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By Robert Reich

20 December 12

@ Robert Reich’s Blog

Why is the President back to making premature and unnecessary concessions to Republicans?

Two central issues in the 2012 presidential election were whether the Bush tax cuts should be ended for people earning over $250,000, and whether Social Security and Medicare should be protected from future budget cuts.

The President said yes to both. Republicans said no. Obama won.

But apparently the President is now offering to continue to Bush tax cuts for people earning between $250,000 and $400,000, and to cut Social Security by reducing annual cost-of-living adjustments.

These concessions aren’t necessary. If the nation goes over the so-called “fiscal cliff” and tax rates return to what they were under Bill Clinton, Democrats can then introduce a tax cut for everyone earning under $250,000 and make it retroactive to the start of the year.

They can combine it with a spending bill that makes up for most of the cuts scheduled to go into effect in January. Republicans would be hard-pressed not to sign on.

Social Security should not be part of any such deal anyway. By law, it can’t contribute to the budget deficit. It’s only permitted to spend money from the Social Security trust fund.

Besides, the President’s proposed reduction in annual Social Security cost-of-living adjustments would save only $122 billion over ten years. Yet it would significantly harm the elderly.

It defies logic and fairness to give more tax cuts to the wealthy while cutting benefits for the near-poor.

The median income of Americans over 65 is less than $20,000 a year. Nearly 70 percent of them depend on Social Security for more than half of this. The average Social Security benefit is less than $15,000 a year.

Even Social Security’s current cost-of-living adjustment understates the true impact of inflation on elderly recipients, who spend far more on health care than anyone else – including annual increases in Medicare premiums.

Hands off Social Security. If the Republicans are willing to raise tax rates on high earners but demand more spending cuts in return, the President should offer larger cuts in defense spending and corporate welfare.

Robert B. Reich, Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy at the University of California at Berkeley, was Secretary of Labor in the Clinton administration. Time Magazine named him one of the ten most effective cabinet secretaries of the last century. He has written thirteen books, including the best sellers “Aftershock” and “The Work of Nations.” His latest is an e-book, “Beyond Outrage.” He is also a founding editor of the American Prospect magazine and chairman of Common Cause.

By Colin Todhunter

20 December, 2012

@ Countercurrents.org

According to some who believe in signs and prophecies, based on the ancient Mayan calendar, the world may have ended by the time you read this, in which case you won’t be reading it! Maybe those people know a thing or two because, given the current state of play, would it come as a great surprise if the world were to actually come to an end?

But, regardless of any prophecy, I can guarantee right now that the world will shortly be coming to an end – for many people. US-backed conflict in Syria will fuel even more death and destruction in that unfortunate country. The US is banking on it. Where would its plans be to dominate the world if it could not rely on killing and brutality brought about by stoking ethnic and sectarian conflict? Such tactics have already caused hundreds of thousands of deaths in Iraq, Libya and Afghanistan. The strategy persists and the killing goes on.

What is happening in Syria at this moment is symptomatic of a criminality that too often goes unquestioned, that is too often regarded as normal and thus acceptable thanks mainly to the mainstream media. People have been softened up to accept barbarity as normal and thus as acceptable by a global corporate media that takes as fact whitewashed official statements and press releases justifying militarism and consequent mass murder by the US government, the British government or any other number of governments.

The result is that this criminality pervades all aspects of life in 2012.

Thanks to a toothless mainstream media, it is regarded as normal and thus acceptable that the international system of trade and finance has allowed capital to be shifted around the globe at ease, resulting in big profits and environmental degradation, easy money and cheap labour, private gain and public havoc. All of this is done according to the warped rationale of the market, supported by dogma masquerading as economic theory.

It is regarded as normal and thus acceptable that the food and pharmaceuticals industries work to sicken and treat us and that ‘big oil’ works hand in glove with agribusiness to impose a system of water intensive, chemical-industrial agriculture at the expense of biodiversity and environmental sustainability.

US militarism is implemented on behalf of bankers and any other number of corporate interests and is carried out under the lie of ‘humanitarianism’ or the ‘war on terror’. The profiteering nuclear energy and resource extraction industries are destroying democracy and placing people and environments in jeopardy in India.

The mainstream media serves to make barbarity acceptable.

 

Governments are working overtime to attack and deceive their populations on behalf of rich corporations, which have succeeded in bending the machineries of state and media to their will. The end-result is diminishing democracy, the increasing influence of international finance, the destruction of local economies, science pressed into the service of a worldwide arms industry, endless conflict over finite resources and unnecessary suffering.

There is an alternative and it entails debunking the myth that the endless pursuit of high GDP growth on the back of increased power for the market, speculators and huge corporate concerns is how we define normality. The current system is not only ecologically destructive and fuels and relies on perpetual conflict, but wrongly privileges urban over rural and promotes the excessive consumption of energy to engage in unnecessary work to produce unnecessary goods that have a built-in planned obsolescence. This socially divisive, wasteful and unsustainable system is tied to an image of the world laid down by powerful transnational corporations and which is translated into policies by the IMF, WTO, World Bank and national governments.

This is the current state of play. It’s become matter of fact. It’s become acceptable.

It’s also quite normal that 130 countries have recognised opposition forces in Syria as the legitimate ‘government’ there, even though the US, NATO, oil rich Gulf states and Israel have done their damnedest to interfere in the workings of a sovereign state in order to create civil war and bolster the position of the said opposition. It’s quite normal that many of those 130 countries only support such tactics because not to do so would incur the bullying of the US in terms of economic, military and political aid or support being cut or other pressures and sanctions being applied. And the mainstream media regards this as constituting the will of the ‘international community’, of ‘independent’ sovereign states acting according to conscience.

Where would we be without such a media? There are many examples from across the world of how we could address the problems we currently face and of how we could challenge what is spoon-fed to us as ‘normality’.

Unfortunately, those who comprise the US-led military-financial-industrial complex and who control and own the corporate media have no interest in solutions. From Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and General Electric to BP, Shell and others, they seek to maintain the current system at all costs.

And that entails seeking to impose their warped version of normality through media propaganda and the barrel of a gun, the attack of a drone and all illegal means necessary. Those who refuse to cave in to US-led hegemony could well face a similar fate as Syria. You don’t need to refer to the Mayan calendar to know for some the end could be near. The message from the US is that it will be – if you fail to fall into line.

Colin Todhunter : Originally from the northwest of England, Colin Todhunter has spent many years in India. He has written extensively for the Deccan Herald (the Bangalore-based broadsheet), New Indian Express and Morning Star (Britain). His articles have also appeared in various other newspapers, journals and books. His East by Northwest website is at: http://colintodhunter.blogspot.com

By Franklin Lamb

20 December, 2012

@ Countercurrents.org

Yarmouk camp, Damascus : A few thoughts rushed through this observers mind when he saw a distraught looking woman sitting alone, tightly holding two babies, at one corner of the vast parking lot of the central Damascus bus station known as Al-Soumariyeh . It is from here where inexpensive transportation can be had for those traveling west, east, north and south.

One thought was about a character out of a Charles Dickens novel and the other was ‘waif, frail, malnourished, frightened’, so the lady, holding the babies appeared. She managed a polite but weak smile as I passed and she said “hello.”

Long story made short, the lady and I chatted and it turned out that Souha was fleeing the al-Hajar al-Aswad neighborhood on the southern edge of Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp. This is one of the ‘hot-line’ areas of Yarmouk, where on 12/16/12 approximately 400 Jabhat al-Nusra (Nusra Front) militia fighters joined by various other salafist jihadists defeated Palestinian “popular committees” fighters supposedly loyal to Ahmed Jabil’s, Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-GC (PFLP-GC). There are various unconfirmed estimates of how many ‘General Command’ fighters defected during the fighting to the rebel forces, but the PFLP-GC admits that some did. Also in the camp are some fighters from the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) and the Popular Front (PFLP).

Souha who is studying English literature, had lost her husband and was trying to travel to Ein el Helwe refugee camp in Saida, Lebanon. She had the name of a distant relative, she thought was still living in Ein el Helwe, but she was unsure how to find her but knew that she desperately needed to get out of Syria.

Nearly 70% (UNWRA puts the figure at 90%) of the 180,000 Yarmouk camp residents in the 2.1 square-kilometer camp area have, as of this morning fled. This figure was provided by, Anwar Raja, politburo member of the ‘General Command” with whom this observer had a three hour meeting during the night of 12/18/2012 inside the north edge of Yarmouk. Any camp resident with a MTN or Syriatel mobile phone got a text message, from the Syrian military to leave the camp for their own safety.

Souha asked me if I had heard about the problems of the Palestinian people and explained that she fled the bombing at Yarmouk camp and that most of her neighbors also scattered. Some of the thousands of refugees who continue to flee Yarmouk can be seen today near central Damascus, and sitting in the streets of Midan. These areas are still safe. Other are huddled in parks and camped under concrete underpasses, in schools, mosques and basically anywhere they can find a spot. Many are sleeping on sidewalks at al-Sabaa Bahrat square. A friend and I spoke last night to a family of four who had only thin UNCHR blankets for the night.

Souha said she was afraid to seek safety in a Mosque because they are no longer a safe refuge and she explained that she passed about a dozen bodies on the steps and front ground next to the Abdul Qader Al-Hosseini mosque as she left Yarmouk.

Happy to learn that there are actually non-stop vans going from central Damascus to Saida, Lebanon, without having to change vehicles, we found the driver, agreed on a price of 30 LL (about $ 45) for Souha and the same price for her two babies. I insisted on a two-for-one price for the little ones and since it was starting to get dark, the nice fellow agreed. I gave Souha what money I had and also contact information for friends in Lebanon who I knew would help her.

As the van pulled off she waved from the window and I could not help thinking that she may not get much help from the Lebanese government on arriving. Yet I knew that Palestinians there would assist her. I recalled the words of the late murdered Khalil al Wazir (Abu Jihad) when he explained nearly three decades ago, to this observer and the American journalist, Janet Stevens,: “At the end of the day, we Palestinians can rely only on ourselves.” I did not dwell much on his words at the time but since then I have come to understand very well what the great Resistance leader meant.

Yesterday morning I assumed Souha was in Lebanon and had arrived to Saida. Then I began to hear the unsettling news of long lines at the Maznaa crossing from Syria into Lebanon. The news got worse. Thousands of Palestinian refugees were lined up, some waiting for 10 hours or more to cross and many being refused entry into by Lebanese General Security because of “inadequate documents.” Many right now are being forced to return to Damascus.

Lebanon has an international humanitarian duty to ease entry and to assist refugees, as required by well-established and globally accepted international law. But with the exception of Zionist occupied Palestine, Lebanon has the worst human rights record toward Palestinians than any country on earth. The Lebanese Parliament still refuses to grant Palestinian refugees in Lebanon the elementary right to work or to own a home. Even though according to various economic studies, if Palestinians could work, they would help dramatically to build Lebanon’s weak economy.

During the morning of 12/19/12 the news got even worse regarding Souha. Someone from Reuters sent me a published photo showing her stuck on a bus at Maznaa for over 12 hours. According to one report she was forced to return to Damascus. Wherever Souha is she is hopefully someone is helping her.

Ahmed Jebril, an ally of the Syrian government is blaming foreign paid terrorists for the attack that is forcing the emptying of Yarmouk and also the rather quick defeat of his fighters. He and his GC staff told this observer that the General Command had no plans to attempt to return to Yarmouk. Reports from the camp claim that more than half of the GC’s 1000 fighters, mainly younger ones, defected to the rebels. It is difficult to know the truth, but it is fairly clear that Yarmouk has substantially been emptied and that government forces are surrounding the camp, presumably in preparation for a massive counter-attack and or aerial bombardment.

One statement that Ahmed Jebril, who contrary to a New York Times report, has not fled to Iran or Tartous, made that is probably accurate is that “As Yarmouk goes, so goes Damascus. As Damascus goes, so goes Syria”. Jabril’s aid Anwar Raja said that the camp will be used by the rebels to destroy the airport and to launch their “final assault” into the center of Damascus. They showed this observer fragments of ‘home made’ weapons similar to those collected from around Syria by military intelligence who in late October briefed this observer.

The near term will reveal the fate of Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp and who, in the coming battle, are the winners. But it is sure that Souha and all Palestinian refugees ethnically cleansed from their homes in Palestine are once again the losers.

Franklin Lamb is doing research in Syria and can be reached c/o fplamb@gmail.com.

By Ramzy Baroud

20 December, 2012

@ Countercurrents.org

France is insisting on ‘rapid’ military intervention in Mali. Its unmanned drones have reportedly been scouring the desert of the troubled West African nation – although it claims that the drones are seeking the whereabouts of six French hostages believed to be held by Al-Qaeda. The French are likely to get their wish, especially following the recent political fiasco engineered by the country’s strong man and coup leader Capt. Amadou Haya Sanogo. The Americans also covet intervention, but one that would serve their growing interests in the Sahel region. African countries are divided and have no clear alternative on how to restore Mali’s territorial integrity – and equally important political sovereignty – disjointed between Tuareg secessionists and Islamic militants in the north and factionalized army in the south.

The current crisis in Mali is the recent manifestation of a recurring episode of terrible suffering and constant struggles. It goes back much earlier than French officials in particular wish to recall. True, there is much bad blood between the various forces that are now fighting for control, but there is also much acrimony between Mali and France, the latter having conquered Mali (then called French Sudan) in 1898. After decades of a bitter struggle, Mali achieved its independence in 1960 under the auspices of a socialist government led by President Modibo Keita. One of his very early orders of business was breaking away with French influence and the Franc zone.

Former colonial powers rarely abandon their ambitions, even after their former colonies gain hard-earned freedom. They remain deeply entrenched by meddling in various ways that destabilize the former colonies. Then when opportune, they militarily intervene to uphold the status quo. In 1968 Keita was ousted from power, and few years later in 1977, he died in a lonely cell. His death ushered in mass protests, compelling few cosmetic gestures towards a new constitution and half-hearted democracy.

Turmoil defined Mali for many years since then, even after the country achieved a level of political stability in 1992. At the time it was believed that Mali was fast becoming a model for democracy, at least in the West Africa region. Few years later, thousands of refugees from the ever-neglected and under-represented Tuaregs began returning to their towns and villages mostly in the vast desert region in northern Mali. That return was introduced by a peace agreement signed between Tuaregs and the central government. Little on the ground has changed. Various bands of Islamic groups, some homegrown, others fleeing fighting in neighboring countries, especially Algeria, found haven in Mali’s north and west. At times, they fought amongst each other, at times they served some unclear agendas of outside parties, and at times they created temporary alliances amongst themselves.

While France attempted to keep Mali in its sphere of influence – thus its decision in 2002 to cancel over a third of Mali’s debt – the United States was also taking interest in Mali’s crucial position in the Sahel regions and the prospects created by the ungovernability of the northern regions.

Of course, the all-inclusive definition of Al-Qaeda served as the ever-convenient ruse to justify American involvement. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) has been used by Washington to rationalize the establishment of the US Africa Command (AFRICOM). It was set up in 2008 to manage US military interests in the whole continent with the exception of Egypt. The US State Department claimed that AFRICOM “will play a supportive role as Africans build democratic institutions and establish good governance across the continent.”

The importance of the Al-Qaeda narrative to the American role in the Sahel was highlighted in the last presidential debate between President Barack Obama and his Republican opponent, Mitt Romney. To flex some political muscles, perhaps Romney warned of ‘Al-Qaeda type individuals” threatening to turn Mali into a new Afghanistan. Other western experts on the Sahel dispute the analogy, however claiming that Mali is descending into a Sudan-like model instead. Either way, the people of Mali are currently suffering the consequences of the burgeoning conflict, which reflects a convoluted mix of foreign agendas, extremist ideologies and real grievances of Malian tribes in the north and west.

The south of the country is not exactly an oasis of stability. The ongoing territorial struggle and political volatility are threatening the whole country, which has been battling a cruel famine and pitiless warlords. The most dominant faction in the Malian army is led by US-trained Army Capt. Amadou Sanogo, who on March 22 led a coup against President Amadou Toumani Toure. Sanogo’s reasoning – blaming Toure for failing to stamp out growing militant influence in the north – sounded more like a pretense than a genuine attempt at recovering the disintegrating country.

It remains unclear who Sanogo’s backers are, especially since France and the US are relatively tolerant of his political transgressions and violent conduct. Sanogo’s coup came shortly before elections, scheduled for last April. While the African Union (AU) reacted assertively to the coup by suspending Mali’s membership, western powers remained indecisive. Despite a half-hearted handing over of power from the coup leaders to a civilian government of President Dioncounda Traore, Sanogo remain firmly in charge. In May, the junta struck again, retaking power, as pro-Sanogo mobs almost beat president Traore to death inside his presidential compound.

Sanogo, empowered by the lack of decisiveness to his conduct, continued to play some political game or another. A short lived ‘national unity government’ under Prime Minister Cheick Modibo Diarra was more or less toppled when Diarra was arrested by Sanogo’s men. He was forced to concede power and install a little known government administrator as his predecessor. Sonogo’s political show continues, especially as the West African regional grouping (ECOWAS), along with the AU remains focused on what they perceive as a more urgent priority: ending the territorial disintegration in the north and west.

The conflict in the north is in a constant influx. Alliances change, thus the nature of the conflict is in perpetual alteration. Large consignments of weapons that were made available during NATO’s war in Libya early last year, made their way to various rebel and militant groups throughout the region. The Tuaregs had received support from the ousted Libyan government and were dispersed during and following the war. Many of them returned to Mali, battle-hardened and emboldened by the advanced weapons.

Fighting in the north began in stages, most notably in January 2012. Sanogo’s coup created the needed political vacuum for Tuaregs’ National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) to declare independence in the north a mere two weeks later. The declaration was the result of quick military victories by MNLA and its militant allies, which led to the capture of Gao and other major towns. These successive developments further bolstered Islamic and other militant groups to seize cities across the country and hold them hostage to their ideologies and other agendas. For example, Ansar al-Din had reportedly worked jointly with the MNLA, but declared a war “against independence” and “for Islam” in June, as soon as it secured its control over Timbuktu. Al-Tawhid wa al-Jihad, along with AQIM made their moves. The allies soon became bitter enemies.

Last September, rebels from various Islamic groupings in control of the north began advancing onto other strategic areas in the center and south-west parts of the country. Their territorial advances are now made against government-held towns and areas that are still controlled by Azawad Tuareg rebels.

There is now semi-consensus on the need for military intervention in Mali, although some differences persist over the nature and scope of that intervention. Sanogo himself has little interest in seeing other West African powers jockeying for influence in Bamako, which could threaten his thus far unchallenged rule. Moreover, it is unclear how affective military force can be, as the territorial fragmentation, many militant groupings and political discord throughout the country are almost impossible to navigate.

The stability of West Africa is surely at stake. The chances of a political solution are all but completely dissipated. The growing chaos will likely benefit interventionist states – France and the US in particular. A long-drawn new ‘war on terror,’ will justify further intervention in West Africa and more meddling in the affairs of ECOWAS countries.

A few years ago, a new ‘scramble for Africa’ was unleashed due to China’s growing influence in the continent. It was heightened by a more recent North African turmoil caused by the so-called Arab Spring. Opportunities are now abound for those ready to stake more claims over a long exploited region

Ramzy Baroud (www.ramzybaroud.net) is an internationally-syndicated columnist and the editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is: My Father was A Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story (Pluto Press).

By Issa Khalaf

20 December, 2012

@ www.alternet.org

Everything about Syria is steeped in miasma: is this conflict politically and sociologically definable as a civil war? Has it become a sectarian war? How strong and widespread is the Salafist (and global Jihadi) presence? Was militarization wise or did the opposition have no choice in this regard? Are the armed groups able to defeat the regime’s forces or will there be a perpetual, bloody stalemate whose only certainty is Syria’s complete physical destruction and long-term division? Is a negotiated outcome, that is, a political solution the only possibility, or is it uninformed to speak of political solutions at this stage of the conflict?

Despite this fog, there are, in my mind, several certainties. One, Syria is not a clear-cut case of bad regime versus good society, for that society is not at one regarding the violent overthrow of the state. This is not a mass, democratic revolution but a Sunni rebellion. Any spontaneity to its genesis, including the goal of non-violent resistance, came to a speedy end, provided with a significant impetus by the flow of foreign arms, money, and intelligence, including from the US. A substantial ‘silent’ majority desperately wishes to avoid Syria’s disintegration because they simply love their country, not the regime or armed rebels, and prefer reform and a negotiated settlement.

Two, it is false to equate, as the regime portrays it, every Syrian’s opposition to the Ba’athi state with acting on behalf of Zionists and imperialists, and equally false to suggest that advocating a negotiated settlement equates to buying into the regime’s self-narrative of an indispensable anti-imperialist frontline.

Three, foreign powers, especially Washington, several of its NATO allies, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, the latter essentially monarchic police states, are violating international law in pursuing subversion and violent regime change, and share primary responsibility for the radicalization, destabilization, and horrific violence inflicted on the people of Syria. Washington is interested in regime change, not in ensuring that neither side prevails to force a settlement.

Four, the fundamental truth is the Syrian people’s case for dignity and freedom, rights brutally denied and violated for so long by fearsome regimes such as the Syrian Ba’ath. The revolt against the Ba’athist regime, despite its now tainted nature, is not a conspiracy.

Five, despite Syria’s social diversity and divided loyalties, the fact that the regime has many supporters, and that a majority desires peaceful change, calls for the Syrian socio-political system to become no less than a civil, human rights-respecting, citizenship-based state. Still, Syria’s internal complexity and regional role requires special care and objective realism. Take Aleppo as a microcosm of Syrian complexity, the largest Syrian city containing some 82% Sunnis. Listening to the western, Qatari, or Saudi media, one would think that the city erupted into spontaneous rebellion and from the beginning was fighting a heroic war against the regime’s military and security forces. By objective accounts, however, Aleppo’s denizens supported the Damascus government by a large majority, many of them paying the price of Free Syrian Army reprisals. Now, since the penetration of armed groups and the violent zealotry of Salafists and foreign Jihadis, with their suicide bombings, kidnappings, and beheadings, looting and rape, as well as heavy, indiscriminate government firepower leading to the slow obliteration of this great historic and commercial city – one wonders what has happened to its people and their loyalties.

We only know that government forces and loyalists still hold the city, minus a couple of districts, as they do most of the country. Countless people have fled, many of their empty homes looted and ransacked by their would-be liberators, fearful of returning to rebel reprisals. Aleppo’s Islamist leaning al-Tawhid Division, ostensibly part of the FSA, contains numerous-armed factions, including many Salafi Islamists, who, themselves, are varied, ranging from Brotherhood types to al-Qaida-like extremists. There is also quite noticeable and significant Salafi literalist influence among the armed rebels generally. The disparate factions that make up the FSA are largely Islamist-dominated. Its battalions contain thousands of fighters of the Salafi/Jihadi group, Jabhat al-Nusra, a mainstay of the al-Tawhid in Aleppo.

In a situation of decentralized and disparate commands, such people are there at the front lines. All these groups, including the FSA, have an uneasy, distrustful relationship with the newly minted National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces, as they previously did with the now discarded Syrian National Council, and as they have with the western powers. Fortunately, Syria does not have a tradition of extremist political Islam. On the contrary, given its pluralist diversity, its geostrategic location, and secular nationalist history, Jihadi-type extremism does not fit in Syria.

The chaos and physical destruction, the ever-present danger of the regime-Sunni war transmuting into a sectarian civil war are deeply worrying, and the Salafists thrive on such an environment. No question, though, in its militarist, violent manifestations, this is essentially a rebellion of the Sunni Muslims, at core from the regions of Hama and Homs, and battle-tested foreigners, including Salafis, supported by the Sunni autocracies and wealthy donors of the peninsula. It is unlikely that a literalist Salafist regime will come to power, much less global Jihadis, but likely that a Sunni-Brotherhood dominated regime, sidelining the National Coalition, will.

The defunct National Council’s main obsession was arming without a clear political programme. The new National Coalition has got itself political recognition as a sort of provisional government—even as Syria remains a member state of the UN led by the al-Assad government—from Qatar, Saudi Arabia, France, Britain, and Turkey, followed by the US, which, however, consigned one rebel group, the Jabha, to its terrorist blacklist. (This prompted all the rest of the armed rebel groups to declare their support for the Jabha.)

Western support is predicated on the promise that the Coalition will unify the opposition, at least act as an umbrella, and be a better watchdog that presumes to undertake the impossible, even inane, task of vouching for and endorsing those groups deserving of armed support, which Washington reckons amounts to two-thirds of the fighting groups and their commanders. These parties essentially cajoled through the expansion of the new Coalition’s membership to three times the previous Council’s size and which includes most of the old Council’s members. The new body’s composition is a safeguard to dilute Islamist influence.

Washington in particular rejected the Brotherhood-dominated Council because it could not deliver unity, or control or exclude extremist Islamists, even though Council members did what the US wanted most of all: they talked about peace and good relations with Israel.

Whether the US is willing to advocate a negotiated solution is in my view not an open question. Its apparent caution in providing advanced, or heavy, weaponry, unlike the reckless monarchic allies it shakily controls, is due to its fear of uncontrolled, unmanaged violence leading to an incompliant, even hostile, Islamist regime. The Obama administration’s ambivalence stems from the tension between aggressive regional allies and its recognition of several realities: the proliferation of extremist groups, the possibility of a bloody stalemate that will destabilize the region, and the potential that an armed group will get its hands on chemical weapons.

Thus, Washington’s most urgent and immediate goal, when not obstructing UN peace and dialogue missions, is to pressure the Coalition to construct a centralized military command and political unity and ferret out the extremists, supposedly one-third of the armed rebels. Its version of a negotiated solution is not genuine internal talks between Damascus and the rebels, but Assad’s departure, which Washington defines as a ‘transition’, but which is actually a precondition.

This, the US imagines, would avoid the concomitant augmentation of Salafi extremist power caused by protracted violence and keep international law and Russia out of the equation, ensuring an obeisant Coalition’s rule. Washington’s conception of ending Syrian suffering is not via morally, legally, diplomatically urgent negotiations between rebels and government. Instead, it repeatedly stresses Assad’s inevitably violent downfall, as only he is responsible for his people’s calamity, thereby absolving it and its allies of complicity in Syria’s torment and prolongation of this horrific upheaval.

Yet the foreign arming of the rebels – that is, the militarization of this conflict – has been Syria’s worst affliction. For Syria does not need lethal arms and war, but a coherent, truly representative opposition built without interference, and ready to find a negotiated political solution to violent conflict. This requires internal Syrian national agreement on a transitional regime change through supervised elections. This at least is the ideal, though not the reality; for everyone, from assorted rebels, hell bent on acquiring advanced weaponry to Coalition members to Washington to local Gulf regimes, wants Assad’s head. The Alawite core of the regime not surprisingly sees this as an existential threat.

What prevails in Syria today is maddening ambiguity and galling hypocrisy on all sides: of the relationship between the Coalition and armed rebels, the craziness of inter-Arab politics, Gulf and Turkish hatred of the Shi’i Alawite Syrian regime—which I call the Sunni Syndrome—nation-destroying French and British actions characterized as advocacy of democracy, and single-minded US control of Syria couched as constructive, responsible diplomacy.

With multiple external players violently pursuing their own agendas supporting multiple factions with their own visions, such as these are, the chance of Syrians reaching a negotiated political solution, much less a compromise leading to such, is virtually nil. In reality, the Ba’ath, the Syrian regime, al-Assad, the socio-political system that prevailed in Syria for nearly a half century all have ended, or at least will not be restored. This in itself is extraordinary. Ultimately, the horrific violence and terrorism from both the state and its opponents is the responsibility of the regime, for it chose to let the country go to hell, and unwittingly invited outside intervention, rather than peacefully oversee a democratic transition in the early phase of the rebellion.

This is an enduring quality of Arab ruling regimes, mostly because they lack fundamental legitimacy and rule over divided societies. One can no longer say Syria is what it used to be, a moderate, pragmatic, stabilizing and secular regional centre keeping extremism at bay. This political role is a natural function of its geography and relatively diverse ethno-sectarian make-up, as well as the political sophistication of its people. Under radically changing circumstances, most importantly, a weakened and fractured Syria, it may not be able to play that role again for decades to come. The west and their autocratic Middle Eastern allies are destroying one ruling group in exchange for another dominated by Brotherhood Islamists. And those Salafists/Jihadists on the front lines will not only want a share of power, but some of them may continue post-Assad violence and insurgency, to the continuing danger of many Syrians.

Gholamali Khoshroo

19 December, 2012

@ www.iranreview.org

During the past four decades, Palestine has been able to convince the international community to recognize the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1974 followed by official recognition of the Palestinian Self-Rule in 1993, and finally upgrading Palestine’s status in the United Nations from “non-member entity” to “non-member observer state,” in 2012.

As a result of tremendous diplomatic efforts and amid high enthusiasm of Palestinians, the status of Palestine in the UN General Assembly has been upgraded to “non-member observer state” through 138 positive votes. By doing so, the international community has practically recognized Palestine as an independent state, though it is still not an official UN member, but an observer state. The important point is that promotion of Palestine to a non-member observer state can pave the way for full membership of Palestinians in the United Nations and this is exactly the same path that Switzerland and Germany treaded many years ago in order to become full members of the UN.

According to the Charter of the United Nations, full membership of countries in the world body hinges on confirming a state’s qualifications by the Security Council in addition to positive votes of, at least, two-thirds of the General Assembly member states. Mahmoud Abbas, who is currently heading the Palestinian Authority, did his best last year to promote the status of Palestine in the UN to full membership by pushing ahead with this goal through the Security Council. The United States, however, as a staunch ally of Israel and permanent supporter of suppression of the Palestinian people prevented this from happening by threatening or suborning various states. At the General Assembly, Palestine has regularly enjoyed the support of member states, but due to discriminatory structure of the Security Council, the Palestinian government has not been practically able to prevent Israel from going on with its policy of occupying Palestinian lands, violating their rights, and suppressing their protests.

The United States and Israel had exerted a lot of pressure to prevent Palestine’s status from being upgraded to “non-observer member state,” but they failed in practice and could not find more than seven votes out of 193 UN member states for their views. One of those seven votes belonged to Canada, a North American state, with the other one being given by the Czech Republic, a European state. The other five states opposing Palestine upgrade were tiny island states. The negative vote of Canada is, meanwhile, noteworthy. Canada has apparently based its foreign policy on promoting the human rights and democracy and bolstering humanitarian institutions across the world, and Ottawa believes that it has a say in this field. However, in this case, which is tied to the rights of millions of human beings who have been living under occupation by occupiers and bullies since 60 years ago, it has voted in favor of Israel.

Such a blatant failure and diplomatic fiasco has been almost unprecedented for the United States and Israel and, as such, is very significant. Israeli officials believe that changing situation of Palestine will lead to a parallel change in the balance of regional power and will, therefore, cause problems for the so-called peace accords between Israel and Palestinians.

The new status of Palestine makes it possible for the Palestinian officials to accede to international organizations, institutions, treaties and conventions and take advantage of international guarantees to restore their rights. For example, Israel is consuming 85 percent of all water resources in the West Bank unilaterally. According to reports published by major international human rights organizations, the people of the besieged Gaza Strip are also deprived of healthy potable water because Israel prevents transfer of water desalination equipment into Gaza, thus, depriving its people from the most basic human need, which is drinking water.

Legal experts believe now that Palestine has been recognized as an observer state by the UN, it can file lawsuits with the International Criminal Court and try to put Israeli criminals to trial for such charges as genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Once in 2009, the Palestinian Authority applied for membership at the Court, but the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor turned down Palestine’s request alleging that it had not been recognized as a “state.” However, after the categorical vote of the General Assembly to the upgrade of Palestine’s status, the situation has totally changed in favor of Palestinians. To show his disregard for the will of the international community and cover up his government’s failure, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the Israeli regime will build 3,000 new settler units in the Eastern al-Quds (Jerusalem) and the occupied territories of the West Bank. This decision has been taken at a time that the international community considers continuation of the construction of settlements by Israel on the occupied territories as a war crime, and Palestinians can take legal action against it via the International Criminal Court.

The head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, has also announced that now the rights of the Palestinian people and state within the borders set in 1967 are under protection of the fourth Geneva Convention and Israel should be held accountable for his inhuman crimes. The Palestinians have even announced that the new status of Palestine at the UN also changes the position of Palestinian prisoners in Israel and enables them to restore the legitimate rights of those prisoners which have been so far violated by the Israeli regime. Israel has also declared when faced with the will of the international community that it will seize taxable assets of the Palestinian Authority and will not give them back to Palestinians.

Of course, the noteworthy point here is that due to Washington’s unbridled support for Israel, Tel Aviv regime has never cared for the UN decisions and even the UN Resolution 242 which insisted on Israel’s withdrawal to behind 1967 borders was never implemented by Tel Aviv. The Palestinian resistance forces are of the opinion that emphasis on 1967 borders is necessary, but not adequate. They believe that this plan is only part of the strategy which should be pursued for the liberation of the entire Palestinian territories and restoration of absolute rights of Palestinians, especially the return of all refugees to their homeland. As a result, they oppose any plan which may lead to giving up part of the Palestinian territory to Israelis. Therefore, they do not recognize territories which were occupied by Israel in 1944 to belong to Israel and insist on the right of about six million Palestinian refugees to go back to their motherland.

Although resistance and jihadist forces such as Hamas and the Islamic Jihad had not formulated this plan, they did not oppose it either. They considered this a step toward further isolation of Israel and mounting international pressure on Tel Aviv regime, and maintain that taking any concession from Israel is a step toward establishment of a free and independent Palestinian state. The secretary-general of the Islamic Jihad has clearly announced that they will not oppose the initiative provided that it seeks a Palestinian state whose borders are the Mediterranean, on the one side, and Jordan River, on the other side. If, they say, it means to put a ceiling on the Palestinians’ demands, the Islamic Jihad would oppose the initiative.

The issue of Palestine has been the most important problem between the Muslim world and the West led by the United States over the past six decades. Many cases of insecurity, instability, violence, military deployment, and occupation in the Middle East have their roots in the injustice which has been, and is still being, done to the people of Palestine. Now that the people of the Middle East and the Islamic world are standing up to dependent leaders who are in line with the US policies in the region, nobody can continue to violate the rights of millions of people in Palestine and shatter their resistance against Israel. Continued support of the United States for Israel will further upset and irate Muslims and will only obliterate any change of understanding and cooperation for peace and justice. The unequivocal vote of the General Assembly for the upgrade of Palestine’s status and the resistance of people in the Gaza Strip against Israeli aggression have clearly proven that it is time for the United States to review its Middle East policies.

By Bill Van Auken

19 December, 2012

@ WSWS.org

Having first issued threats against the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad over unspecified intelligence regarding its chemical weapons, the Obama administration is now warning that these arms may fall into the hands of the “rebels” which Washington itself has backed.

This is the significance of a front-page article published this week by the Washington Post, which reported that, “US officials are increasingly worried that Syria’s weapons of mass destruction could fall into the hands of Islamist extremists, rogue generals or other uncontrollable factions.”

According to the Post, citing unnamed US officials, members of the Islamist militia, al-Nusra, which Washington has formally designated as a “foreign terrorist organization” and charged is an offshoot of Al Qaeda, overran “the Sheik Suleiman military base near Aleppo, where research on chemical weapons had been conducted” and were “closing in on another base near Aleppo, known as Safirah, which has served as a major production center for such munitions.”

While a decade ago, Washington prepared its invasion of Iraq by propagating lies about the regime of Saddam Hussein collaborating with Al Qaeda and a supposed threat he would supply the terrorist organization with “weapons of mass destruction,” today the Obama administration is floating a new and perverse pretext for war. It is raising the specter that its war for regime change in Syria might place such weapons into the hands of the Al Qaeda-linked forces that the US itself has both armed and strengthened in the bid to oust Assad.

While Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other administration officials have spoken publicly about the Assad regime’s use of chemical weapons against the insurgency in Syria being a “red line” that would trigger US “consequences,” the administration has not made such pronouncements about its response to these weapons being appropriated by Al Qaeda-linked “rebels.”

Speaking to US military personnel at the giant American base at Incirlik in southern Turkey, about 60 miles from the Syrian border, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta spoke of the Pentagon’s preparations for intervention in Syria over the chemical weapons issue. “We have a number of options that we can deploy if we have to, when the president makes that decision, to be able to act,” said Panetta.

The Pentagon chief added: “I’m not going to go into specifics. But I can tell you that—you know, that the United States, when we decide we’re going to do something, we damned well are going to do it.”

According to the Post report, unnamed Pentagon officials said that US military officers have been “updating their contingency plans in recent weeks as chaos has overtaken Syria.” They said that Washington was “working closely with Israel, Jordan and NATO allies, including Turkey, to monitor dozens of sites where Syria is suspected of keeping chemical arms and to coordinate options to intervene if necessary.”

Leonard Spector, deputy director of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute for International Studies told the Post that it would take 1,000 inspectors and specialists on the ground in Syria to “monitor the condition of each [chemical weapons] site and take inventory.”

The Post article adds, however: “That’s assuming there would be no need to provide security at the installations, much less engage hostile forces. In a worst case scenario, under which the Syrian military would gas its own people, the Pentagon has projected that it could take up to 75,000 troops to intervene.”

Meanwhile, the Assad regime has issued its own warnings. Insisting that it would never use chemical weapons against the Syrian population, it charges that the real threat comes from the “rebels” and their imperialist patron in Washington.

Syria’s ambassador to the United Nations in a letter to the Security Council and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed concerns in Damascus that the US and its allies could supply the Islamist militias with chemical weapons and then accuse the Syrian government of using them to provide a pretext for direct intervention.

“We have repeatedly stated publicly and through diplomatic channels that Syria will not under any circumstances use any chemical weapons that it may have, because it is defending its people from terrorists backed by well-known states, at the forefront of which is the United States of America,” wrote Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari. The letter was dated December 8 but first made public on Monday.

“We are genuinely worried that certain states that support terrorism and terrorists could provide the armed terrorist groups with chemical weapons, and then claim they had been used by the Syrian Government,” Ja’afari continued.

In response to Washington’s threats of intervention over a supposed danger that the Syrian regime will employ the weapons against the country’s population, the ambassador wrote, “States such as the United States of America that have used chemical and similar weapons are in no position to launch such a campaign, particularly because, in 2003, they used the pretext of Iraq having weapons of mass destruction in order to justify their invasion and occupation.”

Last week, in conjunction with a “Friends of Syria” conference in Morocco, the Obama administration took the combined actions of recognizing the Syrian National Coalition—whose leadership had been cobbled together the previous month under the direction of the US State Department at a luxury hotel in Doha—and of placing the al Nusra front on its list of “foreign terrorist organizations.”

The incongruity of these two measures, one of which signals a policy of war for regime change until victory, while the other seeks to distance Washington from what is widely acknowledged as the leading fighting force in this war, has led to protests from among the supposed “moderates” that the US publicly backs.

Among the latest to criticize Washington’s actions is Riad Seif, the wealthy exiled Syrian businessman who collaborated with the State Department in launching the initiative for the new Syrian opposition front. He disputed the terrorist designation, telling the French daily Le Figaro: “They do not hurt anyone. Generally, the Syrian Islamists are known for their moderation.”

Seif made this statement after a video placed on YouTube and reposted by the Syrian state news agency Sana had been widely viewed in Syria—though not even mentioned by the US corporate media. It depicts Sunni Islamist “rebels” physically abusing two captured Syrian Alawite officers (from the same sect as Assad) and then beheading them, with a boy appearing to be about 10 years old given a sword to take the first hack at one of their necks.

The video is emblematic of the bitter sectarian character of the civil war into which Syria has been plunged by US and Western intervention.

Washington’s feigned concern for the Syrian people in the face of an alleged threat from chemical weapons is a lie and a pretext. US imperialism is working in a de facto alliance with the most reactionary Islamist forces, including Al Qaeda, in a concerted attempt to lay waste to Syrian society, as part of a broader campaign to reorder the Middle East in its own interests.

By Veterans for Peace

19December, 2012

@ Countercurrents.org

Veterans For Peace urgently calls on the United States and NATO to cease all military activity in Syria, halt all US and NATO shipments of weapons, and abandon all threats to further escalate the violence under which the people of Syria are suffering.

NATO troops and missiles should be withdrawn from Turkey and other surrounding nations. US ships should exit the Mediterranean.

Veterans For Peace is an organization of veterans who draw upon their military experiences in working for the abolition of war. We have not entered into this work without consideration of many situations similar to the current one in Syria.

Peace negotiations, while very difficult, will be easier now, and will do more good now, than after greater violence. Those negotiations must come, and delaying them will cost many men, women, and children their lives.

No good can come from US military intervention in Syria. The people of Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, the former Yugoslavia, Vietnam, and dozens of other nations in Latin America and around the world have not been made better off by US military intervention.

While experts have great doubt that the Syrian government will use chemical weapons, while accounts of past use are dishonest, and while claims that such use is imminent are unsubstantiated and highly suspicious, the most likely way to provoke such use is the threat of an escalated foreign intervention. Required now by practicality, morality, and the law is de-escalation.

The possession or use of one kind of weapon cannot justify the use of another. Were the Syrian government to use chemical weapons against Syrians, the United States would not be justified in using other kinds of weapons against Syrians. The United States possesses chemical and biological weapons, as well as nuclear weapons, and possesses and uses cluster bombs, white phosphorus, depleted uranium weapons, mines, and weaponized unmanned aerial vehicles — none of which justifies military attacks on the US government.

The United States’ own military actions kill far more civilians than combatants. The United States facilitates and tolerates governments’ abuses of their own people in nations around the world and around Western Asia, notably in Bahrain — not to mention in Syria, to which the United States has in recent years sent victims to have them tortured. The world does not believe US motivations for intervention in Syria are humanitarian. The motivation has been too openly advertised as the overthrow of a government too friendly with the government of Iran and insufficiently subservient to NATO. Syria has been on a Pentagon list for regime change since at least 2001.

The threat of war, like the use of war, is a violation of the UN Charter, to which both the United States and Syria are parties. War without Congressional declaration is a violation of the US Constitution.

Another US war will not only breed hostility. It will directly arm and supply those already hostile to the US government.

How many times must we watch the same mistakes repeated?

The options are not limited to doing nothing or escalating warfare. Nonviolent resistance to tyranny has proven far more likely to succeed, and the successes far longer lasting. Nations and individuals outside of Syria should do what they can to facilitate the nonviolent pursuit of justice.

But Syria’s struggles should be controlled by the Syrian people without military intervention. The first step is a cease-fire and de-escalation. The US military and NATO can assist only by departing. (http://www.veteransforpeace.org/pressroom/news/2012/12/13/veterans-peace-opposes-military-intervention-syria)

Veterans For Peace is a national organization, founded in 1985 with approximately 5,000 members in 150 chapters located in every US state and several countries. It is a 501(c)3 non-profit educational organization recognized as a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) by the United Nations, and is the only national veterans’ organization

calling for the abolishment of war. Contact:

Leah Bolger leah@veteransforpeace.org 541-207-7761

Mike Reid mikereid@veteransforpeace.org 314-766-4657

David Swanson david@davidswanson.com 202-329-7847

By Countercurrents.org

19 December, 2012

@ Countercurrents.org

Two years after the uprising against the autocrat Ben Ali, the present day Tunisia is increasingly gripped with socio-political tension. The Islamist president and speaker in the country were stoned. The president was heckled by the people in another incident. At the same time, assaults on non-Moslems are on the rise.

Protesters on December 17, 2012 hurled rocks at Tunisia’s president Moncef Marzouki and parliamentary speaker Mustapha Ben Jaafar in Sidi Bouzid, cradle of the revolution that erupted exactly two years ago [1].

The incident began after a speech by Marzouki in the central Tunisian town, where celebrations were taking place to mark the anniversary of the revolution, and as Ben Jaafar was about to speak.

The security forces swiftly evacuated the two men to the regional government headquarters, an AFP journalist reported.

The protesters invaded the square where the head of state had been addressing the crowd. The people started shouting: “the people want the fall of the government.”

The police held back, after violent clashes over the past few months, which have often followed attempts to disperse protesters angry over the Islamist-led government’s failure to improve living conditions in the poor region.

Clashes and strikes as well as attacks by hardline Islamists have multiplied across Tunisia in the run-up to the second anniversary of the start of Tunisia’s revolution.

As the president took to the podium many in the crowd started shouting “Get out Get out!”, one of the rallying cries of the revolution that toppled the regime of former dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Marzouki promised economic progress within six months to the people of Sidi Bouzid, where poverty and unemployment were key factors behind the uprising that began there on December 17, 2010, after Mohamed Bouazizi, a street vendor set, himself on fire in protest at police harassment.

“I understand this legitimate anger. But the government has diagnosed the problem. In six months, a stable government will be in place and will provide the remedy to heal the country’s problems,” said the president, who was jeered by the crowd.

Marzouki had been heckled earlier in the morning, when he visited the grave of Bouazizi.

Threat of general strike

 

The government says it has reached tentative agreement with country’s trade union confederation to call off nationwide strike planned for revolution’s second anniversary [2].

President Marzouki, meanwhile, postponed trips to Poland and Bulgaria scheduled for this week as tensions mounted ahead of the strike.

The General Union of Tunisian Workers (UGTT) called the strike amid tensions with the ruling Islamist Ennahda party following what the union said was an attack by the party’s supporters on a union demonstration in Tunis and an attack on its headquarters by Islamist militants close to the Ennahda.

A union leader told AFP the UGTT demands the dissolution of the pro-Ennahda League for the Protection of the Revolution, which it accuses of carrying out last week’s attack.

Many Tunisians feel bitterly disappointed by the failure of the promises to improve their lives, especially in the marginalized interior which suffers from a chronic lack of development and high unemployment.

Clashes, strikes and attacks by hardline Islamists have multiplied across Tunisia.

The nationwide strike call is only the third to be made by the half-million strong UGTT since its foundation in the 1940s.

Disappointed by the failure to improve their lives, four volatile regions in Tunisia – including the part where the Arab Spring began – went on strike amid rising tensions with the ruling Islamic party [3].

The closure of the main private and public companies in those areas was called by regional branches of the main labor group, the UGTT.

Assault

Meat cleaver-wielding Salafists attack hotel bar in Tunisian city of Subaytilah in growing struggle between ultra-conservative Muslims and their more secular-minded compatriots [4].

An estimated 15 Salafists destroyed the hotel’s furniture and bar and burned a vehicle parked in front of the building. Bearded men threatened hotel guests with meat cleavers and called them “infidels,” eyewitnesses said.

The country has witnessed numerous violent incidents linked to hardliners, prompting opposition activists to accuse the Islamist-led coalition government of not doing enough to rein them in. There has been a complex domestic struggle over the role of religion in government and society during the post-revolutionary period.

The bar-related incident in Subaytilah comes after a similar attack on a bar in Sidi Bouzid. Bottles were smashed and customers were chased away with cries of “God is Great” and “drinking is forbidden.”

Sidi Bouzid, the birthplace of the uprising that toppled former president Ben Ali last year, is a stronghold of the Salafist movement, which has grown increasingly assertive in recent months.

Violence later spread to the capital where there were clashes between alcohol sellers and Salafists, wounding a police commander.

Ennahda, a moderate Islamist group lead by Rachid Ghannouchi, formed a coalition with two non-religious parties and has promised not to ban alcohol, impose the veil or use sharia [Islamic law] as the basis of Tunisian law.

It is under pressure from both Salafists calling for the introduction of Islamic law and secular opposition parties determined to prevent this.

Ennahda’s stance carries weight. Its secretary-general, Hamadi Jebali, is prime minister, and the party controls more than 40 percent of the seats in the constituent assembly. Salafists are not fully represented by any bloc in the assembly, but have stepped up street protests to press for their demands.

Secularists apprehend that Ennahda has been too soft on the Salafists who since the revolution have attacked or threatened theatres, cinemas and journalists, and most recently Tunisia’s tiny Jewish community.

Source:

[1] “Stones thrown at Tunisian leaders in Sidi Bouzid”, Dec. 17, 2012, http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/8/60713/World/Region/Stones-thrown-at-Tunisian-leaders-in-Sidi-Bouzid-A.aspx

[2] “Tunisia government says draft deal to avoid general strike”, Dec. 11, 2012,

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/0/60315/World/0/Tunisia-government-says-draft-deal-to-avoid-genera.aspx

[3] “Workers strike in volatile Tunisia regions”,

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/0/59923/World/0/Workers-strike-in-volatile-Tunisia-regions.aspx

[4] Ahram Online , “Tunisian Salafists attack bar, call drinkers ‘infidels’”,Friday 14 Dec 2012

http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/2/0/60487/World/0/Tunisian-Salafists-attack-bar,-call-drinkers-infid.aspx

 

Terrorists Killed in Damascus Countryside, Deir Ezzor and Idleb, Weapons Confiscated in Daraa

Dec 19, 2012

PROVINCES, (SANA)_A unit of the armed forces carried out a qualitative operation on Tuesday, killing a number of terrorists in al-Dhiyabieh in Damascus countryside.

An official source told SANA that the group of the terrorist nicknamed Abu Ayman was eliminated. The terrorists Abdul-Ghani Bkheit, Mohammad Hamada and Fares al-Rahwas were identified among the dead.

Meanwhile, another army unit destroyed a hideout for terrorists from the so-called “Islam Brigade” in Zamalka in the eastern Ghouta.

SANA reporter qouted an official source as saying that the army killed and injured many terrorists, adding that terrorist Wassim Marwan al-Olabi was identified among the dead.

In the same context, a unit of the Armed Forces killed a number of terrorists and destroyed their weapons and ammunition in al-Husseiniyeh.

An official source told SANA reporter that another army unit destroyed a mortar in al-Bahdaliyeh and killed three terrorists.

Meanwhile, a unit of the armed forces eliminated terrorists groups who were perpetrating acts of killing and looting the private and public properties in al-Hajar al-Aswad in Damascus countryside.

A source stated that among the terrorists killed were Yaser Yahya Eid, leader of a so-called group  “Ansar Allah” in al-Hajar al-Aswad along with Mohammad Sultan Hussein, Rizk Abu Aisha, Walid al-Akrami, Mohammad ahmad al-Jolani and Mohammad al-Louis.

The Army continues its National Duty in Aleppo and its countryside

Units of the armed forces today continued their national duty in clearing Aleppo and its countryside from the mercenary terrorists.

In Aleppo countryside, units of the army targeted gatherings of terrorists near al-Nour Association in Andan, around the playground in al-Mansoura, inflicting heavy losses upon them.

A source in the province told SANA that the army units also targeted dens of terrorists at al-Hadi Association in Kfar Dae’l and al-Jisr in Khan Toman, killing a number of terrorists and injuring many others.

Meanwhile, another army unit targeted gatherings of terrorists in the old city and al-Lermon, inflicting heavy losses upon them.

At al-Nakreen, a unit of the army was able to destroy a warehouse of weapons and munitions while another army unit targeted a gathering for terrorists behind Golden city Compound.

The Army Kills Scores of Terrorists in Deir Ezzor

Meanwhile, units of the Armed Forces killed scores of terrorists in al-Mreiy’ieh, al-Rushdiyeh and al-Jbeileh in Deir Ezzor province.

An official source told SANA reporter that an army unit clashed with an armed terrorist group in al-Mreiy’ieh, killing many of its members and injuring others.

The source added that terrorists Mohammad Yasin al-Mheisen and Loai al-Salem were identified among the dead.

In al-Rushdiyeh, a unit of the Armed Forces confronted terrorists who were committing acts of killing and looting in the area.

The clashes resulted in killing and injuring many of them, including terrorist Omar Suleiman al-Hamadi.

In a relevant context, an army unit targeted a gathering for terrorists in al-Hweiqa, killing and injuring many terrorists.

Terrorist Mohammad Ahmad al-Fad’am was identified among the dead.

Armed Forces Inflict Heavy Losses upon Terrorists In Idleb Countryside

Armed Forces unit carried out a series of operations in Idleb countryside, resulting in the destruction of terrorist bases and gatherings in the town of Bansh where a number of terrorists were killed and others were injured.

A number of terrorists were also eliminated in the town of Zardana, in addition to destroying a workshop for manufacturing homemade weapons in the town of Saraqeb and killing several terrorists who were in it.

Engineering units dismantled an explosive device weighing 100kg which terrorists had planted on the highway between Saraqeb and Ariha and rigged it for remote detonation.

Weapons Confiscated in Daraa Countryside

The authorities confiscated weapons from terrorists in the village of al-Masmiye in Daraa countryside, including assault rifles, PKC machineguns, 9 US-made shoulder-mounted rocket launchers, one LAW rocket, RPG launchers, and handguns.

The weapons were confiscated following a clash between the authorities and terrorists in the village which resulted in the killing of a number of terrorists including Jihad al-Ghazali, Jamal Ahmad Sayel al-Hasan, Anas Mohammad al-Jarad, and Mohammad Marouf Matar.

Meanwhile, the competent authorities today arrested a number of terrorists while storming one of their dens at al-Nazeheen camp in Daraa, seizing different kinds of weapons inside the den.

SANA reporter quoted a source in the province as saying that the seized weapons included 11 rifles and a machinegun.

Christmas Evening for the Syriac Mar Afram Choir Invoking Peace would prevail in Syria

Dec 18, 2012

DAMASCUS, (SANA)-A Christmas evening for the Syriac Mar Afram Choir was held on Tuesday at Mar Gregory Cathedral for the Syriac Orthodox in Bab Touma, Damascus, including prayers invoking peace to prevail in Syria.

The choir presented Christmas music pieces, songs and anthems inspired by Damascus, the city of joy, as what has been said in the Holy Book.

The Choir of First Mar Afram Iwas the Syriac was established by Mar Ignatius Zakka Iwas, the Patriarch of Antioch and all the East.

Syria Qualifies for West Asian Football Federation Championship Finals

Dec 18, 2012

KUWAIT, (SANA) – The Syrian National Football team qualified for the finals of the 2012 West Asian Football Federation Championship after beating Bahrain 3-2 in the match held on Tuesday evening in Kuwait.

After a goalless first half, the first goal was scored by Bahrain at the 67 minutes mark, only for Syria to score the equalizer at the 71 minutes mark, ending the second half in a draw.

During the additional times, the two teams didn’t score, going to the penalty kicks when the Syrian team has been able to win the match 3-2 and go to the final match.

General State Budget for 2013 Approved with SYP 1383 Billion

Dec 18, 2012

DAMASCUS, (SANA)- The People’s Assembly on Tuesday approved the general state budget for 2013 with a total of SYP 1383 billion, recording a 4 % increase over the budget of 2012.

Minister of Finance, Mohammad al-Jleilati, said the budget of 2013 takes into consideration the social dimension as a firm strategy to carrying out the financial policy and boosting trust between the government and citizens through transparency and openness regarding all financial, economic and social issues.

He stressed that the global political, economic and security war waged against Syria and the sanctions imposed on it are aimed at undermining the national economy and causing a structural flaw in the total balance of this economy, in addition to increasing the budget deficit.

Minister al-Jleilati however clarified that the general state budget has started to suffer deficits since 2003 because of relying mainly on the oil resources, and that was when production would reach up to 700 thousand barrels, which has dropped in the current year down to 225 thousand barrels, leading to an increase in the percentage of oil derivatives import. He explained how the current crisis which the country is going through has caused a decrease in the purchasing power of the Syrian Pound and affected that of commodity and consumable material distribution, leading accordingly to a big rise in the price of all materials due to inflation.

The Minister stressed that work is underway to reactivate the work of the halls of consumable materials establishments and consumable distribution cars to reduce the burdens on the citizens, in addition to focusing on commodity pricing according to the official foreign currency prices.

Al-Jleilati added that the government has given businessmen the required foreign currency to enable them pay for their imports with the aim to overcome the economic sanctions, noting that this cooperation has resulted in ensuing sufficient amounts of rice and sugar for a whole year.

He said the priority now is to follow up on carrying out the projects that focus on supporting the national economy and contribute to securing production requirements and the basic materials for the citizens.

Political Solution Only Way out of Syrian Crisis, China Says

Dec 18, 2012

Beijing, (SANA)_The Chinese Foreign Ministry said that the only solution to the crisis in Syria is the political solution, calling upon all parties involved to abide by Geneva statement.

Xinhua News Agency quoted the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying as saying at a regular press conference that ”China is open to any political settlement that is acceptable by a broad section of the Syrian people, and respects the choice of the people and adopts a positive and open position regarding any political solution.”

Hua called upon all parties concerned to work together according to Geneva statement and launch talks as soon as possible for negotiations on devising a plan for a political transition process in Syria.

The spokesperson also urged the parties in Syria to halt violence, indicating that China sees that the use of force won’t solve issues.

Mehmanparast: West Who Supports Terrorism in Syria Wants to Decide Its Destiny on behalf of Syrians

Dec 18, 2012

TEHRAN, (SANA)- Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast reiterated on Tuesday his country’s stance which calls for a peaceful solution to the crisis in Syria through dialogue among the Syrians themselves, pointing out that the West and the US want to decide the destiny and future of Syria on behalf of the Syrian people.

At a press conference, Mehmanparast called on the western countries which assume democracy and protecting human rights to leave the Syrian people decide their future far from any interferences.

He warned of the continuation of supporting terrorists in Syria by the western countries and some regional and Arab countries through sending weapons and money.

Mehmanparast called on all sides which have influence on the armed groups to put pressure on them to realize security and peace in Syria and pave the ground for national dialogue to find a peaceful solution to the crisis.

On deploying patriot missiles along the Turkish-Syrian borders, Mehmanparast said that all countries have to seek realizing security and peace in the region, calling on the Turkish officials to cooperate with the neighboring countries to maintain security and peace in the region.

Iranian Defense Minister: Presence of Foreign Forces in the Region Is  Not in Its Interest

Meanwhile, Iranian Defense Minister, Maj. Gen. Ahmed Wahidi, reiterated his country’s rejection of the deployment of Patriot missile system in Turkey, considering that the presence of foreign forces in the region is not in the interest of its peoples.

Maj. Gen, Wahidi said in a statement that the West has proved that it does not care about the peoples’ interests and cares only about those of its own.

On the developments in Syria, the Iranian Defense Minister said the Zionist entity is the one to benefit most from the violence in Syria which stands at the first line of confrontation against it.

Wahidi added that the biggest loser as a result of this violence is the Syrian people who have fallen victim to the terrorists targeting them.

Russia, Iran: Syria’s Fate Should be Determined by Syrian People

Dec 18, 2012

MOSCOW, (SANA) – Deputy Chairman of the Russian Federation Council, Ilyas Umakhanov, said that Russia is committed to its stance that Syria’s fate should be determined by the Syrians.

RT website quoted Umakhanov as saying, during his meeting with Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, that ”The Russian parliament, foreign ministry, government and President are committed to a unified stance and approach on the situation in Syria.”

”The fate of Syria is to be determined by the Syrian people, and any foreign attempt at imposing solutions will regrettably aggravate the situation.”

He added that there are a lot of Russian nationals in Syria, ”so for us, the situation has a humanitarian dimension too.”

For his part, Abdollahian said that Iran sees Russia a strategic partner and backs close bilateral cooperation in several fields.

”I’d like to point out that we have a strategic approach for cooperation with Russia…We cooperate in myriad fields and maintain good relations. Based on the high expectations in the two countries, this level of cooperation is not satisfactory for the leadership in Iran and Russia.”

Abdollahian: Halting Support for Armed Terrorist Groups Guarantees Restoring Calm to Syria

In an exclusive interview with Russia Today, Abdollahian stressed that stopping the support offered by some foreign parties to the armed terrorist groups in Syria will guarantee restoring calm to the country.

He said that if some foreign parties halted supporting the terrorists and the irresponsible armed militias in Syria, we will immediately sense the return of calm to it, indicating that “only then an appropriate foundation will be laid to go ahead with reforms, form a government of national accord and enhance dialogue.”

He reiterated his country’s support to the plan of the UN envoy to Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi.

Abdollahian also told SANA’s correspondent in Moscow that Russia and Iran have mutual viewpoints regarding supporting Syria, pointing out that Iran is communicating with the Syrian opposition which held meetings in Tehran recently.

On the deployment of international peacekeeping forces in Syria, Abdollahian said that this issue concerns the Syrian side, calling for monitoring Syrian borders and international cooperation to prevent the smuggling of weapons into Syria.

In a press conference, Abdollahian addressed the deployment of Patriot missiles in Turkey, saying that this won’t bolster its security nor regional security.

He also criticized US State Secretary Hillary Clinton for her support of sending weapons to terrorists in Syria.

As for the cancellation of the visit of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Turkey, Abdollahian said that there are disagreements between the two countries regarding Syria.

Patrushev: Russia Interested in Halting Violence in Syria, Holding Dialogue between Government and Opposition Necessary

Meanwhile, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev  said on Tuesday that his country is interested in halting violence in Syria and restoring issues back to normal, stressing the necessity of holding dialogue between the Syrian Government and the opposition.

In an interview with Komsemolskaya Pravda Newspaper, Patrushev said that the so-called “Syrian Opposition” is scattered, adding that the US declared that it would support the Doha Coalition which is working abroad.

He stressed that there will never be peace in Syria without the participation of the current leadership.

Russia’s Ambassador to Lebanon: Solution to Crisis in Syria Should Be Based on Geneva Statement

For his part, Russia’s Ambassador to Lebanon, Alexander Zasypkin, reiterated his country’s firm stance towards the crisis in Syria, stressing that the solution to the crisis should be based on Geneva statement.

In a statement following his meeting with the Lebanese Defense Minister, Fayez Ghosn, Zasypkin said that dialogue among the Syrians should be the basis to reach a solution.

Indian Ambassador in Damascus: Syria is Facing Extremist Movements That Hold no Value to Human Life

Dec 18, 2012

DAMASCUS, (SANA) – India’s Ambassador in Damascus V. P. Haran on Tuesday affirmed that Syria is facing extremist, violent movements that hold no value to human life, voicing confidence that Syrians are capable of moving towards peace and achieving development and national reconciliation.

In a speech delivered at the reception organized by the Foreign and Expatriates Ministry on occasion of the end of his mission as ambassador to Syria, Haran said that India is very interested in what is happening in Syria and that he relayed the truth about what is happening, as his country’s foreign ministry has been getting its information from the Indian Embassy in Damascus directly, not from mass media.

Haran reviewed the joint projects and the advanced relations between Syria and India, noting that his country continued to develop cooperation relations even during the current events, particularly in the fields of education and scholarships.

For his part, Assistant Foreign and Expatriates Minister Ahmad Arnous underlined the strong and historic relations between the two countries and the need to continue developing them.

Arnous said that the two countries share the belief that Syria will be safe and strong as it was before, thanking India for all its efforts in the UN, Security Council and international and regional circles and its support for international principles of non-interference in countries’ internal affairs.

Arnous presented a commemorative gift to Haran as a gesture of appreciation of his efforts to strengthen cooperation between India and Syria.

Minister of Health: Urgent Medical Shipment Arrives at Aleppo International Airport

Dec 18, 2012

DAMASCUS, (SANA) – Minister of Health, Sa’ad al-Nayef, said that an urgent shipment of medicine worth over SYP 90 million arrived at Aleppo International Airport, including chronic disease medications.

In a statement to SANA, Minister al-Nayef noted that the shipment came within the framework of the efforts exerted to meet the health and medical needs of various patients in Aleppo.

He indicated that the Ministry is working on preparing additional medial shipments to be sent to Aleppo within the next week, including artificial respirators, medical and surgical equipment and other medicines for healthcare and emergency services.

Al-Nayef stressed that other medical shipments are under preparation to be sent to the provinces of Hasaka, Hama, Idleb, Sweida, Quneitra and Raqqa, referring to the Ministry’s coordination with the authorities concerned to deliver the shipments to the health directorates in these provinces.

He stressed the Ministry’s efforts to meet the patients’ needs and preserve the strategic reserve of medicine and medical supplies in the health institutions in these provinces.

Grand Mufti: Syria Will Remain Strong and Impregnable Thanks to Its People

Dec 18, 2012

DAMASCUS, (SANA) – Grand Mufti of the Republic Dr. Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun affirmed that Syria will remain strong and impregnable in the face of its enemies thanks to the solidarity of its people and will continue to defend the Arab and Islamic nations.

In a lecture delivered on Tuesday at Al-Assad National Library, Hassoun said that the campaign against Syria employs all forms of methods and weapons and seeks to destroy and divide Syria, pointing out to the large number of martyrs who fell victim to the aggression against Syria, the destruction that affected cities, and the displacement of families.

He noted that throughout history, Syria faced many campaigns of aggression and destruction, yet it remained giving and hospitable.

Hassoun said that called on those who consider themselves to be opposition to engage in dialogue and return to Syria, making the people their compass instead of asking help from countries that are well-known for their hostility towards the region, affirming that these countries aren’t actually supporting the opposition; rather their actions seek to guarantee Israel’s security.

Aleppo a Top Priority for Government with Large Financial Allocations

Dec 18, 2012

ALEPPO, (SANA)- In the framework of the government’s efforts to secure the delivery of the basic needs as soon as possible to the terrorism-stricken city of Aleppo, Prime Minister, Wael al-Halqi, announced that convoys with badly needed gas, gas oil and gasoline are ready to set off towards Aleppo once the problem of blocked roads leading to the city due to the terrorists’ attacks is resolved.

 

With the armed terrorist and mercenary groups having targeted all economic, development and living components and service institutions in Aleppo province as well as in other areas in a number of provinces, including water, electricity, communications and development institutions, Premier al-Halqi declared that the government has allocated SYP 200 million to buy aid and relief materials for Aleppo.

In the same context, al-Halqi added that SYP 100 million were allocated to buy basic needs and services and SYP 140 million to contribute to the independent budget of Aleppo province within 15 days, in addition to SYP 400 million to buy relief and aid materials in the first half of the coming year and SYP 6 billion to provide aid supplies already available inside the storehouses of the Ministry of Industry in the form of canned food stuff and basis materials.

Al-Halqi, leading a large delegation to Aleppo city, affirmed that the government is working to secure as much as possible of the relief assistance via planes at an average of a shipment in a week.

As far as food provision materials, particularly rice and wheat, are concerned, the Premier asserted that the government has a surplus of these materials and that it constantly imports to cover its further needs, noting that the main problem in Aleppo has to do with having these materials grinded as the armed terrorist groups have sabotaged a number of mills in Aleppo countryside.

Speaking in the presence of a large number of Aleppo social and economic figures, al-Halqi said the problem has got complicated as it is also related to securing oil derivatives to feed the electricity stations as well as to the railways that transport these derivatives and the provision stuff, which have been vandalized as a result of the terrorists’ sabotage acts.

He explained how this all resulted in shortage of flour in Aleppo, stressing however that the government is exerting serious efforts to deliver large amounts of bread via airplanes.

On the issue of the electrical power outages in Aleppo city, the Prime Minister stressed that electricity will be back in the coming 48 hours as the maintenance workshops are making great efforts to repair the damages caused to the electricity generating stations by the terrorist groups.

Commenting on the situation of the SYP exchange rate, al-Halqi affirmed that the stability of the exchange rate despite the current circumstances facing the country, indicating the existence of a considerable reserve of foreign currency.

In the framework of discussing the efforts to rehabilitate the damaged infrastructure and facilities, Deputy Prime Minister for Services Affairs and Minister of Local Administration, Omar Ghalawanji, said sub-committees were formed in all of the provinces to receive the citizens’ damage claims.

He noted that so far 50 percent of the value of compensations have already been given to the affected people, adding that other SYP 300 billion are agreed to be spent in this regard.

Ghalawanji pointed out that a sum of SYP 30 billion has been allocated in the budget for 2013 in the same regard.

The government has also given a great attention to the industrialist and businessmen in Aleppo through facilitating their work in terms of being able to get import licenses from all the other provinces.

This goes along with the emergency measures taken by the Ministry of Industry in terms of agreeing on transferring industrial establishments inside and outside the province of Aleppo without any fees, in addition to forming a committee to assess the damage caused to some of the industrial establishments.

In the framework of the meeting, Minister of Petroleum and Mineral Resources, Saeed Mu’zi Hneidi, stressed that the government is to secure 75 percent of Syria’s needs of oil derivatives soon, noting that the priority will be for Aleppo province.

For his part, Minister of Social Affairs and Labor, Jassem Mohammad Zakaray, reviewed the Ministry’s efforts exerted in cooperation with the Higher Commission for Relief and Aleppo Governorate to ensure the delivery of the main requirements and humanitarian aid for the citizens in Aleppo.

He said that financial support has been provided to 40 charity associations, including 9 in Aleppo, noting that SYP 250 million were allocated by the government for charity associations working in the relief field.

The measures taken by the government in Aleppo also included providing all logistic and daily life requirements to the shelter centers in cooperation with the Ministry of State for Red Crescent Affairs and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent organization.

The health situation in the province received a great attention with the Health Minister, Saad al-Nayef saying that large amounts of medications were transported to Aleppo, including those for various chronic diseases, in addition to the efforts exerted to supporting the rescue system and providing hospital equipment.

Syrian Film “Nukhaa” Participates in CAM International Film Festival in Egypt

Dec 18, 2012

DAMASCUS, (SANA) – The Syrian short film “Nukhaa” (Marrow), participates in the CAM International Film Festival of Documentary and Short Films due to be held in Egypt between December 22nd – 27th.

The film is written by Ali Wajeeh and directed by Waseem al-Sayed.

In an exclusive interview with SANA, al-Sayed underlined the importance of Syria’s participation in the International CAM Festival in Egypt and the International Short Film Festival in Tiznit (Morocco) in March, 2013, under the current circumstances.

Scenarist Ali Wajeeh said that the participation is “an attempt to present something despite all sorrows.”

The Syrian film “Nukhaa” won the Award of Excellence in the Best Shorts Competition held in the USA in 2012.

The actors are Mazen Abbas and Nisreen Fandi. The film is produced by the General Establishment for Television and Radio Production.

Terrorists Attack Tens of Archaeological Sites in Daraa

Dec 18, 2012

DARAA, (SANA) – Tens of archaeological sites in Daraa province have been attacked by armed terrorist groups, according to Daraa Archaeological Directorate.

Director of Daraa Archaeological Directorate, Dr. Mohammad Nasrallah, told SANA that the archaeological sites have been exposed to secret excavations and attacks, causing sabotage to large parts of them, pointing out that the Directorate in cooperation with the authorities documented the damage and sabotage acts.

Nasrallah added that some archaeological sites in al-Mzirib, Inkhel, Maraba, al-Hirak, Sheikh Miskin, Sahm al-Golan, Heet, al-Shajara, Tafas and Dael towns were exposed to sabotage and destruction.

He stressed that the directorate has registered over 100 violations and it has informed the  authorities concerned in these towns.

Restaurants in Old City of Damascus Still Home for Damascus Lovers

Dec 18, 2012

DAMASCUS, (SANA) – As Damascus has always been the land of civilizations and history, its veins are still beating with life in spite of pain thanks to the determination of  its people who adored its streets and alleys and the smell of jasmine and the Damascene rose.

In spite of the current circumstances going on in Syria and the cold weather, the old city of Damascus is living normal life as its restaurants are witnessing turnout from people who come to enjoy the charming atmosphere of the city accompanied by their families and friends.

In the neighborhood of Bab Touma in the old city of Damascus, restaurants receive large groups of youths who come for entertainment and to exchange viewpoints. Darin, a girl in her thirties, says that she comes every Friday to meet her friends in one of Bab Touma restaurants.

“In spite of the current painful events in Syria, the love for life and determination to go on push me to come here”, she added.

With his laptop on the table surfing the internet to follow up the latest news, Samir said that he always come to Antique Restaurant in spite of the current situation, adding that he believes that Syria will remain strong thanks to its people’s determination to continue their work and practice their daily habits.

Michael, young man from Damascus, said these restaurants preserve the ancient oriental aspects which give a feeling of comfort and amity.

Yehya, a worker at Antique Restaurant, said that people are still coming to the restaurant as normal in spite of the current circumstances, adding that he has good relations with the customers.

International Arabic Language Day Marked

Dec 18, 2012

DAMASCUS, (SANA) – World celebrates the International Arabic Language Day every year on December 18th as Arabic is one of the 6 languages adopted by the United Nations.

The purpose of celebrating the UN-adopted languages is encouraging dialogue and communications and increasing awareness among the member states on the role of these languages in history as a method to communicate among peoples.

Dr. Mahmoud al-Sayyed, Head of the Committee for Empowering Arabic, told SANA that the celebration highlights the great position of Arabic among the world’s languages.

Al-Sayyed added that the committee was established by a Presidential decree in 2007 and is tasked with setting a national work plan to empower Arabic in all levels and follow up the implementation of this plan through Arabic committees in several ministries.

He said that these committees work on empowering Arabic through training courses and printing books.

He noted that Arabic language is celebrated three times per year, on February 21st, as designated by UNESCO, International Mother Language Day, and on March 1st as a day to celebrate Arabic adopted by the Arab Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO).

In turn, Dr. Ghassan Ghunaim of the Arab Writers Union, said that “Recent expeditions in Mary Tal al-Hareer city said that the 300-year-old written symbols were very similar to Arabic, which indicates that Arabic is one of the most ancient living languages.”

He stressed that Arabic is capable of keeping up with all scientific, knowledge-related and cultural trends because of its flexibility and richness.