The SNC vice president, Ghadri, said that the opposition coalition was not officially invited to the NY talks, but they expressed their views and opinions about the meeting through ambassadors of countries they consider as friends of Syria.
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Putin’s decree orders a halt to the 2011 Russian- Ukrainian agreement “due to exceptional circumstances which impact the interests and economic security of the Russian Federation”, according to the official document posted online.
“The Russians with their military intervention have basically said you can refuse to talk to Bashar Assad, but that means that you won’t get a political solution”, said Yezid Sayigh, a senior associate at the Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut.
Asked by a Ukrainian reporter an hour into the briefing about two Russian military intelligence officers captured by Kiev and now on trial in Ukraine, Putin said: “We never said there were not people there who carried out certain tasks including in the military sphere”.
HRW said in a report released Wednesday that all participants in global efforts to help settle the crisis should insist that the Syrian government give worldwide monitors immediate access to all detention centers and that Syria’s intelligence services must release all arbitrarily detained and political prisoners.
“NATO rules of engagement are more cautious that those of Turkey”, said another North Atlantic Treaty Organisation source. Maybe, they thought that we would run away from there (Syria)?
Russian airstrikes across northern Syria have been steadily shifting the epicenter of the war toward a corridor north of Aleppo, through which Turkey smuggles aid and supplies to the rebel groups it supports.
We all agree that Russian President Vladimir Putin does not look 63-years-old, but to justify that conspiracy theorists have gone to another level.
On Tuesday, Kerry stated after a meeting with Russian President Putin in Moscow, that the United States and its partners were not trying to overthrow the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Addressing Russia’s strained relations with some of its neighbors at his annual news conference, attended by hundreds of Russian and foreign journalists, Putin said he saw no possibility of overcoming the tensions with Turkey under its current leadership, and wanted to see the conflict in Ukraine settled as soon as possible. He said drastic personnel changes would do no good.
Russia’s export-based economy depends heavily on oil and natural gas.
Buffeted by Western sanctions imposed over the Ukraine crisis, falling oil prices, and a weakening ruble, Russia’s economy is forecast to shrink by around 4 percent this year, its sharpest contraction since the global financial crisis.
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He said the nation’s currencyy reserves stand at $364 billion and a capital outflow has slowed.
