Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: What Happened to the Syrian National Initiative for a New Opposition?

Former MP Jawad Fairouz, one of 31 people whose citizenship was revoked by the Bahraini regime (see 0635 and 1125 GMT), speaks with the BBC

See also Syria Feature: Latest on Fighting Among Free Syrian Army, Kurdish Militias, and Regime Forces
Yemen Feature: How A Country Was Lost in Obama's "War Laboratory"
Syria Audio Special: Regime's Leadership Defiant as Opposition's Disintegrates --- James Miller and Scott Lucas with Monocle 24
Friday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Opposition Still Seeking Leadership

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1530 GMT: Turkey. Six leading Kurdish politicians have joined hundreds of jailed militants and activists in a hunger strike, now in its 60th day.

About 700 Kurdish prisoners in dozens of facilities are calling for the leader of the PKK insurgency, Abdullah Ocalan, who is imprisoned on an island south of Istanbul, to have access to lawyers after 15 months of no contact.

Osman Baydemir, mayor of Diyarbakir in predominantly Kurdish southeastern Turkey, said in a statement on Saturday that he had stopped eating. Five Kurdish members of the Turkish Parliament --- Sirri Sureyya Onder, co-chair of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), Gultan Kisanak, Aysel Tugluk, Adil Kurt, Sabahat Tuncer --- were also on hunger strike, he said.

The hunger strikers are consuming sugared water and vitamins that will prolong their lives and the protest.

1510 GMT: Syria. Militias of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) have asserted control over Amude after the negotiated withdrawal of Syrian security forces.

The YPG militia already held the town, but President Assad's men had maintained a headquarters.

1435 GMT: Iraq. A spokesman for Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki has said that Baghdad has cancelled a $4.2 billion arms deal with Russia over suspected corruption, but plans to renegotiate the agreements.

"Our need for weapons still stands so we will renegotiate new contracts," Ali al-Moussawi, the prime minister's media advisor, said. "This is a precautionary measure because of suspected corruption."

In a hastily-organised press conference, Acting Minister of Defense Saadun al-Dulaimi insisted, "We are still in negotiations," although no contracts were signed. "These negotiations will be for different kinds of weapons, more advanced weapons, and will use a different way of contracting."

Al-Moussawi responded, "The deal was completely cancelled."

The Russian newspaper Vedomosti reported earlier this year that the deals included 30 Mi-28NE combat helicopters and 42 mobile rocket launchers.

1429 GMT: Bahrain. An EA source confirms reports of police blocking roads to prevent people going to the funeral of 16-year-old Ali Abbas Radhi, killed on Friday (see 1333 GMT), "Mercenaries blocked all roads leading to Samaheej. Got stuck in traffic for couple of hours then headed back home. They kill the kid and not allow people to mourn him."

Radhi's father says over his son's grave, " I am proud of you, my son. You brought pride to your family, may you rest in peace":

A bird's-eye view of those who did get to the procession:

1339 GMT: Syria. State news agency SANA claims seven people were killed by three car bombs in Daraa this morning (see 0945 GMT).

The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights asserted that two suicide bombers, targeting the back garden of an officers' club, killing at least 20 soldiers and possibly many more.

"The two bombings were the result of suicide attacks, carried out by two men who drove vehicles loaded with explosives into the garden a few minutes apart," Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.

1333 GMT: Bahrain. The funeral procession for 16-year-old Ali Abbas Radhi, a protester killed on Friday when he was hit by a car after he was pursued by police:

1325 GMT: Syria. A founder of the Syrian National Council, Adib al-Shishakly, resigned on Friday, asserting that it has failed to reform and removed women from senior positions as it re-structured in Qatar this week.

Al-Shishakly, businessman and grandson of a late Syrian president, said the newly elected, all-male 41-member secretariat of the SNC is dominated by Islamists. He added:

The Council has not managed to attract prominent opposition figures who have for obvious reasons remained outside it. "A younger generation effective in the revolution was also excluded. Few women were in the general assembly, there are none now.

An SNC source said two other members also had resigned over the absence of women from senior positions.

1154 GMT:Syria. Regime shelling of Rastan near Homs this morning:

1139 GMT:Bahrain. Activist Zainab AlKhawaja tweets that the detention order of Said Yousif, the Acting Vice President of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, has been renewed for seven days after his arrest last week.

Claimed video of police arresting and beating a man on Friday:

1135 GMT:Syria. The Kurdish National Council, amid recent conflicts within Syrian Kurdish groups and between Kurdish militias and the Free Syrian Army, has called in a statement on Facebook for "peaceful resolution", saying that it does not want Kurdish-Kurdish war or a Kurdish war with the FSA.

1125 GMT:Bahrain. More on the regime's revocation of citizenship of 31 Bahrainis (see 0635 GMT)....

Reem Khalifa of the Associated Press speaks with one of those affected who is still in Bahrain, as she notes the political reaction:

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Washington was "greatly concerned" by the move.

"We have continually called on the government of Bahrain to create a climate that is conducive to reconciliation, to meaningful dialogue, to reform, to bring peaceful change," she said on Wednesday.

At about the same time, the lawyer [Taimoor] Karimi gathered with his family in the old section of Muharraq island, about 10 kilometers (six miles) northeast of Manama, and under near round-the-clock security watch as are many Shiite districts.

Karimi spent six months in detention after protests broke out last year and claims his missing teeth and marks on his hands are evidence of the alleged torture he suffered behind bars. Among those also losing their citizenship were several neighbors and activists living in self-exile in London.

"There is no due process," said Karimi, 55, a well-known lawyer who was born in Bahrain and studied in Egypt. "It is against human rights ... and an intimidation against the Shiite community in Bahrain."

He said he does not expect to be deported --- "No documents, no passport," he shrugged --- but to now fall under the category of a stateless resident, known in Arabic as Bidoun and common in some areas of the Middle East. The stateless sometimes go back generations in some countries, but are often denied access to state benefits such as pensions and subsidized health care.

"I am Bahraini and I won't leave my country," he said.

0945 GMT: Syria. State news agency SANA and activists report that two large explosions have struck the southern city of Daraa, with casualties and significant damage.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the blasts were near a branch of Military Intelligence and were followed by clashes between regime forces and insurgents.

0835 GMT: Bahrain. Protests in Sitra against raids of houses by security forces:

0813 GMT: Bahrain. The Washington Post has written an editorial, "Bahrain's Broken Promise", scathing of both the regime and the Obama Administration:

The State Department has monotonously issued statements expressing “concern” or declaring itself “troubled” as political prisoners it sought to free are instead re-sentenced and new measures of repression are taken. But the words are not accompanied by actions. After holding up one military sale under pressure from Congress last year, the administration released the equipment several months ago. It recently supported a Bahraini nominee for an advisory position at the U.N. Human Rights Council.

Such actions damage U.S. credibility across the Middle East, where many observers note that the United States is backing a Sunni rebellion in Syria while defending a Sunni autocracy in Bahrain — thus appearing to take sides in the region’s growing sectarian rivalry. Worse, the policy is laying the groundwork for the eventual loss of the alliance and the naval base: The Bahraini autocracy, like others in the Middle East, will not last. For the United States, democratic reform in the emirate is not a luxury but a vital interest. Walking without gum-chewing will lead to a bad stumble.

0805 GMT: Syria. "Syrian rebels and an Arab official familiar with the operation" has said that Jordan has increased support for the Syrian insurgency, allowing some light arms to flow across the border.

Several shipments --- including assault rifles, Russian-designed antitank missiles and ammunition ---have been delivered to the border in Jordanian military trucks and then taken into Syria by insurgent brigades. Dozens of other shipments, financed by Saudi Arabia and Qatar, have been smuggled to Syria with the covert support of Jordanian border officials.

0655 GMT: Syria. The Local Coordination Committees report that 446 protests took place on Friday, 97 of them in Idlib Province.

The activists say 136 people were killed by security forces, including 33 in Damascus and it suburbs and 33 in Deir Ez Zor Province.

0625 GMT: Bahrain. The US State Department has welcomed the “Declaration of Principles of Nonviolence” issued by six opposition political societies in Bahrain on wednesday:

Publicly committing to nonviolence is an important confidence-building measure, and we applaud the societies for committing to a non-violent path in order to pursue their goals. We urge the government and these six political societies to engage seriously and practically about ways to allow for the resumption of peaceful demonstrations as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, the BBC is one of the media outlets notice the regime's escalating crackdown, with the stripping of citizenship from 31 people, many of them prominent in politics and social affairs. Reporter Frank Gardner writes:

On Friday, I met up with two of the newly "denationalised" Bahrainis in London. Brothers Jawad and Jalal Fairooz, both former MPs from the mainstream political opposition movement al-Wefaq, were in a state of bewilderment and despair.

"What should I do? Where should I live? What country will accept me?" asks Jalal Fairooz, one of several opposition MPs who resigned from parliament during last year's uprising.

He and his brother Jawad tell me they were both born and bred in Bahrain, as was their father. Their mother, originally from Iran, became a naturalised Bahraini citizen.

"My daughter collapsed when she heard," said Jalal Fairooz. "She was unable to sit her exams the next day. My wife was crying. I don't know how I'm going to support my family now. I have never even been accused of anything before now."

"I still don't know on what basis they reached this decision," said his brother Jawad, who has been simultaneously handed a 13-month sentence in absentia for participating in illegal gatherings last year.

"I have had no chance to defend myself. What can I do? If I go back now definitely they will take my passport and arrest me."

Like most of the 31 names on the list, neither brother has any other citizenship. After midnight on Wednesday, the ministry said they had been stripped of their nationality on grounds of national security, giving no details, adding only that they had the right of appeal.

0615 GMT: Syria. Al Jazeera English devotes video and several paragraphs to the re-structured Syrian National Council, as the opposition group elected an 11-member Executive and George Sabra, a prominent secular Christian dissident, for a six-month term as President.

Farouq Tayfour, a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood, was elected Vice President.

What is even more notable, however, is what is not in the article. There is no mention of any developments on Friday with the Syrian National Initiative, this week's meeting with more than 150 participants which is supposed to choose a new "umbrella" organisation to supplant the Syrian National Council.

A plan was put forward on Thursday for an Executive of  about 60 members, with 22 seats going to the SNC. This group would then select a "transitional Government" of about 10 people and a military council.