Russia ready to continue consultations on the draft resolution.

[tabatha]

Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said Friday that despite changes taking some of Moscow's concerns into account, the country could not support the text in its current form.

“Some of our concerns and the concerns of those who think the same as us have been taken into consideration but all the same this is not enough for us to be able to support it in this form," Gatilov told Interfax news agency.

"We still have a whole number of concerns over the content of this text and we will be ready to continue consultations on the draft resolution," he said adding that "We are ready to continue work on modifying it, taking into consideration and based on our principled positions."

Gatilov's remarks came shortly after a senior US State Department official said Washington was "cautiously optimistic" about winning Russia's support for the draft resolution.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/224689.html

[David__77]

1. Russia's red lines are clear...

Regime change cannot be endorsed and foreign intervention must be totally ruled out. Further, no sanctions or arms embargoes. Simple enough.

[tabatha]

2. Meanwhile the slaughter goes on.

If Hitler deserved to be removed, so does Assad.

[riderinthestorm]

5. Wow! Really?? Hitler = Assad?? nt

[tabatha]

6. It is brutal in Syria tonight.

asteris Asteris Masouras
by acarvin
Mixed msgs but protest likely took place TR @Duke_zappa street outside Syrian emb Athens full of squad cars 30' ago /cc @acarvin @JShahryar
2 minutes ago

Nora0315 Nora Basha
by acarvin
The videos coming out of #Syria right now are horrifying. Dead bodies on the ground. Blood everywhere. Children without heads. Panic. #Syria
29 minutes ago

Al_Sununu F. Atassi
by acarvin
The situation in Tadmor (Palmyra) is very tense. Activists there reported that FSA had attacked the Political Intelligence HQ.
4 minutes ago

Absology AbdulRahman
by acarvin
Over 200 people killed in #Syria as U.N. prepares to vote reuters.com/article/2012/0…
4 minutes ago

edwardedark edward dark
by acarvin
I can't believe this!!! #Syria state T.V denies there was any shelling at all in Homs, says it's a hoax. how despicable and low are they?
3 minutes ago

acarvin Andy Carvin
An ER room in #Homs. So much blood you can see reflections in it. Horrifying.

#syria
2 minutes ago

acarvin Andy Carvin
Graphic: more bodies in a makeshift morgue, Khaldiyeh, #homs #syria

3 minutes ago

ahmed Ahmed Al Omran
by acarvin
I'm getting reports about a protest outside Syrian consulate in Jeddah. Can any of my Saudi tweeps there confirm?
6 minutes ago

acarvin Andy Carvin
Graphic; Desperate attempt by doctors to save a man with a terrible head wound. Blood everywhere. #syria #homs

5 minutes ago

ahmed Ahmed Al Omran
by acarvin
[LIVE] AJM is broadcasting more graphic footage of dead bodies in Khaldiyeh beta.www.livestation.com/aljazeera-mubasher #SYRIA
7 minutes ago

acarvin Andy Carvin
Graphic: interview with a man in Homs whose mouth is blown apart; still bleeding while he struggles to talk.

6 minutes ago

acarvin Andy Carvin
Nighttime solidarity march for Homs, I think in Idlib.

#syria
8 minutes ago

[riderinthestorm]

9. Godwin's law means you are certainly derailing the conversation. Syria deserves better.

It's pretty grotesque to invoke that comparison. I've tried to stay neutral about your motives Tabatha but why in heavens name would you "go there" and blow up the conversation with this?

Yes it's bad but all civil wars are bloody.

This is nowhere NEAR Hitler and the Nazis....

[tabatha]

10. I would be happy if you would provide a better comparison.

Sorry, the carnage made me think of that.

Have you read about the torture that is going on in the prisons?

Have you read that protester's organs are being harvested - there are videos of the bodies afterwards.

Edit

As for motivation, there are thousands of people from all over the world standing in solidarity with the Syrians.

Just look at the tweets.

[riderinthestorm]

11. Why any comparison at all? Syria is NOTHING like anywhere else

Its proximity to Israel, it's allegiance to two superpowers in opposition to the US, the religious and tribal sectarian divide....

This is nothing LIKE Hitler. Facile comparisons are cheap. I resent that on an intellectual level.

The discourse on Syria MUST be better than that. I don't CARE how much we may disagree but its completely dishonest to invoke Godwin's Law for this situation. DU discussion is like a beginner International Relations course in some ways. If we fuck up the instruction, we will "lose" our students. There are people following the convo who are trying to understand. I always try to think about posting to THEM (and you, but you get my drift). The ME will be WWIII. I'm convinced of it. The more progressives we can get to truly understand the dynamics now, the more informed our populace becomes.

Please don't cheapen the discourse. I'm asking as a fellow DUer. I'm not online often enough but clearly you are. I'd like to appeal to your better sensibilities....

[tabatha]

13. I was talking about what Assad was doing to his people, not about the political situation.

Torturing children. Killing the wounded in hospitals. Killing people from the Red Crescent.

Killing 200 people in 3 hours. (Check the video from CNN).

Unfortunately, politics seems to be more important than people's lives.

That is probably why Assad thinks he can get away with it.

As for the politics, everyone is bending over backwards to make sure this does not become WWIII. Have you seen how long the UN meetings have dragged on. No one wants another war. Period.

Btw, did you see a tweet by one of the Syrians that Israel, their enemy, treated them better than Assad.

So, possibly, this issue may lead to more understanding between nations and not more war.

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. Would Pinochet and the Guerra Sucia work better for you?

It s actually more apt, if a lot less known.



And in scale of killed and tortured per population...it is close.

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. Well not to the same scale

But Assad is not a good man. This is a problem with dictators. So if they don't kill 14 million civies it is ok?

By that Dubois standard hitler was a saint, given the 20-5 million of Stalin...

I will grant you, Hitler is not a good use, since he was a special level of evil, but Assad is no baby.

We in the us really need to work hard to find out what is happening, oh and regime change is in the cards for at least regional powers (see Turkey and Jordan) and I will submit NATO and the United States.

[TheWraith]

3. In other words, "We're prepared to agree to a moderately worded letter of disapproval." nt

[David__77]

12. Just so long as it's not one-sided in its expression of disapproval, I imagine so.

Russia wants the non-state actors engaged in armed activities to be condemned as well.

The resolution is fine, so long as it has no legal force to facilitate violation of national sovereignty, or to interfere in any way with normal trade relations.

[tabatha]

14. Non-state actors - such as Iranians and others?

[David__77]

15. Iran is a state. I refer to the so-called "Free Syria Army" and various insurgents/terrorists.

That would include non-state Alawite militia as well. Iran maintains normal diplomatic relations with the Syrian government.

[tabatha]

16. The only terrorist is Assad.

The Free Syrian Army is composed for the most part of defected Syrian military.

[David__77]

17. Yeah yeah, "only terrorist".... anyone else can go chopping heads off...

And they're just fine ...I get it.

[tabatha]

19. Chopping heads off?

I follow Syria quite closely and have not seen it from the opposition.

[tabatha]

4. Telling tweet

Ahmed Al Omran @ahmed Close
Nurse on AJM: Israel, our enemy, never done anything like this to us. #HOMS #SYRIA
Retweeted by Andy Carvin

[nadinbrzezinski]

8. This may lead to peace

Whatever this is in the ME.