West Asia News and Discussions (YEMEN, gulf)

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Philip
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Philip »

Even as O'Bomber tries to seduce Mr.Modi into India joining the anti-ISIS campaign in the ME,veteran British journo Simon Jenkins has a grim view of Britain's folly of intervening in the region yet again.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... en-gesture
Britain’s involvement in the new Iraq war is a doomed and dangerous gesture
With no proper strategy, the return to conflict will only reinforce the politics of fear that is the grimmest legacy of the Blair era.
Simon Jenkins
The Guardian, Thursday 25 September 2014

This is the moment in any war when peace goes dumb. The cause is just. The enemy is in our sights, and the provocation is extreme. Blood races through tabloid veins. It is white feathers for dissenters. The British government’s evident eagerness to bomb Iraq will be put by David Cameron to the House of Commons on Friday. With an election in the offing, Labour’s Ed Miliband dares not disagree.

The prime minister’s case, made to the United Nations on Wednesday, is that the Islamic State (Isis) rebellion is “an evil against which the whole world must unite”. No one would quarrel with that. Unlike Cameron’s abortive bid to bomb Syria last year, legality is covered by an invitation from Iraq’s hapless rulers in Baghdad and a refusal to bomb Syria. Past mistakes in Iraq, says Cameron, should not be an excuse for inaction. “We must not be so frozen with fear that we do not do anything at all.”

Nor should we be so intoxicated by war fever as to do the wrong thing.
Iraq has been chief bomb target for western electoral machismo since Bill Clinton’s “Monica Lewinsky” air strikes in 1998. They initiated a decade of mendacity. Saddam Hussein’s weapons arsenal was declared eliminated, then it was not. After killing hundreds of civilians, Tony Blair and his cabinet declared that Iraq still posed “an imminent threat to Britain”. The subsequent war was said to have installed freedom and democracy in that country, another untruth. As the Royal United Services Institute concluded in a recent survey, far “from reducing international terrorism … the 2003 invasion [of Iraq] had the effect of promoting it”.

Those demanding a resumption of the bombing should explain how things are different this time – or be guilty of willing mission creep. So far they could hardly be less convincing. An indication is their resort to adjectival hysteria, Isis being variously repulsive, genocidal, atrocious, monstrous, unspeakable, satanic. Everyone seems to accept that air strikes “alone” cannot win. Yet everyone also asserts that there is no question of following them with ground attacks, which is the essence of coordinated war. They are merely to “degrade Isis assets”, mostly by demolishing empty buildings at vast expense. They are sending “a message” to someone or other.

Cameron’s strategy is apparently to leave local Iraqi forces to deliver victory. That might be reasonable, given that they are the most expensively trained troops on earth. But they have shown themselves useless. They have been given intensive bombing cover by the Americans for seven weeks, and Isis is firmly in place. Meanwhile, Cameron refuses to hold his nose and form a tactically vital alliance with Assad of Syria and with the Iranians. He appears not to want to win.

If Britain intends victory, Cameron should do what George Bush and Tony Blair did last time in Iraq and go full tilt at the enemy with planes, troops, tanks and guns galore – and to hell with the consequences. There is no logistical hurdle. Baghdad is begging to have British troops fighting alongside his army. So why is Cameron tying his own hand behind his back? It looks suspiciously as if this is all for domestic consumption. The new Iraq war has no strategy, not even tactics. It is a show, a token, a pretence of a strut on the world stage.

This dispute has all the menace of religious hatred down the ages, leading a retreat into tribalism and fear. Western intervention stirred it by undermining the secular, mostly Ba’athist, regimes that emerged after the second world war. The best hope now – indeed, the only hope – is that the regional powers can assert order, as Syria’s dictator did in Lebanon after the failure of western “policing” in the 1980s. Every corner is stiff with armies and weapons, including Turkey, Iran, the Gulf and Saudi Arabia. All are more threatened by Isis than is Britain. The Saudis have more than 700 jets, enough to bomb everywhere in sight. They should need no outside help.

Sooner or later Isis must disintegrate into its warring factions. The caliphate is an implausible construct. These horrors pass. Even the extremist Taliban in Afghanistan were mutating into a less vicious regime, until Bush and Blair came to their rescue by invading their country in 2001. In Iraq a pincer movement of Syria, Iran, Kurdistan and Iraq itself should one day grind Isis into submission. In doing so a new balance of power should be established in the region, the stronger for being self-generated.

Western air strikes are supposed to aid that disintegration. For once, British bombs are at least propping up an established government rather than toppling one. But they are far more likely to help Isis, by recruiting volunteers and turning Muslim opinion once more against the west. The resort to drones and the consequent killing of civilians will also win little political ground. Even the hawkish former US representative to Nato, Kurt Volker, warns that drones nowadays “allow our opponents to cast our country as a distant, high-tech, amoral purveyor of death. It builds resentment, facilitates terrorist recruitment and alienates those we should seek to inspire”.

The return to war will reinforce the politics of fear – which is the grimmest legacy of the Blair era in Britain. It has Cameron popping in and out of his Cobra bunker like a rabbit in a hole. Every government office, every train, every airport welcomes visitors to Britain with terror warnings and alerts. Cameron does this because he knows he can only get Britons to go to war by portraying Isis as a “threat to Britain’s national security”. Some Isis adherents may have criminal intent, but that is a matter for the police. Britain survived a far greater menace from the IRA without crumbling. Its existence is not threatened by jihadism. The claim is ludicrous. Cameron must have no faith in his own country.

The contrast between Asia’s eastern and western extremities is now stark, the one booming, the other descending into catastrophic instability and medieval horror. It is impossible not to relate this to two centuries of western imperialism and meddling. It strains belief that further intervention – through the crudest of all forms of aggression – can bring peace and reconciliation.

Islam’s wars are not Britain’s business.
We owe their human victims all the aid we can to relieve suffering. We do not owe them our incompetence in trying to recast their politics. That is a task for the Arabs and their neighbours, not for Britain’s soldiers and taxpayers.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Harish »

Harish
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Harish »

Simon Jenkins
The Guardian, Thursday 25 September 2014

...

The return to war will reinforce the politics of fear – which is the grimmest legacy of the Blair era in Britain. It has Cameron popping in and out of his Cobra bunker like a rabbit in a hole. Every government office, every train, every airport welcomes visitors to Britain with terror warnings and alerts. Cameron does this because he knows he can only get Britons to go to war by portraying Isis as a “threat to Britain’s national security”. Some Isis adherents may have criminal intent, but that is a matter for the police. Britain survived a far greater menace from the IRA without crumbling. Its existence is not threatened by jihadism. The claim is ludicrous. Cameron must have no faith in his own country.
The Jihadification of British society and the depredations of the (Pakistani) Muslim minority within Britain is very intense, very real and more potent than the threat posed by the IRA.
The contrast between Asia’s eastern and western extremities is now stark, the one booming, the other descending into catastrophic instability and medieval horror. It is impossible not to relate this to two centuries of western imperialism and meddling. It strains belief that further intervention – through the crudest of all forms of aggression – can bring peace and reconciliation.
Islam’s wars are not Britain’s business. We owe their human victims all the aid we can to relieve suffering. We do not owe them our incompetence in trying to recast their politics. That is a task for the Arabs and their neighbours, not for Britain’s soldiers and taxpayers.
The realization comes a few centuries too late. Britain and the West gained all they could from centuries of inhuman crimes all over the world, and now that their power is declining and their karma coming home to roost, they want to cut and run. Unfortunately, it is the nature of fire to spread in all directions; having lit the inferno in which countless innocents perished they must necessarily face the blowback now.
habal
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by habal »

this whole humanitarian air strike drama can be solved if India, China & Russia participate in the air strikes.

You know what happens then .. these 3 will bomb the mothers and fathers out of this ISIS thing without a care, while USA buzzes around aimlessly pretending to attack ISIS by bombing the odd empty building and the civilian shelter housing poor after confirming that there are no Saudis in there, as a result the enthusiasm amongst the true sponsors of terror viz USA, Saudi Arbarbaria, Quitar & Turkey sandwich will then subside radically.

Next they will be seen making a beeline to the UN to make consensus because all ISIS fighters lost a limb or so, in the air strikes and there is no one to fight.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by pankajs »

B Shantanu ‏@satyamevajayate 56m

Arab woman pilot..'disowned by her family' for bombing 'Sunni heroes of Iraq and the Levant' http://j.mp/1rsp4ym :-|
Philip
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Philip »

Oslo is dead RIP (Rest in Pieces).A grave setback for Middle-East peace as the attitudes and relations between the two combatants have enormously hardened especially after the Gaza War,but then Oslo had in truth collapsed a long time ago.With Abbas consigning negotiations to the dustbin,what else is left? Another round of terrible conflict?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/s ... erritories
Mahmoud Abbas calls on UN to back deadline for Israeli withdrawal
Palestinian president accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza conflict and declares US-brokered peace process dead
Peter Beaumont in Jerusalem and Julian Borger in New York
The Guardian, Friday 26 September 2014

Mahmoud Abbas Mahmoud Abbas: 'it is impossible to return to the whirlwind cycle of negotiations that failed to deal with the fundamental question.' Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters

The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, has called on the United Nations security council to support a resolution setting a clear deadline for Israel’s withdrawal from the occupied territories as he in effect declared the US-sponsored Oslo peace process over.

In a hard-hitting speech to the UN general assembly in New York, he also accused Israel of “war crimes carried out before the eyes of the world” during the recent 50-day Gaza war that ended in a ceasefire on 26 August, adding that Israel had “perpetrated genocide”.[/b]

“We will not forget and we will not forgive, and we will not allow war criminals to escape punishment,” Abbas declared.
[/b]Palestinian officials were expected to start working with members of the security council to seek backing for a resolution setting a timeframe for the ending of what he called the “racist and colonial” occupation – a resolution certain to be opposed by the US.

According to diplomatic sources, the proposed resolution has caused a rift with the US, which had been working for some months on another resolution with the Israelis, Jordanians and Qataris aimed at bolstering the Gaza ceasefire with an exchange of Palestinian security guarantees for some loosening of Israel’s economic stranglehold.

The official US reaction described the was comments as “offensive and deeply disappointing”.

State department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said: “Such provocative statements are counterproductive and undermine efforts to create a positive atmosphere and restore trust between the parties.”

Abbas’s speech drew a furious response from senior Israeli officials, with foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman describing it as “diplomatic terrorism”.

“Abu Mazen’s [a nickname for Abbas] statements to the UN general assembly clearly illustrate that he doesn’t want to be – and cannot be – a partner to a diplomatic settlement,” Lieberman said. “There’s a reason that Abu Mazen entered into a joint government with Hamas.”

He added: “Abu Mazen complements Hamas in that he is preoccupied with diplomatic terrorism and slanderous claims against Israel.”

Aides to Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu were also harsh in their condemnation. “Abbas’s speech was full of lies and incitement. This is not the way a man who wants peace speaks,” said one.

The White House later said that Barack Obama would host Netanyahu for a meeting on Wednesday to discuss Israel’s relationship with the Palestinians, the situation in Gaza, Iran nuclear talks, and the fight against Islamic State militants.

Even though the US holds the presidency of the security council, diplomats said the Abbas resolution would most probably find support from the nine council members necessary to pass. Only Britain, Australia and Lithuania would be expected to abstain, forcing the US to use its veto.

Although Abbas insisted Palestine was committed to “a just peace through a negotiated solution”, the moves underlined the frustration among Palestinians over US proprietorship of the peace process amid a new desire to internationalise efforts to secure a two-state solution.

Faced with a veto of the resolution, Palestinian sources say Abbas will accelerate moves to join UN and international bodies, including accession to the international criminal court.

In some of his strongest language to date, Abbas declared that the American-backed Israel-Palestinian peace process, which has dragged on for two decades, was dead, saying it was “impossible to return to negotiations”.

He said: “It is impossible, and I repeat – it is impossible – to return to the whirlwind cycle of negotiations that failed to deal with the substance of the matter and the fundamental question.

“There is neither credibility nor seriousness in negotiations in which Israel predetermines the results via its settlement activities and the occupation’s brutality.

“ There is no meaning or value in negotiations for which the agreed objective is not ending the Israeli occupation and achieving the independence of the state of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital on the entire Palestinian territory occupied in the 1967 war.

“And, there is no value in negotiations which are not linked to a firm timetable for the implementation of this goal.”

Instead, he accused Israel of planning “ghettos for Palestinians on fragmented land, without borders and without sovereignty over its airspace, water and natural resources, which will be under the subjugation of the racist settlers and army of occupation, and at worst will be a most abhorrent form of apartheid”.

Some observers had expected Abbas to go further and set a deadline of three years in his speech to the general assembly, a timeframe senior Palestinian sources say was never on the cards.

“We discussed different timeframes in our internal discussions from six months to three years, but without acceptance by the security council for the need for a deadline any time frame is meaningless.”

Abbas’s speech follows several weeks of intense diplomacy with Arab states that also saw him travel to France for bilateral talks. It also follows remarks by President Barack Obama in his own speech to the general assembly criticising the “too many Israelis ready to abandon the hard work of peace”.

The other main theme of his speech was the recent war in Gaza and his call for the long Israeli blockade of the coastal strip.

“This last war against Gaza was a series of absolute war crimes carried out before the eyes and ears of the entire world, moment by moment, in a manner that makes it inconceivable that anyone today can claim that they did not realise the magnitude and horror of the crime.

Putting the blame for the failure of the peace process squarely on Israel, Abbas continued: “Throughout the months of negotiations, settlement construction, land confiscations, home demolitions, killing and arrest campaigns, and forced displacement in the West Bank continued unabated and the unjust blockade on the Gaza Strip was tightened.

“The occupation’s campaign specifically targeted the City of Jerusalem and its inhabitants, attempting to artificially alter the spirit, identity and character of the Holy City, focusing on Al-Aqsa Mosque, threatening grave consequences. At the same time, racist and armed gangs of settlers persisted with their crimes against the Palestinian people, the land, mosques, churches, properties and olive trees.”
Austin
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Austin »

Russia's Suspicions of U.S. Make Cooperation on Islamic State Unlikely

The United States and Russia see Islamic State as a common enemy but are failing to overcome deep mutual distrust and agree on how to tackle the threat together, making any role for Moscow in the U.S.— led campaign unlikely, say U.S. officials.

Differences between the former Cold War foes are stark, say the officials. Moscow suspects Washington's ulterior motive is the removal of its ally, Syria's President Bashar al-Assad. Washington refuses to consider working together as long as Moscow insists that U.S. strikes need Syrian and U.N. approval.

Diplomatic efforts, from high-level talks at the United Nations to informal contacts in Moscow, have failed to resolve those misgivings, which echo broader problems in U.S.-Russian relations, already at a post-Cold War low over the crisis in Ukraine, American officials say.

"The main obstacle to Russian participation is Moscow's position that 'this can only be taken with permission of the Syrian government or through the U.N.,' which is not something we accept," a senior U.S. administration official told Reuters on the condition of anonymity.

"If Russia thinks that somehow they're going to gain some kind of shift in the U.S. policy, that is not going to happen."


Though Russia has no sympathy for Islamic State militants who have seized large tracts of territory in Iraq and Syria and face U.S.-led air strikes in both countries, Moscow's relationship with Syria forms a difficult backdrop to talks over any potential role.

Russia's absence from the anti-Islamic State coalition complicates Washington's calculus, reducing the possibility of U.S. leverage over the flow of Russian arms into Damascus as the U.S.-led campaign moves forward with air strikes in Syria and arms anti-Assad rebels.

Moscow, which has been trying to raise its diplomatic and economic influence in the Middle East, has been a major provider of conventional weapons to Syria, giving Assad crucial support during the nearly four-year civil war and blocking wider Western attempts to punish him with sanctions for the use of force against civilians.

Washington, meanwhile, backs moderate Syrian rebels who are seeking to topple Assad and are likely to play a central role in any future ground campaign inside Syria. The U.S. government accuses Assad of widespread human rights abuses and says it will never ask for Assad's permission for its air strikes.

While this all but rules out military collaboration in Syria against Islamic State, also known as ISIL, U.S. officials still see potential for common cause on another front: aiding Baghdad's battle to roll back Islamic State's gains in Iraq. But there, too, joint U.S.-Russian action appears out of the question.

"The U.S. and Russia share an interest in defeating the kind of violent extremism that ISIL represents," a senior State Department official said.

'Didn't Change Anything

Russian sensitivity about Assad's fate figured prominently in private discussions between Moscow and Washington in recent weeks, say U.S. officials with direct knowledge of those talks. After President Barack Obama announced air strikes against Islamic State forces in Iraq in August, members of his administration began signaling to Moscow that Syria was next, the officials said.

They said Secretary of State John Kerry conveyed the message to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Paris on Sept. 15 on the sidelines of a conference on Iraq, attended by U.N. Security Council permanent members, European and Arab states, and representatives of the EU, Arab League and United Nations. All pledged to help the government in Baghdad.

At that meeting, Kerry offered assurances that the United States would not directly target Assad or his forces, the officials said. Meeting at the United Nations on Wednesday, just days after the start of the U.S.-led air assault in Syria, the two again discussed the conflict.

"It didn't change anything," a senior U.S. official said.


At a news conference at the United Nations on Friday, Lavrov questioned the legality of the air campaign and also gave the United States a "we-told-you-so" message about the consequences of U.S. policy in the region.

"We are fighting against terrorism consistently, constantly, not just when someone announces a coalition," Lavrov said.


Moscow had long warned of the potential blowback of U.S. support for the anti-Assad opposition in Syria's civil war. Plans to expand American training and arming of moderate rebels have only heightened those concerns.
Behind-the-Scenes Efforts

Despite that, Russia could gain from any U.S. success against Islamic State, which has been joined by fighters from Russia's predominantly Muslim North Caucasus, a region where militants wage daily violence to establish an Islamic state.

The bloodshed there is rooted in two wars that Moscow fought with Chechen separatists after the Soviet Union's fall and these fighters could pose a security risk for Russia if they return to the North Caucasus.

Among two dozen individuals and groups identified by the U.S. State Department on Sept. 24 as foreign terrorists or terrorist facilitators was a Chechen militant group, Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar. The designation, which enables Washington to freeze assets and block financial transactions, was seen as benefiting Moscow.

But U.S. officials say Washington has made no specific request to Moscow to join the coalition or work together in the fight against Islamic State. Nor has Russia offered to do so, they said. But they acknowledge Moscow's potential importance in any campaign in the Middle East.

"There's no doubt that Russia is a key player on Syria, on Iraq, and will inevitably be involved in whatever we are dealing with," though it remains to be seen what kind of role that will entail, the senior Obama administration official said.

A group of U.S. and Russian foreign policy experts who regularly advise their own governments met privately in Moscow last week, seeking common ground in the fight against Islamic State, according to a person close to the matter.

The Russian delegation, which included former officials still close to the Kremlin, expressed interest in counterterrorism cooperation, including intelligence sharing. But the talks encountered too much mutual distrust to agree on anything tangible, the person said.

The discussions were held on the basis of what is known as "Track II" diplomacy, an unofficial channel for international conflict resolution.

In Moscow, Fyodor Lukyanov, editor-in-chief of the journal Russia in Global Affairs, said Russia's role in the fight against Islamic State likely would be limited to assisting the Iraqi and Syrian governments. Moscow already supplies weapons to security forces in both countries.

"Russia has no desire, no plan and no interest to be part of any campaign led by the United States," said Lukyanov, who is also head of a Kremlin foreign-policy advisory panel.

"The Russian view is that all this mess to a large extent has been produced by the reckless and crazy policy in its invasion of Iraq," he said, referring to the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq that was heavily criticized by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Washington was pleased when Russia, which has often shielded Assad at the United Nations, voted on Wednesday in favor of a U.S.-backed resolution urging governments to help stem the flow of foreign fighters to militant groups, U.S. officials said.

But Matthew Rojansky, a Russia expert at the Wilson Center think tank in Washington, said Obama's U.N. speech the same day in which he warned Putin of further costs of "aggression" against Ukraine may have erased any goodwill.

"From the Russian perspective, everything is linked," he said.

James Goldgeier, a Kremlinologist at American University in Washington, said the obstacles to U.S.-Russia cooperation against Islamic State appear too formidable to overcome soon, but that a change of tack could come if Moscow felt an increased threat to its own security.

"For now, Russia's biggest concern is preserving what little influence it has left in the Middle East," he said. "And that means Syria."
Baikul
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Baikul »

pankajs wrote:
B Shantanu ‏@satyamevajayate 56m

Arab woman pilot..'disowned by her family' for bombing 'Sunni heroes of Iraq and the Levant' http://j.mp/1rsp4ym :-|
Her family probably has no desire to end up in a starring role in the next ISIS production. Subhan'allah.
wig
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by wig »

a Saudi pilot has been arrested for refusing to bomb isis positions
According to social media activists, a Saudi Air Force officer has refused orders to carry out an airstrike on Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham (ISIS) positions in Syria. The Saudi officer, Captain Faisal Al-Ghamdi, is said to have refused to participate in the airstrikes due to his support of the terrorist group. The news has circulated amongst pro-ISIS pages and has been referenced by their ground activists in Saudi Arabia, adding to the already turbulent relations between the terrorist group and Wahhabi-led government.

Saudi officials have yet to comment on the validity of this story; however, a picture and the soldier’s identity has been released by pro-ISIS media sources. ISIS has a strong presence in Saudi Arabia – the country’s government has financially supported rebels in Syria and Iraq to overthrow their governments. Recently, Saudi Arabia agreed to participate in the Anti-ISIS Coalition to quell the terrorist group’s presence in the region.
http://www.almasdarnews.com/article/sau ... sis-syria/
Austin
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Austin »

Biden blames Allies :lol:

Biden blames US allies in Middle East for rise of ISIS
America’s “biggest problem” in Syria is its regional allies, Biden told students at the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University on Thursday.

“Our allies in the region were our largest problem in Syria,” he said, explaining that Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the UAE were “so determined to take down Assad,” that in a sense they started a “proxy Sunni-Shia war” by pouring “hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of tons of weapons” towards anyone who would fight against Assad.

“And we could not convince our colleagues to stop supplying them,” said Biden, thus disassociating the US from unleashing the civil war in Syria.


“The outcome of such a policy now is more visible,” he said, as it turned out they supplied extremists from Al-Nusra Front and Al-Qaeda.

All of a sudden the regional powers that sponsored anti-Assad rebels awakened to the dawn of a major international security threat in the face of ISIS – now called Islamic State. After being essentially thrown out of Iraq it found open space and territory in eastern Syria and established close ties with the Al-Nusra Front which the US had earlier declared a terrorist group.

Now Washington needs a coalition of Sunni states to fight the Islamic State because “America can't once again go in to Muslim nation and be the aggressor, it has to be led by Sunnis, to attack a Sunni organization [the IS],” Biden said, acknowledging that it is for the first time that the US uses a geopolitical strategy.

“Even if we wanted it to be, it cannot be our fight alone,” Biden said. “This cannot be turned into a US ground war against another Arab nation in the Middle East.”
ramana
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by ramana »

America's biggest problem is Biden who doesn't know what he is talking about most of the time. He has out gaffed Gerald Ford.

Meantime CFR gets gnan:

http://www.cfr.org/peace-conflict-and-h ... /p33176#!/
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Sonugn »

Pratyush
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Pratyush »

Because that was provided to ISIS to fight Assad.
ramana
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by ramana »


Lot of spin to obscure the fact that ISIS gets from US (US+ Russian off brand +Chinese).
IndraD
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by IndraD »

Kobane seems to have fallen acc to twitter, 1000s of Kobanis at risk
Mukesh.Kumar
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Mukesh.Kumar »

Apologies if posted before, but official confirmation of Saudi purchase of DF 21 with blessings from US. Shouldn't this be a case for MTCR?

http://www.armyrecognition.com/septembe ... sile_.html

Here is the original article in the Saudinewspaper OKAZ- one of the most popular


P.S..

You know we talk and discuss a lot about India's region of influence, or how we would like to see it. But because of our language orientation, we cover only info from English language sources. For example it's great to see how much we comment on what's happening in Pakistan but do we cover Urdu language press in Pakistan? Or for that matter, the PAK-FA- Just came across a Russian forum where they have been discussing PAK-FA and the problems they are facing with it. In fact I see many parallels to our LCA dhaga. In fact browsing through one of the sub-forums I came across one on India-Pakistan where there was a debate about who to support from Russian angle; their concern with India's purchase of US hardware. It was pretty evenly balanced and analytical.

I am sure that there are many within BRF who are located in these countries. Maybe it might be a good idea if people with local language skills could actually pick out articles and paste them as images with a short analysis of what that country's local press, web-chatterati are discussing. What comes out in English language press may not give a clear picture in many places.

Areas of Interest for us could be- Bangladesh, GCC, Iran, Pakistan, China (too ambitious?- I remember Chola's comments on Chinese business and info from the perspective of a manager working in China) East Africa, Russia and of course Japan. What do you guys think of this? Do we have the language skills?
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Rajagopal »

To fully understand the existential crisis in Iraq, one has to see the 27 maps that explain the causes.
http://www.vox.com/a/maps-explain-crisis-iraq
Philip
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Philip »

US strategy in ruins Turks are Jerks.ISIS running riot.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 78532.html
Isis on the verge of victory in Kobani as US strategy lies in ruins: Jihadists close to taking city near Turkish border in Syria

Syria’s Kurds are unable to do a political deal with neighbouring Turkey, while US air strikes are failing to make much impact, Patrick Cockburn reports

Patrick Cockburn
Tuesday 07 October 2014

He said that Turkey had used the desperation of the Kurds in Kobani to extract political concessions from them before allowing reinforcements and supplies to reach the 2,000 to 3,000 fighters of the People’s Protection Units (YPG) who are holding the town.

The fall of Kobani would be a bad blow to the US and its anti-Isis coalition which has been bombing Isis positions in Syria since 23 September and in Iraq since 8 August.

But in both countries Isis is still on the offensive and is making gains in Anbar province in western Iraq and in towns close to Baghdad. Isis fighters have responded to air attacks by spreading out so they are difficult to find and target.

The YPG said that there were 50 clashes with the enemy on Sunday in which 74 Isis fighters, as well as 15 Kurdish militiamen, were killed.

READ MORE: • Robert Fisk: After bombing Isis, what is Cameron's Plan B?
• Bombing Isis in Syria is 'a no-brainer', says former defence chief
• Comment: Western Muslims must stand against the murderers

Mr Sheikhmous said that, unlike the situation in Sinjar in Iraq, where Kurdish villages were overrun before their inhabitants could flee, the Kurdish local authorities had told civilians “to flee from their villages into Turkey because they could not defend them”.



Kobani is one of three Kurdish cantons on the Syrian side of the Turkish border where many of Syria’s two-and-a-half million Kurds live.

President Bashar al-Assad withdrew his forces from these enclaves earlier in the war, leaving them in the hands of the Democratic Unity Party (PYD) whose militia is the YPG. Both are effectively the Syrian branch of the PKK that has been fighting for Kurdish self-rule in Turkey since 1984.

The long-running peace process between the PKK and the Turkish government could be one casualty of the fall of Kobani. Turkish forces have done nothing to help the Syrian Kurds hold the town and there is no sign of powerful Turkish military forces along the border intervening.

READ MORE: • Inside Kobani: 'Don't send aid. Send weapons'
• Comment: Nothing will stop Isis except a Syrian truce

The leader of the PYD, Salih Muslim, is reported to have met officials from Turkish military intelligence to plead for aid but was told this would only be available if the Syrian Kurds abandoned their claim for self-determination, gave up their self-governing cantons, and agreed to a Turkish buffer zone inside Syria. Mr Muslim turned down the demands and returned to Kobani.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been expressing outrage that the US Vice-President Joe Biden should have identified Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as the states whose military and financial support led to the growth of Isis and Jabhat al-Nusra.

Mr Biden told a meeting at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics on 2 October that the Turks, Saudis and UAE “poured hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of tons of weapons against anyone who would fight Assad, except that the people who were being supplied were al-Nusra and al-Qaeda and the extremist element of jihadis coming from other parts of the world.”


For all Mr Erdogan’s disclaimers, Turkey still evidently regards Isis as a lesser enemy than Assad.
pankajs
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by pankajs »

CNN International ‏@cnni 1h1 hour ago

Turkey is willing to put troops in Syria, but says the U.S. must go after Assad, not just ISIS http://cnn.it/1xiak5X
arminius
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by arminius »

pankajs wrote:
CNN International ‏@cnni 1h1 hour ago

Turkey is willing to put troops in Syria, but says the U.S. must go after Assad, not just ISIS http://cnn.it/1xiak5X
Some chutzpah these sunnis have. Another form of equal-equal.
member_28797
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by member_28797 »

Wasn't it the unkil-briturd nexus that was giving out free arms to anti Assad rebels around a 1/1.5 year ago? And now it's coming to bite them in the ass. The great western strat-e-gic mind at it's best.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by vijaykarthik »

^^ I still consider overt going after Assad by US and coalition troops as unlikely. I do feel that there is a tacit agreement between Iran and US here in this war. The others in the coalition [as Biden did mention and then retract, ahem] are part of the problem... not the solution.

It might turn out that Iran is part of the problem too. But a much lesser part, IMO. And purely relatively speaking, a better person / country to negotiate with in current circs?
JE Menon
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by JE Menon »

Nice sleight of hand by the Turks. Very Paki indeed. They will pull back their attack dogs only if the US will take out the Alawis. Or else, the attack dogs will continue killing the Kurds.

Amirkhan, if clever, will tell them thanks but no thanks. We will sit back and make a lot of noise and watch you chaps dick it out. We may help Assad, we may help the Kurds, we may even let a bit of intelligence leak to the Iranians. Have fun boys.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by IndraD »

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... death.html

US intel depends on black flags on buildings
underlines the importance of foot soldiers
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Singha »

Turks will inevitably lose the who is more green contest after Isis is done with pending fights.

The decadent coffee drinking elites esp women in Constantinople will realize their follies a bit late.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Vikas »

^ And not for the first time in Islamic TL, women will suffer the most when the sky turns Greener.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by IndraD »

where will this end finally, will Turkey be gateway to Europe, or others will resist, where does UK stand?

what will happen to Qatar, KSA, UAE?

why it is that 30 000 fighters are not getting defeated by 30 countries combined?

Singha ji are you there?
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by ramana »

From Nightwatch:

Image
Comment: This town was significant mostly because of its location near one of the border crossing sites along the Syrian border with Turkey. For ISIL, initially, it was one of multiple obstacles the Syrian Kurds posed to impede the consolidation of the northern border of the caliphate.

However, with the onset of the Coalition air campaign, the town has assumed strategic significance as a test of strength between the Coalition and ISIL. The Kurdish fighters supposedly are among the assorted ground contingents for whom the Coalition is providing air support, according to official US statements. Thus, Kobani is the test case.

An ISIL conquest of the town will result in brutal reprisals, not just because it is ISIL's practice. Brutal killings would be aimed at embarrassing and humiliating the Coalition for failing to protect the forces it said it was depending on to do the ground fighting. Kobani's loss would undermine the morale and confidence of the other ground contingents. It is no longer a tactical or even an operational contest. ISIL's determination to seize the town demonstrates its appreciation of the stakes.
By same token allowing Kobani to fall to ISIS shows how the Coalition underestimates the stakes.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by KLNMurthy »

IndraD wrote:where will this end finally, will Turkey be gateway to Europe, or others will resist, where does UK stand?

what will happen to Qatar, KSA, UAE?

why it is that 30 000 fighters are not getting defeated by 30 countries combined?

Singha ji are you there?
This may be a kind of time travel for us, back to the day when a relative handful of the Peacefuls were able to prevail in India.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by A_Gupta »

A_Gupta
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by A_Gupta »

The Peshmurgis - I admire their spirit despite my bad pun -
[youtube]Xww8Snj_dY8?t=6m53s[/youtube]
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by KLNMurthy »

Seeing these Kurdish Jhansi Lakshmis, I wonder, why are international volunteers only going to fight on the side of the Daesh? (ISIS). Does it say something for the morality and courage of "good" people today that there is no anti-Fascist International Brigade as was the case during the Spanish Civil War? Back then, communists and lefties at least had the courage to voluntarily fight for their cause. Now it looks like only the nasties get the volunteers, while everyone else runs away or waits like sheep to get their throats cut.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by pankajs »

http://indianexpress.com/article/world/ ... ocialMedia

Syrian border town of Kobani poised to fall to militants, warns Turkish president
“Kobani is about to fall,” Erdogan told Syrian refugees in the Turkish town of Gaziantep, near the border. “We asked for three things: One, for a no-fly zone to be created; Two, for a secure zone parallel to the region to be declared; and for the moderate opposition in Syria and Iraq to be trained and equipped.”

Erdogan’s comments did not signal a shift in Turkey’s position: He has said repeatedly that Ankara wants to see a more comprehensive strategy for Syria before it commits to military involvement in the U.S.-led coalition.

...
Turkish tanks and other ground forces have been stationed along the border within a few hundred yards of the fighting in Kobani, also known as Ayn Arab, but have not intervened. And while Turkey said just days ago that it wouldn’t let Kobani fall, there’s no indication the government is prepared to make a major move to save it.

...
Syrian Kurds scoffed at the rhetoric coming out of Ankara. They say that not only are the Turks not helping, that they are actively hindering the defense of Kobani by preventing Kurdish militiamen in Turkey from crossing the border into the town to help in the fight.

...
In towns across Turkey, Kurdish protesters clashed with police Tuesday, while Kurdish demonstrators forced their way into the European Parliament in Brussels — part of Europe-wide demonstrations demanding more help for the besieged Kurdish militiamen struggling to defend Kobani. Turkish news agencies say least at 14 people have died and scores were injured in clashes between Turkish police and Kurdish protesters.

Despite Erdogan’s dire assessment of the battle for Kobani, the front lines were largely stable despite heavy clashes Tuesday.

...
Syria’s Kurds have struggled to gain the sort of Western backing that their brethren in Iraq enjoy, and the aerial campaign around Kobani has been far more limited than the airstrikes against Islamic State fighters attacking Iraqi Kurdish areas. The U.S. and its allies also have not agreed to arm Syrian Kurds like they have Iraqi Kurds.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by uddu »

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2014/10/0 ... rian-Kurds#

Central Command listed the overnight strikes in a news release:

1 south of Kobani destroyed three ISIS armed vehicles and damaged another
1 southeast of Kobani destroyed an ISIS armed vehicle carrying anti-aircraft artillery
2 southwest of Kobani damaged an ISIS tank
1 south of Kobani destroyed an ISIS unit

cahit storm @cahitstorm · 9h 9 hours ago
I have witness daesh vehicles exitin the city using the #Kobane radio hill. Dont let them escape !!

cahit storm @cahitstorm · 8h 8 hours ago
By the Way which plane can circle around a city since 4 hours ?

cahit storm @cahitstorm · 8h 8 hours ago
#kobane is quiet now. Dont hear anything ( only the plane iver me)

cahit storm @cahitstorm · 7h 7 hours ago
#kobane is absolutely quiet. Our dear plane is still there

cahit storm @cahitstorm · 3h 3 hours ago
Many good news coming. If a quarter of them are true i would be happy. Plz #america send another b1 in #Kobane

cahit storm @cahitstorm · 39m 39 minutes ago
Now that US block renforcement for #daesh we just need turkey to remove his embargo against #kobane and victory will be ours!!!

Meysa Abdo, the top female Kurdish commander in Kobane, told the BBC's Newshour programme: "Since last night we've seen the most effective air strikes around Kobane ever, however they are a bit late.

"If the coalition had attacked with such strength and effectiveness beforehand, we wouldn't have seen IS reach the city and destroy so many lives."

She said there had been some coordination with the coalition on targeting but that it needed to be more robust. She added: "With the help of coalition air strikes we can defeat IS."

Referring to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's speech earlier on Tuesday in which he said Kobane was "about to fall", Ms Abdo said: "He is dreaming and Kobane will never fall."
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by pankajs »

Erdogan is using Kobane and its peoples security as a bargaining chip with the US.
Brahma Chellaney ‏@Chellaney 57m57 minutes ago

Erdogan's role in the Islamic State's rise is spurring Turkey's "Pakistanization." Having bred jihadists, Turkey will battle jihadist fires.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by uddu »

The Peshmerga deserves better protection and better weaponry.
Respect to the Brave women soldiers of Peshmerga.
uddu
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by uddu »

Hope this coverage gets wider media attention and more help pour in for the Peshmerga.
The Kurds deserve a better future. A Kurdistan is a must.
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Re: West Asia News and Discussions

Post by Austin »

pankajs wrote:Erdogan is using Kobane and its peoples security as a bargaining chip with the US.
Brahma Chellaney ‏@Chellaney 57m57 minutes ago

Erdogan's role in the Islamic State's rise is spurring Turkey's "Pakistanization." Having bred jihadists, Turkey will battle jihadist fires.
Erdogon wants US to attack Syria and remove Assad as part of its bargain to join anti-ISL coalition , They were talking about NFZ over Syria.

Turkey is also opposed to independent Kurdistan
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