The Syria players’ cacophonic statements

The UN's Kofi Annan and Ban Ki-moon

Ban Ki-moon to the General Assembly:

"Each day seems to bring new additions to the grim catalogue of atrocities: assaults against civilians, brutal human rights violations, mass arrests, torture, execution-style killings of whole families. Men, women, even children were executed at a point blank range; some had their throats slit or their skulls crushed. Any regime or leader that tolerates such a killing of innocents has lost its fundamental humanity… For many months it has been evident that President Assad and his government have lost all legitimacy… The dangers of a full-scale civil war are imminent and real. Now it is the time for the international community to take a bold and consorted action.”

Kofi Annan to the General Assembly:

“…Despite the acceptance of the six-point plan and the deployment of a courageous mission of United Nations observers to Syria, I must be frank and confirm that the plan is not being implemented.
 Mr. President, let me pause here and express my horror and condemnation at the fact that a new massacre of tens of civilians including children and women was perpetrated yesterday in Al Qubair, west of Hama. My heart goes out to the victims and their families.  This took place just two weeks after the massacre in Houla that shocked the world. Those responsible for perpetrating these crimes must be held to account. We cannot allow mass killing to become part of everyday reality in Syria.

“As the Secretary-General has clearly explained, the crisis is escalating.  The violence is getting worse. The abuses are continuing.  The country is becoming more polarized and more radicalized. And Syria’s immediate neighbors are increasingly worried about the threat of spillover.  

“Nine days ago, I met President Assad in Damascus. I told him that the six-point plan is not being implemented, as it must. I strongly urged him to take bold and visible steps to now radically change his military posture and honor his commitments to the six-point plan. I urged him to make a strategic decision to change his path. I also made clear that his Government must work with my mediation effort on behalf of both Organizations that I represent.

“President Assad believed the main obstacle was the actions of militants. Clearly, all parties must cease violence. But equally clearly, the first responsibility lies with the Government.

“Since then, shelling of cities has intensified. Government-backed militia seem to have free rein with appalling consequences. Yes, some detainees have been released, and agreement has been reached on modalities for humanitarian assistance. But the hour demands much more. And President Assad has not indicated a change of course in his recent address to the National Assembly.

“…Clearly, the time has come to determine what more can be done to secure implementation of the plan -- and/or what other options exist to address the crisis… Individual actions or interventions will not resolve the crisis. As we demand compliance with international law and the six-point plan, it must be made clear that there will be consequences if compliance is not forthcoming. We must also chart a clearer course for a peaceful transition, if we are to help the Government and opposition, as well as Syrian society, to help resolve the crisis.”

Ban Ki-moon after the Security Council session:

“The Annan plan remains at the center of our efforts. We continue to support it.

“At the same time, in view of the deteriorating situation I would welcome further international discussions on the way forward. 

“The upcoming G20 Summit in Los Cabos, Mexico, is an important opportunity. I will be there and I expect key stakeholders to take advantage of this gathering to discuss the crisis in its full depth and breadth. 

“No one can predict how the situation in Syria will evolve. We must be prepared for any eventuality; we must be ready to respond to many possible scenarios.

“At the request of the Security Council, I will soon present a variety of options for the way ahead. 

“It is up to the members of the Council to find common cause.”

Kofi Annan after briefing the Security Council:

“…I said that if this plan is not working or if we decide it is not the way to go, we should be looking at options. But as long as we all agree that the plan has merit, the question is: How do you get the Syrian Government to perform, to implement it, even at this late hour? This is what the Council is in the process of discussing, and I am not going to do their work.

“…There are discussions going on about the possibility of establishing such a group. And the group would include countries with real influence on the situation, countries that can influence either side, the Government of Syria and the opposition… This is why the contact group, that you cannot resolve it by just focusing on the players inside, you need to have the regional and international players be involved. They have to be part of the solution.

“The whole idea is to get to a political transition, and the Syrian people will have to decide their future: the future political dispensation, they have to decide how they are governed and who governs them, and I think that it should be part of the eventual settlement that we are looking at. And the other thing I would want to say is the membership of the group, the contact group that was referred to, all these issues are at a very early stage yet and is under consultation, but I think Iran, as an important country in the region, I hope will be part of the solution.”

U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice:

“Iran is part of the problem in Syria at the present. There is no question that it is actively engaged in supporting the government in perpetrating the violence on the ground, We think Iran has not demonstrated, to date, a readiness to contribute constructively to a peaceful political solution.”

State Department’s Mark Toner:

“(Kofi Annan) did confirm his concerns that the plan is not being implemented. I think it’s very clear what we want to see happen, what our expectations are. The Annan plan is a good plan. It lays out the next steps that need to happen – a ceasefire, a dialogue, a political transition, Assad transferring power and departing Syria. These are the basic tenets of a solution to Syria. The problem is in the implementation. And that’s why, as the Secretary stated in Istanbul, her meeting yesterday was about ways to increase pressure on Assad, to make his regime wake up and realize that they need to comply with the Annan plan. So the plan itself is sound; we just need compliance…

“…We do have a very strong coalition, but we need more. We need Russia, (and) we need China, to get onboard behind the Annan plan, behind its implementation, so that we can bring the right amount of pressure to bear on Assad… We want to see the Russians use their influence, if you will, with Assad to convince them that the only way forward here is a political transition.”

China’s UN Ambassador Li Baodong:

"We resolutely oppose the solutions to the Syrian crisis through outside armed intervention or any attempt to forcibly promote regime change. China stands ready to play its positive and constructive role in finding an early peaceful and proper solution to the Syrian question…

"To maintain the momentum for a political solution to the Syrian question and to avoid the escalation of crisis, the parties concerned inside Syria should immediately implement the relevant Security Council resolutions and the six-point Annan plan."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov:

Russia hopes all the parties that can influence the Syrian crisis will take part in the proposed conference, which won’t be a one-time event. “The conference should come under the UN umbrella... The first stage would exclude any Syrian representatives. Its purpose would be to agree on the leverage to be used on each and every Syrian group: be it the government or various opposition forces – to stop the violence and start a dialogue.”

Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Turkey, Iran, the League of Arab States, the EU and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation should be “integral parts” to the process. However, “There’ll be no mandate by the UN Security Council for a foreign intervention, I guarantee you that.” 

Annan-Houla-Qubair and back to Annan

QUBAIR VICTIMS: Children, a baby (right) and a grandmother (top right)

Scores of video clips of the Qubair massacre are already posted on Youtube

After troubleshooter Kofi Annan’s entry to the Syria scene came the massacres -- first in Houla and now in the Hama countryside.

By tonight, Annan will be pulling a rabbit out of his hat. He will tell the 15 members of the UN Security Council of his “Plan B” and then wait for the count of takers.

The death count in yesterday’s Hama countryside massacre is provisionally put at 86, many of them women and children.

Government-backed shabiha militiamen stabbed and shot their victims in the villages of Mazraat al-Qubair and Maarzaf, about 20 kilometers northwest of the city of Hama.

"They executed [nearly] every person in the village. Very few numbers could flee. The majority were slaughtered with knives and in a horrible and ugly way," one activist in Hama told the BBC's World Tonight.

"The small number of villagers who fled were the only people remaining who could tell the world about this horrible massacre."

A Qubair resident told the BBC when the army and militia left the village, he discovered about 40 bodies -- mostly women and children who had been stabbed to death. He said he saw the burned corpse of a three-month-old baby.

Activists, including the Observatory based in Britain, called for an immediate investigation. "The Syrian Observatory for Human rights calls on the international monitors to go immediately to the area. They should not wait to tomorrow to investigate this new massacre," it said in a statement.

"They should not give the excuse that their mission is only to observe the ceasefire, because many massacres have been committed during their presence in Syria."

In a statement on state TV quoted by AFP news agency, the government said "a terrorist group” committed the “heinous crime".

The Local Coordination Committees, an activist network, said the Qubair killings took the total number of people killed nationwide by security forces on Wednesday to 140.

Annan, the joint UN-Arab League envoy, will give his latest assessment of the Syrian crisis at an open meeting of the UN General Assembly on Thursday morning (New York time) and then brief the Security Council behind closed doors later in the afternoon.

UN diplomats expect Annan to present Security Council members with a new proposal to rescue his failing peace plan -- a "contact group" of world and regional powers to help end the violence. The group would bring together Russia, China, the United States, Britain, France and key regional players, such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Iran.

If this is what Annan plans to suggest, he's already been met with objections from the U.S. and Britain, who don't want Iran to participate.

Leading political analyst Abdelwahhab Badrakhan, writing today for the pan-Arab daily al-Hayat, says what comes next after the collapse of Annan’s six-point plan “is unclear – except that the gradual trend for outside intervention is already on the table.

“But such intervention, if it were to happen, won’t restore the regime’s lost national and pan-Arab virginity. The regime proved so brutal and oppressive and committed so many crimes as to make its forcible ouster a humanitarian duty.

“Obviously, invoking Chapter VII of the UN Charter, as the Arab League wants, won’t be easy. It would mean eventual recourse to military action, which is anathema to Russia and Iran. They are the two countries intruding the most to buttress the regime. But both know the regime can’t survive -- hence their concern.

“The Russians and Iranians want to secure their postmortem interests. And the only way they can do so is to have a hand in configuring the next regime’s shape.”

Badrakhan says time is short for the “grand bargain” that would put all the principal bilateral differences between Washington and Tehran – including Syria -- on the table at the same time and agree to resolve them as a package.

True, he says, the idea of a palace coup in Syria (that would overthrow President Bashar al-Assad by his inner circle) has become redundant. But it always remained the inevitable synonym of “real reform.” To preempt the growing threat of outside intervention lacking a UN mandate, Russia and Iran have no viable option to safeguard their national interests other than engineer a palace coup in Damascus.

Syrian Kurd or Christian likely to head the SNC

Abdelbaset Sida, George Sabra and Burhan Ghalioun

By week’s end, an activist from Syria’s Kurdish or Christian minorities will most likely succeed Burhan Ghalioun as leader of Syria’s main opposition umbrella, the Syrian National Council (SNC).

Either a Syrian Kurdish native, Abdelbaset Sida, or a Syrian Christian, George Sabra, will probably be named to replace Muslim Sunnite Ghalioun at the June 9-10 meeting of the SNC executive bureau in Istanbul. Both are members of the SNC executive bureau.

Many in the opposition view Sida or Sabra's appointment as a way to convince minorities they are partners in the revolution and in shaping Syria's future. The move would also allay concerns over the Muslim Brotherhood’s hegemony in the SNC.

Ghalioun has led the SNC by consensus since its formation last October and was elected chairman in a vote held in Rome in mid-May, when Sabra came second in the ballot.

Based in Paris since the 1970s, the 67-year-old Ghalioun is the author of numerous books dealing with sociological and political issues of the Islamic world. He is director of the Centre d'Etudes sur l'Orient Contemporain (CEOC) in Paris and a professor of recycling sociology at the Université de Paris III (Sorbonne Nouvelle).

Sida, 56, is a native of al-Hasakah in Syria’s northeastern corner sandwiched between the borders with Turkey and Iraq. He holds a PhD in Philosophy and has been living in self-exile in Sweden since 1994. His book – “The Kurdish Question in Syria” – was published in 2003.

He told KurdWatch organization, which reports on human rights violations against Kurds in Syria, in an interview last November, “I try (at the SNC) to bring the Kurdish question to the fore, because it is in Syria's interest to find a just and democratic solution to this question.

“To the Syrian opposition, I say again and again: If you solve the Kurdish question, you will win as new friends more than 20 million Kurds in Northern Kurdistan, seven million Kurds in Southern Kurdistan, and up to 10 million Kurds in Eastern Kurdistan… But our main objective (for the moment) must be to overthrow the regime.”

Sabra, 65, is a working-class liberal Christian and longtime dissident now based in Paris. He spent two years in solitary confinement and only left Syria, crossing to Jordan on foot, last October following a brief spell in detention.

He is a founder member of the Damascus Declaration for National Democratic Change and an ally of Syria’s top dissident Riad al-Turk.

Turk, an 81-year-old former leftist who spent 25 years as a political prisoner, operates underground inside Syria. The opposition looks to him for moral guidance.

In a televised interview aired by Alarabiya news channel earlier this year, Sabra blamed the diffidence of Church leaders for the lack of Syrian Christian presence on the streets. He said Christians should not draw parallels with their coreligionists in post-Saddam’s Iraq and refuted remarks by Aleppo’s Roman Catholic Archbishop Jean-Clément Jeanbart that Christians don’t trust Sunnite governance.

“The history of independent Syria tells another story,” he said. He was referring to Syria of the 1950s, when the Godfather of modern Syrian politics was a Presbyterian Christian statesman, Faris el-Khoury, who served as minister, prime minister, speaker of Parliament, and represented his country at the inauguration of the United Nations.

A vote to choose between Sida and Sabra might be abandoned if there is a “consensus” agreement on one of them or on a third “dark horse.”

Past Assad’s speech, 5 scenarios ahead for Syria

 Abdelbari Atwan, publisher/editor of the London-based pan-Arab daily al-Quds al-Arabi, takes issue today with Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad for likening his bloody crackdown to surgery and denying his forces had a hand in the Houla massacre.

Referring to the two issues, Assad said in his speech to parliament, which lasted more than an hour on Sunday:

• “When a surgeon in an operating room... cuts and cleans and amputates, and the wound bleeds, do we say to him your hands are stained with blood? Or do we thank him for saving the patient?”
• “What happened in Houla and elsewhere are brutal massacres that even monsters would not have carried out… If we don't feel the pain that squeezes our hearts, as I felt it, for the cruel scenes -- especially the children -- then we are not human beings.”

Atwan retorts in his editorial today:

• President Assad goofed “when he said the surgeon stains his hands in blood to save the patient because the Syrian surgeon he had in mind could hemorrhage the patient without saving him.”
• “I totally agree with Assad’s description of perpetrators of the Houla massacre as ‘monsters.’ But he did not acknowledge the monsters were Syrians loyal to the regime and protected by its military and security forces… If he is so sure of their innocence, all he has to do is allow an independent international investigation into the massacre and undertake to hold accountable all those responsible.”

The West has taken advantage over global outrage over Houla to reach out to Syria's ally and protector Russia to join a coordinated effort to resolve the 15-month-old conflict that has claimed well over 10,000 lives.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is today hosting European Union chiefs in St. Petersburg for his new presidency’s first summit to discuss, among other matters, Russia's Syria policy.

Speaking Sunday in Stockholm, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged Russia to help start a political transition in Syria, the outcome of which she says should be Assad's ouster.

“Assad's departure does not have to be a precondition, but it should be an outcome so that the people of Syria have a chance to express themselves,” she said.

Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov has spoken of the ongoing political transition in Yemen as an example of something that might work in Syria.  That, according to Clinton, would require much more active participation from Moscow.

 "It took a lot of time and effort with a number of countries who were involved at the table working to achieve a political transition.  And we would like to see the same occur in Syria," she said.

FIVE SCENARIOS  

Political analyst Nassif Hitti, guest writer of today’s think piece titled “Syrian scenarios” for the Saudi-owned pan-Arab daily al-Hayat, believes the Yemen example is one of five likely dénouements in Syria.

The scenarios are:

1) Disintegration and crisis management, whereby the process would be chaperoned by a diplomatic drive to try and extinguish the unrest fire. “Syria would enter the stage of drawn-out social conflict, when violence would ebb and flow until the emergence of areas – no matter how small or for how long – outside of state authority. State institutions would degenerate and the state itself would become weaker than the regime. All manner of armed violence would hold sway in the Syrian arena, with no peaceful or definite political solution in sight.”

2) Afghanization comparable with the struggle against the Najibullah regime in Afghanistan. Persistence of violence as the only way to settle the crisis, coupled with the absence of a political horizon, would amplify the revolution’s militancy and radicalism. With Styria sitting on the region’s strongly sectarian volcanic fault line, the Syrian arena would mobilize and magnetize international jihadist fighters. Should this scenario take hold, an Arab Afghanistan would be implanted in the Arab Mashreq.

3) Iraqization, which would feature the fall and breakdown of state authority with time and the outbreak of internal strife among the country’s original components under enticing “national” slogans. The slogans would lure and mobilize one particular component but fail to build bridges with its counterparts. Internecine strife among the initial constituents would reign supreme, leading the state to wear away and killing the chances of a viable “national” solution.

4) Lebanonization, or civil war as in Lebanon, with neighborly or distant meddlers and a Lebanese-style system of democratic governance rooted in consensual sectarianism. The system would be vulnerable and prone to external meddling. We’ve already seen the Lebanonization of the regime in Iraq and we can catch a glimpse of the Iraqization of Syria’s situation.

5) Yemenization, or a political transition as underway in Yemen despite the obstacles and fundamental differences between Syria and Yemen concerning the role of outside forces and the tenacity of the two regimes. Besides, Yemenization means the head of state bowing out and the regime staying in place, albeit with minor changes. Such a scenario remains brittle and susceptible to culminate in one of the four aforementioned dénouements.

Syria, Lebanon and Annan caught in vicious circle

Lebanese Army patrol in Tripoli (Naharnet photo)

At least 62 people were killed or injured in Lebanon’s “hostage city of Tripoli” on the day Kofi Annan was forewarning of the Syria crisis “regional spillover.”

The independent Beirut daily an-Nahar says, “12 people were killed in Tripoli and at least 50 injured, most of them by sniper gunfire.”

The fighting across the Syrian border in northern Lebanon’s seaport city is between pro-Assad militiamen in the predominantly Alawite stronghold of Jabal Mohsen and Bab al-Tebbaneh, an overwhelmingly Sunnite and anti-Assad area.

The split in Tripoli mirrors the divisions in Syria, where the Sunnite majority is leading the 15-month-old uprising, while Alawites and other minority groups are generally supporting President Bashar al-Assad

An-Nahar says Lebanese Army units and Internal Security Forces are struggling to deploy in the two areas.

It quotes unnamed sources as saying the city has become “a regional pawn.” Syria and its allies are manipulating the pawn through exploitation of a “security hotbed,” which is Jabal Mohsen, to pressure Lebanese, Arab and regional parties. Repeated talk in Jabal Mohsen about inviting the Syrian army back to Lebanon clearly identifies the regional side seeking to revive civil strife in Tripoli and destabilize the country.

A counterpunch comes from Jabal Mohsen chieftain Rifaat Eid, who tells the Beirut daily ad-Diyar there are “no Syrian refugees” in Lebanon, simply “Syrian terrorists” and that “the military arm of the Future Movement,” which opposes Assad, is now under the command of the Free Syrian Army.

Also on Saturday, Syria troubleshooter Annan warned of the growing sectarian violence in Syria, saying the conflict is already having serious consequences in the region and calling on the international community to work together to push for the implementation of his six-point peace plan.

"The specter of all-out civil war, with a worrying sectarian dimension, grows by the day," Annan told the Arab Ministerial Committee on Syria in Doha. "The crisis is having regional spillover, in the form of tensions and incidents across the border, abductions of nationals and foreigners, and refugee flows to neighboring states."

Annan in Doha (Photo from dailylife.com)

Annan stressed that during his meeting with Assad in Damascus earlier this week, he urged him to act immediately to implement the six-point plan, and to honor his commitment to withdraw heavy weapons from populated areas and cease all violence.

"The situation is complex, and it takes everyone involved in the crisis to act responsibly if the violence is to stop. But the first responsibility lies with the Syrian Government, and with President Assad," Annan said.  "He must release detainees, fully open up to international humanitarian assistance, and allow people to express their views freely in peaceful protest. This is essential to demonstrate his seriousness to the Syrian people and the international community."

Annan emphasized the importance of the international community acting in unity to be able to put pressure on Damascus and all other parties to the conflict to stop the violence, and prevent it from spreading further.

"Let me appeal to all of you to engage earnestly and seriously with all other stakeholders, mindful that if regional and international divisions play out in Syria, the Syrian people and the region – your region – will pay the price," Annan said.

"The time is coming, if it is not already here, for a serious review. The international community must decide what it does next.

“From my consultations with many actors, I sense a clear recognition that things cannot continue as they are. I agree. The international community must work together more effectively to push for implementation of the six-point plan in full. We must think this through and we must get it right," he added.

Annan travels to New York to brief the General Assembly and the Security Council next Thursday.

Shortly after Annan addressed the Arab Ministerial Committee on Syria in Doha, the Arab League Council of Ministers issued a statement demanding stronger UN measures against the Syrian regime to secure its full implementation of Annan’s plan within a “set timeframe,” including non-military action provided for by Chapter VII of the UN Charter.

The statement was referring to Chapter VII Article 41 of the Charter that allows the Security Council to impose sanctions to enforce compliance with its decision.

Article 41 states, “The Security Council may decide what measures not involving the use of armed force are to be employed to give effect to its decisions, and it may call upon the Members of the United Nations to apply such measures. These may include complete or partial interruption of economic relations and of rail, sea, air, postal, telegraphic, radio, and other means of communication, and the severance of diplomatic relations.”

The Arab League foreign ministers also called on network providers ArabSat and NileSat to cut out state-run and private Syrian channels.

Algeria, Iraq and Lebanon voiced reservations about the statement in full or in part.

One political analyst who is annoyed by Annan’s downbeat report to the Arab Ministerial Committee on Syria in Doha is Tariq Alhomayed, who is editor-in-chief of the leading Saudi daily Asharq Alawsat.

After his last meeting with Assad, Annan told reporters in Beirut it was the role of the Security Council to consider other ways forward in Syria.

“I know we are all impatient; we are all frustrated by the violence, by the killings. So am I. I think I am probably more frustrated than any of you because I am in the thick of things and would really want to see things move much faster than it has done,” he declared.

“If it is not this proposal on the table, there could be something else. I am not one of those that believe there is only one way; there could be other ways. And if other proposals are on the table, I am sure the Security Council will look at them and I will be the first to say, 'Bravo, let's move with it.’”

Annan, in other words, does not want to personally avow the failure of his mission. He is trying to toss the hot potato into the lap of the Security Council, which is already shackled to the wall by Russia and China.

Alhomayed says, “The frustration is that many people don’t want to face the truth, and Mr. Annan is one of them.”

Meantime, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton yesterday called her Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov to discuss the situation in Syria.  A State Department official said Clinton's message to Lavrov was: "We’ve got to start working together to help the Syrians with Syria's political transition strategy.  U.S. and Russian officials should engage diplomatically to come up with ideas in Moscow, Washington, New York and wherever we need to."

Putin and Hollande spar over Assad

Putin and Hollande sparring in Paris (Photo from bbc.co.uk)

In Paris yesterday, Russia’s Vladimir Putin disputed a remark by France’s François Hollande that any solution to the Syrian crisis requires Bashar al-Assad to step down or be removed.

A few hours later in Geneva, Putin’s representative voted against a resolution by the UN Human Rights Council calling for a special inquiry into the May 25 Houla massacre that left 108 people, including 49 children and 34 women, dead. The resolution was approved by 41 votes in favor, three against (Russia, China and Cuba), and two abstaining (Uganda and Ecuador).

In the resolution, Council members deplored the “outrageous killings” in Houla and emphasized the continued failure of the Syrian authorities to protect and promote the rights of all Syrians.

The Council called for the International Commission of Inquiry on Syria to conduct a “transparent, independent and prompt investigation into violations of international law with a view to hold to account those responsible for widespread, systematic and gross human rights violations, including violations that may amount to crimes against humanity.”

In addition, the Council asked the Commission of Inquiry to publicly identify, if possible, those responsible for the atrocities and to submit a report on the results of its investigation at its next session, which will be held from June 18 to July 6.

It also requested that joint special envoy Kofi Annan brief the Council at the said upcoming session.

The Commission of Inquiry was established at the Council’s second Special Session and it presented its first report on 28 November last year, concluding that the substantial body of evidence it had gathered indicated that gross violations of human rights had been committed by Syrian military and security forces since the beginning of the Syrian uprising in March 2011.

In its update to the Council in May, the Commission of Inquiry said the Syrian Government has so far not provided it with access to the country.

In addition, it said the Syrian army and security services committed most of the serious violations as part of military or search operations in locations thought to host defectors or armed people, and those seen as rebel supporters.

Before Friday’s vote, the top UN Human Rights official, Navi Pillay, urged the UN Security Council to consider referring the case of Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

In Paris meanwhile, Putin and Hollande clashed over Assad’s ouster.

“We have disagreements over who is responsible for the violence and over the need for Assad to leave,” Hollande told a joint press conference after a working dinner. “The actions of the Syrian regime are intolerable… Any solution to the crisis requires the departure of Assad,” the French president said

“Why do we think that if we push someone from the current leadership away from power, prosperity will arrive there tomorrow?” Putin retorted.

“What is happening in Libya, in Iraq? We all know what kind of a tyrant [Muammar] Gaddafi was. Maybe. But do you know what was happening in Sirte when militants entered the city? Why do you not write about that? Has humanitarian wellbeing settled there?” Putin asked journalists.

Putin said Russia, which supplies arms to Syria, “has no special military or economic ties” to the country and that Assad visited Paris (under Nicolas Sakozy) more than Moscow.

"We are not for Assad, not for his opposition, we want to reach a situation where violence ends and a large-scale civil war is averted," he said.

The Russian president said it was "counterproductive" to declare Annan’s peace mission a failure, but declined to say how long it should be given to work.

The Russian foreign ministry Friday backed Damascus claims that the Houla massacre was the work of “terrorist gangs” intent on undermining Annan’s mission.

However, Putin took a different line, appearing to concede that government forces had at least played a part in killing civilians, but saying the rebels were guilty of similar acts.

"How many peaceful civilians were killed by the opposite side? Did you count? The count goes into the hundreds there too. Our goal is make peace between the sides of the conflict."

Asked whether sanctions should be toughened against Syria, Putin said the UN Security Council should first of all address the issue.

“I think you know sanctions don’t always work effectively,” he said.

Putin said Russia would accept “everything acceptable to the Syrian people.”

“For that acceptable solution to be found,” he said, “violence needs to be stopped on both sides, all conflicting parties be seated at the negotiating table and a situation created when they are able to agree with one another.”

He said no one might resolve state structure or country administration issues for the Syrian state.

“If you think you can decide that for other nations, go to Cairo now and take part in the Egyptian presidential elections. You can’t do that! Nor can you or anyone else do that in Syria,” Putin said.

In his column today for the leading Saudi daily Asharq Alawsat, Abdul Rahman al-Rashed, head of Alarabiya TV news channel, says, “Not only on Syria, but Russia’s stance has been negative on most crucial issues.”

Waiting for positive signals on Syria from Moscow is like building castles in the air, he says. “All the justifications we give the Russians in the hope they would shift their Syria position are unwarranted. They will only do so after Assad’s downfall.”

Rashed says, “I can draw a long list of comparable positions taken by Russia on major international problems, like Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, Libya and now Syria. Russia stood by the villain until the end in all these cases.” Moscow’s support is also what encouraged Iran to overreach itself in its nuclear program, causing a host of serious international and regional problems in the Gulf.

Recommended link:

What Russia taught Syria

“Syria: Why the hate for Homs?”

"Safe corridor along the coastline from Homs to Damascus & Lebanon's Bekaa"

Why the hate for Homs?

An anonymous guest posed the question last February on an Internet board, saying:

“I've been following news of the uprising in Syria, and one thing that strikes me about it is that the Syrian government's crackdown in Homs seems to be approaching genocidal levels -- it looks like they're trying to wipe the city off the map. Why? Is there an ethnic or religious minority that's concentrated in that city, and the Assad regime is using the uprising as an excuse to do some ‘cleansing’?

“My first thought was that maybe Homs is a Kurdish city, but a quick check of Wikipedia shows that Homs is near Lebanon, which I'm pretty sure is the wrong part of the country for it to have many Kurds. The Wiki page about Homs doesn't give me any clues as to why this particular city should be targeted so aggressively. Can anyone explain what's going on over there?”

The explanation comes today from Lebanese political analyst Walid Choucair, writing for the Saudi-owned pan-Arab daily al-Hayat under the title “A safe corridor for the regime.”

In his opinion:

“The Syrian regime will neither change its conduct nor amend its plan.

“The regime has had, since the onset of the Syrian crisis, two objectives – one maximal and another minimal.

Walid Choucair

“The maximal goal is to smother the uprising by force, irrespective of the cost. This is proving to be an increasingly unattainable goal due to the extraordinary resilience of part of the Syrian people and their resolve to bring down the regime in spite of its vicious reprisals.

“The minimal objective is to cleanse certain areas, even at the expense of letting the rebels gain a foothold elsewhere. The focus of this cleansing campaign is Homs -- (Syria’s third-largest city and home to about 1.5 million people) that was known as ‘Sun City’ in ancient times -- and its surrounding villages. The intent is to create a safe corridor for the regime and its backers through Homs between the Syrian coastline and Damascus on one hand and the Lebanese borders on the edges of Lebanon’s northern Bekaa, on the other. 

“The vicious drive by the regime and its backers to fulfill this minimal objective promotes a demographic cleansing of this specific district by way of massacres (Baba Amr and Houla, for example), executions, and the forced displacement to date of between 800,000 and 900,000 of its residents to other parts of Syria or out of the country.

“The regime has no qualms about razing buildings, homes and entire neighborhoods and wiping them off the map as it is doing in Homs and its surroundings…”