"Syria opposition rules out talks before end to Russian air raids" Reuters

 

"In a barely veiled swipe at one of the Middle East’s leading powers, the United Nations’ special envoy for Syria accused Saudi Arabia of undermining his efforts to bring a broad slate of Syrian opposition groups to upcoming peace talks designed to end Syria’s brutal civil war.

In his confidential Jan. 18 briefing to the U.N. Security Council, which was obtained exclusively by Foreign Policy, Staffan de Mistura said Riyadh is complicating his efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the Syrian conflict by trying to tightly control which opposition groups will be allowed to participate in the negotiations.

His comments came shortly after a slate of Saudi-backed Syrian opposition groups, organized under the banner of the Riyadh-based High Negotiations Committee (HNC), rebuffed his personal appeals to allow other groups to take part in the talks. De Mistura complained to the council that the Saudi-backed opposition coalition and its “sponsors insist on the primacy and exclusivity of their role as ‘THE’ opposition delegation.” While de Mistura did not name Saudi Arabia, Riyadh is the main international sponsor of the HNC. The group, however, is backed by France, Turkey, and Qatar."  Foreign Policy 

http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/01/20/u-n-envoy-signals-that-riyadh-is-obstructing-syria-peace-talks/

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"The Saudi-backed Syrian opposition ruled out even indirect negotiations with Damascus before steps including a halt to Russian air strikes, contradicting U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry's insistence that talks will begin next week.

With the five-year-old Syrian war showing no signs of ending, it looks increasingly uncertain that peace talks will begin as planned on Jan. 25 in Geneva, partly because of a dispute over the composition of the opposition delegation.

Peace efforts face huge underlying challenges, among them disagreements over President Bashar al-Assad's future and tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Russia on Friday denied a report that President Vladimir Putin had asked Assad to step down last year.

The Syrian government has said it is ready to take part in the Geneva talks on time. The office of U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura said he was still aiming "at rolling out the talks" on Jan. 25, and would be "assessing progress over the weekend".

Russia said the talks could be delayed until Jan. 27 or 28 because of the disagreement over who would represent the opposition."  Reuters 

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-idUSKCN0V01S6

*********

"Clinton has been drawing attention to a comment Sanders made in Sunday's NBC News Democratic debate when he said, "I think what we've got to do is move as aggressively as we can to normalize relations with Iran."

That shows a level of naiveté, Clinton insists. In an interview with NPR Wednesday, Clinton drew attention to his position, calling it a "fundamental misunderstanding of what it takes to do the patient diplomacy that I have experience in."

After noting that Iran "seeks the destruction of Israel" and is "flouting international law with its ballistic missile threats," Sullivan said in the video, "it's not at all clear why it is Sen. Sanders is suggesting it."

In a conference call held for reporters Thursday, Sullivan reiterated his concern, saying normalizing relations with Iran is "a bridge too far" even for supporters of diplomatic relations with Iran."  nbcnews.com 

http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/clinton-campaign-attacks-sanders-over-normalizing-relations-iran-n501271

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Well, pilgrims,  Clinton once sounded as though she actually understood international relations, but, no more.   The Clintonian drive to power before all else is evident now.  Triangulation is everything both in foreign policy and in her shameless pandering to Blacks in South Carolina.  It is known now that she is one the main instigators and supporters of the R2P/neocon driven Syria policy/lunacy.  She continues to say nonsensical things about; regime change, the need to install a replacement government that would include salafi jihadi elements, "no fly zones," unending and absolute hostility to Iran, and support for Erdogan's post-secular turkey.   All of these things are on the Likudnik agenda.  To top off the list of her "problems," her presentations are so over-rehearsed that they look wooden and phony. 

Saudi Arabia is trying hard to win in the negotiations what its Wahhabi friends have not been able to win on the battlefield.  That will not happen.  Basic Tip:  First you win on the battlefield, then at the peace talks.

IMO Syria and Russia are "playing along" with the peace talks meme for the purpose of demonstrating the futility of such an approach.  That will work.  pl 

Comments

[DC]

Sanders got it right when he said HRC may have quality experience, but lacks judgment. He was also correct when he said Hillary got the most important vote on her record wrong when she voted to take out Saddam Hussein; whereas Sanders was brave enough (along with a few others) to vote against the war resolution.

Even if we were to take her private email server (and flouting of security rules) out to the public discussion, Sanders might have a chance against this woman. Godspeed, Bernie Sanders.

[Matthew]

Col: Do you think Putin is disappointed by this? Gives him and his allies a few more weeks to move against Aleppo and Idlib.

[pj]

What are you thoughts on the Putin asking Assad to step down rumor? It's spread all over the western Media and seems to have originated in The Financial Times, which states it is based on two anonymous senior western intelligence officials.

[Trey N]

Laws of the Universe - Holes. Rule 1. When you're at the bottom of a very deep one, STOP DIGGING!

----------
Cold, hard, cruel Reality is about to come crashing down on the heads of the neocons and their fellow travelers who have been living in a fantasy world for the last couple of decades. It's going to crush Turkey first, then Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf monarchies. The recent visit of the Emir of Qatar to Moscow shows that the grim reality of their situation is dawning on even the most arrogant and obtuse of the scum.

Unfortunately, the neocons here in the US will be the last to go -- but Lord hasten the day that blessed event finally arrives!

May the cursed Borg NOT R.I.P.

[Anne Lawrence]

Enjoyed reading this. Wouldn't bank on all that Hillary says as being the likudnik position today - things are morphing. :)

[raksh wah]

very tough to understand HRC- obviously smarter than average, well informed , has excellent sources of information( for all the criticism, Blumenthal was giving her great advice on Libya) her actions are terrible. She did not like Powers and had every reasn to act sanely on libya but created a huge mess while sullying herslef with veni vedi comment

[Martin Oline]

I remember the 2008 primary in Pennsylvania where, as a desperate last effort to ingratiate herself to the Philadelphia media, she claimed to have a final solution ( my phrasing ) to the Iran question. She lost anyway. Perhaps her pandering to the IAPAC was too obvious. Sanders says she lacks judgment. That is plain to anyone who has watched her in action over the last several decades.

[A. Pols]

@raksh wah;
HRC may be all you say she is, but for her it's all about what will play in Peoria...
Above all others, everything she says is carefully calibrated. It's almost as though she were an algorithm rather than a human being.
Have we really come to this sorry pass?

[Linda Lau]

YES! For Saudi Arabia getting in trouble with the EU and the UN! At least others have the sense to call the Saudis on their obnoxious behavior.

[Matthew]

Trey, this article quickly synopsizes the Borg's worldview. See http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2016/01/alexander-litvinenko-russia-putin/425157/#article-comments

The basic attitude is: We have a foreign policy. Our opponents just bully others.

[Kooshy]

Ever since the western MSM, can no longer be the sole source for "all of the news for all of the people", they have modified and adopted their information and opinion forming techniques to counter policy and news analysis by sites like SST and others.
So if people like Pat Lang have a venue to tell their audience on daily bases that you are being misinformed, Putin is actually wining in Syria because of this and that facts, what can MSM do to counter people like Pat.
Well, IMO the thinking is, if you can't kill the news then you must injure it, put a doubt in it, tell them, true that Putin is winning but never the less, we were secretly told by a dead guy, that he asked Asad he must go.
The thinking is: true, is given that Putin will deny and refute that ever happened or he ever said that, and we may end up shaving some of that reputable credit through the years we have built, but what the heck, what good is the credit if you don't barrow from it.

[The Beaver]

Colonel,

Clinton needs those $$$$ from Haim Saban:
http://forward.com/opinion/national/325490/does-hillary-clinton-have-a-haim-saban-problem/

"Last fall, Saban said that if Netanyahu found the Iran deal unsatisfactory, he should “bomb the living daylights out of these sons of bitches.” Netanyahu, of course, came out swinging against the deal, but thankfully hasn’t followed Saban’s advice. What’s more, Saban himself opposed the deal as well—though he later, again unconvincingly, walked back his denouncement of it. (Saban also hinted, based on, he claimed, conversations with Clinton, that she would oppose the deal. She forcefully endorsed it.) Does Saban still think that Israel should bomb Iran, despite the deal? We just don’t know. Even that question mark should be troubling to American liberals."

[Chris Chuba]

The opposition's chief negotiator is the head of Jaysh al-Islam (Army of Islam), the peace talks are now a sham.
http://www.ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/peace-and-prosperity/2016/january/20/al-qaeda-allies-to-represent-opposition-in-upcoming-syria-peace-talks/

Hillary Clinton is evil. She will do and say anything to advance her political goals, I don't believe she has anything resembling a soul left in her body. She is 0 / 3 on every important foreign policy decision that she has been involved in. She voted for the Iraq war and then played the victim card (I was tricked) when it went south. She lobbied for the Libyan intervention and still calls it 'smart power' and she has been a huge advocate of regime change in Syria. Her batting average is a perfect 0%.

R+6 will win on the battlefield, I just hope that Putin / Lavrov have enough savvy to make it clear why the peace talks failed so that they will not be scapegoated. Perception is important. Even if Assad prevails, it's important to get sanctions lifted instead of facing the eternal animosity of a borderline insane superpower.

[fjdixon]

January 20, I had the opportunity to watch CNN: Senate Committee on Armed Services Hearing on Middle East Strategy: Former Army Vice Chief of Staff General John Keane, former U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, and former Assistant Secretary of State Philip Gordon testified at a hearing on U.S. Middle East strategy. http://www.c-span.org/video/?403461-1/hearing-middle-east-strategy.
Apart from other ‘departures from reality’ and ‘talking out both sides of their mouths’ these two points were interesting:
• Keane and Crocker stated that it was their opinion that Assad would be less inclined to negotiate now that Russia and Iran had taken the pressure off of that government (?!) and implied that it should be US strategy to reassert that pressure to facilitate negotiations.
• Crocker stated that he was in favor of ‘no fly zone’. Gordon said US military had cautioned that this would imply potential for casualties in taking out air defenses. To which Keane replied that he did not expect ‘Syrian’ air defenses to pose much of a problem (?!).
I have watched Crocker over the years and he had seemed knowledgeable and reasonable. Perhaps being Dean and Executive Professor at the George (H.W.) Bush School of Government has had an effect on that. The other main topic was ‘how we can assure or allies’ Saudis, Gulfies and Turkey that we still ‘rule the roost’. Just when you thought it might be safe to go back in the water! To watch the questions presented by the Senators one cannot but be amazed.

[Fred]

Given the momentum of the R+6 offensive when can we expect this to become an R+11 as those EU nations not wanting Syrian refugees (Merkel’s millions) join the anti-ISIS coalition that is winning in Syria? I can see Poland and other non-refugee friendly countries being willing to sign up should there be an announcement of a Putin Peace initiative as a way to help Syrian refugees to return to their homeland. I’m sure a “coalition for new construction” of the new Syrian nation could induce refugees to do just that. Especially if coupled with new elections in which they could also participate. (Though those still actively opposing the government would be excluded from both elections and employment.) Why Iran alone has billions of now un-frozen money of which at least some modest percentage can be used in helping the New Syria rebuild. New profitable businesses sound much more enticing to me as a taxpayer than new refugee centers.

[Brunswick]

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2016/01/warmed-over-propaganda-putin-asks-assad-to-leave.html#comments

It's Borgists agitprop

[Babak Makkinejad]

EU states will not join R+6; in my opinion.

[kao_hsien_chih]

@ A. Pols,

Not Peoria, but SF and NYC. Peoria is where Hoi Polloi live. To people like the Bushes and the Clintons, they don't count.

[kooshy]

You understand that the 6 have their boots on the ground, do you mean an RX+6 format, if they are not willing to have any boots on the ground?

[VietnamVet]

Colonel,

The American Empire is in a slow motion collapse from the globalists pillaging through the wreckage. If Dwight Eisenhower or even Ronald Regan were President, they would be slamming heads together to get Turkey and Saudi Arabia to the negotiation table and force a peace settlement before the Middle East holy war goes worldwide. Not to mention, they would have prevented the refugee crisis in the first place.

The current administration has sold out and can’t change tracks. Perhaps Bernie Sanders, if elected, will jump start the peace process with the survivors. The eight presidential candidates, on the other hand, who support a no fly zone over Syria will continue the spread of war and chaos.

[charly]

Poland & Russia. Together? I have my doubt if they will work together if Martians invade.
Hungary is a more likely candidate (less unlikely) but the problem is Syria doesn't need ground troops but aircraft and Eastern European fighter/bombers are mostly American based so there is an ammunition resupply issue. Also political it would be more useful if the Eastern Europeans attacked AlQaeda in Idlib without official Russian co-operation.

[Outrage Beyond]

re: "very tough to understand HRC"

I think it's actually pretty easy to understand her. She's fully owned by Wall St. and Israel. Every bad decision she's made was good for her owners. As always, follow the money.

Add in her authoritarian lust for power and you have a very nasty mix.

[Valissa]

Agreed! Various EU states are preoccupied with "fighting the refugee situation" at home. Wonder how all of this will effect state budgets and ultimately political attitudes. Clearly many Europeans are NOT happy with their refugees… what will happen to Schengen?

A sampling of recent headlines...

Germany starts confiscating refugees' valuables; Denmark finalizes bill to do same https://www.rt.com/news/329736-germany-denmark-refugees-confiscate/
Germany's southern states are confiscating refugees' valuables in order to pay for their stay, according to local authorities. It comes as Denmark moves ahead with a plan to do the same, part of a controversial bill aimed at curbing asylum seekers' rights. "Cash holdings and valuables can be secured [by the authorities] if they are over €750 (US$810) and if the person has an outstanding bill, or is expected to have one,” Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann told Bild newspaper on Thursday. The government of Baden-Württemberg has implemented a stricter process, with police confiscating cash and valuables above €350 ($378).

The average amount per person confiscated by authorities in the southern states has so far been "in the four figures,” according to Bild. By confiscating the personal belongings of refugees, the states are implementing federal laws that require asylum seekers to use up their own resources before receiving state aid. "If you apply for asylum here, you must use up your income and wealth before receiving aid," said the federal government's integration commissioner, Aydan Ozoguz, stressing that such wealth includes assets such as family jewelry.

Six weeks to save Schengen: Dutch PM says Europe 'cannot cope' with migrant crisis and EU's passport-free zone is on brink of collapse http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3410100/Macedonian-border-reopens-migrants-travelling-Austria-Germany-Dutch-PM-says-Europe-six-weeks-save-Schengen.html
While he believed the borderless travel zone could be saved, he said the bloc must first agree on a replacement of the failed Dublin system, which says migrants must seek asylum in the first EU country they enter.

Let's Reform Dublin System 'Before We Kill Schengen' - Dutch PM http://sputniknews.com/europe/20160121/1033480387/dublin-system-schengen-refugees.html
The Dublin Regulation, signed by all EU members, stipulates that the first EU member country entered refugees is responsible for processing their asylum application. After the migration crisis escalated, some EU countries called for the system to be amended as it leads to a disproportionate amount of migrants in peripheral EU member states that cannot handle the influx.

Denmark Imposes Controls at German Border as Schengen Frays http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-04/schengen-tensions-mount-as-swedish-border-checks-anger-denmark

Germany delivers further blow to EU's Schengen passport-free zone. Berlin could extend border controls with Austria for up to two years, signaling a further blow to Europe's open-border policy http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/12114174/Germany-delivers-further-blow-to-EUs-Schengen-passport-free-zone.html

[Fred]

Babak,

That depends upon just how quickly ISIS is crushed and whether in their collapse their operatives and adherents in the EU stay silent then or launch a hundred Paris/San Bernardino type operations.

[A. Pols]

It was a metaphor, Sir.