US Warns Russia Against More Aid To Assad Amid New Violence
Source: Associated Press
By Sarah El Deeb (Associated Press) | Updated September 7, 2015 - 2:36am
BEIRUT — Anti-government violence erupted Saturday in a southern Syrian province that had largely stayed on the sidelines of the country's civil war. Meanwhile, unconfirmed reports suggesting that Russia was planning to expand its military support for Syrian President Bashar Assad prompted a warning from the US that such actions could lead to a confrontation with coalition forces.
The violence in Sweida province, a stronghold of the Druze minority sect, followed the killing of a prominent cleric in rare explosions Friday that claimed the lives of at least 25 others, activists and pro-government media said. Rioters holding the government responsible for the cleric's death destroyed the statue of late Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad and besieged security offices, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and other activist groups said.
In Washington, the State Department issued a statement after US Secretary of State John Kerry called Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to express concern over unconfirmed reports "suggesting an imminent enhanced Russian military build-up" in Syria.
While not elaborating on or confirming the accuracy of those reports, the State Department said Kerry made clear to Lavrov that such actions "could further escalate the conflict, lead to greater loss of innocent life, increase refugee flows and risk confrontation" with the anti-Islamic State coalition operating led by the US that is carrying out strikes in Syria.
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http://www.philstar.com/world/2015/09/07/1496968/us-warns-russia-against-more-aid-assad-amid-new-violence
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kelly1mm
(4,733 posts)
We'll make serious and dire threats, and promptly state right up front that we want neither boots on the ground nor to provide lethal aid.
We'll cookie Assad to death, bandage his regime into oblivion, and throw tons of flour and oil at it until he finally yields like soft dough.
But undo no circumstance will we stand up in any way that the bully thinks relevant.
Heck, we may even use, cautiously, some mildly unpleasant words or slap sanctions on some billionaire and prevent him from going some place he had no intention of going.
If the Cold War had been fought this way, there'd have been a dozen additional Cubas scattered around the world. For many, that would be a good thing. Nothing like repression of speech, religion, and due process, backwards planned economies and political oppression of disagreeable ideological diversity to bring a tear of joy to the eye of many a unreconstructed pre-20th Congress Stalinist. Even now, they live among us, knowing full well that the US funneled arms to some unsavory types but refusing to admit that the AKs and munitions wielded by insurgents in years-long civil wars didn't fall from heaven like manna or grow on trees like olives.
JackRiddler
(24,979 posts)kelly1mm
(4,733 posts)JackRiddler
(24,979 posts)then it's done plenty to make the situation in Syria much much worse. Arming Islamist factions, backing the Gulf states. Before that, destroying the nation of Iraq in a war of aggression. Now you want to distract from your responsibility (since for some reason you identify with this government in a first person plural), quick, look! Putin! Evil! All his fault!
kelly1mm
(4,733 posts)especially Russia, are met with something akin to laughter. Everyone knows that with the exceptions (maybe) of some country attacking NATO that the USA will sit by and do nothing militarily. Perhaps that is a good think. Perhaps not.
Putin is not evil. He is an opportunist and a darn good one!
leveymg
(36,418 posts)We can call it a humanitarian mission.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)where to advance next. Putins problem and I doubt he will get much help.
leveymg
(36,418 posts)The Cold War continues.
Sunlei
(22,651 posts)leveymg
(36,418 posts)globally using these same paramilitary assets, and the U.S. became the target on 9/11. Saudi and Qatari external intelligence were involved in the attacks. The Bush Administration and CIA gave them plausible deniability by a combination of mens rea and incompetence at the very top.
By morphing AQ into ISIS in 2012, when the Obama Administration decided to pull back in Syria, the Saudis/GCC have escalated to the point where the US military is now effectively in a limited war with their paramilitary. We never seem to go directly after the state sponsors and bankers of ISIS or AQ, however, even though the USG occasionally slips up and admits that these groups aren't self-funding but instead receive donations, "a lot of donations."
See, http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2015/02/05/Pentagon-oil-is-no-longer-ISIS-main-source-of-income-.html; link to DOD press briefing transcript, http://www.defense.gov/News/News-Transcripts/Transcript-View/Article/607008
“We know that oil revenue is no longer the lead source of their [ISIS’] income in dollars,” Pentagon spokesperson Rear Admiral John Kirby told reporters during a press briefing on Tuesday.
ISIS’ loss of income is compounded by its losses on the battlefield as the group has “lost literally hundreds and hundreds of vehicles that they can’t replace,” Kirby said.
“They’ve got to steal whatever they want to get, and there’s a finite number.”
ISIS is instead depending on “a lot of donations” as one of the main sources of income. “They also have a significant black market program going on,” Kirby said.
In fact, oil sales was never more than 40% of ISIS income. Most of it is contributions from KSA and the GCC that get funneled through Qatar, which has persistently rebuffed US attempts to persuade the Emir to restrict private and state donations to the IS.
JackRiddler
(24,979 posts)By Alessandria Masi @alessandriamasi a.masi@ibtimes.com on June 26 2015 7:04 AM EDT
Photo caption: Russian-speaking militants appear in an Islamic State group propaganda video June 23, 2015. The extremist group declared a new so-called wilayat, or province, in the North Caucasus region of Russia. Al-Furat Media
The Islamic State group announced the creation of its northernmost province this week, after accepting a formal pledge of allegiance from former al Qaeda militants in the North Caucasus region of Russia. An Islamic State wilayat, or province, in the autonomous republics of the country’s south may seem far-fetched, but the militant group has been preparing to announce its branch in the Caucasus for months.
With the addition of what it calls Wilayat Qawqaz, or Caucasus Province, in a heavily Muslim region of Russia, the group formerly known as either ISIL or ISIS has now declared it has provinces in nine countries outside Iraq and Syria. Militants in the North Caucasus region initiated the allegiance process as early as last December, and fulfilled all the requirements Wednesday, when an Islamic State leader or sheikh, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, announced that the militants had been accepted into the group in an audio statement circulated through social media.
In the past, the Islamic State group has been cautious when announcing its new wilayats, choosing areas where affiliated organizations were certain to succeed. Target countries are usually those with pre-existing sectarian tensions, a marginalized Sunni population and a large number of fighters who had already joined the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria.
Wilayat Qawqaz fulfilled those requirements. Chechens make up a large proportion of the foreign fighters who have joined the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, where they are reputed to be the so-called caliphate’s toughest combatants. The number of militants in the new Wilayat Qawqaz is unknown, but experts believe most of them have not trained in Iraq and Syria. While it is too soon to tell, it’s likely militants will focus on local attacks.
In the short term, however, “this may have little immediate practical consequence for Russian security,” according to a report by the Soufan Group, a security-services company based in New York.
The creation of a province in the area will help additional fighters make their way to Iraq and Syria, experts said.
rpannier
(24,329 posts)Russia's support for the Syrian Government?
Lavrov should've just laughed and hung up
paleotn
(17,931 posts)....there are no clean hands in this mess.
MisterP
(23,730 posts)Sunlei
(22,651 posts)samsingh
(17,599 posts)
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Greece received a request from the United States to deny Russia the use of Greek airspace for aid flights to Syria, a spokesman for the foreign ministry in Athens said on Monday.
The spokesman said the request was being examined.
Russian newswire RIA Novosti earlier said Greece had refused the U.S. request, citing a diplomatic source, adding that Russia was seeking permission to run the flights up to Sept. 24.
Greece has sought to foster closer ties with Russia during the economic crisis that nearly forced it out of the euro zone.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/07/us-mideast-crisis-greece-russia-idUSKCN0R714O20150907
leveymg
(36,418 posts)Looks like they're now gearing up for the "no-fly zone" the neocons have been pushing for to pave the way for the final assault on Damascus. The "migrant crisis" is the inevitable outp[oring of refugees being spun as psychological pressure on the EU not to oppose what appears to be the inevitable coup d' grace against the Assad regime and the Allawites.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Moscow dismissed Sept. 7 U.S. concern of a Russian military buildup in Syria, saying its military aid to Bashar al-Assad was nothing out of the ordinary.
Over the weekend US Secretary of State John Kerry phoned his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov to express concern about reports of an “enhanced Russian buildup” in Syria.
“The Russian side has never concealed the fact that it is sending military equipment to the Syrian authorities to help them fight terrorism,” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told AFP, commenting on the Kerry-Lavrov phone talks.
“Lavrov confirmed that such aid has always been provided and is being provided.”
http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/russia-dismisses-us-concerns-over-syria-military-buildup-.aspx?pageID=238&nID=88123&NewsCatID=352
Kurska
(5,739 posts)We've even bought extra postage, come on Russia, make our day.
PersonNumber503602
(1,134 posts)He's better than the alternative. I'm kind of glad Russia is doing something. Sucks for relatively few secular rebels, but they simply didn't make the cut.
