Syria will “respond immediately” to any new Israeli attack against its territory, its deputy foreign minister told AFP on Thursday, after two reported Israeli strikes on military targets last week.

“The instruction has been made to respond immediately to any new Israeli attack without [additional] instruction from any higher leadership, and our retaliation will be strong and will be painful against Israel,” Faisal Muqdad said.

He spoke in an interview with AFP in the Syrian capital.

Senior Israeli sources said the strikes targeted weapons bound for the powerful Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, a close ally of Damascus.

Muqdad denied that.

“They absolutely did not achieve their objective and they lied when they said they are targeting Hezbollah,” he said.

There is “no way Syria will allow this to happen again,” he added.

Israel reportedly targeted military sites near the capital Damascus early on Friday morning and again early on Sunday morning, with at least 42 soldiers reported dead in the second strike.

The Jewish state has repeatedly warned it will intervene to prevent the transfer of advanced weaponry to Hezbollah, with which it fought the devastating 2006 Summer War.

The strikes last week were the third time Israel is thought to have hit sites inside Syria since the beginning of an uprising against the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in March 2011. That first was in January of this year.

The uprising, which began with peaceful protests, has devolved into a bloody conflict that has killed more than 70,000 people, according to the UN, and displaced millions of Syrians.

AFP - 05/09/2013

At least 42,000 people have been killed in violence since an uprising broke out against the rule of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in March last year, a monitoring group said on Thursday.

December 6 2012

03/09/12

31/08/12

Ugarit mobility Horan, lanes Assad gangs burned houses in the city
Garrett | | This section is a section to document events that occur in #Syria, and not to encourage violence

25/08/12

A new Syrian nation can be born in the inferno of struggle, one that can overcome differences that appear unbridgeable.

In his classic The Wretched of the Earth, Frantz Fanon drew a fraught connection between violence and national liberation. His idea was that in the course of a violent struggle against their oppressors, a disparate, divided people could come together to form a cohesive, democratic nation.

Fanon was well aware that violence was a diabolical means of liberation. He provided psychiatric case studies of mentally damaged liberation fighters, state security officials and their families to make the point.

But at the same time, he appreciated the generative, potentially positive powers of collective violence.

Violent struggle could transform a people. Through it they could learn political maturity, mutual respect and the subordination of personal interests for the cause. Most of all, they could cease being an oppressed, little people and become instead authors of their own fate, a beacon of freedom on the world stage.

The people of Syria have such an opportunity today. Many challenges confront them, and no one should underestimate the obstacles to such a democratic outcome. Internally, sectarianism is the greatest threat. Externally, the West and its allies in the Persian Gulf will seek to shape the outcome to suit their own interests and predilections.

Foreign relations

Everyone who joins the struggle against Assad, Sunni and Shia, Salafi and Alawite, Kurd and Christian, all must treat each other with tolerance and respect. A new Syrian nation can be born in the inferno of struggle, one that can overcome differences that today appear unbridgeable. Habits of co-operation developed under fire can endure into the peace. The demands of commanding rebel bands - cajoling, inspiring, sacrificing - are a university for Syria’s new leaders, a university with few places for the old elites.

Those struggling for freedom in Syria must not sell out their revolution to foreign backers. The Qataris and the Saudis will be looking for an Islamist Syria. They and the West will seek to turn Syria against Iran and Hezbollah. Westerners will also want to privatise Syria’s economy and place it under foreign ownership. Free Syria must accept help, but not at any price. It must determine its own foreign relations, in its own interests, and support other peoples struggling for liberation.

For Fanon, liberation struggles like that in Syria could have worldwide significance. They can demonstrate new political possibilities for other peoples and lead to new forms of international solidarity. 

The Syrian struggle has brought renewed attention to the political viability of the nation-state and its democratic potential. For many in recent decades, globalisation has surpassed the nation-state and reduced it in importance. Much power is exercised at the international level, through free trade pacts like NAFTA, through international governmental organisations like the IMF and World Bank, through alliances like NATO, and through the institutions of the EU.

What all of these international entities share in common is their inherently anti-democratic character. They operate independent of any direct popular control; they are the instruments of elites.

There is no greater example of this than the EU. National publics are rarely given a vote. When they are, they usually reject further integration and control from Brussels. Eurocrats respond by going ahead with integration anyway, or hold multiple referendums until they get the “right” answer.

Democratic nation-state

By contrast, the nation-state remains a remarkable vehicle for democracy. Citizens can determine who their leaders are. They understand the major issues. They share enough in terms of culture, language and values that they can debate the collective issues before them. Most of all, perhaps, the scale of a single country is such that we can all imagine our fates are conjoined, interdependent.

Even in a globalised world, a democratic nation-state can direct its future, shape its economy and society, and determine what kind of place it will be. We have as yet come up with no larger political vehicle that promises a say to each of its citizens.

All of the great transnational entities that have brought us globalisation seek to stop us from having such a say. They are remote from the people and serve the interests of the elites of the day. And today, those elites are financiers who are destroying the West’s economies like they used to destroy those of the developing world.

The challenge in Syria is to make use of its violent opportunity to create a new national people and with it, a new republic. Democracy in the Middle East was never going to be implanted by foreign powers and their occupations. But it can be seized by a politically alive and mature people, who come to collective awareness in and through struggle.

But more than this, could it be that Syria will lead a new wave of democratisation? Could it be that Syria will be a beacon for those of us in the West? We are the ones who need to learn again to take control of our collective fates from rapacious elites who think only of their own wealth.

Those struggling for freedom in Syria have much to teach the world.

Tarak Barkawi is Associate Professor in the Department of Politics, New School for Social Research.

At least 33 people were wounded in running clashes between pro- and anti-Damascus regime supporters in Lebanon’s second largest city of Tripoli, security and army officials said on Tuesday.

The fighting erupted days after a wave of kidnappings targeting Syrians in Lebanon, in a new sign that violence in neighbouring Syria is exacerbating tensions in the small Mediterranean country.

Lebanon lived under three decades of Syrian hegemony and remains deeply divided between supporters and opponents of Damascus.

Exchanges of gunfire erupted on Monday and continued through the night between Tripoli’s mainly Sunni district of Bab el-Tebbaneh and the largely Alawite area of Jabal Mohsen.

“Clashes are ongoing, and the army is currently intervening,” a military official told AFP.

Several houses caught fire and cars were damaged in the fighting, which has added to fears that the conflict in Syria is increasingly spilling over into Lebanon, destabilising the already fragile security situation.

Ten soldiers were wounded as were 23 civilians, both Sunni and Alawite, security and army officials said.

The violence was centred around the aptly named Syria Street, the symbolic “dividing line” between the rival Tripoli districts, and many civilians have fled the area.

The Sunni-majority port city has been the scene of intense and sometimes deadly clashes between Sunni supporters of the anti-Syrian opposition and Alawite Muslims loyal to a Hezbollah-led alliance backed by Iran and Syria.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is fighting an increasingly bloody 17-month uprising against his regime, hails from the Alawite community, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

The fighting in Tripoli erupted after a wave of mass kidnappings of Syrians in Lebanon, with the opposition Syrian National Council accusing the authorities of failing to act over the attacks.

“Syrians in Lebanon have been abducted by political parties, and subject to arbitrary arrests by security agents, without the authorities so much as lifting a finger,” the SNC said in a statement, implicitly blaming Hezbollah.

Last week, an armed Shiite clan claimed it had kidnapped around 20 Syrians in retaliation for the abduction of a family member by a Syrian rebel group, which accused him of being a Hezbollah sniper.

Many more were reportedly seized as rioters went on the rampage in Beirut, attacking shops and cars belonging to Syrians.

Hezbollah, considered the most powerful military force in Lebanon, has denied any connection with the clan member or the kidnappings.

The SNC also said Lebanese army intelligence on Monday raided the home of a Syrian humanitarian activist and arrested two of his colleagues, and that they also arrested a Syrian lawyer.

President Michel Sleiman on Tuesday urged Lebanon’s judiciary to “issue immediate arrest warrants for the kidnappers” and called on security officials to “act to free those abducted.”

New York-based Human Rights Watch called on the Lebanese authorities to investigate and prosecute those responsible for the kidnappings.

“Lebanese authorities need to enforce the law and end impunity for kidnappings and other violent acts carried out against Syrian citizens in the name of reprisal,” said Nadim Houry, HRW’s deputy Middle East director.

18/08/12

Al Jazeera #Syria News: “Battle for

Aleppo Rages On”

18/08/12

Syrian regime denies that its Vice President Faruq al-Shara has defected as fighting raged in key battlegrounds in several parts of the country

A Syrian man walks by a building destroyed in an airstrike in Aleppo city, Syria (Photo: AP)

Syria denied reports Saturday that top regime official Vice President Faruq al-Shara has defected as fighting raged in key battlegrounds in several parts of the country.

The United Nations meanwhile won support from the West as well as Russia and China for its new envoy for Syria, veteran Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi who was named Friday to replace Kofi Annan.

In Damascus, state television issued a statement from Shara’s office after opposition and media reports that he had fled, saying: “Mr Shara has never thought about leaving the country or going anywhere.”

Shara, 73, is the most powerful Sunni Muslim figure in the minority Alawite-led regime of President Bashar al-Assad and has served in top posts for almost 30 years.

Assad’s regime has already been hard hit by a series of defections since the anti-regime revolt broke out in March 2011, including former prime minister Riad Hijab and high profile general Manaf Tlass — a childhood friend of Assad.

“Initial reports show that there was an attempted defection, but that it failed,” the rebel Free Syrian Army said in a statement referring to Shara.

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius had said this week that there could be more “spectacular” defections from the regime, which was also shaken last month by a bomb attack claimed by the FSA which killed four security chiefs.

On the ground, the army launched new air strikes on Aazaz in the northern province of Aleppo, just three days after about 40 people were killed in the rebel-held town, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The army also pounded several areas of Aleppo, the northern city which has become the focus of the conflict since late July, while rebels and troops battled in the southern Salaheddin district of the city.

In Damascus, fighting broke out in the heavily populated southern district of Tadamun, showing that the rebels still have pockets of resistance in the capital despite government forces last month claiming they had retaken it.

The Observatory said a total of 129 people were killed in violence on Friday alone. It reported at least 10 deaths on Saturday.

And in a grim sign of the escalating brutality of the conflict, the Observatory said dozens of bodies had been found dumped in several areas of Damascus province.

Opposition factions had reported that 65 bodies had been found dumped on a rubbish tip in a town near Damascus on Thursday, claiming the victims had been bound, executed and set on fire by pro-government forces.

It is impossible to independently verify such claims as journalists are unable to report freely in Syria.

Government forces appear to be resorting to more attacks from the air against the more poorly armed and disparate rebel groups, while accounts of people being shot dead by snipers are increasing.

The intensified fighting has sent thousands more Syrians fleeing into neighbouring countries, particularly Turkey, as the divided international community appears powerless to act.

But in a sign of a renewed effort to try to end the conflict, the United Nations announced Friday the appointment of Brahimi as new Syria envoy, the day after calling time on its observer mission.

Brahimi himself however admitted he was not confident he would be able to end the 17-month-old conflict, which activists say has killed 23,000 people, while the UN puts the toll at 17,000.

Asked whether he was confident the civil war could be ended, Brahimi told France 24: “No, I’m not. What I am confident of is that I am going to try my utmost, my very, very best.”

UN chief Ban Ki-moon called on the international community to give the new envoy “strong, clear and unified” support, after Annan complained his mission had been hamstrung by the deep rift on the Security Council between the West and traditional Damascus allies Beijing and Moscow.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton endorsed Brahimi, saying the world community was committed to bringing about change in Syria and “ensuring that those who commit atrocities will be identified and held accountable”.

China and Russia, which have both vetoed Security Council resolutions on Syria and has accused the West of hampering efforts to end the crisis, vowed to cooperate with Brahimi in the search for a political solution.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called for a ceasefire in Syria, saying that Brahimi’s efforts would be ineffective unless violence ceased.

“Political dialogue will not start, at least these efforts will not lead to a final result, if violence does not cease. And that does not depend on Brahimi,” Russian media quoted Lavrov as saying.

Assad himself has characterised the conflict as a battle against a foreign “terrorist” plot aided by the West and its allies in the region, led by Sunni Muslim powerhouse Saudi Arabia.

15/08/12

Turning rockets into goal posts, abandoned tanks into playthings, and war into a game, children in Syria are hostages to a conflict that has forced them to try to normalise death, loss and violence, residents and activists say.

In rebel-held but besieged Old City of Homs, in central Syria, young children play Free Syrian Army versus Assad regime, using okra for ammunition and aubergines for hand grenades.

Football lovers in the city, parts of which are shelled almost daily, take rockets and turn them into goalposts, according to activists’ photographs.

Speaking to AFP from Homs via Skype, Umm Mohammed says her five grandchildren — the eldest of whom is just nine — are not afraid of the sound of shelling or bullets, and that shrapnel has become just another toy for them.

“But at night, they sometimes wake up screaming,” lamented Umm Mohammed. “No child should see what they are seeing, and they have already seen so much.”

Some older children have it even worse. In northern Aleppo, scene of heavy violence since July 20, an AFP reporter saw several boys in their teens armed with Kalashnikovs, taking part in the fighting.

According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, more than 1,300 children have been killed in violence in the past 17 months.

Nor are children exempt from detention. According to the Centre for Documentation of Violations in Syria, as of August 14, 698 children have been detained since the outbreak of the anti-regime uprising.

On Tuesday, Syria’s main opposition coalition said a 14-year-old was tortured to death in a prison in the coastal province of Latakia.

“Children are hostages of the violence,” said Omar, a Hama-based activist and uncle of two. “They did nothing to create it, but they are trapped in it.”

Having suffered violence, directly or indirectly, children develop high levels of resilience, experts say, which at once acts as a psychological shield against horror, and at the same time allows them to accept the abnormal as normal.

“My nephew is a seven-year-old child who acts like a man,” Omar told AFP via Skype. Wanted by the authorities, Omar sends his nephew out to tour the neighbourhood and check whether there are military or security forces nearby. “As an uncle, I am sad he has lost his childhood.”

Such examples may be extreme, but they do provide some insight into the way that conflict in Syria has transformed children’s lives, forcing them to adapt to violence, and in many cases, become immersed in it.

“Death has become all too normal for many children,” says Beirut-based psychologist Lina Issa, who works with Syrian refugees in Lebanon, a country that has itself suffered years of war and violence.

“And as much as children are being raised as the heroes of one side or another, that is not a way for children to grow. They need the situation to change.”

Children may be more resilient, Issa said. “But it will take a long time for the real symptoms of their distress to show. Only when stability returns will we know the real psychological cost of this conflict,” she added.

Different children react in different ways to violence, said Issa. “I have seen some young children who should have started walking or talking, but haven’t,” she said.

“Others become defensive, and pretend like nothing is really happening,” she says, noting that some children draw only hearts and flowers, while others’ artwork focuses on violence and conflict.

Indeed, a dramatic amateur video posted by activists on YouTube shows a young wounded girl crying in her father’s arms in Aleppo, as a doctor puts his hand to her back. She has just been wounded by a bullet, but she cries: “I am fine! I am fine!”

Many Syrian children have grown all too accustomed to feeling unsafe, says Isabella Castrogiovanni, a child protection expert at UNICEF Lebanon.

A recent UNICEF survey of Syrian refugee families in Lebanon showed 54 percent of children felt something bad will happen, even after they found shelter outside Syria.

“One child in a UNICEF child-friendly space in Lebanon panics every time he sees someone walking on a rooftop, because he is scared of snipers,” adds Castrogiovanni, who notes how disruptive forced flight is to a child’s development.

Even in the most tragic circumstances, some children manage to retain hope. In Homs Old City, seven-year-old Maryam (not her real name) told AFP via Skype: “When I grow up, I want to become a doctor, so that I can help the injured.”

Twice displaced, Maryam, a granddaughter of Umm Mohammed, does not recognise she is besieged, nor does she say that her family was forced to flee their home in Bab Dreib.

To Maryam, home is her current shelter. “I live at home, with my family. We are fine.”

Others are less positive, and their imagination is a mirror-image of the daily loss of life in Syria. “One child tells me stories every day, as part of his therapy,” says Issa. “His storyline changes, but the ending is always the same.”

In this child’s world, whatever the outcome in Syria, she says, “everybody dies.”

© AFP 2012

BEIRUT (Reuters) - The head of the United Nations monitors in Syria said on Monday violence was intensifying across the country, blaming both President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and rebel fighters for ignoring the plight of civilians.

“It is clear that violence is increasing in many parts of Syria,” General Babacar Gaye, head of the U.N. Supervision Mission in Syria, told journalists in Damascus.

“The indiscriminate use of heavy weapons by the government and targeted attacks by the opposition in urban centers are inflicting a heavy toll on innocent civilians.

“I deeply regret that none of the parties has prioritized the needs of civilians.”

Activists say more than 18,000 people, including soldiers, rebels and civilians, have been killed since the start of the Syrian uprising against Assad in March last year.

Assad’s forces are battling to regain control of the biggest city, Aleppo, from rebel fighters who went on the offensive last month, seizing districts of the capital and the northern commercial hub, as well as several border crossings.

Free Syrian Army rebels also control towns and villages in a wide swathe of territory near the northern border with Turkey.

Assad’s forces have hit back, regaining much of Damascus and bombarding opposition strongholds in and around the capital. Residents reported overnight shelling from the Qassioun mountains overlooking north Damascus into Jobar neighborhood.

13/08/2012

Activists also reported shelling in the northern Damascus suburb of Tell, which they say has been under rebel control for two weeks, and in Muadamiya suburb, where they said four men had been found executed after troops pulled out.

State television said the army was battling rebels in the city of Homs and had attacked “terrorist lairs” in the town of Talbiseh to the north.

The mandate for the U.N. monitors, whose original mission was to observe an April ceasefire that never took hold, expires on August 19. Their numbers have already been cut to a third because violence has made it impossible for them to move around.

“But the remaining 100 observers, along with our civilian colleagues, will operate till the last minute,” Gaye said.

“I call on the parties to cease military operations and come to the (negotiating) table,” he said, adding that he and his colleagues had delivered the same appeal in person to the government and the Syrian opposition abroad.

(Additional reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Alistair Lyon)

10/08/2012

Chris Wattie / Reuters files

Canada’s Foreign Minister John Baird pauses while speaking to journalists following a meeting with Syrian-Canadian representatives and members of the Syria’s opposition in Ottawa on July 25, 2012.

OTTAWA — Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird, on the eve of a trip to the Middle East, says Canada is concerned the Syrian uprising could destabilize the region and cause further political instability.

Baird made the comments in an interview with Postmedia News Thursday, as he prepared to fly to Lebanon and Jordan, where he will meet with senior political leaders and tour a refugee camp teeming with Syrians who have been displaced by the crisis.

“I want to go and to see first-hand the situation on the ground and also have discussions with leaders in the area,” said Baird.

“Obviously, we want the violence to stop and we want to tackle the humanitarian crisis. We’re also tremendously concerned about the crisis destabilizing Syria’s neighbours, particularly with respect to Jordan and Lebanon.”

The move is the latest of the Harper government’s diplomatic measures — mainly a series of escalating sanctions — aimed at punishing Syrian President Bashar Assad for his brutal crackdown on protests that have left thousands of Syrians dead.

Baird flies to Lebanon Friday for talks with that country’s prime minister, Najib Mikati, and with Fouad Siniora, a member of the parliamentary opposition.

During their evening meeting in Beirut, Baird is expected to commend the Lebanese government for its “generosity” in accepting Syrian refugees who have been displaced by the uprising.

Jamal Saidi / Reuters

Lebanon’s Sunni Muslim Salafist leader Ahmed al-Assir speaks to his supporters during Friday prayers in Beirut, August 10, 2012, to show solidarity with Syria’s Free Syrian Army in their fight against Syrian President Bashar al Assad.

He will also express Canada’s concern that the unrest in Syria could spread into Lebanon.

Baird told Postmedia News that as the sectarian violence escalates in Syria, “the fear is that you could see inter-Islamic fighting take place outside the country … the same kind of thing we see destabilizing Syria, the fear is that it could spill over.”

“Obviously, Lebanon went through a difficult phase for about 15 years. And Jordan certainly has had its challenges in recent years.”

On Saturday, Baird is to travel to Jordan, where he will visit a refugee camp near the Syrian border filled with displaced Syrians. Later in the day, in Amman, he will meet with Jordanian Foreign Nasser Judeh and with King Abdullah II.

Baird is expected to thank Jordan for its actions and also announce new Canadian measures associated with the humanitarian and security crisis that has gripped the region since the violence began a year and a half ago.

Baird said Canada has been “horrified” by the actions of the Assad regime and has worked “constructively” with other countries to tackle the issue through diplomatic means.

He said he has been disappointed by the failure of the Security Council of the United Nations to take action, and he was particularly critical of the Russians.

“Frankly, the actions of the Russian government have allowed this regime to soldier on.”

Baird defended Canada’s decision to not intervene militarily in Syria, as it did in the civil unrest last year that swept through Libya.

“Just because a military solution was used, and worked, in Libya, doesn’t mean it can be used and work in every crisis. Every situation is incredibly different. If there was a simplistic solution with this, we obviously would have been supportive of it long ago.”

Meanwhile, Baird also stressed that countries should start preparing for the complex questions that lay ahead once Assad is removed from power.

“We should be thinking about the post-Assad era and what does that mean. What does that mean for Syria? What does that mean for the region? What does that mean for minorities in Syria?”

Although there are continual signs that Assad’s grip on power is weakening — as ministers and military leaders defect from the regime — the level of violence in the civil war is heightening and it’s unclear how long it will last. Rebels have commandeered tanks from the Syrian army, and the Assad regime has responded by using attack helicopters and fighter jets.

This week, Amnesty International declared that both sides in the battle for Aleppo, the country’s most populous city, might be criminally accountable for failing to protect citizens.

All this has many people worried about how much worse the humanitarian crisis will get. So far, it is estimated that Jordan and Lebanon have accepted, between them, about 200,000 displaced Syrians. Another 50,000 are believed to have gone to Turkey.

The United Nations refugee agency says its total figure of the displaced is 115,000, but adds that this only counts Syrians who have officially registered as refugees, and not the many thousands more who have drifted into communities.

As the crisis drags on, the UN is worried about whether countries will become overwhelmed by the steady stream of refugees.

In late July, Baird said Canada is prepared to provide more humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees and civilians. He made the comment after a meeting in Ottawa with Syrian opposition members and activists.

“Canada can and wants to do more. Our government wants to do more,” said Baird at the time.

“There’s obviously significant needs in the medical area and a significant need to help document the crimes that are being undertaken in the country.”

Canada already had pledged $8.5 million in humanitarian assistance since the uprising began in March 2011, making it the third-largest donor after the United States — which has committed $60 million — and the United Kingdom with its commitment of $27.5 million.

The UN has said $382 million is needed to stem the crisis, but only one-quarter of that had been pledged.

Canada’s aid to Syria has been split between four experienced humanitarian partners: the World Food Program, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Goran Tomasevic / Reuters

A Free Syrian Army fighter aims an RPG as he waits for Syrian Army tanks in the Salaheddine neighbourhood of central Aleppo on August 10, 2012.

Britain said on Friday it would increase non-lethal aid to Syria’s opposition, including the rebel Free Syrian Army.

Foreign Secretary William Hague wrote in the Times newspaper that he had also instructed a senior diplomat to give Assad’s foes “a tough message that they must observe human rights standards, whatever horrors are perpetrated by the regime.”

Hague said the extra money for non-lethal aid totalled $7.8 million and was separate from Britain’s existing humanitarian programs in Syria.

“This is not taking sides in a civil war,” Hague wrote of the contacts with the opposition. “The risk of total disorder and a power vacuum is so great that we must build relationships now with those who may govern Syria in the future.”

Assad’s offensive in Aleppo follows a successful drive to expel rebels from parts of Damascus they had seized after a bomb blast killed four of his senior aides on July 18.

His grip on the country has been eroded and his authority was further shaken by his prime minister’s defection this week.

With files from Reuters

10/08/2012

Artillery fire hit a bakery in Syria’s battlefield city of Aleppo on Friday, killing around a dozen people and wounding 20 more as they queued for bread, AFP journalists reported.

A street in Salah Edinne district, in the centre of Aleppo, is seen after clashes between Free Syrian Army fighters and forces loyal to Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad Photo: REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra

This TV frame grab shows Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah. (The Daily Star/TV rab)

10/08/2012

WASHINGTON: The United States denounced Hezbollah for backing Bashar Assad on Friday, and added it to a list of organizations under sanctions for their ties to the Syrian regime.

“This action highlights Hezbollah’s activities within Syria and its integral role in the continued violence the Assad regime is inflicting on the Syrian population,” the US Treasury Department said in a statement.

Washington already classes Hezbollah a “terrorist organization” and it is under U.S. sanctions, but Friday’s move explicitly ties the group to the violence underway in Syria, where Assad is attempting to put down a revolt.

“Hezbollah’s extensive support to the Syrian government’s violent suppression of the Syrian people exposes the true nature of this terrorist organization and its destabilizing presence in the region,” said David Cohen, the Treasury’s under secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence.

“Long after the Assad regime is gone, the people of Syria and the entire global community will remember that Hezbollah, and its patron Iran, contributed to the regime’s murder of countless innocent Syrians.”

Hezbollah was added to a blacklist associated with an executive order signed by U.S. President Barack Obama in August last year which targeted the government of Syria and its supporters.

Those sanctions were designed increase pressure on Damascus as Washington called for the first time for Assad to step down over his military assault on rebelling Syrians opposed to his rule.

But 17 months after the start of the uprising the Syrian leader remains in power, and more than 20,000 people have been killed.

09/08/12

Political tensions between Ankara and Tehran are growing over the conflict in Syria, with Turkey warning Iran to cease blaming Ankara for the Arab republic’s violence while also calling on the Islamic republic to stand against Damascus’ alleged killings.

Recent remarks by Iranian officials could “harm not only the rooted relations of Iran and Turkey, but the diplomacy Iran conducts in the international arena,” Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu told reporters yesterday before departing for a visit to Myanmar. 

His statement came one day after holding talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, to whom Davutoğlu conveyed Ankara’s unease over Iranian Chief of Staff Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi’s suggestion that Turkey was involved in the bloodshed in Syria and accusation that Ankara, along with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, was assisting the “war-waging goals of America.” 

The Iranian general’s comments had come as Salehi flew to Turkey on Aug. 7 to solicit Turkish help to effect the release of 48 Iranian pilgrims kidnapped in Syria over the weekend. 

Although the comments were not made by Iran’s leaders, they were made by individuals holding official posts, Davutoğlu said. “We would expect these officials, both in Turkey and Iran, to think a few times before making any comments. Our position on the issue was explained to Mr. Salehi in a frank and friendly manner,” Davutoğlu said.

“The Syrian regime bears the whole responsibility” for the tension between Iran and Turkey, Davutoğlu said, adding that Tehran should not try to pin responsibility for Syria’s violence on other countries. “It is our right to expect Iran to assume a constructive attitude in the face of Muslim blood being spilled in Syria during the holy month of Ramadan.”

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also issued a warning after Firouzabadi’s statement, saying it was “worrying and regrettable” while reminding Iran that Turkey had supported it in the international arena with regard to its ongoing nuclear program.

“When no one else was by its side, Turkey was the country that stood by Iran in spite of everything. Turkey was also the country that defended [Iran’s right to] nuclear energy,” Erdoğan said, addressing members of his party at a fast-breaking iftar dinner Aug. 7.

Salehi, meanwhile, said that although Turkey and Iran had different views on some issues, Iran’s government wanted to promote relations with Ankara. 

The differences between the two countries are not having a negative impact on relations, Salehi told Iranian state TV channel IRINN on Aug. 8 while asking some Iranian officials to consider different aspects of the issue in the interests of maintaining an environment of international friendship.

Ultimately, political issues are different from humanitarian issues, Davutoğlu said, noting that Turkey was making efforts toward the release of the abducted Iranian pilgrims in Syria.

Salehi also said some “retired” members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and army were among the 48 Iranians taken hostage in Syria by rebels over the weekend. The foreign minister, however, denied rebels’ allegations that the Iranians had been on a military mission, saying the former military personnel had been exclusively on a religious pilgrimage to Damascus when they were seized Aug. 4.
 
“A number of the [hostages] are retired members of the guards and the army. Some others were from other ministries,” Salehi was quoted as saying to reporters as he flew back from Turkey.