UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan hoped a key meeting to address the crisis in #Syria will take place soon, his spokesperson said on Tuesday.
Annan, who brokered the faltering six-point plan aimed at ending the bloodshed, wanted to bring together world and regional powers to put pressure on Syria’s leader.
To read more: ►http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=408282#ixzz1xZlPzHtc
US fears for new massacre in Syria
A spokesperson for former UN secretary general Kofi Annan, who drafted a fledgling UN-Arab League peace plan, earlier warned that civilians were trapped in the northwestern city and demanded the immediate entry of UN monitors.
“The United States joins joint special envoy Kofi Annan in expressing deep alarm by reports from inside Syria that the regime may be organizing another massacre,” State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland told reporters.
To read more: ►http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=408087#ixzz1xWMBS2ut
Annan “
gravely concerned
” about Syrian violence
UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan was “gravely concerned” by a step up in fighting by Syrian government forces and the opposition, his spokesperson said on Monday.
Annan “is gravely concerned by the latest reports of violence coming out of #Syria and the escalation of fighting by both government and opposition forces,” said Ahmad Fawzi in a statement.
To read more: ►http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=407966#ixzz1xUcyBNsb
UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan told the UN Security Council on Thursday that the Syria crisis will quickly “spiral out of control” unless substantial pressure is put on President Bashar al-Assad.
Annan renewed calls for the major powers to warn Assad of “clear consequences” if he does not comply with a six-point international peace plan, one diplomat inside a closed-door council briefing told AFP.
To read more: ►http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=406762
charlesfjohnson
Assad mocks U.N. & Arab League. With assurance of no intervention by U.S., he knows he can murder with impunity. ►http://t.co/1uMpIjO3
#Breaking U.N.-Arab League chief Kofi Annan: I voice my condemnation of the new massacre in al-Qubair in Hama and o... ►http://t.co/gJmiycb1
Russia on Thursday said a new massacre in Syria in which at least 55 civilians were reported killed was a provocation aimed at undermining the faltering peace plan of UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan.
“There is no question that certain forces, not for the first time, are using the most brutal and vile provocations to undermine the plan of Kofi Annan,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Alexander Lukashevich said.
To read more: ►http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=406505#ixzz1x71jBVf0
UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan will on Thursday propose that the western powers, Russia and China form a new international group to press President Bashar al-Assad into political talks to end the deadly crisis, diplomats said.
Annan could even call for Iran and other key Middle East nations to be let into the so-called Contact Group when he makes the proposal to the UN Security Council, sources said.
To read more: ►http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticleDetails.aspx?ID=406195#ixzz1x2PUoVUB
U.S. backs Arab League proposal to invoke tough U.N. sanctions against #Syria ►http://ow.ly/bp1QG
Al-Akhbar in Lebanon says al-Dunya is “exposing the lies, excesses, and professional mistakes” of BBC/Arabiya
The Arab League has called on the region’s two major satellite operators to stop broadcasting pro-regime Syrian channels. Some Syrian expats are entertaining the idea of launching their own satellite to get around the ban.
The public watched on Sunday as Arab League Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi read a statement after the extraordinary meeting of the Arab foreign ministers, asking the two main satellite operators in the Arab world, Arabsat and Nilesat, to stop broadcasting Syrian private and public television stations.
The precedent-setting move comes after a series of sanctions that the US and the European Union took against the state-run Syrian TV and Ad-Dunya TV owned by businessman and MP Muhammad Hamsho.
further reading
►http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/television-syrian-crisis-orbit
In Syria, this is no plan for peace | Patrick Seale
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/may/27/syria-no-plans-peace
Engineered by Kofi Annan – the UN and Arab League mediator – the ceasefire of 12 April is now in tatters. His peace plan called on both sides to put down their guns as a necessary preliminary to ’"Syria-led" political negotiations. But the opposition – of which the most formidable element is the Muslim Brothers – is waging an urban guerrilla war backed by outside powers. This wing of the opposition does not want to negotiate with Bashar al-Assad: it wants to topple him.
The Gulf states have pledged $100m to the opposition, to enable it to pay its fighters and buy arms. The US has no intention of getting involved in a war in Syria itself, but it is said to be co-ordinating the flow of weapons and intelligence to the rebels. Although it says it supports the Annan plan, it is unashamedly undermining it by helping to arm the rebels. This is the central contradiction in US policy.
UN monitors counted 85 bodies at Houla. The opposition has blamed the regime for the slaughter, while the regime has put the blame on “terrorists” – that is to say, on its armed opponents, stiffened by Islamist jihadis, some of them linked to al-Qaida, who have been flowing into Syria from Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan. These jihadis are thought to be responsible for about a dozen terrorist acts, the worst of which, in Damascus on 10 May, killed 55 people and wounded close to 400.
Major-General Robert Mood, the Norwegian head of the UN observer mission, has been cautious in pointing the finger of blame for Friday’s Houla killings: “Whatever I learned on the ground in Syria ... is that I should not jump to conclusions.” Probably, the truth is that the two sides share the responsibility.
LeShaque
AlArabiya: Mood expresses grave discontent at the killing of 13 people in Deir Ezzor. —How about those 30 corpses in Qusair?! #Syria
MahirZeynalov
RT @ ZaurShiriyev: Eurovision Terror, Assassination Plots Foiled, Azerbaijan Says ►http://bloom.bg/Ncf9H0 #Azerbaijan #Iran
NOW_Syria
AFP: President Bashar al-Assad must step down if UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan plan is to be saved, opposition says
NOW_Syria
#Syria expelled the Dutch charge d’affaires, AFP reported on Wednesday
Samsomhoms
Most parts of old city of #Homs(center of city)remain under #FreeSyrianArmy control&under siege of #Assad forces since March #Syria
NOW_Syria
AFP: UN mission chief ’deeply disturbed’ by killing of 13 in Syria’s Deir az-Zour
HamaEcho
Bassel Shehada teaching #Homs activists filming and recording techniques, he was a talented Cinematographer. RIP. ►http://t.co/qs34ypCu
À lire (parce que sinon vous n’entendez plus jamais parler du rapport de la Mission d’observation de la Ligue arabe en Syrie) : Foolishly Ignoring the Arab League Report on Syria
►http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/foolishly-ignoring-arab-league-report-syria
But then the report veers sharply away from conventional narratives about the nature of the Syrian conflict by observing: “The Mission determined that there is an armed entity that is not mentioned in the protocol.”
Though the report attributes this development “to the excessive use of force by Syrian Government forces in response to protests,” it also points out that “in some zones, this armed entity reacted by attacking Syrian security forces and citizens, causing the Government to respond with further violence.”
The report then provides several examples of this:
“In Homs and Dera‘a, the Mission observed armed groups committing acts of violence against Government forces, resulting in death and injury among their ranks. In certain situations, Government forces responded to attacks against their personnel with force. The observers noted that some of the armed groups were using flares and armour-piercing projectiles.”
“In Homs, Idlib and Hama, the Observer Mission witnessed acts of violence being committed against Government forces and civilians that resulted in several deaths and injuries. Examples of those acts include the bombing of a civilian bus, killing eight persons and injuring others, including women and children, and the bombing of a train carrying diesel oil. In another incident in Homs, a police bus was blown up, killing two police officers. A fuel pipeline and some small bridges were also bombed.”
Gulf states to fund struggling resistance fighters | The Australian
►http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/gulf-states-to-fund-struggling-resistance-fighters/story-e6frg6so-1226254713240
SAUDI Arabia and Qatar have agreed to fund the Syrian opposition, which is struggling to afford weapons in its fight against President Bashar al-Assad, a Syrian dissident has told The Times.
Opposition figures held a secret meeting with Saudi and Qatar officials after an Arab League meeting in Cairo last weekend. All the Gulf countries decided then to pull their observers from a monitoring mission that has been widely criticised for being toothless.
President Assad Makes Rare Public Speech in Syria
►http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/12/world/middleeast/president-assad-makes-rare-public-speech-in-syria.html
The observer who resigned on Wednesday, Anwar Abdel Malik, said he left because he felt that the mission was serving the interests of the government rather than trying to end the crackdown on protesters.
By the United Nations’ account, more than 5,000 people have been killed in Syria since the uprising began, including more than 400 people since the observers arrived. Mr. Malik described the situation as a humanitarian disaster.
“The mission was a farce, and the observers have been fooled,” he told Al Jazeera, the Arabic satellite network based in Qatar. “The regime orchestrated it and fabricated most of what we saw, to stop the Arab League from taking action against the regime.”
He added, “The regime isn’t committing one war crime, but a series of crimes against its people.”
Khaled Abu Salah, an activist from Homs, a city near the Lebanese border that has been a flashpoint, said that Mr. Malik, an Algerian who was once a political prisoner himself, was particularly moved after seeing the disfigured body of a protester named Abdel Jarim Darwish, from the Baba Amr neighborhood.
C’est encore Angry Arab qui fait le boulot à la place du New York Times : le très compatissant monsieur Malik est un honorable correspondant des services de renseignement algériens :
►http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2012/01/qatars-role-in-conspiracy-role-of-anwar.html
Aljazeera is now almost comical if it was not for its sinister role. Yesterday, it hosted the member of the Arab League monitoring mission in Syria: the guy who blasted the mission on the first day. He is Algerian and his name is Anwar Malik. He was a member of the Algerian Mukhabarat and close to the ruling generals. He was asked about his background on Aljazeera and said: military-legal. He wore his orange Arab League vest above his suit and tie, which made him look like a clown. But he answered on cue. Oh, and the guy had written in the past against Aljazeera.
Leaked Syrian letter to Arab League lists demands | Al Akhbar English
►http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/leaked-syrian-letter-arab-league-lists-demands
The letter sent by Syria to the Arab League on Sunday night accepting the regional body’s request to send observers has been leaked on social media.
Syria announced on Monday it responded positively to the Arab League’s request, stipulating a set of conditions in the letter.
The Syrians have demanded that the Arab League rescind its decisions on Syria — in reference to the nation’s suspended membership from the League and Arab sanctions — upon the signing of the protocol.
Syria has also requested that the signing take place in Damascus, and not at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo.
The third condition was a call for the Arab League to inform the UN Security Council in a written letter that the regional body and Syria have reached “positive results.”
There has been no immediate reaction from the Arab League to Syria’s requests.
Le courrier syrien avec son annexe se trouvent là :
►http://www.scribd.com/doc/74817444/Syria-Demands-Letter-to-Arab-League-December-5-2011
“Arab League and U.S. Not Fit to Intervene in Syria”: Interview with Jadaliyya Co-Editor Bassam Haddad
►http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/3340/arab-league-and-u.s.-not-fit-to-intervene-in-syria
In this interview, Jadaliyya Co-Editor Bassam Haddad asserts that condemning the regime’s violence and opposing international intervention of any sort are not mutually exclusive, and that the best course of action is to leave the opposition to its own devices, as the regime seems to be heading in the direction of political and military suicide. Furthermore, the internal opposition seems to be growing in strength, a reality that is likely to produce fissures and serious splits within the regime and its armed forces about the best course of action. In this context, international intervention would only complicate matters, cause more mayhem, and produce inconclusive outcomes.
Arab League mounts pressure on Syria as Free Army calls for air strikes
►http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2011/11/24/179003.html
The Arab League has given Syria a day to sign a protocol allowing monitors into the country or the regional body will press ahead with plans to impose economic sanctions, Egypt’s envoy to the League said on Thursday as Free Syrian Army called for foreign air strikes on “strategic targets” in Syria.
France seeks Arab backing for Syria intervention
►http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2011/Nov-24/155051-france-outlines-syria-humanitarian-corridor-proposal.ashx
France will seek Arab support Thursday for a humanitarian corridor in Syria, the first time a major power pushed for international intervention in the eight-month uprising against President Bashar Assad.
Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, who first floated the proposal for humanitarian intervention Wednesday, gave more details of the plan and said he would propose it to a meeting of Arab League foreign ministers gathering in Cairo to discuss Syria.
Is the Arab League capable of saving Syria?
►http://english.dohainstitute.org/Home/Details/5ea4b31b-155d-4a9f-8f4d-a5b428135cd5/f003f844-d1cc-41b1-be50-75f151f557db
However, the collapse of a regime does not automatically mean the rise of a democratic alternative. This scenario is also attended by various risks and hurdles, chief among them the inability of the Syrian opposition thus far to produce a unified political vision that overcomes its differences, or to rise above the logic of excommunication and exclusion, in order to send reassuring messages to the large segments of Syrian society that remain hesitant. We must remember that a section of this opposition has rejected the Arab Initiative, relying instead on international intervention and only abandoning this option once it was informed by the Western powers that this option was not forthcoming. There are sections in Syrian society that see the possibility of a civil war and the threat of the Iraqi model, fearing the receptiveness of a portion of the opposition to the notion of foreign military intervention, which is rejected by a silent majority among Syrian society that witnessed its effects in neighboring Iraq. To these hurdles should be added the threat of the division and fragmentation of the Syrian Army, and its inability to play a future role as a guarantor preventing civil war from taking place, if change happens in a non-peaceful manner. Therefore, and for this scenario to come to pass, the Syrian opposition must abandon the rhetoric that continually accuses opponents of treason, and which it has been employing in the recent phase; the opposition also must refrain from trying to clone experiments that do not correspond to the nature of Syrian society, which is ethnically and religiously diverse.
Puis le scénario de la guerre civile:
Even though this scenario is currently unlikely - since the Arab Initiative came as a preemptive move by the Arab League to avoid the internationalization of the crisis and its descent into the course of military intervention along the Iraqi and Libyan models it remains a latent possibility. There are indications auguring for this scenario in the medium and long term, and it is currently known in Syria as the “devil” scenario. The most important of these indications is the regime’s continual rejection of the Arab solution, halting violence, and entering into a transitional process of change, which takes place in tandem with the increasing penchant of domestic and foreign parties to push the revolution toward militarization, the carrying of arms and demands for border “buffer zones” along the lines of the Libyan scenario - especially with the regime’s insistence on adopting the “Samson” option. Consequently, we would find ourselves faced with a situation similar to Iraq in 2003, with the appearance of an opposition that calls for and instigates foreign military intervention, or the militarization of the revolution and the creation of “liberated” zones from which armed groups would be ready to wage their attacks against the regime.
This scenario is widely viewed as the most dangerous for Syria and the Arab world as it would represent a regression of the Arab Spring, whose first fruits are being harvested in Tunisia following the election of the Constituent Assembly. This scenario would imply a dangerous dimension of sectarian and ethnic division in Syrian society, causing Syria to becoming an engine for the destruction of the mosaic that is the Arab Mashreq, instead of being a democratic state that contributes to confronting sectarianism. This scenario also would lead to the shrinking of Syria’s importance and its inability to influence major issues, especially those regarding the conflict with Israel. Syria would become an arena for the struggle of regional international powers according to their interests, and the ramifications of such a process would reflect on Lebanon and other Arab states, leading to a complex Arab situation that represents a hurdle to the process of democratic transformation in other countries.
As such, a great responsibility falls upon the Arab League and pan-Arab action to create mechanisms that prevent the occurrence of this scenario, and instead produce solutions within the Arab circle, outside the agendas and interests of regional and international actors. The Syrian opposition, with all its factions, carries the greatest burden of responsibility because of its current negative role and its inability to produce the political vision that would encourage the majority of the people to engage in the movement, and to feel, in a tangible manner, the benefits of democratic change.
Syria and the Arab League II: The Motives | As‘ad AbuKhalil
►http://english.al-akhbar.com/blogs/angry-corner/arab-league-and-syria-motives
The Arab League acted only because the US failed to obtain a vote in the Security Council. The League is now a useful tool for US foreign policies and wars. The irony is that the League (under the former clownish direction of Amr Mousa) gave legitimacy to NATO bombing of a member state and has now gotten in the business of surrendering the “joint defense” of the Arabs to an outside force. Arab countries in the League are all committed to the “Joint Defense Pact” which has been ignored in numerous inter-Arab wars and in foreign invasions against one Arab state, with the support of some Arab states.
Let us remember that the Syrian regime has no credibility in this matter at all, as it joined the US coalition in 1990-91 to attack Iraq and its army. The same game that the Syrian government is complaining about, was perfected by the Saudi, Egyptian, and Syrian regimes in 1990.
The Arab League’s motives are not related to the plight of the Arab uprisings. They are part of US regional orders. They are also part of the rising ambition of the emirate of Qatar (more on this factor in the next article): it now wants to prove to the US that it can be as subservient and loyal to US imperial interests as Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Qatar, in other words, is proving its usefulness to the US (and Israel). The Arab League has proven that it can only be allowed to be relevant to the extent to which it can strictly follows US dictates. That is why it is preferable that the Arab League remain irrelevant.
The Not-So-Revolutionary Arab League: Flexing GCC Muscle | Al Akhbar English
►http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/not-so-revolutionary-arab-league-flexing-gcc-muscle
After the suspension of Syria, members of Bahrain’s opposition reportedly tried to send a letter to the Arab League’s secretary general earlier this week calling for their plight to be added to the League’s agenda. The Arab League refused to receive the letter.
Also this week, King Abdullah of Jordan, who, like Bashar Assad, assumed power when his father died, said in the days following Syria’s suspension, “if I was in his [Assad’s] shoes, I would step down”. A bold statement by a ruler whose own country was subject to pro-democracy protests earlier this year.
Despite it not being near the Gulf, Jordan, an important ally to the US and Israel, was invited to join the Gulf Cooperation Council earlier this year. So too was Morocco, the Arab country furthest from the Gulf, but another US-backed Arab state headed by an iron-fisted monarch.
All this indicates that the GCC is consolidating its power and fast becoming a superpower the dominant force within the Arab League. This was clear when the Algerian foreign minister tried to question the legality of suspending Syria from the Arab League and was reportedly warned by his Qatari counterpart: “Stop defending Syria, because when your turn comes you may need us!”
Syria needs mediation, not a push into all-out civil war | Jonathan Steele (Comment is free)
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/17/syria-mediation-arab-league-assad
Syria is on the verge of civil war and the Arab League foolishly appears to have decided to egg it on. The spectre is ugly, as Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the hawks of the Gulf, are joined by the normally restrained King Abdullah of Jordan in taking sides with opponents of Syria’s Assad regime. Where common sense dictates that Arab governments should seek to mediate between the regime and its opponents, they have chosen instead to humiliate Syria’s rulers by suspending them from the Arab League. (...) Source: Comment is free
Un billet très intéressant de Jonathan Steele dans le Guardian, à peu près l’exact opposé de tout ce qu’on peut lire ou entendre ailleurs.
Syria needs mediation, not a push into all-out civil war | Jonathan Steele | The Guardian
►http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/17/syria-mediation-arab-league-assad
It is no accident that the minority of Arab League members who declined to go along with that decision includes Algeria, Lebanon and Iraq. They are the three Arab countries that have experienced massive sectarian violence and the horrors of civil war themselves. Lebanon and Iraq, in particular, have a direct interest in preventing all-out bloodshed in Syria. They rightly fear the huge influx of refugees that would pour across their borders if their neighbour collapses into civil war.
That war has already begun. The image of a regime shooting down unarmed protesters, which was true in March and April this year, has become out of date. The so-called Free Syrian Army no longer hides the fact that it is fighting and killing government forces and police, and operating from safe havens outside Syria’s borders. If it gathers strength, the incipient civil war would take on an even more overt sectarian turn with the danger of pogroms against rival communities.
Moderate Sunnis in Syria are worried by the increasing militancy of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis who have taken the upper hand in opposition ranks. The large pro-regime demonstrations in Damascus and Aleppo over the past week cannot simply be written off as crowds who were intimidated or threatened with loss of jobs if they did not turn out.
[…]
If that were to become a serious effort at mediation, so much the better. The best model is the agreement that ended Lebanon’s civil war, reached after talks in Taif in Saudi Arabia in 1989. Although it was negotiated by the various Lebanese parties and interest groups, Saudi sponsorship and support were important.
Whether Saudi Arabia can play a similar role today is doubtful. Eagerly backed by the Obama administration, the monarchy seems bent on an anti-Iranian mission in which toppling Syria’s Shia-led regime is seen as a proxy strike against Tehran. The Saudis and Americans are working closely with the Sunni forces of Saad Hariri in Beirut, who are still smarting from their loss of control of the Lebanese government this spring.