By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday June 18, 2013
‘Thugs’ vs. cannibals as Putin and Harper Trade Barbs
This week’s G8 summit at Lough Erne, Northern Ireland, got off to the worst possible start as talks between the two leaders immediately stalled.
Putin refused to stop providing arms to Bashar al-Assad and rebuked Cameron and U.S. President Barack Obama for aiding the rebels fighting the Syrian leader.
“You will not deny that one does not really need to support the people who not only kill their enemies, but open up their bodies, eat their intestines in front of the public and cameras,” Putin said at a press conference. “Are these the people you want to support?”
Meanwhile, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper was equally blunt ahead of the G8 meeting, saying that Putin, Assad’s only big-power ally at the G8 table, was supporting thugs.
“We are not, unless there is a big shift in position on his part, going to get a common position with him at the G8.”
The United States said last week it would step up military aid to Syrian rebels — a move which officials said would involve supplying the Western-backed Supreme Military Council with automatic weapons, light mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.
The European Union has also dropped its arms embargo on Syria, allowing France and Britain to arm the rebels, though the two countries say they have no immediate plans to do so. (Source: The National Post)