01 june 12 osint levant tracker

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TheCENTCOM This OSINT publication contains foreign mediaderived entirely from open sources in andaround the CENTCOM AOR.

01 Jun 201

EGYPT

Army Lifts Three Decades-Old State of Emergency in Egypt: Al ArabiyaEgypts decades-long state of emergency came to an end on Thursday after its last renewal expired, the rulingmilitary said in a statement, vowing to continue to protect the nation, reported AFP. (Source: Dubai, UAE;Owned by MBC Group, Intl (Large Iraqi following); Neutral; Daily)

Shafiqs Campaign Denies Remarks Quoted in New York Times: Al-Masry Al-YoumAn official source with the presidential campaign of former PM Ahmed Shafiq denied a New York Times report thatShafiq said he would use excessive force and executions to restore security. The story has been picked up byseveral Egyptian newspapers and websites. (Source: Cairo, Egypt; Independent; Daily; Undetermined).

Egypt Revolutionary Groups Call For Friday Rallies To Shelve Candidate Shafiq: Ahram OnlineRevolutionary Youth Union and April 6 call for 'Disenfranchisement Friday' rally against Ahmed Shafiq in TahrirSquare describing the presidential candidate as an unwanted reminder of a difficult past. (Source: Cairo, Egypt;Daily; Neutral)

Mubarak Trial Verdict May Divide Egypt Further: Al Sharaq Al AwsatGuilty or not, Saturday's verdict in Mubarak's trial will likely deepen Egypt's polarization. Political tensions arealready simmering in a heated runoff for president pitting the ousted leader's last prime minister against an Islamistfrom a group that the old regime repeatedly cracked down. (Source: London, England; pan-Arab daily news;Pro Arab)

ISRAEL / GAZA

Israeli Officials Link Tehran To Assads Massacres: Jerusalem PostThe Iranian regime is in a very concrete manner lending its support to the Syrian governments murder of the

Syrian people.", A day after Ali Larijani, the speaker of Irans parliament, said a Western military intervention inSyria would engulf Israel, Israeli government officials tried to shine the light on Iranian involvement in the Syrianbloodshed. (Source: Israel, Independent, Slightly right leaning / Pro West)

Israeli Soldier, Gaza Gunman Killed In Border Clash: Al Masry Al YoumAn Israeli soldier and a gunman from the Gaza Strip were killed in a rare border clash on Friday, the army said in astatement. (Source: Cairo, Egypt; Independent; Daily; Undetermined).

Luck Of A Major General: YnetA nerve-wracking incident occurred on Thursday when the black hawk helicopter which had GOC ArmyHeadquarters Major-General Sami Turgeman and 10 other senior officers on board was forced to make anemergency landing in southern Israel. (Source: Israel, Yedi'ot Media Group)

Medics: Israel Bombs Gaza Injuring 4: Maan NewsIsraeli airstrikes wounded four Palestinians in the southern Gaza Strip early Friday, hours after an Israeli soldierand Palestinian militant were killed in an exchange of fire along the border. (Source: Bethlehem, Israel; Fundedby Dutch and Danish Foreign Ministries; anti-Zionism / anti-West)

JORDAN

Tarawneh Checks On Brotherhood Leaders Health: PetraPrime Minister Fayez Tarawneh on Thursday checked on the health of Hammam Saeed, overall leader of theMuslim Brotherhood, who was admitted to hospital after he fell ill this week. (Source: Amman, Jordan; Pro-Govt)

OSINT Phone #: 813.827.1441 - Email: [email protected]

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Families of Jordanian Prisoners in Israel Stage Sit-In: PetraTens of families of Jordanian prisoners in Israeli jails on Thursday staged a sit-in in front of the National Centre forHuman Rights headquarters, calling on the centre to follow up on their relatives cases and ensure their release. (Source: Amman, Jordan; Pro-Govt)

Syrian Refugees Draining Water-Poor Jordan Dry: The Daily StarTens of thousands of Syrian refugees who have fled from carnage and violence at home to neighboring Jordan aredraining the desert kingdom's meager water resources, officials and experts say. (Source: Beirut, Lebanon;Independent; Daily, Except Sunday; Neutral)

LEBANON

Citizen Accused of Collaborating With Israel Released After 3 Years in Jail: NaharnetThe Military Court released from jail on Thursday Lebanese citizen, Ziad al-Homsi, after he served time on chargesof collaborating with Israeli intelligence, reported al-Jadeed television. (Source: Lebanon, English edition of ANahar, Liberal)

Lebanese Action Film Takes On Israel-Hezbollah War: The Daily StarThe villain in Lebanon's new hit war movie: a cigar-smoking Israeli army colonel who sports a cowboy hat and ahandlebar mustache and repeatedly orders troops to shell Lebanese villages. The heroes: residents of one suchvillage who band together to fight Israeli troops. (Source: Beirut, Lebanon; Independent; Daily, Except Sunday;Neutral)

Sleiman Heads to Saudi Arabia: Now LebanonPresident Michel Sleiman departed to Saudi Arabia Friday for a one-day official visit. (Source: Beirut, Lebanon;Privately Funded / Independent; Liberal)

Miqati Urges Turkey to Exert Efforts to Free Lebanese Visitors: Al ManarLebanese PM Najib Miqati held talks with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, urging thelatter to continue the efforts in order to release the 11 Lebanese visitors who were abducted in Syria ten days ago.(Source: Beirut, Lebanon; LCC; Intl; Hezbollah TV outlet)

Hezbollah Wants to Move Far-Reaching Scuds from Syria: Arutz ShevaHezbollah looking to move Scud D missiles, which can reach Eilat, and modern anti-aircraft equipment from Syriato Lebanon. According to the report, the group fears the weapons may come into the hands of the rebels againstSyrian President Bashar Assad. (Source: Beit El, Israel; Independent; Identifies with Religious Zion)

SYRIA

Live Blog on Developments in Syria: Now Lebanon

Syrian forces killed seven on Friday, Anti-regime demonstration in Al-Qamishli and Kobani, Syrian activiststhreatened a "volcano of rage" on Friday over the killing of civilians by government forces, Germany urged Russiato curb its support for Damascus (Source: Beirut, Lebanon; Privately Funded / Independent; Liberal)

Syrian Group Claims Kidnap of Shia Pilgrims: Al JazeeraA previously unknown armed group calling itself the "Syrian Revolutionaries Aleppo Province" claims to havekidnapped a group of Lebanese Shia pilgrims in exchange for an apology from Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.(Source: Doha, Qatar; Independent; Website of the TV Network; Claim Neutrality)

Iranian Arms Supplied To Assad Regime through Civilian Airplanes: Al Bawaba


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Iran is using its airliners to send weapons and explosives to the regime of al-Assad and Hizbullah in Lebanon, saidthe German television channel, ZDF. Citing sources within Western intelligence services, ZDF said that the transferof the arms shipments were made via Yas Air and Iran Air companies, which are supposed to carry passengers.(Source: Amman, Jordan; Popular Arab media; Daily; Claims Neutrality)

Clinton Rejects Syria Military Intervention; Slams Russian Resistance to U.N. Action: Al ArabiyaU.S. Secretary of State Clinton on Thursday laid out arguments against a military intervention in Syria despite callsfor the West to take action after last weeks massacre in the town of Houla. (Source: Dubai, UAE; Owned by MBCGroup, Intl (Large Iraqi following); Neutral; Daily)

US Envoy Slams 'Reprehensible' Russia Arms Sales to Syria: Ahram onlineUS envoy Susan Rice on Thursday condemned "reprehensible" Russian arms deliveries to Syria as she steppedup US calls for increased international pressure on President Bashar al-Assad. (Source: Cairo, Egypt; Daily;Neutral)

Syria Rebels Issue 48-Hour Ultimatum: The Daily StarSyrian rebels gave President Bashar Assad a 48-hour deadline Wednesday to comply with an international peaceplan otherwise they would renew their battle to overthrow him. The ultimatum was issued after U.N. observersreported the discovery of 13 bodies bound and shot in eastern Syria, adding to the world outcry over the massacrelast week of 108 men, women and children. (Source: Beirut, Lebanon; Independent; Daily, Except Sunday;Neutral)

UN Rights Body Meets over Syria Massacre: Al JazeeraThe United Nation's Human Rights Committee is meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss last week's massacrein Syria that killed 108 people, many of them children. (Source: Doha, Qatar; Independent; Website of the TVNetwork; Claim Neutrality)

EDITORIALS

Syria: The Tragic Space Between the Unacceptable and the Impossible: Al JazeeraThe Houla Massacre of a week ago in several small Muslim villages near the Syrian city of Homs underscores thetragic circumstances of a civilian vulnerability to brutal violence of a criminal government. (Source: Doha, Qatar;Independent; Website of the TV Network; Claim Neutrality)

Can Turkey Inspire Egypt: Al Arabiya?Last week, Egyptians went to the polls to participate in the first presidential election since Mubarak's downfall inFebruary 2011. Going forward, the new president, who will be elected in the second phase of elections in June,should look to examples from other countries that have undergone successful democratic transitions. (Source:Dubai, UAE; Owned by MBC Group, Intl (Large Iraqi following); Neutral; Daily)

The Regimes Rhetoric: Al Sharaq Al AwsatLast year, the number of friends I have on Facebook doubled, I do not know most of them personally; however theSyrian revolution, with its momentum and character and tragedies has served as a basis to connect with Syrianyouth and writers and other figures that we do not often hear from, thanks to the complexities in the Lebanese andSyrian situation. (Source: London, England; pan-Arab daily news; Pro Arab)

Supporting Documentation:

EGYPT (Top)


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31 May 2012Al ArabiyaArmy Lifts Three Decades-Old State of Emergency in Egypt

(U) Egypts military, which took charge after Mubaraks overthrow in February 2011, at first extended the law toinclude strikes but then said it would apply only to thuggery. (AP)

Egypts decades-long state of emergency came to an end on Thursday after its last renewal expired, the rulingmilitary said in a statement, vowing to continue to protect the nation, reported AFP. The military will continue itsnational and historic responsibility, taking into account that the state of emergency has ended, in accordance withthe constitutional declaration and with the law, it said. Egypt has been under a state of emergency since President

Anwar Sadats assassination in 1981, allowing authorities to detain people without charge and try them inemergency security courts.

Parliament renewed the emergency law for two years in May 2010 when now ousted president Hosni Mubarak wasstill in power, but limited its application to terrorism and drug crimes.

The military, which took charge after Mubaraks overthrow in February 2011, at first extended the law to includestrikes but then said it would apply only to thuggery according to a report by AFP. A constitutional declarationratified in a referendum in March last year gave the military the responsibility to protect the country but said onlyparliament had the right to proclaim a state of emergency, at the executives request. The military had suspendedthe constitution after Mubaraks overthrow. Essam Erian, the deputy leader of the Islamist Freedom and JusticeParty, which has the most seats in parliament, told AFP the militarys statement indicated it would not askparliament to extend the law.

Fears of an extension

Earlier there were speculations on the possibility of another extension and concerns about the stance of theIslamist-dominated parliament.

According to observers, the Muslim Brotherhood and its political wing the Freedom and Justice Party will be subjectto harsh criticism in case the parliament proposes an extension to the law, especially in the light of the remarkable


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drop in the groups popularity following the performance of its members in the lower house of parliament, thePeoples Assembly.The stance of Brotherhood presidential candidate Mohammed Mursi in case he wins the elections was also broughtinto question. Mursis campaign was quick to respond and stress that in case Mursi becomes president, he willnever seek an extension for the emergency law.

Mursi has no intention to extend the emergency law and there is no need for doing that in the first place, YasserAli, the spokesman of Mursis presidential campaign told the Egyptian daily independent al-Watan.

Ali said that with the fierce competition between Mursi and Hosni Mubaraks former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq,both of whom have reached the run-off, the first will stir clear of anything that the second represents by virtue ofbeing an integral part of the former regime and a potential replication of all its repressive practices.

Ali quoted Mursi as saying that proper application of the penal code is enough to guarantee the prevalence ofsecurity in the Egyptian street.

Then there will be no need for such a notorious law.

As for security during election time, Ali said that this can be done through the police working at full force.

We will never go back. Citizens will no longer be subject to detention without justification, Ali concluded.

01 June 2012Al-Masry Al-YoumShafiqs Campaign Denies Remarks Quoted in New York Times

(U) Former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq

An official source with the presidential campaign of former Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq denied a New York Timesreport that Shafiq said he would use excessive force and executions to restore security. The story has been pickedup by several Egyptian newspapers and websites.

The source accused the New York Times of defamation and said that the paper mistranslated what he said duringa meeting with the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt on 15 May.


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The newspaper said that Shafiq suggested that he would use executions and brutal force to restore order within amonth.

The source said that a recording of the meeting, which was attended by people interested in the economy,businessmen, thinkers and a number of ambassadors from foreign countries, is available on the official websites ofthe chamber of commerce for reference.

The source said it is illogical that the presidential hopeful would use excessive force and executions to restore orderand security, adding that these claims come amid other defamation campaigns against Shafiq.

Shafiq will compete against the Muslim Brotherhoods candidate Mohamed Mosy in the presidential runoff on 16and 17 June.

Shafiqs success in the first round of the presidential election has caused uproar among revolutionary forces, whohave called for protests against his participation in the runoff. Shafiq was the last prime minister of the toppledMubarak regime.

01 June 2012Ahram OnlineEgypt Revolutionary Groups Call For Friday Rallies To Shelve Candidate ShafiqRevolutionary Youth Union and April 6 call for 'Disenfranchisement Friday' rally against Ahmed Shafiq in TahrirSquare describing the presidential candidate as an unwanted reminder of a difficult past

The Revolutionary Youth Union has called on Egyptians to head to Tahrir Square and other cities in Egypt on'Disenfranchisement Friday' to demand the exclusion of Mubarak-era Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq from thepresidential race.

The Union, an offshoot of the January 25 uprising against the ousted president Mubarak, demands theimplementation of the recently passed Political Disenfranchisement Law which would bar Mubarak-era officials,including Shafiq, from holding political office for 10 years.

The constitutionality of the law, which was passed by parliament in April, is being determined by the HighConstitutional Court, with a verdict expected in the next few weeks.

Shafiq came second in the presidential election first round on 23/24 May and will face the Muslim Brotherhood'sMohamed Mursi in the second round slated for 16-17 June.

In a statement released Thursday, the Union held Shafiq responsible for the Battle of the Camel which left 11Egyptians dead and hundreds injured on 2/3 February 2011during the uprising.

Ousted president Mubarak had installed Shafiq, an ex aviation minister, as prime minister in late January 2011 inan attempt to quell the growing protests. However, only two days later, thugs on horses and camels attackedprotesters in Tahrir Square.

"Shafiq is the prime minister of the Battle of the Camel. He was a witness and a partner in the death of Egypt'sinnocent youth. He was also a partner of Mubarak in destroying the political, economic and social life of Egypt," theUnion said in a statement on Thursday.


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The Union asked people to join the protests under the slogan of "No to a new Mubarak," a nod to the fact that manyrevolutionaries believe that if Shafiq becomes president he will resurrect the Mubarak regime. They also asked thepublic to snub the results of the first round of the elections.

"The elections were rigged, and forced people to choose between a member of the old regime and a MuslimBrotherhood candidate," the statement continued.

Eight marches will kick off from El-Estekama mosque in Giza, Mostafa Mahmoud mosque in Mohandessin, El-Khazindar mosque in Shoubra, El-Fath mosque in Ramsis, El-Saida Zeinab mosque, in addition to other marchesfrom Maadi and Cairo University. All marches will make it to Tahrir Square after Islamic midday prayers. Protestersare then planning to stay in Tahrir Square till 4 pm then kick off again to the general prosecutor's office.

April 6 Youth Movement is among the movements calling for this protest and it will kick off its march to Tahrir fromEl-Fath mosque.

"We are calling for the implementation of the disenfranchisement law to exclude Ahmed Shafiq from the runoffs,"Tarek El-Khouli, the spokesperson of April 6 Youth Movement (the Democratic Front) told Ahram Arabic languagewebsite.

Moreover, April 6 Youth Movement said it is against the reluctance by government officials to investigate the formerAhmed Shafiq on corruption charges and refusal to apply the disenfranchisement law on him.

01 June 2012Al Sharaq Al AwsatMubarak Trial Verdict May Divide Egypt FurtherGuilty or not, Saturday's verdict in Hosni Mubarak's trial will likely deepen Egypt's polarization. Political tensions are

already simmering in a heated runoff for president pitting the ousted leader's last prime minister against an Islamistfrom a group that the old regime repeatedly cracked down.

The 84-year-old Mubarak, the first Arab leader to be tried by his own people, faces charges of complicity in thekilling of some 900 protesters during last year's uprising that forced him from power.

If convicted, he could face the death penalty. He also faced separate corruption charges along with his two sonsone-time heir apparent Gamal and wealthy businessman Alaa and a family friend who is on the run."We are so eagerly awaiting the verdict," said George Ishaq, who gained nationwide fame as a vocal critic ofMubarak's rule. "An innocent verdict will trigger a horrific reaction."

His trial mesmerized the nation, with images of him lying on a hospital gurney inside a defendants' cage of iron barsand barbed wire taken by most Egyptians to symbolize both their triumph over tyranny and the humiliation of a

dictator who ruled for close to 30 years.

He rarely spoke and when it was time for him to address the court in his own defense, he chose to submit a letter inwhich he pleaded his innocence.

While in progress, the trial dominated the national conversation and fed tension in an already turbulent transitionalperiod under the tutelage of the ruling generals who took over from him; with many convinced the process was justfor show to appease protesters who demanded that Mubarak answers for his actions.


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Mubarak loyalists frequently fought with relatives of dead protesters outside the court, a lecture hall in a policeacademy once named after him. Lawyers seeking damage for the victims' families, as well as publicity, occasionallychanted slogans against him in court.

The verdict comes just days after electoral officials announced that Mubarak's last prime minister and one-timeprotg Ahmed Shafiq is one of two candidates who made it into a presidential runoff slated for June 16-17.Like his mentor, Shafiq is a career air force officer. He and Mohammed Morsi of the Muslim Brotherhood emergedfrom last week's first round vote as the top vote-getters in a field of 13 candidates.

Morsi's candidacy has raised serious concern among many Egyptians that he would inject more religion intogovernment if he wins. Others fear Morsi's Brotherhood, empowered after spending the best part of the last 60years as an illegal organization, will become the nation's new dictatorship, a possibility that's intensely propagatedby some in the official media.

Shafiq's own presidential run is scaring many who fear he would recreate the old regime, pardon Mubarak, hissons, and regime stalwarts in jail awaiting trial. They fear he may also revive the widely hated Mubarak-era alliancebetween government and business.

A guilty verdict on Saturday, some believe, could endear Shafiq to more voters and, in some ways, lend credenceto his pledge that he will not recreate the old regime if elected.

Shafiq ran on an anti-revolutionary platform, frequently making disparaging comments about the youth groupsbehind last year's uprising, but he changed tack after his second-place finish, speaking of the "glorious revolution"and that there was no turning back the clock.

An innocent verdict for Mubarak, however, would send protesters out on the streets to demand "revolutionaryjustice" for the former president and seriously undermine Shafiq's chances of winning the land's highest office.

"The Mubarak legacy continues to impact the country's politics," said Negad Borai, a lawyer and a rights activist."The 15 months since his ouster are not enough to remove him from the scene. After 30 years in power, it may takefive or more years for that to happen."

In many ways, the Morsi-Shafiq contest mirrors the enmity between Mubarak and the Brotherhood during the lastthree decades. And a Morsi triumph would be the realization of Mubarak's oft-repeated prophecy that theBrotherhood would take over after he is gone.

Egyptians remain fascinated by what Mubarak does and says.

The independent Al-Watan newspaper has tapped into that interest by publishing partial accounts of Mubarak's lifein prison hospitals and the time he spends at the courthouse with his sons and fellow defendants. The authenticity

of those accounts cannot be verified, but some of the comments attributed to him are exactly what Egyptians grewaccustomed to hearing from him during his long rule.

"These guys are so incompetent, they will bankrupt a cigarette kiosk if they run one," he was quoted as saying ofthe 13 presidential candidates. "Good riddance, he wrecked (Egypt) and left," he was quoted as saying when toldthat top reform leader and Nobel Peace laureate Mohamed ElBaradei pulled out of the presidential race.The Mubarak trial, which began 10 months ago, is likely to be remembered as a defining event in the Arab Springuprising that has swept across the Middle East and North Africa.


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But the process has been less than perfect, according to legal experts. It was held in a charged atmosphere.Lawyers for the victims' families behaved chaotically and the prosecutor's case was generally seen as weak."On the whole, the trial was rushed and politicized," said Nasser Amin, a legal expert.

Feeding widely held suspicions that ruling generals, led by Mubarak's defense minister of 20 years, have onlygrudgingly put Mubarak and his sons on trial, the former leader has since his arrest in April last year stayed inluxury hospitals, first in his favorite Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh and later at a military hospital east of Cairo.His sons swagger without handcuffs into the courtroom from the armored vans that bring them from prison. Somepolice officers salute Mubarak's co-defendant and former security chief Habib el-Adly when he arrives in courtwearing designer sunglasses and a blue baseball cap matching his prison uniform.

Like Mubarak, el-Adly, who led the hated police force, faced charges of complicity in the killing of the protesters.Four top police commanders are also on trial in the same case.

Just days before the verdict were set to be delivered, the Mubarak sons were slapped with new charges of insidertrading along with seven other people.

The prosecutor general's office said on Wednesday the two made illicit gains in the millions of Egyptian poundsfrom the sale in 2007 of a bank in which they secretly held a controlling stake without informing authorities. Thenew case, which was referred to trial, was interpreted as a timely attempt by Egypt's military rulers to assuageanger over the possible ascent to the presidency of Shafiq.

ISRAEL / GAZA (Top)

01 June 2102Jerusalem Post

Israeli Officials Link Tehran To Assads Massacres

(U)Photo: Morteza Nikoubazl / Reuters

The Iranian regime is in a very concrete manner lending its support to the Syrian governments murder of theSyrian people.", A day after Ali Larijani, the speaker of Irans parliament, said a Western military intervention inSyria would engulf Israel, Israeli government officials tried to shine the light on Iranian involvement in the Syrianbloodshed.

The Iranian regime is in a very concrete manner lending its support to the Syrian governments murder of theSyrian people, and this is part of their very aggressive and dangerous behavior in the region, one official said.


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If this is what Iran does without atomic weapons, the official added, what would Iranian behavior look like if theyhad nuclear capabilities?

Meanwhile, a US think tank has published satellite images that it says underscore suspicions that Iran is trying todestroy evidence of nuclear weapons-related research at a site that UN inspectors have not been allowed to visit.

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that Syria was brutally slaughtering its people with, ofcourse, the assistance of Iran and Hezbollah real assistance, not just political support, but assistance in murder.

The Tehran Times quoted Larijani as warning that US military officials probably have a poor understanding ofthemselves and regional issues because Syria is in no way similar to Libya, and [the effects of] creating anotherBenghazi in Syria would spread to Palestine, and ash rising from the flames would definitely envelop the Zionistregime.

Larijani said it seemed as if the US and the West were seeking to pave the way for a new crisis.

Larijani also said that US officials should be aware of [the nature of] their dangerous game. Isnt it necessary thatthey take measures in response to the military occupation of Bahrain? The question is why they are preventing thereform plan in Syria from moving forward.

The Iranian parliamentarian was quoted as saying that certain reactionaries in the region take pride in the fact thatthey have used money and weapons to destroy and incite a civil war in Syria.

He also declared that the Iranian parliament supports democratic reforms in Syria that will help uphold the peoplesrights, condemns terrorist actions and opportunistic interference by certain countries in Syria as well as the hawkishand unwise messages of the United States, and warns that it may seem easy to embark on such an act ofadventurism, but it will definitely be difficult to end it.

Former Mossad head Meir Dagan, who has questioned the wisdom of an Israeli military strike on Irans nuclearfacilities, did say on Wednesday that he senses that now the time is ripe to weaken the position of Iran in the worldand in the area.

Dagan said that Iran puts everything into Syria and Hezbollah, which it uses as proxies against Israel and theWest. He said that a situation where Assad would fall, and the Sunnis would rise in Syria, would automaticallyweaken Hezbollah in a dramatic way and reduce the impact of Iran in the area.

The Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security posted the satellite photos on its websitehours after the UN nuclear watchdog showed diplomats similar images that Western envoys said indicated a clean-up at the Parchin military facility.

Parchin, which Iran says is a conventional military complex southeast of Tehran, is at the center of Westernallegations that Iran has conducted experiments possibly a decade ago that could help develop atom bombs.

The new satellite images appear to back Western suspicions that Iran is cleaning the site of any incriminatingevidence, such as traces of uranium or other materials, before possibly allowing the International Atomic Energy

Agency (IAEA) to go there.

Western diplomats who attended Wednesdays closed-door briefing by the IAEA in Vienna told Reuters that twosmall buildings at Parchin had been removed, and the Institute for Science and International Security said itspictures from May 25 showed that they had been completely razed.


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Iran is worried that the agency might find something there. Otherwise, it wouldnt be going through the sanitizationprocess, a senior Western official said.

The pictures were published after inconclusive talks last week between Tehran and six world powers that aim toend a nuclear standoff in which the West has intensified sanctions on Iran, and Israel and the United States havethreatened military strikes to stop the Islamic Republic from getting the bomb.

01 June 2012Al Masry Al YoumIsraeli Soldier, Gaza Gunman Killed In Border Clash

Unclassified

An Israeli soldier and a gunman from the Gaza Strip were killed in a rare border clash on Friday, the army said in astatement.

It said the gunman, who was not immediately identified, crossed the fortified boundary into Israel from thePalestinian enclave and opened fire on troops, who shot back.

Palestinian witnesses heard an explosion and shooting near Abassan, a border village in southern Gaza that is alsoclose to the Egyptian frontier. They said Israeli forces set off smoke bombs to obscure the view as helicopterscircled.

Gaza's Islamist Hamas rulers and other militants are hostile to the Jewish state, and the enclave saw a surge incross-border fighting in March. But violence had otherwise abated as rival Palestinian factions negotiate power-

sharing deals and monitor political developments in Egypt.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the cross-border raid, but the Israeli army blamed Hamas.

"The Hamas terror organization is solely responsible for any terrorist activity emanating from the Gaza Strip," itsaid.

01 June 2012Ynet


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Luck Of A Major General

(U)Ground Forces Commander Major General Sami Turgeman

A nerve-wracking incident occurred on Thursday when the black hawk helicopter which had GOC ArmyHeadquarters Major-General Sami Turgeman and 10 other senior officers on board was forced to make anemergency landing in southern Israel.

Major-General Turgeman left the Bahad-1 Officers Training Base for the Kastina Ground Forces headquarters.During the trip, a bird hit the helicopter's main blade.

Two air force pilots announce an emergency situation and landed the helicopter smoothly, in spite of the severelydamaged blade. No injuries were reported in the incident. An air force technical team was dispatched to the landingsite to fix the damages after which the helicopter returned to base.

The officers were forced to walk to the nearest road where they were picked up by an IDF car.

Senior IDF officials noted that luckily, the incident occurred when the helicopter was flying at a low altitude. Had itbeen flying at a higher altitude, they said, the incident would have had a tragic end. This is the fourth time theMajor general Turgeman has escaped some sticky situations caused by accidents or serious safety mishaps duringIDF training exercises in the last few years.

01 June 2012Maan NewsMedics: Israel Bombs Gaza Injuring 4Israeli airstrikes wounded four Palestinians in the southern Gaza Strip early Friday, hours after an Israeli soldierand Palestinian militant were killed in an exchange of fire along the border.

Witnesses said Israeli aircraft bombed an auto rickshaw east of Khan Younis. Medical spokesman Adham AbuSalmiyah said four people were wounded, and two were in a critical condition.

An Israeli army spokeswoman told Ma'an that aircraft targeted what she described as a terrorist squad that hadfired a rocket at Israeli soldiers. She said a hit was confirmed.

The official added that the Israeli military would continue to operate "against anyone who uses terror against theresidents of the State of Israel. The Hamas terrorist organization is responsible for any terrorist activity emanatingfrom the Gaza Strip."


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(U)Jordanians and Syrian refugees take part in a demonstration against Syria's President Bashar Assad in AmmanMay 30, 2012. (REUTERS/Ali Jarekji)

Tens of thousands of Syrian refugees who have fled from carnage and violence at home to neighboring Jordan aredraining the desert kingdom's meager water resources, officials and experts say.

It is a new challenge for Jordan, one of the world's 10 driest countries, where desert covers 92 percent of itsterritory and the population of 6.7 million is growing by 3.5 percent a year.

The tiny Arab country has given refuge to waves of Palestinian and Iraqi refugees because of regional conflictsover the past decades, and now the kingdom is hosting up to 120,000 Syrians.

"The majority of Syrian refugees are concentrated in the northern cities of Mafraq, Irbid, Ramtha, Jerash and Ajlun.All of these areas already suffer from water shortage," Fayez Bataineh, secretary general of the Water Authority,told AFP.

"They add pressure to our limited water resources, and we need to be extra careful and wisely manage theseresources."

Years of below-average rainfall have created a shortfall of 500 million cubic meters (17.5 billion cubic feet) a year,and the country forecasts it will need 1.6 billion cubic meters of water a year by 2015.

"Each Syrian refugee needs at least 80 liters of fresh water a day, so 9,600 cubic meters per day for 120,000people. The cost of this subsidized water supply is 13,000 dinar ($18,000) a day, not to mention other relatedexpenses," said Adnan Zubi, assistant secretary general of the Ministry of Water and Irrigation. "It is not the firsttime that Jordan hosted forced migrants, but our water resources and infrastructure are already overburdened."

Struggling to battle a chronic water shortage, Jordan is mulling controversial plans to extract water. It is tapping intoa 300,000-year-old aquifer, despite concerns about high levels of radiation, while studying ways to build a canalfrom the Red Sea to the Dead Sea.

"When my family and I fled to Ramtha from Homs several months ago, we could not find enough drinking water,"said Abu Eid, who has two sons and four daughters.

"Sometimes, I avoided eating in order not to go to the toilet later because there was no water to wash. But we haveadapted to the situation."


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Maher, another Syrian refugee living in the border town of Ramtha, said he needs to buy water every day.

"We have water shortages all the time. I shower once every 10 days," he added.

But Basma, a 25-year-old Syrian refugee woman in Irbid, disagreed.

"I did not face any water problems in Jordan. I think the Jordanians are doing what they can to help us and thingsare fine thank God," she told AFP.

According to the U.N. refugee agency (UNHCR), more than 20,000 Syrian refugees are registered in Jordan.

Aoife McDonnell of UNHCR Jordan told AFP that the U.N. organization is aware that "hosting such large numbersof 'guests' ... severely strains already scarce resources, particularly in relation to water availability andconsumption, waste management, sewage systems, energy, health and education."

Jordan provides free medical services to U.N.-registered refugees, while more than 5,500 Syrian students haveenrolled in public schools.

"This reliance on local services and infrastructure also brings increasing pressure on the already vulnerable hostpopulations of Jordan, as it is coupled with major water scarcity in the region, rising temperatures and a resultingnegative impact on food production," McDonnell said, urging international support for the kingdom.Jordan's average annual water consumption stands at around 900 million cubic meters, but more than 60 percentof this water goes to agriculture, which contributes 3.6 percent to gross domestic product, according to officialfigures.

"The Syrians came from water-rich areas to almost parched parts in Jordan," said Abdelrahman Sultan of theJordanian-Israeli-Palestinian non-governmental group Friends of the Earth Middle East.

"They consume water here the same way they used to consume water in their country."

The Ministry of Environment said demand for water is expected to increase.

"This requires better infrastructure in order to ensure a healthier environment for the refugees, a project that wouldcost a lot," Ahmad Qatarneh, the ministry's secretary general, told AFP.

The government says it is still difficult to determine the cost of hosting Syrians in Jordan."It goes without saying that it is high, but we cannot say for sure at the moment because Syrians are still fleeing toJordan," said government spokesman Samih Maayatah.

More than 13,000 people have been killed, most of them civilians, since the uprising against President Bashar

Assad's regime erupted in March last year, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

"We did not wonder whether we would get enough water or not in Jordan. We just ran for our lives," said Abu Eid.

LEBANON (Top)

31 May 2012NaharnetCitizen Accused of Collaborating With Israel Released After 3 Years in Jail


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The Military Court released from jail on Thursday Lebanese citizen, Ziad al-Homsi, after he served time on chargesof collaborating with Israeli intelligence, reported al-Jadeed television.Homsi was accused in December 2010 of collaborating with Israel and he was sentenced to 15 years in jail withhard labor.

He was released after some three years in jail and causes for his release have not been disclosed.

Homsi is the former mayor of the Bekaa town of Saadneyel and he was serving as its deputy mayor at the time ofhis arrest in 2009.

He has been released shortly after retired Brigadier General Fayez Karam was released from jail after serving timeon charges of collaborating with Israel.

Karam was arrested in 2010 and set free last April, benefitting from the reduction of the prison year.

01 June 2012The Daily StarLebanese Action Film Takes On Israel-Hezbollah WarThe villain in Lebanon's new hit war movie: a cigar-smoking Israeli army colonel who sports a cowboy hat and ahandlebar mustache and repeatedly orders troops to shell Lebanese villages. The heroes: residents of one suchvillage who band together to fight Israeli troops.

The film, 33 Days, tells the story of the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah in one front-line village and glorifies"the resistance" - shorthand among many Lebanese for Hezbollah and other groups that fight Israel.

The movie is unlikely to screen in Israel or the West. But in Lebanon, still officially at war with the Jewish state, ithas drawn large crowds since opening on April 19. Audiences often cheer when Hezbollah rockets smash intoIsraeli tanks, indicating the hatred still aimed across the border six years after a war that began with a cross-borderHezbollah raid and killed 160 people in Israel and about 1,200 in Lebanon, reducing parts of south Beirut and manysouthern villages to rubble.


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The film also reflects Iranian influence in Lebanon that goes beyond the increasingly sophisticated weapons it givesto Hezbollah, which has parlayed that support into a position as the most powerful political and military force inLebanon, dictating the makeup of the country's current government.

The film's director and much of its funding and crew came from Iran. Although Hezbollah played no official role inproducing it, the film serves as a feature-length advertisement for the anti-Israel struggle.

Ali Bouzeid, chairman of the film's Lebanese production company, denied that the film is political, comparing it tofootage of workers in a bank fighting off armed robbers.

"If I get the footage of that and show it, is that a political film?" he asked. "It's a reality that happened."

Others see it differently.

"These films strengthen the culture of resistance among people, encourage them and make them sympathize withthe resistance in all of Lebanon," actor Bassem Mughniyeh said in a promotional video released online.

Iran's quasi-governmental Farabi production company provided more than half of the film's $4 million budget,Bouzeid said. A Farsi-language version opened late last year in Iran, and the original Arabic is now showing intheaters across Lebanon. Bouzeid said he is negotiating distribution elsewhere in the Arab world and Turkey.The film was shot in a 5,000-square-yard (meter) set built to represent the south Lebanon village of Aita al-Shaab.Most of the set was destroyed in the film's production, just like the real village during the war.

The actors are Lebanese, Bouzeid said, but most of the crew were Iranian. With a focus on battle scenes, thefilmmakers used more than 2,000 extras, 30 Lebanese army vehicles and dozens of explosions - one of whichwounded seven people.

The movie opens with blurry footage of Israeli troops panicking - apparently after Hezbollah crossed the border,killed three soldiers and captured two others, the event that sparked the war.

Cut to an Israeli military base: Col. Avi, the villain, lights a hotdog-sized cigar and orders troops to shell Aita al-Shaab, where the raid originated.

Then to the village itself, which is preparing for a wedding when word comes of the raid. The villagers mobilize forthe Israeli response that soon arrives in a shower of shells. Some residents flee; the heroes remain.

One scene shows Um Abbas, a veiled Muslim woman, handing an armful of rifles to surprised young fighters.

A series of flashbacks soon reveal her history with Avi: He killed her son and husband years earlier, and she repaidhim with a slash on his cheek, now a deep scar.

As Avi orders up more shelling, the casualties mount. A drone strike kills a man carrying medicine. After visiting hispregnant wife in an underground bunker, a leading fighter is surrounded by Israeli soldiers but detonates a handgrenade to kill himself and the Israelis instead of being taken prisoner.

Then the tide turns: Avi is addressing Israeli soldiers as a number of the nearly 4,000 rockets that Hezbollah firedduring the war fly overhead.

In Beirut's Abraj Theater during a recent screening, most of the 150 spectators burst into applause.


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In the next scenes, roadside bombs and shoulder-fired missiles destroy Israeli tanks; village fighters rout an Israeliadvance, sending terrified soldiers fleeing; and Umm Abbas emerges from a building with a sniper rifle as Avi fallsdead in the street - all to huge applause.

The cheering continues when a baby is heard crying in the bunker - until the camera reveals its dead mother.

But the village celebrates anyway, and the credits roll as families return to their homes.

Not all Lebanese like the film. Some reviewers criticized the script as too simple. Bassem Alhakim lauded itsspecial effects, but faulted it for reducing the Israeli colonel's war aims to a personal vendetta.

"In the film, he did not come to carry out an Israeli plan to destroy Hezbollah and disband the resistance," he wrotein the Al-Akhbar newspaper.

The audience at Abraj, however, was pleased.

Abu Asim Bazzeh, who brought his wife and three sons, aged 5, 12 and 14, praised the film's message.

"What really impressed me was the determination of the resistance to hang on to their land and be victorious,because that is what happened," he said.When asked about his favorite part, his son Mahdi, 12, said, "the missiles."

The theater's manager, Raymond Chaanine, said the film had outsold everything else since it opened and that mostwho see it are Hezbollah supporters. He had not seen it, adding that not everyone wants to remember the war.

"It's all about taste," he said. "There are some Lebanese who don't want to see anything that has to do with war.Others love it."

01 June 2012Now LebanonSleiman Heads to Saudi ArabiaPresident Michel Sleiman departed to Saudi Arabia at 11:30 a.m. on Friday for a one-day official visit, the NationalNews Agency reported, Sleiman will meet with Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdel Aziz to discuss bilateral relationsand Arab and regional developments, the NNA said, adding that Public Works and Transportation Minister Ghazi

Aridi accompanied the president.

01 June 2012Al Manar

Miqati Urges Turkey to Exert Efforts to Free Lebanese VisitorsLebanese Prime minster Najib Miqati held talks with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara,urging the latter to continue the efforts in order to release the 11 Lebanese visitors who were abducted in Syria tendays ago.

Mr. Erdogan stressed that Turkey will continue to exert intensified efforts to rescue the Lebanese citizens held inSyria, Miqatis press office said in a statement issued after the meeting.


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Erdogan underlined Turkeys support for Lebanons independence, sovereignty and political stability, stressing thathe continues to back the responsible approach endorsed by all parties towards preserving stability and civil peacein Lebanon, Miqatis office added.

Erdogan later threw a dinner banquet in honor of Miqati and the accompanying delegation, which included InteriorMinister Marwan Charbel and Foreign Minister Adnan Mansour.

On the other hand, Turkish daily Todays Zaman reported that Erdogan released a joint written statement, sayingthat the Turkish PM told Miqati that Turkey would continue to put efforts to help rescue the kidnapped Lebanesecitizens.

The daily added that the two men detailed talks on bilateral relations and regional affairs. Both leaders reaffirmedtheir will to improve their relations, the statement added.

01 June 2012Arutz ShevaHezbollah Wants to Move Far-Reaching Scuds from SyriaHezbollah looking to move Scud D missiles, which can reach Eilat, and modern anti-aircraft equipment from Syriato Lebanon.

The Hezbollah terror group wants to move Scud D-type missiles and modern anti-aircraft equipment from Syria toLebanon, Channel 2 News reported on Thursday.

According to the report, the group fears the weapons may come into the hands of the rebels against SyrianPresident Bashar Assad.

The report said that Hezbollah has recently been considering moving to Lebanon the modern weapons it alreadyowns but which are being kept in the groups bases in Damascus. Channel 2 noted that the Scud D missiles areconsidered quite sophisticated and have the ability to reach as far as the city of Eilat.

Hezbollah is reportedly concerned over a possible attack by the armed rebel forces in Syria on its weapons arsenalin Damascus. The group fears that the rebel Free Syrian Army may loot the weapons stockpile.

A Jordanian news site reported in early May that western spy satellites have recently spotted movements of Syrianheavy missile launchers northward and southward, toward Syria's borders with Turkey and Israel.

The site said hundreds of high-caliber launchers are being moved, and that these could only be long range Scudmissile launchers.

Syria has threatened in the past that in the event of foreign military intervention on its soil, it will not hesitate to firemissiles at Israel and Turkey in order to ignite a large scale regional war.

The IDFs Northern District Commander Yair Golan warned on Wednesday that the battle being waged in Syriabetween opponents of the Assad regime and Assad loyalists may have an effect on what is happening in Israel.

Al-Qaeda related factors that are active there now and working against the regime may operate against us overtime, Golan said. The Syrian threat to Israel requires attention. It will not happen tomorrow morning, but it canoccur within a few months.


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Golan added, Syria has weapons of mass destruction along with a very heavy arsenal of weapons, includingsurface-to-ground missiles and chemical weapons. The fact that Syria is a storehouse of weapons which fuelsterrorists in the region is very unsettling.

Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah recently threatened to strike multiple targets in Israel, including Tel Aviv.

We are capable of not only hitting specific targets in Tel Aviv but also any place in occupied Palestine, he said.

The era has come when we survive while they will be doomed to extinction, Nasrallah added. For every buildingthat is destroyed in the southern suburbs, several buildings will be destroyed in Tel Aviv in return.

The German broadcaster ZDF reported Wednesday that Iran is using commercial aircrafts to smuggle weaponsand explosives to Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Citing Western security sources, ZDF said that Iran Air and Yas Air have repeatedly used aircrafts designated aspassenger planes to transport weapons to the Assad regime and Hezbollah.

SYRIA (Top)

01 June 2012Now LebanonLive Blog on Developments in Syria12:58 Syrian forces killed seven people on Friday; Al-Arabiya television quoted the Local Coordination Committeesas saying.

12:57 Al-Jazeera broadcast live footage on Friday showing an anti-regime demonstration in Al-Qamishli.

12:33 12 Syrian workers were killed in new massacre, activists told AFP on Friday.

12:19 Syrian activists threatened a "volcano of rage" on Friday over the killing of civilians by government forces asa deadline set by rebel fighters passed for Damascus to honor a UN-backed ceasefire.

12:07 an anti-regime protest began in Kobani. Protesters are chanting for overthrowing the regime. (S.N.N.)

11:57 The UN Human Rights Council will on Friday debate a call for an independent probe into the massacre in theSyrian town of Houla that triggered global horror and outrage.

10:36 Germany on Friday urged Russia to curb its support for Damascus, ahead of President Vladimir Putin's visitto Berlin and Paris that is set to be dominated by the escalating Syrian crisis.

10:12 Syrian security forces tanks raided the town of Dael in Daraa; Al-Arabiya quoted activists as saying onFriday.

9:09 President Vladimir Putin is expected to face pressure for Russia to drop its resistance to UN action on Syriawhen he meets the leaders of two of Europe's key powers on Friday.

8:32 US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said Thursday that any military action in Syria would need backing fromthe United Nations, but called recent violence "intolerable."


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7:53 China and Arab nations Thursday jointly urged Syria's warring parties to fully implement a tattered UN andArab League ceasefire plan.

01 June 2012Al JazeeraSyrian Group Claims Kidnap of Shia Pilgrims

Unclassified

Armed "revolutionaries" from Aleppo say Lebanese hostages in good health and will be released after Nasrallah'sapology.

A previously unknown armed group calling itself the "Syrian Revolutionaries - Aleppo Province" claims to have

kidnapped a group of Lebanese Shia pilgrims in exchange for an apology from Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.

"The kidnapped Lebanese are being looked after by us and are in good health," the group said in a statementreceived by Al Jazeera.

"Negotiations for their release are possible as soon as Nasrallah apologizes; our problem is not with any particularcommunity but with those who assist in the suppression of the uprising."

Hezbollah, the leading force in the current ruling coalition in Beirut, has close relations with the regime of SyrianPresident Bashar al-Assad and Iran.

Since the dozen or so returning pilgrims went missing on May 22 on their way back from Iran, Nasrallah has calledfor restraint and urged his followers to refrain from sectarian revenge attacks against Syrian Sunnis.

On Sunday, the outgoing head of the opposition Syrian National Council, Burhan Ghalioun, said the pilgrims werestill being held in Syria. Earlier reports said they had resurfaced in Turkey.

"We spoke with some parties who had contacts with the group and we offered our assistance to have them freed,"Ghalioun said.

The rebel Free Syrian Army, a loose coalition of armed groups that communicate with the SNC, has denied anyinvolvement in the kidnapping.


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31 May 2012Al BawabaIranian Arms Supplied To Assad Regime through Civilian AirplanesIran is using its airliners to send weapons and explosives to the regime of Bashar al-Assad and Hizbullah inLebanon, said the German television channel, ZDF. Citing sources within Western intelligence services, ZDF saidthat the transfer of the arms shipments were made via Yas Air and Iran Air companies, which are supposed to carrypassengers.

Turkish security officials have discovered, according to ZDF, weapons and explosives on board of a Yas Air aircraftin March 2011 whose final destination was Damascus.

According to the sources of German television, the Revolutionary Guards stand behind this operation. The type ofweapons sent to Syria has not been specified.

On Monday, the British newspaper The Guardian reported that a senior official of the Revolutionary Guards hadacknowledged that Iranian forces were operating in Syria to support the regime of Assad. According to theGuardian, Ismail Gha'ani, vice commander of the al-Quds force, the armed wing of the Revolutionary Guards, saidin an interview with the semi-official ISNA News Agency: "If the Republic Islamic was not present in Syria,massacres have been taken in a much broader scale. " "Before we intervene, too many people were killed by theopposition, but through the physical and nonphysical presence of the Islamic republic, great massacres have beenavoided".

According to the Guardian, the interview published last weekend, was removed from ISNA website

31 May 2012Al Arabiya

Clinton Rejects Syria Military Intervention; Slams Russian Resistance to U.N. Action

(U) U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (R) speaks alongside television host Johannes Langkilde during atownhall forum with students at The Black Diamond in Copenhagen, Denmark. (Reuters)

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday laid out arguments against a military intervention in Syriadespite calls for the West to take action after last weeks massacre in the town of Houla. Speaking to Danishstudents, Clinton got tough questions on what might motivate the United States and other nations to take militaryaction in Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad is battling a 14-month-old anti-government uprising. Fridays


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massacre of more than 100 civilians, many of them children, in Houla has triggered calls for the West to take morerobust action in Syria, despite Russian and Chinese opposition.

However, Clinton rehearsed U.S. arguments against armed intervention for now in contrast with Libya, whereWestern-led air strikes last year helped bring an end to Muammar Qaddafis rule.

Clinton said Syria had a more diverse society with greater ethnic divisions, no unified opposition, stronger airdefenses and a much more capable military than Libyas.

Above all, she stressed there was no international support because of Russian and Chinese opposition at the U.N.Security Council, where they have twice vetoed resolutions on Syria.

A lot of people are trying to figure out what could be an effective intervention that wouldnt cause more death andsuffering, she said, arguing Syrias population density increased the odds of civilian casualties in any armed action.

We are thinking about all of this. There are all kinds of both civilian and humanitarian and military planning goingon but the factors are just not there, she said.

Clinton said she had not given up on the possibility of persuading Russia to support stronger action against theAssad government, saying she had made the case that the chances of a full-blown civil war were higher if the worldfailed to act.

The dangers we face are terrible, she said, saying the violence between government forces and pro-Assadmilitias against the opposition forces would turn into something much worse.

(That) could morph into a civil war in a country that would be riven by sectarian divides, which could then morphinto a proxy war in the region because remember you have Iran deeply embedded in Syria, she said.

We know it could actually get much worse than it is.

Clinton criticized Russias resistance to U.N. action on Syria, warning that its policy could contribute to a civil war.

The Russians are telling me they dont want to see a civil war. I have been telling them their policy is going to helpcontribute to a civil war, she told a mainly student audience on a visit to Copenhagen.

We have to bring the Russians on board, said Clinton, who is in Denmark on the first leg of a Scandinavian tour.

Clinton warned that unless unchecked, the deadly violence in Syria could lead to civil war or even develop into aproxy war because of Irans support for the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Remember you have Iran deeply embedded in Syria - their military are coaching the Syrian military. The QudsForce, which is a branch of the military, is helping them set up these sectarian militias, she said.

Clinton did not describe any alternatives to United Nations-Arab League envoy Kofi Annans efforts to try to stop theviolence.

We are trying to keep pushing all the pieces to support Kofi Annan as an independent voice because the Syriansare not going to listen to us, she said.

They may listen, maybe, to the Russians, so we have been pushing them.


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The Houla massacre, allegedly by government-backed forces, and the discovery of new execution-style killingsince then has raised the pressure for international action.

But Russia has adamantly refused to go against its close ally Syria with President Vladimir Putin warning Thursdaythat Moscow will not change its position under pressure.

Russias position is well-known. It is balanced and consistent and completely logical, Interfax quoted Putinsspokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying.

Syrian rebels have warned they will resume their defense of civilians if the government does not return to the peaceplan by Friday.

31 May 2012Ahram onlineUS Envoy Slams 'Reprehensible' Russia Arms Sales to SyriaUS envoy Susan Rice on Thursday condemned "reprehensible" Russian arms deliveries to Syria as she steppedup US calls for increased international pressure on President Bashar al-Assad.

The US ambassador to the United Nations also accused the Damascus government of stating a "blatant lie" bydenying it was involved in a massacre in which 108 people were killed.

A Russian ship carrying arms arrived in the Syrian port of Tartus last weekend, according to media reports andrights groups.Russia is Syria's last main international ally and has defended Assad in UN Security Council debates on theuprising against him. Russia's main Mediterranean naval base in Tartus.

"With respect to the reported docking of a ship carrying Russian arms, this is obviously of the utmost concern giventhat the Syrian government continues to use deadly force against civilians," Rice told reporters at UN headquarters.

"It is not technically, obviously, a violation of international law since there is not an arms embargo, but it isreprehensible that arms would continue to flow to a regime that is using such horrific and disproportionate forceagainst its own people," Rice said.

Russia's UN ambassador Vitaly Churkin has rejected criticism of the arms sales insisting they are legal and haveno influence on the Syria conflict.

"The weapons we may have provided to Syria under various contracts, which were concluded a long time ago, arefully in line with international law and do not contribute to the current armed violence in Syria," Churkin toldreporters on Wednesday.

Rice also condemned the Syrian government's denials of involvement in a massacre in the town of Houla last weekin which at least 108 people died.

The ambassador dismissed the Syrian government's statement that the massacre was carried out by "armedgroups." "I think quite simply it's another blatant lie," she said. "There is no factual evidence, including that providedby the UN observers that would substantiate that rendition of events."

Rice reaffirmed US demands that Assad must stand down under any deal to end the 15-month old Syria conflict.


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But she did not repeat a statement that the United States and its allies may have to consider acting outside of theUnited Nations if the Security Council does not press Assad to end the battle against protesters and oppositiongroups.

The US ambassador said there were three main scenarios for the conflict, the best of which would be for Assad tocomply with UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan's six point peace plan -- which includes ending attacks on townsand starting talks on a political transition.

Rice said the United States fully supports Annan's efforts.

"If they are going to succeed, what is clear at this stage is that the government of Syria is going to have to feelmuch greater pressure, particularly from its partners and supporters to fulfill its commitments," Rice said.

"Up to date it has not felt sufficient compulsion to do so," she added.

The second scenario would see the 15-nation Security Council take joint action.

"It is the obligation of the Security Council to come together and apply that pressure in a collective way on thegovernment of Syria," she said.

Russia has so far blocked any UN move to put sanctions on Syria or permit military action.Rice said the third and worst scenario is a wider "proxy" conflict dragging in other countries in the region.

"If in fact we are all united and we don't want to see that scenario, then we had better do something to change thecurrent dynamic because that is the direction in which we seem to be heading if the status quo persists," said Rice.

01 June 2012The Daily StarSyria Rebels Issue 48-Hour Ultimatum

(U)A Syrian woman carries her injured son who was shot in the hand by a Syrian border guard. (AP Photo/HusseinMalla)

Syrian rebels gave President Bashar Assad a 48-hour deadline Wednesday to comply with an international peaceplan otherwise they would renew their battle to overthrow him. The ultimatum was issued after U.N. observersreported the discovery of 13 bodies bound and shot in eastern Syria, adding to the world outcry over the massacrelast week of 108 men, women and children.


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The latest developments emphasized how the peace plan drafted by U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan hadfailed to stem 14 months of bloodshed or bring the Syrian government and opposition to the negotiating table.

Colonel Qassim Saadeddine of the rebel Free Syrian Army said its leadership had set a deadline of 0900 GMTFriday for Assad to implement the peace plan, which includes a cease-fire, deployment of observers, and freeaccess for aid and journalists.

If it fails to do so we are free from any commitment and we will defend and protect the civilians, their villages andtheir cities, Saadeddine said in a statement posted on social media.

Both sides in the conflict have violated a tenuous cease-fire over the past two months but Assads forces havebeen by far the worst offender, according to U.N. monitors.

Outrage at last Fridays massacre in the town of Houla led a host of Western countries to expel senior Syriandiplomats Tuesday and to press Russia and China to allow tougher action by the U.N. Security Council.

Major General Robert Mood, the Norwegian head of the observer mission, said the 13 corpses found Wednesdayin Assukar; about 50 km east of Deir al-Zour, had their hands tied behind their backs. Some had been shot in thehead from close range.

Mood called the latest killings an appalling and inexcusable act and appealed to all factions to end the cycle ofviolence.

He did not apportion any blame but Syrian activists said the victims were army defectors killed by Assads forces.

Video footage posted by activists showed the bodies face down on the ground, hands tied behind their backs, withdark pools of blood around their heads and torsos.

U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous said in New York Tuesday that the Syrian army and Shabbiha militiamensupporting Assad had probably been responsible for killing the 108 people in Houla with artillery and tank fire, gunsand knives.

The government denied any responsibility and blamed Islamist terrorists its term for rebel forces.

The uprising began last March with street protests against Assad, who succeeded his late, authoritarian fatherHafez 11 years ago to perpetuate the family dynasty. While initially a pro-democracy movement, the struggle hasgrown into an armed struggle increasingly involving sectarian rivalries pitting the Sunni Muslim majority against the

Alawite sect, to which the Assad clan belongs.

Assads forces have killed 7,500 people since it began, according to a U.N. toll. The government, which says the

unrest is the work of foreign-backed terrorists, says more than 2,600 soldiers or security agents have been killed.

Annan, trying to save his peace plan from collapse, told Assad in Damascus Tuesday that Syria was at a tippingpoint.

The pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 100 people had been killed the same day.Syrias state news agency said pumping had been halted to an oil pipeline in eastern Syria after a bomb attackWednesday.


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Diplomats said the U.N. Human Rights Council would meet in Geneva Friday to consider the Houla massacre, thefourth time Syria has faced such scrutiny since the anti-Assad revolt broke out in March 2011.

Assad has so far proved impervious to international scolding and Western sanctions for his crackdown and hasfailed to return troops and tanks to barracks, as required by the Annan plan.

However, the U.N. observers sent in to monitor a notional cease-fire were able to verify the horrors in Houla, whichproduced a wave of world revulsion.

Assads heavyweight international allies, China and Russia, stuck to their rejection of any intervention or U.N.-backed penalties to force him to change course.

Asked if Western and Arab countries were pressing Moscow to change its position, President Vladimir Putinsspokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday: Russia is a country with a consistent foreign policy and any pressureis hardly appropriate.

The West is itself averse to military intervention, although French President Francois Hollande said Tuesday thatthis could change if the U.N. Security Council backed it. But that is not possible unless veto-wielding membersRussia and China allow it.

Turkey joined other countries including the U.S., Britain, France and Germany in expelling Syrian diplomats inprotest at the Houla massacre, saying unspecified international measures would follow if crimes against humanitycontinued.

Stung by the expulsions, Syria told the Dutch charge daffaires to leave. She was one of the few senior Westerndiplomats left in Damascus.

Despite the diplomatic deadlock, Annan is pressing on with his mission.

It is important to find a solution that will lead to a democratic transition in Syria and find a way of ending the killingsas soon as possible, he said after talks in Jordan Wednesday. With goodwill and hard work, we can succeed.

It is hard to see where a breakthrough might come from.

China reiterated that it opposed military intervention and did not support a forced change of government.

Russia also reasserted its hostility to military action or to any further Security Council measures beyond anonbinding statement condemning the Houla killings.

We believe consideration in the Security Council of any new measures to influence the situation now would be

premature, Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said.

Russia and China have twice vetoed Western-backed Council resolutions condemning the crackdown.

Annans deputy Jean-Marie Guehenno told the Security Council that direct engagement between government andopposition was impossible at the moment.

01 June 2012Al Jazeera


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UN Rights Body Meets over Syria Massacre

Unclassified

The United Nation's Human Rights Committee is meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, to discuss last week's massacrein Syria that killed 108 people, many of them children.

The council will call on Friday for a full UN inquiry into the carnage in Houla, a cluster of villages in the centre of thecountry, after putting initial blame on government bombardment and gunmen loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.

The incident was one of the deadliest incidents since the uprising against Assad's regime started in March lastyear, and has drawn global condemnation. Countries including the United States, Britain, Australia, and Franceexpelled Syrian diplomats in protest.

A draft resolution, circulated late on Thursday, condemns the "killings confirmed by UN observers" in attacks that

involved "the wanton killings of civilians by shooting at close range and by severe physical abuse by pro-regimeelements and a series of government artillery and tank shelling of a residential neighbourhood".

The rights committee, which has repeatedly condemned Syria for its crackdown on dissent, is likely to adopt theresolution by a wide margin, even if countries including China, Cuba and Russia may vote against it as in the past,diplomats said.

'Summary executions'

The office Navi Pillay, the UN high commissioner for human rights, said on Tuesday that most victims were civiliansand entire families were shot in their homes. Witnesses told UN investigators that most died in summary executionscarried out by militiamen loyal to Assad, known as shabiha.

But Syria said its preliminary investigation had shown that up to 800 anti-government gunmen carried out themassacre with the aim of igniting sectarian strife and encouraging foreign military intervention.

Susan Rice, the US ambassador to the UN, dismissed the Syrian investigation's conclusion as "another blatant lie",telling reporters in New York "there is no factual evidence ... that would substantiate that rendition of events".UN observers deployed to Syria traveled to Houla the day after the attack and confirmed the massacre [Reuters]

Damascus has announced that special prayers for the victims would be held at mosques across the country onFriday.


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At a news conference on Thursday, Qassem Jamal Suleiman, who headed the Syrian government's investigationinto the massacre, categorically denied any regime role.

He said hundreds of rebel gunmen carried out the slaughter after launching a co-ordinate attack on five securitycheckpoints.

"Government forces did not enter the area where the massacre occurred; not before the massacre and not after it,"he said, adding that the victims were families who refused to oppose the government or carry arms.

Opposition activists have confirmed that checkpoints were attacked by rebels, but say it happened after securityforces opened fire on a demonstration.

The area is still under attack, according to activists who said government forces focused shelling on Thursday onthe Houla village of al-Tibeh.

'Systematic rights violations'

The UN council draft text condemns the killings as violating Security Council resolutions and accuses Syrian forcesof "repeated and systematic violations of human rights".It calls for an existing team of UN rights investigators to "conduct a comprehensive, independent and unfetteredspecial inquiry consistent with international standards into the events in Houla, to publicly identify those responsiblefor these atrocities and hold them to account".

But the EU is seeking stronger language on accountability, including a possible call for action by the UN SecurityCouncil, and has proposed amendments, according to diplomats.

"The question is whether to try to keep the Russians on board or sacrifice some of the stronger language. Some

would like to create a more pragmatic approach with an eye to New York, ultimately," a Western diplomat said,referring to Russia's veto in the UN Security Council.

Russia is a staunch ally of the Assad government and one of its main weapons suppliers.

A Russian cargo ship that Western officials say was heavily laden with weapons for the government of Syriareportedly docked at the Syrian port of Tartous last weekend.

01 June 2012Now LebanonTwelve Syrian Workers Executed On Eve of UN Watchdog MeetSyrian government forces summarily executed 12 civilians on their way home from work in a fertilizer factory in

Qusayr, activists in the central town told AFP by telephone on Friday.

The reported killings late on Thursday afternoon came on the eve of a special meeting of the UN Human RightsCouncil called to discuss the conflict.

"The workers were on a bus when they were forced to stop at a checkpoint on the outskirts of Qusayr," said SalimKabbani of the Local Coordination Committees, which organize protests on the ground.

"Regime forces tied their hands behind their backs and shot them."


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He said abuses had become routine in Qusayr, a town southwest of the flashpoint central city of Homs. "Thecheckpoint where the workers were killed is dangerous, and people are often tortured there."

Several areas of rebel bastion Qusayr have been under non-stop shelling by government forces, Kabbani said. "Wehave a very high number of wounded, and we fear many of them will die because we don't have the medicalmaterials we need to treat them."

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had asked the UN military observer mission in Syriato visit Qusayr to investigate the latest killings.

The Observatorys head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP that the persistent bloodshed made a mockery of the UN-backed ceasefire that was supposed to take effect from April 12.

"The ceasefire has been dead for a month," he said.

"In Qusayr, the regime has shelled incessantly in recent days because it is trying to regain control of an area it haslost control of to rebels."

REGIONAL EDITORIALS (Top)

31 May 2012Al JazeeraSyria: The Tragic Space between the Unacceptable and the ImpossibleBy Richard Falk

(U) 50 of the 108 civilians who died in Houla were children below the age of 10 [Reuters]

The Houla Massacre of a week ago in several small Muslim villages near the Syrian city of Homs underscores thetragic circumstances of a civilian vulnerability to brutal violence of a criminal government. Most of the 108 civilianswho died in Houla were executed at close range in cold blood, over 50 of who were children under the age of 10. Itis no wonder that the Houla Massacre is being called a tipping point in the global response to Syrian violence thatstarted over 15 months ago.

The chilling nature of this vicious attack upon the most innocent among us, young children, seems like a point of noreturn. What happened in Houla, although still contested, seems confirmed as the mainly the work of the Shabiha,


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the notorious militia of thugs employed by Damascus to deal cruelly with opposition forces and their supposedsupporters.

This massacre also represents a crude rebuff of UN diplomacy, and the ceasefire its 280 unarmed observers weremonitoring since it was put into effect on April 12. In this regard the events in Houla reinforced the impression thatthe Assad regime was increasingly relying on tactics of depraved criminality and state terror to destroy themovement that has been mounted against it. Such defiance also challenged the UN and the internationalcommunity to do more when confronted by such evil, or face being further discredited as inept and irrelevant.

Tragedy or tipping point?

But is not the Syrian situation better understood as a tragic predicament rather than presented as a tipping pointthat is raising false expectation that external initiatives can somehow redeem the situation? What kind of hithertounimaginable action plan undertaken by the UN or NATO could hope to stop the violence and change thegoverning structure of Syria for the better?

There has long existed an international consensus that the Syrian response to a popular uprising should beeffectively repudiated, but this awareness was coupled with a growing realization that there were no good options.Even those who supported the Annan Plan in the UN acknowledged from its inception that it was a desperate lastresort with almost no chance of succeeding. Cynics claimed that it was accepted by Assad to gain time, and muteoutside pressures.

There was a widely shared sentiment at the UN that it was unacceptable to stand back and watch further crimesagainst humanity take place, something must be done, but what? Remembering the awful failure of the world tostop the genocide in Rwanda in 1994 or the massacres in Srebrenica in 1995, there existed the feeling that thedevelopments in Syria were building up to a comparable humanitarian catastrophe, already more than 10,000Syrians had died, that must somehow be stopped.

A scarcity of viable solutions

Diplomacy had been arduously pursued since the outset, originally by Turkey, then the Arab League, and finally byKofi Annan, the Envoy of the UN Secretary General, each phase with a seeming receptivity in Damascus butclearly without noticeable effects on its violent tactics.

The parties, including Bashar al-Assad sweet talked international emissaries, announced their willingness to stopthe killing and other abuses, and even accepted monitoring arrangements, but then before the negotiators hadeven left the country the two sides resumed their brutal combat as if nothing had happened, and for this, theopposition led by the Syrian Free Army deserves a share of the blame. In effect, diplomacy has been given multiplechances, and continues to be put forward as the only way to make a difference in the conflict, and yet it clearlylacks the capacity to stop the bloodshed and suspend the political struggle for control of the Syrian state.

This naturally turns our attention

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