'He's WON the WAR' – British general claims Assad DIDN'T use chemical weapons

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/latest-news/696049/syria-war-assad-theresa-may-world-war-three-douma-missile-attack

Blackford forgotten about Syria's jihadists?

https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/leader-21

Saudi-Turkish Trick: What Are the Two Scheming in Syria?

Πηγή: Sputnik
March 5 2016


Even though both Turkey and Saudi Arabia could find themselves in a “highly combustible situation” in Syria if they decide to send in their ground troops, the two nevertheless “seem more than willing to get directly engaged.” It is definitely not about Daesh, says foreign policy expert Salman Rafi Sheikh, so what is the real reason?



© AP PHOTO/ KHALIL HAMRA

“The officially and un-officially sponsored popular contention that Saudi Arabia and Turkey are aiming at sending ground troops to Syria out of the fear of Islamic State (Daesh) hitting them is merely an illusion that has no practical substance,” Salman Rafi Sheikh, research-analyst of International Relations and Pakistan’s foreign and domestic affairs writes in his article for the New Eastern Outlook website.

“The illusion of an anti-IS (Daesh) Saudi-Turk military intervention in Syria is, therefore, only a trick that they are using for deceiving the world generally and their public specifically into believing the ‘righteousness’ of the cause they are fighting for,” he furthermore states.

It is an “open secret” that both Turkey and Saudi Arabia always opposed Assad’s rule in Syria. Therefore, the author writes, if direct military intervention ever takes place, it will certainly be directed against Assad’s forces rather than IS (Daesh) or any other Gulf-supported terrorist outfit.



© REUTERS/ CARLOS BARRIA

However, he adds, there is another reason for their engagement in the fight.

“Saudi Arabia and Turkey seem to be preparing the plan to deliberately escalate the conflict in Syria as a means to put Iran into an uneasy geo-strategic position and thereby force it to re-direct its resources to fighting the war it cannot virtually afford to go astray; for, the survival of Syria as an ally of Iran in the Middle East is crucial for Iran’s standing as a regional power,” the expert explains.

The loss of Syria would weaken Iran’s position in Lebanon, he adds, and thereby further “compromise its position vis-à-vis Israel as well as its “Sunni” rivals.

The collapse of the Geneva talks has only provided the House of Saud and the ‘House of Erdogan’ with a supposedly ‘legitimate’ excuse to send troops to Syria to face off against Iran — a country they have been unable to defeat at the diplomatic level for a number of years already, Salman Rafi Sheikh explains.

Iran’s return to the international community undermines Saudi Arabia’s aspirations for regional supremacy.



© REUTERS/ SANA/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS

“That said, it is not unthinkable that Saudi Arabia’s immediate decision to break off relations with Iran and prod their Arab and African allies into taking similar action was driven by their apprehension towards the economic and political re-emergence of Iran following the enforcement of the nuke-deal.”

While Turkey may not feel so ‘alarmed’ at Iran’s re-emergence after years of isolation, it certainly is at odds with Tehran due to the latter’s full support for Assad and its own inability to carve Syria into different “zones” to shield itself against the prospects of a stronger and united Kurdish nation and its demand for an independent and sovereign Kurdistan.

However, the expert warns that any direct intervention into the country without the authorization of Syria’s incumbent government will be a “recipe for disaster” as it will greatly transform the Syrian ‘civil war’ into a much wider regional conflagration.

Stand by for a U-turn: West poised to join forces with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to deal with the threat of ISIS

Πηγή: The Times of India
By Patrick Cockburn,The Independent
Aug 23 2014

LONDON: Islamist forces are fighting their way into western Syria from bases further east, bringing forward the prospect of US military intervention to stop their advance. If ISIS, which styles itself Islamic State, threatens to take all or part of Aleppo, establishing complete dominance over the anti-government rebels, the US may be compelled to act publicly or secretly in concert with President Bashar al-Assad, whom it has been trying to displace.

The US has already covertly assisted the Assad government by passing on intelligence about the exact location of jihadi leaders through the BND, the German intelligence service, a source has told The Independent. This may explain why Syrian aircraft and artillery have been able on occasion to target accurately rebel commanders and headquarters.

Syrian army troops are engaged in a fierce battle to hold Tabqa airbase in Raqqa province, the fall of which would open the way to Hama, Syria's fourth-largest city.


Demonstrators at a rally supporting Kurdistan hold placards protesting against ISIS in front of the White House

Further north, ISIS has captured crucial territory that brings it close to cutting rebel supply lines between Aleppo and the Turkish border. The caliphate declared by ISIS on June 29 already covers the eastern third of Syria in addition to a quarter of Iraq. It stretches from Jalawla, a town 20 miles from Iran, which the Iraqi army and Kurdish Peshmerga are trying to recapture, to towns 30 miles north of Aleppo.

The question of possible US military action in Syria, such as air strikes, jumped to the top of political agenda on Thursday when the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Washington, General Martin Dempsey, said: "Can they [ISIS] be defeated without addressing that part of the organisation that resides in Syria? The answer is no."

He stressed that he was not predicting that the US was intending to take military action in Syria, but the US is very conscious that ISIS can survive indefinitely if it has a large safe haven in Syria.

Chas Freeman, the former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia, told The Independent that General Dempsey was pointing out that ISIS straddles the Iraq-Syrian border and there should be a consistent policy towards it on both sides of the divide.

General Dempsey "did not spell out the implications of that but, to me, they point in the direction of calling it off with Assad. It might also imply the sharing of intelligence with the opponents of ISIS, even those from whom we ourselves are estranged. Odder things have happened in the Middle East."

Freeman, who is retired, added he had no knowledge about whether intelligence-sharing with President Assad's government was being considered.

For the moment, the most pressing issue in Syria is not the elimination of ISIS, but preventing its expansion after a series of victories in July and August.

Firstly, it drove out Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian affiliate of al-Qaida, from the oil-rich province of Deir Ezzor on the Euphrates. Then it overran two important Syrian army bases, one held by Division 17 in Raqqa province and a second by Regiment 121 in Hasakah province where the Iraqi regimental commander was killed.


A young Kurdish girl inside at the mosque where she and her family sought refuge after fleeing their first place of refuge in Makhmur following an offensive by IS militants

Syria holds greater opportunities for ISIS in terms of expansion than Iraq because the movement draws its support from the Sunni Arab community: 60 per cent of Syrians are Sunni Arabs, compared to 20 per cent in Iraq.

The policy of the US, Britain and their allies in the region over the last three years has been to support "moderate" Syrian rebels who are supposed to fight ISIS and other jihadists as well as the Assad government in Damascus.

But the Western-backed Free Syrian Army is increasingly weak and marginalized while jihadi groups such as Jabhat al-Nusra, Ahrar al-Sham and the Islamic Front have been unable to halt the ISIS assault.

The Islamic Front is desperately trying to hold its stronghold in the city of Marea close to Aleppo against an unexpected ISIS offensive that began on 13 August and is making headway. ISIS held positions in Aleppo province and further west in Idlib province before its civil war with other rebel groups which began at the start of 2014 when it conducted a withdrawal, interpreted at the time as a retreat, but in reality a concentration of its fighting forces for use in Iraq and Syria.

Though they have suffered a number of serious defeats at the hands of ISIS, Syrian government forces were able to regain the al-Shaer gas fields near Palmyra in July and are still holding onto Tabqa airbase, where they claim to have killed many ISIS militants, including an activist known as Abu Moussa.

As with other ISIS attacks on government strongholds in Syria, this one was heralded by two suicide attacks. Overall, the Syrian army has shown itself much more effective in combat with ISIS than the Iraqi army that has yet to score a single success against them. A series of Iraqi army attacks against Tikrit north of Baghdad, the most recent this week, have all failed.

Air strikes are not the only way in which the US, Britain and their allies among neighbouring states could weaken and isolate ISIS, but in doing so they would necessarily undermine other rebel groups. Key to the growth of ISIS and, in particular, the import of thousands of foreign fighters has been the use of Turkey as a point of entry.

Determined to get rid of President Assad, the Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has kept Turkey's 550-mile border with Syria open, giving the jihadists, including ISIS, a safe haven over the last three years. The Turks are now saying ISIS is no longer welcome, but Ankara has not moved seriously to close the border by deploying troops in large numbers.


Protesters hold up signs during a demonstration marking the one-year anniversary of the chemical attacks in Syria, at Times Square in New York

A complete volte face by the US, Britain and their allies in their relations with the Assad government is unlikely because it would mean admitting that past support for the Sunni rebellion had contributed to the growth of the caliphate.

Freeman says that he doubted that "the liberal interventionists and neoconservatives who had pursued regime change in Syria were capable of reversing course. To do so would require them to admit that they bore considerable responsibility for legitimising pointless violence that has resulted in the deaths of 190,000 Syrians."

He added that he did not think it would be possible to bring down ISIS by a direct assault and that it would be better to bottle it up and wait for it to be destroyed by its own self-destructive instincts.

"I cannot see how it can be isolated without the co-operation of Syria as well as Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf Arabs, Iran, Russia and Turkey."

On the other hand, given the divisions in Washington and hatreds in the Middle East, such a degree of co-operation is unlikely to emerge as a declared policy.

Realpolitik is the winner in US-Russia weapons agreement

Πηγή: FT
By James Blitz and Geoff Dyer
Sept 14 2013

Who has got the better of whom in the negotiations between the US and Russia over Syria’s chemical weapons?

Poring over the text of the agreement signed by John Kerry and Sergei Lavrov in Geneva, there would appear to be advantages for both the Kremlin and the White House in the deal that has been done.

On the one hand, there is a clear victory for the Russian side on one point. Its Syrian ally is being told to hand over its chemical weapons for destruction or removal within nine months. But the pact does not threaten Syria with military action if it fails to comply.

The US and Russia agree that their joint plan will be enshrined in a forthcoming UN Security Council resolution. But the US has accepted Russia’s demand that the resolution will not authorise military action by world powers if the Assad regime obstructs the operation to secure its chemical stockpile. It merely commits to another Security Council discussion.

On the other hand, there are two key wins for the Barack Obama administration. First, the US has not been forced to take its threat of military action against Syria off the table. At a press conference in Geneva, Mr Kerry reiterated that President Obama reserved the right to act to protect US interests if he saw fit. “And, if diplomacy fails,” Mr Obama said later, “the United States remains prepared to act.”

Secondly, what will have surprised many diplomats is the ambition and detail of the plan that Russia has agreed to. It is structured around a series of deadlines which will allow the world to judge whether it is being adhered to or not.

Bashar al-Assad must provide an inventory of his chemical weapon stocks within seven days. He must allow the destruction of those stocks by the middle of next year. He must also give the world’s chemical weapons watchdog and UN “the immediate and unfettered right to inspect any and all sites in Syria.”

The US believes these deadlines make it hard for the Assad regime to obstruct progress. Western diplomats will also argue that by signing up to such a detailed agreement, Russia is putting its credibility on the line – and that it cannot allow the Assad regime to flout an agreement to which the Kremlin has put its name.

Still there will be at least three reservations on many minds.

First, how will the outside world know that Mr Assad is telling the truth when he publishes his inventory?

The US is certain to look at Mr Assad’s declaration of his chemical assets very sceptically. But it may not be easy for the Assad regime to hide the truth.

One of the remarkable developments of the last three days in Geneva is that the US has been sharing intelligence information about the stockpile for the first time with Russia. The White House and Kremlin now have a much more detailed picture of what the regime has. Both the US and Russia have established, for example, that Syria has around 1000 metric tons of chemical stocks.

Secondly, how difficult will it be for the UN and international bodies to complete such an ambitious plan in the midst of a civil war?

The scale is certainly daunting. Syria is thought to have the third largest chemical weapons programme in the world. Finding enough experts to secure and destroy the stockpile will be challenging.

“There are only two groups of people that have the experience and skills to do an operation like this and they are the US military and the Russian military,” says Aaron David Miller, a former state department official now at the Wilson Center.

That said, Mr Kerry was keen to emphasise on Saturday that the deadline for the destruction of the stockpile is achievable because the Assad regime has been continually moving its chemical weapons into areas that are not affected by the conflict.

“These weapons are in areas of regime control predominantly,” he said, suggesting that the Assad regime should have no difficulty providing access to them.

Finally, are we not going to see the Assad regime obstructing the inspections on the ground?

Many will say this is almost certain. UN inspectors investigating the August 21 chemical attack in Damascus were shot at as they approached the scene. The regime could easily instigate a repeat of such events, say diplomats, leading to debate over whether the Assad regime is culpable or not.

The Assad regime will also want to argue that opposition rebels must be questioned over their alleged holdings of chemical stocks – something that will prove difficult if not impossible for the UN to achieve.

Neo-Ottomanist Diplomacy: The Turkish Geopolitics in Syria

The aim of this research is to investigate on the relationship between Turkey and Syria in the light of the revolts exploded in Damascus and Aleppo on March 2011. “Syria has always represented the prototypical hostile neighbor for Turkey” : ancestral political questions disturb the peace in the region, and now the revolt in Syria, that has caused serious problems at the borders with Turkey, exacerbates the tensions. Water shortage, PKK’s menace and the negotiation with Israel for the resolution of conflict in Middle East are the Sword of Damocles on the Syrian and Turkish heads. Borders between two states are constantly in a situation of conflict early warning.

Neo-Ottomanist Diplomacy The Turkish Geopolitics in Syria 

Syria: The Next Libya?

Πηγή: Frontpage Mag
By Matthew Vadum
June 14 2013

The Obama administration has finally officially acknowledged that the Syrian government has used illegal chemical weapons in its bloody civil war half a year after reports first surfaced, which opens the door to U.S. involvement in the conflict.

After months of heel-dragging, the administration admits Syria crossed the much-vaunted “red line” President Obama laid down for U.S. action in that regime’s two year war against opposition forces. Obama said last summer that if Syria used chemical weapons such an action would be a “game-changer” for the United States. Despite reports that the Assad regime has done precisely that, Obama has been taking his sweet time making an official finding.

But yesterday Ben Rhodes, a young White House speechwriter who works as the White House’s deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, said “the president has made his decision.”

Rhodes, for what it’s worth, may be responsible for concocting the official lies about last September’s deadly terrorist attacks in Benghazi, Libya.

Rhodes said U.S. intelligence reports indicate Hezbollah-backed Syria has used sarin and various chemical weapons “on a small scale” against multiple rebel targets on at least four occasions over the past year. The death toll from such attacks could be 150 or higher, he said. The United Nations says 92,000 have died in the civil war so far.

“Suffice it to say that decision has been made about providing additional direct support to the [opposition Supreme Military Council] to strengthen their effectiveness,” Rhodes said. “This is more a situation where we’re just not going to be able to lay out an inventory of what exactly falls under the scope of that assistance other than to communicate that we have made that decision.”

Sending Americans troops to wade into the Middle Eastern conflict is off the table right now but administration officials say the U.S. will soon augment the “scope and scale” of its military aid to the largely jihadist opponents of Syria’s brutal president Bashar Assad.
The Obama administration says it hasn’t decided if the U.S. will support a proposed “no-fly” zone over Syria. Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) are both pressing for a no-fly zone.

It is suspected that the Syrian opposition will not last much longer absent external assistance. Earlier this month, in Syria the town of Qusair was taken by forces loyal to the Assad regime. Qusair is strategically important because it links the capital city of Damascus to the Mediterranean Sea on which ports and a Russian naval base are located.

As Charles Krauthammer noted, the capture of Qusair with the assistance of the pro-Iranian terrorist group Hezbollah frees up Assad’s resources, allowing him to “advance on rebel-dominated areas in central and northern Syria, including Aleppo.”

“For the rebels, it’s a devastating loss of territory, morale and their supply corridor to Lebanon,” Krauthammer writes. “No one knows if this reversal of fortune will be the last, but everyone knows that Assad now has the upper hand.”

Obama’s decision comes a month after Secretary of State John Kerry surreptitiously gave Egypt $1.3 billion in U.S. military aid, rewarding that country’s Islamofascist dictatorship for its increasingly vicious assaults on foreign workers, religious minorities, and civil society.

Kerry authorized aid to the authoritarian anti-American regime despite finding in a May 9 memo that “we are not satisfied with the extent of Egypt’s progress and are pressing for a more inclusive democratic process and the strengthening of key democratic institutions.”

In order for the aid to flow U.S. law requires the secretary of state to certify that the Egyptian government “is supporting the transition to civilian government, including holding free and fair elections, implementing policies to protect freedom of expression, association and religion, and due process of law.”

This U.S. taxpayer-funded assistance to Egypt could easily find its way into the conflict in Syria, just as U.S. aid to anti-Qaddafi forces in Libya is no doubt now being used against American interests in the Arab world.

Khaled al-Qazzaz, a foreign affairs adviser to Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi, said Egyptians are free to join the war in nearby Syria. Sunni Muslim clerics in Egypt are urging their followers to get involved in the armed struggle by helping anti-Assad rebels.

Al-Qazzaz said that “the right of travel or freedom of travel is open for all Egyptians.”

Egypt will not prosecute its citizens for fighting in Syria, he said. “We are no longer a center for rendition, or punishing Egyptians for what they do in other countries.”

Al-Qazzaz said he’s not worried at the prospect of greater involvement by foreign jihadists in Syria.

“We don’t consider them a threat,” al-Qazzaz said. “We have a controllable situation in Sinai … We do not have a situation of returning jihadists.”

These bland assurances, of course, are similar to what the Obama administration said as it armed jihadists in the effort to topple Libya’s Moammar Qaddafi. Despite hopes for a new secular liberal status quo in Libya, the Qaddafi regime was replaced by an Islamist government friendly to Islamic radicalism, which only continues to grow in the country. Like in Libya, America may find that our intervention on behalf of similar extremists in Syria will come with deadly consequences.

Syrian crisis: U.S., Germany warn Russia not to send Assad advanced missiles

Secretary of State John Kerry, right, gestures as he speaks during a news conference with German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle at the State Department in Washington, Friday, May 31, 2013. The U.S. and Germany say Russia must not provide the Assad regime of Syria with an advanced air defense system that they believe could prolong Syria's civil war.

Πηγή: The Sun
By AP
May 31 2013

WASHINGTON - The United States and Germany on Friday warned Russia not to endanger a planned peace conference for Syria or alter the balance of power in the Middle East by providing an advanced air defense system to President Bashar Assad's embattled regime.

Secretary of State John Kerry and German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said the transfer of S-300 missile from Russia to Syria would prolong the country's civil war, imperil attempts to form a transitional government through negotiation and hurt Israel's strategic interests.

"It is not helpful to have the S-300 transferred to the region while we are trying to organize this peace (conference) and create peace," Kerry told reporters at a joint news conference with Westerwelle after they met at the State Department.

"We ask them again not to upset the balance within the region with respect to Israel," he said. "The weaponry that is being provided Assad whether it is an old contract or not, has a profoundly negative impact on the balance of interests and the stability of the region and it does put Israel at risk. It is not in our judgment responsible because of the size of the weapons, the nature of the weapons and what it does to the region in terms of Israel's security, so we hope that they will refrain from that in the interests of making this peace conference work."

Westerwelle called on Russia not to "spoil" the conference, which was planned for Geneva next month but has been delayed until July at the earliest.

"Don't endanger the peace conference in Geneva," he said. "The delivery of weapons to the Assad regime is totally wrong ... It is the wrong message which has been sent by our colleagues in Russia to the world and to the region by delivering S-300s or other parts of weapons."

Kerry and Westerwelle spoke a day after Assad suggested that his regime received a first shipment of the state-of-the-art anti-aircraft system, which would reduce pressure on it to negotiate with the opposition, make foreign intervention more difficult and alarm Israel. The United States has made Israel's qualitative military edge one of its prime strategic interests in the region.

Russian officials have said they will supply the S-300s to Syria under an existing contract. They have also said that they will try to convince the Assad regime to participate in the Geneva peace talks. But the Syrian opposition has said it will not attend the conference while massacres are continuing.

Kerry said he believed the opposition would attend the meeting once it straightens out questions about its leadership.

He also warned anew that the use of chemical weapons is a "red line" for the Obama administration. At the same time, he said intelligence and evidence that such weapons have, in fact, been used, is still being vetted for 100-percent certainty.

"We are doing our due diligence, as we should do given past experience, to make certain that the intelligence is correct, that the evidence is real and then make judgments that are appropriate," Kerry said.

EU decision to lift Syrian oil sanctions boosts jihadist groups

A makeshift oil refinery site in al-Mansoura village, al-Raqqa province.

Πηγή: The Guardian
By Julian Borger and Mona Mahmood
May 19 2013

The EU decision to lift Syrian oil sanctions to aid the opposition has accelerated a scramble for control over wells and pipelines in rebel-held areas and helped consolidate the grip of jihadist groups over the country's key resources.

Jabhat al-Nusra, affiliated with al-Qaida and other extreme Islamist groups, control the majority of the oil wells in Deir Ezzor province, displacing local Sunni tribes, sometimes by force. They have also seized control of other fields from Kurdish groups further to the north-east, in al-Hasakah governorate.

As opposition groups have turned their guns on each other in the battle over oil, water and agricultural land, military pressure on Bashar al-Assad's government from the north and east has eased off. In some areas, al-Nusra has struck deals with government forces to allow the transfer of crude across the front lines to the Mediterranean coast.

Syria oil fire map

As a result of the rush to make quick money, open-air refineries have been set up in Deir Ezzor and al-Raqqa provinces. Crude is stored in ditches and heated in metal tanks by wood fires, shrouding the region with plumes of black smoke, exposing the local population to the dangers of the thick smog and the frequent explosions at the improvised plants.

Heating oil, diesel and petrol is condensed in hoses running from the tanks through pools of water and sold across the north, as far as Aleppo. The remaining crude is shipped by road on tankers to Turkey.

One leading opposition figure said: "The northern front hasn't just gone dormant; the northern front has gone commercial."

The EU announced it was lifting its oil embargo in April to help the moderate opposition. The implementation regulations have yet to be issued so the decision has not taken effect, but regional experts say the announcement intensified the race for oil – a race the western-backed moderates lost.

Joshua Landis, an expert on the region at the University of Oklahoma who runs the Syria Comment blog, said the EU decision on oil "sent a message that oil could come back online faster than most thought possible".

"Whoever gets their hands on the oil, water and agriculture, holds Sunni Syria by the throat. At the moment, that's al-Nusra," Landis said. "Europeopening up the market for oil forced this issue. So the logical conclusion from this craziness is that Europe will be funding al-Qaida."

Abu Albara, an al-Nusra fighter who spoke to the Guardian by telephone from Deir Ezzor, said: "Now, we can say that most of the oil wells are in the hands of the rebels, only a single oil facility in Hasakah is still under the control of [Kurdish fighters]. There are two other oil wells close to the Iraqi borders in the desert. The Iraqi army have surrounded them with tanks but we do not know what they are doing with them."

The al-Nusra guerilla said the group was merely guarding the wells it captured, but the rival groups have accused the Islamists of asset-stripping them for quick money.

"Jabhat al-Nusra is investing in the Syrian economy to reinforce its position in Syria and Iraq. Al-Nusra fighters are selling everything that falls into their hands from wheat, archaeological relics, factory equipment, oil drilling and imaging machines, cars, spare parts and crude oil," Abu Saif, a fighter with the Ahrar Brigade, linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, told the Guardian by phone from the Deir Ezzor area.

"The Syrian regime itself is paying more than 150m Syrian lire [£1.4m] monthly to Jabhat al-Nusra to guarantee oil is kept pumping through two major oil pipelines in Banias and Latakia. Middlemen trusted by both sides are to facilitate the deal and transfer money to the organisation."

A western diplomat watching the situation said: "We understand that in Deir Ezzor, it's a bit of a mix. Al-Nusra is there and there is sometimes co-operation with the regime for practical reasons. In some areas oil products are being given to the local communities, but there are clear dangers in these kinds of open-air refineries."

The diplomat said the EU implementation regulation for the lifting of the oil embargo would include safeguard clauses that would give the western-backed opposition, the National Coalition, the power to authorise exports. But as things stand, the coalition and its allies hold very little of Syria's oil wealth in their hands.

A former Syrian oil executive in the rebel-held areas said: "In the last few months, they seem to have figured a way to sell the oil supply across the lines from the rebels to government forces, through intermediaries trusted on both sides."

The former executive said the oil trade had spawned a growing demand for oil tanker lorries, as a single shipment could earn a profit of up to $10,000 (£6,600). He added that al-Nusra and other jihadist groups were using much of the money to win hearts and minds in areas they have captured, such as al-Raqqa city, which fell in March.

"If you look at what the money does in these places," he said, asking for his name not to be used because of the sensitivity of the issue. "It doesn't take a rocket scientist. You bring in flour, you repair the bakeries, so there are big smiles in the local community. It's an incredible marketing machine."

In April, the head of the western-backed rebel Supreme Military Council, General Selim Idriss, pledged to create a force to secure the oilfields and other economic resources in Deir Ezzor, al-Hasakah and Raqqa provinces, but that force has yet to materialise and observers doubt Idriss has the money, manpower or weaponry to displace the jihadists.

"Idriss probably felt he had to say that, to reassure the Europeans," Landis said. "But nobody takes such claims seriously. Where is he going to get 30,000 men from?"

The only rivals to the power of the jihadists in the oil region are the Kurds in al-Hasakah, and the Sunni tribes around Deir Ezzor, who have found themselves increasingly marginalised by Islamic extremists.

In one well-documented case, fighting broke out in the village of al-Musareb, near Deir Ezzor, between al-Nusra fighters and local tribesmen over ownership of an oil tanker. The al-Nusra commander, a Saudi called Qasura al-Jazrawi, was killed. As a reprisal, the jihadist group levelled much of the village and executed 50 of its residents.

Apart from the latest round of conflict the oil rush has triggered, human rights campaigners have raised concerns about the health impact of the wildcat refining industry. Skin and breathing complaints have become common while there are reports of workers on the improvised oil fields, including children, being burned to death in accidents.

An opposition activist in Hasakah, Salman Kurdi, said: "They refine oil by boiling it to very high temperatures by using gas cans, and most of the time, they blow up. It's killed many of the people who work there.

"A month ago, an explosion happened in an oil well called Shadada, in the countryside south of here, and five people were killed. They dig a big hole and put lots of fire in it and gas to make it boiling. If you travel south to the countryside, you can spot the smoke rising every few kilometres."

Israeli Airstrike in Syria Targets Arms Convoy, U.S. Says

In East Jerusalem, Israelis distributed gas masks on Wednesday as worries about security spread.

Πηγή: New York Times
By ISABEL KERSHNER and MICHAEL R. GORDON
Jan 30 2013

JERUSALEM — Israeli warplanes carried out a strike deep inside Syrian territory on Wednesday, American officials reported, saying they believed the target was a convoy carrying sophisticated antiaircraft weaponry on the outskirts of Damascus that was intended for the Hezbollah Shiite militia in Lebanon.

The American officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, saidIsrael had notified the United States about the attack, which the Syrian government condemned as an act of “arrogance and aggression.” Israel’s move demonstrated its determination to ensure that Hezbollah — its arch foe in the north — is unable to take advantage of the chaos in Syria to bolster its arsenal significantly.

The predawn strike was the first time in more than five years that Israel’s air force had attacked a target in Syria. While there was no expectation that the beleaguered Assad government had an interest in retaliating, the strike raised concerns that the Syrian civil war had continued to spread beyond its border.

In a statement, the Syrian military denied that a convoy had been struck. It said the attack had hit a scientific research facility in the Damascus suburbs that was used to improve Syria’s defenses, and called the attack “a flagrant breach of Syrian sovereignty and airspace.”

Israeli officials would not confirm the airstrike, a common tactic here. But it came after days of intense security consultations with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding the possible movement of chemical and other weapons around Syria, and warnings that Jerusalem would take action to thwart any possible transfers to Hezbollah.

Thousands of Israelis have crowded gas-mask distribution centers over the last two days. On Sunday, Israel deployed its Iron Dome missile defense system in the north, near Haifa, which was heavily bombed during the 2006 war with Lebanon.

Syria and Israel are technically in a state of war but have long maintained an uneasy peace along their decades-old armistice line. Israel has mostly watched warily and tried to stay out of Syria’s raging civil war, fearful of provoking a wider confrontation with Iran and Hezbollah. In November, however, after several mortars fell on Israel’s side of the border, its tanks struck a Syrian artillery unit.

Several analysts said that despite the increased tensions, they thought the likelihood of retaliation for the airstrike was relatively low.

“It is necessary and correct to prepare for deterioration — that scenario exists,” Danny Yatom, a former chief of the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, told Ynet, a news Web site. “But in my assessment, there will not be a reaction, because neither Hezbollah nor the Syrians have an interest in retaliating.”

Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, “is deep in his own troubles,” Mr. Yatom said, “and Hezbollah is making a great effort to assist him, in parallel with its efforts to obtain weapons, so they won’t want to broaden the circle of fighting.”

In the United States, the State Department and Defense Department would not comment on reports of the strike.

The episode illustrated how the escalating violence in Syria, which has already killed more than 60,000, is drawing in neighboring states and threatening to destabilize the region further.

Iran has firmly allied itself with Mr. Assad, sending personnel from its Islamic Revolutionary Guards Quds Force to Syria and ferrying military equipment to Syria through Iraqi airspace.

Hezbollah, which plays a decisive role in Lebanese politics and has supported Mr. Assad during the uprising by providing training and logistical support to his forces, has long relied on Syria as both a source of weapons and a conduit for weapons flowing from Iran. Some analysts think Hezbollah may be trying to stock up on weapons in case Mr. Assad falls and is replaced by a leadership that is hostile to the militia.

One American official said the trucks targeted on Wednesday were believed to have been carrying sophisticated SA-17 antiaircraft weapons. Hezbollah’s possession of such weapons would be a serious worry for the Israeli government, said Matthew Levitt, a former intelligence official who is at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

“Israel is able to fly reconnaissance flights over Lebanon with impunity right now,” Mr. Levitt said. “This could cut into its ability to conduct aerial intelligence. The passing along of weapons to Hezbollah by the regime is a real concern.”

While some analysts said the Assad government might be providing the weapons to Hezbollah as a reward for its support, others were skeptical that Syria would relinquish such a sophisticated system.

Hezbollah has boasted that it has replenished and increased its weapons stocks since the 2006 war with Israel. During that war, Israeli bombardments destroyed some of its arms, and other missiles were used in a barrage that killed Israelis as far south as Haifa and that drove residents of northern Israel into shelters.

The Syrian statement, carried by state television, said an unidentified number of Israeli jets flying below radar had hit the research facility in the Jimraya district, killing two people and causing “huge material damage.” It cast the attack as “another addition to the history of Israeli occupation, aggression and criminality against Arabs and Muslims.”

“The Syrian government points out to the international community that this Israeli arrogance and aggression is dangerous for Syrian sovereignty,” the statement said, “and stresses that such criminal acts will not weaken Syria’s role nor will discourage Syrians from continuing to support resistance movements and just Arab causes, particularly the Palestinian issue.”

The Lebanese Army said in a statement on Wednesday that Israeli warplanes had carried out two sorties, circling over Lebanon for hours on Tuesday and before dawn on Wednesday, but made no mention of any attacks.

Israel has long maintained a policy of silence on pre-emptive military strikes. In October, officials refused to discuss an accusation by Sudan that Israeli airstrikes had destroyed a weapons factory in Khartoum, its capital. Israel also never admitted to the bombing of a Syrian nuclear reactor in 2007; Syria kept mum about that attack, too, and the ambiguity allowed the event to pass without Damascus feeling pressure to retaliate.

Amnon Sofrin, a retired brigadier general and former Israeli intelligence officer, told reporters here on Wednesday that Hezbollah, which is known to have been storing some of its more advanced weapons in Syria, was now eager to move everything it could to Lebanon. He said Israel was carefully watching for convoys transferring weapons systems from Syria to Lebanon.

Israel has made it clear that if the Syrian government loses control over its chemical weapons or transfers them to Hezbollah, Israel will feel compelled to act. Avi Dichter, the minister for the home front, told Israel Radio on Tuesday that options to prevent Syria from using or transferring the weapons included deterrence and “attempts to hit the stockpiles.”

“Everything will have ramifications,” Mr. Dichter said. “The stockpiles are not always in places where operative thinking is possible. It could be that hitting the stockpiles will also mean hitting people. Israel has no intention of hitting residents of Syria.”

Algerian Daily: Tunisia Training Syria-Bound Terrorists in Three Army Bases

Πηγή: ABNA
By FNA
Dec 31 2012

Tunisia has three military bases which are specially used for training armed rebels who are sent to Syria and Iraq to carry out terrorist operations, an Arab-language newspaper disclosed.

(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The Algerian army has identified three military bases in Tunisia's Jendouba province near the country's border with Libya, the Algerian newspaper al-Khabar wrote. Jendouba is located 60 kilometers from Algeria-Libya borders.

Early information shows that military trainers come from Libya to these bases to train the terrorists, it said.

Commander of the National Gendarmerie of Algeria Major-General Ahmed Boustila and a team of his inferior commanders have reportedly shifted their focus on this issue to prevent the flow of terrorists into Algeria.

Earlier this month, a Tunisian newspaper revealed that an organized terrorist network in Tunisia recruits and dispatches young people to Syria via Turkey after training and mobilizing them, adding that the Tunisian government is fully aware of the crime.

According to a report by the internet-edition of Tunisian al-Jaridah daily, the family of Omayah bin Mohammad Noureddin, one of the Tunisian terrorists, had called the newspaper and revealed the details of the crime.

"It is a phenomenon which has extensively spread across Tunisia," Noureddin's family members said.

They said their son, 25, and a junior of history at college left home on December 12, sent to Syria via Turkey and has not returned yet.

The report came after three Tunisian terrorists were arrested by the Syrian army in October. The three militants belong to a group of foreign terrorists supporting the so-called Free Syrian Army, dubbed 'Jibhat Nosrat El Shem'.

It is estimated that hundreds of Tunisian terrorists are currently fighting against forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as West-led foreign fighters who seek to destabilize the Arab country.

Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011 with organized attacks by well-armed gangs against Syrian police forces and border guards being reported across the country.

In October, calm was eventually restored in the Arab state after President Assad started a reform initiative in the country, but Israel, the US and its Arab allies are seeking hard to bring the country into chaos through any possible means. Tel Aviv, Washington and some Arab capitals have been staging various plots in the hope of stirring unrests in Syria once again.

The US and its western and regional allies have long sought to topple Assad and his ruling system. Media reports said that the Syrian rebels and terrorist groups have received significantly more and better weapons in recent weeks, a crime paid for by the Persian Gulf Arab states and coordinated by the United States.

The US daily, Washington Post, reported in May that the Syrian rebels and terrorist groups battling the President Bashar al-Assad's government have received significantly more and better weapons in recent weeks, a crime paid for by the Persian Gulf Arab states and coordinated by the United States.

The newspaper, quoting opposition activists and US and foreign officials, reported that Obama administration officials emphasized the administration has expanded contacts with opposition military forces to provide the Persian Gulf nations with assessments of rebel credibility and command-and-control infrastructure.

Opposition activists who several months ago said the rebels were running out of ammunition said in May that the flow of weapons - most bought on the black market in neighboring countries or from elements of the Syrian military in the past - has significantly increased after a decision by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Persian Gulf states to provide millions of dollars in funding each month.

Russian military presence in Syria poses challenge to US-led intervention

Syria crisis – an Assad regime military vehicle destroyed by rebels during clashes in Bayada neighborhood, Homs province.

Πηγή: The Guardian
By Julian Borger
Dec 23 2012

Advisers deployed with surface-to-air systems bolster President Assad's defences and complicate outcome of any future strikes.

Russian military advisers are manning some of Syria's more sophisticated air defences – something that would complicate any future US-led intervention, the Guardian has learned.

The advisers have been deployed with new surface-to-air systems and upgrades of old systems, which Moscow has supplied to the Assad regime since the Syrian revolution broke out 21 months ago.

The depth and complexity of Syria's anti-aircraft defences mean that any direct western campaign, in support of a no-fly zone or in the form of punitive air strikes against the leadership, would be costly, protracted and risky. The possibility of Russian military casualties in such a campaign could have unpredictable geopolitical consequences.

Meanwhile, near-daily atrocities have kept western governments under pressure to act. A Syrian government air strike on a town near the central city of Hama on Sunday killed dozens of civilians queueing for bread, according to human rights activists.

Amateur footage from Halfaya showed mangled human remains strewn along a street where people had been blown off scooters and out of cars. One video showed a boy with his feet blown off. Piles of corpses could be seen beneath rubble outside a two-storey building the cameraman described as a bakery. It was unclear how many bodies were in the smoking ruins.

Human Rights Watch has previously accused the regime of targeting bakeries. The group warned the Assad regime that such targeted bombing of civilians represented war crimes. However, in the face of a Russian veto at the UN security council, the international criminal court has not had a mandate to investigate the atrocities committed by either side. The UN has put the death toll at more than 40,000 as the war continues to escalate.

Turkish officials, who accurately predicted the Syrian regime would use Scud missiles after several warplanes were shot down by rebels, also believe President Bashar al-Assad has twice come close to using chemical weapons including sarin, the nerve gas. First, after the bombing of the regime's Damascus security headquarters in July, which killed the president's brother in law, Assef Shawkat, and then last month, after opposition forces made significant gains.

The Turks and western officials say there are signs Assad sees chemical weapons as another step in the escalation of force, rather than a Rubicon-crossing gamble that could end his regime. The US, UK, France and Turkey have warned Syria that its use of such weapons would trigger military retribution. But any such a response would be fraught with difficulties.

Air strikes against chemical weapon depots would potentially disperse lethal gases over a vast area, triggering a humanitarian disaster. US and allied special forces have been trained to seize the air bases where the warheads are kept, but it is unclear what the next step would be. It would be physically impossible to fly the hundreds of warheads out of the country, while it would take thousands of troops to guard the arsenal for what could be many months. In the interim, those western troops could easily become the target of Islamist groups fighting the government in Damascus.

Any air strikes against regime targets, in response to chemical weapon use, or any attempt to create a no-fly zone to stop further bombing of refugee camps, would require the suppression of Syria's formidable defences. Those have been bolstered significantly since Israeli strikes on an alleged nuclear reactor site at al-Kibar in 2007 exposed holes, and again since the outbreak of the Syrian uprising in March 2011.

The upgrades were supplied by Moscow, which sees them as a bulwark against western-imposed regime change and protection of a longstanding investment in Syria. The country includes Russia's biggest electronic eavesdropping post outside its territory, in Latakia, and its toehold on the Mediterranean, a small naval base at Tartus.

Russian security and defence officials, who are notoriously loth to publicly comment on their operations abroad, have repeatedly denied providing explicit support for the Assad regime.

Over the weekend, the head of Russia's ground forces air defence, Major General Alexander Leonov, told the Ekho Moskvy radio station: "Syria's air-defence system is a no-nonsense force. As a result, no one has ever used serious air combat power against it."

That "no-nonsense" force, the air defence command, comprises two divisions and an estimated 50,000 troops – twice the size of Muammar Gaddafi's force – with thousands of anti-aircraft guns and more than 130 anti-aircraft missile batteries.

According to Jeremy Binnie, the editor of Jane's Terrorism and Security Monitor, recent Russian deliveries include Buk-M2 and Pantsyr-S1 (known to Nato as SA-22) mobile missile launch and radar systems. Reports of the shipment of the modern long-range S-300 have not been confirmed, and the Syrian armed forces did not show off any S-300 missiles in a military display this year. It is possible they have been delivered but are not yet operational.

Guy Ben-Ari, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Centre for Strategic and International Studies, said: "They don't just sell the equipment. They also help man the crews and train the crews. Sometimes there is just no domestic capacity to run these systems, and that is the case in Syria where Syrian crews are not capable of using the equipment to its full capacity."

Sources familiar with the Moscow-Damascus defence relationship confirmed the presence of Russian air-defence crews inside Syria. Their deployment would be a consideration when western contingency plans for Syria were being considered, they said.

Such a dense, layered and overlapping air-defence system would require a huge air campaign, heavily reliant on thousands of precision-guided missiles. The UK, France and other American allies in Europeused up their stocks of such weapons in Libya and although details are classified there have been reports that they have not yet returned to pre-Libya levels.

"We know they pretty much ran out of them at the end of Libya. Given the budgetary constraints the Europeans are operating with, and in an era where every euro spent on defence is very heavily scrutinised, it is a hard sell to restock on this stuff," Ben-Ari said. "And it would not be enough to be at Libya levels. You would need far more for Syria."

A Syrian air campaign would also require stealth aircraft and a great amount of signals intelligence, satellite imagery and aerial reconnaissance, all of which are US specialities. For all those reasons, Washington would not be able to "lead from behind" as it did in Libya.

The Obama administration has so far been extremely wary of getting enmeshed in another Middle East war, particularly with the knowledge that the long-running Iranian nuclear crisis could trigger a conflict in the Gulf at any time. With the resignation of CIA director David Petraeus last month, the administration arguably lost its most powerful advocate of Syrian intervention.

John Kerry, the nominee for secretary of state, has advocated greater support for the rebels, but stopped short of calling for direct US or Nato involvement. With no new secretary of defence yet nominated, it could take several months for the new team to recalibrate its approach.

The robust Syrian defences, combined with Damascus's hand-in-glove relationship with Moscow, and the fragmented nature of the opposition, help explain why a US-led intervention – predicted as imminent for more than a year by advocates and opponents alike – has so far failed to materialise, and why there is little appetite for such a move in Washington and most other western capitals, barring a major, verifiable use of chemical weapons by the Assad regime.

Al Qaida-linked group Syria rebels once denied now key to anti-Assad victories

A Syrian rebel stands guard at an oil well near Shahel, Syria

Πηγή: McClatchy Newspapers
By David Enders
Dec 2 2012

QALAT AL MUDIQ, Syria — When the group Jabhat al Nusra first claimed responsibility for car and suicide bombings in Damascus that killed dozens last January, many of Syria’s revolutionaries claimed that the organization was a creation of the Syrian government, designed to discredit those who opposed the regime of President Bashar Assad and to hide the regime’s own brutal tactics.

Nearly a year later, however, Jabhat al Nusra, which U.S. officials believe has links to al Qaida, has become essential to the frontline operations of the rebels fighting to topple Assad.

Not only does the group still conduct suicide bombings that have killed hundreds, but they’ve proved to be critical to the rebels’ military advance. In battle after battle across the country, Nusra and similar groups do the heaviest frontline fighting. Groups who call themselves the Free Syrian Army and report to military councils led by defected Syrian army officers move into the captured territory afterward.

The prominence of Nusra in the rebel cause worries U.S. and other Western officials, who say its operations rely on the same people and tactics that fueled al Qaida in Iraq – an assertion that is borne out by interviews with Nusra members in Syria.

Among Nusra fighters are many Syrians who say they fought with al Qaida in Iraq, which waged a bloody and violent campaign against the U.S. presence in that country and is still blamed for suicide and car bombings that have killed hundreds of Iraqis since the U.S. troops left a year ago.

According to Nusra members, some of the group’s leaders, including the emir, or top ruler, in Syria’s Deir al Zour province, are Iraqis.

The group’s prominence makes clear the dilemma of Syria’s revolutionaries, as well as those who might provide support to them. Though members of Nusra operate independently of the other rebel groups that have taken up arms _ and particularly those that are calling for elections if Assad is deposed _ it is increasingly clear that their operations are closely coordinated with more secular rebels.

Some Syrians say that Nusra’s importance is a result of the West’s failure to support those secular rebels. But the closeness of the coordination between Nusra and other rebels makes it difficult to support one without empowering the other.

Nusra leaders argue that the West should not fear their rise in importance.

“The West must not fear Islam _ when Islam is in power, all people will live peacefully,” said Iyad al Sheikh Mahmoud, the leader of a recently founded Jabhat al Nusra group in this central Syrian city of about 30,000. Before becoming the leader of Nusra’s group here, Mahmoud had been part of Ahrar al Sham, another group of fighters that has branches across the country and subscribes to a similar ideology.

“There is no difference at all between the ideology of Ahrar al Sham and Jabhat al Nusra,” Mahmoud said, indicating that he had largely changed groups for the opportunity to lead one. Like Nusra, Ahrar al Sham is also not aligned with the military councils.

Nusra’s rise is most evident in Syria’s north and east, where anti-Assad forces have recently been racking up impressive military gains. Gone are the days just five months ago when Nusra’s actions seemed limited to car and suicide bombings. Now, Nusra fighters are organized in battalion-sized groups that are often armed with heavy weaponry.

On a trip to Syria that spanned most of the month of November, a journalist found Nusra’s fighters on every frontline he visited.

In the country’s largest city of Aleppo, they were advancing on the army to try to take key intersections. In Maarat al Numan, a strategic city on the highway between Aleppo and Damascus, they were laying siege to a military base. In Ras al Ayn, in the country’s northeast, they captured a strategic border post, allegedly summarily executing a number of Syrian soldiers they had trapped on a base there in the process. In Deir al Zour province, in the country’s southeast, they were at the fore as rebels captured parts of Syria’s oil infrastructure and laid siege to an artillery base near the city of Mayadeen in hopes of capturing the weapons inside.

“Our financial support is greater than other groups, and our faith makes us more effective fighters,” said Mahmoud, explaining why the group had grown so quickly. He said the financial support came from individual donors, not directly from any government.

The mujahedeen groups also appear to have clearer structures than the military councils, whose leadership is sometimes less than obvious as newer defectors of higher rank demand control from less senior officers who’ve been fighting against Assad longer.

Car bombings have also increasingly killed civilians in Damascus neighborhoods sympathetic to the government. The first operation Mahmoud’s group supported was a suicide bombing by a Libyan man against an army base north of here.

Mahmoud said he saw no reason to hold elections if Assad falls.

“Eighty percent of Syrians want Islamic law,” he said.

Many fighters said they were aware of the accusations about Nusra’s links to al Qaida. But they generally discount the importance of those ties when speaking with journalists.

“In Europe, they consider all Muslims terrorists, not only Jabhat al Nusra,” Mahmoud said.

Still, there are moments when Nusra’s ideology shines through.

“When we finish with Assad, we will fight the U.S.!” one Nusra fighter shouted in the northeastern Syrian city of Ras al Ayn when he was told an American journalist present. He laughed as he said it and then got into a van and drove off, leaving the journalist unable to ask whether it had been a joke.

In Ras al Ayn, the burning of a liquor store by Nusra fighters frightened Syrian Kurds and Christians living there, and the group has come into direct confrontation with Kurdish militia members in the area who’ve said they are willing to negotiate with moderate rebels but will not allow groups like Nusra into the territory they hold.

There are tensions developing between local military councils and Nusra and other non-aligned groups. On Saturday, one group planning an attack in the Qalat al Mudiq area was asked by the military council to call it off, to avoid endangering a local truce that holds in the city.

In the eastern province of Deir al Zour, Muhammed Mustafa Aboud, the military council commander, said that in meetings with U.S. officials in Turkey and Jordan, the main concerns had been “Nusra and al Qaida.”

“We say to them they are small groups and they are not very powerful and it’s your fault because if you had supported FSA they wouldn’t be here now,” Aboud said. “Eighty percent of Syrians are moderate Muslims . . . the West is too afraid of these groups.”

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/12/02/176123/al-qaida-linked-group-syria-rebels.html#emlnl=Daily_News_Update#storylink=cpy

EU Supports New Syrian Opposition Group

Photo of Syrian National Coalition leader Ahmad Mouaz al-Khatib

Πηγή: New American
By Warren Mass
Nov 20 2012

At the meeting of the European Union's Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels on November 19, a group of 27 European foreign ministers issued a statement that read: "The EU considers [the newly formed Syrian opposition coalition] legitimate representatives of the aspirations of the Syrian people." The statement said, "This agreement represents a major step towards the necessary unity of the Syrian opposition."

A statement posted on the EU's website said,

The EU is appalled by the worsening situation in Syria and deeply concerned about the implications of the Syrian crisis for security and stability. It "remains committed to the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Syria."

Since the EU as a body cannot officially recognize a government, it remains with each individual EU member to decide whether to officially extend diplomatic recognition to the Syrian opposition, whose formal name is the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces. The new organization (commonly called the Syrian National Coalition) was formed in Doha, Qatar, on November 11. The Arab television network al-Jazeera, citing a release from Egypt's official news agency, reported an announcement by Ahmad Mouaz al-Khatib (pictured), head of the newly formed coalition, that the organization will have its headquarters in Cairo.

On November 12 the member states of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf — Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Oman — recognized the Syrian National Coalition as "the legitimate representative" of the Syrian people, at the same time withdrawing recognition of the Syrian government headed by Bashar al-Assad. France recognized the coalition on November 13, Turkey on November 15, Italy on November 19, and the United Kingdom on November 20. France is the only Western nation to have extended formal diplomatic recognition to the coalition.

Prior to the coalition meeting, British Foreign Secretary William Hague said: "I hope this meeting here today will give a boost to that opposition, to the coalition, and will appreciate that they have made a big step forward. I will speak about the question of recognition when I talk to the House of Commons later this week."

A statement posted on the U.S. State Department website on November 11 read:

The United States congratulates the representatives of the Syrian people on the formation of the National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces. We look forward to supporting the National Coalition as it charts a course toward the end of Assad's bloody rule and the start of the peaceful, just, democratic future that all the people of Syria deserve. We will work with the National Coalition to ensure that our humanitarian and non-lethal assistance serves the needs of the Syrian people. We also commend the Government of Qatar for its steadfast leadership and support of this conference.

The coalition does not include all anti-Assad groups, however. A report from UPI stated that some Islamic opposition fighters rejected it.

The Arab television network al-Jazeera, noted UPI, reported the release of a video in which fighters from at least 14 brigades, including the Liwaa al-Tawhid and Jubhat a-Nusra groups, stated that they had rejected the coalition in order to pursue the creation of an Islamic state in Syria. The statement has not been authenticated.

UPI also quoted one Mohammad Saeed of the Syrian Revolution General Commission, who said: "Whether this statement is true or not, the Syrian people are all supportive of the coalition. These groups have no right to support or reject the coalition."

Despite the apparent enthusiasm for the new coalition among Western governments, serious questions remain about the nature of the opposition forces in Syria. In an article for The New American on July 16, for example, foreign correspondent Alex Newman wrote about the connection between the Syrian opposition and such Western financial and foreign policy power brokers as Goldman Sachs, George Soros, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Bilderberg conference, and even the U.S. government. Newman cited Charlie Skelton, who analyzed the Syrian opposition in an article for the British Guardian. In his article, Skelton discounted the most frequently cited Syrian sources providing statements to the media about the opposition, explaining that many are openly connected to what he calls "the Anglo-American opposition creation business."

One of the key opposition players noted by Skelton is Bassma Kodmani, one of the top leaders in the "Syrian National Council," which will fill 22 of 60 seats in the council that will govern the new Syrian National Coalition. A biography of Kodmani in Wikipedia notes her role in the Syrian uprising: "After the start of the 2011-2012 Syrian uprising, Bassma Kodmani took a prominent role in the opposition against the regime of Bashar al Assad. She regularly wrote articles welcoming the protesters' call for democracy in Syria and denouncing the fierce repression of Bashar al Assad and its use of a sectarian strategy to undermine the uprising."

Newman detailed some of Kodmani's connection to the Western establishment elite:

Consider, for example, that [Kodmani] was at this year's Bilderberg conference in Chantilly, Virginia — a secret yearly meeting of the top global power brokers from media, finance, government, military, intelligence, business, and more, that has come under criticism from across the political spectrum. Kodmani was also at the 2008 Bilderberg conference, though she was listed as French then. Now, for reasons that are not entirely clear, her official affiliation is listed only as "international." Before Bilderberg, Kodmani was a former official with the massive Ford Foundation, an organization that has also come under fire for its controversial efforts to remake the world. More recently, she was serving as the executive director of the "Arab Reform Initiative" for the powerful U.S.-based globalist outfit known as the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) — yet another controversial elite group that is often faced with severe criticism for its hostility to national sovereignty, as well as American traditions of self-governance and individual liberty. The CFR membership roster includes many of the most influential figures in U.S. politics, business, military, and more.

Newman concluded his report with an ominous warning:

There are also numerous other factions, including al-Qaeda, battling the regime in Syria right now. So despite the carefully constructed media-created perception of an opposition unified behind the Western establishment-backed SNC for "democracy," there are actually numerous armed revolutionaries who are at odds with each other. Those divisions will eventually explode if and when Assad is finally ousted.

As support from the West for the Syrian National Coalition increases, Assad's odds for holding on to power are diminished proportionately. As for what this will mean for Syrians, a history of the fallout from what Skelton calls "the Anglo-American opposition creation business" indicates life will get worse, not better. We need only look at what has happened in Libya, post-Gadhafi, where a year after the former tyrant's demise, several Libyan militias aligned with the new government were still shelling the Gadhafi-loyalist stronghold of Bani Walid. Or in Egypt, post-Mubarak,when Coptic Christians who enjoyed religious freedom under Mubarak have faced persecution and physical attacks as hardliners have gained political dominance, vowing to rule Egypt by Islamic law. Or in Iraq, post-Saddam Hussein, where, according to a report from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), "Half or more of the pre-2003 Iraqi Christian community is believed to have left the country, with Christian leaders warning that the consequence of this flight may be the end of Christianity in Iraq...."

A February 2007 report from the Assyrian International New Agency, "Christians Fleeing Iraq," noted that the refugees included a disproportionately high number of Christians — perhaps as many as a third of the total. The article also reported where most of the refugees were heading: "According to United Nations officials, about 2 million Iraqis have fled the country since the start of the war — mostly to Jordan and Syria...." (Emphasis added.)

Qaeda-Linked Group Claims Responsibility for Syrian Blasts

Medics carried a child who was hurt on Tuesday in government shelling of areas of Aleppo, Syria, that are controlled by the rebels. Scores were reported dead in fighting around the country.

Πηγή: New York Times
By ANNE BARNARD and CHRISTINE HAUSER
Oct. 9 2012

BEIRUT, Lebanon — A jihadist insurgent group that Western intelligence officials have linked to Al Qaeda claimed responsibility on Tuesday for a multiple bombing by suicide attackers who struck an intelligence compound on the outskirts of Damascus overnight. It was the second major assault that the group has claimed to have carried out against a government facility in a Syrian urban center in about a week.

The group, Al Nusra Front for the People of the Levant, posted a statement on the Internet with details of what it called a three-stage attack on a compound run by a branch of the air force intelligence service in Harasta, on the edge of Damascus. It released a video showing nighttime blasts that it said were set off by vehicles packed with explosives.

The number of casualties from the attack was not known, and the Syrian state news media did not immediately report on it. On Oct. 3, the same group posted a statement on a Web site affiliated with Al Qaeda that claimed responsibility for explosions in the embattled northern city of Aleppo that killed dozens of people in areas held by the government, including an officers’ club.

The attacks have highlighted a worrisome theme in the Syrian conflict, in which Sunni extremist groups like the Nusra Front, some of which are suspected of having links to Al Qaeda, are claiming responsibility for deadly attacks on government targets, including suicide bombings, with increasing frequency. While the main opposition fighting force, the Free Syrian Army, has denied any ties to such groups, their presence has strengthened President Bashar al-Assad’s argument that the nearly 19-month-old uprising is being orchestrated by terrorists.

The Nusra Front gave details about the operation in the Damascus area, like the name of the man who drove the car laden with what it said was nine tons of explosives in the first stage of the operation. Twenty-five minutes later, another man drove an ambulance laden with explosives to the scene, to kill those remaining or coming to assist, the group said. Shelling followed.

Fighting was also reported on Tuesday in other areas, including Aleppo, Syria’s largest city, and Deir al-Zour, in eastern Syria. The Local Coordination Committees, an opposition group, said in its daily tally of violence that at least 115 people had been killed and that in Maaret al-Nouman, in Idlib Province, the Free Syrian Army had captured more than 40 government troops and seized weapons. Casualty claims by antagonists in the Syria conflict are often difficult to confirm because of restrictions on independent news reporting there.

The latest violence came as the Syrian military continued to divert some forces and firepower to face escalating tensions on its border with Turkey, a NATO member. On Monday, Syrian Army gunners exchanged artillery blasts with their Turkish counterparts across the frontier for the sixth consecutive day.

The exchange of fire has raised concerns that the conflict will ignite a broader crisis in the region. On Tuesday, the NATO secretary general, Anders Fogh Rasmussen, emphasized that NATO, which considers an attack on one member to be an attack on all, had “all necessary plans in place to protect and defend Turkey if necessary.”

But Mr. Rasmussen also made it clear that he had no desire to embroil NATO in the conflict.

While most Syrian insurgents are members of the country’s Sunni majority, many of them defectors from the military, much of the Alawite minority, which Mr. Assad belongs to, remains intensely loyal to him. Nonetheless, recent signs of fracturing have surfaced in his Alawite base, including unconfirmed reports of deadly clashes last weekend in his ancestral home, Qardaha, a village in Latakia Province, which borders Turkey.

In another possible signal of Alawite ambivalence about Mr. Assad’s political leadership, opposition figures in Syria and in neighboring Jordan said that as many as seven high-ranking Alawite military and intelligence officers had defected in recent days, with some saying they had entered Jordan.

Merkel marks ‘special’ China relationship

Chinese President Hu Jintao had met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Los Cabos on  June to discuss bilateral ties and other issues of common concern.

Πηγή: FT
By Gerrit Wiesmann in Berlin and Kathrin Hille
August 28 2012

Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, will visit China this week to celebrate what her officials see as Germany’s “special relationship” with the Asian heavyweight.

But she will be ducking the sensitive question of whether Chinese solar-power equipment makers are selling products below the cost of production and forcing global rivals to their knees.

Ms Merkel will meet Hu Jintao, China’s president, and Wen Jiabao, the country’s premier, bringing along seven German ministers for something that will almost resemble a joint cabinet meeting with 13 Chinese counterparts.

The chancellor will then visit Tianjin on Friday with a group of German executives, where she will tour the Chinese assembly plant of Airbus, the European aircraft maker, and witness the signing of a big order, if talks finish in time.

With trade between the two export economies topping €150bn last year, German officials see Thursday’s “government consultations” – which involve more members of the ruling elites than the strategic and economic dialogue that China holds with the US – as an expression of a relationship which they say Beijing has with no other EU player, including the European Commission.

Trade has led to investment, although Berlin officials note that the €1.2bn which Chinese companies have invested in Germany pales beside the €26bn that German companies have put in to China. The eurozone crisis, and the shockwaves it has sent across the global economy, has increased the need for communication.

“Chinese officials feel Brussels is failing to deliver a consistent, decisive policy message,” says Jonathan Holslag of the Brussels Institute of Contemporary China Studies think-tank. “For an authoritative voice, they turn to [EU] member states”.

With François Hollande only installed as president of France in May, and the UK’s David Cameron less involved in the struggles of the single currency bloc, the German chancellor is the go-to European leader for China, says Jonas Parello-Plesner of the European Council for Foreign Relations think-tank.

“The Chinese want to hear from the horse’s mouth what’s going on with the euro crisis – they view Merkel as the one with the purse,” he says. “It is a watershed moment for German diplomacy.”

In that context, Ms Merkel’s reticence to address claims that Chinese manufacturers are “dumping” solar equipment on the world markets is all the more surprising. The US government imposed punitive import tariffs on solar equipment from China this year, and the European Commission is considering whether it should follow suit.

Officials in Berlin say Germany has “no option of acting” until the Commission makes a decision. They are also aware of the danger of a trade war with China – which could see Germany’s carmakers, for example, suffer retribution for steps to shore up a small solar sector.

“But we have no indications we’re moving towards trade war,” one official says. “We’re very optimistic we’ll find a good solution.”

The solar issue comes as Berlin’s relations with China face scrutiny from others in the EU. Ms Merkel’s visit takes place just weeks before a China-EU summit, which has left some experts wondering who is representing who.

“Somebody has to show leadership, and she is showing it. But in the design of the EU, this role should have been played by the institutions and such leadership by a big member, however benign, will raise fears,” Mr Parello-Plesner says.

German officials insist that Ms Merkel’s diplomacy will “complement” that of Brussels. “We have a very strong interest in ensuring that the excellent relations between China and Germany do not develop at the expense of China-EU relations,” says one German diplomat in Beijing.

Insisting that Germany would be speaking for Europe as a whole, German officials say Ms Merkel will discuss the course of the European debt crisis, aware that Beijing’s currency reserves make it a major player on the global financial markets.

Officials hope “broad and deep” Sino-German ties will permit an “open discussion” about the civil war in Syria. One hope is to prise China from Russia’s side in blocking UN Security Council action against Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president. “We’re talking about a mature relationship,” says one official in Berlin.

Travellers rob €200k that spook gave Libyan freedom fighter living in Ireland

ROBBED: Mahdi al-Harati 

Πηγή: Sunday World
July 28 2012

A GANG of Irish traveller thieves are in the middle of a holy war - after liberating €200,000 cash destined for Libyan rebels. In a tale worthy of the John le Carre thriller Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, the scam artists from Rathkeale in Co Limerick hit the jackpot when they robbed a home in Dublin's Firhouse.

As well as a haul of family jewels, they stumbled upon €200,000 in €500 bills hidden in the hot press. But the homeowner was well-known Irish Libyan freedom fighter Mahdi al-Harati, who was one of the leaders of the bloody revolt against Gaddafi.

He has told cops that the cash was a gift from US secret agents to aid the war effort in Libya. Now the money trail has led to the traveller strongholds in Rathkeale, where €500 notes have been popping up all over the place.

Cash donated by U.S. spooks stolen from hot press

A gang of rogue Irish travellers is in the frame for the bizarre robbery of €200,000 in cash donated by US spies to Libyan freedom fighters. In an astonishing tale worthy of the John le Carre novel Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, the cash that was destined for rebels fighting Colonel Gaddafi's forces was stolen from a hot press in a Dublin house.

Gardai are now investigating the extraordinary robbery which is being blamed on a traveller gang from the Limerick town of Rathkeale. An Irish freedom fighter who helped bring down Gaddafi's hated regime in Libya has claimed that €200,000 cash stolen from his Dublin home was given to him by an American intelligence agency.

The Sunday World can reveal that gardai are investigating the robbery of two envelopes containing €200,000 in €500 notes from the home of Mahdi al-Harati in Firhouse, south Dublin, and that the money trail is leading to the Rathkealers. Al-Harati was in Libya following the successful campaign that toppled Gaddafi when the rebel's house was broken into on October 6.

Ransacked



BATTLEZONE: Mahdi al-Harati helped to lead the assault on Tripoli which ultimately resulted in the fall of Sirte

His Irish wife, Eftaima al-Najar, received a phone call from a local school informing her that one of her four children had a badly injured leg and had been taken to Tallaght Hospital. Eftaima spent a number of hours in the Accident and Emergency department and when she returned home and opened the front door, she realised the house had been broken into. Her house had been ransacked and a substantial amount of expensive Libyan and Egyptian jewellery had been taken from the couple's bedroom.

The hot press had also been emptied and she immediately phoned gardai at Tallaght Garda station and reported the robbery. When detectives arrived at the scene, Eftaima told them that her husband had left a substantial amount of cash with her before he went to Libya. She said she had hid the money in the hot press in two envelopes and estimated that they contained €200,000.

Astonished officers made contact with Mahdi al-Harati who told them that he had travelled to France, the United States and Qatar the previous month and that representatives of an American intelligence agency had given him a significant amount of money to help in the efforts to defeat Gaddafi. He said he left two envelopes with his wife in case he was killed and took the rest of the cash with him when he went back to Libya.

The couple had no comment to make when the Sunday World called to their home last week. Al-Harati led the main rebel advance that captured Tripoli on August 21, a move regarded as being the beginning of the end for Gaddafi. He was appointed deputy leader of Tripoli's military council, a group which had the aim of merging all rebel units into one coherent national army.



RARE: Cops are looking for €500 notes

Just days after the robbery in his home, al-Harati resigned from the council and returned to Dublin and has since been formally interviewed by gardai. Astonished detectives have launched a major probe into the daring robbery and issued an alert to all banks to be on the lookout for €500 notes, which are extremely rare in Ireland but would be relatively common in other European countries.

Officers were then stunned when it emerged that members of a well-known traveller gang from the well-known town of Rathkeale in Limerick had lodged a number of €500 bills into their bank accounts. The gang are known to have carried out dozens of burglaries of houses across south Dublin in recent months.

Gardai believe the gang happened upon the home of al-Harati and his wife by chance and had no idea of the massive cash windfall they would find when they broke in. The garda probe into the robbery is ongoing and officers are confident that they will make arrests in the case.



TRAVELLER TOWN: Rathkeale

A number of rogue traveller gangs operate out of the small Co Limerick town which has become famous for the annual homecoming. Every Christmas the high rollers return from dubious trading jaunts around Europe in fleets of brand new cars worth hundreds of millions. They stay for several weeks for a legendary "wedding season" before heading out on the road in the new year.

Al-Harati and his wife are cooperating fully with the investigation. The 37-year-old teaches Arabic in Dublin. He came to Ireland over two decades ago and met his Irish-born wife here. Her father was born in Libya and her mother is Irish. She changed her name and religion when the couple met.

Editor's note:
According to CNN Al-Harati, who commanded the Tripoli Revolutionary brigade -- which was the first group of rebels to enter the Libyan capital last August -- has been in Syria for months leading some of his former men and Syrian military defectors who have joined his "Liwaa al-Umma" or "The Banner of the Nation" brigade.

Al-Harati, who has dual Libyan and Irish citizenship, first visited Syria last year on what he calls a "fact finding mission" to see the situation on the ground and find out what Syrian rebels needed. "After many Syrians approached me asking for my help, I felt it was time to do more and due to the great success of the Tripoli Brigade we felt it was time to act and that meant the formation of the Banner of the Nation," Al-Harati told CNN in Skype messages this week.

"With the prior success in Libya I decided to leave nationality aside and, just like world organizations helped Libya in its time of need, I decided to pass my experience to others to benefit", he said