15 February 2014

Not a surprise

The BBC has an article about the latest on Syria:
UN mediator Lakhdar Brahimi has apologized to the Syrian people after peace talks in Geneva ended without making progress. He had held final discussions with both sides in a last-ditch bid to break the stalemate between the Syrian government and opposition. He said the main sticking point was the government, which refused again to talk about a transitional governing body.
The conflict in Syria has claimed more than a hundred thousand lives since March of 2011, and more than nine million people have been forced to flee their homes.
The discussions on Saturday morning lasted just 27 minutes, after which Brahimi emerged looking tired to address reporters, the BBC's Imogen Foulkes reported from Geneva.
Brahimi apologised to the Syrian people, admitting that the talks "had not come out with very much". Brahimi's discussions with the two sides on Saturday lasted a matter of minutes.
Although the two sides had agreed on an agenda for the next round, Brahimi said the government had rejected his suggestion to begin a third round by spending a day focusing on combating violence and terrorism, and a second day discussing a transitional government. Brahimi said the government's stance "raises the suspicion of the opposition that the government doesn't want to discuss a transitional government at all."
The opposition has long insisted on a transitional government that does not include President Bashar al-Assad or any of his loyalists. The government has always rejected this and said there is no question of Assad leaving power, focusing instead on the need to fight what it calls "terrorists".
Brahimi said both sides needed "to go back to their base" for consultations and to think about whether they wanted the process to continue or not. He said no date had been set for a third round of talks.
So far, the only agreement in the latest negotiations was to allow civilians to leave the besieged city of Homs and aid to enter. Otherwise the talks, which started six days ago, have failed to narrow the gap between the government of President Bashar al-Assad and the opposition.
Correspondents say at least five thousand people are believed to have died since the first round of the Geneva talks began on 22 January 2014.
President Barack Obama said he was considering ways of putting more pressure on President Assad, though he did not expect any resolution in the short term.
Speaking in California, where he was meeting Jordan's King Abdullah, he said: "There will be some intermediate steps that we can take applying more pressure to the Assad regime, and we are going to be continuing to work with all the parties concerned to try to move forward on a diplomatic solution." Obama did not disclose what steps he has under consideration.
Earlier, UN humanitarian chief Valerie Amos urged the UN Security Council to act immediately to ensure more humanitarian access in Syria. The Security Council has been deadlocked over aid deliveries in Syria, where millions have been forced to flee their homes.
Rico says that Obama needs to put his big-boy pants on, and order a Tomahawk flown into Assad's bedroom, and let's finish this bullshit in the only way America knows how...


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