US wants to keep nine military bases in Afghanistan: Karzai

Muslims surely had no part in 9/11
Afghan President Hamid Karzai says Washington has demanded to keep nine military bases across war-torn Afghanistan, Press TV reports.

During a speech at Kabul University on Thursday, Karzai said that the US planned to keep its nine bases in the main cities of Afghanistan, such as the capital Kabul, Kandahar, and Herat.

“We are in very serious and delicate negotiations with America,” the Afghan president said.

Karzai added that Afghanistan also had its demands and interests in the negotiations.

“Our conditions are that the US intensify efforts in the peace process, strengthen Afghanistan’s security forces, provide concrete support to the economy – power, roads and dams – and provide assistance in governance.”

The Afghan president said that Afghanistan would be ready to sign a security pact if such conditions were met.

On May 4, after signing a bilateral security agreement, Karzai announced his decision to allow US forces to remain inside Afghanistan beyond the 2014 withdrawal deadline.

On May 2, 2012, Washington and Kabul signed a deal that authorized the presence of US troops for a period of 10 years after 2014, which was the original date agreed earlier for the departure of all foreign combat troops from Afghanistan. Afghanistan’s parliament approved the pact on May 26.

Karzai had confirmed for the first time in 2011 that the administration of US President Barack Obama had demanded the establishment of a system of permanent US military bases across Afghanistan.

The United States and its allies invaded Afghanistan in 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror. The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but insecurity remains across the country despite the presence of thousands of foreign troops.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/05/09/302600/us-to-keep-9-bases-in-afghanistan/

US wants to keep nine military bases in Afghanistan: Karzai

Muslims surely had no part in 9/11
Afghan President Hamid Karzai says Washington has demanded to keep nine military bases across war-torn Afghanistan, Press TV reports.

During a speech at Kabul University on Thursday, Karzai said that the US planned to keep its nine bases in the main cities of Afghanistan, such as the capital Kabul, Kandahar, and Herat.

“We are in very serious and delicate negotiations with America,” the Afghan president said.

Karzai added that Afghanistan also had its demands and interests in the negotiations.

“Our conditions are that the US intensify efforts in the peace process, strengthen Afghanistan’s security forces, provide concrete support to the economy – power, roads and dams – and provide assistance in governance.”

The Afghan president said that Afghanistan would be ready to sign a security pact if such conditions were met.

On May 4, after signing a bilateral security agreement, Karzai announced his decision to allow US forces to remain inside Afghanistan beyond the 2014 withdrawal deadline.

On May 2, 2012, Washington and Kabul signed a deal that authorized the presence of US troops for a period of 10 years after 2014, which was the original date agreed earlier for the departure of all foreign combat troops from Afghanistan. Afghanistan’s parliament approved the pact on May 26.

Karzai had confirmed for the first time in 2011 that the administration of US President Barack Obama had demanded the establishment of a system of permanent US military bases across Afghanistan.

The United States and its allies invaded Afghanistan in 2001 as part of Washington’s so-called war on terror. The offensive removed the Taliban from power, but insecurity remains across the country despite the presence of thousands of foreign troops.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/05/09/302600/us-to-keep-9-bases-in-afghanistan/

ht tp://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/16/world/middleeast/assad-loyalists-breach-rebels-blockade-of-military-bases.html

Assad’s Forces Break Through Rebel Blockade of Military Bases

Dimitar Dilkoff/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Syrian men on Monday evacuated a wounded woman after government forces shelled the northern city of Aleppo. The civil war has cost more than 70,000 lives.

By HANIA MOURTADA and RICK GLADSTONE

Published: April 15, 2013

Follow @nytimesworld for international breaking news and headlines.

Twitter List: Reporters and Editors
.

The fracturing of the blockade that had isolated the two bases, Wadi el-Dayf and Al Hamidiya in Idlib Province, began on Sunday, the activists reported. It appeared to be at least a temporary victory for the military loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, which has been increasingly stretched in seeking to halt territorial gains in Syria’s civil war by rebel fighters in the north, east and south.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an antigovernment group based in Britain that has a network of contacts in Syria, said that vehicles loaded with ammunition and military reinforcements were seen heading to the two formerly besieged bases for the first time in at least two months.

It said that at least 21 insurgent fighters had been killed and that others were missing in clashes with government forces that had outflanked the rebels responsible for the blockade of the bases. Other activists affiliated with the insurgency said more than 50 rebel fighters had been killed.

Whether the insurgency’s forces would be able to re-establish the blockade remained unclear on Monday. The Local Coordination Committees, an antigovernment activist group, reported that at least 10 government soldiers had defected from the Wadi el-Dayf base, an indication that control of the area was still to be determined.

Other activists said clashes were raging on Monday near the bases in territory that included the outskirts of Maarat al-Noaman, a town in Idlib Province ravaged in fighting last year because of its strategic location. It sits on the main north-south highway between Damascus, the capital, and Aleppo, a city near the border with Turkey that has been a contested battleground since last July.

“To be honest, after seeing the army’s operation today, there is a widespread fear among people that regime forces will soon regain control of other areas in the province,” said Asaad Kanjo, an activist in Idlib reached via Skype. “People are worried it’s part of some kind of big military operation to recapture Idlib suburbs.”

Other areas of Syria were also afflicted by fighting on Monday, including the northern Damascus suburb of Barzeh, where an important mosque was hit by government shellfire, the Syrian Observatory reported. Opposition activists said that in another northern Damascus suburb, Qaboun, nearly 30 children were killed on Sunday in government airstrikes.

The National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, Syria’s main political opposition group, said in a statement released Monday that the Qaboun killings were “yet another war crime by the Assad forces.”

Each side in the conflict, which has left more than 70,000 people dead, has repeatedly accused the other of atrocities, including unverified claims of chemical weapons use, but the Syrian government has not allowed independent investigators from the United Nations or other organizations into the country to look into them.

The Syrian Observatory also said on Monday that a petition had been sent to Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, seeking his assistance in securing the release of Abdelaziz al-Khayer, a prominent figure in Syria’s officially tolerated political opposition. Aides say Mr. Khayer was arrested by Syrian intelligence officials upon his return last September from China, where he had been engaged in talks to find a negotiated settlement of the Syrian conflict.

Mr. Khayer, an advocate of peaceful political change, was convicted of sedition in 1995 and served 10 years of a 22-year prison sentence before he was freed because of international pressure. His rearrest last year and the subsequent vacuum of information on his condition or whereabouts have been regarded as signs of what Mr. Assad’s critics call the president’s insincerity in saying he wants to seek dialogue, even with nonviolent political adversaries.

Mr. Assad has sought to portray the insurgency as the work of foreign-backed terrorist groups like Al Qaeda, a narrative that gained credibility last week when the Nusra Front, a Syrian formation of feared Sunni militant fighters, publicly declared its allegiance to Al Qaeda’s leadership.

Alarmed by the Nusra-Qaeda alliance, members of the so-called Friends of Syria group of Western countries that support the insurgency but do not want to intervene militarily in Syria have been struggling to devise a strategy to respond, and were expected to address the issue at a meeting this weekend in Istanbul.

The United Nations Security Council will also take up the Syria issue this week and was expected to be briefed on Thursday by Lakhdar Brahimi, the special envoy representing the United Nations and the Arab League. Both the Syrian government and Russia, its strongest foreign backer, have called Mr. Brahimi’s impartiality into question because the Arab League has officially seated the Syrian opposition coalition as the legitimate representative of Syria.

There have been numerous unattributed reports in the Arab news media in recent days that Mr. Brahimi would resign. Khawla Mattar, a spokeswoman for Mr. Brahimi, said in an e-mail that “we are aware of all these reports” but that he had not submitted his resignation.

Hania Mourtada reported from Beirut, and Rick Gladstone from New York. Hwaida Saad contributed reporting from Beirut.

ht tp://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/16/world/middleeast/assad-loyalists-breach-rebels-blockade-of-military-bases.html

Assad’s Forces Break Through Rebel Blockade of Military Bases

Dimitar Dilkoff/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Syrian men on Monday evacuated a wounded woman after government forces shelled the northern city of Aleppo. The civil war has cost more than 70,000 lives.

By HANIA MOURTADA and RICK GLADSTONE

Published: April 15, 2013

Follow @nytimesworld for international breaking news and headlines.

Twitter List: Reporters and Editors
.

The fracturing of the blockade that had isolated the two bases, Wadi el-Dayf and Al Hamidiya in Idlib Province, began on Sunday, the activists reported. It appeared to be at least a temporary victory for the military loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, which has been increasingly stretched in seeking to halt territorial gains in Syria’s civil war by rebel fighters in the north, east and south.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an antigovernment group based in Britain that has a network of contacts in Syria, said that vehicles loaded with ammunition and military reinforcements were seen heading to the two formerly besieged bases for the first time in at least two months.

It said that at least 21 insurgent fighters had been killed and that others were missing in clashes with government forces that had outflanked the rebels responsible for the blockade of the bases. Other activists affiliated with the insurgency said more than 50 rebel fighters had been killed.

Whether the insurgency’s forces would be able to re-establish the blockade remained unclear on Monday. The Local Coordination Committees, an antigovernment activist group, reported that at least 10 government soldiers had defected from the Wadi el-Dayf base, an indication that control of the area was still to be determined.

Other activists said clashes were raging on Monday near the bases in territory that included the outskirts of Maarat al-Noaman, a town in Idlib Province ravaged in fighting last year because of its strategic location. It sits on the main north-south highway between Damascus, the capital, and Aleppo, a city near the border with Turkey that has been a contested battleground since last July.

“To be honest, after seeing the army’s operation today, there is a widespread fear among people that regime forces will soon regain control of other areas in the province,” said Asaad Kanjo, an activist in Idlib reached via Skype. “People are worried it’s part of some kind of big military operation to recapture Idlib suburbs.”

Other areas of Syria were also afflicted by fighting on Monday, including the northern Damascus suburb of Barzeh, where an important mosque was hit by government shellfire, the Syrian Observatory reported. Opposition activists said that in another northern Damascus suburb, Qaboun, nearly 30 children were killed on Sunday in government airstrikes.

The National Coalition of Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, Syria’s main political opposition group, said in a statement released Monday that the Qaboun killings were “yet another war crime by the Assad forces.”

Each side in the conflict, which has left more than 70,000 people dead, has repeatedly accused the other of atrocities, including unverified claims of chemical weapons use, but the Syrian government has not allowed independent investigators from the United Nations or other organizations into the country to look into them.

The Syrian Observatory also said on Monday that a petition had been sent to Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, seeking his assistance in securing the release of Abdelaziz al-Khayer, a prominent figure in Syria’s officially tolerated political opposition. Aides say Mr. Khayer was arrested by Syrian intelligence officials upon his return last September from China, where he had been engaged in talks to find a negotiated settlement of the Syrian conflict.

Mr. Khayer, an advocate of peaceful political change, was convicted of sedition in 1995 and served 10 years of a 22-year prison sentence before he was freed because of international pressure. His rearrest last year and the subsequent vacuum of information on his condition or whereabouts have been regarded as signs of what Mr. Assad’s critics call the president’s insincerity in saying he wants to seek dialogue, even with nonviolent political adversaries.

Mr. Assad has sought to portray the insurgency as the work of foreign-backed terrorist groups like Al Qaeda, a narrative that gained credibility last week when the Nusra Front, a Syrian formation of feared Sunni militant fighters, publicly declared its allegiance to Al Qaeda’s leadership.

Alarmed by the Nusra-Qaeda alliance, members of the so-called Friends of Syria group of Western countries that support the insurgency but do not want to intervene militarily in Syria have been struggling to devise a strategy to respond, and were expected to address the issue at a meeting this weekend in Istanbul.

The United Nations Security Council will also take up the Syria issue this week and was expected to be briefed on Thursday by Lakhdar Brahimi, the special envoy representing the United Nations and the Arab League. Both the Syrian government and Russia, its strongest foreign backer, have called Mr. Brahimi’s impartiality into question because the Arab League has officially seated the Syrian opposition coalition as the legitimate representative of Syria.

There have been numerous unattributed reports in the Arab news media in recent days that Mr. Brahimi would resign. Khawla Mattar, a spokeswoman for Mr. Brahimi, said in an e-mail that “we are aware of all these reports” but that he had not submitted his resignation.

Hania Mourtada reported from Beirut, and Rick Gladstone from New York. Hwaida Saad contributed reporting from Beirut.

US military copter crashes near North Korean border: South Korea official

Tue Apr 16, 2013 5:16AM GMT

An American UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter has crashed near the North Korean border, a South Korean defense official says.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/04/16/298500/us-military-copter-crashes-near-n-korea/

China mobilizes military, on ‘high alert’ over threats against N Korea. Attack on North is attack on us , Peoples Republic of China say!
http://rt.com/news/chinese-military-korea-alert-184/

Get short URL
Published time: April 02, 2013 04:16
Edited time: April 02, 2013 07:21

AFP Photo / China Photo
Share on Tumblr
Tags
China, Conflict, Military, North Korea, Nuclear, South Korea, UN, USA, War

China has started mobilizing military forces around the Korean peninsula in response to rising tensions that follow recent threats by North Korea to launch missile attacks against its southern neighbor and the United States.

According to US officials, Pyongyang’s declaration of a ‘state of war’ against South Korea has led to the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to increase its military presence on the border with the North. The officials say the process has been going on since mid-March, and includes troop movements and readying fighter jets. The PLA is now at ‘Level One’ readiness, its highest.

Chinese forces, including tanks and armored personnel carriers, have been spotted in the city of Ji’an and near the Yalu River, which splits China and North Korea. Other border regions were also reportedly being patrolled by planes.

China has also been conducting live-firing naval exercises in the Yellow Sea, scheduled to end on Monday. The move is widely viewed as open support for North Korea, which continues to show extreme opposition to the US-South Korean military drills that are to last until May.

The news comes as the US deployed its USS Fitzgerald destroyer off the coast of North Korea, adding to its Sunday deployment of F-22 fighter jets to take part in the drills with the friendly South, which has further served to heighten tensions on the peninsula.

Meanwhile, North Korea has been mobilizing its short and medium-range missile arsenal, according to analyses of satellite imagery. Officials say Pyongyang is set to test its new KN-08 medium-range mobile missile; they say preparations have been spotted in the past. Pyongyang claims that since March 26, its forces have been placed on their highest possible status of alert.

Although officials believe Pyongyang will not provoke Seoul during the war games, they also fear that a miscalculation by South Korea could lead to all-out war, following its promise of retaliation against the North, should it launch its missiles first.

South Korean anti-aircraft armoured vehicles move over a temporary bridge during a river-crossing military drill in Hwacheon near the border with North Korea on April 1, 2013 (AFP Photo / KIim Jae-Hwan)
North Korea and China have maintained a long-standing defense treaty under which Beijing is to come to Pyongyang’s aid in the event of an attack. The last time this was put into practice was during the Korean War, when tens of thousands of Chinese volunteer forces were deployed on the Korean Peninsula. The relationship between the two countries is often referred to as being “as close as lips and teeth” by Chinese military spokesmen.
Despite the heated tensions leading to an apparent disruption in trade and commerce between China and North Korea, the two are already making future plans to bolster their economic ties. March 27 saw the announcement of a new high-speed railway, as well as a special highway passenger line.
Still, many in Chinese circles have shown displeasure at Pyongyang’s seemingly aggressive relationship with Seoul and Washington. A Chinese official, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, has testified that US presence in the region is a helpful restraint against an unpredictable Kim Jong-un, which many believe to be the real reason Beijing has not been strong in its criticism of the amassing of US forces in the region.
Furthermore, Chinese websites and blogs could sometimes be found openly bashing the North Korean leader for an apparent mishandling of the situation in the region, playing diplomatic games amid chronic food shortages in his country. An editor at the country’s Study Times newspaper was recently suspended for openly criticizing China for abandoning North Korea.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un attending the plenary meeting of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea in Pyongyang (AFP Photo / KCNA via KNS)
Expert opinion differs on what China’s exact position is in the unfolding regional crisis.

US officials claim the China’s main fear is a collapse of order in North Korea, which would lead to a large-scale refugee flow into China.

Another possible reason for China to worry is advanced by journalist James Corbett, host of the Corbett Report, who believes that foreign military presence in the region is just as unnerving to China as it is to Pyongyang. He discussed this in the light of the latest war drills.
“I think that this has the possibility of ratcheting things up to the point where tensions might actually spill over as a result of this, and we saw that recently with the deployment of B-2 nuclear armed bombers in South Korea which is not only, I think, worrying to Pyongyang, but also to China, to have nuclear bombers that close to the peninsula there, on China’s southern border. I think that China wouldn’t be pleased with that either, so this is quite an escalation that’s taking place.”
Others believe openly that the US strategy is geared not towards the destabilization of North Korea, but that of China. Li Jie, an expert with a Chinese navy research institution, has told Reuters that “the ultimate strategic aim is to contain and blockade China, to distract China’s attention and slow its development. What the US is most worried about is the further development of China’s economy and military strength.”

Retired Major General Luo Yuan, who is one of China’s foremost military authorities, believes, however that “once the joint US-South Korean exercises have finished and with birthday celebrations for (late founder of North Korea) Kim Il-sung imminent, the temperature will gradually cool and get back to the status quo of no war, no unification.”
While it has been urging calm and peace in the region, Beijing has been very obliging at the UN Security Council, when it helped push through the latest round of sanctions against North Korea in March, following its third nuclear test the previous month. Despite being Pyongyang’s greatest ally in the region, some experts believe this is a sign of Beijing’s growing impatience. American diplomat Christopher R. Hill, who helped under the Bush administration to negotiate a deal for the dismantling of North Korea’s nuclear facilities (which didn’t last), says that the Chinese strategy is“not about the words, it is about the music.

The resolution came hours after North Korea, angered at both the US-South Korean war games, and at the proposed UN plan, threatened pre-emptive nuclear action against the South and US military bases in the region

This latest standoff between North and South Korea and the US is credited to have started on February 12, when Pyongyang supposedly performed its latest underground nuclear weapons test. Just this weekend, North Korea vowed to boost its nuclear arsenal, calling it a “treasure of a reunified country” which it would never trade for anything, even “billions of dollars” worth of aid.

Russia Launches Surprise Large-Scale, 36 Warship Military Exercise In The Black Sea
Tyler Durden’s picture
Submitted by Tyler Durden on 03/28/2013 14:34 -0400

Eurozone
Reuters
Ukraine

Many were wondering what Russia’s response to Germany’s deposit confiscation drill in Cyprus would be. The confusion was moderated somewhat after it was uncovered that the very Russians who were supposed to be punished, have been able to withdraw some or most of their Cyprus-based cash either before the Cyprus D(eposit Confiscation)-Day or during the capital controlled blackout using various disclosed loopholes. Yet that doesn’t mean that Putin would avoid this opportunity to give the “developed world” and his closest neighbors a quick lesson in realpolitik. After all, who better than a former KGB agent understands that one should never let a crisis go to waste. Sure enough, today at 4 am, in a very surprising move, Puitin ordered the launch of large-scale Russian military exercises in the Black Sea region in a move which according to Reuters “may create tensions with Russia’s post-Soviet neighbors Ukraine and Georgia.” Of course, it may create tensions with our island nations reachable by the Russian naval fleet, such as Cyprus, which would naturally mean tensions with the same European (read German) forces who structured the entire Cypriot bail in.

From Reuters:

Putin issued the order to start the previously unannounced maneuvers at 4 a.m. Moscow time (12.00 a.m. EDT) as he flew back from an international summit in South Africa, his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters by telephone.

“These are large-scale unannounced test exercises,” Peskov said, adding that 36 warships and an unspecified number of warplanes would take part. “The main goal is to check the readiness and cohesion of the various units.”

He did not say how long the exercises would last.

Putin has stressed the importance of a strong and agile military since he returned to the presidency last May after four years as prime minister. In 13 years in power, he has often cited external threats when talking of the need for unity in Russia.

Russia’s Black Sea fleet, whose main base is in the Ukrainian port of Sevastopol, was instrumental in a war with Georgia in 2008 over the Russian-backed breakaway Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Disputes with Kiev over Moscow’s continued lease of the Black Sea navy base have been a thorn in relations with its former Soviet neighbor.

Peskov said that Russia is under no obligation to warn neighbors ahead of time of plans to hold the air and sea military exercises as long as fewer than 7,000 servicemen participated in the maneuvers.

And while the proposed explanation may be valid, something tells us that in this specific case it was not the Ukraine or Georgia that were being contemplated, but the island nations in the Mediterranean, or rather nation, especially the one located in close proximity to Syria.

Keep a close eye on if and when news hits that some 36 Russian warships quietly passed through the Bosphorus in direction Nicosia. Perhaps if Cyprus was so quick to hand over its Russian economic interest, all that would be needed to make it flip on its dedication to the Eurozone would be a brief but insistent naval semi-blockade. After all, few things are quite as persuasive as 36 warships sitting idly by doing not much of anything.

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-03-28/russia-launches-surprise-large-scale-36-warship-military-exercise-black-sea

Davutoglu Should Give Up
‘Military Solution’ in Syria

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu pauses during the 49th Conference on Security Policy in Munich, Feb. 3, 2013. (photo by REUTERS/Michael Dalder)

By: Semih Idiz for Al-Monitor Turkey Pulse. Posted on March 12.

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu insists on flogging a dead horse. Having failed to persuade Washington during Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent visit to Turkey to supply arms to the Syrian opposition, he is now working on the EU to lift its arms embargo on Syria.

Summary :
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu is getting nowhere in his bid to have the European Union lift the arms embargo on Syria, and he should realize his pursuit of a military solution there is only prolonging the conflict, writes Semih Idiz.
Author: Semih Idiz
Posted on : March 12 2013

Categories :Originals Turkey Syria Security

Visiting London last week for an international meeting on Yemen, Davutoğlu held talks with his British counterpart, William Hague, trying to convince him that the Syrian opposition is at a serious disadvantage because it lacks the necessary weapons. He did not openly call for a lifting of the EU embargo but it was clear that this is what he was getting at.

Asked by reporters if he wanted the embargo to be lifted, Davutoglu’s said tellingly: “If one side only has weapons at the end of the day, the side which has weapons in their hands have all the opportunities to kill the other side.”

Davutoglu added that he had also taken up the matter with German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle recently. London and Berlin however have indicated that they are in favor of upholding the EU’s embargo. Hague in particular is concerned about Islamist fighters in Syria.

EU sources in Ankara indicate that as many as 500 members of Jabhat al-Nusra, the most successful group fighting the Assad regime, whose self-declared aim is to establish an Islamic republic in Syria, are from Europe.

The worry is not just that the group — which has Ankara’s political support and is also being armed by Turkey, according to EU diplomats — will be successful in Syria. EU officials are also concerned about what the European members of the group will do when they return to their home countries.

Davutoglu and other Turkish officials continue to argue, however, that these European fears are not just exaggerated, but are playing into President Bashar al Assad’s hands. Asked about these concerns in London, Davutoğlu said neither Libya nor Egypt had embraced radical Islam despite fears that this would happen.

“They are at war,” he said of Syrian opposition fighters. “They are going to die. There are always religious slogans in war.”

Clearly, however, he is making little headway in convincing his European partners to change tack on groups like Jabhat al-Nusra, which has already been designated a terrorist organization by the US and, judging by reports, the EU can be expected to do the same soon.

Given Ankara’s failure in this respect all that Davutoglu can do is complain from the moral high ground that “People are suffering on the ground and Turkey is paying the bill.” But Ankara’s position on Syria begs a number of critical questions.

For example, it is true that “Turkey is paying the bill” for the growing number of Syrian refugees arriving at its door. Government officials put the figure at $ 600 million so far and complain of not getting sufficient international support in this respect.

When Turkish officials voice these complaints their targets are generally Western countries. Oddly enough, you rarely hear them complaining about a lack of support from oil-rich Gulf states, particularly Saudi Arabia and Qatar, for whom toppling Assad has also become a key political aim.

These countries are in a position to foot at least half the bill and reduce the pressure on Turkey. If, on the other hand, they are indeed helping Turkey in this regard, unbeknown to the public, then why is Ankara complaining about having been left alone to face the refugee problem?

Meanwhile Ankara continues to be cool towards the notion of a political settlement to the Syrian conflict if Assad is anywhere near the negotiating table, even if he is not actually sitting at it. Davutoglu’s lobbying for arms for the opposition also shows this.

He appears however not to be overly concerned of inflaming what is already a proxy war in the region by supplying the opposition with heavy arms against the regime.

Davutoglu conveniently overlooks the fact that if the opposition were to be armed the way he wants, Russia and Iran, who continue to back the Assad regime as a strategic aim, as well as Shiite groups like the Lebanese Hezbollah, will do their utmost to counter this by increasing their military support for the regime.

Together with Prime Minster Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Davutoglu keeps referring to the plight of the Syrians suffering under Assad. He appears not to understand that supplying weapons to the opposition at this stage is a sure formula for prolonging the conflict and increasing the suffering of civilians.

Many in Turkey, and the region, would argue today that he does in fact knows all this, but a victory by the Sunni-led opposition in Syria has become such a strategic aim for the Erdogan government, that Ankara is willing to even see a proxy war, with increased suffering, if this is what it takes to achieve this aim.

Be that as it may, what is certain at this stage is that Ankara’s Sunni-led Syria policy has resulted in the emergence of a Shiite axis which does not look on Turkey and its policy towards the region with favor anymore. Turkey has in fact increased the number of its enemies and detractors in the Middle East since the outbreak of the Arab Spring, which contradicts Davutoglu’s vision of a Turkey contributing to peace and stability in the region.

The problem for Davutoglu is that his academic world view — he is after a professor of international relations — is imbued with grand visions and perspectives for Turkey that have proved to be not just over ambitious, but also simplistic with regard to actual situations that have emerged on the ground.

For example he appears not to understand, or want to understand, that there is no choice left at this stage but to go for a political settlement for Syria if what is desired is to stop the bloodshed as soon as possible, and prevent the crisis from feeding growing sectarian divisions in the region.

Kadri Gursel has also shown, in his perceptive articles for Al Monitor, that Turkey is not immune either to the adverse fallout from sectarians divisions that have resulted from the Syrian crisis, having similar sectarian fault lines itself.

Meanwhile Turkey announced this week that it had apprehended the perpetrators of the car bomb attack last month at the Cilvegozu border crossing with Syria, which killed at least 14, and injured a large number of people. Government spokesman Bulent Arinc told reporters on Tuesday that Turkish security forces had “staged an operation worthy of films” to arrest four Syrians and one Turkish suspected of staging this attack.

Turkish officials say the perpetrators — who it appears were apprehended in a cross-border operation on Syrian soil — were linked to Syrian intelligence officials. True or not, it remains to be seen if Ankara will use this incident against the Assad regime also, in an attempt to sway the international community to arm the opposition.

The fact remains however that Turkey’s arguments on Syria have little traction left at this stage. Al-Monitor in its last “Week in Review” analysis headlined “The Iraqi and Turkish Fault Lines” summarized it well in its concluding remarks: “The signs of a trend toward a political solution deserve attention and priority, as the pursuit of a military solution means only more tragedy and destruction for Syria and the region.”

The sooner Erdogan and Davutoglu acknowledge this glaring fact and stop rowing against the current, the better it will be for Turkey, for the Syrian people, and for the region as a whole.

Semih İdiz is a contributing writer for Al-Monitor’s Turkey Pulse. A journalist who has been covering diplomacy and foreign-policy issues for major Turkish newspapers for 30 years, his opinion pieces can be followed in the English language Hurriyet Daily News. He can also be read in Taraf. His articles have been published in The Financial Times, the Times, Mediterranean Quarterly and Foreign Policy magazine, and he is a frequent contributor to BBC World, VOA, NPR, Deutche Welle, various Israeli media organizations and Al Jazeera.

Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/03/turkey-foreign-policy-syria-fiasco-arms-embargo.html#ixzz2NVZmmn1c

China DM: US Hacking Attacks Target Military Websites

Claims Thousands of Attempted Attacks Since US Promise for ‘Retaliation’

by Jason Ditz, February 28, 2013

The complex matter of private hackers targeting foreign governments’ websites is nothing new, but is becoming even more complex with the US government openly promising revenge attacks against China, and the Chinese government is now reporting massive numbers of attacks have been coming out of the US.

The US never offered any proof that the hackers, which it says came from Chinese IP addresses, were actually backed by the Chinese government. Rather it just assumed so. The Chinese Defense Ministry’s own reports are likewise lacking in evidence that the US government is directly involved, though US threats to do so make such suspicions at least a reasonable supposition.

On the other hand, Chinese officials suggest the attacks are nothing new, and that the military’s websites are hit over 100,000 times a month for years, overwhelmingly by American hackers. The number has risen recently, however.

Chinese reaction seems considerably less bellicose than the White House’s response, however, with officials saying that they hoped the US would clarify their own government’s policy vis-a-vis attacks, and reiterating that the Chinese cyber forces were “purely defensive” and not planning to launch offensive attacks.

http://news.antiwar.com/2013/02/28/china-dm-us-hacking-attacks-target-military-websites/