Susanne Posel
Occupy Corporatism
June 6, 2012
The Syrian government has barred US and European diplomats from their country, saying they are “ no longer welcome ” after their ambassadors were expelled from western nations last week.
The Obama administration is using global opinion to aid in their plan to force a Syrian regime change. The massacre at Houla is being sold as a demand for Assad’s removal. The US government, in collaboration with other nations, is beginning a campaign within the governmental political arena to gain as much support for the coming military strike against Assad should be not “voluntarily step-down”.
Citing the Houla massacre, Obama co-conspired with leaders from Britain, France, Spain, Germany, and others, to send Syrian diplomats back to their Middle Eastern country.
“Some countries have informed our diplomatic missions and our embassies’ staff that they are unwelcome,” Jihad Makdessi, a Syrian foreign ministry spokesman, said in a statement.
Makdessi explained that Damascus had decided to take a “reciprocal measure” against ambassadors from the US, Britain, Turkey, Switzerland, France, Italy and Spain. A number of French, German, Canadian, Bulgarian and Belgian diplomats also were affected.
The US Treasury Department (USTD), under Obama’s direction, announced that at the end of May, they would impose sanctions on the Commercial Bank of Syria for providing “services” for the Syrian Lebanese Commercial Bank.
“Today’s action will add to the economic pressure on the Assad regime by closing off a key evasion route,” said Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David S. Cohen. “The Treasury Department, working with others around the world who share our goal of ending the brutal repression of the Syrian people, will continue to close off the Assad regime’s access to the international financial system.”
Both China and Russia stand united against the US and Israeli government’s demands for a forced regime change in Syria.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin China and Russia continue to call for an immediate end to Syria’s violence and the start of a political dialogue between the Assad government and the opposition.
Last month, United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon admitted that, despite the failure so far of a UN peace plan for Syria, there is no “plan B” for ending more than a year of violence that has killed an estimated 10,000 Syrians.
According to a UN investigation into the violence in Syria:
“Government abuses included heavy shelling of residential areas, executions and torture. Syrian forces routinely drew up a list of wanted persons and their families before blockading and then attacking a village or neighborhood.
“Most of the serious human rights violations documented by the commission in this update were committed by the Syrian army and security services as part of military or search operations conducted in locations known for hosting defectors and/or armed persons, or perceived as supportive of anti-government armed groups.”
The European Union (EU) wants to influence Russian President Vladimir Putin’s opinion of the situation in Syria.
European Council President Herman Van Rompuy, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton will try to gauge Putin’s attitude toward the EU as he enters a six-year term.
An EU diplomatic official said: “We need to make sure that Russia is using fully its leverage in convincing the regime to implement (the plan). The Russian side has certainly not been very helpful in finding solutions in terms of a political way out.”
Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State, has accused Putin of “propping up the [Syrian] regime”.
Clinton cited the arms trading between Syria and Russia and “the fact that Russia has continued to sustain this trade in the face of efforts by the international community to impose sanctions and to prevent further arms flowing to the Assad regime, and in particular the Syrian military, has raised serious concerns on our part.”
Putin responded, denying “any trading connections (or) military” with Syria. “The only thing that concerns us in (Syria) is the possibility of radicalization of the situation, the situation getting out of control and the deaths of civilians. Our aim is to bring the conflict to peace. We are not dividing them into ours and not ours.”
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