Operation Ostrava: Month 17, Week 2, Day 5.

Originally titled; "What a Load of Cr*p."

Today (18/7/12) a suicide bomber has attacked the National Security building in the Syrian capital Damascus killing the Syrian Defence Minister and President al-Assad's brother in law. The Saudi Irregular Army (SIA) and much of the western media have got themselves in an absolute tizzy at the idea this could be the end of the Syrian government. It's not. It's just a one off stunt that was probably months in the planning designed to make it look like the SIA are in a much stronger position then they actually are. The idea being that this will cause Russia and China to panic and force through Britain's chapter 7 resolution at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) today. If there was even the remotest chance the Syrian government is about to fall there wouldn't be such a desperate effort to force through a chapter 7 resolution.


Edited at around 15:45 on 18/7/12 to add:

Although it's not been corroborated by any other source and Mr Annan has not commented publicly himself the British delegation at the UNSC are claiming that Joint Special Envoy Kofi Annan has called for today's vote on the British chapter 7 resolution to be suspended. Personally I think this is just Britain trying to run out the clock on renewing the United Nations Supervision Mission In Syria (UNSMIS) mandate. After all in his role as the Joint Special Envoy it was Mr Annan who was the architect of UNSMIS and as an experienced diplomat he must surely know that the British resolution needs to be voted on and vetoed sooner rather then later in order to allow the Russian resolution to be voted on and passed to allow UNSMIS to continue beyond the Friday (20/7/12) deadline.

Edited again at around 19:15 on 18/7/12 to add:

This afternoon (18/7/12) a suspected suicide bombing has ripped through at least one bus carrying Israeli tourists in Bulgaria. This comes on the 18th anniversary of a bombing at a Jewish centre in Argentina which has widely been blamed on Hezbollah a Lebanese political party cum militia with links to the Syrian government. Given today's events in Syria and at the UNSC it seems too soon to jump to conclusions. The timing of the attack seems just too convenient in much the same way the attack on Norway happened just as NATO's resolve to overthrow Qaddafi was starting to waver.

Also Britain has decided that it is not going to put it's chapter 7 resolution to a vote at the UNSC until tomorrow (19/7/12) morning New York time. Due to the time difference this should coincide exactly with me having a routine doctors appointment with my GP. Hopefully the vote should all be over relatively quickly so a vote on the Russian resolution can be held that evening because I think waiting until the day of the deadline to renew the UNSMIS mandate is cutting it very fine and no doubt will lead to a debate about whether the mandate expires at 23:59 Syria time or 23:59 New York time.