person:assad

  • Syria’s Opposition Conferences: Results and Expectations - Syria in Crisis - Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
    http://carnegieendowment.org/syriaincrisis/?fa=62263&mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRons6TKZKXonjHpfsX76esuXKGg38431UF

    The PKK leadership has played its cards beautifully since the Syrian war began. Having muscled out all Kurdish rivals, the group now receives military backing from the United States through the SDF, while other groups in the PKK sphere, such as the Democratic Union Party, or PYD, work hand in hand with Russia. They have hostile relations with nearly all of the mainstream Arab opposition, not to mention the jihadists, but this is offset by tense yet working ties to Assad. Materially speaking they have done better than any other group in the war. Though they would have been a very poor fit for the delegation chosen in Riyadh, as they are at daggers drawn with most of the other armed groups invited there, the Kurds would seem perfectly placed to benefit from any future peace talks. But instead, due to Turkey’s relentless hostility to the PKK—regardless of the acronym du jour—they fear being excluded altogether.

  • Paris climate negotiations won’t stop the planet burning
    http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/paris-climate-negotiations-won-t-stop-planet-burning-1543258788

    It is not widely known that US, British, French and Israeli oil companies have had a range of overlapping interests in exploiting Syria’s unconventional oil and gas resources, which are believed to be considerable.

    A document for the Syrian Ministry of Petroleum reveals that just months before the uprising, British oil major Shell was about to “devise a master plan for the development of the gas sector in Syria, following an agreement signed with the Ministry of Petroleum. The agreement includes an assessment of the overall undiscovered gas potential in Syria, potential for upstream gas production, need for gas transmission and distribution networks…”

    CGGVeritas, a firm backed by the French government, had conducted seismic surveys estimating Syria’s total offshore hydrocarbon potential to represent “billion-barrel/multi-TCF [trillion cubic feet]” levels. A study by the firm was published in 2011 by GeoArabia, a Bahrain-based petroleum industry journal sponsored by Chevron, ExxonMobil, Saudi Aramco, Shell, Total, and BP.

    Total, another French major, also worked with Assad at this time.

    More recently, another US firm with interests in Syria is Genie Oil and Gas, an Israeli subsidiary of which was granted a licence by the Israeli government in 2013 to explore the Syrian Golan Heights, which has been controlled by Israel since capturing the territory from Syria in 1967.

    In early November, Prime Minister Netanyahu personally asked Barack Obama in a private meeting if Israel’s right to the Golan could be accepted by the US, to which the American president apparently said nothing.

    Genie’s board consists of an interesting mix, including former former CIA director James Woolsey, Vice President Dick Cheney, global media baron Rupert Murdoch, Obama’s former economic advisor Larry Summers, and Obama’s nomimee for Secretary of Commerce Bill Richardson, among others.

    “We want a new Syrian state including some of those who are fighting it helping on the ground,” said British defence secretary Michael Fallon.

    No doubt, US, British, French and Israeli oil firms hope to be well positioned to take advantage of the “new Syrian state” in a post-conflict Syria.

    #Syrie #hydrocarbures #énergie #business

  • L’hyperimpuissance US en mode-turbo
    http://www.dedefensa.org/article/lhyperimpuissance-us-en-mode-turbo

    L’hyperimpuissance US en mode-turbo

    Effectivement, on ne peut pas ne pas se poser la question : mais pourquoi et comment les USA ne bombardent-ils pas plus efficacement Daesh depuis un an et demi qu’ils ont lancé une coalition contre l’entité en question ? Pourquoi et comment n’ont-ils rien fait contre les convois sans fin de camions-citernes baladant le pétrole-Daesh vers la Turquie, sur des dizaines et des dizaines de kilomètres, voire quelques centaines de kilomètres, tant que la chose est visible à des kilomètres et des kilomètres, voire l’une ou l’autre dizaine de kilomètres d’altitude ? On ne dira pas tout de même qu’ils n’étaient pas au courant ? Non ? Oui, on le dira ? Ce sont les questions cruciales que RT posait in fine hier au journaliste Marcus Papadopoulos, de la revue Politics First, – dans (...)

    • A propos des déclarations d’Obama le 1er décembre...

      Ci-dessous, le tronçonnage et les interprétations de Lang :

      « Syria. Paraphrasing – “I have been convinced for the LAST FIVE YEARS that Assad must go, must be removed from office.” Well, pilgrims, five years ago was BEFORE the Syrian Civil War. Did he simply misspeak? Did he mean four years? Or, was this a Freudian slip in which he really admitted that he had decided to get rid of Assad BEFORE the civil war began? If he really did mean five years then the accusation that the US, Saudi Arabia and Israel promoted the revolt in the context of “The Arab Spring” gains weight in the debate over the origins of the civil war.

      » Jihadi groups in the Syrian National Congress (SNC). Paraphrasing – “Some of these groups are not people we have much in common with and we know that the transition post-Assad will be ‘messy’ but these groups are important to some other countries in our coalition...” Can there be any doubt that he was referring to Sultan Tayyip’s Turkey, Wahhabi Saudi Arabia and Wahhabi Qatar? Do he and his Borgist crew not understand that these Islamist forces seek a Syria in which their varied visions of a Sunni Islamic future are triumphant and in which religious minorities are reduced to dhimmitude. Is this what the emperor of us all thinks is a desirable outcome in Syria?

      » Russia. Paraphrasing – “They will ‘come around’ to our view about Syria and accept that what we want must be.” Once again, pilgrims, I see nothing in anything the Russians are doing that indicates they are going to “come around.” ... The War. Paraphrasing – “Nothing the Russians have done since they began their operations in Syria has changed the situation. They will eventually understand that a military solution in Syria is not possible.” SWMBO listened to that and remarked that this man knows nothing of war. I agree. [...]

      » Turkey. Paraphrasing. “I am assured that Turkey will seal its border against movement of IS oil, people and supplies.” Sultan Tayyip must believe that he has already died and gone to heaven.

      » His attitude. His imperial majesty displayed the now familiar petulant disdain for all who dared question him. The atmosphere was the kind of thing one sees in meetings in which a teacher tries to contain his patronizing of students. His reference to the UK as “the Brits” was painful to hear. »

  • ’Britain is on the verge of entering into a long war in Syria based on wishful thinking and poor information...’ |
    2 décembre 2015

    Patrick Cockburn was invited by Jeremy Corbyn to brief MPs on the facts about today’s Common’s vote on air strikes in Syria. This is his briefing to you

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/britain-is-on-the-verge-of-entering-into-a-long-war-in-syria-based-on

    Britain is on the verge of entering a conflict in Syria in which its political and military strategy is based on wishful thinking and poor information. British air strikes in Syria will be too few to make much difference to Isis, but are important because they signal Britain’s entry into what may be a long war.
    Read more
    The 236 words that will decide whether we go to war in Syria

    In one crucial respect, David Cameron’s approach is similar to that which saw Britain fight two small but unsuccessful wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2003, in both cases without an effective local partner on the ground. Similarly in Syria, Britain will be at the mercy of events which are being shaped by the numerous other players in the conflict, all of whom have their own highly contradictory agendas.

    Much of the debate around the feasibility of the British strategy has focused on Mr Cameron’s statement that we do indeed have a partner, of whose existence few were previously aware. He said that there are 70,000 “Syrian opposition fighters on the ground who do not belong to extremist groups”. The impression given is that there is a “third force” in Syria which will provide a powerful ally for the US, France and Britain.

    • Assad must be backed to defeat IS: Patrick Cockburn
      Rori Donaghy | Thursday 3 December 2015
      http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/assad-must-be-backed-if-be-defeated-patrick-cockburn-1481275245

      Cockburn concluded that the current plan to fight IS was not working – but he added that those who oppose military action were not offering anything either.

      “If you’re going to confront this properly neither Jeremy Corbyn (the people opposing air strikes) nor the people who are pro-bombing are actually proposing to do anything which is going to trouble Islamic State too much.”

      Reports have suggested that Cockburn was asked by Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to brief only his MPs before the Commons vote on Wednesday. However, Cockburn said his briefing was to politicians from both sides of the House, and added that he was not party political.

  • Après l’impossible « liste noire » des rebelles terroristes confiée à la Jordanie, l’impossible « liste blanche » des rebelles non-terroristes demandée à Fabius par Poutine, aujourd’hui les 70.000 « modérés » de Cameron déjà réduits à 40.000 en quelques heures :
    http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/dec/01/cameron-has-failed-to-justify-syria-airstrikes-mps-committee-says

    Lt Gen Gordon Messenger, the deputy chief of the defence staff, told the defence select committee that national security concerns meant he could not say whether any of the 70,000 fighters were members of the Islamic Front and Ahrar ash-Sham.

    […]

    Messenger told the committee: “I can’t get into detail because of the level of classification of this briefing. What I can say is there is a spectrum of extremism.”

    […]

    Later, Louise Haigh, the shadow minister for civil service reform, said the government’s national security adviser Mark Lyall Grant had told MPs at a briefing that 40,000 of the forces were radical Islamists. Haigh tweeted: “National Security Adviser confirms number of moderates on ground in Syria is 40,000 rest are much more radical Islamists.”

    • La contre-argumentation de Patrick Cockburn dans The Independent - le tout dans le contexte d’un vote à la Chambre des Communes sur les bombardements anglais en Syrie :
      ’Britain is on the verge of entering into a long war in Syria based on wishful thinking and poor information...’
      http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/britain-is-on-the-verge-of-entering-into-a-long-war-in-syria-based-on
      Extrait :

      Much of the debate around the feasibility of the British strategy has focused on Mr Cameron’s statement that we do indeed have a partner, of whose existence few were previously aware. He said that there are 70,000 “Syrian opposition fighters on the ground who do not belong to extremist groups”. The impression given is that there is a “third force” in Syria which will provide a powerful ally for the US, France and Britain.
      This would be very convenient but, unfortunately, its existence is very debatable. “The notion that there are 70,000 moderate fighters is an attempt to show that you can fight Isis and [President Bashar al] Assad at the same time,” says Professor Joshua Landis, the director of the Centre for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma and an expert on Syrian politics. But he is dismissive of the idea that such a potential army exists, though he says there might be 70,000 Syrians with a gun who are fighting for their local clan, tribe, warlord or village. “The problem is that they hate the village down the road just as much they hate Isis and Assad,” he said.
      The armed opposition to President Assad is dominated by Isis, the al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra and the ideologically similar Ahrar al-Sham. Some of the smaller groups, once estimated by the CIA to number 1,500, might be labelled as moderate, but only operate under license from the extreme jihadists. Aymenn al-Tamimi, a fellow at the Middle East Forum and an authority on the Syrian armed opposition, says that these groups commonly exaggerate their numbers, are very fragmented and have failed to unite, despite years of war. [...]
      The US-led air campaign has already launched around 8,300 air strikes against Isis which have slowed up its advance, but without bringing it to its knees. Professor Landis says that the difficulty is that the three powers in Syria capable of winning the war are Isis, a Jabhat al-Nusra led alliance or Mr Assad but “the US doesn’t want any of these to win”. He cites three attempts by the US to create a moderate armed opposition which have humiliatingly failed and, on each occasion, extreme jihadists have captured quantities of modern American weapons.

  • Jeremy Corbyn insists ‘I’m not going anywhere’ and says he has final say on Labour vote over Syria air strikes
    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jeremy-corbyn-insists-i-m-not-going-anywhere-and-says-he-has-final-sa

    Pressed on whether he could support bombing Syria under any circumstances, Mr Corbyn said: "I don’t think it will solve the problem that is there.

    "There also has to be a recognition that if we bomb in Raqqa we are going to take out civilian lives, we may not in effect do very much damage to Isis and actually may make the situation worse not better.

    “The experience of Libya where there was no follow-up plan shows these things can be very dangerous.”

    He drew attention to a piece in the Observer quoting people who live in Raqqa, where the bombing campaign would be carried out, who say the action would result in large numbers of civilian casualties, whether the bombing is carefully targeted or not.

    “There is no second plan, there is no effective ground force to back it up, the Government has already ruled that out and we’re going to be relying on groups in the Free Syrian Army apparently who are hundreds of miles away whose main interest is fighting Assad anyway," he said.

  • A Journey « Inside Assad’s Syria » | FRONTLINE
    http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/a-journey-inside-assads-syria

    Important ?

    Un voyage dans la Syrie de Bachar, un docu par un journaliste US qui se rend en Syrie le truc que vous ne verrez pas sur Arte avant quelque temps (quand Fabius aura fini son chapeau, peut-être...).

    The film tells the story of our three weeks there this past summer. I don’t want to spoil here what were for us many surprising encounters and events … from the disturbing to the absurd. But, I can say that I was able to walk the streets and talk to whomever I wished. And I was able to visit officials if I so chose. Some special requests were denied but other serendipitous encounters made up for what we didn’t achieve.

    And for the most part, people were open about their hopes and fears. As to how the war began, they had a consistent narrative: That the protesters that took to the streets in 2011 had legitimate demands, but that the demonstrations were quickly hijacked by foreign backed jihadists. They reject the idea that Western-backed rebels are “moderates” as they are often termed in the US. There is a tendency to conflate all armed groups opposing the regime as sectarian extremists.

    At the same time, not everyone loves Assad. But I had to learn how to listen for that. Their way of expressing this was never to criticize the president directly — that is a line no one dares cross. Instead, people would simply stress their love of Syria. Others might talk about supporting the government, but that “was not because we love the regime” as one man put it, but because “we don’t want the collapse of the state.” They saw what happened in Iraq after Saddam, and in Libya after Qaddafi. They watched as state infrastructure — schools, hospitals, police, water, electricity — crumbled with the fall of central government, and they don’t want to the same to happen to them.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5k-X5EX9qs

  • La Turquie et l’Etat Islamique : l’alliance religieuse !
    https://www.argotheme.com/organecyberpresse/spip.php?article2689

    Les relations entre la Turquie et l’Etat Islamique sont perfectionnées et dépassent l’harmonie des maîtres de l’hégémonie qui arme l’islamisme contre le second Assad de Syrie. Plaque-tournante dans le transfert des « djihadistes » internationaux vers l’Irak aussi, Ankara membre de l’OTAN partage avec certaines monarchies du Golf arabique la propagation de son islamisme soft et celui qui manie les armes… Avion russe abattu par la Turquie par argotheme #ErdoğanPutininKarizmayıÇizdi
    #GazaVakti (...)

    conflits, situation, points chauds, monde, international, efforts, position, opinion, interventionnisme,

    / censure, presse, journaux, dictature, expressions, liberté, #Turquie,_journaliste,_lettre,_prison,_démocratie,_islamistes,_islamisme, #diplomatie,_sécurité,_commerce,_économie_mondiale, (...)

    #conflits,situation,_points_chauds,_monde,_international,_efforts,_position,_opinion,_interventionnisme, #censure,presse,_journaux,_dictature,_expressions,_liberté #Terrorisme_,_islamisme,Al-Qaeda,politique, #crise,_capitalisme,_économie,_justice,_Bourse #fait_divers,_société,_fléau,_délinquance,_religion,_perdition #Arabie_Saoudite,_Qatar,_Moyen-Orient,_monarchies,_arabes,_musulmans #Russie,_Poutine,_Europe_de_l’Est,

  • Climat d’#insécurité (Le Monde, 23/11/2015)
    http://lemonde.fr/cop21/article/2015/11/23/climat-d-insecurite_4815296_4527432.html

    En fait, le #changement_climatique est directement lié à l’augmentation de la menace terroriste (…), a-t-il expliqué. Si nous n’écoutons pas ce que les scientifiques nous disent, nous allons voir des pays tout autour du monde – c’est ce que dit la CIA – se battre pour l’accès à l’eau, pour l’accès aux terres arables, et nous verrons surgir toutes sortes de #conflits. »

    Lire aussi « Aux origines climatiques des conflits » (août 2015) https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2015/08/SINAI/53507

    L’effondrement du système agricole syrien résulte d’un jeu complexe de facteurs dont le changement climatique, une mauvaise gestion des ressources naturelles et la dynamique démographique. Cette « combinaison de changements économiques, sociaux, climatiques et environnementaux a érodé le contrat social entre les citoyens et le gouvernement, catalysé les mouvements d’opposition et irréversiblement dégradé la légitimité du pouvoir d’Assad », estiment Francesco Femia et Caitlin Werrell, du Centre pour le climat et la sécurité (3). Selon eux, l’émergence de l’Organisation de l’Etat islamique (#OEI) et son expansion en #Syrie et en Irak résultent en partie de la sécheresse. Et celle-ci ne relève pas seulement de la variabilité naturelle du #climat. Il s’agit d’une anomalie : « Le changement du régime des précipitations en Syrie est lié à la hausse moyenne du niveau de la mer dans l’est de la Méditerranée, cumulée avec la chute de l’humidité du sol. Aucune cause naturelle n’apparaît dans ces tendances, alors que la sécheresse et le réchauffement corroborent les modèles de réponse à la hausse des gaz à effet de serre », estime la revue de l’Académie des sciences américaine (4).

    • On peut ajouter « Why a Climate Deal Is the Best Hope for Peace », de Naomi Klein et Jason Bow
      http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/why-a-climate-deal-is-the-best-hope-for-peace

      We are finally starting to recognize that climate change leads to wars and economic ruin.

      ...le Prince Charles :

      And, in fact, there’s very good evidence indeed that one of the major reasons for this horror in Syria, funnily enough was a drought that lasted for about five or six years, which meant that huge numbers of people in the end had to leave the land.

      http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/prince-charles/12010746/Prince-Charles-Climate-change-failure-is-a-factor-behind-Syrian-crisis.

      ... ou encore John Kerry et ses « Remarks on Climate Change and National Security »
      http://www.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2015/11/249393.htm

      Today I am pleased to announce that I will be convening a task force of senior government officials to determine how best to integrate climate and security analysis into overall foreign policy planning and priorities. For example, the strategic plans our embassies use should account for expected climate impacts so that our diplomats can work with host countries to focus on prevention – to proactively address climate-driven stresses on people’s livelihoods, health, and security and to do it before it evolves into deep grievances that fuel conflicts.

      #réductionnisme_climatique

      Puisque l’article du Monde parle de l’article de Francesca de Chatel pour justifier les propos de Bernie Sanders le lendemain des attentats, citons-en un extrait :

      In the case of Syria, where there are so many other evident causes of the current conflict, it seems unproductive to focus on the possible role of climate change in the uprising, or indeed in possible future conflict. Climate change may cause more frequent and harsher drought in Syria, but the ongoing failure to rationalize water use and enforce environmental and water use laws certainly constitutes a much greater threat to the country’s natural resources. Rather than seeing the 2006–10 drought in north-eastern Syria as a harbinger of catastrophic climate change and conflict scenarios, it should be considered on the backdrop of years of mismanagement, unsustainable policy making and rising rural poverty, which fuelled pre-existing discontent and sparked the first protests.While the 2007/8 season registered as the worst regional drought in 40 years, the overall impact of the 2006–10 drought in north-eastern Syria was undoubtedly exacerbated by a long legacy of resource mismanagement.

      http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00263206.2013.850076?journalCode=fmes20

      On peut aussi citer « Over-grazing and desertification in the Syrian steppe are the root causes of war »
      http://www.theecologist.org/News/news_analysis/2871076/overgrazing_and_desertification_in_the_syrian_steppe_are_the_root_caus


      The picture [taken in March 2008] portrayed a fence separating a steppe terrain in two parts: the area on the left was open to sheep grazing; the area on the right had been instead protected for at least 10 years. The image revealed a lunar rocky landscape on the left, and a blossoming pasture on the right.

      The image simply evidences, without need for any words, that the Syrian steppe ecosystem is perfectly adapted to cope with droughts - yes, even with extreme droughts exacerbated by climate change. However, this landscape can succumb easily to human irrationality and indifference.

  • Russian warplane shot down at Syria-Turkey border — RT News
    https://www.rt.com/news/323240-russia-turkey-warplane-downed

    25 November 2015
    […]
    09:17 GMT
    Putin says Turkey’s leaders are intentionally supporting Turkey’s Islamization.

    The problem is not in the tragedy we faced yesterday, the problem is much deeper. We observe - and not only we, the whole world sees it – that the current Turkish authorities are conducting domestic policy to support the Islamization of the country,” he said.
    […]
    08:51 GMT
    Erdogan says the Turkish Air Force didn’t know the plane was Russian when it attacked.
    […]
    01:41 GMT
    Australia’s Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has also urged all parties to “show restraint” after Turkey shot down a Russian bomber.

    We are concerned about the incident where a Russian aircraft was shot down in the Syrian-Turkish border area, and we ask relevant parties to exercise restraint,” she said in a statement.

    01:36 GMT
    President Barack Obama and his Turkish counterpart Tayyip Erdogan have held a telephone conversation in which the US leader expressed “US and NATO support for Turkey’s right to defend its sovereignty,” the White House said in a statement.

    The leaders agreed on the importance of de-escalating the situation and pursuing arrangements to ensure that such incidents do not happen again,” the brief statement said.

    01:02 GMT
    The United States believes that the Russian jet shot down by Turkey on Tuesday was hit inside Syrian airspace after a brief incursion into Turkish airspace, a US official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. The official said that assessment was based on detection of the heat signature of the jet.

    Erdoğan : #ha_ha_ha
    (ça fait une semaine que je vois passer des appels à taper sur les Russes par les panturcs qui parlent du génocide du Mont Turkmène (juste dans ce coin, quoi))

    La ministre australienne ne se mouille pas : Syrian-Turkish border area ce qui décrit assez précisément la localisation…

    Et l’officieux états-unien pas trop non plus : brief incursion.

    Question : quelles sont vraiment les règles d’engagement de l’aviation turque ? Je doute qu’en 17 secondes, le pilote ait pu obtenir une quelconque autorisation d’ouverture du feu. Dans ce cas, l’affaire ressemble de très très près à une embuscade. Étant donnée la configuration des lieux (la pointe s’avançant vers le sud, en plein milieu de la zone des combats), il suffisait d’attendre. Ç’aurait été mieux si l’avion s’était écrasé du mauvais côté de la frontière, mais là, il aurait carrément fallu le descendre au-dessus de la Syrie…

    Et côté embuscade, ne pas négliger l’armée, elle-même repère de panturcs, qui n’a pas forcément besoin de la caution d’Erdoğan pour faire sa tambouille…

  • La Turquie et l’Etat Islamique : l’alliance religieuse !
    http://www.argotheme.com/organecyberpresse/spip.php?article2689

    Les relations entre la Turquie et l’Etat Islamique sont perfectionnées et dépassent l’harmonie des maîtres de l’hégémonie qui arme l’islamisme contre le second Assad de Syrie. Plaque-tournante dans le transfert des « djihadistes » internationaux vers l’Irak aussi, Ankara membre de l’OTAN partage avec certaines monarchies du Golf arabique la propagation de son islamisme soft et celui qui manie les armes… Avion russe abattu par la Turquie par argotheme L’entrave à la guerre anti-terroriste que la Russie (...)

    conflits, situation, points chauds, monde, international, efforts, position, opinion, interventionnisme,

    / censure, presse, journaux, dictature, expressions, liberté, #Turquie,_journaliste,_lettre,_prison,_démocratie,_islamistes,_islamisme, diplomatie, sécurité, commerce, économie (...)

    #conflits,situation,_points_chauds,_monde,_international,_efforts,_position,_opinion,_interventionnisme, #censure,presse,_journaux,_dictature,_expressions,_liberté #diplomatie,_sécurité,_commerce,_économie_mondiale #Terrorisme_,_islamisme,Al-Qaeda,politique, #crise,_capitalisme,_économie,_justice,_Bourse #fait_divers,_société,_fléau,_délinquance,_religion,_perdition #Arabie_Saoudite,_Qatar,_Moyen-Orient,_monarchies,_arabes,_musulmans #Russie,_Poutine,_Europe_de_l’Est,

  • RTS, 06.12.2015 | Documentaire : « Disparus, la guerre invisible de Syrie »
    http://asile.ch/2015/11/23/rts-06-12-2015-documentaire-disparus-la-guerre-invisible-de-syrie

    Dimanche 6 décembre 2015 à 21 h 40 la RTS (dans le cadre de l’émission Histoire Vivante) diffuse le documentaire : Disparus, la guerre invisible de Syrie Documentaire de Sophie Nivelle-Cardinale et Etienne Huver (France / 2015)   Cet article RTS, 06.12.2015 | Documentaire : « Disparus, la guerre invisible de Syrie » est apparu en premier sur asile.ch.

    • Ce documentaire est apparemment visible sur le site rts.ch... je ne sais ni combien de temps, ni si il est disponible pour des adresses IP en dehors de la Suisse.
      C’est effrayant.

      Ce qui est plus dur, comme dit un représentant de HRW qui est interviewé… c’est qu’on sait tout : où sont localisées les prisons, combien de personnes il y a dedans, combien de cellules, combien d’étages, parfois qui sont les responsables...

      Dans le documentaire ils font mention de ce site internet #VDC (un site que je découvre être très très riche) :

      #Violation_Documentation_Center in Syria is an independent, civil non-profit, non-governmental organization that started its work of monitoring and documenting the violations of human rights in Syria since April 2011.

      The center is monitoring and documenting all crimes and violations against human rights in Syria, and attempts-at the same time- to protect and enhance these rights in the culture of the Syrians. The center has- since its been established- shouldered responsibility to document the Syrian martyrs’ names as well as the names of the revolution’s detainees, missing and kidnapped. It also documents the violation committed by informal bodies in addition to the regime’s casualties whether of the Syrian Army, the so-called “The Army of National Defense” or even Militiamen and other foreign armed men fighting alongside the regime’s army.

      The center periodically publishes statistics on the database it has in the form of weekly, monthly and yearly reports in the form of percentages and illustrations, in addition to the release of dozens of human rights reports on different topics and violations in Syria

      The Cadres:

      The center is led by a number of human rights activists inside and outside Syria. The daily Field monitoring Team consists of the center’s activists inside Syria, while the main coordinators of the Administrative Office consist of some activists who live outside Syria and others who live inside the country.

      The center includes more than 30 activists in several Syrian and cities and regions.


      https://www.vdc-sy.info/index.php/en
      #disparus #prisons #torture #statistiques #chiffres #martyrs #témoignage
      cc @fil @reka

  • Security Council ‘Unequivocally’ Condemns ISIL Terrorist Attacks, Unanimously Adopting Text that Determines Extremist Group Poses ‘Unprecedented’ Threat | Meetings Coverage and Press Releases
    http://www.un.org/press/en/2015/sc12132.doc.htm

    #nosra et similaires clairement nommés aux cotés de #ISIS

    The full text of resolution 2249 (2015) reads as follows:

    “The Security Council,

    “Reaffirming its resolutions 1267 (1999), 1368 (2001), 1373 (2001), 1618 (2005), 1624 (2005), 2083 (2012), 2129 (2013), 2133 (2014), 2161 (2014), 2170 (2014), 2178 (2014), 2195 (2014), 2199 (2015) and 2214 (2015), and its relevant presidential statements,

    [...]

    Recalling that the Al-#Nusrah Front (ANF) and all other individuals, groups, undertakings and entities associated with #Al-Qaida also constitute a threat to international peace and security ,

    [...]

    “5. Calls upon Member States that have the capacity to do so to take all necessary measures, in compliance with international law, in particular with the United Nations Charter, as well as international human rights, refugee and humanitarian law, on the territory under the control of ISIL also known as Da’esh, in Syria and Iraq, to redouble and coordinate their efforts to prevent and suppress terrorist acts committed specifically by ISIL also known as Da’esh as well as ANF, and all other individuals, groups, undertakings, and entities associated with Al-Qaida, and other terrorist groups , as designated by the United Nations Security Council, and as may further be agreed by the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) and endorsed by the UN Security Council, pursuant to the statement of the International Syria Support Group (ISSG) of 14 November, and to eradicate the safe haven they have established over significant parts of Iraq and Syria;

    [...]

  • Ankara convoque l’ambassadeur russe en raison de frappes près de sa frontière - L’Orient-Le Jour
    http://www.lorientlejour.com/article/956119/ankara-convoque-lambassadeur-russe-en-raison-de-frappes-pres-de-sa-fr

    Selon l’Observatoire syrien des droits de l’homme (OSDH), plus de 1.300 personnes, dont les deux tiers sont des combattants, ont été tuées depuis le début des frappes russes en Syrie. Le bilan des victimes a doublé en comparaison de celui donné il y a trois semaines par l’ONG. Cette organisation, basée en Grande-Bretagne et qui dispose d’un vaste réseau de sources dans la Syrie en guerre, fait état de 1.331 morts par les frappes russes, en majorité des rebelles opposés au régime du président Assad ainsi que des jihadistes de l’EI. Selon son décompte, 381 combattants du Front al-Nosra, la branche syrienne d’el-Qaëda, et d’autres forces rebelles ainsi que 547 membres de l’EI ont péri. En outre, 403 civils ont trouvé la mort, dont 97 enfants, selon la même source.

    Le dernier bilan de l’OSDH, le 29 octobre, faisait état au total de près de 600 morts, dont deux tiers étaient des combattants.

    La Russie a assuré que sa campagne aérienne visait l’EI et d’autres « groupes terroristes » mais les rebelles accusent Moscou de frapper surtout les insurgés modérés ou islamistes plutôt que l’EI. Plusieurs organisations ont aussi accusé la Russie d’avoir visé des hôpitaux et des cliniques de campagne.

    Selon l’Observatoire, les frappes de la coalition, conduite par les États-Unis et qui ont commencé en septembre 2014 ont tué 3.649 personnes dont seulement 6% de civils. Fin octobre, l’OSDH avait décompté la mort de 3.276 jihadistes de l’EI, 147 d’el-Qaëda et de ses alliés islamistes ainsi que 226 civils.

  • Pourquoi l’état d’urgence et les mesures de haute sécurité ne réussiront pas à arrêter ISIS
    Patrick Cockburn | 16 novembre 2015 - CounterPunch | Traduction : Info-Palestine.eu - Dominique Muselet
    http://www.info-palestine.eu/spip.php?article15728

    (...) Une autre erreur que font les dirigeants du G20 est de persister à sous-estimer ISIS.

    David Cameron a déclaré que le groupe n’était pas digne d’être appelé « État islamique », mais malheureusement, c’est bien un État et, de surcroît, plus puissant que la moitié des membres de l’ONU, avec son armée expérimentée, sa conscription, ses impôts et son contrôle sur tous les aspects de la vie dans la vaste région qu’il gouverne.

    Tant qu’il existera, il projettera sa puissance à travers des opérations-suicides comme celles que nous venons de voir à Paris. Parce que les cibles potentielles sont les populations civiles dans leur ensemble, on aura beau augmenter les contrôles de sécurité, cela ne changera pas grand-chose. Les kamikazes réussiront toujours à passer au travers.

    La seule vraie solution est la destruction d’ISISn : seule une campagne aérienne américaine et russe, coordonnée avec ceux qui combattent vraiment sur le terrain, peut y parvenir.

    L’US Air Force l’a fait très efficacement avec les UPP, ce qui a permis à ces derniers de vaincre ISIS à Kobani, et avec les Peshmergas kurdes irakiens, qui ont réussi à prendre la ville de Sinjar, la semaine dernière. Mais les États-Unis répugnent à attaquer ISIS quand le groupe se bat contre l’armée syrienne ou les milices chiites en Irak. Étant donné que ce sont les deux plus fortes formations militaires combattant ISIS, la force militaire étasunienne est bridée là où elle serait la plus utile.

    Compte tenu de la sympathie internationale pour les Français après le massacre à Paris, il est inévitable qu’il n’y ait presque pas de critiques de la politique brouillonne de la France dans le conflit syrien.

    Plus tôt dans l’année, lors d’une interview avec Aron Lund de la Fondation Carnegie pour la paix internationale, un des principaux experts français sur la Syrie, Fabrice Balanche, qui est actuellement à l’Institut de Washington pour la politique au Proche-Orient, a déclaré : « Nous avons en 2011-12 été victimes d’une sorte de maccarthysme intellectuel sur la question syrienne : si vous disiez qu’Assad n’était pas sur le point de tomber dans les trois mois, vous pouviez être soupçonné d’être à la solde du régime syrien ».

    Il a fait remarquer que le ministère français des Affaires étrangères avait pris fait et cause pour l’opposition syrienne, tandis que les médias refusaient de voir la révolte syrienne autrement que comme la poursuite des révolutions tunisienne et égyptienne. Ils refusaient de voir les divisions sectaires, politiques et sociales qui montraient que la guerre civile syrienne n’était pas aussi simple que cela.

    Du fait que l’administration, l’état-major de l’armée, et les services de sécurité de l’État regorgent d’Alaouites, il est presque impossible de se débarrasser de M. Assad et de son régime dont les dirigeants sont issus de la communauté alaouite, sans que l’État ne s’effondre, laissant un vide qui sera comblé par ISIS et ses homologues d’Al-Qaïda.

    Malgré les récentes attaques terroristes, il n’existe toujours pas de politique à long terme pour empêcher que cela ne se reproduise.

  • France Should Stop Listening to Saudi Arabia on Syria | The Nation
    http://www.thenation.com/article/france-should-stop-listening-to-saudi-arabia-on-syria

    The Daesh line that the Paris attacks were to punish France for intervening in Syria is pure propaganda. The government of Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi had intelligence on this planned Daesh assault on the French capital some 18 months ago, at a time when France was not even participating in the Syria campaign. It seems rather that the reverse is true—France intervened in Syria beginning this September because it finally accepted these intelligence warnings and was attempting to disrupt the training camps from which an attack on Paris might be launched. As it turned out, the plot was already too advanced for the fall Syrian campaign to forestall it.

    In his response to the Paris attacks Friday night, French President François Hollande said that his country is now at war. He would have been better off saying that his country was the victim of a criminal gang. Paris must also stop listening to Riyadh about how to proceed, and seek out effective allies on the ground to which to give aid. Those are Iraqi Shiites, Syrian Kurds, moderate Sunnis, and Iran. If Daesh can be brought down, Syria’s Al Qaeda should be the next to be neutralized. Assad, who produced the polarization and radicalism that now plagues Syria and the greater Mediterranean, must eventually acquiesce in free elections, as must his Sunni fundamentalist foes. But first things first. The mad bombers and beheaders of Raqqa and Mosul have to be dealt with. Despite its lip service, Saudi Arabia has shown it is unlikely to help much with that battle.

  • DDoS on French mobile data and surveillance prior to Paris attacks ?

    I don’t know how true this is, but I am interested in finding out more about it. I chose to post this in order to have it either confirmed or denied.

    http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2015/11/15/french-security-left-blind-during-paris-attacks-2

    I have received a report from European security that there was a massive cyber attack on French systems 48 hours prior to and during the Paris attacks. Among other things, the attack took down the French mobile data network and blinded police surveillance The attack was not a straightforward DDOS attack but a sophisticated attack that targeted a weakness in infrastructure hardware.

    [...]

    I am unable to reveal any further information. If security experts find the information credible, they should direct their inquiries to the French authorities.

    About the author Paul Craig Roberts:

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Craig_Roberts

    an American economist and blogger. He served for one year as an Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy in the Reagan administration. He is a former editor and columnist for the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and Scripps Howard News Service.

    [...]

    In 1987 the French government recognized him as “the artisan of a renewal in economic science and policy after half a century of state interventionism”; it inducted him into the Legion of Honor on March 20, 1987. The French Minister of Economics and Finance, Edouard Balladur, came to the US from France to present the medal to Roberts.

    The author is known to concentrate on False Flag theories, as he did during 9/11 and the subsequent war on terror, and for the Charlie Hebdo attacks. Typical clues interpreted as False Flag evidence are ID cards of the attackers found “lying around”
    No wonder he does it again with the recent Paris attacks, but how true is it? Here too, just as with 9/11 and Charlie Hebdo, they “found” an intact ID cards nearby, but:

    The False Flag Link: Syrian Passport „Found“ Next To Suicide Bomber Was „Definitely A Forgery“

    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-11-15/false-flag-link-passport-found-next-suicide-bomber-was-fake-claim-us-fren

    I am rather sceptical about this because at the same time the website above writes things like:

    Secret Pentagon Report Reveals US “Created” ISIS As A “Tool” To Overthrow Syria’s President Assad
    http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2015-05-23/secret-pentagon-report-reveals-us-created-isis-tool-overthrow-syrias-pres

    Anyway, my post is not about the truth of yet another false flag theory, but about finding more info related to this alleged DDoS attack.

    #false_flag #terrorism
    #DDoS

  • The Main Event: Will various sides succeed in (again) deflecting action vs. Saudi+Gulf sources of most virulent form of extremism that threatens West and the region?
    https://mideastwire.wordpress.com/2015/11/15/the-main-event-will-various-sides-succeed-in-again-deflecting

    Already in the last few days, think tankers and polemicists whose main target has long been Iran, Hezbollah, the Syrian regime and (lately) Russia are trying desperately to make the Paris attacks somehow about Nasrallah, Iran, Putin and the Syrian regime (the latter of which has, surely, exercised relentless cruelty and violence over the last five years and the last few decades, overwhelmingly against Syrians).

    Will this attack finally turn the tide and overcome the counter-productive and mostly misleading argument that “Assad and his backers” are the main sustainers of ISIS etc?

  • The Paris attacks will force France to change its Syria policy | Pierre Haski | Comment is free | The Guardian
    http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/nov/15/paris-attacks-hollande-syria-policy-france-assad

    Haski réserve ses meilleures pensées pour le Guardian...

    Until Friday, the French government was still insisting on Assad’s departure as a precondition for any political settlement in Syria, putting the Syrian president on a par with Isis in blame for the country’s tragedy. But France has become more and more isolated in this stand, with Russia and Iran increasingly pushing their agenda. The US listened. Only Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states have applauded the French attitude, rewarding it with big arms deals.

    Hollande’s Syria strategy was caught between Putin’s offensive and Obama’s reluctance. He had chosen the high moral ground, refusing to associate either with a brutal regime or a bloody opposition, but this was not necessarily the most practical option in a situation that involves choosing the least bad option rather than the best one.

    #syrie #hollande #diplomatie

  • #Paris Bombings or Not, the West Must End the War in Syria - Middle East News - Israel News - Haaretz Israeli News Source
    http://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/.premium-1.686150

    On est quand même dans le Ha’aretz,

    The shock expressed by world leaders over the attacks in Paris is expected to morph into a strategy-change for France and the world powers against the Islamic State.

    French President Francois Hollande mentioned the attackers’ “act of war,” while U.S. President Barack Obama called the murders an attack on all humanity and convened the National Security Council.

    At this point it’s unclear how this change will be seen on the ground — whether it will reach Syria and Iraq and if so at what intensity. Syria has become an international battlefield, with the war of interests there including Russia and Iran, which don’t exactly see eye to eye with the French, the Americans and other Western countries.

    Any essential change, particularly militarily, requires coordination or a risk of a clash, so anyone who expects a quick and decisive change will be disappointed, and anyone counting on dramatic changes in Syria in the coming months should be patient.

    On Thursday more than 40 civilians were killed and hundreds wounded in a cruel terror attack in a south Beirut neighborhood, the Hezbollah stronghold. The threshold of condemnation over that attack was much different, and no one was counting on the West to change its stance afterward.

    The explosion of the Russian airliner over Sinai was considered very serious, but not so much that it would increase international intervention against the Islamic State. It was deemed a Russian-Egyptian affair.

    The prevailing opinion is that there is no comparison between Beirut and Paris, certainly when the victims are in Beirut’s Shi’ite quarter, but surely the victims of the Russian airliner are equal to the Paris victims. Either way, in all three cases the victims were innocent civilians who had nothing to do with the war of international interests in Syria and its implications for the rest of the region and Europe.

    If Beirut and Sinai weren’t enough, let’s not forget the disaster in Syria, where more than a quarter of a million people, mostly civilians, have been killed over the past five years.

    The only thing that interested the United States was getting the chemical weapons out to ensure Israel’s security and let the Syrians massacre each other forever. Most European countries adopted this position without realizing the implications in terms of hundreds of thousands of refugees streaming toward Europe and terror attacks.

    The attack in Paris is shocking and criminal by any standard, but French blood is no redder than that of the Lebanese civilians killed in Beirut, of the Russians killed in the plane bombing or of the Syrians massacred over the past five years whether by the Islamic State and its affiliates or the Assad regime.

    If the French government wants to ensure quiet for its people and the rest of Europe and the United States, these countries’ policies must change completely. Leaders there must make clear decisions and seek an end to the Syrian war and a diplomatic agreement that will ensure Syrians’ welfare.

    #Etats-Unis #Jack_Khoury

    • « un accord diplomatique qui assurera le bien-être de Syriens », c’est plus facile à écrire qu’à réaliser. Même si on aimerait pouvoir penser que tant l’occident que la Russie se soucient « du bien être des Syriens ». Mais on a du mal à en trouver des indices ...

      Ce qu’on doit constater c’est que l’état islamique a été capable en très peu de temps (entre le 31 octobre et le 15 novembre) d’organiser trois attentats de grande ampleur dans trois pays différents (Egypte, Liban et France).
      En ne comptant que les attentats revendiqués par EI. C’est une manifestation de puissance de la part de cette organisation.
      Cela risque de faire passer encore davantage Assad pour un moindre mal, aux yeux des occidentaux.

  • Strategic Implications of Assad’s Victory at Kweiris - Syria in Crisis - Carnegie Endowment for International Peace
    http://carnegieendowment.org/syriaincrisis/?fa=61941

    Now, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The battles in this area have flowed back and forth. According to a Syrian military source speaking to Reuters, the army is still working to secure the area. In other words, the Islamic State could still retake Kweiris or Assad might voluntarily decide to pull out once the base’s defenders have been evacuated.

    But if neither of those things happen, and the Assad-Putin alliance continues to press forward east of Aleppo, it will create a very interesting situation. Politically speaking, Kweiris will then have earned Assad and Russia a small but far from insignificant victory in the struggle against the Islamic State. Militarily speaking, it might complicate the jihadis’ operations in the eastern Aleppo countryside, which could in turn help U.S.-backed anti-Assad rebels north of Aleppo, around Marea, to turn the tables on the jihadi group.

    The interlinked nature of the battles against the Islamic State in the Aleppo region is not something that either Assad or the rebels will be eager to recognize, since their ultimate goal is to eradicate the other. Neither will the United States want to publicly credit Russia with any advances against the jihadis. But in the long run, should such an unspoken interdependence really develop, it could create some really interesting American-Russian and regime-rebel synergies in northern Syria.

    And that is, of course, exactly what Russia is looking for.

  • 2013,

    Why Western media frames civilian areas as “Hezbollah strongholds”
    http://english.al-akhbar.com/node/16757

    western et médias locaux pro western media

    And herein lies the problem. By calling a residential neighborhood a “Hezbollah stronghold,” western media softens public opinion to accept these terror attacks as justifiable, and their targets, legitimate. Because the only reason for characterizing civilian Shia neighborhoods as “strongholds” of Hezbollah is to justify carnage against those populations most likely to support the Lebanese resistance group.

    Similar language - War on Terror, terrorism, militants, extremists, Al Qaeda - is also frequently employed to excuse western carnage in countries from Iraq to Afghanistan to Mali to Yemen to Pakistan. Droning and bombing targets are rarely characterized as “civilian,” even though data suggests that most victims of US attacks are not militants. The goal? To eradicate second thoughts about violence against innocent civilians - often bolstered by a complicit media that characterizes these deaths as “collateral damage.”

    While the term “stronghold” can simply refer to an area in which an organization, party or point of view holds sway, in the context of US foes in the Mideast, it is instead usually used to suggest a militant base absolutely controlled by that foe. As one tweep noted, western media uses similar language against other American targets to scene-set for “excusable” carnage: “Hezbollah stronghold” for car bombs in Lebanon, “Assad stronghold” for car bombs in Damascus; “Assad heartland” for massacres in Latakia."

    Dahiyeh - the scene of Thursday’s explosion - is also, for instance, home to significant Maronite Christian and Sunni communities. And even within the suburb’s Shia community, there are disparate political views and affiliations. It is by no means true that all Shia residents are supporters of Hezbollah, a Lebanese political party that - in lieu of national political consensus - provides local social services and security for residents of all sects and backgrounds in these areas.

  • Josh Landis should be credited for putting his... -
    by Reinoud Leenders
    https://www.facebook.com/reinoud.leenders/posts/924899757598688
    en réponse à http://www.joshualandis.com/blog/regime-change-without-state-collapse-is-impossible-in-syria-landis-int (voir http://seenthis.net/messages/426341#message427231)

    Josh Landis should be credited for putting his finger on a host of important issues and dilemmas. But he’s wrong on several counts:

    “The West falsely believes that it can separate the regime from the state. It argues that it can pursue regime-change while simultaneously preserving the state and its institutions. Washington believes it can avoid the chaos it sewed in Iraq. I don’t believe it can.”

    But surely equating the Syrian state to a narrow and ruthless regime hasn’t generated ’statehood’ either by even a minimalistic definition of that term: It has failed to enforce a monopoly on violence (and that’s putting it politely), it outsourced violence to an array of shady and unaccountable militias and foreign mercenaries, it doesn’t control (any of?) its borders, its fails to provide security to even its staunchest supporters, and it helped to chase out one-fifth of the country’s 2011 population (and still counting). And that’s leaving aside the responsibilities that supposedly come with state sovereignty; none of which are upheld by this regime ostensibly embracing the Syrian state.

    “Westerners believe that because their own state institutions are run by professional civil servants, Middle Eastern states are too. But they aren’t. Political appointees make up the entire edifice.”

    That’s an incredibly dangerous (Chalabi-ist?) thing to say as it could be read as giving a green light for anyone opposing the Syrian regime to eradicate any single public servant along the “entire edifice” when given the chance. But more importantly, it is inaccurate as many rebel forces and opposition activists who worked with dedicated public servants to get garbage collected, to operate bakeries and facilitate food distribution in opposition-controlled areas will be able to confirm. Also, if all civil servants are supposedly part and parcel of the regime, why then did the regime itself try so hard to marginalise them, selling out state assets to well-placed crony businessmen, and starve them from resources to effectuate their perceived significance to the regime? Most state employees are there for their salary only; they don’t inherently owe allegiance to the regime but for the fact that the latter keeps paying their wages.

    “... many top US generals, like the Syrian opposition, continue to insist that Assad is the magnet drawing ISIS into Syria and thus must be destroyed first. This argument makes little sense. After all, when did Al-Qaeda pour into Iraq? Only after Saddam was deposed and the Americans ruled the country.”

    The analogy doesn’t fly. Al-Qaeda in Iraq fought US forces; ISIS hardly fights Syrian regime forces. The Syrian regime (and now with the Russians) make an effort to keep ISIS in place while fighting all the other insurgents. Furthermore, the Syrian regime from the start of the uprising has been begging the opposition to turn to ’takfiri’ extremism for it to remain the only game in town; whatever one may think of the Americans in Iraq but at least they weren’t hoping for a fully armed ’takfiri’ adversary. When a regime needs ISIS to retain a modicum of acceptability or to present itself as a less disastrous alternative, it follows that it sustains ISIS and it shows how far it has itself moved up to the wrong end of that scale of disastrousness.

    “Those that argue that the US squandered its opportunity to train, arm and finance moderates to destroy both Assad and Jihadist militias delude themselves.”

    Up to the Summer of 2012 there was a window of opportunity for arming and supporting ’moderates’ and, arguably, after having squandered that opportunity the Jihadist militias had free reign.

    “The price of regime-change is chaos.”

    That’s a prediction; fair enough. But we know for a fact today that the price of regime maintenance is ... chaos. Arguably, without it the regime wouldn’t have survived up to this day.

    • Joshua Landis aux USA, Fabrice Blanche en France, et bien d’autres beaucoup moins pertinents à mes yeux... Une constante : le conflit syrien a définitivement enterré le mythe du « social scientist » remplacé par une sorte d’expert, conseiller, où le militant, quelle que soit la cause, remplace l’homme de science. Dans le contexte très particulier des études sur le monde arabe, c’est un étonnant retour de la figure de l’orientaliste, au sens donné par Edward Saïd à ce terme. Mais personne ne souhaite trop s’étendre sur cet aspect de la question.

  • Saudi support to rebels slows Assad attacks : pro-Damascus sources
    http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/11/06/us-mideast-crisis-syria-idUSKCN0SV23O20151106#1QuTAv5H04d1o1m0.97

    Offensives by the Syrian army and its allies backed by Russian air strikes are going more slowly than expected due to increased Saudi support to rebels, senior sources close to the Syrian government said, as the insurgents pressed a counter attack on Friday.
    [...]
    In a frank assessment of the situation facing the government side, the two senior sources - neither of them Syrian - said the course of battle had been slowed by more military support to the rebels from Saudi Arabia, which is vying for influence with Iran across the Middle East and wants Assad gone from power.
    They cited increased supplies of anti-tank TOW missiles to the rebels as a big factor.
    They said the government offensives were still on track although going more slowly than envisaged. Government defensive lines, particularly in the coastal province of Latakia, had been shored up.