- Oct 7, 2011
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According to a source in the U.S. government, one week ago, the Arab League Secretary-General, Nabil al-Arabi, told the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, Jeffrey Feltman, that the Assad regime was breaking the terms of the Arab League initiative. If true, this quiet admission of failure preceded the high-profile resignation of Algerian League delegate Anwar Malek, who told Al Jazeera that his team had been unable to prevent the Assad regimes multiple crimes against humanity and that the mission itself was a farce. More delegates are now said to be planning to quit.
When I asked a State Department spokesperson yesterday to confirm al-Arabis judgment, delivered in advance of the League report on Syria, he referred me to Hillary Clintons Wednesday interview with Qatari PM Jassim bin Jabor Al Thani, who said: [W]hat is now obvious today is that attacks are still ongoing and it seems that the Government of Syria is still not ready to change its course. Quite simply, a consensus is forming in Washington and Arab capitals that the last chance effort to broker an end to the violence in Syria is an embarrassing shambles.
So where does that leave the Assad regime? As first reported by Foreign Policy magazine, the Obama administration has begun the preliminaries of internationalising the response to ongoing Syrian crisis. They are weighing the option of some kind of humanitarian military intervention, most likely led by Turkey. Repeated attempts to get a UN Security Council resolution condemning the regime have failed chiefly because Russia will not give up its ally in Damascus. Cyprus, which is the Kremlin's Mediterranean partner in money laundering and corruption, has just violated EU sanctions by allowing a Russian ship full of "35 to 60 tons of ammunition and explosives" to sail for Syrias Russian-controlled port of Tartus.
Read More:
War in Syria may now be inevitable – Telegraph Blogs
15-Jan-12 World View — Consensus Is Growing For Military Action In Syria
When I asked a State Department spokesperson yesterday to confirm al-Arabis judgment, delivered in advance of the League report on Syria, he referred me to Hillary Clintons Wednesday interview with Qatari PM Jassim bin Jabor Al Thani, who said: [W]hat is now obvious today is that attacks are still ongoing and it seems that the Government of Syria is still not ready to change its course. Quite simply, a consensus is forming in Washington and Arab capitals that the last chance effort to broker an end to the violence in Syria is an embarrassing shambles.
So where does that leave the Assad regime? As first reported by Foreign Policy magazine, the Obama administration has begun the preliminaries of internationalising the response to ongoing Syrian crisis. They are weighing the option of some kind of humanitarian military intervention, most likely led by Turkey. Repeated attempts to get a UN Security Council resolution condemning the regime have failed chiefly because Russia will not give up its ally in Damascus. Cyprus, which is the Kremlin's Mediterranean partner in money laundering and corruption, has just violated EU sanctions by allowing a Russian ship full of "35 to 60 tons of ammunition and explosives" to sail for Syrias Russian-controlled port of Tartus.
Read More:
War in Syria may now be inevitable – Telegraph Blogs
15-Jan-12 World View — Consensus Is Growing For Military Action In Syria