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Syria’s National Coordination Committee Visit Russia
Posted on December 17, 2012 by Akashma Online News
Source The voice of Russia
Yelena Suponina Original Posting Nov 30, 2012 21:23 Moscow Time
“We want Russian troops to stay in Tartus”: head of Syria’s National Coordination Committee.
Hassan Abdel-Azim Representatives of the Syrian opposition Photo: AFP
Representatives of the Syrian opposition traveled to Moscow to meet with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. The National Coordination Committee is one of most moderate opposition groups which are ready for talks with the government. However, now its members fear arrest on their arrival in Damascus and are seeking Russia’s protection.
The head of the National Coordination Committee (NCC) of Syria says the “internal” opposition strongly opposes foreign interference in the affairs of the country.
Hassan Abdel-Azim, the head of the Coordination Committee and Syria’s delegation to Moscow, told the Voice of Russia about the Moscow talks and further plans of the opposition.
Upon arrival in Moscow for the NCC delegation’s talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Hassan Abdel Azim said the committee wants to radically change the situation in Syria to build a democracy.
Deputy Coordinator Aref Dalila, in turn, said that the opposition was ready to negotiate with the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
During the meeting with Russia’s Minister the Syrians hope to hear Moscow’s assessment of events unfolding in their country, and shall offer their views on how to stop the violence and what should be done by “external players” in order to facilitate this.
Have you noticed any changes in Russia’s stance when meeting with Sergey Lavrov?
Not a single change. We had extremely frank talks and Moscow perfectly realizes that Syria is now following the most dangerous possible scenario. When we came to Moscow last April, we warned of this possibility and our fears came true – the more Syrian government resorted to force, the more violence they saw from the opposition. Syria now has jihadists from the Arab and the neighboring countries.
Minister Lavrov told us that he had forwarded a warning letter to Syria’s government against using military hardware and jets in the conflict. This was a right move. I wish this letter had been sent earlier, taking into account that all these tanks and warplanes are Russian-made. When people are hit by shells and rockets, it certainly affects their attitude to the country.
What else was on the agenda?
We all agreed that the conflict can be solved only through joint efforts of the global community. We need the UN Security Council members to be unanimous and agree on the ways to end the conflict. We also need Iran, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia on the one side and the Arab countries on the other to act together.
What can become the common ground?
For example, the Geneva resolutions adopted this summer.
Lakhdar Brahimi’s mission in the country should also carry on with its work and we need a transitional government as well as a new constitution. The amendments adopted in early 2012 didn’t take into account the opposition at all. And we really need to stop the bloodshed.
What can the global community do?
Syria needs the resumption of international peacekeeping mission and it should be expanded – not some hundred of troops we had before.
We need observers in every province, especially in the border regions to stop weapon supplies and smuggling. We already spoke about this with Lakhdar Brahimi. We also don’t mind a peacekeeping contingent comprising Arabs and other nationalities.
Have you discussed Russia’s Mediterranean naval facility at the Syrian port of Tartus?
Yes we have, and we think that Russia has a right to stay there even when Syria becomes a real democracy. The talks made us feel that we are trusted, as we had always opposed foreign interference in Syrian affairs and backed maintaining close ties with our former partners. We need a balanced foreign policy and ties with all countries except Israel, which still occupies the Golan Heights. They should be freed and here we’ll need Russia’s help.
End drawing close for Syria’s Assad
Posted on December 09, 2012 by Akashma Online News
Reuters/Berlin
AP/Moscow
UPDATED
Associated Press/Manu Brabo – Syrian women stand amid the ruins of their farm, destroyed by Syrian Army jets, in Al-Hafriyeh village, Syria, Saturday, Dec. 8, 2012. (AP Photo/Manu Brabo)
While news from Berlin seem catastrophic for Syria, other news are coming from Russia indicating that Syrian President Bashar Assad is good to stay. While Russia holds the political and economical power in Europe and Asia there is not much the US/Israel alliance can do to bring Syria Government down.
According to “A German Spy”, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government is its final stages and will be unable to survive as more parts of the country slip from his control, the head of Germany’s foreign intelligence agency (BND) said.
“Armed rebels are coordinating better, which is making their fight against Assad more effective,” Gerhard Schindler told the Frankfurter Allgemeinen Sonntagszeitung newspaper, in an interview made public on Saturday.
“Assad’s regime will not survive.”
Rebels fighting to topple Assad declared Damascus International Airport a battle zone on Friday, while Moscow and Washington both sounded downbeat about the prospects of a diplomatic push to end the conflict after talks.
Syrian rebel commanders have elected a new 30-member leadership council and a chief of staff, a senior rebel said Saturday in a major step toward unifying the opposition that is fighting to oust President Bashar Assad. The Supreme Military Council, which was chosen Friday during a meeting in Turkey, will work with the political leadership that was chosen last month in Qatar.
Fighting around the capital city has intensified over the past week, and Western officials have begun speaking about faster change on the ground in a 20-month-old conflict that has killed 40,000 people.
“Evidence is mounting that the regime in Damascus is now in its final phase,” Schindler said.
Although neither Assad nor the rebels had been able to take the upper hand, Assad was losing control of more and more parts of the country, and was focusing his energy on defending Damascus, key military sites and airports, Schindler added.
Schindler’s comments echoed remarks made yesterday by U.S. ambassador to Syria Robert Ford, who was withdrawn last year.
Russian and U.S. diplomats are meeting Sunday with U.N. peace envoy Lakhdar Brahimi for more talks on the civil war in Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said, adding that the Americans were wrong to see Moscow as softening its position.
Russia agreed to take part in the talks in Geneva, he said, on the condition there would be no demand for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down.
“We are not conducting any negotiations on the fate of Assad,” Lavrov said Sunday. “All attempts to portray things differently are unscrupulous, even for diplomats of those countries which are known to try to distort the facts in their favor.”
Lavrov met last week with Brahimi and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Dublin. Afterward, Clinton said the United States and Russia were committed to trying again to get both sides in the Syrian conflict to talk about a political transition. Clinton stressed that the U.S. would continue to insist that Assad’s departure be a key part of that transition.
Russia and the United States have argued bitterly over how to address the conflict, which began with peaceful protests against Assad in March 2011 and escalated into a civil war. The U.S. has criticized Russia for shielding its closest ally in the Middle East, while Moscow has accused Washington of encouraging the rebels and being intent on regime change.
Russia’s foreign minister said Sunday that after he agreed to a U.S. proposal to have his and Clinton’s deputies “brainstorm” on Syria, the Americans began to suggest that Russia was softening its position.
“No such thing,” Lavrov said. “We have not changed our position.”
Germany weighed in Sunday on the future of Assad’s regime, with Federal Intelligence Service chief Gerhard Schindler saying it would not survive, although it was impossible to say how long it would hang on.
“Signs are increasing that the regime in Damascus is in its final phase,” he was quoted as telling the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
While Russia and Washington blame each other for the no resolution of Syria conflict, Syria is being destroyed. Whole cities are but a shadow of what they were just last year.
Total Syrian refugees registered or awaiting registration
The total number of registered refugees and individuals awaiting registration is 490,104 as of 5 December. This includes 11,740 Syrians registered with UNHCR in North Africa.
Damascus the Beautiful
Damascus has it history to keep the hopes alive for centuries to come.
“No recorded event has occurred in the world but Damascus was in existence to receive the news of it,” wrote Mark Twain after visiting Syria’s capital — known colloquially as al-Sham — in the 1860s. “She has looked upon the dry bones of a thousand empires, and will see the tombs of a thousand more before she dies.”
Over the centuries, Damascus has been conquered by a string of foreign invaders that extends from King David of Israel — chronicled in the Old Testament — straight through to the French, who occupied the city until 1945. In between, Damascus fell to a list of conquerors that includes the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Romans, Umayyads, Egyptian Mamluks, and Ottoman Turks. But now, roiled by the Arab Spring, the invasions are internal, with Syrian tanks and troops rolling into restive cities.
After the Umayyad conquest of Damascus in the seventh century, the Umayyad Mosque (seen above, circa 1900) was constructed on the site where a Byzantine church, a Roman temple, and before that an Aramean temple to the god of thunder and rain once stood.
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Geir Moulson contributed from Berlin.
(Reporting by Alexandra Hudson; editing by Jason Webb)
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