Photo: Barack Obama and Vladimir Putin at the G8 summit in Northern Ireland (Kevin LeMarque/Reuters)
As expected, Monday’s talks on Syria at the summit of the Group of 8 industrialised countries produced rhetoric and little more.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and US counterpart Barack Obama met,as the leaders of the two countries proposing an international peace conference but divided over key issues such as the future of President Assad.
At their press appearance, Putin said, “Our positions do not fully coincide, but we are united by the common intention to end the violence and to stop the number of victims increasing in Syria. We agreed to push the process of peace talks and encourage the parties to sit down at the negotiation table, organise the talks in Geneva.”
Obama said the US and Russia have a “different perspective” on Syria, but asserted a shared interest in stopping the violence and securing chemical weapons in the country.
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Footage: Insurgents In Aleppo Using Homemade Rockets
Video showing insurgents from the Jabhat al-Turkman Brigade in Aleppo’s Suleiman al-Halabi neighborhood using home-made mortars to attack Assad’s forces.
Map showing location of Suleiman al-Halabi in Aleppo:
Lebanese Minister Accuses Assad Of “Ethnic Cleansing” Against Sunnis
Lebanon’s caretaker minister for social affairs has accused forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of “trying to displace all the Sunnis to Lebanon”.
Wael Abu Faour told Reuters that during the 27-month-old conflict Syrian forces had committed what was “tantamount to ethnic cleansing next to the Syrian-Lebanese border.”
Abu Faour added:
“What began was a wave of people fleeing from violence to Lebanon, but what is happening now is a completely different matter. What is happening now is organized displacement of the Syrian people – organized based on sectarian and political motives.”
International Peace Conference “Unlikely Before August”
Reuters cite a “source at a meeting of Group of Eight leaders” as saying that an international peace conference on Syria is unlikely to happen before August, because of differences between the “West” and Russia.
Moscow opposes plans by the US and Europe to arm selected insurgent groups. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov has said that Moscow does not accept Washington’s claims that Assad has used chemical weapons — the ostensible reason that the US has decided to go ahead and give arms to insurgents.
Worsening Situation in Damascus Suburb
Abu Nadim, based in Douma near Damascus, reports:
There is no medicine, barely any food. We are eating dry bread, and even that is running out.
Though the battles are fierce, no one is winning at the moment. The army siege is creating a difficult situation, but the [insurgent] Free Syrian Army in Eastern Ghouta is in a stronger position than it ever was in Qusayr [the town that recently feel to the regime].
Casualties
The Local Coordination Committees claim that 76 people were killed on Monday, including 23 in Aleppo Province and 22 in Damascus and its suburbs.
The Violations Documentations Center records 63,892 deaths since the start of the conflict in March 2011, an increase of 86 from Monday. Of the dead, 49,182 are civilians, a rise of 48 from yesterday.
Regime Stresses Reconstruction of al-Qusayr
The Syrian regime is emphasizing reconstruction in al-Qusayr, after taking control of the town — on the Syrian border with Lebanon and 35 km south of Homs — from insurgent forces on June 5.
State media reported on Monday that Syria’s Deputy Prime Minister for Services Affairs, Omar Ghalwanji, had announced an investment of 300 million Syrian pounds — in the form of 100,000 SYP individual payments to locals — for reconstruction efforts.
Footage of visit by regime officials to Qusayr on Monday to publicize reconstruction efforts:
Those reconstruction efforts include restoring electricity and water supplies to the town, as well as local hospitals and medical facilities — projects that Iran has pledged to help with across Syria. ADD LINK.
Why is the Syrian regime placing so much emphasis on reconstruction when the conflict is ongoing?
Reconstruction efforts are important for two major reasons.
First, by rebuilding towns like Qusayr, whose infrastructure is so badly damaged by intense fighting, the regime can encourage citizens to return to their homes, securing the town against incursions by insurgents and reducing the likelihood of local unrest caused by internal refugees.
Second, by publicizing its investments into reconstruction, and by giving local people large cash handouts to rebuild their homes, the Syrian regime is gaining the support of local people. Iran — which has pledged to assist Syria with more reconstruction projects across the country — is more than well aware of the power that these actions have. Iran has invested enormous sums into similar reconstruction projects into areas of southern Lebanon damaged in the Second Lebanon War in 2006, building not only homes but also infrastructure, gardens and mosques.
Hamas Calls for Hezbollah Withdrawal from Syria
The Palestinian organisation Hamas on Monday has urged Lebanon’s Hezbollah to “withdraw its forces from Syria and keep its weapons directed at the Zionist enemy (Israel)”.
Hamas said that sending forces to Syria “contributed to the sectarian polarization in the region”.
Tehran Ups Reconstruction Projects In Syria As Damascus Signs Agreements on Energy, Medicine, Food
Iran is to step up its reconstruction efforts in Syria, signing agreements on Monday to rebuild electricity stations destroyed in the 27-month conflict, according to Syrian State media.
Ahead of Ramadan, Tehran has also pledged to send food, medicine, medical equipment and oil products to the Syrian government.
The Iranian Foreign Minister’s Special Advisor for Economic Affairs, Hassan Kazemi-Qomi — formerly Tehran’s Ambassador to Iraq — said that in addition to agreements over health, oil, electricity, and foodstuffs, Tehran will provide Assad’s government with a $3.5 billion credit line.
The announcement comes after Syrian Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi said Sunday that Damascus had exempted Iranian products from customs duty, to facilitate the flow of Iranian goods into Syria.
Iran has said that it plans to carry out a range of development projects in Syria, including constructing flour mills as well as constructing and reconstructing electricity power plants.
Tehran’s reconstruction projects — facilitated in part by the Revolutionary Guards — seek to bolster the Assad regime at a critical time as temperatures rise this summer, electricity outages become more and more common, and food shortages grow.
Obama Damps Down Talk of No-Fly Zones
President Obama has continued the public retreat from leaks that his Administration is considering no-fly zones, enforced by American aircraft.
Obama told the US Public Broadcasting Service on Monday, “If you set up a no-fly zone, that you may not be actually solving the problem on the zone….We have to not rush into one more war in the Middle East.”
Last week, as news emerged that the US will start direct supplies of arms to the insurgency, American officials told The Wall Street Journal that plans were being circulated for a 25-mile no-fly zone in southern Syria, backed up by US warplanes on Jordanian bases.
Syrian Pound Falls Almost 25% in A Day
The Syrian pound fell almost 25% — from 170:1 to 210:1 — against the US dollar on Monday, as s rushed to markets to buy basic food stuff and commodities.
Media reported a meeting among top Syrian officials and economists, including the Governor of the Central Bank and exchange dealers. Prime Minister Wael al-Halqi insisted that the Government has large reserves of foreign exchange to provide all the needs of the Syrian market of imported goods and production inputs.
Al-Halqi pronounced, “The great victories of the Syrian Arab Army in addition to the measures taken by the government on all levels would gradually restore stability to the Syrian pound and national economy.”
The Governor of the Central Bank, Adib Mayaleh, declared that the bank would continue its policy of intervention to keep up the price of the pound, insisting the rate of the dollar in the black market was “false and illogical”.
“CBS will provide the exchanging institutions and the Commercial Bank of Syria with the foreign currency by acceptable prices in order to meet the citizens’ requests to buy the foreign currencies according to regulations which sell each citizen an amount of 1000 Euro per month,” Mayaleh said, according to SANA.
Economist Suleiman Suleiman was not so hopeful: “All solutions generated by the economic kitchen, including the monetary fund and the Governor of the Central Bank, have been of no avail.”
