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MORE THAN 400 people have been killed in the five-day assault by the government on Eastern Ghouta, where UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said 400,000 Syrians are living in “hell on earth”.
After two weeks of negotiations, Russia today told the UN Security Council that there was still no agreement on a 30-day ceasefire in Syria, dimming hopes of international action to halt the carnage in Eastern Ghouta.
During a council meeting called by Russia, Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia presented a new raft of amendments to a draft resolution that would allow deliveries of humanitarian aid and medical evacuations during the pause.
Negotiations on the draft presented by Sweden and Kuwait on 9 February have dragged on as hundreds of Syrians have died in a fierce government air campaign in the rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta.
Nebenzia told the council that Sweden and Kuwait had requested a vote on the draft resolution even though they are “fully aware there is no agreement on it”.
The Security Council needs to reach a “feasible” agreement on a ceasefire and not take a decision that would be “severed from reality”, said Nebenzia before circulating an amended text.
UN diplomats resumed talks in a last-ditch bid to avoid a Russian veto and a vote at the council was now considered for tomorrow.
“We are trying to find a way forward,” Swedish Ambassador Olof Skoog said after the meeting, adding that he was “leaning towards a vote” on Friday.
The United States, France and Britain called for a quick vote to address the acute crisis on the ground.
“The United States is ready to vote on this resolution right here and right now,” said US diplomat Kelley Currie.
Relentless
The assault from the regime is relentless, and the suffering is overwhelming.
The US State Department later joined in the criticism, saying Russia had a “unique responsibility” for the situation in Eastern Ghouta.
“Without Russia backing Syria, the devastation and the deaths would certainly not be occurring,” spokeswoman Heather Nauert told journalists.
In his address to the UN Security Council, Nebenzia cited concerns over enforcing the ceasefire and questioned the feasibility of quickly launching a major aid operation to reach civilians and lift sieges.
He accused supporters of the ceasefire of seeking to create “a scandal in order to step up pressure on the Syrian government and taint the Russian government”.
The draft resolution would pave the way for the truce to go into effect 72 hours after the adoption of the measure and for aid deliveries and medical evacuations to begin 48 hours after that.
It demands the immediate lifting of all sieges including in Eastern Ghouta, Yarmouk, Foua and Kefraya and orders all sides to “cease depriving civilians of food and medicine indispensable to their survival”.
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Yes the US will keep blaming russia followed by the controlled MSM with the regime is “killing its own people”……bla bla bla.
@noBankAccBertie: Ah. So the regime aren’t killing their “own” people? Innocent Syrians aren’t being bombed into the stone age, as we type, by Assad’s forces?
Is that seriously what you’re claiming?
Damascus was only recently hit with rockets from fake rebels, killing many. Afrin is being blown to bits by the invading Turks yet not a peep out of MSM, war IS hell but this one is as plain as day, completely against the Syrian government. All non legitimate Syrian and Russian forces should get the fk out of Syria,the mask slipped long ago.
@Malachi: Yes ike in iraq, Libya, yemen, afganistan, nk and iran, their respective “regime” are all were and still “killing their own people” …you wud hv to be an pure idiot not to see the pattern by now….
@Eleanor of Aquitaine: correct but the rubbish MSM are packaging up their version of events nice and tidy and selling it to the public that are still brainwashed “they are killing their own people”
@noBankAccBertie: You’re just spectacularly ignorant.
Iraq? Saddam Hussein carried out one of the most gruesome genocides since the Holocaust in the Kurdish region of Iraq in the late 80s, aided and abetted by the CIA and their chemical weapons (I like to include that bit because you mightn’t be in total denial if I implicate the US).
Afghanistan? Yeah, the Taliban have never killed any Afghans. You dolt.
North Korea – I won’t waste my time, absurd. You’re an apologist for dictatorship and fascism.
@Malachi: Of course they are. He is pointing out the hypocrisy. Remember Aleppo and the worldwide MSM outcry about innocent civilians being under siege and killed by the dictator Assad with Russian support. Yet only months later we had the siege of Raqqa by US-led forces and massive bombardment by the US air force. Sources in the city were reporting massive civilian casualties and numerous hospitals destroyed, but where was the MSM outcry ? There wasn’t one, because civilian deaths are fine and not worth dwelling on as long as it’s the ‘good guys’ doing the killing. Both situations were disgusting in terms of the total disregard for the lives of civilians, but in the MSM Aleppo is seen as disgusting, while Raqqa is seen as a victory.
@Tommy Roche: “He is pointing out the hypocrisy.”
Actually, no he isn’t. Read his comment above. He seriously thinks the Syrian government (and other evil regimes from the past and present) weren’t murdering people en masse.
Highlighting media hypocrisy is one thing, there’s a valid point to be made there. Saying that Assad’s SAA *is not killing innocent Syrians en masse* is completely different to that, don’t you think?
@noBankAccBertie: A question out there folks, a friend of mine, during an appointment to view a lease property was given a form to fill in, that same form, among a lot of other requested information, included his pps number. Is this a normal request, or as I am thinking, would this be against the data protection rules. Response please. Thanks.
@noBankAccBertie: Bit confused. Are you saying that the leadership in the countries you mentioned don’t, or didn’t, kill their own people ?
@Patabake Kennedy: Don’t know about the pps request, but did your friend make it back from Syria safely after viewing the property ?
@Malachi: the Taliban and.isis are the creation.of the us government and cia they funded the mugahideen to fight the Russias in afgan who involved into taliban, isis. Boko hareem who now affiliate with isis if the west had left the middle east alone iraq , afgan , syria would not be the problem nor would probably most these terrorist organizations be a threat to us sadam and gadiffi had their countries under control nothing has changed for these people except gadifi no one was unemployed they had free medical care giving money to own a home now they brutally rulled with no help from the west
@Malachi: malachi blind brainwashed twit
@Tommy Roche: I know what you mean Tommy, but I was just asking.
@Malachi:
Ask yourself, is Aleppo better off now, liberated, being rebuilt with refugees returning home, or under the control of various factions and Islamofascists?
@Eleanor of Aquitaine: Your first mistake is assuming life under Assad counts as ‘liberation’.
It couldn’t be further from liberty.
Islamofascists and totalitarians are both scourges of humanity, I don’t believe in bowing to either or making excuses for their disgusting ideologies based on some twisted ‘lesser evil’ philosophy.
UN issued a blank page saying it was too terrible to comment on…At this stage U.N. should be trying with perhaps US and Russian help to organise a surrender on good terms to Assad forces…No point in fighting on….Most of Assads army are Sunni and these are Sunni rebels…….The expert on RTE Drivetime saying they are not Sunni Jahadi and they have elections and democracy in Eastern Ghouta night be exaggerating a bit….This was a Sunni uprising against Assad armed and militarized by Saudi Arabia with US help to bring the Caliphate to Syria…Ask any members of the Christian Druse Alawite or Shia community if they are moderate democratic rebels….Most of the Sunni community in Syria reject them also….
@John003: “This was a Sunni uprising against Assad armed and militarized by Saudi Arabia with US help”
I think you mean with Assad’s help. You do recall it was his forces using tanks and machine guns to murder civilian opposition on the streets of Syria that made protests turn into full-scale war? It was also him that released Jihadis from his prisons in order to pollute the opposition to his regime.
@Malachi: Not saying Assad is a moral leader….There were several Sunni uprising against his dad put down brutally…Any other Arab leader would have done the same….Leader in Bahrain put down Shia uprising brutally a few years ago..Send his soldiers into hospital to kill people in hospital beds…..Not sure the opposition to Assad was so.unpolluted from the start….Even the group photo of John McCain with the Syrian democratic forces in 2012 has a lot of exteme Jahadis in it….Any Christian area the rebels captured Christians were massacred and Churches smashed to pieces for example Aleppo….
@John003: “Not saying Assad is a moral leader”
Yeah, you’re not, but you’re not calling him a murderous despot either, which is what he is. Call a spade a spade.
“Any other Arab leader would have done the same”
Mass murder is always much less serious when it’s ubiquitous. Oh wait, no it isn’t. Do you really think this is a valid point? Come on.
@John003: un support assad forces
Syria has a right to defend itself against attack from foreign backed rebels. Same as we do and every other sovereign nation. The US and EU need to realise they failed and withdraw.
@Kevin Geraghty: isn’t the Assad regime ‘foreign backed’ by the Russians?
By any stretch Assad would be gone if he had not been foreign backed
@Diaspora’d: That is true would have been defeated but Assad is the U.N. recognised government and had a right to ask Iran and Russia for help…..Have to remember also most of Assads army is Sunni and the ethnic minorities especially the Christians feel they would be massacred if the rebels took over….Shia…Druse and Allowite would feel the same way…..Kurds are a special case as they are engaged in a centuries old struggle for a homeland against Turkey Iran Iraq and Syria….Not really fighting Syrian army more fighting Turkey….
@John003: Assad is a despot, his father was never elected, Assad took over from his father without being elected. No sympathy for him.
If Gaddafi was still around…..
@eoin o fainin: There wouldn’t be open slave markets, Islamic terrorist strongholds and a massive people trafficking problem in Libya?
@Griff: Nah, there’d just be more Gaddafi-funded bombings of Western airliners and nightclubs, more slaughter of innocent Libyan civilians and the continued rape of Libya’s resources in order to finance his despicable crime family instead.
Consider me convinced! #BringHimBack
@Malachi: Is there any part of my comment inaccurate?
I thought it would have been obvious that removing a dictator with absolutely no plan for afterwards wasn’t going to end well.
@Griff: Well, if not inaccurate it’s breathtakingly dishonest via omission.
“Hey, here’s all the bad things that are happening now – let’s just ignore all the bad things that aren’t happening anymore because Gaddafi is gone!”
I agree that removing dictators without a plan is disastrous – history tells us this. It’s criminally negligent. However, I don’t think it’s very useful to misrepresent the past and present of Libya like you just did. I simply provided balance.
@eoin o fainin: I agree
Syria is an absolute disaster. Assad’s regime are currently killing children in Ghouta. The extremists who are in control of the area have been recorded as to have being firing rockets from their enclave into Damascus even though they have lost and should keep their heads down. They have got their reply. The innocent citizens are suffering as pawns of war. Both warring sides are guilty. The sooner the enclave falls the better. Relying on Assads tender mercies is their best option. (The worst of worst world’s) Not a good choice, but the only one really. The sooner the pain ends the better. But it being the Middle East there will be consequences. Hopefully not for the blameless civilians once it is over. Islamists who seem to have prolonged the conflict should pay. Not hopefully the people stuck in the nightmare.
@Paul syria.is a mess with un and russia basically fight an indirect modern cold war at the expense of syria only boots on ground will end it and be another afgan 13 yeArs of nothing
@Mark Dawson:
The UN wanted to but boots on the ground way back in 2011/12 before this whole situation exploded. It was blocked by Russia using their veto. This was a totally unnecessary war.
According to the draft UN resolution a ceasefire would not apply to the Islamic State group, al-Qaeda and the al-Nusra Front nor the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham these are the extremists who all control East Ghouta. So how is this ceasefire going to work? If Britain/France/US all agree with Russia that those groups are excluded from the ceasefire then there is no ceasefire so the killing will go on. The population is held hostage by those groups and the Govt side couldn’t give a rats who they bomb as long as they are killing the extremists. Not looking good at all.
@Austin Rock: The exclusion of Al-Qaeda and ISIS from the ceasefire was a demand made by Russia so that they and the SAA could continue their offensive in Idlib. The rebels in Ghouta are included in the ceasefire, including the groups you mentioned, but not those in Idlib – that’s the point of it.
Trump has just announced he is taking Russia to task for the violence against civilians in Syria, he called Vlad Puttyboy and threatened increased sanctions and nuclear war if nothing if things escalate. He also annouced he is releasing his tax returns and diverting extra funding to Mueller investigation. Oh wait that was just in opposite world where he isnt in the pocket of Putin and he isnt morally bankrupt.
Why was there no blanket coverage when the US ‘liberated’ Mosul? More people died from one US bomb than the total killed in the last 3 days in Ghouta. 1000′s of children were killed from days of non-stop bombing of schools and hospitals and the whole city has been decimated. If the US stopped propping terrorist rebels, there wouldn’t be a rebel stronghold. As usual, the US want to get their hands on the gas lines and oil and their propaganda machine is supported by all our newspapers…hipocracy
when will it end ,so they can all go home
Every single player in Syria should hang their heads in shame.
BTW, when is the media going to stop calling them rebels?
Their jihadis who don’t give a shit about civilians.
@Griff: that’s another myth..that everyone opposed to Assad is a Jihadi. No such thing as a legitimate opposition to a dynastic dictatorship, no way that there could be defectors from the Syrian army or disaffected parts of the Syrian population that are sick of Assad family. Its just one monolithic bloc of Jihadis.
@Diaspora’d: Where’s the footage of these rebels? Why aren’t they uploading their brave struggle? The Kurds do it.
@Griff: “The Kurds do it.”
Doesn’t matter. There are plenty of pro-Assad lads in these comments who turned on the Kurds calling them “terrorists” too (yes, the guys fighting ISIS tooth and nail), when that was the drivel coming from Assad not so long ago.
It doesn’t matter if the opposition are *actually* terrorists, that’s the totally valid point Diaspora’d is making. They’re simply viewing all opposition to Assad as deranged jihadists, doesn’t matter if they’re Kurds or head-hackers.
@Griff: I am not sure if you read the article above, the Russians have been negotiating with Syrian rebel forces to broker a ceasefire, there have already been summits like the one in Astana where cease fires were established and they involved opposition forces that excluded the likes of Al-Nusra, ISIL and others.
So the Russians are brokering ceasefires with different factions not a monolithic group of jihadis.
@Diaspora’d: For the first few years of the rebellion that was true…However in last few years very hard to see moderate rebels or Syrian democratic forces….The Saudi influence with weapons and training and the sheer brutality of the war on both sides with 400000 dead has left very little space for moderate rebels….
@John003: Assad with the help of Russia carrying out indiscriminate bombing of Syrian civilians. Russia delaying a ceasefire so they can pulverize Eastern Ghouta further before a UN ceasefire, shameful.
Rebels are Al Qaeda, Al Nusra and Isis with Al Qaeda’s White Helmets doing their film productions but only with children in them?
How horrific for the poor civilians….what a nightmare :(
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