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gracegriffin

U.N.'s Ban urges Assad to seek political solution to Syria crisis | Reuters - 0 views

www.reuters.com/...risis-un-idUSKBN0H50OM20140910

politics syria crisis solution

shared by gracegriffin on 10 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • U.N.'s Ban urges Assad to seek political solution to Syria crisis
  • U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged President Bashar al-Assad to seek a political solution to Syria's war, saying this would help international efforts against Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq, al-Hayat newspaper reported on Wednesday.
  • In an interview with the pan-Arab daily, Ban said years of war between Assad's forces and armed rebel groups had allowed militants such as Islamic State to take root in the region.
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • Asked whether Assad would have any role to play in an international coalition being assembled to fight Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, the U.N. chief said Assad could contribute by working politically towards an end to the war in his country.
  • slamic State, a militarily-powerful al Qaeda offshoot that wants to create a jihadist hub in the heart of the Arab world, has made rapid territorial gains in both Iraq and Syria in recent months that have alarmed regional and Western powers.
  • when Assad was sworn in for a new term as president, he vowed to recover all Syria from Islamist insurgents and dismissed the Syrian opposition abroad as traitors. But he also said he would be willing to work with the country's internal opposition, without giving details.
  • The United States has carried out weeks of air strikes against Islamic State targets in Iraq, but the outlook for U.S. air raids in Syria is much less clear.
  • While Iraq's government welcomed the role of U.S. warplanes to attack the militants, Assad has warned that any strikes conducted without his country's permission would be considered an act of aggression, potentially plunging any U.S.-led coalition into a broader conflict with Syria.
  • OPPOSING SIDES
  • "But it is important that the international community is united and shows strong support for any action that has to be taken to root out this terrorism."
  • Assad's military has stepped up air strikes
  • which controls about a third of Syria's territory
  • International and regional powers have backed opposing sides in the civil war, with Russia and Iran supporting Assad and Western powers and Gulf Arab states largely backing the rebels.
  • Ban also said a U.N. Security Council decision to support military action against Islamic State would be "an excellent and an appropriate way" to deal with the group but that its brutal killings were why, "some countries took some military action," in a reference to U.S. air strikes in Iraq.
  • U.S. President Barack Obama is expected on Wednesday to outline a plan to deal with Islamic State. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry arrived in Baghdad as he began a tour of the Middle East to build military, political and financial support to defeat the militants.
chughes2017

Syrian Leaders See Opportunities and Risks in U.S. Striking ISIS on Their Soil - NYTime... - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...gainst-isis-on-their-soil.html

Middle East Social nytimes com

shared by chughes2017 on 15 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • Now, though, he and his inner circle believe they have been granted a reprieve — at least politically
  • by President Obama’s declaration that he may strike in Syria against the extremist group the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria,
  • part of a ramped-up campaign against ISIS, carry new risks.
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • unsure who would benefit militarily — government forces, or Syrian insurgents and separatist Kurds, who have also clashed with the foreign-led ISIS militants.
  • “So unless the U.S. successfully kills key ISIS commanders in Syria,” Mr. Sayigh said, “its military impact will be limited there in the short and possibly medium term.”
  • the American campaign will have little impact on the ground
  • Many in the government believe the campaign was designed for political reasons to show that the United States is acting against ISIS
  • the first step in any serious effort would be forcing Turkey, an American ally and NATO member, to stop the flow of ISIS fighters across its borders
  • Mr. Assad’s inner circle who believe that he faces less and less pressure to compromise, and that the West will eventually ally with him against ISIS
  • Video of an attack on the Tabaqa air base shows soldiers fleeing, apparently unarmed, into the desert, and being gunned down by ISIS fighters.
  • “If we lose more areas, we will be doomed,”
  • “After three years the army is tired and depleted.”
  • Still, the Tartus woman and many other government supporters say they see no alternative to Mr. Assad to protect them from ISIS.
  • there is a sense of dejection and a belief that the new focus on ISIS has derailed what was left of Western political will to oust Mr. Assad or foster a political compromise any time soon.
  • where video on Sunday showed children wounded in heavy government airstrikes.
  • BEIRUT, Lebanon — The fortunes of President Bashar al-Assad have suffered over the past two months, with battlefield setbacks and new signs of doubt emerging within his political base, as the civil war in Syria drags on with no end in sight.
gracegriffin

Politics - Election News - Breaking News, Blogs, Results - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...index.html

Middle east politics interactions

shared by gracegriffin on 10 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • Democrats Plan Bill Authorizing U.S. Military to Train Enemies of ISIS
matthan

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/video/president-obama-address-nation-isis-strategy-25405041 - 0 views

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/video/president-obama-address-nation-isis-strategy-25405041

Middle East Political interactions ISIS Cultural Americas

started by matthan on 15 Sep 14 no follow-up yet
jacob4575

David Cameron vows to hunt down 'monsters' who beheaded British hostage David Haines - ... - 1 views

www.telegraph.co.uk/...tish-hostage-David-Haines.html

Middle East Political ISIS Cultural Europe

shared by jacob4575 on 15 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • The Prime Minister strongly indicated that he is preparing to authorise military air strikes against Isil terrorists in Iraq and Syria.
  • "They boast of their brutality; they claim to do this in the name of Islam. That is nonsense. Islam is a religion of peace. They are not Muslims, they are monsters.”
  • He warned that Isil are planning attacks in the UK. “We cannot ignore this threat to our security and that of our allies,”
danw55

White House presses Congress to vote now on arming Syrian rebels | Fox News - 0 views

www.foxnews.com/...amic-state-plan-keep-us-troops

political interactions

shared by danw55 on 15 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • danw55 on 15 Sep 14
     
    "White House presses Congress to vote now on arming Syrian rebels"
mwhitney2017

The Push to Keep Scotland in the Fold - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...cotland-independence-vote.html

Europe Political

shared by mwhitney2017 on 10 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • nine days
  • recent polls suggesting that the outcome is very much in doubt
  • fly north to campaign
  • ...32 more annotations...
  • more say over its own affairs if it votes to stay in the union
  • warned Scots against thinking that they could count on retaining the pound sterling as their currency should they secede.
  • Jane McGeachy
  • wants change
  • Gordon Brown
  • former prime minister and a Scot
  • new political powers for Scotland if voters rejected
  • greed Tuesday to put the legislation on a fast track
  • unimpressed
  • women, who were more cautious earlier in the campaign, are turning toward the “yes” camp, as are working-class voters, even though the Labour Party opposes independence.
  • more socially inclusive country that it says can be built only with the powers that independence would bring
  • British Parliament in Westminster is seen by many voters as remote and out of touch
  • The Conservative Party
  • 59 seats in Parliament
  • a society for the greedy people
  • have been torn down and a big new shopping complex opened.
  • attracting many disillusioned people who normally do not vote at all.
  • supported independence partly out of despair with his current situation.
  • £100 (about $160) a week
  • had depression
  • economy would be hurt by independence
  • Alex Salmond
  • cotland’s oil wealth
  • keep the pound
  • maintaining a common currency after independence was “incompatible with sovereignty.”
  • they are bluffing and that if London refused to negotiate a currency union, Scotland would walk away from its share of the national debt.
  • I’m sick of the English telling us what to do,
  • I think someone would strangle him.
  • emphasizing freedom and opportunity and a once-in-a-lifetime chance for self-determination,
  • is attractive to many who are still undecided.
  • struggled to shake off a reputation for negativity
  • she had not yet made up her mind
  • emschaeffer on 11 Sep 14
     
    GLASGOW - With nine days left before Scotland votes on whether to become independent, Britain's leaders went into overdrive on Tuesday with efforts to keep the country intact.
mcmecke

ISIS, ISIL Or Islamic State: What's In A Name? : Parallels : NPR - 0 views

www.npr.org/...-islamic-state-whats-in-a-name

state middle ISIS ISIL political International Midde East Social Cultural Levant Syria Islam Islamic

shared by mcmecke on 12 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • "They're claiming to represent all Muslims everywhere — they have declared the establishment of a new caliphate,"
  • the abbreviation IS — Blank says he's seen its usage increase over the past two months.
  • the self-declared Islamic State" or some equivalent phrase, use ISIS in later references and, when necessary, explain that ISIL is another widely used acronym.)
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • That's a direct translation of the group's full name in Arabic, but "Syria" in this case means "Greater Syria" — not the modern nation by that name.
  • "It refers to Syria, Lebanon, parts of Turkey, parts of what are now Jordan," Blank explains. "The 'S' in the Arabic is "al-Sham."
  • It's a bit confusing: the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria-but-not-just-"Syria."
  • preferred by the Obama administration translates "al-Sham" as "the Levant," another name for the same region — one that isn't as misleading as "Syria."
  • The word "Levant" isn't very common today.
  • a once-common term that now has something of an antique whiff about it, like 'the Orient.' Because of the term's French colonial associations, many Arab nationalists and Islamist radicals disdain it, and it is unlikely that the militant group would choose 'Levant' to render its name."
  • "the Islamic State" — is a key piece of propaganda for the group, especially when it comes to targeting potential terrorist recruits.
  • none of these foreign fighters see themselves as terrorists. They see themselves as knights. They see themselves as mujahedeen. They see themselves as freedom fighters," Blank says. "So they're very interested in fighting for the Islamic State, and they do not regard what they are doing as in any way an act of terrorism."
  • "That's a totally different narrative, and it's one that the U.S. can facilitate, but the U.S. cannot really control."
  • mcmecke on 12 Sep 14
     
    Acronyms: ISIS or ISIL?
jacob4575

North Korea Sentences 24-Year-Old American To 6 Years Hard Labor - Business Insider - 1 views

www.businessinsider.com/n-to-6-years-hard-labor-2014-9

Asia Political Americas

shared by jacob4575 on 14 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • jacob4575 on 14 Sep 14
     
    North Korea sentences 2nd of 3 Americans detained.
matthan

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/13/isis-video-david-haines-beheading - 0 views

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/13/isis-video-david-haines-beheading

Middle East Political ISIS

started by matthan on 15 Sep 14 no follow-up yet
kthomsen2017

Arabs Give Tepid Support to U.S. Fight Against ISIS - NYTimes.com - 1 views

www.nytimes.com/...-to-us-fight-against-isis.html

ISIS

shared by kthomsen2017 on 14 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • allies like Egypt, Jordan and Turkey all finding ways on Thursday to avoid specific commitments to President Obama’s expanded military campaign against Sunni extremists.
    • kthomsen2017
      kthomsen2017 on 14 Sep 14
       
      Can they still be allies if they go back on their commitment to the U.S.A?
  • first American strikes inside Syria crackled through the region, the mixed reactions underscored the challenges of a new military intervention in the Middle East, where 13 years of chaos, from Sept. 11 through the Arab Spring revolts, have deepened political and sectarian divisions and increased mistrust of the United States on all sides.
  • The tepid support could further complicate the already complex task Mr. Obama has laid out for himself in fighting the extremist Islamic State in Iraq and Syria:
  • ...20 more annotations...
  • He must try to confront the group without aiding Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, or appearing to side with Mr. Assad’s Shiite allies, Iran and the militant group Hezbollah, against discontented Sunnis across the Arab world.
  • While Arab nations allied with the United States vowed on Thursday to “do their share” to fight ISIS and issued a joint communiqué supporting a broad strategy, the underlying tone was one of reluctance.
  • Syria and the United States were “fighting the same enemy,” terrorism, and that his government had “no reservations” about airstrikes as long as the United States coordinated with it
  • Egypt’s hands were full with its own fight against “terrorism,” referring to the Islamist opposition.
  • Turkey, which Mr. Kerry will visit on Friday, is concerned about attacks across its long border with ISIS-controlled Syria, and also about 49 Turkish government employees captured by the group in Iraq
  • an official advised not to expect public support for the American effort.
  • at least 10 Arab states signed a communiqué pledging to join “in the many aspects of a coordinated military campaign,” but with the qualification “as appropriate” and without any specifics.
  • Turkey attended the meeting but declined to sign.
  • in Baghdad and across Syria, where the threat from ISIS is immediate, reactions were mixed
  • But many Sunni Muslims were cynical about battling an organization that evolved from jihadist groups fighting American occupation.
  • Members of Iraq’s Shiite majority cheered the prospect of American help.
  • ISIS has avowed enemies on both sides of the region’s Sunni-Shiite divide.
  • For Shiites, whom ISIS views as apostates deserving death, the group poses an existential threat, yet Shiite-led Iran, a longtime foe of the United States, is excluded from the coalition.
  • Egypt and Syria, revolts that Sunni Islamists saw as their chance at power have been rolled back or brutally thwarted.
  • “The Sunnis need to feel that they have a voice in their capitals,” said Ibrahim Hamidi,
  • “Otherwise, you push more Sunnis toward ISIS.”
  • But that, he said, would require fancy footwork from Mr. Obama to “make it clear this is about American security, not about favoring any side in the Syrian civil conflict.”
  • Mr. Crocker said American attacks would “get people’s attention in Raqqa and elsewhere,”
  • Members of a range of Syrian insurgent groups that consider ISIS an enemy said they, too, opposed American strikes unless they also targeted the government.
  • And even those most supportive of the strikes — members of the American-vetted groups that stand to gain new aid to fight ISIS — complained that the United States had abetted the extremists’ rise by failing to help other insurgents earlier. They said the United States was attacking ISIS now only because the group threatened it as well as the broader world.
mgt2011

U.S. General Is Open to Ground Force to Fight ISIS in Iraq - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...s-united-states-coalition.html

Social Middle East ISIS interactions Political

shared by mgt2011 on 17 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • ground operations against Islamic extremists in Iraq if airstrikes prove insufficient, opening the door to a riskier, more expansive American combat role than the president has publicly outlined.
    • mgt2011
      mgt2011 on 17 Sep 14
       
      How aware are we of how well their military can fight in that kind of war fare
  • something Mr. Obama has ruled out.
    • mgt2011
      mgt2011 on 17 Sep 14
       
      why has he ruled this out
  • Mr. Obama, seeking to allay fears of another Iraq war, has promised that American ground troops will not be involved in fighting the Islamic State, also known as ISIS or ISIL. In a sign of the administration’s mixed message, the president pointedly did not call it a war, while his advisers later did.
    • mgt2011
      mgt2011 on 17 Sep 14
       
      Two different government leaders saying two very different things. Is Obama afraid of fighting? 
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • hances of civilian casualties are much higher.
    • mgt2011
      mgt2011 on 17 Sep 14
       
      important
  • The White House insisted on Tuesday that Mr. Obama was not shifting his policy and that General Dempsey was not out of sync with his commander in chief.
    • mgt2011
      mgt2011 on 17 Sep 14
       
      these mixed messages are so alarming because it is clear that they are scrambling to form a plan 
  • the White House press secretary, Josh Earnest, said to reporters. “It’s also the responsibility of the commander in chief to set out a clear policy.”
    • mgt2011
      mgt2011 on 17 Sep 14
       
      important
  • The challenge will come, General Dempsey said, when Iraqi and Kurdish forces try to drive the militants out of densely-populated urban areas like Mosul.
    • mgt2011
      mgt2011 on 17 Sep 14
       
      human shield
  • “To many of us that seems like an inadequate response,” he said.
    • mgt2011
      mgt2011 on 17 Sep 14
       
      are we doing enough? When is it too much? Is it ever too much? 
ianscox

White House seeks to win over skeptics on Islamic State fight | Reuters - 0 views

www.reuters.com/...congress-idUSKBN0H90SO20140914

Middle East Political Cultural The Americas

shared by ianscox on 15 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • White House seeks to win over skeptics on Islamic State fight
  • U.S. lawmakers have generally been supportive of the effort but Republicans, who control the House of Representatives, have accused Obama of not doing enough to deal with the problem sooner and have questioned whether the strategy goes far enough.
    • ianscox
      ianscox on 15 Sep 14
       
      Ugh, I doubt we will get anything done if we stay divided like this. 
danw55

BBC News - North Korea jails US man Matthew Miller for six years - 0 views

www.bbc.com/...world-asia-29196644

political korea

shared by danw55 on 15 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • danw55 on 15 Sep 14
     
    "North Korea jails US man Matthew Miller for six years"
jamescmcguire

Lila Abu-Lughod: Do Muslim Women Need Saving? | TIME.com - 0 views

ideas.time.com/...do-muslim-women-need-saving

shared by jamescmcguire on 10 Sep 14 - No Cached
  • But we were confusing veiling with a lack of agency. What most of us didn’t know is that 30 years ago the anthropologist Hanna Papanek described the burqa as “portable seclusion” and noted that many women saw it as a liberating invention because it enabled them to move out of segregated living spaces while still observing the requirements of separating and protecting women from unrelated men.
    • rtussey
      rtussey on 10 Sep 14
       
      But isn't the problem that they feel they need protection from "unrelated men"? True they are able to go into public, but their living spaces are still segregated. She goes on to critique Western women for feeling liberated but still being constricted by "tyrannies of fashion." However, I don't see these two issues as comparable. True, American women will face criticism and experience disadvantages if they do not conform to basic social beauty norms, but they will still be allowed to leave their homes and interact with society. 
  • A moral crusade to rescue oppressed Muslim women from their cultures and their religion has swept the public sphere, dissolving distinctions between conservatives and liberals, sexists and feminists. The crusade has justified all manner of intervention from the legal to the military, the humanitarian to the sartorial. But it has also reduced Muslim women to a stereotyped singularity, plastering a handy cultural icon over much more complicated historical and political dynamics.
  • There is no doubt that Western notions of human rights can be credited for the hope for a better world for all women. But I suspect that the deep moral conviction people feel about the rightness of saving the women of that timeless homogeneous mythical place called Islamland is fed by something else that cannot be separated from our current geopolitical relations. Blinded to the diversity of Muslim women’s lives, we tend to see our own situation too comfortably. Representing Muslim women as
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