LOL at Mimi al Laham, an Australian bimbo.
she is not a bimbo... she is highly intelligent, eloquent and brave, and she will make a good political leader if she looks in that direction.
and her efforts are supported by syrian expats in australia
[1]...
Capitals, SANA- Syrian students and communities celebrated the 65th anniversary of the Syria Arab Student Day by arranging different activities.
In Canberra, a festivity was organized by the Syrian Students National Union/Australia Branch as the students gathered at the center of the city and raised the Syrian national flag and the photos of President Bashar al-Assad, chanting national songs.
The students reiterated support to the Syrian Arab Army in its war against terrorism, affirming confidence in its ability to restore security and stability to the homeland.
In WW2 some 1 million Russians served in German army in supporting units. Tens of millions cooperated in one way or another. Does it change anything?
you had said this...
Thats not true. There are some Sunnis who are simply drafted there by force and stay there because they fear for their relatives.
...meaning you were trying to portray that any sunni in the syrian armed forces
( or government ) was dispensable cannon-fodder... the people i listed are high-profile and most of them could have defected like general salim idris
[2] or the cosmonaut muhammed faris
[3]... they didn't.
mimi living in far-away australia could have started working with the tableegh jamaati nato-assisted terrorist group, hizb-ut-tahrir, which openly operates there and is a legal group there... she didn't.
the people part of the syrian state system or supporting it are doing so voluntarily, because they know that it is the pre-2011 syrian system that provides them freedom, rights and peace, and they know that if the nato-created fsa/snc form the "government" in syria, syria would become afghanistan under taliban and now ( which is generally same as under taliban )... this is why the sensible and patriotic syrians defend bashar al-assad and the syrian army.
sure, there are some legitimate opposition movements but those reject the nato-created regime-change program against the assad government... in 2011 or 2012, one such opposition movement leader was interviewed in london by the now famous british journalist, morris herman... it should still be there on morris' youtube channel
[4].
as bashar al-assad has been saying in interviews since long, the demands of the opposition will be sought to be included in the syrian political process, unless a certain opposition group has been involved in terrorism and is supported by foreign governments... also, arrested militants who are syrian have been given amnesty and given chance to restart a good life indicating that the syrian government wants to avoid harming any opposing militant syrian.
take this excerpt from a interview published on sana website in january 2015
[5]... the interview was by a american magazine "foreign affairs"...
Journalist: When two parties come together, it’s often very useful for one party to show the other that it’s really interested in making progress by taking steps unilaterally to try and bring down the temperature. The measures that I described would have that effect.
President Assad: You have something concrete, and that is reconciliation. People gave up their armaments, we gave them amnesty, they live normal lives. It is a real example. So this is a measure of confidence. On the other hand, what is the relation between that opposition and the prisoners? There’s no relation. They are not their prisoners anyway. So it is completely a different issue.
Question 17: So, have you offered amnesty to fighters?
President Assad: Yes, of course, and we did it many times.
Question 18: How many, do you have numbers?
President Assad: I don’t have the precise numbers, but it’s thousands, not hundreds, thousands of militants.
Question 19: And are you prepared to say to the entire opposition that if you lay down your weapons, you will be safe?
President Assad: Yes, I said it publically in one of my speeches.
Question 20: And how can you guarantee their safety? Because they have reasons to distrust your government.
President Assad: You cannot, but at the end, let’s say that if more than 50 percent succeed, more than 50 percent in such circumstances would be a success. So, that’s how. Nothing is absolute. You have to expect some negative aspects, but they are not the major aspects.
and this is a excerpt from a interview published on sana website in december 2015
[6]...
Question 1: Thank you very much, Mr. President, for your hospitality and for giving the Spanish News Agency EFE the opportunity to understand what is the situation in your country. Okay, on November 14th, the world powers, including Russia and Iran, agreed in Vienna on a timetable for a political solution for the Syria crisis. According to this timetable, the negotiations between your government and the moderate opposition should start on January 1st. Are you ready to start those negotiations?
President Assad: You are most welcome in Syria. Since the very beginning of the conflict in Syria, we adopted the dialogue approach with every party that is involved in the Syrian conflict, and we dealt positively, responded positively, to every initiative that has been launched by different states around the world regardless of the real intention and the genuineness of the people or the officials who started those initiatives. So, we were ready, and we are ready today to start the negotiations with the opposition. But it depends on the definition of opposition. Opposition, for everyone in this world, doesn’t mean militant. There’s a big difference between militants, terrorists, and opposition. Opposition is a political term, not a military term. So, talking about the concept is different from the practice, because so far, we’ve been seeing that some countries, including Saudi Arabia, the United States, and some Western countries wanted the terrorist groups to join these negotiations. They want the Syrian government to negotiate with the terrorists, something I don’t think anyone would accept in any country.
Question 2: Would you be ready to negotiate, to dialogue, with the opposition groups that are right now gathering in Riyadh?
President Assad: It’s the same, because they are a mixture of political opposition and militants. Let me be realistic; regarding the militants in Syria, we already had some dialogue with some groups, not organizations, for one reason, and the reason was to reach a situation where they give up their armaments and either join the government or go back to their normal life, having amnesty from the government. This is the only way to deal with the militants in Syria. Whenever they want to change their approach, give up the armaments, we are ready, while to deal with them as a political entity, this is something we completely refuse. This is first. Regarding what they call political opposition, you as a Spanish [person], when you look at the opposition in your country, it’s self-evident that the opposition is a Spanish opposition, is related to the Spanish grassroots, Spanish citizens. It cannot be opposition while it’s related and beholden to any other country, to a foreign country, no matter which country. So, again, it depends on which group are we talking about in Saudi Arabia. People that have been made as opposition in Saudi Arabia, in Qatar, in France, in the UK, in the US. So, as a principle, we have to, we are ready, but at the end, if you want to reach something, to have successful and fruitful dialogue, you need to deal with the real, patriotic, national opposition that has grassroots in Syria and is only related to the Syrian people, not to any other state or regime in the world.
Question 3: Will the Syrian delegation attend the conference in New York in case this conference was confirmed, in the next weeks?
There’s no point of meeting in New York or anywhere else without defining terrorist groups
though the primary condition for peace in syria would be to go back to pre-2011 situation, true progress in syria would only be achieved if the syrian socialist system is progressed by adopting the "green book" of libya... if some syrians oppose the presence of the syrian ba'ath movement as a overarching presence in syrian politics, it would be better for the syrian ba'ath socialist movement to proceed towards a party-less system that provides direct-democracy under guidance of the same socialism and include the current opposition into the new political process, as long as this opposition doesn't go anti-human and against common sense... there, true democracy achieved !!
I many times asked simple thing: if majority of Syrians support Assad then why he needs Iraqi and Afghan Shia mercenaries to fight for him??
first, i would put a simple counterpoint - assad is also being supported by fighting units of the palestinian pflp-gc who presumably are all sunni and christian... plus, there would be fighting and ideological units of the iraqi ba'ath movement in support of the syrian government and armed forces, and these iraqi ba'athis would include sunni and christians... so it incorrect to say that only shia fight for assad.
then there are the "national defence forces" ( ndf )
[7], who are a syrian people's milita of former civilians, including ladies, trained and acting in support of the syrian army and other groups that support the syrian government... the ndf when started at least, numbered 100,000... so here was one example of the support of the syrian people for assad.
but to your point about iraqi and afghan shia individuals ( and pakistani too ) supporting the syrian armed forces, i agree that there is a religious ideological and practical element where iran government will provide good financial assistance to those foreign shia who will protect some religious shrines in syria that are important to the shia and are under threat from the terrorists
[8][9] and of course, the various shia sub-divisions within syria will be massacred if the fsa/snc come to power.
and those afghani shia need not come from afghanistan
[9]...
Over the past two years, numerous Shiites from Pakistan and Afghanistan have been buried in Iranian cities like Mashhad, Qom and Tehran. According to a UNHCR report, nearly
1 million Afghans live in Iran. Although it appears that the majority of Afghans killed in Syria had been living in Iran previously, other reports indicate that some of the Afghans traveled directly from Afghanistan to Syria to fight.
and the motivations for these refugees need not be entirely religious
[9]...
His motivations for fighting in Syria were to earn a salary and to make sure that he will not be deported from Iran. He has been living with his family in the city of Qom for the past 10 years and for every three months he spends in Syria, he receives 6 million tomans ($2,115) and can take 20 days off to visit his family in Iran.
When asked if staying in Iran is worth risking his life, he responds, “Well, we take part in the jihad, we earn money and this is also a guarantee that we will not be deported. Iranian officials have told us that those who go to war will not be deported.”
Iranian parliamentary commissions have discussed and published several articles on the issue of Iranian residency for Afghan fighters. Reformist newspaper Shargh reports, “The National Security Commission of the parliament is looking to
revise an article in the constitution and give more rights, including Iranian citizenship, to non-Iranian fighters, soldiers and elites.”
When a Shargh reporter asked Hossein Naghavi Hosseini, spokesman for the National Security Commission, whether this parliamentary proposal has anything to do with Afghan refugees volunteering to fight in Syria and Iraq, he answered, "There are no direct relations, but cases such as these motivate the parliament to make these suggestions. We have shared values and beliefs and we believe in safeguarding these beliefs."
but when you mention foreign shia fighters from afghanistan, why do you also not mention the taliban fighters from pakistan ( and also afghanistan ) going into syria to fight in support of the nato regime-change program??
[10]...
PESHAWAR: The Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) commanders on Tuesday rejected suggestions they were sending fighters to Syria, saying some have gone there independently but the movement’s focus remained in Pakistan.
They said some militants, mainly Arabs and Central Asians, had gone to fight the forces of President Bashar al Assad, but a senior Taliban leader dismissed reports of them setting up camps in Syria.
The tribal areas along the Afghan border have long been a magnet for militants from across the Muslim world eager to fight US-led Nato forces in Afghanistan.
But since the uprising against Bashar al-Assad began in March 2011, foreign jihadis have flocked to Syria, where disparate rebel groups are seeking his downfall.
Some media reports in recent days have claimed scores or even hundreds of Pakistani Taliban jihadists are among them and that they have set up jihadi camps in Syria.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 17th, 2013.
@Zibago @haviZsultan @WAJsal @MaarKhoor @django ^^^
in fact, in 2011 were reports of usa airforce planes taking off from afghanistan with full loads of taliban fighters destined to fight in the battlefields of libya... after the october 2011 occupation of tripoli, many of these afghan talibanis in libya would have taken their war experience to syria... and early in the syria war i saw a vid where some terrorists in a certain locality had been cleared by the syrian army and before that they terrorists had been using that area's mosque loudspeaker to instigate the people there against the government... the people said that they didn't sound syrian and looked "pakistani" ( which really would mean much of south asians - afghani, pakistani, indian, bangladeshi ).
and since you mention iraq
[11]...
This article was first published on February 16, 2014. In early 2014, ISIS fighters were heralded by Washington as “Freedom Fighters”. A few months later, Obama launches his crusade against the Islamic state fighters who had been trained and financed by US-NATO and its Persian Gulf allies.
Several hundred convicted criminals who escaped from carefully guarded prisons in Iraq have recently joined the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as well as the Al Qaeda affiliated rebel force, Jabhat Al Nusra.
Acknowledged by the NYT, the prison breakouts are part of the recruitment of jihadists to serve in the Syrian insurgency. What is not mentioned, however, is that the recruitment of mercenaries is coordinated by NATO, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar with the support of the Obama administration. Moreover, known and documented, most Al Qaeda affiliated forces are covertly supported by Western intelligence including the CIA, Mossad and Britain’s MI6.
US Occupation forces and military personnel in the prisons turned a blind eye to the breakouts.
Abu Aisha was originally arrested by the Americans and then released from Camp Bucca, the infamous American prison in southern Iraq, in 2008. He was rearrested by the Iraqis in 2010.
“Finally, they put me in Abu Ghraib, and I again met some of the leaders and fighters I knew, including princes from Al Qaeda — Iraqis, Arabs and other nationalities,” he said. “Most of them had been at Bucca as well.”
One night last summer, as Abu Aisha sat in his cell waiting, as he did each day, for his date with the executioner, explosions and gunfire erupted and a familiar prison guard opened the doors to his cell and told him to leave immediately. With hundreds of others, Abu Aisha ran through the prison’s corridors until he escaped through a hole that had been blasted through a wall. He hopped into a waiting Kia truck that took him to freedom — and back to the battlefield.
Abu Aisha said leaders of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria gave him a choice: leave and fight with them in Syria, or stay and fight in Iraq. (NYT, op cit, emphasis added)
and
[11]...
Saudi Arabia –which has played a central role in channeling weapons (including anti-aircraft missiles) to the jihadists on behalf of Washington– has been actively involved in the recruitment of mercenaries from the kingdom’s prisons.
In Saudi Arabia, however, there were no breakouts: criminals serving jail sentences were released from the kingdom’s prisons on condition they join the Syrian jihad.
A top secret memo sent by the Ministry of Interior in Saudi Arabia “reveals the Saudi Kingdom
sent death-row inmates, sentenced to execution by decapitation, to Syria to fight Jihad against the Syrian government in exchange for commuting their sentences.”
According to the April 17, 2012 memo, Saudi Arabia recruited some 1200 inmates, “offering them a full pardon and a monthly salary for their families, who were to remain in the Kingdom, in exchange for “…training for the sake of sending to the Jihad in Syria.”
Among those released from prison and recruited in Saudi Arabia were inmates from Yemen, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Jordan, Somalia, Afghanistan, Egypt, Pakistan, Iraq, and Kuwait.
----
[1]
Syrian students abroad celebrate Syrian Student Day – Syrian Arab News Agency
[2]
Salim Idris - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[3]
https://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/08/05/230575.html
[4]
108morris108 - YouTube
[5]
President al-Assad to Foreign Affairs Magazine: Israel is supporting terrorist organizations in Syria (Full Text) – Syrian Arab News Agency
[6]
President al-Assad: Russia’s policy towards Syria is based on values and interests, the West is not serious in fighting terrorists – Syrian Arab News Agency
[7]
ndf, the "national defence forces" of syria - a documentary
[8]
Rocket attack kills custodian of Bibi Zainab's shrine in Syria - The Express Tribune
[9]
Iranian doc follows Afghan fighters in Syria - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
[10]
Rebuttal: TTP reject reports of ‘Taliban camps’ in Syria - The Express Tribune
[11]
Convicted Criminals Serve as ISIS “Freedom Fighters” in Syria: Saudi, Pakistani and Iraqi Prison Inmates Replenish Al Qaeda Ranks | Global Research - Centre for Research on Globalization
