Iraq no-fly zone viewed as symbol for one in Syria

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FILE - In this April 30, 2013, file photo President Barack Obama answers questions at a White House news conference in Washington, where he strongly suggested he’d consider military action against Syria if it could be confirmed that President Bashar Assad’s government used chemical weapons in the two-year-old civil war. Seeking to avoid getting sucked deeper into Syria’s civil war, the Obama administration has long pointed to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq as a symbol of what can go wrong when America’s military wades into Middle East conflicts. But experts say the White House is looking at the wrong Iraq war, especially as it weighs whether to impose a no-fly zone over Syria. Photo: AP/Charles Dharapak/File

Washington, June 16, 2013 by Lara Jakes

The Obama administration, trying to avoid getting drawn deeper into Syria’s civil war, has pointed to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 as a symbol of what can go wrong when America’s military wades into Middle East conflicts.

But experts say the White House is looking at the wrong Iraq war, especially as the U.S. reluctantly considers a no-fly zone over Syria to stop President Bashar Assad from continuing to use his air power to crush rebel forces or kill civilians.

A no-fly zone is a territory over which warring aircraft are not allowed to fly. The U.S. and international allies have enforced them in several military conflicts over the past two decades.

When he took office in 2009, President Barack Obama promised to end the U.S. war in Iraq as an example of refocusing on issues that had direct impact on Americans. By the time the U.S military withdrew from Iraq in 2011, almost 4,500 American soldiers and more than 100,000 Iraqis had died. The war toppled Saddam Hussein but also sparked widespread sectarian fighting and tensions that still simmer.

But when considering a no-fly zone, experts point to 1992, a year after the Gulf War. That’s when the U.S. imposed a weakly-enforced no-fly zone over southern Iraq and could not prevent Saddam, a Sunni Muslim, from persecuting and killing hundreds of thousands of Shiites whom he viewed as a political threat.

That failure is now being used as a case in point of why the U.S. should or shouldn’t police the Syrian sky to prevent Assad from accelerating a two-year death toll that last week reached 93,000.

The White House is undecided on whether it will impose a no-fly zone over Syria, as some have demanded. Egypt’s president, Mohammed Morsi, on Saturday called for a U.N. endorsed no-fly zone.

“We’ve rushed to war in this region in the past. We’re not going to do it here,” Obama’s chief of staff, Denis McDonough, said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”

Vali Nasr, a Middle East expert and dean of the John Hopkins’ School of Advanced International Studies, argued for a no-fly zone “to prevent Assad from completely dominating this war for all practical purposes. And we need to create a no-fly zone to create a safe zone for refugees that Assad can’t reach.”

Nasr, who held a senior State Department job during the first two years of the Obama administration, said in an interview Friday that there are risks, “but perhaps the risks are exaggerated. And what it showed in Iraq is that it does not have to be a slippery slope into a larger war.”

On the flip side, said retired Navy Adm. William Fallon, “there’s no way to do this in a standoff — ‘We’re just here to help, not going to get our hands dirty.’”

Fallon, the former head of U.S. Central Command who helped draw up and carry out the 1992 no-fly-zone in Iraq, said the challenge “is that you’d better be prepared for escalation and expansion of mission.”

“The likely expansion will be providing air support for guys on the ground,” said Fallon, now on the board of directors at the American Security Project, a think-tank started by Secretary of State John Kerry when Kerry was a senator.

Last Thursday, the White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes announced the Obama administration has agreed, after months of hesitation, to start supplying the rebels with upgraded military aid. That decision came as a result of stronger intelligence indicating that Assad has used chemicals weapons against his people multiple times this year.

Rhodes would not detail the type of aid. But military officials and experts said it probably would include small-arms weapons, shoulder-fired anti-tank grenades and ammunition.

That would mark the White House’s first lethal shipment to Syria. Until now, the administration has mostly supplied the rebels with military equipment, such as body armor and communications devices, and humanitarian aid to the Syrian people.

Obama has not ruled out imposing a no-fly zone in Syria, Rhodes said.

But, Rhodes said, “people need to understand that not only are there huge costs associated with the no-fly zone, not only would it be difficult to implement, but the notion that you can solve the very deeply rooted challenges on the ground in Syria from the air are not immediately apparent.”

Supporters of a no-fly zone in Syria point to the one that was established by NATO over Libya in 2011. It overwhelmed Moammar Gadhafi’s air defenses and attacked tanks and military vehicles that threatened civilians.

But European nations have shown little appetite for getting directly involved in Syria, where Assad’s forces possess an air defense system made far more robust with Russian-bought weapons than what Gadhafi had.

Last month, Russia acknowledged it has agreed to sell Syria advanced S-300 air-defense missiles, which are considered to be the cutting edge in aircraft interception technology and could make a no-fly zone very costly.

Republican Sens. John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, have been pushing for a no-fly zone in Syria, and last week said supplying arms and ammunition to rebels is not enough to curb Assad’s air power. They raised the option of using cruise missiles, which can be launched from outside of Syria, as one way of securing Syria’s air space.

On Sunday, Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, agreed. “A no-fly zone may be the, ultimately, tactic that has to be taken,” he told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

Responded Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo.: “You know, though, a no-fly zone and other involvement may lead to this slippery slope that others talked about.”

Twenty years ago, the U.S. mission in Iraq showed that no-fly zones must be aggressively enforced if they are to work.

Military air units generally need to be working closely with ground forces to make sure that airstrikes and missile attacks hit their intended targets and don’t kill civilians.

Fallon said that’s how no-fly zones often prompt a mission creep, as deploying air forces can easily turn into a need to send in ground troops. U.S. and European officials vehemently maintain there are no plans to launch a ground war in Syria.

Though fighter jets flew over the vast Iraqi desert every day for more than a decade, they had no help or guidance on the ground, and were unable to stop Saddam from moving his army in to attack Shiites and drain the desert region’s vital marshlands, which served as a water lifeline to the local population. Saddam still flew Iraqi helicopters and gunships into the south to crush a rag-tag rebellion.

Iraqi officials estimate at least 200,000 Shiites were killed, and thousands more fled to neighboring Iran, a Shiite state, for refuge.

“The no-fly zone had a limited effect on Saddam’s ability to hurt the Shiites,” Haider Mansour, a teacher from the Shiite-dominated city of Basra in Iraq’s south, said Saturday. “But it increased the suffering of ordinary people because it forced Saddam to dry the marshes.”

Nasr said Iraq’s majority Shiites never forgot the tepid U.S. support against Saddam during the 1990s. Despite the U.S.-led invasion that overthrew Saddam, Nasr said it’s little surprise that Baghdad’s Shiite-led government now arguably has stronger ties with Iran than it does with Washington.

The parallels between Iraq and Syria are clear, Nasr said, as are the potential consequences.

“There was an uprising against a dictator who was no friend of ours, and we did not prevent a massacre,” Nasr said. He said the U.S. inaction opened the door for Shiite militias and radicalism, and led to Iran’s influence in Baghdad “because nobody else supported Shiites against Saddam.”

“And so, one can say, ‘We can tolerate hundreds of thousands of people being killed,’” Nasr said. “But there are consequences to it.”

Fallon said the major flaw in the Iraqi no-fly zone was the lack of a clear plan or, even, an ultimate goal.

“At the time, it sounded OK,” he said. “It was certainly much less dramatic, it wasn’t necessarily going to be a shooting war, it was going to be to ‘Keep Saddam under control.’

“But what was the end state? Nobody knew. But we did it anyway. And so this thing went on forever,” Fallon said. “And the longer it went on the more unpalatable it was to stop it. And was it effective? No. Did it stop Saddam? No.”

The current Iraqi government has ignored several U.S. requests for help in stopping Iranian flights of supplies to Syria.

Creating an effective no-fly zone in Syria would require fighter jets or drones equipped with radar and weapons as well as other surveillance planes, said national security analyst Anthony Cordesman at the Center for Strategic and international Studies. He predicted it probably would have to be done without U.N. support, and it may lead to U.S. troop deaths.

Source: bigstory.ap.org

Red Cross mission chief in #Syria paints grim picture

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Outgoing head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Syria on Wednesday offered a dire prognosis for the war-torn nation, saying the conflict would continue to pose risks far beyond Syria’s borders.

“If a solution is not found soon, a political solution, in Syria, the whole area, the whole region will be affected. It’s already affected. It will deteriorate even more”, Marianne Gasser told a panel discussion at Washington-based Wilson Center.

According to the UN, Syria’s civil war has left more than 80,000 people dead, displacing over four million internally, and sending approximately 1.5 million others to flee Syria’s borders into neighboring countries.

“If the fighting would stop even tomorrow it would take years to reconstruct this country, and especially even more to reconciliate [sic] the different people,” Ms Gasser said.

The now two-plus year conflict also risks a regional escalation of the fighting along sectarian lines, highlighted by a still-unfolding battle for Qusair, a Syrian town close to Lebanese border, which Syrian rebels said had seen dozens of Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants killed fighting alongside Syrian troops since Sunday.
Earlier in May, Israeli war planes in Syria hit an alleged shipment of “game-changing” weapons, advanced missiles which the Jewish state said were destined to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

And, in the deadliest spillover of violence in Turkey, the southern town of Reyhanli near the Syrian border was hit by twin car bombings on May 11 which killed 51 people, including Syrian shelter seekers. For the attacks, Turkey has blamed terrorist groups with “direct links” to the Syrian regime and intelligence.

UN’s refugee agency has said the total number of people in need of assistance in Syria has reached 8.3 million, or 38 percent of the country’s population. 

23 May 2013 – Anadolu Agency

 

UN suspends #Syria mission as government resumes shelling in capital

By Matt Williams

UN observers in Syria
The UN said the uptick in violence was stopping personnel from carrying out their mandate to observe an April 12 ceasefire deal. Photograph: EPA

The United Nations has suspended its mission in Syria amid rising violence and renewed shelling in the strife-torn country.

In a statement Saturday, major general Robert Mood, head of the UN mission to Syria, halted operations “until further notice”.

It comes amid claim that Syrian government forces has recommenced shelling in the capital Damascus, killing 12 people, according to opposition figures.

The past two weeks have seen a worrying escalation in violence in the country. A massacre in the town of Houla on May 25 resulted in the deaths of more than 100 people, many of them women and children.

That attack resulted in a series of stern warnings against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad and renewed calls for his removal from power.

But a refusal by Russia to back international pressure on Assad – amid allegations that Moscow continues to arm the strongman’s armies – has resulted in an impasse.

On Friday Mood warned that he may have to pull his 300 UN observers out of Syria unless the situation improved.

He accused both sides in the near-civil war of “willingly” intensifying the fighting, causing losses on both sides and putting unarmed UN monitors at “significant risks”.

Last week shots were fired at a car carrying international monitors after they were turned away from the town of Haffeh by angry Assad supporters who threw stones and metal rods at their convoy

On Saturday, Mood carried out his earlier threat and suspended the UN mission.

“The observers will not be conducting patrols and will stay in their locations until further notice,” he announced in a statement.

He said the uptick in violence was stopping UN personnel from carrying out their mandate to observe an April 12 ceasefire deal. That agreement has long since fallen redundant, given the continuation of killings.

“This suspension will be reviewed on a daily basis. Operations will resume when we see the situation fit for us to carry out our mandated activities,” Mood said.

The move marks yet another sign that the peace plan brokered by former UN secretary general Kofi Annan is nearing irrelevance. The fear is now that without international monitors, conditions could worsen still as Syria disintegrates into civil war.

Source: Guardian

#Syria observer chief says violence hinders mission

By ZEINA KARAM, Associated Press – 2 hours ago  

BEIRUT (AP) — The head of the U.N. observers in Syria said Friday that a recent spike in bloodshed is derailing the mission to monitor and defuse more than a year of violence and could prompt the unarmed force to pull out.

The observer mission is the only functioning part of an international peace plan that Kofi Annan brokered two months ago. Western powers have pinned their hopes on the plan, in part because there are no other options on the table. There is little support for military intervention, and several rounds of sanctions have done little to stop the bloodshed.

“Violence over the past 10 days has been intensifying willingly by the both parties, with losses on both sides and significant risks to our observers,” Maj. Gen. Robert Mood told reporters in Damascus. “The escalating violence is now limiting our ability to observe, verify, report as well as assist in local dialogue and stability projects.”

Mood also said there was a concern among the states providing observers that the risk is approaching an unacceptable level for continuing the mission. He did not provide further details.

Mood’s comments were a clear sign that Annan’s peace plan is disintegrating. The regime and the opposition have ignored a cease-fire that was supposed to go into effect April 12.

The presence of the observers is considered critical to understanding the conflict in a country where the government prevents reporters from operating independently.

On Friday, the Syrian regime kept up a ferocious offensive on rebel areas across the country this week to reclaim territory held by rebels.

An activist in the northern city of Aleppo said troops backed by helicopters and tanks were engaged in “raging battles” in the rebel-held town of Anadan and several other locations in the province.

The violence did not stop thousands of Syrians in Aleppo city, and other areas throughout the country from demonstrating against President Bashar Assad on Friday. They marched from mosques, gathered in town squares, chanted, sang and danced against the regime.

“Even if I die, I will still be a rebel,” sang the leader of a demonstration in the northern city of Idlib, according to amateur video. “Oh Bashar, you will flee.”

Eight protesters were killed in the southern town of Busra al-Sham after Syrian forces fired a shell near the Khaled Bin Walid mosque, according to activists and amateur videos that appeared to show bloodied men sprawled lifeless on a street.

The video could not be independently verified.

More than 20 people were reported killed when security forces opened fire on protests across the country, but the toll could not be independently verified.

One area that Syrian forces have recently reclaimed is Haffa, which they overran on Wednesday. They pushed out hundreds of rebels from the town in the coastal Latakia province, after intense battles that lasted eight days.

U.N. observers entered the nearly deserted town Thursday and found smoldering buildings, looted shops, smashed cars and a strong stench of death, according to U.N. spokeswoman Sausan Ghosheh.

The siege of Haffa, a Sunni-populated village, had become a focus of international concern because of fears the uprising against the Assad regime is evolving into a sectarian civil war pitting the president’s minority Alawite sect against the majority Sunnis and other groups. Recent mass killings in other Sunni-populated areas have fueled those concerns.

U.N. observers have reported a steep rise in violence in Syria in recent weeks.

On Friday, Mood said there appears to be a lack of willingness to seek a peaceful transition.

“Instead there is a push toward advancing military positions,” he said.

“What we have seen on the ground is that the attacks by the armed opposition on official buildings and government checkpoints are becoming more effective and the government is taking great losses,” he said.

Activists say some 14,000 people have been killed since the uprising against Assad began in March 2011.

An international rights watchdog, meanwhile, accused Syrian government forces of using sexual violence to torture men, women and boys detained during the uprising. In a report released Friday, The New York-based Human Rights Watch also quoted witnesses and victims as saying that soldiers and pro-government armed militias sexually abused women and girls as young as 12 during home raids and military sweeps of residential areas.

“Sexual violence in detention is one of many horrific weapons in the Syrian government’s torture arsenal and Syrian security forces regularly use it to humiliate and degrade detainees with complete impunity,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

HRW said it does not have evidence that high-ranking officers commanded their troops to commit sexual violence but said it had information indicating that no action has been taken to investigate or punish government forces who did.

Also Friday, Syrian opposition members began a two-day meeting in Turkey to discuss a vision for a post-Assad Syria and steps need to be taken to ensure a transition to democracy. The meeting was headed by the main Syrian opposition group, the Syrian National Council.

“The international community must take initiative and they must do whatever is necessary to save the civilian population — whether it’s a security zone or a security corridor — whatever it is, it must be done in order to help civilians,” said Mahmoud Osman, an SNC member.

Source: google.com

The U.N.’s unworkable plan for #Syria

Editorial Board 22/03/12

AFTER THE U.N. Security Council endorsed a six-point diplomatic plan for Syria by former secretary general Kofi Annan on Wednesday, U.S. ambassador Susan Rice sounded almost jubilant. “Annan’s proposal,” she said, “is the best way to put an end to the violence, facilitate much-needed humanitarian assistance and advance a Syrian-led political transition.” We can only hope that the envoy does not take her own words too seriously.

In fact, there is virtually no possibility that the new initiative will accomplish any of those aims — as the Obama administration should know by now. Instead, it will likely provide time and cover for the regime of Bashar al-Assad to continue using tanks and artillery to assault Syrian cities and indiscriminately kill civilians. That’s exactly what the regime was doing Thursday — pounding the city of Hama, where at least 20 people have been reported killed in army attacks in the past two days.

The Annan plan won’t work because, like the Arab League plan before it, it calls for the Assad government to take steps that would lead to its swift collapse — and the regime has no intention of capitulating. It says that Syrian forces should stop using heavy weapons in cities, begin a pullback of troops, permit a daily “humanitarian pause” for the delivery of aid and accept a U.N.-supervised cease-fire, while allowing freedom of assembly and the free circulation of journalists. To buy time last year, the regime accepted nearly identical demands by the Arab League, admitted its monitors — and then proceeded to ignore its obligations completely.

The resolution does provide for Mr. Annan to report back on his progress and for the Security Council to “consider further steps as appropriate.” But thanks to Russia — Mr. Assad’s still-faithful ally — there is no enforcement mechanism. The resolution contains, as Syria’s official news agency pointed out, “no warnings or signals.” Nor does it explicitly call for Mr. Assad’s departure from office. Instead it proposes dialogue between the Syrian government and opposition — something that both sides have repeatedly rejected.

For Russia and China, the Security Council statement offered a face-saving way out of the embarrassing position of appearing to be unconditionally backing Mr. Assad. It gives Moscow hope of achieving the outcome it hopes for: a U.N.-brokered “peace” that leaves the regime in power. For the Obama administration, Mr. Annan’s mission allows the illusion that its diplomatic strategy is producing results — and that more decisive measures, such as arming the opposition or creating a protected zone inside Syria, are unnecessary.

What the Annan mission does not offer is “the best way to put an end to the violence.” It is just the opposite: a guarantee that the bloodshed will continue, and probably worsen. The fighting in Syria will end only when Mr. Assad is forced to stop — or he succeeds in killing his way to victory.

Source: Washington Post

U.N. aid chief seeks access to battered Syrian city #Syria

A boy holds up a placard during a demonstration against Syria's President Bashar Al-Assad in the town of Hula near the city of Homs March 2, 2012. The placard reads: ''Nero died, Rome did not die, Hafez died, Hama did not die, Bashar will die, Homs will not die''. REUTERS/Handout

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis

AMMAN | Wed Mar 7, 2012 8:24am EST

(Reuters) - The U.N. humanitarian chief headed on Wednesday for a Syrian city where authorities have yet to let a Red Cross aid convoy into a former rebel area amid opposition reports of bloody reprisals by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

Valerie Amos had wanted to visit Syria last week, but was denied access. The Syrian military drove armed rebels from the battered Baba Amr district on Thursday after a month-long siege and state media say civilians have begun returning there.

The International Committee of the Red Cross has been trying to deliver relief supplies and evacuate the wounded, but has failed to get permission from the authorities so far, raising fears about the fate of survivors in Baba Amr.

Elisabeth Byrs, spokeswoman of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Geneva, said Amos left for Homs after meeting Foreign Ministry officials in Damascus.

Amos is on a three-day mission to try to persuade Syrian authorities to grant unhindered access for aid workers to deliver life-saving assistance to civilians.

Syrian tanks bombarded other opposition areas in Homs overnight, anti-Assad activists said, although an ICRC spokesman in Damascus said the city was quieter than before.

No independent witnesses have been allowed into the devastated Baba Amr district since rebels withdrew.

In the latest of several accounts of killings and other abuses, local activist Mohammed al-Homsi said troops and pro-Assad militiamen had stabbed to death seven males, including a 10-year-old, from one family on Tuesday. “Their bodies were dumped in farmland next to Baba Amr,” he told Reuters.

Syria imposes severe media restrictions, making such reports hard to verify, although U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has voiced alarm at reports that Syrian government forces have executed, imprisoned and tortured people in Baba Amr.

MATTER OF TIME

President Barack Obama said it was only a matter of time before Assad left office, but he opposed a call by a senior U.S. senator for American-led military action to force him out.

The world has found no way to halt a year of bloodshed since many Syrians rose against Assad in what has proved the longest and bloodiest of Arab revolts against entrenched rulers.

At the United Nations, the five permanent Security Council members and Morocco met on Tuesday to discuss a U.S.-drafted resolution urging an end to the Syrian government’s crackdown on demonstrators, a text some Western envoys said was too weak.

Russia and China, adamantly opposed to any Libya-style intervention in Syria, have vetoed two previous draft measures that would have condemned Damascus and it is not clear whether the latest one stands any chance of success.

According to a text seen by Reuters, the U.S. draft demands “unhindered humanitarian access” and “condemns the continued widespread, systematic, and gross violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms by the Syrian authorities”.

In another effort to stop the violence, former U.N. chief Kofi Annan plans his first visit to Damascus as joint envoy of the United Nations and the Arab League on Saturday.

Diplomacy has yet to brake a conflict likely to have cost more than 10,000 lives: the United Nations says security forces has killed well over 7,500 people and Syria said in December that “terrorists” had killed more than 2,000 security personnel.

PROMISED ELECTION

Assad, who has promised a multi-party parliamentary election in May, told a visiting Ukrainian lawmaker that Syrians had proved they would pursue reforms and “confront terrorism backed by foreign sides”, state news agency SANA reported on Wednesday.

Apart from the shelling of the Homs districts of Karm al-Zeitoun, Jub al-Jandali and Deir Baalba, opposition sources said Syrian troops had staged raids in the towns of Qara and Yabroud north of Damascus, and in the northern city of Aleppo.

The White House said Obama was committed to diplomacy to end the violence, saying Washington wanted to isolate Assad, cut off his sources of revenue and encourage unity among his opponents.

“Ultimately this dictator will fall,” Obama said, while rejecting a call by Senator John McCain for a U.S.-led effort to protect Syrian civilians with air strikes on Assad’s forces.

“For us to take military action unilaterally, as some have suggested, or to think that somehow there is some simple solution, I think is a mistake,” the president said.

Assad can still count on powerful allies such as Russia and China, as well as others including Iran, Venezuela and Cuba.

Chinese envoy Li Huaxin told reporters in Damascus on Wednesday that Syria had welcomed a six-point Chinese plan to promote a political solution to the year-long conflict.

The plan, unveiled on Sunday, called events in Syria “deeply worrying” and said: “We oppose anyone interfering in Syria’s internal affairs under the pretext of ‘humanitarian’ issues.”

China is bringing workers home from Syria in an apparent attempt to avoid a repeat of last year’s rescue of its nationals from Libya due to violence there.

Only about 100 Chinese workers will be left behind to guard work camps and equipment, Commerce Minister Chen Deming said, without saying how many Chinese workers would be repatriated.

Air France said it had halted all its flights to Damascus due to worsening security in Syria.

France, which has led calls for Assad to step down closed its embassy in Damascus on Tuesday.

Source: reuters.com

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.”

Source: niqash.org

Gulf countries pull support for Arab League’s #Syria mission

The Arab League was in disarray last night after a coalition of Gulf nations withdrew their support for its beleaguered Syria observer mission and endorsed a United Nations solution.

Members of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC), a regional body that includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Qatar, announced they could no longer support the mission due to the daily killing of protesters by President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

“The decision was made after careful and thorough monitoring of events in Syria and the conviction by the GCC that the bloodshed and the killing of innocent people there is continuing,” a statement from the organisation said.

Last night, Syria agreed to extend the observer mission until February 23, according to state news agency SANA.

With the Arab world now divided on how to proceed – and with confusion reigning in the West – there are serious questions about how to deal with a potentially catastrophic unravelling of order inside Syria.

“There is considerable disarray within the Arab community about how to deal with Syria,” Joshua Landis, creator of the Syria Comment news website, said. “Increasingly, analysts are coming to the conclusion that this is going to be a long, drawn-out battle.”

The GCC announcement, which drew a scathing response from Mr Assad’s regime, came after the Arab League delivered a peace plan on Sunday from its widely criticised monitoring mission.

The plan called for the four-decade-old Baathist regime to be replaced by a national-unity government within two months, followed by parliamentary and presidential elections to be held under the supervision of Arab and international monitors.

But Mr Assad’s regime, which human rights groups say continued killing hundreds of civilians during the Arab League mission, swept aside the proposal and called it a “flagrant interference” in the country’s internal affairs.

The Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said yesterday that “half the universe” was conspiring against Syria, a long-time stalwart of Arab nationalism and founding member of the Arab League. “It is the duty of the Syrian government to take what it sees as necessary measures to deal with those armed groups that spread chaos,” he said.

The decision by the GCC to sever ties with the monitoring mission came after observers received substantial flak from rights groups and members of Syria’s opposition over allegedly “providing cover” for Mr Assad. There was also criticism about the mission’s lack of transparency and the tiny number of monitors assigned to cover the crisis.

But the move also reflects the frantic game of one-upmanship being played out across the Middle East. Gas-rich Qatar, so pivotal in the toppling of Muammar Gaddafi, is keen to maintain its position at the helm of regional diplomacy and continue its political ascendancy.

Source: independent.co.uk

How the Arab League Can Save #Syria

Kate Seelye 
| 
January 24, 2012

The Arab League observer mission to Syria—sent under an agreement with the Syrian government to withdraw forces from the cities, release all political prisoners and allow monitors and journalists free movement throughout the country—has utterly failed and should not be extended.

After the initial one-month mandate for the mission expired, Arab foreign ministers met in Cairo Sunday to discuss next steps. Surprisingly, the league—known in the past for its knee-jerk defense of Arab unity at the cost of its people’s rights—proposed a plan under which President Bashar al-Assad would transfer power to a deputy and start negotiations with opponents within two weeks. The proposal was predictably rejected outright by the Assad regime as interference in its internal affairs. Unfortunately, the league also agreed, despite Saudi Arabia’s withdrawal from the mission in protest of ongoing regime violence in Syria, to extend the mandate for another month and beef up the number of monitors sent to the country. But in the first month of the mission, opposition figures reported that more than seven hundred people have been killed at the hands of the government in continuing clashes throughout the country. Given its failure so far to halt the government crackdown, the league should have rejected any extension of the observer mission and vowed to bring the Syrian crisis before the United Nations Security Council for further sanctions.

Assad recently gave a rambling two-hour speech at Damascus University in which he brazenly denied reality, mocking Syrian protestors as traitors and terrorists doing the bidding of foreign hands and vowing to defeat the “conspiracy” while claiming he had never ordered Syrian security forces to fire upon them. Assad also offered sharp criticism of the Arab League for “failing” the region. In November, the league suspended Syria, a founding member, for its continuing bloody assaults on largely peaceful demonstrators.

As many analysts predicted, it seems increasingly clear that Assad allowed the monitoring mission merely as a means to buy time until he could figure out a way to crush the resistance. The mission has been woefully understaffed and overtly controlled by the Syrian regime since its inception on December 19, and the number of observers never climbed above 165, nowhere near the many hundreds needed to cover all the restive spots in the country. Moreover, the Syrian government did not allow international journalists to accompany the teams and dispatched security escorts to “monitor the monitors.” Given the credible reports of opposition figures being killed, beaten or detained (including two Kuwaiti monitors who were attacked near Latakia) while the league’s observers have been in country, it is evident that the mission failed to bring about a halt in the violence.

It is now incumbent upon the Arab League to officially terminate the mission and refer the matter to the United Nations Security Council. The league brought much credit to itself last spring when it voted to support international military intervention to protect Libyan civilians, and its suspension of Syria raised hopes that the organization was finally acting in the interests of Arab people rather than an amorphous Arab unity. It should not squander its newly won credibility by continuing the charade of an impotent observer mission.

Any draft resolution introduced by the Arab League in the Security Council must, of course, attract the support of China and, most crucially, Russia. Moscow’s tacit or outright backing is key to creating an effective, united international front against Damascus. Without it, Syria is likelier to descend into full-blown civil war, a scenario that all involved would like to avoid.

A previous draft resolution in the Security Council was nixed by Russia, angering the United States, the European Union and others who have called upon Assad to step down and have imposed strong economic sanctions. Even Turkey, a stalwart Syrian ally and trading partner, threw over its “zero problems with neighbors” policy and signed on to the sanctions program. It is past time for Russia, one of Syria’s closest allies and the main obstacle to even tougher measures imposed on the Assad government, to see the writing on the wall and join the international effort to isolate and punish the regime.

Russia has extensive interests in Syria: a long-standing military relationship that provides a deepwater naval base in the Mediterranean port town of Tartus, billions of dollars in arms contracts and investments in Syria’s infrastructure, energy and tourism industries. For Russia, the alliance with Syria gives Moscow some geostrategic weight in a region where its influence has diminished markedly since Egyptian president Anwar Sadat expelled Soviet military advisors in 1972. It is not hard to see why Russia has continued to support Assad even as it encourages him to open talks with the opposition.

But while Russia continues to back and arm its ally, it must also be cognizant that Syria is descending into a civil war—one that Assad and his Alawite-minority supporters are unlikely to win. The Arab League and the Syrian opposition, therefore, should persuade Moscow to change its position. In the end, what matters to Russia is the protection of its interests, not the person of Bashar al-Assad. Arab League member states and the Syrian opposition need to offer Russia reassurances that its interests will be taken into account in any future Syrian government.

As the Syrian crisis bogs down with few solutions on the horizon, a hard-hitting UN Security Council resolution calling for further sanctions and an arms embargo is the next obvious step. While it may seem improbable at the moment that the Arab League can convince Russia to support such a resolution, this has been a year of surprises in the Middle East, and the league is in the best position to make the case to the Kremlin. Regime change in Syria is inevitable. The sooner Russia acquiesces to that reality, the more lives and suffering will be spared.

Kate Seelye is the vice president of the Middle East Institute in Washington, DC and a former NPR correspondent covering the Middle East.

Source: nationalinterest.org

Exclusive: Second Arab monitor may quit #Syria over violence

Anti-government protesters carry the coffin of Muhammad Khaled Al-Kaheel, who protesters say was killed in earlier clashes with government troops, during his funeral in Qudsaya near Damascus January 9, 2012. REUTERS/Handout
 

By Lin Noueihed

CAIRO | Wed Jan 11, 2012 6:50pm EST

(Reuters) - An Arab observer delegation in Syria is running into further difficulties, with two members either quitting or threatening to do so within 24 hours because their mission is proving ineffectual in ending the suffering of civilians.

An observer who declined to give his name said on Wednesday he was ready to walk out, exposing rifts in an Arab peace effort a day after Anwar Malek, an Algerian observer, told Al Jazeera TV he had quit Syria because the peace mission was a “farce.”

Both men, clearly appalled by what they had seen, spoke of continued violence, killings and torture, saying the bloodshed had not abated as a result of the presence of the Arab League mission. Both described Syrians’ suffering as “unimaginable.”

Malek’s departure was a blow to the mission, already criticized by Syria’s opposition as a toothless body that only served to buy President Bashar al-Assad time.

Its work has already been hampered by an attack on monitors in the western port of Latakia this week that lightly wounded 11 and prompted the League to delay sending new observers to Syria to join about 165 already there.

Another resignation would further undermine its credibility.

Asked if he agreed with Malek’s characterization of the mission as a failure, the monitor said: “It is true, it is true. Even I am trying to leave on Friday. I’m going to Cairo or elsewhere… because the mission is unclear…. It does not serve the citizens. It does not serve anything.”

“The Syrian authorities have exploited the weakness in the performance of the delegation to not respond. There is no real response on the ground.”

The monitor, speaking by telephone from Syria, asked not to be named as he was not authorized to speak to the media.

“The military gear is still present even in the mosques. We asked that military equipment be withdrawn from the Abu Bakr al-Siddiq mosque in Deraa and until today they have not withdrawn.”

The Arab League monitoring mission began work on December 26. Its task is to verify if Syria is complying with an agreement to halt a crackdown on 10 months of protests against Assad in which the United Nations says more than 5,000 people have been killed.

OPPOSITION ALARMED

A U.N. official told the Security Council on Tuesday that Syria had accelerated its killing of protesters after the Arab monitors had arrived.

Assad mocked the Arab League in a speech in which he said that it had failed for six decades to promised to take a position in Arab interests. He said he would strike down a revolt he slammed as foreign plot.

The choice of a Sudanese general to head the mission had already alarmed opposition activists who say Sudan’s own defiance of a war crimes tribunal means the monitors probably will not recommend strong action against Assad.

The unnamed monitor said the Syrian authorities had shown little genuine willingness to comply with the plan while the observers lacked the expertise to do their mission justice.

“There is oppression. There is strong oppression and there is suffering, a lot of suffering, more than you imagine,” he said, describing one part of the central city of Homs he had visited.

“This is a very big problem and it is related firstly to the general will of the Syrian authorities to cooperate with the delegation in a genuine manner and without maneuvering,” he said.

“Secondly, it is related to the expertise of the delegation… It needs experts in the fields of monitoring, of diplomacy, of international law.”

While an Arab League meeting on Syria said on Sunday it remained committed to the mission, the observer said that individual monitors were thinking of quitting, either fearing for their lives or frustrated at failing to make a difference.

Malek said Syrian authorities had not withdrawn their tanks from the streets, but had simply hidden them.

“The snipers are everywhere shooting at civilians. People are being kidnapped. Prisoners are being tortured and no one has been released,” the Algerian former observer said on Al Jazeera. “Those who are supposedly freed and shown on TV are actually people who had been randomly grabbed off the streets.”

Earlier, a posting by Malek on Facebook was taken down, but his words were quoted on the page of Adib Shishakly, a member of the opposition Syrian National Council.

“Bloodshed in Syria hasn’t stopped,” Malek reportedly said. “Every day, we see bodies in conditions that are unimaginable. Violence is increasing and we are unable to do anything for the victims of snipers, bombardments and assassinations.

“Kidnapping continues, and torture has exceeded all boundaries. Syria is headed towards destruction and civil war.”

He said the monitors were “ruled by restrictions imposed by their governments,” but did not go into details.

“I am now clearing my conscience to the heroic people of Syria… The truth is gone and the right path is gone. And the sun of the Arabs has set in the alleyways of sad Syria.”

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the League monitoring mission in Syria could not continue indefinitely.

Adnan Khodeir, head of the League’s monitoring operations room, said the observers could resume work on Thursday after not going out for two days following the Latakia attack. “All the monitors are well, and there are no problems,” he said.

PROMISES NOT MET

Under the Arab peace plan, Syrian authorities were supposed to stop attacking peaceful protests, withdraw troops and tanks from the streets, free detainees and open a political dialogue.

The unnamed monitor said those promises had not been met, with the Syrian military still present in cities, even in residential areas, while it was difficult to verify, for instance, if political prisoners had genuinely been released.

“There are lots of detainees who are not detained officially. Are they with air force security? Are they with military security? Are they with political security?” he said.

Malek accused Syria of war crimes and torturing prisoners. The Arab League, which suspended Syria in November for failing to halt the crackdown, disputed Malek’s account, saying illness had stopped him carrying out his work.

The unnamed monitor said Malek may have had contacts with Syrian opposition members, but they had visited Homs together.

Monitors had been allowed to visit any area they chose, but Syrian authorities had refused to accompany them in particularly tense neighborhoods, forcing them to make a decision to either stay away or take the risk of going in alone, the monitor said.

He arrived in Syria on December 27 and has visited Homs, Damascus and Deraa. The Bab Amr area of Homs was in a particularly dire way, he said.

Syria has barred most independent media, making it difficult to verify conflicting accounts of events on the ground.

The country says it is facing a wave of terrorism by Islamists and conspirators who are armed and manipulated from abroad and have killed 2,000 members of the security forces.

But the monitor said he had seen no evidence of this.

“We did not feel afraid or threatened while talking to them. In all the areas we went to, we did not meet any gunmen, unless they had hidden their guns,” he said. “What we found were citizens in their homes who spoke of their suffering.”

(Additional reporting by Ayman Samir in Cairo and Alistair Lyon and Dominic Evans in Beirut. Writing by Lin Noueihed; Editing by Richard Meares and Giles Elgood)

Source: reuters.com

Jordan selects 12-strong team to join #Syria monitors: report

AMMAN: Jordan has chosen 12 judges and military experts to join an Arab League observer mission in Syria, a newspaper reported on Saturday.

The semi-official Ad-Dustour newspaper quoted Information Minister Rakan Majali as saying “the final list of names of the Jordanian team expected to join the observers’ mission in Syria is ready.”

“It comprises the names of 12 judges, army officers and experts in peacekeeping,” he said, adding that Amman was awaiting a green-light from the Arab League to dispatch the team to neighbouring Syria.

A first team of 50 observers arrived Monday in Syria and have since visited several flashpoint cities and towns that have seen a deadly crackdown on anti-regime protesters.

The mission is part of an Arab plan endorsed by Syria on November 2 that calls for the withdrawal of the military from towns and residential districts, a halt to violence against civilians and the release of detainees.

The mission, led by a Sudanese veteran intelligence officer, is expected to grow to number 150-200 monitors.

The UN estimates more than 5,000 people have been killed in the crackdown since protests against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime began in mid-March.

Source: dailystar.com.lb

Dispute among Arab League observers over #Syria snipers

Arab League observers in Syria have given apparently conflicting accounts of an incident said to have involved snipers in the restive city of Deraa.

Footage posted online appears to show one official saying he had seen government snipers on rooftops and calling for them to be withdrawn.

However in a BBC interview, the chief of the Arab League mission later denied that the official had seen the snipers.

Violence in Syria has continued unabated despite the monitors’ mission.

The latest footage posted on the internet cannot be verified, but it shows what appears to be an Arab League observer complaining about snipers shooting at demonstrators in Deraa.

The man is filmed telling protesters: “You’re telling me there are snipers? You don’t have to tell me, I saw them with my own eyes.”

He says the observers’ concerns would be conveyed to the Arab League, and that if the snipers were not removed within 24 hours, action would be taken.

Syria deaths

  • More than 5,000 civilians have been killed, says the UN
  • UN denied access to Syria
  • Information gathered from NGOs, sources in Syria and Syrian nationals who have fled
  • The death toll is compiled as a list of names which the UN cross-references
  • Vast majority of casualties were unarmed, but the figure may include armed defectors
  • Tally does not include serving members of the security forces

Source: UN’s OHCHR

In a separate report, the German news agency DPA also quoted a source close to the mission saying observers had also seen snipers in Douma, a suburb of the capital Damascus.

However the head of the Arab League mission, Gen Mustafa al-Dabi, later contradicted these accounts. He told the BBC’s Newshour programme that the official seen in the video was making a hypothetical remark.

“This man said that if he saw - by his own eyes - those snipers he will report immediately,” Gen Dabi said. “But he didn’t see [snipers].”

Correspondent say the statement will add to protesters’ allegations that Gen Dabi - who is Sudanese - is biased towards the Syrian government.

After a visit to the restive northern city of Homs on Thursday, he told Reuters news agency that “some places looked a bit of a mess but there was nothing frightening”.

Gen Dabi has held a number of senior Sudanese military and government posts, including in the troubled Darfur region.

Frustration

Despite the comments reportedly made by the monitor in Deraa in the video, he is berated by protesters for not doing enough.

The BBC’s Jon Donnison in Beirut says that with the Arab League mission now in its fifth day, many demonstrators are becoming frustrated at the league’s inability to stop the violence.

About 60 monitors from the Arab League are in Syria to verify the implementation of a peace plan, which demands an end to all violence, the withdrawal of troops from the streets and the release of political prisoners.

Although some tanks have reportedly pulled back, snipers have been visible during demonstrations and rallies.

According to the Local Co-ordination Committees, a network of anti-government groups inside Syria, at least three people were killed by security forces on Saturday - one each in Damascus, Homs, and Bokamal in the east.

At least 35 people were killed on Friday, activists say, as security forces opened fire to stop protesters holding rallies in flashpoint cities like Hama, Deraa and Homs, all of whom were being visited by monitors.

Opposition agreement

The UN says more than 5,000 people have been killed since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began in March. The government says 2,000 security forces personnel have died.

Activists estimate that more than 150 people have been killed since monitors arrived in the country on Monday.

Casualty figures and other information are hard to verify as most foreign media are barred from reporting freely in Syria.

Meanwhile, Syrian opposition groups have signed a draft agreement which charts a democratic transition should President Bashar al-Assad fall.

Analysts say the move is a serious attempt by a fractured opposition to unite against the Syrian authorities.

Representatives from the two main opposition groups, the Syrian National Council and the National Coordination Body for Democratic Change in Syria (NCB), say the draft agreement was signed in Cairo on Friday night.

Source: BBC

IMPORTANT, Pls share and RT! #Syria: The Arab League observers team arrives in Baba Amr, however they refuse to listen to the people. Khalid Abu Salah, a resident of the area who appears almost daily on Al Jazeera from Baba Amr tries to convince them to enter the buildings & see the body of the martyrs & the destruction caused, yet it looks like the team is not interested?!?!?!