U.S. to increase military support to Syria rebels

حزب اللہ کے سیکریٹری جنرل نے کہا کہ شام میں تکفیری گروہ قتل، ذبح اور چھری پھیرنے کی باتیں کر رہے ہیں اور ایسے اقدامات بھی کررہے ہیں، ان کی کوشش ہے کہ اب مذہبی منافرت اور فرقہ واریت کا کارڈ استعمال کریں، جن کے پاس منطق اور عقل نہ ہو وہ ایسا ہی کرتا ہے۔ انہوں نے کہا کہ کچھ معروف عربی ٹی وی چینلز اسی طرح انٹرنیٹ اخبارات سب میں یہی صورت حال ہے البتہ ہمارے حوالے سے یہ کوئی نئی بات نہیں لیکن مذہبی منافرت اور فرقہ واریت کی یہ کوششیں بزدلانہ عمل ہے۔ انہوں نے کہا کہ شام کے مسئلے میں ہم دو سال سے کہتے آئے ہیں اور کوشش کی ہے کہ مذاکرات سے حل ہو اور ہم اب بھی یہی چاہتے ہیں۔ انہوں نے شام میں اسلامی تحریک مزاحمت کی موجودگی کے بارے میں کہا کہ اس بحران میں ہم آخری تھے جو عملی طور پر اور انتہائی محدود پیمانے پر وارد ہوئے ہیں کیونکہ ہم دیکھ رہے ہیں کہ شام میں امریکہ اور اسرائیل ایک ایسے وسیع ایجنڈے کو نافذ کرنا چاہتے ہیں جس سے نہ صرف وہ شام بلکہ خطے میں فلسطین قبل اول سمیت متعدد اہم مسائل کو اپنے حق میں کرنا چاہتے ہیں، ہمیں اس ایجنڈے کا مکمل ادراک ہے اور یہ ایجنڈا پورے خطے کو تباہ و برباد کرے گا۔ انہوں نے کہا کہ آپ مجھے بتائیں کہ جسے یہ شامی اپوزیشن کہہ رہے ہیں وہ کون ہے؟ کیا شام کی عوام ہے؟ شامی اپوزیشن کی چھتری تلے دسیوں ہزار غیر ملکی مسلح افراد جو پوری دنیا سے اکھٹے ہوئے ہیں کو جمع کیا گیا اور عرب ممالک ان کی پشت پر بیٹھے ہیں اور جمہوریت اور تبدیلی کی بات کر رہے ہیں جن کے اپنے ملک میں انتخابات تک نہیں ہوتے۔ United States to meet Taliban to seek Afghan peace عراقی معروف شیعہ انقلابی رہنما سید مقتدیٰ الصدر نے شام میں دہشت گردوں کی ہرزہ سرائیوں پر شدید تشویش کا اظہار کرتے ہوئے القاعدہ کے ناصبی تکفیری دہشت گردوں کے سرغنہ کو خبر دار کرتے ہوئے نتیجہ خیز وارننگ دی ہے اور کہا ہے کہ القاعدہ دہشت گرد شا م میں دہشت گردانہ کاروائیوں کا سلسلہ فی الفور بند کر دے۔ Sayyed Nasrallah said that since the start of the crisis in Syria Hezbollah had a clear view that there was a scheme that has repercussions on Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, the region, the Muslims, the Christians, the Sunnites and the Shiites. His eminence pointed out that the resistance through its decisions is defending Lebanon, its land and its state. The resistance leader stressed that what’s coming on in Syria is not between a regime and people, saying: “This issue is over. There are sides who don’t care for the people killed, they just want for the regime to fall. They imagine that the alternative for this regime is another one. However the alternative is the chaos.” His eminence noted that the Syrian people are parted, some is with the regime and the other is against it, adding: “And we are with the regime. We are also with reforms.” “We are with people who call for reforms, whether they are with the regime or against it. However we are against those who are destroying Syria,” Sayyed Nasrallah told crowds. Sayyed Nasrallah: Mistaken Who Thinks That Takfiris Can Change Our Position inShare.0diggSaturday, 15 June 2013 08:46Written by Shiitenews Reporter Hits: 34 Hezbollah Secretary General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah stressed that the resistance will be where it should, assuring that the struggle in Syria is between two projects and not between two sects. During a ceremony held by Hezbollah for the occasion of the Injured Fighter Day, Sayyed Nasrallah said that post-Qusayr stage is the same of pre-Qusayr since no change in developments taking place in Syria. In this context, he stressed that the accusations of unbelief launched by Takfiris will not change the position of the resistance, and “who thinks that he can force us to change our stance through killing and terrifying is mistaken.” As he said that the resistance is not interested in the battle taking place in Syria, Sayyed Nasrallah said that Hezbollah should be engaged in this battle since it is aimed at destroying the whole region, not only Syria. His eminence pointed out that Hezbollah is the last side to take part in the Syrian fight, since there are many Lebanese parties, including al-Mustaqbal party, who were engaged in the struggle before. Clear View for the Crisis in Syria Sayyed Nasrallah said that since the start of the crisis in Syria Hezbollah had a clear view that there was a scheme that has repercussions on Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, the region, the Muslims, the Christians, the Sunnites and the Shiites. His eminence pointed out that the resistance through its decisions is defending Lebanon, its land and its state. The resistance leader stressed that what’s coming on in Syria is not between a regime and people, saying: “This issue is over. There are sides who don’t care for the people killed, they just want for the regime to fall. They imagine that the alternative for this regime is another one. However the alternative is the chaos.” His eminence noted that the Syrian people are parted, some is with the regime and the other is against it, adding: “And we are with the regime. We are also with reforms.” “We are with people who call for reforms, whether they are with the regime or against it. However we are against those who are destroying Syria,” Sayyed Nasrallah told crowds. On the other hand, he said that talks about starting to arm the Syrian opposition is false since providing arms to the foreign-backed militants who are fighting the Syrian government is taking place since long ago. Hezbollah The Latest Side to Take Part in Syria Fight Meanwhile, Sayyed Nasrallah said that Hezbollah was the latest Lebanese side to take part in the Syrian fight, noting that many other parties have been engaged in the Syrian crisis even before Hezbollah was. “We didn’t keep our participation in the Syrian fight a secret. We didn’t say that we are offering milk and blankets,” Sayyed Nasrallah said, referring to al-Mustaqbal party MP Oqab Saqr who denied that his party is engaged in the Syrian crisis. “… And if our fighters are killed in the battle in Syria we don’t burry them there and silence their families in Lebanon,” Sayyed Nasrallah added. Sayyed Nasrallah also assured that the struggle in Syria is not sectarian, noting that those who are presenting it as a sectarian struggle are weak. He called for exerting efforts in a bid to face some Arab channels which are inciting for sedition and giving the struggle sectarian explanations through fabrications. “We won’t change our position through fabrications, killing and terrifying,” his eminence said, noting that post-Qusayr is the same stage as pre-Qusayr. He said that the other side of the struggle is determined to go ahead with it, stressing that the resistance is to be where it should be as it will hold the responsibility it had held from the beginning of the crisis. Sayyed Nasrallah also pointed out that Hezbollah is ready to debate over Syria, noting in this context that some sides are offering initiatives that need to be discussed. Call for Self Restraint Talking about the Local issues, the resistance leader said that there nothing new concerning the issue of the elections, noting that the Lebanese are awaiting the decision of the constitutional council to know if the elections are to take place or not. His eminence urged the utmost degrees of self restraint and the avoidance of any form of fight and tension. “We urge the Lebanese, Palestinians and Syrians who are in the Lebanese territories to practice the utmost degrees of self restraint, especially the crowds of the resistance.” He also slammed what some Lebanese people are doing of shooting bullets in the air, saying that this action is being a noticeably increasing in Lebanon. His eminence called for the halt of this phenomenon, saying it’s rejected since it harm and bother others. “The phenomenon of shooting in the air has noticeably increased nowadays and during every occasion,” Sayyed Nasrallah said, adding: “we asked clerics across Iran and Iraq about the issue of shooting in the air. The only answer was that it is forbidden to do so.” Concerning the rockets fired on some Bekaa towns, Sayyed Nasrallah said that some media outlets are circulating rumors that these rockets are fired from the town of Ersal, in a bid to explain the issue by sectarian means. Hi eminence stressed that rockets fired on Sareen, Baalbeck and Hernel were not from Ersal, saying that armed groups in Syria are who are firing them and promising that this issue will be over soon. He warned in this context that media outlets along with intelligence services are working hard to incite sedition between Sunnites and Shiites. Resistance Saved Lebanon Talking about the occasion, Sayyed Nasrallah saluted the injured fighters along with their families who sacrificed for the sake of their country, stressing that Lebanon was liberated thanks to resistance and its fighters. “The resistance, with this sacrifice, liberated Lebanon from the Israeli occupation. It saved Lebanon and its history should not be forgotten.” In this context his eminence warned that “there is a huge media campaign which is working to defame the image and the history of the resistance.” The resistance leader dismissed talks about uprooting Hezbollah of the Lebanese structure as saying: “We were born here, we were grown up here, we lived here and we will be buried here… No one can root us up.” “One of the most powerful armies in the world was crushed by our fighters in Bint Jbeil, Maroun Ras… Who are these stupid people who are talking about rooting us up?” Iranian Elections: Festival of Democracy Meanwhile, Sayyed Nasrallah congratulated the Iranian leadership and the nation for the high public turnout in the Islamic Republic 11th presidential elections. "I want to congratulate Imam Khamenei and the Iranian nation for this festival of democracy, because this democracy strengthens the right positions in the region," he said. "Through this democracy, the Leader with all his powers has only one vote and the other Iranian citizens of different ethnicities are also at the same level. They participate in the election for the future of their country." His eminence hoped that some Arab countries witness similar democracy فَإِنَّ حِزْبَ اللَّـهِ هُمُ الْغَالِبُونَ ۔۔ (اللہ کی ہی جماعت غالب آنے والی ہے۔) سورة المائدة۔ قائد حزب اللہ سید حسن نصر اللہ کا لبنان سے کیا جانے والا شام اور مشرق وسطی میں مجاہدین اسلام کی القصیر میں ناصبی سعودیوں کو شکست دینے کے بعد پیدا ہونے والی صورتحال پر خطاب پاکستان میں امریکی اور اسرائیلی سازش کا شکار ہو گیا۔ تقریر جو کہ المنار ٹی وی کی ویب سائٹ سے براہ راست نشر ہونے والی تھی،،، المنار کی ویب ساٹ اور آی پی کو بلاک کر دیا گیا۔ لیکن جیسے ہی سید حسن نصر اللہ کا خطاب ختم ہوا امریکی ایما پر بلاک کی گئی ویب سائٹ کو کھول دیا گیا۔ یہ اس بات کا ثبوٹ ہے کہ دشمن ہماری طاقت سے خوف زدہ ہے۔ اور ڈرتا ہے کہ اُسکی خقیقت کا پول دنیا کے سامنے نہ کھل جائے اور وہ طرح طرح کی مکروہ چالیں چلتا ہے۔۔ ... مگر خدا کا وعدہ ہے ۔۔۔۔ وَمَكَرُوا وَمَكَرَ اللَّـهُ ۖ وَاللَّـهُ خَيْرُ الْمَاكِرِينَ ۔۔ سورة آل عمران اور یہودیوں نے عیسٰی علیھ السّلام سے مکاری کی تو اللہ نے بھی جوابی تدبیر کی اور خدا بہترین تدبیر کرنے والا ہے۔ ____________________________________________________See More سید المقاومہ قائد حزب اللہ سید حسن نصر اللہ شام اور مشرق وسطی میں مجاہدین اسلام کی القصیر میں ناصبی سعودیوں کو شکست دینے کے بعد پیدا ہونے والی صورتحال پر آج شام پاکستانی وقت کے مطابق شام 7 اہم خطاب کریں گے جو شیعت نیوز کے قارئین شیعت نیوز پر براہ راست ملاحظہ کر سکتے ہیں شامي فوج نےشمالي شہر حلب ميں اپني پيشقدمي جاري رکھتے ہوئے نبتل اور الزہرا کے علاقوں ميں دہشتگردوں کے محاصر کو توڑنے کي کوشش کي ہے تاکہ ان علاقوں کے باشندوں کو مدد پہنچائي جاسکے – شامي فوج نے اسي طرح کفر حمرا اور کفرداعل علاقوں ميں بھي پيشقدمي کي ہے - حلب کے مضافتي علاقوں ميں شامي فوج کي پيشقدمي ميں سيکڑوں دہشتگرد مارے گئے ہيں اور ان کے قبضے سے بھاري مقدار ميں اسلحہ و گولہ بارود بھي برآمد ہوا ہے - تکفیریوں نے اس علاقے کے رہنے والے ایک شیعہ عالم دین حجۃ الاسلام و المسلمین سید ابراہیم السید کے کمسن بیٹے کو اس کی ماں کے سمیت تمام اہل خانہ کے سامنے ذبح کردیا۔ نضال الشعب السوری ضد بشار الأسد جائز ومشروع وتاریخی، لکن امریکا، ایران، حزب اللہ، السعودیة، قطر اختطفوا ھذا النضال وحولوہ صراعا طائفیا U.S. to increase military support to Syria rebels Fri, Jun 14 06:10 AM EDT 1 of 7 By Matt Spetalnick and Erika Solomon WASHINGTON/BEIRUT (Reuters) - President Barack Obama has authorized sending U.S. weapons to Syrian rebels for the first time, a U.S. official said on Thursday after the White House said it has proof the Syrian government had used chemical weapons against opposition forces fighting to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad. The U.S. decision came as Assad's surging forces and their Lebanese Hezbollah allies turned their guns on the north, fighting near the northern city of Aleppo and bombarding the central city of Homs after having seized the initiative by winning the open backing of Hezbollah last month and capturing the strategic town of Qusair last week. The White House said Washington would provide "direct military support" to the opposition but did not specify whether it would include lethal aid, which would mark a reversal of Obama's resistance to arming the rebels. But the U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the package would include weapons. Syrian rebel and political opposition leaders immediately called for anti-aircraft and other sophisticated weaponry. The arrival of thousands of seasoned, Iran-backed Hezbollah Shi'ite fighters to help Assad combat the mainly Sunni rebellion has shifted momentum in the two-year-old war, which the United Nations said on Thursday had killed at least 93,000 people. U.S. and European officials anxious about the rapid change are meeting the commander of the main rebel fighting force, the Free Syrian Army, on Friday in Turkey. FSA chief Salim Idriss is expected to plead urgently for more help. Obama has been more cautious than Britain and France, which forced the European Union this month to lift an embargo that had blocked weapons for the rebels. After months of investigation, the White House on Thursday laid out its conclusions that chemical weapons were used by Assad's forces, but it stopped short of threatening specific actions in response to what Obama said would be a "game changer" for Washington's handling of the conflict. "The president ... has made it clear that the use of chemical weapons or transfer of chemical weapons to terrorist groups is a red line," said Ben Rhodes, Obama's deputy national security adviser. "He has said that the use of chemical weapons would change his calculus, and it has." 'CHEMICAL WEAPONS ... ON A SMALL SCALE' "Our intelligence community assesses that the Assad regime has used chemical weapons, including the nerve agent sarin, on a small scale against the opposition multiple times in the last year," Rhodes told reporters. He said the U.S. intelligence community had high confidence in the assessment and estimated that 100 to 150 people had died from detected chemical weapons attacks in Syria to date. The U.S. announcement followed deliberations between Obama and his national security aides as pressure mounted at home and abroad for more forceful action on the Syria conflict, including a sharp critique from former President Bill Clinton. Rhodes said the U.S. military assistance to the rebels would be different in "both scope and scale" from what had been authorized before, which included non-lethal equipment such as night-vision goggles and body armor. "We want anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons," George Sabra, acting leader of the National Coalition political opposition bloc, told Al-Arabiya television. "We expect to see positive results and genuine military support." U.S. Senator John McCain, who said he had been told by a reliable source that Washington would provide arms to the rebels, called for the establishment of a no-fly zone and said the United States needed to neutralize Assad's air power. "They (rebels) have enough light weapons. They've got enough AK-47s. AK-47s don't do very well against tanks," McCain told CNN. "They need anti-tank weapons and they need anti-air weapons." The Wall Street Journal, citing U.S. officials, reported that the administration's proposal included a no-fly zone stretching up to 25 miles inside Syria. Western governments that predicted months ago that Assad would soon fall now believe that support from Tehran and Hezbollah are giving him the upper hand. But they also worry that sending arms to rebel fighters could empower Sunni Islamist insurgents who have pledged their loyalty to al Qaeda. While Britain and France have yet to announce their own decisions to start arming the rebels, their diplomats have been making the case that the best way to counter both threats is to beef up support for Idriss' mainstream rebel force. Strengthening the FSA with money, weapons and ammunition, they argue, would help combat Assad and also provide a counterweight among the rebels to al Qaeda-linked groups. France in particular has developed good relations with Idriss while providing funds and non-lethal support, and seems eager to send him military aid. FIGHT FOR ALEPPO Assad's government says its next move will be to recapture Aleppo in the north, Syria's biggest city and commercial hub, which has been divided since last year when advancing rebels seized most of the countryside around it. Syrian state media have been touting plans for "Northern Storm," a looming campaign to recapture the rebel-held north. The United Nations, which raised its death toll for the war to 93,000 on Thursday, said it was concerned about the fate of residents if a new offensive is launched. "All of the reports I'm receiving are of augmentation of resources and forces (for an Aleppo offensive) on the part of the government," U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay told Reuters Television. Assad's army appears to be massing some troops in its footholds in Aleppo province, particularly in Shi'ite areas such as the enclaves of Nubel and Zahra, although some opposition activists say the government may be exaggerating the extent of its offensive to intimidate rebel supporters. Activists reported fighting in the area around Aleppo on Thursday, especially near an airport that rebels have been trying to capture. The government has also launched an offensive in Homs, the closest big city to its last victory in Qusair and one of the last major rebel strongholds in the country's centre. "There was a fourth day of escalations today on the besieged neighborhoods of Homs' old city. Early in the morning, there were two air strikes ... followed by artillery and mortar shelling," said Jad, an activist from Homs speaking via Skype. Ahmed al-Ahmed, an activist in Aleppo, said the government's reinforcements in the north were just a distraction from Homs. "They've turned the world's attention to watching northern Aleppo and fearing an attack and massacres as happened to our people in Qusair, to get us to forget Homs, which is the decisive battle." Hezbollah's participation has deepened the sectarian character of the war, with Assad, a member of the Alawite offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, backed by Shi'ite Iran and Hezbollah, while Sunni-ruled Arab states and Turkey back the rebels. The 7th century rift between Sunni and Shi'ite Islam has fueled violence across the Middle East in recent decades, including the sectarian bloodletting unleashed in Iraq since the 2003 U.S. invasion and the Lebanese civil war of 1975 to 1990. Leading Sunni Muslim clerics met in Cairo on Thursday and issued a call to jihad against Assad and his allies on Thursday, condemning the conflict as a "war on Islam. (Additional reporting by Mariam Karouny in Beirut; Stephanie Nebehay and Tom Miles in Geneva; John Irish in Paris; Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman; Omar Fahmy and Asma Alsharif in Egypt; Roberta Rampton, Mark Felsenthal, Jeff Mason and Susan Heavey in Washington; Writing by Peter Graff and Jim Loney; Editing by Mike Collett-White and Peter Cooney)