Syria: Is Geneva 2 the key?

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Photo: Freedom House

June 13, 2013 by Frederic C. Hof

When Secretary of State John Kerry pressed his Russian counterpart in early May 2013 to help him convene a conference to implement the Action Group on Syria Geneva agreement of June 2012, his motive was honorable and straightforward: cut to the chase and get Syrian opposition and Assad regime representatives into a room to negotiate a transitional governing body for Syria, one that would replace the regime and exercise full executive power. That, after all, was the clear mandate of Geneva I: an agreement endorsed by all five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council. Kerry knew that his task would be to persuade a skeptical opposition to come to the talks without preconditions. He also knew that Russia’s task would be to persuade the regime to send negotiators empowered to create, on the basis of mutual consent, the requisite transitional governing body. Above all, he knew that the Assad regime’s calculation with respect to genuine political transition talks would have to change. To convene Geneva II without those things being accomplished would be a waste of time and effort. Thus far, the homework has not been done.

Geneva’s purpose receives short shrift in a June 11, 2013, New York Times op-ed by Javier Solana and Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, two distinguished European statesmen who share the experience of having served as NATO’s secretary general. In an essay that studiously ignores the damning June 4, 2013, report of the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria and makes no mention of Iran-Hezbollah military intervention in Syria, the writers blame the United States and Europe for the fact that “Geneva II is already on the ropes.” The West, they state, “must urgently step up its diplomatic maneuvering and make the ending of the conflict a priority over wider political ambitions.” What is required, according to the authors, “is a real - and hitherto untested - political push by Western actors.” Indeed, Russia’s recent announcements concerning new arms shipments to the regime are, according to the authors, the fault of the West: “a predictable response to Europe’s ending its arms embargo on the country and growing support in French and British government circles to supply the rebels with arms.” That the Russians themselves cite existing contracts as the excuse for arming a regime deep into war crimes seems not to have struck the authors as important.

President Barack Obama and his secretary of state have done nothing to deserve the back-of-the-hand from these two accomplished diplomats, both of whom have served with honor and distinction. Obama and Kerry, along with their Western European counterparts, have gone the extra mile and invested political capital in their support of a negotiated outcome. They have done so notwithstanding the clear desire of the Assad regime and its foreign enablers for a military solution facilitated (according to the UN’s commission of inquiry) by crimes against humanity, war crimes, and gross violations of human rights law. To blame the West for a diplomatic stalemate created in the main by the Assad regime’s adamant refusal to implement the six-point plan of former United Nations and Arab League Special Envoy Kofi Annan is beyond unfair. In a practical sense, blaming the blameless will encourage the guilty–the regime and its foreign fighters–to press on the ground for the very “military solution” that these two gentlemen accuse “voices in the West” of “pushing for.”

What is it about the situation in Syria that causes statesmen of this rank and quality to blame the United States and Western Europe for the poor prospects of a negotiated political transition in Syria? Are they not acquainted with the humanitarian catastrophe caused by the regime bombing and shelling populated areas with no pretense whatsoever of trying to hit military targets? Have they not heard about the armed intervention of Iran and Hezbollah? Do they know something we do not about the readiness of the Assad regime to negotiate in good faith in accordance with Geneva I? Why would their warning that “Escalation begets escalation” apply to the West if it sought to destroy the regime’s instruments of terror and mass destruction, but not to Hezbollah forces intervening in Syria at the behest of Iran? How is it that a limited military operation aimed at relieving the consequences of war crimes and crimes against humanity would strengthen the “forces of extremism, sectarianism and criminality gaining strength across the country” when those whose no-limits survival strategy, sectarian tactics, and criminal behavior have put Syria on the path to state failure while imperiling the security of the entire neighborhood? One can read the op-ed over and over and find no acknowledgement of regime culpability for the disaster that has sunk Syria and is capsizing the region. The fact that there is no civilized negotiation is, according to the authors, all the fault of the West, which allegedly has not tried hard enough to broker a political compromise. The regime, Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah all get a free pass.

The authors, of course, are the only ones who can explain the reasons for having presented such a remarkable thesis. They are not to be faulted for wanting a negotiated end to Syria’s long nightmare. And as one who contributed to the Geneva I Final Communiqué–in particular the “mutual consent” clause applying to the creation of the transitional governing body–I have a strong interest in seeing the result mandated by the agreement fully implemented. Yet these two former NATO secretaries general have put forward an entirely over-the-top argument that implicitly rejects the Kerry observation that the prospects for a peaceful, negotiated, and complete political transition in Syria require first that the Assad regime’s calculation be changed. That calculation rests entirely on an assessment of the combat situation. At present it appears that foreign fighters have tilted that combat situation in favor of the regime. The adjustment in regime calculation produced by the skills of Hezbollah fighters is not what Kerry had in mind. Yet the op-ed authors see American deliberations on how best to stem the tide of humanitarian catastrophe while changing the regime calculation as the single biggest impediment to the negotiations they seek. Perhaps they believe that starving Syrian rebels of arms and permitting the regime to do as it pleases to Syrian noncombatants will inspire thoughts of mercy and power-sharing on the part of the Assad regime and those outsiders in whose hands it has placed its fate.

Javier Solana and Jaap de Hoop Scheffer have made an important contribution to a body of Syria commentary that heretofore has featured a sense of moral equivalence between the Assad regime and those opposing it; commentary that, with thinly veiled glee, has saluted the success of the regime in attracting jihadists to Syria and in identifying those primitives as the essence of its opposition. The idea of providing arms to mainstream Syrian rebels has been rejected on the grounds that it would further militarize the situation and put vulnerable populations at greater risk, as if the regime has not militarized matters to the maximum and as if independent findings of the regime’s widespread and systematic attacks against civilian populations and (according to the independent commission), “War crimes and gross violations of international human rights laws–including summary execution, arbitrary arrest and detention, unlawful attack, attacking protected objects, and pillaging and destruction of property” are an acceptable norm. How is it people who claim to be motivated by humanitarian concerns can point with alarm to arms for those on the receiving end of these depredations while averting their glances from the atrocities of the perpetrators, concentrating on hypothetical scenarios instead of that which is right in front of their noses? Are they morally prepared to accept the consequences of the Assad regime taking more territory and human beings under its control?

The full implementation of Geneva I by a prospective Geneva II would indeed be the key to stabilizing Syria and putting the country on the path to reform and a government reflecting the consent of the governed, as opposed to the whims of a family business. It would replace the Assad regime with a transitional governing body created by negotiators on the basis of mutual consent; a body that would receive and exercise full executive power. Under current conditions it appears doubtful that Geneva II will take place in July 2013 or anytime soon. To blame the United States and the West for this sad situation while the regime, aided by foreign fighters and protected by the Russian Federation, subjects Syria and the surrounding neighborhood to a campaign of crimes against humanity, war crimes, and gross violations of international human rights law, is an outrage. At worst it is symptomatic of a West increasingly ambivalent about its own values and its appetite for hard work and sacrifice. At its best it is a good-faith effort by two distinguished statesmen to promote a negotiated outcome, but one that views the bottom line of who wants it and who does not completely backward.

Russia says Syrian no-fly zone would be illegal

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Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister Photo: EPA

June 15, 2013 by Damien McElroy and Jon Swaine

As David Cameron prepared to host a meeting of leaders of the G8 group of industrialised nations, at which he will attempt to forge a consensus on how to tackled the Assad regime, Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, also dismissed Western allegations thatSyria had used chemical weapons against rebels.

Mr Lavrov was speaking on the eve of key talks starting with a meeting on Sunday afternoon between Vladimir Putin and David Cameron at Downing Street.

“The regime doesn’t have its back to the wall. What would be the sense of the regime using chemical weapons, moreover at such a small quantity?” he said.

Underlining the rising tensions over Syria likely to dominate the meeting at Lough Erne on Monday and Tuesday, the Prime Minister used a conference call with five Western leaders to seal a common postion.

Mr Cameron will tell Sky News on Sunday morning that it is vital to assist those moderate rebels ready to work with the West so that Mr Assad is overthrown and extremists are eclipsed before the end of the conflict.

“I want to help the Syrian opposition to succeed. And my argument is this: that yes there are elements of the Syrian opposition that are deeply unsavoury, that are very dangerous, very extremist and i want nothing to do with them,” he said in a pre-recorded interview.

“I’d like them driven out of Syria - they’re linked to al Qaeda. But there are elements of the Syrian opposition who want to see a free democratic, pluralistic Syria that respects the rights of minorities including Christians and we should be working with them - we are working with them.

“My point is this: that if we don’t work with those elements of the Syrian opposition, then we can’t be surprised if the only elements of the Syrian opposition that are getting, that are actually making any progress in Syria are the ones that we don’t approve of.”

Meanwhile just one day after President Barack Obama announced that the US should arm Syria’s opposition forces, John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, warned that the time for diplomacy to resolve the conflict was running out.

Mr Kerry is a joint sponsor with Mr Lavrov of an effort to hold peace talks between the regime and opposition in Geneva that is supposed to agree on a power sharing government.

“The United States continues to work aggressively for a political solution with the goal of a second Geneva meeting, but that the use of chemical weapons and increasing involvement of Hezbollah demonstrates the regime’s lack of commitment to negotiations and threatens to put a political settlement out of reach,” a statement from Mr Kerry said.

Mr Obama chose to intervene in the conflict after deciding that his early decision to stay out of the civil war was wrong.

The US was told by Jordan’s King Abdullah II that the country was about to split into sectarian mini-states and a senior aide goaded him: “Superpowers don’t bluff.”

The White House announced last week that America would provide “military support” after repeated calls for him to act from foreign allies. Reports yesterday said that this would include anti-tank weapons as well as small arms and ammunition requested urgently by the rebels.

Mr Obama was persuaded his cautious stance was allowing both Iran and Russia, which continues to prop up Assad, to dominate the battlefield of the civil war.

Last week, he received an emergency phone call from a senior rebel commander, warning him that a “menacing” build-up of regime forces around Aleppo, Syria’s largest city which has been largely in rebel hands for a year, threatened to inflict a devastating reversal on the rebels.

Under a classified order from Mr Obama, the CIA is to funnel military equipment to rebel fighters via Jordan, one of Washington’s closest allies in the region.

General Salim Idris, the senior western-backed rebel commander, gave the US administration a detailed wish list of weapons needed by his forces. It reportedly included 200 anti-tank missiles and 100 shoulder-fired anti-aircraft weapons, as well as 450,000 rounds of ammunition for Kalashnikovs, rifles and machine guns.

Mr Obama is said to have been given a dire warning of the potential fall-out for the region, from sectarian warfare to increased power for al-Qaeda-linked jihadists, from King Abdullah of Jordan during his visit to Washington in late April.

Insider accounts said Mr Obama’s change of heart on Syria since last summer, when he overruled proposals to arm the rebels from then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and then-CIA director David Petraeus, had also been helped along by new members of his national security council.

Tony Blinken, a former adviser to Vice President Joe Biden, who was among the team pictured in the memorable photograph inside the White House situation room during the raid that killed Osama bin Laden in May 2011.

Now Mr Obama’s deputy national security adviser, Mr Blinken, 51, was reported by The Wall Street Journal to have frequently used the phrase “superpowers don’t bluff” during situation room meetings on Syria to stress that the administration’s rhetoric must be matched by a willingness to act.

Source: telegraph.co.uk

04/12/12

#Syrian opposition delegation arrives in Moscow

Representatives of Syria’s National Coordination Council visit Moscow for talks.

A delegation from Syria’s main opposition coalition - the National Coordination Council - arrived in Moscow on Thursday for talks.

They will be meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to discuss ways of settling the conflict in their homeland.

The delegation will later give a press conference

Source: youtu.be

5 Nov 2012 Russia supplying arms to #Syria under old contracts: Lavrov

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (L) speaks during a joint press conference with Secretary General of the Arab League Nabil al-Arabi (C) and UN-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi (R) in Cairo on November 4, 2012. AFP PHOTO/MAHER ISKANDERRussian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (L) speaks during a joint press conference with Secretary General of the Arab League Nabil al-Arabi (C) and UN-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi (R) in Cairo on November 4, 2012. AFP PHOTO/MAHER ISKANDER

CAIRO: Moscow is supplying arms to Syria under Soviet-era commitments and were meant for defence against external threats, not to support President Bashar al-Assad, Russia’s foreign minister told an Egyptian newspaper.

Russia sold the Syrian government $1 billion worth of weapons last year and has made clear it would oppose an arms embargo in the United Nations Security Council, contending that rebels would get weapons illegally anyway.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Egypt’s state al-Ahram daily in an interview published on Monday that the arms still being sent to Damascus were part of old Soviet contracts and did not violate international law.

“We do not side with any faction in Syria’s internal battle,” Lavrov was quoted as saying. “As for the Russian-Syrian technical military cooperation, it aims to support Syria’s defence capabilities in the face of external political threat, and not to back Bashar al-Assad.”

He accused foreign powers of arming the opposition to topple the government in breach of international law, adding that such weapons could fall into the hands of al Qaeda fighters.

Western powers back the rebels but say they have stopped short of sending arms. Qatar, which has been an outspoken critic of Assad and called for a no-fly zone, has also denied providing arms but says it does give logistical and humanitarian support.

“It was the Soviet Union that supplied Syria with main weapons but at present we are in the process of finalising the implementation of our commitments which are linked primarily to the supply of some air defence systems,” Lavrov told al-Ahram.

“These military exports are of a defensive nature and do not conflict with international treaties,” he said.

A Russian official said in July the Moscow would not deliver fighter planes or other new weapons to Syria while the conflict there remained unresolved.

Russia and China, both permanent Security Council members, have vetoed three Western-backed U.N. draft resolutions condemning Assad’s government for its handling of the uprising that began with peaceful demonstrations in March 2011.

The protests turned into an armed revolt after Assad used force to crush opposition. About 32,000 people have been killed.

Lavrov, who met Lakhdar Brahimi, the international mediator on Syria, in Cairo on Sunday, said the Syrian government and the opposition should be forced to sit down to negotiations. Lavrov was due to meet the Egyptian foreign minister later on Mond

Source: dailystar.com.lb

31 Oct 2012 #Russia says more ‘bloodshed’ if West insists on Assad ouster

By Catherine RamaAgence France PresseRussia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov holds a joint news conference with his Finnish counterpart Erkki Tuomioja (not pictured) in Helsinki August 20, 2012. (REUTERS/Sari Gustafsson/Lehtikuva)Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov holds a joint news conference with his Finnish counterpart Erkki Tuomioja (not pictured) in Helsinki August 20, 2012. (REUTERS/Sari Gustafsson/Lehtikuva)

PARIS: Russia on Wednesday warned that the “bloodbath” in Syria would continue if the West stuck to its demand for President Bashar al-Assad’s ouster.

“If the position of our partners remains the departure of this leader who they do not like, the bloodbath will continue,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after talks with his French counterpart Laurent Fabius.

The nearly 20-month conflict in Syria has killed 36,000 people according to activists.

Fabius also said France and Russia failed to bridge their differences over Assad’s role in any future transition government.

“Yes, there is a difference of assessment on the presence of Bashar al-Assad in a transition government,” he said after a meeting of the French and Russian foreign and defence ministers in Paris.

In July, world powers agreed in Geneva on a plan for a transition in Syria which did not make an explicit call for Assad to quit power although the West swiftly made clear it saw no role for him in any unity government.

However Assad’s allies in Beijing and Moscow insist that it is up to Syrians themselves to determine their future without foreign interference.

UN-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi told Moscow on Monday that what he branded a civil war in Syria was going from bad to worse after a failed four-day truce for a Muslim holiday last week.

Lavrov for his part called on the West and regional players including Turkey to start negotiating with Assad as well as the opposition to pave the way for a political solution in Syria.

Lavrov on Wednesday however highlighted common positions taken by France and Russia, including the “desire to see a stop to the conflict, the need to avert an international contagion and the fact that the different communities need to co-exist.

“We all the forces of opposition to unite,” he said, adding that other common stands included “maintaining the rights of minorities” and religious equality.

The two sides also have coverging positions on other matters such as Mali, where both permament members of the UN Security Council backed an October 12 resolution giving West African nations 45 days to outline plans for military intervention there.

The Security Council is pushing for regional African body ECOWAS to prepare a military force against Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) which is tightening its grip on the north after over-running the area in the chaotic aftermath of a March coup.

The other main topics of Wednesday’s talks were Russian concerns over a new NATO-led missile defence shield for Europe and defence cooperation between Paris and Moscow.

Russia flexed its nuclear muscles last week, firing dummy warheads from planes, a submerged submarine ands an underground bunker in a show of force coinciding with tensions between Moscow and Washington over space defence issues.

France and Russia signed a deal early last year for the sale of four Mistral helicopter carriers to Moscow. The long-discussed purchase was Russia’s first major arms acquisition abroad in the two decades since the fall of the Soviet Union.

Defence experts say France is also trying to sell armoured vehicles to Russia.

Source: dailystar.com.lb

#Syrian jets bomb Aleppo district after rebels seize base

09/09/12

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

AMMAN | Sun Sep 9, 2012 9:45am EDT

(Reuters) - Syrian warplanes bombed a residential district of Aleppo on Sunday after rebels overran army barracks there, killing and wounding dozens of people and exacerbating a water shortage in Syria’s biggest city after a pipeline burst, activists said.

President Bashar al-Assad has resorted increasingly to devastating aerial bombardment to keep rebels fighting to overthrow him in check after they took control of residential neighborhoods and made forays into the center of Aleppo, Syria’s commercial and industrial capital.

The almost 18-month-old uprising has polarized global powers, preventing effective international intervention, and is turning increasingly sectarian with the risk of spillover into adjacent Arab states with similar communal divisions.

Insurgent advances have forced Assad to deploy warplanes, major armored forces and thousands of troops to prevent the fall of Aleppo, which would free up supply lines to the interior of Syria from Turkey where rebels have sheltered.

Decisive victory has eluded both sides, with rebels lacking heavy weapons needed to down aircraft and knock out artillery and Assad loath to send conscript troops of questionable loyalty into cities to re-establish dominance on the ground.

Instead, government forces have been bombarding population centers to try to turn residents against rebels dug in there, according to diplomats following the revolt.

Sunday’s air raid destroyed a residential complex in the Hananu neighborhood, one of several in eastern Aleppo under rebel control, opposition activists told Reuters by phone.

The death toll was not immediately clear but dozens of bodies and wounded people were being dug out from the rubble. Video footage from the area showed scores of people searching and digging in the debris of a flattened building.

On-scene details could not be independently verified due to Syria’s severe restrictions on international media access.

WATER CRISIS IN ALEPPO

Aerial bombardment had also wrecked a main water pipeline, causing serious shortages of water in Aleppo, activists added.

“A water pumping station in al-Mayadeen was hit. There were rebels in the area, but this is not a justification to bomb civilian infrastructure,” activist Ahmad Saeed said.

A businessman who went from the northwest of the city to Hananu to bury his grandmother - Aleppo’s main cemetery is situated in the district - said the ground was shaking with artillery explosions.

“I passed by several (rebel) Free Syrian Army checkpoints. The fighters looked quite relaxed. The army was nowhere to be seen but it was bombing heavily,” he said.

The eastern sector of Aleppo has drawn air strikes since rebels attacked the Hananu barracks and freed scores of army deserters, opposition campaigners said.

In the capital Damascus, the army continued to shell Sunni Muslim neighborhoods supportive of the revolt against Assad, whose minority Alawite sect has dominated Syria’s power structure for decades.

Shelling again struck the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk in south Damascus and the adjacent impoverished neighborhood of Hajar al-Aswad, home to thousands of refugees from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Rebels have launched guerrilla attacks on loyalist forces from Sunni neighborhoods and suburbs that surround Damascus, while Assad has been increasingly relied on elite divisions comprised of Alawites to keep overall control of the capital.

BUS AMBUSHED

Syrian state media said four people were killed in a “terrorist attack” that targeted a bus in the province of Homs. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said civilians and soldiers were in the bus.

Assad, whose family has rule Syria for 42 years, has repeatedly said the revolt is the handiwork of Islamist “terrorists” and not a popular movement for democratic change.

The revolt began with peaceful street protests that prompted a bloody security crackdown, leading to an armed insurgency.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Sunday she was pessimistic about closing the gap with Russia on how to defuse the Syrian conflict before world leaders gather for the U.N. General Assembly later this month.

Clinton said she made the case for increasing pressure on Assad in talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at a summit of Pacific Rim states in Vladivostok, Russia over the weekend.

“If we can make progress in New York in the run-up to the U.N. General Assembly, we can certainly try,” Clinton told reporters. “But we have to be realistic. We haven’t seen eye-to-eye on Syria. That may continue. And if it does continue then we will work with like-minded states to support the Syrian opposition to hasten the day when Assad falls.”

Chinese and Russian leaders restated their firm opposition to what they see as U.S. meddling in Syria, a reference to calls for harsh U.N. sanctions to isolate Assad, for whom Moscow is Syria’s most important ally and arms supplier.

“Our U.S. partners prefer measures like threats, increased pressure and new sanctions against both Syria and Iran. We do not agree with this in principle,” Lavrov said.

Clinton said she would continue to work with Lavrov to see if the U.N. Security Council could formally endorse an agreement brokered by former U.N. Syria envoy Kofi Annan which envisages a transitional governing authority for Syria.

But she added that such a step would only be effective if it carried specific penalties if Assad fails to comply - something Russia has repeatedly resisted.

Turkey, Saudi Arabia and most Arab nations have sided with their Syrian Sunni co-religionists at the forefront of the revolt.

Source: reuters.com

Clinton and Lavrov set for showdown over #Syria transition plan

US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov were heading for a face-to-face showdown over Syria on Friday as major powers prepared for a weekend conference to hash out a political transition plan for the country.

On the eve of Saturday’s conference aimed at ending 16 months of brutal violence in Syria, Clinton and Lavrov were to meet in St. Petersburg in a bid to iron out deep differences over the transition plan being pushed by U.N. envoy Kofi Annan that calls for the formation of a national unity government that would oversee the drafting of a new constitution and elections.

U.S. officials are adamant that the plan will not allow Syrian President Bashar Assad to remain in power at the top of the transitional government, but Russia insists that outsiders cannot dictate the ultimate solution or the composition of the interim administration.

Annan laid out his expectations for the weekend conference in an op-ed in The Washington Post. The future government in Syria, he said “must include a government of national unity that would exercise full executive powers. This government could include members of the present government and the opposition and other groups, but those whose continued presence and participation would undermine the credibility of the transition and jeopardize stability and reconciliation would be excluded.”

Such a proposal does not explicitly bar Assad, but the U.S. and other western powers who will participate in the conference said that is implicit.

Assad also said any future government in Syria must hold free and fair elections for a multiparty government. Russia is Syria’s most important ally, protector and supplier of arms. Diplomatic hopes for have rested on persuading Russia to agree to a plan that would end the Assad family dynasty, which has ruled Syria for more than four decades.

The difference in interpretation between the U.S. and Russia could prove to be the plan’s unraveling. Clinton hopes to press Lavrov on the point at their meeting and over dinner following a gathering of Asia-Pacific foreign ministers that Lavrov is hosting in St. Petersburg.

On Thursday, Lavrov acknowledged that a transition period is necessary to end the violence in Syria, but said Russia had not agreed to all elements of Annan’s plan, in particular any suggestion that Assad would be required to leave.

“We are not supporting and will not support any external meddling,” Lavrov said. “External players must not dictate … to Syrians, but, first of all, must commit to influencing all the sides in Syria to stop the violence.”

He also said the Annan plan was still a work in progress.

But, Clinton, speaking Thursday in Riga, Latvia, said it was “very clear” that all participants in the Geneva meeting, including Russia, were on board with the transition plan. She told reporters that the invitations made clear that representatives “were coming on the basis of (Annan’s) transition plan.”

She said she expects the meeting “to provide an opportunity to make real progress” on that plan.

Source: telegraph.co.uk

Russia rejects reports over UN peace plan for #Syria

Russia rejects reports over UN peace plan for Syria
Sergei Lavrov Photo: REUTERS

By , Moscow


Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister, told reporters in Moscow that Russia recognised a “transitional period” was needed “in order to overcome the Syrian crisis and to finally establish stable rights and norms which satisfy all groups in the Syrian population”.

But he said the fate of Mr Assad “must be decided within the framework of a Syrian dialogue by the Syrian people themselves”.

Foreign ministers of major and regional powers are meeting in Geneva on Saturday for an international conference over Syria’s future.

Kofi Annan, the UN-Arab League envoy, has broached a plan for a transitional government, and diplomatic sources had suggested the Kremlin might accept a “national unity cabinet” with figures from both Mr Assad’s regime and the opposition, perhaps even excluding the current president.

However, speaking at a meeting with his Tunisian counterpart in the Russian capital, Mr Lavrov stressed that, “foreign players should not be dictating their solutions to the Syrians. We do not and cannot support any intervention or solutions dictated from abroad.”

Russia claims officially that it is neutral when it comes to Syria, and says it is in daily contact with Mr Assad to urge him to prevent violence against civilians as his military battles opposition forces.

In reality, Moscow is Damascus’s key ally in the 16 month-old conflict and Russia has blocked several UN attempts to impose sanctions on the Assad government. It has also kept up weapons supplies to his regime despite western censure.

A Russian ship bound for Syria carrying reconditioned Soviet Mi-25 helicopter gunships turned back last week after its British insurer withdrew coverage on learning of its cargo.

However, a senior Russian arms official yesterday promised the helicopters would be delivered, even if they had to be sent by air. “Syria is our friend, and we fulfil all our obligations to our friends,” he said.

Mr Lavrov said there was no agreed draft for Mr Annan’s transitional government proposal and expressed anger that “individual working formulas” had been leaked to the media.

“I view this as a manifestation of an unfair approach to diplomacy,” he said.

The Russian foreign minister also criticised the decision to exclude Iran from the Geneva talks, saying the country was “an influential player”.

Source: telegraph.co.uk

Russia: Any #Syria plan calling for Assad exit ‘infeasible’

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that any peace plan for Syria that calls on President Bashar al-Assad to leave power and go into exile would not work because he would not quit.

“A scheme according to which President Assad should leave somewhere before something happens in terms of a cessation of violence and a political process, this scheme simply does not work from the very start,” Lavrov said on Echo of Moscow radio.

“It is infeasible because he will not leave.”

Lavrov, whose country remains in close contact with Assad’s government, indicated that the Syrian leader was not ready to negotiate his removal from power because he still enjoyed popular support.

“I do not think Assad will be sitting down at the negotiating table,” said Lavrov, adding that May 7 legislative polls showed that a majority still backed the Syrian president.

“You have to understand that at least half of the Syrians who for various reasons connect their future and safety with him voted for Assad, no matter how you look at the past elections, his figure, his party, his policies,” Lavrov was quoted as saying.

Referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent talks with his US counterpart Barack Obama, Lavrov said no firm agreement had been reached on Syria, although it appeared that Obama understood Moscow’s view.

“President Putin laid out his logic, according to which we should have Syrians gather at a negotiating table,” the Interfax news agency quoted Lavrov as saying in reference to their meeting on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Los Cabos, Mexico.

“When Putin made his point of view known in response to Obama’s idea, I was fully under the impression—and my feeling was in line with that of Vladimir Vladimirovich [Putin]—that he [Obama] has heard us,” Lavrov was quoted as saying.


Source: nowlebanon.com

Russia says #Syria truce could mean Assad’s departure

By News Wires (text)

 

AFP - Russia said Tuesday it was prepared to see Syrian President Bashar al-Assad leave power in a negotiated solution to 15 months of bloodshed that has claimed more than 13,000 lives.

Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said a day after meeting mediator Kofi Annan in Geneva that Russia would back any peaceful settlement to the crisis as long as it did not involve the use of outside force.

“We have never said or insisted that Assad necessarily had to remain in power at the end of the political process,” Gatilov told the ITAR-TASS news agency in Switzerland.

“This issue has to be settled by the Syrians themselves.”

The comments represent one of Russia’s most explicit declarations of a position first signalled by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov a day after a February 7 meeting in Damascus with Assad.

Lavrov at the time refused to explicitly back Assad and said the leadership structure of Moscow’s Soviet-era ally “should be the result of agreement between the Syrians themselves.”

Russia has been facing mounting pressure to back Assad’s departure as a first step in a settlement that would see his inner circle assume command on an interim basis.

The option is modeled on the recent transition in Yemen and has been backed by the US administration.

The New York Times has reported that US President Barack Obama plans to raise the initiative when he meets Vladimir Putin for the first time since his May return to the Russian presidency at next month’s G20 summit in Mexico.

Russia blocked two past UN resolutions condemning Assad out of fear that they may be used to order strikes against an ally it supplies with $1 billion in weapons per year and uses for diplomatic influence in the Middle East.

The New York Times however said US diplomats felt that Russia viewed such a transition as a way of keeping its old ties in Syria while avoiding a more serious confrontation with the West.

Gatilov said Tuesday that the Yemeni model might be appropriate for a strife-torn country in which the parties were still willing to sit down and talk.

But Russia accuses the rebels of using arms shipments from Arab countries to stage “provocations” against Assad’s forces aimed at inciting ever more deadly violence that would force Western powers to intervene with force.

“When we discuss applying the Yemeni model to the situation in Syria, we have to keep in mind that unfortunately, there is no desire from the opposition to engage in any political talks with the government,” Gatilov said.

“It would be good to … see a political will from both sides that would allow us to move toward a settlement,” he added.

“And in that case, it would probably be appropriate to talk about the Yemeni model.”

Gatilov’s comments came as another top official announced the imminent arrival in Moscow of Washington’s Syria crisis pointman Frederic Hof.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Tuesday on Russia as well as China to be “part of the solution” to the crisis in Syria after they agreed to work together more closely in the United Nations.

“We believe there is a way forward and we are ready to pursue that. And we invite the Russians and the Chinese to be part of the solution,” she said at a news conference in the Georgian Black Sea city of Batumi.

Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov however signalled that Russia intended to focus the talks with Clinton’s envoy on saving mediator Annan’s tattered peace plan rather than discussing what options to pursue next.

Annan delivers a report on his Syrian plan’s implementation to the UN Security Council on Thursday.

Source: france24.com

Clinton presses Russia to back political change in #Syria

STOCKHOLM — US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Russia Sunday to get behind a political transition in Syria, saying President Bashar al-Assad’s departure was not a precondition but should be “an outcome”.

Clinton spoke to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov by telephone at the weekend to say that Washington and Moscow needed to work together on a plan that would halt the violence and bring about political change in the country.

“In my conversation with him, I made it very clear there would be no point to any meeting unless it included all elements of Kofi Annan’s (peace) plan, and that certainly means we have to focus on a path forward for a political transition,” Clinton told reporters Sunday during a visit to Stockholm.

“Assad’s departure does not have to be a precondition but it should be an outcome, so the people of Syria have a chance to express themselves,” she said.

No meeting between Clinton and Lavrov has been scheduled, but a senior US State Department official said Clinton had said the two sides should begin working on ideas.

Warnings of an all-out civil war in Syria, and spill-over sectarian violence in Lebanon, have grown since the massacre last week of more than 100 civilians, many of them women and children, in the city of Houla.

The United States and other countries have blamed the attacks on militias backed by the regime, but Assad said Sunday in a speech it was part of a foreign plot to destroy the country.

Russia has resisted UN Security Council efforts to sanction the Assad regime, a longtime ally of Moscow, questioning the effectiveness of sanctions and warning that outside meddling could lead to civil war.

Clinton has sharply criticised Moscow for “propping up” the Assad regime with continued arms shipments, prompting President Vladimir Putin to defend Russia’s stance in meetings with the leaders of Germany and France.

The US chief diplomat, meanwhile, has been lining up support for a tougher response during a tour of the Scandinavian countries.

Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt joined her at a news conference here in condemning “the terrible violence by the Assad regime against its own people,” and calling for international pressure for those responsible to be held to account.

Clinton said she also would be meeting with leaders from countries in the region in Istanbul Wednesday, where she was to attend an international conference on counter-terrorism.

She said her message to Lavrov was: “We all have to intensify our efforts to achieve a political transition, and Russia has to be at the table helping that occur. The Syrian people want and deserve change.”

Source: google.com

Russia condemns #Syria attacks, sees foreign hand

MOSCOW | Thu May 10, 2012 11:07am EDT

(Reuters) - Russia condemned twin suicide bombings in Syria on Thursday, accusing unspecified foreign countries of encouraging such violence and saying Moscow would not yield to pressure to change its stance on a resolution to the conflict.

In a meeting with the Syrian ambassador to Moscow, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov “decisively condemned the terrorist acts that have taken place in Syria in recent days”, the ministry said in a statement.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov went further, saying foreign states shared the blame, Russian news agencies reported.

Two suicide car bombers killed 55 people and wounded 372 in Damascus on Thursday, Syrian state media said - the deadliest attacks in the capital since an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began 14 months ago.

“Some of our foreign partners are doing practical things so that the situation in Syria explodes in literal and figurative sense. I mean those explosions,” state-run RIA quoted Lavrov as saying in response to a question about the bombings at a press conference in Beijing.

He did not specify any countries, referring only to nations involved in trying to secure a fragile ceasefire that has failed to halt bloodshed pitting Assad’s security forces against peaceful protesters and various groups of armed insurgents.

The comments were in line with previous Russian complaints that Western nations had failed to properly evaluate the threat posed by Syrian rebels and to exert pressure on them to lay down their arms. Western leaders say Assad’s military has been primarily responsible for the bloodshed.

“Leaders of the international community have influence over them (armed groups). They should use this influence for good, not evil,” Lavrov was quoted by RIA and Interfax as saying.

Moscow has said foreign interference is unacceptable and called for political dialogue between the Syrian government and its opponents without preconditions, such as Assad’s exit from power.

“There are some people who want to exert pressure on us to reverse our stance, but we will not yield to this pressure,” Lavrov said, speaking during at a press conference after meeting Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi on a visit to Beijing.

Source: reuters.com

Syria violence rages despite peace pledge Activist reports of shelling, tank assaults and dozens killed, despite government’s pledge to begin withdrawing forces.

Lavrov, right, said Syria’s opposition would never defeat Assad’s army even if “armed to the teeth” [Reuters]

Syrian forces have attacked several opposition bastions despite a ceasefire pledge, according to activist reports, as Russia said the opposition would never defeat President Bashar al-Assad’s army even if “armed to the teeth”.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said troops began shelling several towns and villages early on Wednesday.

From the Turkish border in the northeast to Daraa in the south, military operations are ongoing,” Rami Abdel Rahman of the Britain-based group, told the AFP news agency.

“Tanks are still shelling or storming towns and villages before going back to their bases.”

The opposition group said 58 civilians and 18 soldiers were killed on Tuesday in assaults taking place even as Assad pledged to implement by April 10 a peace plan brokered by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan.

Russia warns of ‘carnage’

Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, said on Wednesday that under-equipped rebels would never be able to defeat Syria’s military, and warned of “carnage” for years to come if the violence continued.

“It is clear as day that even if the Syrian opposition is armed to the teeth, it will not be able to defeat the government’s army,” the Interfax news agency quoted Lavrov as saying while on a visit to the former Soviet nation of Azerbaijan.

“Instead, there will be carnage that lasts many, many years - mutual destruction.”

Lavrov said that two groups of Syrian opposition representatives would visit Moscow in the coming days and that Russia would be using the meetings to convince them that it wants to help resolve the year-long crisis.

Annan on Monday told the UN Security Council that Assad had agreed to “immediately” start pulling troops out of protest cities and complete a troop and heavy weapon withdrawal by April 10.

The United States however accused the Syrian leader of failing to honour his pledged troop withdrawal.

“The assertion to Kofi Annan was that Assad would start implementing his commitments immediately to withdraw from cities,” US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters on Tuesday.

I want to advise that we have seen no evidence today that he is implementing any of those commitments,” Nuland said.

Seeking to assuage some of the humanitarian concerns, Walid Muallem, the Syrian foreign minister, on Tuesday said his government would do its utmost to ensure the success of a Red Cross mission in a meeting with the organisation’s head, Jakob Kellenberger, who was in Damascus to seek a daily ceasefire

Source: aljazeera.com

Russian FM urges Assad to begin withdrawing troops from #Syria’s cities |

Mon, 2 Apr 2012, 14:34 GMT+3 - Armenia
Syria’s government must take the first step toward settling the country’s conflict by pulling troops from city streets, Russia’s foreign minister has said, raising pressure on an old ally.
While Sergei Lavrov added that the country’s opposition forces should quickly follow suit and withdraw too, his statement appeared to reflect Moscow’s increasing impatience with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Russia, along with China, has twice shielded Assad from United Nations sanctions over his crackdown on an uprising in which more than 9,000 people have been killed. But Moscow also has strongly supported a plan to settle the crisis by Kofi Annan, the joint UN and Arab League envoy for Syria.
“The Syrian government must take the first step and start the troop withdrawal in line with Kofi Annan’s plan,” Lavrov said at a briefing in Yerevan following talks with his Armenian counterpart.
Lavrov’s statement challenged the stance taken by the Syrian government, which has said it would not withdraw forces from towns and cities until life returns to normal. He added, however, that the opposition needs to reciprocate quickly.

“Unless the beginning of such withdrawal isn’t accompanied by a similar action by all those fighting the government of Syria, I don’t think we will achieve any result,” he added.

Lavrov warned the West against giving ultimatums to Damascus, saying that the priority now should be to separate the warring parties and open the way for the delivery of humanitarian aid.
“Ultimatums and artificial deadlines rarely help,” he said. “We all want a quick end to bloodshed, but that demand should be addressed to all warring parties in Syria.”
He said that Moscow will soon host two separate opposition delegations for talks.

Source: blogs.aljazeera.net

Syria rebels quit eastern city; Russia critical

20 Mar 2012 18:47

Source: Reuters // Reuters

Demonstrators protest against Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad in Marat al-Numan near the northern province of Idlib March 2, 2012. REUTERS/Handout

* Russia issues sharp criticism of Syrian leadership

* Human Rights Group accuses opposition of abuses

* At least 31 die in violence around country (Adds Russian criticism of Syrian authorities, quotes)

By Oliver Holmes and Crispian Balmer

BEIRUT, March 20 (Reuters) - Rebel fighters fled the eastern Syrian city of Deir al-Zor on Tuesday in the face of a fierce army assault, as Russia issued its toughest criticism yet of President Bashar al-Assad’s handling of the year-long revolt.

The flight from the remote desert city, which lies on the road to Iraq, marked the latest setback for the armed opposition, which also faced accusations of torture and brutality from a leading human rights body.

However, just as he was making advances on the ground, Assad also appeared to suffer a setback on the diplomatic front, with key-ally Moscow adopting a new, sharper tone after months of publicly endorsing his government.

“We believe the Syrian leadership reacted wrongly to the first appearance of peaceful protests and … is making very many mistakes,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Russian radio station Kommersant-FM.

Lavrov also spoke of a “future transition” period for Syria but continued to reject calls from most Western and Arab states for Assad to resign, saying this was “unrealistic”.

It was not immediately clear if the change in language would translate into a tangible difference in the way international powers, hitherto divided on Syria, might deal with the crisis.

The uprising started with non-violent demonstrations last March, but the situation deteriorated rapidly amid a ferocious army crackdown and there are now daily clashes between rebels and security forces around the country.

The United Nations says more than 8,000 people have been killed so far, but the toll is rising rapidly, with at least 31 men, women and children dying on Tuesday, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

The majority of the deaths, 21 in total, were in the central Homs province due to heavy army shelling. Government troops also pounded residential areas in the city of Hama and the town of Rastan, while a soldier died in a raid on a checkpoint in the south, opposition sources said.

CIVIL WAR FEARS

Lightly armed rebel forces have been forced into retreat across the country in recent weeks, with the army using heavy weapons to chase them from towns and cities, chalking up its latest victory in Deir al-Zor.

“Tanks entered residential neighbourhoods, especially in southeastern areas of Deir al-Zor. The Free Syrian Army pulled out to avoid a civilian massacre,” a statement by the Deir al-Zor Revolution Committees Union said.

After failing to hold significant stretches of land, analysts say the rebels appear to be switching to insurgency tactics, pointing to bloody car bomb attacks in two major Syrian cities at the weekend and the sabotage of a major rail link.

Diplomats warn the fighting could develop into a civil war pitching Assad’s Alawite sect and its minority allies against the majority Sunni Muslim population.

The government says 2,000 members of the security forces have been killed by foreign-backed “terrorists” and denies accusations of brutality and indiscriminate violence.

In a new twist, the advocacy group Human Rights Watch said the rebels were guilty of serious crimes, citing cases of kidnapping, torture and cold-blooded killings.

“The Syrian government’s brutal tactics cannot justify abuses by armed opposition groups,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at the New York-based Human Rights Watch, in an open letter to dissident groups.

Washington said it would “absolutely denounce” human rights violations by the rebels, but stressed that most of the abuse was being carried out by pro-Assad forces.

RUSSIAN CONDITIONS

Russia has previously vetoed two Western and Arab-backed U.N resolutions condemning government violence, arguing that the actions of rebels should also be criticised.

In a fresh effort to form a united international front, France has circulated a Western-drafted statement for the U.N. Security Council deploring the turmoil and backing peace efforts by U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan.

Russia announced it would back the text on two conditions - that there was no ultimatum imposed on Assad and that Annan release full details of his peace plan.

Annan dispatched a team of five experts to Damscus on Monday to discuss ways of implementing the peace drive, including a mechanism to let international monitors into the country. Syria has questioned the value of such a mission and talks continue.

Lavrov also dismissed media reports of Russian warships entering Russia’s naval facility in the Syrian port of Tartous as “fairy tales”. Some reports had said Russian ships were delivering weapons or special forces troops.

Lavrov said a Russian tanker with fuel for Russian warships involved in anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden was docked at the port. Russia has repeatedly said its arms sales to Syria violate no laws and it sees no grounds to suspend them.

The Free Syria Army, a disparate group of fighters led by army deserters, has proved little match for Assad’s well-armed security apparatus, and experts said the opposition appeared to be changing tactics.

Car bomb attacks in the capital Damascus and second city Aleppo killed at least 30 over the weekend, while rebels also destroyed a railway bridge linking Damascus to Deraa, according to official Syrian media.

“The Syrian opposition prematurely tried to hold territory and take on the Syrian Army. This was a bad and costly mistake,” said Joshua Landis, the head of Middle East Studies at the U.S. University of Oklahoma.

“In the new phase of the battle that is shaping up to combat the Assad regime, opposition leaders are likely to champion new tactics of militancy and Islamization,” he wrote on his blog Syria Comment. (Additional reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman, Steve Gutterman in Moscow and Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Writing by Crispian Balmer; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

Source: trust.org