Saturday, August 18, 2012

Syria - Sad Ending of Ramadan - UPDATE


Updates for August 19 / 20 further down!

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Latest UPDATE of the day (August 18):
According to the rebels, Syria's vice-president should have defected. [Source: CNN]
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الشبكة السورية: 134 قتيلا اليوم معظمهم في جمشق و ريفها و حلب و دير الزور

According to Syrian networks 134 [persons] died today, most of them in Damascus, Rifa, Aleppo and Dir al-Sur [Derisur].


Damaged building in Dir al-Sur (Derisur) on August 18, 2012 (above).
View of Aleppo township (below).


Seven [persons] died and some tens were wounded during the shelling of [a village] in Aleppo province.


Refugee camp at the Jordanian border (above) and the Turkish border (below).



لاجئون سوريون يستعدون للاحتفال بعيد آخر في ظل المعاناة و عدم الاستقرار في بلادهم

Syrians are not inspired to prepare for the celebrations of ending [the period of fasting] in the shadow of being tried [by desaster] and the absence of stability in their country.



Calligraphy depicting the holy month of Ramadan that is ending today (above).




Further News on Syria:

Al-Arabiya reported on August 17, 2012, the arrest of a leading personality of the pan-Arabic Ba'ath Party that once came to power in Syria and Iraq and was later abolished in Syria by Hafiz al-Assad, the father and predecessor in power of Bashir al-Assad.

النظام السوري يعتقل الرجل الثاني في حزب البعث

The Syrian regime arrested the Ba'ath Party's No.2.

فرع الحزب في اليمن دعا الرئيس السوري بشار الأسد إلى التنحي

The party's Yemenite branch called Syrian president Bashir al-Assad to resign.


Could it be that Bashir al-Assad is still in fear of the Ba'ath movement that was founded in 1947 in Syria ? Ba'athism originally calls for the renaissance or resurrection and unification of the Arab world into a single state. Its motto, "Unity, Liberty, Socialism", refers to Arab unity, and freedom from non-Arab control and interference. As a political orientation for the post-Assad era, the principles of Ba'athism might become interesting again for some of those who are now engaged in the revolutionary process of the Arab Spring, not only in Syria....

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On August 19, 2012, the Lebanese daily Ya Libnan once again referred to the case of Michel Samaha, a former Lebanese minister and friend of Bashir al-Assad with a pro-Syrian attitude:

Lebanon President Michel Suleiman said on Saturday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should call him and explain the transfer of weapons from Syria to Lebanon in the car of former Information Minister Michel Samaha.

“ The Lebanese judiciary accused a Syrian official of sending weapons to Lebanon, and I expect the Syrian president to call me and explain the incident. I hope this call will take place,” National News Agency quoted Suleiman as saying.

Earlier this month, Lebanese security forces arrested Samaha in a case linked to a bombing plan aimed to create a strife in Lebanon.


Background information on that subject in my August 11 blogspot Syria - Days of Decisive Battles and in the August 9 Update of my blogspot: Syria - Increased Activity.

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Due to increasing mistrust between Lebanese and Syrian citizens in the frame of alleged plans of the Assad regime to destabilize Lebanon, kidnappings of Syrians by Lebanese groups and vice versa have occurred in recent days. [Source: Al-Jazeera, August 20, 2012]


عشيرة آل المقداد تطلق سراح مواطن سوري كانت قد اختطفته يوم الجمعة الماضي في بيروت

The tribe [Aal al-Maqdad] released a Syrian citizen after his kidnapping last Friday in Beirut.


لجنة دعم المعتقلين و المفقودين اللبنانيين تطالب بوقف مسلسل الخطف المتبادل بين اللبنانيين و السوريين

The committee for the assistance of Lebanese prisoners and disappeared [persons] demands to put an end to the chain of [futile] kidnappings between Lebanese and Syrian [citizens].


As to Syria, things cannot be expected to ameliorate after the international mission ended without result:


أعضاء بعثة المراقبين الدوليين في سوريا يغادرون دمشق بعد يوم من انتهاء مهمتهم رسميا

Members of the international observers mission in Syria are leaving Damascus after the day their official mission expired.





A list of visitors to "blueprint news" coming from Lebanon (August 11-19):



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