09/12/12

By Erika Solomon

BEIRUT |

(Reuters) - Syrian rebels backed by radical Islamists captured a northern regimental command center of President Bashar al-Assad’s army, activists said on Sunday, as Russia dismissed speculation that it is preparing for its ally’s possible exit from power.

Assad’s forces hammered rebel units on the outskirts of Damascus as they tried to drive back opposition fighters rebels seeking to advance toward the embattled leader’s seat of power.

Rebels have made a series of advances in recent weeks, partly due to help from radicals such as Jabhat al-Nusra, a group linked to Al Qaeda in Iraq which has been excluded from a newly-formed rebel military command.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Jabhat al-Nusra, which has called for the creation of an Islamic state in Syria, had participated in capturing the command center of the army’s 111th regiment in the north of the country. It said around five soldiers were captured, while the commanding officer and some 140 of his men fled to another army site nearby.

Russia, Syria’s main arms supplier, dismissed suggestions from observers that its support for Assad might be softening.

“We are not holding any talks on the fate of Assad,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said after meeting U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and special U.N. envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi. “All attempts to present the situation differently are rather shady,” Itar-Tass news agency quoted him as saying.

Washington and its NATO allies, who have thrown their weight behind the opposition, are pressing for Assad’s departure to end the conflict in Syria, which has taken more than 40,000 lives.

Russia and China have blocked U.N. resolutions against Assad, saying they oppose foreign intervention in the conflict.

However, Western officials have recently cited intelligence reports that Assad may turn to chemical weapons. “We have seen enough evidence to know that they need a warning and they have received a warning and I hope they heed that,” British Foreign Secretary William Hague said on Saturday.

Syria has repeatedly denied the charges and accused the West of creating pretexts for foreign intervention.

RADICALS ON THE RISE

Rebels have seized several military bases in recent weeks, although some activists on the ground say there is no sign they are on the verge of toppling Assad.

The rebels’ capture of the regimental command center in the Sheikh Suleiman region of Aleppo province, however, shows growing cooperation and even allegiance to radical Islamists who have proven to be some of the most effective fighters.

It is unclear how much Jabhat al-Nusra’s exclusion from the newly-formed rebel military command in Syria, an effort backed by Western, Turkish and Arab security officials, will affect efforts to unify rebel ranks and increase financial support.

Led by Brigadier Selim Idris, the new command structure itself is also Islamist-dominated, though it has the backing of many Western states which have expressed reluctance to support the rebels due to the presence of radicals.

Radical groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra are small compared with other factions but their influence has grown in recent months, partly due to their successful operations. Some residents and rebels also believe the hardliners are more disciplined than some rebels who have been accused of looting and kidnapping.

ROAD TO DAMASCUS?

Damascus has become a focal point of battles over the past week, as rebels effectively shut the international airport by clashing with Assad’s forces there. Foreign flights have been suspended and residents say the airport road is closed.

Rebels who have dubbed their campaign “Operation Opening the Road to Damascus”, uploaded video on Sunday that showed heavy gunbattles and explosions rocking several rural towns around the capital. The video also showed rebels firing a fully functioning tank which they had captured from the army.

But there is no clear winner yet in a battle where neither side seems to have advanced. The Syrian army has claimed many successes around the capital, airing footage on state television of soldiers raiding parts of the rebel stronghold of Deraya.

“Our noble forces in Deraya have destroyed some of the terrorist dens used by al Qaeda terrorists to store weapons and other criminal tools,” said a report on Syria TV, which usually refers to rebels as terrorists. “Many terrorists were killed.”

Syrian soldiers also freed an Iranian diplomat captured on the outskirts of Damascus on Saturday, according to Iran’s state-run Arabic news channel Al-Alam. Majeed Adeli, the cultural attaché at the Iranian embassy in Damascus, had been kidnapped by rebels in the Sayyida Zeinab suburb.

Rebels have been targeting Iranians in Syria, many of whom it accuses of belonging to Iranian security forces. Iran has been Assad’s main bankroller and backer in the region. Rebels are also holding 48 Iranians which Tehran says were pilgrims.

Smoke rises after a Syrian Air Force fighter jet loyal to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad fired missiles at Hamouria, near Damascus October 29, 2012. REUTERS/Shaam News Network/Handout

Oct 31/12

27/10/12

Reports of renewed fighting unravels

temporary #Syrian truce

(CNN) — An early morning explosion rocked the flashpoint city of Deir Ezzor on Saturday in an attack that further eroded an already shaky temporary cease-fire called over the observance of a four-day Muslim holiday.

The Syrian government accused “terrorists” of detonating a car bomb outside a church, a claim that appeared to counter reports by opposition groups that a military police building was the target.

More violence flared in the Damascus suburb of Erbeen, where eight people were killed and several more wounded in a Syrian military airstrike, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a London-based activist group.

The latest unrest follows opposition claims of more than 100 people killed in bomb blasts and clashes just hours after the truce began on Friday, coinciding with the start of the Eid al-Adha holiday.

Both sides in the civil war accused the other of violating the conditions of the cease-fire, with the government saying its soldiers were responding to “terrorist attacks” — a term routinely used by President Bashar al-Assad to describe rebel assaults.

U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi negotiated the truce with the hope of stemming the killings that have gripped the country since March 2011 when protesters inspired by the success of popular revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia took to the streets to demand the ouster of al-Assad.

More than 32,000 people, according to the opposition, have been killed in the fighting that followed a brutal crackdown on demonstrators.

CNN could not confirm reports of casualties or violence as access to the country by international journalists has been severely restricted.

With the attack in Deir Ezzor, one of the centers of heavy fighting in recent months, hopes dimmed that the cease-fire would still take hold for the remainder of the religious holiday.

The government said the explosion damaged the facade of the church, according to the state-run Syrian Arab News Agency.

Syrian forces, meanwhile, fired a volley of mortar rounds at Sunni-dominated neighborhoods in what appeared to be a retaliation for the bombing, Hani al-Thafiri, an opposition activist working in the city, told CNN.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the car bomb.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights also reported the explosion, which it described as being near a restaurant, and subsequent clashes. The group said at least five civilians had been killed, while the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria said two civilians died.

Both groups reported clashes between Syrian forces and rebel fighters in parts of Idlib province, as well as rocket fire and heavy shelling by government forces. The LCC also reported mortar fire in the Aleppo, Damascus and Hama areas.

Across Syria on Saturday, the LCC claimed 12 people were killed. Among the dead were the casualties in Deir Ezzor as well as six others who were killed in clashes in the capital city of Damascus.

The civil war has been playing out largely along sectarian lines with predominantly Sunni rebels trying to unseat al-Assad and his Alawite minority.

Al-Assad is himself an Alawite, which has distant ties to the Shiite faith.

The sectarian split in fighting has also spilled over into a diplomatic divide, with al-Assad backed by Shiite-dominated Iran and the rebels receiving support from Sunni-led Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states.

World leaders have condemned the civil war and repeatedly called on al-Assad to step down.

Efforts by the U.N. Security Council to stop the violence have been at a standstill, with Russia and China refusing to go along with the United States, France and others’ call for intervention.

Russia, a Cold War ally of Syria, has said Syrians should decide the outcome of the uprising not the United Nations.

22/10/12

Michael Astor

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The United Nations is already planning for a peacekeeping force in Syria should a cease-fire in that country take hold and pending a Security Council mandate, the U.N. peacekeeping chief said Monday.

Herve Ladsous said, however, it was still too early to say how many peacekeepers might be deployed in such an eventual force.

“I would confirm that, of course, we are giving a lot of thought to what would happen if and when a political solution or at least a ceasefire would emerge,” Ladsous told reporters a U.N. briefing.

U.N. and Arab League envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi met with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus Sunday as part of his push for a cease-fire between rebels and government forces for the Eid al-Adha holiday, which begins Oct. 26.

Syria’s state-run news agency SANA said Damascus supports the truce proposal, but would not commit to halting fire during a four-day Muslim holiday until Western countries and their Gulf allies stop supporting rebels and halt their weapons supplies to the anti-regime fighters.

Brahmini told reporters, following a closed-door meeting, that he also had held talks earlier with opposition groups inside and outside the country and received “promises” but not a “commitment” from them to honor the cease-fire.

Brahimi replaced Kofi Annan as envoy to Syria after the former U.N. secretary-general resigned last August, frustrated by a lack of progress.

Under Annan’s peace plan the U.N. sent a 300-strong unarmed observer mission to Syria to oversee the cessation of violence but the team was forced to withdraw in August because of escalating fighting which has continued until today.

“It’s a shocking fact that everyday 150 to 200 civilians are killed and it has almost become part of the background noise and it is simply unacceptable,” Ladsous said.

Diplomats say that Ladsous has told Brahmini he could put together a force of up to 3,000 peacekeepers in the event a longer truce took hold.

But Ladsous said, “it certainly would be premature to mention a figure because it would depend on the situation.”

The deployment of any U.N. peacekeeping force would be contingent on the approval of the 15-member Security Council, which has long been deadlocked over the issue of Syria. Permanent members Russia and China have to date vetoed three resolutions on Syria because they threatened sanctions against Assad’s government.

19/10/12

US Considers No-Fly Zone in #Syria

Scott Stearns
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration says it is still considering a no-fly zone for northern Syria as cross-border shelling with Turkey threatens civilians on both sides.

With more Syrian tanks along the border, artillery fire between Syria and Turkey risks spreading violence, said U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland.

“The Turks have been very consistent that they are striking back strongly and proportionally every time they take an attack across the border,” Nuland said. “This is extremely dangerous and goes to the point that we’ve been making about the danger of this conflict spilling beyond borders.”

Turkey’s response is about more than border security, said U.S. Institute of Peace analyst Steve Heydemann.

“It’s also very clearly an effort on the part of the government in Ankara to change the political equation and to bring much greater pressure to bear not only on the Assad regime itself, but on the international community about what is at stake in this conflict and why the international community needs to do much more than it has,” Heydemann said.

With more than 100,000 Syrian refugees in Turkey, Washington is weighing the no-fly zone for areas of northern Syria controlled by Assad opponents.

“We continue to talk to partners about how, what, why, exactly the elements that might go into some of these things that people have proposed, including a no-fly zone, but we haven’t made any decisions at this stage,” Nuland said.

President Assad realizes a no-fly zone would give his rebel opponents an “extraordinary advantage, said Heydemann.

“The Syrians view this escalation of conflict across the Syrian-Turkish border as another effort to establish Syria’s determination not to be intimidated by the superior military of Turkey, not to be intimidated by the threat that NATO might support Turkey.”

He said Assad’s government is feeling emboldened by outside help at a time when international military support for the rebels is limited.

“They feel as if Russia, China, Iran, Hezbollah are very firmly on their side,” Heydemann said. “They sense the prevarication of the international community in increasing its support for the opposition. And they feel that gives them the advantage.”

Lebanon’s Hezbollah faction says it does not have fighters in Syria. Still, the United States is concerned about growing Hezbollah and Iranian influence in Syria and is sharing those concerns with Russia, Nuland said.

“If Moscow is concerned about these kinds of things — they have expressed concern about what could come after Assad — and our point is, what is coming now with Assad still in power, increasing efforts by extremists of all kinds and by Iran to make trouble that could spread even beyond borders,” she said.

Nuland added the United States is working with allies who supply weapons to Syrian rebels to ensure that those arms are not going to groups that are being infiltrated by extremists.

19/10/12

Turkish foreign minister says countries must set aside differences over Syria to prevent humanitarian disaster

Simon Tisdall in Istanbul

15/10/12

Photo: Syrians run for cover as a helicopter hovers over the northern city of Aleppo. (file photo) (AFP: Bulent Kilic)

Syrian government forces have dropped Russian-made cluster bombs over civilian areas in the past week as they battle to reverse rebel gains on a strategic highway, Human Rights Watch said on Sunday.

The bombs were dropped from planes and helicopters, with many of the strikes taking place near the main north-south highway running through the north-western town of Maarat al-Numan, HRW said in a report.

Rebels seized Maarat al-Numan from president Bashar al-Assad’s troops last week, cutting the route from the capital Damascus to Aleppo, Syria’s biggest city. Government forces have been trying to retake the area since then.

HRW previously reported Syrian use of cluster bombs, which have been banned by most countries, in July and August but the renewed strikes indicate the government’s determination to regain strategic control in the north-west.

Cluster munitions can drop hundreds of bomblets on a wide area as an anti-personnel weapon, designed to kill as many people as possible. Human rights groups say their use in civilian-populated areas can be a war crime.

More than 100 nations have banned their use, stockpiling, transfer or sale under a convention which became international law in 2010, but Syria has not signed it, nor have Russia, China or the United States.

Bomblets that do not initially explode can litter the ground, killing and maiming civilians long after a war is over.

Towns targeted included Maarat, Tamanea, Taftanaz and al-Tah. Cluster bombs have also been used in other areas in Homs, Aleppo and Lattakia provinces as well as near Damascus, the New York-based rights group said.

“Syria’s disregard for its civilian population is all too evident in its air campaign, which now apparently includes dropping these deadly cluster bombs into populated areas,” said Steve Goose, arms director at HRW.

Syrian government officials were not immediately available to comment on the HRW report.

Video evidence

Initial information about the use of the explosives came from videos posted online by opposition activists although HRW investigators said it had confirmed the incidents in interviews with resident in two towns.

It had no information on casualties. The cluster bombs were Russian-made but it was not known how or when Syria acquired them, HRW said.

Residents from Taftanaz and Tamanea - both near Maarat al-Numan - told HRW interviewers that helicopters dropped cluster munitions on or near their towns last Tuesday. One that hit Tamanea released smaller bomblets in an area between two schools, a resident was quoted as saying in the HRW report.

“The bomblets that exploded were the ones that hit the ground on the tip, we collected the ones that didn’t explode, their tip didn’t touch the ground,” the resident said.

People were taking away unexploded bomblets as souvenirs, a highly dangerous action as they can still explode at the slightest touch or movement. Video showed some civilians carrying the bomblets around and throwing them on the ground.

“The cluster munition strikes and unexploded ordnance they leave behind pose a huge danger to civilian populations, who often seem unaware how easily these sub munitions could still explode,” Mr Goose said.

The United Nations peace envoy for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, was due in Tehran later on Sunday for talks with Iranian officials, Iranian media reported.

Mr Brahimi, who took over the mediator job after former UN secretary-general Kofi Annan quit in frustration at the lack of diplomatic progress, will meet president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other senior officials.

Shiite Iran is the main ally in the region of Mr Assad, a member of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said this week Mr Brahimi would visit Syria soon to try to persuade Mr Assad to call an immediate ceasefire.

Reuters

01/10/12

At U.N., #Syrian foreign minister

expected to defend government role

in civil war

(CNN) — Syria’s foreign minister is expected Monday to defend his country’s handling of the 18-month civil war before the U.N. General Assembly, just as newly released casualty figures put the conflict’s human toll at nearly 28,000.

At least 95 people were killed Monday, including 12 children, according to the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria.

The government, on state-run media, said its forces carried out operations against gatherings of “terrorists” in Aleppo and elsewhere, inflicting “heavy losses.” Seventeen citizens were “martyred in terrorists’ shelling” on a village in Homs Sunday, the government said.

Here is the latest in the Syrian uprising:

Syria to face a hostile audience at the United Nations

Foreign Minister Walid Moallem is scheduled to speak to the U.N. General Assembly just days after world leaders painted a grim picture of the conflict.

Syria has dominated much of the General Assembly discussion — on stage and on the sidelines — as world leaders struggle to find a way to resolve the war that has left the Security Council hopelessly deadlocked.

Moallem is heading up the Syrian delegation at the United Nations, where he has been meeting with foreign ministers to drum up support for President Bashar al-Assad’s government.

But Moallem’s anticipated defense of the conflict before the general assembly is unlikely to be well received.

“What has the international community done to stop this carnage?” Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said last week. “Literally nothing. We have yet to see a single effective action to save innocent lives.”

Germany also slammed the U.N. Security Council for failure to act, and the United States, Britain and France announced they are backing increased support of non-lethal aid to the Syrian opposition.

The Security Council has been paralyzed by a division over how to halt the killing in Syria. Russia and China have blocked resolutions calling for al-Assad to transfer power and step down, saying the issue should be settled by Syrians.

Iraq will conduct random searches of Iranian planes bound for Syria to check for arms shipments, Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshiyar Zebari said in an interview published Sunday in the al-Hayat newspaper.

Zebari said Iraq will not act as a passageway or a channel for arms to make their way into Syria. “We are not with the militarization of the conflict. We are against the arming the regime or the opposition,” he said.

The foreign minister told the newspaper that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and others raised concerns about arms shipments. The United States believes Iran, one of al-Assad’s strongest supporters, is arming government forces.

Clinton has called on Syria’s neighbors to take steps to prevent Iran from using its land and airspace to deliver shipments to Syria.

Iraq faces a difficult task in enforcing the inspections, Zebari said.

“We explained to the U.S. side that Iraq’s air defense capabilities are limited, and we are in the stage of building our air force,” he said.

More: Syrian rebels claim knowledge of chemical weapons site

Iranian flights over Iraq to Syria began in March but were stopped shortly after at the request of Iraq, Zebari said. The flights resumed in July.

“They said these flights contain no weapons or hardware, and that they transport pilgrims, visitors and so on. But to verify their shipments, we will ask these planes to land,” Zebari said.

Last week, Baghdad rejected a request from North Korea to fly through its airspace to Syria because of a suspicion the flight was carrying arms.

Hama Massacre recalled as troops move into city

Syrian security forces are overseeing the systematic displacement of thousands and then demolishing their neighborhood in the western flashpoint city of Hama, residents told CNN.

As security forces surround the Mesha Alarbeen district in Hama and bulldozers tear down homes inside, the Hama Massacre is still fresh in the minds of many who live there.

Between 3,000 and 40,000 people were believed to have died when the military acting under orders from Hafez al-Assad — the father of the current Syrian president — brutally cracked down on a revolt in 1982. A1983 Amnesty International report put the toll on both sides between 10,000 and 25,000.

Hama is once again an epicenter of the anti-government movement that has roiled the country.

“So far they have razed 120 buildings,” Osamah, a Hama resident who visited the neighborhood on Sunday, told CNN.

The Syria toll, so far

The Syrian conflict broke out in March 2011 after unarmed protesters, inspired by the success of popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, took to the streets demanding political reform.

The movement devolved into an armed conflict after a brutal crackdown by government forces.

Newly released casualty figures form the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria put the number of civilians and opposition fighters killed in the unrest at 27,954 people.

Of those casualties, the LCC claims more than 24,000 were civilians.

Thousands of Syrian troops also have been reportedly killed.

CNN is unable to independently confirm casualty reports as the Syrian government has severely limited the access of international journalists.

The new casualty figures revealed August was the deadliest month in the conflict, with 5,091 killed. In September, 4,071 people were killed, according to the LCC.

Background: The toll of Syria’s civil war — so far

The Syrian conflict broke out in March 2011 after unarmed protesters, inspired by the success of popular uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia, took to the streets demanding political reform.

The movement devolved into an armed conflict after a brutal and continuing crackdown by government forces.

Since the unrest began, more than 30,000 people have died, the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

29/09/12

Hillary Rodham Clinton welcomes Nabil Elaraby as she hosts a gathering of Friends of Syria group in New York (AP/David Karp))

raq’s foreign minister has proposed a two-stage plan to bring both sides of the Syrian conflict together to discuss a political transition in the hope of ending the 18-month war that has killed more than 30,000 people.

Hoshyar Zebari said he made the proposal at a ministerial meeting of 20 countries mainly opposed to the government of President Bashar Assad. The closed meeting of key members of the Friends of Syria was chaired by US secretary of state Hillary Clinton and Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby.

“The discussions were very good,” he said. “I think everyone…recognised the need for a political transition - no pre-conditions - not to adopt maximalist positions.”

The first stage would be to bring together the countries that endorsed a blueprint leading to a political transition that was adopted in Geneva, Switzerland, on June 30 to now focus on implementing its planks, Mr Zebari said.

The second stage would be to invite representatives of the government and the opposition, both inside and outside Syria, to a conference in a neutral country outside the Middle East.

He said international envoy Lakhdar Brahimi would have to carry the plan forward.

At the Geneva meeting, the five veto-wielding members of the United Nations Security Council who are deeply divided over Syria joined other key countries interested in Syria to approve a broad framework that would require both the opposition and the Assad regime to agree to a new interim government for the country, leading to elections.

The plan also would require Syrian security forces to have the confidence of both sides.

The Geneva meeting was called by Mr Brahimi’s predecessor, Kofi Annan, after Russia and China had vetoed two Western-backed resolutions aimed at pressuring Assad to stop fighting and start negotiations. Moscow and Beijing vetoed a third resolution that raised the threat of sanctions against Assad on July 20.

Mr Zebari said the tone of the Friends of Syria meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly’s annual ministerial session was positive and pragmatic. “Before it was very difficult to present such ideas,” he said. “Really now, everybody is becoming more and more concerned and more realistic.”

27/09/12

UNITED NATIONS — Arab ministers on Wednesday weighed calls for an Arab intervention in the Syria conflict, while Western nations pressed Russia and China to drop opposition to international action.

Arab ministers met with UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly and Tunisia’s President Moncef Marzouki said later his country could support an Arab peacekeeping force in Syria. Others have doubts though.

“A peacekeeping operation by Arab nations is something we could well imagine,” Marzouki told AFP, calling President Bashar al-Assad “a bloodthirsty dictator.”

“We have really pushed for a peaceful solution, but if it is necessary, it must be an Arab peacekeeping force, yes.”

On Tuesday, the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, called at the UN General Assembly for an Arab intervention in Syria.

Arab League secretary general Nabil al-Arabi told reporters he did not believe the emir intended a “fighting force.”

But he told a Security Council meeting on the Middle East that the council must support Brahimi by making its resolutions on Syria “binding on all parties.”

Russia and China have used their powers as permanent members of the council three times to block resolutions which could have led to potential sanctions.

Western diplomats say they do not expect Russia, Syria’s main ally, to weaken its defense of Assad. But they say China, which does not have the same strategic interests, may now be feeling pressure from Arab and other nations over its position.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appealed for the “paralyzed” council to make a new attempt to reach an accord on taking measures over the conflict.

“The atrocities mount while the Security Council remains paralyzed and I would urge that we try once again to find a path forward,” Clinton told the Middle East meeting.

France’s Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said it was “shocking” that the council had been unable to act in the 18 months since the uprising against Assad started.

“As the international community, we must be united to stop the violence and help initiate a process of political transition. We must find a common response. We owe it to the people,” said Germany’s Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle.

None of the ministers have specifically mentioned Russia or China, but diplomats said the targets are clear and that the campaign is also being waged on a wider stage.

Britain’s Prime Minister David Cameron told the UN General Assembly on Wednesday that the tens of thousands of deaths in Syria conflict had become a “terrible stain” on the reputation of the United Nations.

“The future for Syria is a future without Assad,” Cameron told the 193-member assembly, highlighting a report this week that outlined the horror suffered by children who have seen killings and been tortured in the conflict.

“The blood of these young children is a terrible stain on the reputation of this United Nations,” Cameron said.

“And in particular, a stain on those who have failed to stand up to these atrocities and in some cases aided and abetted Assad’s reign of terror.”

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov showed no sign of changing tack and said violence by the government and opposition had to be condemned.

“A significant share of the responsibility for the continuing bloodshed rests upon the states that instigate the opponents of Bashar al-Assad to reject a ceasefire and dialogue and demand an unconditional capitulation of the regime,” he told the Middle East meeting.

China’s Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi was more defensive.

“China has faithfully fulfilled its obligations and acted as a positive force in seeking a political solution to the issue,” he said.

“China is ready to join the rest of the international community in an unremitting effort to resolve the Syrian issue in a just, peaceful and appropriate way.”

26/09/12

While western and Arab states fail to act on Syria, Erdogan’s ruling party bash is likely to involve serious plotting to get rid of Assad

Simon Tisdall

09/25/12

This photo by the Syrian official news agency SANA shows Syrian firefighters extinguishing a fire in a damaged school after a bomb attack in Damascus. (AP Photo/SANA)

21/09/12

20/09/12

By TOBY STERLING, Associated Press – 20 minutes ago 

SCHEVENINGEN, Netherlands (AP) — A coalition including the United States, the European Union and the Arab League met Thursday to plot new ways of isolating the regime of Syria’s President Bashar Assad, and a Syrian opposition leader warned that sanctions alone won’t bring the regime down.

The group called Friends of the Syrian People was set up in February after the U.N. Security Council was unable to reach agreement on a resolution condemning Syria’s government, due to opposition from Russia and China.

On Thursday, financial experts joined representatives of the group at their meeting in a coastal suburb of The Hague, Netherlands, to help member countries understand how Syria may be relying on dual-use technologies and front companies to get around the existing sanctions, which include an embargo on oil and arms. Twelve more countries have joined the 60-member coalition, committing also to block Syrian financial transactions and to enforce a travel ban on the country’s top leaders.

The uprising against the Syrian government began in March 2011 as part of Arab Spring protests and intensified after Assad’s government used the country’s military in an attempt to end the unrest. The United Nations estimates that at least 18,000 people have been killed as a result of the fighting, most of them civilians. More than 1.5 million people have been displaced, many fleeing as refugees to neighboring countries such as Turkey and Jordan.

Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal said the sanctions are having an effect, despite non-participation by Russia, China and Iran, citing a sharp fall in Syria’s oil exports. “The EU took 90 percent of Syria’s oil,” before the sanctions were applied, he said. “It turns out to be hard for the regime to sell oil elsewhere.”

Abrahim Miro — a member of the Syrian Governing Council, an umbrella organization of Syrian opposition groups cooperating to overthrow the government — said the sanctions alone will not bring Assad’s regime down. He said he hopes increased sanctions and the armed resistance by the Syrian Free Army “will actually cause the economic heart attack and also the military heart attack of the regime.”

Miro said Syria’s continued trade with Iraq and Iran — which were not represented at Thursday’s meeting — is a major source of concern for the opposition.

Abdo Hussameldin — a former official in Syria’s oil ministry, who in March became the highest-ranking member of the government to defect — said the economic sanctions are demoralizing and delegitimizing the regime in the eyes of the country’s people. But he agreed with Miro that the sanctions alone won’t force Assad from office as long as his regime continues to get financial support from countries such as Russia, Iraq, Iran, Venezuela and Lebanon.

In a closing statement, the Friends of Syria coalition called on banks and companies to adhere to the sanctions, even if their government is not a member, or risk damage to their reputation and jeopardize their relations with the rest of the business world.

The Friends of Syria group agreed to meet again in Japan before the end of 2012, though no date was set.