Foreign Affairs
Related: About this forumU.N. unveils temporary accord in Yemen crisis
The United Nations envoy in Yemen on Friday unveiled a new temporary accord meant to help alleviate the political and security crisis enveloping the Arab nation.
Jamal Benomar, the U.N. envoy here, called the deal an important breakthrough in ongoing talks meant to avoid Yemen falling into civil war or disintegrating into further chaos. He voiced the hope that the accord could pave the way for a comprehensive settlement of the nations political and leadership crisis, the envoy said on his official Facebook page.
Still unclear is the future of the presidency and government institutions. Negotiations with political groups are ongoing, the U.N. envoy said.
Since September, the capital has been in the hands of the Houthis, a northern faction allied to Iran that has emerged as the nations most powerful armed force. Groups in the south and elsewhere have declared the Houthi takeover a coup, an accusation denied by the Houthis.
http://www.latimes.com/world/middleeast/la-fg-un-temporary-accord-yemen-20150220-story.html
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)"If it bleeds it leads, if it talks it walks."
The American war and terror news media also falls silent when the guns fall silent, I have noticed that.
K and R for the heroic negotiators.
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)bemildred
(90,061 posts)bemildred
(90,061 posts)My, how the media lemmings fall in line with the official rhetoric. Dutiful to a fault, Western corporate media have performed their servile tasks with aplomb this month. A Thursday Times edition earlier in the month led with the headline, U.S. and Europe working to end Ukraine fighting. Saturday mornings edition led with U.S. faults Russia as combat spikes in East Ukraine. A lead in the Economist put it rather more bluntly, Putins war on the West. Beneath the headline was a Photoshopped image of the Russian President, looking resolute, hand extended with puppet strings dangling from each digit. The op-ed pages of the Washington Post teemed with vitriol, continuing efforts to portray Obama as a latter-day Neville Chamberlain, arch appeaser of transparent tyrants. The alarmingly passive White House should be more concerned about how to keep Vladimir Putin in line.
This isnt nuanced propaganda. It isnt hedging or garden variety bias. Its flat-out mendacity. Surely these publications have, as none of the rest of us does, the resources to know that the United States, trailed by its milquetoast EU lackeys, is trying to provoke a conflict between nuclear powers in eastern Ukraine. It either wants Russia to quit backing eastern rebels and permit NATO to establish bases on its border, or allow itself to be drawn into a resource-sapping proxy war. The end goal of the former is to divide Moscow from Europe. The goal of the latter is to vastly diminish the federations capacity to support its Shiite and Alawite allies in the Middle East, all of who stand in the way of Washingtons feverish dream of regional hegemony. Neither option holds much hope for residents of Donetsk, Luhansk and the surrounding oblasts, or provinces.
Yet the Times leads the Western world in disseminating, in every Starbucks in America, the folderol that our high-minded, hand-wringing, and munificent leaders are pursuing peace. This despite the unquenchable imperial ambitions of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who will not cease his provocations until he has resurrected the former glory of the Soviet Union, circa the Stalin era. How soon before the term Hun starts circulating? Weve already got warmongering Senators releasing fake photos and cantankerously arguing that Obama is weak in the face of a world-historical threat.
http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/02/20/defending-ukraine-from-russian-imperialism/
bemildred
(90,061 posts)Intelligence chief accuses Vladislav Surkov of killing 77 protesters in Kiev
Claims Surkov was in the Ukrainian capital directing shootings by snipers
Comes as Ukraine commemorates the one-year anniversary of deaths
Russian separatists accused of firing on Kiev forces 49 times in 24 hours
U.S. senators have branded fragile peace deal a 'delusional piece of paper'
Call for U.S. administration to arm Ukraine troops to stop Putin's advance
Warn government-controlled city of Mariupol will be next target for rebels
Russian court jails Putin critic in time to stop him taking part in protest
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2961406/Russia-sparked-Ukraine-s-revolution-Kiev-secret-agent-accuses-senior-Putin-aide-ordering-sniper-fire-protesters-triggered-bloody-uprising-year-ago.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)bemildred
(90,061 posts)(Reuters) - The loss of the key town of Debaltseve to Russian-backed separatists, the latest in a string of big battlefield defeats for Ukraine, narrows the options for President Poroshenko in his dealings both with Moscow and with the West.
No sooner did the strategic railway junction fall to the rebels on Wednesday, with thousands of Ukrainian soldiers withdrawing under fire, than separatists re-opened another old front, attacking government positions near Mariupol, a strategic coastal city in the south-east.
The grim message, it seems, was: 'There's more to come. The break-up of Ukraine does not stop here'.
All this hit national morale as Ukraine marked the first anniversary of pro-Moscow president Viktor Yanukovich's overthrow and the killings of 100 people protesting against his policy swerve away from Europe back to the old master, Russia.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/20/us-ukraine-crisis-poroshenko-analysis-idUSKBN0LO18O20150220?rpc=401
"battlefield firepower", that will be good for Ukraine, right?