Syria and Diplomacy 2917


The problem with the Geneva Communique from the first Geneva round on Syria is that the government of Syria never subscribed to it.  It was jointly chaired by the League of Arab States for Syria, whatever that may mean.  Another problem is that it is, as so many diplomatic documents are, highly ambiguous.  It plainly advocates a power sharing executive formed by some of the current government plus the opposition to oversee a transition to democracy.  But it does not state which elements of the current government, and it does not mention which elements of the opposition, nor does it make plain if President Assad himself is eligible to be part of, or to head, the power-sharing executive, and whether he is eligible to be a candidate in future democratic elections.

Doubtless the British, for example, would argue that the term transition implies that he will go.  The Russians will argue there is no such implication and the text does not exclude anybody from the process.  Doubtless also diplomats on all sides were fully aware of these differing interpretations and the ambiguity is quite deliberate to enable an agreed text. I would say that the text tends much more to the “western” side, and that this reflects the apparently weak military position of the Assad regime at that time and the then extant threat of western military intervention.  There has been a radical shift in those factors against the western side in the interim. Expect Russian interpretations now to get more hardline.

Given the extreme ambiguity of the text, Iran has, as it frequently does, shot itself in the foot diplomatically by refusing to accept the communique as the basis of talks and thus getting excluded from Geneva.  Iran should have accepted the communique, and then at Geneva issued its own interpretation of it.

But that is a minor point.  The farcical thing about the Geneva conference is that it is attempting to promote into power-sharing in Syria “opposition” members who have no democratic credentials and represent a scarcely significant portion of those actually fighting the Assad regime in Syria.  What the West are trying to achieve is what the CIA and Mossad have now achieved in Egypt; replacing the head of the Mubarak regime while keeping all its power structures in place. The West don’t really want democracy in Syria, they just want a less pro-Russian leader of the power structures.

The inability of the British left to understand the Middle East is pathetic.  I recall arguing with commenters on this blog who supported the overthrow of the elected President of Egypt Morsi on the grounds that his overthrow was supporting secularism, judicial independence (missing the entirely obvious fact the Egyptian judiciary are almost all puppets of the military) and would lead to a left wing revolutionary outcome.  Similarly the demonstrations against Erdogan in Istanbul, orchestrated by very similar pro-military forces to those now in charge in Egypt, were also hailed by commenters here.  The word “secularist” seems to obviate all sins when it comes to the Middle East.

Qatar will be present at Geneva, and Qatar has just launched a pre-emptive media offensive by launching a dossier on torture and murder of detainees by the Assad regime, which is being given first headline treatment by the BBC all morning

There would be a good dossier to be issued on torture in detention in Qatar, and the lives of slave workers there, but that is another question.

I do not doubt at all that atrocities have been committed and are being committed by the Assad regime.  It is a very unpleasant regime indeed.  The fact that atrocities are also being committed by various rebel groups does not make Syrian government atrocities any better.

But whether 11,000 people really were murdered in a single detainee camp I am unsure.  What I do know is that the BBC presentation of today’s report has been a disgrace.  The report was commissioned by the government of Qatar who commissioned Carter Ruck to do it.  Both those organisations are infamous suppressors of free speech.  What is reprehensible is that the BBC are presenting the report as though it were produced by neutral experts, whereas the opposite is the case.  It is produced not by anti torture campaigners or by human rights activists, but by lawyers who are doing it purely and simply because they are being paid to do it.

The BBC are showing enormous deference to Sir Desmond De Silva, who is introduced as a former UN war crimes prosecutor.  He is indeed that, but it is not the capacity in which he is now acting.  He is acting as a barrister in private practice.  Before he was a UN prosecutor, he was for decades a criminal defence lawyer and has defended many murderers.  He has since acted to suppress the truth being published about many celebrities, including John Terry.

If the Assad regime and not the government of Qatar had instructed him and paid him, he would now be on our screens arguing the opposite case to that he is putting.  That is his job.  He probably regards that as not reprehensible.  What is reprehensible is that the BBC do not make it plain, but introduce him as a UN war crimes prosecutor as though he were acting in that capacity or out of concern for human rights.  I can find no evidence of his having an especial love for human rights in the abstract, when he is not being paid for it.  He produced an official UK government report into the murder of Pat Finucane, a murder organised by British authorities, which Pat Finucane’s widow described as a “sham”.  He was also put in charge of quietly sweeping the Israeli murders on the Gaza flotilla under the carpet at the UN.

The question any decent journalist should be asking him is “Sir Desmond De Silva, how much did the government of Qatar pay you for your part in preparing this report?  How much did it pay the other experts?  Does your fee from the Government of Qatar include this TV interview, or are you charging separately for your time in giving this interview?  In short how much are you being paid to say this?”

That is what any decent journalist would ask.  Which is why you will never hear those questions on the BBC.

 

 

 


Allowed HTML - you can use: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>

2,917 thoughts on “Syria and Diplomacy

1 93 94 95 96 97 98
  • guano

    If anyone knows a cure for hating Thatcher please let me know.
    I came across this pure market-worship devotee sect the other day, if it’s not working just do more and more market cult devotion. I assume there are horns and paedophilia to make it more interesting and help you on your way.

    https://beta.tradingfloor.com/posts/broader-relevance-ayn-rand-society-710110757?utm_source=Outbrain&utm_medium=Native%20Advertising&utm_term=PublisherNameGoesHere&utm_campaign=TF%20Beta%20Launch

  • Mary

    Sister Megan Rice has been sentenced to 3 years in jail for cutting a wire fence at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the US nuclear plant and uranium store and processing plant. She and others sprayed blood around and left messages protesting at the US’s nuclear involvement. She is 84 and told the judge that she wanted a life sentence. The protest took place in 2012.

    What a brave lady. Amerika should be proud of her.

    Elderly nun sentenced over US nuclear site break-in
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-26250164

    Sister Rice has spent her life in the service of others.

  • Mary

    Bibi has been mouthing off at his ‘border’ (the Golan Heights) about hearing babies crying and the ongoing butchery. He should know.

    All part of his anti Iranian propaganda as talks resume in Vienna.

    ‘Bibi used his secret visit as an opportunity to “lash out at Iran,” linking Tehran to the continued crisis in Syria as another round of nuclear talks between Iranian leadership and world powers commenced in Vienna Tuesday.

    “On the day when talks between the major powers and Iran are being opened in Vienna, it is important that the world sees the pictures from this place, which divides the good that is in the world from the bad. Iran is arming those who are carrying out the slaughter [in Syria]. All of the children who have been injured, to say nothing of those who have been killed, were injured as a result of Iran’s arming, financing and training of [the regime of President Bashar Assad],” said Netanyahu.’

    We trust that we will not be hearing of further unnatural deaths of Iranian nuclear scientists.

    ~~~~

    Truth or fiction here? 😉

    Breaking Jewish News Updated Throughout The Day

    SHOCK REPORT: Bibi was willing to cede Golan Heights to Assad

    Israeli media reveals that Netanyahu was in secret negotiations with Syria until outbreak of civil war
    http://www.worldjewishdaily.com/assad-negotiations-golan.php

  • BrianFujisan

    Mary ….You Ok… Mad hours. time for you’re visit to Alba

    …..Anyhoo….

    Syria’s Chemical Weapons Stockpiles to be Transferred to the Italian Mafia?

    By Felicity Arbuthnot

    Does the disposal of Syria’s chemical weapons by the two selected waste disposal companies, namely Finland’s Ekokem and France’s Veolia require a contractual arrangement (or “agreement”) with Italy’s most powerful criminal syndicate on behalf of the Nobel Peace Prize winning Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapon

    http://www.globalresearch.ca/syrias-chemical-weapons-stockpiles-to-be-transferred-to-the-italian-mafia/5369399

  • Jay

    https://archive.org/details/SocialEngineering101NoMusic

    sanction ~ approval of encouragement give to an action etc
    By custom or tradition; express tradition. Confirmation or ratification of law, ….

    From sancire sanct~ ‘ make sacred’

    The method used to bend the will of non conformists is state driven to impose Totalatarian social democracy
    To unite the masses to conform to the current standards set by the Machiavellian social system driven by plutocratic exceptionalists which construe liberal values negating values of goodness and considered by the masses as acceptable in the name of tolerance systematically destroying those core strengths of people.
    Which is the belief learned or inheritent in a society of goodness either with or without the bourgeois. To advance or disable the masses as they choose.

    Sanctions would not be needed if there was an open line of diplomacy.
    Those lines should be visible.

  • Lizardly

    If you look VERY closely, you may discover the tracks of your reptilian admirer near some fresh kills, Sofia.

  • Mary

    I thought of your Dad in the first para here Sofia! Very droll comment of yours last night at 10.13pm.

    Understanding Modern Israel
    Why it is Driving the World Towards Madness

    by John Chuckman / February 18th, 2014

    Nothing that Israel does in its affairs would be of quite such great concern to the world were it not for the fact that Israel drags along, willy-nilly, the world’s greatest power, much like some impressive-looking but feeble-willed, dazed parent stumbling along behind a screaming toddler demanding yet another goody. The threat of serious wars has grown exponentially in recent decades precisely owing to this fact, and not just wars but wars reflecting neither justice nor principle, the aggressive reordering of other people’s affairs by sweeping them into the pit of hell. The so-called war on terror is just part of the fallout of millions of the world’s powerless and abused watching helplessly and without hope the embarrassing public spectacle.

    The terrible bloody war in Iraq was almost exclusively for Israel’s benefit. The Syrian “civil war” is a deliberately-engineered conflict for Israel’s benefit. The coup in Egypt, wiping away the sacrifice of thousands of Egyptians in a revolution for democracy and restoring a junta, again reflects Israel’s interests in the region. The constant threats and needless hardships imposed upon Iran, a country which has no modern history of aggression and which every intelligence service knows has not been working towards nuclear weapons, reflects yet the same interest. Indeed, so determined is the government of Israel to keep this huge country pinned down that it pulled out all stops in using its immense congressional influence trying to embarrass the President and prevent a sensible international agreement with Iran. And, more ominously, Netanyahu has threatened countless times to attack Iran, knowing full well that the United States would be forced to come to his assistance when Iran struck back, as it would have every right to do.

    /..
    http://dissidentvoice.org/2014/02/understanding-modern-israel/

    The wars in the ME have never been about oil. They have been for destabilising and destroying any autonomous country in the region that Israel sees as an enemy.

    ~~~

    Lizardly You will have to be more specific!

  • Sofia Kibo Noh

    Brian. 1 13am

    “Are you in Scotland ?”

    I fear your attention has clearly been wandering.

    I’m getting increasingly alarmed at the mental toll clearly evident among some of the grown-ups here.

    It used to be only Dad who had to be gently guided home by Gary but now he’s having to watch out for both your good self and John too.

    Now sit quitely, drink your Horlicks and scroll back to 10 13pm yesterday for an in-depth update on my location. Additional musical hint at 12 42am.

    Scotland doesn’t have the monopoly on Paps you know. We have beauties here too.

    I’m away toot sweet but am worried about what I’ll find when I return. I will have to trust in Gary and Dr Bullstrode to keep you all safely sedated and out of serious trouble.

    Meanwhile, from Beautiful Palestine, http://vimeo.com/56474310

  • Mary

    Keep your doors locked today if you live in Wales. CameraOn is visiting.

    I expect SamCam is cursing the floods and wishes that they were all having a nice half term holiday skiing in the Alps or perhaps up in Scotland on stepDaddy’s estate, registered offshore.

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/budget/9164113/Budget-2012-Camerons-island-bolthole-exposed-to-Osbornes-tax.html

    This article is two years old. I bet that Gideon has done absolutely nothing about the taxation avoidance by the likes of Viscount Astor.

  • Dreoilin

    “If you look VERY closely, you may discover the tracks of your reptilian admirer near some fresh kills, Sofia.”

    Is that a suggestion that Komodo is here under another name?

    “I’m getting increasingly alarmed at the mental toll clearly evident among some of the grown-ups here.”

    Indeed …

  • fred

    “Scotland doesn’t have the monopoly on Paps you know. We have beauties here too.”

    Now Sofia do behave yourself.

  • Ba’al Zevul (La Vita è Finita)

    Doug –
    ‘So, the UN did not create Israel.

    The Zionists created Israel in a unilateral declaration of independence (i.e. statehood) in May 1948.’

    That was really what I was getting at. Followed by the observation that Israel made certain undertakings to the UN GA to legitimise its claim to acceptance as a peace-loving state. Which it has broken ever since.

    There is a list of states which do, and do not recognise Israel here –

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_recognition_of_Israel

    Note that its actions have repeatedly moved states to withdraw their recognition, temporarily or permanently, throughout its existence.

    The numbers aren’t so very different from those for Palestine, btw:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_recognition_of_the_State_of_Palestine

  • Ba’al Zevul (La Vita è Finita)

    The Paps of Jura aren’t granite, btw, but quartzite. Before buggerlugs corrects you….still a good building stone, though harder to quarry….

  • doug scorgie

    Resident Dissident
    18 Feb, 2014 – 9:40 pm

    Doug Scorgie says:
    “Habbabkuk, UN member nations, including Germany, recognise the state of Israel as a sovereign state not a Jewish state.”

    ResDis replies:
    “Please note the reference to resolution 181 in the resolution accepting Israel into membership of the UN which has been posted a number of times previously. As ESLO pointed out we are all happy to accept that the Democratic Peoples Republic of Doug Scorgie (known to its detractors as Great Tit Land) does not recognise the State of Israel. Please give it a rest – you really are adding nothing to the debate whatsoever.”

    ResDis, resolution 181 was the partition plan and resolution 273(iii) is the acceptance of Israel to the UN general assembly.

    Neither of these resolutions mentions Israel as a Jewish state.

    You say ResDis “please give it a rest…”

    Is that because you can’t counter my assertion: UN member nations, including Germany, recognise the state of Israel as a sovereign state not a Jewish state.”?

  • Ba’al Zevul (La Vita è Finita)

    Resolution 273 –

    ‘Noting furthermore the declaration by the State of Israel that it “unreservedly accepts the obligations of the United Nations Charter and undertakes to honour them from the day when it becomes a member of the United Nations’…

    UN Charter of Human Rights:

    Article 1.

    All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

    Article 2.

    Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. Furthermore, no distinction shall be made on the basis of the political, jurisdictional or international status of the country or territory to which a person belongs, whether it be independent, trust, non-self-governing or under any other limitation of sovereignty.

    Article 3.

    Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

    ……

    Article 5.

    No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

    Article 6.

    Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

    Article 7.

    All are equal before the law and are entitled without any discrimination to equal protection of the law. All are entitled to equal protection against any discrimination in violation of this Declaration and against any incitement to such discrimination.

    Article 8.

    Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals for acts violating the fundamental rights granted him by the constitution or by law.

    Article 9.

    No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.

    …..

    Etc.

  • Ba’al Zevul (La Vita è Finita)

    Habbabkuk to Doug Scorgie:
    “In other words, you are denying the right of Israel to exist because, as you well know, the Basic Law of Israel (= its constitution, as with Germany) states that Israel is a Jewish state.”

    Israel has no constitution (as with the UK)
    See also:

    http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/making-the-jewish-state-a-jewish-state/
    In which the need for a formal declaration of a Jewish State is identified. Caveat: there are one or two lies in this text, such as that the Jewish Agency is not – de facto – and arm of government. It is central to the settlement process, and it implements government policy. Considerably more so, indeed, than our own Network Rail…

    The existing Basic Law embodies the Independence Scroll. Which states:

    … that Israel will ensure “equal social and political rights for all citizens without difference of religion, race, or gender,”

    It doesn’t, and it never will.

  • ESLO

    @Sofia

    “A single secular democratic state in Palestine:

    A Republic of all its citizens!”

    Have you ever read the Hamas Charter – I don’t think you will find much secularism or democracy.

  • ESLO

    Ba’al Zevul

    All UN Member states are meant to accept and honour the UN Charter of Human Rights – and can in theory be kicked out if they don’t. Unfortunately any such decision can be vetoed.

  • A Node

    “If you look VERY closely, you may discover the tracks of your reptilian admirer near some fresh kills, Sofia.”

    Ba’al Zevul – Lord of ….Fire? …. Ring of Fire …… Indonesian Islands including Komodo, where the dragon rules …..???? Hmmm, doesn’t make too much sense when it’s written down, but then again, Komodo didn’t always make sense either ….. I’m going for it, that’s my guess.

  • ESLO

    “The wars in the ME have never been about oil. They have been for destabilising and destroying any autonomous country in the region that Israel sees as an enemy.”

    Oh that’s why Saddam invaded Kuwait, the Syrians invaded Kuwait and why the Kurds have fought for their liberty.

  • John Goss

    Clark, 19 Feb, 2014 – 11:14 am Guillotines. I never mentioned the photograph. I realised that this was just something to illustrate the links since no assembly was made. But I have read that the banksters want a reduction in population, the United States of America has the highest per capita prison population, many of these have not been charged with a crime. For example, Talha Ahsan and Babar Ahmad, have both been kept in solitary confinement for nearly eighteen months after spending respectively 6 and eight years in UK prisons without trial. You would have thought that the UK government made sure that there was a cast-iron case against them before extraditing to a country with the deplorable human rights’ record of the USA. But no, they have been tortured into confession (plea-bargain the Yanks call it) and supermax prisons are condemned by HRW and other human rights groups. They are a throwback from the 19th century and were once almost abolished by prison reformers. Charles Dickens wrote of one in Philadelphia: that this daily tampering with the brain was worse than any physical torture.

    http://www2.nycbar.org/pdf/report/uploads/20072165-TheBrutalityofSupermaxConfinement.pdf

    Cameron wants them here. This must be opposed by all decent people. It was the link to the Global Research article of 2008 about the prisons being built at secret locations that raised awareness and here is Obama happy to imprison people indefinitely because they might commit crimes in the future. What kind of law is this? Answer: it is not law. A new legal regime. This is out Nazis the Nazis.

    http://www.mrconservative.com/2014/01/30924-secret-fema-death-camps-already-at-a-location-near-you/

1 93 94 95 96 97 98

Comments are closed.