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Obama demanded to convene emergency session of NATO Council
3/29/2014 12:56:03 PM
US Congressman Buck McKeon, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, along with the seven subcommittee Chairmen on the Armed Services Committee, signed a letter to president Obama demanding the immediate boost of the combat capability of US forces in Europe because of Russian aggression in Ukraine:
- Dear Mr. President,
We write today with urgency and alarm, based on new information in the committee's possession. We are gravely concerned about the aggressive posture of Russian forces along the eastern border of Ukraine, as well as reports that Moscow may be making threatening moves towards allies in the Baltics.
We urge your administration, working with our NATO allies, to share available intelligence information with the government of Ukraine that would enable it to take prudent and timely measures to protect the very "sovereignty and territorial integrity" that you have committed to maintain.
We also believe it is imperative that the United States take precautionary steps to improve the posture and readiness of US military forces in the region, and pursue additional measures to bolster the security of our eastern and central European allies and partners.
While the details informing our concerns remain classified and will be outlined in an accompanying classified letter sent through appropriate channels, we would point to multiple unclassified reports and comments by senior officials within your administration, highlighting the tens of thousands of Russian troops massed near the eastern border of Ukraine conducting "military exercises," the presence of Russian Spetsnaz special forces in eastern Ukraine fomenting civil unrest and chaos, and the large footprint of Russian naval forces and coastal troops in the Baltics.
There is deep apprehension that Moscow may invade eastern and southern Ukraine, pressing west to Transdniestria, and also seek land grabs in the Baltics.
Both the commander of US European Command (EUCOM) and the NATO Secretary General are raising the alarm. Earlier this week in Brussels, EUCOM Commander, General Philip Breedlove, stated, "The [Russian] force that is at the Ukrainian border now to the east is very, very sizeable and very, very ready".
He also stated, "There is absolutely sufficient [Russian] force postured on the eastern border of Ukraine to run to Transdniestria if the decision was made to do that and that is very worrisome".
NATO Secretary General Rasmussen has also emphasized, "We are very much concerned about the Russian military build-up along the borders of Ukraine."
Mr. President, you have stated that you "are in close communication with the Ukrainian government." We would expect this communication to immediately include any intelligence on Russian troop movements and possible attack scenarios into Ukraine, and to provide such information with sufficient time to allow the Ukrainian government to take prudent defense measures to protect its people, sovereignty, and territorial integrity.
We also believe it is crucial that you direct the Secretary of Defense to increase and enhance the alert posture and readiness of US forces in Europe without delay, including maintaining forward-deployed US quick reaction forces.A failure to take such deterrent actions in the face of continued Russian aggression will certainly risk the very diplomatic and peaceful outcome that we all desire.
Inaction by the US and NATO will only further embolden Russian military planners, making further escalation more-not less-likely.
As we have learned in previous crises elsewhere, if US forces are not positioned in advance to respond to foreseeable threats, the options for senior decision makers become severely limited.
To that end, we further call on you to convene an emergency session of the North Atlantic Council, to be led by Secretary Hagel and Chairman Dempsey, and to request that our NATO allies also enhance their force readiness in the event that an Article V response is required.
Mr. President, we still have opportunity to deter Russia aggression, but President Putin must see our commitment to Ukraine and to our European allies and partners. He must visibly see our resolve, including our military resolve, and clearly understand the costs.
Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center
Instead of sanctions against Russia, the west could derail oil prices. Saudi Arabia would help
3/28/2014 2:06:16 PM
The Guardian writes in an article "If the west wants to hurt Putin, could Saudi Arabia do its dirty work?" that broad sanctions against criminal Russia, which attacked Ukraine, may adversely affect the West itself.
Another option to punish Russia for capture of Crimea is a conscious reduction of world oil prices.
If the West wants is to punish Putin, Saudi Arabia could do the "dirty work".
Europe depends on Russian oil and gas exports (stolen by Russians from enslaved Siberians - KC), so an embargo may not be practical. But there is another way to apply pressure on Russia. According to Neil Barnett of the Centre for Policy Studies there is a way of doing this: persuade Saudi Arabia to do the dirty work.
"There is a precedent. Angered by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979, the Saudis turned on the oil taps, driving down the global price of crude until it reached $ 20 a barrel (in today's prices) in the mid-1980s.
Saudi Arabia is the only producer with the potential to drive down prices in this way and, with much deeper pockets than the Russians, could afford to do so. Barnett believes the Saudis might be up for such a move – which would also boost global growth – in order to punish Putin over his support for the Assad regime in Syria.
It would take a much smaller drop in the cost of oil – from $ 107 a barrel currently to somewhere south of $ 90 a barrel – to cause Russia severe financial and economic damage", writes The Guardian.
Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center
RUSSIAN THREAT. Experts urge to prevent Russian aggression in Eastern Europe
3/28/2014 10:11:07 AM
According to analysts Edward Lucas and A. Wess Mitchell, NATO should strengthen its military forces in Eastern Europe to discourage Russia to conduct an aggressive foreign policy.
The report for the US Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) emphasized that Russia's actions have caused a crisis of security in Europe, and Russian troops stationed at the eastern borders of Ukraine and could attack, if counterweight is not created.
The analysis lists the reasons why the Alliance should take additional security measures in Eastern Europe:
- During the war in Georgia in 2008, Russia demonstrated the ability to quickly invade the territory of other states without international consequences. Ukraine is an important country for Europe - it is the largest state on the continent with 45 million inhabitants, it is crossed by important energy supply lines.
- Russian aggressive foreign policy is caused by several factors: Putin's revanchist aspirations, downscaling of the US military presence in Europe, failure of the European Union to create a unified defense policy, weak links of military cooperation in the region, reduction in defense spending.
- Reduction of western military power created a situation in which the security of Central and Eastern Europe is not based on real military capabilities, but on trust. The US military has more presence in Netherlands than in the whole of Eastern Europe. Out of 3 million NATO military, only 10% are stationed in the region.
- The fifth article of NATO Charter and the "nuclear umbrella" of the US and the UK are inefficient means to counter an intervention similar to that in Crimea, the Alliance has no plan to respond to the blockade of energy resources, economic sanctions, or information warfare. It is these measures that constitute the "strategic triad" of Russian foreign policy.
- In plans to modernize the Russian army, a lot of attention paid to the creation of progressive weapons, which effectively does not allow NATO forces from Western Europe to reach the front line in the east (Anti-Access/Access Denial strategy).
To strengthen NATO forces in Eastern Europe, the authors suggest eight specific measures which are mainly related to increase the number of NATO military and mobilization of airspace defense systems.
Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center
Independent German expert to politcorrect British police: Russian dissident Berezovsky murdered by Putin
3/27/2014 8:36:59 PM
Russian dissident and political refugee, Putin's enemy # 1 Boris Berezovsky was strangled by an assailant who then made it look like he had hanged himself, a professor suggested at his inquest.
German professor Bernd Brinkmann, an expert on hanging and asphyxiation cases, told the hearing that he believed two people were involved in the assassination of the Russian opposition activist, who was discovered slumped on the bathroom floor at his ex-wife's property in Ascot, Berkshire, on March 23 last year.
Earlier the inquest heard from police forensics experts who said they had concluded the 67-year-old - who had survived at least two assassination attempts - died from hanging himself and did not believe anyone else was involved.
But giving evidence this afternoon, Prof Brinkmann told the hearing: "There is no way for death by hanging.
"There exists two major, major concerns against."
Prof Brinkmann said the marks on his neck were "far away from the typical inverse 'V' shape" usually seen.
He also said that congestion to Mr Berezovsky's face was not consistent with being hanged.
He suggested the exiled Russian dissident could have been attacked suddenly from behind and quickly strangled, which was why there were no signs of a struggle.
He told the hearing at Windsor Guildhall that he thought that Mr Berezovsky, who he said weighed 80kg (12st 8lb), could have been attacked in his bedroom and his body then moved into the bathroom where he was found.
Reading from the professor's statement, Berkshire Coroner Peter Bedford said: "You conclude that you believe that this was a strangulation by a third party."
As he explained of how he believed two people to be involved, the politcorrect coroner warned him against going into the "realms of speculation".
Earlier Dr Simon Poole, the Home Office pathologist who carried out the post-mortem examination on Mr Berezovsky, claimed no defense wounds suggesting a violent struggle were found despite extensive investigations.
Mr Bedford asked Mr Berezovsky's family if they had any questions as the evidence concluded.
His daughter Arina said she felt questions remained unanswered with regard to this afternoon's evidence.
"I would like just to say that, to me, there is still many, many questions we haven't properly explored," she said.
Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center
CRIMEAN WAR II. Putin turned Russia into rogue state
3/27/2014 4:27:32 PM
The Daily Telegraph reported on the consequences of the Russian attack on Ukrainian Crimea:
- Putin has committed a grave strategic blunder by tearing up the international rule book without a green light from China. Any hope of recruiting Beijing as an ally to blunt Western sanctions looks doomed, and with it the Kremlin's chances of a painless victory, or any worthwhile victory at all.
Putin was careful to thank China's Politburo for its alleged support in his victory speech on Crimea. Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov has been claiming with his usual elasticity that "Russia and China have coinciding views on the situation in Ukraine".
This is of course a desperate lie. China did not stand behind Russia in the UN Security Council vote on Crimea, as it had over Syria. We don't know exactly what China's Xi Jinping told President Barack Obama, but the US deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes appeared delighted by the talks, claiming afterwards that Russia could no longer count on backing from its traditional ally.
If so, Putin is snookered. He cannot hope to escape financial suffocation by US regulatory muscle, should he send troops into Eastern Ukraine.
The Chinese have never forgiven Russia for seizing East Siberia under the Tsars, the "lost territories". They want their property back, and they are getting it back by ethnic resettlement across the Amur.
Nor can he hope to turn the tables on the West by joining forces with China to create a Eurasian bloc, a league of authoritarian powers in control of vast resources. The reality is that China is breaking Russia's control over the gas basins of Central Asia systematically and ruthlessly. Turkmenistan's gas used to flow North. It now flows East.
Putin must realize by now how fatally isolated he has become, and how dangerous it would be to go a step further. Even Germany's ever-forgiving Angela Merkel has lost patience, lamenting an "unbelievable breakdown of trust". The EU has been ordered to draft plans within 90 days to break dependence on Gazprom.
Putin is discovering that global finance is more frightened of the US Securities and Exchange Commission than Russian T90 tanks. Any sanction against any oligarch linked to any Russian company could shut it out of global capital markets, potentially forcing default.
Nor has he chosen a good moment for his gamble. Europe's gas tanks are unusually full. The price of oil is poised to fall -- ceteris paribus -- as Iraq's output reaches a 35-year high, the US adds a million barrels b/d a day this year from shale, and Libya cranks up exports again. Putin needs prices near $ 110 to fund his budget. He may face $ 80 before long.
At the end of the day he has condemned Russia to the middle income trap. The windfall from the great oil boom has been wasted. Russia's engineering skills have atrophied. Industry has been hollowed out by the Dutch Disease: the curse of over-valued currency, and reliance on commodities.
"He jumped the gun in Ukraine, striking before the interim government had committed any serious abuses or lost global goodwill, a remarkably sloppy and impatient Putsch for a KGB man.
He took Germany for a patsy, and took China for granted. He has gained Crimea but turned the Kremlin into a pariah for another decade, if not a generation, and probably lost Ukraine forever. It is a remarkably poor trade", the newspaper concludes.
Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center
U.S. intelligence report warns about threat of Russian invasion of South-Eastern Ukraine
3/27/2014 6:17:42 AM
US intelligence warned the White House about a greater likelihood of Russian invasion of the mainland territory of Ukraine, according to the CNN.
A classified report, about which CNN journalists were told by two US administration officials who declined to be identified, says about regrouping of Russian troops on the border with Ukraine, which reminds Moscow's military moves before its invasions of Chechnya and Georgia.
As a result of this report, Republican members of the House Armed Services Committee sent late Wednesday a classified letter to the White House expressing concern about unfolding developments.
The committee said there was "deep apprehension that Moscow could invade eastern and southern Ukraine, pressing west in Transniestria and also seek land grabs in the Baltics", report the CNN sources.
American officials believe the more than 30,000 Russian forces on the border with Ukraine, combined with additional Russian forces placed on alert and mobilized to move, are ready to move rapidly into Ukraine.
During the past few days, Russia put its troops closer to the border with Ukraine, Chuck Hagel, defense secretary, told Philip Hammond, British defense minister.
"They continue to build up their forces", said Hagel, who only last week received reassurances from Shoigu (aka Zio and freemason Rivlin), Putin's ringleader of the defense ministry, that Moscow had allegedly no aggressive plans towards Ukraine.
Hammond said that "Russian players, including minister Shoigu (Rivlin), may express views, but it's a moot point". British defense secretary added that Putin personally had been working on invasion plans.
Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center
SYRIA. Fightings taking place in Latakia, Idlib, Homs and Hama (video)
3/26/2014 8:28:33 PM
Sources in Syria reported about fightings in various parts of the country. It was quiet in the province of Latakia on Wednesday. Assad's aircraft carried out several rocket attacks against Mujahideen positions without causing damage.
Sources report that invaders send their forces to the village of Kesab, while Mujahideen units regrouped after capture of the town of Qastal Ma'af and village Samra.
It is to be recalled that units of Jabhat an-Nusra, Ansar al-Sham, Ahrar al-Sham, and others are participating in operation in the province of Latakia.
Video: After capture of Tower 45: (Emir Muslim al-Chechen)
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Syrian sources reported about massive missile and artillery fire at positions of the Mujahideen in Homs. Most fierce bombardments hit the town of Deir al-Kabir. Mujahideen lost one pickup truck with a machine gun, several Mujahideen were martyred, Insha'Allah. Assadites shelled areas of al-Hula, ar-Rastan.
In Hama, violent clashes are taking place in north of the country, in the town of Mork. Mujahideen attacked a major checkpoint "Sama" near the city of Taibet al-Imam. In turn, Assadites are attacking the village Salba. Local residents report that the invaders burned dozens of homes of civilians.
In Idlib, infidels fired missiles and artillery strikes on the city of Haram. In turn, the Mujahideen fired mortars at infidels' military convoy on the road Ariha-Latakia. As a result of accurate hits, the advance of the invaders was halted, the enemy lost dozens of soldiers killed and wounded.
Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center
For Obama, fantastic 'nuke in Manhattan is a bigger threat' than real aggressive Russia
3/26/2014 3:48:10 PM
At a news conference with Dutch prime minister Obama was asked if he agreed with Mitt Romney's assessment during the 2012 presidential campaign that Russia is America's biggest geopolitical foe.
Instead, Obama poked at Russia, downplaying its influence on the world stage.
"Russia is a regional power that is threatening some of its immediate neighbors not out of strength but out of weakness," Obama said.
Russia's actions are a problem, but they're not what the US worries about the most.
"They don't pose the number one national security threat to the United States," Obama said. "I continue to be much more concerned when it comes to our security of the prospect of a nuclear weapon going off in Manhattan."
Obama and Rutte were taking questions at the end of the Nuclear Security Summit.
Russia has had a strong influence on Ukraine for decades, Obama said in Russian aggressor appeasement, just as the United States has pull over Canada and Mexico, but "we don't feel the need to invade them," he said.
Obama who is considered in America's a closet Communist continually tried to minimize Russia's worldwide influence, telling reporters he thinks the country is more isolated now than it has been in the past.
Obama said he is "less interested in the motivation" of Putin than in the facts and principles that the US and international community are trying to uphold.
Source: Agencies
Kavkaz Center
SYRIA. Mujahideen continue their offensive in Latakia. Qastal Ma'af captured (video)
3/26/2014 12:32:22 PM
Sources in Syria report that on the eve, combined forces of Mujahideen from Jabhat an-Nusra, Ansar al-Sham, Ahrar al-Sham and others groups entered the town of Qastal Ma'af, a tourist center in Latakia with a population of 16,000, which is located near the Turkish border. This settlement is now under the Mujahideen control.
On March 24, Mujahideen from the same units stormed a strategic hill known as Tower 45, which had previously been taken by Mujahideen from Ansar al-Sham, commanded by Emir Abu Musa al-Chechen. However, it later fell to the hands of Assadites, because the units of FSA were unable to defend the positions and retreated leaving the hill to the enemy.
This strategic hill allows control over large territory. It is well fortified. All paths to it have been mined.
As of morning March 26, the hill was captured by Mujahideen. Assadites fled leaving ammunition and suffering heavy casualties.
Sources in Latakia also report that fierce fighting has recently taken took place.in the area of Nabain, near the village of Kasab, which was previously liberated by the Mujahideen, Infidels moved in significant numbers to the battle place. The Mujahideen command has decided to strengthen its positions in this direction.
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*** Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center
In response to capture of Tell Shuhweyneh hilltop, invaders bombed Kafr Hamra (video)
3/26/2014 11:49:48 AM
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Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center
Three ways to contain Russian hordes invading Europe
3/26/2014 12:38:24 AM
NATO's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine has drawn a red line, but it is one that leaves Ukraine militarily isolated, fending for itself. If the West's economic and diplomatic sanctions are to deter Moscow from further military aggression, they must be complemented by a robust defensive strategy to reinforce Ukraine's armed forces, writes The Washington Post.
When Russia invaded Crimea, it mobilized 150,000 troops along Ukraine's eastern frontier. Most of those forces still menace Ukraine, with some 20,000 troops still occupying the peninsula while provocateurs sent by Moscow continue to stir unrest in the country's eastern regions.
NATO's response has, by contrast, been underwhelming. The United States and Britain reinforced the air space of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania with a handful of fighter jets, and AWACs patrols fly over Poland and Romania. The United States deployed about a dozen F-16s to Poland and sent an additional ship to the Black Sea. No ally appears to have mobilized any ground forces.
When Ukrainian Prime Minster Arseniy Yatsenyuk met with President Obama this month, his request for weapons that would enable his military to better defend against Russia's massed forces was politely declined. Instead, the Obama administration offered uniforms and military meals.
In a similarly negative move, Vice President Biden visited Warsaw and Vilnius, Lithuania, last week to reassure them of the US military commitment to their security, but he bypassed Kiev. This was surely noted by Moscow, as was Obama's recent statement that he would not allow the United States to get involved in a "military excursion" in Ukraine.
These US and alliance actions constitute a red line that depicts Kiev on the outside and on its own. This must be deeply disillusioning for Ukrainians who in recent months have so courageously expressed their desire for freedom and a place in Europe — and whose forces participated in a NATO collective defense exercise as recently as November. This red line can only reassure Vladi¬mir Putin and his military planners, whose use of unmarked military personnel — and the plausible deniability they provided — in Crimea reflected at least initial concern about potential responses from the West.
There are prudent defensive measures the United States and NATO can and should take to bolster Ukraine's security. First, Yatsenyuk's request for military equipment should be immediately approved, and anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons should be included. Equipment and weapons could quickly be transferred from prepositioned US military stocks in Europe.
If NATO cannot attain the consensus to initiate such assistance, then Washington should forge a coalition of the willing or act on its own. These weapons would complicate Russian military planning and add risk to its operations against Ukraine. US equipment in particular would bring back unpleasant memories of when Soviet forces encountered Western weapons in Afghanistan.
Second, the alliance or a US-led coalition should back that assistance with the deployment of intelligence and surveillance capabilities and military trainers to Ukraine. This would provide not only needed situational awareness and help the Ukrainian military maximize its defensive capacities, but it would also force Moscow to consider the potential political and military repercussions of any actions that affect that presence. The deployment of military trainers to Georgia was one of the more effective elements of the US effort to bolster Georgia's security after it was invaded by Russia in 2008.
Third, NATO allies and partners should soon conduct a military exercise in Ukraine as part of the effort to train the Ukrainian military. The alliance's plan to wait until its next scheduled exercise in Ukraine, this summer, could incentivize Russia to take additional military action before then.
The NATO Response Force, created to deploy on short notice a brigade-level force backed by combat air support, is well suited for such an exercise. The force offers a means to demonstrate Western resolve prudently and rapidly. It has the potential to significantly reinforce Ukraine's defense against a sudden Russian offensive, but it is not big enough to jeopardize Russia's territorial integrity.
Each of these initiatives would complicate Putin's ambitions regarding Ukraine and could be executed in the near term. None would present a threat to Russia. They would, however, amend the red line the alliance has mistakenly created, assure Ukrainians that they are not alone and force Moscow to consider the possibility of a much more costly and prolonged military conflict. The absence of a firm Western response will only encourage Putin to act aggressively again, be it to drive deeper into Ukraine, make another attempt to seize Georgia, expand Russia's occupation of Moldovan territory or grab other areas that were once part of the Soviet Union.
NATO's response to this crisis is critical to both Ukraine's security and the alliance's long-term future. A NATO summit planned for September is to focus on the alliance's way forward in a new world. But what it does to assist Ukraine today and in the coming weeks will have a far more profound influence on its future and transatlantic security.
Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center
Sheikh Muhaysini thanks Mujahideen of the Army of Emigrants and Supporters for help in battles in Sheikh Najjar (video)
3/25/2014 11:50:41 PM
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Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center
Right Sector accuses Ukrainian Interior Minister of murdering nationalist leader
3/25/2014 10:46:19 PM
Right Sector demands the immediate resignation of the Interior Minister of Ukraine Arsen Avakov and arrest all those involved in the murder of the coordinator of the Right Sector Alexander Muzychko.
"We cannot silently accept the Ukrainian Interior Ministry's active counterrevolutionary activities. In this connection, we demand Interior Minister Arsen Avakov's immediate dismissal, and we demand the arrest of the Sokil special task force commander and all those guilty of [Muzychko's] murder", Right Sector leader Dmytro Yarosh said at a news conference in Kyiv on Tuesday.
Right Sector demands to provide information on the whereabouts and welfare of other detainees during the aforementioned events and provide them lawyers.
"Counterrevolutionary pressure on Maidan and Right Sector as the vanguard of our revolution - Right Sector", has been noticeable of late, said Mr. Yarosh.
"Our brother-in-arms Alexander Muzychko's murder - and this is exactly how we interpret what happened last night - confirms this. Those special operations, fulfilled by the FSB of Russia, unfortunately, happening now, in these days, in these hours", he said.
According to him, Right Sector is aware that "many want to unsettle and destabilize the situation in Ukraine, and that the aggression from Crimea spread to the rest of Ukraine".
"Right Sector has favored and favors peace, calmness, and stability in our state and will do anything it can so that no incidents happen in Ukraine", said Mr. Yarosh.
He stressed that Right Sector is not going to silently observe such actions of the MIA.
It is to be recalled that 9 days before his murder, Sashko Bilyi accused Avakov of corruption.
- "... In response to recent events in Ukraine, we can conclude that the acting Interior Minister can not cope with his duties, and is engaged only in trading post. Incompetence and inaction of Avakov may not notice just blind.
Rather than to fight the separatists in the state, he invents enemies among nationalists and patriots, and wants to bring with them scores. The blood that is shed today on the streets of Donetsk, Kharkov and other cities of Ukraine, is on his conscience", denounced Muzychko the Interior Minister of Ukraine, simultaneously encouraging him to go into retirement.
Meanwhile, Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine has dramatically changed the version of the murder, saying that Sashko Bilyi allegedly shot himself in the heart.
"He fired from his gun from which he shoot at police officers. One bullet went right through him, and the second came in the heart", said Deputy Interior Minister Vladimir Evdokimov.
Right Sector rejected this version that Muzychko inflicted fatal injuries on himself, UNIAN reports. This was told by a member of the radical organization Sergey Pandrak.
According to him, Bilyi's t-shirt torn to check whether he has a bullet-proof vest. "Whoever broke his t-shirt, shot him through the heart. It was a control shot", said Mr. Pandrak.
Also an associate of Bilyi informed that traces of metal handcuffs clearly visible on wrists of the killed. In this Pandrak noted that there were no traces of violence on the body. According to him, the activists of Right Sector have a video of capture and murder from surveillance cameras.
Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center
SYRIA. Alawites threaten counter-offensive in Latakia. Mujahideen reached coastal area (video)
3/25/2014 4:34:30 PM
The Assad's Alawite regime threatens to win back the territories in the province of Latakia and the village Kasab, which were liberated by Mujahideen, within the next 48 hours. In Latakia, infidels received considerable reinforcements from new Shiite Hezbollah gangs.
Meanwhile, Mujahideen from Jabhat an-Nusra, Ansar al-Sham and Ahrar al-Sham continue their offensive. The Mujahideen reached the coastal area in Latakia on Monday.
In his interview to Al-Jazeera, Abu Musa al-Chechen, Emir of Ansar al-Sham, said that "Operation Al-Anfal" to liberate Latakia from the oppression of Nusayris had been preparing for almost a year.
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Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center
G7 threatens Russia with destruction of economy
3/25/2014 1:01:36 PM
G7 countries adopted a declaration supporting the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine. In addition, they threatened Russia with serious consequences in case of worsening of the situation.
This is stated in the Hague Declaration of G7, which was adopted on March 24 following the meeting.
"We, the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, the United States, the President of the European Council and the President of the European Commission met in The Hague to reaffirm our support for Ukraine's sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence", said in the declaration.
"International law prohibits the acquisition of part or all of another state's territory through coercion or force", the document says.
"To do so violates the principles upon which the international system is built. We condemn the illegal referendum held in Crimea in violation of Ukraine's constitution. We also strongly condemn Russia's illegal attempt to annex Crimea in contravention of international law and specific international obligations. We do not recognize either", stated the leaders of the countries.
"Today, we reaffirm that Russia's actions will have significant consequences. This clear violation of international law is a serious challenge to the rule of law around the world and should be a concern for all nations", said in the declaration.
"In response to Russia's violation of Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, and to demonstrate our determination to respond to these illegal actions, individually and collectively we have imposed a variety of sanctions against Russia and those individuals and entities responsible", the document says.
"We remain ready to intensify actions including co-ordinated sectoral sanctions that will have an increasingly significant impact on the Russian economy, if Russia continues to escalate this situation", the leaders of G7 claim.
Leaders of G7 also said that they suspended meetings in the format of G8 with Russia.
"We will suspend our participation in the G-8 until Russia changes course and the environment comes back to where the G-8 is able to have a meaningful discussion and will meet again in G-7 format at the same time as planned, in June 2014, in Brussels, to discuss the broad agenda we have together", the document says.
Later, a senior White House official, commenting on the G7 meeting in The Hague past Monday, told reporters on what sectors the G7 leaders ready to extend sanctions against Russia - it's energy, finance and arms.
"I think there's agreement on what the most important sectors are to focus on. Energy is one of them; finance and banking is another; the arms sector is another", said the official of the US administration.
Department of Monitoring
Kavkaz Center
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