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Russia Again Insists: No Regime Change in Syria as Government Takes Control of Damascus Suburb
14 January 2013
Syrian government officials announced Jan. 12th that a months-long battle to drive out rebel forces led by the Jihadist group Jubhat al Nusra from the suburb of Daraya just south of the capital has been successful, and that the area, which is adjacent to a military base and on the road to the airport is again under the countrol of the Assad government. According to Associated Press, Al Nusra, the Syrian Al Qaeda branch, has been "holed up" in Daraya for weeks preparing for an assault on Damascus, but now these forces have fled. This occurred on the same day that it was revealed that the rebel taking of a northern Syria airbase, Taftanaz had been done by the same Al Nusra (Al Qaeda) group. On Jan. 11, State Dept. spokesman Victoria Nuland had praised the reports of a rebel victory in Taftanaz—never mentioning that the group on her State Dept. terrorist list was involved. But as the rebels are being defeated in certain areas, the moneybags for the neo-Salafi and Muslim Brotherhood killers, Qatar, called for military intervention by outside forces to topple President Bashar Al Assad. Qatar’s intervention is a direct attack on the Geneva Accords discussed by Russia, the U.S. and UN Envoy Lakhar Brahimi in Geneva on Jan. 11. "Arabs must think seriously about sending forces to ensure security in Syria if diplomatic efforts fail to resolve the crisis," Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani told Al Jazeera. "It is not a question of intervention in Syria in favor of one party against the other, but rather a force to preserve security," said Sheikh Hamad, who also heads an Arab League committee on Syria, but leads the faction that is working to remove Assad. Qatar’s move came after the Russian Foreign Ministry issued its statement again insisting that the political solution for Syria does not include removing Assad. A statement on the Russian foreign ministry website on Jan. 12 stated, "As before, we firmly uphold the thesis that questions about Syria’s future must be decided by the Syrians themselves, without interference from outside or the imposition of prepared recipes for development." It was the first official Russian statement since Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov left Geneva after meeting for five hours on Jan. 11 with Brahimi and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns. |