Russian strikes in Syria spark more suffering, says Germany’s Steinmeier

[webfact]

Russian strikes in Syria spark more suffering, says Germany’s Steinmeier



BERLIN: -- Germany’s foreign minister has slammed Russian air strikes in Syria, claiming they have created more suffering.

Walter Steinmeier says he hopes political and military issues were on the table during a surprise meeting between Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin earlier this week.

He spoke after meeting his Finnish counterpart in Berlin.

“We both say that if Russia is serious about participating in achieving the standards for stabilisation in Syria, then it cannot happen if, as a result of military offensives, thousands more people are forced to flee.”

While Russia says its air campaign is aimed at defeating ISIL militants, analysis shows that 80 percent of its declared targets have been in areas not held by the group.

Saudi Arabia has added its criticism, saying Moscow’s actions are fueling Syria’s war.

“We believe that the Russian interference in Syria is very dangerous because it exacerbates the conflict,” Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told reporters in Vienna, ahead of a meeting with his US, Russian and Turkish counterparts.

When asked whether Assad could play a role in any Syrian interim government, Jubeir said: “His role would be to leave Syria.”

The Kremlin has cast its intervention in Syria, its biggest in the Middle East since the 1991 Soviet collapse, as a common sense move designed to roll back “international terrorism” in the face of what it says is ineffective action from Washington.


-- (c) Copyright Euronews 2015-10-23

[Kerryd]

So much bulls*** from every side, and enough hypocrisy to choke every elephant on earth.

The "West" is pissed because Russia is interfering with their attempted regime change and hopes of securing Syria's oil (at cheap prices) from the rebels when/if they win. They are hypocrites because they sit back and do absolutely nothing in other countries that have rulers even worse than Assad is (or Qaddafi was). (As a former co-worker noted - Zimbabwe exports potatoes, not oil, which is why no one apparently cares what Mugabe does.)

Obviously Russia is pissed as they've been Syria's ally for ages and Syria is their only Mediterranean Navy port. They probably also know the real reason behind the uprising, just like they knew about who it was that really committed the gas attack that the rebels (and the West) initially tried to blame Assad for (remember Obama's "Red Line in the Sand" that he had to back down from). I suspected it was the rebels that were behind that attack (and the ones that happened afterwards) as they were the only ones that had anything to gain from doing it. (Attempts to blame other gas attacks on Assad withered quickly after it was pointed out that Assad had complied with a UN resolution to hand over all of his chemical weapons which were removed from Syria and disposed of. Meanwhile no one made the same demands of the "rebels" despite their having overrun various military bases, capturing scads of equipment and having large numbers of military defectors in their ranks, many of whom could have had the expertise to use any chemical weapons they'd captured.) More hypocrisy from the West.

Saudi Arabia (and certain other Arab countries) are supreme hypocrites as they are supporting the rebels in their attempt to overthrow the Syrian government, while at the same time brutally suppressing similar attempts in their own countries. Apparently it's OK to overthrow other governments if they follow a different version of your religion, just like it's OK to ignore what certain countries do if they just happen to be supplying you with huge quantities of oil (and spend billions buying your military hardware).

Now you have Russia, Iran and China supporting Assad's government (and, to a degree, the Hezbollah terrorist organization which is supported by both Iran and Syria and all 3 are committed to wiping out Israel) although they are supposedly only going after ISIS.

Then you have the US, UK, France, Australia and some Arab countries that are bombing ISIS on one hand, while supporting the Syrian rebels on the other. Certain other countries are also involved but only in Iraq (Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands), while some countries are only involved in Syria (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Turkey).

Of course, while the rest of the world seems to be intent on tackling ISIS, Canada's new Prime Minister has already committed to pulling the air force out, but "may" supply trainers for the Iraqi army (yeah, like a couple dozen trainers will make any difference at all to a military that had a almost a decade of US military training and apparently folds the minute they come up against anyone that shoots back.)

The West are too pussy to fight ISIS and aerial bombing campaigns aren't going to get the job done. On the other hand, they don't want someone that is willing to get their hands dirty coming in and defeating them (and getting the credit, and the rewards for it). Regime Change (using force) is supposed to be prohibited by the UN but that hasn't stopped anyone from doing it anyways. One thing that made me very suspicious from the beginning (especially in the Libyan regime change) was just how fast certain countries were to declare the rebels as the "legitimate government". More hypocrisy. If some group of unelected, self-appointed "rebels" started an armed insurgency in their country they wouldn't stand for some other countries declaring those rebels to be the "legitimate government".

BS and hypocrisy. The one thing that surprises me (up to this point) is how Israel has managed to avoid being dragged into it (more or less). Crap is still going on there but nowhere as bad, or as large of scale, as I would have expected by now. Time will tell if that changes of course.

[VIPinthailand]

Russia don't want mass of refugees to come to Russia . they know Europeans are closing their borders and Syria problems are still not fixed, fanatic then will come to Russia . remember the attack schools and theatre.

by taking Syria, it s all positive for Russia. USA was never interested to fix problem in middle east except for oil. USA is too far from missiles and from refugees, this is why USA did nothing. even Omama said he was loosing in Syria but doesn't care at all.

Germany and else are now losing the face... what they did expect .? in Europe, these people wait for things to fix by itself ... like the economy, it will recover by itself., yeah sure...!! what a bunch of cretins. all these politicians don't care so much , they got their 800'000 bahts a month. why they would give a shit about their citizen.?

Edited October 23, 2015 by VIPinthailand

[TimmyT]

Russian strikes in Syria spark more suffering

he forgot to add " ... for me and my masters on the other side of the ocean"