Syria reaches oil deal with ally Russia

Qadri Jamil, Syria's deputy prime minister for economic affairs, listens during a news conference in Moscow August 3, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Maxim Shemetov

By Thomas Grove

MOSCOW | Sat Aug 4, 2012 12:20am IST

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Syria has reached an agreement with ally Russia to secure much-needed fuel as a delegation of ministers sent by President Bashar al-Assad asked Moscow to help alleviate the effects of sanctions on the war-torn country.
The trip was a rare foreign visit made by high-level Syrian officials, whose circles of support are shrinking as violence mounts between rebel fighters and forces loyal to Assad, who the West and Arab countries say must leave power.
Under the deal, Syria will export its crude oil to Russia in exchange for refined oil products, which Damascus sorely needs to keep its economy and military running.
"Russia wants to help the Syrian people," Syrian Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Qadri Jamil told reporters in Moscow on Friday.
"We will deliver our oil and receive gasoline and fuel oil; it will be a barter," he said, adding that Syria is producing about 200,000 barrels per day.

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Turkey Takes Bold Step Amid Escalating Border Disputes

A Turkish army mobile missile launcher and vehicles are positioned at a military post on the Turkish-Syrian border in Oncupinar in Kilis province. August 1, 2012. (photo by REUTERS/Umit Bektas)

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By: Mohammad Noureddine posted on Friday, Aug 3, 2012

Turkey has made the unprecedented move of crossing its border with Syria. In fact, the governor of Kilis province illegally crossed the border [into Syria] and shook hands with the Free Syrian Army (FSA).

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Summary: A Turkish governor and municipal leader crossed into rebel-controlled northern Syria, escalating tensions between the two countries. Turkey is gearing up for war, writes Mohammad Noureddine, and the photo-op was a confrontational move. Publisher: As-Safir (Lebanon) Original Title: Dangerous precedent documented with pictures and sound Turkish officials violated Syrian soil Author: Mohammad Noureddine Published on: Friday, Aug 3, 2012 Translated On: Friday, Aug 3, 2012 Translator: Joelle El-Khoury Categories : Security Turkey   Syria

The Turkish move conveyed more than a single message, especially after it was insisted that a private TV channel and other media outlets take pictures of the governor inside Syrian territory.
The first message is that Turkey is ready for military intervention in Syria, especially in the light of Turkey’s threats to Kurdish areas in Syria’s north — under the pretext that members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) are present there — and its continued military maneuvers conducted along the border.
The second message is that the political dispute between Syria and Turkey has reached a point of no return. These two Turkish senior officials didn’t realize the seriousness of their actions, whatever the justifications may be, although they have not yet offered any justification. This move is certainly provocative and lacks a minimum level of ethics and responsibility in international relations.


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Eye on Iran and Syria, Israel hardens missile shield

By Dan Williams

JERUSALEM | Sun Aug 5, 2012 5:03am EDT

(Reuters) - Israel is upgrading its Arrow II ballistic missile shield in a U.S.-backed "race" against Iran, Syria and other regional enemies, a senior Israeli defense official said on Sunday.
The new "Block 4" generation of guided interceptor rockets, radars and technologies for synchronizing Arrow with U.S. systems was being installed in deployed Israeli batteries, a process that would take several weeks, the official said.
"The accuracy and the reach will be greater," the official said of Arrow, which has been operational since 2000 and is designed to blow up incoming missiles at altitudes high enough for non-conventional warheads to disintegrate safely.


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Syrian rebels say detained Iranians are Revolutionary Guards, not pilgrims

BEIRUT (AP) — A pan-Arab television station has aired a video purportedly showing Syrian rebels with a group of Iranians abducted a day earlier just outside Damascus.

The footage shown Sunday on the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya shows men identified as the Iranians sitting on the ground surrounded by fighters who said they were from the “Baraa Brigades.”

A rebel claims in the video that the captives include an officer of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and that the group was on a “reconnaissance mission.”

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Iran TV claims 48 Iranian pilgrims kidnapped in Syria

BEIRUT (AP) — In a brazen daylight kidnapping, gunmen snatched a bus filled with 48 Iranian pilgrims from a Damascus suburb Saturday as they headed to visit a shrine holy to Shiites, reported Iranian state television.

The abduction was the largest single kidnapping of Iranians in Syria, where several smaller groups of Iranians have been snatched in recent months. It came as regime forces were pounding the neighborhood of Tadamon, on the southern outskirts of the Damascus, trying to uproot one of the last rebel-held areas in the city.

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Source: Russia sending 3 military ships to Syria

A Russian Ropucha class landing ship is seen in this September 1990 file photo.

(Credit: PH3 Dawn Schmelhaun/US Navy)

Last Updated 10:14 a.m. ET (CBS News) Russia is sending three Navy ships, each carrying about 120 marines, to its naval base in Syria, a Russian defense ministry source has confirmed to CBS News.
However, the Russian Defense Ministry later issued a statement denying the reports.
According to CBS' source, three ships of the Northern fleet will come to Tartus by the end of this week to renew water and food supplies, and will spend two to three days there. Because the port is small, one ship will dock at a time.
The supply base at Tartus is the Russian navy's only refueling facility in the Mediterranean. Approximately 100 personnel staff the base.


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Syria and Jordan troops clash on border

JORDANIAN and Syrian forces have traded gunfire on their border.
According to a Jordanian security source, "brief" clashes broke out between the two armies in the Tal Al Sihab region after Syrian forces opened fire on some 300 refugees attempting to flee into Jordan. The Syrians had targeted Jordanian forces by mistake.
Jordanian soldiers returned fire, said the source, igniting a fierce 10-minute-long battle between the two sides.
Saudi Arabian news network Al Arabiya reported two Jordanian soldiers were injured, a claim both the source and Jordanian officials denied.


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Assad hands control of Syria’s Kurdish areas to PKK, sparking outrage in Turkey

ISTANBUL — President Bashar Assad, facing a growing rebel presence in Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and its commercial hub, has turned control of parts of northern Syria over to militant Kurds who Turkey has long branded as terrorists, prompting concern that Istanbul might see the development as a reason to send troops across its border with Syria.
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in comments late Wednesday, said that Turkey would not accept an entity in northern Syria governed by the Iraq-based Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which has long waged a guerrilla war against Turkey, and its Syrian affiliate, the Democratic Union Party.

He said the two groups had built a “structure in northern Syria” that for Turkey means “a structure of terror.”


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Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/07/26/157943/assad-hands-control-of-syrias.html#storylink=cpy

 

 

 

IDF preparing to thwart influx of Syrian refugees

The Israeli military is operating in the Golan Heights, along the border with Syria, to prevent an influx of Syrian refugees, the IDF confirmed Thursday. The confirmation came after an Al Jazeera reported the military activity.

Al Jazeera published images of IDF bulldozers in the border area and said the IDF is preparing for the possibility of refugee influxes and illegal border crossings.

On Monday, President Shimon Peres said that any forceful attempts by Syrians to cross Israel’s border would be met with force. Attempts to cross the border peacefully but illegally, he said, would be stopped with civilian means, “the way any country defended her border.”

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Syria threatens to hit Israel with chemical weapons if attacked

Sources in Syria warned Thursday that it would launch chemical weapons at Israel should Jerusalem attempt to attack its non-conventional weapons depots, a Kuwaiti paper reported.

According to the report in the Kuwait daily Al-Rai, Damascus would view any attack as a declaration of war and the regime would not hesitate to use chemical weapons on Israel. The sources told Al-Rai that an attack on its weapons depots would cause great pollution to the environment and kill anyone in the area, a scenario that would provoke an all-out conflict.

Israel has said it would use force to prevent Syria’s chemical weapons from falling into terrorists’ hands as President Bashar Assad’s regime comes under increasing fire. On Tuesday, Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said Israel would consider any transfer of chemical weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon as a cause for war.

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Intelligence blackout on Syria prevented Turkish retaliation for downed jet, Russian paper says

Illustrative photo of a Turkish F-4 fighter jet. (photo credit: CC BY Jerry Gunner, Flickr)

Turkey prepared to retaliate against Syria for shooting down its fighter jet in June, but aborted its plans when the military’s general staff realized they knew little about Syrian air defense systems, a report published in Russian news outlet Izvestia claimed.

Had Turkey attempted an airstrike on Syria, Assad’s Russian-made air defense systems would have shot down Turkish jets like “ducks,” the paper quoted Igor Korotchenko of the The Centre for Analysis of World Arms Trade saying.

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Syria says will use chemical weapons if attacked

AP Photo/Anonymous

 BEIRUT (AP) -- The Syrian regime threatened Monday to use its chemical and biological weapons in case of a foreign attack, in its first ever acknowledgement that it possesses weapons of mass destruction.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi stressed, however, that Damascus would not use its unconventional arms against its own citizens. The announcement comes as Syria faces international isolation, a tenacious rebellion that has left at least 19,000 people dead and threats by Israel to attack to prevent such weapons from falling into rebel hands.

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Islamist group, not Free Syrian Army, blew up Assad’s inner circle, Israeli expert says

The bombing last Wednesday in Damascus of President Bashar Assad’s national security headquarters, the most significant blow yet to the Assad regime, was perpetrated by an Islamist group and not the Free Syrian Army, as was initially claimed, according to an Israeli expert on Arab affairs.

This achievement, by a local radical group, will carry significance in the sectarian struggle for power that is sure to come in the wake of Assad’s departure, said Dr. Mordechai Kedar, an expert on Arab affairs at Bar-Ilan University.

The July 18 blast killed Defense Minister Daoud Rajha, the highest ranking Christian in the regime; Assef Shawkat, the president’s brother-in-law and deputy commander of the military; Hassan Turkmani, military adviser to the foreign minister; and Hisham Ikhtiyar, the national security chief. The four were an instrumental part of the regime’s brutal efforts to extinguish the 17-month-old uprising in Syria. The blow, in the heart of Damascus, appears to have hastened the end of Assad’s rule.

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Iraq allows in Syrian refugees in change of heart

Iraq had previously said it would not accept any Syrian refugees and sealed off its border points to all those wanting to cross, except for Iraqi citizens fleeing the violence in Syria. (Reuters)

 

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Monday instructed Iraq’s security forces and Red Crescent to allow in Syrian refugees and provide them with support, reversing an earlier decision.

“The prime minister directed Iraqi forces and police and the Iraqi Red Crescent to receive Syrian refugees and help them and provide them with services,” state broadcaster Iraqiya television said.

Iraq had previously said it would not accept any Syrian refugees and sealed off its border points to all those wanting to cross, except for Iraqi citizens fleeing the violence in Syria.

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Syria 'will not use' chemical weapons on its own people

Syrian foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said the weapons, stored and secured by the armed forces, would never be used "inside Syria".
Earlier, the Arab League called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down, offering him safe passage.
Rebels have told the BBC's Paul Wood, inside Syria, that they are encouraged by assassinations last week.
Four officials, including the defence minister and President Assad's brother-in-law, were killed in an attack in Damascus on 18 July.
Rebels from the Free Syrian Army (FSA) told our correspondent, who is undercover with them near Damascus, that the deaths were a severe blow to the government.
They said the once-feared secret police were now a spent force, and the government was relying entirely on a weakened military.
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The Race for Assad's Chemical Arsenal

A chemical arsenal in Russia. (photo by REUTERS/Handout )

While opposition forces hammer the Syrian army in the streets of Damascus, Israel is gearing up for President Bashar al-Assad’s final collapse and is expressing its concern regarding the fate of the unconventional weapons in Assad’s hands. The United States is also keeping close tabs on the chemical-biological arsenal, concerned about it being used to suppress the rebellion within Syria. On Thursday it was reported that sources in the White House conversed with their counterparts in Jerusalem on the possibility of destroying the weapons in a preemptive strike.

About this Article

Summary: Jerusalem and Washington are paying close attention to Assad's large chemical stockpile as they monitor the crisis, write Ahikam Moshe David and Tzach Yoked. Israel fears that anarchy in post-Assad Syria will enable Hezbollah and other terror groups to take advantage of the situation to launch attacks. Publisher: Maariv (Israel) Original Title: The race for Syria's chemical arsenal Author: Akhikam Moshe David and Tzah Yoked Published on: Friday, Jul 20, 2012 Translated On: Friday, Jul 20, 2012 Translator: Sandy Bloom Categories : Syria   Israel   Security

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak toured the Israeli-Syrian border on Thursday and reviewed the possible scenarios that the IDF is preparing for. Barak visited one of the most anterior of the  posts in the area, from where he was able to see mortar shells falling on a Syrian village and hear the loud machine-gun fire between the rebel and army forces. “Syria’s disintegration is real, and the recent events in Damascus will accelerate Assad’s downfall,” said the defense minister. “No one can predict what will happen afterwards. There are all kinds of agents there like opponents [of the regime], [army] deserters and World Jihad activists. The longer this process takes — the greater the disorder that will reign after Assad’s fall.” Regarding Syria’s unconventional weapons, Barak says, “We are concerned that the disarray will lead to the collapse of sensitive systems. There are quite a lot of chemical agents in Syria, scattered throughout the entire country; there are also numerous firearms held by civilians. We are keeping tabs on the possibility that during Assad’s collapse, Hezbollah will try to transfer heavy ground-to-ground missiles or chemical weapons to Lebanon.”

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Syria crisis: Fresh clashes rock Damascus and Aleppo

The BBC's Jim Muir reports from Beirut on the assault by government forces in Damascus and Aleppo

Fierce fighting is reported in Syria's two biggest cities - Damascus and Aleppo - as government forces seek to regain control of rebel-held areas.
The army's elite fourth division, backed by helicopters, has reportedly launched an assault on the capital's north-eastern suburb of Barzeh.
Troops were also said to have deployed in the western suburb of Mezzeh.
Fighting also continued for a third day in Aleppo, where activists said a building had collapsed under tankfire.
The violence follows a week in which rebels made major advances, taking control of several parts of Damascus, seizing border crossings and claiming an attack that killed four top security officials, including the defence minister and President Bashar al-Assad's brother-in-law.
Meanwhile, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has reported that at least 19,106 people had been killed since March 2011.
They included 13,296 civilians, including those who had taken up arms, as well as 4,861 security personnel and 949 army defectors, it said.
The UN said in May that at least 10,000 people had been killed, while in June the Syrian government reported that 6,947 Syrians had died, including at least 3,211 civilians and 2,566 security forces personnel.

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Syrian death toll tops 19,000, say activists

The funeral near Damascus of a man who protesters say was killed by Assad forces. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claims 2,752 people were killed in the first 21 days of July. Photograph: Handout/Reuters

An activist group claims that more than 2,750 people have been killed in Syria so far this month, bringing the death toll since the conflict began to more than 19,000.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said if the current rate of killing continued until the end of July, it would be the deadliest month since the Syrian uprising erupted in March 2011.
The Observatory's chief, Rami Abdul-Rahman, said on Sunday that 2,752 people, including 1,933 civilians, 738 government troops and 81 rebels, were killed in the first 21 days of July.
Abdul-Rahman said June had been the deadliest month with 2,924 deaths.
The average daily death toll in June was 94, while this month it has increased to an average of 131 a day.

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Syrian activists claim Assad’s forces used ‘toxic gas’ against civilians

Syrian activists from the city of Deir Ezzour have circulated a video on the internet of children they said were victims of toxic gas attacks by regime forces amid growing international concern about the country’s stockpiles of chemical weapons.

The activists reported cases of asphyxia due to what they said was toxic gas released by regime forces in the town on Friday.

The anti-regime activists also published a video explaining to people how to make masks that will protect them from airborne toxic gases. The mask forms a sealed cover over the nose and the mouth and also provides cover for the eyes.

Syrian activists explain the making of an air filter to protect against gas attacks by regime forces.

On Monday, Nawaf Fares, who defected from his post as Syrian ambassador to Iraq, said in an interview with the BBC that he was “convinced” that Assad would draw on his stocks if cornered, according to AFP.

His comments were backed up by members of the rebel Syrian Free Army.

A few days earlier, the Wall Street Journal said that intelligence reports suggested some chemical weapons were on the move, although the reasons were unclear.

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Russia unlikely to freeze Assad’s assets, experts say

 

In an interview with Al Arabiya, Iain Willis, Director of Research at the business intelligence consultancy Alaco, said the total value of assets available to the Assad regime is estimated at $1 billion.

As the conflict in Syria enters a critical phase and Western countries ramp up sanctions against the Assad regime, experts tell Al Arabiya it is unlikely that Russia will freeze assets connected to President Assad but that as the endgame approaches, regime allies could be more willing to cooperate with the international community.

In an interview with Al Arabiya in London, Iain Willis, Director of Research at business intelligence consultancy Alaco, said that Russia would be ‘the number one’ place to look for Syrian regime assets.

“Places such as Russia which have not imposed asset freezing measures would be a first place to look because that money is liquid and movable,” Willis said. “Other places like Switzerland, Dubai, and Lebanon are imposing more restrictions on Syrian linked asses so those become less appealing for the Assad family.”

Willis said Assad and his inner circle would be seeking to maintain a liquid asset base in places they can access easily, such as Russia. 

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