Syria Supports 'Any International Effort' in Fight Against Jihadists Following Isis Strikes

[denem]

Source: Yahoo News (UK)

Syria has said that it supports and is ready to cooperate with "any international effort" against jihadist groups following the start of US-led airstrikes against Isis (now known as the Islamic State) and The Khorasan group in the country.

Syria "backs any international effort that contributes to the fight against terrorists, be it against... Isis, the al-Nusra Front or anyone else," the foreign ministry announced in a televised statement.

Despite the Syrian foreign ministry being informed by its UN envoy about the strikes against the Islamic State, the approval of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was not sought by the United States.

Read more: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/syria-supports-international-effort-fight-against-jihadists-following-092610081.html#2TZLZgM

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Russia Condemns U.S. Airstrikes on ISIS and al-Qaeda; Assad Approves
http://www.thewire.com/global/2014/09/russia-condemns-us-airstrikes-on-isis-and-al-qaeda-assad-approves/380634/

[Turbineguy]

1. And I'm sure Mr. Assad

will supply on the ground intelligence to insure that the bombs go to all the right places. Especially his enemies.

[denem]

3. Assad can inform one and all

where the next barrel bomb is likely to fall.

Priceless.

[marble falls]

2. Now it'll get really interesting. So Assad is now part of our coalition. Perfect.

[denem]

4. 'The Coalition of the Killing'

Yep. He's the man.

[denem]

5. One thing I don't want to read is about civilian casualties

attributed to US air strikes. More than fifty people are reported to have died. Kay. The 'international community' doesn't give a shit about Syrian civilians.

Death Toll in Syria Estimated at 191,000

GENEVA — The number of dead in Syria’s civil war more than doubled in the past year to at least 191,000, the United Nations human rights office said Friday. The agency’s chief, Navi Pillay, bluntly criticized Western nations, saying their inaction in the face of the slaughter had “empowered and emboldened” the killers.

In its third report on Syria commissioned by the United Nations, the Human Rights Data Analysis Group identified 191,369 deaths from the start of the conflict in March 2011 to April 2014, more than double the 92,901 deaths cited in the group’s last report, which covered the first two years of the conflict.

“Tragically, it is probably an underestimate of the real total number of people killed during the first three years of this murderous conflict,” Ms. Pillay said in a statement that accompanied the report, which observed that many killings in Syria were undocumented.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/23/world/middleeast/un-raises-estimate-of-dead-in-syrian-conflict-to-191000.html

[Amonester]

11. Except for when the 'international community' tries to send them AID WORKERS...

who get brutally beheaded by a few savages of the local mafia there.

It's a civil war. FYI, people usually die in civil wars.

When the religious fanatics there will stop beheading "non-believers" for anything they deem "fit" and just for fun, perhaps humanitarian workers will be able to go there and HELP victims?

Thanks for your support (of HELP workers, and to a lesser degree, to free-press journalists...)

[denem]

18. Three Westerners beheaded on video brings

worldwide condemnation; 1000 a-rabs slaughtered a week, that is just a statistic.

Yes you are right, this is a civil war. People, a LOT of people die in a civil war. My point is no one, No One with any self respect, should put up Syrian civilian casualties in order to oppose today's air strikes targeting unapolgetic genocidal killers.

There are a lot of reasons to reject deploying the U.S. military in Syria. Civilian casualties is not one of them.

[Amonester]

20. You seem to be obsessed only on the U.S. military, while other "actors" IN the region

OF the region are also (finally, IMHO) flying their bombings towards the local mafia there gone rogue.

Why only target your critics toward the U.S.? Doesn't that make your agenda kind of transparent?

[denem]

21. Sorry, let me make myself clear.

After the disasters of the war in Afghanistan, and Iraq (2003 ...), there are many people in the States and elsewhere, firmly opposed to US military force in any circumstances. What I am saying is, if someone is a critic of US using military force today in Syria, make your argument, but do not dare to cite civilian casualitiesthe current air strikes in Syria by the US, then argue away but do not raise civilian casualties. That's all.

[Amonester]

22. Ok, sorry for asking.

OTOH, climate change(s) may lead to more than seven billion civilian deaths one of these days, but since it's not a war, climate-change deniers don't seem to care either...

[denem]

24. There were 400K protesting action on Climate Change in NYC.

And how many protested the slaughter in Syria. Lets just say it was the same number protesting the slaughter in Cambodia and Rwanda, and the war in the Congo. And why so? Oh yes - these people were not white. Climate Change threatens white lives. QED.

[GeorgeGist]

32. You seem to be obsessed with the US being ...

a part of the ME.

[Sunlei]

6. Assad is no longer a legit leader, no one asked for his approval or offered him 'help'

Very, disgruntled IS ground fighters head home to your part of Syria, Assad. Have you already run away to your mansions in Geneva, Swiss.?

[Comrade Grumpy]

25. Despite the Western narrative, Assad has a lot of support in Syria.

And probably even more now, now that people have had a chance to see the alternatives.

[Sunlei]

26. He's living on a warship guarded by the Russians. Putins his best friend & supporter.

Assad is one of his biggest customers.

[Comrade Grumpy]

27. "Assad is living on a warship guarded by the Russians" is propaganda.

First off, this claim is from a year and a half ago.

Secondly:

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2013/01/14/media-reports-that-assad-lives-on-russian-warship-likely-false

Reports that the Syrian president has been living on a navy ship off the coast of his wartorn country under Russian security are likely false, experts say.

Saudi Arabian news service al-Watan issued unconfirmed reports that family and senior advisors of Bashar al-Assad have joined the president on board a warship in the Mediterranean, secured by Russian operatives. Assad uses a helicopters to travel to Syria, reports al-Watan. This story has been re-reported by Israel's Y Net News, Business Insider, and UPI, all citing the same unconfirmed source.

Expert observers of Russian foreign policy and the behavior of the Syrian president, including the U.S. State Department, say this is likely untrue.

"There's no reason for [Assad] to be on a warship in the Mediterranean," says Syria specialist Michael Weiss, a columnist with Middle East news website NOW Lebanon. "He has to be in Damascus, because that's where he's running the whole war machine."

Al-Watan is so far the only news service to report on the rumors independently. Private intelligence company Stratfor points out Riyadh has a vested interest in making it appear Assad—a vocal critic of the Saudis as a U.S. ally—does not feel safe in his home country.

"If things had come to that point then he would have lost Damascus," says Kamran Bokhari, Stratfor's vice president of Middle Eastern affairs, adding that the Saudi government is working "feverishly" to topple Assad and his Iranian allies.

[Sunlei]

29. He moved a large group to Geneva. Long as there is money, he will be Putins BF.

I doubt very much he 'Leads' from Damascus or Syria today.

[Comrade Grumpy]

30. Remove your ideological blinders.

And cut the childish crap. "Putin's BF." Really?

Syria and Russia are long-standing allies. You can say that without being all junior high school about it.

And Assad is in Damascus today meeting with the Iranian foreign minister.

http://www.sana.sy/en/?p=13927

President al-Assad to Iraqi envoy: Syria proceeds resolutely in its war against terrorism
23/09/2014

Damascus, SANA – President Bashar al-Assad on Tuesday met Faleh Fayyad, the Iraqi National Security Advisor and the envoy of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi.

Talks during the meeting tackled counterterrorism efforts, with the Iraqi envoy briefing President al-Assad on the latest steps taken in this regard, as well as discussing upcoming steps and possible measures to ensure the success of these efforts and eliminate terrorists organizations in all their forms.

President al-Assad affirmed to Fayyad that Russia is proceeding resolutely in its war against all forms of takfiri terrorism which it has been waging for years, asserting that Syria supports any international counterterrorism effort.

The President stressed that the success of such efforts isn’t just linked to military action which is important, as it’s also linked to states committing themselves to relevant international resolutions and what they entail in terms of stopping all forms of support for terrorist organizations.


The two sides affirmed the need to continue cooperation and coordination between the two countries’ leadership in combating terrorism, particularly since this cooperation produced positive results for the people of Syria, Iraq, and the region.

[Sunlei]

31. Assad will only remain Russias best friend, as long as Assad controls Syrias spending money.

[Fred Sanders]

7. How come America loves them the Egypt and Saudi dictator but not the Syrian one?

And of course America needs no ones approval to bomb any nation they choose, or will just lie about it.

Speaking from up high on a moral perch that long ago was broken.

"Moderate" terrorists are now Americas allies against the extreme terrorists, so now America wants to assign levels?

[Sunlei]

8. Did you miss the 2011 reports about future relations or not /w Assad gov?

I suggest you use search.

[GeorgeGist]

10. Got a link?

my search came up blank.

[Fred Sanders]

13. Demands to search by others is dull, indicting distress at a new thought disturbing the mindset.

[Sunlei]

15. what search term did you use? here try "Obama quotes on Assad" in google search.

That will give you pretty much what Obama said back then about Assad Gov. and our policies, policies of international community & many of the News stories from 3 years ago. You can also refine your google search, I don't understand how your search got a "blank".


https://www.google.com/?gws_rd=ssl#q=obama+quotes+on+assad

[ballyhoo]

9. Yes, we are the boss State. All should kneel before us

as we kill the rest, including our on people at home starving on street corners. The highest level terrorist is us.

[Fred Sanders]

16. Could not bomb Syria last year as they agreed to take out all chemical weapons, so the CIA

created and funded, via Saudi and Qatar, ISIS, before just a small and criminal gang kicked out of AQ for being too extreme.

Now the CIA left Obama and America no choice, bombs away against the vicious thugs threatening, cough, the "homeland", they may have helped with technical production of the beheadings that the mass media gave free advertising for, too...crazy, huh?

But then again, how evil can a divided powers America really be? I should just go with the propaganda flow, really.

Assad protects Christians even as ALL the terrorists in Syria wants to kill or convert them...never mentioned...

[ballyhoo]

17. Doesn't seem to be much left. And how can a starving,

uneducated people understand anything let alone treachery by an acronym.

[Reter]

12. I have no idea why they hate him

He's also quite tolerant of Christians.

?e2231d

[Fred Sanders]

14. Because the mass media has drummed it into the compliant American zombie masses mushy minds.

Ask folks where Syria is on a map....hilarity ensues.

[pampango]

19. "... in a nation where the mukhabarat (secret police informants/intelligence agents) have long

infiltrated all segments of society and institutions, a general aura of fear, suspicion, and paranoia persisted ...

During the same year Bashar Al-Assad took power, ninety-nine Syrian intellectuals, writers, and critics crafted and signed the “Statement of 99” calling for an end to emergency rule/martial law that had been in place since 1963, for the state to pardon political dissidents detained, imprisoned, deported, or exiled by his father’s regime, formal recognition and implementation of freedom of assembly, press, and expression, as well as an end to the surveillance of its citizens by the secret police and security forces. ... The following year, in 2001, one thousand academics, critics, and activists launched the “Statement of 1,000” which expanded on the previous statement’s tenets and called for a multi-party democracy to supplant the one-party Baa’thist state. This was met with another, albeit harsher, government crackdown.

... when anti-regime protests began in early 2011. While initially limited to small demonstrations calling on the lifting of the Emergency Laws and better economic policies, the government was able to contain them with relative ease. When they grew as they did in Dera’a in March of that year, the government’s crackdowns intensified and greater numbers of Syrians became disillusioned by the regime’s insincerity in addressing and implementing political, social, and economic reforms. The zero-tolerance policies of the Assad regime only sought to radicalize some already, economically and politically disenfranchised segments of the Syrian population, some of which had been subdued by his father in previous years and had since been boiling with discontent.

Clearly, the regime was desperate to quell unfavorable opinions about the regime in any and all forms and was willing to undermine civil society for ‘national security’ concerns through their unreasonable policies- policies which only increasingly infuriated Syrians. A 2006 report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) placed Syria among the top-ten most censored countries in the world, as did a 2006 report published by Reporters without Borders who claimed that it was common for Syrian security forces to arrest, interrogate, or try individuals for attempting to either view, download, or write on forbidden topics or issues (e.g. uploading or sharing images of police brutality or criticizing a regime official or regime policy).

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025573628

Perhaps you and I would have hated to live under the repression of the Assad father/son hereditary dictatorship.

[GOLGO 13]

23. Oh, those dictators are all right with us. But why them exactly? Well...

Oil naturally. SA is also where Mecca is, so you know we ain't ever gonna go rolling in there to do anything even remotely angry. Also our good "friends" the House of Saud, buys a metric shit-ton of grade A military hardware from only Americas finest & whitest corprations.

And that billion we "give" to the Egyptian military every year? Yeah, we get that returned on the back end when they buy our Abrams tanks, F-15 fighter planes, and happy fun time weapons systems and included party favors. Fireworks are extra, of course.

Syria mostly buys their toys from Russia. So fuck Assad.

[Comrade Grumpy]

28. Because those dictators are our allies. Of course. Assad was not our ally.

But now, maybe he is. And isn't.

[dmosh42]

33. The "Great Satan" falls for it again! USA goes it alone into religious conflict.