Core Syrian opposition group proposes transitional government

The SNC proposes a transitional government in liberated areas

Al Arabiya, 9 Jan, 2013 - A core Syrian opposition group is proposing that the leading National Coalition set up a transitional government in areas outside regime control, according to a document obtained by AFP on Wednesday.

The Syrian National Council called on the Cairo-based umbrella group the Syrian National Coalition to “appoint an interim government, with guarantees that it will be internationally recognized and supported.”

The SNC’s “plan for the transfer of power and the start of the transitional period,” which was presented to the National Coalition, proposed a government with full executive powers be based in areas rebels refer to as “liberated territories.”

The road map also said the interim government must push for the removal of President Bashar al-Assad.

The SNC, a key opposition bloc since early in the revolt that began in March 2011, united with other anti-regime groups in November to form the National Coalition, which has been widely recognized internationally as the sole representative of the Syrian people.

Large swathes of northwestern and eastern Syria are out of regime control. Areas in the north serve both as rebel rear bases and as locations for civil society groups transferring aid from neighboring Turkey to work from.

The transitional government should also oversee an agreement between rebel and regime forces to “organize a ceasefire and withdraw troops to their barracks, while rebel fighters are absorbed into the army and security forces.”

The SNC added that the transitional government should “disqualify Assad and the symbols of his regime (from power) and bow to the demands of the Syrian people.”

The National Council, meanwhile, should “sack the regime’s government and dissolve parliament, as well as the security forces, except for the police force,” said the SNC.

The Coalition should also “dismiss the army’s top commanders and dissolve both the Fourth Division and the Republican Guard,” it added.

The feared Fourth Division led by Assad’s brother Maher is charged with ensuring security in Damascus.

The SNC also called on the Coalition, formed in the Qatari capital Doha, to organize a conference within a month of the regime’s fall, inviting “all political forces... of the revolution and society without exception.”

The plan emerged four days after Assad offered, in a rare speech, talks with the opposition to end the conflict -- but only with elements he deemed acceptable, not rebel-affiliated groups he termed “killers” and “terrorists” led by foreigners.

The National Coalition immediately dismissed his offer, sticking to its precondition that he step down before any dialogue is considered.
Brahimi dismissed Assad’s speech 
Meanwhile, International peace envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi dismissed a speech by al-Assad, saying the Syrian president’s proposal to end the crisis was no better than previous failed initiatives.

“I’m afraid what has come out is very much a repeat of previous initiatives that obviously did not work ... it’s not really different and perhaps is even more sectarian and one-sided,” he told the BBC.

“The time of reforms granted magnanimously from above has passed. People want to have a say in how they are governed and they want to take hold of their own future.”
Meeting on Friday
Moscow and Washington’s point men on Syria will meet Brahimi in Geneva on Friday for fresh talks, Russia’s Middle East negotiator said on Wednesday.

Often referred to as “The Three Bs,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, U.S. Undersecretary of State William Burns and UN-Arab League envoy Brahimi have taken an increasingly central role in the search for an end to the 22-month-old conflict.

Alawites in the “Mezze 86” district fear reprisals

Asharq Al-Awsat

pro-regime rally in Latakia, Syria, the Alawite heartland, in February

Beirut, Asharq Al-Awsat - An Alawite activist revealed that families living in the “Mezze 86” district, in the south west of the Syrian capital Damascus, are fearing retaliatory measures in the event of the fall of President Bashar al-Assad’s regime. He told Asharq Al-Awsat that “the Alawites in this district, which largely consists of slums, are living in a state of fear and caution, waiting for how things will unfold”.

The residents of the district, according to the Alawite opposition activist speaking under the condition of anonymity, “had deluded themselves at the beginning of the revolution into thinking that the regime would resolve matters. As for now, they fear that the al-Assad regime could fall at any moment and they are worried about the reprisals and acts of violence against them”. The activist said that his fears, and likewise those of the other residents, came to prominence “after the district turned into a stronghold for the Shabiha and supporters of the regime. This led to a sense of anger among Damascus residents, given the Shabiha’s behavior towards some residents of Mezze 86”.

The presence of barriers at the entrances to the district, erected by so-called “popular committee” groups, led to restrictions being placed upon non-Alawite residents, whereby “they would be searched and sometimes insulted”, according to the Alawite activist. He also confirmed that “these groups, supported by the air intelligence force, were responsible for getting residents of the neighborhood involved in the problems of neighboring districts. They recruited young men, armed them and took them to locations where demonstrations were being held, in order to commit acts of repression and murder”. He pointed out that “these acts may result in reprisals in the event of the fall of the regime, which will happen sooner or later”. He called upon the “Syrian opposition, represented by the Syrian National Coalition, to develop mechanisms for the protection of these districts, in order to avoid a lot of bloodshed the moment the al-Assad regime falls”.

“Mezze 86” lies on one of the surrounding hills of the Mezze district of Damascus. It is a desolate hill that was once home to the military barracks of the “Defense Brigades”, led by Rifaat al-Assad, brother of the late President Hafez al-Assad. The name Rifaat al-Assad evokes terrible memories for the Syrians, especially with regards to the Tadmor massacre.

In the early 1980s, following the Syrian regime’s repression of the Muslim Brotherhood in the district, Rifaat al-Assad allowed his men to build accommodation for themselves. Soldiers, the vast majority of whom were Alawites, quickly flocked to “Mezze 86” with their wives and children, living in houses constructed of mud bricks and sheet metal, using water and electricity from the public grid, and building primitive sewage systems feeding into a valley close by.

“Mezze 86” has recently been exposed to a series of bombings claiming the lives of a number of residents. The Syrian opposition has accused the al-Assad regime of being behind these measures in an attempt to intimidate the Alawite minority. The district hosts around 200,000 people, and its sheet metal houses have now transformed into buildings, some of them five stories high, but still built with the mentality of a shantytown; without a license and with illegally procured water and electricity, and overlooking narrow streets and alleys. Although the Alawites still represent the majority of residents, other communities have begun to move to “Mezze 86” and now constitute a considerable proportion of the population there.

Syria opposition, West reject Assad 'peace plan'

DAMASCUS (AFP) -

A Free Syrian Army fighter

A defiant speech by President Bashar al-Assad calling for peace in Syria on his terms has met rejection by the opposition and internationally, with only his ally Iran on Monday backing his stance.

Assad's plan was "detached from reality," a US State Department spokeswoman said, while Britain said Assad's address was "empty".

The office of EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said Europe's position remained that Assad should step down to permit a political transition.

And Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi told CNN he would endorse any decision by the Syrian people to put Assad on trial before the International Criminal Court for war crimes.

The opposition Syrian National Coalition noted that Assad had ruled out any dialogue with the rebels, making negotiations impossible.

Only Iran, which is supplying money, military advisors and, according to the United States, weapons to Assad's regime threw its weight behind its ally.

"The Islamic republic... supports President Bashar al-Assad's initiative for a comprehensive solution to the country's crisis," which rejects "foreign interference," Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said in a statement on his ministry website.

Assad, in his first speech in seven months, on Sunday outlined his vision for a way out of the 21-month conflict that has shattered his country, killed more than 60,000 people according to the UN, and created a well of instability exploited by Islamic jihadists and fuelled by regional rivalries.

Any resolution of the conflict had to be purely Syrian, Assad said -- though he called those Syrians ranged against him "not a loyal opposition but a gang of killers."

He stated that most of the anti-regime fighters were foreigners, and said: "The one thing that is sure (is) that those who we face today are those who carry the Al-Qaeda ideology."

But while his plan calling for an end to violence, dialogue with opposition elements he deemed acceptable, and a vow to stand fast against those he branded "terrorists" and their foreign backers drew wild applause from his Damascus audience, it offered little realistic prospect of ending what has become a civil war.

It was "yet another attempt by the regime to cling to power and does nothing to advance the Syrian people's goal of a political transition," US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in Washington.

"His initiative is detached from reality," she said.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said Assad's first speech since June was full of "empty promises" and would "fool no one".

The United States and Europe, which have declared the National Coalition the "legitimate representative" of the Syrian people, are pressing Assad to leave power as the first step to any process to restore peace in Syria.

"We maintain our position that Assad has to step aside and allow for a political transition," a spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said in Brussels.

But with Russia and China blocking any UN Security Council-approved international action against Assad's regime, the Syrian war is slipping ever deeper into bloodshed with fears of lasting sectarian fractures.

The United Nations estimates more than 60,000 people have been killed since a brutal crackdown by Assad's forces on peaceful protests 21 months ago stirred the violence.

Although the toll has climbed sharply in the past six months, and the rebels have grabbed swathes of territory in Syria's north and east, the war has become a grinding impasse punctuated by shelling, regime air strikes and by car bombs set off by an increasingly radicalised insurgency.

Efforts by the joint UN-Arab League peace envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, have made no more headway than those of his predecessor, Kofi Annan, who resigned in frustration.

Brahimi has said he is working on a plan he hoped would be acceptable to all major powers that envisaged a ceasefire, a transitional government and parliamentary and presidential elections. Crucially, though, it left unspoken whether it conceived Assad remaining in power.