03Mar

World News – Kuwait lawmakers back Syrian rebels, demand …

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By msnbc.com staff and news services

Updated at 1:30 p.m. ET: The U.N. Security Council is deploring the rapidly deteriorating humanitarian situation in Syria and calling on authorities there to grant U.N. humanitarian chief Valerie Amos “unhindered access”, according to The Associated Press.

A statement – the first on Syria to be approved by the council in seven months – is significant because it requires the agreement of all 15 council members, including Russia and China, who last month vetoed two resolutions condemning the Syrian government’s bloody crackdown and calling for President Bashar Assad to step down.

While a U.N. statement is not legally binding on Syria, it does reflect the growing concern of the council about the impact of the year-old conflict on Syria’s civilian population.

Syrian rebels retreated Thursday from a neighborhood in Homs that they had held for months, saying they were running out of weapons and humanitarian conditions were catastrophic after almost four weeks of government bombardment.

Within hours of the rebels’ withdrawal, President Bashar Assad’s government granted permission for the International Committee of the Red Cross to enter the besieged neighborhood of Baba Amr in Homs on Friday. Human rights workers have been appealing for access to Baba Amr for weeks.

“The ICRC and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent received today from the Syrian authorities the green light to enter Baba Amr tomorrow to bring in much-needed assistance including food and medical aid, and to carry out evacuation operations,” spokesman Hicham Hassan told The Associated Press.

Earlier, rebels told journalists that a few fighters had remained behind in the shattered quarter to cover the “tactical withdrawal” of their comrades. The withdrawal appeared to be an agreement between the two sides in order to avoid a showdown, the BBC reported.

A guide with a cameraman shot video inside Homs, Syria showing evidence of continuing violence in the besieged city. ITN’s John Irvine reports.? ????

Syrian forces, which shelled Baba Amr earlier in the day despite world alarm at the plight of civilians trapped there, said they were in full control of the district, the BBC reported.

The head of the Free Syrian Army, Col. Riyad Assad, told the BBC that government troops had moved in and were combing the area. The Free Syrian Army is composed mainly of Syrian soldiers who have defected and volunteer civilians.

Images: The fear of carnage to come

A senior official in the FSA earlier told Reuters that rebels in Baba Amr were fending off more than 7,000 government troops. Opposition forces had promised to step up attacks elsewhere in Syria to try to relieve the pressure.

Reports from the city could not be verified immediately due to tight government restrictions on media operations in Syria.

Also on Thursday, Kuwait’s parliament said it would support the rebel Free Syrian Army, and called on the Kuwaiti government to cut ties with Assad.

The parliament, which has limited legislative powers, called for Assad to be prosecuted for crimes against his people.

‘Whatever the cost’
The 4th Armored Division, which was leading the assault on Homs, is commanded by Maher Assad, the president’s younger brother, who has won a reputation for ruthlessness during the past year of revolt against the government.

A Lebanese official close to Damascus said Assad’s government was determined to regain control of Homs, Syria’s third city, which straddles the main north-south highway.

“They want to take it, whatever happens, without restraint, whatever the cost,” the official told Reuters, asking not to be named.

He said defeat for the rebels in Homs, a city of 1 million people, would leave the opposition without any major stronghold in Syria, easing the crisis for Assad, who remained confident he could survive.

Smugglers take ‘path of death’ to supply Syria revolt

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton told members of Congress on Tuesday that Assad could be considered a war criminal.

While shelling continues on Homs, it was confirmed journalist Paul Conroy, of the Sunday Times, who was wounded in the attack that killed reporter Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik, is safely out of Syria.  ITN’s Tim Ewart reports.

The U.N. estimates that more than 7,500 people have been killed since the anti-Assad struggle started in March 2011, when protesters inspired by successful Arab Spring uprisings against dictators in Tunisia and Egypt took to the streets in Syria.

Syria’s government said in December that “armed terrorists” had killed more than 2,000 soldiers and police during the unrest.

Journalist escapes to Lebanon
Meanwhile, Spanish reporter Javier Espinosa, one of several Western journalists trapped in Baba Amr for a week, crossed to Lebanon on Wednesday, an activist said, following the escape on Tuesday of wounded British photographer Paul Conroy.

Thirteen Syrians were killed while aiding?Conroy’s escape, the activist group Avaaz said.

Still in Homs were French journalists William Daniels and Edith Bouvier, who was wounded in a Feb. 22 bombardment which killed veteran Sunday Times war correspondent Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik. Their bodies remain there.??

The Local Coordination Committees, a human rights monitoring group, said Bouvier refused to leave Baba Amr without the Syrians who were wounded by shelling while attempting to help her escape, and she has called on the French ambassador for help. The French Foreign Ministry demanded that the Syrian regime observe a cease-fire so Bouvier and Daniels could be evacuated.

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Msnbc.com staff, The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.?

Source: http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/01/10546050-final-push-7000-syrian-troops-reportedly-attack-rebel-stronghold-in-homs

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27Jan

Arab monitor mission to Syria limps on amid rifts (Reuters)

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BEIRUT (Reuters) ? An Arab observer mission will limp on in Syria after a Gulf pullout led by Saudi Arabia and Qatar but the two have also engineered an unprecedented Arab League call for President Bashar al-Assad to step down.

Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo on Sunday also asked the U.N. Security Council to endorse their Syria plan, which Damascus has rejected as blatant interference in its affairs.

The exit of 55 Gulf monitors dealt another blow to the 165-strong team’s credibility, after a month in which bloodshed raged on in their midst, although a remaining monitor insisted they would be replaced and the mission would be unaffected.

“The decision to leave was political,” said a Gulf observer heading for Damascus airport on Wednesday, asking not to be named. “Islamic and Arab countries will send more monitors.”

Asked if their departure would damage the mission, he said with a smile: “Not really, we are all Arabs.”

The monitoring mission has been condemned by Syrian opposition groups as a mechanism to buy more time for Assad to try to crush demonstrators and armed rebels. But the mission, with its limited mandate to observe but not investigate, also allowed an internally divided League and an equally divided U.N. Security Council to defer concrete action on Syria.

Nevertheless, the League’s demand that the autocratic Assad end his 11-year-rule as part of a power transition in Syria is unprecedented in its 67-year history.

“What have the Arab League guys been drinking?” asked Rami Khouri, a Beirut-based analyst who hailed the new approach.

The observer mission is the first mounted by the Arab League, awoken from its former somnolence by a wave of popular revolts that toppled three entrenched Arab rulers in 2011.

Figures given by Syrian opposition groups and the state news agency SANA suggest that hundreds of people have been killed since the monitors arrived, although their leader, Sudanese General Mohammed al-Dabi, put the death toll at just 136.

He said the level of killings had dropped. But Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem told a news conference on Tuesday that the number of civilians, soldiers and policemen killed in Syria had tripled since the Arab monitors arrived, accusing rebels of “exploiting their presence.”

The League’s call last year for a no-fly zone to protect Libyans from Muammar Gaddafi’s forces paved the way for a Western air campaign that helped rebels oust him, breaking the 22-member body’s tradition of superficial solidarity.

Unlike the peripheral Libya, Syria straddles the main fissures of Middle East conflict, including its alliances with Iran and Hezbollah, reinforcing Arab League reluctance to seek another outside military intervention in an Arab country.

However, the League surprised many diplomats by setting a timetable for Assad to hand power to his deputy, pending formation of an interim unity government, constitutional and security reforms, and elections.

All the League’s members backed the call for Assad to go except for Syria, suspended for ignoring an earlier Arab peace deal, and Lebanon, which “dissociated” itself in a nod to the political power of pro-Syrian Lebanese groups such as Hezbollah.

The Saudi-led push for a strong Arab stance stems in part from the kingdom’s Sunni rulers’ desire to weaken their Shi’ite regional adversary Iran by dislodging Assad, whose Shi’ite-rooted Alawite minority rules Sunni-majority Syria.

Syria has itself pointed out the irony of Gulf monarchies leading demands for democratic reforms that they shun at home.

Peter Harling, Syria analyst for the International Crisis Group, said the Arab League had been engaged constructively and that without the observers the violence might have been worse.

“Unfortunately, its more assertive members are those with the least credibility to take the lead: Gulf monarchies that united to put down popular protests in Bahrain tend to adopt a sectarian perspective on regional events and have paid only lip service to reforms at home,” he wrote in Foreign Policy.

“Other Arab countries are essentially in disarray, bogged down by domestic tensions, fearful of more regional instability, and distrustful of the West, given its track record of making things worse, not better, in this part of the world.”

Harling said the Arab plan gave Syria a chance to “recognize the reality of its domestic crisis and negotiate an exit, while fending off any risk of hands-on Western involvement.”

Qatar, which took part in the military campaign in Libya, has proposed sending Arab troops to Syria, an idea that so far has left other Arab countries cold, including Saudi Arabia.

“The Saudis don’t want a precedent of military intervention for democracy promotion,” said Joshua Landis, a Syria expert at Oklahoma University. “What about Bahrain or even the Shi’ites of the Eastern Province in Saudi Arabia who have been demonstrating for change and the overthrow of the Saudi monarchy?”

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120125/wl_nm/us_syria

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31Dec

Dozens killed in Syria as Arab peace team due (Reuters)

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BEIRUT (Reuters) ? Nearly 50 people were killed in Syria on Tuesday, an activist group said, two days before Arab League officials were due to arrive to prepare for a monitoring mission assessing Syrian compliance with a plan to stem the bloodshed.

The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 23 people were killed in fighting with President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in the northern province of Idlib and 14 members of his security forces died in a rebel ambush in the south. The overall death toll on Tuesday was at least 47, it said.

Idlib, on Syria’s northern border with Turkey, has seen fierce fighting recently. The Observatory reported that security forces machine-gunned soldiers deserting their army base there on Monday, killing more than 60, and said rebels had damaged or destroyed 17 military vehicles since Sunday.

The state news agency SANA said security forces killed five “terrorists” in Deraa province on Monday night. It also said Assad had decreed the death penalty for anyone caught distributing arms “with the aim of committing terrorist acts.”

Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby told Reuters in Cairo that an advance team would go to Syria on Thursday, with the 150 monitors due to arrive by end-December.

“It’s a completely new mission … and it depends on implementation in good faith,” he said.

Syria stalled for weeks before signing a protocol on Monday to accept the monitors who will check its compliance with an Arab plan for an end to violence, withdrawal of troops from the streets, release of prisoners and dialogue with the opposition.

“In a week’s time, from the start of the operation, we will know (if Syria is complying),” Elaraby said.

Syrian pro-democracy activists are deeply skeptical about Assad’s commitment to the plan, which, if implemented, could embolden demonstrators demanding an end to his 11-year rule.

France said it hoped the monitors could carry out their mission quickly. But it also said Assad had a record of broken pledges and that Monday’s violence showed there “isn’t a moment to lose.”

“For months we have seen Bashar al-Assad not keep to commitments he made to his people and he has increased his efforts to play for time in the face of the international community,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said.

In recent months, peaceful protests have increasingly given way to armed confrontations often led by army deserters.

Some opposition leaders have called for foreign military intervention to protect civilians from Assad’s forces.

In a show of military power, state television said on Tuesday the air force and navy both held live-fire exercises aimed at deterring any attack on Syria by land or sea.

The Syrian authorities have made it hard for anyone to know what is going on in their troubled country. They have barred most foreign journalists and imposed tight curbs on local ones.

The British-based Observatory said three more people had been killed in violence on Tuesday, two in the city of Homs and one in a village in Idlib province, the scene of a sustained military crackdown in the past three days.

SANA said a captain in the security forces had died of wounds inflicted by “terrorists” a week ago in the city of Hama.

U.N. TOLL

The United Nations has said more than 5,000 people have been killed in Syria since anti-Assad protests erupted in March, inspired by a wave of uprisings across the Arab world.

Several weeks ago Damascus said 1,100 members of the security forces had been killed by “armed terrorist gangs.” An armed insurrection against Assad has gathered pace since then.

Syria agreed to the Arab peace plan in early November, but the violence raged on, prompting Arab states to announce financial sanctions and travel bans on Syrian officials.

The United States and European Union have already imposed sanctions on Syria, which combined with the unrest itself have pushed the economy into a sharp fall. The Syrian pound fell nearly 2 percent on Tuesday to over 55 pounds per dollar, 17 percent down from the official rate before the crisis erupted.

In response to the economic downturn, Al-Baath newspaper said Prime Minister Adel Safar had instructed ministries to slash their expenditures by 25 percent. The cuts affected spending on items including fuel, stationery and hospitality

Elaraby said the Arab sanctions would remain until monitors begin reporting back. Arab ministers would decide the next step.

He said Gulf states would contribute about 60 of a 150-strong monitoring team led by a Sudanese general, which would expect freedom of movement and communication, including access to prisons and hospitals. Journalists would accompany the team.

The Arab League had threatened to ask the U.N. Security Council to adopt its peace plan for Syria, broadening the chances of international action.

Damascus said Russia, its longtime ally and arms supplier, had urged it to sign the protocol on Arab monitors.

As international pressure mounted, the U.N. General Assembly voted to condemn Syria’s use of force to quell protests, with Russia and China abstaining instead of voting against.

Arab rulers want to halt a slide towards a possible civil war in Syria that could shake a region already riven by rivalry between non-Arab Shi’ite power Iran and Sunni Arab heavyweights such as Saudi Arabia.

Iran, Syria’s key backer, said the agreement to let in observers from the Arab League was “acceptable,” if not ideal.

The U.S. State Department voiced skepticism. “We are really less interested in a signed piece of paper than we are in actions to implement commitments made,” a spokeswoman said.

(Additional reporting by Edmund Blair in Cairo, John Irish in Paris; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/world/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111220/wl_nm/us_syria_arabs

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