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Accusations that the Syrian government is either wholly or mainly responsible for breaches of the United Nations’ ceasefire are meant to provide a pretext for military intervention by the imperialist powers and their proxies.

The US and European media, meanwhile, is acting as a barely concealed propaganda instrument tasked with preparing public opinion for the latest criminal adventure in the Middle East—a war for regime change in Syria to follow those waged in Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Saturation coverage was given to an explosion in Hama, with “opposition” sources cited to claim that a Scud missile attack had destroyed a building, accompanied by the usual inflated casualty figures. The more believable explanation that the explosion was due to an accident at a building used as a bomb factory was relegated to an aside.

The same holds true of the widespread reporting of “shock footage” of a journalist supposedly being “buried alive” by Syrian troops—a video so obviously staged and badly scripted that even supporters of the opposition have deemed it as a fake.

In contrast, a campaign by the opposition to create the conditions for a military intervention through systematic violations of the cease-fire has been downplayed or portrayed as staged provocations by the regime of Bashir al-Assad.

On Friday, a suicide bomber in Damascus killed 10 people and wounded more than 28 others outside the Zain al-Abideen mosque. Witnesses said a man in military uniform detonated an explosives vest while he was among soldiers that left body parts scattered across the tarmac.

Earlier, a loud blast was heard near a bus station used by pro-Assad militiamen preventing demonstrations in the capital—one of four more minor explosions in Damascus in which four people were wounded.

On Saturday, oppositionists clashed with troops in the coastal town of Burj Islam, close to the presidential summer palace. The intense shooting lasted for 15 to 30 minutes.

On Saturday, oppositionists in dinghies attacked a military unit on the Mediterranean coast, about 30 kilometres from the border with Turkey, leading to the deaths of several members of the Syrian armed forces.

That same day, Lebanon said its navy seized three containers with large quantities of weapons destined for the opposition groups. The Lutfallah II began its voyage from Libya, stopped off in Alexandria in Egypt, and then headed for Tripoli in Lebanon before it was intercepted.

The official statements of the UN, Washington, Paris and Ankara are made as if none of this is taking place.

On Friday, even as reports of the suicide bombing in Damascus were emerging, UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon warned that Syria’s government was “in contravention” of the April 12 cease-fire and that Assad’s crackdown has reached an “intolerable stage.”

Ban said the UN would soon beef up its 15 observers in Syria to 300.

Ban’s statement provided the US with another opportunity to declare that Damascus has failed to honour the UN peace plan. On April 28, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said that the UN peace plan “as a whole is failing…. It remains our assessment that the bulk of the violations of the cease-fire pledge are coming from the regime side.”

The US has in fact said the same thing from day one, threatening on April 21 that it may not even allow the renewal of the UN monitoring mission in Syria after the first three months is up. “Our patience is exhausted,” Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN told the Security Council.

The US has already signalled its intention to move to a military solution. Defence Undersecretary Kathleen Hicks and National Security Council director of strategies Derek Chollet have told the Senate that the UN diplomatic initiative had now reached “the point of collapse”.

The Pentagon has its “plan B” in place, including calling on US troops to set up a security zone along the border between Syria and Turkey. “We are planning various strategies for a vast range of scenarios, including the possibility of helping allies and partners on the frontier zones,” Hicks said April 27.

On April 19, Defence Secretary Leon Panetta disclosed that the Pentagon has plans in place for establishing humanitarian corridors in Syria. “Anything that takes out the Assad regime is a step in the right direction,” he said.

The same line is coming from Paris. French president Nicholas Sarkozy was the first Western leader to publicly back humanitarian corridors.

Last week, Foreign Minister Alan Juppé said that it may be necessary for the UN Security Council to consider a resolution authorising the use of force. “We cannot allow the [Damascus] regime to defy us,” he said. If the peace plan fails, “we would have to move to a new stage with a Chapter Seven resolution to stop this tragedy”.

May 5, when former UN secretary general Kofi Annan is set to present his report on the peace process, will be “a moment of truth”, Juppé said. France has been discussing invoking Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, which allows for military action, with other powers, he added.

Secretary of State Hilary Clinton threatened to invoke Chapter 7 at the April 18 “Friends of Syria” meeting in Paris.

On Thursday, Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu told parliament, “In the face of developments in Syria, we are taking into consideration any kind of possibility in line with our national security and interests.” This includes setting up a buffer zone on the Syrian side of the border that Turkey wants to be policed by NATO.

On April 9, four Syrian refugees and a Turkish policeman and a translator were wounded in the Kilis refugee camp on the 560-mile Turkish-Syrian border. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan responded by threatening to invoke Article 5 of the NATO treaty, stipulating that an attack against a NATO member is considered an attack against all members.

The Arab states are also ready to line up behind a military attack on Damascus. The head of the Arab League, Nabil el-Arabi, said Arab foreign ministers have asked him to convene a meeting of all the Syrian opposition factions on May 16. On Friday, Saudi king Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud met with Qatar’s crown prince Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in Riyadh to plan a joint intervention at the meeting.

Regime change in Syria ultimately targets its main regional ally, Iran, as well as the oil and military interests of Russia and China in the region. Tensions are worsening daily as a result.

Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Hossein Amirabdolahian, has denounced “The parties who back sending weapons to Syria” as “responsible for killing innocent people.”

Russian foreign ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said, “Opposition groups have essentially reverted to waging wide-scale terror in the region.”

On Saturday, during a visit to Moscow, Chinese vice foreign minister Cheng Guoping said that both sides “hold 100 percent coinciding positions on the issues of North Korea and Syria.”

By Chris Marsden

30 April 2012

@ WSWS.org

Last December, a super-secret RQ-170 Sentinel, part of a far-reaching program of CIA drone surveillance over Iran, went down (or was shot down, or computer-jacked and hacked down) and was recovered intact by the Iranian military.  This week, an Iranian general proudly announced that his country’s experts had accessed the plane’s computer — he offered information he claimed proved it — and were now “reverse-engineering” the drone to create one of their own.

Most or all of his claims have been widely doubted, derided, or simply dismissed in our world, and for all I know his was indeed pure bluster and bluff.  But if so, it still managed to catch an urge that lay behind a couple of hundred years of global history: to adapt the most sophisticated aspects of the West to resist the West.  That urge has been essential to the way our planet has developed. After all, much of the last two centuries might well be headlined in technological, economic, and even political terms, “The History of Reverse-Engineering.”

Starting in the eighteenth century, whether you were in the Ottoman Empire or China, wherever, in fact, cannon-mounted European ships appeared to break down doors and conquer countries or subject them to an alien will, the issue of reverse-engineering was always close at hand.  For endless decades, the preeminent question, the crucial thing to debate, was just what could be adapted from the Western arsenal of weapons, politics, technology, and ideas, and how it could be melded with local culture, how it could be given Ottoman, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, or [fill in the blank] “characteristics” and made to check or reverse the course of events.  The rise of Japan in the nineteenth century and the more recent spectacular growth of China are, without any doubt, cases of the history of reverse-engineering.

Whatever the successes and failures of that process, the question today — as the U.S. declines, Europe stagnates, and the explosive BRICS countries head for center stage — is perhaps this: Can reverse-engineering really take us any farther, or will it in the end simply take us down?  Isn’t it time for something new in the engineering universe or perhaps for the coming of reverse-reverse-engineering somewhere on this weather-freaky, overtaxed planet of ours?

Who better to offer us a little rundown on that planet, end to end, top to bottom in its moment of global stress than Asia Times’ and TomDispatch’s own peripatetic author Pepe Escobar?  He’s seen it all.  Now, you will, too. Tom

A History of the World, BRIC by BRIC

Neoliberal Dragons, Eurasian Wet Dreams, and Robocop Fantasies

Goldman Sachs — via economist Jim O’Neill — invented the concept of a rising new bloc on the planet: BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa). Some cynics couldn’t help calling it the “Bloody Ridiculous Investment Concept.”

Not really. Goldman now expects the BRICS countries to account for almost 40% of global gross domestic product (GDP) by 2050, and to include four of the world’s top five economies.

Soon, in fact, that acronym may have to expand to include Turkey, Indonesia, South Korea and, yes, nuclear Iran: BRIIICTSS?  Despite its well-known problems as a nation under economic siege, Iran is also motoring along as part of the N-11, yet another distilled concept.  (It stands for the next 11 emerging economies.)

The multitrillion-dollar global question remains: Is the emergence of BRICS a signal that we have truly entered a new multipolar world?

Yale’s canny historian Paul Kennedy (of “imperial overstretch” fame) is convinced that we either are about to cross or have already crossed a “historical watershed” taking us far beyond the post-Cold War unipolar world of “the sole superpower.” There are, argues Kennedy, four main reasons for that: the slow erosion of the U.S. dollar (formerly 85% of global reserves, now less than 60%), the “paralysis of the European project,” Asia rising (the end of 500 years of Western hegemony), and the decrepitude of the United Nations.

The Group of Eight (G-8) is already increasingly irrelevant. The G-20, which includes the BRICS, might, however, prove to be the real thing. But there’s much to be done to cross that watershed rather than simply be swept over it willy-nilly: the reform of the U.N. Security Council, and above all, the reform of the Bretton Woods system, especially those two crucial institutions, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.

On the other hand, willy-nilly may prove the way of the world.  After all, as emerging superstars, the BRICS have a ton of problems.  True, in only the last seven years Brazil has added 40 million people as middle-class consumers; by 2016, it will have invested another $900 billion — more than a third of its GDP — in energy and infrastructure; and it’s not as exposed as some BRICS members to the imponderables of world trade, since its exports are only 11% of GDP, even less than the U.S.

Still, the key problem remains the same: lack of good management, not to mention a swamp of corruption. Brazil’s brazen new monied class is turning out to be no less corrupt than the old, arrogant, comprador elites that used to run the country.

In India, the choice seems to be between manageable and unmanageable chaos. The corruption of the country’s political elite would make Shiva proud. Abuse of state power, nepotistic control of contracts related to infrastructure, the looting of mineral resources, real estate property scandals — they’ve got it all, even if India is not a Hindu Pakistan. Not yet anyway.

Since 1991, “reform” in India has meant only one thing: unbridled commerce and getting the state out of the economy. Not surprisingly then, nothing is being done to reform public institutions, which are a scandal in themselves. Efficient public administration? Don’t even think about it. In a nutshell, India is a chaotic economic dynamo and yet, in some sense, not even an emerging power, not to speak of a superpower.

Russia, too, is still trying to find the magic mix, including a competent state policy to exploit the country’s bounteous natural resources, extraordinary space, and impressive social talent.  It must modernize fast as, apart from Moscow and St. Petersburg, relative social backwardness prevails. Its leaders remain uneasy about neighboring China (aware that any Sino-Russian alliance would leave Russia as a distinctly junior partner).  They are distrustful of Washington, anxious over the depopulation of their eastern territories, and worried about the cultural and religious alienation of their Muslim population.

Then again the Putinator is back as president with his magic formula for modernization: a strategic German-Russian partnership that will benefit the power elite/business oligarchy, but not necessarily the majority of Russians.

Dead in the Woods

The post-World War II Bretton Woods system is now officially dead, totally illegitimate, but what are the BRICS planning to do about it?

At their summit in New Delhi in late March, they pushed for the creation of a BRICS development bank that could invest in infrastructure and provide them with back-up credit for whatever financial crises lie down the road. The BRICS know perfectly well that Washington and the European Union (EU) will never relinquish control of the IMF and the World Bank. Nonetheless, trade among these countries will reach an impressive $500 billion by 2015, mostly in their own currencies.

However, BRICS cohesion, to the extent it exists, centers mostly around shared frustration with the Masters of the Universe-style financial speculation that nearly sent the global economy off a cliff in 2008. True, the BRICS crew also has a notable convergence of policy and opinion when it comes to embattled Iran, an Arab Sprung Middle East, and Northern Africa. Still, for the moment the key problem they face is this: they don’t have an ideological or institutional alternative to neo-liberalism and the lordship of global finance.

As Vijay Prashad has noted, the Global North has done everything to prevent any serious discussion of how to reform the global financial casino. No wonder the head of the G-77 group of developing nations (now G-132, in fact), Thai ambassador Pisnau Chanvitan, has warned of “behavior that seems to indicate a desire for the dawn of a new neocolonialism.”

Meanwhile, things happen anyway, helter-skelter.  China, for instance, continues to informally advance the yuan as a globalizing, if not global, currency. It’s already trading in yuan with Russia and Australia, not to mention across Latin America and in the Middle East. Increasingly, the BRICS are betting on the yuan as their monetary alternative to a devalued U.S. dollar.

Japan is using both yen and yuan in its bilateral trade with its huge Asian neighbor. The fact is that there’s already an unacknowledged Asian free-trade zone in the making, with China, Japan, and South Korea on board.

What’s ahead, even if it includes a BRICS-bright future, will undoubtedly be very messy.  Just about anything is possible (verging on likely), from another Great Recession in the U.S. to European stagnation or even the collapse of the eurozone, to a BRICS-wide slowdown, a tempest in the currency markets, the collapse of financial institutions, and a global crash.

And talk about messy, who could forget what Dick Cheney said, while still Halliburton’s CEO, at the Institute of Petroleum in London in 1999: “The Middle East, with two-thirds of the world’s oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies.” No wonder when, as vice president, he came to power in 2001, his first order of business was to “liberate” Iraq’s oil. Of course, who doesn’t remember how that ended?

Now (different administration but same line of work), it’s an oil-embargo-cum-economic-war on Iran. The leadership in Beijing sees Washington’s whole Iran psychodrama as a regime-change plot, pure and simple, having nothing to do with nuclear weapons. Then again, the winner so far in the Iran imbroglio is China. With Iran’s banking system in crisis, and the U.S. embargo playing havoc with that country’s economy, Beijing can essentially dictate its terms for buying Iranian oil.

The Chinese are expanding Iran’s fleet of oil tankers, a deal worth more than $1 billion, and that other BRICS giant, India, is now purchasing even more Iranian oil than China. Yet Washington won’t apply its sanctions to BRICS members because these days, economically speaking, the U.S. needs them more than they need the U.S.

The World Through Chinese Eyes

Which brings us to the dragon in the room: China.

What’s the ultimate Chinese obsession? Stability, stability, stability.

The usual self-description of the system there as “socialism with Chinese characteristics” is, of course, as mythical as a gorgon. In reality, think hardcore neoliberalism with Chinese characteristics led by men who have every intention of saving global capitalism.

At the moment, China is smack in the middle of a tectonic, structural shift from an export/investment model to a services/consumer-led model. In terms of its explosive economic growth, the last decades have been almost unimaginable to most Chinese (and the rest of the world), but according to the Financial Times, they have also left the country’s richest 1% controlling 40%-60% of total household wealth. How to find a way to overcome such staggering collateral damage? How to make a system with tremendous inbuilt problems function for 1.3 billion people?

Enter “stability-mania.” Back in 2007, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao was warning that the Chinese economy could become “unstable, unbalanced, uncoordinated, and unsustainable.” These were the famous “Four Uns.”

Today, the collective leadership, including the next Prime Minister, Li Leqiang, has gone a nervous step further, purging “unstable” from the Party’s lexicon.  For all practical purposes, the next phase in the country’s development is already upon us.

It will be quite something to watch in the years to come.

How will the nominally “communist” princelings — the sons and daughters of top revolutionary Party leaders, all immensely wealthy, thanks, in part, to their cozy arrangements with Western corporations, plus the bribes, the alliances with gangsters, all those “concessions” to the highest bidder, and the whole Western-linked crony-capitalist oligarchy — lead China beyond the “Four Modernizations”? Especially with all that fabulous wealth to loot.

The Obama administration, expressing its own anxiety, has responded to the clear emergence of China as a power to be reckoned with via a “strategic pivot” — from its disastrous wars in the Greater Middle East to Asia.  The Pentagon likes to call this “rebalancing” (though things are anything but rebalanced or over for the U.S. in the Middle East).

Before 9/11, the Bush administration had been focused on China as its future global enemy number one.  Then 9/11 redirected it to what the Pentagon called “the arc of instability,” the oil heartlands of the planet extending from the Middle East through Central Asia.  Given Washington’s distraction, Beijing calculated that it might enjoy a window of roughly two decades in which the pressure would be largely off.  In those years, it could focus on a breakneck version of internal development, while the U.S. was squandering mountains of money on its nonsensical “Global War on Terror.”

Twelve years later, that window is being slammed shut as from India, Australia, and the Philippines to South Korea and Japan, the U.S. declares itself back in the hegemony business in Asia. Doubts that this was the new American path were dispelled by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s November 2011 manifesto in Foreign Policy magazine, none too subtly labeled “America’s Pacific Century.” (And she was talking about this century, not the last one!)

The American mantra is always the same: “American security,” whose definition is: whatever happens on the planet.  Whether in the oil-rich Persian Gulf where Washington “helps” allies Israel and Saudi Arabia because they feel threatened by Iran, or Asia where similar help is offered to a growing corps of countries that are said to feel threatened by China, it’s always in the name of U.S. security. In either case, in just about any case, that’s what trumps all else.

As a result, if there is a 33-year Wall of Mistrust between the U.S. and Iran, there is a new, growing Great Wall of Mistrust between the U.S. and China.  Recently, Wang Jisi, Dean of the School of International Studies at Peking University and a top Chinese strategic analyst, offered the Beijing leadership’s perspective on that “Pacific Century” in an influential paper he coauthored.

China, he and his coauthor write, now expects to be treated as a first-class power.  After all, it “successfully weathered… the 1997-98 global financial crisis,” caused, in Beijing’s eyes, by “deep deficiencies in the U.S. economy and politics. China has surpassed Japan as the world’s second largest economy and seems to be the number two in world politics, as well… Chinese leaders do not credit these successes to the United States or to the U.S.-led world order.”

The U.S., Wang adds, “is seen in China generally as a declining power over the long run… It is now a question of how many years, rather than how many decades, before China replaces the United States as the largest economy in the world… part of an emerging new structure.”  (Think: BRICS.)

In sum, as Wang and his coauthor portray it, influential Chinese see their country’s development model providing “an alternative to Western democracy and experiences for other developing countries to learn from, while many developing countries that have introduced Western values and political systems are experiencing disorder and chaos.”

Put it all in a nutshell and you have a Chinese vision of the world in which a fading U.S. still yearns for global hegemony and remains powerful enough to block emerging powers — China and the other BRICS — from their twenty-first century destiny.

Dr. Zbig’s Eurasian Wet Dream

Now, how does the U.S. political elite see that same world? Virtually no one is better qualified to handle that subject than former national security adviser, BTC pipeline facilitator, and briefly Obama ghost adviser, Dr. Zbigniew (“Zbig”) Brzezinski.  And he doesn’t hesitate to do so in his latest book, Strategic Vision: America and the Crisis of Global Power.

If the Chinese have their strategic eyes on those other BRICS nations, Dr. Zbig remains stuck on the Old World, newly configured.  He is now arguing that, for the U.S. to maintain some form of global hegemony, it must bet on an “expanded West.”  That would mean strengthening the Europeans (especially in energy terms), while embracing Turkey, which he imagines as a template for new Arab democracies, and engaging Russia, politically and economically, in a “strategically sober and prudent fashion.”

Turkey, by the way, is no such template because, despite the Arab Spring, for the foreseeable future, there are no new Arab democracies. Still, Zbig believes that Turkey can help Europe, and so the U.S., in far more practical ways to solve certain global energy problems by facilitating its “unimpeded access across the Caspian Sea to Central Asia’s oil and gas.”

Under the present circumstances, however, this, too, remains something of a fantasy.  After all, Turkey can only become a key transit country in the great energy game on the Eurasian chessboard I’ve long labeled Pipelineistan if the Europeans get their act together.  They would have to convince the energy-rich, autocratic “republic” of Turkmenistan to ignore its powerful Russian neighbor and sell them all the natural gas they need.  And then there’s that other energy matter that looks unlikely at the moment: Washington and Brussels would have to ditch counterproductive sanctions and embargos against Iran (and the war games that go with them) and start doing serious business with that country.

Dr. Zbig nonetheless proposes the notion of a two-speed Europe as the key to future American power on the planet.  Think of it as an upbeat version of a scenario in which the present Eurozone semi-collapses.  He would maintain the leading role of the inept bureaucratic fat cats in Brussels now running the EU, and support another “Europe” (mostly the southern “Club Med” countries) outside the euro, with nominally free movement of people and goods between the two. His bet — and in this he reflects a key strand of Washington thinking — is that a two-speed Europe, a Eurasian Big Mac, still joined at the hip to America, could be a globally critical player for the rest of the twenty-first century.

And then, of course, Dr. Zbig displays all his Cold Warrior colors, extolling an American future “stability in the Far East” inspired by “the role Britain played in the nineteenth century as a stabilizer and balancer of Europe.”  We’re talking, in other words, about this century’s number one gunboat diplomat.  He graciously concedes that a “comprehensive American-Chinese global partnership” would still be possible, but only if Washington retains a significant geopolitical presence in what he still calls the “Far East” — “whether China approves or not.”

The answer will be “not.”

In a way, all of this is familiar stuff, as is much of actual Washington policy today.  In his case, it’s really a remix of his 1997 magnum opus The Grand Chessboard  in which, he once again certifies that “the huge Trans-Eurasian continent is the central arena of world affairs.” Only now reality has taught him that Eurasia can’t be conquered and America’s best shot is to try to bring Turkey and Russia into the fold.

Robocop Rules

Yet Brzezinski looks positively benign when you compare his ideas to Hillary Clinton’s recent pronouncements, including her address to the tongue-twistingly named World Affairs Council 2012 NATO Conference.  There, as the Obama administration regularly does, she highlighted “NATO’s enduring relationship with Afghanistan” and praised negotiations between the U.S. and Kabul over “a long-term strategic partnership between our two nations.”

Translation; despite being outmaneuvered by a minority Pashtun insurgency for years, neither the Pentagon nor NATO have any intention of rebalancing out of their holdings in the Greater Middle East.  Already negotiating with President Hamid Karzai’s government in Kabul for staying rights through 2024, the U.S. has every intention of holding onto three major strategic Afghan bases: Bagram, Shindand (near the Iranian border), and Kandahar (near the Pakistani border). Only the terminally naïve would believe the Pentagon capable of voluntarily abandoning such sterling outposts for the monitoring of Central Asia and strategic competitors Russia and China.

NATO, Clinton added ominously, will “expand its defense capabilities for the twenty-first century,” including the missile defense system the alliance approved at its last meeting in Lisbon in 2010.

It will be fascinating to see what the possible election of socialist François Hollande as French president might mean.  Interested in a deeper strategic partnership with the BRICS, he is committed to the end of the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency.  The question is: Would his victory throw a monkey wrench into NATO’s works, after these years under the Great Liberator of Libya, that neo-Napoleonic image-maker Nicolas Sarkozy (for whom France was just mustard in Washington’s steak tartar).

No matter what either Dr. Zbig or Hillary might think, most European countries, fed up with their black-hole adventures in Afghanistan and Libya, and with the way NATO now serves U.S. global interests, support Hollande on this. But it will still be an uphill battle. The destruction and overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi’s Libyan regime was the highpoint of the recent NATO agenda of regime change in MENA (the Middle East-Northern Africa). And NATO remains Washington’s plan B for the future, if the usual network of think tanks, endowments, funds, foundations, NGOs, and even the U.N. fail to provoke what could be described as YouTube regime change.

In a nutshell: after going to war on three continents (in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, and Libya), turning the Mediterranean into a virtual NATO lake, and patrolling the Arabian Sea non-stop, NATO will be, according to Hillary, riding on “a bet on America’s leadership and strength, just as we did in the twentieth century, for this century and beyond.” So 21 years after the end of the Soviet Union — NATO’s original raison d’etre — this could be the way the world ends; not with a bang, but with NATO, in whimpering mode, still fulfilling the role of perpetual global Robocop.

We’re back once again with Dr. Zbig and the idea of America as the “promoter and guarantor of unity” in the West, and as “balance and conciliator” in the East (for which it needs bases from the Persian Gulf to Japan, including those Afghan ones). And don’t forget that the Pentagon has never given up the idea of attaining Full Spectrum Dominance.

For all that military strength, however, it’s worth keeping in mind that this is distinctly a New World (and not in North America either).  Against the guns and the gunboats, the missiles and the drones, there is economic power.  Currency wars are now raging. BRICS members China and Russia have cordilleras of cash. South America is uniting fast. The Putinator has offered South Korea an oil pipeline. Iran is planning to sell all its oil and gas in a basket of currencies, none dollars. China is paying to expand its blue-water Navy and its anti-ship missile weaponry. One day, Tokyo may finally realize that, as long as it is occupied by Wall Street and the Pentagon, it will live in eternal recession. Even Australia may eventually refuse to be forced into a counterproductive trade war with China.

So this twenty-first century world of ours is shaping up right now largely as a confrontation between the U.S./NATO and the BRICS, warts and all on every side. The danger: that somewhere down the line it turns into a Full Spectrum Confrontation. Because make no mistake, unlike Saddam Hussein or Muammar Gaddafi, the BRICS will actually be able to shoot back.

By Pepe Escobar

26 April 2012

@ TomDispatch

Pepe Escobar is the roving correspondent for Asia Times, a TomDispatch regular, and a political analyst for al-Jazeera and RT. His latest book is Obama Does Globalistan (Nimble Books, 2009).

London, UK – As Chicago prepares for the first North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) leaders’ summit ever to be held on US soil, many will reflect on the organisation’s strength, durability, and the way in which it has adapted to a changing world.

Indeed, few international institutions have undergone such an extreme makeover as NATO. From its ostensible origins as a defensive alliance facing off against the Soviet Union in 1949, it has seamlessly morphed into an openly aggressive, globe-straddling operation, whipping recalcitrant states into line in its self-appointed capacity as the righter of international wrongs. Vigilante-style, it can ride roughshod over the qualms of the United Nations – and often the restrictions of international law – to assert or impose its own view of peace and freedom. Occasionally it presents a softer face, protecting aid or pursuing humanitarian goals, yet no one is in any real doubt that NATO is all about hard power.

But how long can it go on like this? While NATO may seem unstoppable and at the peak of its powers, this month’s summit will showcase differences of opinion as well as increased inside and outside opposition. This is not in the least surprising because although major global jamborees like to present a successful business-as-usual image, the reality is that the core NATO states are facing some pretty serious problems that will undoubtedly affect the agenda.

The United States and Europe are experiencing massive economic crises, and the US has been fundamentally weakened by its poor economic performance and lack of internal investment over decades. As dynamic economic rivals have emerged, it is clear that the US cannot maintain its status as the single global superpower in an increasingly multi-polar world, nor is it desirable that it should do so. The fact is that while the US has declined in many respects, it has increasingly used NATO to support and advance its global power projection. But one big question is whether NATO states will continue to foot the bill.

A cursory glance at NATO’s recent history shows that whatever its changing rationale, or the nature of its supposed enemies in the post-Cold War period, its core function has remained to advance US global interests and foreign policy goals. This became apparent at the end of the Cold War, when the Warsaw Pact was dissolved but NATO wasn’t. Rather than scaling back its military presence, the US moved to fill the positions vacated by its previous rival. As the countries of eastern Europe embraced free-market economics and multiparty democracy, the US moved rapidly to integrate them into its sphere of influence via NATO expansion – faster than western Europe embraced eastern Europe via the European Union.

This was an effective strategy – indicated by the “new Europe” issue at the time of the war on Iraq – with Poland vigorously backing the US, against the “old Europe” of Germany and France. At NATO’s 50th anniversary in Washington in April 1999, a new “Strategic Concept” was adopted. This moved beyond NATO’s previous defensive role to include “out of area” – in other words, offensive – operations. The geographical area for action was now defined as the entire Eurasian landmass and the war on Afghanistan started soon after.

NATO’s last leaders’ summit in Portugal in November 2010 took the NATO vision beyond Eurasia, releasing a new Strategic Concept entitled “Active Engagement, Modern Defence”. It recommitted to an expansive and interventionist military agenda with a projected global reach. This included an expansion of its area of work to “counter-terrorism, cyber-security, and the proliferation of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons” and, in the words of British Prime Minister David Cameron, “securing failed states on the other side of the world”.

It’s an open question whether Cameron was referring to Afghanistan or whether he had a vision of new interventions, but it is certainly the case that the US will face problems over the Afghanistan intervention at this summit. This has been a NATO-led war since 2003, when it assumed control of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) established in 2002. Currently, there are almost 130,000 troops from 50 countries in Afghanistan under the auspices of ISAF, with NATO members providing most of the force. Most of these – about 99,000 – are US troops, 22,000 of which are due to return home this year. Clearly there is a strong drive within Washington itself to get the whole thing wound up. Earlier this year US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said that the administration wanted to wind up combat operations before the withdrawal deadline.

But US allies are already opting out. Last month Australia announced that it would be withdrawing most of its force of about 1,550 troops before Australia’s 2013 elections, which is earlier than originally planned. Germany, which has 4,500 troops there, says it wants them home as soon as possible. But the biggest challenge on this front is likely to be newly-elected French President Francois Hollande. France already announced in February of this year that it wanted to bring home 1,000 of its 3,600 soldiers before the end of this year. Now President Hollande says he will bring them all of them home by then. Not surprisingly, the NATO wires are buzzing about how Hollande must be persuaded to reconsider, and one can only imagine the type of pressure he will be under. But the reality is that he will also be under pressure from the French people – and his standing as a new president. Sarkozy took France into an unprecedented level of cooperation with the US and NATO. It is hard to see how this will continue in the context of French political change and a shifting global political and economic balance.

The US is also going to face problems on the nuclear weapons front. It’s well-known that NATO is a nuclear-armed alliance, but not that up to 200 US B61 nuclear bombs are stationed in five countries across Europe: Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Turkey. There is increasingly strong opposition to these weapons, including from the governments of some of the “host” nations. This opposition is particularly strong from Germany, where Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle has repeatedly called for their removal, which the US has refused.

There is no doubt that this issue will be discussed again and the US will be under increasing pressure to remove them. Of course there may be some desire from the administration to defer such a decision – which could be interpreted as weakness – until after the next US presidential election. But in reality, NATO’s nuclear policies conflict with the legal obligations of the signatories to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). Articles 1 and 2 of the NPT forbid the transfer of nuclear weapons to non-nuclear weapon states, and US/NATO nuclear weapons in Europe are located in non-nuclear weapons states. In spite of a recent softening of language on nuclear issues, and gestures towards a nuclear-free vision – particularly from Obama – NATO continues to assert its need to retain nuclear weapons. As the new Strategic Concept states: “The supreme guarantee of the security of the Allies is provided by the strategic nuclear forces.” It rejects a policy of “no first use” of nuclear weapons. In other words, NATO would be prepared to use nuclear weapons in a first strike.

This position is not lost on the Russians, relations with whom will also doubtless be discussed at the summit. While the “hostile camp” tension that existed with the Soviet Union has vanished, at least in theory, Russia remains the chief military counter-weight and rival to the US and NATO on a global scale. The decision at the 2010 NATO summit to integrate the US missile defence system with a European theatre missile defence programme under the auspices of NATO has caused major problems in relations with Russia. Concerns remain that missile defence will enable the US to attack another country without fear of retaliation and US adherence to missile defence continues to threaten the survival of the new START Treaty on bilateral US/Russia nuclear reductions.

So the participants face some interesting and no doubt tough debates during their Chicago deliberations. They will also face noisy and significant protest from outside. NATO summits have been an increasing focus for anti-war and anti-nuclear protestors over the past few years – the demonstrations at the NATO summit in Strasbourg in 2009 were the largest in 30 years. Reports suggest that the tide of public opinion in the US is turning against NATO and particularly the war in Afghanistan. There is the cost issue of course, but also an increasing sentiment that war, with the death, mutilation and trauma it brings to those who actually fight it – let alone civilian victims – is just not the answer. This year, peace activists in the US will be joined not only by their European counterparts but also by US trade unionists and supporters of the Occupy movement which has made such an impact on US society over the past year.

The mood is clearly changing at many different levels. It’s time for the NATO leadership to face the new realities.

Dr Kate Hudson was chair of the UK-based Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament from 2003 to September 2010, when she became general secretary. She is a leading anti-nuclear and anti-war campaigner nationally and internationally.

Many Palestinians remember and reference al-Nakba, also known as the Catastrophe, on May 15 every year. The event marks the expulsion of nearly a million Palestinians, while their villages were destroyed. The destruction of Palestine in 1947-48 ushered in the birth of Israel. Older generations relay the harsh and oppressive memory of their collective experience to younger Palestinians, many of whom live their own Nakbas today.

In covering al-Nakba, sympathetic Arab and other media play sad music and show black and white footage of displaced, frightened refugees. They rightly emphasize the concept of Sumud, steadfastness, as they show Palestinian of all ages holding unto the rusty keys of their homes and insisting on their right of return. Other, less sympathetic media discuss al-Nakba, if at all, as a side note – a nuisance in the Israeli narrative of a nation’s supposedly miraculous birth and its progression to an idyllic oasis of democracy. What such reductionist representations often fail to show is that while al-Nakba started, it never truly finished.

Those who underwent the pain, harm and loss of al-Nakba are yet to receive the justice that was promised to them by the international community. UN Resolution 194 states that “the refugees wishing to return to their homes and live at peace with their neighbors should be permitted to do so at the earliest practicable date” (Article 11). Those who wrought this injustice are also yet to achieve their ultimate objectives in Palestine. After all, Israel doesn’t have defined boundaries by accident.

David Ben Gurion, first Prime Minister of Israel, once prophesized that “the old (refugees) will die and the young will forget.” He spoke with the harshness of a conqueror. Ben Gurion carried out his war plans to the furthest extent possible. Every region in Palestine that was meant to be taken was captured, its people were expelled or massacred in their homes and villages. Ben Guiron ‘cleansed’ the land, but he failed to cleanse Israel’s past. Memory persists.

Ben Gurion referenced my own family’s village – Beit Daras – which witnessed three battles and a massacre. In an entry in his diaries on May 12, 1948, he wrote: “Beit Daras was mortared. Fifty Arabs (were killed). The (villages of) Bashit and Sawafir were occupied. There is mass exodus from nearby areas (neighbors in Majdal). We sustained 5 dead and 15 wounded. ” (War Diaries, 1947-1949).

More than fifty people were killed in Beit Daras that day. An old Gaza woman, Um Mohammed – who I discussed in my last book, My Father was a Freedom Fighter – refers to what is likely the same event:

“The town was under bombardment, and it was surrounded from all directions. There was no way out. The armed men (the Beit Daras fighters) said they were going to check on the road to Isdud, to see if it was open. They moved forward and shot few shots to see if someone would return fire. No one did. But they (the Zionist forces) were hiding and waiting to ambush the people. The armed men returned and told the people to evacuate the women and children. The people went out (including) those who were gathered at my huge house, the family house. There were mostly children and kids in the house. The Jewish (soldiers) let the people get out, and then they whipped them with bombs and machine guns. More people fell than those who were able to run. My sister and I…started running through the fields; we’d fall and get up. My sister and I escaped together holding each other’s hands. The people who took the main road were either killed or injured. The firing was falling on the people like sand. The bombs from one side and the machine guns from the other.”

Ben Gurion would not necessarily doubt Um Mohammed’s account. He candidly stated: “Let us not ignore the truth among ourselves…politically we are the aggressors and they defend themselves…The country is theirs, because they inhabit it, whereas we want to come here and settle down, and in their view we want to take away from them their country” (as quoted in Chomsky’s Fateful Triangle, pp. 91-2).

It is precisely for this reason that neither the old nor the young have forgotten. Every day is another manifestation of the same protracted al-Nakba that has lasted 64 years now. Young people’s hardships today are inextricably linked to the violent and horrific uprooting decades ago.

Al-Nakba has also remained an ongoing project through generations of Israeli Zionists. When Ben Gurion died in 1973, current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was in his mid-twenties. He was then serving his last year in the Israeli army, and today he rules Israel with a coalition that includes almost three quarters of the Israeli parliament. Like most Israeli leaders, he continues to contribute to the very discourse by which Palestine was conquered. He speaks of peace, while his soldiers and armed settlers take over Palestinian homes and farms. He makes repeated offers to Palestinians for ‘unconditional’ talks, as he repeats his violent rejection of every Palestinian aspiration. His lobby in Washington is much stronger than ever before. He reigns supreme, as he continues to fulfill the ‘vision’ of early Zionists.

Old keys and deeds of stolen lands attest to the intergenerational experience that is Al-Nakba. Today Palestinians continue to be herded behind military checkpoints. They are denied the right to proper medical care, and their ancient olive trees are ruthlessly bulldozed. What Israel has not been able to control, however, is the resolve of Palestinians. The prison, the checkpoint and the gun reside in our collective memory in a way that cannot be held captive, controlled, or shot.

In fact, al-Nakba is not a specific date or an estimation of time, but the entirety of those 64 years and counting. The event must not be assigned to the shelves of history, not as long as refugees are still refugees and settlers continue to rob Palestinian land. As long as Netanyahu speaks the language of Ben Gurion, other ‘catastrophic’ episodes will follow. And as long as Palestinians hold on to their keys and deeds, the old may die but the young will never forget.

By Ramzy Baroud

– RamzyBaroud (www.ramzybaroud.net) is an internationally-syndicated columnist and the editor of PalestineChronicle.com. His latest book is My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza’s Untold Story (Pluto Press, London).

RABIN SQUARE in Tel Aviv has seen many demonstrations, but none quite like last Saturday’s.

By  Uri Avnery

Syrian rebels battling the regime of President Bashar al-Assad have begun receiving significantly more and better weapons in recent weeks, an effort paid for by Persian Gulf nations and coordinated in part by the United States, according to opposition activists and U.S. and foreign officials.

Obama administration officials emphasized that the United States is neither supplying nor funding the lethal material, which includes antitank weaponry. Instead, they said, the administration has expanded contacts with opposition military forces to provide the gulf nations with assessments of rebel credibility and command-and-control infrastructure.

“We are increasing our nonlethal assistance to the Syrian opposition, and we continue to coordinate our efforts with friends and allies in the region and beyond in order to have the biggest impact on what we are collectively doing,” said a senior State Department official, one of several U.S. and foreign government officials who discussed the evolving effort on the condition of anonymity.

The U.S. contacts with the rebel military and the information-sharing with gulf nations mark a shift in Obama administration policy as hopes dim for a political solution to the Syrian crisis. Many officials now consider an expanding military confrontation to be inevitable.

Material is being stockpiled in Damascus, in Idlib near the Turkish border and in Zabadani on the Lebanese border. Opposition activists who two months ago said the rebels were running out of ammunition said this week that the flow of weapons — most still bought on the black market in neighboring countries or from elements of the Syrian military — has significantly increased after a decision by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other gulf states to provide millions of dollars in funding each month.

Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood also said it has opened its own supply channel to the rebels, using resources from wealthy private individuals and money from gulf states, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar, said Mulham al-Drobi, a member of the Brotherhood’s executive committee.

The new supplies reversed months of setbacks for the rebels that forced them to withdraw from their stronghold in the Baba Amr neighborhood of Homs and many other areas in Idlib and elsewhere.

“Large shipments have got through,” another opposition figure said. “Some areas are loaded with weapons.”

The effect of the new arms appeared evident in Monday’s clash between opposition and government forces over control of the rebel-held city of Rastan, near Homs. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said rebel forces who overran a government base had killed 23 Syrian soldiers.

Administration officials also held talks in Washington this week with a delegation of Kurds from sparsely populated eastern Syria, where little violence has occurred. The talks included discussion of what one U.S. official said remained the “theoretical” possibility of opening a second front against Assad’s forces that would compel him to move resources from the west.

The Higher Committee for Elections on Tuesday announced in a press conference the final results of the parliamentary elections for the first legislative term for 2012.

Head of the Committee, judge Khalaf al-Azzawi, said that the results reflected broad representation of the Syrian people with its different parties and sectors and highlighted the special position and presence of women in the Syrian community as the number of elected women members in the People’s Assembly reached 30.

Eleven Army, Law-Enforcement and Civilian Martyrs Laid to Rest

Solemn processions were held for the martyrs who were killed in the line of duty in Damascus Countryside, Aleppo, Deir Ezzor and Daraa.

The martyrs are:

­        Brigadier General Nizar Abdo al-Hussein, from Homs.

­        Captain Hussein Ali Dawood, from Damascus Countryside.

­        Sergeant Major Walid Ahmad al-Abdullah, from Deir Ezzor.

­        Sergeant Ali Ibrahim al-Zeer, from Homs.

­        Conscript Mahmoud Saleh al-Khudr al-Mohammad, from Aleppo.

­        Conscript Shafe’ al-Sayyad, from Homs.

­        Conscript Ahmad Alaa Eddin Dukmak, from Aleppo.

­        Conscript Rami Ahmad Nashawi, from Aleppo.

­        Policeman Issa Suleiman Balloul, from Homs.

­        Civilian Issa Attiya al-Jassim, from al-Quneitera.

­        Civilian Raed Munir Suleiman, from Homs.

The martyrs’ families expressed pride in the martyrdom of their sons who sacrificed their souls for the sake of defending Syria’s stability and pride.

They expressed confidence in Syria’s ability to overcome the crisis thanks to the sacrifices of the Syrian army. They called for dealing firmly with the armed terrorist groups and confront all those who try to tamper with the homeland’s security and stability.

Terrorist Groups kill and Injure Law-enforcement Members in Homs, Daraa

A sniper shot dead Hussein Ibrahim Sharbo, a law-enforcement member, near the Old Clock in Homs city.

A source in the governorate told SANA correspondent that Ma’an Abboud, 39 years old, and his son Yaarub, 9 years old, and Muntajab Abdul-Latif, 35 years old, from al-Zahraa neighborhood were injured by shrapnel from two mortar shells shot by armed groups from al-Khalidiieh neighborhood, also causing material damage to house and shops.

In Daraa, an armed terrorist group attacked with RPG al-Nazihin neighborhood in the city, killing a child, Hala Muhammad Rashid, 3 years old, and injuring 16 citizens, some seriously.

An armed terrorist group also broke into the house of Sheikh Moussa Ahmad al-Awda in Zayzoun town and shot him dead.

An armed terrorist group assassinated on Wednesday Engineer Hassan al-Ali and injured his colleague Subhi Jweid while they were heading to their workplace in the Operating and Maintenance Directorate, affiliated to the General Establishment for Land Reclamation in Deir Hafer in Aleppo.

SANA correspondent quoted a source in the governorate as saying that 4 terrorists in a car targeted the two engineers’ car in Aleppo. Engineer al-Ali was martyred and his colleague Jweid injured.

The source indicated that the engineering units dismantled an explosive device that an armed terrorist group glued to the bottom of a car in front of the house of a law-enforcement member in al-Fardous neighborhood in Aleppo.

In Idleb, an armed terrorist group detonated an explosive device in a petrol station near Salqin city in Idleb countryside, causing great damage to the station.

SANA correspondent quoted a source in the governorate as saying that the station is owned by Mustafa Jalkhi from Salqin city. No human injuries were reported.

72  persons, from Aleppo, Idleb and Damascus give themselves up to the authorities

72persons, from Aleppo, Idleb and Damascus  who were involved in the latest events but didn’t commit crimes, gave themselves up with their weapons to the authorities Wednesday.

The authorities settled their cases and released them after they pledged not to bear any weapon or participate in acts of chaos.

Italy Sends 5 Observers to Syria, Observers Continue Tours in Homs and Deir Ezzor

The Italian news agency, AKI, reported the source as saying that the Italian Cabinet had approved sending observers to join the UN Observer Mission in Syria within the framework of the plan of UN envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan.

International Observers Tour Hospitals and Neighborhoods in Different provinces

A team of international observers on Wednesday met the Governor of Homs and toured the hospitals of Charity and Social Services, al-Za’eem and the Red Crescent in the city accompanied by Director of the Health Department.

The team also visited al-Fruqlus town in the countryside of Homs province.

The international observers in Deir Ezzor province visited the Military Hospital and toured some of the city’s neighborhoods.

Another observers’ team visited Tartous where they met its governor and inspected the work in al-Basel Hospital.

In Aleppo, another team inspected the site where Engineer Hassan al-Ali was martyred at the hands of an armed terrorist group.

The tem also visited al-Hamadaniya police station and the Military Hospital.

In Lattakia, the observers met its Governor, Abdelkader Mohammad al-Sheikh.

A member of the delegation said that this visit is mainly about logistics and providing the needs of the office which they will set up in the province. For his part, al-Sheikh briefed the delegation on life in the province which is going on as normal despite some incidents caused by terrorists in some areas.

He pointed out to the weapon smuggling and infiltration of armed groups taking place in Lattakia province through the borders with Turkey or by sea.

Al-Sheikh also called for providing the delegation with everything it needs to carry out its tasks.

Three Terrorists, a Libyan and Two Tunisians, Confess to Infiltrating into Syria to Carry out Terrorist Attacks in Coordination with al-Qaeda

Libyan terrorist Fahd Abdul-Kareem Saleh al-Freitis said in confessions broadcast by the Syrian TV Tuesday that he took part in the latest events in Libya, then he went to Istanbul in Turkey where he contacted with a person called Abu Ahmad, from al-Qaeda, who asked him to come to Antakya near the Syrian borders.

Al-Freitis added that he infiltrated into Syria on foot, later a car for Abu Ahmad took him to the Syrian port of Lattakia. “When we arrived in Lattakia, we stayed there for several days. Then we met Abu Ahmad who works with the free army to take us to al-Mujahedin,” the Libyan terrorist said.

Tunisian terrorist Osama Mukhtar Hazli confessed that he also went to Libya to participates in the events there. “When I was staying in Libya, one of my friends called Ridaa told me that he will go to Syria.. I told him that I wish to travel with him.. Later Ridaa came along with Sami and Walid,” Hazli added.

“We all went to Turkey where we phoned Abu Ahmad who pledged to guarantee our entrance to Syria.. He asked us to come to Antakya, he had relation with a person called Abu Talha who possesses a Jihadist group affiliated to al-Qaeda in Syria,” the Tunisian terrorist said.

“After entering Syria, we went to Lattakia and met Abu Ahmad who would take us to Abu Talha or the free army in order to travel to Idleb,” he added.

For his part, terrorist Majdi bin al-Ayashi al-Ayari, from Tunisia, confessed that he also went to Libya to take part in the fighting… later he joined a camp for al-Qaeda where he trained who to use weapons.

“Later, I went to Turkey where I contacted Abu Ahmad who told me to travel to Antalya… After arriving there, one of the persons took me by car and help me infiltrate into Syria… I went to Lattakia where a taxi for Abu Ahmad was awaiting me to get there,” Al-Ayari said.

He added “when we arrived there, they took us to one of the houses where I found several persons, of Arab nationalities… Abu Ahmad welcomed us and told us that one of the smugglers will take us in the next day to join al-Mujahedin.”

Gen. Mood: Those Who Use Violence against the Syrian People and International Observers Should Reconsider Their Acts

In a press statement reported by the United Press International, Gen. Mood praised the cooperation provided by the Syrian government to the international observers in this regard.

He talked about the incident which happened to one of his teams in Khan Sheikhoun town in the province of Idleb, in which two of their vehicles broke down.

“This is definitely not the kind of violence we want,” said Gen. Mood, expressing hope that this kind of violence would not be repeated.

He noted that the observer team have just left Khan Sheikhoun and were on their way back to Damascus.

Head of the international observer mission thanked the Syrian authorities for their cooperation, applauding the Syrian government’s role in facilitating and coordinating the transport of the two hit vehicles and the team’s departure from the town of Khan Sheikhoun.

On Tuesday, a team of the observers were hit in an explosive device blast targeting one of their vehicles in Khan Sheikhoun town in the Idleb, which caused damage to two vehicles, while no one was harmed.

Visiting Russian Delegation to Produce Documentaries about Events in Syria

TARTOUS/LATTAKIA, (SANA) – Members of the Russian delegation visiting Syria underlined on Wednesday that they have shaped a clear image about the situation in the country, examining the fierce campaign targeting the Syrians upon being compared to the reality.

The delegation members, who came to produce documentaries about the events in Syria, pledged to be committed to objectivity and impartiality in documenting the facts related to the crisis.

For his part, Tartous Governor, Atef Naddaf, stressed the importance of Russian delegation’s expected project in documenting the situation in Syria away from distortion which has been utterly adopted by anti-Syrian media campaigns seeking to spread hatred among the Syrians and disfigure their image before the Arab and international public opinion.

Naddaf hoped that these documentaries would be soon displayed on Arab and international TV channels to convey the reality to the world.

Russian Media Delegation Visits Lattakia

The Russian media delegation also visited the city of Lattakia, meeting its governor and the head of al-Baath Arab Socialist Party branch in the city.

During this meeting, the delegation members said that what they witnessed firsthand and the testimonies of wounded soldiers, families of martyrs and citizens made them more aware of the conspiracy against Syria, adding that they sensed the Syrians’ determination to supporting reforms and preserving the country.

They voiced commitment to portraying facts as they are and relay reality with transparency, objectivity and credibility.

For their part, Lattakia’s Governor Abdelkader Mohammad al-Sheikh and head of al-Baath Party branch Mohammad Shreiteh voiced the Syrians’ appreciation of Russia’s stances in support of the Syrians’ choices.

The delegation members toured Lattakia and visited families of martyrs, offering them condolences and listening to their testimonies.

The Russian delegation includes thirteen members of different specializations including directors, journalists, professors, photographers, reporters and others.

Iran Stresses Cooperation to Make Success of Annan’s Plan to Avoid Problems in the Region

TEHRAN, (SANA)- Iranian Foreign Minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, on Wednesday stressed the importance of cooperation among the region’s countries to make a success of the plan of the UN envoy to Syria Kofi Annan to avoid more problems in the region.

In a statement to the Iranian students news agency ISNA, Salehi expressed hope in the success of Annan’s plan to resolve the crisis in Syria, calling upon all countries interested in the Syrian issue not to take actions they would later regret.

The Iranian Foreign Minister stressed the importance of giving the Syrian government the chance to implement Annan’s plan, lauding the good reform steps made by the Syrian leadership particularly those of the new constitution and the recently conducted parliamentary elections.

Salehi noted that the Syrian government has expressed complete readiness to conduct dialogue with the opposition, voicing hope that no measures will be taken that would cause problems to the region.

Washington Post: Influx of Arms to Armed Syrian Opposition with Gulf States’ Money and U.S. Coordination

The newspaper added, according to opposition activists and U.S. and foreign officials, that the flow of weapons, most still bought on the black market in neighboring countries, has significantly increased after a decision by Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other gulf states to provide millions of dollars in funding each month, after armed opposition figures warned two months ago that they were running out of ammunition.

The article titled ‘Syrian rebels get influx of arms with gulf neighbors’ money, U.S. coordination’ noted that Obama administration officials emphasized that the United States is neither supplying nor funding the lethal arms, which includes antitank weaponry. Instead, they said, the administration has expanded contacts with opposition military forces to provide the gulf nations with assessments of rebel credibility and command-and-control infrastructure.

“We are increasing our nonlethal assistance to the Syrian opposition, and we continue to coordinate our efforts with friends and allies in the region and beyond in order to have the biggest impact on what we are collectively doing,” the Washington Post quoted a senior State Department official as saying.

The newspaper said that “the U.S. contacts with the rebel military and the information-sharing with gulf nations mark a shift in Obama administration policy.”

It cited Mulham al-Drobi, a member of Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood’s executive committee, as saying that the Brotherhood also said it has opened its own supply channel to the rebels, using resources from wealthy private individuals and money from gulf states, including Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

The newspaper added, according to another opposition figure that “large shipments have got through,” and that “Some areas are loaded with weapons.”

Other opposition figures were quoted as saying that they have been in direct contact with State Department officials to designate worthy rebel recipients of arms and pinpoint locations for stockpiles.

Mehmanparsat: Two of the Iranian Engineers Abducted by Terrorists in Syria Released

In a statement, Mehmanparsat said that efforts have resulted in releasing these two engineers who were delivered to the Iranian Embassy in Ankara, voicing satisfaction over this and hoping that the rest of the Iranians abducted by terrorists in Syria will also be released soon, especially the engineers who were in Syria to help the Syrian people.

Israeli Occupation Authorities Violate Intl Pacts by Continuing to Build Settlements in Syrian Golan amidst World Silence

QUNEITRA, (SANA) – The Israeli occupation authorities in the occupied Syrian Golan started constructing the first Zionist settlement five Km to the west of Quneitra city right after a month of the beginning of June aggression of 1967.

Moshe Dayan, the Israeli War Minister in the late 60s of the last century, is the one who came up with the idea of constructing settlements in the occupied Golan, saying ” We are going to consolidate a new settlement reality on Golan territories which cannot be changed in the future.”

Dayan’s remarks came after displacing 153 thousand Golan people in the aggression of 1967, as most of the 37 Israeli settlements are spread in the middle and southern parts of Golan.

He clarified that the occupation authorities and the Israeli settlers invest 80,000 dunums in agriculture and 450,000 dunums in pastures, which annually need 30 million cubic meters of water supplied from Tabaria Lake in the southern sector of the occupied Golan.

He noted that more than 20, 000 Zionist settlers benefit from these seized areas where they plant different kinds of fruitful trees and build ranches and barns that include 6,000 cows and 20,000 sheep.

The Syrian librated prisoner Atta Farhat from the occupied village of Baqatha pointed out to the Zionist gang’s intentions behind building settlements in Golan in the course of fulfilling the dream of the Torah state and controlling Golan water sources and natural resources after displacing the original inhabitants, particularly after the Knesset’s unjust decision to annex the Golan to the artificial entity.

Hassan Fakher-Eddin from the occupied Majdal Shams village pointed out to the Israeli criminal acts including destroying the occupied Syrian villages and deporting the people by force in an attempt to change the features of the villages and eliminate the trace of the Arabs from them.

Popular Commission for Liberation of Golan: Israeli Decision on Oil Exploration in Golan Violates International Decisions

In another context, the Popular Commission for the Liberation of the Occupied Syrian Golan stressed that the Israeli entity’s decision on exploring oil and gas in the Golan is considered a flagrant violation of the international conventions and human rights in the occupied Arab territories.

The commission said in a statement on Wednesday that this decision comes in the framework of desperate attempts to exploit the current events in the region and the international silence on the Israeli violations that are aimed at changing the demographic situation in the occupied Arab lands, contrary to the international decisions which prevent changing the nature of occupied regions or the use of their natural resources, that are considered the property of the original inhabitants.

It highlighted the Zionist practices and violations in the occupied Syrian Golan, including the burial of nuclear waste, burning cultivated lands, providing farmers with harmful agricultural drugs, seizing vast areas for military purposes, stealing the Golan water and maltreating the Golan prisoners, in addition to the increasing danger of mines which claimed the lives of many and left several others maimed.

Decrees on Granting Transitional Period for Real-Estate Assessment, Setting up Nursing Syndicate

President al-Assad also issued a decree on setting up a syndicate for nursing and medical and health professions.

Al-Azzawi: Parliamentary Elections’ Results to be Announced Tuesday

In a statement to SANA on Monday, al-Azzawi added that the Committee received all the results of the constituencies after discussing and studying all the objections.

The parliamentary elections took place on May 7th as they were repeated at two electoral centers in Hasaka, two other centers in Damascus and in 14 centers in Damascus Countryside due to some violations of the rules of the elections general law.

Eleven Army and Law-Enforcement Martyrs Laid to Rest

Solemn processions were held for the martyrs who were killed while in the line of duty in Damascus and its Countryside, Homs, Daraa and Lattakia.

The martyrs are:

­        Lieutenant Colonel Qais Nizhat al-Sarrout, from Hama.

­        Sergeant Major Ihab Muiassar al-Ali from Idleb.

­        Sergeant Major Mohammad Jaber Dawa, from Tartous.

­        Sergeant Major Ramadan Youssef Balloul, from Homs.

­        Sergeant Major Moussa Munir al-Shamali, from Homs.

­        Sergeant Fadi Anis Abbas, from Lattakia.

­        Sergeant Abdullah Mohammad al-Ahmad, from Deir Ezzor.

­        Sergeant Tarek Ibrahim Rojiea, from Lattakia.

­        Corporal Mohammad Abdul-Razzak Ezzat, from Aleppo.

­        Conscript Abdel-Hakim Abdel-Qader Ibrahim, from Raqqa.

­        Conscript Tarek al-Hussein, from Deir Ezzour.

The martyrs’ families expressed pride in the martyrdom of their sons who sacrificed their souls for the sake of defending Syria’s stability and pride.

They expressed confidence in Syria’s ability to overcome the crisis thanks to the sacrifices of the Syrian army.

They called for dealing firmly with the armed terrorist groups and confronting all those who try to tamper with the homeland’s security and stability.

Armed Terrorist Groups Assassinate Two Officers in Juober and Daraa, Clan Elder in Deir Ezzor

PROVINCES, (SANA)- In the framework of targeting the national intellectuals and expertise, an armed terrorist group on Monday assassinated Colonel Ahmad Salman Moalla in Jouber District in Damascus. A source told SANA reporter that an armed terrorist group, composed of 5 members, opened fire on Colonel Moalla near his home causing his immediate martyrdom, as the group escaped.

In Daraa, an armed terrorist group assassinated a Lieutenant Colonel at the Criminal Security Branch and his driver in Daraa.

SANA reporter quoted a source at the province as saying that gunmen riding Kia and Van cars opened fire on Lieutenant Colonel Qais Sarrout when he came out of a barber shop at al-Mahatta area in Daraa al-Balad, causing his immediate martyrdom. The body of his driver was found in al-Sweidan Street in the city.

SANA reporter quoted a source at the province as saying that six terrorists broke into an agricultural pharmacy in which Ghandour was working and opened fire on him.

The terrorists shot randomly to intimidate the people before running away.

Terrorist Group Assassinates Elder of Al-Okaidat Clan, His Son and Driver and Deir Ezzor

An armed terrorist group assassinated sheikh Abdelaziz Rashid al-Hafal, one of the elders of al-Okaidat clan in Deir Ezzor, along with his son and his driver.

A source at the province told SANA’s correspondent that the terrorists opened fire on sheikh al-Hafal, his son Ra’ad, and his driver Jalal Hasan al-Mohammad, on the road to Deir Ezzor near al-Sour area, killing them instantly.

A team of UN observers visited the site where the incident took place.

Another terrorist group murdered sheikh Mahmoud Hasan al-Ghannash, another elder of al-Okaidat clan, last week, injuring his daughter who was with him in the car at the time of the attack.

Gatilov: Russia Will Foil Any UNSC Resolution on Military Intervention in Syria

MOSCOW, (SANA) – Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said that Russia will foil any UN Security Council resolution that allows military intervention in Syria.

In a statement to journalists in Moscow, Gatilov said ” We will not allow the passage of any blurry resolution, particularly if related to using force…we generally hope that the military scenario would not be taken; we do prefer reaching a political solution.”

He added, ” I think there is no danger of a serious interference by force for the time being,” pointing out that the west has become more self-restraint.

Gatilov stressed that the Security Council is not considering any resolutions concerning Syria and there is no need for that, noting that the international community increasingly tends for the implementation of the plan of UN Envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan.

Gatilov added that al-Qaeda and other allies stand behind the attacks which hit Syria in the past few days, considering that the conflict in Syria is being long-termed if compared to the former period.

He added that Moscow does not see prospects for commencing direct talks between representatives of the Syrian Government and the opposition in the near future without ruling out the failure of the conference scheduled on May 16th in Cairo with the aim of unifying the Syrian opposition which is greatly scattered.

Concerning the Syrian-Russian military cooperation, Gatilov underlined that his country does not intend to stop its technical and military cooperation with Syria, pointing out that all weapon shipments are legal, asserting that Russia does not send offensive weapons but  merely defensive ones.

The Russian official concluded” It is not correct to leave the Syrian Government without defensive weapons in a time when the opposition is being supplied with arms.”

Russian Foreign Ministry.. reports about training Syrian armed men in Kosovo contract with efforts of  Annan

The Russian Foreign Ministry expressed concern today over reports about contacts between representatives of the Syrian opposition and the authorities in the so-called Kosovo, underlining that these plots contract with efforts of the UN Envoy to Syria Kofi Annan.

“Such intentions contract with the internationally-backed Annan’s plan… shifting Kosovo into an international training field to prepare fighters for different armed formations could become a dangerous factor to hinder stability which go beyond borders of al-Balkan area,” a statement for the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

The statement called on the international sides  which work in Kosovo to take all necessary measures to prevent those intentions from being implemented.

EU to Continue Supporting Annan’s Mission in Syria

BRUSSLES, (SANA)_European Union Foreign Ministers announced that they will continue supporting the plan of the UN Envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan, indicating that the plan is not dead.

The Italian AKI News Agency quoted on Monday the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, as saying that the plan includes important points, vowing ”We will continue to back Annan’s plan so long as we are convinced of its effectiveness.”

In statements on the sidelines of the EU foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels, Ashton said ”We are waiting for Annan’s next report on the mission and we are working to provide all necessary conditions for its success.”

She said that the EU is committed to providing necessary help for the UN Observer Mission, especially vehicles and cars offered by the member states to the observers. On the European assessment of the situation in Syria, Ashton said that the EU reiterates its rejection of violence.

The source said that Italy will send 12 monitors to Syria, 5 of whom are due to arrive today.

Saud al-Faisal Anticipates UN monitors’ report to declare that confidence in their work decreased

His remarks at a press s conference Monday came under the pretext of the continuation of violence perpetrated by the armed terrorist group, backed by his kingdom with money and weapon to foil the mission of the UN Envoy to Syria Kofi Annan.

The Syrian media which presents a real image of what is happening in Syria was also attacked by al-Faisal, considering the media comments about the gulf intervention in the Syrian affairs as “unfair accusation”, ignoring his clear call in Tunis to arm the Syrian opposition and provide it with weapons and money.

UN Observers Visit Douma, Neighborhoods in Homs, Deir Ezzor

PROVINCES, (SANA) – A team of UN observers on Monday visited the town of Douma in Damascus countryside, while another team of observers visited al-Qusour and al-Khaldieh neighborhoods in Homs.

A third team visited Deir Ezzor and met with its governor Samir Othman al-Sheiklh, who briefed them on life in the province and the crimes perpetrated by terrorists.

Observers also visited the site of the assassination of sheikh Abdelaziz Rashid al-Hafal, one of the elders of al-Okaidat clan in Deir Ezzor, who was killed by terrorists along with his son and his driver in Deir Ezzor.

On a relevant note, media officer of the UN observer mission Hasan Saqlawi said in a statement in front of the UNRWA headquarters in Damascus that the number of the observer mission’s members has reached 250, 189 of them military personnel.

Russian Academic and Media Delegation Stresses Support to Syria

Meeting Deputy Foreign and Expatriates Minister, Fayssal Mikdad, the delegation members expressed confidence in Syria’s ability to get out of the crisis thanks to its people’s rallying around its leadership and their support for real reforms taking place in the country.

The members said that after inspecting the reality of the events in Syria, they will convey these facts to the Russian people, calling for increasing visits of foreign delegation to Syria to expose the reality and convey it to the outside world away from misdirection and instigation led by some Arab and western media.

They said that they witnessed the positive political, economic and constitutional changes taking place in the country, stressing dialogue as the only way out of the crisis.

The meeting focused on the situation in Syria, the US and western attack it faces, and Russia’s role in support of Syria against the conspiracy.

Mikdad said that the attack against Syria aims at implementing Israeli policies because of Syria’s stances in support of the Palestinian cause and its resistant role to liberate the occupied Arab lands.

He stressed that the comprehensive national dialogue is the only way to come out of the crisis.

Mikdad said that Syria’s people and leadership appreciate Russia’s support to Syria in international forums and its policy which isbased on the UN charter, international law and humanitarian law, hailing the role of China and developing countries.

He briefed the delegation on the events in Syria that have been taking place since one year and two months, indicating to the reforms carried out in political, economic and social life.

Mikdad said that “every reform step taken in Syria was confronted with more escalation in violence and terrorism which indicates that what has happened was plotted by the US and western intelligence, in cooperation with some Arab countries which announced their support to terrorism and bloodshed in Syria.

He added that Syria provided unprecedented facilitations to the UN observer mission to Syria and the plan of the UN Envoy, Kofi Annan, stressing its commitment to the relevant international resolutions as it wants this mission to be neutral and objective in revealing the truth.

Mikdad said that the army, law-enforcement members and civilians are the ones who suffer from the terrorist operations, the last of which are the twin terrorist bombings that took place in al-Qazzaz region in Damascus, claiming the lives of dozens and injured hundreds of children, elderly people and students who were on their way to their schools and universities unlike what was alleged by Artab and western media which serve foreign agendas.

He indicated to the strategic Syrian-Russian relations, which are based on the interests of the people of the two countries, and aspirations to enhance them in the political, economic, military and social domains.

Fakoush Appreciates Russian stance toward crisis in Syria

Member of the Regional Leadership of al-Baath Arab socialist Party Shahnaz Fakoush appreciated the Russian stance towards Syria and its strategic vision of the current events as well as its backing to the national dialogue and the comprehensive reform program in the country.

Meeting members of the Russian delegation, Fakoush briefed  them on the crimes of the armed terrorist groups in Syria, backed by the US, western countries and their tools in the region.

For their part, the Russian journalists expressed their solidarity with Syrian in the face of the conspiracy, underlining that they will convey what they really saw in Syria to the Russian and world public opinion.

Later, the delegation visited the sites of al-Qazza twin blasts and al-Jamarek, inspecting the volume of destruction and damages because of the explosions. They condemned the terrorist acts Syria is exposed to, saying that these acts are unaccepted violation of the human rights and international laws.

Grand Mufti of Syria Underlines Importance of Media in Enlightening Society

During his meeting on Sunday with the Russian media delegation currently visiting Syria to make documentaries on the events, Hassoun said that Syria is being targeted by a fierce campaign intended to sow sedition and undermine national unity in Syria to serve the interests of colonial countries.

Hassoun hailed the Russian stances which respect the principles of law, justice and human rights. Mufti Hassoun reviewed with the Russian delegation the situation and events in Syria and the media misleading campaigns against it, stressing that Syria won’t bow no matter the terrorism, violence and foreign interference.

He called upon Arab and foreign countries to stop backing the armed terrorist groups and interferences in the Syrian internal affairs.

The delegation members expressed support to the unity of Syria and following through with the reform steps, stressing the importance that media be used in serving the truth.

They also condemned the terrorist bombings in Damascus, pointing out to the role of clergymen in showcasing the true nature of the Syrian people.

Patriarch al-Khouri Underlines Role of Media in Relaying Reality of Events in Syria

During a similar meeting with the Russian media delegation, Greek Orthodox Patriarchal Assistant Bishop Luca al-Khouri underlined the role of honest media in relaying the true image of what is happening in Syria, especially in light of the immoral media war which distorts facts and seeks to sow discord among countrymen.

Patriarch al-Khouri pointed out to the role of youth and their unity in the face of the conspiracy against Syria and the media campaigns targeting its role, affirming that Syria will emerge from the crisis stronger and that its future is full of prosperity and development.

He underscored the state of national unity, love, fraternity and respect among the various spectrums of the Syrian people, which has always been a role model in the region.

He also lauded the unique relations between Syria and Russia.

Zionist Entity Steals Oil from Occupied Syrian Golan

The Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth revealed a decision taken by the Israeli Energy Minister, Uzi Landau, and secretly approved by the Zionist Cabinet to resume oil exploration in the occupied Syrian Golan after about 20 years from halting it.

The decision highlights the Zionist entity’s disregard for the international law and the international consensus that it must abide by the international legitimacy, particularly the Security Council No. 497 which considers Israel’s decision to impose its laws and jurisdiction on the Syrian Golan as null and void.

The Newspaper said that Landau’s extremist right-wing ideas have contributed to taking such decision which aims at increasing oil production, while several Arab regimes are providing Israel with large amounts of oil and gas.

Rector of Damascus University Briefs Russian Media Delegation on the University’s Role

DAMASCUS,(SANA) – The meeting of Damascus University professors and a Russian media delegation visiting Syria on Sunday centered on the academic, developmental, scientific and cultural role of the University through its colleges, institutions and branches in Damascus, Daraa, Quneitra and Sweida.

He underlined that the University provides scientific cadres for the development process in both the job market and the scientific research.

Mardini pointed out to the University’s readiness to receive students and staffs from the Russian side with the aim of exchanging expertise and qualifying students in the fields of media and science.

Head of the Russian delegation pointed out that he witnessed essential changes in the country since his visit to Syria last year including the new Constitution and several important laws in addition to holding the parliamentary elections.

Participants in ‘Syrian Family’ Meeting in Quneitra Stress Support to Reforms, Rejection of Foreign Interference

The Meeting was held in Quneitra under the title ‘Religion is for God, Homeland is for All’.

The participants also stressed the need to enhance national unity and reject all forms of foreign interference attempts in the internal affairs.

They expressed rejection of the acts of sabotage and vandalism carried out by the armed terrorist groups, hailing the role of the Syrian army in defending the homeland and preserving law.

The participants highlighted that the plot against Syria aims at weakening its pan-Arab role, adding that the awareness of the Syrians and their adherence to national unity will foil the conspiracy.

They said that the Syrians, as one family, made the whole world hear its rejection of foreign interference attempts in the Syrian internal affairs and adherence to national sovereignty.

DAMASCUS, (SANA) – Huge masses of people and official figures escorted on Saturday the martyrs who were killed by the terrorist twin blasts which hit Damascus last Thursday from al-Othman Mosque in Damascus.

After prayers, the bodies of the martyrs were draped in Syrian flags and carried on shoulders amid the masses of people who expressed their condemnation of the terrorist acts committed by the armed terrorist groups.

Hassoun: Syria’s Martyrs Are All Our Children and Relatives

Presiding upon the prayers, Grand Mufti of the Republic, Dr. Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun, said “the martyrs of Syria, who are in the thousands, both civilians and military personnel, are all our children and relatives… their blood is our blood.”

He called upon those who commit such terrorist acts to fear God and refrain from shedding blood. 

Mahmoud: Escalating Terrorism Against Syrians Dangerous Violation of Annan Plan & UNSC Resolutions on Counter-Terrorism

The escalation of terrorism through booby-trapped vehicles filled with tons of explosives to target the Syrian people, their properties and institutions of the state is a continuation of the bloody terrorist coalition approach between armed groups and al-Qaeda with the regional and western states which back them with money and weapons, Minister of Information Dr. Adnan Mahmoud said.

Participating in the funeral, Mahmoud said that this escalation is a dangerous breach of the UN Security Council resolutions on on counter-terrorism and of the UN envoy Kofi Annan’s plan to stop violence which requires concrete steps towards armed groups and the states which support them to thwart Annan’s mission.

Minister Mahmoud added that Western countries and the United States that led alliances to start wars on the pretext of fighting terrorism, have now created an alliance with terrorism experienced by Syria.

“The bloody terror inflicted on the Syrian people will strengthen their national will and make them more determined to go ahead in the comprehensive reform process, focus on national priorities, build a modern state based on the national partnership between the various spectra of society and its national trends and forces and to continue confronting the conspiracy hatched against Syria and its national resistant role.” The Minister concluded.

Al-Sayyed: Takfiri Fatwas and Murder Were Never Part of Islam

In turn, Minister of Religious Endowments (Awqaf) Mohammad Abdelsattar al-Sayed said that takfiri fatwas that justify the murder of innocents were never part of Islam which is a religion of mercy.

In statements to SANA, several relatives of martyrs denounced the terrorist crimes which claim the lives of innocents and destabilize Syria, stressing that terrorism is targeting Syria because it stood up to the conspiracies against the Arab nation.

They said that terrorists don’t belong to any religion nor to humanity, affirming that their crimes will not undermine the determination of the Syrian people.

They also called upon those who support the terrorists to refrain from doing so, in addition to inviting Syrians to maintain constant vigilance and remain united to foil the conspiracies of terrorists. 

President al-Assad Decrees on Formation of Supreme Constitutional Court

The Supreme Constitutional Court is an independent judicial body and based in Damascus. It issues its judgments on behalf of the Arab people in Syria.

The president of the Court and its members take an oath before the President in the presence of the People’s Assembly Speaker.

Grand Mufti of Syria Underlines Importance of Media in Enlightening Society

During his meeting on Sunday with the Russian media delegation currently visiting Syria to make documentaries on the events, Hassoun said that Syria is being targeted by a fierce campaign intended to sow sedition and undermine national unity in Syria to serve the interests of colonial countries.

Hassoun hailed the Russian stances which respect the principles of law, justice and human rights. Mufti Hassoun reviewed with the Russian delegation the situation and events in Syria and the media misleading campaigns against it, stressing that Syria won’t bow no matter the terrorism, violence and foreign interference.

He called upon Arab and foreign countries to stop backing the armed terrorist groups and interferences in the Syrian internal affairs.

The delegation members expressed support to the unity of Syria and following through with the reform steps, stressing the importance that media be used in serving the truth.

They also condemned the terrorist bombings in Damascus, pointing out to the role of clergymen in showcasing the true nature of the Syrian people.

Patriarch al-Khouri Underlines Role of Media in Relaying Reality of Events in Syria

During a similar meeting with the Russian media delegation, Greek Orthodox Patriarchal Assistant Bishop Luca al-Khouri underlined the role of honest media in relaying the true image of what is happening in Syria, especially in light of the immoral media war which distorts facts and seeks to sow discord among countrymen.

Patriarch al-Khouri pointed out to the role of youth and their unity in the face of the conspiracy against Syria and the media campaigns targeting its role, affirming that Syria will emerge from the crisis stronger and that its future is full of prosperity and development.

He underscored the state of national unity, love, fraternity and respect among the various spectrums of the Syrian people, which has always been a role model in the region.

He also lauded the unique relations between Syria and Russia.

Zionist Entity Steals Oil from Occupied Syrian Golan

The Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth revealed a decision taken by the Israeli Energy Minister, Uzi Landau, and secretly approved by the Zionist Cabinet to resume oil exploration in the occupied Syrian Golan after about 20 years from halting it.

The decision highlights the Zionist entity’s disregard for the international law and the international consensus that it must abide by the international legitimacy, particularly the Security Council No. 497 which considers Israel’s decision to impose its laws and jurisdiction on the Syrian Golan as null and void.

The Newspaper said that Landau’s extremist right-wing ideas have contributed to taking such decision which aims at increasing oil production, while several Arab regimes are providing Israel with large amounts of oil and gas.

Twelve Army and Law-Enforcement Martyrs Laid to Rest

PROVINCES, (SANA)- The bodies of twelve army and law-enforcement martyrs were escorted on Sunday from Tishreen and Aleppo Military Hospitals in Damascus and Aleppo and the National Hospital in Sweida to their final resting place.

The martyrs are:

­        Colonel Mahdi Mohammad Ibrahim, from Homs.

­        First Lieutenant Mohammad Abdul-Salam Abu Assaf, from Damascus.

­        Chief Warrant Officer Saed Turki al-Sha’arani, from Sweida.

­        Chief Warrant Officer Liwa Issa Hasan, from Hama.

­        Chief Warrant Officer Mahmoud Mohammad al-Zeeb, from Daraa.

­        Sergeant Major Omar Mohammad Abdul-Hasan, from Deir Ezzor.

­        Sergeant Sultan Khalaf al-Mohammad, from Raqaa.

­        Corporal Mohammad Suhail Hamidi, from Lattakia.

­        Corporal Walid Hassan Ahmad from Lattakia.

­        Conscript Alaa-Eddin Khalid Talaa, from Damascus.

­        Conscript Hassan Khalil al-Awad, from Hama.

­        Conscript Mahmoud Ahmad Mohammad, from Aleppo.

The martyrs’ families expressed pride in the martyrdom of their sons who sacrificed their souls for the sake of defending Syria’s stability and pride.

They expressed confidence in Syria’s ability to overcome the crisis thanks to the sacrifices of the Syrian army.

They called for dealing firmly with the armed terrorist groups and confront all those who try to tamper with the homeland’s security and stability.

Rector of Damascus Briefs Russian Media Delegation on the University’s Role

DAMASCUS,(SANA) – The meeting of Damascus University professors and a Russian media delegation visiting Syria on Sunday centered on the academic, developmental, scientific and cultural role of the University through its colleges, institutions and branches in Damascus, Daraa, Quneitra and Sweida.

Rector of Damascus University, Mohammad Amer al-Mardini, presented a review about the history of the University which was established more than a hundred years ago, its scientific and literary branches and higher institutes.

Mardini pointed out to the University’s readiness to receive students and staffs from the Russian side with the aim of exchanging expertise and qualifying students in the fields of media and science.

Head of the Russian delegation pointed out that he witnessed essential changes in the country since his visit to Syria last year including the new Constitution and several important laws in addition to holding the parliamentary elections.

Law-enforcement Member Martyred by Terrorists’ Gunfire in Deir Ezzor

DEIR EZZOR, (SANA) – The law-enforcement member Khaled al-Sakran was martyred by the gunfire of an armed terrorist group in Hawaij Ziban village in Deir Ezzor countryside.

A source in the governorate told SANA reporter that the armed terrorist group targeted the law-enforcement forces in the village and killed a law-enforcement member.

The source added that the authorities clashed with the terrorists and killed two of them.

In the same context, the military engineering units dismantled a 10-kg explosive device planted by an armed terrorist group near the vocational school in Hawaij bu Nas’a town.

Another armed terrorist group assassinated member of the executive bureau in Deir Ezzor governorate Jarad Suleiman al-Khleif and citizen Ahmad al-Mesh’ali, brother of Mohammad al-Mesh’ali, a member of Deir Ezzor executive bureau.

Terrorist Group Assassinates Engineer, Industrialist in Aleppo

An armed terrorist group assassinated on Sunday an engineer working at Aleppo Power Transfer Station. SANA correspondent quoted a source as saying that the terrorist group targeted the engineer AbdulRazzaq Boulad in front of his home in Aleppo.

The source added that an armed terrorist group assassinated Omar Shihabi, an industrialist, on Aleppo-AlBab road as he was on his way to his factory, indicating that four terrorists intercepted him and shot him dead.

Explosive Devices Dismantled in Idleb, Terrorists Seize Ambulance

An explosive device weighing 50 kg, planted by an armed terrorist group near al-Siddiq Mosque in Idleb, was dismantled, in addition to 3 explosives weighing between 20-50 kg planted by terrorists in Tlateen and al-Kournish neighborhoods.

A source in the governorate indicated that the engineering units also dismantled an explosive device planted near the railway in al-Younessieh town.

The source added that an armed terrorist group seized an ambulance while it was on its way back from Aleppo to Hama in Khan al-Sabil town, north of Maaret al-Nouman.

Two Terrorists Caught in Aleppo

Competent authorities arrested two terrorist members of armed groups and seized their weapons in Hanano neighborhood in Aleppo.

The seized weapons included automatic rifles, magazines, explosive devices and a quantity of ammunition.

Participants in ‘Syrian Family’ Meeting in Quneitra Stress Support to Reforms, Rejection of Foreign Interference

QUNEITRA, (SANA) – Participants in the Syrian Family meeting held on Sunday stressed the need to put an end to the terrorist acts committed by the armed terrorist groups, which are supported and funded by some international, regional and Arab countries.

The participants also stressed the need to enhance national unity and reject all forms of foreign interference attempts in the internal affairs.

They expressed rejection of the acts of sabotage and vandalism carried out by the armed terrorist groups, hailing the role of the Syrian army in defending the homeland and preserving law.

The participants highlighted that the plot against Syria aims at weakening its pan-Arab role, adding that the awareness of the Syrians and their adherence to national unity will foil the conspiracy.

They said that the Syrians, as one family, made the whole world hear its rejection of foreign interference attempts in the Syrian internal affairs and adherence to national sovereignty.

Mood: Situation in Syria Calm, We are Working to Help Syrian People

Cargo Plane Loaded with 6 Armored Vehicles Arrives in Damascus Airport

A cargo plan, loaded with 6 armored Jeep cars sent to the UN observer mission in Syria, arrived in Damascus international airport on Saturday.

Administrative Director of the UN observer mission in Syria, Milan Troyanovic, told SANA “Two cargo planes are due to arrive later in the day, the first loaded with 6 jeep armored vehicles and the second with 13, bringing to 25 the number of vehicles to arrive on Saturday, offered by the EU to the observer mission.”

Premier Inspects Damage of Terrorist Blasts in al-Qazzaz, Instructs to Compensate Victims

DAMASCUS, (SANA) – Prime Minister Adel Safar on Saturday inspected the acts of sabotage and the damage resulted by the two terrorist blasts that hit al-Qazzaz neighborhood last Thursday which claimed the lives of scores of martyrs and hundreds others wounded.

Safar was briefed on the acts of maintenance, removing debris and restoring the infrastructure. He instructed Ministry of Local Administration, Damascus governorate to record the damage of this coward act in order to compensate the affected people and victims as soon as possible.

Later, the Premier visited the National Hospital in al-Mujtahid, assuring the health of the wounded persons, wishing them quick recovery. Safar agreed to allocate150 million SYP to complete and equip the new emergency Unit at the Hospital.

“This coward heinous act has no relation to any human values.. It aims at striking Syria’s will and its people in life, security and stability,” Safar said in a statement.

TEHRAN, (SANA)- Iranian Foreign Minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, reiterated his country’s rejection of any foreign interference in Syria’s internal affairs, asserting that solving the crisis in Syria does not come from abroad but through finding a compromising formula among all sides

He called on all Palestinian factions to be cautious of the Israeli conspiracies and the necessity of maintaining the Palestinian people’s unity.

Syria’s Statement to the Ministerial Meeting of Non-Aligned Movement

Ambassador Tammam Sulaiman, Director of the International Organizations and Conferences Directorate at the Foreign and Expatriates Ministry and head of the Syrian delegation delivered Syria’s statement to the meeting.

The statement pointed out the need to define terrorism, adding that “terrorism is governed by mysterious standards, sometimes we hesitate in supporting the just right of resisting foreign occupation as we could be accused of supporting terrorism and, at the same time, the terrorist groups are benefitting from this state of chaos.”

Sulaiman added that some countries are interfering in the region’s events and trying to ignite sedition and chaos under the pretext of ‘humanitarian intervention’ while Israel continue ignoring the resolutions of the international community by occupying Arab lands in Palestine, Syria and South Lebanon.

He pointed out that political reforms are needed in all countries, but there are some sides that try to exploit the calls of political reforms to topple regimes by exploiting innocent people.

Sulaiman underscored that some countries liked the principle of foreign interference and want to make it a new international tactic under the pretext of humanitarian intervention, adding that when they fail in this, they wage political and media escalation and fund terrorism through arming terrorist groups.

“Syria has been suffering a terrorist campaign since March 2011. It started with innocent mottos demanding peaceful demonstration, and the government undertook a set of reforms launched by President Bashar al-Assad. These reforms led to the start of a new stage in the history of the Syrian people,” he said.

Sulaiman stressed that what is happening in Syria isn’t a ‘revolution’ as some sides desperately try to call it, adding that what Syria is facing is the worst terrorist campaign backed by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, France and the USA.

He added that these sides are publically calling for supporting, arming and funding the armed terrorist groups in Syria, stressing that the unity and cohesion of the Syrian people after more than a year of the terrorist attacks and crimes clearly indicate that the Syrians reject the external plot.

“The armed terrorist groups continue their acts to undermine the country’s economy and institutions with the presence of a misleading and provocative media campaign and billions of dollars allocated by the aforementioned countries to spread terrorism,” the statement said.

Sulaiman said that Syria provided the UN institutions with accurate statistics on the number of victims of the terrorism in the current crisis, adding that the armed terrorist groups are mutilating the corpses of the victims before handing them over or discarding them.

He asked “Is this the freedom these terrorists are calling for while bragging and boasting over the support they have from KSA, Qatar, Turkey and Israel?”

He pointed out that the KSA, whose people don’t have the basic human rights and which doesn’t allow the media outlets to enter the country to see the massacres it is committing against its people, can’t talk about democracy and reforms.

He added that Qatar, whose officials visit Israel and which arrests figures of the Qatari opposition, can’t talk about supporting the rights of the peoples.

“Syria received the UN Special Envoy, Kofi Annan, and agreed to host a team of UN observers because it is keen on reaching a political solution to the crisis and stopping the crimes of the terrorist groups,” he highlighted.

He stressed that Syria will continue protecting the Syrian people and will fight terrorists and continue exerting efforts with the aim of reaching a political solution to the crisis via a political dialogue among all spectrums of the Syrian people.

He said that the reason for this media, terrorist and political war is Syria’s support to the causes of the Arab people and its firm stance in supporting the honest resistance movements against the Israeli occupation, stressing that Syria will not shift its policy.

Sulaiman concluded by thanking the members of the movement for supporting Syria’s right in resorting the occupied Syrian Golan.

Higher Committee for Elections: There were No leaks by the Committee on the People’s Assembly Election Results

PROVINCES, (SANA) –Chief of the Higher Committee for Elections, Councilor Khalaf al-Azzawi, said that the Committee will announce the date of announcing the final results of the People Assembly elections one day prior to the date, and media will be called to attend the announcement of final results.

On reported leaks on the results in some electoral constituencies, al-Azzawi said that no results were leaked by the Committee.

On the rerun of elections in al-Zahiriyyeh and Amarat in al-Hasaka constituency, al-Azzawi said that the elections were rerun due to objections submitted to the judicial subcommittee in Hasaka.

Answering a question on the expected date of announcing the election results, al-Azzwi indicated that the Higher Committee for Elections have so far received results from 5 electoral constituencies in the governorates, adding that the date and place of announcing the results will be announced when the Committee receives the final results from all constituencies.

Judicial subcommittees in provinces of Daraa, Sweida, Quneitra, Raqqa, Tartuos and Idleb finished counting votes for the People’s Assembly elections while the process continues in the other provinces.

In Lattakia, Head of judicial subcommittee , Judge Mohammad Suleiman, said that counting was finished in 577 poll centers, while 240 ballots are due to be finished by the end of the day.

Head of the judicial subcommittee n Tartous, Judge Hassan Shash, said that the counting is done in the 720 poll centers, adding that the results were referred to the Central Judicial Committee to be announced officially.

In Aleppo, counting votes is finished, while 60 ballots out of 954 in Aleppo Countryside are being counted.

In Aleppo, counting votes is finished, while 60 ballots out of 954 in Aleppo Countryside are being counted.

Head of the judicial subcommittee in Aleppo Countryside, Turki Hamsho, said that the committee received candidates’ objections and referred them to the Higher Constitutional Court.

In Homs, counting continues in 35 polling centers , while 420 out of 561 ballots have been counted in Deir Ezzor.

In Hasaka, 460 out of 758 ballots were counted , while elections were rerun in al-Zaheriyeh and al-Amarat in al-Jawadiyeh region due to some infringements.

Supervisor of vote-counting in the province expected the process to be finished on Thursday.

Terrorists Target Law-Enforcement Forces with Explosive Device in Hama

HAMA, (SANA) – An explosive device planted by terrorists in al-Sabouniyeh neighborhood in Hama went off on Wednesday, injuring members of law enforcement forces.

A source at the governorate told SANA’s correspondent that the explosion injured four people, two of them are in critical condition.

Four Army, Law-enforcement Martyrs Laid to Rest

DAMASCUS, DEIR EZZOR (SANA) – The bodies of four army and law enforcement martyrs were escorted on Wednesday from Tishreen Military Hospital in Damascus and the Military Hospital of Deir Ezzor to their final resting place.

Solemn processions were held for the martyrs who were killed in line of duty in Damascus Countryside, Hama, Deir Ezzor and Aleppo.

The martyrs are:

­           Chief Warrant Officer, Ihsan Mohammad Ali, from Lattakia.

­           Sergeant Aiham Ali Ahmad, from Tartous.

­           Conscript Adnan Ahmad Milkash, from Damascus.

­           Conscript Seido Ibesh Mohammad, from Aleppo.

The martyrs’ families stressed adherence to national unity and determination to foil the conspiracy against the homeland, expressing confidence in the Syrian people’s ability to overcome the crisis through their steadfastness and the sacrifices made by the Syrian army.

Al-Jafari: Syria Carries Out Annan’s Plan, Countries that Provide Terrorists with Money and Arms Should Stop this Support

NEW YORK, (SANA) – Syria’s Permanent Representative to the UN , Bashar al-Jafari, said that the work of the observer mission is on the right path, yet the type of crimes committed by the armed terrorist groups became more worse.

Speaking at the UN headquarters in New York, al-Jafari said that Syria is implementing its pledges under the plan of the UN Special Envoy to Syria Kofi Annan, but those sides which support terrorists with money and arms from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey are not, adding that these countries should stop their support to the armed terrorist groups.

Al-Jafari added that the armed terrorist groups are committing crimes against civilians and military members, indicating that confessions of 26 Arab people who were arrested in Syria revealed that they came from Libya, Tunisia and other countries through Turkey and Lebanon to launch terrorist attacks in Syria.

He said that the Syrian security forces killed 15 members of those Takfiri and Salafi groups, adding that “Therefore, we are talking about facts that cannot be denied regarding the involvement of foreign fighters in the events in Syria which is a very serious issue.”

Al-Jafari added that the sheikhs who issued fatwas calling for murdering and committing crimes live in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Al-Jafari reiterated the Syrian government’s commitment to guarantee the utmost degrees of success for Annan’s mission, saying “but the Syrian government can’t do this alone.. we are in need for the participation of all to see the Qataris, Saudis and the Turkish government stop their support and instigation of violence, stop their money funding to cover the needs of the armed groups which attack civilian and military members.”

“There are committees at the UNSC meant to implement the resolutions 1272 and 1373 linked to the activities of al-Qaeda and Taliban… these committees should assume responsibilities in dealing with al-Qaeda activities in Syria.. otherwise this will be a double standard policy and language,” al-Jafari said.

In response to questions of journalists, al-Jafari underlined that Syria is interested and participates in the success of the international observers’ mission, adding “we think issues are going in a positive manner on the field, the volume of violence has remarkably retreated, but the quality of crimes perpetrated by the armed terrorist groups became worse.. we are witnessing now suicide acts, assassinations and explosive devices blasts.”

On the difference between Ban Ki-Moon’s statements yesterday from those of Annan’s today regarding Syria, al-Jafari said “I met the UN Chief 10 days ago and urged him to engage positively in supporting Annan’s mission.”

“Turkey sponsors and gives shelter to some army defectors and the armed terrorist groups… those armed groups are infiltrating through the Turkish borders.. they are perpetrating crimes against the Army forces and police, then infiltrating back to Turkey.. so the Turkish government should be responsible for halting the operations of infiltration through the Syrian-Turkish borders,” al-Jafari added.

He underlined that Syria has a bulk of facts, and everything will be announced on time, saying “what was announced today is a simple example of the facts Syria possesses.”

As for Annan’s intention to visit Syria during the next days, al-Jafari said “We always welcome him in Damascus.”

Popular Front: Elections would help launch national dialogue

DAMASCUS, (SANA)- The Popular Front for Liberation and change held a press conference on Wednesday to declare its stance on the parliamentary elections which were run last Monday.

“The Front has entered the electoral process with the aim of making this process a turning point and a serious completion for the political process in the country to help launch the hoped- for national dialogue,” Qadri Jamil, Head of the Front said at the press conference.

He considered that the elections have proved there was a popular support to the program proposed by the Front, saying “we will study how this support has been reflected by voting through collecting information from all candidates.”

“At principle, the Front was against this electoral system.. this system doesn’t put the candidates in a place of equality.. it gives preference to the candidates who are backed by the powers of money or the state bodies,” Jamil said.

He added that the Front was confident in the need for changing that electoral system and moving towards a new one that concords with the 8th Article of the new constitution.

Mood: Syria’s Exit from Crisis has to be Decided by the Syrians

DARAA, (SANA)_Maj. Gen. Robert Mood, Head of the UN observer mission in Syria, said that an explosive device went off as the UN observer mission team passed by, injuring one of the guards and a journalist.

In a press conference in Daraa on Wednesday, Mood said “The explosion is an indication that reflects the violence in Syria.”

Gen. Mood considered that Syria’s exit from the crisis has to be decided by the Syrians themselves, adding that all parties in Syria have to communicate for solving the crisis.

”We met the UN observers in Daraa who said they are welcomed by all, ”said Mood, adding that there are 70 observers in Syria to reach 100 in the next couple of days, vowing to convey the situation on the ground as it is.

On the report submitted by the UN envoy to Syria, Kofi Annan, to the UN Security Council, Mood said “We cannot comment since it was we who submitted the report based on our on-the-ground observations..I believe that the international community had a balanced view on the report.”

165 Citizens Involved in Recent Events Turn Themselves In

ALEPPO, (SANA) – 165 citizens who were misled and got involved in the recent events in the country and whose hands are clear of the Syrian blood have handed themselves and their weapons in to the authorities in Aleppo and its countryside.

The citizens were released to go back to normal life after pledging not to take up arms again or take part in vandalizing public and private properties.

The released citizens expressed regret and promised not to participate in acts that affect Syria’s security in the future.

Humanitarian Aid Convoy Heading to Gaza Arrives in Lattakia

LATTAKIA, (SANA) – The humanitarian aid convoy “The Right to Return” heading to Gaza entered the Syrian territories through Kasab crossing point on Wednesday.

The convoy is organized by a group of Europeans who stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and Syria and headed by the British MP George Galloway.

Receiving the convoy, Lattakia GovernoAbdel Qader Mohammad al-Sheikh and Secretary of al-Baath Party Branch in Lattakia, Mohammad Shreitah, expressed Syria’s gratitude to the convoy members’ stances in support of the Palestinian Cause which is the Arabs’ central cause.

Spokesman of the convoy members thanked the Syrian government and people for facilitating their mission in conveying aid to the Palestinians in Gaza and continuing efforts to lift the siege imposed on them.

He added that the convoy is scheduled to arrive in Gaza on May 15 which coincide the anniversary of Nakba Day to remind the world that the Palestinians who were forced to leave their homes should return.

“What is taking place in Syria is a Syrian affair and we are guests of the Syrian people and respect their right to determine their destiny without foreign interferences,” he said.

He criticized the pressure and sanctions imposed by the West and some other countries on Syria in the name of democracy, indicating to the difficulties hindering their passage on the Turkish side.

The convoy included 14 buses carrying 24 activists from different European countries, in addition to humanitarian, health and educational aid.

UN Monitoring Mission Delegation Visits Aleppo

ALEPPO, (SANA) – The UN monitoring mission delegation visited on Wednesday several suburbs of Aleppo city and met the Governor of Aleppo Mouaffaq Khallouf.

For his part, Governor of Aleppo, Mouaffaq Khallouf, briefed the UN mission delegation on the city of Aleppo and its economic and industrial importance. Governor Khallouf pointed out that the province has been calm since the crisis started in Syria until some armed terrorist groups entered the province and perpetrated several criminal acts.

Head of the delegation noted that the western media is presenting a different view  from reality on the ground, adding that the western media is exaggerating the events in Syria.

The delegation visited Bab al-Hadid, al-Qaterji, al-Maysar, Bab al-Nairab and al-Muhalaq suburbs in Aleppo.

Churkin: Situation in Syria Moving in Positive Direction

NEW YORK, (SANA) – Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Vitaly Churkin on Wednesday said that the situation in Syria is moving in a positive direction.

In a statement made after the UN Security Council’s meeting, Churkin underlined that “Things are moving in a positive direction, there are some obstacles, but we think they can be overcome.”

Syria’s Al-Shorta Qualifies for Second Round of AFC Cup

AMMAN, (SANA) – Syria’s Al-Shorta football team qualified to the second round of the Asianf Football Confederation Cup after defeating Lebanon’s Safa SC 3-2 in the final match for Group E.

Two of Al-Shorta’s goals were scored by Raja Rafe’a at the 18 and 51 minutes marks, while Kussai Habib scored the third at the 71 minutes mark, while Safa SC’s goals were scored by Ali al-Saadi at 21 minutes and Rami Kaddour at 91 minutes.

With this victory, al-Shorta stands at the top of group E with 15 points.

Meanwhile, Syria’s Al-Ittihad left the championship after losing to Kuwait’s Al-Qadsiya 5-2.

Al-Qadsiya’s goals were scored by al-Haj Issa at the 2 and 48 minutes marks, Nawaf al-Materi at 41 and 52 minutes, and Omar al-Soma at 45 minutes. Al-Ittihad’s goals were scored by Hussameddin Omar at 33 minutes and Mohammad al-Hasan during the extra time.

With this loss, Al-Ittihad ended up with 4 points, while Al-Qadsiya ended up at the top of Group A and qualified for the second round along with Oman’s Al-Suwaiq which beat Jordan’s Al-Faisaly earlier.