Syrian Rebel Coalition Crumbling: President Resigns
Rebel Military Chief Rejects New PM
by Jason Ditz, March 24, 2013
Syria’s National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces (CORF) has repeatedly claimed to be on the brink of unifying the rebel movement in a way that would facilitate more international aid. This weekend though, it looks like the CORF is on the brink of collapse.
The group’s president, Moaz al-Khatib has announced his resignation today, citing the lack of international support as a principle reason. Khatib had only held the position for a few months, and was controversial in being one of the few rebel figures who gave lip-service to a negotiated settlement, something which riled others in the CORF.
Khatib’s departure leaves Ghassan Hitto, who was named“prime minister in exile” last week, as the closest thing the group has to a leader. Yet his position is enormously weak, and that weakness stretches beyond him being just a few months removed from being a middle manager for a small company in Dallas.
Gen. Salim Idris, the head of CORF’s military branch, has announced that he will not recognize Hitto as prime minister, and says the Free Syrian Army (FSA) won’t endorse Hitto unless he gets more support.
Though Hitto got a solid majority of the votes cast last week, he had the bare minimum of votes needed, with 15 of the 63 active members refusing to vote for anyone at all. There is concern that the lack of unity on Hitto would make him a weak leader, and this is doubly so without the FSA’s imprimatur.
and.......
Syria ‘Chemical’ Attack Was Rebels’ Doing, Evidence Suggests
Strike Did Not Involve Proper Chemical Weapon
by Jason Ditz, March 24, 2013
Last week’s report of a chemical weapon attack in Syria’s Aleppo Province sparked an array of calls to action, with most nations and politicians insisting it vindicated whatever position they had before, despite many points of uncertainty about it. The incident is coming into sharper focus now, however.
The attack, intelligence sources appear to agree, was launched by rebel fighters and not government forces. Since the victims were overwhelmingly the Syrian military, this was not a huge shock, but is important to reiterate.
The other interesting aspect is that it was not a “proper” chemical weapon, at least from preliminary investigations. The evidence suggests that the strike used a lachrymatory agent, not a nerve agent, and that the deaths were caused by suffocating on chlorine-based gas that was injected into a warhead.
In some ways, this is a distinction without a difference, as the use of suffocating gas, regardless of how it kills people, is a serious war crime under international law. The important factor, however, is that it is not the sort of weapon Syria has in its arsenal, rather it is a lower-tech solution.
This is perhaps even scarier, because it suggests the jihadist factions in the rebel movement, which are being tapped as the likely origin of this strike, have developed the capability to making crude, but lethal, chemical agent devices of their own. If this sort of warfare is to become a regular part of the rebel arsenal, the death toll could be catastrophic, and might encourage the Syrian military to respond in kind with their own chemical weapons.
Incredibly, even though all the evidence now points to the headline “Syria uses chemical weapons” being wrong on two fronts, House Intelligence Committee chair Mike Rogers (R – MI) is still insisting that the incident is an excuse for the US to attack Syria and install the rebels.
http://jssnews.com/2013/03/24/bachar-el-assad-aurait-ete-tue-par-un-garde-du-corps/?fb_action_ids=166553160167758&fb_action_types=og.likes&fb_source=aggregation&fb_aggregation_id=288381481237582
( Unconfirmed so far....... )
Bashar al-Assad was killed by a bodyguard ... (Arab media)
Published: March 24, 2013
Update: According to Arab media www.eltira.org , Bashar al-Assad would have been seriously wounded by gunfire last night Saturday, March 23 by his bodyguard but Iran is not dead. He is currently hospitalized, between life and death, Shami Hospital in Damascus which the streets were closed.
Proprietary information (in France) : According to reports in the Arab press (and then republished in the Israeli press ), information that journalists say they have "verified" the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad was killed this morning by one of his bodyguards. An important safety device has been set up at the hospital in Damascus.
The assassin Boucher Damascus would be his bodyguard Iran, a military officer named Mehdi Jakoby. He was in charge of presidential security and was "offered" by Tehran's ally Syria.
According to various sources, there are reports of heavy fighting in any armed Damascus. The roads leading to the hospital would be closed.
Syrian TV premises have been abandoned.
If this information had to be officially confirmed, it would be a victory for the Islamists who are fighting for the seizure of power in Syria. No one really knows what will happen tomorrow if Assad is actually dead. Is that Iran will take a step back? Russia will she see red at the loss of his best friend? What about China? And the United States who still pledged this week to put a term "in the coming days," the regime in Damascus, will they be strong enough to transmit the power to Syrian honest?
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/2013/03/24/Syrian-opposition-chief-Moaz-al-Khatib-in-surprise-resignation-.html
Last Update: Sunday, 24 March 2013 KSA 20:29 - GMT 17:29
Syrian opposition rejects resignation of its chief Moaz al-Khatib
AL ARABIYA WITH AGENCIES -
The Syrian National Coalition has refused the resignation of its leader Ahmad Moaz al-Khatib, the opposition bloc said in a statement released hours after he announced he was quitting.
Neither the Coalition’s presidential office nor its general assembly has accepted Khatib’s resignation. “They are asking Mr Moaz al-Khatib to go back to his work as the president of the Coalition,” the statement said.
Neither the Coalition’s presidential office nor its general assembly has accepted Khatib’s resignation. “They are asking Mr Moaz al-Khatib to go back to his work as the president of the Coalition,” the statement said.
In a surprise move, Khatib announced his resignation on Sunday.
“I announce my resignation from the National Coalition, so that I can work with a freedom that cannot possibly be had in an official institution,” Khatib said in a statement published on Sunday on his Facebook page.
“I had promised the great Syrian people and promised God that I would resign if matters reached some red lines,” he said in the statement. He did not explain what had prompted his resignation.
The SNC is a dissident group recognized by dozens of states and organizations as a legitimate representative of the Syrian people.
The surprise resignation comes just days after the first election in Istanbul of a rebel prime minister, Ghassan Hitto, and just over two years on from the outbreak of a popular revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.
"For the past two years, we have been slaughtered by an unprecedentedly vicious regime, while the world has looked on," Khatib said.
"All the destruction of Syria's infrastructure, the detention of tens of thousands of people, the forced flight of hundreds of thousands and other forms of suffering have been insufficient for the international community to take a decision to allow the people to defend themselves," he added.
The news came just after it was announced that Syrian National Coalition has been invited to the Arab summit this week, bringing the rebels closer to filling Syria’s seat in the Arab League, the group’s Qatar envoy said Sunday.
"For the past two years, we have been slaughtered by an unprecedentedly vicious regime, while the world has looked on," Khatib said.
"All the destruction of Syria's infrastructure, the detention of tens of thousands of people, the forced flight of hundreds of thousands and other forms of suffering have been insufficient for the international community to take a decision to allow the people to defend themselves," he added.
The news came just after it was announced that Syrian National Coalition has been invited to the Arab summit this week, bringing the rebels closer to filling Syria’s seat in the Arab League, the group’s Qatar envoy said Sunday.
The invitation was revealed as differences over the participation of the opponents of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the summit emerged during a ministerial preparatory meeting on Sunday.
“The coalition has received an official invitation to attend the Arab summit,” said Nizar al-Haraki, who is the group’s envoy in Qatar.
He said that Khatib and the newly elected rebel interim premier Ghassan Hitto are expected to arrive soon in Doha. Khatib was to later decide on who fills in Syria’s seat.
Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani told fellow ministers that he “looked forward” to the participation of Khatib and Hitto in the summit as per an Arab League announcement earlier this month.
The league on March 6 called on the coalition “to form an executive body to take up Syria’s seat” and attend the summit which opens on Tuesday.
The opposition alliance has begun steps to form an executive body to administer rebel-held territory inside Syria, electing Hitto at a meeting in Turkey earlier this week.
But Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari reiterated Baghdad’s reservations over recognising the opposition as representatives of the Syrian people in the league.
“We have expressed reservations... for legal reasons,” he said at the ministerial meeting.
In addition to Iraq, Algeria too has expressed reservations, while Lebanon distanced itself from measures against neighboring Syria.
The Arab League suspended Syria’s membership in November 2011 after Damascus rejected a peace plan calling for an end to the violence but demanding that Assad step down.
“The coalition has received an official invitation to attend the Arab summit,” said Nizar al-Haraki, who is the group’s envoy in Qatar.
He said that Khatib and the newly elected rebel interim premier Ghassan Hitto are expected to arrive soon in Doha. Khatib was to later decide on who fills in Syria’s seat.
Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani told fellow ministers that he “looked forward” to the participation of Khatib and Hitto in the summit as per an Arab League announcement earlier this month.
The league on March 6 called on the coalition “to form an executive body to take up Syria’s seat” and attend the summit which opens on Tuesday.
The opposition alliance has begun steps to form an executive body to administer rebel-held territory inside Syria, electing Hitto at a meeting in Turkey earlier this week.
But Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari reiterated Baghdad’s reservations over recognising the opposition as representatives of the Syrian people in the league.
“We have expressed reservations... for legal reasons,” he said at the ministerial meeting.
In addition to Iraq, Algeria too has expressed reservations, while Lebanon distanced itself from measures against neighboring Syria.
The Arab League suspended Syria’s membership in November 2011 after Damascus rejected a peace plan calling for an end to the violence but demanding that Assad step down.
Syrian opposition leader resigns | ||
Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib resigns from the National Coalition, expressing frustration at the lack of international support.
Last Modified: 24 Mar 2013 17:26
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Khatib said Syrians 'have been slaughtered by an unprecedentedly vicious regime, while the world has looked on' [AFP]
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| Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib, Syria's opposition leader, has announced his resignation from the National Coalition, his spokesman told Al Jazeera. Mohamed Ali said the resignation followed Saturday's meeting with the European Union, "which resulted in achieving nothing". In a statement released on his facebook page on Sunday, Al Khatib confirmed his resignation from the dissident group recognised by dozens of states and organisations as a legitimate representative of the Syrian people.
"For the past two years, we have been slaughtered by an unprecedentedly vicious regime, while the world has looked on," Khatib said. "All the destruction of Syria's infrastructure, the detention of tens of thousands of people, the forced flight of hundreds of thousands and other forms of suffering have been insufficient for the international community to take a decision to allow the people to defend themselves," he added. His statement comes hours after the Arab League extended an invitation to the opposition coalition to attend the summit in Qatar next week. The pan-Arab bloc has suspended Assad's membership and recognised the Coalition as the legitimate representative of the people of Syria where a two-year conflict has killed more than 70,000 people. Khatib is a former imam and moderate Islamist who rose from independent ranks as a respected figure of dissent against the Damascus regime. Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani, the Qatari prime minister, said that he regretted Khatib's decision, and urged him to reconsider. FSA rejects rebel PM Meanwhile, the armed Syrian opposition said on Sunday that it refused to acknowledge the authority of Ghassan Hitto, the Coalition-appointed prime minister for rebel-held areas in Syria. "We in the Free Syrian Army do not recognise Ghassan Hitto as prime minister because the National Coalition did not reach a consensus," at the March 18 vote, said FSA political and media coordinator Louay Muqdad. "I speak on behalf of the (rebel) Military Councils and the Chief of Staff when I say that we cannot recognise a prime minister who was forced on the National Coalition, rather than chosen by consensus," Muqdad said. Hitto won an election in Istanbul after 35 out of 49 Coalition members voted for him following some 14 hours of discussion in a closed meeting bringing together prominent opponents based both inside and out of Syria. Several key Coalition members, including official spokesman Walid al-Bunni, however, walked out of the meeting and boycotted the vote. And later at least 12 top Coalition members announced they had suspended their membership in the opposition body in protest against an election result they viewed as illegitimate. Alawites call for Assad exit Meanwhile, opposition activists from Bashar al-Assad's Alawite Shia Muslim sect called for him to be overthrown, during a conference held in Cairo, the Egyptian capital, on Sunday. "The Syrian regime is not an Alawite sectarian regime ...the Alawite sect was and is being held hostage by the regime," said the statement, which was read out by Alawite activist Tawfiq Dunia. The group said that the only way out of the crisis was for Assad to step down. "What is important is that all Syrians unite regardless of their sect," Samir Aita, a prominent economist and member of the Syrian Democratic Forum, told Reuters on the sidelines of the conference. | ||
http://news.antiwar.com/2013/03/22/france-and-britain-fail-eu-wont-lift-syria-arms-ban/
France and Britain Fail: EU Won’t Lift Syria Arms Ban
Citing Likely False Reports of Chemical Weapon Use Didn't Help
by Jason Ditz, March 22, 2013
France and Britain have continued to browbeat the European Union all week about lifting the arms embargo on Syria so they could start throwing weapons at the rebels, but diplomats familiar with the situation say they have failed and the EU won’t lift the ban.
Efforts to lift the ban have been ongoing for weeks, but shifted inrhetoric after the Tuesday reports of a chemical weapons attack in Aleppo. The reports are almost certainly false, but that’s not stopping France.
“Very close attention must be paid to the possible use by Assad of chemical weapons,” noted Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, adding “there are indications that he might have used them or that he might use them.”
Germany and Austria are leading the opposition to lifting the embargo, saying that they are concerned the rebels, many of whom are from al-Qaeda linked jihadist factions, would eventually use the weapons on EU member nations.
and........
Lebanese PM Resigns Amid Political Dispute With Hezbollah
Urges Unity Government to Save Lebanon From 'Regional Fires'
by Jason Ditz, March 22, 2013
Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati has announced his resignation today after the Hezbollah-dominated cabinet continued to block his attempts to set up a supervisory body to prepare for the next election.
Much of the Hezbollah-led government has resisted calls from the opposition to agree on specifics for the new election law, and though a PM resignation usually precipitates early elections it might actually delay them in this case, as the two sides continue to bicker on the specifics and nothing gets done.
Only Monday Mikati had expressed confidence that a deal on the elections was close, and had even been quoted by some local media outlets as saying the deal was effectively completed. It is unclear exactly what changed between then and now.
Mikati formed his government in January of 2011, after the March 14 bloc of Saad Hariri lost its majority. He has urged both March 14 and his own March 8 bloc to agree to a unity government for the lead-up to the next election, saying it is vital for the two blocs to end the harsh rhetoric in the face of the “regional fires,” likely referring to a Syrian Civil War that is increasingly being fought in Lebanese border towns as well. So far, the two blocs seem far apart, and such a deal would be hard to envision, even for a brief caretaker government.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2013/03/2013323114920681820.html
Thousands mourn slain cleric in Damascus |
Crowd gathers in the downtown of the Syrian capital amid tight security for the funeral of Sheikh Mohammad al-Bouti.
Last Modified: 23 Mar 2013 11:59
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Mourners carried Sheik Mohammad al-Bouti and his grandson's coffin on their shoulders Saturday amid shouts of "God is Great".
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| Thousands of people have gathered in the downtown of the Syrian capital amid tight security for the funeral of a senior pro-government cleric who was killed in a mosque earlier this week. Security forces on Saturday sealed off all roads leading to the eighth century Omayyad Mosque in Damascus where the funeral for 84-year-old Sheik Mohammad Said Ramadan al-Bouti was held. Al-Bouti, his grandson and 48 others were killed on Thursday when a suicide bomber detonated his explosives inside a mosque where he was giving a religious lesson, state media said. Mourners carried al-Bouti and his grandson's coffin on their shoulders on Saturday amid shouts of "God is Great".  Syrian state TV said President Bashar al-Assad was being represented at the funeral by one of his cabinet ministers. On Friday, Assad vowed to "cleanse" his country of “extremists”, whom he accused of being behind the attack. In a statement issued by the presidency, Assad condemned the attack and mourned Bouti's death, vowing to eradicate "extremism and ignorance" in Syria. "I swear to the Syrian people that your blood, and that of your grandson and all the martyrs of the homeland, will not be spilled in vain because we will be faithful to your ideas by destroying their extremism and ignorance until we have cleansed the country," Assad said in the statement on Friday. The attack was condemned by the opposition, who raised the possibility that the regime was behind the deadly blast at the Iman Mosque. The government declared Saturday a day of mourning. Al-Bouti was the most senior religious figure to be killed in Syria's conflict. Al Jazeera's Rula Amin, reporting from Beirut in neighbouring Lebanon, said the death of Bouti was a "very big deal". "Among the 500 most influencial Muslims in the world, he is ranked 23," she said. The preacher had been a vocal supporter of the regime since the early days of Assad's father and predecessor, the late President Hafez Assad, providing a Sunni cover and legitimacy to their rule. Sunnis are the majority sect in Syria while Assad is from the minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam. In a speech earlier this month, al-Bouti had said it was “a religious duty to protect the values, the land and the nation'' of Syria. "There is no difference between the army and the rest of the nation," he said at the time - a clear endorsement of Assad's forces in their effort to crush the rebels. |
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/9950036/Syria-chemical-weapons-finger-pointed-at-jihadists.html
Whatever happened last week in the town of Khan al-Assal, west of Aleppo, it achieved something extraordinary in the Syrian civil war: unity among Washington, Moscow and Damascus.
All welcomed the rapid decision by Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary-general, to investigate an alleged chemical attack that reportedly killed 26, including Syrian soldiers.
Unusually, the request for that investigation came from the Syrian regime, which claimed that Islamic jihadist rebels launched a chemical weapons attack. Since then, precious little evidence in any way has come from the area despite an awful lot of diplomatic noise around the world.
However a senior source close to the Syrian Army has given Channel 4 News the first clear account of what he claims is believed to have occurred on Tuesday. He is a trusted and hitherto reliable source who does not wish to be identified.
The Syrian military is said to believe that a home-made locally-manufactured rocket was fired, containing a form of chlorine known as CL17, easily available as a swimming pool cleaner. They claim that the warhead contained a quantity of the gas, dissolved in saline solution.
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