[Greenline]

http://www.wbur.org/npr/160303011/at-nonal...-syria-position

QUOTE

The 120-nation Nonaligned Movement meeting happening in Iran started in controversy, when both Egypt and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon defied the United States, announcing they would attend. Today, Mohamed Morsi, Egypt's first post-revolution president, ignited new diplomatic sparks when he pointedly criticized Iran's position on Syria. The AP reports: (Fars News Agency) "In effect, he demanded Iran join the growing anti-Assad consensus or risk being further estranged from Egypt and other regional heavyweights such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia. "Morsi has proposed that Iran take part in a four-nation contact group that would include Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia to mediate an end to the Syrian crisis. The U.N. chief Ban also said Iran has a key role to play in finding a solution to end Syria's civil war, which activists say has claimed at least 20,000 lives." ... "In another possible dig at Iran, Morsi gave credit to the Arab Spring wave of uprisings that put him in power and touched off the civil war in Syria. Iran has endorsed many of the revolts — describing them as a modern-day reflection of its Islamic Revolution more than three decades ago — but denounces the Syrian uprising as orchestrated by "enemies" that include Saudi Arabia and Turkey." "The bloodletting in Syria is the responsibility of all of us and we should know that this bloodletting won't be stopped without active interference by all of," Morsi said according to the AP. "The Syrian crisis is bleeding our hearts." NPR's Michelle Kelemen reported yesterday that Ban's spokesman said the secretary-general was also pushing Iran on Syria and urged Iran's supreme leader "to take concrete steps to address concerns about its nuclear program." Michelle also pointed us to a bit of a diplomatic awkwardness. Take a look at this picture of Ban's meeting with Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It was released by Iran's official news agency: The man sitting in the middle, Michelle tells us, is the new U.N. Undersecretary General for Political Affairs Jeffrey Feltman. "Feltman was until recently the assistant secretary of state for near east affairs," Michelle says. Which means he very likely never thought he'd be sitting in a room with the ayatollah this soon.

Mursi was escorted out of the building, and his chopper flew over my house.
I was ranting about helicopters before, but now there are 4 or 5 of them flying around since this morning. The summit is happening very close to my house, and we've been told to stay on our property and clear the roads.

I personally think being Honest in a place like that is not suitable.

EDIT: It appears the Egyptian representative has assaulted and antagonized the Syrian spokesperson with a glass of water after the Syrian spokesperson named Mursi a 'hypocrite' for the Egyptian murders during the Arab Spring.

[OdDsOcK]

Pro-tip Greenline, honesty is always the best policy.

I don't know much about Morsi, but this article has me rooting for him so far. It restores some of my faith in the Middle East that he's aggressively pursuing an end to the bloodshed.

As for your update, I don't think it was the right thing to do to assault the Syrian representative, but I'm curious as to how Morsi could be labeled a hypocrite if he was on the separatist side of the Egyptian conflict. Heavens knows the loyalists did much more killing than their opponents.

[sivispacem]

Morsi is Muslim Brotherhood, so there was a lot of hostility towards him from the American right, but he's doing a great job treading the line between keeping the population happy and ensuring that the army don't end up ousting him. First the careful mobilisation of Egyptian forces into the Sinai against those supplying militant groups in Gaza (which shows he has absolutely no intention of damaging relations with Israel) and now this fierce criticism of Syria and her sole true ally- he's shaping up to be quite a good leader from an external perspective.

[EscoLehGo]

Assad is one stubborn sumbitch, I thought he was done for sure when that car bombing took out a few dudes in his inner circle, but that was probably 2 months ago now and he's still going strong. He seems to have a lot of support on the Internet too unless that's just his staff leaving all those pro regime videos and comments on YouTube.

[Johnny_Cash1983]

This motherf*cker Assad is blaming people about the killing spree but its him who send the terrorists to kill.
Its his men not people in syria.

[Gtaghost22]

QUOTE (OdDsOcK @ Thursday, Aug 30 2012, 15:03)

Pro-tip Greenline, honesty is always the best policy. I don't know much about Morsi, but this article has me rooting for him so far. It restores some of my faith in the Middle East that he's aggressively pursuing an end to the bloodshed.

This.
I really can't add much to this, seems like a great leader so far, Assad is the true hypocrite, he has no right to blame anyone but himself for the massive bloodshed in syria. f*ck that c*nt.

[Captain VXR]

I reckon Assad, like Gadaffi, will try to hold onto power for as long as possible and only be forced out after a long, tiring conflict (maybe only after foreign intervention). I imagine that on a domestic level I wouldn't be a big fan of Morsi as he is from a religious party, so is likely to be a social conservative, however he seems to be doing well in his foreign policy - its a long shot but maybe he can try to get peace talks between the Isrealis and Palestinians working eventually.

[Typhus]

The problem is that the Free Syrian Army seems to be getting more and more bloodthirsty. I read on Wednesday about how they attacked a funeral simply because the mourners happened to be supporters of the Assad regime.
Fighting for freedom and murdering people over a different political stance are two very different things. I fear Syria could potentially be trading one tyrant for another.

[El Zilcho]

QUOTE (Typhus @ Friday, Aug 31 2012, 09:28)

Fighting for freedom and murdering people over a different political stance are two very different things. I fear Syria could potentially be trading one tyrant for another.

Swapping tyrants you say? Sounds like standard procedure. To be somehwta fair, while their conduct is not admirable in the slightest, it is understandable. The situation will grow increasingly more violent as the conflict continues to drag on into attrition. It is inevitable that it will grow more and more exhaustive and grind itself out as a decisive conclusion continues to elude the rebels or the government.