Western media on Syria

From Brrtain's the Independent.Nothing about reality on the ground.

Assad 'will be removed by force' if peace talks fail, Saudi Foreign Minister says

'Bashar al-Assad will leave - have no doubt about it'

the Independent,

12 February, 2016

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will be removed by force if the Syrian peace process fails, Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister has said.

"Bashar al-Assad will leave - have no doubt about it" Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told CNN. "He will either leave by a political process or he will be removed by force."

Saudi Arabia has sent troops and fighter jets to a Turkish military base ahead of a possible ground invasion of Syria.

Mr Jubeir said Saudi Arabia is prepared to contribute ground troops to the fight in Syria, but only as part of a US-led coalition.

There were reports of Royal Saudi Air Force F-15 jets arriving at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey on Saturday morning

He added: "We will push as much as we can to ensure that the political process works. But if that doesn't work, it will be because of the obstinance of the Syrian regime and that of its allies.

"And should that prove to be the case, then it becomes clear that there is no option to remove Bashar al-Assad except by force."

Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin

On Sunday, he told a press conference in Riyadh that previous efforts to prop up Assad by Iran had failed.

"Now, [President Assad] has sought the help of Russia, which will fail to save him," he added.

The Foreign Minister's comments come as Syrian government forces, backed by Russian air strikes, have taken rebel ground near Aleppo and are poised to advance on the Isis stronghold of Raqqa province.

The move could be aimed at pre-empting any Saudi plans to send ground forces to fight Isis in Syria. 

Although world powers agreed to a temporary "cessation of hostilities" within a week, there is little hope for a long-term peace as President Assad vowed to regain control of the entire country by force, which he said would "take a long time and will incur a heavy price".

In the Guardian if all else fails (as it is) blame Putin

Russian jets pound Syria as Obama urges Putin to stop violence

Bombing threatens to derail fragile deal agreed in Munich calling for cessation of hostilities and humanitarian aid

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/feb/14/vladimir-putin-could-end-syrian-war-one-phone-call-philip-hammond

Violence raged across Syria on Sunday as Barack Obama urged Vladimir Putin to stop Russian bombing of mainstream rebels in an attempt to make diplomatic progress on a limited and temporary ceasefire that is supposed to come into effect this week.

Russian fighter jets continued to pound targets over the weekend and Turkey was drawn further into the conflict, shelling Kurdish positions in northern Syria for a second day amid growing alarm in Ankara that the Kurds are taking advantage of a political vacuum in the region.

The renewed violence threatens to end a fragile deal agreed by major powers in Munich last week which calls for a “cessation of hostilities” within a week and the delivery of humanitarian aid to besieged areas. The deal excludes military operations against the Islamic State terror group and al-Qaida’s wing in Syria, Jabhat al-Nusra.

An aerial campaign by Moscow launched last autumn and intensified in recent weeks has driven the most significant gains by the regime of Bashar al-Assadsince the start of the war, having primarily targeted mainstream rebels bent on overthrowing him.

The Kremlin said on Sunday that Obama and Putin had discussed the crisis in a telephone call, agreeing that the deal reached in Munich was a positive step and pledging to implement the ceasefire and the delivery of aid. 

But the White House said Obama had “in particular” stressed the need to contain airstrikes. “President Obama emphasised the importance now of Russia playing a constructive role by ceasing its air campaign against moderate opposition forces in Syria,” it said. 

Echoing the call for Moscow to end its assaults on moderate opposition fighters, Britain’s foreign secretary, Philip Hammond, said: “There is one man on this planet who can end the civil war in Syria by making a phonecall and that’s Mr Putin.”

But even as the appeals were made, Moscow continued to bomb areas in the provinces of Latakia and Aleppo. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group with wide contacts inside Syria, said Russian warplanes carried out an intense bombardment in northern Aleppo backing an offensive by troops loyal to Assad.

The Aleppo offensive, which risks encircling rebels that hold half of Syria’s largest city, has displaced 51,000 civilians, according to a UN official, who described the situation as grotesque. Tens of thousands of people are at risk of being placed under siege and many fleeing civilians have sought refuge near the Turkish border, potentially exacerbating the refugee crisis. 

Turkey already hosts more than two million war-displaced Syrians.

On Sunday, Moscow was accused of using its bombing campaign to add to the flow of people from the Middle East and thus feed divisions in Europe. John McCain, the US senator, said Russia’s strategy in Syria was to “exacerbate the refugee crisis and use it as a weapon to divide the transatlantic alliance and undermine the European project”.

Ankara shelled positions held by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria on Sunday, with fears in Turkey that the YPG is bent on establishing an autonomous Kurdish-ruled statelet on its border. The country is embroiled in fighting an insurgency by the PKK, a separatist Kurdish organisation that has been designated as a terrorist group and which allegedly maintains close ties with the YPG.

On Saturday, the Turkish prime minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, demanded that the YPG withdraw from areas it had conquered in Aleppo. A senior Syrian Kurdish official rejected Ankara’s demands in an interview with Reuters, saying Turkey had no right to interfere in Syrian affairs.

However, it appears that Turkey’s role will grow in the coming weeks. A Saudi military official confirmed that his country sent fighter jets to Turkey’s Incirlik airbase in preparation for stepping up its operations against Isis in Syria. 

In an interview with the pro-Saudi Al Arabiya, Brig Gen Ahmad al-Asiri said the move was part of the kingdom’s commitment to fighting the terror group, but no ground forces had yet been deployed.

Riyadh said last week it was prepared to send troops to fight Isis in Syria, a move that supporters of the Assad regime said risked broadening the war.

Saudi Arabia said on Sunday it was preparing to launch what it described as the largest military exercise ever conducted in the Middle East, dubbed Northern Thunder, featuring 20 allied Arab and Muslim countries.