Sudan Feature: The Activists Who Seek an Uprising (Bayoumy/Dziadosz)

Students protest in Khartoum, 20 June 2012

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The government denies using excessive force against protesters or carrying out torture, and dismisses the activists as a handful of agitators with little support among the public. Mainstream opposition parties say they sympathize with protesters, but have been lukewarm at best in support.

Still, a hard core of anti-Bashir activists are trying to spark a popular revolt to end his 23-year rule, devising tactics as they go to overcome the many obstacles to public dissent in the vast, ethnically-divided country.

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Iran Document: Students to the Supreme Leader "If Only You Ordered Tolerance Towards Dissent"

Responding to the Supreme Leader's recent remarks to an assembly of State-sponsored student organizations, the student union Tahkim Vahdat (Office for Consolidating Unity) has put out a statement:

If only he had  also ordered tolerance towards dissident students and those who were critical of him. It is now meaningless to talk about any right to criticize the Leader. Appointed university officials have reacted harshly to any and all voices of dissent. Muslim student associations, independent student associations, cultural and artistic centers, student councils, and student newspapers face their most difficult conditions since the election of Ahmadinejad in 2005.

The document includes a list of 29 students who are serving lengthy sentences.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Fighting Continues in Aleppo

A reporter for Press TV, escorted by Syrian military, declares that Salah Ed Dine is Aleppo is free of "terrorists" --- In his previous broadcast from Aleppo on 30 July, the reporter said, "All is normal"

See also Syria Opinion: "Nobody Is Above Criticism"
Iran and Syria Audio Feature: Why Tehran's Conference "Stunt" Means Little --- Scott Lucas with Monocle 24
Friday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Battle for Aleppo Continues

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2025 GMT: Syria. The Local Coordination Committees reports that 80 people have been killed by security forces today, including 19 in Damascus and its suburbs and 15 in Aleppo Province.

1915 GMT: Syria. A Lebanese judge has charged former Minister of Information Michel Samaha and two Syrian army officers with setting up an armed group to incite sectarian strife through “terror attacks”, including bombings and assassinations.

One of the Syrian officers as General Ali Mamluk, the Syrian National Security chief.

The indictment also said that Samaha and the Syrian army officers set up the armed group to commit crimes, fueling sectarianism “by targeting the authority of the state and its civil and military institutions.” It alleged that the group conspired “with the intelligence services of a foreign country to undertake attacks against Lebanon".

Samaha was arrested on Thursday, initially in a case linked to explosives.

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The Latest from Iran (11 August): US Uses Syria for More Sanctions

See also Iran and Syria Audio Feature: Why Tehran's Conference "Stunt" Means Little --- Scott Lucas with Monocle 24
The Latest from Iran (10 August): The Regime Fights Isolation

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1955 GMT: Earthquakes in the Northwest. The death toll in the two earthquakes which hit northwest Iran has risen to 180, with 1300 people injured.

The earthquakes, measuring 6.3 and 6.4 on the Richter scale, struck near Tabriz in East Azerbaijan.

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Syria Opinion: "Nobody Is Above Criticism" (Maysaloon)

Yacine Benrabia of France 24 with insurgents in Aleppo in late July

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The time to demand that those who fight for us, or claim to speak for us, adhere to human rights and respect the rights of all Syrians is now, and it's incumbent upon each and every one of us to speak up if somebody else is being bullied for voicing their doubts or asking questions. We need a cultural and social shift away from shouting each other down, and have to start realising that debate and questioning are not a threat but a strength. Syria does not need more politicians, soldiers or leaders. What we do need is more people who will stand up and point their finger at something that is wrong.

If the Free Syrian Army have stepped up to the burden of protecting the Syrian people, then that burden also includes doing the job the right way. The Syrian revolution has come this far, let's not have it fall at the first hurdle just because somebody is courageous enough to point out shortcomings.

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Iran and Syria Audio Feature: Why Tehran's Conference "Stunt" Means Little --- Scott Lucas with Monocle 24

Iran Hosts Peace Conference While Aleppo Rebels... by NewsLook

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's report on the Iran conference on Syria

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In a wide-ranging interview with Monocle 24's The Daily last night, I began by discussing Iran's "international conference" on Syria on Thursday, assessing the politics of the move and what comes next.

The interview also considered Israel's own stunt this week, with Minister of Defense Ehud Barak falsely claiming that a new US National Intelligence Estimate had found Iran was close to producing nuclear weapons.

But the take-away line may be at the end of the discussion. My reply to the question, "What can the world do to halt the instability in Syria?" --- "Nothing."

The conversation begins at the 1:12.02 mark.

Syria Analysis: Recognising A War of Attrition

CNN's report on the worsening humanitarian crisis in Aleppo.

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The likely military outcome for the Assad regime is defeat. It cannot win in the countryside. It is still losing territory, as well as tanks and soldiers to the ambushes and defections. The captured arms and defecting soldiers are supplemented by fresh supplies and equipment to the insurgents, provided by supporters --- from individuals to states --- outside Syria.

But for all that growing strength, the FSA has yet to prove that it can defeat the Assad military in key cities. Hama remains in the regime's hands. So do Homs and Damascus. A stalemate in Aleppo could be a body blow to President Assad, but that is unlikely to push him from power.

What we have is a war for attrition. The regime cannot win, but it will persist, to the point of destroying much of the country while it tries. The Free Syrian Army will not stop fighting until Assad has fallen, but it is incapable of bringing about a decisive victory to halt the destruction.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Battle for Aleppo Continues

See also Syria Analysis: Recognising A War of Attrition
Syria Audio Feature: Assessing the Latest in Aleppo and Beyond --- Scott Lucas with Monocle 24
Thursday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Insurgents Hold Out in Aleppo

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2022 GMT: Syria. The Local Coordination Committees report that 150 people have been killed today by security forces. Seventy-five of the deaths were in Aleppo, with 45 "unidentified corpses" found in the Salah Ed Dine district.

2012 GMT: Syria. The demonstration in Kafromeh in Idlib Province today:

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Syria Profile: The Irish-Libyan Commander and His Brigade Fighting the Regime (Fitzgerald)

The banner of the Liwa al-Ummah Brigade

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Sitting in an empty classroom flanked by several Syrian and Libyan fighters, a soft-spoken Libyan-born Irish citizen named Mahdi al-Harati explains how he came to be the leader of Liwa al-Ummah. The brigade emerged, he says, after several Syrians, aware of his experience as commander of the Tripoli Brigade during the Libyan revolution, approached him about founding a similar outfit in Syria.

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The Latest from Iran (10 August): The Regime Fights Isolation

On the right in Persian, “From Iran to Syria, the People’s Right: Peace, Freedom"; on the left in Arabic, “From Syria to Iran, the People’s Right: Peace, Freedom" (poster by Iranian activist Kamyar Behrang)

See also Iran Snap Analysis: So There Was This Conference on Syria in Tehran....
The Latest from Iran (9 August): The Syrian Front

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2000 GMT: Energy Watch. Confirmation of another foreign company's withdrawal from development of Iran's oil and gas resources, as Deputy Oil Minister Alireza Zeighami said the contract with the Malaysian SKS Company for the implementation of the Shiraz Pars Refinery project has been revoked.

Zeighami gave the formulaic statement that the annulment was due to the firm’s repeated delays and failure to start the construction and financing of the project, adding that Iranian contractors will now take over the construction of the refinery.

In the last years, Italian, French, Dutch, Russian, and Chinese companies have all withdrawn from oil and gas projects amid sanctions and other economic constraints, with Iran formally declaring that the firms had failed to fulfil obligations.

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