Syria Opinion: Empty Talk --- The US and Its Allies Have No Strategy to End This Crisis

Protesters in Kafranbel in Idlib Province send a message to President Obama, 16 December 2011

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What is left as a strategy? Hope. The EU hopes that sanctions will topple the regime. Kofi Annan hopes the observers will end the violence. Obama hopes that Kofi Annan is right. NATO hopes that if then does not work, then Obama will do all the work himself. Saudi Arabia hopes that getting the Syrian insurgents some AK-47s or high-powered sniper rifles will topple the regime. Turkey hopes that refugees will stop flocking across its borders. The whole world hopes that, as the crisis draws on, jihadis, who are loving every minute of this, will not get involved.

The problem? There is absolutely no evidence that any of those hopes will succeed.

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Egypt, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: An Election in Cairo, Conflict Beyond Damascus

1924 GMT: Syria. Speaking of gasoline, scenes like the one below, reportedly taken today in Kanaker, Damascus, are increasingly common. The prices of refined gasoline and diesel have skyrocketed, and widespread shortages are reported. The government claims that the shortages are the result of sanctions, but as Robert Ford points out (in the previous update) refined oil was exempt from foreign sanctions in order to avoid this problem. These shortages are the result of the military using up all the fuel.

1835 GMT: Syria. The Syrian government claims that foreign economic sanctions have cost the country $4 billion, a number which is low, according to many other estimates:

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Yemen, Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: A Suicide Bombing in Sana'a

Al Jazeera's report on Monday on the suicide bombing in Yemen

See also Bahrain Live Coverage: Appearing Before the UN Human Rights Council
Monday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Amidst the Assassination Rumors, 60 Die
Turkey Live Coverage (21 May): Regional and Global Dimensions of "Terrorism"

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1735 GMT: Libya. Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali said Tuesday that Tunis will soon extradite former Libyan Prime Minister Al-Baghdadi Al-Mahmoudi, after detaining him for eight months.

Al-Mahmoudi was arrested in September for illegally crossing the frontier into Tunisia as he tried to flee to Algeria.

"Tunisia will never be a refuge for those who represent a threat to Libya's security," said Jebali on Tuesday, following a visit by his Libyan counterpart, Abdurrahim el-Keib.

Lawyers and human rights groups had opposed the extradition, saying Al-Mahmoudi might be harmed by Libya's new ruling authorities.

1730 GMT: Syria. The Local Co-ordination Committees of Syria says 13 people have died today: three each in Hama, Deir Ez Zor, and Daraa Provinces, two in Homs Province, and one each in Aleppo and Idlib Provinces.

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Turkey Live Coverage (21 May): Regional and Global Dimensions of "Terrorism"

1630 GMT: After the Kurdistan Regional Government had announced a deal with Ankara that would allow them to export oil through Turkey and on to the international market, bypassing Baghdad; the central Iraqi government warned Arbil and said that the deals must abide by the constitution and laws that govern relations between Baghdad and the Kurdish north. 

1525 GMT: Turkish police detained three suspects for their suspected involvement in a plot to abduct a defected Syrian colonel who fled to Turkey.

1440 GMT: A special ops team officer was killed and five other security personnel were wounded in a clash with the terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Kulp, a district of Diyarbakır province.

As known, PKK members had kidnapped the Justice and Development Party’s (AK Party) Kulp branch head Veysel Çelik earlier.

1120 GMT: The Turkish daily Radikal claims that President Obama, during the Chicago Summit, has ordered the handover of operational control of the early warning radar system to NATO.

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Amidst the Assassination Rumors, 60 Die

An anti-regime protest on Sunday night, with a song dedicated to the dead of Homs, in Mare near Aleppo in Syria

See also Syria Video Feature: What is the State of the Opposition?
Bahrain Live Coverage: The Regime's Strategy of Rolling Detention
Sunday's Syria Live Coverage: Obama Says "Assad Must Go" --- But How?

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1939 GMT: Iraq. The central government warned authorities in the Kurdish region on Monday that their oil deals with Turkey must have Baghdad’s approval.

On Sunday, Iraqi Kurds announced a deal with Ankara that would allow them to export oil through Turkey to the international market, bypassing Baghdad.

The national government says the region has no right to sign deals unilaterally and that exports must go through state-run pipelines, but Kurds argue that the Constitution gives them the right to sign deals without consulting Baghdad.

Since the 2003 war that toppled Saddam Hussein, the Kurds have signed scores of oil deals. The central governmet considers the deals illegal and has blacklisted the companies involved.

In early 2011, the two sides agreed that the Kurds would send the oil to Baghdad, which would sell it, with an even split of the revenues. But last month the Kurds halted oil exports over a payment row

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Syria Wired: The Latest from Social Media and EA's Readers

See also Syria Wired: The Latest from Social Media and EA's Readers (19 May)

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Our recurring feature in which EA readers use the Comments section to bring in the latest news and thoughts from social media....

Syria Live Coverage: Obama Says "Assad Must Go" --- But How?

A Free Syrian Army officer claims the assassination of several top officials of the Assad regime (see 0630 GMT)

See also Algeria Video Feature: The Uprising That Wasn't
Bahrain Live Coverage: Regime Says, "This Protest Good, This Protest Bad"
Saturday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Shelling in the Morning, Protests in the Afternoon

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1626 GMT: Syria. The Local Co-ordination Committees of Syria claims 28 people have died today, including 19 in Hama Province.

United Nations observers moving through the rubble of Rastan:

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Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: Shelling in the Morning, Protests in the Afternoon

Video of this morning's explosion in Deir Ez Zor in Syria

See also Bahrain Live Coverage: The Many 10,000s Marching
Friday's Syria (and Beyond) Live Coverage: The Students Rise in Aleppo

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1535 GMT: Yemen. Officials have said at least 22 insurgents and 12 Yemeni soldiers were killed in clashes and air strikes overnight in a regime offensive in the south of the country.

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Syria Wired: The Latest from Social Media and EA's Readers

See also Syria Wired: The Latest from Social Media and EA's Readers (18 May)

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Our recurring feature in which EA readers use the Comments section to bring in the latest news and thoughts from social media....

The Latest from Iran (18 May): Helping Damascus

The regime-supported rally denouncing the US and Saudi Arabia over Bahrain (see 1359 GMT)

See also Iran Special: The Nuclear Scientist, WikiLeaks, and the Executed Kickboxer
Iran Feature: How Tehran is Shipping Syria's Oil
The Latest from Iran (17 May): Arms to Syria?

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1948 GMT: The Bahrain Card. More about the regime's propaganda offensive based on the (now dormant) Saudi initative for "union" with Bahrain....

One of the Tehran Friday Prayers leaders, Ayatollah Emami Kashani, has said that the Bahraini people, "thanks to their alertness", will not allow the US "and its mercenaries" to implement the union.

Far more colourful is the declaration of the head of the Basij militia, Mohammad Reza Naqdi, “Al Khalifa and Al Saud regimes should come to realize that their American masters are simply looking for new lackeys in the region. What happened ultimately to Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Saddam Hussein, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, Hosni Mubarak and other dictators, now awaits them.”

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