Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

Revue de Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro de la Prensa-Basin Ozeti
. NraWATUMO,
îteralbjilÀSribtine march 27, 2013
Syrian rebels
take Assad's
seat at Arab
League talks
DUBAI
They seek recognition
from U.N. and others to
further isolate Damascus
BY HALA DROUBI
AND RICK GLADSTONE
To the outrage of Syria's government,
the opposition coalition leader formally
took the country's vacant seat at an
Arab League summit meeting on Tues¬
day and immediately requested broader
recognition, including from the United
Nations, as part of an effort to further
ostracize President Bashar al-Assad.
The decision to grant the Arab
League seat to the Syrian opposition co¬
alition, recommended by the Arab
League's foreign ministers at a meeting
this month, was considered a symbolic
but important milestone in the Syrian
conflict, which began two years ago.
The Arab League suspended Syria's
membership in November 2011 in reac¬
tion to Mr. Assad's repression of politic¬
al protests, which have evolved into a
civil war that has left 70,000 people dead
and millions displaced.
"Syrian people alone should deter¬
mine who rules the country," the leader
of the opposition delegation, Moaz al-
Khatib, said in a speech at the Arab
League summit meeting in Doha, Qatar,
after the host, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa
al-Thani, the emir of Qatar, formally in¬
vited him to take the seat as other min¬
isters applauded.
Mr. Khatib called the Arab League's
decision "part of the restoration of legit¬
imacy that the people of Syria have long
been robbed of."
Even before Mr. Khatib took his seat,
Mr. Assad's government reacted
harshly in anticipation of such a move.
Mr. Khatib was accompanied to the
meeting by other prominent opposition
figures, including Ghassan Hitto, a nat¬
uralized American citizen from Syria
who was elected as the coalition's inter¬
im prime minister last week. Images
broadcast from the meeting showed the
opposition's green and black flag with
four red stars placed to Mr. Khatib's
right, replacing the Syrian govern¬
ment's red, white and black flag with
two green stars.
The moment of triumph for Mr. Khat¬
ib and Mr. Hitto overshadowed, for the
moment, the fractiousness that has
troubled the opposition coalition. Mr.
Khatib announced his resignation a few
days ago out of frustration at what he
called insufficient help from foreign
powers, although that decision did not
appear to be final. The selection of Mr.
Hitto was made in a sharply divided
vote.
Using the Arab League as a new
perch of legitimacy, Mr. Khatib said the
opposition now wanted "the seat of Syr¬
ia at the United Nations and at other in¬
ternational organizations."
Mr. Khatib also told the ministers that
. he had requested that NATO extend its
Patriot missile-defense protections de¬
ployed in southern Turkey to include a
section of rebel-held territory in north¬
ern Syria, where opposition forces re¬
main vulnerable to Syrian Air Force at¬
tacks.
But there was no indication that
NATO would comply with such a re¬
quest, which would amount to a partial
no-fly zone imposed on Syrian airspace.
Turkey, a NATO member that supports
the Syrian insurgency, had requested
the Patriot defenses to deter the threat
of Syrian airstrikes on its territory.
îix'rdb^t.teriburic march 30-31, 2013
Turkey finds arms cache
near its border with Syria
AKCAKALE, TURKEY
The Turkish authorities said Friday that
they had seized thousands of guns in a
warehouse near the Syrian border, and
a local news agency said the weapons
had been destined for Syria.
The firearms including more than
5,000 shotguns and rifles, starting pistols,
and 10,000 cartridges were discovered
during a raid in a village on the edge of
the border town of Akcakale and dis¬
played to journalists on Friday. Turkey
has a number of firearms manufactur¬
ers, and the starting pistols could easily
be converted to fire live ammunition.
The Dogan News Agency in Turkey
said that the weapons were awaiting de¬
livery to Syria and that the 35-year-old
owner of the depot had been detained.
The news agency quoted police
sources as saying the firearms had a
market value of around 3 million Turkish
lira, or about $1.7 million.
Turkey supports the uprising against
President Bashar al-Assad, now in its
third year, and has allowed refugees and
rebels to cross the two countries' porous
900-kilometer, or 560-mile, border.
But it has ruled out arming rebel
fighters, fearing it could be drawn into a
destabilizing regional conflict.
U.S. charges insurgent
A former U.S, soldier has been charged
with fighting alongside a terrorist group
that js battling the government of Mr.
Assad, whose ouster the United States
has sought for nearly two years, Scott
Shane reported from Washington.
The former soldier, Eric Harroun, 30,
of Phoenix, Arizona, who served in the
U.S. Army from 2000 to 2003, is accused
of entering Syria in January and partic¬
ipating ih attacks on government forces
carried out by Al Nusra Front, which
U.S. officials say is part of Al Qaeda in
Iraq, a designated terrorist group.
Mr. Harroun, who posted reports
about his time in Syria online, was
charged Thursday in Alexandria, Vir¬
ginia, with "conspiring to use a destruc¬
tive device.outside the United States," a
crime that can carry a life sentence. He
was arrested Wednesday after arriving
at Dulles International Airport outside
Washington and made an initial appear¬
ance in U.S. District Court on Thursday.
According to an affidavit, Mr. Har¬
roun told an F.B.I, agent that he was
part of an "R.P.G. team," firing rocket-
propelled grenades, which qualify as a
"destructive device" under the law. The
charge does not have any connection to
terrorism, though more charges could
be filed later.
Al Nusra is part of a diverse array of
opposition groups fighting Mr. Assad's
forces. While the United States shuns Al
Nusra as a Qaeda affiliate, it is helping to
funnel arms to other opposition factions
and training their fighters in Jordan.
On his Facebook page, Mr. Harroun
wrote that "the only good Zionist is a
dead Zionist." But he also told the F.B.I,
that "he hated Al Qaeda, that he did not
know any Al Qaeda members, and that
he would fight against any regime if it
imposed Shariah in Syria because he
was opposed to all forms of oppression."
Shariah is Islamic law; Al Qaeda and
many less violent Islamic fundamental¬
ists support the universal enforcement
of a hard-line form of Shariah.
"If this guy's telling the truth, there's
an interesting question as to why we're
prosecuting him," said Robert M. Ches-
ney, a law professor at the University of
Texas who specializes in national secu¬
rity. "He seems to be fighting on the U.S.
side, but with the wrong people."
The F.B.I, affidavit said Mr. Harroun
was discharged from the Army in 2003
after he was injured in a car accident.
He has traveled in the Middle East and
Asia in recent years and entered Syria
in January from Turkey. In a video pos¬
ted to YouTube in January, he spoke to
the camera, saying, "Bashar al-Assad,
your days are numbered." In February,
he posted a photo on Facebook saying,
"Downed a Syrian Helicopter then
Looted all Intel and Weapons ! "
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