More UN Shenanigans To Come?

The UN will have a chance to revisit the Syria situation again. Coming after so many conferences, high level talks and joint statements, a failure to produce concrete plan under Chapter VII will be unforgivable.

Wednesday July 11, 2012

Today’s Death toll: 78. The Breakdown: the killed include 5 women and 16 members of the Palestinian Liberation Army who were kidnapped two weeks ago, but their bodies were found only today. Despite their refugees status in Syria, most Palestinians are sympathetic with the Syrian revolutionary movements, and many have joined the ranks of the local resistance, in Daraa, Damascus, Homs, Aleppo and Lattakia. Elsewhere, 22 martyrs fell in Homs, 12 in Damascus Suburbs, 9 in Daraa, including three soldiers killed by loyalists as they tried to defect, 5 in Deir Ezzor, 4 in Aleppo, 4 in Idlib, 3 in Hama, 2 in Lattakia and 1 in Raqqah.

News

Rape, assault are weapons of war in Syria: rights group

Lebanon Suspends Funding For Treatment Of Wounded Syrians

UN envoy says Syria president discusses transition

Syria hit by diplomatic defection as U.N. battles divisions

Syria Faces UN Sanctions in Draft Measures Russia Resists

UN envoy says Syria president discusses transition

Kofi Annan Urges Security Council To Send Strong Message

Syria: Annan calls Iran role 'positive' but offers no new details

Syria’s Ambassador to Iraq Reported to Defect

Russian Warships Steam to Syria

Dozens Of Christians Evacuated From Homs

Op-Eds & Special Reports

Syria's detached and deluded elite?

Top Syrian General Fails to Surface After Defecting

Syria: A horror observed, but is this all the world can do?

Annan's Latest Syria Plan Is a Bad Deal

The end game in Syria

How O should start leading on Syria

Turkey's Unending Syria Problem

Turkey's hands are tied in Syria by its disingenuous Nato allies

The Ultimate Assault: Charting Syria's Use of Rape to Terrorize Its People

An Alawite State in Syria?

Bashar Assad can always find refuge with the Alawites

Of course, Assad is willing to accept a ceasefire now. And of course he wants to start with the hardest hit areas. Ceasefire will give Assad’s armies a chance to regroup and reconsider their strategy. Pullout of loyalist troops from certain regions, like rural Aleppo and certain parts of Idlib, might allow Assad a face-saving solution to surrender areas that he can no longer control while appearing to cooperate with the international community.

On a more macabre level, the move could also pave the way for the use of WMDs against the local resistance – a possibility that many local activists continue to dread knowing that Assad is capable of any depravity.

But, and for the time being, Assad can enjoy the re-legitimating aspect of Annan’s new plan. After all, he is now seen as a cooperative figure, and Annan insists on equating him with the resistance by asking the UN to send a message to the regime and the opposition alike that “there will be ‘consequences’ if they don't comply with demands for an immediate cease-fire.” But, so long as the consequences do not include military strikes, neither side will likely give a damn.

Still, it will be interesting what sort of resolution will pass soon.

This is Leena Faluji, a little girl from Daraa City

She was killed by a pro-Assad sniper on July 10 http://youtu.be/QLeqbbyR00c

Video Highlights

Activist Khalid Abou Salah continues to distinguish himself from traditional opposition figures by his political acumen and growing popular appeal. In this video clip, he calls on the Kurdish revolutionaries in the city of Kobani, and elsewhere, to pay no mind to the bickering of traditional Kurdish parties and keep standing by their Arab revolutionary compatriots until the revolution achieves its goals. By wrapping himself both in the Revolutionary and Kurdish flags, he did more than any traditional opposition figure from either side to appeal to both Arabs and Kurds http://youtu.be/5neI8C6srlM Salah hails from Homs city and is a moderate Islamist in his political views. He only recently left the country and over the last few weeks, he attended a conference of pro-revolution Islamic religious scholars in Istanbul and the Friends of Syria meeting in Paris, where his address was the most clear of all.

A tank takes part in the pounding of the Damascene suburb of Zabadani http://youtu.be/kdtJBJ6bWpY , http://youtu.be/QNSItkS21Vs Sounds of daytime clashes in the Suburb of Saqba http://youtu.be/VzqfR_iJnSc , http://youtu.be/KkpfPy_2fcw

Sounds of nighttime clashes in Al-Qadam Neighborhood in Damascus City http://youtu.be/XHAZsLhjPY0 , http://youtu.be/twqEYBTMNbk Clashes continue until dawn http://youtu.be/6UNZN6vBowM Clashes take place in the neighborhood of Dafalshawk as well http://youtu.be/Z0ZDlgBEg6Y and in Al-Tadamon http://youtu.be/1jkODHYzJjk

The maniacal pounding of Old Homs continues: Jouret Al-Shayah http://youtu.be/sNc8bHT612Y , http://youtu.be/a_qsQ0Ey9pE , http://youtu.be/uJTQf745I84 , http://youtu.be/hs2qmGF6UZE , http://youtu.be/Xek1STLDj_4 , http://youtu.be/1ns1KlUdeLM , http://youtu.be/kAeqlHG4prU Tanks keep pounding their way through the neighborhood of Qarabis http://youtu.be/AnxnasghKXo , http://youtu.be/kYyA5oBl2jQ And the neighborhood gets pounded by heavy artillery http://youtu.be/CQ9XIbAukR0 , http://youtu.be/VzrJJ1Kyycs , http://youtu.be/XiujwHCc-SM Khaldiyeh is pounded as well http://youtu.be/hkHc2QAtX0A , http://youtu.be/lu5NiZX75BY

The pounding of nearby Rastan is as intense http://youtu.be/LCKiCESMa6c , http://youtu.be/5WBp9cwLSc0 , http://youtu.be/hzBuGFNTdXw Two children among the dead http://youtu.be/rXTgCkXDIHg

Foreign correspondents take part in documenting the shelling of the city of Eizaz in Aleppo Province http://youtu.be/susQV4-sCOo The tanks and artillery taking part in the pounding are hidden in the tree lines outside the city http://youtu.be/s5O70e5GWEE

The pounding of Mouhassan in Deir Ezzor Province http://youtu.be/H6RoXcPNS4w , http://youtu.be/NEJjUeGtlL0 , http://youtu.be/cvo5_aABdcc