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KoKo

(84,711 posts)
Thu Sep 17, 2015, 07:07 PM Sep 2015

The Guardian Reveals the West Ignored Russian Offer to Have Assad Step Aside in 2012

(A View from Another Viewpoint...apologize for the sloppy coding)

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The Guardian Reveals the West Ignored Russian Offer to Have Assad Step Aside in 2012

Policy analyst Phyllis Bennis says the United States has a moral responsibility to address the Syrian refugee crisis after The Guardian UK reveals Russia offered to help depose Assad three years ago. Note: The headline of this story has been updated for accuracy - September 15, 2015

TRANSCRIPT FOLLOWS THE "YOU TUBE:"





TRANSCRIPT:

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=14729


Sharmini Peries - As a journalist and executive producer, Sharmini harnesses the power of research and policy institutions, independent media, social movements, universities and academics to form strategic partnerships for innovative programming at TRNN. Prior to joining TRNN, she served as the executive director of The International Freedom of Expression Exchange, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, the Royal Commission on Systemic Racism in the Criminal Justice System, the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants and managed the Human Rights Code Review Task Force in Ontario. Sharmini also worked as Economic and Trade Advisor to President Chavez and the government of Venezuela from 2003-2007. She has an MA and PhD (EBD) from York University (Canada).

Phyllis Bennis is a Fellow and the Director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington D.C. She is the author of Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict: A Primer, Before and After: US Foreign Policy and the September 11 Crisis, Ending the US War in Afghanistan: A Primer and Understanding the US-Iran Crisis: A Primer. Her most recent book is Understanding ISIS and the New Global War on Terror: A Primer.

Transcript

The Guardian Reveals the West Ignored Russian Offer to Have Assad Step Aside in 2012

SHARMINI PERIES, EXEC. PRODUCER, TRNN: Welcome to the Real News Network. I'm Sharmini Peries coming to you from Baltimore.An exclusive article published in the Guardian [by the] former Finnish president and Nobel Peace laureate Martti Ahtisaari said Western powers failed to seize the proposal made by the Russians in 2012 with Syria's President, Bashar al-Assad, could step down as a part of a peace deal. If they had accepted the offer tens of thousands of lives could have been saved, and millions that have been uprooted, causing the world's gravest refugee crisis since second World War could have been avoided. Ahtisaari said in the Guardian that he held talks with envoys from five permanent members of the UN Security Council in February of 2012. He said during those discussions the Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin laid out a three-point plan, which included a proposal for Assad to cede power at some point after peace talks had started between the regime and the opposition.Now joining me to discuss all of this is Phyllis Bennis. She directs the New Internationalism Project at IPS. She has published many books, among them Understanding ISIS and the New Global War on Terror: A Primer, and Challenging Empire: How People, Governments, and the UN Defy U.S. Power. Phyllis, thank you so much for joining us today.

PHYLLIS BENNIS, INSTITUTE FOR POLICY STUDIES: Good to be with you, Sharmini.

PERIES: Phyllis, what do you make of this disclosure by the former Finnish president, and why is he putting so much emphasis on it now and didn't then?

BENNIS: Yeah, it raises of course the inevitable question of why did he wait so long before going public. What Martti Ahtisaari says is that in a private conversation with the Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin this proposal was made, a three part proposal of what should happen. One, to not arm the opposition. Two, to start a dialog between the opposition and President Assad. And third, what he called finding an elegant way for Assad to step aside.That doesn't mean that Assad was prepared at that moment, or that Russia for that matter was prepared to push Assad to step down immediately. But it does mean that there were options available. There were possibilities that could and clearly should have been investigated about what kind of a process could have been underway that would have allowed some kind of face saving for Assad. Maybe others in his regime would have participated rather than the president himself.

There could have been a number of possibilities. And what was clear was that the French, the British, and particularly the United States, apparently as far as Ahtisaari knew, they were so convinced that the Assad regime was about to collapse that there was no need to negotiate like this. They would just wait for the regime to collapse and preside over the glorious victory.And it's one of these things of, why would you imagine such things? Why would you ever imagine that in these chaotic, militarized situations, that things were going to go well? They never go well.

And the idea that the Americans and the Brits and the French somehow had this illusion that this was all going to just happen quickly by itself is a very frightening thing. It does, of course, not resolve the question of why Martti Ahtisaari, a noted, very respected international civil servant, had worked for the UN on many occasions, won the Nobel Peace Prize because of his work in negotiating earlier agreements in other countries, why he didn't say something earlier to expose this.Now, of course, it's much more difficult. And it's not at all clear that the Russians would move in this direction at all. In fact, the Russians right now are saying, and Churkin himself is saying that it was a private conversation he had with Ahtisaari and he has nothing to say about it. But it does go to this question of the unwillingness of the U.S. at that time to have recognized that there were possibilities for negotiations, that it was not necessary to militarize the situation as they did, that has been the root of so much of the crisis that's now underway.

PERIES: Right. And from what I understand at these talks the five permanent members of the Security Council actually had doubt in terms of, at least three of them he says had doubt whether they could actually bring about Assad to step down, that the Russians could actually fail in doing so. What do you make of that? From what I understand Assad's a very steel man in terms of his entrenchment in Syria

BENNIS: Well, I think that's certainly true now. Whether this would have been exactly the same back in 2012 three years ago, it's hard to know. And whether the Russians could essentially deliver Assad is a question.But all of these are questions that should have been taken up immediately in the context of serious, multi-party diplomacy. The notion that the ambassadors of the U.S. and Britain and France would simply throw up their hands and say you know what, we don't think the Russians are really serious, and anyway we don't think it matters because the Assad regime is about to fall. That's what's so shocking about this. Not surprising on some level, but shocking nonetheless. Particularly given the aftermath.

Given the millions of people who have been forced into exile, who have lost their homes. The hundreds of thousands who have died in this war. The millions who are now on the move in these massive refugee flows.Given what the price has been it's really shocking to see that there was no effort to determine--you know, maybe it was true, maybe the Russians couldn't deliver. But why wouldn't they try? Maybe it was true that Churkin was not speaking for the Russian leadership at that time. That was another question, whether he actually had Moscow behind him. Why not investigate? Why not go public and say, we we have a proposal. And let the Russians come back and fight with them, saying no, it was our proposal first. Fine, let them all fight over whose idea it was first.But to simply put it aside and say we're not interested, that's what's so shocking about this whole revelation

PERIES: Phyllis, in a recent article you penned on the refugee crisis, you wrote the Syrian war, and particularly the rise of ISIS, has everything to do with U.S. actions dating back to the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq which gave rise to ISIS in the first place. Even now, U.S. air strikes in Syria and neighboring Iraq are escalating the war in both places. Do take us back and give us a history lesson in terms of that foreign policy that is responsible for this crisis now we're facing.

MORE AT:

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=14729
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The Guardian Reveals the West Ignored Russian Offer to Have Assad Step Aside in 2012 (Original Post) KoKo Sep 2015 OP
Assads would be successor would Cayenne Sep 2015 #1
The only difference would have been that the refugees would be Alawites and leveymg Sep 2015 #2
Putin is an interesting person...will be interesting to watch what goes on KoKo Sep 2015 #3
It was important to TRY. Saddam Hussein could have left power without our KoKo Sep 2015 #4

Cayenne

(480 posts)
1. Assads would be successor would
Thu Sep 17, 2015, 08:28 PM
Sep 2015

have still denied the Qatari pipeline and would not have evicted the Russians. Therefore unacceptable.

leveymg

(36,418 posts)
2. The only difference would have been that the refugees would be Alawites and
Thu Sep 17, 2015, 08:50 PM
Sep 2015

Christian minorities, and Damascus would now be the capital of the Islamic State. The other thing that's changed is Putin has grown a backbone and won't be cajoled or bribed now into giving up Russia's last Mediterranean base.

KoKo

(84,711 posts)
3. Putin is an interesting person...will be interesting to watch what goes on
Fri Sep 18, 2015, 06:57 PM
Sep 2015

with these "olive branches" between Lavrov and Kerry for a bit. And, why should Putin give up his last Mediterranean base to "other interests."

Can you imagine the USA giving up It's Last Military Base to an opponent anywhere in the world?

OMG!...The Outcry by the "Think Tanks,""Corporate MSM" & "MIC" would be Overwhelming in that Conglomerate Community which doesn't answer to the clueless and uninformed, (through little fault of their own), American People at this time.

KoKo

(84,711 posts)
4. It was important to TRY. Saddam Hussein could have left power without our
Fri Sep 18, 2015, 08:27 PM
Sep 2015

Invasion and Gaddafi could have left Libya if we had negotiated. Osama bin Laden could have been Captured and brought to trial so we Americans could have discovered his influence in "9/11."

Instead we have Saudi's who flew the planes in "9/11" whose families were given special treatment to exit the USA in the dead of night or protected until they could get out a bit later.

We have Failed Regime Change all over the ME that has not been any more successful than earlier attempts and our efforts in Latin America.

At this point we Americans are responsible for the Death, Destruction, Dislocation, Loss of Homes, Livlihoods and Break Up of Families along with starving children all across the Globe done in the NAME REGIME CHANGE.

It's time to rethink our Policies where we say we are "Bringing Freedom & Democracy" when all we bring is Death and Destruction along with Chaos.

Enough is Enough!

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