The United States and Britain commit to strengthening Syrian opposition

U.S. President Barack Obama and British Prime Minister David Cameron met in Washington on Monday, reaffirming their commitment to the Syrian opposition. Cameron said his government has not yet made a decision to arm opposition fighters, but committed to double its non-lethal aid over the coming year as well as continue providing humanitarian relief for refugees. Obama spoke about U.S. and Russian efforts to bring together the Syrian government and opposition for negotiations, but injected a word of caution saying, "There are going to be enormous challenges." The Syrian regime and opposition have requested more details about the proposed conference before committing to attend. Obama also noted that he had spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin several times and stated that Russia has an interest in encouraging a stable and democratic Syria after Assad leaves power. Putin is hosting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for talks on the Syrian conflict on Tuesday. Israel expressed concerns last week about Russia’s arms deliveries of advanced S-300 missile batteries to the Syrian government. Meanwhile, an unauthenticated video has been released that appears to show a Syrian rebel eating the heart of a dead government soldier, drawing widespread condemnation. Human Rights Watch identified the man as Abu Sakkar, leader of the Independent Omar al-Farouq Brigade. The U.S. based human rights group said all people responsible for war crimes in the Syrian conflict will be held accountable. A spokeswoman for the opposition Syrian National Coalition said, "we completely condemn this act, which is an affront to human values, Islamic ethics and the ideals of the coalition and the Free Syrian Army."

Headlines

• On Monday, a car bombing close to a hospital in the Libyan city of Benghazi killed several civilians after four police stations were bombed last week which caused damage but no casualties.
• Saudi Arabia’s health ministry has confirmed four new cases of the SARS-like coronavirus, with a total of 24 cases since the disease was identified in 2012.
• Israel approved a two-year austerity budget Monday despite large protests; meanwhile Prime Minster Netanyahu has come under scrutiny for his household spending.
• A Turkish fighter jet crashed Monday killing the pilot in the southern Osmaniye province near the border with Syria, but the cause of the crash is unclear.
• President Obama said the U.S. administration called the attack on Benghazi an act of terrorism from the beginning and called the dispute a Republican "sideshow." 

Arguments and Analysis

Why There Is No Military Solution to the Syrian Conflict (Asl? Ü. Bâli and Aziz Rana, Jadaliyya)

"Today, as violence intensifies in Syria, external powers, including the United States, are openly debating direct intervention. Such intervention is justified as serving multiple goals at once: it is a means of securing chemical weapons caches; a mechanism to protect the civilian population; and a necessary measure to ensure that the successors to the Asad regime are adequately beholden to the United States and its regional allies. However, whether the intentions are humanitarian or strategic, policies of arming opposition groups, along with discussions of establishing "safe zones," using Patriot missile batteries to enforce a "no-fly zone" and more direct calls for military intervention, are counterproductive at best, and at worst embody goals that further undermine the interests of the local population. If anything, it is intervention, not its absence, that fuels the blood-letting in Syria.

In fact, there is likely no form of direct or indirect military involvement in the conflict that will spare civilians or advance either side towards a decisive victory. In short, there are too many interveners and too many strategic interests at stake for any side to allow too great a tipping of the balance. Some might argue that the ongoing destabilization of Syria serves its own strategic purposes. Aside from the deep moral bankruptcy of such a position, its logic of perpetual conflict threatens to engulf the region with spillover effects radiating beyond the control of potential interveners.

To appreciate why, one need only look at events in Syria. An authoritarian regime is engaged in brutal repression and large-scale human rights atrocities. Indeed, there is no doubt the regime of President Bashar al-Asad carries the overwhelming responsibility for the unfolding tragedy. But since international assistance began flowing to armed opposition groups in late 2011, the death and displacement to which civilians have been subjected has skyrocketed. At the end of the first year of the Syrian conflict, in April 2012, the United Nations estimated that nine thousand civilians had been killed. According to the United Nations, the death toll a year later exceeds seventy thousand, with tens of thousands more wounded. The refugee count is set to top three million by the end of 2013."

Do the Massacres in Bayda and Banyas Portend Ethnic Cleansing to Create an Alawite State? (Joshua Landis, Syria Comment)

"This question is taken up in two thoughtful articles by Hassan Hassan and Michael Young. Hassan Hassan argues that "sectarian cleansing is not being conducted for the purpose of establishing a potential state, but rather for other strategic purposes, including recruitment of Alawi fighters, deepening sectarian tensions in Assad’s favor, and ensuring a popular base of support," (see Elizabeth O’Bagy). Michael Young sees them as a possible prelude to what may be coming if the Alawites begin to lose, but for the time being, he suggests that "
ethnic cleansing" may not have been the intended result, but the massacres did serve as a shot across the bow of the Sunni population of the coast.  (see extended quotes below).

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Davutoglu claimed that Syria’s army has begun ethnically cleansing Banyas because it is losing elsewhere in the country. But Assad’s forces are not losing. According to both Liz Sly of the Washington Post and Reuters reports Assad’s forces are gaining ground in Syria, at least for the time being. This can only be cold comfort to the Sunnis along the coast who speak of their fear of ethnic cleansing.

The fighting in al-Bayda began when a bus carrying pro-regime militants, or Shabiha, was attacked, by rebel militiamen, killing at least seven and wounding more than 30, according to activists quoted by DPA. After the rebels attacked a bus, the village became "the scene of fierce fighting between the army and rebel battalions." The brutality of the shabiha revenge on both al-Bayda and Banyas was depicted in a series of photos and videos that even by the standards of this war were shocking. The religious passions that have now colored every aspect of this fight ran out of control."

–By Jennifer T. Parker and Mary Casey