Homs Civilians in Danger as Deal Breaks Down
Al Jazeera reports that civilians in Homs could face grave danger after a weeks-long deal to allow residents out of the city’s besieged areas fell apart. Lakhdar Brahimi, the U.N.-Arab League special envoy to Syria, urged “all the parties to return to the negotiating table and complete the deal which was on the verge of being signed.”
His comments came as “activists said on Thursday that barrel bombs were being dropped by government forces targeting opposition-held areas in Homs after Syrian troops and pro-regime militiamen fought their way into the neighbourhoods during the course of the week, after besieging them for nearly two years.
Brahimi added that the discussions “had been well under way between the Syrian government and ‘negotiating committee representing the civilians and fighters still trapped in the Old city of Homs as well as the inhabitants of the al-Waer neighborhood.’”
Brahimi said it was “alarming that Homs, whose people have suffered so much throughout these past three years is again the theater of death and destruction,” Reuters reports.
The opposition National Coalition, a political body, “warned of a massacre if Assad’s forces were to push through into the small pocket of rebel-held Homs.”
Syria Presidential Candidates to Register from Monday
AFP reports that candidates for Syria’s presidential election can begin registering on April 21, when the date for the vote will be announced. “On Monday April 21, the Council of the People (parliament) will meet to open registration for presidential candidates and set a date for the election,” a government source said.
The Syrian government has said it will hold elections before the end of Bashar al-Assad’s term, which is on July 17.
“But it is unclear how it will do so during a raging civil war that has killed more than 150,000 people over the past three years, displaced nearly half the population and seen the regime lose control of large swathes of territory,” the wire reports. “The vote will be Syria’s first multi-candidate elections, after a new constitution did away with the old process of presidential referendums. Assad has all but said he will stand, and is expected to easily win the vote.”
Syria Submits More Detailed List of Chemical Weapons
Reuters reports that the Syrian government has submitted a “more specific” list of its chemical weapons to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the regulator overseeing the destruction of the cache. The wire says discrepancies have been reported by inspectors on the ground.
“Damascus agreed to give up its chemical arsenal after Washington threatened military action following the death of hundreds of Syrians in a sarin gas attack on the outskirts of Damascus during Syria’s civil war last August. But Damascus is several weeks behind schedule in handing over its lethal toxins.
“A diplomat said questions had been raised by member states about the details of its chemical arsenal submitted by President Bashar al-Assad’s government last year. The officials said the original list had been based on estimates, not exact amounts of toxic agents found in storage and production facilities across Syria.
“The joint U.N./OPCW mission in Syria found “discrepancies between what they found, and what was on the original declaration,” one diplomat told Reuters. OPCW spokesman Michael Luhan confirmed a revised list had been submitted. “For some of the stockpile, ranges of quantities had been provided. Now they are being replaced with specific amounts,’ he said.”
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