Israel makes 'direct hits' on Syria - Monday 12 November 2012

Here's a summary of today's events:

Syria

Israel has fired "direct hits" at Syrian military targets in response to another round of mortar fire that landed in the occupied Golan Heights. The IDF said it fired at the source of the mortar strikes and has complained to the UN.

The Syrian opposition is seeking recognition and support from the international community after agreeing to form a new broad-based coalition after a week of wrangling and pressure from the US and Gulf states. The US has endorsed the new coalition while Nato said it was a step forward. Syria's ally Russia urged the coalition to negotiate with the Assad regime. A member of the new coalition suggested world leaders agreed to arm rebels if the opposition could demonstrate unity.

Britain is to host talks later this week to consider new ways of supporting the Syrian opposition after David Cameron suggested the international community should help arm the rebels. In a statement foreign secretary William Hague said: "On Friday the UK will host a meeting in London of donors and coalition representatives which will consider further support to the Syrian opposition at this critical time."

New opposition leader Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib has been hailed as a unifying figure who can appeal to all sides of Syrian society. In his first comments as leader Khatib called on all sects to unite in Syria.

Syrian jets bombed the rebel-held town border town Ras al-Ain, sending scores of civilians scrambling for safety into Turkey. The Local Co-ordination Committees, a Syrian grassroots opposition group, said 16 people had died in the air strikes. The pro-opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll at 12, including seven Islamist militant fighters.

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Libya

The trial of Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi, Muammar Gaddafi's last prime minister, has been adjourned for a month. His lawyer said Mahmoudi said the trial was flawed because his extradition from Tunisia was illegal.

Jordan

The trial of Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi, Muammar Gaddafi's last prime minister, has been adjourned for a month, the Libya Herald reports.

His lawyer said Mahmoudi said the trial was flawed because his extradition from Tunisia was illegal.

The parents of a missing US journalist thought to have been seized by Syrian government forces in August have made a fresh appeal for his release, the Telegraph reports.

Austin Tice, a former US marine, was last heard of in a Damascus suburb before it was overrun by Assad forces. 

Speaking at a news conference in Beirut, his father Marc Tice said: "We are here today to appeal for information about Austin: is he well? How can we contact him? And how can we return him to our family?"

His mother Debra was quoted as saying: "Austin's silence has given us some understanding of the anxieties and uncertainties that so many families in the world are experiencing."

Last month the US state department and friends of Tice claimed a video purporting to show Tice being held by an Islamist group was staged.

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Nato's secretary general Anders Fogh Rasmussen has described the formation of new opposition alliance as "one big step forward".

But he added: "It remains to be seen whether this more united opposition is strong enough."

Rasmussen also said the alliance "will do what it takes to protect and defend Turkey". His remarks come days after Ankara requested patriot missiles to defend its border, but Rasmussen made no mention of the request.

He said: "We have all plans in place to make sure that we can protect and defend Turkey and hopefully that way also deter so that attacks on Turkey will not take place."

Russia has given a qualified welcome to the formation of the new Syrian opposition if it negotiates with the Assad regime.

Deputy foreign minister Gennady Gatilov said it would be "useful" if the new group engaged in political dialogue.

Until now most of the Syrian opposition has repeatedly ruled out such talks.

Israel has fired "direct hits" at Syrian military targets in response to mortar fire that landed in the occupied Golan Heights, Reuters reports.

Israeli military sources said Syrian mobile artillery was directly hit in the incident.

It was the second time in two days that Israel has responded to what it said was errant Syrian fire. On Sunday the military said it had a fired a "warning shot" across the disengagement line, while on Monday it said it had fired back at "the source".

Military sources would not say if the mortar bomb was fired by Syrian army forces or by the rebels they are battling in and around the United Nations' patrolled area of separation.

In a statement the Israeli Defence Forces said:

A short while ago, a mortar shell hit an open area in the vicinity of an IDF post in the central Golan Heights, as part of the internal conflict inside Syria, causing no damage or injuries.

In response, IDF soldiers fired tank shells towards the source of the fire, confirming direct hits. The IDF has filed a complaint with the UN forces operating in the area, stating that fire emanating from Syria into Israel will not be tolerated and shall be responded to with severity."

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One of the leading opposition groups inside Syria has rejected the new coalition formed in Doha and questioned its claim to represent 90% of Assad’s opponents.

Rim Turkmani, spokeswoman for the group Building the Syrian State, said the new coalition was being directed by the international community. In an email to the Guardian she said: “We think that any brokers of opposition unity should be neutral. Right now international players are pulling the opposition apart by sponsoring certain groups over others."

She said the coalition’s claim (see earlier) to represent 90% of the opposition was “not true”.

Asked to say what proportion of the opposition was excluded she said:

It is very difficult to tell, but it is important to remember that not all Syrians are under the banner of political groups, and that many Syrians are neither on the side of the regime nor the opposition. No one can claim to represent most or all Syrians now; neither the regime nor the opposition.

Turkmani added:

The real unity which matters right now is not that of the political opposition, but that of the international community. Once an international consensus is agreed it is going to be much easier to unite the opposition, and more importantly, end the regime. Russia and China are going to view this group as hostile to them. They are key players in this conflict, and you simply can't solve a conflict if you do not involve all the players.

Turkmani said the opposition leader Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib was a “great man” whom she has known as a friend for 20 years, but she said he was in the wrong post.

I trust him to be an honest leader with the best interests of Syria and the Syrians at his heart. But I am not sure he is in the right place. I am not sure that as all the stings are being pulled by different parts of international community that Moaz will be able to take this politically in the direction he wants. I don't think he will last in this position very long.

Syria’s new opposition leader is a unifying figure who should not be confused with a traditional Sunni cleric despite his background as an imam, according to the Syrian writer and broadcaster Rana Kabbani.

Kabbani, who has known Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib for 20 years, said his election made her optimistic about Syria for the first time in months.

She said Khatib and his deputies Suhair Atassi and Riad Seif, the driving force behind the new coalition, were figures of “real stature”.

Speaking to the Guardian she said:

He comes from a venerable family known for charitable work and their call for peace between Syrian groups. He comes at a time when this is needed more than ever. Syria is in ruins. The man is someone who all parties, whatever their ideological background, ethnicities or feelings about the former regime, will be able get behind. He is a man of real moral qualities.

He understands that the extraordinary quality of Syria is that it is a country with many religions, many languages [and] many ethnicities.

Asked how a former Sunni cleric can unite Syria’s disparate sects, Kabbani said:

He is not a conventional imam in any sense of the word. He is representative of a mosque [The Umayyad in Damascus] and a city which were themselves very layered. The Umayyad mosque had been a pagan temple, and then a Greek one, then a Roman one, then a Christian church, and then became a mosque. So this is a place where all Syria worships and thinks of as its centre.

Khatib has history in grassroots activism if not national politics, Kabbani said. He and his friends and family have been arrested many times. 

He comes from the post-Hama generation [a reference to the massacre of Muslim Brotherhood opposition in 1982]. Those men and women who knew exactly what the Assads were like and knew what was required to change Syria.

I for once, in many many months, suddenly feel optimistic about the future ... because he’s a unifying figure and not a divisive one. He is not what he seems. He is not a traditional Islamist. He is not the traditional Sunni. He is someone who has all of Syria at heart.

He has a long history of good works and he was able to function in a country that would have liked to see him killed many years ago. That is an indication of his supple nature and his real courage and vigilance.

He has a hell of a job ahead of him. And I wish him great luck, but I don’t think it is an impossible job.

She claimed those in the Syrian National Council who refused to get behind Khatib will “go down with Assad”.

Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib, the 52-year-old former cleric elected leader of the Syrian opposition, emerges as something of a renaissance man, according to his CV.

He has had stints as an imam, activist, lecturer and he is a trained geologist who worked for an oil company.

A biography of the new leader, circulated by opposition member Mulham al-Jundi, said Khatib was arrested four times for supporting the Syrian uprising before leaving the country. 

He was mostly recently arrested in April, it says.

In his opening speech as leader Khatib called on all sects in Syria to unite. "We demand freedom for every Sunni, Alawi, Ismaili (Shia), Christian, Druze, Assyrian ... and rights for all parts of the harmonious Syrian people," he said.

Khatib, who comes from a family of Islamic scholars, has a reputation for rejecting sectarianism, according to the biography. He is a former chairman of the Islamic Modernisation Organisation.

He was an imam at the Umayyad mosque in Damascus 20 years ago. But he also worked for six years as geologist for the al-Furat oil company.

He has lectured all over the world including in Britain and the US.

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The onus is now on the international community to support, and possibly arm, the Syrian opposition after its agreement to form a new coalition, a member of the new unity group told the Guardian.

Khalid Saleh, an executive member of the Syrian National Council who was elected to the new leadership coalition in Doha, suggested that world leaders had promised to arm Syria rebels if the opposition could unite.

In an interview with the Guardian he said: “There were many promises that were given in terms of support and we are looking forward to seeing some of that. Ultimately our goal is to get support to the Syrian people on the ground. That’s what matters."

Asked whether the international community had promised to arm the rebels if the opposition united, Saleh said:

There were promises of full support. That includes I think diplomatic, political, financial, even possibly arming the revolutionary forces on the ground. At this point we are looking to the next couple of weeks to see. We have done our part … Now we are looking to the international community to fulfil their promises …

I don’t think the international community can give the excuse the opposition is not united.

Saleh claimed 90% of the Syrian opposition were represented on the new coalition.

It is a major turning point … Bringing that many opposition groups together was a major step. It is difficult to look at the new coalition body and say the opposition is still not united …

The international community had a problem that they were trying to solve. They were trying to figure out a way to have a unified mechanism to get support to Syria. The SNC was an umbrella organisation yet there were some opposition parties that were outside of it.

The international community put some pressure on us to really try and take a leadership role in bringing more of the opposition parties into this coalition. After two or three days of negotiations we came to terms and everybody I think is happy with the result.

Saleh said the the new coalition includes representatives from the joint military council that controls about 80% of the rebel forces in Syria. It will also try to rein in the remaining 20% it does not control.

On the prospects for a shadow or provisional government, Saleh said:

At this point we are looking to the international community to officially recognise the coalition as the one legitimate representative of the Syrian people. When that happens we will start working right away on a transitional provisional government.

He claimed the new leader, Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib, had the leadership calibre to hold the group together and that he would benefit from the experience of figures from the Syrian National Council.

Britain is to host talks on Friday to consider new ways of supporting the Syrian opposition after David Cameron suggested the international community should help arm the rebels.

In a statement foreign secretary William Hague welcomed the formation of the new opposition coalition in Doha.

He also announced international meetings on Tuesday and Friday to support the new group.

I will travel to Cairo for a meeting of the EU and Arab League this Tuesday, which will discuss support to the new national coalition. And on Friday the UK will host a meeting in London of donors and coalition representatives which will consider further support to the Syrian opposition at this critical time.

Last week the prime minister suggested the EU's arms embargo on Syria should be lifted to allow weapons to reach the rebels.

The Telegraph said the call had split the western alliance on Syria because of nervousness about arming Islamist groups.

One diplomat said: "It's amazing. Questions have to be asked in London as to what Cameron is thinking."

Welcome to another week of Middle East Live.

Here's a summary of the main developments:

Syria

The Syrian opposition has agreed to form a new broad-based coalition after a week of wrangling and pressure from the US and Gulf states. A former imam at the Umayyad mosque in the Syrian capital, Damascus, Ahmed Moaz al-Khatib, was named leader of the new coalition. Riad Seif, who proposed the new initiative, and Suhair Atassi, a female activist, will be his deputies. The US has endorsed the new coalition, while Qatar and Turkey have urged other states to do the same. 

The name for the new coalition has yet to be settled, but it looks set to be a mouthful. The Washington Post calls it the National Coalition for Revolutionary Forces and the Syrian Opposition. Reuters goes with Syrian National Coalition for Opposition and Revolutionary Forces. The working title for Seif's original idea was the Syrian National Initiative. 

In his first comments as leader Khatib called on all sects to unite in Syria. "We demand freedom for every Sunni, Alawi, Ismaili (Shia), Christian, Druze, Assyrian ... and rights for all parts of the harmonious Syrian people," he told reporters. He also urged soldiers to defect from the army.

Dissident blogger Ammar Abdulhammid, a consistent critic of the opposition, appears to welcome Khatib's election as leader, but he is dismissive about others on the new council.

Khatib's views on critical issues such as women and minority rights have also been reasonable enough to allow for the possibility of actually reaching workable compromises that can satisfy both Islamists and secularists. As such, he is a potentially unifying figure, and his touch will be needed in the days and months, if not years ahead ..

We should not let our emotions blind us from the truth of it all: in reality, coalition membership is, for the most part, a virtual who’s who list of the same tired and drab personalities that have plagued opposition work since the beginning of the revolution. So, much work and many pitfalls lie ahead for the new management.

Israeli troops fired warning shots into Syria for the first time since the 1973 Yom Kippur war, after a mortar shell hit an Israeli army post on the Golan Heights. The prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, said on Sunday that Israel was "closely monitoring what is happening on our border with Syria and we are ready for any development".

Assad's forces bombarded the Ras al-Ain area on the border with Turkey on Sunday, days after the town fell to rebels during an advance that has sent thousands of refugees fleeing for safety. Helicopters circled above the town and opposition activists said they had strafed targets near the village of Tal Halaf. The Arab and Kurdish town of Ras al-Ain fell to the Free Syrian Army on Thursday in fighting that sent 9,000 fleeing in a 24-hour period. 

The leader of a pro-Assad militia murdered his wife after their daughter, Loubna Mrie, appeared in an opposition video, Mrie told the Guardian. "He told me that he wished he could do the same to me," Mrie said. She added: 

My father used to tell me that I was a criminal and that he was ashamed of me and that he didn't see me as his daughter. The stupid thing about this government is its claim that it is trying to protect the people, that it is protecting the Alawites. [Assad] doesn't care if you are Alawite, Christian or Shia. If you are against him, he will kill you.

  Britain could intervene militarily in Syria in the next few months if the humanitarian crisis worsens, according to the country’s most senior general has said. In an interview with the BBC, General Sir David Richards said there were contingency plans in place for a limited response, the Independent reports.

Kuwait

Tens of thousands of Kuwaitis packed into a square opposite parliament on Sunday in a peaceful opposition-led rally against new voting rules. Helicopters circled overhead and police lined the streets around the square, which were clogged with traffic.

Jordan