Pro-democracy uprising growing despite regime's bloody crackdown
By MAIL FOREIGN SERVICE
Last updated at 11:55 PM on 2nd January 2012
================================================
Syrian president Bashar al-Assad has just ‘a few weeks’ left before he is toppled, Israel’s defence minister claimed yesterday.
With demonstrations growing throughout the country despite Assad’s bloody crackdown, Ehud Barak believes the embattled leader is running out of time.
‘The Assad family has no more than a few weeks to remain in control in Syria,’ he told the Israeli parliament’s foreign affairs and defence committee.
Warning: Israel's Defence Minister Ehud Barak (left) claims Syria's embattled President Bashar al Assad (right) will be toppled in a matter of a few weeks
The Israelis do not believe that Assad’s regime will be able to hold out in the face of international pressure and swelling ranks of pro-democracy protesters in Syria.
‘Even if it is hard to clearly see the exact date when the regime will fall, the trend is clear,’ Mr Barak said.
‘With every day that passes, the regime is getting closer to the end of its rule, and its grip is loosening.’
Uprising: Demonstrators protest against President Assad in Yabroud on December 30. Mr Barak believes the regime can no longer fight back against international pressure and the growing ranks of pro-democracy protesters
He said the collapse of the Assad dynasty will be ‘a severe blow to the radical axis’, putting more strain on Tehran in particular – but would inevitably lead to further instability in the region.
An estimated 5,000 people have been killed since Assad first turned security forces on his own people in March.
A spokesman for the Arab League, which has sent international monitors into the country to determine if the government is complying with a peace plan, said the military has now withdrawn from major cities and moved into the outskirts.
Unrest: A demonstrator holds a banner saying: 'Question to Arab League observers? You came to the genocide of the people or to save the people?'
The league’s secretary general, Nabil Elaraby, said the monitors had achieved the release of 3,484 prisoners and succeeded in getting food supplies into Homs, one of the centres of the violence.
Controversy has dogged the Arab League mission, as its leader, Lieutenant General Mohamed Ahmed Mustafa al-Dabi, served in key security positions under Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir – who is wanted on an international arrest warrant for crimes against humanity.
Amnesty International said Lt Gen Dabi’s presence ‘seriously calls into question the mission’s credibility’.
Still has backing: Supporters of Syrian President Assad hold a large banner bearing his likeness during a rally in Damascus, Syria, on December 30
As work continued inside the country, a Syrian man was apparently assassinated by gunmen in Germany, fuelling fears that Assad’s regime is hunting down its critics in Europe.
The murder of the unnamed 35-year-old, in a town near Hanover, came after a councillor in Berlin who opposed Syria’s regime was badly beaten by men wielding iron bars at his home.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2081393/Growing-protests-mean-Syrian-president-weeks-left.html#ixzz1h80yFu3X
=====================================================
No comments:
Post a Comment