UN seeks Syria peace talks amid military strike threat
The United Nations is making a desperate new push for a Syria peace conference even as the United States prepares a possible military strike, according to diplomats. Talks on a conference are to be relaunched at the Group of 20 summit in Russia this weekOn Thursday the UN said UN-Arab League envoy on Syria Lakhdar Brahimi was heading to Russia to help UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s efforts at the G20 to organise a peace conference.“The Secretary General has just announced that the Joint Special Representative for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, is on his way to Russia to help him push, on margins of the G20 summit in Saint Petersburg, for the International Conference on Syria,” the UN spokesperson said in a statement. UN Under Secretary General Jeffrey Feltman discussed a possible conference during a landmark visit last week to IranBritain’s Foreign Secretary William Hague said his government would press the Syrian opposition when Syrian National Coalition leader Ahmad al-Jarba visits London on Thursday.He added that Prime Minister David Cameron would call on Russian President Vladimir Putin to apply pressure for such a conference when they meet in Saint Petersburg this week.Hague on Tuesday told the British parliament there is still “an overwhelming case” to try for a negotiated settlement.The major UN Security Council powers — United States, Russia, China, Britain and France — agreed a transition blueprint for Syria at a conference in Geneva in June last year. Russia and the United States agreed to push for a follow up meeting in May when the UN’s Syria envoy Lakhdar Brahimi was on the verge of resigning in frustration at deadlocked peace efforts.“There will be a lot of discussion in Saint Petersburg about making an announcement of timing for a Geneva II conference,” said a senior envoy at the United Nations.
* Should a negotiated settlement actually come to fruition the UN will attempt to take credit. And that corrupt institution,the UN, will deserve NO CREDIT whatsoever!If a negotiated settlement comes to pass, the very settlement that Russia and China have been promoting all along it, it will only be because of Russia and China. Not the UN. The UN has always been and continues to be an institution that should be dissolved. The UN is, as I have said before, the shiny happy face of NATO and global government. Get rid of it!Re: chemical weapon evidence. Real and magically conjured CBS: Obama in Sweden:
"These weapons are in Assad's possession, we have intercepts of people in the regime before and after the attack acknowledging it, we can show rockets going from Assad controlled areas into rebel territory with the weapons,"
What are ‘these weapons’? What intercepts? Garbage from Israel. From what date can you show rockets? Very vague Obama. Very vague. Sounds very much like a Big Lie... “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.”
“But if the White House has already shown that evidence to its partners in the United Nations Security Council -- including, most crucially, the veto-wielding members Russia and China -- it has failed to convince the vast majority of them of its veracity”
Going on recall, I am pretty sure the US provided their ‘evidence’ and it convinced no one.
Russia's Foreign Ministry, meanwhile, has reportedly handed its own 100-page report to the United Nations on a previous alleged chemical weapons attack in Syria. Russia said in July that tests conducted by Russian scientists on samples from the northern town of Khan al-Assal following an alleged March 19 chemical attack showed that rebel fighters were most likely to blame.
CBS spin. Not ‘most likely’ to blame. Rebels were to blame! Flashback to 4 previous posts on the NATO merc chemical attack on Khan al Assal 1.NATO mercs using chemical materials2.Syria asks UN to probe chemical weapon use3. Why Russia does not believe Syria used chems4. Syrian 'rebels' play politics and massacre NATO style
According to information posted this week to the Foreign Ministry's website, tests carried out by the Russian scientists on samples from Khan al-Assal showed the missile used to deliver the chemical agent was "not a regular munition of the Syrian army," but rather a "artisan-type" device which they concluded was likely built by the rebels. The report also says the explosives used in the projectile, and the chemical agents themselves, were not typical of the materials used by militaries in such weapons.According to the Foreign ministry website, the nerve agents found in soil samples at Khan al-Assal, which it said named as sarin and diisopropyl fluorophosphate, did not appear to have been concocted in "an industrial environment."The March 19 attack in Khan al-Assal was one of two alleged chemical attacks that the Obama administration first furtively confirmed -- and pinned "with some degree of varying confidence" on the Assad regime.
Obama, full of lies as usual. Full of 'BIG LIES'
US ‘proof” : U.S. intelligence was basing its assertion at least in part on human tissue or blood samples showing symptoms consistent with sarin gas poisoning, but the samples from Syria had passed through a number of different hands and as a result, American officials had only "low to moderate confidence" in their judgment.
That is not proof. Samples passing through a number of different hands are samples that can be tampered with, doctored, created, whatever. Samples such as this are not credible as evidence!The CBS article then goes on with this absurd sentence “ It was not immediately clear how Russia obtained the samples from Khan al-Assal that it used in its investigation into the attack there”I am quite certain how Russia obtained samples is available in their report. Perhaps someone from CBS should read it? If not, let me assist. Russian investigators were on the ground and undertook a 3 month investigation to attain what are no doubt solid results! As opposed to unreliable US results.As mentioned in this interview: James Corbett interviews Pepe Escobar on Bandar Bush's role in Syria & more Solid results vs the US pulling 'evidence' out of a magicians hat after tapping it with their magic wand!But, wait!!!! Tap tap and another rabbit appears from the US magic hat, on cue.If one bunny can't get the job done. Forensic expert with chemical attack evidence in Syria defects to Turkey: Opposition
Abdeltawwab Shahrour, head of the forensic medicine committee in Aleppo, would make public his evidence of the March 19 chemical attack in Khan al-Assal, Istanbul-based opposition coalition spokeswoman Sarah Karkour said.
Here we go again!!! In order to manage public perception. We get a timely defection and unsubstantiated allegations that could get some media play. More perception management and mind games. And nothing else. This has no value. Some random man? That the opposition will claim is an 'authority'? (Appeal to authority) Worthless.Last but not least ‘news’ from Haaretz. Clearly Israel felt the need to spin their missile firings..Always the wild card
The routine missile (?) test Israel conducted Tuesday morning as part of its Homa missile defense strategy unintentionally placed it into the regional and inter-power tensions surrounding a possible U.S. action in Syria. The Russian early-warning system that first detected the launch mistakenly identified it as an event related to preparations to attack Syria. More than an hour passed from the Russians’ mistaken announcement until Israel clarified the facts.
Russia's "mistaken announcement". Oh, I see "bad Russia"?
The "sparrow" missile test took place despite the tensions in Syria, not because of them. ( I suggest the missile test took place because of the situation with Syria)The Defense Ministry, in coordination with the U.S. defense establishment, periodically tests the sparrow, which is the target missile used in tests of the Arrow and other anti-missile defense systems. This launch was of the sparrow alone, with no attempt made to shoot it down.The fact it was detected demonstrates that the Russians are seemingly on heightened alert over what is happening in the region, out of concern regarding the possible U.S. attack on Syria.
*Clearly that was the purpose of the test. Amongst many purposes no doubt, but one was surely to test Russia.
The test took place hundreds of kilometers south of the Syrian border. Did the Russians really believe the move was connected to preparations for an attack, or did they just feel like heating things up with a dramatic announcement? It’s not totally clear.
*Hundreds of kilometers from the Syria border? Well that makes it all better. Did Israel feel like heating things up by firing the missiles. Yes, Israel did. Because had Israel not fired the missiles Russia would NOT have reported on them. Therefore it is Israel upping the drama!
In any case, it seems Israel mistakenly assumed that such a test could be conducted without it being interpreted as being related to the tensions.
In contrast to previous tense periods when much psychological warfare occurred - including numerous declarations by Israel aimed at Syria or Iran
*An acknowledgement that Israel is indeed playing mind games with the world. How very arrogant!
Still, the Israeli leadership’s insistence on repeatedly reminding everyone that Israel is strong and confident reminds one of a person who whistles in the dark to keep himself calm.
*And another acknowledgement that Israel is 'reminding everyone that Israel is strong and confident.More arrogance!