Russia, China veto UN resolution in Syria

[I R Baboon]

Russia, China veto UN resolution on Syria

By ANITA SNOW, Associated Press – 2 minutes ago 

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council failed again Saturday to take decisive action to stop the escalating violence in Syria as Russia and China vetoed a resolution backing an Arab League plan that calls for President Bashar Assad to step down.

The other 13 members of the council, including the United States, Britain and France, voted in an unusual weekend session in favor of the resolution aimed at stopping the ongoing violence in Syria.

It was the second time in four months that Russia and China used their veto power to block a Security Council resolution condemning the violence in Syria.

The rare double-veto was issued following days of negotiations aimed at overcoming Russian opposition to the draft resolution. Several European envoys said before the session that they felt compelled to call for the vote despite Russia's attempts to seek a delay because they were concerned about the escalating violence by Assad's regime.

The urgency was heightened by an assault by Syrian forces firing mortars and artillery on the city of Homs. Activists said more than 200 people were killed in what they called one of the bloodiest episodes of the uprising against Assad. The U.N. says more than 5,400 people have been killed over almost 11 months in a government crackdown on civilian protests.

After the vote, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice, in unusually strong language, said the United States was"disgusted" by the outcome of the vote.

"For months this council has been held hostage by a couple of members," Rice said. "These members stand behind empty arguments and individual interests while delaying and seeking to strip bare any text that would pressure Assad to change his actions.

"This intransigence is even more shameful when you consider that at least one of these members continues to deliver weapons to Assad," she added, referring to Russia, a major arms supplier for Syria.

Both President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had urged passage of the resolution earlier Saturday.

Syria has been a key Russian ally since Soviet times and Moscow has opposed any U.N. call that could be interpreted as advocating military intervention or regime change.

Moroccan Ambassador Mohammed Loulichki, a key sponsor of the resolution, told reporters afterward that his country was "frustrated and sad" over the outcome. He said that the draft remains on the table and hopes that consensus can still be reached to take another vote later.

The latest U.N. resolution repeated all the conditions that Arab League foreign ministers set in a Jan. 22 decision on Syria, calling for a Syrian-led political transition in which Assad would delegate his powers to a deputy.

Russia had expressed concerns about the draft text, saying it feared the resolution would lead to the kind of military intervention and regime change seen in Libya after last year's council action intended to protect civilians from attacks by forces loyal to strongman Moammar Gadhafi.

After Saturday's vote, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin accused fellow council members of being inflexible.

"We greatly regret this result of our joint work" on the resolution, he said.

Churkin said his country's proposed amendments to the resolution had been ignored, and the version voted on Saturday "did not adequately reflect the real state of affairs in Syria."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had warned earlier that Moscow would use its veto power if the amendments were not included in the draft text.

Russia's proposed changes were aimed at satisfying Moscow's concerns that the resolution made too few demands of anti-government armed groups, and that the text could prejudge the outcome of a national dialogue among political forces in Syria.

Lavrov was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying that he and Russia's foreign intelligence chief, Mikhail Fradkov, will meet with Assad in Damascus on Tuesday.

Chinese Ambassador Li Baodong said his country joined Russia in voting against the resolution because the proposed amendments were not taken into account.

U.S. Ambassador Rice had described those amendments as "unacceptable" as she headed into Saturday's session.

Before the vote, Obama had urged the council to take a stand against Assad's regime and back the resolution.

"The international community must work to protect the Syrian people from this abhorrent brutality," Obama said in a blistering statement issued by the White House. Obama said Assad had displayed "disdain for human life and dignity" following the weekend attacks in Homs.

"The Syrian regime's policy of maintaining power by terrorizing its people only indicates its inherent weakness and inevitable collapse," Obama said. "Assad has no right to lead Syria, and has lost all legitimacy with his people and the international community."

To the Syrian people, Obama pledged U.S. support and vowed to work with them to build a better future in their country.

Clinton met Saturday with Lavrov on the sidelines of a security conference in Munich, Germany, to urge immediate U.N. action on Syria, but was unable to dissuade Russia from wielding its veto power as a permanent council member.

Other council members joined the U.S. in condemning the veto.

"It is a sad day for this council, a sad day for Syrians and a sad day for all friends of democracy," French Ambassador Gerard Araud said after the vote.

Araud said Russia and China had "made themselves complicit in a policy of repression carried out by the Assad regime."

British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said his country was "appalled" by the double veto and accused Russia and China of "turning their backs" on Arab nations.

Portuguese Ambassador Jose Filipe Moraes Cabral bemoaned members' inability to reach consensus, and asked: "How many more dead and maimed will it take for this council to react?"

"Today the Security Council has failed to live up to its responsibility," German Ambassador Peter Wittig said. "The people in Syria have been let down again."

Human rights advocates feared that the resolution's failure might encourage the Assad government to intensify its violent crackdown on anti-government protesters.

"The risk is high that the Assad regime will see this double veto as a green light for even more violence," said Philippe Bolopion, who monitors the United Nations for Human Rights Watch. "Vetoes by Russia and China are not only a slap in the face of the Arab League, they are also a betrayal of the Syrian people."

Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Geir Molson in Munich and Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow contributed to this report.

[Ryan Strome]

It was obvious this was going to happen.

[I R Baboon]

It was obvious this was going to happen.

[Ryan Strome]

Yea I wasn't mildly suprised to hear this.

[DarthNinja]

I will say I was annoyed by this news, but at the same time this further isolates Russia from the rest of the World.

[Ryan Strome]

Right, just like the USA is isolated from the world everytime they veto a resolution against Israel (which no other nation in the world has been condemned more by the UN Security Council than the Zionist state).

[DarthNinja]

When did I say I agreed with that?

Some of you on here try to argue over anything. The fact remains that Russia is indeed isolating itself from the rest of the world particularly the West. As for the United States, that's a whole different thread, in fact you can go to one of the 18 US threads that some of you start daily.

Listen, if you knew me, you would know that I speak out against American foreign policy every chance I get. That said though this thread is not about the U.S, Israel or Palestine. Anyhow take your attacks somewhere else please.

[Amish Rake Fighter]

There's more to the Syrian story than meets the eye

Here's a crash course on the "democratic" machinations of the Arab League - rather the GCC League, as real power in this pan-Arab organization is wielded by two of the six Persian Gulf monarchies composing the Gulf Cooperation Council, also known as Gulf Counter-revolution Club; Qatar and the House of Saud.

Essentially, the GCC created an Arab League group to monitor what's going on in Syria. The Syrian National Council - based in North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) member countries Turkey and France - enthusiastically supported it. It's telling that Syria's neighbor Lebanon did not.

When the over 160 monitors, after one month of enquiries, issued their report ... surprise! The report did not follow the official GCC line - which is that the "evil" Bashar al-Assad government is indiscriminately, and unilaterally, killing its own people, and so regime change is in order.

The Arab League's Ministerial Committee had approved the report, with four votes in favor (Algeria, Egypt, Sudan and GCC member Oman) and only one against; guess who, Qatar - which is now presiding the Arab League because the emirate bought their (rotating) turn from the Palestinian Authority.

So the report was either ignored (by Western corporate media) or mercilessly destroyed - by Arab media, virtually all of it financed by either the House of Saud or Qatar. It was not even discussed - because it was prevented by the GCC from being translated from Arabic into English and published in the Arab League's website.

Until it was leaked. Here it is, in full.

The report is adamant. There was no organized, lethal repression by the Syrian government against peaceful protesters. Instead, the report points to shady armed gangs as responsible for hundreds of deaths among Syrian civilians, and over one thousand among the Syrian army, using lethal tactics such as bombing of civilian buses, bombing of trains carrying diesel oil, bombing of police buses and bombing of bridges and pipelines.

Once again, the official NATOGCC version of Syria is of a popular uprising smashed by bullets and tanks. Instead, BRICS members Russia and China, and large swathes of the developing world see it as the Syrian government fighting heavily armed foreign mercenaries. The report largely confirms these suspicions.

The Syrian National Council is essentially a Muslim Brotherhood outfit affiliated with both the House of Saud and Qatar - with an uneasy Israel quietly supporting it in the background. Legitimacy is not exactly its cup of green tea. As for the Free Syrian Army, it does have its defectors, and well-meaning opponents of the Assad regime, but most of all is infested with these foreign mercenaries weaponized by the GCC, especially Salafist gangs.

http://www.atimes.co...t/NB04Ak01.html

[Amish Rake Fighter]

What exactly is SFA?

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• Category: By Syria Tribune

• Published on Thursday, 05 January 2012 00:02

• Written by Syria Tribune

• Hits: 1337

The term “The Syrian Free Army (SFA)” (sometimes referred to as Free Syrian Army FSA) has been making headlines and front covers for months now. Observing western media and the way they have been discussing this, I couldn’t help but notice that, although many media channels have been racing to get exclusive interviews and stories from this new “entity”, very few of them really asked the question: What exactly is SFA?

In this article, we will discuss SFA from different angles, using, as usual, information we were able to verify ourselves.

In the western eye

In this video, distributed by Associated Press, we see a group of armed men, mostly in civilian outfits, in firefight. They are, as described by AP, “apparently taking up positions against Syrian government troops.” What AP neglects to explain though is why these men appear kidnapping a civilian (please slide to 1.20), and why they keep him locked and hand-cuffed.

In this article, published on Nov 3^rd, 2011, The Telegraph quotes SFA leader saying that his armed forces will be the army of the new Syria. A clear indication that the Syrian National Army will remain the enemy, regardless to any political arrangement that could end the crisis in the country. In the same article, The telegraph refers to SFA as the "military wing of the Syrian people's opposition to the regime". It also mentions that SFA “claims” to have around 15000 armed men, calling them an “insurgent army”. But further down, it says that “the size of the movement is unclear, with estimates ranging from 5,000 to 15,000.”

[canucks since 77]

There's more to the Syrian story than meets the eye

[taxi]

So there is no uprising? It's Al Queda being funded by Israel?....right.

how do you explain the massive amounts of footage showing protests? Also the SNC is not a shady underground organization. They operate openly out of turkey.

[Amish Rake Fighter]

So there is no uprising? It's Al Queda being funded by Israel?....right. how do you explain the massive amounts of footage showing protests? Also the SNC is not a shady underground organization. They operate openly out of turkey.

[taxi]

Did you not read the part where it blames the insurgency on terrorist groups being supported by Israel? Like Israel really wants Syria to be run by the Muslim brotherhood. Hamas is a branch of the Muslim brotherhood. The SFA is the armed branch of the SNC.

[Amish Rake Fighter]

Did you not read the part where it blames the insurgency on terrorist groups being supported by Israel? Like Israel really wants Syria to be run by the Muslim brotherhood. Hamas is a branch of the Muslim brotherhood. The SFA is the armed branch of the SNC.

[taxi]

such a lame argument. Essentially saying that because Israel allowed freedom of religion and politics they are responsible for the political choices the Palestinians made.

In what way did Israel cooperate with yasin? When they executed him?

[DarthNinja]

such a lame argument. Essentially saying that because Israel allowed freedom of religion and politics they are responsible for the political choices the Palestinians made.

In what way did Israel cooperate with yasin? When they executed him?

[DarthNinja]

such a lame argument. Essentially saying that because Israel allowed freedom of religion and politics they are responsible for the political choices the Palestinians made.

In what way did Israel cooperate with yasin? When they executed him?

[Amish Rake Fighter]

Syrian forces arrest Saudi intelligence agent in Syria's Homs

Syria has reportedly detained a Saudi Arabian intelligence agent in the western city of Homs during clashes between the Syrian army and armed groups.

According to Lebanese media reports, Nasser al-Ariqi was arrested in Homs after clashes broke out between Syrian forces and armed gangs on Saturday.

Al-Ariqi has been said to be the commander of a heavily armed terrorist group in the Syrian city. The armed group has been trying to remove the Syrian army's security checkpoints using heavy weaponry.

The Syrian government has repeatedly accused several Arab states including Saudi Arabia and Qatar of fueling the unrest in Syria by providing armed gangs in the country with weapons and financial resources to incite civil war and topple the government of President Bashar al-Asad.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since mid-March, with demonstrations being held both against and in favor of President Bashar al-Assad. Hundreds of people, including security forces, have been killed in the unrest.

The West and the Syrian opposition accuse the government of killing the protesters. But Damascus blames ''outlaws, saboteurs and armed terrorist groups'' for the unrest, insisting that it is being orchestrated from abroad.

http://www.presstv.i...ail/224948.html

[DarthNinja]

Did you not read the part where it blames the insurgency on terrorist groups being supported by Israel? Like Israel really wants Syria to be run by the Muslim brotherhood. Hamas is a branch of the Muslim brotherhood. The SFA is the armed branch of the SNC.

[taxi]

I believe you were referring to Israel requiring 3 Apache choppers launching hellfire missiles to take down one old man in a wheelchair?