Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Regime Steps Up Airstrikes

See also Syria Feature: Obama Administration Seeks a New Opposition Council
Tuesday's Bahrain, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: "All Rallies and Gatherings Are Illegal"

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2252 GMT: Libya. A day after it was suspended because of protests (see 0500 GMT), the National Assembly approved a 30-member Cabinet presented by Prime Minister-designate Ali Zeidan.

A total of 105 members voted in favour, 18 abstainedm and nine voted against the Cabinet. Moments later, protests erupted, with security forces firing in the air.

More than a dozen security vehicles were stationed at the assembly building, as about 60 people gathered outside the tightly-shut main gate.

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Syria Feature: Obama Administration Seeks a New Opposition Council (Rogin)

Opposition figure Riad SeifSyrian opposition leaders of all stripes will convene in Qatar next week to form a new leadership body to subsume the opposition Syrian National Council, which is widely viewed as ineffective, consumed by infighting, and little respected on the ground.

The State Department has been heavily involved in crafting the new council as part of its effort oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and build a more viable and unified opposition. In September, for instance, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with a group of Syrian activists who were flown in to New York for a high-level meeting that has not been reported until now.

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The Latest from Iran (30 October): Tehran's Mixed Messages

See also Iran Analysis: The Regime Tells the US, "You Are Plotting Against Us --- Let's Talk"
Iran Exclusive: Did Supreme Leader's Top Advisor Meet US Officials in Qatar?
The Latest from Iran (29 October): We Will Defeat the Sanctions, The Sanctions Are Killing Us

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2100 GMT: Nuclear Watch. Back from an extended business break to find Press TV continuing State media's encouraging signals about renewed discussions of Iran's nuclear programme:

EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, says she has plans to meet with Iran's chief negotiator Saeed Jalili, hoping new talks between Iran and the group of six major world powers could lead to a diplomatic solution.

Ashton said on Tuesday that European officials met last weekend with aides to the Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jalili, adding that she plans to meet directly with him [Jalili] soon, Associated Press reported.

The announcement is seen as a key step in the resumption of talks between Iran and the P5+1 group --- which consists of Britain, China, France, Russia, and the US plus Germany -- over Tehran’s nuclear energy program.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: "The Situation Has Gone from Bad to Worse"

Insurgents watch regime aircraft shell Sheikh Ali in Syria's Aleppo Province on Monday

See Also Syria Audio Feature: "Foreign Fighters and the Free Syrian Army" --- EA's James Miller with Monocle 24
Monday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: An Opposition Meeting in Damascus Brings Questions and No Answers

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2004 GMT: Syria. There are still more late-breaking reports of artillery shelling in many towns across Daraa province, Aleppo, Idlib province, and around Damascus. However, none of the reports is as interesting as the claim that several additional large explosions have rocked Jubata al Khashab, in Quneira province, near the Golan Heights (see update 1420).

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Iran Opinion: Thoughts on the US De-Listing of the "Terrorist" Mujahideen-e Khalq

Al Jazeera English examines the support of leading US politicians for the Mujahedin-e Khalq, March 2012

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Looking again at President Obama and Secretary of State Clinton, I think that as they fell for the straight-forward lobbying, they had to find a reason to convince themselves that they were doing this for the "greater good".

But what could that be?

Just like I needed to find enough money for my cigarettes, the US is desperate. Washington has repeatedly tried to find ways to somehow find a peaceful solution to Iran's implicit and explicit threats to Israel's security. The thinking in the White House could be, "Maybe if we get the MEK off the list. They can work with the other Iranian opposition groups abroad and maybe…just maybe…there would be some sort of a solution that does not involve Israel bombing Iran's nuclear installations! So let's try something else one more time --- however small the chances."

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Libya Analysis: Questions --- and Fears --- After the Attacks in Benghazi

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Most importantly, we do not know --- but I fear --- what comes next. In his White House statement on Wednesday, President Obama was careful to point to the majority of Libyans --- Libyans who had fought alongside the besieged Americans, Libyans who had rescued Stevens and took him to hospital, Libyans who tried to save his life --- as people who had overthrown a dictatoral regime and were trying to build their country. 

But this, as well as the emphasis of Obama and Clinton on respect for all religions --- religions tarnished and undermined in the name of religion by extremists and schemers in the US and in Libya --- appears to have been put on the margins this morning. Instead, the headline is "Obama Vows Justice for Libya Killers".

That way, a year after Libyans gathered to celebrate the fall of Muammar Qaddafi and to hope for a country beyond violence and the authoritarian, does not lead to reconciliation and progress. That way leads to force to meet force, to death to counter death. That way does not lead to security but to insecurity.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Fighting Escalates in Aleppo and Damascus

Claimed footage of Free Syrian Army fighters inside the Hanano army barracks in Aleppo in Syria

See also Bahrain Video Discussion: The Conflict and the Regime's Public-Relations Effort
Egypt Feature: Who Speaks for the Workers?
Friday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Shelling Returns to Damascus

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2020 GMT: Syria. The Local Coordination Committees report 172 people have been killed by security forces today, including 89 in Aleppo Province, 55 in Damascus and its suburbs, and 14 in Daraa Province.

State news agency SANA reports amnesty for "227 persons who were misled into getting involved in the recent events [and] whose hands are clean of the Syrians' blood...after pledging to not bear arms again".

According to SANA, some of those released said that they turned themselves in after realizing the scope of the conspiracy targeting Syria in implementation of foreign agendas".

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US Politics Analysis: Romney's Team to Republican Convention --- Please, No Fiery Speeches

Mitt Romney speaking on Saturday in Ohio

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Despite the roster of renowned conservative politicians scheduled to speak at the convention, Romney's campaign will aim to present a bland espousal of generic conservative ideas with as little of the controversial and substantial as possible. We will witness a rally for vague concepts like "limited government" and 'individual freedom' designed to present a unified –-- and non-threatening --- Republican face to the rest of the nation.

But the Republican Convention is still important in that it gives Romney one last chance, before the critical television debates with President Obama, to project some personality into his campaign. In his acceptance speech Mitt needs to show that he can empathise with everyday Americans, those who do not employ tax accountants or make small bets of $10,000.

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Syria Opinion: To Stop the Regime, Arm the Insurgents (Hassan)

As the bloodshed continues, the question remains of what could be done to end it. The situation is becoming increasingly more complex, yet has reached a point where the conclusion --- the end of the regime --- is clear: the Free Syrian Army is becoming stronger, the regime is weakening rapidly (with its military reduced to acting essentially as death squads), and the fighting will continue until the regime falls.

What is needed is to speed up that process by providing maximum assistance to the rebels.

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Turkey Special: Iran, Syria, and Ankara's Kurdish Problem

A Turkish Convoy Moving Towards the Syrian BorderKurdish complications have arise as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton hoped to highlight Washington's co-operation with Turkey as the new way forward in dealing with the Syrian regime. As she announced a joint working group with the Turks, Clinton to “hasten the end of the bloodshed and to help the Syrian people build the kind of democratic, pluralistic society and government", she underlined American support against the “terrorist PKK”.

The juxtaposition of the developments brings us all the way around, not to Syria but to the Kurdish situation inside Turkey --- is any sign that Ankara can defuse the issue to give itself space for action beyond its borders?

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