Syrian President Bashar al-Assad thanked President Vladimir Putin for his position on the Syrian issue.
This was stated by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moualem at a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. “Assad asked me to express his gratitude to Putin for his stance on Syria before and after the G20 summit,” said the Syrian minister.
Earlier, Putin promised to help Syria should a military blow be struck on the country. Putin stressed that Russia was already helping the regime of Bashar al-Assad through arms supplies and economic cooperation.
“Only idiots and fanatics believe in Obama’s version about Syria”
Terrorists firing chemical weapons
Ouday the old Syrian tells me that at this time Damascus is the heart of Free Men.
Who am I to challenge the old Syrian? I believe him. But not to his words, that could also just be sound in air. I believe him because the facts compel me to believe.
And the facts tell me that Syria is two years under a cruel and vicious attack. Even the Germans have noticed because a few days ago the newspaper Die Welt published the news that the 95% of so-called “rebels” in Syria are actually made up of foreigners.
Well … gentlemen, this is not a revolution. This is an invasion. A real invasion. To be more precise: a proxy war, planned by the usual U.S. cowards. And fought by criminals who sometimes do not have scruples even to stop them feeding on human flesh in order to celebrate infamous victories.
In 2011, while aggression against Libya reached its peak, the West in New York recognized the self-proclaimed Syrian National Council’s Liberation.
That is a sort of government in exile composed of puppets, which was to represent the post al-Assad Syria. The fact that the war against Libya hadn’t been fought and won as planned should not have troubled very much the minds of those had thought it out, and make sure that the method could be applied successfully elsewhere.
Font Size Again, the protocol for change-regimes was then applied: demonstrations, protests, pilot provocation to the police, various skirmishes in a crescendo of violence.
As in all countries of the world, there is corruption in Syria too, fluctuating economy, state officials incompetent but coexisting alongside those honest and dedicated to their offices. So it is natural that the Syrian people will try resentment for their own government, but it is unfair to use this resentment to foment a revolt which is falsely democratic and mask with it the destruction of a Nation.
The answers of the Government to the first demonstrations were heavy influenced by a certain old school. But nothing would have changed if they had been more tolerant.
President Al-Assad subsequently removed the officials responsible for repression and went to a modification of the Syrian Constitution eliminating the principle of one-party rule. The Ba’th is no longer the only party allowed in Syria but this and other openings, such as the eligibility of the President by popular vote, have been branded by the West as mere propaganda, a trick to keep the Al-Assad family and their clique in power.
Al-Assad began to be an enemy to be killed and Western governments began to recite the usual mantra “Al-Assad must go”.
A little at a time, however, they stopped.
Syria is not Libya: the Syrian people are more united than Libyans and experience a great love of their country. Lacking the immediate American aid, in the form of bombs and missiles, the rebels soon showed their true face of thieves, murderers and cutthroats. The initial sympathy that the Syrians had given them declined progressively and the military situation on the ground slowly began to change in favor of the government forces.
The rebels, though incapable of sustaining a direct confrontation with the Syrian army, had managed to establish a relative control over some parts of Syria: in the north to the Turkish border, in the south to the border with Lebanon and Israel, in other small areas of the country, and in some districts of the cities.
The liberation of al-Qusayr in May of 2013, however, indicated that the long wave of fake Syrian spring was running out. In al-Qusayr evidences were found of the absurd alliance between Israel and the more fundamentalist rebels, united only by the desire to destroy an ancient Country.
The United States, aware of the danger of losing their proxy war, tried several times to pass a resolution in Libya style, which would allow them to bomb indiscriminately, behind a veneer of legitimacy.
Syria, however, is not Libya and is not without allies. Russia and China have proved adamant and have exercised their right of veto in the UN Security Council thus blocking any attempt from the U.S..
Russia has deployed several warships to Syria’s defense, preventing surprise attacks by the U.S. Navy and limiting Israeli provocations so that they turned against Tel Aviv.
The Russian bear has shown the muscles and so is the Chinese dragon now. On the other hand, it is known that the real goal of the U.S. imperial wars are precisely Russia and China. Iran, Syria’s ally since the time of the war against Iraq, should be the last target before the final confrontation. Iran, like Syria, is included in the famous list of Arab and the Middle East Nations to invade at any cost. A list of more than ten years old: Libya, Syria, Lebanon, Sudan, Iraq and Iran.
In Washington, no-one seems to understand the madness inherent in the idea invading serially a set of nations, without any opposition. The American political class seems to find it natural to think the opposite and this is the reason why it is so surprised by the firmness of Russia and China as well as of Syria and Iran.
With the amazement, however, also increases the danger of those who are in favor of war: the attack with chemical weapons on one of the suburbs of Damascus, which took place recently, has precipitated the situation and the peace conference Geneva 2 seems lost in a limbo. While it is clear the lack of logic for the Syrian army to commit the massacre perpetrated by the rebels, for the USA not the latter were to be blamed for the use of poison gas against the civilian population but instead government forces.
The Syrian army is a people’s army, that is also made ??up by the sons, husbands, fathers of those who may have been killed by so-called rebels: it is not a militia of mercenaries, paid so much per day. It has no interest in shooting itself in the foot while it is winning on the field. President Obama, Nobel Prize for Peace (in word only), is instead also the first Nobel Prize for Peace (in word) to use missiles and bombs with spontaneous generosity. We live in a world turned upside down.
Now Barack Obama has tied the American attack on Syria to a favorable vote in the U.S. Congress. In case he gets it, and it is sadly likely, it will not be long before the conflict will spread to other actors, directly involving Iran, Russia and China.
President Al-Assad would have already agreed with the Americans in the past, if his purpose was to keep the power. Instead he chose otherwise, even trying to defuse tensions and proposing political solutions in western style.
The most important thing, however, is that along with Al-Assad has also chosen the Syrian people. And the choice was accurate, clear. There is no room for the rebels in Syria. Not anymore, not after everything they have done against the population.
In Syria, secular and socialist, there is no room for the cannibals, for cutthroats, for drugged rapists, for thieves falsely elevated as liberators. There is no room for those who do not understand that different religions can live together without fighting each other.
If Syria is a dictatorship, then what are Saudi Arabia and Qatar which finance the rebels? The answer, if you want, it is all too simple and obvious. Once again, we live in a world turned upside.
The Syrian people resist, clinging around their army and President.
So Ouday the old Syrian is right when he tells me that at this time Damascus is the heart of Men free. And on the heart of Free Men, the price of dignity is death.
Costantino Ceoldo
José Mujica does not believe that intervention in Syria is the best way. “It is impossible to stop a war with more war”, said Uruguayan President about the possibility of military intervention in Syria.
Amid the climate of tension in the Middle East with the possibility of military intervention in Syria, José Mujica quips: “The only permissible bombing would be milk powder, biscuits and food.”
The Uruguayan president argues that military action is not the best way to resolve the civil conflict in the country. “That would be trying to put out a fire by putting on more fuel,” he argues in reference to the U.S. plan of intervention. “The war will not be solved by introducing more war. This situation leads to a path of endless conflicts that promotes a deep resentment that will turn into struggle and resistance here and there,” he reiterated in an interview with a local station of Uruguay.
Quoted by Spanish media on Saturday, the Uruguayan President made ??references in contemporary history to argue the negative impacts of war. “Each of the last 30 years attempts to impose Western democracy – as we know it – in Asia or the Arab world, and had the similar result of sacrifice and pain,” he said to El Pais.
Contrary to Mujica, the President of the United States , Barack Obama , asked today that members of Congress do not close their eyes to the use of chemical weapons in Syria. “We are the United States. We cannot be blind to the images of Syrians. This is why I ask the members of Congress from both parties, to unite and act to promote a world where we want to live in, the world we want to leave to our children and future generations,”said Obama , who seeks congressional support for military strikes against Syria. The president of the USA spoke to the people on a weekly radio program.
The U.S. Congress should start on Monday (9) , to discuss the attacks defended by Barack Obama in reaction to the use of chemical weapons on August 21, on the outskirts of Damascus, the Syrian capital.
EFE in Opera Mundi
http://www.patrialatina.com.br/editorias.php?idprog=7092d5eb1bbca1a22bdc69ba3f517e68&cod=12414
Translated by Lisa Karpova
Pravda.Ru
From the Portuguese version of Pravda.Ru
Obama’s boyfriends
September 9, 2013. The Day of Judgement. Judgement by a forum of law without jurisdiction over a case whose details it does not know, judgment by the clique of corporate elitists which control this forum trying it manipulate it into justifying the unjustifiable. Just maybe they will fail and Congress will prevail in respecting its Founding Fathers.
Firstly, let there be no mistake whatsoever about the proper forum of international law covering the Syria case, more specifically the use of chemical weapons in Ghouta on August 21 2013. After the local court in Damascus, for this was a criminal case pending a full report from the Syrian authorities, the forum of law to which any international military action pertains is the United Nations Security Council, not the US Congress.
The US Congress regulates issues inside, and for, the citizens of the United States of America. If the USA does not accept the UNSC as the proper forum of international law, then it should not have signed the Charter and should leave the United Nations Organization before it breaches the treaty it signed. Either you abide by the terms of the treaties you sign, or you leave the treaty. You cannot have it both ways, signing a document then manipulating the truth and if things do not go your way, breaching its rules or bypassing the organisms it created.
Font Size Secondly, it is still very unclear as to what happened in Ghouta on August 21, but what is becoming clearer and clearer as the shroud of uncertainty passes is that the gas attack was not ordered by President Bashar al-Assad. Previous gas attacks have been perpetrated by the Syrian Opposition forces, and where was the brouhaha from the West about that?
All they did was try to use terrorist chemical attacks to incriminate the Syrian Armed Forces.
And as I write this column I am going to go out on a limb and say something that nobody else has said to date: would anyone put it past the west in general, NATO in particular, the terrorist-supporting FUKUS Axis (France-UK-US) principally and the CIA, especially, to have carried out a chemical weapons attack from a position behind Government lines using a rogue officer or an infiltrator?
The answer I hear is a resounding NO. And would the Syrian government use chemical weapons against the citizens it is trying to defend from foreign mercenaries and terrorists supported by the west and armed and financed by Qatar and Saudi Arabia? Would the Syrian government deploy chemical weapons on the eve of a UN inspection? Would the Syrian government deploy such weapons in an area where it was winning the battle? Would the Syrian government deploy such weapons against its own troops?
Why has President Obama used images of children and not those of Syrian soldiers caught up in the same attack? Why does he hide these from the citizens of the United States of America? Because he is a manipulative and cynical fraud who does not deserve to hold his position? Why has Secretary Kerry used a photo from Iraq in 2003 to underline his case? Because he is a barefaced liar? Why has the US Government not produced one shred of clear evidence against the Syrian Armed Forces/government? Why did they ignore previous chemical weapons attacks from their own terrorist forces?
Why does President Obama lie by saying this is the first chemical weapons attack this century, when he knows the first chemical weapons attack was in Kosovo and then in Iraq in which hundreds of thousands of victims were left dead or maimed and the soil radioactive for billions of years?
When Congress votes, and when Obama makes his appraisal, think of this: long after the Sun goes out, vast swathes of land in Europe and Asia will remain poisoned and radioactive, thanks to the United States of America and the United Kingdom’s Kosovo and Iraq wars. Where was the Congress vote on this?
So, Congress having no jurisdiction to vote for war overseas, President Obama not having any justification to call for military action, any such action can only be interpreted as an act of aggression, a war crime, rendering the President of the USA a war criminal and any personnel perpetrating such an outrage or backing an act of murder liable to de-selection from their posts and to prosecution for incitement to murder.
They will be named and shamed, hunted down and brought to justice in a proper court of law. If international law exists it is to be upheld and there are consequences for breaching it. This is the Day of Judgement and today humankind is judging the United States of America.
One final point: how do the United States Armed personnel in its Navy, Air Force and Army feel, how do its emergency services personnel – firemen and ambulance drivers – feel about the involvement of their country on the side of al-Qaeda terrorists who have murdered around 100.000 Syrian citizens including soldiers, including firemen?
Do you know what they do? They use munitions supplied or bought or facilitated by your country to create a terrorist incident, such as slicing the heads off 121 kids (it happened recently) and then when the emergency services show up, they detonate bombs or shoot them from afar.
Do you feel OK with your Congress and President if they vote to help these bastards? Don’t shrug. Hold them responsible, do the right thing.
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
Pravda.Ru
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said that there would be no military action in Syria, if the leadership of the country handed over all existing chemical weapons under the control of the international community, Deutsche Welle reports.
According to Kerry, military intervention is not enough to solve the Syrian problem. According to him, there is no military solution.
The U.S. Congress is to vote on the question of military intervention Syria on September 11. According to preliminary reports, the House of Representatives is unlikely to approve it, over the fear of another major war in the Middle East.
USA concerned about Russia’s missiles in Syria
“Russia has to support Syria and establish a system of collective defense. If we lose Syria, we will be ignored by everyone,” believes the former head of the Main Directorate for International Military Cooperation of the Russian Defense Ministry, Colonel-General in reserve Leonid Ivashov. He talked about his ideas in an interview with Pravda.Ru.
Leonid, the most urgent question now is whether the United States will strike a missile attack on Syria?
“What is happening today around Syria is nothing but the rebirth and legitimization of fascism in the West. The West has brought the biggest disasters to humanity, including Crusades, Napoleon, the First and the Second World War. Today we see that the ideological basis for the Western elites is not some humanistic, messianic goals. Some sort of a dangerous mixture of perverted liberalism, fascism and homosexuality was formed in the ideological sphere. These are insane people, but they, unfortunately, rule today in their countries and determine their policy. This explosive mixture is being distributed worldwide. The Americans started this operation two years ago against Syria, and we carefully monitored it. To date they have not been able to break the Syrian regime, the Syrian people, and found themselves at a dead-end. They have invested their political capital in this operation and involved their satellites in the operation to destroy Syria.”
Font Size What countries are the most faithful allies of the Americans in this regard?
“They do not have allies, they only have satellites that have forked out to aid formation of bands of mercenaries, especially Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Now they see that Bashar al-Assad held out, which means that all of their efforts and their political capital are bursting like a bubble. For the Americans, this is not only a loss of face, but the loss of control over their satellites. It is understandable that they want to prove their strength, their power, their leadership in this western gangster world community.
And so, in Syria they are ready to do anything, including a great lie to prove their strength, their power and prove their satellites and other countries including Russia that the Americans have to be reckoned with. For the sake of their interests, for the sake of their huge profits, we must obey. This is the logic they have laid today, and they cannot refuse it because the United States, as well as Western countries, is ruled not by real politicians, not by representatives of the people, buy this huge financial capital. And for the sake of their profit, like Marx had said, they will commit any crime, just like they are doing now.”
Does this mean that the aggression against Syria and its defeat is inevitable?
“I do not think so. We now see that the world begins to change dramatically. It is a transition state, but the worst of it – West-centered – is changing for the better. The beginning of this change is obvious. So far Russia is negotiating, showing its independence. Putin announced the formation of the Eurasian Union. We see the Chinese are willing to transform the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a powerful transcontinental Eurasian bloc. We see the BRICS countries, a big part of the population, too, wants a new world and is already laying the bricks in its foundation. It is clear now that the Americans are afraid.
And this force is not involved today. Take Russia for example. The humanity after World War II entrusted Russia with the most important function – the maintenance of international peace, and elected Russia a permanent member of the Security Council. And this is not only an honorable duty or a duty to remember our fallen soldiers. This is a big responsibility for the maintenance of the international peace. In this situation Russia must require urgent convention of the UN Security Council and introduce a resolution condemning the preparations for aggression and disallowing it.
The second duty of Russia is to provide support for the implementation of Syrian individual or collective defense. This is not just a right, it is a duty we owe to support both individually and form a system of collective defense. We have not done that. The heads of BRICS countries adopted a resolution on Syria in Durban this year. It was a unanimous decision of five countries. But why even today the Ministers of Foreign Affairs are not getting together to state that they are the international community, and they declare on behalf of the three billion people on the planet that they are against it. But this is not done.”
In light of recent events and the general situation in the Middle East and the Caucasus, perhaps it would make sense to organize delivery of Russian arms to Iran?
“You know, today there is no problem in supplying guns to Iran. The problems are, in my opinion, are orders from Tel Aviv. Tel Aviv does not want us to supply to Iran, it does not want us to supply to Syria, and we don’t. Our military- technical cooperation with these countries is completely controlled from Tel Aviv. This was stated way back by Ariel Sharon when he was a defense minister.
Then, I think, in the late 1990s, he came as an inspector, saw who teaches whom and what, and so on. We have to admit that it’s better to open a branch of the Israeli Ministry of Defense or the Department of Commerce, and declare that this is it. Our government is still playing with the routes. These are two sovereign states! In Soviet times we always watched that the balance of power in one or another region was not violated.
The balance of power is a guarantee of security for both countries. But Tel Aviv today surpasses Iran in almost all military specifications. In order to avoid the war, the appropriate weapons must be supplied to Iran. This is our interest. Thus, we move aside the threat from the Caspian Sea, move aside the threat to our borders, and move aside millions of refugees fleeing to our country, and so on. But you see, for some reason our national interests are not in the foreground. I will tell you more, I want some reprisals against those who do it.”
What do you mean?
“Look, today a famous company “Mig” is on the verge of bankruptcy because Mr. Pogosyan is pushing “Sukhoi” aircraft through corruption schemes. Worldwide, the ratio of light and heavy fighters is 70/30 in favor of light fighters. Today, manufacturing and development of light fighters is being shut down. Only heavy ones are made. There will be no one to cover infantry and win airspace. I attended the international nuclear center in Dubna.
It is an international center dominated by the Americans. We cannot implement not only nuclear projects for the Defense Ministry but also conventional weapons projects without a resolution of the international community. What is going on? The Ministry of Defense cannot sign a contract. I visited a very interesting company – State Research Institute of Chemistry and Technology of element-organic compounds. I saw miracles there, including in the defense sector. They create composite materials and technologies, and, to be frank, defense products of the second half of the 21st century. An American company addressed them in order to collaborate with them. Naturally, it is a closed topic, so they are denied. A request from another firm comes in and it is also denied. What do then our Russian Technologies do? They fire the director, say that all businesses of the Russian Technologies should be profitable, and today they are saying that a shopping center should be built on the basis of the non-profit institute, and it will start bringing a profit tomorrow. How is this not a crime?
This is treason, there is no other name for it. Those who do it still hope to avoid punishment, hope to escape and hide somewhere in the West. First of all, let them look at all these defectors. They will be extradited, found and shot for these things. I am convinced of it. And this will happen in this decade. This is why it is so difficult to talk about defense, security today. On the one hand there was hope that Sergei Shoigu will come and restore order.
And he started, but we see obstacles everywhere today. The Ministry of Finance does not fund the contracts that the Defense Ministry was ready to sign, for example, with “Mig.” This establishment that works for the defense, our military and space industry, for “Bulava,” for our fleet, works quite successfully, but is not in a position to defend the Defense Ministry. There is nobody in this country to protect – everything is bought, everything is sold. I hope that Syria, the last ally in the East, will not be given up.”
In your opinion, why did the Americans ignore the air show MAKS -2013?
“As for the non-participation of the Americans in the show, you know, the Americans used to come here not for the sake of technology as virtually there is nothing new left. They just came here to demonstrate the friendly relations between Bush – Putin, Obama – Medvedev, and so on. Today, the relations cooled off a bit, we no longer concede to the Americans in everything, that’s why they chose not to attend. They do not want it. How can we organize these shows without developing our aircraft industry, destroying it step by step? Our government is very interesting. The president and the government do not show the progress of the country, but every day have their PR for the public. There is nothing to boast about, so they can only promote themselves. This is their entire policy.”
Pravda.Ru
Read the original in Russian
Going through Wikileaks is a depressing yet telling experience, and the more you look, the more you can see why the USA preaches freedom of expression then tries to incarcerate or kill whistle-blowers. Below is a document showing the United States of America had plans for Syria as far back as 2006.
Reference ID 06DAMASCUS5399. Created 2006-12-13 16:03. Classification: SECRET. Origin: Embassy Damascus. Now let’s take a little peak at the inner workings of the United States of America’s foreign policy.
The piece is an appraisal of opportunities to destabilize the SARG – Syrian Arab Republic Government and begins with the sentence: “The SARG ends 2006 in a much stronger position domestically and internationally than it did 2005″. It continues with an assessment of possible weaknesses in the Government and refers to post-Assad scenarios.
Then an honest description of the cable itself: “This cable summarizes our assessment of these vulnerabilities and suggests that there may be actions, statements, and signals that the USG can send that will improve the likelihood of such opportunities arising. These proposals will need to be fleshed out and converted into real actions and we need to be ready to move quickly to take advantage of such opportunities. Many of our suggestions underline using Public Diplomacy and more indirect means to send messages that influence the inner circle”.
Font Size So, before the United States of America began its subversion, there is an admission that “The country is economically stable (at least for the short term), internal opposition the regime faces is weak”. Then the cynicism of the US diplomatic mission in Damascus is shocking – references to the lack of experience of Bashar al-Assad and how “we may directly impact regime behavior where it matters”.
Regarding the Hariri investigation, the US Embassy suggests that Syria’s response is irrational in defending itself and its international standing because:
“Rationally, the regime should calculate that it can deal with any summons of Syrian officials by refusing to turn any suspects over, or, in extreme cases by engineering ‘suicides’.”
So, therefore, next point, “Possible action” in capitals, and I quote: “PLAY ON SUNNI FEARS OF IRANIAN INFLUENCE”.
First ball out of the box? Saudi Arabia: “We should continue to encourage the Saudis and others to allow Khaddam access to their media outlets, providing him with venues for airing the SARG’s dirty laundry. We should anticipate an overreaction by the regime that will add to its isolation and alienation from its Arab neighbors.”
And apart from that, discourage other countries to invest in Syria, particularly Foreign Direct Investment: “DISCOURAGE FDI, ESPECIALLY FROM THE GULF”.
Internally, back in 2006, the USA was already considering using the Kurds as instruments of its anti-Assad policy: “THE KURDS: The most organized and daring political opposition and civil society groups are among the ethnic minority Kurds, concentrated in Syria’s northeast, as well as in communities in Damascus and Aleppo”.
And now the bombshell: “Extremist elements increasingly use Syria as a base, while the SARG has taken some actions against groups stating links to Al-Qaeda”.
“Possible Actions: …Publicize Syrian efforts against extremist groups in a way that suggests weakness, signs of instability, and uncontrolled blowback. The SARG,s argument (usually used after terror attacks in Syria) that it too is a victim of terrorism should be used against it to give greater prominence to increasing signs of instability within Syria.”
I will quote the conclusion to this document in its entirety:
“CONCLUSION: This analysis leaves out the anti-regime Syrian Islamists because it is difficult to get an accurate picture of the threat within Syria that such groups pose. They are certainly a long-term threat. While it alludes to the vulnerabilities that Syria faces because of its alliance with Iran, it does not elaborate fully on this topic. The bottom line is that Bashar is entering the new year in a stronger position than he has been in several years, but those strengths also carry with them — or sometimes mask –vulnerabilities. If we are ready to capitalize, they will offer us opportunities to disrupt his decision-making, keep him off-balance, and make him pay a premium for his mistakes.”
2006. So, what was that about a chemical attack? Is Congress really going to ignore the sheer evil which underlies the foreign policy of the United States of America? Those voting in favour of military action are underlining the claims of those who say that instead of change, the USA needs a revolution.
Is Congress rotten to the core, or does it listen to its Constituents? Tomorrow we shall see.
Look at the photograph. Are these unarmed civilians? No, they are not…
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
Pravda.Ru
08.09.2013
Russia’s Group F qualifying game for the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil left Fabio Capello’s team nearer to Brazil, with three games to play – at home to Israel, and away to Luxemburg and Azerbaijan. Yesterday Russia received and beat Luxemburg 4-1.
Russia 4 Luxemburg 1
Kokorin 1, 35; Joachim 90
Kerzhakov 60
Samedov 90+3
Russia
Akinfeev, Ignashevich, Denisov (Capt.), Kokorin (Ionov), Kerzhakov, Granat, Shirokov (Ryazantsev), Bystrov (Samedov), Faizulin, Kozlov, Kombarov
Games played
Russia 2 N. Ireland 0
Israel 0 Russia 4
Russia 1 Portugal 0
Russia 1 Azerbaijan 0
Portugal 1 Russia 0
N. Ireland 1 Russia 0
Russia 4 Luxemburg 1
Games to play
10/09 Russia Israel
11/10 Luxemburg Russia
15/10 Azerbaijan Russia
Group F
Portugal 8 games 5 victories, 2 draws 1 defeat 16 goals for 8 goals against 17 points
Font Size Russia 7 5 0 2 12 3 15
Israel 7 3 3 1 16 9 12
N. Ireland 7 1 3 3 6 11 6
Azerbaijan 8 0 5 3 4 10 5
Luxemburg 7 0 3 4 4 17 3
In the other groups, the favourites are all well placed to go through to the finals in Brazil. Group A seems to favour Belgium, in Group B Italy commands, in C, Germany, in D, the Netherlands and Switzerland leads Group E. In G, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Greece share top place with 16 points each; in H, England and Montenegro lead with 15, but Montenegro has one extra game. Finally in Group I, Spain (undefeated) leads France with 14 points to 11.
The first-placed teams qualify automatically. The 8 best second-placed teams will enter a play-off phase to choose the remaining 4 teams (UEFA sends 13 to the FIFA World Cup).
Aleksei Federov
Pravda.Ru
Make no mistake: Barack Hussein Obama is preparing to give a speech to the citizens of the United States of America next Tuesday in which he is planning to justify military action against Syria, with or without a nod from Congress. If he does so, he will write his name in the darkest annals of history.
George W. Bush was the human epitome of the saying, and pardon me, “sh*t stinks” because with him, you knew what you were getting, it was raw, it was in your face, it was unsophisticated, brash, rash, harsh, arrogance, belligerence, chauvinism, it was kick-a*s diplomacy at its very worst, it was riding roughshod over the international community, it was insulting to every norm or precept of common decency… but it was undisguised. It was honest.
With Barack Obama, there is a mist of perfume which disguises the filth that lies below his policies, a cloak, a mantle of decency, a promise of “change”, mere words used, abused and manipulated by a cynical coward devoid of any emotional intelligence at all, who does not have the guts to stand up to the lobbies pulling his strings, the corporate neo-con elitists who created his Presidency. Barack Obama’s entire persona is dishonest, he is a fraud of the worst kind, a siren’s song; his policy is double-faced, double-tongued, double-dealing and plain, downright deceitful.
Font Size Barack Obama promises one thing, he delivers another. He promises change, he receives a Nobel Peace Prize not for what he has done but for the breath of fresh air he represents and what does he do?
He supports terrorists in Libya, playing along with an Anglo-French imperialistic dream to steal Libya’s sovereign fund and pillage its resources, destroying a State which provided for its people. Then at the same time, he supports terrorists in Syria, arming and financing terrorist groups using his Middle Eastern bed-pals, Saudi Arabia and Qatar and regional monster Turkey.
It is a pea-brained, nonsensical, short-sighted and criminally reckless foreign policy, it is as illogical as it is dangerous and it is bound to rebound and blow up in Obama’s face. Detailed scientific evidence gathered by Russia backs up Moscow’s claim that it was the Syrian terrorists supported by the West which have carried out gas attacks, not Government forces.
The United States of America has not produced any evidence incriminating the Government of Bashar al-Assad in the recent chemical weapons attack in Ghouta while the finger of suspicion once against points at the terrorist forces backed by the Obama regime trying to frame the Syrian Arab Army.
However with a policy which uses deceit comes the need for intelligence and logic. What Government force is going to use chemical weapons in an area where its own troops are fighting (Obama focuses on images of children – one such image used by Kerry was taken in 2003 in Iraq – but there are other images of Syrian soldiers in hospital which he has chosen to ignore), what Government force is going to deploy chemical weaponry in an area where it is winning, what Government force is going to deploy such weaponry on the eve of a visit from UN experts?
Every time the UN has gone to Syria, the terrorists Obama backs have deployed chemical weapons.
Let us then conclude that Barack Obama is the worst President in the history of the United States of America because he has insulted not only the Nobel Institution to its core but also the international community and his own people by disregarding basic and common human values, supporting Islamist terrorists, including al-Qaeda pandering to the whims of the lobbies pulling his strings.
Any vote from Congress is meaningless in an international context because the forum of international law governing this case is the United Nations Security Council. If the United States of America does not like that, tough, then why did it sign the agreement? We now wait to see whether Congress listens to its Constituencies or whether it blows a raspberry in the faces of the American people sick and tired of their manipulation of fear and facts in their lying murderous schemes.
And this is the guy who stood for “change”? Change of what?
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
Pravda.Ru
Wireless Internet will be launched on all lines of the Moscow metro by the middle of next year.
By the middle of next year, all subway cars will be outfitted with constantly working Wi-Fi, officials said. Wireless Internet spots will be available inside train cars, not on the stations.
Wi-Fi currently works in train cars of the Kakhovska subway line – the shortest one that only has three stations. The Kakhovskaya line is a link between two other lines of the Moscow subway system.
Moscow cracks down of fare dodgers
By John Krzyzewski
It’s a cliche that defined a nation — the American Dream. What did it mean? Some define it as the notion that anyone can attain success, fame and wealth through thrift and hard work. Wikipedia describes it as: ‘a set of ideals in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, and an upward social mobility achieved through hard work.’ The idea of an American Dream seems nascent in the Declaration of Independence which claims the right of citizens to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.
We never hear of any other country having a national dream; it is a peculiarly American concept. Nor have other countries declared it a vital concern to ‘pursue happiness,’ as in some kind of national hedonism. And so it is, that Americans became dreamers, and pursued happiness with fervor. The ‘dream’– as amorphous as it is– was highly attractive to waves of immigrants in the 20th century, and for a while, it certainly appeared as if anyone could make the dream a reality.
Font Size Then came the ‘realistic ’80s, followed by the industrial ‘restructuring’ of the ’90s, and finally, the terror-laden start to the 21st century. Thru-out those last 30 years, the ‘Dream’ was steadily, and stealthily, morphing into a nightmarish reality. Today, many citizens have awakened to the cold fact that, actually, only 1% of the population enjoys the sought-after goodies promised in the old American Dream. For the other 99%, their standard of living has been steadily falling, by most economic measures, and their hopes of climbing out of their situation thru hard work are bleak at best. In one generation, the big Dream has become the disturbing nightmare.
The term ‘the American Dream,’ is now loaded with irony. Looking back, one can see that the ruling elite exploited the ideals embedded in the Dream to build their capitalist juggernauts, thru the willing laborers on their assembly lines, and the mass consumers of the endless products that rolled off those lines. They fostered the Dream, dangling it like ripe bait before the noses of those eager to acquire the accoutrements of the ultimate consumer society. In other words, it was always a dream, in the more literal sense. Sure, some people– many, in fact– did make it, especially in the early years when the whole economic cycle was in the ascendancy phase. But that success was part of the trap being set by the bankster elite.
From about the 1980s, actual wages of the ‘working (middle) class’ started declining, while ‘down-sizing,’ ‘right-sizing,’ ‘off-shoring,’ and other such buzz-words were seen more and more, as the de-industrializing of America was pursued by the multi-national corporations in the never-ending quest for share-holder profits. The response of most Americans was to work even harder, in a bid to revive the fading Dream.
Fast-forward to the year 2012, and we find that, while the official unemployment figure hovers around a very tolerable 7 – 9% range, the true statistic is in the 20 – 23% range. How do you work hard when you don’t have a job to work at? At the same time, thanks to the ‘mortgage bubble’ bursting, millions of Americans have lost an essential component of the Dream– which is their home. As a consequence of the ‘banking crisis,’ resulting from the mortgage crisis, American no longer have easy access to borrowed money– another vital ingredient in fueling the Dream. The American Dream was predicated on vast sums of free-flowing money; when the river became a trickle, the Dream became a nightmare.
But, there’s more irony to be mined from the metaphoric Dream. After the harsh economic wake-up, we can look back and see that this was not a regular dream; this one was engineered. It turns out the USA is built on numerous popular delusions; call them dreams, if you will. It starts right from the beginning, with the mythology of the founding fathers. Most Americans, of whatever persuasion, believe their country was established by fine, Christian gentlemen who drafted and signed the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution. In fact, all but two of the signatories were Freemasons, and Washington, Paine, and Franklin (among others, probably) were also Deists.
Now, Freemasons and Deists may believe in a ‘god;’ but it’s certainly not the God of the Christian Bible. Their allegiance is to another god, one who opposes many of the principles found in the Bible. Their idea in establishing the USA was that it was to become, not the new Jerusalem, but the New Atlantis (or, in some sense, the New Babylon). The idea that the US is a Christian nation was simply part of that Dream, a part that was useful for a while, but that is now rapidly being deconstructed.
Another disposable part of the American Dream is the notion that this country has the ultimate, finest form of government on the planet. Other countries are ridden with corrupt and incompetent governments, but the USA enjoys freedom and democracy. (Wave the flag, here, you patriots!) The reality is dismally opposite this delusion. The US governance model is possibly the most corrupt in the world. Of course, the corrupt officials and the corrupt lobbyists all wear expensive suits, and speak with great assurance, in front of corrupt reporters working for corrupt news organizations. The whole US body politic is diseased from head to foot.
What else could one expect from the inherently flawed structure? Unlike most parliamentary systems, in the US republic, the various government departments (Health, Transportation, Defense, etc.) are under the authority of unelected officials who are appointed by the president. He can appoint anyone he can negotiate thru congressional hearings. And who are these ‘secretaries’ (as they are, curiously, called)? Why, they are typically CEOs from the very industries that they are now going to be regulating. And where do they go when they get ‘retired’ by the next administration? Why, back to the companies they were previously regulating. How convenient is that? What could possibly go wrong?
With the removal of spending restrictions on election campaigns, the door is wide open for abuse of the political system. Obviously, those with substantial financial resources will have a distinct advantage. Well, you figure, those with less money can solicit funds from supporters. Right; and donated funds always come with explicit or implicit strings attached. Once elected, the politician is now beholden to various interests who expect to get some benefits in return for their ‘investment.’
In the 2012 presidential election, it is reported that each candidate spent in the ball-park of one billion dollars. This is insanity in the eyes of the rest of the world! No-one is going to spend a billion dollars of his own to run a campaign he might lose. So, the victor gets the presidency, and now has to please his big benefactors with legislation and perks commensurate with their generosity. But, they all wear expensive suits and speak eloquently about democracy in the greatest country on Earth. The ‘beacon on a hill,’ etc., etc. Essential buzz-phrases of the American Dream!
Despite the apparent awakening of thousands of ‘Occupy’ protesters in cities across the US, I wonder how many of them still subscribe to the malarky that the USA is the greatest democracy on Earth, and the epitome of human civilization? There are some beliefs that are just too ingrained in the psyche, having been insinuated there from the cradle to adulthood by brain-washed parents, teachers, pastors, and pundits.
The release of the ‘Matrix’ movie series has supplied new insight into the American Dream. An astute movie-viewer can see how the Matrix is an allegory for the mass delusions that keep a society enthralled and imprisoned. More particularly, how the USA is really a ‘Matrix-nation,’ built on a mythological past, sustained by the Oz-like illusions conjured up by the mass media who are the corporate hand-maids of the ruling plutocracy.
One suspects that, at some deep level, most Americans are dimly aware of their delusional dream state of existence. Yet a number of psychological factors combine to make most of the dreamers want to sustain the illusions, to remain in blissful slumber. Reversing Shakespeare, their fear is ‘to awake, perchance to see reality.’ Thus, sometime in the past few decades, the American Dream reached self-sustaining status.
However, just as every sleeper must eventually awaken, just as the only escape from a life-threatening nightmare is to wake up, so too, the American public is already being shaken from its increasingly fitful sleep, and it’s not pleasant. While Hollywood rehashes old glory days, and the TV studios pump out mindless game-shows and artificial ‘reality’ shows, the truth on the ground is starting to seep into somnambulistic minds. Another neighbor desperately watches unemployment insurance benefits dwindle; another Iraq war vet takes his life; another family is sleeping in an old van; the cops needlessly beat and arrest another innocent citizen. And so it goes, every day incrementally worse than the day before. The all-American Dream is a full-blown nightmare.
John Krzyzewski
McClatchy website published information saying that Russia handed over a large 100-page report to the United Nations in July. The report supposedly proved that it was the Syrian rebels who used sarin gas in Aleppo in March.
The announcement of this, according to the website, was published Wednesday on the website of the Russian Foreign Ministry. UN spokesman Farhan Haq confirmed the receipt of the report, which has not been made public yet.
On Friday, the Russian Foreign Ministry provided additional evidence to prove that chemical weapons were used by Islamist insurgents. The evidence referred to the report by Rusia al-Yaum channel. Correspondents of the channel talked to Mother Agnes Mariam el-Salib, who served in the monastery of St. James in Qara, Syria.
According to the woman, it is obvious that the information about the chemical attack had been distributed deliberately to give the West an excuse to invade Syria. In addition, the woman referred to incidents of torture and killings of women, children and elderly people. She was an eyewitness of those killings, and it was the Islamists, who committed those atrocities, she said.
Over the past two days, the media have published no less than four bodies evidence proving that the chemical weapons were used in Syria by rebels. The U.S. authorities that insist that it was the troops of Bashar Assad, who conducted the attack, have not exposed anything to prove their point.
Position of the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic on the Western allegations and accusations on use of chemical weapons
Since the beginning of the crisis in Syria , about two and a half years , the United States and its Western and regional allies, especially Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia, and its instruments, the armed terrorist groups and Al Qaeda Organization, act to destroy Syria and its infrastructure, killing its people. These terrorist groups staged terrible massacres against the Syrian citizens, both civilian and military, and the countries that support them provided financial support, military and logistical support, and while turning a blind eye to their crimes, blamed the Syrian government for everything that is happening in this country and its people.
Given the strength of our people, our army and the Syrian leadership ‘s decision to protect its citizens and before the victories, some Western countries and their regional allies, especially Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar, have disclosed assumptions about the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government against its people since 2012. This made us suspect that there was an intention on the part of terrorist groups using chemical weapons and then accusing the Syrian state.
Font Size The Government of Syria has sent letters to the Secretary General of the United Nations and the Security Council to alert them that the supporters of terrorist countries would be providing them with chemical weapons to attack Syria and accusing the Syrian government of committing such crimes.
On 19/03/2013 , a terrorist group armed with rocket-launched poisonous warheads fired them against the city of Khan Al-Assal on the outskirts of Aleppo, killing 25 people and injuring 110 people, including civilians and military. That same day, Syria made ??an official request to the Secretary General of the United Nations to send a delegation that was impartial and unbiased to ascertain the event, but the United States, Britain and France put obstacles to the coming of this delegation by submitting claims and assumptions about the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government in other regions.
After five months, there was an agreement between the Syrian Arab Republic and the Secretary General of the United Nations to send a UN delegation to investigate the assumptions about the use of chemical weapons. This delegation began its work on 19.08.2013 to investigate the incident in Khan Al-Assal and elsewhere in northern Syria. The Government of Syria provided all means of cooperation that this delegation could arrive at the truth of the facts.
On 21.08.2013, during the presence of the delegation in Damascus as the Syrian army worked to combat terrorist groups who planned to invade Damascus and launched daily and randomly rockets and bombs against civilians in Damascus, which caused hundreds of innocent victims, these terrorist groups and their supporters among Western countries argued that the Syrian government used chemical weapons in Ghouta on the outskirts of Damascus. From the first moment , the United States, its allies and its instruments in the region, especially Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar, promoted a political and media campaign through which they accused the Syrian government and acquitted the armed terrorist groups and al-Qaeda organization and their crimes jumped to conclusions regarding the results even before the UN delegation confirmed the use of such weapons, even to the point of the United States, Britain, France and their allies announcing their intention to promote a hostile action against Syria.
On 25.08.2013, the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic immediately agreed with the UN request to send a delegation to investigate the assumptions of use of chemical weapons in Ghouta, which occurred less than 24 hours since the arrival of Angela Kane, United Nations High Commissioner for Disarmament, to combine visits to four locations where investigations were requested. The Government of Syria has acted with the highest degree of flexibility, transparency, commitment and responsibility based on the principle of achieving the truth.
The delegation began its work by visiting the sites arranged for on the second day, in coordination with the Syrian government. Syria has fulfilled all its commitments in terms of aid and guarantees aiming at the mission’s success.
The rejection by the United States, some of its Western and regional Arab allies, of the rapid response, flexibility and cooperation offered by Syria to the UN delegation underlines the hostile intentions of the West against Syria and the fear that their lies, slander and role in providing support to terrorists and to al-Qaeda, for example the provision of prohibited weapons which have been discovered .
The failure of the plan to destroy the Syrian state, despite all the Western and regional support in terms of providing large quantities of weapons to the armed terrorist groups and al-Qaeda organization, pushed the Americans and their allies for the use of chemical weapons to complete and implement the plan. Nevertheless, there is no doubt that the Americans and their allies will act to mislead international public opinion, fabricating lies and arguments for invading and occupying other countries, outside the context of international consensus, as they did in Iraq.
The Government of Syria has not used and will not use chemical weapons, if they exist, against its people under any circumstances, based on its ethical, legal, political and humanitarian framework and states that the only front benefited by the use of chemical weapons are groups of armed terrorists, the organization Al-Qaeda and its supporters.
Syria demands the punishment of terrorists and their supporters who used such weapons. Syria demands, through its Foreign Minister, that those who accuse the army of Syria for the use of these unethical weapons to present evidence of their accusation and show it to the public .
This hostile impulse against Syria and increased threats, played by the United States, Britain, France and allies to hasten the trials, lay the charges and forge evidence, although there is no evidence that the government Syrian made ??use of chemical weapons, aims to disrupt the mission of the UN delegation and prevent it from completing its work, as did the group of Arab observers and the UN mission headed by General Mood, to abort any international efforts to achieve a political solution to the crisis and at the same time to prevent the collapse of the armed terrorist groups and al-Qaeda organization and improve their morale, now shattered, and ensuring the security of Israel through attacks against the defense arsenal of Syria.
All this shows, without a doubt, the true intentions of this hostile plan of the Americans and the West against Syria.
Any hostility against Syria will be a blow to the United Nations, its Charter, its credibility and its role in maintaining international peace and security. The use of force against Syria by Western countries through its regional instruments, especially Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar, return to today’s world the logic of hegemony and colonization, so as to threaten the safety, sovereignty and independence of the developing countries, a fact that requires these countries to unify their internal and external positions to defeat the hostile plans of the West and its instruments.
Syrian Embassy in Brazil
Translated from the Portuguese version of Pravda.Ru
Lisa Karpova
06.09.2013
MERS-CoV, the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus in Saudi Arabia, has claimed four new victims, the cases confirmed in laboratories. In the last year there have been 50 deaths from 108 laboratory-confirmed cases, indicating a mortality rate of some 46%.
The latest four laboratory-confirmed cases were reported by the World Health Organization on August 30, a 55-year-old man from Medina, Saudi Arabia who is hospitalized and another man, 38, from Hafar-al-Batin, Saudi Arabia, who died nine days after contracting the disease. Two of his family members are also infected (a 16-year-old boy and a 7-year-old girl).
MERS-CoV is a severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) which has caused 108 laboratory-confirmed cases in the last year, occasioning 50 deaths. There have been other cases outside those reported. The advice for now from the World Health organization is vigilance, surveillance-reporting and screening, particularly of travelers returning from the Middle East who develop respiratory infections, and especially those who also develop atypical symptoms such as diarrhea.
Font Size The transmission mechanism is as yet unknown however the advice from the WHO that “Health care facilities that provide care for patients suspected or confirmed with MERS-CoV infection should take appropriate measures to decrease the risk of transmission of the virus to other patients, health care workers and visitors” would indicate that there is a risk that this dangerous disease could have human-to-human transmission mechanisms, a theory which is backed up by close family members contracting the disease.
For this reason, why does the WHO not advise trade and travel restrictions to the Middle East in general and in particular, to Saudi Arabia? Or is the general idea to allow the disease to propagate itself only for us to discover that those in charge of the United States of America’s institutions have their hands in the Pharmaceutical lobbies?
The new killer virus in the Middle East, novel coronavirus, aka Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) is deadly, there is no cure, its transmission mechanisms are hazy, there have been cases of human to human transmission, yes, according to the WHO, “The Emergency Committee, which comprises international experts from all WHO Regions, unanimously advised that, with the information now available, and using a risk-assessment approach, the conditions for a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) have not at present been met”.
Until when? When it is too late? A 50 per cent death rate is staggeringly high…
Timothy Bancroft-Hinchey
Pravda.Ru
By Nicola Nasser
Font Size Located at the crossroads of several regional crises, including the Palestinian – Israeli and Iraqi conflicts, Jordan has been in the eye of the Syrian storm for more than thirty months, and managed to navigate safely so far, but the reportedly imminent US strike is pressuring the country between the rock and the hard place of the antagonists of the war on Syria.
Heavily burdened by the pressure of its strategic allies and financers in the US and the GCC Arab states, who have been leading an unwavering bloody campaign for a “regime change” in Damascus, Jordan could not but yield to their demands for logistical facilities in the country, consequently shooting its self-proclaimed neutrality in the legs.
Thus, grudgingly or otherwise, Jordan has in practice invited potential US targets for Syrian retaliation on its territory if and when the Syrian government perceives that those facilities are used in any US-led strike, now expected.
Anthony Cordesman, an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, on August 29, interviewed by abcnewsonline, said that “Jordanian targets” could be targeted by Syria or by a Syrian allied “third party,” a possible development that could embroil the US in defense.
Should such a scenario develop, Jordan will evolve unwillingly into a war zone, to regret yielding to the prerogatives of its strategic alliance with the United States regardless of who emerges winner or loser in the war.
US Targets Invited
When the Eager Lion 2013 exercise ended in June this year, Jordan, inviting a US target for Syrian retaliation, asked the USmilitary to leave behind some equipment, including some F-16s and a Patriot missile defense system.
Then, Jordan’s Prime Minister, Abdullah al-Nsour, indicated a second US target when he told reporters that some 900 U.S. military personnel were in the country, of whom 200 are experts training Jordanians to handle a chemical attack and 700 manning the Patriot system and reportedly 45 F-16 fighter jets.
On last August 14, Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said that Jordan asked the United States to provide manned US surveillance aircraft to help keep an eye on its border with Syria; thus a third US target for Syrian retaliation was invited.
The USA embassy would be a fourth target should any planned US strike target Syrian non-military presidential or governmental headquarters.
However the Centcom’s Forward Command in Jordan, officially called Centcom Forward-Jordan (CFJ), remains the oldest and the most important US target for Syrian retaliation.
In mid-August, Gen. Martin Dempsey was in Amman to inaugurate the CFJ, which is manned by 273 US officers, with a closed section, which “houses CIA personnel who control the work of US agents going in and out of Syria,” and also a communications center, where “atop the underground facility is a large surface structure accommodating the American military and civilian offices dealing with Syrian issues from Jordan,” according to the Israeli www.debka.com on August 17, 2013, which confirmed a report two days earlier by The New York Times according to which “American correspondents were allowed to visit the site under ground rules that its location not be disclosed.”
However, on October 18 last year the Egyptian Al-Ahram Weekly reported that the location chosen to host the CFJ was “a Jordanian military base built in an abandoned quarry north of the Jordanian capital Amman, just 35 miles from the Syrian border,” which extends 300 miles along Jordan’s northern flank, and some 120 miles from the Syrian capital Damascus.
Al-Ahram explained that “the origins of the previously secret US deployment in Jordan” dated back to May the same year, “when the Pentagon sent American troops, including Special Forces units, to the country to participate in joint military exercises dubbed Operation Eager Lion. Some 100 military personnel stayed behind and were then joined by dozens more. The task force, according to the New York Times, is commanded by a ‘senior American officer’.”
Speaking to the media at the close of a two-day NATO defense ministers meeting at the time in Brussels, former US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta confirmed the existence of a “US task force that has been sent to Jordan this week after it was first reported in The New York Times,” Al-Ahram added. “The force would be tasked with ensuring the security of the chemical and biological weapons in Syria,” Panetta was quoted as saying. Al-Ahram’s report added: ”the outpost nearAmman could play a broader role should American policy change” and Washington decide to launch an intervention in Syria.
Denial in Doubt
The denial of the initial reports about the existence of the CFJ as “not true” by a spokesman from the country’s armed forces, quoted by the state-run news agency Petra, sheds doubt on a statement by Jordan’s PM al-Nsour, quoted by the London -based pan-Arab daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi on Monday, that his country knows nothing about the timing, track and targets of a US military strike in Syria, which the US President is now seeking an “authorization” from the Congress to launch.
Al-Nsour’s “lack of knowledge” sounds odd in view of the long established multi-faceted strategic ties between Jordan and the United States, which makes it the obligation of Washington to inform Amman in advance of at least the “timing” of the imminent US strike and makes it an obligation of the Jordanian government to ask for it, at least to be on equal footing with the other Israeli strategic “partner” of the US; it is public knowledge now that the US is committed to inform Israel in advance of any imminent US strike on Syria.
In comparison, at least logistically, if not militarily, especially as far as the Syrian conflict is concerned, Jordan is much more important to the US than Israel to deserve a US warning in advance of any imminent strike.
Moreover, Jordan is in the immediate danger of being flooded with more Syrian refugees who for sure will be an integral part of the humanitarian crisis that the US strike will inevitably exacerbate in Syria.
Unless Jordan is denying its “lknowledge” to avert being accused by Syria of complicity with the US, al-Nsour’s “lack of knowledge” sounds more odd not only because his country hosts the CFJ.
Hosting and participating in the meetings of the US – led so – called “Friends of Syria,” as well as the military meetings of eleven chiefs of staff of “The Friends of Syria Core Group,” in addition to hosting the annual Eager Lion exercises, let alone the bilateral strategic ties between Jordan and the US and the anti-Syria members of the GCC, have all combined to posture the country as being an active member of what the Syrian government rename as the “Enemies of Syria,” who are party in the conflict and not part of its solution.
Moment of Truth Approaching
The Eager Lion exercises, from the start, focused on training to intervene and secure the purported Syrian chemical weapons if and when developments dictate such an intervention, which the imminent US strike is now turning into a matter of time.
Last June 18 the AP reported that the Eager Lion Drills “are focused on ground operations, involving commandos fromJordan … practicing offensive operations.” Although the Jordanian embassy spokeswoman in Washington D.C., Dana Zureikat Daoud, told The Center for Public Integrity earlier this year that those drills are “not mission-oriented,” reported recent involvement of Jordanian commandos in Libya and elsewhere in the region gives credence to the reports on their possible involvement anew in Syria.
US Secretary of State, John Kerry, during his testimony at the Congress on Tuesday, while confirming that the administration of President Barak Obama “has zero intention of putting troops on the ground,” he in practice retained the option of sending US “boots” to Syria.
”I don’t want to take off the table an option that might or might not be available to the president of the United States” in a scenario where “Syria imploded” and stockpiles of chemical weapons needed to be secured from extremists, he said.
It is public knowledge now that what Obama said will be a strike “limited in time and scope” aims at “degrading” Syrian chemical “capabilities;” the purported Syrian chemical weapons which are now very well secured will be far less secured after the strike and will demand immediate intervention to secure them.
So the moment of truth is around the corner for an intervention either from or with the participation of Jordan, where training in preparation for this moment has been going on by leaps and bounds for the past two years, expectedly inviting reciprocal Syrian preparations for retaliation.
A Syrian possible military clash with Jordan or with Jordanian – hosted US – led intervention units was only a postponed development and will most likely be accelerated by the US planned strike, which is expected to embroil Jordan militarily in the Syrian conflict, willingly or unwillingly.
Counterbalancing with Syrians
To counterbalance with the Syrians, who so far seem flexible enough or under too much pressure to open a diplomatic or non – diplomatic dispute with their southern Arab neighbor, Jordan kept the diplomatic and security channels of communication open with Damascus and went on record to offset its “enemy” posture, but only verbally, to make Jordan a place where words and deeds collide.
As recently as August 29, Jordan’s King Abdullah II after a meeting with Pope Francis, according to an official Vatican statement, reaffirmed that dialogue is the “only option” to end the conflict in Syria.
More than twenty two months ago, in comments in the Oval Office alongside President Obama, King Abdullah II was the first Arab leader to urge Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step aside. ”I believe, if I were in his shoes, I would step down,” he told BBC World News in an exclusive interview.
So far, Jordan declined to go public and on record in a clear-cut opposition to the imminent US strike; not excluding the military option, Information Minister Mohammad Momani said that “Jordan believes diplomatic efforts must be exhausted before Washington opts for military action,” but PM Al-Nsour said there will be “no strategic” benefit in insisting on striking Syria and he as well his Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh reiterated that the territory of the kingdom “will not be a launchpad for any military operation against Syria.”
Jordan’s noninterference in internal Syrian affairs is the officially declared policy, but the reported training in the country of Syrian opposition fighters, the recent visit to the country by the President of the Syrian National Coalition (SNC), Ahmad al-Jarba, the latter’s visit to southern Syria across the Jordanian borders and the reports about opening a SNC representative office in Amman after al-Jarba’s meeting with Nasser Judeh, and the reported infiltration of arms and “Jihadists” fromJordan into Syria are all indications that compromise Jordan’s officially declared policy of noninterference.
In April this year, Syrian President al-Assad said that Amman ”is facilitating the passage of thousands of fighters into our country;” it was his first public warning to Jordan. His state TV told the Jordanians they were “playing with fire.” The Syrian newspaper Al-Thawra, also said in a front-page editorial that the Jordanian government “could not claim neutrality” anymore.
Al-Assad added that he had sent envoys to the kingdom during the preceding two months to remind Amman of the two countries’ shared goal of fighting the “terrorists.” “The fire does not stop at our border and everyone knows that Jordan is exposed to what Syria is exposed to.”
In November 2005, al-Qaeda mounted a series of devastating bomb attacks at three luxury hotels in the Jordanian capital, killing some 60 people. The attacks were said to be in retaliation for Jordan hosting training centers for the new Iraqi army and police, and for becoming a de facto logistical transit base in support of the US occupation of Iraq in 2003.
Nicola Nasser
* Nicola Nasser is a veteran Arab journalist based in Birzeit, West Bank of the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.nassernicola@ymail.com
Photo by: Sergei Aprelev for Pravda.Ru
Freelance writer of Pravda.Ru, director of the International Film Festival of marine and adventure films “The Sea is Calling 2013,” Sergei Aprelev, told of unprecedented security measures taken by the Swedes during Barack Obama’s visit to Stockholm.
“Yesterday, being in transit in Stockholm, I was nearly late to my plane because of Obama’s visit to Stockholm, as all traffic in the city was paralyzed for a few hours. Comparing this with the visits of previous U.S. presidents to the USSR, I have to admit that I have never seen such precautionary measures before.
“A helicopter was hovering above the central part of the city all the time, the roads, on which Obama could then travel were equipped with plastic fences, traffic, including public transport, was stopped, main highways were closed, thousands of police were rushing about on the ground and on the water, to see if there were underwater saboteurs and mines anywhere, especially underneath bridges.
“Even the Swedes understood that the purpose of Obama’s visit to them on the way to the St. Petersburg summit is to persuade Sweden to support the forthcoming aggression in Syria … The Swedes find it ironic that there is a simple template that the Americans had used before as a pretext for invading Iraq.
“At present, the main companion of the United States is France that presented a rather dubious confirmation to prove the participation of Syrian government forces in the chemical attack. The French, based on conversations with representatives of various circles of their society, are unlikely to support President Hollande. They notice the remarkable activity of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who advocates further rapprochement with Israel and a strike on Syria, as one of its main opponents in the Middle East.
“The latter looks quite logical, given the dual citizenship of the minister. However, many agree on one thing – an attack on Syria will undoubtedly be an attack on Russia, no matter who rules the country, and its consequences are unpredictable,” said Sergey Aprelev.
