Assad’s ouster is inevitable, but how will it be achieved? What price will be paid by Syria and the entire region? This is the fundamental question and the crux of the matter. If the intention is to let the Syrian people topple Assad by themselves, this represents a real danger for a variety of reasons.
Female volunteers are joining the so-called the National Defense Forces, which gather together existing popular committees of pro-regime civilian fighters under a new, better-trained and armed hierarchy.
Syria denied media reports that it intended to print SYP 2,000 banknotes, branding them ”part of the conspiracy against Syria which aims to undermine the Syrian economy, spread concerns and discredit the Syrian currency.”
Syria and Iran agree on $1 billion credit facility focusing on energy and electricity.
Ahmadinejad meets Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi in Tehran and says the Syrian people will overcome the difficult conditions adding “Syria will cross the crisis it encounters into the land of safety.”
Because Syria is a country of paramount importance, the issue there is not just about toppling the regime, while retaining the same inherited and historical structure, including the ideology, of the regime itself. Indeed, we are dealing here with a smaller version of countries like Germany and Japan after the Second World War, in that they were countries whose internal circumstances led them to destabilise their regions and subsequently the world.
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi expressed his country’s support to President Bashar al-Assad’s initiative to resolve the crisis in Syria.
President Bashar al-Assad gave a speech on Saturday that created a lot of reactions by local and international actors. Below is the text of the speech as translated by the Syrian official news agency (SANA).
Iran is a difficult puzzle to resolve. After losing Syria, as well as losing half of its oil revenue as a result of Western sanctions, Tehran may be obliged to agree to a truce and the freezing of its nuclear program. Even if this were to happen, Gulf States are still facing numerous threats, particularly with the al-Maliki government in Iraq explicitly falling under Iran’s sway.
The National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces reminds the international community of its moral and humanitarian obligations, as this new massacre came just before the visit of the international envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi to Damascus, and amidst the talk about new initiatives. The massacre also came after the world’s powers knew of the regime’s use of Scud missiles and their failure to react towards such serious violations by taking any serious actions necessitated by international laws and humanitarian obligations.
The Syrian National Coalition rejected a newly launched Iranian initiative to solve the crisis in Syria, branding it as ‘overdue’ warning Iran that Assad’s regime will fall and the Syrian people will remain.
In a response to remarks made recently by Haytham al-Maleh, a senior member of the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces regarding targeting civilian Russian and Iranian citizens, the NC issued a statement Wednesday condemning these remarks and confirming that they do not represent the Coalition.
The damage done by playing for time has extended to areas outside Syria in the last two months. The members of the alliance supporting Assad, from Russia and Iran to Lebanon, have found the opportunity to play off the regional situation; they have taken steps, whose importance varies one country to another.
