The Independent has published an interview with Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad. Below are excerpts of the interview
The Syrian Opposition is due for a meeting in Istanbul to elect a new leadership. What is really at stake in the elections?
The puppet artworks send a loud and critical message to the tyrannical regime, mocking its leader, who last year told Russia Today TV”I am not a puppet of the West and I will live and die in Syria”
Human Rights Watch has dismissed reports that three Franciscan friars were beheaded in Syria in a graphic video that emerged on YouTube this week
Roland Dumas says he declined an offer to take part in a plot to topple the government
Activists accuse the Chechan brigade of being a plant by the Syrian regime and Russian intelligence
Russia denies it has evacuated personnel from its Tartus resupply base
Haitham Maleh says opposition unified in its position on Geneva II
Algerian foreign minister says arming in Syria will postpone solution
Russia has offered to replace Austrian peacekeepers in the Glolan
Russia says U.N., U.S. and Russia agreed on need for dialogue as soon as possible
25 tons of humanitarian aid arrives in Latakia
Even if national governments only selectively engage with this documentation, it still usefully establishes a common global understanding of the scope and scale of the conflict’s crimes
Friends of Syria group has agreed to provide military aid to the Syrian opposition in order to redress the power balance in the country and force President Bashar Al-Assad
The efforts to postpone a political solution in Syria only indicate that we will see this game of cat and mouse once again
Two groups threaten the future of Syria: some of the rebels inside Syria, and the political opposition outside the country
The US has political and geostrategic interests in the Middle East but Obama, with his huge failure to pressure Putin, reflects an abandonment of these interests
Russia says ball now in the opposition court after regime accepts participation in conference
Ghalioun says balance of power must be changed on the ground while NCC chief says violence must stop altogether.
Arming with the right weapons may shift the balance or power, or just trigger an arms race
