Syria reportedly captures foreign military officers, UN chief won’t condemn kidnapping of Iranians

FSA fighters in a house on the outskirts of Aleppo, Syria credit: AP/Khalil Hamra, file

Madison Ruppert, Contributor
Activist Post

As Syrian media is reporting the capture of military officers from foreign nations in Aleppo, the city which has a heavy presence of the Western-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) terrorist organization, the Secretary General of the United Nations is refusing to condemn the kidnapping of Iranian pilgrims in Syria.

This just highlights how laughable the United Nations is as an organization. When it suits them, they are suddenly champions of humanitarianism and human rights, just as the United States is.

Then, suddenly, when the position no longer benefits them, they quickly ignore the murder of innocent civilians at the hands of Syrian rebels. Indeed, unconfirmed reports have stated that three of the 48 Iranian pilgrims kidnapped by rebels have been killed, something which the UN doesn’t seem to care about all that much.

Keep in mind, these are the same rebels who recently carried out what is almost certainly a war crime by slaughtering detained Syrian policemen, to just name one incident.

The reports of the capture of several military officers from Saudi Arabia and Turkey have been relatively few and far between including SINA, Voice of Russia, and Press TV. Unsurprisingly, the Western mainstream media hasn’t been quick to jump on the story.

The arrests of the officers occurred during the clashes in Aleppo and come on the heels of multiple reports from various news agencies on the foreign agents present in the opposition.

For instance, on June 21, 2012, the New York Times reported that the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was directly aiding in getting arms into the hands of the terrorists in the Syrian opposition.

Then on June 22, 2012, the British Guardian reported that Saudi Arabia actually plans to fund and arm the Syrian rebels through a command center in Turkey.

On August 2, 2012, Reuters reported that Syria accused Turkey of taking a “fundamental role” in supporting terrorism by allowing insurgents to carry out attacks in Syria, further widening the gap between the two former allies.

Most noteworthy, however, came on July 27, 2012 when none other than Reuters reported that Turkey actually set up a secret base in concert with Saudi Arabia and Qatar in order to aid the opposition forces.

This is quite important because the unnamed “Doha-based source” quoted by Reuters said, “It’s the Turks who are militarily controlling it. Turkey is the main co-ordinator/facilitator. Think of a triangle, with Turkey at the top and Saudi Arabia and Qatar at the bottom.”

“The Americans are very hands-off on this. U.S. intel(ligence) are working through middlemen. Middlemen are controlling access to weapons and routes,” the anonymous source added.

The alleged activities of these nations are hardly surprising given the fact that there have long been reports of cross-border operations being run into Syria, Syria allegedly downed a Turkish jet and Qatar was running the rebel operations in Libya.

Of course, the U.S. played the same “hands-off” role in Libya, which involved bombing the country into smithereens.

Meanwhile, the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon refused to outright condemn the kidnapping of Iranian pilgrims, with his spokesman Martin Nesirky saying, “I don’t have anything at the moment.”

When Iran’s Press TV asked Nesirky if Ban might be taking some action in terms of intervening before more hostages are slaughtered, he said, “I think it’s obvious that there are a number of players involved in this already and I don’t think I want to go to any more details at this point.”

The Iranians are clearly taking it much more seriously than the United Nations, with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Hossein Amir Abdollahian making some quite heated statements.

“We hold the Turkish government responsible for giving shelter to these armed groups and also if a criminal act is carried out by these groups, such as kidnapping Iranian citizens,” Abdollahian said, according to Press TV.

“We also hold the Qatari government accountable. It is worth mentioning that the US is openly supporting the armed groups with ammunition,” he added.

It will be quite interesting to see if the United Nations continues to delegitimize itself as an institution by silently watching as the rebels continue to carry out terrorist acts and potential war crimes or if they will step up and protect human life regardless of the politics behind it.

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This article first appeared at End the Lie.