Dr. Patrick Slattery’s News Roundup
A service of DavidDuke.com
From PressTV
Turkey violates Syria truce by shelling Kurds: Kurdish official
A senior Kurdish official says Turkish forces have once again fired shells into Syrian towns controlled by Kurdish forces, violating a ceasefire that has recently come into effect in the Arab country.
“The first violation of UN Security Council Resolution 2268 has been made by Turkey. Its troops shelled the cities of Tal Abyad and Uslub,” head of the Syrian Kurdish mission to Moscow, Rodi Osman, told Russia’s Interfax news agency.
He added that Turkey must be urged to stop “violating Syria’s sovereignty.”
The comments come as a ceasefire agreed by the United States and Russia took effect in Syria on February 27 midnight Damascus time. The Syrian government also accepted the terms of the truce on condition that military efforts against Daesh and the al-Nusra Front Takfiri militants, who are not included in the ceasefire agreement, continue.
A few days before the implementation of the truce, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan compared the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and its affiliate, the Democratic Union Party (PYD), with Takfiri terror groups in Syria, saying if Daesh and al-Nusra are kept outside the truce, “then the PYD-YPG must similarly be excluded from the ceasefire for it is a terrorist group just as they are.”
Ankara regards the YPG and PYD as allies of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been fighting for an autonomous Kurdish region inside Turkey since the 1980s.
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From Russia Today
Reports of Syrian town attacked by militants coming from Turkey – Russian military
Published time: 28 Feb, 2016 09:32
© Ammar Abdullah / Reuters
The Russian ceasefire monitoring center near Latakia says it is verifying reports of an attack on the Kurdish town Tell Abyad in northern Syria carried out by militants coming from Turkey.
The reports came overnight and claim that the forces coming from Turkey are using heavy artillery, according to Lt. Gen. Sergey Kuralenko, who heads the center for Syrian reconciliation.
“This information was verified though multiple channels, including representatives of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), [a rebel alliance that includes Kurds, Arabs and other ethnic groups and operates in the region],” he said.
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From Russia Today
‘As long as Russia is our neighbor’: Latvia wants to host NATO tanks ready for battle
Published time: 28 Feb, 2016 06:01
First company-sized contingent of about 150 U.S. paratroopers from the U.S. Army’s 173rd Infantry Brigade Combat Team arrive in the airport in Riga. © Ints Kalnins / Reuters
Eastern European counties have asked NATO to deploy extra troops that could start fighting against Russia without formal approval from HQ, Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics said in an interview to the Washington Post.
Latvia and its immediate neighbors would like to see “a very blunt and strong statement” from NATO that would assure Baltic countries that the military alliance would offer its protection “as long as necessary, while we have such a neighbor,” Rinkevics said during a visit to Washington on Friday.
Rinkevics called for more NATO troops on the ground – currently the country hosts about 100 on a rotational basis. He added that heavy weaponry such as tanks should be placed in Baltic countries in advance as well.
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From Russia Today
Toner should tone it down: Russian FM spokeswoman decries ‘harsh’ US rhetoric on Syria truce
Published time: 27 Feb, 2016 19:49
Maria Zakharova (L), Mark Toner. © Reuters / Wikipedia
Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, has lashed out at remarks recently made by the US State Department’s deputy spokesman, who urged Russia to “put up or shut up” over Syria’s truce, calling them rude and offensive.
Mark Toner made the remarks on Friday, stating Washington had received assurances from Moscow that it’s ready to stop bombing the so-called “moderate opposition,” as is called for by the landmark ceasefire deal reached between the two sides earlier this week.
“I don’t know how to put it any better than saying: ‘It’s put up or shut up time,’” Toner told reporters, adding it was time for Russia to demonstrate through actions, rather than words, that it is committed to the ceasefire plan for Syria.
“Mark had better order his own colleagues to shut up, if such an idiomatic style of communication is common among American diplomats,” Zakharova responded in a Facebook post on Saturday.
“Today, the Russian Defense Ministry held a briefing regarding the beginning of the truce actions in Syria. It’s been explained clearly and plainly, even for you [Mark], who even failed to answer the question about the acquisition by the US of maps establishing the armistice zone, which were prepared by Russia,” Zakharova added, referring to the spokesman’s failure to comment on maps Russia has provided Washington detailing the combat situation in Syria.
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From The Independent
Syria civil war: State-of-the-art technology gives President Assad’s army the edge
From PressTV
Lebanon will offer no apology to Saudi Arabia: Hezbollah
A senior member of Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement has slammed the Saudi regime’s plot to plunge the country into an “internal strife,” saying Lebanon will not apologize for speaking the “word of truth.”
“Days will show that the Saudi regime made a miscalculated move in its fabricated attack against Lebanon … especially when it assaulted the sovereignty of all Lebanese,” Sheikh Nabil Qaouk, deputy chief of Hezbollah’s executive council, said on Saturday.
He further reiterated that Hezbollah will not apologize to Saudi Arabia for speaking the “word of truth against the oppressor,” stressing that the regime “will have to wait for a long time [for an apology], as we will abide by the right to confront oppression, Takfiri projects and sedition.”
Ties between Riyadh and Beirut soured when Saudi Arabia retracted a $4-billion aid pledge to Lebanon’s security forces last week. The aid suspension came after Beirut did not follow Riyadh’s lead and refused to endorse joint anti-Iran statements at separate meetings held in Cairo and Jeddah.
On Friday, Saudi Arabia blacklisted four Lebanese firms and three individuals over alleged affiliation to Hezbollah, and imposed sanctions on them. The kingdom also ordered its citizens not to travel to Lebanon, and is poised to expel the Lebanese citizens working on its territory.
Riyadh has now demanded an apology from the Beirut government over its anti-Saudi stances.
Qaouk further said the Saudi authorities are in “despair” due to their failures in Yemen, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.
“It (Riyadh) is seeking to compensate its losses in the region by fabricating attacks on Lebanon, blackmailing and humiliating the Lebanese and pushing them to engage in internal strife,” the Hezbollah official said.
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From Ynet News
Egyptian MP attacked with shoe for dining with Israeli envoy
After hosting Israel’s Ambassador to Cairo Haim Koren in his home, Tawfiq Okasha is met with anger in parliament with over 100 lawmakers signing petition demanding investigation of his actions.
CAIRO – Egyptian lawmaker Tawfiq Okasha was attacked in parliament on Sunday, with one colleague hurling a shoe at him and others demanding he be suspended after he invited the Israeli ambassador for dinner.
Egypt was the first of a handful of Arab countries to recognize Israel with a United States-sponsored 1979 peace accord, but Egyptian attitudes to the country’s neighbor remain icy.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Clinton trounces Sanders in South Carolina
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Hillary Rodham Clinton swept to victory in South Carolina, the fourth early nominating state for Democrats, making it harder for Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., to pave his way to the Democratic presidential nomination.
Clinton led Sanders by almost 50 percentage points, 73.5 percent to 26 percent, in primary voting on Saturday in a state where there was high African American turnout.
Favorability among blacks is likely to favor Clinton as the candidates head into March 1 primaries voting, or Super Tuesday, when 11 states run contests for Democrats. Eight of the states are in the South, where blacks are likely once again to be a substantial portion of the turn-out. Sanders has failed to make the inroads among minorities necessary to overtake Clinton.
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