• Obama asks Pentagon to draw up plan for Syria no-fly zone • Russia to send anti-aircraft missiles to deter 'hotheads' • London and Paris force EU to let arms embargo lapse • US policy unrelated to EU decision, state department says • Investigation finds chemical weapons exposure
William Hague, the British foreign
secretary, at the meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels that
agreed to drop the arms embargo against Syrian rebels. Photograph:
Francois Lenoir/Reuters
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Summary
Good morning and welcome to the Middle East live blog. We'll have
live coverage of developments from the region throughout the day.
Syria
• The EU arms embargo on Syria will not be renewed, meaning Britain and France can supply arms to the Syrian opposition from 1 August.
London and Paris were the only capitals of 27 EU countries that backed
letting the embargo lapse this Friday, UK foreign secretary William
Hague arguing that the mere threat of arms would force Bashar al-Assad
to the negotiations. But the other EU countries – despite worries the
arms would fall into the hands of Islamist rebels such as Jabhat
al-Nusra – assented, to preserve a semblance of unified policy, since
the refusal of Britain and France to go along with the arms embargo
could have caused the collapse of all EU sanctions against Syria. The
August start date was decided upon to give the EU time to gauge what
might happen at the peace talks in Geneva mooted for next month,
although there is no certainty they will take place or who will attend.
All the other parts of the Syrian embargo were retained apart from the
arms embargo on the rebels.
• Austria was a strong opponent of letting the embargo lapse,
and foreign minister Michael Spindelegger said that Vienna would now
have to reconsider its deployment on a long-running UN peacekeeping
mission in the Golan Heights between Syria and Israel. Vienna has said in the past it might have to pull its 380 soldiers out if the arms embargo was eased.
• Medics working in six rebel-held districts near Damascus
have treated several hundred fighters for symptoms of chemical exposure
since March,a detailed investigation has found,
adding fresh impetus to claims the Syrian regime has resorted to the
banned weapons. France is testing samples of suspected chemical weapon
elements used against Syrian rebel fighters and smuggled out by
reporters from Le Monde and will divulge the results in the next few
days, a senior French official said.
• The battle for Qusair near the border with Lebanon continued to rage on Monday, with Hezbollah forces advancing slowly from the south, but continuing to take heavy casualties.
Officials close to the Islamic Dawa party in Lebanon suggested to
Lebanese media that between 79-110 Hezbollah militants had been killed
in Qusair in the past eight days.
• Some 96 people were killed across Syria yesterday,
according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, an activist monitoring
group. The group said 30 of those were killed in Homs, and 28 in Damascus and its surrounding areas. The Local Co-ordination Committees,
another activist group, said 89 people had been killed, including 27 in
Damascus and 27 in Homs. These accounts cannot be verified because
media access to Syria is limited.
• A British doctor who left his home, family and job in the UK to help civilians wounded by the conflict in Syriahas died after the makeshift hospital he was working in was shelled.
Dr Isa Abdur Rahman, 26, was working as a volunteer in the
north-western city of Idlib with the British charity Hand in Hand for
Syria (HIHS) when the facility was attacked.
• Hawkish US senator John McCain met rebel leaders inside Syria
to discuss their calls for heavy weapons and a no-fly zone to help them
topple Assad and bring the bitter civil war to a conclusion. The
Arizona senator has been leading efforts in Congress in recent weeks to
force Barack Obama to intervene in Syria following reports of alleged
chemical weapons use by forces loyal to Assad.
Lebanon
• Gunmen opened fire on a military checkpoint in Lebanon's
eastern Bekaa Valley this morning, killing three soldiers before fleeing
to the nearby Syrian border, a Lebanese military source told Reuters.
The source said two of the soldiers died in the attack, near the town
of Arsal, and a third died later in hospital. The border areas around
Arsal are used by Syrian rebels to smuggle weapons and fighters from
Lebanon across into Syria, and the region has seen previous clashes
between the Lebanese military and gunmen. The news comes two days after a rocket attack hit Beirut's southern suburbs near the heartland of Hezbollah, raising fears Lebanon could be drawn more deeply into the Syrian conflict next door.
Iraq
• A wave of bombs exploded in markets
in mainly Shia neighbourhoods across Baghdad on Monday, killing at
least 66 people and injuring nearly 200, increasing fears that Iraq risks sliding back into broad sectarian conflict.
Israel and the Palestinian territories
• European football's governing body, Uefa, has been accused of showing "total insensitivity" to the "blatant and entrenched discrimination" of Israel against Palestinian sportspeople.
Updated
Russia has said that the European Union's lifting
of the arms embargo on Syrian rebels will undermine the chance the peace
conference that Russia and the United States are trying to organise
being successful.
"This does direct damage to the propects for convening the
international conference," Sergei Ryabkov, the deputy foreign minister,
said.
Updated
The Lebanese army has said it is investigating the attack on a checkpoint in which three soldiers were killed and its troops are searching for the gunmen.
Lebanon is divided over the Syrian civil war. The Shia militant group
Hezbollah is fighting alongside Assad's troops, while many Sunnis back
the opposition. In Tripoli, a city in the north of Lebanon, factions
backing the two sides have been fighting over the last few days.
Updated
A Syrian TV correspondent was killed covering the fighting near Qusair yesterday. Yara Abbas, who worked for the state-owned
Al-Ikhbariyah TV, was attacked by rebels who ambushed the car carrying
her and her crew, the Syrian information ministry said. A cameraman and
his assistant were wounded, according to the report. AFP reported that
she was 26. An image grab taken from Syrian state TV
shows Yara Abbas, who was killed reporting on the army's assault on
Qusair. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
Updated
Here is some response from British MPs to William Hague’s successful attempt to get the EU arms embargo against Syrian rebels dropped.
From Douglas Alexander, the shadow foreign secretary:
From Labour MP Emily Thornberry:
From Labour MP Richard Burden:
From Conservative MP Brooks Newmark:
Updated
Eyewitness testimony and graphic video footage seems to support
claims that one of the worst atrocities of the Syrian civil war was
carried out in three neighbouring districts in Bayda and Baniyas earlier this month, the BBC reports.
The BBC says opposition activists have documented the deaths of more
than 200 people, including women and children; the Syrian government
says it killed “terrorist fighters”. The BBC reports:
On 2 May, government troops and militias marched into al-Bayda, in
Tartous province on Syria's Mediterranean coast. The following day they
attacked neighbouring Baniyas.
Together government forces have described these operations as a "strike against armed terrorists".
State media reported that 40 opposition fighters were killed. But
Syrian human rights activists and eyewitnesses claim that more than 200
civilians died and hundreds are missing in what they allege was a brutal
sectarian attack against innocent civilians …
Numerous pictures and videos that appear to show the aftermath of
Baniyas are horrific; men, women and children, some terribly disfigured,
piled together, and what appear to be entire families killed.
The women we interviewed described similar scenes. "There were
slaughtered corpses and charred bodies everywhere", says Om Abed [not
her real name]. "Houses were on fire. The people inside them were
burning. An entire family lay down dead, slaughtered in one house. There
was so much blood." This map shows where Bayda and Baniyas are (yellow pins).
Robert Fox, the London Evening Standard’s defence editor, was just interviewed about the lifting of the arms embargo on BBC News.
We’re encouraging intervention, but not necessarily with our boots on
the ground – which is the worst of all possible worlds, because … it
means that the criminal networks that can distribute arms now feel that
they’ve got a go-ahead, as long as somebody else does.
In the past when this has happened – Yugoslavia, Afghanistan … Libya
in particular – the wrong arms go to the wrong guys. And if we’re
talking about highly portable, highly sophisticated anti-aircraft
missiles it could end up very quickly among the al-Qaida affiliates like
the al-Nusra Front, which is very prominent in the fighting in Syria.
And nothing that seems to be said from the EU, by Mr Hague, by Paris,
or by Whitehall, seems to have a clue how to stop all of that.
Oxfam’s Anna Macdonald said the charity was
disappointed in the EU’s decision, adding: “This decision does not give
the green light to any member states who want to supply arms to groups
in Syria. As clearly laid out in the EU Common Position on Arms
Transfers, any transfers must be subject to full risk assessment
procedures against the risks of arms being used for violations of human
rights and humanitarian law.”
The British foreign secretary said: “It has been difficult for many
nations, of course. That is why we have had such long discussions today …
We have agreed as member states to make clear commitments about the
restrictions on any arms we would supply, and on common rules, on the
basis of common rules, and I think the whole of the European Union is
very strongly committed to a political settlement in Syria. So yes, of
course, on such a difficult foreign policy issue, there are
disagreements, and yes we have had some disagreements today, but we have
resolved those disagreements, I think on the right basis for the
future.
Russia and Iran will be keen to see Bashar al-Assad step down as soon as his seven-year term is up in 2014, according to Professor Fawaz Gerges, the director of the Middle East centre at the London School of Economics.
He said that the way Russia and the United States viewed their
proposed Syrian peace conference was “a matter of nine/eight months of
negotiations”:
This would coincide with the end of President Assad’s presidential
term, 2014. My take on it is the United States and Russia are viewing
2014 as the tipping point of a real political transition, whereby the
end of Assad’s term, elections would take place, and the transfer of
authority to a transitional government might take place.
With Assad, or without him?
Without Assad. The Russian and Iranian leaderships have made it very
clear that Assad will stay in place until 2014. I take it that both the
Russian leadership and the Iranian leadership basically would like to
see Assad go: a face-saving formula: he stayed, he fought, and then a
new government would take his place.
The question is: what kind of government, what kind of transitional
government? What kind of reforms would be implemented within the
security forces, in particular the army … and the balance of power
between elements of the regime and the opposition itself, and this is
really where the talks and the hard work and the details become very
complicated.
I asked Gerges what he thought of William Hague’s theory that the
threat of arming the rebels would be enough to force Assad to the
negotiating table.
My reading of the state of mind of President Assad and his conduct
over the last two years tells me that I don’t expect Assad to respond in
the same way that Mr William Hague believes him to. I think had the
decision been taken a year ago it would have made a probably critical
difference.
The Syrian conflict has now gone too long. It’s an open-ended war by
proxy. Assad is fighting a war to the bitter end. He views this war as
existential. His regional supporters are deeply involved on his side.
Russia is deeply invested in the survival of the Assad regime, if not
Assad himself. I doubt it very much whether the European threat of
sending arms to the rebels will make a qualitative difference, in
particular because the United States remains opposed to arming the
rebels.
He said the “game-changer” would be if the US decided to get
involved, either directly or by arming the rebels – but he agreed this
was unlikely. “Obama does not want another military adventure in the
Middle East … He believes that Syria is the responsibility of Europe and
the Arab world.”
What did Gerges think of the theory that any weapons meant for the “good guys” among the rebels might make their way to Islamist insurgents such as the al-Nusra Front.
One of the lessons we have learnt over the last 50 years when it
comes to civil wars and regional conflicts, is once you send arms to a
particular country, to a particular faction, the supplier will have no
control over where the weapons go and where they travel … I doubt it
very much that Britain and France would have control over where the arms
go once they enter Syria.
But he felt Britain had no intention of actually sending arms at this
point, and the decision to lift the embargo was a “political tool, a
threat”. And he added:
Mr William Hague has made it clear more than once that Britain knows
the risks that these weapons could and would fall into the wrong hands.
But Britain is willing to take risks given the escalation of this
conflict, and given the huge human toll that the use of massive force by
Bashar al-Assad has exacted on the Syrian population.
Russia is to go ahead with deliveries of anti-aircraft missiles to the Syrian government, the BBC reports.
Sergei Ryabkov, the deputy foreign minister, has said the S-300
missiles were a “stabilising factor” that could dissuade “some hotheads”
from joining the conflict.
Earlier Israeli defence minister Moshe Yaalon said the S-300 missile
system had not yet left Russia. "I can say that the shipments are not on
their way yet," Yaalon told reporters. "I hope they will not leave, and
if, God forbid, they reach Syria, we will know what to do," he said.
Israel is worried the missiles could be used to attack its own cities.
Russia's foreign minister said on 13 May that Moscow had no new plans
to sell the S-300 to Syria but left open the possibility of delivering
such systems under an existing contract.
The BBC has more
from Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov on Moscow's
decision to press ahead with the supply of S-300 anti-aircraft missiles
to the Syrian government:
We consider these supplies a stabilising factor and believe such
steps will deter some hotheads from considering scenarios that would
turn the conflict international with the involvement of outside forces.
Russia's envoy to Nato, Aleksandr Grushko, said Moscow was acting "fully within the framework of international law":
We are not doing anything that could change the situation in Syria. The arms that we supply are defensive weapons.
Ryabkov said the contract for the missiles had been signed years ago.
Martin Chulov explains that the US has put its faith in Salam Idriss, the commander of the Free Syrian Army, as someone who can be trusted to be supplied with weapons via Saudi Arabia:
A reluctant US administration has lately settled on Salam Idriss, the
commander of the umbrella guerilla group, the Free Syria Army, as a
leader in whom it is prepared to take a risk. Dealings between Idriss
and the US military have stepped up in recent months, both in Jordan and
Turkey, where small groups of Syrian rebels are being trained.
An influx of Saudi supplied weapons that crossed the Jordanian border
earlier this year were channelled through vetted Idriss loyalists. The
supply included explosives that can take out tanks and cause extensive
damage to structures as rebels advance. But it did not include the holy
grail of heat seekers [shoulder-launched heat-seeking missiles].
Alex Winning has more on Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov's reaction to the EU arms embargo's being lifted.
Ruabkov accused European leaders of “fanning the flames of the
conflict", and told journalists that the EU’s decision reflected “double
standards” and dealt a serious blow to prospects of a peace conference.
He also said that the S-300 anti-aircraft missiles cannot be used
against rebel forces (presumably because they don't have aircraft).
Ryabkov said that Russia would stick to its goal of securing a
political solution to the Syria crisis and that a peace conference and
ceasefire were essential first steps to end the bloodshed.
Bashar al-Assad may be asking himself what has changed as he studies the EU’s arms embargo announcement, writes Simon Tisdall:
What has changed is that the two-year civil war is ever closer to
fulfilling predictions that it will spill into neighbouring countries,
principally Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan and Turkey, and spark a regional
sectarian conflagration. Weekend missile attacks in southern Lebanon and
Israel were further proof of that contention, as was Hezbollah's admission that its forces were fighting alongside Assad's troops.
What has changed, as Oxfam among others has warned,
is that by fuelling the conflict by sending yet more weapons to the
combatants, Britain and France risk stoking a further rapid and
potentially disastrous escalation; risk adding to the appalling toll of
80,000 people dead and millions displaced; and risk shooting down and
killing off the already enfeebled diplomatic process they seek to
sustain.
Dr Dominic Zaum, reader in international relations
at the University of Reading, has been in touch to explain why Russia is
able to sell these anti-aircraft missiles to Syria:
As there are no UN sanctions against Syria, Russia can legally sell
these missiles to the Syrian government. Sanctions on Syria have either
been bilateral or EU sanctions, and therefore do not bind Russia.
Militarily, they could increase the risk for countries using air
strikes against targets in Syria - most likely Israel (especially now
that Hezbollah is openly supporting the Assad regime militarily), and
western states who might want to impose a no-fly zone, as Nato did in
Libya in 2011.
Given that greater involvement in the Syrian conflict is
controversial in most western countries, even those most explicit in
their call for support for the opposition such as the UK and France, the
greater risk of casualties might well mute calls for a no-fly zone. A
no-fly zone seems a remote possibility at the moment even without the
delivery of these missiles, given the Russian objection to it in the UN
security council.
He adds that the more interesting issue here is the effect of the move on the planned peace conference next month.
Just as the termination of the EU arms embargo on the Syrian
opposition was intended by the UK and France to increase pressure on
President Assad ahead of the conference, so could the delivery of these
missiles have the effect of blunting the UK and France's efforts in this
regard, as they are a very explicit symbol of continued Russian support
for the Assad regime.
Updated
Yuval Steinitz, Israel’s minister of intelligence,
has condemned Russia’s decision to ship the anti-aircraft missiles to
the Syrian government, writes Phoebe Greenwood. Steinitz said it was
wrong to describe the anti-aircraft S-300s as weapons of defence as
because of their range of 300km; they could be used to target civilian
or military aircraft over Tel Aviv. He said these weapons could also end
up in the hands up of Hezbollah or Iran, thereby bypassing the arms
embargo on Iran:
Clearly supplying such advanced weapons to Assad in the middle of
brutal civil war while he is slaughtering his own people, mostly his own
civilians on a daily basis, is a kind of encouragement to this brutal
regime that is totally wrong from a moral point of view. One cannot
justify such behaviour.
But he said he was also worried about weapons coming in from the EU to the rebels eventually being used to target Israel:
We have decided not to encourage the United States or Europe to take
any action there whatsoever because it’s very complicated situation …
There is always a worry [that these weapons will be used against
Israel]; therefore if one supplies certain arms to certain groups in
Syria, you have to consider carefully what sort of commitment you get
from those groups about the use of those weapons.
Britain does not have to wait until August to start sending weapons to the Syrian rebels, William Hague has said.
It had been thought that no EU countries could send weapons before 1
August, but the British foreign secretary told BBC Radio 4 that this was
wrong:
I must correct one thing because I know there's been discussion of
some sort of August deadline. That is not the case. There will be a
discussion in the EU by August 1 but from now on ... We have said, we
have made our own commitments, that at this stage as we work for the
Geneva conference we are not taking any decision to send any arms to
anyone, but that is not related to a date of August 1; I don't want
anyone to think that therefore there is any automatic decision after
August 1 or that we are excluded from doing so beforehand.
Updated
The Associated Press has been speaking to Salam Idriss, the commander of the Free Syrian Army umbrella rebel group.
Idriss says he is "very disappointed" that the lifting of the EU arms
embargo won't lead to the immediate shipment of weapons to his
fighters.
He said the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, an ally of the Syrian regime,
has thousands of fighters in Syria and was the main threat to the FSA.
He added that he had run out of patience with the international community.
William Hague’s Radio 4 interview about the EU arms embargo can be heard here (it starts about 15 minutes in).
The British foreign secretary said the decision to let the embargo
lapse put more pressure on “all concerned” to attend the planned peace
conference. “Any decision to send arms is for a later stage.” Hague
added:
We would only send arms to anybody in carefully controlled
circumstances, in company with other countries and in accordance with
international law.
Asked about the weapons reaching Islamist extremist rebels, he said:
One of the arguments for sending arms is that at the moment the
extremists can get weapons, the regime can get weapons, but if you are
of moderate opinion, and you are a citizen of Syria, and every weapon
that has ever been invented, except nuclear weapons, is being dropped on
your town or village, the world has been denying you the means to
defend yourself. And that is radicalising people and driving them to
extremism.
He said the moderates – presumably those to whom any weapons would be directed – were those led by Salam Idriss.
Asked about Russia, he said he was working with Moscow on the peace
conference, but they didn’t agree with them on everything: “We don’t
approve of Russia’s arms supply to the [Syrian] regime, but they don’t
seize that because they are provoking us.”
Asked specifically about the S-300 anti-aircraft missiles, he denied it was linked to the EU decision:
I’ve never seen any evidence they would change that approach, so that
is not surprising and I don’t think it’s related to the decision we’ve
made in the European Union. But certainly the long-term supply of
weapons to the regime from Russia and other countries has certainly not
helped the situation.
Hague was asked if it was legal to supply the rebels with arms. “We
would only do anything that is in line with international law,” he said.
The French agree with William Hague that they could
start supplying arms to the rebels now if they wanted. French foreign
ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot was asked whether Paris could
deliver weapons and replied: “Yes.” He added: "Our objective first is to
reach a political solution.”
A French official also spoke to the Associated Press about the Russian anti-aircraft missiles:
Obviously it poses a huge problem for us because if they deliver
these weapons - they are ground-to-air missiles - and if we were to set
up air corridors, then you can see the contradiction between the two.
Britain's opposition Labour party have sent a longer response to today's manoeuvrings. They are sceptical about letting the arms embargo lapse.
Douglas Alexander, the shadow foreign secretary, described the EU arms embargo as having ended "because
agreement within the member states could not be reached, and because
significant disagreement remains about the merits of sending arms to
Syria’s opposition". He added:
Russia’s announcement that it will send S-300 anti-aircraft missiles
to President Assad further underlines the real risks of this conflict
escalating into a regional war by proxy, leading to further suffering
for the Syrian people.
When he returns to parliament to explain the collapse of the arms
embargo, William Hague will face questions from MPs across the Commons
who - like other European member states - remain unconvinced by the case
he makes.
Syria is awash with arms, and today it remains unclear how escalating
the conflict with British-supplied weapons would help bring about a
peaceful political transition after two years of increasing violence.
If the UK government now intends to supply weapons to Syria’s
opposition, it must set out to the House of Commons how it will prevent
weapons falling into the wrong hands, and how this step will shorten
Syria’s civil war rather than prolong it.
Summary
Here is a summary of today’s key events so far: • Russia has said it is going to go ahead with a delivery of anti-aircraft missiles to the Syrian government in order to deter “hotheads” from getting involved in the country’s civil war.
• The move comes hours after the EU dropped its arms embargo
on the Syrian rebels after Britain and France threatened to scupper all
embargoes against Syria, which were about to lapse. William Hague, the
UK foreign secretary, denied the Russian move was connected to the EU’s.
• Britain and France say they could start supplying arms to the Syrian rebels now if they wanted to, but they don’t yet. Hague said
the main aim of the EU move – which was opposed by the other 25
countries in the union – was to force Bashar al-Assad to the negotiating
table.
• Salam Idris, the commander of the Free Syrian Army umbrella
rebel group, and the man Hague named as being a probable conduit of any
arms shipment, said he was “very disappointed” the FSA would not be getting weapons immediately, and said he had run out of patience with the international community.
• Israel condemned Russia’s move, and to a lesser extent Europe’s. It is worried a new influx of weapons could be used against its own cities and citizens.
• Middle East expert Professor Fawaz Gerges of the London School of Economics suggested Russia and Iran – Assad’s other key backer – would be keen to see him step down as soon as his seven-year term is up in 2014.
He was sceptical about Hague’s theory that the threat of arming the
rebels would force Assad to negotiate, and felt it was highly probable
that European arms would reach Islamist extremists once they got into
Syria. • Eyewitness testimony and graphic video footage seems to
support claims that one of the worst atrocities of the Syrian civil war
was carried out in three neighbouring districts in Bayda and Baniyas
earlier this month, the BBC reports.
• A Syrian TV correspondent was killed covering the fighting near Qusair yesterday.
Yara Abbas, who worked for the state-owned Al-Ikhbariyah TV, was
attacked by rebels who ambushed the car carrying her and her crew, the
Syrian information ministry said. • The Lebanese army has said it is investigating the attack on a checkpoint in which three soldiers were killed and its troops are searching for the gunmen.
Russia’s foreign ministry has released a statement
saying that it is “perplexed” by the EU’s failure to renew an arms
embargo on the Syrian opposition, writes Alex Winning.
Russian officials said they were similarly bewildered by European
foreign ministers’ move to extend economic sanctions on Bashar
al-Assad’s regime, saying that such sanctions are “suffocating the
Syrian people”.
The statement reminded the EU of a 1970 UN declaration that
stipulates that member states shouldn’t fuel, finance or back armed
uprisings seeking to overthrow foreign governments.
Disputing EU claims that crimes committed by rebel forces “don’t
match the intensity and scale” of those committed by forces loyal to
Assad, the foreign ministry pointed to documentary evidence of rebels
abusing civilians.
“It is essential to refrain from any comments or actions that could
be misinterpreted by the Syrian sides, push them to continue armed
confrontation or lead them away from talks,” the statement ended.
Over at the Conversation, Middle East expert Professor Rosemary Hollis
of City University, London, points out that it is actually “the
so-called ‘moderate’ rebel forces who need persuading to participate in
[the proposed peace] conference if Assad participates”.
The rebels' reluctance was yet another factor in the Anglo-French
decision to aid the moderate cause. But rather than increasing the
chances of effective diplomacy at the anticipated conference, lifting
the arms embargo could simply galvanise the rebels in their
determination to force Assad from power rather than negotiate with him.
Updated
White House spokesman Jay Carney has just spoken briefly about Syria
with reporters aboard Air Force One, where the president was on his way
to New Jersey to mark Hurricane Sandy recovery efforts.
Carney said the White House "welcomes" European moves to arm rebel groups in Syria, according to initial, unelaborated pool reports.
Carney also appeared to reject the potential sale of arms to the
Assad regime by Russia, saying it "does not bring the country closer to
the desired political transition."
Guardian Washington bureau chief Dan Roberts expects a fuller picture of the White House reaction to emerge in a State Department briefing in Washington in about an hour.
Dan also flags pool reports of the White House reaction to Senator John McCain's foray into Syria:
The administration played down the significance of a surprise visit
to Syria by hawkish Republican senator John McCain on Monday.
Carney said the White House was aware McCain was planning the trip to
see rebel leaders and looked forward to “speaking to him upon his
return”.
Downing Street has refused to say whether MPs will be given the chance to vote on any decision to send arms to Syria following the EU's decision to lift its arms embargo, the Guardian's Andrew Sparrow reports:
The prime minister's spokesman stressed that the government had not
taken a decision to arm the Syrian opposition in the light of the EU
decision, and indicated that Downing Street hoped that the threat of
arms being supplied would persuade the Syrian government to enter
negotiations.
Asked whether Britain would arm the rebels, the spokesman said: "The
prime minister's view is that it is right that we have the flexibility
to respond if [Bashar al-Assad's] regime refused to negotiate. What we
are doing is sending a signal, loud and clear, to the regime."
Syrian peace talks are planned for Geneva next month and the
spokesman indicated that Britain wanted the Syrian government to
participate.
"What we need is a transitional regime [for Syria] that is supported
by both sides, including the [opposition] Syrian National Coalition,"
said the spokesman. As part of that process, Assad would have to go.
Reuters traveled to Bayda to talk with residents
about the massacre of 2 May, in which opposition activists say more
than 200 people were killed. (Earlier today this blog carried the BBC's report on the massacre.)
BAIDA, Syria (Reuters) - Awakened by the sound of gunfire, Ahmad
could hear the armed men knocking on his brother's door, shouting
insults and calling the family "dogs".
Ahmad's sister-in-law said the gunmen told her husband to "bow to
your god, Bashar" -- the Syrian president. She and her husband and their
two teenage sons were dragged towards the village square.
"She told me her son's knees were bloodied as they kicked and dragged him," Ahmad said.
When the violence was over, Ahmad ventured out from his hiding place
in an attic. In less than two hours, Baida, his picturesque village near
the Mediterranean, had become the scene of one of the worst mass
killings in Syria's two-year-old war.
Free Syrian Army commander Salim Idriss has warned Hezbollah to remove its fighters from Syria or "we will take all measures to hunt" them, "even in hell."
Lebanon's An-Nahar newspaper reported on Idriss' remarks on Al-Arabiya:
"If the attacks of Hizbullah against Syrian territory do not stop
within 24 hours, we will take all measures to hunt Hizbullah, even in
hell," he told Al-Arabiya news channel, addressing President Michel
Suleiman, Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi and U.N. chief Ban Ki-Moon.
"I will no longer be bound by any commitments I made, if a decision
to stop the attacks... is not taken and implemented," said Idriss, who
heads the supreme military council of the Free Syrian Army.
"I can no longer restrain the fighters" of the FSA, he added without saying what concrete action they might take.
"We are being subjected to a genocide conducted by Hizbullah," charged Idriss.
"I hope that everyone will excuse the Free (Syrian) Army" for retaliating, he said.
We are waiting for the State Department to begin its afternoon briefing. Acting Deputy Spokesperson Patrick Ventrell is expected to take questions on Syria. You can watch here:
The state department briefing begins. Ventrell is asked about the lifting of the EU arms embargo.
"While it is ultimately an EU decision, we do support the easing of the arms embargo," he says.
But does the administration think it's a good idea?
"We do," Ventrell says. "We believe the step will advance our shared
goal... [It also] gives the flexibility of specific EU member states to
support the opposition as they see fit."
Ventrell is asked about Russian intentions to sell anti-aircraft missiles to the Assad regime.
"We have long said that we disagree with and we condemn the continued supply of weapons to the regime," he says.
But wait: is there no contradiction here, that the US is both for and against new weapons entering Syria?
Ventrell says the regime "uses massive force against civilians." "We
condemn all support of arms to the regime," he says. "We've seen how the
regime uses these arms. When we're talking about the opposition, that's
a different group."
Ventrell has asked whether the EU announcement has changed US thinking on intervention.
"We haven't made a decision one way or another," he says. "I wouldn't
relate the two between an EU decision and our internal
decision-making."
Ventrell declines to directly answer a question about whether the State Department knew of Senator John McCain's Memorial Day visit to Syria.
"I'd refer you to his office for more details," Ventrell says.
But did the White House know about him going?
"We are in touch with various members of Congress about their travel
overseas," Ventrell says. "We stay in close touch with members of
Congress as they travel overseas...I'm not going to get into specifics
with this particular trip."
Ventrell is asked about Hezbollah's expanding role in Syria.
"We're concerned about the dramatic increase of Hezbollah activity.
It's destabilizing to Syria but it's destabilizing to Lebanon as well,"
Ventrell says.
Ventrell is asked about the killing of three Lebanese soldiers in a cross-border attack.
"We condemn that attack," Ventrell says. "These and other incidents pose a clear danger to Lebanon's stability."
Then he returns to specific criticism of Hezbollah, saying there has
been "a pretty dramatic escalation of their violence inside neighboring
Syria."
He says the group's fighting in Syria constitutes a "detriment to the interest and well-being of the Lebanese people."
Ventrell returns to the decision of Russia to supply anti-aircraft missiles to the Assad regime.
It sounds as if the state department has accepted a Russian explanation that the missiles were pre-ordered.
"We think that's a mistake," Ventrell says. "They've described it as
fulfilling existing contracts... We're going to continue to work with
them."
Guardian Washington bureau chief Dan Roberts asks Ventrell about the state department's opinion of what kind of message the EU decision sends to Assad.
Ventrell says the message is "helpful, because it sends a message to
the Assad regime that support for the opposition is only going to
increase."
Summary
The state department briefing has ended. Acting deputy spokesperson Patrick Ventrell said the United States:
• Supports the easing of the EU arms embargo on Syria,
saying the step "gives the flexibility of specific EU member states to
support the opposition as they see fit." Easing the embargo sends a
message to Assad "that support for the opposition is only going to
increase," Ventrell said. • Will not change its policy based on the EU decision. "I wouldn't relate the two between an EU decision and our internal decision-making." • Opposes Russian sales of anti-aircraft missiles to the Assad regime.
"We think that's a mistake... They've described it as fulfilling
existing contracts... We're going to continue to work with them." • Sees no contradiction in its policy on arms shipments to Syria. "We've seen how the regime uses these arms. When we're talking about the opposition, that's a different group." • Condemns Hezbollah involvement in Syria. "It's destabilizing to Syria but it's destabilizing to Lebanon as well."
• Ventrell declined to say whether the state department had advance warning of Senator John McCain's visit to Syria Monday.
"We are in touch with various members of Congress about their travel
overseas," Ventrell said. McCain supports arming the rebels.
A critic of the opposition tweets a picture derisively portraying McCain as a Che Guevara figure for his foray into rebel-controlled areas in northern Syria (see update below): Update: An earlier version of this post
presumptively referred to @Hussamov11 as a "regime supporter," to which
we append this correction, posted with permission:
Updated
The Assad regime says the EU is obstructing a political settlement by easing its arms embargo, Agence France-Presse reports:
Syria’s government on Tuesday slammed an EU decision to lift a ban on
supplying arms to rebel fighters as an “obstruction” of efforts to
resolve the conflict in the country peacefully.
“The European Union’s decision exposes... its obstruction of
international efforts to achieve a political settlement to the crisis in
Syria,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement published by state
news agency SANA.
The statement also accused the EU of providing “support and
encouragement to terrorists by providing them with weapons in clear
violation of international law and the U.N. Charter.”
Senator John McCain tweets a picture of himself with members of a rebel group inside Syria. The sign above him advertises a "new Syria."
Talks in Istanbul to organize the political leadership of the Syrian opposition under the banner of the Syrian National Coalition are not making much progress, Agence France-Presse reports:
A week into marathon talks aimed at presenting a united front on a
proposed peace conference, Syria's opposition remains more divided than
ever, pulled apart by regional power grabs and unpopular with rebels on
the ground.
Despite going into several days of overtime at a key meeting in
Istanbul, the main Syrian opposition group, the National Coalition, has
failed to agree on a whether to join a proposed peace conference aimed
at ending a more than two-year civil war that has cost some 94,000
lives.
Coalition members and other dissidents say progress at the meeting
has been ground to a halt by conflicting bids for influence by Saudi
Arabia, which wants to water down the Muslim Brotherhood's strong role
in the Coalition, and Qatar, which wants to protect the influential
Islamic movement's clout.
Amid the bickering, the Coalition has failed to find consensus on
whether to join the proposed peace conference in Geneva being pushed by
the United States and Russia.
"It is impossible, there will never be an agreement. Each Coalition
member is a piece on a chess board, playing for the state that backs
him," said a dissident who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity.
Josh Rogin of the Daily Beast reports the White House has asked the Pentagon to submit plans for a potential no-fly zone inside Syria. Such a request does not imply a US intention to do so. Rogin's report is based on interviews with two unnamed administration officials:
President Obama’s dual-track strategy of continuing to pursue a
political solution to the two-year-old uprising in Syria while also
preparing for more direct U.S. military involvement includes authorizing
the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the first time to plan for multilateral
military actions inside Syria, the two officials said. They added that
no decisions on actually using force have yet been made.
“The White House is still in contemplation mode but the planning is
moving forward and it’s more advanced than it’s ever been,” one
administration official told The Daily Beast. “All this effort to
pressure the regime is part of the overall effort to find a political
solution, but what happens if Geneva fails? It’s only prudent to plan
for other options.”
Canada has warned the EU that easing the arms embargo on Syria will only cause "more deaths," Al-Jazeera English reports:
Canada's Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird said on Tuesday that
there would be "more violence, more deaths and more destruction" in
Syria if the EU goes through with allowing an arms embargo to expire on
Saturday.
"My strong view is that the only way to end the suffering of the Syrian people is a political solution," he told reporters.
"Flooding the country and the region with more arms will lead to more
violence, more deaths and more destruction, so certainly Canada has no
intention of following suit," he said.
NBC New's Richard Engel has trouble confirming the Daily Beast report about the president requesting new plans from the Pentagon for a potential no-fly zone over Syria:
Summary
We're going to wrap up our live blog coverage for the day. Here's a summary of where things stand:
• The European Union voted to ease an arms embargo on Syria, meaning that the UK and France could begin arming rebel groups
– although such a step was not anticipated before August at least. The
US state department said it "supports" easing the embargo.
• Russia announced plans to sell anti-aircraft missiles to the Assad regime.
Israeli defence minister Moshe Yaalon said the S-300 missile system had
not yet left Russia. "I hope they will not leave, and if, God forbid,
they reach Syria, we will know what to do," Yaalon said. The US state
department called the move a "mistake," but seemed to accept Moscow's
explanation that the missiles "fulfilled existing contracts." • President Obama has asked the Pentagon to draw up a plan for a potential no-fly zone inside Syria, the Daily Beast reported.Other outlets had trouble confirming the report, however. The US has not announced any intention of policing Syrian airspace. • The US state department condemned Hezbollah fighters' presence in Syria, saying the move is "destabilizing to Syria but it's destabilizing to Lebanon as well." Free Syrian Army commander Salim Idriss warned Hezbollah to remove its fighters from Syria or "we will take all measures to hunt" them.
• Medics working in six rebel-held districts near Damascus
have treated several hundred fighters for symptoms of chemical exposure
since March,a detailed investigation has found, adding fresh impetus to claims the Syrian regime has resorted to the banned weapons.
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