The Daily Monitoring Report – Friday – 13-07-2012

July 13^rd, 2012

- Over 220 people were martyred Thursday in a new massacre committed by the Al-Assad’s forces in the Hama town of Taramseh.^{(2)(3)(5)(6)(7)}

- Yesterday, 109 people were martyred by the government troops’ gunfire, mostly in Damascus and its countryside, Homs, Hama, Idlib and Daraa. For the first time, regular forces fired its mortar shells against Damascus districts.⁽¹⁾⁽²⁾

Field Mobility

- Syrians organized night demonstrations in several districts in Damascus, including Rukun Al-Din, Al-Salaehiya, Bab Srija, Al-Tadamun in support of Hama’s Taramseh. Security forces opened heavy fire on a massive protest staged in the neighborhood of Al-Asalai to condemn Taramseh massacre.⁽¹⁾⁽²⁾

- Demonstrations demanding removal of the Assad regime broke out in several neighborhoods in the Syrian capital of Damascus, including Al-Salaehiya, Kfar Sousa, Al-Maidan, Al-Hajar Al-Aswad and Barzeh.⁽¹⁾⁽²⁾Political Mobility

- Nawaf Al-Fares, the Syrian ambassador to Iraq who has declare his defection from Al-Assad’s regime two days ago, said that he was in favor of the Syrian Revolution since its first day, and against all the Assad regime’s malpractices. He pointed out that Al-Assad deluded his people into believing that he would adopt reform measures, of which he achieved nothing. Al-Fares criticized the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki for his stance on the Syrian Revolution, saying that Iran is contributing to the problem, not the solution.⁽¹⁾⁽²⁾

- Nawaf Al-Fares said that he will play a major role in supporting the revolution, and that he is contacting the Free Syrian Army (FSA), adding that his defection would significantly affect the Assad regime. The regime only controls the state’s military and security structure, but even such a structure began to disintegrate thanks to defections.⁽¹⁾⁽²⁾

- Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, says that the defection of Ambassador Nawaf Al-Fares came for the sake of power because Western intelligence services search for a personality suitable for the transitional period.⁽⁷⁾

Activities of Civil Organizations

- Human Rights Watch uncovers that it monitored videos posted by Syrian activists on the internet, which shows that Al-Assad’s forces use the internationally-banned cluster bombs.^(2)(5)(7)

Political Stances

Syria

- Syrian state television said three security personnel had been killed in fighting in Taramseh and it accused “armed terrorist groups” of committing a massacre there.^(1)(2)(3)(6)

International

- The meeting held by the UN Security Council on Thursday evening wound up without achieving any progress with regard to a Western draft resolution on the crisis in Syria, after Russia threatened to veto the issuance of the resolution, amid reports about new round of consultations to be held today Friday.⁽¹⁾⁽²⁾

- The US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said her country is determined to support the UN-Arab envoy Kofi Annan through seeking a new UN Security Council resolution including bad consequences for the Assad regime in the event of non-compliance with the decisions of the international community, pointing out that the Assad regime will not do anything without additional further pressure.⁽²⁾⁽³⁾

- The White House spokesman Jay Carney said that the defection of Syria’s Ambassador in Iraq Nawaf Al-Fares shows that “Those around him (Al-Assad), both in his inner circle and more broadly in the military and governmental leadership are beginning to assess Al-Assad’s chances of remaining in power, and making the choice that they will abandon him in favor of the Syrian people.”⁽²⁾⁽³⁾

- Russia’s deputy UN envoy Igor Pankin confirms new resolutions imposing sanctions on the Assad regime is a “red line” that should not be crossed.^(1)(2)(3)

Sources

1	Asharq Al-Awsat
2	Aljazeera net
3	Reuters
4	AFP
5	AP
6	Guardian
7	Telegraph