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Syrian rebels seek missile supply

Loveday Morris @lovedayM
Friday 16 November 2012 01:00

Syrian opposition fighters overrun a military post at Ras al-Ain on Wednesday.

Below, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius ( AFP )
Syrian opposition figures will push at a donor conference in London today for
the provision of anti-aircraft missile systems to repel President Bashar al-
Assad's devastating airstrikes, as momentum builds to adjust a European
Union arms embargo.
Abdulbaset Seida, former head of the Syrian National Council which holds over
a third of the seats in a new opposition coalition, said representatives would lay
out three key demands – for formal recognition of the coalition, financial
support and anti-aircraft weapons so they can establish a no fly zone without
international intervention.
The French foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, said would like to see the EU
embargo revisited to potentially allow for the sale of "defensive arms" to the
rebels, while David Cameron held a ministerial meeting to discuss policy
options to solve the crisis.
Since opposition groups forged a more representative coalition to unite the
disparate strands of the opposition in Doha last week, both Britain and France
have ramped up their rhetoric, leading to speculation that military support is
being considered.
"France's position for the moment is to say that we must not militarize the
conflict, but it is evidently unacceptable that there are liberated zones and that
they be bombarded by Bashar's planes," Mr Fabius said. "The issue of
defensive arms will be raised."
However, it remains unclear if such comments are diplomatic bluster designed
to ratchet up pressure on the regime. Any change to the embargo, without
which military support from Europe is impossible, involves the agreement of all
member states and could take months to push through.
The US has taken a much more cautious tack with Obama warning on
Wednesday night that the world should be "on guard" about indirectly "putting
arms in the hands of folks who would do Americans harm".
Still, as Turkey yesterday became the latest country to recognise the coalition
as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people, opposition figures
remained positive.
"We believe that as the coalition is recognised the legal broker for the Syrian
people, it will basically be given all the resources and means necessary to end
the suffering of the Syrian people, including sophistically weaponry that will
enable Syrian revolutionaries on the ground to enforce a no fly zone without
foreign intervention," said Yaser Tabbara, a spokesman for the new body,
officially known as the National Coalition for Revolutionary Forces and the
Syrian Opposition.
Mr Tabbara said France had broken an impasse, and he expected the UK to
follow suit after today's meeting in London, where representatives of from the
Gulf, Europe and US will meet with the new opposition leaders.
The UK has said it wants assurances over the mechanisms for reporting and
accountability within the new body before it can step up support. Jon Wilks,
the UK representative to the Syrian opposition, said it is "not enough to ask for
suitcases full of money", and stressed that UK policy remains focused on "non-
lethal" assistance.
"We need weapons to finish the job," said Haitham al Maleh, a veteran
dissident and coalition member. "The situation is desperate. If the West will not
take a positive step at this time, then they will be responsible for the situation
that unfolds in Syria, and the consequences of that will be felt across the
world."
 Pressure on dwindling resources 'threatens
global chaos'
Tom Bawden @BawdenTom

Monday 10 December 2012 10:57

Pressure on the world's resources is becoming so great the situation could

trigger a proliferation of hunger and warfare hugely damaging to the global
economy, according to an analysis published today.

With demand for basic commodities such as wheat and copper set to soar over
the next 20 years, relatively small shocks to supply risk causing sudden price
rises and triggering "overreactions or even militarised responses", says a report
by the Chatham House think tank. Global trade is so interconnected that no
importer of resources is insulated from the problems of key exporters – a fact of
concern to the UK, which imports 40 per cent of its food and a high proportion
of the fossil fuels and metals it consumes, the think tank warns.

"Shocks reverberate across supply chains when communities protest in Peru,

rainfall levels drop in the American Midwest, or a flood hits Australia – often
sending the global resource markets into a tailspin," according to the report,
entitled Resources Futures. Chatham House is calling on the world's 30 biggest
producers and consumers of resources – including the UK, China and the US –
to form a G8-style "coalition of the committed" to tackle the increasing volatility
in global commodity prices.

"As a major importer of resources and an important donor to the developing

world the UK can play a very important role in this coalition," Bernice Lee, the
report's lead author, said.

The price of the average commodity, including everything from corn and soya to
nickel and iron ore, has soared by 147 per cent in real terms since 2000 as
fast-growing countries such as China demand ever-more resources, while the
global population rises and weather increasingly deviates from traditional
patterns.

Compounding the problems, speculators have spotted an opportunity to profit

from the resources boom, investing hundreds of billions of dollars in the past
decade. This speculation has exacerbated price volatility, which was already on
the rise as growing shortages of key materials prompted governments to impose
export restrictions, according to Chatham House.
"Volatility of prices is the new normal, hitting both consumers and producers,"
it warns. "Fluctuating prices will create chaotic chain reactions unless
governments and businesses get to grips with a new world order defined by
resource politics." Commodity price volatility is likely to prove damaging for the
global economy because it increases the risk of producing resources. This
deters investment in resource production, further reducing supply and pushing
up prices, the report says.

"Confronting volatile prices is effectively an insurance policy for the global

economy. Investing in social and environmental improvements in new producer
states in the developing world is not charity: it is crucial," the report says.

The "Resources 30" coalition's "first task should be to tackle price shocks", the
report says. It should then devise guidelines on the use of export restrictions
and push for greater transparency among state-owned resource companies.
Food, metal and fuel prices have been nearly four times as volatile since 2005
than they were in the preceding 25 years, according to figures from the
International Monetary Fund.

Furthermore, the report warns, the trend is set to accelerate, with global steel
demand to soar by 90 per cent by 2030, copper to rise by 60 per cent and gas
by 44 per cent.

In the past decade, resource trade has grown by nearly a half in weight terms,
as the global use of coal, palm oil and iron ore has grown by between 5 and 10
per cent a year and consumption of oil, copper, wheat and rice has risen by 2
per cent.

The report is based on 12 million "data points" covering 1,200 types of

resources in 200 countries.
 Eurasian Media Forum in Astana looks to the
future
By Euronews  • last updated: 28/04/2014

More than 700 delegates from around 70 countries were present at the
12th Eurasian Media Forum in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan. Famous
politicians, journalists and top media executives discussed a wide range of
topics – from global crisis to country branding.

“During the year we analyse the events which appear most in the media, and
which provoke a lot of emotion. We collect information, analyse it and draw up
a programme for the forum,” explained Ruslan Zhemkov, Director General of
EMF.

Iran’s nuclear program, Eurasian integration, globalisation, the multi polar

world – famous think tanks from all over the world shared their opinions.

Questions included, “How does globalisation effect reality in the 21st century?”
and “is there a new global order?”. From one delegate there was a rather
pessimistic point of view.

“I don’t think there is a new global order. I think there is an emerging world
technology, and there is an emerging world economy, but I think that
politicians and governments are generations behind, and you will see more
disorder in the next 50 years, and we need to learn how to manage the disorder
so it does not cause major damage,” opined Newt Gingrich, the former Speaker
of the US House of Representatives 

Everyone in the hall could join the discussions and there were some incisive
questions from the audience. 

“This forum is an open platform for a battle of opinions. Many speakers are
often diametrically opposed in their thinking leading to robust discussions,”
said euronews correspondent Galina Polonskaya who was at the forum. 
  
The Middle East Tinderbox – Who holds the key to resolving the conflict in
Syria?”. That was a title of one of the discussions.

Euronews put that question to Alessandro Minuto-Rizzo, former Deputy

Secretary of NATO and the author of the book, “A political journey without
maps. Diversity and the future in the greater Middle East”. 
 
“The Syrian crisis is almost impossible to solve, because the Syrian state is a
fragile reality. You have many ethnic groups, many established traditions that
are not really unified. I think that in the end it’s the Syrian people who hold the
key to their own future. It is very difficult for anybody else to interfere,” he said.
 
The role of the global media with its 24-hour rolling news channels focusing on
every detail of global conflicts has changed the 21st century. That was the view
of one of the delegates.

“People are aware of every disaster on earth; a tsunami in Indonesia comes into
every home within hours, but especially wars. From war to war it became
clearer that leaders will have to take into account the sensitivity of their own
public to the price of war,” stressed Ehud Barak, former Prime Minister of
Israel.

The tsunami of social media has hit a new generation many of whom don’t even
have a land line at home. Could it really replace newspapers,magazines, radio
and TV? Even though some believe it could happen, most analysts doubt it will.

“I don’t think social media is evil, but I do think that you need to be careful in
describing tweeting as journalism, because I am not sure it is journalism; old
fashion reporting still has its role to play,” said Stephen Dunbar-Johnson,
International President for New York Times.
 
Internet and social media played a crucial role in the election of President
Barack Obama. One of the delegates at the Eurasia Forum Roger Fisk, created
the strategy that helped the US president win two elections.
 
“For the first time ever, at least in American political history, we invited people
to come into our website and create a profile, import their contacts, and then
we allowed them to use our website as a tool to actually not just get the news
about our political activity but to create their own political activity. It was
called My BarackObama.com,” he explained.
 
Simon Anholt is an image maker for nations. He invented the term “national
branding”. He has advised dozens of heads of states and governments on how
to create an image for their own country. He is sure that a good image is the
synonym of a good life in that particular country and insists that self-publicity
is a waste of money. 
 
“We live in an age of enormous challenges, climate change, nuclear
proliferation, terrorism, human’s rights, children’s rights, etc.  Any country, if
it takes one of those issues and it demonstrates some progress on one of those
issues, then it will quickly earn a good reputation,” he said.

This cross fertilization of opinions aims to look into the future of our world and
will take place in a years’ time again. Preparations for the next Eurasian Media
Forum which unites Europe and Asia have already started.