Syria

[Annie]

Been in the news lately:


Condi:

http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=14776

UN Hariri Assassination Report Blames Syria!

Lebanese Hariri Assassination Points at Syria!

UN inquiry into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri says many leads point to the direct involvement of Syrian officials.

UN investigators said they had also found evidence of Lebanese collusion (under Syrian control at that time) in Mr Hariri's death last February.

The report, prepared at the request of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, says the car bombing was carried out by a group with extensive organisation.

Many in Lebanon blamed Syria for the killing, a claim denied by Damascus.

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The Lebanese army, ambulances and fire service were out in force today before the release of the UN report. (BBC)

The US will call for sanctions against Syria because of the Hariri probe conclusion:

The report by chief investigator Detlev Mehlis, said Hariri's February 14 assassination was so complex that it would be difficult to imagine that the Syrian and Lebanese intelligence services didn't know about it.

Mehlis wrote that the two nations' intelligence services kept tabs on Hariri by wiretapping his phone constantly.

The decision to assassinate Hariri "could not have been taken without the approval of top-ranked Syrian security official and could not have been further organized without the collusion of their counterparts in the Lebanese
security services," the report said.

Mehlis' 53-page report said that the investigation is not complete and must be continued with Lebanese judicial and security authorities in the lead.

Several lines of investigation still need to be pursued, he said. They include jamming devices in Hariri's convoy that were functioning at the time of the bombing. It appears there was interference with a telecommunication antenna at the crime scene at the time Hariri was killed in a massive car bomb, Mehlis wrote.


Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah , a close Syrian ally in Lebanon, warned against the politicization of the U.N. investigation into the Feb. 14 assassination of former premier Rafik Hariri, a reference to U.S. pressure on Syria, and said the report should produce 'clear evidence' for its findings. 'All of us want the truth,' Nasrallah told supporters. 'All of us condemn this crime and demand the murderers be punished, whoever they are. But we must really look for the killers.' (AP)

US Ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, said that the report was "bigger than a breadbox" and that the US would look it over and officially comment tomorrow:

The United States has sought support from allies in the region to isolate Syria and force Mr. Assad to cease supporting and financing anti-Israel militias and stop what Washington believes is a willingness by Damascus to infiltrate insurgents across its border with Iraq.

John R. Bolton, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, noting that the Mehlis report was "bigger than a breadbox," said there would be no substantive comment from the United States until Friday.

"We have just received the report and we're going to look at it very carefully tonight, evaluate it and decide on the basis of that evaluation and consultation what the next steps will be," he said. "We've already been in consultations considering the various possibilities."

Diplomats from the United States, Britain and France have been discussing their options for taking action against Syria, and the issue will be considered next week by the Security Council. Mr. Mehlis is scheduled to give council members a briefing on his report on Tuesday.

Saad Hariri, the son of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafik al-Hariri, became prime minister earlier this year as a result of the government upheaval following his father's death.

Athena who has been in the region has a terrific roundup with extensive background on the story.

Winds of Change has a very thorough discussion on the released report.

posted by Gateway Pundit at 10/20/2005 06:24:00 PM

 

[NATO AIR]

It will be most interesting to see how the Syrians handle this, obviously, both the French and Americans have them in their cross-hairs.

 

[waltky]

Almost one million living under siege in Syria...

Syria conflict: Almost one million living under siege - UN
Mon, 21 Nov 2016 - The number of people living under siege in Syria doubles this year to almost a million, the UN says.

Emergency Relief Co-ordinator Stephen O'Brien said the figure had jumped from 486,700 to 974,080 in six months. People were being "isolated, starved, bombed and denied medical attention and humanitarian assistance in order to force them to submit or flee," he said. Mr O'Brien noted that the "deliberate tactic of cruelty" was mostly employed by President Bashar al-Assad's forces. "Those maintaining the sieges know by now that this Council is apparently unable or unwilling to enforce its will or agree now on steps to stop them," he told the UN Security Council. Newly besieged locations include the rebel-held Damascus suburbs of Jobar, Hajar al-Aswad and Khan al-Shih, as well as several areas in the eastern Ghouta agricultural belt outside the capital.

Mr O'Brien also told the Security Council that he was "more or less at my wit's end" over the situation in the divided city of Aleppo, where an estimated 275,000 people living under siege in rebel-held eastern districts face "annihilation". A unilateral pause in aerial bombardment by the government and its ally Russia that began on 18 October had offered a "glimmer of hope", he said. But the shelling of civilian areas in the government-controlled west by rebel and jihadist groups and the resumption of air strikes last Tuesday, he added, had returned "the city and its inhabitants to death and destruction once again". "Over the past days, reports indicate that hundreds of civilians have been killed, injured or otherwise affected by the relentless attacks on eastern Aleppo."

Relatives mourn 15-year-old Ziad Rihani, who was killed by shellfire in the besieged rebel-held Douma district of Damascus, Syria​

Mr O'Brien said that, as of Sunday, there were barely any functional hospitals in rebel-held areas, as all the medical facilities were being "bombed into oblivion". The more than 350 mortars and rockets launched indiscriminately into western Aleppo so far this month are meanwhile reported to have killed more than 60 people and injured 350 others. A school was hit on the government side on Sunday, killing eight children. "Let me be clear: we are not just seeing a resumption of violence in Aleppo, this is not business as usual," Mr O'Brien told the Security Council. He warned that humanitarian conditions in eastern Aleppo had also "gone from terrible to terrifying" and were "now barely survivable". The last of the food rations delivered by the UN before access was cut off in July were distributed on 13 November. Only a handful of rations from local NGOs remain, food in markets is scarce, and prices have sky-rocketed.

On Sunday, the Syrian government said it had rejected a proposal by the UN special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, for eastern Aleppo to be granted autonomy if jihadist fighters linked to al-Qaeda withdrew and the fighting stopped. The United States has meanwhile warned that Syrian commanders and other officials deemed responsible for military attacks on civilians would be held accountable. The US ambassador to the United Nations, Samantha Power, spoke of a dozen commanders and officers accused of directing attacks on civilian targets who Washington wants brought to justice. "The United States will not let those who have commanded units involved in these actions hide anonymously behind the facade of the Assad regime," she told the UN Security Council in New York.

Syria conflict: Almost one million living under siege - UN - BBC News

 

[Wyatt earp]

Damn I thought Annie was back

What a rip off thread

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