Syria - Russia: Putin adds diplomatic strand to bolster Syrian air strikes

Russian President Vladimir Putin has gone on the diplomatic offensive as Moscow’s jets continue to pound anti-government positions in Syria.

Putin held meetings with the Saudi defence minister as the Kremlin seeks a political solution to the violence in Syria.

The Western-backed opposition group echoed again over the weekend that Russian air raids would undermine efforts to reach a settlement.

Putin disagrees, speaking on Russian state television he said: “The active phase of our job in Syria will be limited to coincide with the offensive operations by the Syrian army. Our task is to stabilise the legal government and create the right conditions for reaching a political compromise.”

He added that Russian troops would not be deployed in Syria:“No we are not going to do that and our Syrian friends know it.”

Read more: Putin adds diplomatic strand to bolster Syrian air strikes | euronews, world news

Syria: U.S. Says Europeans Tortured by Assad's Death Machine - by Josh Rogin

The U.S. State Department has concluded that up to 10 European citizens have been tortured and killed while in the custody of the Syrian regime and that evidence of their deaths could be used for war crimes prosecutions against Bashar al-Assad in several European countries.

The new claim, made by the State Department’s ambassador at large for war crimes, Stephen Rapp, in an interview with me, is based on a newly completed FBI analysis of 27,000 photographs smuggled out of Syria by the former military photographer known as “Caesar.” The photos show evidence of the torture and murder of over 11,000 civilians in custody. The FBI spent months pouring over the photos and comparing them to consular databases with images of citizens from countries around the world.

Last month, the FBI gave the State Department its report, which included a group of photos that had been tentatively matched to individuals who were already in U.S. government files. “The group included multiple individuals who were non-Syrian, but none who had a birthplace in the United States, according to our information,” Rapp told me. “There were Europeans within that group.”

The implications could be huge for the international drive to prosecute Assad and other top Syrian officials for war crimes and crimes against humanity. While it’s unlikely that multilateral organizations such as the United Nations or the International Criminal Court will pursue cases against Assad in the near term, due to opposition by Assad’s allies including Russia, legal cases against the regime could be brought in individual countries whose citizens were victims of torture and murder.

Rapp declined to say which European countries’ citizens were found in the Caesar files, but said that there could be many more European and international citizens identified as the work to analyze the photos continues. Meanwhile, the drive to begin prosecutions against Assad and his cronies in European countries can now move forward.

Read more: U.S. Says Europeans Tortured by Assad's Death Machine - Bloomberg View

Middle East: Syria’s al-Assad issues amnesty for prisoners, unclear if any will be freed

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad declared a general amnesty Monday for prisoners in the country, state media reported.

It was not clear how many – if any – prisoners would be freed after the presidential decree, issued just five days after al-Assad had won a third, seven-year term in office amid the three-year-old civil war in his country

Read more: Syria’s al-Assad issues amnesty for prisoners, unclear if any will be freed - The Globe and Mail

Syria conference should be held ‘as soon as possible,’ Ban says during visit to Russia

Stressing that a political solution is the only way to end the Syria crisis, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said today that an international conference proposed by Russia and the United States should be held as soon as possible so as not to lose momentum.

“It is my sincere hope that we can convene an international conference on Syria as soon as possible to help parties come to the negotiating table,” Mr. Ban said at a joint press conference in Sochi with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

Last week, following talks in Moscow between Mr. Lavrov and US Secretary of State John Kerry, the two countries announced they would work together to achieve a political solution to the Syria crisis, and agreed to convene an international conference aimed at achieving this goal.

“I thanked the Foreign Minister for working with US Secretary of State Kerry on finding a way forward,” said Mr. Ban. “Now our challenge is to build on the momentum that Foreign Minister Lavrov and Secretary Kerry have helped to generate.”

Note EU-Digest: a political solution to the crises is the only way out of this mess. If President Assad  can convince hardliners he inherited from his father to become less autocratic and more democratic he could probably succeed in holding the country together under his leadership. The alternative is total chaos, risk of regional conflict, and Syria splitting up into several ethnic and religiously dominated regions.

Read more: United Nations News Centre - Syria conference should be held ‘as soon as possible,’ Ban says during visit to Russia

Middle East: Is a road map for peace in Syria in sight?

The Assad regime in Syria has been fighting insurgents for the last two years, but neither side seems strong enough to defeat the other. Now, the government and the opposition appear to want to negotiate. 

For a long time, talking to representatives of the Assad government was unthinkable for opponents. Ever since President Bashar Assad began his violent assault on his opponents, who took to the streets during what is now known as the Arab Spring, many have called for an end to his rule.

They hold him responsible for the civil war that has plunged the country into a deep crisis. Fights between government and opposition forces have led to more than 70,000 casualties so far, according to UN estimates. While the government has been obtaining arms from Russia and Iran, the opponents have been getting support from Qatar. This is one reason why neither side can prevail militarily.

Read more: Is a road map for peace in Syria in sight? | World | DW.DE | 18.02.2013

Iran seeks to save pivotal Syrian ally, sees conflict as part of broader threat - by Marcus George

Iran, dismayed at the plight of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, is seeking to shore him up and counter a perceived drive by Western and U.S.-aligned Sunni Muslim nations to roll back its own power in the Middle East.

A hastily-convened conference in Tehran on Thursday looked like an attempt by the Islamic Republic to forge a coalition of friendly countries opposed to Western and Arab support for rebels determined to end four decades of Assad family rule.

Iran, handed geostrategic windfalls in the past decade by Washington’s elimination of two of its main enemies, Saddam Hussein in Iraq and the Taliban in Afghanistan, now fears the pendulum of regional influence could swing the other way.

Read More: Iran seeks to save pivotal Syrian ally, sees conflict as part of broader threat

Syria revolt reaches Aleppo; rebels target cities

Riding a wave of momentum, Syrian rebels made a run on Aleppo Saturday in some of the fiercest fighting seen in the country's largest city, which has been a key bastion of support for President Bashar Assad over the course of the 17-month-old uprising.

The rebels also took over a third border crossing -- and the second one along Syria's northeastern frontier with Iraq -- another sign the regime's tight grip on the country is wobbling.

The fighting in Aleppo comes on the heels of intense clashes in the capital, Damascus, as rebel forces target the pillars of regime power in their attempts to usher in what they hope will be the end of Assad's rule.

Read more: Syria revolt reaches Aleppo; rebels target cities - Boston.com

Syria: Russia’s chief concern in Syria is to deny west a victory - by Zaki Laïdi

Vladimir Putin

Moscow will not give up Damascus, as Russia’s foreign minister has made clear – despite rebels’ latest success in targeting the heart of the Assad regime. At stake here, beyond Syria, is the restoration of Russian power in relation to the west.

Russia’s relations with Syria date back to the emigration to Turkey and Syria of Circassian minorities in the 19th century and this link still influences Russia’s perception of the Syrian crisis. The fear is that chaos in Syria, if followed by an Islamist victory, might radicalise the Russian Caucasus .

Russia’s decline in the Middle East began in 1971, when Anwar Sadat. president of Egypt, expelled Soviet military advisers. The Russians were unable to make up for this defeat in the region because

Iraq was too unpredictable and Iran too uncontrollable. Syria has the advantage of being highly predictable and perfectly controllable. It is predictable because Syrians have always known just how far to push against the west or Israel – their realism evident in Damascus’s silence after Israel destroyed a nuclear reactor Syria was building with the help of North Korea. It is also controllable because the country has very few allies besides Russia and Iran. The regime has no cards to play and, despite an apparent opening to the west in recent years, is unreformed.

Moreover, Syria has traditionally been a counterweight to Turkey, especially when Turkish-Syrian relations were troubled. If the Damascus regime fell, Moscow’s southern flank would be weakened. Indeed, the regime’s fall would cut Russia out of the Middle East, where it has met with one setback after another over the past 50 years.

Read more: Russia’s chief concern in Syria is to deny west  a victory - FT.com

Syria: Support for the Assad government is rapidly collapsing and the regime's end seems imminent

Bashar al-Assad

As fighting rages in Damascus, and the Assad family that has ruled Syria for four decades struggles for its life against a growing uprising, a picture is emerging of a tight inner Assad group determined to fight its way out of this crisis, even while support for the government is quickly eroding..

President Bashar al-Assad, who inherited power from his father in 2000 and who friend and opponent alike say appears increasingly detached from reality, is  convinced he is fighting a conspiracy against him and Syria.

Around Assad is a tight circle of family and clan members, and a security establishment staffed mainly by adherents of the Alawite minority to which the Assads belong, a branch of Shi'ite Islam in a country that is three quarters Sunni. 

Support for Assad in outlying cities and even in the capital Damascus is quickly falling apart  and residents say the only sign of any government presence are some tanks and armored personnel carriers stationed on main roads. Traffic and ordinary police are nowhere to be seen. 

In Damascus rebels are now manning many checkpoints, blocking streets and clashing with government troops. This which would have seemed  impossible only a few days ago, say observers.

Curtain time for the Assad family could come very soon.

EU-Digest

China joins Russia in staying away from Syria talks

China joined Russia on Thursday in boycotting a "Friends of Syria" meeting aimed at coordinating efforts to stop violence in the country, where three senior regime officers are among the latest to be killed.

In Beijing, foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin told reporters China would not attend the Paris gathering on Friday. "(China) at present does not consider attending the meeting," he told reporters.

Russia, a long-time ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, has also said it will stay away from the meeting after accusing the West of seeking to distort a weekend deal by world powers in Geneva aimed at achieving a transition of power.

Note EU-Digest: It is puzzling why China and Russia, who consider themselves to be close friends and allies of Syria are boycotting a meeting called "friends of Syria". Even if they do not agree with the agenda or the attendees of that meeting it would at least show they are flexible and don't want to be placed under the same denominator as Mr. Assad and the atrocities his regime is committing?

Read more: China joins Russia in staying away from Syria talks | Radio Netherlands Worldwide

Turkey tells Syria to beware of ‘wrath’

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told Syria to beware the wrath of Turkey after the shooting down of a warplane and said he had ordered the armed forces to react to any military threat from Syria near the two countries’ border.

Erdogan’s warning to Syria reflected increased tensions not only on the Mediterranean coast, where the aircraft was shot down last Friday, but on a long common land border criss-crossed by rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad.

Syria said on Sunday it had killed several “terrorists“ infiltrating from Turkey.
In Syria itself, Damascus suburbs were gripped by the worst fighting in the capital since the uprising against Assad began 16 months ago. The city had long been seen as a bastion of support for the president.

Read more: Turkey tells Syria to beware of ‘wrath’ | World | News | Toronto Sun

Syria truce mostly holds, but 6 killed in protests - by Elizabeth A. Kennedy and Zeina Karam

Syrian forces used live fire, tear gas and clubs to beat back tens of thousands of protesters who took to the streets across the country Friday in powerful and often jubilant displays of defiance. But a U.N.-brokered truce largely held up without the widespread, bloody offensives that have pushed the nation toward civil war. 

Activists said security forces killed at least six people, a lower-than-usual toll. The rallies, described as some of the largest in months, stretched from the suburbs of Damascus to the central province of Hama, Idlib in the north and the southern province of Daraa, where the uprising began in March 2011.
"Come on, Bashar, leave!" the crowd shouted in Daraa, linking arms and stomping their feet to the beat of a drum in a traditional Arab folk dance, according to a video posted online by activists.

For more: Syria truce mostly holds, but 6 killed in protests - San Jose Mercury News

Syrian uprising hotspots calm after UN truce deadline

A fragile ceasefire brokered by the UN took hold in Syria on Thursday with regime forces apparently halting widespread attacks on the opposition but still defying demands by international envoy Kofi Annan to pull troops back to barracks.

If the truce holds, it would be the first time the regime has observed an internationally brokered cease-fire since Bashar Assad's regime launched a brutal crackdown 13 months ago on mass protests calling for his ouster. The opposition called for peaceful protests on Friday to test the government's commitment to the accord.

There was deep skepticism that the regime would halt its fire for long, given that Assad has broken promises in the past. Also, the regime said Wednesday, on the eve of the truce deadline, that it reserves the right to respond to any aggression, potentially a pretext for breaking the truce.

Annan's plan calls for the deployment of international observers and talks on a political transition once a truce is in place. The initiative has broad international support, including from Assad allies Russia, China and Iran, and is widely seen as the last chance for diplomacy to end the violence. The increasingly militarized uprising has been veering toward an armed insurgency.

For more: Top StoriesCTV

Syrian Opposition rejects all dialogue with Syrian regime unless violence stops

The leader of Syria's main opposition group Burhan Ghalioun rejected calls Friday by UN for dialogue with President Bashar Assad's government, saying such talks are pointless and unrealistic as long as the regime massacres its own people.

In the meantime Abdo Husameddine, a 58-year-old father of four, on Thursday became the highest-ranking civilian official to join the opposition, and he urged his countrymen to "abandon this sinking ship" as the nation spirals toward civil war.

In a YouTube video, Husameddine seemed to address Assad directly, accusing him of vast crimes in the past year as government forces pummel the opposition with tanks and snipers. The U.N. estimates 7,500 people have been killed since the uprising began.

EU-Digest

EU tightens noose on Syria, urges UN action - by Claire Rosemberg

The European Union tightened the noose on Syria on Monday, slapping new sanctions on Presidant Basahar al-Assad's regime and urging the UN to act to protect civilians after eight months of bloodshed.

Foreign ministers stepped into talks in Brussels lauding the Arab League's decision to suspend Syria for failing to implement a plan to end violence which has left 3,500 dead since mid-March, according to the United Nations. "Today the time has come to see how we can better protect the population. I hope the Security Council too will finally take a position," French Foreign Minister Juppe said after denouncing "the bloody stubbornness" of Damascus.

Sweden's foreign minister said one option to protect civilians could be to despatch UN observers.

For more: THE DAILY STAR :: News :: Middle East :: EU tightens noose on Syria, urges UN action