Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources/July 22/13

Hezbollah releases video of 2006 kidnapping of two IDF soldiers
Extension of Sleiman’s term seen as only alternative to vacuum
Suleiman Calls On Leaders to Revive Dialogue, Rejects Obstructing Cabinet Formation
Al-Rahi Warns against War, Hopes for Neutral Cabinet
Aoun Says he Met Nasrallah, Denies Differences with Hizbullah
Lebanese Basketball Team Calls for Resignation of Lebanon's Federation
S. Lebanon/Man Suffers Burns as Power Generator Explodes in Tyre
Saniora, Fatfat, Mashnouq Head to Jeddah for Talks with Hariri
Future Movement delegation to meet Hariri in Jeddah
Aoun Warns of Regional Bloodbath, Says Will Participate in National Dialogue
12 Kilos of Cocaine from Nigeria Seized at Beirut Airport
Lebanon/Man Killed in Fighting with Sticks and Machetes in Akkar
Al Qaeda’s Sinai commander was Bin Laden’s physician Dr. Ramzi Mowafi, a chemical arms expert
Netanyahu: Morsi ouster shows weakness of Islamist movements
Netanyahu Warns Talks with Palestinians Will be Tough
Philippe Ascends Throne of Divided Belgium
Mursi’s fall comforts Saudis, fazes Qatar
Observatory: Syria Pro-Regime Militia Kills 13 Members of Same Family in Banias
Iran Opposes Israel-Palestinian Peace Talks
Arab League Backs Palestinian Stance in Peace Talks, Skeptical on Israel's
Syrian Islamist rebel leader freed after clashes among rival rebels
Battle for Aleppo rages a year after rebel advance

Hezbollah releases video of 2006 kidnapping of two IDF soldiers
By ARIEL BEN /J.Post/SOLOMON07/21/2013/Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV station revealed details of the kidnapping of two IDF soldiers in 2006, which led to the 2006 Lebanon war. The video shows what appears to be Hezbollah forces preparing for the mission in the same place where the kidnapping eventually took place.
Khalid Bazzi, also known as Hajj Qasim, led the operation for Hezbollah and is shown on the video to be involved in the planning of the attack in what the program claims is the site from where the attack was actually launched. He is shown standing up high in the tree observing the site of where the attack would take place, while another soldier is on the ground under him.
The video also showed live video of the attack with Hezbollah militants jumping out from the trees and bushes to attack an approaching IDF vehicle. The footage of the attack appears to be from previously released footage.
Bazzi was killed by an Israeli air strike during the war. On July 12, 2006, Hezbollah terrorists attacked a group of Israeli soldiers in Israeli territory, killing eight and kidnapping Eldad Regev and Udi Goldwasser. Israel responded by attacking Hezbollah and other targets in Lebanon, and Hezbollah responded by firing numerous Katyusha rockets at Israeli population centers for more than 100 days.
The bodies of the two IDF soldiers were returned to Israel in an exchange in 2008 for Lebanese terrorist Samir Kuntar.
An article on Al-Manar’s website from earlier this month stated that during the 2006 war “the Zionist entity used all its power to destroy Hezbollah, but failed in achieving the least of its goals.” Israel then “pulled out defeated” and today, Hezbollah is much stronger than it was in the summer of 2006, according to the article.
*The article also quotes media reports noting the recent decision by the IDF to reduce and restructure its forces.

Suleiman Calls On Leaders to Revive Dialogue, Rejects Obstructing Cabinet Formation
Naharnet /President Michel Suleiman called on Saturday for reviving the national dialogue, rejecting any attempt to obstruct the formation of a new cabinet. “I call on the political leaders to take part in reviving the national dialogue sessions to look for the best way to preserve Lebanon's interest and manage its affairs,” Suleiman said in a speech he gave at Saint Joseph University's graduation ceremony. He assured that he will continue to "rule taking into consideration the constitutional responsibility." “Wisdom and political realism require going forward with the logical application of all articles of the Taef Accord until we reach a civil state.”
“After years of stability, we are now failing in agreeing on a new electoral law and in the formation of a cabinet while we are still confronting violence, extremism and sedition,” the president pointed out. He also urged disassociating Lebanon from regional conflicts and from the repercussions of the Syrian crisis, warning against the “forces of extremism.”

Sleiman says to work on resuming national dialogue
July 21, 2013/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: President Michel Sleiman said over the weekend he would push toward enforcing the “Baabda Declaration,” which aims at keeping Lebanon at a distance from the Syrian war, and resume National Dialogue on the question of Hezbollah’s arms. "I will exert all efforts to achieve the needed national goals ... of convincing various parties in Lebanon that the national interest and their own rests in preserving Lebanon's stability via their commitment, in words and action, to the ‘Baabda Declaration,’” Sleiman said during a speech at the Université Saint-Joseph graduation ceremony. “[the declaration aims at] distancing our nation from regional and international disputes and axes ... and from growing negative repercussions of the Syrian crisis,” he added. He noted that the pact, agreed by rival groups during a 2012 National Dialogue session, had won clear international support, “while more effort is still needed to achieve a true regional consensus on the issue.” His effort, Sleiman said, is part of a series of steps that is needed “in these uncertain times” in order to unify the Lebanese around certain principles that would help ensure a sustained period of stability as well as political and social growth. “[I will also work on] intensifying the process of consultations to form a new government that will preserve stability and resolve both the economic and social conditions as well as address the increasing number of Syrian refugees,” the president said. The process of forming a new Cabinet has been stalled for over three months due to conditions and counter conditions put forward by the country’s major political coalitions. “None of us has the right to disrupt this [formation] by placing demands because the people and the Constitution are the sole sources of authority,” he added.
Sleiman also said he would exert efforts to re-launch the stalled National Dialogue sessions in order to discuss the contentious issue of Hezbollah’s arsenal. “[My effort will also focus on] bringing together again members of the National Dialogue committee to discuss in a responsible and serious manner the best means to serve Lebanon’s interests and manage its affairs,” he said. He also noted that he proposed a national defense strategy which would resolve the issue of Hezbollah’s arms and strengthen the role of the state. Aside from resuming national dialogue, enforcing the Baabda Declaration and forming a new Cabinet, Sleiman said steps were also needed to clarify ambiguities surrounding the Constitution “to improve the performance of the state,” along with a draft law he put forward on administrative decentralization.Addressing the crowd of new graduates at the university, Sleiman advised them not to be dragged into extremist ideologies or subservience.“Don't allow the radical, reckless groups to drag you again toward violence and wars whether inside the country or outside or the path of migration and subservience,” he said.
 

Extension of Sleiman’s term seen as only alternative to vacuum
By Antoine Ghattas Saab/The Daily Star/An extension of President Michel Sleiman’s in office or a vacuum in the presidency appear to be the only options for Lebanon once Sleiman’s mandate ends in May next year, according to political sources.Doubts are growing about whether the divided country will be able to elect a new head of state once Sleiman’s six-year term expires.The sources said among the options being mulled to avoid a presidential vacuum is for Saudi Arabia and Iran to reach an understanding on the region’s problems. Such a development would reflect positively on both politics and security in Lebanon, and lead to a Lebanese-regional accord on a new consensus president without excluding the possibility of Sleiman again being chosen. If a regional settlement fails to materialize and the struggle in Lebanon and the region persists along with the divide among the rival political factions, Lebanon will face the following possibilities: the state of limbo currently affecting state institutions will envelop the presidency, or an inter-Lebanese accord will be reached in isolation from the foreign powers that support the extension of Sleiman’s term, the sources added. The sources pointed to the international community’s firm support for Sleiman, based on a recent statement issued by U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon in which he called on the Lebanese to rally behind the president. Later, the U.N. Security Council unanimously reaffirmed its support for stability in Lebanon and the need to stand behind Sleiman after praising his efforts.
This signals that the international community places a premium on maintaining security in Lebanon even if this requires extending Sleiman’s term, which in the eyes of influential Western powers is better than sinking into a vacuum and crippling state institutions, the sources said. Referring to Sleiman’s ties with regional states, the sources said he was constantly in contact with leaders of influential nations, at the forefront of which are Saudi Arabia and Iran. This was manifested during Sleiman’s two visits to Saudi Arabia in the past two years, his recent visit to Qatar to congratulate the new Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, and the phone conversation he had with Iran’s President-elect Hassan Rouhani. On Sleiman’s plan to reconvene National Dialogue, the sources said he prefers to convene a session after the formation of a new Cabinet which appears to be stalled for now.
As for his support for constitutional amendments, the sources said Sleiman did not really mean an amendment of the Constitution as much as he wanted to boost the performance of state institutions, by filling vacant posts and interpreting constitutional provisions. A committee of constitutional experts, formed by Sleiman, has prepared a 90-page booklet containing all necessary amendments and clarifications, the sources said.
Speaking at the annual iftar he hosted at Baabda Palace Tuesday, Sleiman said he would soon outline his plans on this front, after he identified “a number of shortcomings in the mechanism of decision-making on delicate and sensitive issues, which led to crippling the work of institutions and [the branches] of executive and legislative authorities.”

Aoun Says he Met Nasrallah, Denies Differences with Hizbullah
Naharnet /Free Patriotic Movement leader Michel Aoun has denied that he had differences with Hizbullah and confirmed that he had lately held talks with the party leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. “We haven't disagreed,” Aoun told An Nahar newspaper published on Sunday. “There were some thorny issues linked to internal affairs … that we resolved.” But the FPM chief stressed that the disagreement on those issues was not with Hizbullah, a veiled reference to the party's ally, Speaker Nabih Berri, who is also the head of the Amal movement. Asked about the differences with Berri, Aoun said: “The tension has disappeared.”
“It is natural to have different point of views between lawmakers and the speaker,” said Aoun, who is the head of the Change and Reform parliamentary bloc. He reiterated that he had “friendly ties and a common stance” with Hizbullah, saying “we support the resistance as long as Israel continues to threaten us daily.” Aoun also confirmed that he had lately met with Nasrallah. “We met and spoke about the situation in general,” he said.
“It is our right to hold bilateral talks and not to reveal our political plans,” Aoun added. The head of the Change and Reform bloc also defended Hizbullah's fighting in Syria. “The Lebanese situation and the vacuum on the Lebanese border compelled (Hizbullah's) intervention in al-Qusayr,” he said. Hizbullah was instrumental in helping secure a Syrian regime victory in the strategic town of Qusayr near the border with Lebanon last month. The move was widely condemned by the international community and Lebanon's March 14 alliance that backs the rebels fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad. “The armed operations (launched) from Lebanese territories on Syria had almost caused civil war,” Aoun said, adding Hizbullah's intervention in Qusayr “was necessary for such a war not to take place.”But when asked that his son-in-law Caretaker Energy Minister Jebran Bassil had lately criticized the meddling, Aoun said: “We are against intervention in general.” “But the security situation compels politicians to interfere,” he added.
 

Future Movement delegation to meet Hariri in Jeddah
July 21, 2013/The Daily Star
BEIRUT: A Future Movement delegation headed by MP Fouad Siniora set off to Jeddah Sunday to meet former Prime Minister Saad Hariri and discuss the latest developments in Lebanon. The delegation, which includes Siniora and MPs Ahmad Fatfat and Nuhad Mashnouq, is expected to discuss the stalled Cabinet formation process, the issue of extending Army commander Gen. Jean Kahwagi’s mandate and the possible resumption of National Dialogue, local media reported. Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah said Friday his party was ready to relaunch National Dialogue sessions under the auspices of President Michel Sleiman in order to discuss the contentious issue of the resistance group’s arsenal in the framework of a national defense strategy. The Future Movement and other opposition parties said they would boycott Dialogue sessions until the Cabinet under now caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati resigns and that the all-party talks only address Hezbollah’s arsenal. Their decision came following the October assassination of Brig. Gen. Wissam al-Hasan. Opposition parties had accused the government of providing cover for Hasan’s killing. Mikati resigned earlier this year over disputes within his Cabinet. Since his resignation, Prime Minister Tammam Salam has struggled to form his own government, amid conditions and counter-conditions set by rival political coalitions. The Future Movement insists that Hezbollah not take part in the upcoming Cabinet. As for the extension of Kahwagi’s mandate, which expires in September, the Future Movement supports raising the retirement age of senior military officials, which would see the present Army commander remain at his post. However, a cyclical boycott of Parliament by Mikati, March 14 parties and the Free Patriotic Movement over the legislature’s agenda has prevented MPs from voting on the matter.

Saniora, Fatfat, Mashnouq Head to Jeddah for Talks with Hariri
Naharnet/Al-Mustaqbal leaders are scheduled to hold talks in Saudi Arabia on Sunday, a meeting that would result in a unified stance from Prime Minister-designate Tammam Salam's efforts to form his government.
An al-Mustaqbal delegation, comprising "ex-PM Fouad Saniora and MPs Ahmed Fatfat and Nohad al-Mashnouq, traveled to the Saudi city of Jeddah for talks with ex-PM Saad Hariri," state-run National News Agency reported on Sunday afternoon. Sources following the consultations aimed at forming the cabinet, told An Nahar daily that the “unified stance” that would emerge from the meeting in Saudi Arabia in addition to Salam's alleged call for the March 8 alliance to negotiate with him as a single entity would make some headway. Speaker Nabih Berri had informed the PM-designate that his Amal movement would negotiate separately with Salam on its shares. But Salam allegedly told him that he would consider the March 8 alliance of FPM, Hizbullah and Amal as a single coalition that would get 8 ministers in a 24-member cabinet.
Salam insists on giving the March 14 alliance, the centrists and March 8 coalition 8 ministers each. He also wants a cabinet of non provocative political figures. Al-Mustaqbal sources told An Nahar that the movement's priority was also to have a government of politicians who are not party members and who are “peaceful and not warriors.”

Al-Rahi Warns against War, Hopes for Neutral Cabinet
Naharnet/Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi warned on Sunday that political conflict leads to war, saying there should be a neutral cabinet that comes up with a new electoral law.
“Our salvation comes from political thought and not from political conflicts that lead to war,” al-Rahi said in his sermon at St. Maroun monastery in Annaya.
The mass held on the occasion of St. Charbel Day was attended by President Michel Suleiman, first Lady Wafaa and several officials, including Caretaker Interior Minister Marwan Charbel and MP Butros Harb.Al-Rahi hoped for the formation of a neutral cabinet of well-known Lebanese personalities that is not biased and which would be capable of coming up with a modern elections law that best represents the people and that holds MPs accountable. “The situation in Lebanon is no longer bearable,” he said. “There is neither a respect for the Constitution nor for sovereignty,” he said. “The borders are being violated by arms smuggling, and sects and parties are being armed at the expense of the state, the people and the institutions.”Al-Rahi slammed politicians for interfering in public administration and administrative appointments. “That's why there should be legislation that differentiates between the ministry and parliament.”He reiterated that the March 8 and 14 alliances were paralyzing constitutional institutions. Al-Rahi described Suleiman as the symbol of the nation's unity, saying he is the authority for everyone.“This should also apply to the speaker and to the prime minister,” he said.

Man Suffers Burns as Power Generator Explodes in Tyre
Naharnet/Young man Malek Salman al-Zayyat suffered minor burn injuries on Sunday when a power generator exploded at the roastery he works at on the al-Hmadiyeh public road, north of the city of Tyre, state-run National News Agency reported. “The sound of the enormous explosion was heard across the region,” NNA said. Zayyat was rushed to Jabal Amel Hospital for treatment as security forces arrived on the scene and launched a probe into the incident, the agency added.

12 Kilos of Cocaine from Nigeria Seized at Beirut Airport
Naharnet/Customs officers at the Rafik Hariri International Airport on Sunday foiled an attempt to smuggle 12 kilograms of cocaine into the country from Nigeria's Kano. “The quantity was packed in a professional and creative way and was seized in the possession of a man who arrived from Kano,” one of the largest cities in Nigeria, Lebanon's National News Agency reported. “The man was arrested following authorization from the relevant judicial authorities,” NNA said. He was referred to the central anti-drug bureau for further interrogation, the agency added.

Man Killed in Fighting with Sticks and Machetes in Akkar
Naharnet/A Lebanese man was killed when two families armed with sticks and machetes engaged in a fight in a town in the northern district of Akkar, the state-run National News Agency reported on Sunday. NNA said that Khairallah al-Sheikh died when he was hit on his head with a stick. Several other people were injured in the fighting that pitted al-Sheikh family members against the Waked clan in the town of Ballanat al-Haisa. The bickering parties burned several houses in the town, NNA said. The army intervened to calm the situation and restore order, the agency added.

Aoun Warns of Regional Bloodbath, Says Will Participate in National Dialogue
Naharnet/Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun said on Saturday that he accepts President Michel Suleiman's call for national dialogue, noting, however, that talks “never led to results.”“We agree to participate in national dialogue sessions but for years, dialogue has never had a positive outcome,” Aoun said in a speech he gave at a FPM dinner. Suleiman had called on political leaders earlier on Saturday to take part in reviving the national dialogue "to look for the best way to preserve Lebanon's interest and manage its affairs." Aoun warned against the “regional bloodbath that will get to the careless people who do not feel that Lebanon is in danger.”
“Lebanon is in danger because of the continuous avoidance of responsibility,” he considered. He elaborated: “We have warned against the entry of gunmen into the country. The identities of most of these men is unknown.”
“We are all living in a security crisis, whether in the North or in the South.”The FPM leader also pointed out to political and economical crises in the country, and to the vacuum in public institutions, "especially in security institutions."“We have reached this stage because our votes are not free but are subject to regional and international politics,” he explained. “No one represents a purely Lebanese political stance.”He accused the current and past cabinet members of “committing crimes.”“This is why we want change,” Aoun stated.

Basketball Team Calls for Resignation of Lebanon's Federation
Naharnet/The national basketball team urged on Sunday the federation to resign after it returned to Beirut from the Philippines following Lebanon's suspension by FIBA. During a press conference he held at Rafik Hariri International Airport, the team's coach Ghassan Sarkis said: “The team was very close to achieving the dream” of victory. “On behalf of the players, I call on the federation to resign,” he said after he accused it of failing to work properly and being amateurish. Sarkis called for the formation of a transitional committee and the election of a new federation that comes up with a new vision for basketball.
“There should be an Intifada,” he said. “We want reform staring tomorrow … We want a new horizon.”The International Basketball Federation (FIBA) has suspended Lebanon's basketball federation for four years because of political bickering between two clubs. "After a thorough review of the situation, FIBA notes that the LBF is not properly armed to face political interferences and solve sporting disputes within its own structures," said a statement. Basketball is one of Lebanon's most popular sports, and top clubs are owned or funded by politicians. FIBA stripped Lebanon this year of the hosting rights for the Asia Championship, because of the conflict in Syria.

Philippe Ascends Throne of Divided Belgium
Naharnet/Philippe ascended the throne of Belgium as its seventh king on Sunday amid National Day celebrations marked by hopes the fragile nation can remain united. "I swear to abide by the constitution and the laws of the Belgian people," Philippe, 53, and dressed in full military uniform, said in the country's three languages -- French, Flemish and German. "I am aware of the responsibilities weighing on my shoulders," he added, after the abdication of his father Albert II after 20 years at the helm of the linguistically-split country at the heart of Europe. Albert, 79, abdicated in favor of his eldest son at a solemn ceremony in the royal palace's chandelier-laden throne room after saying he felt too old and too fragile to continue to reign. In his last speech, Albert reiterated a call to the country's leaders "to work tirelessly in favor of Belgium's cohesion.”
His voice breaking with emotion, Albert turned to his wife of 54 years, Queen Paola, to say: "As for the queen who constantly supported me in my task I would simply like to tell her 'thank you.'
"A big kiss", he added as she shed a tear and the audience of political leaders and other dignitaries broke into a long round of applause. Under sunny skies and a light summer breeze, flags fluttered across Brussels as the day of pageantry began with a thanksgiving mass in the cathedral and crowds lined outside shouted "Long Live the King". The medieval cathedral of Saint Michael and Gudula was packed with Belgian government and other dignitaries, but there were no foreign guests in attendance. "It is a new page for the monarchy," said Maximilien De Wouters, a student of 24 draped in the black, yellow and red national flag.
But worries persist that the shy and often awkward prince Philippe may lack the political skills of his father to maintain unity in a nation deeply divided between its Flemish- and French-speaking halves. Mathilde, an outgoing 40-year-old who will be Belgium's first home-grown queen, is seen as his best asset in the couple's campaign to win the hearts of their 11.5 million people. "Philippe, you have the heart and the intelligence to serve our country very well," Albert said in his abdication speech. "You and your dear wife Mathilde have all our confidence." The monarchy more often than not is viewed as a rare symbol of Belgium's unity -- along with its iconic fries and the national football team. But while the French-speakers of the south remain largely royalist, Flemish-speaking Flanders, home to 60 percent of the population, has cooled. There, the powerful separatist N-VA party favors a republic, or at least a royal as figurehead only. "I am a fan of the royal family," said Cindy van Merheulen, 34, from Limburg in Flanders. "I want to welcome Philippe. Nearly all Belgians love the king, the problem is that those who are against shout louder." In the last decades, severe tensions across the linguistic divide in a country that hosts key international institutions such as the EU and NATO, have seen it morph progressively into a federal state that devolves increasing powers to its language-based regions. During his two decades at the helm, Albert II helped steer the country through several crises and avoid break-up.He played a key role to end its longest political crisis in 2010-2011 when the country went through a record-breaking 541 days without a government. In a farewell speech to the nation Saturday, he said his first wish as he stepped down was to see Belgium "retain its cohesion".
"I am convinced that maintaining the cohesion of our Federal state is vital, not only for our quality of life together, which requires dialogue, but also so as to preserve the well-being of all," he said.
Many fear that the separatist N-VA, the strongest party in Flanders, will make further gains in next May's general election. With the country mindful of the need to tighten government spending due to Europe's economic crisis, Sunday's celebrations that take place on its National Day will be kept to around 600,000 euros ($788,000), on a par with the annual July 21 event.Source/Agence France Presse

Observatory: Syria Pro-Regime Militia Kills 13 Members of Same Family in Banias
Naharnet/A Syria pro-regime militia killed 13 members of the same family, including six children, in the Mediterranean coastal village of Bayda, a watchdog charged on Sunday. "The number of people from one family who were killed by regime forces in the village of Bayda... has risen to 13," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The killings came to light one day after they occurred, while fierce clashes pitting rebels against troops raged in Banias nearby. "The three men, unarmed, were shot dead outside their home. The militiamen then broke in, and killed the women and the children," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said. He did not know how the women and children were killed by what he said were members of the pro-regime National Defense Force. "We have conflicting reports. Some say they were shot dead, others that they were burnt alive," he added. Abdel Rahman attributed the violence to a revenge attack motivated by sectarian hatred. "The Banias area is home to a mixture of Sunnis and Alawites. On Saturday, four Alawite members of the National Defense Force were killed in fighting there," he told Agence France Presse. "The pro-regime militiamen took revenge for their deaths by killing this family," he added. On May 2 and 3, some 300 people were massacred in Banias and Bayda, according to a toll compiled by the Observatory. While Banias was one of the first towns to see demonstrations calling for the ouster of President Bashar Assad's regime, its location in Tartus province -- an Alawite bastion -- has prompted particularly fierce crackdowns there. Source/Agence France Presse

Iran Opposes Israel-Palestinian Peace Talks
Naharnet /Iran on Sunday voiced opposition to a U.S.-mediated resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, predicting the Jewish state would never agree to withdraw from occupied Arab lands.
Tehran "along with Palestinian groups expresses its opposition to the proposed plan and it's certain that the occupying Zionist regime will utterly not agree to withdraw from the occupied lands," foreign ministry spokesman Abbas Araqchi said, quoted by Iranian media. "Past experience shows that the occupying Zionist regime is basically not ready to pay the price for peace since war mongering and occupation lie at its very core," he added.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced on Friday that Israeli and Palestinian negotiators had agreed to meet to prepare a resumption of direct peace talks, stalled since 2010. The exact basis for Kerry's plan remains unknown. The last round of direct talks between the two sides nearly three years ago broke down over the issue of Israeli settlement building in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned ministers on Sunday that renewed peace talks with the Palestinians would be tough, and he said any draft treaty would be put to a referendum. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has repeatedly stressed that his demands for a freeze to Israeli settlement building and the release of prisoners held by Israel must be met before talks can resume. The Iran-backed Islamist movement Hamas which runs the Gaza Strip rejected a return to talks, saying Abbas had no legitimate right to negotiate on behalf of the Palestinian people. Iran rules out a two-state solution and has its own vision of how to resolve the six-decade-old conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. "The end of occupation ... self-determination for the Palestinians, the return of all refugees to their ancestral land, and the creation of an integrated Palestine with al-Quds (Jerusalem) as its capital," Araqchi reiterated.
Source/Agence France Presse

Arab League Backs Palestinian Stance in Peace Talks, Skeptical on Israel's
Naharnet /The Arab League said on Sunday it supported the Palestinian stance on the announcement of resumed peace talks with Israel, but that it was skeptical of Israeli intentions. The League "is forming a political support network for the Palestinian side in case it accepts to go to the negotiations with the Israeli side," Mohammed Sabih, deputy secretary general for Palestinian affairs and occupied Arab territories, told reporters.
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday that Israeli and Palestinian negotiators will meet in Washington within "the next week or so" after an agreement on the basis to resume peace talks.
Both Israel and the Palestinian presidency welcomed the development, but the Islamist Hamas movement rejected a return to talks. The Arab League had its doubts about Israel's position on the resumption of peace talks, Sabih said. "Many in the Israeli government do not want an Arab peace initiative." Sabih added that the Arab League was monitoring Israel's stance so the talks were not simply "negotiations for the sake of negotiations, going round in a vicious circle". "This could be the last chance to revive the stalled peace process," he noted. Talks have stuttered and started for decades in the elusive bid to reach a final peace deal between the Arab world and Israel. But they collapsed completely in September 2010 when Israel refused to keep up a freeze on settlement building in Palestinian territories.Source/Agence France Presse

Netanyahu Warns Talks with Palestinians Will be Tough
Naharnet/Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned ministers Sunday that renewed peace talks with the Palestinians will be tough, and said any draft treaty would be put to a referendum. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday said Israeli and Palestinian negotiators had agreed to meet to prepare a resumption of direct peace talks, stalled since 2010. "Negotiations won't be easy but we're entering them honestly, sincerely," Netanyahu told ministers at the weekly cabinet meeting, the first since Kerry's announcement. The premier repeated pledges that if the talks produced a draft treaty he would put it to a referendum. He also said he hoped the negotiations would be held "in a responsible, practical and serious manner.”Netanyahu spoke after two hardline ministers in his rightwing government came out strongly against any possible slowdown in Jewish settlement building as part of the deal. "We must not have a freeze," Transport Minister Israel Katz, a member of Netanyahu's own Likud party, told public radio. "It would be immoral, un-Jewish and inhuman to freeze the lives of people and their children."
Israeli media have said that while there will be no formal declaration of a settlement freeze, a key Palestinian demand for talks to resume, Netanyahu will quietly halt building for the time being. "The official policy is what counts," Katz added. "I am against a freeze and I don't believe that such a thing will happen. Settlement is strong and growing." The last round of direct talks between the two sides nearly three years ago broke down over the issue of Israeli settlement building in the West Bank and east Jerusalem. Housing Minister Uri Ariel of the far-right Jewish Home party told public radio on Sunday that he did not want to consider even a limited freeze.
Kerry on Friday gave away very little about the agreement, which came after four days of frenetic consultations with Israeli and Palestinian leaders on his sixth mission to the region in as many months. But Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas has repeatedly stressed that his demands for a freeze to Israeli settlement building on occupied land and release of prisoners held by Israel must be met before talks can resume. Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz on Saturday announced there would be the release a "limited" number of Palestinian prisoners as a "gesture" for the talks. Katz on Sunday took issue with this. "I personally oppose the release of terrorist murderers. If the matter arises in future in the cabinet I shall vote against it," he said. Israeli President Shimon Peres' office said on Sunday he called Abbas late on Saturday, welcoming the Palestinian leader's decision to renew talks. "You took a brave and historic decision to return to the negotiating table," Peres was quoted as telling Abbas. "Don't listen to the skeptics, you did the right thing."Source/Agence France Presse

Analysis: By relying on Iran and Hezbollah, Syria's Assad risks irrelevance
By REUTERS07/21/2013 /AMMAN - Military support from Iran and its Shi'ite ally Hezbollah has given Syrian President Bashar Assad new impetus in his fight against the insurgents intent on ousting him, but at a price.
Assad now risks losing much of his autonomy to Tehran and becoming a pawn in a wider sectarian war between Sunni Muslims and Shi'ites that may not end even if he is forced to step down, military experts and diplomats in the region say.Having lost thousands of troops and militiamen from his Alawite sect as the war grinds through its third year, and anxious to preserve his elite loyalist units, Assad is now relying on Hezbollah from Lebanon and other Shi'ite militias allied with Iran to turn the tide of battle. Alawite army units with their vast arsenal of artillery and missiles have been taking a back seat in combat, using these weapons supported by the air force to obliterate rebellious neighborhoods and blow holes in rebel lines for Iranian-and Hezbollah-trained local militias. In some cases men from Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed group that is one of Lebanon's most powerful military and political forces, have been doing the street fighting, according to rebel commanders and other opposition sources. Under this new arrangement, Hezbollah and Iran have become directly involved in the command structures of Assad's forces, eroding his authority and the Alawite power base that has underpinned four decades of family rule by him and his father.
The Alawites, to which Assad belongs, are an offshoot of Islam that has controlled Syria since the 1960s.
Unlike the Shi'ites in Iraq, Iran and Lebanon, Syria's Alawites tend to be secular and lack the religious zeal that has helped motivate thousands of Shi'ite militia to come to Syria.
Security sources in the region estimate there are about 15,000 Shi'ite fighters from Lebanon and Iraq in Syria, and they have helped produce success on the battlefield, reversing gains made by rebels in two years of fighting.
When rebel fighters have held confined areas, such as the border town of Qusair, which was overrun by Hezbollah and Assad loyalists two months ago, they have put themselves at a serious disadvantage, the sources said.
Rebellious Sunni districts in Homs to the south are being hit hard and Damascus suburbs, a main concentration of the Arab- and Western-backed Free Syrian Army, are under siege as the war's death toll climbs above 90,000.
But Assad's newfound military advantage may prove short lived, despite the increasing pressure on the rebels, military experts and diplomats believe.
The fall of Qusair, and Hezbollah's triumphant rhetoric, spurred regional heavyweight Saudi Arabia into action. The kingdom, diplomats say, has assumed the main role in backing the opposition in coordination with the United States.
TRAINED MILITIAS
Signs of renewed support for the opposition are showing in the northern city of Aleppo, where a government counterattack backed by Hezbollah, which trained Shi'ite militia in the area, has stalled, according to the opposition.
Even if Assad can capture Homs, hold Damascus and overrun neighborhoods that had fallen to rebels, such as Jobar, Barzeh and Qaboun, he would preside over a much reduced country.
Kurdish fighters are consolidating their hold on a de facto autonomous region in the grain- and oil-producing northeastern province of Hasakah that came to being after Assad's forces withdrew to concentrate on defending areas in the interior. Hardline Islamist brigades are ruling much of two provinces east of Hasakah and they are strongly present in Aleppo. Assad is mainly left with Damascus and a corridor running through Homs to his Alawite heartland and army bases on the coast and to Hezbollah's strongholds in Lebanon. Andrew Terrill, research professor of national security affairs at the US Army War college, said the rebels will "hang on" because Assad has lost too much of the country. "Winning battles is very different than winning wars because people who are under assault are going to recoup at some point. The rebels remain armed and remain able to strike at him," Terrill told Reuters. "Assad may be able to win in the sense that he may stay in power and he is not overthrown directly, but I cannot imagine him pacifying the country because I just think there are too many rebels and too much resistance," he said. Terrill said new weapons expected from Saudi Arabia are bound to redress the balance of power as well as promised US arms. Salim Idriss, head of the Free Syrian Army's command, is due to visit the United States this week to press for speedy US arms shipments. Iran meanwhile, continues to supply Assad with military assistance and financing estimated at $500 million a month, according to opposition sources.The Iranians and Hezbollah go in and train people and if they can whip these militias into shape then Assad could increasingly rely on them and spare his crack troops," Terrill said.
Hezbollah has openly acknowledged its involvement in Syria, but Assad and Iran have not commented.
PRAETORIAN GUARD
Faced with losing large areas of Syria to mainly Sunni rebel fighters, Assad has adjusted tactics in the last few months to preserve his mostly Alawite Praetorian guard units -- the Republican Guards, the Fourth Division and the Special Forces -- and started relying on Hezbollah, especially to capture the central region of Homs, the sources said. Mohammad Mroueh, a member of the Syrian National Council, said Hezbollah and Iran have been training the militias Assad is using for street fighting in Homs and have established, together with Iranian officials, operations rooms in the city. "When there is an area where the army and the militia encounter stiff resistance, they're calling Hezbollah to do the fighting," said Mroueh. Abu Imad Abdallah, a rebel commander in southern Damascus, said Hezbollah fighters and Iraqi Shi'ite militia were key to capturing two areas on the south-eastern approaches to the capital -- Bahdaliyeh and Hay al Shamalneh -- in recent weeks. "They went in after saturation bombing by the regime. They are disciplined and well trained and are fighting as religious zealots believing in a cause. If it was the army we would not be worried," he said. But veteran opposition activist Fawaz Tello said that using Hezbollah was a sign of Assad's weakness, pointing to his inability to rely on Sunnis who form the bulk of the army.
"Remember that Assad started this conflict with about a million men under arms between conscripts and the army and the security apparatus. Now more and more he is relying on foreign troops and without them he will lose, especially if the rebels begin to receive advanced weapons," Tello said.Assad is now becoming an Iranian proxy, Tello said, while Mamoun Abu Nawar, a Jordanian military analyst, said the Syrian leader was forced to bow to the will of Tehran. "He can no longer call a division head and tell him to bomb the hell out of this neighborhood or that. His command has been eroded and the command structure is now multinational," Abu Nawar said.
A diplomat in the region put it more bluntly: "Whether Assad stays or goes is becoming irrelevant. The conflict is now bigger than him, and it will continue without him. Iran is calling the shots."

Al Qaeda’s Sinai commander was Bin Laden’s physician Dr. Ramzi Mowafi, a chemical arms expert
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report July 21, 2013/
For more than two and a half years, Dr. Ramzi Mowafi, once Osama bin Laden’s personal physician, has led the most dangerous terrorist group in Sinai, Ansar al Jihad in the Sinai Peninsula, DEBKAfile’s counterterrorism sources reveal. A charismatic figure and able operational commander with good connections across the jihadist world, Mowafi has gathered around this group a legion of 7,000 to 9,000 armed men, a hodgepodge of Bedouin Salafists, Palestinian Hamas and Jihad operatives, Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood adherents and Sudanese and Yemeni radicals in search of jihad.
It is the Mowafi legion which is responsible for the series of deadly attacks on Egyptian military and security targets in Sinai and missile attacks on Israel.
Its deadliest operation was the multiple strike of Aug. 5, 2012, which left 16 Egyptian commandoes dead at their base in Rafah close to the Gazan and Israeli borders. The terrorists then seized their Egyptian victims’ armored vehicles and heavy weapons and used them to slam into the Kerem Shalom border crossing into Israel. One vehicle made it through and reached an IDF command base before a military helicopter destroyed it. That was the only time al Qaeda had attempted and almost managed to attack an Israeli military target.
Israeli officials made light of the incident, referring to “global jihadists” as responsible for the near miss. They were concerned to keep under their hats the identity of the mastermind of the multiple strike after discovering him to be Dr. Ramzi Mowafi, a relative of the Egyptian intelligence chief Gen. Murad Mowafi, then an important contact of Israeli high defense and military officials in the maintenance of border security.
The then President Mohamed Morsi sacked the intelligence chief straight after the attack and replaced him with a Muslim Brotherhood sympathizer.
For now, DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Dr. Mowafi is organizing a large group of terrorists for another attempt to breach the border for a major attack in Israel. Incoming intelligence about his plans and movements has kept the IDF on high alert for the past two weeks along the borders with Egypt and the Gaza Strip.
Only after the Musllm Brotherhood was overthrown on July 3 were Egyptian military sources willing to name Dr. Mowafi as the al Qaeda mastermind who designed and administered the complex underground route smuggling weapons from al Qaeda and Muslim Brotherhood suppliers in Libya to Egyptian destinations, including Sinai, as well as the Gaza Strip. Those sources also admit now that the Palestinian Hamas and its military arm are his allies and abet him in running that supply route.
Dr. Mowafi joined Osama bin Laden’s service 23 years ago. Our counterterrorism experts disclose that he was spotted by al Qaeda agents during a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1990, whereupon they moved to the Pakistani town of Peshawar. The Egyptian soon displayed talents over and above his medical training and was given a responsible position with the team developing explosive devices and chemical weapons.
Egyptian intelligence now believes that Mowafi may have planted a dense thicket of roadside bombs along the roads of Sinai to impede the advance of the Egyptian army mounting a large-scale offensive on al Qaeda lairs. According to our military sources, Egyptian security does not rule out the possibility that the Egyptian terrorist chief has armed his followers with chemical weapons imported from Libya or manufactured in local laboratories.

Netanyahu: Morsi ouster shows weakness of Islamist movements
By REUTERS07/21/2013/ In rare remarks on Egypt's government crisis, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has suggested that the fall of the president, Mohamed Morsi, demonstrates the weaknesses of political Islamist movements. "I believe that over the long haul these radical Islamic regimes are going to fail because they don't offer the adequate enfranchisement that you need to develop a country economically, politically and culturally," Netanyahu told the German weekly Welt am Sonntag.so over time it's bound to fail."Israel had previously responded more cautiously to Morsi's removal by the Egyptian army on July 3. Netanyahu avoided any comment at the time, though a confidant expressed hope that Egypt's new leaders may restore largely frozen contacts with Israel. In the interview, Netanyahu reiterated Israel's concern that a US-brokered 1979 peace treaty with Egypt should remain intact, alluding also to a surge of violence in a Sinai border region since Israel's ally Hosni Mubarak was toppled from power in Egypt two years ago. "Preserving the peace with Egypt through these convulsions is of central importance to us," Netanyahu said.

Syrian Islamist rebel leader freed after clashes among rival rebels
July 21, 2013/Reuters
BEIRUT: The local commander of a Syrian rebel group affiliated to al Qaeda was freed on Sunday after being held by Kurdish forces during a power struggle between rival organisations fighting President Bashar al-Assad, activists said. However, the pro-opposition activists gave conflicting reports of how the Islamist brigade commander in the Syrian town of Tel Abyad near the Turkish border had come to be free.
The British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Islamist rebels had exchanged 300 Kurdish residents they had kidnapped for the local head of their group, the Islamic State of Iraq and Sham (ISIS). Other activist groups challenged this account, saying Islamist fighters had freed Abu Musaab by force, with no Kurdish hostages released.
Sporadic fighting over the past five days in towns near the frontier with Turkey has signalled the struggle as Islamists try to cement their control of rebel zones while Kurds assert their autonomy in mostly Kurdish areas.
The trouble highlights how the two-year insurgency against 43 years of Assad family rule is spinning off into strife within his opponents' ranks, running the risk of creating regionalised conflicts that could destabilise neighbouring countries. The Observatory said the prisoner exchange was part of a ceasefire agreed after a day of fierce clashes, but other activists said there was no deal and reported that many Kurdish residents had been detained by ISIS fighters. Activists also said Turkish troops had been reinforced on their side of the frontier near Tel Abyad on Sunday, but the army could not be reached for comment. Turkish forces exchanged fire with Syrian Kurdish fighters in another border region earlier this week.
The Observatory said the fighting in Tel Abyad started when the local ISIS brigade asked Kurdish Front forces, which have fought with the rebels against Assad, to pledge their allegiance to Abu Musaab, which they refused.
Other activists said the clashes were an extension of fighting that broke out last week in other parts of the northern border zone, spreading conflict to Tel Abyad.
Opposition activists also reported the killing of at least 13 members of a family in the Sunni Muslim village of Baida on Sunday, in what they described as a second sectarian massacre there.
The killings followed a rare eruption of fighting between Assad's forces and rebels in the Mediterranean coastal province of Tartous, an enclave of Assad's Alawite minority sect that has remained largely unscathed by the civil war. Syria's marginalised Sunni majority has largely backed the insurrection while minorities such as the Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, have largely supported Assad.
The Observatory said four women and six children were among those killed in Baida.
"A relative came to look for them today and found the men shot outside. The women and children's bodies were inside a room of the house and residents in the area said some of the bodies were burned," said Rami Abdelrahman, head of the Observatory.
In May, pro-Assad militias killed more than 50 residents of Baida and over 60 local people in the nearby town of Banias. In those killings, some bodies, many of them children, were found burned and mutilated.
The anti-Assad revolt has evolved from its origins as a peaceful protest movement in March 2011 into a civil war that has killed over 100,000 people and turned markedly sectarian.
The ethnic Kurdish minority has been alternately battling both Assad's forces and the Islamist-dominated rebels. Kurds argue they support the revolt but rebels accuse them of making deals with the government in order to ensure their security and autonomy during the conflict.
Scattered over the territories of Iran, Turkey, Iraq and Syria, the Kurdish people are often described as the world's largest ethnic community without a state of their own.
 

Mursi’s fall comforts Saudis, fazes Qatar
July 13, 2013/By Angus McDowall, Regan Doherty
Reuters/RIYADH/DOHA: The $12 billion in aid Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait offered Egypt this week showed their delight at the army’s ousting of President Mohammad Mursi in a reversal for Islamists empowered by the Arab ferment of 2011. It also marked a recalibration of power among Gulf Arab states which, with the notable exception of Qatar, had viewed the Arab uprisings as catastrophic for regional stability and feared the Muslim Brotherhood would use its domination of Egypt to push a radical, Islamist agenda in their own backyard. Qatar, however, saw support for the Muslim Brotherhood as a means to project its influence in the Middle East, and gave Egypt $7 billion in aid during the movement’s year in power. “I suspect the Qataris will draw back somewhat,” said Robert Jordan, a former U.S. ambassador to Riyadh. “Their infatuation with the Muslim Brotherhood has probably been dampened. They’re likely to come around to a position closer to the Saudis.” Saudi Arabia in particular was alarmed by the popular unrest that toppled Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak and Tunisia’s Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, and rippled through Bahrain, Yemen and other countries.
But most Gulf rulers had fewer qualms about rebellions against Libya’s leader Moammar Gadhafi and Syria’s Bashar Assad, whose links with Shiite Iran and Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement had long antagonized U.S.-backed Sunni Arab states. Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which has challenged Riyadh’s traditional leadership in recent years, were broadly aligned on support for rebels in Syria and Libya, but they bitterly disagreed over their attitude to Islamist groups. Now that argument appears to be over – at least for now.
Doha insiders say it is too early to judge Qatar’s reaction to the crisis unfolding in Egypt, but they say the new emir may consider reducing his wealthy country’s support for the Muslim Brotherhood and playing a less prominent regional role.“They have admitted that there were some flaws in their Egypt strategy,” said a Doha-based source who has advised the Qatari government and who asked not to be identified.
“Their intervention was seen as overly reflexive support of the [Mursi] government without adequately taking into account the will of the people. The way it was handled has caused them some problems, and they have acknowledged that,” he said. For Saudi Arabia, the Brotherhood’s fall was sweetened by the decisive intervention of an Egyptian military with ties to Gulf states that flourished under Mubarak. Army chief General Abdel-Fatteh al-Sisi was once a military attache in Riyadh. “He has long experience there and long ties to not only the Saudi military, but also the political leadership,” Jordan said.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE publicly insist they do not comment on other states’ internal affairs, but both rapidly broadcast congratulatory messages to Egypt’s new interim leader, tacitly signalling their hostility toward the Muslim Brotherhood. “The problem with the Brotherhood is their ideology has no borders,” said Abdullah al-Askar, chairman of the foreign affairs committee of Saudi Arabia’s Shura Council, a body King Abdullah appointed to debate policy and advise the government. “They don’t believe in national identity, but they believe in the identity of the Islamic nation. They have their fingers in different states in the Gulf,” he said.That concern was manifest in the trial in Abu Dhabi of 94 Emiratis accused of plotting to overthrow the government on behalf of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Their sentences were announced a day before the tanks rolled in Cairo last week.
While Kuwait’s ruling family shares Saudi and UAE concerns about the Muslim Brotherhood, its stance is complicated by the presence of Islamists linked to the movement in its own parliament.
As a result it has been less vocal than other Gulf states in criticizing the Brotherhood after the Arab uprisings and has left fundraising for Syrian rebels largely to private citizens.
Like the Brotherhood, most Gulf states follow strict versions of Islam, but while the Islamist movement preaches political activism, Gulf preachers mostly espouse a doctrine of support for traditional rulers and oppose radical change. In Doha, the question now is how far the new emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamid al-Thani, might retreat from Qatar’s alliance of convenience with the Middle East’s sturdiest Islamist movement.
Qatar’s support for the Brotherhood, including sheltering its sympathizers, arming its brigades in Syria and, some say, guiding the editorial policy of its Arabic-language Al-Jazeera television station, has irritated Saudi Arabia and the UAE. “They [the Qataris] think soft power comes via the Brotherhood, via Al-Jazeera television but this is dangerous,” said the Saudi Shura Council’s Askar, saying he was speaking for himself and not for the kingdom.
Ashkar said the Qataris “use the Muslim Brotherhood for political reasons,” without belonging to the movement themselves.
There is no outward sign yet of Qatar changing its policy.
Sheikh Youssef al-Qaradawi, a prominent Doha-based Egyptian preacher and Brotherhood champion, has continued to lament last week’s army intervention in Cairo that was backed by popular protests.
And Al-Jazeera’s coverage is still interpreted as pro-Mursi, prompting Egypt’s military to close its Cairo bureau, where some staff quit in protest at its perceived pro-Brotherhood line.
“The Qataris are hedging their bets right now. They’re willing to engage with anyone who will come to the table. No one knows how this is going to play out. Right now, the best option for Qatar is to remain quiet,” said the Doha source. It amounts to a weighty foreign policy challenge for the new emir, whose father abdicated down unexpectedly this month.
“The abdication was miraculously well-timed. They changed the regime one week before Egypt hit the wall,” the Doha source said. “Now they have the opportunity to refashion the policy, and present the new emir as someone whose policies will be more aligned with the will of the Egyptian people.”
It is not clear how far the Brotherhood’s defeat in Egypt will energize Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies in the region, although the election of a Saudi ally to head Syria’s opposition last week was seen as evidence of the shifting power balance. UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash Wednesday wrote an opinion piece in Washington-based Foreign Policy magazine condemning political Islam and pledging support for Middle Eastern countries he described as moderate. Saudi King Abdullah’s Ramadan message railed against joining political parties, an apparent warning to Saudi members of the Brotherhood angry at Riyadh’s approval of Mursi’s fall.
Saudi rulers may worry about radicalization of Islamists in Egypt, but homegrown ones in the Gulf pose little domestic threat, analysts and former diplomats in the region said.
Mustafa Alani of the Geneva-based Gulf Research Center said: “Their bigger concerns are about the interference of a strong Muslim Brotherhood in the internal affairs of their own states.”

Battle for Aleppo rages a year after rebel advance
July 21, 2013/Agence France Presse/BEIRUT: Fighting raged on Sunday close to Aleppo international airport and nearby air bases as the battle for Syria's second city entered its second year, activists said. "Fierce clashes broke out at dawn near Aleppo international airport and Nairab air base," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, also reporting fighting in the Suleiman Halabi district of the city.
The violence in Aleppo comes a year after a massive rebel advance into the provincial capital. Stalemate has gripped the city ever since, splitting it into rebel-held and government-controlled areas. Rebels have penetrated the regime-held Rashidin district of New Aleppo in a bid to break the stalemate. While covering the clashes there, an activist working with the Observatory was hit by gunfire from a regime loyalist, said the group.
The pro-regime Al-Watan daily on Sunday said the Aleppo rebels had failed "to secure their goal of taking control of Syria's commercial capital". Over the past year, insurgents have fought to take Aleppo's airports, aiming to stop regime warplanes from bombing rebel areas. The city's international airport has been closed since January. Tens of thousands of Aleppo residents have fled the fighting which has badly damaged one of the Middle East's richest cities in terms of culture and history. Parts of the ancient souks in the heart of Aleppo were destroyed by fire last September. In April, the minaret of the famed and ancient Umayyad mosque, an archaeological treasure in Aleppo's UNESCO-listed Old City, was blasted apart. As with other attacks in the spiralling conflict, the government blamed jihadists, while the opposition charged the army was at fault. Elsewhere, the Observatory reported that a Republican Guard officer was killed by rebels at a key flashpoint on Sunday. "Fighting in Adra on the northeastern outskirts of Damascus left an elite Republican Guard officer dead," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP Adra is an entry point to the capital's Abbasiyeen Square, the target of several insurgent attacks in recent months.
State news agency SANA said the army "captured several terrorists from (the Islamist) Al-Nusra Front, some of them foreign nationals," west of Adra.
In the coastal town of Bayda, scene of a massacre in May, three men from the same family were executed by regime forces after a night of clashes between rebels and troops, according to the Britain-based Observatory.
Sunday's violence comes a day after at least 109 people died in violence nationwide, said the Observatory which estimates a total death toll of more than 100,000 people in the 28-month war.

Opinion: Redefining Syrians

By: Fayez Sara/Asharq Alawsat
Despite the murder, harassment and destruction inflicted by the government on the Syrian people, some government officials, and its media and propaganda tools, still say it represents Syrians.
This contradiction begs a logical question, related to which Syrians the regime is talking about. Does the regime’s vision match their definition, meaning all Syrian people who hold the Syrian nationality and belong to it in a similar way to the case of the Egyptians, the French, Spanish or any other?
The regime’s idea about the people is that of all those who are linked to it, as it considers Syrians to be those people who agree with its policies. The president pointed to the Syrians in one of his recent speeches as being those who voted for him and agreed with his policies, decisions and practices. That matches the regime’s idea about Syria and Syrians, and which had become entrenched since Assad the father took power in 1970, and since that day, everything in the country was linked to him, such as Assad’s institutions, Assad’s bridge, Assad’s lake, Assad’s hospital, even going as far as saying Assad’s Syria, an expression which has been widely used for decades.
If the whole country has been attributed to Assad, it is natural that the Syrians are attributed to him, and that is a situation which the regime tried to spread, especially among pupils and students, the army, and security forces, some of whom are described as Assad’s soldiers.
The conflict in Syria has revealed evidence of linking some sections of Syrians to the regime and its head, those described as the “minhibakjiyeh” (term referring to the Syrian Arabic dialect word used by some Syrians to say ‘we love you’ to Assad), and the supporters of the regime who Assad’s speech referred to in the definition of Syrians as those who support him.
This leads us to the angle from which the regime sees its opponents, as being not patriotic, meaning not Syrians, and even going further, describing them as traitors and agents, sometimes calling them agents of Israel, referring to the discovery of a cache of Israeli weapons in the possession of some of them, as well as Israeli currency, as if the currency had a chance of passing through a market controlled by the government.
The regime has excluded its opponents, individuals or groups, from being part of Syria, attaching to them the ugliest labels of treason, paving the way for the harshest of punishments, which include imprisonment, banishment, and torture, as well as murder and revenge on relatives and destruction of property or confiscation of it.
This policy was implemented in the father’s era against individuals and groups in the opposition, even including movements from within the regime’s party, before it became deep rooted, to become a general policy which only excludes a minority of Syrians after the eruption of the Syrian revolution in March 2011.
While the regime’s policy against the Syrians since the start of the revolution took a violent nature, which affected protesters, opposition, and their social groups, the policy took two paths: the first focused on individuals and activists, targeted by the regime’s operations, which affected around one million Syrians, killed or maimed, or missing presumed dead, or detained with unknown fates.
The second path touched social groups of the revolution in the towns and villages which witnessed widespread action against the regime, and where many residents were displaced. These came as a result of repeated security and military operations of bombardment, siege and starvation, and terrorizing the residents, to force them to move to different areas in Syria or others outside Syria.
The number of Syrian internal refugees is estimated at five million people, while similar estimates suggest a similar number had moved out of the country in fear for their lives. Another 20 percent of these people chose to stay in their areas for various reasons, despite the difficult living conditions and having to cheat death. In general, those who are affected by the regime’s oppression and terrorism are put in a category other than that the regime understanding of Syrians.
In parallel to those two paths, the regime has taken a different path in dealing with its supporters who are seen as real Syrians. The regime gave them weapons, organized them and provided them with income. It also provided them with protection and care, and organized all aspects of their lives, and turned their areas to protected security zones, which enjoyed the best living conditions.
A summary of the regime’s policy in dealing with Syrians provides a picture of the internal situation of strengthening its supporters who represent the elite minority, which does not exceed 20 percent of the total population, and making them the strong holders of power, which controls and takes over the people in the devastated areas, which had reached the level of destruction, making them easy to control, as the regime expects.
In parallel to controlling the weak in the devastated areas, the regime has purged the other part, by forcing them to become refugees in neighboring countries, facing daily difficulties and unable to return to their towns and villages, and thus, the regime would have freed itself of them and the repercussions of their presence in Syria, and left their burden on others.
Even Satan could not execute a plan like this, but the support provided by Russia, Iran, Hezbollah and others, to the regime, in addition to the weakness of Syrian opposition, and the inefficiency of the friends of Syria group, as well as the silence of the international community, all play a nasty role in helping the regime draw and execute that policy.

Tehran is playing a double game
By: Tariq Alhomayed/Asharq Alawsat
The Iranians hastened to sacrifice the Muslim Brotherhood, not out of love for the Egyptians but out of hatred of the Turks, aiming to isolate Turkey in view of Erdogan’s recklessness toward Egypt. Iran’s attitude is also aimed at furthering détente with the new Egyptian regime. After a year backing Mursi, the Iranians have now sold out and sacrificed the Muslim Brotherhood and are singing the praise of the “Tamarod” (Rebellion) movement.
Overnight, the Iranians now demand respect for the Egyptian people’s desires, and advise Turks not to side with Mursi or the Brotherhood. According to the Turkish Zaman newspaper, Hussein Nakawi, spokesman of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Politics Subcommittee, said more Turkish support to Morsi could be harmful to Turkish interests. He added that the Iranian Foreign Minister has recently advised the Turks to “take into consideration the Egyptian people’s demands from Mursi’s opposition,” yet Ankara seems to be deaf.
The Iranian criticism of the Brotherhood did not stop here, as one of Tehran’s Friday clerics, Ahmed Janati, during his most recent sermon last Friday, accused the Muslim Brotherhood of offering aid to Israel, and highly praised the Tamarod movement. Maher News Agency cited Janati as saying: “The situation in Egypt is bad. We were hopeful that this revolution would be fruitful, as we had pinned great hope on it. Yet, they [The Muslim Brotherhood] provided assistance to Israel by shutting Gaza’s tunnels, championing the Camp David Peace Treaty and continuing to provide Israel with gas. This all continued to happen until the Tamarod movement emerged.”
Janati praised the movement by saying that “60 percent of the Egyptian people are members of Tamarod, and they are emphasizing that they are Muslims and are against the US and Israel, and want to remain independent. Yet, some are standing against them on the other side.”
Well, what does this all mean? This simply means that Iran is now is abandoning the Brotherhood and are exploiting the Turkish recklessness towards Egypt. Furthermore, Iran also aims to achieve political penetration, something it failed to accomplish throughout a full year of the Brotherhood’s rule, despite Ahmadinejad’s visit to Cairo, and despite all the Egyptian delegations which the Brotherhood sent to Iran, and despite the Iranian-Brotherhood statements about identical viewpoints towards Syria as well as other issues, and despite all the promises of transporting Iranian expertise to aid Mursi and the Brotherhood. Today, Tehran is trying to kills two birds with one stone. Tehran, by displaying courtship to the new Egyptian regime, is hopeful that it will open political channels with Egypt and isolate Turkey in the region.
Of course, Tehran will return to the Brotherhood either after they have rearranged their cards, or in case a détente is achieved in Egypt. Iran’s policy in the region relies on the principle of “divide and rule” as well as on exploiting crises and divisions. This is what Iran will also do to its Shi’ite adherents in the region and even to Al-Assad in a certain point. Iran’s allies in our region are mere tools which it uses for some time and then throws them away. This is how Iran is playing, but who will learn the lesson?