UN adds #Syria rebel group Al-Nusra Front to sanctions list

The UN Security Council on Friday added Syrian militant group Al Nusra Front to its global sanctions list because of its links to Al-Qaeda.

The group, a feared force battling President Bashar al-Assad, is now subject to an international asset freeze and arms embargo, according to an announcement made by the Security Council’s Al-Qaeda sanctions committee.

France and Britain jointly sought Al-Nusra’s designation after blocking a demand by the Syrian government.

Al-Nusra leader Abu Mohammed al-Jawlani last month pledged allegiance to Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri, confirming suspicions of ties between the rebel group and the militant group founded by the late Osama bin Laden.

The US government designated Al-Nusra a terrorist organization last year and added al-Jawlani to its terrorist blacklist this month.

Western nations are acting against Al-Nusra in a bid to shore up moderate opponents of Assad. The 26-month old Syrian conflict has left more than 94,000 dead, according to Syrian activists.

Experts have said Al-Nusra gets aid from Al-Qaeda’s Iraqi affiliate and the Security Council announcement specifically mentions links to Al-Qaeda in Iraq

05/31/2013 - AFP

Switzerland toughens sanctions against #Syria

27/10/12

Switzerland on Friday adopted new sanctions against Syria, falling into line with decisions taken by the European Union, a statement from the economy ministry in Bern said.

It also took action against two men suspected of links with Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Switzerland, which is not part of the EU, added 28 names to its existing list of supporters of President Bashar al-Assad. Their assets are frozen and they cannot get visas.

In addition, two further Syrian companies are to be the subject of sanctions.

The individuals added to the list of targeted Syrians are ministers, former ministers and close associates of Assad. The sanctions should take effect Saturday.

The two Syrian companies are Megatrade and Expert Partners, which are suspected of buying weapons or material that could be used for repression.

The EU decided on October 15 to increase to 181 the number of individuals close to the regime and to 54 the number of companies or institutions on its blacklist.

At the same time it imposed an arms and oil embargo, a series of trade and financial sanctions, and a freeze on the assets of companies, institutions and regime members, who were also banned from travel to the EU. Switzerland followed suit.

Another decree from the economy ministry identified Ayyub Bashir, of Uzbek and Afghan nationality, and Aaamir Ali Chaudry, a Pakistani national, as the two men whose assets are to be frozen because of alleged ties to Al-Qaeda or the Taliban.

-AFP

Source: nowlebanon.com

#Syria: New EU sanctions help ‘terrorist groups’

17/10/12

Fresh EU sanctions against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime are “a new link in a chain of actions that lend political, economic and media support… to armed terrorist groups,” a Syrian Foreign Ministry official said Wednesday.

A new wave of sanctions was imposed by EU foreign ministers on Monday. They involve an assets freeze and travel ban against 28 Syrians and two firms.

“The European Union’s insistence on imposing coercive economic sanctions is without any legal or ethical basis,” the unidentified official said, cited by state news agency SANA.

The sanctions “contradict these countries’ claims that they are driven by their desire to defend the Syrian people’s interests.”

This was the latest in the European Union’s string of restrictive measures against the Assad regime since the outbreak of an anti-regime revolt in March last year.

A total of 181 people with close ties to the regime and 54 companies or entities are now on EU blacklists.

The Syrian authorities refer to armed rebels and dissidents against Assad’s regime as “armed terrorist groups.”

-AFP

Source: nowlebanon.com

‘Iran withdraws elite Qods Force brigade from #Syria’

07/10/12

The Sunday Times’ reports Iran has withdrawn 275 

members of elite brigade from Syria in face of

domestic economic crisis.


Photo: Raheb Homavandi/Reuters

Iran has withdrawn 275 members of its elite Qods Force from Syria in the face of its domestic economic crisis, The Sunday Times reported on Sunday.

The members belong to a brigade known as Unit 400, which fought alongside Syrian President Bashar Assad against Sunni rebels, the report quoted a western intelligence officer as saying. According to The Times, the unit flew out of Syria last week. The report added that the information was confirmed by a relative of a Unit 400 officer.

The withdrawal of Iranian troops from Syria was seen by some as an indicator of waning confidence among Iran’s Shi’ite leaders in Assad’s ability to survive the uprising.

According to The Times, there have been loud complaints about an estimated $5 billion of Iranian money spent to prop up the Assad regime in Damascus.

There are signs that Iran’s oil wealth, which pays for its nuclear program and support for Assad, is eroding. Iran faces new sanctions for failing to cooperate with Western concerns about its nuclear program, and the sanctions are taking its toll, evident in the fall in the value of the rial and soaring food prices.

Last week, Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz predicted that Iran’s economy is edging towards collapse due to international sanctions over its controversial nuclear program.

“The sanctions on Iran in the past year jumped a level,” Steinitz said. “The Iranians are in great economic difficulties as a result of the sanctions,” he added.

A Foreign Ministry document leaked last week also said sanctions had caused more damage to Iran’s economy than at first thought and ordinary Iranians were suffering under soaring inflation.

On Saturday, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta warned Iran that the international community is ready to impose more sanctions if the country does not begin to address concerns about its nuclear program.

The first official acknowledgement from a senior military commander that Iran has a military presence on the ground in Syria came last month. Commander-in-chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Mohammad Ali Jafari admitted: “A number of members of the Qods Force are present in Syria.”

However, he denied the existence of on the ground assistance, stating, “the IRGC is giving intellectual help and even financial assistance but there is no military presence.”

“We all have a responsibility to support Syria and not allow the line of resistance to be broken,” Fars news agency, which claims to be independent but which is widely known to have close ties to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, quoted Hossein Taeb, the intelligence unit head, as saying.

Following the admission, Western members of the UN Security Council blasted Iran for providing Assad with weapons to help him crush an 18-month-long uprising by rebels determined to topple his government.

“Iran’s arms exports to the murderous Assad regime in Syria are of particular concern,” US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice told the 15-nation council during a meeting on the world body’s Iran sanctions regime.

A UN Security Council panel of independent experts that monitors sanctions against Iran has uncovered several examples of Iran transferring arms to Syria’s government. Damascus has accused Qatar and Saudi Arabia of arming rebels determined to topple Assad’s government.


Source: jpost.com

Iran Withdraws Troops from #Syria

07/10/12

Iran has withdrawn 275 of its elite Revolutionary Guard forces from Syria due to an economic crisis at home, reports The Sunday Times

Iran has withdrawn 275 of its elite Revolutionary Guard forces from Syria due to an economic crisis at home, reports The Sunday Times.

Hundreds of Iranian soldiers from the elite “Unit 400” brigade have been fighting alongside Syrian government troops in the civil war against opposition forces hoping to topple President Bashar al-Assad.

According to the report, published by the UK-based newspaper on Sunday, the information was confirmed by a relative of one of the Iranian officers in Syria.

Increasingly severe international sanctions have been eating away at the Iranian economy for months in the hope that at some point, the Islamic Republic will be persuaded to halt its nuclear development activities.

The sanctions have done nothing to stop Iran from enriching uranium, however, as Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu pointed out in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly last month.

Netanyahu warned that more than sanctions will be required to stop Iran from developing an atomic bomb, and said that Israel would not allow such a threat to its existence, regardless of whether the rest of world took action or not.

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, however, has continued to focus on imposing more sanctions as a means to trying to stop Iran from continuing its nuclear development program. Over the past year, Iran has doubled the number of underground centrifuges that are actively enriching uranium – a key step in the development of a nuclear weapon.

On Saturday, Panetta warned Iran the international community is ready to impose more sanctions if Tehran does not begin to “address concerns” over its nuclear program.

Meanwhile, Israel has made it clear that sanctions and economic stressors are not the issue: Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said last week that sanctions have caused “great economic difficulties” for the average Iranian.

He predicted that Iran’s economy would come close to collapsing due to the international sanctions imposed over its nuclear program – a possible reason that “Unit 400” flew out of Syria last week.

Source: israelnationalnews.com

#Syrians make brisk business in black market petrol

30/09/12

Hisham does a brisk and lucrative business trading black market petrol to rebel-held areas of the battleground Syrian province of Aleppo, in defiance of a government ban.

Like most commodities in sanctions-hit and war-stricken Syria, the price of petrol has risen dramatically since the start of the uprising against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad 18 months ago.

Before the uprising erupted, a liter of petrol cost 45 Syrian pounds (less than a dollar). Now it can fetch more than twice as much if one is lucky enough to find it.

In Aleppo, Syria’s economic hub, where rebels and troops have been locked in fierce fighting since mid-July, few are the petrol stations that have not been destroyed by shelling or set ablaze during clashes.

The rare stations that are open sell petrol at 100 pounds (around $1.5) a liter.

Hisham, and other blackmarketeers, buy their supplies of petrol from smugglers who come from the northeastern province of Raqa, a region mostly controlled by government troops where a liter sells for around 60 pounds.

Assisted by a young boy, Hisham, 32, keeps shop on the side of a road linking the Turkish border to Aleppo where customers will find him each day with his bottles and jerry cans.

He fills up cars using a plastic tube and a funnel covered with a piece of cloth as a filter.

“Every day I come here to fill up because I am sure that the petrol is clean,” said Hassan.

Another customer, Khaled, says he has no choice but to buy his petrol from Hisham, if he is to make a living.

Before the uprising, Khaled studied Islamic law in Egypt but back home he has been unable to find a job and so he decided to become a traveling salesman and needs to fuel his vehicle to sell vegetables around the region.

Hisham says he sells around 4,000 liters of petrol each day and that he has 60 regular customers.

As he whiles away the time, he can be found chain-smoking on the side of the road surrounded by his petrol bottles.

In the rebel-held town of Aazaz, just a few kilometers from the Turkish border, a man has placed a barrel of petrol on a cart. He says he sells 160 liters every 48 hours.

“What I earn from these sales is enough to feed me and my 10 children,” he says, declining to give his name.

Throughout the rebel-held border region, traffic is chaotic but flows unhindered despite government efforts to impose a blockade.

Syria’s crude production was once largely destined for export but US and EU sanctions adopted in August and September last year have decimated foreign sales.

Europe had previously bought 95 percent of Syrian oil, generating a third of the country’s revenues.

Pipelines serving Syria’s oilfields in the northeast have been hit by rebels during the fighting.

-AFP

Source: nowlebanon.com

Iraq proposes #Syria talks plan

29/09/12


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Source: newrossstandard.ie

Hezbollah increases support for #Syrian regime, U.S. and Lebanese officials say

27/09/12


Hezbollah supporters carry banners and wave Iranian and Hezbollah flags alongside Syrians holding pictures of Syrian President Bashar Assad during a march organized by Hezbollah on Sept. 19, 2012.

BEIRUT — Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite political and militant group, has ramped up its support for the Syrian government, sending in military advisers to aid in the bloody struggle against the opposition, U.S. and Lebanese government officials say.

Hezbollah’s involvement is a clear indication that the uprising, now a year and a half old, is drawing in Syria’s neighbor and broadening a conflict that has the potential to destabilize the entire region. It also marks a worrying turn for the Syrian rebels, who already face one of the region’s most potent armies and now must contend as well with a disciplined and sophisticated militia.

The U.S. government this month accused Hezbollah of providing aid to the Syrian government, an allegation the group has denied. Any acknowledgment that it is sending help to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad risks worsening tensions in Lebanon between Hezbollah and Lebanese Sunnis who support the mostly Sunni opposition in Syria.

But Lebanese officials say the support is becoming harder to hide and has markedly increased since a July 18 bomb attack in Damascus that killed four senior security officials, including Assef Shawkat, Assad’s brother-in-law.

Lebanese officials and analysts say Hezbollah militants are now fighting — and dying — in the conflict, although U.S. officials have not confirmed the group’s combat role. The Lebanese officials cite as evidence quiet burials in Hezbollah-dominated areas of Lebanon, with the families of the “martyrs” warned not to discuss the circumstances of their sons’ deaths.

“Hezbollah has been active in supporting the Syrian regime with their own militia,” said a Lebanese government official allied with a political bloc opposed to Hezbollah who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the issue’s sensitivity. “They’ve been quite involved in a combat role, quite involved in fighting.”

Hezbollah has a well-armed and trained militia that is considered the strongest fighting force in Lebanon. But the group also oversees a powerful political party and runs a number of organizations that provide social services to Shiite Muslims, its main supporters, throughout the country.

Recruitment efforts

In some villages in south Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley in the eastern part of the country, young men loyal to Hezbollah are recruiting volunteers to fight in Syria, according to Lebanese officials. And a number of secret funerals for young men killed in Syria have been held in Shiite strongholds.

This month, the U.S. Treasury Department announced sanctions against Hasan Nasrallah and two other Hezbollah leaders in connection with the group’s activities in Syria. The department accused Hezbollah of “providing training, advice, and extensive logistical support to the Government of Syria.” Hezbollah has also helped the Syrian government push rebel forces from some areas in Syria, the Treasury Department said.

Hezbollah’s heightened role in the conflict comes at the same time that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps appears to be playing a bigger role in Syria. The Treasury Department said that the two groups are coordinating their military aid in Syria and that Hezbollah has helped the Revolutionary Guard train Syrian forces.

Source: Washington Post

21/09/12

#Syrian troops clash with rebels in Aleppo

Syrian troops backed by helicopter gunships clashed with rebels near an army barracks in Aleppo, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

Fighting erupted overnight near the Hanano barracks in the Arkoub district of northeast Aleppo on Friday, the UK-based watchdog group said.

Several districts of Aleppo, including Sakhur in the northeast and Bustan al-Qasr in the centre, came under overnight attack, SOHR said.

Elsewhere in Aleppo, fighting broke out between troops and rebels near the Meng military airport, SOHR said.

Military airports have been a key target for the rebels as the army has increasingly deployed fighter jets and helicopter gunships to launch devastating attacks against them.

Massive explosion 

SOHR further reported a massive explosion, believed to be a car bomb, northwest of Damascus. Heavy gunfire was heard afterwards but there were no immediate reports of casualties, it said.

In the central province of Homs, a civilian was killed in dawn shelling of Rastan, while the eastern city of Deir Az-Zor and the town of Daal, in the southern province of Deraa, also came under bombardment.

The violence across the country came a day after dozens of people were killed when an air raid hit a fuel station in the northern province of al-Riqqa on Thursday.

Al Jazeera’s Andrew Simmons, reporting from Antakya in neighbouring Turkey on Friday, said there is “no doubt that it was a targeted attack on an area being used by civilians”.

“The petrol station was crowded with vehicles,” he said. “It was the only petrol station in the entire region that was open to the public, according to activists.”

Simmons added that according to unconfirmed reports, the device used is known as a “barrel bomb.”

“These sorts of things have been described in Aleppo before. It was devastating,” he said.

“The casualties number in the dozens, and now we are getting unconfirmed reports that the death toll has reached 60.”

Possible sanctions

In another development, diplomats from more than 60 nations and the Arab League met in The Hague, Netherlands, on Thursday to toughen and improve co-ordination of sanctions against Assad’s regime.

“We need vigorous implementation,” Uri Rosenthal, Netherlands foreign minister, told the opening of the Friends of Syria working group.

“Sanctions will only have an impact if they are carried out effectively. That is how we can make a difference.”

The Friends of Syria group has already held three meetings at ministerial level in Tunis, Istanbul and Paris. Another is planned in Morocco in October and another later in Italy.

Source: aljazeera.com

Belarus denies U.S. accusations of trying to sell weapons to Syria

20/09/12

MINSK, Sept. 20 (Xinhua) — Belarus on Thursday denied American accusations of trying to sell weapons to Syria and violating a UN Security Council resolution after the United States imposed sanctions on a Belarusian state-owned company.

U.S. accusations targeting the Belarus-owned arms company Belvneshpromservice are groundless, Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Savinykh told local media.

“It is nothing more than an attempt to put pressure on Belarus for our country’s open and uncompromising position in favor of a peaceful solution to the internal Syrian conflict,” Savinykh said.

He also added that Belarus has always unfailingly fulfilled resolutions of the UN Security Council.

“Unilateral U.S. sanctions run counter to the spirit of constructive cooperation between nations on the basis of international law and mutual respect,” the spokesman said.

The U.S. Treasury Department earlier accused Belvneshpromservice of preparing to deliver aerial bomb fuses to Syria through the Syrian military enterprise Army Supply Bureau.

Source: news.xinhuanet.com

#Syrian war looms over UN meeting of world leaders

18/09/12

UNITED NATIONS — Hovering over this month’s annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations is the international community’s failure to end the escalating war in Syria that is starting to spill over into a fragile and divided region.

The Syrian conflict has bitterly divided the most powerful members of the Security Council, paralyzing the only U.N. body that can impose global sanctions and authorize military action.

It frustrated former U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan, who quit his high-profile role as special envoy to the country last month, giving reasons that amounted to scathing criticism of world powers for failing to unite to stop the chaos in the Arab state.

There will be a flurry of meetings on the sidelines of the VIP gathering at the General Assembly that begins Sept. 25, including a ministerial meeting of the Security Council’s five veto-wielding members and lots of behind-the-scenes discussions among the more than 130 heads of state and government coming to New York. But frustrated diplomats don’t expect any breakthrough on Syria, and outside observers agree.

This “means we’re heading into a very dark time in Syria — more violence and a slow grinding conflict that’s going to test everyone’s limits on non-intervention,” Andrew Tabler, a senior fellow and Syria expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told The Associated Press in an interview Monday.

“I think it’s the elephant in the room in the sense that it’s a lightning rod issue,” Tabler said. “It’s a crisis the U.N. is unable to deal with. And so, basically what happens is that you’re going to have a lot of speeches … but unless you get the Security Council agreeing I don’t see anything happening.”

Since the Syrian conflict began in March 2011, the division among the five powerful permanent council nations has deepened.

The United States, Britain and France have tried unsuccessfully to get the council to put pressure on President Bashar Assad’s government to halt the fighting and pull back its heavy weapons.

Russia, Syria’s key protector, and China, which is supporting Moscow, are demanding equal pressure on the opposition and say the West’s real goal is regime change, which could lead to a takeover of Syria by Islamist radicals. Russia is the major arms supplier to Syria and has a base in Tartus. It is its only naval base outside the former Soviet Union that serves Russian navy ships on missions to the Mediterranean.

Russia and China have vetoed three Western-backed resolutions, the latest in July which included the threat of non-military sanctions.

France’s U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud said Monday that the Security Council “has never been as paralyzed as it is today since the end of the Cold War.”

France is now working with the U.S., Britain, Turkey, Arab friends and the Syrian opposition in its fight against the Assad regime, he said.

“It is essential that we support the democratic opposition in Syria,” Araud said. “Some believe it is possible to choose between Assad and the Islamists. We tell them, ‘If you keep blocking, you’ll get Assad and then the Islamists.’”

U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said the council’s failure to support efforts by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Annan to end the violence is “reprehensible and has only intensified the suffering of the Syrian people. “

“I am not optimistic in the short term that the dynamic in the council is going to change,” she said. “However, the United States is not allowing that to block our efforts to speed the day when Assad departs, through sanctions and political and nonlethal support for the opposition.”

President Barack Obama has called for Assad to step down, but the United States wants to ensure that whatever government replaces his regime is a democracy that respects the rights of all Syrians, particularly religious minorities and women.

Annan has been replaced with former Algerian foreign minister Lakhdar Brahimi, a highly regarded diplomat and mediator who met Assad in Damascus on Saturday, but gave no indication of a breakthrough.

Many countries are hopeful that Brahimi can get the government and opposition to peace talks, but he has called his mission “nearly impossible.”

He has said he is still holding talks with key players and does not have a plan yet.

“I will go to New York for the occasion of the General Assembly, to meet the Security Council and foreign ministers and representatives of countries that have interest, influence or both concerning Syria,” Brahimi said.

The Security Council has given its support to Brahimi, but its division is so deep now that members couldn’t even agree on a statement last month on the humanitarian crisis. The conflict has left some 3 million Syrians inside and outside the country in need of food and other assistance.

Michael Weiss, research director at the London-based Henry Jackson Society think tank, said no breakthrough is likely at the General Assembly because Russian President Vladimir Putin has done nothing “to repudiate Assad.” Also, he added, Obama is reluctant to intervene in the Middle East as he fights for reelection on a record of ending the U.S. military role in Iraq and setting a 2014 deadline to withdraw from Afghanistan.

“All you are going to see for the next six months or longer is this continuing state of civil war,” Weiss said. “The rebels may assassinate members of the Assad regime, but until they have parity of weaponry and forces, Damascus will not fall.”

The West has hesitated to arm the rebels for fear that costly and lethal equipment could fall into the hands of extremists like al-Qaida, or get lost. The rebels have received weapons delivered via Turkey, Iraq and elsewhere, according to activists and diplomats. Some of the arms, activists say, are purchased with Saudi and Qatari funds.

The Syrian conflict, which began as a protest against four decades of dictatorship by the Assad family, was spawned by the Arab Spring, the pro-democracy wave of uprisings across the Middle East that began when Tunisians rose up in January 2011 against their longtime dictator.

The changes in the Arab world since then are the theme of a ministerial-level meeting of the Security Council on Sept. 26 on the sidelines of the General Assembly speeches.

Germany U.N. Ambassador Peter Wittig, the current Security Council president whose foreign minister will be presiding at that meeting, said “there will be council members who will speak out on Syria.” But he said the focus of the meeting will be the emergence of the Arab League as a key player in the Middle East with “a lot more clout.”

Supporters of a democratic government in Syria — the “Friends of Syria” — are also scheduled to meet on Sept. 28 at a session chaired by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Their last meeting in Paris in July brought together some 100 nations including the U.S., its European and Arab partners, as well as the fractious Syrian opposition, all looking to turn up the heat to force Assad from power.

Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said “Syria will be at or near the top of the agenda at most of the key bilateral meetings.”

There will also be a meeting of foreign ministers and development ministers “to galvanize support for refugees and those displaced within Syria,” he said.

Earlier this month, the United Nations nearly doubled its humanitarian appeal for Syria to $347 million, even though the original appeal for $180 million is only half-funded. The secretary-general has urged donors to increase their contributions.

Another issue certain to make headlines during the General Assembly is the dispute over Iran’s nuclear intentions.

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who insists his country’s nuclear program is peaceful, will address the assembly on Sept. 26. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has accused Iran of trying to build a nuclear arsenal, takes the podium on Sept. 27.

And on that day political directors from the six countries trying to get Iran to suspend its nuclear enrichment program — the U.S., Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany — will meet behind closed doors, possibly followed by a ministerial session.

Source: cbsnews.com

INTERVIEW-Fugitive VP says Iraq letting Iran ferry arms to #Syria

16/09/12

* VP says Iran using Iraqi airspace to back Assad

* Accuses government of breaching Iran sanctions

* Prime minister’s office rejects accusations

ISTANBUL, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Iran is using Iraqi airspace

to fly supplies to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and

thousands of Iraqi militia fighters have crossed into Syria to

support his troops, Iraq’s fugitive vice president said on

Sunday.

Tareq al-Hashemi, who fled Iraq in December and was

sentenced to death a week ago by an Iraqi court, said the

government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki was failing to stop

ammunitions and armaments reaching Assad’s forces.

“My country is unfortunately becoming an Iranian corridor to

support the autocratic regime of Bashar al-Assad, there is no

doubt about that,” Hashemi told Reuters in an interview in

Istanbul.

“It is not only the airspace. It is thousands of militia now

inside Syria, supporting Bashar al-Assad and killing Syrian

innocent people,” he said, citing reports he had received from

Iraq’s Anbar province, which borders Syria, and from members of

the Syrian opposition.

He said Iraqi militia fighters had been detained inside

Syria by members of the Syrian opposition.

A senior adviser to Maliki rejected the accusations, saying

Iraq was committed to not siding with any party in the Syrian

conflict.

“The prime minister … is always confirming that Iraq will

not allow any state to use its airspace to transport arms to

Syria,” said Ali al-Moussawi, Maliki’s media adviser.

Hashemi, a senior Sunni Muslim politician and fierce critic

of Maliki, a Shi’ite, fled Iraq after the authorities issued a

warrant for his arrest in December, a step that risked shredding

a fragile power-sharing agreement among Shi’ite, Sunni and

Kurdish blocs.

An Iraqi court sentenced him to death by hanging last Sunday

after a trial on charges that he ran death squads. Hashemi says

the case is politically motivated and is built on testimony

extracted under torture.

Although Maliki’s government has said it backs neither side

in the Syrian conflict, Iraqi Shi‘ite leaders fear that if Assad

falls, Syria would splinter along sectarian lines and this would

bring about the rise of a hardline Sunni government likely to

upset Iraq’s fragile security and Shi’ite-Sunni mix.

Assad’s forces have been battling out-gunned but

increasingly effective rebel fighters seeking his overthrow in

Syria for the past 18 months, an uprising in which activists say

27,000 people have been killed.

The mainly Sunni Muslim rebels are supported by Gulf Arab

states and neighbouring Turkey in their struggle to topple

Assad, whose minority Alawite faith is an offshoot of Shi’ite

Islam. Shi’ite Iran has been Assad’s staunchest ally.

IRAN SANCTIONS BREACHED

The commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps

(IRGC) said on Sunday IRGC members were providing non-military

assistance in Syria and Iran may get involved militarily if its

closest ally comes under attack.

Western countries and Syrian opposition groups have long

suspected Iran has troops in Syria. Iran has denied this.

Hashemi said Iraq had been allowing Iran to get around

U.S.-led economic sanctions aimed at forcing the Islamic

Republic to give up its nuclear programme.

He said Iranians, faced with a sharp deterioration of the

rial, were using banks in Iraq to buy U.S. dollars which they

then smuggled back into Iran. He said Iraq’s government had also

failed to enforce sanctions against Syria.

“It is not only prolonging the life of Assad’s regime but at

the same time deepening the poverty of Iraq, because we are

still in need of (every) single U.S. dollar,” he said.

Hashemi’s accusations raise questions about the extent of

U.S. influence in Baghdad, nine months after U.S. troops left.

President Barack Obama withdrew the last U.S. troops in

December, after almost nine years of war. Critics say the move

has diminished U.S. influence in Baghdad despite massive

investment in the country.

Maliki’s government has said it wants good relations with

the United States, but also has close ties with U.S. foe Iran.

The sentence against Hashemi threatened to stoke sectarian

tension in Iraq, whose Shi’ite-led government is battling

political instability and a Sunni Islamist insurgency.

Hashemi said his trial was symptomatic of the injustice,

corruption, abuse of human rights and growing sectarianism

plaguing Iraq under Maliki.

“I see my country drifting from democracy to some sort of

tyrannical regime … We do now have one single major stumbling

block, which is the prime minister,” he said.

He said he was working with his lawyers on a legal challenge

to the sentence against him and hoped Iraqi President Jalal

Talabani would intervene “to uphold the constitution”.

He had also written to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon

and was ready to face the accusations against him anywhere he

could be guaranteed a fair trial, he said.

(Additional reporting by Ahmed Rasheed in Baghdad, Marcus

George in Dubai; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Janet

Lawrence)

Source: Yahoo!

Leading MEP urges EU to impose #Syria no-fly zone

11/09/12

(STRASBOURG) - Former Belgian premier and leading European lawmaker Guy Verhofstadt on Tuesday urged European Union intervention in Syria to protect civilians, notably by imposing a no-fly zone against government planes.

“For more than a year we have offered no real response to the situation in Syria on behalf of the international community,” said the leader of the European Parliament’s centre-right group.

He said the EU sanctions against President Bashar Al-Assad’s regime “were not tantamount to a real policy that would change the situation in Syria.”

“We are missing a real policy,” he said.

Saying nothing would change before the US presidential election in November, Verhofstadt said “the European Union must be at the forefront” of the fight against the regime and “not wait for the Americans.”

“Being at the forefront for Europe means imposing a no-fly zone in Syria so that Assad’s planes cannot intervene,” he said.

He also called for “safety zones, humanitarian corridors,” help for the rebel Free Syria Army and more humanitarian aid.

If not, “the tragedy will continue”, he said.

Source: eubusiness.com

Russia seeks U.N. okay of #Syria peace plan

08/09/12


Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (L) answers questions during a press conference in Tehran, Iran, on June 13, 2012. Lavrov was in Tehran for a one-day official visit. UPI

VLADIVOSTOK, Russia, Sept. 8 (UPI) — The U.N. Security Council will be asked to endorse a Syria peace plan later this month that Russia brokered in Geneva, a top Russian official said Saturday.

At a June 30 meeting in the Swiss city, world powers agreed that a transitional government should be set up in Syria to end the violence.

The Security Council will be asked to approve the “communiqué” that came out of that meeting, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrvov told reporters in Vladivostok.

Lavrvov did not mention any details in the plan, but said its implementation did not necessarily mean Syrian President Bashar Assad would have to step down.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Assad would not be part of the transitional government.

Russia and China have twice vetoed U.N. resolutions critical of Syria, claiming the actions favored the rebels. They deny they support Assad.

Speaking at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, Lavrvov complained that U.S. sanctions on Syria and Iran “are directly affecting the interests of Russian business, particularly the banks.”

He said Russia did not want any sanctions, and supported a proposed conference of Syrian opposition groups later this month.

Source: upi.com

EU Considering New Sanctions Against #Syria and Iran, Ashton Says

08/09/12

By Stelios Orphanides

The European Union may impose additional sanctions on Syria and Iran as it reviews the effectiveness of those already in place, the EU’s foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said.

“We keep sanctions under review not only to consider whether more sanctions should be taken but to make sure that the enforcement of sanctions is done properly and any ability to evade them is dealt with,” Ashton told reporters in Nicosia today after a meeting of the EU’s foreign ministers.

While considering new sanctions, Europe has to support the new United Nations envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, Ashton said. “His approach will be to look for a political breakthrough that clearly takes the people into their future and stops the violence,” she said, adding that EU foreign ministers agreed to increase humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees by 50 million euros ($64 million).

Ashton said that it is “critical” to urge Syrian groups opposing President Bashar al-Assad to work together. “It is also really important that the people in Syria feel that they are part of that future and that means reaching out to minority groups.”

Source: bloomberg.com