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Can aid without weapons help resolve Syrian conflict?
2 hours ago
Syrian rebel fighters take their positions as they observe the Syrian army forces base of Wadi al-Deif, at the front line of Maarat al-Nuaman town, in Idlib province, Syria, on Feb. 26, 2013.
By Ayman Mohyeldin, Correspondent, NBC News
News Analysis
Nearly two years after the Syrian uprising began, Secretary of State John Kerry announced the U.S. has for the first time agreed to directly supply Syria's opposition with $60 million in non-lethal aid. But, while this money is needed, it is unlikely to immediately change anything on the ground.
Speaking under the condition of anonymity, supporters of the opposition working to topple Syrian President Bashar al Assad said they were privately disappointed that the U.S. didn't extend more assistance, specifically weapons, and that the EU has not yet lifted an arms embargo.
But the concern among U.S. officials is that extremist elements are increasingly filling in the vacuum in areas where the regime has been pushed back and the opposition is struggling to govern. There are worries weapons could end up in the wrong hands.
According to Salman Sheikh, director of the Brookings Doha Center, Kerry’s announcement is "unlikely to change the calculation of the Syrian regime's biggest allies — Russia, Iran and Hezbollah." They will not take the U.S. decision as a serious threat to the regime's survival.
Sheikh, who has advocated for arming the rebels, says $60 million is an insignificant amount for an opposition that is now expected to operate like a government in some parts of Syria. The salaries of civil servants who are expected to maintain law and order, as well as the country’s justice, sanitation and education services, can cost close to $500 million a month. And Sheikh estimates humanitarian assistance to meet the needs of the people displaced and suffering both inside and outside is about $40 million a day.
The U.S. aid package, which will assist the Syrian Opposition Coalition in 'liberated' areas, is aimed at helping the fledgling coalition expand the delivery of basic goods and services, including security, sanitation and educational services. The United States also will send technical advisers to support opposition staff in Egypt and work with the movement's military arm to provide non-lethal support to the Free Syrian Army, including things such as military rations and medical supplies to tend to sick and wounded fighters.
Foreign ministers from Saudi Arabia and Qatar described Thursday's announcement as a transformational point in the Syrian conflict. And British Foreign Secretary William Hague said his government would be making an announcement on additional aid to the opposition next week.
However, Yaser Tabbara, the spokesperson for the Coalition and its legal advisor, said Kerry’s Rome meeting with the head of the Syrian National Coalition, Moaz al Khatib, gave reason for "cautious" optimism.
The Syrian opposition is under increasing pressure to deliver a solution but doing so requires substantial "investment in the infrastructure of the armed opposition," Tabbara said. "A political solution without tipping the balance of power on the ground is not viable."
The Syrian opposition had promised to form an interim government by March 2 but that has been postponed for logistical reasons.
Meanwhile, Syria's official government news agency described Kerry's announcement as a paradox, saying it expressed "Washington's desire to find means to speed up the political process, which aims at ending the crisis in Syria and its desire to help and back the armed terrorist groups in the country."
Related:
_ U.S. to send rations, medical supplies to Syrian rebels, but not weapons
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Read more: http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/28/17135338-can-aid-without-weapons-help-resolve-syrian-conflict?lite
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The lesson of the Iraq war is that benign intervention can work
Iraq is returning to normal, but without Western help, the dreams of Arab democracy are unlikely to become a reality
Back to normal: after a decade of turmoil, ordinary life is returning to Iraq Photo: GETTY
By Con Coughlin
7:27PM GMT 28 Feb 2013
33 Comments
Ten years after the start of the Iraq war, it is often overlooked that Britain’s participation in the highly complex military operation to overthrow Saddam Hussein’s dictatorial regime was deemed to be an unqualified success.
Because of the bitter controversies over the legality of the invasion in March 2003, as well as the non-existent stockpiles of WMD, all the attention tends to focus on what happened after Saddam’s removal from power, rather than what went before. For, in purely military terms, Operation Iraqi Freedom, the US-led campaign to remove Saddam, achieved remarkable results. Within the space of just 21 days, American forces, backed by a 10,000-strong British combat division, overthrew the Ba’athists and delivered the country in a still functioning state to the Iraqi people.
But then winning military campaigns has always been the easy part of the West’s various attempts to intervene in failed states. From the original post-September 11 intervention in Afghanistan to France’s more recent involvement in tackling al-Qaeda in Mali, Islamist militants rarely offer much resistance against well-organised Western forces equipped with devastating firepower.
It is after the fighting ends that the really difficult challenges arise. In Afghanistan the Taliban simply fled across the border and regrouped in Pakistan, while in post-Saddam Iraq the wilful failure of the Americans to impose order resulted in the country’s rapid descent into sectarian conflict. The French may have enjoyed early military success in Mali, but already Islamist militants are making their presence felt by launching suicidal attacks against French and Malian army positions. No matter how great the provocation, though, French commanders insist that a resurgence in Islamist activity will not affect their withdrawal strategy, which is due to begin this month.
We will see whether the French find the process of leaving Mali as painless as their arrival, but this desire to speed the departure is certainly motivated by a determination not to repeat the mistakes of Iraq, a conflict in which the French declined to participate.
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And so far as Iraq is concerned, it is undeniable that the initial, post-Saddam administration of the country was a disaster. By meddling in Iraq’s internal affairs, with ill-considered policies such as the de-Ba’athification programme, coalition forces overstayed their welcome, with the liberators quickly turning into occupiers in the eyes of the resentful populace.
Having been banned from visiting Saddam’s Iraq for more than a decade, I arrived in Baghdad in the spring of 2003 excited at the prospect of the new opportunities that awaited the Iraqi people, only to witness the Bush administration’s blatant disregard for their wishes as it sought to impose its neo-conservative agenda with catastrophic consequences. Apart from the 179 British soldiers who lost their lives during more than five years of intensive conflict, it is estimated that more than 100,000 civilians were killed and many thousands severely injured. (Claims that one million Iraqis died can be dismissed as Left-wing propaganda.)
Indeed, the country was only saved from the devastation of all-out civil war by the military surge masterminded by former US General David Petraeus in the summer of 2007, which succeeded in destroying al-Qaeda’s attempts to turn the Sunni heartlands into a self-contained Islamist state and reduced the violence to manageable levels.
There will be those who argue that, with an estimated 1,500 Iraqis still losing their lives to sectarian conflict each year, that country could hardly be described as a haven of security and stability. But then its people have always had a tendency towards violence. During the 1920s, when the British created the kingdom of Iraq, the Royal Air Force was regularly ordered to bomb Shia villages to keep the natives in check.
But, for all the traumas, it is also worth remembering that Iraq today has far better prospects than it would ever have had under Saddam. The government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki might have inherited some of his Ba’athist predecessor’s taste for corruption and brutality, but Iraq has a constitution that enshrines democratic principles – whether Mr Maliki likes it or not – and obliges the government to uphold the rule of law. But arguably the country’s greatest asset is its booming oil-based economy, with predictions that it could enjoy double-digit growth for the rest of the decade – so long as it can steer clear of further sectarian infighting. The lesson of Iraq, therefore, must be that, handled the right way, interventionism works.
There will certainly be many who have participated in the Arab uprisings of the past two years who now cast covetous glances at the legacy the West has bequeathed to Iraq. Egyptians, Libyans and Syrians – to name but a few – would dearly love to have the freedoms that are enjoyed by post-Saddam Iraq. But without Western help, they have little chance of fulfilling their dreams.
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Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iraq/9900222/The-lesson-of-the-Iraq-war-is-that-benign-intervention-can-work.html
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Key Military Players in Syria's Civil War
By The Associated Press
BEIRUT February 28, 2013 (AP)
A list of key military players in the Syrian civil war:
—SYRIAN REGIME: Despite major defections and the loss of significant territory to rebels, the Syrian military remains a potent force against a poorly armed opposition. President Bashar Assad's inner circle has largely remained cohesive and united, avoiding high-level defections that sapped the strength of other regimes, such as Moammar Gadhafi's in Libya, during Arab Spring uprisings. Assad's closest advisers include his younger brother, Maher, who commands forces protecting the capital, as well as the heads of four intelligence agencies that are playing key roles in the government's crackdown.
—PRO-REGIME MILITIAMEN: Shadowy fighters, known as shabiha, recruited from the ruling elite's Alawite sect operate as hired muscle for the Syrian regime. They are believed to be carrying out some of the most brutal attacks of the conflict, allowing Assad's government to deny direct responsibility for them.
Free Syrian Army fighters from the Knights of the North brigade move to reconnaissance a Syrian army forces base of al-Karmid, at Jabal al-Zaweya, in Idlib province, Syria, Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. Syrian warplanes carried out airstrikes on rebels trying to storm a police academy outside Aleppo on Wednesday, while jihadi fighters battled government troops along a key supply road leading to the southeastern part of the city, activists said. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
—SUPREME MILITARY COUNCIL: Syria's main rebel units, known together as the Free Syrian Army, regrouped in December under a unified rebel command called the Supreme Military Council, following promises of more military assistance once a central council was in place. The Western-backed council is headed by Gen. Salim Idriss, who defected from the Syrian army, and a 30-member group of senior officers. Idriss spent 35 years in the Syrian military and is seen as a secular-minded moderate. The non-lethal aid the U.S. pledged Thursday in Rome will be directed to the military council.
—LOCAL BRIGADES AND MILITARY COUNCILS: Local units made up of tens of thousands of autonomous rebel fighters have very little, if any, central organization or command structure. Many of the fighters defected from the military; others are Syrian citizens who took up arms against the regime.
—JABHAT AL-NUSRA: An Islamist extremist group that has been behind some of the rebels' most significant battlefield successes. The U.S. has designated al-Nusra a terrorist organization, saying it is affiliated with the al-Qaida network. Al-Nusra has claimed responsibility for most of the deadliest suicide bombings targeting regime and military facilities. The presence of Islamic extremists among the rebels is one reason the West has not equipped the Syrian opposition with sophisticated weapons, such as anti-aircraft missiles. Al-Nusra has gained popularity among some rebels for its effectiveness while alienating other, more secular-minded fighters.
—FOREIGN FIGHTERS: Syria has become a magnet for foreign fighters and jihadists who also flocked to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. No credible count of them exists, but anecdotal evidence suggests fighters from Libya, Yemen, Tunisia, the Netherlands and Britain are fighting against Assad's regime. Rebel commanders downplay the presence of foreign fighters, saying the conflict is purely a Syrian uprising.
Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/key-military-players-syrias-civil-war-18617463
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A crowd in tears at Benedict's farewell
AFP
Updated March 1, 2013, 6:54 am
CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (AFP) - Pope Benedict XVI's final goodbye was met with tears and applause in the tiny hilltop town of Castel Gandolfo near Rome Thursday, where thousands had gathered to hear his emotional last words before he retired.
"Thank you for your friendship," the 85-year old said as he stepped out onto a balcony of the papal residence here, smiling widely and holding out his arms to the crowd of flag-waving families, priests and pilgrims, who cheered wildly and chanted "Be-ne-detto!"
Church bells rang out to announce his arrival, as local residents crowded onto balconies and rooftops surrounding the square of this mediaeval town, which has a bond with the papacy going back centuries and where locals have grown to know and love Benedict.
A crowd in tears at Benedict's farewell
After waiting for hours in the chill wind, chanting Hail Marys and huddling together for warmth, the crowd gazed eagerly up into the sky to catch a glimpse of the papal helicopter arriving from the Vatican, which Benedict left just minutes earlier for the last time as pope.
"It was all over so soon. What a joy to see him, but how sad to think it is for the last time," said Giuseppina, a 23-year-old local waitress, wiping away a tear.
Others could be seen tearing up as Benedict told the crowd he was soon to be just "a simple pilgrim" like them, before blessing them and retiring into the palace, and out of sight from the world.
"It means a huge amount to us that Benedict has chosen to say his final goodbyes here, it's a very emotional day," said Patrizia Gasperini, 40, a local shopkeeper.
"We've been privileged to see a different, more humane side to him over the years, and grown to love him," she said, adding that she had named her eight-year-old daughter Benedetta in honour of the pope.
"I haven't really accepted he's gone," she added.
"Thank you Benedict, we are all with you!" read huge inflatable silver letters strung next to the small parish church, where parish priest Pietro Diletti spoke of the pope he had befriended.
"I've met the pope many times, we've eaten together, we've joked together, and it's an immense gesture of friendship on his part that he has chosen us for his last goodbye," said Diletti.
Benedict celebrated a mass every year during his eight-year pontificate in Diletti's small parish church of San Tommaso di Villanova.
"Everything I thought I knew about him changed when I first met him. He would cry out, 'Oh, here is our dear parish priest!' and once I cheekily replied: 'Here is my dear parishioner, who doesn't always attend my services!'" Diletti said.
Later, while some local residents prayed in the small parish church, others gathered for a much quieter ceremony to mark the actual moment Benedict's pontificate ended.
At 1900 GMT precisely, Swiss guards in their red, blue and orange-striped uniforms stood to attention with halberds in hand outside the imposing wooden doors of the papal palace, and silence fell across the square.
The small crowd held its breath, searching for any sign of Benedict inside as the final moment came.
The guards then swung the doors closed and withdrew from service, indicating the end of Benedict's reign.
"Benedict's been such a big part of our lives, we want to make him an honorary citizen of Castel Gandolfo," said local mayor, Milva Monachesi.
"He has said he will be invisible to the world, but we're hoping one day -- when all the commotion has died away -- we can throw a party for him in the square, and he will sit down and eat with us."
Benedict will spend the first two months of his retirement here in the papal summer residence perched high on a rocky outcrop with views of a lake and the sea, before withdrawing to a monastery within the grounds of the Vatican.
"It's a place he's come to love, an oasis of calm," Monachesi said, pointing to Benedict's own phrase immortalised in a plaque on the town hall opposite the palace.
It reads: "Here I find everything: a mountain, a lake, I even see the sea... and good people."
Video:
Read more: http://au.news.yahoo.com/world/a/-/world/16269496/a-crowd-in-tears-at-benedicts-farewell/
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US Boosts Aid to Syrian Opposition, Rebel Fighters
Secretary of State John Kerry gestures as he delivers his first foreign policy speech, Wednesday, Feb. 20, 2013, in Old Cabel Hall at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Va. (Steve Helber/AP Photo)
By MATTHEW LEE Associated Press
ROME February 28, 2013 (AP)
In a significant policy shift, the Obama administration said Thursday it would for the first time provide non-lethal aid directly to rebels who are battling to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad, announcing an additional $60 million in assistance to Syria's political opposition.
The modest package of aid to the military wing of the opposition will consist of an as yet undetermined amount of food rations and medical supplies for members of the Free Syrian Army who will be carefully screened to ensure they do not have links to extremists.
The move was announced by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at an international conference on Syria in Rome, and several European nations are expected in the coming days to take similar steps in working with the military wing of the opposition in order to ramp up pressure on Assad to step down and pave the way for a democratic transition. However, a number of Syrian opposition figures expressed disappointment with the limited assistance.
"We do this because we need to stand on the side of those in this fight who want to see Syria rise again and see democracy and human rights," Kerry said. "The stakes are really high, and we can't risk letting this country in the heart of the Middle East be destroyed by vicious autocrats or hijacked by the extremists."
"No nation, no people should live in fear of their so-called leaders," he said, adding that President Barack Obama's "decision to take further steps now is the result of the brutality of a superior armed force propped up by foreign fighters from Iran and Hezbollah."
Kerry and senior officials from 11 countries most active in calling for Assad to leave said in a joint statement released by the Italian foreign ministry that they had agreed in Rome on "the need to change the balance of power on the ground." It said the countries represented "will coordinate their efforts closely so as to best empower the Syrian people and support the Supreme Military Command of the Free Syrian Army in its efforts to help them exercise self-defense."
Britain and France, two countries that Kerry visited before traveling to Italy on his first official trip as secretary of state, have signaled that they want to begin supplying the rebels with defensive military equipment such as combat body armor, armored vehicles, night vision goggles and training. They are expected to make decisions on those items in the near future, in line with new guidance from the European Union, which still bars the provision of weapons and ammunition to anyone in Syria.
"We must go above and beyond the efforts we are making now," said Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi, who hosted the conference. "We can no longer allow this massacre to continue."
Appearing beside Terzi and Kerry, the leader of the Syrian opposition coalition, Mouaz al-Khatib, delivered a forceful and emotional demand for Assad to stop the brutality of his forces that have in recent days launched scud missile attacks on the city of Aleppo that have been roundly condemned by much of the Western and Arab worlds
"Bashar Assad, for once in your life, behave as a human being," Khatib said. "Bashar Assad, you have to make at least one wise decision in your life for the future of your country."
The opposition has been appealing for some time for the international community to boost its support and to provide its military wing with lethal assistance, and while al-Khatib did not mention those requests, he pointedly made no reference to the new assistance that Kerry announced. Instead, he urged outside nations to support the creation of protected humanitarian corridors inside Syria, which the foreign ministers said they had "positively considered" by made no decisions.
Walid al-Bunni, a spokesman for the Syrian National Coalition, said the Syrian people have every right to feel "bitter" at the world's inaction even while "the scuds rain down on Aleppo" and expressed dissatisfaction with the aid announced by Kerry.
"We would have wished to receive a means with which to protect the innocent civilians dying from the regime's warplanes and scud missiles, but unfortunately, that was not even on the table," he said by telephone from Budapest.
The head of the rebel's Supreme Military Council, Gen. Salim Idris, told Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency before the meeting Thursday that the rebels' needs include anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenade launchers.
"We hope that a decision is reached at the Friends of the Syrian People meeting which will enable us to obtain the weapons we need," the agency quoted Idris as saying. Idris said Assad's regime receives "unlimited" support from Russia and Iran.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry embraces his long time friend, U.S. Ambassador to Italy David Thorne, left, as Kerry arrives at Ciampino Airport, in Rome on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. where talks on Syria will be held. Rome is the fourth leg of Kerry's first official overseas trip, a hectic nine-day dash through Europe and the Middle East. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)
Kerry defended the limited U.S. assistance, saying it was just part of what was being offered and that other countries would fill in any gaps. He said he was confident that the "totality" of the aid should be enough to prod Assad to start changing his calculations on remaining in power.
"We're doing this, but other countries are doing other things," he replied, without going into specifics. "I am confident the totality of this effort is going to have an impact on the ability of the Syrian opposition to accomplish its goals." Kerry said Thursday's meeting marked the "beginning of a process that will in fact change his (Assad's) calculation."
Washington has already provided $385 million in humanitarian aid to Syria's war-weary population and $54 million in communications equipment, medical supplies and other nonlethal assistance to Syria's political opposition. The U.S. also has screened rebel groups for Turkey and American allies in the Arab world that have armed rebel fighters.
But until now, no U.S. dollars or provisions have gone directly to rebel fighters, reflecting concerns about forces that have allied themselves with more radical Islamic elements since Assad's initial crackdown on peaceful protesters in March 2011.
The $60 million in new aid to the political opposition is intended to help the opposition govern newly liberated areas of Syria by aiding in the delivery of services and improving rule of law and human rights as well as to blunt the influence of extremists who have made inroads in some places.
The rations and medical supplies for the fighters will be delivered to the military council for distribution only to carefully vetted members of the Free Syrian Army, U.S. officials said.
The U.S. will be sending technical advisers to the Syrian National Coalition offices in Cairo to oversee and help them spend the money for good governance and rule of law. The advisers will be from non-governmental organizations and other groups that do this kind of work.
The foreign ministers' presentation was disrupted by one protester who called on them to "stop supporting terrorists."
———
Associated Press writers Suzan Frazer in Ankara, Turkey, and Ben Hubbard in Beirut contributed to this report.
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Croatia to quit UN Golan force after reports of arms shipments
Reuters – 4 hrs ago
ZAGREB (Reuters) - Croatia will pull its soldiers out of the U.N. peace force in the Golan Heights as a precautionary step, the government said on Thursday, after media reports that Croatian arms were being sent to Syrian rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad.
The Croatian government denied the reports and said it had never sold or donated weapons to the rebels, but Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said the damage was already done.
"We can deny over and over again, but everyone has already read these reports and our soldiers are no longer safe. We want them to return home safe and sound," he told a cabinet meeting. He did not elaborate further on Croatia's reasons for the move.
Croatia, which joined NATO in 2008, has 98 soldiers in the U.N. force that has helped maintain calm in a demilitarized zone along Syria's Golan frontier with Israel since a ceasefire that ended the 1973 Middle East war.
The United Nations has warned that the almost two-year-old Syrian civil war, which has killed nearly 70,000 people, could spill over into the sensitive Golan region.
Earlier this week the New York Times and Croatian media said Syrian rebels had been given Croatian armor-piercing grenades, rocket launchers and recoilless cannons, and that these arms had been flown by Jordanian cargo planes from Zagreb airport.
President Ivo Josipovic, the supreme commander of Croatia's armed forces, said he would order the soldiers to be withdrawn.
"We shall respect Croatia's international obligations and safety requirements of the soldiers from our partner countries," a statement by Josipovic's office said on Thursday.
The United Nations reported on Tuesday that a member of the peace force in the Golan's demilitarized zone had gone missing.
(Reporting by Zoran Radosavljevic; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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In Syria, US mission creep with moral creep
Syria. Doing so runs moral risks. But doing nothing to stop the violence is also a moral risk. Can the US walk this fine line?
By the Monitor's Editorial Board | Christian Science Monitor – 19 hrs ago
Secretary of State John Kerry said Monday that the United States would not leave the Syrian opposition “dangling in the wind” about American support for its democratic cause.
“We are determined to change the calculation on the ground for President [Bashar] al-Assad,” Mr. Kerry said.
Note the words “on the ground.” His comment hints at a major shift in President Obama’s strategy toward Syria. On Thursday in Rome, some 100 nations that back regime change in Damascus will meet to decide how to increase their influence in the nearly two-year-long conflict in which neither side is winning.
Because of lack of direct intervention, the US and other countries are losing leverage with the opposition umbrella group, the Syrian National Coalition. And radical Islamic groups are gaining support. Pressure is mounting on the US to provide at least defensive military equipment, such as body armor, night vision goggles, and military vehicles.
If Mr. Obama moves toward providing such aid directly to rebels, he would enter a rabbit hole of moral choices. What if certain rebels have slaughtered pro-Assad civilians? What if they use such equipment for that purpose again? What if they pass US equipment to terrorist groups?
RELATED OPINION: Four things Syria must do after Assad
Such issues mean that Obama must make it clear to the American people that the US is engaging with possibly unsavory people merely as a way to guide events toward a positive outcome. His tactics may be morally uncertain but his goal must not be.
To be sure, not doing more to oust Mr. Assad has its own moral dilemma. More than 70,000 people have been killed since the uprising began. Assad has had ample opportunity to step down. The US and other nations have backed numerous diplomatic initiatives. Now Obama seems ready to try “hold your nose” diplomacy by backing carefully selected rebels.
The US is hardly new to such morally ambiguous tactics. In 2005, the US worked with Sunni tribal leaders in Iraq to end their support of Al Qaeda. Washington also engaged political leaders of the Irish Republican Army to bring peace to Northern Ireland. In 1980, the US voted to seat the Khmer Rouge at the United Nations. It held talks in 1995 with Serbia’s Slobodan Milosevic – in Ohio. Franklin Roosevelt had to deal with Joseph Stalin, and Richard Nixon with Mao Zedong.
In such cases, the intent is to end violence, not broaden it, and to extend freedom, not restrict it. The main strength of the US in the world has been its moral standing. To enter into a temporary alliance with questionable groups must be done carefully.
As Portia says in Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice,” “How far that little candle throws his beams! So shines a good deed in a naughty world.”
Doing nothing in Syria to directly end the fighting has become an immoral choice. Assad is even raining down Scud missiles on civilians in the city of Aleppo. Now, if the US provides military equipment to rebels who are the “good guys,” it is doing something. In this case, it is the higher moral right.
This may be “realism” in foreign policy but it must be done to uplift the moral behavior of rebels clearly in favor of democracy.
Related stories
•Four things Syria must do after Bashar al-Assad
•The Monitor's View:Obama's hidden nonplan to arm rebels in Syria
•Opinion:Israeli airstrike on Syria shows strategic strength
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Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
01032013
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
Tony Blair calls for UK intervention in Syria crisis
BBC
27 February 2013 Last updated at 17:00 GMT
In the second part of a wide-ranging interview Newsnight presenter Kirsty Wark talks to the former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair about the crisis in Syria, the revolutions across the Middle East, and his role as the Middle East envoy representing the EU, UN, US and Russia.
Kirsty begins by asking Mr Blair at what point he realised there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
28022013
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
Kerry: U.S. seeking ways to bolster support for Syrian rebels
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry holds a news conference at the Foreign Ministry in Paris on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013. Paris is the third leg of Kerry's first official overseas trip, a hectic nine-day dash through Europe and the Middle East. (AP Photo / Jacquelyn Martin, Pool)
Matthew Lee, The Associated Press
Published Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013 9:54AM EST
Last Updated Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013 11:38AM EST
PARIS -- The United States is looking for more tangible ways to support Syria's rebels and bolster a fledgling political movement that is struggling to deliver basic services after nearly two years of civil war, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday.
Officials in the United States and Europe have said the Obama administration is nearing a decision on whether to provide non-lethal assistance to carefully vetted fighters opposed to Syrian President Basher Assad, and Kerry's comments indicated that the Americans are working to make sure that its aid doesn't fall into the wrong hands.
"We are examining and developing ways to accelerate the political transition that the Syrian people want and deserve," Kerry said. "We need to help them to deliver basic services and to protect the legitimate institutions of the state."
The Obama administration is concerned about military equipment falling into the hands of radical Islamists who have become a significant factor in the Syrian conflict and could then use that materiel for terrorist attacks or strikes on Israel. But they're equally fearful that Syrians tired of constant instability will lose faith in an opposition that can do little to improve their daily lives.
Assad "needs to know that he can't shoot his way out of this, and we need to convince him of that, and I think the opposition needs more help in order to do that," Kerry said.
A decision whether to vastly increase the size and scope of assistance to Assad's foes is expected by Thursday when Kerry will attend an international conference on Syria in Rome that leaders of the opposition Syrian National Coalition have been persuaded to attend, the officials said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because the shift in strategy has not yet been finalized and still needs to be co-ordinated with European nations, notably Britain.
France, Syria's former colonial ruler, has been among the strongest supporters of the rebels, and French President Francois Hollande was the first Western leader to recognize their leadership.
"We agree all of us on the fact that Mr. Basher al-Assad has to quit," said French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.
Officials in Washington said the United States was leaning toward providing tens of millions of dollars more in non-lethal assistance to the opposition, including vetted members of the Free Syrian Army who had not been receiving direct U.S. assistance. So far, assistance has been limited to funding for communications and other logistical equipment, a formalized liaison office and an invitation to opposition coalition leader Mouaz al-Khatib to visit the United States in the coming weeks. It could be expanded to include pre-packaged meals and medical supplies.
The officials stressed, however, that the administration did not envision American military training for the rebels nor U.S. provision of combat items such as body armour that the British are advocating.
Syria's rebels get most of their arsenal from capturing government bases, but they also are believed to receive help from Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
Kerry, who spent summers in France as a child and speaks the language fluently, chatted in French with Hollande and opened his public remarks in the language.
"Now I have to speak in English or they won't let me go back home," he said.
Associated Press writers Bradley Klapper in Washington and Lori Hinnant in Paris contributed to this report
Read more: http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/kerry-u-s-seeking-ways-to-bolster-support-for-syrian-rebels-1.1173926#ixzz2M8E9KXp2
Chân thành cám ơn Quý Anh Chị ghé thăm "conbenho Nguyễn Hoài Trang Blog".
Xin được lắng nghe ý kiến chia sẻ của Quý Anh Chị trực tiếp tại Diễn Đàn Paltalk: 1Latdo Tapdoan Vietgian CSVN Phanquoc Bannuoc .
Kính chúc Sức Khỏe Quý Anh Chị .
conbenho
Tiểu Muội quantu
Nguyễn Hoài Trang
28022013
___________
Cộng sản Việt Nam là TỘI ÁC
Bao che, dung dưỡng TỘI ÁC là đồng lõa với TỘI ÁC
