Lavrov warns against 'Nuclear Winter'

In an interview with US journalist Charles Rose broadcast on Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expressed dismay about the “Arab Spring” turning into a “Nuclear Winter”.

At the same time, Lavrov stressed the necessity of showing a “serious attitude” toward the fact that more countries are mulling maintaining national security by obtaining nuclear weapons.

“Threats and isolation only fuel similar moods in some countries,” Lavrov said.

Commenting on the Iranian nuclear program, he said that Moscow is concerned over Tehran’s attempts to develop nuclear weapons, something that Lavrov said is yet to be verified.

Clinton: Russia and China will 'pay price' for supporting Assad

Russia rejects in the strongest possible terms allegations that it supports President Assad in the Syrian conflict. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Moscow and Beijing must 'pay a price' for backing Assad.

“I do not believe that Russia and China are paying any price at all – nothing at all – for standing up on behalf of the Assad regime. The only way that will change is if every nation represented here directly and urgently makes it clear that Russia and China will pay a price,” Clinton warned.­

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said the west is operating within a friend-or-foe framework that he called outmoded.

“We categorically reject that such a question would even be posed regarding the current situation in Syria and Russia’s ‘backing’ of President Bashar Assad. This is not a question of supporting certain political figures or leaders. This is a question of managing a crisis situation in the country within a normal political framework,” Ryabkov said.

“Unfortunately, we’re unable to get a basic understanding from our western partners. The west is still appealing to “friend-or-foe” terms. We considered such terminology to be a thing of the past,” Ryabkov explained.

Russia and China once again opted not to attend the “Friends of Syria” meeting. Neither Moscow nor Beijing believe the meeting in the French capital will be helpful in uniting the Syrian opposition “on a constructive basis”.

“We have frankly laid out the reasons why we have restrained from joining the mechanism, the very name of which has a contradiction between the word and the deed,” Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said earlier this week.

The US Secretary of State further criticized Russia for the maintenance of Syria’s Soviet-made helicopters. Two weeks ago Hillary Clinton lashed out at Russia for repairing three Syrian helicopters, saying their presence “will escalate the conflict quite dramatically.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry swiftly refuted the allegations.

“In 2008 there was a contract to repair them. They are still to be assembled after delivery'', Lavrov said. ''That entire process will take at least three months. So to speak about something we have just sold to Syria, which is then to be used in action, is not true at all,” he added.

Meanwhile, Kofi Annan called on the West and Russia to lay aside their differences and work towards a sooner end to the Syrian bloodshed, which according to the UN latest estimates, has taken some 15,000 lives.

"They [the West] accuse the Russians of arming the [Syrian] government. The Russians accuse them of arming the opposition and flooding the place with weapons. This is instead of coming together to see what can be done," Annan told the Guardian on Friday.

US to seek another UN Security Council resolution­

The Paris conference wrapped up with a six-point resolution, affirming that more definitive UN Security Council action is required to resolve the 16-month conflict in Syria.

Hillary Clinton said the lack of compliance with Annan’s peace plan or obstruction to the transition should be punished with further sanctions.

"We should go back and ask for a resolution in the Security Council that imposes real and immediate consequences for non-compliance, including sanctions," ranging from economic measures to military force, she said.

Two previous UNSC resolutions have been vetoed by China and Russia.

Friends of Syria’s meeting also concluded with an agreement that the Syrian opposition should receive broader support, while those “who carry out and support repression” must face tougher and wider sanctions.

In the meeting, French President Francois Hollande demanded Assad step down. The Syrian opposition also called for humanitarian corridors and a no-fly zone to be implemented.

The Friends of Syria gathering comes just a week after a UN-led summit in Geneva where the international community endeavored to reach a consensus on the conflict. They agreed to get behind UN envoy Kofi Annan’s plan for a transition government in Syria.

However, Russia said that western powers were purposely distorting the terms of the agreement to push for the removal of Assad.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton claimed that the agreement said Assad must leave office, whereas Moscow claims that the original accord made no allusion to the removal of the Syrian president.

Will Bilderberg elect the next US president?

Around 150 of the world’s elite will meet outside of Washington, DC this week at the annual Bilderberg Conference, and although the agenda isn’t advertised to the public, some sources are already speaking out about what this year might bring.

Officially, the details of each Bilderberg Conference aren’t anything its members will go on the record to reveal. According to spectators that have kept a close eye on the event’s happenings each year, however, the annual conference has a reputation for being a kingmaker — and an elusive and exclusive one at that.

Speaking to RT earlier this month, radio host Alex Jones shared his expectations for the coming conference. According to the journalist, “Should the elite get behind Mitt Romney or Barack Obama?” is a question that he expects to be brought up for discussion. “Both men are bought and paid for by the same financial interests, and so the discussion will be which candidate can basically con the American people to lay down the tyranny for another four years.”

But does the biggest election of 2012 really rely that much on a mysterious meeting? Many people will tell you yes, and they are often willing to provide evidence to explain. Before becoming household names, politicians such as former presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton both attended Bilderberg conferences in the years before being elected to the Oval Office. Tony Blair was on hand at the 1993 gala before becoming prime minister of England in 1997, and the 2008 conference is believed to be the catalyst for that year’s US presidential election: rumors suggest that attendees settling on backing Barack Obama for the Democratic Party nomination at that year’s event, only for contender Hillary Clinton to bow out two days later.

“For an entire day, the media in Virginia and in DC saying, ‘Where’s Obama? Where’s Obama?’ And we were there saying he’s inside, the secret service is there,” Alex Jones recalls of the 2004 conference to RT.

As with 2004, this year's Bilderberg Conference will be held at the Chantilly, Virginia Westfield Marriott, and employees there are already privy to the fact that Jones will be ready to scrutinize every action he can witness from the grounds: on Tuesday, his reservation at the establishment was revoked and he was informed that he banned from the hotel; hours later, Jones’ Prison Planet website revealed that “all guests had been kicked out of the hotel, and offered one night’s accommodation at the Residence Inn in Chantilly (also Marriott owned).”

“Policy is being set there and this is one of the most elite meetings out there,” Jones told RT. That, many fear, is precisely why those close to the conference don’t want outsiders to have an inside scoop.

This year Jones expects details of the US presidential election to obviously be discussed, but perhaps the agenda item most interesting to many involves only one side of the race: rumors are quickly evolving about who and how the GOP will go about selecting a vice presidential nominee to run alongside their candidate of choice, former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. Al Kamen, a writer at the Washington Post, recently compared a recent speech from Senator Marco Rubio with one given at the 2004 Bilderberg Conference by John Edwards — which some say was instrumental in securing the VP nod back in 2004. The rumors of  Bilderberg being a launching pad for a Rubio run under Romney at this week’s conference has since been spun by reporters at Politico, Salon and elsewhere.

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