Libya and France have agreed to look into boosting maritime security and controlling the North African country’s borders, their defense ministers said on Saturday, Reuters reported. On a visit to Tripoli, French Defence Minister Gerard Longuet met his Libyan counterpart Osama…
Category: Syria & Iran Crisis
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has criticized the burning of the Holy Qur’an at a US military base in Afghanistan, referring to the incident as a “deplorable act of incitement.” On Thursday, OIC Secretary…
Russia, China warn against foreign intervention in Syria. Russia and China believe that foreign intervention in Syria will lead to unpredictable consequences. Russian and Chinese Foreign Ministers Sergei Lavrov and Yang Jiechi made this statement during a telephone conversation on Thursday. The two leaders urged the Syrian parties to put an immediate end to violence and ‘launch’ a dialogue without any preconditions. Sergei Lavrov and Yang Jiechi outlined steps in the direction of this goal, a Russian foreign ministry report says. Russia and China have blocked two Security Council resolutions that pave the way to foreign interference in Syria’s domestic affairs. Syria became a scene of bloody clashes nearly one year ago. According to the UN, more than 5,000 people have been killed in Syria since then.
Israel is backing down from her threats to bomb Iran. In a scathing loss of face for Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, diplomatic sources in Israel have revealed that President Shimon…
U.S. Senator John McCain. (Reuters / Soe Zeya Tun) Two congressional conservative warhawks have spoken up about how to handle the uprising in Syria, and their solution would involve arming the rebel forces with American…
A Foot in the Door The conventional picture of US policy in the Middle East is of a hellbound train rushing toward war with Iran, pulling burning coaches filled with European passengers howling praise of…
US and its allies are pushing Syria into civil war by backing the armed opposition, a Chinese newspaper writes. The article asserts that Beijing must stick to opposing violence in Damascus. “If Western countries continue…
In contrast to Libya, Syria became the scene of a revolt that almost immediately went off script: the majority of Syria’s population remain the government’s loyalists, and the Syrian army never disintegrated into warring factions. According to Western estimates, the rebel forces in Syria combined with the relatively small bunch of army defectors are outnumbered by at least a factor of four by the regular army which is also much better armed. The attacks launched by guerrillas on the regions where most of the residents are traditionally hostile to B. Assad and the attempts to cause the people to rebel are at the moment being successfully suppressed, while the opposition’s street marches typically run into response rallies staged by the supporters of the legitimate authority. Importantly, Russia and China strongly hold their own in the UN and block whatever Security Council resolutions that might be read as authorizing an intervention against Syria. As a result, the key objective behind the revolt in the country — to unleash a full-blown civil war in Syria — at the moment stays out of reach for those who orchestrated the unrest.
Everyone wants to have a hand to play in Pakistan’s Balochistan province. The latest player to unmask itself is the United States. Even as tensions brew between Pakistan and the U.S. over a resolution introduced…
[anyplayer:url=http://rt.com/files/news/un-assembly-vote-syrian-resolution-521/i94d716f80cac1e4cb0772f4bfd108a67_portnaya-live-0200.flv] The UN General Assembly has called on Syrian President Assad to step down. The resolution passed Thursday is worded similarly to a document vetoed in the UN Security Council by Russia and China. The…