UK blames Iran and its Hezbollah for [aiding in] bloodshed in Syria

[2012]

UK's Cameron says Iran, Hezbollah supporting Syria's crackdownPosted: Jan 18, 2012By Daniel Woodruff, Anchor, Multimedia Journalist
LONDON (AP) -- British Prime Minister David Cameron says Iran and the Iranian-backed Islamist group Hezbollah are supporting Syria's violent crackdown on the country's uprising.

Cameron told lawmakers in the House of Commons today that both were offering backing to Syrian President Bashar Assad. He described Assad as a "wretched tyrant who is killing so many of his own people."....
waow.com/story/16547930/uks-cameron-says-iran-hezbollah-supporting-syrias-crackdown

 

[waltky]

High-Level Offensive Launched on Syria at UN...

Clinton Urges UN Action to End Violence in Syria
January 31, 2012 - U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told the Security Council on Tuesday that U.N. action to end the violence in Syria would be different from the NATO-led efforts in Libya that resulted in the ouster of Moammar Gadhafi.

"I know that some members here may be concerned that the Security Council is headed toward another Libya," she said. "That is a false analogy." Russia says it worries that a draft measure aimed at Syria, currently before the council, could lead to military action and regime change — just as an Arab-backed U.N. resolution led to NATO airstrikes in Libya. "It is time for the international community to put aside our own differences and send a clear message of support to the people of Syria," Clinton said. Her comments followed a rare call by the Arab League to condemn violence in a fellow Arab country, and adopt its peace plan calling on Syrian President Bashar Assad to step aside.

Elaraby told the council that the league wanted the Security Council act "to support our initiative and not to take its place." "We are attempting to avoid any foreign intervention, particularly military intervention" in Syria, he said. "We have always stressed full respect of the security, sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Syrian people." In his response, Syria's U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari lashed out at the league, accusing it of acting without consulting the Syrian leadership. "How strange it is for us to see some members of the League of Arab States seeking the support of the Security Council against Syria," Ja'afari said. He noted that the Security Council often has voted in support of Israel against Arab-backed measures.

Russia, a veto-wielding permanent member of the council, has objected to the draft, which is backed by Western and some Arab powers. Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said Tuesday on Twitter that the resolution is a "path to civil war." Backers of the draft point out that it says specifically that "nothing ... compels states to resort to the use of force or the threat of force." British Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs William Hague urged speedy action. "How long do Syrian families have to live in fear that their children will be killed or tortured, before the Security Council will act?" Hague asked. "How many people need to die before the consciences of world capitals are stirred?"

An actual vote on the resolution was considered unlikely until later this week. The debate came amid rising violence Tuesday in Homs, a Syrian center of opposition to Assad's regime. The U.N. estimates that more than 5,400 people have been killed since last March in the Syrian government crackdown against protesters. The draft resolution demands that Assad halt the crackdown and implement an Arab League peace plan calling for him to hand over power to his vice president. If Assad fails to comply within 15 days, the council would consider "further measures," a reference to a possible move to impose economic or other sanctions.

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UN resolution could spur Syria civil war, Russia warns
31 January 2012 - More than 100 people reported were killed in violence on Monday

The Western-Arab drive to adopt a UN resolution on Syria is a "path to civil war", Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov has warned. He said demands for President Bashar al-Assad to stand down would "not lead to a search for compromise". The UN Security Council is meeting to discuss its response to the deepening Syrian crisis. Qatar's prime minister urged council members to act to stop the Syrian "killing machine". "It is part of your responsibility under the [UN] charter,'' said Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani. More than 100 people were killed across Syria on Monday, including 40 civilians, said activists. Another 30 people were killed on Tuesday, the Local Co-ordination Committee (LCC) said, including two children.

Such claims cannot be independently verified as the the BBC and other international media are severely restricted inside Syria. The UN has conceded it cannot keep track of the escalating death toll, but estimates more than 5,400 people have been killed since the unrest began last March. UK Foreign Secretary William Hague told the BBC that Russia would be increasingly isolated across the Arab World if it vetoed the UN resolution. Meanwhile, senior US officials have said it is only a matter of time before Mr Assad loses his grip on power. "I do not see how he can sustain his rule of Syria," intelligence chief James Clapper told a Senate hearing, but said the process could take a long time.

Regime change 'obsession'

The latest draft of the resolution strongly condemns violence and human rights abuses by the Syrian government and calls on countries to stop the flow of arms to Syria, without imposing an arms embargo. At the core of the plan is an endorsement of an Arab League peace plan that would see President Assad delegate power to his deputy to oversee a political transition. Moscow, which has maintained close ties with Damascus and has a naval base in the country, says this amounts to regime change and has criticised the document's threat of unspecified further measures if Syria does not comply.

As one of the five permanent council members, Russia has already said it will veto the draft, but the BBC's UN correspondent Barbara Plett says Western nations still hope to convince it to at least abstain. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said some countries were "obsessed" with regime change in the Middle East region. "If this vigour to change regimes persists we are going to witness a very bad situation, much, much broader than just Syria, Libya or Egypt or any other single country," he said. Moscow had never insisted that Mr Assad should remaining in power, he said, but believed that decision "has to be Syrian". He said third parties were encouraging Syria's opposition to "crawl away from this dialogue".

Running battlefield

 

[DeeCee]

Fascist Ahmadinejad believes he is an Islamic Messiah... conquering world is part of the game.

 

[waltky]

Yea, let `em fight their own battle - but give `em the guns to do it...

US should mull arming Syria rebels: senator
Sunday 5 Feb 2012 - A top US senator says Syrians 'have shown extraordinary courage' in the face of Al-Assad's crackdown, advocating Washington to provide weapons and aid to Syrian rebels

The United States should look at providing weapons and other aid to Syrian rebels if Russia and China refuse to reconsider their vetoes of a UN resolution against Damascus, a top US senator said Sunday. Senator Joe Lieberman, a former Democratic presidential candidate, said the Syrian people "have shown extraordinary courage in the face of a government much stronger than they are" and "they are not going to be denied." "The question is not whether (President Bashar Al-Assad) will go, but when he will go. The sooner he goes, the fewer innocents will be killed," he said at security conference in the southern German city of Munich.

Russia and China faced worldwide outrage after they blocked a UN Security Council resolution on Saturday condemning Syria for its crackdown on protests amid a new bout of violence. "If Russia and China don't change their minds about the veto ... then the world will not allow us to say there's nothing we can do about it," Lieberman said. "So we should begin thinking about what we can do, particularly with the Arab League," he said. "I think it begins with support for the Syrian Free Army."

The hawkish senator said a "range of support" could be given to the rebels, from medical supplies to intelligence and reconnaissance surveillance. "And then ultimately it is providing them with weapons," he said during a panel discussion on the Middle East.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Saturday that military action in Syria "has been absolutely ruled out." Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, speaking on the same panel as Lieberman, denied that his country was preparing military contingency plans to deal with the crisis in neighbouring Syria. But he promised that Syrians fleeing the violence will always "have safe haven in Turkey."

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Clinton calls for friends of Syria to unite
Sun Feb 5,`12: U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called Sunday for "friends of democratic Syria" to unite and rally against President Bashar Assad's regime, previewing the possible formation of a formal group of likeminded nations to coordinate assistance to the Syrian opposition.

Speaking in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia a day after Russia and China blocked U.N. Security Council action on Syria, Clinton said the international community had a duty to halt ongoing bloodshed and promote a political transition that would see Assad step down. She said the "friends of Syria" should work together to promote those ends. Clinton was bluntly critical of Saturday's veto by Russia and China at the United Nations blocking action against the continuing violence in Syria. "What happened yesterday at the United Nations was a travesty," she said. "Faced with a neutered Security Council, we have to redouble our efforts outside of the United Nations with those allies and partners who support the Syrian people's right to have a better future," Clinton told reporters after meeting top Bulgarian officials.

Such a group could be similar, but not identical, to the Contact Group on Libya, which oversaw international help for opponents of the late deposed Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi. However, in the case of Libya, the group also coordinated NATO military operations to protect Libyan civilians, something that is not envisioned in Syria. Clinton warned that a failure to act would increase the chances for "a brutal civil war" as many Syrians under attack from their government moved to defend themselves. U.S. officials said a friends group would work to further squeeze the Assad regime by enhancing sanctions against it, bringing disparate Syrian opposition groups inside and outside the country together, providing humanitarian relief for embattled Syrian communities and working to prevent an escalation of violence by monitoring arms sales. "We will work to expose those who are still funding the regime and sending it weapons to be used against defenseless Syrians, including women and children," Clinton said. "We will work with the friends of a democratic Syria around the world to support the opposition's peaceful political plans for change."

Clinton's comments came as Syria's opposition appealed for international backing along the lines she suggested following the double-veto at the U.N. Security Council that outraged the U.S., its European allies and Arab leaders and intensified fears that Assad would unleash even greater violence to crush protesters. Meanwhile, a Syrian state-run newspaper vowed Sunday that Damascus will press its crackdown on the uprising until stability is restored. Early Saturday, regime forces bombarded the restive central city of Homs in what activists said was the deadliest incident of the uprising. They reported more than 200 killed, but the regime denied any bombardment and there was no way to independently confirm the toll.

More Clinton calls for friends of Syria to unite - Yahoo! News

 

[waltky]

Granny says it ain't over till it's over...

How will it end in Syria?
Feb 3, 2012* - The following piece, exclusive to GPS, comes from Wikistrat, the world's first massively multiplayer online consultancy. It leverages a global network of subject-matter experts via a crowd-sourcing methodology to provide unique insights.

It’s hard to gauge just how strong the Free Syrian Army really is. It’s clearly growing in size and in its ability to control ever-widening swaths of territory. But at the same time, Russian and Iranian guns pour into Bashar al-Assad’s government. And Bashar al-Assad has a steely will to power. Given the mounting tension, it’s worth thinking through exactly how regime change may unfold and what it’s consequences would mean for the region. Wikistrat, the world’s first massively multiplayer online consultancy ran an online simulation on what could go down in Syria. Here are the results:

1) A military coup ousts al-Assad but retains control

The military regime could hold on to power while dumping al-Assad. Iran would like this scenario. A militarized dictatorship in Syria would keep its supply lines open to Hezbollah and Hamas. The renewed regime would have to enter into some pro forma negotiations with the Free Syrian Army and two competing opposition groups (the Syrian National Council and National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change). The West would hope for a not-too-bloody handover to civilian rule, mimicking Egypt post-Mubarak. As for al-Assad, he’d probably take a bullet to the brain on this one.

2) Al-Assad holds on as figurehead while a transitional government is negotiated

This would be more to Moscow’s liking. Vladimir Putin has drawn his “redline” on swift regime change but probably could stand some drawn-out version, so long as his fellow dictator wasn’t given the bum’s rush . . . to the International Criminal Court. Putin is feeling pretty touchy right now about how far north the whole “spring” dynamic might extend, plus he desperately wants to hold onto Russia’s naval basing rights in Syria - as decrepit as those port facilities are. But since these are mostly “nice to have” outcomes that speak to global perceptions of Russia’s superpower decline, it’s hard to imagine Putin going to the mat on this one, meaning al-Assad should keep his bags packed.

3) Al-Assad’s regime yields to a transitional coalitional government

This is basically the Arab League’s plan, and - by extension - what the United Nations would prefer. Ideally, this is accomplished without any dragged-out civil war that might tempt outside powers to intervene militarily. Consider it a Libya-lite. Because of the International Criminal Court’s reach, al-Assad would probably end up in some gorgeous “dacha” outside Moscow. The distracted West would love this outcome, as would any rival of Iran (the Turks and Saudis), but given Syria’s religious divisions, this would likely end up being a fairly unstable waypoint to something worse. Right now, al-Assad shows no signs of submitting, so the longer the current fighting goes on, the more likely we’re looking at some serious - and permanent - dissolution of Syria as a unitary state.

4) Syria descends into civil war

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Syria crisis: Gulf Arab states expel Syrian ambassadors
7 February 2012 - BBC's Paul Wood, in Homs, says Russian-made tanks are firing on residents

Gulf Arab states say they are expelling Syrian ambassadors in their countries and recalling their envoys from Syria. The Gulf Cooperation Council said Syria had rejected Arab attempts to solve the crisis and end 11 months of bloodshed. The US closed its embassy in Syria on Monday, and several European countries have recalled their ambassadors. The moves came as Syrian government forces continued their fierce assault on the restive city of Homs, and Russian officials visited Damascus.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called for a solution to the crisis based on Arab League initiatives, days after Russia and China vetoed a UN resolution on Syria. After meeting Mr Lavrov, Syrian media quoted President Bashar al-Assad as saying he was willing to co-operate with "any efforts towards stability". Separately Russia's ambassador to the UN, Vitaly Churkin, denied reports that he had threatened Qatar's prime minister during talks at the UN last week. Someone was trying to drive a wedge between Russia and the Arab world, he said.

'Operations continue'

The BBC's Paul Wood - one of the very few foreign reporters in Homs - says the Syrian army resumed mortar attacks and heavy machine-gun fire after daybreak. He says Russian-made tanks have been seen close to the city centre, but there is no sign so far of the ground assault feared by many residents. Hundreds are reported to have died since the shelling of the city began on Friday. At least 95 people were killed on Monday alone, activists say.

At least 15 were killed on Tuesday, they said. The Interior Ministry said it would continue its operations in the city against "terrorist groups" until "order" was restored, in a statement quoted by state news agency Sana. There were reports of more fighting in Hama, another flashpoint city, and the town of Zabadani near Damascus.

'Honest efforts aborted'

 

[waltky]

British Special Forces Operating In Syria...

First foreign troops in Syria back Homs rebels. Damascus and Moscow at odds
February 8, 2012, British and Qatari special operations units are operating with rebel forces under cover in the Syrian city of Homs just 162 kilometers from Damascus, according to debkafile’s exclusive military and intelligence sources.

The foreign troops are not engaged in direct combat with the Syrian forces bombarding different parts of Syria's third largest city of 1.2 million. They are tactical advisers, manage rebel communications lines and relay their requests for arms, ammo, fighters and logistical aid to outside suppliers, mostly in Turkey. This site is the first to report the presence of foreign military forces in any of the Syrian uprising's embattled areas. Our sources report the two foreign contingents have set up four centers of operation - in the northern Homs district of Khaldiya, Bab Amro in the east, and Bab Derib and Rastan in the north. Each district is home to about a quarter of a million people. Our military sources also report that Wednesday afternoon, Feb. 8, Assad sent the 40th Mechanized Brigade of heavy T-72 tanks to Homs for an all-out effort to beat the rebellion, counter the foreign contingents and reinforce the 90th Infantry Brigade commanded by his kinsman, Gen. Zuhair al-Assad, the backbone of the military force battering the city for the past five days at the cost of hundreds of dead.

The presence of the British and Qatari troops was seized on by Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan for the new plan he unveiled to parliament in Ankara Tuesday, Feb. 7. Treating the British-Qatari contingents as the first foreign foot wedged through the Syrian door, his plan hinges on consigning a new Turkish-Arab force to Homs through that door and under the protection of those contingents. Later, they would go to additional flashpoint cities. In the close to eleven months of the Syrian revolt, Erdogan has hatched more than one scheme for countering the Assad regime's savage crackdown on dissent. His most persistent was a plan for the creation of military buffer zones to shelter rebels and civilians persecuted by the Syrian authorities. But nothing came of those plans because, every time they came up, Assad reinforced his contingents on the Turkish border and deployed air defense and surface-to-surface missile batteries. He made it clear that the first Turk crossing the border would spark a full-scale war.

It is hard to say at this point whether the latest Turkish leader's current plan is any more practical than his earlier schemes. For now, he has put the ball in the American court. Wednesday, Feb. 8, he sent Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to Washington to ask for the Obama administration's cooperation. The Turkish prime minister is also in urgent consultation with Saudi and several other Gulf rulers in the hope of bringing them aboard. The British-Qatari troop presence in Homs was at the center of Assad's talks in Damascus Tuesday with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Russian SVR intelligence chief Mikhail Fradkov. Senior Syrian intelligence officers laid their updates from the field before the Russian visitors and received SVR data and evaluations in return.

Western intelligence officials familiar with the talks describe the atmosphere between Assad and the Russian officials as uneasy and tense. Later, Lavrov reported optimistically that he had received assurances from the Syrian ruler of an end to the violence, talks with all Syrian parties and an early referendum on a new constitution for political reforms. His account was no more than prevarication to conceal the opposite outcome of their talks. In fact, their conversation focused on more violence, namely, Assad's plans for his next assault on rebels and protesters and his military response to the rising covert presence of foreign Western, Arab and Muslim troops in Syria.

DEBKAfile, Political Analysis, Espionage, Terrorism, Security

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Intense shelling from Syrian forces trouble food, medicine supplies, activists say
February 09, 2012 | Between blasts of rockets and mortar fire, Syrians used loudspeakers to call for blood donations and medical supplies Thursday in the stricken city of Homs, where a weeklong government offensive has created a deepening humanitarian crisis.

Government forces are trying to crush pockets of violent resistance in Homs, the epicenter of an 11-month-old uprising that has brought the country ever closer to civil war. The intense shelling in restive neighborhoods such as Baba Amr has made it difficult to get medicine and care to the wounded, and some areas have been without electricity for days, activists say. "Snipers are on all the roofs in Baba Amr, shooting at people," Abu Muhammad Ibrahim, an activist in Homs, told The Associated Press by phone. "Anything that moves, even a bird, is targeted," he added, with the sounds of explosions in the background. "Life is completely cut off. It's a city of ghosts."

Hundreds of people are believed to have been killed since early Saturday in the heaviest bombardment the city has endured since the uprising began in March, activists said. "This brutal assault on residential neighborhoods shows the Syrian authorities' contempt for the lives of their citizens in Homs," said Anna Neistat, associate emergencies director at Human Rights Watch. "Those responsible for such horrific attacks will have to answer for them." Human Rights Watch also said eyewitness accounts, as well as video reviewed by the group's arms experts, suggest Syrian government forces are using long-range, indirect fire weapons such as mortars. Such weapons "are inherently indiscriminate when fired into densely populated areas," the New York-based group said.

The wounded have overwhelmed makeshift hospitals and clinics, and there were growing concerns that the locked-down city could soon run out of supplies. "There is medicine in the pharmacies, but getting it to the field clinics is very difficult. They can't get the medicine to the wounded," Mohammed Saleh, a Syria-based activist, told the AP by telephone. Baba Amr, he said, has been without electricity since Saturday. The assault on Homs began after reports that army defectors and other armed opponents of President Bashar Assad were setting up their own checkpoints and taking control of some areas. The reports could not be confirmed.

But the city is the capital of Syria's largest province, stretching from the Lebanese border to the Iraqi frontier. If rebel forces keep gaining ground there, some believe they could ultimately carve out a zone akin to Benghazi in eastern Libya, where rebels launched their successful uprising against Moammar Gadhafi last year. Saleh said most of the government attacks have been "bombardment from a distance," with regime forces keeping armored vehicles out of the neighborhoods. Fighters from the rebel Free Syrian Army have been firing back with rocket-propelled grenades and rockets, according to activists' accounts. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Local Coordination Committees were trying to compile numbers and names of those killed Thursday. The LCC, an activist group, said up to 100 people were killed in Homs, but the toll was impossible to independently verify. The Observatory reported 46 deaths in Homs.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/0...Internal+-+World+Latest+-+Text)#ixzz1lw9ALLWt

 

[waltky]

Navy ready to do Obama's bidding...

Obama orders military to draft options for regime change in Syria
Thursday, February 9th, 2012 | WASHINGTON — The administration of President Barack Obama has ordered the military to draft options to oust the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Officials said the National Security Council and State Department were
directing efforts to review a range of military options to topple the Assad
regime in 2012. They said the military, particularly, U.S. Central Command,
would present proposals to the Joint Chiefs of Staff that would immediately
increase pressure on Damascus. “What’s being worked on are options,” an official said. “This is far from any presidential decision to attack Syria.”

Officials said the administration was angered by the veto of a United Nations Security Council resolution on Syria by China and Russia. They said the veto of the resolution, which did not call for Assad’s ouster, appeared to mark the end of diplomatic efforts to stop the revolt in Syria as well as increased influence by Beijing and Moscow in the Levant. “Before we start talking about military options, we very much want to ensure that we have exhausted all the political, economic and diplomatic means at our disposal,” U.S. envoy to the UN, Susan Rice, said.

Officials said Obama, pressed by such Muslim allies as Qatar, Saudi
Arabia and Turkey, wanted to gauge Centcom requirements for intervention in Syria. Other questions included whether Washington could support Turkish military intervention, block military shipments to Syria or arm the
opposition with heavy weapons. Britain, in a move coordinated with Washington, has already announced plans to transfer equipment to the opposition. The London government said the opposition would first receive what was termed “strategic communications.” “The Pentagon is closely monitoring developments in Syria,” a senior official told CNN news channel. “It wouldn’t be doing its job if it didn’t put some ideas on the table.”

Officials said the drafting of U.S. military options reflected
administration thinking that the revolt in Syria must end within a few
months. They said the U.S. intelligence community has warned that the revolt could be exploited by Iran, Syria’s leading ally, for expansion into a
regional war. Congress has become increasingly concerned over the bloody crackdown on the Syrian opposition, which has killed more than 6,000 people since March 2011. Sen. John McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said the administration can no longer stand along the sidelines as Syria is threatened by civil war. “We should start considering all options, including arming the opposition,” McCain, who lobbied for U.S. military involvement in Libya in 2011, said. “The blood-letting has got to stop.”

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U.S. admiral says forces prepared to confront Iran
12 Feb.`12 – The top U.S. Navy official in the Persian Gulf says he takes Iran's military capabilities seriously but insists his forces are prepared to confront any Iranian aggression in the region.

Vice Adm. Mark Fox told reporters at the headquarters of the 5th Fleet on Sunday that the Navy has "built a wide range of potential options to give the president" and is "ready today" to confront any hostile action by Tehran.

Fox is the commander of the Bahrain-based fleet. He says Iran's military is "capable of striking a blow" against American forces in the Gulf, but that his ships have a right to defend themselves if attacked.

His comments follow Iranian threats to close the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Gulf if Iran's oil exports are blocked.

Source

 

[waltky]

They're just now figgerin' out its a civil war?...

Fresh violence in Syria as UN warns of civil war
14 Feb.`12 – Syrian government forces renewed their assault on the rebellious city of Homs on Tuesday in what activists described as the heaviest shelling in days, as the U.N. human rights chief raised fears of civil war.

Troops loyal to President Bashar Assad have been shelling Homs for more than a week to retake parts of the city captured by rebel forces. Hundreds are believed to have been killed since last Saturday, and the humanitarian conditions in the city have been worsening. Homs was under "brutal shelling" on Tuesday, the Local Coordination Committees activist group said, citing its network of witnesses on the ground. Another activist group, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said it was the heaviest shelling in days.

With diplomatic efforts bogged down, the conflict in Syria is taking on the dimensions of a civil war, with army defectors clashing almost daily with soldiers. U.N. human rights chief Navi Pillay warned on Monday that the Security Council's failure to take action has emboldened the Syrian government to launch an all-out assault. The uprising began last March as mostly peaceful protests against Assad's authoritarian rule, but has become more militarized in the face of the brutal military crackdown. Pillay told the General Assembly that more than 5,400 people were killed last year alone, and the number of dead and injured continues to rise daily.

She said tens of thousands of people, including children, have been arrested, more than 18,000 reportedly are still arbitrarily detained and thousands more are reported missing. In addition, 25,000 people are estimated to have sought refuge in neighboring countries and more than 70,000 are internally displaced. "The breadth and patterns of attacks by military and security forces on civilians, and the widespread destruction of homes, hospitals, schools and other civilian infrastructure indicate approval or complicity by authorities at the highest level," Pillay said. Also Monday, the Obama administration said it backs Arab League plans to end continuing violence in Syria but noted several obstacles to deploying a proposed international peacekeeping force to the country and withheld full endorsement of the idea.

The administration has said repeatedly it does not see a military solution to the crisis in Syria, yet U.S. officials indicated they would consider the Arab League call for peacekeepers and discuss it with various countries to see whether such an idea is feasible. However, they stressed there would be difficulties in getting required U.N. Security Council authorization for a force. Chief among the hurdles is opposition by Russia and China, which vetoed a far less ambitious Security Council action already this month. Russia has said peacekeepers could not be sent without Syrian government approval; officials in Damascus already have rejected the proposal, calling it unjustified interference in internal affairs.

Fresh violence in Syria as UN warns of civil war - Yahoo! News

 

[waltky]

No military intervention from U.S. for Syria...

Obama Rules Out Military Intervention In Syria, weighs humanitarian corridors
February 29, 2012, Despite his strong words against Bashar Assad’s horrendous treatment of the opposition to his rule, US President Barack Obama Tuesday, Feb. 28, has vetoed plans submitted to him last week for Western-Arab military intervention to stop it, debkafile’s Washington sources report.

He is weighing an alternative plan for setting up “humanitarian corridors” in the most embattled areas. That too would be contingent on Russian endorsement, because Obama believes Moscow holds the key to Assad’s consent - or at least abstention from sending his army to attack the aid routes. The Russians have not so far responded to feelers on this from Washington. Neither have they rescinded their threat to block any such plan if tabled at the Security Council.

Ankara provided the clincher for the US president’s decision against military intervention in Syria by its evasiveness over participation in the operation. The plan has nowhere to go without Turkey’s cooperation and the use of its bases from which Western and Arab forces would mount the operation. debkafile’s sources note that Turkish leaders are vocal about the pressing need to save the Syrian people, but when it comes to the brass tacks of operational planning, they develop cold feet.

The eight-point military plan rejected by Obama was first revealed exclusively in DEBKA-Net-Weekly 530 of Feb. 24. We are rerunning those points here since at some point - if the “humanitarian corridors” project fails to take off- the plan may be put back on the table.

1. A group of nations led by the United States will reserve a quarter of Syrian territory (185,180 sq. km) as a safe haven for protecting more than a quarter of the nation’s population (5.5 million people) a under a collective air shield.

More DEBKAfile, Political Analysis, Espionage, Terrorism, Security

 

[waltky]

Gettin' to the 'Do somethin' -even if its wrong' stage...

UN chief says well over 8000 dead in Syria uprising
Friday 16th March, 2012 - United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that well over 8,000 people have died in Syria over the past year as a result of the President Bashar Assad led government's bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters.

The UN chief raised the death toll from 7,500 in a statement marking the first anniversary of the uprising on Thursday. "Well over 8,000 are dead as a result of the government's decision to choose violent repression over peaceful political dialogue and genuine change," ABC News quoted Ban, as saying.

He said the "brutal repression" by Syrian authorities is continuing unabated and called the status quo "indefensible."

Ban urged the government and opposition to cooperate with international envoy Kofi Annan to stop the bloodshed and find a political solution. "It is urgent to break the cycle of violence, stop military operations against civilians and prevent a further militarization of the conflict in Syria," he added.

UN chief says 'well over 8,000 dead in Syria uprising'

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Annan urges Security Council to help break deadlock on Syrian violence
Friday 16th March, 2012 - The UN-Arab League envoy on the Syrian crisis, Kofi Annan Friday urged the Security Council to unify and support his efforts to persuade Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to end the crackdown on protesters and negotiate for a ceasefire.

After briefing a closed-door meeting of the UN body in New York via video about his Syria mission, Annan is reported to have said that the stronger and more unified is the message, the greater will be his chances of negotiating for peaces in Syria, an envoy reported. "I was encouraged by the very strong support and the determination of the council to work together and I hope pretty soon you'll be hearing one voice from the council," he told reporters after the meeting. The former UN secretary-general disclosed plans of sending a team to Syria this weekend to pursue the proposals he had made to the Syrian government, including stopping the violence, providing medical aid and establishing credibility and confidence for the political process when it is initiated.

The UN estimates that over 8,000 people have died since the uprising began in March last year. Syria's foreign ministry said Friday that the government would cooperate with Annan while continuing fight against "terrorism", as it prefers to call the opposition protests. In the last six months, Russia and China have vetoed two resolutions on Syria calling them "unbalanced". Negotiations on a third draft resolution framed by the United States, and calling for a ceasefire and humanitarian access for aid agencies, has also been stalled over failure to resolve the issue of which side the Syrian government or the protesters should first come to the negotiation table. Syria's UN Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari told reporters that a technical team from Annan's office would be reaching Damascus on Sunday.

Annan's spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said earlier that they would discuss the idea of deploying international monitors. Britain's UN Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, president of the Security Council this month, told reporters that "all members of the Security Council have pledged their full support (for Annan) and agreed that a united message from the Security Council would help his mission." He added that consultations on a draft resolution continued. Discussions on the draft resolution include the permanent veto-wielding council members - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - and Morocco, the sole Arab council member.

Source

 

[waltky]

Lotta rhetoric - but not much action on the international front...

UN Secretary General blasts Syria
6 Apr.`12 — U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon strongly condemned Syria's government Friday for continuing to kill innocent civilians despite its commitment to pull all soldiers and heavy weapons out population centers by April 10.

Ban said in a statement that the situation in Syria was rapidly deteriorating, affecting more than 1 million people, with an alarming number of refugees streaming into neighboring countries. "The 10 April timeline to fulfill the Government's implementation of its commitments, as endorsed by the Security Council, is not an excuse for continued killing," Ban said, adding that such actions violate the consensus position of the Security Council.

On Thursday, the 15-member council issued a Presidential Statement calling on Syria to fully implement Joint Special Envoy Kofi Annan's six-point proposal to resolve the year-old uprising against the government of President Bashar Assad. "The Syrian authorities remain fully accountable for grave violations of human rights and international humanitarian law. These must stop at once," Ban said in the statement.

The secretary-general has been speaking out against the violence in Syria for many months, but his remarks in recent days have been especially strong. On Thursday Ban criticized the Assad government for unleashing attacks in response to "the legitimate demands of the Syrian people — the same demands that people across the Arab world have been making for more than a year now."

UN Secretary General blasts Syria - Yahoo! News

 

[JStone]

US State Department: Iran, State Sponsor Of Terrorism

Overview: Designated as a State Sponsor of Terrorism in 1984, Iran remained the most active state sponsor of terrorism in 2010. Iran’s financial, material, and logistic support for terrorist and militant groups throughout the Middle East and Central Asia had a direct impact on international efforts to promote peace, threatened economic stability in the Gulf, and undermined the growth of democracy.

In 2010, Iran remained the principal supporter of groups implacably opposed to the Middle East Peace Process. The Qods Force, the external operations branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), is the regime’s primary mechanism for cultivating and supporting terrorists abroad. Iran provided weapons, training, and funding to Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups, including the Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC). Since the end of the 2006 Israeli-Hizballah conflict, Iran has assisted Hizballah in rearming, in direct violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701. Iran has provided hundreds of millions of dollars in support of Hizballah in Lebanon and has trained thousands of Hizballah fighters at camps in Iran.

Iran’s Qods Force provided training to the Taliban in Afghanistan on small unit tactics, small arms, explosives, and indirect fire weapons, such as mortars, artillery, and rockets. Since at least 2006, Iran has arranged arms shipments to select Taliban members, including small arms and associated ammunition, rocket propelled grenades, mortar rounds, 107mm rockets, and plastic explosives. Iran has shipped a large number of weapons to Kandahar, Afghanistan aiming to increase its influence in the country.

Despite its pledge to support the stabilization of Iraq, Iranian authorities continued to provide lethal support, including weapons, training, funding, and guidance, to Iraqi Shia militant groups that target U.S. and Iraqi forces. The Qods Force continued to supply Iraqi militants with Iranian-produced advanced rockets, sniper rifles, automatic weapons, and mortars that have killed Iraqi and Coalition Forces, as well as civilians. Iran was responsible for the increased lethality of some attacks on U.S. forces by providing militants with the capability to assemble explosives designed to defeat armored vehicles. The Qods Force, in concert with Lebanese Hizballah, provided training outside of Iraq as well as advisors inside Iraq for Shia militants in the construction and use of sophisticated improvised explosive device technology and other advanced weaponry.

2010 Terrorist Incidents: Jundallah, a terrorist organization that operated primarily in the province of Sistan va Balochistan of Iran, has engaged in numerous terrorist attacks within Iran. Jundallah’s primary target is the Iranian regime; however, it has also attacked many civilians. Since its inception in 2003, these attacks have resulted in the death and maiming of scores of Iranian civilians and government officials. Jundallah has used a variety of terrorist tactics, including suicide bombings, ambushes, kidnappings, and targeted assassinations. Following the February 2010 capture and execution by Iranian authorities of Jundallah’s leader, Abdul Malik Rigi, the group selected a new leader, Mohammed Dhahir Baluch, and confirmed its commitment to continue its terrorist activities. In July, Jundallah attacked the Grand Mosque in Zahedan, killing approximately 30 and injuring hundreds. On December 15, Jundallah claimed credit for another attack in the Southeastern city of Chabahar, where two suicide bombs killed at least 39 and wounded more than 100 people. In November, the United States designated Jundallah as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. (See Chapter 6, Foreign Terrorist Organizations, for more information on Jundallah.)

Legislation and Law Enforcement: In 2010, Iran remained unwilling to bring to justice senior al-Qa’ida (AQ) members it continued to detain, and refused to publicly identify those senior members in its custody. Iran has repeatedly resisted numerous calls to transfer custody of its AQ detainees to their countries of origin or third countries for trial.

In June, Iranian authorities executed former Jundallah leader Abdul Malik Rigi. In December, Iranian authorities executed 11 members of Jundallah reportedly connected to the July mosque attack.