We should feel deeply challenged

Syria has become the most visible and most dramatic example of the UN Security Council´s failures. It patently shows that the Council´s arrangement is about the Permanent Members ‘interests, and not about international peace and security. And it is also a most shocking reminder that it is time to find a better arrangement to protect civilians and civilisation. To accept without profound indignation what is going on in Aleppo and elsewhere should be out of question.

However, it is not just about Syria or its vicinity. It is also the suffering in South Sudan, Myanmar and some other parts of the world. And the extreme poverty many face on a daily basis. All that is just a reminder of the incapacity of the Council to properly address the major crises and challenges that put so many lives at stake.

It is also a call to think differently about the future and a new international order.  

A clown´s death

Today´s words should not go beyond Aleppo, Syria. The civilian population in some areas of the city is being targeted and indiscriminately killed. The atrocities have reached a new level of savagery these last few days. Some of the most emblematic civilians died during this last series of bombardments. Including the 24-year-old Anas al-Basha, a young man who has kept many besieged children happy as he played the clown in between the falling bombs. Yesterday, one of those missiles fell on him. It came from the Assad men. So other people say it was a Russian plane´s job. The fact of the matter is that his death and that of many children, men and women should not be allowed to go silent any longer. 

Aleppo

The Russian forces deployed in Syria are now focussed on getting the city of Aleppo and its surrounding areas under Assad´s control. That´s were their current main effort is. Not on the Islamic State terrorists. As they do that, tens of thousands of people move out of the area and try to seek refuge in Turkey. This gives the Russians another reason to go for Aleppo: it ends up by increasing the pressure on the Turks. And, as we know, the Russians have an axe to grind with Turkey. This is a way of doing it. All this aggravates the geopolitical tensions and makes a political solution even more remote. Actually, at this stage I see almost no chance to get the Geneva talks back on the agenda. The bet seems, once again, to be on a military response to an inhumane chaotic situation.