Obama to Increase Support for Syrian Rebels
President Obama pledged to increase his support for Syria’s opposition in a foreign policy speech on Wednesday. Reuters carries this summary and analysis of the much-anticipated address at West Point.
“Obama, stung by unrelenting criticism that he has been passive and indecisive as a world leader, spent a large section of his address countering Republicans in Congress and foreign policy experts in Washington who argue for a more aggressive approach to crises from Ukraine to Syria.”
Obama refused to take military action against the Syrian government last year after it was accused of using chemical weapons last year, weakening his image. At West Point, “He said he will work with Congress to “ramp up support for those in the Syrian opposition who offer the best alternative to terrorists and brutal dictators,” but he offered no specifics. Jordan, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq will also get additional resources to help house Syrian refugees,” the wire says.
“As frustrating as it is, there are no easy answers, no military solution that can eliminate the terrible suffering anytime soon,” the president said about Syria.
U.N. Says Syria Will Miss Chemical Weapons Deadline
The AP reports that U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has said that Syria has missed the June 30 deadline for the total elimination of Assad’s chemical weapons cache, due to the Syrian government’s claim that the final shipment cannot be safely transported.
In a letter to the U.N. Security Council, he says that 7.2 percent of Syria’s stockpile remains in the country and that the regime “insists it doesn’t fully control security in the area where the chemical agents are stored and has ‘serious concerns about the safety and security’ of convoys that will transport the material to the port of Latakia.” The route skirts highly-contested areas of Homs and the southern provinces.
“It is imperative that the Syrian Arab Republic concludes remaining removal operations as quickly as possible, as the authorities have pledged to do,” Ban said. “However, it is now evident that some activities related to the elimination of the chemical weapons program of the Syrian Arab Republic will continue beyond June 30.”
Meanwhile, the BBC reports that earlier this week, inspectors from the Organization for the Protection of Chemical Weapons were attacked, then safely released, while driving to Kafr Zaita, the opposition-held village where six chlorine attacks have been alleged in the last two months.
Syrians in Lebanon Flood Polling Place, Voting for Assad
The New York Times reports that Syrian refugees living in Lebanon have flooded Syria’s embassy there to cast early ballots in the June 3 presidential election that is widely expected to be won by incumbent president Bashar al-Assad. The turnout surprised embassy officials, with foot traffic bringing one of Beirut’s main highways to a standstill.
“Not a single person among the scores interviewed said they had voted for anyone other than Mr. Assad, who for the first time in four decades of his family’s rule faces opponents, two little-known figures,” writes Anne Barnard.
“Some voters proclaimed enthusiastic support for Mr. Assad. Others said they felt obliged to vote for fear that they would otherwise be barred from returning home or could face retribution from Mr. Assad’s powerful supporters in Lebanon. Other Syrians around Beirut said they stayed away because they considered the election an insulting sham.”
Meanwhile, the BBC’s Jim Muir reports that the early vote “produced scenes rarely observed at any embassy or polling station in the world. At times it turned into a rowdy support rally for the incumbent Bashar al-Assad, with none of the normal election decorum.
“As the only polling station available for the whole of Lebanon, and with probably 1.5 million or more Syrians here, it was perhaps not surprising that the embassy was swamped. But the voting congestion brought much of Beirut to a halt, bringing home to many Lebanese how deeply embedded the Syrian crisis is here.”
Suicide Bomber in Syria Was U.S. Citizen
The New York Times reports that a United States citizen working with Syria’s al-Qaida-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra carried out a suicide bombing there this weekend, the first time an American has been involved in such an attack.
“Syrian activists and jihadist social media sites reported that the American went by the name Abu Huraira al-Amriki and carried out the suicide truck bombing in the northern province of Idlib. A photo circulated on jihadist social media accounts showed a smiling young man who was said to be the bomber. He had a blond beard and was holding a cat to his chest.
“American intelligence and counterterrorism officials say more than 70 Americans have traveled to Syria, mainly to fight for one of the hundreds of rebel groups combating the Assad government. The F.B.I., C.I.A., National Counterterrorism Center and Homeland Security Department recently created a special team of analysts to try to prevent the American jihadists from returning home undetected.”
Syria’s Oldest Synagogue Destroyed
The Daily Beast reports that Syrian army forces have destroyed the country’s oldest synagogue, the Eliyahu Hanabi Synagogue in Damascus’s Jobar neighborhood. The building was more than 400 years old; opposition leaders say thousands of Jewish artifacts have been lost as well. It is the latest of Syria’s ancient sites to be hit by fire; UNESCO and other international organizations have repeatedly expressed concern about attacks on historic buildings and the loss and looting of artifacts.
“The area where the synagogue once stood has been under bombardment by the forces of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for months. The Syrian regime is laying siege to the town, one of the few rebel strongholds in the area. It’s all part of what the opposition calls Assad’s ‘scorched earth’ policy, which includes random and violent attacks on civilian populations.
Shlomo Bolts, an official at the Syrian American Council, an American charity connected to the Syrian opposition, told The Daily Beast that Jobar was a “treasure of Jewish and Syrian cultural heritage.”
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