18th/April/2012

Umayya for Researches and Strategic Studies

The Daily Monitoring Report

The Field Situation
- Anti-Al-Assad demonstrations were staged in most Syrian governorates, during which activists in Damascus removed the electioneering banners and posters of the coming legislative elections. The protests were staged in Khirbet Ghazala and Daraa. In Daraa, activists organized a demonstration coinciding with the presence of the UN monitors in the city. The protesters condemned what they described as the UN failure mission in Syria. Another demonstration took place in the Damascus city of Saqba. (1)
(9)

Statistics 17th/April Martyrs: 77

Political Stances Syria

- Al-Assad's regime set new conditions for the work of the UN monitor missions, which stipulate that helicopters shall be used for transport purposes not for monitoring the implementation of Annan's plan and that the Syrian authorities have a prior notice of the mission's movement plan. The regime also objected to the nationalities of some observers.
(2)

Arab
- The Arab Ministerial Committee on the Syrian issue, which is currently in a meeting in the Qatari capital of Doha, tasked the Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Al-

The Military Situation

- According to the Local Co-ordination Committees, the government forces fired their machine guns against the rural region of Al-Lajat, which has a large number of the Free Syrian Army (FSA)'s troops.(1)(2)(5)(7)(8)(9) - Bloody acts of violence continued in most Syrian cities despite the presence of the international monitors, which are tasked with checking the implementation of the UN-Arab envoy to Syria Kofi Annan's peace plan and the fragile ceasefire. The Moroccan Col Ahmed Himmiche, who heads the monitors, described the mission as "difficult". (7)(8)(10)(15) - According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, the Syrian regime's troops fired machine guns and mortars and used helicopters equipped with machine guns during their operations in Idlib. They also launched large-scale detention campaigns. The Syrian National Council (SNC) announced that regime's troops publicly executed 34 people in Idlib.(1)(5)(8)(9) - Activists say shells and mortars have been raining down on the opposition stronghold of Homs.(1)(2)(7)(8)(9)(10)

Sources:
(1) (2)

Arabi to hold a meeting uniting all members of the Syrian opposition before the end of April.(1)

International
- The Friends of Syria's sanctions committee denounced the sale of arms to the regime in Damascus, hinting at Russian, which was not directly mentioned. It also recommended that additional measures should be taken against Al -Assad's regime.(1)(8)(16) - The US State Department Deputy Spokesman Mark Toner said that the ceasefire, which went into force on Thursday, was eroding due to the daily violence and said that the opposition was upholding its side of the Kofi Annan's peace deal, adding that the ball is now in Al-Assad regime's court. - The French Foreign Minister Alain Jupp said any violation of the UN-backed peace plan by Syria should be met with a swift and firm response by the United Nations Security Council, inviting his Arab and Western counterparts to a meeting in Paris tomorrow.(1)(5)(7)(8)(13) - Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, described the ceasefire in Syria as fragile, alleging that some countries are interested in the failure of Kofi Annans peace plan.(1)(5)(7)(8)(9)(13)(14) - The wives of the British and German ambassadors to the United Nations have released a video urging Syria's first lady to demand her husband should stop the violence in her country.(14)(15)

Asharq Al-Awsat The London-based Al-Hayat (3) The Kuwaiti Al-Watan (4) Al-Quds Al-Arabi (5) The Lebanese Al-Mustaqbal (6) The Syrian Al-Baath (7) Reuters (8) AFP (9) The Qatari Al-Jazeera (10) The Israeli Haaretz (11) Washington Post (12) wall Street Journal (13) The Israeli Yedioth Ahronoth (14) The Guardian (15) The Telegraph (16) Russia Today

Political Mobility
- Abdel Elah Al-Melhem, a founding member of the Syrian "Tribal Council", said that tribes are an active partner in the Syrian revolution, pointing out that the tribes fear to be marginalized under the new Syria as was the case under Al-Assad's regime.(1) - After his visit to Moscow, Haytham Manna, member of the National Coordination Committee, said, "The representatives of the Russian government are not inclined to support the idea of preservation of the dictatorial regime. They are talking about the need for continuing democratic changes, and it's very important for us." Manna called on Russia to pressurize the Syrian regime to stop violence.(1)(5)(8)

Edited by Abed Alrhman Alsarraj This Report was issued by Umayya for Researches and Strategic Studies, and it contains pure news that do not reflect an opinion.