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It's the historical pattern since a Hudna is not a Western Style Ceasefire. Hudna/Ceasefire is the same dichotomous interpretation as much as Peace/Submission is within the Koran.
Hudna
There has never been a ceasefire ever honored in the Arab world.
Syria has not fully complied with the terms of a peace plan, U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan told the Security Council on Thursday as a fragile cease-fire appeared to be holding.
Annan urged the 15-nation body to demand the withdrawal of troops and heavy weapons from towns, according to an official who was present.
Aside from a shooting at a checkpoint in Hama, Syrian troops held their fire in the hours after a U.N.-backed cease-fire took effect at dawn on Thursday, casting a silence over rebellious towns they had bombarded heavily in recent days.
Annan told council members that Syria's fragile truce needs support and called for the swift deployment of a first wave of unarmed observers to monitor implementation of his six-point peace plan, to be followed by a second wave of observers later, diplomats told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
It's not happening yet, but there's movement. It would be good to see the Shia pushed out of Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Gaza. The Arabs changed the name of Persia to Iran and Persians to Iranians. They changed the language name from Persian to Farsi.
The Iranians are still pissed off as it disconnected them from their claim to the Babylonian Empire.
There has never been a ceasefire ever honored in the Arab world.
Syria has not fully complied with the terms of a peace plan, U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan told the Security Council on Thursday as a fragile cease-fire appeared to be holding.
Annan urged the 15-nation body to demand the withdrawal of troops and heavy weapons from towns, according to an official who was present.
Aside from a shooting at a checkpoint in Hama, Syrian troops held their fire in the hours after a U.N.-backed cease-fire took effect at dawn on Thursday, casting a silence over rebellious towns they had bombarded heavily in recent days.
Annan told council members that Syria's fragile truce needs support and called for the swift deployment of a first wave of unarmed observers to monitor implementation of his six-point peace plan, to be followed by a second wave of observers later, diplomats told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
It's not happening yet, but there's movement. It would be good to see the Shia pushed out of Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Gaza. The Arabs changed the name of Persia to Iran and Persians to Iranians. They changed the language name from Persian to Farsi.
The Iranians are still pissed off as it disconnected them from their claim to the Babylonian Empire.
Persians do not call themselves Iranians, at least, not the Persians I know. Cyrus the Great, the most illustrious figure in their history, founded the Persian Empire, spoke Aramaic and belonged to the Zoroastrian faith that has common ground with Judaism
It's not happening yet, but there's movement. It would be good to see the Shia pushed out of Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Gaza. The Arabs changed the name of Persia to Iran and Persians to Iranians. They changed the language name from Persian to Farsi.
The Iranians are still pissed off as it disconnected them from their claim to the Babylonian Empire.
Persians do not call themselves Iranians, at least, not the Persians I know. Cyrus the Great, the most illustrious figure in their history, founded the Persian Empire, spoke Aramaic and belonged to the Zoroastrian faith that has common ground with Judaism
But everyone else calls them Iranians and this pisses most Iranians off to no extent.
There's no "P" in Arabic. There is in Farsi.
Persians do not call themselves Iranians, at least, not the Persians I know. Cyrus the Great, the most illustrious figure in their history, founded the Persian Empire, spoke Aramaic and belonged to the Zoroastrian faith that has common ground with Judaism
But everyone else calls them Iranians and this pisses most Iranians off to no extent.
There's no "P" in Arabic. There is in Farsi.
If you ever make a salient point, we'll have a parade up Fifth Avenue to celebrate. Sound good?
But everyone else calls them Iranians and this pisses most Iranians off to no extent.
There's no "P" in Arabic. There is in Farsi.
If you ever make a salient point, we'll have a parade up Fifth Avenue to celebrate. Sound good?
It would be lost in your spam anyway.
He has purple, bruiselike depressions beneath his eyes. She stares at the floor. The faces of their three young children are covered in mosquito bites. Together, they sit on a pair of thin, donated mattresses on the floor of their temporary home. He does all the talking.
By the time the family fled Homs two months ago, the city had become Syria's most infamous killing field. Residents say President Bashar Assad's forces lobbed shells and bullets at besieged residents like they were animals in a cage. Massacres begot funerals and demonstrations that begot more massacres. Mohamed (whose name has been changed to protect the loved ones he left behind) remembers he dropped to the ground at one such funeral as Syrian forces opened fire only to feel the bodies of those who were slower fall lifeless on top of him. "They didn't fall fast enough and they killed them," he says, his voice cracking.
The family's escape several weeks later was no less harrowing. The shelling barely missed them four adults and six children as they abandoned their home and fled south for the Jordanian border. Now they're safe, they say, because they're nearly 1,000 miles (1,600 km) away from Homs, in Benghazi, Libya.
Syrian refugees have fled to Libya in the thousands in recent months, although no official figures are available. In the eastern Libyan city of Benghazi, Yahya al-Jamal, who helps run the Union of Syrian Revolutionaries there, a humanitarian outreach group, says he registered more than 700 new Syrian families in March alone.
Most of them fled the southern Syrian cities of Homs and Hama as the Assad regime shelled and shot at civilian areas where residents had staged protests and the rebel Free Syrian Army had found strongholds. But those who have made the long trek to Libya say that the North African state currently going through its own tumultuous transition since the revolution that toppled the 42-year regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi last year has been far more welcoming than most.
Libya's transitional government was one of the first foreign governments to formally recognize the opposition Syrian National Council, and it said in February that it would donate $100 million to the Syrian opposition. Across the country, Syrian refugees say that Libya has not only offered them a safer haven than Egypt, Lebanon and Jordan, but that local volunteers have also helped keep them off the streets. "No one is living in refugee camps," says Mohamed Tarek Ziad, a young activist from Homs, who escaped a death sentence from the regime and settled in the eastern Libyan city of Darnah. "People have offered us houses and are working to get us assistance," he says. "Even the imams in the mosque in each prayer, they pray for Syria. And sometimes they join us in demonstrations."
BEIRUT A Syria cease-fire was largely holding Friday as tens of thousands of protesters poured into the streets in the first major test of the U.N.-brokered truce. Activists said regime forces fired live bullets and tear gas in some locations, killing at least five people, but stood back in other areas where demonstrators beat drums and chanted anti-regime slogans.
President Bashar Assad's forces halted the large-scale shelling attacks on opposition strongholds that have pushed the country toward civil war over the past 13 months. But security forces backed by tanks, snipers and plainclothes agents maintained an intimidating presence in the streets and scattered violence was reported.
The U.N.-Arab league envoy, Kofi Annan, hoped to dispatch an advance team of up to 30 observers to Syria as quickly as possible to start monitoring the truce, and the U.N. Security Council was to vote on his request later Friday. If the relative calm holds, a beefed-up mission of up to 250 members was to follow quickly.
But Western distrust of the regime's intentions runs deep. French President Nicholas Sarkozy told a French TV station Friday that Syria's government must be closely monitored.
"I don't believe Bashar Assad is sincere," he said. "I don't believe in the cease-fire, sadly."
The truce, which formally took effect Thursday, is at the center of Annan's six-point plan to stop the bloodshed and launch talks on Syria's political future. The uprising began in March 2011 with peaceful protests but became increasingly militarized in response to a brutal crackdown by the regime. The fighting has killed an estimated 9,000 people.
Annan spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said Friday that the peace plan has been "relatively respected."
However, the regime has ignored at least two major points in the plan to send forces back to their barracks and to allow peaceful demonstrations. Troops remain in towns and cities, and the regime insisted that demonstrators seek government permits.
On Friday, Syrian forces tightened security in public squares and outside mosques after opposition leaders called for widespread protests to test the regime's commitment to the Annan plan.
Tens of thousands poured into the street in cities and towns across the country after noon prayers in mosques, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, an activist group that mains a network of monitors on the ground. The turnout was higher than in recent weeks, when a government crackdown and heavy security presence discouraged demonstrators.
Security forces fired live rounds, tear gas or beat protesters in some areas, but amateur videos showed large peaceful and seemingly cheerful anti-government rallies in other locations.
Syria Ceasefire Tested By Protesters
BEIRUT A Syria cease-fire was largely holding Friday as tens of thousands of protesters poured into the streets in the first major test of the U.N.-brokered truce. Activists said regime forces fired live bullets and tear gas in some locations, killing at least five people, but stood back in other areas where demonstrators beat drums and chanted anti-regime slogans.
President Bashar Assad's forces halted the large-scale shelling attacks on opposition strongholds that have pushed the country toward civil war over the past 13 months. But security forces backed by tanks, snipers and plainclothes agents maintained an intimidating presence in the streets and scattered violence was reported.
The U.N.-Arab league envoy, Kofi Annan, hoped to dispatch an advance team of up to 30 observers to Syria as quickly as possible to start monitoring the truce, and the U.N. Security Council was to vote on his request later Friday. If the relative calm holds, a beefed-up mission of up to 250 members was to follow quickly.
But Western distrust of the regime's intentions runs deep. French President Nicholas Sarkozy told a French TV station Friday that Syria's government must be closely monitored.
"I don't believe Bashar Assad is sincere," he said. "I don't believe in the cease-fire, sadly."
The truce, which formally took effect Thursday, is at the center of Annan's six-point plan to stop the bloodshed and launch talks on Syria's political future. The uprising began in March 2011 with peaceful protests but became increasingly militarized in response to a brutal crackdown by the regime. The fighting has killed an estimated 9,000 people.
Annan spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said Friday that the peace plan has been "relatively respected."
However, the regime has ignored at least two major points in the plan to send forces back to their barracks and to allow peaceful demonstrations. Troops remain in towns and cities, and the regime insisted that demonstrators seek government permits.
On Friday, Syrian forces tightened security in public squares and outside mosques after opposition leaders called for widespread protests to test the regime's commitment to the Annan plan.
Tens of thousands poured into the street in cities and towns across the country after noon prayers in mosques, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory of Human Rights, an activist group that mains a network of monitors on the ground. The turnout was higher than in recent weeks, when a government crackdown and heavy security presence discouraged demonstrators.
Security forces fired live rounds, tear gas or beat protesters in some areas, but amateur videos showed large peaceful and seemingly cheerful anti-government rallies in other locations.
Syria Ceasefire Tested By Protesters
BEIRUT U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday the Syrian government is responsible for guaranteeing U.N. observers full freedom of movement to monitor the country's tenuous cease-fire, which appeared to be unraveling as regime forces pounded the opposition stronghold of Homs, activists said.
Even though the overall level of violence across Syria has dropped significantly since the truce took effect Thursday, the government's shelling of Homs over the weekend raised fresh doubts about President Bashar Assad's commitment to special envoy Kofi Annan's plan to end 13 months of violence and launch talks on the country's political future.
An advance team of six observers arrived in Damascus late Sunday and quickly set about negotiating the mission's ground rules with Syrian authorities.
Ban, speaking to reporters in Brussels, called on Assad to ensure the observers are not impeded in any way in their work.
"It is the Syrian government's responsibility to guarantee freedom of access, freedom of movement within the country," he said Monday. "They should be allowed to freely move to any places where they will be able to observe this cessation of violence."
He called the cease-fire "very fragile," but said it was essential that it hold so that an "inclusive political dialogue can continue." He said opposition forces "should also fully cooperate."
The U.N. plans to increase the advance team to 30 people, all of them unarmed, Ban said, adding that the Security Council is expected to authorize a formal monitoring team of about 250 people later this week.
The advance team, led by Moroccan Col. Ahmed Himmiche, met Monday with Syrian Foreign Ministry officials to discuss ground rules, including what freedom of movement the observers would have, according to Annan's spokesman, Ahmad Fawzi.
Although the Security Council has demanded full access for the U.N. team, Assad's regime could try to create obstacles. The failure of an Arab League observer mission earlier this year was blamed in part on regime restrictions imposed on the monitors, including having to travel with government minders.
Fawzi said in a statement issued in Geneva on Monday that the mission "will start with setting up operating headquarters, and reaching out to the Syrian government and the opposition forces so that both sides fully understand the role of the U.N. observers."
Syria Violence: Government Troops Shell Neighborhoods In Homs As U.N. Monitors Begin Truce Mission
BEIRUT U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday the Syrian government is responsible for guaranteeing U.N. observers full freedom of movement to monitor the country's tenuous cease-fire, which appeared to be unraveling as regime forces pounded the opposition stronghold of Homs, activists said.
Even though the overall level of violence across Syria has dropped significantly since the truce took effect Thursday, the government's shelling of Homs over the weekend raised fresh doubts about President Bashar Assad's commitment to special envoy Kofi Annan's plan to end 13 months of violence and launch talks on the country's political future.
An advance team of six observers arrived in Damascus late Sunday and quickly set about negotiating the mission's ground rules with Syrian authorities.
Ban, speaking to reporters in Brussels, called on Assad to ensure the observers are not impeded in any way in their work.
"It is the Syrian government's responsibility to guarantee freedom of access, freedom of movement within the country," he said Monday. "They should be allowed to freely move to any places where they will be able to observe this cessation of violence."
He called the cease-fire "very fragile," but said it was essential that it hold so that an "inclusive political dialogue can continue." He said opposition forces "should also fully cooperate."
The U.N. plans to increase the advance team to 30 people, all of them unarmed, Ban said, adding that the Security Council is expected to authorize a formal monitoring team of about 250 people later this week.
The advance team, led by Moroccan Col. Ahmed Himmiche, met Monday with Syrian Foreign Ministry officials to discuss ground rules, including what freedom of movement the observers would have, according to Annan's spokesman, Ahmad Fawzi.
Although the Security Council has demanded full access for the U.N. team, Assad's regime could try to create obstacles. The failure of an Arab League observer mission earlier this year was blamed in part on regime restrictions imposed on the monitors, including having to travel with government minders.
Fawzi said in a statement issued in Geneva on Monday that the mission "will start with setting up operating headquarters, and reaching out to the Syrian government and the opposition forces so that both sides fully understand the role of the U.N. observers."
Syria Violence: Government Troops Shell Neighborhoods In Homs As U.N. Monitors Begin Truce Mission
Syria Violence: Government Troops Shell Neighborhoods In Homs As U.N. Monitors Begin Truce Mission
BEIRUT U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Monday the Syrian government is responsible for guaranteeing U.N. observers full freedom of movement to monitor the country's tenuous cease-fire, which appeared to be unraveling as regime forces pounded the opposition stronghold of Homs, activists said.
Even though the overall level of violence across Syria has dropped significantly since the truce took effect Thursday, the government's shelling of Homs over the weekend raised fresh doubts about President Bashar Assad's commitment to special envoy Kofi Annan's plan to end 13 months of violence and launch talks on the country's political future.
An advance team of six observers arrived in Damascus late Sunday and quickly set about negotiating the mission's ground rules with Syrian authorities.
Ban, speaking to reporters in Brussels, called on Assad to ensure the observers are not impeded in any way in their work.
"It is the Syrian government's responsibility to guarantee freedom of access, freedom of movement within the country," he said Monday. "They should be allowed to freely move to any places where they will be able to observe this cessation of violence."
He called the cease-fire "very fragile," but said it was essential that it hold so that an "inclusive political dialogue can continue." He said opposition forces "should also fully cooperate."
The U.N. plans to increase the advance team to 30 people, all of them unarmed, Ban said, adding that the Security Council is expected to authorize a formal monitoring team of about 250 people later this week.
The advance team, led by Moroccan Col. Ahmed Himmiche, met Monday with Syrian Foreign Ministry officials to discuss ground rules, including what freedom of movement the observers would have, according to Annan's spokesman, Ahmad Fawzi.
Although the Security Council has demanded full access for the U.N. team, Assad's regime could try to create obstacles. The failure of an Arab League observer mission earlier this year was blamed in part on regime restrictions imposed on the monitors, including having to travel with government minders.
Fawzi said in a statement issued in Geneva on Monday that the mission "will start with setting up operating headquarters, and reaching out to the Syrian government and the opposition forces so that both sides fully understand the role of the U.N. observers."
Syria Violence: Government Troops Shell Neighborhoods In Homs As U.N. Monitors Begin Truce Mission
Average Monday in the Arab world.
Did you see what happened? The tanks were left with the military in place. They waited for 24 hours for the cease fire then immediately began shelling again.
It is startig to look like Assad intends to sterlize the country.
Did you see what happened? The tanks were left with the military in place. They waited for 24 hours for the cease fire then immediately began shelling again.
It is startig to look like Assad intends to sterlize the country.
There is no such thing as a "cease fire" in the Arab world, they don't honor them and they think the whole concept is a joke.
Did you see what happened? The tanks were left with the military in place. They waited for 24 hours for the cease fire then immediately began shelling again.
It is startig to look like Assad intends to sterlize the country.
There is no such thing as a "cease fire" in the Arab world, they don't honor them and they think the whole concept is a joke.
Well, that's true.
A cease fire is a sign of weakness and a signal to press the attack. Normally in the arab world, a cease fire is used to rearm.
There is no such thing as a "cease fire" in the Arab world, they don't honor them and they think the whole concept is a joke.
Well, that's true.
A cease fire is a sign of weakness and a signal to press the attack. Normally in the arab world, a cease fire is used to rearm.
In that part of the world the people respect brute strength, things like "cease fire" and "winning hearts and minds" are looked at as signs on weakness in that part of the globe, they think we are fucking bleeding pussies for those ideas.
Well, that's true.
A cease fire is a sign of weakness and a signal to press the attack. Normally in the arab world, a cease fire is used to rearm.
In that part of the world the people respect brute strength, things like "cease fire" and "winning hearts and minds" are looked at as signs on weakness in that part of the globe, they think we are fucking bleeding pussies for those ideas.
Frightening isn't it? Not so much that they are the way they are. The way we choose to deal with them is what's frightening. Winning hearts and minds is our policy and it is wrong and deadly.
In that part of the world the people respect brute strength, things like "cease fire" and "winning hearts and minds" are looked at as signs on weakness in that part of the globe, they think we are fucking bleeding pussies for those ideas.
Frightening isn't it? Not so much that they are the way they are. The way we choose to deal with them is what's frightening. Winning hearts and minds is our policy and it is wrong and deadly.
In Afghanistan we act like we are dealing with Americans the way we conduct business over there, it was the same way in Iraq, we act like we are helping struggling Westerners who want to adopt American customs and ideals and that is NOT what those people want.
BEIRUT The Syrian regime widened shelling attacks on opposition strongholds Tuesday, activists said, targeting a second town in a new sign that a U.N.-brokered cease-fire is quickly unraveling despite the presence of foreign observers.
The truce is part of an international plan to launch talks between President Bashar Assad's regime and those trying to topple him. An uprising against Assad erupted 13 months ago, but became increasingly violent in response to a regime crackdown.
Regime compliance with the cease-fire has been partial, and the latest escalation further lowered expectations that the key element of special envoy Kofi Annan's plan can stick. Mortar shells struck the central city of Homs at a pace of one a minute Tuesday morning, said Rami Abdul-Rahman, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group.
Annan, joint emissary for the U.N. and the Arab League, was briefing the Arab League in Qatar on the situation in Syria on Tuesday.
The envoy's plan has the backing of Syria's allies, including Russia, and despite setbacks is seen as the only way forward. Western military intervention is unlikely at this point, and economic sanctions, while starting to bite, seem insufficient to pressure the regime.
Leaders of two Syrian opposition groups said Tuesday, a day after meeting Russia's deputy foreign minister in Moscow, that they have sensed a shift in Russia's stance and hope Moscow will crank up pressure on Assad.
"Russia has all the necessary levers to apply pressure on Assad's government and help Annan's mission," said Haytham Manna of the Arab Commission for Human Rights, an activist group.
Russia twice shielded Assad from U.N. Security Council condemnation, but has become more critical of the regime.
In Paris, diplomats and finance ministry officials from the Arab world, the West and elsewhere were meeting Tuesday to coordinate sanctions against Syria. Diplomats say a string of EU, U.S. and other sanctions have affected Assad by curbing Syria's ability to export oil and the ability of his cronies to do business abroad.
In Syria, the overall level of violence is down since the cease-fire formally took effect Thursday, but the regime has gradually stepped up attacks. The number of people killed every day has also risen steadily since a brief lull that coincided with the start of the truce.
Syria Ceasefire: Assad Troops Break Truce, Shell Cities, Says Opposition
BEIRUT The Syrian regime widened shelling attacks on opposition strongholds Tuesday, activists said, targeting a second town in a new sign that a U.N.-brokered cease-fire is quickly unraveling despite the presence of foreign observers.
The truce is part of an international plan to launch talks between President Bashar Assad's regime and those trying to topple him. An uprising against Assad erupted 13 months ago, but became increasingly violent in response to a regime crackdown.
Regime compliance with the cease-fire has been partial, and the latest escalation further lowered expectations that the key element of special envoy Kofi Annan's plan can stick. Mortar shells struck the central city of Homs at a pace of one a minute Tuesday morning, said Rami Abdul-Rahman, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group.
Annan, joint emissary for the U.N. and the Arab League, was briefing the Arab League in Qatar on the situation in Syria on Tuesday.
The envoy's plan has the backing of Syria's allies, including Russia, and despite setbacks is seen as the only way forward. Western military intervention is unlikely at this point, and economic sanctions, while starting to bite, seem insufficient to pressure the regime.
Leaders of two Syrian opposition groups said Tuesday, a day after meeting Russia's deputy foreign minister in Moscow, that they have sensed a shift in Russia's stance and hope Moscow will crank up pressure on Assad.
"Russia has all the necessary levers to apply pressure on Assad's government and help Annan's mission," said Haytham Manna of the Arab Commission for Human Rights, an activist group.
Russia twice shielded Assad from U.N. Security Council condemnation, but has become more critical of the regime.
In Paris, diplomats and finance ministry officials from the Arab world, the West and elsewhere were meeting Tuesday to coordinate sanctions against Syria. Diplomats say a string of EU, U.S. and other sanctions have affected Assad by curbing Syria's ability to export oil and the ability of his cronies to do business abroad.
In Syria, the overall level of violence is down since the cease-fire formally took effect Thursday, but the regime has gradually stepped up attacks. The number of people killed every day has also risen steadily since a brief lull that coincided with the start of the truce.
Syria Ceasefire: Assad Troops Break Truce, Shell Cities, Says Opposition
