Brotherhood Figures Block Yaqoubi's Appointment, Post-Confirmation

Brotherhood Figures Block Yaqoubi’s Appointment, Post-Confirmation

Monday, May 27th, 2013

Appointment of New Members Reversed

The opposition talks in Turkey have ended in disappointment for many. A Reuters article reports:

A crisis in Syria’s opposition deepened on Monday when liberals were offered only token representation, undermining international efforts to lend the Islamist-dominated alliance greater support.

To the dismay of envoys of Western and Arab nations monitoring four days of opposition talks in Istanbul, the 60-member Syrian National Coalition thwarted a deal to admit a liberal bloc headed by opposition campaigner Michel Kilo.

Liberals were not the only ones disappointed. In the last post, I revealed Sheikh Muhammad al-Yaqoubi’s appointment to the National Council as its first major Sufi figure. This appointment was a fact over a month ago, confirmed by the NC’s Membership Committee, and this was reaffirmed to Sheikh Ya’qoubi personally in April by both Mu’az al-Khatib and Riad Seif, but it was not announced publicly. The announcement was to be made officially at a meeting of the General Assembly. Later, the Coalition’s Political Council met in early May and confirmed a total of 31 new members. Some new members traveled to Turkey at that time for a meeting of the General Assembly, but the meeting was postponed due to political arguments. For the current talks that have just been held, the 31 members traveled again to Istanbul, had rooms booked for them and were officially hosted in anticipation of the announcement of their membership. Ostensibly for the preparation ahead of the Geneva 2 conference (in which the regime and opposition could actually sit at the same table, if both would agree to such), the talks descended into significant intrigue regarding the expansion of the Coalition. Scheduled for Thursday through Saturday, the quarreling didn’t end until early Monday morning. In a major reversal of earlier decisions, the membership of many new members was denied (or revoked). Pending confirmation, it seems that only 8 of the original 31 have been publicly designated as new members, despite previous affirmations of membership. Though it seems unsurprising that the Coalition would go back on its word, it is nevertheless striking that it would occur to this degree. Such a sweeping, last-minute reversal was unexpected by many.

At least one new Muslim Brotherhood figure has been appointed, and consistent with the previous pattern, there is no representation of the Sufi, Sunni ‘ulema who would represent far greater numbers of Syrians.

Syrian opposition shake-up falters ahead of peace conference – Reuters

The failure to broaden the coalition, in which Qatar and a bloc largely influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood has been playing the driving role, could undermine Saudi Arabian support for the revolt and raise the specter of a rivalry among Gulf powers that could further weaken the opposition.

Its Western backers have pressured the Coalition to resolve its divisions and expand to include more liberals to counter domination by Islamists. The plan also had support from Saudi Arabia, which had been preparing to assume a bigger role in coalition politics and has been uneasy about the rise of Qatar’s influence, coalition insiders said.

Its apparent failure to do so came hours before the European Union was scheduled at a meeting in Brussels to discuss lifting an arms embargo that could allow weapons to reach rebel fighters in Syria seeking to oust President Bashar al-Assad.

… Kilo’s group received an offer of only five seats – instead of the more than 20 it had been looking for – after a session in Turkey that stretched nearly to dawn, coalition sources said.

The move left the Coalition controlled by a faction loyal to Qatari-backed Secretary-General Mustafa al-Sabbagh, and a bloc largely influenced by the Muslim Brotherhood. That group led resistance to the rule of Assad’s late father in the 1980s, when thousands of its members were tortured and executed.

“We were talking about 25 names as the basis for our negotiations, then there was agreement on 22 and then the number dropped to 20, then to 18, then to 15, then to five,” Kilo said, addressing the Coalition. “I do not think you have a desire to cooperate and hold our extended hand. … We wish you all the best.”

A member of the Kilo camp said his bloc would meet later to decide whether to withdraw from the opposition meeting, although he said the coalition may still make a better offer.

Please see this good article by Hassan Hassan: Inside Syrian opposition’s talks in Turkey:

The Syrian opposition is holding talks in Turkey to restructure and expand the National Coalition (NC). As I reported earlier this month, the talks follow a visit by 12 members of the NC to Riyadh this month. It’s important to remember here that the Muslim Brotherhood’s deputy leader, Mohammed Tayfour, met the Saudi foreign minister in one-to-one talks and agreed to the expansion plans – the members even suggested that Ahmed Touma becomes the NC but of course after “election”.

On Thursday the NC members, including Tayfour and the NC’s secretary general Mustafa Al Sabbagh, agreed to include some 32 new members into the coalition as part of the expansion. The new members would represent individuals and forces from outside the coalition, mainly Michel Kilo and allies.

But on Friday, Al Sabbagh came back and said that he and others refused the plan. They offered an alternative plan: 21 new seats will be added; seven for Michel Kilo and his allies, seven for representatives of “local councils”, and seven for the Muslim Brotherhood. That means the Muslim Brotherhood will effectively get two thirds of the new expansion plan. Not only does the MB want to reduce the number of new seats but it also wants to use the occasion to expand its influence further. How is that?

“Local councils” are already represented in the NC by Al Sabbagh, a Syrian businessman and Islamist backed by Qatar and MB. He was appointed as the Coalition’s Secretary General in November after he claimed that he and a group of men represented various areas in Syria. I wrote this before: “The appointment of Mustafa Sabbagh as the National Coalition’s secretary general came after he showed up in Doha, before the formation of the coalition in November, with 16 people he falsely claimed represented provincial councils across Syria. In fact many of them were his employees in Saudi Arabia, or his relatives.”

It gets better. Qatar, Turkey and MB are insisting that Al Sabbagh heads the NC. Syrians know who Al Sabbagh is and, if that happens, the move will be self-defeating – the point is to make the coalition more representative to help it to build credibility as the world consider options for solving the Syrian conflict. American, French and Gulf representatives are still trying to push the coalition to let go of Al Sabbagh and accept the expansion plan. The MB, Qatar and Turkey are digging in their heels.

The MB can insist on saving its influence within the coalition but one thing is clear: support for the Syrian opposition is on hold until the coalition is expanded. The core group of the Friends of Syria insists that the coalition must be expanded and representative if any help is to be provided or steps are to be taken.

This is not the first time that Qatar’s allies within the National Coalition go back on their words shortly after they agree on something. During talks in Cairo to restructure the Syrian National Council in July last year, Tayfour sat with US ambassador Robert Ford for two hours. He finally agreed to the plan but went back on his word shortly after – apparently after he spoke to Qatar.

The Brotherhood has consistently opposed any plan to reform the political bodies, for a rundown of how it has done so, read my article here. The dominance of the Brotherhood over the political and military bodies was made possible by interferences from countries like Qatar and Turkey. The Brotherhood has not dominated these entities because of its popular base or because Syrians chose them.

It seems that pressure from outside powers to reverse that dominance will not work unless the Brotherhood has no choice, in the same way that any political solution will not work unless Assad has no choice.

Addendum

Saturday: The talks are expected to be finalised tonight (Saturday) or probably tomorrow morning. Still, the talks can drag on, even be shelved for now. No progress has been made. But two important developments are worth mentioning.

The first one is that 12 prominent members of the non-Brotherhood groups signed a document/ultimatum yesterday vowing to withdraw from the Coalition if the Brotherhood and its allies do not agree to the expansion plan.

The second one is that the Brotherhood presented a new idea (like amazing idea): George Sabra becomes the lead of the National Coalition, Ghassan Hitto remains the prime minister of the interim government and Mustafa Al Sabbagh as the NC’s general secretary for another six months. So basically, if more members are to be added, these three must lead the coalition and the interim government.

Six months, an interesting period. The pressure from Geneva 2 organisers might be the reason for insisting on this for now. They probably think that by that time things would be clearer. Both the Qataris and the Brotherhood promised recently (first week of this month) that they would not stand against any expansion plan. It’s unclear what has changed since.

But there is still pressure on the Brotherhood and its allies to accept the expansion plan. Although far-fetched, they might agree on some plan tonight or tomorrow. Because all sides disagree deeply on all issues, the talks may drag on. But because many members threatened to withdraw, the talks might be delayed as a way to avoid such an outcome. We will see what happens over the coming days.

Sunday: (see tweets from @the_47th on this too) Al Sabbagh is now the one digging in his heels and blocking the expansion of the National Coalition. He insists on representing one third of the new seats. He wants to remain the Coalition’s secretary general AND gets one third for any expansion according to this quota he set: one seat for any two new seats.

His insistence upset most of the attendants. When he was asked in front of the foreign ambassadors: “What is your priority? Especially that we are facing the challenges of Geneva 2. These demands will lead to the failure of the plan or even the fracture of the coalition which might consequently lead to Bashar Al Assad staying in power”. He answered with this (literally): “My conditions are more important and urgent”.

There is also this update from @The_47th: “I heard that no decision will be made (or letting go from MB) until they see if EU really lifts ban on arming”. That could mean that Al Sabbagh, and the Qataris and Brotherhood behind him, want to postpone the talks to avoid the expansion. As I mentioned above, they are under so much pressure to include more forces and some 12 prominent members threatened to withdraw which will potentially lead to the collapse of the coalition; so one way to avoid this and avoid a campaign against them, they probably came up with that populist demand: we won’t accept any expansion until the EU lifts the embargo on arms to the opposition. What does that have to do with making the coalition more representative?

One final note for now: why are members insisting on “votes” to pass any plan. Isn’t the point that the current people who can vote represent a specific group and its allies? Just absurd.

The Shadow War Behind Syria’s Rebellion: Foreign Backers Jockey for Influence in Turkey – Rania Abouzeid

While the diplomatic grouping known as the Friends of Syria met in the Jordanian capital Amman on Wednesday to discuss a U.S.-Russian plan for peace talks, a low-key yet perhaps equally important gathering was being quietly held in Istanbul between Saudi officials and half of the 30 members of the Free Syrian Army’s Higher Military Command, which claims to represent most of the rebels fighting the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The informal talks, which were held at a seaside hotel, marked the first gathering of the rebel group’s Military Command and Saudi officials since, according to senior members of the Military Command, Saudi Arabia stepped up earlier this month to become the main source of arms to the rebels. In so doing they nudged aside the smaller Persian Gulf state of Qatar, which had been the main supplier of weapons to the opposition since early 2012. Saudi officials have simply been meeting with the rebels on their own, without involving the Qataris.

The change is significant because Qatar and Saudi Arabia each favor different rebel factions. The Qataris have backed more Islamist rebel groups, while the Saudis—despite Saudi Arabia’s ultraconservative form of government—have opted to support more moderate groups that may have an Islamist hue but are not considered conservative. The strong conservative Islamist current within rebel ranks may be weakened if support is increased to more moderate factions.

… All of the commanders TIME spoke to were optimistic that the Saudis would ferry more help to more moderate groups, but few thought the Qataris would stop supplying their favored battalions. “The difference is that the battalions who are against Jabhat al-Nusra will be strengthened,” said one young commander. “A fight with Jabhat al-Nusra is coming, we can no longer delay it.” That’s an unattractive prospect to many in the opposition, which was formed to fight the regime, not fellow rebels.

Both the regime and the opposition have suggested that they could participate in the Geneva 2 talks:

Syria confirms role in peace process – BBC

Syria’s foreign minister says President Bashar al-Assad’s government has agreed “in principle” to take part in peace talks in Geneva planned for June. Walid Muallem told reporters in Baghdad that the conference was “a good opportunity for a political solution to the crisis in Syria”. Russia and the US hope the talks will bring a negotiated end to the violence.

Syria’s main opposition coalition has said it is willing to take part if President Bashar al-Assad steps down.

Syria, opposition agree ‘in principle’ to attend peace conference – CNN

Both the Syrian government and the opposition Syrian National Coalition indicated Sunday they are interested in a peace conference next month in Geneva, Switzerland, though both sides tempered any optimism about the summit with caveats.

“We have in principle agreed to participate in Geneva, pending hearing more clarity about the purpose and the intentions of the Syrian regime — the Assad regime. So far, the signals have been not positive,” coalition spokesman Louay Safi said from Istanbul, where opposition leaders have been meeting to discuss the pending summit and to determine new leadership for the coalition.

“The Assad regime has to make it clear that they are there to engage in talks about transition to democracy, and as part of Geneva, understanding that would mean that all the powers that resides today with Bashar al-Assad will be given to the transitional government. Until this point, this is not clear,” he said.

Abdul Basit Seida, a senior member of the group meeting in Istanbul, said in a statement Sunday: “Talks are still ongoing with no final resolution. There is also no final decision yet on attending the conference in Geneva.”

The Syrian government has tentatively agreed to the June peace conference, Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said earlier Sunday.

Speaking at a joint news conference in Baghdad with his Iraqi counterpart, Hoshyar Zebari, he said, “I informed the Iraqi prime minister of Syria’s decision that the government agreed in principle to send an official delegation to the Geneva peace conference that will take place in June.”

Syria agrees to attend peace talks: Russia

SYRIA’S most powerful ally Russia says the Damascus regime has agreed “in principle” to attend an international peace conference on the crisis that world powers hope will take place in Geneva in June.But on Friday Moscow also criticised Syria’s various opposition groups for presenting tough demands that in some cases included the exclusion of President Bashar al-Assad’s representatives from the negotiations.

… But Lukashevich said reports of a specific date for the conference “cannot be taken seriously” because the ranks of Assad’s foes remained so split. “Demands to immediately name a specific date for the conference without having clarity about who – and with what authority – will speak in the name of the opposition, cannot be taken seriously,” Lukashevich said.

Syria’s main opposition group entered a second day of talks in Istanbul on Friday aimed at finding a joint approach to what has already been been dubbed as the “Geneva 2” conference. The first Geneva meeting in June last year ended in a broad agreement aimed at forming a transition government in Syria and introducing a long-lasting truce. But the deal was never implemented because of disagreements over Assad’s role in the new government and neither side’s decision to lay down their arms.

Lukashevich on Friday condemned some opposition leaders for declaring that no talks were possible with Assad still in power. Moscow has insisted that the talks be held without preconditions – a demand that appears to clash with the Damascus regime’s own insistence that Assad’s future not be addressed at the conference.

Lukashevich scorned attempts by the opposition to find a common voice, saying the reports he has seen thus far coming out of Istanbul “have not been encouraging”. “We are again hearing about the precondition that Bashar al-Assad leaves power, and that a government be formed under the auspices of the United Nations.”

Syria opposition demands ‘goodwill gestures’ from Assad

Syria’s opposition called Friday on President Bashar al-Assad to prove it is working for a transition of power in the war-torn country, as they gathered in Istanbul to discuss a US-Russian initiative for peace.

“We want to stop the bloodshed. It’s very important for us to have goodwill gestures, and from both sides,” Khaled al-Saleh, spokesman for the Western-backed National Coalition — the main opposition group — told reporters in Istanbul.

“We want to make sure that when we enter those negotiations the bloodshed in Syria will stop,” he added. The call comes hours after key Assad backer Moscow said the Syrian regime is “in principle” willing to join the peace conference proposed by the United States and Russia dubbed “Geneva 2”.

Syria opposition’s Khatib proposes Assad ‘safe exit’

Syria’s outgoing opposition chief published an initiative for his war-torn country on Thursday that would grant President Bashar al-Assad a safe exit, and urged dissident factions to adopt his plan.

Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib published his initiative on Facebook, as the main National Coalition he headed until March gathered in Istanbul to choose a new leader and discuss a US-Russian peace initiative dubbed Geneva 2.

Under Khatib’s initiative, Assad would have 20 days from Thursday to give “his acceptance of a peaceful transition of authority”.

After accepting, Assad would have one month to hand over power to either Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi or Vice President Faruq al-Sharaa, who would then govern Syria for a transitional period of 100 days.

As part of the transition Khatib envisages, Assad would “leave the country along with five hundred people whom he will select, along with their families and children, to any other country that may choose to host them”.

This is the first time one of Syria’s opposition chiefs has made an offer of political immunity to Assad and key members of his regime.

Syria opposition struggles to forge transition plan – Reuters

Syria’s divided opposition leaders have failed to back a plan by their outgoing leader for President Bashar Al Assad to cede power gradually to end the country’s civil war, highlighting the obstacles to international peace talks expected next month.

The 16-point plan proposed by Muath Al Khatib, who resigned as head of the Western-backed opposition National Coalition in March, urges Al Assad to hand power to his deputy or prime minister and then go abroad with 500 members of his entourage.

Al Khatib’s proposal appeared to win little support from other Syrian opposition figures at a three-day meeting in Istanbul to decide how to respond to a US-Russian proposal to convene peace talks involving Al Assad’s government next month.

The coalition is under international pressure to resolve internal divisions ahead of a conference Washington and Moscow see as crucial to hopes of ending two years of civil war which has allowed Al Qaida linked militants a growing role in Syria.

Syria opposition seeks to unify as momentum for talks builds – Reuters

Syria’s fractious opposition scrambled to agree a new leadership on Friday in a bid to present a coherent front at peace talks which the United States and Russia are convening to seek an end to more than two years of civil war.

A major assault by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces on a rebel held town over the past week is shaping into a pivotal battle. It has drawn in fighters from Assad’s Lebanese allies Hezbollah, justifying fears that a war that has killed 80,000 people would cross borders at the heart of the Middle East.

Washington and Moscow have been compelled to revive diplomacy by developments in recent months, which include new reports of atrocities, accusations chemical weapons were used and the rise of al Qaeda-linked fighters among rebels.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will meet privately in Paris on Monday to discuss their efforts to bring Syria’s warring parties together, U.S. and Russian officials said.

Russia said the Syrian government had agreed in principle to attend the planned peace conference, which could take part in Geneva in the coming weeks, and had “expressed readiness” to find a political solution.

Under intense international pressure to resolve internal divisions so it can play a meaningful role in the talks, Syria’s Western-backed opposition National Coalition met in Istanbul to elect new leaders and broaden its membership.

Senior opposition figures said the coalition was likely to attend the conference, but doubted it would produce any immediate deal for Assad to leave power – their central demand.

“We are faced with a situation where everyone thinks there will be a marriage when the bride is refusing. The regime has to show a minimum of will that it is ready to stop the bloodshed,” said Haitham al-Maleh, an elder statesman of the coalition. …

COALITION STRUGGLES TO AGREE

Much to the frustration of its backers, the coalition has struggled to agree on a leader since the resignation in March of respected cleric Moaz Alkhatib, who had floated two initiatives for Assad to leave power peacefully.

Alkhatib’s latest proposal – a 16-point plan which foresees Assad handing power to his deputy or prime minister then going abroad with 500 members of his entourage – won little support in Istanbul, highlighting the obstacles to wider negotiations.

Israel

Israeli air force chief warns of ‘surprise war’ with Syria – AP

Israel’s air force chief warned Wednesday that tensions with Syria could escalate into a “surprise war” and that Israel needs to be ready. The remarks by Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel Wednesday echoed statements by Israel’s military chief of staff a day earlier.“A surprise war could take shape today in many configurations,” Eshel said at a strategy conference in Herzliya, near Tel Aviv. “Isolated incidents can escalate very quickly and require us to be prepared in a matter of hours to operate throughout the entire spectrum … to utilize all the capabilities of the air force,” he said.He said Russian S-300 air defense systems are “on their way” to Syria, though Israel asked Russia not to supply the advanced air defense system to Syria.

Syria, Israel Exchange Fire Over Border – AP

Syria said Tuesday it destroyed an Israeli vehicle that crossed the ceasefire line in the Golan Heights overnight, while the Israeli military said gunfire from Syria had hit an Israeli patrol, damaging a vehicle and prompting its troops to fire back. The two sides appeared to be referring to the same incident.

Syria: Attacked Israeli Vehicle Was Heading to Rebel Village

The Tuesday exchange of fire between Israeli and Syrian troops along the 1973 ceasefire line centered on the shooting of an Israeli military jeep. Syria has provided a letter to the UN Security Council detailing their side of the story.

According to those familiar with its contents, Syria says the jeep they attacked crossed the ceasefire line a 1:10 AM on Tuesday morning and headed in the direction of B’ir Ajam, a village in Syria that is currently held by the rebels.

Syrian officials said that the attempt to reach the village was part of ongoing Israeli support for the rebels along their frontier, and that the attack on the jeep was “self-defense.” They urged the UN Security Council to stop Israel from future cross-border operations, and complained about Israel firing missiles into southern Syria after the jeep was “destroyed.”

Israel told a completely different story on Tuesday, claiming the jeep was on the Israeli side of the ceasefire line, that it suffered only minor damage, and that they retaliated with missiles that scored “direct hits” on the Syrian military.

Syria asserts right to enter Golan, occupied by Israel – Boston Globe

Miscellaneous

Decadence and death inside Damascus city walls – Telegraph

Damascus is a schizophrenic place, writes Ruth Sherlock. It is a city hunkered down in war, blighted by shellfire, blitzed by warplanes – and a thriving capital where business continues and the parties go on.

The party at the Damas Rose hotel in Damascus was in full swing. The ladies had coiffed their hair, applied blusher to their cheeks, and wore corsets and tight, silky, dresses with stiletto heels. At the edges of the grand parlour, groups of friends sat in booths upholstered with red velvet. Lovers wandered out to the poolside and rested on loungers below the starlit sky.

A few streets away Red Crescent volunteers washed the blood from a stretcher and hosed down an ambulance. A sniper’s bullet had smashed the taillight. They had just returned to base after delivering the lifeless body of a young man, shrapnel in his brain, back to his parents.

Scowcroft Argues for Diplomacy in Syria – WSJ

Former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft said the top U.S. priority in Syria should be to work with Russia to arrange a cease-fire rather than to arm Syrian rebels or establish a no-fly zone in the country, as some in Washington are advocating.

Americans think “instinctively” they ought help put an end to the civil war, Mr. Scowcroft said in a video interview on WSJ.com. But, he added, “I don’t see how we can help. If we actively participate, as many say, in Syria, then we’re going to own Syria. And we don’t know how to solve the Syrian problem.”

Asked whether he is advocating arming rebels or setting up a no-fly zone, Mr. Scowcroft replied, “No, I’m not. This is a very difficult situation. If (Syrian President Bashar al-Assad) left tomorrow, it would not be all peace and quiet.”

Instead, he endorsed an effort by Secretary of State John Kerry to work with Moscow, an ally of and arms supplier to the Syrian government, to work out an end to the violence.

Turkey builds wall at Syria border crossing – Reuters

Turkey is constructing 2.5-km-long (1.5 mile) twin walls at a border crossing with Syria to increase security at the frontier following three deadly bombings this year.

Jordanian authorities turn away Syrian refugees – McClatchy

The flow of refugees crossing from Syria into Jordan has all but stopped in the last six days amid heavy fighting in the area and claims by Syrians that Jordanian border guards are preventing them from entering.

The Jordanian foreign minister has denied that his government had closed the border, but Syrians said Jordanian soldiers had turned them back.

A decision by the Jordanian government to block the flow of people across the border not only would exacerbate the humanitarian crisis that’s unfolding in Syria – thousands had been fleeing into Jordan every day, seeking refuge from the civil war there – but also would complicate efforts to supply the rebel groups that are fighting to topple the regime of President Bashar Assad.

“When we asked the border guards why they won’t let us in, they gave no reason,” said Abu Mohammed, a Syrian rebel who used a nom de guerre that means “Father of Mohammed” in Arabic. He makes regular trips to Jordan in order to ferry weapons and other supplies into Syria and take refugees and the wounded out.

As has happened on Syria’s northern border with Turkey, the Jordanian government has been allowing fighters, supplies and refugees to pass in and out of Syria through unofficial crossings into rebel-held areas. These unofficial crossing points are crucial to the rebellion.

Saudis overtaking Qatar in sponsoring Syrian rebels – The National

Last week, a 12-member delegation from the Syrian opposition visited Saudi Arabia, for an unprecedented two-day official meeting.

Saudi authorities had consistently declined to meet the opposition, despite repeated requests. This was partly because the kingdom has opposed Muslim Brotherhood dominance in the Syrian National Council and then the National Coalition, owing to the Brotherhood’s alliance with Qatar and Turkey and opposition to inclusivity.

But last week, surprisingly, the Saudi foreign minister, Saud Al Faisal, met Syrian Brotherhood deputy leader Mahmoud Farouq Tayfour, in one-to-one talks.

The Brotherhood had previously been confident in its alliance with Qatar and Turkey, and saw no need to offer concessions to engage other countries, including Saudi Arabia. So this meeting, which came after an “eager appeal” from the Brotherhood, suggests a shift in regional dynamics.

Two separate sources close to the opposition say Mr Tayfour assured the Saudi minister that “Syria’s Brotherhood will definitely not be like Egypt’s Brotherhood”.

He also “harshly” criticised Qatar’s role, even though Qatar had helped revive the Brotherhood in Syria after the Baathists massacred it out of existence in 1982.

Regime Demolishes Illegal Slums in Hama, Displacing Thousands – Syria Deeply

Twenty thousand residents of Wadi al-Jouz, a destitute neighborhood of the hard-hit city of Hama, have lost their homes. This was not the result of bombings or gun battles, but an unlikely culprit in a time of war: urban planning.

Activists said the Syrian army spearheaded the demolition of Wadi al-Jouz’s slums, shelling homes indiscriminately, before sending in bulldozers to raze structures as people fled. More than one-quarter of all Syrians have been displaced by violence over the past two years.

Opposition activists view the demolition as a form of collective punishment, aimed to crush the revolting neighborhoods in Hama, a city that defied the Baath Party for 50 years.

Comments (159)

dawoud said:

Free Syria, Free Paletine, Stop the occupation of al-Qasir by the Shia Lebanese Terrorist party Hizbass!

Reuters: BREAKING NEWS: Senator Mccain met with rebels in Syria on Monday: spokesman

May 27th, 2013, 2:22 pm

revenire said:

No real surprise at the SNC meeting. After all, they’re just puppets and corrupt expats who haven’t visited Syria in decades. They represent no one in Syria, not even the terrorists.

I wonder if they served liver for lunch.

🙂

May 27th, 2013, 2:31 pm

majoos said:

WIKIPEDIA: Graham Fuller
Fuller left the CIA in 1988 for the RAND Corporation, remaining as a senior political scientist until 2000.[8][10] An active author and media spokesman, Fuller is an adjunct history professor at Simon Fraser University.[10] After the Boston Marathon bombings, it was revealed that Fuller’s daughter Samantha Ankara Fuller was married to Ruslan Tsarnaev (Tsarni), the terrorists’ uncle.

May 27th, 2013, 2:40 pm

1. Erdogan is as Barzani a devout member of the Naqshabandi Sufi Order, whose chief “Sheik” Nazim proclaimed that “King” Hüsseyin should be the next Khalifa. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoRGawgBWnM

One of the funnier episods of SNL: with “McCain”

May 27th, 2013, 2:43 pm

Al Queda is a covered NATO organisation:

http://boards.dailymail.co.uk/news-board-moderated/10254382-nato-911-al-qaeda-gladio-program-do-you-still-believe-osamanasty.html

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/11/14/gordon-duff-gladio-how-we-terrorize-ourselves/

May 27th, 2013, 2:47 pm

Hopeful said:

So Hizballah is now fighting foreign jihadis in Syria which is bearly surviving economically through financial support fom Iran, and politically though aid from Russia, all the while a US congressman enters Syria without the knowledge of the Syrian government.

So much for sovereignty and independence Mr. Assad. Supporters, why the hell are you still hanging your hopes on this loser of a leader? what a joke!

May 27th, 2013, 2:52 pm

zoo said:

If anyone has doubts of the political incompetence of Arab countries in dealing with Syria, Iran or any regional political issues, these continuous and fruitless meetings prove it.

Arab FMs meet on Syria June 5
27/05/2013 |

(With photos) CAIRO, May 27 (KUNA) — Arab foreign ministers are poised to hold an extraordinary meeting here on June 5 to discuss the Syrian crisis, Kuwait’s Permanent Representative at the Arab League Jamal Al-Ghunaim said on Monday.
The meeting will come just a few days of an international conference due in Geneva next month in an effort to find a political solution to the Syrian predicament, he told KUNA.
The Arab foreign ministerial meeting is scheduled to focus on a concerted Arab position on a peaceful transition in Syria and the fulfillment of the expectations and hopes of the Syrian people, Al-Ghunaim added.
During the meeting, Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem Al-Thani, who is the head of the Arab ministerial committee on Syria, and Secretary General of the Arab League Nabil Al-Araby are expected to present a report on the outcomes of their contacts and consultations with the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and UN-Arab Envoy for Syria Lakhdar Brahimi on the planned Geneva II Conference on Syria, the Kuwaiti diplomat said.
On the same subject, Deputy Secretary General of the Arab League Ahmad bin Helli said the extraordinary meeting of Arab foreign ministers, presided by Egypt, will mainly revolve around the volatile Syrian situation, involvement of Lebanon’s Hezbollah in Syria and an Arab vision for the Geneva II Conference on Syria.
The gathering will be preceded by a preparatory meeting of Arab permanent delegates on the same day, he pointed out.
The Arab foreign ministers will also discuss the serious reflections of the Syrian cul-de-sac on Lebanon’s security and stability, the Arab League’s official added.

May 27th, 2013, 2:58 pm

Hopeful before you explode with orgasmic joy realize that borders are porous. Each day the “mighty” American government deals with thousand of illegal immigrants.

On another note, John McCain has the nickname of “hand grenade” because of his explosive personality. Putin was correct when he said McCain had been kept too long in a Viet Cong cage and went “batty” from it. I pray for Sen. McCain each night before bed.

Join me.

May 27th, 2013, 3:03 pm

Uzair8 said:

Regimists on here will turn on each other when it’s time for Assad to pick his 500. Who will get picked and who will not?

LOL.

May 27th, 2013, 3:04 pm

Syrian troops gain ground..

http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Syrian-troops-gain-ground-TV-reporter-killed-4550736.php

In Syria, heavy fighting was reported Monday in the western town of Qusair, the target of a regime offensive that began May 19, and around the nearby Dabaa military base.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-opposition group, said regime troops and allied fighters from the Lebanese militia Hezbollah captured the nearby town of Hamidiyeh, tightening their siege of Qusair. Observatory director Rami Abdul-Rahman said troops were trying to capture the village of Haret al-Turkumen in order to put Qusair under “complete siege.”

Syrian state TV said troops captured more parts of the northern and central rebel-held neighborhoods of Qusair. The town had been under rebel control almost from the start of the uprising against Assad in 2011.

Al-Mayadeen TV, which has several reporters embedded with Syrian troops, aired video from the town showing widespread destruction. At least three bodies could be seen on one of the streets.

May 27th, 2013, 3:06 pm

Majoos that is pretty funny from SNL. Ha ha.

May 27th, 2013, 3:07 pm

I am laughing at al-Ya’qoubi getting the shaft. This guy makes really crazy statements. He said the regime murdered al-Bouti and now he is saying Hezbollah will be buried in Syria. Ha ha. He must be smoking something other than tobacco in the hookah.

Where do they come up with these guys?

May 27th, 2013, 3:11 pm

I think that all the recent “terror” attacs in the US, Britain, France and also the one in Turkey were fake and/or staged, in order to have a solid reason to stop further engagement for the salafi-army in Syria.
Turkey is already building a wall to stop the influx of rebels. This is probbalbly also the reason why pro-Assad media outlets such as al manar, press tv and rt did not cover the leak of redhack which shoved that the Turkish gouvernement knew in the forefront of the reyhanli attack.

May 27th, 2013, 3:16 pm

#9 Rev

Joy? Nothing could be further from the truth. My heart is aching at the miserable state Syria finds itself in today, thanks to its glorious illigitimate leader who managed to ignite the worst and most brutal civil war in modern history!

May 27th, 2013, 3:23 pm

Tara said:

McCain in Syria?

He He!

Sovereignty my shoes. The one from Souk al Haramieh.

Traitor he who kills his people.

May 27th, 2013, 3:31 pm

@hopelessfull

Do you really think it s up to Assad to decide weather to step down or not?
Putin would have him replaced by someone else.
Assad and his counterparts are just pawns in a much bigger game.
The outcome of this war will shape the New World Order, nothing less!

May 27th, 2013, 3:32 pm

Why on earth should Assad regard foreign merchaniers from Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi-Land, Lybia, Tunesia as “his people” – bc of his former “pan-arab” policies?
From your former coments I got the impression that you considered him as a sectarian Allawite, that would e.g. mean that non-Allawites are “not his people” right?

And by the way do you cherish presidents/kings/dictators killing other people?

May 27th, 2013, 3:37 pm

Brilliant results after 5 days of bickering in Istanbul:

Power is back to the Moslem Brotherhood with the financial backing of Qatar bringing the opposition to a new level of disaster.
Saudi Arabia’s and Michel Kilo voices have been shut off. No response on the participation to the UN conference as Qatar is waiting to get the UN arms embargo lifted as a pre-condition.

Election results:

Mar Georges is the “Christian” facade to reassure the West
Hitto the Kurdish Kid is the PM without a country or a government to please Turkey.
Moustafa Al Sabbagh, nicknamed the “Qatari snake” is the powerful secretary to please the Al Thani’s, including Sheikha Moza
All is going according to plan…

May 27th, 2013, 3:51 pm

EU talks on Syria arms embargo fail: Austria

27 May 2013

BRUSSELS (AFP)

European Union efforts to reach an agreement on whether to arm Syria’s rebels have failed, Austria’s Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger said Monday.

“I deplore it was not possible to find a compromise with France and Britain,” said the minister, whose country was sharply opposed to calls by London and Paris to lift an EU arms embargo in favour of the rebels.

May 27th, 2013, 3:57 pm

ann said:

US Makes Syria an ‘Offer it Can’t Refuse’ – again | Finian CUNNINGHAM | 25.05.2013

In Mafia terms, it’s called “making an offer that can’t be refused”. The “offer” is not one of free choice between options that may benefit the object party. In reality, it is about setting up a scenario of duress, under which the object party is coerced to capitulate to detrimental terms of extreme prejudice determined cynically by the other party.

http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2013/05/25/us-makes-syria-an-offer-it-cant-refuse-again.html

This is the scenario that Washington and its NATO allies are contriving for the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad…

The so-called international peace conference that may take place in the coming weeks, at the behest of Washington and Moscow, is ostensibly aimed at finding a negotiated end to the conflict in Syria that is now in its third year and which has resulted in up to 80,000 deaths. At least half of these deaths are believed to be civilian.

Russian officials have confirmed that the Syrian government is willing to participate, in principle, in the conference with factions of the Syrian «opposition» – provided, says Damascus, that the latter participants do not have «blood on their hands».

That criterion may yet turn out to make the forthcoming conference a non-runner since the main opposition group – the Western-backed Syrian National Coalition (SNC) – is entwined with a host of mercenary forces on the ground that are drenched in blood from a relentless campaign of terrorism and sabotage.

However, it is not even clear if the fractious and mainly exile-based SNC has any authority over the motley crew of militant groups – more than 75 per cent of whom are foreign self-styled jihadi extremists that emanate from 30 or more Arab and other countries, according to United Nations reports.

Chief among these groups that comprise the so-called Free Syrian Army is the Al Nusra Front, the main fighting force, which is aligned with the Al Qaeda-affiliated network that stretches from Russia’s Caucus region, through Afghanistan and Iraq, to Libya, Mali and Niger.

It has to be said that Russia’s intentions for a negotiated peace settlement seem to be honourable – and based on the principle of arriving at some kind of internal Syrian consensus. To that end, Russia maintains the position of not setting preconditions about the political fate of the incumbent President Assad. Russia is supported in this view by Iran and China. It is not, they say, for foreign governments or their regional allies and proxies to determine the outcome of the conference and in particular the political future of Assad.

Contrast that with the position of the other broker – Washington. At a preliminary meeting in Jordan this past week, the US Secretary of State John Kerry insisted, along with NATO allies, Britain, France, Italy and Germany, as well as the Persian Gulf Arab sheikhdoms, that Assad «must go».

Kerry told the assembled «Friends of Syria» that the US was not dictating the outcome of the planned peace conference, but then contradicted himself flatly by repeating the assertion that President Assad would not be part of any Syrian political transition.

«Can a person who has used artillery shells and missiles and Scuds and tanks against women and children and university students – can that person possibly be judged by any reasonable person to have the credibility and legitimacy to lead that country in the future?» asked Kerry.

The veracity of these allegations against the Assad regime is more than a moot point. There is substantial evidence that the violations Kerry was attributing to Syrian government forces, such as the rocket attack on Aleppo University in January that resulted in more than 80 deaths, were in fact committed by Western-backed militants. The use of chemical weapons near Aleppo in March has also been shown recently by Russian RTR journalists to be the work of Western-backed militants, not the regime, as Western governments have been insinuating.

But that aside, the immediate point here is that Kerry and his «Enemies of Syria» coalition are very much trying to dictate terms on the anticipated political process. That same Western intransigence was largely why the Geneva accord reached last June by the UN Security Council came unstuck – and tens of thousands more Syrian deaths followed.

Adding to the warped framework of negotiations, the US, Britain and France are also insisting – in contrast to Russia and China – that Iran should not be permitted to take part in the process. Of course, the NATO powers can rely on their Sunni allies among the Persian Gulf monarchies of Saudi Arabia and Qatar to endorse that stipulation. Why the Western powers and their Arab dictator friends have any more right than Iran – an ally of Syria with vital interests at stake in the conflict – is beyond their permitted rationale or discussion.

So, the upshot is that Assad is being offered a poisoned political chalice. On one hand, he is being told to forfeit the sovereign rights of his people to have him as their leader, and by all accounts a leader with a popular mandate, to give way to a negotiation with «opposition» parties who are solely designated, funded and patronised by foreign powers.

The SNC’s Ghassan Hitto, a Texas-based Syrian businessman, is designated by Washington, London and the former colonial power Paris as Syria’s premier-in-waiting. It is fair to say that Hitto, as with many other American-accented members of the SNC, has negligible popular support within Syria. That is, without any mandate from the Syrian population, these exiles are being foisted to negotiate the political future of Syria – a future that is extremely prejudicial in favour of Western geopolitical interests.

On the other hand – and this is where the Mafia analogy takes hold – the Western powers are making thinly veiled threats that if Assad does not conform to the warped political framework, that is, drink from the poisoned chalice, then all hell will break lose on this country with an even greater escalation of Western-backed violence.

«The United States is lobbying European governments to back a British-led call to amend [lift] the EU arms embargo on Syria,» reported the British Guardian this week, as Washington and its friend were gathering in Jordan.

Up to now, Washington has at least been maintaining the fiction that it is not arming the anti-Assad militants. It has, of course, been plying the mercenaries covertly with weaponry and logistics, along with its NATO allies and the Gulf Arab dictatorships.

Militant commander Brigadier General Salim Idriss has been pleading for Washington to begin openly supplying anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles – not just the assault rifles and explosives that have come so far through the clandestine CIA/MI6 conduits of Turkey, Jordan, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Since last month, Washington officials have begun briefing media outlets, such as the Washington Post and the New York Times, that the Obama administration is moving towards more direct military intervention in aid of the militants in Syria. «We’re clearly on an upward trajectory,» a senior US official said somewhat cryptically on 30 April. «We’ve moved over to assistance that has a direct military purpose.»

Days later, in the first week of May, US Secretary of Defence Chuck Hagel hosted a press conference at the Pentagon with his British counterpart, Philip Hammond. «Arming the rebels, that’s an option,» said Hagel, indicating an apparent reversal of White House policy of ostensibly only sending «non-lethal aid».

And this week a US Senate committee voted in favour of Washington arming the «rebels» in Syria.

Secretary of State John Kerry is adding to this increasingly articulated threat. Voice of America reported from the Jordanian meeting last week: «Kerry says the Obama administration hopes President Assad ‘will understand the meaning of that’ [shift in US military policy towards Syria].»

This latent threat of greater aggression against Syria by the US, if it does not toe the political line as ordained by Washington, is not a new tactic in America’s underlying objective of regime change.

Last month, the Iranian FARS news agency reported that Syrian envoy to Iran, Adnan Mahmoud, disclosed that as far back as March 2011 – when the conflict was kicking off in Syria – that the then US Secretary of Defence, Robert Gates, had starkly told the Damascus government that it faced «a choice».

The Syrian envoy to Iran was quoted by FARS as saying: «Of course, in the very first weeks of the conflict in Syria, the US Secretary of Defence [Robert Gates] sent a message to the Syrian government, and said we should have cut our ties with the Islamic Republic of Iran if we wanted to stop the war, and stressed that if we did so, they [the US] would provide us with whatever we want». In other words, Washington was making Syria back then «an offer it couldn’t refuse». Well, Syria did refuse back in early 2011 to comply with US demands to cut its strategic ties with Iran, and as time has shown Damascus has since paid a heavy price in terms of human lives and the destruction of the country.

[…]

May 27th, 2013, 3:58 pm

The meeting in Istanbul is a “farce” . It is regrettable it was not videotaped: The black comedy of the year.

Syrian National Coalition on brink of collapse

Phil Sands
ISTANBUL // The opposition Syrian National Coalition was on the brink of collapse last night after five days of fractious wrangling.
What had been planned as a brief conference in Istanbul to deal with a host of pressing issues has become an embarrassing display of internal politicking and inefficiency.

An increasingly rancorous dispute over control of the alliance came to a head early yesterday when a diverse liberal bloc that could counter the Muslim Brotherhood and attract international funding was denied full membership of the coalition.

What is widely seen as the farce in Istanbul has undermined the alliance’s credibility both inside Syria and in the eyes of its international backers. “If we do not solve our internal problems here and now there will be no coalition left to speak of,” an SNC member said.
.
That deal appeared to have broken down yesterday, amid furious recriminations.

“There was a shouting match between the French and one element of the SNC,” said one opposition member who was at the session. “The French said, ‘Unless you expand you will get no support from any of us’, and was told, ‘Leave us alone, we don’t need your support’.

Read more: http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/middle-east/syrian-national-coalition-on-brink-of-collapse#ixzz2UWcHU8Qd
Follow us: @TheNationalUAE on Twitter | thenational.ae on Facebook

May 27th, 2013, 4:04 pm

Dawoud said:

As the picture after the link shows, the terrorist Iranian Revolutionary Guard is holding recruitment events to sign up NON-ARAB Iranian terrorist volunteers to travel and occupy and ARAB country, Syria:

http://www.alarabiya.net/ar/arab-and-world/syria/2013/05/27/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AD%D8%B1%D8%B3-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AB%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A5%D9%8A%D8%B1%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%8A-%D9%8A%D8%AD%D8%B4%D8%AF-%D9%85%D8%AA%D8%B7%D9%88%D8%B9%D9%8A%D9%86-%D9%84%D9%84%D9%82%D8%AA%D8%A7%D9%84-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%B3%D9%88%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%A7-.html

الرئيسية
»
سوريا
آخر تحديث: الاثنين 17 رجب 1434هـ – 27 مايو 2013م KSA 20:23 – GMT 17:23
الحرس الثوري الإيراني يحشد متطوعين للقتال في سوريا
مواقع محافظة دعت لتشكيل وحدات عسكرية أطلق عليها اسم “كتائب أبا الفضل العباس”
الاثنين 17 رجب 1434هـ – 27 مايو 2013

–
نشرت وسائل إعلام إيرانية، اليوم، صوراً لمتطوعين يراجعون مقرات قوات التعبئة التابعة للحرس الثوري الإيراني الـ”باسيج” لتسجيل أسمائهم بغية القتال في سوريا إلى جانب القوات الموالية لبشار الأسد.
وأطلقت مواقع محافظة قريبة من قوات التعبئة حملة لتشكيل وحدات عسكرية مكونة من متطوعين للقتال في سوريا أطلق عليها اسم “كتائب أبا الفضل العباس”.
وكررت إحدى الدعوات المنشورة لهذا الغرض نفس الشعار الذي يرفعه حزب الله اللبناني و”كتائب الحق العراقية”، أي القتال في سوريا، “للدفاع عن العتبات العاليات”، في إشارة إلى مرقد “السيدة زينب”.
وبرر محمد صالحي جوكار، عضو لجنة الأمن القومي والسياسة الخارجية بالبرلمان الإيراني، هذه الدعوة على أنها تطلق من قبل “منظمات غير حكومية” (NGO)، وأكد أنها تسعى للحفاظ على “القيم والثقافة” في إيران، مؤكداً ضرورة “إطلاق يدها”، حسب تعبيره.
“لا يجوز أن نترك الشعب السوري وحده”
واستطرد قائلاً: “لا يجوز أن نترك الشعب السوري البريء وحده، ففي الوقت الذي يجمع الاتحاد الأوروبي كافة أنواع الأسلحة ويرسلها إلى سوريا، وتقوم دول بإرسال الأسلحة للإرهابيين دون انقطاع والخيانة مستمرة، لا يجوز اتخاذ موقف المتفرج، بل ينبغي على المتطوعين التوجه إلى هناك والبدء بالدعم”.
يذكر أن المعارضة السورية وجهات دولية وإقليمية عدة، تتهم إيران وحليفها في لبنان حزب الله بالتدخل المباشر في الشأن السوري، وتزويد نظام الأسد بالعدد والعدة.
[…]

May 27th, 2013, 4:13 pm

Hizbass terrorist war against the Syrian people is de-stabilizing Lebanon, and sooner or later will reach the its Shia terrorist nest in Beirut’s Southern Dhahiyah!

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/hezbollahs-war-in-syria-threatens-to-engulf-lebanon-8632689.html

Robert Fisk
Sunday 26 May 2013
Hezbollah’s war in Syria threatens to engulf Lebanon
This is potentially the greatest danger to Lebanon’s people since the 1975-90 civil war

[..] Hassan Nasrallah [حسن نصر الشسيطان] has crossed the Rubicon.
The Hezbollah chairman who said exactly 13 years ago that his resistance movement would not cross the Israeli frontier – that it was for the Palestinians to “liberate” Jerusalem – has declared that Hezbollah has crossed the Syrian frontier. Not only that, but Nasrallah said at the weekend he would fight “to the end” to protect President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Hezbollah, he said, was entering “a completely new phase.” He can say that again.

I was standing on a rooftop in the south Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil when I heard that promise from Nasrallah all those years ago. Hezbollah would not be advancing into Palestine. We all sighed with relief. What happened? In those days, Nasrallah appeared in person, standing amid his adoring fighters and their families. Now he lives in hiding. Is there tunnel vision at work? He said he receives letters from families begging him to let their sons fight in Syria. Coffin vision, perhaps?

It was, of course, inevitable. Only last month, I discovered Hezbollah men “protecting” the Sayda Zeinab mosque in south Damascus. “Don’t say you saw me here,” one of them told me. A friendly soul who had pinned a picture of Nasrallah and of Iran’s supreme leader Khamenei to the wall of his office, he came from that very same town of Bint Jbeil.

Two days later, Hezbollah admitted their men were “guarding” the front-line shrine. Then they said 12 of them had been killed. I do not know if my interlocutor was among them. For several months, Hezbollah had been quietly admitting that their fighters were also “protecting” Shia villages inside Syria whose inhabitants were Lebanese. Then the bodies started to come home. One at first, then six, then they came by the dozen.

Once Hezbollah was committed to the battle for Qusayr alongside Syrian troops, a spokesman for this most efficient and ruthless militia claimed its fighters had been on their way to the shrine in Damascus but had been misdirected and found themselves in a firefight in no-man’s land. A likely story. Qusayr – just off from the highway to Latakia and the Syrian coast – is well over 100 miles from Damascus. Then 30 more bodies came home to Lebanon. So Nasrallah only said what he had to say. Much did he speak of Palestine and the al-Aqsa mosque. But his men were moving east into Syria, not south into Palestine, and history will judge Nasrallah on this speech.

He talked, of course, about the danger of “extremists” trying to overthrow Assad, claiming they were also a danger to Lebanon, that Assad’s Syria was a backbone of Hezbollah “and the resistance cannot stand with its arms folded while its back is broken”.

What he did not say was that his Shia militia was fighting Syrian Sunnis – whose co-religionists make up around 30 per cent of Lebanon’s population. Which is why the battle between the Sunnis and the Alawite Shias of the north Lebanese city of Tripoli broke out so ferociously on the day Hezbollah took up the fight for Qusayr alongside Assad’s men.

Quite simply, this is potentially the greatest danger to Lebanon’s people – not to mention the sovereignty of its sectarian state – since the 1975-90 civil war.

“If Syria falls into the hands of America, Israel and Takfiris [Sunni extremists], the resistance will be besieged and Israel will enter Lebanon and impose its will.” This is what Nasrallah said on the huge screen erected in the town of Mashgara on the 13th anniversary of south Lebanon’s liberation from Israeli occupation on Saturday night. What he meant was that if Assad falls, Hezbollah’s own political support and weaponry – originating in Iran – will come to an end. And then there will be no more Hezbollah to drive out the Israelis when they return.

And before we bellow with hollow laughter, let’s just remember that the destruction of the Islamic Republic of Iran – as a theological state created by Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979 – is currently the be-all and end-all of US and Israeli policy towards the country
[…]

May 27th, 2013, 4:24 pm

Robert fisk (http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/hezbollahs-war-in-syria-threatens-to-engulf-lebanon-8632689.html): “The Hezbollah chairman who said exactly 13 years ago that his resistance movement would not cross the Israeli frontier – that it was for the Palestinians to “liberate” Jerusalem – has declared that Hezbollah has crossed the Syrian frontier. Not only that, but Nasrallah said at the weekend he would fight “to the end” to protect President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.”

So, let me emphasize this again: the terrorist Hasan the Devil said that his terrorist militia would never ever enter a territory controlled by Israel to defend Palestine, but he is sending his terrorists to Syria to defend a murderous dictator 🙂 🙂 “Resistance” His As$ 🙂

May 27th, 2013, 4:33 pm

Dave I think you should post that exact same article 10-20 more times. That way even you might find it believable.

We’re going with Nasrallah to “the end of the road” and will see who wins.

May 27th, 2013, 4:38 pm

Robert Fisk (http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/hezbollahs-war-in-syria-threatens-to-engulf-lebanon-8632689.html):
“Now he [Hasan Nasrass حسن نصر الشسيطان] lives in hiding. Is there tunnel vision at work? He said he receives letters from families begging him to let their sons fight in Syria. Coffin vision, perhaps?”

Thanks, Mr. Fisk, I could not have said it any better!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, it’s a coffin vision!

Free Syria, Free Palestine!

May 27th, 2013, 4:41 pm

Juergen said:

German NGO Clowns without borders has visited the Atmeh refugee camp and were able to end at least for the lenght of an show the misery of the children

http://www.clownsohnegrenzen.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=63&Itemid=137&lang=de

May 27th, 2013, 4:51 pm

Matthew Barber said:

Majoos,

I’ve deleted your comment to Tara, and I’m offering you a single warning: no sexual remarks directed at other users. This is a forum for discussion, not for insults and outbursts.

You’ve contributed some thoughtful comments and links here. Please keep it that way.

May 27th, 2013, 4:53 pm

This 1999 tv documentary of Iraq shows has a lot of similarities with todays Syria.

May 27th, 2013, 4:54 pm

SANDRO LOEWE said:

Reports via watsapp about chemical weapons being used right now in Al Qasaa quarter, in Damascus.

May 27th, 2013, 4:56 pm

@32 Sandro

Could you please forward a link?

May 27th, 2013, 4:59 pm

mjoos said:

@ Dawood

Why is that a surprise to you?
Doesn t it just confirm your old bias against Shiites?

“He who has no taqiyya has no faith”;
“he who forsakes taqiyya is like him who forsakes prayer”;
“taqiyya is the believers shield, but for taqiyya, God would not have been worshipped”

Kohlberg, Etan (1995). Secrecy and Concealment. Brill Academic Publishers. p. 373.

May 27th, 2013, 5:09 pm

Does anyone know the difference between the shamsi and qamari Alawites and weather Assads family originates from?

May 27th, 2013, 5:15 pm

John McCain in Syria, meets rebels

“Sen. John McCain, one of the Senate’s loudest voices for further intervention in Syria, snuck into the country and met with rebel leaders Monday, his office confirmed to POLITICO.

The Arizona Republican made the trip from Turkey into Syria alongside Gen. Salam Idris, according to The Daily Beast, which first reported McCain’s visit. Idris leads the Supreme Military Council of the Free Syrian Army and accompanied McCain as they met with rebel leaders from throughout the country.”

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/05/john-mccain-syria-91910.html

May 27th, 2013, 5:19 pm

Chemical weapons are being used right now in Damascus? LOL Is someone washing their dishes or shaving?

May 27th, 2013, 5:20 pm

Juergen did he bring Joe Lieberman with him?

May 27th, 2013, 5:23 pm

Assad supporters in LA and TEL AVIV deny the use of chemical weapons. Assad supporters inside Damascus are now testing the effects of chemical weapons in their lungs.

May 27th, 2013, 5:26 pm

I hope no one missunderstands this as apolegetics for the use of WMD.

But can someone please try to exlain me the moral difference between “regular” weapons such as missiles, grenates, TNT and the chemical weapons, apparently used by Assad on such a smal scale that it killed less than a duzend?

May 27th, 2013, 5:27 pm

Assad and mafia could be near to the end.

May 27th, 2013, 5:28 pm

35. revenire

The smell of dead decomposing bodies of Al-Qaeda Islamist terrorists from Jobar

May 27th, 2013, 5:34 pm

Juergen

The anti-Bashar should feel so proud that Mc Cain came to visit the Syria-Turkish border. It is so re-assuring that someone of that “high morals” makes a move to show support for the crumbling FSA.
I am sure he was deeply moved by Genrl Selim Idriss begging for heavy weapons to ‘protect’ the civilians.
Bashar al Assad would surely thank Senator Mc Cain as this visit will probably discredit even more the opposition in the eyes of most Syrians.

May 27th, 2013, 5:40 pm

To the pro-assad fraction in here:
Your hatred against the radicalized islamic barbarians is understandable but you should not fall in the trap of letting your emotions being killed.
After all most of them are uneducated poor and hopeless young men who were systematic radicalized by corrupt governments and their media outlets. Most of them were given drugs from their commanders.
The ones now dying on the fields are definitely not the cause of this conflict.

May 27th, 2013, 5:43 pm

It is ironic to see people claiming to support freedom for Syria cheer for this warmonger McCain.

May 27th, 2013, 5:46 pm

Majoos said:

Is my religious affiliation the reason nobody answers my questions?
🙂

May 27th, 2013, 5:49 pm

“– What, then, does one experience of the You?
— Nothing at all. For one does not experience it.
— What, then, does one know of the You?
— Only everything. For one no longer knows particulars.”

M.Buber

May 27th, 2013, 5:51 pm

Majoos that may, or may not, be true but if it were true should Syria surrender to the thousands of foreign jihadis killing its citizens?

The enemy is at the gate. This is war. The time for discussion has passed. There is no one to negotiate with.

The only peace that will come is peace imposed by force of the Syrian Arab Army and its allies and the peace of the grave. If it costs 500,000 lives that is the price Syria we will pay for freedom.

No one is going to surrender to former colonial masters led by the Anglo-Americans.

We will fight to the end.

May 27th, 2013, 5:53 pm

The EU AGREED to lift the sanctions on weapons to the opposition.

Congratulation Syria!!!

Allahu Akbar!

May 27th, 2013, 5:59 pm

Ziad said:

Iraq violence: Baghdad car bombs kill at least 66

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-22682400

May 27th, 2013, 6:03 pm

@Tara
The EU, or the two dominant powers within, are already delivering weapons and took part in the preparation of this “uprising” since the pullout of Syrian forces out of Lebanon after the staged assassination of Hariri.

@Revenire
As I said, it justified to fight and kill the insurgents but it s not honorable to make jokes as ” The smell of dead decomposing bodies”.
You should rather feel sorry for them.

May 27th, 2013, 6:04 pm

And one more news.

Defection is taking place in HA in protest to Dajjal al Mouqaweh”

Praise Jesus.

May 27th, 2013, 6:05 pm

Critics round on William Hague over arming of Syria’s rebels

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/middleeast/article3776106.ece

May 27th, 2013, 6:12 pm

Hague is claiming the EU lifted the embargo. Let’s see the actual statement.

It s going to be 34 degrees tomorrow in Mumbai!

Praise Manitu

May 27th, 2013, 6:13 pm

Majoos ever had one of your relatives butchered by these “freedom fighters”? People are free to feel as they like about it.

You can send them roses and chocolates. I am sending something else.

May 27th, 2013, 6:14 pm

@revenire
Why did you never mention the leaked documents by RedHack in Turkey whick exposed that Turkish secruites knew two weeks in advance of planed bomb attacks in Reyhanli by Nusra?

May 27th, 2013, 6:18 pm

@revenire

I had family members being butchered by so called pro-secular Turks in the 30´s.

May 27th, 2013, 6:20 pm

Now that the arms embargo is lifted, Asma must use a wetting pad in Batta’s bed tonight. Sad they don’t sell disposable pads in Syria nowadays.

1.) Tara you should have known the British lie about everything:

“Mary Fitzgerald ‏@MaryFitzger
EU did not decide to ‘lift’ Syria arms embargo tonight. It failed to agree to extend embargo beyond June 1 expiry date. Important difference”

Hague is a liar and anyone who believes him is a fool.

2.) Majoos let me look at them but the reason I don’t mention is is because this was a foregone conclusion and frankly, truth matters little in this war. Truth is the first casualty of war.

May 27th, 2013, 6:23 pm

*YOUR COMMENT IS AWAITING MODERATION.*

May 27th, 2013, 6:24 pm

Real reporting on Hizbullah’s intervention in Syria: not based on “inside sources” or “sources close to Hizbullah” or to “fighters skyping from Qusayr”

This is real reporting. As-Safir reports about the families of Hizbullah fighters who died in Syria and it reports about casualties of Hizbullah, without relying on the lies and exaggeration of Saudi and Hariri media, which are then recycled in Western media. And what is interesting is that the families don’t consider the fight to be in defense of Bashshar Al-Asad (and even Nasrallah did not portray the fight in those terms). The views of the families are of course inconsistent with the “impressions” of the handful of Sh`ities that Hariri press office rolls out for Western reporters in Jumayzah.

http://networkedblogs.com/LC9Lm

Redhack also exposed the names of 30.000 mossad agents.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelpeck/2013/03/24/did-anonymous-hack-israels-mossad-spy-agency/

May 27th, 2013, 6:31 pm

The endpoint is no sanctions is in effect whatever the mechanism was. Lifting the embargo or failing to extend the sanctions is all semantic. Our good Arab brothers can now have private deals with arms dealer LEAGALLY!

Praise Jesus!

Hallelujah!

May 27th, 2013, 6:34 pm

REVENIRE,

I am very sorry for you and for Assad supporters. Do not take it personally, the lift of embargo is very good news for the future of syrian population.

One day, even Assad supporters, and clients will appreciate the UE for lifting the embargo and help ending the Assad Nightmare.

Congratulations to all, congratulations Syria.

Tara let me explain how the EU arms embargo worked: in order to lift it they would have needed unanimous consent of all members.

That didn’t happen.

What did happen is it is expiring at the end of the month (on June 1).

If you don’t believe me ask around.

May 27th, 2013, 6:35 pm

We’ve got enough problems at home without charging into yet another foreign bloodbath – 2 minutes ago

What infuses British governments with a mania for thrusting their sticky hands into other people’s messes that are absolutely no responsibility of ours?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2331824/MAX-HASTINGS-Weve-got-problems-home-charging-foreign-bloodbath.html

Foreign Secretary William Hague spent the Bank Holiday at an EU meeting in Brussels, striving to persuade his European colleagues not to renew their arms embargo against Syria, and instead ship weapons to the anti-Assad rebels.

Hague, like the Prime Minister, is panting to do a good deed in a wicked world. Enthusiastically backed by the Old Etonian boy scout troop that passes for Downing Street policy advisers, they are eager to follow their 2011 ‘success’ in Libya by helping to topple the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

One of the most senior of David Cameron’s staffers speaks messianically of a ‘moral imperative’ to tilt the balance in Syria. The Prime Minister himself spent much of his recent visit to Washington urging President Barack Obama to overcome his gut reluctance to intervene.

Why, why, why? It seems extraordinary that a British national leader striving to preserve his premiership from the threat of abject failure, amid grave difficulties with the economy and Europe, should be eager to involve Britain in a huge gamble abroad.

The only other EU nation which shares Mr Cameron’s enthusiasm for arming the Syrians is France, where President Francois Hollande is in even deeper trouble than himself, and eager for foreign adventures to distract attention from his follies at home.

David Cameron might say: ‘But don’t you watch TV? Every day, commentators report new carnage in Syria and castigate Western politicians for failing to act. The Economist, The Financial Times and The Times are all demanding aid for the rebels. Surely we have a duty not to stand idly by.’

Yet one of the media’s chronic vices is to describe horrors in faraway places, sounding that baleful cry ‘Something Must Be Done’, without having the smallest credible idea about what this should be.

Again and again, Western involvements, even in famine relief, have proved lamentably ill-judged, creating the very opposite impact to that which they intended.

I was among those who opposed the Cameron-led operation in Libya two years ago, which the Government now considers a triumph. But that story is by no means over.

I have promised to apologise in print to the Prime Minister if, a few years hence, the new Libya which he sponsored proves democratic, unified and friendly towards the West.

Students of the Libyan story say I am in little early peril of having to dine off my hat.

The Syrian civil war has created almost unprecedented unanimity among professional military, intelligence and diplomatic opinion, that Western intervention would be madness.

One planner told me earlier this month: ‘We can work out 20 scenarios for getting stuck into Syria. But we can’t see one for getting out again afterwards.’

President Assad is a loathsome tyrant, backed by some of the nastiest governments in the world — Chinese, Russian and Iranian.

Beijing and Moscow have repeatedly vetoed UN action against the Syrian government. This is partly because they see diplomacy as a zero-sum game: they oppose whatever the West wants.

Assad is a long-standing client of the Russians and provides them with a strategically important Mediterranean naval base.

But rebel forces are dominated by Islamists. They are divided among themselves into scores of factions and are widely acknowledged to be responsible for atrocities almost as loathsome as those being committed by government forces.

It is still uncertain whether they have contrived to manufacture evidence of alleged chemical-weapon use by the regime for their own propaganda purposes. Their principal foreign supporters are Saudi Arabia and Qatar, two of the least democratic states in the Middle East.

General Colin Powell used an immortal phrase to warn President George W. Bush against going into Iraq in 2003. ‘It’ll be pottery barn rules,’ said the former U.S. Secretary of State. ‘You break it, you own it.’

This proved horribly true in Iraq, and would be equally so in Syria.

The moment the West arms rebel factions, it assumes implicit responsibility for the future of the country and institutionalises the civil war.

The Syrian government’s forces are nowhere near as weak and vulnerable as were those of President Gaddafi two years ago. And, unlike the Libyan insurgents, those operating in Syria control no big tract of territory.

The Hezbollah militias now fighting actively on the side of Assad are formidable warriors: their involvement threatens to extend the struggle into Lebanon, where they are based.

If Syria breaks up, as many experts fear, its collapse will have implications for the stability of Turkey, Iran and Iraq, as well as Jordan.

This is why the Americans are so reluctant to take a hand. They recognise — as our government will not — that the consequences of intervention are many and various, and completely unpredictable.

William Hague says if Britain gets its way and the rebels receive guns from us, these will be supplied under ‘carefully controlled conditions’.

That is a notably silly statement from an intelligent man. We would have no means of monitoring the ultimate fate of arms shipments to the region unless we put troops on the ground, which even Hague and Cameron do not propose.

Nonetheless, it is impossible simply to offload crates of anti-aircraft and anti-armour weapons at the Syrian border and invite rebels to read the instructions carefully. Somebody would have to train the users, which, of course, means British personnel.

It is almost impossible to do a little bit of intervention. Once one undertakes sponsorship of one side or the other, one is stuck with the client.

Western aircraft could impose a no-fly zone on government forces, but as the very smart ex-CIA officer and White House adviser Bruce Riedel says: ‘Once you set up a military no-fly zone or safe zone, you’re on a slippery slope, mission creep, and before you know it, you have boots on the ground.’

General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said he still cannot see a U.S. armed initiative which promises ‘an understandable outcome. There’s a lot of analysis to be done before reaching any major decisions that would push U.S. policy in the direction of military options’.

Opinion polls on both sides of the Atlantic show overwhelming majorities opposing Western military intervention.

I doubt that David Cameron will gain a single vote at the next general election by leading a charge into Syria; and if such a mission goes sour, he could lose plenty.

There is scope for Britain and the rest of the EU to step up humanitarian aid to the region, especially through Jordan.

There are slender hopes that the proposed peace conference in Geneva will force the Syrian warring parties to negotiate seriously.

But even if diplomatic efforts fail and the bloody struggle goes on in Syria, I can think of absolutely no reason for Britain to lead a crusade to save the country, apart from the ill-judged idealism of a few space cadets that are around the Prime Minister.

May 27th, 2013, 6:36 pm

It does not work this way. The embargo will not be renewed. So every country in the EU will be free to provide arms to the Revolution and get money from Saudi Arabia or Qatar or from any friend of Syria.

Will now Assad dare crossing the red lines ?

That´s the end for that nightmare.

May 27th, 2013, 6:40 pm

Tara as I said – this was just filed at Reuters and is honest – unlike British war criminal Hague:

EU fails to agree on easing Syria arms ban: Austria

(Reuters) – European Union countries failed on Monday to agree on easing an arms embargo on Syria, Austria’s foreign minister said, a deadlock that might enable some EU states to go it alone in sending weapons to rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad.

If no deal can be salvaged in late-night talks between EU foreign ministers, all EU sanctions on Syria, including those on the Assad government, will expire on Saturday, leaving individual member states to decide whether to keep the restrictions in place.

That could free up Britain and France – which have been pushing the EU for action – to go it alone in arming the rebels if they decided to do so.

Some EU diplomats at the meeting in Brussels disputed the Austrian version of events, saying talks would resume later in the evening and there was still a chance of salvaging a common EU position.

“Nothing has failed. Germany and the Netherlands will push very hard to find an acceptable compromise for everybody,” a Dutch diplomat said.

However, another EU diplomat said the ministers were simply drawing up a political declaration that member states were committed to keeping other sanctions in place against Syria, apart from the arms embargo on the rebels.

Britain and France have pushed for months to allow European governments to deliver arms, although they say they have taken no decision to actually supply weapons. Austria and other EU capitals oppose such moves.

“I regret that after long talks it was not possible to find a compromise with the UK and France,” Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger told reporters. “We have no consensus, which means the sanctions regime will not be continued.”

The EU’s diplomatic service produced several proposals aimed at finding middle ground between the two camps but none had won the required unanimous support by the time ministers took a break from talks for dinner on Monday evening.

EU sanctions on Syria, including asset freezes and travel bans on Assad and senior Syrian officials as well as the arms embargo, expire on Saturday.

PEACE TALKS

Britain and France have argued that easing the embargo would strengthen the opposition before a peace conference co-sponsored by Russia and the United States expected to be held next month.

Austria and several other states believe it would send the wrong signal before the proposed peace talks on ending a two-year-old civil war that has cost at least 80,000 lives.

Spindelegger said on Monday the Austrian government would now discuss what to do about its 380 soldiers patrolling the U.N. ceasefire line on the Golan Heights between Israel and Syria. Vienna has said in the past it might have to pull them out if the arms embargo was eased.

Many EU governments, including France, said during Monday’s talks that they would back a compromise to maintain EU unity.

The debate has gained urgency because of military gains by Assad’s troops and allegations of chemical weapons use.

While the rebels are receiving arms from Arab states through Jordan and Turkey, Western powers are concerned that Islamist militants fighting Assad could also use such weapons against them. The United States has also held back from supplying arms.

(Additional reporting by Adrian Croft, Claire Davenport, Rex Merrifield in Brussels, Yesim Dikmen in Istanbul; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/27/us-syria-crisis-eu-idUSBRE94Q09320130527

May 27th, 2013, 6:41 pm

Sandro yes, it does – read the EU rules. Unanimous consent was needed. Just read the news reports. It is simple 1-2-3 stuff.

Weapons have flowed from Britain for two years now. It is meaningless Sandro.

May 27th, 2013, 6:43 pm

EU arms embargo theoretically lifted with a “if” and within a “strict framework”. UK and France want probably to use that half ‘success’ to morally boost the opposition’s failing morale and as a stick to pressure Bashar al Assad.. who couldn’t care less.
France and UK have avoided to be humiliated by Europe

http://www.itv.com/news/update/2013-05-27/syria-decision-gives-eu-flexibility-if-crisis-worsens/

Syria decision gives EU ‘flexibility’ if crisis worsens
Last updated Mon 27 May 2013
….
Foreign Secretary William Hague said the decision to lift the Syrian arms embargo gives the European Union “flexibility to respond” if the crisis deteriorates further in the future.

EU nations also agreed a common framework for those member states who, in the future, may decide to supply military equipment to the Syrian National Coalition.

“These agreed safeguards would ensure that any such equipment would only be supplied to the National Coalition, for the protection of civilians.

“This does not mean that we have made any decision as the United Kingdom to send arms to the National Coalition, but we now have the flexibility to respond in the future if the situation continues to deteriorate and if the Assad regime refuses to negotiate.

“Thousands of lives are at stake in Syria. Our focus remains on efforts to secure a successful outcome at the forthcoming Geneva conference, and a political transition that ends the conflict, allows refugees to return to their homes, and prevents further radicalisation in Syria.”.
….
EU governments will refrain from any arms deliveries to Syria for now, the diplomats said.

May 27th, 2013, 6:47 pm

HA HA HA

Did not wait long for regime supporters to claim victory in regard to the sanctions. And when Batta wets his bed tonight, more victory they shall claim.

Looking forward to a future saturated with similar victories.

May 27th, 2013, 6:49 pm

LOL

May 27th, 2013, 6:52 pm

Key paragraph in an excellent analysis in Reuters:

http://blogs.reuters.com/david-rohde/2013/05/23/changing-assads-calculus/

Changing Assad’s calculus
By David Rohde MAY 23, 2013

[…]
Given the extent of support Assad is receiving from his allies, that appears unlikely. Hezbollah fighters are playing a crucial role in the battle to take the strategic town of Qusayr. Iranians are now advising Syrian government units in Qusayr and around Damascus. Members of Iraqi Shia militias are fighting alongside Assad’s forces in several battles.

Assad and the Iranians are winning. If the Obama administration and its European and Arab allies want to defeat Assad, they must increase military aid to the rebels now.
[…]

May 27th, 2013, 7:05 pm

Leaked Video: French Diplomat Argues with Syria Opposition

In an apparent vindication of the latest interview with Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad, the notorious opposition Syrian National Coalition appears hopelessly divided ahead of the Geneva 2 conference in June.

Recently, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem has said that the government had agreed ”in principle to participate in the international conference which is supposed to be convened in Geneva” in June: “We think…that the international conference represents a good opportunity for a political solution to the crisis in Syria.”

As different blocs and competing personalities emerge, a deadlock ensues preventing the much reported opposition, marred by resignations and splits, from establishing any semblance of unity.

The following video shows a French diplomat arguing with opponents at the latest Coalition conference in Istanbul.

History will write that the Syrian Revolution and al-Assad’s fate were decided by three events:

1) the torture/murder of Hamza al-Khateeb and the excessive force against Der’ah’s peaceful demonstrators, which turned the Syrian demonstrators’ demands from reform to REGIME CHANGE and MILITARIZED the resistance.

2) The allegiance of one terrorist leader of al-Nusra Front to al-Qa’ida’s terrorist network raised negative alarm in the West and Saudi Arabia/Qatar. This alarm has dramatically slowed plans to provide effective arms to the armed opposition, which in turn has led to the military gains of the regime and its sectarian Iranina/Hizbass/Iraqi allies.

3)The latest speech by Hasan the Devil of the Lebanese Shia terrorist party, Hizbass. This speech, which made it clear that the Lebanese terrorist Hasan the Devil tied his fate to Bashar’s, has raised real alarm in the majority Sunni Arab world and the West. It is now unsurprising that both Saudi Arabia (whose Crown Prince was in Turkey a few days ago) and Qatar are providing more arms to Idris’ Free Syrian Army (FSA)-which is viewd as “moderate.” John McCain, who supports providing arms to the Syrian resistance, met today in Syria with Idris. As TARA posted earlier in her comment, the European Union is now lifting the arms embargo on the Syrian armed opposition. Free Syria may have one day Hasan the Devil to thank because his terrorist intervention in Syria ONLY motivated the West and Arabs to provide game-changing weapons to the anti-dictator Syrian opposition.

May 27th, 2013, 7:17 pm

When that book becomes available on Amazon Dave let me know.

May 27th, 2013, 7:22 pm

Matt Barber,

Thank you.

May 27th, 2013, 7:25 pm

GEORGES said:

I watched the video at #73, I couldn’t help but feel bad, it’s such a sad state of affairs that syrians are reduced to beg weapons from the west to fight their supposed government. يلعن روحك يا بشار شو سويت فينا

May 27th, 2013, 7:32 pm

77. GEORGES
I could not have agreed with you more, and I also agree with you that: “God curse Bashar’s [and Hasan the Devil’s]filthy soul!”

May 27th, 2013, 7:34 pm

McCain in Syria:

May 27th, 2013, 7:45 pm

Picture of Senator McCain in Syria with FSA General Idris:

http://syriantaskforce.org/index.php/about-us/setf-blog/86-setf-mccain-trip

May 27th, 2013, 7:50 pm

McCain in Syria, Another regime victory?,,,

McCain in Syria certainly isn’t a regime loss.

May 27th, 2013, 7:54 pm

Ghufran said:

I doubt that the failure to extend the arms embargo will change things much on the ground but it may increase the loss of lives and prolong the war, the NC was waiting for this move before they officially reject going to Geneve because their conditions were not met.
Rebels and their supporters are afraid that if they do not score another victory or two they will be forced to accept a settlement that is more favorable to the regime, I see this move by the EU as an attempt to pressure Assad to make more concessions, however it remains to be seen whether this new game will succeed, I am for any measure to convince Assad to give up his presidential ambitions because I believe it is best for Syria that he steps aside then steps out but I think the focus should be ending the war not giving more arms to the rebels who are not interested in a political settlement but are determined to wipe out their opponents, overall this move by the EU is probably too little too late.

May 27th, 2013, 7:58 pm

AL-HAM-DOOLI-LA!

“Rebels” kidnap hundreds of Syrian Kurds in Aleppo: activists – 2013-05-28

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/world/2013-05/28/c_132412286.htm

DAMASCUS, May 27 (Xinhua) — “Syrian rebels” have kidnapped hundreds of Syrian Kurds in the northern province of Aleppo, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Monday.

The kidnappers are holding the hostages in a town north of Aleppo, the Observatory said, giving no further details about the circumstances of the kidnapping.

An earlier report said some Kurdish militants were battling “rebels” in northern Syria near the border with Turkey on Monday, one day after deadly clashes between the two sides killed 11 “rebels.”

May 27th, 2013, 8:06 pm

81. TARA

I disagree with you sister Tara. I am not a McCain supporter, and I voted against him in 2008 because of his neocon views. However, Syria is different and his visit is a win for the opposition. Why? McCain has shown that NOT everybody in the Syrian opposition is an “extremist,” and weapons-which the armed opposition badly needs, can still be sent to the FSA group that he met with (General Idris). If Idris’ FSA gets advanced weapons, wouldn’t they use them against the regime and its Shia Lebanese terrorist allies? The Syrian resistance-which is now being exterminated (look at what’s happening now in al-Qasir)-needs weapons from Arabs, the EU, the USA, and from anywhere it can get them. When you are dying from thirst, you don’t ask about the source of the life-saving water!

May 27th, 2013, 8:10 pm

Aleppo – A mass grave of government troops was discovered Monday near the Koerse military airport in the countryside, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Monday, spelling no further details.

May 27th, 2013, 8:12 pm

American Dave they’re already sending weapons. Have been for over two years. They send them, we capture them. I hope they send some of those new high-powered sniper rifles. They’re really cool.

You guys get excited over nothing and never read the fine print.

May 27th, 2013, 8:18 pm

Dawoud

Yes Dawoud. Totally agree. I was being sarcastic. I was trying to say that regime supporters are so blinded that they claim victory even when they are on their knees. I bet when Divine justice is seved to Batta, they will claim a victory too. Yes, his visit is very important in showing the world that not everyone who carries arms against Batta is an Islamist.

May 27th, 2013, 8:31 pm

Tara
🙂

May 27th, 2013, 8:44 pm

Zoo,

Having been the first of the class in the past, any confirmation in regard to the defections within HA? ,,,

Do you think that eould upset the Persian? Does this herald a Shiaa divide? Isn”t timer for Shiaa Arab to stay Arab? Do they need to have a Persian wali Faqih? I heard that wali Faqih thingy is something relatively new as opposed since the inception of Shiiite sect.

May 27th, 2013, 8:55 pm

Undercover FBI agent ‘lured’ Tunisian student, allegedly linked to foiled terror plot, to U.S., supporters say – May 27, 2013

Ahmed Abassi, a 26-year-old Laval University student, was allegedly in regular contact with the agent, who secretly recorded them discussing a plot to attack a Via Rail passenger train

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2013/05/27/undercover_fbi_agent_lured_tunisian_student_allegedly_linked_to_foiled_terror_plot_to_us_supporters_say.html

MONTREAL—Supporters of Ahmed Abassi, a Tunisian man allegedly linked to a foiled Canadian terror plot, say an undercover FBI agent posing as an Egyptian businessman provided money, advice and the promise of a job if Abassi would come to the United States.

U.S. court documents have already revealed that an undercover agent played a crucial role in the arrest of Abassi, a 26-year-old student at Quebec’s Laval University.

Abassi was allegedly in regular contact with the agent, who secretly recorded them discussing a plot to attack a Via Rail passenger train; to cause the death of “up to 100,000 people” by contaminating the air or water; to provide financial support and weapons to anti-government fighters in Syria, and how to recruit other terrorists in North America.

May 27th, 2013, 9:05 pm

As EU Lets Syria Arms Embargo Expire, UN Silent On Austria’s Troop Threat

By Matthew Russell Lee

http://www.innercitypress.com/syria1euun052713.html

UNITED NATIONS, May 27 — Before European Union foreign ministers met on May 27 and did not extend the EU arms embargo on Syria, Austrian officials repeatedly said if the embargo was lifted they would pull their over 300 troops out of the UN mission in the Golan.

So what was the UN Secretariat’s position, both as the (recently mis) manager of the UNDOF observer mission and as an organization ostensibly against arming and the arms trade?

Typical of its increasing invisibility or cautious opportunism, the UN was nowhere to be seen on this. Not the head of UN Peacekeeping Herve Ladsous, whose interest should be the peacekeepers in the UNDOF mission but who has allowed them to be repeatedly kidnapped without even properly announcing it.

Ladsous confined the most recent kidnapping to a “conversation” with friendly scribes. And where was Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on this?

On May 23, Inner City Press asked Ban’s deputy spokesperson Eduardo Del Buey:

Inner City Press: About the Golan and UNDOF [United Nations Disengagement Observer Force]. There has been renewed statements by Austria that they would… would withdraw their 300-some peacekeepers if an arms embargo is modified to Syria and the rebels, and I wonder, does the UN, given its need for peacekeepers, does it have any view on that?

Deputy Spokesperson Del Buey: Well, number one, we have no information from the Austrians at all on any decision they may or may not have taken, so we are not going to comment any further on that.

The Austrians’ position had been publicly stated, and Ladsous as head of UN peacekeeping, the fourth Frenchman in a row to hold the post, is supposed to be in touch with the troop contributing countries. So how can it be, “no information from the Austrians at all”?

And so on May 24, Inner City Press asked the UN’s Del Buey:

Inner City Press: Austria, now not just the Defense Minister, now the Foreign Minister has said today that if the EU Foreign Ministers who meet on Monday in Brussels remove the arms embargo on Syria, there are ‘serious problems with Austria remaining in the Golan Heights and UNDOF.’ So, again, are you saying you haven’t gotten any letter from them? Since the UN is running the peacekeeping mission of UNDOF, is there anyone in the UN system that is trying to make any UN view known to the EU foreign ministers who will vote on this?

Deputy Spokesperson Del Buey: Matthew, we are constantly monitoring the situation in all of our missions around the world, but we do not address speculation; it is [speculative]. We are not going to speculate on what the Austrians may or may not do. To the moment, we have not received any indication from the Austrians; we have not received any communication from them on this, and that is where we stand.

So the UN said nothing, and now the meeting has ended and the arms embargo was not extended. It will expire on June 1. If the Austrians leave, should the UN have spoken?

Was the UN Secretariat of Ban Ki-moon reluctant to anger France and the UK, who wanted the embargo off?

May 27th, 2013, 9:36 pm

Defections in Hezbollah? LOL

May 27th, 2013, 9:44 pm

The west wants one rebel force not 400, they want the FSA to unify and fight Nusra which is now paying the highest price in terms of casualties:
عادت صراعات “جبهة النصرة” الإسلامية وكتائب الفاروق في “الجيش الحر” إلى الواجهة من جديد، في المناطق الحدودية، عقب تجدد الاشتباكات بين الطرفين يوم الأحد، ومقتل حوالي خمسة مقاتلين في “النصرة” وجرح عشرات المقاتلين من “الفاروق” حتى لحظة إعداد هذا التقرير، بحسب مصادر عسكرية في “الجيش الحر” .
كما أشارت المصادر الموجودة في منطقة الشركراك القريبة من مدينة تل أبيض السورية، والمحاذية للحدود مع تركيا، أن المنطقة تشهد مواجهات عنيفة مستمرة منذ يوم الأحد، في ظل تسجيل حالات خطف خلال الساعات الأخيرة، تقوم بها “جبهة النصرة” بحق مقاتلي كتائب الفاروق.
أما أهالي المنطقة، فقد خرجوا في تظاهرة الأحد تطالب في مدينة تل أبيض مطالبين بطرد كل الكتائب الغريبة عن المدينة وريفها ومن ضمنها “جبهة النصرة”، كما طالبوا بذلك مسبقاً بشكل مستمر.
كتائب “الجيش السوري الحر” استجابت لمطالب الأهالي وقامت ، بتوحيد كافة “كتائب الحر” في مدينة تل أبيض تحت راية لواء المصطفى وأقامت حواجز على مداخلها، منعاً لانفلات الوضع الأمني الذي تسببت به سيطرة “جبهة النصرة” على المنطقة، حيث سجل الكثير من حالات الخطف لأعضاء المجالس المحلية في الثورة من المدينة، كما قتل أحد المحامين مؤخراً على يد مقاتلي “النصرة”، الأمر الذي تطلب اجراءات سريعة وحاسمة من قبل “الجيش الحر”.
ويؤكد المصدر في “الجيش الحر”، أنه “من غير المنطقي أن يضطر مقاتلو الجيش الحر إلى قتال النظام الذي يستخدم الترسانة العسكرية السورية كاملة، لإبادة معارضيه، فيما يتلقى الجيش الحر بالوقت ذاته، يطعنات داخلية من قبل حلفاء من المفترض أنهم يقاتلون للغاية ذاتها. يجب وضع حد لهذه المهزلة”.

May 27th, 2013, 9:46 pm

Tara

I agree with you Tara that the problem of the Arab Shia is their loyalty to the non-Arab Persian Shia theology of Wilayet al-Faqih! For example, please see this video for Lebanon’s Shia terrorist حسن نصر الشيطان and what he is saying:

حسن نصر الله يعلن وبدون تقية أن ولاءه المطلق لإيران وليس للبنان

May 27th, 2013, 9:56 pm

83. Ghufran

I think the lift of the embargo was mainly intended to oblige the opposition to accept to participate to the Conference. This media ‘success’ will allow it to swallow the humiliation of having to drop the long standing pre-conditions that Bashar al Assad should go before the conference. In addition, they haven’t got any guarantee that Basshar Al Assad will not be a candidate for election in 2014. They got vague promises.

They have no more excuses not to participate. Yet, they will try all they can to undermine the conference so they can put the blame on the Syrian government and then ask the UK and France for weapons.
The game is far from over, and Bashar al Assad will certainly not trust the opposition’s fake interest in a peace deal. He will continue the military campaign of regaining areas as well as re-arming the army for more fights to come.

May 27th, 2013, 10:05 pm

May 27th, 2013, 10:09 pm

Who cares about the UN force in Southern Lebanon. The force was meant to be an advance notice unit if Hizbass decides to attack Israel. Now, we know that the Lebanese Shia terrorist party is busy killing Syrians and has no intentions to attack Israel. Austria should pull the force, and the EU should give arms to the Syrian resistance!

If you don’t believe me about Hizbass true intentions and its hypocrisy, again read what Robert Fisk (http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/hezbollahs-war-in-syria-threatens-to-engulf-lebanon-8632689.html) once heard the Lebanese Shia terrorist say:

“The Hezbollah chairman who said exactly 13 years ago that his resistance movement would not cross the Israeli frontier – that it was for the Palestinians to ‘liberate’ Jerusalem – has declared that Hezbollah has crossed the Syrian frontier. Not only that, but Nasrallah said at the weekend he would fight “to the end” to protect President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Hezbollah, he said, was entering “a completely new phase.” He can say that again.”

May 27th, 2013, 10:13 pm

Bashar al Assad has until 1 Aug to make a military or political breathrough before France and the UK would be allowed to provide it with heavy weapons. Not that it is unclear which neighboring country will allow such weapons to cross their borders.

http://www.scmp.com/news/world/article/1247975/eu-failure-will-allow-britain-france-arm-syrian-rebels-against-assad

Britain and France have made a commitment not to deliver arms to the Syrian opposition “at this stage”, an EU declaration said. But EU officials said the commitment effectively expires on August 1.
…
“While we have no immediate plans to send arms to Syria, it gives us the flexibility to respond in the future if the situation continues to deteriorate,” Hague told reporters.

May 27th, 2013, 10:15 pm

The actual EU declaration not war criminal Hague’s ravings:

http://www.consilium.europa.eu/uedocs/cms_Data/docs/pressdata/EN/foraff/137315.pdf

May 27th, 2013, 10:18 pm

Huge Reinforcements Of Tanks Towards the Mezze Military Airport In Damascus – May 27, 2013

May 27th, 2013, 10:19 pm

P.S., Israel has already declared that Bashar the murderous dictator is its “man in Damascus!”

May 27th, 2013, 10:20 pm

Al-Qaeda Allahu Akbar Terrorist Brigades Wants To wage war on The Kurdish PKK!!

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=5ff_1369692806

May 27th, 2013, 10:23 pm

The Hunchbacked Mufti of Homs said:

103. DAWOUD said:

“Hezbollah has crossed the Syrian frontier. Not only that, but Nasrallah said at the weekend he would fight “to the end” to protect President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.”

Nasrallah is a stupid man. Stupid for taking orders from Iran. And stupid for becoming directly involved in the Syrian Civil War. Obviously, he learned NOTHING from the US involvement in Vietnam and Iraq. He will find out soon enough when the body bags start coming back and the mothers and widows start cursing him.

He is also a weak man. If he had any cojones, he would have told the Mullahs to stuff it. Now he will have a lot of dead shi’ite boys whose deaths he will have to explain.

May 27th, 2013, 10:29 pm

Nothing will defeat Hezbollah.

May 27th, 2013, 10:32 pm

106. MONSIEUR REVERSO said:

“Nothing will defeat Hezbollah”

Don’t be so sure, ratboy. Bigmouths like you were saying that about Hitler in 1940…

May 27th, 2013, 10:50 pm

Bashar al-Assad, the murderous dictator, has again used chemical weapons!

May 27th, 2013, 10:57 pm

ghufran said:

SOHR:
محافظة الرقة – المرصد السوري لحقوق الانسان ::ابلغ ناشط من مدينة حمص المرصد السوري لحقوق الانسان ان اثنان من الذين اعدمتهم “الدولة الاسلامية في العراق والشام ” في الـ14 من الشهر الجاري باحد ساحات مدينة الرقة هما طبيب الاسنان مصطفى الجاني وابن شيقيقته المدرس اياد نوفل من قرية الاشرفية بريف حمص الشمالي من الطائفة العلوية وليسا ضابطين في الجيش النظامي السوري

May 27th, 2013, 11:00 pm

105. The Hunchbacked Mufti of Homs

The quote that you mentioned is from Robert Fisk’s latest article: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/hezbollahs-war-in-syria-threatens-to-engulf-lebanon-8632689.html

In the same article Fisk also mentioned that “[h]e [حسن نصر الشيطان] said he receives letters from families begging him to let their sons fight in Syria. Coffin vision, perhaps?”

I agree with Fisk about this “coffin vision,” and I believe that these Lebanese Shia families-if they are truly sending him letters-will stop doing so once their dead terrorist relatives’ coffins begin to arrive!

May 27th, 2013, 11:10 pm

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains committed to Former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s approach: “Everything we don’t grab will go to them.”

Settlers are a law unto themselves in the West Bank, locked in a symbiotic embrace with the IDF. The Israeli army is cowed by settlers’ political power when it is not sympathetic with their unceasing efforts to “redeem the land.” When olive trees are cut, fences breached, access roads built, or the occasional mosque or car torched, Palestinian security forces are nowhere to be found. When villagers have a complaint against settlers to register, the Palestinian police direct them to contact the IDF, in whose bosom the settlers and their depredations grow.

In the lawless environment sanctioned by occupation, settlers are not the only ones taking the law into their own hands. On April 30, for the first time since September 2011, a settler was killed by a Palestinian attacker — stabbed at a major road junction in the northern West Bank transited by settlers and Palestinians alike. The killing sparked “price tag” reprisals against Palestinians and their property, primarily in the Nablus governorate, and it has fueled settler demands that open-fire restrictions placed on the IDF and settlers be loosened.

Those looking for signs of the next uprising need look no further than these parts of the West Bank, where every day private and communal interests clash — not in the cities of the West Bank but along the roads and near small villages on the periphery of settlements, who numbers have exploded since Ariel Sharon, upon his return from the Wye Plantation talks in late 1998, urged settlers to “grab and settle.”

“Everybody has to move, run and grab as many hilltops as they can to enlarge the settlements because everything we take now will stay ours,” Sharon, then a minister in the first Netanyahu government, exhorted in a meeting with settlement supporters. “Everything we don’t grab will go to them.”

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/05/wef-economic-development-buying-peace.html

May 27th, 2013, 11:28 pm

Ilya said:

Here is an interesting read about fsa/al nusra activities in Aleppo
By a young Syrian man
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=20b_1361194067

May 27th, 2013, 11:33 pm

أعلن مصدر روسي لقناة “العربية” أن الحكومة الروسية متفائلة حول مؤتمر “جنيف 2″، بناء على تفاهم جرى بين وزير الخارجية الأميركي جون كيري، ونظيره الروسي سيرغي لافروف، حول الأزمة السورية.
وقال المصدر، اليوم الاثنين 27 مايو/أيار، إنه تم الاتفاق على أن يستثنى من النقاش وزارات الأمن والقوات المسلحة والمخابرات والبنك المركزي في “جنيف 2″.
وأضاف المصدر أن اتفاق كيري – لافروف سمح للطرفين الاعتراض على الطرف الآخر، وهذا يعني إعطاء وفد الحكومة السورية حق الاعتراض على مشاركة أي عضو في وفد المعارضة.
وتابع المصدر أن اتفاق كيري – لافروف وسع دائرة المعارضة التي لا تشمل فقط وفد الائتلاف الوطني، بل تضم أيضاً أطراف المعارضة الأخرى، بما فيها المحسوبة على النظام السوري.
The US is still silent about this, it may be a test baloon, nobody on the opposition side, and most Syrians I believe, is ready to keep things the same at the army and security services.
This report by the way was taken from opposition site, this is also from a similar source:
أعلنت فرح الأتاسي على صفحتها في فيسبوك انسحابها من الائتلاف السوري المعارض بعد ساعات فقط على قبول عضويتها فيه.
وكتبت فرح : ” رغبة مني في توحيد الصف السوري ولم شمل المعارضة والتوفيق في وجهات النظر، قبلت القدوم الى إسطنبول امس فقط كي اودي واجبي وضميري وحمل رسائل الداخل و اذكر المجتمعين ان الشعب السوري والتاريخ لن يرحمهم اذا لم يتفقوا على الوحدة والاتحاد في وجه أحقر نظام مر على سوريا وحلفاءه شرقاً وغرباً”.

May 27th, 2013, 11:41 pm

Syria will never be defeated. The history books will record the victory of the heroic SAA and its allies: Hezbollah and Iran. This is a great moment. Be happy you’re alive to witness the destruction of Syria’s enemies.

Maybe after the war we can name Qusayr “Nasrallah City” or something like that.

May 27th, 2013, 11:55 pm

هذي هي يارا

May 27th, 2013, 11:56 pm

May 27th, 2013, 11:57 pm

May 27th, 2013, 11:59 pm

115. Ziad

I don’t believe that she should have been killed, and my condolences to her family. However, calling her a “journalist” is inaccurate. The Semantics she uses “the hired terrorists,” “the brave Syrian army,” etc. are not objective and journalistic. She wasn’t a journalist, but a propagandist employee at Bashar’s ministry of [mis]information! I saw several of her “news” reports, and they were staged and full of propaganda. No wonder Bashar once said that he “owned” land, while the rebels owned the “skies.” Surely, he was overlooking the “skies” of the propaganda wilyat al-fagih satellite stations of Hizbass al-Manar, Iran’s Press TV, Iran’s al-Alam, Ghasan Ben Joudou’s al-Mayadeen, etc…..

Surely, none of these filthy Wilayat al-Faqih stations have 5% of Aljazeera’s reach and influence. Thank God!

May 28th, 2013, 12:06 am

Report on Syria – Nobel Peace Laureate Mairead Maguire: “The Syrian State is Under a Proxy War Led by Foreign Countries”

Report and Appeal to the International community to support a process of dialogue and reconciliation in Syria between its people and Syrian government and reject outside intervention and war.

After a 10 days visit to Lebanon and Syria, leading a 16 person delegation from 8 countries, invited by Mussalaha Reconciliation Movement, I have returned hopeful that peace is possible in Syria, if all outside interference is stopped and the Syrians are allowed to solve their own problems upholding their right to self-determination.

An appeal to end all violence and for Syrians to be left alone from outside interference was made by all those we met during our visit to Syria. We have tried to forward it to the International community in our Concluding Declaration(l).

http://www.globalresearch.ca/report-on-syria-nobel-peace-laureate-mairead-maguire-the-syrian-state-is-under-a-proxy-war-led-by-foreign-countries/5336569

May 28th, 2013, 12:21 am

In Syria you can witness that not your talent will bring you to such positions as head journalist but rather your wasta. Syria is filled with folks like her who have not the singlest clue of Journalism, nor did they ever visit a journalism school worth the name.

When I was in Damascus I heard that many have wasta jobs where they pay the boss a monthly part of their salary, and then they don’t even have to show up at work, some are legally employed in 2 government jobs but spend their days in the coffeehouses of central Damascus.

Reve

The unisono rule in the EU is only needed for resolutions. Each state can do their own policies, and apparently Britain and France thinks its time to give weapons to the opposition forces “officially”, but be assured they wait for Geneva II to see if Assad will participate or not,if not then Assad better start packing.

May 28th, 2013, 12:25 am

Dead and Surrendering Terrorists in Qusayr Syria – May-27-2013

Mostly foreigners, one is a Lebanese.

WARNING: contains footage of dead Al-Qaeda Islamist Terrorists

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=dd9_1369685370

May 28th, 2013, 12:44 am

Anna Macdonald, head of arms control at Oxfam, warned that supplying weapons would mean “adding fuel to the fire” in Syria.
She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “We are concerned that supplying arms to the opposition won’t level the playing field, in fact it will fuel a deadly arms race that will have even worse consequences for civilians.
“The millions of people suffering in Syria right now don’t need more arms, they need aid.”
She added: “Providing more arms in times of conflict is simply adding fuel to the fire, it’s fanning the flames of conflict and making the situation much worse.”
The peace process must be “exhausted” before any other solutions were considered, she added.
(suuporters of arming rebels are 3 types:
people consumed with the desire for revenge (I understand but disagree with those), people who genuinely want to destroy Syria to feel better(like GB FM), and people who are just stupid)

May 28th, 2013, 12:55 am

Juergen you’re wrong regarding the weapons. The embargo expired is what happened. No one agreed to lift the arms embargo. That would have required a unanimous vote. It didn’t happen. The ban will expire at the end of the month.

France and the UK have already been giving them weapons.

On another subject, if you have some money to lose I will gladly take it. My bet is Assad is there in a year’s time. Care to make that wager?

Geneva 2 isn’t about Assad leaving Juergen. It is about peace. If it were about Assad leaving there would be no Geneva 2.

NATO can send us all the weapons they want. The result will be the same.

May 28th, 2013, 1:08 am

ARAB SPRING – AL-HAM-DOOLI-LA!

Insurgents Declare War on Syria’s Kurds – 27 May 2013

http://syriareport.net/insurgents-declare-war-on-syrias-kurds/

Recent ongoing clashes between insurgents and Kurdish fighters have culminated in a declaration of war in the region of Ifreen, rural Aleppo, in northern Syria. The intensification of clashes in northern Syria comes amid increasing division among Syria’s muddle of armed groups, with one “Free Syrian Army (FSA) battalion” reported to have defected in light of attacks on Kurdish areas. With insurgent groups in Aleppo and elsewhere in the country under increasing pressure from a confident Syrian army, an absence of a political platform and unrelenting in-fighting, a declaration against Kurdish groups comes as no surprise. The number of militant organisations operation in Syria is estimated at between a few hundred to over a thousand.

On 4th May, Syria Report detailed clashes between the Kurdish Popular Protection Units (YPG) (Kurdish: Yekîneyên Parastina Gel) and militants (including Jabhat al-Nusra) in Al-Hasakah province. Uploaded video footage was later confirmed to show a number of Kurdish armed groups (such as the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons) amalgamate under the banner of the YPG, in a coordinated counterattack against militants who are intent on subverting Kurdish autonomy during the crisis gripping the country.

Reports suggest that at the beginning of the month, Arab clans in Til Temir were armed and encouraged by various “Free Syrian Army (FSA)” groups to confront Kurdish groups. Til Temir is a small town of Kurds, Arabs and Assyrians situated on the road between Serê Kaniyê and Al-Hasakeh. Seemingly, hit and run attacks have resulted in the deaths of YPG members as well as civilians living in Til Temir, with a population of approximately 7000. Despite repeated skirmishes, the YPG managed to hold off the disparate armed groups.

Yesterday, a statement signed by no less than twenty-one armed groups declared ”Kurdish defense units, YPG, are traitors because they are against our Jihad.”

The goal, according to the statement, is a “pending the completion of comprehensive cleansing process”,
liberation from “PKK and Shabiha”.

The statement was published by the “Syrian Islamic Liberation Front“, a coalition of radical Islamist groups, commonly misreported as being under the umbrella of the “Free Syrian Army” despite being at odds with it’s absent leadership, who are mostly based outside of the country.

The statement, titled “Echo of Qussayr“, published against the backdrop of a crushing defeat in the city

May 28th, 2013, 1:12 am

Juergen is that a NO to my kind offer?

You had better beg Israel for some help. It is going to be a HOT summer.

May 28th, 2013, 1:26 am

Yara’s last report in Qusair before she was killed by terrorists on her way back to Homs.

May 28th, 2013, 1:33 am

I dont gamble, especially over such an issue.

May 28th, 2013, 1:59 am

Amb. Ford is fluent in Arabic he said the following:

بسام جعارة عم يعترف : السفير الامريكي ” فورد ” قال للمجتمعين من المعارضة بالدوحة (( مافي تدخل عسكري ومافي دعم عسكري ويلي بيحكي ” بياكل خرا ” ))

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=456214367799105

May 28th, 2013, 2:11 am

Krig er fred nu Syrien - Side 20 - Boligdebatten.dk said:

[…] […]

May 28th, 2013, 4:04 am

In my opinion, the opposition leaders made a fatal mistake vis-a-vis the United States when they did not speak out more forcefully against Al-Qaeda in Syria. For the US, the question of Al-Qaeda is a national security issue, but the question of Assad staying or leaving is NOT a national security issue. The US will support the Syrians aspirations and demands for freedom and democracy, but not in a way that is conflicting (or even have the perception of conflicting) with its national security.

The US seems to have decided to delegate the Syria issue to Russia to deal with. I think Russia promised to ease Assad out and control the Syrian army and security forces. The US is more than happy to hand over this mess to Russia.

Frankly, one cannot blame Obama for that decision. His job is to do what’s right for the American people, not to police and protect the world.

May 28th, 2013, 7:23 am

Lebanon’s al-Nahar Newspaper identifies the three Lebanese soldiers, who were killed while allowing Hizballah terrorists to freely cross the Syria-Lebanon border checkpoint to go to al-Qasir/Syria to kill innocent Syrian. Now, the names of the three soldiers are clearly of Lebanese Shia or Shiite. I have no doubt that the three soldiers are also members of the Shia terrorist party Hizbass. Yes, they are both members of Hizbass AND the Lebanese army. No wonder terrorists from the terrorist shia party freely enter Syria with their arms and heavy rockets/missiles!

http://www.annahar.com/article/36770-نبذة-عن-شهداء-واجب-ذين-قضوا-في-وادي-حميد

نبذة عن شهداء الواجب الذين قضوا في وادي حميد

ايار 2013 الساعة 12:26

نعت قيادة الجيش – مديرية التوجيه كلا من الشهداء: الجندي محمد رضوان شرف الدين، والمجندين خالد الحايك، وعلي عدنان منذر، الذين استشهدوا فجر اليوم في منطقة وادي حميد، عرسال خلال تعرض مركزهم لاعتداء من مسلحين.
وفي ما يلي نبذة عن حياتهم:

الجندي محمد رضوان شرف الدين :
– من مواليد 1/3/1987 برقايل – قضاء عكار.
– تطوع في الجيش بتاريخ 3/11/2008.
– حائز تنويه العماد قائد الجيش وتهنئته عدة مرات.
– الوضع العائلي: متأهل من دون اولاد.

المجند مصطفى خالد الحايك:
– من مواليد 11/6/ 1990 بيت الفقس – قضاء المنية الضنية.
– التحق بالجيش بتاريخ 24/1/2012.
– الوضع العائلي: عازب

المجند علي عدنان منذر:
– من مواليد 4/7/1992 حوش حالا – البقاع.
– التحق بالجيش بتاريخ 24/1/2012.
– الوضع العائلي: عازب

May 28th, 2013, 8:35 am

The Hunchbacked Mufti is banned for vulgarity and for insults to other users (having already been warned on the latter). After the moderation in the last two threads, as well as direct warnings, why do people push forward with more of the same? It’s lost on me.

Thanks to the users who complained by email and directed my attention to those messages.

May 28th, 2013, 9:08 am

According to the EU deal, from June to end July, the UK and France will not deliver ‘officially’ weapons. Russia now annoyed by the EU decision, will rush to re-renforce as much as possible the Syrian army with new weapons , ready to counter the eventual European weapons delivery.
The new ‘heavy’ weapons will be supposedly delivered only to the FSA under strict restrictions. It is certain that if Al Nusra is excluded from access to these new weapons, it will fight hard against the FSA to get them. Therefore the FSA equipped with new weapons will be exposed to attacks from both the SAA and Al Nusra. In these circumstances, the probability of its survival is low.

In summary the EU decisions may end up more lethal to the FSA than to the SAA. Therefore despite the promises, I doubt the UK and France will take the chance to see the FSA destroyed and the weapons in Al Qaeda’s hands.

That last minute EU deal seems to be a political trick to show a fake EU unity and to break the opposition’s resistance in attending the conference.

May 28th, 2013, 9:13 am

The opposition is becoming aware that the EU deal is just a trick to force them to join the conference. If they refuse, the EU will tell them that they won’t send any weapons. They are trapped and have no choice than to join without any pre-conditions. Good job Hague!

BEIRUT — The commander of the main umbrella group of Syrian rebels says he is “very disappointed” that the lifting of Europe’s arms embargo won’t lead to immediate weapons shipments to his outgunned fighters.

Gen. Salim Idris also told The Associated Press on Tuesday that the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, an ally of the Syrian regime, has thousands of fighters in Syria and is the main threat to his Free Syrian Army, a coalition of rebel units.

May 28th, 2013, 9:19 am

After 6 days of wild bickering, begging and panicking the opposition is moved to a cheap hotel: Results yok! .

Syrian opposition disarray threatens international support

http://www.courant.com/news/nation-world/sns-rt-us-syria-crisis-oppositionbre94r0hc-20130528,0,6387728.story

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Diplomatic efforts intensified on Tuesday to solve a crisis in Syria’s opposition which threatens to derail a planned peace conference and rob the Islamist-dominated alliance of international support.

After six days of talks in Istanbul, the 60-member Syrian National Coalition has failed to agree on the wider involvement of a liberal opposition bloc, to the dismay of Western and some Arab backers keen to reduce the influence of Islamists.
..
“Effectively, without an opposition overhaul there will not be a Geneva,” one senior regional official said.

In a sign of the disarray, the opposition delegates were forced to decamp from the hotel where they were meeting, originally booked for three days, to another venue even further out on the fringes of Istanbul.

Senior coalition officials are painfully aware that their failure to agree after days of late-night bartering risk undermining their credibility and giving ammunition to Assad at a critical juncture.

“In Geneva, we are going to face a disciplined team that is going to be sent by Assad with experience in negotiating with Israel for decades. We can’t afford but to send our top people if we decide to go,” one senior opposition source said.

May 28th, 2013, 9:25 am

Hague tries to reassure the disappointed opposition that it is not bound to the 1 August date for delivering weapons, but that it is committed to the Geneva conference, implying again that the opposition has no choice then participate without making fuss

‘No decision yet’ on arming rebels
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/national/news/10447346._/

It was thought that no shipments could take place before August 1 when the EU Foreign Affairs Council was due to review its position on the basis of a report by EU foreign policy chief Baroness Ashton, following consultation with UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon, on developments in the US-Russia peace initiative and on the engagement of the Syrian parties.
…
“That is not the case, there will be a discussion in the EU by August 1 but from now on… we have said we have made our own commitments that at this stage as we work for the Geneva conference we are not taking any decision to send any arms to anyone.

May 28th, 2013, 9:42 am

Russia Says S-300 Missile Sale to Syria Will Stabilize Region
By Stepan Kravchenko & Henry Meyer – May 28, 2013 9:24 AM ET

Delivery of Russian S-300 missile-defense systems to Syria “is a stabilizing factor” that can prevent a wider conflict in the region, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said.

“We won’t cancel this contract,” Ryabkov told reporters today in Moscow. “We understand the concerns and the signals that are being sent to us from different capitals. We see that many of our partners are worried about this, but we have no reasons to reconsider our position.” Ryabkov said he can’t say at what stage the deliveries are now.

May 28th, 2013, 9:44 am

Dedicated to Tara, and others, who didn’t read the fine print yesterday. Idriss not happy with the EU.

BEIRUT (AP) — The commander of the main umbrella group of Syrian rebels says he is “very disappointed” that the lifting of Europe’s arms embargo won’t lead to immediate weapons shipments to his outgunned fighters.

The general spoke by phone from Turkey after the European Union decided to let its arms embargo against Syria expire, freeing member countries to provide weapons. However none of the block’s 27 members have any immediate plans to send arms to the rebels.

Idris says he’s run out of patience with the international community.

http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/AP-Interview-Rebels-want-arms-post-EU-embargo-4553008.php

May 28th, 2013, 10:00 am

This can’t be repeated enough:

Russia Says S-300 Missile Sale to Syria Will Stabilize Region
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-28/russia-says-s-300-missile-sale-to-syria-will-stabilize-region.html

May 28th, 2013, 10:01 am

The wholly Grail of weapons, the heat seekers, will not be neutralized by the Russian missiles. The Russian missiles will not have any impact on the rebels.

Idriss not happy? He wants immediate gratification? I don’t blame him but I think we can wait for August. In the interim, I think our Arab brethren, the beloved Qataris will manage some private deals with arm dealers. It is now legal!

I propose to rename Qurdaha after HBJ and Tartous after Mr Hague.

May 28th, 2013, 10:09 am

Juergen I rather think you are one of those poor unfortunates who thought McCain and Lieberman would come riding to the rescue in a white horse.

That CNN report is funny. McCain went to the border?

You find encouragement in that?

May 28th, 2013, 10:14 am

Even the report I posted is incorrect. The EU didn’t let the ban expire. They could not agree so it expired.

Idriss dyes his hair black.

May 28th, 2013, 10:18 am

Russia says it will help Syria deter “hot heads” – May 28, 2013

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57586368/russia-says-it-will-help-syria-deter-hot-heads/

MOSCOW Russia reserves the right to provide Syria with state-of-the art air defense missiles, seeing it as a key deterrent against foreign intervention in the country, a top Russian official said Tuesday.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov wouldn’t say whether Russia has shipped any of the long-range S-300 air defense missile systems, but added that Moscow isn’t going to abandon the deal despite strong Western and Israeli criticism. He claimed the air defense weapons can’t be used in the civil war against the opposition, which doesn’t have aircraft.

“We understand the concerns and signals sent to us from different capitals, we realize that many of our partners are concerned about the issue,” Ryabkov said, adding that “we have no reason to revise our stance.”

“We believe that such steps to a large extent help restrain some ‘hot heads’ considering a scenario to give an international dimension to this conflict,” he said.

Ryabkov also accused the European Union of “throwing fuel on the fire” by letting its own arms embargo on Syria’s rebels expire, Reuters reports.

Providing Damascus with the S-300s, a powerful weapon that has a range of up to 125 miles and the capability to track down and strike multiple targets simultaneously. The weapon would mean a quantum leap in Syria’s air defense capability, including against neighboring countries that oppose Assad’s regime.

May 28th, 2013, 10:48 am

What the Syrian Constitution says about Assad and the Rebels

Still, the rebels’ spin doctors aren’t yielding entirely. They insist that while the rebellion may be dominated by religious fanatics with a penchant for terrorism, that it wasn’t always so. Instead, they say, it began as a peaceful plea for democracy that was eventually hijacked by jihadists only after the government used brute force to crush a protest movement. At that point, protesters were forced to take up arms in self-defense.

This view is dishonest. To start, it sweeps aside the reality that the rebellion is dominated by Islamists who care not one whit for democracy and indeed are actively hostile to it. What’s more, it conceals the fact that the Assad government made substantial concessions in the direction of creating the kind of pluralist, democratic society the rebels are said to thirst for. The rebels rejected the concessions, and that they did, underscores the fact that the rebellion’s origins are to be found in Islamist, not democratic, ambitions.

In response to protestors’ demands, Damascus made a number of concessions that were neither superficial nor partial.

First, it cancelled the long-standing abridgment of civil liberties that had been authorized by the emergency law. The law, invoked because Syria is technically in a state of war with Israel, gave Damascus powers it needed to safeguard the security of the state in wartime, a measure states at war routinely take. Many Syrians, however, chaffed under the law, and regarded it as unduly restrictive. Bowing to popular pressure, the government lifted the security measures.

Second, the government proposed a new constitution to accommodate protestors’ demands to strip the Ba’ath Party of its special status, which had reserved for it a lead role in Syrian society. Additionally, the presidency would be open to anyone meeting basic residency, age and citizenship requirements. Presidential elections would be held by secret vote every seven years under a system of universal suffrage.

http://gowans.wordpress.com/2013/05/21/what-the-syrian-constitution-says-about-assad-and-the-rebels/

AlAkhabaria journalist Ignatius Issa was martyred with Yara Abbas,by FSA Terrorists on the Homs-Al-Qaseir Road. RIP

https://twitter.com/ProudSyrian10/status/339252130286284800/photo/1

May 28th, 2013, 10:57 am

Send John McCain to Guantanamo Bay

Senator meets with America-hating, Al-Qaeda terrorists

http://www.infowars.com/send-john-mccain-to-guantanamo-bay/

May 28th, 2013, 11:40 am

كن حيث شئت أنت..
لكننا لن نكون عبيدا لأمريكا وإسرائيل..

ما أنتم فهنيئا لكم المتصهينين

https://twitter.com/qademon110/status/33924885

May 28th, 2013, 11:45 am

Did I mention Idris dyes his hair black? Maybe he offered McCain some grooming tips at the border? McCain was there for about an hour but they couldn’t go in deeper due to the presence of Syrian troops. It would have been awfully embarrassing to be arrested for illegally entering Syria given McCain makes such a big deal out of Mexicans illegally entering Arizona.

Tsk tsk.

May 28th, 2013, 12:14 pm

The Lebanese Shia TERRORIST party’s big gamble in Syria: Losing both Syria AND Lebanon to save a brutal murderous dictator!!!!!

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/28/world/middleeast/by-inserting-itself-into-syrian-war-hezbollah-makes-historic-gamble.html?hp

Hezbollah Makes Dramatic Gamblear-hezbollah-makes-historic-gamble.html?hp

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Fighting a pre-emptive war against foreign jihadists is not the usual mission for Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group best known for confronting Israel. So when its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, explained why he was sending fighters into Syria, he took care to remind his followers that they were not “living in Djibouti” but on the border of a country whose two-year uprising Hezbollah sees as a threat to its existence.
[…]

May 28th, 2013, 12:18 pm

I am not surprised that some here say that the Syrian journalists murdered this week by the terrorists were not “real” journalists and therefore their deaths are not significant or a war crime (killing reporters is a war crime).

I am not sure what a “real” journalist is. Anderson Cooper? Hassan Hassan? Yara Saleh? Maya Naser (RIP)?

I am sorry for their families.

May 28th, 2013, 12:19 pm

Strange Love

How Obama and Al-Qaeda Became Syrian Bedfellows

For a president that is executing Bush’s “war on terror” against Al-Qaeda and “its affiliates,” it seems odd that President Obama has targeted the secular Syrian government for “regime change.”

Equally odd is that Obama’s strongest military ally on the ground in Syria- the best equipped and effective fighting force against the Syrian Government — is Jabhat al-Nusra, a group that has affiliated itself with al-Qaeda, and aims to turn Syria into an extremist Islamic state that enforces a fundamentalist version of Sharia law.

It’s difficult to know exactly how al-Nursa received its guns, but one can make an educated guess. For example, The New York Times explained in detail how the CIA has been in a massive arms trafficking operation that has already funneled thousands of tons of guns from Saudi Arabia and Qatar to Syria:

“The C.I.A. role in facilitating the [weapons] shipments… gave the United States a degree of influence over the process [of weapon distribution]…American officials have confirmed that senior White House officials were regularly briefed on the [weapons] shipments.”

http://www.counterpunch.org/2013/05/28/how-obama-and-al-qaeda-became-syrian-bedfellows/#.UaTMNfSvsmp.twitter

May 28th, 2013, 12:23 pm

May 28th, 2013, 12:28 pm

May 28th, 2013, 12:29 pm

The Syrian opposition is in crisis, and it’s all on video | | Independent Editor's choice Blogs said:

[…] post by Matthew Barber goes into greater detail. But a quote reportedly from the SNC general secretary, […]

May 29th, 2013, 12:41 pm

Strategic Intelligence Assessment for Syria (2) – State of Play Part I – Pro-Assad Groups and Moderate Opposition Forces | Red (team) Analysis said:

[…] But the NC shows a disappointing inability to unite and include New member – read Matthew Barber for Syria Comments, 27 May 2013: “Brotherhood Figures Block Yaqoubi’s Appointment, Post-Confirmation“ […]

July 15th, 2013, 6:14 am

Syria Comment’s Matthew Barber with Shaykh Yaqoubi | Free Halab said:

[…] to discover that his tenure would not see the light of day, as his appointment was subsequently canceled at the very opposition conference in which his participation was to be announced. This is not the […]

September 14th, 2013, 10:38 am

Strategic Intelligence for Syria (8) – Scenario 3. A Nationalist Islamic Syria or a Muslim Brotherhood’s Syria? | Red (team) Analysis said:

[…] as were for example displayed during the last week of May 2013 (e.g. Barber for Syria Comments, 27 May 2013), between more secular and moderate groups, on the one hand, and, on the other, the Muslim […]

September 19th, 2013, 10:45 am

The Syrian War – Bibliography and Sources | Red (team) Analysis said:

[…] Brotherhood Figures Block Yaqoubi’s Appointment, Post-Confirmation, Monday, May 27th, 2013 […]

October 7th, 2013, 4:32 am