Russia and the USA Want Talks Between Syrian Régime and Opposition

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On Tuesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry said that Russia and the USA would set up an international conference on Syria by the end of this month. He’s optimistic that it’d involve both the Syrian government and opposition forces. At a meeting with Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov, Kerry said that the conference would aim at facilitating a solution to the Syrian crisis through political dialogue. Lavrov added that the Syrian government assured Russia that it’s ready to participate in the conference, saying, “But, of course, so far, these are just words that have yet to be transformed into actions”. He went to say that the Syrian opposition hasn’t commented on the proposal. So far, opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have refused to sit down for talks with the régime in the past, saying that Assad’s removal is a non-negotiable issue. Lavrov pointed up that the conference would be a follow-up to last year’s international meeting in Genève that drafted a peace roadmap for Syria.

The communiqué passed in Genève by the UN Action Group on Syria, which includes Syria’s neighbours and the permanent members of the UN Security Council, proposed to start with the creation of a transitional government drawn both from the opposition and Assad’s administration. Both Kerry and Lavrov stressed that Russia and the USA support the Genève roadmap, seeing political dialogue as the only solution for Syria. Kerry said that the alternative is increasing violence, a humanitarian crisis, and the country’s disintegration.

Moscow and Washington have clashed over Syria in the past; the USA put the responsibility for the civil war on Assad’s régime, whilst Russia insisted that the opposition should share the blame for the conflict. Russia blocked several UN Security Council resolutions on Syria, saying that they were biased in favour of the opposition. The USA supported the Syrian opposition, providing the motley coalition of forces (which includes many radical Islamists) with non-lethal military equipment. Recently, a bill filed with the US Senate proposed the supply of weapons to the Syrian insurgents. Kerry said the bill’s fate depended on the American inquiry in progress into reports that the rebels used chemical weapons, but added the matter may become a moot point if the government and the opposition begin dialogue. More than 70,000 have died in the two-year-long present conflict in Syria, according to the latest UN estimates.

8 May 2013

RIA-Novosti

http://en.rian.ru/world/20130508/181018883/Russia-US-Want-Talks-Between-Syrian-Govt-Opposition.html

Editor’s Note:

Let’s not put too fine a face on this. The USA has woken up to the fact that Islamist radicals would benefit from the toppling of Assad. Besides that, Russia and China are adamant… NO MORE BOMBS! To put the kybosh on the idea of “intervention”, it’s unaffordable (there ain’t nuttin’ in Motha Hubbard’s cupboard, kids… Bush wasted it all on the adventures in Iraq and Afghanistan) and it’d destabilise the entire region (the Gulf States are most jittery on that score, and they’re American allies). Look carefully at:

Recently, a bill filed with the US Senate proposed the supply of weapons to the Syrian insurgents. Kerry said the bill’s fate depended on the American inquiry in progress into reports that the rebels used chemical weapons, but added the matter may become a moot point if the government and the opposition begin dialogue.

That is, Kerry’s given the US government a face-saving fig-leaf. The opposition will refuse to sit down with Assad… then, the USA will piously (and hypocritically) withdraw its former offer of arms. “They won’t sit down for peace talks… they’re terrorists intent on mayhem”. Let’s not be coy, the Boston bombing incident makes it politically impossible for any American régime to cooperate with any group that even looks like it might have Islamic militants within it. Any road, most of Obama’s rhetoric on Syria was election-year hogwash, not meant to be taken seriously by mature adults. Reflect on this… Wet Willy would’ve gotten the USA involved in a very sticky wicket just to placate the Religious Right troglodytes in the GOP. God IS in His Heaven… the Old Master does it again (just like when he defused the claptrap over Iran)… hey, anybody who still chain-smokes, backs Spartak, plays the guitar, goes white-water rafting, and cusses when he wants to can’t be all bad.

BMD

White House Petition Urging the Release of Two Orthodox Christian Archbishops Held Hostage in Syria

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Editor’s Foreword:

Please, sign the petition by using the link below.

BMD

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An appeal to President Obama and his government for the release of two Orthodox Christian Archbishops, namely Archbishop Boulos Yazigi and Archbishop Youhanna Ibrahim, who were abducted by armed rebels on 23 April 2013 in the suburbs of Aleppo, Syria. The driver of the Archbishops was murdered and the Archbishops were forced by the rebels to go to an unknown location either in Syria or in Turkey. We appeal to you beloved in Christ and peace loving people to sign this petition urgently asking the American administration to use all its influence for the release of these two Archbishops and to bring a peaceful settlement to this bloody Syrian conflict through a negotiated settlement.

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/appeal-president-obama-and-his-government-release-two-abducted-orthodox-christian-archbishops-syria/xNskxL1q

(No URL… sent to me as a cut n’ paste)

 

Statement by President Obama on the Occasion of Orthodox Easter

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This weekend, Michelle and I extend our best wishes to members of the Orthodox Christian community here in America and around the world as they observe Holy Friday and the Feast of the Resurrection. For millions of Orthodox Christians, this is a joyful time, but it’s also a reminder of the sacrifice Christ made so that we might have eternal life. His decision to choose love in the face of hate, to hope in the face of despair, is an example we should always strive to follow. However, it’s especially important to remember this year, as members of the Orthodox community have been confronted with persecution and violence, particularly in the Middle East and North Africa. For centuries, the region and the world has been enriched by the contributions of Orthodox communities in countries like Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq. As a nation, we reaffirm our commitment to protecting universal human rights including the freedom of religion. Moreover, in this season of hope and restoration, we celebrate the transformational power of sacrificial love.

4 May 2013

Barack Obama

President of the USA

http://www.Whitehouse.gov

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2013/05/04/statement-president-occasion-orthodox-easter

2 May 2013. SVS and Mammon Revisited…

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One of the Cabinet sent this on:

So, St Vladimir’s Seminary (SVS) has seen fit to take Mammon‘s shilling (in the employ of the infamous Koch Bros) and not just invite, but declare themselves in unity through joint sponsorship with this outfit, and publicly endorse the Ecclesiology of the Church as Religious Right Republican Party PAC. I suppose I should care, but (I’ll be in trouble for this) on one level it seems that if that is what the Church has decided it’ll be, then, that’s what it’ll be, and folks like me, with my pacifist, communitarian, and “anti-economist” values will, as I so frequently am, by my fellow Orthodox, despised and derided as a “liberal” or other fashionable insults (even, if in some ways I am as much Conservative in the Burkean/Kirkian sense as “Socialist” in a very American sense). It’s been a long time since I’ve been a member of an OCA parish, and I left over precisely this derision, and they regard, my bishop, the Ecumenical Patriarch with just the same contempt, so I’ll leave them to their foolish devices…

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Here’s a link to the seminar alluded to in the above excerpt. Firstly, one must realise that unconverted Anglican slimers have taken over SVS (Chad Hatfield accepted an honorary degree from his Anglican seminary… what’s wrong with that picture?). Although these people make up only about 10 percent of the OCA, they’re disproportionately present in the clergy and are a majority of the OCA’s internet presence. Ergo, a false picture of the real situation is “out there”.

One shouldn’t read too much into such events… the majority of real ethnic Orthodox are still what they ever were. For instance, President Obama won the Valley in PA because Orthodox voters “came home” to the Democratic Party. These Angliochian poseurs are loud, but they’re not numerous. They got thrown out of PECUSA for being arrogant and loud pains-in-the-arse, and it looks like they’re cruisin’ for a bruisin’ again. PECUSA wasn’t “good enough” for their perfect presence, and it looks like Orthodoxy isn’t “good enough” for them, either. They’re going to form a vagante sect; the sooner that they’re gone, the better.

Don’t try to “engage” such people… civility will get you nowhere. This lot has sold out to the American Rightwing lock-stock-and-barrel. Their politics is more important than the Church is… the exact opposite of the case with real Orthodox (I have Cabinet members who agree with me on Church issues, but bitterly disagree on politics). The REAL Church is free… the phony Angliochian sectarians march in lockstep conformity… that’s a form of madness, kids. Don’t get tangled up in it, and don’t ever think that you can deal logically with them.

They’ll leave us soon enough, I’ll warrant… the only question is whether Potapov’s squiffy ROCOR lot in the District will join them (after all, that bunch has ties to such questionable sorts as Freddie M-G and Mattingly). You see, the Rodina is turning leftward… and Potapov’s Langley paymasters may very well lead him out of the ROCOR (he’s much more a CIA asset than a priest… but that’s been well-known for YEARS, I’m reporting no news on that one). Once they’re gone, we can go back to being what we always were… a live-and-let-live bunch, without wildass politics of any stripe (but with a strong bias to the union movement and social justice).

It can’t happen soon enough for my taste…

BMD