qurbejoog
Assad ready to quit power ?
On July 20, 2012 · In News
1:27 pm
..
0
Paris- Russia’s ambassador to France Alexandre Orlov, said on Friday he believed that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had accepted he would have to leave power although only in an orderly fashion.
But the Syrian government swiftly denied this.
Orlov said that Assad, facing a surging uprising against his rule, signalled readiness to step down when he accepted a recent international declaration which foresaw a transition towards a more democratic Syria.
“At the Geneva conference, there was a final communique that foresees a transition towards a more democratic system,’’ Orlov said.
“This final communique was accepted by Assad. Assad nominated his representative to lead the negotiations with the opposition for this transition. That means he accepted to leave, but in an orderly way.’’
Syria’s Information Ministry quickly denied this, saying Orlov’s remarks were “completely devoid of truth’’.
Orlov further said his personal opinion Assad would not be able to remain in power.
“I think it will be difficult for him to stay after everything that has happened. But essentially, he has accepted that he will have to leave.’’
Russia on Thursday blocked a Western-backed UN Security Council resolution that would have contained a threat to impose sanctions if Syria did not comply with UN-Arab League Special Envoy Kofi Annan’s peace plan.
Moscow has repeatedly said any deal must follow the principles outlined at talks in Geneva on June 30 between Annan and veto-holding members of the Security Council, which Russia until now had said did not specifically require Assad’s exit.
“What Russia is defending is not Bashar al-Assad’s regime, but international order that was created in 1945 around the UN,’’ Orlov said.
“For us it is a matter of principle that goes beyond what is happening in Syria.’’
A senior Western diplomat recommended caution with respect to Orlov’s comments. “We have not heard Assad say he is willing to step down before,’’ the diplomat said.
“But what does he mean? Does he mean now or in two years time. We have to be cautious.’’ (Reuters/NAN)
Sunday, August 2, 2015A ship carrying 450 tonnes of humanitarian food supplies has arrived at the north-eastern port of Bosaso in Somalia. The shipment is part of the UAE’s efforts to help alleviate the suffering of the Somali people. The shipment included 11 varieties of basic food supplies. At least two regions in Somalia…
On the day US President Barack Obama was addressing Kenyans at Nairobi’s Kasarani Stadium Indoor Arena to mark the end of a historic visit to his father’s homeland, Somali government official Ali Khalif Galaydh was in Jazeera Palace Hotel in Mogadishu. Suddenly, the peace and quiet of the hotel near the airport that is…
Muslim leaders in Eastleigh, Nairobi, have asked the government to support a community initiative to enlighten the youth against joining extremist groups.Local community leaders said the youth were being lured to join groups like Al-Shabaab for lack of knowledge. They said the formation of Peace Awareness Youth group (PAY), had brought together young Muslims from…
Muqdisho,Sunday, August 2, 2015-At least two African Union soldiers have been arrested in connection with allegations of civilian murders after three incidents in which soldiers randomly killed nearly two ‘dozen’ of civilians after bomb attacks on their convoys in the coastal town of Marka, officials said on Sunday. The arrests of the two Ugandan soldiers…
MOGADISHU Somalia (AMIASOM) — The AMISOM CIMIC Office of the Kenyan Contingent in Sector 2 has in the past few months embarked on offering outpatient medical services, provision of water through sinking of boreholes and water pans and building of latrines throughout the sector. In Afmadhow town in Lower Jubba Region over 1,000 local…
The United Nations envoy to Somalia has criticized an announcement by the country’s president that general elections will not be held in 2016. The statement by the U.N. came amid accusations by opposition parties in Somalia that President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud was exploiting the country’s poor security situation to remain in power. “Any term…
Militias have taken advantage of the political vacuum in Central African Republic (CAR), engaging in ethnic cleansing of Muslims in a bid to erase the community from the country, human rights group Amnesty International has said. Discussing Friday’s report, entitled “Erased identity: Muslims in ethnically cleansed areas of the Central African Republic,” Joanne Mariner, a…
Mogadishu (AFP) – War-torn Somalia will not be able to hold full elections due next year, lawmakers said Tuesday, although it remained unclear whether some kind of voting process would still be held. The current President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and parliament were appointed by clan elders in 2012 with foreign backers promising full democracy in…
In the communiqué issued today Ismail Omar Guelleh “invites” the UMP and USN to resume political dialogue. Throwing back to back the UMP and USN and ignoring that the framework agreement was signed between the USN and the government of which he is the Head. President Guelleh as usual is consumed clears the failure of…
Tuesday, July 28, 2015—The leader of Somali terror-group Al-Shabaab has urged Muslims in east-Africa to rise up against the ‘evil Christians’. In an online statement obtained by MailOnline, Ahmed Omar Abu-Ubeyda told them to ‘migrate to the lands of Jihad’ and seek out battlefields all over the world. He also welcomed the people of Ethiopia,…
Muqdisho—- Somalia’s government has identified the suspect who carried out a truck suicide bombing on an upscale hotel in the Somali capital that killed at least 20 people on Sunday as a naturalized Somali-German. Sources close to the security agencies confirmed to HOL that the bomber who carried out the massive attack on Jazeera…
A Chinese national has died in a bombing at a hospital in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, state news agency Xinhua said on Monday, without providing details. The Somali militant Islamist group al Shabaab attacked the hotel on Sunday, driving a car packed with explosives through the hotel gate and killing at least 13…
ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia-When a young Ethiopian journalist, Simegnish Mengesha, got the chance to meet with President Obama in May, a comment from a high-ranking American official was on her mind. On a visit to Ethiopia two weeks earlier, Wendy R. Sherman, the under secretary of state for political affairs, had said she expected the country’sMay…
Mogadishu,26july,2015(QJ/SDN)-At least 10 people have been killed in a huge bomb explosion at a hotel in the Somali capital Mogadishu. A BBC reporter in the city reports that a lorry was used to attack the Jazeera hotel near the city’s airport. Ambulances have begun collecting the dead and wounded in what he describes as one…
President Barack Obama has said that the United States will help Kenya fight against the al-Shabab terrorist group, the Qaeda affiliate based in Somalia. Obama made the remarks at a joint news conference with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta in Nairobi on Saturday. “We have systematically reduced the territory that al-Shabab controls, we have been able…
Somali militant group Al Shabaab said it had carried out two attacks in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Saturday in which gunmen killed a lawmaker and his bodyguard as well as an official from the prime minister’s office. Al Shabaab’s spokesman for military operations, Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, said the group was responsible for the…
NAIROBI — President Obama on Saturday committed the United States to an intensified fight against terrorists in East Africa, announcing here that his administration would expand support for counterterrorism operations in Kenya and Somalia, including increased training and funding for Kenya’s security forces. “We have to keep that pressure going even as we’re strengthening the…
Daallo Airlines (D3, Djibouti) Chief Executive Officer Mohammed Ibrahim Yassin says his airline is planning to lease a pair of ATR72-500s – its first Avions de Transport Régional (Toulouse Blagnac) machinery – for use on its Somali network. Speaking to African Aerospace, Yassin said that should all details be resolved and the turboprops arrive, the…
Somali government and African Union peacekeeping troops have captured a town in the south of the country from al Shabaab insurgents on Friday, the second seizure this week, government officials and the group said. Ethiopian troops in the African Union peacekeeping mission (AMISOM) and Somali soldiers captured Dinsoor district, about 120 km to south west of Baidoa. The group, which wants to…
Washington,24july,2015(QJ/SDN)-Djibouti government’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and Ambassador of Djibouti to the United States Roble Olhaye has died in the United States on Wednesday. Mr. Olhaye who was the longest-serving ambassador to the United States died for undisclosed illness, according to Abdirahman Isse, a Djiboutian businessman based in Minnesota. Olhaye who was born on…