Lang: "The jihadis came to Syria to die for their faith. They should be assisted in that ambition!"

"... Zbig  was finally allowed to say a few words.  He stressed the need to settle the issues between Russia and the US on some viable basis and started to suggest what sounded like an appeal to modify the "regime change" theme so pervasive among the R2P/neocon crowd (including Obama).  Todd then cut him off.
US policy should change.  US policy should become a process of reconciling the existing government with what is left of the Syrian National Council and the Free Syria Army.  This should include amnesty for "ralliers' to the government, a cease fire against the nationalist secularist rebels, and a complete opening up of the country to international relief efforts wherever the jihadis do not rule and control. Once that is accomplished the re-united Syrian patriot forces should collaborate in exterminating the jihadis.  The jihadis came to Syria to die for their faith.  They should be assisted in that ambition.
Saudi Arabia?  Israel?  Ignore them. 

The US needs to engage — not isolate — Russia and Iran & Drop 'regime change' in Syria!

"... The breakdown in Geneva should not be a return to military options and regime change, and a possible slippery slope to US military intervention. There is more life in the diplomatic option in Syria, including with Russia, Iran and the regional countries on the front lines of Syria-based terrorism. The United States needs to engage — not isolate — Russia and Iran as well as its regional allies, to address the terrorist threat that is now a matter of “homeland security.”..."

The Judicial 'Farce'!

"... In an afflicted country in which much of the population subsists on twelve hours of electricity a day, more useful projects could no doubt be undertaken than an expensive and politically motivated judicial farce with a predetermined end."

WSJ: Saudi weapons & US cash for a new round

"... The weapons will flow across the border into southern Syria from the warehouses in Jordan and across the northern border from Turkey, the Western diplomat said. Rebel leaders said the shipments to southern Syria are expected to be more substantial because opposition fighters are more unified in that area and there is a lower risk the weapons will fall into the hands of al Qaeda-inspired groups—a big concern for the U.S.With the rebels still deeply divided and infighting growing, the new aid is aimed squarely at the more moderate and secular rebels of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) that the U.S. has always favored...Western and Arab support for the new groups won’t go to the Islamic Front, an alliance of conservative, religious rebel factions that is helping the northern front rebels fight the more radical ISIS.The Southern Front is under the leadership of Bashar al-Zoubi, who has a direct line to Western and Arab intelligence agencies in a military operations room in Amman, rebels say..., ... But any push toward the capital from the south faces formidable challenges. An arc south of the capital is the domain of the army’s Fourth Division, elite troops led by Maher al-Assad, the president’s brother. Closer to the capital, Syrian forces are fortified by elements of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia from Lebanon.The regime has been ruthless in snuffing out any hint of escalation by rebels in the south....At the meeting between leaders of the Southern Front and Western and Arab intelligence agencies last month, rebel leaders said they were given salaries for their fighters and equipment such as military rations and tents.Rebels said the U.S. spent $3 million on salaries of fighters in the Southern Front, delivering the payments in cash over two meetings in Jordan—one on Jan. 30 and the other late last year.The opposition will also ask Congress next week for weapons to help rebels fight al Qaeda.... But Congress remains sharply divided about the conflict in Syria. Some lawmakers favor stepped-up support to moderate opposition groups, but others question the wisdom of providing heavy weapons..."

Israel's Growing Role in Southern Syria

"... There are also many reports -- repeatedly dismissed by Jordanian authorities -- of a clandestine "operations room" in Amman where Jordanian military and intelligence officers coordinate military assistance to local rebel groups alongside Saudi and Western advisors. If such reports are correct, the Israeli part of the effort should be viewed as complementing but not necessarily coordinated with the Jordanian endeavor..."

Saudi-ISI' sponsorship: 'Iran-Pakistan Border Incidents Continue'

Iran-Pakistan Border Incidents Continue

"... It is interesting that descriptions of Jeish Al-Adl now describe them as being funded by Saudi Arabia and assisted by Pakistan’s ISI. There also now are references to them having al Qaeda connections. The Saudi connection usually is described as coming from Bandar’s growing unease over improving US-Iranian relations...."

"Cautious optimism"

"... Turning to Iran, the Administration has achieved a modest victory is persuading the Democratic sponsors of tougher sanctions to delay their bill to allow the diplomatic negotiations – which resume on February 18^th – to proceed.  State Department officials concede that they are operating against a very skeptical climate in Congress and that, if Tehran adopts what are perceived to be delaying tactics, the sanctions proposals would be re-introduced at very short notice. Within the State Department negotiating team, cautious optimism that a deal is reachable remains the consensus sentiment – in contrast to most analytic and political opinion which is much more pessimistic. The open question, which receives little attention, is what happens if negotiations fail. From conversations we have held in official circles, our sense is that a policy of containment is just as likely as one of military coercion. ..."

Human Rights Watch & Amnesty International: MIA on Syria!

"... As expected, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are silent about the massacre in Maan because the victims are Alawites ..."

Israeli NS Adviser: "The Russians are providing missiles to one of the most dangerous enemies of the State of Israel"

"... “I think it’s important that in this dialogue with the Russians, we are telling them the truth: They are providing one of the most dangerous enemies of the State of Israel, namely Hezbollah, with capabilities that might endanger Israel’s ability to defend itself, and we will not let it happen,” he added..."

Iran, 'Open for Business'?

"... Oil minister Bijan Zanghaneh met energy executives including those from Chevron and Shell. He plans to hold a conference in London this year where some of those attending will be the same executives who were being warned about the pitfalls of Iranian investment by Mr Harrell last week. London, meanwhile, is also going to be the venue for a test case on the whole issue of the legality of sanctions on enterprises.In Iran, businessmen say the Russians and the Chinese are vying to offer barter deals for oil before European companies arrive with the technology the Iranians want. American companies, meanwhile, are complaining they may lose out because of the US administration’s punitive stance. The Homa Hotel in Tehran, which aims for a corporate clientele, reported a rise in European guests by 30 per cent from last year. Trade delegations had gone to Iran from China, India, Turkey, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Italy, Austria, Sweden and even Ireland. “We are quite encouraged by the interest, we hope it will continue to rise,” stated Mehrdad Jalalipour, director of Iran’s Trade Promotions Organisation.But the prize, high-profile visitor has been Recip Tayyip Erdogan. After a gap of two years during which relations plummeted over Tehran’s support for the Assad regime in Syria’s civil war while Ankara was backing the rebels, the Turkish prime minister has been to Iran again, declaring that it was his “second home”. Rouhani will reciprocate by going to Ankara..."

Turkey & Erdogan on the brink

"... Erdogan was always a loose cannon. Now he has become unmoored. Paranoia is endemic in Turkish politics because so much of it is founded on conspiracy. The expression "paranoid Turk" is a pleonasm. Islamist followers of the self-styled prophet Fetullah Gulen infiltrated the security services and helped Erdogan jail some of the country's top military commanders on dubious allegations of a coup plot. Last August a Turkish court sentenced some 275 alleged members of the "Ergenekon" coup plot, including dozens of military officers, journalists, and secular leaders of civil society. Now Gulen has broken with Erdogan and his security apparatus has uncovered massive documentation of corruption in the Erdogan administration. Erdogan is firing police and security officials as fast as they arrest his cronies. There is a world difference, though, between a prosperous paranoid and an impecunious one. Turkey cannot fund its enormous current borrowing needs without offering interest rates so high that they will pop the construction-and-consumer bubble that masqueraded for a Turkish economic miracle during the past few years. 
The conspiracy of international bankers, Opus Dei and Illuminati that rages in Erdogan's Anatolian imagination has triumphed, and the aggrieved prime minister will not go quietly. As Erdogan abhors old allies who in his imagined betrayed him and seeks new ones, the situation will get worse..."

Neoarabs: "Israel is our only hope against the enemy. We will condemn them, but we pray for them.”

"...  " Hoenlein, who maintains close contacts with some Arab leaders, often cites them anonymously as corroborating witnesses. When I ask him about Israel’s newfound alliances with Saudi Arabia and the Gulf countries, he speaks of “the diminution of America’s role that you hear about in all the different countries: What we did in Egypt and in Morocco and in other places hurt the evaluation of where America stands. I heard from their leaders myself: Israel is our only hope against the enemy. We will condemn them, but we pray for them.”"

Daily menu: 'Al Jazeera, in hot waters'

Lies and deception have this tendency to bite in the ----!

"... CAIRO — Egyptian authorities on Wednesday charged 20 journalists who work for the Al Jazeera satellite news channel, including five who hold foreign citizenship, with being agents of the Muslim Brotherhood and accused them of plotting to defame Egypt and of running a terrorist cell out of a luxurious Cairo hotel..."

Al-Qaeda disowns ISIL & renames JAN as 'sole & exclusive representative'

 "... Al-Qaeda's general command has disavowed all links with the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), according to a statement posted online.The statement, published late on Sunday, reiterated a previous peremptory statement in which the group's chief Ayman al-Zawahiri ordered ISIL to disband and return to Iraq, and adding that Jabhat al-Nusra was al-Qaeda's official branch in Syria...."

Al-Qaeda fighters in Syria killing each other

 Al Jazeera English

"... The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, which has links with al-Qaeda, said it carried out the attack on Tawhid, a brigade aligned to the Islamic Front coalition, a group fighing the ISIL in Aleppo and beyond.In another attack late on Saturday in Hama, the leader of the powerful Suqour al-Sham group, Abu Hussein al-Dik, was killed by the ISIL, according to sources spoken to by Al Jazeera..."

ICG: "Nostalgia for the days of repressive regimes has surged"

"... Change in itself is now seen as a risk not worth taking while stability and security have become the number one goal. But, this, the only thing the old order had to offer, is now unattainable: Egypt continues to impose a curfew in the Sinai as its army deals with a low-level insurgency. Libya is growing more lawless by the day, as the recent kidnapping of the prime minister and deadly clashes in the centre of Tripoli and Benghazi showed. Nostalgia for the days of repressive regimes has surged, nowhere more so than in Cairo where general Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, the army chief and minister of defence, is heralded as the demi-god of “a Pharoahnic people”. In other places such as Saudi Arabia, Gaza or Jordan, citizens resign themselves to their current rulers.
This has led the Arab people’s desire for dignity and feeling of empowerment to turn into a sense of apathy..."

'The US & it's fixed and transitory 'allies': Not a merry bunch!

"...  It is proving as unreliable a partner for its longstanding state allies (dropping President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, criticizing the Khalifa dynasty in Bahrain, and now estranging Saudi and Israel) than it has been for its more transitory non-state ones (the Palestinian Authority, March 14 in Lebanon, or the Iraqi tribal "sahwa")..."

International Crisis Group : The Arab World into the Unknown

International Crisis Group

"... For now, US aloofness and mixed signals have spelled significant mayhem. Friends are baffled, left to their own devices and having to improvise hectically. A clear example is Syria where the US contracted out to Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar the task of dealing with the armed opposition, and now seems keen to withdraw further. Foes such as the Syrian regime, Hizbollah and the Iranian Republican Guards are equally perplexed, tempted to overreach in the absence of a clear US point of reference that has served in recent decades—for better or worse—to structure the regional balance of powers, whether by securing the Gulf, pushing back on Soviet designs, negotiating peace deals with Israel, or containing alleged “rogue” states. New players have jumped into the void, adding to the confusion more than producing decisive outcomes. Syria – which has fallen victim to a mix of Iranian hubris, Saudi adventurism, Qatari ambition, Russian obstructionism and French brinksmanship, not to mention its own leadership and a host of other complicating factors – best encapsulates this state of affairs..."

Senior DoD Official: "We are not going to use military means to prevent Iran from acquiring nukes"

"... American foreign policy continues to project a seemingly contradictory strategy. In his State of the Union Address President Obama – as we suggested last week – concentrated primarily on domestic issues. When he spoke of international affairs, he focused on the end of a decade of war, declaring that “America must move off a permanent war footing.” The message for the audience at home, therefore, is one of “coming home” and a de-emphasis on the military as the main instrument of US power projection.  By contrast, the message to the international audience as reflected in Secretary of State Kerry’s intervention at the Davos World Economic Forum and which will be reinforced by him and Secretary of Defense Hagel at this week’s Munich Security Conference is that the US remains as engaged in the world as ever. Obama will further echo this theme when he visits Brussels and other European capitals following the US-EU Summit at the end of March. When we broach this apparent inconsistency with White House, State Department and Pentagon contacts, they explain that both aspects contain elements of the truth. A senior Defense Department official gave a practical example: “We remain as committed as always to preventing Iran for acquiring a nuclear weapon. We know, however, that we are not going to use military means to execute this aim. Instead we will use a mix of coercion through sanctions and incentives via diplomacy. We are not walking away.” State Department officials are equally insistent that the framework for a Middle East peace agreement due to be presented by Kerry in the coming weeks will underline the unique capability of the US to deliver results. Some of the obstacles Obama faces come from his own party. ...  Meanwhile over the two most pressing dramas of the moment – Syria and Ukraine – US officials concede that the limitations of US influence are all too visible."

Netanyahu & Co.: This US Administration is anti-semitic

"... The remarks by Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz, who is close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, followed recent accusations by Israel's defence minister that Kerry was being "messianic" ....
Steinitz seized on the top U.S. diplomat's remarks as a threat against Israel ... "The things ... Kerry said are hurtful, they are unfair and they are intolerable," Steinitz told reporters..."