Obama Isolated on the Matter of Syria at the G-20 Opening
U.S. President Barack Obama has found himself isolated on the topic of Syria on Thursday at the opening of the G-20 summit in St. Petersburg, where he had to listen to numerous warnings against his plan of military attack against Damascus.
The leaders of the main industrialized and developing countries met for two days in the ancient capital of the czars to try and build a united front on matters of growth, trade, banking transparency and the fight against tax evasion. But the prospect of an American military intervention in Syria has overshadowed the economic concerns of the forum, which represents two-thirds of the world's population and 90 percent of the planet's wealth.
Vladimir Putin hoped to use this forum in St. Petersburg to dissuade Barack Obama from carrying out his plan of limited military strikes against the Syrian regime, which would be in response to the bombing with chemical weapons on Aug. 21 in the suburbs of Damascus, which Washington, like France, attributes to Bashar al-Assad's government. The Russian president strongly believes in the need to bring "convincing" evidence of the Assad regime’s involvement and to validate all intervention with the U.N. Security Council, where Moscow holds the right to veto and has already blocked three plans against its Syrian ally. Putin has garnered the implicit support of the BRICS group, the EU and the pope.
Outside a press conference, the Chinese vice minister of foreign affairs, Zhu Guangyao, estimated that military action would provoke a rise in oil prices and be harmful for the world economy. According to the Kremlin's press attaché, Dimitri Peskov, the leaders of the BRICS group (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) have also foreseen that attacks on Syria would have an "extremely negative" impact on the economy. In a letter addressed to Vladimir Putin, Pope Francis has urged the leaders of the international community to "discard the futile path of a military solution."
The President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy and the president of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso have called for a political solution to put an end to the Syrian conflict, which has caused more than 100,000 deaths since 2011. “While respecting the recent calls for action, we underscore at the same time the need to move forward with addressing the Syrian crisis through the U.N. process,” declared Van Rompuy.
Isolated on the Syrian issue and holding moderate support in Damascus at the last G-8 summit in June in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, Putin can enjoy the turnaround in his favor. Barack Obama has no plans to meet him face-to-face since Moscow granted asylum to "whistle-blower" Edward Snowden, but the head of the Kremlin hopes to address the Syrian issue at the dinner on Thursday, when all the leaders meet.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the U.N.'s special envoy on Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, are also in St. Petersburg in order to promote the plan of a "Geneva II" conference, hitherto unheeded since Washington and Moscow proposed it in May.
Ministers of foreign affairs from the main powers of the G-20 — five of whom are permanent members of the Security Council — must discuss Syria outside the confines of the summit. EU diplomacy chiefs will also meet Friday and Saturday in Vilnius, Lithuania, where U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will be present. Russia has also confirmed that Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al Moualem will travel on Monday to Moscow to meet his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.
The U.S., at present, has only one confirmed ally: France, which has called for "punctual," "proportionate" and "collective" action. British members of parliament have rejected the idea of an intervention presented by Prime Minister David Cameron.
Barack Obama seeks a green light to use military force in Syria from Congress, which rejected his bid for an operation next Monday at the earliest, when the elected members of the Capitol resume their work.
On the monetary side, the final statement of the group assembled at the G20 will stick to terms agreed to by the finance ministers in the month of July, said Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak. The ministers had then promised to be "vigilant to the risks and negative side effects of prolonged periods of quantitative easing" and that changes in monetary policy would be "carefully calibrated and communicated with clarity."
The countries from the BRICS group will also contribute up to $100 billion (76 billion euros) to a fund to stabilize the foreign exchange market, which has been destabilized for several months by the prospect of change in monetary policy by the Fed, announced China and Russia.
A plan to refine the regulation of the international derivatives market — such as futures, options and swaps — to avoid the risk of explosion markets will be presented to the leaders in St. Petersburg.
The leaders of the main industrialized and developing countries met for two days in the ancient capital of the czars to try and build a united front on matters of growth, trade, banking transparency and the fight against tax evasion. But the prospect of an American military intervention in Syria has overshadowed the economic concerns of the forum, which represents two-thirds of the world's population and 90 percent of the planet's wealth.
Vladimir Putin hoped to use this forum in St. Petersburg to dissuade Barack Obama from carrying out his plan of limited military strikes against the Syrian regime, which would be in response to the bombing with chemical weapons on Aug. 21 in the suburbs of Damascus, which Washington, like France, attributes to Bashar al-Assad's government. The Russian president strongly believes in the need to bring "convincing" evidence of the Assad regime’s involvement and to validate all intervention with the U.N. Security Council, where Moscow holds the right to veto and has already blocked three plans against its Syrian ally. Putin has garnered the implicit support of the BRICS group, the EU and the pope.
Outside a press conference, the Chinese vice minister of foreign affairs, Zhu Guangyao, estimated that military action would provoke a rise in oil prices and be harmful for the world economy. According to the Kremlin's press attaché, Dimitri Peskov, the leaders of the BRICS group (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) have also foreseen that attacks on Syria would have an "extremely negative" impact on the economy. In a letter addressed to Vladimir Putin, Pope Francis has urged the leaders of the international community to "discard the futile path of a military solution."
The President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy and the president of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso have called for a political solution to put an end to the Syrian conflict, which has caused more than 100,000 deaths since 2011. “While respecting the recent calls for action, we underscore at the same time the need to move forward with addressing the Syrian crisis through the U.N. process,” declared Van Rompuy.
Isolated on the Syrian issue and holding moderate support in Damascus at the last G-8 summit in June in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, Putin can enjoy the turnaround in his favor. Barack Obama has no plans to meet him face-to-face since Moscow granted asylum to "whistle-blower" Edward Snowden, but the head of the Kremlin hopes to address the Syrian issue at the dinner on Thursday, when all the leaders meet.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the U.N.'s special envoy on Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, are also in St. Petersburg in order to promote the plan of a "Geneva II" conference, hitherto unheeded since Washington and Moscow proposed it in May.
Ministers of foreign affairs from the main powers of the G-20 — five of whom are permanent members of the Security Council — must discuss Syria outside the confines of the summit. EU diplomacy chiefs will also meet Friday and Saturday in Vilnius, Lithuania, where U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will be present. Russia has also confirmed that Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al Moualem will travel on Monday to Moscow to meet his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov.
The U.S., at present, has only one confirmed ally: France, which has called for "punctual," "proportionate" and "collective" action. British members of parliament have rejected the idea of an intervention presented by Prime Minister David Cameron.
Barack Obama seeks a green light to use military force in Syria from Congress, which rejected his bid for an operation next Monday at the earliest, when the elected members of the Capitol resume their work.
On the monetary side, the final statement of the group assembled at the G20 will stick to terms agreed to by the finance ministers in the month of July, said Russian Deputy Finance Minister Sergei Storchak. The ministers had then promised to be "vigilant to the risks and negative side effects of prolonged periods of quantitative easing" and that changes in monetary policy would be "carefully calibrated and communicated with clarity."
The countries from the BRICS group will also contribute up to $100 billion (76 billion euros) to a fund to stabilize the foreign exchange market, which has been destabilized for several months by the prospect of change in monetary policy by the Fed, announced China and Russia.
A plan to refine the regulation of the international derivatives market — such as futures, options and swaps — to avoid the risk of explosion markets will be presented to the leaders in St. Petersburg.