Syrian Freedom

US, Iraq discuss concerns over arms shipments to #Syria

22/09/12

Baghdad: Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al- Maliki discussed with US Vice President Joe Biden concerns over reports that Iran is using Iraq’s airspace to deliver arms shipments to Syria, the Iraqi government said on Saturday.

According to a statement issued by the Iraqi prime minister’s office, Maliki received a phone call from Biden Friday afternoon, in which “Maliki expressed discomfort of his government about stirring suspicions by some unofficial American circles over Iraq” s stance towards the Syrian crisis.”

Maliki reiterated his country’s “firm stance in rejecting any arming shipments or violent activities via the land and airspace of Iraq.”

On the other side, a briefing on the call released on the US White House website said that Biden and Maliki “addressed issues of regional security, including the need to prevent any state from taking advantage of Iraq’s territory or air space to send weapons to Syria.”

US officials and media reports have earlier said there are suspicions that Iranian aircraft are carrying weapons to Syria via Iraqi airspace, but Baghdad refused the allegations, saying that the Iranian flights are carrying humanitarian aid.

ANI

#Syria border standoff a new front in Iraq-Kurdish rift

08/08/2012

KALE, Iraq (Reuters) - Beneath the green, white and red Kurdistan flag, Kurdish Peshmerga troops keep watch from hastily built earthen barricades on soldiers of the Iraqi national army dug in less than a kilometre away along a desolate stretch of road.

The standoff, for a moment last week so close to confrontation, is the most dramatic illustration of a growing rift between Baghdad and the autonomous northern region of Kurdistan. Frictions over oil revenues are exacerbated now by conflicting views of the Syrian rebellion and by territorial disputes that pose questions about the unity of Iraq.

Over a few days last week, Baghdad and Kurdish officials separately rushed troops to the Syrian frontier, ostensibly to secure it against unrest in the neighbouring country; but the mobilization brought Iraqi Arab and Kurdish soldiers face to face along their own disputed internal border.

Washington intervened and a potential clash was avoided. But the standoff opened a new front in Baghdad’s already dangerously fragile relations with the Kurds in their push for more autonomy from central government.

“We don’t want to fight, we are both Iraqis, but if war comes, we won’t run,” said Peshmerga Ismael Murad Khady, sitting under a straw awning to ward off the sun, the battered stock of a BKC machine gun pointing not towards some foreign border but at fellow countrymen manning the Iraqi army post.

Just visible are Iraqi army trenches and tents beyond the empty stretch of road that is now a de facto no-man’s land in this small frontline. Nearby, local cars kick up dust as they take sidetracks to skirt the two posts.

Behind the Peshmerga, a title that means literally ‘those who lay down their lives’, a battery of Kurdish 122-mm howitzers directs its barrels towards the Iraqi line. They are part of the heavier armour reinforcements Kurdistan and Iraq drafted into the disputed area just a kilometre from the Syrian border.

Always a potential flashpoint, tensions between Baghdad and Kurdistan escalated after U.S. troops left in December, removing a buffer between the Iraqi Arab dominated central government and ethnic Kurds who have run their own autonomous area since 1991.

Iraq’s national army units and Peshmerga have faced off before, only to pull back before clashes as both regions tested each other’s nerves, lacking however any interest in confrontation.

Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri al Maliki, a Shi’ite muslim, and Kurdistan President Masoud Barzani have sparred more aggressively since America’s withdrawal, as Kurdistan chaffs against central government control.

At the heart of their dispute are contested territories claimed by Iraqi Arabs and Kurds and crude reserves now attracting majors like Exxon and Chevron to Kurdistan, upsetting Baghdad, which says it controls rights to develop oil.

Though autonomous, Kurdistan still relies on Baghdad for its share of the national oil revenues.

Kurdistan is growing increasingly closer to neighbour Turkey as it talks about ways to export its own oil and not rely on Baghdad. Maliki’s government accuses Kurdistan of violating the law by signing deals with oil majors.

The rebellion against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has only widened the rift between Baghdad and Erbil.

They find themselves in opposing corners of a regional struggle. Iraq with Syrian ally Iran is resisting calls for Assad to go. Kurdistan is in talks with the Syrian Kurdish opposition and closer to Turkey, a sponsor of Assad foes.

“In addition to the local dimension to this, there is the Syrian one,” said Joost Hiltermann at International Crisis Group. “Control over the border and what crosses it, is therefore of great importance.”

RIVALS AND NEIGHBOURS

Those rivalries were clear when Iraqi troops began deploying to Syria’s borders to help control refugees and spillover, and Peshmerga soldiers refused them permission to move into what they considered a Kurdish part of their disputed areas.

After calls from Washington, Kurdish government sources say, both sides agreed on Sunday to cooperate to avoid a flareup and to withdraw troops once Syria’s crisis ends.

But the reinforcements remain in place.

It was not the first time top U.S. officials have stepped into Iraq’s political fray.

Last year, Peshmerga sent 10,000 fighters to the disputed oil city of Kirkuk, officially to protect citizens there. Their presence sparked a massive U.S. effort to calm tensions.

It took a month before the Peshmerga pulled its fighters back. Analysts said the move was in part a Kurdish test of Maliki’s resolve once the American troops had gone.

Kurdish officials say Peshmerga have long controlled the area near the Syrian border in disputed parts of Ninawa province and saw no need for Iraqi army deployment. Iraqi national border police are already working there.

Some Kurdish officials see Baghdad’s military push along the border as part of an attempted landgrab.

“This force came without coordination or agreement, so the Peshmerga decided to stop them,” said Jabbar Yawar, head of Peshmerga forces.

Baghdad countered that Iraq’s army should be in charge of the country’s borders, especially because of the turmoil in Syria, and accused Kurdish authorities of obstructing the military.

Troops were deployed just as Kurdistan announced oil deals with France’s Total and Russia’s Gazprom, the latest majors to ignore Baghdad’s warnings they risked losing contracts with central government if they agreed to develop Kurdish fields.

“The bigger issue is that this exposed how relations between the two are very difficult,” one diplomat said. “The situation in Syria has triggered long-standing differences.”

In a goodwill measure, Kurdistan on Tuesday said it restarted 100,000 barrels per day (bpd) in oil exports a bid to end a payment dispute with the central government after halting the shipments in April.

SYRIAN QUESTION

For Baghdad, the Syrian question is a sensitive one. Iraqi Shi’ite leaders worry a messy collapse of Syria will lead to the rise of a Sunni regime and incite Sunni provinces along the border who feel Maliki is edging them from power.

Baghdad rejects Sunni Arab Gulf calls for Assad to go.

Barzani’s government, in contrast, has hosted Syrian Kurdish opposition activists, actively pushing them to join forces to form a united front to prepare for any post-Assad regime.

Kurdish officials are not shy to admit a long-term goal of a fully independent Kurdistan, and they see a chance for Syrian Kurds to win some autonomy after years of oppression.

Regional power Turkey is increasingly being pulled into the fray, cultivating Iraqi Kurdistan but at the same time very wary of fuelling broader Kurdish separatism in its own southeast.

Ankara wants Kurdistan to help guarantee Syria’s Kurdish areas will not become a haven for Kurdish PKK rebels who are fighting the Ankara government for more autonomy in the southeast of Turkey.

Ankara’s relations with Baghdad have deteriorated sharply.

A visit by Turkey’s foreign minister to Kirkuk, whose control is disputed between Iraqi-Arabs and Kurds, last week prompted Baghdad to accuse Ankara of meddling. Turkish and Iraqi officials have exchanged sharp words in public.

The political posturing between Baghdad and Arbil is not lost on their new frontline in north Iraq, where Peshmerga troops fortify their trenches, run through drills and wait out an end to the impasse.

“We are just here to defend ourselves,” said Peshmerga General Sarbaz Mamund. “They wait for orders from their political leaders, and so do we. But this area is Kurdish, just ask the people here.”

(Additional reporting by Ahmed Rasheed and Raheem Salman in Baghdad; editing by Ralph Boulton)

#Syria defection: Nawaf Fares defects and is ‘in Qatar’

Watch video here.

Syria’s envoy to Baghdad has defected to the opposition and, according to Iraqi officials, is in Qatar.

Nawaf Fares, the first senior Syrian diplomat to abandon President Bashar al-Assad, has urged other politicians and military figures to follow suit.

News of his whereabouts came from Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari. His defection was first reported by Qatar-based TV channel al-Jazeera.

Syria has responded by formally dismissing Mr Fares from his post.

Meanwhile, government forces have shelled an area of Damascus, activists have reported.

Nawaf Fares

Head of Sunni Uqaydat tribe, straddling Syria’s eastern border with Iraq

Served as top Baath Party official in Deir al-Zour province

Appointed Baghdad ambassador 16 Sept 2008

First Syrian envoy to Iraq for nearly three decades

Resigns from Baath Party and as ambassador 11 July 2012

Mortar rounds were said to have been fired into orchards in Kafr Souseh in an apparent offensive against rebels.

One man died and a number of other people were wounded when tanks and armoured vehicles went into a built-up area, reports said.

Independent confirmation is impossible, as journalists’ freedom of movement is heavily restricted.

‘Tribal chief’

Mr Fares’s defection comes just a week after a Syrian general from a powerful family close to President Assad also defected.

He confirmed his decision in a statement broadcast both on TV and on Facebook.

With Syrian revolutionary flags behind him, he read out the statement saying he was resigning both as Syria’s ambassador to Iraq and as a member of the ruling Baath Party.

Analysis

Jim MuirBBC News, Beirut

The defection of Nawaf Fares is an embarrassing blow to the Syrian regime, and a clear sign of the stress the conflict is generating, but it does not necessarily herald a spate of similar desertions.

The government’s discomfort was reflected in an official statement from the foreign ministry in Damascus, lamely announcing that the ambassador had been “relieved of his duties”.

US and Syrian opposition officials seized on Mr Fares’s resignation as a sign that the regime is crumbling.

But the defection of the deputy oil minister earlier this year did not trigger a cascade of similar moves by officials, as he urged.

As with the case of Maj-Gen Munaf Tlas, who fled the country last week, the ambassador may have had specific reasons for turning.

He is a Sunni tribal leader whose area around Deir al-Zor has been heavily battered by government forces recently, as had Gen Tlas’s mainly Sunni hometown Rastan.

The defections are clearly a sign of the times, but given the gravity of what is happening, it is surprising they have been so few and far between.

“I call on all party members to do the same because the regime has transformed it into a tool to oppress the people and their aspirations to freedom and dignity.

“I announce, from this moment on, that I am siding with the people’s revolution in Syria, my natural place in these difficult circumstances which Syria is going through.”

Syria’s foreign ministry said he had made statements that contradicted the duties of his post and no longer had any relation to the Syrian embassy in Baghdad.

The BBC’s Jim Muir in neighbouring Lebanon says this is a highly damaging defection for President Assad.

Mr Fares, significantly, is also chief of a Sunni tribe straddling Syria’s eastern border with Iraq, our correspondent adds.

That area, around the city of Deir al-Zour, has become a hotbed of support for the rebels and has been heavily bombarded in recent weeks.

Syria has been convulsed by internal conflict since protests against President Assad began early last year. The protests turned into an armed rebellion and thousands of people have been killed.

Last week, senior army officer Brig Gen Manaf Tlas fled Syria via Turkey.

He was a commander of a unit of the elite Republican Guard and as a young man he attended military training with President Assad.

Gen Tlas had been under a form of home arrest since May 2011 because he opposed security measures imposed by the regime, sources said.

‘Clear consequences’

In a separate development, Western nations are pressing the UN to threaten Damascus with sanctions as it considers renewing the mandate for its observer mission in Syria which expires on 20 July.

They want a 10-day ultimatum to be part of a Security Council resolution on the future of the UN’s observer mission in the country. A new resolution must be passed before the mission’s mandate ends on Friday next week.

The mission had a 90-day remit to monitor a truce, but fighting has continued largely unabated.

The truce formed part of a six-point peace plan brokered by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, who has called for “clear consequences” for the Syrian government and rebels if the ceasefire is not observed.

Chapter 7 of UN Charter

Action in response to threats to peace, breaches of peace and acts of aggression

Article 41 enables Security Council to decide measures not involving armed force

Can suspend economic and diplomatic relations as well as rail, sea and other communications

If Article 41 measures are inadequate, Article 42 enables Security Council to take action by air, sea or land forces for international peace and security

Source: UN

Russia has suggested a 90-day extension. But Western states say a simple rollover of the mission is not enough.

A draft resolution has been circulated threatening Damascus with sanctions within 10 days, if it fails to stop using heavy weapons and pull back its troops from towns and cities.

The UK’s envoy to the UN, Mark Lyall Grant, told reporters that Britain, France, the US and Germany would propose making compliance with the ceasefire mandatory under Chapter 7 of the UN charter.

Last week, more than 100 countries called on the Security Council to invoke Article 41 of Chapter 7, which stops short of military intervention.

Russia has said use of Chapter 7 is a “last resort”. China, which like Russia has vetoed the two previous attempts to impose tougher measures, has said it will support a rollover of the mission.

UK doubles aid to #Syria opposition groups

By James Robbins Diplomatic correspondent

The UK is to double its non-military aid to opponents of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria, Foreign Secretary William Hague has said.

William Hague said the aid would help to provide training for activists and citizen journalists

He said the extra £500,000 will help groups both inside and outside Syria.

Mr Hague used his annual Mansion House speech in the City of London to urge President Assad to accept he has no hope of political survival.

The United Nations says more than 9,000 people have been killed during a year-long Syrian revolt.

The foreign secretary is working to boost Syria’s opposition at a moment when new diplomacy offers hope - however uncertain - that President Assad may be pushed into change.

Mr Hague told his audience, including dozens of foreign ambassadors in London, that the UK will give opposition groups extra help worth £500,000.

It will include more training for activists and citizen journalists to help them get their stories out of Syria, and possibly secure phones to make the co-ordination of protest safer.

Civil society groups will also be given more assistance gathering evidence of atrocities for possible future trials.

Mr Hague warned the regime its reliance on violence was not only morally indefensible, it was futile.

‘Economic disarray’

He said: “President Assad and his allies may look at the rubble of Homs, the abandoned streets of Idlib and Syria’s overflowing prisons and they may entertain hopes of political survival.

“But they cannot avoid ever greater numbers of Syrians wanting a better future, and rejecting the bloodshed, insecurity and economic disarray their leaders have brought upon them.”

Mr Hague said he expected the Friends of Syria meeting in Istanbul on Sunday to adopt new measures to increase pressure on the regime and boost Kofi Annan’s diplomatic mission.

The foreign secretary did acknowledge President Assad’s apparent willingness to accept Mr Annan’s UN plan, but he said the regime needed to convince a sceptical world and a wounded Syrian people.

On Thursday, Arab states meeting in Baghdad called for the immediate implementation of the plan, which would see a UN-monitored end to fighting, troops pulled out of opposition areas and access for humanitarian services.

At the same meeting, Iraq’s PM Nouri al-Maliki warned that arming either side in Syria would lead to a “proxy war”.

Syria’s opposition leaders are so far refusing to contemplate any negotiations which could leave President Assad in power and he is warning that his participation in a UN peace plan may depend on foreign governments ending all support for his opponents, whom he calls terrorists.

Arabs, U.N. push #Syria to act on peace plan as 15 more killed

By Mariam Karouny and Suadad al-Salhy | Reuters

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Arab leaders pressed President Bashar al-Assad to act quickly on a U.N.-backed peace plan he has agreed to, having dropped their demand that he leave power, as fighting between Syrian security forces and rebels killed at least 15 people on Thursday.

“The solution for the crisis is still in the hands of the Syrians as a government and opposition,” Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby told Arab heads of state at a summit meeting in Baghdad.

Pre-empting the summit, Damascus said on Wednesday it would reject any initiative from the Arab League, which suspended Syria in November, and would deal only with individual states.

But United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon kept up pressure on Assad, saying he must turn his acceptance of the six-point peace plan into action, to divert his country from a “dangerous trajectory” with risks for the entire region.

“It essential that President Assad put those commitments into immediate effect. The world is waiting for commitments to be translated into action. The key here is implementation, there is no time to waste,” Ban told an Arab League Summit.

In Istanbul, Syrian opposition representatives met to try to settle deep internal disputes before the arrival of Western foreign ministers for a “Friends of Syria” conference on Sunday to map out where the year-old uprising is heading.

BATTLES AND AMBUSHES

The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the violence, reported 13 civilians, fighters and soldiers killed in clashes across the country.

In northern Hama province, an army convoy was ambushed and two soldiers killed. In Idlib province three people died when the army raided a rural area east of Maarat al-Nuaman.

In the city of Homs, three people were killed by army fire. Two died when the army opened fire in villages near the border with Lebanon and three were killed in clashes in rural districts of northern Hama province, the Observatory said.

The state news agency SANA said two colonels were shot dead in a morning attack in Aleppo, Syria’s second city.

“Four terrorists shot Abdul Karim al-Rai and Fuad Shaaban … while they were on their way to work,” SANA said.

It said gunmen kidnapped Air Force General Mohammad Amr al Darbas on his way to work in Damascus province.

Western powers have expressed skepticism about Assad’s acceptance of the peace plan. Russia has urged opposition groups to endorse it as Damascus has done.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Assad “has not taken the necessary steps to implement” the peace plan of Kofi Annan, the former U.N. Secretary General who is now special Syria envoy for the U.N. and the Arab League.

Syria’s big-power backers, Russia and China, have cranked up the pressure on Assad by endorsing the Annan plan, with the unspoken implication that if he fails to act on it, they may be prepared to back action by the U.N. Security Council.

ARAB VIEWS DIFFER

Sunni powers Saudi Arabia and Qatar have led the push to isolate Syria, suggesting arming Syria’s opposition.

Arab states outside the Gulf, such as Algeria and Shi’ite-led Iraq urge more caution, fearing that toppling Assad could spark sectarian violence.

Annan’s six-point plan calls for the withdrawal of heavy weapons and troops from population centers, humanitarian assistance, the release of prisoners and free movement and access for journalists.

Diplomats say one of his ideas is for a U.N. observer mission to monitor any eventual ceasefire, a mechanism likely to require a U.N. Security Council mandate. An Arab League mission last year failed to make any difference to the crisis.

The United Nations says Assad’s forces have killed 9,000 people. Damascus blames foreign-backed “terrorists” for the violence and says 3,000 soldiers and police have been killed.

As U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton headed for Saudi Arabia and later Turkey, to consult Gulf states and promote unity in Syrian opposition ranks, there was no sign that President Barack Obama was about to drop his hands-off approach.

Unless opposition splits are healed, there is little chance that Assad’s opponents can oust him without a military intervention the West clearly does not want, and some analysts are saying it is time force the opposition to talk to Assad.

The Obama administration’s approach to the crisis will continue to be “wary and slow-moving”, said Michael O’Hanlon, a military expert at the Brookings Institution.

“If Assad has reached a turning point and really made headway against insurgents, I believe there is a good chance he will ‘win’ without too much American pushback,” O’Hanlon said.

Thousands demonstrate in Falluja, #Iraq supporting the Syrian people #Syria #Solidarity

ANBAR / Aswat al-Iraq: Thousands of residents of Falluja, in Anbar province, demonstrated today in support of the Syrian people with the participation of tribal sheikhs, religious leaders and mass organizations.

Sheikh Hameed Dulaimi, clergyman, told Aswat al-Iraq that the demonstration took place after Friday mid-day prayers in support of the Syrian people.

“This demonstration is a reminder to Premier Nouri al-Maliki and the local government in Anbar province that thieves and murderers are doomed to death,” he added.

Ramadi, the center of Anbar province, lies 110 km west of the capital, Baghdad.

Source

Biased from Baghdad: Iraqi observers in #Syria tell protestors to give up

Niqash | Khaled Waleed | Baghdad | 02.02.2012

The Iraqi government recently sent 33 locals to be part of the Arab League’s monitoring mission in Syria. But just like the mission itself, the Iraqi participants have been considered controversial - and even biased toward Syria’s leaders.

It seems that the 33 observers sent to Syria by the Iraqi government to take part in the Arab League’s controversial monitoring mission there will remain, by and large, shadowy figures. And it also seems that what they actually did in Syria will also remain a mystery.

The Iraqi government says that observers are property qualified for the job. But critics of the government’s initiative say the observers are all members of one political party, that they take their orders directly from the Iraqi executive and that they actually support the current Syrian regime, headed by President Bashar al-Assad, which has come under fire for its brutal repression of civilian protests.

Syrians have been protesting against their government since early last year and interactions between government forces and protestors have become increasingly violent, with the United Nations estimating that over 5,000 people have been killed in the conflict. Some government troops have defected and it seems, despite the fact that al-Assad still has support in Syria, the country is teetering on the brink of civil war.

The Arab League monitoring mission arrived in Syria on Dec. 26 last year and its work was based on an agreement between Syria and the 22 member League (which includes Syria itself). The monitoring mission was to stay in Syria for a month to observe what was happening between the al-Assad government and civilian protestors and to try and achieve some kind of mediation.

As a result, 166 observers were sent to Syria and deployed around the country – according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Iraq, 33 of these were Iraqi.

However on Jan. 28 the Arab League mission decided to suspend its activities in Syria, due to rising violence there. The mission had already been accused of being ineffective and after Gulf Arab states decided to withdraw their team members, the effort was suspended.

Despite the current cessation of activities, controversy around what the Iraqi members of the observation effort were doing still continues.

Up until now, the names of the Iraqi observation team have not been revealed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Even the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs doesn’t know the members’ names or qualifications.

All that Iraq’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Labeed Abbawi, would reveal was that:”we chose a number of army officers with military experience, some civilians with experience in human rights work as well as diplomats who work in the field of human rights”.

NIQASH has learned that those who know of the Iraqi observers’ work described less-than-impartial behaviour. “The observers told the [Syrian] protestors that there are infiltrators and armed men among them who are trying to create a rupture in Syrian society,” Hamid al-Hayes, a tribal leader in the Anbar province, which borders on Syria, told NIQASH; al-Hayes confirmed that he knew one of the observers personally and that this person told him around ten days ago that some of the Iraqi observers were encouraging protestors to give up their demonstrations against the regime.

Other evidence for this exists in the form of an amateur video posted on YouTube. The video shows some of the Arab League observers telling protestors that: “there are some evil people among you … as well as those who have infiltrated your group and who are trying to sabotage and distort your reputation”. Judging by the dialect, it seems those commenting were members of the Iraqi contingent.

Some organisations in Syria have joined in, in questioning the integrity of Iraq’s contribution to the Arab league’s monitoring mission, saying that their credibility is under threat because they are all members of the one political party, which is dominated by Shiite Muslim interests. Although al-Assad belongs to a smaller sect known as the Alawites, who dominate Syria’s political and power landscape, they are actually also Shiite Muslims.

“We have serious doubts about the credibility of the Iraqi team,” a statement issued earlier in 2012 by the Syrian League for the Defence of Human Rights, which is based in Damascus, said. “We were told by reliable Iraqi sources that the Iraqi team members are all officials who work for the [Iraqi] Prime Minister’s office and that they are all Shiite Muslims. Assigning people who take their orders directly from al-Maliki is a direct threat to the [Arab League] mission’s credibility,” the League concluded.

While admitting that the observers were members of the Prime Minister’s political party, the Iraqi government itself denied these accusations of bias, calling them politically motivated and an attempt to make it appear as though the Iraqi government, headed by al-Maliki, was hostile to democracy.

“It is all lies,” Ali al-Musawi, media adviser to the Prime Minister, told NIQASH. “It is just other political parties that are supporting these allegations. The performance of the Iraqi observers can only be assessed by the Arab League itself. And the Arab League was happy with their work and praised them.”

This was despite the difficult situation in Syria, the Iraqi Foreign Ministry added.

“I think they did their job and achieved relatively positive results,” Deputy Foreign Minister Abbawi said. “They monitored acts of repression and murder by the supporters of the [Syrian] regime and its forces. And they also recorded militant attacks by individuals and groups. If we take into consideration the extremely difficult and complicated conditions, the very limited capacities and the dangerous environment, we would say that observers have done a good job in a relatively short period of time.”

MP Ala al-Talabani, a member of the parliamentary committee on foreign affairs, told NIQASH that the committee had been made aware of the accusations against the Iraqi observers and that they had also watched the relevant YouTube video.

“We heard rumours that the Iraqi observers actually supported the Syrian regime but we have no official information about this,” she said. “But if the rumours are true, it would mean that the observers were not neutral. This is something that will impact our position within the Arab League.”

“We have asked the government to provide us with the names of the observers and their political affiliations,” al-Talabani continued. “We’re still waiting for this information. And until we receive it, we can’t really give any opinion on the subject.”

Politicians from the opposition Iraqiya party obviously have their own opinions on the situation, saying that evidence like the YouTube video damages Iraq’s diplomatic reputation.

“All governments should side with the popular will, especially in a land where citizens feel that they are deprived of their right to live a free and dignified life,” Mohammed Salman, an Iraqiya MP, wrote in a statement to NIQASH. The Iraqi government should support the people of Syria, Salman noted.

If Iraq was supporting authoritarian rule – as some of its Arab neighbours did when Iraq was under former leader Saddam Hussein - it would be the wrong thing to do, Iraqi political analyst Abdul Sattar al-Shammari explained.

“At the time we blamed those other nations because they stood against the will of the Iraqi people to end the dictatorship. Now we’re doing the same: we are fighting against the people [in Syria] who are demanding democracy for themselves.”