27 January 2012 GAZA - The leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, has effectively abandoned his headquarters in the Syrian capital, Damascus, diplomatic and intelligence sources said on Friday.
“Meshaal is not staying in Syria as he used to do. He is almost out all the time,” said a diplomat in the region who spoke on condition on anonymity. A regional intelligence source, who also did not wish to be identified, said: “He’s not going back to Syria. That’s the decision he’s made. There’s still a Hamas presence there, but it’s insignificant.” Damascus is isolated following a bloody, 10-month uprising against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad and is not secure, the diplomat said, adding that Meshaal was no longer able to receive international visitors there. Analysts say Meshaal was also embarrassed by Assad’s violent crackdown, with more than 5,000 people reported killed. Many victims of the security forces have been Sunni Muslims allied to the Muslim Brotherhood, whose support Meshaal relies on. Assad is backed mainly by his minority Alawite sect and other minorities. The sources said Meshaal would not publicly shut down the political headquarters of Hamas in Syria, where it has long been hosted by Assad and by his father before him. “In the past month he may have only stayed five days in Syria and the rest he spent in Qatar, Turkey and Egypt,” said the diplomat. “But he did not close the headquarters in Syria in full and there are some Hamas officials still there.” “Our belief is that Hamas will not announce a departure from Syria even if it happened,” the diplomat added. The sources said Meshaal was currently in Egypt. But “there was no agreement to open an office in Cairo. Not yet,” said the diplomat. “The expected residence for Meshaal is Qatar where he may stay most of the time until the Syria smoke has cleared.” Qatar is the Arab world’s most outspoken critic of Assad. Qatari mediation was helpful in arranging Meshaal’s upcoming visit to Jordan next week, restoring ties with the monarchy more than a decade after Hamas was ejected from the kingdom. Hamas, founded in 1987 and regarded by Israel and the West as a terrorist organisation, has long been backed by Iran, a strong ally of Syria’s Assad. But funding has apparently stalled in the past four months, the diplomat said. “Iran used to give $250 million to $300 million to Hamas but there have been interruptions in the payments in past year. Our understanding is that there has been no payment since August 2011,” he said. Hamas Gaza Strip leader Ismail Haniyeh was thought to have “received promises from Turkey to provide the movement and his administration with $300 million a year to help Gaza”. Turkey is also a strong critic of the crackdown by Assad in its southern neighbour, Syria. Haniyeh is scheduled to travel to Iran in the coming days.
By Al Arabiya
The Syrian regime is plotting for a massive blast in the Syrian city of Aleppo, just to terrorize the people, a Syrian activist and opposition leader told Al Arabiya on Friday.
Syrian opposition leader Ammar Qurabi, head of the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria, told Al Arabiya that he had learned about the planned Aleppo plot from Syrian security officials. He described those explosions as “fabricated” by the Bashar al-Assad regime.
Earlier on Friday, a suicide bombing killed about 26 people and wounded 60 others in the central Maidan district in Damascus, bringing bloodshed to the heart of the Syrian capital for the second time in two weeks.
Qurabi held Assad accountable for the explosion of the Maidan district, as well as the previous blast the occurred before the arrival of the Arab mission to Syria.
The blast occurred two days before an Arab League committee was due to discuss an initial report of Arab observers who are checking Syria’s compliance with an Arab plan to halt President Bashar al-Assad’s crackdown on nearly 10 months of unrest.
The meeting may decide whether to continue the mission or to refer Syria to the United Nations Security Council, perhaps paving the way for some form of international action, a scenario that many Arab countries are keen to avoid.
On Dec. 23 at least 44 people were killed by what Syrian authorities said were two suicide bombings that targeted security buildings in the Syrian capital.
Those attacks occurred the day before the arrival in Damascus of the head of the Arab League observer mission.
Qurabi wondered why such explosions usually take place only on Fridays and why they always target civilian neighborhoods and not military camps.
Commenting on the news that the Arab League chief on Friday asked the Damascus-based leader of the Palestinian group Hamas to ask Syria to work to halt violence and end a crackdown on anti-government protesters, Qurabi said that Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal visited Sudan two weeks earlier and that he criticized the Sudanese government for approving the freeze of Syria’s membership in the Arab League.
Qurabi described Meshaal as “part of the Iranian-Hezbollah convoy” that supports Assad’s regime. Meshaal also criticized the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for the official Palestinian stand towards the Syrian crisis, according to Qurabi.
Commenting on the Arab observers mission in Syria, Qurabi told Al Arabiy that he had talked to one of the Arab observers in Homs – Anwar Malik, the Algerian journalist – who told him that the mission “has failed.”
“He talked about huge violations and told me that the main goal of the Arab mission was to be a cover for the bloodshed in Syria,” Qurabi said.
Commenting on the role played by Iran in Syria, Qurabi said that it is well-known that Iran is a part of the current dispute in Syria. “It does not only support the Syrian regime, but it also provides it with weapons and technology.”
The Syrian opposition leader also said that Iran was pressing Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki for providing financial aid and support to the Syrian regime.
(Translated from Arabic by Abeer Tayel)
BEIRUT (Reuters) - A suicide bomber killed 26 people and wounded 63 in Damascus on Friday, Syria’s interior minister said, vowing an “iron fist” response to the carnage in the heart of the Syrian capital after similar attacks two weeks ago.
The blast came two days before an Arab League committee was due to discuss an initial report by Arab observers who are checking Syria’s compliance with an Arab plan to halt President Bashar al-Assad’s crackdown on nearly 10 months of unrest.
The meeting may decide whether to continue the mission or to refer Syria to the United Nations Security Council, perhaps paving the way for some form of international action, a scenario that many Arab countries are keen to avoid.
Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby said he was sending a message with Khaled Meshaal, the Damascus-based leader of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, asking the Syrian government to work “with integrity” to halt the violence.
Interior Minister Ibrahim al-Shaar, quoted by state television, said 26 people had been killed in the blast in the Maidan district of Damascus, including 15 who could not be identified because their bodies had been shredded in the blast.
“We will strike back with an iron fist at anyone tempted to tamper with the security of the country or its citizens,” he said. He said that about 63 people had been wounded.
Some in the opposition said the government itself had staged the attack to try to show that it is fighting blind violence rather than a pro-democracy movement.
State television showed body parts, bloodstains and broken glass from the explosion. Several riot police shields were shown near a wrecked bus that was among several damaged vehicles.
On December 23 at least 44 people were killed by what Syrian authorities said were two suicide bombings that targeted security buildings in the Syrian capital, one day before the head of the Arab League observer mission arrived there.
GRISLY FOOTAGE
Syrian television footage of Friday’s blast showed yellow caution tape stretched around the wrecked bus and cars with smashed windows in a street. People collected body parts on blue plastic sheets amid pools of blood and scattered shoes.
Arab monitors in white baseball caps and orange vests inspected the area, taking notes and filming. A local police station was visible, apparently untouched by the explosion.
The TV showed crowds of angry locals gathered at the scene, chanting “God, Syria and Bashar only” and “God protect the army” and “With blood and soul we sacrifice for you Bashar.”
The monitors confirmed they had visited the scene. “We are only here to observe and document,” one of them told Reuters by telephone.
Syria bars most independent journalists from the country, making first-hand reporting impossible.
However, a BBC Arabic service reporter was able to accompany three Arab monitors on a five-hour visit to the town of Irbine, on the outskirts of Damascus, the BBC reported.
It was the first time foreign media were known to have been able to cover the activities of the monitors directly, although media access was a condition stipulated by the Arab League.
The BBC said it had been able to film, unhindered by the security forces, an anti-Assad protest in Irbine.
Protesters and residents told the observers, all Algerian diplomats, of harsh treatment at the hands of the security forces. The observers then witnessed a demonstration in which the crowd demanded Assad’s execution, the BBC said.
The League’s special committee on Syria is due to meet in Cairo on Sunday to debate the initial findings of the observer mission, which has been criticized by Syrian activists who question its ability to assess violence on the ground.
Arab states are wary of instability in Syria, which the Arab League has suspended for failing to honor its first peace plan. Syria has been a major regional player, allied with Iran and the Lebanese Shi’ite Hezbollah group.
Hezbollah, a political and militant group that fought a war with Israel in 2006, blamed the United States for the blast.
“This is a second step in the plan by evil American forces and those under its control in our region to punish Syria for its firm support of resistance forces against the Zionist enemy (Israel) and the West,” it said on its website.
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said that, as with previous attacks, Syria had blamed “just about everybody” - the opposition, al Qaeda and the United States - while the opposition, including the Free Syrian Army (FSA), had denied being behind the attacks and accused the authorities.
“At the present time we can’t say one way or the other how this happened but what we can say is that, obviously, we condemn the attack,” she said.
The United Nations says more than 5,000 people have been killed in the popular uprising against Assad. The government says “terrorists” have killed 2,000 members of the security forces during the revolt.
FATE OF ARAB MISSION
The monitors began work on the streets on December 26 to try to verify whether the government was keeping its promise to pull troops and tanks out of cities and free thousands of detainees.
The FSA, an armed opposition force composed mainly of army deserters, condemned the attack and blamed the authorities.
“This is planned and systematic state terrorism by the security forces of President Bashar al-Assad,” FSA spokesman Major Maher al-Naimi said.
An opposition activist, who asked not to be named, said Islamist militants were taking hold in Syria and may have been behind the blast. “I think we will be seeing more of these attacks in the coming days, I am sorry to say,” he said.
One Damascus resident, who gave her name only as Dima, said the city had been tense even before the blast. “Some friends who work in the security forces were warning my family since yesterday to stay at home,” she said. “The streets were empty.”
The violence in Syria has raged unabated since the Arab monitors arrived, with scores of people reported killed.
Security forces killed four protesters in Hama on Friday when they shot at people shouting anti-Assad slogans after weekly prayers, activists said.
Pro-Assad forces also wounded at least three protesters when they fired at a crowd at a Damascus mosque in a district where a security headquarters is located, a witness said.
The witness said pro-Assad militiamen and secret police agents fired water cannon and then assault rifles after the protesters in the Kfar Souseh district refused to disperse.
“I saw three people on the ground and I do not know if they are dead or alive,” said the witness, who lives nearby.
Arab government sources said on Thursday the League monitors would pursue their mission in Syria, despite criticism from Qatar’s prime minister that they had made mistakes.
Syrian activists say the Arab monitors have had inadequate access to trouble spots, a charge denied by Damascus.
(Additional reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman; Writing by Alistair Lyon; Editing by Louise Ireland)
