The Daily Monitoring Report – Saturday – 28-07-2012

 July 28^th, 2012

     – Some 110 people were martyred at the hands of the Assad battalions, mostly inAleppoandDamascus. Al-Assad’s battalions continued shelling the districts ofAleppoCitycontrolled by the Free Syrian Army as a prelude to launching an all-out attack that the international community warned against its consequences. (2)

      Field mobility:

  – Syrians demonstrated in several places in Syria in the Friday of “The two capitals uprising – liberation war is on”.

   Political mobility

   – Syrian Ambassador to Belarus Farouq Taha announced his defection from Al-Assad’s regime and emphasized that Al-Assad’s regime is willing to threaten its officials who want to defect of assaulting their families and properties. (2)

Internal situation

- Dutch Foreign Ministry has said Dutch and British journalists- who were kidnapped last week inSyria-were freed, without unveiling the body behind that kidnapping. (2) (3) (4)

Activities of Civil Organizations

- The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Friday it will pull some members of its humanitarian team out of conflict-ravagedSyriain the next few days, as world powers voiced fears over an imminent all-out assault onSyria’s second city ofAleppo. “Some of the International Committee of the Red Cross team will move toBeirutin the next two days,” said ICRC spokesman Hisham Hassan, adding that 50 international and local staff would remain inDamascus. (3)

Political stances

Arab 

- Sit-ins were staged, roads were blocked via burning tires and armed Salafi Islamists also appeared in the coastalSidon inSouth Lebanon, which coincided with the call of the Salafi Sunni Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir for arming his supporters versus the weapons of the Shiite Hezbollah. (3)

- Iraqi Kurdish Peshmerga forces prevented Iraqi military force to reach the border area betweenIraqandKurdistan,Syriasaid, Friday, Secretary-General, Ministry of peshmergas told AFP. Jabbar Yawar said that ” the Iraqi Government two days ago sent military forces to Mosul to protect the Iraqi-Syrian border in areas of Tall Afar and Sinjar and x band came from Nasiriyah» South of Baghdad. (2)

International

- The international warnings against committing a new massacre in the besiegedAleppo city continued. (1)

- Bernard Valero, a French foreign ministry spokesman, said: “With the build-up of heavy weapons aroundAleppo, Assad is preparing to carry out a fresh slaughter of his own people.” (1) (2) (4)

- United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon expressed deep concern about escalating violence in the Syrian city ofAleppo.  Ban Ki-moon on Friday demanded that the Syrian government state that it would not use chemical weapons “under any circumstances,” according to Reuters. He said, “I remain deeply concerned about the reports of the possible use of chemical weapons,” citing a report in whichSyriasaid it would use weapons against foreign attackers. “I demand… that the Syrian authorities categorically state that they will not use chemical or other weapons of mass destruction under any circumstances,” he said, during a joint press conference with British Foreign Secretary William Hague inLondonahead of the Olympic games. (1) (2) (3) (4)

-Britain,ItalyandFranceagreed with theUSAthat the Assad regime would commit a bloody massacre inAleppo, as the governmental forces are preparing for the “mother of all battles” as it is described by a pro-Assad newspaper. (2)

- “We are very concerned about the situation in Aleppo,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said, condemning President Bashar al-Assad’s “heinous, reprehensible” assault on civilians. “The kinds of weaponry that they’re using against unarmed civilians I think demonstrates the depths of depravity to which Assad has sunk,” he told reporters. (4)

- Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that international steps must be taken to deal with President Bashar al-Assad’s military build-up around the Syrian city ofAleppoand his government’s threat to use chemical weapons. “There is a build-up in Aleppo and the recent statements, with respect to the use of weapons of mass destruction, are actions that we cannot remain an observer or spectator to,” Reuters quoted Erdogan as having said at a joint news conference in London with British Prime Minister David Cameron. (1) (3)

- The former head of the UN observer mission inSyria, Robert Mood, said on Friday that President Bashar Al Assad’s fall was only a matter of time but that his exit might not end the conflict. “Sooner or later, the regime will fall,” said the Norwegian general, whose mandate to lead a 300-strong mission ended last week amid a sharp spike in violence. (1) (2) (3)

- Reuters has learned that the White House has crafted a presidential directive, called a “finding,” that would authorize greater covert assistance for the rebels, while still stopping short of arming them. It is not clear whether Obama has signed the document, andU.S.officials declined to comment on the finding, which is a highly classified authorization for covert activity. (3)

- The Russian military warned Friday that any attempt by Syrian rebels to attack a Russian military base at the SyrianportofTartuswould be “rebuffed immediately.” “If the armed Syrian opposition ventures to implement their threat and to attack the Russian naval supplies and maintenance facility,Russiahas ample capabilities in the region now to provide an adequate response. We won’t recommend hotheads in the Syrian opposition doing that,” a source in the Russian General Staff told the Interfax news agency. (1)

Sources

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