U.S., Russia, Turkey, and Saudi meet on Syria war

October 30, 2015

Syria

• 

(From left) Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, US Secretary of State John Kerry, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir and Turkish Foreign Minister Feridun Sinirlioglu on October 29, 2015 in Vienna (AFP Photo/Brendan Smialowski)

Read More

• 48 journalists abducted, 13 killed by ISIS extremists in Mosul
• 100 ISIS militants killed in clashes with Kurdish forces in Yezidi region north Iraq
• Vienna meeting to test Iranian, Russian intentions regarding political solution in Syria: Saudi FM
• Ethiopia arrests ISIS-linked cell intending to announce Islamic emirate
• Russia condemns U.S., allies accusations over bombing civilians in Syria
• Turkey arrests dozens of ISIS suspects after clashes in Diyarbakir
• Backed by U.S. forces, Kurds launch military campaign to liberate Yezidi region from ISIS

Tags

• Russia
• Saudi Arabia
• Syria
• Syrian crisis
• Turkey
• U.S.
• Vienna talks

The foreign ministers of the United States, Russia, Turkey and Saudi Arabia met Thursday in Vienna to work through their differences on the eve of talks on the war in Syria.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and ministers Sergei Lavrov, Feridun Sinirlioglu and Adel al-Jubeir form a core group spearheading a dialogue between around 20 countries.

Neither Syria’s main political opposition body nor representatives of the armed opposition have been invited to international talks on the country’s war, an opposition politician and a rebel leader said.

The Syrian government in Damascus has meanwhile yet to issue any official comment on the meeting in Vienna on Friday that will bring together about a dozen countries including Saudi Arabia and Iran, which back opposing sides in the conflict.

The Syrian opposition has objected to Iran’s participation in the talks – the first time it has attended such a meeting on Syria – because of its military support for President Bashar al-Assad.

George Sabra, a member of the Syrian National Coalition, told Reuters the failure to invite Syrians showed a “lack of seriousness”. Asked whether the coalition had been invited to the talks, he said: “That didn’t happen.”

“It is a big weak point in the meeting, because it will discuss the issues of the Syrians in their absence.”

Tehran and Moscow have provided crucial support to Assad’s government, while his regional opponents including Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey demand his departure.

Assad has stuck by his long-held position that “eliminating terrorism” must come first, after Moscow called on Syria to prepare for parliamentary and presidential elections. Assad says all the groups fighting him are “terrorists.”

Bashar al-Zoubi of the Yarmouk Army, a group affiliated to the Free Syrian Army, told Reuters that representatives of the armed opposition had not been invited to the Vienna meeting.

“Iran is part of the problem and not the solution, and its participation in the meeting will prove that to the world,” Zoubi said. “This meeting was accepted by Saudi Arabia and Turkey to expose Iran.”

The coalition’s Sabra reiterated his objection to Iran’s participation, saying it could not play a mediation role. “It’s officers are fighting every day on Syrian fronts,” he said.

Staggering interactive map shows wave of migrants flocking to Europe each day

THE flow of more than a million migrants into Europe has been shown in these amazing interactive maps.

By TARYN TARRANT-CORNISH

PUBLISHED: 12:24, Thu, Oct 29, 2015 | UPDATED: 15:26, Thu, Oct 29, 2015

2K

43

Lucify

The map shows the flow of thousands of migrants across the EU

In the last three years more than 1.3million people have arrived in the Eurozone to seek asylum.

The majority of those who make it to Europe are coming from countries like Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan which have been devastated by conflict.

The eye-opening graphics show the true scale of the exodus, with movements plotted daily and each dot representing 25 to 50 people.

Perhaps even more shocking is that the numbers seen streaming into Germany and other Western European countries represent only a small fraction of those displaced.

A majority of refugees fleeing ISIS and Assad in Syria will not make it to the EU. There are four million registered Syrian refugees in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt and North Africa.

Lucify, who created the map working with developer Ville Saarinen, said: "We recognized that such a visualization does not only show the scale of the numbers, but also beautifully tells the story of what those numbers mean"

Only a fraction makes it to Europe

The United Nations estimates that half a million Syrian refugees have sought asylum in Europe between April 2011 and September 2015. Standing very tighly together, they would fit on 8 soccer fields.

Only a small fraction of refugees fleeing their homes make it to Europe. The UN has registered four million Syrian refugees in Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt and North Africa. Most of them live in refugee camps close to the border. They would fit on 59 soccer fields.

‘World needs Russia’, former French president Sarkozy tells Putin on Moscow trip

Former French President Nicolas Sarkozy declared “the world needs Russia” as he met with the country’s leader Vladimir Putin in a controversial visit to Moscow Thursday.

"I'm happy to be here in Moscow, and you know my conviction that the world needs Russia," Sarkozytold reporters ahead of his hour-and-forty-five-minute-long closed door meeting with Putin at the Russian leader's residence just outside the capital.

"Russia and Europe should work together... To discuss, listen and respect, this is the destiny of Franceand Russia.”

The meeting between the two men, the third since Sarkozy left the Elysée Palace in 2012, comes at a time of fraught relations between the Kremlin and current French President François Hollande over Russia’s involvement in the conflict in Ukraine and recent military intervention in Syria.

Hollande has been one of the most outspoken opponents of working with Putin’s ally Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in finding a solution to the Syria conflict.

But while the French Socialist government has taken a hard line with Russia, Sarkozy’s centre-right Les Républicains party has increasingly called for closer ties with Moscow.

In a speech before students of the MGIMO, Moscow’s prestigious Institute of International Relations, Sarkozy called on the West to end Russia’s isolation and declared the country an "indispensable" partner in resolving the conflict in Syria.

“We must merge the two coalitions into one," Sarkozy said, referring to the rival US- and Russia-led military campaigns.

"Without Russia, one cannot meet the great challenges of this world," he said, adding that the global role of Putin is "more positive than negative, despite our differences".

A smiling Putin praised Sarkozy for his “impressive” speech.

"I am so happy to see you, Nicolas," Putin said warmly.

Paris blasts Sarkozy’s ‘parallel diplomacy’

The trip has not gone down well with Paris, however.

French junior minister for higher education and research Thierry Mandon said Sarkozy had no business short-circuiting French foreign policy.

“Diplomacy is complicated, he is like a dog in a bowling alley in this affair,” he said on France 2 television.

The vice president of the French parliament’s France-Russia friendship group, Green Party member François Michel-Lambert, said Sarkozy’s “parallel diplomacy” was damaging for the country.

“It is amazing that the former head of state does not have a sense of statesmanship,” he said.

However, others have been less critical, if still cautious over the merits of Sarkozy’s trip.

“Everyone has the right to talk,” Bruno Le Roux, leader of Hollande’s Socialist Party in parliament, told AFP as Sarkozy arrived in Russia on Wednesday. “There is a usefulness in maintaining relationships with all countries.”

"At the same time, in these sorts of moments, the position of France, the position which is that of Europe, must be kept in mind,” he added.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, REUTERS)

Source

MI5 Boss: IS Planning UK Mass Casualty Attacks

Andrew Parker says the IS threat "shows no sign of abating" after more than 750 British extremists travelled to Syria.

The head of MI5 has said the terror threat level facing Britain is the highest he has seen in his 32-year career.

Andrew Parker, director general of the Security Service, said six terror plots had been thwarted in the last year.

And during a speech in London on Wednesday, he also warned that so-called Islamic State (IS) is planning "mass casualty" attacks on Britain.

He described a "three dimensional threat" at home, overseas and online - with an increasing amount of MI5's casework linked to Syria and IS.

"It (IS) uses the full range of modern communications tools to spread its message of hate, and to inspire extremists, sometimes as young as their teens, to conduct attacks in whatever way they can."

And he warned the threat posed by IS - also known as ISIL - "shows no sign of abating" after more than 750 British extremists travelled to Syria.

Mr Parker also highlighted that al Qaeda groups in South Asia, the Arabian Peninsula and parts of Africa remain a threat.

"All of this means that the threat we are facing today is on a scale and at a tempo that I have not seen before in my career," he added.

His remarks come days before the Government is expected to publish a draft of landmark legislation covering spies' activities in the digital era.

And he insisted the security agencies need greater powers to keep the country safe.

"Today the conversations of our adversaries are happening on a bewildering array of devices and digital platforms, often provided by companies based overseas.

"Information gathered from the technology terrorists use, often in the same way as the rest of us, may sometimes be the only way to stop them.

"And so we need the tools to access terrorists' communications online just as much as we intercepted written communications and telephone calls in years gone by."

Videos at source

Source

Turkish police raid opposition TV station ahead of election

Offices of Turkish opposition media group Koza Ipek are being stormed by Turkish police. Tear gas and water cannon are being used to quell the protest after an earlier assault on the building.

Media workers have told RT they are being prevented from entering or exiting the building, and broadcasting has been stopped by the police.

"They don't let me go outside my office," Emrah Ulker, a journalist from Koza Ipek's subsidiary Bugun TV told RT by phone from inside the besieged building. "They cut our broadcast, and now we have a black screen, because we are open to all different political views of Turkish society."

A Kanalturk TV presenter and producer also trapped inside the building told RT that the actions of the police were "a real shock" for the journalists.

"They used force to come inside... At first they didn't go into the control room... but then they cut out broadcast, so now we are blacked out," Aydan Onder told RT by phone. "Nobody is telling anything about what's happening... We don't know what to do tomorrow... I'm not sure if we can go inside tomorrow," she added.

The incident took place outside the offices of Kanalturk and Bugun TV in Istanbul, while footage was broadcast live on Bugun’s website.

It comes days before the country goes to the polls. The media outlet is linked to an Islamic preacher opposed to President Tayyip Recep Erdogan.

"Anyone who doesn't support the government... are branded terrorists. They [the authorities] did something very unlawful, they took over the company... This morning I came to the channel and I could hardly enter... there was tear gas and lots of violence," Pelin Batu, Bugun TV presenter trapped inside the company's headquarters told RT.

The Turkish journalist, a prominent critic of the Turkish regime, said she didn't believe there was freedom of the press in Turkey and that the state is "in the running for being one of the most fascist countries in the world."

Russian warplanes hit record 118 Syria targets in 24 hours: Moscow

Moscow (AFP) - Russian warplanes have struck 118 "terrorist" targets in Syria over the past 24 hours, its highest daily total yet, the defence ministry said Wednesday, attributing the rise to fresh intelligence.

Russian jets hit 118 targets during 71 sorties over the provinces of Idlib, Homs, Hama, Aleppo, Damascus and Latakia, said the defence ministry.

It was the highest one-day tally since the Kremlin began its bombing campaign on September 30.

The previous record was set on Monday when Moscow said it had struck 94 "terrorist" targets in Syria.

The defence ministry released no information on Tuesday.

"The number of sorties has gone up," the ministry said in a statement.

"This is due to an increase in intelligence data," he said, adding that targets had been "confirmed via various channels."

The strikes destroyed a command post near the town of Talbisseh in Homs province that belonged to Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front, said the ministry.

Among the other targets was a base in Aleppo province used to control a "terrorist" weapon supply route which was "destroyed", along with the vehicle-mounted anti-aircraft systems that were protecting it, it said.

In Sahl al-Ghab valley, which lies between the provinces of Hama and Idlib, the warplanes hit a "camouflaged supply base", causing an explosion that also destroyed trucks parked some 500 metres away.

Russian forces also hit a command and communications post of Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) group near Mesraba, a town north-east of Damascus, and "completely destroyed" a command post in Salma, Latakia, after discovering it with unmanned aerial vehicles.

Moscow says its bombing campaign targets Islamic State jihadists and other "terrorists" but the United States and its allies accuse Russia of targeting Western-backed moderate rebels fighting Kremlin-backed President Bashar al-Assad's forces.

‘France to stand by Greece to lighten debt burden’, says Hollande

French President François Hollande on Friday pledged to help Greece alleviate its debt burden by backing Athen’s request for renegotiations over the terms of its bailout by the end of the year.

The socialist French president is one of the few European leaders to have unabashedly lent support to young leftist Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras during months of fraught creditor talks earlier this year.

"France must continue to stand by Greece," Hollande told reporters after signing a strategic partnership with Tsipras, notably offering French economic management expertise, especially to tackle tax evasion.

On his first visit to Athens since 2013, Hollande praised Greece's determination to stay the course of economic reform.

“Of course Greece must honour its commitments. But they are not contesting that,” Hollande said.

“What Greece is asking for is flexibility - that’s understandable,” he said. “Of course, when the (bailout) review is completed the renegotiation for the debt should begin to lighten the debt burden.”

Hollande said a fresh round of negotiations should start after bailout inspectors complete a review of Greece’s reforms progress, which is expected next month.

Greece’s economy is expected to weaken after briefly emerging from a six-year downturn, pushing its projected national debt to above 190 percent of annual GDP in 2016.

France played a key role this summer in hammering out the deal between Greece and Eurozone countries for a major third bailout, after talks came to the brink of collapse and Greece faced the possibility of a eurozone exit.

The major new round of austerity measures has angered unions who have called a general strike on November 12. Ongoing talks with bailout lenders have failed to end disagreement on how to tackle a growing number of bad loans threatening the country’s banking system.

On Friday, Tsipras promised to honour bailout commitments “to the letter.” But he claimed “extreme neoliberal” supporters in Europe - a thinly veiled reference to fiscal hawks in the German finance ministry - were trying to undermine the deal.

“It’s one thing to honour our commitments and agreements, and another to consider Greece not to be an equal partner but a convict serving a sentence,” he said.

Migrant influx

The French leader promised, too, to stand by Greece as it grapples with rising numbers of migrants.

"Greece is our frontier," he added, pledging 60 French experts to reinforce EU border agency Frontex, helping it to staff emergency registration centres across the region.

"We must cooperate to protect our borders," Hollande said, adding that those who did not meet refugee criteria "should be turned back."

The International Organisation for Migration said Greece had 48,000 migrants and refugees landing on its shores in the past five days, the highest number of weekly arrivals so far.

Hollande also vowed to support Greece in an address to the parliament, becoming the third French president to speak before the chamber after General Charles de Gaulle in 1963 and Nicolas Sarkozy in 2008.

On his arrival in Athens on Thursday, Hollande recalled the "bold decisions" taken by Tsipras, who in July agreed to more public spending cuts in return for a three-year, €86 billion EU bailout to prevent Greece crashing out of the eurozone.

"We did everything, France and Greece... for Greece to remain in Europe and that Europe show solidarity with Greece.

"And today, that is the message that I will continue to carry."

Tsipras on Friday acknowledged that Hollande "was among those who persuaded me that I had to accept" the July bailout.