Day: October 3, 2013
Timbuktu or bust
The Festival au Désert will return to Timbuktu January 9-11. If you already have what I call Foreign Legionnaire’s disease, that will be enough to get you booking your ticket to Mali. But if not, watch (and listen) to this:
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Russia redux, at Syrian expense
This morning’s breakfast discussion at the Atlantic Council of prospects for a political settlement in Syria focused mainly on whether the US/Russia agreement on chemical weapons could be expanded to broader issues, and on Russia’s role in both the political negotiations and in supporting the Asad regime. With Atlantic Council Executive Vice President Damon Wilson moderating, former US Syria negotiator Fred Hof, former Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and former NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson tried to find a way forward.
Describing the situation on the ground as appalling, Hof suggested Syria is headed for state failure and terrorist safe haven. While the regime is consolidating its position in the west, Kurds are dominating the north and east while the center and south are in chaos. The regime war on civilian populations, attenuated in late August and early September after the chemical weapons incident, has resumed. Islamist fighters and organizations are leaving the Coalition (Etilaf) in favor of joining the jihadists. Read more
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