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On Sunday, al Arabiya reported that the Syrian opposition demanded that the international community impose a ban on the use of airpower in urban areas by Syrian government forces, in addition to a chemical weapons ban. Quoting the opposition statement, the report stated, “The Syrian National Coalition insists that the prohibition of chemical weapons, the use of which left more than 1,400 civilians dead, be extended to the use of ballistic missiles and aircraft against urban areas”.
On Saturday, after weeks of intense diplomacy and almost three days of talks in Genève between Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his American counterpart John Kerry, the USA and Russia reached a landmark deal that’d see all chemical weapons in war-torn Syria brought under international control and destroyed by mid-2014. Russia and the USA also reached a consensus on the quantity and types of chemical weapons in Syria. A White House official told AFP that Syria’s chemical weapons… including mustard gas, Sarin, and precursors… are stored at 45 facilities and amount to 1,000 tons. Saturday evening, internationally, both governments and NGOs welcomed the deal. The Syrian opposition criticised the agreement as a “blow” to the uprising to remove Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power. On Saturday, Foreign Minister Lavrov said that the USA would continue its diplomatic efforts to bring Syrian opposition forces to a planned international peace conference in Genève.
15 September 2013
RIA-Novosti
http://www.en.rian.ru/world/20130915/183463033/Syrias-Opposition-Seeks-Ban-on-Regimes-Air-Power.html
Editor’s Note:
This is cheekishness of the highest order. The Syrian oppos failed to trigger intervention with their chemical weapons provocation, so, now, they’re trying to label the use of airpower against “urban areas” (oh, how vague) as criminal. If such is so, the USA and the UK would be guilty of war crimes for using air power against “urban areas” in Bosnia, Serbia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Pakistan… and that’s only since 1991! Bomber Harris and Curtis LeMay are turning in their graves. Obama may try to run with this, but not too seriously… he doesn’t want to hurt his political cred for the battle over the ACA, which matters MUCH more to him than the fate of the ragtag Syrian oppos. All indicators seem to point to Assad keeping power… that’s what a leaked BND document predicted… and Germans aren’t known for being slouches and unobservant.
It looks like it was all Inside the Beltway Kabuki of the finest vintage, meant to occupy the dead space in the news cycle until Congress got back to town. Any road, that’s how Obama’s going to spin it in backroom Capitol Hill circles. After all, the real winner in all of this was Vova… he’s STILL “The Terminator” (“I’ll be back”… and he was, kids, wasn’t he?).
One last thing… all of the late kafuffle proved that John Boehner and John McCain were willing to vote for massive funds for war… whilst screaming that the budget needs trimming. Methinks that shows them hypocrites as well as warmongers. However, watch all the “Pro-Lifers” drool over them… shitbirds of a feather do flock together, so, what does that tell you? Ponder that…
BMD
Voices from Russia 
6 August 2015. As Seen by Vitaly Podvitsky. 06.08.1945… WHY?
Tags: Allies of World War II, American history, atomic weapons, cartoons, Curtis LeMay, editorial cartoons, Hiroshima, history, Japan, Nuclear weapon, political commentary, politics, Russia, Russian, United States, USA, Vitaly Podvitsky, World War II
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