Group items tagged

Syrian opposition figures have good reason to be skeptical of Moscow's diplomatic moves

they provide weapons and advice to the Assad regime and they have taken an approach of cherry-picking who they talk to and who the regime talks to

The U.S. is not pressuring the opposition groups it supports to go to Moscow. Instead it's suggesting they should think about it so that Russia can't blame the opposition for the diplomatic stalemate

"If there are no guarantees as to the end state, that is, a movement towards a transitional government with full executive powers without Assad, then there is really no reason to go

meant to revive the peace process that started in Geneva in 2012

Russians aren't in a position to decide who will take part in future negotiations. And this has been the whole problem with their approach.

He says the Russian job has always been to deliver the regime to the negotiating table, but the Syrian government only wants to talk about fighting terrorism, not discuss a political transition.

We are hoping, more than expecting, that it will be a success," he says.De Mistura describes Syria as the largest humanitarian crisis since World War II

They all agree that we need to do something to avoid that the Syrian conflict goes into a back burner and that movement towards some type of political solution should take place this year,"

He says that's because Assad thinks he's winning — and U.S. plans to train and equip 5,000 moderate rebels a year won't help level the playing field.

The rise of the self-proclaimed Islamic State and the U.S.-led airstrikes against that group in both Syria and Iraq now top the U.S. agenda.

war in Syria has been raging for nearly four years and it's been challenging for diplomats to get warring sides to agree on even temporary truces.

take part only if the talks were to lead to the departure of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, an ally of Russia

Russia says fighting terrorism in Syria should be the top priority now and has called on the opposition to work with Assad to that end

Randa Kassis, a former SNC member who now favors talking to Damascus because of the rise of radical Islamists in Syri

focus on confidence-building measures including ensuring access for humanitarian aid

Moscow has not said which opposition figures will attend. But the line-up is likely to be similar to January, when more than 30 representatives of various groups attended, most from groups tolerated by Assad or who agree that working with Damascus is necessary to combat the rise of Islamic Stat

released 650 prisoners from at least three prisons in Damascus on March 25-27, including women, children, political prisoners and fighter

release of these people to the talks would be "just an ac

The document stipulates that a solution to the conflict should be found "politically and peacefully," rejects foreign interference and calls for sanctions to be lifted.

The Kremlin chief was the first leader of a major power to visit Egypt since former army chief Sisi became president in 2014

Sisi has repeatedly called for concerted counter-terrorism efforts in the Middle East and the West. Egypt has fought Islamist militancy for decades, mostly through security crackdowns that have weakened, but failed to eliminate, radical group

Putin has also resorted to force against Islamists, sending troops to quell a separatist rebellion in Chechnya, but still confronts insurgents in parts of the predominantly Muslim North Caucasus region

Putin, facing Western isolation and sanctions over his support for pro-Russian separatists in neighboring Ukraine, received a grand welcome in Cair

Sisi has since opened up to Moscow, describing Russia on Tuesday as a "strategic friend"

Egypt and the Soviet Union were close allies until the 1970s when Cairo moved closer to the United States, which brokered its 1979 peace deal with Israel.

Putin said he expected a new round of talks on the Syrian conflict, following on from a meeting of some opposition figures and the Damascus government in Moscow last month

The Moscow talks, which ended on Jan. 29, were not seen as yielding a breakthrough as they were shunned by the key political opposition in Syria and did not involve the main insurgent groups fighting on the ground

Moscow has been a long-standing ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad

Egypt’s leadership has grown frustrated with US admonitions and criticisms of its governance record, and from Cairo’s perspective, bewildering discussions of conditions on US military aid

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi is hardly ready to ditch his country’s long-standing ties to the United States, the prospect of Russian arms and assistance could prove a useful complement to what some in Cairo consider more uncertain US support, especially as Egypt faces an ongoing terrorist insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula.

Naumkin adds th

Russia also considers Egypt an ally in its efforts to broker a political settlement in Syria

as a result of the Russian president’s visit to Cairo, the parties might agree to pool their forces in the context of a Syrian settlement.

It might be understandable for some analysts to dismiss the Moscow conference, given the diplomatic false starts over four years in a conflict that has left more than 150,000 dead, 7.6 million displaced, 3.2 million refugees, 12.2 million in need of humanitarian assistance and at least 680,000 injured, according to the United Nations.

Syrian opposition figures were not allowed to participate in the Jan. 26-29 Moscow conference as representatives of opposition parties, such as the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces (SOC), the leading umbrella group based in Turkey

The absence of the SOC and other representatives of the external opposition no doubt limited the potential impact of the conference,

Participants agreed to an 11-point list of “Moscow Principles” and a four-point “Appeal to the International Community” affirming the need to fight terrorist organizations such as the Islamic State (IS), rejecting outside interference and calling for increased humanitarian aid, while agreeing to meet again in a month’s time.

acknowledged the possibility for other organizations to play a role in future talks

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has vigorously supported the law, claiming its passage is essential in defending democracy

 “Success tempted the AKP, prompting it to revert back to its Islamism and initiate a much more ambitious narrative of building a new regional order, and even a new global order. Meanwhile, Erdogan turned into an unquestionable leader who is not limited by facts and creates his own facts, as envisioned by his Islamist ideology and extraordinary intuition. In the eyes of his hard-core supporters, he is not a mere political leader who formulates pragmatic policies. He is a total leader who redefines everything.”

Chinese leader opened the Sixth Ministerial Meeting of the China-Arab Cooperation Forum on June 5 in Beijing

energy cooperation; infrastructure construction and creation of favorable conditions for trade and investment; and high-tech domains of nuclear energy, the space rocket sector and new energy sources

suggested that the creation of a free trade zone between China and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) be accelerated

China supports the peace process and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state within the borders of June 4, 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital, "enjoying full sovereignty."

, why shouldn’t Russia and China in the current situation — given the proximity of their interests and positions — undertake joint initiatives to unblock the peace process, while initiating steps to "introduce this activity within an institutional framework?

, the unilateral efforts by US Secretary of State John Kerry to promote the Israeli-Palestinian peace process are not bearing fruit

Russia is interested in using this unprecedented convergence with China in its operations on the Middle East arena, where Moscow has in many ways already been acting in unison with Beijing

, the Middle East Quartet is one of few international platforms where Russia can constructively engage with the United States and the EU

China's growing economic cooperation with Arab countries not a cause for concern in Moscow, but it is also viewed in a very favorable light

will not one day replace the United States as the security guarantor for the transportation routes of these resources

Moscow’s and Beijing’s interests converge in the joint countering of terrorism, extremism and separatism

. Among the militants from radical groups fighting against government troops in Syria, there are people hailing not only from Russia and Central Asia (fewer in numbers to those coming from Arab and Islamic as well as Western countries), but also from the Uighur minority in China.

recently, Beijing came under harsh criticism from Ankara for its actions in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region against the Uighur population, which the Turks believe to be their next of kin

. Disappointed by the failure of EU accession, the Turkish leadership has even started talking about the desire to join the SCO as an observer

Ankara expresses its willingness to cooperate with China in the fight against terrorists and condemns the separatism coming from some groups in Xinjiang

There is no doubt that a comprehensive strategic partnership, in which Russia and China would act in concert along the political consensus reached by their two leaders, would in the short term

According to both, this convergence is neither a union nor a tournament of predators, but a very pragmatic integrationist instrument of protection and projection of interests by the two powers, including in the Middle East.

the Middle East was not the focus of the talks between the two leaders

roughly 50 agreements ushering in a period of unprecedented convergence between the two countries

seems to allow the two parties to seek further coordination in their actions

Such consensus includes Syria, despite Beijing’s lesser involvement on this issue, relative to Moscow; Iran, within the P5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear program; the fight against terrorism and extremism; the creation of a weapons of mass destruction-free Middle East; the condemnation of external intervention and the strategy of "regime change" as well as the push for "color revolutions;" the policy to reach a settlement in the Middle East; and relations with the new Egyptian regime and with respect to the Sudanese issues.

They went through some changes to take into account the type of fighting the Syrian army carries out against the terrorists

Assad gave no details of the weapons being supplied by Russia, the world's second-biggest arms exporter, since the start of the conflic

In fact, Moscow has always highlighted that there have been and are no embargoes on military cooperation. There are no legal limitations no us

Russia is a longstanding ally of Assad and is hosting meetings in Moscow on April 6-9 involving some of the more moderate Syrian opposition representatives and Damascus envoys.

Expectations of a breakthrough are low after a first round of consultations made little progress. Many Syrian opposition figures shunned the January consultations, saying they would appear only at meetings that led to Assad's removal from power

UN chemical weapons inspectors are due to start a second day of investigations in the suburbs of Damascus

UN team came under sniper fire as they tried to visit an area west of the city

US officials said there was "little doubt" that President Bashar al-Assad's government was to blame

Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich has called on the international community to show "prudence" over the crisis and observe international law.

Attempts to bypass the Security Council, once again to create artificial groundless excuses for a military intervention in the region are fraught with new suffering in Syria and catastrophic consequences for other countries of the Middle East and North Africa

US said it was postponing a meeting on Syria with Russian diplomats, citing "ongoing consultations" about alleged use of chemical weapons in Syria

The two sides had been due to meet in The Hague on Wednesday to discuss setting up an international conference on finding a political solution to the crisis

Western powers were rushing to conclusions about who may have used chemical weapons in Syria before UN inspectors had completed their investigation

Both the Syrian government and rebels have blamed each other for last Wednesday's attacks

Medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres said three hospitals it supported in the Damascus area had treated about 3,600 patients with "neurotoxic symptoms", of whom 355 had died

UK is making contingency plans for military action in Syri

Earlier in the day, the UN convoy came under fire from unidentified snipers and was forced to turn back before resuming its journey

In the most forceful US reaction yet, US Secretary of State John Kerry on Monday described the recent attacks in the Damascus area as a "moral obscenity

Syrian government had something to hide

What we saw in Syria last week should shock the conscience of the world. It defies any code of moralit

President Obama believes there must be accountability for those who would use the world's most heinous weapons against the world's most vulnerable peopl

Analysts believe the most likely US action would be sea-launched cruise missiles targeting Syrian military installations.

the West had not produced any proof that President Assad's forces had used chemical weapons

some Western countries that military action against the Syrian government could be taken without a UN mandate

Mr Lavrov said the use of force without Security Council backing would be "a crude violation of international law

an international military response to the suspected use of chemical weapons would be possible without the backing of the UN

The UN Security Council is divided, with Russia and China opposing military intervention and the UK and France warning that the UN could be bypassed if there was "great humanitarian need".

if the West does not intervene to support freedom and democracy in Egypt and Syria, the Middle East will face catastrophe

Assad said: “The Russian presence in different parts of the world, including the Eastern Mediterranean and the Syrian port of Tartus, is very necessary, in order to create a sort of balance, which the world has lost after the dissolution of the Soviet Union more than 20 years ago.

Syrian president welcomed the Russian presence in his country and the region. “For us, the stronger this presence is in our region, the better it is for stability [in the region], because Russia is assuming an important role in world stability,”

Syrian nod is only a repetition of a former call made under the rule of late Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, who saw that the presence of a Russian military representation in Syria in the Mediterranean region contributes to the promotion of the idea of “the balance of terror” against Israel and the United States

The talk was, however, halted, until the last two years, when an actual need to promote Russian presence in the Mediterranean emerged in light of the reignition of the Cold War.

deployment of missile systems on the Mediterranean coast, as a sort of “symbolic deterrence.” The rumors were repeated as the NATO missile defense project was announced, which was supposed to be deployed in different countries, including Turkey and other countries bordering Russia

e US invasion of Iraq, as the US desire to change the face of the Middle East seemed free of any rational considerations. Assad made several visits to Moscow, and although this has not been publicly mentioned, Syrian diplomats and officials stressed to As-Safir that Syria expressed its desire to expand the Russian presence in the Eastern Mediterranean, particularly through Tartus, so that it turns into a military presence with limited standards

, Russia and Syria signed the biggest deal of its kind to explore oil in the Syrian waters, which covers a 2,190 square-kilometer surface area, and to achieve economic ambitions, namely extracting 2.5 billion barrels of oil and 8.5 trillion cubic feet of proven gas reserves, the oil and gas magazine said back then

is understandable, without neglecting the importance of other political and military issue

“any decision to modernize the infrastructure of the Russian Material-Technical Support Point in Tartus can only be made after a political decision is taken in this regard, in coordination with the Syrian side.” He explained that any modernization should “take into account the political and military situation in the Mediterranean region,” and therefore “it will include the promotion of all sorts of protection in the facility, including surface-to-air missiles and anti-riots weapons, and will be in coordination with the Syrian side.”

Russia also leases a naval facility at the Syrian port of Tartu

Moscow also signed a $550 million deal with Syria for combat training jets

value of Russian arms sales to Syria at $162 million per year in both 2009 and 2010

Russia's key policy goal is blocking American efforts to shape the regio

Russia doesn't believe revolutions, wars and regime change bring stability and democracy

It believes humanitarian concerns are often used an excuse for pursuing America's own political and economic interests.

Putin's existential fear for his own survival and the survival of the repressive system that he and al-Assad represent

not only driven by the need to preserve its naval presence in the Mediterranean, secure its energy contracts, or counter the West on 'regime change

al-Assad cannot lose because it means that one day he, Putin, might as well

The West handles the Islamic world the way a monkey handles a grenade," Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin tweeted

Russia is a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council. It has the power to veto Security Council resolutions against the Syrian regime and has done so repeatedly over the past two years

religion and strategy.

Islamic Republic has provided technical help such as intelligence, communications and advice on crowd control and weapons as protests in Syria morphed into resistance

The last thing Iran wants now is a Sunni-dominated Syria -- especially as the rebels' main supporters are Iran's Persian Gulf rivals: Qatar and Saudi Arabi

proxy through which Iran can threaten Israel with an arsenal of short-range missiles

Iran counted on Syria as its only Arab ally during its eight-year war with Iraq. Iraq was Sunni-dominate

war between the front of hegemony and the front of resistance

Syrian government is a victim of international plots

Iran says the main objective of this plot is to make the region safer for Israe

Many believe Iran is Washington's greatest threat in the region, especially with its nuclear potential

the Americans will sustain damage like when they interfered in Iraq and Afghanistan

Syria's third-largest importer in 2010, according to data from the European Commission

maintain its financial tie

indicates that China sees Syria as an important trading hub

China has said foreign countries shouldn't meddle in Syria's internal affairs

Rather than siding with either Assad or the opposition and standing aside to 'wait and see,' Beijing is actively betting on both

China said it is firmly opposed to the use of chemical weapons and supports the U.N.'s chemical weapons inspectors.

It also said it wants a political solution for Syri

China is a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council. And like Russia, China has repeatedly blocked sanctions attempts against the Syrian regime

The new Libyan House of Representatives, which was elected in June, has formally announced its alliance with Hifter on Monday

But other Arab nations are intervening directly in the conflict.

Hifter would now lead Libyan army soldiers as well in the fight against the Islamist militias.

Operation Dawn, seized Tripoli in August, parliament and the rest of the government have all decamped to faraway Tobruk, in the eastern end of the country close to Egypt.  

Egyptian officials told the Associated Press that Egyptian warplanes, operated by Libyan pilots, were bombing Islamist militias in Libya. Both Libyan and Egyptian officials later denied those reports, and aviation experts said it was highly unlikely that Libyan pilots would have the skills needed.   On Monday, the presidents of Egypt and Sudan said they would support the Libyan military.  

Prime Minister Abdullah al Thinni is planning to visit Moscow to seek Russian support for the army.