Syrian Freedom

News World news Bashar al-Assad Defiant #Syrian president accuses Gulf states of funding rebels

21/09/12

Bashar al-Assad attacks Saudi Arabia and Qatar as opposition group blames regime for disappearance of its leaders

Members of the Free Syrian Army join anti-regime demonstrators in Maraa, near Aleppo. Photograph: Handout/Reuters

The Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, has said he is adamant his regime will not fall and lashed out at Gulf countries which he accused of using their enormous oil wealth to try to drive him from power.

Assad’s comments were published on Friday as an opposition group, the National Co-ordination Body for Democratic Change in Syria, accused the regime of being behind the disappearance of two of its leaders.

Abdul-Aziz al-Kheir and Ayas Ayyash were expected to take part in a conference this Sunday in Damascus by 20 Syrian groups that are calling for Assad to step down. But they disappeared on Thursday along with a friend who had picked them up at Damascus international airport, the group said.

The group’s head, Hassan Abdul-Azim, told the Associated Press that the regime was believed to be behind the disappearance.

Syria’s crisis began in March last year with anti-government demonstrations inspired by the Arab spring and demanding reforms. The protests were met with a brutal crackdown by the regime. Syria later became embroiled in a civil war between forces fighting for Assad and those trying to topple him.

Activists say nearly 30,000 people have been killed since the crisis began, the vast majority civilians.

After Assad’s remarks were published, the Syrian information minister, Omran al-Zoebi, told state-run TV that the president had received nine Egyptian journalists and had a chat with them about the latest developments in Syria.

The minister said none of the journalists took notes as the meeting was considered a “personal visit”, but a reporter for the weekly al-Ahram al-Arabi published some of what was said.

The weekly quoted Assad as saying that the rebels “will not succeed” and that a foreign military intervention such as the one that helped topple the Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi will “not be repeated” in Syria.

Assad also launched one of his harshest attacks on Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which have been among his strongest critics and backers of the opposition, saying they are trying to influence the region with money.

“They think their money can buy geography, history and a regional role,” Assad reportedly said.

“They are giving terrorists weapons and money with hope of repeating the Libyan model. Instead of helping regional stability, they are supplying armed elements with weapons and training in order to weaken the Syrian state.”

The upheaval in Syria presents an opportunity for the Gulf’s Sunni rulers to bolster their influence and possibly leave the Shia powerhouse Iran without its critical alliances that flow through Damascus. Assad’s regime, which is allied strongly with Iran, is led by the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam.

Syria’s ties with the Gulf nations have been strained in the past – Assad once called Saudi King Abdullah and other Arab leaders “half men” for being critical of Hezbollah over the 34-day war between the Lebanese Shia militant group and Israel in 2006.

In the briefing, Assad added that the only way to solve the Syrian crisis is through “dialogue with the opposition” and that the “door for dialogue is open.”

Most Syrian opposition groups reject any talks with the regime, saying they will not accept anything less than Assad’s departure from power and the dissolving of his regime’s security agencies.

Abdul-Azim, the opposition leader, repeated that stance and said the opposition wants a “new regime that represents the will of the people.”

He added his group will go ahead with the plans for Sunday’s opposition conference despite the disappearance of the two leaders. The gathering will invite European ambassadors, envoys from China and Russia, which back the regime.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Friday that nearly 30,000 Syrians have been killed during the uprising.

The count includes 20,935 civilians, 1,153 army defectors fighting alongside the rebels and 7,141 Syrian troops fighting for the Assad regime – a total of 29,229, said the head of the group, Rami Abdul-Rahman.

The list was compiled from reports by witnesses and medical staff, he said, adding that he only includes those identified by name or whose death was authenticated by amateur video. Several thousand who are presumed dead, including pro-Assad troops, have been kept off the list because the bodies could not be identified.

Another Syrian opposition group, the Local Co-ordination Committees, put the overall death toll at 26,405. However, its count does not include Syrian troops killed in battle. It relies on a network of activists in Syria to collect its information.

Fighting in Syria has intensified in recent weeks, with the regime increasingly relying on air strikes to try to drive rebels out of territory they are holding, particularly in the north. The air attacks, along with the use of heavy weapons by rebels, have driven up the daily death toll, said Abdul-Rahman.

More than 250 people were killed on Thursday including 199 civilians, five army defectors and 46 regime soldiers, Abdul-Rahman said. August has been the bloodiest month so far, with nearly 5,000 dead.

Meanwhile, in the north-eastern town of Ein al-Arab, a gunman on a motorcycle shot dead a leading Kurdish opposition figure, Mahmoud Wali, also known as Abu Jandi, as he walked out of his office late on Thursday, the Kurdish activists Mustafa Osso and Ibrahim Issa said.

Wali was a senior member of the Kurdish National Council, which includes several Kurdish groups.

Osso said it was not clear who was behind what he said was a “political assassination”.

On Friday, activists reported clashes and shelling in different areas around Syria, with the fighting being most intense in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and commercial capital. The fighting there came a day after regime air strikes hit a petrol station in northern Syria, setting off a fiery explosion that killed at least 30 people and wounded dozens.

#Syria U.S. may approve Arab nations arming Syrian opposition

Syrian government forces speak to a U.N. observer in the Damascus suburb of Douma, Syria, Sunday, May 20, 2012. (AP / Muzaffar Salman)

The Associated Press

Date: Thursday May. 24, 2012 1:16 PM ET

WASHINGTON — As one diplomatic effort after another fails to end more than a year of brutal violence in Syria, the Obama administration is preparing a plan that would essentially give U.S. nods of approval to arms transfers from Arab nations to some Syrian opposition fighters.

The effort, U.S. officials told The Associated Press, would vet members of the Free Syrian Army and other groups to determine whether they are suitable recipients of munitions to fight the Assad government and to ensure that weapons don’t wind up in the hands of al Qaeda-linked terrorists or other extremist groups such as Hezbollah that could target Israel.

The plan, which has not yet been finalized, reflects U.S. frustration that none of the previous efforts - including diplomatic rhetoric from the United Nations and the multinational Friends of Syria group, and special envoy Kofi Annan’s plan for a cease-fire - has even begun to nudge President Bashar al-Assad from power.

The vetting would be the first tiny step the U.S. has made toward ensuring that the Syrian opposition uses the weapons to fight Assad and not to turn it into a full sectarian conflict.

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the subject, stressed that the United States, which is already providing non-lethal aid to Syria’s political opposition, is not supplying military assistance to Assad’s foes.

The administration’s position remains that adding more weapons to the conflict is a bad idea and will only fan the fire of instability.

“We don’t think that adding fuel to this fire is the right way to go,” State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

“Our decision is to support the civilian opposition in nonlethal ways,” she said. “There are other countries who have made other decisions. That’s their sovereign decision to make. We’ve made our decision.”

But she added: “We are obviously consulting with various states about the decisions that we’ve made, that they’ve made.”

Privately, officials say that as conditions continue to deteriorate, it would be irresponsible not to weigh in with Arab countries such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and others such as Turkey that have indicated interest in arming the rebels.

By some accounts, those nations already have begun to ship weapons with tacit U.S. agreement. In Turkey, private businessmen have begun funneling weapons into Syria.

Libya’s new rulers, fresh from their own revolution that toppled longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi, have pledged support for the Syrian rebels, but actually transferring weapons is tricky. Last month, Lebanese authorities seized a ship carrying rocket-propelled grenades and heavy-calibre ammunition, possibly bound for Syrian rebels.

The fighters’ attempts to bring in heavier arms that could change the course of the 15-month-old uprising so far have been stymied at every turn, even by countries sympathetic to the revolt. All are wary of being drawn into the fight

The rebels have cast a wide net, contacting weapons dealers in Bulgaria, Greece, Georgia and Azerbaijan.

Without some type of U.S. vetting as to who should receive such shipments, the Obama administration and some of its European allies fear that weapons might be used against Western interests.

While the “main” Syrian opposition is not aligned with al Qaeda, the chance that weapons might fall into the wrong hands in an unstable environment like Syria is “always a concern,” said a senior intelligence official.

Al Qaeda has established a limited operational capability in Syria and is responsible for several attacks on Assad targets, the official said. He said analysts believe the goal is to “sow further chaos” and advance an extremist agenda.

The official would not comment on any military aid that might be given to the rebels by U.S. allies.

Yet he and others acknowledged the situation is growing more dire.

AP interviews with security officials, rebels and arms dealers in countries neighbouring Syria indicate that individual rebel units have to scrounge for weapons. They have no central organization and no import routes for anything heavier than automatic weapons and rocket-propelled grenades.

It is into this mix that the U.S. may soon be inserting itself.

Washington’s supplies of communications equipment and medical supplies to opposition members it has approved are already under way, Officials said that those supplies can now be easily augmented with weapons from other donors.

“Smuggling lines are smuggling lines. We use the same donkeys,” said one, pointing out that the routes are essentially the same for bandages as they are for bullets.

Syrian rebels receiving large weapon shipments facilitated by US and Gulf, report says #Syria

Syrian rebels have started receiving large shipments of sophisticated weapons financed by Gulf States and coordinated by the US, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.

The US daily cited unnamed sources as saying that “Syrian rebels battling the regime of President Bashar al-Assad have begun receiving significantly more and better weapons in recent weeks,” including anti-tank weapons.

Although Washington was not supplying or funding the weapon shipments, the US has been expanding “contacts with opposition military forces to provide the Gulf nations with assessments of rebel credibility and command-and-control infrastructure,” the paper cited US sources as saying.

The Washington Post added that the Barack Obama administration has begun shifting its stance on the Syria crisis, with officials now believing “an expanding military confrontation to be inevitable.”

US administration officials have also “held talks in Washington this week with a delegation of Kurds from sparsely populated eastern Syria” to discuss the possibility “of opening a second front against Assad’s forces that would compel him to move resources from the west.”

According to the Washington Post, the shipments were being stockpiled in Damascus, Edleb and Zabadani.

One opposition source told the daily that “large shipments have got through,” adding that “some areas are loaded with weapons.”

US officials have in the past rejected the idea of arming Syrian rebels. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned that arms shipments could help Al-Qaeda, while US Joints Chief of Staff chairman Martin Dempsey said that arming rebels would be “premature.”

#Syria says revolt over, but army still shooting

A Syrian refugee flashes a victory sign at Reyhanli refugee camp in Hatay province on the Turkish-Syrian border March 31, 2012. REUTERS-Osman Orsal

Syrian refugees and local residents take part in a demonstration against Syria's President Bashar Al-Assad, after Friday prayers outside the Syrian embassy in Amman March 30, 2012. REUTERS-Ali Jarekji

People attend a ceremony marking Land Day during a rally at al-Sabaa Bahrat square in Damascus March 30, 2012. REUTERS-Khaled al-Hariri

By Douglas Hamilton and Erika Solomon

BEIRUT | Sat Mar 31, 2012 12:00pm EDT

(Reuters) - Syria says the year-old revolt to topple President Bashar al-Assad is over, but the army again shelled opposition areas on Saturday and rebels said they would not cease fire until tanks, artillery and heavy weapons are withdrawn.

Washington and Gulf Arab states urged peace envoy Kofi Annan to set a timeline for “next steps” if there is no ceasefire, and Saudi Arabiarepeated a call for rebels to be armed.

Annan has said neither measure would be helpful. The former U.N. chief’s mission has brought no respite in the killings.

Syria also said it would keep its forces in cities to “maintain security” until it is safe to withdraw in line with the peace deal, which Assad has said he accepts.

Annan’s plan says the army must stop violence immediately and be the first to withdraw forces.

“We cannot accept the presence of tanks and troops in armored vehicles among the people,” a spokesman for Free Syrian Army commanders inside Syria said.

“We don’t have a problem with the ceasefire. As soon as they remove their armored vehicles, the Free Syrian Army will not fire a single shot,” Lieutenant Colonel Qassim Saad al-Din told Reuters by telephone from Homs.

A rebel officer in Damascus said separately: “When Assad’s gangs stop the shelling and killing of civilians, then our leaders can issue an order to stop operations and we will commit to it to show our good intentions.”

Opposition activists reported 25 people killed and five bodies found bearing signs of torture, including two children.

A protest singer in Kafr Ruma was killed when his house was raided. A young man and his sister were shot dead when state forces stormed their village, and a man died of gunshot wounds inflicted during a protest in Damascus.

HOMS UNDER FIRE

Artillery and mortars pounded a pro-opposition part of Homs city, killing one. Ten deaths were reported in Homs province.

“Mortars are falling every minute and the sounds of explosions are shaking the (Khalidiya) neighborhood,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Rocket fire killed a child in the al-Bayyada area of Homs and a man was killed in crossfire in clashes near a checkpoint.

In southern Deraa province, five were killed by machinegun fire in Kharbat Ghazaleh and three died from wounds sustained in clashes on Friday. Rebels killed six soldiers, including a lieutenant colonel in Deir al-Zor, the Observatory said.

Despite the violence, Damascus says it has the upper hand.

“The battle to topple the state is over,” Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad al-Makdissi told Syria TV late on Friday. “Our goal now is to ensure stability and create a perspective for reform and development in Syria while preventing others from sabotaging the path of reform.”

His assertion follows army victories over rebel strongholds in the cities of Hama, Homs and Idlib, and Assad’s acceptance this week of Annan’s plan that does not demand he step down.

The political opposition remains divided and prospects of Western-led military intervention are close to zero.

Assad’s opponents have not yet formally accepted the plan.

They were due to meet the foreign ministers of allied Western powers, including U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, on Sunday at a “Friends of Syria” conference in Turkey, which provides a safe haven for Syrian rebels.

After Clinton met Gulf foreign ministers in Riyadh on Saturday, they said Annan should set a timeline for unspecified measures should his efforts fail to halt the bloodletting.

“Given the urgency of the joint envoy’s mission, (U.S. and Gulf ministers) urged the joint envoy to determine a timeline for next steps if the killing continues,” a statement said.

Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal told a news conference with Clinton: “The arming of the opposition is a duty, I think, because it cannot defend itself except with weapons.”

WESTERN SCEPTICISM

Assad has endorsed Annan’s six-point peace plan, which has the U.N. Security Council’s unanimous backing, but Western leaders say the 46-year-old Syrian leader has broken similar promises before and must be judged by actions not words.

Syria’s Makdissi said Annan, who met Assad in Damascus on March 10, had acknowledged the government’s right to respond to armed violence during the ceasefire phase of the peace plan.

“When security can be maintained for civilians, the army will leave, he said. “This is a Syrian matter.”

Annan’s plan says Syria must stop putting troops into cities forthwith and begin taking them out.

“The Syrian government should immediately cease troop movement towards, and end the use of heavy weapons in, population centers, and begin pullback of military concentrations in and around population centers,” it states.

A sustained end to violence by all sides would be supervised by a U.N. team of around 250 monitors, diplomats said.

Western diplomats say the key to any ceasefire deal lies in the sequencing of the army pullback and ending rebel attacks.

They say the opposition won’t feel safe negotiating before the army stops shooting, but also note it would be impractical to expect a complete government pullout before rebels respond.

More than 9,000 people have been killed by Assad’s forces during the revolt, according to the United Nations, while Damascus says it has lost about 3,000 security force members.

Western and Arab foreign ministers backing Syrians trying to topple Assad will seek clear endorsement of the Annan plan from the Syrian National Council (SNC), although they themselves doubt whether Assad will genuinely try to implement it.

In Libya a year ago, the West and the Arabs quickly granted recognition to a revolutionary national council as the sole legitimate government of Libya. They are not close to doing the same for the splintered SNC in Syria, diplomats say.

There is also little chance they will agree to arm rebels.

If Assad fails to keep his word, Annan would have to decide whether to call time and tell the United Nations he has failed to make peace through a “Syrian-led process”.

The issue would then return to the U.N. Security Council, with increased pressure on Assad’s allies Russia and China, which have endorsed Annan’s mission, to get tough with Damascus.

Gulf States Tell Russia: Dump #Syria’s Assad

Russia may be softening its support for Bashar Assad, and it could be the result of unexpected Arab pressure, a well-informed Congressional source told me.

The Gulf Cooperation Council of Arab states, led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, recently told Lavrov he was not welcome in any of their countries until Russia gets on board with their position toward Syria, the official said, and tell Assad to leave.

The New York Times reported Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov for the first time harshly criticized the Syrian president and his violent repression of the year-old uprising, although he still wasn’t ready to join the Western nations in calling for Assad’s resignation. However, should the Syrian dictator step down, “no one is inviting him to Moscow,” Lavrov said.

It was the toughest language yet used by a Russian official and it may grow out of anger toward Moscow by Arab states who have been increasing the pressure on Assad to quit. Some are urging the United States and others to send arms to the opposition; it is unclear whether they are providing weapons themselves.

Gulf states oppose #Syria call for #Arab summit

(AFP)15 November 2011

RIYADH — The six Gulf Cooperation Council states said on Tuesday that they oppose a Syrian request for an emergency Arab summit on the bloody crisis in the country.

The GCC “sees that the request to hold an Arab summit at this time is useless,” knowing that Arab foreign ministers will meet in Rabat on Wednesday, GCC Secretary General Abdullatif al-Zayani said.

The Arab League on Saturday voted to suspend Syria from all of the pan-Arab bloc’s activities over its failure to implement a deal to end the violence which has left around 3,500 dead since March, according to UN figures.

League chief Nabil al-Arabi said on Monday that he had received a letter from Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem calling for an urgent Arab summit to discuss the crisis.

Arab leaders have been informed of the request, the secretary general said, adding that the emergency summit can only be held if two-thirds of the bloc’s members endorse the call.