De Mistura's Aleppo fantasy

 

"Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign and Expatriates Minister Walid al-Moallem reaffirmed that it is the duty of the Syrian state to save the citizens from being taken hostages by terrorists in Aleppo city, stressing that the idea of “self-administration” in eastern Aleppo is categorically rejected because “it is a reward” for terrorists.

“We held talks Sunday morning with UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura and his delegation, and we expected to hear from him that a date was set for resuming the intra-Syrian dialogue, but we did not,” al-Moallem said in a press conference, adding that de Mistura focused on what he called “ideas” about eastern Aleppo.

“In fact, we told him that we are in agreement about the need to get terrorists out of the eastern part of Aleppo, regardless of our differences about their numbers, but it makes no sense at all to leave 275,000 of our fellow citizens remain hostages by five or six or seven thousand militants. No government in the world would allow that,” al-Moallem added.

Al-Moallem pointed out that de Mistura talked about “self-administration” in eastern Aleppo is which is categorically rejected.

“Is it possible that the United Nations has come to reward the terrorists who are still firing random shells at Western Aleppo which claimed the lives of thousands of people and wounded many others?” al-Moallem said."  SANA

---------------

 Just to be clear about what happened - Marquess Staffan de Mistura of the UN proposed yesterday to the Syrian government that R+6 halt their presently successful battle to capture jihadi held East Aleppo and grant jihadi held East Aleppo area autonomy as a rebel held enclave within the boundaries of Syria, a member state of the UN.  Say what? 

Why on earth would the Syrians do that?  Why?  Even the MI-6 run "Syrian Observatory for Human Rights" in London acknowledges that the jihadis in East Aleppo are running out of time, space, ammunition and food.

Ah, yes!  Of course!  The barrel bombing and hospital destruction memes are not having the desired effect and the "White Helmet" farce has been thoroughly debunked, so something else had to be tried.

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained."  pl 

http://sana.sy/en/?p=93897 

http://www.wsj.com/articles/syrian-government-refuses-un-truce-terms-for-aleppo-1479669927

Comments

[Aka]

sir,
even if we disregard the fact that R+6 is winning, who on earth would do that?

Considering the fact that Mistura had been in Iraq and Afghanistan (war situations), why on earth would he even propose that?

[turcopolier]

Aka

Isn't Jeffrey Feltman in the secretary general's office? pl

[LeaNder]

What's Volker Pertes role exactly?

http://www.voltairenet.org/article190102.html

*****
I was a bit surprised yesterday, although I did not really pay attention. Reached me only as snippet and acoustically, but media seems to have reported on victims on the other side among them "many children".

[fjdixon]

On Friday RT news reported 500 demonstrated in Eastern Aleppo for right to leave. Armed 'radicals' shot into crowd killing 17 and wounding 40. Ahh, but is the phony news organization RT.

[David Habakkuk]

"Nothing ventured, nothing gained."

Alternatively, one might say, reinforcing failure.

In Britain, the kind of sentimental drivel doled out in dollops by MI6, David Cameron, et al no longer works so well.

It would be excessive to say that significant elements in Britain are rediscovering the inner ‘Bomber Harris’.

But very many people simply want the jihadists destroyed.

[Osan]

Aka

So that he can paint R+6 as monstrous, brutal, and unwilling to pursue a diplomatic solution. That the "solution" is a farce won't be part of subsequent MSM articles.

[Castellio]

"Jeffrey D. Feltman (born c. 1959) is an American diplomat and is the United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs. As head of the United Nations Department of Political Affairs Feltman oversees the UN's diplomatic efforts to prevent and mitigate conflict worldwide." Wikipedia

[different clue]

To me this Mistura offer seems like a "reverse-Mafia" offer. Mistura offered them a deal designed to be "an offer they could not accept" so as to be able to accuse them of not accepting it.

But a different clock is running now. The R + 6 does not necessarily have to win irreversibly by Inauguration Day, because they do not have to assume that Trump will have been converted to pro-terrorist Clintonism by the day he takes office. So they can perhaps take the time to do it perfectly and make every victory come out near-exactly just right. " The mills of R + 6 grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small. They neither rush nor tarry, but exactly grind they all."

I was listening to the Dianne Rehm show a week or so ago, and they were broadcasting sound-barfs from Madeline Albright and people like that. The Albrighters were repeating variations on a theme of hope that they might be able to slap the braincuffs on Mr. Trump in time to make him a Foreign Policy Establishment president. I hope they fail.

I voted Trump for decent relations with Russia, no war against Syria ( and ideally the SARgov reconquest of all Syria) and to jailbreak America out of the International Free Trade Prison. I decided to accept all the pain of the rest of Trump's un-liberal and un-Sanders-y policies. If we don't get the three things mentioned, but yet still get all the other pain, I will be a twice-bitter Berner.

[robt willmann]

The promoters of overthrowing the Syrian government of Assad are running out of options. They are down to jawboning and yakety yak by the UN "special envoy" (the UN and federal government like to use the word "special"). At his press conference in Peru yesterday, 20 November, president Obama said--

"But ultimately, it takes two -- or in this case, four, or six, or eight -- to tango. And we're just not getting help or interest from those parties that are supporting Assad, and Assad, as a consequence, has been emboldened. Look, this is a man who has decided that destroying his country, turning it to rubble, and seeing its population scattered or killed was worth it for him to cling to power, when he had the option to peacefully engage in a transition that could have kept the country intact. That's his mentality. That's not a mentality we support. That's a mentality that the Russians and the Iranians have been willing to support. But at this stage, we're going to need to have a change in how all parties think about this in order for us to end the situation there."

https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2016/11/20/press-conference-president-obama-lima-peru

Translated into English, Obama said that the Syrians decided not to say, "Yes, Master". That, indeed, is a mentality we do not support. And the destruction and death in Syria is all Assad's fault. However, for the first 10 years he was around, Bashar al-Assad did not turn Syria to rubble and scatter and kill the population.

Earlier today, but off topic (or maybe on topic), a group of mass media executives and on-air personalities went up to Trump Tower for an "off the record" meeting with Trump. That was undoubtedly a fascinating psychological interaction--

http://www.targetliberty.com/2016/11/trump-now-meeting-with-wolf-blitzer.html

[Ghostship]

The thing I've noticed about RT, and Sputnik News for that matter, is that the only propaganda you regularly see in either originates from the Pentagon or US DoD. It's the articles about how some general/admiral/whatever claims that a Russian weapon is better than the American equivalent. While that might be so in some cases, I doubt it's true in all. So it's about the generals/admirals/whatever creating an x gap (where x is any weapon type) and trying to persuade the USG to cough up lots of cash so that the military-industrial gravy train can keep on rolling.

[Kooshy]

Colonel, nothing sinester her, UN' special envoy di Mistura was just trying to find out if he has more chance of getting a self governance autonomy for east Aleppo or wining the California lottery for 300 mil.

[Lemur]

You might find this press release from Tulsi Gabbard interesting:

"President-elect Trump *asked me to meet with him about our current policies regarding Syria* [note it was Trump who initiated the contact], our fight against terrorist groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS, as well as other foreign policy challenges we face. I felt it important to take the opportunity to meet with the President-elect now before the drumbeats of war that neocons have been beating drag us into an escalation of the war to overthrow the Syrian government—a war which has already cost hundreds of thousands of lives and forced millions of refugees to flee their homes in search of safety for themselves and their families.

President-elect Trump and I had a frank and positive conversation in which we discussed a variety of foreign policy issues in depth. I shared with him my grave concerns that escalating the war in Syria by implementing a so-called no fly/safe zone would be disastrous for the Syrian people, our country, and the world. It would lead to more death and suffering, exacerbate the refugee crisis, strengthen ISIS and al-Qaeda, and bring us into a direct conflict with Russia which could result in a nuclear war. We discussed my bill to end our country’s illegal war to overthrow the Syrian government, and the need to focus our precious resources on rebuilding our own country, and on defeating al-Qaeda, ISIS, and other terrorist groups who pose a threat to the American people.

For years, the issue of ending interventionist, regime change warfare has been one of my top priorities. This was the major reason I ran for Congress—I saw firsthand the cost of war, and the lives lost due to the interventionist warmongering policies our country has pursued for far too long."

[Laguerre]

Let's just hope that that the taking of East Aleppo can be got over with quickly. I don't have much hope though.

The taking of Mosul has also ground to a halt. for much the same reasons.

[jim jordan]

Colonel where are you picking up from that the Observatory is a MI-6 front? The wiki entry states this:

"The news office is run from his home in Coventry by Rami Abdulrahman (sometimes referred to as Rami Abdul Rahman), a Syrian Sunni Muslim who owns a clothes shop. Born Osama Suleiman, he adopted a pseudonym during his years of activism in Syria, and has used it publicly ever since. After being imprisoned three times in Syria, Abdulrahman fled to the United Kingdom fearing a fourth jail term and has not returned since."

It would be credible if he was running it from an Oxbridge college but instead from post industrial crap hole like Coventry? Or do the CIA run their disinformation projects from places like Camden, New Jersey?

[turcopolier]

jim Jordan

You don't really expect me to give you my sources, do you? Does "cover" mean anything to you? Yes, CIA runs covert operations out of "crap-holes." pl

[turcopolier]

Laguerre

IMO the defenses of East Aleppo are about to crack. I have some doubt as to whether or not the Iraqi government will ever capture all of Mosul. pl

[Martin Oline]

The R+6 forces are close to dividing east Aleppo. I think that struggle will be history before President-elect Trump is sworn in. I expect the coalition of troops before Mosul will start to squabble over who fights and the action will grind to a halt long before the end of the year. Mosul will then be Trump's tar baby and I have no idea what he can do to eradicate ISIS in that environment. His major problem is the MSM will discover how horrible urban warfare in Mosul is the day after inauguration.
In a similar vein, I remember how the media destroyed President Carter. He was asked if he was worried about losing the support of the Jewish voters of the Democrat party. He was foolish enough to say he didn't care about the Jewish voter block because they were out numbered by Christian voters!

[Laguerre]

Colonel

Much the same sentiment as you, though I wonder whether Syrian lines are as impermeable to resources being fed into East Aleppo as they should be.

In the case of Mosul, the advance has slowed down to nil. The eastern suburbs so far partially captured are those inhabited by Kurds. Real Mosul is on the west bank. Absolutely no news of progress there.

[BraveNewWorld]

Even if it was just to get her point of view I am glad Trump took the time to talk to her. One of the few elected people in any government any where talking sense. I sure hope she doesn't lose her position on the Armed Services Committee.

[BraveNewWorld]

I fully agree with your assessment of East Aleppo. I expect that within the next week or two we will see a large chunk of East Aleppo broken off and that will be the the beginning of the end. Barring any cease fire non-sense that is.

What I am more curious about though is your doubts about the Mosul op. You have been pretty down beat on it since the beginning. Is it a lack of man power, to many groups pulling in to many directions, Turkey barging in to mess the whole thing up? On the surface the Mosul op seems to be running pretty smooth so far. You have either heard or seen some thing that has left a stone in your boot. Can you elaborate? I would think that at this point if all else failed they could just lay in a siege and wait it out. No?

[BraveNewWorld]

Staffan de Mistura needs to be fired immediately. Reading the UN charter and impartiality should be a bare minimum requirement for his job. Instead he acts more like a TV CIA asset.

I sure hope the guy that replaces Ban Ki Moon breaks out the broom and cleans house. I don't know if the UN is salvageable at this point but if it is it is going to require an emergence over haul. Other wise we might as well shoot it and be done with the farce that it has become.

[Pundita]

I nearly keeled in shock reading this. Thank you. Hope springs eternal.

[Peter in Toronto]

Colonel, today the fabled White Helmets put on one of their best performance to date:

https://twitter.com/MarkAnthony_GB/status/800741117562126337

[turcopolier]

BraveNewWorld

I suppose you have read Karl von C's little chapter on "The Military Virtue of an Army?" If not, I recommend it to you. It describes the process through which an army emerges as a an instrument of quality and virtue from a military point of view. IMO the Iraqi Army that we built after helping Saddam destroy the Iraqi National Army is a poor army. It is an army without a fighting soul. IMO the best they will be able to manage against the handful of entrenched fanatics will be an extended siege. pl

[Enrico Malatesta]

Assuming for a moment that de Mistura's offer is a genuine proposal rather than a ploy of the 'alt-gov', wouldn't it have more gravitas if it comes with a similar UN proposal for Mosul?

The terms fit the situation of Mosul better than East Aleppo.