Summer stop

Due to vacation this blog will be closed (or almost closed, depending on the circumstances) till the beginning of August. Starti ng 1 or 2 August it will, hopefully,  be bussiness as usual.

Academic center in Israeli settlement Ariel gets university status

The Ariel Academic Center (AP)

Israel has increased the probability of academic boycotts, after the college for higher education in the settlement of Ariel has been accorded university status. Israeli media reported on Tuesday that members of the "Council for Higher Education in Judea and Samaria" -- the West Bank --  voted by 11 to two to recognise the college of higher education at the Ariel settlement as a university. 

Israel's Council for Higher Education, which regulates the seven universities in the Jewish state, opposed the move. But professor Amos Altshuler, head of the "Council for Higher Education in Judea and Samaria," told public radio: "The law obliges us to ask the advice of the Council for Higher Education, but we are not obliged to follow it." Minister of Education Gideon Sa'ar expressed his support for the move, although he is chairman of the state's Council for Higher Education. The 15-member Judea and Samaria education panel was established in 1997 after the state's council refused to discuss issues involving academics in the territories. The law establishing the council was signed by the commander of the Israel Defense Force's Central Command.

Apart from Gideo Sa'ar, Yuval Steinitz (finance) -- also expressed his support for the move. He said he had some 'special funds' reserved for it. Leftists, Arab Israelis and several universities oppose it, citing the risk of an international boycott targeting Israeli universities in general.

The recognition as a university must still be ratified by the army, which is the highest authority in the West Bank. That, however, is thought to be a formality.  Set up in 1982 as an annex to Bar Ilan University, Ariel has 21,000 students in four faculties (medicine, engineering, natural sciences and social sciences) and also has at its disposal architecture and telecommunications facilities.

Still no clear picture of what happened in Treimsa

 
UN personnel inspects a damaged school in Treimsa. (AFP)

Still we don't know what happened in Treimsa. Will we ever? AFP reported that Syria denied that its armed forces carried out a massacre in the small Sunni village, which is surrounded by Alawite villages and which seemed to have been a rebel stronghold. UN investigators meanwhile returned to the village on Sunday in order to carry on with their investigation. .

According to AFP foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said at a news conference in Damascus that 37 gunmen and two civilians were killed in clashes there with rebels. He denied categorically helicopters and tanks had been used in Thursday's assault on Treimsa. "This is absolutely not true. Only troop carriers and lights weapons were used, the most powerful of weapons being RPGs (rocket-propelled grenades)," he said."What happened was not an attack by the army on innocent civilians.The aim of this news conference is to tell people that what happened was not a massacre... It was a clash between regular forces and armed groups who do not believe in a peaceful solution."

The UN observers, who returned on Sunday, said after their visit on Saturday that they saw blood and evidence of the use of heavy weapons as well as burned out homes. They did not give a casualty toll. "On the basis of this preliminary mission, UNSMIS can confirm that an attack, using a variety of weapons, took place in Treimsa on July 12," said Sausan Ghosheh, spokeswoman for the UN Supervision Mission in Syria. "The attack on Treimsa appeared targeted at specific groups and houses, mainly of army defectors and activists. There were pools of blood and blood spatters in rooms of several homes together with bullet cases," she said. "The UN team also observed a burned school and damaged houses with signs of internal burning in five of them," Ghosheh said, adding that a "wide range of weapons were used, including artillery, mortars and small arms."

Makdissi said "only five buildings where there were very sophisticated weapons were targeted."

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had said  more than 150 people were killed in the assault which it alleged was a massacre carried out by the army backed by pro-regime shabiha militiamen. "It might be the biggest massacre committed in Syria since the start of the revolution," in March 2011, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

Meanwhile violence killed at least 55 people on Sunday, the Observatory said. The town of Rastan, a rebel stronghold in the central province of Homs, was shelled as well as the Damascus neighbourhoods of Tadamon Kfar Sousa, Nahr Aisha and Sidi Qadad. According to the Observatory it was the heaviest fighting in Damascus since the beginning of the uprising. 

On Saturday at least 118 people got killed, 32 opposition warriors, 37 soldiers of the Syrian army and 49 civilians, according to the Observatory,.

Links for the two first weeks of July

Loonwatchers: Owen Jones about how it feels to be continuously confronted with Islamophobia

The Nation: Deepa Kumar: Islamophobia, a Bi-Partisan Project 

Al-Ahram Online: Breaking the Silence: Mob Sexual Assault on Tahrir

Xinhua: Palestinians pressured no to seek probe into Yasser Arafat's death

Al Akhbar: The US Ambassador to Yemen: The New Dictator

In These Times: Striking Back at Drone Attacks >

The Alternative Information Centre: A Critical Insight into the Israeli Military Court System

The prove that Syrian rebels use child soldiers. Photo's (and an acount, but in Arabic) of a child soldier in one of the rebel armies, who lost a  comrade near the Crac des Chevaliers crusader castle, cried and went on. (The comment is that 'now he became a man').  

Nicolas Pelham in NYReview: How Morocco Dodged the Arab Spring

The LobeLog:  Masha Cohen's  review of the book on the Mossad by Dan Raviv and Yossi Melman,
'Spies Against Armageddon'.

Arutz 7:  The Israeli Right convenes: No Barriers to Annexation

The Nation: Jordan under pressure to appease Brotherhood 

More than 200 killed in new Syrian massacre

Treimseh before the bloodbath started.

AFP reports: Syrian government troops using tanks and helicopters massacred more than 150 people in the central province of Hama, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, while a rebel leader put the toll at more than 200. Government troops on Thursday bombarded the village using tanks and helicopters, according to the Observatory, which earlier put the death toll at more than 100.

Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP by telephone that the bodies of 30 villagers had already been identified following the sustained attack, which brought the day's total death toll in the conflict-torn nation to over 200.

Rebel leader Abu Mohamad, chief of a group based further to the north, told AFP early Friday that the attack using helicopters, tanks and multiple rocket-launchers had killed more than 200 people in the village.

Abu Mohamad said he had been in phone contact with a resident of Treimsa who told him that government forces were on hills a few kilometres (miles) outside the town.

 The official Syrian newsagency Sana merntioned the killing, but as could be expected gave a rather different account: It said that 'Tens of terrorists overrun the village of al-Trimsa in Hama Countryside yesterday, killing or wounding tens of Syrian civilians. The terrorists, according to eye witnesses who appeared on Syrian TV to narrate the reality of events on the ground, ransacked, destroyed and burned scores of the village houses before the competent authorities arrive to the village.'
It is not possible to independently verify death tolls in Syria. According to The Observatory more than 17,000 people have been killed since the uprising erupted in mid-March last year.

Suicide attack against police cadets in Yemen kills 20

A suicide bombing killed at least 20 police cadets in Yemen's capital of Sanaa on Wednesday, just five days after the terrorist group sent warning messages to intelligence services that an attack would strike police institutions in days.
The Yemeni government launched an all-out military operation in May against the al-Qaida group. However, the group vowed to target the capital Sanaa, where a number of deadly attacks have been carried out against high-level security and military personnel.The deadly bombing was the second in less than two months in Sanaa, after an attack on a military parade rehearsal in al-Sabeen Square in May, which killed about 100 central security forces in a highly-guarded square adjacent to the presidential palace.
"It's an urgent message to chiefs of the Yemeni intelligence services, the political security agency and the national security that we will carry out another sophisticated operation against police forces in Sanaa in days," an al-Qaida spokesman identified himself as Abu Hajar al-Hadramy said in an audio tape carried by al-Qaida media Al-Malahim Foundation on July 6.
Wednesday's attack occurred in front of the police academy in downtown Sanaa while the cadets were leaving after classes finished.

Morsi's decree to reconvene Egypt's parliament runs aground in a juridical labyrinth

Egypt's President Mohamed Morsi will respect a court ruling overturning his decree for the dissolved parliament to convene, his office said Wednesday. The statement appears to stave off a showdown with the military leaders of teh SCAF and to mollify the judiciary.

"If yesterday's constitutional court ruling prevents parliament from fulfilling its responsibilities, we will respect that because we are a state of the law," the statement said. "There will be consultations with (political) forces and institutions and the supreme council for legal authorities to pave a suitable way out of this," the statement added.

Last week, Morsi ordered parliament to convene, overstepping a decision by the military who disbanded the parliament after the Supreme Constitional Court last month ruled that one third of it  had been elected in an unconstitutional way. The military then  issued an addition to the constitution, themselves assuming the powers of the parliament. Morsi's decree to reconvene the parliament, in which the Muslim Brotherhood's Justice and Freedom Party is the most powerful, was seen as an opening shot in a power struggle with the military. 

President Morsi meets the head of the council of judges, one of the juridical organisations that criticized his decree to reconvene the parliament.  (AFP)

It was applauded by supporters who believed the court's decision to disband parliament was political. But opponents accused him of overstepping his authority. An there were many reactions from legal experts who questioned it legality.

The parliament convened on Tuesday for less than a quarter of an hour and decided to refer the question whether the decision by the military to disband it was justified to an Administrative Court of appeal. This was seen as an attempt by Morsi and his supporters to back away from a direct confrontation with the military. But the story got a different twist after the Supreme Constitutional Court also convened on Tuesday, and ruled on Tuesday evening that the military had taken the right decision when they dissolved the parliament, thereby de facto overruling Morsi's decree. 

The result of all these movements is that not much is moving in Egypt after all. Morsi apparently did not want to go too far in testing the the willingness of the SCAF to accept the parliament which is dominated by the Muslim Brotherhood and Salafists, and compromised. The parliaments future is suspended from a thin thread as the decision whether it will survive depends on the viewpoint of an administrative court, which is unlikely to come to a different decision than the Supreme Constitutional Court when it comes down to the question whether it was rightfully disbanded. Incidentally, the same goes for the the constitutional assembly that was formed by parliament and that is to write a new constitution. The same administrative court is going to decide on its future as well, after it decided on Wednesday to look into complaints on the panel's legality next Tuesday rather than in September as had been scheduled, the official MENA news agency reported. In the the administrative court decides that is illegal as well, and had to be disbanded, the military will appoint a  news assembly, as it gave itself that right in the same addition to the constitution issued just before the second round of the presidential elections whereby it assumed the powers of the parliament. 

In this way the question who rules Egypt is decided by judges against the background of a constitutional labyrinth, where the powers of the president or the military and even the judges themselves are questionable, since they are based in part on rules that have been added unilaterally by the military and have not been ratified in any democratic way. Many legal experts in Egypt, for instance, questioned whether the High Constitutional Court had even the right to overrule a presidential decree. But the general outcome of this shadowy fight is clear enough: Morsi will not be able to have it his own way. There are not many steps he can take without the consent of the SCAF. 

Shiites in eastern Saudi province of Qatif protest arrest of sheikh

AFP reports new clashes in the eastern Saudi province of Qatif, heartland of the Shiites in the kingdom:

Two Shiites were killed in overnight clashes with police in the eastern Saudi province of Qatif following the arrest of a prominent Shiite cleric and government critic, activists said on Monday. Akhbar Shakuri and Mohammed Filfel died and a dozen other protesters were wounded during the clashes that erupted when police opened fire to disperse a demonstration against the arrest of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, said the activists.

The violence occurred in Riyadh Street, the main artery of Qatif city, they said. The reports could not be independently verified.

Sheikh Nimr Baqr al-Nimr

The interior ministry described Nimr as an "instigator of sedition" as it announced that he was arrested at Al-Awamiya in Eastern Province on Sunday, after being wounded in the leg while putting up resistance.

He was transferred to hospital and was due to be interrogated, ministry spokesman Mansur Turki said, cited by the official SPA news agency.

The new deaths bring to nine the number of people killed in clashes between Saudi authorities and protesters in the Shiite-populated region.

Nimr is considered one of the main advocates of demonstrations that first took place in February 2011 after an outbreak of violence between Shiite pilgrims and religious police in the holy city of Medina.

The protests escalated after the kingdom led a force of Gulf troops into neighbouring Bahrain to help crush a month-long Shiite-led uprising against the country's Sunni monarchy.

Most of Saudi Arabia's estimated two million Shiites live in the east, where the vast majority of the OPEC kingpin's huge oil reserves lie. Saudi Shiites complain of marginalisation in the kingdom.

Protesters in Qatif holding posters of the sheikh (Reuters)

Morsi confronts SCAF and reinstates parliament

The Egyptian president Mohamed Morsi issued a decree Sunday afternoon ordering the dissolved Maglis es Shaab (lower house of parliament) to resume its legislative activities. Assemblee speaker Saad al-Katatni later on  Sunday issuied a declaration that the assembly will practice its full legislative and regulatory responsibilities as soon as it reconvenes, which is expected "within hours." 

Morsi

Morsi's presidential decree also said that new elections will be held 60 days after an new constitution has been adopted (which has to been done by referendum). This is not expected before the end of the tear.
 The Supreme Military Council, Egypts military leadership, seemed surprised by the move of the president. Te state news agency MENA said the military council held an emergency session to discuss the decree. A member of the council, who declined to be identified, told Reuters that the generals had not been given prior warning of Morsy's decision. 
 SCAF had in June dissolved the Magles as Shaab (where the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) of the Muslim Brotherhood together with the Salafists holds a majority. That decision was  based on a ruling of the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) that a third of its members had been elected in an unconstitutional way. In a Constituional Declaration the SCAF gave itself wider powers and also entrusted itself with the powers of the parliament.
Morsi's decree seems to be a clear sign that he, and the Muslim Brotherhood, are not prepared to give up their strong position in the parliament and are ready to confront the military on this issue. The military's response has yet to become known. In the meantime also the judges of the Supreme Constitutional Court seem te be upset. On Monday they will have a plenary meeting to discuss Morsi's step.

Rather high turnout and not many incidents during Libyan elections

Libyans went to the polls Saturday in order to elect a General National Congress (GNC), an elected legislative authority which is to take over legislative powers from the National Transitional Council. It will be the first elected parliament since Colonel Muammar Gaddafi seized power in 1969.
In these first free elections in decades there weren't too many incidents. Protesters unhappy over the east's share of seats in the new assembly had targeted polling centres and also forced oil facilities to shut down ahead of the election. There were some brawls and one person was killed.  But according to Electoral commission chief Nuri al-Abar only 24 out of 1,554 polling stations had not been able to open their doors due to acts of sabotage, mostly in the east.

 Fireworks in Benghazi after the polling stations closed. (Reuters) 
 
Throughout the country the overall mood was festive, however. In Benghazi after the official end of polling the streets filled with joyous crowds and cars with blaring horns, as people fired celebratory gunshots into the air and let off fireworks, waved flags and flashed "V for victory". There  were similar scenes in the capital.
According to the electoral commission the turnout was 60 percent.  Final results aren't expected before Monday evening, although there are some indications that the liberal National Forces Alliance (see below) might be winning.
 The General National Congress will have 200 seats, which will be distributed according to demographics, with 100 going to the west, 60 to the east and 40 to the south. Of the total of 200 seats 80 are set apart for political parties. Exactly 2,639 independent candidates are vying for the remaining 120 seats. There were th 2.5 million registered voters distributed over 13 districts.

The main parties which were competing are listed below. (Source the Lebanese paper Al-Akhbar) 
 The National Forces Alliance: A coalition of 65 liberal parties led by Mahmoud Jibril, the war-time rebel prime minister and US-educated political scientist. Jibril himself is not running. 
The Justice and Construction Party: The political branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in Libya, modelled on its Egyptian counterpart. Mohammed Sawan, a former political prisoner under Gaddafi heads the group. 
Al-Watan (Homeland): An Islamist group led by former rebel militia leader Abdel Hakim Belhadj. A leader of the now-defunct Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, which waged an insurgency against Gaddafi in the 1990s, Belhadj fought with the Taliban in Afghanistan.Critics say al-Watan is funded by Qatar, which was a key backer of last-year's NATO-backed rebellion against Gaddafi. 
National Front: Affiliated with the National Front for the Salvation of Libya, this is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood led by intellectual dissident Mohammed al-Magriaf. 
Al-Asala (The Root) : A Salafi Islamist group led by Sheikh Abdul Bassit Ghweila.


It is hoped that the General National Congress will be able to overcome the divisions in the country where
regional and tribal loyalties play a great role. But a first problem was already the distributions of the seats.

Factions in the east, which was marginalized under Gaddafi, wanted an equal split instead of the 100-60-40 formula and had threatened to sabotage the vote. As an answer to the objections of the easterners the outgoing government, the National Transitional Council, decided on Thursday, two days before the Libyans went to the urns, that "the election of a constituent committee tasked with drafting a national charter will be carried out through a separate election-process, instead of being appointed by the members of the incoming congress.  This decision stripped the General National Congress of what was considered one of its core functions. However, the GNC maintains its legislative powers and the prerogative of appointing a government. In the 60-member constituent authority the seats will be - contrary to what is the case in the  General National Congress - split evenly between the regions of Tripolitana in the west, Cyrenaica in the east and Fezzan in the south. This follows the model of the 1951 constitution, whereby Libya was divided into three administrative regions. King Idriss al-Senussi abolished the federal system in 1963.

Ex-Arafat aide who exposed Fatah's attempted coup in Gaza in 2007, dies at 74

Hani al-Hassan, once one of the closest advisers of Yasser Arafat, and the man who in 2007 first brought out that the so called 'coup' of Hamas in Gaza was in fact a response to an attempted coup by Fatah, died on Thursday in Amman.  He was 74.

Hani al-Hassan

Hani al-Hassan was a younger brother of one of the founding fathers of Al-Fatah and the PLO, Khaled al-Hassan. He was a member of the Central Council of Fatah and held many functions in the PLO, including ambassador to Tehran and Amman. He also was briefly interior minister in the Palestinian Authority, a position from which he was removed in 2003 under pressure from Mahmoud Abbas, the current Palestinian president, then a key aide to Arafat.Al-Hassan's main role, however, was that for decades he was a close adviser to Arafat, a position he retained even after in 1993 he had voiced his opposition against the Oslo Accords. After Arafat's death he remained a national security adviser, until Abbas sacked him in 2007, because of an interview he gave to al-Jazeera during which he accused a faction in Fatah around the former head of security of Fatah in Gaza, Mohammed Dahlan, of having instigated the short war with Hamas in Gaza. Al Hassan referred to Dahlan's group as the  "collaborators"  or the "Dayton group'' (after U.S. General Keith Dayton). He accused them to have planned a coup against Hamas and said that Hamas, which seized power, could not have acted otherwise "to protect the national cause'.  The members of the Dayton group, to which Mahmoud Abbas also belonged,  are believed to have in turn accused Al-Hassan of warning the leaders of Hamas that an attack by Fatah was  imminent.Al-Hassan was the first who confirmed, with his statement to Al-Jazeera, that the conflict in Gaza was started by Fatah with the help of the Americans and with the aim to oust Hamas. His story was later confirmed in an article in the American magazine Vanity Fair. General Dayton was the American general who set up a new Palestinian police force, paid for by the U.S. and in cooperation with Israel and Jordan.

General Tlass, son of former Syrian defense minister, defects

 Joshua Landis reports on his blog Syria Comment that:
 Manaf Tlass, the son of ex-Defense Minister (1972 – 12 May 2004), Mustafa Tlass, has fled the country. Mustafa Tlass was instrumental in smoothing the way for Bashar to assume power after the death of his father.

When Hafez al-Assad died in June 2000, his son Bashar was immediately promoted in military rank by Defense Minister Mustapha Tlass. He was also made secretary-general of the Baath Party whereas Manaf became a member of the Party’s Central Committee and an officer in the Republican Guard.

Bashar and Manaf  during military training in the 90-ties

 Manaf Tlass was a close confidant of Bashar from his earliest days and part of his inner circle or “shille”, which included people, such as his cousins Rami and Hafiz Makhlouf,  Mudar al-Assad (son of Rifaat), Nader Qala’i (ex-CEO of Syriatel and business partner to Rami) Yazan Aslan (son of Ali Aslan, Chief of Staff).

Tlass's father Mustapah is believed to be in Paris  and his brother Firas in Dubai. Landis says that is unknown where their families are.
It was reported earlier that by now some 15 generals have fled Syria or gone over to the other side. But Tlass, with his position in the Baath and the Republican Guard is by far the most important. He was also the highest placed Sunni Muslim in the country. His father Mustapha used to be a close confidant and friend of the former president Hafez al-Assad.The families have been close since Bashar and Manaf both were little boys. If it's true thatManaf defected, it is a big blow for Bashar Assad.

Chaotic meeting of Syrian opposition in Cairo fails to form a united leadership

Abdel Basset Sayda (c), the leader of the Syrian National Council greets delegates at the meeting in Cairo. (AFP)  

The meeting of the Syrian opposition in Cairo again has exposed the deep divisions between the different groups. The meeting of more than 200 participants from 30 different movements as well as independent figures, civil society groups and activists, failed  to form a unified front against President Bashar al-Assad's regime. After two days of meetings hosted by the Arab League, the groups agreed broadly that any transition must exclude Assad and agreed to support the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA).

But the delegates were unified only in their conclusion that any solution has to start by the fall of the Assad-regime. They failed to form a united bloc that could act as a single point of contact for the international community. 

The Action Group for Syria, a body representing world powers had asked for the formation of such a committee. Kofi Annan, the Arab League and UN special envoy, on Saturday.said:  “The bloodshed must end, and the parties must be prepared to put forward effective interlocutors to work with me towards a Syrian-led settlement,”

The BBC reported that a final statement read by opposition leader Kamal al-Labwani said  that the delegates "agreed that the political solution has to start by the fall of the regime represented in Bashar al-Assad.''  In other documents plans were laid out for a transitional period, including an interim government and parliament, the way to reform the armed forces, the formation of a commission to investigate crimes against the Syrian people, the dissolution of  the ruling Baath Party, whose members would be allowed to help run the country as long as they did not have "hands stained with blood". A second document said the new post-Assad Syria would have a "republican, democratic, civilian, pluralistic" system of government.  However, disagreement remained over the powers to be granted to a committee that would act as a single point of contact for the international community, recalling Libya's National Transitional Council.
 Before the final statement was read out on Tuesday,  fistfights broke out and women wept when a Kurdish group stormed out, angry that the Kurds were not recognised as a minority within Syria. "We will not return to the conference and that is our final line. We are a people as we have language and religion and that is what defines a people," said Morshed Mashouk, a leading member of the Syrian Kurdish National Council. Also aan other group,  the Syrian Revolution General Commission (SRGC), left the conference because of differences of opinion. The Free Syrian Army boycotted the meeting which it dubbed a 'conspiracy'  to follow the agendas of Moscow and Tehran. 

Syrian opposition meets in Cairo trying to forge a common position

 Picture from video taken during bombardment by government troops of  Talbiseh, a suburb of Homs. (Picture AP). The army kept up its bombardment of rebel neighbourhoods of  Homs on Monday.

The government also kept up its bombardements of suburbs of Damascus. Helicopters bombarded Damascus suburb of Douma on Monday, were government forces started to attack two days earlier.

Monday's violence killed at least 30 people across the country, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Right

Members of Syria's opposition met behind closed doors in Cairo to try and find a common vision after the major powers during the weekend in Geneva agreed on the need for a power sharing  transition  government.
The meeting was chaired by Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi. Among the participants were the Syrian National Council and the National Coordination Body for Democratic Change in Syria, all in all some 250 opposition figures attended. Al-Arabi, urged the factions "not to waste this opportunity" and to "unite." Nasser al-Qudwa, deputy to UN-Arab League peace envoy Kofi Annan, echoed Arabi's call. The meeting was  also attended by the foreign ministers of Turkey, Iraq and Kuwait.

The meeting was boycotted by rebel fighters. In a statement, signed by the Free Syrian Army and "independent" activists, they criticized that fact that armed intervention was not mentioned in the agreement reached in Geneva. According to the FSA and its allies  the agreement served the interests of the Damascus regime's allies Russia and Iran. It also blasted the agreement for "ignoring the question of buffer zones protected by the international community, humanitarian corridors, an air embargo and the arming of rebel fighters."

The transition plan for Syria that was reached this weekend in Geneva was a compromise with Russia and China .  It was immediately branded a failure by both the opposition and Syrian state media. The plan did not make any explicit call for Assad to cede power, as urged by Western governments, after Russia and China insisted that this has to be decided by the Syrians themselves.  The opposition Syrian National Council said on Sunday that "no initiative can receive the Syrian people's backing unless it specifically demands the fall of Bashar al-Assad and his clique." However, the National Coordination Body for Democratic Change in Syria said Monday that the plan is the best way to ensure a political transition that avoids a full collapse of the Syrian state. 

US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland commented that the plan contained a clause that members of a transitional governing body to run Syria had to be agreed "by mutual consent." "So from our perspective... there is no way that Assad, his cronies or anybody with blood on their hands is going to meet the mutual consent standard," she told reporters. "This express, written assurance gives them ironclad guarantees that they will be able to veto people like Assad."

Meanwhile,  UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay briefed the UN Security Council in New York and afterwards told the press that the violence was being fuelled by arms supplies to both the government and opposition.' Any further militarisation of the conflict must be avoided at all costs,' she said. Pillay did not name countries. Russia and Iran are known to be suppliers to President Bashar al-Assad and Gulf states, notably Qatar and Saudi Arabia, have given weapons to the increasingly well-armed opposition.

Pillay said the government and opposition were carrying out "serious" new rights violations including attacks on hospitals and told the council that the violence is becoming "increasingly sectarian." With the United Nations considering the future of its observers in Syria, Pillay said she told the council it must "support and strengthen" the UN Supervision Mission in Syria so that it can "effectively" monitor events.

Human Rights Watch released a new report about torture in Syria. Based on interviews with more than 200 former detainees it identified 27 torture centers across the country.