The Daily Monitoring Report – Friday – 10-08-2012
August 10th, 2012
- Some 140 people were martyred at the hands of the Assad troops, mostly inAleppo and its countryside,Damascus and Rif Dimashq and Idleb. In addition, the Free Syrian Army (FSA) tries to regain control of the Salahuddin district inAleppo after a tactical withdrawal from it. Moreover, many dissensions were reported within the governmental army’s ranks to join the FSA. (1) (2)
Political mobility
- Wael Mirza, member of the Syrian National Council (SNC), accusedIranof buyingChina’s “bias” in the Syrian file with oil deals. He also said that theUSAabdicates its responsibility with regard to the Syrian crisis. He also advised the Muslim Brotherhood not to be hasty and to “contain” the others. (2)
Internal situation
- A fishing boat carrying 157 people, including 124 Syrians fleeing escalating violence in their country, was intercepted close to the southern Italian coast and towed to the port of Crotone. (3)
Activities of civil organizations
- Syrian free speech campaigner Mazen Darwish is to be judged in secret by a military court and may be sentenced to death without any right to defense, appeal or review, the Geneva-based International Commission of Jurists said on Wednesday. (3)
Political stances
Syria
- Syrian TV says Thursday that President al-Assad appoints Dr. Wael el-Halqi as new Prime Minister. State-run news agencySANA said that President Bashar al-Assad issued on Thursday Decree No. 298 on designating Dr. Wael Nader al-Halqi as Prime Minister. El-Halqi replaces caretaker premier Omar Ghalawanji who was appointed hours after Hijab’s defection. It is worth mentioning that El-Halqi is a Sunni figure from Daraa governorate. (3) (4) (5) (7)
Arab
- Military defectors have set up bases of the Free Syrian Army in southernTurkey, and some are trained and coordinated by Turkish, Qatari and Saudi officers operating from a secret “nerve centre” near the city ofAdana, Gulf sources said. (1) (3)
International
-Turkey’s foreign minister accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of arming a Kurdish militant group. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told Turkish media while traveling toMyanmarovernight that Assad had given weapons to the PKK, which has established a presence in the towns of Kobani and Afrin in northernSyria. “Assad gave them weapons support. Yes – this is not a fantasy. It is true. We have taken necessary measures against this threat,” news websites reported the minister as saying. (1) (2) (3)
-Susan Rice,USambassador to the United Nations, said “the reality is that a no-fly zone isn’t a simple proposition, it would ultimately involve putting boots on the ground and it would be a very different circumstance than we saw inLibya.” She also noted “the Syrian air defenses are among the most sophisticated in the world”. She also added we believe that it is important for us to communicate withSyrianeighboring countries, referring to her consultation with its close allyTurkeythat has a strong interest in what is currently happening inSyria. (1)
- UN diplomats said late on Thursday that Veteran Algerian diplomat Lakhdar Brahimi (al-Akhdar el-Ibrahimi) is expected to be named to replace Kofi Annan as the U.N.-Arab League joint special envoy forSyria. An announcement could come as early as next week but the diplomats, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, warned that there are sometimes last-minute changes if a key government has concerns about the appointment or the candidate himself has misgivings. (2) (3)
-USexperts, interested in the Middle East’s incidents, said that the war inSyriais no longer a confrontation between the opposition and the regime, but rather ethnic divisions against military units affiliated to the Alawite branch. They also said that we should take into consideration that the defected Prime Minister and a large number of the Syrian defectors are affiliated to the Sunni sect, and that the Syrian Kurds seem that they want to form a separate entity like their Kurdish brothers inIraq. (1)
- In its report, the “International Crisis Group” said that “the regime essentially has been stripped down to a broadly cohesive, hardcore faction fighting an increasingly bitter, fierce and naked struggle for collective survival. It is mutating in ways that make it impervious to political and military setbacks, indifferent to pressure and unable to negotiate.” It also added that the opposition itself has “increasingly become against the Alawite people”. It also said that “the Islamic fundamental ideology is on the increase “, in addition to the fact that they lost confidence in the west.” (1)
- French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said the Syria crisis differed from Libya’s because of the superior weaponry of Assad’s forces and the tensions among Syria’s neighbours in a combustible region. “We are not inactive,” he said, noting thatParishad hosted an international “Friends of Syria” meeting in July and that he would travel toJordannext week to set up a hospital for victims of the violence inSyria. “Because it’s very difficult to advance politically, at least we can do so on the humanitarian front,” he said. (3)
Sources
1
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Asharq Al-Awsat
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2
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Aljazeera.net
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3
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Reuters
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4
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The AFP
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5
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The AP
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6
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The Guardian
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7
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The Telegraph
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