[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The acting provincial governor of northern Balkh province Ata Mohammad Noor has said he has no intentions to prevent the cultivation and trade of opium in this province.
Noor who is leading Jamaat-e-Islami party, harshly criticized the way funds were spent on counter-narcotics campaigns in Afghanistan, saying he will not taken any actions in areas under his control.
He said the international community has spent over $7.8 billion to prevent the cultivation and smuggle of opium in the country over a period of ten years.
However, there's no worse danger than telling a mother her baby is ugly... Noor claimed only $7 million of the grants have been spent in the country to destroy opium fields and prevent cultivation and smuggle of drugs.
"$7.8 billion has been spent and we should be clarified on how and where the funds have been allocated. What has been done for us? Annually, $7 million has been given which is equivalent to $7 million, taking into account the 7 years period. Nearly $8 billion has been allocated and it should be accounted for to ascertain in which parts of Afghanistan the funds have been spent," Noor was quoted as saying in a report by Radio Free Europe.
Noor has also claimed that the remaining funds have fallen into the hands of the Mafia members who are expanding the cultivation and smuggle of opium in the country, insisting that the majority of the opium were cultivated in southern provinces where coalition forces were also stationed.
Noor also added that he was accused of having role in opium cultivation and smuggle after he tried to prevent smuggle of drugs from Kandahar airfield.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2016 00:00 ||
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[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A delegation of Hezb-e-Islami party arrived in Kabul ...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either.... today to hold talks with the Afghan High Peace Council, nearly a week after the group announced to participate in reconciliation process.
In a brief presser, the delegation told news hounds that Hezb-e-Islami party is keen to resolve issues with the Afghan government through peaceful negotiations.
The delegation also called on other myrmidon groups to join talks and grinding of the peace processor with the Afghan government.
The Hezb-e-Islami party led by the notorious warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar ... who used to be known in intelligence circles as The Most Evil Man in the World but who now seems merely run-of-the-mill evil... announced Sunday that the group is prepared to participate in peace talks with the Afghan government.
The party in a statement said they are prepared to participate in the peace talks in a bid to show to the nation that Hezb-e-Islami wants peace.
The statement further added Hezb-e-Islami party condemns the inclusion of the group’s two members in the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs) by the United States, saying the move by the US government comes amid calls by the Afghan government to start reconciliation process.
The visit by Hezb-e-Islami delegation to Kabul for peace talks comes as the Taliban group has rejected to participate in the talks.
The Afghan government was expecting to start face to face talks with the Taliban group at the first week of this month following the conclusion of the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) meeting last month where calls were made for direct talks.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
'cause when you think about peace the first name that comes to mind is Hekmatyar.
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The dissident Taliban leader Mullah Rasool has said he will not participate in peace talks with the government which is led by the Taliban supreme leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor.
In an interview with the UK-based Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), Mullah Rasool has said he is not opposed to reconciliation in principle, insisting that he opposes with Mansoor’s hegemony over the process as far as the Taliban are concerned.
"Earlier we were thinking that the Afghan Government wanted peace talks with all Taliban, but when we saw that it is interested only in making peace with Mullah Mansur because of the dictates of the Pak Government, we decided we cannot start peace talks with the Afghan Government," Rasool added.
Rasool further added that he will not sit in the same reconciliation meetings with Mansoor, whose claim to leadership he considers spurious, nor will he start a separate reconciliation track.
He said he will negotiate only when Mansoor abandons plans for reconciliation or is excluded from them.
Meanwhile, ...back at the Council of Boskone, Helmuth ordered the space pirate fleet to attack Zemblonia... Rasool favoured the inclusion of neighboring Iran in the Afghan reconciliation process, saying the quadrilateral approach (involving US, Chinese, Pak and Afghan diplomats working together to re-launch negotiations with the Taliban) does not sufficiently represent the variety of regional interests.
He said excluding Iran, in particular, will in his view result in the failure of reconciliation efforts.
The remarks by Mullah Rasool comes as the Afghan government was expecting to start face to face talks with the Taliban group at the first week of this month following the conclusion of the Quadrilateral Coordination Group (QCG) meeting last month where calls were made for direct talks.
However, it's easy to be generous with someone else's money... the Taliban group rejected to participate in the talks and once again reiterated the group’s preconditions for the revival of grinding of the peace processor.
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03/18/2016 00:00 ||
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ROME: Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has warned Western powers Libya could spiral out of control if they try to intervene militarily in the conflict-wracked North African state. Speaking in a rare interview, the military-backed ruler of one of the region’s biggest powers said the West and its allies should instead concentrate on strengthening the army of Libya’s internationally recognized government and let it do the job of stabilising the country.
The army is commanded by Khalif Haftar, an officially retired general who spent 20 years in exile in the United States and has been described as a potential ‘Libyan Sisi’ because of his fierce opposition to militant groups.
“If we provide arms and support to the national Libyan army it can do the job better than anyone else, better than any outside intervention which would risk dragging us into a situation that risks getting out of hand and triggering uncontrollable developments,” El-Sisi told Italy’s La Repubblica in an interview published Thursday.
El-Sisi said history had “spoken clearly” about the difficulty of trying to impose peace from outside.
“Two lessons must be kept in mind: That of Afghanistan and that of Somalia,” he said. “Those were long foreign interventions more than 30 years ago and what progress has been made since?”
“The results are there for everyone to see.”
Sissi also suggested that European governments were underestimating the scale of militant influence in Libya.
“Europeans look at Libya as if the Daesh group was the only threat,” he said.
“That is a serious mistake. We have to be aware that we are up against different acronyms with the same ideology: What do we say about Al-Qaeda networks like Ansar Al-Islam, like Somalia’s Al-Shabab or Boko Haram in Africa.”
Italy has said it is prepared to lead a UN-backed international peace force into Libya if and when the country proves capable of establishing a national unity government with the authority to ask for outside security help.
El-Sissi said such a mission would be fraught with difficulty and it would be better to concentrate on building up Haftar’s forces.
The army commander was involved in the 1969 military coup which brought Muammar Qaddafi to power in Libya. He later fell out with the dictator and was forced into exile, returning in 2011 to take part in the uprising that toppled Qaddafi.
He has long had close relations with the Egyptian military having served alongside their forces in the Sinai desert as a young Libyan officer during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war.
French Foreign Minister is expected in Tunis Thursday to enhance bilateral economic and security relations and underline France’s support to the North African country which is tormented by repeated terrorist attacks and struggling with a sluggish economy. The French top diplomat is expected to re-iterate Paris’s support to its former colony now unable to face the surge of terrorist attacks that have multiplied since last year.
Paris has shown its support to Tunisia following Bardo, Sousse and Tunis attacks last year. It also heavily condemned recent militants’ assaults on military and national guards’ positions in the town of Ben Guerdan, near the Libyan border.
“Tunisia is an important symbol because there are few countries in the region to be reasonably optimistic about,” a senior French diplomat reportedly said before the two-day visit by Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault. “The attacks in Ben Guerdan show more than ever why we need to support the Tunisians.”
France is a major economic partner of Tunisia. During Prime Minister Habib Essid’s recent visit to France, Paris pledged to help Tunisia overcome the economic challenges that have engulfed the country and prompted thousands of young Tunisians to take to streets to claim for jobs.
Paris pledged 1 billion euro ($1.1 billion) aid package for the coming 5 years to help Tunisia develop poor regions, stimulate job creation – especially for the youth – and modernize Tunisia’s administration. The 1 billion euro plan will also help retain young Tunisians joining terrorist groups abroad.
More than 5,000 young Tunisian, according to a recent report by a UN working group, have joined terrorist groups in conflict zones, mainly in Libya, Iraq and Syria. Authorities indicated this week most of the 40 terrorists killed in Ben Guerdan were Tunisians.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/18/2016 00:00 ||
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[AnNahar] Jihadist groups are swelling their ranks by recruiting disenchanted groups of young sub-Saharan Africans across the region's borders, hard boyz and experts say, and training them to mount deadly attacks on civilian targets.
After Bamako in November and Ouagadougou in January, it was the beach resort of Grand-Bassam in Ivory Coast that came under attack from gunnies armed with grenades and rifles on Sunday, killing 19 people.
The three attackers identified so far were black, sub-Saharan Africans, part of a new generation of homegrown fighters in a shifting jihadi landscape once dominated by Arabs.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/18/2016 00:00 ||
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The spokesman for the Saudi-led military coalition says that major combat operations in Yemen are coming to an end, after which the coalition will work on "long-term" plans to bring stability to the country.
About to declare victory, are they?
Brig. Gen. Ahmed al-Asiri said that major military combats were coming to a close and that the next phase of rebuilding and reconstruction will be begin shortly. Assiri reiterated that Saudi Arabia and the coalition will “stand by the legitimate Yemeni government and offer support until it is able to restore stability in the country.”
In Marib, Yemeni Deputy Commander of the Yemeni forces General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar said that his team, along with the arab coalition, will stay in place and help rebuild public institutions that have been destroyed by Houthi militias.
In Taiz, hundreds of families were seen returning to the city with shops and everyday life returning to normal after months of destruction by the militias.
Yemeni Prime Minister and Vice-President Khaled Bahah on Tuesday stressed that efforts and joint action by local should be intensified to restore the situation in Lahij Governorate to normal by addressing security issues and repairing infrastructure and public departments destroyed in the war.
Until the next war, which in Yemen won't be all that long in coming...
He was speaking during a meeting with Governor of Lajih, Naser Al Khabji, and local officials to discuss the security situation in the governorate, located between Tazi and Aden.
The meeting was focussed on the security situation in Lajih where the chief of security, Brigadier Adel Al Halemi, asked for reinforcements to support troops in their crackdown on extremists and militants as part of a plan to restore stability to the governorate, according to Yemen's official news agency.
Meanwhile, Bahah attended the signing ceremony of an agreement for restoring 6,000 damaged houses. The value of the preliminary contract is around rials 2 billion.
Yemeni Minister of Public Works and Roads Wahi Taha Aman urged friendly countries and international donors to provide material and technical support for the government's project and reconstruction efforts. He noted that similar projects will be launched in other governorates affected by the war.
As many as 58 civilians were killed and 269 others injured in indiscriminate shelling and sniper operations by the rebel Houthi militia and group loyal to deposed president Ali Abdullah Saleh in the Governorate of Taiz, south west Yemen, in February this year, according the Humanitarian Relief Alliance in Taiz.
In a report, carried by the official Yemeni News Agency, the Alliance said the death toll included 22 deaths and 98 injuries among children and 7 deaths and 26 injuries among women.
''Some 49 houses and government and private facilities were affected by the war and indiscriminate bombing of residential districts last month,'' the report added.
The report affirmed that the city is still living in a blackout as water and power services had been completely disconnected, in addition to a lack of health care services as a result of the suffocating siege of the city by the rebels.
[AnNahar] Fresh links between the Gay Paree attacks and a bloody anti-terrorism raid in Brussels emerged Thursday as a manhunt continued for two suspected hard boyz who escaped.
The firefight on Tuesday, in which an Algerian national with suspected ties to Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... was killed, erupted after Belgian and French police searched a property in connection with the November 13 Gay Paree massacres, claimed by IS.
Sources close to the investigation told AFP that the officers visited the apartment believing it was rented under the same false identity as a hideout in the southern Belgian city of Charleroi used by the Gay Paree attackers.
In the Charleroi hideout, police had found DNA traces of Gay Paree attacks ringleader Abdelhamid Abaaoud as well as Chakib Akrouh, both of whom were killed north of the French capital days after the Gay Paree attacks under a hail of police bullets.
According to Belgian daily De Standaard, police believe both properties were actually rented by convicted car thief Khalid El Bakraoui, 27, who is on the lam.
His brother, Ibrahim El Bakraoui, is also known to authorities and served a nine-year sentence in 2010 after firing on police during a robbery, according to daily La Derniere Heure.
Sources close to the investigation told AFP the search on Tuesday was to verify if the El Bakraoui brothers were to be found at the apartment, though expectations were low as water and electric power had been cut off for weeks.
According to De Standaard, the two suspects on the run from the firefight Tuesday are not the El Bakraoui brothers, though a front man from the federal prosecutor refused to confirm the information.
The Standaard also reported that police found computers with encrypted data and false IDs at the scene of the firefight.
"In a stroke of luck, the police fell upon what evidently constitutes the core of a terror cell planning something," researcher Claude Moniquet of the European Strategic Intelligence and Security Center told AFP.
"These are active and heavily armed operators as shown by the presence of 11 Kalashnikov rifle chargers in the apartment," he added.
[DeutscheWelle] Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the threat to German institutions in Turkey was being taken very seriously. The embassy in Ankara has been shut, along with the Istanbul consulate and two German schools.
Germany's foreign ministry issued a statement advising caution in Ankara, Istanbul and other major Turkish cities. Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier went into further detail on Thursday morning in Berlin.
"Yesterday evening, some very concrete indications - to be taken very seriously - reached our security services, saying that terror attacks against German institutions within The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... were being prepared," Steinmeier said.
Steinmeier also said that he had ordered German institutions in Turkey to close their doors, "because protecting German citizens and the people working and learning in these establishments must now take precedence."
Steinmeier: Security being bolstered
The German embassy in Ankara, consulate in Istanbul, and two German schools - one in each city - were shut as a result, Steinmeier said, adding that he had reached the decision overnight.
Steinmeier said that security precautions at the institutions were being bolstered, while the foreign ministry would convene on Thursday for a crisis meeting on the security situation in Turkey.
DW's correspondent Tom Stevenson in Istanbul went to the consulate soon after the warning: "Just arrived. Nothing unusual here: two armed police as always (today they are out of their car though). The security booth round the back is actually empty," Stevenson reported in an email to DW on arrival.
Shortly thereafter, however, at around 11:50 a.m. local time (0950 UTC/GMT), Stevenson noted that three buses full of Turkish police arrived on the scene.
Prestigious schools, central consulate
The consulate said in an email to German citizens that both facilities - the consulate and the nearby school, Deutsche Schule Istanbul - would stay shut as a precaution. This followed what it described as a "warning that could not be conclusively verified." It also urged German citizens to stay away from the area.
The German consulate in Istanbul is located in the vicinity of Taksim Square with the school a mile away in the Istiklal Caddesi pedestrian area. It's considered one of Turkey's most prestigious high schools.
I have a Turkish friend who graduated from the American high school in Izmir, which is also prestigious. I sense a trend.
In Ankara, the German school ("Alman Okulu" in Turkish) is located barely 200 meters from the embassy itself, just off Ataturk Boulevard.
The move comes days after 37 people were killed in a boom-mobile blast in the capital, Ankara. The Kurdish terror group TAK grabbed credit on Thursday.
The German embassy in Ankara had issued a warning on Tuesday of this week.
[CNN] Millions of refugees from Syria have flooded into The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... , straining its economy and draining resources. Turkey has been drawn into its neighbor's 5-year-long war, spawning discord with Russia. Its leaders have pushed to join the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... while fending off criticism of cracking down on opponents and journalists.
On top of all this, Turkey is battling a terrorist insurgency.
In the latest violence, a Kurdish rebel group on Thursday grabbed credit for a car kaboom that killed at least 37 people earlier this week in the capital.
The Kurdish Freedom Falcons, or TAK -- an offshoot of the Kurdish separatist group PKK -- said on its website that Death Eaters struck Sunday "in the heart of (the) fascist Turkish republic."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2016 00:00 ||
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[NBCNEWS] Secretary of State John F. I was in Vietnam, you know Kerry Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a lucky hat, conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State... said Thursday that ISIS has been committing genocide against religious minorities in the Middle East -- just the second time the executive branch has used the term in relation to an ongoing conflict.
The formal designation comes days after the House passed a nonbinding resolution by a 393-0 vote condemning ISIS atrocities as genocide.
"Daesh [Islamic State] is genocidal by self proclamation, by ideology and by actions," Kerry said in a televised address, using another name for the Sunni murderous Moslem group. "We must recognize what Daesh [Islamic State] is doing to its victims."
"Naming these crimes is important but what is essential is to stop them," he added.
He enumerated a list of atrocities against Shiite Muslims, Christians and Yazidis at the hands of the Sunni faceless myrmidons that led to the designation.
"Daesh [Islamic State] is also responsible for crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing directed at these same groups and in some cases also against Sunni Muslims, Kurds, and other minorities," Kerry said, noting that it was impossible to know the full scale of the Death Eaters' atrocities.
Kerry took care to highlight the plight of the Yazidis, a Kurdish minority ISIS branded as devil worshipers and who have been killed and starved by the thousands.
Many were saved with the help of the U.S. but "not before Daesh [Islamic State] captured and enslaved thousands of Yazidi women and girls, selling them at auction, raping them at will, and destroying the communities in which they had lived for countless generations," the secretary of state said.
Kerry also gave examples of Shiites and Christians being slaughtered, forced to flee their homes and compelled to convert to ISIS' extreme version of Sunni Islam.
Christian groups had heaped pressure on politicians to ensure ISIS actions against members of the religion were included in any consideration of genocide.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2016 00:00 ||
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[Breitbart] Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, held captive for five years by the Taliban, had a mental-health disorder marked by odd, eccentric behaviors and social isolation when he walked away from his post in Afghanistan in 2009, documents released by his defense team showed.
They'll label him with whatever they have to in order to keep him out of jug...
An Army Sanity Board Evaluation in July 2015 found Bergdahl had schizotypal personality disorder, a psychiatric condition marked by unusual fears and beliefs, the inability to form interpersonal relationships and eccentric behaviors. The condition is different from schizophrenia, which is marked by hallucinations and a disconnect from reality. "General Discharge" coming soon to a DD-214 near you.
#1
So the Obumble administration has finally come up with an excuse for this guys behavior and some kind of rationalization of why they swapped for him.
So they swapped for him because he wasn't getting the correct meds and counseling?
#5
Hillary Clinton Bowe Bergdahl Diagnosed with Personality Disorder and memory loss stemming from fall and mini-stroke. Her recent bout of barking like a Kelty provided further confirmation of the medical finding.
In 2015 the medical board makes a diagnosis of what his condition was in 2009 that happens to be exactly what the US Govt wants it to be.
Pretty good textbook example of why most doctors are suspicious of retrospective diagnosis.
Posted by: lord garth ||
03/18/2016 12:22 Comments ||
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#7
So a Sanity Board interviews a 2015 Bergdahl, after five years of what might have been highly psychologically-damaging captivity, and is able to see through that damage to determine the mental state of a soldier for whom there is no relevant baseline mental-health data, and determines that his mental state at the time of his desertion was impaired by a pre-existing disorder, thus rendering him incapable of rational thought regarding the consequences of his actions? Really? Is there anyone who accepts this as anything more than another convenient government lie to produce a desired political outcome? Is anyone on the "Army Sanity Board" expecting a promotion or favorable reassignment?
Did anybody notice the 3rd star that MG Dahl got after his interview with this POS? Honor and Integrity slip sliding away from the Army as it increasingly displays the Sukhomlinov Syndrome...
(http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/sukhomlinov-effect.htm)
[DAWN] Former president General (retd) Pervez Musharraf left for Dubai early Friday morning, hours after the interior ministry issued a notification to remove his name from the exit control list (ECL). Before leaving, Musharraf told a DawnNews correspondent, "I am a commando and I love my homeland. I will come back in a few weeks or months."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2016 00:00 ||
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[IsraelTimes] Israel has revoked permission for Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to travel to Jerusalem for Friday prayers on the Temple Mount, claiming exploitation of the system and misuse of permits granted by Israeli authorities.
As part of a ceasefire agreement that ended the 2014 Gaza war, some 200 Gazans above the age of 60 have received weekly permission to enter Israel in order to worship at the al-Aqsa Mosque.
Sources at the Palestinian liaison office said Israel canceled the agreement because Palestinian worshipers were, against the rules, not returning to the Gaza Strip on the same day of the visit, according to the Palestinian Maan News agency.
The Coordinator of the Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), a branch of Israel’s Defense Ministry, said the decision was due to “inappropriate misusing the permit and exploiting inappropriately the Israeli civil policy.”
“Any claims regarding the freezing of permits for prayers in the Temple Mount should be directed to those who choose to exploit illegally the permits at the expense of the rest of the public,” a COGAT spokesman said.
They called the decision “temporary” and said that permits would be reissued when “the issue is addressed by the Palestinian Civil Committee in the Gaza Strip.”
The move comes just a week after Defense Ministry officials reportedly said they were considering increasing the number of Palestinians able to travel from Gaza to the Temple Mount each week, as well as lowering the age limit to 50.
How many of the hundreds of "illegals" picked up in the recent raids were Gazans who'd overstayed, rather than West Bankers who'd snuck in?
Israel has sharply restricted travel out of the Gaza Strip since the Hamas terrorist group took over the territory in 2007. It has consistently granted permits for humanitarian reasons and to Christians wanting to travel to Bethlehem for holidays, but permits specifically meant to allow Muslims to visit the Temple Mount had not been issued before the 2014 Gaza war, according to Gisha, an Israeli group that advocates freedom of movement for Gazans.
Israel began to ease its restrictions on the Gaza border in October 2014, granting some 1,500 permits for Gazans to travel to Jerusalem during the three-day Eid al-Adha holiday. The permits were part of a package of concessions made in the wake of a 50-day war against Hamas.
In June 2015 COGAT announced it was revoking the permits for 500 Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to enter Jerusalem for Friday prayers because of rocket fire from the Palestinian enclave. Entry to Israel has been blocked on a number of other occasions due to unrest on the Temple Mount.
[ALMANAR.LB] The Syrian government warned on Thursday against any attempt to undermine the country's unity and territorial integrity under whatever names, a source in Foreign Ministry said.
The government "warns any party against attempting to undermine the territorial integrity of Syria and the unity of its people under whatever names," the source said in a statement to state-run SANA news agency.
The warning, it added, targets everyone, including the group that are conferring in al-Rmeilan city in Hasaka province.
"Raising the issue of a federation or that of state federalization would affect the territorial integrity of Syria, which goes against the Constitution, the national concepts and international resolutions," the source said.
"Any declaration to that effect would be without any legal value and void of any legal, political, social or economic effect as long as it does not reflect the will of the entire Syrian people with all their political leanings and social spectra, who are all committed to the national unity and territorial integrity of their country," the source added.
The source went on saying that "The main task for our people now is combating terrorism, and any deviation from this goal would be considered support for terrorism and for all those who try to weaken Syria and undermine the will of its heroic army in its endeavor for restoring security and stability nationwide."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/18/2016 00:00 ||
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#1
So they are saying they prefer not to be split up into three (or more) enclaves along ethnic lines? Based on the map I saw here this week, I thought that was a terrific solution!
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/18/2016 8:08 Comments ||
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#2
Joe Biden thought it was a terrific idea years ago...
[IsraelTimes] As Russia announces pullout, Tehran says it is training teams of ‘military advisers’ to be deployed abroad
Iran signaled that it was training commandos and snipers to send to Syria, days after Russia announced it was pulling most of its troops out of the country to allow a diplomatic process to take hold.
Iran, which said it would also send the troops to Iraq, characterized them as "military advisers."
General Ali Arasteh, deputy chief liaison of the Iranian Army’s Ground Force, told news hounds in Tehran that the first group was undergoing preparation and may be sent soon, according to the semi-official Fars news website on Wednesday.
"At some point we might decide to use our commandos and snipers as military advisers in Iraq and Syria," he said.
The Tasnim news site, regarded as close to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, reported Wednesday that the first contingent of "rapid reaction" commandos and snipers had attended a ceremony to mark the end of a two-month intensive course training with an Iranian-made sniper rifle.
Iran has been backing Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Light of the Alawites... in the Syrian civil war, providing troops, training, logistical support and cash.
Support from Russia and Lebanese terror group Hezbollah has also been key to helping Assad maintain power during a civil war that has stretched on for five years, but this week the Kremlin announced it would pull much of its force out of Syria.
Hezbollah, an Iranian proxy group, denied reports Wednesday that it was also pulling out of the country.
"False messages have been disseminated about the partial withdrawal of Hezbollah fighters" from Syria, a Hezbollah official told Russian news agency RIA Novosti.
Last week, General Qassem Soleimani, who commands the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps, said his force would continue operating outside Iran’s borders.
The Quds force is responsible for overseas military and clandestine operations.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/18/2016 00:00 ||
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But the U.S. does not support a Kurdish federal region in Syria. Nothing like sending mixed messages, guys.
[AnNahar] U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter on Thursday praised the fighting of Kurdish groups in Syria that have declared a federal region in areas of the country under their control.
The Kurds "have proven to be excellent partners of ours on the ground in fighting ISIL," Carter said, using a term for the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
"We are grateful for that, and we intend to continue to do that, recognizing the complexities of their regional role."
He spoke the same day Syria's Kurds declared a de facto federal region in areas under their control in the north of the conflict-riven country, a move the United States opposes.
Kurdish groups say declaring a federal region along Syria's northern border with The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire.... is aimed only at formalizing a semiautonomous zone they have already established during five years of war and create a model for decentralized government across Syria.
But Washington believes any Syrian federalism should develop from United Nations ...where theory meets practice and practice loses... -sponsored talks over a political settlement of the conflict currently underway in Geneva.
However, a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package... none of the groups representing the Kurdish minority are participating in the talks because of opposition from Turkey.
The Syrian government and the main Arab-led opposition group oppose federalism in Syria.
So does Turkey, which fears Kurds' ambitions in Syria are fuelling Kurdish separatism at home.
Kurds have played a crucial role in the U.S.-led fight against the Islamic State group in Syria, providing the backbone of the forces that have pushed back the jihadist group in the country's northeast.
The Kurds play a dominant role in the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDS), an Arab-Syrian coalition the United States supports.
However, a person who gets all wrapped up in himself makes a mighty small package... the Pentagon believes more Arab fighters will join the group.
"One month ago I would have said there are about 2,500 Arabs inside Syrian Democratic Forces," said Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Joe Dunford, who spoke alongside Carter. "Today, I can tell you we have 5,000."
More coalition victories would have a "snowball effect," he added.
"More people now are willing to join us because they see the level of support that we are providing and more importantly the level of success that these forces are having."
SDS fighters aided by U.S. special forces recently took control of al-Shadadi, a town in northeastern Syria previously considered a strategic Islamic State group stronghold.
The SDS has a total of 10,000 to 15,000 fighters, Dunford said, adding that they have an estimated reserve of 20,000 to 30,000 men.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar
[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The dissident Taliban leader Mullah Rasool has said he will not participate in peace talks with the government which is led by the Taliban supreme leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor.
Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir 
