An excerpt from, "Syrian opposition resists calls to commit to peace talks" by Arshad Mohammed and Peter Griffiths, Reuters, October 22:
Syria's opposition in exile resisted calls from Western and Arab countries on Tuesday to commit to attending peace talks, saying they would not take part if there was any chance President Bashar al-Assad could cling to power.The leader of the National Coalition is a moron. He is lying when he says, "Our people would not accept that." What people? The Syrian people are with Assad, jackass. All the Syrian political opposition has in its corner is a bunch of whacked out mercenaries who have no discipline and a declining empire that had its best days in the 1940s. Assad holds the cards in Syria, as it should be since he is the legitimate voice of over half of that country's population.
Eleven countries meeting in London pressed the opposition National Coalition to join talks to end a conflict that has killed over 100,000 people, but the group listed conditions and said it would decide in the coming weeks whether to attend.
"There will not be any negotiations at all without making sure that the Geneva 2 meeting is basically for the transitional period and for Assad to go," National Coalition chief Ahmed Jarba told a news conference after the London meeting.
"We are not going to sit and negotiate with Assad possibly being there," he said. "Our people would not accept that. They will consider us as traitors if we came here to sell our people."
An excerpt from, "Kurdish rebels threaten new fight in Turkey as Syria clashes intensify" by Isabel Coles, Reuters, October 22:
"We silenced our weapons so that politics could speak, but now we see that politics is in prison".This is great news. Erdogan's criminal government must suffer for backing al-Qaeda terrorism in Syria.
Seated in a carpeted living room with two starred PKK flags behind him, Bayik said whilst his side had abided by the ceasefire, Turkey had simply moved the frontline in its fight against Kurds to Syria, where civil war has raged for more than two years.
The PKK accuses Ankara and influential Turkish preacher Fethullah Gulen of recruiting and training Islamist "bandit groups" to fight Kurds in Syria on their behalf.
"At a time when the Turkish government is helping the bandit groups and is waging a war on the people of West Kurdistan... it is the right of the Kurdish people to bring the fight to Turkey," Bayik said, referring to the northeastern corner of Syria, where a Kurdish group aligned with the PKK is in control.
Ankara denies arming the rebels or facilitating the passage of foreign fighters who have gone to join al Qaeda-affiliated factions in Syria, including the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and the Nusra front.
Asked whether the PKK had sent guerillas to reinforce the ranks of fellow Kurds in Syria, or would consider doing so in future, Bayik said they did not need help.
"We don't want to send them to West Kurdistan," he said. "If the Turkish government wants to insist on fighting, North Kurdistan is the field of war".
An excerpt from, "Prince Bandar's New Hissy Fit" by 'b' of Moon of Alabama, October 22:
Prince Bandar and his media shills suggest that the Saudis could go rogue over Syria where Bandar's project to get rid of Assad has failed despite him spending hundreds of millions of dollars to the mercenary Jihadists. But what else but paying more can Bandar actually do? The Saudi's military logistics are run by unreliable foreigners. The Saudi army has good equipment but is has zero expeditionary capability.Prince Bandar's end can't come soon enough.
The are also no other partners that could prop up the Saudi family regime. While Bandar suggests that France may be a candidate that country does no longer have the serious military capability to support such a colonial scheme. The Chinese may well be willing to sell arms to the Saudis but, as I wrote:
China will deliver but will be smart enough to not interfere in Gulf politics like U.S. is doing day by day.Bandar will also know that the open U.S. attack on Syria, which he demands, will not come as the U.S. public and the U.S. congress are overwhelmingly against it. Washington has no interest in a longterm broken Syria that is run by Saudi supported Al Qaeda types.
