The Syrian Conflict Thread

Obama administration considering strikes on Assad, again

U.S. military strikes against the Assad regime will be back on the table Wednesday at the White House, when top national security officials in the Obama administration are set to discuss options for the way forward in Syria. But there’s little prospect President Obama will ultimately approve them.

Inside the national security agencies, meetings have been going on for weeks to consider new options to recommend to the president to address the ongoing crisis in Aleppo, where Syrian and Russian aircraft continue to perpetrate the deadliest bombing campaign the city has seen since the five-year-old civil war began. A meeting of the Principals Committee, which includes Cabinet-level officials, is scheduled for Wednesday. A meeting of the National Security Council, which could include the president, could come as early as this weekend.

Last Wednesday, at a Deputies Committee meeting at the White House, officials from the State Department, the CIA and the Joint Chiefs of Staff discussed limited military strikes against the regime as a means of forcing Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad to pay a cost for his violations of the cease-fire, disrupt his ability to continue committing war crimes against civilians in Aleppo, and raise the pressure on the regime to come back to the negotiating table in a serious way.
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Full article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...istration-considering-strikes-on-assad-again/
 
Secretary of State John Kerry discussed the situation in Syria with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday, less than 48 hours after the State Department announced a suspension in “bilateral channels with Russia” related to reducing the violence in Syria.

The Wednesday phone call between the two diplomats, first disclosed by the Russian Foreign Ministry, raised immediate questions about whether the United States was already backtracking on its threat to cut off ties with Moscow.

In acknowledging the phone call, State Department spokesman Mark Toner defended the high-level contact. “They did talk about the situation on the ground in Syria,” he said, “my argument back to you would be it would be irresponsible for Secretary Kerry not to raise what’s happening in Syria and make our concerns clear about what’s happening there.”

Toner faced stiff push back from reporters seeking to understand the practical extent of the suspension of ties. “You tell the Russians one thing, and then you turn around and don’t follow through on it,” Associated Press reporter Matt Lee said.

Toner said the suspension only applied to a diplomatic channel setup to sustain a cessation of hostilities in the country. Such a suspension apparently did not preclude talks between Kerry and Lavrov on Syria who have remained in near constant contact throughout the deadly civil war.

“While that particular bilateral channel has been suspended we’re not going to just walk away from what’s happening in Syria,” Toner said.

The State Department announced the halting of talks with Russia on Monday after a relentless bombing campaign by Russian and Syrian jets on the besieged city of Aleppo.
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http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/10/05...ria-less-than-48-hours-after-suspending-ties/
 
OrbitalDawn said:
Syria's “White Helmets” Risk Everything to Save the Victims of Airstrikes
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There is no escaping the reality that, for all of their heroic rescue work, the White Helmets function as an effective propaganda arm of the anti-Assad movement. There is a symbiotic, hand-in-glove relationship between the anti-Assad rhetoric of the ostensibly “neutral and impartial” White Helmets and the policy objectives of their funders, a relationship that embodies the notion of a quid pro quo relationship between the two. With their training, equipment and logistical sustainment underwritten exclusively by donations from Western governments (primarily the U.S. and U.K.), the White Helmets serve as a virtual echo chamber for American and British politicians and officials.
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The White Helmets are useful only so long as they stay on message, and that message is delivered through a narrative constructed from carefully edited imagery put out by the White Helmets themselves. Simply put, if the White Helmets turn off their cameras, America will turn off the money.
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Or put another way, the United States is the No. 1 funder and facilitator of one of the most effective recruiting tools used by terrorists inside Syria today—the White Helmets
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http://www.truthdig.com/report/page..._contradiction_americas_syria_policy_20161005
 
So the USA and other western governments fund an organisation that pulls civilians out from rubble and we are supposed to believe that's a bad thing :crylaugh:. The Russian propaganda is getting desperate again, perhaps if they and their buddy Assad stopped carpet bombing Aleppo there wouldn't be a need for the white helmets.
 
Unhappy438 said:
So the USA and other western governments fund an organisation that pulls civilians out from rubble and we are supposed to believe that's a bad thing :crylaugh:. The Russian propaganda is getting desperate again, perhaps if they and their buddy Assad stopped carpet bombing Aleppo there wouldn't be a need for the white helmets.
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Yeah, it's quite bizarre. Rescuing civilians being bombarded with airstrikes = "one of the most effective recruiting tools used by terrorists". :wtf:

But then, 'terrorist' is used quite loosely, I'm sure. Includes hospital workers and the like.
 
[video=youtube;_hTSTO2mzrM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hTSTO2mzrM[/video]
 
[video=youtube;OF32suz-C04]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF32suz-C04[/video]
 
Source: https://www.rt.com/news/361800-russia-syria-usa-aistrikes/
members of the Russian Reconciliation Center in Syria are working “on the ground” delivering aid and communicating with a large number of communities in Syria.

“Therefore, any missile or air strikes on the territory controlled by the Syrian government will create a clear threat to Russian servicemen.”

“Russian air defense system crews are unlikely to have time to determine in a ‘straight line’ the exact flight paths of missiles and then who the warheads belong to. And all the illusions of amateurs about the existence of ‘invisible’ jets will face a disappointing reality,” Konashenkov added.
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So there's the official Russian response to Obama's desire to strike Assad directly: we dare you to try ...
 
Germany Open to Considering Sanctions on Russia Over Syria

The German government is open to considering economic sanctions on Russia as a way to quell the Syria conflict, a spokesman for German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Friday, reflecting rising frustration in Europe with Moscow’s behavior in the war.

“We can understand that all options are being considered,” spokesman, Steffen Seibert said at a news conference, in response to a question about whether Germany would support economic sanctions to pressure Moscow over Syria.

“We believe that, especially, Russia and Iran have the responsibility to do all they can and to use their influence on the Assad regime to bring an end to this escalation of violence and the suffering of the people.”

The German government is already weighing whether to push for new European Union sanctions on Russia, The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this week. On Friday, senior lawmakers allied with Ms. Merkel publicly voiced support for such sanctions for the first time.

“It would be a scandal to leave most serious war crimes without consequences and sanctions,” Norbert Röttgen, chairman of the foreign affairs committee in German parliament and a member of Ms. Merkel’s Christian Democrats, said in comments published by the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper Friday. European economic sanctions against Moscow, he went on, “would be decisive and are the only thing than could practically be done, but [European Union] governments are afraid of this step for purely domestic political reasons.”
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http://www.wsj.com/articles/germany-open-to-considering-sanctions-on-russia-over-syria-1475849701
 
Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/syria-conflict-yemen-civil-war-aleppo-russia-assad-bombings-obama-saudi-arabia-arms-sales-a7357171.html
A US government spokesperson has struggled to answer questions put to him on why the US condemns Russian bombing in Syria, and supports Saudi-led bombing in Yemen, both of which have killed thousands of civilians.
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“Over the weekend there was this air strike on a funeral by the Saudi-led coalition,” Matt Lee of the Associated Press asked. “I was just wondering: does the administration see any difference between this kind of thing, and what you accuse the Russians, Syrians and the Iranians of doing in Syria, and particularly Aleppo?”
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Mr Lee, the AP’s diplomatic correspondent, continued to hold Mr Kirby’s feet to the fire on the Yemeni issue, pressing him for an answer on how “an increasing number of Yemeni civilians are at risk and being killed by weapons that the United States has furnished to the Saudis and their coalition partners.”

“You don’t find any kind of issue with this? Because a lot of people do, including on [Capitol] Hill,” he added.

Mr Kirby said that the situation was very different in Syria and Yemen, pointing out that Iranian-supplied Houthi rockets have killed Saudi citizens in recent months.

“The Saudi-led coalition were invited in by the Yemeni government - now I know what you’re going to say, the Russians were invited by [Syrian President] Assad… but..."
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Russia resorts to ecological warfare

Russia resorts to ecological warfare. Threatens to choke out all of Syria with soot and smog from its aircraft carrier.
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[video=youtube;YXAwPERxsj0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXAwPERxsj0[/video]
 
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