Syrian rebels reject Annan Plan after one day - which was to be expected. Annan announces Russia and West reach agreement on a transition plan and government - unity gov to consist of current authorities and opposition leaders . Now all that you need is for Assad and his government as well as the rebel / opposition/ al qaeda elements to accept this edict from afar ! for Syria ! Syria talks open in Geneva as events on the war torn country march on. Syria and Iran situations linked as part of a common progression of events.

http://news.antiwar.com/2012/06/30/syrias-opposition-activists-may-reject-new-anna-plan/

Syria’s Opposition Activists May Reject New Anna Plan

They seem to be vowing for an outside intervention for regime change, and nothing less

by John Glaser, June 30, 2012

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Syria’s opposition expressed plans to completely reject the plan for a democratic political transition decided upon by world powers in a meeting called by UN envoy Kofi Annan on Saturday.

Many activists and militiamen in the opposition don’t accept the so-called transition, arguing that all-out war is the only way to end the chaos in Syria.

“There is no peace and there is no plan,” said Ahmed Julak, 39, from a hospital bed in southern Turkey, where he is recovering from a broken leg he got while smuggling ammunition into Syria.

“Nobody listened to Kofi Annan [and the ceasefire plan]. Not the regime, and not us. There is no dealing with these people, and that is the truth. And what is a transitional government?” he asked.

Annan’s plan calls for an internationally supervised transition to a unity government formed according to a democratic process and can include members of the present regime as well as opposition. The future of Assad “will be left to them,” Annan said.

“If Assad stays or goes is not the problem. It’s the regime that needs to go. If that doesn’t happen, then no reasonable person can say there has been progress.”

But its not clear what other option the opposition has. Presumably, they have been emboldened by the logistics support and weaponry they have been receiving from the US and its allies. Annan’s plan at least has a chance to stem the violence and incrementally improve the intractable conflict, but activists seem to be vowing more fora military intervention from the West to oust Assad.

and....

http://www.rt.com/news/syria-summit-geneva-annan-115/

Annan: Russia, West agree on transition government for Syria

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Published: 30 June, 2012, 21:11

UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan (C) speaks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (R) next to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon (L) at the opening of a meeting on June 30, 2012, at the United Nations office in Geneva. (AFP Photo / Fabrice Coffrini)

TRENDS:Syria unrest

TAGS: Conflict, Meeting, Military, Politics, War,Syria

The Syrian crisis is to be resolved by a transition government consisting of the current authorities and opposition leaders. The proposal was announced by UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan after talks in Geneva.

The unity government should be formed on the basis of mutual consent, said Annan. The Syrian-led transition should take place within a fixed period of time.

Annan, announcing the official communiqué of the international meeting in Geneva, called on the Syrian regime and opposition groups to recommit to ceasefire and start implementing his six-point peace plan immediately, without waiting for the other side.

The envoy stressed several times that it is up to Syrians to determine their political future.

Prior to the conference, Annan had proposed a plan for a unity government in Syria excluding political figures that compromise the country’s stability, effectively calling for the removal of President Assad. But Russia refused to back such a provision.

Annan said some common ground is yet to be found. Foreign ministers, who took part in the conference in Geneva, will make up a regular working group on the Syrian crisis. A new round of Syria talks may take place in Moscow, suggest diplomatic sources.

During the meeting, British Foreign Secretary William Hague called for the UN Security Council to draft a resolution imposing sanctions against the Arab country. He also maintained that President al-Assad and his close associates could not lead a transition, reports Reuters.

“Without [a UNSC resolution] and the prospect of penalties for non-compliance, there can be little credible pressure on the Syrian regime and other parties to change course," said Hague.

The US would call a UNSC session over the Syrian crisis, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in the press conference that followed. Sanctions based on UN Charter VII should be used against Syria, if Annan’s new plan is not implemented, she added.

If there is no resolution to the Syrian crisis, UN observers will have to withdraw from the Arab country, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon warned the conference on Saturday. At the moment, the observers are expected to resume their work in the Arab country as soon as conditions allow. The mission was suspended on June 20 over the escalated violence.

The violent uprisings that started over 16 months ago in Syria have become increasingly more militarized over the last few months. Both the Syrian President and UN envoy Annan have classified the conflict as an all-out war.

The UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon said that the death toll has reached over 10,000, while opposition groups say that the figure is a lot higher.

and ...


http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/06/2012630103611653546.html

World powers open Syria crisis talks

Closed-door talks begin in Geneva amid deep devisions between West and Russia over how to end the bloodshed in Syria. Last Modified: 30 Jun 2012 11:29 inShare Email Print Share Feedback

World powers have opened a crisis meeting on Syria with the West at odds with China and Russia over how to end 16 months of bloodshed and agree on a transition plan for the country. Before the closed-door talks started on Saturday, Britain pointed to persistent opposition from Beijing and Moscow to a transition deal, while the United States signalled differences, even though Russia put up an upbeat front on the meeting. The divisions delayed by two hours the opening of the gathering of the foreign ministers of the five permanent Security Council states as well as regional countries Qatar, Turkey, Kuwait and Iraq. Rare insights into life in Homs under daily shelling Before going into the main conference, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met her French and British counterparts, while the Russian and Chinese foreign ministers held separate talks. International envoy Kofi Annan, who had convened the meeting, had circulated a proposal on a "Syrian-led transition" that could help save his peace process that has been largely ignored by both the ruling regime and opposition since it came into force on April 12. Fighting has only intensified in recent weeks and rights monitors say violence killed 11 people across Syria on Saturday, and trapped hundreds more in the Damascus suburb of Douma. Interim government Moscow and Beijing were against Annan's proposal which envisages handing over to an interim government that excludes those "whose continued presence and participation would undermine the credibility of the transition and jeopardise stability and reconciliation". The wording appears to imply - without saying so directly - that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would have to relinquish his grip on power for the idea to succeed. Russia insisted that Assad's fate "must be decided within the framework of a Syrian dialogue by the Syrian people themselves." British Foreign Secretary William Hague headed into the talks saying parties had been unable to bridge the gap. "That remains very difficult and whether it will be possible, I don't know if this will be possible," he said. Hague stressed that for Britain, "a stable future for Syria means Assad leaving power". A senior US state department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the Reuters news agency that "areas of difficulty and difference" remain, but that an accord was still possible. The opposition Syrian National Council has expressed grave reservations about any transition process that reserves a role for the current president. Violence continues Laurent Fabius, the French Foreign Minister, was to hold Paris talks with rebel council chief Abdel Basset Sayda in hopes of persuading him to take a more accommodating line. On Friday, Syrian government forces used helicopter gunships and tanks to bombard opposition strongholds across the country, including towns in the northern province of Idlib and in the capital Damascus, the opposition said. The attacks were reported after Mustafa al-Sheikh, a former brigadier general who defected from the Syrian army, said that about 2,500 Syrian troops and 170 tanks had assembled at an infantry school near the village of Musalmieh northeast of the city of Aleppo, just 30km from the Turkish border. The mass military deployment came after Turkey amassed troops and deployed surface-to-air missile launchers along its southern border with Syria in response to the shooting down of a Turkish warplane by Syrian forces. A spokesman for the Syrian foreign ministry did not deny that troops were amassing near the border, but stressed that there were "no hostile intentions from the Syrian side". and.... http://news.antiwar.com/2012/06/29/syria-masses-tanks-on-turkey-border-as-tensions-soar/ Syria Masses Tanks on Turkey Border as Tensions Soar US Downplays 'Measured' Turkish Threats by Jason Ditz, June 29, 2012 Print This | Share This On Tuesday, Turkey deployed a number of tanks to their border with Syria, termingthe nation a “clear and present threat” to the Turkish government’s security and vowing to shoot any Syrian troops perceived as “too close” to the border. The tensions haven’t cooled since then, and Syria has now sentsome 170 tanks to the Turkish border, just northwest of Aleppo, in an effort to fortify the area against a possible Turkish incursion. Free Syrian Army (FSA) leadership speculated that the tanks were planning to attack rebels in the area, but it doesn’t seem to be about them. Rather, since Syria’s downing of a Turkish warplane that violated its airspace, the two nations seem to be on a collision course, and Turkey has been pressing for NATO to endorse the idea that the shootdown was a violation of their “sovereignty” and an attack on all of NATO. Despite the soaring tensions, US Gen. Martin Dempsey downplayed the seriousness of the situation, praising Turkey’s “measured” response to what he called a “hostile act” by Syria. and.... http://news.antiwar.com/2012/06/29/syrian-rebels-190-killed-in-past-24-hours/ Syrian Rebels: 190 Killed in Past 24 Hours Major Clashes Reported in Damascus Suburb of Douma by Jason Ditz, June 29, 2012 Print This | Share This Several different Syrian rebel factions have marked the past 24 hours in the country as the “deadliest” such span since the civil war began, with one unnamed group puttingthe toll at 190, with the vast majority of them civilians. The most serious fighting was reported in Douma, a suburb of Damascus, where bodies lined the streets in what is being called a “massacre by Assad and his secret police.” The suburb alone reportedly saw 50 plus people slain and a large number of others wounded, including some not expected to survive. Syria’s state media was oddly quiet about the overall death toll, only crowing about the “competent” nature of the crackdown and claiming to have killed “dozens” of terrorists, their catch-all term for all members of the rebel forces. State media also reported a large amount of weapons seized from rebels, including what they described as “Israeli-made grenades.” Efforts to conflate the rebel forces with Israel and the US have been ongoing for weeks, and if successful could seriously harm their credibility as a domestic rebellion instead of a color-coded Western “revolution.”

http://www.debka.com/article/22145/Aviation-Week-Obama-may-use-Assad%E2%80%99s-fall-to-disguise-Iran-strike

Aviation Week: Obama may use Assad’s fall to disguise Iran strike

DEBKAfile Special Report June 30, 2012, 10:30 AM (GMT+02:00)

Tags:  Syria   Saudi army   Turkey   military operation   Hillary Clinton   Sergey Lavrov   Bashar Assad 

US B-2 heavy stealth bomber - key aircraft for Iran strike

The new Aviation Week reports: “Evidence is mounting that the US defense community and the Obama administration view 2013 as the likely window for a bombing attack on Iran’s nuclear and missile facilities. It could be earlier, timed to use the chaos of the Syrian government’s fall to disguise such an attack…”
According to the journal, “Iran’s intransigence over shutting down its uranium-enrichment program will not buy it much more time… The tools for such an attack are all operational” and the US is coming around to suspect that Iran has already conducted its first nuclear test in North Korea.
Aviation Week’s report appeared after a failed attempt Friday, June 29, to bridge US-Russian differences on Syria was made by US Secretary of State and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in St. Petersburg. Moscow refuses to accept any solution that would entail Bashar Assad’s removal or foreign intervention in Damascus.

UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan is to present a proposal for a transitional unity government to the new Action Group on Syria meeting in Geneva Saturday. According to his plan, the government would include opposition representation but (without mentioning Assad) exclude figures complicit in the 15-month bloody suppression of dissent.
He had hoped that the presence at the meeting of all five UN Security Council veto-wielders, Arab League members and Turkey would make it possible to gain international endorsement of an agreed road map for the transition of power in Damascus without resorting to the Security Council again. However, after the failed St. Petersburg encounter, its chances of taking off are slim. Asked about this, a senior US official commented: “We may get there, we may not.”
In the Middle East, the military alert declared by Saudi King Abdullah Thursday was still in effect Saturday. Saudi forces continue to stream to the Jordanian and Iraqi borders and Jordanian, Turkish and Syrian army units are on the move, as DEBKAfile reported Friday:

The Syrian crisis was Friday, June 29, on a knife edge between a Western-Arab-Turkish military offensive in the next 48 hours and a big power accord to ward it off.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report heavy Saudi troop movements toward the Jordanian and Iraqi borders Thursday overnight and up until Friday morning, June 29, after King Abdullah put the Saudi military on high alert for joining an anti-Assad offensive in Syria. The Saudi units are poised with tanks, missiles, special forces and anti-air batteries to enter Jordan in two heads:One will safeguard Jordan's King Abdullah against potential Syrian or Iranian reprisals from Syria or Iraq.

The second will cut north through Jordan to enter southeastern Syriam, where a security zone will be established around the towns of Deraa, Deir al-Zour and Abu Kemal – all centers of the anti-Assad rebellion. The region is also the home terrain of the Shammar tribe, brethren of the Shammars of the Saudi Nejd province.
The Saudi units deployed on the Iraqi border are there to defend the kingdom against potential incursions by Iraqi Shiite militias crossing into the kingdom for reprisals. The Iraqi militias are well trained and armed and serve under officers of the Iranian Al-Qods Brigades, the Revolutionary Guards’ external arm.
Western Gulf sources report that Jordan too is on war alert.
Following the downing of a Turkish plane by Syria a week ago, Turkey continues to build up its Syrian border units with anti-aircraft guns, tanks and missiles towed by long convoys of trucks.  

A Free Syria Army officer, Gen. Mustafa al-Sheikh, reported Friday that 170 Syrian army tanks of the 17th Mechanized Division were massed near the village of Musalmieh northeast of Aleppo, 30 km from the Turkish border.  He said they stood ready to attack any Turkish forces crossing into Syria.
As these war preparations advanced, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in St. Petersburg Friday for crucial talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.  They meet the day before the new UN-sponsored Action Group convenes in Geneva to discuss UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan’s latest transition proposal for Syria. He hopes for a political settlement that will ward off military intervention.
Invited to the meeting are the five veto-wielding UN Security Council members plus Turkey and Arab League envoys from Qatar, Kuwait and Iraq.

Annan proposes forming a transitional national unity government in Damascus that includes the opposition and excludes unacceptable regime members.
It was widely reported Thursday that Russia had agreed to this formula, even though it entailed evicting Bashar Assad from power. However, Lavrov stepped in to correct the record, stressing in reference to the Annan proposal that Moscow would not lend its support to “any outside interference or imposition of recipes in Syria.”
This position is doubly aimed at the intensive military movements afoot around Syria.
Clinton and Lavrov are therefore expected to go at the Syrian issue hammer and tongs. The outcome of their meeting will not only determine the course of the Action Group’s discussions but, more importantly, whether the Western-Arab-Turkish alliance goes forward with its military operation against Syria.

US-Russian concurrence on a plan for Assad’s removal could avert the operation. The failure of their talks would spell a worsening of the Syrian crisis and precipitate Western-Arab military intervention, which according to military sources in the Gulf is scheduled for launch Saturday, June 30.