#qatana et thèmes voisins

Admire le gloubi-boulga confessionaliste de France 24-avec-Reuters :
http://www.france24.com/en/20130522-syria%E2%80%99-national-coalition-calls-rebels-defend-qusair-0

Assad’s forces are intent on seizing Qusair in order to cement their hold on a belt of territory that connects the capital Damascus to Assad’s stronghold on the Mediterranean coast, home to his minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam that has largely supported him.

Seizing Qusair would also allow Assad to sever links between rebel-held areas in the north and south of Syria.

With Shi’ite Hezbollah leading the fight in Qusair, its involvement could drag Syria’s civil war - which already pits mainly Sunni Muslim rebels, including radical Islamists and foreign fighters, against an Alawite-led army - into a more regional sectarian conflict.

Rebel leaders have warned of sectarian revenge attacks against Shi’ites and Alawites on either side of the Syrian-Lebanese border if rebels lose Qusair. Fighters speak of a tacit agreement among their units to launch village by village attacks should they be defeated in the town of 30,000.

Sabra warned that Hezbollah forces in Qusair could regionalise Sunni-Shi’ite tensions across the Middle East.

C’est donc la faute au Hezbollah si les chefs rebelles menacent de représailles sectaires… La beauté de cette compilation d’arguments confessionnels ineptes, c’est qu’il n’est fait nulle part mention des chrétiens de Qusayr. Est-ce parce qu’ils ont disparu, chassés l’année dernière par les rebelles (ceux qui ne seraient pas confessionnels si ce n’était l’intervention du Hezbollah) : Christians Flee from Radical Rebels in Syria
►http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/christians-flee-from-radical-rebels-in-syria-a-846180.html

“There were always Christians in Qusayr — there were around 10,000 before the war,” says Leila, the matriarch of the Khouri clan. Currently, 11 members of the clan are sharing two rooms. They include the grandmother, grandfather, three daughters, one husband and five children. “Despite the fact that many of our husbands had jobs in the civil service, we still got along well with the rebels during the first months of the insurgency.” The rebels left the Christians alone. The Christians, meanwhile, were keen to preserve their neutrality in the escalating power struggle. But the situation began deteriorating last summer, Leila says, murmuring a bit more before going silent.

“We’re too frightened to talk,” her daughter Rim explained, before mustering the courage to continue. “Last summer Salafists came to Qusayr, foreigners. They stirred the local rebels against us,” she says. Soon, an outright campaign against the Christians in Qusayr took shape. “They sermonized on Fridays in the mosques that it was a sacred duty to drive us away,” she says. “We were constantly accused of working for the regime. And Christians had to pay bribes to the jihadists repeatedly in order to avoid getting killed.”

Ou ce rapport du Vatican qui accusait les rebelles d’avoir chassé les chrétiens de Qusair : Syria opposition denies Vatican report of Christians ordered out
►http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/world_now/2012/06/syria-opposition-denies-vatican-report-of-christians-ordered-o

Opponents of the Syrian government disputed a Vatican report that Christians had fled the town of Qusair after an “ultimatum” from the rebel leader, denouncing it as government propaganda.

News of alleged Christian persecution in the town close to the Lebanese border had been reported Saturday by the official Vatican news agency, adding to ongoing worries that the uprising against President Bashar Assad could devolve into sectarian strife between Islamists and religious minorities.

The Vatican agency said it wasn’t clear why Christians had been ordered out of the town. “According to some, it serves to avoid more suffering to the faithful; other sources reveal ’a continuity focused on discrimination and repression.’ Still others argue that Christians have openly expressed their loyalty to the state and for this reason the opposition army drives them away,” the news agency reported.

U.S., Russia push for rapid talks to end Syria carnage: Russia and the United States agreed to bury their differences over Syria and to try to convene international talks with both sides in the civil war to end the carnage that is inflaming the Middle East. Visiting Moscow after Israel bombed targets near Damascus and as President Barack Obama faces new calls to arm the rebels, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Russia had agreed to try to arrange a conference as early as this month involving both President Bashar al-Assad’s government and his opponents. (Reuters)

L’agence de presse iranienne Fars News Agency commente longuement la cybe-rattaque syrienne contre Israël.

Fars News Agency :: Syrian Electronic Army Hacks Israel’s Main Infrastructure (SCADA)
http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9107168206

The SEA said it has hacked into the Haifa infrastructural system at around 22:00 (local time) Monday night, underlining that the hacking was done in retaliation for the recent Israeli strike on a research center in suburban Damascus.

“We would like to announce that in response to the unfair and illegal attacks of Israel on DATE, the SEA has penetrated one of the main infrastructural systems (SCADA) in Haifa and managed to gain access to some sensitive data,” SEA said in a message left for the Israeli operators of Haifa SCADA system.

“Also, the SEA is now able to cause irrecoverable damage to the Israelis’ infrastructural systems,” it added.

Israel staged an airstrike on Syria on Sunday, hitting the Jamraya research center in the vicinity of the Syrian capital, Damascus. Syria said the Israeli regime had carried out the airstrike - the third in the last few months - after heavy losses were inflicted on al-Qaeda-affiliated groups by the Syrian army.

The SEA warned that it could cause a major blast by continuing the attack on the servers of the Haifa infrastructural systems, but avoided further move due to inescapable human casualties as it did not want a story like the recent accident in Texas which claimed the lives of dozens of the people.

“This message carries a serious warning to the Israeli statesmen. They should know that not receiving a quick reaction to such childish ventures does not show the Syrian inability in doing so, but it is based on wisdom and humanity considerations. We do not approve of killing civilians and innocent people as this is an Israeli type of solution,” added the message.

“Also an advice to those who left their homelands for many years, dreaming a happy and safe life, deceived by politicians whose deed is much far from their slogans; Do the best to express your objection to Israeli policies, since we do not like to see innocent people getting killed like in Texas, US, but this time in Haifa.”

The SEA has recently gathered a name for itself in the hacking market by successful attacks on a wide range of the western media, most notably the hacking of AP Twitter accounts and sending of bogus messages which wreaked havoc on stock exchanges. The hackers tweeted that President Obama had been injured in a bomb attack at the White House, causing a temporary 143-point drop on the Dow Jones industrial average.

In an apparent effort to cause disruption and embarrassment in the West and to spread support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the SEA has so far hacked the Guardian, the BBC (including BBC weather, BBC Arabic Online and BBC Radio Ulster), France 24 TV, the National Public Radio in the United States, al-Jazeera, the government of Qatar, E!, and Sepp Blatter, the president of football’s governing body Fifa, whose Twitter account was hacked.

Cybersecurity experts told the Guardian that the SEA attacks are designed to disrupt and embarrass the West and pro-Israeli lobbies, states and entities.

In the BBC case, the SEA, which emerged two years ago, hacked into the Twitter accounts of the British broadcaster and sent nine bogus tweets in an hour, including some with anti-Israeli sentiments, and others saying “Long Live Syria”, and the “Syrian Electronic Army Was Here”.

Guardian itself believes that the SEA attack was a reprisal for a number of leaked emails from the Assads and their inner circle that it had published.

Hours after the cyber-attack began, the SEA said it has targeted the Guardian for spreading “lies and slander about Syria” and said it was in a “state of war with the security team of Twitter”.

But this last cyberattack is certainly a boost in the platform of SEA operations as it required much more sophisticated knowledge and capabilities compared with the previous hackings; giving the Syrian Electronic Army the opportunity to rise to a different level of fame.

SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) is a type of industrial control system (ICS). Industrial control systems are computer controlled systems that monitor and control industrial processes that exist in the physical world. SCADA systems historically distinguish themselves from other ICS systems by being large scale processes that can include multiple sites, and large distances. These processes include industrial, infrastructure, and facility-based processes.

Industrial processes include those of manufacturing, production, power generation, fabrication, and refining, and may run in continuous, batch, repetitive, or discrete modes.

Infrastructure processes may be public or private, and include water treatment and distribution, wastewater collection and treatment, oil and gas pipelines, electrical power transmission and distribution, wind farms, civil defense siren systems, and large communication systems.

Facility processes occur both in public facilities and private ones, including buildings, airports, ships, and space stations. They monitor and control heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems (HVAC), access, and energy consumption.

Hackers usually leave a couple of files for their colleagues to prove that their allegations are true. The SEA has left the following files on its website to show others in the hacking industry that it has had a successful security breach and hacking into the Haifa SCADA system.

Diplomatic source : Iranian FM meets Assad | Maan News Agency
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=593247

DAMASCUS (AFP) — Iran’s Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, whose country is one of Syria’s closest allies, held talks with President Bashar Assad on a previously unannounced visit to Damascus on Tuesday, an Iranian diplomatic source said.

“Salehi arrived in Damascus from Amman and was received by President Bashar Assad,” the source said.

In the Jordanian capital, Iran’s top diplomat called for dialogue between the Syrian regime and “peaceful” opposition groups, warning that the impact of the conflict would affect the entire region.

Salehi’s visit comes after Israel reportedly carried out two separate attacks against Syrian sites last week.

Iran condemned those strikes and has said it is ready to train the Syrian army, which is in its third year of a conflict against rebels seeking to overthrow Assad.

Dexter Filkins : What Should Obama Do About Syria ? : The New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/05/13/130513fa_fact_filkins?currentPage=all

Ce (très long) texte prend pour acquis que le régime syrien a utilisé des armes chimiques.

In May, the senior American official who is involved in Syria policy met me at his office in Washington. When I asked him to predict Syria’s future, he got up from his desk and walked over to a large map of the country which was tacked to his wall. (...)

“What does that sound like? Lebanon. But it’s Lebanon on steroids.” He walked back to his desk and sat down. “The Syria I have just drawn for you—I call it the Sinkhole,’’ he said. “I think there is an appreciation, even at the highest levels, of how this is getting steadily worse. This is the discomfort you see with the President, and it’s not just the President. It’s everybody.” No matter how well intentioned the advocates of military intervention are, he suggested, getting involved in a situation as complex and dynamic as the Syrian civil war could be a foolish risk. The cost of saving lives may simply be too high. “Whereas we had a crisis in Iraq that was contained—it was very awful for us and the Iraqis—this time it will be harder to contain,” he said. “Four million refugees going into Lebanon and Jordan is not the kind of problem we had going into Iraq.” In a year, he estimated, Lebanon alone could have four million refugees, doubling the population of the country. “Jordan will close its borders, and then you will have tens of thousands of refugees huddling down close to that border for safety.”

The rapid growth of Al Qaeda in Syria is deeply troubling, he said. “In February, 2012, they were tiny. No more than a few dozen. Now, fast-forward fourteen months. They are in Aleppo. They are in Damascus. They are in Homs.” In Iraq, he said, “They didn’t grow so fast and they didn’t cover all the big cities. In Syria, they do.” Also, he pointed out, there were no chemical weapons in Iraq, as there are in Syria. “We will have a greater risk, the longer this goes on, that the bad guys—they are all bad guys, but I mean terrorist groups like Hezbollah and Islamist extremist groups—will acquire some of these weapons. How do you plan for that? The longer the war goes on, the more the extremists will gain.” Indeed, the longer the war goes on, the greater the threat that it will engulf the entire region.

The official said that the United States’ quandary was clear enough: “...I know there is a debate on military intervention. I cannot recommend it to the President unless there is a very clearly defined political way back out. People on the Hill ask me, ‘Why can’t we do a no-fly zone? Why can’t we do military strikes?’ Of course we can do these things. The issue is, where does it stop?” ♦

Reported Israeli airstrikes in Syria could accelerate U.S. decision process - The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/reported-israeli-airstrikes-in-syria-could-accelerate-us-decision-making/2013/05/05/72c6eafc-b5c2-11e2-92f3-f291801936b8_print.html

Israel’s reported airstrikes in Syria — and the threat of a retaliatory strike by the Syrian government — are likely to accelerate the decision-making of the Obama administration, which was already moving toward a sharp escalation of U.S. involvement in the two-year-old crisis.

Senior officials said the deployment of U.S. troops to Syria remains unlikely, but they have indicated that a decision will come within weeks on options ranging from the supply of weapons to the Syrian rebels to the use of U.S. aircraft and missiles to ground President Bashar al-Assad’s air power by destroying planes, runways and missile sites inside Syria.

Neither Israeli nor U.S. officials confirmed an attack Sunday morning that reportedly hit a weapons shipment in Syria — including sophisticated missiles and air defense equipment — about to be transferred to Lebanon-based Hezbollah.

But President Obama, in an interview broadcast just hours later Sunday, said Israel is justified in preventing the provision of weapons to Hezbollah.

“We coordinate very closely with the Israelis, recognizing that . . . they are very close to Syria, they’re very close to Lebanon,” Obama said in the interview, recorded Saturday with the Spanish-language Telemundo, after an earlier Israeli attack reported late Friday.

Throughout the Syrian crisis, the administration has repeatedly voiced the belief that Syria is already awash in weapons and that sending more will not tip the balance in favor of the rebels.

Now, in part because of growing confidence in the rebel Free Syrian Army, “the national security team and the diplomatic team around the president” favor increased involvement, and their views are gaining momentum despite the caution expressed by Obama’s political advisers, according to a senior Western official whose government has closely coordinated its Syria policy with Washington and who spoke before the reported Israeli strikes. The official discussed sensitive diplomatic assessments on the condition of anonymity.

Even U.S. lawmakers who have expressed reservations about stepped-up U.S. involvement appeared to now see it as inevitable.

...

The impunity with which the Israelis apparently struck targets in Damascus, McCain said on “Fox News Sunday,” undercut the argument of the U.S. military that Syrian air defenses would pose a formidable impediment to imposition of a no-fly zone over rebel-held areas of Syria.

“The Israelis seem to be able to penetrate it rather easily,” Mc­Cain said. The “red line” Obama drew, promising consequences for Assad if he used chemical weapons, “was apparently written in disappearing ink,” he said.

...

The administration has long exercised caution out of fears that U.S. involvement could worsen the situation. But Obama’s reservations have been challenged by U.S. allies and partners who have urged the United States to take more of a leadership role over their disparate efforts to help the Syrian opposition. At the same time, U.S. confidence has been growing in the cohesiveness of the Free Syrian Army led by Gen. Salim Idris.

Idris, who met with Secretary of State John F. Kerry in Istanbul two weeks ago, pledged that no U.S.-supplied arms would go to Islamist extremist groups fighting for the same cause as the U.S.-backed rebels and said that all weapons would be carefully supervised and returned to donors at the end of the conflict.

...

Militants used chemical material against civilians near Idlib: Syria - Tehran Times
http://www.tehrantimes.com/middle-east/107306-militants-used-chemical-material-against-civilians-near-idlib-sy

Syrian Ambassador to the UN Bashar al-Jaafari has said that the foreign-backed militants in Syria have used chemical material against civilians during an attack on a town near Idlib.

Bashar al-Jaafari said at a press conference on Tuesday that the militants spread the contents of plastic bags containing chemical material during the attack.

Many residents were affected by the armed groups’ “heinous and irresponsible act,” the Syrian envoy said, warning that it was an attempt to “implicate the Syrian government on a false basis.”

Some of the victims were transferred to Turkey for treatment, Jaafari added.

The envoy went on to say that ’today or tomorrow Ankara and Western media would launch a new propaganda campaign against Damascus and claim that the Syrian government has used chemical weapons against its own people.’

Reports say that two people were killed and 20 others injured in the militants’ chemical attack in Idlib.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Barack Obama has said Washington did not know how chemical material was used in another recent attack in Aleppo.

The Syrian government requested the UN to dispatch a fact-finding mission to the country after reports circulated that the foreign-backed militants had used chemical weapons against civilians in Khan al-Assal district of the northwestern province of Aleppo on March 19. Over two dozen people were killed and more than 100 injured in the chemical attack.

Obama said at a press conference on Tuesday that, “If I can establish in a way that not only the United States but also the international community feel confident in the use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime, then that is a game-changer.”

Syria has been gripped by deadly unrest since March 2011, and many people, including large numbers of government security forces and army personnel, have been killed in the violence.

Damascus says the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants are foreign nationals.

Très intéressant point sur l’implication (ou pas) de la Jordanie dans la guerre en Syrie : Jordan in the Eye of the Syrian Storm.
►http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/jordan-eye-syrian-storm-0

By the end of 2012, only a few hundred Jordanian Salafis had crossed the border to fight in Syria. The government mostly turned a blind eye, but its policy of cracking down on jihadi Salafi activists remained in place, as evidenced by firefights along the border.

However, by the beginning of 2013, Damascus began to notice a new development, whereby Syrian army defectors and Syrian Muslim Brotherhood members were being trained in Jordanian camps and sent across the border with official consent.

This prompted Damascus to dispatch Deputy Foreign Minister Faysal al-Miqdad to Amman in January. Jordanian officials denied any such operations, insisting that their country’s policy of neutrality still stood.

Then, new waves of fighters crossed the border into Syria in February and March, bringing with them large amounts of medium-sized weapons, such as armor-piercing shoulder-fired rockets, which can also be used against planes.

Noter cette mention de l’« arme économique » pour faire pression sur un pays :

Nevertheless, Jordan must withstand tremendous pressure coming from Washington in order to avoid becoming implicated in Syrian affairs. US officials like Secretary of State John Kerry, for example, do not hesitate in exploiting Jordan’s fragile economic situation to bend it to its will.

Noter enfin la conclusion, au sujet de l’opinion publique locale :

At the end of the day, however, a high-level Jordanian official still believes that it will be difficult for his country to become deeply involved in the Syrian crisis, primarily because the public sentiment opposes such involvement.

En Syrie, meurtre de coordinateur en chef de la distribution de l’aide gouvernementale d’urgence. La tournure du NY Times est caractéristique : les rituelles accusations par une opposition non sourcée (« des activistes »), et ensuite la version gouvernementale en utilisant l’habituelle tournure caricaturale (assassiner un responsable de l’aide d’urgence à la population civile n’étant un acte « “terroriste” » qu’au sens qu’en donne le régime syrien).
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/20/world/middleeast/more-american-aid-to-syrian-rebels-with-conditions.html

In Syria, the daily litany of civil war violence was punctuated by news of the assassination of the government’s chief coordinator of emergency aid distribution to civilians. Anti-Assad activists said gunmen with silencer-equipped weapons killed the official, Ali Balan, Thursday at a restaurant in the upscale Mezzeh neighborhood of Damascus, which is heavily guarded. The official news agency, Sana, called the killing the work of terrorists, the government’s generic description for armed opponents.

Alors certes, ce régime a déjà largement démontré à quel point il était capable de nuire à ses propres intérêts en menant une politique criminelle et suicidaire ; mais de là à nous faire croire que, chaque mois, il exécute un individu qui sert directement ses intérêts…

En fait, la caricature de la position gouvernementale (« tous des terroristes ») occulte l’idée que, pour beaucoup de gens, cette notion de « terroristes » peut tout aussi bien désigner un troisième « joueur », disposant de forces spéciales capables d’exécuter professionnellement toute personne plus ou moins modératrice dans le conflit, et qui ne serait ni le gouvernement ni les oppositions syriennes connues.

Rien ne sert de discourir, il vaut mieux mentir à point ?

Syrie. Perspective différente des événements de Syrie offerte par l’agence de presse iranienne Fars News Agency. Dans un premier article qui reprend des informations de l’agence syrienne SANA, elle fait valoir les réussites militaires du régime. On notera qu’elle se contente de signaler qu’un « grand nombre de personnes » ont été tuées depuis mars 2011 sans mention d’un quelconque chiffre. Dans le second article, elle se fait également l’écho des déclarations des autorités de Damas (en l’occurrence le vice-ministre des affaires étrangères Faisal al-Miqdad ) pour critiquer la France et la Grande Bretagne qui soutiennent al-Qaïda puisque ces deux pays « soutiennent des groupes armées » en Syrie.

(I) Syrian Forces Kill More Militants, Seize Arms

TEHRAN (FNA)- The Syrian Army said it has killed more foreign-sponsored militants and seized their weapons during an operation across the country .
2013-04-16

http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9107161312

Syrian government forces launched attacks against militants in the governorates of Homs, Idlib, Daraa, Latakia, Hama, Deir ez-Zor, Aleppo, and Damascus, on Monday and killed dozens of them, the official SANA news agency reported.

In addition, the Syrian armed forces captured many machine guns, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, hand-made rockets, mortar shells and anti-tank missiles.

(…) The troops dismantled five Turkish-made anti-armor mines and captured thirteen explosive devices planted on the road between Khan Shekhun and Ma’art al-Nouman in Idlib governorate.
(…) The Syria crisis began in March 2011, and many people, including large numbers of soldiers and security personnel, have been killed in the violence. The Syrian government says that the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants are foreign nationals. In an interview recently broadcast on Turkish television, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said that if the militants fighting against the Syrian government take power in his country they could destabilize the entire Middle East for decades. “If the unrest in Syria leads to the partitioning of the country, or if the terrorist forces take control... the situation will inevitably spill over into neighboring countries and create a domino effect throughout the Middle East and beyond,” he added.

(II) Syria Slams France, UK for Supporting Al-Qaeda

TEHRAN (FNA)- The Syrian government criticized Britain and France for supporting al-Qaeda terrorists in their fight against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.php?nn=9107161318

“Britain and France were complacent about supporting al-Qaeda directly or indirectly,” Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Miqdad said in an interview on Monday, press tv reported. Miqdad described the UK and France as “new colonialists” for giving political and military support to the armed groups in Syria. The Syrian official also criticized Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar for acting to ensure western interests. Miqdad said he hoped Jordan would not boost its involvement in the unrest in Syria. “The same forces that are killing innocent people in Syria are in Jordan too… We have stupid Arabs who are facilitating what the others are planning for the region. But the conspiracy begins in the west,” he added. In an interview recently broadcast on Turkish television, Assad accused Turkey of harboring terrorists and transferring them into Syria. Damascus says Ankara has been playing a key role in fueling the unrest in Syria by financing, training, and arming the militants since violence erupted in the Arab country in March 2011. Assad also warned that if his country “is partitioned, or if terrorist forces take control of the country, there will be direct contagion of the surrounding countries.” Many people, including large numbers of army and security personnel, have been killed in the violence in Syria.

Protesters blocked from reaching French Embassy |
@GeorgesABDALLA

THE DAILY STAR

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Politics/2013/Apr-11/213388-protesters-blocked-from-reaching-french-embassy.ashx#axzz2Q9Mer

Riot police blocked the street leading to the French Embassy in Beirut Thursday to prevent supporters of Leftist militant George Abdallah from nearing the site.

Members of the Internal Security Forces closed off the Damascus road in both directions as a precautionary measure after pro-Abdallah activists called for a massive rally.

The decision angered many of the 61-year-old prisoner’s friends and supporters who gathered outside the French Embassy last Thursday, and warned that they would escalate their action if Lebanese officials fail to demand Abdallah’s release.

Last week, the French judiciary further delayed Abdallah’s release, arguing that he should spend a minimum of one more year in probation before parole can be admissible.

Mideast states, US step up arms shipments to Syrian rebels
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/mideast-states-us-step-arms-shipments-syrian-rebels

Mideast powers opposed to President Bashar Assad have dramatically stepped up weapons supplies to Syrian rebels in coordination with the US in preparation for a push on the capital of Damascus, officials and Western military experts said Wednesday.

Four sources, including an Arab official, a diplomat and a military expert, described a system in which Saudi Arabia and Qatar provide the funding for the weapons. Jordan and Turkey provide the land channels for the shipments to reach the rebels, while all coordinate with the US and other Western governments on the shipments’ destinations.

All must agree for a shipment to go through. The Arab official said some of the arms are being purchased from Croatia, or from US draw-downs in unspecified European countries. He said other sources were black market arms dealers across Europe and the Mideast.

A carefully prepared covert operation is arming rebels, involving Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar, with the United States and other Western governments consulting, and all parties hold veto power over where the shipments are directed, according to a senior Arab official whose government is participating. His account was corroborated by a diplomat and two military experts.

BBC News - Syria crisis: University of Damascus hit by mortars
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-21964299

Mortar fire has hit the University of Damascus, killing 15 students, Syrian state media say.

Assad’s Israeli friend

Haaretz Daily Newspaper

http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/assad-s-israeli-friend.premium-1.512146

Along with the smiles and backslapping last week in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama also revealed their disagreements over Syria. At their joint press conference the president had harsh words for Bashar Assad, saying the Syrian president “must go.” Netanyahu settled for mentioning the carnage in the neighboring state without naming those responsible or saying anything about political change in Damascus.

For the past three years Netanyahu was Assad’s silent ally. With the Syrian regime becoming destabilized, its borders breached and the struggle for its future rupturing the region, Israel had the back of the tyrant from Damascus. It made no deterrent military moves, did not openly support the Syrian opposition and did not even use the horrors in Syria for obligatory propaganda like “Arabs murder Arabs and the hypocritical world does not care, and we are criticized for much less.” Netanyahu made do with general statements about the “breakup” of Syria and warnings against chemical weapons and missiles falling into the hands of terrorists.

Alliances between states do not require meetings between leaders, exchanges of ambassadors and declarations of support and affection. Mutual interests that the parties understand and act upon are sufficient.

L’UNRWA sur la mort de réfugiés palestiniens en Syrie
http://www.unrwa.org/etemplate.php?id=1674

While the majority of casualties are Syrian, it is alarming to note that Palestine refugees are also being killed in increasing numbers, with the majority of fatalities occurring in Damascus (including Yarmouk), and Rif Damascus.
 
UNRWA condemns the persistent failure of all sides of the Syrian conflict to protect civilians or to demonstrate regard for human life. Violations of international humanitarian law and human rights are causing large numbers of avoidable civilian deaths, injuries and displacement, including among the Palestine refugee community in Syria. Parties to the conflict, including armed opposition groups, must ensure compliance with international law and desist from taking up positions or conducting the conflict in Palestine refugee camps and other residential areas.
 
UNRWA deplores the immeasurable, needless human suffering that continues to affect communities across Syria. This is as a direct result of the continued attempts by all parties to resolve the conflict militarily. In the strongest terms, UNRWA reiterates its appeal to all concerned parties to end the suffering and to resolve the conflict in Syria through dialogue and international negotiations.

Damascenes panicked by call for men to fight Assad’s war | Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/14/us-syria-crisis-military-idUSBRE92D0K920130314

When a government-linked Islamic body in Syria said this week it was a “sacred duty” to join the army and fight the revolt, Damascus was ablaze with rumors of a mass military draft.

Men of military age panicked, worrying they would be given a gun and told to fight never-ending street battles with rebel fighters before being returned to their families in a wooden box, like thousands of soldiers over the past two years.

President Bashar al-Assad’s forces are stretched thin across the country as the opposition takes further ground, overrunning military bases and executing prisoners. Fleeing reservists say morale is low among troops, who are virtually imprisoned in their barracks by officers who fear they’ll defect or flee.

The speed in which the draft frenzy spread shows Syrians are feeling pressure to take up arms in a conflict that has become a war of attrition in which Assad is demanding Syrians step up and sacrifice for his survival.

Nablus was “the center of everything”: interview with architect Naseer Arafat | The Electronic Intifada
http://electronicintifada.net/content/nablus-was-center-everything-interview-architect-naseer-arafat/12267

In modern history, before Israeli occupation, there were four buses leaving Nablus every morning — one to Beirut, one to Damascus, one to Jerusalem, and one to Amman. Every morning. My father used to say he would arrive in Damascus before shops opened. The Hijaz train, which took pilgrims from Palestine, Jordan and Syria to Saudi Arabia, started from Nablus. So I could say simply, Nablus was the center of everything for the neighboring countries. You could say it is a unique city.

Damascus Open to Dialogue With ‘Moderate Militants’ - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/politics/2013/03/russia-syria-dialogue-call.html

As a possible solution to the crisis, the Syrian regime might agree to the assimilation of some armed factions into the army, following a cease-fire that would precede work on a political resolution. The Syrian regime never abandons a sometimes surprising optimism in its ability to regain the political initiative, during the worst of circumstances.

A high-level Syrian official has confirmed that the government in Damascus is open to dialogue initiatives to resolve the ongoing crisis, in particular because Moscow continues to advise Syrian authorities that they must respond to international initiatives in order to improve the regime’s image abroad and to provide their allies with something with which to endorse them. The Russians have also been emphasizing that the armed Syrian opposition faces a dilemma regarding whether to engage the regime in dialogue: agreeing to a compromise — thus forfeiting their call for toppling the regime and therefore possibly further dividing their ranks — or refusing to compromise, which could lose them diplomatic clout.

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/02/obstacles-remain-syria-negotiations.html

Russia-US spat dooms UN statement on Damascus bomb | The Times of Israel
http://www.timesofisrael.com/russia-us-spat-dooms-un-statement-on-damascus-bomb

La Russie, les Etats-Unis et le peuple syrien.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Russia and the United States are blaming each other for the failure of the Security Council to issue a statement condemning the car bomb attack in Damascus that killed at least 53 people.

The attack Wednesday on Syria’s ruling party headquarters and two other bombs that struck intelligence offices left at least 75 dead.

Russia accuses the US of blocking a council statement condemning the rebel attacks. The US says it supported the statement but wanted to add language condemning the Assad regime’s recent attacks.

The sniping between Moscow and Washington over Syria, while not new, hardly augurs well for a Feb. 26 meeting in Berlin of Russia Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and John Kerry, the new US secretary of state.

The meeting will focus on Syria, among other matters.

Israeli Jets Attack Inside Target in Syria - NYTimes.com
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/31/world/middleeast/syria-says-it-was-hit-by-strikes-from-israeli-planes.html?emc=na

Israeli warplanes carried out a strike deep inside Syrian territory on Wednesday, American officials reported, saying they believed the target was a convoy carrying sophisticated antiaircraft weaponry on the outskirts of Damascus that was intended for the Hezbollah Shiite militia in Lebanon.

Assad’s strategy shift keeps rebels at gates of Damascus - Middle East - World - The Independent
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/assads-strategy-shift-keeps-rebels-at-gates-of-damascus-8397542.html

A rebel assault on Damascus has failed to make serious gains in the Syrian capital, diplomats have said, warning that the struggle between the regime of Bashar al-Assad and the opposition is now likely to drag on longer than had been expected.

The diplomats say that the Syrian government has adopted a new strategy in recent weeks whereby it withdraws its troops from bases that are indefensible in order to concentrate them in Damascus and other cities it views as strategically crucial. This pull-back enabled the army to launch a successful counter offensive in the past week, relieving the military pressure on the capital and improving its negotiating position.

Syria’s crisis: No side looks set to win soon
http://www.economist.com/node/21564606

Rebel leaders concede that they may have been premature in sending their fighters to attack the regime’s forces in Damascus and Aleppo. Crimes by the rebels, some of whom have killed captives in cold blood, has become commoner. Salafist and jihadist groups, espousing a more sectarian attitude to the conflict, have become more prominent, causing unease among the rebels. Suicide-bombings, such as one on October 9th claimed by Jabhat an-Nusra, the most prominent jihadist group, have become more frequent. Civilians who at first had no truck with the Assad regime have become warier of the rebels. There has been less sign recently that civilian and military loyalties are shifting decisively in the rebels’ favour.

In Aleppo, as in other cities, numerous brigades, as the rebels’ various fighting groups are called, remain outside any overall command. Louay Sakka, a member of the Washington-based Syrian Support Group that backs the rebel groups, says that further unification is unlikely until the rebels’ foreign backers, mainly in Qatar and Saudi Arabia, decide to channel their funds through designated regional military councils, which might then be better able to draw smaller groups into a single command.

Aref Dalila : Negotiation is Forbidden
http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/aref-dalila-negotiation-forbidden

Syrian opposition veteran Dalila tells Al-Akhbar that the regime is as unserious about dialogue with its home-based critics as it ever was, despite allowing some to hold a conference in Damascus.

Bashar al-Assad ’betrayed Col Gaddafi to save his Syrian regime’ - Telegraph
►http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/libya/9577628/Bashar-al-Assad-betrayed-Col-Gaddafi-to-save-his-Syrian-regime.html

In what would amount to an extraordinary betrayal of one Middle East strongman by another, President Bashar al-Assad sold out his fellow tyrant in an act of self-preservation, a former senior intelligence official in Tripoli told the Daily Telegraph.

With international attention switching from Libya to the mounting horrors in Syria, Mr Assad offered Paris the telephone number in exchange for an easing of French pressure on Damascus, according to Rami El Obeidi.

PressTV - Press TV correspondent killed in Syrian capital
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2012/09/26/263608/press-tv-correspondent-killed-in-syria

Wed Sep 26, 2012 8:38AM GMT
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Insurgents in the Syrian capital Damascus have attacked Press TV staff, killing the Iranian English-language news network’s correspondent Maya Naser, and injuring its Damascus Bureau Chief Hosein Mortada.