The head of Russia's security council said he had seen intelligence indicating plans for a military incursion were well advanced.
"We are getting information that Nato members and some Persian Gulf States, operating according to the Libya scenario, intend to move from indirect intervention in Syrian affairs to direct military intervention," Nikolai Patrushev, the head of the Kremlin security body said in an interview published in Russia's Kommersant newspaper on Thursday.
"This time it is true that the main strikes forces will not be provided by France, the UK or Italy, but possibly by neighbouring Turkey which was until recently on good terms with Syria and is a rival of Iran with immense ambitions." America and Turkey were even now possibly already refining options for a no-fly zone that would allow armed Syrian opposition fighters to mass in the designated areas, he added.
Mr Patrushev, a Kremlin hawk who used to run the FSB security service, the Russian successor agency to the KGB, went on to claim that the real reason Syria was coming under so much international pressure to end a brutal crackdown on the opposition was largely geopolitical.
"Syria has not become an object of interest for a new coalition of the willing in itself," he said. "The plan is to punish Damascus not so much for repressing the opposition as for its unwillingness to sever its friendly relations with Tehran."
A spokesman for Nato said Mr Patrushev's comments were wide of the mark however.
"There is no discussion of a Nato role with respect to Syria," said Carmen Romero, the spokesman, pointing out that Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Nato's secretary general, had previously stated that the alliance had "no intention whatsoever" of intervening.
The Kremlin, a close ally of Damascus since the Soviet-era, has doggedly resisted Western attempts to impose meaningful sanctions on Syria in the United Nations and has offered the regime moral support by adopting parts of its one-sided rhetoric.
It has made it clear it still feels cheated by the West's manoeuvring on Libya last year. Moscow chose to abstain in a crucial United Nations vote, effectively allowing a no-fly zone to be introduced. It later angrily accused the West of exploiting the vote to bring about regime change however and has said it will not be duped in the United Nations a second time.
Moscow has a naval supply and maintenance base at the Syrian port of Tartus, its only military footprint in the Mediterranean and one which has been gradually upgraded. Earlier this month, a Russian naval force led by the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier made a three-day port trip to Tartus in an apparent signal of support for Bashar Assad.
On Thursday, Turkey claimed that a Russian ship carrying weapons and ammunition had flouted an EU embargo on arms shipments to Syria after making an unscheduled stop in Cyprus and had now docked in Tartus. Russia is one of the Assad regime's main arms suppliers, and stands to lose lucrative arms deals if it falls.
Russia's warning on Syria came as Anwar Malek, a former Arab League monitor, said three other monitors had followed his lead and resigned because they believed their mission had done nothing to stop President Assad's bloody crackdown. The mission, which was designed to monitor Syria's compliance with an Arab League peace plan, appears to be in disarray with plans to expand the monitoring team on hold after some observers were injured by pro-Assad protesters earlier this week.
and...... http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2012/01/20121146422954697.html
The emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, has said Arab troops should be sent to Syria to end the political unrest in the country that the UN says has left more than 5.000 people dead.
In an interview on Friday with US broadcaster CBS for the news programme 60 Minutes, Sheikh Hamad was asked if he was in favour of Arab nations intervening, to which he replied: "For such a situation to stop the killing ... some troops should go to stop the killing."
Sheikh Hamad is the first Arab leader to publicly suggest foreign intervention in Syria, where the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad is now in its tenth month.
Speaking about his own influence on the uprisings in the Arab world, he said: "We are supporting the people of those countries ... [who are] asking for justice and dignity.
"If this [is] influence, I think this is a healthy influence. I think all the world should support this."
Continued violence
Sheikh Hamad's remarks came as Syrian activists said that at least 26 people were killed across the country duringprotests supporting the armed opposition group, the Free Syrian Army, on Friday.
Amateur video posted on YouTube by Ugarit News, an opposition news outlet, purported to show an armoured personnel carrier engulfed in flames in the flashpoint city of Homs on Friday after allegedly being targeted by the group.
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The Arabic caption that goes with the video suggests the attack was part of a "special operation by the Free Syrian Army on an armoured personnel carrier after it attacked protesters".
The content, date, location or authenticity of the videos could not be independently verified. Syria has banned most foreign journalists and prevented independent reporting, making activist accounts and amateur videos posted online key sources of information about the uprising and crackdown.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based opposition group, said security forces killed one protester in the central city of Hama and another in the town of Ariha in the northwestern province of Idlib, where more than 20,000 people were demonstrating on Friday.
The group reported violence in the southern province of Deraa, the eastern region of Deir ez-Zor and the central province of Homs, all centres of frequent protests.
US sees Iran link
Against this backdrop, a senior US official has accused Iran of aiding Assad's government in its efforts to crush the uprising.
The official, who did not want to be identified, has told Al Jazeera: "Iran is standing behind the al-Assad regime and continues to provide support to suppress the Syrian people."
The US has long suspected that the Islamic Republic is aiding Assad as he tries to avoid the fate of other Arab leaders toppled by the Arab Spring uprisings.
"A number of senior Iranian officials have visited Syria to co-ordinate with Syrian officials the repression of Syrian citizens. In addition, Iran has provided security-related equipment - including munitions - to the Syrian security services that is being used against the Syrian people," the official said.
"It has come to our attention that the Commander of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force, Ghasem Soleimani, was in Damascus, Syria in early January 2012.
"Given Soleimani’s rank within the Iranian government, we are confident that he was received at the highest levels of the Syrian government, including Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Moreover, the visit was likely related to further Iranian support to Syria’s efforts to suppress its people."
Soleimani has repeatedly been the target of US sanctions.
Under scrutiny
The accusations come as the US remains locked in confrontation with Iran over its nuclear programme and maritime tensions between the two states simmer in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil shipping route.
Signs of direct co-operation between Iran's Revolutionary Guards and Syria came under the spotlight after Mahmoud Souleiman Hajj Hamad, a former official in Assad's government, accused Iran and Iraq of financially aiding the Syrian crackdown.
He made the allegations at a news conference in Cairo after announcing his defection from the government.
Iran has also been standing firmly by Syria after the Arab League suspended the country over the crackdown on opposition protesters and compelled the Assad government to accept a peace plan.
Against this backdrop, a senior US official has accused Iran of aiding Assad's government in its efforts to crush the uprising.
The official, who did not want to be identified, has told Al Jazeera: "Iran is standing behind the al-Assad regime and continues to provide support to suppress the Syrian people."
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"A number of senior Iranian officials have visited Syria to co-ordinate with Syrian officials the repression of Syrian citizens. In addition, Iran has provided security-related equipment - including munitions - to the Syrian security services that is being used against the Syrian people," the official said.
"It has come to our attention that the Commander of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force, Ghasem Soleimani, was in Damascus, Syria in early January 2012.
"Given Soleimani’s rank within the Iranian government, we are confident that he was received at the highest levels of the Syrian government, including Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Moreover, the visit was likely related to further Iranian support to Syria’s efforts to suppress its people."
Soleimani has repeatedly been the target of US sanctions.
Under scrutiny
The accusations come as the US remains locked in confrontation with Iran over its nuclear programme and maritime tensions between the two states simmer in the Strait of Hormuz, a vital oil shipping route.
Signs of direct co-operation between Iran's Revolutionary Guards and Syria came under the spotlight after Mahmoud Souleiman Hajj Hamad, a former official in Assad's government, accused Iran and Iraq of financially aiding the Syrian crackdown.
He made the allegations at a news conference in Cairo after announcing his defection from the government.
Iran has also been standing firmly by Syria after the Arab League suspended the country over the crackdown on opposition protesters and compelled the Assad government to accept a peace plan.
| Iran has been concerned about the possible collapse of Syria, its principal regional ally, a scenario that would leave it even more isolated in its own region amid tigthening nuclear sanctions. It has accused Israel and the US of stirring up trouble in Syria. |
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