Funding ISIS by Looting Antiquities

This marble bas-relief, likely looted by Islamic State, was seized at Paris’s Roissy airport in March 2016 after arriving from North Lebanon. PHOTO: AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Plundered antiquities from Syria were sold to ISIS and used by that terrorist organization to fund their fighting. The group looted ancient sites and also purchased ancient statues, jewelry and other precious artifacts stolen in Syria and Iraq. Experts say it may take decades for the stolen artifacts to surface.

“Once looted in Syria and Iraq, objects enter a gray market shrouded in secrecy,” said Michael Danti, an archaeologist who directs the Boston-based Cultural Heritage Initiatives and advises the U.S. State Department on the looting of antiquities in Syria. “It’s a problem that will stay with us for years to come.”

Read more here.

Related reading: Curbing the Spoils of War; Broken System Allows ISIS to Profit from Looted Antiquities; The Librarian Who Saved Timbuktu's Cultural Treasures from al Qaeda

Lord Weidenfeld Repays a Debt

A Jewish peer who fled occupied Austria as a child is funding the rescue of up to 2,000 Christians from Syria and Iraq as a way of showing his gratitude to the religion whose members saved him from the Nazis.

Lord Weidenfeld says he has “a debt to repay” to Christians fleeing Isis, because the Quakers and the Plymouth Brethren fed and clothed him and helped him to reach Britain in 1938.

The publisher is spearheading Weidenfeld Safe Havens Fund, which last week supported the flight of 150 Syrian Christians to Poland on a privately chartered plane to allow them to seek refuge, making them the first beneficiaries of the resettlement project.

Read it all here.

Kidnapped Swedish Journalists Released

Magnus Falkehed and Niclas Hammarström, two Swedish journalists who were kidnapped near the Lebanese border in Syria on 23 November, have been released, the Swedish government said today.

“We are very relieved to learn that these two journalists have been released safe and sound,” Reporters Without Borders said. “We nonetheless continue to be concerned about the 16 other foreign journalists (four of them French) and the more than 30 Syrian citizen journalists who are still held in Syria.”

Normally based in Paris, Falkehed works for many Swedish publications including the daily Dagens Nyheter and the magazine Sydsvenskan. Hammarström is a freelance photographer.

According to the information obtained by Reporters Without Borders, they are currently in Lebanon. No details about their abduction or release have so far been made public.

Source: IFEX

US Army Destroying Syrian Chemical Weapons

By C. Todd Lopez

PORTSMOUTH, Va. (Army News Service, Jan. 3, 2014) -- Some 64 specialists from the Army's Edgewood Chemical Biological Center are expected to depart for the Mediterranean in about two weeks aboard the ship MV Cape Ray to destroy chemical weapons from Syria.

The nearly 650-foot-long ship, now in Portsmouth, Va., will travel to a yet-to-be specified location in the Mediterranean, will take on about 700 metric tons of both mustard gas and 'DF compound,' a component of the nerve agent sarin gas, and will then use two new, and recently installed 'field deployable hydrolysis systems' to neutralize the chemicals.

Onboard the Cape Ray will be 35 mariners, about 64 chemical specialists from Edgewood, Md., a security team, and a contingent from U.S. European Command. It's expected the operational portion of the mission will take about 90 days.

Outside the ship, Jan. 2, Frank Kendall, under secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics, said preparations began before the United States even knew it was committed to the mission -- or that the mission would ever materialize.

'There was a recognition that something was going to happen in Syria, in all likelihood that would require us to do something with those chemical materials that were known to be there,' he said.

In December 2012, a request was made to determine what could be done if the U.S. was asked to participate in destruction of chemical weapons from Syria.

By the end of January 2013, a team with the Joint Project Manager for Elimination and the Army's Edgewood Chemical Biological Center had evaluated existing technology and configurations for neutralization of chemical weapons and made the recommendation to use the hydrolysis process. Construction of a deployable system began in February, and the first prototype was available in June. A second was available in September.

'We could have waited to see what happened and then reacted to that, or we could have moved out ahead of time and then prepared for what might happen or was likely to happen,' Kendall said. 'Fortunately ... we took the latter course.'

Onboard the ship, an environmentally-sealed tent contains two Field Deployable Hydrolysis System (FDHS) units which will operate 24 hours a day in parallel to complete the chemical warfare agent neutralization mission.

Each unit costs about $5 million and contains built-in redundancy and a titanium-lined reactor for mixing the chemical warfare agents with the chemicals that will neutralize them.

About 130 gallons of mustard gas can be neutralized at a time, over the course of about two hours, for instance, said Adam Baker, with the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center, Edgewood, Md.

The FDHS systems can, depending on the material, process between 5 to 25 metric tons of material a day. With two systems, that means as much as 50 metric tons a day of chemical warfare agents can be destroyed. The mission requires disposal of 700 metric tons of material. But the plan is not to start out on the first day at full speed.

'There is a ramp-up period,' Baker said. 'It's going to be a slow start. We're going to go very deliberately and safely.'

Rob Malone, with the Joint Project Manager for Elimination at Edgewood, Md., said the two chemical warfare agents will be neutralized with reagents such as bleach, water or sodium hydroxide.

'They are doing a chemical hydrolysis process. It brings the chemical agent together with a reagent, another chemical,' Malone said. 'It creates a chemical reaction that basically destroys the chemical agent in and of itself.'

The result of that neutralization process will create about 1.5 million gallons of a toxic 'effluent' that must be disposed of, but cannot be used as a chemical weapon. Additionally, Malone said, the effluent is similar to other toxic hazardous compounds that industrial processes generate. There is a commercial market worldwide for disposing of such waste.

The effluent will be acidic and will be PH-adjusted to bring it up to 'above neutral,' as part of the process. The end result will be a liquid that is caustic, similar to commercially-available 'Drano,' said Baker.

The operational plan includes a cycle of six days of disposal plus one day for maintenance of the equipment. On board will be about 220 6,600-gallon containers that will hold the reagents used in the disposal process, and will also be used afterward to hold the effluent.

Read it all here.

Al-Qaeda in Syria

Al Nusra Front, Al Qaeda's official arm in Syria, is quickly entrenching itself in the north and east of Syria, where the Assad regime's rule has collapsed. Jihad will spread outwards to the region, then threaten global security -- possibly with biological and chemical weapons.

Al Qaeda is quickly constructing its main regional Middle East base in Syria, from where it plans to export terrorism and Islamic radicalism to neighboring states, then to the West, a new report released by an Israeli security research institute warned.

The jihadis later aspire, according to the report, to turn "Greater Syria" -- an old geographic term encompassing Syria, Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories -- into an Islamic caliphate.

The exhaustive study took a year to compile, according to researchers at the Tel Aviv-based Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, which released it.

The Center itself is a part of the Israeli Intelligence and Heritage Commemoration Center, founded in the 1980s by leading members of the Israeli intelligence community.

The report identified the Al Nusra Front as Al Qaeda's official arm in Syria; they added that the organization is quickly entrenching itself in the north and east of Syria, where the Assad regime's rule has collapsed.

According to Dr. Reuven Erlich, the head of the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, the Al Nusra Front is entrenching itself in Syria at a rate several times faster than the time it took Al Qaeda in Afghanistan to become a serious international terrorist presence.

Erlich, who served in several posts in IDF Military Intelligence, also cautioned that Syria's location in the heart of the Middle East, its proximity to Europe, and its border with Israel mean that geopolitically, the jihadi threat from Syria is more central than the one from Afghanistan or Pakistan.

He compared Al Nusra's activities in Syria today to the incubation period of a virus, before it begins spreading and infecting other hosts. Later, Erlich warned, the plague of jihad will spread outwards from Syria to the region, then go on to threaten global security.

The researchers who composed the report assessed the chances of Al Nusra realizing its goal of building a caliphate as low, due to Syria's diverse sectarian, ethnic, and religious population, and strong tradition of secular Arab nationalism.

Nevertheless, they said, the group is on course to become one of the most prominent rebel entities, and will play a key role in shaping a post-Assad Syria, while using its growing presence as a springboard to launch international terrorist attacks.

At the moment, Al Nusra's most urgent goal is toppling President Assad; its members are therefore not yet focusing on enforcing Shari'a law in Syria. They show a pragmatic willingness to work with other rebel organizations, including the main Free Syrian Army. But once the Assad regime falls, a violent campaign by jihadis might begin to cement their control over any new government formed by rebels in Damascus.

A second jihadi organization operates in Syria, the researchers said, called the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria, formed by Al-Qaeda in Iraq, though Al Nusra is the only one to have received official recognition by Al Qaeda's central leader, Ayman Al-Zawahiri, in June this year.

"The two branches together have an estimated 6,000 to 7,000 operatives in our assessment, and the number is growing," the report stated.

Erlich said the influence of the group is out of proportion to its numbers, due its operational capabilities and influence on the population.

The Al Nusra Front is led Abu Muhammad al-Julani, who possibly hails from the Syrian Golan, and rules over a network of fighters and local subordinates in Syria's districts.

He is a veteran of jihadist battles against US forces in Iraq, and a former follower of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who set up Al Qaeda in Iraq in the previous decade.

Rank and file members of the group are a mix of Syrians and foreign volunteers from the Arab and Muslim world, the report said, adding that foreign volunteers number in the thousands. Additionally, between 500 and 600 European Muslim volunteers are in the organization, mainly hailing from the UK and France. They are expected, after returning from the battlefields, to spread jihad in their home countries, the report said.

The Al Nusra Front's most senior body is called the Consulting Council of Jihad Fighters. Its leadership is made up of staff dealing with military operations, fundraising, weapons acquisitions and smuggling, religious affairs and public relations. Fighting units are usually called battalions or companies.

The report mapped out the Al Nusra Front's presence in Syria, noting that it was strongest in the north and east, where the Assad regime has collapsed. In these areas, called "liberated zones" by the jihadis, Al Nusra and affiliated groups provide public services, maintain health, legal, and policing systems, and distribute food, clothing and blankets.

In some places, residents have complained about a strict code of Shari'a-based conduct being enforced.

According to the report, the group is weakest on the Mediterranean coast, where the minority Alawite population -- of which the ruling Assad regime is mostly composed -- is located.

Most of Al Nusra's attacks are focused on greater Damascus and on northern and eastern Syria, in places such as Aleppo, Homs, Hama, Idlib and Deir al-Zor. Its actions are guerrilla-terrorist campaigns against the regime's bases, facilities and individuals.

Tactics include suicide car bombings, roadside bombs, suicide bombers on foot, and firing on bases and airfields with light arms and mortars. Security checkpoints are a frequent target.

"Suicide bombings are a signature brand" of Al Nusra and are operationally effective, but have resulted in negative public relations among other Syrian rebels, said the report.

The Al Nusra Front plans to attack Israel from the Syrian Golan, according to an assessment that appeared in the report. It "can be expected to establish an operative terrorist infrastructure in the Golan Heights, a continuation of military infrastructure it is currently constructing in Deraa," the southwestern city where the anti-Assad uprising began in 2011.

"In our assessment, Hezbollah and Palestinian terrorist organizations may integrate themselves into terrorist attacks from the Golan Heights despite the fundamental ideological differences between them," it added.

Al Nusra can also be expected to link up with fellow jihadis who follow Al Qaeda's ideology in neighboring Lebanon, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Gaza Strip.

Pro-Western Arab states are on the target list too, the report said, adding that Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia, all of which support the rebels, might be targeted by Al Nusra in the form of subversive, radical Islamists entering them and setting up terrorist cells.

In northern Syria, Al Nusra and its allies have seized key national resources such as oil and gas fields, oil pipelines, dams, power plants and grain silos.

These sites are now operated by jihadis, who sometimes sell oil and gas to the Assad regime for profit, enabling the organization to pay its operatives a monthly salary, purchase more weapons, and run assistance programs in "liberated areas."

As Al Nusra fighters raid Syrian weapons depots, the fear remains, the report stated, that "in the absence of the considerations of restraint that influence other terrorist organizations, such as Hezbollah and the Palestinian terrorist organizations," they could obtain chemical and biological weapons, and use them in terrorist attacks.

Source: Gladstone Institute

Doctors new terrorist target in Syria

Civilian medical care for is being targeted in Syria's civil war. Hospital and ambulances are being bombed; doctors, nurses and pharmacists are being tortured, imprisoned and killed. While the international community is outraged over 1400 deaths from chemical weapons, thousands more are dying because a sophisticated health system has been destroyed.

Dr Annie Sparrow, an Australian who is the former director of UNICEF's malaria program in Somalia, says in the blog Syria Deeply: "I have never encountered the scale upon which medical neutrality is being violated in Syria. This targeting of medical care has effectively become a weapon of mass destruction."

A group of 55 medical professionals, including Nobel Prize winners and heads of professional associations, have signed an open letter demanding that their colleagues be allowed to treat patients.

"Systematic assaults on medical professionals, facilities and patients are breaking Syria's health-care system and making it nearly impossible for civilians to receive essential medical services. Thirty-seven percent of Syrian hospitals have been destroyed and a further 20 percent severely damaged. Makeshift clinics have become fully fledged trauma centres struggling to cope with the injured and sick. An estimated 469 health workers are currently imprisoned and around 15,000 doctors have been forced to flee abroad. According to one report, there were 5,000 physicians in Aleppo before the conflict started, and only 36 remain.

"The targeted attacks on medical facilities and personnel are deliberate and systematic, not an inevitable nor acceptable consequence of armed conflict. Such attacks are an unconscionable betrayal of the principle of medical neutrality.

"The number of people requiring medical assistance is increasing exponentially, as a direct result of conflict and indirectly because of the deterioration of a once-sophisticated public health system and the lack of adequate curative and preventive care. Horrific injuries are going untended, women are giving birth with no medical assistance, men, women and children are undergoing life-saving surgery without anesthetic, and victims of sexual violence have nowhere to turn to."

Source: BioEdge

Syria: Terrorists slit throat of Christian

Ghastly attacks on Christians mocked as “Crusaders” in Syria continued unabated as Jihadists reportedly forced one man to convert to Islam at gunpoint and slit the throat of another Christian woman’s fiancé and then told her, “Jesus didn’t come to save him.” Residents who fled from the ancient town of Maalula in Syria told AFP that jihadists ambushed the town last week and forced a man to convert to Islam at gunpoint.

“They arrived in our town at dawn… and shouted ‘We are from the Al-Nusra Front and have come to make lives miserable for the Crusaders,” said one woman identified as Marie in Damascus, where many people from Maalula fled after rebels first attacked that town on Sept. 4.

One of the most renowned Christian towns in Syria, many of Maalula’s approximately 5,000 residents speak Aramaic, the language Jesus spoke. Rebels want to tighten their control of the town for its strategic value as a launching point to level attacks on the highway between the capital and Homs, a key regime supply route.

The ancient city of Maalula

On Tuesday, Marie and hundreds of others in exile in Damascus, attended the burial of three Christian pro-regime militiamen who were killed in fighting.

Adnan Nasrallah, 62, told AFP that an explosion destroyed an archway just across from his house that leads into Maalula during the fighting last week.

“I saw people wearing Al-Nusra headbands who started shooting at crosses,” the Christian senior told the AFP. One of the shooters, he said, “put a pistol to the head of my neighbor and forced him to convert to Islam by obliging him to repeat ‘there is no God but God’…Afterwards they joked, ‘he’s one of ours now’.”

Nasrallah said he operated a restaurant, called Maalula, in the State of Washington in the U.S. for 42 years when he decided to return to Syria shortly before the uprising erupted in Syria in March 2011.

A father clutches the body of his son, who was killed by the Syrian army, in Aleppo in October 2012. There are reportedly a few hundred Muslims from Western countries who are fighting alongside the rebels to topple Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.

“I had a great dream. I came back to my country to promote tourism. I built a guesthouse and spent $2,000 installing a windmill to provide electricity in the town…My dream has gone up in smoke. Forty-two years of work for nothing,” he lamented.

He said when the rebels came to town, his Muslim neighbors rejoiced. His sister Antoinette disputed that story, however, saying the people rejoicing were refugees from out of town.

Another Maalula resident, Rasha said the jihadists brutally murdered her fiancé Atef, who was a part of the town’s militia.

“I rang his mobile phone and one of them answered,” she said.

“Good morning, Rashrush,” a voice answered, calling her by her nickname according to AFP. “We are from the Free Syrian Army. Do you know your fiancé was a member of the shabiha (pro-regime militia) who was carrying weapons, and we have slit his throat?”

Rasha said the man told her Atef was asked to denounce his faith and convert to Islam and he refused.

“Jesus didn’t come to save him,” the rebel taunted.

Source: The Christian Post / CP World

Syrian Appeal to USA: Please stay away!

FROM HIS EMINENCE METROPOLITAN PHILIP Beloved Hierarchs, Clergy and Faithful of our God-Protected Archdiocese: Greetings to you and your families as we begin a new ecclesiastical year. I pray you had a pleasant summer. I write to you today as our president and United States Congress contemplate military action against Syria. As those of us with deep roots in that land already know, more bombs and destabilization of the country will only lead to further bloodshed and devastation. In my opinion, based on a lifetime of knowledge in that area of the world, it serves neither the interest of the United States, nor the Syrian people (or the people of the Middle East at large for that matter) to bomb and further destabilize the country. Extremists groups such as Al-Kaeda are waiting in the wings to prey on any weakness in the Syrian government and infrastructure. The results of such a bombing would be yet another step in the extermination of our Christian presence in the Middle East, a presence that dates to the dawn of Christianity. Our Church has already suffered greatly and has new martyrs waiting to be glorified –we do not need any more! Therefore, I urge all of you during the next few days to contact your respective senators and congress people to urge them to vote NO to any unilateral military action by the United States. Time is of the essence so please distribute this email to everyone you know as quickly as possible and share this message on your Facebook and other mass media sites. Wishing you all a peaceful new Church year, I remain, Your Father in Christ, Metropolitan Philip Archbishop of New York and Metropolitan of all North America

Who used Sarin in Syria? That's the question.

victims of Sarin attack

More than 1,400 people, including 400 children, were killed in the Aug 21 chemical weapons attack in East Damascus.

The United States claims that the Syrian government used the weapons to subdue rebels in an opposition-controlled neighbourhood. The Syrian government denies the charge and has blamed the rebels for the attack.

In interview to ABC News, Mr Kerry said President Barack Obama could act even if Congress did not back him, but “we are not going to lose this vote”, he added.

In a statement he read at the White House Rose Garden on Saturday, President Obama declared that he would take a military action against the Syrian government but with congressional approval. He sent the matter to Congress “for a debate and a vote”.

Congress resumes on Sept 9 after a summer break and congressional leaders have promised to start the debate early next week.

While both Republicans and Democrats have welcomed Mr Obama’s decision to seek congressional assent, some also warned there’s no assurance that Congress would approve his plan.

Senator James Inhofe, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, told Fox News he didn’t think the use of force would be approved. “Our military is so degraded right now,” he said.

Congressman Peter King, another Republican who chairs a House subcommittee on counter-terrorism, also warned that it would “be difficult to get the vote through” a Republican-dominated Congress. “If the vote was today it would probably be a ‘No’ vote. The president has not made the case.” he said.

The congressman said he would vote for the action but he was among a few who would do so as most lawmakers were reluctant to back Mr Obama.

Read it all here.

Pakistani Taliban Join Syria Conflict

ISLAMABAD/PESHAWAR: The Pakistani Taliban have set up camps and sent hundreds of men to Syria to fight alongside rebels opposed to President Bashar al Assad, militants said on Sunday, in a strategy aimed at cementing ties with Al Qaeda’s central leadership.

More than two years since the start of the anti-Assad rebellion, Syria has become a magnet for foreign Sunni fighters who have flocked to the Middle Eastern nation to join what they see as a holy war against Shia `oppressors’.

Operating alongside militant groups such as the Al Nusra Front, described by the United States as a branch of Al Qaeda, they mainly come from nearby countries such as Libya and Tunisia riven by similar conflict as a result of the Arab Spring.

On Sunday, Taliban commanders in Pakistan said they had also decided to join the cause, saying hundreds of fighters had gone to Syria to fight alongside their “Mujahideen friends”.
Read it all here.

Syria Peace Conference Unlikely

25 June 2013 – An international conference to find a political solution to the Syria crisis is not likely to be held in July, the Joint Special Representative of the United Nations and the Arab League for Syria, Lakhdar Brahimi, said today.

“Frankly now, I doubt whether the conference will take place in July,” Mr. Brahimi said ahead of talks in Geneva with Russian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mikhail Bogdanov and US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Wendy Sherman.

This meeting, the first since the officials last met on 5 June, is due to pave the way for a potential conference aimed at finding a political settlement to the fighting between the Syrian army and opposition forces seeking to oust President Bashar Al-Assad, which since March 2011 has claimed more than 93,000 lives and sent some 1.5 million people fleeing to neighbouring countries for safety.

Read it all here.

Related reading: Morsi to Hezbollah: Get Out of Syria; Saudi Arabia: Iran and Hezbollah in Syria is Dangerous

Morsi to Hezbollah: Get out of Syria

Elizabeth Arrott

Egypt has further aligned itself with those trying to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. It remains unclear, though, how far Egypt will back its words with action.

Syria's civil war has increasingly drawn in outsiders, from individual fighters to regional and international powers lining up on opposing sides. Egypt recently has stepped up its role, but the message appears mixed.

President Mohamed Morsi has severed Egypt's already tenuous ties with Syria's government, a move denounced by Syrian officials as influenced by the United States and Israel.

Morsi also lashed out at intervention by Lebanon's Hezbollah fighters on the side of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Speaking at a rally Saturday, he said Hezbollah must leave, adding “there is no space or place for Hezbollah in Syria.”

The open presence of the Shi'ite militant group in Syria has highlighted the conflict's increasingly sectarian nature.


Read it all here.

Syria Willing to Talk

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Aleksandr Lukashevich told a news conference in Moscow, "'We are pleased to announce that Damascus has expressed its readiness in principle to participate in the international conference [on Syria] in order for Syrians themselves to find a political path to a solution of a conflict that is so disastrous for the nation and the region."

The peace conference, dubbed 'Geneva 2' and expected to be held in June in the Swiss city, would be aimed at ending the raging Syrian civil war, which in two years has killed more than 80,000 people.

'Demands to immediately set a concrete date for convening the conference, with no clarity about who will speak on behalf of the opposition and what powers they will have, cannot not be taken seriously,' Lukashevich cautioned.

Read it all here.

Update on Abducted Orthodox Bishops

Catholic News Agency reports that the case of two Orthodox archbishops kidnapped in Syria is growing direr with each passing day. One of the bishops, Mar Gregorios Ibrahim, may face life-threatening illness without his blood-pressure and diabetes medication.

The two were kidnapped nine days ago in the Syrian province of Aleppo while on a humanitarian mission.

The Archbishops' driver was killed during the attack. Remember his family in prayer.

As Orthodox around the world celebrate the Resurrection of Christ our God, pray for these holy fathers. Lord, have mercy upon them and upon their captors.

Metropolitan Hilarion on Persecution of Christians

"In Iraq only one tenth of a million-and-a-half Christians that lived there ten years ago have survived. In Egypt we are witnessing a mass exodus of Christians. There are practically no Christians left in Libya. Ninety five percent of Christians have abandoned Homs in Syria. We, Orthodox and Catholics, must raise our voices jointly in defense of Christians subjected to persecution and repression in these countries, as well as in Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Nigeria and in a number of other countries as well."-- Metropolitan Hilarion

Arms Treaty Blocked by Iran, N.Korea and Syria

NEW YORK, March 29 (RIA Novosti) – Delegations from 193 UN member states failed to reach unanimity on the first international treaty establishing rules for cross-border conventional arms trade, due to objections from Iran, North Korea and Syria.

The three states have criticized the draft as "unbalanced" and giving an advantage to the world's biggest weapons exporters.

The negotiations at the UN headquarters in New York lasted ten days. Peter Woolcott of Australia, who presides the Final UN Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), suspended the final session for last-minute consultations with the three nations.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today was "deeply disappointed" by the failure to agree on the treaty, according to a statement attributable to his spokesperson.

"The treaty had been within reach, thanks to the tireless work and spirit of compromise among Member States," the statement reads.

Russian Foreign Ministry Security and Disarmament Department Director Mikhail Ulyanov said the treaty contained "no provisions that would be absolutely inadmissible" for Russia. He added, however, that it has "many loopholes" and other drawbacks, and thus requires improvement.

The document will be put to a General Assembly vote.

"We are set to thoroughly study this draft [treaty] in Moscow, and then we will decide on our stance toward it, including on whether we should join it," he said.

The idea to establish standards for all cross-border transfers of conventional weapons was voiced by a group of Nobel Prize laureates in 1995, but the UN General Assembly started preparations for this year's conference only in 2009.

According to the draft text, the treaty applies to all conventional arms, including not only small arms and light weapons, but also battle tanks, armored combat vehicles, large-caliber artillery systems, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, warships, missiles and missile launchers.

It would also create binding requirements for nations to review all cross-border arms contracts to ensure arms will not be used in human rights abuses, terrorism or violations of humanitarian law.


Source: GlobalSecurity


 

Syrian Rebels Control Largest Dam

Syrian activists say rebels fighting against the regime in Damascus have taken control of the country's largest dam on the Euphrates River in the province of Raqa.

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on February 11 that the rebels are now guarding the dam's two entrances.

Syrian activists said the insurgents seized the entrances after taking control of the nearby town of Al-Thawra.

The watchdog described the development as the "biggest economic loss for the regime since the start of the revolution."

The Euphrates Dam can generate up to 880 megawatts of electricity. The reservoir behind the dam, Lake Assad, has more than 14 billion cubic meters of water.

The lake was named after Hafez al-Assad, the father and predecessor of the current president, Bashar al-Assad.



Deadly Car Explosion At Turkish Border

Elsewhere in Syria, a car has exploded at a frontier crossing on the Turkish border.

Turkish media reports said at least five people were killed and many more were injured in the blast near the Turkish town of Reyhanli on February 11.

The reports said the explosion was caused by a car bomb.

The mayor of Reyhanli told CNN Turk TV network that four of those killed were Turkish nationals and that the car which exploded had Syrian license plates.

More than a dozen other vehicles were damaged by the blast.

The border area has been the scene of often fierce fighting between Syrian government forces and rebels trying to topple President Bashar al-Assad's regime during the country's nearly two-year-old conflict.

Turkey is a strong supporter of the rebels and harbors thousands of Syrian refugees

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/syrian-rebels-control-countrys-largest-dam/24898808.html

 

Al Jazeera reporter killed by sniper in Syria

CPJ/IFEX) - 18 January 2013 - An Al-Jazeera reporter was killed by a sniper in the city of Daraa today, the station reported, the second journalist fatality in Syria in as many days.

Mohamed al-Mesalma, who was also known as Mohamed al-Hourani, was shot while reporting on fighting in the village of Basri Al-Hariri in Daraa, Al-Jazeera reported. Al-Mesalma had been based in Daraa for about a year, where he reported for Al-Jazeera on the ongoing military clashes between the Syrian army and opposition forces.

Local opposition group AEN Network, and local media affiliated with the Syrian opposition, posted a video of the attack today. The video shows al-Mesalma running across a street with members of an Al-Jazeera crew, and then being shot. The journalist was holding his Al-Jazeera TV microphone at the time of his death. News reports did not immediately identify whether the sniper fire came from government or anti-government forces.

Al-Mesalma was killed shortly after a sniper targeted French military correspondent Yves Debay in Aleppo, news reports said.

"The killing of these two journalists by snipers is part of an alarming trend in which the combatants in Syria are targeting the press," said CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour. "Civilians, including journalists, are protected under international law and may not be targeted."

At least four journalists have been killed in targeted attacks in Syria since September 2012, three of them by sniper fire. At least 29 journalists were killed covering the Syrian conflict in 2012, including one just over the border in Lebanon, CPJ research shows. CPJ ranked Syria the most dangerous place in the world for journalists in 2012.

Related reading:  Two Journalist Killed in 254 Hours; Abducted American Journalist's Family Launches Appeal

Syrian Refugees Face Harsh Winter

11 January 2013 – The United Nations refugee agency today said today it is implementing measures to help more than 600,000 displaced Syrians weather harsh winter conditions, while warning that the number of people fleeing the violence in the Middle Eastern country continues to grow.

"The severe winter conditions across Syria and the surrounding region this past week have brought new difficulties for refugees and other displaced people," a spokesperson for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), Adrian Edwards, told reporters in Geneva.

He added, "Even with the winter preparation work that has been done in recent months, many refugees in both camp and non-camp situations are facing particularly cold and damp conditions."

There are currently 612,134 people registered or awaiting registration as refugees in Syria's neighbouring countries, and Mr. Edwards said the numbers have not slowed down in recent weeks.

In northern Jordan, the Za'atri camp flooded last week as a result of some of the worst weather conditions the country has seen in the past 20 years. UNHCR delivered several truckloads of gravel to elevate the ground level and improve drain-off. Work was also done to release water into the creeks surrounding the camp, and Mr. Edwards said the whole site should be dry soon.

"Health services in Za'atri camp are all operational with mobile clinics covering the affected area in the camp, detecting medical cases in need of transfers to the camp hospital and treating primary health care patients on the spot," he said, adding that they are also assisting newly-arrived people who faced a hazardous journey.

"Many of those arriving have been barefoot, with their clothing soaked, and covered in mud and snow. Refugees report discarding their belongings to carry their children through flooded countryside to Jordan," he added. "For people arriving at the border, UNHCR managed yesterday to send 1,000 blankets, 500 mattresses along with emergency clothing. Our partners at WFP [UN World Food Programme] also sent 3,000 welcome meals."

In Lebanon, UNHCR and its partners are working to address the floods that have affected various refugee settlements in the country's north, as well as a warehouse housing refugees in the city of Sidon. The agency has also increased the distribution of essential items – such as warm blankets, heater, fuel vouchers, winter clothing and plastic sheeting – to help families face the freezing temperatures. In addition, 6,700 families have had their homes weather-proofed, and renovation help has been provided to 5,300 others.

In Turkey, UNHCR is working with the Turkish Red Crescent to reinforce camps against the winter by providing thousands of winterized tents, electrical heaters and thermal blankets, among other items. However, despite many of the precautions taken, there were two fires last month at different camps which claimed the lives of five children and injured two others.

Heavy snow in Iraq has affected refugees living in the Domiz camp in the Dohuk governorate, Mr. Edwards said. In addition, the prices for basic commodities have increased and there have been shortages of winter medicines and food. UNHCR is currently looking at additional measure to tackle this issue including the provision of cash assistance and construction materials to improve shelters.

In Syria itself, the UN refugee agency continues to provide winterization aid to those who have been internally displaced, and 40 shelters have been set up throughout the country. By the end of 2012, UNHCR had assisted over 400,000 people in accessible areas of the country, providing non-food aid, and in addition cash aid to nearly 15,000 families.

"Despite the difficult security conditions, we are continuing to work to help people where we can – often working through partner organizations," Mr. Edwards added. "However, difficulties of access mean we cannot reach all people in need."

Source: UN News Source

Related reading:  Syria Talks End With No Breakthrough; Fleeing Violence, Syrian Refugees Weather a Cruel Winter

100,000+ Syrians Seek Asylum

4 September 2012 – As heavy fighting continues throughout Syria, the United Nations refugee agency today reported that the number of those fleeing to neighbouring countries rose to over 100,000 in August – the highest monthly total to date.

According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 103,416 people sought asylum in countries neighbouring Syria in that month, bringing the total number of Syrian refugees registered or awaiting registration as of 2 September to 235,368 – mainly in Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and Iraq.

Those figures include Iraqi refugees who had previously fled to Syria and are now returning to their homeland by the thousands, a UNHCR spokesperson, Melissa Fleming, told a news briefing in Geneva. According to the Iraqi Government, 35,000 people returned to Iraq in July and August alone.

“Most tell us they are leaving because of general insecurity, although some have reported direct threats,” Ms. Fleming said, noting reports that three Iraqi refugees were killed last week in Jaramana, located outside of the capital, Damascus, increasing fear among the refugee population there.

More than 18,000 people, mostly civilians, have died since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began some 18 months ago. There have been reports of an escalation in violence in recent weeks in many towns and villages, as well as the country's two biggest cities, Damascus and Aleppo.

Ms. Fleming said UNHCR and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent continue to expand operations to support Syrians displaced both internally and abroad. Domestically, the UN agency has launched a programme of financial assistance, with 730 vulnerable families receiving cheques as part of a scheme to help some 35,000 families in the coming months.

In Iraq, authorities in the Kurdistan region had agreed to the establishment of a second refugee camp that will mainly accommodate Syrian Kurds, arrivals of whom had been increasing significantly in the past week, along with smaller numbers of other Syrians, Ms. Fleming said.

For returnees, the Iraqi Ministry of Displacement and Migration is expediting the registration process to enable them to receive government assistance for their reintegration. Some 2,000 families were registered in July and August as part of that effort. UNHCR is also assisting Iraqi returnees with household items and will soon start a small cash assistance programme for the most vulnerable returnee families.

In Jordan, into which refugees continue to flow at a rate of about 1,000 a day, the Government, UNHCR and partners are preparing for an even larger influx, given reports of increasing numbers of displaced people in southern Syria.

Ms. Fleming said that the first batch of 56 trucks carrying 13,000 tents and relief items, such as blankets, jerry cans and kitchen sets, for a total 150,000 people, arrived in Jordan from Dubai over the weekend to augment local supplies.

In Lebanon, there are now more than 59,000 Syrians registered or awaiting registration with the UN refugee agency, Ms. Fleming said, adding that this week the agency is opening a mobile registration centre in the eastern Bekaa Valley.

Host families and schools are increasingly stretched in their capacity to host refugees and UNHCR is appealing to authorities in Lebanon to approve alternative shelter options, she said, while the agency is also working to meeting the educational needs of the refugee children.

Turkey, meanwhile, now hosts some 80,410 Syrian refugees, according to the Government. Ms. Fleming said that there was still a backlog at the border, with reportedly around 8,000 people waiting to cross and receiving assistance, while being admitted at the rate of hundreds per day.

Ms. Fleming added that the Turkish Government continues to transfer Syrian refugees to the new camp in Karkamis, with over 4,000 people already transferred in recent days. Another new camp opened yesterday in Kahramanmaras.

The spokesperson noted that the Turkish Government continues to assure UNHCR that it will keep its borders open to Syrian refugees.


Source: Global Security.org