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CARRYING THEIR RIFLES and small bags of belongings, hundreds of exhausted Syrian rebels withdrew from their last remaining strongholds in the heart of Homs, surrendering to President Bashar Assad a bloodstained city that was once the centre of the revolt against him.
For Assad, it is a powerful victory ahead of presidential elections. For the rebels, the dramatic exit after two years of enduring gruelling assaults and siege captures their sense of abandonment amid world reluctance to help shift the balance of power on the ground.
“We ate grass and leaves until there was nothing left for us to eat,” said opposition activist Abu Yassin al-Homsi, who was preparing to leave with the rebels.
“We kept urging the international community to lift the siege but there was no response,” he added.
The exit of some 1,200 fighters and civilians marks a de-facto end of the rebellion in the war shattered city, which was one of the first places to rise up against Assad’s rule, earning its nickname as “the capital of the revolution.”
Gaining virtually full control of Syria’s third largest city is a major win for Assad on multiple levels. Militarily, it solidifies the government hold on a swath of territory in central Syria, linking the capital Damascus with government strongholds along the coast and giving a staging ground to advance against rebel territory further north.
Politically, gains on the ground boost Assad’s hold on power as he seeks to add a further claim of legitimacy in presidential elections set for June 3, which Western powers and the opposition have dismissed as a farce.
“For those who want to believe that the regime is winning, it’s a powerful symbolic confirmation of that,” said Peter Harling, a Middle East expert at the International Crisis Group think tank. “But it really is about what the regime has to offer beyond years of such symbolic military victories,” he added.
“If you take a broader perspective, I think it’s an indication that this conflict is going to take years.”
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There is something truly unnerving about these gatherings of elites.
Noonan needs to be put out to grass, old fart with no fresh ideas
@Gus Sheridan: The most dangerous in Ireland. Despises ordinary people and has to the power to make them pay for it.
Has anyone ever wondered why they showcase Davos and not the bilderberg meetings?
They’ll be patting themselves on the back for this remarkable advance of the capitalist class at the expense of the majority working class.
“Eight men hold as much wealth as half the planet combined”
http://www.thejournal.ie/wealth-oxfam-3188533-Jan2017/
Kenny looks like he was telling a story at the World Angling Championship.
I wouldn’t be surprised.
@Ó Connmhaigh: Telling what he got while dressed as a dame.
Just back after nearly a month off and they’re away to Davos to act like the big important players on the world stage they can only begin to wish they were…Davos can have and keep Kenny
@Thevigilantone: Why would they if the same Goldman Sach ones goes to both of them?
The arrogance of these lads and lassies. Rich people gathering to discuss the worlds problems and issues as if they were elected to power to make decisions on our behalf.
@Jay Finn: Thats just it. EU suits are NOT elected.
@Jay Finn: It be an orgy there tonight…
About time they moved to Dublin, the wild west of financial shaenanigans
Davos/WEF is a massively expensive waste of time. I’ve never seen or read any effective, successful initiative they’ve funded, pioneered or implemented. Irish govt has to pay ten of thousands to be a member.
@Smidgen Dublin:
You will never see or read any initiative of Davos/WEF unless you are a member. Its all under the counter stuff. The little people suffer the consequences.
It’s the elites world, we’re all just worker ants
@classic: When will the US join the EU then???
Sure why wouldn’t Kenny and Noonan be there, presiding over a near bankrupt country and still refusing to claim tax due from one of the richest corporations in the world. Just goes to show who’s side these boys are on.
The One Percenter’s will be giving Noonan an update of NAMA policy and what bits they want.
World business leaders running their latest money making ideas by the school teacher from mayo for his assessment. That or they are telling him what they want him to do.
@Declan Tooher: Exactly. Went to train as a school teacher and ends up leading a country. Wasn’t it a great B. ed course he did. Only in sad Ireland.
Shouldn’t these donkeys kenny and noonan be back in their own country working hard in planning the Irish strategy for the hard brexit.
Yes they should be back here sorting out our problems but they needed someone out there to poke fun at so these pair of clowns went
In fairness, they’d be of little use back here.
They already sold all the property they could to the vulture funds and they can’t do much more with the corporation tax to compete with Britain for business, options are limited there, so what else can they do?
Bit embarassing that Britain could take business off of a tax haven though.
Rob’s a neighbour of mine, very nice guy, extremely hard working. I wish him well at the Forum.
These people have two problems
1. We don’t have enough
2. We want more.
Never forget 1% own 50% of the global wealth. Most of them will be gathered in Davos. Talking about “‘Responsive and Responsible Leadership’” They mostly will be un-elected people discussing that. I see Noonan will be attending will he be standing at the airport to greet the great and the good?
gender balance and climate change – two non-issues if ever there were.
Some amount of bull $#it been spoken in a confined space. You be a fair man to endure 5 minutes of it. This is an ostintation of wealth.
Can you get me a large Courvoisier XO brandy served in a Waterford Crystal Glass on a Silver Tray.
So a place where the bigger the brown envelope you are willing to hand over then the further up the tree you can go to meet the one you want to bribe?
Like in a lap dancing club that is really a brothel???
How pathetic must your life be if your jealous and bitter that people are at a work conference… and how paranoid and unstable to think they’re controlling your lives or plotting world domination.
It’s the same as any other conference, wearing name tags, making small talk, listening to self congratulating or promoting speeches, pretending to remember people you met there last year.
@Drew TheChinaman :): The 1% didn’t get to be the 1% without a nod and a wink from their political servants.
@Drew TheChinaman :): Yes it is all funs and laughs?
https://www.rt.com/op-edge/373943-davos-elite-play-acting-refugees/
Cultural levelling and its sinister twin cultural ecletism at work again.World citizen? Its official they have finally lost the plot.Not surprising to see the underbelly of the Irish politico in attendance.
Kenny and Noonan a bunch of asses, they havent a clue, once there pockets are lined. Were going back to way we were into a bubble and that ass Kenny cant see it
have your say