Syria: disillusioned rebels drift back to take Assad amnesty

[Vikrant]

...

Disillusioned by the Islamist twist that the "revolution" in Syria has taken, exhausted after more than two years of conflict and feeling that they are losing, growing numbers of rebels are signing up to a negotiated amnesty offered by the Assad regime.
At the same time, the families of retreating fighters have begun quietly moving back to government-controlled territory, seen as a safer place to live as the regime continues its intense military push against rebel-held areas.
The move is a sign of the growing confidence of the regime, which has established a so-called "ministry of reconciliation" with the task of easing the way for former opponents to return to the government side.
Ali Haider, the minister in charge, said: "Our message is, 'if you really want to defend the Syrian people, put down your weapons and come and defend Syria in the right way, through dialogue'."
Mr Haider, who has a reputation as a moderate within the regime, has established a system in which opposition fighters give up their weapons in exchange for safe passage to government-held areas.

...

Syria: disillusioned rebels drift back to take Assad amnesty - Telegraph

 

[waltky]

Rebels about to lose Homs as Obama twiddles his thumbs...

SYRIAN OPPOSITION URGES US TO PROVIDE WEAPONS FAST
Jul 25,`13 -- The leader of Syria's Western-backed opposition group told U.S. Secretary John Kerry on Thursday that the United States must quickly supply rebels with promised weapons to prevent a military victory by President Bashar Assad's regime.

Ahmad Al-Jarba, in a statement sent out while he was still meeting with Kerry at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, called the situation in Syria "desperate" and said the opposition urgently needs American action "to push the international community to demand a political transition." The newly elected head of the Syrian National Coalition accused the Assad regime of using indiscriminate weapons ranging from chemical weapons to cluster bombs and said opposition fighters must have weapons to defend themselves and protect civilians. The Obama administration decided in June to begin arming Syrian rebels groups after the United States said it had conclusive evidence that Assad's regime used chemical weapons against opposition forces. But the U.S. has yet to send any weapons amid concerns they could end up in the hands of al-Qaida-backed groups and other extremists.

Syria's rebels, however, have recently received shipments of more powerful weapons from Gulf allies, particularly anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles. Kerry met with Al-Jarba in an effort to promote international efforts to convene a conference in Geneva to try to move forward with a transitional government based on a plan adopted in that city a year ago. Kerry stressed earlier Thursday that "there is no military solution" to the 2 1/2-year-old civil war. "There is only a political solution, and that will require leadership in order to bring people to the table," he said.

He stood beside U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who minutes earlier announced that the Syrian conflict has killed more than 100,000 people since 2011, up from the previous estimate of 93,000. Kerry told reporters as he left the meeting with Al-Jarba that it was "very, very constructive." He said the opposition agreed to work over the next few weeks to pinpoint the conditions under which a new Geneva conference can work. They believe Geneva "is very important, and we are going to work it out," Kerry said.

Al-Jarba said he told Kerry "that the coalition fully understands American concerns about extremism and the possible diversion of military assistance." "We absolutely condemn all terrorism and all attempts to turn Syria into what it is not, a monotheistic or totalitarian state," he said. "But we need American direct support to save democracy in Syria and to lead the world to force Assad at last to stand down." The coalition delegation is expected to meet informally Friday with the U.N. Security Council.

MORe

See also:

SYRIAN TROOPS ADVANCE IN CENTRAL CITY
Jul 26,`13 -- Syrian government troops gained ground in clashes Friday in two rebel-held neighborhoods in the central city of Homs, edging closer to a historic mosque and closing in on opposition fighters in the area, state TV and activists said.

The advance came amid a wide offensive by President Bashar Assad's forces, launched in late June, to try to recapture rebel areas in Homs, Syria's third largest city. With about 1 million residents, Homs lies along a main artery linking the capital, Damascus, with regime strongholds on the Mediterranean coast to the west. Homs has played a key role in the country's civil war, now in its third year, and the struggle for control of the city has also underscored the conflict's increasingly sectarian undertones.

Activists, who consider Homs "the capital of the revolution," say the regime wants to capture the entire city to include it in a future Alawite state - stretching from Homs to the coast - where Assad could possibly make his last stand. Assad is a member of the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam, while most of the rebels fighting to topple his regime are Sunnis. In recent weeks, Assad's troops have captured several nearby rebel-held areas, including the towns of Qusair and Talkalkh near the border with Lebanon. State TV said Friday that troops advanced in Homs' northern neighborhoods of Khaldiyeh and Jouret el-Shayah.

The report said the government forces were getting close to Khaldiyeh's 13th-century mosque of Khalid Ibn al-Walid, famous for its nine domes and two minarets. On Monday, government troops shelled the mosque, damaging the tomb of Ibn al-Walid, a revered figure in Islam, inside it. An activist in the city who only identified himself as Abu Bilal for fear of government reprisals said the troops were now about 50 meters (yards) from the mosque, which has been badly damaged in recent fighting. "Resistance cannot stand up to tanks, warplanes and mortars," Abu Bilal said, speaking from the city via Skype.

In Damascus, officials said pro-government troops were advancing in battles with rebel forces in the now mostly empty Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp. Clashes in the camp, which has mostly been under rebel control since last year, broke out earlier this week. Since the start of the unrest, Syria's half-million Palestinians have struggled to remain on the sidelines but many were eventually split between pro-and anti-Assad groups. In particular, young Palestinian refugees joined the rebels in the fight against Assad's regime. Thousands of the camp's residents have fled to escape the fighting and have gone to other areas in Syria or to neighboring Lebanon.

MORE

 

[waltky]

Assad gettin' uppity now that civil war is turning his way...

Al-Assad is confident he will defeat Syrian rebels
Fri, Aug 02, 2013 - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said yesterday he is confident of victory against rebels in a devastating 28-month-old civil war that has killed more than 100,000 people and sent nearly 2 million fleeing abroad.

Insurgents have seized large swathes of territory, but al-Assad’s forces have staged a counteroffensive in recent weeks, pushing them back from around the capital Damascus and retaking several towns near the border with Lebanon. “If we were not sure that we were going to win in Syria, we would not have the ability to resist and the ability to continue fighting for more than two years against the enemy,” state news agency SANA quoted al-Assad as saying.

Al-Assad has framed the revolt against four decades of his family’s rule as a foreign-backed conspiracy fought by Islamist “terrorists.” When pro-democracy protests started in March 2011, a military crackdown eventually led to an armed insurrection. Addressing officers on the 68th anniversary of the Syrian army’s creation, al-Assad said soldiers had shown “courage in the face of terrorism ... and the fiercest barbaric war in modern history.”

UN investigators say al-Assad’s forces have carried out war crimes, including unlawful killing, torture, sexual violence, indiscriminate attacks and pillaging in what appears to be a state-directed policy. They say rebels have also committed war crimes, including executions, but on a lesser scale.

Meanwhile, the UN announced on Wednesday that experts would travel to Syria as soon as possible to investigate three alleged incidents of chemical weapons attacks. UN spokesman Martin Nesirky in New York said the green light for the investigation followed “the understanding reached with the government of Syria” during last week’s visit to Damascus by UN disarmament chief Angela Kane and the head of the chemical weapons investigation team, Ake Sellstrom.

Al-Assad is confident he will defeat Syrian rebels - Taipei Times

 

[waltky]

Iran's Rowhani comes out in favor of Assad...

New Iranian president vows support for Assad
Aug 4,`13 -- Iran's new president expressed his country's support to Syria's embattled leader Bashar Assad's regime Sunday, saying no force in the world will be able to shake their decades-old alliance.

Hasan Rouhani's comments came as Syrian troops and rebels fought some of the fiercest battles in the mountains of the coastal province of Latakia, an Assad stronghold. Rouhani made the comments during a meeting in the Iranian capital of Tehran on Sunday with Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi, Syria's state news agency SANA said. Syria has been Tehran's strongest ally in the Arab world since Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution. Iran has been one of Assad's staunchest backers since Syria's crisis began. Tehran is believed to have supplied Assad's government with billions of dollars since the country's crisis began in March 2011. Iran-supported Hezbollah also has sent fighters into Syria to bolster an offensive by Assad forces. "The Islamic Republic of Iran aims to strengthen its relations with Syria and will stand by it in facing all challenges," SANA quoted Rouhani as saying in a report from Tehran. "The deep, strategic and historic relations between the people of Syria and Iran ... will not be shaken by any force in the world."

Rouhani was elected in June and was endorsed by the country's supreme leader on Saturday, allowing him to begin acting as president. He was sworn in Sunday. Assad vowed Sunday evening to crush the rebels trying to overthrow him, saying Syria is between two choices: "a state of the law or a state run by thieves and bandits." Assad spoke while taking part in an iftar, the meal that breaks the dawn-to-dusk fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. The iftar was attended by government officials, religious leaders and members of the country's unions and political parties, SANA said. It was Assad's second public appearance this week after he visited troops in the Damascus suburb of Daraya on Thursday to mark Army Day.

Assad said "terrorism cannot be dealt with politically but should be struck with an iron fist." Assad's troops have achieved victories in the past two months mostly near the capital Damascus and in the strategic central province of Homs that links the capital Damascus with Assad's stongholds on the coast. Assad said his army, which was built to fight a conventional war against its main enemy Israel, has been able to adapt to the guerrilla warfare it is facing. The Syrian leader criticized Persian Gulf states that he said are demanding democracy in Syria despite human rights abuses in their own countries. "Their political systems belong to the middle ages where there are no parliaments or elections," Assad said. Saudi Arabia and Qatar that have been among the strongest backers of the Syrian opposition.

MORE

 

[Vikrant]

[MENTION=27951]waltky[/MENTION],

I think it is too early for Assad to throw the celebration party.

 

[waltky]

Vikrant wrote: I think it is too early for Assad to throw the celebration party.

Uncle Ferd says Obama gonna keep fiddle-fartin' around...

... till Assad gets the upper hand...

... an' the rebels lose the war.

 

[Moonglow]

Damn if you do,
and damned if you don't.

 

[OldCountry]

Bashar Al-Assad is the only logical choice to support for anyone who identifies as christian, or not muslim really.

 

[SherriMunnerlyn]

The choice is between loyalty to nation and becoming a traitor against your nation.

 

[irosie91]

The choice is between loyalty to nation and becoming a traitor against your nation.

VERY TOUCHING sherri. Magda Goebbels was beautiful---
especially with her head draped in white lace as she stood
next to adolf abu ali and josef worshipping isa. At the very
end she wrote a letter as touching and quite similar to her
eldest son ---Harald--------just before she shoved cyanide
down the throats of his six infant siblings----right there in the
holy bunker of berlin. "be loyal my dear son" she wrote ---
Harald was on active duty in the army of the hero of the
isa-worshippers------Adolf abu ali ------or "uncle adolf" as
the faithful Harald called him. Very touching, sherri.
You are very faithful to your culture and nation and
creed----just as were Magda and Harald