The Daily Monitoring Report – thursday – 12-07-2012

July 12^nd, 2012

- Some 71 people were martyred by the Assad troops’ gunfire Wednesday, mostly in Rif Dimashq and Idlib, following renewal of shelling of the rebel towns and cities, as well as fresh clashes took place between the government forces and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) whose attacks became more audacious.⁽¹⁾⁽²⁾

Field Mobility

- More night demonstrations were staged in protest against the Assad regime and in support of the war-ravaged towns and the detainees in several Syrian cities. On the Syrian Revolution websites, Activists broadcast footage of demonstrations, which were organized in the Damascus neighborhoods of Al-Maidan, Al-Asali, Kafr Soousa, Al-Asrooniah, as well as the Aleppo districts of Salaheddin and Engineer’s Syndicate, in addition to Hama’s rural district of Kafr Zeita.⁽¹⁾⁽²⁾ 

Political Mobility

- The Syrian opposition delegation in Moscow demands Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to seek a resolution under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, but Lavrov turned down such demand.⁽¹⁾⁽²⁾

- Head of the Syrian National Council (SNC) Abdel Basit Sida said that any solution to the Syrian crisis away from Al-Assad’s departure “does not make sense,” adding that what is going on in Syria is more than just differences between the regime and the opposition, but a real popular revolution. Sida pointed out that the SNC and Russia has a different view of the situation. Russia did not change its stance on Syria. “The Syrian people suffer from Russia’s political coverage of the crisis,” added Sida.^(1)(2)(5)

- Burhan Ghalioun, member of the Syrian National Council (SNC)’s politburo, said that the Syrian opposition delegation tried to persuade the Russians that what is going on in Syria is not in the interest of Moscow. “The Syrian people have no option but to fight a popular war of liberation,” said Ghlaioun, who fiercely criticized initiatives that are meant to give Al-Assad more opportunities to kill the Syrian people. “We did not notice a change in the Russian stances. I have been here a year ago and the situation has not changed,” added Ghalioun.⁽²⁾⁽⁴⁾

- In a video, Nawaf Al-Fares, the Syrian ambassador to Iraq, confirmed his defection from Al-Assad’s regime and the ruling Arab Socialist Ba’ath Party, in protest against the “terrible carnage carried out by the regime against the Syrian people.”^{(1)(2)(3)(5)(6)(7)}

Internal Situation

- The Palestine Liberation Army (PLA) condemns the kidnapping and killing of 16 of its members by unidentified gunmen in Masyaf in Hama’s countryside.⁽¹⁾⁽²⁾

Political Stances

Syria

- The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) said that the National Media Council licensed a political daily called “Al-Sham” (Levant), bringing the number of private dailies in Syria to two papers .⁽⁴⁾

Arab

- In the West Bank city of Ramallah, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas launched a campaign called “Providing relief for our people in Syria”, for providing relief for hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees in Syria, whose living conditions deteriorated over the escalating incidents since the start of the Syrian Revolution a year and a half ago.⁽²⁾

International

- In the UN Security Council and on behalf of Western countries, Britain circulated a draft resolution on Syria under the Chapter VII of the UN Charter. The resolution extends the monitors’ mission in Syria for 45 days and demands the Assad authorities to immediately and seriously implement the first point of the UN-Arab envoy Kofi Annan’s six-point plan, which provides for cessation of all forms of acts of violence and withdraw of all military forces and heavy weapons from residential areas.⁽²⁾⁽³⁾

- The draft resolution threatens the Syrian government with sanctions, under Article 41 of Chapter VII, if it does not stop using heavy weapons and withdraw its troops from towns and cities within 10 days of the adoption of the resolution. The sanctions include severing diplomatic relations, as well as freezing economic, transportation and telecommunication relationships. Unlike Article 42, Article 41 does not provide for using forces.⁽²⁾

- The UN-Arab envoy Kofi Annan said that in his talks this week with President Bashar Al-Assad, the Syrian leader proposed a negotiator who would represent him in talks over the Syrian crisis. However, Annan asked Assad for a few days “to learn more about this person.”^(1)(2)(3)

- The UN-Arab envoy Kofi Annan said Iran and Iraq pledged to support the six-point plan, as well as a plan for a political transition in Damascus led by Syria, and allow the Syrians to decide on their future political system. Annan added that they would use their influence to try to push all parties in that direction.⁽³⁾⁽⁶⁾

- Russia’s deputy UN envoy Igor Pankin announced that Russia proposed a new draft resolution to the UN, which is aimed at providing further support to the efforts of Kofi Annan and the implementation of his plan.⁽⁷⁾

- Russia’s Deputy UN Security Council Ambassador Alexander Pankin confirms his country’s opposition to any draft resolution issued under Chapter VII.^(2)(3)(6)

- China throws its weight behind Annan’s call to have Iran involved in the international negotiations held to find a solution to the Syrian crisis. The Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Liu Weimin said that the appropriate solution reached away from countries of the region, “especially those that influence the parties concerned.”⁽²⁾⁽³⁾

- Maximus Al-Gammal, an Orthodox priest, talks about the evacuation of 63 Christians from the besieged areas in the city of Homs, which is under attack, in a deal between the revolutionists and the regime’s forces.⁽⁵⁾

Sources

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