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Why is Obama standing by?
Because every time he sits down the right complain about it.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has condemned Saturday's bomb attacks in Damascus which killed and injured scores of people. He extended his sympathy and condolences to the families of the victims and the people of Syria and called for all violence to cease immediately. Activists said several people were killed in the city both on Friday and Saturday. A mass rally against Assad was held for the first time in al-Raqqa on Friday and a day later, clashes between army defectors and regular troops were reported as well as live fire used against protesters.
The state-run SANA news network says a third explosion struck the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of Damascus today, following two major blasts that came minutes apart inside the capital. The Yarmouk explosion occurred when a "booby-trapped car" driven by "two terrorists" exploded. Five opposition groups have announced the formation of a "long-term" coalition that will be independent and meant to outlast the main Syrian National Council, a sign of the disorganisation that remains among opponents of President Bashar al-Assad a year into the uprising.
The new group, announced on Saturday in Istanbul, is made up of the liberal National Movement for Change, the islamist Movement for the Fatherland, the Bloc for Liberation and Development, led by Nawaf al-Bashir, a tribal chief, the Turkmen National Bloc, and the Kurdish Mouvement for a New Life. Asked about relations between the new coalition and the SNC, Ammar al-Qurabi, leader of the National Movement for Change, told AFP his "coalition was not set up in opposition to anyone, other than Assad's regime, but rather to unite the opposition outside the SNC." "We see the SNC as a temporary structure which will disappear with time, while our own coalition is a more long-term entity that will be there after liberation" in Syria, according to Imamduddin al-Rashid, head of the Movement for the Fatherland.
A top Arab diplomat says that a shipment of military equipment from Saudi Arabia is currently on its way to Syrian opposition fighters via Jordan. The diplomat, who spoke to the AFP news agency on condition of anonymity, said the shipment was intended to "arm the Free Syrian Army" and "stop the massacres". Saudi Arabia shut its embassy and withdrew all its staff from Syria two days ago. The government of President Bashar al-Assad has accused the Saudis and Qataris of supporting "terrorists" in Syria. The shipment is the first serious report of military assistance to the rebels in Syria.
More Syria Live Blog | Al Jazeera Blogs
We went into Libya because the guy leading the country authored the deaths of over 150 Americans in Lockerbie, Scotland.
Russia has a major base in Syria with nuclear submarines stationed there. obama is scared so shitless of the Russians he intends to give them our classified defense plans. Then there's Iran who supports Assad and just dares the boy-king to do something about it. Iran is just itching to give him a bloody nose.
Participants at a meeting on Syria, held in Istanbul, said Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries are creating a multimillion-dollar fund to pay members of the rebel Free Syrian Army and soldiers who defect from the regime and join opposition ranks. One delegate described the fund as a "pot of gold" to undermine Assad's army. In addition, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the United States is providing communications equipment to help opposition members in Syria organize, remain in contact with the outside world and evade regime attacks. "We are discussing with our international partners how best to expand this support," Clinton said.
The large-scale plan by Gulf countries to help Syria's badly overmatched rebels offers a solution to the international divide over whether to arm the rebels or support them through only non-lethal or humanitarian means. It also reflects frustration with appeals to Assad to stop his crackdown on dissent, as well as hopes of forcing his ouster by shifting the military balance on the ground. Conference participants confirmed the Gulf plan on condition of anonymity because details were still being worked out. It was unclear how the fund would be set up and monitored, or how the money, allegedly earmarked for salaries, would be guaranteed. A participant said the fund would involve millions of dollars every month.
The Saudis and other Arab Gulf states have proposed giving weapons to the rebels, while the U.S. and other allies, including Turkey, have balked out of fear of fueling an all-out civil war. Washington hasn't taken any public position on the fund, but it appears that it has given tacit support to its Arab allies. The salaries would aim to entice reluctant servicemen in Assad's military to break ranks and join the insurgency. With Syria's economy in a spiral, the Syrian opposition and U.S. and Arab officials hope soldiers will desert in large numbers and accelerate the downfall of the Assad regime.
At the meeting in Istanbul, delegates from dozens of countries also sought to increase pressure on Assad by pushing for tighter sanctions and increased diplomatic pressure, while urging the opposition to offer a democratic alternative to his regime. Yet the show of solidarity at the "Friends of the Syrian People" conference was marred by the absence of China, Russia and Iran key supporters of Assad who disagree with Western and Arab allies over how to stop the bloodshed. A peace plan by U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan has so far failed to take hold amid fresh reports of deadly violence. "The Syrian regime should not be allowed at any cost to manipulate this plan to gain time," Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in an opening address.
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Fares, the latest high-level official to abandon Assad, in an interview on Al-Jazeera television also accused Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki of taking a stance toward Syria that was "contradictory" to the truth. Majority Shiite Muslim Iraq had repeatedly accused Damascus of letting Sunni insurgents and arms transit through Syria to carry out attacks inside the country, especially during the brutal sectarian conflict that erupted after US-led forces toppled Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003.
But since the uprising broke out last year against Assad -- who belongs to the Alawite offshoot of Shiite Islam -- Iraq's Shiite-led government has called for non-interference in Syria and has opposed arming Syrian rebels. "I personally reproach the (Iraqi) prime minister on his stance, which is contradictory to the truth," Fares said. "He knows very well what Bashar al-Assad had done to him and to all of Iraq and to Shiites specifically," Fares said, adding that Assad has "killed thousands" by opening "the doors for Al-Qaeda" militants to carry out bombings across Iraq.
Baghdad's stance was similar to that of Syria's other Shiite ally, Iran, which Fares accused of "putting pressure" on Maliki's government. "Iran must not support a tyrant and dictator who is killing his own people, regardless of its interests," Fares told Al-Jazeera in Qatar, to which he travelled after quitting his post. Western countries and the Syrian opposition accuse Iran of providing military support to the regime in Syria, where activists say more than 17,000 people have been killed since March 2011. Tehran denies the charge.
When asked about UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan's bid to get Iran's support for his tattered peace plan, Fares said: "Iran is part of the problem. How could it be part of the solution?" "The Syrian revolt will win despite Iran and all countries backing the tyrant," whom Fares described as "Syria's former president who is now a criminal and a killer." Fares, the first Syrian ambassador to defect to the opposition, was widely seen as a regime hardliner and his decision, announced on Al-Jazeera on Wednesday, was surprising.
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Obama is waiting for the UN to tell him what to do.While the Syrian government is slaughtering it's own people? Doesn't the rules that led the US to intervene in Libya also apply here, if not to a greater extent?
Why is Obama standing by? Because every time he sits down the right complain about it.
We went into Libya because the guy leading the country authored the deaths of over 150 Americans in Lockerbie, Scotland.
We went into Libya because the guy leading the country authored the deaths of over 150 Americans in Lockerbie, Scotland.
While the Syrian government is slaughtering it's own people?
Why is Obama standing by?
Because every time he sits down the right complain about it.
I'm just saying if we went into Libya as a humanitarian mission
We went into Libya because the guy leading the country authored the deaths of over 150 Americans in Lockerbie, Scotland.