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February 18th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
At least 10,000 people demonstrated in the southern town of Dael, in Daraa
province, cradle of the 11-month revolt inspired by the Arab Spring, said
the Britain-based monitor.
In Homs, rockets crashed into strongholds of resistance at the rate of four a
minute, according to one opposition activist who warned the city was facing
a humanitarian crisis.
“It’s the most violent in 14 days. It’s unbelievable – extreme violence
the like of which we have never seen before,” said Hadi Abdullah of the
General Commission of the Syrian Revolution.
“There are thousands of people isolated in Homs … There are
neighbourhoods that we know nothing about. I myself do not know if my
parents are okay. I have had no news from them for 14 days,” he told
AFP by phone.
“The regime troops are still shelling… but are reluctant to enter Baba
Amr. They are on the periphery and are moving slowly. The army will lose if
it begins urban warfare,” activist Omar Shakir said later on Skype.
Rights groups estimated the two-week assault on Homs has killed almost 400
people, and a medic reached on Skype said 1,800 have been wounded.
The violence came after the UN General Assembly demanded on Thursday an
immediate halt to Syria’s brutal crackdown on dissent, which human rights
groups say has cost more than 6,000 lives since March last year.
Russia, China and Iran opposed the non-binding resolution. The vote came just
days after Beijing and Moscow vetoed a similar resolution at the UN Security
Council.
Such a strong vote in favour of the resolution adds to mounting pressure on
Assad to curb a crackdown that left at least 41 people dead on Thursday as
security forces bore down on focal points of dissent.
Syrian envoy Bashar Jaafari lashed out at other Arab nations, saying Western
powers had exploited the Arab League to “internationalise” the
crisis.
“The Arab Trojan horse has been unmasked today,” he said.
Iran’s UN representative, Mohammad Khazaee, warned that the resolution would
only deepen the crisis, “with all its ramifications to the region as a
whole.”
On the eve of his trip to Damascus, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Zhai Jun
said that Beijing opposed armed intervention and forced “regime change”
in Syria.
Nato Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said the Western alliance had no
intention of intervening in Syria even in the event of a UN mandate to
protect civilians, and urged Middle East countries to find a way to end the
spiralling violence.
Rasmussen told Reuters on Friday he also rejected the possibility of providing
logistical support for proposed “humanitarian corridors” to ferry
relief to towns and cities bearing the brunt of Assad’s crackdown on
pro-democracy protesters.
Asked if Nato’s stance would change if the United Nations provided a mandate,
Mr Rasmussen was doubtful.
“No, I don’t think so because Syria is also a differrent society, it is
much more complicated ethnically, politically, religiously. That’s why I do
believe that a regional solution should be found,” he said.
France and Britain echoed Mr Rasmussen’s comments on Friday.
Meeting for a summit in Paris, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British
Prime Minister David Cameron expressed support for a conference to form an
international coalition dubbed the Friends of Syria next week in Tunis.
“We cannot accept that a dictator massacre his own people, but the
revolution will not be brought from outside, it will rise from inside Syria,
as it has done elsewhere,” Mr Sarkozy told a joint news conference.
“What is happening in Syria is appalling, for the government to be
butchering and murdering its own people,” Mr Cameron said.
On Thursday, Syria’s opposition rejected a newly drafted constitution that
could end nearly five decades of Baath Party rule, and urged voters to
boycott a February 26 referendum on the charter.
One of them, the National Coordination Committee for Democratic Change, told
AFP “it is impossible for us to take part in this referendum before a
stop to the violence and killings.”
Source: AFP and Reuters
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