Kerry presses for end to Iran flights to Syria over Iraq

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CNN's Kevin Liptak

(CNN) – Secretary of State John Kerry landed in Baghdad on Sunday, where he planned to press Iraq's leaders to prohibit Iranian planes from flying over the country to deliver arms to Syria's embattled government.

The previously unannounced stop came after Kerry accompanied President Barack Obama on a trip to Israel, the Palestinian territories and Jordan. This week marked the ten-year anniversary of the beginning of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, and the first time since 2009 that a U.S. secretary of state visited the country. Obama last went to Iraq in April 2009.

A main focus of Kerry's stop in Iraq was to urge the country's leaders, including Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, to stop allowing Iranian flyovers delivering arms and assistance to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has been battling rebels in a bloody civil war.
"We will be very direct about the importance of stopping the overflights, or at minimum inspecting each of the flights," a senior State Department official said aboard Kerry's plane as it flew to Baghdad from Amman, Jordan.
The official estimated Iranian planes fly over Iraq nearly daily on their way to Syria.
Last fall, Kerry's predecessor at the State Department, Hillary Clinton, called on Iraq to take steps to prevent Iran from using its land and airspace to deliver shipments to Syria. At the time, Iraq agreed to conduct random inspections of Iranian planes bound for Syria.
Iraq's foreign minister said at the time the country faced a difficult task in enforcing the inspections.
"We explained to the U.S. side that Iraq's air defense capabilities are limited, and we are in the stage of building our air force," Hoshyar Zebari said in a newspaper interview.
Iranian flights over Iraq to Syria began in March 2012 but were stopped shortly after, at the request of Iraq, Zebari said. The flights resumed in July.
The State Department official said al-Maliki would be offered a "theoretical seat at the table" on determining the political future of Syria if he agrees to halt the Iranian flights in Iraq's airspace.
Syrian rebels have been fighting to oust al-Assad for more than two years in a conflict that's claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than a million people. Earlier this month, Western counterterrorism officials and analysts told CNN that Sunni jihadist groups were growing in strength along the Syria-Iraq border.
The groups could post a challenge to both the al-Assad government in Damascus and the Shiite-led government of Iraq.
Scores of people were killed and wounded earlier this week on the same day Iraq marked the ten-year anniversary of the U.S.-led invasion.
The attacks - 17 car bombs, seven roadside bombs, and two shootings - ripped mostly through Shiite neighborhoods of Baghdad, but also struck Sunni communities in other towns. At least 187 people were wounded.
The deteriorating security situation prompted authorities to postpone Provincial Council elections scheduled for April in the provinces of Anbar and Nineveh - a decision the State Department official said on Sunday was done without the input of Sunnis or Kurds.
Kerry will push al-Maliki to reconsider his decision to delay those votes during his meetings Sunday, the official said.

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.

Without Iran’s support, Assad regime will collapse: report

Cartonist: Tofiq

-By Najah Ali 
Al Arabiya, 29 November 2012 - Iran is increasingly worried about Syrian President Bashar al-Assad regime’s fate and is distraught that the regime is not taking recommendations from the Islamic republic to keep its power, an Iranian report obtained by a Western diplomatic source said.

Iranian forces in Syria are increasingly burdened due to the Syrian regime leaders not following their advices as the situation in the conflict-torn country becomes more chaotic, the report, which was obtained by an embassy of a Western country in Tehran, said.

The report, however, did not mention details explaining the Iranian recommendations given to the Syrian regime.

But the report revealed that Tehran was disappointed by the corruption within the Syrian armed forces as large amounts of Iranian funds were transferred to personal bank accounts of senior Syrian officers.

The report stated that Iran will continue its support for President Assad until Iran’s presidential elections on June 2013.

Tehran mulls the possibility of a civil war breaking out in Syria post-Assad regime collapse, which can later destabilize Iran itself before the presidential elections.

In conclusion, the report said Iran decided not to increase its support for Syria due to the deteriorating economic situation in the Islamic republic and Assad regime’s unlikely survival in the long term.

“Iran is trying to find other solutions so that Hezbollah would be able to get Iran’s support even after the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime,” the report said, adding “Iran is now establishing some connections with Syrian opposition’s figures without the knowledge of the Syrian regime as it doesn’t want to give the impression that it has abandoned Assad regime.”

The report says Iran believes the Syrian regime’s collapse is inevitable without the Islamic republic’s support.