# Can anyone defend the Admin's diplomacy with Iran drive? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 30, 2013, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-defend-the-admins-diplomacy-with-iran-drive/669989 "2013-09-30T11:14:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 36
**Author:** ![NotfooledbyW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f475e1/32.png) [@NotfooledbyW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NotfooledbyW)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2013, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-defend-the-admins-diplomacy-with-iran-drive/669989/36 "2013-10-01T01:55:00Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > Iran is for Assad, we’re against him – can civil negotiation resolve any of that? Have you paid attention to the US / Russian transition plan? > [@](#): > > BY: Daniel Wiser > August 19, 2013 5:00 am > > More than a year since the announcement of a United States- and Russia-backed plan to establish a transitional government in civil war-torn Syria, no such body has been formed. > > The United Nations Action Group on Syria announced on June 30, 2012, a plan backed by the United States and Russia, among others, to establish a transitional government in Syria as a precursor to constitutional revisions and elections. > > However, despite the decision by the Obama administration to make the creation of an interim government the centerpiece of its Syria policy, no progress has been made. > > Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said on Tuesday that a peace conference planned since May to institute the transitional government will likely not be held until October. > > **That has led experts to suggest that U.S. efforts to coax Russia into prodding Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, a Russian ally and recipient of $4 billion in annual arms sales, to step down and yield to a transitional body appear to have failed.** > > … > > **Russian intransigence has also played a role in delaying the talks.** “ > The administration has been working under the assumption that good faith actions from the American side will be reciprocated by the Russians,” said Michael Weiss, an analyst of the Syria conflict and editor of The Interpreter, an English-language Russian news site. > > “That hasn’t been the case across a range of issues, but none more so than Syria, **where Putin delights in repeatedly humiliating Obama’s diplomatic efforts**. Unfortunately, it took an NSA contractor with U.S. state secrets receiving sanctuary in Moscow for Obama to realize, or at least acknowledge publicly, that he’s been getting conned for five years.” > > Below is a timeline of the proposals and setbacks that have typified U.S. and Russian negotiations to organize a conference and transitional government in Syria: > > [Conference to plan transitional government in Syria hits roadblocks](http://freebeacon.com/delays-mount-as-syria-burns/) Diplomacy did not begin two weeks ago: Why has Russian intransigence ended on the CW issue? Here’s a report from two weeks ago that really get’s into the role of Iran… The entire report is relevant, which is why there is not much to edit out. > [@](#): > > Could US, Iran Agree On Syria Without Assad? Barbara Slavin September 18, 2013 > More than two years after President Barack Obama said it was time for Syria’s president to go, Bashar al-Assad is still in power in Damascus. But new evidence from the United Nations pointing to his regime’s large-scale use of chemical weapons makes it more plausible that Assad could leave office as part of an international peace plan. > > In the aftermath of last weekend’s Russian-American deal to remove and destroy Assad’s large chemical weapons arsenal, members of the Syrian opposition and their supporters have complained bitterly that the agreement insures that Assad stays in power to insure implementation of the plan through the middle of 2014. However, the new international opprobrium attached to the Syrian leader because of the gassing of hundreds of civilians outside Damascus Aug. 21 is undercutting his support among even his most ardent allies, especially Iran, itself the victim of Iraqi poison gas attacks during the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. > > Long before the latest revelations, Iranian officials have signaled their willingness to see a new face in charge in Damascus – so long as Iranian interests are protected by an Assad successor. > > Asked a year ago why Iran was supporting a regime that at the time had killed about 20,000 people, Ali Larijani, the speaker of the parliament said, “Who are you to say [that Assad should go]? Leave it to the votes of the people.” > > Signal of Iranian shift on Syria? > > A year later, after the deaths of more than 100,000 Syrians including more than a thousand killed by poison gas, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Sept. 16 told commanders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard corps – which has been assisting Assad in battling the rebels – that Iran would accept the results of promised 2014 presidential elections in Syria. > > “Whoever Syrian citizens vote for to rule their country, we’ll agree with it,” Rouhani said, according to the Iranian state news agency. > > There are certainly many questions about whether and how Syria could hold an election in the middle of a civil war. But in discussions with the Russians and the United Nations, among others, over the past year, U.S. officials have spoken of the need for Assad to be replaced initially by a national unity government led by someone not personally involved in crimes against the Syrian people. > > State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki reiterated the US view on Tuesday (Sept. 17): > > “Our position has not changed, that there’s no place in a future Syria for President Assad. He’s brutalized his people. More than 100,000 men, women, and children have died while he’s been president of the country. There is, of course, a goal we have in place, to put in place a transitional governing body.” > > Psaki went on to say that Secretary of State John Kerry, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.N. special representative for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi have been working out the parameters for a Geneva peace conference to create such a transitional government. > > “If a transitional governing body is put in place, they would be implementing this,” Psaki said, referring to the chemical weapons disarmament agreement. > > One way to facilitate a transition would be for Assad – who has run unopposed for president twice since his father, Hafez, died in 2000 – to announce that he will not seek another seven-year term as president. > > Syrian Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa is one of the names being mentioned as a possible successor to President Bashar al-Assad.Syrian Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa is one of the names being mentioned as a possible successor to President Bashar al-Assad. > > Syrian Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa is one of the names being mentioned as a possible successor to President Bashar al-Assad. > Names such as that of Syria’s Sunni vice president, Farouk as-Sharaa have been floated as possible replacements. At a security conference in Washington last week held under ground rules that forbid attributing quotations to individuals, one expert said he was told by a Rouhani adviser that what was needed was a Syrian “Karzai” – a reference to Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who was picked by multilateral negotiators to lead Afghanistan in late 2001. > > Another expert suggested quiet talks among Saudis, Iranians and Americans over how to choreograph a transition from Assad. Such talks would recall the meetings in Bonn in 2001 when then Iranian deputy foreign minister (now foreign minister) Mohammad Javad Zarif worked closely with U.S. diplomat James Dobbins on Afghanistan’s post-Taliban transition. > > Iran has been preparing for Assad’s removal for a long time, grooming Shiite and Alawite militias that would protect Iran’s equities in Syria, especially its relationship with the Lebanese militant group, Hezbollah. While Syria is important for Iran’s regional security posture, there is scant Iranian public support for the alliance and even less attachment to Assad personally. > > Indifference has turned to anger, as Iranians have watched their limited hard currency earnings sent to prop up the Assad regime, and to hatred following the use of chemical weapons. Most Iranians know someone who was killed or injured by poison gas during the Iran-Iraq war. “They can take your life away from you when you’re living,” was how one war veteran described the ordeal recently to the Washington Post. > > Chemical attacks make a difference > > While the Iranian government has not publicly accepted U.S. allegations that Assad was responsible for the Aug. 21 attacks outside Damascus, the publication of the U.N. report on Monday – which showed that the trajectory of rockets used to carry sarin gas indicated that they came from the regime stronghold of Mount Qasioun – has influenced Iran’s political elite, according to a well-placed Tehran analyst. > > … > > Since no one wants to have to take responsibility for rebuilding Syria, that means that U.S., Iranian and Russian goals converge in a desire to preserve as much of the Syrian state as possible if/when Assad goes > > [Could US, Iran Agree On Syria Without Assad?](http://www.voanews.com/content/us-iran-syria/1752161.html) Serious people would consider having a discussion about the bigger picture as listed above instead of idiotic nonsense from one single statement that right wingers pounce on like monkeys fascinated with the a shiny object that one of the tribe happens to find and is fascinated with it. > [@Can anyone defend the Admin Syria drive?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-defend-the-admin-syria-drive/668417/1): > > Especially in the light of latest Kerry’s comments. The utter incoherence of the spokesmen that Obama sends out is astounding. > > [John Kerry gives Syria week to hand over chemical weapons or face attack | John Kerry | The Guardian](http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/09/us-syria-chemical-weapons-attack-john-kerry) > > Kerry said the Americans were planning an “unbelievably small” attack on Syria. “We will be able to hold Bashar al-Assad accountable without engaging in troops on the ground or any other prolonged kind of effort in a very limited, very targeted, short-term effort that degrades his capacity to deliver chemical weapons without assuming responsibility for Syria’s civil war. That is exactly what we are talking about doing – **unbelievably small, limited kind of effort**.” > > I think Kerry should be fired for incompetence. Kerry should be fired for ending Russian intransigence on the CW issue? that is nuts. I can see why it is important to get the CW destroyed with Assad in control before moving to the next step of trying to put together a transitional government. If Russia, Iran, the US, EU and Saudi Arabia can assist the Syrian people in getting a transition government… That is diplomacy. Firing Kerry is the stupidest idea even for really stupid people. And for all those jokers here who scoff at anyone working toward an ideal resolution to civil war in Syria and think they are hot shit to want to wait until it happens… you obviously do not know how diplomacy works. IF you have a cynical and defeatist attitude to start with… nothing happens. Let’s thank Senator Clinton and Kerry who obviously have been working this for some time. And let’s not be idiots who think that Putin is the diplomat here. Putin is in a mess because his partner is a murderer of Muslims. This Iran news is overshadowed by the Republicans acting like terrorists here at home… so its not getting proper attention… But the Republicans will back down shut down or no shut down and then when the media gets bored with that they will get back into Syria and Egypt and Iran and diplomacy. I can’t wait. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-anyone-defend-the-admins-diplomacy-with-iran-drive/669989)._