Syria Feature: Saudi Arabia v. Qatar in the Arming of the Insurgents (Abouzeid)

Disorder and distrust plague two of the rebels’ international patrons: Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The two Gulf powerhouses are no longer on the same page when it comes to determining who among the plethora of mushrooming Syrian rebel groups should be armed. The rift surfaced in August, with the alleged Saudi and Qatari representatives in charge of funneling free weaponry to the rebels clearly backing different factions among the groups — including various shades of secular and Islamist militias — under the broad umbrella that is the Free Syrian Army (FSA).

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The Latest from Iran (19 September): Another Regime Move on Syria

Syria's President Assad with Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi

See also The Latest from Iran (18 September): Nuclear Manoeuvres

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2010 GMT: Budget Watch. Marcus George and Zahra Hosseinian combine statistics, observations from analysts to write, "Unemployment Mounts as Iran's Economy Falters":

A wealthy Iranian businessman sits in the lobby of one of Dubai's most luxurious hotels, shaking his head as he laments the state of Iran's economy....

He is en route from Europe, where he runs a company that makes electrical goods, to Iran, a trip he makes several times a year....

"Business is drying up, industry is collapsing. There's zero investment," he said. "I know. I see it with my own eyes."

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Grind of the Conflict

2148 GMT: Syria. The daily death toll has reached at least 150, according to the Local Coordination Committees:

72 of them were in Damascus and suburbs including 30 in Hajar Aswad, 20 were slaughtered in Jobar and 3 were field executed in Qadam. 32 martyrs in Aleppo most of them are in Manbej, 25 in Hama most of them are in Hwaija village and Masha' Arba'een neighborhood, 10 martyrs in Deir Ezzor most of them in Almohasan, 5 in Daraa, 3 in Idlib, 2 in Latakia and a martyr in Homs.

See our note on the casualty figures put forward by the Local Coordination Committees).

September is on track to be one of the bloodiest months in the recent history of the Middle East. August in Syria was the bloodiest of the last 10 years, even bloodier than any single month of conflict in Iraq or Afghanistan, even when using conservative numbers.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Dying Amid the Diversion of the Mohammad Film

Shelling of al-Qusayr in Homs Province in Syria this morning

See also Syria Feature: The Insurgents Test Self-Government
Monday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Regime "Fully Purges Aleppo District From Terrorists"....Again

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2030 GMT: Syria. British Foreign Secretary William Hague has told a Parliamentary committee that any intervention can only take place with Washington's participation.

While Hague said military action could not be ruled out, he said he saw “major disadvantages” and continued, "It would require intervention on a vastly greater scale than was the case in Libya, with no prospect at the moment of agreement at the U.N. Security Council, and would require the full involvement of the United States."

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Syria Feature: The Insurgents Test Self-Government (Daragahi)

Opposition demonstration in Souran, 7 September 2012

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The leaders of the council governing Souran, a town in rebel-controlled Syria, decide to hold an impromptu meeting right on the footpath along its main street, a gesture of open government that would impress Canada or Sweden.

They draw together some plastic chairs and a table, pour tea and, as pedestrians listen in, explain the workings of the government they have set up to replace the Baath Party and the security officials who ran the region with an iron fist under President Bashar al-Assad’s rule.

“This is a new thing for us,” says Faez Hamsho, a businessman and one of 11 members of the town’s governing council. “But when Bashar’s men fled, we had to solve the day-to-day problems of the area.”

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The Latest from Iran (17 September): An Intervention in Syria

See also Iran Analysis: Tehran Hurts Itself With Muddled Messages on Syria
The Latest from Iran (16 September): The Rhetoric, the "Protests", and Now the Threats

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1835 GMT: Foreign Affairs Watch (Lebanese Front). Following the declaration of the head of the Revolutionary Guards that Tehran has sent members of the Quds Force to Syria and Lebanon to provide "counsel", President Michel Sulaiman has challenged the Islamic Republic. “President Sulaiman asked for an official explanation from the relevant Iranian authorities,” his office said.

1825 GMT: Currency Watch. The Iranian Rial is falling again on the open market, dropping 2% vs. the US dollar to 24950:1.

Last week, the Rial broke the 25000:1 level for the first time, less than half its value at the official rate.

Meanwhile, the Central Bank has denied widespread reports that it has halted provision of foreign currency at the official rate to importers since last month, claiming that this is still available for the most important basic goods.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Regime "Fully Purges Aleppo District From Terrorists"....Again

Claimed footage of Libyans taking US Ambassador Chris Stevens --- unconscious or dead --- from a building in Benghazi on Tuesday night (see 0520 GMT)

See also Syria Feature: The Darayya "Massacre" and a Regime's "Slow, Steady Killing Strategy"
Syria Feature: "Insurgents Subjecting Detainees to Ill-Treatment, Torture, and Execution"
Iran Analysis: Tehran Hurts Itself With Muddled Messages on Syria
Sunday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Embassy Attacks Recede, While 164 Die Across Syria on Saturday

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2106 GMT: Lebanon. Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, has told a rally of tens of thousands protesting the US movie denigrating the Prophet Mohammad, “America must understand that releasing the entire film will have dangerous, very dangerous repercussions around the world.

The rally was in the Dahiyeh district of south Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold. Nasrallah said to the crowd that Western arguments over freedom of speech were “hypocrisy, deception, and double standards”. He called for “an international resolution criminalizing the defamation of heavenly religions".

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Syria Feature: The Darayya "Massacre" and a Regime's "Slow, Steady Killing Strategy" (Los Angeles Times)

A mass grave in Darayya, August 2012

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As he hid from soldiers in a field next to his neighborhood, a young man watched as a cat wandered down a street. Suddenly, it was shot dead. That's when Zuhair noticed the sniper on a nearby roof.

But a father and son walking along the street didn't see the gunman, Zuhair said. The sniper lowered his head and peered through his scope.

He shot the boy first. As the man tried to grab his son, who looked to be about 10, he was shot as well.

The two are among a reported 700 victims of snipers, shelling and summary executions, most of them men, since forces loyal to President Bashar Assad stormed the Damascus suburb of Dariya in late August, one in a growing list of Syrian towns and villages that briefly enter the world's spotlight, only to be replaced by another one when a new mass killing is committed.

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Syria Feature: "Insurgents Subjecting Detainees to Ill-Treatment, Torture, and Execution" (Human Rights Watch)

Regime soldiers held by insurgents in Deir Ez Zor Province

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Armed opposition groups have subjected detainees to ill-treatment and torture and committed extrajudicial or summary executions in Aleppo, Latakia, and Idlib, Human Rights Watch said today following a visit to Aleppo governorate. Torture and extrajudicial or summary executions of detainees in the context of an armed conflict are war crimes, and may constitute crimes against humanity if they are widespread and systematic.

Opposition leaders told Human Rights Watch that they will respect human rights and that they have taken measures to curb the abuses, but Human Rights Watch expressed serious concern about statements by some opposition leaders indicating that they tolerate, or even condone, extrajudicial and summary executions. When confronted with evidence of extrajudicial executions, three opposition leaders told Human Rights Watch that those who killed deserved to be killed, and that only the worst criminals were being executed.

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Iran Analysis: Tehran Hurts Itself With Muddled Messages on Syria

General Jafari & President AhmadinejadRevolutionary Guards Commander Jafari's message on Sunday, backed by this chiding of Ankara, appears to be, "We are in Syria. Deal with it." Perhaps someone in Tehran planned it as part of a carrot-and-stick strategy, with the commander offering the tough posture while the President was saying, "Look, you really want us in talks."

More likely, however, is that there is no strategist --- not Jafari, not Ahmadinejad, not the Foreign Ministry, not the Supreme Leader --- thinking through the statements and Iran's actions. And that failure is likely to set Iran back in its effort to retain some influence in the Syrian situation.

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