*The FSA, LCC's and the Left in Syria have not weigh in as of this morning but if the most conservative groups of the opposition are nixing it, expect the same from them.* * * *This is for all those Stalinists and the anti anti imperialists and their wacko **conspiracy* theories.
*Opposition Leadership Skeptical of Negotiations.* The United States and Russia are working together to bring the Assad regime and the opposition to the negotiating table. In a whirlwind tour, Iran's Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi met with Egyptian and Jordanian officials, both of whom agreed that it's time to negotiate. Russia and Iran may or may not be genuine. The US and its allies may or may not be genuine. But that entire conversation is moot if either the regime nor the opposition doesn't come to the table. The opposition is already weighing in. Yesterday's announcements were widely condemned by large and vocal segments of the Syrian diaspora, but perhaps more importantly we are now hearing from many high-profile leaders who are skeptical of any talks. *The Guardian* reports <http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middle-east-live/2013/may/08/syria-crisis-internet-cut-live#block-518a32d4e4b001b5e4656097>that National Coalition members Samir NAshar, Ahmed Ramadan, the Supreme Military Council's Colonel Qassim Saadedine, as well as former National Coalition leader Moaz al Khatib<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middle-east-live/2013/may/08/syria-crisis-internet-cut-live#block-518a2cd9e4b001b5e465608e>, have all expressed doubts that any negotiation with Assad is possible at all. If the political leaders of the opposition won't negotiate, the plan is dead in the water, and John Kerry may just be wasting more time. In Syria, time equals lives. If the insurgent leaders won't negotiate, it doesn't matter what the political leaders do. If only some of the insurgents negotiate, while others do not, any political solution will just open the door for the next phase of Syria's internal war. The question then become whether any of the other options are less risky. James Miller takes over today's live coverage. Thanks to Scott Lucas for getting us started today. 1000 GMT:* Regime Re-Opens Lebanon Border to Trucks* Authorities have allowed Lebanese transit trucks to cross into Syria<http://m.dailystar.com.lb/Business/Lebanon/2013/May-08/216321-syria-opens-border-to-lebanese-transit-trucks.ashx> after 47 days. The trucks were denied entry in retaliation for attacks on gasoil shipments. The Syrian measure was taken suddenly despite high-level political communications to re-open the road having started a while ago, said Mohammad Saleh, an owner of a clearance office. Therefore we cannot be sure that the road will be open permanently. 0720 GMT: *Regime Forces Advance in South* The Syrian military captured the town <http://m.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2013/May-08/216289-assads-forces-capture-strategic-town-in-southern-syria.ashx>of Khirbet Ghazaleh in Daraa Province in southern Syria today after a two-month bombardment, opposition sources said. The sources said the town, on the highway to Jordan, fell after a Jordanian-backed opposition military council failed to supply weapons to Khirbet Ghazaleh's defenders. Insurgents, operating under the umbrella of the Free Syrian Army, cut off the highway to Jordan two months ago; holding Khirbet Ghazaleh, at a crossroads leading west to the city of Daraa, has been central to that effort. 0445 GMT: *Casualties* The Local Coordination Committees claim confirmation of the deaths of 128 people on Tuesday, including 46 in Daraa Province and 35 in Damascus and its suburbs. The Violations Documentation Center <https://www.vdc-sy.info/index.php/en/> puts the confirmed death toll at 59,780 since the conflict begin in March 2011, an increase of 92 from Tuesday. Of those killed, 46,885 were civilians, a rise of 41 from yesterday. 0405 GMT: *The US-Russia Initiative* Analysis at EA of the latest development varies --- James Miller sees the US-Russian declaration as the logical outcome of an American move for a political settlement: ** *While Washington did approve the moving of Croatian weapons to the rebels, those shipments have never been in quantities large enough to end the crisis, and they appear to have stalled in recent months. Washington's goal has always been to push the regime to the negotiating table. Washington may have finally convinced Russia...that the stalemate has been accomplished, and a negotiated settlement is the only solution.* I am not so sure. The trip to Moscow could be a set-up for escalated support of the insurgency and opposition --- even if the US and allies like Britain are still unclear what form that support should take. If the Syrian regime rejects or even stalls on the initiative for political talks, then Washington can say to Moscow that President Assad has had his last chance to exit gracefully. 0350 GMT: *US and Russia Put Out Call for Talks* At the end of late-night discussions, US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov have called for new talks<http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2013/05/20135716287710849.html> for a political resolution. "We agreed that Russia and the United States will encourage both the Syria government and opposition groups to find a political solution," Lavrov told reporters. Kerry met first for more than two hours with President Vladimir Putin and then for a further three with Lavrov. Kerry and Lavrov suggested an international conference by the end of May, followup an agreement last June in Geneva for a political accommodation. "We believe that the Geneva communique is the important track to end the bloodshed in Syria," Kerry said. Last June's initiative stalled when an attempt at a temporary ceasefire, opening the way for talks, failed. Beyond the general call, however, there was little detail, for example, the position of Syrian President Assad. The US has insisted that he must stand down in a transition, while Moscow has opposed the pre-condition. Instead, Putin announced that he will hold separate one-on-one talks with US President Obama at the G8 Summit on 16-17 June. http://www.enduringamerica.com/home/2013/5/8/syria-today-us-and-russia-propose-new-political-talks.html ------------------------------------------ http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2013/05/john-kerry-us-agrees-with-russia-on.html Tuesday, May 7, 2013 John Kerry: US agrees with Russia on Syria, Assad stays <http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/?url=http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2013/05/john-kerry-us-agrees-with-russia-on.html> <http://pinterest.com/pin/create/button/> United Stated Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recently concluded a press conference in Moscow which followed their meetings. On Syria, Kerry wanted to emphasize that the United States and Russia were on the same page and intended to force all parties to the negotiating table to come up with a political settlement to the attempt by the Syrian people to overthrow the Assad regime. This settlement would be based on the UN six point plan that these parties have been promoting for more than a year now. There is nothing in that plan that says Assad has to go, which is why it has been a non-starter for two years now. There is nothing new here. See my blog<http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2012/06/breaking-clinton-lavrov-to-debate-syria_960.html> when Clinton met Lavrov about Syria, 28 June 2012 when they are about to formally adopt the Geneva Communiqué. The main difference between then and now is the US expressed attitude towards Assad. As the Telegraph put it<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/9365167/Clinton-and-Lavrov-set-for-showdown-over-Syria-transition-plan.html> at that time: U.S. officials are adamant that the plan will not allow Syrian President Bashar Assad to remain in power at the top of the transitional government, but Russia insists that outsiders cannot dictate the ultimate solution or the composition of the interim administration. The US attitude is a little difference now and they agree with the Russians that Assad, or at least his regime, are a keeper. It would seem that only the Syrian people and their real friends, want to see the iron yoke of the Assad regime off their necks completely. The Voice of Russia is reporting<http://english.ruvr.ru/2013_05_08/The-Geneva-Communiqu-is-a-way-to-end-the-Syrian-crisis-John-Kerry/> : The Geneva Communiqué is a way to end the Syrian crisis - John KerryThe Geneva Communiqué is an important basis for ending the Syrian crisis said US Secretary of State John Kerry adding that the United States notes the importance of the Geneva communique in resolving the situation in Syria. *"The approaches of the U.S. and Russia on a political settlement of the conflict in Syria have never really been that disparate but were delayed from converging as was, for various reasons, the practical implementation of the measures in the Geneva agreement,* reports Voice of Russia correspondent Pauline Chernitsa. The Geneva Communiqué is an important document that should lead to a peaceful settlement of the situation in Syria, and not remain a simple statement on paper, therefore at an international conference scheduled for late May, it is important to invite representatives of the opposition and the Syrian government, said the U.S. Secretary of State after talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. *"We believe that the Geneva Communiqué is really an important way to put an end to the bloodshed in Syria. This should not be a piece of paper, or empty diplomacy, but it should pave the way for a new Syria, where there are no longer massacres,"* he said. Kerry confirmed that probably at the end of May, the Russian Federation and the United States will try to organize an international conference as a follow up to the meeting of the Action Group on Syria, which was held in June 2012 in Geneva. *"Our goal will be to invite the opposition and the Syrian government to conference and to implement the goals that have been specified in the Geneva Communique,"* said the U.S. Secretary of State. The Geneva Communique of 30 June 2012<http://www.un.org/News/dh/infocus/Syria/FinalCommuniqueActionGroupforSyria.pdf> is essentially Kofi Annan's Six Point plan<http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2012/08/breaking-kofi-annan-resigns-as-envoy-to_754.html>. This was the plan he was trying to implement more than 2 years ago. After his plan was formally adopted as the Geneva Communique and upon Kofi Annan's resignation as envoy on 31 August 2013 UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said<http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2012/08/breaking-kofi-annan-resigns-as-envoy-to_754.html> : *"Tragically, the spiral of violence in Syria is continuing. The hand extended to turn away from violence in favour of dialogue and diplomacy - as spelled out in (Annan's) Six-Point Plan - has not been not taken, even though it still remains the best hope for the people of Syria."* Russia has always maintained that the Geneva Communique was the only road to peace in Syria but we haven't heard much about it lately from the Obama camp. Now it seems that they have come back around to pushing it again as the roadmap to peace in Syria. There is one major problem with the Geneva Communique and that was outlined by<http://www.acus.org/viewpoint/syria-and-geneva-no-precondition-certain-result> Grederic C. Hof on 25 April 2013 at the Atlantic Council: Questions posed by reporters to government officials about the Geneva agreement sometimes receive garbled answers. Although the agreement itself is not entirely free of subtlety and even ambiguity, there is no basis for fudging the answer to one key question: does it require that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad resign and depart at any procedural stage? The answer is no, it does not. The Syrian opposition recognized within minutes of the signing that there was no Assad-related requirement for preemptive resignation, departure, harakiri, or surrender. Its reaction to the Geneva agreement was therefore negative: surely the great powers should deliver the head of the dictator on a silver platter before anyone deigns to negotiate over the future of Syria. No the great powers, the US, UK and France included, intend salvage whatever it can of the Assad regime and force the Syria people to accept a role for this bunch of child killers in Syria's future. In Barack Obama's Courtship of Bashar al-Assad<http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2012/09/barack-obama-courtship-of-bashar-al_4519.html>, 14 September 2012, I said: So the Obama administration would like to see Assad "step down" but it also wants to keep in place the Assad killing machine that has so far taken more than 20,000 Syrian lives and has been condemned for massive human rights violations by the United Nations, Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch. So we might say that Obama is demanding that the Syrian people marry their rapist. More than 50,000 Syrians have been slaughtered since then and they are still pushing the same line on the Syrian people - give up your goal of overthrowing the Assad regime, maybe he will reform. So expect Russia to continue to play the bad cop, making sure Bashar never runs out of ammo, while the United States continues to play the good cop, making sure the rebels don't get the weapons they need. The Syrian people are going to have to fight both imperialist camps if they want to have a future free of the fascist Assad regime. Here are some of my blogs that discuss Barack Obama's support for the Assad Regime: Obama "green lights" Assad's slaughter in Syria<http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2012/08/updated-obama-lights-assad-slaughter-in_4655.html> Barack Obama's Courtship of Bashar al-Assad<http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2012/09/barack-obama-courtship-of-bashar-al_4519.html> Syria: Obama's moves Assad's "red line" back as SOHR reports 42,000 dead!<http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2012/12/syria-obama-moves-assad-line-back-as_1581.html> SecState[?] John Kerry and his "dear friend" Bashar al-Assad<http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2012/12/secstate-john-kerry-and-his-friend_6865.html> Chemical weapons use reported in Syria, Has Obama's red-line has been crossed? <http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2012/12/breaking-chemical-weapons-use-reported_2829.html> How the US help put Assad in power in Syria<http://claysbeach.blogspot.com/2013/05/h/2013/01/how-us-help-put-assad-in-power-in-syria_6502.html> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:laamn-unsubscr...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:laamn-subscr...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:laamn-dig...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:laamn-ow...@egroups.com?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:la...@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/laamn@egroups.com> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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