Syria: Assad: Military ‘Needs More Time’

 
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad insisted in a new interview that his military will eventually succeed against the ongoing revolt and that it just “needs more time.” The pro-government al-Dunya TV released excepts from the interview on Wednesday, where Assad said the high-profile defections have “cleansed” his government of those lacking patriotism. Assad dismissed the idea of creating humanitarian buffer zones as “unrealistic” and said the government is fighting a battle “both regionally and internationally.” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Wednesday that creating a buffer zone would be impossible without imposing a no-fly zone and deploying ground forces, an action that would need the agreement of Turkey. Meanwhile, heavy shelling was reported on Tuesday in Damascus, Aleppo, and other rebel-held areas.

Read it at The Daily Beast

Syria: Helicopter Downed in Damascus

Syrian rebels say they shot down a helicopter that was firing on people in Damascus on Monday. A helicopter crash in the neighborhood of Qabun in the capital city was confirmed by state media reports. In video footage posted by activists of the downed helicopter, rebels are heard shouting, “God is greatest.” As violence continues in the country, there has been a sharp uptick in the number of civilians fleeing across Syria’s shared border with Turkey, with the neighboring country temporarily closing two border crossings Sunday as it struggled to process the influx of refugees.

Read it at BBC

Russia: Clinton: Russia Aiding Syria

 
In a dramatic turn Tuesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that Russia may be sending attack helicopters to aid Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Violence in the region has continued unabated as forces loyal to the Syrian ruler try to crush a 15-month popular uprising. Clinton said Tuesday that the United States is “concerned about the latest information we have that there are attack helicopters on the way from Russia to Syria,” saying that the adding to the iron-fisted ruler’s armory “will escalate the conflict quite dramatically.” Clinton made the comments at a joint appearance with Israeli President Shimon Peres. Russia has worked to stall international plans to bring an end to the conflict that has left an estimated 13,000 dead.

Read it at Associated Press

Exploiting the Houla massacre as Syrian-Lebanese lines are being blurred

By Franklin Lamb
Meanwhile, this orchestrated campaign is spilling over to Lebanon and the line between the two countries participation and effects of the Syrian crisis continues to blur.

Syria accepts Arab League peace plan

AFP

by: Mona Salem

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Syrian security forces have employed violence to quell crowds protesting the regime. Photo Credit:AP

Syria on Wednesday fully accepted an Arab League plan to end nearly eight months of bloodshed, a League official said, but Washington said President Bashar al-Assad still had to go.

Assad's regime had come under huge pressure from fellow Arab states to sign up to the deal brokered by the pan-Arab bloc to end its deadly crackdown on anti-government protests to avoid the internationalisation of the crisis.

Under the hard-won deal announced at a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo after months of prevarication by Damascus, the regime agreed to a complete halt to violence against civilians and to consultations by Arab mediators aimed at opening up a dialogue with the opposition.

"The Syrian delegation accepted the Arab League plan without reservations and in its entirety," the League official said.Read the original article at AFP

Read more: http://times247.com/pset/syria-politics-protests-and-uprisings/page/1#ixzz1ppQO09yJ

Syria: The Best Read on the Country

This, by Peter Harling and Sarah Birke, is by far and away the best piece I have read on Syria (and why you should really subscribe to MERIP — not to read it, because it's free, to support it as a platform). It stands out among all the hare-brained intervention plans, the letters from Syria, the impassioned calls for action and all the rest. I really urge you to read the whole thing, but here are some selected highlights.
The regime's calculus:

Events have aided the regime in its attempt to dismiss the protest movement and further tip the balance from nominal reform to escalating repression, fueling a vicious cycle that has turned sporadic clashes into a nascent civil war. In a sense, the regime may already have won: By pushing frustrated protesters to take up arms and the international community to offer them support, it is succeeding in disfiguring what it saw as the greatest threat to its rule, namely the grassroots and mostly peaceful protest movement that demanded profound change. In another sense, the regime may already have lost: By treating too broad a cross-section of the Syrian people as the enemy, and giving foreign adversaries justification to act, it seems to have forged against itself a coalition too big to defeat.

On the SNC's mistakes:

For its part, the Syrian National Council (SNC), the main opposition group that is composed mostly of exiles, has failed to offer an inspiring alternative since it was formed in September 2011. Its mainly unknown and inexperienced members have done little to counteract the regime’s propaganda. Unable to agree on any positive political platform, the SNC has refused any negotiation with the regime and called for “international intervention” that is conveniently left undefined, leaving to their anxieties the many Syrians who simultaneously loathe the regime, dread foreign interference and panic at the idea of a high-risk transition. It has estranged, among others, Kurdish factions, who fear a Turkish agenda, and petrified Syrians distrustful of Qatari and Saudi influence. It has most notably failed to reach out to the ‘Alawis, many of whom are poor and disgruntled but afraid to change sides lest they suffer a backlash due to their association with the security forces and army units responsible for much of the violence. By abandoning all these people to their dark forebodings, the SNC’s members have missed an opportunity to hasten the decline of the regime and ward off civil strife in the event of Bashar’s fall. On the international level, the SNC has displayed political naïveté by putting all its energy into lobbying for support from Turkey, the Gulf monarchies and the West, all of whom are already sympathetic, while ignoring and alienating the regime’s allies.

On where Syria fits in in the Arab uprisings:

There is a distinctly Syrian character to the crisis. Unlike Libyans, who in a matter of hours defected en masse, took up arms and called upon the outside world to step in, Syrians took months to resort to weapons or cry out for international intervention. Unlike Egypt, where revolution was a sublime but somewhat shallow moment of grace, the Syrian uprising has been a long, hard slog: The protest movement has gradually built itself up, studied the regime’s every move and mapped out the country to the extent that small towns such as Binnish in the northwest are now known to all.

On the organizers of the protest movement:

Alongside actual demonstrations, an expansive albeit largely invisible civil society has emerged to render them possible, by offering numerous forms of support. Businessmen have donated money and food; doctors sneak out medicines from hospitals and man field clinics in the most violence-ridden areas; religious leaders, by and large, try to keep a lid on sectarianism and violence. Over the course of the uprising, Syrians have articulated a now deeply rooted culture of dissent and developed sometimes sophisticated forms of self-rule by setting up local councils: Homs, which is also home to unruly armed groups, has developed a revolutionary council with an 11-member executive that presides over committees responsible for different aspects of the crisis, from interacting with the media to procuring medical supplies. Within revolting communities there is a greater sense of purpose, solidarity and national unity than at any time in recent Syrian history.

On external intervention:

Finally, as increasingly desperate protesters call for help, there is a danger that the outside world will make matters worse as it plays at being savior. Calls for aid are somewhat worse than a pact with the devil: They entail pacts with many devils that do not agree on much. The Gulf monarchies, Iraq, Turkey, Russia, the US, Iran and others all see geostrategic stakes in the fate of the Asad regime. The greater their involvement, the less Syrians will remain in control of their destiny. Crying out for foreign intervention of any kind, to bring this emergency to an end at any cost, is more than understandable coming from ordinary citizens subjected to extreme forms of regime violence. Exiled opposition figures who pose as national leaders have no excuse for behaving likewise, when what is needed is a cool-headed, careful calibration of what type of outside “help” would do the minimum of harm.

Close to home, another Middle Eastern experience -- Iraq -- serves as an example on all three fronts. A political process excluding even a relatively small minority within Iraqi society led to a collective disaster. A group of returning exiles, without a social base but enjoying international support as the only visible, pre-existing “alternative,” quickly took over the transition and agreed only on splitting up power among themselves on the basis of a communal calculus. Their division of the spoils gradually contaminated the entire polity, and ultimately led to civil war. And the US, presiding over this tragedy, succeeded only in turning Iraq into a parody of itself, a country that now fits every sectarian and troubled stereotype the occupying power initially saw in it.

Peter saw what happened in Iraq firsthand, and lived in Syria for the last five years. I respect his insight into Syrian society, and his wisdom in trying to avoid an Iraq 2.0. - The Arabist

Syria: US Outrage Over Syria Veto at UN Rife With Hypocrisy

Stephen Zunes, Truthout: "Washington has been rife with condemnation at the decision by the governments of Russia and China to veto an otherwise unanimous UN Security Council resolution condemning the ongoing repression in Syria ... What is striking, however, is the response from US officials and pundits so roundly condemning the use of the veto by these two permanent members of the Security Council to protect the Syrian regime from accountability for its savage repression against its own citizens."
Read the Article

Human rights activists were outraged, as they should be. What is striking, however, is the response from US officials and pundits so roundly condemning the use of the veto by these two permanent members of the Security Council to protect the Syrian regime from accountability for its savage repression against its own citizens.

A little perspective is required here: Since 1970, China has used its veto power eight times, and Russia (and the former Soviet Union) has used its veto power 13 times. However, the United States has used its veto power 83 times, primarily in defense of allies accused of violating international humanitarian law. Forty-two of these US vetoes were to protect Israel from criticism for illegal activities, including suspected war crimes. To this day, Israel occupies and colonizes a large swath of southwestern Syria in violation of a series of UN Security Council resolutions, which the United States has successfully blocked from enforcing. Yet, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton insists that it is the Russians and Chinese who have "neutered" the Security Council in its ability to defend basic human rights.

What draft resolutions by the United Nation Security Council did the United States find so terrible that both Democratic and Republican administrations felt compelled to veto? Just to give a few examples:

• Enforcement of sanctions against the brutal white minority regime in Rhodesia - 1970
   
• Opposition to South Africa's occupation of Namibia - 1975
   
• The application of Vietnam to join the United Nations -1976
   
• A call for the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with strict security guarantees for Israel - 1976
   
• Sanctions against the apartheid regime in South Africa - 1977
   
• Condemning the ongoing occupation of southern Angola by apartheid South Africa - 1981
   
• Opposition to Israel's de facto annexation of Syrian territory invaded and occupied in the 1967 war - 1982
   
• Calls for a halt to Israel's invasion of Lebanon - 1982
   
• Calls for cease-fire between Israeli occupation forces and joint Lebanese-Palestinian forces during the siege of Beirut - 1982
   
• Opposition to the US invasion of Grenada - 1983
   
• Calls for an end of US-sponsored attacks against Nicaragua - 1985
   
• A call to honor the ruling by the International Court of Justice calling for an end to US-sponsored contras against Nicaragua - 1986
   
• Criticism of Israeli attacks against civilians in Lebanon -1988
   
• Opposition to the US invasion of Panama - 1990
   
• Condemnation of Israeli violations of the Fourth Geneva Convention in the occupied West Bank -1997
   
• Establishment of an unarmed human rights observer force in the occupied Palestinian territories - 2001
   
• Condemnation of the killing of UN employees and destruction of a World Food Program warehouse by Israeli occupation forces - 2002
   
• A call on Israel to cease construction of its separation wall deep inside the occupied West Bank - 2003
   
• Condemnation of Israeli assassinations of Palestinian leaders - 2004
   
• Reiteration of the illegality of Israeli colonization in the occupied West Bank and a freeze on additional construction of settlements - 2011

In virtually every one of these resolutions, the United States cast the sole negative vote in the otherwise-unanimous 15-member Security Council. And some of the resolutions vetoed by the United States involved governments responsible for even more civilian deaths than the Syrian regime in its bloody yearlong crackdown.

None of this justifies the Soviet-Chinese veto of the resolution challenging the Syrian regime's repression, of course. It does, however, make the self-righteous condemnation of this most recent veto by the very supporters of many of these earlier US vetoes look rather ridiculous in the eyes of those who support human rights and international law regardless of the offending regime's geopolitical alliances.

This work by Truthout is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 United States License.

Russian foreign minister in Damascus for Assad talks

Russia's foreign minister has arrived in Syria for talks with President Bashar al-Assad as the Syrian army's deadly bombardment of the city of Homs enters its fifth day.

Adam Curtis on Syria

Adam Curtis on Syria Posted: 26 Jun 2011 12:35 PM PDT From the fabulous British documentary film-maker Adam Curtis' blog: What is happening in Syria feels like one of the last gasps of the age of the military dictators. An old way of running the world is still desperately trying to cling to power, but the underlying feeling in the west is that somehow Assad's archaic and cruel military rule will inevitably collapse and Syrians will move forward into a democratic age. That may, or may not, happen, but what is extraordinary is that we have been here before. Between 1947 and 1949 an odd group of idealists and hard realists in the American government set out to intervene in Syria. Their aim was to liberate the Syrian people from a corrupt autocratic elite - and allow true democracy to flourish. They did this because they were convinced that "the Syrian people are naturally democratic" and that all that was neccessary was to get rid of the elites - and a new world of "peace and progress" would inevitably emerge. What resulted was a disaster, and the consequences of that disaster then led, through a weird series of bloody twists and turns, to the rise to power of the Assad family and the widescale repression in Syria today. I thought I would tell that story. A great story well told — read it all. And you should also watch Curtis' latest documentary, All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace. פרסם את העסק שלך ב-Google - המודעה שלך יכולה להופיע כאן