Latest analysis, editorials, studies, reports, letters & Releases from miscellaneous sources

Russia and the US: Who Is Lying to Whom/By: Hassan Haidar/Al Hayat/September 20/13

Khamenei’s Leniency After The “Victory” Of Al-Assad/By: Zuheir Kseibati/Al Hayat/September 20/13

Christian villagers cast doubt on Syria jihadist ‘threat’/By Lina Sinjab/BBC/September 20/13

Diplomacy may make Bashar disposable/By Michael Young/The Daily Star/September 20/13

Opportunistic Ultra-Nationalism/By: Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq Alawsat/September 20/13

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources For September 20/13
Lebanese Related News

Report: FSA Asks U.N. Inspectors to Probe Chemical Weapons Transfer to Hizbullah

ISF Finds Grenade Near Bomb Apartment in Halat

Army Arrests 3 People in Bekaa Kidnapping of Syrian

Suspect Held in Connection to Tripoli Bombing Confesses to Planning Plot with Syrian Officer

Lebanese hostages fine after rebel infighting: spokesman

Suspicious object found near slain Syrian man's apartment
Akkar native, Nasr Kafrouni wins Australia mayor post

Report: FPM Presses Hizbullah for Action on Oil Exploration

Hale Says It's Important to Deal with Syrian Refugee Influx over Lebanon Stability

Three Lebanese Sentenced to Life in Prison over Attacks against UNIFIL

Nasrallah's Aide from Rabieh: Zahle Grid Uproar a Silly Thing, Country's Real Components Must be Represented in Cabinet

Report: FPM Presses Hizbullah for Action on Oil Exploration

Miscellaneous Reports And News

Bomb kills 19 on bus in central Syrian province; al-Qaida-linked gunmen capture northern town

One year to destroy Syria's chemical arms: Assad

Jihadists In Syria overrun FSA to seize Azaz

Chemical weapons watchdog says to meet on Syria Friday
NATO: Military intervention in Syria 'still on the table'

US Senator McCain attacks Putin in Russian website op-ed

Assad: Syrian chemical weapons disposal will take a year, cost $1 billion
Russia says it will present UN with evidence of Syrian rebel chemical arms use
Obama sees way to resolve nuclear issue

Syria: Assad committed to UN chemical plan as ISIS HQ besieged by FSA

Assad: Launching war contradict US values
Egyptian security forces encircle Islamist stronghold near Cairo, senior officer killed

Egypt forces raid Islamist bastion near Cairo

Iran's Rouhani seeks 'peace and friendship' with Israel, Middle East
Obama softens on nuclear Iran: Keep components, just promise not to weaponise them
Rouhani: Iran will never develop nuclear weapons

Iran denies plan to close Fordo nuclear facility

Obama and Iran: A president's word

US gov't to seize Manhattan skyscraper over owners' ties to Iran
Germany sold Syria chemicals with military potential
Iraqi Kurd forces vote for regional assembly

Akkar native, Nasr Kafrouni wins Australia mayor post
September 19, 2013 12:16 AM The Daily Star /BEIRUT: A Lebanese-born man was elected mayor of Holroyd, a district of Sydney, Australia, with a large Lebanese migrant population. Nasr Kafrouni was elected mayor of Holroyd, a western suburb of Sydney. Census data from 2011 shows that 9.8 percent of the area’s citizens are of Lebanese ancestry, which is 14 times the national average. Lebanon is the third most common country of origin, and many citizens say they speak Arabic at home. Kafrouni was born in the village of Beino in Akkar, and emigrated to Australia in 1977. He expressed his pride at representing the Lebanese community in his district, according to a report from the National News Agency, adding that the Lebanese “proved their ability to succeed in different fields in Australia.” His daughter, Nadima, is also a councilor at the Holroyd City Council. “Congratulations to my amazing father, to a man of honor,” Nadima said on her Facebook page after her father’s election victory. “A man who has great family values and to the new mayor of Holroyd City Council.” Kafrouni is a member of the Liberal Party of Australia. In a profile in the Parramatta Holroyd Sun, a local paper, Kafrouni said he would work to promote his community and make time for residents. “The Kafrouni family have spent three decades living in Holroyd,” Kafrouni added.  “We’ve taken an active interest in local schools, sporting teams, our church and community organizations.”The council includes other members with Lebanese ancestry. Councilor Michael Zaiter lost the deputy mayor election, while other members include Eddy Sarkis and Joseph Rahme.

Three Lebanese Sentenced to Life in Prison over Attacks against UNIFIL
Naharnet/The military court on Wednesday sentenced in absentia three Lebanese nationals to life in prison over their involvement in attacks against the UNIFIL troops in southern Lebanon. Mohammed Zayyat, Samer al-Reech and Mahmoud Derbass were convicted of attacking U.N. peacekeeping troops and were given life in prison with hard labor. The three men were previously released during the process of the trial but did not show up at court for the hearings. The court's rule, however, can be appealed in the case the three men turned themselves in to the military court or were arrested by Internal Security Forces. On December 9, 2011, five French soldiers and two civilians were wounded by a powerful roadside bomb that targeted a UNIFIL patrol in the southern coastal city of Tyre. UNIFIL spokesman Andrea Tenenti said the 5 peacekeepers were injured when an explosion targeted their patrol in an area south of Tyre around 9:30 am. He did not specify to which contingent they belonged to. A security official told Agence France Presse that a bomb was hidden under dirt on the side of the road and detonated as the soldiers were driving by in a four-wheeler. The blast left a one-meter deep crater and caused damages to nearby houses. Also, a French U.N. patrol was attacked on July 26 and Italian peacekeepers were targeted on May 27.

Report: FSA Asks U.N. Inspectors to Probe Chemical Weapons Transfer to Hizbullah
Naharnet /The Free Syrian Army has urged the United States, Russia and the U.N. Security Council to expand the investigation of the U.N. inspectors into the Lebanese territories, al-Joumhouria newspaper reported Thursday. The daily said that the FSA made the request after receiving “evidence that the Syrian regime had transferred two trucks of chemical weapons to Hizbullah around three months ago.” A U.N. report released Monday confirmed that chemical weapons were used on Aug. 21 outside Damascus but did not ascribe blame. The U.S., Britain and France cited evidence in the report to declare President Bashar Assad's government responsible. Russia called the report "one-sided" and said it has "serious reason to suggest that this was a provocation" by the rebels fighting the Assad regime in Syria's civil war. The chief weapons inspector said Wednesday that his team, which went to Syria last month and drafted the report, will return to Syria soon to investigate various accusations against the regime and opposition. Al-Joumhouria said the FSA claims that the chemical weapons allegedly transferred to Hizbullah are “capable of killing half of the Lebanese population and threaten the security and safety of the region.” The rebels also claimed that the weapons are stored in Mount Sannine, Oyoun Orghosh, the outskirts of Yammouneh and a depot near the town of Meshmesh, al-Joumhouria said.

Report: FPM Presses Hizbullah for Action on Oil Exploration
Naharnet/The Free Patriotic Movement has blamed its ally Hizbullah for not speeding up efforts to make Lebanon an oil exploration country, As Safir newspaper reported on Thursday. The daily said that the issue was discussed by FPM chief Michel Aoun and Hizbullah officials Hussein Khalil and Wafiq Safa during a meeting they held in Rabieh on Wednesday. Caretaker Energy Minister Jebran Bassil, who is Aoun's son-in-law, attended the talks. Aoun and Bassil expressed frustration that Hizbullah was remaining “silent” to the obstacles preventing oil exploration, asking the party officials to have “pressing stances,” said As Safir. Bassil warned in July that Israel’s discovery of a new offshore gas field near Lebanese territorial waters means the Jewish state could siphon some of Lebanon’s crude oil. He urged the outgoing government to hold an extraordinary meeting to ratify decrees paving way for the country to start oil and gas explorations. But Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati told As Safir that the priority now is to form a new government. A solution to this problem would later facilitate many pending issues, including oil exploration, he said. Miqati stressed that the resigned cabinet failed to meet to ratify the decrees over reservations expressed my sides. “Such a delicate and vital issue requires a sort of unanimity,” he said. But Bassil held all political parties responsible for the delay in oil exploration either for wanting to serve regional parties or getting shares from the revenues. “The danger of the delay in the adoption of the decrees lies in its repercussion on the companies that had expressed excitement to be part of the tenders,” he said. “They could at any moment reject their participation in the tenders over their fears of lack of transparency,” Bassil added.

Nasrallah's Aide from Rabieh: Zahle Grid Uproar a Silly Thing, Country's Real Components Must be Represented in Cabinet
Naharnet/Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's political aide Hussein Khalil on Wednesday rejected any “disregard” for the country's “real components” in the line-up of the new cabinet, describing as “silly” the recent uproar over the party's controversial telecom grid in Zahle. “The illusions of some parties reached a dead end after the failure of the U.S. aggression against Syria,” Khalil said after meeting Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun in Rabieh, referring to Washington's threat to use force against Damascus in the wake of the deadly chemical attack near Damascus. “Our viewpoints are largely similar to General Aoun's,” added Khalil, who was accompanied by Hizbullah security chief Wafiq Safa. He stressed that “the deep and special relation with the General (Aoun) has not changed and we did not reproach him over anything at all because we know his real stance on Hizbullah.” “Those who counted on the American aggression hit a very big wall and they must draw lessons. They must address the Lebanese situation by seeking stability, the strengthening of the state and accord among people and they must remove from their minds the idea of linking Lebanon's fate to other issues,” Khalil went on to say. He noted that any international or regional rapprochement would affect Lebanon, but pointed out that “the Lebanese must also have a plan to offer to the world.”On the cabinet formation process, Khalil said: “We agree with General Aoun on the need to form a new cabinet that takes into consideration the real components of the country instead of overlooking them.” “We welcome any call for dialogue, especially Speaker (Nabih) Berri's initiative, and we don't have any problem. We are willing to take part and the General told us that he is also willing to participate,” he said. Asked about the recent controversy over Hizbullah's telecom network in the Bekaa, Khalil said: “The Zahle issue is not new and it has existed since May 7 (2008) and we don't want to blow things out of proportion. There is something called the resistance's telecom grid and we have not come up with anything new and the uproar is a silly and minor thing.” Gunmen belonging to Hizbullah and its allies swept through Beirut’s neighborhoods on May 7, 2008 after the government of then PM Fouad Saniora tried to dismantle the group's telecommunications network, which Hizbullah says is for purely military purposes related to its conflict with Israel.
Tensions were running high in Zahle after members of Hizbullah attempted to expand the party's telecommunications network in the area on Sunday evening. Residents of the city protested the move and temporarily blocked the road in the area. The army soon intervened and set up checkpoints in the industrial zone and security forces deployed patrols in the city, which led to Hizbullah's withdrawal from the area.
On Monday, Zahle's MPs called on President Michel Suleiman and caretaker Prime Minister Najib Miqati to ask Hizbullah to remove its controversial telecom network from their city, stressing that they won't allow the grid to go through Zahle. The MPs noted that the installation of the network is “part of Hizbullah's security grip on the Lebanese society and its tapping of phone calls.”

Hale Says It's Important to Deal with Syrian Refugee Influx over Lebanon Stability
Naharnet/U.S. Ambassador David Hale said Thursday he discussed with Caretaker Social Affairs Minister Wael Abou Faour the impact of the flow of Syrian refugees to Lebanon and international efforts to help the country deal with the crisis. “The starting point for our discussion was yesterday’s meeting, chaired by (caretaker) Prime Minister (Najib) Miqati, to review the World Bank’s assessment of the impact of this flow of refugees on Lebanon and what is required in order to deal with it,” Hale said. “The findings of the report underscore just how serious this challenge is, and the importance of dealing with it not only for humanitarian reasons, but for Lebanon’s very stability,” he said. The diplomat said his discussions with Abou Faour focused on the efforts exerted by the U.S. and the international community “to assist Lebanon ... in dealing with this humanitarian and economic crisis.”
The World Bank President, Jim Yong Kim, said early this month that the banked helped the Lebanese government prepare the ground to request an influx of international aid to offset the high costs of the spillover from the Syrian civil war. This analysis will be presented during a Sept. 25 meeting of an international support group for Lebanon at the United Nations General Assembly. “I have lived in Lebanon long enough to understand the impact refugees can have on the fragile fabric of this country, and of the responsibilities placed on the international community to help deal with a situation which we all know is well beyond Lebanon’s capacity to deal with alone,” said Hale. The Ambassador also met with President Michel Suleiman at Baabda Palace. A statement issued by the presidency said their talks focused on bilateral ties and the Sept. 25 meeting.

Suspect Held in Connection to Tripoli Bombing Confesses to Planning Plot with Syrian Officer
Naharnet/A suspect held over his links to the twin bombings in the northern city of Tripoli in August confessed that he planned the attack with a Syrian Intelligence officer, revealing that the car used in the al-Salam mosque attack was purchased from a Syrian national from al-Qusayr, reported An Nahar daily on Thursday. Suspect Sheikh Ahmed al-Gharib confessed to planning the attacks with Syrian Intelligence – Palestine branch in Damascus Captain Mohammed Ali and advised him to assassinate Salafist cleric Sheikh Salem al-Rafehi who preaches at the Salam mosque, added the daily. Investigations in the attack determined that the car used in the blast was a 1997 metallic green Ford Expedition, which was purchased by Imad Omar Awad. He sold the vehicle to Mohammed Hassan Mehdi, a resident of Ainata in the South, in February 2013. Mehdi then sold to Mohammed Saleh, a resident of the Bekaa town of Brital, five days after buying it. Saleh then sold the vehicle to Ahmed Tleis, known as Abu Khalil, two days after purchasing it from Mehdi.
Tleis then sold the car to Ali Nasri Shamas for $4,500, who then sold it to a Syrian national from al-Qusayr for $5,800. The Syrian was identified as Khodr Lutfi who frequently communicates with Shamas' brother Mustafa and the Syrian Intelligence official. Gharib described the Syrian official, known as Abu Jassem, as being around 35-years-old, heavyset, and having been an assistant to slain Syrian deputy defense minister and brother-in-law of President Bashar Assad, Assef Shawkat, who frequently tasked him with visiting the Lebanese town of Anjar prior to 2005. The suspect revealed that he met with Ali six times in order to discuss carrying out assassinations and bomb attacks in Lebanon. Four of the meetings were held in Ali's Damascus office, the fifth at a restaurant near the Iranian embassy in the Syrian capital, and the sixth in the Syrian town of Latakia three months later.
The officer stressed the need to assassinate Rafehi and Mustaqbal MP Khaled al-Daher in order to eliminate their influence in Tripoli. They also discussed the possible assassination of former Internal Security Forces chief Ashraf Rifi, former MP Mustapha Alloush, and retired officer Amid Hammoud. According to Gharib, Ali requested the assassination of Rafehi through a car bomb, voicing his readiness to booby-trap it in the Syrian town of Tartus or inside Lebanon in an area near the border with Syria that is controlled by Syrian intelligence. The suspect added that pro-Syria Islamic Tawhid Movement-Command Council Sheikh Hashem Minkara had refused to go ahead with the plot after he was informed of its details. The cleric was detained on August 29 for withholding information about the Tripoli bombings. On August 23, 45 people were killed and at least 800 wounded in the bombings that targeted the Taqwa and al-Salam mosques as worshipers were performing weekly prayers. Earlier in September, the Military Court charged Gharib, Mikara, and an informant, Mustafa Houri, with forming a terrorist network and an armed gang, undermining the authority of the state, and planting explosives and booby-trapped cars. Ali and a Syrian identified as Khodr al-Arban were also charged with killing people and moving explosive-laden cars.

Jihadists overrun FSA to seize Azaz
September 19, 2013/The Daily Star
AMMAN/BEIRUT: A rebel group affiliated with Al-Qaeda overran a Syrian town near the Turkish border Wednesday after fighting broke out with units of the Arab- and Western-backed Free Syrian Army, opposition activists said. In other battles on the border, Kurdish fighters forced jihadists to pull out of the village of Aluk, in northeastern Syria, after clashes that left 21 dead on both sides.
Fighters from the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) stormed the town of Azaz, 5 kilometers from the Syrian-Turkish border and killed at least five Free Syrian Army members, the activists said, adding 100 people were arrested. It was the most severe fighting since tensions mounted earlier this year between the two groups fighting to overthrow President Bashar Assad. Further east, fighters from the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) took control of the village of Aluk, to the east of the town of Ras al-Ain, on the border with Turkey, the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Kurdish fighters seized the village after four days of clashes with ISIS and the Nusra Front, who had entered it from the border area, the Observatory said. YPG fighters have been battling jihadists from ISIS and the Nusra Front for months. Syria’s Kurds have walked a careful line between the opposition and the regime, which withdrew its forces from Kurdish areas in mid-2012. They have at times fought alongside rebel forces, but have largely refrained from joining either side, focusing instead on building autonomous zones in majority-Kurdish areas. Elsewhere in the country, Syrian government warplanes struck rebel-held areas, and clashes between militants and government forces continued unabated Wednesday, residents and opposition groups reported. Activists said Assad’s air force hit the Barzeh neighborhood, a northeastern part of central Damascus, where rebels are trying to push further into the city.
Airstrikes and skirmishes are occurring countrywide, but the key fight is in the capital, where Assad controls central districts but has lost suburbs. The British-based Observatory also said warplanes hit parts of the southern Deraa province where the revolt started and that rebels and government forces clashed in the major cities of Homs, Deir al-Zor and Aleppo. In Idlib province, which borders Turkey, the Observatory cited activists as reporting the killing and burning of 11 civilians by the army. Syrian government forces also continued operations to regain control of the historic Christian town of Maaloula, 55 km north of Damascus. Rebels linked with Al-Waeda briefly took control of the town on Sept. 9 and Syrian loyalist forces have yet to completely retake it.

One year to destroy Syria's chemical arms: Assad

September 19, 2013/Daily Star
DAMASCUS: President Bashar Al-Assad has said it will take at least a year and $1 billion for Syria to surrender its chemical weapons, as Al-Qaeda-linked fighters tightened their grip Thursday on a border town.
In a confident interview with US network Fox News, Assad insisted Syria was not gripped by civil war but was the victim of infiltration by foreign-backed Al-Qaeda fighters.
His latest appearance came as UN envoys debated a draft resolution that would enshrine a joint US-Russian plan to secure and neutralise his banned weapons in international law.
The plan is to be discussed at a meeting in The Hague on Friday by the world's chemical weapons watchdog, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.
Assad insisted in the television interview that his forces had not been behind an August 21 gas attack on the Damascus suburbs that killed hundreds of civilians, but vowed nevertheless to hand over his deadly arsenal.
It was his second interview this month with US television, and one of a series of meetings with Western journalists to counter mounting political pressure from Western capitals.
After last month's barrage of sarin-loaded rockets, which the West says was clearly launched by the regime, US President Barack Obama called for US-led punitive military strikes.
But with US lawmakers and the Western public not sold on the virtues of another Middle East military adventure, Assad's ally Russia seized the opportunity to propose a diplomatic solution.
Pushed by President Vladimir Putin, the White House agreed to hold fire while Russia and the international community -- with Assad's agreement -- draws up a disarmament plan.
Assad reiterated his pledge to cooperate, but insisted he had not been forced to do so by US threats of US action.
"I think it's a very complicated operation, technically. And it needs a lot of money, about a billion," he told Fox.
"So it depends, you have to ask the experts what they mean by quickly. It has a certain schedule. It needs a year, or maybe a little bit more."
Asked why he had used force to repress a popular uprising and triggered a two-and-a-half year war that has claimed 110,000 lives, Assad insisted Syria was a victim of terrorism.
"What we have is not civil war. What we have is war. It's a new kind of war," he said, alleging that Islamist guerrillas from more than 80 countries had joined the fight.
"We know that we have tens of thousands of jihadists... we are on the ground, we live in this country," he said, disputing an expert report that suggested 30,000 out of around 100,000 rebels were hardliners.
"What I can tell you is that... 80 to 90 percent of the underground terrorists are Al-Qaeda and their offshoots."
Meanwhile, the situation on the ground became still more complex and dangerous, when -- according to residents -- an Al-Qaeda front group overran a Syrian border town on Wednesday.
"The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS) has seized complete control of Azaz. They are in control of the town's entrances," said Abu Ahmad, an activist inside the town.
The fighting in Azaz began when ISIS fighters tried to kidnap a German doctor working there, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which also said he is now in a safe location.
"The situation in Azaz is unchanged (Thursday)," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
"There are attempts to mediate between the factions. Azaz is home to many people who fled (the nearby city of) Aleppo," he added.
"They want to live in a safe place, not one where anything that moves gets sniped."
Elsewhere, roadside bombs targeting a convoy of minibuses in the central province of Homs killed nine civilians on Thursday, Abdel Rahman said.
The blasts occurred on the road linking Homs city to a string of villages populated by Alawites, an offshoot of Shiite Islam to which Assad belongs, he added.
While Assad pursued his media counterattack, the five UN Security Council powers held new talks on a resolution backing the Russia-US plan to destroy the chemical weapons.
Western nations, which said they are not looking for an immediate threat of force against Assad, could seek a Security Council vote this weekend if Russia agrees.
UN envoys from the United States, Russia, France, Britain and China held two hours of talks at the US mission.
"There is no accord yet, there will be more negotiations," said one UN diplomat. The disarmament plan will face its first big test on Saturday, the one-week deadline announced by Moscow and the United States for Assad to provide a list of his chemical facilities. Assad said in his interview that he could provide a list "tomorrow", and Moscow said it had received assurances that he would cooperate.

Syria: Assad committed to UN chemical plan as ISIS HQ besieged by FSA
Beirut, Asharq Al-Awsat—In an interview in Damascus with the US-based Fox News Network Wednesday evening, Syrian president Bashar Al-Assad said he was committed to the UN plan to destroy Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons. He added that the process of destroying the weapons would take a year and cost around USD 1 billion, due to the complexity of the process.
In other news from Syria, the Free Syrian Army has laid a siege to the headquarters of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in the town of Azaz, near Aleppo, following clashes between members of the Al-Qaeda-affiliated organization and fighters from the Storm of the North Brigade. The Aleppo media center said the Storm of the North Brigade confirmed that three of its members were injured in the clashes with ISIS, as the latter attempted to kidnap a German doctor working at the National Hospital in the city. Opposition activists said: “FSA groups have imposed a tight siege on the command headquarters of the ISIS in Azaz.” Activists said the FSA have “cut off the roads leading to Azaz to stop supplies reaching ISIS.” In the meantime, the FSA’s media and political coordinator, Louay Miqdad, accused ISIS of “following a suspect agenda based on gaining control, rather than fighting the regime.” Miqdad told Asharq Al-Awsat that “there is an organized and coordinated plan by this organization, and others who believe in the Takfirist ideology, to attack opposition fighters.”
Miqdad added that “these groups came to Syria on the pretext of fighting the government forces and help the Syrians topple the oppressive regime, but now we see that they have turned to oppression and terrorising the Syrian people.” Miqdad also said he hoped that “the fighting with the extremist groups does not grow to a level where the Syrian people are faced with two sides to fight, these groups and the regime,” adding that “25 million Syrians were not frightened by Scud missiles, so they will not be frightened by people who do not belong to the moderate Syrian environment.”
In the meantime, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) has said that fighters from the Kurdish People’s Protection units have expelled ISIS fighters Allouk, a village near the Turkish border, following violent clashes.  The SOHR said Kurdish fighters took control of the village after clashes with the ISIS and Al-Nusra Front that lasted for four days.
The human rights group added that “it was the Islamists who attacked the village after crossing the border with Turkey,” and that clashes over the last two days resulted in four deaths among the Kurdish fighters, as well as 17 deaths among the ISIS, Al-Nusra and other groups

Bomb kills 19 on bus in central Syrian province; al-Qaida-linked gunmen capture northern town
By Albert Aji And Bassem Mroue, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press –DAMASCUS, Syria - A roadside bomb struck a bus in Syria's central province on Thursday, killing 19 people, a local government official said.
The explosion in the village of Jbourin also wounded four people on the bus, according to the official from the governor's office in Homs province who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
The village is predominantly Alawite, an offshoot of Shiite Islam and a minority sect to which President Bashar Assad belongs, but it also has Christians and Sunni Muslims.
It was not immediately clear why the bus was targeted but Syria's civil war, which has left more than 100,000 dead since the crisis erupted in March 2011, has taken increasingly sectarian overtones. Most of the rebels trying to overthrow Assad belong to the majority Sunni sect.
Elsewhere in Syria, al-Qaida-linked gunmen captured a town near the Turkish border after heavy clashes with a rebel group that held the area, an activist group said Thursday.
It was the latest development in what has been a relatively new component in the conflict — stepped-up infighting between extremists with ties to al-Qaida and Western-backed opposition groups.
The U.S. and its European and Gulf allies are increasingly concerned about the rising prominence of Islamists among the rebels, who have been playing a major role in the battles against Assad's forces.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist group that monitors the violence, said members of the al-Qaida offshoot known as the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant stormed the town of Azaz in the northern Aleppo province on Wednesday evening, forcing the opposition fighters from the Western backed bloc to pull out. There has also been infighting among rebel groups in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour, which borders Iraq, and in the north where al-Qaida fighters from the ISIL and their allies in the Nusra Front have been battling Kurdish anti-government rebels for months. The infighting has left hundreds dead.
The fighting in Azaz broke out on Wednesday, when ISIL fighters tried to detain a German doctor they accused of taking pictures of their positions on behalf of their rivals, said Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Observatory. The doctor, who was a volunteer in the region, escaped but the two rebel factions started fighting. Amateur videos showed dozens of gunmen with heavy machine-guns mounted on pickup trucks gathering at the nearby border crossing with Turkey. The videos appeared genuine and corresponded to other Associated Press reporting on the events depicted.
Abdul-Rahman said three opposition fighters and two jihadis were killed in the fighting. On Thursday, mediation was under way to get the jihadis to leave Azaz, he said.
Also Thursday, the international aid agency Oxfam issued an appeal, saying many donor countries are failing to provide their share of the urgently-needed funding for the humanitarian response to Syria crisis. Oxfam said donors, including France, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Russia, should prioritize funding the U.N.'s $5 billion appeals.
Oxfam's report came ahead of next week's donors meeting in New York. The donor countries have been influential in shaping the international response to the conflict, but should also bear their fair share of the burden of humanitarian aid, the agency said. "Too many donor countries are not delivering the level of funds that is expected of them," said Colette Fearon, head of Oxfam's Syria program. "While economic times are tough, we are facing the largest man-made humanitarian disaster in two decades and we have to seriously address it." "The scale of this crisis is unprecedented and some countries must start to show their concerns to the crisis in Syria by putting their hands in their pockets," Fearon said. The fighting in Syria has forced 7 million people to flee their homes. Five million Syrians have been displaced inside the country and more than 2 million have sought refuge in the neighbouring countries of Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq, according to the U.N.

Iran's Rouhani seeks 'peace and friendship' with Israel, Middle East
By REUTERS, JPOST.COM STAFF 09/19/2013/Sept 19- Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, in a television interview, said his country is not seeking war and that Iran wants the Middle East to have "rule by the will of the people."His response came during the second part of an interview with NBC News that aired on Thursday, just days before he travels to New York for an appearance at the United Nations.
Rouhani, asked about Israel, said: "What we wish for in this region is rule by the will of the people. We believe in the ballot box. We do not seek war with any country. We seek peace and friendship among the nations of the region."The president moderately answered questions about issues in the region, but according to NBC, he avoided a question from anchor Ann Curry about whether he believed that the Holocaust was "a myth."
"I'm not a historian. I'm a politician," he reportedly replied. "What is important for us is that the countries of the region and the people grow closer to each other, and that they are able to prevent aggression and injustice."


Rouhani tells NBC Iran will never develop nuclear

September 19, 2013/The Daily Star /WASHINGTON/BEIRUT: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in a television interview Wednesday that his government would never develop nuclear weapons and that he had full authority to negotiate a nuclear deal with the West, NBC News reported. Coming amid increasing signs of a possible thaw in ties with the U.S., Rouhani also said the tone of the letter he received recently from U.S. President Barack Obama, in an exchange of messages between the two leaders, was “positive and constructive.”
“It could be subtle and tiny steps for a very important future,” Rouhani said, in another sign that he may be seeking a thaw in relations between Iran and the West after years locked in a standoff over Tehran’s nuclear program.
The newly elected leader’s first broadcast interview with an American network also comes ahead of his first visit to the U.S. next week where he will address the U.N. General Assembly.
There is heightened speculation that Obama and Rouhani could have some kind of informal meeting on the sidelines of the General Assembly.
The White House said for the second day running Tuesday that it had no current plans for such an encounter – but did not dismiss the possibility.
U.S. President Barack Obama pledged Tuesday to test the sincerity of signs that Rouhani may be ready for a newly productive nuclear dialogue.
But days after revealing that he and Rouhani had swapped letters, Obama said Iran would have to demonstrate its own seriousness by agreeing not to “weaponize nuclear power.”“There is an opportunity here for diplomacy,” Obama told the Spanish language TV network Telemundo. “I hope the Iranians take advantage of it. There are indications that Rouhani, the new president, is somebody who is looking to open dialogue with the West and with the U.S. – in a way that we haven’t seen in the past.”
“And so we should test it,” Obama said.
NATO head Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Thursday he was very "encouraged" by Rouhani’s pledge not to seek nuclear weapons, saying a more open approach was in Tehran's own best interest.
"I have been very encouraged by recent statements from the new Iranian leadership," Rasmussen said.
"I think it is in Iran's own interest to engage with the international community," he said, adding that if that is what Tehran is seeking, then "I can only welcome it."
Hopes for a new round of nuclear talks between Iran and world powers expected to resume soon were boosted Tuesday by cryptic remarks by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Khamenei, who bears ultimate responsibility for the nuclear issue, said that sometimes flexibility was necessary in diplomacy.
On Sept. 11, Rouhani said he had the tacit support of Khamenei for “flexibility” in nuclear talks. Rouhani has previously said he wants to allay Western concerns, but he will not renounce Iran’s goal of an independent civil nuclear program. NBC’s Ann Curry told the broadcaster following the interview with Rouhani that his remarks were “categorical” that Iran would never pursue nuclear weapons.
In excerpts of Curry’s interview posted on the NBC website, ahead of the full broadcast interview to be aired later Wednesday night in the U.S., Rouhani said of the recent exchange of letters that “I believe the leadership in all countries could think in their interests and not under the influence of pressure groups. I hope to witness such an atmosphere in the future.”
In another development interpreted as a sign that Iran’s hard-line policies may be easing under the new president, Iran released human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh, seen by campaign groups as Iran’s highest profile political prisoner.
Other prisoners linked to the protests after the disputed 2009 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were also freed, opposition website Kaleme reported.

Obama softens on nuclear Iran: Keep components, just promise not to weaponise them
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis September 18, 2013/The moderate mien of Iran’s new president Hassan Rouhani has had its intended effect – even before nuclear dialogue began. President Barack Obama had only one demand of Tehran: “Iran would have to demonstrate its own seriousness by agreement not to weaponise nuclear power,” he said Wednesday, Sept. 18. He thus took at his word Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who declared the day before: “We are against nuclear weapons. And when we say no one should have nuclear weapons, we definitely do not pursue it ourselves either.”
The symmetry between the words from Washington and Tehran was perfect in content and timing – and not by chance.
debkafile’s Washington and Iranian sources disclose that it was choreographed in advance.
Obama and Khamenei have been exchanging secret messages through Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said of Oman, who visited Tehran in the last week of August and conferred with both Khameini and Rouhani.
In the last message, carried to Tehran by Oman’s Defense Minister Sayyid Badr bin Saud Al Busaidiat, the US president said that Rouhani’s conciliatory gestures towards Washington needed to be backed up by an explicit pledge not to weaponise Iran’s nuclear program.
That pledge must come from the supreme leader in person and delivered publicly to Iran’s most hawkish audience, Revolutionary Guards chiefs.
And indeed, Khamenei acted out his part Tuesday under TV cameras.
Full details of the exchanges going back and both between Washington and Tehran will appear in the coming DEBKA Weekly 603 out Friday, Sept. 20.
They will confirm that the US president has come to terms with a nuclear-capable Iran and will be satisfied with Ayatollah Khamenei’s word that Tehran will not take the last step to actually assemble a bomb.
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Our sources note that in his direct secret dialogue with Tehran, Obama is pursuing the same tactics he used for the Syrian chemical issue with Russian President Vladmir Putin: Moving fast forward on the secret track while pretending that the process is still at an early stage and then a sudden leap to target – a particular form of diplomacy consisting of verbal calisthenics.
This pretense was played out at the G20, when the two presidents acted as though they were irreconcilably divided on the Syrian question, while secretly tying up the ends of the chemical accord.
Obama’s willingness to accept Khamenei’s oft-repeated assurance that his country’s nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes – while letting its military program advance to the brink – leaves Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu lagging far behind and his Iranian policy with nowhere to go.
At the Israeli cabinet meeting Tuesday, the prime minister said his White House talks with President Obama on Sept. 30 would focus on Iran and his four demands:
1) Complete halt of uranium enrichment; 2) Removal of enriched materials from Iran; 3) Closure of the Fordo enrichment plant; 4) Termination of plutonium production at Arak.
Notwithstanding the briefing offered by Secretary of State John Kerry when he visited Jerusalem on Sunday, Sept. 15, it looks as though Obama is keeping the Israeli prime minister in the dark on his moves towards Iran.



Egyptian security forces encircle Islamist stronghold near Cairo, senior officer killed
By Maggie Michael, The Associated Press | The Canadian Press – CAIRO - Egyptian security forces backed by helicopters raided a town on the outskirts of Cairo known to be an Islamist stronghold on Thursday, exchanging fire with suspected militants who killed a senior police officer. The Interior Ministry, which is in charge of police, said Gen. Nabil Farrag, an aide to the security chief of Cairo's twin city of Giza, was shot dead when militants opened fire on security forces approaching the town of Kerdasa to drive off suspected Islamic militants. Egypt's official news agency blamed "terrorists and criminal elements" for his death. A photographer from The Associated Press captured the dramatic scene as security forces carried Farrag's limp body toward an armoured personnel carrier. Police arrested 32 suspects in house-to-house raids in Kerdasa, according to a security official speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters. The interior ministry said Farrag was killed by gunmen firing from the rooftops of several schools and mosques they had taken over. Thursday's assault on Kerdasa is the second major operation by the army and police against a militant stronghold. On Sunday, a large police and army contingent retook the town of Dalga south of Cairo, ending two months of Islamists' rule there. The quick succession of the two major raids underline the resolve of the military-backed government to restore law and order throughout a country roiled by unrest and violence since the 2011 ouster of longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak. In a sign security may finally be showing some improvement, state television on Thursday said the nighttime curfew slapped on the country since mid-August will be reduced by one hour effective Saturday to start at midnight and be lifted at 5 a.m. The curfew on Friday will continue to start at 7 p.m. but will also end at 5 a.m. Interior Ministry spokesman Gen. Hani Abdel-Latif said police now planned to besiege Kerdasa along with the army, which would then deploy special forces to round up the armed men. "There will be no retreat until it is cleansed of all terrorist and criminal hideouts," he said in a statement.
Armoured vehicles have been stationed at town entrances, blocking off the main roads. State TV said security forces using loudspeakers urged residents to stay indoors to avoid the crossfire.
Kerdasa witnessed a brutal assault on security forces last month when heavily armed suspected supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi killed 15 police officers and mutilated their bodies. The attack appeared to be in retaliation for a violent crackdown on pro-Morsi protest camps in Cairo that left hundreds of people were killed. That operation sparked days of unrest and riots that left more than 1,000 dead.
Local media reported at the time that Morsi supporters drove police out of Kerdasa and blocked the main roads with sand bags. Residents and authorities listed the names of more than 140 men wanted for suspected involvement in the policemen's killings. Several were members of Egypt's hard-line group Gamaa Islamiya — which had waged an armed insurgency in the 1990s. The group later renounced violence and was a strong Morsi ally before and during his one-year presidency.
The August assault on the police station evoked the decades-old conflict between Egypt's police and Islamists.
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Diplomacy may make Bashar disposable
September 19, 2013/By Michael Young/The Daily Star
Within a week, one story – punishing Bashar Assad for his probable use of chemical weapons against civilians in the Ghouta region – has been pushed aside by another: the possibility of a rapprochement between Iran and the United States, even as Washington is coordinating its policies toward Syria with another adversary, Russia.
It’s best in these cases not to get carried away by optimism. Diplomacy and dialogue are not ends in themselves. Yet the potential opportunities are great, whether for Syria or the rest of the Middle East, if broader understandings can be reached between the main regional and global actors. And tectonic shifts, if they occur, may ultimately ensure that Assad is politically disposable.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has made normalization with the West a central plank of his political program. Critically, he seems to have the support of the supreme leader, Ali Khamenei. On Tuesday, Khamenei endorsed Rouhani’s position, saying Iran should embrace diplomacy over militarism and that it was time for “heroic leniency.”
In remarks to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, Khamenei said, “[I]t is not necessary for the IRGC to be active in the political field, but defending the revolution requires that they understand political realities.” This appeared to be Khamenei’s way of legitimizing Rouhani’s opening in front of an institution that, potentially, may pose problems for the president down the road.
From the Obama administration’s perspective, bringing Iran into negotiations on Syria’s future is necessary, even if the pitfalls are many. Supporting Assad’s regime has become a burden even for his closest partners, who might welcome a transition away from the Syrian president if it means they can preserve their interests in Syria.
The Obama administration has no intention of challenging this logic, as it searches for a cure for its Syrian headache. The notion that the U.S. will seek to deny Moscow and Tehran a political foothold in Syria seems absurd, as the Americans view Russia, and probably Iran, as parties that can help deliver a peaceful outcome in the country.
Still, Russian and Iranian interests in Syria do differ, and the U.S. can play on this to its advantage in formulating postwar preferences. At the same time, American, Russian and Iranian interests are not as far apart as they appear. All three want a political solution; all are wary of the emergence of jihadist groups; and all perceive that the side they are backing in Syria is probably unable to win a military victory.
They must also sense that Assad today is the primary obstacle to a political solution. Iran has poured much money into the war on Assad’s behalf, and has instructed Hezbollah to bolster his regime militarily. While this allowed Assad to regain his balance, it has not brought victory, while Hezbollah has been transformed into the Assad regime’s cannon fodder, a situation the party cannot relish.
Russia, on its side, has been embarrassed by the Syrian regime’s use of chemical weapons. The United Nations report released this week did not determine responsibility, but no one could fail to see that the technical details all pointed toward Syrian Army units. The Russians have been hardy, even foolhardy, in their defense of Assad, but this only makes sense in the context of a plan that leads somewhere else. It is next to impossible to imagine that Assad represents a long-term solution for Russia, so bloody and sordid has been his legacy. If anything, his remaining in office will only fuel the war indefinitely.
As the U.S. defines what it wants in Syria, it may find it useful to widen the differences between Iran and Russia, while ensuring that both agree to Bashar Assad’s departure. The Russians and Iranians are closer to each other than either is to the Obama administration, but that may change as Assad’s presidential term nears an end in 2014, providing an opportunity for an orderly power transfer in Syria.
Assad may hope to play on Iranian and Russian divergences to stay in office – for instance by shifting to a greater reliance on Tehran if Vladimir Putin says that Russia would not support a new Assad term. But the Syrian president may be in a more precarious situation than he knows. Since 2011, he has become so dependent on outsiders that his survival will be determined by them. Iran can see that it has wagered heavily on an incompetent, and may judge that it benefits more by preserving its relationship with Russia and improving ties with the U.S. than in indefinitely propping up a mass murderer.
An yet Iran has vital interests in Syria. The country provides strategic depth to Hezbollah and gives Iran considerable influence over a second country on Israel’s border, after Lebanon. Iran can also rely on, and will protect, its Syrian Alawite and Shiite allies. Squaring this with U.S. objectives and Russian preferences will not be easy. But if the three countries engage seriously, Assad’s fate could be sealed.
America will have a key role in reassuring the Gulf countries, who would regard any improvement in U.S.-Iranian ties as a threat. It’s difficult to imagine a package deal over Syria without Saudi approval, and this only the Obama administration can deliver. One thing is certain, namely that any such deal, because of the stalemate in Syria, will force all sides to accept less than their maximal objectives.
Like China’s Deng Xiaoping, Assad may have become important largely for what will come after him. Though old and senile, Deng was kept as titular head of the Chinese power structure to better prepare the aftermath. That may be Assad’s destiny too. He’s the path through which a Syrian settlement may have to pass, on the understanding that he will make way once a power-transfer mechanism is agreed. We shall soon see how, or whether, this intricate dance can begin.
Michael Young is opinion editor of THE DAILY STAR. He tweets @BeirutCalling.

Opportunistic Ultra-Nationalism
By: Eyad Abu Shakra/Asharq Alawsat
In 2003 when the drums of the Iraq War were beating, I remember well how the term Qawmajiyya, alluding to ultra-nationalism, spread like wildfire.
The word–in a derisive context–and its derivatives were reiterated by many among the supporters of the invasion of Iraq who belonged to two contradictory camps: the fundamental Islamist Shi’ite camp and the leftist communist camp. Both camps were imbued with animosity towards Saddam Hussein, who at the time ruled Iraq in the name of the “pan-Arabism” of the Arab Socialist Ba’athist Party.
Personally speaking, I was annoyed by the two camps belittling and ridiculing pan-Arabism in this manner, although I was well aware of Saddam Hussein’s terrible history of human rights abuse and his policy of exclusion and monopolizing power, as well as imposing an oppressive and bloody garb on the Arab identity, inflicting it—until today—with the worst impressions.
I have always been opposed to the invasion of Iraq, not out of love for a backward and oppressive dictatorship; but rather, out of concern for the absence of any genuine vision for the day-after “scenario” on the part of the invaders.
Perhaps some of our brothers and dear friends in the Gulf countries, particularly Iraq, will be upset by my remarks. However, I oppose any invasion that destroys without containing any plans for rebuilding. The invasion of Iraq refused to pay attention to the local sensitivities and the nature of Iraq’s delicate social fabric, and to make clear its vision for “post-Saddam Iraq” within the Middle East; particularly given that the country is threatened by Iranian and Turkish aspirations, Israeli animosity, and Kurdish dreams of independence.
In short, I opposed the invasion of Iraq as much as I opposed the survival of Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship which, through its bloody “management” of the Sunni-Shi’ite and Kurdish files, contributed to the destruction of national unity and tempted many Iraqis to fall into the arms of Iran and others.
This was the case in 2003. Today, a decade after the Iraq War, we find ourselves face to face with a new regional reality created by the invasion. This reality boils down to handing the entire region, from the Iranian-Iraqi borders to the Eastern Mediterranean shores, to Iran via the government of Nuri Al-Maliki in Iraq, Bashar Al-Assad’s regime in Syria, and Hezbollah’s hegemony over Lebanon.
In fact, the thing that is most absent from the region today is pan-Arabism; by which I mean true pan-Arabism, not the artificial version that is being promoted by the Syrian media propagandists over the corpses of the Syrian people and the rubble of their destroyed cities and villages.
This week, while the Damascus regime was preparing to destroy its chemical weapons stockpile—which, like all of its weapons, it has only been used against its own people—the Lebanese capital of Beirut hosted “The Arab International Forum against Aggression on Syria.” It was reported that 450 figures from 30 countries attended the event. As for the organizing body of the forum, it is the “Arab International Center for Communication and Solidarity”, an institution that, from the names of those in charge, seems to represent a trend that was very close to Saddam Hussein before 2003. Actually, it stands as the Iraqi (or “Nationalist Command”) version of the Ba’ath Party. However, it seems that the circumstances of the “Arab nationalist” struggle dictated that they should come under the wing of the very sides that instigated against Saddam and benefitted from his fall, as well as pushed towards his execution while Iraq was still under occupation.
The images of death and destruction in Syria for more than two and a half years have not provoked these “ultra-Nationalists’” sense of “pan-Arabism.” Furthermore, they had no qualms about listening to Sheikh Naeem Qasim who represents an Islamist party that is divorced from their secularist principles. Of course, they were not annoyed by the remarks of the Syrian regime’s ambassador to Lebanon who insisted on thwarting the “plot” that infiltrated more than 40 years of Intelligence rule in Syria. They were not upset by the Russian ambassador who utterly rejected “foreign intervention” that, it seems, does not include sending Russian weapons and thousands of Iraqi, Lebanese, and Iranian fighters to Syria.
Here, we are facing two quandaries, one intellectual and the other moral.
As for the intellectual aspect, it has become clear that those who claim to be pan-Arabists may be able to trumpet Arab Nationalism, but they lack the ability to define it. They are unable to understand this concept in isolation from coercion, authoritarianism, hegemony, favoritism, bullying, and buying influence. Moreover, they cannot differentiate between what is Arab Nationalist and what is not, or between those who truly believe in their Arab identity and those who exploit it.
There is a real problem in understanding the meaning of pan-Arabism on the part of those who gathered this week in Beirut in solidarity with a regime that had shed Arab blood for more than seven months before the Syrian opposition took up warms, directing the so-called weapons of the “resistance” away from its declared purpose towards the Syrian cities and villages.
I assert here that linking the invasion of Iraq in 2003 to the empty threat to strike Syria in 2013 is an insult to any political analyst. The developments during the recent weeks prove the falsehood of the “conspiracy” against it that the Damascus regime has continually parroted. This is evidenced by the British House of Commons refusal to participate in a military strike and Barack Obama’s satisfaction at his “diplomatic victory” in which he handed the keys to the Middle East to Vladimir Putin. This is not to mention John Kerry’s keenness to reassure Benjamin Netanyahu regarding Syria ridding itself of its chemical weapons. Where is the conspiracy in all this and against whom?
Do these “ultra-nationalists” still believe that decision making in the Mashriq (Near East) is in Arab hands? Do they seriously think that the Iranian leadership believes in the pan-Arabist character of, as they put it, the “struggle against Israel” and imperialism?
As for the moral aspect, the calamity is greater.
Here we are facing opportunist “ultra-nationalists” who well know how to transfer loyalties—or subordination—from one side to another.
Regarding human rights, the only fundamental they adhere to in their political practices is to never attach weight to the value, rights, or dignity of the human being. Over the decades, they have justified authoritarianism, abuse of power, restricting freedoms, destruction of coexistence and depleting national resources under the slogan of pan-Arabism. As a result, pan-Arabism has become synonymous with all of these crimes.
Will it harm them, after all of this, to announce their support for a regime that is killing its own people in full view of the world?
 

Christian villagers cast doubt on Syria jihadist ‘threat’
By Lina Sinjab/BBC
The rebel attack earlier this month on the Syrian village of Maaloula heightened worries that the conflict there is becoming increasingly sectarian, with some members of the historic Christian community there fleeing and saying churches had been desecrated. However, some of the residents the BBC has spoken to have challenged this narrative.
The violence in the village earlier this month centred around a pro-government checkpoint set up at the southern entrance of the village by the military, with some members from the National Defence Force, a newly-formed militia of community members, mainly Alawites and Christians.
Rebel fighters say they had had control over the northern side of Maaloula, on top of the Qalamoun mountain, for the last eight months.
There had been some rounds of fighting around the village in the last few months, but the world's attention was only drawn to Maaloula on 5 September, when a fighter affiliated to the jihadist al-Nusra Front drove up to the check point and blew himself up, killing several soldiers and pro-government militiamen.
A number of armed men then entered the St Takla monastery in the north of the village and asked the nuns there whether there were any government soldiers hiding there.
The BBC reached one of the nuns who has remained in the village's St Takla monastery "There were around 20 of them. They looked like Islamists, but they did us no harm," one of the nuns told the BBC a few days after the incident.
"They told us they were after Bashar al-Assad and his army, not Christians," the nun explained.
Then the armed men returned to the monastery, which is home to nine nuns and 35 others, children and elderly people cared for by the nuns. They all stayed in Maaloula, even during the intense fighting.
On their second visit, the nun explains, the men asked the nuns to make a video statement to the effect that they hadn't been harmed or attacked by the rebels, which was then posted on YouTube.
The rebels then left their arms outside the monastery and climbed up to film the village from above in an attempt to prove that they left without causing damage or attacking the churches, according to the nun the BBC spoke to.
Doubts over timing
The funeral for three Christians killed in Maaloula took place in Damascus
The attack resulted in the death of three residents of the village and most of Maaloula's residents have now fled the violence to Damascus.
Later on, there were increasing exchanges of fire between the two sides.
Residents of Maaloula called on the army to come and protect them but as one resident said: "The army betrayed us and sold us to the media."
The army arrived in Maaloula on Saturday 7 September and only stayed for a few hours, pulling out and allowing the rebels to enter again, the resident - who wished to remain unnamed - told the BBC.
Questions have been raised of the timing of the attack as it happened only two days before a prayer for peace was due to take place in Maaloula in response to a call by Pope Francis for a day of fasting and prayer worldwide in aid of peace in Syria.
It also coincided with what looked like the run-up to an imminent US strike against Syria.
Amer al-Qalamouni, the spokesman for Ahrar al-Sham and Qalamoun Liberation front, a group of non-Islamist fighters affiliated with the Free Syrian Army, says the timing of the attack only benefited the regime's narrative.
"The situation was going on for months, but suddenly the al-Nusra Front decided to attack the checkpoint," Mr Qalamouni told the BBC.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote
I told the rebels: 'If you go on to every village and there are battles and lives lost, then you are not going to get rid of Bashar al-Assad. You need to sit and talk to find a solution.'”
End Quote
Nun in Maaloula's St Takla monastery
"Members of Ahrar al-Sham and Qalamoun Liberation Front then participated in the clashes. The aim was never an attack against Christians but to deal with the checkpoint itself," he goes on.
Mr Qalamouni said that he thought the Islamists of the al-Nusra Front had used the opportunity send a message to the West that they had no need of Western intervention.
History of coexistence
The fighting in Maaloula is the first such attack on a notable Christian community since the start of the uprising.
Residents of many Christian villages around Homs and Hama have been fleeing the violence along with members of other communities, but had not up until now been attacked themselves.
Like many villages and cities across Syria, Maaloula has been home to different religious communities who have lived in coexistence for decades.
Famously, it is one of three villages in Syria where Aramaic, the language of Jesus Christ, is still spoken.
St Takla's monastery has always been a home for orphans from both Christian and Muslim communities.
In calmer times Maaloula would celebrate the Day of Cross in September
Every September, Syrians of all religions have participated in the Day of the Cross festival in Maaloula. Muslims would attend prayers in the church and women with headscarves would light candles there.
After the long day of celebration and a parade through the village, the evening's festivities would begin with a climb up the mountain.
Later fires would be lit and songs sung to guitar music until sunrise.
But today Maaloula has been subjected to the flame of war that has burnt so many parts of Syria.
The nun that the BBC reached in St Takla's monastery said she believed Syria's Christians were not the target of the violence but that they were becoming caught in the crossfire.
She says she had urged the rebels who came to the monastery to negotiate with the regime.
"I told them: 'If you go on to every village and there are battles and lives lost, then you are not going to get rid of Bashar al-Assad. You need to sit and talk to find a solution.'"
 

Khamenei’s Leniency After The “Victory” Of Al-Assad
Zuheir Kseibati/Al Hayat
Thursday 19 September 2013
If the Russians led the Syrian regime into the cage of the chemical weapons inspectors to destroy its arsenal, where does Guide of the Islamic Republic in Iran Ali Khamenei hope President Vladimir Putin will accompany him, to find a solution to the nuclear file predicament?
The ally is in a cage, no matter how hard Minister Sergei Lavrov tries to find evidence convicting the Syrian opposition of being behind the chemical massacre committed on August 21. And while the agreement to destroy the Syrian chemical weapons brings back to mind facets of the experience of Saddam Hussein’s regime with the international inspection teams, what is certain is that President Bashar al-Assad’s regime fears that the agreement will trigger its gradual dismantlement, regardless of the developments at the level of the fight with the armed men.
For its part, Israel perceived the Lavrov-Kerry accord as being a prize it won without having to buy a ticket. But the urgent question provoked by the rush of the new Iranian rule (under Rohani’s presidency) to request Kremlin’s intervention to seek a fast settlement for Tehran’s nuclear file is the following: Will the removal of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear fangs constitute the greater prize offered to Netanyahu by the Russian-American deal?
Just like the Syrian regime perceived its submission to international control over its chemical arsenal as being a “victory” that allowed it to avoid the American military option – despite the presence of Russian fleets in the Mediterranean Sea – it would be fine for Guide Ali Khamenei to prepare the Iranians and especially the Revolutionary Guard to accept the “heroic leniency” during the talks with the P5+1 states. Clearly, Iran is not Syria that is being swept by the regime’s wars with the armed oppositionists and its sharing of the country with dozens of fighting factions. Moreover, it would be an exaggeration to say that Tehran fears an imminent Israeli military strike to close the nuclear file.
In reality, the Iranian facts throughout the revolution and war in Syria, and all through the chapters of the American and European sanctions on Tehran before that, are the ones pushing Khamenei to drink the bitter cup of “heroic leniency” in the upcoming negotiations with the P5+1 states (i.e. the five major states and Germany), while aware – along with President Hassan Rohani – that the West has decided to reject any hesitation, reluctance or stalling on Tehran’s end in responding to the demands of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Does Al-Assad bring Saddam to mind? Syria will not be invaded, considering that neither Washington nor the West in general wants to see its troops stuck in the quicksand of Al-Nusra Front and its allies. It is a slow dismantlement process targeting the remaining tools and cards held by the regime, which firstly meets the requirements of Israel’s security that is sponsored by American interests.
And while Khamenei’s cup also brings to mind the bitter cup swallowed by Khomeini when he accepted the ceasefire with Saddam’s Iraq (1980-1988), the cost of sponsoring the Syrian ally financially and militarily since 2011 has amplified the impact of the sanctions on Tehran, to the point where former Iranian official Seyed Hossein Mousavian – who is close to Rohani – talked about an exceptional opportunity to end decades of mutual hostility with Washington.
Some optimists about “heroic leniency” expect the gradual normalization of diplomatic relations between Tehran and Washington, starting with the neutralization of the confrontation over the nuclear file, which would allow President Barack Obama to implement his promises to Israel without firing one bullet, before seeing the transfer of highly-enriched uranium from Iran to Russia and the subsequent lifting of the sanctions’ sword. In that same context, the latter optimists are summarizing Khamenei’s and Rohani’s messages to the Revolutionary Guard with one expression: The time has come for a settlement. Indeed, Iran has exhausted the nuclear card to the farthest extent and for more than a decade, and what is dubbed by Israel the strategic Tehran-Damascus-Beirut “danger arc” is collapsing due to the tragic repercussions of the war on Syria, especially following the shock of the chemical weapons’ use in Ghouta. Hence, Damascus is incapable of mobilizing its allies to support Tehran in any confrontation with the West, while Iran can no longer support the Syrian regime to salvage it. The Ghouta chemical attack thus changed the rules of the game, rendering the Iranian-Russian supporter unable to lead the regime outside the cage of the inspectors and the game of the nations.
This does not mean the expectation of an imminent collapse by Al-Assad’s regime or Khamenei’s signing of an instrument of surrender to the West. The Russian-American confrontation is returning to the hall of the Security Council, but Damascus cannot rely on that to elude its commitments before the United Nations that is working on files to amplify the cage. On the other hand, this does not change anything at the level of Moscow’s preparations to thwart any UN draft resolution to impose Chapter VII, at a time when the Syrian experience might provoke the fears of the conservatives in Iran over a bitter end for the placement of all the nuclear cards in Kremlin’s basket.
What is certain, on the sidelines of the heated diplomatic battle between Washington and Moscow, is that Minister Lavrov’s swimming against the current following his agreement with Kerry over the destruction of the Syrian chemical arsenal, is part of the game of nations along the path leading towards an agreement between the major players. As for the reemergence of the conflicting Israeli signals in regard to the fate of Al-Assad’s regime, their impact in Tehran probably exceeds by far their echoes in Damascus, where the victory drums are currently overshadowing the terrible collapse of the system by which tyranny was sponsored to deter “conspiracies.”
Khamenei is struggling, Lavrov is swimming, and the regime in Damascus cannot believe what it is hearing in terms of the echoes of the transformations provoked by the chemical strike.
 

Russia and the US: Who Is Lying to Whom?
Hassan Haidar/Al Hayat
Thursday 19 September 2013
The international tug of war over the Syrian crisis, which gradually escalated to reach its peak after the chemical attack on Ghouta near Damascus a month ago, has resulted in an agreement on dismantling Syria’s chemical arsenal, concluding negotiations between the US Secretary of State and Russia’s Foreign Minister. Both sides subsequently came out with direct statements or through leaks in their media outlets to contend for the “victory” that had been achieved, ascribing it either to Moscow or to Washington, with both asserting that there was no cold war between them, but rather cooperation and complementarity.
Yet a simple analysis of what has been achieved, or should be achieved over the next few months, would clarify whether a battle had really taken place between the two sides, whether there had been a “victory” or “concessions”, what the real results of the Geneva negotiations are, and who is lying.
In order to answer such questions, let us turn back a little to what the situation was like prior to the chemical attack: Assad’s army had for two and a half years been making use of air raids, ballistic missiles, and heavy field artillery to strike at opposition forces and bomb the areas they control, without making any distinction between combatants and civilians, and while inflicting tremendous destruction on cities, towns, villages, infrastructure, homes, hospitals and anything rising above the ground, achieving advances on the field in some areas with the support of its Iranian and Lebanese allies.
Meanwhile, on the side of the opposition, fighters had been making use of what little weapons were available to them and a great deal of resolve, in attack and retreat operations meant to cause breaches, great or small, in the regime’s security walls, in hopes that the West would someday be kind enough to grant them combat capabilities that would help them confront superior air and missile force, or at least be convinced to establish no-fly zones to protect civilians.
In terms of the issue’s international aspect, conflicting stances have been taken: the West and its allies accuse Assad’s regime of war crimes and crimes against humanity, assert that he has lost his legitimacy and call on him to leave; while Russia and Damascus’s other allies accuse the opposition of similar crimes and assert that its fundamentalists represent a greater threat to the West than the regime does. Yet neither side has done anything tangible to stop the war and put an end to this tragedy. On the contrary, they have both contributed to prolonging it.
Then suddenly the chemical attack took place. The Western world rose up, moved by the images of its victims, and decided that a response was imperative. Diplomats gathered their instruments in international forums, and American warships began to flock to the Eastern Mediterranean. The Russians responded with similar naval mobilization. Thus began a series of media battles and mutually exchanged accusations and warnings, as the world nervously waited for them to begin punishing Assad. The momentum then gradually began to wane, with Britain withdrawing and Obama deciding that he needed internal American support before taking the step of engaging in military action. This is until John Kerry’s “slip of the tongue” occurred and Sergey Lavrov rushed to put forward his “initiative” on its basis, as the American and Russian press likes to repeat, without shame before its readers.
The result of this whole mess was thus the agreement to “neutralize” the Syrian chemical factor, which had suddenly disrupted the course of the civil infighting and muddled the clarity of the collective international monitoring of it. What matters now is for the Syrian showdown to resume its course, and to never again depart from the “familiar” or threaten to spread its flames beyond the “Syrian enclosure” to its neighborhood, especially on the Israeli side. There is no objection to the conflict continuing indefinitely, as long as its various sides remain able to feed its flame, because there is no objection in the first place to the wolf dying and the lamb perishing together.
The Americans and the Russians have agreed in Geneva, either directly or in a roundabout way, to return to the phase prior to the use of chemical weapons, and they are today keeping the world distracted with this illusory battle at the Security Council over Chapter VII of the UN Charter. The Russians are lying to the Syrians, the Americans are lying to their allies, and the Russians and Americans are both lying to us all.