World powers agreed on a plan for a political transition in Syria in a meeting in Geneva on Saturday called by UN envoy Kofi Annan. A unity government will be formed according to a democratic process and can include members of the present regime as well as opposition.
Asked about the fate of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has committed atrocities throughout the brewing civil war, Annan said he doubted Syrians would “select people with blood on their hands” to lead them.
“The document makes it clear that we have provided guidelines and principles to assist the Syrian parties as they move ahead with the transition and establish a transition governmentand go through changes required,” he added. The future of Assad “will be left to them.
Stipulating that the democratic transition can be supervised as free and fair, the question becomes: what kind of options do Syrians really have to choose from? There is very little in the way of organized alternatives to Assad and his regime.
Another issue is what was missing from the new Annan plan: a demand for outside powers to quit aiding either side in Syria. Foreign meddling on behalf of all sides has been instrumental in prolonging the conflict by emboldening both sides and making a political settlement more remote.
Indeed, a legitimate political transition would be impossible to realize with Russia continuing to prop up the Assad regime and with the US and its allies continuing to aid the rebel militias in a bid to “[pursue] regime change by civil war in Syria,” as Joshua Landis of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma has described it.
James Dobbins, director of the RAND International Security and Defense Policy Center and a former US assistant secretary of state told NPR recently, “the external environment in which sides are providing arms to both of the contending parties—all of that suggests that the situation’s going to continue to deteriorate.”
Syria is what it is due almost entirely to the brutal imperialism of the Western powers, from the rise and fall of the Roman Empire too this very day. For Western democracy has never been anything more than the upper half of society hoarding all the wealth and power, and just look at what such a democratic dictatorship has done to Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
While this seems far from an actual agreement ( given the wide area of disagreement between Russia and the US/West), one cannot help but believe the Russians have capitulated, once again, to the West.
Time will surely tell but it would not the first time Russia has acquiesced…
Can't help but wonder what the Iranians might be thinking right about now.
Bloomberg News
"World powers agreed yesterday on a plan for a Syrian transition government that doesn’t directly address the fate of President Bashar al-Assad".
They didn’t agreed on nothing but to stop the war and for Syrian people to decide their future. They (US-Saudi-French-England and rest of the neo fascism in Europe) knew from day one that the “world powers" mercenaries, their barbarians going to lose, the rebels are going to lose this unjust, the orchestrate and directed war at Syrian people would have no chance to win anything but destruction.
Lies, deceptions and more lies after another is coming out of these Liberals news agencies which in reality means that they are hiding something from the people and that is the truth. This is coming from a news agency, which one might think that it is a progressive liberal democrat one and their news based on the truth of the matter.
After all these months of killings of innocent people by the barbarians, the rebels and others, the prospect of the regime change is no longer there, which means that Hillary Clinton have lost her bet and what is called the rebels are defeated, it was a big gamble for Hillary Clinton to bet her last political “prestigious” that was domed to lose its “prestige” from day one; therefore, it is the American people duty to demand for Hillary Clinton, and her staff at UN and other places, resignation by tomorrow, not a week from now but by tomorrow.
Look people: People of Syria, so as the government of Syria has spoken, when the Syrian government changed Syrian constitution and Syrian people voted for the change, yet non of the involved of what is called “world power” were listening to the fact or showed any interests.., as always, they were and still are blinded by their militarism thinking that they are still a “world power” or one day they might become one, like Turkish government, look the emperor is dead, what is left of it is its militarism that needs to be destroyed. If that’s (The emperor) is what Bloomberg News is referring to as “world powers” then in terms of the Bloomberg – journalist view yes there are what is called “world power”, yet their power is based on a falsified democracy as Bloomberg is presenting a falsified journalistic view. Because if there was a democracy and the intention of the “world power” was or still is about and based on democracy then they should have listened to the voice of the Syrian people and opened their eyes and read the constitutional changes that are made that are about democracy and not what the “world power” is dictating. Therefore, the world power neither admits nor directs anymore to nothing but the fact that it is the Syrian people who will decide.
Now if the rebels or the barbarians will look at their situation and see that by next months they are not going to get paid by their masters, which the scenario will force them to stop fighting is another time and date that needs to be witnessed when time comes.
"Foreign Meddling on all sides…?"
Sorry…but inciting a civil war in a country targeted for regime change…deploying mercenaries, spies, bandits and terrorists…does not equate to "the other side's" namely Russia's completely legal support for a UN member state…
The former is an example of state-sponsored terror and is illegal under international law…the latter is completely keeping with international law…
Furthermore, the Assad government enjoys broad support among the Syrian population, much broader than those seeking to overturn the government…
Therefore the legitimacy of the Syrian government is far greater than that of the Western-supported insurrection…
To frame this issue as all foreign "meddling" being equal is absurd…
From the article, it appears the Syrians never agreed to any transition plan. That may well be the problem in the first place.
The world powers agree? Who is this? At least the Russian did not agree:
Lavrov: Geneva's Document Imposes Nothing on the Syrians, Contains no Preconditions for Political Process or National Dialogue
GENEVA, (SANA) – Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday said that the document released from Geneva meeting imposes nothing on the Syrian people and has no preconditions on the political process or national dialogue nor does it exclude any side http://www.sana.sy/eng/22/2012/07/01/428600.htm
The world powers agree? Who is this? At least the Russian did not agree:
Lavrov: Geneva's Document Imposes Nothing on the Syrians, Contains no Preconditions for Political Process or National Dialogue
GENEVA, (SANA) – Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Saturday said that the document released from Geneva meeting imposes nothing on the Syrian people and has no preconditions on the political process or national dialogue nor does it exclude any side http://www.sana.sy/eng/22/2012/07/01/428600.htm
How a "neutral" UN envoy can conduct peace plans, when he thinks in public what he thinks what Syrian would vote?? When they just recently did vote for Assad!! They have lost any shame by producing their war mongering propaganda lies. And antiwar does transport such stupid lies. See the proof what Syrian people really want:
5. Huge majority for Assad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt9A5rMqEDM http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jYlgDXP411w http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYQkUl-xwH0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSb0lxFcMn0
6. the real "brutal dictator": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8P6860vIiA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oc4ZZ-yXaOQ
7: Media fraud: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x–Td_8JXYk
This is just as fraudulent as the Israel-Palestine "peace process". For it to work, the Qatari and Saudi theocratic despots need to stop funding the terrorists to force them to negotiate, but the Qataris and Saudis will not do so and neither will the United States force them to do so. So the violence will continue.