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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
U.S., rebels urge gloomy Moscow to help oust Assad
2012-12-14
[Rooters] Syria's rebel leadership and the United States seized on Russian pessimism over Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad
Supressor of the Damascenes...
's future to urge Moscow to help push its ally into ceding power and end the battles closing in around his capital.

"We want to commend the Russian government for finally waking up to the reality and acknowledging that the regime's days are numbered," the U.S. State Department spokeswoman said after a senior Kremlin envoy conceded publicly on Thursday that Assad's opponents could win the 20-month-old civil war.

"The question now is, will the Russian government join those of us in the international community who are working with the opposition to try to have a smooth democratic transition?" U.S. spokeswoman Victoria Nuland added in Washington.

In Marrakech, where his new coalition won recognition from other international powers as the legitimate leadership of Syria, rebel political leader Mouaz al-Khatib said he believed Russia, ally and arms supplier to the Assad dynasty since Soviet times, was looking for ways out of its support for a lost cause.

"I believe that the Russians have woken up and are sensing that they have implicated themselves with this regime, but they don't know how to get out," al-Khatib told Rooters. He held them "particularly responsible" for helping Assad with arms but said Moscow need not "lose everything" in Syria if it changed tack.

Under President Vladimir Putin
...Second and fourth President of the Russian Federation and the first to remain sober. Because of constitutionally mandated term limits he traded jobs with Dmitry Medvedev as Prime Minister, then traded back. Putin is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something resembling the rule of law. During his eight years in office Russia's economy bounced back from crisis, seeing GDP increase, poverty decrease and average monthly salaries increase. During his presidency Putin passed into law a series of fundamental reforms, including a flat income tax of 13%, a reduced profits tax, and new land and legal codes. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to Putin. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile...
, wary since last year's Libyan war of what Russia sees as a Western drive to use the United Nations
...When talk is your weapon it's hard to make yourself heard over the artillery...
to overthrow national leaders it dislikes, Russia has blocked U.N. efforts to squeeze Assad, who has also had strong support from his long-time sponsor Iran.
Posted by:Fred

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