Obama-Putin agree to settle scores in Geneva. Obama to boost aid to Syria and Neighbours

After the two leaders; Putin and Obama, central from the outside to the conflict in Syria met, they made the pledge after a 2 hour meeting at the G8 summit to push the sides of the conflict to the negotiating table in Geneva.

“We have agreed to push the sides of the Syrian conflict to come to the negotiating table at the international Geneva conference,” Putin said.

“On some points, we still have a different stance, but we are united by an aspiration to prevent violence, to put an end to the growing number of victims, to solve the problem by peaceful means, including through negotiations at the international conference at Geneva,” the Russian President added.

President Obama also conceded that he has a “different perspective” on Syria than his Russian counterpart, but confirmed that both countries have a shared interest in stopping the violence and “securing chemical weapons” in Syria.

“We do have differing perspectives on the problem but we share an interest in reducing the violence, securing chemical weapons and ensuring that they're neither used nor are they subject to proliferation,” Obama said. “We want to try to resolve the issue through political means if possible.”

President Obama is set to announce a further $300 million in new humanitarian aid to Syria, which will bring the total of US aid during the two-year civil war there to over $800 million. A little less than half of the new aid package will go to Syria itself, with the rest being sent to neighbouring countries harbouring Syrian refugees, the White House said on Monday.

The Obama administration had already declared that Assad’s government had crossed a red line when it looked like Assad was winning the war despite all efforts to pull him down. Obama claimed new classified evidence showed chemical weapons use by government forces. As a result, American officials went on the record supporting the idea of military aid to the Syrian insurgency.

US officials had already told Reuters that Washington was also reviewing the possibility of setting up a no-fly zone in Syria that would extend 40km into its territory and would be used as a safe haven for refugees and a platform to train rebels. Moscow spoke out against the US plan to aid the rebels, saying Kremlin officials were “unconvinced” by the US claim of evidence.

Apart from Syria, in the course of their nearly two-hour-long talks the presidents touched on a number of sensitive issues including Iran, nuclear security and the prevention of nuclear arms proliferation, as well as cyber security and cooperation in fighting terrorism.

“We spoke in detail about strategic security between the two countries and the world in general. I think that we have opportunities to move forward in the most sensitive areas,” Putin said.

Middle East Dilemma: Washington calls on France and Britain to arm Rebels; Iran to send troops to Assad

The Middle East is edging closer to a more precarious situation with the recent turn of events. The announcement by Washington to arm Syrian rebels and the recent meeting of Sunnis in Cairo have all added fuel to the Syrian crisis. The Sunnis vow to end the regime of Bashar al Assad.

The prompt result of this was the severing of diplomatic and political ties by the Egyptian President, Mohammed Morsi, with President Assad. President Morsi said there is 'no space or place for Hezbollah is Syria'. He made it resoundingly clear that Hezbollah must leave Syria. Morsi went further to demand a no-fly zone be imposed over Syria.

All this events happening barely 24 hours before the Iranian election (that of Washington) and within 24 hours after the election (that of President Morsi). Within 24 hours after Morsi's declaration, reports came out from Iran that the Islamic Republic will be sending 4,000 soldiers to Syria to help Assad.

Russia too is to go ahead in supplying his S-300 missile batteries to Assad. The US also calls on France and Britain to supply weapons to Syrian rebels thus creating a cold-war-like conflict in Syria. Syria definitely represents one of the last bastions of Cold War alongside North Korea and Cuba.

Hezbollah's involvement and its seemingly rising power after the Qusayr victory seems to have 'alarmed' Israel and its powerful lobby group in Washington. Hassan Nasrallah has vowed that Hezbollah will not leave Syria because it cannot afford it falling into the hands of Israel, the US and al Qaeda.

Washington upon the imposition of a Shi'ite regime in Iraq saw it bolstered Iran, hence, roughly calculates to counter-balance the trend by supporting rebels (Sunni and al Qaeda-linked rebels in Syria) while overlooking the brutality in Bahrain for fear of losing it to another Shi'ite group. Saudi, Bahrain and 'Syria' together will be a great buffer zone to cage Iran for the benefits of oil and Israel.

In now looks as if the main targets of the US and Israel are now becoming full participants; Iran and Hezbollah. This will definitely be a bad, catastrophic and colossal precedent for the Middle East as Washington and Israel have 'effectively' used the Sunni-Shi'ite divide well to their advantage. Arabs are the epitome of their own failure, instability and regional chaos with so-called Sunni-Shi'ite divide.

Their wall has cracked beyond repair to the advantage of Israel and Washington. Palestine is on its own once Iran is taken off the radar. Other Arab nations will only make much noise and Washington cum Tel Aviv can easily pocket them. Iran has been a kind of 'rational' player Israel finds hard to 'effectively' get off the table and the Syrian war looks pretty good for the job to be done. In all these calculations, it is the people that will get to suffer.