Displaying items by tag: United States

Press Statement

Moscow Platform

Representatives of the Moscow Platform for the Syrian Opposition in the Syrian Negotiation Commission (SNC) - Alaa Arafat, Youssef Salman, Sami Betinjane, Mohannad Dlykan - are heading to attend the SNC's next meeting on 2-3-4 June, in Geneva. This comes after an over 3.5 year interruption in the Platform's participation in any SNC activity, as a result of several pending controversial issues, especially since an arbitrary and illegal decision was taken against the Platform. The decision was to revoke the membership of one of the Platform's representatives in the SNC and its representative to the Syrian Constitutional Committee's Small Group, Mohannad Dlykan, after calling for transferring the Constitutional Committee's work to Damascus while securing the necessary guarantees for that, a position the Platform continues to see as the correct one and continues to demand it.

On Tuesday, April 18, the Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (AANES) published a document entitled “An initiative to solve the Syrian crisis”. Those who issued the document called on the various Syrian forces to consider it.

(The following article was originally published in English on geopolitika.ru on the 17^th of March 2023)

On Friday, March 10, a historic agreement was announced between Saudi Arabia and Iran, including resumption of diplomatic relations between the two neighboring countries after an interruption that lasted more than seven years (since January 2016). This agreement was reached through Chinese mediation at the highest levels. The two sides expressed gratitude to Chinese President Xi Jingping personally for his efforts to achieve a settlement between the two countries.

(The following article was originally published by CGTN, on the 10th of March 2023)

Since February 24, 2022, Washington has tried to impose on the entire world a specific perception of the battle in Ukraine, not as a battle taking place in Europe, but as a global battle in which the U.S. is the commander of one of its sides, and the entire world must choose to be either with or against it. This is the same way George W. Bush acted during the so-called war on terror.

US House of Representatives member Matt Gaetz introduced on February 21 a bill pursuant to the War Powers Resolution of 1973. The brief bill states that “Congress directs the President to remove the United States Armed Forces from Syria by not later than the date that is 15 days after the date of the adoption of this concurrent resolution”. Later, on March 1, Gaetz introduced a modified copy of the bill, in which the period was changed from 15 days to 180 days. The bill is still in the early stages, where it has been referred to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and it has not yet been put to vote.

(The following article was originally published in English by CGTN on the 25th of February 2023)

On February 18, Wang Yi, director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, while attending the Munich Security Conference in Germany, said that China would publish a document outlining its "position on the political settlement of the Ukraine crisis." 

(The following article was originally published on geopolitika.ru website)

On Tuesday, February 14, a Russian MFA media release about a meeting between Mikhail Bogdanov, the Special Representative of the Russian President, and Kadri Jamil, one of the Syrian Opposition leaders, stated: “the Russian side stressed the need to establish practical cooperation between Damascus and Ankara in order to overcome the consequences of the earthquake on February 6.”

This statement confirms Russia’s pursuit of a Syrian-Turkish settlement, which over the seven months preceding the earthquake, was the main item on the agenda of the Astana Format (for Syria peace talks).

For the Syrian public, inside and outside Syria, the humanitarian aspect related to the earthquake disaster and the deep pain it left behind, as well as to their crisis that erupted 12 years ago, is always the most valued and important aspect, at least in its emotional and national side. For the political sides, especially the extremists, as well as for the external powers, especially the Western ones, the humanitarian aspect is the least important, and it is just a tool to pass policies.

We deal in this article with an aspect that we have not previously dealt with extensively within the discussion of US and Western sanctions on Syria. This aspect can be condensed by the question bearing the title of the article: When will the US lift its sanctions on Syria?

Talk about the Putin-Biden summit, which will be held on the 16th of this month in Geneva, occupies the top place in the various current political discussions. This is not surprising, especially when it comes to hot clashing points, as is the case in Syria.