We are fighting an external aggression that is more dangerous than any others, because they use us to kill each other. It is a war between the nation and its enemies, between the people and the murderous criminals.Syrian President Bashar al-Assad • Suggesting to the country’s people, during a major speech, that people still loyal to his regime continue to fight against the extremist forces he claims are disrupting the country. Meanwhile, he pitched an idea for settling the civil war, but said he would only work with parties ”who have not betrayed Syria.” The approach, which includes a new constitution and a reconciliation conference, was dismissed by Syrian opposition figures, who will settle for nothing less than Assad’s departure. Syria’s neighbors (see: Turkey) and Western officials also criticized the proposal.
swagandpassion asks: Hey SFB. Are there fundamental differences with Libya and Syria as far as Western powers intervening? Logistically I can assume Europe had more interest in a stable Libya & Obama leading behind scenes, but is intervention not a good idea for Syria?
Scott had a really long answer to this, so we’re gonna jump it, so we don’t just give you a long block of text. Here’s the tl;dr version: The biggest challenge raised is from Russia and China, and it’s making it difficult for western forces to get involved.
Anyway, click on to read. — Ernie @ SFB
More than 60,000 people have died in the Syrian uprising and civil war, the United Nations said on Wednesday, dramatically raising the death toll in a struggle that shows no sign of ending.
Dozens were killed in a Damascus suburb when a government air strike turned a petrol station into an inferno, incinerating drivers who had rushed there for a rare chance to fill their tanks, activists said.
“I counted at least 30 bodies. They were either burnt or dismembered,” said Abu Saeed, an activist who arrived at the area an hour after the raid occurred at 1:00 PM (1100 GMT) in Muleiha, a suburb on the eastern edge of the capital.
U.N. Human Rights Commissioner Navi Pillay said in Geneva that researchers cross-referencing seven sources over five months of analysis had listed 59,648 people killed in Syria between March 15, 2011 and November 30, 2012.
“The number of casualties is much higher than we expected and is truly shocking,” she said. “Given that there has been no let-up in the conflict since the end of November, we can assume that more than 60,000 people have been killed by the beginning of 2013.”
That’s 60,000 people killed since March 15th, 2011. A truly horrific figure, and one which U.N. High Commissioner on Human Rights Navi Pillay admitted “shames us all.”
![thepoliticalnotebook:
Maj. Gen. Abdelaziz Jassim Al-Shalal, the Syrian military police chief, has defected to the rebels/opposition forces. In a video statement, he said:
“The army has destroyed cities and villages and has committed massacres against an unarmed population that took to the streets to demand freedom. Long live free Syria.”
Photo: screenshot from his video statement from an undisclosed location.
[The Guardian]
Another day, another sign the Assad regime is fading.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/d9e116b36e741ae396761c8cdceabc77/tumblr_mfnd1h0muR1qchhhqo1_500.jpg)
Maj. Gen. Abdelaziz Jassim Al-Shalal, the Syrian military police chief, has defected to the rebels/opposition forces. In a video statement, he said:
“The army has destroyed cities and villages and has committed massacres against an unarmed population that took to the streets to demand freedom. Long live free Syria.”
Photo: screenshot from his video statement from an undisclosed location.
Another day, another sign the Assad regime is fading.
Last night NBC News chief foreign affairs correspondent Richard Engel recounted, to Rachel Maddow, the tale of how he and his crew were kidnapped by government loyalists while en route to a rebel base in northern Syria. It’s a harrowing story, to be sure, but one most definitely worth your time.
There was a media blackout on this story, but Gawker notably broke it. Fortunately, NBC News journalist Richard Engel and the rest of his team were able to escape harm after being kidnapped in Syria last week. They were freed after a firefight at a Syrian checkpoint. “It is good to be here. I’m very happy that we’re able to do this live shot this morning,” Engel said. Very glad to hear he’s OK; Engel is one of our best.
Syrian rebels are gaining ground and might win, Russia’s Middle East envoy said on Thursday, in the starkest such admission from a major ally of President Bashar al-Assad in 20 months of conflict.
“One must look the facts in the face,” Russia’s state-run RIA quoted Mikhail Bogdanov as saying. “Unfortunately, the victory of the Syrian opposition cannot be ruled out.”
To be clear, the Russian government remains firmly opposed to the idea of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad losing control of the country, but even his staunchest allies are beginning to see the writing on the wall. We suspect the fighting is still far from over, but doubt many outside of the most devout Assad supporters continue to believe he will be president when the fighting ends.
Syrian forces have fired Scud missiles at rebel groups in the northern part of the country over the last few days, according to senior U.S. officials.
The use of the missiles marks a potentially significant expansion of the civil war, which has already killed more than 40,000 people. It comes as the Syrian rebels have been gaining momentum in their fight to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his regime.
While the White House hasn’t yet confirmed the reports, it did come up during today’s daily press briefing. “If true, this would be the last desperate act from a regime that has shown utter disregard for innocent life, utter disregard for the lives of its own citizens,” said White House press secretary Jay Carney. An unidentified official also called the move “desperate”, noting the increased likelihood for civilian casualties with such weapons, and said their use could be the latest indication that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is afraid of the opposition forces.
Obviously, with [this] recognition comes responsibilities. To make sure that they organise themselves effectively, that they are representative of all the parties, [and] that they commit themselves to a political transition that respects women’s rights and minority rights.President Obama • Announcing, in a critical geopolitical development today, that the U.S. now recognizes the Syrian rebellion as the “legitimate representative” of the people. This is a move that’s been speculated about for a long while — it also brings into focus an announcement earlier today that a part of the rebellion’s coalition, Jabhat al-Nusra, had been designated a terrorist group by the administration. Obviously, such a designation had to be made in advance of granting this recognition to the greater body of the opposition. source
The Obama administration has formally designated a rebel group fighting in Syria as a terrorist organization in hopes of marginalizing the Al Qaeda affiliate and reducing its chances of playing a major role in the country should the government fall.
Administration officials blacklisted Jabhat al-Nusra, or the Nusra Front, describing it as a wing of Al Qaeda in Iraq, which was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of Americans during the height of the Iraq war. The Nusra Front is one of dozens of rebel groups that have emerged in the Syrian conflict.
It remains to be seen what effect, if any, blacklisting Jabhat al-Nusra — also known as the Nusra Front — will have on the rebel militia, which has earned the trust and support of many Syrians battling the Assad regime. However, it does prevent the United States from supporting the group, or any others that work with the Nusra Front in the future, and U.S. officials hope it will dissuade others in the region from supporting the group as well.
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Tumblr this morning. [h/t anne]
#@#$%!.tumblr.com
Here’s a hidden feature that shipped in...
Syria Deeply, Beat Page of the Future
It’s an incredible idea: one site, one beat. No front page. No sports, no business or finance, anywhere. It’s called Syria Deeply.
It’s about 25% original content, written by veteran Middle East correspondent Lara Setrakian and friends. The rest is aggregated and includes interactives, maps, and contextual material aimed to catch people up on the story without pointing them off site.
From FastCompany:
From a taxonomy perspective, Syria Deeply is the opposite of most news sites. In a traditional news taxonomy, information is divided by broad topics, like World News. Each topic is divided into subsections, like the Middle East. Each subsection is then often divided into even smaller subsections, like Syria. Each section gets smaller and smaller. Topic pages live in obscure ghettos on many news websites: auto-aggregated and ugly dumping grounds for content that happens to be tagged with particular keywords.
On Syria Deeply (designed by Brock Petrie and developed by Soumyadeep Paul and Arindam Biswas, who runs Collective Zen) the topic page is the homepage. Setrakian’s hope is that this site-wide focus on a single beat will allow for deeper, more thoughtful reporting.
FJP: Looks extremely promising.
Context, context, context. Bravo.
If you have not made it to this site, do so. This is how you cover single-topic news.
NBC News is reporting that the Syrian military has loaded precursor chemicals for the deadly nerve agent sarin into aerial bombs, and is now awaiting instructions from President Bashar al-Assad. Sources say that the bombs, if deployed, would be used against anti-Assad forces in the country, but added they haven’t yet been loaded onto planes. Meanwhile, a US official confirms that several countries have given Assad “informal” offers of asylum (h/t TPM)
And today, I want to make it absolutely clear to Assad and those under his command: The world is watching. The use of chemical weapons is and would be totally unacceptable. And if you make the tragic mistake of using these weapons, there where be consequences, and you will be held accountable.President Obama • Speaking forcefully to the Assad government of Syria last night, at the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction symposium (he also lauded outgoing GOP Senator Richard Lugar, with whom he’s worked extensively on nuclear disarmament). The possibility of Syria mobilizing a chemical weapons attack on its people has been a worrisome one for human rights organizations worldwide, further stoked by a recent internet blackout that left Syria functionally opaque for two days. This is one of the most aggressive statements Obama has made on the conflict in Syria — as foreign-policy types like to say, he’s drawn a red line, which may be instructive of the level of involvement he’s comfortable with. source
This is a red line for the United States. I am not going to telegraph in any specifics what we would do in the event of credible evidence that the Assad regime has resorted to using chemical weapons against their own people. But suffice it to say we are certainly planning to take action if that eventuality were to occur.Secretary of State Hillary Clinton • Making clear that the United States will not remain idle on the sidelines any longer if the Syrian government uses chemical weapons on civilians or rebel forces inside the country. The United States and other nations have maintained a mostly hands-off policy with regards to the conflict in Syria, instead pushing for change via diplomacy, though international pressure has yet to yield any significant results outside of occasional political defections. The Syrian government has already responded with a denial that they own such weapons, saying officials would never do such a thing “under any circumstances.” source
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