LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN

LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
November 19/2012

Bible Quotation for today/
Luke 12/16-21: " Then Jesus told them this parable: “There was once a rich man who had land which bore good crops. He began to think to himself, ‘I don't have a place to keep all my crops. What can I do? This is what I will do,’ he told himself; ‘I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, where I will store the grain and all my other goods. Then I will say to myself, Lucky man! You have all the good things you need for many years. Take life easy, eat, drink, and enjoy yourself!’ But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night you will have to give up your life; then who will get all these things you have kept for yourself?’” And Jesus concluded, “This is how it is with those who pile up riches for themselves but are not rich in God's sight.”

Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources
Mursi and Hamas in a predicament/By Tariq Alhomayed/Asharq Al-Awsat/November 18/12
Why doesn’t Egypt defend Gaza militarily/By Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Alawsat/November 18/12

Egypt's new Coptic pope enthroned
18/11/2012/CAIRO (AP) — The new pope of Egypt's Orthodox Coptic church has been enthroned. Pope Tawadros II, 60, was elected earlier this month, but the televised official enthronement ceremony was held Sunday at the Coptic cathedral in Cairo. He replaced Shenouda III, who died in March after leading the ancient church for 40 years. Egypt's Christians make up about 10 percent of the nation's estimated 83 million people, making them the largest single Christian community in the Middle East. Christians have long complained of discrimination, particularly in the last four decades as the country's Muslim majority moved toward religious conservatism. The rise to power of Islamists after the ouster nearly two years ago of authoritarian leader Hosni Mubarak has deepened their concerns amid increasing attacks targeting their churches and businesses.

Geagea: Bar Association victory shows shift to March 14
November 18, 2012/ The Daily Star /BEIRUT: Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said Sunday the March 14 coalition’s sweeping victory in the North Lebanon Bar Association elections highlights a shift in opinions in favor of the opposition group. “Your victory represented a huge difference in the association, where March 8 has succeeded for tens of years, and it emphasizes a shift in the popular mood in favor of the March 14 forces,” Geagea told a delegation from the Bar Association headed by its newly elected president, Michel Khoury.
“Your victory was not small, the difference in votes was more than 200 out of fewer than 1,100 votes,” he added.
March 14 won the North Lebanon Bar Association elections earlier this week, taking 646 votes while their rival, the March 8-backed Butros Faddoul, received 441.
Geagea, who received the delegation in his residence in Maarab, also said that March 14 is engaged a “major confrontation” full of what he described as fraud and alteration of facts.
“We are engaged in a big confrontation particularly in the face of fraud, the altering of facts, or defending Lebanon for narrow local interests or regional purposes that are obvious,” he said, in an apparent reference to Hezbollah. Geagea repeated his attack against his rivals in the Lebanese resistance, which accused the LF leader of being a spy for Israel during the Civil War and said: “Real espionage lies within those who condone true agents in their political alliance and cover for them while day and night they unfoundedly accuse their political rivals of being agents.”
"You can cheat some people for some time but no one can cheat all of the people all the time,” Geagea said.

Ahmad Hariri says 2013 polls to decide Lebanon's fate
November 18, 2012 / By Antoine Amrieh The Daily Star
BEIRUT: The 2013 parliamentary elections will decide Lebanon’s fate, Future Movement secretary-general Ahmad Hariri said over the weekend, adding that sit-ins in Beirut and Tripoli will achieve their goal of overthrowing the Cabinet. “This movement on-the-ground is the starting point to reignite March 14 and the Future Movement, both to overthrow the government and in the parliamentary election battle of 2013 that will ... determine Lebanon’s fate,” Hariri told supporters at the camp set up in the northern city of Tripoli outside Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s residence.
Hariri’s visit Saturday was his first to the tents which were set up last month along with several others in Beirut outside the Grand Serail to pressure Mikati to step down following the assassination of a top intelligence official. Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan was killed in a car bomb in the district of Ashrafieh Oct. 19, prompting the opposition group to call on the resignation of the government, accusing it of providing the necessary cover for the crime. The March 14 coalition has blamed Syria’s President Bashar Assad for the killing and announced its boycott of parliamentary work in a bid to form a new Cabinet. Hariri, who signed a Lebanese flag at a tent named after the slain security official, described the protest in Tripoli and Beirut as an outcry against the government, assuring his supporters that the protest will achieve its goal. “The protest will grow bigger and bigger with time until it achieves its intended aim,” Hariri added. Mikati has offered to resign but insisted that a new government is formed first in order not to plunge the country into a vacuum

Kataeb MP slams Hezbollah over Syria
November 17, 2012 /A member of Lebanon’s Kataeb parliamentary bloc said that Hezbollah’s support for the Syrian regime was the reason March 14 parties have severed ties with the Shiite party. “Hezbollah’s continuing alliance with the Syrian regime, which is publicly killing the Lebanese people, caused March 14 to sever its relations with the party,” Gemayel told Free Lebanon radio station on Saturday. “When Hezbollah decides to deal positively with the other group in the country for instance, then the latter will treat it with the same positivity,” he added. “The most important positive step is for Hezbollah to concede the decision to start a war to the state.”Gemayel also said that the “militancy” of Salafi Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir was a “natural result of Hezbollah’s arms, which is something March 14 has been warning about for the past few years.”“Hezbollah is strengthening the extremist Sunni presence as opposed to the moderate presence.”Three Lebanese were killed in the southern city of Sidon on Sunday in a gun battle between supporters of the Shiite movement Hezbollah and hardline Sunni cleric Ahmed al-Assir. Sami Gemayel reiterated his calls for new a new political order in Lebanon, adding that “guarantees for Lebanese communities are only accomplished through administrative decentralization.”-NOW Lebanon

Syria’s future echoes Lebanon’s past
By Gwynne Dyer
civil war, lebanon, Syria, Opinions
SYRIA now has a new government-in-exile that allegedly unites all the groups seeking the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad’s murderous regime. But if this is the best that they can do, Assad will still be in power next year, and perhaps for a long time afterwards. It took a week of haggling in Qatar to bring all the fractious Syrian rebel groups together, and it wouldn’t have happened at all without great pressure from the Gulf Arab countries and the United States. Basically, the Syrian rebels were told that if they wanted more money and arms, they had to create a united front.
So they did, kind of, but the fragility and underlying disunity of the new government-in-exile is implicit in its cumbersome name: the Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces. It’s really just a loose and probably temporary collaboration between different sectarian and ethnic groups whose ultimate goals are widely divergent.
This new body has already been recognised by the Gulf states as “the sole legitimate representative of the Syrian people”, in the words of Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim. France, Syria’s former colonial ruler, has done the same, and other Western countries may follow suit (although probably not the United States). But it won’t end the war.
It is a real civil war now; the days of the non-violent Syrian democratic movement that tried to emulate the peaceful revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia are long past. Moreover, it is a civil war whose ultimate outcome is unclear. It is by no means certain that Assad and the Baathist regime he leads will finally be defeated.
The Syrian government has all the heavy weapons, but it does not have enough troops to establish permanent military control over every rural area in a country of 24 million people. However, it does have the strength to smash any attempts to create a rival authority with the powers of a real government in those rural areas, and it still holds most of the cities: the front line in Aleppo has scarcely moved since last summer. How has Assad managed to hang on so long when other Arab dictators fell so quickly in the early days of the “Arab spring”? Partly it is the fact that he’s not a one-man regime.
The Baath Party which he leads is an organisation with almost half a century’s experience of power, and plenty of patronage to distribute to its allies. It began almost as an Arab Communist party (without the atheism), and although its economics are now neo-liberal, it retains its Communist-style political discipline. Moreover, the Alawite minority who populate its higher offices know that they have to hang together, or else they will hang separately.
The other thing Assad has going for him is the highly fragmented character of Syrian society. Seventy per cent of the population are Sunni Muslims, but the other 30 per cent include Shias, Alawites (a Shia heresy), Druze (an even more divergent sect with Islamic roots) and Christians. All of them are nervous about Sunni Muslim domination in a post-Assad Syria, and the presence of various foreign jihadis on the battlefield only deepens their anxiety.
Moreover, the main suppliers of arms and money to the insurgents are Sunni Muslim countries in the Arabian peninsula, like Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, that are not know for being tolerant of non-Sunni minorities. This has persuaded most non-Sunni Syrians that they are under attack - and thirty per cent of Syria’s population, with a big, well-equipped army and air force, can probably fight 70 per cent of the population with only light weapons to a standstill.
In fact, the Syrian battlefield, after only a year of serious fighting, is already coming to resemble the Lebanese battlefield after the first year of the civil war there. Large tracts of the countryside are under the military control of the religious or ethnic group that makes up the local majority, while the front lines in the big cities have effectively congealed into semi-permanent boundaries.
In Lebanon, the level of fighting dropped a lot after that first year, apart from the period of the Israeli invasion and occupation in 1982-83, but the country continued to be chopped up into local fiefdoms until the Taif accord in 1989 led to the end of the fighting.
There are obviously differences between the Lebanese and Syrian cases, but they are not big enough to justify any confidence that Syria’s future will be different from Lebanon’s past. Assad will continue to have access to arms and money from Iran and Russia, and there will be no large-scale military intervention from outside to tilt the balance decisively one way or the other.
A split in the Baath Party or a military coup could open the way to national reconciliation if it happened relatively soon, but that is not likely. Apart from that, the only thing that might really change all these calculations and break the stalemate is an Israeli attack on Iran and a general Middle Eastern conflagration. That is not a price anybody wants to pay.
**Gwynne Dyer is an independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries

Ground operation would be mistake for Israel: Nasrallah
November 18, 2012/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: Hamas has the capacity to engage militarily in a ground operation with Israel, should the Jewish State decide to launch one, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah said over the weekend.
“I affirm to you that even in a ground operation by Israel, the resistance in Gaza, thank God, has sufficient capabilities, will and plans which were formulated after the 2008 war to fill in gaps, [to face Israel],” Nasrallah said Saturday during a televised speech on the third day of Ashura. “I think that the Israelis would be engaging in a folly and making a very big mistake if they decide to launch a ground military operation against Gaza,” he added. Earlier this week, Israel launched an aerial attack killing a top Hamas military commander, prompting the party to respond with rocket fire that reached Tel Aviv.
Israel has begun preparing for what appears to be a ground invasion of Gaza, calling up 16,000 reservists and gathering tanks outside the enclave after days of air strikes.
Nasrallah said that Israel is already in a state of confusion after only a few days of reciprocal attacks, because of Hamas’ capabilities and its possession of long and medium range missiles.
The Hezbollah chief also voiced confidence that Hamas can still attack Tel Aviv, some parts of Jerusalem and other areas, saying: “There might be other surprises the resistance is preparing in Gaza in this confrontation.” In a bid to end the fighting, which has raised concerns of a possible all-out war between the two sides, Arab and Western figures visited Gaza, Jerusalem and other areas over the weekend in an attempt to reach a cease-fire. Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi said Saturday that there were some indications of a cease-fire but there were no guarantees.
Nasrallah, who has urged Arab countries to pressure Israel to end the aerial attack, said Hamas is in a different position today as the Palestinian resistance places conditions on a truce. “In the Cairo talks, [Hamas] is the one placing conditions and rejecting a cease-fire at any price. One of the conditions is to end the blockade on Gaza and have international and regional guarantees that the Israeli enemy will not assassinate or launch a new aggression,” he said. He reiterated his demand for Arab countries to take the necessary steps including cutting oil production in order to pressure Israel to end its "aggression," saying that "with one phone call, [U.S. President Barack] Obama can stop the war." He added that Hamas is capable of victory but it still needs serious Arab support.
“We fear that some Arab countries will pressure the Palestinian resistance to abandon its rightful demands so that they can say that they played a role in calming the situation in front of the U.S. Administration and Obama,” Nasrallah added.

March 14 Planning to Counter Berri's Call for Parliamentary Session
Naharnet/March 14 opposition figures are holding intense consultations to avoid “falling in the trap” of Speaker Nabih Berri who has called for a parliamentary session on Tuesday to hear a speech by the Armenian president, sources told An Nahar daily. The March 14 alliance boycotted all parliamentary activity following the Oct. 19 assassination of the Internal Security Forces Intelligence Bureau chief, Wissam al-Hasan, in a car bomb explosion in Beirut's Ashrafiyeh district. The invitation to Tuesday's session and plans for another session to show solidarity with the Palestinian people against the Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip are seen as attempts by Berri to "corner" the opposition and end its boycott of the parliament, the sources said. But March 14 MPs are planning to send a delegation to the Palestinian embassy instead and Armenian opposition lawmakers are seeking to set another location for a meeting with visiting President Serzh Sarkisian, the sources told An Nahar. They stressed that the decision to boycott the parliament was aimed at showing the Lebanese, Arab and international public opinion that March 14 rejects the government of Prime Minister Najib Miqati, which it blamed for al-Hasan's assassination. The boycott also came as a clear signal that Lebanon's political life would remain unstable as long as the “killing machine” is functioning, the sources said.

Obama backs Israel’s right of self defense vs missiles. The next 24-48 hours crucial
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report November 18, 2012/“We are fully supportive of Israel’s right to defend itself from missiles landing on people’s homes and workplaces and potentially killing civilians," said President Barack Obama Sunday, Nov. 18 in Bangkok. "And we will continue to support Israel’s right to defend itself.”
Speaking at a joint conference with Thai Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, the US president said, “there is no country on earth that would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders.” If that can be stopped “without a ramping up of military activity in Gaza, that’s preferable, not just for the people of Gaza. It’s preferable for the Israelis because if Israeli troops are in Gaza they are much more at risk of incurring fatalities or being wounded.”
He went on to say after talking to would-mediators in Cairo, “if we’re serious about wanting to resolve this situation and create a genuine peace process, it starts with no more missiles being fired into Israel’s territory and that then gives us the space to try and deal with these long-standing conflicts that exist.”
“We’re going to have to see what kind of progress we can make in the next 24, 36, 48 hours, but what I’ve said to [Egyptian] President Morsi and [Turkish] Prime Minister Erdogan is that those who champion the cause of the Palestinians should recognize that if we see a further escalation of the situation in Gaza than the likelihood of us getting back on any kind of peace track that leads to a two state solution is going to be pushed off way into the future.”
The US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro joined Defense Minister Ehud Barak on a visit to an Iron Dome battery Sunday shortly before he flies out to brief the White House on the Gaza crisis.
Barak thanked President Obama and all those Americans who past and present contributed to the financing and development of the Iron Dome missile interception system. This defensive weapon has intercepted a total of 300 incoming Palestinian missiles, nearly 90 percent of the rockets threatening Israeli towns, he said. Its performance “made it possible for us to prepare the next stages of Operation Pillar of Cloud which may be even tougher. There is no better symbol of the close US-Israeli military cooperation.
debkafile reported earlier Sunday: Israeli air and naval forces launched heavy assaults in Gaza before dawn Sunday, Nov. 18 – Day 5 of the IDF’s Gaza operation - after daylong bargaining Saturday among Washington, Jerusalem, Cairo and Gaza, failed to produce an Israel-Hamas truce accord. When Egyptian and Turkish middlemen suggested a ceasefire was close, Israel accused them of pushing Hamas’s terms which were fashioned to present the Palestinian radicals as the victor in the contest. The trio leading the Israeli war, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, countered by intensifying the IDF’s Gaza offensive – though not as yet sending ground troops in.
A Western source said it would take some days to determine if a ceasefire was feasible.
Egyptian intelligence meanwhile smuggled Hamas Prime Minister Islmail Haniyeh out of Gaza and over to El Arish in northern Sinai in the convoy of visiting Tunisian Foreign Minister Rafiq Abdessalem when he departed Gaza Saturday, debkafile reports.
Friday night, Israel bombers struck government headquarters in Gaza City.
Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi decided that Haniyeh must be continuously available at the end of a phone to lead the Hamas side in the ceasefire negotiations. This was not possible so long as the Hamas prime minister remained in Gaza. All of Hamas leaders have gone to ground for fear of targeted assassination by Israel. They have switched off their phones and electronic communications to avoid giving away their locations to Israeli surveillance. Haniyeh was even afraid to communicate with Cairo through the Egyptian military mission in Gaza.
In these circumstances, Morsi and Erdogan’s were prevented from get their ceasefire mediation bid off the ground. Moving Haniyeh to El Arish put a Hamas negotiator in place to lead the give-and-take for a truce. Our sources have not discovered if he is still there or has moved back to Gaza.
The Turkish prime minister brought a secret passenger in the plane bringing him to Cairo Saturday. He is Saleh Aruri, formerly of the Hamas military wing. Aruri had spent 15 years in an Israeli prison for terrorism and murder until he was released on Oct. 18, 2011 in the prisoner exchange for the Israeli soldier Gilead Shalit on condition he went into exile.
Turkey granted him asylum and its intelligence agency MIT gave him free rein to set up an operational command in Istanbul for Hamas terrorist networks on the West Bank.
On arrival in Cairo, the Turkish prime minister put Aruri in charge of the contacts with Haniyeh.
At a news conference in Cairo Saturday night, the Egyptian president and Turkish prime minister reported “some indications that there could be a ceasefire soon” although “there were still no guarantees.”
The guarantees issue has become a pivotal bargaining point. Israel, backed by the United States, insists that a ceasefire be signed between the US, Egypt, Turkey and Israel, and exclude Hamas, which would be bound by a separate agreement with Cairo. Netanyahu, Barak and Lieberman are asking the United States to act as guarantor for a ceasefire. Erdogan has countered by inviting Russian President Vladimir Putin to join US President Barack Obama as victor.
Hamas has rejected all of Israel's terms.
During the night, Israel denied reports circulating in Cairo that an Israeli negotiator was heading for the Egyptian capital to get down to the specifics of an emerging truce deal. The three Israeli war leaders decided not to fall into the trap laid by Morsi and Erdogan. Instead, they told the IDF to press ahead with the operation until its objectives were attained – hence the launching of a fresh air and sea assault before daybreak Sunday. OC Southern Command, Maj. Gen. Tal Rousso defined those objectives to reporters Saturday night as “eliminating the war arsenals of Hamas and terrorist organizations and restoring peace and normality to the population of southern Israel.” The ground operation is meanwhile delayed, in accordance with Netanyahu’s promise to President Obama in their conversation early Saturday, that a full-scale ground invasion would not go forward so long as there was a chance of a ceasefire - unless there was escalation from Hamas or a strike that caused significant casualties.
A western source in Cairo familiar with the truce negotiations reported that Obama has not yet decided whether he wants to be directly involved in any ceasefire deal, which in any case has not reached the concluding stage. “The cake dough is still being kneaded and not yet ready to for the oven,” he said.

Israel, Gaza fighting rages on as Egypt seeks truce
By Nidal al-Mughrabi and Jeffrey Heller | GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel bombed Palestinian militant targets in the Gaza Strip from air and sea for a fifth straight day on Sunday, preparing for a possible ground invasion while also spelling out its conditions for a truce. Palestinians launched dozens of rockets into Israel and targeted its commercial capital, Tel Aviv, for a fourth day. The "Iron Dome" missile shield shot down two of the rockets fired toward Israel's biggest city but falling debris from the interception hit a car, which caught fire. Its driver was not hurt.
In scenes recalling Israel's 2008-2009 winter invasion of the Gaza Strip, tanks, artillery and infantry massed in field encampments along the sandy border. Military convoys moved on roads in the area newly closed to civilian traffic. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was ready to widen its offensive.
"We are exacting a heavy price from Hamas and the terrorist organizations and the Israel Defence Forces are prepared for a significant expansion of the operation," Netanyahu said at a cabinet meeting, giving no further details. Palestinian officials said 56 Palestinians, most of them civilians, including 16 children, have been killed in small, densely populated Gaza since the Israeli offensive began, with hundreds wounded. More than 500 rockets fired from Gaza have hit Israel, killing three civilians and wounding dozens.
Israel unleashed intensive air strikes on Wednesday, killing the military commander of the Islamist Hamas movement that governs Gaza and spurns peace with the Jewish state.
Israel's declared goal is to deplete Gaza arsenals and press Hamas into stopping cross-border rocket fire that has bedeviled Israeli border towns for years and is now displaying greater range, putting Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in the crosshairs.
AIR STRIKE ON MEDIA CENTRES
In air raids on Sunday, two Gaza City media buildings were hit, witnesses said. Eight journalists were wounded and facilities belonging to Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV as well as Britain's Sky News were damaged.
An employee of Beirut-based al Quds television station lost his leg in the attack, local medics said.
The Israeli military said the strike targeted a rooftop "transmission antenna used by Hamas to carry out terror activity", and that journalists in the building had effectively been used as human shields by the group. Three other attacks killed three children and wounded 14 other people, medical officials said, with heavy detonations regularly jolting the Mediterranean coastal enclave.
Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi said in Cairo, as his security deputies sought to broker a truce with Hamas leaders, that "there are some indications that there is a possibility of a ceasefire soon, but we do not yet have firm guarantees". Egypt has mediated previous ceasefire deals between Israel and Hamas, the latest of which unraveled with recent violence.
A Palestinian official told Reuters the truce discussions would continue in Cairo on Sunday, saying "there is hope", but that it was too early to say whether the efforts would succeed.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will be in Egypt on Monday for talks with Mursi, the foreign ministry in Cairo said. U.N. diplomats earlier said Ban was expected in Israel and Egypt this week to push for an end to the fighting. Asked on Israel Radio about progress in the Cairo talks, Silvan Shalom, one of Netanyahu's deputies, said: "There are contacts, but they are currently far from being concluded."
Listing Israel's terms for ceasing fire, Moshe Yaalon, another deputy to the prime minister, wrote on Twitter: "If there is quiet in the south and no rockets and missiles are fired at Israel's citizens, nor terrorist attacks engineered from the Gaza Strip, we will not attack."
SYRIAN FRONT
Israel's military also saw action along the northern frontier, firing into Syria on Saturday in what it said was a response to shooting aimed at its troops in the occupied Golan Heights. Israel's chief military spokesman, citing Arab media, said it appeared Syrian soldiers were killed in the incident.
There were no reported casualties on the Israeli side from the shootings, the third case this month of violence that has been seen as a spillover of battles between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces and rebels trying to overthrow him. Israel's operation in the Gaza Strip has so far drawn Western support for what U.S. and European leaders have called its right to self-defense, but there was also a growing number of appeals from them to seek an end to the hostilities. British Foreign Minister William Hague said on Sky News that he and Prime Minister David Cameron "stressed to our Israeli counterparts that a ground invasion of Gaza would lose Israel a lot of the international support and sympathy that they have in this situation". Israel's cabinet decided on Friday to double the current reserve troop quota set for the Gaza campaign to 75,000. Some 31,000 soldiers have already been called up, the military said. Netanyahu, in his comments at Sunday's cabinet session, said he had emphasized in telephone conversations with world leaders "the effort Israel is making to avoid harming civilians, while Hamas and the terrorist organizations are making every effort to hit civilian targets in Israel".
Israel withdrew settlers from Gaza in 2005 and two years later Hamas took control of the slender, impoverished territory, which the Israelis have kept under blockade.
NETANYAHU IN RE-ELECTION BID
Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser to President Barack Obama, said the United States would like to see the conflict resolved through "de-escalation" and diplomacy, but also believed Israel had the right to self-defense. A possible sweep into the Gaza Strip and the risk of major casualties it brings would be a significant gamble for Netanyahu, favored to win a January election.
The last Gaza war, a three-week Israeli blitz and invasion four years ago, killed 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians. Thirteen Israelis died in the conflict.
The current flare-up around Gaza has fanned the fires of a Middle East ignited by a series of Arab uprisings and a civil war in Syria that threatens to spread beyond its borders.
One significant change has been the election of an Islamist government in Cairo that is allied with Hamas, which may narrow Israel's maneuvering room in confronting the Palestinian group. Israel and Egypt made peace in 1979. On Saturday, Israeli aircraft bombed Hamas government buildings in Gaza, including the offices of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and a police headquarters.
Israel's Iron Dome missile interceptor system has destroyed more than 200 incoming rockets from Gaza in mid-air since Wednesday, saving Israeli towns and cities from potentially significant damage.
However, one rocket salvo unleashed on Sunday evaded Iron Dome and wounded two people when it hit a house in the coastal city of Ashkelon, police said.
(Additional reporting by Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem and London bureau, Writing by Jeffrey Heller)

Arab League chief, ministers to visit Gaza on Tuesday: officials
CAIRO (Reuters) - The head of the Arab League and a group of Arab foreign ministers will visit Gaza on Tuesday to show solidarity with Palestinians under Israeli attack, officials said on Sunday.
Arab league ministers had called at an earlier meeting for a mission to go to Gaza. Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby told reporters in Cairo the visit would take place on Tuesday. A League source said Elaraby would lead the delegation. The source also said that Elaraby set the date of the visit in coordination with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the names of the traveling ministers would be announced later. In an urgent meeting in Cairo on Saturday, the Arab ministers gave their backing to Egyptian efforts to secure a truce between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
They also condemned the Israeli offensive in Gaza that started last Wednesday and has killed 56 Palestinians and wounded hundreds, according to Palestinian officials. More than 500 rockets fired from Gaza have hit Israel, killing three civilians and wounding dozens. Israel's declared goal in Gaza is to deter Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group that runs the enclave, from launching rockets that have plagued its southern communities for years. Turkish Prime Minster Tayyip Erdogan, who is currently visiting Cairo, also called for a truce between the Palestinians and Israel at a business forum on Sunday. "We want a synchronized ceasefire," Erdogan told a group of Egyptian and Turkish businessmen. "I call upon Israel and Gaza. The ceasefire agreement should be established within 24 hours... The embargoes should be abolished in a gradual way. And these talks should start within 90 days," he added. (Reporting by Ayman Samir, additional reporting by Seltem Iyigun in Istanbul; Writing by Yasmine Saleh; Editing by Rosalind Russell)

Iran ready to double nuclear work in bunker: IAEA
By Fredrik Dahl | Reuters – Fri, 16 Nov, 2012..
VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran is set to sharply expand its uranium enrichment in an underground plant after installing all the centrifuges it was built for, a U.N. report said, a move likely to increase Western alarm about Tehran's nuclear course. It also showed that Iran's stockpile of its most sensitive nuclear material - which could relatively quickly be processed further to bomb-grade uranium - had grown and was getting closer to an amount that could be sufficient for a nuclear weapon. The latest quarterly International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on Iran came 10 days after the re-election of U.S. President Barack Obama, which raised hopes for a revival of nuclear diplomacy with Iran following speculation that Israel might attack the nuclear facilities of its arch-enemy soon.
But the U.N. watchdog's findings underlined the tough task facing world powers seeking to pressure Iran to curb atomic activity they fear is aimed at developing a nuclear weapons capability, a charge Tehran denies. "The report paints the picture of Iran's continued lack of cooperation with the IAEA, and details its continued enrichment and installation of centrifuges in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions," a senior Western diplomat said. The Islamic state has put in place the nearly 2,800 centrifuges that the Fordow enrichment site, buried deep inside a mountain, was designed for, and is poised to double the number of them operating to roughly 1,400 from 700 now, according to the confidential IAEA report. "They can be started any day. They are ready," a senior diplomat familiar with the IAEA's investigation said. If Iran chose to dedicate the new machines to produce higher-grade uranium, it could significantly shorten the time required for any bid to build an atomic bomb. Iran says it needs to refine uranium to make reactor fuel. In another potentially worrying development for the West, Iran appears to have virtually stopped converting this uranium into making civilian reactor fuel since the previous report. As a result, the stockpile of uranium gas refined to a fissile concentration of 20 percent increased by nearly 50 percent to 135 kg, the latest report said, still below the level of 200-250 kg experts say would be sufficient for an atomic bomb if refined further. "This puts added pressure on the West's diplomacy with Iran, which has to operate on a tighter schedule," said research fellow Shashank Joshi at the Royal United Services Institute. Israel has recently signaled that an attack on Iran was not imminent - after months of talk that it might be on the cards soon - by pointing to Iran's decision earlier this year to use part of its 20 percent uranium for civilian purposes.
"As Iran's 20 percent stockpile approaches around 240 kg, the Israeli saber-rattling will resume," Joshi said.
"WINDOW OF TIME" FOR DIPLOMACY?
Tehran has produced about 233 kg (512 pounds) of higher-grade enriched uranium since 2010, an increase of 43 kg since August this year, according to the IAEA report issued in Vienna.
Of that amount, it has fed 96 kg for conversion into fuel for a medical research reactor in Tehran, it said.
Such conversions make it harder for the material to be processed into 90 percent, or bomb-grade, enriched uranium and could be a step by Tehran meant in part to counter Western suspicions of a covert atomic bomb program. The IAEA report also said that "extensive activities" at the Parchin military compound - an allusion to suspected Iranian attempts to remove evidence - would seriously undermine an agency investigation into indications that research relevant to developing a nuclear explosive were conducted there.
It is "necessary to have access to this location without further delay", the report said.
Tehran denies U.S. and Israeli allegations that it is seeking a nuclear weapons capability, saying its program is entirely for peaceful energy. But U.N. inspectors suspect past, and possibly ongoing, military nuclear activity.Obama this week said he believed there was still a "window of time" to find a peaceful resolution to the decade-old standoff with Iran, avoiding a possible broader Middle East war that would batter a stumbling global economy. But time may not be on the side of diplomacy: the question of when and how quickly Iran might be able to assemble an atom bomb if it chose to do so is hotly debated because it could influence any decision by Israel to take military action. Iran has so far refused to back down in the dispute, despite tougher sanctions targeting the country's vital oil exports.
Fordow particularly worries the West as it is where Iran refines uranium to 20 percent purity, compared with the 3.5 percent level usually needed for nuclear energy plants.
Iran says it must do this to make fuel for the Tehran research reactor, but it also represents a major technical leap towards the threshold suitable for nuclear weapons.
The fact that Fordow is buried underground makes it less vulnerable to any air strikes, which Israel has threatened if diplomacy fails to stop Iran acquiring atomic bombs.
The IAEA's report provides further "troubling evidence that Iran is ... slowly enhancing its nuclear weapons breakout potential," said the Arms Control Association, a Washington-based research and advocacy group. "However, Iran remains years, not months, away from having a workable nuclear arsenal if it were to choose to pursue that capability."
(Editing by Mark Heinrich and Pravin Char)

Mursi and Hamas in a predicament
By Tariq Alhomayed/Asharq Al-Awsat
For three days of Israeli aggression on Gaza, Hamas flatly rejected calls for mediation and said that those who want to go down that route should go to Egypt. But yesterday the deputy head of the Hamas political bureau, Mousa Abu Marzouk, hinted at the possibility of accepting mediation with Israel, and not only this, he also stressed the need to go to the United Nations and complete President Abbas’ project, even though Abbas has not been enthusiastic about Hamas in the past. What does it all mean? The fact is that the current Israeli aggression against Gaza comes at a complex time not only for the region, but also within Gaza itself. Hamas leadership positions remain unresolved; will Mishal continue or will he devolve power to Haniyeh or even Abu Marzouk himself? This is not all either. Days before the Israeli aggression, leaders of a Salafi group in Gaza accused Hamas of pursuing its activists. Then the leader of the Mujahideen Shura Council, Anas Abdul Rahman, added: “There is no relationship between the Salafi jihadis and Hamas and its government, except through security prosecutions and within prisons”. The story does not stop here. Even on the eve of the Israeli aggression, Palestinian factions in Gaza were divided over whether to stop firing rockets and commit to a truce, and there are a number of conflicting statements from these factions themselves. Finally, with regards to Hamas’ relations with the Palestinian Authority, eight days ago the Hamas deputy said that an Abbas visit to Gaza would “not be welcomed”.
All this tells us that the Israeli aggression has taken place amidst a real struggle in Gaza. There is a power struggle within Hamas, and for control of the Gaza Strip, aside from the conflict with the pro-Iran groups, whose goals conflict with Hamas’ stance on the Syrian revolution for example. There are also disputes with those who want to get closer to Egypt, or who want to respond to the recent Qatari initiative, represented by the Emir of Qatar’s visit to Gaza and the announcement of huge financial investments there! So, the Israeli aggression does not only represent a predicament for Egyptian President Mursi, or for Qatar’s recent investments, but it also represents a predicament for Hamas, its relations with other factions in Gaza, and its future role. Here we must consider what the Israeli activist Gershon Baskin – the mediator between Israel and Hamas for the Gilad Shalit deal – said about the assassination of Ahmed al-Jabari: “He was a man with sweeping powers, a leader in every sense of the word. He was sincere in seeking a truce, and he played a large role in stopping the rocket fire into Israel by Palestinian factions. Even when Hamas was firing rockets, he made sure that these rockets landed in open spaces so that there were no human casualties”. Of course we must also remember the Egyptian Prime Minister’s call to the Palestinians on his recent visit to Gaza!
Thus it is clear that some members of the Hamas leadership, including the assassinated al-Jabari, are looking for a truce, whilst some factions want a war. Therefore, today Hamas is leaning towards Egyptian mediation and calling for the involvement of Abbas, in order to kill two birds with one stone. In doing so it will put a stop to the war and as a result Hamas’ control will be restored, not only over Gaza but over all its factions, Iranian or otherwise. Hamas is in more trouble this time than some people think, as evidenced by many aforementioned indicators. The victim – as usual – is the Palestinian cause and the people of Gaza, and the beneficiary is always the Israeli enemy.

Why doesn’t Egypt defend Gaza militarily?
By Abdul Rahman Al-Rashed/Asharq Alawsat
I don’t think that millions of Arabs today accept the statements of sympathy, symbolic field visits, and diplomatic activities that are being showcased to address the aggression on Gaza.
Yet if Egypt decided to defend Gaza in a military fashion, perhaps the political equitation would be entirely different, even if it wasn’t victorious. What’s more, this wouldn’t have to be a major war.
The visit paid by [Egyptian Prime Minister] Hisham Qandil to Gaza was no more politically valuable than those conducted by the late Omar Suleiman, the former head of Egyptian intelligence during the Mubarak era. Qandil’s statements of condemnation do not scare Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, who launched the attack for electoral purposes and to challenge the new Egyptian regime. He wants to determine Egypt’s limits on the ground and to clarify the boundaries of the relationship between the two states.
The truth is that Hamas has been extremely disciplined and has honored the commitments it has made to Israel. Of course it responded to the latest Israeli act of aggression, and to the military provocations over the past few months, but Hamas has also done its utmost to prevent and pursue extremist Salafi jihadist groups, which have deliberately launched missiles or attempted to cross the border into Israel.
It is clear from recent statements that Israel holds Hamas responsible for the actions of these uncontrolled jihadist groups. Most of the attacks from the Israeli side, sometimes aerial bombardments, have been aimed at Hamas and not at the rogue groups that are a threat not only to Israel but to Hamas itself.
Therefore, it is clear that Israel is using its latest aggression for purposes that have nothing to do with responding to threats or protecting its territory. It is a military operation purely for political reasons.
I believe that President Mohammed Mursi knows that this time the war on Gaza is primarily directed at him and not at Haniyeh’s government. Israel wants to ensure his obedience from the outset and embarrass him before his citizens and the Arabs, who are watching and wondering what the difference between him and Mubarak is. Sending messages, dispatching officials and withdrawing ambassadors were the weapons that Mubarak used to show solidarity with the Palestinians. What will Mursi’s tactics be to stop the Israeli aggression?
We always say that when an opposition movement is on the street it is more vocal and outspoken than the government, but when it assumes office it conforms to certain parameters, and this is exactly what is happening with Mursi. Ever since it came to power, Mursi’s government has dealt with diplomatic norms in a civilized and harmonious manner, and has shown its commitment to the legacy of the Camp David Accords and other agreements. In this respect, it has outdone any previous government. President Mursi has closed the tunnels that were used to smuggle arms into Gaza. Of course, there is neither any logic nor truth in the assertion that closing these tunnels will protect Sinai from weapons and fighters infiltrating from Gaza. Sinai is the passage and Gaza is the destination, or the downstream. Egyptian forces have also waged the largest military confrontation in Sinai since 1973, only this time against Egyptian extremists and jihadist groups that threaten both Israel and Egypt’s security. As long as Mursi remains committed to the Camp David agreement, he is obliged to do so.
Yet despite all this evidence, the Netanyahu government has failed to respect the new Egyptian regime and has deliberately embarrassed Mursi on several occasions, most recently with the attack on Gaza, which is, in fact, partially an attack on Egypt.
Does Egypt dare get involved in a war with Israel? Personally, I think the question should be reversed: Does Israel risk opening a military front with Egypt?

Syrian Chief Justice announces defection from regime
Sunday, 18 November 2012
Chief Justice Ali al-Aoun, who was also a member of the ruling Baath Party, said that dozens of Syrian officials and party members are going to follow in his footsteps very soon. (Al Arabiya) inShare.0 By Mohamed al-Arab /Al Arabiya
The Chief Justice of the court of Deir al-Zour in eastern Syria, Ali al-Aoun, announced his defection from Bashar al-Assad’s regime citing the systematic killing of the Syrian people.
“The Syrian regime is embarking on a genocidal campaign against the people with the help of its allies,” Aoun said in a special interview with Al Arabiya.
Aoun, who was also a member of the ruling Baath Party, said that dozens of Syrian officials and party members are going to follow in his footsteps very soon.
“They have all defected since the first days of the revolution, but were waiting for the right time to make their defection public. This specifically applies to the judiciary.”
Aoun labeled former Syrian Prime Minister Riad Hijab, who defected in August 2012, as “the father of defectors,” in that his act encouraged many Syrian officials to turn their back on the regime.
“The coming stage will witness major defections now that many officials have managed to have their families out of Syria and safely settled in Jordan or Turkey,” he concluded.
Aoun said he is thankful to the Free Syrian Army, the main armed Syrian opposition, for helping him get his extended family out of Syria.
Regarding the progress of the uprising, Aoun argued that the Syrian regime has already fallen and that the liberation of the city of al-Bukamal in the Deir al-Zour governorate is very symbolic in this regard.
“Al-Bukamal is the first city that defeated the French occupation in the past, which means that it is a city known for its resistance. It will also be a safe haven for defectors and Free Syrian Army officers.

Against U.S. Wishes, Iraq Releases Man Accused of Killing American Soldiers
By MICHAEL R. GORDON
Published: November 16, 2012
WASHINGTON — Iraq has released a Hezbollah operative who has been accused by American military prosecutors of the killing of American troops, terrorism and espionage, Iraqi and American officials said Friday.The prisoner, Ali Musa Daqduq, was released on Thursday despite the entreaties of the Obama administration. In a phone call on Tuesday, Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. told the Iraqi prime minister, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, that the United States believed that Mr. Daqduq should be held accountable for his actions and that Iraq should explore all legal options toward this end, an American official said. Robert S. Beecroft, the United States ambassador in Baghdad, made a similar appeal to Mr. Maliki that day. But Mr. Maliki told Mr. Biden that Iraq had run out of legal options to hold Mr. Daqduq, who this year had been ordered released by an Iraqi court. Mr. Daqduq has left Iraq and is now in Beirut, his lawyer told Reuters.
The case is noteworthy not only because of the accusations against Mr. Daqduq, but also because it is regarded by Middle East experts as a test of whether the United States or Iran has more influence over the Shiite-dominated government of Iraq. Hezbollah, a Shiite militant organization in Lebanon, is backed by Iran, a Shiite state.
Iraqi officials have said that they thought delaying Mr. Daqduq’s release until after the American presidential election would mollify the Obama administration. American officials have repeatedly insisted that they did not want him released at all.
“We didn’t want it to happen, and we were concerned about it,” said Victoria Nuland, the State Department spokeswoman. “We said that to the Iraqis. They have said back to us that they didn’t have a legal basis to continue to hold him. Let me add to that, as with other terrorists who we believe have committed crimes against Americans, we are going to continue to pursue all legal means to see that Daqduq sees justice for the crimes of which he is accused.”
Ms. Nuland declined to say how Washington intended to pursue Mr. Daqduq but said that the United States had been in touch with the Lebanese government. Conservative critics said that it showed that the Obama administration’s influence in Iraq had waned after the United States and Iraq failed to reach an agreement that would have provided for the continued presence of a modest number of American troops after 2011.
“The United States now has so little influence that it could not prevail upon the Iraqi government to extradite Daqduq to the U.S. to stand trial for his crimes,” Senator John McCain of Arizona and Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, both Republicans, said in a statement. “We now face a similar situation in Afghanistan as we did in Iraq as America draws down troops and hands over detainees to the Afghani government. The administration must tell the American people exactly how it will ensure that terrorists in Afghanistan with American and allied blood on their hands will be brought to justice.”
One prominent Iraqi, who asked not to be identified because he was worried about retribution by the Maliki government, agreed with the critics. Mr. Daqduq’s release, he said, “underscores how little influence Washington holds over Baghdad’s government since American troops left the country last December.”
Mr. Daqduq, who was captured by British forces in Basra in March 2007, was the last detainee to be handed over to the Iraqis by the United States as American troops withdrew in December.
American military officials have accused Mr. Daqduq of working with the Quds Force — an Iranian paramilitary unit that supports militant groups abroad — to train Shiite militias in Iraq during the war. One of the most serious accusations is that he had a role in helping to organize a January 2007 raid in Karbala that led to the deaths of five American soldiers.
After Mr. Daqduq was transferred to Iraqi custody, an Iraqi court ruled that there was not enough evidence to hold him. The United States had sought his extradition for trial by an American military tribunal, but that request was rejected. The charge sheet prepared by American military prosecutors accused him of murder, terrorism, perfidy and espionage, among other war crimes. Specifically, he said that Mr. Daqduq had drafted plans for the Karbala attack, which was carried out by a Shiite militant group, Asaib Ahl al-Haq, and had advised the group how to infiltrate the compound using American and Iraqi uniforms and by muffling its vehicles. When he was captured, Mr. Daqduq was with the leaders of the group, Laith Khazali and his brother Qais.
This is not the only issue that has strained relations between the United States and Iraq recently. American officials said there have been continued flights from Iran to Syria through Iraq’s airspace that are believed to have carried military supplies to support the embattled government of Bashar al-Assad. Iraq ordered two flights to land in Baghdad for inspection, and no military supplies were found. But they represented just a small portion of the total flights.

In Bold Move, France Welcomes Syria Ambassador
By ELAINE GANLEY Associated Press
PARIS November 17, 2012 (AP)
France on Saturday welcomed a member of the Syrian opposition as the country's ambassador, a bold bid to confer legitimacy on the week-old opposition coalition and encourage other Western nations to follow suit. The new envoy, Mounzir Makhous, appeared before the press after talks at France's presidential palace between President Francois Hollande and the head of the newly formed Syrian opposition coalition. France has swiftly stepped out ahead of Western allies nearly since the start of the Syrian uprising 20 months ago. Saturday's surprise announcement came even before the brand new coalition has named its provisional government and before a place in Paris to house the envoy has been found. "There will be an ambassador of Syria in France," Hollande announced. France expelled its Syrian ambassador in May, along with more a half-dozen other countries. Mouaz Al-Khatib, the opposition leader, described Makhous as "one of the first to speak of liberty" in Syria. He holds four doctorate degrees and belongs to the Muslim Alawite sect of President Bashar Assad, demonstrating an effort to reach out to all of Syria's people, al-Khatib said. France recognized the coalition days after it was formed last Sunday — and so far is the only Western country to do so.
There is widespread fear that without a legitimate opposition force the civil war in Syria could degenerate into sectarian battles pitting community upon community.
But, the United States and other EU nations have said they prefer to wait and see whether the coalition truly represents the variety of people that make up Syria before they recognize it.
Al-Khatib suggested that a provisional government made up of technocrats would come quickly, a move that would allow the ambassador to take up his functions. A military command is also being formed and a coordination center devoted to humanitarian aid will be set up in Cairo.
"''I say frankly that we have no hidden agenda. There are no hidden accords, no hidden decisions were made," al-Khatib said in a bid to reassure other nations.
"Our role will end as soon as this regime falls. The Syrian people can then decide in all freedom the democratic institutions, the form of constitutional regime that they want," he said. "The people can take their decisions freely."A Syrian government official dismissed Makhous' appointment, saying it was made at the behest of France. "If France has appointed him, then he is a French ambassador, not a Syrian one," he said. The official spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment publicly on the subject. More than 36,000 people have been killed since the Syrian uprising against President Bashar Assad began in March 2011 and the new coalition is pressing for the means to defend Syrian civilians. On Saturday, Syrian rebels took control of the Hamdan airport in the oil-rich province of Deir el-Zour along the border with Iraq after days of heavy fighting with Assad's forces, Rami Abdul-Rahman, the chief of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said.
The airport, near the border town of al-Boukamal, has been turned into a military base during Syria's 20 months of conflict.

White House: Israel has right to defend itself, make decisions about military operations
By Jim Kuhnhenn, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press
The White House says it believes Israel "has the right to defend itself" against attack and that the Israelis will make their own decisions about their "military tactics and operations."
A top aide to President Barack Obama tells reporters travelling with the president to Asia on Air Force One that the U.S. and Israel both want an end to the rocket fire that's coming from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.Deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes says Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agree that "de-escalation is preferred," provided that Hamas stops firing into Israel.
Obama has spoken with the leaders of Egypt and Turkey, too. Rhodes says they "have the ability to play a constructive role in engaging Hamas" and encouraging a de-escalation of the attacks.

Syria rebels say seize airport near Iraqi border
BEIRUT | Sat Nov 17, 2012
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Rebels said they captured an airport used by Syria's military near the Iraqi border on Saturday, strengthening their hold on the recently seized border town of Albu Kamal.
President Bashar al-Assad's forces have retaliated by bombing the airport with fighter jets, said Ziad al-Amir, a local opposition activist.
Video published by rebel groups showed fighters patrolling a dusty desert air base in Syria's Deir al-Zor province. Plumes of grey smoke rose from some low concrete buildings as fighters examined several abandoned tanks. Assad has been struggling to put down the 20-month-old revolt against his rule, which began as peaceful protests but has morphed into a civil war that has spread to most of the country. Opposition supporters say more than 38,000 people have died. Hamdan airport was once used to transport farm produce but was converted to a base for helicopters and military tanks during the unrest. The capture of Hamdan means Assad's forces now only hold one air base in the province - the main military airport in Deir al-Zor city. The activist Amir, speaking on Skype, said the rebels were able to seize some mortars and armoured vehicles as well as ammunition. There was no comment from the Syrian government or state TV on the activists' claims.
If rebels keep their hold on the airport, then Albu Kamal, a border city of more than 60,000 people, is likely to stay in rebel hands, said Rami Abdulrahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
The fighters seized Albu Kamal two days ago but had been unable to take the nearby Hamdan airport, from which helicopters had been taking off and hitting rebel areas.
"These new captures means that the largest territory outside of regime control is now the region along the Iraqi border in Deir al-Zor," he said.
But the rebels' hold of territory on the ground is unlikely to prevent attacks from the sky, in what has become a typical cycle for clashes between the Syrian army and rebels.
Opposition fighters, using improved tactics and equipped with heavier weapons than previous months, are able to capture territory and force out military units but are unable to fend off attacks from the air. The army often bombs security sites taken by the rebels, perhaps to destroy any useful equipment. Around 12 rebel fighters were killed in shelling and heavy clashes near the outskirts of the city after the rebels seized the airport, according to activists. "Some of the army officers left the soldiers in the airport and fled with three of the tanks and are trying to arrange a rescue, so the fighting has become fierce in the area," al-Amir told Reuters by Skype. Rebels have been trying to attack air bases in particular, in the hopes of grounding some of Assad's air power.
The fighting has increasingly encroached on Assad's seat of power in the capital of Damascus as well. On Saturday, opposition activists said that nearly half of the roads and entrances to the capital had been closed except to military vehicles but had given no explanation for the tightened security.
(Reporting by Erika Solomon; Editing by Rosalind Russell)