The Syrian conflict and our involvement in it is reminiscent of the Vietnam War. A reader from Hawaii explains why we need to go all in or get out.
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NEWS AGGREGATION. REAL TIME.
MOSCOW (Reuters) – U.S. military strikes on Syria last week removed any moral obligation Russia had to withhold S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems from its ally Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday, according to RIA state news agency.
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MOSCOW (Reuters) – U.S. military strikes on Syria last week removed any moral obligation Russia had to withhold S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems from its ally Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday, according to RIA state news agency.
Source: Reuters
U.S. military strikes on Syria last week removed any moral obligation Russia had to withhold S-300 anti-aircraft missile systems from its ally Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Friday, according to RIA state news agency. Lavrov was also quoted as saying that, prior to the U.S. strikes on Syrian targets, Russia had told U.S. officials which areas of Syria represented “red lines” for Moscow, and the U.S. military action did not cross those lines.
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By Angus McDowall and Suleiman Al-Khalidi BEIRUT/AMMAN (Reuters) – The Syrian government stepped up its efforts on Thursday to retake the opposition’s last besieged enclaves, as rebels prepared to withdraw from one and a newspaper reported an ultimatum against another. President Bashar al-Assad scored a major victory this month by retaking eastern Ghouta, the biggest rebel stronghold near Damascus, putting his forces in by far their strongest position since the early months of the seven-year-old civil war. The United States, Britain and France launched a volley of air strikes on Saturday against three Syrian targets in retaliation for a suspected chemical weapons strike during the Ghouta assault.
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Jeremy Corbyn is being openly disowned by his own MPs amid accusations that he has sided with President Assad and Vladimir Putin over military intervention in Syria. On Sunday the Labour leader called for a “war powers act” which would seek to ensure that all planned use of force would have to be signed off by the Commons, to hold all future governments “for what they do in our name.” He has described airstrikes on Syria as “legally questionable” and refused both to directly blame Assad for the chemical weapon attack in Douma and Russia for the suspected nerve-agent attack in Salisbury. Watched Corbyn interview on #Marr again. Sorry to say my Party is led by a man who questions Russian responsibility for Salisbury, who rejects action to stop Assad use of chemical weapons, who opposes Humanitarian intervention and gives Russia a veto on UK action #NotInMyName— Mike Gapes (@MikeGapes) April 16, 2018 Mr Corbyn’s supporters took to Twitter to voice their opposition to UK involvement of the bombing of targets in Syria, by using the hashtag #NotInMyName. Labour MPs have now broken ranks to criticise the Mr Corbyn over his stance. Mike Gapes, a Labour MP, said on Twitter: “Sorry to say my Party is led by a man who questions Russian responsibility for Salisbury, who rejects action to stop Assad use of chemical weapons, who opposes Humanitarian intervention and gives Russia a veto on UK action #NotInMyName.” Listened to the Today Programme. I wish my frontbench would spend even a fraction of the energy on Assad and Russia’s grotesque slaughter of civilians as they are on inventing new reasons to oppose targeted UK intervention to stop it.— John Woodcock (@JWoodcockMP) April 16, 2018 John Woodcock, a Labour MP, said: “I wish my frontbench would spend even a fraction of the energy on Assad and Russia’s grotesque slaughter of civilians as they are on inventing new reasons to oppose targeted UK intervention to stop it.” Later today Mr Corbyn is expected to ask for an emergency debate in order to ask the Prime Minister to consult Parliament before future military action, with the possibility of Labour MPs criticising the Labour leader in the House. The Prime Minister will also ask for an emergency debate, but while her bid will not include a request for a vote, Mr Corbyn is likely to ask for a vote which could include a call for Prime Ministers to consult Parliament in future. Although such votes are not binding, any defeat for the Prime Minister would be embarrassing and would make it politically more difficult for her to take military action in future. It is up to the Speaker to decide whether to allow either of the applications. Mr Corbyn told the Andrew Marr show on BBC One on Sunday: “There is precedent over previous interventions where parliament has had a vote, and I think what we need in this country is something more robust, like a War Powers Act, so that governments do get held to account by parliament for what they do in our name. “She could have recalled parliament last week – it is only the Prime Minister who can recall parliament – or she could have delayed until tomorrow when parliament returns.” Syria strikes | Read latest
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On April 7, images and video footage of dozens of dead Syrian children and adults foaming at the mouths, or injured and struggling to breathe, once again began circulating around the world. The latest chemical-weapon attack, targeting the rebel-held suburb of Douma east of Damascus, reportedly caused at least forty-two deaths and injured five hundred, though some sources claim seventy deaths or more. The Violations Documentation Center, a human-rights monitoring group, has published a timeline of the events on April 7, beginning at noon with a guided-missile strike and barrel-bomb attack on a Red Crescent center in Douma, which destroyed its last remaining ambulances.
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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s children last year visited a holiday camp in Russian-annexed Crimea, the RIA news agency cited a Russian lawmaker as saying on Sunday. Assad met a group of Russian lawmakers in Damascus on Sunday after the West launched missile strikes against Syria over a suspected poison gas attack. Lawmaker Dmitry Sablin told RIA that Assad had said his children visited the Artek holiday camp in Crimea last year.
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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told a group of Russian lawmakers on Sunday that Western missile strikes on his country were an act of aggression. The meeting followed missile strikes by the United States, France and Britain against Syrian government targets over a suspected poison gas attack a week ago. Russia, which is helping Assad fight militants and rebels opposed to his rule, immediately condemned the strikes and called for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council.
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New satellite images reveal the damage caused to a Syrian chemical weapons research site after it was hit by Western jets on Saturday. The targets included a centre in the greater Damascus area used for the research, development, production and testing of chemical and biological weaponry as well as a chemical weapons storage facility near the city of Homs. A third target, also near Homs, contained both a chemical weapons equipment storage facility and a command post. The US, UK and France said hundreds of missiles were fired at the sites, in response to last week’s chemical attack in Eastern Ghouta which left at least 40 dead. State-controlled Syrian TV claimed Syrian air defenses shot down 13 missiles fired in the attack. Syria slider 3 The Him Shinshar Chemical Weapons Storage Facility in Syria before and after the strike. Satellite image ©2018 DigitalGlobe. Pictures circulating on pro-government Twitter accounts showed a Syrian soldier standing next to what they claimed to be a missile fired from an American or British jet that had been intercepted, however experts said it looked to be an old Soviet air-to-air missile that was not involved in the attack. The Pentagon said that it believes the airstrikes “attacked the heart of the Syrian chemical weapons program,” significantly degrading Syria’s ability to use such weapons again. Syria slider 2 The Barzeh research centre in Syria before and after the strike. Satellite image ©2018 DigitalGlobe. Russian officials said the damage was minimal, maintaining that all key air bases were intact and the purported chemical weapons facilities had been abandoned long ago. Syria slider 1 The Him Shinshar Chemical Weapons Storage Facility in Syria before and after the strike. Satellite image ©2018 DigitalGlobe. Capt. Adulsalam Abdulrazek, a former officer in Syria’s chemical program, said the overnight strikes probably hit “parts of, but not the heart” of the operation. He said they were unlikely to curb the government’s ability to produce such weapons or launch new attacks. Abdulrazek defected from the program in 2012, when he was based in eastern Ghouta, the suburb hit by a chemical attack in 2013 and allegedly again on April 7. He said there were an estimated 50 warehouses storing chemical weapons before the program was dismantled in 2013. He said he believes those fixed storage facilities, mostly in rural areas, are intact or only slightly dispersed, and that the program was only partly dismantled because Damascus didn’t allow inspections. IHS Jane’s expert Karl Dewey said the scientific research facility on the northeastern edge of Damascus is thought to have integrated chemical payloads onto artillery. It is one of at least three sites that have been consistently referenced in association with Syria’s chemical weapons program, including Masyaf and Dummar, also known as Jamraya, both reported to have been hit by Israeli strikes last year.
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