Iran Live Coverage: Tehran's Positive Signals for Nuclear Talks

See also Iran Live Coverage: Seeking the "Unity" Candidate for the Presidency

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1923 GMT: Nuclear Watch. Fars News, close to the Revolutionary Guards, has reported comments by Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, in Kazakhstan ahead of Friday's nuclear talks.

Speaking at a university in the Kazakh capital Almaty, Jalili said that the talks were a "test of America's behaviour" and that they would open with a discussion of Iran's right to enrichment.

The test would be "whether the US will accept or deny our natural right to enrich uranium, which is recognized by the NPT [Non-Proliferation Treaty", he said.

The Iranian nation expects that the US will change its behaviour and not just talk about doing so, Jalili said.

The Secretary of Iran's National Security Council answered a question put by a student, who asked about the impact of June's Iranian Presidential election on the nuclear issue.

"Today, there is a national consensus over defending the rights of the Iranian nation," he said, saying that all parts of the Iranian society were defending Iran's "inalienable" nuclear rights.

Jalili also commented on the situation in Syria, echoing the regime line that the Syrian people should be able to decide their fate in free elections.

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Syria Live Coverage: Fighting on the Lebanon Border

1840 GMT: Rebels attack Bases Near Ma'arrat al Nouman. Why are the rebels moving so slowly? Perhaps the absolute best answer to this question is found by looking at the Ma'arrat Al Nouman, in Idlib province.

The city, a rebel stronghold, is flanked by two Assad bases, one to the south and the other to the east. These bases have been surrounded, isolated, pounded by mortars and rockets, and raked by snipers. But months have gone by, and the bases are still in regime control. Even with captured firepower, the rebels have been unable to crack the bases' outer defenses. Until the bases can be breached, a significant amount of rebel fighters and firepower is tied down. Furthermore, the bases still have the ability to launch attacks, especially artillery attacks, and the bases have been given significant air support by the Assad regime.

Here's some video reportedly taken near the Wadi Deif base, east of the city (map).

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Syria Live Coverage: A Snapshot of the Cost of War in Aleppo

1550 GMT: Today's death Toll. According to the Local Coordination Committees, 75 people have been killed so far today across the country - including 10 children:

27 martyrs were reported in Aleppo; 23 in Damascus and its Suburbs; 11 in Homs; 8 in Dara;3 in Idlib; 2 in Deir Ezzor; and 1 in Hama.

Several areas are under attack today, shelled by artillery and bombed from the sky, as fighting is intensifying in several districts, including the northeast. That rising violence, and the spread of fighting in some Kurdish districts, has convinced many residents to leave today. A video shared by Red Tornadoes in the comments shows the traffic leaving the Ashrifiyeh district, but it also matches many other reports we've seen today. Orient News interviewed a Kurdish activist who discussed the growing crisis there (video - Arabic):

See our note on the figures published by the LCC.

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Syria Feature: How "Independent Analysts" Are Breaking the Stories of the Conflict

Britain's Channel 4 profiles EA Worldview's James Miller and other independent analysts on Syria

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On Saturday, news emerged of a new kind of weapon --- a 12-tube rocket launcher with a range of 8.5 to 13 kilometrees (5.5 to 8 miles) --- that has made it to the front lines of the Syrian conflict.

The news, significant in itself, is the latest development in the wider, important story of how Syrian insurgents are using foreign-supplied Croatian arms to make crucial gains against President Assad's troops.

These advances since January could even prove to be the tipping point in the two-year insurgency.

There may be another tipping point: by developing methods to gather information and analyze open-source intelligence, an emerging group of "independent analysts" are breaking news stories far ahead of any mainstream outlet.

And in doing so, they are changing the international conversation about Syria.

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Syria Live: Insurgent Attacks in Central Aleppo

1825 GMT: Death Toll Rises. According to the Local Coordination Committees, 75 people have been killed so far today:

36 martyrs were reported in Damascus and its suburbs; 11 martyrs in Quneitra; 11 in Aleppo; 6 in Homs; 4 in Daraa; 6 in Idlib; and 1 in Raqqa.

See update 1308 for a details on the casualty figures posted by the LCC.

1544 GMT: Devastation in Deir Ez Zor. Deir Ez Zor, in the east of Syria, is usually out of the international spotlight, but what's happening there is significant. Rebel groups, led by the Islamist Jabhat al Nusra, have captured most of the city. The airport, however, and a string of bases dug into the mountains, allow the regime to pummel the city. These targets have proven hard for the rebels to capture, despite their overwhelming firepower in the region.

The Guardian's Mona Mahmoud interviewed a member of Jabhat al Nusra today. He gave several interesting pieces of information about daily life there. He also commented on Syria's larger political situation, exposing a rift between Al Nusra and the main group of Syrian leadership:

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Syria Round-Up: Insurgent Advances and Foreign-Supplied Weapons

Croatian Rak-12 Rocket Launcher in Rebel HandsA roundup of the most important developments in Syria over the weekend:

On Friday, Syrian insurgents captured Dael, a key crossroads town in Daraa Province. The victory, strategically important, demonstrated how international military support for the opposition is changing the face of the Syrian conflict. The group that led the attack, the Dawn of Islam Brigade, is central to the Saudi efforts to arm the opposition fighters with Croatian weapons, many of which were used to capture Dael.

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Syria Video Discussion: The Divisions In the Opposition (Al Jazeera English)

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A discussion on Al Jazeera English's Inside Syria of the state of the opposition....

After the initial set-up of last week's recognition by the Arab League of the opposition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people, the programme gets to the core issue of what exactly that opposition is --- amid the resignation of Moaz al-Khatab as head of the Syrian National Coalition, the tension over the Coalition's election of Ghassam Hitto as Prime Minister-designate, the Free Syrian Army's criticism of the Coalition and the Muslim Brotherhood, and the wider question of the relationship between opposition inside and outside Syria.

Amr al-Azm, a US-based professor, sets the challenge early on: "Decisions [on the ground] have already been made and are being carried out, irrespective of whether this opposition forms a government or not."

The other panellists are Najib Ghadbian, a representative of the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces in the UN, and Robin Yassin-Kassab, a novelist and commentator.

Syria Live: The Deaths on Easter Sunday

1959 GMT: More Rebel Firepower in Aleppo. To drive home the point that the rebels of the Liwaa al Tawid Brigade are deploying a significant amount of firepower, a reader shares a video of either a T-62 or T-72 tank (hard to distinguish between the two from this angle) used against the regime's base in the area of the Jandalla Roundabout, near the Aleppo Central Prison (see update 1932).

It appears that the scope of this offensive is quite large, spanning a stretch or bases and industrial buildings that stretch between the Jandalla Roundabout and the Central Prison to the north. This suggests that this operation was carefully planned, especially since so many heavy vehicles and field guns have been deployed to the area at the same time.

It's unclear if the rebels captured the prison. Still no sign of regime airforce in any of the videos we've seen, however.

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Syria Feature: Assessing The "Free Syrian Army" and the Supreme Military Command (O'Bagy)

Commander Salim IdrissUltimately, even if the SMC only serves as a mechanism for greater cooperation and coordination, it is a significant development in that it has united the efforts of rebel commanders across Syria. It is the first attempt at unity that incorporates important commanders from all Syrian provinces and has enough legitimacy on the ground to even begin the process of building a structure capable of providing a national-level chain of command.

Syria’s state security apparatus will collapse as the Assad regime finishes its transformation into a militia-like entity. The Supreme Military Command is currently the only organization that could serve to fill the security vacuum left by this transformation. As the Syrian opposition begins to build a transitional government, the SMC could create a framework for rebuilding Syria’s security and governing institutions if properly supported. The SMC’s ability to act as a basis for a national defense institution will be an important component in filling the power vacuum left by Assad’s fall and will aid in a secure and stable Syria.

There remain a number of critical obstacles ahead for the SMC.

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Syria Live Coverage: Getting the Story Wrong on US Intervention

Claiming footage of women and children enduring a regime attack on Houla in Homs Province on Friday

Syria Feature: Assessing The "Free Syrian Army" and the Supreme Military Command
Saturday's Syria Live Coverage: Insurgents Make Key Advance in South

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1608 GMT: Insurgent and Oilfields. State news agency SANA claims insurgents have set fire to three oil wells in Deir Ez Zor Province, causing a daily loss of 4,670 barrels of oil and 52 cubic meters of natural gas.

SANA accused "terrorists" of setting the fires after fighting among themselves over how to divide the oil.

Insurgents have seized several oilfields in eastern Syria.

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