International affairs and security analyst Mark Sleboda discusses the Turkish roadblocks on Sweden and Finland’s way to NATO entry, negotiations between Turkey and Syria brokered in Moscow, and revelations about the US’ infamous 2021 drone strike in Kabul that killed 10 civilians.
Welcome back to Political Misfits on Radio Sputnik, where we bring you news, politics and culture - without the red and blue treatment. I am John Kiriakou here with Michelle Witte.
We’re joined by international affairs and security analyst Mark Sleboda.
https://www.euronews.com/2023/01/08/turkey-wants-things-we-cant-give-them-says-nato-hopeful-sweden
Let’s talk about NATO, because its expansion is not going as smoothly as some might have hoped. The Swedish prime minister said yesterday that his country has done what was asked of them by Turkey as a condition of their accession to the bloc, but that Turkey keeps asking for more - asking for things that Sweden cannot give. Among Turkey’s conditions were for Sweden to extradite a bunch of people Turkey designated as terrorists involved with the Kurdistan Workers Party, and to be less friendly with the Kurds generally. Apparently Sweden remains confident that Ankara will ultimately approve of their NATO membership, despite not getting its entire wishlist. How should we understand the Swedish leaders’ comments, and do you think Turkey will decide the deal is good enough?
What does this mean for Finland, in the meantime?
Is Hungary the spoiler that everyone’s missing, by the way? The Hungarian Parliament has yet to ratify this expansion plan. Will they?
https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/uae-foreign-minister-meets-syrias-assad-further-sign-warming-ties
And speaking of strained alliances … I want to talk about what’s happening with Syria. The defense minister of the UAE apparently visited Damascus last week, and the UAE is supporting Russian efforts to mediate between Turkey and Syria. Apparently the Turkish president floated the idea of meeting directly with Syrian President Bashar al Assad after the most recent round of meetings held in Moscow, and Turkey is saying, they’ll recognize Assad’s government if Assad rules out allowing the Kurdish YPG to form an autonomous zone in Northern Syria … which it would seem is threatening Assad with a good time. I mean, it kind of seems like Turkey’s in a better position to negotiate with the US to block that than Assad is. Talk to us about how things stand, how likely a meeting between Erdogan and Assad is, and what it means to see US ally the UAE taking a prominent role in “rehabilitating” Assad?
Turkey, which backed the 2011 rebellion against Assad, is now prepared to publicly recognize his rule over Syria and work to rebuild diplomatic, security and trade ties, people briefed on the Turkish position said.
In return, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants Assad to rule out allowing the US-backed Kurdish YPG to form an autonomous area in northern parts of the country that they currently control, as part of any future peace agreement, the people said.
Erdogan floated the idea of meeting with Assad as recently as Thursday after high-level meetings between Syrian and Turkish officials last week in Moscow.
“We will come together as leaders according to the developments,” Erdogan said in reference to a future meeting with Assad and Putin.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/06/us/politics/drone-civilian-deaths-afghanistan.html
Let’s talk about this report by the NYT that came out on Friday showing that, no, members of the US military were not stunned, stunned to learn, days later, that our infamous last drone strike in Kabul had killed civilians, including children, but instead were aware within minutes in some cases that they were among the dead. The Times got hold of some of a US Central Command report on the event through a FOIA lawsuit. It shows military officials lying, over and over. “We’re assessing the possibility of civiliand casualties, though we have no indications that they occurred” - they’re making these statements AFTER analysts have already stated that it looks likely children were killed. And the investigation also revealed that a CIA surveillance drone was also watching the car and had observed children, maybe in the car, just before impact. But I guess that information wasn’t of any use to the military in making its decision. The report shows a military operating with a powerful confirmation bias, in which all events on the ground can be made to fit their story, and then trying to lie until people forget about it.
But everything’s different now, right?
Why is it so hard for people to take these lessons from our past conduct and use them to assess our current conduct?
https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/06/politics/venezuelan-opposition-embassy-us-closes/index.html
This is a little far afield, but I wanted to mention the closure of the opposition-run Venezuelan embassy in the US. The non-government of Juan Guaido has been formally ended, and since Venezuela closed its embassies in the US after our government recognized him as president rather than Nicolas Maduro, there’s no one to run these services. It really makes the whole thing seem like such a petty little adventure - only of course the people who suffer are people who might need some freaking consular services. Do you think the US government will learn something from the Guaido debacle?
Somalia claims al-Shabab extremists seek talks for 1st time - The Washington Post -
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