Mysteries, Chemtrails, Aerosols :: Mysterious NZ

[Crakka]

Very interesting "metaphorical" comments by Assad littered all through this article...

Syria's Assad warns of 'earthquake' if west intervenes

Bashar al-Assad warns against intervention in Syria, saying it is different in every respect from Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen

Reuters
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 30 October 2011 04.57 GMT

Western powers risk causing an "earthquake" across the Middle East if they intervene in Syria, President Bashar al-Assad said, after protesters called for foreign protection from a crackdown in which 3,000 people have been killed.

Assad's warning came ahead of Syrian government talks with the Arab League on Sunday aimed at starting a dialogue between the government and opposition and ending violence that has escalated across Syria in recent days.

Activists said Syrian forces killed more than 50 civilians in the last 48 hours and one activist group said suspected army deserters killed 30 soldiers in clashes in the city of Homs and in an ambush in the northern province of Idlib on Saturday.

Assad's suppression of the seven-month uprising has drawn criticism from the United Nations and Arab League. Western governments have called on him to step down and imposed sanctions on Syrian oil exports and state businesses.

Western countries "are going to ratchet up the pressure, definitely", Assad told the Sunday Telegraph. "But Syria is different in every respect from Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen. The history is different. The politics is different.

"Syria is the hub now in this region. It is the fault line, and if you play with the ground you will cause an earthquake."

Nato military intervention in Libya played a decisive role in toppling Muammar Gaddafi, the third Arab leader to be overthrown after the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt.

Western nations have shown no appetite to repeat their Libyan operation in Syria, but demonstrators are increasingly calling for a no-fly zone over their country.

"Do you want to see another Afghanistan, or tens of Afghanistans?" Assad said. "Any problem in Syria will burn the whole region. If the plan is to divide Syria, that is to divide the whole region."

Since the start of protests in March, Syrian authorities have blamed the violence on foreign-backed gunmen and religious extremists they say have killed 1,100 soldiers and police.

Syria has barred most international media, making it hard to verify accounts from activists and authorities. The resilience of the protesters, the determination of authorities to crush dissent and the emerging armed insurgency have combined to make Syria's turmoil one of the most intractable confrontations of this year's Arab uprisings.

Assad, whose father put down an armed Muslim Brotherhood uprising in the city of Hama in 1982, killing many thousands, said the latest crisis was part of the same conflict.

"We've been fighting the Muslim Brotherhood since the 1950s and we are still fighting with them," he said.

Authorities had made "many mistakes" in the early part of the uprising, but he said the situation had now improved and he had started implementing reform within a week of the troubles erupting in mid-March.

"The pace of reform is not too slow. The vision needs to be mature. It would take only 15 seconds to sign a law, but if it doesn't fit your society, you'll have division," he said.

Assad's opponents say although he lifted emergency law and gave citizenship to thousands of stateless Kurds, his promises of reform ring hollow while security forces kill protesters and arrest thousands of people. They also say protests are driven by a desire for greater freedoms, not by an Islamist agenda.

Friday's shooting of demonstrators prompted Arab ministers to issue their strongest call yet on Assad to end the killing of civilians.

The Arab League's committee on the Syrian crisis sent an "urgent message to the Syrian government expressing its severe discontent over the continued killing of Syrian civilians".

A source at Syria's foreign ministry, quoted by state media, said the Arab League statement was "based on media lies" and urged the committee to "help restore stability in Syria instead of stirring sedition".

An Arab League ministerial group is due to meet Syrian officials on Sunday in Qatar to press for dialogue between the government and opposition.

Syria, a majority Sunni Muslim nation of 20 million people, is dominated by Assad's minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shia Islam.

Aware of potentially seismic geopolitical implications if Assad were to fall, leaders in the mostly Sunni Arab world have been cautious about criticising the Syrian president as they struggle with domestic challenges to their own rule.

Sunni ascendancy in Syria could affect Israel and shake up regional alliances. Assad strengthened ties with Shia Iran while also upholding his father's policy of avoiding conflict with Israel on the occupied Golan Heights frontier.

Source - http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/30/syria-assad-warns-earthquake-west-intervenes

[Crakka]

Afghanistan
Iraq
Libya

Syria...

Nato all but rules out Syria no-fly zone

Syrian president warns that intervention could lead to 'another Afghanistan' as Nato officials say Libya-like action lacks support

Luke Harding and agencies
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 30 October 2011 19.15 GMT


Bashar al-Assad said any western intervention in Syria would cause an 'earthquake'.

Nato has all but ruled out the possibility of establishing a no-fly zone in Syria after the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, warned that any western intervention would cause an "earthquake" that would "burn the whole region".

Despite the success of its Libya mission, which formally ends on Monday, Nato officials made it clear there was little prospect of the alliance establishing a similar no-fly zone to protect civilians and stem the mounting death toll in the eight-month Syrian uprising.

Some Syrian anti-government groups have called on the west to defend them as bloody fighting between security forces and armed protesters escalates and the country drifts towards civil war.

Tanks were reported to have shelled a historic district in the central city and opposition stronghold of Homs today. At least 20 soldiers were killed and 53 wounded on Saturday in clashes with opposition forces in the city. Rebel gunmen also ambushed a bus in the north-west province of Idlib, killing 10 security officers, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported. One attacker also died.

But Nato officials say the Libya "template" is unlikely to work in Syria, adding that currently a Syrian "mission" lacks both international consensus and wider regional support.

The UN security council would need to approve any Syrian operation – a step that would be unlikely given Russian and Chinese opposition. "We would need a clear mandate from the international community, as well as support from the Arab League and Syria's neighbours," a Nato official said, adding that so far "no-one had asked" for Nato's help.

Nato's reluctance to get embroiled in Syria internal conflict came as Assad warned that outside intervention in his country's affairs could lead to "another Afghanistan". In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, he conceded that western states "are going to ratchet up the pressure".

But he added: "Syria is different in every respect from Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen. The history is different. The politics is different. Syria is the hub in this region. It is the fault line, and if you play with the ground you will cause an earthquake … Do you want so see another Afghanistan?"

Assad showed little sympathy for opposition protesters, more than 3,000 of whom have been killed, since the uprising began in mid-March, the UN says. Some 1,200 troops have also died, Assad's government says. He admitted that "many mistakes" had been made by his forces, but said his regime was now battling "terrorists".

The Syrian president maintained that those demonstrating against his rule were Islamists and Muslim Brotherhood members opposed to secular rule or "pan-Arabism", as he put it, under which the rights of Syria's Christian and Alawite minorities were guaranteed. He insisted he still enjoyed "popular legitimacy". "I live a normal life. I drive my own car, we have neighbours. I take my kids to school," he said.

With no end to the violence in sight, a Syrian delegation met in Doha on Sunday with an Arab League ministerial committee. On 16 October the league gave Damascus a 15-day deadline to put in place a ceasefire, which ends on Sunday. Since then 343 people have been killed, including 40 on Friday, one of the worst days of bloodshed since the uprising began. Protests have intensified amid fast-moving events in the Arab world: the brutal death of Muammar Gaddafi, and Tunisia's successful democratic elections last week. In a show of support for Assad's regime, thousands of Syrians carrying the national flag rallied in Sweida, a city 70 miles south of Damascus, on Sunday. There have been two other large pro-Assad rallies in the capital and the coastal city of Latakia.

The situation in Syria remains at the top of the international agenda. The UN secretary general, Ban Ki-Moon, said the latest civilian killings were alarming and called for Assad to carry out "far-reaching reforms, not repression and violence"." He also appealed for military operations to stop, and for the release of political prisoners ands well as those detained during recent protests.

China's Middle East envoy also expressed concern. He said the fighting could not continue. Wu Sike told reporters that Assad's government must take "palpable steps" to end the bloodshed.said: "The Syrian government has to speed up implementing its promises of reform," said Wu. "There must be respect and response to the aspirations … of the Syrian people."

The US has accused China and Russia of failing to throw their weight behind western efforts to isolate Assad's government diplomatically and toughen economic sanctions.

Assad has friendly relations with Moscow, a crucial backer and supplier of military hardware. During an interview with Russia's state-run Channel One channel, he praised the Kremlin for its veto of the European-backed UN security council resolution imposing sanctions on Damascus.

"We are relying on Russia as a country with which we have strong historic ties," Assad said.

Source - http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/30/nato-syria-no-fly-zone