AlMasdarNews reports: On Thursday, the New York Times reported that more than 50 diplomats from the U.S. State Department signed an internal memo urging President Barack Obama to use force against the Syrian government of President Bashar Al-Assad.
According to the memo, these diplomats believe that military strikes against the Syrian government would deter them from violating the countryside ceasefire agreement.
The State Department signatories are calling for a “judicious use of stand-off and air weapons, which would undergird and drive a more focused and hard-nosed U.S.-led diplomatic process.”
This letter from the State Department comes just 48 hours after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry issued a statement that expressed the U.S.’ discontent with the events taking place inside Syria.
While the U.S. State Department alleges that the Syrian government has violated the nationwide ceasefire on a number of occasions, local monitoring groups have actually reported that most of the breaches coming from the opposition forces.
Countering the U.S. State Department’s narrative regarding the ceasefire violations is the Russian military’s report from inside the country. One key characteristic that distinguishes the aforementioned parties is the fact that there are no U.S.military personnel embedded with the so-called “moderate” rebels; however, the Russian military is spread across the country.
The Russian monitoring groups announce every ceasefire violation, while the U.S. Statement tends to counter these claims with some ambiguous allegation that is often untrue. Russia has asked the U.S. to play a more active role in decreasing the violence in Syria, but there is a significant difference between sending monitoring groups and F-16s to broker peace.
