Russia and India support Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity — joint statement

Russian President Vladimir Putin has pointed to the proximity of positions Moscow and New Delhi take on acute international issues
 

MOSCOW, December 24 /TASS/. 

 

Russia and India have voiced staunch support for Syria’s sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a joint statement after talks in Moscow. 

 

The sides agreed that the internal armed conflict in Syria cannot be resolved by force and can be settled only by political and diplomatic means - through substantive intra-Syrian dialogue without any preliminary conditions or external interference and on the basis of the Geneva Communique of June 30, 2012; the Joint Statement on results of multilateral talks on Syria in Vienna of October 30, 2015 and a statement of the International Syria Support Group adopted on November 14, 2015, the document said. 

 

Russia and India voiced resolute and decisive support for the people and government of Iraq in their efforts to overcome the current crisis and defend the country’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity, the Russian and Indian leaders said in their joint statement stressing the importance of reaching national reconciliation and unity in Iraq by forming an inclusive state system and strengthening national democratic institutions by creation of relevant opportunities.  

 

"It is important Russia and India make similar approaches to key international problems. Our countries are for a political settlement of the conflict in Syria and promotion of national reconciliation in Afghanistan," Putin told the media after talks with India’s visiting Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "We are certain that it is in the interests of the world community to form a wide anti-terrorist coalition operating on the basis of international law and under the auspices of the United Nations," Putin said. 

 

The Russian leader said that Moscow would like to see India’s still greater role in addressing global and regional issues. "We believe that India is a great power that conducts a balanced and responsible foreign policy and is one of the most worthy candidates for taking the seat of a permanent member on the UN Security Council," Putin said. 

 

He recalled that Moscow had "strongly supported India’s accession to the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and that the two countries were actively cooperating within the BRICS group (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), where India will take the rotating presidency in February 2016. 

 
More:http://tass.ru/en/politics/846784

Putin and Israel – a Complex and Multi-layered Relationship

By The Saker

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article43803.htm

December 24, 2015 "Information Clearing House" - "The Saker" - The recent murder of Samir Kuntar by Israel has, yet again, inflamed the discussion about Putin’s relation to Israel. 

This is an immensely complicated topic and those who like simple, canned, “explanations” should stop reading right now.  The truth is, the relationship between Russia and Israel and, even before that, between Jews and Russians would deserve an entire book. 

In fact, Alexander Solzhenitsyn has written exactly such a book, it is entitled “200 years together”, but due to the iron grip of the Zionists on the Anglo media, it has still not been translated into English. That should already tell you something right there

Moscow pledges help to Syrian Kurds, but through Assad government

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday that Moscow is ready to back Kurdish forces fighting ISIS in Syria, but only in coordination with the Syrian government, Turkey’s official Anadolu Agency reported.

Demirtas' visit to Moscow comes amid soured relations between Turkey and Russia over the downing of a Russian jet last month.

The ultimate explanation of the Syrian conflict... NOT!

President Assad (who is bad) is a nasty guy who got so nasty his people rebelled and the rebels (who are good) started winning.

But then some of the rebels turned a bit nasty and are now called Islamic State (who are definitely bad) and some continued to support democracy (who are still good).

Bashar Al-Assad Interview: “Al Qaeda was Created by the Americans With the Help of Saudi Wahhabi Money”. Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar Support ISIS

Damascus, SANA-President Bashar al-Assad gave an interview to Italian TV channel RAI UNO. Below you will find the full transcript of this interview:

Question 1: Mr. President, thanks for the opportunity of talking to you. Let’s start from Paris. How did you react to the news coming from Paris?

President Assad: We can start by saying it’s a horrible crime, and at the same time it’s a sad event when you hear about innocents being killed without any reason and for nothing, and we understand in Syria the meaning of losing a dear member of the family or a dear friend, or anyone you know, in such a horrible crime. We’ve been suffering from that for the past five years. We feel for the French as we feel for the Lebanese a few days before that, and for the Russians regarding the airplane that’s been shot down over Sinai, and for the Yemenis maybe, but does the world, especially the West, feel for those people, or only for the French? Do they feel for the Syrians that have been suffering for five years from the same kind of terrorism? We cannot politicize feeling, feeling is not about the nationality, it’s about the human in general.

Syria: Can the US-NATO leopard change its spots for peace?

— By Feroze Mithiborwala 

Wed, 2015-11-18 15:07 

http://candobetter.net/node/4675

One dramatic impact of the Paris terror attack and the contradictions within the NATO camp and vis a vis the GCC-Turkish Camp, is that all of Putin's worst detractors are queuing up to meet him and seek his words of wisdom 

The photos of Putin, Obama with their 2 advisors sitting around a table for just 4 has gone all across the world.

Cameron who was a anti-Putin Hawk was today getting himself photographed with Putin ensuring all cooperation. 

Hollande will be dashing, or should I say - Da-eshing off :) :) off to Moscow and DC to iron out all details for future coordination ...

Even Erdogan is behaving himself ...

Open Letter to Code Pink peace activists on their ignorance about Syria

by Feroze Mithiborwala

Code Pink is a prominent anti-war US based organization. Very high profile. After the Paris attacks they published a webpage that ignorantly cast the Syrian Government on the same footing as Daesh. This prompted me to write the following letter, asking them to re-look at their understanding and analysis of Syria and their position on President Bashar al Assad:

Dear Code Pink,

Greetings,

Its really high time that you re-looked your understanding and your analysis of Syria and your position on President Bashar al Assad.

By all indicators, Bashar al Assad has the support of between 70-80% of the Syrian nation.

Documented French ISIS Connections - 2012 / 2015

What Preceded The Islamic State Attacks In France - Some Links (Updated)

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2015/11/terror-attacks-in-france-some-related-links.html

This happened last night: At least 120 dead in Paris attacks, Hollande declares emergency

Gunmen and bombers attacked restaurants, a concert hall and a sports stadium at locations across Paris on Friday, killing at least 120 people in a deadly rampage that a shaken President Francois Hollande called an unprecedented terrorist attack.

Syria: Assad has more than 70% Popular Support: Figaro, Western Media Polls

Despite the fact that even Western Media sources, including the Nato, have consistently pointed to the fact that Syrian President Bashar al Assad enjoys 70% of popular support, the infantile pompous rant of "Assad Must Go" continued for over the course of the last 4 years and more from the Imperial-Zionist capitals and those of the Collaborator Gulf Monarchies and Turkey. 

The fact that since then, having failed at "Regime Change" Sources from the Le Figaro, the Guardian, NATO itself, to the warmongering Fox News, have all presented figures that have proved contrary to their very own dose of daily Goebbelsian propaganda and lies. 

Having failed at "Regime Change" after imposing a genocidal destructive war on Syria, now the operative term has changed to "Transition", with an arrogance and disdain for the popular will of the Syrian nation. 

The fact that the Syrian State responded to the crisis by initiating a political dialogue with cross-sections of the Syrian political parties and community organization, engaging in a process of Constitutional and political reforms, which after a year of debate and discussion led to a national referendum in May 2012, has never been mentioned in the biased warmongering Western Corporate Media. A Constitution that ended the monopoly of the Baath Party, that opened the doors for the deepening and broadening of a Multi-Party democratic electoral system, the right to dissent, to protest, freedom of expression, greater powers and rights to the Media, opening the doors to Private Media, more rights to the citizenry, Gender rights, the various religious and ethnic minorities, were the hall mark of the Constitution adopted in 2012. The only path ahead for the transition to a more advanced secular democracy was a political process and not an imposed external war. 

But the Arab Gulf and Western powers were ware of the strength of the Syrian nation, the popularity and deep roots of the Socialist Baath Party, thus elections and political reforms were never the preferred path. But Libyan-Style Regime Change was certainly the option, having toppled the Gaddafi Government by financing, mobilising and arming the Al Qaeda and other Islamist forces. 

This religio-sectarian strategy failed in Syria, both militarily as well as politically. The Syrian Government then responded with elections that were held in June 2014, in which 73.6% of the people participated and 88% overwhelmingly  voted for President Assad. The fact that Bashar al Assad is the most popular leader in Syria is a no-brainer, but the fact here that more than 73% of the people participated in the national vote is of more significance here. The fact that people came out in droves to vote, with tears in their eyes, with a commitment and an enthusiasm, with the pain of national suffering in a war that was imposed upon them. Their vote for the unity of their nation, for their popular President, who has led the country through its worst crisis in its modern history, who continues to appear publicly despite the imminent threat to his very life, has only added to his popularity amongst the Syrian nation. Assad is a unifying figure for at least 80% of the population, who see him as a secular modernist and a progressive reformist, far removed from the medieval madness that the ISIS and other Islamists want to drag towards. 

Remarkably, Syria and Assad have emerged as a nation of destiny, around which the geopolitical balance of the world is being defined and undergoing great shifts and geostrategic changes. 

The global alliance led by Russia, China, Iran, the Lebanese Hezbollah, the Palestinian Resistance led by the people and the Leftists PFLP, Kurdish Left, Iraq, the Ansarullah-led Yemenese resistance, are leading towards great regional and global changes. The battlefields of Syria, Palestine, Iraq, Ukraine and Yemen are changing the very global balance with Russia having emerged as power and the Western Imperial bloc far more confused, weak and divided than they have been over the course of the last 3 decades

Obama's October Surprise: US Special Forces Are Now 'Assisting' Rebels in Syria

Remember when Obama said “no boots on the ground” in Syria? He fibbed.

Barack “ended 2 wars” Obama has just announced that he is placing “special” U.S. boots on the ground in Syria, allegedly to help assist unidentified forces fight ISIS.

Did Obama ask the Syria government if it was okay for U.S. soldiers to “do stuff” in Syria? Not exactly, but at least the Pentagon “consulted” with…Iraq? This is unreal: 

The Pentagon has also been “consulting” with the Iraqi prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, to establish a special operations taskforce to fight Isis “leaders and networks” across the Syrian border in Iraq, a senior administration official told the Guardian on Friday.

Here's what the Guardian fails to mention: 

The Iraqi government said Wednesday it didn't ask for — and doesn't need — the “direct action on the ground” promised by the Pentagon.

Ha-ha. Back to the US special forces operating illegally in Syria: 

The White House insisted that its overall strategy to combat Isis remained the same and said the special forces troops would be helping coordinate local ground forces in the north of the country and other non-specified “coalition efforts” to counter Isis rather than engaging in major ground operations.

Yes. Obama has sent U.S. soldiers into Syria to conduct “non-specified coalition efforts”. Any questions? 

Now Russia will have to stop bombing al-Nusra. Can't kill Americans.

Putin Tells Everyone Exactly Who Created ISIS

Russian president tells gathering of politicians that Washington is playing a ‘double game’ and acting in self-interest

 
The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has launched a stinging attack on US policy in the Middle East, accusing Washington of backing terrorism and playing a “double game”.

In a speech on Thursday at the annual gathering of the Valdai Club, a group of Russian and international analysts and politicians, Putin said the US had attempted to use terrorist groups as “a battering ram to overthrow regimes they don’t like”.

He said: “It’s always hard to play a double game – to declare a fight against terrorists but at the same time try to use some of them to move the pieces on the Middle Eastern chessboard in your own favour. There’s no need to play with words and split terrorists into moderate and not moderate. I would like to know what the difference is.”

 Western capitals have accused Moscow of targeting moderate rebel groups during its bombing campaign in Syria, which Russia says is mainly aimed at targets linked to Islamic State. However, Putin’s talk of “playing with words” and other statements by government officials suggest Moscow believes all armed opposition to Bashar al-Assad is a legitimate target.

 

Putin received Assad at the Kremlin on Tuesday, and on Thursday he underlined that he considered the Syrian president and his government to be “fully legitimate”. He said the west was guilty of shortsightedness, focusing on the figure of Assad while ignoring the much greater threat of Isis.

“The so-called Islamic State [Isis] has taken control of a huge territory. How was that possible? Think about it: if Damascus or Baghdad are seized by the terrorist groups, they will be almost the official authorities, and will have a launchpad for global expansion. Is anyone thinking about this or not?”
He added: “Fifty years ago, the streets of Leningrad taught me that if a fight is inevitable, you have to hit first.” 
Putin said it was “incorrect” to discuss whether or not Assad should step down, but said there was a need for dialogue. 

“As far as I understand from my discussion with Assad, he’s ready for this,” said the Russian leader.
Putin said he asked Assad how he would react if Russia “found armed opposition groups who are really ready to fight terrorists” in Syria and decided to support them. Assad responded positively, according to Putin.

Asked how he saw the future of Syria and whether partition of the country could be an eventual solution, Putin said: “This would be the worst and most unacceptable option, and will not lead to the conflict being solved. It will make it worse and give it a permanent character. If you split the country into different parts they will fight among themselves forever, it will be unavoidable.”

Who backs whom in the Syrian conflict

Russia’s intervention has made the complex pattern of alliances and enmities in Syria still more intricate. The Assad regime and its local opponents are backed to differing degrees and in different configurations by military powers from near and far

 

This year the Valdai Club met at a luxury hotel in the mountain resort of Krasnaya Polyana, one of the venues for last year’s Winter Olympics. Putin arrived at the venue in a bright green Lada, part of an effort to promote the domestic car industry. He arrived late, keeping the assembled delegates waiting for nearly two hours before speaking.

A survey released on Thursday suggested that Putin’s approval rating had hit a record high of almost 90%, boosted by the Syrian airstrikes. His rating was 58.8% in January 2012 before a crackdown on opposition and the annexation of Crimea.

“Such a high level of approval for the work of the Russian president is linked, in the first instance, to events in Syria, to Russian airstrikes on terrorist positions there,” said the stat-run polling agency VTsIOM.

On the sidelines of the Valdai Club conference, Russia’s ambassador to the UK, Alexander Yakovenko, said the “only logical way” to explain Britain’s behaviour in Iraq and Syria was a desire that Isis would depose Assad.

“The idea was to remove Assad using force, and to use force to seize Damascus. I don’t believe in conspiracy theories, but this is the only way to explain why de facto neither Britain nor the US has ever properly fought against Isis,” Yakovenko said.

He said with the number of airstrikes Britain had carried out in Iraq, “you could have destroyed the whole region”, but instead Isis had only grown in strength.

An analysis by Reuters of Russian defence ministry data showed this week that almost 80% of Russia’s declared targets in Syria have been in areas not held by Isis. Yakovenko said he had a meeting at the Foreign Office in London last week in which he asked for intelligence to be shared on the location of Isis targets in Syria, but was rejected. He also asked for information on the Free Syrian Army.

“We are looking closely at the Syrian Free Army. We understand there is not a single command centre, and that some of these divisions have different goals. But if among the FSA there are divisions that are really ready to fight with Isis, who is our main enemy in Syria, and if you think there are people or commanders or other contacts which could be useful and to cooperate with them, we would be grateful for such information,” he said. “We were again rejected.”

Interviews with Syrian Figures

PRESIDENT AL-ASSAD INTERVIEWS:

President al-Assad: New anti-terrorism coalition must succeed, otherwise the whole region will be destroyed, Oct 5, 2015, SANA

http://sana.sy/en/?p=56697

‘West crying for refugees with one eye, aiming gun with the other’ – Assad (FULL INTERVIEW), Sep 16, 2015, RT.com

http://www.rt.com/news/315482-assad-terrorism-refugees-interview/

President Assad Interview with Charlie Rose, Mar 26, 2015, CBSNEWS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MKxZcAvfP0&app=desktop

“The Syrian Crisis Can Be Solved” President Assad interview with Russian media, Mar 2015

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article41392.htm

President Assad’s interview with Portuguese TV channel, 4 March 2015, RTP

http://www.syriasolidaritymovement.org/2015/03/05/president-assads-interview-with-portuguese-tv-channel-rtp-4-march-2015/

Syria conflict: BBC exclusive interview with President Bashar al-Assad, Feb 10, 2015

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-31327153

Syria’s President Speaks: A Conversation With Bashar al-Assad, Jan 26, 2015, Foreign Affairs

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/discussions/interviews/syrias-president-speaks

Our Full Interview with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Dec 3, 2014, Paris Match

http://www.parismatch.com/Actu/International/Our-Interview-with-Syrian-President-Bashar-al-Assad-661984

President Bashar al-Assad’s interview with Agence France Presse, Jan 20, 2014, Agence France Press

http://www.sana.sy/en/?p=3723


INTERVIEWS WITH OTHER SYRIAN POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS LEADERS:

Dr. Bouthaina Shaaban on the Russia-Syria cooperation against terrorism, Sep 30, 2015,RT.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoJFc4uLYbU

Syria’s Ambassador to the UN, Dr. Bashar al-Ja’afari, on Russia’s involvement in fighting (international) terrorism in Syria, Oct 8, 2015, MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.com/andrea-mitchell-reports/watch/all-those-who-are-fighting-the-govt-are-terrorists-541062211539

Syria's Mufti Sheikh Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun, July 2015, Hands Off Syria (3 VIDEOS)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtuJLyuMiK4
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL-9LZMF2PU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL4_TW9B0Mg

Father Dave interviews the Grand Mufti of Syria - Dr Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun, May 8, 2015, Dave Smith
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=kNd_Fg6_V-k&app=desktop

The real Syrian moderates: voices of reason, Mar 15, 2015, Eva Bartlett, Russia Today
http://rt.com/op-edge/240797-syria-moderate-voices-peace-stability/

Syrian Ambassador to the UN Bashar al-Ja’afari on Sovereignty, Terrorism, and the Failure of the UN, Jan 17, 2015, Al Akhbar, [re-published version on author's blog, In Gaza]

http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/syrian-ambassador-un-bashar-al-jaafari-sovereignty-terrorism-and-failure-un

https://ingaza.wordpress.com/2015/01/17/interview-syrian-ambassador-to-the-un-bashar-al-jaafari-on-sovereignty-terrorism-and-the-failure-of-the-un/

Syria is Fighting Terrorism on Behalf of the World--Dr. Bashar al-Ja'afari, May 4, 2015

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GYWa4rub93g

Son of Islamic Scholar Martyr al-Bouti Refutes FSA Propaganda about Who Killed his Father, Apr 2013
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYsUPyq2lTs