Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for September 04 /12
Egypt confronts Israel with 6,000 Sinai Islamists as an approved militia
Iran could strike at U.S. bases in region if Israel attacks: Hezbollah
Nasrallah: Cabinet’s fall would rock stability
UNIFIL: U.N. approval needed to deploy on Syria border
Mikati sends message to Syria over shelling
'Iran must steer clear of US interests in Gulf'
Dempsey: I don't want to be complicit in Israeli strike
Iran says oil exports unaffected by sanctions
Report: Hezbollah exercise includes 10,000 operatives
Hezbollah: We can transform Israeli lives to hell
Facebook bans Nasrallah's birthday
Lebanon complains as Syrian shelling of northern towns continues
Distancing between Damascus and Beirut evident
Talks to free 10 Lebanese hostages in Syria snared by captors’ demands
Jumblatt warns Syria’s Druze of plot to stir strife
Berri refers draft electoral law to parliamentary committees
Protesters demand modification of Lebanese non-smoking law
Some Beirutis feel put out by smoking ban
Car bomb rips through Druze Damascus suburb
Bombings, clashes as Syria opposition seeks arms
'Response to Syrian WMDs use would be huge'
Obama tells U.S. to punt Romney’s plan

Egypt confronts Israel with 6,000 Sinai Islamists as an approved militia
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report September 3, 2012/To keep the truce with the Islamist terrorist networks in Sinai in place, while avoiding a large-scale military operation to suppress them, Egypt is now releasing dozens of jailed Salafist gunmen in batches every few days, so feeding the Islamists a steady supply of reinforcements. Cairo is also in negotiation with Bedouin tribal elders to grant a body of 6,000 Al-Qaeda-linked Salafi gunmen the status of an approved, independent militia. Armed with up-to-date Egyptian weapons, this militia is to be charged with responsibility for maintaining security in the peninsula. This may be a neat way out for Egypt and let the Morsi government off the hook of grappling with the violent Islamist networks infesting Sinai. But it leaves Israel squarely face to face with a whole new terrorist outfit which has the freedom to choose between operating in the service of Al Qaeda or Cairo – or playing both sides.
Israeli security circles on the southern front familiar with the Sinai security situation explain that the Egyptian army’s claim Monday, Sept. 3 that it pulled “another 20 tanks” out of the peninsula, marking the tail end of its putative counter-terror military offensive, was therefore the reverse of welcome news for Israel.
All the same, out of certain diplomatic considerations, Israelis officials are collaborating with the US and Egypt in drawing a veil over this dangerous downturn in security along its southwestern border.
Thursday, Aug. 30 Defense Minister Ehud Barak said: ”The Egyptians must combat terror and if they need to bring extra military strength into Sinai [for this purpose], we should let them.”
As he spoke, Egyptian spokesmen claimed the tanks, illegally deployed in breach of the peace treaty with Israel, were being withdrawn at the end of a “successful military offensive” to root out the terrorists.
This statement, say debkafile’s counter-terror sources, contains at least two untruths: The tanks were falsely presented as backing a fictitious Egyptian operation, just as the Cairo communiqué pretended that large numbers of terrorists were killed and wounded “in action” or detained.
There were no terrorist casualties because the entire operation was made of whole cloth, a Sinai desert mirage.
That the Netanyahu government and defense chiefs went along with this fiction is the real issue.
They have committed Israel to accepting the entry of Egyptian military forces into Sinai for the stated purpose of combating terror – a stipulation the Cairo government under the Muslim Brotherhood has demonstrated it has no intention of upholding. Just the reverse: The Egyptian troops positioned in Sinai are ordered to keep their powder dry and stand by as the terrorist cells of the “Mujaheddin Brigades in the Jerusalem Vicinity” - which is closely allied to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula - goes from strength to strength.
Yet some Israeli media have suggested sympathetically that the Egyptian army was forced to slow down its counter-terror operations for lack of intelligence on the armed cells’ whereabouts.
An Israel officer serving in the sector retorted angrily that every Egyptian and Israeli officer serving anywhere in or near Sinai knows exactly where the gunmen are skulking and their training facilities located. “The trouble is that Egyptian officers who go past those places look the other way,” he said.
The only action the Morsi government has taken on the quiet is to place a security buffer strip along the Egyptian-Israeli border off-limits to civilian traffic.
Our military sources report this strip has been dubbed “The American Highway” of Sinai, because its 260 kilometers were paved in secret by US military engineers. It runs from the MFO peacekeepers' Mediterranean base at Sheikh Zuweid in northern Sinai down to Taba, providing a safe route for the peacekeepers, most of them members of the US 82nd Airborne Division, between their northern base and their headquarters at Sharm el-Sheikh. Large sections of the American Highway run parallel to Israel’s Route 12 from Nitzana to Eilat, Israel’s southernmost town.
Egypt no doubt intended this buffer strip to serve additionally for keeping terrorists at a distance from its border with Israel. But IDF observers in that area see very little Egyptian military activity for keeping it sterile and closed to hostile movements.Once the Salafis are organized in a militia and formally recognized as such by Cairo, it will be that much harder to keep them from breaching the buffer strip abutting the Israeli border.


Lebanon complains as Syrian shelling of northern towns continues
September 03, 2012/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Prime Minister Najib Mikati instructed Lebanon’s ambassador to Damascus to lodge an urgent protest with the Syrian government Monday over ongoing Syrian shelling of north Lebanese towns.
Mikati’s directive came during a meeting Monday morning with Lebanese Ambassador to Syria Michel Khoury, the state-run National News Agency said.
It said Mikati urged Khoury to “urgently send a letter to the Syrian foreign ministry, informing it that Lebanese towns and villages near the Lebanon-Syria border continue to be exposed to shelling from adjacent Syrian military positions.”Mikati also instructed Khoury to underline the “negative repercussions of such violations on security measures taken by the Lebanese Army to maintain calm and stability on the border between the two countries, in line with a decision by the government which is keen to protect Lebanese residents near the Syria-Lebanon border and spare any loss of life and property.”
Intense shelling of north Lebanon border villages continued over the weekend even after President Michel Sleiman received assurances from Syrian officials that those responsible would be held accountable.
The shelling, which came in two stages – between 9 and 11 p.m. Saturday, and between 2 and 5 a.m. Sunday – targeted the border villages of Debabiyeh and Nura, which lie along the Nahr al-Kabir river in Akkar, north Lebanon. There were no reports of casualties.According to a statement from his office Saturday, Sleiman was briefed by Lebanese Army Gen. Jean Kahwagi on the circumstances surrounding Syrian shelling Friday that wounded one Lebanese soldier. Since the uprising began in Syria against President Bashar Assad’s rule, the Syrian army has on several occasions crossed into Lebanon and raided houses near the poorly demarcated border, which is estimated to be around 550 kilometers long. Lebanese border towns have also witnessed shelling from the Syrian side, damaging houses and at times killing residents. Syria has claimed that it is the victim of violence and crime emanating from Lebanon, and has repeatedly asked Lebanon to better control the border, citing arms smuggling and gunmen entering its land via Lebanon. Earlier this year, Sleiman instructed Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour to deliver a letter of protest to Syrian Ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdel-Karim Ali over Syria’s repeated violations of the Lebanese border.

Nasrallah: Cabinet’s fall would rock stability
September 04, 2012/By Hussein Abdallah
BEIRUT: Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah said Monday there is no other choice but keeping the current Cabinet in office in order to maintain stability and avoid a power vacuum. He said the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s Cabinet would take Lebanon into the “unknown.”
In an interview with Al-Mayadeen television, the Hezbollah chief threatened Israel that his commandos are not only capable of defending Lebanon against an Israeli invasion but are also capable of going on the offense and entering northern Israel.Nasrallah denied his group possessed chemical weapons but said its present arsenal was enough to deal a severe blow to the Jewish state.
The head of the Lebanese resistance group also warned that U.S. military bases in the region could be targeted by Iran if Israel launched an attack on nuclear facilities in the Islamic Republic.
“We don’t have chemical weapons and we don’t need to use them ... because [Israel] has factories and locations that are in the reach of our rockets,” he said, adding that it was religiously unacceptable for his group to use chemical weapons.
Several reports emerged over the past year of U.S. and Israeli concerns of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile falling into Hezbollah’s hands.
Commenting on the situation in Syria, Nasrallah said dialogue between the regime and the opposition was the only possible solution to the crisis.
The Hezbollah chief also welcomed the planned visit of Catholic Pope Benedict XVI to Lebanon later this month and said his party would participate in all phases of his trip, “to show our respect.”
Nasrallah said maintaining the current Cabinet in Lebanon was the only way to avoid a power vacuum.
“It took the current parliamentary majority four to five months to form this Cabinet. If we choose to go for a national unity government, given the current circumstances, it would probably take us one year,” he said, adding that the country cannot afford a yearlong power vacuum. Nasrallah warned against sectarian strife in Lebanon and called on the concerned parties to keep their political differences away from sectarian discourse. Addressing the kidnappers of Lebanese Shiite pilgrims in Syria, Nasrallah urged the captors to set the remaining men free, stressing that keeping them in captivity will not affect Hezbollah’s political position on Syria. “If you are freedom seekers, then these people are innocent and you should set them free,” he said.
Eleven Lebanese Shiite pilgrims were kidnapped in Syria in May, and one was released last month. The kidnappers, a Syrian rebel group, have repeatedly asked Nasrallah to apologize for his positions on the Syrian crisis. Nasrallah said Hezbollah’s relationship with Syrian President Bashar Assad was based on his support for the resistance against Israel, adding that Assad had repeatedly showed willingness to reform his regime, but the opposition has rejected all calls for dialogue.Nasrallah also revealed that he had met Assad a week after the start of the uprising and said the Syrian president showed his willingness to make several compromises with the opposition.Nasrallah, who said in August his group could wreak havoc should Israel launch an assault of Lebanon, reiterated his threat, saying even a first strike that wiped out many of the group’s missile sites would still leave enough rockets to harm hundreds of thousands of Israelis.
“We don’t have a mighty power, but we have a power that is effective. The available power today can represent a powerful deterrent force,” he said.He also reiterated that Hezbollah’s missiles have advanced targeting and range capabilities. “The rockets of the Islamic resistance can strike at any target in occupied Palestine [Israel] that you can think of,” Nasrallah said. He said the capabilities of his group should not be undermined and that the resistance remained on alert for any possible confrontation.“Since 2000 until today, there is a perception that Hezbollah is preoccupied and there are a thousand issues that it has to deal with. However, we have a big team, the resistance’s team, which is not involved in domestic affairs but works day and night on training, arming, planning, and is concerned with keeping itself prepared [for any eventuality],” he said. Nasrallah refused to say how many missiles and rockets his group has, although in the past he has said they have more than 20,000. Israel estimates the number at several times that. The Hezbollah chief said a possible Israeli strike on Iran would invite a strong retaliation from the Islamic Republic, but he played down the possibility such strike would take place, adding that Israeli officials were divided on the issue. “What I heard from Iranian officials ... is that the retaliation will be huge, and Iran will not forgive a strike against its nuclear facilities,” he said. “The Zionist entity [Israel] will not be the only target. American bases in the region will be targets, too.”“America takes responsibility for what Israel does,” he said. “Wherever they [Iranians] can strike, they will.” – With AP

Iran could strike at U.S. bases in region if Israel attacks: Hezbollah
September 03, 2012/ The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Hezbollah warned Monday that U.S. military bases in the region could be targeted by Iran if Israel launched an attack on nuclear facilities in the Islamic Republic.
"Iran would not be forgiving if Israel attacks [Iran’s nuclear facilities]. The response would not be limited to Israel but all U.S. military bases in the region could be targets of attacks," Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s secretary general, said in a rare face-to-face interview with Almayadeen television.
He added that the United States would bear responsibility for any action taken by the Jewish state.
Both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak have repeatedly spoken of the possibility of a unilateral strike against Iran, while the U.S. has said that it will not let Iran obtain an atomic bomb. The head of the Lebanese resistance also said his group would never resort to the use of chemical weapons in any future war with Israel but said its present arsenal was enough to deal a severe blow to the Jewish state.
"We don’t have chemical weapons and we don’t need to use them ... because [Israel] has factories, sites and reserves and our rockets are capable of destroying them," Nasrallah said.
He said it was religiously unacceptable for his group to use chemical weapons.
Several reports have emerged over the past year of U.S. and Israeli concerns of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile falling in to the hands of Hezbollah. In July 2012 Netanyahu voiced concern that a chaotic regime collapse in Lebanon’s neighbor could lead to Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile falling into the hands of Hezbollah.
Nasrallah, who said in August his group could deal a severe blow to Israel should it launch an assault on Lebanon, reiterated the threat of retaliation, saying even a first strike that wiped out many of the group’s missile sites would still leave enough rockets to harm hundreds of thousands of Israelis.
"We don’t have a mighty power but we have a power that is effective. The available power today can represent a powerful deterrent force,” the leader of Hezbollah said.
He also reiterated how the missiles his group possessed advanced targeting and range capabilities.
"The rockets of the Islamic resistance can strike at any target in occupied Palestine [Israel] that you can think of,” Nasrallah said.
He also said the capabilities of his group should not be undermined and that the resistance remained on alert for any possible confrontation.
"Since 2000 until today, there is a perception that Hezbollah is preoccupied and there are a thousand issues that it has to deal with. However, we have a big team, the resistance’s team, which is not involved in domestic affairs but works day and night on training, arming, planning, and is concerned with keeping itself prepared [for any eventuality]," he said.
Asked about repercussions on the party as a result of the Syria crisis, Nasrallah said: “We are comfortable, reassured and confident, based on an objective view of what is going on in the world in terms of economic conditions, the changes ... in Syria, Lebanon and North Africa.”"We have a very optimistic view of the future," he added.
Nasrallah also warned that U.S. bases in the region could be targeted if Iran's nuclear facilities were targeted by the Jewish state.
"Iran would not be forgiving if Israel attacks. The response would not be limited to Israel but all U.S. military bases in the region could be targets of attacks," he said.

Jumblatt warns Syria’s Druze of plot to stir strife
September 04, 2012/By The Daily Star The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt warned against a Syrian regime plot to drag Syrian Druze into a conflict with rebels and members of other sects in a bid to reduce the opposition’s pressure on the government. The Druze leader’s remarks came shortly after the second car blast in a week targeted a predominantly Druze and Christian suburb of Damascus. “This is the second time that the area of Jaramana in Syria witnessed a car bombing in an attempt, now clear, to scare people and push them to accept the idea of taking matters into their hands, when it comes to self-protection, and acquire arms,” Jumblatt wrote Monday in his weekly editorial for PSP’s Al-Anbaa newspaper.“It is a clear plot by the Syrian regime and some shortsighted Druze figures in collaboration with some prominent figures in [the predominantly Druze] Jabal al-Arab who want to drag the Druze, after arming them, into a confrontation with the revolution and members of other sects,” Jumblatt added.
The PSP leader said that such a scheme serves the interest of the Syrian regime as well as its attempts to foment strife in Syria to reduce the pressure of the ongoing uprising and stop its advance on all levels.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least five people were killed in the car bomb attack targeting Jaramana Monday.
At least 27 people were killed in the same southeastern suburb in another car bombing on Aug. 28, which targeted participants in a funeral for two supporters of the Damascus regime.
“Let all honorable and patriotic people be careful not to fall into this well-planned trap,” Jumblatt said.The Chouf MP said that the Syrian revolution would not give way at any expense, adding that the awareness of the Syrian people is sufficient to undermine all of the regime’s suspicious plans and avoid additional fighting and bloodshed.
Jumblatt said that with each passing day, the “suspicious” shifting of international, regional, U.S. and Russian stances regarding the Syrian crisis is becoming clearer.
“When Russia’s Foreign Minister [Sergei Lavrov] says that the army will remain in cities, this means additional destruction in cities,” he said.
“When the U.S. army chief of staff [Raymond T. Odierno] announces that his administration rejects establishing a no-fly zone [in Syria] ... this confirms the suspicious [shifting of stances] for which the Syrian people are paying in the end.”

Mikati sends message to Syria over shelling
 September 04, 2012/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Prime Minister Najib Mikati asked Syria’s ambassador Monday to relay to Damascus objections over the Syrian army’s shelling of Lebanese border towns, as Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zoabi denied any shelling had taken place. Mikati asked Ambassador Michel Khoury in a meeting at the Grand Serail to send a letter to Syria’s Foreign Ministry to complain about “the continuous shelling of Lebanese border towns from nearby Syrian military bases.”
At least 25 shells fired by the Syrian army struck the mainly Christian village of Menjez Friday, wounding one person and damaging homes.
Hundreds of residents of Menjez fled their homes in search of sanctuary, a scene repeated over the next few days in other Akkar villages that witnessed severe shelling.
Zoabi told reporters in Damascus Monday that the Syrian army has had no part in any shelling of Lebanese border villages and has no intentions whatsoever to interfere in Lebanon.
The Syrian minister described as “political comedy” calls from countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council for Lebanon to stay away from the crisis in Syria.
“If the Qataris and Saudis do not want to take the crisis to Lebanon, they should stop sending arms and militants and funding terrorists there,” he said.
In July, President Michel Sleiman accused Syria of violating Lebanese territory after a house in a village in the east of the country was hit by a shell, with several more falling along the northern border.
The president instructed Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour to lodge a complaint with the Syrian ambassador in Lebanon over the issue.
Meanwhile, a report by Al-Jadeed television said Sleiman met with the Syrian delegation on the sidelines of last week’s Non-Aligned Movement summit in Tehran.
The report said the Syrian delegation was “pleasant and diplomatic,” adding that Sleiman repeated his demand that Syrian President Bashar Assad contact him to explain his stance on Damascus’ alleged involvement in a terror plot in Lebanon.Former Lebanese Information Minister Michel Samaha, who was arrested last month for allegedly planning killings and bombings in Lebanon, has reportedly confessed to investigators that he was acting on the orders of Assad and a high-ranking Syrian general. March 14 coalition MPs intend to submit a memo this week to Sleiman calling for the deployment of the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon on the northern border. Aref al-Abed, an adviser to former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, told The Daily Star that the coalition is currently preparing a petition to Sleiman detailing the violations of the Syrian army along the border.“Now most March 14 MPs have signed the petition, what will follow this move is up to the coalition,” he said.
The petition was initiated by Akkar MPs. “The Lebanese Army is trying to deploy in the region, but violations of the border towns by the Syrian side are incessant; that is why we need the protection of international forces,” Akkar MP Nidal Tohme told The Daily Star. Tohme said that intense shelling of north Lebanon border villages continued over the weekend, even after Sleiman received assurances from Syrian officials that those responsible would be held accountable.He also hinted that he believes the targeting of Christian villages is a deliberate strategy on the part of Syria. “The timing of the targeting of such towns raises many questions as to whether this is the Syrian regime’s response to President Sleiman’s recent national stances.”
The lawmaker said that besides the shelling, Syrian troops have conducted a number of incursions into Lebanese territory, some of which have included the kidnapping of Lebanese nationals.
Similarly, Future bloc MP Riad Rahhal lambasted the Syrian violations, accusing the Syrian regime of sowing strife in the region.
Rahhal told The Daily Star that the shelling brings to mind the Civil War, when Christians in certain regions were forced to abandon their towns.
“Other towns have also been subjected to Syrian shelling, and we cannot simply keep quiet about such violations. The era of Syrian tutelage is over.”
The Akkar MP indicated that the problem is not just about material damage and losses, but about the fact that people are living in fear.
“The residents are constantly worried and insecure. We don’t have to put up with that,” Rahhal said, urging a UNIFIL deployment on the northern border, in the same way the U.N. forces are deployed in south Lebanon, in order to prevent further attacks.
UNIFIL has been in southern Lebanon since 1978, and was expanded after the 2006 war so peacekeepers could deploy along the border with Israel to help Lebanese troops extend their authority into the south for the first time in decades.
In mid-August, Kataeb leader Amin Gemayel also urged “the deployment of U.N. [soldiers]” along the border with Syria.
Gemayel said that Lebanon should also provide the Arab League and the U.N. with information related to Syria’s violation of Lebanon’s sovereignty and lodge a complaint with the Security Council against its neighbor.

Berri refers draft electoral law to parliamentary committees
September 04, 2012/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Speaker Nabih Berri Monday referred the draft electoral law to the relevant parliament committees, the National News Agency reported.
President Michel Sleiman signed over the weekend the decree to transfer the Cabinet-approved draft law to Parliament. The committees of administration and justice, finance and budget, and the interior and municipalities have now all received the draft of the proposed law. MPs are now privately studying both the 2012 budget draft law and the draft electoral law before discussions on them in specific parliamentary committees at the start of next week. The electoral draft law would divide Lebanon into 13 electoral districts – cutting the number stipulated under today’s law by almost half – and adopting proportional representation. The draft was approved by the Cabinet in early August. According to the NNA, parliamentary sources Monday doubted the law would be approved due to the opposition’s objections. The March 14 coalition and the Progressive Socialist Party have both voiced opposition to the draft, while MP Samir Geagea has described it as a form of gerrymandering in favor of the March 8 bloc.If the draft fails to receive Parliament’s approval, the 1960s law currently in place will be implemented during the 2013 parliamentary elections.

Car bomb rips through Druze Damascus suburb
September 04, 2012ظBy Daily Star Staff
Agencies
DAMASCUS: A deadly car bomb tore through a mainly Druze suburb of Damascus Monday while Syrian warplanes pounded Aleppo province, killing dozens of people.
The violence came as the head of the Red Cross traveled to Damascus on a humanitarian mission and CIA chief David Petraeus visited Turkey for talks expected to focus on the Syrian crisis.
The car bomb blew up the suburb of Jaramana killing at least five people, said the Observatory for Human Rights, a watchdog with a network of activists on the ground.
Another 27 people were wounded in the blast, it said, adding that the attack struck the area of Al-Wahda on the edges of Jaramana.
The southeastern suburb was previously hit by a car bomb on Aug. 28, when at least 27 people attending a funeral for two supporters of the Damascus regime were killed. “There is an increase of the use of car bombs in Syria,” the Observatory’s Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
The Observatory said at least 138 people were killed across Syria Monday – 78 of them civilians – after 132 people died in violence the previous day. The LCC put the number killed Monday at 205, many of them in the governorate of Aleppo.
Among those killed in the latest bloodshed was an entire family in Aleppo – including seven children – when a government air raid hit their home in the center of the city, witnesses told an AFP correspondent in Syria’s second city. The bodies of the children were laid out under fly-ridden blankets in the back of a yellow pickup truck outside a hospital before a hurried funeral, the correspondent reported.
“This is all one family,” said tailor Hassan Dalati, who survived the raid on Al-Sultan Street in the city of 2.7 million people.
A fighter jet also struck in nearby town of Al-Bab, killing at least 18 people, with more unaccounted for beneath the rubble of flattened homes, the Observatory said. The Local Coordination Committees, meanwhile, said 25 were killed.
The dawn raid on a building turned makeshift shelter followed repeated overflights by military aircraft during the night, residents said.
“We were sleeping at home when the first bomb struck. I made a run for the door when a second blast buried me,” said a barely conscious survivor, peppered with shrapnel from head to foot.
The army also pounded Aleppo, the Observatory said, more than five weeks after the start of what President Bashar Assad’s regime warned would be “the mother of all battles” for the commercial hub. A senior commander in charge of the regime offensive on Aleppo told AFP that the army would recapture the northern city from the rebel forces “within 10 days.”
Some 3,000 troops were involved in the fight against about 7,000 so-called terrorists, said the general, adding that 2,000 of the insurgents had been killed since the assault on Aleppo was launched at the start of August.The Observatory reported more than 26,000 people have been killed in Syria since the revolt began in March last year – more than two-thirds of them civilians.
The plight of refugees is expected to be among the top priorities of Peter Maurer, the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross who traveled to Damascus for a three-day visit.
Maurer would “discuss pressing humanitarian issues” during meetings Tuesday with President Assad, Foreign Minister Walid Moallem and other ministers, the ICRC said.
“At a time when more and more civilians are being exposed to extreme violence, it is of the utmost importance that we and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent succeed in significantly scaling up our humanitarian response,” Maurer said.
In Ankara, a U.S. official told AFP that CIA director Petraeus was in Turkey for regional meetings, without elaborating.
Petraeus’ visit comes less than two weeks after Turkish and U.S. officials held their first operational planning meetings aimed at bringing an end to the Assad regime.
This is the second visit to Turkey by the CIA chief, who held closed-door talks with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Turkish intelligence chief Hakan Fidan in March.
Damascus said late Sunday that new U.N.-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi would soon travel to Damascus, without providing a date, while expressing confidence “he will listen to us.”
But Brahimi gave a deeply pessimistic view of the task ahead of him, in an interview with the BBC. “I know how difficult it is – how nearly impossible. I can’t say impossible – [it is] nearly impossible,” he said. Syrian Information Minister Omran Zoubi said Brahimi’s success depended on states such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.
“The success of Lakhdar Brahimi does not depend on Syria,” Zohbi said.
“Brahimi’s success depends on certain states – such as Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Turkey – respecting his mission, by closing their borders to armed men, and by ceasing to provide weapons,” he added.
The minister did not confirm or deny whether Syrian authorities are holding foreign journalists who entered the country illegally, but said that any person who does so – whether a citizen of Syria or foreigner – will be referred to judicial authorities. He reassured reporters, however, that if any journalists are held by authorities “they will receive special treatment even though they violated Syrian laws.” He asked journalists at the news conference to give his office any names they have of reporters that they know with certainty are held by authorities.
At least three journalists are missing in Syria and are believed to be held by the regime.
Al-Hurra TV correspondent Bashar Fahmi, a Jordanian citizen of Palestinian origin, and his Turkish cameraman, Cuneyt Unal, are said to have been captured in the city of Aleppo after entering Syria last month. The third journalist, American Austin Tice, has reported on the conflict for The Washington Post, McClatchy Newspapers and other media outlets, is also reported missing in Syria.

The rebels’ plan: From the borders to the capital
By Abdul Rahman Al-Rashid/Asharq Alawsat
Yesterday the Syrian rebels succeeded in breaching security near the regime’s chiefs of staff offices in central Damascus, and two weeks ago they attacked the heavily-guarded general headquarters of the same military establishment. These moves were preceded by the rebels’ most significant operation to date, when they infiltrated the national security building and blew up a meeting room with elite security and military leaders inside.
These repeated, qualitative operations reveal two things, firstly the growing strength of the Free Syrian Army (FSA), and secondly that the regime is disintegrating from within, with leaders and individuals volunteering to help the rebels to plot against their own regime all over Syria. When the Syrian President appeared on television in a recent interview to reassure his followers, he said he was speaking from inside the presidential palace in Damascus - i.e. that he is not in hiding as has been rumored, and is most likely correct. Yet this implied that everything from beyond the walls of the presidential palace is no longer safe. The regime’s ministers and leaders seem to have disappeared completely, except for old archive images and footage that is repeated in the media.
With regards to the excruciating daily war between the regime’s forces and the FSA across Syria, the game has turned on its head. The regime’s army is no longer chasing the rebels; rather it is the rebels who are doing the attacking in planned and organized encounters. The FSA battalions have simultaneously attacked all Syrian border ports with the exception of one crossing into Iraq in the Kurdish region, and all others such as Abu Kamal, al-Yaqoubia, Bab al-Hawa and Bab al-Salam have fallen into the hands of the Syrian rebels. The objective is to strangle the regime by depriving it of oil and military support, and especially those coming to its aid from Iran and Iraq, via the latter. The rebels in the north have begun to control the borders there and are granting visas for those crossing into the country like any legitimate government would do. Their influence also extends overland to the borders of the city Aleppo. Whilst the rebels are trying to choke the regime internally by cutting off the supply of gas and oil, they are not attacking power plants or refineries and are just targeting pipe networks and supply lines.
At the same time, the FSA, because it lacks missiles and ground defenses, has sustained heavy losses as a result of the regime’s forces using helicopter gunships and fighter jets, which have caused the displacement of about half a million Syrians from urban and rural areas. For this reason the FSA has changed its plan to attack airports, pilot training colleges and aircraft hangars. The rebels have launched concurrent attacks on Abu Aldhor air base in Idlib, the Abu Kamal air base in Deir al-Zour and the Rasm al-Abboud air force college near Aleppo. There have also been unsuccessful attempts to capture other crucial air bases, including those in the vicinity of Damascus and Aleppo, but the FSA has managed to disable them to some extent.
From the plan to close Syria’s borders, which has succeeded in stifling the regime over land, to the attacks on the country’s airports, air bases and weapons depots, the world has begun to realize that al-Assad’s forces, even after using all manner of heavy weaponry including planes, tanks and artillery, have failed to stop the advance of the FSA. The rebels, who are now rushing to attack Damascus because they realize that the fall of the capital will be the knockout blow for the regime, had limited success in their latest attack [on the chiefs of staff offices], and so now they will repeat their attempts within the context of what they call operation “Damascus Volcano and Syrian Earthquake”. It seems that they will make Damascus their goal in the weeks to come, especially if they can use the missiles and anti-aircraft weaponry that they have seized recently. Politically, the position of al-Assad and his allies has become weaker than ever. The Russians used to mock him until recently, saying: Why are you worried…the regime is strong in Syria! I do not think they would dare to repeat those words now!

Mursi's tough speech angers the mullah
By Amir Taheri/Asharq Alawsat
London, Asharq Al-Awsat- Beware of your wishes coming true! This is the adage that Iran’s Khomeinist leadership is pondering with regard to Egyptian President Muhammad Mursi. For months, Tehran had beaten the drums in favour of Mursi, first for his election and then as the man who would bring Egypt under the banner of the Khomeinist revolution. Mursi’s attendance at the summit of the Non-aligned movement was to be the return on the political capital that Tehran had invested in the new Egyptian leader.
However, with his speech in Tehran on Thursday, Mursi has drawn a line in the sand against Iran’s hopes of creating an “Islamic Awakening Front” under its leadership.
Iran’s leadership had spent a great deal of energy preparing what “Supreme Guide” Ali Khamenei had dubbed “the triumph” of Ayatollah Khomeini’s version of Islam.
That version de-emphasises the religious content of Islam and highlights the political role it has often tried to play. In his opening address at the Tehran summit, Khamenei spelled out that ideology by unleashing a torrent of hate against the American “Great Satan”.
To Khomeini and his successors, the only valid version of Islam as a faith is the Shi’ite one as interpreted by the ayatollah. Sunni Muslims are regarded as “deviants” partly because they venerate the first Caliph of Islam, Abu-Bakr, Omar an Osman. The Khomeinist discourse develops three other themes. First, it wants the latest uprisings in the Middle East, described as “the Arab Spring”, to be re-baptised “Islamic Awakening” and, against all logic, linked to Khoeminism in Iran.
Khamenei has created an Islamic Awakening Secretariat in the hope of side-lining the Islamic Conference Organisation.
The second theme is Holocaust denial coupled with calls for the “elimination of Israel” as a “cancerous cell”.Finally, Tehran demands “unwavering support” for the Syrian despot Bashar al-Assad.
In his speech in Tehran, delivered during a four-hour stopover, Mursi disappointed the Khomeinist leadership on all accounts.
First, the Egyptian leader took care not to allow any dose of anti-Americanism in his speech.
Next, Mursi rejected the label “Islamic Awakening” and insisted that uprisings in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt and Yemen be described as “Arab Spring”. The uprisings, he insisted, had been for democracy and human dignity, not for strictly religious reasons, let alone Khomeini’s weird version of Islam.
He then turned the knife in the Khomeinists’ wound by asserting that the uprising in Syria was “an extension of Arab Spring” not “an American-Zionist conspiracy” as Khamenei claims.
Khamenei has declared the preservation of the Assad regime as one of Tehran’s key strategic objectives.
Mursi called the Assad regime “oppressive and illegitimate”, throwing Egypt’s support behind the Syrian uprising.
Mursi’s speech contained yet another sting that hurt the Tehran mullahs.
Khamenei had started his inaugural address at the conference by saluting “the Prophet and his descendants”. Mursi responded by saluting “the Prophet and his successors”, naming the four Caliphs (Khulafa al-Rashedin) one by one. The sound of three of those names would send shockwaves down the spines of any mullah who has any.
Not surprisingly, Tehran television interrupted a live broadcast of Mursi’s address by offering advertisement for a gas company.
Very quickly, the Tehran media were mobilised to “doctor” Mursi’s speech, censoring parts of it and brazenly misrepresenting other parts. Instead of Mursi’s direct call for the end of Assad regime, the Tehran media reported the Egyptian leader as supporting the despot of Damascus.
Yesterday, Tehran media could hardly hide its anger against Mursi. In the programme published by the Foreign Ministry in Tehran, Mursi was supposed to go to Khomeini’s tomb to “lay a wreath and pay respects. He didn’t. The Egyptian leader was also supposed to “be received in audience” by the Iranian “Supreme Guide”. The theatrical set-up on such occasions is quite elaborate. Khamenei sits on a high chair while foreign visitors he “receives” are sat on lower chairs. Thus, the “Supreme Guide” is seen on TV looking down at those who have come “to pay respects.” Iranian officials are even worse off. When Khamenei receives them they have to sit on the floor while the “Supreme Guide” looks down at them from his high chair.
Refusing to call on Khamenei, who was sitting in a room at the conference hall a few meters away, Mursi did not play the charade.
Tehran media had promised “surprises” during Mursi’s visit, hinting that he may announce the resumption of diplomatic ties with Tehran. Khomeini had given a fatwa that ties with Egypt not be restored unless Cairo renounced the Camp David accord. Recently, Tehran has ignored Khomeini’s fatwa and hinted that it would be ready for resumption without any conditions. Mursi, however, was not keen.
In the conference hall, sitting right behind Mursi all the time was General Muhammad-Ali Aziz-Jaafari, Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the backbone of the Khomeinist regime. On several occasions the general tires to attract Mursi’s attention. He failed.

Where is the Iranian initiative towards Syria?
By Tariq Alhomayed/Asharq Al-Awsat
Before the recent meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement in Tehran, the Iranian Foreign Minister [Ali Akbar Salehi] had announced his country’s intention to launch an initiative on Syria during the summit. At the time, Salehi said that the Iranian initiative would be “acceptable, rational and principled” and would be “very difficult to oppose”, so what has happened to this initiative? Where is it?
It was noteworthy that during Iran’s closing statement of the Non-Aligned Movement summit, there was no indication of the so-called “Tehran Declaration” regarding the situation in Syria, whether directly or indirectly. According to the New York Times, quoting US diplomats, the Iranians tried in the afternoon of the last day of the summit to pass a separate paragraph on Syria, but failed due to the resistance of Arab delegations. The newspaper also reported that Iran was “first unwilling and later unable to gather support for President Bashar al-Assad’s government”, adding that the Iranians remained silent on Syria before the summit “to prevent disagreements, Iranian officials acknowledged”. The newspaper also cited eyewitnesses when revealing that “frustration was visible on Friday afternoon when the Iranian foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, could be seen talking and gesturing in the main hall while debating with his Syrian counterpart for nearly 20 minutes”!
So, was there really an Iranian initiative towards Syria? How could Salehi previously announce that this initiative would be presented at the Non-Aligned Movement summit, saying it would be an acceptable proposal and difficult to oppose, and then Iran refrains from putting it forward? As I asked in a previous article: Is it conceivable that Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki dared to put forward his own proposal to resolve the Syrian crisis during the summit, at a time when the Iranian Foreign Minister announced that his country also intended to launch a special initiative on Syria? What is going on? Clearly we are facing several possible scenarios; either Iran feels it has now become too difficult to save al-Assad, given the facts on the ground, or al-Assad himself rejected Iran’s proposals, given that they may require him to leave in order to preserve the regime, i.e. al-Assad would leave for Tehran and Iran’s allies would remain in the new Syrian regime. Some might say that perhaps Iranian attempts were foiled as a result of Arab opposition in the Non-Aligned Movement summit, and this is also a possibility. But what prevents Tehran from putting forth its initiative outside of the Non-Aligned Movement? There is no logical answer to this question as of yet, which essentially means that Iran is unable to put forth an initiative on Syria, like the Russians, unless it leads to the departure of al-Assad. This is something that the tyrant of Damascus completely rejects, and this reveals – as I pointed out in my previous article “Al-Assad is well aware of what he is saying!” – that the recent television interview conducted by the Syrian President on the eve of the Non-Aligned Movement summit was a call to his allies to give him more time!
Hence, I will conclude by saying that Tehran has failed with regards to the Syrian issue, and that its position now is very similar to that of Russia. Both – Iran and Russia – are capable of disrupting [international efforts], but they are not able to change the reality in Syria. This means that al-Assad is heading towards his inevitable end, perhaps along the lines of Muammar Gaddafi or even worse, but only after destroying Syria in its entirety. This is something that those who are hesitant to adopt practical steps to accelerate his downfall have failed to understand, unfortunately!