in Stockholm Russia needs to oppose the rule of Assad and cooperate with a U.S.-led effort to change the regime.
Foreign meddling on behalf of all sides in Syria has been instrumental in prolonging the conflict by emboldening both sides and making a political settlement more remote. Russia is not likely to be persuaded by Western powers to drop its support of Assad, especially since support for the rebel militias – who have also committed serious crimes – from the West and the Gulf Arab states is unlikely to end in kind.
Russia’s stake in Syria provides Moscow with valuable geo-political influence. The only way they would give that up is if they could be assured that Washington and its allies would not try to exploit a political transition for their own interests, which is virtually an impossibility.
Additionally, Russia’s support of Syria is probably one of the primary reasons the U.S. and its allies have opposed direct military action in the form of bombing campaigns or ground troops against the Assad regime.
“We are faced with two prospects,” said Chinese UN Ambassador Li Baodong. “One is bright prospect where all parties in Syria immediately realize full ceasefire and stop of violence, launch inclusive political process and let the Syrian people decide the future of their own country.”
The other, he said, is continued, intractable violence. Which path Syria will take largely depends upon the foreign powers meddling in its internal politics and whether or not they will give up their own interventionist policies in exchange for an end to violence and bloodshed.
US and NATO militarism is expanding all over the world, new wars are created at the Russia doorsteps, and US-NATO are looking for new country where they can built a military base closer to China and Russians borders. Europe – US – Canada cutting on all front in social economic, unable to create jobs, forcing people join the militarism to have an education or a job. Mr. President and all others, you wont be able to create jobs, unless you get the robots out of the industries and put the people back to work, beside that you are just talking about jobs creation, the only place that you be able to create jobs is in your military system, if that wasn't the idea, then you wouldn’t expend and increase the budget of a militarism regime, the military itself. This idea is done all over Europe and US and England is leading it toward a new catastrophe for the mankind and its existence.
This is a completely ridiculous and absurd demand tantamount to: Let’s mess up Syria so that we can kick your ass.
An expression of sanity from the Chinese Ambassador. Given we are ruled by psychopaths, it is unfortunately largely irrelevant as the first option is not 'On The Table' (TM).
Perhaps the EU should start by putting pressure on Qatar and Saudi Arabia to stop arming the terrorists!
What this pressure is designed to do is to cajole the Russians into slitting their own wrists. If the Russians cave in to the Imperial demands, they'll find themselves pushed out of the only naval base in the Mediterranean and the subject of even more demands and threats.
According to Russian journalists living in Syria, today during the several hour long fight the government forces destroyed a large band of rebels, more than 500 of them. Their leader was killed during the operation. He was a self-proclaimed "Emir" Said Tabbush, who seized earlier several villages in Latackia and declared creation of the Islamist Emirate. Among the prisoners there was a large number of fighters from Yemen and Tunisia.
Would appreciate a citation to that effect. Otherwise it's a mystery to me.
The reason for the continuation of violence is because the US-led West is talking out of both sides of its mouth, saying they want the Annan Plan (cease-fire and dialogue) to succeed while simultaneously insisting on the overthrow of the Assad regime – which is what the Syrian rebels want. Why should they stop fighting when they know the NATO countries and the world's superpower is betting on them and in effect insuring their revolution? They'd be fools to stop fighting. Duplicity is the new regime-change strategy for the USA in the Middle East – profess humanitarian protection of civilians, pursue regime-change by war a la Libya.