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The United Nations on Saturday suspended its monitoring mission in Syria due to intensifying violence, sending a strong indication that prospects for peace are failing. "There has been an intensification of armed violence across Syria over the past 10 days," said Gen. Robert Mood, who heads the U.N. Supervision Mission in Syria. "This escalation is limiting our ability to observe, verify, report as well as assist in local dialogue and stability projects -- basically impeding our ability to carry out our mandate." The situation, Mood said, was too high risk for the unarmed monitors. He criticized "the lack of willingness by the parties to seek a peaceful transition," creating an environment that has led to more deaths among troops and rebel fighters but also "innocent civilians, men, women and children."
The Obama administration said Syria had reached a "critical juncture" and again urged President Bashar al-Assad to uphold its commitment to the six-point peace plan brokered by special envoy Kofi Annan. Tommy Vietor, a spokesman for the National Security Council, said the United States is now working with allies "regarding next steps toward a Syrian-led political transition" without al-Assad. "The sooner this transition takes place, the greater the chance of averting a lengthy and bloody sectarian civil war," he said.
Syria's government, however, remains steadfast and its foreign ministry on Saturday blamed the uptick in violence -- and the related decision to suspend the U.N. mission -- on "armed terrorist groups." "The armed groups also disregarded Annan's plan and the initial agreement between the United Nations and the Syrian government, aided by Arab and international powers that are still providing the terrorists with up-to-date weapons and communication devices that help them in committing their crimes and sticking to their defiance of the U.N. plan," the ministry said, according to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency.
Syrian opposition groups estimate that between 12,000 and 14,000 people have died since al-Assad's government began cracking down on anti-government activists last year. There was a slow-down in killings when a cease-fire brokered by Annan was set to take hold April 12. The U.N. monitors, whose numbers gradually rose to about 300, were sent in to ensure that both government and opposition fighters were abiding by the cease-fire and other elements of Annan's peace plan. But the pace picked up again, and the violence has especially soared in recent days with reports of heavy government bombardment of towns and cities and chilling massacres of civilians. At least 77 people were killed in the wake of the U.N. announcement Saturday across the Middle Eastern nation Saturday, including 43 dead in the Damascus suburbs, the opposition group Local Coordination Committees (LCC) of Syria reported.
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Syrian opposition activists slammed the United Nations on Sunday for suspending its observer mission in the nation, saying it is "unjustifiable and unacceptable" for the international community to fail to protect civilians from attacks. The United Nations said Saturday it is pulling back its unarmed monitors because escalating violence is limiting their ability to observe and verify reports, a major blow to a proposed peace plan. The peace plan, brokered by international special envoy to Syria Kofi Annan, had become a symbol of hope for civilians under constant attacks during the 15-month uprising. Annan's plan included a provision for the warring sides to lay down their weapons. "The decision of the U.N. supervision mission in Syria to suspend the monitoring mission represents a failure of ... the international community to effectively and responsibly deal with the situation in Syria," the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria said in a statement.
Violence has escalated in recent days, exacerbating an already risky situation for the about 300 monitors, said Gen. Robert Mood, who heads the U.N. supervision mission in Syria. More violence erupted Sunday, according to opposition activists. At least 20 people were killed nationwide, including five executed in Hama, the LCC said. Security forces raided homes in the capital of Damascus and arrested dozens, the group said. Observers will no longer conduct patrols and will stay in their locations until it is fit for them to resume their mandated activities, he said. The U.N. sent its monitors to ensure that government and opposition fighters are abiding by the cease-fire and other elements of the peace plan. However, both parties are not willing to seek a peaceful transition, leading to a rising death toll, including women and children, Mood said.
Opposition members decried the timing of the mission's suspension and accused the international community of not having a game plan to help Syria, saying that only emboldens the regime. "In the absence of any vision to push for an improvement in the situation, the current decision allows for more bloodshed and enables the regime to buy more time under international cover," the LCC said. Syria blamed the uptick in violence -- and the decision to suspend the U.N. mission -- on "armed terrorist groups," a stance it has held consistently. Syrian opposition groups estimate that more than 12,000 and 14,000 people have died since President Bashar al-Assad's government started cracking down on anti-government protesters last year.
There was a slow-down in killings when the cease-fire went into effect on April 12. But the pace picked up again, and the violence has soared in recent days with reports of heavy government bombardment on cities and chilling massacres of civilians. U.N. monitors witnessed the aftermath of some recent violence. For example, some entered the town of Houla a day after opposition activists reported a slaughter there. They also arrived in Qubeir after an alleged massacre there, though they were late after being turned back at checkpoints. A few days ago, U.N. teams were turned back as they tried to reach al Haffa, which had been under bombardment for eight days. By the time the monitors arrived, the town lay charred and deserted, with an overwhelming stench of death. On some occasions, the monitors have come under fire.
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Syria is for Syrians. Let them sort out their own problems. With Egypt & Libya turning to the Radicals, we don't need anymore Blowback. Lets mind our own business for once.
Speaking at the Friends of Syria conference in Paris, Clinton called on Russia and China to "get off the sidelines" and accused them of "standing up for" al-Assad's regime. She urged the other 60 or so nations represented at the summit to "make it clear that Russia and China will pay a price" for that support. "I ask you to reach out to Russia and China and not only ask but demand that they get off the sidelines," she said. "I don't think Russia and China believe they are paying any price at all, nothing at all, for standing with (the) Assad regime."
But it was unclear whether those two nations will reverse their longstanding opposition to forcing al-Assad from power. The two trade partners of Syria have vetoed previous efforts by the U.N. Security Council to condemn the violence in Syria and oust al-Assad. Neither Russia nor China was represented at the Paris meeting. Western and Arab nations started the Friends of Syria initiative because both countries posed diplomatic obstacles in tackling the Syrian crisis. The United States and others hope this meeting of the group could lead to stricter economic sanctions and more support for the opposition.
Clinton's tough comments came as a Western diplomat confirmed that Manaf Tlas, a general in Syria's elite Republican Guards, abandoned the regime. Tlas, the son of a former Syrian defense minister, defected over the killing of Sunnis, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The official was not authorized to speak to the media. "He's an inside confidant of Assad. So it counts that even an insider thinks it's time to go," the official said. His father, a former defense minister, and the rest of his family are in Paris, the official said. It was not immediately known if Tlas was on his way to France.
The defection is one more blow for al-Assad, who Clinton said has been feeling the bite of economic sanctions. The Syrian leader's "currency and foreign reserves have collapsed," she said, curbing his ability to continue his crackdown. But she said challenges remain. Al-Assad was being kept afloat by "money from Iran and assistance from Russia and the failure of countries here" at the conference to tighten economic sanctions. "None of us is satisfied or comfortable with what is going on in Syria," she said. But she noted that in the last several months since the Friends of Syria met in Tunis in February, "there has been a steady march toward ending this regime."
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Hillary givin' Russia, China what for...
"There is no doubt that the opposition is getting more effective in their defense of themselves and in going on the offense against the Syrian military and the Syrian government's militias," Clinton said during a press conference in Tokyo on Sunday.
And with a recent increase in defections from the al-Assad regime, "the sand is running out of the hourglass," Clinton said.
"The sooner there can be an end to the violence and a beginning of a political transition process, not only will fewer people die, but there's a chance to save the Syrian state from a catastrophic assault that would be very dangerous not only to Syria but to the region," she said.
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Six months in, the allure has worn off. At their third meeting in Paris, there were no expectations any decisions would be made, except for who would host the next meeting. Calls were made for tougher sanctions against President Bashar al-Assad's regime, even though most countries which had any business with Syria have already imposed tough measures to no avail. The group did endorse a transition plan hatched last week in Geneva. The document endorses a Syrian-led transition as part of the peace plan designed by U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan. The fact that the plan, which provides for an interim government, has no relation to the current reality on the ground or that it had no input from either the Syrian regime or the opposition - the two parties which would have to implement it - didn't seem to be nearly as important as the fact that Russia and China went along with it.
In lieu of an agenda, there was plenty of blame in Paris to heap on Russia and China. Offering her harshest rebuke of Moscow and Beijing to date, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on each leader present at the meeting to demand that Russia and China "get off the sidelines." "I don't believe Russia and China believe they are paying any price at all, nothing at all for standing up on behalf of the Assad regime," Clinton said. The longer the conflict drags on, the tougher Clinton's rhetoric on Russia becomes.
By placing the blame squarely on Russia and China, Clinton and others are able to delude themselves that diplomatic efforts can end the conflict with the main goal of getting Assad out. But in their heart of hearts they know even the most detailed roadmap of a post-Assad Syria has no hope of changing the military balance on the ground enough so that the Syrian military, Assad's inner circle, and Moscow see Assad as a sinking ship and abandon him.
Diplomats in New York are already at work on a new U.N. Security Council resolution endorsing the Annan plan and imposing sanctions on the regime if it fails to implement it. The resolution would be under Chapter 7, which has the implied threat of military action. But this, too, is a mirage. Privately, U.S. and other western officials recognize they are spinning their wheels. They know there is no chance the Assad regime would implement the Annan plan without a credible military threat and they also know that the appetite for international military action is, well, nonexistent.
Since the conflict in Syria began, the international community has had many excuses for inaction: the lack of a credible opposition, Russian intransigence and the fear of further militarizing the conflict. The need to give Annan's peace plan time to work was just the latest justification. Riad Seif, a prominent businessman and former member of parliament who recently left Syria and is now a member of the opposition, gave voice to what many Syrians are feeling about the futility of the "Friends of Syria" exercise when he asked the group to make its friendship actually mean something. "After so many conferences, we fail to see how we have so many friends and people are dying every day," he told the group during a fiery address. "Help us put an end to this massacre."
Analysis: Syria options dwindling CNN Security Clearance - CNN.com Blogs
UN is neither here nor there -- it became a pocket US organisation; and Hillary already said the US will "modernise" it by abolishing veto so it will not have any mechanisms to stop "civilised international community" from "spreading democracy".Can anyone clue me in as to what is at stake here? I mean in real words--not political shit. Who wants what and why? The UN doesn't act just out of concern for lives.
It's called GEOPOLITICS!
What do you want me to say, that the US is stomping around the world spreading human rights and happiness?!
Or perhaps you are under the impression that global elites are interested in the lives of ordinary Americans?
You might be more comfortable on the Conspiracy Forum.
UN is neither here nor there -- it became a pocket US organisation; and Hillary already said the US will "modernise" it by abolishing veto so it will not have any mechanisms to stop "civilised international community" from "spreading democracy".Can anyone clue me in as to what is at stake here? I mean in real words--not political shit. Who wants what and why? The UN doesn't act just out of concern for lives.
As to your initial question: the ultimate goal is to establish undisputed US world dominance: its full control over world's energy resources and US unchallenged right to plunder world's natural wealth without having to think of any "national borders".
The active phase of it started in mid 80-s; Syria is just the next step, and as far as it is concern, the objectives are:
1. To push China and Russia out of Mideteranian;
2. To destabilise Iran;
Destabilisation of Iran will involve Georgia (US already built a number of its military hospitals there). Georgian involvement will automatically mean re-ignition of Georgian-Ossetian, Georgian-Abkhasian conflicts, which in turn will destabilise Caucasus. Very likely, re-ignition of Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict.
But parallel to it, the US/UK and Qatar are activating the sleeper-cells in Northern Caucasus and all Central Asian republics. It means another war on Russian territory and a flood of refugees into Russia; in a spreading world economic crisis Russia's economy will be put under a lot of strain which will negatively reflect on the living standard of Russian citizens and will likely bread some resentment, and a new attempt at coloured revolution in Russia is already penciled down for Autumn with a view of dismemberment of Russia.
China will also be put under a similar pressure, and a new attempt will be made at establishing comprador government in China.
As you can see, Sirya/Iran is the last stand for Russia and China, and the rest of the world if the people of the world don't want to be governed by some closed club of global elite for whom interests of any and every nation simply don't exist.
Can anyone clue me in as to what is at stake here? I mean in real words--not political shit. Who wants what and why? The UN doesn't act just out of concern for lives.
So the US is hoping that a bluff will work and that all hell won't break loose ? Seems risky.
So the US is hoping that a bluff will work and that all hell won't break loose ? Seems risky.
It's more then a bluff. After all, the USSR and the whole of the socialist block of countries were destroyed! The architects of that destruction are hoping it will work now with Russia and China. It's not for nothing McFaul (the one who oversaw the disintegration of the Soviet Union) was appointed the US ambassador to Russian Federation just before winter presidential elections and the first (failed!) attempt at coloured revolution; the next attempt at coloured revolution in Russia is going to take place in Autumn...
Yes, it is risky for you and me and those like us. But it looks as if those who stand behind the WW3 are either confident they will be safe, or are simply psychotic.
