Author Topic: Situation in Syria (Read 22861 times)

theology101 · « **Reply #15 on:** July 30, 2012, 08:39:35 AM »

Great post, by the way, John!

Starry Plough · « **Reply #16 on:** July 31, 2012, 08:59:59 AM »

I find the whole thing confusing. I don't believe the Syrian government , the
rebels or the MSM. They're all a pack of liars.
Another thing. When Christians are referred to does that mean Greek Orthodox?

Telesphorus · « **Reply #17 on:** July 31, 2012, 09:15:57 AM »

Quote from: Starry Plough

I find the whole thing confusing. I don't believe the Syrian government , the
rebels or the MSM. They're all a pack of liars.
Another thing. When Christians are referred to does that mean Greek Orthodox?

There are various sects. And there are many Eastern Rite Catholics.

Croix de Fer · « **Reply #18 on:** July 31, 2012, 05:12:12 PM »

Sunni Rebels Occupying Churches, Homes of Syrian Christians

Nothing safe, nothing sacred: Syrian rebels desecrate Christian churches?

Croix de Fer · « **Reply #19 on:** July 31, 2012, 05:14:22 PM »

Belloc · « **Reply #20 on:** August 02, 2012, 02:29:16 PM »

Quote from: LaramieHirsch

The whole "democratic rebellion in Syria" is a sham, and a contrived excuse for us to try to blow up another country.

I'm tired of seeing this country try to fight the world.

Democracy is an "end all, be all" to most people and any threat to it is treated higher then to the Bible, doctrine,etc.

and yeah, 1 1/2 yrs later, I'm baaaaacck!!! :ready-to-eat: :nunchaku: :cheers: :dwarf:

Vladimir · « **Reply #21 on:** August 02, 2012, 08:50:34 PM »

Quote from: Belloc

and yeah, 1 1/2 yrs later, I'm baaaaacck!!! :ready-to-eat: :nunchaku: :cheers: :dwarf:

Finally! :dancing:

brotherfrancis75 · « **Reply #22 on:** August 03, 2012, 12:01:31 AM »

Quote from: Starry Plough

I find the whole thing confusing. I don't believe the Syrian government , the
rebels or the MSM. They're all a pack of liars.
Another thing. When Christians are referred to does that mean Greek Orthodox?

No, it does not mean merely the Greek Orthodox. The REAL backbone of Christianity in both Lebanon and Syria is Roman Catholic, especially in its MILITARY aspects. It doesn't matter here who is lying because what is at stake are the LIVES and well-being of our Roman Catholic brothers and sisters in Syria, Lebanon, Palestine and the entire Middle East. Whether bureaucrats in the Syrian media are liars or not is irrelevant! The heroic Syrian Army is fighting for OUR brothers and sisters in Christ and THAT is what matters now.

And fighting against Israhell, we must NEVER forget.

Starry Plough · « **Reply #23 on:** August 03, 2012, 04:25:42 PM »

Brotherfrancis have you seen Syriangirl on YouTube?

alaric · « **Reply #24 on:** August 03, 2012, 06:37:20 PM »

Quote from: ascent

Well, we'll just have to see about that now will we.

http://news.yahoo.com/syria-pleads-russia-aid-sign-desperation-fighting-resumes-215204056.html

Syria pleads with Russia for aid in sign of desperation as fighting resumes in the capital

BEIRUT - Syria reached out to its powerful ally Russia on Friday, as senior officials pleaded with Moscow for financial loans and supplies of oil products — an indication that international sanctions are squeezing President Bashar Assad's regime.
The signs of desperation came as resilient rebels fought regime forces in the Syrian capital only two weeks after the government crushed a revolt there. The renewed battles in Damascus show that Assad's victories could be fleeting as armed opposition groups regroup and resurge.
"The fighting in Damascus today proves that this revolution cannot be extinguished," said activist Abu Qais al-Shami. "The rebels may be forced to retreat because of the regime's use of heavy weaponry but they will always come back."
Syria is thought to be burning quickly through the $17 billion in foreign reserves that the government was believed to have at the start of Assad's crackdown on a popular uprising that erupted in March 2011. The conflict has turned into a cινιℓ ωαr, and rights activists estimate more than 19,000 people.
Deputy Prime Minister Qadri Jamil, who has led a delegation of several Cabinet ministers to Moscow over the past few days, told reporters Friday that they requested a Russian loan to replenish Syria's hard currency reserves, which have been depleted by a U.S. and European Union embargo on Syrian exports.
He said Damascus also wants to get diesel oil and other oil products from Russia in exchange for crude supplies.
"We are experiencing shortages of diesel oil and gas for heating purposes," Syrian Oil Minister Said Maza Hanidi said in Moscow. "This unfair blockade has hurt all layers of the population."
The Syrian regime has blamed sanctions for shortages that have left Syrians across the country standing in long lines to pay inflated prices for cooking gas, fuel, sugar and other staples.
Syrian officials refused to mention specific figures but said that deals with Moscow could be finalized within weeks. There was no immediate comment from the Russian government.
While the Syrian delegation was holding talks in Moscow, a squadron of Russian warships was approaching Syria's port of Tartus, the only naval base Russia has outside the former Soviet Union.
Russian news agencies reported that two of the three amphibious assault ships will call at Tartus while the third will cast anchor just outside the port.
They said that each of the three ships is carrying about 120 marines backed by armoured vehicles. It wasn't immediately clear whether some of the marines will stay to protect Tartus. Some Russian media said the marines were supposed to ensure a safe evacuation of Russian personnel and navy equipment from the base if necessary.
Russia has protected Syria from U.N. sanctions and continued to supply it with weapons throughout the conflict. The Kremlin, backed by fellow veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member China, has blocked any plans that would call on Assad to step down.
On Friday, the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly denounced Syria's crackdown in a symbolic effort meant to push the deadlocked Security Council and the world at large into action on stopping the cινιℓ ωαr.
Before the vote, Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon accused the Syrian regime of possible war crimes and drew comparisons between the failure to act in Syria with the international community's failure to protect people from past genocide in Srebrenica and Rwanda.
"The conflict in Syria is a test of everything this organization stands for," Ban said. "I do not want today's United Nations to fail that test."
Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari called the resolution's main sponsors, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Bahrain, "despotic oligarchies."
"The draft resolution will have no impact whatsoever. It is a piece of theatre," he told reporters after the vote. And Iran's No. 2 ambassador, Eshagh Alehabib, called the resolution "one-sided."
Assad's regime stands accused of a number of massacres in which hundreds of civilians, including women and children, were killed. The Syrian government blames gunmen driven by a foreign agenda for the killings, but the U.N. and other witnesses have confirmed that at least some were carried out by pro-regime vigilante groups, known as shabiha.
But the recent emergence of videos showing summary executions committed by rebel forces — albeit on a far smaller scale than the regime's alleged atrocities — is making it more difficult for the Syrian opposition to claim the moral high ground.
With the cινιℓ ωαr becoming increasingly vicious, chances for a diplomatic solution were fading after the resignation Thursday of Kofi Annan, the U.N.-Arab League envoy to Syria. Annan cited divisions within the Security Council preventing a united approach to stop the fighting.
The fighting continued Friday in the country's two most important cities, Aleppo and Damascus.
In Damascus, residents reported loud explosions and plumes of smoke over the southern edge of the city Friday, as frightened people stayed at home.
"The bombs are back, I have been hearing explosions all day," a resident of central Damascus told The Associated Press, asking to remain anonymous for fear of reprisals.
Government forces crushed a rebel assault on Damascus two weeks ago, but pockets of resistance remain including the southern neighbourhood of Tadamon, where most of Friday's fighting took place.
Late Friday, Syria's official news agency SANA said government forces had hunted down the remnants of the "terrorist mercenaries" — its term for the rebels — in Tadamon. It said several were killed and many others wounded.
Al-Shami and other activists said troops backed by dozens of tanks and armoured vehicles broke into Tadamon on Friday evening, forcing a fresh wave of residents spilling into nearby areas for shelter.
Many Damascus residents had earlier taken refuge in the country's largest Palestinian refugee camp, Yarmouk, where mortar shells raining down on a crowded marketplace killed 21 people late Thursday.
Nevertheless, there were signs that rebels may be planning another run on Damascus in an effort to drain the army's resources as fighting stretches into its second week in Aleppo, 350 kilometres (215 miles) to the north.
The U.N. peacekeeping chief, Herve Ladsous, warned of a major government assault on Aleppo in the coming days to retake the rebel-held neighbourhoods.
"The focus is now on Aleppo, where there has been a considerable buildup of military means," he told reporters in New York late Thursday after briefing the Security Council on his trip to Syria. "We have reason to believe that the main battle is about to start."
____
Isachenkov reported from Moscow. Associated Press writers Ali Akbar Dareini in Tehran, Iran, and Dalia Nammari in Ramallah, West Bank, contributed to this report.

alaric · « **Reply #25 on:** August 03, 2012, 06:40:38 PM »

From the AP article;

"The U.N. peacekeeping chief, Herve Ladsous, warned of a major government assault on Aleppo in the coming days to retake the rebel-held neighbourhoods."

U.N. "peacekeeping" chief...........What a freakin joke. :rolleyes:

alaric · « **Reply #26 on:** August 03, 2012, 06:44:05 PM »

Syrian Rebels Execute Assad Loyalists

http://www.military.com/video/operations-and-strategy/battles/syrian-rebels-execute-assad-loyalists/1768133557001/

Where's the media, U.N. and "human rights" public outrage?

Since under the Geneva Convention you are not allowed to kill prisoners why isn't Clinton calling for war crimes trials for these savage acts?

Belloc · « **Reply #27 on:** August 06, 2012, 07:56:21 AM »

Why Is the U.S. Government Funding Islamic Terrorists Who Are Killing Christians?

Washington’s Blog
August 4, 2012

Most Americans are Christians.

But few know that the acts of our American government are leading to the persecution of Christians in numerous countries.

According to the Vatican’s official news service – Fides – and many other Christian news sources, the Syrian opposition is targeting Christians. Priests and bishops on the ground in Syria confirm these reports.

As a Syrian priest writes in the Guardian:

Despite what you might read in much of the western media, Syria is an enlightened,secular society with a deeply spiritual core and the common belief is that Syria is for everybody. A fundamentalist state would destroy the traditions of co-existence and religious harmony that have existed here since the fall of the Ottoman Empire nearly 100 years ago. Syrian independence was won with the blood of all Syrians – Muslim, Christian, Druze, Alawite and Kurdish.

As BBC notes:

Syria has for much of the century had a sizeable Christian minority, making up at least 10% of the population.

***

In recent years Syria has been considered one of the easier Middle Eastern countries for Christians to live in. Power is concentrated in the hands of the Alawite minority – a Shia sect considered heretical by many Muslims – which has clamped down hard on extreme forms of Islam.

Indeed, PBS reports that Syrian Christians are accepting arms from the government to protect themselves against Islamic terrorists.

Similarly, for all his faults, Saddam was a secular ruler who tolerated Christians … but Christians have been persecuted by the post-Saddam regime.

As the Syrian priest notes:

In Iraq, after the fall of Saddam Hussein, western allies admitted that they had no postwar plan and many have paid the price for this – especially the Iraqi minorities; since Saddam fell, hundreds of thousands of Christians as well as Muslims have fled Iraq in the face of sectarian violence and terrorism. Now, people are calling for a regime change in Syria without a clear plan for what should happen next. Should the minorities pay the same price in Syria?

BBC points out:

A rise in attacks on Christians after the US-led invasion in 2003 led to up to half the Christian population leaving, although there are no official statistics.

The Guardian reports:

In 2003 … the number of Chaldeans, the Christian Iraqis, was between 800,000 and 1.4 million. In 2009-2010, it was estimated are between 400,000 and 500,000, and rapidly decreasing. Cairo’s violent repression shows a similar process is under way in Egypt as well, where they still represent roughly 10% of the population.

Similarly, Christians were protected – or at least tolerated – by Libya’s secular leader Gaddaffi. A Roman Catholic priest told Christian News Service:

Under Gaddafi, we’ve been protected.

And Christianity is an officially-recognized and protected religion in Iran. BBC points out:

Iran’s traditional Christian populations are recognised in the constitution, guaranteed freedom to worship and allocated seats in the parliament ….

But the U.S. government is supporting – with money, arms, and logistical support– Al Qaeda and other Islamic terrorist groups in a number of nations.

The U.S. is:

Supporting Al Qaeda and other terrorists in Syria
Funding terrorist groups in Iran
Supporting Al Qaeda terrorists in Libya (and here)
And the U.S. supports Saudi Arabia as one of our closest allies, even though:

Saudi Arabia restricts all religions other than Islam, including the possession of religious items such asthe Bible, crucifixes, and Stars of David
Christians are arrested and lashed in public for practicing their faith openly
Muslims are forbidden to convert to another religion. If one does so and does not recant, they may be executed
A 9/11 Commissioner and Co-Chair of the Congressional Inquiry into 9/11 say in sworn declarations that the Saudi government is linked to the 9/11 attacks
Note: This post focuses on Christians, but a similar analysis could be applied to Jєωs. For example, Iran – which has the largest Jєωιѕн population in the Muslim world – has a constitution which officially protects Jєωs.

Belloc · « **Reply #28 on:** August 06, 2012, 07:57:47 AM »

Quote from: Starry Plough

Brotherfrancis have you seen Syriangirl on YouTube?

I have not, though meaning to, hear she is very articulate and clear.

alaric · « **Reply #29 on:** August 09, 2012, 10:48:31 AM »

Assad forces beating back U.N./U.S. backed "rebels" in Aleppo.

If Assad maintains control of the country it is a slap in the face of Hilliary Clinton and globalist big time. You know the wicked witch of the West can't wait to do another happy jig like she did when Liya bit the dust and Quaddafi was systematically executed.

The real "terrorists" are in D.C., NYC, Paris, London and Tel Aviv.

And they're not "muslims".

Syrian troops push back rebels in Aleppo offensive

http://news.yahoo.com/assad-gets-iran-backing-forces-squeeze-aleppo-rebels-002856311.html

ALEPPO, Syria (Reuters) - Syrian troops and rebels fought over the country's biggest city Aleppo as President Bashar al-Assad's key foreign backer Iran gathered ministers from like-minded states for talks on Thursday about how to end the conflict.
Assad's troops assaulted rebel strongholds in Aleppo on Wednesday in one of their biggest ground attacks since rebels seized chunks of Syria's biggest city three weeks ago. Late in the day, each side gave conflicting accounts of how they stood.
Assad must win the battle for Aleppo if he is to reassert his authority nationwide, although diverting military forces for an offensive to regain control there has already allowed rebels to seize large swathes of countryside in the north.
Though sympathetic to the rebels, Western powers, Turkey and Sunni Muslim Arab states have not intervened militarily. Russia has given Assad diplomatic backing which has blocked U.N. action against him, while Iran has tried to bolster a key ally in an Arab world where many view non-Arab, Shi'ite Iran as a menace.
Tehran hosts a foreign ministers' conference on Thursday on Syria, but the attendees remain unknown, and Iran's latest diplomatic foray into the crisis has been met with deep skepticism by Western nations.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has billed the meeting of a dozen unnamed countries as an opportunity "to replace military clashes with political, indigenous approaches to settle the disputes". Those attending would have "a correct and realistic position" on the Syrian conflict, a senior Iranian diplomat said this week, indicating a one-sided discussion.
"The Islamic Republic's support for Assad's regime is hardly compatible with a genuine attempt at conciliation between the parties," said one Western diplomat based in Tehran. It showed Iran was "running out of ideas", he added.
Another Western diplomat said Tehran was trying to broaden the support base of the Syrian leader.
ALEPPO BATTLE
Aleppo, at the heart of Syria's failing economy, has taken a fearful pounding since the 17-month-old uprising against Assad finally took hold in a city that had stayed mostly aloof.
"We have retreated, get out of here," a lone rebel fighter yelled at Reuters journalists as they arrived in Aleppo's Salaheddine district. Nearby checkpoints that had been manned by rebel fighters for the last week had disappeared.
Syrian state television said government forces had pushed into Salaheddine, killing most of the rebels there, and had entered other parts of the city in a new offensive.
But a rebel spokesman in Salaheddine, the southern gateway to Aleppo, denied Assad's troops had taken full control. "Syrian forces are positioned on one side of Salaheddine but they haven't entered and clashes are continuing," Abu Mohammed said.
The intensity of the conflict in Aleppo and elsewhere suggests that Assad remains determined to cling to power, with support from Iran and Russia, despite setbacks such as this week's defection of his newly installed prime minister.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based opposition watchdog, said more than 60 people had been killed across Syria so far on Wednesday, including 15 civilians in Aleppo. It put Tuesday's death toll at more than 240 nationwide.
STRUGGLE FOR SURVIVAL
Satellite images released by Amnesty International, obtained from July 23 to Aug 1, showed more than 600 craters, probably from artillery shelling, dotting Aleppo and its environs.
"Amnesty is concerned that the deployment of heavy weaponry in residential areas in and around Aleppo will lead to further human rights abuses and grave breaches of international law," the human rights group said, adding that both sides might be held criminally accountable for failing to protect civilians.
The military's assaults in Aleppo follow its successful drive to retake neighborhoods seized by rebels in Damascus after a July 18 bomb attack that killed four of Assad's closest aides, including his feared brother-in-law Assef Shawkat.
On Monday Assad suffered the embarrassment of seeing his prime minister, Riyad Hijab, defect after only two months in office. Hijab apparently fled to Jordan with his family.
Yet even such high-profile defections and outside diplomatic pressure seem unlikely to deflect Assad from what has become a bitter struggle for survival between mostly Sunni Muslim rebels and a ruling system dominated by the president's minority Alawite sect, an esoteric offshoot of Shi'ite Islam.
REFUGEES
Syrian rebels, who have accused Iran of sending fighters to help Assad's forces, seized 48 Iranians in Syria on August 4, saying they were members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi acknowledged that some of the men were retired soldiers or Revolutionary Guards, but said they were religious pilgrims, not on active service.
Damascus and Tehran accuse Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Western nations of stoking violence by backing Syrian rebels.
The violence in Syria has forced tens of thousands of people to flee into neighboring countries, and about 2,400 refugees, including two generals, arrived in Turkey overnight.
Near the Syrian border town of al-Dana, a crowd of refugees from Aleppo crammed through a frontier fence as Turkish soldiers tried to keep order: "We could not endure anymore," Ahmad Shaaban, a grocer from the city's battered Salaheddine district told a Reuters correspondent at the border.
"We have been deprived of everything. They have burnt our homes and have deprived us of our livelihood."
(Additional reporting by Suleiman al-Khalidi near al-Dana, Tom Perry, Oliver Holmes, Dominic Evans and Mariam Karouny in Beirut, Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman, Mehmet Emin Caliskan in Kilis, and Yeganeh Torbati and Marcus George in Dubai; Writing by Alistair Lyon and Alastair Macdonald; Editing by Michael Roddy)