The Daily Monitoring Report – Saturday – 21-07-2012

July 21^st, 2012

- Some 206 people were martyred Friday by the Assad forces’ gunfire, mostly in Damascus’s countryside, Deir Al-Zour and Idlib. The Free Syrian Army (FSA) made a tactical withdrawal from the Damascus neighborhood of Al-Maidan. Meanwhile, the Assad troops continue shelling a number of districts in Damascus, Homs, Daraa, and Latakia’s countryside.^{(1)(2)(5)(6)(7)}

Field Mobility

- Demonstrations called “Ramadan the victory will be achieved in Damascus” have been staged countrywide. Protesters took to street in all Syrian governorates, including Damascus’s Al-Mezzeh, Kafr Sousa, Dummar, Rukun Al-Din and Al-Maidan, Al-Hasaka’s Al-Qamishli, Hama’s rural neighborhood of Al-Latamenah, Idlib’s Kafroma and Aleppo’s neighborhoods of Al-Sha’ar, Salaheddine, Bab Al-Hadid, Bab Al-Nasr and New Aleppo, as well as Aleppo’s rural neighborhoods of  Daret Azza, Tel Rifaat, Andan, Manbej and Ayn Al-Arab. Demonstrations were also monitored in 29 different points in the governorate of Daraa.⁽²⁾(2)

Political Mobility

- During a press conference held in Turkey’s Istanbul, the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood group announced that it will establish a political party of an Islamic background, which defends the civil and democratic state. The step comes in anticipation of a possible departure of Bashar Al-Assad’s regime.⁽²⁾

- Molham Al-Drobi, spokesman for Syria’s Muslim Brotherhood group, says the group is ready for the post-Assad period and has plans for policy, economy and the judiciary, adding that technical procedures of the founding of the group’s party are almost finished.⁽²⁾

Internal Situation

- Thousands of Syrians left Syria, heading for Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan due to the heavy shelling and acts of violence currently committed in Syria.⁽²⁾

- The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said that some 30,000 Syrians crossed into Lebanon in the past 48 hours.⁽²⁾

- The Syrian-Jordanian borders’ crossings have been closed by the Syrian side, which forced the inhabitants to enter Jordan through illegal methods.⁽²⁾

Activities of Civil Organizations

- Melissa Fleming, chief spokeswoman of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said that an Iraqi family of seven was found shot dead in their apartment in Damascus last week, noting that the refugees living in Syria had left their homes due to the growing violence there.⁽⁵⁾

Political Stances

Syria

- Hisham Ekhtiar, Chairman of the National Security Office of Syria, was announced dead of wounds suffered in the blast that hit the national security headquarters in Damascus.^(2)(3)(4)

- Al-Assad’s consultant said “Assad at the presidential palace in Damascus with his team will determine the destiny of his country”. In addition, the Syrian state-run television broadcast pictures for Al-Assad accompanied by the newly appointed defense minister.⁽²⁾⁽⁴⁾

- A security source with the Assad regime said that the Assad battalions launched an all-out counter attack for regaining control of the anti-Assad regime districts of Damascus.⁽²⁾⁽⁴⁾

- Syria’s Information Ministry said on Friday that comments by Russia’s ambassador to France that President Bashar al-Assad has accepted leaving power in an orderly way were “completely devoid of truth”.⁽⁴⁾

Arab

- Ali al-Moussawi, media adviser to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, said that the Iraqi Prime Minister had formed a committee for urgently transferring the Iraqis living in Syria through his private plane. Add to that, the Iraqi bodies were also put on alert for evacuating them.⁽²⁾⁽⁵⁾

- Qassem Al-Delemy, a brigadier in the Iraqi army, said that some 2,000 Iraqi soldiers will be deployed in the border areas near Al Qaim city controlled by the rebels.⁽⁵⁾

International

- On Friday, the UN Security Council, just hours before the expiration of the 90-day mandate of the United Nations observer mission in Syria, unanimously agreed on a resolution to keep the mission in place for a final 30 days, while indicating further renewals will be possible only if it can be confirmed that the use of heavy weapons has ceased and a reduction in violence by all sides was sufficient to permit it to implement its mandate.^{(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)}

- The new UN Security Council’s resolution takes into account the “operational implications of the increasingly dangerous security situation in Syria”, and requests the Secretary-General to report to the 15-nation body on the text’s implementation within 15 days. In addition, it obligates all parties in Syria to ensure the safety of the international monitors.⁽²⁾

- The Russian president Vladimir Putin warned the big western countries against moving outside the UN Security Council with regard to the Syrian file, describing that as being useless, as it would lead only to undermining the United Nations’ powers.^(2)(4)(5)

- Israel is preparing for a possible military intervention in Syria in case the Syrian government hands missiles or chemical weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Friday. “I have instructed the military to increase its intelligence preparations and prepare what is needed so that … (if necessary) … we will be able to consider carrying out an operation,” Barak added.⁽²⁾⁽³⁾

Sources

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