Russian cruise missiles target Syria

Fri Aug 19, 2016 | 7:00 PM EDT Russian cruise missiles target Syria 3h ago | 01:07 Syrian rebels welcome idea of 'weekly' truce Russian cruise missiles target Syria (Reuters) - Russian warships in the Mediterranean Sea fired cruise missiles at targets near Aleppo on Friday, a further sign of Moscow's broadening military effort in Syria days after it began to fly bombing missions from an airbase in Iran. Russian air power had helped Syrian President Bashar al-Assad make steady advances against rebels seeking to oust him since Moscow's intervention a year ago, but a recent insurgent advance in Aleppo has checked that momentum. In northeastern Syria, warplanes from a U.S.-led coalition flew patrols on Thursday to protect local ground forces they back against Syrian government airstrikes that are targeting the Kurdish city of Hasaka, the Pentagon said. "The Syrian regime would be well advised not to interfere with coalition forces or our partners," Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said. Russia's three cruise missile launches were its first against targets in Syria from the Mediterranean, with previous ones made from its Caspian Sea fleet. On Tuesday Russian bombers began flying missions in Syria from Hamedan air base in Iran. Russia's Defense Ministry said the strikes targeted the Islamist militant group Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, known as the Nusra Front until it broke formal ties with al Qaeda last month before playing a big role in the sudden rebel advances in Aleppo. The upsurge in fighting and airstrikes in and around the city, split between government-held west and rebel-held eastern sectors, has prompted growing international concern, galvanized by pictures on Thursday of a dazed, bloodied child. The plight of civilians in Aleppo has been aggravated in besieged areas by dire shortages of basic goods, leading the World Food Programme to warn of a "nightmarish" situation. In Daraya, a suburb of Damascus, rebels and a war monitor said the Syrian army's helicopters had dropped incendiary barrel bombs early on Friday, putting the opposition-held town's only hospital out of action. On Thursday Russia, Assad's most powerful military ally, said it supported a proposal for a weekly 48-hour pause in fighting in Aleppo to allow aid to reach the besieged areas and that it was ready to start the first one next week. On Friday, the main umbrella group for the Syrian opposition also cautiously welcomed the idea provided the U.N. monitored the truce and enforced compliance. During a previous humanitarian pause this year, both sides complained the other had broken the truce as fighting escalated again. DOZENS KILLED IN HASAKA On Friday Syrian Kurdish authorities evacuated thousands of civilians from Kurdish areas of Hasaka following government air strikes, a spokesman for the Kurdish YPG militia, an integral part of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said. The SDF is at the heart of Washington's military campaign against Islamic State group and last week seized the town of Manbij from the militant organization, part of a growing swathe of northern Syria it controls. The U.S.-led coalition aircraft arrived at Hasaka as two Syrian SU-24s, which had carried out the strikes, were leaving. "This is very unusual, we have not seen the regime take this kind of action against YPG before," the Pentagon's Davis said. Hasaka is divided into zones of Kurdish and Syrian government control and fighting between them has killed dozens of civilians in the past 48 hours, YPG spokesman Redur Xelil said. The YPG and the government have mostly avoided confrontation during the multi-sided war that has turned Syria into a patchwork of areas held by the state and an array of armed factions. The Syrian army said on Friday that this week's fighting was caused by Kurdish security forces attempting to take over Hasaka, prompting it to return fire on armed groups. A civilian removes the rubble in front of a damaged shop after an airstrike in the rebel held al-Saleheen neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria August 18, 2016. REUTERS/Abdalrhman Ismail A civilian removes the rubble in front of a damaged shop after an airstrike in the rebel held al-Saleheen neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria August 18, 2016. Reuters/Abdalrhman Ismail A still image, taken from video footage and released by Russia's Defence Ministry on August 19, 2016, shows a rocket being launched from a Russian corvette in the Mediterranean Sea at Jabhat Fateh al-Sham militant targets in Syria, according to the ministry. Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation/Handout via Reuters A still image, taken from video footage and released by Russia's Defence Ministry on August 19, 2016, shows a rocket being launched from a Russian corvette in the Mediterranean Sea at Jabhat Fateh al-Sham militant targets in Syria, according to the ministry. Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation/Handout via Reuters A still image, taken from video footage and released by Russia's Defence Ministry on August 19, 2016, shows a rocket being launched from a Russian corvette in the Mediterranean Sea at Jabhat Fateh al-Sham militant targets in Syria, according to the ministry. Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation/Handout via Reuters A still image, taken from video footage and released by Russia's Defence Ministry on August 19, 2016, shows a rocket being launched from a Russian corvette in the Mediterranean Sea at Jabhat Fateh al-Sham militant targets in Syria, according to the ministry. Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation/Handout via Reuters A civilian removes the rubble in front of a damaged shop after an airstrike in the rebel held al-Saleheen neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria August 18, 2016. REUTERS/Abdalrhman Ismail A civilian removes the rubble in front of a damaged shop after an airstrike in the rebel held al-Saleheen neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria August 18, 2016. Reuters/Abdalrhman Ismail A still image, taken from video footage and released by Russia's Defence Ministry on August 19, 2016, shows a rocket being launched from a Russian corvette in the Mediterranean Sea at Jabhat Fateh al-Sham militant targets in Syria, according to the ministry. Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation/Handout via Reuters A still image, taken from video footage and released by Russia's Defence Ministry on August 19, 2016, shows a rocket being launched from a Russian corvette in the Mediterranean Sea at Jabhat Fateh al-Sham militant targets in Syria, according to the ministry. Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation/Handout via Reuters › Assad, backed by Russia and Iran, has focused mostly on fighting Sunni Arab rebels who have been battling to oust him in western Syria with support from countries including Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the United States. The YPG, or People's Protection Units, has meanwhile prioritized carving out and safeguarding predominantly Kurdish regions of northern Syria. The group has ties to Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) rebels in Turkey. While the YPG controls most of the northeast, the Syrian government has maintained footholds in the cities of Hasaka and Qamishli at the border with Turkey. The SDF seizure of Manbij from Islamic State last week raised the prospect of possible advances towards al-Bab, near Aleppo. Families of Islamic State fighters in al-Bab and another nearby town, Jarablus, were evacuated to the militant group's stronghold of Raqqa, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitoring group, said. ALEPPO TRUCE Related Coverage Syria army says Hasaka clashes result of Kurdish take-over effort Coalition jets scrambled to defend U.S. forces from Syrian bombing SlideshowStill image shows Russian warship firing cruise missiles at Syrian targets Rebel groups, including Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, stormed a Syrian army complex in southwest Aleppo two weeks ago, breaking a siege on opposition-held parts of Aleppo and prompting fierce counter-attacks. A senior rebel commander said there was a "positive atmosphere" surrounding talk of a ceasefire. "But so far there are no details." Syrian warplanes had carried out 46 sorties in the last 24 hours, including strikes in Aleppo that destroyed a tank, a vehicle loaded with ammunition and three mortar emplacements, and killed dozens of rebel fighters, a military source said. Continuing clashes between rebels and the Syrian army and allied militias were fiercest in the southwest of city, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based monitor of the five-year-old civil war, said on Friday. It added that air strikes and shelling in and around Aleppo had killed 422 civilians, including 142 children, this month. "We need a 48-hour pause, we need it now," WFP spokeswoman Bettina Luescher told a briefing in Geneva on Friday. While the rebel advance this month opened a narrow corridor into opposition-held areas of Aleppo, access remains very limited and dangerous, meaning aid supplies are scarce. "It's crucially important that we go in there because people are absolutely desperate," Luescher added. "From both sides, these sieges have to stop - it's inhumane, awful, disgusting, nightmarish. Not necessarily U.N. words, but that's what it is." (Reporting by Angus McDowall and Tom Perry in Beirut, Polina Devitt in Moscow, Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; editing by Ralph Boulton and Richard Balmforth)

Syria peace talks: Hyped as crucial, downplayed

Jan. 21, 2014 5:09 PM ET By ZEINA KARAM and LORI HINNANT, Associated Press THE ASSOCIATED PRESS STATEMENT OF NEWS VALUES AND PRINCIPLES Ibraheem Qaddah, 33, a former Free Syian Army fighter from Daraa, speaks with with The Associated Press at Zaatari refugee camp near the Syrian border in Mafraq, Jordan, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2014. For some of the more than 2 million Syrian refugees scattered around the region, there is little hope that the peace conference in Geneva can deliver a solution to the conflict, and scant interest in a settlement with Assad’s government. “We lost our faith in the international community. We don’t care about the Geneva conference and whether it takes place or not,” said Qaddah, whose arm was amputated after an injury by the Syrian government forces' shelling and was smuggled with his family to Jordan two months ago. (AP Photo/Mohammad Hannon) Syria talks set to open amid low expectations Jan. 20, 2014 4:22 AM ET Syrian opposition to attend peace conference Jan. 18, 2014 4:07 PM ET Warring South Sudanese close to signing cease-fire Jan. 18, 2014 11:49 AM ET Syria proposes Aleppo cease-fire, prisoner swap Jan. 17, 2014 3:17 PM ET Syria FM: Damascus prepared for prisoner exchange Jan. 17, 2014 5:18 AM ET Buy AP Photo Reprints MONTREUX, Switzerland (AP) — In nearly the same breath, the world's most powerful diplomats have talked about the importance of this week's peace conference on Syria and downplayed expectations for a breakthrough. The timeframe for the talks is a week to 10 days, and then a break — but for what, and for how long? Syria's Western-backed opposition and President Bashar Assad's handpicked representatives have never spoken face-to-face and it's not at all clear how much either side — or their proxy powerbrokers — really want an end to the war. A look at the goals of the participants and how the conference, which opens Wednesday, could unfold. WHAT'S AT STAKE Fighting in Syria has killed more than 130,000 people and left millions of refugees, either in camps or squats in neighboring countries or within Syria's borders. The economy has been devastated, and bombs and gunfire have ruined once-thriving cities. The rebellion started in March 2011, and Syria has seen little but violence ever since. The contrast for the peace conference in the Alps town of Montreux could hardly be more stark — Switzerland has stayed out of international conflict since 1815, when it was declared neutral at the end of the Napoleonic wars. The dichotomy isn't lost on Syrians suffering from the war. The government carried out airstrikes across the country on Tuesday, including in Daraa province in the south, outside the capital, Damascus, in Homs province in central Syria and in Aleppo in the north. The deadliest of the attacks hit opposition-held areas of Aleppo, killing at least 10 people. For some of the more than 2 million Syrian refugees scattered around the region, there was scant interest in a settlement with Assad's government. "We lost our faith in the international community. We don't care about the Geneva conference and whether it takes place or not," said Ibraheem Qaddah, a former rebel fighter with an amputated arm, now holed up in Jordan's sprawling Zaatari refugee camp. "We have lost a lot of relatives and friends and family members in the fighting, and we've lost Syria." NEW LEADERSHIP? UNLIKELY THIS TIME AROUND Syria's Western-backed Syrian National Coalition wants a transitional government to replace Assad, reiterating Tuesday that it finally decided to attend the peace conference in order to establish a transitional government with full executive powers "in which killers and criminals do not participate." That's the stated goal of the peace conference, agreed upon by international powers in preliminary talks in June. But Assad, whose soldiers have notched up recent military victories, points to the ascendance of Islamic militants to temper Western enthusiasm for the rebels. He has said he has no intention of stepping down and, on the contrary, may run again as president later this year. Still, by agreeing to meet them, Assad for the first time has acknowledged an opposition that he has long derided and dismissed as "terrorists" and "mercenaries." CEASE-FIRES, HUMANITARIAN CORRIDORS, PRISONER EXCHANGES "We must take small steps," Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German foreign minister, said in Paris on Tuesday. A comprehensive end to the war in Syria is probably not possible, but smaller goals may be achievable. Syria's government last week proposed a cease-fire in the embattled city of Aleppo and a prisoner exchange with the opposition, but left the terms vague. The opposition has accused the government of reneging on promises before and declaring cease-fires in order to buy time. There are also questions as to whether a truce is remotely possible in a devastated city where scattered rebel groups have been locked for months in a stalemate with government troops. Prisoner exchanges pose similar problems: With no unified command, the prospect of pulling together a rebel database of those detained seems impossibly remote. And Assad's government operated secret prisons for years, if not decades, before the fighting started. That doesn't preclude small exchanges and — as Steinmeier said — small steps are the first goal. Humanitarian corridors would seem a likely starting point, but as one rebel brigade after another has fallen away from the Syrian National Council, it's unclear how the shrinking umbrella group could enforce any agreement it reaches. The rebels could benefit — if they can be persuaded not to seize the supplies for their own forces, and resolve with the government who polices the routes and guarantees the safety of the police. HOW IT COULD UNFOLD The first direct talks between the opposition and the government are scheduled to start in Geneva on Friday. News agencies in Russia, which is spearheading the talks along with the United States, said those discussions are expected to last seven to 10 days, then break for a short time. The reports did not specify the purpose of the break, its duration or how talks could resume. But any agreements reached between the two sides would have to be thoroughly vetted. In the case of the Syrian opposition, that will be complicated by defections and its total inability to influence fighters within Syria. For a recent comparison, the Dayton peace talks that ended the Bosnian war in 1995 took place over 21 days under far more auspicious circumstances, where the leaders were looking for political cover for a war they wanted to end. In Syria, neither side is looking for — or expecting — a quick end to the fighting. And the fighting has evolved into a proxy war between Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia, as well as touching on post-Cold War tensions between Russia and the United States. ___ Associated Press writers Ryan Lucas in Beirut, Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow, Omar Akour in Zaatari Camp, Jordan, Elena Becatoros in Athens, and Ali Akbar Dareini in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report. ___ Follow Zeina Karam at : https://twitter.com/zkaram Follow Lori Hinnant at: https://twitter.com/lhinnant ============= please take the matter in your own hands and talk to the Government ,Demand only complete military operation until all terrorists are killed in Mastung,Akhtar abad,Sariab,Dasht.Asim Kurd Gilu is also the leader of the terrorists.But please BEAWARE last year The ukjahati council team played very dangerous game including,asadi,s hashim ,qayyum,s saddat etc,as they worked their best for agencies to bulldoze the dharna,and at the end s,saadat deleted the demand of military operation,which if carried out all the tragedies from Hazara town till today would have been avoided.So Please do not allow these agents of agencies to talk with the government,they will AGAIN sell the BLOOD of Martyrs. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=526736754108178&l=529192407b dear Brothers, Its the request of the european hazaras from hdp to take this protest in their Hands and ask the Army chief of Pakistan to come to alamdar road and make sure us that he will protect us and start target operations, nawaz Sharif and others cant do anything, when u give responsibility to army chief he will do it because, the Moral of army will be down if they do not fulfill their objectives, so Abdul khaliq must =================== Geneva II – Syrian Foreign Minister: “The West Publicly Claims to Be Fighting Terrorism, Whilst It Is Covertly Nourishing It.” By: on: 22.01.2014 [19:55 ] (69 reads) Montreux, (SANA) - The international conference on Syria, Geneva2, kicked off on Wednesday morning with the participation of Syria’s official delegation, headed by Deputy Premier, Foreign and Expatriates Minister, Walid al-Moallem. (25384 bytes) [c] Print Minister al-Moallem said at the opening session of the conference: Ladies and Gentlemen, On behalf of the Syrian Arab Republic, SYRIAN – steeped in history for seven thousand years. ARAB – proud of its steadfast pan-Arab heritage despite the deliberate acts of aggression of supposed brotherly Arabs. REPUBLIC – a civil state that some, sitting in this room, have tried to return to medieval times. Never have I been in a more difficult position; my delegation and I carry the weight of three years of hardship endured by my fellow countrymen – the blood of our martyrs, the tears of our bereaved, the anguish of families waiting for news of a loved one – kidnapped or missing, the cries of our children whose tender fingers were the targets of mortar shelling into their classrooms, the hopes of an entire generation destroyed before their very eyes, the courage of mothers and fathers who have sent all their sons to defend our country, the heartbreak of families whose homes have been destroyed and are now displaced or refugees. My delegation and I also carry the hope of a nation for the years to come – the right of every child to safely go to school again, the right of women to leave their homes without fear of being kidnapped, killed or raped; the dream of our youth to fulfill their vast potential; the return of security so that every man can leave his family safe in the knowledge that he will return. Finally, today, the moment of truth; the truth that many have systematically tried to bury in a series of campaigns of misinformation, deception and fabrication leading to killing and terror. A truth that refused to be buried, a truth clear for all to see – the delegation of the Syrian Arab Republic representing the Syrian people, the government, the state, the Army and the President – Bashar al-Assad. It is regrettable, Ladies and Gentlemen, that seated amongst us today in this room, are representatives of countries that have the blood of Syrians on their hands, countries that have exported terrorism along with clemency for the perpetrators, as if it was their God given right to determine who will go to heaven and who will go to hell. Countries that have prevented believers from visiting holy places of worship whilst abetting, financing and supporting terrorists. Countries that gave themselves the authority to grant and deny legitimacy to others as they saw fit, never looking at their own archaic glasshouses before throwing stones at acclaimed fortified towers. Countries that shamelessly lecture us in democracy, in development and in progress whilst drowning in their own ignorance and medieval norms. Countries that have become accustomed to being entirely owned by kings and princes who have the sole right to distribute their national wealth granting their associates whilst denying those who fall out of favor. They lectured Syria – a distinguished, virtuous, sovereign state, they lectured her on honour whilst they themselves were immersed in the mud of enslavement, infanticide and other medieval practices. After all their efforts and subsequent failures, their masks fell from their quivering faces, to reveal their perverse ambitions. A desire to destabilize and destroy Syria by exporting their national product: terrorism. They used their petrodollars to buy weapons, recruit mercenaries and saturate airtime covering up their mindless brutality with lies under the guise of the so-called “ Syrian revolution that will fulfill the aspirations of the Syrian people.” Ladies and Gentlemen, how is what has happened and continues to plague Syria, meeting these aspirations? How can a Chechen, Afghani, Saudi, Turkish or even French and English terrorists deliver on the aspirations of the Syrian people, and with what? An Islamic state that knows nothing of Islam except perverse Wahhabism? Who declared anyway that the Syrian people aspire to live thousands of years in the past? In Syria, Ladies and Gentlemen, the wombs of pregnant women are butchered and their foetuses killed; women are raped, dead or alive, in practices so heinous, so vile and repulsive that they can only be attributed to their perverse doctrine. In Syria, Ladies and Gentlemen, men are slaughtered in front of their children in the name of this revolution; worse still, this is done whilst the children of these foreign perpetrators sing and dance. In Syria, how can so-called revolutionaries cannibalize a man’s heart and claim to promote freedom, democracy and a better life? Under the pretext of the “Great Syrian Revolution,” civilians, clergymen, women and children are killed, victims are indiscriminately blown up in streets and buildings regardless of their political views or ideologies; books and libraries are burned, graves are dug up and artifacts stolen. In the name of the revolution, children are killed in their schools and students in their universities, women are extorted in the name of jihad al-nikah and other forms, mosques are shelled whilst worshipers kneel at prayer, heads are severed and hung in the streets, people are burned alive in a true holocaust that history and many countries will deny without being accused of anti-Semitism. In the name of a revolution, “to free the oppressed Syrian people from the regime and to spread democracy,” does a father blow himself up with his wife and children to prevent foreign intruders from entering his home? Most of us in this room are fathers – I ask you then, what would compel a man to kill his own family to protect them from freedom fighting monsters. This is what happened in Adra, a place that most of you have not heard of but where the same alien monsters attacked: killing, looting, beheading, slaughtering, raping and burning people alive. You have heard nothing of this brutality for sure, yet you have heard of other places where the same heinous crimes were committed and where the same blood soaked finger was pointed at the Syrian Army and government. And when these flagrant lies were no longer credible, they stopped spinning their web of deceit. This is what their masters ordered them to do, these countries that spearheaded the war against Syria, trying to increase their influence in the region with bribes and money, exporting human monsters fully soaked in abhorrent Wahabi ideology, all at the expense of Syrian blood. From this stage, loud and clear, you know as well as I do that they will not stop in Syria, even if some sitting in this room refuse to acknowledge or consider themselves immune. Ladies and Gentlemen, everything you have heard would not have been possible, had our border sharing countries been good neighbours during these challenging years. Unfortunately they were far from it; with backstabbers to the North, silent bystanders to the truth in the West, a weak South accustomed to doing the bidding of others, or the tired and exhausted East still reeling from the plots to destroy it along with Syria. Indeed, this misery and destruction, which has engulfed Syria, has been made possible by the decision of Erdogan’s government to invite and host these criminal terrorists before they entered into Syria. Clearly, oblivious to the fact that magic eventually turns on the magician, it is now beginning to taste the sour seed it has sown. For terrorism knows no religion, and is loyal only unto itself. Erdogan’s government has recklessly morphed from a zero problems with its neighbours policy to zero foreign policy and international diplomacy altogether, crucially leaving it with zero credibility. Nevertheless, it continued on the same atrocious path falsely believing that the dream of Sayyid Qutb and Mohammad Abdel Wahab before him was finally being realized. They wreaked havoc from Tunisia, to Libya, to Egypt and then to Syria, determined to achieve an illusion that only exists in their sick minds. Despite the fact that it has proven to be a failure, they nevertheless are still determined to pursue it. Logically speaking, this can only be described as stupidity, because if you don’t learn from history, you will lose sight of the present; and history tells us: if your neighbor’s house is on fire, it is impossible for you to remain safe. Some neighbours started fires within Syria whilst others recruited terrorists from around the globe – and here we are confronted with shockingly farcical double standards: 83 nationalities are fighting in Syria – nobody denounces this, nobody condemns it, nobody reconsiders their position – and they impertinently continue to call it a glorious SYRIAN Revolution! While when a few scores of young resistant fighters supported the Syrian Army in a few places, all hell broke loose and it suddenly became foreign intervention! Demands were made for the departure of foreign troops and the protection of Syrian sovereignty and for it not to be violated. Here I affirm, Syria – the sovereign and independent state, will continue to do whatever it takes to defend herself with whatever means it deems necessary, without paying the least bit of attention to any uproar, denunciations, statements or positions expressed by others. These have been and always will be Syria’s sovereign decisions. Despite all of this, the Syrian people remained steadfast; and the response was to impose sanctions on our food, our bread and our children’s milk. To starve the population, pushing them into sickness and death under the injustice of these sanctions. At the same time, factories were looted and burned, crippling our food and pharmaceutical industries; hospitals and healthcare centers were destroyed; our railroads and electricity lines sabotaged, and even our places of worship – Christian and Muslim – were not spared their terrorism. When all of this failed, America threatened to strike Syria, fabricating with her allies, Western and Arab, the story about the use of chemical weapons, which failed to convince even their own public, let alone ours. Countries that celebrate democracy, freedom and human rights regrettably only choose to speak the language of blood, war, colonialism and hegemony. Democracy is imposed with fire, freedom with warplanes and human rights by human killing, because they have become accustomed to the world doing their bidding: if they want something, it will happen; if they don’t, it won’t. They have heedlessly forgotten that the perpetrators who blew themselves up in New York follow the same doctrine and come from the same source as those blowing themselves up in Syria. They have heedlessly forgotten that the terrorist that was in America yesterday is in Syria today, and who knows where he will be tomorrow. What is certain, however, is that he will not stop here. Afghanistan is an ideal lesson for anyone who wants to learn – anyone! Unfortunately, most do not want to learn; neither America nor some of the ‘civilized’ western countries that follow its lead, starting from the city of lights to the kingdom over which “the sun never set,” in the past; despite the fact that they have all felt the bitter taste of terrorism in the past. And then suddenly they became “Friends of Syria.” Four of these ‘friends’ are autocratic, oppressive monarchies that know nothing of a civil state or democracy, whilst others are the same colonial powers which occupied, pillaged and partitioned Syria less than one hundred years ago. These so called ‘friends’ are now convening conferences to publicly declare their friendship with the Syrian people, whilst covertly facilitating their hardship and destroying their livelihoods. They openly express their outrage over the humanitarian plight of Syrians whilst deceiving the international community of their complicity. If you were truly concerned about the humanitarian situation in Syria, you would remove your strangle hold on her economy by lifting the sanctions and the embargo, and by partnering with her government in tightening security by fighting the influx of weapons and terrorists. Only then can we assure you that we will be well as we once were, without your deep concern for our wellbeing. Some of you may be asking yourselves: Are foreigners the sole manufacturers of the happenings in Syria? No Ladies and Gentlemen, Syrians amongst us here, having been legitimized by foreign agendas, have played a contributing role as facilitators and implementers. They did this at the expense of Syrian blood and the people whose aspirations they claim to represent, whilst they themselves were divided hundreds of times and their leaders on the ground were fleeing far and wide. They sold themselves to Israel becoming her eyes on the ground, and her fingers on the trigger for Syria’s destruction; and when they failed, Israel intervened directly to reduce the capabilities of the Syrian Army and thus ensuring the continued implementation of her decades old plan for Syria. Our people were being slaughtered while they were living in five star hotels; they opposed from abroad, met abroad betraying Syria and selling themselves to the highest foreign bidder. And yet, they still claim to speak in the name of the Syrian people! No, Ladies and Gentlemen, anyone wishing to speak on behalf of the Syrian people cannot be a traitor to their cause and an agent for their enemies. Those wishing to speak on behalf of the people of Syria should do so from within her borders: living in her destroyed houses, sending their children to her schools in the morning not knowing if they will return safe from mortar shelling, tolerating the freezing cold winters because of the shortage in heating oil and queuing for hours to buy bread for their families because sanctions have prevented us from importing wheat when we were once exporters. Anyone wanting to speak in the name of the Syrian people should first endure three years of terrorism, confronting it head on, and then come here and speak on behalf of the Syrian people. Ladies and gentlemen, the Syrian Arab Republic – people and state, has fulfilled its duties. It has welcomed hundreds of international journalists and facilitated their mobility, security and access; and they in turn have reflected the stark and horrific realities they witnessed to their audiences, realities that have perplexed many Western media organisations who couldn’t bear their propaganda and narrative being exposed and contradicted. The examples are too many to count. We allowed international aid and relief organizations into the country, but the clandestine agents of certain parties sitting here, obstructed them from reaching those in dire need of aid. They came under terrorist attack several times, whilst we, as a state, did our duty in protecting them and facilitating their work. We issued numerous amnesties and released thousands of prisoners, some even members of armed groups, at the anger and dismay of their victim’s families; these families though, like the rest of us, ultimately accepted that Syria’s interests come before anything else, and hence we must conceal our wounds and rise above hatred and rancor. What have you done, you who claim to speak on behalf of the Syrian people. Where is your vision for this great country? Where are your ideas or your political manifesto? Who are your agents of change on the ground other than your armed criminal gangs? I am certain that you have nothing and this is only too apparent in the areas that your mercenaries have occupied or to use your words “liberated.” In these areas, have you freed the population or have you hijacked their moderate culture to enforce your radical and oppressive practices? Have you implemented your development agenda by building schools and health centres? No, you have destroyed them and allowed polio to return after it had previously been eradicated in Syria. Have you protected Syria’s artifacts and museums? No, you have looted our national sites for your personal profit. Have you demonstrated your commitment to justice and human rights? No, you have enforced public executions and beheadings. In short, you have done nothing at all except muster the disgrace and shame of begging America to strike Syria. Even the opposition, over which you are the self-appointed masters and guardians, do not acknowledge you or the methods in which you manage your own affairs, let alone the affairs of a country. A country they want to homogenize; not in the sectarian, ethnic or religious sense, but rather in a warped ideological sense. Anyone against them, whether Christian or Muslim, is an infidel; they killed Muslims of all sects and targeted Syrian Christians with severity. Even nuns and bishops were targeted, kidnapping them after they attacked Ma’loula, the last community that still speaks the language of Jesus Christ. They did all this to force Syrian Christians to flee their country. But little did they know, that in Syria we are one. When Christianity is attacked all Syrians are Christians, when mosques are targeted all Syrians are Muslims. Every Syrian is from Raqqa, Lattakia, Sweida, Homs or the bleeding Aleppo when any one of these places is targeted. Their abhorrent attempts to sow sectarian and religious sedition will never be embraced by any levelheaded Syrian. In short, Ladies and Gentlemen, your “glorious Syrian revolution” has left no mortal sin uncommitted. There is another side to this dark gloomy picture. A light at the end of the tunnel shinning through the Syrian people’s determination and steadfastness, the Syrian Army’s courage in protecting our citizens and the Syrian state’s resilience and perseverance. During everything that has happened, there are states that have shown us true friendship, honest states that stood on the side of right against wrong, even when the wrong was clear for all to see. On behalf of the Syrian people and state, I would like to thank Russia and China for respecting Syria’s sovereignty and independence. Russia has been a true champion on the international stage strongly defending, not only with words but also with deeds, the founding principles of the United Nations of respecting the sovereignty of states. Similarly China, the BRICS countries, Iran, Iraq and other Arab and Muslim countries, in addition to African and Latin American countries, have also genuinely safeguarded the aspirations of the Syrian people and not the ambitions of other governments for Syria. Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, the Syrian people, like other people of the region, aspire to more freedom, justice and human rights; they aspire to more plurality and democracy, to a better Syria, a safe, prosperous and healthy Syria. They aspire to building strong institutions not destroying them, to safeguarding our national artifacts and heritage sites not looting and demolishing them. They aspire to a strong national army, which protects our honour, our people and our national wealth, an army that defends Syria’s borders, her sovereignty and independence. They do not, Ladies and Gentlemen, aspire to a mercenary army ‘Free’ to kidnap civilians for ransom or to use them as human shields, ‘Free’ to steal humanitarian aid, extort the poor and illegally trade in the organs of living women and children, ‘Free’ to canibalise human hearts and livers, barbequing heads, recruiting child soldiers and raping women. All of this is done with the might of arms; arms provided by countries, represented here, who claim to be championing “moderate groups”. Tell us, for God’s sake, where is the moderation in everything I have described? Where are these vague moderate groups that you are hiding behind? Are they the same old groups that continue to be supported militarily and publicly by the West, that have undergone an even uglier face-lift in the hope of convincing us that they are fighting terrorism? We all know that no matter how hard their propaganda machine tries to polish their image under the name of moderation, their extremism and terrorism is one and the same. They know, as we all do, that under the pretext of supporting these groups, al-Qaeda and its affiliates are being armed in Syria, Iraq and other countries in the region. This is the reality, Ladies and Gentlemen, so wake up to the undeniable reality that the West is supporting some Arab countries to supply lethal weapons to al-Qaeda. The West publically claims to be fighting terrorism, whilst in fact it is covertly nourishing it. Anyone who cannot see this truth is either ignorantly blind or willfully so in order to finish what they have begun. Is this the Syria that you want? The loss of thousands of martyrs and our once cherished safety and national security replaced with apocalyptic devastation. Are these the aspirations of the Syrian people that you wanted to fulfill? No, Ladies and Gentlemen, Syria will not remain so, and that is why we are here. Despite all that has been done by some, we have come to save Syria: to stop the beheadings, to stop the cannibalizing and the butchering. We have come to help mothers and children return to the homes they were driven out of by terrorists. We have come to protect the civil and open-minded nature of the state, to stop the march of the Tatars and the Mongols across our region. We have come to prevent the collapse of the entire Middle East, to protect civilization, culture and diversity, and to preserve the dialogue of civilizations in the birthplace of religions. We have come to protect tolerant Islam that has been distorted, and to protect the Christians of the Levant. We are here to tell our Syrian expatriates, to return to their home country because they will always be foreigners anywhere else, and regardless of our differences we are all still brothers and sisters. We have come to stop terrorism as other countries that have experienced its bitter taste have done, whilst affirming loudly and consistently that a dialogue between Syrians is the only solution; but as with other countries that have been struck by terrorism, we have a constitutional duty to defend our citizens and we shall continue to strike terrorism that attacks Syrians regardless of their political affiliations. We have come to hold those accountable, for as long as particular countries continue to support terrorism, this conference will bear no fruit. Political pluralism and terrorism cannot coexist in the same landscape. Politics can only prosper by fighting terrorism; it cannot grow in its shadow. We are here as representatives of the Syrian people and the state; but let it be clear to all, – and experience is the best proof – that nobody has the authority to grant or withdraw legitimacy from a president, a government, a constitution, a law or anything else in Syria except Syrians themselves; this is their constitutional right and duty. Therefore, whatever agreement is reached here will be subject to a national referendum. We are tasked with conveying our people’s desires, not with determining their destiny; those who want to listen to the will of the Syrian people should not appoint themselves as their spokesperson. Syrians alone have the right to choose their government, their parliament and their constitution; everything else is just talk and has no significance. Finally, to all those here and everyone watching around the world: in Syria we are fighting terrorism, terrorism which has destroyed and continues to destroy; terrorism which since the 1980’s Syria has been calling, on deaf ears, for a unified front to defeat it. Terrorism has struck in America, France, Britain, Russia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan; the list goes on and it continues to spread. Let us all cooperate to fight it, let’s work hand in hand to stop its black, horrifying and obscurantist ideology. Then, let us as Syrians stand united to focus on Syria and start rebuilding its social fabric and material structures. As I said, dialogue is the foundation to this process, and despite our gratitude to the host country, we affirm that the real dialogue between Syrians should in fact be on Syrian soil and under Syrian skies. Exactly one year ago, the Syrian government put forward its vision for a political solution; think of how much innocent blood we would have saved had some countries resorted to reason instead of terrorism and destruction. For a whole year, we have been calling for dialogue, but terrorism continued to strike at the Syrian state, her people and institutions. Today, in this gathering of Arab and Western powers, we are presented with a simple choice: we can choose to fight terrorism and extremism together and to start a new political process, or you can continue to support terrorism in Syria. Let us reject and isolate the black hands and the false faces, which publicly smile but covertly feed terrorist ideology, striking Syria today, but ultimately spreading to infect us all. This is the moment of truth and destiny; let us rise to the challenge. Thank you . http://www.globalresearch.ca/geneva-ii-syrian-foreign-minister-the-west-publicly-claims-to-be-fighting-terrorism-whilst-it-is-covertly-nourishing-it/5365833 ============ Jan. 24, 2014 4:26 PM ET Both sides in Syrian talks to meet in 'same room' By ZEINA KARAM and LORI HINNANT, Associated Press THE ASSOCIATED PRESS STATEMENT OF NEWS VALUES AND PRINCIPLES AIM Share U.N. mediator Lakhdar Brahimi listens during a press briefing at the United Nations headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 24, 2014. After three days of escalating rhetoric _ and a day spent assiduously avoiding contact within the United Nations _ the two sides will meet “in the same room,” said the U.N. mediator trying to forge an end to the civil war _ or at least a measure of common ground to stem a civil war that has left 130,000 people dead. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) 1 of 5 More News Video S. Sudan rebels say gov't violating new cease-fire Jan. 24, 2014 2:53 PM ET Syrian govt says terrorism, not talks is priority Jan. 23, 2014 9:39 AM ET Syrian peace talks stuck over Assad's future Jan. 22, 2014 1:01 PM ET Syria peace talks: Hyped as crucial, downplayed Jan. 21, 2014 5:09 PM ET Syria talks set to open amid low expectations Jan. 20, 2014 2:24 AM ET Buy AP Photo Reprints GENEVA (AP) — Bending to intense international pressure, Syria's government and the Western-backed opposition agreed Friday to face each other for the first time since the start of the uprising against President Bashar Assad. After three days of hostile rhetoric and five hours spent assiduously avoiding contact within the United Nations, the two sides will meet "in the same room," said the U.N. mediator trying to forge an end to the civil war that has left 130,000 people dead since 2011. Mediator Lakhdar Brahimi met separately with Assad's delegation and representatives with the Syrian National Coalition, who arrived at the U.N. European headquarters five hours apart to ensure their paths would not cross. "We never expected it to be easy and I'm sure it's not going to be, but I think the two parties understand what's at stake," Brahimi said. "Their country is in very, very bad shape." Brahimi, a famously patient mediator, is credited with efforts to stabilize Iraq and Afghanistan after the U.S. ousted their governments. But he faces a formidable task to build peace in Syria, which has been flooded with al-Qaida-inspired militants. The conflict has become a proxy war between regional powers Iran and Saudi Arabia. Syria's government has made military gains and has capitalized on the influx of foreign militants, while the coalition nearly collapsed as it wavered on whether to attend the talks at all. After Brahimi spoke, a member of the group said it still wasn't clear what would happen Saturday. "Everybody will be in the same room, but everybody will address Mr. Brahimi. He will be the one who is going to conduct the negotiations," said Louay Safi, who is taking part in the talks. "We will be addressing him. There will be no direct negotiation with the regime." The coalition, which has the support of the U.S. and other Western powers, is largely made up of exiles and lacks any real influence on the opposition now riven by infighting among factions ranging from moderates to hard-line Islamic groups. Nearly 1,400 fighters have been killed in the last three weeks as the rebel groups grapple for dominance, according to activists. Omran al-Zoubi, Syria's information minister, said Assad's delegation was committed. "We will stay here until we do the job. We will not be provoked. We will not retreat and we will be wise and flexible," he said. Underscoring the foreign involvement in the conflict, Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah fighters fought alongside forces loyal to Assad around the area of eastern Ghouta, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Among those arrayed against them were extremists from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, a hard-line group dominated by foreign jihadis, the Observatory reported. Syria's economy, once among the region's strongest, has been ruined. A quarter of its population has fled to camps in neighboring countries or within Syria. The front lines have been largely frozen for months, although Assad's forces — more cohesive than the rebellion and supported by Russia as well as Iran — have recently made inroads into territory captured by the opposition. Russia and the United States, which have backed opposite sides in the fight, have raised the pressure for the peace conference, seeing it as the only hope to end a civil war that has destabilized the region and threatens to turn into a long stalemate. The talks, first conceived in 2012, were repeatedly postponed by the government and the coalition as both jockeyed for advantage. The opposition confirmed it would attend only on Monday — less than 48 hours before the peace conference began — after the U.N. secretary-general rescinded his last-minute invitation to Iran. Lina Khatib, Middle East director for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said both sides had a lot to gain by staying, and predicted the talks would at least lead to some sort of limited deal. "Gaining legitimacy is a primary motive for both sides," she said. "Ultimately this is an opportunity that is too important for them to lose by withdrawing." Pressure from the U.S. and Russia played a crucial role, as their positions converged, Khatib said. "It's become very clear that a military solution to the conflict in Syria is not possible," she said. At the heart of the talks is Assad's future. The U.S. and opposition want him out, saying a leader who unleashed his military on a peaceful protest had forfeited legitimacy. But Assad, whose family has ruled Syria since 1970, has insisted he's going nowhere. Hasni Abidi, director of the Geneva-based Arab and Mediterranean Studies Center, said the talks have gotten off to a predictably rocky start but represent a strategic opportunity for both the government and the opposition. "It's the beginning of the talks, and each side wants to place the bar very high," he said. "For the Syrian regime, it is a chance to gain time," he said, while for the opposition, it is a chance for a political solution knowing that the West is not going to intervene militarily. Protesters in several Syrian towns demonstrated against the peace talks, saying Assad had shown by years of military strikes against his people that he favors violence over negotiations. "We are bombed and nobody cares," said one demonstrator in the town of Sabqa. "The Assad regime doesn't understand the language of dialogue. We will remove this criminal regime by force," according to one sign held by protesters. The two sides' willingness to meet with Brahimi — even separately — gave some hope the negotiations might bear fruit. Brahimi himself has said both sides may bend on humanitarian corridors, prisoner exchanges and local cease-fires. ___ Associated Press reporters Desmond Butler in Istanbul, Turkey; Bassem Mroue and Diaa Hadid in Beirut, Lebanon; and Matthew Lee in Davos, Switzerland, contributed. ___ Follow Zeina Karam at: https://twitter.com/zkaram Follow Lori Hinnant at: https://twitter.com/lhinnant Associated Press ======================

Syria peace talks: Hyped as crucial, downplayed

Jan. 21, 2014 5:09 PM ET Syria peace talks: Hyped as crucial, downplayed By ZEINA KARAM and LORI HINNANT, Associated Press THE ASSOCIATED PRESS STATEMENT OF NEWS VALUES AND PRINCIPLES Ibraheem Qaddah, 33, a former Free Syian Army fighter from Daraa, speaks with with The Associated Press at Zaatari refugee camp near the Syrian border in Mafraq, Jordan, Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2014. For some of the more than 2 million Syrian refugees scattered around the region, there is little hope that the peace conference in Geneva can deliver a solution to the conflict, and scant interest in a settlement with Assad’s government. “We lost our faith in the international community. We don’t care about the Geneva conference and whether it takes place or not,” said Qaddah, whose arm was amputated after an injury by the Syrian government forces' shelling and was smuggled with his family to Jordan two months ago. (AP Photo/Mohammad Hannon) Syria talks set to open amid low expectations Jan. 20, 2014 4:22 AM ET Syrian opposition to attend peace conference Jan. 18, 2014 4:07 PM ET Warring South Sudanese close to signing cease-fire Jan. 18, 2014 11:49 AM ET Syria proposes Aleppo cease-fire, prisoner swap Jan. 17, 2014 3:17 PM ET Syria FM: Damascus prepared for prisoner exchange Jan. 17, 2014 5:18 AM ET Buy AP Photo Reprints MONTREUX, Switzerland (AP) — In nearly the same breath, the world's most powerful diplomats have talked about the importance of this week's peace conference on Syria and downplayed expectations for a breakthrough. The timeframe for the talks is a week to 10 days, and then a break — but for what, and for how long? Syria's Western-backed opposition and President Bashar Assad's handpicked representatives have never spoken face-to-face and it's not at all clear how much either side — or their proxy powerbrokers — really want an end to the war. A look at the goals of the participants and how the conference, which opens Wednesday, could unfold. WHAT'S AT STAKE Fighting in Syria has killed more than 130,000 people and left millions of refugees, either in camps or squats in neighboring countries or within Syria's borders. The economy has been devastated, and bombs and gunfire have ruined once-thriving cities. The rebellion started in March 2011, and Syria has seen little but violence ever since. The contrast for the peace conference in the Alps town of Montreux could hardly be more stark — Switzerland has stayed out of international conflict since 1815, when it was declared neutral at the end of the Napoleonic wars. The dichotomy isn't lost on Syrians suffering from the war. The government carried out airstrikes across the country on Tuesday, including in Daraa province in the south, outside the capital, Damascus, in Homs province in central Syria and in Aleppo in the north. The deadliest of the attacks hit opposition-held areas of Aleppo, killing at least 10 people. For some of the more than 2 million Syrian refugees scattered around the region, there was scant interest in a settlement with Assad's government. "We lost our faith in the international community. We don't care about the Geneva conference and whether it takes place or not," said Ibraheem Qaddah, a former rebel fighter with an amputated arm, now holed up in Jordan's sprawling Zaatari refugee camp. "We have lost a lot of relatives and friends and family members in the fighting, and we've lost Syria." NEW LEADERSHIP? UNLIKELY THIS TIME AROUND Syria's Western-backed Syrian National Coalition wants a transitional government to replace Assad, reiterating Tuesday that it finally decided to attend the peace conference in order to establish a transitional government with full executive powers "in which killers and criminals do not participate." That's the stated goal of the peace conference, agreed upon by international powers in preliminary talks in June. But Assad, whose soldiers have notched up recent military victories, points to the ascendance of Islamic militants to temper Western enthusiasm for the rebels. He has said he has no intention of stepping down and, on the contrary, may run again as president later this year. Still, by agreeing to meet them, Assad for the first time has acknowledged an opposition that he has long derided and dismissed as "terrorists" and "mercenaries." CEASE-FIRES, HUMANITARIAN CORRIDORS, PRISONER EXCHANGES "We must take small steps," Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German foreign minister, said in Paris on Tuesday. A comprehensive end to the war in Syria is probably not possible, but smaller goals may be achievable. Syria's government last week proposed a cease-fire in the embattled city of Aleppo and a prisoner exchange with the opposition, but left the terms vague. The opposition has accused the government of reneging on promises before and declaring cease-fires in order to buy time. There are also questions as to whether a truce is remotely possible in a devastated city where scattered rebel groups have been locked for months in a stalemate with government troops. Prisoner exchanges pose similar problems: With no unified command, the prospect of pulling together a rebel database of those detained seems impossibly remote. And Assad's government operated secret prisons for years, if not decades, before the fighting started. That doesn't preclude small exchanges and — as Steinmeier said — small steps are the first goal. Humanitarian corridors would seem a likely starting point, but as one rebel brigade after another has fallen away from the Syrian National Council, it's unclear how the shrinking umbrella group could enforce any agreement it reaches. The rebels could benefit — if they can be persuaded not to seize the supplies for their own forces, and resolve with the government who polices the routes and guarantees the safety of the police. HOW IT COULD UNFOLD The first direct talks between the opposition and the government are scheduled to start in Geneva on Friday. News agencies in Russia, which is spearheading the talks along with the United States, said those discussions are expected to last seven to 10 days, then break for a short time. The reports did not specify the purpose of the break, its duration or how talks could resume. But any agreements reached between the two sides would have to be thoroughly vetted. In the case of the Syrian opposition, that will be complicated by defections and its total inability to influence fighters within Syria. For a recent comparison, the Dayton peace talks that ended the Bosnian war in 1995 took place over 21 days under far more auspicious circumstances, where the leaders were looking for political cover for a war they wanted to end. In Syria, neither side is looking for — or expecting — a quick end to the fighting. And the fighting has evolved into a proxy war between Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia, as well as touching on post-Cold War tensions between Russia and the United States. ___ Associated Press writers Ryan Lucas in Beirut, Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow, Omar Akour in Zaatari Camp, Jordan, Elena Becatoros in Athens, and Ali Akbar Dareini in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report. ___ Follow Zeina Karam at : https://twitter.com/zkaram Follow Lori Hinnant at: https://twitter.com/lhinnant

Syrian army hits rebels, Riyadh accuses Assad of genocide

Syrian army hits rebels, Riyadh accuses Assad of genocide Tue, Jun 25 11:33 AM EDT 1 of 4 By Oliver Holmes BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syria's military pounded rebel bastions in Damascus on Tuesday and Saudi Arabia demanded an arms embargo on what it called President Bashar al-Assad's genocidal and illegitimate regime. Attacking Iran, Russia and Lebanon's Hezbollah for supporting Assad, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said the kingdom could not be silent and called for arms to be supplied to Syrian rebels, now militarily on the back foot. "Syria is facing a double-edged attack, it is facing genocide by the government and an invasion from outside the government, and ... a massive flow of weapons to aid and abet that invasion and that genocide. This must end," he told a news conference with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Jeddah. "The kingdom calls for issuing an unequivocal international resolution to halt the provision of arms to the Syrian regime and states the illegitimacy of the regime," Prince Saud said. In Damascus, Assad's gunners fired mortars and artillery at Zamalka and Irbin, just east of the government-held city centre, in an assault backed by air strikes, opposition activists said. Mostly Sunni Muslim rebels who grabbed footholds in Damascus nearly a year ago now say they face a grinding advance by the Syrian military, buoyed by support from Assad's regional Shi'ite allies, notably Iranian-backed Hezbollah fighters on the ground. If the insurgents are driven from the capital's eastern suburbs, they would lose arms supply routes and suffer a severe blow in their drive to end four decades of Assad family rule. The Saudi minister's strongly worded remarks reinforced signs that the Syrian war is entangling much of the Middle East. Security in neighboring Iraq and Lebanon, where the conflict has aggravated Sunni-Shi'ite tensions, has crumbled. Suicide bombers killed eight people north of Baghdad on Tuesday, a day after 39 people died when 10 car bombs exploded in the capital. Violence has spiraled in Iraq since April. "GETTING OUT OF HAND" In Lebanon, clashes between the Lebanese army and gunmen led by a fiercely anti-Hezbollah Sunni cleric engulfed the southern port of Sidon on Sunday. At least 40 people were killed, including 18 soldiers, security sources said. Sectarian hatred has even flared in Sunni-majority Egypt, where a crowd attacked and killed five Shi'ites on Sunday. Lakhdar Brahimi, the U.N.-Arab League mediator, urged the United States and Russia to help "contain this situation that is getting out of hand, not only in Syria but also in the region". Speaking in Geneva before preparatory talks with U.S. and Russian officials, he said he doubted that a Syria peace conference proposed by Moscow and Washington could take place next month, citing disarray among Assad's political opponents. More than 93,000 people have been killed in Syria since peaceful protests erupted in March 2011. Assad's violent response helped generate what is now a civil war that has driven nearly 1.7 million refugees into neighboring countries. Outgunned rebels are looking to Western and Arab nations to help them to reverse Assad's battlefield gains of the last few weeks. But although the United States announced unspecified military aid this month, it is unclear whether this can shift the balance against the Syrian leader and his allies. Kerry wants to ensure that aid to the rebels is properly coordinated, in part out of concern that weapons could end up in the hands of Islamist militants who are prominent in their ranks. "Our goal is very clear, we cannot let this be a wider war, we cannot let this contribute to more bloodshed and prolongation of the agony of the people of Syria," he said. Saudi Arabia, a Sunni state which views Shi'ite Iran as its arch-rival, has increased aid to Syrian rebels in recent months, supplying anti-aircraft missiles among other weapons. Prince Saud denounced foreign involvement in Syria "by Hezbollah and other militias supported by the forces of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard", and also took a swipe at Moscow. "There is no logic that allows Russia to publicly arm the Syrian regime and the foreign forces that support it." (Additional reporting by Mahmoud Habboush in Dubai and Lesley Wroughton in Jeddah; Writing by Alistair Lyon, editing by Peter Millership)

Syrian rebels take control of Damascus Palestinian camp

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Posted 14 December 2012 - 06:12 AM The Americans Must watch out for the revenge of the Jihadists! Following the US invasion of Iraq, Al-Qaeda found a fertile ground supported by local Sunni Arabs and remnants of Saddam regime. One of the most notorious Al-Qaeda Emir in Iraq wss no other than Abu Musaab Al-Zarqawi, an Afghan veteran with violent anti-American track record including the Killing of CIA station chief in Amman. Al-Zarqawi is known for his ruthless suicidal attacks and the beheading of Americans and their allies. Al-Zaqwai was tracked down by a Jordanian intelligence officer, Capt. Sharif Ali Bin Zeid which led to his death on the hands of the Americans in Iraq. But the Jihadists didn't forget this and Captain Bin Zeid was followed to Afghanistan where he was killed by a Jordanian-Al-Qaeda double agent, Dr Hammam Khaleel Mohammed, on December 31 2009. Dr Mohammed was recruited while in Prison in Jordan to track Dr Ayman Al-Zawahiri. In Syria, the brother-in-law of late Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, Mr Abu Jileed Al-Tubasi (Al-Zarqawi) was appointed yesterday 13.12.2012 to the post of an Emir of the Nusrat front. The same front which the US considers as terrorist. The second Al-Zarqawi intends to seek revenge for the killing of Bin Laden. At this moment, it will not be difficult to the kidnapping and the beheading of special-forces members of US, France, Israel, UK and a large number of CIA-hired civilian contractors directing the street fights. If Mr Assad ever decide to call it a day, the Americans will have no where to hide, as the Nusrat front is the most effective fighting force in the country with increasing support from the youth. The USraelis, that are currently seeding the winds, will eventually reap the hurricanes. No-one will fight the Americans and the British more than those humiliated, tortured and imprisoned without trial by the CIA and MI-6. Sending the Guantanamo and Bagram detainees to Turkey, as Putin has allegedly said, means to directing the resistance against the Americans. As an example, Al-Nusrat front don't want foreign intervention in Syria or have peace with Israel. Good luck to the USraelis. "They make a desert and will call it victory" I hope that the Usraelis stop meddling in the affairs of others. Now it is too late, as the Geni is out of the bottle. In Syria there will be losers but no winners. I somehow believe that Alqaeda, the Israelis and their US-Gulf Arab mentors will suffer significan strategic losses. We have seen what foreign interventions done in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. And we will be here to witness the fiasco in Syria. Adnan Darwash, Iraq Occupation Times ================ THE POLITICAL DYNAMICS OF PAKISTAN: By Prof. Dr. Gholam Mujtaba Those killed by Syrian government's brutality are not Muslims, claims a news-report. QUESTION-1: Since when, Sunni Muslims (who form the majority in Syria) or those killed by Syria's minority brutal regime have been thrown out of Islam ? QUESTION-2: What is the story behind the story of Allama Tahirul Qadri ? Comments: Pl do not divide the Sunnis into =Wahabis or Barelvis to promote your designs of divide & rule. To us, all of us, including Shias & Sunnis are vital organs of Muslim nations. And those outside of Islam are equally important to us as well. Who are we to discriminate, when God himself is "RABUL A'ALAMEEN", & Prophet of Islam, SWS, is "RAHMATULLIL A'ALAMEEN". We are not ordained to send others to hell-fire ? It is thy Lord whose domain we need not to interfere. We need to follow the path defined to us, that does not allow us to promote 'dogmatism' or hatred. Allama Tahirul Qadri is the President of the PAT (Pakistan Awami Tehreek). + Agha Murtaza Poya is the Senior Vice President of the PAT. Agha Saheb in his statement published in the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) declares that Iran can give new social system to the world. Thus, should we conclude that an Iranian system is promoted by PAT in Pakistan. [ Reference: http://www.irna.ir/en/NewsPrint.aspx?ID=80355295 ] = MQM's Altaf Hussain has FULLY ENDORSED PAT AND TODAY Former President Pervez Musharraf's APML ENDORSED PAT. Which shows a U-TURN of Pervez Musharraf, a tilt towards Iran. SHOULD PAKISTAN JOIN HANDS WITH IRAN + Syria and say goodbye to Turkey & Saudi Arabia ? Should Pakistan condone SUNNI massacre in Syria. Should Pakistan oppose expulsion of Syria from the 56 member states of the OIC (Organization of Islamic Cooperation ? Is this a national security interest of Pakistan ? Are we fighting someone else's war within the boundaries of Pakistan ? What is the TRUTH ? HOWEVER, I MUST MAKE IT CLEAR that: To me, my Shia brothers are equally important as my Sunni brothers. I do not discriminate none of them, but would always stand against INJUSTICE & BRUTALITY even it is my REAL brother. This is the bottom line. Furthermore, Jews, Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Sikhs etc etc are all equal in the eyes of God, and why should they be different to me. It is humanity, that stands above all. All human beings are equal irrespective of color, creed or religious denomination. JOKE OF THE DAY: Muttehida-Musharraf League-Awami Tehreek Joint Mahaz Quaid= Allama Tahirul Qadri Chairman=Altaf Hussain Secretary=Pervez Musharraf TREASURER: Agha Murtaza Poya Manifesto: Friendship with PIA ( Pakistan -Iran - Afghanistan) Alliance Cut off ties with : Saudi Arabia, Turkey & OIC Support: Syria to kill its majority Sunnis Distraction: Defame the United States Hostility: Protest in Islamabad over an expected verdict against Altaf Hussain on a contempt case on JAN-07, protests follow starting JAN-10 onwards to save Syrian asset, the MQM. Target: [ 1 ] :Subdue Supreme Court's action on Altaf. [ 2 ] :Create law & order situation post judgment on Altaf to make it possible for the EXECUTIVE to remove the Chief Justice on the pretext of public uproar. Remedy: Take a preemptive measure by invoking MPO (Maintenance of Public Order) over the mastermind to house-arrest. THE "RATS" GRAND ALLIANCE = Rejected + Abandoned + Turned Down + Saboteurs [ALLIANCE] = MQM + APML + PAT or = Mr. Altaf Hussain + Pres. Pervez Musharraf + Allama Tahirul Qadri = Getting ready to fight with the JUDICIARY, why? Mr. Altaf Hussain EVADING law & criminal cases in the SC + Pres. Musharraf - do - do - do - Both violators of local laws Both + Allama Qadri "runaways" ......ABROAD Both scared of the Supreme Court Allama, the new guardian leading the saboteurs, the RATS ALLIANCE, to sabotage Supreme Court's orders for Altaf Hussain's physical appearance on January-07 by destabilizing Islamabad on the 10th of January and onwards. It is a constitutional matter of MPO (Mintenance of Public Order ). Why shouldn't, MPO be invoked on this obstruction of Justice ? The only purpose of today's JALSA was a warm-up session, and a public mobilizing campaign to start a crusade against judiciary in the backdrop of an expected judicial action against Altaf on the 7th of Jan. The dates announced by Allama, and the venue correlates to find the cat out of the bag ? Alas ! so specific ? MY PERSONAL ASSESSMENT: Allama Tahirul Qadri, a new CUSTODIAN cum GUARDIAN of Altaf Hussain in Pakistan to create a SITUATION out of an expected DEFAULT on Supreme Court's mandatory physical appearance of Altaf Hussain on January-07. He wants to CREATE UNREST in Islamabad to protect that interest. THIS IS WHY BOTH ALTAF + QADRI disclosed IDENTITY OF VIEWS before the JALSA. Allama Qadri calls for protest in Islamabad starting January-10th to extend support to MQM's ALTAF HUSSAIN to subdue Supreme Court's Action against Altaf on January-07. He is a threat to MAINTENANCE OF PUBLIC ORDER (MPO). Based on his preachings on constitution, why an MPO be not applied on him obstructing JUSTICE in Islamabad. . Allama criticizes the parliament, but with the same breath welcomes the 50 member MQM delegation that represents the government and the parliament. WHAT IS A PROPER WORD TO THIS HYPOCRISY IN URDU ? IS HE CREATING AN ENVIRONMENT TO SAVE ALTAF HUSSAIN FROM HIS MANDATORY PHYSICAL APPEARANCE ON JANUARY-07, 2013. IS THIS THE MAIN PURPOSE OF HIS PREACHING LAW & CONSTITUTIONAL LAW TODAY ? ALLAMA QADRI: A GREAT LIAR OF TODAY: Says 30 lacs sitting in his JALSA ? Where is his oath on Quran before the start of this JALSA ? Can I ask as to how he knows that there are 30 lacs not 29 lacs ? WHAT A LIAR ? SUMMARY: QUESTION: 1. IS IT NOT A FACT THAT ALTAF HUSSAIN IS A FUGITIVE IN PAKISTANI LAW ? IF YES, then which constitution is Allama Qadri PROMOTING through HOODWINK ? 2. Talking of Tax Laws & income? ALLAMA what about the income of ALTAF HUSSAIN whose party is sitting next to you ? 3. What about "BHATTA" & "BORI BAND LASH" politics of MQM during its governments in the past 24 years ? Allama: Which Law are you promoting ? A SPEECH FULL OF BLUFF, LIES, HOODWINK & HYPOCRISY ? FIFTH QUESTION: "TAHIRUL QADRI JALSA" Allama Qadri EMPHASIZING on Constitution ? Where is that CONSTITUTION when the BIGGEST VIOLATORS OF LAW, the MQM SITTING NEXT TO HIM ? Does that constitution has no consequence on a Pakistani FUGITIVE sitting in London and EVADING LAW and the constitution of Pakistan ? Does that constitution of Allama Qadri provides IMPUNITY TO ALTAF HUSSAIN from appearance before the SUPREME COURT on January-7, 2013 . Allama is shouting of HONESTY ? WHERE IS THAT HONESTY WHEN ALTAF HUSSAIN VIOLATES PAKISTANI LAWS AS A FUGITIVE ? , and that TEAM of law violators are sitting on his stage ? IS HE MAKING A MOCKERY OF LAW ? FOURTH QUESTION: "TAHIRUL QADRI JALS" Allama Qadri giving lesson on election & constitution's TRANSPARENCY. REBUTTAL : How come the pioneers of rigging, the MQM is SITTING NEXT TO HIM ? WHAT A CLASSICAL BLUFF ???? THIRD QUESTION: "TAHIRUL QADRI JALSA" WHY SO MUCH POISON ABOUT MILITARY LEADERSHIP ? SECOND QUESTION: "TAHIRUL QADRI JALSA" Who is promoting the audience through a BLURRED vision to look bigger on the GEO-TV ? Why the same audience is shown with a REAL vision by the DUNYA TV ? Is it the difference in the management promoting their ideology ? QUESTION OF THE DAY ? Allama Tahirul Qadri addressing the crowd in Lahore. " Main us siyasat ko reject karta hon jo Karachi kay peaceful shahar ko dahshat gardi ka nishana bana chuka hai", Dr. Tahirul Qadri. REALITY: " I welcome the 50 member delegation of MQM in the jalsa", Tahirul Qadri. REBUTTAL: Dr. Qadri , if the second Caliph of Islam had to be accountable for state affairs during his Khilafat, why can't the MQM be held responsible for "terror" during its 24 years in Government. TRUTH: Pre-MQM was a peaceful Karachi while Post-MQM is an INSECURE Karachi. QUESTION: Dr. Qadri are you expressing the truth, or trying to promote your AGENDA to look to be TRUTH. From the Admin: POLL RESULTS ON THE INTERNET THROUGH FACEBOOK; Dr. Gholam Mujtaba = 61,278 votes vs Mr. Altaf Hussain = 40,129 votes Dr. Gholam Mujtaba DEFEATS Mr. Altaf Hussain by over 30% votes. زبانِ خلق کو نقارہِ خدا سمجھو خلق جسے کہے بجا، اُسے بجا سمجھو KPK Senior Minister, Bashir Ahmed Bilour passed away after being critically injured in a suicide attack. We expect a news to surface blaming/ &/ accepting of the charges by the Taliban, however, other avenues of such conspiracy against Pakistan should not be IGNORED. "I strongly condemn this assassination of a great leader, an asset of Pakistan. We need to explore the real culprits responsible for such acts to destabilize Pakistan", said Dr. Gholam Mujtaba in a press statement tonight. WE STRICTLY BELIEVE ABOVE SHIA-SUNNI SECTARIAN DIVIDE, YET QUESTION THE BRUTALITY NO MATTER WHERE IT ORIGINATES: WHERE ARE YOU ? WHY NO VOICE ON SUNNI GENOCIDE IN SYRIA against the BRUTAL MINORITY GOVERNMENT of "ALAWIS" in Syria ??? Allama Tahirul Qadri + Former President Pervez Musharraf + Mr. Altaf Hussain + others = where is your voice ??? = A SOLID DISTRACTION. SILENCE MEANS WHAT ??? Holding a PUBLIC meeting on the 23rd and NOT RAISING a single word for Sunni massacre.....IS IT A DISTRACTION of public opinion ? When "HAMAS" fired rockets at Israel at a " S P E C I F I C " "T I M E" to divert public opinion from SYRIA'S SUSPENSION of 56 member OIC (Organization of Islamic nations) membership, hue & cry against the U.S. were raised ? TODAY SYRIA IS KILLING HUNDREDS OF PALESTINIANS in its refugee camps (only because they are SUNNIS) in Damascus, where is that hue & cry ??? SEE THE NEWS: R E U T E R S: By Mariam Karouny BEIRUT, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Syrian fighter jets bombed the Palestinian Yarmouk camp in Damascus on Sunday, killing at least 25 people sheltering in a mosque in an area where Syrian rebels have been trying to advance into the capital, opposition activists said. Continued, see: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/16/-palestinian-yarmouk_n_2312062.html ================== =========== Syrian rebels take control of Damascus Palestinian camp Tue, Dec 18 01:07 AM EST 1 of 24 By Mariam Karouny BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels took full control of the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp on Monday after fighting raged for days in the district on the southern edge of President Bashar al-Assad's Damascus powerbase, rebel and Palestinian sources said. The battle had pitted rebels, backed by some Palestinians, against Palestinian fighters of the pro-Assad Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC). Many PFLP-GC fighters defected to the rebel side and their leader Ahmed Jibril left the camp two days ago, rebel sources said. "All of the camp is under the control of the (rebel) Free Syrian Army," said a Palestinian activist in Yarmouk. He said clashes had stopped and the remaining PFLP fighters retreated to join Assad's forces massed on the northern edge of the camp. The battle in Yarmouk is one of a series of conflicts on the southern fringes of Assad's capital, as rebels try to choke the power of the 47-year-old leader after a 21-month-old uprising in which 40,000 people have been killed. Government forces have used jets and artillery to try to dislodge the fighters but the violence has crept into the heart of the city and activists say rebels overran three army stations in a new offensive in the central province of Hama on Monday. On the border with Lebanon, hundreds of Palestinian families fled across the frontier following the weekend violence in Yarmouk, a Reuters witness said. Syria hosts half a million Palestinian refugees, most living in Yarmouk, descendants of those admitted after the creation of Israel in 1948, and has always cast itself as a champion of the Palestinian struggle, sponsoring several guerrilla factions. Both Assad's government and the mainly Sunni Muslim Syrian rebels have enlisted and armed divided Palestinian factions as the uprising has developed into a civil war. "NEITHER SIDE CAN WIN" Syrian Vice President Farouq al-Sharaa said in a newspaper interview published on Monday that neither Assad's forces nor rebels seeking to overthrow him can win the war. Sharaa, a Sunni Muslim in a power structure dominated by Assad's Alawite minority, has rarely been seen since the revolt erupted in March 2011 and is not part of the president's inner circle directing the fight against Sunni rebels. But he is the most prominent figure to say in public that Assad will not win. Sharaa said the situation in Syria was deteriorating and a "historic settlement" was needed to end the conflict, involving regional powers and the U.N. Security Council and the formation of a national unity government "with broad powers". "With every passing day the political and military solutions are becoming more distant. We should be in a position defending the existence of Syria. We are not in a battle for an individual or a regime," Sharaa was quoted as telling Al-Akhbar newspaper. "The opposition cannot decisively settle the battle and what the security forces and army units are doing will not achieve a decisive settlement," he said, adding that insurgents fighting to topple Syria's leadership could plunge it into "anarchy and an unending spiral of violence". Sources close to the Syrian government say Sharaa had pushed for dialogue with the opposition and objected to the military response to an uprising that began peacefully. In a veiled criticism of the crackdown, he said there was a difference between the state's duty to provide security to its citizens, and "pursuing a security solution to the crisis". He said even Assad could not be certain where events in Syria were leading, but that anyone who met him would hear that "this is a long struggle...and he does not hide his desire to settle matters militarily to reach a final solution." In Hama province, rebels and the army clashed in a new campaign launched on Sunday by rebels to block off the country's north, activists said. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition-linked violence monitor, said fighting raged through the provincial towns of Karnaz, Kafar Weeta, Halfayeh and Mahardeh. It said there were no clashes reported in Hama city, which lies on the main north-south highway connecting the capital with Aleppo, Syria's second city. Qassem Saadeddine, a member of the newly established rebel military command, said on Sunday fighters had been ordered to surround and attack army positions across the province. He said Assad's forces were given 48 hours to surrender or be killed. In 1982 Hafez al-Assad, father of the current ruler, crushed an uprising in Hama city, killing up to 30,000 civilians. Qatiba al-Naasan, a rebel from Hama, said the offensive would bring retaliatory air strikes from the government but that the situation is "already getting miserable". (Additional reporting by Oliver Holmes, Erika Solomon and Dominic Evans in Beirut, Afif Diab at Masnaa, Lebanon; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

Russia says Syrian rebels might win; car bomb kills 16

Russia says Syrian rebels might win; car bomb kills 16 Thu, Dec 13 06:19 AM EST

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By Oliver Holmes BEIRUT (Reuters) - Syrian rebels are gaining ground and might win, Russia's deputy foreign minister said on Thursday, in the starkest such admission from a major ally of President Bashar al-Assad. "One must look the facts in the face," Russia's state-run RIA quoted Mikhail Bogdanov as saying. "Unfortunately, the victory of the Syrian opposition cannot be ruled out." Bogdanov, who is Kremlin's special envoy for Middle East affairs, said the Syrian government was "losing control of more and more territory" and that Moscow was preparing plans to evacuate Russian citizens if necessary. Advancing rebels now hold an almost continuous arc of territory from the east to the southeast of Damascus, despite fierce army bombardments designed to drive them back. A car bomb killed at least 16 men, women and children in Qatana, a town about 25 km (15 miles) southwest of Damascus where many soldiers live, activists and state media said. The explosion occurred in a residential area for soldiers in Qatana, which is near several army bases, said Rami Abdelrahman, head of the pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. He put the death toll as 17, including seven children and two women. State news agency SANA said 16 people had died. State television blamed the blast on "terrorists" - its term for rebels - and showed footage of soldiers walking by a partly collapsed building, with rubble and twisted metal on the road. The attack follows three bombs at the Interior Ministry on Wednesday evening, in which state news agency SANA said five people were killed, including Abdullah Kayrouz, a member of parliament from the Syrian Social Nationalist Party. Apart from gaining territory in the outskirts of Damascus in recent weeks, rebels have also made hit-and-run attacks or set off bombs within the capital, often targeting state security buildings or areas seen as loyal to Assad, such as Jaramana, where twin bombs killed 34 people in November. BACK TO THE WALL Insurgents launched an offensive on Damascus after a July 18 bombing that killed four of Assad's closest aides, including his feared brother-in-law Assef Shawkat, but were later pushed back. With his back to the wall, Assad is reported to be turning ever deadlier weapons on his adversaries. U.S. NATO officials said on Wednesday that the Syrian military had fired Scud-style ballistic missiles, which are powerful but not very accurate, against rebels in recent days. Human Rights Watch said some populated areas had been hit by incendiary bombs, containing flammable materials such as napalm, thermite or white phosphorous, which can set fire to buildings or cause severe burns and respiratory damage. The British-based Syrian Observatory said war planes were bombing rebel-held eastern suburbs of Damascus on Thursday and artillery was hitting Daraya and Moadamiyeh, southwestern areas near the centre where rebels have been fighting for a foothold. At least 40,000 people have been killed in Syria's uprising, which started in March 2011 with street protests which were met with gunfire by Assad's security forces, and which spiraled into the most enduring and destructive of the Arab revolts. The United States, European powers and Arab states bestowed their official blessing on Syria's newly-formed opposition coalition on Wednesday, despite increasing signs of Western unease at the rise of militant Islamists in the rebel ranks. Western nations at "Friends of Syria" talks in Marrakech, Morocco rallied around a new opposition National Coalition formed last month under moderate Islamist cleric Mouaz Alkhatib. Russia, which along with China has blocked any U.N. Security Council measures against Assad, criticized Washington's decision to grant the coalition formal recognition, saying it appeared to have abandoned any effort to reach a political solution. Bogdanov's remarks were the clearest sign yet that Russia is preparing for the possible defeat of Assad's government. "We are dealing with issues of preparations for an evacuation. We have mobilization plans and are clarifying where our citizens are located," Bogdanov said.

Syrian rebels take airbase in slow progress toward Damascus

Syrian rebels take airbase in slow progress toward Damascus Sun, Nov 25 10:52 AM EST 1 of 4 By Khaled Yacoub Oweis AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian rebels said on Sunday they had captured a helicopter base east of Damascus after an overnight assault, their latest gain in a costly battle to unseat President Bashar al-Assad that is drawing nearer to his seat of power. The Marj al-Sultan base, 15 km (10 miles) from the capital, is the second military facility on the outskirts of the city reported to have fallen to Assad's opponents this month. Activists said rebels had destroyed two helicopters and taken 15 prisoners. "We are coming for you Bashar," a rebel shouted in an internet video of what activists said was Marj al-Sultan. Restrictions on non-state media meant it could not be verified. The rebels have been firming their hold on farmland and urban centers to the east and northeast of Damascus while a major battle has been underway for a week in the suburb of Daraya near the main highway south. "We are seeing the starting signs of a rebel siege of Damascus," veteran opposition campaigner Fawaz Tello said from Berlin. "Marj al-Sultan is very near to the Damascus Airport road and to the airport itself. The rebels appear to be heading toward cutting this as well as the main northern artery to Aleppo." Assad's core forces, drawn mainly from his minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam that has dominated power in Syria for nearly five decades, are entrenched in the capital. They also have devastating air superiority although they have failed to prevent rebels increasing their presence on the edge of the capital and in neighborhoods on the periphery. A Western diplomat following the fighting said Assad still had the upper hand. "The army will allow positions to fall here and there, but it can still easily muster the strength to drive back the rebels where it sees a danger," the diplomat said. "The rebels are very short of international support and they do not have the supplies to keep up a sustained fight, especially in Damascus." IRAN CONDEMNS PATRIOT PLAN Iran said Turkey's request to NATO to deploy Patriot defensive missiles near its border with Syria would add to problems in the region, where Iran is pitted against mostly Sunni Turkey and Gulf Sunni powers. Iran's Shi'ite rulers have stepped up support for Assad while Sunni Arab powers helped forge a new opposition coalition this month recognized by France and Britain as the sole representative of the Syrians. Syria has called the missile request "provocative", seeing it as a first step toward a no-fly zone over Syrian airspace which the opposition is seeking to help them hold territory against an enemy with overwhelming firepower from the air. Most foreign powers are reluctant to go that far. NATO has said the possible deployment of the missiles was purely defensive. The U.S.-led Western alliance has had some talks on the request but has yet to take a decision. Turkey fears security on its border may crumble as the Syrian army fights harder against the rebels, some of whom have enjoyed sanctuary in Turkey in their 20-month-old revolt against Assad's rule. Ankara has scrambled fighter jets and returned fire after stray Syrian shells and mortar bombs from heavy fighting along the border landed in its territory. More than 120,000 Syrian refugees are sheltering in camps in southern Turkey and more are expected with winter setting in and millions of people estimated to be short of food inside Syria. Abu Mussab, a rebel operative in the area of Hajar al-Aswad in south Damascus, said the opposition fighters had given up expecting a no-fly zone. "The bet is now on better organization and tactics," he said. The video said by activists to have been filmed at the Marj al-Sultan base showed rebel fighters carrying AK-47 rifles. An anti-aircraft gun was positioned on top of an empty bunker and a rebel commander from the Ansar al-Islam, a major Muslim rebel unit, was shown next to a helicopter. "With God's help, the Marj al-Sultan airbase in eastern Ghouta has been liberated," the commander said in the video. Eastern Ghouta, a mix of agricultural land and built-up urban areas, has been a rebel stronghold for months. Damaged mobile radar stations could be seen on hilltops, with rebels waiving as they walked in the compound. Footage from Saturday evening showed rebels firing rocket-propelled grenades at the base, and what appeared to be a helicopter engulfed in flames. Last week rebels briefly captured an air defense base near the southern Damascus district of Hajar al-Aswad, seizing weapons and equipment before pulling out to avoid retaliation from Assad's air force. (Additional reporting by Dominic Evans in Beirut Yeganeh Torbati in Dubai and Ece Toksabay in Istanbul; editing by Philippa Fletcher) حقيقة ما جرى في مطار مرج السلطان تناقلت مواقع كلاب الاخوان المسلمين فديو يظهر سيطرتهم على مجموعة من الحوامات العسكرية في مطار مرج السلطان , وقد قمنا فورا بالتواصل مع مصادرنا المطلعة التي اكدت لنا انه عبارة عن مهب ط حوامات اضطراري و مكب للحوامات المنسقة اي خارج الخدمة . وبما ان الصورة اقوى من الكلمة هانحن نبرهن صحة كلامنا من الصور والفديوهات التي نشرتها الجزيرة القطرية وتنسيقيات العهر هناك مروحيتين ظهرتا في الفديو وهي بدون مراوح ( شفرات الدوران ) و هذا اكبر دليل على انها خارج الخدمة . ثانيا في المطارات العسكرية يكون البعد بين الحوامة والاخرة ١٥٠م وكحد ادنى من اجل الامان اثناء الاقلاع و الهبوط او خلال التعرض لقصف جوي لذلك لا تكدس كقطرميز مكدوس بجانب بعضها كما ظهر بالفديو وفي النهاية نقول لتنسيقيات العهر و جلاجيقها المرضى النفسيين بدل البحث عن انتصارات معنوية كاذبة , انشروا اعداد قتلاكم الحقيقية التي سقطت في داريا و المعضمية خلال الاسبوع الماضي والذي تجاوزت 2000 قتيل بدل نشر اعلانات عن مفقودين تعرفون تماما من هم وكيف واين قتلوا . {لكم التعليق لضمان بقائك كعضو بصفحتنا اكتب تعليق أو مشاركة} ================ The CIA started to flirt with the Sunni Political Islam during the days of the cold war. The Afghan Mujahideen, the Taliban, Al-Qaeda and Hamas were embraced and supported by the CIA, MI-6, German BND, Saudi Intelligence and the Jordanian regime; in order to fight communism. The Sunni fundamentalists were effectively used to toppling the government of communist Dr Najeeb Ullah in Kabul before hanging him on 27.09.1996. Hamas was established in 1987 with the tacit blessing of late King Hussein of Jordan and his Western allies, mainly to neutralise the effects of leftist-oriented Palestinian organisation, the likes of the PLO, the PFLP and PFLP-general command. Similar to Al-Qaeda, Hamas drifted away from what the USraeli wanted them to be; a Political Islam at the Service of Uncle Sam. But within the Sunni Islamic fundamentalists there are still elements connected to the USraelis while being finance by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States. These elements are currently implementing USraeli designs by promoting the premises that Israel is a friend and Iran as the enemy. In the process, they are justifying attacks on the anti-USraeli Shiats in Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and Bahrain. It is a well known fact that Arabs don’t have clear strategies or effective tactics. The Sunni fundamentalists need allies if they ever try to re-direct their weapons at the US-supported Israeli criminals and not at their fellow citizens. As it is recently shown in Gaza, it was the Iranians and not the Saudis who supplied Hamas with weapons and training. There is no need at all to kill shiat or to antagonize Iran, because that is exactly what the US-Israeli strategists wanted us to do. If the West wants to limit the role of Iran and Hizbullah, it should work to force the Israelis to implementing 39 UN Security Council Resolutions they are in breach of, lifting the siege they imposed on Gaza, releasing the thousands of Palestinians from prisons and stopping the building of illegal settlements. Anything short of ending the occupation is a mere waste of time, money and valuable lives on both sides. How many more conflicts and truces are needed before the USraelis realise that keeping the status quo is becoming extremely costly and dangerous to everyone.. Adnan Darwash, Iraq Occupation Times. 14 November 2012 - 06:55 AM For some reason, you forgot to mention Indonesia, the largest non-Arab Muslim country. Islam and Mohammed did introduce ideas not known, let alone practiced, by other religions, that is the equality between all people infront of God. Until today, the Imam during prayers turns left and right to see that the faithfuls are standing in one line. In Judaism, Jews believe that they are God's selected few. The Hindi religion divides people into 17 castes depending on what they do. Naturally the ones who don't get their hand dirty, the Brahmas, are ranked on top. Christianity didn't address this issue and Christians went to enslave blacks and to intitutionalise apartheid. For this reason, many of the oppresses minorities, slaves and the untouchables, became Muslims. Have you ever wondered why Indonesians embraced Islam while no conqueror went there to convert them? In addition Islam, recognised Judaism and Christianity. Until today, Jews don't recognise neither Christianity nor Islam while Christians don't recognise Judaism or Islam. The Muslims believe that all the prophets cited in both the Torah and the Bible. Talking about the truth: There are 1.5 billion Muslims who recognise Judaism and Christianity. But Christians mention the 12 Million Jews who don't recognise them and ignore the 15 billion Muslims who do. It is the Jewish money that started to distort history and bribe historians. It was only in 1964 that the Catholic Church had exonerated the Jews and rehabilitated them. Can you possibly imagine that In the coming one hundred year there will be three times as many Muslims as there are today!!!!! - Hamas and Jesse Ventura: Sacrifices the way forward Posted 14 November 2012 - 11:57 PM Mr Jesse Ventura believes that the shooting of four innocent students at the Kent University Campus by the Ohio National Guard on May 4, 1970 shocked America and lead to the end of the Vietnam war. At the time, the students were demonstrating against Nixon-Kissinger's attempt to extend the Vietnam war to Cambodia. Following the shooting, four million US students went on strike that opened the eyes of the rest of the nation. Mr Ventura advised the 'Occupy Movement' to make sacrifices in order for the nation to hear their warnings of the danger of the mafias controlling the US Banks and its Financial institutions. Similarly, Hamas knows that the International community will remain silent about the Israeli siege of Gaza and their daily atrocities against the Palestinians unless sacrifices are made. President Mahmoud Abbas has failed and the peaceful approach will never end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands,, stop the illegal Jewish settlements or force the Israelis to abide by 39 UN Security Council Resolutions, they are in breach off. The fighting in Gaza couldn't come at a worst time for the Israelis and for their American mentors: who are currently financing and arming Islamists in order to depose Assad in Syria and in trying to direct the world attention to Iran's Nuclear capabilities. Since the West will never arm Hamas fighters with Stinger anti Aircraft Missiles to defend against the Israeli warplanes, the way it is currently doing in Syria, the Arab street will punish all the Pro-West Kings, Sultans, Sheiks and Emirs currently in power, one at atime. It is natural to conclude that the attack on the US consulate in Benghazi will not be the last if the US continues its current policy of double standards and selective morality. Adnan Darwash, Iraq Occupation Times =====================

Assad adviser warns of sectarian strife in Syria

Syrian forces kill 62, U.S. tightens sanctions


Obama's Jewish peanuts will only attract Arab monkeys. Obama was trying to milk the stones of the American Jewish lobby. But what ever has happened to international legitimacy and to UN Security Coucil Resolutions? When UN resolutions cedoncern Arabs or Muslims they will be implemented immediately. But when they concern the Israelis, that is another matter. Few hours after UN esolution 1973 was passed the US-led NATO planes started to bombard Libya, naturally to save human lives. Have you ever heard of an American attempt to save the lives of people in Gaza when Israeli SS, Luftwaffe and Panzers killed 1400 people including 300 children? America needs to change its policies and to stop humiliating Arabs and Muslims. Obama policies are not diderent than those of Bush or Reagan. One can be assured that all anti-American forces in the world have rejoyced hearing Obama speech on 19.05.2011 whose effects will be seen on the ground in Iraq, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

President Obama is scheduled to give one of his high-powered speeches to people of the Middle East today 19.05.2011. As it is usual, the speech will be delivered with a preacher-like style using carefully chosen words in order not to upset the Jewish lobby who will be having their AIPAC conference in Washington D.C. Soon. Obama will most probably claim that it was the US who encouraged the uprising by supporting the opposition to the age-old despots (naturally, excluding Saudi Arabia and the Arab Gulf States) and that the killing of Bin Laden will open a new chapter in the war on terror. He will also call on the Palestinians to return to the empty negotiation table and that Israel security is America top priority. On the other hand, the Arabs want to hear Obama saying that the US will stop killing Muslims in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and in Libya. That the US will force the Israelis to implement 39 UN Security Council Resolutions they are in breach of, and to dismantle Israel stockpiles of Nuclear Weapons. That the siege of Gaza will be lifted and that Guantanamo prison will be closed. The Arabs are completely disappointed with Obama policies while his speech today is expected to offer a lot of verbal heat but no light. In conclusion, the Arabs are fed up with US-supported Israeli crimes and the boring talks about terror and Israeli security.
Adnan Darwash, Iraq Occupation Times


30 Apr 2011 03:08

Source: reuters // Reuters

* Rights group says 62 killed across Syria on Friday

* Protests for Assad's overthrow across Syria

* Sanctions target Assad's brother Maher

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Suleiman al-Khalidi

AMMAN, April 30 (Reuters) - The United States imposed new sanctions on key Syrian government figures after security forces killed more than 60 people across Syria during demonstrations demanding the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad.

A medical source told Reuters that soldiers in Deraa killed 19 people on Friday when they fired on thousands of protesters descending from nearby villages in a show of solidarity with the southern city where Syria's uprising broke out six weeks ago.

Syrian human rights group Sawasiah said it had the names of a total of 62 people killed during protests in Deraa, Rustun, Latakia, Homs and the town of Qadam, near Damascus. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights gave a similar death toll.

Friday's bloodshed came after demonstrators across the country again defied heavy military deployments, mass arrests and a ruthless crackdown on the biggest popular challenge to 48 years of authoritarian Baath Party rule.

U.S. President Barack Obama imposed new sanctions against Syrian figures, including a brother of Assad in charge of troops in Deraa, the first reprisal for Syria's violent crackdown.

Obama signed an executive order imposing sanctions on the intelligence agency, Assad's cousin Atif Najib and his brother Maher, who commands the army division which stormed into Deraa on Monday. Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard was also targeted, accused of helping the Syrian crackdown.

"The sanctions that were announced today are intended to show the Syrian government that its behavior and actions are going to be held to account," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters.

Shortly after Obama's move, European Union diplomats said they had reached preliminary agreement to impose an arms embargo on Syria and would "urgently consider further appropriate and targeted measures". These, diplomats said, were understood to mean measures against individuals.

NATIONWIDE PROTESTS

Obama's sanctions, which include asset freezes and bans on U.S. business dealings, build on U.S. measures against Syria in place since 2004, but they may have little impact since Assad's inner circle are thought to hold few U.S. assets.

One official said the White House was "not ready" to call on Assad to step down because Obama and his aides "do not want to get out in front of the Syrian people".

But thousands of Syrians took to the streets across the country after Friday prayers demanding his removal and pledging support for the residents of Deraa.

"The people want the overthrow of the regime!" demonstrators chanted in many protests, witnesses said.

More demonstrations flared in the central cities of Homs and Hama, Banias on the Mediterranean coast, Qamishly in eastern Syria and Harasta, a Damascus suburb.

Damascus saw the biggest protest in the capital so far, with a crowd swelling to 10,000 as it marched towards the main Ummayad Square before being dispersed by security forces firing tear gas, rights campaigners said.

Syrian rights group Sawasiah said this week at least 500 civilians had been killed since the unrest broke out six weeks ago. Authorities dispute that, saying 78 security forces and 70 civilians died in violence they blame on armed groups.

DERAA SHOOTING

State news agency SANA blamed "armed terrorist groups" for killing eight soldiers near Deraa. It said groups had opened fire on the homes of soldiers in two towns near Deraa and were repelled by guards. SANA said security forces detained 156 members of the group and confiscated 50 motorbikes.

But a witness in Deraa said Syrian forces fired live rounds at thousands of villagers who descended on the besieged city.

"They shot at people at the western gate of Deraa in the Yadoda area, almost three km (two miles) from the centre of the city,"

he said.

A rights campaigner in Deraa said on Friday makeshift morgues in the city contained the bodies of 85 people he said had been killed since the army stormed the city, close to Syria's southern border with Jordan, on Monday.

Assad's violent repression has brought growing condemnation from Western countries which for several years had sought to engage Damascus and loosen its close anti-Israel alliances with Iran and the militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas.

The top United Nations human rights body condemned Syria for using deadly force against peaceful protesters and launched an investigation into killings and other alleged crimes.

A U.S. official said Friday's sanctions were meant to show that no member of the Syrian leadership was immune from being held accountable.

"Bashar is very much on our radar and if this continues could be soon to follow,"

the official said. (Writing by Dominic Evans; Additional reporting by Yara Bayoumy in Beirut, Mark Hosenball and Matt Spetalnick in Washington and Justyna Pawlak in Brussels; Editing by Jon Hemming and Robert Birsel)

===
Syrian forces raid homes, Assad opposition mounts
24 Apr 2011 09:34

Source: reuters // Reuters

Libya's rebel council says gets $177 mln from Kuwait
24 Apr 2011 17:05

Source: reuters // Reuters


KUWAIT, April 24 (Reuters) - Kuwait will contribute 50 million Kuwaiti dinars ($177.2 million) to Libya's rebel council, a rebel leader said on Sunday.

Mustafa Abdel Jalil, head of the Libyan rebel national council, was speaking at a news conference in Kuwait.

(Reporting by Eman Goma, Writing by Martina Fuchs)

===
An injured protester is helped by others around him in a location provided as Homs April 22, 2011 in this still image taken from video. Syrian security forces killed almost 90 protesters on Friday, rights activists said, the bloodiest day in a month of escalating pro-democracy demonstrations against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad. The Local Coordination Committees sent Reuters a list with the names of 88 people, classified by region, the group said were killed in areas stretching from the port city of Latakia to Homs, Hama, Damascus and the southern village of Izra'a. Video taken April 22, 2011. REUTERS/Social Media Website via Reuters TV (SYRIA)
* Bigger pro-democracy protests met with more force

* YouTube video shows attack on unarmed protesters

(Adds British comments, arrest of rights campaigner)

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

AMMAN, April 24 (Reuters) - Secret police raided homes near Damascus overnight, rights campaigners said on Sunday, as popular opposition to Syria's authoritarian President Bashar al-Assad increased following bloody attacks on pro-democracy protesters.

Security forces and gunmen loyal to Assad have killed at least 112 people over the last two days. They fired at protesters demanding political freedoms and an end to corruption on Friday and on mass funerals for victims a day later.

The attacks were the bloodiest, and the demonstrations the biggest, since protests erupted in the southern city of Deraa near the border with Jordan over five weeks ago.

Security operatives in plain clothes wielding assault rifles broke into homes in the suburb of Harasta just after midnight on Sunday, arresting activists in the area, known as the Ghouta, or the old garden district of the capital.

Assad lifted an emergency law on Thursday, in place since his Baath Party seized power 48 years ago, in a bid to appease protesters and ease international criticism. Opponents say the crackdown that followed shows the move was hollow.

"Bashar al-Assad, you traitor, you coward. Take your soldiers to the Golan," protesters chanted on Saturday, chiding Assad for turning his forces on his own people instead of recapturing the Golan Heights, where the frontier with Israel has been quiet since a 1974 ceasefire.

Assad assumed power when his father died in 2000 after ruling Syria for 30 years. The hostile chants reflect a steady hardening of the demands of protesters who first called for greater freedoms but now seek his overthrow.

International condemnation of Assad has also intensified. Western criticism was initially muted because of lingering hopes that Assad might implement genuine reform and because revolution in Syria could reshape the political map in the Middle East.

Assad has strengthened his father Hafez al-Assad's anti-Israel alliance with Iran and supported militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas. He also re-established Syrian influence in Lebanon and has held indirect peace talks with Israel.

"I deplore the increasing violence in Syria, and am appalled by the killing of demonstrators by Syrian security forces," British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Sunday, advising all British nationals to leave Syria.

U.S. President Barack Obama urged Assad on Friday to stop the "outrageous use of violence to quell protests". Syrian authorities, who blame the violence on armed groups, dismissed Obama's comments.

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ARRESTS NEAR DAMASCUS

The National Organisation for Human Rights in Syria said prominent rights activist Daniel Saud, a resident of the Mediterranean city of Banias, was also arrested on Saturday.

The weekend protests stretched from the port city of Latakia to Homs, Hama, Damascus, its suburbs and southern towns. The death toll rose to around 350, with scores of missing since the demonstrations broke out on March 18, rights campaigners said.

Assad has ejected most foreign media from the country during his crackdown on protesters, so independent reports of the violence are difficult to verify.

Demonstrators have been using the Internet to get out pictures of the violence, many of which have been explicit.

One video posted on Internet site YouTube showed a crowd marching on Friday near Abbasside square in Damascus, purportedly on Friday, chanting "the people want the overthrow of the regime", before the sound of gunfire was heard.

Demonstrators raised their hands to show that they were unarmed. The fire intensified. One youth fell, with blood spurting from his head and back. His comrades lifted him but dropped his body when the sound of bullets resumed.

In Abada village, 10 kilometres from Damascus, rights campaigners said security forces were preventing people injured in Friday's protests from reaching hospital. A cleric in contact with the town of Nawa near Deraa said residents told him security forces had fired indiscriminately.
In a move unthinkable in Syria just five weeks ago, two Deraa lawmakers in Syria's rubberstamp parliament resigned on Saturday to protest against the killings of protesters. (Editing by Robert Woodward)



===

ANALYSIS-Syria's Assad torn between repression and reform23 Apr 2011 05:12

Source: reuters // Reuters


A Syrian protester shouts slogans calling for Syria's President Bashar al-Assad to step down during a protest in front of the Syrian embassy in Amman April 17, 2011. REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed
* Assad faces alarming challenge to his rule

* Assad may have missed the chance for reform

* Each time he makes concessions, protesters get bolder (Repeats April 22 story unchanged)

By Samia Nakhoul

BEIRUT, April 22 (Reuters) - President Bashar al-Assad is in a quandary as the challenge to his autocratic rule grows in the streets of Syria: more concessions could signal weakness, but harsher repression risks radicalising a growing opposition.

While some analysts believe Assad can contain the revolt through bold reforms, others believe he missed the chance to open up Syria's dictatorship when he inherited the presidency from his strongman father, the late Hafez al-Assad, in 2000.

"The regime is in trouble. People have been repressed for 40 years but suddenly the wall of fear has crumbled and they are no longer frightened," Sarkis Naoum of Beirut's an-Nahar newspaper told Reuters.

"Each time the regime makes new concessions, the people get bolder and ask for more. They see it as a sign of weakness. The regime doesn't know how to respond -- it's like an old grudge people have been waiting to avenge."

Close observers of Syria argue that -- as in the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions that ousted Hosni Mubarak and Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali -- citizens are rebelling not just against a lack of freedom and opportunity.

They are also enraged by suffocating corruption that has enriched the elites while one-third of Syrians live below the poverty line.

"It was a combination of repression, corruption, incompetence and the degeneration of the system", says analyst Jamil Mroue. "It became combustible and people suffocated."

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FRANCHISING CORRUPTION

While crackdowns continued against activists who challenged Baath party rule, economic reforms since 2005 created lucrative new monopolies controlled by senior officials and Assad family insiders, among them his billionnaire cousin Rami Makhlouf.
"The Baath Party is ancient, outdated and obsolete. The decisions are being made by the security forces and services who play a fundamental role in the country. They are the real force," said Talal Salman, publisher of Beirut's as-Safir daily, traditionally sympathetic to Syria.

A caste of army officers and clans of the dominant Alawite minority has sprung up, using its clout to suppress dissent and extort kickbacks, often demanding a share of the profits private business generates, observers said.

"The essential spark was ignited by the privatising and franchising of corruption, which along with repression violated the fabric of society," Mroue said.

As with their Arab peers from Egypt to Yemen and Libya, young Syrians' aspirations have risen in tandem with their access to satellite TV, mobile phones, Facebook and the Internet.

The regional explosion that began in Tunisia and Egypt propelled people to seek a new way of life.

What adds an edge to Syria's crisis is the heavy-handedness of one-party rule, the sectarian rift between the ruling Alawite minority and the Sunni majority, and the brutality and impunity of the security forces.

Facing the most alarming challenge of his 11 years in power, Assad has juggled repression, economic handouts and calibrated concessions in an attempt to quash a month of protests.
Yet the unrest, which rights groups say has cost more than 200 lives, shows no signs of going away without radical change.

On Thursday, ahead of mass protests that broke out again on Friday, Assad ended a draconian state of emergency, in place for 48 years, that allowed blanket repression with impunity.

"President Assad might be able to overcome this crisis and contain the situation but the cost may be high... He has to change the regime or the people will force him to," said Salman.

ARMY SPLIT POSSIBLE

Analysts say toppling the system is harder because Syria's power structure differs from that of Egypt and Tunisia, where senior generals refused to open fire on demonstrators.

Alawite loyalists occupy the key positions in the Syrian military and Assad family insiders run the crucial security bodies, tying senior officers closely to Assad's own fate.

Yet the bulk of the army is Sunni and there have been persistent but unconfirmed reports of soldiers refusing to fire on protesters.

"There is a big possibility that the army will split or they won't accept to take part in a crackdown, if ordered. It is not easy to bring the regime down but it is easy to divide the regime," An-Nahar's Naoum said.

Nearly 30 years ago, the elder Assad ruthlessly put down an armed Islamist uprising, killing tens thousands of people in the city of Hama in a bombardment cloaked from international view.

That level of brutality would be harder to get away with today, when Syrians, despite state curbs on media, use mobile phone cameras to post instant images of protests on YouTube.

"Bashar's father killed 20,000 to 30,000 people in Hama... If Bashar wants to do another Hama in the first two hours the whole world will rise up," Naoum said.


IRREVERSIBLE

While holding Assad responsible for failing to enact sweeping reforms, some analysts say issues beyond his control played a role, although he should have addressed them faster.

The country has been plagued by drought for several years, slowing its rise as a middle income economy.

Syria has 20 million people with a population growth rate of 2.4 percent. But entrants to the labour market are increasing at double that pace due to a faster birth rate in earlier decades, that far outstrips the capacity of the economy to create jobs.

Per capita gross domestic product languishes at $2,500 a year. The official unemployment rate stands at 10 percent but independent estimates are double that, with about a quarter of a million youngsters arriving in the jobs market every year.

Some Syrians believe the protest movement, unthinkable a few months ago, has now gained an irreversible momentum.

"There isn't anything impossible any more after Egypt and Tunisia," said a Syrian who refused to give her name. "Seeing Syrians defying the security forces on the streets while knowing that they might be shot dead is something beyond imagination.

"Do you think these people are willing to die just for some reforms or for an increase in wages? These people want the Assad regime out," she added.

Even if Assad, 45, concedes far-reaching democratic reforms, activists and protesters will want proof that he is making a real break with the past, testing the president's power over his own family and the Baathist elite.

"Assad has to carry out a white coup to clean his entourage of corrupt figures linked to the regime," Mroue said.

"He has to show people that there is dramatic change, that there will be elections in a few years, that he won't be president for life, that it is no longer a dynasty."

Such a high-risk course would entail confronting his own entourage and ditching a structure in place for 40 years.

No one knows what might come next -- a peaceful transition of power, a military coup, prolonged instability or civil war.

"Either he will opt for transformation of the regime or it will be torn apart," Mroue said.

(editing by Paul Taylor)



===
Twelve killed in pro-democracy protests in Syria
23 Apr 2011 21:06

Source: reuters // Reuters


Syrian protesters shout slogans calling for Syria's President Bashar al-Assad to step down during a protest in front of the Syrian embassy in Amman April 17, 2011. REUTERS/Muhammad Hamed
* Syrian forces fire on protesters; 12 killed

* Activists say more than 100 people killed on Friday
* Two lawmakers say they resign in protest at deaths

(Adds quote from lawmaker, comment from official news agency)

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Suleiman al-Khalidi

AMMAN, April 23 (Reuters) - Syrian forces killed at least 12 people on Saturday when they fired on mourners calling for the end of President Bashar al-Assad's rule at mass funerals of pro-democracy protesters shot a day earlier.

Witnesses said the mourners were chanting "Bashar al-Assad, you traitor! Long live Syria, down with Bashar!"

Friday was by far the bloodiest day in over a month of demonstrations to demand political freedoms and an end to corruption, with at least 100 people killed, said two activists.

The protests went ahead despite Assad's decision this week to lift emergency law, in place since his Baath Party seized power 48 years ago. Two lawmakers and a preacher also resigned in protest at the killings of demonstrators.

Aided by his family and a pervasive security apparatus, Assad, 45, has absolute power, having ignored demands to transform the anachronistic autocratic system he inherited when he succeeded his late father, president Hafez al-Assad, in 2000.
=The representation of someone as existing or something as happening in other than chronological, proper, or historical order.

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Independent human rights organisation Sawasiah said security forces killed at least 12 people during the funerals in Damascus and surrounding areas and near the southern town of Izra'a.

"There was a heavy volley of gunfire in our direction as we approached Izra'a to join the funerals of martyrs," a witness in Izra'a told Reuters.

One of the lawmakers to resign, Naser Hariri, said Assad's security forces were unleashing a "frenzy of killings in cold blood". Khalil al-Rifaei also quit the rubber-stamp assembly.

"Security forces are sowing divisions and sectarian strife among Syrians, Muslim and Christian, who are united in their demands for reforms and freedom," Hariri told Reuters.

Rezq Abdulrahman Abazeid, the government-appointed mufti, or Muslim preacher, for Deraa also resigned.

"Being assigned to give fatwas (religious edicts), I submit my resignation as a result of the fall of victims and martyrs by police fire," he told Al Jazeera.

As well as the unrest at funerals in areas near Damascus, Assad's seat of power remained tense on Saturday and many people stayed indoors, one activist told Reuters from the capital.

"This is becoming like a snowball and getting bigger and bigger every week. Anger is rising, the street is boiling," he said.

CRACKDOWN CONDEMNED

In the Douma suburb of the city, security forces opened fire at a funeral, wounding three people, witnesses there said, and mourners in Harasta, a town near Damascus, came under fire from security forces, before staging a sit-in to demand the release of detainees arrested in the past few weeks.Protesters staged another sit-in after a funeral for four people from Irbeen, near Damascus. "We are not leaving until the political prisoners are released," one protester said by phone.

The official SANA news agency said five members of the security forces in the town of Nawa, near Deraa, were killed when they came under attack from what it called an armed criminal group. It said two gang members were killed.It said a military roadblock in Izra'a was also was attacked and security forces killed one of the armed criminal group.

Friday's violence, in areas stretching from the port city of Latakia to Homs, Hama, Damascus and the southern village of Izra'a, brings the death toll to more than 300, according to activists, since unrest broke out on March 18 in Deraa.
U.S. President Barack Obama condemned Friday's violence and accused Assad of seeking help from Iran. A Syrian government source said in a statement published on official state media Obama's statement "was not based on objective vision".

"This outrageous use of violence to quell protests must come to an end now," Obama said in a statement. "Instead of listening to their own people, President Assad is blaming outsiders while seeking Iranian assistance in repressing Syria's citizens."

France's Foreign Ministry said Paris was "deeply concerned".

"Syrian authorities must give up the use of violence against their citizens. We again call on them to commit without delay to an inclusive political dialogue and to achieve the reforms legitimately demanded by the Syrian people," it said.

A statement by the Local Coordination Committees, a grouping of activists coordinating protests, said the end of emergency law was futile without the release of thousands of political prisoners, most held without trial, and the dismantling of the security apparatus.

In their first joint statement since the protests erupted last month, activists said the abolition of the Baath Party's monopoly on power and the establishment of a democratic political system was central to ending repression in Syria.

Amnesty International said Syrian authorities "have again responded to peaceful calls for change with bullets and batons".

"They must immediately halt their attacks on peaceful protesters and instead allow Syrians to gather freely as international law demands," said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa director. (Writing and additional reporting by Mariam Karouny in Beirut; Editing by Alison Williams)
====


Almost 90 dead in Syria's bloodiest day of unrest22 Apr 2011 23:08

Source: reuters // Reuters


* Protests sweep Syria despite Assad concessions

* Protesters killed in Damascus region, Homs and Izra'a

* Activists want prisoners freed, security forces dismantled

* Amnesty urges end to violence, calls for independent probe

(Updates with Obama statement)

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

AMMAN, April 22 (Reuters) - Syrian security forces killed almost 90 protesters on Friday, rights activists said, the bloodiest day in a month of escalating pro-democracy demonstrations against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad.

The Local Coordination Committees sent Reuters a list with the names of 88 people, classified by region, the group said were killed in areas stretching from the port city of Latakia to Homs, Hama, Damascus and the southern village of Izra'a.It was not possible to independently confirm the figures.

U.S. President Barack Obama condemned the violence and accused Assad of seeking help from Iran.

"This outrageous use of violence to quell protests must come to an end now," Obama said in a statement.

"Instead of listening to their own people, President Assad is blaming outsiders while seeking Iranian assistance in repressing Syria's citizens through the same brutal tactics that have been used by his Iranian allies."

That was an apparent reference to the suppression of anti-government protests in Iran, the biggest since the 1979 Islamic revolution, that erupted after a disputed 2009 presidential election.

Tens of thousands of people had taken to the streets of cities across Syria in the biggest demonstrations to sweep the country so far, and called for the "overthrow of the regime".

That reflected the hardening of demands which initially focused on reforms and greater freedoms.

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The protests went ahead despite Assad's lifting of the state of emergency the day before. Ending the hated emergency rule, in place since the Baath Party seized power 48 years ago, was a central demand of demonstrators, who also seek the release of political prisoners and dismantling of the security services.

"This was the first test of the seriousness of authorities (towards reform) and they have failed," activist Ammar Qurabi said.

Washington urged Syria to stop the violence against protesters and British Foreign Secretary William Hague said emergency law should be "lifted in practice not just in word".

Friday's violence brings the death toll to about 300, according to rights activists, since the unrest which broke out on March 18 in the southern city of Deraa.
Activists cited the highest toll in the nearby village of Izra'a where protesters had been trying to head for Deraa. Residents said 14 people were killed.

"Izra'a is in the dark. No mobile phones or landlines working. People have been talking from villages near to Izra'a but not in the town," said Wissam Tarif of human rights organisation, Insan.

Syrian television said eight people were killed and 28 wounded, including army personnel, in attacks by armed groups in the village. It added an armed group had attacked a military base in the Damascus suburb of Muadhamiya.
Amnesty International said it had been told of 75 deaths, including two children and a 70-year-old man.

Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa director, urged the authorities to stop the violence: "They must also immediately launch an independent investigation into what happened and ensure that any security forces found to have carried out these killings are brought to justice."

As in the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings, citizens are rebelling against both a lack of freedom and opportunity and security forces' impunity and corruption that has enriched the elite while one-third of Syrians live below the poverty line.

In the first joint statement since the protests broke out, the activists coordinating the demonstrations on Friday demanded the abolition of the Baath Party monopoly on power and the establishment of a democratic political system.

Aided by his family and a pervasive security apparatus, Assad, 45, has absolute power in Syria.

PROTESTS ACROSS COUNTRY

Protests swept the country of 20 million people, from the Mediterranean city of Banias to the eastern towns of Deir al-Zor and Qamishli. In Damascus, security forces fired teargas to disperse 2,000 protesters in the district of Midan.In Hama, where Assad's father crushed an armed Islamist revolt in 1982, a witness said security forces opened fire to prevent protesters reaching the Baath Party headquarters.

"We saw two snipers on the building. None of us had weapons. There are casualties, possibly two dead," said the witness.

Syria's third city Homs, where security forces had killed 21 protesters this week when demonstrators tried to gather at a main square, was not spared on Friday either.

"I was in the centre of Homs and in front of me I heard a security commander telling his armed men: 'Don't spare them (protesters)'", rights campaigner Najati Tayara told Reuters.

Witnesses said security forces also shot at protesters in the Damascus district of Barzeh and the suburb of Douma.
Al Jazeera showed footage of three corpses, wrapped in white burial shrouds, which it said were from the eastern Damascus suburb of Zamalka.
Ahead of the main weekly prayers on Friday, which have often turned out to be launch pads for major demonstrations, the army deployed in Homs and police put up checkpoints across Damascus, apparently trying to prevent protests sweeping in from suburbs.

After prayers finished in Deraa, several thousand protesters gathered chanting anti-Assad slogans. "The Syrian people will not be subjugated. Go away doctor (Assad). We will trample on you and your slaughterous regime,"

they shouted.

Assad's conciliatory move to lift the state of emergency followed a familiar pattern since the unrest began a month ago: pledges of reform are made before Friday when demonstrations are the strongest, usually followed by an intense crackdown.

Activists said some funerals for those killed on Friday took place in Damascus suburbs in the evening. Funerals have been another platform for protesters in recent weeks and security forces have opened fire when mourners started demonstrating.

The authorities have blamed armed groups, infiltrators and Sunni Muslim militant organisations for provoking violence at demonstrations by firing on civilians and security forces.

Western and other Arab countries have mostly muted their criticism of the killings in Syria for fear of destabilising the country, which plays a strategic role in many of the conflicts in the Middle East. (Additional reporting by Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman, Yara Bayoumy and Mariam Karouny in Beirut, Sami Aboudi in Cairo, Jeff Mason and Steve Holland aboard Air Force One, Adrian Croft in London; writing by Dominic Evans; editing by Jon Boyle)



===
The ongoing Arab uprisings have no doubt surprised everybody including the pro-Israeli advisors infesting the State Department, the Pentagon and the Whitehouse. After a short pause, the USraelis started to dispatch teams of ‘specialists’ in disinformation, bribery, intimidation, sabotage and dirty works. The CIA and MOSSAD went further to set up filters and red lines for the Arab revolutions.

But would the Arabs, who have been witnessing the American unlimited support for Israeli atrocities and the West’s anti-Islamic crusade, accept to fall in USraeli traps?

It is true that the Americans have sent CIA and DIA agents to support the anti-Gadaffi and Anti Assad protests, but these efforts were undermined by the American refusal to support the Bahraini, the Yemenis, the Saudis, the Omani and the Jordanian uprisings.

Slowly but surely, the Egyptian and the Tunisian revolutions will attain most of their goals. These will be followed by the success in Yemen, Bahrain, Syria and Jordan.

There is currently a strong pressure on Iraq occupation government not to extend the presence of US troops in the country beyond the end of 2011 as Al-Maliki and his government will be held responsible for the consequences. Many believe that the days of the USraeli hegemony are numbered and that a new alliance between Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and Syria may dominate future events in the Middle East, away from the USraeli influence.

Adnan Darwash, Iraq Occupation Times



===



Syrian forces fire at protesters, unrest intensifies

19 Apr 2011 00:34

Source: reuters // Reuters


* Protests target Assad, demand his overthrow

* End of emergency law fails to assuage anger


By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

AMMAN, April 19 (Reuters) - Syrian forces fired shots at hundreds of protesters who had gathered overnight in Homs city in defiance of warning by the authorities to halt what they called an insurrection, a rights campaigner said on Tuesday.

A member of the security police addressed the protesters at Clock Square through a loud speaker asking them to leave, and then the forces opened fire, said the human rights campaigner, who is in contact with protesters in the square.
Tear gas was also used. At least one protester was injured, the activist added. Two residents of Homs also said they heard the sound of gunfire coming from around the square.

Several hours earlier, Syrian state television broadcast an interior ministry statement that described the wave of unrest in Syria as an insurrection, pointing specifically to Homs as one of two cities where "armed groups belonging to Salafist organisations" were trying to terrorise the population.Salafism is a strict form of Sunni Islam which many Arab governments equate with militant groups like al Qaeda.

President Bashar al-Assad announced on Saturday that he would end nearly half a century of emergency rule with legislation that should be in place by next week, but his pledge did little to appease protesters calling for political freedoms.

Rights campaigners say more than 200 people have been killed since the protests began.

Syrian authorities have intensified bans on independent media since protests challenging the authoritarian rule of Assad erupted more than a month ago.

No independent media is allowed into Homs or other cities witnessing unprecedented pro-democracy demonstrations. Several international journalists have been expelled or arrested.

Thousands demanded the overthrow of Assad on Monday at the funerals of 17 protesters killed in Homs, 165 km (100 miles) north of Damascus. Human rights campaigners said the 17 had been killed late on Sunday during protests against the death in custody of a tribal leader in Homs.

ALLEYWAY TO ALLEYWAY

"From alleyway to alleyway, from house to house, we want to overthrow you, Bashar," the mourners chanted, according to a witness at the funeral.

Further north, in Jisr al-Shughour, 1,000 people called for "the overthrow of the regime", echoing the chants of protesters who overthrew leaders in Egypt and Tunisia, at the funeral of a man who they said had been killed by security forces.

Protests against the authoritarian rule of Assad's Baath Party erupted in the southern city of Deraa more than a month ago, and have spread across the country.

The government says Syria is the target of a conspiracy and authorities blame the violence on armed gangs and infiltrators supplied with weapons from Lebanon and Iraq. Opposition groups say there is no evidence of a conspiracy.
The interior ministry statement said Salafist groups were trying "to spread terror across Syria ... using the march of freedom and reform that was launched according to a timetable by President Assad in his guiding speech".

The demonstrations present the gravest challenge yet to Assad, who succeeded his late father Hafez al-Assad, who died in 2000 after 30 years of rule.

(Amman newsroom, +962 6 4623776)



===========
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad

Secret diplomatic cables released by the website WikiLeaks indicate that the US has conducted a long campaign to overthrow the government of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria.


The cables published on the Washington Post on Monday revealed that the US State Department has secretly funded Syrian opposition groups with nearly $6 million since 2006.

The report said that Washington also financed the operation of a satellite channel, Brada TV. The television is said to be closely affiliated with a group of Syrian exiles in London, a Press TV correspondent reported Tuesday.
The funding started during the administration of former US President George W. Bush in 2005, and continued to his incumbent successor, Barack Obama.

In May 2010, Obama extended the country's Bush-era sanctions against Syria, and accused Assad's regime of supporting terrorism.

Investigative Journalist Wayne Madsen believes that the US and its allies are trying to influence uprisings across the Arab world.

“There is a conscious attempt by the United States and its allies to influence the outcome,” he said.

“The six million dollars may not sound like a lot of money, but it is the tip of the iceberg. That is the official money from the State Department. We do not know how much money has been laundered through other agencies.”

Syria is a candidate for becoming the Unite Nations top human rights body.
However, the Obama administration says it would be hypocritical of the Syrian government to take such a role.

Madsen says the United States is hypocritical and has a double standard on human rights in individual countries.

“We see close US allies in Bahrain, for example, and other countries certainly not getting this kind of treatment as we are applying against Syria and Libya. And I think this does show the hypocrisy of the United States,” he said.

The Syrian president says his country encounters conspiracy.

On Sunday, armed gangs killed at least 11 people, including an army general and three of his family members in the Syrian city of Homs.
Another police officer was also killed in a nearby town of Talbisa. Witnesses said that a group of black-clad men opened fire on a crowd.




Saudi Arabia, Jordan behind Syria unrestSat Apr 9, 2011 6:39PM
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Saudi King Abdullah (L) and Jordan's King Abdullah

The rise in anti-government protests and mounting political tension in Syria brings to mind the question about who is behind these deadly incidents.


A probe into the root causes of the latest events in Syria show that the revolt is mainly supported by Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

The revolt began in the city of Daraa, 120 kilometers south of the capital Damascus and near the border with Jordan.

Daraa is the birthplace of Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood, which has close ties to the people in the Syrian city.
Undoubtedly, the Syrians, like other nations in the region, have some legitimate demands which have prompted the government to plan fundamental reforms. However, the protests have come with unjustifiable violence by some suspicious elements.

Similar protests were seen in 1982 against the government of late Syrian president Hafez al-Assad in the cities of Hama and Daraa.

Hafez al-Assad -- the late father of current Syrian President Bashar al-Assad -- was president between 1970 and 2000 and was considered one of the powerful leaders in the Arab world.

Former Jordan King Hussein, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and the then Saudi King Khalid incited Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood against Syria, when Hafez al-Assad backed Iran during the eight-year Iraqi-imposed war on Iran in the 1980s.
The fighting, which took place from 1982 to 1984, left more than 30,000 people dead, but the late Syrian president finally managed to end the crisis.

Saudi Arabia and Jordan continued their attempts to cause unrest in Syria after the death of Hafez al-Assad and his succession by his son.

Saudi Arabia, which often bows to US and Israel's policies in the region, tried to destabilize Bashar al-Assad's government by undermining his rule.

To this end, Saudi Arabia paid 30 million dollars to former vice president Abdul Halim Khaddam to quit Assad's government.

Khaddam sought asylum in France in 2005 with the aid of Saudi Arabia and began to plot against the Syrian government with the exiled leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Khaddam, who is a relative of Saudi King Abdullah and former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri, used his great wealth to form a political group with the aim of toppling Bashar al-Assad.

The triangle of Khaddam-Abdullah-Hariri is well-known in the region as their wives are sisters. Khaddam's entire family enjoys Saudi citizenship and the value investment by his sons, Jamal and Jihad, in Saudi Arabia is estimated at more than USD 3 billion.



Therefore, with the start of popular protests in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen and Bahrain, the Saudi regime saw an opportunity to drive a wedge between Tehran, Damascus and Beirut axis.

Due to the direct influence of the Saudi Wahhabis on Syria's Muslim Brotherhood, the people of the cities of Daraa and Homs, following Saudi incitement and using popular demands as an excuse began resorting to violence.

It is reported that the United States, Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia formed joint operational headquarters in the Saudi Embassy in Belgium to direct the riots in southern Syria. Abdul Halim Khaddam, who held the highest political, executive and information posts in the Syrian government for more than 30 years, is said to have been transferred from Paris to Belgium to direct the unrest.

The reason for this was that based on French law, political asylum seekers cannot work against their countries of origin in France and therefore Khaddam was transferred to Brussels to guide the riots.
Jordan equipped the Muslim Brotherhood in the two cities with logistical facilities and personal weapons.

Although, Bashar al-Assad promised implementation of fundamental changes and reforms after the bloody riot in the country, the Brotherhood followed continued to incite protesters against him.

The Syrian state television recently broadcast footage of armed activity in the border city of Daraa by a guerilla group, which opened fire on the people and government forces. It is said that the group, which is affiliated to Salafi movements, obtained its weapons from Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

Because Syria's ruling party is from the Alevi tribes associated with the Shias, the Brotherhood, due to its anti-Shia ideas, has tried for three decades to topple the Alevi establishment of the country.
Hence, the recent riots in Syria are not just rooted in popular demands and harbor a tribal aspect and Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the US are directing the unrest for their future purposes.

In the eyes of these three, the removal of Syria's Alevi government would cause the Tehran-Damascus-Beirut axis to collapse and would be followed by the gradual weakening and elimination of Lebanon's resistance.

Therefore suadi and US efforts to topple Assad's government are taking place with the aim of eliminating the last anti-Zionism resistance front.

This is while, considering the Syrian government's experience in resolving difficult crises, it is unlikely that Saudi Arabia and Jordan will succeed in weakening or toppling the Syrian ruling system.



===

Armed groups kill 19 policemen in Deraa
08 Apr 2011 17:51

Source: reuters // Reuters


BEIRUT, April 8 (Reuters) - Armed groups killed 19 policemen in Syria's southern city of Deraa on Friday, state television said.

Earlier, activists and residents said at least 17 people were killed when security forces opened fire on thousands of pro-democracy protesters in the city.


===

Thousands call for freedom in Syria, 3 killed in unrest
01 Apr 2011 23:33

Source: reuters // Reuters


A pro-government demonstrator holds up a placard during a rally at the central bank square in Damascus March 29, 2011. REUTERS/Wael Hmedan
* Protests in Damascus, Homs, Latakia and Banias

* Army maintains presence around Deraa

* Critics dismiss Assad's limited steps towards reform

* Syrian news agency acknowledges pro-reform gatherings

(Adds details, human rights spokesman, Deraa protests)

DAMASCUS, April 1 (Reuters) - Syrian security forces killed at least three protesters in a Damascus suburb on Friday, witnesses said, as thousands turned out in pro-democracy marches despite a reform gesture by President Bashar al-Assad.

Activists said Syrians took to the streets after Friday prayers in the capital Damascus, Homs to the north of the capital, Banias on the coast, Latakia port and the southern city of Deraa, where the unprecedented protests challenging Assad's 11 years in power began in March.

Witnesses in the Damascus suburb of Douma said the three killed were among at least 2,000 people who chanted "Freedom. Freedom. One, one, one. The Syrian people are one," when police opened fire to disperse them from Municipality Square.

A photo distributed by one activist showed protesters pelting police forces with stones in Douma, which links Damascus with the northern countryside.

An official source said via state news agency SANA "armed groups" had positioned themselves on rooftops and opened fire on citizens and security forces gathered in Douma, killing and wounding dozens.

SANA said a group had also opened fire on a gathering in the Bayyada district of the western city of Homs, killing a girl, adding soldiers had also come under fire in Deraa.

<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ More on Middle East unrest: [nTOPMEAST] [nLDE71O2CH] For an analysis on Syria, click on [ID:nLDE72U13N] ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>

In his first public appearance since the demonstrations began, Assad declined on Wednesday to spell out any reforms, especially the lifting of a 48-year-old emergency law that has been used to stifle opposition and justify arbitrary arrests.

"There is no confidence. President Assad talks about reform and does nothing," said Montaha al-Atrash, board member of the independent Syrian human rights organisation Sawasiah.


SYRIA ACKNOWLEDGES "GATHERINGS"

In Deraa, thousands of people gathered at Serail Square, chanting slogans denouncing hints by Assad's to replace emergency law with anti-terrorism legislation and describing rich relatives of the president as "thieves".

Music played from loudspeakers, including the song "Where are the millions?" by Lebanese singer Julia Boutrous. Secret police and regular police forces kept their distance but the army maintained heavy presence around Deraa, including tanks. A Reuters witness saw two tanks positioned near Deraa.

Assad, who became president after his father Hafez al-Assad died in 2000, had predicted the popular revolts seen in Tunisia and Egypt would not spread to Syria, saying the ruling hierarchy was "very closely linked to the beliefs of the people".

But for the past two weeks thousands of Syrians have turned out demanding greater freedoms in the tightly controlled Arab state, posing the gravest challenge to almost 50 years of monolithic Baath Party rule.

More than 60 people have been killed in the unrest, which could have wider repercussions since Syria has an anti-Israel alliance with Iran and supports militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.

SANA news agency acknowledged for the first time on Friday that worshippers in Deraa and Latakia, scene of protests and deadly clashes last week, had gathered after Friday prayers to call for accelerated reforms.

It had earlier reported calm across the country, adding there had been peaceful calls for reform and several gatherings supporting "national unity and ... stability".

"A number of worshippers left some mosques in the cities of Deraa and Latakia, chanting slogans in honour of the martyr and calling for speeding up measures for reform ... There were no clashes between worshippers and security forces in these gatherings," it said.

A witness told Reuters security forces and Assad loyalists attacked about 200 worshippers with batons as they marched outside the Refaie mosque in the Kfar Sousseh district of Damascus, chanting slogans in support of the Deraa protesters.

At least six protesters were arrested, the witness told Reuters by telephone from the mosque complex. One man was injured in a protest in the Damascus suburb of Daraya.

Online democracy activists had called for protests across Syria on "Martyrs' Friday", after Assad gave no clear commitment to meet demands for greater freedoms and said Syria was the target of a "big conspiracy".


INVESTIGATING DEATHS

Government-appointed preachers denounced "acts of turmoil" which they said had been "provoked from the outside and had targeted the nation's security".

On Thursday Assad ordered the creation of a panel that would draft anti-terrorism legislation to replace emergency law, a move critics have dismissed, saying they expect the new legislation will give the state much of the same powers.

Assad also ordered an investigation into the deaths of civilians and security forces in Deraa and in Latakia, where clashes that authorities blamed on "armed gangs" occurred last week, killing 12 people, according to officials.

The Syrian News Agency earlier said security forces had arrested two armed groups that opened fire and attacked citizens in a Damascus suburb.

Assad also formed a panel to "solve the problem of the 1962 census" in the eastern region of al-Hasaka. The census resulted in 150,000 Kurds who now live in Syria being denied nationality.

Two American citizens who had been detained in Syria have been released, the U.S. State Department said on Friday, without giving more details.

Media operate in Syria under severe restrictions. Syria expelled Reuters' Damascus correspondent last week. One foreign journalist was released by authorities on Friday, three days after he had been detained, while a Syrian Reuters photographer remains missing since Monday. Two other foreign Reuters journalists were also expelled. (Reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis and Suleiman al-Khalidi in Amman; writing by Yara Bayoumy; editing by Andrew Roche)


=======
26 Mar 2011 19:40

Source: reuters // Reuters


(Adds details, background)

AMMAN, March 26 (Reuters) - Syria is the target of a "project to sow sectarian strife", an adviser to President Bashar al-Assad said on Saturday.

"It is obvious Syria is the target of a project to sow sectarian strife to compromise Syria and the unique co-existence model that distinguishes it," Bouthaina Shaaban was quoted as saying by SANA, the state's official news agency.

Majority Sunni Muslim Syria is ruled by the Assad family of the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam. The Alawites are facing the biggest challenge to their rule after protests spread beyond the southern city of Deraa.

The protests have mostly stuck to nationalist slogans.

Protesters in Deraa on Saturday were chanting slogans calling for the overthrow of the regime, the same chant heard in uprisings in other Arab countries.

Analysts have said much now depended on whether the Sunni elite continues to back the Alawite-led military-security apparatus or whether they switch their support to the protests. (Reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman; editing by Yara Bayoumy in Beirut)

===

Six dead in port city as Syrian crisis grows

26 Mar 2011 23:06

Source: reuters // Reuters


Protesters gather near Deraa Governor Faysal Kalthoum's residence that was set on fire by protesters in the southern Syrian city of Deraa, in this picture taken with a mobile phone March 25, 2011. REUTERS/via Your View

DERAA, Syria, March 26 (Reuters) - Syrian security forces have killed six people in two days of anti-government protests in the key port city of Latakia, reformist activists living abroad told Reuters on Saturday.

President Bashar al-Assad, facing his deepest crisis in 11 years in power after security forces fired on protesters on Friday in the southern town of Deraa, freed 260 prisoners in an apparent bid to placate a swelling protest movement.

But the reports from Latakia, a security hub in the northwest, suggested unrest was still spreading.

There were reports of more than 20 deaths in protests on Friday, mainly in the south, and medical officials say dozens have now been killed over the past week around Deraa alone.

Such demonstrations would have been unthinkable a couple of months ago in this most tightly controlled of Arab countries.

Bouthaina Shaaban, a senior adviser to Assad, told the official news agency that Syria was "the target of a project to sow sectarian strife to compromise Syria and (its) unique coexistence model".

Syrian rights activist Ammar Qurabi told Reuters in Cairo: "There have been at least two killed (in Latakia) today after security forces opened fire on protesters trying to torch the Baath party building."

"I have been in touch with people in Syria since last night, using three cell phones and constantly sitting online. Events are moving at an extremely fast pace."

Exiled dissident Maamoun al-Homsi told Reuters by telephone from Canada: "I have the name of four martyrs who have fallen in Latakia yesterday."

The state news agency quoted a government source as saying security forces had not fired at protesters but that an armed group had taken over rooftops and fired on citizens and security forces, killing five people since Friday.

In Damascus and other cities, thousands of Assad's supporters marched or and drove around, waving flags, to proclaim their allegiance to the Baath party.



GRAFFITI

The unrest in Syria came to a head after police detained more than a dozen schoolchildren for scrawling graffiti inspired by pro-democracy protests across the Arab world.

President Assad made a public pledge on Thursday to look into granting greater freedom and lifting emergency laws dating back to 1963, but failed to dampen the protests.

On Saturday a human rights lawyer said 260 prisoners, mostly Islamists, had been freed after serving at least three-quarters of their sentences.

Amnesty International put the death toll in and around Deraa in the past week at 55 at least. In Sanamein, near Deraa, 20 protesters were shot dead on Friday, a resident told Al Jazeera.

One unidentified doctor told CNN television that snipers had been shooting people in Deraa from atop government buildings.

"We had 30 people got shot in the head and the neck and we had hundreds of people got wounded," he said.

"We put two wounded in an ambulance sending them to the hospital. We had security forces stop the ambulances, get the wounded outside the ambulance and shoot them, and said: 'Now you can take them to the hospital'."

Some of the dead protesters were buried on Saturday in Deraa and nearby villages, residents said.

Several thousand mourners prayed over the body of 13-year-old Seeta al-Akrad in Deraa's Omari mosque, scene of an attack by security forces earlier in the week.

Police were not in evidence when they marched to a cemetery chanting: "The people want the downfall of the regime", a refrain heard in uprisings from Tunisia to Egypt and Yemen.

Emboldened by the lack of security presence, the mourners also chanted: "Strike, strike, until the regime falls!"

Abu Jassem, a Deraa resident, said: "We were under a lot of pressure from the oppressive authority, but now when you pass by (the security forces), nobody utters a word. They don't dare talk to the people. The people have no fear any more."



ALAWITES

In nearby Tafas, mourners in the funeral procession of Kamal Baradan, killed on Friday in Deraa, set fire to Baath party offices and the police station, residents said.

There were also protests on Friday in Damascus and in Hama, a northern city where in 1982 the forces of president Hafez al-Assad, Bashar's father, killed thousands of people and razed much of the old quarter to put down an armed uprising by the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood.

Syria's establishment is dominated by members of the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, a fact that causes resentment among the Sunni Muslims who make up some three-quarters of the population. Latakia is mostly Sunni Muslim but has significant numbers of Alawites.

Edward Walker, a former U.S. ambassador to Egypt, said sectarian friction made many in the establishment wary of giving ground to demands for political freedoms and economic reforms.

"They are a basically reviled minority(To assail with abusive language;), the Alawites, and if they lose power, if they succumb to popular revolution, they will be hanging from the lamp posts," he said.

"They have absolutely no incentive to back off."

EXISTENTIAL STRUGGLE

Asked if there could be a crackdown on the scale of Hama, Faysal Itani, deputy head of Middle East and North Africa Forecasting at Exclusive Analysis, said this was a "real risk".

"For a minority regime this is an existential struggle," he said. "If the unrest continues at this pace, the Syrian army is not going to be able to maintain cohesion."

Many believed a tipping point had been reached.

"The Syrian regime is attempting to make promises such as a potential lifting of the state of emergency, which has been in place since 1963, a record in the Arab world," Bitar said.

"But if this happens it will be the end of a whole system, prisoners will have to be released, the press will be free ... when this kind of regime considers relaxing its grip, it also knows that everything could collapse."

Central Bank Governor Adeeb Mayaleh said the central bank was ready to supply the market with foreign currency liquidity, hinting at rising demand for U.S. dollars.

Syria has a close alliance with Iran and links to the Palestinian Islamist militant group Hamas and the Lebanese Shi'ite political and military group Hezbollah.Its allies in the region have yet to comment on the unrest.

"Syria is Iran's main ally in the Arab world. A fall of the regime would have consequences for Hezbollah and Hamas ... I'm not sure that the region's big powers would allow such a big shock," said Karim Emile Bitar, research fellow at the Institute for International and Strategic Relations in Paris.

Syrian border police were stopping a number of Syrians entering from Lebanon, a Lebanese security source said. (Reporting by a Reuters correspondent in Deraa, Yara Bayoumy in Beirut, Arshad Mohammed in Washington, Lionel Laurent in Paris, William Maclean in London; Dina Zayed in Cairo; Writing by Peter Millership and Kevin Liffey; editing by Ralph Boulton)

==

In Syria, protests follow funeralSat Mar 26, 2011 4:7PM
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Syrian protesters march in the southern town of Daraa, on March 21, 2011. Getty ImagesHundreds of Syrian protesters have gathered in Daraa's main square following a funeral procession for a demonstrator from the village of Tafas who was killed during a government crackdown.


The funeral was held for Kamal Baradan, killed on Friday during demonstrations, Reuters reported.

Mourners in Tafas, who numbered in thousands, reportedly torched the ruling Baath party's headquarters and a police station on Saturday.

Witnesses said young men in Daraa had climbed onto the ruins of the statue of the president's father, the late President Hafez al-Assad.

More than 1,000 people are holding a silent sit-in the Al Omari mosque, which was retaken by protesters from government forces on Friday.

Amnesty International reported at least 55 have been killed in and around Daraa. Seventeen protesters were shot dead as they attempted to travel to Daraa from the village of Sanamen on Friday. On Wednesday, unknown gunmen opened fire on peaceful demonstrators, killing at least five.

Meanwhile, President Bashar al-Assad's government has announced the release of 260 detained activists. The government also announced the withdrawal of troops from Daraa.

The southern city Daraa -- located close to Jordan's border -- has emerged as the center of Syria's unrest and the scene of demonstrations for the past week. Unrest in the area was reportedly triggered by the arrest of young students for spraying graffiti last week.

Earlier on Thursday, Syrian authorities publicized a string of reforms in response to the protests, including the possible end to the emergency rule set in place since 1963.

Syrian activists say they will continue to push for more civil liberties and an end to corruption.


====

FACTBOX-Syrian President Bashar al-Assad
23 Apr 2011 11:18

Source: reuters // Reuters


April 23 (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, 45, faces the gravest crisis in his 11-year rule as anti-government protests sweep across the country, calling for political freedom and an end to corruption.

Activists say more than 300 people have died in violence since the unrest broke out on March 18 in the southern city of Deraa.

The protests have spiralled despite Assad's decision this week to lift the country's emergency law, in place since his Baath Party seized power 48 years ago.

Here are some key facts about Assad:

* ASSAD AS PRESIDENT:

-- The world welcomed the British-trained eye doctor in 2000 as a potential pioneer of reform in autocratic Syria.
-- The soft-spoken Bashar took office after the death of his formidable father Hafez al-Assad, who brooked no dissent and refused to bend in the Arab-Israeli conflict for 30 years.

-- Assad did appoint a cabinet at the end of 2001 packed with Western-trained technocrats in economic portfolios charged with developing a modern financial system to draw foreign investors.

-- The most visible result was a swathe of legislation to ease financial restrictions and establish private banks.

-- In 2003, Assad reshuffled the cabinet citing disappointment with the pace of reform. He made more changes in 2004.

-- In 2007 Assad won a referendum that gave him a second seven-year term as president. The poll was considered by opponents, critics and the United States to be a sham.

-- He has said he is willing to resume peace talks with Israel, insisting on a full Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights occupied in 1967, while continuing to position Syria as a self declared champion of Arab resistance to the Jewish state.

-- Under Assad, Syria has been Iran's closest Arab ally, a major force in Lebanon, and a supporter of Palestinian and Lebanese militant groups.

-- The Baath Party, which seized power nearly 50 years ago, has governed under emergency laws and banned all opposition. Other grievances against authorities include the dominance of Assad's minority Alawites over the Sunni Muslim majority, corruption, economic hardship and a rising cost of living.

* HARIRI KILLING IN LEBANON:

-- Since 2005, when Washington withdrew its ambassador to Damascus after the assassination of Lebanese statesman Rafik al-Hariri, Assad has engineered a rapprochement with the West but maintained a hard line against criticism at home.

-- The United States resumed full diplomatic relations with Syria last January. However, tensions have grown again over neighbouring Lebanon, where Damascus ally Hezbollah has gained the upper hand in a political crisis.
-- Assad has always insisted that Damascus had no role in the blast which killed Hariri, but was forced to withdraw Syrian troops from Lebanon in April 2005 under intense global and Lebanese pressure.

-- Hezbollah-backed Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati is trying to form a government after the Shiite group and its allies toppled Saad al-Hariri over his refusal to cut links with a U.N.-backed court investigating the killing of his father.
-- Assad has called for a national unity government in Lebanon, warning that "if you have one side taking over the other side, this means a conflict" which may lead to civil war.

-- Assad has said Lebanon's government should reject any tribunal indictment. The tribunal issued a still-secret indictment in January 2011 which is expected to accuse Hezbollah members of involvement in the killing. Hezbollah has denied any role and says Mikati's new government must end funding and withdraw Lebanese judges from the court.

* LIFE DETAILS: -- Bashar al-Assad, born in the Syrian capital, Damascus, in September 1965, studied medicine at the University of Damascus and graduated as a general practitioner in 1988.

-- He then trained to become an ophthalmologist at a Damascus military hospital and in 1992 moved to London to continue his studies.

-- In 1994 his older brother, Basil, who had been designated his father's heir apparent, was killed in a car crash, and Bashar returned to Syria to take his brother's place.

Sources: Reuters/britannica.com (Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)

========

Bassel al-Assad (Arabic: باسل الأسد‎, Bāssel al-Assad) (March 23, 1962 – January 21, 1994) was a son of Syrian President Hafez al-Assad.

Biography
From a young age, Basil was groomed to fill the role of President by his father. He was chief of presidential security while running a highly publicized anti-corruption campaign within the regime, and frequently appeared in full military uniform at official receptions, signalling the regime's commitment to the armed forces. He also had a reputation for being an aficionado of fast cars.

In January 1994, driving his own Mercedes at high speed through fog to Damascus International Airport in the small hours of the morning, Basil is said to have collided with a motorway roundabout and died instantly.[1] There has been occasional speculation[by whom?] that his death may have been a murder cover-up, but this has not been suggested by the Syrian government and no evidence in support of such a theory has, as far is known, been presented elsewhere.

His death led to his lesser-known brother Bashar al-Assad, then undertaking sub-speciality training in ophthalmology in London, assuming the mantle of President-in-waiting. Bashar became President upon the death of Hafez on June 10, 2000.

The state-run Syrian media sometimes refers to him as "Basil the Martyr" (Arabic: الشهيد باسل‎, Bāsil), and numerous squares and streets have been named after him. His statue is found in several Syrian cities, and even after his death he is often pictured at billboards with his father and brother. He is buried in Qardaha, his father's village of birth, in a large mausoleum, where Hafez al-Assad was laid to rest beside him in 2000.

He was a popular sportsman and horse riding champion, winning several tournaments in shooting and equestrian, including the gold medal of the Latakia Mediterranean Games in 1987. The International Fair Play Committee awarded him the Diploma of Attitude in 1991.

References
↑ Schmidt, William E. (January 22, 1994). "Assad's Son Killed in Auto Crash". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1994/01/22/world/assad-s-son-killed-in-an-auto-crash.html.

===

Qardaha (Arabic: قرداحة‎) is a village in northwestern Syria, in the mountains overlooking the coastal town of Latakia.
It is mainly an Alawite town and the traditional home of the Assad family, that has ruled Syria since 1970. During the reign of Hafez al-Assad 1970-2000 the government poured massive investments into Qaradaha, Lattakia and the surrounding region. Today, this is evident already before entering Qardaha, as the broad Syrian coastal highway makes an inexplicable pass into the mountains just to reach Qardaha. Qardaha has a lot of luxurious villas.

Qardaha has so many Villages belongs to it such as A'aen al A'aros, Debash, Kabo, Bistan al basha, and Bhmra. Major families in Qardaha: Al-Assad, Al khayer, Othman, Shalish, Ismail, Jabbour, Nassif, Hatem, Suleiman, Deeb, Kina'an, Makhlouf, Aslan, Jarkas. A major statue of Hafez al-Assad is found in the town center, and a huge mausoleum containing the graves of Basil al-Assad and Hafez al-Assad is also located there. Hasan Alkhayer was also born in Qardaha.

The Aramaic meaning of Qardaha is the first village. The name of Qardaha is Phoenician and means "the place that manufactures, and sharpens the weapons".
All the villages and places in Alawite Mountains named in Phoenician language. People of the Qardaha and all the Alawite mountains are called by other syrians "The Germans" because of their looks.
It is said among the Circassian people of Syria that the town of Qardaha was actually founded by Circassian people during the time of the Mameluke warrior Sultan Kanchow Al Ghouri. Evidence for this can be seen by the large number of Circassians that live in the town and the entire Alawite Mountain region. There is even a street named Cherkess Street as well as a large family of the same name.Qardaha in the Circassian language means "Welcome".

================

Circassians A term that includes several groups linked by language and culture.

Circassian refers to indigenous peoples of the northwestern Caucasus who are found today as minority communities in Turkey, Syria, Jordan, Israel, and Egypt. The term encompasses several groups linked by language and culture who refer to themselves in their own languages by different ethnonyms; primary among them are the Adyge, Abaza, and Ubykh. The terms Circassian (English), Çerkes (Turkish), Cherkess (Russian), and Sharkass (Arabic) are used by outsiders loosely to include various north Caucasian peoples. In addition to the Russian Federation and the Middle Eastern countries mentioned above, migrations since the 1960s have led to a Circassian presence in Western Europe and the United States. One can thus speak of a widely dispersed Circassian diaspora that is linked through kinship, intermarriage, trans-national social and political organizations, and cultural flows.
Alawi are considered more European than other Syrian tribes, and therefore were chosen by the French, to negotiate with d...uring the colonial period. From an integrational point of view, it would make sense, to have a sect that was closer even in religious beliefs to the European values in order to deal with the French colonialists and those that followed them in the modern era, it's just a shame that the Alawis have been so brutal against the rest of the population as part of their reign using 'terror' and allying with the CIA using torture against the population and those sent to them on rendition flights the same as was seen in Egypt leading to the uprising there.

===

FACTBOX-Key political risks to watch in Syria

03 May 2011 16:59

Source: reuters // Reuters

By Alistair Lyon, Special Correspondent

BEIRUT, May 3 (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who had boasted his country was immune to the unrest lashing the Arab world's autocrats, is now fighting for political survival.

The 45-year-old leader has tried economic carrots, political concessions and brute force -- including tank fire in the southern town of Deraa -- to try to quell an upheaval that rights groups say has cost at least 560 lives since mid-March.

The authorities contest the toll, saying on April 29 that 78 members of the security forces and 70 civilians had been killed.

Syria, mired in its gravest crisis since Assad's father crushed an armed Islamist revolt in 1982, risks international opprobrium(Disgrace arising from exceedingly shameful conduct; ignominy.
) and sanctions for its repressive response. The Assad family's grip on power looks at its shakiest in 30 years.

Instability in Syria, fulcrum of several Middle Eastern conflicts, carries huge but as yet uncertain implications for its neighbours, notably Lebanon and Israel, and for the region.

Here are some of the key risks to watch.

CHALLENGE TO ASSAD RULE

What sparked the revolt was the arrest of 15 youngsters for scrawling anti-government slogans in Deraa, where the first three deaths occurred on March 18.

Protests gradually spread across Syria as people demanded freedom from three decades of Baath Party rule, against a background of grievances over economic hardship and corruption.

Assad, portraying unrest as the work of armed gangs paid by malign powers, replaced his government and coughed up a series of concessions that did not mollify protesters increasingly enraged by the bloodshed inflicted by security forces.

Their initial chants for reform soon gave way to the battle cry of Arab uprisings that had already unseated the rulers of Egypt and Tunisia: "The people want the downfall of the regime."

On April 21 Assad ended 48 years of emergency law and scrapped a hated state security court, but the killing of 100 protesters the next day seemed to make these moves a mockery.

Similarly, limited prisoner releases were counterbalanced by the detention of hundreds of other dissenters and protesters.

Economic handouts and job creation promises failed to calm the resentment of many Syrians who believe only a small group of crony capitalists has benefited from Assad's reforms, ostensibly aimed at overhauling an inefficient socialist-style economy.

So far the armed forces and security services, many of whose commanders belong to Assad's family and his minority Alawite community, appear to have remained loyal -- unlike in Egypt and Tunisia where the military helped usher presidents from power.

Assad's ousting is no foregone conclusion. His opponents may they have breached the barrier of fear that has long underpinned Baathist rule, but ruthless repression could re-erect it.

The president can also play the "me-or-chaos" card which resonates with many Syrians. Some fear that militant Islamists could fill any power vacuum, others that civil war might engulf their country, as in next-door Lebanon and Iraq in the past.

* What to watch

-- Any signs of mutiny among the army and security forces

-- Any signs of protesters taking up arms

PARIAH STATUS?

The United States has condemned Assad's use of force -- he sent army tanks into Deraa and two suburbs of Damascus on April 25 -- but Western nations which launched air strikes on Muammar Gaddafi's Libya have not acted against the Syrian leader.

The Arab League, which swiftly suspended Libya's membership over Gaddafi's efforts to quell opposition, has remained silent on Syria, although it issued a blanket condemnation on April 26 of the use of force against pro-democracy Arab protesters.

Western criticism of Assad's crackdown was initially muted, partly because of fears that a collapse of his Alawite rule might lead to sectarian conflict with the Sunni majority or bring to power Islamist militants hostile to Israel.

The United States, which had sought to isolate Syria after the 2005 assassination of Lebanese statesman Rafik al-Hariri, has more recently tried to engage it, hoping to loosen its alliance with Iran and move it towards a peace deal with Israel.

Neither policy proved very successful.

Israel is in two minds. The removal of Assad, a foe who is allied with Iran and backs Lebanon's Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad, would seem a bonus. Yet Assad and his father have kept the border mostly quiet since the 1973 war, even though Israel still occupies Syria's Golan Heights.

No country has much leverage over Syria. Even Turkey, which has developed close links with Damascus in the last few years, has seen Assad ignore its advice to enact reforms.

The United States has kept sanctions on Syria since 2004 and added new ones against Assad's brother and cousin, as well as the General Intelligence Directorate and its chief, on April 29, but stopped short of targeting the Syrian president. The European Union has agreed in principle to enforce an arms embargo on Syria. The U.N. Human Rights Council condemned Syria on April 29 for using deadly force against protesters, but China, Russia and Lebanon had earlier blocked a European push for the U.N. Security Council to do likewise.

Iran could be a big loser if Assad's rule collapses because Syria, its main Arab ally since 1980, has facilitated Tehran's efforts to build a Middle Eastern "axis of resistance" to Israel and the United States via Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

Lebanon, Iraq and other countries will worry that any ethnic or sectarian conflict in a destabilised Syria could spill across their borders, whipping up regional tensions between Arabs and Kurds, Christians and Muslims, or Sunnis and Shi'ites.

What to watch:

* Western moves to impose or tighten sanctions

* Any Arab League position on Syria

ECONOMIC FALLOUT

The turmoil will hit an economy grappling with unemployment, poverty, and water and power shortages, along with falling oil output and rapid population growth of 2.5 percent a year.

The International Monetary Fund said on April 27 Syria was set for 3 percent growth in 2011 versus 3.2 percent in 2010, with inflation reaching 6 percent against 4.4 percent last year and the fiscal deficit widening to 6.8 percent of GDP from 4.8.

The unrest has ravaged the tourism industry, one of Syria's fastest-growing sectors, and may scare off foreign investors -- Syria has delayed bidding for its third mobile operator licence, Saudi Telecom <7010.SE>, one of the bidders, said on April 27.

A government goal of luring more than $40 billion in private investment to overhaul creaking infrastructure and create jobs over five years had looked implausible even before the protests, given corruption levels and uncertainty about the rule of law.

Foreign direct investment fell to $1.4 billion in 2009 from $2.4 billion in 2008, according to the World Bank.

Syria, now a net oil importer, needs to invest in refineries to cut fuel import costs in a country that produces 380,000 barrels per day of crude, down from a 590,000 bpd peak in 1996.

Despite fiscal strains, Syria has opened the spending taps to try to calm discontent, cutting taxes on some foods, giving cash to poor families, reducing income tax, raising the minimum wage and extending health cover to civil service pensioners -- measures the IMF says will cost about 2 percent of GDP.

Unemployment is officially 10 percent. Independent estimates say it is closer to 25 percent. The International Labour Organisation says 60 percent of those aged 15 to 24 lack jobs.

Tougher international sanctions would inflict more economic pain -- without necessarily swaying Syrian policy-makers.

U.S. sanctions bar the export of certain goods with over 10 percent of U.S.-produced components, restrict dealings with the Commercial Bank of Syria and ban the U.S. financial system from dealing with individuals linked to militant groups.

Any punitive measures by the European Union, which accounted for 36 percent of Syria's exports and 29 percent of its imports in 2008, would probably target Syrian leaders, not trade.

What to watch:

* Impact on foreign investment, trade, tourism

* Worsening budget deficit, pressure on Syrian pound

====


U.S. slaps sanctions on Syrian president, top aides

18 May 2011 17:01

Source: reuters // Reuters
SYflag510

By Arshad Mohammed and Andrew Quinn

WASHINGTON, May 18 (Reuters) - The United States imposed sanctions on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and six other top aides for human rights abuses on Wednesday in a dramatic escalation of pressure on Syria to cease its brutal crackdown on protesters.

Targeting Assad personally with sanctions, which the United States and European Union have so far avoided, is a significant slap at Damascus and raises questions about whether Washington and the West may ultimately seek Assad's removal from power.

Syrian activists say at least 700 civilians have been killed in two months of clashes between government forces and protesters seeking an end to his 11-year rule. The protests in Syria began after demonstrations toppled authoritarian leaders in Tunisia and Egypt.

The move, announced by the Treasury Department, freezes any assets of the Syrian officials that are in the United States or otherwise fall within U.S. jurisdiction and it generally bars U.S. individuals and companies from dealing with them.

In addition to Assad, the Treasury said the sanctions would target Vice President Farouq al-Shara, Prime Minister Adel Safar, Interior Minister Mohammad Ibrahim al-Shaar, Defense Minister Ali Habib as well as Abdul Fatah Qudsiya, the head of Syrian military intelligence, and Mohammed Dib Zaitoun, director of the political security directorate.

While it was not immediately clear what practical effect the sanctions would have or whether the seven had significant assets that would be captured by the U.S. move, the symbolic gesture was profound.

"The actions the administration has taken today send an unequivocal message to President Assad, the Syrian leadership, and regime insiders that they will be held accountable for the ongoing violence and repression in Syria," said Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David S. Cohen said in a written statement.

"President al-Assad and his regime must immediately end the use of violence, answer the calls of the Syrian people for a more representative government, and embark upon the path of meaningful democratic reform," he added.

European governments agreed on Tuesday to tighten sanctions against the Syrian leadership, but said they would decide next week about whether to include Assad on the list.

U.S. President Barack Obama last month signed an executive order imposing a first round of U.S. sanctions against Syria's intelligence agency and two relatives of Assad's for alleged human rights abuses.

The EU, for its part, put 13 Syrian officials on its sanctions list in what it described as a move to gradually increase pressure. (Reporting by Arshad Mohammed and Andrew Quinn, editing by Sandra Maler)

===

Syria under pressure as US slaps sanctions on Assad

19 May 2011 00:09

Source: reuters // Reuters

* Washington targets Assad with personal sanctions

* Growing pressure on Syria to stop violent crackdown

By Arshad Mohammed and Khaled Yacoub Oweis

WASHINGTON/AMMAN, May 19 (Reuters) - Syria was under growing pressure on Thursday to stop using military force against anti-government protesters after the United States slapped sanctions on President Bashar al-Assad over human rights violations.

Broadening its campaign against pro-democracy rallies, Syrian tanks have been shelling a border town for days in the latest attempt to crush a revolt against Assad's 11-year rule.

Western powers have condemned Assad's crackdown on two months of unrest which has killed at least 700 civilians, according to human rights groups.

Washington's decision to target Assad personally with sanctions raises the stakes in the conflict and poses questions about whether the West may ultimately seek his overthrow.

Leading Syrian opposition figure Haitham al-Maleh said the decision meant "members of the regime are now under siege".

"Any move by the international community may help the Syrian people in continuing their uprising," he told Reuters from Damascus.

<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ More on Middle East unrest: [nTOPMEAST] [ID:nLDE71O2CH] Middle East unrest graphics http://link.reuters.com/heh98r For interactive factbox http://link.reuters.com/puk87r For Syria graphic http://link.reuters.com/tew88r ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>

The Treasury Department said it would freeze any of the assets owned by Syrian officials in the United States or which fall within U.S. jurisdiction, and bar U.S. individuals and companies from dealing with them.

The sanctions list also includes Vice President Farouq al-Shara, Prime Minister Adel Safar, Interior Minister Mohammad Ibrahim al-Shaar, Defence Minister Ali Habib plus Abdul Fatah Qudsiya, head of Syrian military intelligence, and Mohammed Dib Zaitoun, director of the political security directorate.

"The actions the administration has taken today send an unequivocal message to President Assad, the Syrian leadership and regime insiders that they will be held accountable for the ongoing violence and repression in Syria," Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David S. Cohen said in a statement.

An EU diplomat said the European Union was expected to extend sanctions on Syria next week to include Assad as well. "What I detect from members states...is that there is a clear majority, if not now a consensus, for putting him on the list," the diplomat told Reuters. [ID:nLDE74H27M]

REFORMS

The unrest in Syria began two months ago when protesters, inspired by uprisings in other parts of the Arab world, took to the streets calling for greater freedoms. The crackdown by troops, security forces and irregular Assad loyalists led them to go further and demand an end to Assad's rule.

Syrian authorities blame most of the violence on armed groups backed by Islamists and outside powers who they say have killed more than 120 soldiers and police.

A senior U.S. official said the new sanctions were meant to force Assad to carry out promised political reforms.

"President Assad has a clear choice: either to lead this transition to democracy or to leave," the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters.

Switzerland said on Wednesday it would impose travel bans on 13 top Syrian officials -- but not Assad himself -- and freeze any of their assets held in Swiss banks, matching a decision by the EU last week.

Last month, Washington imposed a first round of sanctions on two relatives of Assad and the country's intelligence agency for alleged human rights abuses.

Syria has barred most international media from operating in the country, making it hard to verify reports from activists and officials.

On Saturday, Syrian troops went into Tel Kelakh -- a day after a demonstration there demanded "the overthrow of the regime", the slogan of revolutions that toppled Arab leaders in Egypt and Tunisia and challenged others across the Middle East.

"We're still without water, electricity or communications," a resident of Tel Kelakh said by satellite phone.

He said the army was storming houses and making arrests, but withdrawing from neighbourhoods after the raids. In a sign that the army was coming under fire in the town, he said some families "are resisting, preferring death to humiliation".

A witness on the Lebanese side of the border said heavy gunfire could be heard from nearby Tel Kelakh. (Additional reporting by Andrew Quinn in Washington, Nazih Siddiq in Wadi Khaled, Lebanon; writing by Maria Golovnina; Editing by Elizabeth Fullerton/David Stamp)

===

ANALYSIS-Syria brushes off sanctions over Assad crackdown

19 May 2011 15:27

Source: reuters // Reuters

* Syria says sanctions will have no impact

* Sanctions "may prolong protests but won't topple regime" * Govt has offered national dialogue, activists sceptical

By Dominic Evans

BEIRUT, May 19 (Reuters) - U.S. sanctions against Bashar al-Assad will not deter a defiant Syria from its campaign to crush protests and may come too late to give fresh impetus to a two-month wave of demonstrations calling for greater freedom.

Targeting the Syrian head of state directly for the first time, Washington imposed sanctions which freeze assets held by Assad, and a senior U.S. administration official said he faced a choice to lead "a transition to democracy or to leave".

But the steps were dismissed in Damascus by officials and Syrian analysts. State news agency SANA said the sanctions were an attack on the Syrian people on behalf of arch-foe Israel and vowed they would have no impact on "Syria's independent will".

The United States announced the largely symbolic steps on Wednesday to escalate pressure on Assad to end the crackdown in which rights groups say at least 700 civilians have been killed. <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ More on Middle East unrest: [nTOPMEAST] [ID:nLDE71O2CH] Middle East unrest graphics http://link.reuters.com/heh98r For interactive factbox http://link.reuters.com/puk87r For Syria graphic http://link.reuters.com/tew88r ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>

Assad, whose minority Alawite family has held power over majority Sunni Muslim Syria for four decades, faces the most serious challenge to his 11-year rule from the wave of protests which erupted in the southern city of Deraa on March 18.

It is not clear what assets would be blocked, but a U.S. official suggested the sanctions would be significant if they were matched in coming days by similar European Union steps.

"These sanctions are a formality, they will not affect Syria," said Syrian political analyst Imad Shuaibi, adding they also appeared aimed at prodding Europe into following suit.

Assad has sent tanks and soldiers into the main protest centres in a determined effort to crush opposition inspired by Arab uprisings which toppled leaders in Egypt and Tunisia.

Washington has condemned the repression as "barbaric", but Syria says it is battling armed, Islamist-backed groups that have killed 120 soldiers and police -- a battle it says it is winning.

"Sanctions against Syria's top government figures come at a time when the regime is gaining control over the protest movement and suppressing dissent," said Joshua Landis, associate professor of Middle East studies at Oklahoma University.

"The sanctions come too late to add momentum to the protest movement. They may prolong the movement but will not topple the regime," Landis wrote in his blog, Syria Comment.

CONDEMNATION

Before the unrest broke out, Western powers had been re-engaging with Assad after years of seeking to isolate him over Syria's backing of militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas and its alleged help for militants fighting U.S. forces in Iraq.

Some had hoped to loosen Syria's strong alliance with Iran, which Assad reinforced after taking power on his father's death in 2000, and encourage it to make peace with Israel which still occupies the Golan Heights seized from Syria in a 1967 war.

The United States and Europe have led the condemnation of Assad's crackdown, but he has also faced growing criticism from regional power Turkey, whose prime minister, Tayyip Erdogan, has dismissed Damascus' explanations for the violence.

But, in contrast to the international response to fighting in Libya, Syria faces little prospect of military intervention and Russia and China have made clear they oppose any action against Syria at the United Nations Security Council.

Hazem Saghieh, columnist with the pan-Arab newspaper al-Hayat, said protesters would take heart that the United States was increasing pressure on Assad but predicted the Syrian leader would step up the crackdown in response.

"I don't think Assad has the luxury to change," he said. "To change means to relinquish power and advantages ... I think he will escalate the repression".

Last week an adviser to Assad said Syria had "passed the most dangerous moment" of the uprising and a government minister promised a national dialogue across the country within days.

Activists gave a sceptical response, calling on authorities to release political prisoners, amend laws which give sweeping powers to security forces and guarantee free speech.

"The opposition is not against dialogue, but it must have a purpose, which is the transformation of Syria from a dictatorship into a democracy," said Walid al-Bunni, who has been jailed twice for calling for democracy in Syria.

PROMISE OF NATIONAL DIALOGUE

But Syrian academic Sami Moubayed said the government was unlikely to offer concessions while the unrest continued, and suggested a "truce" under which demonstrators called off protests to give authorities time to implement reform.

"The government will not make concessions so long as the street is in a frenzy and the security scene is chaotic," said Moubayed, editor-in-chief of Forward Magazine in Syria.

Nearly a week since the dialogue was promised, there have been no announcements about when it will actually take place, or who might be involved, and critics see it as a stalling tactic.

"They say they will launch national dialogue, but there are no grounds for this dialogue," said Hilal Khashan, a political scientist at the American University of Beirut.

"An authoritarian regime is incapable of reform."

A Damscus-based analyst said the government promise of talks ran counter to its "sweeping, chaotic and counterproductive repressive campaign" against protesters.

"The regime ... calls for a national dialogue while suppressing any possibility that credible interlocutors will emerge," said the analyst, who declined to be named.

"With this approach, it will be left with only the Muslim Brotherhood and local religious opinion leaders to deal with, although these are precisely the people it would rather marginalise." (Additional reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis)

====
May. 20, 2011 6:13 AM ET
Iraqis flee violence in Syria, return home
REBECCA SANTANAREBECCA SANTANA, Associated Press

BAGHDAD (AP) — It's easy to identify the Iraqis fleeing the violent uprising in Syria as they arrive by bus in Baghdad.

They're the ones carrying a sad array of worldly possessions: blankets and mattresses tied with cord; TVs and curtain rods; boxes once filled with food from the U.N.'s refugee agency now packed with clothes and baby toys.

"It is better to die in our own country than to die abroad," said Zeena Ibrahim, a 33-year-old pregnant mother of two.

She returned with her husband from Damascus, where they have lived since 2006. Her husband used to be in the Iraqi army, and after receiving repeated threats and attending funerals almost daily for fellow soldiers, the couple decided to flee to the safety of Syria.

Now that haven is gone. And as uprisings and revolutions sweep the Middle East, many Iraqis are beginning to return home.

It is a development that says just as much about the improving security in Iraq as it does about the deteriorating conditions in countries that used to be stable.

More than 850 people have been killed in Syria as the regime of President Bashar Assad has cracked down on a popular uprising that began in March. Although Iraq still has its share of bombings and shootings, it is nothing compared with 2006 or 2007, when bombings were a daily occurrence and death squads tortured people with electric drills.

"No doubt Iraq's situation now is better than the situation in several countries in the region and this has encouraged some Iraqis to return to their country and enjoy some peace," said Salam al-Khafaji, Iraq's deputy migration minister.

How many will come home remains to be seen and is likely dependent on just how bad things get in the region — especially in neighboring Syria, where many Iraqis had fled.

The movement is raising concern among Iraqis about how the newcomers will affect the country's economy and still shaky relations between Sunnis and Shiites.

Iraq has seen waves of outward migration beginning with the Iran-Iraq war in 1980 and continuing through the sanctions of the 1990s. There was a brief period after the U.S. invasion when Iraqis came home, but that quickly changed when the bombings and killings began.

The International Organization for Migration estimates that about 2 million Iraqis are in neighboring states. Some are in Jordan, but most live in Syria, which until 2008 allowed Iraqis to enter without visas.

Al-Khafaji said the ministry does not have numbers on people returning from Syria. But anecdotal evidence at the vacant lot where the buses arrive from Syria suggests the beginning of what could be an exodus if the situation there deteriorates further.

Buses pull in after the roughly 10-hour overnight journey from Damascus to Baghdad.

Before the uprising began, about 12-15 buses traveled between Baghdad and Damascus each day, said bus company owner Mohammed Nosh. Now about 25-30 buses make the daily trip, he said.

Mustafa Munaf of the al-Baqie travel agency said between 750 to 1,000 people have been traveling on his buses from Syria on a weekly basis since March, while only about 250 make the return journey. Many are men going to Syria to collect their wives and children who were sent there during the insurgency while they stayed in Iraq to work.

Other travel agencies said traffic from Baghdad to Syria had dropped 50 percent while return traffic was up 75 percent. Many send empty buses to Damascus to pick up passengers.

Some returning Iraqis report fighting in their neighborhoods in Syria, with police everywhere. Others describe how Iraqis are being targeted.

"The situation is very bad — killings and robberies," said Hassan Abdul-Hussein, a father of six who used to live in Damascus. He and his family left Iraq to find work nearly a year ago. "On the walls, they wrote in graffiti, 'Iraqis leave to your country.'"

According to the U.N.'s refugee agency, 3,040 people returned to Iraq in January, 3,250 in February and 4,570 in March. That's a jump from the 2,220 who returned home in December. With the exception of a jump in Christian families fleeing their homes after attacks on Christians, statistics from the IOM suggest few families are fleeing their Iraqi homes now.

Some are returning from Egypt, Libya and Yemen. Iraq's Migration Ministry says 2,250 have come back from Egypt since the protests began there in January. The government evacuated 383 people from Libya and 261 were evacuated from Yemen.

Al-Khafaji said Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki evacuated people on his personal jet from various countries, but he did not have those figures. Others have made their way back from Tunisia on their own, he said. He knew of only a few students who went back to Egypt to continue their studies.

Returnees are supposed to register with the ministry, but most go directly to family members who help them find a place to stay, meaning statistics are incomplete.

Salim Rahim moved his family of five to Libya in the 1990s when his wife found a job at a university. But after more than a decade in Tripoli and Misrata, they fled without even their children's stuffed animals. An ambulance driver helped them escape Misrata, and they eventually made it to Tunisia where the Iraqi government got them on a plane home.

"We left Misrata because life stopped there. Food prices doubled and tripled. There is no government there," said Salim Rahim. Their two cars were destroyed by shelling, and a tank round blew a hole in their apartment.

At one point, they were too scared to even talk by phone with family in Iraq because the Libyan government was showing TV footage of people arrested for allegedly speaking with foreign media.

Rahim's wife feared Moammar Gadhafi's Sunni government in Libya would discover her family was Shiite, so she stripped all their possessions of any mention of their beliefs.

Some have returned to Iraq for good, while others will wait to see what happens in the countries they left, especially in Syria, where events are still unfolding.

Shakir Mahmoud, 43, had been living in Damascus for almost four years after his house in Baghdad was blown up. He said he would wait in Iraq to see if the situation improves in Syria before deciding whether to return.

While the Iraqi security situation has improved dramatically, the economy has not. Many Iraqis abroad left jobs behind and have little prospect for finding a new one in a country where unemployment can sometimes go as high as 30 percent.

"I have no job, no salary, no house. I have nothing here," Mahmoud said.

Iraqi officials seem to be preparing for even more returnees. Government officials had visited Libya before the uprising to encourage Iraqis there to return home, saying their country needed doctors, lawyers and professors.

Iraq has given returning citizens 300,000 Iraqi dinars — about $250 — and there have been vague promises to find them government jobs and let students complete their degrees. So far, those promises have failed to materialize.

Many Iraqis who never left eye the returnees with mixed emotions. They say it's good for people to be back in their homeland, especially well-educated professionals.

But Iraqis also have held protests demanding change. They want more food rations and better government services such as electricity and water. They question how the government can take care of those who return when it cannot serve the roughly 31 million people already here.

Most Iraqis who went to Syria are believed to be Sunni, and the prospect of a large-scale Sunni return also raises concerns in a country still dealing with the legacy of sectarian violence.

"There are some immigrants who were active in provoking sectarian tensions," said Talal Mawlood, 29, of Baghdad. "Those kind of people, we don't want them back."

__

Associated Press writers Bushra Juhi in Baghdad and Sameer N. Yacoub in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report.

===


At least 30 dead after forces fire at crowd in Syria
By REUTERS
05/20/2011 23:13

Crowds come under fire in at least 2 protests in Homs; rights group says largest demonstration since uprising began being held in Banias.

AMMAN - Syrian security forces shot dead at least 30 demonstrators on Friday during protests that broke out across the country in defiance of a military crackdown which has killed hundreds of people, a rights activist said.

Other activists reported demonstrations across Syria, from Banias and Latakia on the Mediterranean coast to the oil producing region of Deir al-Zor, Qamishli in the Kurdish east and the Hauran Plain in the south, one day after the United States told President Bashar al-Assad to reform or step down.

RELATED:
Assad: Security forces made mistakes during uprising
New anti-Syria measures threatened over crackdown

Syria has barred most international media since the protests broke out two months ago, making it impossible to verify independently accounts from activists and officials.

"No dialogue with tanks," said banners carried by Kurdish protesters who shouted "azadi", the Kurdish word for freedom, rejecting promises by the authorities for a national dialogue, a witness said.

Protests erupted in Damascus suburbs and the capital's Barzeh district, where two witnesses said security forces fired at protesters and chased them in the streets.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is based in Britain, said at least 831 civilians had been killed since the uprising against autocratic rule erupted in the southern city of Deraa nine weeks ago. It said at least 10,000 people had been arrested, including hundreds across Syria on Friday. Some protesters were calling for freedom, activists said, while others called for "the overthrow of the regime", the slogan of uprisings which toppled leaders in Egypt and Tunisia.


=====


Syria forces killed 70 protesters Friday-activists

04 Jun 2011 19:02

Source: reuters // Reuters
protestsyria

EDITOR'S NOTE: REUTERS IS UNABLE TO INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE CONTENT OF THE VIDEO FROM WHICH THIS STILL IMAGE WAS TAKEN. People follow a vehicle carrying a coffin during a mass funeral for people killed in the latest crackdown on protests in Homs, in this still image taken from video uploaded on a social media website May 21, 2011. REUTERS/Social Media Website via Reuters TV

* Activists say biggest protests took place in Hama, Idlib * Some activists say the death toll could top 100

* Businesses in Hama closed on Saturday

(Adds Clinton on Internet closure paragraphs 16-17)

By Mariam Karouny

BEIRUT, June 4 (Reuters) - Syrian forces killed at least 70 protesters on Friday, activists said, one of the bloodiest days since the start of an 11-week revolt against the authoritarian rule of President Bashar al-Assad.

Tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets on Friday in defiance of security forces determined to crush the uprising, and some activists said the death toll could hit 100.

Rami Abdulrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said at least 60 people were killed in Hama, where Assad's father Hafez crushed an armed revolt 29 years ago by killing up to 30,000 people and razing parts of the city.

A political activist in Hama said tens of thousands of people were attending the funerals of dead protesters on Saturday, and that more protests were planned later in the day.

"Anger is very high in the city, people will never be silent or scared. The whole city is shut today and people are calling for a three-day strike," the activist, who gave his name as Omar, told Reuters by phone from the city.

"We expect protests after the evening prayers."

Residents and activists said that security forces and snipers fired at demonstrators who thronged Hama on Friday.

On top of the casualties there, Syrian human rights group Sawasiah said one person was killed in Damascus and two in the northwestern province of Idlib. Seven people were killed in the town of Rastan in central Syria, which has been under military assault and besieged by tanks since Sunday.

Rights groups say security forces have killed more than 1,000 civilians during the uprising, provoking international outrage at Assad's ruthless handling of the demonstrators.

Assad has tried brute force and political concessions, often simultaneously, to quell protests. The tactic has so far failed to stop the revolt against 41 years of rule by the Assad family, members of the minority Alawite sect in mainly Sunni Syria.

In Deraa, birthplace of the revolt, hundreds defied a military curfew and demonstrated on Friday, two residents said.

Syrian forces fired on demonstrations in the eastern city of Deir al-Zor and in Damascus' Barzeh district. Activists and residents said thousands marched in the northwestern province of Idlib, the Kurdish northeast, several Damascus suburbs, the city of Homs and the towns of Madaya and Zabadani in the west.

"It is worth noting that Hama and Idlib, where the biggest demonstrations occurred, used to be the stronghold of the Muslim Brotherhood," said one activist who declined to be named.

"The number of people who took to the streets could be a message from the (Muslim) Brotherhood to the regime that: "now we are taking part in the revolution in full weight"."

ACTIVIST FREED

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Washington was "deeply concerned" by reports that Internet service and some mobile phone networks had been shut down in much of Syria.

"We condemn any effort to suppress the Syrian people's exercise of their rights to free expression, assembly and association," she said in a statement. "Attempting to silence the population cannot prevent the transition currently taking place... the Syrian people will find a way to make their voices heard."

Syrian authorities released a prominent activist on Saturday who had been in jail since 2008, Abdulrahman said.

Ali Abdallah, in his 50s, had criticised Syria's ally Iran. He was a member of the Damascus Declaration, a rights movement named after a document calling for a democratic constitution and an end of the Baath Party's five-decade monopoly on power.

Syrian authorities blame the violence on armed groups backed by Islamists and foreign powers, and say the groups have fired on civilians and security forces alike. Authorities have prevented most international media from operating in Syria, making it impossible to verify accounts of the violence.

Activists say there have been some instances of citizens resisting security forces with personal weapons, and of security police shooting soldiers who refused to fire at protesters.

Assad has sent in tanks to crush demonstrations in some flashpoints but has also offered some reforms, such as an amnesty for political prisoners and a national dialogue -- measures dismissed by opposition figures as too little too late.

The United States, the European Union and Australia have imposed sanctions on Syria, but perhaps because of reluctance to get entangled in another confrontation after Libya, their reaction has been less vehement than some activists had hoped. (Additional reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis, editing by Tim Pearce)

=====


Gunmen kill 37 in single attack on Syrian security post-TV

06 Jun 2011 16:29

Source: reuters // Reuters

BEIRUT, June 6 (Reuters) - Gunmen killed at least 37 people in a single attack on a Syrian security post, state television said on Monday.

"The armed groups in Jisr al-Shughour carried out a genuine massacre and mutilated some of the bodies," the television said.

State TV had earlier said that the death toll among security forces in the town had reached 40. It said security forces had clashed with hundreds of gunmen who had set up blockades in the town.

===


Syria forces kill 19 in biggest protests - activists

17 Jun 2011 23:48

Source: reuters // Reuters

* Syrian army encircles two towns in country's north

* Big powers consult over U.N. Security Council resolution

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

AMMAN, June 17 (Reuters) - Syrian forces shot dead 19 people on Friday when they fired at demonstrators demanding the removal of President Bashar al-Assad in the biggest protest since unrest against Baathist rule erupted in March, activists said.

European powers, which had initiated a detente(A relaxing or easing, as of tension between rivals.) with Assad prior to the street protests to try to draw the Syrian leader away from Iran and also stabilise Lebanon, said Damascus should face tougher sanctions for the violence.

Tens of thousands of people rallied across the country, defying Assad's military crackdown and ignoring a pledge that his tycoon cousin Rami Makhlouf, a symbol of corruption, would renounce his business empire and channel his wealth to charity.

"Protests last week were big and this week they are bigger still. The demonstrators have not held squares consistently yet in big cities like we had seen in Egypt, but we're heading in this direction," opposition figure Walid al-Bunni told Reuters by telephone from Damascus.

"The security grip is weakening because the protests are growing in numbers and spreading, and more people are risking their lives to demonstrate. The Syrian people realise that this is an opportunity for liberty that comes once in hundreds of years," said Bunni, who was a political prisoner for eight years.

The worst bloodshed was in Homs, a merchant city of one million people in central Syria, where the Local Coordination Committees, a main activist group linked to protesters, said 10 demonstrators were killed. State television said a policeman was killed by gunmen.

One protester was also reported killed in the northern commercial hub of Aleppo, the first to die there in the unrest.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which operates from Britain, said it could confirm only 10 civilians killed overall in Syria.

The Syrian government has barred most international journalists from the country, making it difficult to verify accounts from activists and officials.

Syrian authorities blame the violence on "armed terrorist groups" and Islamists, backed by foreign powers.

<^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ More on Syrian unrest [nLDE72T0KH] Graphic http://r.reuters.com/nyw99r Suite of graphics on region http://r.reuters.com/nym77r ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>

Friday Muslim prayers have provided a platform for the biggest protests, inspired by revolts across the Arab world.

Witnesses and activists said tens of thousands of people protested in the southern province of Deraa where the revolt began, as well as in the Kurdish northeast, the province of Deir al-Zor, which borders Iraq's Sunni heartland, the city of Hama north of Damascus, the coast and suburbs of the capital itself.

Two towns on the main Damascus-Aleppo highway north of Homs were also encircled by troops and tanks, residents said, five days after the army retook the town of Jisr al-Shughour, sending thousands feeling across the nearby border into Turkey.

Refugees from the northwestern region said troops and gunmen loyal to Assad, known as 'shabbiha' were pressing on with a scorched earthed campaign in the hill farm area by burning crops, ransacking houses and shooting randomly.

MORE REFUGEES

The International Federation for Human Rights and the U.S. based Damascus Centre for Human Rights Studies said in a statement that, according to local sources, the Syrian forces killed more than 130 people and arrested over 2,000 in Jisr al-Shughour and surrounding villages over the last few days.

The number of refugees who had crossed over from Syria has reached 9,600, and another 10,000 were sheltering by the border just inside Syria, according to Turkish officials.

Syrian rights groups say at least 1,300 civilians have been killed and 10,000 people have been detained since March.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 300 soldiers and police have also been killed.

Assad has responded to the unrest with a mix of military repression and political gestures aimed at placating protesters.

Assad faces international condemnation over the violence, and has seen the first signs of cracks in his security forces after a clash in Jisr al-Shughour earlier this month in which the government said 120 security personnel were killed.

There have been no mass desertions from the military, but the loyalty of Sunni Muslim conscripts might waver if the crackdown on mainly Sunni protesters continues.

Assad's family and many military commanders are members of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.

SECURITY COUNCIL DEADLOCK

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, trying to break a deadlock over a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning Syria's crackdown.

Their discussion focused on "how the U.S. and Russia can work together to make sure that we can get to a U.N. Security Council resolution", a State Department spokeswoman said.

Russia and China dislike the idea of any Council judgment on Syria and have played little role in discussions on a draft resolution to condemn Syrian bloodshed against protesters.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said France and Germany had agreed to lobby for stronger sanctions against Syria for "unacceptable actions and repression" of protesters.

"I believe there is a realisation that force is being used against the people in a way that is not acceptable," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said after talks with Sarkozy. "Therefore both of us will talk to Russia in our own ways to (ensure) we are successful."

A witness in the Damascus suburb of Irbin said protesters burned a Russian flag to protest against Moscow's stance.

In the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli two people were killed in a clash between Sunni and Alawite residents, a military source said, after an anti-Assad demonstration erupted following noon prayers. (Additional reporting by Mariam Karouny and Yara Bayoumy in Beirut, Tulay Kardeniz in Guvecci, Yann Le Guernigou and Stephen Brown in Berlin, Tabassum Zakaria in Washington; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Jon Hemming)

====

Reuters
Syrian economy could be regime's weak spot

-- The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own --

By Una Galani
DUBAI, June 21 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The Syrian economy could prove to be Bashar al-Assad's weak spot. With no end in sight to the violent crackdown on dissidents, the nation's vision for growth is shattered, financial reforms are being unwound, and key revenue streams look strained. A more marked decline in Syria's economic health may force the regime to reform or fall. But sanctions from the West are only part of the answer if the goal is to keep pressuring the regime.
It is far from clear that Assad is still in control, but he was certainly right when he highlighted the danger of "weakness or collapse of the Syrian economy." After growing at an average clip of around 5 percent over the last five years, the economy is forecast, by some, to contract as much as 3 percent this year as tourism and foreign investment grind to a halt.
Tourism accounts for around 23 percent of Syria's hard currency earnings, by the government's own estimate. Oil related revenues account for 5 percent of GDP. But with hotels almost empty and the growing likelihood of oil sanctions, Syria is desperately trying to retain local and foreign currency by increasing interest rates on deposits and curbing foreign currency sales.
Foreign exchange reserves were estimated at around $17 billion -- equivalent to seven months of imports -- before the crisis gained momentum according to figures from the International Monetary Fund. A move by Assad's cousin, Rami Makhlouf, to deposit $1 billion into the central bank, coupled with an increase in fuel subsidies by a country already forecast to have a fiscal deficit of 3.1 percent in 2011, suggest these may be shrinking.
Without external pressure, Syria could stumble along long enough for the regime to suppress the uprising -- the country is largely self sufficient in food. Oil sanctions from Syria's largest customers - Italy, France, Germany - could potentially cut off a third of Syria's total exports and make it even harder to fund the military. But the other two-thirds of Syria's exports are directed towards Arab neighbours, according to Capital Economics. They would have to play their part for sanctions to reach their goal.

CONTEXT NEWS
-- The European Union expressed disappointment at a speech by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on June 20 and said it was preparing to expand its sanctions on Syria in response to worsening violence against his opponents.
-- "The EU is actively preparing to expand its restrictive measures ... with a view to achieving a fundamental change of policy by the Syrian leadership without delay," a statement agreed by EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg said.
-- EU diplomats said they expected the broader sanctions -- including further asset freezes and restrictions on companies associated with individuals linked to the repression -- would be approved by the time of an EU summit on June 23-24.
-- The EU statement followed a speech by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad earlier in the day that opponents said did not meet popular demands for sweeping political change.
-- Turkish President Abdullah Gul separately said that the speech was "not enough", and added that Assad should transform Syria into a multi-party system.

((una.galani@thomsonreuters.com))
(Editing by Pierre Briançon and David Evans)

==

Kurdish Leader: Syrian Kurds Split on Protests, Don’t Want Independence
28/06/2011 04:15:00RUDAW EXCLUSIVE
http://www.rudaw.net/english/news/syria/3784.html



Kurdish parties in Syria are divided on whether to participate in the protests that have been met with bloody resistance by the regime, Syrian Kurdish leader Fawzi Shingar said.

“Before there were efforts to create a unified front under the name of Council of Syrian-Kurdish Parties which included 12 parties,” Shingar, founder of the Kurdish Wifaq Party in Syria, told Rudaw. “But after Syrian security forces made the situation worse, some Kurdish parties such as the Kurdish Freedom Party in Syria, the Kurdish Union Party in Syria and the Future Movement reacted by joining the protests and adopting their motto to remove the regime.”

In a wide-ranging interview, Shingar said international intervention may eventually be needed in Syria and that Kurds could overtake Hasaka but do not want independence.

He was wary of talks with the regime, however, which has invited opposition parties, including the Kurds, to the table since early on in the demonstrations. He said Kurdish groups are willing to negotiate with the regime – but only under certain conditions.

“They have to remove all of their tanks from the streets and Syrian officials need to come on TV and apologize to the Syrian people for all of the people who have died,” Shingar said. “They should also explain what happened to their reform [proposals] and what have they achieved. The regime has been talking about reforms for the last 45 years, but has done nothing.”

Shingar believes that the biggest influence is the Kurdish youth, who hold protests daily. The political parties cannot be compared to the power of the people, he argued, and he expects the parties’ divisions over the demonstrations will end soon.

“The parties cannot control the situation and the people cannot separate themselves from the parties”

“We and other parties participated in the protests, but those who started and continue them today are the youth,” he said. “I also believe that the Kurdish political parties’ divided positions will not last long. In the end, they will sing the same slogans together.”

Protests against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime started in mid-March in Syria and have grown throughout the country. But Shingar believes that Assad’s Baathist regime may not collapse that easily.

“The regime will resist,” he said. “The Syrian state has been supporting the Baathists for the past 45 years. But we hope that the situation doesn’t become violent like what is happening in Libya. We hope the regime will let a temporary council govern the country for six months until elections are held for a new president and parliament.”

So far, the international community has only condemned the Syrian regime for its heavy-handed crackdown on protestors and imposed sanctions on Syrian officials. Shingar argues that these measures are needed now, but if the situation worsens, the opposition will welcome an international alliance like the one formed against Libya.

“The situation in Syria isn’t at the level where an alliance is needed, but if the situation calls for [international intervention] then we will seek anyone’s support,” he said.

Several weeks into the demonstrations Syrian Kurds were surprisingly quiet, keeping a wary eye on the protests but not joining them. Now that they are involved, Shingar said the organizing is “haphazard” and without proper leadership.

“The parties cannot control the situation and the people cannot separate themselves from the parties,” he said. “Those who are active work haphazardly and without any planning, and the government’s policy so far has been to make the Kurdish areas neutral so they won’t have to attack them.”

Some military outposts that the Syrian regime stationed in the Kurdish areas after the 2004 uprising were withdrawn at the outset of the protests. According to Shingar, the area is now mainly controlled by the police and intelligence services, and could easily be taken over.

“The Kurds could take control of their region in 24 hours, including Hassaka which means the Jezirie region,” he said. “Efren and Kobanie are separated from those regions. They could rise up as well. For now though, freedom and economic opportunities are more important.”

The Kurdish areas of Syria are fertile and contain much of the country’s limited oil.

“The problem with us, the Kurds, is that we still don’t have a common agenda”

Yet Shingar said no Kurdish party wants independence from Syria because the Kurds are an inseparable part of the country.

“Until now not a single Kurdish party in Syria has promoted independence from Syria,” he said. “We as Kurds in Syria are a minority, our geography is divided and we are partners of Syria in any way shape or form.”

Two major Kurdish parties, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) in Iraqi Kurdistan carry weight in Kurdish politics and can change the course of the Kurdish protests in Syria. PKK’s jailed leader Abdulla Ocalana said that the Kurds must talk with the Syrian regime while the KDP’s stance isn’t clear yet.

“I think the KDP doesn’t make decisions on Syrian Kurds because it sees this as a domestic Syrian issue,” Shingar said. “[They say] ‘We will leave that for the Kurds and Kurdish-Syrian parties of Syria to decide for themselves.’ But in the end, this is a Kurdish issue and it’s the responsibility of every Kurd to support Kurds in any part of Kurdistan.”

Last month, a Syrian opposition conference was held in the Turkish city of Antalya that included Kurdish leaders but no major parties, which were not invited to the important gathering. Shingar criticizes Syrian Kurds for not having a clear agenda to present in conferences and other events.

“The problem with us, the Kurds, is that we still don’t have a common agenda,” he said. “We still don’t have a piece of paper to present to the Syrian opposition or the Syrian government … It’s very important that Kurdish parties and intellectuals hold discussions and form a council. Otherwise, we will have problems.”


===

‘Syrians angry with US and France meddling in their country’s affairs’


Published: 12 July, 2011, 01:26

Damascus: Pro-government protesters during two-pronged demonstrations outside the American and French embassy in the Syrian capital days. (AFP Photo/Louai Beshara)
(20.2Mb) embed video
TRENDS: Arab world protests

TAGS: Conflict, Middle East, Protest, Politics, USA, Opposition

The US government is expected to protest to Damascus after hundreds of supporters of the Assad regime stormed the US embassy and US ambassador’s residence in Damascus on Monday.

­US officials said that the Syrian authorities failed to provide adequate protection to diplomatic missions, adding that they intend to demand compensation for the damage to the US facilities.

The protesters were not able to break into the US embassy compound due to the quick response by US Marine stationed at the mission. No injuries were reported to embassy personnel, the Associated Press reported.

However, the mob damaged one of the embassy’s buildings, smashing windows and putting up a Syrian flag atop the compound.

After the protesters were dispersed from the US embassy, they reportedly attacked the residence of US Ambassador Robert Ford.

The rallies also targeted the French mission in Damascus, but were confronted by French embassy security guards, who fired in the air to hold the protestors back.

Up to three protesters were reportedly injured after the guards attacked them with clubs.

The attacks come after visits by the US and French ambassadors to the restive city of Hama in central Syria, AP reported.

The Syrian authorities called the visits interference in the country’s internal affairs.

Despite a possibility that the embassy attacks were backed by the Syrian government, some demonstrators came there to express their genuine anger over foreign interference in Syrian affairs, Middle East writer and commentator Karl Sharoo told RT.

“There is a blatant intervention by the US and French governments, at least if they were fully aware of what their ambassadors were doing, in a very fluid, dynamic situation on the ground in Syria,” he said.

“I would not be surprised if some of the demonstrators were actually driven genuinely by anger, because that is a sort of intrusion that nobody can tolerate,” Sharoo added.

==
U.S. EMBASSY OFFICIAL IN DAMASCUS SAYS SYRIAN AUTHORITIES "DESPE

31 Jul 2011 13:11

Source: reuters // Reuters

U.S. EMBASSY OFFICIAL IN DAMASCUS SAYS SYRIAN AUTHORITIES "DESPERATE... ENGAGING IN FULL ARMED WARFARE ON THEIR OWN CITIZENS" BY STORMING HAMA

==

FACTBOX-Syria's city of Hama, site of new assault

31 Jul 2011 09:03

Source: reuters // Reuters

July 31 (Reuters) - Syrian tanks stormed Hama on Sunday to crush demonstrations against President Bashar al-Assad's rule. [ID:nL

Here are some details about the city which was the site of a massacre in 1982:

* 1982:

-- In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Syria's Muslim Brotherhood sought to destabilise and unseat President Hafez al-Assad and his government through political assassinations and urban guerilla warfare. In February 1982, the Muslim Brotherhood ambushed government forces who were searching for dissidents in Hama.

-- Syrian government forces attacked the city, razing the old quarters of Hama to crush the armed uprising by the Brotherhood, who had taken refuge there.

-- Estimates of the death toll in the three weeks of operations in Hama vary from 10,000 to more than 30,000 out of a population of 350,000. Syria then imprisoned much of the membership of the local Islamist groups.

-- Syrian human rights groups said that women, children and the elderly were among those killed in the crackdown and thousands were forced to flee the city.

* 2011:

-- In June, activists said Syria forces killed at least 60 protesters in the city, in one of the bloodiest days of the uprising against Assad. Residents said security forces and snipers had fired on crowds of demonstrators.

-- Assad sacked the governor of Hama province on July 2, a day after tens of thousands of protesters massed in the provincial capital to demand the Syrian leader step down.

-- The demonstration in Hama was part of nationwide protests which activists said were some of the biggest since the uprising against Assad's rule erupted in mid-March.

-- In a symbolic show of solidarity, U.S. ambassador Robert Ford and French ambassador Eric Chevallier visited Hama on July 8 to put pressure on Assad not to crush the protest. Syria condemned the action and summoned them to Damascus on July 10.

-- Ford, who entered the U.S. foreign service in 1985 and previously served as U.S. ambassador to Algeria, had only arrived in Damascus in January. After Ford posted a letter on the embassy's Facebook page, a mob stormed the embassy compound July 11, tearing down plaques.

* ABOUT HAMA:

-- Hama has been settled as far back as the Bronze Age and Iron Age. Famous for its citadel and its ancient Norias (waterwheels), the younger Assad and his government has sought to promote the city as a tourist destination.

Sources: Reuters/www.globalsecurity.org/homsonline (Writing by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)

==

AMMAN, July 31 (Reuters) - At least 45 civilians were killed in a tank assault on the city of Hama on Sunday to crush pro-democracy protests, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, quoting hospital officials in the city. (Reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis, Amman newsroom)

==

Reuters
Syria matters beyond Syria

(The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own)

By Hugo Dixon
LONDON, Aug 1 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The campaign to bring down the regime of president Bashar al-Assad of Syria is one of the world's most remarkable examples of nonviolent struggle.
Unlike in Egypt and Tunisia, the protestors are facing tanks. At the weekend, the Syrian army stormed the city of Hama. Assad looked like he was trying to break the morale of demonstrators before the start of the religious Muslim season of Ramadan, when protests are expected to mount.
Before the latest crackdown in Hama, the protests have given rise to a civilian death toll of 1,634, according to Avaaz, the human rights group. In one particularly gruesome episode, a 13-year-old boy had his penis cut off. But the demonstrators have largely been peaceful. It is a very different situation from Libya where the uprising soon turned violent and the country descended into a civil war, backed by foreign military intervention, all too quickly.
Over 500 Syrian soldiers have also died, according to the government. But it is not clear who was responsible for the deaths. Soldiers have been mutinying after being asked to kill unarmed protestors -- and some of the military have lost their lives at the hands of troops loyal to the regime.
The Syrian revolution has similarities to Iran's Green Revolution in 2009, Burma's Saffron Revolution in 2007, and China's Tiananmen Square uprising in 1989. In these cases, the army killed protestors and put down the revolutions.
That could still be the outcome in Syria. But there's a difference here too. The protests have continued for over four months and kept getting bigger. Part of the reason is that Syrian activists received prior training in the techniques of nonviolent struggle and have been organising themselves ever since. The Chinese, Burmese and Iranian would-be revolutionaries were much less well ordered.
If the Syrians succeed in bringing Assad down, they will have created a model that other oppressed people will be able to follow. Many non-democratic regimes elsewhere should feel vulnerable.

A Reuters Breakingkviews column explaining how Syria's non-violent activists are organised will be published later today.


CONTEXT NEWS
-- Rights activists in Syria said 80 civilians were killed in July 31 tank-backed assaults on the central city of Hama. It was in Hama that president Bashar al-Assad's father crushed an armed Muslim Brotherhood revolt 29 years ago by razing neighbourhoods and killing many thousands of people.

((hugo.dixon@thomsonreuters.com))
(Editing by Robert Cole and David Evans)


===

Obama, Cameron discuss markets, Syria -White House

13 Aug 2011 17:44

Source: reuters // Reuters

WASHINGTON, Aug 13 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama spoke on Saturday with British Prime Minister David Cameron about recent developments in the global financial system, the White House said, after a violently volatile week in markets.

The two leaders also called for an immediate end to attacks by the Syrian government against protesters demanding the departure of President Bashar al-Assad, and agreed to "consult on further steps in the days ahead," it said in a statement. (Reporting by Alister Bull; editing by Mohammad Zargham)

====

ANALYSIS-Saudi switch against Syria's Assad is blow to Iran

09 Aug 2011 09:58

Source: reuters // Reuters

* Oil kingdom moves against "wounded regime"

* Iran connection makes risk of regime change worthwhile

* Sectarian strategy domestically popular, risky in Syria

By Joseph Logan

DUBAI, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia, self-appointed guardian of Sunni Islam, is deeply wary of popular uprisings that have convulsed the Arab world, but it has lost patience with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's violent attempts to crush a mainly Sunni protest movement.

Saudi-Syrian relations were rarely warm, with Riyadh riled by Syria's alliance with its Shi'ite regional rival Iran, and they chilled further after the 2005 assassination of Lebanese statesman Rafik al-Hariri, a friend of the Saudi royal family.

But until this week Saudi King Abdullah had kept silent on the violence in Syria, which human rights groups say has cost more than 1,600 civilian lives in five months of turmoil.

Now the Saudis have taken a stand, perhaps deciding that Syria's diplomatic isolation and the bloodshed unleashed by its minority Alawite rulers on their majority Sunni opponents have made Damascus a ripe target of diplomatic opportunity.

"They realise the regime in Syria is facing a serious, nationwide, deep rebellion and is therefore vulnerable," said Beirut-based Middle East analyst Rami Khouri.

The kingdom, which brooks no dissent at home and helped Bahrain crush Shi'ite-led protests in March, recalled its ambassador from Damascus on Monday and denounced the violence in Syria, which Assad blames on armed gangs with foreign backing.

The Saudi decision was announced in a statement in the name of King Abdullah, who warned Syria it faced ruin over the crackdown, among the bloodiest in Arab uprisings that have already brought down the rulers of Tunisia and Egypt.

Analysts suggested that Saudi Arabia sees in Assad's woes a chance to strike a blow at Iran, even at the cost of undermining an established ruler, with a chance of chaos -- or even representative government -- in a nation at the heart of the Arab world.

"The benefits of hitting the Iranian connection outweigh the negatives of a new democracy in Syria", should one emerge in a post-Assad Syria, Khouri said.

IMPACT ON THE STREET

The Saudi shift was prefigured in the regional political blocs over which the kingdom casts a long shadow, and mirrored by the countries and institutions for which its oil wealth and claim to religious rectitude are persuasive.

The Saudi-led Gulf Cooperation Council -- which includes Bahrain -- on Saturday expressed its "concern and regret" over Syria's crackdown, echoing Western calls for political reform.

A day later, the Arab League, whose new head had visited Assad soon after taking office, called for an immediate halt to violence against demonstrators during military operations in Hama, Deir al-Zor and elsewhere in Syria.

The king's warning to Syria, said one Saudi commentator, has paved the way for more states to pile pressure on Syria's rulers while leaving some margin for them to avoid downfall.

"The statement wasn't isolated from the worldwide movement to put pressure on the Syria regime. Saudi Arabia is important when it comes to future decisions, actions taken to pressure the regime," said Jamal al-Khashoggi.

"For Saudi Arabia to come out criticising the regime will no doubt have an impact on the Syrian street. It will fuel the tension, fuel the anger ... It will create pressure on Syria to recognise its position for what it is."

The move has had the immediate effect of cranking up the chorus of condemnation surrounding Syria, already facing sanctions from the United States and Europe.

Bahrain and Kuwait recalled their ambassadors from Damascus hours after the king's message, and Sunni Islam's most venerable institution of learning, al-Azhar in Cairo, called the Syrian assault on protesters an unacceptable "human tragedy."

SECTARIAN RISKS

The latter voice echoes the Sunni bonds Saudi Arabia was invoking by moving against Syria during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, on the heels of a tank assault against a rebellious, largely Sunni city, Hama, where Assad's father killed thousands to put down an Islamist armed revolt in 1982.

The Assads' Alawite sect is deemed heretical by Saudi Arabia's austere brand of Sunni Islam.

Videos posted on YouTube after the king's message appear to show Syrians in Saudi Arabia cheering the defence of his co-religionists in Syria.

"I don't think it's a coincidence that this [the Saudi decision] happened during Ramadan," said Gregory Gause, a political science professor at the University of Vermont.

"There is a heightened sense of the importance and role of religion, and people in Syria, an overwhelmingly Sunni country, were sure to read it in a sectarian way," he said.

"They (the Saudis) increasingly see Iran and the Arab upheavals as requiring them to play their hole card: We're Sunnis, they're Shi'a, and there are more of us than there are of them."

Anti-Assad protesters have sometimes shouted slogans against Iran and Syria's close Lebanese Shi'ite ally Hezbollah, once wildly popular for its confrontations with Israel.

Any appeal to sectarianism, Syria's regime and opposition alike have warned, risks tearing Syria apart.

Yet it appears to be a risk that Saudi Arabia, having seen off a domestic challenge between 2003-2006 from militants who derived their ideology from a form of Salafism, a puritanical set of Muslim doctrine, is now willing to take.

"The leadership feels that the kind of Salafist, jihadist movement that threatened them is under control, that they've crushed it and controlled it ideologically," Gause said.

"The upshot of encouraging it in the region is that I think they think they've got a handle on it." (Editing by Mark Heinrich and Alistair Lyon)


===

Iran cleric warns of plots against Syria
Sun Aug 14, 2011 10:19AM GMT
Iranian Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi
Iranian Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi has called on Muslims across the world to be cautious about US and Israeli plots for destabilization in Syria.


In a statement on Sunday, Ayatollah Makarem said Syria has two important features in the region: standing in the first front against Israel and preventing US, Britain, and France's ambitions to be fulfilled in the region.

"Therefore, the arrogant powers, Israel and unfortunately some Arab countries have been trying to destruct stability in the Islamic state (Syria)," he said.

The Ayatollah further pointed out that the US and Israel now want to find a base in Syria after they lost their bases in Egypt, Yemen, and Tunisia.

He also urged Muslims to understand the current situation of Syria and try to stop the plots, which will cause a civil war in the country and led to its destruction.

Ayatollah Makarem said the Syrian government should also be committed to its reform promises.

Syria has been experiencing unrest in the past months, with demonstrations held both against and in support of the government.

Hundreds of people, including security forces, have been killed during clashes in the country since the beginning of the unrest in mid-March.

The Syrian opposition claims security forces are behind the killings, but the government blames the deadly violence on foreign-backed armed gangs.

Meanwhile, political analysts say the recent decisions by Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait to recall their ambassadors from Damascus could be interpreted as a prelude to foreign intervention in Syria.

======================


Wahhabis weave web of plot in Syria

By Ismail Salami

Tue, 15 Nov 2011 14:38:51 GMT

In an unprecedented move, the Arab league decided to suspend Syria and call for sanctions on the country, an act which evidently reeks of the influence the West and others exercise on those who should be the main game players rather than being merely influenced by others. What a shame!

It is not difficult to conjecture that the move is a prelude to a US-led military invasion of Syrian in the style of the Libya war and an eventual war in the region. It hardly needs saying that the Arab League would have acted with calculated wisdom and prudence, if it had thought about the consequences of such irrationality.

The decision comes at a time when President Bashar al-Assad has accepted the reforms proposed by the Arab League.

A statement, read by the Qatari Prime Minister,

Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani, said the League had decided “to suspend Syrian delegations' activities in Arab League meetings'' and to implement ''economic and political sanctions” against Damascus.

Sheikh Hamad said the suspension would last “until the total implementation [by Syria] of the Arab plan for resolving the crisis accepted by Damascus on November 2.”

In response to this move fraught with impending threat, tens of thousands of Syrians poured into the streets of Damascus, Aleppo, Latakia, Tartous and Hasakeh to protest the move which they see as clear betrayal of their country by the Arab League.

The facts on the ground suggest that there is an urging demand for social and political reforms in the country but the situation is not as bad in Syria as in other Arab countries where the hope for reforms is zero. Calling for reforms on some levels is one thing but demanding an ouster of the ruler is a horse of a different color. As the situation stands in Syria, there is little demand for the ouster of President Bashar al-Assad. However, Western powers are calling on the Syrian president to step down. The influence of Western media on the international public opinion is so powerful that they are reluctant to see a foreign hand manipulating the events.

Reports reveal that the US and Israel have hired Saudi elements and the Saudi-backed Lebanese March 14 forces in order to foment tension in the country, thereby creating a rift between the Syrian people and the government. Washington is monitoring every move with minute precision as the fate of Syria is politically of paramount importance to the empire as it serves as an ally for Iran and poses a danger to the Zionist regime. Indeed there are some parties which follow their interests in the country.

Apart from Washington who cherishes the idea of overthrowing the regime of Bashar al-Assad and installing a puppet regime in Syria with the firm intention of serving the interests of the Zionist regime in the region, the Saudi Wahhabis insist on the collapse of the Syrian regime. For Washington and Israel, the ouster of al-Assad will ensure the two regimes' vantage point in the Middle East to contain the ever-increasing influence of the Islamic Republic in the region and for the Saudis, it serves a similar purpose on a wider scope. In fact, the Saudi Wahhabis hold the Shia Muslims in abhorrence and make every possible effort to create Shiaphobia and Iranophobia in the world.

To the Wahhabis, Shia Muslims and moderate Sunnis are but infidels and should be killed and their blood is not upon their shoulders. What they conceive of the Shia Muslims is indeed a horrid image which fails to fit into any plausibly logical order. This irrational hatred becomes the prime motivation for the Wahhabis to engage in stoking up unrest in some border cities in Syria which throws full support behind Iran and Hezbollah. In a similar vein, the Saudi Wahhabis fully backed the dictatorial Bahrain regime in eliminating the Shia Muslims and crushing with brutality the popular uprising in the country. This double standard in Saudi policy deserves due attention. They back the despotic Bahraini regime which spares no efforts in quelling the pro-democracy protesters who are killed on a daily basis while on the other hand, they fund and back the insurgents in Syria to overthrow the regime. It seems that democracy is defined differently in different contexts and situations.

Parenthetically, the Saudi Wahhabis play a double game in their relations with Washington and Israel. In fact, they have an ambivalent feeling for these two. On the one hand, Wahhabis treat them with hatred and eliminate their elements under the influence of their extremism and on the other hand, they enter into easy alliance with the Zionists and the US when the trio have a common enemy in several regions of the world.

There are times when you marvel at how events happening in one place are twisted to the benefit of one group and to the loss of another.

Concerning the US interference and the conspiracy of the Saudi Wahhabis in Syria, either we should choose to remain ignorant or we should open our eyes to the reality of things with surmountable doubt and reluctance.

-- Ismail Salami is an Iranian author and political analyst. A prolific writer, he has written numerous books and articles on the Middle East. His articles have been translated into a number of languages.

==========================

Opinion | Commentators | Robert Fisk

Robert Fisk: Assad will only go if his own tanks turn against him

Predictions of Syrian leader's imminent demise are hopelessly optimistic

ROBERT FISK

WEDNESDAY 16 NOVEMBER 2011

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Suggested Topics

• Middle East
• Television
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• Syria

In Damascus earlier this month, Syrian state television asked me for an interview on events in Syria. With much trepidation (

A state of alarm or dread; apprehension. See synonyms at fear.)

, I accepted, promising the presenter he would not like all I said, but warning – a bit of Fisk blackmail, this – that any censored words would be relayed to readers of The Independent. The interview went ahead and I said that President Bashar al-Assad was "running out of time – fast". The Arab people, I added, could no longer be infantilised; there was clearly an armed insurgency under way in Syria to overthrow the regime – foreign correspondents must be allowed to visit Homs and other areas where a host of YouTube pictures show protesters being shot down. When I was told later that the translation had not been finished in time, I smiled with my usual cynicism.

But almost incredibly, the interview duly aired on Syrian state television – and to my utter astonishment, they ran the lot (they used near-perfect subtitling), including the remarks about Assad "running out of time – fast".

What happened? Did this have the President's approval? Or was the government – or some part of the dictatorship – trying to show that they were in no doubt about how serious the near-civil war had become? I don't know. And my Middle Eastern crystal ball broke many years ago. But I'll hazard a dangerous prediction: Assad's time is running out, fast – but don't believe the State Department and the Washington "tink thanks" (as I call them) and the EU or the Arab League. He ain't going yet.

Even the words of Jordan's King Abdullah this week were slightly bent by the press and television coverage when he supposedly told the BBC that Assad should "step down". What he actually said was that "if I was in his [Assad's] shoes, I would step down". Which is not quite the same thing. Far more important was that section of the interview – one of his best, by the way, and I'm not his majesty's fan – in which he said that if Assad stepped down, only to be replaced by the same "system" (ie the Baath party), the problem would not be ended. Too true. And running alongside King Abdullah's words, I thought, was the faint hope that perhaps Assad could still take the initiative and honour all his fine words (new constitution, political pluralism, real democracy, etc). Certainly, the West's pompous predictions of Assad's imminent demise – based more on YouTube than the reality on the ground – are hopelessly optimistic. True, there are deserters from the Syrian army. But you don't win revolutions with Kalashnikov AK-47s. Only the desertion of a tank unit or two plus generals – Libya-style – could have any chance of that. And so far, there is none. Assad is not Gaddafi.

Furthermore, Russia's military support is not going to end. Only nine days after Russia and China vetoed a UN Security Council resolution condemning Syria, the joint director-general of the federal Russian service of military cooperation, Viatcheslav Djirkaln, said that there would be "no restrictions at all on arms deliveries to Syria". The Russians talk, of course, of "contractual obligations".

Nor is that surprising. The truth is that Russia was once Libya's only arms supplier; it was selling combat jets, frigates, tanks and anti-aircraft systems to Colonel Gaddafi after the West's 1974 arms embargo and had 3,500 advisers in the country. Its ships could refuel at the Tripoli naval base. Now it is associated with the dead and hated regime. Russia was 73rd on the list of nations to recognise the Libyan National Transitional Council.

So now the Syrian city of Tartous contains the only 24-hour port open to the Russian navy in the Mediterranean. Without Tartous, every Russian naval vessel in the sea would have to return through the Bosphorous to Odessa for every nut, screw and cigarette packet it needs. Friends, as they say, need each other.

Does the Arab League's threat of suspension really matter? I suspect not – but clearly the Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem thinks very differently. He said that the league had taken "an extremely dangerous step" in threatening Syria and that US support for the league's decision was "incitement". Armour had already left Syrian cities, prisoners were being released, armed insurgents were being offered an amnesty. YouTube bounced back with video of a Russian-made armoured vehicle firing thousands of rounds down a Homs street and a photograph of a half-naked murdered Syrian, hands tied behind his back, lying in a Homs street. But murdered by whom?

One thing is now clear. Quite apart from the massive civilian casualties, even opponents of the regime now admit that Assad faces an armed insurgency. This may originally have been a myth promoted by the regime, but the monster has now been born. Anti-Assad activists now openly speak of "armed insurgents". Sixteen civilians were killed in Deraa three days ago. But 15 soldiers were killed on the same day in the same city. Who killed them? That's what we need to know.

================

Assad: Syria war will destabilize all ME

Sun, 20 Nov 2011 03:14:55 GMT

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has warned against any foreign attack against his country, saying the military action will cause instability in the whole Middle East.

Speaking to Britain's Sunday Times newspaper, Assad said the Arab League's intervention could provide a pretext for a Western military action, warning that a war against Syria would create an “earthquake” across the region, AFP reported on Saturday.

“If they are logical, rational and realistic, they shouldn't do it because the repercussions are very dire. Military intervention will destabilize the region as a whole, and all countries will be affected,” he said.

The Syrian president referred to the mounting foreign pressure on his government, but vowed that his country “will not bow down and that it will continue to resist the pressure being imposed on it.”

The remarks come in response to a decision by the Arab League which set a deadline of Saturday for Syria to comply with its peace plan, threatening to impose sanctions if Damascus failed to end the months-long unrest in the country.

The Arab bloc, which had earlier suspended Syria's membership over the unrest, called on the Syrian government to allow in teams of observers to help establish calm in the country, a move Damascus has described as “illegitimate and dangerous.”

Syria has been experiencing a deadly unrest ever since mid-March, with demonstrations being held both against and in support of the Assad government.

Thousands of people, including hundreds of security forces and army personnel, have been killed in the ongoing violence, which the Syrian government blames on outlaws, saboteurs, and armed terrorists.

Damascus also says that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country and the security forces have been given clear instructions not to harm civilians.

In addition, Syrian state TV has broadcast reports showing seized weapons caches and confessions by terrorist elements describing how they obtained arms from foreign sources.

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خالدبن ولیدکےمزارپرشامی افواج کی بمباری

by Areeb Hasni on 3 hours ago // No Comment

4

حمص: عوامی تحریک کو دبانے کیلئے شروع ہونے والی فوجی کارروای کے دوران شامی افواج نے بمباری کرکے خالد بن ولید کے مزار کے بڑے حصے کو شدید نقصان پہنچایا ہے۔

عربی میڈیا کی رپورٹس کے مطابق خالد بن ولید پیغمبر اسلام ﷺ کے صحابی اور کئی سو جنگوں کے فاتح کہے جاتے ہیں کہ مزار پر کارروائی ا یسے وقت میں کی گئی ہے جب کہ شامی صدر بشرالاسد کے خلاف عوامی احتجاج مسلسل بڑھتا جارہاہے۔

مقامی ذرائع کے مطابق شامی فوج کی جانب سے کی جانے والی کارروائیوں میں مساجد ،مقدس مقامات ، تاریخی عمارات اور صحابہ و بزرگان دین کے مزارات کو بلادریغ نشانہ بنایا جارہاہے۔

سرکاری فوج کا کہنا ہے کہ وہ ان تمام راستوں اور مقامات کو مٹادیں گے جن میں مزاحمت کار کارروائی کے بعد چھپ جاتے ہیں۔

شامی عوام نے خالد بن ولید کے مزار اور سے ملحقہ مسجد پر بمباری کو معاندانہ کارروائی قراردیا ہے۔

یادر ہے کہ شامی حکومت نے مغربی و مقامی میڈیا پر احتجاج کے دوران ہونے والی ہلاکتوں سمیت کسی بھی فوجی کارروائی کی ویڈیو یا فوٹیج لیک کرنے پر پابندی عائد کررکھی ہے۔