Syria

[BRVoice]

http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticl...aspx?ID=310582


Mansour: Lebanon will not support decisions condemning Syria
September 11, 2011

Minister of Foreign Affairs Adnan Mansour said on Sunday that Lebanon will not support any decision that condemns Syria, in reference to a potential UN Security Council draft resolution against the Damascus regime.

The cabinet’s decision is “clear” and Lebanon will not support any decision that harms Syria’s stability and security, Mansour told New TV.

He also commended Maronite Patriarch Bechara Boutros al-Rai’s recent statements on Syria, calling them responsible.

The Patriarch said on Thursday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is “open-minded” and should be given more chances to implement reforms.

“Rai’s statements are those of a responsible man who maturely looks into the future.”

Commenting on criticisms against the Patriarch, Mansour said Lebanon is a democratic country and others’ opinions should be accepted.

Many figures, particularly March 14 Christians, have criticized Rai’s statements that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is “open-minded” and should be given more chances to implement reforms.

Assad’s troops have cracked down on protests against almost five decades of Baath Party rule which broke out mid-March, killing over 2,200 people and triggering a torrent of international condemnation.


-NOW Lebanon

[BRVoice]

http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticl...aspx?ID=310599


GCC: Syria must stop 'killing machine'
September 11, 2011

The Gulf Cooperation Council on Sunday urged Syria to immediately stop its "killing machine" against anti-regime protesters, and reiterated its demand for serious reforms.

Ending a meeting in Jeddah, the six GCC foreign ministers issued a statement calling for "an immediate end to the killing machine" in Syria.

The group of oil-rich Arab monarchies also urged "the immediate implementation of serious reforms that meet the aspirations of the Syrian" people.

Last month, GCC states Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Bahrain recalled their envoys from Damascus to protest against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's crackdown on anti-regime protests that erupted in March.

The United Nations says more than 2,200 people have been killed since then.


-AFP/NOW Lebanon

[BRVoice]

http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticl...aspx?ID=310549


Woman shot dead in Syria, activists say
September 11, 2011

A woman was shot dead in eastern Syria on Sunday and a teenager died of wounds suffered at a funeral in the capital Damascus on Saturday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

"A 40-year-old woman was killed at noon on Sunday by a stray bullet as security forces were tracking wanted people in the town of Abu Kamal," the Britain-based rights group cited an activist in Deir Az-Zour province as saying.

The Observatory also told AFP in Nicosia that a youth had died of wounds received on Saturday when security forces opened fire on mourners at the funeral of an activist in Darayya, near Damascus.

"A 17-year-old succumbed to his wounds on Sunday after security forces the day before fired on a crowd at the funeral of Ghiyath Matar," it said.

Matar, 26, had been a key player in organizing protests against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and died in detention after being tortured, according to the international watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW).

His body, which was returned to his family on Saturday after his arrest on September 6, bore bruises on the chest and signs of injuries to the face, activists cited by HRW said.

Matar disappeared on the same day as one of his friends, Yahya Sharbaji. The two were detained in a car after a chase by security forces in the Sehnaya district of the capital, according to a relative.

The latest deaths come after security forces killed at least 12 people on Saturday in their ongoing bid to crush anti-regime dissent, activists said, and as the Arab League announced an agreement with Assad on long-promised reforms.

The United Nations says more than 2,200 people - mostly civilians - have been killed in a crackdown on almost daily protests by pro-democracy and anti-regime demonstrators in Syria since mid-March.

Rights groups say more than 10,000 people are behind bars.


-AFP/NOW Lebanon

[BRVoice]

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7...121165,00.html


UN: Death toll in Syria unrest at least 2,600
Human Rights commissioner says figure based on 'reliable sources on the ground'. Assad aide: 1,400 dead
News agencies
Published: 09.12.11, 12:58 / Israel News

The United Nations' top human rights official says the death toll from six months of unrest in Syria has reached at least 2,600.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay says the figure is based on "reliable sources on the ground."

Meanwhile, Bouthaina Shaaban, an adviser to President Bashar Assad, said that a total of 1,400 people have died in the unrest: 700 opposition activists and 700 police dead.

Pillay spoke Monday at the opening of a three-week meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

The council last month held an urgent meeting on Syria at which it voted overwhelmingly to demand that Syria end its bloody crackdown against anti-government protesters.

Also on Monday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said that he saw no need for additional pressure on Syria, signalling Russia will not support Western efforts to impose UN sanctions on Assad.

"At the moment there is already a large number of sanctions against Syria, from the European Union and the United States, and so additional pressure now is absolutely not needed in this direction," Medvedev said at a briefing with British Prime Minister David Cameron in the Kremlin.

On Sunday, French Foreign Minister Allain Juppe described as a "scandal" the failure of the United Nations so far to agree a resolution against the violent crackdowns on dissidents in Syria.

"I think it's a scandal not to have a clear position of the UN in such a terrible crisis," Juppe told reporters on Sunday on a visit to Australia. He made the comment when asked about Russian resistance to a draft resolution late last month that called for sanctions against Syrian President Bashar Assad.

"We think that the regime has lost its legitimacy. We think that it's too late to implement a level of reform. We should adopt in New York a very clear resolution condemning the violence," Juppe added.


Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report

[BRVoice]

http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticl...aspx?ID=310793


UN inaction over Syria crackdown a “scandal,” France says
September 12, 2011

The United Nations' failure to take a clear position on the bloody repression of demonstrations in Syria is "a scandal", the French Foreign Ministry said on Monday.

Recalling that according to the UN at least 2,600 people have been killed in Syria, ministry spokesperson Bernard Valero also slammed the "revolting murder" of a protest organizer, Ghiyath Matar, while in Syrian detention.

Arrested on September 6, Matar, age 26, died in detention after being tortured, rights group Human Rights Watch said, adding that the body had bruises on his chest and signs of facial injuries.

"How long with the international community remain blind and dumb in the face of this endless sequence of crimes? That's the question we're asking today," Valero said.

"The blocking of a joint position at the United Nations Security Council is a scandal," Valero said.

The United States said on Friday that it would this week ramp up work on a UN Security Council resolution targeting Syria, amid opposition from other member states to approve a forceful resolution.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday told British Prime Minister David Cameron it would be a mistake to put more pressure on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Medvedev said that the difference between Russia's approach to its traditional regional ally to that taken by the West was "not dramatic".

But he stressed that any punitive actions must be applied equally to both sides of the Syria conflict because the opposition was continuing to oppose calls to engage Assad in direct talks.


-AFP/NOW Lebanon

[BRVoice]

http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticl...aspx?ID=310795


Syria ready to meet inspectors, UN atomic agency says
September 12, 2011

The UN atomic agency said Monday Syria is ready to meet inspectors in Damascus next month to discuss a desert site bombed by Israel in 2007 and thought to have been a secret nuclear facility.

Syria in a letter "stated its readiness to have a meeting with agency safeguards staff in Damascus in October," International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) head Yukiya Amano told a regular meeting of its board in Vienna.

"Syria's letter stated that the purpose of the meeting would be 'to agree on an action plan to resolve the surrounding issues in regards to the Deir az-Zour site,'" Amano said, according to the text of his remarks.

On June 9, the IAEA decided to report Syria's to the UN Security Council after concluding that the site was "very likely" an undeclared reactor. There are also suspicions it was built with help from North Korea.

Amano said that the nuclear watchdog has proposed the meeting takes place on October 10-11.


-AFP/NOW Lebanon

[BRVoice]

http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticl...aspx?ID=310940


Russian lawmakers to visit Damascus
September 12, 2011

A Russian parliamentary delegation is to visit Syria to review the situation in the country, which has been rocked by protests for six months, a Syrian official said on Monday.

"Both sides agreed to the suggestion that members of the Russian parliament visit different parts of Syria with the aim of obtaining an independent and credible account of the way things stand in Syria," Reem Haddad, head of the foreign press section in Syria's information ministry, told AFP.

She did not specify a date for such a visit, which was decided upon during a meeting between a political and media adviser to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and members of Russia's Federation Council, the country's upper house of parliament.

"The Russian stance is positive," Haddad said. "The meetings were cordial and the Russians are united in saying that the media cannot pass judgment without visiting the country."

Since the start of the protests in Syria earlier this year, the foreign press have largely been barred from visiting or travelling within Syria.

Haddad's remarks came after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Monday defended the Syrian regime against sanctions for its crackdown on protesters and warned British Prime Minister David Cameron of the dangers of such a move.

Cameron met Medvedev for talks focusing on Syria and bilateral disputes as global frustration mounted with Russia's continued support of its ally despite Assad's months-long repression of nationwide protests.

A visiting aide to Assad said 1,400 people - half of them Syrian security and army forces - had died in violence since the demonstrations erupted in mid-March and rejected an estimate of 2,600 deaths from UN human rights chief Navi Pillay.


-AFP/NOW Lebanon

[BRVoice]

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7...122226,00.html


Syrian troops attack funeral after US envoy visits
Published: 09.14.11, 13:25 / Israel News

Activists say Syrian security forces attacked a gathering of mourners just hours after US Ambassador Robert Ford expressed his condolences to the family of a rights activist killed last week.

Mustafa Osso of the Local Coordination Committees network says the attack occurred on Tuesday night, after Ford and several other ambassadors had left the gathering in the Damascus suburb of Daraya.

Osso says troops fired tear gas at the tent with mourners and relatives of Ghayath Mattar following his funeral. No one was hurt. (AP)

[BRVoice]

http://www.nowlebanon.com/NewsArticl...aspx?ID=312041


US urges Americans to leave Syria immediately
September 15, 2011

The United States on Thursday urged Americans to make immediate plans to leave Syria, which has been wracked by anti-regime protests for months, warning anti-foreigner sentiment is mounting.

"The US Department of State urges US citizens in Syria to depart immediately while commercial transportation is available," the State Department said in an updated travel warning.

"Given the ongoing uncertainty and volatility of the current situation, US citizens who must remain in Syria are advised to limit nonessential travel within the country," it said.

"US citizens not in Syria should defer all travel to Syria at this time," it added.

The warning reinforced one given on August 5 –making the same appeal for Americans to leave Syria immediately –and gave updated information since fresh US sanctions were imposed on Syria on August 18.

It also said "Syrian efforts to attribute the current civil unrest to external influences have led to an increase in anti-foreigner sentiment."

By contrast, the warning on August 5 said only that "Syrian efforts to attribute the current civil unrest to external influences may lead to an increase in anti-foreigner sentiment."



-AFP/NOW Lebanon

[BRVoice]

http://www.dp-news.com/en/detail.aspx?articleid=96909


Russian Federation Council Delegation visits Syria
(DP-News - agencies)

DAMASCUS- A Russian Federation Council delegation started a 4-day visit to Syria at which the members will hold several meetings with political, social and religious figures.

The Russian delegation from the Parliament's Upper House, the Federation Council, visits Syria Saturday for talks with official authorities and oppositions too.

The delegation, headed by the Federation Council Deputy Chairman Ilyas Umakhanov, is scheduled to meet with both sides of the conflict in Damascus to have a better understanding of the current situation in the Middle East country, the source told Itar-Tass news agency.

In a statement to SANA, Deputy Chairman of the Russian Federation Council Ilyas Umakhanov said "we stress our readiness to participate and cooperate in pushing forward the national dialogue in Syria which needs to be launched in a natural atmosphere without violence."

He added that the visit includes an intensive work program and several meetings with representatives of different independent political and opposition figures to learn more about the directions of the new political powers.

"On this basis, we can deal with all parties to come out with visions on unifying the Syrian society and giving time and space for efficient implementation of the announced reforms," he said.

The four-day visit is also expected to defend Russia's interests in Syria, as the two countries have had friendly and mutually beneficial ties for years, said the source.

[BRVoice]

News Brief - 9/21/2011, Elul 22, 5771


Israelis & Syrian Exchange Accusations at UN



Syria accused Israel on Wednesday of posing a threat to the world with its "huge military nuclear arsenal" a day after the Jewish state criticized Damascus for stonewalling a United Nations watchdog investigation into its atomic activities.

The exchange between the two Middle Eastern countries, at an annual member state meeting of the UN nuclear agency, underlined deep divisions between Arab states and Israel ahead of rare talks later this year on efforts to rid the world of atomic bombs.

Israel is widely believed to hold the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal, drawing frequent Arab and Iranian condemnation.

Israel sees Iran -- and to a lesser extent Syria -- as the Middle East's main proliferation threats, accusing Tehran of seeking to develop a nuclear arms capability in secret.

[BRVoice]

Turkey to conduct military exercise near Syria

Published: 10.04.11, 14:13 / Israel News

Turkey's military will conduct an exercise in the southern province of Hatay, where more than 7,000 Syrians have taken refuge from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's security forces.
The October 5-13 "mobilisation" exercise, announced on the military's website on Tuesday, may coincide with a visit that Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is expected to make to refugee camps in Hatay after he returns from South Africa this week. (Reuters)

[BRVoice]

• Published 18:07 04.10.11
• Latest update 18:07 04.10.11

Assad: Syria will shower Tel Aviv with rockets if attacked by foreign powers

Iranians news agency quotes Syrian president as warning West against 'crazy measures,' adding that it would take Damascus, Hezbollah 6 hours to launch a joint strike against Israel.

By Haaretz Tags: Arab Spring Syria Bashar Assad

Syria will strike Israel and "set fire" to the Middle East if foreign forces choose to launch a military strike on the protest-ridden country, Syrian President Bashar Assad said on Tuesday.
During a meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, Assad was quoted by the Iranian semi-official news agency Fars as saying that Syria would not hesitate to strike major Israeli cities if it was attacked.

	Syrian President Bashar Assad delivering a speech in Damascus, Syria, on June 20, 2011.
	Photo by: AP

"If a crazy measure is taken against Damascus, I will need not more than 6 hours to transfer hundreds of rockets and missiles to the Golan Heights to fire them at Tel Aviv," Assad said.
Are these just empty threats? Visit Haaretz.com on Facebook and share your views.
In addition, Fars reported indicated that the Syrian president told the Turkish FM that he would also call on Hezbollah in Lebanon to launch a rocket attack on Israel, adding: "All these events will happen in three hours, but in the second three hours, Iran will attack the U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf and the U.S. and European interests will be targeted simultaneously."
Assad's comments to the Turkish FM came after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said earlier Tuesday he would set out his country's plans for sanctions against Syria after he visits a Syrian refugee camp near the border in the coming days.
The move heralds a further deterioration in previously friendly relations between Ankara and Damascus since the start of Assad's crackdown on protesters.
"Regarding sanctions, we will make an assessment and announce our road map after the visit to Hatay in southern Turkey, setting out the steps," Erdogan told reporters, adding he expected to visit the region at the weekend or the start of next week.
Some 7,000 Syrians have taken refuge in camps established in Hatay, in flight from President Assad's security forces.

[BRVoice]

Turkey to hold military exercise on Syrian border. Assad threatens to destroy Tel Aviv if attacked
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report October 4, 2011, 5:03 PM (GMT+02:00) Tags: Syria Bashar Assad US Leon Panetta Israel Tel Aviv Turkey

Syrian troops facing Turkey

War tensions between Turkey, NATO and Syria shot up again Tuesday, Oct. 4, with the announcement from Ankara that Turkey embarks Wednesday on a 10-day "mobilization" exercise in the southern province of Hatay along the Syrian border, through which arms are being funneled to Syrian protesters. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is expected on the same day to visit the 7,000 Syrians who have taken refuge in Hatay from President Bashar Assad's troops.

Debkafile reported earlier Tuesday that Syrian President Bashar Assad has for three months staved off a military attack by Turkey or NATO for halting the exceptional brutality of his crackdown on protest by explicitly holding Greater Tel Aviv's 1.2 million inhabitants under threat of missile retaliation.

Our military sources note that the Turkish exercise was announced the day after US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta held talks with Israeli leaders, during which he emphasized the importance of restoring ties with Turkey for deterring Syrian, Iranian and Hizballah menaces.

And a week ago, on Sept. 27, NATO's European commander Gen. James Staviris visited Ankara. Both visits were apparently part of the build-up for the Turkish exercise, which will involve the 39th mechanized infantry brigade and 730 reserve soldiers. Its target: the mobilization of reserves and their rapid transfer to the Syrian border.

The drill may well revive speculation in Damascus that Turkey is preparing to go ahead with a plan to carve out a buffer enclave inside Syria to protect civilians and provide rebels with shelter and logistical and medical assistance.

The Assad regime would no doubt regard this act as a direct attack on sovereign Syrian territory by a NATO member.

The announcement from Ankara added that Turkey would soon announce a roadmap for further sanctions to be imposed against Syria in addition to those already underway.

Earlier Tuesday, Debkafile's exclusive sources reported:

For the past three months, Syrian President Bashar Assad has staved off a military attack by Turkey or NATO for halting the exceptional brutality of his crackdown on protest by explicitly holding Greater Tel Aviv's 1.2 million inhabitants under threat of missile retaliation. Iran and Hizballah are exercising the same deterrent. This standoff was the main theme of the talks US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta held with Israeli leaders in Tel Aviv Monday, Oct. 3.

According to Western intelligence sources, Syria, Iran and Hizballah have charted a coordinated military operation for flattening metropolitan Tel Aviv, Israel's financial, industrial and cultural center, with thousands of missiles launched simultaneously by all three - plus the Palestinian Hamas and Jihad Islami firing from the Gaza Strip.

Israeli officials have never publicly admitted that this threat is on record, but Western intelligence sources have reported that Israel reacted with a warning of its own: If a single Syrian missile explodes in Tel Aviv, Damascus will be first to pay the price, and if the missile offensive persists, one Syrian town after another will be destroyed.

The Israeli message to Assad cited the warnings Defense Minister Ehud Barak and other government members addressed in the past year to Hizballah, that if Tel Aviv comes under attack from its missiles, not only Beirut but all of Lebanon would go up in flames. Assad was given to understand that Syria would go the same way as Lebanon if it engaged in missile belligerence against Israel.

Bashar Assad's threat to Israel was very much on Leon Panetta's mind when he told reporters on the plane carrying him to Israel Monday for his first visit as defense secretary:

"Real security can only be achieved by both a strong diplomatic effort as well as a strong effort to project your military strength," he said.

Western military sources say that he was not only referring to Syria, Egypt and the Palestinians by this and other statements, but pointing at the widening rift between Israel and Turkey.

The US official believes that this rift plays into the hands of the Syrian ruler and grants him the freedom to issue dire threats against Israel to hold Turkey and NATO back from using military force against his vicious regime. For Panetta, this is a prime example of Israel failing to project its military strength for diplomatic gains that would be beneficial to the West in the uprisings sweeping the Arab world. The loss of Turkish-Israeli military cooperation, albeit not initiated by Israel, ties the hands of the US and NATO against striking Syria. Those sources report that Panetta does not absolve Ankara of responsibility for this situation.

Syria first threatened Israel with retaliation on Aug. 9 when Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu spent six hours with Bashar Assad in an effort on behalf of his own government and NATO to persuade him to stop the carnage his troops were perpetrating against his people.

Davutoglu warned Assad that if he did not desist from his actions he would share the fate of Muammar Qaddafi at the hands of NATO and Turkish forces.

The Syrian ruler's response was harsh: From the moment a shot is fired against Syria, "it will take only six hours for Syria to devastate Tel Aviv and ignite the entire Middle East," he said.

Assad was spelling out the warning issued on May 10 by a close crony, international business tycoon Rami Makhlouf, who said then: "If there is no stability here, there’s no way there will be stability in Israel. No way, and nobody can guarantee what will happen after, God forbid, anything happens to this regime.”

The barrage of Syrian threats was reinforced from Tehran Monday, Sept, 26 by Ayatollah Jafar Shoujouni, a close associate of the all-powerful Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Shoujouni recalled that when he visited Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut last May, he assured him: "If Israelis come near Tehran, we will destroy Tel Aviv."

The Iranian cleric and the Syrian businessman spoke in the same vein in the same month. This was no coincidence.

Their threat has since been repeated with greater emphasis to provide the Assad regime with insurance for its survival against foreign military intervention while continuing its pitiless onslaught on dissent.

Syria and Turkey are increasingly at odds, Debkafile's military sources report. This week, Damascus accused the Turks of smuggling automatic and anti-tank weapons to the protesters, claiming to have uncovered a consignment in the protest center of Homs.

Ankara has initiated the process of freezing Assad family members' bank accounts and assets whose worth is estimated at half a billion dollars.

Turkey is also weighing unilateral sanctions after the UN Security Council last week imposed an arms embargo on Syria although Russia succeeded in blocking a tough council resolution. Moscow was punishing the West for its military intervention in Libya and flatly opposed to giving NATO another such opportunity in Syria.

Damascus repeatedly warned Turkey in the past week of reprisals if its inspectors dare open freights on transit to Syria by ship, plane or land vehicle to search for embargoed arms.

At a time of dangerously spiralling tensions, there is no knowing when the Assad regime will determine that the first Turkish shot was fired and how it will retaliate.

[BRVoice]

U.N. resolution on Syria fails as Turkish pressure looms

By Khaled Yacoub Oweis
AMMAN | Tue Oct 4, 2011 9:20pm EDT

(Reuters) - Russia and China have handed President Bashar al-Assad a diplomatic victory by vetoing a European-drafted U.N. Security Council resolution against Syria, after six months of a violent crackdown on pro-democracy protests.

Pressure, however, loomed from Syria's powerful neighbor Turkey, which has given refuge to a Syrian colonel who has joined the revolt, in a move that may heighten tensions between Damascus and Ankara.

"This veto will not stop us. No veto can give carte blanche to the Syrian authorities," French U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud told the 15-nation council on Tuesday.

The United Nations resolution, which had hinted that Damascus could face sanctions at a later stage, received nine votes in favor and four abstentions. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said Washington was outraged and that it was time for the Security Council to adopt "tough targeted sanctions" on Damascus.

Assad had managed to maneuver Syria into being courted by the West while maintaining an alliance with Iran and backing militant groups, but the crackdown -- he has sent tanks and troops into towns and cities across the country to crush demonstrations -- have left him with few stalwart allies.

The Syrian economy is reeling from U.S. and European Union sanction on the small but key oil sector, which is linked to the Assad family and ruling elites.

Foreign currency reserves are under pressure, forcing the state last month to impose a sweeping ban on imports in a effort to maintain the reserves. But the ban was rescinded on Tuesday, after a spike in prices and disquiet among an influential merchant class that has been backing Assad.

Russia and China, which have major oil concessions in Syria and do not want to see Western influence in the Middle East spread, cast the only votes against the U.N. resolution.

Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told the council that Moscow was firmly opposed to the threat of sanctions against Damascus, reiterating concerns that passing the European resolution on Syria could have opened the door to a Libya-style military intervention.

At least 2,700 civilians have been killed in Syria, by a United Nations count. Assad has said any other country would have responded to the uprising by using similar tactics.

The authorities blame "armed terrorist groups" backed by unspecified foreign powers for violence and say that 800 security-force members have been killed.

After months of peaceful protests, some army deserters and dissidents have taken up arms, prompting military operations against them, especially in areas bordering Turkey and Jordan.

Turkey's Anatolian news agency quoted Colonel Riad al-Asaad, the most senior Syrian officer to defect to the opposition since the popular revolt erupted in March, as saying he was safe in Turkey.

The agency's report was datelined Hatay in southern Turkey, where 7,000 Syrians have fled to escape Assad's crackdown on protesters.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who has predicted the Syrian people will "sooner or later" overthrow Assad, his former friend, said he would unveil plans for sanctions against Syria after he visits Syrian refugees in Hatay in the next few days.

Turkey also announced a nine-day military exercise in Hatay, starting on Wednesday.

Syrian opposition groups meeting in Istanbul on Sunday appealed for international action to stop what they called indiscriminate killings of civilians by the Syrian authorities, but rejected any Libya-style military intervention.

The United States said it was encouraged by the opposition's statements supporting non-violence, and blamed the mounting death toll on the Syrian authorities.

Asaad, the military defector who leads the "Syrian Free Army," said last week that 10,000 troops had deserted.

Fighting erupted in the rugged Jabal al-Zawiya region of Idlib on Tuesday during army raids on the towns of Sarjeh and Shinan, where deserters were reported to have taken refuge, activists said, adding that at least two villagers were killed.

"These are rugged or agricultural regions. The regime cannot control them unless it commits more troops, and then it risks more defections," said one activist in the northwestern province of Idlib near Turkey.

The state's news agency said that "armed terrorist groups" killed a member of the security forces in an ambush in Idlib and lightly injured another in a bomb attack on a patrol in the city of Hama, which was overran by tanks in July to subdue large pro-democracy protests.

The authorities have denied any army defections, saying its military operations were a response to appeals by residents.

Assad retains control of the military, whose mostly Sunni Muslim rank and file are commanded by officers of his minority Alawite sect that also dominates the security apparatus.

Syria for the most part has closed its doors to independent media, making it hard to verify events, but a trickle of desertions appears to have gathered pace in the last several weeks.


(Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau and Simon Cameron-Moore; Editing by Michael Roddy)

[BRVoice]

Turkey says sanctions on Syria to go ahead


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Wednesday, October 5, 2011
ANKARA - Associated Press

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. AFP photo

Turkey's prime minister says Turkey and other countries will press ahead with plans to slap sanctions on Syria undeterred by Russia and China's veto of a U.N. security Council resolution.

The two countries on Monday vetoed a European-backed resolution that threatened sanctions against Syria if it didn't immediately halt its military crackdown against civilians.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan said during a speech delivered in South Africa Tuesday that the veto would not stop Turkey and many other countries, including in the European Union, from imposing sanctions. His statement was reported by the state-run Anatolia news agency.

Turkey has already imposed an arms embargo on Syria and Erdogan is expected to announce new sanctions on its neighbor later this week.

[BRVoice]

Assad warns Jordan against holding a war game like Turkey and Israel
DEBKAfile Special Report October 7, 2011, 1:14 AM (GMT+02:00) Tags: Syria Bashar Assad Israel Turkey US Jordan's King Abdullah II

IDF reservists on sudden call-up maneuver

Tensions peaked again around Syria's borders with Israel, Turkey and Jordan as the first two embarked on large-scale mobilization maneuvers near those borders Wednesday and Thursday, Oct. 5-6 and the Jordanian armed forces prepared to follow suit.

Debkafile's military and intelligence sources report that the United States and Turkey urged Jordan's King Abdullah to hold a similar maneuver or reinforce his units on the Syrian border. But Bashar Assad decided that being forced to build up his forces on Syria's borders with Turkey and Israel was enough and a Jordanian exercise must be stopped.

Thursday, he sent his powerful brother-in-law Gen. Asef Shawqat to Amman with a stern warning for the king: If the Hashemite Kingdom lines up with Turkey and Israel and deploys extra troops on the Syrian border, Assad will order his air force to bomb Jordanian towns.

And if Israel intervenes to engage Syrian bombers, Damascus would launch surface missiles against Jordanian cities.

It was the second time this week that the Syrian ruler had threatened to punish an enemy with ground-to-ground missiles. Tuesday, Oct. 4, Debkafile revealed that Assad had threatened to demolish Tel Aviv by missiles within six hours of an attack on Syria.

Jordan's Abdullah told Gen. Shawqat he agreed to give up his planned military exercise, but not his opposition to Assad actions.

In Washington, Ankara and Jerusalem, the Syrian message to Jordan was taken as an implied warning to Turkey and Israel alike that Assad had no intention of taking their military exercises lying down either and a military response was coming.

The Turkish war game is taking place in the Hatay province which borders on northern Syria. It is scheduled to last nine days. Israel ended its two-day maneuver Thursday, deploying troops within sight of southwest Syria and Jordan.

Israeli and Turkish military movements were coordinated by NATO's European commander Gen. James Staviris who he visited Tel Aviv and Ankara for this purpose in the last week of September.

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta gave the exercises a seal of approval during his visit to Israel Monday, Oct. 3.

The next day, both armies were in the field. The United States informed both governments that US warships had been deployed in the eastern Mediterranean against any unforeseen events.

Turkish-Israeli military ties remain frozen and relations sour. But Ankara did not refuse American mediation for coordinating their exercises for the first time in more than a year.

The two-day Israeli war game was not announced. It entailed the call-up of the Northern and Central Commands reserve brigades without prior notice. The units were directed to collect the men and officers from home and drive them to their units on the assumption that a missile attack on Israel was already underway and road disruptions prevented them from making their own way.

Chief of Staff, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, summed up the exercise by telling the troops: "In the current instability around us, we must be sure that our forces are on the highest level of readiness and keep on enhancing it."

[BRVoice]

Davutoğlu: Turkey to take all measures if Syrian turmoil poses risk

07 October 2011, Friday / TODAYSZAMAN.COM, 0 4

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said Turkey will take all necessary measures, including military ones, if the ongoing turmoil in neighboring Syria poses a security threat for Turkey.

Davutoğlu was speaking during a television program hosted by veteran journalist Mehmet Ali Birand on Thursday night. When Birand asked whether Turkey is heading towards war with Syria, Davutoğlu said the Turkish state thinks that the oppression inflicted on the Syrian people has reached unacceptable levels. When he was asked what Turkey can do in the face of this crackdown, Davutoğlu said the Syrian people will do what should be done. “But, as Syria's neighbor, there are also many steps that we can take. Everyone knows that,” Davutoğlu said. As for whether military measures are also included in these steps, the minister said, “Of course, when the situation becomes a security threat for us.” “Every domestic crisis in Syria will affect Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon, Israel, Palestine and Jordan. It affects the whole region. In this regard, there is no other country more important than Syria today. So, when an internal conflict in Syria poses a risk to Turkey, we will take all necessary measures,” he said. Davutoğlu's remarks were reported by some Turkish dailies as confirmation of an intention to go to war against Syria. However, a statement from the Foreign Ministry denied the reports and said Davutoğlu did not say Turkey was going to war with Syria on Birand's program, nor anywhere else. The statement elaborated that the minister had only said Turkey would take all measures for Turkey's security. Dismayed by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's failure to heed repeated entreaties to stop the violence, Turkey has begun putting pressure on Syria. On Tuesday, a Syrian colonel who has emerged as one of the leaders of armed resistance to the 45-year-old Syrian president's rule revealed that he had been given sanctuary in Turkey. At least 2,700 civilians have been killed in Syria, according to a UN count. Damascus blames the unrest on foreign-backed armed gangs, who it says have killed 700 security personnel.

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Behind Syria vetoes were concerns of a repetition of Libya’s NATO bombing campaign

By Associated Press,

UNITED NATIONS — Behind the Russian and Chinese vetoes of a U.N. resolution on Syria were not only serious differences over President Bashar Assad’s crackdown against civilians but concerns that even threatening sanctions might lead to a repetition of the NATO bombing campaign in Libya.

The result is that nearly seven months after the uprising against Assad began, the U.N.’s most powerful body remains deeply divided and unable to adopt a legally binding resolution to address the violence in Syria that by U.N. estimates has claimed more than 2,700 lives.

It’s a far cry from the heady atmosphere on March 17 when the same council members made history by authorizing, for the first time, the use of military force to protect civilians from violence perpetrated upon them by their own government — in that case attacks by Moammar Gadhafi’s troops in Libya.

At the time, the resolution was seen as ushering in a potential new era of protection for civilians caught in internal conflicts.

But the prospect of Security Council action to protect Syrians or any other civilians engulfed in violence now appears highly unlikely because of opposition from Russia. Moscow says its chief concern is the way the Libyan resolution has been interpreted by NATO members Britain, France and the United States.

The March resolution banned all flights in Libyan airspace and authorized U.N. members to take “all necessary measures ... to protect civilians and civilian populated areas under threat of attack” while excluding any “foreign occupation force” in Libyan territory.

It was approved by a 10-0 vote. Russia and China abstained, as did India, Germany and Brazil.

After the resolution passed, NATO launched a bombing campaign which it contends is solely aimed at protecting civilians. But Russia, China, India, South Africa and Brazil argue that the Libya resolution did not justify months of air strikes aimed at toppling Gadhafi’s regime, and they have expressed concern that a new resolution might be used as a pretext for armed intervention against Syria.

The four European nations that sponsored the Syria resolution — Britain, France, Germany and Portugal — watered down its language on sanctions three times to try to win Russia and China’s support. They also specified that any sanctions could not be enforced by military action.

But when the text was sent to Moscow for review, word came back that it was unacceptable, the diplomats said, speaking on condition of anonymity because consultations were private.

No one would speculate on what happened in the Kremlin that led to the rejection of the resolution. But the veto provoked strong rebukes from the U.S. and Western European countries and human rights groups.

“It is not a matter of wording. It is a political choice,” France’s U.N. Ambassador Gerard Araud said after the Tuesday vote. “It is an expression of disregard for the legitimate aspirations courageously expressed in Syria... It’s a rejection of the extraordinary movement in support of freedom and democracy that is the Arab Spring.”

Russia’s U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said after listening to Araud that “the one thing I agree with ... is this is really a conflict between different political philosophies and different political strategies.”

“The situation in Syria cannot be considered in the council apart from the Libyan experience,” he stressed. “The international community is alarmed” that the NATO interpretation of the Libya resolution “is a model for future actions of NATO in implementing responsibility to protect ... (and) could happen in Syria.”

Churkin criticized the Europeans for refusing to include language from a rival Russian draft resolution that would have specifically banned any military intervention in Syria. He said the proposed resolution was too critical of Assad’s government, that it ignored government victims of the violence and that an “ultimatum of sanctions” was an “unacceptable threat.”

U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice called claims that the resolution would be a pretext for military intervention “a cheap ruse by those who would rather sell arms to the Syrian regime than stand with the Syrian people.” Syrian allies Russia and China reportedly remain major arms suppliers to the Assad regime.

Churkin strongly objected to the allegation, “especially coming from a country (The United States) which is pumping hundreds of billions of dollars of military hardware into the area.”

“Our vote has nothing to do with that,” he told reporters, noting that Russia has supported past sanctions that have led to “major losses” in arms sales.

The Europeans and U.S. said they will bring the Syrian issue back to the council when possible.

Meanwhile, they pledged to seek other international action to pressure the Syrian regime, and to stand with the Syrian people.

Russia and China also warned that Assad should not see the resolution’s defeat as a green light to continue using tanks and soldiers against civilians.

China’s U.N. Ambassador Li Baodong urged Syria to end the violence, “implement reforms and launch a political process as soon as possible.”

“The worst conclusion they can draw from this,” Churkin said, “is that (Syria’s leaders) can slacken their efforts towards reform ... to establishing dialogue with the opposition ... (and) cleaning up their act in terms of excessive use of force.”

Companion Threads:

• Obama Administration using the United Nations to bypass Congress
• Glenn Beck 4-22-11 Final Show outlines the Obama Administration's UN mandate 'Responsibility to Protect'
• Is Tunisia, Egypt, Morocco and Libya Facing Real Unrest or a Manufactured Crisis?

Soros, Obama & ‘Responsibility to Protect’

Posted by Dave Reaboi Mar 31st 2011 at 11:46 am in Featured Story, Islam, Islamic extremism, Middle East, sharia | Comments (23)

Earlier this week, Frank Gaffney appeared on Fox Business News with Eric Bolling to discuss the civil war in Libya. First, Aaron Klein of WND reports on Obama national security adviser Samantha Power’s relationship with far-leftist George Soros and their common affinity for the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ provision in the UN’s Libya resolution. The left correctly sees this ‘Responsibility to Protect’ at least as a blow to American sovereignty; it’s time all Americans get to know the implications of this dangerous new precedent.

Also featured in the clip is San Francisco attorney Yasser Tabbara, appearing as a representative for the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), an unindicted coconspirator in the largest terrorist finance trial in American history. Tabbara– just back from Egypt– accuses Frank of demonizing the Muslim Brotherhood.

NATO preps for new war

Syrian chief warns attack will set Middle East aflame

Posted: October 04, 2011
8:50 pm Eastern

By Aaron Klein
© 2011 WND



TEL AVIV – NATO troops are training in Turkey for a Turkish-led NATO invasion of Syria, a senior Syrian diplomatic official claimed to WND.

Separately, informed Middle East security officials said Russia has been inspecting Syrian forces and has been advising Syria about possible Syrian military responses should NATO attack the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The officials said Russia recently sold Syria a large quantity of Iskander ballistic missiles, and that, in light of the NATO threat, the Russian government renewed its pledge to sell Syria the advanced S-300 anti-missile system.

The question people are afraid to ask: "Are These the Last Days? How to Live Expectantly in a World of Uncertainty"

The Syrian diplomatic official, meanwhile, recognized his country receives general support from Russia, but told WND that Assad's regime is concerned the European Union and U.S. may offer Russia an economic incentive to scale back Russian support for Syria.

The report comes as Assad reportedly warned yesterday he will set the Middle East on fire if NATO forces attack his country.

"If a crazy measure is taken against Damascus, I will need not more than six hours to transfer hundreds of rockets and missiles to the Golan Heights to fire them at Tel Aviv," Assad reportedly said, according to Iran's state-run Fars news agency.

Assad made the comments in a meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmad Davutoglu, reported Fars.

Fars reported Davutoglu conveyed a warning from NATO and the U.S. that Syria could face an international military campaign if Assad does not halt his violent crackdown on an insurgency targeting the Syrian president’s regime.

Assad also reiterated that Damascus will call on Hezbollah in Lebanon to launch an intensive rocket and missile attack on Israel, reported Fars.

"All these events will happen in three hours, but in the second three hours, Iran will attack the U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf and the U.S. and European interests will be targeted simultaneously," Assad was quoted as saying.

While Assad’s remarks could not be immediately verified, Iran, which runs Fars, is a close partner to the Damascus government.

WND first reported in August that Assad is taking military measures to prepare for a possible U.S.-NATO campaign against his regime.

Informed Egyptian security officials told WND Assad instructed the Syrian military to be prepared for an air or ground campaign if the international community determines his pledges of reform are not enough.

Also in August, WND first reported Turkey secretly passed a message to Damascus that if it does not implement major democratic reforms, NATO may attack Assad's regime, according to Egyptian security officials.

The Egyptian security officials said the message was coordinated with NATO members, specifically with the U.S. and European Union.

The Egyptian officials said Turkish leaders, speaking for NATO, told Assad that he has until March to implement democratization that would allow free elections as well as major constitutional reforms.

Last month, Obama officially asked Assad to step down to pave the way for a democratic system in Syria.

According to informed Middle Eastern security officials speaking to WND, Assad asked his military to make specific preparations in the event of a U.S.-led NATO campaign similar to the military coalition now targeting Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.

George Soros-funded doctrine with White House ties

The Libya bombings have been widely regarded as a test of a military doctrine called "Responsibility to Protect."

In his address to the nation in April explaining the NATO campaign in Libya, Obama cited the doctrine as the main justification for U.S. and international airstrikes against Libya.

Responsibility to Protect, or Responsibility to Act, as cited by Obama, is a set of principles, now backed by the United Nations, based on the idea that sovereignty is not a privilege but a responsibility that can be revoked if a country is accused of "war crimes," "genocide," "crimes against humanity" or "ethnic cleansing."

The term "war crimes" has at times been indiscriminately used by various United Nations-backed international bodies, including the International Criminal Court, or ICC, which applied it to Israeli anti-terror operations in the Gaza Strip. There has been fear the ICC could be used to prosecute U.S. troops who commit alleged "war crimes" overseas.

The Global Centre for Responsibility to Protect is the world's leading champion of the military doctrine.

As WND reported, billionaire activist George Soros is a primary funder and key proponent of the Global Centre for Responsibility to Protect. Several of the doctrine's main founders also sit on boards with Soros.

WND reported the committee that devised the Responsibility to Protect doctrine included Arab League Secretary General Amre Moussa as well as Palestinian legislator Hanan Ashrawi, a staunch denier of the Holocaust who long served as the deputy of late Palestinian Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat.

Also, the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy has a seat on the advisory board of the 2001 commission that originally founded Responsibility to Protect. The commission is called the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty. It invented the term "responsibility to protect" while defining its guidelines.

The Carr Center is a research center concerned with human rights located at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Samantha Power, the National Security Council special adviser to Obama on human rights, was Carr's founding executive director and headed the institute at the time it advised in the founding of Responsibility to Protect.

With Power's center on the advisory board, the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty first defined the Responsibility to Protect doctrine.

Power reportedly heavily influenced Obama in consultations leading to the decision to bomb Libya.

Two of the global group's advisory board members, Ramesh Thakur and Gareth Evans, are the original founders of the doctrine, with the duo even coining the term "responsibility to protect."

As WND reported, Soros' Open Society Institute is a primary funder and key proponent of the Global Centre for Responsibility to Protect. Also, Thakur and Evans sit on multiple boards with Soros.

Soros' Open Society is one of only three nongovernmental funders of the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect. Government sponsors include Australia, Belgium, Canada, the Netherlands, Norway, Rwanda and the U.K.

Board members of the group include former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, former Ireland President Mary Robinson and South African activist Desmond Tutu. Robinson and Tutu have recently made solidarity visits to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip as members of a group called The Elders, which includes former President Jimmy Carter.

Annan once famously stated, "State sovereignty, in its most basic sense, is being redefined – not least by the forces of globalization and international co-operation. States are ... instruments at the service of their peoples and not vice versa."

Soros: Right to 'penetrate nation-states'

Soros himself outlined the fundamentals of Responsibility to Protect in a 2004 Foreign Policy magazine article titled "The People's Sovereignty: How a New Twist on an Old Idea Can Protect the World's Most Vulnerable Populations."

In the article Soros said, "True sovereignty belongs to the people, who in turn delegate it to their governments."

"If governments abuse the authority entrusted to them and citizens have no opportunity to correct such abuses, outside interference is justified," Soros wrote. "By specifying that sovereignty is based on the people, the international community can penetrate nation-states' borders to protect the rights of citizens.

"In particular," he continued, "the principle of the people's sovereignty can help solve two modern challenges: the obstacles to delivering aid effectively to sovereign states, and the obstacles to global collective action dealing with states experiencing internal conflict."

More George Soros ties

"Responsibility" founders Evans and Thakur served as co-chairmen with Vartan Gregorian, president of Carnegie Corp. Charitable Foundation, on the advisory board of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, which invented the term "responsibility to protect."

In his capacity as co-chairman, Evans also played a pivotal role in initiating the fundamental shift from sovereignty as a right to "sovereignty as responsibility."

Evans presented Responsibility to Protect at the July 23, 2009, United Nations General Assembly, which was convened to consider the principle.

Thakur is a fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, which is in partnership with an economic institute founded by Soros.

Soros is on the executive board of the International Crisis Group, a "crisis management organization" for which Evans serves as president-emeritus.

WND previously reported how the group has been petitioning for the U.S. to normalize ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, the main opposition in Egypt, where longtime U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak was recently toppled.

Aside from Evans and Soros, the group includes on its board Egyptian opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei, as well as other personalities who champion dialogue with Hamas, a violent offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood.

WND also reported the crisis group has petitioned for the Algerian government to cease "excessive" military activities against al-Qaida-linked groups and to allow organizations seeking to create an Islamic state to participate in the Algerian government.

Soros' own Open Society Institute has funded opposition groups across the Middle East and North Africa, including organizations involved in the current chaos.

'One World Order'

WND reported that doctrine founder Thakur recently advocated for a "global rebalancing" and "international redistribution" to create a "New World Order."

In a piece last March in the Ottawa Citizen newspaper, "Toward a new world order," Thakur wrote, "Westerners must change lifestyles and support international redistribution."

He was referring to a United Nations-brokered international climate treaty in which he argued, "Developing countries must reorient growth in cleaner and greener directions."

In the opinion piece, Thakur then discussed recent military engagements and how the financial crisis has impacted the U.S.

"The West's bullying approach to developing nations won't work anymore – global power is shifting to Asia," he wrote.

"A much-needed global moral rebalancing is in train," he added.

Thakur continued: "Westerners have lost their previous capacity to set standards and rules of behavior for the world. Unless they recognize this reality, there is little prospect of making significant progress in deadlocked international negotiations."

Thakur contended "the demonstration of the limits to U.S. and NATO power in Iraq and Afghanistan has left many less fearful of 'superior' Western power."

[BRVoice]

Oh my...

Syria closes border gate with Turkey

October 8, 2011

Syria closed one of its border gates with Turkey and barred Turkish citizens from entering Syria following bloody clashes in the city of Qamishli, Anatolia news agency reported on Saturday.
Turks were not allowed to cross into Syria from the border gate in Nusaybin city in southeast Turkey, which is only a few kilometers away from Qamishli, the local governor Murat Girgin told Anatolia.
Syrian officials sent back people who wanted to use the gate, Anatolia said.
Syrian security forces killed at least two mourners and wounded several others when they fired on the funeral of murdered Kurdish opposition figure Meshaal Tamo in Qamishli in northern Syria on Saturday.
The funeral of Tamo, who was gunned down on Friday became a mass rally with more than 50,000 demonstrators calling for the fall of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime, activists said.
-AFP/NOW Lebanon