http://news.kuwaittimes.net/2012/09/16/syria-envoys-mission-doomed-rebels-god-curse-you-o-army/ Syria envoy’s mission doomed: Rebels – ‘God curse you, O army’ ALEPPO: A Free Syrian army fighter walks in an empty street in the northern city of Aleppo yesterday. — AFP
DAMASCUS: Fighting raged in Syria’s two biggest cities yesterday as UN-Arab League envoy Lakhdar Brahimi ended his first visit to the country on a peace mission that a rebel commander said was doomed to fail. Iran admitted for the first time it has elite forces present in Syria and neighbouring Lebanon, where Pope Benedict XVI added his voice to calls for an end to the bloodletting, urging Arab states to propose workable solutions. As Brahimi made his way to the airport at the end of a four-day visit to the war-ravaged country, a commander of the rebel Free Syrian Army who had an Internet conference call with the envoy yesterday said his mission would fail. “We are sure Brahimi will fail like the other envoys before him, but we (the rebels) do not want to be the reason of his failure,” the FSA chief for Aleppo province in north Syria, Colonel Abdel Jabbar al-Okaidi, told AFP by telephone. “We discussed the general situation in Syria, mainly focusing on the destruction wielded by the regime on the country,” said Okaidi, who talked to Brahimi along with the FSA spokesman in Syria, Colonel Qassem Saadeddine, and the group’s chief in Damascus, Colonel Khaled Hobous. Brahimi, who replaced former UN chief Kofi Annan following the failure of his six-point peace plan, warned on Saturday after meeting President Bashar al-Assad that the worsening conflict threatens both the region and the world at large. The Algerian former foreign minister insisted that “the solution can only come from the Syrian people.” But Okaidi accused the international community of “giving political cover to the regime” and of pushing the opposition to hold talks with the regime but without pressuring the government to stop its repression. “We are sure Brahimi will fail because the international community does not actually want to help the Syrian people,” he said. “We do not want the international community to help the Syrian people. We just want it to remove the political cover it grants to the criminal regime. We cannot be in dialogue with criminals.” Eighteen months into the crisis, the international community remains paralysed, with the West, the Gulf and Turkey calling for the removal of Assad, and Russia and China standing by its ally in Damascus. The relentless violence affected the start yesterday of the educational year, with activists saying few schools opened in flashpoint areas, including Aleppo, and the UN reporting more than than 2,000 schools damaged or destroyed countrywide since the uprising began in March 2011. Violence that raged from early yesterday killed at least another 55 people, including 37 civilians, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The army battered the rebel-held Shaar district of Aleppo, killing 11 people and wounding dozens, while 11 others, including seven rebels, were killed in fighting elsewhere in the northern city. Amateur video posted on YouTube by activists showed what appeared to be the streets of Shaar in ruins, with rubble strewn across the ground, electricity cables hanging down from residential buildings, and black smoke rising. “God curse you, O army,” said an unidentified cameraman shooting a video in Shaar after the bombing, his voice trembling. Another video showed bloodied corpses, at least one of them a child’s. Troops also pounded districts of Damascus, Daraa in the south, Hama and Homs in the centre and Deir Ezzor in the east with aerial bombardments and heavy artillery, said the Observatory. In a rare news conference, the commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said members of his elite special operations unit, the Quds Force, were present in Syria and Lebanon. But he insisted they were only there to provide “counsel.” “A number of Quds Force members are present in Syria and Lebanon… we provide (these countries) with counsel and advice, and transfer experience to them,” said Brigadier General Mohammad Ali Jafari. “But it does not mean that we have a military presence there,” he added. Western and Arab countries have accused Iran of giving military aid to the Assad regime. As the fighting raged, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated mass in Lebanon, praying that leaders in the Middle East work toward peace and reconciliation. “In a world where violence constantly leaves behind its grim trail of death and destruction, to serve justice and peace is urgently necessary,” Benedict told an estimated 350,000 faithful at an open-air mass in Beirut. “May God grant to your country, to Syria and to the Middle East the gift of peaceful hearts, the silencing of weapons and the cessation of all violence,” said the pope. Benedict also appealed to Arab countries that, “as brothers, they might propose workable solutions respecting the dignity, the rights and the religion of every human person.” Despite the disruption to schooling in Aleppo and other flashpoint areas, Syrian state media announced “more than five million students and 385,000 teachers and employees” went back to school. UNICEF described the return to school as an “immense challenge.” “For children, being back at school is one of the most effective ways of giving them a sense of stability, hope and normality,” said spokeswoman Marixie Mercado. “It really is a hugely important way of enabling children who have gone through a nightmare to see that they do have a future.” The death toll from the conflict has risen to more than 27,000 people, according to the Observatory, which relies on activist accounts from the ground. The United Nations puts the toll at 20,000. —AF [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ Post message: [email protected] Subscribe : [email protected] Unsubscribe : [email protected] List owner : [email protected] Homepage : http://proletar.8m.com/Yahoo! 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