Syria Crisis: Is Religion Behind the International Apathy?

Houla Massacre in Syria: Children Gassed to Death

BY DR. ABDUL RUFF 

As they used to play this during the so-called Cold War, former super powers, Russia and USA continue their competitive efforts to enhance their global influence by fueling the crises in regions- now in Syria where an adamant president Assad refuses to step down or announce polls for a new president. As part of the so-called Arab Spring, Syria is also being destabilized by the west backed   rebel demonstrators being used against the president.

All efforts by USA and its NATO members have failed to invade Syria owing to consistent opposition from Russia and China using their veto, but the situation in Syria has become too complicated as Sunni Arabs still pursue the ouster or murder of Assad.

Explosions continue to rock Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan - all still occupied by foreign forces led by the Pentagon. Syria suffers  too because of western  mischief against lslam.

USA and Russia seem to have agreed on the need to convene a long-delayed Syrian peace conference in Geneva as soon as possible, but they, as usual, offered no concrete plan to bring the warring government and rebels to the table.

Moscow and Washington have been trying since May to organize an international peace conference to bring an end to the violence in Syria that has killed some 100,000 people in two years. But hopes that it can take place soon are fading quickly.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said much of his meeting with his US counterpart John Kerry was devoted to Syria and both men agreed they needed to convene a so-called Geneva 2 conference "as soon as possible. He told reporters after five hours of political and security meetings in Washington that officials from the two countries will meet again by the end of the month to prepare for the Syria talks.  "John Kerry assured me that the opposition would be persuaded to come to Geneva without any preconditions on the basis of reaching agreement with the government," said Lavrov.

Russia claims to have already won the agreement of its ally the Syrian government to send a delegation to Geneva without any preconditions.

Kerry opened Friday's meeting saying that while Washington and Moscow differ on aspects of the Syria crisis, "both of us and our countries agree that to avoid institutional collapse and descent into chaos, the ultimate answer is a negotiated political solution." Lavrov in his opening remarks said they agreed to do everything they could to meet the goal they had set to unify the Syrian government and opposition - and "force terrorists out of Syria."

A U.S. official said Washington was working closely with the Syrian opposition but the onus was on Damascus."The test is not whether the Syrian government will come to Geneva …the test is whether the Syrian government will come to Geneva prepared to negotiate the transition of full executive powers to a transitional governing body."

Kerry and Lavrov originally announced that they would try to hold the conference, which is intended to bring rebels and representatives of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government to the negotiating table, by the end of May. But the date keeps slipping partly because the rebels are split and cannot decide who should represent them. First the talks were bumped to June, then July.

The point of the conference was to revive a plan adopted last year in Geneva. At that time, Washington and Moscow agreed on the need for a transitional Syrian government, but left open the question of whether Assad could participate in the process.

Modalities needed for talk have become the stumbling block. The USA, like the Syrian rebels, says Assad and his family should play no role in a transitional government, though Russia says there should be no conditions on the talks.

Besides, both Lavrov and Kerry acknowledged their sharp differences over former U.S. spy contractor Edward Snowden and other issues going into the so-called "2+2" talks, the first such top-level meeting since 2008. The Snowden affair and the cancellation of the summit have taken U.S.-Russian relations to one of their lowest points since the Cold War and Obama will have done little to ease the mood by saying that the Russian president can sometimes appear "like a bored kid in the back of the classroom."

Notes

West is the problem for Mideast. They want to kill all strong leaders in Arab world one by one and create puppets to advance US interests. They are inciting violence in Syria by misusing the rebels.  They neither kill or remove Assad nor let him rule so that Syria returns to normalcy.

In fact the enemies of Islam do not wish any peace in Islamic world.

The Lavrov-Kerry talks took place despite US President Barack Obama's decision to cancel a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin following Moscow's decision to grant temporary asylum to Snowden.

The big problem is the US being tardy to the party. After two years of civil war the Radical Islamic groups have entrenched themselves in the resistance so far that none  has any clue at this point as to who would be an ally to the US and who would not. Some comments made by Americans wanting Pentagon to take over the world by military force and control world resources by force with agents recruited from across the globe: Please politicians, over one billion dollars has been sent to the Syrian Rebels. That is money earned by the American workers and sent to Syria. Do you Politicians have no shame?

Just like in Egypt where the Muslim Brotherhood that won the polls to cease power has been illegally ousted by the military while the US now stood idly by and watched a second civil war in Egypt in as many years. The USA needs to stop leading from behind by shielding the rebels!

Battlefield gains by Assad have added to questions about when and even whether the talk  will take place. The humanitarian group Oxfam America said it was "cautiously optimistic" about Lavrov's statements, but that it had heard talk of peace talks before. "We have seen similar promises come and go without any noticeable action," no firm date or plans are in place." "Calls for peace must be supported by action and commitment. Otherwise, talk is cheap". U.N.-Arab League peace mediator Lakhdar Brahimi, who held talks with senior U.S. and Russian officials in Geneva, ruled out a peace conference before August.

Many Americans want Obama to take the foreign aid back giving to Egypt and use it to help the poor Americans and repair US infrastructure. Anyone who disagrees with that is no American.