Salem-News.com Syria articles Page 16

Three Syrian Peace Initiatives...and what you can do to help

We have no illusions. The task is not an easy one and there are many obstacles.

(WASHINGTON DC) - Later today, I will board a flight to Geneva to attend the Syrian International Conference for a Democratic Syria and a Civil State.

THE SUFFERING GRASSES Film Screening at Portland State University - January 24 at 7:00 pm

Panel discussion with Taghrid Khuri, Steve Nakana & performance with hip hop artist Omar Offendum follows.

(PORTLAND, OR) - A year and a half after the revolution in Syria began, activists struggling for freedom need support more than ever.

The Suffering Grasses is a film on Syria's troubled revolution, which conveys the situation in all of its complexity...

Human Rights Ambassador William Gomes Calls for Justice in Syria

I understand that there may be questions about how justice could affect prospects for a peace settlement in Syria.

(SALEM) - William Nicholas Gomes, Human Rights Ambassador for Salem-News.com had extensively shared his concern regarding widespread violations by Syrian government security forces and officials.

Gomes has concluded that government forces have committed crimes against humanity.

Shedding Crocodile Tears While Collaborating With US-Led Sanctions

Are the Arab League and Organization of Islamic Cooperation targeting Syrians?

(DAMASCUS, Syria Al Manar) - One powerful image from Damascus that has become seared into this observers mind these days is when I walk by a Western Union office. Most of them remain open despite the brutal US-led sanctions which in their pervasive effects target almost entirely the civilian population.

But all Western Union offices were closed last Thursday and Friday due to heavy snowfall, some say the deepest here for more than a quarter century. Still, some Syrians braved the extreme cold and could be seen huddled outside some branches, evidently in vain hope that they might open and their families might eat.

Military Correspondent Yves Debay Killed in Aleppo

Sadly, Debay is one of two journalists in Syria to have been killed within the last two days. Al Jazeera's Mohammed al-Masalmeh was also fatally injured.

(NEW YORK CPJ) - An international journalist was killed by a sniper while covering fighting in Aleppo in Syria on Thursday, according to local and international press reports.

The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on all sides of the conflict to stop targeting journalists and allow them to report freely within the country.

Islamist Rebels for France: Terrorists in Mali, Friends in Syria!

France bombards the Islamist militants in Mali, while accusing the Syrian army of "committing a brutal aggression" when it’s defending the state on its land.

(DAMASCUS / ROME) - France finds itself committed to intervene in Mali TO PROTECT THE STATE against the Islamist fighters related to Al-Qaeda (WOW).

Yet it considers the same guys, the jihadists who are shouting Allah Akbar and fighting the "infidel regime" in Syria as "rebels for freedom and democracy"!

Who Are the Real Terrorists?

None of the crimes committed by the 9/11 attackers fall within the "intent" definition of the US code.

(MANAMA, Bahrain) - The US Code defines terrorism as a crime that appears to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian, population.

Another is to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion or to affect the conduct of a government by assassination or kidnapping.

`Mr. Obama, Tear Down These Sanctions!`

A cri de coeur from a student at Damascus University…

(DAMASCUS, Syria) - This observer has learned from time in this region that if one wants to learn what is happening on the ground politically and socially it is fine to speak with government officials, journalists, long tenured academicians, NGO’s, and people on the street.

But I have learned that one of the best sources of objective information comes from university students.

Tipping Point or Turning Point? A Watershed Speech at the Opera

Mr. Assad, in what historians and Middle East analysts may well dub an historic speech, offered a new plan to immediately end the crisis...

(DAMASCUS, Syria) - Easy walking distance from this observer’s hotel near the city center is the Damascus Opera House, the site of yesterday’s Presidential address.

It was inaugurated in May of 2004 by the President and his wife, completing a project of his late father, Hafez, who actually planned the opera house in detail, but which had been put on hold since the late 1970’s.

Will the Al-Nusrah Front Announce an Islamic Emirate for Yarmouk Palestinian Camp?

When asked, Syrian soldiers near Yarmouk, often provide a terse response to the effect that they are “preparing to secure the area and awaiting orders.”

(YARMOUK CAMP, Damascus) - Syria and Lebanon's longstanding agreement allowing citizens to cross the border without a visa, is not extended to Palestinians.

It poses big problems for Palestinian refugees living in both countries.