Syria

Reuters is reporting that Libyan rebels have taken control of Libyan state TV – one of the last organs to remain in Gaddafi’s hands. It’s another indication that the dictator’s position is increasingly hopeless; although it appears that one of his sons may have been ‘liberated’ by resurgent loyalist forces. So there’s a glimmer of life in the Mad Dog yet and, plainly, the fanatics will fight to the last bullet, as they promised to do at the outset of NATO’s campaign.  The sudden fixation with Libya has marginalised some other stories in the region. The UN’s Human Rights Commissioner, Ravi Pillay, has revealed that the death toll in Syria has climbed

President Assad’s tanks are still doing murder on the streets of Syrian, but the dictator’s isolation grows. After weeks of prevarication, several Gulf States have closed ranks against the Syrian regime. Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait have all recalled their ambassadors from Damascus, and King Abdullah of Riyadh has led the Arab League’s condemnation of Assad’s ‘death machine’. Better late than never, the international consensus says. Compassion for the oppressed is not a familiar trait among Arabian princelings, but their reticence on this occasion was particularly surprising given that Assad’s Syria is no friend of the Arab League, preferring to side with Iran in most things. Still, today’s diplomatic gestures will add to the

Syrian President Bashar Al Assad has praised his troops for ‘foiling the enemies’ of his country. Some enemies. 140 civilians are said to have died in a pre-Ramadan crackdown on protesters, adding to the toll of 1,600 civilians who have been killed since anti-government demonstrations began in mid-March. Details of the events in Hama are unclear because journalists have been kept out of Syria. But the pattern of events is familiar: protests against the Assad regime emerge; the army moves in to kill demonstrators; more protests then take place, which leads to more killings. Meanwhile, the international community stands by. Germany and Italy have called for an urgent meeting of

Syria is still ablaze and the West seems unable to do douse the flames. And the risk of the Assad regime committing even greater violence will increase when the world’s media moves on. The reasons for Western impotence are manifold. First, for a long time Western leaders thought they could reason with Assad and therefore shied away from direct pressure. When they decided to act, they discovered that Assad is immune to European pressure because Syria does little trade with Europe. But, crucially, many Syrians are either loyal to the regime or fear triggering disintegration of the sort they have seen in neighbouring Lebanon and Iran. Finally, unlike Libya, the

After weeks of violence, the end of the Assad regime is now inevitable. It may take weeks, months or years, but the kind of damage that President Assad has inflicted on his domestic credibility and international standing cannot be repaired. The country’s two most populous cities, Aleppo and the capital Damascus have remained calm, but now protesters are defying the army. More than 300 members of the governing party have resigned and publicly condemned the crackdown. Crucially, the army’s loyalty is now in doubt. It is said some military units have refused to quell the protesters in Damascus. Even Syria’s long-time ally Turkey has been angered by the violence that

In a clear move to distract attention from his own problems, Syrian president Bashir Assad has allowed people to march from the Syrian border toward the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights, in the hope it will lead to a violent reaction from the Israelis. It did. Israeli forces opened fire on the people, wounding several. There are reports of at least four people killed and 13 wounded but these have not been verified. There can be no doubt that the incursion is part of a Syrian plan. The protests coincide with the 44th anniversary of the Six-Day War, when Israel captured the Golan from Syria, as well as the West Bank and

With more than 800 people thought to have died in Syria, the situation is getting more and more serious. President Bashar al-Assad has clearly decided he cannot allow any challenge to his regime and has rejected even the advice of friends like Turkey and Qatar to step back from the brink. The military — principally the loyalist 4th and 5th divisions — has now perfected their anti-protest tactics. People in Hama and Homs are fearing that what was visited upon Deera — where the regime cut off water, electricity and telephones before assaulting the city — will happen to them. Yet, for all this, it would be wrong to think

William Hague has chimed in on the situation in Syria, unsurprisingly condemning the horror and bloodshed being perpetrated by al-Assad’s regime. But considerably more significant is the statement that has today been released by the Arab League. Although the text doesn’t mention al-Assad by name, it clearly has the Syrian autocrat in mind when it calls on “Arab regimes and governments to commit to and speed up reforms, [and to] immediately stop using force against demonstrators and spare their citizens bloodshed.” And it goes further, too, in defending the political — and moral — legitimacy of the protests, saying that the unrest blazing across the Middle East heralds “a new

The storming of the town of Da’ra by the Syrian regime is a further escalation of its attempt to put down protests against it. The details of what have happened are sketchy, the regime cut the town’s communications links before moving in, but the use of full military force does suggest, as the New York Times reports, that the Assad dynasty have chosen to put these revolts down through purely military means. It is not Hama 1982 yet, but it—worryingly—appears to be heading that way. It has long been hoped by many in the West that Bashar Assad was a moderniser and could be peeled away from Iran and to

The scent of jasmine has just grown a little stronger in Arabia. The Yemeni President, Ali Abdullah Saleh, has agreed to stand down within 30 days, the Wall Street Journal reports. Saleh and his family will receive immunity in exchange for his momentous gesture. Saleh has been under growing pressure in recent months, as his government was attacked simultaneously by a pro-democracy movement and al-Qaeda sponsored terrorism. It is not clear if the groundswell of popular dissent that has forced his hand is inspired by jihad, but the speculation doesn’t seem unreasonable and western governments fear that they may lose a vital ally in the war on terror. Global attention

I used to think that Syria was some way off a revolution. The protests were geographically limited; Bashar al-Assad was willing to use Libyan-style violence against them and the West seemed uncharacteristically mute. What’s more, demands for the Syrian president to go were limited. And then there’s the real fear that Syria, made up of so many different sectarian groups, would collapse into a vortex of internecine violence akin to the Lebanese civil war. But these arguments may be losing their weight. The current unrest is the most serious challenge facing Bashar al-Assad and his Alawite regime. And nothing the Syrian dictator has done so far has made a difference.