Monday 31 December 2012

International envoy warns of failed state in Syria

U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi, left, shakes hands with Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby following a joint press conference at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012. The international envoy to Syria warned Sunday that as many as 100,000 could die in the next year if a solution is not reached quickly to end the country?s civil war. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi, left, shakes hands with Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby following a joint press conference at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012. The international envoy to Syria warned Sunday that as many as 100,000 could die in the next year if a solution is not reached quickly to end the country?s civil war. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby talks during a joint press conference with U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria Lakhdar Brahimi, unseen, at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012. Brahimi warned Sunday that as many as 100,000 could die in the next year if a solution is not reached quickly to end the Syria?s civil war. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

In this photo provided by Turkish Prime Minister's Press Service, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses residents of a Turkish village near the Syrian border in Sanliurfa, Turkey, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012. Erdogan repeated a call on Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down. (AP Photo/Kayhan Ozer)

In this photo provided by Turkish Prime Minister's Press Service, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, right, flanked by the Syrian opposition coalition leader Mouaz al-Khatib, waves to people as he addresses residents of a Turkish village near the Syrian border, in Sanliurfa, Turkey, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012. Erdogan repeated a call on Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down. (AP Photo/Kayhan Ozer)

In this photo provided by Turkish Prime Minister's Press Service, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and his wife Emine Erdogan hold newly born babies during a visit to a Syrian refugee camp in Sanliurfa, Turkey, Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012. Erdogan repeated a call on Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down. (AP Photo/Kayhan Ozer)

(AP) ? The international envoy seeking to end Syria's civil war warned Sunday that the failure of the government and the rebels to pursue a political solution could lead to the "full collapse of the Syrian state" and threaten the world's security.

Lakhdar Brahimi, who represents the United Nations and the Arab League, said that as many as 100,000 people could be killed in the next year as Syria moves toward "Somalization" and rule by warlords.

Brahimi has reported little progress in his mission to push forward a peace plan for Syria first presented in June at an international conference in Geneva. The proposal calls for an open-ended cease-fire and the formation of a transitional government to run the country until new elections can be held and a new constitution drafted.

But so far, neither the regime of President Bashar Assad nor the scores of rebels groups fighting his forces across the country have shown any interest in negotiations.

The rebels' political leadership has called Assad's departure a prerequisite for any political solution, and it is unlikely that the opposition's National Coalition could even stop rebels on the ground from continuing to fight.

Likewise, it is doubtful that top members of Assad's regime will voluntarily give up power.

The Syrian government has remained officially mum on Brahimi's plan, which he has pushed in the past week in meetings with Assad in Damascus, with top Russian officials in Moscow and on Sunday with the head of the Arab League in Cairo.

Speaking alongside Nabil Elaraby on Sunday, he estimated that 100,000 people could be killed if the 21-month conflict continues for another year.

"Peace and security in the world will be threatened directly from Syria if there is no solution within the next few months," he said. "The alternatives are a political solution or the full collapse of the Syrian state."

Since meeting Assad early last week, Brahimi has given no indication how his plan was received. When asked Sunday if there is any willingness among the opposition to enter a political process, Brahimi said, "No, there isn't. This is the problem."

Syria's crisis began in March 2011 with political protests against Assad. The conflict has since evolved into a civil war. Anti-regime activists say more than 45,000 people have been killed.

The Syria government does not give death tolls for the conflict and says the rebels are terrorists backed by foreign powers who seek to destroy the country.

The Syrian conflict has split world powers, with the United States, Turkey and many European and Arab states calling for Assad to stand down. Russia, China and Iran have stood by the regime and criticized calls for Assad's ouster.

On Sunday, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Syrian refugees along Turkey's southern border, where he was joined by Mouaz al-Khatib, head of Syria's National Coalition.

Erdogan called for Assad to step down and said that Syria is experiencing "a holy birth."

"That holy birth is the coming to power of the will of the people," he said as refugees chanted his name.

Activists reported violence around Syria on Sunday.

Rebels in the north clashed with government troops near military bases in the provinces of Idlib and Aleppo and seized an oil pumping station in al-Raqqa.

The station receives crude oil from the nearby province of Hassakha and pumps it to one of Syria's two oil refineries in Homs, said Rami Abdul-Rahman, who heads the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Observatory also said rebels stormed a government air base in the area of Tel Hassir south of Aleppo, while government fighter jets launched deadly airstrikes near Aleppo, Hama and in a number of rebellious Damascus suburbs.

Activists also reported two car bombs in the Yarmouk district of Damascus, where most residents are Palestinian refugees.

___

Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey, and Sarah El Deeb in Cairo contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/cae69a7523db45408eeb2b3a98c0c9c5/Article_2012-12-30-ML-Syria/id-78491cac20884866adb1d9deda60704c

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Sunni protesters attack Iraq official's convoy, guards wound two

RAMADI, Iraq (Reuters) - Bodyguards for Iraq's deputy prime minister wounded two people when they fired warning shots at Sunni protesters who pelted his convoy with bottles and stones on Sunday, witnesses said.

The incident took place the city of Ramadi in western Anbar province, to where Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq had travelled to address people in an attempt to defuse sectarian tensions.

Thousands of Iraqi Sunnis have taken to the streets and blocked a main highway over the past week in protest against Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, whom they accuse of discriminating against their community and being under the sway of non-Arab neighbor Iran.

"Leave! Leave!" the protesters shouted at Mutlaq, himself a Sunni.

Mutlaq's guards opened fire to disperse the crowd after they threw objects at his convoy. Two people were wounded, the witness said

"It's only now Mutlaq comes to attend the protest and after seven days. He came to undermine the protest," Saeed al-Lafi, a spokesman for the protesters, told Reuters.

Protesters are demanding an end to marginalization of Iraq's Sunni minority, which dominated the country until the U.S.-led invasion of 2003 that toppled Saddam Hussein.

They want Maliki to abolish anti-terrorism laws they say are used to persecute them.

Echoing slogans used in popular revolts that brought down leaders in Egypt, Yemen, Tunisia and Yemen, protesters have also been calling on Maliki to step down.

"Is this the way to deal with peaceful protesters? To shoot them? This is really outrageous," said protester Ghazwan al-Fahdawi, displaying empty bullet casings from shots he said had been fired by Mutlaq's guards.

In the northern city of Mosul, the provincial council called a three-day strike starting from next Friday to press Baghdad to release women prisoners and stop targeting Sunni politicians.

Protests flared last week in Anbar province after troops loyal to Maliki detained bodyguards of his finance minister, a Sunni.

That came just hours after Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, a Kurd seen as a steadying influence on the country's tumultuous politics, was flown abroad for medical care.

A year after U.S. troops left, sectarian friction, as well as tension over land and oil between Arabs and ethnic Kurds, threaten renewed unrest and are hampering efforts to repair the damage of years of violence and exploit Iraq's energy riches.

(Reporting by Kamal Naama, Ahmed Rasheed and Sufyan al-Mashhadani in Mosul; Writing by Isabel Coles; Editing by Angus MacSwan)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/sunni-protesters-attack-iraq-officials-convoy-guards-wound-123953633.html

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South Africa: Nelson Mandela convalesces at home

by Associated Press Associated Press

JOHANNESBURG (AP) ? South Africa's presidency says it has no updates on the condition of former leader Nelson Mandela, who is convalescing at home after a hospital stay and is reported to be doing better.

The South African Press Association quotes presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj as saying Saturday that he has no new information on 94-year-old Mandela, who was released from a hospital on Wednesday. The former president, who spent 27 years in prison under apartheid, was admitted Dec. 8 and received treatment for a lung infection.

He also had a procedure to remove gallstones.

Maharaj previously said doctors have noted progress in Mandela's condition but will continue to treat him at his home in the Johannesburg neighborhood of Houghton.

Source: http://romenews-tribune.com/bookmark/21270279

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