Russia said evacuating its personnel from base in Syria

01/10/12

Moscow pulls military staff and civilians out of

Tartus, rebels claim

By


A Russian-built, Kilo-class diesel submarine (photo credit: Courtesy US DoD)

Russia was completing the withdrawal of its citizens and military personnel from its naval base in Syria, Saudi daily Al Watan reported on Sunday.

Free Syrian Army Major Maher al-Naimi told the paper that Russian and Cypriot ships docked at the port in order to evacuate the remaining Russian technicians as well as 52 of the 72 armored vehicles from the military installation.

Al-Naimi said the Syrian opposition considers the Tartus base as part of Syria that is occupied by Russia and that it will be liberated once the Russian military leaves. He claimed that Russia was evacuating because it recognized the Syrian opposition’s military upper hand.

He added that the Syrian opposition would not continue Damascus’s level of strategic partnership with Moscow, Tehran, and Beijing, and that the Russian military “was not welcome” in Syria.

In August, Russia sent 11 warships to the Mediterranean, some of which were bound for the Tartus naval facility. The New York Times reported that “nearly half of the ships were capable of carrying hundreds of marines.”

Moscow has operated the naval facility at Tartus since signing an agreement with Damascus in 1971. Although it is merely a ship repair and refueling station with a limited military presence, it is the sole remaining Russian military base outside of the former Soviet Union.

Source: timesofisrael.com

Russia tells citizens to leave #Syria, reportedly refuses Assad requests for weapons

05/09/12

Moscow believed to be considering evacuating personnel from its naval base in Tartus


A destoryed Syrian Army tank. Russia has indicated it will not provide Assad with any new weapons. (photo credit: CC BY/FreedomHouse,Flickr)

Russia told its citizens to leave Syria amid escalating violence on Tuesday. It cautioned its nationals to use extra care because both army and commercial planes are being targeted around the country.

Moscow is also refusing to meet Syrian requests for certain arms shipments — including more of the training planes that President Bashar Assad’s regime has been utilizing as bombers, and intercontinental-range SS-17 ballistic missiles — Israel’s Channel 2 News reported Tuesday. Russia, which has been supplying the Syrian regime with weapons for over four decades, has been criticized in the West for aiding Assad in the bloody 18-month uprising.

Moscow had previously hinted it will not send the regime any more weapons, adding that shipments to date represent its fulfillment of existing arms agreements rather than new arms deals.

Russia is also reported to be contemplating scaling down operations at its military base in Tartus, western Syria, if the security situation becomes critically dangerous.

According to independent Russian news agency Interfax, Russia admitted it had previously considered evacuating personnel from Tartus, but decided the situation was stable enough to stay.

Tartus, Russia’s only naval facility outside the landmass that comprises the former Soviet Union, is referred to as Moscow’s gateway to the Mediterranean. It hosts storage facilities, military specialists, and ships that come to be resupplied.

Source: timesofisrael.com

German-owned ship ‘halted with suspected weapons for #Syria

The German government says it is looking into a report that weapons bound for the Syrian government were loaded onto a German-owned ship.

The German news weekly Der Spiegel reported on Saturday the Atlantic Cruiser was halted in the Mediterranean after its owners were warned it was suspected to be carrying Iranian military equipment to Tartus, Syria.
Der Spiegel quoted shipping agent Torsten Lueddeke of Hamburg-based CEG Bulk Chartering as saying: “We stopped the ship after we received information on the weapons cargo.”
He said the ship was chartered to Ukraine-based White Whale Shipping, and they said the ship was carrying pumps and similar equipment.


Neither CEG nor the ship’s owner were immediately reachable. The German Economy Ministry said it looks into all suspected embargo breaches but did not yet have details of the case.

To read the full report click here.

Source: blogs.aljazeera.com

Exclusive: Iran helps #Syria ship oil to China: sources

Jessica Donati, Reuters March 30, 2012, 10:31 pm

LONDON (Reuters) - Iran is helping its ally Syria defy Western sanctions by providing a vessel to ship Syrian oil to a state-run company in China, potentially giving the government of President Bashar al-Assad a financial boost worth an estimated $80 million.

Iran, itself a target of Western sanctions, is among Syria’s closest allies and has promised to do all it can to support Assad, recently praising his handling of the year-long uprising against Assad in which thousands have been killed.

China has also shielded Assad from foreign intervention, vetoing two Western-backed resolutions at the United Nations over the bloodshed, and is not bound by Western sanctions against Syria, its oil sector and state oil firm Sytrol.

“The Syrians planned to sell the oil directly to the Chinese but they could not find a vessel,” said an industry source who added that he had been asked to help Sytrol execute the deal but did not take part.

The source named the Chinese buyer as Zhuhai Zhenrong Corp, a state-run company hit by U.S. sanctions in January.

A Zhuhai Zhenrong spokeswoman said: “I’ve never heard about this.” She declined further comment.

The U.S. State Department said in January that Zhuhai Zhenrong was the largest supplier of refined petroleum products to Iran, on which the West has imposed sanctions because it suspects Tehran of trying to develop nuclear weapons.

China’s willingness to start importing Syrian oil offers a rare break in the country’s growing isolation.

Syria, a relatively modest oil exporter, has been unable to sell its crude into Europe, its traditional destination until September last year when European Union and U.S. sanctions halted exports.

The crude oil cargo, worth around $84 million assuming a discounted price of about $100 a barrel, could provide Assad with much-needed funds after another round of sanctions designed to further isolate the country’s ailing economy were imposed by the European Union last week.

Syria’s Sytrol, which has been on the EU and U.S. sanctions list since last year, referred calls to the country’s oil ministry. No one answered repeated calls by Reuters at the oil ministry. Iranian authorities were not available to comment.

The source added Sytrol had enlisted contacts in Venezuela to help find a vessel that could pick up the cargo. The problem was ultimately resolved by the Iranian authorities, who sent the tanker M.T. Tour to take on the cargo.

The Maltese-flagged tanker is owned by shipping firm ISIM Tour Limited, which has been identified by the U.S. Department of Treasury as a front company set up by Iran to evade sanctions.

The M.T. Tour reached the Syrian port of Tartus at the weekend, where it loaded the 120,000 metric tonne (132,277 tons) cargo of light crude oil, according to the industry source and shiptracking data.

Satellite tracking showed the vessel was last spotted near Port Said in Egypt, where is was due to arrive on Wednesday. Its final destination was not available but the industry source said the vessel was likely to head to China or Singapore.

“I was asked to provide an option to ship to southern China or Singapore,” the source said.

(Reporting by Jessica Donati; Additional reporting by Chen Aizhu; Editing by Anthony Barker and Giles Elgood)

Source: Yahoo!

Arab League Officials Vow to Continue #Syria Mission

Members of the Arab League hold a meeting on Syria in Cairo, Egypt, January 8, 2012.

Arab League officials have demanded Syria abide by its agreement to end violence against civilians and have vowed to carry on with a monitoring mission that many in the Syrian opposition feel is ineffectual.  

In their first review of the Arab League’s observer mission in Syria, regional foreign ministers took few concrete steps that would put additional pressure on Damascus.   

Officials at the Cairo meeting had been expected to discuss possible U.N. technical help, a step towards bringing in additional nations to deal with Syria’s brutal crackdown on a popular uprising.

But one of the most outspoken critics of the Syrian government, Qatar’s Sheikh Hamad bin Jassin al-Thani, warned the monitoring mission is not open-ended, adding officials have a rough idea of when they will decide no further progress can be made. “But I do not think it is wise to announce this date.  We do not want to threaten anybody.  We are trying to cooperate with everybody, until we achieve peace in Syria, which up until now we are not satisfied [about] and I cannot see it,” he said.

The Qatari prime minister, who also serves as foreign minister, said the league is doing its best, but the results are not ideal.  He called for the Syrian government to stop the “bloodbath.

The mission began late last month to oversee Syria’s compliance with a league peace plan, but the opposition reports several hundred more civilian deaths since their arrival.  The United Nations estimates about 5,000 civilians have been killed in 10 months of unrest.   

Opposition members, including protesters outside the Cairo hotel where the meeting was held Sunday, say the observers are being tricked by Syrian officials who allegedly order attacks on civilians halted while the monitors make their rounds, only to resume the assaults once league officials move on.  Syria had vowed to withdraw its military from the streets, but opponents say soldiers have simply donned police uniforms and disguised their vehicles.  

Some Arab League diplomats have been calling for U.N. help to better train the monitors to carry out their assignment, or possibly accompany them.

The United Nations is set to meet Tuesday to discuss the situation, but opponents of intervention, most notably Russia, say they would rule out even technical assistance.  

A Russian flotilla was reported to have docked Sunday at the Syrian port of Tartus, in an apparent show of support for the government.  But some political observers believe that outside intervention is inevitable.

American University of Beirut Political Science Professor Hilal Khashan says he does not expect the league monitors will implicate the Syrian government. “I think their activity will go on and it will be inconclusive.  Eventually the international community will have to do something about the situation in Syria because the Arab League is not equipped to deal with the situation,” he said.

Khashan says time is on the Syrian government’s side, and the longer it takes to mount effective external pressure, the more the leadership in Damascus hopes it will not go the way of its former counterparts in Cairo or Tunis. “The regime feels that if they continue to buy time, they will eventually succeed in clamping down on the opposition and reducing its significance,” he said.

But Khashan notes that their failure to do so over the past 10 months makes it difficult to assume they can any time soon.  With no end in sight to the killing, such a prospect has only further emboldened government opponents to demand moving beyond the Arab League observer mission to more forceful outside help.

Source: voanews.com