The bankrupt so called "Friends of Syria" and the SNC really have little to no support among the masses fighting the Assad regime inside Syria and only really have themselves to count on, even more so after the meeting.It was another talk fest with fighting among themselves, "crocodile tears" and toothless resolutions while the killings and repression goes on.
Cort Friends of Syria? By As'ad AbuKhalil - Sun, 2012-02-26 16:33- Angry Corner This was a quintessential American spectacle. You know that this was managed and orchestrated and choreographed by a low-ranking diplomat at the US Department of State. People with longer memories can see parallels with the theatrics that characterized US policies prior to the invasion of Iraq in 2003. International conferences were held and the US sponsored a conference for Ahmad Chalabis Iraqi National Congress (which reminds one of Syrian National Congress both are led by highly educated exiled natives whose presence could not conceal the power of religious forces they are dependent on). But the numbers of the friends of Syria who assembled in Tunis is not really known. Assafir newspaper spoke of 50 countries represented. US media spoke of 60 countries. But Saudi and Hariri media cant accept such lower figures. They insisted that no less than 90 countries attended. Usually, the US brings Micronesia and the Marshal Islands to such fairs to add political weight. Was Micronesia listed also as friend of Syria? If the former colonial power of Syria, France, is listed as friend of Syria, why not invite Israel as well? Why confine it to 50 or 90? But that would have embarrassed the Syrian National Congress. Chalabi used to promise the US government that once the US topples Saddam, and once he takes over Iraq, he will sign a peace treaty with Israel. Are Ghalioun and his Ikhwan backers making such promises? But what was achieved at the conference beyond the rhetoric which did not satisfy the sole representatives of the Syrian people? To be sure, Saudi Arabia came with a high ceiling of demands. Clearly, Saudi Arabia has decided to push Qatar aside. Saudi Arabia will no longer allow its small neighbor and bitter rival to take over what it sees as a primary Saudi role: leading the GCC and the Arab League on behalf of the US and the interests of Israel, of course. Saud al-Faisal spoke about the Syrian regime as an occupying power and declared the idea of arming the Syrian opposition (as if it is not armed already) to be excellent. Now without detracting from the right of the Syrian people to resort to arms to rid themselves of the monarchical and republican dictatorship under which they live and suffer, would al-Faisal dare to call for arming Palestinians who are fighting Israeli occupation? Under orders from the US, this prince (who was instrumental in the sectarian plot for the Middle East in the last few years much more than Saudi Arabias intelligence director Prince Muqrin according to the Emir of Qatar) would not even allow financing the Palestinian people in distress. Saudi Arabia and the UAE would only finance and arm those Palestinian forces which defend Israelis from Palestinians. *The conference wont be remembered when the story of the Syrian uprising will be told. It will be placed in a footnote.* The statement of the Saudi foreign minister will certainly be mocked, given the record of Saudi Arabia inside the kingdom and in the neighborhood. Nobody dared ask the esteemed friend of Syria how his royal family would claim to be friends with the Syrian people when the Assad regime could not have survived as long as it has without financial support from the Saudi dynasty. But it is the season of posturing and grandstanding. The most ardent Zionists in US Congress are now posing as friends of Syria. And there are enough dumb members of the Syrian National Congress who want to believe the sincerity of Zionist love for the Syrian people. *As the two conspiracies raging over the heads of the Syrian people intensify, the Syrian people would be best advised to operate on the assumption that they are alone and that there are no friends of the Syrian people, certainly not among those regimes assembled by orders of the US.* [image: Creative Commons License]<http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/> ------------------------------ *Source URL:* http://english.al-akhbar.com/blogs/angry-corner/friends-syria ----------------------------- Syria and the New Constitution: The End of Reform? By: Salama Kayla <http://english.al-akhbar.com/author/salama-kayla> [1] Published Thursday, February 23, 2012 Once revolution breaks out, its too late for reform. The revolution would never have begun if there had been the possibility of reform. People dont revolt if reforms can solve their problems. Revolutions occur when there is no prospect for reforms and the entire economic and political order needs changing. That is to state the obvious. Considering the revolution which began in Syria on March 15, and the reforms the regime has come up with since early April, it is equally obvious that they have come too late. Syrians have been hearing about reform for two decades. In 1989, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the wave of democratization that swept Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union alarmed the regime in Damascus. It feared for the survival of the ossified political system and the crisis-ridden economy. This led to talk that democracy would be introduced within a year. But the promise was retracted after the Islamists won elections in Algeria, and the Soviet Union disintegrated. So the Syrian political opposition, and the people, have been awaiting reform since 1990. What they got, in 1991, was economic reform, enshrined in Law 10/1991, which paved the way for the liberalization of the economy. That is when the living standards of growing numbers of workers and wage earners began to deteriorate and economic policy began to favor the private sector. Subsequently, the young Syrians currently demonstrating in the streets, along with the political opposition, looked to President Bashar Assad to introduce reforms. They waited for him to deliver on the promises he made in this regard after he assumed power in 2000. The constitution is the latest in a series of cosmetic reform measures put forward by the regime.But all he ended up doing was deepening the economic reform that was to be the root cause of the outbreak of the uprising. Economic liberalism triumphed. The private sector assumed control of 70 percent of the economy. We saw extreme concentrations of wealth develop, along with extreme impoverishment. To read the complete article click on the url: *Source URL:* http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/syria-and-new-constitution-end-reform Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: "I'm So Hungry. I Think I Will Die" --- Then the Line Went Dead Sunday, February 26, 2012 at 15:28 Scott Lucas in Abu Bakr, EA Middle East and Turkey, Egypt, Local Coordination Committees of Syria, Middle East and Iran, Syria *The rise of protest in Syrian's second city Aleppo --- despite gunfire, demonstrators pursue a police car on Saturday* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mr_sx908kf8&feature=player_embedded *See also Bahrain Videos: 10,000s at Friday's Opposition Rally "A Nation That Refuses Humiliation"<http://www.enduringamerica.com/home/2012/2/26/bahrain-videos-10000s-at-fridays-opposition-rally-a-nation-t.html> Saturday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Intervention is Here<http://www.enduringamerica.com/home/2012/2/25/syria-and-beyond-live-coverage-intervention-is-here.html> * ------------------------------ 2020 GMT: A tour of the streets of Baba Amr in Homs in Syria, damaged by 23 straight days of regime shelling: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iRvssBJptfU 1735 GMT: The opposition Syrian National Council has issued a press statement calling for the "rejection of sectarianism<http://us4.campaign-archive2.com/?u=857bd82c962e619f33d2a9b1e&id=556a88280c&e=1080fa045b>" and reached out to the Alawite minority --- of whom President Assad and most of the regime elite are members --- as "an essential part of the Syrian fabric". Claimed footage showing the Free Syrian Army in control of a highway between Aleppo, Syria's second city, and the Turkish border: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URVTDS67r5M&feature=player_embedded 1625 GMT: The International Committee of the Red Cross and the Syrian Arab Red Crescent still cannot get into the besieged Baba Amr section<http://af.reuters.com/article/commoditiesNews/idAFL5E8DQ1TF20120226>of Homs, according to the ICRC. "The ICRC and Syrian Arab Red Crescent are still negotiating with Syrian authorities and opposition groups. We are attempting to go into the affected area of Baba Amro today," said ICRC chief spokeswoman Carla Haddad. "We are working in good faith and need consensus of all involved in the violence." 1525 GMT: The Local Coordinations Committees in Syria have updated today's death toll to 34<https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1573304&l=19474cb840&id=217848338242310>--- 17 in Homs, eight in Haleifa in Hama Province, six in Daraa Province, and one each in Maarat Numan, the Damascus suburb of Qattana, and the Jobar section of Damascus. A protest in Binnish in the northwest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZQMoDnqtGc&feature=player_embedded 1355 GMT: The Local Coordination Committees of Syria say that 25 people have died today<https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=1573059&l=29f8a089e8&id=217848338242310>--- 14 in Homs, eight in Haleifa in Hama Province, and one each in Maarat Numan, Eelma, and Nawa. 1345 GMT: In Egypt, the trial has opened of 14 staff<http://blogs.aljazeera.net/liveblog/Egypt>of non-governmental organisations, accused of operations without licences and improper receipt of foreign funding. After raids in December, Egyptian authorities have charged 43 people, including 16 Americans. All the defendants in court today were Egyptian. The trial has been adjourned until 26 April. 1340 GMT: The continued shelling of the Baba Amr neighbourhood of Homs in Syria today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=T04Kb8E3E08 1055 GMT: Claimed footage of insurgents attacking the ruling Baath Party's headquarters in the Khalidiya section of Homs in Syria today: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URHcf8A_VLw&feature=player_embedded Regime tanks in Al Harak in Daraa Province: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=qQbUf5pjca0 1045 GMT: Thirteen people have reportedly died in Syria today, 11 of them in Homs. A large group of defecting soldiers in Homs say they are joining the "Citizens Protection Commission": http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8cuxbuzpJiQ A loud demonstration in Ataman in Daraa Province rejects the Syrian regime's vote on a new Constitution: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bb8nXJBnDY&feature=player_embedded 0700 GMT: Syrians vote today on a new Constitution<http://blogs.aljazeera.com/liveblog/syria-feb-26-2012-0817>, proposed by President Assad earlier this month. More than 14 million people over the age of 18 are eligible to cast a ballot. 0615 GMT: We open Sunday with a snapshot from the city of Homs<http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46512781/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/t/i-think-i-will-die-man-syrias-besieged-city-homs-says-then-line-goes-dead/#.T0nKu4caOrZ>in Syria, enduring Day 23 of a regime siege and shelling. Abu Bakr is a 22-year-old university student. Last Wednesday, he was in the media centre in the Baba Amr neighbourhood when it was shelled, killing 11 people including foreign journalists Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik. Two days later, he was talking to America's NBC News via Skype: *No one can protect themselves from shelling in Baba Amr. We just need (to) stop the shelling.* *I'm hungry from two days. I'm eating just some onions (for) two days. That's my life, that's the life in Baba Amr. Most people here eat just simple things, the plants on ground....* *I think I will die.* Minutes later, he said, "(I've) got to go because there is a fire." There was the sound of a loud explosion, then the line went dead. Bakr, who studies mechanical engineering. survived. He said by Skype later that he had rushed out to his neighbour's house to make sure everyone was OK. Bakr said, "It is urgent that you have humanitarian corridor in Syria. This could save the lives of a lot Syrians." Article originally appeared on EA WorldView (http://www.enduringamerica.com/). 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