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After the Arab League hypocritically suspended the membership of Syria amid the mounting pressures of NATO and the United States, the resurgence of violence in Egypt and the increasing use of excessive force in Bahrain and Yemen and the unrelenting massacre of innocent civilians by the barbaric regime of Al Khalifa and Ali Abdullah Saleh once again attracted the attention of conscientious observers in the international community.

According to official figures released by the “Bahrain Center for Human Rights” website, so far 44 Bahraini citizens were killed at the hands of the mercenaries of Al Khalifa regime. The Bahraini martyrs include the 6-year-old Mohammed Farhan, 14-year-old Ali Jawad Alshaikh and 15-year-old Sayed Ahmad Saeed Shams. The Bahraini organization has reported that many of these martyrs were killed while in custody. The Center has also published documents indicating that more than 1,500 Bahrainis including about 100 women were incarcerated since the eruption of turmoil in the Persian Gulf country on February 14, 2011 and that more that 90 journalists face life threat.

It’s also said that the Bahraini government has blocked the citizens’ access to more than 1000 opposition websites which are mainly used to organize and plan protests and mass demonstrations.

The Bahraini regime commits all of these aggressive and brutal actions with the direct involvement of the Saudi Arabia and the implicit support and backing of NATO and the United States. The author of the “Hidden Harmonies China” blog in a March 14, 2011 post referred to the abuses of human rights in Bahrain with the flagrant, duplicitous support of the White House: “the Entry of Saudi security forces to crack down on the protesters with deadly force is a complication for U.S. policies, to say the least, since U.S. is reluctant to criticize its oil ally dictators in the region.”

He also called Bahrain the “Las Vegas” of the Middle East, host to the U.S. 5th Fleet and a haunt for the rich Saudis who are forbidden by Islamic laws at home from indulging in alcohol and other immoral enjoyments, “but who often vacation in Bahrain for these reasons.”

Bahraini citizens have uploaded several video files on the internet, showing the cruel and ruthless torturing and persecuting of the protesters by the Al Khalifa lackeys. These videos depict the Bahraini forces using tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters and killing many of them straight away. Some of these videos also show the Saudi and Bahraini cars nonchalantly running over Bahraini children and women, killing them at once.

The U.S.-Saudi project of crackdown on the Bahraini people was also empowered by many of the European cronies of Washington. In July 2011, Germany sold a set of 200 62-ton Leopard tanks to Saudi Arabia which sparked a huge controversy among the German parliamentarians and anti-war activists. According to the Daily Telegraph, Wolfgang Gerhardt, former leader of the Free Democrats, the junior collation member to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats, said it was “unacceptable” the deal went through without the knowledge of his party’s MPs. However, the agreement which was worth around USD 1,252 million was concluded and the Saudi government dispatched many of these newly-bought tanks to Bahrain to accelerate and facilitate the bloody clampdown on the protesters.

The situation in Yemen, however, is far more deplorable and appalling. Allvoices.com has reported that as of September 25, 1,870 Yemenis were killed in the revolution and the majority of the martyrs were unarmed civilians taking part in anti-government demonstrations.

The Yemeni dictator who has remained defiant in the face of frequent calls by the tribal leaders, opposition groups and demonstrators to step down and give up power has turned his country into a bloodbath and made the Yemeni uprising the longest, most devastative revolution in the revolutionary wave of protests in the Middle East. The protests in Yemen started on February 3, 2011 and have continued so far. The only reaction of the international community to the brutality in Yemen was an indecisive and faltering resolution by the UNSC which called for “an end to violence” and asked President Ali Abdullah Saleh to accept a peace deal brokered by the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council. However, Abdullah Saleh who is tacitly supported by the U.S., kept up with the brutalities and according to Yemen Times, 94 protesters were killed after the Security Council adopted the resolution 2014.

In a report published on Yemen Times on November 17, it was revealed that “ninety-four Yemenis were killed and over 800 injured since UN Resolution 2014 was issued on October 21.”

“Tentative reports show that over the last three weeks in Yemen, 124 homes, seven mosques, six public institutions including one hospital, two community wells, and 17 vehicles were effectively destroyed,” Yemen Times reported.

In the days leading to the detainment and death of Moammar Gaddafi, the Western mainstream media were only talking about the Libyan civil war, and the reason was clear: NATO had secured a UNSC resolution to enact a no-fly zone over Libya and it was in the interests of the U.S. and its European partners to give coverage to the tumultuous situation in the North African country. However, the reports and news regarding the carnage in Bahrain and Yemen were predominantly shunned and boycotted, simply because these two despotic regimes were close allies of the U.S. in the Middle East.

In a report published on “Independent Australia,” Zaid Jiani alluded to the violent crackdown on the protesters in Bahrain and Yemen and posed the question that “is the media downplaying these events because the two dictatorships are firm allies of the West?”

“A Think Progress analysis of press coverage by the three major U.S. cable news networks -CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News – from March 14 to March 18 finds that Bahrain received only slightly more than ten percent as many mentions as Libya and that Yemen received only six percent as many mentions as Libya.”

Now what concerns the independent thinkers, scholars, university professors, journalists and peace activists is that Syria has become the target of international pressure, simply because it has strong ties with Iran and resistant groups in Lebanon and Palestine, while the reactionary regimes of Bahrain and Yemen are getting away with the felonies which they commit by the virtue of their alliance with the United States.

Arab League has vindictively suspended the participation of Syria while it has taken no practical step to normalize the situation in the turbulent and chaotic Yemen and Bahrain in which innocent people are being killed on a daily basis by their tyrannical rulers and their loyalists

All that can be said is that the performance of the Arab League in neglecting the situation in Yemen and Bahrain and exaggerating the unrest in Syria which is mainly caused by the foreign intervention and the West’s indifference toward the plight of the suppressed nations in Yemen and Bahrain is an all-out hypocrisy and a clear, undeniable exercise of double standards. Who can really devise a clear-cut solution for this unsolvable dilemma?

By Kourosh Ziabari

24 November 2011

@ Countercurrents.org

Kourosh Ziabari is an Iranian journalist

Benghazi : The “new Libya” has entered its own “Terror” which is spreading inexorably, aided by NATO member states including American, French and British SAS units known locally as “disappearance squads”. This is one of the rapidly developing consequences of the UN’s rush to “protect Libya’s civilian population” last spring.

And it is why human rights investigators are arriving in Benghazi, Libya this week.

“Approximately 1,085.92082238 kilometers or roughly 600 miles from Cairo to Benghazi” is what the lovely travel agent who works a couple of doors down from the Swedish Café off Tahir Sq reported as she smiled and wanted this observer to take a fancy high rise double decker luxury bus to Benghazi where I was headed from Cairo. In the end I settled for sharing a dump truck at one-third the cost across the Egyptian and Libyan desert to the Courthouse in Benghazi. It didn’t seem such a bad idea following meetings in nearby countries, especially considering alternative routes which would have involved flying to Tunis, then another flight to Jerba and then the six hours jammed service ride to Tripoli. I had been there and done that more than once and needed to leave right away to meet some people who were being held in one of Benghazi’s teeming jails.

Until the NTC announced changes yesterday, anyone bearing an American passport did not need a visa to enter Libya, so grateful has been the NTC for all the financial help that American taxpayers, largely unknowingly, have supplied to NTC officials in addition to presenting them with a country with vast oil reserves and zero national debt.

One of the fortunate language usages in this part of the world is the liberal transliteration tolerances applied to Arabic which helps those challenged by the language. As is widely known there are many ways to write Arabic words in roman characters and most are accepted. But one has to listen carefully in Libya these days to grasp the important distinction between certain English words when referring to the fate of increasing numbers of supporters of the Gadhafi regime. In the current atmosphere one often hears that someone “has disappeared” which, depending on one’s political views is usually good news and it means the person is in hiding or left the area or fled the country to safety. Alternatively, it might be said that a person “is disappeared” meaning that she or he was caught by the new regime and is gone, probably, forever without a trace for loved ones to pursue.

Following meetings with Libyan evacuees (disappeared) from NATO’s nine months of bombing who are now present in nearby countries and from meetings inside Libya with incarcerated former officials and some of their family members as well as fugitive opponents of the new “government” it is clear that the current period is cascading into paroxysmal revenge attacks and political cleansing.

Those increasingly being targeted by “disappearance squads” are family members and associates, even former domestic employees such as gardeners, handymen, and household staff of former regime affiliates. Homes, cars, furniture, of former regime affiliates are being systematically confiscated. Torture has become the normal means to elicit information regarding the whereabouts of individuals thought to still be supporting the former regime. The reason, according to one former Libyan official who barely escaped one of the French squads and who now resides in Egypt, “is the same reason drones are so popular with your US military, torture works. Not 100% but it’s better than the other options.”

There appears to be a Tell Tale Heart paranoia settling in among some NTC elements who believe that if there is one Gadhafi supporter left in Libya it might mean the return of his ideas for Libya’s role via a vis the West and its re-colonization of Africa plans, control of Libya’s natural resources and its relations with the rapidly changing Middle East.

Even Libya’s NATO-managed NTC members are worried that they may be investigated by the International Criminal Court after its prosecutor said allegations of crimes committed by NATO in Libya would be examined “impartially and independently.” Some western lawyers currently in Libya who are here to help victims of NATO crimes are oddly being approached by members of the new regime for discussions relating to the possibility that the ICC may come after them. This is also one of the reasons why rumors that Saif al Islam is about to surrender to the ICC are false. Saif is being advised to wait and rest because the ICC case will collapse as more facts of NATO crimes surface. Former Libyan officials in hiding are also well advised to stay safe if possible as time may be on their side.

Government officials of countries bordering Libya are being advised to allow sanctuary for supporters of the former Libyan government and to refuse extradition requests because activity currently taking place in The Hague may well pre-empt a war crimes investigation.

Tunisia is today under great pressure from NATO not to change its mind and not to decline the NTC extradition request for Libya’s former Prime Minister Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi. NATO is concerned because American lawyers recommended last month that Baghdadi apply for U.N. political refugee status with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees to try to prevent his extradition from Tunisia. On 11/11/11 the UN acknowledged receipt of Dr. Baghdadi’s petition and informed intermediaries that it is being seriously considered. UNHCR has a good record in similar cases but needs to pressure Lebanon with respect its outrageous treatment of a quarter million Palestinian refugees, now suffering debasement for over 63 years.

Other reasons the NTC and NATO are concerned is that there is currently being undertaken in the Hague an encompassing internal legal review of all incidents in which NATO bombing or other NATO or NTC actions caused civilian casualties. An American led team is nearing completion of its six month investigation which is expected to be forwarded to the ICC and made public soon

A main reason former interim Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril resigned recently, and others will, is the pressure he has been under from Islamists and many others who remember his record as the former regime’s Minister of Justice and Jibril’s concern that he may be investigated himself by the ICC for many decisions he has made over the past eight months that are now coming to light. Following his statement about how Muammalr Gadhafi was killed after he was taken into custody alive, which constituted a clear war crime, Jibril is now claiming that it was not him who gave the order to assassinate Gadhafi or even Jibril’s former friend, General Younnis, but rather as he explained at a news conference yesterday, amid snickers from assembled journalists, that “a third party maybe a State, or a President or leader in any way who wanted Gaddafi killed, so as not to reveal the many secrets that only Gaddafi could have known.” Jibril did not have to mention that Gadhafi knew many secrets about himself and other NTC officials and he is not alone among NATO and NTC officials in fearing an ICC investigation.

It is this atmosphere that is significantly fueling the Terror across Libya.

By Franklin Lamb

Franklin Lamb is reachable c/o fplamb@gmail.com

With apologies to T.S. Eliot, let me twist his words around a bit and say, “Between the media and the reality falls the shadow.” Bouthaina Shabaan, the sharp political advisor to Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, had her finger on the shadow when she told visiting Indian journalists in October, “Neither we nor the BBC knows what’s happening in Homs.” The candour belied the image of a secretive and blustering regime. After moving around Damascus, Aleppo and Latakia, we suspected that western diplomacy and the western media were tinkering with reality in depicting a complex Syrian situation.

But Homs was an eye-opener. We reached a spot barely 20 minutes after a three-hour (2-5 pm) gunfight. But it wasn’t security forces that opened indiscriminate fire on opposition demonstrators, as day after day, big media outlets had us believe about Homs. The dead, and the injured in a hospital we visited, were largely women and children. But they’d died from bullets fired by the opposition, not the state troops. Homs wasn’t a town completely up in arms against the ruling Ba’athists, as is being projected. It was divided, with several sullen streets, all shut and palled in ghostly silence. But there were also streets that were all lit up even after a gunfight, with passionate government supporters shouting pro-Assad slogans—also pro-India and anti-America slogans when they learnt that we were from India. An objective assessment of the situation in Syria would also include the violence inflicted by certain opposition groups, a stand that India correctly took in the UN Security Council, based on feedback from the ground provided by the Indian embassy in Damascus. This is a stand that has gone down well with large sections of people on the streets of Syrian towns.

The so-called uprising in Syria lies largely along an arc of towns near the borders—with Lebanon, Iraq or Turkey—indicating a degree of backing from across the borders. Non-western diplomats talk of four strands of opposition: a) Peasants uncomfortable with the recent market-driven policies of the Assad government. It’s an ‘economic resentment’, articulated in the terminology of popular non-fundamentalist Islam. b) Progressive sections of the middle classes, who genuinely want democratic reforms. c) Wahabi hardline Islamists backed by fundamentalist Arab elements, largely from Saudi Arabia. d) People who resented the secularist, Arab socialist Ba’ath party takeover and left Syria for western pastures. They have made their money in the West, live there and want to refashion Syria with western support, in the western image, and allied to western interests.

Government leaders like Bouthaina and foreign minister Walid al-Moallem differentiate between what they call the opposition rooted in the country and the violent armed bands, backed by foreign powers, which infiltrate their peaceful demonstrations. Certain Syria-based opposition groups responded to the government’s negotiation initiative, opened through the offices of the Grand Mufti Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun. He told us his son was recently assassinated by fundamentalist Islamists. About democratic reforms, Bouthaina sounds quite candid: “We are serious in recognising that reforms are Syria’s need of the hour.” Hence, she says, the government has lifted the emergency enforced for decades in Syria and announced a timeline for multi-party parliamentary elections in February next year, governorate elections, also in November 2012, and presidential elections in 2014. Therefore the government accepted the Arab League’s proposal for widened talks with the opposition, but it is adamant in not compromising with Syria’s secular ethos.

The regime is capitalising on the horrors of extremist Islamist and foreign intervention in Egypt, where Coptic Christians were massacred and the army rules with an iron fist, Libya and Iraq before that. Ba’athist Syria has provided free secular space to women and religious minorities like the Christians and Islamic sects like the Shias, the Alawites, the Ismailis and the Druze. Syria is largely an educated, middle-class society: large sections have a stake in women’s emancipation and plurality. These people are alarmed by the political Islam exported by their neighbours. The Assad regime emphasises that the West’s rhetoric of human rights overthrows only secular nationalist Arab regimes, but stops at the doorsteps of autocratic and fundamentalist sheikhdoms willing to play stooge. It says western interests have not gone beyond oil and securing Israel. For now, Syria is more hit by the western economic sanctions than internal unrest. But sanctions also induce patriotic fervour, as witnessed in huge pro-Assad rallies. The West would do well to heed this and not create another bloody mess. Syria needs to be encouraged to reform and resolve its trust deficit. Unhindered by foreign interference.

By Neelabh Mishra

21 November 2011

@ outlookindia.com

DAMASCUS, (SANA) – Damascus Citadel is celebrating Adha Eid through holding the 2nd “Childhood Joy Festivity” which mixes all types of entertainment and cultural activties through various children games such as the electric train and swings, in addition to theatrical shows, films, folkloric dances and entertainment shows.

Director of the Festivity, Malak Yasin said that new activities are being held in the framework of the festivity which is organized for the second year in a row such as the cinematic and theatrical shows, in addition to the sculpture workshops.

She added that all the products of the workshops will be a gift from the Ministry of Culture to Damascus Citadel.

She indicated that the festivity has witnessed a huge turn out during Adha Eid as the number of the children who participated in it has significantly increased in comparison with the last year.

She said that the increase in the number of the participants has been due to the suitable activities provided not only to the children, but also to their parents.

Technical Supervisor of the Festivity, Rami Issa said that the preparations for the event this year took about a month including the rehearsals for the theatrical shows and preparing the suitable atmosphere for the exhibitions and workshops.

The activities held by the Ministry of Culture at Damascus Citadel vary to include an environmental exhibition and interactive environmental activities.

Artistic workshops are also being held at the internal and external hallways of the Citadel, in addition to the puppet theatre and shadow theatre.

The festivity opens everyday during Adha Eid from 11:00 am till 10:00 pm.

Damascus Citadel was chosen for holding the Festivity to allow the children and their parents to get more acquainted with this magnificent great cultural monument.

By R. al-Jazaeri

State employees and families of Homs : life is normal… basic needs are available

HOMS, (SANA)- Families and the State’s employees in Homs on Wednesday underlined that life is normal in Homs, and there is no shortage in the goods and basic needs of people in contrary to what some provocative channels broadcast.

Director of Homs bakeries Khaled Jomaa said this basic material is being distributed in all the city’s suburbs as normal, adding that the private, public and reserve bakeries are working continuously, even during the Eid holiday.

Amer Turkmani, Director of Homs Water , said the drinking water is available in all Homs neighborhoods and his department didn’t receive any complaint about shortage in water.

Director of Homs Communications Kanaan Joudeh underlined that the phone network is working well in most of Homs surroundings, adding that the maintenance workshops are mending the defects resulted by acts of sabotage at the hands of terrorist groups.

Wa’el Obeid, Head of the Cleanness Department in Homs referred to intensified operations to clean the city’s neighborhoods and remove the debris and roadblocks set up by the armed groups in some streets.

Citizens of Baba Amro, Bab al-Sibaa and al-Naziheen suburbs in Homs stressed that life is normal, shops are open, all basic needs are available and the children are enjoying their Eid holiday.

By Mazen

Armed groups kill civilians in Sirmin, Idleb.. Attack citizens in Daraa

Idleb, (SANA)-An armed terrorist group on Wednesday killed teacher Mohammad Kharouf by shooting fire on him while he was going out to visit his family in Sirmin, Idleb.

SANA reporter quoted sources at the city’s Police as saying that the body of Mazen Hassoun, an employee in one of Sirmin schools was found in Talmans town . Hassoun was abducted by an armed terrorist group before Eid al-Adha.

Engineering units dismantle two explosive devices in Homs

An official source informed SANA’s correspondent in Homs that engineering units dismantled two explosive devices planted in the garden of a house in the Khaldiyeh neighborhood in Homs city.

The source said that the two devices which are handmade and filled with processed fertilizer were dismantled without causing any harm.

Citizen in Daraa narrates story of an attack against him by armed group

Citizen Jamal Mahmoud al-Nawfal, from Mothbein town in Daraa, said that while he was having his breakfast with his wife and 5 sons last Saturday,  11 armed men attacked his house, trying to storm it.

“When they failed to storm my house, they went to my brother’s house next door and burned it as my brother Taleb and his family escaped to save their lives,” Jamal said.

He added that when they rushed to rescue his brother and his family, they were beaten by the terrorists, causing severe injuries to Jamal and his brother. Later, they were admitted to a-Sanamin  military Hospital.

Nawfal said that this attack is the third of its kind because he rejected to participate in the gatherings.

By H. Sabbagh/ Mazen

Seven Martyrs Escorted to Final Resting Place

DAMASCUS,HOMS, SANA – Seven army and security forces martyrs on Wednesday were escorted to their final resting place from Homs and Tishreen Military Hospitals.

The martyrs were targeted by armed terrorist groups while they were fulfilling their national duty to keep security and stability of the homeland.

Official ceremonies were held in honor of the martyrs as they were covered with the national flag and laurel wreaths and carried on shoulders while the army band played “the Martyr” and “Farewell” music.

The martyrs are:

•           Lieutenant Colonel, Hussain Ahmed Rsaud, Hama.

•           Second Lieutenant, Mohamed Ali Fandi, Tartous.

•           Sergeant, Ibrahim Mohammed Fallaha, Hama.

•           Corporal, Rami Mahmoud Hussein, Tartous.

•           Private, Ahmed Ibrahim Hallaq, Idleb.

•           Private, Faisal Madloul Fahd, Qamishli.

•           Private, Ali Reshou al-Said, Aleppo.

By Ghossoun /

A group of External opposition attack delegation of Coordinating Board in front of Arab League HQ

CAIRO, (SANA)- In a clear expression of the abolishment, elimination and dismissal of the other, an opposition group of Istanbul Council who was present in Cairo attacked with eggs and tomatoes a delegation representing the Coordinating Board of Democratic Change Powers in Syria.

The attack was carried out in front of the Arab League HQ in Cairo while the delegation was entering the site to meet AL Secretary General, preventing members of the delegation from entering because they rejected the foreign intervention in Syria.

A number of the assaulters, who attacked the delegation said that they assaulted members of the delegation because “they won’t express their demands which call for bringing foreigners into Syria, internationalizing the situation and imposing no-fly zone in the country.”

Hassan Abdul-Azim, Head of the Coordinating Board, in comments to the event said “we reject dismissal or any member of the opposition groups to abolish us or prevent us from expressing our stance because we reject the military intervention.”

Members of the delegation couldn’t enter the AL HQ, except Abdul-Azim who met Mr. Nabil al-Arabi, while the others, Michel Kilo, Haitham Manaa and Saleh Mislim returned to their residence.

By Mazen

Lavrov reiterates his country’s stance in support of the Arab Initiative

MOSCOW, (SANA)-Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov underlined his country’s firm stance in support of the Arab League’s initiative that gives a real base to conduct a dialogue between the Syrian authorities and the opposition as well as paving the way for settling the situation through peaceful political means.

During a phone call with the Arab League’s Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi on Wednesday, Lavrov said the Arab League currently possesses in Syria practical potentials to find suitable solutions, stressing that this opportunity shouldn’t be missed.

A statement for the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Lavrov and al-Arabi stressed the importance for the Syrian sides, without any exception, to stop acts of violence, provocations, and go to the dialogue table, referring to the need for encouraging the external players of all sides to undertake constructive steps, not to encourage them boycott dialogue.

By Mazen

Syrian Communist Party (Unified) Denounces US Interference in Syria’s Internal Affairs

DAMASCUS, (SANA) – The Syrian Communist Party (Unified) on Wednesday denounced the United States’ prompting armed groups to continue committing murders and not surrender their weapons after the amnesty announced by the government for those who turn in their weapons to the Syria authorities as long as they haven’t committed murder.

In a statement, the party said that the inflammatory US stance reaffirms the US administration’s involvement in the events taking place in Syria.

The statement also underlined the importance of the agreement between the Syrian government and the Arab initiative, saying that this inspired optimism among Syrians since it allows for adopting dialogue a political solution and restoring stability and calm to areas witnessing violence.

The party affirmed that the biggest hurdle before the implementation of the agreement is the stances of the armed group that reject dialogue entirely and the opposition abroad which promotes foreign interference, while Syrian national opposition welcomed the idea of dialogue.

The statement concluded by affirming that the party and the Syrian people support any Arab effort that stops bloodshed and consecrates the principle of national dialogue, affirming that the Syrian people will confront any attempt at foreign interference in Syria’s internal affairs.

By H. Sabbagh

Analysts: Syria Is Strong, Able to Confront Provocations of the West and Any State Trying to Intervene in its Affairs

DAMASCUS, SANA_Chairman of the Russian Association for Friendship and Cooperation with the Arab Countries Vyacheslav Matuzov said Syria is strong and able to fend off all the provocations of the west, the NATO and any other country trying to intervene in its internal affairs.

In a phone call with the Syrian TV on Tuesday Matuzov added that peoples of the Middle East have enough power to withstand and respond to the US and western attempts to interfere in their internal affairs.

“What is happening in the region is a US-Western made with the aim of interfering in its countries’ internal affairs, creating chaos, instability and political and economic collapse to pave the way for the Israeli-US dominance of the region as a whole,” Matuzov said.

“Russia today is with Syria and Iran and all Arab countries which aspire to be independent from the US influence,” he said, clarifying that the confrontation between Russia and the other pole is a political-diplomatic one where Russia adopted a just position towards peoples of the region, although the Jewish lobby in Russia is still working and trying to distort the reality of what is happening in the Middle East.

He affirmed that these attempts are doomed to failure.

For his part, Assistant Secretary-General of the Arab Bar Association Samih Khreis said there are parties seek for international military intervention in Syria and internationalizing the crisis, but the Syrian leadership’s acceptance of the Arab League plan surprises them, because what was raised by the plan regarding the dialogue was proposed by the Syria leadership from the first moment.

In a televised interview with the Syrian TV, Khreis said Syria’s approval of the dialogue is a clear and decisive evidence on the seriousness of the Syrian leadership to conduct reforms, which was represented by enacting several laws and legislations.

Khreis said Syria’s acceptance of the Arab plan has unveiled the real US-Zionist administration’s evil intentions towards the Arab region, so it began to raise doubts about the Syrian decision and incited gunmen not to lay down their weapons.

“This behavior stresses that the US administration supports gunmen and supply them with weapons, ” Khreis said, stressing that the conspiracy is doomed to failure and the truth will be exposed due to the steadfastness of Syria.

Jordanian political analyst Ibrahim Alloush spoke about the document presented by Elliot Abramz, a senior figure at US State Department, to the Council on Foreign Relations about a lengthy plan to overthrow the regime in Syria which included a project to strengthen the armed action in Syria and how the United States to behave in such a situation.

Alloush said this does not come from a normal pressman or a writer, but from a senior decision-maker in America who has the upper hand in what happened in Libya and the ongoing events in Syria.

The Analyst added that the US officially announced position stresses the same strategy of Abramz in enhancing armed acts against Syria and its leadership, and this statement is part of an American strategy has been adopted by the US administration to military inflame the situation in Syria.

By Ghossoun

Interior Minister Calls on Misled Individuals Who Didn’t Commit Murder to Benefit from Deadline to Turn Themselves In and Surrender Weapons

GOVERNORATES, (SANA) – Minister of Interior Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ibrahim al-Shaar on Tuesday called on police officers to be at utmost readiness and distribute work according to their expanding duties and responsibilities of protecting security and peace.

During an inspection police commands in Homs, Hama and Lattakia and meetings with heads of police departments, Minister al-Shaaar called for building upon successful experiences and implementing plans and programs to improve police work and prevent any at attempt at tampering with Syria’s security.

He also called for increasing the presence of police patrols, monitoring highways, immediate intervention when calls for help arrive, and perusing criminals and wanted men.

The Minister stressed the need for officers to be an example of integrity and respecting citizens and enforcing the rule of law on everyone without abusing it, urging officers to revaluate their performance and pursue training.

Al-Shaar briefed the officers on the events taking place in Syria and the instigation campaigns against it led by external forces, affirming that Syria will go through with the reform program and restore security and stability, emerging from the crisis stronger than ever thanks to the awareness of the Syrian people and their rallying around President Bashar al-Assad.

He stressed that the crimes committed by armed terrorist groups under claims of achieving just demands are not related to reform in any way and removed from the morals and values of the Syrian people, reiterating the call for misled individuals that were manipulated by external  forces to carry out their plots to benefit from the deadline set by the Interior Ministry and turn themselves in and surrender their weapons.

The Ministry’s earlier announcement in this regard promised general amnesty to those who carried, sold, distributed, transported, purchased or funded the purchase of firearms and didn’t commit murder if they turn themselves in and surrender their weapons to the nearest police station by Saturday 12/10/2011.

By H. Sabbagh

Endowments Minister Meets Families of Martyrs in Tartous

TARTOUS, (SANA) – Minister of Endowments (Awkaf) Mohammad Abdelsattar al-Sayyed on Tuesday affirmed that the blood of the martyrs didn’t go to waste; rather they foiled the plot against Syria formed a strong barrier before those who conspired against the country which is emerging from the crisis stronger than before.

During a meeting with 70 families of martyrs in Tartous, al-Sayyed said that this meeting aims at honoring the martyrs who gave their lives to defend Syria, stressing that meeting the martyrs’ families is a great honor.

He also said that this meeting sends a message that Syria will remain a bastion of resilience.

The Minister said that the fatwas issued by al-Qaradawi and others who claim to be religious figures and authorized the bloodshed of Syrians aim at destroying Syria and placating the United States and Israel, affirming that reform cannot be achieved through murder and undermining social integrity.

For their part, the families of the martyrs expressed their appreciation of the meeting which signifies Syria’s national unity, affirming that their relatives’ martyrdom is a great honor and a consecration of the value of martyrdom.

By H. Sabbagh

Gen. Rajiha Visits Injured Army Members and Soldiers on the Occasion of Eid al-Adha

DAMASCUS, SANA_ Deputy General Commander of the Army and the Armed Forces, Defense Minister Gen. Dawood Abdullah Rajiha on Monday visited military hospitals in Damascus,accompanied by senior army commanders and officers.

Rajiha met the injured army members, offered them congratulations on the occasion of Eid, wishing them speedy recovery.

The Minister met the medical staff at the hospitals, inquired about the reality of services, hailing the staff’s efforts and care for the wounded.

He underlined the necessity of sacrifices and unifying efforts for facing the conspiracy hatched against Syria to undermine its dignity, sovereignty and its independent national decision.

By Ghossoun

Al-Jafari: Protecting Civilians in Armed Conflicts shouldn’t Be Selectively Approached

NEW YORK, (SANA) – Syria’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Dr. Bashar al-Jafari, on Wednesday said that the UN considers that the subject of protecting civilians in armed conflicts cannot be approached selectively.

In a statement before the UN Security Council, al-Jafari added that this subject is related only to armed conflicts.

“That is why we consider that the protection of the Palestinian, Syrian and Lebanese civilians from the Israeli occupation is a basic part of this subject, especially that the Council has discussed this important matter for a long time in the light of the grave and continuous Israeli violations against the civilian population in the occupied Arab territories,” al-Jafari added.

He indicated that “A cause for concern is that some member states- which we listen to their statements concerning the protection of civilians in armed conflicts- sometimes set their own selective concept of protecting civilians in armed conflicts, a concept that is contrary to the International Human Law (IHL).”

“Jurisprudence considers that the international efforts aiming at protecting civilians in cases of armed conflicts should be exerted in the framework of respecting the principles of the UN Charter, which stress the importance of respecting the sovereignty and independence of the countries and not interfere in their internal affairs. These efforts should also be in compliance with the rules of Geneva Conventions and the IHL.” Al-Jafari said.

He stressed the need for not confusing the subject of protecting civilians in armed conflicts with the threats to the international security and peace, adding that using expressions from outside the UN ethics –such as the responsibility of interference and humanitarian interference- should be avoided because it will harm the creditability and neutrality of the UN and undermine the efforts exerted to protect civilians in armed conflicts.

“It is an odd paradox that with the development of the international law concepts, the suffering of civilians during conflicts increased as the number of these conflicts themselves increased. The phenomenon of exempting foreign military occupation forces from the repercussions of violating of the international law has aggravated.” Al-Jafari pointed out.

“Is occupying countries which are members in the UN outside the framework of the international legitimacy and killing millions of their civilian population aim at protecting those civilians? Are the calls, which were made in this Council today and in previous occasions, to change regimes in some UN-member countries are within the framework of the noble purpose of protecting civilians in armed conflicts?” He asked.

He went on asking “How can we explain the killing of 130 thousand Libyans under the pretext of protecting Libya’s civilians? How can we explain the statement of the US Department of State’s spokeswoman which stipulated a clear call for the armed groups in Syria to not surrender their weapons in line with the Syrian government general amnesty granted to all persons who surrender their weapons? Doesn’t this statement mean that there is a US involvement in the violence in Syria? Aren’t the US policies, which are support by some European countries, thwarting the work of the Arab League and its initiative?”

“Isn’t avoiding the issue of the Israeli reckless settlement, which threats the peace principle, contradicts the most important right of the Palestinian and Syrian civilians who are under the Israeli occupation?” he asked.

Al-Jafari said, “We don’t know how long the continuous Israeli occupation of the Arab territories- including the occupied Syrian Golan, Jerusalem, Shebaa farms and al- Ghajar village- can be ignored. We don’t know why we don’t see the same enthusiasm in the countries whose representatives went far today in expressing their keenness on protecting civilians in specific parts of the world and used the Security Council, which is specialized in protecting the international peace and security, as a platform to pass curtailed explanation of the subject of protecting civilians in armed conflicts.”

“We didn’t hear any note from the UN figures responsible for this file on the illegitimacy of this interference in the internal affairs of UN-member states according to the second article of the UN Charter,” He added.

Al-Jafari concluded “Representatives of the colonial countries, especially France and Britain, make a mistake when they think that the human memory can’t recall the crimes against humanity they have committed  throughout decades of colonization.”

By M.Nassr/F.Allafi

Al-Moallem: Statement of US Official Source Constitutes Justification for Foreign Interference against Syria

DAMASCUS, (SANA) – Foreign and Expatriates Minister Walid al-Moallem expressed the Syrian Arab Republic’s wonder over the statement of a US State Department source that encourages the Arab countries to join the political and economic boycott against Syria which exceeds the limits of the AL Charter and the bases of the joint Arab action.

Al-Moallem clarified in a message to Arab League (AL) Secretary General, Nabil al-Arabi, on Wednesday that the US provocation constitutes a justification for a foreign interference and for economic and political sanctions against Syria with the agreement of some Arab countries, expressing hope that the US call will not be heeded at.

Al-Moallem pointed out to the danger of such statements on the future of the joint Arab action under the patronage of the Arab League.

Foreign and Expatriates Minister added in the message that Syria, which has declared its commitment to the work plan agreed upon with AL, underlines its fulfillment of most of the plan’s items unlike what is being propagated by some misleading TV channels, pointing out that Syria’s permanent representative at the Arab League will brief the AL Ministerial Council on the steps taken in this regard.

Al-Moallem, at the conclusion of the message, expressed hope that the AL Secretary General will respond to the US statements in accordance with the AL Charter and the Arab agreements that maintain the sovereignty as well as relations among Arab countries.

By R. Milhem / al-Ibrahim

Syrian National Opposition Figures Stress Rejection of Foreign Interference, Commitment to AL Work Plan

CAIRO, (SANA) – A number of the Syrian national opposition figures, from the National Coordinating Body and Building the Syrian State Movement, expressed Thursday their rejection of foreign interference in Syria’s internal affairs and commitment to the Arab League work plan.

After the opposition’s meeting with the Arab League Secretary-General, Nabil al-Arabi, in Cairo, Member of the Coordinating Body for Democratic Change in Syria, Haitham Manna, said, “some people talk about the AL initiative as if it has been buried. Had that been the case, we would not have come to meet the AL Secretary-General today.”

For his part, the coordinating body’s spokesperson, Abdul-Aziz al-Khair, rejected the methodology of the so-called “the Syrian National Council” as “exclusionary”, adding that the Syrian people still have the opportunity to choose figures to represent them.

Luai Hussain,  Syrian State Building Movement member, said, “we reject a no-fly zone in Syria because it leads to military intervention which would destroy the Syrian state and society.”

By F.Allafi

Two Children, Two Guards Martyred, Explosive Device Blasts When Patrol Passes in Idleb

IDLEB, (SANA) – Two children from al-Moallaqa village in the northern province of Idleb were martyred on Thursday after explosives hidden by a terrorist armed group in an abandoned house blasted in the village.

A source at Idleb Police Command told SANA correspondent that the two brothers Ahmad and Munir Olwan went accidentally to the house to set fire when the explosives blew up, killing them at once.

The source pointed out that the explosives were used by the terrorists to make mines and explosive devices in order to attack state centers and check points and to sabotage public properties.

The village residents rushed to the place only to find the dead bodies of the two brothers in the place, the source added.

“Even innocent children could not escape the heinous crimes of the terrorists,” uncle of the two boys, Mohammad Olwan, told SANA correspondent, pointing out that his nephews are only eight and ten years old.

Meantime, Conscript Makhlad al-Awad and civil guard Mohammad Abdo al-Fattah al-Omar were martyred, as two other army members were injured by a terrorist armed group in al-Kfair village in Jisr al-Shughour.

A police source in the Province clarified that the armed gang attacked the guard members who belong to the popular army while they were guarding the railway in the area. The gunmen stole the members’ weapons, the source added.

In a similar context, an explosive device, planted on Khan Shaikhoun- Maart al-Noman Main Street, blasted, injuring three law enforcement members.

The police source said that the explosive device was planted on the road, as the terrorists blew it when the patrol passed by trying to guarantee the safety of the road and prevent blocking the road.

Three Law-Enforcement Personnel Injured in Terrorist Attack in Douma

Three law enforcement personnel on Thursday were injured after their post was attacked by an armed terrorist group in Douma city in Damascus Countryside.

Three law enforcement personnel on Thursday were injured after their post was attacked by an armed terrorist group in Douma city in Damascus Countryside.

A police source said that the assault caused damages to the building, adding that authorities are in pursuit of the fleeing terrorists.

Policeman Mohammad Ghourra said that “At 1.00 am, more than four cars opened fire on the post, they had RPG launchers and machineguns, I was injured in the attack.”

By M. Nassr/ R. Milhem / al-Ibrahim

Patriarch Laham: Foreign Interference in Syria is Clear

DAMASCUS, (SANA) – Patriarch Gregory III Laham of Antioch and all the East stressed on Thursday that foreign interference in Syria is clear, adding, “what we see day after day proves the truth of what President Bashar al-Assad said about foreign interference.”

In an interview with the Syrian TV, His Beatitude said, “This interference became so clear during the current events in Syria as we felt the US and other European countries’ interference”, stressing that the success of Syria and President al-Assad in challenging those who confront him is a success for the Arab and Islamic worlds.

Patriarch Laham pointed out that when Syria accepted the Arab League’s initiative, the US immediately called on gunmen in Syria not to surrender themselves to authorities in spite of the general amnesty issued recently.

By F.Allafi

Terrorist al-Taleb Confesses to Killing Protestors to Accuse Army

DAMASCUS, (SANA) – Terrorist Khaled Ibrahim al-Taleb on Thursday confessed to committing several crimes along with an armed terrorist group in Homs including killing protestors in order to accuse the army soldiers of doing so.

In televised confessions broadcast on the Syrian TV, terrorist al-Taleb confessed to attacking military checkpoints and abducting citizens to terrify them.

He said that “we distributed about 300 AK-47 rifles and pump-action shotguns. After a month, we received and distributed 8 RPG launchers.”

“Leaders of the group, Mohannad al-Omar and Ammar al-Bika’ai, told us to kill as many as we can to put pressure on the Arab League to take decisions such as a no-fly zone or freeze Syria’s membership in the League,” he added.

“We were attacking army checkpoints from a distance. When a checkpoint was firmly stationed, we were targeting it with an RPG round before attacking it with rifles.” He confessed.

He indicated that Mohannad al-Omar, Ammar al-Bika’ai, Nadir Abu al-Dahab and Khaled Abu Shahoud possessed rocket launchers, rifles-including m16 rifles-, snipers, pistols and hand grenades, adding that the weapons were coming from outside Syria through Talkalakh and al-Qseer area.

He concluded that “Al-Omar ordered us to attack al-Mazra’a village to ignite a sectarian sedition, later, they went to the village and fired RPG launcher before targeting the town with their rifles.”

By M. Nassr/ F.Allafi

Source: The Embassy of Syrian Arab Republican in Kuala Lumpur.

DAMASCUS/ HOMS, (SANA) – With flowers and laurel wreathes, twelve army, police and security forces martyrs on Thursday were escorted from Tishreen and Homs Military Hospitals to their final resting place.

The martyrs were targeted by the armed terrorist groups while they were in the line of duty in the governorates of Damascus Countryside, Homs and Hama.

Solemn processions were held for the martyrs as they were carried on shoulders and covered with the national flag while the Military Band was playing the “Martyr” and the “Farewell” music.

The martyrs are:

-Lieutenant Colonel, Salem Yunus al-Salem from Homs.

-First Lieutenant, Khaldoun Jamil Ghalieh from Lattakia.

-Corporal, Fadi Rajeh al-Salameh al-Naqri from Homs.

-Conscript, Abdul-Ghani Awayyed Ahmad from Deir Ezzour.

-Conscript, Fawzi Najemeddin Sheikh Mamo from Aleppo.

-Conscript, Ahmad Dahham Tirkawi from Homs.

-Conscript, Zafer Amir al-Hassan from Idleb.

-Conscript, Mohammad Abdul-Wahhab Khashan from Aleppo.

-Conscript, Jack Asaad Rustum from Hama.

-Policeman, Bilal Mohammad al-Mohammad from Idleb.

-Policeman, Ammar Assef Jabbour from Lattakia.

-Policeman, Yamen Shafiq Kirdeh from Lattakia.

Relatives of the martyrs expressed pride in their son’s martyrdom who sacrificed their lives to defend their homeland, stressing that Syria will remain steadfast in the face of the conspiracy which targets its unity and stability.

By R. al-Jazaeri

Syrian Women  Reject AL Decision against Syria, Pledge to Defend Homeland, Foil Conspiracy

DAMASCUS, (SANA) – Thousands of Syrian women on Thursday gathered in Bab Touma Square in Damascus for a mass rally to express support to the comprehensive reform program led by President Bashar al-Assad, stressing Syria’s independent national decision.

The participants condemned the AL decision against Syria and rejected foreign interference in Syria’s internal affairs.

Meanwhile, a woman rally was also held in the President Square in the northeastern governorate of Hasaka to express rejection of the AL decision against Syria.

The participant women voiced their rejection of foreign interference in Syria’s internal affairs, stressing support to the independent national decision and the preservation of their homeland’s sovereignty.

The women condemned the Arab and international positions, which work by all means to internationalize the situation in Syria to target its positions and leading role in defending the Arab rights.

The women, in a statement read by Chairperson of the General Women’s Union of Syria Majida Ktait, denounced the Arab League’s decision, pledging to defend the homeland, foil conspiracy and all the attempts of sabotage and to participate in the making of a national epic that returns to the Arab history its brightness and preserves Syria’s role and position.

The statement emphasized that the Arabism flag will ever remain flaying high.

It underlined that conspirators against Syria use all cheap means to undermine its security and stability, exploiting the instigating media channels.

The women’s statement saluted the martyrs who have sacrificed their lives for the safety and security of the homeland.

Over the past few weeks, main squares and streets of several Syrian governorates crowded with millions of Syrian citizens to stress national unity, express support to the program process and denounce the AL decision against Syria.

By R. Raslan/ H. Said/ al-Ibrahim

Several Terrorists arrested, Amounts of Ammunition Seized in Daraa Countryside

DARAA, (SANA) – Competent authorities in Daraa on Thursday arrested a number of terrorists and confiscated amounts of weapons in the province’s countryside.

SANA correspondent in Daraa said that the seized weapons included RBG launchers, different sorts of rifles, grenades, explosive devices, pistols , shot stores, diverse ammunition, explosives and military uniforms.

Methods of training, following-up and monitoring, plans of preparing ambushes, detailed maps and plans to attack Daraa Province from different axes, sabotage public and private properties and to attack law enforcement forces’ centers in Daraa and its countryside were discovered. Small engines for generating electricity were also seized.

Armed Group Assassinates School Director in Ma’arrat al-Numan

An armed terrorist group assassinated teacher Samir Karkas, the director of al-Halhoul school in Ma’arrat al-Numan, Idleb Province.

SANA reporter quoted sources as saying that the martyr Karkas was in front of his school when two masked gunmen riding a motorcycle opened fire on him.

Terrorist Agha Confesses to Kidnapping, Killing Citizens, Shooting Demonstrators

The terrorist Adham Samir Hassan Agha confessed to taking part with a terrorist group in attacking law-enforcement members, kidnapping and killing citizens, as well as involvement in thefts and blackmail.

In confessions broadcast by the Syrian TV on Thursday, the terrorist said that he took part in the protests at the instigation of Sheikh Abdul Bari al-Kunn, muezzin of Riyad al-Salihin Mosque, for SYP 500 for each protest.

”The group, comprised of Abdul Bari, Mohammad al-Hassan, Abdul-Mon’em Kolko and Khaled Zaarour, opened fire five times on security checkpoints. The first was on a security checkpoint in al-Naziheen neighborhood in which Zaarour used RPG launchers while the rest were holding automatic rifles,” said Hassan Agha.

He said that he took part in 3 abductions, the first and the second were near al-Fakhoura Roundabout while the third was at Bab Dreib Roundabout, abducting two taxi drivers and slaughtering them and torturing a citizen using sharp tools in the third.

The terrorist confessed to smuggling arms from al-Qseir, including 10 RPG launchers,13 automatic rifles and 3 pump action shotguns.

He also confessed to shooting protestors in al-Insha’at neighborhood in Homs, killing scores of them, to accuse the security and the army.

By R. Milhem / Ghossoun/ M. Ismael

In an Unprecedented Move…Arab League to Discuss Sanctions on Syria Unless it Signs Legal Protocol

CAIRO, (SANA)_The Arab League Council on the Foreign Ministers’ Level in Cairo called on the Syrian government on Thursday to sign on Friday the protocol on the legal status and the AL monitors’ mission adopted by the Council in its extraordinary session on November 16th.

In an unprecedented procedure, the Council decided to call on the AL Economic and Social Council to convene on Saturday to consider imposing economic sanctions on Syria in case the Syrian government doesn’t sign the protocol. The sanctions include stopping air flights, trade exchanges and monetary dealings with the Syrian government and freezing its assets, which harms the interests of the Syrian people.

The Council called on the Syrian government and the Syrian opposition to hold a dialogue conference as stipulated by the Arab plan to move to a national unity government in order to run the transitional stage, which the Syrian people considered a flagrant interference in their internal affairs.

The Council also decided to inform the UN Secretary General to take the necessary measures to support the Arab League efforts in case Syria doesn’t sign the protocol, which is a call for foreign interference in the Syrian internal affairs.

The Syrian people express in daily rallies rejection of the AL decisions and harming national sovereignty, considering that the role of the Arab League has become a tool for foreign interference which serves the Western-Us agenda to fragmentize the region.

By M. Ismael

Media Delegation from British Channel 4…Life in Daraa Normal

DARAA, (SANA)_Johnson Miller, Head of the British media team who is on a visit to Syria, said that life in Daraa city is normal, adding that streets and markets are teeming with people and business proceeds as usual at shops.

During a tour in Daraa province on Thursday with a team from the British Channel 4 (ITN) and an editor at a Swedish newspaper, Miller said that situation in Daraa is quite normal, pledging to convey what he saw to the public opinion in his country.

The media team toured the Radio Center and the Justice Palace which were vandalized by armed terrorist groups.

Daraa Governor Muhammad Khaled al-Hannous briefed the media team on the latest developments in Daraa and the vandalism acts against private and public facilities, indicating that Syria is targeted by a conspiracy to undermine its security and stability.

He pointed to the misleading media campaigns against Syria which turn a blind eye to the security and army martyrs.

One of the citizens related to the team how he was attacked for refusing to take part in protests by armed men who hurled an explosive device at his house, smashing its glass and tearing out its gate.

By M. Ismael

BRICS Group of Countries  Reiterate  Call for Non-Interference in Syrian Affairs

MOSCOW, (SANA)_BRICS Group of Countries, comprised of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa have reiterated call for preventing any foreign interference in the Syrian internal affairs.

Deputy foreign ministers of BRICS countries stressed in a joint statement in Moscow on Thursday the importance of preventing any foreign interference in Syria’s internal affairs unless it complies with the UN Charter, emphasizing that the sole form for solving the internal crisis is starting all-inclusive negotiations as to meet the aspirations of the Syrians.

The statement indicated to the international community’s experience in relation to the events in Libya, adding that it should be scrutinized as to illustrate whether these acts have complied with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.

BRICS deputy foreign ministers called for settling Iran’s nuclear program through diplomacy , stressing that pressure and threats against Iran are futile.

By M. Ismael

Syrian Human Rights Network Condemns UN Human Rights Committee Decision against Syria

DAMASCUS, (SANA)_The Syrian Human Rights Committee condemned the UN Human Rights Committee decision against Syria, stressing that it violates the international legitimacy, human rights, international and humanitarian law and the UN Charter.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the Network described the decision as the most serious as it illustrates collapse of the human rights system, reminding that it has repeatedly warned of issuing false statements on the Syrian events, which serves to politicized the supposedly-objective human rights’ work.

The network alarmed to the serious decisions of the committee against Syria, indicating that these decisions lack a clear vision and credibility, which will lead to disastrous consequences.

The statement said the legal committee at the Network is preparing a memo to be submitted to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, the International Criminal Court and the UN against whoever funded, funds or is involved in escalating violence in Syria.

By M. Ismael

Secretary General of CAEU  Refutes preparing  Sanction Memorandum against Syria

CAIRO, (SANA) – Secretary General of the Council of Arab Economic Unity (CAEU), Ambassador Mohammad al-Rabei, refuted what was published in Asharq al-Awsat Newspaper on Thursday about preparing sanction memorandum on Syria to be handed to the Arab League (AL) Secretary General.

Rabei told SANA that such memorandums is not part of the CAEU Arab Economic Unit’s tasks and Arab League Secretariat did not ask the Council to set such a memorandum, sheet or proposal on Syria.

Rabei pointed out that Syria is an AL founding state and an active member in the CAEU, as it is one of the most keenest Arab countries on the joint Arab action, underlining that dialogue is the only solution to overcome the current crisis in Syria.

He added that he does not prefer applying economic sanctions against Syria, particularly that they will be negatively reflected on the Syrian people.

Rabei warned that targeting the economic sector (whether the agricultural or industrial sides) will lead to stopping the exports and freezing the inter-trade, and thus that will leave negative impacts on the Syrian people in general.

As part of its provocative campaign, Asharq al-Awsat Newspaper on Thursday published an article on which it claimed that it inspected a memorandum of sanctions against Syria set by the Arab Economic Unit’s Council and handed to the AL Secretariat.

By R. Milhem / Ghossoun

Democratic Korean Workers Delegation Voices Support to Syria in Face of Pressures

DAMASCUS,(SANA)- Speaker of the People’s Assembly, Dr. Mahmoud al-Abrash on Thursday reviewed the reality of the conspiracy facing Syria which seeks to divert it from its national and pan-Arab stances in support of the Arab rights and the resistance.

The remarks came during a meeting with a Delegation of workers unions from Democratic Korea.

Dr. al-Abrash indicated to the hugeness of the fierce media and political attack and the economic pressures led by some countries with the aim of destabilizing the security and stability in Syria, hailing the DPRK stances in support of the just causes of the nations and their right to live in peace.

He hailed the great role of the Syrian Arab Army who defends the security and safety of the innocent citizens and who confronts the acts of killing, sabotage and destruction of the public and private properties perpetrated by the armed terrorist groups in some areas.

He pointed out that the working class in Syria, which constitutes the future, stands in the face of the conspiratorial schemes which target this country and its national unity.

Chairman of the General Federation of Trade Unions of Democratic Korea, Hong Sang-Jung expressed the Korean people’s solidarity with Syria in face of the conspiracy and the economic and political pressures.

He stressed that the awareness of the Syrian people and their honorable history of struggle and the wisdom of their resistant leadership are able to overcome the crisis and to get out of it stronger and more immune.

He hailed Syria’s historical role in support of the nation’s issues and the world liberation movements and its stand in the face of the imperialistic and Zionist powers.

He highlighted the deep-rooted relations binding the two countries, underlining the necessity of enhancing them and coordinating the joint steps between the two sides at the international forums.

By R. al-Jazaeri /

Jordanian Government Spokesman Confirms Arms Smuggling Took Place into Syria

AMMAN, (SANA)- Jordanian Minister of State for Media Affairs and Communications and Government’s spokesman, Rakan al-Majali, on Thursday said that arms smuggling operations took place from Jordan into Syria, noting that his country is working to stop this.

He added in press statements that the incident which happened in the Jordanian northern city of al-Ramtha is evidence that smuggling of arms into Syria took place, pointing out that this incident was not the only one.

“We, in the Jordanian government, are concerned to be conscious of this issue,” said al-Majali, stressing his country’s rejection of allowing smuggling arms into Syria.

By H. Said/al-Ibrahim

Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Calls Upon Foreign Sides to Help in Activating Dialogue, Stop Incitement to Violence

MOSCOW,(SANA)- Deputy Russian Foreign Minister, Gennady Gatilov stressed that the foreign sides should help in activating the dialogue and should stop the incitement to violence and their calls for ignoring the initiative of the Syrian leadership in the domain of reform.

In a press statement on Thursday in Moscow, Gatilov reiterated his country’s stance in rejection of any foreign interference in Syria, warning that any interference would lead to destabilizing the security in the region.

The Russian official indicated that his country constantly works with all the sides in Syria and it calls upon them to directly start a joint work based on the initiative of the Arab League (AL).

He added that the draft resolution proposed by Russia and China on Syria is still on the table of the UN Security Council, and it includes a call for a political diplomatic settlement of the situation on the basis of stopping violence by all the sides and of starting a dialogue on the agenda of the reforms adopted by the Syrian leadership.

He expressed confidence that this stance alone can prevent the internal crisis in Syria from aggravating.

By R. al-Jazaeri

Bulgarian Delegation: What Propagated by Mass Media about Reality of Events in Syria is Completely False

LATTAKIA,(SANA)-Members of a Bulgarian delegation including academic and media figures and representatives of social and youth organizations stressed that what is being propagated by mass media about the reality of the events in Syria is completely false, denouncing the misleading media campaign facing the country.

The remarks came during a visit to Tishreen University in Lattakia on Thursday.

Head of the delegation, Prof. Crasi Nekochenov said that the delegation’s visit to Syria aims at inspecting the reality of the situations away from what is being broadcast by the misleading media. He described Syria as the “Jewel of the Middle East”, wondering about the fierce hostility and media falsification against the country.

He asserted that the members of the delegation will convey a true image about what they saw of events and facts on the ground.

Members of the delegation expressed support to Syria and its independent decision and to the efforts it exerts to solve the crisis it is witnessing away from the attempts of foreign interference in its affairs.

For his part Secretary of al-Baath Party at Tishreen University, Dr. Ghaleb Shihada said that the foreign pressures and the criminal acts of the armed terrorist groups are part of a sinister conspiracy aiming at diverting Syria from its national and pan-Arab stances and from its resistant role in confronting the Zionist project.

Rector of Tishreen University, Dr. Mohammad Moalla presented a detailed explanation on the university since its inception, indicating that the education in Syria for free, and that the students of the University have ranked high in the competitions held on the level of the Arab countries.

He talked about the mechanism of students exchange and dispatch between Tishreen University and the Bulgarian universities, pointing out that Tishreen University receives 15 Bulgarian students and dispatch 15 Syrian students to the Bulgarian Academy every year.

By R. al-Jazaeri /

Ambassador Mustafa: Syria’s Dealing with Events Depends on Popular Stance in the Decision-Making

DAMASCUS, (SANA)-Syrian Ambassador in Washington Imad Mustafa underlined that Syria’s dealing with the current events depends on the popular stance as a real base in the decision-making, saying that the mass popular marches in rejection of the Arab League resolutions and the foreign intervention have overturned the accounts and disturbed conspirators.

“The popular marches in Syria have imposed themselves on the news’ agendas of the US media institutions which didn’t find an escape from conveying them to keep the minimum credibility, and this formed a new awareness at the American receiver,” Mustafa said at an open dialogue session in Tishreen University.

He added that the plots of targeting Syria military in light of this scene became nearly nonsexist, considering that the reason behind the essence of crisis and pressures on Syria were Syria’s firm stance towards the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Mustafa said that confronting pressures on Syria will be through strengthening the internal situation, referring to the stances of some countries’ circumstances in dealing with Syria that uncovered the attempt of swindling Syria and containing its role under the titles of friendships, economic and trade relations.

The Syrian Ambassador pointed out to the utmost domination of the Zionist Lobby in the decision-making centers in the US where those sides effectively share in formulating policies in favor of the groups that support Israel.

He said that sanctions against Syria are not new and didn’t stop, adding “we are witnessing today feverish attack to conspire against Syria through regimes that move as a tool to act as Washington orders.

On the sanctions’ effects on Syria, Mustafa underlined that President Bashar al-Assad gave directives to build economic relations with the Asian giants to ease those effects.

By Mazen

Syrian News on 24 Nov 2011

Sit-ins at Raqqa and Aleppo, Gathering in Deir Ezzor in Rejection of Arab League Resolution against Syria and Foreign Interference

RAQQA/ALEPPO/DEIR EZZOR, (SANA) – Thousands from Raqqa governorate on Wednesday participated in a sit-in in front of the Raqqa Governorate building to denounce the Arab League’s resolution against Syria and voice their rejection of all forms of foreign interference in Syria’s internal affairs.

Participants lit candles and carried Syrian flags and banners denouncing the attack against Syria, expressing regret over the Arab League’s stances which express the west’s desires, interests and plots.

The participants affirmed their support for the comprehensive reform process led by President Bashar al-Assad, calling for standing together in the face of conspiracies and adhering to national unity.

In Aleppo city, thousands participated in a open sit-in at Saadallah al-Jaberi Square to denounce the Arab League resolutions and the mass media warfare waged against Syria.

Leader of the National Initiative of Syrian Kurds Omar Ossi, who participated in the sit-in, affirmed that the gatherings in squares across Syria prove that the entire Syrian people reject the Arab League’s resolutions against Syria and the media onslaught carried out by Arab and international sides.

He stressed that Syria’s Kurds will defend their country and protect it from chaos and division, adding that the Arab League’s resolution is part of the western plot to divide Syria being carried out using regional and Arab pawns.

Participants in the sit-in pointed out to the scale of the conspiracy against Syria and the media war carried out against it using local allies, affirming that the Syrian people made their voices heard and showed their unity and solidarity.

Meanwhile, thousands gathered in al-Sabe’a Bahrat Square in Deir Ezzor city to reiterate their rejection of the Arab League resolutions and foreign interference in Syrian affairs.

Participants raised Syrian flags and banners denouncing the transformation of the Arab League and some Arab countries into pawns of the west which uses them as a spearhead to turn the Syrian crisis into an international issue and summon foreign interference.

The gathering included artistic performances promoting adherence to national unity and expressing Syria’s ability to confront the conspiracies through its people’s unity, its army’s strength and its leadership’s wisdom.

Participants said that the Arab League was never the voice of the Arab conscience and will, and that the League’s resolution were made to match the preplanned project against Syria.

They also questioned the Arab League’s absence from the Palestinian cause and failure to confront the Israeli occupation of Lebanese lands and attacks on the Lebanese people for 22 years.

The participants added that the gathering aims to prove to the world that Syria is cohesive and strong and will not surrender to pressure and conspiracies.

By H. Sabbagh

Terrorist Confessing to Leading Terrorist Group in Homs Countryside, Committing Murder and Abduction

DAMASCUS, (SANA) – Terrorist Abdellatif Yehea al-Ukesh, a leader of a terrorist group that operated in al-Hula area in Homs countryside, confessed to committing vandalism, murder, armed theft, and abduction of citizens to extort ransoms from their families.

In confessions broadcast by the Syrian TV on Wednesday evening, al-Ukesh said that he formed an armed group under his leadership armed with assault rifles, pump-action shotguns and handguns.

Al-Ukesh, born in 1982 in Teldo in al-Hula area, said that his group operated along with two others in the same area, and that they received food and drink and money from a man called Fayssal al-Daher, and that his group forced people to close their shops at gunpoint when a strike was announced, in addition to preventing cars from entering Homs city, all while one of their members made video recordings to show that there was a general strike in the area.

He said that on the first day of Ramadan, his group attacked the political security detachment along with a group led by Haitham al-Hallak, another group from Kaferlaha led by Taher al-Yousef, and a fourth group from Tel Zahab led by Abdeljabbar al-Umaish.

Al-Ukesh said that the groups besieged the detachment until the early hours of the morning, and that several of the detachment’s personnel were wounded, and in the following morning army vehicles came and evacuated the detachment’s personnel. After that, the terrorists broke into the empty building and stole a bike from it along with its furniture and gas cylinders before torching it.

He said that the groups used assault rifles and pump-action shotguns in the attack, and that he used an assault rifle purchased from Haitham al-Hallak, adding that he joined the latter and his group when they robbed a man in al-Ghour area after receiving a tip, laying in wait then ambushing the man while on his way back to his village.

“When he approached in his car, we drew our weapons and forced him to come out of the car… we hid him and his car near al-Burj area… afterwards, Saiid al-Abbas called his brother to blackmail him and threatened to kill his brother… he demanded one million pounds in exchange for his safety, and we gave him two hours to bring them money,” al-Ukesh confessed, adding that the brother delivered the money to al-Hallak and they released the abducted man.

He went on to confess to assaulting a grocery store owner from Tasnin area in the same manner, ambushing him then abducting him and negotiating with his family from which they took 250,000 pounds which they added to the previous sum and split among themselves, with some of the money being used to purchase rifles and ammo.

Al-Ukesh said that Haitham’s group gunned down a group of unarmed civilians from al-Sheikh Badr village, murdering them in cold blood without provocation.

He also confessed coordinating with another armed group in al-Rastan to cooperate, asking that group for weapons, ammo, communication equipment and funds which they pledged to provide under the condition that they formed a detachment under any name that assumes responsibility for any of their future acts in order to claim that army defectors were responsible for these acts.

Army uniforms were provided by a man called Taher al-Yousef which al-Ukesh and his group wore and began to wander in the streets of Kaferlaha, their faces covered in scarves as to not be identified, brandishing AK-47 rifles and claiming to be defectors.

Al-Ukesh said that they gathered people around them and marched to Kaferlaha’s town square where they recited a statement on behalf of the “Free Syrian Army” and announced that they formed a detachment, noting that there were actually no defectors in the group; only armed civilians.

He said that the statement was recorded using cellphones, and memory cards were given to a man named Munzer Harfoush who possessed a Thuraya satellite phone and a satellite broadcasting system, adding that Harfoush was known in the area as the man responsible for recording and sending footage.

Al-Ukesh said that Harfoush sent the clip to al-Jazeera and al-Arabiya which broadcast them as urgent news and replayed it for several days, presenting him and his group as army defectors.

“All of that was a lie… we’re armed, hooded civilians wearing army uniforms, killing each other and our countrymen… this will lead to chaos and the country’s destruction,” he lamented, urging the people who know him and were involved in criminal activities to stop and turn themselves and their weapons to the authorities.

Al-Ukesh is a student of petrochemical engineering. He is married and has three children.

By H. Sabbagh

Delegation from the Tunisian National Committee for Support of Arab Resistance Pays Solidarity Visit to Syria

DAMASCUS, (SANA)_A delegation from the Tunisian National Committee for Support of Arab Resistance and Struggle against Normalization and Zionism started on Wednesday a 3-day solidarity visit to Syria to inspect the situation on the ground and convey facts to the Tunisian people.

Chairman of the Committee Ahmad al-Kahlawi told SANA ”We came to Syria to send a message that Syria is not alone in this crisis…Syria has always stood by the Arab nation and remained committed to the national and pan-Arab principles and embraced resistance.”

Nuri al-Sal, a journalist for the Tunisian Shuruq daily, stressed that the delegation came to express solidarity with the Syrian people, indicating that media is fabricating false news on the events Syria to sow sedition among the Syrians.

Dr. Muhammad al-Mathnati, secretary-general of the committee, said that the Syrians’ standing by their leadership against the US-Zionist campaign highlights Syria’s importance and determination to support Arab resistance, especially in Palestine.

By M. Ismael

Bulgarian Delegation in Lattakia: Security and Stability in Syria Belie Media Fabrication

LATTAKIA, (SANA)_Members of the Bulgarian delegation, who is on a visit to Syria and is comprised of academic figures, journalists and representatives of social and youth organizations, stressed that security and stability which they saw in Syria give the lies to the claims of Western media about the events, in an attempt to tarnish the image of the country.

During the delegation’s visit to Lattakia on Wednesday, Micho Demitrov, a journalist, said that who watches foreign media believes that there is a war raging in Syria, while the reality on the ground is totally different. He added that life unfolds as usual in Syria and the situation is normal in the governorate.

For his part, Professor Krasinir said that his visit to Syria enabled him to have a firsthand experience of the situation as contrary to news broadcast by media, adding that the delegation visited Tishreen Military Hospital and met injured army members , some of them with deep injuries.

Muhammad Shreitah, Secretary of al-Baath Arab Socialist Party branch in Lattakia, and Governor of Lattakia Abdul-Kader Muhammad al-Sheikh briefed the delegation on the concord among the Syrians and Syria’s tourist, natural and archeological sites.

By M. Ismael

Russia rejects any foreign intervention in the countries’ domestic affairs

MOSCOW, (SANA)-Russia on Wednesday underlined commitment to the basic principles of the international law, respect for the countries’ sovereignty and non-interference in their internal affairs.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement following talks in Moscow between Deputy Foreign Minister Michel Bogdanov and Turkish Assistant Advisor to the Foreign Ministry Hailt Cevit that the two sides discussed the situation in Syria, Libya and Egypt as well as the settlement in the Middle East.

The statement underlined the need for overcoming the crises through the peaceful political solution, based on dialogue.

Meanwhile, Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia at the UN Sergey Karev underlined his country’s rejection of exploiting the human rights’ issue as a pretext for intervening in the countries’ internal affairs.

“Russia has abstained from voting at the UN General Assembly meeting on a draft resolution about the human rights in Syria because it is not permissible to exploit the human rights to interfere in Syria,” Karev said in a statement to ITAR Tass News Agency.

He renewed his country’s rejection of any foreign intervention in Syria’s domestic affairs, adding “Syria doesn’t need preaches, but it needs a constructive help and an immediate halt of violence.”

By Mazen

Ambassador Mustafa: Syria’s dealing with events depends on popular stance in the decision-making

DAMASCUS, (SANA)-Syrian Ambassador in Washington Imad Mustafa underlined that Syria’s dealing with the current events depends on the popular stance as a real base in the decision-making, saying that the mass popular marches in rejection of the Arab League resolutions and the foreign intervention have overturned the accounts and disturbed conspirators.

“The popular marches in Syria have imposed themselves on the news’ agendas of the US media institutions which didn’t find an escape from conveying them to keep the minimum credibility, and this formed a new awareness at the American receiver,” Mustafa said at an open dialogue session in Tishreen University.

He added that the plots of targeting Syria military in light of this scene became nearly nonsexist, considering that the reason behind the essence of crisis and pressures on Syria were Syria’s firm stance towards the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Mustafa said that confronting pressures on Syria will be through strengthening the internal situation, referring to the stances of some countries’ circumstances in dealing with Syria that uncovered the attempt of swindling Syria and containing its role under the titles of friendships, economic and trade relations.

The Syrian Ambassador pointed out to the utmost domination of the Zionist Lobby in the decision-making centers in the US where those sides effectively share in formulating policies in favor of the groups that support Israel.

He said that sanctions against Syria are not new and didn’t stop, adding “we are witnessing today feverish attack to conspire against Syria through regimes that move as a tool to act as Washington orders.

On the sanctions’ effects on Syria, Mustafa underlined that President Bashar al-Assad gave directives to build economic relations with the Asian giants to ease those effects.

By Mazen

China’s Ambassador: National Dialogue the Only Solution for Crisis in Syria

DAMASCUS, (SANA)_ China’s Ambassador to Damascus, H.E. Zhang Xun, reiterated here Wednesday that national dialogue is the only solution as to emerge out from the crisis in Syria, voicing his country’s desire to continue supporting Syria in all international forums.

Ambassador Xun underscored, during a meeting with Syria’s Minister of Economy and Trade Dr. Mohamad Nidal al-Shaa’r, that China supports the restoration of security and stability to Syria.

Minister al- al-Shaa’r and Ambassador Xun’ talks focused at expanding fields of industrial, economic, investment and trade cooperation between Syria and China.

By Al-Ibrahim

Mansour: Lebanon Will Not Take Part in Any Sanctions Imposed by Arab League on Syria

BEIRUT, (SANA) – Lebanese Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour on Wednesday said that that Lebanon will not take part in any sanctions imposed by the Arab League on Syria.

In an interview with al-Manar TV, Mansour said that economic sanctions against Syria aren’t in Lebanon’s interest due to the nature of relations between the two countries and the agreements they signed which include security and fraternity agreements, affirming that Lebanon honors these agreements and is committed to them.

In a similar interview with al-Manar TV, Lebanese Minister of Economy and Trade Nicola Nahhas said that Lebanon will never close its borders with Syria, stressing that Lebanon has direct and mutual interests with Syria, and that keeping the borders open benefits Lebanon.

By H. Sabbagh

Two Explosive Devices Dismantled in Idleb

IDLEB/HOMS, (SANA)– The military engineering units in the northern governorate of Idleb on Wednesday dismantled two explosive devices planted by armed terrorist groups near the railway in Bdama town in Jisr al-Shughour.

One of the explosive devices weighs 20 kg and the other weighs 15 kg. Both of them were set to explode by remote control.

A source at the Police Command in Idleb told SANA that a third explosive device exploded in the same place without injuries.

In Homs governorate, central Syria, an armed group on Wednesday attacked an ambulance which was ferrying a citizen to a hospital in al-Khalidiyeh neighborhood.

By H. Said

Heartily Welcomed in Aleppo, Russian Delegation Stresses Falseness of Some Media Reports on Syria

ALEPPO, (SANA)- On their visit to the northern governorate of Aleppo, members of the Russian delegation said that during their visit to Syria they have been able to confirm the falseness of the news broadcast by some satellite TV channels about the situation in various Syrian cities and areas.

The delegation, which includes parliament candidates, journalists and representatives of a number of civil, popular and student organizations, expressed solidarity with Syria against the foreign challenges facing it which aim at undermining its role and position in the region.

They stressed their rejection of all forms of foreign interference in Syria’s internal affairs, which they said violates the international norms and conventions, highlighting the Syrians’ ability to solve their own problems by themselves.

“We have been to several areas in Damascus and we noticed the level of security and stability. What we saw on the ground is different from what is being reported by TV channels,” said journalist Kivork Merzian, member of the delegation which is continuing its visit to inspect the reality of events taking place in Syria away from media reports.

On her first visit to Syria, journalist Ouliana Malashenko underscored the state of calm, security and commercial activities witnessed in the Syrian cities, stressing that what some media and websites in the world broadcast on the bad situation in Syria is mere lies and fabrication.

She said she will convey the real image of the situation in Syria to the Russian people and the world’s public opinion.

Elena Jermov, a university student, said that throughout the visits to different places in Syria, she has felt the Syrian people’s love to President Bashar al-Assad, which she said makes Syria strong and able to overcome the crisis.

The Russian delegation met rector of Aleppo University Nidal Shahadeh and discussed with him various political and educational issues, with the focus placed on the pressures and challenges aimed at undermining Syria’s unity and its national and pan-Arab stances.

Shahadeh expressed the appreciation of the cadres and students at Aleppo University for the Russian role in the events in Syria which reflects an objective understanding of the situation and the Russian leadership’s stance and awareness of Syria’s pivotal role in supporting the just causes and confronting the western-U.S. plots in the region.

The delegation was received upon arrival in Aleppo on Tuesday evening by massive gathering of citizens. The visiting Russians participated in a rally of 500 cars, which headed towards Saadallah al-Jaberi Square, where they were heartily welcomed by a huge crowd of Aleppo people.

By H. Said

Delegation of the Syrian Community in Saudi Arabia: Syrians Reject AL Neglecting of People’s Will

CAIRO, (SANA) –A delegation of the Syrian community in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday handed a letter to Arab League (AL) Secretary General Nabil al-Arabi, on the absolute rejection of the Syrian people to the policy of the AL against Syria and its ignoring of their will, which rejects interference, calls for dialogue and abides by the reform process launched by President Bashar al-Assad.

Members of the delegation pointed out in the letter, SANA got a copy of which, that the AL decision against Syria is unjust and unbalanced and it overtly reflects deviation from the track and the objectives of the joint Arab action.

They added that the decision indicates the potential intentions to obliterate the Arab identity and abandon the crucial issues of the Arab nation under false pretexts.

“We call on the AL to play a genuine Arab role that seeks to launch national dialogue based on citizenship, patriotism, people’s unity, for security and stability in Syria, carrying out reforms according to what the Syrian leadership has started to implement.

The delegation called the AL for working on stopping media provocation and fabrication, as some channels have become a partner in bloodshed in Syria.

They underlined their rejection of the role played by the opposition abroad, particularly the so-called national council of Istanbul, as they deviated from the principles and objectives of the vast majority of the Syrians, rejected dialogue, overtly called for foreign intervention and sowed sedition as part of their fulfillment of foreign agendas that aim against Syria’s unity, stability, security and position.

In their letter, members of the delegation of the Syrian community in Saudi Arabia highlighted that Syria is among the main AL founders as it has maintained it and supported the joint Arab action with all strength, being the first to none in defending Arabs’ causes.

By R. Milhem / al-Ibrahim

Nine Army, Police and Security Forces Martyrs Laid to Rest

DAMASCUS/ HOMS, (SANA) – Nine army, police and security forces martyrs on Wednesday were escorted from Tishreen and Homs Military Hospitals to their final resting place.

The martyrs were targeted by the armed terrorist groups while performing their national duty in the governorates of Homs, Damascus Countryside and Daraa.

Solemn processions were held for the martyrs as they were carried on shoulders and covered with the national flag while the Military Band was playing the “Martyr” and the “Farewell” music.

The martyrs are:

•             Chief Warrant Officer Amhad Abdel Aziz al-Helw, from Homs.

•             Warrant Officer Habib Rayyez al-Khallouf, from Hama.

•             Sergeant Major Mohannad Ahmad Abboud, from Lattakia.

•             Sergeant Alaa Fawwaz al-Ahmad, from Hama.

•             Sergeant Ali Ahmad Suleiman, from Hama.

•             Sergeant Issa Ibrahim Dawood, from Tartous.

•             Corporal Abdel Kareem Abdelullah Kanaan, from Idleb.

•             Policeman Abdel Kareem Amin Sattouf, from Hama.

•             Civilian Employee Feras Adnan al-Turk, from Hama.

The martyrs’ families expressed pride in the martyrdom of their sons who sacrificed their lives to defend their homeland.

They stressed that Syria will remain steadfast in the face of all conspiracies targeting its unity and stability.

The relatives of the martyrs expressed readiness to sacrifice their lives to preserve Syria’s dignity and sovereignty, calling for prosecuting the armed terrorist groups for their crimes.

By R. Raslan/ R. al-Jazaeri

Democratic Korean Workers Delegation, Brazilian Trade Union Confederation Stress Support to Syria against Conspiracy

DAMASCUS, (SANA)- Delegation of workers unions from Democratic Korea, currently visiting Syria, on Wednesday expressed the Korean people’s solidarity with the people and workers of Syria in the face of the conspiracy which aims at destabilizing the country.

The delegation has paid a solidarity visit to the Syrian General Federation of Trade Unions to voice support to Syria in its struggle against the imperialist and Zionist forces and for restoring the occupied Golan.

Chairman of the General Federation of Trade Unions of Democratic Korea, Hong Sang-jung , said the Syrian people will overcome all the difficulties regardless of the pressures, sanctions and attempts at foreign interference in Syria’s internal affairs and the media war launched by some Arab and western countries.

Sang-jung highlighted the deep and special relations between Syria and North Korea and their friendly people, hoping for boosting the bilateral cooperation and coordination between both countries’ workers unions at the international forums.

For his part, Shaaban Azzouz, chairman of the Syrian General Federation of Trade Unions, stressed the Syrian people’s solidarity with Democratic Korea and its just causes against the U.S. pressures and interferences in its internal affairs.

In another context, the 6th National Trade Union Confederation of Brazil stressed support to the peoples and workers of Syria in defending their national independent decision and rejection of foreign interference in the Syrian affairs.

The Confederation condemned in a statement, which SANA got a copy of, the sanctions imposed on Syria because of its national stances, its support to the Palestinian people in their resistance against Israel and its rejection of foreign hegemony on the region and its resources.

The Brazilian Confederation said the rallies of millions of the Syrian citizens witnessed in all the Syrian governorates have shown the Syrian people’s rejection of all forms of foreign interference and their commitment to national unity.

By H. Said

Syrian News on 18 Nov 2011

Lavrov: Foreign Sides Aggravate Situation in Syria to Justify Interference

MOSCOW, (SANA) – Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, said Thursday that foreign sides are trying to aggravate the situation in Syria to justify interference in its internal affairs.

After talks in Moscow within the framework of the Permanent Council of Russia-EU Partnership conference, Lavrov said some foreign sides are escalating tension in Syria to justify their interference in the internal affairs of Syria.

Lavrov stressed that Russia supported the Arab League initiative’s call for ending violence by all sides and sending Arab observers to Syria as well as starting dialogue.

“If some opposition representatives, with support from some foreign countries, declare that dialogue can begin only after the regime goes, then the Arab League initiative becomes worthless and meaningless,” Lavrov said.

After talks with European Union Foreign Policy Chief, Catherine Ashton, Lavrov pointed out to the steps made by the Syrian Government to solve the internal crisis, including the parties law, local administration law, elections law and constitutional reforms, adding that the Syrian opposition should not ignore these steps.

Kosachev: some countries wrongfully approach Syrian crisis

Chairman of the Committee of International Affairs of the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, Konstantin Kosachev, said on Thursday that some countries are wrongfully approaching the Syrian crisis as they continue their wrong messages to the Syrian people which call for violence and averting dialogue.

In an interview with Russia Today TV channel, Kosachev added such messages would make the Syrian people believe that they can get their freedom and democracy through violence not dialogue.

By F.Allafi/M.Eyon

Seven Army and Police Martyrs Laid to Rest

DAMASCUS/ HOMS, (SANA)- Seven army and police martyrs on Thursday were escorted from Tishreen and Homs Military Hospitals to their final resting place.

The martyrs were targeted by the armed terrorist groups while performing their national duty in the governorates of Homs, Damascus Countryside and Idleb.

Solemn processions were held for the martyrs as they were carried on shoulders and covered with the national flag while the Military Band was playing the “Martyr” and the “Farewell” music.

The martyrs are:

•           Chief Warrant Policeman, Imad Mustafa Mehrez, from Homs.

•           Sergeant, Hadi Ali Baladiyeh, from Hama.

•           Corporal, Youssef Abdul-Qader Arbou, from Aleppo.

•           Conscript, Abdullah Arafat Tu’meh, from Qamishli.

•           Conscript, Ibrahim Mekhlif Hamadeh, from Hasaka.

•           Conscript, Ammar Hussein al-Khudr from Raqqa.

•           Policeman, Ahmad Taleb Hamdan, from Homs

The martyrs’ families expressed pride in the martyrdom of their sons who sacrificed their lives to defend their homeland, stressing that Syria will remain steadfast in the face of all conspiracies aimed at undermining its unity and stability.

By H. Zain/ H. Said

Arresting 57 Wanted and Confiscating Weapons and Communication Devices in Qualitative Operation in Idleb

IDLEB, (SANA) – The competent authorities in Idleb province on Thursday implemented a qualitative operation in Kafr Roma to the west of Maart al-Noman, as they arrested 57 wanted and confiscated weapons and high-tech communication devices.

An official military source told SANA correspondent that the operation was carried out accurately after attacking a stronghold of a terrorist armed group in Kafr Roma according to army members’ investigations.

Army members attacked the terrorists and arrested 57 of them and confiscated weapons, high-tech communication devices and explosive materials.

In a similar context, the competent authorities clashed with a terrorist armed group in a pickup truck that tried to attack an army check point in Kansafra in al-Zawya Mountain.

An army member was injured in the attack while three gunmen were killed in the clash.

On the other hand, an official source in Maart al-Noman refuted what al-Arabia TV Channel broadcast on Thursday about armed attacks against security and al-Baath Party headquarters in the city and outside it.

The source indicated that this news is “false and it comes in the framework of the fierce misleading media campaign launched by some satellite channels to falsify facts.”

In Homs, the competent authorities arrested 8 of the most dangerous terrorists convicted of murder and confiscated cars they used in al-Sina’a area in Homs.

Armed Terrorist Groups Kill 3 Citizens in Idlib, Sabotage Public and Private Properties

The corpse of Veterinarian Haitham Azzouz, who works at Agricultural Guidance Directorate in Ma’saran town, Idleb Provuince, was found after he was kidnapped by an armed terrorist group. Asource at Idleb Police Command said Thursday that Azzouz corpse was found dead near his town with several gunshot.

In the same context, another armed terrorist grupo killd civilian Mohammad Youssef Jalloul from al-Hubit town, in Idleb, where his corpse was found near the junction of Kfar Zetta town.

Mohammed Azizi, the 62-year old, from Talmens town died after he was shot by an armed group. On the other hand, a terrorist group stormed in Ma’arrat al-Naman water unite, threatened employees, stole their mobile phones and hijacked pickup car, while another terrorist group stole the service car of Ariha electricity center.

The armed groups also burned two electric tools’ warehouse in Ariha city.

Armed Terrorist Group Storms Houses and Terrorizes People in Damascus Countryside

An armed terrorist group claiming to be security members caused chaos in some areas in Damascus, robbed citizens and terrorized them before falling in the hands of the security in Damascus countryside.

Hussein Khalaf Khalaf, from Kamishli who lives in Rukneddin, said that he and his friend Muhammad Mudar Jawdat and other men broke into houses in Jairoud, Damascus countryside, posing as security members claiming to be searching for secret documents against the state.

In confessions broadcast by the Syrian TV, Khalaf confessed to storming homes in Jairoud, al-Nabk and Yabroud in Damascus countryside and stealing weapons, money and valuable possessions.

He added that his group stormed a house of a doctor in Jaramana in Damascus and stole SYP 125 thousand.

Ahmad al-Muhammad, a driver who lives in Rukneddin, said that he was engaged in burglary acts, taking advantage of the events in Syria. He admitted that they stole a sum of SYP 400 thousand.

Muhammad Mudar Jawdat confessed that he was the ‘mastermind’ of most of the group’s operations.

By R. Milhem / Ghossoun/M. Ismael

Five delegations visit Hama, inspect reality in the city

HAMA, (SANA)-Delegations from China, Russia, Spain, German and Cuba visited Hama on Thursday to inspect situation in a number of public and private utilities that witnessed acts of sabotage, fires and looting at the hands of armed terrorist groups including The Justice Palace and the Officers’ Club.

Members of the delegations also visited several private hospitals which some misleading channels claimed they were destroyed by the army.

During the tour, the delegations met the Attorney General Ismael Sharefa who asserted that the city still suffers from some spots that witness armed incidents activated by a number of instigating and fabricated channels to spread chaos and target officers and soldiers.

“The authorities do its best to tackle and confront acts of terror and overcome them,” Sharefa told the visitors, adding that during the acts of disorder, the terrorists looted big amounts of money and assets that belong to citizens.

He estimated the looted money and materials at one billion SYP.

Representative of the Chinese delegation said “we are following with big concern the development of situation in Syria… we came here to inspect the reality of events without counterfeit or fabrication.”

Later, Hama Governor Anas al-Na’em met the delegations and provided them with CDs that reveal the real events witnessed in Hama.

By Mazen

Adviser to Iranian Islamic Revolution Leader Critizes AL Decision against Syria

TEHRAN/ MOSCOW, (SANA)- Adviser to Supreme Leader of the Iranian Islamic Revolution, Ali Akbar Velayati, criticized the Arab League (AL) decision against Syria saying it was not subject to agreement as it was opposed by important countries.

“The AL through its stance stands by the Western countries and the Zionist entity,” said Velayati in a statement to the Iranian News Agency IRNA on Thursday, adding that it is necessery that the AL does not turn into a tool in the hand of the US and Israel.

“The AL opposition to a goverment which stands in the face of Israel will neither change Syria’s approach, nor will it weaken it,” Velayati pointed out, adding that the decision contradicts the demand of the Islamic Nation and the Arab people.

Russian Researcher: AL Decision Is a Huge Mistake

For his part, Russian political researcher at Moscow State University Alexei Pilco, said that suspending Syria’s membership in the Arab League is “a huge mistake” as it is so stupid and harmful to impose sanctions on Syria at the current circumstances while very complicated internal political operations are taking place inside it.

In a statement to SANA correspondent in Moscow, Pilco said “Syria is able to solve its problems by itself, and the attempts to exert foreign pressures on it and to incite the opposition not to engage in dialogue with the authority are invalid,” underlining the necessity of contributing to holding a comprehensive Syrian national dialogue to end the crisis in the country.

“Syria has always been an important player for Russia in the Middle East as it occupies an important position in the Russian strategy in the region,” Pilco said, expressing confidence that Russia’s stance regarding Syria is firm and will not change and that Russia will not yield to any pressures by the US and the Western countries.

He added that the Syrian opposition is not homogeneous as there are extremist opposition parties which were being exploited by foreign powers, highlighting the importance of neutralizing these parties and holding dialogue with the opposition components that are ready to hold such dialogue.

By H. Zain/ H. Said

DAMASCUS, (SANA)– The authorities concerned confiscated a large number of highly advanced communication means and satellite devices found with the armed terrorist groups and the members working with the seditious and instigative TV channels targeting Syria.

The first group of the confiscated devices included handheld two-way simplex system communication devices operating in the very high and ultrahigh frequency (VHF/UHF) ranges.

The devices were confiscated in a number of tension areas as they were used to ensure communication between the terrorists and criminals and organize the course of their movement to carry out attacks against the law enforcement personnel.

The devices operate by wireless scanning of the frequency ranges to pick up the calls of the security and law enforcement forces and monitor the movement of their personnel.

The second group included Thuraya satellite mobile phone sets which were used for satellite communication among the terrorists and those who work with them and between them and the misleading satellite TV channels and the external sides.

SIM cards for the Thuraya phones, charged through Arab and foreign providers, were used by the terrorists to avoid the monitoring of the authorities.

With the development of the crisis, various advanced generations of these devices appeared, such as Thuraya mobile phones powered by AB internet, which allows the possibility of connecting these devices to the internet via computer and transmitting text documents, photos and videos via satellite at high speed.

These devices were illegally infiltrated across the border from Arab countries and foreign developed countries and parties, on top the U.S.A. and Israel.

The information found in these devices included the phone numbers of all the misleading satellite channels- al-Jazeera, al-Arabiya, BBC, France 24 and others- and the phone numbers of Arab and foreign personalities involved in the events, in addition to tendentious and biased messages stored in advance.

The third group included Iridium satellite devices operated by the U.S. military satellite communication network made up of 66 satellites covering the globe which provides audio and data transfer services of different advanced generations.

The devices were used by the terrorists and agents during the events.

The group also comprised Iridium satellite phone accessories, which are antenna placed on the vehicle’s surface and connected to a phone inside the car via a cable since most satellite communication devices need Line-of -Sight between the phone and the satellite.

The fourth group included the global Inmarsat mobile communication satellite systems which operate by directing concentrated radiations towards certain points on the earth to provide voice and digital calls, videos and internet services with high accuracy and speed.

Such systems are used by the UN organizations and the embassies in Syria. There has been an increase in the number of these systems which are being imported to Qatar in unusual quantities before and during the events, which raised several question marks.

The fifth group seized a bulk which, after technical examination, was found to be a kind of an Israeli-made antenna operating on very special frequency ranges for satellite communication, which is part of an integrated satellite communication system using a network of US military satellites to provide high speed internet services to transfer data.

Unlike the previously mentioned communication systems, these systems are not commercially marketed as they require the authorization and approval of the Ministry of Defense in the manufacturing countries. The existence of these devices in Syria indicates the clear involvement of these countries; particularly that diplomats and politicians from these countries have announced intention to back the terrorists in Syria with advanced internet and communication systems.

The sixth group included radios with advanced audio players that were used by the armed terrorist groups and saboteurs to create chaos and confusion. These devices store audio clips including recorded slogans and sounds to be replayed during the gatherings near the mosques and in the crowded markets to film them as anti-government protests.

Most of these equipment and advanced devices are illegal and prohibited since they have been used without getting license from the General Telecommunications Establishment. The use of these systems and devices violate the regulating rules and legislations which guarantee that such use must not affect the security of Syria or undermine the state’s position and those responsible for possessing, importing and illegally investing them should be held accountable, as it is the case in any country in the world.

These devices can be classified, according to the circumstances Syria is going through, the places where they were seized, the sides which communicated through them and the purposes for which they were used to transfer information, fabricate events and plot to undermine the country’s position and security, as falling under the crime of espionage and treason.

The high cost of the seized satellite systems in terms of the equipment or the subscription confirms the big financial support provided to the terrorist and criminal groups and the involvement of some instigative satellite channels in providing these equipment.

Cellular coverage on the borders with neighboring countries has also been exploited by the terrorist groups to ensure cell phone calls and internet services benefiting from the coverage of neighboring countries, which reached between 30 and 50 km in a flagrant violation of agreements signed between Syria and these countries which set the limits of the overlapping coverage area between 1 and 3 km.

This violation can be put within the plan of some of these countries in supporting the terrorists in Syria during the events through raising the signal levels to maximum limits.

Authorities clash with terrorists.. One Policeman and a Teacher Martyred in Idelb

Idleb, (SANA)- Policeman Mohammad Katran was martyred Tuesday at the industrial area in Idleb after two gunmen on motorbike shot fires at him.

A source in Idleb said martyr Katran was mending his car at the industrial city when the two gunmen shot fire at him and escaped.

Meanwhile, the Engineering Units in Idleb dismantled an explosive device near Kfar Roma town while two other bombs exploded, injuring 4 law enforcement members.

A source at the Police Department stated that the competent authorities clashed with an armed terrorist group in the same town, arresting terrorist Hisham Digheim.

It added that another armed group killed teacher Mohammad Shahada while he was crossing Sirmin town last night.

1,180 Detainees Involved in Events in Syria Released

DAMASCUS, (SANA) – 1,180 detainees who are involved in the recent events in Syria and didn’t commit murder was released on Tuesday.

553 detainees involved in the events were released on November 5th on occasion of Eid al-Adha

Russian Foreign Ministry: Moscow Informed Syrian Opposition about its Stance in Rejection of any Foreign Interference

MOSCOW,(SANA)- Russian Foreign Ministry said that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov received on Tuesday a delegation of the Syrian opposition abroad which is currently in Moscow upon an invitation by the Russian Society for Solidarity and Cooperation with Nations of Asia and Africa.

In a press statement, the Ministry added that the delegation was informed about Russia’s stance which calls for adhering to a constructive stance to overcome the issues raised in Syria today, implementing reforms that would serve the interests of all the Syrians, and preventing the foreign interference in Syria’s internal affairs.

In its statement, the Ministry indicated that the Russian side clearly called upon all the Syrian opposition groups, which reject violence as a means for achieving political goals, to immediately participate in the Arab League’s initiative on settling the internal Syrian crisis through launching dialogue between the Syrian authorities and the opposition.

Umakhanov Calls for Starting Dialogue between Syrian Government and Opposition

Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council of Russia Ilyas Umakhanov stressed the need for a peaceful internal dialogue in Syria.

Umakhanov’s remarks came during the council’s meeting with representatives of the Syrian opposition abroad.

He added that the talks dealt with the situation in Syria, peaceful cooperation and means of holding a wide internal dialgoue with the support of the Syrian society, ending violence and avoiding escalating the confrontation in the country.

Umakhanov reiterated the need for stoping the killing, in refrence to the armed groups that have commited illegal and terrorist acts.

He said that the situation in Syria should be solved peacefully without any foreign interference, adding that Russia is interested in initiating dialogue between the Syrian authority and the opposition.

Umakhanov highlighted the strong economic and military cooperation between Syria and Russia, indicating that the Russian leadership, the Russian public opinion and the Council’s members are carefully monitoring what is happening in Syria.

Bogdanov Stresses that Overcoming Crisis in Syria without any Foreign Interference

Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov called for exerting more efforts to implement the Arab League initiative and achieve a political settlement in Syria through ending all forms of violence and starting an open dialogue between the Syrian government and the opposition.

Bogdanov’s statment came during his meeting with Syria’s Ambassador in Moscow on Tuesday at which the situation in Syria was discussed.

Bogdanov stressed Russia’s stance which calls for overcoming the internal crisis by the Syrians themselves through dialogue and reforms without any foreign interference.

Iran, Algeria and Iraq Reiterate Rejection of Foreign Interference in Syria’s Internal Affairs

TEHRAN, (SANA) – Iran and Algeria on Tuesday Reiterated rejection of any foreign interference in Syria’s internal affairs, underlining the importance of resolving the problems that are facing the country through dialogue.

Iranian media said Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi affirmed in a phone call with Algerian counterpart Mourad Medelci the importance of Syria’s position in the region.

He stressed the importance of holding more consultations to find the required ground for solving the problems in Syria with the concentration on confronting foreign interference along with achieving reforms in the country.

Salehi said that the current situation in Syria and along with the matter of a foreign interference could be solved in the framework of the political regime in Syria.

For his part, the Algerian Minister highlighted Syria’s role in the region, stressing the importance of consultations and solving problems through dialogue.

Iraqi Government Stresses Rejection of Economic Sanctions on Syria

The Iraqi Government stressed on Tuesday its rejection of imposing economic sanctions on Syria and internationalizing the Syrian crisis.

The Iraqi Government Spokesperson, Ali al-Dabbagh, reiterated in a statement that the Iraqi Cabinet stressed during its meeting today that the Arab League’s resolution on suspending the membership of Syria does not solve the Syrian crisis.

According to AFP, al-Dabbagh expressed his government’s concern over the repercussions of the situation in Syria on the security and interests of Iraq and the region.

Earlier, Ali al-Dabbagh described the voting process on the AL resolution as “unacceptable and double-standard”, calling on the Arab League to be the place where problems are solved.

National Committee Assigned to Preparing a New Constitution Holds 3rd Meeting

DAMASCUS, (SANA)-The national Committee assigned to preparing a new constitution for Syria held today its 3rd meeting headed by Chairman Mazhar al-Anbari in Damascus.

The committee discussed the basic principles of the new constitution that deal with the political and constitutional system, economic, social and political domains related to the State of Law, plurality, electoral system, local administration, independence of judiciary and other basic principles.

During the last two meetings, the Committee held discussions on some visions and suggestions to regulate the work mechanism of the Committee and formulate a new constitution.

Syrian People Continue Protests against AL Decision against Syria

DAMASCUS, (SANA) – Syrian people continued on Tuesday their protests against the Arab League decision on suspending the membership of Syria.

Outside the Arab League Office in Damascus, hundreds of Syrian people gathered to express their rejection of the decision, highlighting their support to the independent national decision.

“We came here today to tell the Arab League that the resolution is categorically rejected by the Syrian people, and it will never weaken Syria; rather it will increase the Syrian people’s resolve to be committed to their Syrian identity, Arabism and leadership,” a protester told SANA reporter.

At the Umayyad Square, Syrian ladies, who cut their hair, resumed, for the second consecutive day, their open sit-in in rejection of the AL resolution.

A lady who cut her hair told SANA, “What we did is an old Arab tradition that women used to do to show disrespect of men. Today we did that to show that we, as Arab women, are ashamed to have such an Arab stance which contributed to issuing the resolution against Syria.”

In the cities of al-Bab and Manbej in Aleppo province, tens of thousands of people gathered to express their condemnation of the AL resolution and their rejection of foreign interference in Syria’s internal affairs.

The people stressed the importance of national dialogue, pointing out that the Syrian people took to the street immediately after the Arab League resolution was announced to send a message to those who want to ignite sedition among the unified Syrian people.

They reiterated their support to the comprehensive reform process and independent national decision to preserve the sovereignty of Syria.

Arab Student Organizations Condemn AL Decision

The Arab student organizations at Damascus University issued a statement condemning the decision of the Arab League to suspend Syria’s delegation’s participation in its meetings and stressing their standing by the steadfast Syrian people and the Syrian leadership to foil the conspiracy against Syria.

They described the decision as “irresponsible, saying with this decision the Arab League poses new dangers to the Arab national security and provides the appropriate cover to the colonialist powers seeking to fragment the Arab world, loot its resources and undermine the unity of its people and land.

The Arab organizations affirmed that Syria agreed on the AL Initiative and adhered to it from the first moment as it has also announced its cooperation with any sincere Arab effort.

They said that the decision came to put an end to the joint Arab action through the Arab League’s deviation from its main objective in that “instead of being an arbiter in the conspiracy against Syria, it has acted as an adversary from the start and turned blind eyes to all the painful facts and events that took place in Syria.”

“In its latest illegal decision which violated the AL Charter, the Arab League confirms that it has become a hostage to a group of reactionary powers implementing a foreign agenda to undermine Syria’s steadfastness and its noble pan-Arab principles of defending the Resistance and the Arab Right,” the organizations concluded.

Al-Shaar: Police and Security Apparatus Determined to Arrest Armed Terrorist Groups

DAMASCUS, (SANA)-Interior Minister Mohammad al-Shaar said that the law enforcement and securtiy members are intensifying their efforts to arrest the armed terrorist groups who perpetrate acts of sabotage, loot private and public properties and kill innocents.

Meeting officers and students at Basel al-Assad Academy for police sciences, al-Shaar underlined that Syria recognizes the volume of conspiracy to which it is exposed due to its siding with resistance and its support to the Arab causes.

He added that the misleading media campaign and the fabricated news againstt Syria aim at producing an unrealistic image about Syria and creating a negative stance at the Arab and international public opinion.

Gulf Cooperation Council Considers Holding Urgent Summit to Deal with Syrian Crisis Futile

RIYADH, (SANA) – The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) said on Tuesday that holding an urgent Arab summit at this time is futile, a stance reflecting the lack of proper consideration of the dangers facing Arab joint action.

In a statement, Secretary General of the Council Abdul Latif al-Zayyani said that the GCC affirms support and commitment to the Arab League’s resolution regarding the Syrian crisis.

Syria called on Sunday for holding an urgent Arab summit to deal with the Syrian crisis and consider its negative repercussions on the Arab situation.

Surrounded by the Turkish veteran member of NATO in the north, the Israeli NATO partner and the navy fleets of the member states patrolling the Mediterranean in the west, the alliance’s Jordanian partner in the south, and in the east hosting a NATO mission in Iraq, which is expected to develop into the 12th Arab partner, and lonely swimming in a sea of the Arab and Israel strategic allies of the United States, the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad stands as the Yugoslavia of the Middle East, that has to join the expansion southward of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as well as the “new world order” engineered by the U.S. unipolar power, kicked out as the odd regional number, or join Iraq and Libya in being bombed down to the medieval ages.

Following its latest military success in opening the Libyan gate to Africa, the U.S. – led NATO seems about to recruit its 13th Arab “partner,” thus paving the way for the United States to move its Africom HQ from Germany to the continent after removing the Gaddafi regime, which opposed both this move and the French – led Mediterranean Union (MU), a removal that is in itself, for all realpolitic reasons, a threatening warning to the neighboring Algeria to soften its opposition to both Africa hosting Africom and NATO expanding southward and to drop off whatever reservations it still has to the revival of the MU, which lost its Egyptian co-chair with President Nicolas Sarkozy with the removal of former president Hosni Mubarak from power in Cairo.

The U.S. and NATO are poised now to shift focus from Arab North Africa to the Arab Levant to deal with the last Syrian obstacle to their regional hegemony. The U.S. administration of President Barak Obama seems now determined to make or break with the al-Assad regime, distancing itself from decades long policy of crisis management pursued by predecessor U.S. administrations vis-à-vis Syria, which stands now in the Middle East as former Yugoslavia stood in the wake of the collapse of the former Soviet Union when a series of ethnic and religious wars wrecked it, creating from its wreckage several new states, until the Serbian core of the Yugoslav union was bombed by NATO in 1999 to make Serbia now a hopeful member of the alliance.

However international and regional strategic geopolitical factors are turning Syria into a border red line that might either herald a new era of multipolar world order, which puts an end to the U.S. unipolar order, if the U.S. led alliance fails to change the Syrian regime, or completes a U.S. – NATO total regional hegemony that would preclude such a long awaited outcome, if it succeeds:

* Internally, the infrastructure of the state is strong, the military, security, diplomatic and political ruling establishment stands coherent, unified and potent, and economically the state is not burdened with foreign debt and is self-sufficient in oil, food and consumer products. Imposing a complete suffocating economic and diplomatic siege on the country seems impossible. What is more important politically is the fact that the pluralistic diversity of the large Syrian religious and sectarian minorities deprives the major and better organized Islamist opposition of the Muslim Brotherhood of the leading role it enjoys in the protests of what has been termed the “Arab Spring” in Tunisia, Egypt and Yemen.

* Contrary to western analyses, which expect the change of regimes by the “Arab Spring” to be a motivating drive for a similar change in Syria, the changes were bad examples for Syrians. The destruction of the infrastructure of the state, especially in Iraq and Libya, and leaving their national decision making to NATO and U.S., at least out gratefulness to their roles in the change, is not viewed by the overwhelming majority of the Syrians, including the mainstream opposition inside the country, as an acceptable and feasible price for change and reform. The Arab Egyptian veteran and internationally prominent journalist, Mohammed Hassanein Heikal, in an interview with the Qatar based Aljazeera satellite TV Arabic channel, cited these bad Iraqi and Libyan examples as alienating the Syrian middle class in major city centers away from supporting the protests demanding change of regime; he even accused Aljazeera of “incitement” against the Syrian regime of al-Assad.

* This overall internal situation continues to deter outside intervention on the one hand and on the other explains why the opposition has so far failed to launch even one protest of the type that moved out millions of people to the streets as was and is the case in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain and Yemen, especially in major population centers like the capital Damascus, Aleppo, both which are home to about ten million people.

* Moreover, the resort of a minority of Islamists to arms allegedly to defend the protesters has backfired, alienating the public in general, the minorities in particular, and highlighting their external sources of funds and arming, thus vindicating the regime’s accusation of the existence of an outside “conspiracy,” but more importantly diverting the media spotlight away from the peaceful protests, weakening these protests by driving away more people from joining them out of fear for personal safety as proved by the dwindling numbers of protesters, and dragging the opposition into a field of struggle where the regime is definitely the strongest at least in the absence of external military intervention that is not forthcoming in any foreseeable future, a fact that was confirmed in the Libyan capital Tripoli on October 31 by NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen: “NATO has no intention (to intervene) whatsoever. I can completely rule that out,” Reuters quoted him as saying.

* Geopolitically, it is true that western powers after WW1 succeeded in cutting historical Syria to its present day size, but Syrian pan-Arab ideology and influence is still up to historic Syria, and is still consistent with what the late Princeton scholar Philip K. Hitti called (quoted by Robert D. Kaplan in Foreign Policy on April 21, 2011) “Greater Syria” — the historical antecedent of the modern republic – “the largest small country on the map, microscopic in size but cosmic in influence,” encompassing in its geography, at the confluence of Europe, Asia, and Africa, “the history of the civilized world in a miniature form”. Kaplan commented: “This is not an exaggeration, and because it is not, the current unrest in Syria is far more important than unrest we have seen anywhere in the Middle East.” The change of the regime in Syria will not bring security and stability to the region; on the contrary, it will open a regional Pandora box. Syrian President al-Assad was very well aware of this geopolitical reality when he told Britain’s Sunday Telegraph recently in a weekend interview that Syria “is the (region’s) fault line, and if you play with the ground, you will cause an earthquake”.

* The regional repercussions of a sectarian civil war in Syria are a deterrent factor against both militarization of pro-reform peaceful protests and foreign military intervention in support thereof. Therefore, when NATO and the U.S. pressure or encourage their regional allies in Turkey and the GCC Arab countries to foment Sunni sectarian strife in the Syrian ally of Shiite Iran as a prelude to civil war, their only pretext for military intervention, they are in fact playing with a regional fire that will not save neither the perpetrators nor the “vital” interests of their NATO-U.S. sponsors.

* Regionally, Iran’s possible loss of its Syrian bridge to the Mediterranean, while its routes to the strategic sea could easily be closed via the Gulf, the Arabian Sea, the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, the Red sea and the Suez Canal by the fifth and sixth U.S. fleets as well as the by fleets of the NATO member states and Israel, and pro- U.S. governments overlooking these sea lanes, is an Iranian red line the trespassing of which could create a situation fraught with potential risks of regional war eruption.

* Regionally also, less a U.S. – NATO decision to go to an all out war on Iran and Syria, military intervention in Syria would not be on the agenda unless guarantees are in place that Israel will be out of reach of expected Iranian and Syrian retaliation.

* The timing of the U.S. – NATO shift of focus on Syria coincides with a deadlocked Palestinian – Israeli peace process and the failure of Barak Obama administration to deliver on its promises to its Arab allies, thus alienating the most moderate among them, namely Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who is still being pushed to a collision course with the American sponsor of the process by the U.S. – led international campaign against his overdue bid to secure the recognition of Palestine as a full member of the United Nations.

The failure of the U.S. peace mediator applies more counterproductively to the Syrian – Israeli peace making. Al-Assad regime came to power in a coup d’etat with the precise aim of engaging the U.S. – sponsored peace process in the Middle East. More than forty years later the United States has yet to deliver. This failure erodes the influence of the moderate pro-U.S. Arabs, stands as the biggest obstacle to building a U.S. – Arab – Israeli front against Iran, which is an American and Israeli regional priority, and adds ammunition and forces to the Syrian protagonist. Abbas’ reconciliation accord with the Syrian – based Hamas is a good example to ponder in this context; another is the Palestinian leader’s latest pronounced option of dissolving the self-ruled Palestinian Authority under Israeli military occupation, which would be a death blow to the Arab – Israeli peace process.

* This failure of the U.S. “sponsorship” was a major contributing factor to the changes of the “Arab Spring” in a chain of pro-U.S. Arab regimes in Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen. However this failure vindicates Syria’s “resistance” ideology, justifies its strategic defensive coordination with Iran, reinforces the popular support for both countries in the region, and gives credibility to the argument of the regime in Damascus that the U.S. and NATO are fueling Syrian protests in the name of change and reform, but in fact exploiting these protests to “change the regime” and replace it with one that is more willing to accept the Israeli – U.S. dictates for peace making.

* The scheduled withdrawal of U.S. combat forces from Iraq by the end of the year is another regional adverse factor against military intervention in Syria. This withdrawal is leaving Iraq unquestionably under a pro – Iran ruling regime. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was on record in opposing regime change in Syria precisely because of the Iranian influence. Iraq is now overtly replacing Turkey as a strategic depth for its Syrian western neighbor, providing a strategic link between the allies in Damascus and Tehran, after Turkey’s U-turn on its “strategic cooperation” with Syria, its U-turn on its nine-year old “zero problem based relations” with Arab and Islamic neighbors, and its subscription to NATO and U.S. plans for Syria as a member and ally respectively.

* Internationally, the latest Russian and Chinese vetoes at the UN Security Council is indication enough that the U.S. – NATO endeavor to change the Syrian regime has trespassed another red line. Loosing its navy facilities in Syria would leave Russia out of the Mediterranean Sea and render it a U.S. – NATO lake. China whose competitive edge in Africa is being challenged following the change of regime in Libya would view the fall of Syria to become a U.S. – NATO launching ground against Iran as a real threat to its similarly competitive partnership with Iran. Chasing Beijing also out of Iran will render the emerging Chinese economic giant at the mercy of NATO partners if they succeed in securing their control over Iran and Syria because such a control will secure also their control of both strategic oil reserves in the Middle East and central Asia. This is absolutely a Chinese red line.

* Diplomatically, U.S. – NATO plans of military intervention in Syria has been denied any cover of United Nations legitimacy by the Russian and Chinese vetoes. Legitimacy of the Arab League is still lacking; freezing the membership of a member state, like was the case with Libya, needs consensus, which is not forthcoming.

TWO OPTIONS

This is the geopolitical strategic context in which the Syrian pro-democracy transformation is desperately trying to survive the U.S. – NATO undemocratic means of coercing Syria into compliance. Both mainstream opposition inside the country and the ruling regime are almost in consensus on reforms and fundamental changes that will move Syria to what is being now termed as “the second republic” through dialogue.

Both this opposition and the regime are on record against the militarization of the peaceful popular protests demanding reform and change and more adamantly against foreign intervention whatever form it takes, but both are seeking internal national unity as well as foreign support for a package of reforms inclusive of lifting the martial law, limiting the role of intelligence arms of the state to national security, empowering the civil society, curbing political and economic corruption, political pluralism, competitive elections, changing party, electoral and media laws, balancing the executive – legislative power, promoting judiciary and rule of law, and more importantly ending the constitutional Baath Party monopoly of power. Carnegie Endowment in its “Reform in Syria: Steering between the Chinese Model and Regime Change” of July 2006 proposed most of the reforms. In less than six months, President al-Assad has already issued successive presidential decrees enacting all these reforms.

However the U.S. – NATO axis of “the responsibility to protect” advocates are persistent on creating facts on the ground that would empower them for foreign intervention and place them in a position to trade their support of this reform package internally in exchange externally for Syrian foreign policy agenda, which has nurtured during four decades of al-Assad rule a network of regional and international alliances that enabled Syria to maintain a defense option in its 44-year old struggle to liberate the Israeli – occupied Syrian Golan Heights and to stand steadfast against dictating conditions on Damascus to make peace with Israel on Israeli terms.

These adverse factors leave the U.S. and NATO with two options:

First pressuring NATO member, Turkey, to discard its nine-year old “zero-problem based relations” with its regional neighbors to what Liam Stack described in the New York Times on October 27 as “hosting an armed opposition group waging an insurgency … amid a broader Turkish campaign to undermine Mr. Assad’s government” in its southern Syrian neighbor, which is the same reason why Turkey has been for years waging military incursions into Iraq and why Ankara was on the brink of war with Syria late in 1990s.

Second, to escalate the militarization of the peaceful protests. On August 14, 2011, Israel’s Debka Intelligence news reported that developments in Syria point to a full-fledged armed insurgency, integrated by Islamist “freedom fighters” covertly supported, trained and equipped by foreign powers. According to Israeli intelligence sources: NATO headquarters in Brussels and the Turkish high command are drawing up plans … to arm the rebels with weapons for combating the tanks and helicopters … NATO strategists are thinking more in terms of pouring large quantities of anti-tank and anti-air rockets, mortars and heavy machine guns into the protest centers … The delivery of weapons to the rebels is to be implemented “overland, namely through Turkey and under Turkish army protection … According to Israeli sources, which remain to be verified, NATO and the Turkish High command, also contemplate the development of a “jihad” involving the recruitment of thousands of Islamist “freedom fighters”, reminiscent of the enlistment of Mujahideen to wage the CIA’s jihad (holy war) in the heyday of the Soviet-Afghan war … Also discussed in Brussels and Ankara, our sources report, is a campaign to enlist thousands of Muslim volunteers in Middle East countries and the Muslim world to fight alongside the Syrian rebels. The Turkish army would house these volunteers, train them and secure their passage into Syria!

The editorial board opinion of The Washington Post on September 28, 2011 had a foresight: “The appearance of such forces is not to be welcomed, even by those hoping for an end to the Assad regime.”

However, the U.S. and NATO seem now in a race against time in pursuing exactly that goal through those two options to preclude the implementation of the Syrian package of reforms, until the ruling regime is coerced into compliance to trade their support of these reforms for the current Syrian foreign policy agenda.

But because the Syrian foreign policy, like the foreign policy of all countries, serves the internal prerogatives in the first place, which is in the Syrian case the liberation of Syria’s Israeli-occupied lands, Syria is not expected to comply. Therefore the Syrian “resistance” continues, and the regional conflict as well.

Nick Cohen wrote in The Jewish Chronicle on August 30 this year: “Syria is a story that cries out for coverage. But it is not receiving the play it deserves.” Cohen was and is still right, but he has yet to address Syria from a completely different approach.

By Nicola Nasser

Nicola Nasser is a veteran Arab journalist based in Bir Zeit, West Bank of the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories. nassernicola@ymail.com

Since Sep. 11, I often hear Americans indignantly calling for a reformed and progressive Islam even though it is unimaginable that they would call for certain changes within Judaism, for example. Thomas Friedman has called for a war “within Islam,” and has written plenty on the subject. But who cares what Thomas Friedman has to say.

Calls for reform within Islam ignore the fact that there has been a reformist and progressive Islam that dates back to the 1950s and 1960s: it was the Islam that was promoted and supported by Egypt’s Nasser regime.

Back then and for much of the Cold War, there was a civil war within Islam: Saudi Arabia and the other pro-American dictatorships of the Middle East supported and promoted a reactionary and conservative Islam defined by the standards of Wahhabism—one of the most intolerant and exclusionary religious movements in Islam.

Nasser, on the other hand, promoted a very different Islam. His was an Islam that supported gender equality and promoted women and fought obscurantism. Nasser used Egypt’s foremost religious institution, the al-Azhar, through his ally, cleric Mahmud Shaltut, to push for a reformed and enlightened Islam.

It was under Nasser that al-Azhar opened its doors to women, and ended the takfir (declaration of infidelity) of Shiites by the highest religious establishment.

Shaltut and Nasser never made the distinction between Sunnis and Shiites (it is unthinkable that Nasser would ever speak in such language given he avoided any sectarian language about Muslims and Christians). But Nasser did not have only Saudi Arabia and its wealth against him: He also had to contend with the US and Western governments.

In the service of Israel and taking into account Cold War interests, the US supported the reactionary version of Islam and the creation of Muslim organizations backed by Saudi Arabia because it was more worried about communism and leftism.

The US fought fiercely against Nasser’s progressive Islam because it was in the same camp with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf monarchies who promoted conservative values and doctrine.

It was in the context of this war between the two Islams that the violent groups emerged. Nasser marginalized and even expelled those fanatic clerics of the Muslim Brotherhood who would later inspire Al-Qa`idah and other such groups. All those reactionary clerics who did not subscribe to the progressive views and interpretations of Shaltut fled Egypt and were hosted by Gulf monarchies who hired them as educators, advisors, clerics, and TV personalities (in the case of Yusuf Al-Qaradawi in Qatar for example).

Many of those reactionary clerics were instrumental in setting up constitutions (Hasan Turabi advised several of the Gulf states) and in injecting Islamic laws (or conservative interpretations of Islamic laws) into their body politics and society.

This war went on for years, and Nasser scored big in this battle: some new republics and old ones (Libya, Syria, and Iraq) were influenced by Nasser. Even Syrian Muslim Brotherhood leader Mustafa Sibai was on the defensive and wrote a book titled “The Socialism of Islam.” The Ikhwan were made to look like apologists for a dead order. Nasser (accurately) associated that Islam with its sponsor: Saudi Arabia. It was the Islam that serves colonialism, he argued.

But Nasser died in 1970. Sadat (with an eye on Washington), released all the Islamist extremists from jail and unleashed them on Egyptian college campuses. This gave rise to the most militant clerics: people like Aymad Dhawahiri and Umar Abdurrahman. Sadat (and his Saudi allies) wanted the Islamists to go after the leftists and the Arab nationalists. Secularism was dealt a severe blow: its towering and most credible sponsor, Nasser, was dead. (Of course, Nasser could—and should—have gone further in his secular advocacy but he was constrained by virtue of the religious one-upmanship that his enemies were engaged in and by virtue of deep conservative religiosity in Egyptian society).

After the 1970s, we entered into the Saudi era and it translated into a victory for reactionary Islam. That Islam received another boost in the 1980s, when the US devoted billions and weapons to sponsor it in Afghanistan. The rest is distorted history.

By As’ad AbuKhalil

11 November 2011

@ alakhbar english