organization:arab league

Une entente russo-américaine pour mettre fin à la guerre en Syrie par la négociation ?
Syrian opposition insists on Assad’s departure before any deal - Alarabiya.net English | Front Page
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/05/08/Syrian-opposition-insists-on-Assad-s-departure-before-any-deal.ht

Syria’s main opposition National Coalition on Wednesday said any political settlement to the country’s two-year-old conflict must start with President Bashar al-Assad’s ouster, implicitly rejecting a U.S.-Russian initiative for dialogue with the regime.
U.N.-Arab League peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, meanwhile, hailed the agreement between Washington and Moscow to push both sides in the Syrian conflict to end the bloodshed and sit down for talks.
“The National Coalition welcomes all international efforts which call for a political solution to achieve the aspirations of the Syrian people and their hope for a democratic state, so long as they begin with the departure of Bashar al-Assad and his regime,” the opposition umbrella group said.
The response could be a blow to the U.S.-Russian initiative, which is based on an international deal agreed in Geneva last year that makes no mention of Assad stepping down.
The opposition has long insisted that the embattled president cannot stay on, but the regime insists that Assad’s future will be decided in elections, with a presidential vote scheduled for 2014.
“This is the first hopeful news concerning that unhappy country in a very long time,” Brahimi said of the deal announced by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russia counterpart Sergei Lavrov after talks in Moscow on Tuesday.
“The statements made in Moscow constitute a very significant first step forward. It is nevertheless only a first step,” said Brahimi, who an aide said has been mulling resignation over the apparent absence of a political track to resolve a war that has killed more than 70,000 people.
“There is every reason to expect” backing for the accord from the remaining U.N. Security Council permanent members” – Britain, China and France, the veteran Algerian diplomat added.
“It is equally important that the entire region mobilizes in the support of the process.”
British Prime Minister David Cameron announced on Wednesday he will fly to the Russian resort of Sochi on Friday to discuss the Syrian conflict with President Vladimir Putin.
The U.S.-Russian deal was announced at a joint press conference, with Lavrov saying the two countries were ready to use all their resources to bring “the government and opposition to the negotiating table.”
“We agreed that Russia and the United States will encourage both the Syria government and opposition groups to find a political solution,” he said.
Lavrov and Kerry said they hoped they could convene an international conference by the end of May to build on a deal agreed by world powers in Geneva last June for a peaceful solution in Syria.
The Geneva deal, which calls for a transitional government but makes no mention of Assad’s fate, “should be the roadmap... by which the people of Syria can find their way to the new Syria and in which the bloodshed, the killing, the massacres can end,” Kerry said.

Hamas rejects Arab League peace initiative - Middle East - Al Jazeera English
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/05/201353144052527593.html

The Palestinian Hamas movement has rejected a revised Middle East peace initiative put forward by the Arab League, saying outsiders can not decide the fate of the Palestinians.

In meetings this week in Washington, Arab states appeared to soften their 2002 peace plan, acknowledging that Israelis and Palestinians may have to swap land in any eventual peace deal.

The United States and the Palestinian leadership in the occupied West Bank praised the move. But speaking to hundreds of worshippers in a mosque in the Gaza Strip on Friday, senior Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh said it was a concession that other Arabs were not authorised to make.

“The so-called new Arab initiative is rejected by our people, by our nation and no one can accept it,” Haniyeh, prime minister of the Hamas government in the coastal enclave, said.

“The initiative contains numerous dangers to our people in the occupied land of 1967, 1948 and to our people in exile.”

He was referring to the partition of British-mandate Palestine in 1948 when the United Nations voted to divide the territory into a Jewish state and an Arab state, and to the 1967 war when Israel captured the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza.

’Not for sale’

Hamas refuses to recognise Israel’s right to exist and claims all the territory between the Mediterranean and the Jordan river as rightfully Palestinian. It never accepted the Arab plan which was first presented in 2002.

“To those who speak of land swaps we say: Palestine is not a property, it is not for sale, not for a swap and cannot be traded,” Haniyeh said.

Haniyeh said the rival Palestinian Authority ruling the West Bank, headed by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, was to blame for inspiring the softer Arab position because it accepted the need for land swaps with Israel.

Israel rejected the Arab peace plan when it was proposed 11 years ago. Israeli officials gave a cautious welcome to the new suggestions, but the government still objects to key points, including the “right of return” for Palestinian refugees and the creation of a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem.

US Secretary of State John Kerry is seeking to revive direct peace talks that broke down in 2010 over the issue of Jewish settlement building in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

On Tuesday, he hailed the Arab League announcement as “a very big step forward”.

Israel’s top peace negotiator Tzipi Livni said in New York on Thursday that the modified Arab League initiative could bring new talks closer.

“It is [in] the interests of Israel, the interests of the Palestinians and the interests of the international community,” Livni told reporters after talks with UN chief Ban Ki-moon.

“It is clear that Secretary Kerry is completely involved, determined, and I believe that basically it [new talks] is something that we need to do.”

Source: Netanyahu worried Kerry drifting toward Arab League stance on two-state solution - Diplomacy & Defense - Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/source-netanyahu-worried-kerry-drifting-toward-arab-league-stance-on-two-st

Inquiétudes isaraéliennes...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his aides fear that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will accept the Arab League definition of the borders for a Palestinian state and the principle of territorial exchanges.

Netanyahu and his advisers believe the Arab League declaration could undermine Israel’s position in negotiations with the Palestinians, according to an Israeli source familiar with talks held in the past two days.

#israël #frontières #ligue-arabe #palestine

. :ميدل ايست اونلاين ::Middle East Online :.
http://www.middle-east-online.com/?id=154224

قطر تقود مبادرة أميركية للتنازل عن حدود 67

بعد لقائه كيري في واشنطن، الشيخ حمد بن جاسم يقترح مبادلة أراض بين الفلسطينيين وإسرائيل في إطار مسعى جديد لإحياء المفاوضات.

Dans la série #Qatar, ce titre : « Le Qatar à la tête d’une initiative américaine pour abandonner les frontières de 67 ». Discussion avec Kerry, énième tentative de ranimer la « solution » des deux Etats, avec échanges de territoires...

Arab League softens stance on Israel’s final borders

Haaretz Daily Newspaper

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/arab-league-softens-stance-on-israel-s-final-borders-1.518313

Arab countries endorsed a Mideast peace plan Monday that would allow for small shifts in Israel’s 1967 border, moving them closer to President Barack Obama’s two-state vision.

Speaking on behalf of an Arab League delegation to Washington, Qatari Prime Minister Sheik Hamad Bin Jassem Al Thani called for an agreement between Israel and a future Palestine based on the Israel’s border before the 1967 Mideast War. But, unlike in previous such offers, he cited the possibility of “comparable,” mutually agreed and “minor” land swaps between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Syrie. Haytham Manna, Responsable du Comité National de Coordination des Forces de Changement Démocratique en Syrie, a toujours contesté la politique internationale de soutien au Conseil National Syrien (S.N.C. dans son acronyme anglais), formation de l’opposition syrienne reconnue par la communauté internationale, « les Amis de la Syrie ». Les derniers développements le confirment dans son idée que le Conseil National Syrien a perdu toute capacité à défendre ses idées et son indépendance et qu’il est vain, comme le souhaitent « les Amis de la Syrie » de chercher à le restructurer.
Son argument est que la violence ne pourra qu’accentuer la division des Syriens dont profitera le régime d’Assad: les oppositions politiques ne parviennent pas à réduire leurs dissensions ; l’écart entre la capacité militaire des djihadistes et celle de l’opposition se creuse au détriment de l’Armée Libre Syrienne ; le Front al-Nousra, fort de ses réussites sur le terrain, pourrait bien refuser de participer à l’unification des opposants à Assad ; le président lui-même a beau jeu de créer des divisions en cooptant des islamistes pour former des unités paramilitaires, etc.

The Guardian, Thursday 18 April 2013
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/apr/18/syrians-reconciled-negotiation-violence

Syrians can be reconciled – through negotiation, not violence
By Haytham Manna

Regional interventions have failed, and the opposition SNC is in turmoil. But the solution still lies in a political settlement.
The situation in Syria is the gravest it has been since peaceful protests began in March 2011. Civil resistance has been reduced to relief operations and humanitarian assistance, and the efforts of Syria’s democratic forces are now scattered and fragmented. Foreign support for the Syrian National Coalition and superimpose it as the legitimate representative of the people has weakened democratic civilian organisations’ relationships with a number of western countries. Meanwhile, the military capacity of jihadi groups has increased.

The SNC is fragile, and more likely to implode than become institutionalised. This is highlighted by three issues: the political initiative of its then president, Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib, in proposing talks with the regime; the decision in Istanbul to form a Syrian government in exile; and the fact that Syria’s seat in the Arab League was handed over to the SNC at the recent meeting in Doha.
These three events revealed an alliance between hardline Islamists and Qatar, and demonstrated that the SNC has no ideology, no common vision and no real independence. However, the governments who make up the Friends of Syria are now trying to reform the SNC by giving seats to sectarian groups (Christian, Alawite, and so on) and some secular democratic groups, in order to reduce the Islamists’ influence.

In this critical situation, it is clear the dictatorship is not serious in calling for a negotiated political solution. Bashar al-Assad is confident that the opposition’s political forces no longer represent real power, neither in the arena of military confrontation nor in the eyes of most Syrians. All regional and international attempts to unify the military factions have failed to create a command with a defined political programme. Qatari and Turkish actions – in forming an interim government and giving Syria’s Arab League seat to the SNC – have produced a major rift between the Saudi and Qatari positions, and this is reflected in the military field. The Saudis, ironically, support the more secular forces, while the Qataris support the Islamists.

Al-Qaida has not missed the opportunity to declare its relationship with the Jabhat al-Nusra rebel group and its affiliates. Britain and France can no longer put their heads in the sand. On the ground the Syrian regime is adopting the same tactic used by the Algerians in the 90s: dealing with Islamist groups by creating paramilitary units. This will prolong the conflict by allowing the regime to denigrate the armed opposition and present itself as the protector of security and Syria’s territorial integrity. Not counting remote areas which are being disputed between Jabhat al-Nusra and other fighting groups, Syrian citizens increasingly associate the rise in displacement, murder and destruction with the presence of the armed opposition.
Three questions arise: will Jabhat al-Nusra succeed in preventing any unity emerging between the opposition fighters? Will supporters of the military security solution inside the regime have a monopoly on key decisions in Damascus? And can the democratic civilian opposition continue to act as the prime defenders of a political solution based on last year’s Geneva declaration?

It is tragic that the Friends of Syria is still trying to restructure the SNC when that tactic has evidently failed. It is unlikely that any group in the Free Syrian Army could confront hardline Islamist armed groups unless the opposition were backed by democratic political parties. Foreign involvement will be an obstacle to progress unless there is a broad front that can give the mission of the UN peace envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, practical meaning and produce a reconciliation between the two strongest powers, Russia and the US.
Will the regional contradictions that we are witnessing today strengthen this option or will they cause increased violence and destruction? We must adhere to a negotiated political solution in this difficult phase so as to give every Syrian a chance to see the end of destruction.

As-Safir Newspaper - محمد بلوط : خلافات خليجية تحبط مخططاً قطرياً لخطف أمانة « الجامعة »
http://www.assafir.com/Article.aspx?EditionID=2440

خلافات خليجية تحبط مخططاً قطرياً لخطف أمانة «الجامعة»

Long article sur les déboires - pour une fois - du Qatar qui n’a pas vu ses voeux se réaliser par rapport à l’éviction de Lakhdar al-Ibrahim de sa mission onusienne, et par rapport au Secrétariat de la Ligue arabe qui semble devoir lui échapper, à la suite des dissensions dans le front uni des pays du Golfe, par rapport à la question syrienne.

Brahimi eyes new U.N. envoy role in Syria, dropping Arab League: envoys | Reuters

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/16/us-syria-crisis-brahimi-idUSBRE93F1FJ20130416

U.N.-Arab League Syria envoy Lakhdar Brahimi hopes to revamp his role as an international peace mediator in the Syrian conflict as a United Nations envoy without any official link to the Arab bloc, U.N. diplomats said on Tuesday.

Brahimi has become increasingly frustrated with the league’s moves to recognize the Syrian opposition, which he feels has undermined his role as a neutral mediator, diplomats told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Qatar and the Five-Minute Summit – une traduction du Safir au sujet du sommet de la Ligue arabe.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/politics/2013/04/qatar-arab-league-summit-hegemony-syria-crisis.html

In comparison to the Libyan situation, this decision reflects a total lack of legal reasoning. When it was decided that the National Transitional Council should be granted Libya’s seat, this organization had already been recognized by the UN Security Council. The Libyan regime had already lost control of the capital city of Tripoli, as well as several other regions, all of which had been taken over by the armed opposition. Thus, all the elements of sovereign rule were in place.

The situation in Syria, however, is totally different. The regime is still present in Damascus, and many countries still recognize its legitimacy. Moreover, this regime remains the Syrian representative at the UN, and this is precisely what causes the glaring contradiction between the Arab League and the UN. Despite the fact that Qatar and its allies will act to expel the Syrian regime from the UN, there are nevertheless a number of countries which will stand in opposition to this move, for fear that the same thing could very well happen to them in the future.

Karl reMarks: Thousands attend ‘Arab Spring’ closing ceremony in Qatar
http://www.karlremarks.com/2013/04/thousands-attend-arab-spring-closing.html

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-heGmB6PmtGE/UWgAK9Q03bI/AAAAAAAAA5g/vRp7Ht5GxLA/s1600/closing.jpg

In a spectacular event held in the Qatari capital Doha, the Arab Spring was officially declared over on Friday night. Thousands of Arabs of various nationalities and six Qataris attended the emotional event held at Doha’s National Stadium. The three-hour long ceremony featured hundreds of performers, spectacular firework displays and speeches by Arab leaders.

The decision to host the ceremony in Doha was largely due to Qatar’s neutral position, as it is generally regarded as the Arab country that interfered least in the Arab Spring. Indeed, to highlight Qatar’s neutrality, its international broadcaster Al-Jazeera’s coverage of the Arab Spring consisted mainly of drama and fiction works, avoiding news and factual programmes. This paid large dividends as its received wide acclaim and several awards for its creativity.
The closing ceremony was devised during the recent Arab League meeting when Arab leaders agreed to hold the event to provide a sense of closure and settle the confusion in the minds of Arab citizens, most of whom were uncertain whether the Arab Spring was still taking place or not. This interfered greatly with their plans for the weekend.

Mohammad Ballout décrit comment les diverses composantes de l’opposition syrienne mènent, à la fois, un combat contre le régime d’Assad et une lutte interne pour la prise du pouvoir. Ces affrontements respectifs et concomitants retardent leur unification et, dans l’immédiat, la formation d’un gouvernement intérimaire. Ils se nourrissent, financièrement, politiquement et militairement, de forces extérieures venues d’Occident, du Qatar ou d’Arabie saoudite, chacune ayant son propre agenda (inclusion et protection des minorités pour les uns, islamisme pour les autres, etc.)

►http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/security/2013/04/syrian-opposition-formation.html

Sectarianism, Saudi-Qatar Jostling Prevail in Syrian Opposition
By: Mohammad Ballout Translated from As-Safir (Lebanon)

The Syrian opposition finds itself at a standstill, following the moment of rapture when the National Coalition appropriated Syria’s seat at the Arab League.

The pace of consultations within the coalition points to a lack of urgency in moving forward toward the next step of forming an “interim government,” following the appointment of Ghassan Hito as its head. The task of forming the government is hindered by an American and Qatari insistence on nominating people who would help restructure and expand its level of representation and legitimacy, so that posts and ministries are more equitably divided. It also awaits a Qatari-Saudi consensus on the manner in which Hito’s government would be run, and the nature of that government: technocratic or political.

The Saudis have put all their media and financial potential at the service of the Syrian opposition, with the aim of reducing Qatar’s monopoly over the opposition, to the point of encouraging and enlisting secularists in their fight with Doha. Furthermore, the Americans, in the last few days, have also requested that the formation process be put on hold, as a result of it becoming a great point of contention between the different political and military Syrian opposition factions.” (…)

#Syria #National_Coalition #Arab_League #Ghassan_Hito #Qatar #Saudi_Arabia #Muslim_Brotherhood #Burhan_Ghalioun #Georges_Sabra #National_Council #Khatib #Friends_of_Syria #Lakhdar_Brahimi # Organization_of_the_Islamic_Conference #recognizing_the_Syrian_opposition #Syrian_revolution #interim_government

Arab funding for Jerusalem comes a decade too late - The National
http://www.thenational.ae/thenationalconversation/comment/arab-funding-for-jerusalem-comes-a-decade-too-late#full

...

Sensing they must adapt or perish, growing numbers [of Palestinians] are rethinking their approach.

Record numbers are applying to upgrade their residency to Israeli citizenship; the Israeli matriculation exam is being preferred over the Palestinian equivalent; more students are enrolling in Israeli colleges; some youths are volunteering for Israeli national service; and Palestinian neighbourhoods are co-operating with the municipality on street-naming.

A recent poll conducted in East Jerusalem even found that, were there a peace agreement, a majority of Palestinians in East Jerusalem would prefer to remain under Israeli rule. Those findings need to be treated with extreme caution, but they will have contributed to the unease of Mr Abbas and the Arab League.

Experts concede that efforts by Palestinians to integrate into Israeli life signal no great love of Israel. Rather, residents of East Jerusalem have understood that denied alternatives, they may have no other hope of surviving in their city. They have looked to the example of the 1.4 million Palestinians in Israel and seen that their citizenship offers limited protections even while it does almost nothing to end discrimination.

Integration, in the view of a growing number, provides a platform for a local struggle for civil rights, even if at the same time it alienates them from the national struggle. Such actions are seen as a reinvention of the Palestinian tradition of sumud (steadfastness), not capitulation.

Nonetheless, the movement of Jerusalem’s Palestinians towards Israel, however reluctantly undertaken, is also a rebuke to Mr Abbas and the Arab world. Even with a pledge of $1 billion, it is difficult not to conclude that both have failed Jerusalem.

Jospeh Massad sur une analyse historique de l’utilisation de la politique du Boycott par des Etats apartheid

“There is however a different history of the uses of the boycott. In contrast with its uses to force the end of race, class and colonial injustice, boycott would also be deployed as a tactic to bring about colonial and racial injustice. Zionism would be a pioneer in this regard. Upon the formalisation of Zionist settler colonialism in the 1897 First Zionist Congress, Jewish colonists were incensed that earlier Russian Jewish agricultural colonists who had settled in Palestine since the 1880s would employ Palestinian labour in their colonies, on account of its availability and cheapness. It was in this context that Zionism would develop its racially separatist notion of ‘Hebrew labour’, insisting and later imposing its regulations on all Jewish colonists in Palestine, namely that Jewish labour should be used exclusively in the Jewish settler-colony.”

http://m.aljazeera.com/story/201331884943284526

#boycott #Israel #Algérie #apartheid

Sectarianism, Saudi-Qatar Jostling Prevail in Syrian Opposition
►http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/security/2013/04/syrian-opposition-formation.html

But the condition of expanding the coalition before forming the “governmen, while it serves as a lifeline for those opposing the Brotherhood from the inside, is a crude and illogical tactic. Expanding the coalition based on sectarian affiliations would change nothing in its function, since the latter is defined by the countries that sponsored the coalition’s formation — and are still financing it, and refuse to change their agendas.

According to Syrian opposition sources, next week will witness meetings by experts on Syrian affairs at the foreign ministries of eleven countries that attended the Friends of Syria conference. These include Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy. They will all study the future of the coalition, the formation of a government, its funding and the ongoing armament efforts.

The international and Arab envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, warned that recognizing the coalition and attempts to surrender Syria’s seat to the coalition at the Organization of the Islamic Conference, among others, will only lead to the failure of any political solution. He stated, “Any further steps toward recognizing the Syrian opposition might lead to added intransigence on the part of the Syrian regime, which still is endowed with superior military might in the face of the Syrian revolution; ultimately resulting in the failure of any political solution.”

The west’s alliance against Assad is riddled with contradictions
Claire Spencer
The Guardian, Tuesday 26 March 2013 19.36 GMT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/mar/26/international-community-fails-syria-local-agendas

The tragedy in Syria lies as much in the dysfunctional international response as in the war on the ground
Over the past week there has been much wringing of hands over Syria, and rightly so. At every turn, the Gordian knot has been tightening, with little prospect of it being cut.

Monday’s grim news was that the founder of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), the erstwhile Syrian army colonel Riad al-Asaad, was seriously wounded in a targeted car bomb just before the Syrian National Coalition assumed Syria’s seat in place of the Assad regime at the Arab League meeting in Doha.

In war things rarely run smoothly, but the tragedy of Syria lies as much in the fragility of the coalition supporting the rebels as in the inconclusiveness of the rebels’ own political and military battles. Since the Russian and Chinese vetoes at the UN in early 2011, there has been no single “international community” voice on Syria. On team A we have the US, EU, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. Russia, China, Iran and sundry others make up team B. Far from resolving the crisis, these competing actors cancelled out each other’s efforts over the ensuing two years. As the main instigators of Libya’s liberation from Muammar Gaddafi, the French and British clearly want to do more than train rebel soldiers in Jordan, or increase humanitarian assistance to refugees. In pushing for arms to reach the FSA in Syria, however, they are failing to manage their own allies, much less the opposing team.

The Arab League, meeting this week, is once again calling for more robust UN action, but this reflects neither diplomatic realities nor developments on the ground. Journalists covering Syria from the inside have revealed how Turkey and the Gulf states are already training, funding and arming rebel groups; but from a Franco-British perspective, they are clearly the wrong ones. Last week’s news that a low-level, chlorine-based chemical weapons may have been deployed from an area controlled by Jabhat al-Nusra, the Islamist militia supported by Qatar, sits uneasily with the more secular FSA’s appeals for hardware from the west.

So far, the US is sitting on the fence – the new secretary of state, John Kerry, having failed to convince President Obama that inserting more weaponry into Syria will save lives down the line. The alliance struck with Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey over Syria remains circumstantial. It is not clear that all of team A wants the same thing. Opposing Iranian, or indeed Russian, influence in Syria is not the same thing as securing the best outcome for the Syrian people. With the shadow of 2003 Iraq hanging heavily over western intervention, which lacks domestic support in both Europe and the US, the next best options remain no-fly zones and humanitarian corridors. Neither is anywhere close to being legally viable or practical on the ground.

What worked in Libya in 2011 now looks like a fortuitous sleight of hand. Given the EU’s tensions with Russia over Cyprus, the solid veto of China, and the regional activism of Qatar and Turkey, the Nato-led Libyan campaign may go down in history as one of the last actions of a consensus-based “international community”. The closer the crisis, the more local agendas prevail. Whether this means the Gulf favouring jihadist strongmen over democracy, or Turkey backing some of Syria’s ethnic and sectarian communities over others, it is not the Syrian people who will emerge victorious in any of the senses championed by the US and EU.

Facing up to the dysfunctionality of its own alliance over Syria should now be the priority of any UK-French plan. The alternative is to continue to back one increasingly narrow, divided and poorly resourced set of Syrians against another armed and championed by the west’s own regional allies

Lettre ouverte du commandement de l’Armée libre syrienne adressée aux Frères musulmans accusés de retarder la chute du régime, de diviser l’opposition pour mieux préparer l’après-Assad, et de s’approprier la révolution.

Syrian rebel fighters blast Muslim Brotherhood for ’delaying victory’
Phil Sands
Apr 1, 2013

►http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/middle-east/syrian-rebel-fighters-blast-muslim-brotherhood-for-delaying-victory

“ANTAKYA, TURKEY // Syrian rebel fighters have accused the Muslim Brotherhood of undermining the revolt against Bashar Al Assad and trying to dictate opposition politics.
Rebel officers said the Brotherhood was putting narrow factional politicking over the broad interests of the revolt. “We hold you responsible for delaying victory of the revolution and the fragmentation of the opposition,” the Joint Command of the Free Syrian Army said in an open letter to the Muslim Brotherhood. There was a “deep confrontation” within the opposition between the Muslim Brotherhood and other secular, national and military factions, the FSA said. Anti-Brotherhood sentiments, particularly in Damascus, were running high, the FSA warned, with growing anger at efforts by the group to control military and humanitarian relief efforts administered by the Syrian National Coalition, the opposition bloc given Syria’s seat in the Arab League at a summit last week.”
#Muslim_Brotherhood #Free_Syrian_Army

Syrian rebel fighters blast Muslim Brotherhood for ’delaying victory’- ►http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/middle-east/syrian-rebel-fighters-blast-muslim-brotherhood-for-delaying-victory

ANTAKYA, TURKEY // Syrian rebel fighters have accused the Muslim Brotherhood of undermining the revolt against Bashar Al Assad and trying to dictate opposition politics.

Rebel officers said the Brotherhood was putting narrow factional politicking over the broad interests of the revolt.

(...)

Just as the Brotherhood’s critics can accuse it of having little sway on the ground inside Syria, so the Joint Command of the FSA is, to a greater or lesser degree, something of a fiction.

Despite the corporate branding of the FSA, it is really more of a loosely knit umbrella organisation containing various armed factions that pay only lip service to the idea of a unified chain of command.

The most powerful and effective fighting units, controlled and manned by Islamists, do not take orders from distant FSA commanders.

“It’s true that some FSA units, especially in Damascus, are unhappy with the Muslim Brotherhood but there are armed units elsewhere which are backed by the Brotherhood and which are loyal to them,” said a leading activist in the Syrian capital.

“The divisions inside the opposition are real and seem to be getting worse, they have started breaking out into the open more and more,” he said.

–-----------------------------------------------------------
Des nouvelles d’Iran sur la Syrie. Interview conduite par Press TV [Iran, anglophone) avec Daoud Khirallah, professeur de Droit à l’université de Georgetown, qui conteste la décision prise par la Ligue arabe de donner à l’opposition syrienne le siège occupé jusqu’à il y a quelques mois par le régime de Damas. (voir video)

http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/03/26/295318/al-violated-its-own-charter-on-syria

26 March 2013. Arab League violating its own charter on Syrian crisis: Daoud Khairallah

“Khairallah: Well simply they can disregard the Charter of the Arab League, they can disregard any legal or moral rule and they can apply corruption and money in every way they can to prevent any peaceful negotiated solution in Syria. “

#Press_TV #Arab_League #Syria #Daoud_Khairallah

Article de Russia Today en réaction à la décision de la Ligue arabe d’octroyer le siège de la Syrie à la Coalition Nationale [Rassemblement de l’opposition syrienne]. Moscou juge « anti-syriennes » et « malheureusement [favorables] à une solution militaire » les mesures qui viennent d’être prises à Doha. Le porte-parole du ministère des Affaires étrangères russe indique « qu’au regard du droit international, les décisions que la Ligue [arabe] vient de prendre à l’égard de la Syrie sont illégales et indéfendables dans la mesure où le gouvernement de la République arabe syrienne demeure le représentant légal d’un Etat membre des Nations Unies. ».

http://rt.com/news/arab-league-syria-opposition-924
Giving Syrian opposition seats at Arab League is ‘illegal, indefensible’
Moscow Published time : March 27, 2013

“ The Arab League’s move to hand the Syrian opposition the country’s official seat at a summit in Doha and the decision to give military backing to the rebels are both against international law, Moscow has said. “

#Russia #Syrian_opposition #Arab_League #military_solution #political_settlement

La Coalition Nationale syrienne vient de se voir attribuer le siège jusque-là occupé par le régime de Damas à la Ligue arabe et dispose même aujourd’hui d’une ambassade à Doha. Un gouvernement provisoire est désormais attendu. Sous la conduite Ghassan Hitto, il serait formé d’hommes d’affaires, d’économistes et de technocrates. Tout en jugeant positifs ces développements, Yezid Sayigh (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace) met en garde contre la propension de l’opposition syrienne à trop délaisser ce qui fait l’essence de la mission des gouvernants : une administration efficace, la fourniture des services de base aux citoyens, la résolution des conflits et la sécurité dans les zones qu’elle contrôle, au profit des ambitions de telle ou telle de ses composantes. Il rappelle que l’opposition n’a pas encore réglé définitivement un certain nombre de questions : négocier ou pas avec Assad, gouvernement provisoire ? Gouvernement transitoire ? Gouvernement chargé d’expédier les affaires courantes ? Gouvernement installé en Syrie ou à l’extérieur ? Programme de gouvernement ? Yezid Sayigh fait valoir que l’opposition syrienne a amplement démontré son incapacité à s’organiser et que le seul exemple de bonne gouvernance dans les zones libérées est à mettre au crédit des islamistes qui se sont organisés dans la ville de Raqqa (250.000 habitants).

http://carnegie-mec.org/2013/03/28/syrian-opposition-s-very-provisional-government/fu0z

Carnegie Middle East Center/ Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
The Syrian opposition’s very provisional government
Yezid Sayigh

March 28, 2013
“The Syrian National Coalition of Revolutionary and Opposition Forces (National Coalition) formally took up Syria’s seat in the Arab League this week. The outgoing chairman of the coalition, Moaz al-Khatib, who had announced his resignation only days before, represented the coalition, and the provisional prime minister, Ghassan Hitto, sat behind him. This recognition is an important diplomatic gain. But it will prove ephemeral unless the National Coalition and its provisional government can follow up speedily by delivering effective administration, basic services, dispute resolution, and security in the liberated areas, which it claims now extend over 100,000 square kilometers and include 10 million inhabitants”.

#Syrian_National_Coalition_of_revolutionary_and_Opposition_Forces #National_Coalition #al_Khatib #Ghassan_Hitto #governance #provisional_government #transitional_government #Qatar #Raqqa

Jerusalem Ignores the Outreached Hand of the Arab League - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/03/jerusalem-ignores-the-outreached-hand-of-the-arab-league.html

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s army, opposition fighters and offshoots of al-Qaeda are turning Syria into a network of cemeteries and ruins; Lebanon is collapsing under the weight of hundreds of thousands of refugees arriving from its bleeding neighbor; the regime of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi is hanging on by a thread; in Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah lies on his deathbed; and Shiite Iran is stirring this boiling cauldron.  

Amidst this commotion, the leaders of the Arab states who convened on March 26 in Doha, the capital of Qatar, took the time and energy to address the diplomatic freeze in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, the occupation and the settlements. As it does annually — despite the upheavals besetting the region — the Arab League summit made sure to reaffirm its peace initiative of March 28, 2002. And, as they do annually, Israel’s political echelons ignored the Arab leaders’ historic peace plan. The summit’s decision to send a special delegation to Washington in April to discuss ways of kick-starting the stalled negotiations, did not elicit any reaction, either.
It is no surprise that the ratification of this regional peace plan and the Arab League’s interest in promoting the two-state solution are being received with such a cool welcome; since the start of the Arab Spring, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been using the regional instability as a reason, or excuse, to entrench himself in a holding position on the Palestinian front and focus on the Iranian arena. And now, even though the Arab Peace Initiative is the product of pre-Arab Spring regimes, the leaders of the new regimes have again affirmed their peace plan, for the second time since the outbreak of the revolutions in the region. The initiative, which proposes that Israel relinquish the territories it captured in 1967, and in return enjoy normal relations with all the Islamic states, has become one of their anchors.
Middle East scholar, Dr. Matti Steinberg, who has been researching the initiative for years, poured over dozens of pages of Doha summit decisions and found no reference to the issue of the Right of Return — the one that deters most Israelis. The reference to the refugee issue is done so in passing, in reference to the Arab initiative, according to which the solution must be just and agreed upon, based on UN Resolution 194 (which refers to the return of the refugees to their places of residence and the restitution of their property). Steinberg stresses that in the announcement summing up the previous summit, held last year in Baghdad, the right of return was specifically mentioned alongside the Arab initiative, and so, too, in the announcement of the Islamic summit, which was held in Cairo last September (and quoted Resolution 194). One can thus infer that the Arab League delegation will focus its discussions in Washington next month on the territorial issue and will try to talk the US administration into forcing Israel to present its own map for a permanent arrangement. It marks the first time that the Arab League will conduct official talks with the United States about a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as part of a regional arrangement. 
The new US Secretary of State, John Kerry, has on his desk a proposal to replace the bilateral negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians with a multilateral platform. Acceptance of the Arab initiative as the basis of a permanent arrangement between Israel and its neighbors will enable the renewal of the multilateral channels established following the 1991 Madrid peace conference on the issues of regional security, refugees, water and economic and environmental development. Parallel to the start of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, and as part of the regional initiative, the sides will agree that following the establishment of a stable regime in Syria, the new regime will be invited to renew negotiations based on the principles of the initiative. The negotiations with Lebanon, which began in Madrid, will also be renewed. 
Acceptance of the Arab initiative’s principles, as the basis for a permanent agreement on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, will enable gradual progress toward the final stop. This, according to the course laid out on the road map of the Quartet (which will mark its 10th year of existence in April), which was also unanimously adopted as a Security Council resolution (1515). The road map [introduced by President Bush in 2002] states that agreement reached in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians will be based, inter alia, on the initiative of Saudi Arabia’s Prince Abdullah approved at the Arab League summit in Beirut that calls for the acceptance of Israel as a neighbor in the region, living in peace and security, within the context of an overall agreement. The road map also states, “This initiative is a vital element of international efforts to promote a comprehensive peace on all tracks, including the Syrian-Israeli and Lebanese-Israeli track.” 
Negotiations with the Palestinians under the auspices of the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic States, which includes Turkey, could make it easier for the Benjamin Netanyahu government to enlist support from the public and its coalition partners for significant steps, such as recognition, in principle, of a Palestinian state, gradual transfer of lands in the West Bank to the sole responsibility of Palestine and passage of a bill concerning “eviction and reparations” for residents of the settlements east of the separation barrier. The government would be able to present these steps as the first stage of a regional peace plan, supported by the United States and the rest of the international community. On the other hand, Israeli willingness to adopt the Arab initiative as a framework for negotiations, to recognize Palestine and to hand it lands, will help the United States put pressure on Saudi Arabia and other Arab states that do not maintain relations with Israel in order to accelerate steps toward normalization.
The Arab summit in Doha illustrates that the new Arab regimes, like the ones that preceded them, regard resolution of the Palestinian issue as the key to strengthening their legitimacy. As far as they are concerned, the way to solve the Syrian problem and to prevent it being turned into a base for Iran or global jihad runs through Ramallah and Jerusalem.
Akiva Eldar is a contributing writer for Al-Monitor’s Israel Pulse. He was formerly a senior columnist and editorial writer for Haaretz and also served as the Hebrew daily’s US bureau chief and diplomatic correspondent. His most recent book (with Idith Zertal), Lords of the Land, on the Jewish settlements, was on the best-seller list in Israel and has been translated into English, German and Arabic.

Arab League approves $1b plan to protect ’Islamic and Arab character’ of East Jerusalem

Haaretz

Ce n’est pas la première fois que de telles promesses sont faites, elles n’ont jamais été suivies d’effet. Et, même si elles l’étaient, on peut douter que l’Autorité soit capable de gérer de manière efficace de telles sommes.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/arab-league-approves-1b-plan-to-protect-islamic-and-arab-character-of-east-

In Syria, America’s fractured hopes - The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/in-syria-americas-fractured-hopes/2013/03/25/fd7a0684-9588-11e2-b6f0-a5150a247b6a_story.html

(...) l’Arabie saoudite et le Qatar mènent une bataille d’influence vieille de plusieurs décennies, en utilisant leurs contacts dans l’opposition syrienne comme substituts. Les deux riches pays du Golfe utilisent leurs médias - Al-Arabiya pour l’Arabie Saoudite et Al-Jazira au Qatar - pour promouvoir leurs agendas différents. C’est une rivalité ruineuse, qui rappelle la manière dont les régimes arabes avaient parrainé les querelles des seigneurs de guerre au Liban.

La plus grande surprise, c’est combien les États-Unis ont été peu disposés à- ou en mesure de- influencer les manœuvres politiques syriennes ces derniers mois. (...)

Report: Qatar to announce fund to protect Jerusalem from Jews - Middle East - Israel News | Haaretz Daily Newspaper
http://www.haaretz.com/news/middle-east/report-qatar-to-announce-fund-to-protect-jerusalem-from-jews.premium-1.5118

The emir of Qatar will announce the establishment of a special fund to help Palestinians counter “the plans to Judaize Jerusalem” at the Arab League summit in Doha on Tuesday, according to local media.

Speaking from his capital city, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani will reportedly commit a large sum of money to the cause and call on Arab states – especially in the Persian Gulf – to chip in. The fund will be managed by an Islamic investment bank and is expected to attract around $1 billion.

Palestinian Authority officials are skeptical, noting the Arab League has made and broken generous promises in the past, including one to provide their government with a financial safety net.

“We hope this time the decisions will be implemented in full,” a senior Palestinian official told Haaretz.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas will attend the 24th meeting of the league, leading a small delegation representing Palestine. But Palestinian issues will likely be overshadowed by Syria and its representation at the summit, which is at the top of the agenda.

A few weeks ago, the Arab League foreign ministers approved a proposal to give Syria’s seat to the Syrian National Coalition, the main group opposed to the regime of President Bashar Assad.

The presence at the summit of new democratically elected leaders from Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Yemen will be conspicuous, as will the absence of Assad.

A Istanbul, le 19 mars, le Qatar impose la formation d’un « gouvernement provisoire » syrien et la nomination d’un « premier ministre », Ghassan Hitto (un citoyen américain), au détriment de celui qui avait été précédemment choisi par ce même Qatar et l’Arabie saoudite (Asaad Mustafa, ancien ministre de l’Agriculture syrien). La prochaine étape pourrait être l’admission de ce gouvernement provisoire au sein de la Ligue arabe (Réunion à Doha le 26 mars) au siège jadis occupé par la Syrie d’Assad. Ce « coup » diplomatique prend à contrepied l’Arabie saoudite, une partie de l’opposition syrienne qui a gelé sa participation aux travaux de la Coalition nationale des forces de la révolution et de l’opposition syrienne dont le président, Moaz Khatib, s’était résolu à favoriser une solution diplomatique plutôt que l’option militaire (le « moindre des deux maux »), les Frères musulmans qui ont fini par se rallier au choix qatari par crainte de voir revenir l’Accord de Genève (30 juin 2012) qui prévoit la participation du régime d’Assad à un gouvernement transitoire et Lakhdar Brahimi, Représentant spécial conjoint des Nations Unies et de la Ligue arabe pour la Syrie, qui militait pour que l’opposition syrienne accepte le maintien d’Assad pour quelque temps encore (2013, voire 2014).

Qatar Trumps Saudi Arabia On Syrian Opposition Leader

Mohammad Ballout Translated from As-Safir (Lebanese independent ’leftist’ newspaper)
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/politics/2013/03/qatar-appoint-coalition-head-syria.html#ixzz2OFaCyaxb
A “temporary Syrian government” for the opposition ... a Qatari coup against Saudi Arabia in the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces (NCR) ... and the sabotaging of the US-Russian understanding. The first fruit of the above is that 12 NCR members froze their memberships a few hours after provisional prime minister Ghassan Hitto presided over his new Syrian “government” in contravention of the deal that Qatar and Saudi brokered among the various wings in the NCR.

#Qatar #Saudi Arabia #National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces #Arab League #Ghassan Hitto #Asaad Mustafa #Moaz Khatib #US #Russia #Geneva Accord #Muslim Brotherhood #Syrian National Council #Mustafa al-Sabbagh #John Kerry #Sergei Lavrov #Lakhdar Brahimi