RT interviews Moscow’s envoy to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin.
A US backed U.N. Security Council resolution that would impose sanctions on Syria was vetoed by Russia and China Thursday. U.S. ambassador Susan Rice called the veto “dangerous and deplorable” and said the Security Council had “failed utterly.” The resolution called for Assad to halt violence against the opposition, without any mention of outside support for the opposition.
The UN also decided to extend its observers mission in Syria for another 30 days, dropping the condition that Assad’s troops should leave cities and return to barracks. The US is not happy.
The US wants sanctions now and did not support a rollover of the UN mission.
When US Permanent Representative Susan Rice emerged, she said as President Barack Obama’s spokesman Jay Carney had on Air Force One that the US does not support any technical rollover of the mission.
In “Stalemate at the UN over Syria” Andrea Mitchell interviewed Susan Rice. I think she’s upping the ante referencing stockpiles of chemical weapons.
For background on Russia’s veto: Syria: “It Is All About Iran”:
The Ambassador to the UN for the Russian Federation Vitaly Churkin made the point that the issue of Syria is about much more than Syria. It is a global geopolitical conflict.
There is no transcript yet of the press stakeout where Churkin elaborated on that but the gist was caught by the valuable Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press:
Then Churkin went bigger picture, paraphrasing Bill Clinton by saying “It’s all about Iran, stupid” (and striking the last word).
He said that after the US invasion of Iraq worked out differently than the US expected — with an expanded Shi’a and Iranian role, that is — now they had to try to contain Iran, by way of Syria.
…..
The ongoing attack on Syria, if successful and after a long bloody sectarian civil war, will lead to the installation of another fundamentalist Sunni government in a geographically critical state. This is lunacy. Even imperial stalwarts like the former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency Pat Lang ask:
Are we really happy that Sunni jihadis are disassembling a government that does not represent Sunni fanatics in the likelihood that it will be replaced by one that will?
And now the Times reports that the U.S. is engaged in discussions with Syria’s neighbors, including Israel, to forcibly end the Assad regime. Notice the URL: us-to-focus-on-forcibly-toppling-syrian-government:
The Obama administration has for now abandoned efforts for a diplomatic settlement to the conflict in Syria, and instead it is increasing aid to the rebels and redoubling efforts to rally a coalition of like-minded countries to forcibly bring down the government of President Bashar al-Assad, American officials say.
Administration officials have been in talks with officials in Turkey and Israel over how to manage a Syrian government collapse. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta is headed to Israel in the next several days to meet with Israeli defense counterparts, following up on a visit last week by President Obama’s national security adviser Thomas E. Donilon, in part to discuss the Syrian crisis.
Unfortunately there is nothing that Russia, USA, UN or God all mighty can do
to stop the violence in Syria.
This is one of those cases where you can only try and minimize the damage
but in no way can you stop it. Syria is in the middle of a civil war
with everything that comes with it …
Those bastions of democracy Saudi Arabia and the other GCC countries calling for democracy in Syria is almost as funny as the US calling for it, having propped up these perverted medieval dictators for 30 odd years, but the time when all these satraps are hanging from lamp posts is fast approaching.
It is not uncommon to hear or read words written by Jewish Israelis that what comes after the Assad regime will be worse. It is clear that it would be a blow against Iran and Hezbollah if Assad were to fall.
This post contains the realization that the desire for freedom might not yield freedom. Every situation differs, but it is good to hear the voice of realism here.
I react with derision to Vitaly Churkin’s invitation to dialogue with the Assad regime.
I think that the Assad regime suffered a major blow this week both physically and symbolically with the bomb killing higher ups in the regime. The lack of mention of that fact and any real analysis at the changing situation seems to point out that this post is flimsy to the max as a true Syria update and is merely broadcasting Russia’s point of view.
Why is Mondoweiss so weak in covering the Syrian situation? Why does it allow
flimsy posts like this to do the talking?
I think we should be on Lebanon watch as well. I sent some links to Phil the other day, on Dan Shapiro saying “israel has the right to defend itself” against Hezbollah, echoing claims of the attacker being a member of Hezbollah ( from anonymous US officials.)
Barak has said he told the IDF to prepare an invasion of Syria, but I have to wonder if he really means Lebanon, as the Turks and Co. (FSA) seem to have Assad sewn up pretty nicely.
” We are to a great extent the initiator. We attacked Imad Mugniyeh and we are conducting a battle against Iran [an allusion possibly to Israeli assassinations there]. We are not passive. The other side is responding [to us], deterring and [counter] attacking. If Israel responds to this [the Bulgaria bombing], then we must take into account that the other side will respond in kind. That’s the dynamic.
…Both Syria and Iran are in retreat. The side that is on the attack is the one seeking to stop Syria and Iran and that will, at the right moment, deal with this problem called Hezbollah.”
Uzi Arad (Fmr national security advisor in Haaretz)
http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2012/07/19/bibis-twofer-bulgaria-bombing-allows-him-to-flay-hezbollah-iran-possibly-go-to-war/
“deal with this problem called Hezbollah” means one thing: another invasion of lebanon
I smell a reprise of yellow cakes…
It never ceases to amaze me how eager we always appear to be to rush into one war after another. It is as if some cognitive switch in our psyche got turned off that prevents us from learning anything from our history since WW2.
Sure I understand the desire to control resources, but look how the Chinese are doing it without going to war with anyone.
I swear, it seems that we get stupider by the day! Why we aren’t all rising for a regime change here in the US is beyond me. Seems to me that a revolution is long overdue, and I mean the French Revolution, complete with guillotines.