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January 15th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda
The opposition Muslim Brotherhood dismissed the amnesty, describing it – the
third of its kind since the uprising began – as “neither serious nor
credible.”
“The regime is trying to make its unrealistic plans for reconciliation and
national dialogue credible, and it is in this context that it is making such
announcements, for propaganda purposes,” the group added.
Releasing prisoners is one of the key conditions of an Arab League roadmap
approved by Syria in November to end the country’s crisis, which the UN
estimates has claimed more than 5,000 lives.
Since November, the regime has announced that it will release nearly 4,000
prisoners “without blood on their hands.”
Syria’s bloody crackdown on pro-democracy protesters has brought increased
pressure from its former allies.
The emir of Qatar said in an interview with US network CBS that he favoured
dispatching Arab troops to Syria to “stop the killing,” a proposal described
by former Arab League chief and Egyptian presidential hopeful Amr Mussa as
“very important.”
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani’s interview with “60 Minutes” is the first
public call by an Arab leader for an Arab military presence in Syria.
The comments by the emir, whose wealthy nation once enjoyed cordial ties with
Damascus, come with the Arab League set to review the work of its Syria
monitoring mission later this month, amid increasing concern about its
failure to stem the killing.
“There has been partial progress until now but there is daily bloodshed in
Syria that the League aims to end,” League chief Nabil al-Arabi told AFP in
Oman, adding that the mission will be reviewed at a January 21 meeting in
Cairo.
Syrian opposition activists have expressed disappointment at the mission, with
critics saying it has been out-maneuvered by the government in Damascus.
On the political front, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe decried the
“silence” of the UN Security Council on Syria’s deadly crackdown, two days
after Britain sharply criticised Russia for refusing to support Security
Council moves against Assad.
“The massacre continues, the silence of the Security Council too. This
situation is becoming intolerable,” he said on Sunday, during a visit to
Myanmar.
In October, Russia and China vetoed a Western draft resolution that would have
condemned Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Russia later circulated an alternative
that would have pointed the finger at both sides.
Juppe’s British counterpart William Hague said on Sunday that there was “no
serious prospect” at the moment for a UN no-fly zone in Syria like the one
imposed over Libya last year.
Meanwhile protests continued on Sunday, with 10,000 people marching in the
town of Zabadani, in Damascus province, where an Arab observer team has been
deployed, calling for regime change, according to the Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights.
And several thousand people demonstrated in the town of Maaret al-Numan, in
the restive northwestern province of Idlib, calling for regime change and
the trial of Assad when they met the observer team there.
The state SANA news agency reported that a roadside blast in Idlib on Sunday
killed six workers and injured 16, blaming the attack on an “armed terrorist
group.”
The Britain-based Observatory also said a civilian was killed by gunfire at a
checkpoint in the flashpoint city of Homs.
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