At this stage, and considering the absence of any serious
dialogue on the future of Syria, it seems that the Syrian opposition and their
regional and international backers have embraced the no-state solution regarding
the current conflict. We can blame international conspiracies all we want, but the
fault is essentially ours: the push and pull of different groups, the clash of
ideologies, personalities and individual ambitions, the inability to be pragmatic
and accept the obvious, all these things are our faults. If Syria is not the first
item on our separate agendas, if its integrity is not put above our ideological
preferences, then it cannot survive, or prosper. If no common vision is put
forward and agreed, there will be no peace, and no Syria.
Wednesday
November 21, 2012
Today’s
Death Toll: 108, including 2 women and 3
children: 40 in Aleppo (most result of shelling in Al-Shaar), 30 in Damascus
and suburbs, 11 in Homs, 8 in Idlib, 7 in Lattakia, 5 in Deir Ezzor, 4 in Daraa,
and 1 in Raqqah. Points of Random Shelling:
196: 58 by mortar, 108 by
artillery, 29 by missile, 14 by war
jets, and by barrel bombs. Clashes: 82. Developments:
Rebels blocked several regime attempts to storm cities and towns in Eastern
Ghoutah, Damascus, and blew a number of personnel carriers in different areas
across Syria (LCC).
News
Turkey
has requested deployment of NATO air defense missiles over Syria civil war
concerns NATO doesn’t want to be drawn into the Syrian conflict and
said it would consider deploying the missiles purely to protect Turkey, a
member country. Any deployment of NATO forces needs the approval of the
alliance’s governing body, the North Atlantic Council.
Special
Reports
"This is a war budget in which
the bulk is spent on the army and state employees to keep the government
machinery going so that it continues to function, especially in the areas that
are still under its control, and to show that the state is still on its
feet," said Samir Seifan, a prominent Syrian economist. He was involved in
policymaking before the crisis but has since fled the country.
Protests gave birth to the anti-Assad
uprising, but now some in Syria say they simply make for an easy target for
regime planes. Others say they're important to keep new leaders accountable.
Mr Assad is no longer the patron of
Hamas, a Sunni Islamist organisation which moved its headquarters out of
Damascus after the Syrian uprising. Khaled Meshaal, the Hamas leader, has
openly backed his Sunni brethren in their battle to oust Mr Assad’s minority
Alawite regime… On Wednesday, in an apparent attempt by Damascus to remain
relevant, Syrian media said a Palestinian militant group based in the country,
the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, had claimed responsibility
for an explosion on a bus in Tel Aviv.
The capture of the fields is another
blow to the Syrian government’s attempt to offset inflation and shortages of
various goods in the areas it still controls. It also has set off a booming oil
trade in this impoverished area. Dozens of trucks wait in line 24 hours a day
to fill up at rebel-held wells, which produce a light crude that can be burned
without refining, though the result is dense smoke. Some farmers insist the
unrefined crude can be used to power farm equipment, though it seems primarily
to be used for heat.
Leading opposition figure says $60b
needed to prevent economy from collapsing within six months if Assad's regime
falls.
China continues to leave off the table
the possibility of sanctions or other punitive measures as a way to convince
the regime to stop the violence. Without them, the Syrian government has no
reason to end the bloodshed: it has the upper hand both militarily and
politically, and it has more sophisticated equipment and control of government
institutions. So what can China do to signal it is serious about a political
settlement in Syria? Given Beijing’s reluctance to impose sanctions, a small
but significant action would be to recognize the recently formed National
Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces as representative of
the opposition movement.
The Syrian opposition has elected its
new leaders. Will this make outside intervention more likely? Marina Ottaway,
Tony Badran, Mordechai Kedar, and others weigh in.
The insurgents on the ground in Syria
appear to be winning more and more territory and confiscating more and more
high-grade materiel from President Bashar al-Assad's regime. Just as Operation
Pillar of Defense was kicking off over Gaza on Nov. 14, the Free Syrian Army
took the entire city of al-Bukamal along the Iraqi border, where they also
sacked two major airbases, giving the opposition a strong military foothold in
Syria's easternmost province, a vital smuggling route for weapons.
MALOULA, Syria — In a country clouded
by conflict, where neighbors and families are now divided by sectarian hatred,
this mountaintop town renowned for its spiritual healing qualities and
restorative air is an oasis of tolerance. Residents of the ancient and mainly
Christian town — one of the last places where Western Aramaic, the language of
Jesus Christ, is still spoken — vowed at the beginning of the Syrian conflict
20 months ago not to succumb to sectarianism and be dragged into the chaos.
The evidence surveyed here does not,
as of yet, suggest the existence of an organized campaign of militant Islamic
persecution of Christians throughout Syria, especially along the lines of what
has happened in Iraq since 2003. Indeed, one should not overlook the fact that
Christians have been playing active roles in the opposition. At the same time,
disinformation exists about this phenomenon too.
Foreign fighters
began trickling into Syria a few months after the uprising against Assad began
in March 2011, according to Ammar Abdulhamid, a Syrian dissident who is a
fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Most of
the opposition is made up of Sunni Muslims while Assad belongs to the minority Alawite
sect, an off-shoot of Shiite Islam. Not all the foreign fighters are extremist
or al-Qaeda affiliates. Some are moderate Muslims or liberals, driven by
romantic notions and a sense of Arab solidarity, Abdulhamid said. …
The overwhelming
majority are considered “dead weight,” said Abdulhamid. Tensions between rebels
and foreign fighters mean that “oftentimes, foreign fighters stay in separate
camps with a few like-minded Syrian recruits who help them secure their basic
needs from nearby villages.”
Video Highlights
Rebels in Gassam, Daraa, trying to take down a MiG http://youtu.be/vY7Ussmdu4g On the other
end of Syria, in Alboukamal, Deir Ezzor Province, rebels succeed in
bringing down their target http://youtu.be/Wr8wvNeu7wI
Locals pull bodies from under the rubble in Aleppo City after a field
hospital and a nearby building were bombed in Al-Shaar Neighborhood http://youtu.be/K55QZa3AaD0 , http://youtu.be/58fInKBbyBU , http://youtu.be/wKuasppHz28 , http://youtu.be/i5cNoNQjc_s , http://youtu.be/YieyrEapr6Q
Nearby towns were pounded by MiGs: Dar Azzah http://youtu.be/7POvoUypLEs
The pounding of the town of Zabadani along the Lebanese border
in Damascus Suburbs continues http://youtu.be/OMI1mh1iwhc
closer to Damascus City, missile launchers targeted the suburb of Daraya
http://youtu.be/PoWJhAxP10Q
Rebels pushed back another attack on Eastern Ghoutah, Damascus:
blowing up a tank in Ain Terma http://youtu.be/9sMI9DSD59E
The pounding by jets continued in Jisreen http://youtu.be/_q8iXT9v30E Kafar
Batna http://youtu.be/brYq79GZv1o
Saqba http://youtu.be/szYcY4hSHgQ
The people of Harasta leave the suburb en masse http://youtu.be/VV_3q8NeY18
In Homs, the pounding of Deir Baalbah Suburb intensifies http://youtu.be/cru-zpLdBmY The pounding of the nearby town of Rastan
continues http://youtu.be/P-VK6vVPpCc
Regime jets pound the town of Ma’rrat Al-Nouman in Idlib
Province http://youtu.be/tmb2s7ZDgjU ,
http://youtu.be/ju9hT81nHGs Eltaman’ah
also pounded http://youtu.be/vMSIca1OjtE
And Mahambil http://youtu.be/kWYicrLYVt4
And Kafroumah http://youtu.be/3MZE0csBhuM
Rebels and loyalists clashed in Deir Ezzor City http://youtu.be/s9Br4kFK3kQ a rockets a rebel
neighborhood http://youtu.be/xf-CyR5WJLI
The pounding of the town of Mayadeen continues http://youtu.be/3feu0r-9D1Q
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