"Syria’s Assad warns West to stay away" October 31, 2011|Associated Press
BEIRUT - President Bashar Assad of Syria warned the Middle East will burn if the West intervenes in his country’s seven-month-old uprising, threatening to turn the region into “tens of Afghanistans.’’
Assad’s comments, published in an interview with Britain’s Sunday Telegraph, were his harshest so far regarding the potential for foreign intervention. But they reveal a growing concern over the possibility of some sort of Western military action after months of NATO airstrikes helped rebellious Libyans oust Moammar Khadafy.
“Syria is the hub now in this region,’’ Assad said. “It is the fault line, and if you play with the ground, you will cause an earthquake.’’
Still the United States and its allies have shown little appetite for intervening in another Arab nation in turmoil.
And unlike Khadafy, Assad has a number of powerful allies that give him the means to push back against outside pressure.
A conflict in Syria risks touching off a wider Middle East conflict with arch foes Israel and Iran in the mix.
That's what a certain crowd wants.
Syria would not have to look far for prime targets to strike, sharing a border with US-backed Israel and NATO member Turkey. Syria is the closest Arab ally of Iran and has ties to Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah movement and other radical groups including the militant Palestinian Hamas.
Syrian opposition leaders have not called for an armed uprising like the one in Libya and have for the most part opposed foreign intervention.
But there are growing calls from antigovernment protesters for a no-fly zone over Syria because of fears the regime might use its air force given increasingly frequent clashes between government troops and army defectors.
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"Day after pact, Syrian forces kill 12 protesters; Government agreed to plan to end violence" November 04, 2011|By Anthony Shadid, New York Times
In successive weeks, the government has organized rallies, in which tens of thousands have turned out in towns like Latakia, Hasaka, Raqa, and Deir al-Zour, as well as the capital, Damascus, and Aleppo, Syria’s second-largest city. Although encouraged by the state, the protests have underlined the support Assad’s leadership still enjoys, particularly among minorities and the middle class and the elite in Damascus and Aleppo.
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"Syrian crackdown has killed 3,500" November 09, 2011|By Nada Bakri, New York Times
The Syrian government regularly dismisses reports of civilian casualties compiled by activists or by the UN and other outside groups, saying instead that its security forces are being attacked by armed gangs financed and directed from abroad....
And that is the truth.
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"Egg pelting shows rifts in Syrian opposition; Groups divided over tactics in 8-month revolt" November 10, 2011|By Zeina Karam, Associated Press
BEIRUT - Syrian protesters pelted a group of rival opposition leaders with eggs yesterday outside Arab League headquarters in Cairo, accusing them of playing along with President Bashar Assad’s government instead of working to overthrow the regime.
The attack highlights the growing fault lines in the Syrian opposition, which is struggling to overcome infighting....
The two major opposition groups, the National Coordination Committee and the Syria National Council, are divided over issues at the core of the eight-month-old revolution, including whether to request foreign military assistance and accept dialogue with the regime. The divisions have prevented the opposition from gaining the traction it needs to present a credible alternative to the regime.
Yesterday, around 100 protesters in Cairo threw eggs and tomatoes at a four-man delegation from the National Coordination Committee as the group tried to enter the Arab League’s headquarters for a meeting. Critics say the committee, which includes veteran activists and former political prisoners, is far too lenient and willing to engage in dialogue with the regime.
The committee’s stance has prompted some antigovernment protesters in Syria to carry banners reading: “The National Coordination Committee does not represent me.’’
“What happened today in Cairo is a sign of the Syrian street’s disenchantment with the NCC and its direction, which goes against the people’s will,’’ said Ausama Monajed, a London-based member of the Syrian National Council.
“There should be no dialogue with this regime. Not before, nor after, it withdraws its tanks from the streets.’’
Members of the committee delegation were forced to turn back yesterday but the head of the delegation, Hassan Abdul-Azim, managed to enter the Arab League’s building from another entrance and met with Secretary General Nabil Elaraby.
Abdul-Azim described the accusations that his group was cooperating with the Syrian regime as “nonsense.’’
“We are a patriotic opposition … and we reject excluding any group, but others want to exclude us because we reject the foreign intervention in Syria,’’ he told reporters....
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"Syrian security forces kill at least 21 in raids, activists say" November 11, 2011|By Elizabeth A. Kennedy, Associated Press
BEIRUT - Syrian security forces raided homes, and clashes erupted between soldiers and army defectors yesterday, killing at least 21 people across the country, including an 8-year-old girl and six soldiers, activists said....
Ready to attack yet?
On Wednesday, Navi Pillay, the UN human rights chief, said an increasing number of Syrian soldiers are defecting, raising the risk of a Libya-style civil war.
“Where basic human rights are trampled and peaceful demands for change met by brutal violence, people are eventually compelled to have recourse to rebellion against tyranny and oppression,’’ Pillay told the UN Security Council.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the protesters should avoid turning violent because that “only gives the Syrian government a moral hand.’’
It is difficult to gauge how many people have defected from the army and what kind of threat they pose to the regime. Although the crackdown has led to broad international isolation of Assad, he appears to have a firm grip on power, retaining the loyalty of most of the armed forces.
Assad, and his father who ruled Syria before him, stacked key security and military posts with members of their minority Alawite sect over the past 40 years, ensuring loyalty by melding the fate of the army and the regime. As a result, the army leadership will likely protect the regime at all costs, for fear it will be persecuted if the country’s Sunni majority gains the upper hand. Most of the army defectors so far appear to be lower-level Sunni conscripts.
Syria blames the bloodshed on “armed gangs’’ and extremists acting out a foreign agenda to destabilize the regime....
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"Arab League moves to suspend Syria; Regime is given four days to fulfill peace agreement" November 13, 2011|By Neil Macfarquhar, New York Times
CAIRO - The Arab League moved to suspend Syria’s membership yesterday, accusing the government of President Bashar Assad of defying an agreement to stop the violent repression of demonstrators, and it threatened economic and political sanctions if he did not comply.
In acting against Syria, a core member of the Arab League, the group took another bold step beyond what had been a long tradition of avoiding controversy. Alarmed by the region-spanning upheaval of the Arab Spring demonstrations, league delegates said they were trying to head off another factional war like Libya’s, in which the group took the unprecedented step of approving international intervention.
Syria’s formal suspension is to start in four days, offering what senior Arab League officials described as a last chance for Assad to carry out a peace agreement Syria’s government accepted. The plan called for the Syrian government to halt the violence directed toward civilians, to withdraw all its security forces from civilian areas, and to release tens of thousands of political prisoners.
Throughout the meeting, the Syrian ambassador, Youssef Ahmed, kept shouting that the move was illegal because such a decision had to be unanimous, participants said. He later repeated the assertion on state television and accused the league of being “subordinate to American and Western agendas.’’ Nabil el-Araby, the Arab League’s secretary general, pushed the initiative to a vote, with 18 of the league’s 22 members supporting the action, Yemen and Lebanon opposing, Iraq abstaining, and Syria not voting....
Arab governments, seeking to reflect popular demand for democratic change, are trying to address the issue without prompting the violent downfall of the Syrian government or international military action, analysts said. “They all want to appear democratic, proactive, and standing up for people because they are so embattled at home,’’ said Paul Salem, director of the Beirut branch of the Carnegie Middle East Center.
Previously, when the Arab League was more of a dictators’ club, cautious members like Egypt and Saudi Arabia put the brakes on any activism by the group. But the uprisings appear to be rewriting that formula, with Qatar buoyed by its success pushing the envelope on Libya....
President Obama praised the action yesterday and promised to keep up pressure on Syria....
When the league moved in March to approve an international intervention to protect civilians in Libya, a step that led to NATO airstrikes, it was acting against a small, unpopular member of the organization. But Syria is a core member of the league, and the action yesterday was surely a blow to Syria’s self-image as “the beating heart of Arabism.’’
****************************
Diplomats involved said that Algeria was particularly outspoken in trying to give the Syrians even four more days to avoid repeating the Libyan example, but it was not alone. “They don’t want some sort of a blank check that is given to the Security Council to try to take this issue in hand,’’ said one Arab diplomat involved in the negotiations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of diplomatic concerns. “Some people are saying that if the regime comes under intense pressure from the Arab side, then they will make some changes.’’
Analysts said the move certainly set the stage for greater international intervention....
Although the action yesterday brings such a reckoning closer, the international opinion has been divided about Syria. The UN council has been unable to agree on any actions other than issuing weak statements of condemnation....
The suspension and threatened sanctions come at a difficult time economically for Syria, with American, European, and Turkish officials saying they believe that the economy remains Assad’s greatest vulnerability.
European diplomats say a European embargo on Syrian oil has devastated that sector, reducing oil production by as much as 75 percent. Syria’s oil exports represented anywhere from 15 to 35 percent of the state budget, and more than 90 percent of those exports went to Europe. The diplomats say that the Syrian government has not paid foreign oil companies since August, and that Chinese workers have recently begun leaving the oil fields north of Deir al-Zour for home....
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"Syria calls for urgent summit to discuss Arab League suspension; Government’s supporters attack foreign embassies" November 14, 2011|By Zeina Karam, Associated Press
BEIRUT - Syria’s embattled regime called for an urgent Arab summit as it faced growing isolation yesterday, not only by the West but by its neighbors, over its bloody crackdown against an eight-month uprising.
The crisis raised regional tensions, with Turkey sending a plane to evacuate nonessential personnel after a night of attacks on several embassies by Syrian government supporters angry over the Arab League decision Saturday to suspend their country’s membership.
The 22-member bloc’s rare, near-unanimous vote - only Lebanon, Yemen, and Syria were opposed - put Damascus in direct confrontation with other Arab powers, including Qatar and Saudi Arabia, who were pushing for the suspension. The vote constituted a major boost for the Syrian opposition.
Tens of thousands of government supporters poured into the streets of Damascus and other cities, the turnout helped by the government’s closing of businesses and schools so that people could take part.
“You Arab leaders are the tails of Obama,’’ read a banner held at a huge progovernment rally in Damascus accusing the Arab League of bowing to pressure from the United States.
Violence continued elsewhere....
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"Jordan’s monarch says Assad should step down; EU announces more sanctions against Syria" by Nada Bakri New York Times / November 15, 2011
King Abdullah of Jordan added his voice on Monday to the growing pressure on the president of Syria to relinquish power, becoming the first Arab leader on Syria’s doorstep to call for a change in government....
--NOMORE--"
Other countries in the region with historically close ties to Syria, notably Turkey and Iran, have warned Mr. Assad that he should take steps to satisfy the demands of protesters in the eight-month-old uprising, which has now become a focal point in the Arab revolts that have felled autocratic regimes in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya....
Assad’s foreign minister, Walid al-Moallem, played down any prospects of an international military intervention in Syria, like the NATO-led campaign against Libya that helped topple the government of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi in August.
“The Libyan scenario will not be repeated,” he said, contending that Western and Arab countries know that the cost of confronting the Syrian military would be high.
He also said that he was confident that Russia and China would continue to oppose any resolutions against Syria in the UN Security Council....
--more--"
"Pressure mounts on Syria following clashes; Opposition asks Russians for support" November 16, 2011|By Nada Bakri and Rick Gladstone, New York Times
BEIRUT - Buoyed by rising international pressure on the Syrian government, Syria’s opposition courted support from the Arab League and Russia yesterday, and Turkey, a central player in the growing crisis, threatened new economic penalties against Syria, its increasingly isolated neighbor....
‘’We want to negotiate the steps of how to change the regime, and that’s not acceptable for the Russians,’’ said Sammir Nachar, a member of the council.
Nonetheless, activists said the meeting itself was a possible sign of Russia’s impatience with the direction of the Syrian conflict....
--more--"
"Diplomatic squeeze against Syria increases; Arab League, France add to isolation" November 17, 2011|By Elizabeth A. Kennedy and Paul Schemm, Associated Press
BEIRUT - Syria’s president faced a growing challenge to his iron rule from home and abroad yesterday, with renegade troops reportedly launching their most daring attack yet on the military and with world leaders looking at the possibilities for a regime without Bashar Assad....
Gamal Abdel Gawad, an Arab affairs specialist in Cairo, said “Regime change is unavoidable.’’
******************************
The Assad dynasty has ruled Syria for four decades, and any change could transform some of the most enduring alliances in the Middle East and beyond.
Syria’s tie to Iran is among the most important relationships in the Middle East, providing the Iranians with a foothold on Israel’s border and a critical conduit to Tehran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
Syrian allies in Russia and China also worry that the downfall of Assad would be a severe blow to their interests in the Middle East.
On the other side of the equation, Saudi Arabia, which is a Sunni powerhouse, and other US allies in the Middle East have long tried to break the Syria-Iran alliance. Assad’s fall could usher in a regime more bound to Sunni power.
Iran has encouraged Assad to talk to the opposition and even suggested he cannot rely only on force and intimidation - the same formula used in 2009 by Iran against protesters after the disputed reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
But generally, Tehran has mirrored the Damascus line about the unrest, saying foreign powers are stirring up trouble to destabilize Syria.
But as more countries shift away from Damascus, Assad’s power could wobble.
Assad, a 46-year-old eye doctor who inherited power 11 years ago, is already facing the most profound isolation of his family’s rule. World leaders who once hoped he could transform his father’s stagnant dictatorship into a modern state are abandoning him....
Attacks on Syrian forces by defecting troops have been growing, highlighting the potential for a larger armed conflict in a country of 22 million....
--more--"
"Syria responds to Arab League, but critics see stalling" November 19, 2011|By Nada Bakri, New York Times
BEIRUT - France has joined Turkey in calling for greater international efforts to exert pressure on Syria to stop its bloody crackdown on protesters, as at least 15 more people were reported killed yesterday....
With the situation in the country deteriorating, foreign leaders are struggling for some kind of effective response.
France’s foreign minister, Alain Juppe, on a visit to Ankara, Turkey, called the situation “no longer sustainable’’ yesterday.
Speaking at a news conference alongside his Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Davutoglu, Juppe also called on the Syrian opposition “to avoid recourse to an armed insurrection,’’ saying, “A civil war would, of course, be a true catastrophe.’’ He was referring to the rise of attacks by Syrian Army deserters, which include a pair of attacks this week on sites associated with the Syrian government.
Asked whether France would support military action by Turkey, including the entrance of forces to establish a kind of buffer zone as the opposition has proposed at various times, Juppe answered that any military action, no matter by whom, would have to be approved by the United Nations.
Such a development, however, would appear extremely unlikely for a host of reasons, culminating in the near-certainty of Security Council vetoes from Russia and China.
I was told Russia was getting impatient.
Eight months into the uprising, the Syrian opposition is too fractured to offer a unified position on what the international community should do....
--more--"
"Sectarian fighting in Syrian city may signal civil war ahead" November 20, 2011|By Anthony Shadid, New York Times
BEIRUT - A harrowing sectarian war has spread across the Syrian city of Homs this month, with supporters and opponents of the government blamed for beheadings, rival gangs carrying out tit-for-tat kidnappings, minorities fleeing for their native villages, and taxi drivers too fearful of drive-by shootings to ply the streets.
As it descends into sectarian hatred, Homs has emerged as a chilling window on what civil war in Syria could look like, just as some of Syria’s closest allies say the country appears to be heading in that direction. A US official called the strife in Homs “reminiscent of the former Yugoslavia,’’ where the term “ethnic cleansing’’ began in the 1990s.
Doesn't seem to be much of a problem when Israel does it.
“Over the past couple of weeks, we’ve seen sectarian attacks on the rise, and really ugly sectarian attacks,’’ the Obama administration official said in Washington. The longer President Bashar Assad “stays in power, what you see in Homs, you’ll see across Syria.’’
**************************
Since the start of the uprising eight months ago, Homs has emerged as a pivot in the greatest challenge to the 11-year rule of Assad. This month, government security forces tried to retake the city, in a bloody crackdown.
Homs, Syria’s third-largest city, has a sectarian mix that mirrors the nation. The majority is Sunni Muslim, with sizable minorities of Christians and Alawites, a heterodox Muslim sect from which Assad draws much of his top leadership. Though some Alawites support the uprising, and some Sunnis still back the government, both communities have overwhelmingly gathered on opposite sides in the revolt.
In past weeks, Homs was buckling under a relentless crackdown as the government tried to reimpose control. Dozens were killed, but the US official said the Obama administration believed the government withdrew some forces in accordance with an Arab League plan to end the violence. Residents offer a different version. Several said the government had repainted tanks and armored vehicles blue and redeployed them as a police force for the same operations.
“The regime wants to say to the Arab observers that the police are confronting protesters, not the army or security men,’’ said activist Abu Hassan....
But even as the death toll has fallen in Homs in recent days, the sectarian strife seems to have gathered a momentum that has defied the attempts of both Sunnis and Alawites to stanch it.
That is agenda-pushing, war-promoting code for western intelligence operations.
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"Insurgents attack Syrian party office; Strike in capital largely symbolic" November 21, 2011|By Nada Bakri, New York Times
BEIRUT - Insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades at the offices of the ruling Ba’ath Party in Damascus yesterday in a highly symbolic strike that signaled a new chapter in the eight-month uprising against the rule of President Bashar Assad.
It was the second attack in days in the capital, which had so far largely been spared the unrest in other cities.
Whether it caused any casualties or significant damage was unclear, but coming amid a series of other assaults, along with growing sectarian strife in Homs, Syria’s third-largest city, it could augur a turn to a protracted armed struggle.
Diplomatic efforts to end the conflict also foundered yesterday as the Arab League rejected a Syrian effort to amend a so-far ineffectual peace agreement, and Assad said in a newspaper interview that he had no choice but to continue his military campaign against dissidents and vowed that he was prepared to fight and die if needed.
Military defectors and armed insurgents have carried out attacks on government installations since the start of the uprising eight months ago, but the attack in Damascus yesterday was the first to strike at the heart of the government’s base....
The Free Syrian Army, an insurgent group made of defecting soldiers and based in southern Turkey, claimed responsibility for both attacks....
Like other attacks so far on government installations in Idlib and the capital’s suburbs, it seemed to be more of a symbolic message than a real threat.
In destruction and carnage, it pales before the worst episodes in the last uprising in the late 1970s and early 1980s that threatened the Assad family’s four decades of rule.
At a news conference yesterday, Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said reports of the attack were “totally unfounded.’’
The raid could not be independently confirmed because Damascus has banned most foreign journalists from entering the country. A nearby resident said she heard a loud explosion in the morning, but that it did not appear to have caused any damage.
The Free Syrian Army said that attack was a response to the government’s refusal to comply with an Arab League peace plan, under which it agreed to free tens of thousands of political prisoners and to withdraw its military troops from the streets.
The League said its foreign ministers would meet Thursday in Cairo to decide the next step.
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"Turkey issues warnings to Syria; Prime minister says oppression can’t last forever" November 22, 2011|By Bassem Mroue, Associated Press
ANKARA, Turkey - On Sunday, the commander of a group of Syrian army defectors retracted earlier claims that his followers launched an unprecedented attack inside the capital, Damascus, in an embarrassing turnaround for the armed movement.
Riad al-Asaad, an air force colonel who heads the Free Syrian Army from Turkey, said in a video posted on the group’s Facebook page that Assad’s government was trying to tarnish the image of the revolution.
“We did not target the party building in Damascus, and we will not target any civilian installation,’’ said Asaad, who was wearing his military uniform.
Syria has banned most foreign journalists from entering Syria and prevented reporters from moving freely in the country, making it nearly impossible to independently confirm events on the ground.
The Committee to Protect Journalists in New York said a Syrian cameraman was found dead Sunday in a town in Homs....
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"Syria ignores deadline, faces tough Arab League sanctions; Group demanded country allow an observer mission" November 26, 2011|By Nada Bakri, New York Times
BEIRUT - The United Nations expressed concern yesterday about reports of executions and torture of civilians, including children.
The UN Committee against Torture described “rife or systematic attacks’’ against civilians, “including the killing of peaceful demonstrators,’’ adding that it was particularly concerned about reports of children being tortured and mutilated during detention. It described Syria’s actions as “gross and pervasive’’ human rights violations.
The statement came ahead of a highly anticipated report to be released Monday by an independent commission of inquiry, sponsored by the United Nations, investigating accusations that Syrian armed forces committed crimes against humanity....
The U.N is nothing but a western tool, otherwise Bush and Bliar would be in the dock.
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"Syria buries security forces as sanctions loom" by Zeina Karam Associated Press / November 26, 2011
BEIRUT—Syria buried 22 members of the armed forces Saturday, including six elite pilots, as the government reinforced its message that the 8-month-old revolt against President Bashar Assad is the work of terrorists and foreign agents, not patriotic Syrians seeking reform.
Most of the world knows that.
But with no sign of violence abating, an Arab League committee agreed Saturday on a draft of recommended sanctions against Syria, including halting cooperation with the nation's central bank and stopping flights to the country. The 22-nation body will vote on the recommendations Sunday in Cairo.
If the Arab League were to go ahead with the move, it would be a huge blow for a regime that considers itself a powerhouse of Arab nationalism....
Still, there is widely held skepticism the Arab sanctions would succeed in pressuring the Syrian regime into putting an end to the violence that has claimed the lives of dozens of Syrians, week after week. Many fear the violence is pushing the country toward civil war.
Until recently, most of the bloodshed was caused by security forces firing on mainly peaceful protests. But there have been growing reports of army defectors and armed civilians fighting Assad's forces -- a development that some say plays into the regime's hands by giving government troops a pretext to crack down with overwhelming force....
Also Saturday, an Egypt-based Syrian dissident alleged that his 25-year-old pregnant wife was abducted by Syrian intelligence agents in Cairo, then released and left unconscious on a street in the Egyptian capital. The Syrian Embassy in Egypt strongly denied the claim.
Thaer al-Nashef, a vociferous opponent of Assad's regime, said he received an anonymous text message saying the abduction was meant to teach him "not to insult your masters again."
An Egyptian police official confirmed al-Nashef had filed a kidnapping complaint but gave no details....
Al-Nashef worked as a correspondent for Syria's SANA state news agency until 2006, when he became a regime opponent. He has lived in Egypt since 2007 and has been a vocal critic of the regime, appearing often on Egyptian TV stations to discuss the uprising....
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"Arab League approves sanctions against Syria; Iraq, Lebanon say they will not participate" November 28, 2011|By Nada Bakri and Neil MacFarquhar, New York Times
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Analysts said they expected the impact of the sanctions to be limited, in large part because Syria’s largest trading partners will not participate.
Economists estimate that about 50 percent of Syrian trade is with the Arab world, but the largest chunk of that is with its immediate neighbors, including Iraq, Lebanon, and Jordan.
Iraq abstained from the sanctions vote, and Lebanon “disassociated’’ itself from the vote, Jassem said. Both countries said they would not enforce the sanctions, while Jordan has issued mixed signals....
Hoshar Zubairy, the Iraqi foreign minister, was quoted in local press reports as saying implementing the sanctions is a “sovereign’’ decision left up to each country. Given the volume of trade and the estimated 2 million Iraqi refugees accepted by Syria, it would not take part, he said.
Analysts noted that Iraq has increasingly aligned its regional policies with Iran, but Zubairy denies that Iran has direct sway over Baghdad. Iran and Russia are also expected to provide aid to Syria to make up for lost government revenues. Still, sanctions have taken a toll. Syria’s two most vital sectors, tourism and oil, have ground to a halt in recent months....
The immediate impact of the sanctions is likely to be at least as much psychological as economic....
In Syria, people worried that the sanctions would mostly hurt the poor and the middle class, further decreasing their income, while the interests of the business class and the elite would remain protected.
As in the case of all sanction regimes.
Others hoped that the sanctions would push the business class and the elite in Syria’s two biggest cities, Damascus and Aleppo, to participate in the opposition against the government of President Bashar Assad. The upper class has remained largely quiet since the uprising began in March.
That's terrorism.
Violence in Syria continued throughout the weekend....
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"UN blames Syrian forces for deaths of 256 children; Assad regime may retaliate over sanctions" November 29, 2011|By John Heilprin, Associated Press
BEIRUT - A UN investigation concluded yesterday that Syrian forces committed crimes against humanity by killing and torturing hundreds of children, including a 2-year-old girl reportedly shot to death so she wouldn’t grow up to be a demonstrator....
I'm starting to question the U.N.'s credibility myself.
The report was compiled by a panel of independent experts who were not allowed into Syria. However, the commission interviewed 223 victims and witnesses, including defectors from Syria’s military and security forces....
The list of alleged crimes committed by Syrian forces “include murder, torture, rape, and other forms of sexual violence,’’ said the panel’s chairman, Paulo Sergio Pinheiro, a Brazilian professor. “We have a very solid body of evidence.’’
At least 3,500 people have been killed since March in Syria, according to the UN - the bloodiest regime response against the Arab Spring protests sweeping the Middle East. Deaths in Egypt, Tunisia, and Yemen have numbered in the hundreds; while Libya’s toll is unknown and likely higher, the conflict there differs from Syria’s because it descended into outright civil war between two armed sides....
Chaos in Syria could send unsettling ripples across the region. Syria borders five countries with which it shares religious and ethnic minorities. As they struggled with ways to respond to Assad’s brutal crackdown, world leaders have been all too aware of the country’s web of allegiances, which extend to Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah movement and Iran’s Shi’ite theocracy.
The latest sanctions include cutting off transactions with Syria’s central bank, and are expected to squeeze an ailing economy that is under sanctions by the United States and the European Union. The net effect of the Arab sanctions could deal a crippling blow to Syria’s economy....
Iraq and Lebanon, which abstained from the Arab League vote, may continue to be markets for Syrian goods, in defiance of the sanctions. Syria shares long borders with both countries and moving goods in and out would be easy.
Still....
The economic troubles threaten the business community and prosperous merchant classes that are key to propping up the regime.
Since the revolt began, the Assad regime has blamed the bloodshed on terrorists acting out a foreign conspiracy to divide and undermine Syria. Until recently, most deaths appeared to be caused by security forces firing on mainly peaceful protests. But lately, there have been growing reports of army defectors and armed civilians fighting Assad’s forces, a development that some say plays into the regime’s hands by giving government troops a pretext to crack down with overwhelming force....
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"Top UN official says Syria now in a civil war; Cites death toll and defections; US disagrees with the label" December 02, 2011|By Elizabeth A. Kennedy and Frank Jordans, Associated Press
BEIRUT - Syria has entered a state of civil war with more than 4,000 people dead and an increasing number of soldiers defecting from the army to fight President Bashar Assad’s regime, the UN’s top human rights official said yesterday.
Civil war has been the worst-case scenario in Syria since the revolt against Assad began eight months ago. Damascus has a web of allegiances that extends to Lebanon’s powerful Hezbollah movement and Iran’s Shi’ite theocracy, raising fears of a regional conflagration.
The assessment that the bloodshed in Syria has crossed into civil war came from the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay.
The conflict has shown little sign of letting up. Activists reported up to 22 people killed yesterday, adding to what has become a daily grind of violence....
The Free Syrian Army, a group of defectors from the military, has emerged as the most visible armed challenge to Assad. The group holds no territory, appears largely disorganized, and is up against a fiercely loyal and cohesive military.
International intervention, such as the NATO action in Libya that helped topple longtime dictator Moammar Khadafy, is all but out of the question in Syria. But there is real concern that the conflict in Syria could spread chaos across the Middle East.
Meaning it is NOT OUT of the question.
Syria borders five countries with whom it shares religious and ethnic minorities and, in Israel’s case, a fragile truce.
A resident of the flashpoint city of Homs said businessmen are growing impatient.
“The sanctions against the regime are harming them,’’ he said, asking that his name not be used. “Merchants only care about their interests. Many merchants are complaining that their business is dropping.’’
Activists also are trying to peel the business elite away from their allegiance to Assad. Yesterday, opposition groups called for a general strike, but it was difficult to gauge how widely Syrians were abiding by the strike. The regime has sealed the country off from foreign journalists and prevented independent reporting....
--more--"
"UN official says intervention needed in Syria; Human rights commissioner warns of war" December 03, 2011|By Nada Bakri, New York Times
BEIRUT - The UN high commissioner for human rights called yesterday for international intervention to protect Syrian civilians from the government’s crackdown amid warnings that the country is headed toward civil war.
Out of the question.
The commissioner, Navi Pillay, estimated that more than 4,000 people, including 307 children, have been killed in the nearly nine months since the uprising erupted against the government of President Bashar Assad. Pillay, who has emerged as a forceful voice on Syria, estimated that at least 14,000 people have been detained.
“The Syrian authorities’ continual ruthless repression, if not stopped now, can drive the country into a full-fledged civil war,’’ Pillay told a special emergency session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. “In light of the manifest failure of the Syrian authorities to protect their citizens, the international community needs to take urgent and effective measures to protect the Syrian people.’’
“All acts of murder, torture and other forms of violence must be immediately stopped,’’ she added.
Tell it to the U.S.and Israel.
Pillay also warned of the danger posed by increasingly bold attacks by army defectors against security forces loyal to the government. In the latest such attack, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition group in exile, said yesterday that a group of defectors known as the Free Syrian Army killed at least eight people in a strike on a building for intelligence forces in the northwestern province of Idlib, near Turkey....
Are they going to back off that one, too?
The emergency session of the rights council, the third held on Syria since April, was called by the European Union, with support from the United States and Arab countries. In August, Pillay called for the UN Security Council to refer Syria to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity.
The European Union imposed a series of sanctions Thursday against Syrian officials and companies, including oil companies and media companies that European officials say provide sensitive equipment to a research center that supports the crackdown on protesters.
Yesterday’s rights council session followed a report issued Monday by an independent commission sponsored by the UN that found that Syrian military and security forces had committed crimes against humanity, including killings, torture, and rape of adults and children. The committee, which was not allowed to enter Syria, based its investigation on interviews with 223 victims, witnesses, and deserters from the army.
“The extreme suffering of the population inside and outside Syria must be addressed as a matter of urgency,’’ Paulo Pinheiro, a Brazilian human rights expert who led the commission, told the emergency session.
Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, Faysal Khabbaz Hamoui, reacted angrily to Pillay’s comments....
After the talks, the European Union drafted a resolution condemning the continued violence but did not ask the Security Council, which can refer countries to the International Criminal Court, to take any action.
Pillay’s comments came as protesters across Syria took to the streets after noon prayer yesterday in demonstrations labeled “a buffer zone is our demand.’’ Syria has had growing calls from the opposition inside the country and abroad for international intervention.
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"Strike in Syria targets economy; Movement meant to erode Assad’s support base" December 13, 2011|By Elizabeth A. Kennedy, Associated Press
BEIRUT - Syrians closed their businesses and kept children home from school yesterday as part of a general strike, a powerful show of civil disobedience to pressure President Bashar Assad to end his 9-month-old crackdown on a popular uprising.
Activists said a new round of clashes between Syrian troops and army defectors began Sunday with a major battle in the south and spread to new areas yesterday, raising fears the conflict is spiraling toward civil war....
Navi Pillay, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said yesterday that the UN believes the overall death toll in the eight months of unrest now exceeds 5,000.
Pillay said she recommended that the council refer Syria to the International Criminal Court, the permanent war crimes tribunal, for investigation of possible crimes against humanity.
The general strike takes direct aim at the country’s ailing economy. It is designed to erode Assad’s main base of support - the new and vibrant merchant classes who have benefited in recent years as the president opened up the economy.
If the economy continues to collapse, Assad could find himself with few allies inside the country, where calls are growing by the day for him to step down. The authoritarian president is struggling under international isolation and suffocating sanctions.
It is difficult to gauge the strength of the strike because the regime has banned most foreign journalists and prevented local reporters from moving freely. But there were signs it was being widely observed in particular in centers of antigovernment protest....
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"Defectors kill 27 Syrian soldiers, opposition group says; Former members of military strike army positions" December 16, 2011|By Nada Bakri, New York Times
BEIRUT - Military defectors in Syria killed 27 soldiers yesterday, an opposition group reported, in one of the largest attacks yet on Syrian security forces by a growing armed insurgency....
The opposition group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, based in London, has a network of contacts and informants inside the country, [but] did not specify the sources of the information, and it was unclear from the group’s statement whether any of the attackers were killed.
In recent days, attacks have escalated around Daraa and in Hama, a tense city in central Syria, where vast protests gathered in the summer before security forces retook the city in August.
Although the statement by the opposition group and similar reports from other activist groups leave an incomplete picture of the situation, some activists have suggested that parts of Daraa and Hama have become so hostile that security forces are finding it difficult to enter them.
Word of the soldiers’ deaths came as Human Rights Watch released a report yesterday in which it named 74 commanders and officers, identified by former Syrian soldiers, who are responsible for attacks on unarmed protesters.
The report said the commanders are members in Syria’s military and intelligence agencies. According to soldiers who defected and were interviewed by the group, the officers have given orders to carry out widespread killings, torture, and unlawful arrests.
In the report, Human Rights Watch urged the UN Security Council to refer the government of President Bashar Assad to the International Criminal Court and to impose sanctions against all officials implicated.
“Defectors gave us names, ranks, and positions of those who gave the orders to shoot and kill, and each and every official named in this report, up to the very highest levels of the Syrian government, should answer for their crimes against the Syrian people,’’ said Anna Neistat, associate director for emergencies at Human Rights Watch, and one of the authors of the report....
The report echoed remarks earlier this week by the UN commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, who urged the United Nations to take tough actions against Assad’s regime for its crackdown, which, she said, had killed at least 5,000.
The impact of intensifying sanctions on Syria by Western nations and the Arab League led Canada yesterday to urgently call on its estimated 5,000 citizens in Syria to leave the country as soon as possible, warning that sharp reductions in commercial air travel and communications there could soon make it difficult for foreigners to get out.
John Baird, Canada’s foreign affairs minister, told reporters in Ottawa that the Assad regime in Damascus had “lost all legitimacy.’’
“Its abhorrent behavior will not be tolerated,’’ Baird said of the regime.
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"Syria signs Arab deal to allow observers" December 20, 2011|By Bassem Mroue
BEIRUT - By signing, the Syrian regime stands to gain more time and to avert - for now at least - the possibility of wider international involvement in the crisis. But critics were doubtful the regime would allow the observers full, unrestricted access to trouble spots and said it was probably a delaying tactic.
Burhan Ghalioun, the leader of Syria’s main opposition group the Syrian National Council, called for Arab military intervention to protect Syrian civilians and the creation of humanitarian corridors to deliver aid....
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"Syrian opposition groups unite against Assad" January 01, 2012|By Bassem Mroue
BEIRUT - Syria’s two largest opposition groups have signed an agreement on setting up a democracy after President Bashar Assad’s regime falls, opposition figures said yesterday.
The move is so far the most serious by the fractured opposition to unite against the regime and shows that Assad’s opponents will accept nothing less than his departure from power....
The agreement between the opposition coalitions says both groups reject any foreign military intervention in Syria and call for the protection of civilians by all legitimate means in the framework of international laws.
It also says that if Assad’s regime falls a “transitional period’’ will begin by preserving all state institutions, then drafting a new constitution that guarantees a “civilian pluralist parliamentary democratic system.’’ Then parliamentary elections would be held.
The draft also says that all Syrian citizens are equal and the country’s Kurdish minority is a “fundamental and historic’’ part of Syria’s national structure. It also calls for “liberating Syrian territory,’’ an apparent reference to the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel since 1967.
That couldn't have gone over well with their western backers.
The two umbrella groups, the SNC and NCB, arose after the revolt began in March as activists and the opposition tried to organize their ranks against Assad. The national council has been the more active of the two abroad. The NCB has organized opposition conferences inside Syria, suggesting it has a stronger presence on the ground....
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"Syria’s stalemate hardens as fear of civil war grows" January 15, 2012|By Anthony Shadid
BEIRUT - The failure of an Arab League mission to stanch violence in Syria, an international community with little leverage, and a government that is as defiant as its opposition is in disarray have thrust Syria into what increasingly looks like a protracted, chaotic, and perhaps unnegotiable conflict.
The opposition itself speaks less of prospects for the fall of President Bashar Assad and more about a civil war that some argue has already begun, with the government losing control over some regions and its authority ebbing in the suburbs of the capital and parts of major cities like Homs and Hama. Even the capital, Damascus, which had remained calm for months, has been carved up with checkpoints, and its residents have been frightened by sounds of gunfire.
The deepening stalemate suggests that events may be slipping out of control. In a town about a half-hour’s drive from Damascus, the police station was recently burned down and, in retaliation, electricity and water were cut off, diplomats say. For a time, residents drew water in buckets from a well. Some people are too afraid to drive major highways at night. In Homs - a city that a Lebanese politician called “the Stalingrad of the Syrian revolution’’ - reports have grown of sectarian cleansing of once-mixed neighborhoods, where some roads have become borders too dangerous for taxis to cross.
In a suggestion that seemed to underline the sense of desperation, the emir of Qatar said in an interview with CBS, an excerpt of which was released yesterday, that Arab troops should intervene in Syria to “stop the killing.’’
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Syria still counts on the support of Russia and China in the UN Security Council. In the Arab world, Syria has allies in Iraq and Algeria....
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"There is growing urgency to find a resolution to a crisis that is growing increasingly violent as regime opponents and army defectors who have switched sides have started to fight back against government forces....
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"Syrian troops shell rebellious areas near capital; At least 62 die in violence across nation" by Zeina Karam | Associated Press, January 30, 2012
BEIRUT - The widescale offensive near the capital suggested the regime is worried that military defectors could close in on Damascus....
The rising bloodshed added urgency to Arab and Western diplomatic efforts to end the 10-month conflict.
Their presence so close to the capital is astonishing in tightly controlled Syria and suggests the Assad regime may be losing control or setting up a trap for the fighters before going on the offensive....
“The current battles taking place in and around Damascus may not yet lead to the unraveling of the regime, but the illusion of normalcy that the Assads have sought hard to maintain in the capital since the beginning of the revolution has surely unraveled,’’ said Ammar Abdulhamid, a US-based Syrian dissident.
“Once illusions unravel, reality soon follows,’’ he wrote in his blog yesterday....
Like when you begin investigating 9/11.
Boy, the AmeriKan media sure can dig up blogs when it wants.
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"UN pressured to act in Syria; Russia seeks talks; Assad forces, rebels battle near capital" by Kareem Fahim | New York Times, January 31, 2012
BEIRUT - Syrian rebel fighters continued clashing with government forces in neighborhoods on the doorstep of Damascus yesterday in an escalation of the war there, while a new diplomatic effort by Russia to broker talks between the antagonists faltered and pressure for United Nations action intensified.
Despite deployments by Syrian forces into the eastern suburbs of Damascus on Sunday, where soldiers, tanks, and armed vehicles were sent to crush pockets of armed rebellion, there was no clear sign that the heavily outgunned rebels had been vanquished....
In a sign of the growing pressure on the UN Security Council to take action despite Russia’s position, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the foreign ministers of both France and Britain were heading to New York to participate in the council’s deliberations, which were scheduled for today.
Clinton condemned the “the escalation of the Syrian regime’s violent and brutal attacks on its own people.’’ She said that the Security Council must act “so that a new period of democratic transition can begin.’’
“The Arab League is backing a resolution that calls on the international community to support its ongoing efforts, because the status quo is not acceptable,’’ she said. “The longer the Assad regime continues its attacks on the Syrian people and stands in the way of a peaceful transition, the greater the concern that instability will escalate and spill over throughout the region.’’
A senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss diplomatic efforts, said the United States and other council members would force a veto if the Russians and Chinese resist.
“They can’t continue to defend an unsustainable status quo,’’ the official said....
Moscow, which in October vetoed the first council attempt to condemn Syria’s crackdown, has shown little sign of budging in its opposition. It warns that the new measure could open the door to eventual military intervention, the way an Arab-backed UN resolution led to NATO airstrikes in Libya.
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"UN considers resolution on Syrian violence as Russia balks; Proposal calls for Assad to step aside Moscow opposes regime change" y Neil Macfarquhar | New York Times, February 01, 2012
UNITED NATIONS - The battle over Syria moved to the United Nations yesterday as Western powers and much of the Arab world confronted Russia and its allies in the Security Council over their refusal to condemn the Syrian government for its violent suppression of popular protests.
As top diplomats gathered in the Security Council chamber for the showdown, the steady drumbeat of violence continued without pause in Syria, where government forces used heavy weapons and tanks to push rebels back from strongholds near Damascus.
At the UN, the two sides skirmished over a draft Security Council resolution proposed by Morocco that calls for President Bashar Assad of Syria to leave power as the first step of a transition toward democracy.
Who is arming them?
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, joined by the foreign ministers of Britain, France, and several other countries, argued that Libya was a “false analogy.’’ The plan for a gradual democratic transition “represents the best efforts of Syria’s neighbors to chart a way forward, and it deserves a chance to work,’’ she said....
Fundamentally, the argument over Syria reflects a deeper divide between those who would use the Security Council to confront nations over how their governments treat civilians, versus those who feel that it has no role whatsoever in settling domestic disputes. Syria is the latest example in an argument that stretches back through all recent conflicts.
Translation: The UN is a TOOL of REGIME CHANGE!
Russia, backed discreetly by China and India, rejects the idea that the world organization can interfere in the domestic politics of any country to force a leadership change. They all feel that they were duped into supporting a no-fly zone over Libya, which was promoted as a means to protect civilians last March. Instead, they said, NATO used it as a license to help overthrow the Libyan leader, Moammar Gadhafi.
The Russian envoy, Vitaly I. Churkin, adopted a “where will it all end’’ argument yesterday. The council, he said, will start saying “what king or prime minister needs to step down. The Security Council cannot prescribe recipes for the outcome of a domestic political process.’’
Yet in a sign that Russia was beginning to feel the need to deflect at least some of the accusations that Moscow is partially responsible for not stemming the rising death toll, Russia distanced itself from Assad himself. The UN stopped tallying deaths after they passed 5,400 in January, saying they were too difficult to confirm accurately, and since then the toll has mounted steadily.
“The Russian policy is not about asking someone to step down; regime change is not our profession,’’ Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation during a stop on a tour of Asia.
“We are not friends or allies of President Assad,’’ he went on, according to a transcript on the Interfax news service. “We never said that Assad remaining in power is a precondition for regulating the situation. We said something else - we said that the decision should be made by Syrians, by the Syrians themselves.’’
There is no Western nor Arab League support for the kind of international military intervention that occurred in Libya, because of concerns that an implosion of Syria could drag neighbors like Israel, Iraq, and Lebanon into a wider conflagration.
LIE! That's what certain quarters want.
The goal is to try to stanch the conflict without sparking a sectarian civil war.
BULL!
In the longest and most emotional speech of the day, Ambassador Bashar Jaafari of Syria evoked the famous Arab poet Nizar Qabbani and the long Arab struggle against colonialism to insult Qatar and others leading the effort to support political change in Syria, suggesting they were joining a Western plot.
But Hamad and Nabil al-Araby, the Arab League secretary general, both pleaded with the council that more international pressure was needed to meet the democratic aspirations of the Syrian people after 11 months of demonstrations.
The league strategy - used as a blueprint for the resolution - mirrors that applied in Yemen, and promoted by Arab states, whereby the longtime autocratic president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, transferred power to his vice president after months of often bloody prodemocracy protests.
Related: The Saleh Shuffle
Think they will cut Assad such slack?
Critics suggest that strategy aims merely to stop the violence without promoting real change.
The haggling over the wording of the resolution is expected to commence in earnest again today. Russia and China vetoed a similar resolution last October.
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"Syrian troops open a new front against rebels; Diplomats hold a second day of talks at the UN" by Lee Keath | Associated Press, February 02, 2012
BEIRUT - Heavy gunfire and shelling rattled towns in a mountain valley outside Damascus yesterday, as Syrian troops opened a new front in their campaign to crush rebels who have taken control of areas around the capital.
The assault in the mountains overlooking Damascus from the northwest came a day after regime troops largely succeeded in retaking suburbs on the eastern side of the city in an offensive over the past week....
UN ambassadors held a second day of talks in a closed session at the Security Council, trying to win the agreement of Syria’s ally Russia to a draft resolution calling for President Bashar Assad to surrender power.
We've heard that one before!
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon hoped the council will respond with a unified voice, said his spokesman Martin Nesirky.
“He’s concerned that as time passes, more people are being killed,’’ Nesirky said....
The escalation in fighting appears to reflect the regime’s growing concern over the threat posed by army defectors who have sided with protesters demanding Assad’s ouster.
Defectors have appeared in towns and cities around the country, protecting protests, defending neighborhoods from regime assault, and launching attacks on military forces and infrastructure.
In recent weeks, the rebels appeared in greater numbers in the towns and suburbs surrounding Damascus, which has been tightly controlled by the regime throughout the country’s turmoil.
Yesterday, regime forces pushed their way up Wadi Barada, a valley in the mountains a few miles northwest of Damascus near the Lebanese border. Battles with rebels appeared heavy....
The valley leads to the mountain resort town of Zabadani, an opposition stronghold that has been under the control of rebel soldiers and protesters for several weeks....
Also yesterday, gunmen kidnapped 11 Iranian pilgrims driving from the Turkish border to Damascus to visit Shi’ite shrines, a diplomat in the Syrian capital said. The gunmen ambushed the pilgrims’ bus, separated women, children, and elderly men and abducted the 11 young men, he said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release details.
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"UN drops demand for Syria sanctions; US, allies seek deal with Russia on power transfer" by Colum Lynch | Washington Post, February 03, 2012
UNITED NATIONS - The United States and its European and Arab partners have agreed to drop a demand to impose UN sanctions and a voluntary arms embargo on Syria, in exchange for a commitment from Russia to allow adoption of a UN Security Council resolution that paves the way for President Bashar Assad’s departure from power.
The latest offer, outlined in a new version of a draft resolution under negotiations in the 15-nation council, represents a retreat by the United States and its European and Arab allies, stripping away the most painful measures aimed at Syria and taking off the table the issue of its weapons purchases from Russia, Syria’s closest ally.
But the pact would for the first time place the Security Council, and possibly Russia, squarely behind an Arab League plan outlining a timetable for a transfer of power to a government of national unity, and ultimately for new parliamentary and presidential elections.
The Arab League secretary general, Nabil Elaraby, sought to reassure Russia that the resolution is not intended to justify military action, to sanction Syria, or to force Assad to leave power....
These guys keep changing their tune.
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"200 killed by Syrian forces in bloodiest day of uprising; UN to take up resolution on conflict today" by Elizabeth A. Kennedy | Associated Press. February 04, 2012
BEIRUT - In a barrage of shelling, Syrian forces killed 200 people and wounded hundreds more early today in Homs in an offensive that appears to be the bloodiest episode in the nearly 11-month-old uprising, activists said....
The reports could not be independently confirmed.
It was not immediately clear what precipitated the attack, but there have been reports that army defectors set up checkpoints in the area and were trying to consolidate control.
Assad is trying to crush the revolt with a sweeping crackdown that has so far claimed thousands of lives, but neither the government nor the protesters are backing down, and clashes between the military and an increasingly bold and armed opposition has meant many parts of the country have seen relentless violence.
Meanwhile, the UN Security Council, meeting later today, was to take up a much-negotiated resolution on Syria. A diplomat for a Western nation that sits on the council said the meeting would happen this morning. The diplomat spoke yesterday on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to be quoted by the press.
The move toward a vote came after Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton spoke by telephone with Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, in an effort to overcome Russian opposition to any statement that explicitly calls for regime change or a military intervention in Syria.
The United States and its partners have ruled out military action but want the global body to endorse an Arab League plan that calls on Assad to hand power over to Syria’s vice president.
No, they have ALL BUT ruled it out!
Clinton called Lavrov while flying to Munich for a security conference that both are attending, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.
He said Clinton and Lavrov agreed to have American and Russian diplomats continue work on a Syria resolution and were planning to meet for more talks in Munich over the weekend.
Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Gennady Gatilov, said Moscow could not support the resolution in its current form. But he expressed optimism that an agreement could be reached, according to state news agency RIA Novosti....
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"Russia, China veto UN effort to end violence in Syria; Vote comes amid bloody crackdown against opposition" by Anthony Shadid and Neil MacFarquhar | New York Times, February 05, 2012
UNITED NATIONS - A UN Security Council effort to end violence in Syria ended in acrimony and a veto by Russia and China yesterday....
The veto and the mounting violence underlined the dynamics shaping what is proving to be the Arab world’s bloodiest revolt: diplomatic stalemate and failure as Syria plunges deeper into what many are already calling a civil war. Diplomats have lamented their lack of options in pressuring the Syrian government, and even some Syrian dissidents worry about what the growing confrontation will mean for a country reeling from bloodshed and hardship....
After the vote, and the failure before that of the Arab League peace plan to stem the violence, predictions were grim about what lay ahead in a conflict that the United Nations says has claimed more than 5,000 lives. To many, two inexorable forces were at work: a government bent on crushing the uprising by force, faced with an opposition that, if not increasing in numbers, appears to be radicalizing and growing in determination.
“What more do we need to know to act decisively in the Security Council?’’ Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton asked at a news conference in Munich. “To block this resolution is to bear responsibility for the horrors that are occurring on the ground in Syria.’’
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Protests broke out yesterday at Syrian embassies around the world, including in Egypt, Germany, Greece, and Kuwait, and Tunisia expelled Syria’s ambassador there....
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"US proposes coalition to aid Syrian rebels; Moves come double veto in UN panel" by Lee Keath and Matthew Lee | Associated Press, February 06, 2012
BEIRUT - The United States proposed an international coalition yesterday to assist Syria’s opposition, a day after Russia and China blocked a United Nations attempt to end nearly 11 months of bloodshed.
Translation: When the UN is not a useful tool discard it.
Rebel soldiers said force is now the only way to oust President Bashar Assad....
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, speaking to reporters in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia, called the double veto at the UN Security Council on Saturday “a travesty.’’
“Faced with a neutered Security Council, we have to redouble our efforts outside of the United Nations,’’ she said....
And you thought the neo-cons left with Bush?
Her comments pointed to the formation of a group of like-minded nations to coordinate assistance to the Syrian opposition, similar to the Contact Group on Libya, which oversaw international help for opponents of the late deposed Libyan leader Moammar Khadafy. In the case of Libya, the group also coordinated NATO military operations to protect Libyan civilians, something that is not envisioned in Syria.
US officials said an alliance would work to further squeeze the Assad regime by stepping up sanctions against it, bringing disparate Syrian opposition groups inside and outside the country together, providing humanitarian relief for Syrian communities, and working to prevent an escalation of violence by monitoring arms sales.
The main Syrian opposition umbrella group, the Syrian National Council, backed the idea of an international coalition.
More than 5,400 people have been killed in Syria since March, according to the United Nations, and now regime opponents fear that Assad will be emboldened by the feeling he is protected by his top ally, Russia, and will unleash even greater violence.
At least 30 civilians were killed yesterday, including five children and a woman hit by a bullet while standing on her balcony as troops fired on protesters in a Damascus suburb, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group.
Early Saturday, Syrian government forces bombarded the restive central city of Homs. Activists said the bombardment was the deadliest incident of the uprising, killing more than 200 people in a single day. The toll could not be confirmed....
In recent months, the rebel soldiers, the Free Syrian Army, have grown bolder, attacking regime troops and trying to establish control in pro-opposition areas. That has brought a heavier government response.
The commander of the Free Syrian Army said that, after the vetoes at the United Nations, “there is no other road’’ except military action to topple Assad.
This is beginning to have an IRAQ FEEL to it, isn't it?
“We consider that Syria is occupied by a criminal gang and we must liberate the country from this gang,’’ Colonel Riad al-Asaad said, speaking by telephone from Turkey. “This regime does not understand the language of politics. It only understands the language of force.’’
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Update: US closes embassy in Syria
Syria is going to be bombed soon.
