01-30-2018, 11:55 PM
*** 31-Jan-18 World View -- Russia's Syria peace talks in Sochi dissolve into farce as Lavrov gets heckled
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
****
**** Russia's Syria peace talks in Sochi dissolve into farce as Lavrov gets heckled
****
![[Image: g180130b.jpg]](http://Media.GenerationalDynamics.com/ww2010/g180130b.jpg)
Civil defense team looks for survivors after al-Assad regime airstrike in Idlib. (Anadolu)
Russia's president Vladimir Putin wanted to be the world-renowned
diplomat that brought peace to Syria. So last year he blew off the UN
sponsored peace talks led by Staffan de Mistura, and he joined with
Iran and Turkey to form his own "peace talks" process, held in Astana,
Kazakhstan. And they came up with a peace plan.
Of course, the peace plan was rejected by the parties actually
fighting in Syria -- the Syrian regime led by the psychopathic
president Bashar al-Assad, and "moderate" anti-Assad opposition in
Syria, the al-Qaeda linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS, formerly Jabhat
al-Nusra, al-Nusra Front, and the so-called Islamic State (IS or ISIS
or ISIL or Daesh). All of those four groups rejected the peace
plan, so it was ridiculous for Putin or anyone else to believe
that the peace plan would work.
And it didn't. They came up with four "de-confliction zones"
or "ceasefire zones." The fighting slowed down a little in
these four zones for a little while, but today the whole agreement
is in shambles, as the fighting is in full force. It is a total
failure by Vladimir Putin.
There was a meeting of Putin's peace plan group in Sochi on Tuesday
that Putin was calling the "Syrian National Dialogue Congress."
The meeting was supposed to take two days, but it was called off after
one day, when Syrian opposition representatives heckled Putin's
right-hand man, Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, and then
walked out.
There was an additional drama at the Sochi airport. Some opposition
members arrived at the airport, but refused to go to the conference
hall because they saw pictures of Syrian flags there. They decided
that the fix was in.
Opposition members point out that Bashar al-Assad's army is still
using barrel bombs and chlorine gas on civilians, is targeting
hospitals and schools, is preventing food and medicine from reaching
civilians, has ignored ceasefires, and has broken every promise to
stop doing these things. So opposition members know that Russia and
al-Assad are just going to screw them again, so why bother with this
so-called "peace conference"?
Putin announced in December that the Syrian war was over, and that
Russia's troops will be returned to Russia. Less than two months
later, it's clear that Putin's announcement was garbage. Reuters and CNN and Tass (Moscow)
****
**** Russia sidelines the failed United Nations Syria peace process
****
Russia's "peace process" has almost completely eclipsed the
UN-sponsored "peace process," lead by UN envoy Staffan de Mistura.
I've written about any number of Syria peace plans over the years.
Kofi Annan, the virulently anti-American former Secretary-General of
the United Nations from Ghana, was the first UN envoy on Syria. Annan
formulated a farcical six-point 'peace plan'
which said absolutely nothing, but which al-Assad used
as a cover to continue exterminating innocent Sunni women and children
with impunity.
After Kofi Annan was repeatedly humiliated by Bashar al-Assad, the UN
appointed a new Syria peace envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi,
to replace Kofi Annan. Brahimi wasn't as much of
an idiot as Annan was, but he still resigned in disgust in May 2014,
after it became clear that
al-Assad really had no desire to do anything but exterminate Sunni
civilians. Now, the current UN envoy is Staffan de Mistura, who goes
around all the time saying, "This will not be tolerated," but who
accomplishes nothing except, again, to provide cover for Bashar
al-Assad's atrocities.
So Vladimir Putin took over the peace process business. The UN
processes held out a fig leaf of being impartial, but Putin was
clearly and unequivocally in favor of Bashar al-Assad, and committed
to supporting his genocide and war crimes, while claiming to be
promoting peace.
So to complete the farcical circle, de Mistura attended the Russian
conference in Sochi under the condition that Russia promised that the
United Nations would be responsible for drafting a constitution and
the mediation process. Putin apparently agreed, and now the mantle of
failure will pass from Russia back to the United Nations. Guardian and Russia Today
****
**** War continues in full force, with Syria and Turkey killing 'terrorists'
****
If you want to kill someone in Syria, it's perfectly OK as long you
call him or her a "terrorist."
So Turkey is committed to killing all the Kurdish People’s Protection
Units (YPG) militias in Syria, calling the "terrorists." Turkey's
president Recep Tayyip Erdogan is very critical of the US for arming
and supporting the YPG, whom the US army found to be essential in
fighting and defeating ISIS in Raqqa.
Turkey was supposed to have defeated the YPG in Afrin by now, but the
battle is taking longer than they expected. Assuming that they ever
defeat the YPG in Afrin, the plan is to proceed further east to
Manbij, where they will apparently meet American forces who are
defending the YPG.
Meanwhile, the regime of the Shia/Alawite Bashar al-Assad, backed by
Russian bombers, is killing his own "terrorists," namely innocent
Sunni women and children in two "de-confliction" or "ceasefire zones,"
Eastern Ghouta and Idlib. Al-Assad continues to commit war crimes, in
cooperation with Hezbollah, Iran and Russia.
Ironically, al-Assad is being helped by Erdogan because Turkey used to
be a protector of the civilians in Idlib, but is now distracted by the
fight against the YPG in Afrin.
So, while Erdogan is killing the terrorists in Afrin, al-Assad is
killing the terrorists in Eastern Ghouta and Idlib.
There is a fantasy, apparently widespread, that one way or another the
Syria war will end at some point soon, and then Syria will return to
"normal," just as it was before al-Assad started the war by trying to
exterminate peaceful protesters in 2011. And in fact, Syria is in a
generational Awakening era, and so the war should have (and would
have) fizzled out within a year or two.
But now you have multiple countries -- Russia, Iran, Hezbollah,
Turkey, the US, Israel and others -- and you have multiple factions
within Syria -- YPG, HTS, ISIS -- all wanting a piece of Iraq, or at
least wanting to make sure that some other faction doesn't get a
piece. Each faction believes that the war will end soon, but each
faction expects a different outcome.
As I've been writing for years, Generational Dynamics predicts that
the Mideast is headed for a major regional war, pitting Sunnis versus
Shias, Jews versus Arabs, and various ethnic groups against each
other. Generational Dynamics predicts that in the approaching Clash
of Civilizations world war, the "axis" of China, Pakistan and the
Sunni Muslim countries will be pitted against the "allies," the US,
India, Russia and Iran.
The mess and chaos in Syria is just a few steps away from a broader
war. AP and TRT World (Ankara, 18-Jan) and Middle East Monitor (24-Jan) and Middle East Eye (23-Jan)
Related Articles
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Syria, Russia, Vladimir Putin,
Sochi, Sergei Lavrov, Syrian National Dialogue Congress,
Staffan de Mistura, Iran, Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, HTS, Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Nusra Front,
Islamic State / of Iraq and Syria/Sham/the Levant, IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh,
Astana, Kazakhstan, de-escalation zones,
Eastern Ghouta, Hama, Idlib, barrel bombs,
chlorine, ammonia, phosphorous, Sarin gas
People’s Protection Units, YPG, Afrin, Manbij
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal
John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe
This morning's key headlines from GenerationalDynamics.com
- Russia's Syria peace talks in Sochi dissolve into farce as Lavrov gets heckled
- Russia sidelines the failed United Nations Syria peace process
- War continues in full force, with Syria and Turkey killing 'terrorists'
****
**** Russia's Syria peace talks in Sochi dissolve into farce as Lavrov gets heckled
****
Civil defense team looks for survivors after al-Assad regime airstrike in Idlib. (Anadolu)
Russia's president Vladimir Putin wanted to be the world-renowned
diplomat that brought peace to Syria. So last year he blew off the UN
sponsored peace talks led by Staffan de Mistura, and he joined with
Iran and Turkey to form his own "peace talks" process, held in Astana,
Kazakhstan. And they came up with a peace plan.
Of course, the peace plan was rejected by the parties actually
fighting in Syria -- the Syrian regime led by the psychopathic
president Bashar al-Assad, and "moderate" anti-Assad opposition in
Syria, the al-Qaeda linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS, formerly Jabhat
al-Nusra, al-Nusra Front, and the so-called Islamic State (IS or ISIS
or ISIL or Daesh). All of those four groups rejected the peace
plan, so it was ridiculous for Putin or anyone else to believe
that the peace plan would work.
And it didn't. They came up with four "de-confliction zones"
or "ceasefire zones." The fighting slowed down a little in
these four zones for a little while, but today the whole agreement
is in shambles, as the fighting is in full force. It is a total
failure by Vladimir Putin.
There was a meeting of Putin's peace plan group in Sochi on Tuesday
that Putin was calling the "Syrian National Dialogue Congress."
The meeting was supposed to take two days, but it was called off after
one day, when Syrian opposition representatives heckled Putin's
right-hand man, Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, and then
walked out.
There was an additional drama at the Sochi airport. Some opposition
members arrived at the airport, but refused to go to the conference
hall because they saw pictures of Syrian flags there. They decided
that the fix was in.
Opposition members point out that Bashar al-Assad's army is still
using barrel bombs and chlorine gas on civilians, is targeting
hospitals and schools, is preventing food and medicine from reaching
civilians, has ignored ceasefires, and has broken every promise to
stop doing these things. So opposition members know that Russia and
al-Assad are just going to screw them again, so why bother with this
so-called "peace conference"?
Putin announced in December that the Syrian war was over, and that
Russia's troops will be returned to Russia. Less than two months
later, it's clear that Putin's announcement was garbage. Reuters and CNN and Tass (Moscow)
****
**** Russia sidelines the failed United Nations Syria peace process
****
Russia's "peace process" has almost completely eclipsed the
UN-sponsored "peace process," lead by UN envoy Staffan de Mistura.
I've written about any number of Syria peace plans over the years.
Kofi Annan, the virulently anti-American former Secretary-General of
the United Nations from Ghana, was the first UN envoy on Syria. Annan
formulated a farcical six-point 'peace plan'
which said absolutely nothing, but which al-Assad used
as a cover to continue exterminating innocent Sunni women and children
with impunity.
After Kofi Annan was repeatedly humiliated by Bashar al-Assad, the UN
appointed a new Syria peace envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi,
to replace Kofi Annan. Brahimi wasn't as much of
an idiot as Annan was, but he still resigned in disgust in May 2014,
after it became clear that
al-Assad really had no desire to do anything but exterminate Sunni
civilians. Now, the current UN envoy is Staffan de Mistura, who goes
around all the time saying, "This will not be tolerated," but who
accomplishes nothing except, again, to provide cover for Bashar
al-Assad's atrocities.
So Vladimir Putin took over the peace process business. The UN
processes held out a fig leaf of being impartial, but Putin was
clearly and unequivocally in favor of Bashar al-Assad, and committed
to supporting his genocide and war crimes, while claiming to be
promoting peace.
So to complete the farcical circle, de Mistura attended the Russian
conference in Sochi under the condition that Russia promised that the
United Nations would be responsible for drafting a constitution and
the mediation process. Putin apparently agreed, and now the mantle of
failure will pass from Russia back to the United Nations. Guardian and Russia Today
****
**** War continues in full force, with Syria and Turkey killing 'terrorists'
****
If you want to kill someone in Syria, it's perfectly OK as long you
call him or her a "terrorist."
So Turkey is committed to killing all the Kurdish People’s Protection
Units (YPG) militias in Syria, calling the "terrorists." Turkey's
president Recep Tayyip Erdogan is very critical of the US for arming
and supporting the YPG, whom the US army found to be essential in
fighting and defeating ISIS in Raqqa.
Turkey was supposed to have defeated the YPG in Afrin by now, but the
battle is taking longer than they expected. Assuming that they ever
defeat the YPG in Afrin, the plan is to proceed further east to
Manbij, where they will apparently meet American forces who are
defending the YPG.
Meanwhile, the regime of the Shia/Alawite Bashar al-Assad, backed by
Russian bombers, is killing his own "terrorists," namely innocent
Sunni women and children in two "de-confliction" or "ceasefire zones,"
Eastern Ghouta and Idlib. Al-Assad continues to commit war crimes, in
cooperation with Hezbollah, Iran and Russia.
Ironically, al-Assad is being helped by Erdogan because Turkey used to
be a protector of the civilians in Idlib, but is now distracted by the
fight against the YPG in Afrin.
So, while Erdogan is killing the terrorists in Afrin, al-Assad is
killing the terrorists in Eastern Ghouta and Idlib.
There is a fantasy, apparently widespread, that one way or another the
Syria war will end at some point soon, and then Syria will return to
"normal," just as it was before al-Assad started the war by trying to
exterminate peaceful protesters in 2011. And in fact, Syria is in a
generational Awakening era, and so the war should have (and would
have) fizzled out within a year or two.
But now you have multiple countries -- Russia, Iran, Hezbollah,
Turkey, the US, Israel and others -- and you have multiple factions
within Syria -- YPG, HTS, ISIS -- all wanting a piece of Iraq, or at
least wanting to make sure that some other faction doesn't get a
piece. Each faction believes that the war will end soon, but each
faction expects a different outcome.
As I've been writing for years, Generational Dynamics predicts that
the Mideast is headed for a major regional war, pitting Sunnis versus
Shias, Jews versus Arabs, and various ethnic groups against each
other. Generational Dynamics predicts that in the approaching Clash
of Civilizations world war, the "axis" of China, Pakistan and the
Sunni Muslim countries will be pitted against the "allies," the US,
India, Russia and Iran.
The mess and chaos in Syria is just a few steps away from a broader
war. AP and TRT World (Ankara, 18-Jan) and Middle East Monitor (24-Jan) and Middle East Eye (23-Jan)
Related Articles
- Turkey begins invasion of Syria while China lies about 'indisputable sovereignty' (21-Jan-2018)
- Syria's al-Assad threatens to drive hundreds of thousands more refugees into Turkey and Europe (14-Jan-2018)
- US in Syria announces a Border Security Force to prevent repeat of Iraq withdrawal blunder (16-Jan-2018)
- Syria's Bashar al-Assad targets civilians and hospitals in never-ending war of extermination (07-Jan-2018)
- Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin hug and declare the end of war in Syria (27-Nov-2017)
- Russian-led Syria peace talks collapse in Astana, Kazakhstan (06-Jul-2017)
KEYS: Generational Dynamics, Syria, Russia, Vladimir Putin,
Sochi, Sergei Lavrov, Syrian National Dialogue Congress,
Staffan de Mistura, Iran, Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan,
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, HTS, Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Nusra Front,
Islamic State / of Iraq and Syria/Sham/the Levant, IS, ISIS, ISIL, Daesh,
Astana, Kazakhstan, de-escalation zones,
Eastern Ghouta, Hama, Idlib, barrel bombs,
chlorine, ammonia, phosphorous, Sarin gas
People’s Protection Units, YPG, Afrin, Manbij
Permanent web link to this article
Receive daily World View columns by e-mail
Contribute to Generational Dynamics via PayPal
John J. Xenakis
100 Memorial Drive Apt 8-13A
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: 617-864-0010
E-mail: john@GenerationalDynamics.com
Web site: http://www.GenerationalDynamics.com
Forum: http://www.gdxforum.com/forum
Subscribe to World View: http://generationaldynamics.com/subscribe
