http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-05-28/syria-goes-hot-russia-deliver-weapons-deploys-air-defense-israel-warns-russia-obama-
( Heating up - both by way of rhetoric and chess moves.... )
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 05/28/2013 16:32 -0400
http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Assads-forces-used-chemical-arms-against-rebels-314488
( French paper backs chemical weapons used by Assad against rebel forces in Damascus - how close are we getting to Western intervention regarding the chemical weapon redline ? )
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2013/05/2013527114141795738.html
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/05/2013525101221796276.html
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2013/05/24/syrias-failure-to-lose/
Six more people were killed, bringing the toll in the latest round of violence to 24 killed, and well over 200 wounded since Sunday. The fighting is between fighters from the Sunni neighborhood of Bab al-Tabbaneh and the Alawite neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen.
According to those familiar with its contents, Syria says the jeep they attacked crossed the ceasefire line a 1:10 AM on Tuesday morning and headed in the direction of B’ir Ajam, a village in Syria that is currently held by the rebels.
( Heating up - both by way of rhetoric and chess moves.... )
Syria Goes Hot: Russia To Deliver Weapons, Deploys Air Defense; Israel Warns Russia; Obama Demands No Fly Zone
Those who were intently following the USDJPY pair formerly known as the stock market today missed the biggest news of the day: the proxy war in Syria just went hot, following a confluence of news, first that Russia insisted "it would deliver anti-aircraft missiles to Syria despite international criticism, as fears of spillover from the conflict grew" and in logical retaliation to yesterday's decision by Europe to lift an arms embargo to the Al Qaeda-supported, Qatari mercenaries operating in Syria, also known as "rebels.
This lead Israel's defense minister Moshe Yaalon to immediately signal that "its military is prepared to strike shipments of advanced Russian weapons to Syria."
Meanwhile back in the US "the White House has asked the Pentagon to draw up plans for a no-fly zone inside Syria that would be enforced by the U.S. and other countries such as France and Great Britain, two administration officials told The Daily Beast."
And just to make it very clear that Russia is not bluffing, it announced overnight that its four regiments of S-300 air defense systems have been deployed at the Ashuluk firing range in southern Russia as part of another snap combat readiness check of the Russian armed forces "The missions will be carried out in conditions of heavy electronic warfare to test the capabilities of the air defense units to the highest limit."
And to think: yet another threat of a global war over some natgas pipelines from Qatar to Europe, and a threat to Gazprom's monopoly.
Russia insisted Tuesday it would deliver anti-aircraft missiles to Syria despite international criticism, as fears of spillover from the conflict grew after three Lebanese soldiers were killed in a border-area attack.Israel warned Russia it would "know what to do" if the delivery went ahead, and Syria's top rebel commander gave Hezbollah, the powerful Lebanese Shiite movement, a 24-hour ultimatum to stop fighting alongside regime forces.The developments stoked tensions after the European Union decided to lift an embargo on weapons to Syria's rebels, in a move the opposition reacted to with caution.Syria's regime joined its ally Russia in condemning the EU decision as an "obstruction" to peace efforts, while accusing the bloc of supporting and encouraging "terrorists".Moscow said it would go ahead with its plans to deliver the S-300 missiles to Syria, despite international concerns, saying the weapons were part of existing contracts."We consider these supplies a stabilising factor," deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said, adding they could act as a deterrence against foreign intervention.
Israel's immediate response via the Guardian:
Israel quickly issued a thinly veiled warning that it would bomb the Russian S-300 missiles if they were sent to Syria, as such a move would bring the advanced guided missiles within range of civilian and military planes over Israel. Israel has conducted three sets of air strikes on Syria this year, aimed at preventing missiles being brought close to its border by the Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah."The shipments haven't set out yet and I hope they won't," Moshe Ya'alon, the Israeli defence minister, said. "If they do arrive in Syria, God forbid, we'll know what to do."Russia's deputy foreign minister, Sergey Ryabkov, argued that the delivery of the S-300 system had been previously agreed with Damascus and would be a stabilising factor that could dissuade "some hotheads" from entering the conflict. That appeared to be a reference to the UK and France, who pushed through the lifting of the EU embargo on Monday night and are the only European countries considering arming the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA).
After much deliberations, and unable to find the much needed "weapons of mass destruction" to justify intervention, the US is nonetheless escalating next and Obama is now said to demand plans for a No Fly Zone over Syria from the Pentagon. From the Daily Beast:
Along with no-fly zone plans, the White House is considering arming parts of the Syrian opposition and formally recognizing the Syrian opposition council.The White House has asked the Pentagon to draw up plans for a no-fly zone inside Syria that would be enforced by the U.S. and other countries such as France and Great Britain, two administration officials told The Daily Beast.The request was made shortly before Secretary of State John Kerry toured the Middle East last week to try and finalize plans for an early June conference between the Syrian regime and rebel leaders in Geneva. The opposition, however, has yet to confirm its attendance and is demanding that the end of Syrian President Bashar al Assad’s rule be a precondition for negotiations, a condition Assad is unlikely to accept.In April, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey told the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense that the military was planning for a range of options in Syria but that he did not necessarily support using those options."We're prepared with options, should military force be called upon and assuming it can be effectively used to secure our interests without making matters worse,” he said. “We must also be ready for options for an uncertain and dangerous future. That is a future we have not yet identified."
And finally going back full circle, Russia announced overnight that its four regiments of S-300 air defense systems have been deployed at the Ashuluk firing range in southern Russia as part of another snap combat readiness check of the Russian armed forces, the Defense Ministry said. From RIA:
The regiments were airlifted on Thursday by military transport planes to designated drop zones where they will carry out a variety of missions simulating the defense of the Russian airspace from massive attacks by “enemy” missiles and aircraft.“The missions will be carried out in conditions of heavy electronic warfare to test the capabilities of the air defense units to the highest limit,” the ministry said.A total of 8,700 personnel, 185 warplanes and 240 armored vehicles are involved in the three-day exercise, overseen by Col. Gen. Vladimir Zarudnitsky, head of Russian General Staff’s Main Operations Directorate.
Surely all of the above is very beneficial for future global GDP prospects.
Finally, here is the Russian S-300 system causing Qatar gas pipeline plans global democracies so much consternation:
http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Assads-forces-used-chemical-arms-against-rebels-314488
( French paper backs chemical weapons used by Assad against rebel forces in Damascus - how close are we getting to Western intervention regarding the chemical weapon redline ? )
'Assad's forces used chemical arms on rebels'
05/27/2013 12:14
Syrian President Bashar Assad heading a cabinet meeting in Damascus, February 12, 2013. Photo: REUTERS/SANA/Handout
PARIS - Syrian forces loyal to President Bashar Assad have repeatedly used chemical weapons against rebel fighters in Damascus, according to first-hand accounts in France's Le Monde newspaper.
The newspaper, in a report issued on its website on Monday, said one of its photographers had suffered blurred vision and respiratory difficulties for four days after an attack on April 13 on the Jobar front, just inside central Damascus.
Assad's government and the rebels fighting to oust him have accused each other of using chemical weapons. UN investigators have been ready for weeks, but diplomatic wrangling and safety concerns have delayed their entry into Syria.
Undercover in and around the Damascus area for two months alongside Syrian rebels, a Le Monde reporter and photographer said they had witnessed battlefield chemical attacks and had also talked to doctors and other witnesses of their aftermath.
They describe men coughing violently, their eyes burning, their pupils shrinking.
"Soon they experience difficulty breathing, sometimes in the extreme; they begin to vomit or lose consciousness. The fighters worst affected need to be evacuated before they suffocate," Le Monde wrote.
"Reporters from Le Monde witnessed this on several days in a row in this district, on the outskirts of Damascus, which the rebels entered in January," it said.
Syria, which is not a member of the anti-chemical weapons convention, is believed to have one of the world's last remaining stockpiles of undeclared chemical arms.
"In two months spent reporting on the outskirts of the Syrian capital, we encountered similar cases across a much larger region. Their gravity, their increasing frequency and the tactic of using such arms shows that what is being released is not just tear gas, which is used on all fronts, but products of a different class that are far more toxic," Le Monde wrote.
This month, Carla Del Ponte, a member of a UN inquiry commission looking at alleged war crimes in Syria, said it had gathered testimony from casualties and medical staff indicating that rebel forces had used the banned nerve agent sarin. Western governments have said they have no such evidence.
Syria's revolt began with peaceful protests in March 2011 inspired by Arab uprisings elsewhere. Assad's violent response to the unrest eventually led to an armed insurgency.
The war has developed into an increasingly sectarian conflict pitting members of Assad's minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, against mostly Sunni Muslim rebels. More than 80,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2013/05/2013527114141795738.html
EU divided over Syria arms embargo |
UK wants to relax sanctions to allow for weapons shipments to rebels but faces opposition from other countries.
Last Modified: 27 May 2013 12:19
     |
Some EU members believe that relaxing the arms embargo would only increase the killings [Reuters]
|
| The European Union nations remained divided on whether to ease sanctions against Syria to allow for weapons shipments to rebels fighting the regime of Syria's President Bashar Assad. Britain is the most outspoken proponent of relaxing the arms embargo but faces opposition from some members that feel more weapons would only increase the killings and tarnish the EU's reputation as a peace broker. Austria's foreign minister, whose country opposes arms deliveries to the rebels, said on Monday that if there is no agreement the arms embargo would collapse. "The positions are far apart," Guido Westerwelle, German foreign minister, said. He said it was not clear if the EU foreign ministers, meeting in Brussels, will reach an agreement on the issue. Assad has been using extensive firepower against lightly armed rebel factions. More than 94,000 people have died since the uprising against Assad's regime erupted in March 2011, according to the latest UN figures.  Several nations say that arming the opposition would create a level playing field that would force Assad into a negotiated settlement. “It is important to show we are prepared to amend our arms embargo so that the Assad regime gets a clear signal that it has to negotiate seriously,'' William Hague, UK foreign secretary, said. The date, agenda and list of participants for the so-called Geneva 2 conference remain unclear, and wide gaps persist about its objectives. The opposition the Syrian National Coalition, which has been meeting in the Turkish city of Istanbul since Thursday, has yet to reach an official position on the peace initiative. Austria was among the holdouts to keep the EU from providing weapons, arguing it would only further fuel an already horrific situation. "'We just received the Nobel Peace Prize and to now go in the direction of intentionally getting involved in a conflict with weapon deliveries, I think that is wrong," Michael Spindelegger, Austria's foreign minister, said. Any decision would require unanimity among the 27 member states, but failing to come up with a decision would leave options for individual member states open. "If there is no compromise, then there is no sanctions regime," Spindelegger said. "In my view that would be fatal, also for those who now absolutely want to deliver weapons." Beyond the moral question of providing arms in a civil war, there are also fears that delivering weapons to the opposition would open the way for groups considered to be extremist to get hold of weapons that could then be targeted against the EU. Over the past two years, the EU has steadily increased the restrictive measures against the Assad regime, including visa restrictions and economic sanctions. In February, it also amended a full arms embargo to allow for non-lethal equipment and medicine to protect the civilians in the conflict. If not renewed, all those measures expire at the end of the month. |
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/05/2013525101221796276.html
Syria opposition group struggles to agree |
Meeting for a third day in Istanbul, Syrian National Coalition fails to agree on expanding to include more factions.
Last Modified: 25 May 2013 11:16
|
Khatib presented a 16-point plan which won little favour with members of the main opposition group [Reuters]
|
| Syrian opposition talks aimed at presenting a coherent front at an international peace conference to end the civil war faces the prospect of collapse after participants failed to reach an internal deal, opposition sources say. The failure of the Syrian National Coalition to alter its Islamist-dominated membership as demanded by its international backers and replace a leadership undermined by power struggles, appears to be playing into the hands of President Bashar al-Assad. After two days of meetings in Istanbul, Turkey, senior coalition players were in discussions late into the night on Friday after Michel Kilo, a veteran liberal opposition figure, rejected a deal by Mustafa al-Sabbagh, a Syrian businessman who is the coalition's secretary-general, to admit some members of Kilo's bloc to the coalition, the sources said. Kilo has said that his group wants significant representation in the opposition coalition before it will join. Al Jazeera's Hashem Ahelberra, reporting from Istanbul, said: "Kilo is ready to join but his list includes 25 people in a take or leave offer. "The problem with the opposition is that if they add the group of secularists into the general committee, they will have a veto power, and right now the current opposition thinks the secularists have been very soft on Assad, and they might undermine the hardliners and the Islamists." He went on to say "this is why you see a lot of political bickering here in Istanbul". Much to the frustration of its backers, the coalition has struggled to agree on a leader since the resignation in March of Moaz al-Khatib, a former Damascus religious leader, who had floated two initiatives for Assad to leave power peacefully. Khatib's latest proposal, a 16-point plan that sees Assad handing power to his deputy or prime minister and then going abroad with 500 members of his entourage, won little support in Istanbul, highlighting the obstacles to wider negotiations. "He has the right to submit papers to the meeting like any other member, but his paper is heading directly to the dustbin of history. It is a repeat of his previous initiative, which went nowhere," a senior coalition official said. |
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2013/05/24/syrias-failure-to-lose/
Syria’s failure to lose
Syria’s failure to lose
By Gordon Duff and Press TV
The timing of events in Syria has been a particular disaster for the United States. Through “sequestration,” the governments imposed austerity measures, military forces in the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean have been scaled back as have other operations including intelligence gathering.”
–
—
Syria has surprised everyone. They were supposed to have collapsed long ago. They didn’t, far from it. There is every indication that the Syrian government is winning what really isn’t a civil war.
Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia and “others” have brought the dregs of the terrorist and criminal world into Syria and “delegitimized” moves against the government, which had once been based on real sectarian and political differences.
We now have Israeli artillery, one American nuclear “bunker-buster” and even Israeli vehicles as evidence that this is an aggression and not another “Arab Spring.”
Thus far, three Turkish F 16s and, we are told, one Israeli, have been shot down.
There is also undeniable proof, in the form of videos, that rebel forces include units involved in unspeakable acts against Syrian civilians.
BALANCE OF POWER
As Syria has done more than simply “hold on,” Russia has become emboldened. In his recent Press TV article, Jim W. Dean outlines the “game changing aspect” of the re-emergence of Russia as a naval power in the Eastern Mediterranean.
What is important is that America has “taken its eye off the ball.” America’s hyper-focus on Iran and the Persian Gulf has led to a drawdown of American capabilities in the Mediterranean, once considered “an American lake.”
America has pulled back from the Mediterranean, chasing oil and power, chasing globalist dreams in the Indian Ocean. Its bases, Crete, the proposed fueling depot at Port Said, the secret airbase outside Mogadishu, all abandoned.
The “neocon nightmare,” Israel as America’s “aircraft carrier” in the Middle East, or America’s “junk-yard dog,” is a policy the Obama administration now openly admits is an utter failure. That policy allowed “the tail,” Israel, to “wag the dog,” the United States, pushing America into wars intent on empowering the Likudists as rulers of that “greater Israel” they dream of.
“Greater Israel” would be paid for by three trillion US taxpayer dollars and thousands of American lives lost, hundreds of thousands damaged and a world facing economic ruin and world war.
AMERICAN COLLAPSE
The dream of “Greater Israel,” allowing “the tail” to “wag the dog,” has been fostered by a multi-faceted attack on every aspect of America. America has been “propagandized” into self-hatred, class warfare and sectarian strife.
America has been inundated with cultural meltdown, rampant unemployment, poverty, and broad acceptance of totalitarianism and injustice as a requirement for security.
The American people are now continually reminded of the threat through carefully orchestrated false flag terror attacks, now so blatant that none can miss the intended message.
FICTION IS REALITY
Last week, America’s most popular TV drama, NCIS (Naval Criminal Investigative Service) revealed a “fictional” criminal conspiracy against the United States.
This show, seen around the world, has long featured plot lines involving Iranian terrorist and has been broadly supportive of Israel.
It now claims, fictionally of course, that the hostilities between Israel and Iran and even with North Korea are orchestrated by the CIA through false flag terrorism and assassinations.
It says that America’s aggressive actions overseas are meant to deceive its people about a more serious threat, one originating from inside the United States.
Before the Boston or Sandy Hook attacks, no television show would have been allowed to follow even a fictional story line like this. The show, Rubicon, tried it and was quickly cancelled.
American intelligence officials, in private, have expressed shock at what they see as “pre-conditioning” of the public to accept the CIA as an organization involved in domestic terrorism.
VACUUM
The timing of events in Syria has been a particular disaster for the United States. Through “sequestration,” the governments imposed austerity measures, military forces in the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean have been scaled back as have other operations including intelligence gathering.
What America failed to see was the vacuum it created. “Nature abhors a vacuum.”
As America withdrew, albeit quietly, Russia reasserted its position in the Middle East, most obviously in defense of its longtime ally, Syria.
Russia has also, “albeit quietly,” made inroads into the Caucasus, the Caspian Basin and has become more aligned with Iran.
Frightening, to America at least, China is following Russia’s lead. Additionally, China is expanding economic moves throughout the region, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and throughout Africa.
With that, China’s political influence has also increased dramatically, of particular importance as Africa moves toward a cascade of terrorism, insurgency and civil wars.
THE DEATH OF THE “FALSE FLAG”
When Syria’s only visible friend was Iran, Israel’s “two stage approach,” pushing the United States into a military confrontation with Iran, most likely through a large-scale false flag attack, had a chance for success.
However, in today’s world, any terror attack is now examined with more sophistication and far more cynicism. Few are doltish enough to imagine that international terrorist groups, increasingly shown to be controlled by intelligence agencies, could operate without full complicity of powerful factions within the “victim” nations themselves.
Any “Iranian outrage” would quickly be traced back to Tel Aviv.
LEBANON AND Syria
New Russian weapons combined with enhanced capabilities for Hezbollah forces, have changed the balance of power.
Israel has spent decades, not to speak of over a billion US taxpayer dollars, fortifying the Golan Heights. It is now being used as a base of operations, both Golan and the “compromised” Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, as a base of operations for Israel’s attacks on Syria.
As few now doubt the nuclear attack of May 4, 2013, even fewer doubt Israel’s forays into Syria, armor and mobile artillery, in support of rebel forces now increasingly mercenaries, terrorists and criminal elements.
Conversely, with Hezbollah holding Syria’s flank, well supplied with, not only advanced anti-armor weapons but newly upgraded shoulder launched air defense systems as well, Israel’s ability to operate against Syria from Lebanon will end.
FORTRESS GOLAN AT RISK
Israel continually talks of the threat to Tel Aviv posed by Syrian missile systems. However, the Russian Iskander system places a price tag on Israel’s actions that Israel may not be willing to pay.
The Iskandar can not only take out Patriot III batteries but can quickly cripple Israel’s armored forces and fortification on the Golan Heights.
The Iskandar is powerful, extremely accurate and impossible to stop.
Iskandar batteries, protected by S 300 air defense systems, successfully counter Israel’s air defenses and leave both armor and fortification totally vulnerable.
The most important aspect, of course, is that these are purely defensive systems.
POLITICAL CONCERNS
It is increasingly obvious that a political settlement in Syria is going to be needed. Were it not for the interference of Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Israel, and the plotting of the NATO powers, such a settlement conference would be underway.
Too many have died and each death benefits only: Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia and NATO.
What is broadly recognized is this fact; the rebel forces as they are currently configured, were they to triumph, would lead Syria into a decade of civil war, one where the current body-count, be it 50,000 or 100,000 would seem insignificant.
One might also ask why Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and their friends would back forces closely aligned with terrorism and extremism.
DOMINO EFFECT
There is little doubt that a globalist agenda is behind the war on Syria. This is only a stage in a broader war on Iran, followed by subjugation of Afghanistan (good luck with that) and a forced collapse of Pakistan.
The rationale, of course, involves oil and gas. As the planet has proven to be awash with oil and gas reserves, enough for centuries, particularly if alternative energy technologies continue to be suppressed, only total control of supply, delivery and active and criminal manipulation of market pricing structures can offer an adequate return.
Control of world currencies, the Federal Reserve System in the US, the failed financial system of the European Union and the IMF are required.
The methodologies, each representing an attack on the citizenry of the world, driven by outmoded Malthusianistic principles, are intended to deprive billions of basic human needs and, of course, any human rights as well.
It may all be turned around in Syria if the world finally awakens to the real threat.
http://news.antiwar.com/2013/05/24/constant-mortar-fire-as-sectarian-violence-continues-in-north-lebanon/
Constant Mortar Fire as Sectarian Violence Continues in North Lebanon
24 Killed, Hundreds Wounded So Far This Week
by Jason Ditz, May 24, 2013
The sectarian fighting that began over the weekend continued apace in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli today, with security forces estimating 1,200 mortar shells werefired as two neighborhoods exchanged attacks throughout the night and into the following morning.
Six more people were killed, bringing the toll in the latest round of violence to 24 killed, and well over 200 wounded since Sunday. The fighting is between fighters from the Sunni neighborhood of Bab al-Tabbaneh and the Alawite neighborhood of Jabal Mohsen.
The similarity to the sectarian civil war in Syria is not coincidental, and the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) has been openly trying to rile up Lebanese Sunnis to take up arms for months. The Lebanese military has been trying to stop the fighting between the neighborhoods but has so far been entirely unsuccessful.
Tripoli municipal officials had also tried to negotiate a ceasefire, but this effort fell apart on Thursday when the Sunni fighters demanded that Hezbollah withdraw entirely from Syria, something the local government couldn’t possibly make happen in the first place.
Tripoli is an import tourist destination in Lebanon, and economists are warning that the fighting is going to dramatically harm tourism across Lebanon, and particularly in the coastal city.
http://www.lobelog.com/iraq-maliki-co-s-path-of-folly/
Iraq: Maliki & Co.’s Path of Folly
by Wayne White
The Biblical quotation, “whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap” could not be more relevant to what Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s near unremitting hostility toward Iraq’s powerful Sunni Arab minority has generated: a rising drumfire of mostly Sunni Arab bombings aimed at Maliki’s Shi’a base as well as his regime. Yet, in the face of the awful toll such bloodshed has taken in past years, Iraq’s Shi’a policymakers have remained unmoved. So, for the most part, Maliki and Co. may well continue this dangerously divisive policy, making further unrest in Iraq likely. Yet, responding with some grand offer of sectarian reconciliation might find few takers at this point.
When the US agreed to allow Sunni Arab tribesmen and former insurgents to join with American forces against al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) back in late 2006 (the so-called “Sunni Arab Awakening”), Maliki opposed the arrangement bitterly. Indeed, through late 2007, Maliki not only spurned this major initiative, he even at times attempted to attack Sunni Arab combatants working with US forces employing elements of the Iraqi Army especially trusted by him.
Initially, Sunni Arabs involved in the “Awakening” did not want to work with the Iraqi government either, only the Americans (regarding Maliki and his Shi’a allies as hostile, pro-Iranian and untrustworthy). Eventually, however, the vast bulk of the Awakening cadres agreed to serve in the Iraqi security forces in an attempt to bury the hatchet with Baghdad. Most of Iraq’s equally war-weary Sunni Arab tribal leaders came to feel likewise. This represented a strategic opportunity to initiate a process of meaningful Sunni Arab re-integration, though gradual and on terms set by Washington and the Maliki government.
The US duly extracted assurances from Maliki by 2008 (albeit with difficulty) allowing a large number of Sunni Arab fighters to obtain mostly low-level, often localized positions in the security forces. Yet, as US forces left the scene, Maliki not only backed away from the full thrust of these commitments, but began to target Awakening leaders and even some of the rank and file for extrajudicial arrest and assassination.
Thousands of former insurgent cadres remained on the government payroll for years — some even today — but lots of others left or were hounded out of their jobs (caught between the very real threat of arrest — or worse — from government authorities and bloody revenge attacks from AQI). Meanwhile, many Sunni Arab parliamentary candidates became victims of the Shi’a-controlled and highly politicized “de-Ba’thification” commission (which excluded them from running for or ever holding government office).
Quite a few of the small number of Sunni Arab officials to secure senior government rank were then accused of abetting terrorism. Ultimately, the most prominent of them all, Iraqi Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi, was accused in December 2011 of running an anti-Shi’a hit squad. Hashimi fled first to Iraqi Kurdistan (even Iraq’s Kurds refused to turn him over to Maliki) and then to Ankara. In this way, from 2008 through 2013 (and counting), Maliki and his Shi’a allies not only threw away an opportunity to reduce violence dramatically. They also gave AQI a new lease on life as an unknown number of disaffected Sunni Arabs apparently turned a blind eye to AQI’s activities or even gave it sanctuary once again.
For months now, Sunni Arabs also have taken to the streets, holding demonstrations throughout areas where they predominate to protest their mistreatment at the hands of the Iraqi government. Feeding seething sectarian resentment was a heavy-handed attack by government security forces late last month on a Sunni Arab protest camp in a public square near the disputed northern city of Kirkuk in which 26 died.
Making matters still worse has been the mainly Sunni Arab uprising just across the border in Syria against the minority Alawite-led Assad regime. Perhaps the only Arab government not siding with the rebels is Iraq’s (aligned instead with the Syrian regime’s only regional ally: Iran). Even more provocative has been the stream of Syrian-bound Iranian resupply flights passing over Iraq with Maliki’s permission. In response to US protests against these over-flights, Maliki has had a few flights land for inspection (doubtless a clever ruse I observed before while serving in the Intelligence Community: the country conducting military over-flights secretly informs the government needing to inspect a few for the sake of appearances which flights contain no military contraband and thus would pass inspection).
Since the Syrian rebel al-Nusra front declared its affiliation with both al-Qaeda and AQI, Maliki promised to crack down on al-Nusra’s roots in Iraq’s Sunni Arab northwest. With Sunni Arab Iraqis now so profoundly suspicious of the government in Baghdad, others sympathizing with al-Nusra, AQI or both, and still others assisting them, any major operations inside Iraq aimed at al-Nusra almost certainly would either encounter resistance or waves of even heavier AQI retaliatory bombings against government and Shi’a targets.
In fact, with fellow Sunni Arabs defiant in neighboring Syria (and many tribes and families sharing close cross-border ties), more trouble for Maliki from within Iraq’s Sunni Arab community was inevitable for a leader who has supplied them with a host of grievances since 2008. Now Maliki finds himself in a serious bind: even if the Assad regime succeeds in rebounding substantially, its control over the vast expanse of eastern Syria would remain iffy (providing Iraq’s more restive Sunni Arabs a ready sanctuary and a possible source of munitions and recruits — many of them now combat veterans of the Syrian civil war).
If, however, Maliki tries to mend his ways and promises better treatment, a fair share of the government rebuilding cash, and a lot more political representation, the offer’s credibility could be nil. Such a gesture now could look more like a temporary sop tossed out under pressure than a genuine commitment to end the longstanding policies feeding the animosity between Iraq’s Sunni Arabs and Maliki’s increasingly autocratic, pro-Iranian, Shi’a-led government.
http://news.antiwar.com/2013/05/24/syria-attacked-israeli-vehicle-was-heading-to-rebel-village/
Syria: Attacked Israeli Vehicle Was Heading to Rebel Village
Insists Tuesday Incident Was 'Self-Defense'
by Jason Ditz, May 24, 2013
The Tuesday exchange of fire between Israeli and Syrian troops along the 1973 ceasefire line centered on the shooting of an Israeli military jeep. Syria has provided a letter to the UN Security Council detailing their side of the story.
According to those familiar with its contents, Syria says the jeep they attacked crossed the ceasefire line a 1:10 AM on Tuesday morning and headed in the direction of B’ir Ajam, a village in Syria that is currently held by the rebels.
Syrian officials said that the attempt to reach the village was part of ongoing Israeli support for the rebels along their frontier, and that the attack on the jeep was “self-defense.” They urged the UN Security Council to stop Israel from future cross-border operations, and complained about Israel firing missiles into southern Syria after the jeep was “destroyed.”
Israel told a completely different story on Tuesday, claiming the jeep was on the Israeli side of the ceasefire line, that it suffered only minor damage, and that they retaliated with missiles that scored “direct hits” on the Syrian military. It isn’t unusual for the two nations to be completely at odds about incidents like these, and has sparked threats from both sides of retaliation in the future.
No comments:
Post a Comment