Syrian Freedom

#Syria rebels say battle on to ‘liberate’ capital

Rebels declared the battle to “liberate” Damascus has begun as heavy fighting raged across the city yesterday and Russia said an agreement is possible for a UN resolution on the Syria crisis.
The proclamation by the Free Syrian Army, which also claimed it had shot down a helicopter in the capital, came as peace envoy Kofi Annan said the 16-month crisis increasingly described as a civil war was at a “critical time”.
Heavy machinegun fire was reported in Damascus’s Sabaa Bahrat Square, where President Bashar al-Assad’s regime has staged rallies to counter anti-regime protests that erupted in March 2011.
At least 19 people were killed as tanks and helicopter gunships were deployed in Qaboon district and battles were fought in Al Midan and Al Hajar Al Aswad, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
As the fighting inched closer to the regime’s nerve centre, FSA spokesman Colonel Kassem Saadeddine said “victory is nigh” and the struggle would go on until the city was conquered.
“We have transferred the battle from Damascus province to the capital. We have a clear plan to control the whole of Damascus. We only have light weapons, but it’s enough.”
“Expect surprises,” Saadeddine added, before adding later that rebels had downed a helicopter over Qaboon, although an activist in the district said there was “no foundation” to the report.
Fighting in the city has raged since Sunday, with the rebels announcing a full-scale offensive dubbed “the Damascus volcano and earthquakes of Syria”.
An activist who said he was in Al Midan neighbourhood said the army was shelling the neighbourhood “hysterically”.
“The collapsing regime has gone mad,” the man calling himself Abu Musab said via Skype.
“The army has tried to storm the district, but the Free Syrian Army has stopped them. So they have intensified their shelling. They are shelling everything,” he said.
AFP could not independently verify the account.
Witnesses also reported heavy machinegun fire in Sabaa Bahrat Square in central Damascus and in nearby Baghdad Street.
But an army officer in Damascus said troops have “the situation under control” and were “chasing the terrorists seeking refuge in apartments and mosques”.
The source said “battles raged” in Qaboon, “where the majority of rebels were”, adding that “33 terrorists were killed, 15 were wounded and 145 were arrested,” referring to rebels.
The regime has vowed not to surrender the capital.
In that context, the Israeli army’s intelligence chief said Syrian troops had been moved from the Golan Heights towards conflict zones including Damascus.
“Assad has removed many of his forces that were in the Golan Heights to the areas of conflict,” Major General Aviv Kochavi told MPs.
“Radical Islam” was gaining ground, he warned, adding that Syria was undergoing a process of “Iraqisation”, with militant and tribal factions controlling different zones.
In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Annan that he would “do everything” to support the UN-Arab League peace envoy’s plan to end the conflict.
Annan told Putin “the Syrian crisis is at a critical time.”
Later, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he saw “no reason why we cannot also agree at the UN Security Council. We are ready for this.”
Annan added: “The Council, I expect, will be sending out a message that the killings must stop and that the situation on the ground is unacceptable.”
Annan’s Moscow meetings came one day before Western powers plan to hold a vote on a UN resolution that threatens sanctions against Damascus.
The council must also vote to decide on renewing the 300-strong UN Supervision Mission in Syria, deployed to monitor an April 12 ceasefire Assad agreed with Annan.
UN leader Ban Ki-moon “called on Russia to use its influence to ensure the full and immediate implementation” of Annan’s plan in a telephone call with Lavrov, a spokesman said.
Ban was due in Beijing yesterday, also on a mission to get support for tougher action on Syria.
Russia and China have twice blocked resolutions against Syria at the Security Council, which remains divided over Western calls to impose new sanctions.
On a visit to Syria’s neighbour Jordan, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the crisis is too unpredictable to rule out “any option”.
Stepping up the pressure, French President Francois Hollande said “the Russians must understand that they cannot be seen as the only ones or almost the only ones hindering the search for a solution.”
As wrangling continued over rival resolution drafts, the Security Council expressed concern about fallout from the conflict in Lebanon, UN diplomats said.
UN envoy to Lebanon Derek Plumbly said there was “concern about the pressures on the Lebanese border in recent weeks, incursions and shooting across the border”.
The Observatory said at least 35 people were killed across Syria yesterday, 16 of them civilians, adding to its toll of more than 17,000 people dead since the uprising began.
Meanwhile, Nawaf Fares, who became the most prominent figure to abandon Assad when he defected as Syria’s ambassador to Iraq, warned the regime will use chemical weapons against opposition forces and may have already deployed them.
Another key defector, General Manaf Tlass, a childhood friend of Assad, said in a statement sent to AFP that he was in Paris and called for a “constructive transition” in the country.

Annan to visit Moscow for #Syria talks - ministry source

MOSCOW (Reuters) - U.N. special envoy Kofi Annan will visit Moscow on Monday for talks on the conflict in Syria, RIA news agency quoted a Foreign Ministry source as saying on Friday.

“The current state of affairs in Syria and prospects for a (peace) settlement will be discussed,” the source said, adding that Annan would meet Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

(Reporting By Nastassia Astrasheuskaya, Editing by Timothy Heritage)

Russia Proposes UN Resolution On #Syria Without Sanctions

Russia’s deputy UN envoy, Igor Pankin (right), says the resolution was sent to the council’s other 14 members ahead of a briefing on July 11 by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan on efforts to revive his peace plan.

July 11, 2012

Russia is pushing for a Security Council resolution on Syria that would extend the UN mission in the country for another three months without any threat of sanctions.

Russia’s deputy UN envoy, Igor Pankin, says the resolution was sent to the council’s other 14 members ahead of a briefing on July 11 by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan on efforts to revive his peace plan.

The Security Council must decide the future of the UN observer mission in Syria by July 20, when its mandate expires.

Also on July 11, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was expected to hold talks with Abdel Basset Sayda, the new leader of the Syrian National Council (SNC), which is based in Turkey and openly backed by Western and Arab states.

The SNC is an umbrella organization for resistance to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Based on reporting by AFP and ITAR-TASS

Russia to suspend new arms to #Syria - agencies

* Could signal Moscow move away from Syria’s Assad

* Russia will not deliver fighter planes

* White House says move positive if confirmed (Adds White House comment)

By Thomas Grove

MOSCOW, July 9 (Reuters) - Russia will not deliver fighter planes or other new weapons to Syria while the situation there remains unresolved, the deputy director of a body that supervises Moscow’s arms trade was quoted as saying on Monday.

“While the situation in Syria is unstable, there will be no new deliveries of arms there,” Vyacheslav Dzirkaln told journalists at the Farnborough Airshow in Britain, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported.

The refusal to send more arms to Syria could signal the strongest move yet by Moscow to distance itself from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom it has defended in the U.N. Security Council from harsher sanctions.

It could also scuttle up to $4 billion of outstanding contracts, including fighter jets and air-defence systems that were expected to be delivered this year.

A spokesman for Dzirkaln’s Federal Service for Military Technical Co-operation would not confirm the deputy director’s comments when contacted by telephone. Reuters was awaiting for a response to requested written questions.

In Washington, White House spokeswoman Erin Pelton said it would be a positive development if confirmed.

“We refer you to Russian authorities for confirmation,” she said. “If it is truly Russia’s intention to halt arms sales to Syria, then we would laud this step and commend Russia for this measure, which would send a strong signal to the Assad regime.”

“We have long called on all nations to cease supplying this regime with weapons, given its continued use against the Syrian people.”

Although legal, Russia’s arms trade with Syria has fueled concerns that Moscow is supplying Assad with weapons being used against protesters taking part in an armed uprising against him.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the arms Moscow delivers cannot be used in civil conflicts and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said the supplies are defensive weapons sold in contracts signed long ago.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has termed Russian statements that the weapons are unrelated to the violence in Syria “patently untrue” and Washington has called the delivery of a shipment of heavy Russian weapons “reprehensible”.

FIGHTER PLANES

Dzirkaln was quoted as saying that Russia, one of Syria’s main weapons suppliers, would not be delivering a shipment of 36 Yak-130 fighter planes, a contract for which was reportedly signed at the end of last year.

“In the current situation, talking about deliveries of airplanes to Syria is premature,” he said.

Rosoboronexport, Russia’s monopoly arms exporter, would not comment on Dzirkaln’s remarks, which were also reported by the Russian state news agency RIA.

“We understand the position of (the agency), but we are a separate organisation and will not comment,” said spokesman Vyacheslav Davidenko.

Syria’s arms-trade ties with Moscow date back to the Soviet era. It has previously signed contracts worth billions of dollars and hosts a Mediterranean supply-and-repair facility that is Russia’s only naval base outside the former Soviet Union.

A Russian analyst said Moscow had already distanced itself from Assad.

“Russia has stopped signing new contracts with Syria and is delaying the shipments of already signed contracts,” said Ruslan Aliyev, an expert on the Russian-Syria arms trade at the Moscow-based defence think-tank, CAST.

“It’s basically a political decision based on Moscow’s view of Syria.”

Russia faced Western criticism last month after Clinton said Russian attack helicopters were on the way to Syria. Moscow said they were part of an old contract and that it only provided weaponry that could be used against external aggression.

“Previously, we were fulfilling old contracts, including repairs of the machines,” Dzirkaln said. “Until the situation stabilises, we will not carry out any new arms deliveries.” (Additional reporting By Nastassia Astrasheuskaya in Moscow and Matt Spetalnick in Washington; Writing by Thomas Grove; Editing by Pravin Char and David Brunnstrom)

Annan to put new ‘approach’ to #Syria rebels

DAMASCUS (AFP) - International envoy Kofi Annan has announced a new political “approach” in a bid to end Syria’s 16-month-old conflict, as the West voices concern over the violence spreading across the Lebanese border.

“We discussed the need to end the violence and ways and means of doing so. We agreed an approach which I will share with the armed opposition,” UN-Arab League envoy Annan said after meeting Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Monday.

Syrian foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi called the meeting “constructive and good”.

Stepping up efforts to halt the carnage which monitors say has cost more than 17,000 lives, Annan then travelled on to Iran, Syria’s closest regional ally, in his quest to broker a solution.

The diplomatic efforts were carried out against the increasingly familiar backdrop of bloodshed in Syria, with the United States and the European Union expressing concern at the outbreak of cross-border clashes with Lebanon.

Shells fired from Syria landed overnight in northern Lebanon after an exchange of fire along the border, a senior Lebanese security official told AFP early Tuesday.

The Syrian shells were fired into Lebanon following a cross-border gun battle, the source added.

There was no immediate report of casualties, but the latest incident came just two days after border clashes in which two girls were killed and several other people wounded in Lebanon.

US Ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly on Monday called on Damascus to “respect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Lebanon”.

In Brussels EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton’s office released a statement saying she “strongly condemns the recent shelling of the Lebanese border area by Syrian artillery, causing several deaths and injuries”.

Monday’s interventions also came as at least 58 people were killed nationwide, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, a day after nearly 100 people died.

Pro-government Al-Watan newspaper said Annan’s discussions focused on the results of the Geneva meeting at the end of June.

They discussed means “to implement the results of the meeting… on forming a transitional government in Syria that groups government and opposition representatives without mention of Assad’s departure”, it said.

World powers in Geneva agreed a plan for a transition which did not make an explicit call for Assad to quit, although the West and the opposition made clear it saw no role for him in a unity government.

On the ground in Syria, the army pounded besieged rebel-held areas of Homs, monitors said Monday, as Qusayr also came under a morning bombardment.

The opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) slammed Annan’s decision to meet Assad, saying thousands of people have been killed despite an April ceasefire.

Annan, whose military observers in Syria have been grounded because of escalating violence, admitted in remarks published by French newspaper Le Monde ahead of his Damascus trip that his peace blueprint has so far foundered.

He also expressed frustration that while Moscow and Iran are mentioned by some as stumbling blocks to peace, “little is said about other countries which send arms, money, and have a presence on the ground”.

Moscow arms export officials said Monday that Russia will not supply new weapons to its Arab ally Syria while fighting there continues, while stressing that old contracts would be fulfilled.

Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Syria needed dialogue between the regime and opposition, rather than foreign intervention, to ensure a lasting peace.

Putin spoke after prominent Syrian opposition leader and intellectual Michel Kilo met Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow.

Later on Monday Annan few to Tehran for talks with Saeed Jalili, Iran’s top security official, and Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi.

Annan has said Tehran has a key role to play in efforts to end the bloodshed.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has accused the United States and its allies of opposing Assad’s regime with the goal of dominating the Middle East and propping up Israel.

On Sunday US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned time was running out to save Syria from a “catastrophic assault”.

The Observatory, a Britain-based monitoring group, estimates that 5,898 people have been killed since the Annan-brokered April truce.

For Putin, Principle vs. Practicality on #Syria

By ELLEN BARRY

Published: July 4, 2012

MOSCOW — For months now, Western policy makers have been racking their brains to figure out what strategic interests have made Russia so intent on supporting the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad — a leader who, facing a popular uprising, seemed to be on his way out anyway.

It is an understandable question, but perhaps the wrong one. Decisions are flowing from President Vladimir V. Putin, whose career has left him overwhelmingly wary both of revolutions and of Western intervention.

This is a man who, during the death throes of the Communist system, personally defended the K.G.B.’s headquarters in Dresden against an angry crowd of Germans. And Mr. Putin’s already suspicious view of street politics only deepened with the “colored revolutions” of the mid-2000s, in which pro-Western protests, some supported by the United States, ousted a series of Moscow-friendly leaders.

Since the recent Arab uprisings began, Russian leaders have viewed them through this lens — as a product not of social change but of interference by the West, intended in part to damage Russia.

Mr. Putin takes little interest in the details of foreign policy, but this notion touches him personally. He memorably blew up in April 2011, when NATO warplanes were attacking Libya against Russia’s protestations, delivering a speech that scoffed at the notion that Western intervention aimed to advance democracy.

“Look at the map of this region, there are monarchies all around,” he said during a visit to Denmark. “What do you think they are — Danish-style democracies? No. There are monarchies everywhere, and this basically corresponds with the mentality of the people, as well as longstanding practice.”

“Libya, by the way, has the largest oil and the fourth-largest gas reserves in Africa,” he added. “This immediately presents the question: Isn’t this the basis for the interests of those now messing around there?”

From the first, Russia’s Middle East experts, most of them Soviet-trained, have been suspicious of the notion that street politics had the power to change governments.

In February 2011, when crowds of more than a million were thronging Tahrir Square, a Russian deputy foreign minister visited Egypt’s president, Hosni Mubarak. He delivered the soothing message that Egypt’s domestic crisis should be settled through dialogue, and affirmed Russia’s firm stance against foreign intervention in Egypt’s internal affairs. As it turned out, it was Mr. Mubarak’s last meeting with a foreign envoy — he stepped down two days later.

It is impossible to fully disentangle these reactions from what has been going on inside Russia over the last year, as a decade-long contract between Mr. Putin and his citizens began to fray.

Though there is little comparison on the ground between the Arab uprisings and Russia’s unrest — the Russian opposition movement remains small, Moscow-centered and moderate in its tactics — the sudden change has left the government wary of legitimizing any popular dissent. State-controlled news media paint a bleak picture of Arab countries that have seen uprisings, and Russian diplomats have approached new authorities in the Arab world slowly and awkwardly.

Meanwhile, Russian leaders fear that rising Islamism in the Arab world will breathe new life into the armed insurgency in the northern Caucasus, which is mostly Sunni.

In short, Syria has provided Russia with an opportunity to say no — to Western intervention and to the specter of revolution.

The argument has been framed as a matter of principle, making it difficult to dial back. Leonid Medvedko, who covered Syria for Pravda, the Communist Party newspaper, said Russia could not publicly call for Mr. Assad to step down, because it would create “a very serious precedent for anyone who doesn’t like their government.”

“I don’t want to allow such ultimatums, because they could then be presented to any country,” said Mr. Medvedko, who is now a regional analyst at the Russian Academy of Sciences. “We cannot allow this precedent to be established. Now they don’t like Assad. Next they may not like someone in Lebanon. We’ve already seen how they didn’t like someone in Libya — we saw the fate of Qaddafi.”

Nevertheless, Russia is backing away from explicit support for Mr. Assad, albeit at a glacial pace. Last week, Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov said that to accommodate the factions in Syria “it is necessary to have a transitional period, this is obvious.”

Each incremental move is followed by demonstrations that Russia is standing firm: for instance, its refusal, last weekend in Geneva, to approve language suggesting that Mr. Assad could not be part of a transitional government. These tactics serve to draw out the diplomatic process for weeks or months — not such an inconvenience, perhaps, for Western governments that are themselves deeply conflicted about intervening.

As the body count rises, one of Moscow’s real concerns may be the hardening of Arab public opinion against Russia, said a senior Arab diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in accordance with protocol. With the increasing reach of news channels like Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya — which regularly run gruesome video of massacres in Syria — Russia’s officials have been forced to accept that “unlike the last four decades, now the Arab street has a voice,” the diplomat said.

“I think they are now waking up to a new reality,” the diplomat said. “They are realizing that their analysis was wrong and they have to take a new approach.”

This realization conflicts with the desire to stand on principle, and to repay the abject humiliation of being ignored on Libya, he said: “The question is, will they make a stand in Syria to the end?”

The answer will hinge on the calculations of Mr. Putin. He may judge that bending to Western pressure would hurt him more than losing Syria. Or, if he accepts the idea that Mr. Assad cannot extend his rule past the end of the year, he may seek to trade Russia’s stand for a concession.

All that would remain would be to sit back and watch in silence as opposition crowds celebrate their victory. Not a simple choice for the man who, two decades ago in Dresden, spent panicky days inside the K.G.B. compound, burning documents that represented years of work. Then — convinced he had been abandoned by the country he served — he walked out to defend himself and his colleagues from the crowd outside.

Analysis: U.N. mission does nothing to change endgame in #Syria

By Tim Lister, CNN

April 17, 2012 — Updated 1605 GMT (0005 HKT)

(CNN) — The beginning of the U.N. observer mission to Syria heralds a new phase in more than a year of upheaval across the country. Success, however unlikely, could open the door to some form of dialogue between the regime and its opponents. But such is the polarization in Syria that most analysts see the mission as the least worst option before violence sets the agenda again.

It’s not as though any “cessation of violence” has yet taken hold. The ceasefire was meant to begin last Thursday, but in the past few days the regime has continued to shell restive city neighborhoods, according to opposition activists and U.N. officials. U.N. human rights officials reported Monday “the shelling of the Khalidiya neighborhood and other districts in Homs by government forces and the use of heavy weaponry, such as machine-guns in other areas, including Idlib and some suburbs of Damascus.”

One of the most important parts of the plan devised by Kofi Annan is that tanks, troops and heavy weapons be withdrawn from populated areas, but this has clearly not happened.

Monitoring missions can only work when the parties to a conflict have had enough of fighting or can be coerced into negotiation by outside powers. The Arab League mission members in Syria earlier this year were little more than bystanders, unable or unwilling to operate amid the government crackdown.

Twenty years ago, the U.N. agreed to deploy a mission to monitor a ceasefire in Sarajevo, the besieged capital of Bosnia. But the ceasefire never took hold as both Serbs and Muslims quarreled over its terms. Aid convoys were attacked and looted as U.N. monitors looked on.

By the middle of 1992, more than a million Bosnians were homeless, similar to the number of Syrians displaced today. Despite the subsequent expansion of the U.N. presence in Bosnia, there was no mandate for more forceful intervention until the Srebrenica massacre — more than three years after the conflict began.

The parallels are not exact but “there is a certain deja vu quality” to events in Syria, admits Ahmad Fawzi, spokesman for Annan.

“The United States is leaving it in the hands of Kofi Annan, as is the rest of the world,” Fawzi told McClatchy newspapers. “We’re the only path in town. There is no alternative.” That in itself illustrates how few options there are for the West to influence events in Syria.

It seems that both Russia and the United States are already preparing for the mission’s failure. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday that some foreign powers hoped to scupper the Annan plan by smuggling weapons to the rebels, while U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice says that regime infractions “will call into question the wisdom and the viability of sending in the full monitoring presence.”

Even the terms of the U.N. monitors are still a matter of dispute. U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said Monday that the government must guarantee freedom of access. The monitors “should be allowed to freely move to any places where they will be able to observe this cessation of violence,” he said.

The government has made it clear that the observers won’t have free rein and it “will be involved in all steps on the ground.” It’s also demanding that rebels lay down their weapons, which one opposition activist said was like telling them to write a suicide note.

Even 250 monitors — the maximum currently envisaged — would be hard pressed to cover all Syria’s hotspots, as Ban himself acknowledged Tuesday.

If it took hold, the presence of U.N. observers might, ironically, provide a respite for both sides. Syria’s military has seen a year of relentless operations (and growing defections). The Syrian Free Army has been on the back foot, short of weapons and training. One FSA commander acknowledged he was preparing for the next stage on the assumption the Annan mission would fail.

According to Annan’s six-point plan, the Syrian government would have to make significant concessions — allowing the international media into the country, releasing detainees and allowing peaceful protest. It has shown no sign of making such concessions. The protest movement has endured for months despite arbitrary killings, detention and torture. In a state renowned for its secret police, the shackles of fear were broken and cannot be clamped on again. So for the regime to give free rein to protest would be tantamount to giving up control of sizable cities like Homs, Hama and Idlib. In such places Local Coordination Committees set up by the opposition have already become mini-governments, organizing food deliveries, providing shelter, settling disputes. In addition, the size of an international humanitarian aid effort also mandated by U.N. resolution would de facto deprive the regime of the control it has struggled to reassert.

The arrival of the U.N. monitors does nothing to change the endgame in Syria, which is essentially about the survival of the al-Assad regime. Russia and al-Assad’s ally, Iran, apparently believe that Syria can weather the storm; Europe, Turkey and the United States that it is ultimately doomed. The Syrian government appears to have calculated that by accepting if not adhering to the U.N. plan — for now — it can alleviate the pressure on it, and that its concessions won’t tip the balance toward its opponents, who are disorganized, divided and lack the weapons to challenge the security apparatus.

Also in the regime’s calculations, presumably, is that even if it has to resort to plan A, bludgeoning the revolt, the international community is too divided to contemplate military action. The International Crisis Group noted last week: “The West remains confused and ambivalent, having exhausted all sources of diplomatic and economic leverage, fearful of the future and tiptoeing around the question of military options.”

Qatar and Saudi Arabia have spoken of arming the opposition, but have not followed through with the sort of hardware and cash that made a difference on the battlefield in Libya.

Looming over the tactical considerations of all sides is the very real damage done to the Syrian economy and people, with the U.N. estimating at least 1 million people displaced internally (not least because sectarian animosities have grown.) Nearly 100,000 Syrians have taken refuge in Jordan. Across the border with Turkey, the refugee camps are taking on a permanent air. Few of the thousands who fled expect to go home anytime soon, and the Obama administration continues to study a buffer zone on the Syria-Turkey border.

If the al-Assad dynasty is to survive, it will need a massive infusion of aid to repair infrastructure and revive an economy in freefall. Defectors have told CNN that government spending has largely been diverted to the military and the feared regime militia; there are shortages of gasoline and electricity. The value of the Syrian pound has halved and a shortage of hard currency is making imports difficult to finance. Reuters quotes French diplomatic sources as estimating Tuesday that Syria’s hard currency reserves have dropped 50% in a year as sanctions have hurt the banking sector and the oil industry. In the long-term, against a background of hyperinflation and shortages, economic implosion may be the Syrian state’s greatest threat.

But does the government have the will or capacity to repair the damage and deliver economic recovery? And would anyone help it do so?

Not while it’s locked in a polarizing war of attrition, characterized by the massacre of entire families and bubbling sectarian hatred. As the International Crisis Group observed last week: “The fact is that the regime’s behavior has fueled extremists on both sides, and, by allowing the country’s slide into chaos, provided them space to move in and operate.”

To most commentators, 250 blue berets are unlikely to reverse that dynamic.

A #Syria’n activist in Homs chronicles the ceasefire that wasn’t

By Michael Weiss

What’s the point of diplomacy no one believes in? The Emir of Qatar has given Kofi Annan’s six-point plan for bringing peace to Syria and opening political “dialogue” a three per cent chance of success, which is several points higher than I’d give it. Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN, sounds fed up with the regime of Bashar al-Assad: “They have lied to the international community, lied to their own people. And the biggest fabricator of the facts is Assad himself.” The Kremlin counters that this pessimism is the real catalyst for ongoing violence; this as opposed to, say, the regular consignments of Russian armaments dispatched to Assad for killing people. “There are countries – there are outside forces – that are not interested in the success of current UN Security Council efforts,” complained Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, subtly echoing the regime’s propaganda narrative of a “conspiracy” against Syria. Many have been begging the United States and Britain and France to make this conspiracy real for some time now, lest the slow-motion creation of a failed state bordering Iraq, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel and Jordan succeeds. Instead, six unarmed UN observers have just arrived in the country, and stand a fair chance of being shot themselves if they venture into Homs or Idleb, where helicopter gunships and artillery shells are still being used against civilian populations.

I spoke this morning to Saif al-Arabe, an activist based in Homs affiliated with the Syrian Revolution General Commission (SRGC). He told me that he woke up to spy planes flying overhead and a barrage of shelling, particularly of the Khalidiya and Bayada neighbourhoods. “There are three sources of the mortar fire,” Saif said. “The military factor in Al-Wah-ir, the ancient castle near the Old City and Wadi al-Dahab, a pro-regime neighbourhood.” Saif sent along a few videos, too. This one shows 14 mortars falling on Homs within the span of four minutes:

I asked Saif which party started the violence after the brief lull last Thursday when the ceasefire euphemistically described as ‘fragile’ or ‘tenuous’ was said to have taken effect. Were Free Syrian Army units attacking regime forces or did the regime fire first? He replied that the FSA had abided by the ceasefire: “I can emphasize to you that they did not start any attack on Assad’s forces, which are shelling all the neighbourhoods randomly. But FSA elements are now trying to stop any storming of the city by Assad’s gangs.” The notorious shabbiha, which the regime has employed as death-and-rape squads since the start of the uprising, are manning military checkpoints alongside army personnel, as displayed in this video:

So why is the regime bombarding Homs again? Saif said the reason was simple: residents who fled Baba Amr after the month-long siege there last February mainly wound up in other Homs neighbourhoods such as al-Qarabees and al-Kusr. And so these, too, must be now pummelled. “There are no cool districts in Homs,” Saif said. “All areas are hot.”

And as in Baba Amr months ago, food and water is scarce and electricity is cut for most of the day. Field hospitals are suffering severe shortages of medicine and equipment. They’re staffed by civilian volunteers, not doctors.

Only a sadist or a fool would call this a truce.

Russia rejects deadline for Annan’s #Syria peace plan

Russia on Monday rejected Arab and Western calls for a deadline to be set on the Syrian regime’s implementation of a peace plan put forward by international mediator Kofi Annan

AFP
Published: 15:48 April 2, 2012

Image Credit: Reuters
United Nations-Arab League envoy to Syria Kofi Annan walks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov during their meeting in Moscow Sunday. Russia on Monday rejected Arab and Western calls for a deadline to be set on the Syrian regime’s implementation of a peace plan put forward by international mediator Kofi Annan.

Yerevan: Russia on Monday rejected Arab and Western calls for a deadline to be set on the Syrian regime’s implementation of a peace plan put forward by international mediator Kofi Annan.

“Ultimatums and artificial deadlines rarely help matters,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said while on a visit to the former Soviet nation of Armenia.

Navy destroyer heading for Syria

Moscow: A Russian navy destroyer will dock at the Syrian port of Tartus in the coming days after setting out on a planned mission to the region, agencies quoted military officials as saying on Monday.

The Smetlivy guided-missile destroyer sailed for the Mediterranean from its Black Sea base of Sevastopol over the weekend and will shortly arrive at the Russian-leased port in Syria, state news agency and other reports said.

The ship will take on new supplies of food and water before conducting planned exercises near Syria’s coast, navy officials said.

‘Purely technical port call’

“This will be a purely technical port call that is conducted by almost all Russian navy ships conducting exercises in the Mediterranean,” a senior source in the Russian navy told Interfax.

The source said the destroyer’s crew would not be leaving the ship while it was docked.

Tartus is the only base used by Russia in the Mediterranean.

Russia is a close Syria ally that had for the past years shielded Syrian President Bashar Al Assad from Western criticism for its bloody political crackdown that the United Nations says has killed more than 9,000 people.

A Russian ship reportedly delivered a supply of arms to Damascus through the same port in January.

Annan says #Syria has accepted his plan to end violence

By the CNN Wire Staff

March 27, 2012 — Updated 1351 GMT (2151 HKT)

(CNN) — The Syrian government has accepted U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan’s plan to forge peace and end violence in the volatile nation, Annan’s spokesman said Tuesday.

Annan is urging the Syrian government “to put its commitments into immediate effect.” Annan’s six-point plan was the cornerstone of a presidential statement endorsed last week by the U.N. Security Council.

“Mr. Annan views this as an important initial step,” spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said.

“Mr. Annan has stressed that implementation will be key, not only for the Syrian people, who are caught in the middle of this tragedy, but also for the region and the international community as a whole. As the Syrian government acts on its commitments, Mr. Annan will move urgently to work with all parties to secure implementation of the plan at all levels.”

The plan calls for:

• “An inclusive Syrian-led political process to address the legitimate aspirations and concerns of the Syria people.”

• A commitment “to stop the fighting and achieve urgently an effective United Nations supervised cessation of armed violence in all its forms by all parties to protect civilians and stabilize the country.”

• Ensuring the “timely provision of humanitarian assistance to all areas affected by the fighting …”

• Intensifying “the pace and scale of release of arbitrarily detained persons,” including people who have been “involved in peaceful political activities.”

• Ensuring “freedom of movement throughout the country for journalists and a nondiscriminatory visa policy for them.”

• Respecting “freedom of association and the right to demonstrate peacefully as legally guaranteed.”

Annan, a former U.N. secretary-general, arrived in China Tuesday to rally support for the plan. His visit comes after a stop in Russia. Both countries have stymied U.N. Security Council attempts to take tough action again the Syrian regime.

During his two-day trip to China, Annan will meet with Foreign Ministry officials, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency said. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said China supports Annan’s mediation efforts and hopes to discuss political solutions for the Syrian crisis, according to Xinhua.

“We’ve had a very good discussion about the situation in Syria. They have offered me their full support,” Annan said.

Both China and Russia have said they want the violence to stop but argue that draft resolutions by Security Council peers were not evenhanded. Both countries have major trade ties with Syria, but have said they are not trying to protect a regime.

Annan has said the ongoing crisis in Syria cannot not be allowed to “drag on indefinitely,” but resisted setting any sort of timetable.

Many world powers want President Bashar al-Assad to step down.

But Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said removing the president won’t provide a quick solution, according to state-owned news agency RIA Novosti.

“The internal conflict currently tearing Syrian society apart will not disappear with the departure of one or another political figure,” said Medvedev, who is attending the nuclear summit in Seoul. “To consider that Assad’s departure would solve all the problems would be very nearsighted.”

Medvedev also said Annan’s mission could be a last chance to avert a “prolonged and bloody civil war,” the RIA Novosti report said.

Russia has vetoed U.N. Security Council resolutions on Syria, but has given full backing to Annan’s mission. And in an apparent hardening of Russia’s position on Syria, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said last week that Assad had handled initial peaceful protests “incorrectly.”

Violence has raged in Syria since last March, when the government launched a fierce crackdown against protesters. The United Nations estimates the Syrian conflict has killed more than 8,000 people; opposition activists put the toll at more than 10,000.

At least 20 more people were killed Tuesday, opposition activists said.

The deaths took place in Hama, Homs, Idlib, the Damascus suburbs and Deir Ezzor, according to the Local Coordination Committees of Syria.

Syrian State TV said al-Assad visiting the Homs’ city neighborhood of Baba Amr Tuesday, an anti-government bastion pummeled by government security forces. News footage showed him speaking and waving to residents there and surveying damage. For weeks, activists have reported constant shelling in parts of the city — attacks the government has attributed to terror groups.

There has been worldwide condemnation against al-Assad’s regime, with countries speaking out or severing diplomatic channels inside Syria.

A day after Turkey and Norway announced the closure of their embassies in Damascus, Turkish Airlines said Tuesday it has suspended ticket sales to Damascus and Aleppo as of April 1.

The Turkish government, which owns just under half of the company’s shares, has used the airline as an extension of its foreign policy. It has extended airline routes to countries shortly after high-level diplomatic contacts and bilateral trade deals are announced. With Syria, this pairing of Turkish Airlines and government policy is working the other way around.

The Syrian government routinely blames the vaguely defined “armed terrorist groups” for violence in the country, while most reports from inside Syria suggest the government is slaughtering civilians in an attempt to wipe out dissidents.

CNN cannot independently confirm reports from inside Syria because the government severely restricts access by international journalists.

Syrian authorities have banned men ages 18 to 42 from traveling abroad until they serve their compulsory military draft, a rebel army spokesman said Tuesday.

The ban “shows that the regime is preparing for the worst and they are suffering from heavy losses from our operations and the defections all across the nation,” Lt. Riad Ahmed of the rebel Free Syrian Army said. “We keep asking our brothers in the armed forces to abandon the barracks and join the revolution all over Syria because it is a matter of time before the regime collapses.”

Al-Assad’s regime did not immediately issue a statement confirming or denying such a travel ban.

But the Syrian Revolution website posted a memo from Syrian Air saying all men ages 18 to 42 must check with the recruitment office and receive clearance before traveling.

Russia out to maintain clout, improve image on #Syria

* Russia hedges its bets on Syrian leader Assad’s fate

* Moscow hopes to hold influence in diplomacy and Syrian transition

* For Putin, ensuring Russia’s voice is heard and curbing Western clout are crucial

By Steve Gutterman

MOSCOW, March 21 (Reuters) - One part public relations, one part cold calculation: Russia’s sharper tone toward Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is calculated to improve Moscow’s image after months shielding him from censure and ensure the Kremlin a strong diplomatic role regardless of whether he stays in power.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov took aim at Assad in an interview broadcast on Tuesday, saying Syria’s leadership had ignored Russia’s warnings and made “very many mistakes” that helped drag the country to the brink of civil war.

The tough tone is part of a growing Russian effort to distance itself from Assad, whose government is blamed by many Western and Arab countries for violence the United Nations says has killed more than 8,000 civilians since a crackdown on pro-democracy protests began in March 2011.

On Wednesday, Russia supported a U.N. Security Council statement backing U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan’s mission to end the violence, in a show of unity with the United States and Europe.

Moscow and Beijing had previously vetoed two Western-backed resolutions supported by Arab states.

“Clearly Russia doesn’t want to be seen as Assad’s last line of defence,” said Dmitry Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Centre think tank.

Russia has not budged on its most adamant demand: that Assad must not be pushed out by foreign powers using the Security Council to promote “regime change”, as President-elect Vladimir Putin and other top officials say happened last year in Libya.

But the criticism, and support for the statement, are signs that Russia is hedging its bets about Assad’s fate and wants as strong a hand as possible in shaping Syria’s future in the event that he is forced out.

Putin may have calculated that a strong role in a peace settlement, and a chance for some sway in a post-Assad Syria, is worth more than close ties with a leader who could be doomed.

“Russia will not be focused on keeping Assad in power for the sake of keeping Assad in power,” said Trenin.

HIGH STAKES

The U.N. statement is not binding, and Moscow bought time for Assad by negotiating the removal of a specific one-week deadline for the government to comply with the council’s demands or face potential “further steps”, which Russia could block.

It also leaves plenty of room for Syria’s government and the Kremlin to blame Assad’s opponents for continued violence, and includes no direct call for Assad to step aside to make way for a political dialogue - a condition Russia said was unacceptable.

By cementing Annan’s central role in peace efforts, Russia may hope to keep the issue close to the United Nations, where it has veto power in the Security Council - and stem any efforts by Western and Gulf Arab nations to seize the initiative.

If Assad does go, Russia would face a huge challenge in winning over his opponents, angered by Russia’s refusal to push for his ouster and by its vetoes of two resolutions condemning his government for the bloodshed.

The stakes are high. Syria has bought billions of dollars worth of Russian arms and hosts a supply and maintenance facility on the Mediterranean coast that is Russia’s only military base outside the former Soviet Union.

The Kremlin may hope to steer Syria toward a transition with political change superficial enough to strengthen Moscow’s hope of maintaining strong ties with Syria, its firmest foothold in the Middle East.

The intensity of the conflict in Syria means the time when that was possible may have passed, said Fyodor Lukyanov, editor of the journal Russia in Global Affairs.

But he said that Russia had used its firm stance in recent months “to tell the West and Arab countries very clearly and decisively that … Russia’s position must be heeded.”

PUTIN FACTOR

That was crucial for Putin, who is now prime minister and returns to the Kremlin for a six-year presidential term in May.

Facing protests at home, he made accusations of U.S. and NATO meddling abroad a theme of his campaign, and had sharply criticised the March 2011 Security Council resolution that authorised NATO military intervention in Libya.

Russia let that resolution pass by abstaining. He accused NATO nations of overstepping their mandate and using the green light from the Security Council to back rebels who drove Gaddafi from power.

While Lavrov’s language was strong, Russia’s insistence that it is not backing Assad is nothing new. Russia has repeatedly said its stance has been driven by the desire to uphold international law, protect a sovereign state from outside interference and avert civil war, not by self-interest.

Putin rarely spoke of the Syrian conflict until recent weeks, and when he did it was to say that Assad was no ally and Russia had no special relationship with Syria.

In the radio interview, Lavrov displayed cool indifference to the man he met last month on a visit to Damascus.

Asked whether it would be better for Assad to resign and leave Syria for Moscow or Belarus than to end up hiding like Gaddafi, he said that “nobody is inviting him to Moscow” and that it was “up to Assad” and the Syrian people to decide his political future.

#Syria: Damascus suburbs come under renewed attack

Two large suburbs of Damascus came under heavy tank bombardment on Wednesday following renewed Free Syrian Army attacks on forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad, opposition activists said.

A Syrian army checkpoint in the restive Damascus suburb of Saqba Photo: AFP/Getty Images

8:03AM GMT 21 Mar 2012

Artillery and anti-aircraft gun barrages hit the suburbs of Harasta and Irbin, retaken from rebels by Assad’s forces two months ago, and army helicopters were heard flying over the area, on the eastern edge of the capital, the activists said.

Assad’s forces reasserted their control of Damascus suburbs in January after days of tank and artillery shelling that beat back rebels and lessened street protests against the 42-year rule of Assad and his father, the late President Hafez al-Assad.

The suburbs are a linked series of towns inhabited mostly by members of Syria’s Sunni Muslim majority, who have grown increasingly resentful at the domination of the Assads, who belong to the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Islam.

The Damascus assault and rebel fighters’ flight on Tuesday from the eastern city of Deir al-Zor mark the latest setbacks for the armed opposition, which also faced accusations of torture and brutality from a leading human rights body.

But as Assad made advances on the ground, he appeared to suffer a setback on the diplomatic front, with key-ally Moscow adopting a new, sharper tone after months of publicly standing by his government.

“We believe the Syrian leadership reacted wrongly to the first appearance of peaceful protests and … is making very many mistakes,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Russian radio station Kommersant-FM.

“This, unfortunately, has in many ways led the conflict to reach such a severe stage.”

Lavrov also spoke of a “future transition” period for Syria but continued to reject calls from most Western and Arab states for Assad to resign, saying this was “unrealistic”.

It was not immediately clear if the change in language would translate into a tangible difference in the way international powers, hitherto divided on Syria, might deal with the crisis.

“The change in the Russian position is one of tone, not of substance. Moscow still sees its support of Assad as part of a regional game, but it is losing the support of the Syrian people, which could backfire on it if the Syrian regime falls,” said Najati Tayyara, a prominent Syrian opposition figure.

The uprising started with non-violent demonstrations last March, but the situation deteriorated rapidly amid a ferocious army crackdown and there are now daily clashes between rebels and security forces around the country.

The United Nations says more than 8,000 people have been killed so far, but the toll is rising rapidly, with at least 31 men, women and children killed on Tuesday, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

Lightly armed rebel forces have been forced into retreat across the country in recent weeks, with the army using heavy weapons to chase them from towns and cities, chalking up its latest victory in Deir al-Zor.

“Tanks entered residential neighbourhoods, especially in southeastern areas of Deir al-Zor. The Free Syrian Army pulled out to avoid a civilian massacre,” a statement by the Deir al-Zor Revolution Committees Union said.

After failing to hold significant stretches of land, analysts say the rebels appear to be switching to insurgency tactics, pointing to bloody car bomb attacks in two major Syrian cities at the weekend and the sabotage of a major rail link.

Car bomb attacks in the capital Damascus and second city Aleppo killed at least 30 over the weekend, while rebels also destroyed a railway bridge linking Damascus to Deraa, according to official Syrian media.

Diplomats warn the fighting could develop into a civil war pitching Assad’s Alawite sect and its minority allies against the majority Sunni Muslim population.

Assad may also be facing pressure from inside his government. Documents described as leaked from inside Syria’s embattled government show it trying to dissuade the president’s allies from defecting.

The government says 2,000 members of the security forces have been killed by foreign-backed “terrorists” and denies accusations of brutality and indiscriminate violence.

In a new twist, the advocacy group Human Rights Watch said the rebels were guilty of serious crimes, citing cases of kidnapping, torture and killings in cold blood.

Washington said it would “absolutely denounce” human rights violations by the rebels, but stressed that most of the abuse was being carried out by pro-Assad forces.

Russia has previously vetoed two Western and Arab-backed U.N resolutions condemning government violence, arguing that the actions of rebels should also be criticised.

In a fresh effort to form a united international front, France has circulated a Western-drafted statement for the sharply divided U.N. Security Council deploring the turmoil and backing peace efforts by U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan.

Russia announced it would back the text on two conditions – that there was no ultimatum imposed on Assad and that Annan release full details of his peace plan.

Annan dispatched a team of five experts to Damascus on Monday to discuss ways of implementing the peace drive, including a mechanism to let international monitors into the country. Syria has questioned the value of such a mission and talks continue.

Lavrov also dismissed media reports of Russian warships entering Russia’s naval facility in the Syrian port of Tartous as “fairy tales”. Some reports had said Russian ships were delivering weapons or special forces troops.

Lavrov said a Russian tanker with fuel for Russian warships involved in antipiracy operations in the Gulf of Aden was docked at the port. Russia has repeatedly said its arms sales to Syria violate no laws and it sees no grounds to suspend them.

Source: agencies

Russia counting on #Syria to keep arms exports high - report

(Reuters) - Russia is counting on President Bashar al-Assad keeping his grip on power to see through potential arms contracts worth up to $6 billion (3 billion pounds) (3 billion pounds) and help Moscow reach a record defence export year, according to the CAST defence and security think-tank.

Russia has been Assad’s main defender as Western and Arab countries push for a U.N. Security Council resolution which would call for him to step down.

A veto-wielding permanent member, Russia has already criticised the resolution saying it will lead to civil war.

Having lost tens of billions of dollars in arms contracts with Libya after leader Muammar Gaddafi was ousted last year, Moscow is looking to Damascus to maintain a foothold, both politically and economically, in the region.

At stake for Russia, the world’s no. 2 arms exporter, is billions of dollars in potential and current arms contracts with ally Syria, including deliveries on an order of 24 MiG-29M2 fighter jets signed in 2007.

Syria, where Russia maintains a naval base, is also the only ally Russia has left in the Middle East.

“(If Assad goes) Russia will lose everything,” CAST Director Ruslan Pukhov said.

“Syria is one of Russia’s top five clients. Russia already concluded with Syria contracts for $4 billion and has $2 billion more potential contracts on the way,” Pukhov said.

Moscow-based CAST is Russia’s most respected defence and security think-tank. Although it has good relations with the government it is independent.

Tests for the jet fighters began in December of last year, CAST said in a report obtained by Reuters before publication. Damascus was also likely to receive deliveries of Buk anti-aircraft missiles this year, it said.

Russia delivered a record $12 billion in weapons in 2011, CAST said in an annual report released before official data, boosted by sales to embattled Arab leaders and Asian countries eyeing China’s rising military might.

Pukhov said while the funds are crucial for Russia’s defence industry, which Putin built up during his 2000-08 presidency and lacks enough domestic orders to keep it profitable, they have little bearing on Russia’s $1.85 trillion economy.

CAST said Damascus received eight percent of Russia’s 2011 deliveries or nearly $960 million in jet fighter upgrades and anti-ship missile systems.

NO. 2 ARMS EXPORTER

Western U.N. envoys who support the plan calling for Assad’s removal have already condemned arms sales to Damascus, where the United Nations says more than 5,000 civilians have been killed in a 10-month-old crackdown on opposition to Assad’s rule.

In addition to upgrades and repairs to Syria’s MiG-23 and MiG-29 fighter jets last year, it also received three different missile systems, including Bastion anti-ship missile units and another anti-aircraft missile system.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said Moscow’s arms exports to Syria need no explanation. While European Union and U.S. embargoes prevent selling arms with Assad’s government, no international treaty with Russia is in place.

Russia has seen several years of record-breaking arms delivery growth, despite criticism that it is failing to deliver the technological benefits of Western suppliers or the low costs of emerging weapons exporter China.

Despite having signed $3.69 billion in new arms contracts in 2011, the total portfolio of Russia’s arms exporting monopoly Rosoboronexport shrank to $35 billion from a size of $38.5 billion in 2010.

“We expect that results of 2012 will show that Russian export of arms will exceed the mark of $14 billion. Looking at the current portfolio…that level of export may be supported for at least another three years,” the report said.

Rosoboronexport makes up around 80 percent of all arms exports in a given year, while nearly 20 independent firms make up the difference with sales of spare parts and upgrades.

Last year the top customer for Russian arms was India, whose arms ties extend to Soviet times and which received $2.5 billion worth of tanks and fighter jets as New Delhi ramps up its defences against China’s growing martial might.

(Reporting By Thomas Grove; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

United States and Russia clash over #Syria at UN

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton addresses a news conference at United Nations headquarters, Monday, March 12, 2012.(AP / Richard Drew)

Updated: Mon Mar. 12 2012 13:01:04

The Associated Press

The United States and Russia clashed over Syria at the UN Monday after Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the divided Security Council to speak with one voice and help the Mideast nation “pull back from the brink of a deeper catastrophe.”

Washington and Moscow both called for an end to the bloody yearlong conflict — but on different terms, leaving in doubt prospects of breaking a deadlock in the council over a new resolution.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton rejected any equivalence between the “premeditated murders” carried by President Bashar Assad’s “military machine” and the civilians under siege driven to self-defence.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Syrian authorities “bear a huge share of responsibility” but insisted opposition fighters and extremists including al-Qaida are also committing violent and terrorist acts.

Lavrov said if the priority is to immediately end any violence and provide humanitarian aid to the Syrian people “then at this stage we should not talk about who was the first to start, but rather discuss realistic and feasible approaches which would allow (us) to achieve the cease-fire as a priority.”

Clinton declared that the Security Council cannot “stand silent when governments massacre their own people, threatening regional peace and security in the process.”

The ministerial debate in the council on challenges from last year’s Arab Spring was dominated by the yearlong conflict in Syria, which has killed over 7,500 people, according to the United Nations.

Secretary-General Ban, who led off the debate, said the conflict has led the entire region into uncertainty and subjected citizens in several cities to disproportionate violence.

Russia, which is Syria’s most powerful ally, and China have vetoed two U.S. and European-backed Security Council resolutions which would have condemned Assad’s bloody crackdown, saying they were unbalanced and demanded that only the government stop attacks, not the opposition. Moscow accused Western powers of fueling the conflict by backing the rebels.

Earlier this month, the United States proposed a new draft which tried to take a more balanced approach, but diplomats said Russia and China rejected it.

Lavrov flew to New York from Cairo, where he had a tense meeting with Arab League foreign ministers. They have endorsed a plan for Assad to hand power to his vice-president, but the Russians are adamantly opposed to any resolution endorsing regime change.

In the end, the Arab League and Lavrov agreed on a plan that the Russia foreign minister said could lead to an early solution of the Syrian crisis: an immediate cease-fire, a clause preventing foreign intervention, assurances about humanitarian aid, an impartial monitoring mechanism and an endorsement of the mission by former UN chief Kofi Annan, the new U.N.-Arab League special envoy to Syria.

Annan left Syria on Sunday without a deal to end the conflict, while regime forces mounted a new assault on rebel strongholds in the north.

On Monday, Annan met Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara and told reporters the diplomatic process would take time.

“This a very complex situation,” said Annan. “We are going to press ahead for humanitarian access, for the killings of civilians to stop, and that get everybody to the table to work out a political solution.”

Clinton told reporters after meeting privately with Lavrov that she appreciated the opportunity to discuss the way forward and pointed out to him “my very strong view that the alternative to our unity on these points will be bloody internal conflict with dangerous consequences for the whole region.”

She said everyone is waiting to hear Annan’s advice on the best way forward, and the U.S. hopes that after Monday’s council session and the recent meetings in Cairo and Damascus “we will be prepared in the Security Council to chart a way forward.”

Lavrov said separate discussions with Clinton and the British and French foreign ministers “indicated that there is a growing understanding of the need not to talk to each other on the basis of take it or leave it, but to bring the positions together and to be guided not by the desire of revenge or punishment, who is to blame … but by the interests of the Syrian people.”

On the sidelines, the Quartet of Mideast peace mediators — the UN, U.S., European Union and Russia — met behind closed doors on the escalating Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which is witnessing the worst flare-up in violence in more than a year.

The ministerial meeting reviewed efforts to get the Palestinians and Israelis back to the negotiating table, but deep divisions remain and there is little hope of a breakthrough.

Russians living in #Syria insulted, blamed for violence

The Russian press has been playing up the gratitude of the Syrian people for Moscow’s staunch opposition to foreign intervention against the regime of Bashar al-Assad.

Demonstrators against President Bashar al-Assad hold a placard that reads, “Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin says to Syria’s Assad, My cuddly murderer of his people.” (Reuters)

Demonstrators in Damascus and Aleppo sang Russia’s praises when Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov appeared in Syria on Feb. 7, and Russian TV and newspapers showed delirious crowds waving Russian flags. Ten days later, Syrians in Moscow staged a rally where they shouted, “Thank you, Russia! Thank you, Putin!”

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has enjoyed playing the role of Syria’s protector and champion. But within the Russian community living in Damascus, the view is a bit darker.

“Our women are insulted out loud in some districts of Damascus,” Archimandrite Alexander, the Russian Orthodox Church’s representative there, told the Interfax news agency. “Sometimes taxi drivers deny a ride to Russian-speaking people. Even children can throw stones at people speaking the Russian language.”

There’s no doubt about where that attitude comes from.

“Russian citizens’ position in Syria deteriorated sharply after Russia vetoed the U.N. Security Council resolution on Syria,” Alexander said. “The so-called liberation army and radical religious groups intimidate them, blame them for the Syrians’ and their children’s deaths, and want them to leave.”

Russian citizens who can are getting out. The Russian Embassy school has closed, and Russian workers on a natural gas development project have been evacuated. Russian diplomats want to curtail services at St. Ignatius Church because of security concerns, though it still ministers to Russian servicemen who are alone now that their families have left.

And Damascus, said the archimandrite, is about the safest place in Syria. It’s a lot worse outside the city.

In the following video posted to YouTube, angry Syrians take to the streets to protest Russians in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city. Many chant: “The people want to topple the regime.”