No Peace in Syria unless Assad dies

Western supported terrorists admit to attacking infrastructure as a strategy to fight the Assad regime.

By LUIS MIRANDA | THE REAL AGENDA | FEBRUARY 15, 2013

“The war in Syria will end up being very similar to that of Libya. We will liberate city by city until we get to Damascus, ” said Gen. Abu Abeida, a rebel leader from the Al Liwa Derea Shabaa militia. According to him Aleppo is important for the regime, and if the city falls, it will mean the fall of the regime.

“After Aleppo and Idlib,” he says, the rebels will continue to fight to recover the rest of the country, “that the regime’s army defends tooth and nail,” such as Homs, Latakia and Damascus. “These will be our next targets” he asserts.

The same view is shared by Abdul Khader the Salad, commander of all operations in northern Syria, and who is a member of Liwa Al Tawhid. “We will not stop when Aleppo falls. Right now it is the stronghold of Assad, but when we move our troops to areas of Latakia and Tartus, we will enter the final battle for Syria, ” he said.

After nearly eight months of fighting in the city of Aleppo, the second largest city in Syria, the fight has become an entrenched battle between rebels and troops loyal to Assad. The bombings have decreased significantly and the fight has moved to the outskirts of the town.

“We started fighting in the city because we had a well-developed plan, most of the soldiers of the SLA-Free Syrian Army were civilians with no military experience and we needed a thinking head to develop, unify and come up with combat tactics.

The union of the ‘katibas’ or brigades was vital to put a spin on the strategy and “then we focused on attacking military bases, airports and schools that are scattered in the province of Aleppo, so we could do much more damage to the regime,” said the leader of Al Liwa Derea Shabaa.

According to the general, the situation in Aleppo is 50% of the city for each side, but he says he controls about 80% of the territory of the province. “We only need five or six military bases to choke the regime,” said the officer.

“We are focusing on Aleppo International Airport, the Artillery Academy and the Central Prison to give a blow to the regime within the city,” he added.

“Possibly, the battle over Aleppo becoming the most important element of this war. The regime was economically dependent on this city and with the outbreak of war, the industries stopped, causing them much economic damage, “says Abu Abeida.

“Assad sent many troops to regain control of the city and we have stopped them, causing the loss of many soldiers. In Aleppo the regime signed his death,” he says.

Abeida accusses the Syrian Army of bombing civilian targets because “they want the citizens to expel the ELS from Aleppo”. He adds that the regime wants the people to hate the rebels and to fight them, but that such strategy is not working and it is having the opposite effect.”

Abdul Khader believes that the Army has lost a lot of power in recent months. “At first it all depended on the firepower of tanks and we have destroyed a lot. Also they do not have enough soldiers to fight, as they have many fronts throughout the country.” He assures the press that the regime will collapsed and eventually die, but he just doesn’t know when. “Maybe a month, maybe three … maybe a year.” ELS has become the new army for the Syrian rebels, who are recognized by the international community as the acting government.

“You can not negotiate with someone who butchers his own people to stay in power.” Given a hypothetical negotiation with the Syrian regime, the generals have it clear. “There will be no negotiation if it does not include the death of Assad,” Abdul Khader says.

After nearly two years of war, the aim of the revolution is still the same. “A free Syria without Assad … There will be time to decide if we will have democracy or Islam, what is important now is to defeat the regime.”

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Syria working on retaliation against Israel and its allies

By LUIS MIRANDA | THE REAL AGENDA | FEBRUARY 4, 2013

Syria and its allies warned on Sunday that Israel’s attack against a military complex on the outskirts of Damascus will not go unanswered and that it is working on a way to respond through the use of force.

Beset by an internal revolt that has lasted almost two years and has claimed 60,000 lives, the Syrian President Bashar Assad accused Israel of wanting to destabilize his country and assured the public that, even with an internal conflict, his country is able to “respond to any aggression against Syrian citizens.”

Iran, an ally of Damascus, also said that there is the possibility of retaliation for that attack.

Meantime, Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, called the act of “state terrorism”.

“Israel’s aggression against the Jamariya Research Center shows the true position of Israel, working with foreign enemy forces and Syrian factions on the ground to try to destabilize and weaken Syria,” said Assad, after holding a meeting with Iran’s Secretary of National Security, Saeed Jalili, who was visiting Damascus on Sunday.

Several Iranian officials and military personnel also promised that Israel’s attack will not go unanswered. Corps Commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, said at a public event that “resistance and retaliation are the only possible way” to deal with Israel after the attack on Syrian territory, as reported by Iran’s official media. In his meeting with Assad, Jalili said that cooperation between Iran and Syria is crucial to curb “plots and foreign missions aimed at destabilizing security in the region.”

Though Israel does not admit publicly the nature of the attacks occurred on Wednesday, the defense minister of that country, Ehud Barak, claimed responsibility for the attack while participating in the Munich Security Conference. Barak said that although he can not “add anything to what people read in the newspapers about what happened in Syria,” the bombing “is further proof that when Israel promises something, it delivers.”

The bombing took place on Wednesday morning, when the Israeli Air Force attacked a nearby military research area near Damascus. U.S. intelligence sources believe that the target was a convoy loaded with missiles from Lebanon and en route to the Syrian capital, where it would be received by the Shiite militia Hezbollah, along with Iran, which is the main ally of Assad in the area .

Two days before the attack, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had told a delegation of U.S. lawmakers that their choices regarding Syria are “between bad and worse.” Israel has spent months warning of the possibility that the stockpiles of missiles and chemical weapons falling into the hands of Syrian Al Qaeda or Hezbollah.

The U.S. and Israel have claimed for months that Assad has deposits of sarin, mustard gas and cyanide and that he is prepared to use them against his own people, which the U.S. said would be the red line on the sand that would lead to a military intervention.

The Munich conference highlighted the gap that still separates Moscow and Washington over the Syrian conflict. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden called Assad a “tyrant” and attempted to predict his fall. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, said that the demand that Assad go is the reason why the negotiations are going nowhere. However, Moscow has also shown signs of opening up to the Syrian opposition, after Lavrov himself met in Munich for the first time with Syrian opposition leader, Moaz Al Khatib.

The Iranian Foreign Minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, said in the Bavarian capital that Western intervention in Syria would “extend the flames of conflict throughout the region.” Only on Saturday, about 150 people were killed during clashes between government forces and rebels who are openly supported by Western allies of Israel.

Given the volatility of the situation in Syria, Israel has mobilized a battery of missile shield known as the Iron Dome to the city of Haifa, in northern Israel, which is 140 kilometers from Damascus. Haifa, with 268,000 inhabitants, was just one of the cities where more missiles fell during the war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006.

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U.S. already chosing new Syrian management team

By LUIS MIRANDA | THE REAL AGENDA | NOVEMBER 7, 2012

The United States role in the Syrian conflict has gone from “no boots will be on the ground” to “let’s choose who will be the government after Assad”. While the main stream media reports that Washington ran out of patience regarding the work of the Syrian National Council, the truth is that the opposition to Bashar al-Assad’s led government has been influenced by Western forces all along.

The Syrian National Council, which brings together about 60% of the political opposition to the regime is seen as allegedly having failed in its attempt to bring about ‘real change’ to Syria.

This follows from the shift occurred in the last week by the State Department. “We want to make clear,” said Hillary Clinton on a recent visit to Croatia. She then added that “the CNS can not be considered as the most visible leader of the opposition.” The same kind of outcome suffered by the CNS  today is what former Libyan leader had to go through after his western support ran out of patience. Gaddafi was murdered on the streets of Libya by alleged opposition groups that had been armed by the United States after the West decided it was time for him to go.

Clinton’s statement is seen as a direct attack on the opposition movement led from abroad by Abdulbaset Kurdish Seida, who left Syria and now lives in exile. The opposition movement in Syria has failed to carry out the agenda of the West despite the significant help provided by the United States and Turkey. The Turkish government lent its territory to create a revolution that would bring down Assad, but the Syrian government has been able hold on to power. This week, hundreds of Syrian opposition and rebel leaders meet in Qatar to try to redirect the revolution from the other side of the trench.

The rejection by the US state department of the work performed so far by the Syrian opposition movement has publicly questioned the revolution’s role as an organization in which the Muslim Brotherhood has a prominent place.

Last Thursday, State Department spokesman, Patrick Ventrell said during a press conference that after many months, the CNS had not shown its ability to extend its leadership to larger areas of the country that effectively reached other ethnic groups, or other geographies.” According to Ventrell, the U.S.’s former Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford, contacted several people to submit their names to those attending the Doha meeting so that they can be considered for positions of power within the CNS.

“We have seen some individuals who have shown leadership and they want to be part of the future of Syria,” said Ventrell. Individuals that U.S. diplomacy has known as conference opponents, but who also lead movements such as the Free Syrian Army (SLA). Although formally rebel commanders maintain communication with the CNS, which has come to send delegations to areas seized from the regime, the management of the war and is in the hands of the militias.

The attempt by the U.S. to change directions was not received well inside the CNS. According to Zuhair Salem,  a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, “the direct tutelage and dictates from the United States are unacceptable to the Syrian people.” While talks about the need for a change in direction are heard, the United States is actively seeking support for such change around the world. U.S. diplomats are working on this refocusing with other members of the Friends of the Syrian people.

Among the groups been contacted by western governments is the so-called National Coordinating Committee for Democratic Change of Syria, which supposedly has a close relationship with China and Russia. Its leader, who lives abroad in Paris, is a doctor and writer known as Haytham Manna. Apparently, he held a meeting last week with the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The Committee, which claims to have established links with some brigades of fighters in Syria, does not have a good relationship with the CNS. Manna says their plan is to achieve a ceasefire, start comprehensive dialogue as well as to promote negotiations and a transition without the current president in power. “Bashar al-Assad has failed in recent months to solve the country’s problems,” said Manna. “He belongs to the past,” he added.

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Millions of Syrians Nationwide rally against the Arab League

Xinghua
November 13, 2011

Millions of Syrians on Sunday thronged main squares and streets in various Syrian cities to lend support to their embattled President Bashar al-Assad and to express discontent with the Arab League (AL) decision to suspend Syria’s membership.

In the capital of Damascus, hundreds of thousands flocked the Saba Bahrat Square, either came on foot or using public transport such as by bus. It looks as if the whole city was out on the streets on Sunday.

Some people waved Syrian flags along with Assad’s posters and shouted slogans such as “God, Syria and Bashar only,” while others carried banners, some of which read “down with the Hebrew League,” referring to the AL, accusing it of acting out a Western and Israeli conspiracy against Syria.

The nationwide raucous rallies came a day after the AL decided to suspend the activities of Syrian delegation in the pan-Arab body.

The 22-nation AL convened an emergency meeting in Egypt’s capital of Cairo Saturday to weigh the possibility of undertaking stiffer measures against Syrian government given its alleged breach of a plan reached between the two sides lately to bring the months-old crisis in Syria to a close.

The AL plan calls for stopping violence and withdrawing military vehicles from Syrian streets in addition to releasing detainees and holding a dialogue between Syrian authorities and the opposition at the AL headquarters.

Under the latest AL resolution, activities of the Syrian delegation in the pan-Arab body would be suspended, effective Wednesday. The AL also called on its members to withdraw their ambassadors in Syria and urged sanctions on Damascus until a peace plan it brokered is implemented.

The international community along with some opposition activists welcomed the resolution. United Nations (UN) chief Ban Ki-moon on Saturday voiced support to the resolution, urging Damascus to heed the AL call to “stop violence” and “implement the work plan fully and speedily.”

U.S. President Barack Obama praised the League’s move, and France said it was time for international bodies to take more action against Syrian government.

An hour after the League’s decision, angry rallies swept across Syria to express resentment with the AL stance.

The rowdy crowds pelted the Qatari embassy in Damascus with eggs and tomatoes and shouted obscenities at Qatari Prime Minister Hamad bin Jasim al-Thani, who headed the AL emergency session on Saturday.

Protestors reportedly stormed the Saudi embassy, which is located near the Qatari one, to bring down the Saudi flag.

Meanwhile, Syria’s official media blasted the AL decision and confirmed that the country is still capable of encountering the challenges and even of emerging stronger.

The Arab decision was also slammed by some opposition figures inside Syria, such as Mohammad Habash, a parliamentarian who heads the Third Way movement that gathers around 40 politicians and intellectuals. Habash said in a statement that the AL has ” deviated from its charter and internal system” by suspending Syria ‘s membership.

Syrian Ambassador to the AL Yusuf Ahmad said on Saturday that the AL’s latest decision came in contravention to the AL principles, accusing the AL of acting out a foreign agenda by applying such decision.

The Syrian opposition abroad has recently called on the AL to suspend Syria’s membership and to back sanctions against those responsible for human rights abuses in the country.