Israel Matzav: US sanctions Assad and six others

US sanctions Assad and six others

The United States has finally decided to sanction Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and six of his top aides (Hat Tip: Memeorandum).

The sanctions freeze any assets that Mr. Assad and the others have in American financial institutions, and prohibit trade with them. Similar sanctions against Libya’s leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, led to the seizure of more than $30 billion in assets, though it is believed that Mr. Assad has far fewer vulnerable assets. In addition to him, the sanctions affect the vice president, the prime minister, the interior and defense ministers, and the directors of military intelligence and political security.

The sanctions come amid growing signs that the government feels emboldened after staggering in the face of an unprecedented challenge to 40 years of rule by the Assad family. Officials have said they believe they have the upper hand and talk in weeks, not months, about putting an end to protests that erupted across the breadth of the country, from the southern steppe and Mediterranean coast to the outskirts of Damascus.

In an interview published Wednesday with a privately owned Syrian newspaper, aligned with the government, Mr. Assad declared that the tumult was coming to a close and acknowledged that his security forces had made mistakes in a crackdown so broad that hundreds of detainees were being held in schools and soccer fields.

Human rights activists have said at least 700 people were killed and 10,000 people arrested, as the military laid siege to at least four towns and cities.

“President Assad gave assurances that Syria had overcome the crisis it went through and that events were coming to an end,” the daily quoted him as saying.

The president also told the delegation that 4,000 police officers were undergoing what it called training to “prevent these excesses,” without giving further details.

Sounds like too little, too late to have an effect.

More from the Washington Post here.

Israel Matzav: US sanctions Assad and six others

Israel Matzav: Syrians practicing defenestration

Syrians practicing defenestration

And you thought only the 'good terrorists' from Fatah practiced defenestration. It turns out Bashar al-Assad's Syria does it too. Last week, they threw a woman(!) out an 8th floor window.

Yesterday, my uncle's wife was found outside of her apartment, thrown out of the kitchen window, her body shattered eight stories below. My uncle has always been a thorn in the Syrian government's side - he is a past leader of the Democratic Party there, and used to host Western dignitaries such as U.S. Senator Paul Simon of Illinois when they visited.

His two best friends - strong advocates of democratic reform in Syria - were "put in a Toyota" last week. This is code for "they were hauled off by the government and will never be seen again." It is very strongly suspected that the government had come for him, didn't find him, found resistance from his wife, and then killed her and threw her body out of the window.

Afraid of government retaliation, my uncle did not announce the death - he took her body to Mu'athamia (the small town in which he grew up) and buried her next to his mother, and didn't have a funeral. In fact, when he found her body, he was returning from another funeral, and funerals have become risky business in Syria, because Syrian snipers have been firing directly on funeral-goers. He found her lying in the street, thrown out of the 8th story window.

Note that the writer is anonymous (although apparently living in the US) and does not even mention the name of the uncle or aunt. Aren't you glad you don't live in the Arab world?

For those whose vocabulary I have enriched, defenestration is discussed here and at my first link above.

Israel Matzav: Syrians practicing defenestration

Israel Matzav: Turkey fears losing its best friend

Turkey fears losing its best friend

Turkey has stepped on the toes of its best friend, Bashar al-Assad. And now, it is trying to figure out what it will do if Bashar should fall.

But what annoyed the Syrians was Erdogan's remarks in Turkey against the use of force and the fear of "a new Halabja and Hama," referring to the use of chemical weapons by Iraq against the Kurds, and the massacre of 10,000 residents of Hama in 1982 by Assad's father, Hafez Assad.

The Syrian newspaper Al-Wattan, which is owned by Rami Makhlouf, Bashar Assad's cousin and the richest man in the country, launched an unprecedented attack against the Turkish declarations.

"Since the start of the recent events in Syria, the official Turkish echelon has demonstrated haste and improvisation," the paper wrote. "It seems that the preaching in favor of reforms that is being manifested vociferously by Erdogan on every possible stage in Europe, and that of the new Ottoman engineer, the foreign minister Davutoglo, do not provide any special means of bringing about solutions to the invented difficulties so as to deal openly and clearly with these events."

Makhlouf's paper didn't stop there. "If the political and economic prosperity that Turkey enjoys must be attributed to its secular history and to the strategic corrections made by Davutoglo, then the way it is being conducted in the face of the Syrian question is likely to cause it to take a step back," it continued.

Erdogan, who attributes Turkey's economic prosperity to himself - and justly so - was surely not happy to read the translation of these remarks, especially since the volume of Turkish trade with Syria stands at some $2 billion.

Last week a representative of the Muslim Brotherhood from Syria, Mohammed Riad Shafeka, visited Istanbul and told the Turkish media that his movement was indeed the moving force behind the protests in Syria. By doing so, he actually played straight into the hands of Assad's regime, which has claimed all along that the disturbances were being caused by Islamic extremists and separatists.

Syria does not understand why Ankara allowed Shafeka to go to Istanbul from his exile in Yemen and why its media were allowed to interview him. And indeed Erdogan hastened to declare through his foreign ministry spokesman, that "Turkey will not allow any initiative on the part of the Muslim Brotherhood to harm the execution of reforms in Syria."

According to reports from Turkey, Syria has sent information to the head of Turkish Intelligence, Hakan Fidan, showing that the Muslim Brotherhood was involved in shooting at Syrian security forces during the protests, so as to counter the declarations by Erdogan that "there are no armed gangs in Syria," contrary to what the Syrian regime claimed.

Erdogan explained that what is happening in Syria cannot merely be considered an internal Syrian affair, or merely a matter for Turkish foreign policy.

Turkey is concerned both by the possibility that the Assad regime will fall and by the fact that it does not see who could possibly replace it. Meanwhile it seems that Erdogan and his regime are mainly worried that the all-embracing foreign policy started by his government could crash and have an effect on the results of the elections to be held on June 12.

This policy, which has the slogan "Zero problems with all neighbors," is now coming up against the unexpected reality in which Turkey, despite all its efforts, finds itself floating on stormy waters, without being able to influence the course of events, and being seen as a supporter of the Assad dictatorship.

One day the Turks might even come to regret befriending Iran and shunning Israel. One day. But not now.

Israel Matzav: Turkey fears losing its best friend

Israel Matzav: US to call for end to Assad regime?

US to call for end to Assad regime?

It allegedly took Barack Obama 16 hours to decide to let the Navy SEALS go get Osama Bin Laden once they knew they had him. How long will it take for Obama to call for an end to Bashar al-Assad's regime? That's anyone's guess. But 'administration officials' said on Tuesday that Obama is 'edging closer' to making that call.

The tougher U.S. line almost certainly would echo demands for "democratic transition" that the administration used in Egypt and is now espousing in Libya, the officials said. But directly challenging Assad's leadership is a decision fraught with problems: Arab countries are divided, Europe is still trying to gauge its response, and there are major doubts over how far the United States could go to back up its words with action.

If the Syrian government should persist with its harsh crackdown on political opponents, the United States could be forced into choosing between an undesired military operation to protect civilians, as in Libya, or an embarrassing U-turn that makes it look weak before an Arab world that is on the tipping point between greater democracy or greater repression.

That's what happens when you spend two and a half years bowing and apologizing to foreign leaders, dissing your friends and coddling enemies like Assad. No one believes you'll back up your word anymore.

Two administration officials said the U.S. worries about a prevailing perception that its response to Assad's repression has been too soft, especially after helping usher longtime ally Hosni Mubarak out of power in Egypt and joining the international military coalition to shield civilians from attacks by Moammar Gadhafi's forces in Libya.

Gee, ya think so? You mean, no one is buying Hillary Clinton's repeated declarations that Assad is a 'reformer'?

Israeli concerns loom large as well. The officials said Israel, Washington's closest Mideast ally, is worried about a possible collapse of Assad's leadership and a fracturing of the country's stability. Although Syria and Israel remain technically at war, Israel's border with Syria has been relatively calm for years.

No one here is talking about it. No one official anyway. And every pundit I have seen here has argued that Assad ought to go.

The officials say there is a lack of any organized opposition in Syria, and little understanding of what the alternatives are to four decades of rule under Assad and his father, Hafez Assad, and whether a chaotic power void would lead to even greater bloodshed.

Funny that didn't bother anyone when they were deciding what to do about Egypt or Libya.

AP sources: US closer to declaring Assad's rule in Syria illegitimate

By Bradley Klapper,Matthew Lee, The Associated Press – 22 hours ago

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is edging closer to calling for an end to the long rule of the Assad family in Syria.

Administration officials said Tuesday that the first step would be to say for the first time that President Bashar Assad has forfeited his legitimacy to rule, a major policy shift that would amount to a call for regime change that has questionable support in the world community.

The tougher U.S. line almost certainly would echo demands for "democratic transition" that the administration used in Egypt and is now espousing in Libya, the officials said. But directly challenging Assad's leadership is a decision fraught with problems: Arab countries are divided, Europe is still trying to gauge its response, and there are major doubts over how far the United States could go to back up its words with action.

If the Syrian government should persist with its harsh crackdown on political opponents, the United States could be forced into choosing between an undesired military operation to protect civilians, as in Libya, or an embarrassing U-turn that makes it look weak before an Arab world that is on the tipping point between greater democracy or greater repression.

The internal administration debate over a tougher approach to Assad's regime is occurring amid a backdrop of brutality in Syria. More than 750 civilians have been killed since the uprising began nearly two months ago and some 9,000 people remain in custody, according to a leading Syrian human rights group.

"We urge the Syrian government to stop shooting protesters, to allow for peaceful marches and to stop these campaigns of arbitrary arrests and to start a meaningful dialogue," State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Tuesday. He said Assad still had a chance to make amends, but acknowledged "the window is narrowing."

Two administration officials said the U.S. worries about a prevailing perception that its response to Assad's repression has been too soft, especially after helping usher longtime ally Hosni Mubarak out of power in Egypt and joining the international military coalition to shield civilians from attacks by Moammar Gadhafi's forces in Libya.

Speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive internal planning, the officials said Assad has dispelled nearly any lingering hope that he can or will deliver on grandiose pledges of reform he has made since coming to power 11 years ago. After ending decades of martial law last month, his regime renewed its crackdown on peaceful protesters even more aggressively, using live ammunition and arbitrarily arrestoing thousands of people.

"We're getting close," one official said on the question of challenging Assad's legitimacy, adding that such a step would oblige the U.S. and, if other countries agree, the international community, to act.

The U.S. has demanded that Gadhafi leave power after four decades of dictatorship in Libya but has struggled to make that happen, the official noted. "So we need to make sure that what we say matches what we can and will do. It's not just a matter of putting out a statement and giving the magic words that people want to hear. It's a significant decision."

President Barack Obama welcomed the European Union's decision Monday to impose sanctions on 13 Syrian officials, prohibiting them from travelling anywhere in the 27-nation organization. U.S. sanctions target the assets of two Assad relatives and another top Syrian official. But neither EU nor U.S. sanctions affect Assad himself, at least not yet.

The officials said the administration may decide to target Assad, although American sanctions against him likely would mean little as the United States has long had unrelated restrictions on Syria because of its designation as a "state sponsor of terrorism."

Obama has tried to engage Syria, seeing it as critical to comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace, but the U.S. remains disturbed by the government's ties to Iran, support for Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Palestinian militant group Hamas, and suspicions that it has sought to develop weapons of mass destruction.

Israeli concerns loom large as well. The officials said Israel, Washington's closest Mideast ally, is worried about a possible collapse of Assad's leadership and a fracturing of the country's stability. Although Syria and Israel remain technically at war, Israel's border with Syria has been relatively calm for years.

The reality is that the United States has very little sway in Syria. Unlike Egypt, where the United States spent billions of dollars and decades cultivating strong military, government and civil society ties, the isolation of Syria has left the administration with few ways of coaxing better behaviour out of Assad's government.

Toner, the State Department spokesman, said Tuesday the Syrian government was stirring up violence with its repression in towns such as Daraa and Banias. He called the government's claims of reforms "false," and demanded that the regime stop shooting protesters even as security forces entered new cities in southern Syria that have been peaceful up to now. Yet it does not appear the regime is listening to the U.S. case and that he may be trying to see how much force he can get away with.

Assad's minority ruling Alawite sect wants to placate enough middle-class members of Syria's Sunni majority to limit the domestic anger, and keep the violence just under the threshold that would prompt serious calls for concerted international action against his government.

The U.S. would like to sharpen the choice for Assad, so that he moves toward a more conciliatory approach. But one of the things holding the administration back is a classic "better-the-devil-you-know" scenario.

The officials say there is a lack of any organized opposition in Syria, and little understanding of what the alternatives are to four decades of rule under Assad and his father, Hafez Assad, and whether a chaotic power void would lead to even greater bloodshed.