Link to video: Hague: Assad's UK accusations are 'delusional'
Britain's foreign secretary,
William Hague, labelled President
Bashar al-Assad
"delusional" on Sunday after the Syrian leader attacked the British
government for its "shallow and immature rhetoric", which he said
highlighted a "tradition of bullying and hegemony".
In an
interview with the Sunday Times, many of Assad's remarks were aimed at
the British government, which has taken the lead in Europe in pushing
for the easing of the ban on arming the rebels. Assad accused the UK of
resuming a "bullying" colonial role.
Hague responded by telling
the BBC's Andrew Marr Show: "This will go down as one of the most
delusional interviews that any national leader has given in modern
times."
In the interview, Assad qualified the offer of peace talks
made last week in Moscow by his foreign minister, Walid Muallem, saying
it was restricted to those opponents who laid down their weapons. He
described all rebel forces in
Syria as al-Qaida terrorists.
"We
are ready to negotiate with anyone, including militants who surrender
their arms. We are not going to deal with terrorists who are determined
to carry weapons, to terrorise people, to kill civilians, to attack
public places or private enterprise and to destroy the country," Assad
said. "Opposition groups should be loyal and patriotic to Syria.
"The
British government wants to send military aid to moderate groups in
Syria, knowing all too well that such moderate groups do not exist in
Syria; we all know that we are now fighting al-Qaida or Jabhat al-Nusra,
which is an offshoot of al-Qaida, and other groups of people
indoctrinated with extreme ideologies. This is beyond hypocritical,"
Assad said.
Link to video: Assad: UK is 'famously unconstructive' towards Syria
Following warnings from Hague last week that he would not rule out
supplying arms to the opposition, Assad attacked the British government
for its "shallow and immature rhetoric", which he said highlighted a
"tradition of bullying and hegemony".
The idea of the UK helping broker a peace deal was like expecting "an arsonist to be a firefighter".
"I
am being frank," the president said. "How can we expect to ask Britain
to play a role while it is determined to militarise the problem? How can
you ask them to play a role in making the situation better and more
stable, how can we expect them to make the violence less while they want
to send military supplies to the terrorists and don't try to ease the
dialogue between the Syrians."
The interview followed a few weeks
during which hopes rose that peace negotiations might be possible. The
National Coalition leader, Moaz al-Khatib, said the rebels would be
ready to enter talks without their earlier insistence that Assad step
down first. But he said that more than 160,000 political prisoners
should be released as a precondition.
Opposition leaders have
since become more confident that the western embargo on arms deliveries
to their forces is about to collapse, pushing the balance in a
deadlocked conflict in their favour. In his remarks on Sunday, Hague
repeated his belief the weapons ban was not sustainable if the bloodshed
continued.
"I don't rule out anything for the future. If this is
going to go on for months, or years, and more tens of thousands of
people are going to die, and countries like Iraq and Lebanon and Jordan
are going to be destabilised, it is not something we can ignore," the
foreign secretary said.
"If ever we get into that situation [of
supplying weapons to the opposition] the risks of arms falling into the
wrong hands is one of the great constraints. And it is one of the
reasons we don't do it now. But these things are a balance of risk. You
can reach consensus eventually when humanitarian need is so great and
the loss of life is so great that you have to do something new to save
lives. That's why I don't rule it out in the future.
end quote from:
I think we are getting into really strange territory psychologically with all this that reminds me a lot of World War II. There is a middle eastern saying, "The enemy of my enemy is my friend".
There is another saying, "War makes strange bedfellows" which is also true in this case. Obama and England say, "Assad must go at any cost" for a variety of reasons. But, when you look closer at what is really happening in Syria it is Russian and Iranian weapons killing Sunni Muslims both civilian and the Free Syrian Army all over Syria. And this includes Hezbollah which is an Iranian funded Terrorist Group that is also killing Sunni Muslims all across Syria too. Hezbollah is based in Syria, Lebanon and Iran.
Then on the other side you have Sunni Muslims being slaughtered and tortured by the Syrian government with advanced rockets, cluster bombs, helicopters, jets from Iran and Russia every day. So, because Al Qaeda is Sunni Muslim and an enemy of Hezbollah and also an enemy of Iran, Russia and Assad, Al Qaeda fighters are flowing into Syria from throughout the middle east and as far away as Afghanistan and Indonesia and any other Sunni Muslim place on earth.
So now, you have 25 percent of the Free Syria Army being associated with Al Qaeda which is why western Nations have been reluctant to arm anyone associated in any way with Al Qaeda. But, here the problem gets kind of crazy. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend". So, in the short run at least it could be said that Al Qaeda "Temporarily at best" is fighting on the side of Great Britain, Europe and the U.S. by killing Assad Government troops. You must admit this is pretty Crazy!
It is also crazy because once Assad goes likely there will be No government at all in Syria unless United Nations Troops enforce it. If Al Qaeda is there in force funded indirectly by Saudi Arabia, Jordan and other Sunni nations (not because they support Al Qaeda but because Al Qaeda being Sunni is saving Sunni lives from death and torture) and because Al Qaeda fighters will fight to the death to elminate Iran and all Shia Muslims for that matter. So, in the short run Sunni nations will support Al Qaeda to protect other Sunnis. But after Assad is gone (one way or the other) they will have to turn on Al Qaeda before Al Qaeda brings down Jordan's and Saudi Arabia's government too. Turkey is leery about al Qaeda too. Turkey is another Sunni Muslim nation.
So, the real question is:"What kind of long term unresolvable mess will Syria be when Assad is gone or dead?" This likely should be what nations around the world should be worrying about most. Because of the way things are now: Syria without any solid government is coming without a doubt sooner or later. And in this kind of environment Al Qaeda does the best. So watch out world! The future doesn't look very pretty in Syria for anyone. So, likely there will be millions more Syrian refugees and deaths in the coming years the way it presently is playing out.
So, it isn't now that will likely be the worst for Syria and the middle east. It will be the next 10 or 15 years after Assad is gone. This is what the world should actually be thinking about on all sides now.
However, what is coming on a larger level is likely a war between Israel and Iran. Neither of them can win this war and both could be permanently gone through nukes because of it. And what a mess that might be too not just for those nations but for the whole world. But, this appears to be coming some day soon(days, weeks, months or years). It appears now inevitable.
If all shia nations are defeated in this that doesn't really solve the long term problems either for the world, it only creates different problems than we have now and many more vendettas to go around. The world doesn't need millions of new vendettas from children now haunting us into the future when they grow up, if they grow up.
So, all sides need to contemplate: "What kind of long term mess is being created for the entire middle east (and world) through all our actions on all sides in this new proxy Cold war in Syria?"
Right now if you look at satellite photos of Syrian cities they look like B-17s in World war II have bombed them over and over again until there is nothing left alive on the ground. Syria is destroyed and likely will remain so for at least 10 or 15 years even after this war is over.
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