The West dismissed Russian offer to help remove Assad in 2012, says top diplomat

[flitox]

Finnish diplomat and Nobel laureate Martti Ahtisaari suggested that there was a moment early on during Syria's hideous war when a political solution could have been thrashed out. Ahtisaari claims that in February 2012, when the conflict had claimed under 10,000 lives, Russia's envoy to the United Nations outlined a peace plan that could have led to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's exit from power.

Ahtisaari detailed the discussions in an interview with the Guardian newspaper: Vitaly Churkin, the Russian envoy, "said three things," according to Ahtisaari. "One — we should not give arms to the opposition. Two — we should get a dialogue going between the opposition and Assad straight away. Three — we should find an elegant way for Assad to step aside."

Ahtisaari, a former Finnish president who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008 for his efforts as a negotiator and settler of conflicts around the world, was adamant about the seriousness of Churkin's proposal, which he believed had the Kremlin's backing.

According to the Guardian, Ahtisaari had been sent in February 2012 to speak with the ambassadors of the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council at the behest of the Elders, a group of senior statesmen and former world leaders focused on peace and the defense of human rights. The envoys from the United States, France and Britain apparently "ignored" Churkin's proposal.

"Nothing happened because I think [the Western diplomats], and many others, were convinced that Assad would be thrown out of office in a few weeks so there was no need to do anything," Ahtisaari told the Guardian.

By August 2011, the White House had already demanded that Assad cede power. The glow of the Arab Spring, which had seen a succession of entrenched dictators fall in the space of a year, had probably influenced the administration's thinking on Syria.

The Russians, meanwhile, had given very little indication that they ever were willing to force through a resolution to the conflict that would entail the removal of longtime ally Assad. Just weeks before Ahtisaari had his chat with Churkin in February 2012, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had visited Damascus and strongly backed the Assad regime's supposed overtures to the opposition.

"Efforts to stop violence have to be met with dialogue by all the political forces," Lavrov said at the time. "Today we received confirmation of the readiness of the president of Syria for this work."

Assad's embrace of the notion of dialogue with a limited group of opposition figures, many said, was insincere and hollow, given the ferocity with which the regime was targeting protesters and dissidents.

The U.S. ambassador to Russia at the time, Michael McFaul, expressed dismay. "Today was a disappointing one for all those who aspire to build a new kind of relationship between the United States and Russia. Great powers have great responsibilities," he wrote on his Facebook page. "[i am] Hoping for new progress in coming hours and days before it's too late in Syria."

In June 2012, some Russian officials appeared to be suggesting that Moscow wasn't committed to Assad remaining in charge but still insisted on the regime spearheading the process of internal dialogue and reconciliation.

Mikhail Bogdanov, the Russian deputy foreign minister, invoked the prospect of a "Yemen scenario," referring to the process under which Yemen's long-ruling president had stepped aside as part of a negotiated transition. But Bogdanov subsequently dismissed the rumors that Assad intended to quit.

A conference in Geneva held by the United Nations in late June 2012 failed to yield any agreement over Assad's political fate. Either Russia didn’t really have any leverage over Assad or it just wanted to win more time and stave off an aggressive foreign intervention in a country that has long been in Moscow's orbit.

"I don’t believe they were really prepared for Assad to step down," Mahmoud al-Hamza, a Moscow-based member of the Syrian Opposition Coalition, told WorldViews on Tuesday.

On July 19, Russia and China once more vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution that threatened Syria with sanctions should it continue its punishing response to the anti-regime uprising.

"It was an opportunity lost in 2012," Ahtisaari told the Guardian, though it's unclear how real that opportunity was.

What is clear is that greater diplomatic efforts then could have saved countless lives and the tragic unraveling of an entire nation. More than 250,000 Syrians have died in the conflict since 2011, while about 12 million people — half of the country's population — have been forced from their homes.

"We should have prevented this from happening because this is a self-made disaster, this flow of refugees to our countries in Europe," Ahtisaari told the Guardian. "I don’t see any other option but to take good care of these poor people.… We are paying the bills we have caused ourselves."

And in Syria, Russia appears to have doubled down on its support of Assad, escalating its military role in the country in recent weeks with the argument that the regime is the only force that can defeat the jihadists of the Islamic State.

"We are supporting the government of Syria in the fight against a terrorist aggression, are offering and will continue to offer it necessary military-technical assistance," Putin said in televised remarks. "Without an active participation of the Syrian authorities and the military, it would be impossible to expel the terrorists from that country and the region as a whole, and to protect the multi-ethnic and multi-confessional Syrian people from destruction."

That last statement may raise the hackles of hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of Syrians, forced into tremendous hardship as a direct result of the war the Assad regime unleashed on its people.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/09/15/the-west-dismissed-russian-offer-to-help-remove-assad-in-2012-says-top-diplomat/

also here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3236543/Could-Syrian-civil-war-ended-peacefully-THREE-YEARS-ago-Former-Finnish-president-says-Britain-ignored-Russian-proposal-Assad-step-down.html

(i really like the last paragraph lol)

[dMog]

well... when was the last time politicians of any stripe color or breed actually made the correct decision when looked at 20 year later :rolleyes: i can also cite you instances when the west made similar overtures to russia and were turned down ...why because they both practice the world political game of one-up-man-ship to the determent of all of us...any one who does not see that truth is only fooling themselves

[sternog]

All these "credible" pieces of information, regarding also presence of Russian troops (unconfirmed by Russia and denied by the official government of Syria) appeared recently.

However, it remains the fact that the USA and their allies are unable to do anything about ISIS, the airstrikes don`t stop ISIS, their trained opposition currently counts 4-5 people (41 million $ of training program budget just wasted).

As the official army of Syria is almost the only force that can do anything against ISIS in the area (what West is unable to admit), Russia provides weapons, tanks etc in order to help fighting ISIS, as was agreed with the official government of Syria long before the hysteria about Russian troops in Syria began in the US mass media.

The only way to stop flow of refugees from Syria is to stop ISIS and help those civillians who still stay in Syria.

The problem of ISIS was created by West (the USA had a plan to remove Assad since 2006 at least, they funded and armed "good terrorists", calling them opposition) and actively contributed to:

http://www.businessinsider.com/omar-al-shishani-isis-commander-and-us-2015-9

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/news/nation-world/world/middle-east/article35322882.html

The USA also refused to ban ISIS as an extremist organisation.

[hawk007]

Not only that, the Talibans were also created by USA to fight against Russins troops in Afganistan during Najibullah regime. Now Talibans are their worst enemy. Today, what is going on is nothing but the continuition and establishment of their masterplan to capture worlds major Oil/Gas production zone. If successful, they can pull down the entire world under their feet.

[212eta]

To allow their Gulf Oil/Gas Pipelines passing through Syria,

the Western Powers need to overthrone King Assad.

Then, the Western Powers formed ISIS to do the dirty job... ;)

[flitox]

To allow their Gulf Oil/Gas Pipelines passing through Syria,

the Western Powers need to overthrone King Assad.

Then, the Western Powers formed ISIS to do the dirty job... ;)

wait they were supposed to go thru libya, hence why they had to take down ghadafi...

[sternog]

http://www.radixjournal.com/blog/2015/9/5/gaddafis-revenge

Some people never learn and repeat the same mistakes over and over again - particularly UK PM Cameron.

[flitox]

well, khadafi was wrong, he went down, nothing much happened immigration wise until recently because of what is happening is Syria.

moreover he is speaking about african immigration, what we have is middle east immigration.

[sternog]

because of what is happening is Syria

Obviously you think that only refugees from Syria swarm Europe.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-24583286

A surge of desperate migrants from the Middle East and Africa...

The conflicts raging in Syria and Afghanistan, and abuses in Eritrea, are major drivers of the migration.

[Sylence]

Not only that, the Talibans were also created by USA to fight against Russins troops in Afganistan during Najibullah regime. Now Talibans are their worst enemy. Today, what is going on is nothing but the continuition and establishment of their masterplan to capture worlds major Oil/Gas production zone. If successful, they can pull down the entire world under their feet.

This is so funny, US itself created Talibans yet had been hunting its leader, Bin Ladan, for 10 years. imagine if it was up to the US to eliminate ISIS, that would take another 10 year for them to take Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi out..even more I guess. Lol :D

[bashar]

I don't believe there was such an offer from Russia. Back in 2012, Russia was very hardcore supporter for the regime, and the regime itself was waay stronger than now.

But I don't know why Russia risked its interests in the country when it could easily replace Assad by another loyal president (even alwaite). This would've kept Syria intact at least from the Russia interests prospective, because honestly no body cares about Syria as a country. But apparently the whole world wants to see a new failing state.

[212eta]

well, khadafi was wrong...

...because, he decided to

sign the Libyan Oil contracts with the Chinese Oil companies

and Not Renew the Expired Oil contracts of the Western Oil companies...

[flitox]

because of what is happening is Syria

Obviously you think that only refugees from Syria swarm Europe.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-24583286

A surge of desperate migrants from the Middle East and Africa...

The conflicts raging in Syria and Afghanistan, and abuses in Eritrea, are major drivers of the migration.

so ofcourse when khadafi was here, the immigrant stayed home cuz they could not go thru libya, when they could have used other roads to come over??

too bad they didn't give numbers for years previous to 2014 in the link you gave. would have been interesting

[dMog]

actually when kadafi was around the rest of the world was paying him money to keep the immigrants trying to flee in camps in his country... this mess has been ongoing for a long time...not just recent not too many countries anywhere including arab countries were and still not willing to take the refugees today