Stephen Lendman

Farcical peace talks accomplished nothing so far, chances for conflict resolution virtually nil.

On Sunday, Assad urged Arab and Islamic world unity in fighting terrorism. Syrians are combatting this scourge on behalf of all its people, confident of eventual victory, he stressed.

Longterm struggle continues. Syrian UN envoy/chief peace talks negotiator Bashar al-Jaafari resisted pressure by Steffan de Mistura, proximity talks go-between, serving Western, not Syrian interests.

Al-Jaafari blasted Security Council members and other rogue states supporting terrorism.

When it’s “active in Syria against Syrians, they call it moderate opposition,” he said. No such elements exist. “(T)hey are all terrorist groups,” the scourge government forces aim to eliminate, grateful for continued Russian help.

According to al-Jaafari, his delegation received no response or concrete proposal for a “political solution to the crisis.”

US/Saudi backed terrorist groups representing the opposition want regime change, Syrian sovereignty destroyed, the rights and welfare of its people ignored - why talks are going nowhere.

Syria’s delegation has “a moral and political obligation” to end bloodshed, al-Jaafari explained. “But we cannot do it alone. There are countries involved in supporting terrorism.”

It’s well-known what’s “happening on the Syrian-Turkish border and in Golan, and the way Israel is tending to the injured Jabhat al-Nusra terrorists and treating them in its hospitals, with Qatar paying the bill.”

Endless war continues. Washington rejected Russia’s call for an emergency meeting on continued ceasefire violations. Putin’s patience has limits.

According to Russian General Staff’s main operations head Sergey Rudskoy, Moscow will use military force against ceasefire violators beginning March 22 - once “proof of systematic violations of obligations” is verified.

A Russian Foreign Ministry statement said Moscow doesn’t rule out “resort(ing) to the unilateral termination of actions of the gunmen who fail to honor the ceasefire.”

Washington rejects establishing a “joint mechanism” for exchanging information on violations, punishing violators appropriately.

“(A) wrong signal is sent to the opposition members who did not join the ceasefire (nor) dissociate themselves from well-known terrorist groups properly,” Russia’s Foreign Ministry said.

Civilians are dying daily. “Foot-dragging” on establishing rules for responding to ceasefire violations is “unacceptable,” Rudskoy stressed.

Russia will act on it own if US obstructionism continues. Both countries have opposite objectives. Putin wants diplomatic conflict resolution. Obama intends endless war.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks World War III".

http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.

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