PHOTO: Russian President Vladimir Putin greets Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem in Moscow on Monday

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Op-Ed: “As a Patriotic Syrian, I Never Imagined I Would Ask for Foreign Intervention”


Syrian State media is proclaiming that Russian President Vladimir Putin has “pledged continued support for the Syrian people and leadership”, hosting Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem in Moscow.

According to State news agency SANA, Putin told Moallem, “We are confident that the Syrian people will conquer terrorism in the end….Our policy to support Syria, the Syrian leadership and the Syrian people remains unchanged.”

But there is a clue in the story that the Russian President pressed the Foreign Minister to look for a political resolution to the four-year conflict. SANA reports that he said Moscow’s contacts with the countries in the region, “including with Turkey, Jordan and Saudi Arabia” — all of whom back the Syrian rebels and opposition — “show that everyone wants to contribute to fighting this evil”.

He supposedly added, “Russia will employ its leverage and good relations with neighboring countries to help establish an anti-terrorism alliance if the Syrian leadership sees any chance of it working out.”

A prominent activist on Twitter asserts that Putin was putting forth a proposal for the Assad regime to join its long-time opponents in a campaign against the Islamic State:

Moallem’s response was far from enthusiastic: “Such an alliance is a tall order that ‘needs big miracles’ to happen because the countries invited to be part of it are the root cause of the problem in Syria.”

Since early 2014, Russia has hosted two nominal sets of discussions between a regime delegation and selected members of the opposition, mainly from within Syria. Damascus sent a relatively low-level group, and none of the meetings even approached agreement on an agenda. So far, talk of a Moscow III conference has made little progress.

Russian State agency TASS reinforces the political message, albeit through Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov rather than Putin:

The most important thing is to make sure that that the agreements reached on a political settlement by consent of all Syrian groups are further observed.

Today when the terrorist threat is hanging over the entire Middle East region and far beyond, there should be no more pretexts for delaying the political process.

Lavrov did maintain Moscow’s backing of the military campaign against the rebels, saying Russia felt “solidarity with the Syrian people fighting against terror groups”. He added that Moscow was “providing all possible assistance to increase [Syria’s] ability to resist the evil” and would “continue doing this”.

The Foreign Minister pushed back on efforts for President Assad to leave power:

Everything that is being said about the need for changing the regime is rather risky….It plays into the extremists’ hands. It is something everybody would like to avoid.


State Media: A Solidarity Stand in Izra and “Normal Life” in Daraa

Almost a week into the rebel offensive to capture the rest of Daraa city in southern Syria, State media are posting a photo of a “solidarity stand” in Izra, a town north of Daraa, and the gradual restoration of “normal life” in the city itself.

The “solidarity stand”:

IZRA SOLIDARITY STAND

The rebels’ “Southern Storm” offensive, begun last Thursday, has attacked the 30% of Daraa held by Syrian forces and is trying to cut the supply routes to the city.

State news agency SANA proclaims, “Maintenance and repair workshops are working on fixing damages of water, electricity, and communications networks while bakeries have worked again to cover the needs of city residents.”

Fighting in the al-Manshiyah district of Daraa city:


Activists: At Least 20 Killed in Regime Airstrike on Village in Daraa Province

The opposition Local Coordination Committees has posted the names of 20 people killed by a regime airstrike on Ihsim in Daraa Province in southern Syria.

The LCC says dozens were wounded.


Israel: Medical Assistance to Rebels Conditional on Keeping Terrorists From Border, Not Harming Druze

Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon has set conditions for medical aid to Syrian rebels.

Ya’alon said on Monday that assistance depended on keeping “terrorist organizations” from Israel’s border and not harming the local Druze population.

The Defense Minister was responding to last week’s assault by Syrian Druze residents in the Golan Heights on Israeli ambulances carrying Syrian wounded. In one incident, two patients were beaten, with one man killed and another seriously injured.

See Syria Daily, June 23: Druze Attack Israeli Ambulance Carrying Syrian Wounded, 1 Killed

The Druze have been agitated by claims, denied by Israel, that the ambulances have been carrying fighters from the Islamist faction Jabhat al-Nusra. Earlier this month, an al-Nusra unit killed 23 Druze in fighting in northwest Syria.

Ya’alon repeated that Israel’s red lines in the Syrian conflict are the transfer of strategic weapons to Hezbollah and the infringement of Israeli sovereignty.

Meanwhile, Ya’alon’s strategic advisor, Amos Gilad, told an intelligence conference:

Syria is gone. Syria is dying. The funeral will be declared in due time. This Bashar Assad, he will be remembered in history textbooks as the one who lost Syria.

Until now he has lost 75 percent of Syria….He is, practically, governor of 20 percent of Syria. And his future, if I may predict it, is shrinking all of the time. And maybe we will have him as the president of “Alawistan”.


Protests in East Ghouta, Near Damascus, Against Rebel Leadership of Jaish al-Islam

Mohammed al-Misrabawi, a citizen journalist from Misraba in the East Ghouta area near Damascus, tells Syria Direct of weekend protests (see video) against the local leadership of the rebel faction Jaish al-Islam:

Detainees are sitting in Jaish al-Islam’s prisons. There are various charges against them — some are being held on charges of corruption, others on charges of belonging to Jaish al-Umma [a rival faction defeated by Jaish al-Islam in January], and others still on charges of belonging to the Islamic State.

Asked about the chant “Fall Zahran”, directed at Jaish al-Islam head Zahran Alloush, the journalist asserts:

Alloush is the one responsible for people’s arrests. The United Command does not have decision-making power, Zahran Alloush is the one who makes the decisions and the United Command implements them.

Add to that the fact that people have grown tired of talk [about breaking the regime siege of years on the area] and need real actions to alleviate their suffering.

The demonstrations began in Saqba last Friday and spread to Hamouriyeh and Misraba in following days.

A Jaish al-Islam source said:

The protests are exploited by the families and supporters of the detained Islamic State members.

So far we have accepted them, but in case they start disturbing the peace, I think we should arresting the militants [in the demonstrations].