"I hope it will be the wake up call that this world needs" .. you are an optimist. "Collective failure" .. I wonder who feels that way.

Maybe they meant "peace plan" ironically. As in Islam "the religion of peace".

To be fair the only mocking of Islam I see here and/or presented by various lets say extremists formations.

Happy Syrian day! ~ Supposed to be 5 years today.

B.B.C. - Russia's Syria pullback: A catalyst for peace?

Not so much a catalyst for peace, as the end of support for Assad - he's being left on his own, and will now slide into eventual defeat as Putin realizes he cannot sustain the effort to keep him afloat.

That is one interpretation, point of view. Another could be, lets see how the world powers deal with it now.

The Russians could very easily have found themselves bogged down in something reminiscent of their ill-fated Afghan expedition, facing the same array of jihadists backed by the Saudis and their allies - in all probability some of the actual veterans from the Afghan academy of jihadism.

President Assad, flushed with borrowed success, may have wanted to go all the way, apparently imagining his minority Alawite-dominated government could simply re-impose its control over the Sunni majority as though the past five years and more than a quarter of a million deaths had not happened.

But the Russians clearly judged that to be a disaster course.

President Putin has done something the Americans could not have: Recalibrated the situation on the ground, and set himself up as a key player in the settlement game.

Games.

gl Syrians

Weaver wrote:Not so much a catalyst for peace, as the end of support for Assad - he's being left on his own, and will now slide into eventual defeat as Putin realizes he cannot sustain the effort to keep him afloat.

Perhaps correct. Putin may have bought the Syrian president some time -- but, in all likelihood, Assad's days are numbered.
In the absence of a Russian force in Syria, Washington will probably redouble its efforts to topple the country's mostly secular government. The so-called "moderates" that the US and its allies have been openly backing will reveal their true colours (as happened in Libya), and Syria will be another Washington "success story", the scale of which will be measured in the number of refugees flooding into Europe.

Syrian Kurds set to announce federal system in northern Syria

Kurdish-controlled areas of northern Syria are expected to declare a federal system on Wednesday, a Syrian Kurdish official said, taking matters into their own hands after being excluded so far from political talks to resolve the Syrian war.

The step that will combine three Kurdish-led autonomous areas of northern Syrian into a federal system will be sure to alarm neighbouring Turkey, which fears growing Kurdish sway in Syria is fueling separatism among its own Kurdish minority.

[snip]

Syria's government in Damascus on Saturday ruled out the idea of a federal model for the country. Damascus ally Russia has said federalism could be a possible model for Syria.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-midea ... SKCN0WI0ZT
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More good luck needed.

Turkey would be very disturbed by that development but on the other hand I can't understand what was in their mind when they weakened the regime in Syria. What made in Iraq by USA and Turkey from the beginning rejected that in the name of Iraq's land unity, done in the Syria by Turkey.

We undermined our own foreign policy principle for the southern border.

aliihsanasl wrote:Turkey would be very disturbed by that development but on the other hand I can't understand what was in their mind when they weakened the regime in Syria. What made in Iraq by USA and Turkey from the beginning rejected that in the name of Iraq's land unity, done in the Syria by Turkey.

We undermined our own foreign policy principle for the southern border.

Just why cannot Turkey live with a Kurdish state?

Scot Dutchy wrote:

aliihsanasl wrote:Turkey would be very disturbed by that development but on the other hand I can't understand what was in their mind when they weakened the regime in Syria. What made in Iraq by USA and Turkey from the beginning rejected that in the name of Iraq's land unity, done in the Syria by Turkey.

We undermined our own foreign policy principle for the southern border.

Just why cannot Turkey live with a Kurdish state?

Turkish authorities seem to be happy with a Kurdish state in the northern part of Iraq. Our construction companies are there, we sell electric, remember Barzani was here hand in hand with Erdogan but for some reason they don't want it to reach northern Syria. In addition to Turkish population in that region in my opinion authorities feel like 3 step will be the Kurdish populated region of Turkey.

Just a decade ago the ideal Kurdistan had no sea shore but today it does both from Turkey and Syria. There is an upper kind thinking about the transportation problem of the oil I think.

Right side Sivan Perver Iraqi Kurds famous singer, left side Ibrahim Tatlises Turkey's Kurdish singer, in the middle Mesut Barzani



During AKP's peace negotiations opposition warned them a lot of times told them no matter what they give they'll want more. They even planned to change the flag of country, blamed founder father's for Kurdish massacre in the end burning worked.

Today pro-government newspapers' journalists blaming Mustafa Kemal for sharing the country with kurds and not killing them when it was possible a century ago when they were less in number.

You can't have peace with this type of people.

United States to press Russia on Syria's Assad

The negotiations have been bogged down on a series of issues and one delegate said it was up to Kerry and Putin to create a breakthrough.

"We're waiting for a U.S.-Russian accord to solve the (key) issue once and for all. Until they resolve it this process will drag on," Randa Kassis, who heads up a Moscow-backed opposition group, said.

While the United States want Assad to step aside, Russia says only the Syrian people can decide his fate at the ballot box and has bristled at any talk of regime change.

Kerry is holding talks with Putin at the Kremlin on Thursday, in a meeting arranged after the Russian leader's surprise announcement on March 14 that he was partially withdrawing his forces from Syria.

"The Secretary would like to now really hear where President Putin is in his thinking ... on a political transition" in Syria, the official said as Kerry arrived in Moscow.

"Obviously what we are looking for, and what we have been looking for, is how we are going to transition Syria away from Assad's leadership," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-russi ... SKCN0WP1QM

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Maybe he is thinking of getting Nobel ..

If I understand it correctly, probably not because who the fuck knows, there is nothing Mr Assad can be offered to allow for transition?

The Brussels Terrorist Attacks: An Opportunity to Promote Putin’s Agenda

Following the March 22 terrorist attacks in Brussels, which killed over 30 people and injured hundreds, Russian officials responded by calling for unity in opposing the Islamic State (IS). They proposed burying the hatchet on all other issues to concentrate on fighting terrorism.

It is highly important for the Kremlin to prove, in practical terms, that the principle of concert of great powers works and may help solve complicated international issues. A bilateral concert of the US and Russia—resembling the Cold War superpowers’ dealings—is seen as especially good: it makes Moscow an equal to Washington and creates tensions between the US and its various international allies. The visit this week to Moscow of US Secretary of State John Kerry to hold talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, along with a late night meeting with Putin, is seen as significant. The official Kremlin-controlled media express hope of an emerging understanding between Moscow and Washington, though “any real breakthrough may happen only after a new administration is in the White House next year” (RIA Novosti, March 24).

http://www.jamestown.org/single/?tx_ttn ... vRpfvkrKUk

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Makes me wonder, who the Russians want in the White House? Mr Trump it seems.

Mike_L wrote:

Weaver wrote:Not so much a catalyst for peace, as the end of support for Assad - he's being left on his own, and will now slide into eventual defeat as Putin realizes he cannot sustain the effort to keep him afloat.

Perhaps correct. Putin may have bought the Syrian president some time -- but, in all likelihood, Assad's days are numbered.
In the absence of a Russian force in Syria, Washington will probably redouble its efforts to topple the country's mostly secular government. The so-called "moderates" that the US and its allies have been openly backing will reveal their true colours (as happened in Libya), and Syria will be another Washington "success story", the scale of which will be measured in the number of refugees flooding into Europe.

Oh no please, the american politicians and their contract industry are always at interfering. They are making trillions from causing wars and keeping active in them for us.

The destruction to our world is constant and terrible.

The UN must have more power to keep US in one place, their own homeland. This global destruction has to stop !

Cant disagree there Joe. Since WW2 they have made a hash of things.

Kremlin denies report of Russia-U.S. deal on Assad's future

The Kremlin said on Thursday that a report by the al-Hayat newspaper on an agreement between Russia and the United States on the future of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was not true.

The newspaper reported that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry had told several Arab countries that Russia and the U.S. reached an understanding on the future of Syria's peace process, including Assad's departure to another country at some unspecified stage.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-midea ... SKCN0WX133

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What other country? What about his fortunes in Syria? Al-Hayat do not troll! I hear its usually reliable source.

Since we are on pause till Mr Trump gets into office .. its bad joke!

Syria war crimes investigators amass strongest evidence 'since Nuremberg' against Bashar al-Assad

International investigators have amassed the strongest evidence “since Nuremberg” for the prosecution of Bashar al-Assad and his allies for war crimes, smuggling 600,000 pages of official documents out of Syria.

This trove - weighing several tons - includes the records of a secret committee of security chiefs placed in charge of crushing the revolt. Another 500,000 pages are still inside Syria, awaiting safe transit out of the country.

The evidence is being held in an undisclosed European city by the Commission for International Justice and Accountability, an organisation of lawyers and investigators partly funded by the British Government.

The most striking evidence concerns Assad’s response to the mass protests against his rule that swept Syria from 2011 onwards. He appointed a “Central Crisis Management Cell” and gave the security chiefs on this committee supreme responsibility for suppressing the unrest. The cell held daily meetings in Damascus, chaired by Mohammad Said Bekheitan, the second most senior member of the ruling Ba’ath party.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/04 ... -since-nu/

Assad is awful, but Islamic State is a much greater danger for the world. Apart from their main territory in Iraq and Syria, they are setting up statelets in Yemen, Libya, Egypt and Afghanistan. It could all become much, much worse, and the death toll from Assad's regime could be peanuts compared to what will happen with Daesh.

Possibly. I was thinking along the line .. how alleged war crimes, together with Assad family fortunes in Syria, play into the negotiations in question. For him its not about staying in power no more, but keeping freedom and life style.