WHAT'S ARABAIC FOR DUH?

Yesterday it was reported that the President of the Syrian National Council had refused to attend the Geneva II peace talks. This was a few weeks after The Friends of Syria Group met in London and agreed that President Assad had to go. Just where did this arrogance in telling Syria who can and cannot rule come from? This has obviously led the SNC to believe that they still have the full backing, with blunt breadknives and all, from the DFQ, USA, Israel and Saudi Arabia.

In response to the SNC statement, President Assad, after immediately agreeing to attend, has now refused to attend.

The Syrian regime will not attend a proposed Geneva peace conference if the aim is for President Bashar Al-Assad to hand over power, the country's information minister said Monday, according to AFP.

"We will not go to Geneva to hand over power as desired by (Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud) al-Faisal and certain opponents abroad," Omran al-Zoubi said in comments carried by the official SANA news agency.

"President Bashar Al-Assad will remain head of state," he declared.

[source : Syria Says No to Peace Talks Aimed at Removing Assad, INN, http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/173621#.Unic7iexOSo, 5th November 2013]

Jihadi Hague torpedoed earlier peace talks by demanding that an EU arms embargo which expired during the summer should not be reimplemented. This gave the rebels confidence and arms.

Readers should also note that the INN report quoted above does not mention that the SNC refused to attend first, stating the precondition that Assad had to go. Nor does the report state that Assad had agreed to attend.

Saudi Arabia is becoming very concerned about the situation in Syria, and threatening another Ghouta to drag in the USA. From the same report:

Saudi Arabia expressed anger after U.S. President Barack Obama stepped back after threatening a punitive strike against Syria over a chemical attack in August on a rebel-held district near Damascus.

While Kerry reiterated that Washington opposes military intervention to end the bloodshed in Syria, Prince Saud said negotiations "shouldn't just go on indefinitely", in reference to the proposed peace conference.