Assad family

Syrian army storms rebel stronghold Qusayr

Agence France-Presse — Sun, 19 May 2013 19:01:08 +0000

Agence France-Presse

Syrian troops backed by Lebanon's Hezbollah on Sunday entered Qusayr, a strategic rebel stronghold linking Damascus to the coast, a day after President Bashar al-Assad insisted he would not quit.

The advance came as Assad's opponents warned his regime's "barbaric and destructive" assault on Qusayr could torpedo US-Russian attempts to organise a conference on ending two years of bloodshed in the country.

Syrian army storms rebel stronghold Qusayr

Agence France-Presse — Sun, 19 May 2013 17:16:01 +0000

Agence France-Presse

Syrian troops backed by Lebanon's Hezbollah on Sunday entered Qusayr, a strategic rebel stronghold linking Damascus to the coast, a day after President Bashar al-Assad insisted he would not quit.

The advance came as Assad's opponents warned his regime's "barbaric and destructive" assault on Qusayr could torpedo US-Russian attempts to organise a conference on ending more than two years of bloodshed.

Assad says no info on journalists missing in Syria

Agence France-Presse — Sun, 19 May 2013 09:16:13 +0000

Agence France-Presse

President Bashar al-Assad of Syria has insisted he has no information on James Foley and Domenico Quirico, two journalists missing inside the war-torn country.

"At present we have no information about the two journalists you mentioned," Assad said in an interview with Argentinian news agency Telam and daily Clarin.

A transcript of the interview was published by Syrian state news agency SANA.

Assad tells Argentine newspaper he won't step down

Agence France-Presse — Sat, 18 May 2013 23:15:17 +0000

Agence France-Presse

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Saturday he welcomed a US-Russian peace initiative to end Syria's civil war but had no plans to resign, in an interview with an Argentine newspaper.

"To resign would be to flee," he told the Clarin when asked if he would consider stepping aside as called for by US Secretary of State John Kerry.

"I don't know if Kerry or anyone else has received the power of the Syrian people to talk in their name about who should go and who should stay. That will be determined by the Syrian people in the 2014 presidential elections," Assad said.

Assad insists he will not quit, car bomb hits Damascus

Agence France-Presse — Sat, 18 May 2013 21:00:37 +0000

Agence France-Presse

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad insisted he will not resign before the end of his mandate in 2014 as a car bomb exploded in the capital Damascus on Saturday killing at least three people.

"To resign would be to flee," Assad said in an interview with the Argentine newspaper Clarin when asked if he would consider stepping aside as called for by US Secretary of State John Kerry.

France opposed to Iran attending Syria conference

Agence France-Presse — Sat, 18 May 2013 02:31:32 +0000

Agence France-Presse

France said Friday it is opposed to having Iran attend a peace conference on Syria despite Damascus's ally Russia wanting Tehran's presence at the event expected in the first half of June.

Foreign ministry spokesman Philippe Lalliot said: "We do not want Iran. The Syrian crisis is contagious and affects the entire zone. Regional stability is at stake and we cannot see how a country (Iran) that threatens this stability can participate in this conference."

Syria's pro-Assad hackers hijack Financial Times blog, Twitter feeds in latest media attack

The Canadian Press — Fri, 17 May 2013 13:45:15 +0000

The Canadian Press

LONDON - A clutch of Twitter accounts and a blog maintained by the Financial Times were hacked Friday, the latest in a series of cyberattacks claimed by the Syrian Electronic Army, a pro-government group which has regularly targeted media organizations it sees as sympathetic to the country's rebels.

Russia 'does not understand' uproar over Syria arms sales

Agence France-Presse — Fri, 17 May 2013 10:15:04 +0000

Agence France-Presse

Russia's foreign minister said Friday he did not understand the international uproar created by Moscow's continuing weapons cooperation with regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"I do not understand why the media is trying to create a sensation out of this," said Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. "We have not hidden that we supply weapons to Syria under signed contracts, without violating any international agreements, or our own legislation."

Obama, Erdogan vow to up pressure on Assad

Agence France-Presse — Thu, 16 May 2013 18:15:32 +0000

Agence France-Presse

US President Barack Obama and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to crank up pressure on Syria's President Bashar al-Assad Thursday, but offered no concrete new measures to do so.

Obama warned there was no "magic formula" to force Assad to leave power, as both the United States and Turkey want, but said he hoped a conference that Washington is organizing with Russia next month would be successful.

He gave no sign that he was ready to satisfy Turkish calls for Washington to overcome its reservations about directly arming rebels fighting Assad's regime.

Syria jihadists executed regime supporters

Agence France-Presse — Thu, 16 May 2013 16:32:07 +0000

Agence France-Presse

A video distributed Thursday by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights shows a jihadist in the east of the country executing supporters of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

The Britain-based watchdog did not specify whether the nine men killed were combatants, nor did it say when the footage was recorded.

Later Thursday, the Britain-based group sent further footage showing what it described as the body of the reported executioner -- a man of Saudi origin identified as Kasura al-Jazrawi.

Putin to meet UN chief Ban amid Syria crisis

Agence France-Presse — Thu, 16 May 2013 12:46:27 +0000

Agence France-Presse

Russian President Vladimir Putin is scheduled to meet UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon at his Black Sea residence in Sochi on Friday, the Kremlin said.

The Kremlin did not specify the agenda of the upcoming talks with Ban, who will be visiting Russia from May 16 to 19. Ban's visit comes amid a new international push for a peace conference to end more than two years of bloodshed in Syria.

Syria jihadists executed regime supporters

Agence France-Presse — Thu, 16 May 2013 09:15:18 +0000

Agence France-Presse

A video distributed Thursday by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights shows jihadists in the east of the country executing supporters of the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

The Britain-based watchdog did not specify whether the men killed were combatants, nor did it say when the footage was shot.

The men killed by Al-Nusra Front, a jihadist organisation operating in Syria that the United States has classed as "terrorist" "are supporters of the Assad regime, but we cannot know whether they were regime troops", watchdog director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

Kerry, Lavrov confident on Syria peace talks plan

Thomson Reuters — Thu, 16 May 2013 06:01:46 +0000

Thomson Reuters

By Patricia Zengerle

KIRUNA, Sweden (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday they believed they could pull off peace talks on Syria, where their nations back opposing sides in a war that may have cost 120,000 lives.

Differences between Russia, a main ally of President Bashar al-Assad, and the United States, which supports those trying to topple him, have long obstructed United Nations action on the turmoil convulsing Syria for more than two years.

'Small amount' of chemical arms used twice in Syria

Agence France-Presse — Wed, 15 May 2013 21:16:02 +0000

Agence France-Presse

Small amounts of chemical weapons have been used at least twice in Syria, but Washington is seeking more information as it mulls its response, a top US official said Wednesday.

"The intelligence community has agreed with varying levels of confidence that chemical weapons were used in small amounts in at least two instances in Syria," Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman told US lawmakers.

Turkey police clash with students protesting car bombings

Agence France-Presse — Wed, 15 May 2013 17:53:36 +0000

Agence France-Presse

Turkish police on Wednesday fired tear gas and used water cannons to disperse hundreds of students demonstrating in Ankara against government policies they say resulted in last weekend's deadly twin bombings.

Some 300 students hurled stones at the police as they vowed that those behind the car bombs in Reyhanli, near the Syrian border, "will pay a price" and demanded the resignation of Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.