The proposal for a transitional government in Syria comprised of five vice presidents is intended to throw the nation into deeper chaos, Senator from the US State of Virginia Richard Black told Sputnik.

On Thursday, the Syrian opposition's Moscow platform put forward a proposed transitional government arrangement to appoint five vice presidents as deputies under President Bashar Assad. The proposal allegedly received a positive response from UN Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura, though it was opposed by the High Negotiations Committee, the main opposition delegation backed by Saudi Arabia.

"There has never been a government run by five vice presidents and there never will be," Black said on Friday. "The proposal is foolish, it's deceitful, and it is designed to collapse the Syrian government."

Black, who recently met with President Assad during a visit to Syria, explained that under the proposal, "Two of those [vice presidents] would be terrorists, two would be government officials, and one would be some nebulous undefined individual that presumably the terrorists would try to control or to threaten."

The division of power would leave the Syrian government "in total chaos," Black asserted, adding that "clearly this is their objective."

The three conspirators—American neocons, Saudi Arabia, and Israel—that successfully pulled off the crime of the 21st century, namely the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States, are infighting to the point that the layers of secrecy surrounding the 9/11 attacks are beginning to wither away.

The weakest link in the troika of conspirators is Saudi Arabia, the country that provided the manpower, finances, and hijacker personnel for the cover story—"Al Qaeda did it"—for 9/11. Stung by U.S. congressional moves to allow families of 9/11 victims to sue Saudi Arabia and calls for the Obama administration to release 28 classified pages in the joint Congressional Inquiry on 9/11 intelligence failures to the public, the Saudi government is now pushing the story that the U.S. government was responsible for carrying out the 9/11 attack.

A Saudi legal scholar, Katib al Shammari, writing in the London-based "Al Hayat" newspaper and believed to be representing the view of the Saudi government, stated: "September 11 is one of winning cards in the American archives, because all the wise people in the world who are experts on American policy and who analyze the images and the videos agree unanimously that what happened in the Towers was a purely American action, planned and carried out within the U.S. Proof of this is the sequence of continuous explosions that dramatically ripped through both buildings . . . Expert structural engineers demolished them with explosives, while the planes crashing only gave the green light for the detonation—they were not the reason for the collapse. But the U.S. still spreads blame in all directions. This can be dubbed 'victory by means of archives.'"

Russia's timeline of not delivering airstrikes against groups in Syria that have not joined the cessation of hostilities will run out this week, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday.

A US-Russia-brokered ceasefire came into force across Syria on February 27, but it does not apply to terrorist groups such as al-Nusra Front and Daesh.

Earlier in May, Moscow proposed to Washington to conduct joint airstrikes against al-Nusra Front and other terrorist groups refusing to respect ceasefire in Syria. Washington has so far rejected Moscow's proposal.

"[The United States] has asked us for a few more days before our schedule comes into force, which means those who have not joined the ceasefire will become a legitimate target regardless of the fact if they are in a terrorist list or not. They asked for a few more days in order to react. Those few more days run out this week," Lavrov said during a live linkup on kp.ru.

Sweden, which historically has been a 'neutral' country between the U.S. and Russia, is joining the NATO buildup against Russia, allowing NATO to place nuclear weapons in Sweden for an attack against Russia, and, like NATO (of which Sweden isn't a member) lying about it to their people, and to the world.

The alleged reason for joining the operation is that "Russian aggression against Ukraine breaches international law and challenges the European security order", according to Sweden's 'defence' minister Peter Hultqvist. He denied nuclear weapons would be part of it.

He also said, "I have sometimes wondered if there has been deliberate disinformation" by opponents of the proposal. (Let him call this report such 'disinformation', because I'm going to link here to solid sources that expose his and 'The West's' other vicious lies leading straight to World War III.)

This is being done by Sweden in the leadup to the NATO Summit on July 8-9 against Russia, and in the context of America's installation on Russia's borders of weaponry to disable Russia's capacity to retaliate against a Western blitz-invasion from NATO. The first successful test of that BMD or "Ballistic Missile Defense" system occurred on 19 May 2016 and constituted a breakthrough in the ability of the United States and its allies to conquer Russia; the test had occurred in Hawaii. Just seven days earlier than that test, the first installation of the system had occurred, which took place in Romania on May 12th. So, U.S. rulers have started to install the ultimate mass-killing system, for the ultimate conquest; it's the system to block an enemy from defending itself from an invasion. Russia is increasingly surrounded by an expanding NATO, and that expansion up to Russia's borders is supposed to be accepted by Russia as if it's not a very aggressive move against Russia. And Sweden's rulers have decided to be on the winning side of World War III.

The news report on Sweden's joining this mega-disgusting operation against Russia was published on May 26th, in EU Observer, and added this: "Sweden is also likely to join Nato's strategic communications centre, Stratcom, in an effort to strengthen the country's counter propaganda efforts."

Russian demands that Turkey withdraw its troops from Iraq, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday adding that Turkish actions are completely unacceptable.

In December, Turkey deployed about 150 troops and 25 tanks to a base in the Iraqi Nineveh province, without Baghdad's approval. Turkey said its troops had entered Iraq to protect Turkish instructors deployed at the base earlier to train local militias, fighting against IS, a terrorist group outlawed in a number of countries worldwide, including Russia.

"We demand that Turkey withdraw its troops from the Iraqi territory where they are located to strengthen the sovereignty of Iraq, according to ex-Prime Minister [Ahmet] Davutoglu. That is a completely unacceptable position, in principle, I believe what the Turks are doing deserves far more public attention by our western partners," Lavrov said.

The murder of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 was a war crime, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday.

In 2011, as the civil war broke out in Libya, a multi-state coalition, consisting mostly of NATO members, began a military intervention in the country with the declared aim of establishing an immediate ceasefire. The operation led to the escalation of the conflict in the country and the subsequent killing of the country's long-standing leader, Muammar Gaddafi.

"It was a mistake not because they violated the [UN] Security Council mandate that proposed to close the [Libyan] airspace, not allowing aviation to fly. They [NATO] simply bombed [Libya] flying in that airspace and in the end Gadaffi was violently killed. Whichever way you look at this, this is also a war crime," Lavrov said during a live linkup on kp.ru.

EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker plans to visit Russia on June 16, during the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, Reuters reports, citing his spokesperson.

The Commission president would be the first leader of an EU institution to visit Russia since sanctions were imposed in March 2014 over the conflict in Ukraine.

Juncker is facing growing resistance over the trip from the US and some European countries, and even among his own staff, according to media reports.

Unnamed diplomatic sources told American magazine Politico the US fear Juncker's visit would strengthen Russian President Vladimir Putin's position before a crucial decision on renewing economic sanctions against Moscow.

The EU is expected to automatically prolong sanctions against Russia in July, despite a call from some European policymakers and business leaders to review the policy. They point out that sanctions against Moscow have proven politically ineffective and economically harmful for both Russia and European countries.

Juncker's aides have reportedly said the Commission president plans to go, although the trip to St. Petersburg is not on his official schedule, and his name is yet to appear on the event's official program.

The European Investment Bank (EIB) is ready to sign a cooperation agreement with the BRICS' New Development Bank, EIB President Werner Hoyer told RIA Novosti.

On Monday, EIB and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) agreed to broaden cooperation to support investment in "strategically important projects."

"We hope to reach such an agreement with NDB [New Development Bank] soon... We are always open for that," said Hoyer.

Speaking at a news conference at the EU Embassy in China, he also expressed hopes for productive cooperation between AIIB and the BRICS bank, along the same lines as "the European Investment Bank had with the World Bank on some concrete projects."

Hoyer said there is no rivalry among the AIIB, NDB, EIB and the World Bank, as they are complimentary. "We need each other because investment projects, particularly those regarding construction of infrastructure objects are so huge that no one of us could deal with it alone. That's why we should work with each other, and we do it very well," the official said.

Russian oil production in March outpaced Saudi Arabia, according to the data from the Russian Federal Statistics Service Rosstat published Monday. Russian producers extracted almost 10.92 million barrels a day compared to 10.12 produced by Saudi Arabia.

OPEC members produced over 32 million barrels a day throughout the first three months of this year.

In February, Saudi Arabia led production with a similar quantity, with Russia close behind pumping 10.03 million barrels per day.
Russia sold oil worth more than $10 billion through March this year, according to the data. Crude sales made up 23 percent of Russian exports compared to 25.2 percent in the same period of 2015.

In parallel with Ukraine's extraordinary decision to bar Mikhail Gorbachev from travelling to Ukraine, Ukraine has filed what is legally speaking an equally extraordinary Defence to the Claim Russia has brought against Ukraine in London's High Court.

Russia brought its claim because Ukraine refuses to repay $3 billion it borrowed from Russia in 2013. Since the loan took the form of a purchase by Russia of a $3 billion eurobond the court with jurisdiction to decide the case is the High Court in London.

Russia issued the claim on 17th February 2016. It has taken a while for Ukraine to file its Defence. As is usual in court cases Russia granted Ukraine at least one extension of time to enable it to do so. The reason given for the delay was apparently the change of government in Kiev following the forced resignation of Ukraine's previous Prime Minister, Arseny Yatsenyuk.

In the event the Defence Ukraine has filed is one that has no precedent in legal proceedings of this sort. Ukraine claims it should be relieved of paying the debt because Russia's alleged military aggression against Ukraine means Ukraine should be under no obligation to pay it.