Syrian opposition to pick PM, form own government
End the Lie – Independent News
February 22, 2013
Moaz Alkhatib (Reuters / Asmaa Waguih)
The leaders of the Syrian opposition are set to pick a prime minister to lead a provisional government in rebel-held parts of the country. It comes as the group refuses several international invitations to talks after unabated violence.
The Syrian National Coalition estimates that areas controlled by the insurgency comprise about half of Syria, and wants to form a government quickly in order to prevent those areas from falling into chaos, according to a Friday statement. Coalition leader Walid al-Bunni said that “there has to be an executive authority capable of caring for millions of Syrians in the liberated territories who need water, electricity, security and protection. Hospitals also have been destroyed by the regime and humanitarian aid needs to be managed.”
The deal was sealed in a two-day meeting in Cairo, and is the precursor to a March 2 meeting in Istanbul, where the final decision will be made. The Friday talks involved a consensus between the various factions of the coalition advocating a quick formation of a new government, including one comprising the Muslim Brotherhood, according to Reuters.
An unnamed source added that it remains unclear whether the new government could immediately begin operating in the captured areas in the face of Bashar al-Assad’s heavy military superiority across the country.
There is a notable lack of discipline among rebels, and the failure to provide insurgent-held areas with a governing body that would restore order, basic services and electricity could fragment the opposition and eventually cost them the war, sources close to the opposition believe. This has been the biggest disadvantage for the opposition leaders during the two years since the uprising began. Furthermore, it remains unclear how effective the technocratic government’s control over Islamist brigades will be, especially if it can’t operate on the ground.
So far, former Syrian Prime Minister Riad Hijab was among those offered as a candidate to head the provisional government, but despite a clear recognition of his talents by many, he did not gather substantial support – especially from the Muslim Brotherhood – due to his past in President Assad’s ruling Baath Party. “Hijab has said the right things and is an administrator. He is qualified but his history in the regime plays against him,” one coalition member said. A former agricultural minister from the era of Bashar al-Assad’s father’s rule, Assad Mustafa, is also among those considered for the post of provisional PM.
No place for dialogue
Meanwhile, violence has been rocking both the capital Damascus and the ancient city of Aleppo. At least 100 people have been killed and over 250 wounded in a massive car bomb blast that hit Damascus on Thursday. The explosion shook a square where pro-government rallies are usually staged.
The Syrian foreign ministry has blamed the attack on al-Qaeda-linked “terrorist” groups. The opposition’s Damascus media office says that the Free Syrian Army (FSA) has “denied responsibility for the blast and blamed it on the regime.” International peace envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi condemned the attack, saying that nothing could justify such horrible actions – which amount to war crimes under international law.”
The envoy called on the UN Security Council last month to set up an investigative body for “such crimes” in Syria. In an interview to RT he stressed the unwillingness of the Syrian opposition to engage in any kind of meaningful discussion with President Assad, this fact being a major cause for the stalemate in the country. Meanwhile, a Russian UNSC statement condemning the Damascus bombings was shot down by Washington, who insisted that the wording include an attack on the actions of President Assad as well. Moscow reacted sharply, claiming that Washington seeks to “justify terrorism.”
In Aleppo on Friday, at least 29 people have been killed and dozens wounded following three surface-to-surface missile strikes by government forces – according to a Syrian Observatory for Human Rights statement to AFP.
The violence has aroused heated criticism from the Syrian opposition, which in turn chose to boycott a string of international invitations to talks: the Friends of Syria conference of international powers in Rome, and the invitations to Moscow and Washington that were made to opposition coalition leader Mouaz al-Khatib after his meetings with Russian and American foreign ministers this month in Munich. The invites followed a repeat proposal by al-Khatib to negotiate the departure of President Assad with members of the Syrian government.
Al-Khatib has since been harshly criticized by both Islamist and liberal members of the opposition for proposing talks with the government without outlining a clear list of goals. The coalition continued to press for Assad’s ouster, saying that no progress can be attained without “the removal of Bashar al-Assad and the heads of the military and security apparatus responsible for the decisions that led the country to this stage.” They also demanded in the statement that any further initiatives to engage the Syrian government must be agreed with the 12-member leadership of the opposition coalition.
Source: RT
Fifty-Three Civilians Martyred, 235 Others Injured so far in Terrorist Bombing in al-Thawra Street in Damascus
SANA, Syria
February 21, 2013
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DAMASCUS,(SANA)- Fifty-three civilians were martyred and 235 others were injured so far in a terrorist bombing which took place on Thursday morning in al-Thawra Street in the surrounding of al-Mazraa neighborhood in Damascus.
In a statement, the Ministry of Health pointed out that 53 martyrs and 235 wounded people were admitted to the public and private hospitals, noting that these numbers may increase due to the critical conditions of some injured people.
Health Minister, Dr. Saad al-Nayef, told reporters during a tour in Damascus Hospital that the terrorist bombing reflects the criminal nature of its perpetrators, adding that the Ministry is exerting all efforts to offer medical services to the injured people.
The injured people roundly denounced this terrorist bombing, noting that the perpetrators aim to destabilize Syria through killing innocent women, children and old men.
SANA reporter said that the bombing, which took place in a densely populated area near a crossroad of main streets, killed and injured a large number of civilians, including children.
He added that huge material damage was caused to the houses of citizens in the area surrounding the bombing in addition to a huge fire in a large number of cars, noting that the victims are mostly passersby, school students and people driving their cars.
SANA reporter pointed out that the blast also caused huge damage to al-Hayat Hospital and Abdullah Bin al-Zubir school in the area as well as to the minibuses in a bus station nearby.
Sources at the Red Crescent and Damascus Hospitals said the bodies of tens of martyrs and injured people were admitted to the hospitals.
For his part, Education Minister, Dr. Hazwan al-Wazz, said the teorrist bombing caused material damage in some neighboring schools and injured 3 teachers and 20 students.
The Minister added that Damascus Examinations Department and the second building of the Education Ministry were also affected, in addition to wounding some employees.
He stressed that the terrorist bombing will not affect the determination of the Ministry staff members to continue their role towards their homeland.
[hat tip: Syrian Girl]
Geopolitics – Rob Prince [audio]
Geopolitics with Ryan Dawson
Februrary 19, 2013
http://www.rys2sense.com/anti-neocons…
Hypocrisy: US Arms Al Qaeda in Syria, Mass-Slaughters Civilians in Afghanistan
by Tony Cartalucci
Land Destroyer
February 13, 2013 (LD) – AFP has reported that a recent NATO airstrike in Afghanistan has killed over 10 civilians in an all-too-familiar headline glossed over by the Western media in an exercise of both depravity and hypocrisy. RT’s article, “NATO airstrike kills 10 Afghan civilians, mostly women and children – officials,” notes in particular that up to 11,864 civilians were killed in Afghanistan between 2007 and 2011, and that civilian deaths before 2007 were not even tracked by the UN.
Such facts reveal alarming hypocrisy as the UN keeps almost daily, inflated tallies of civilian deaths elsewhere, in particular, in nations like Libya and Syria where Western interests have been heavily involved in regime change and in dire need of manipulating public perception worldwide. The United Nations had in fact pieced together a dubious report crafted from “witness accounts” compiled not in Syria, or even beyond its borders in a refugee camp, but instead, in Geneva by “witnesses” supplied by the so-called Syrian “opposition.”
Image: Just some of the corporate members of the US-Qatar Business Council, whose president just so happens to sit on the same board of directors of the Middle East Policy Center as Karen AbuZayd, co-author of one of many conveniently timed UN Human Rights Council reports on Syria.
Worse yet, that UN report was co-authored by Karen Koning AbuZayd, a director of the US Washington-based corporate think-tank, Middle East Policy Council. Its board of directors includes Exxon men, CIA agents, representatives of the Saudi Binladin Group (Osama Bin Laden’s family business), former ambassadors to Kuwait, Oman, and Qatar, US military and government representatives, and even the president of the US-Qatar Business Council, which includes amongst its membership, Al Jazeera, Chevron, Exxon, munitions manufacturer Raytheon (who supplied the opening salvos during NATO’s operations against Libya), and Boeing.
In other words, the very underwriters of the armed militancy that is consuming Syria are sitting along side the head of the UN commission producing reports portraying the Syrian government as guilty of “war crimes and crimes against humanity.
The hypocrisy does not end there. The pretense the US and NATO have used for over a decade to occupy, subjugate and slaughter the people of Afghanistan – in a conflict increasingly creeping over both Afghanistan’s borders with Pakistan and Iran – is supposedly to fight “terrorism.” Western interests have been allowed to fight this “war on terrorism” with impunity, and even without UN monitoring for years, while Syria was immediately condemned for fighting against Al Qaeda terrorists overtly flooding into their nation with NATO assistance.
Indeed, as NATO claims to fight terrorism in Afghanistan, it has already handed over the North African nation of Libya to Al Qaeda terrorists, specifically the the US State Department, United Nations, and the UK Home Office (page 5, .pdf)-listed terrorist organization, the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG). The US in particular oversaw the rise of the Al Qaeda terror-emirate Benghazi, even having a US ambassador slain there by the very terrorists it had armed, funded, trained, provided air support for, and thrust into power.
These same terrorists have been documented extensively as spearheading the invasion of northern Syria via NATO-member Turkey, with NATO cash and weapons in cooperation with Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
The glaring hypocrisy of so-called “international law” and “international institutions” is on full display. Nations like Russia, China, Iran, India, Pakistan, Indonesia, Brazil, and many others should give serious thought to peeling away from the United Nations, the compromised International Criminal Court, and other corrupt, Western-serving institutions that will, and in many cases already are, being turned against them, their interests, and national sovereignty.
For the people of the world, we must realize that these institutions were created for and by big-business special interests, and the legitimacy they are portrayed as having is a mere illusion created by the corporate media. We must begin identifying these special interests, boycotting and replacing them permanently at a local level. If it is peace we want, it is clear that the UN, NATO, and all institutions in between, sow only death and destruction amidst a myriad of hypocrisy, double standards, and immeasurable corruption, and we must move into the future without them.
Foreign-backed Syria opposition pledges allegiance to Israel
Friends of Syria
February 11, 2013
The leader of the foreign-backed Syrian opposition coalition, Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib, has pledged allegiance to the Israeli regime if he manages to form a “new regime in Syria.”
In a recent interview with the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth, Khatib stated that Israel should not be worried about the Syrian government’s chemical weapons as his so-called Syrian National Coalition ‘is working with other countries to prevent chemical munitions from falling to the hands of the Lebanese resistance movement, Hezbollah.’
This is while the Syrian government has taken measures to further secure its chemical arsenal and has warned that the militants may use such arms against the people.
Khatib added that, “We’ll spare no effort to prevent any military or chemical weapons passing to it (Hezbollah). We realize that this topic is of major concern to Israel.”
Khatib also admitted to having received information from US, French and German intelligence agencies on the bases and movements of the Syrian army.
The remarks come nearly two weeks after an Israeli airstrike on a military complex near the Syrian capital of Damascus.
The Syrian army said in a statement on January 30 that two people were killed and five others injured in an Israeli airstrike on a scientific center in Jamraya, located 25 kilometers (15 miles) northwest of Damascus.
Syria has been experiencing unrest since March 2011. Many people, including large numbers of security forces, have been killed in the turmoil.
The Syrian government says the chaos is being orchestrated from outside the country, and there are reports that a very large number of the militants are foreign nationals.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2013/02/11/288377/khatib-vows-allegiance-to-israel/
Car Bomb on Turkish/Syrian Border
Friends of Syria
February 11, 2013
A car bomb exploded at a crossing on Turkey’s border with Syria near the Cilvegozu border post on Monday, killing at least 13 people including 3 Turkish citizens and wounding 28 more.
Anadolu News Agency said the death toll, including those who died in the hospitals, reached 13 and the number of the wounded people is 28, including 9 Turkish citizens and 19 Syrians. The agency added that the wounded people include 13 who are in a critical situation, 5 of them are Turkish citizens and 8 are Syrians. The wounded people are being treated in Reyhanli and Antakia hospitals and other specialized hospitals.
FSA hitting and slapping women / FSA Terroristen misshandeln Frauen [video]
Friends of Syria
February 9, 2013
PN 