Syria updates......
The Obama Administration made it sound like the arms influx was imminent, and the Syrian rebels seemed to envision being awash in arms within a matter of days. As the process slows amid Congressional opposition, the rebels are lashing out.
The latest data comes from Russian officials, who presented their findings to the United Nations. The findings supportprevious UN estimates that the attack was actually launched by the rebels, not the government.
After losing the al-Nour Party, Egypt’s second largest, in the wake of yesterday’s massacre, the junta now has the largest Liberal bloc repudiating it in response to a “decree” by the military-imposed interim president.
Syrian Rebels Say They Don’t Expect US to Deliver Promised Arms
See US Goal of Keeping the War Going
by Jason Ditz, July 09, 2013
Syrian rebels are constantly shifting around their statements on US weapons, insisting at times that the arms will be decisive, that they will be “too late,” and now claiming that they have “given up” on ever getting the arms.
The Obama Administration made it sound like the arms influx was imminent, and the Syrian rebels seemed to envision being awash in arms within a matter of days. As the process slows amid Congressional opposition, the rebels are lashing out.
Now they say they doubt the arms will ever be delivered, and are accusing Israel of being behind the delay, on the grounds that Israel is averse to the nation falling into the hands of al-Qaeda-linked militants.
Of course a lot of people are worried about that, but the rebels also see not getting the arms as proof the US wants to keep the war going. Interestingly, many analysts saw the arms announcement in the first place aimed at that, discouraging rebels from joining peace talks and trying to keep the rebels, who have been losing territory, from being overrun.
Russia: Syrian Rebels Used Sarin in Aleppo Attack
Analysis: Rocket Was Not Industrially Manufactured
by Jason Ditz, July 09, 2013
Though the Obama Administration has already gone on record as being officially convinced that the March chemical weapon attack in Syria was totally the Assad government’s fault, the evidence appears to be pointing even further the other way today.
The latest data comes from Russian officials, who presented their findings to the United Nations. The findings supportprevious UN estimates that the attack was actually launched by the rebels, not the government.
The Russian study says that the weapon was an unguided Bashar 3 rocket and that analysis of the impact site suggests the weapon was not industrially manufactured, but was rather the sort produced hastily by rebels. The sarin sample from the site also lacked stabilizers, suggesting that the chemical had been recently made, and was not part of Syria’s large stockpile.
This of course makes a lot of sense, since the rocket hit a bunch of Syrian government forces, and it seemed odd Assad forces would attack their own troops in the hotly contested province.
Egypt....
Egypt’s Junta Support Collapses Amid Growing Anger Over ‘Decree’
Liberal Bloc Spurns Junta Edict on Constitution
by Jason Ditz, July 09, 2013
Initially sold to the Egyptian public as the “people’s” choice in the wake of anti-government rallies, the nation’s new junta is finding itself losing allies left and right, and rapidly losing what little legitimacy it may have claimed.
After losing the al-Nour Party, Egypt’s second largest, in the wake of yesterday’s massacre, the junta now has the largest Liberal bloc repudiating it in response to a “decree” by the military-imposed interim president.
The decree detailed how the new constitution would be drafted, and after the moderate factions were disappointed in the last constitution for being too Islamist, they aren’t holding out much hope for the new committee of pro-military Mubarak-era judges doing any better.
If anything, the edict also cemented the reality that “interim” rule is going to be protracted indeed, with the first new elections being pushed back until at least early 2014, and the odds of a new president coming before 2015 slim at best.
Human rights groups also warn that the decree is giving the military broad discretion to return to the era of military tribunals for captured civilian detainees, another return to Mubarak-style military rule.
Though there are still a handful of political factions supporting the coup, that number is dwindling fast, and groups with any real clout are drying up quickly. This might hurt the military’s image abroad, though nations like the US seem eager to support the coup in everything but name, and the loss of political support may even free the military’s hand in some ways, allowing it to rule by force with less concern for political groups that don’t back it.
Having already denounced massacred protesters for the ousted government as “terrorists,” the military has set a precedent that it can do as it pleases, at least for now.
Pakistan.....
The unilateral decision by the US to launch a military operation to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden on Pakistani territory constituted "an act of war", a Pakistani government investigation has found.
The report of the Abbottabad Commission, which investigated the circumstances around the raid and how the al-Qaeda leader came to live in the country for nine years without apparently being detected, was exclusively released by Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit on Monday.
The report of the commission, formed in June 2011 to probe the circumstances around the killing of bin Laden by US forces in a unilateral raid on the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, had earlier been suppressed by the Pakistani government.
The raid illustrated Washington's "contemptuous disregard of Pakistan’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity in the arrogant certainty of […] unmatched military might", the report concluded in its "Findings" section.
In the same section, the report also details the "comprehensive failure of Pakistan to detect the presence of Bin Laden on its territory for almost a decade".
In the same section, the report also details the "comprehensive failure of Pakistan to detect the presence of Bin Laden on its territory for almost a decade".
The report draws on testimony from more than 200 witnesses, including members of Bin Laden's family, Pakistan's then spy chief, senior ministers in the government and officials at every level of the military, bureaucracy and security services.
* * *
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/asia/2013/07/201379161837774651.html
A roadside bomb has killed 17 civilians, including four children, in western Afghanistan, police said, just days after a series of similar blasts killed nine people.
The bomb exploded on Tuesday under a trailer packed with villagers travelling to a ceremony in the Obi district of western Herat and was placed by Taliban insurgents, said Abdul Raouf Ahmadi, a police spokesman.
"There were 12 women, four children and one man among the dead. Seven others were wounded, including five children," Ahmadi said.
Violence in Afghanistan usually intensifies over the summer months. A senior Afghan general this week said insurgents had stepped up operations in the east near Pakistan as foreign troops continue to leave the country ahead of a 2014 withdrawal deadline.
Taliban office closed
Meanwhile, the Taliban have temporarily closed their office in Qatar, where it was hoped a peace deal would be brokered with the US and Afghanistan, blaming "broken promises", an insurgent official said on Tuesday.
"We have temporarily closed the Qatar office due to broken promises," a Pakistan-based Taliban official, who declined to be named, has told the AFP news agency by telephone.
"We are not happy with the Americans, the Kabul government and all parties who have not been honest with us."
The bomb exploded on Tuesday under a trailer packed with villagers travelling to a ceremony in the Obi district of western Herat and was placed by Taliban insurgents, said Abdul Raouf Ahmadi, a police spokesman.
"There were 12 women, four children and one man among the dead. Seven others were wounded, including five children," Ahmadi said.
Violence in Afghanistan usually intensifies over the summer months. A senior Afghan general this week said insurgents had stepped up operations in the east near Pakistan as foreign troops continue to leave the country ahead of a 2014 withdrawal deadline.
Taliban office closed
Meanwhile, the Taliban have temporarily closed their office in Qatar, where it was hoped a peace deal would be brokered with the US and Afghanistan, blaming "broken promises", an insurgent official said on Tuesday.
"We have temporarily closed the Qatar office due to broken promises," a Pakistan-based Taliban official, who declined to be named, has told the AFP news agency by telephone.
"We are not happy with the Americans, the Kabul government and all parties who have not been honest with us."
* * *
No comments:
Post a Comment