The federal prosecutors’ office said Mahmoud El A., a 47-year-old with German and Lebanese citizenship; and Akram O., a 34-year-old Syrian, are accused of having “systematically gathered information on Syrian opposition groups in the Federal Republic of Germany for years.”

Acting on arrest warrants issued January 31, some 70 federal and state police officers also searched the apartment of six other suspects, prosecutors said.

The two alleged foreign agents will be brought before a federal judge Wednesday for preliminary proceedings.

The Berlin Prosecutors’ Office denied any connection between the suspects arrested Tuesday and those involved in an attack on the Syrian opposition activist and Green Party politician Ferhad Ahma in Berlin last December.

The Syrian government has been accused of seeking retribution against relatives of Syrian activists working against the Bashar al-Assad regime from abroad.

The U.S. State Department announced last year that it had received reports that Syrian mission personnel had been conducting video surveillance of people participating in peaceful demonstrations in the United States. Other Syrian activists living abroad have also declined to be named or appear on camera for fear of reprisals against their families at home.

In August, a rebel military leader living in exile in Turkey disappeared from a refugee camp and reappeared days later in Syrian government custody. Evidence also suggested that the government carried out reprisal attacks against the man’s family.

CNN

Tanks entered the Inshaat neighborhood and moved closer to Bab Amro district, which has been the target of the heaviest barrages by loyalist troops that have killed at least 100 civilians in the last two days, activists said.

“Tanks are now at Qubab mosque and soldiers have entered Hikmeh hospital in Inshaat. They also moved closer to Bab Amro and shelling is being heard on Karm al-Zeitoun and al-Bayada,” activist Mohammad al-Hassan told Reuters by satellite phone from Homs.

“Communications have been cut in many parts of Homs and it is difficult to put together an overall picture. But tanks are in main thoroughfares in the city and appear poised to push deep into residential areas,” he added.

Despite the crackdown, activists reported demonstrations against Assad’s rule throughout the country, including the southern province of Sweidaa, home to a large proportion of Syria’s minority Druze population, another offshoot of Islam that has stayed largely neutral in the uprising.

Syrian activist Rima al-Flaihan told Al Arabiya that the security forces and “Shabbiha” (thugs) were threatening protesters and residents in Sweidaa, located 100 kms to the south of Damascus. Flaihan said that the Syrian revolution is not sectarian, but it is an uprising for the whole Syrian people. She urged the Syrian Druze to defect from the army and not to take any part in the violent crackdown against the peaceful protesters.

Assault on Homs continues

The attacks on Homs continued despite Russia winning a promise from Assad to bring an end to bloodshed, while Western and Arab states acted to further isolate Assad following the onslaught on the city, one of the bloodiest of the 11-month uprising.

Tank and artillery fire rained on Homs, activists said, as the interior ministry vowed to keep up its onslaught against “terrorist groups”.

“There are about four blasts every five minutes,” said Abu Rami, an activist in Homs reached by AFP by telephone from Beirut. “The humanitarian situation is dire. No one can move around.”

An interior ministry statement carried by the SANA news agency pledged that “operations to hunt down terrorist groups will continue until security and order are re-established in all neighborhoods of Homs and its environs.”

More than 6,000 people have died in nearly a year of upheaval in the Middle East country, as Assad’s hardline regime seeks to snuff out a revolt that began with peaceful protests in March 2011 amid the Arab Spring.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, representing a rare ally on a trip to the Syrian capital, said on Tuesday that both countries wanted to revive a monitoring effort by the Arab League, whose plan to resolve Syria’s crisis was vetoed by Moscow and Beijing in the U.N. Security Council.

Lavrov — whose government wields unique leverage as a major arms supplier with longstanding political ties to Damascus, and maintains a naval facility on its coast — told Assad that peace was in Russia’s interests.

But there was no indication from Lavrov’s comments that the issue of Assad eventually giving up power — a central element of the Arab proposal that failed in the U.N. — had been raised.

Assad said he would cooperate with any plan that stabilized Syria, but made clear that only included an earlier Arab League proposal that called for dialogue, release of prisoners and withdrawing the army from protest centers.

Walid al-Bunni, a senior member of the opposition Syrian National Council, said Lavrov had brought no new initiative and “so-called reforms” promised by Assad were not enough.

“The crimes that have been committed have left no room for Bashar al-Assad to remain ruler of Syria,” he told Reuters.

Russia’s mediation also failed to slow a rush by countries that had denounced the Russian-Chinese veto to corner Syria diplomatically and cripple Assad with sanctions in hopes of toppling him.

Heavy bombardment

Tank bombardment also was reported on Zabadani, a town of 20,000 people 30 kms (19 miles) northwest of Damascus. The town is nestled in the foothills of mountains separating Syria from Lebanon, where armed resistance to Assad’s rule has been among the fiercest in the country of 21 million.

Two people were killed in the bombardment on Tuesday, bringing the total killed in Zabadani in the past two days to at least 10, activists said. State media said “four specialist force were killed in the Zabadani Plain in Damascus countryside… and the clash resulted in the killing of a number of terrorists.”

An estimated 150 tanks and thousands of troops launched an offensive on Zabadani last week following a withdrawal by Assad’s forces last month as a result of a truce reached by Assad’s brother-in-law and town notables.

Opposition leaders say the bloodshed means it is too late for Assad to offer compromises and it is time to dismantle the 50-year-old police state dominated by members of his Alawite sect that keeps him in power.

“It is impossible for Assad to govern after bombarding his own cities and towns. He is escalating the use of his military might either to sink Syria into chaos or to improve his negotiating position,” opposition leader-in-exile Kamal al-Labwani told Reuters.

“Militarily he cannot win. The bombardment has killed mainly civilians. The fighters in Homs and other cities have been slipping away but they will be back. Assad’s forces can enter Baba Amro or Zabadani, but they cannot stay there long before receiving painful hits,” he added.

Labwani said Moscow will either mediate a transitional military council to replace Assad, similar to the way President Hosni Mubarak gave up power in Egypt, or help Assad set up a coastal enclave for his minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi’ite Islam in the majority Sunni Muslim country.

The offensive on Homs and Zabadni followed attacks to regain suburbs of Damascus last week that had fallen under opposition control after months of mass demonstrations against Assad’s rule and repeated military incursions that failed to put them down.

“We’re under occupation. The army has been looting shops and houses and stealing even mattresses. They have cut electricity and telephones for 10 days now, Water and fuel are scarce. Anyone who ventures in the street after 6 p.m. risks being shot on the spot,” said Amer Faqih, an activist in the Damascus suburb of Harasta.

GCC recall envoys from Damascus

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) said its members were recalling their ambassadors from Damascus and expelling Syrian envoys from their own capitals, in response to surging violence.

European Union states followed up their denunciation of the U.N. veto by preparing a new round of sanctions on Syria, EU diplomats said on Tuesday, with the focus on central bank assets and trade in precious metals, gold and diamonds.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, an ex-ally who has turned against Assad, described the U.N. vetoes as “a fiasco for the civilized world” and said Ankara was preparing a new initiative with those who oppose the Syrian government.

In Washington U.S. Senator John McCain, the Republican candidate in the 2008 election won by President Barack Obama, said it was time for Washington to think about arming the rebels.

“We should start considering all options, including arming the opposition. The blood-letting has got to stop,” he said.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said that the U.S. was consulting with allies to discuss how to provide humanitarian aid.

“We are exploring the possibility of providing humanitarian aid to Syrians,” he said, admitting that no “mechanisms” currently existed for delivering such aid.

State Department’s Nuland said: “Some of these proposals that people are brooding about could not be done without foreign military intervention — as we have said, we don’t think more arms into Syria is the right answer.”

A day after the United States closed its Damascus embassy, France, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain joined Britain and Belgium on Tuesday in recalling their ambassadors to Syria for consultations.
Al Arabiya

This is a possible reference to Free patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun and his ministers in the cabinet who stormed out of last Wednesday’s cabinet meeting .

The visitors added that Mikati will not be trying to contact any of Aoun’s ministers to try to resolve the current crisis

(minus 4 F or minus 25 C ) Demonstrators leave after a massive protest against Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's rule, with the Kremlin in the background, in Moscow, Saturday, Feb. 4, 2012. 120, 000 of Russians flooded downtown Moscow on Saturday to demand an end to Putin's rule,...

By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
To observe the democratic awakenings happening in places like Egypt, Syria and Russia is to travel with a glow in your heart and a pit in your stomach.

The glow comes from watching people lose their fear and be willing to take enormous risks to assert, not a particular ideology, but the most human of emotions: the quest for dignity, justice and the right to shape one’s own future. I was in Moscow on Saturday morning — just as the demonstrations against Prime Minister Vladimir Putin were gathering. It was minus-4 Fahrenheit. A simple rule: Whenever 120,000 people gather to rally for democracy — and you can see your breath and can’t feel your fingers — take it seriously.

Putin’s allies were predicting that only a small crowd would brave the weather. They were wrong, and it underscores something that a lot of cynics regarding these awakening movements just don’t get. They’re like earthquakes or volcanoes. They are totally natural phenomena, and they emerge from a very deep place in people’s souls. Those mounting them are not sitting around calculating the odds of success before they start. They just happen. Anyone who thinks that President Obama could have saved former President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt is as delusional as anyone who thinks Obama is behind the protests against Putin. We’re all spectators, watching an authentic human wave.

But that pit in the stomach comes from knowing that while the protests are propelled by deep aspirations for dignity, justice and self-determination, such heroic emotions have to compete with other less noble impulses and embedded interests in these societies.

Take Syria. I have no doubt that many of the Syrians mounting the uprising against the Assad regime — which is dominated by a Shiite offshoot known as the Alawites, who make up about 10 percent of the country — are propelled by a quest for a free and pluralistic Syria. But have no illusions: Some are also Sunni Muslims — who are the majority there — seeing this as their chance to overthrow four decades of Alawite minority rule. Where win-win democratic aspirations stop in Syria and rule-or-die sectarian fears begin is very hard to untangle.

Consider this paragraph from an article about Syria in The Times on Saturday by Nada Bakri, a Beirut correspondent: “A 34-year-old teacher from the Alawite sect said her life had changed in ways she never imagined. Six months ago, she started covering her head like Sunni Muslim women, hoping not to stand out. Her husband, an officer in the Syrian Army, rarely leaves his base to come home. She said she and their two sons had not seen him in months. A few weeks ago, her landlord, a Sunni, asked her to leave the house because his newly married son wanted to move in. ‘Sunnis have begun to feel empowered,’ the teacher said. ‘A year ago, no one would have expected this to happen.’ She had already made plans to return to her village.”

With good reason. There is a lot of pent-up anger there. The Assad family has run Syria as an Alawite mafia syndicate since 1970. While the Assad clan may have been a convenient enforcer at times for Israel and the West, it has also been a huge agent of mayhem — killing Lebanese journalists and politicians who dared to cross Syria, arming Hezbollah, funneling insurgents into Iraq, serving as a launching pad for Iranian mischief, murdering its own people seeking freedom and spurning any real political and economic reform. Syria has no future under Assad rule.

But does it have a future without them? Can this multisectarian population democratically rule itself, or does it crack apart? No one can predict. The Syrian opposition is divided, by sects, by politics, by region, by insiders and outsiders. We need to support them, provided they come together on a pluralistic reform agenda. Opposition leaders owe that to the brave Syrian youths who have taken on this regime bare-handed. The only chance of President Bashar al-Assad agreeing to some kind of peaceful transition, and not endless civil war, is if he is faced with a real united opposition front. It’s also the only hope for reforming Syria.

free Syrian Army fighter watches protests against the Syrian regime in Homs , Syria

This will be hard. You can’t have a democracy without citizens, and you can’t have citizens without trust — without trust that everyone will be treated with equality under the law, no matter who is in power, and without trust in a shared vision of what kind of society people are trying to build.

America has that kind of trust because our country started with a shared idea that attracted the people. The borders came later. In most of the Arab states awakening today, the borders came first, drawn by foreign powers, and now the people trapped within them are trying to find a shared set of ideas to live by and trust each other with as equal citizens.

Iraq shows how hard it is to do that — the Sunni-Shiite divide still cuts very deep — but Iraq also shows that it is not impossible.

We often forget how unusual America is as a self-governing, pluralistic society. We elected a black man whose grandfather was a Muslim as president at a time of deep economic crisis, and now we’re considering replacing him with a Mormon. Who in the world does that? Not many, especially in the Middle East. Yet, clearly, many people there now deeply long to be citizens — not all, but many. If that region has any hope of a stable future, we need to bet on them.

New York Times

“The hour of the fall of the tyrant is closer than some traitors have ever imagined ”

The statement added, “We the Free people of Jabal al Arab” are no longer afraid and declare our solidarity with our people in Homs, and want to denounce the complicity of some of the people of Jabal al Arab including some religious leaders with the cruel regime of Bashar al-Assad.. .these people think they are political leaders, but the are nothing but mercenaries.”

They pointed out that the “flag of Independence was raised over the monument of Sultan Pasha al-Atrash, leader of the Great Syrian Revolution, and this message is to everyone that as of today today we will not be a breeding ground for some petty traders at the expense of Syrian blood , unity of Syria and freedom.”

They added, ” this is also a message to the Assistant of the tyrant Wiam Wahhab, who wants to drag us with him into the abyss, only in order to assume leadership which he will never see even in his wildest dreams, and we hereby tell him: Beware of ever coming to Syria, and specially Jabal al Arab , because this Jabal (mountain) is much too honorable to be polluted by your feet which have been contaminated with the blood of innocent people. ”

Wahhab is a former Lebanese minister and a stanch ally of Hezbollah and the Syrian regime

They called all on all the Druze who are enlisted in the Syrian army to get out and return to their roots in Jabal al Arab.

“Get out before history gets you out , be as brave as Lieutenant Khaldun Zinedine the pride of Syria and the Druze ,come back to your roots and to your conscience and leave the gang of killers and join the Free Syrian Army”.

The cabinet agreed to raise the minimum wage from 500,000 LL to 675,000/ month, or 35 % . This excludes the transportation benefits.

In a speech marking the anniversary of the birth of Prophet Mohammad, Nasrallah said contacts are being made to resolve the cabinet crisis . (A possible reference to Prime Minister Najib Mikati’s announcement that he will no longer call on the cabinet to convene before the issue of administrative appointments is resolved.)

“I am telling those who are preparing themselves for a new cabinet that there will be no new cabinet in Lebanon. This cabinet is the foundation of the country’s security and stability and it is not an appropriate time for overthrowing cabinets in Lebanon.”

He also acknowledged for the first time that his party was solely funded and equipped by Iran

“We have been receiving since 1982 all kinds of moral, political and material backing from the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Nasrallah boasted.

His statement marked the first time he has openly admitted the source of the military and financial backing for his party.

“In the past we alluded partially to this truth,” Nasrallah said. “We used to speak of a moral and political support while keeping silent when questioned about our military backing so as not to embarrass Iran.

“But today… we have decided to speak out.”

Nasrallah also denied reports that his organization was linked to the drug trade or money laundering, saying it did not need to engage in such illicit activities.

“Drug trafficking is banned in Islam,” he said. “And secondly, Iran’s backing spares us the need for even a penny from anywhere in the world.”

He added that Iran had never dictated conditions in exchange for its support.

He also stressed that Iran, his party’s main regional sponsor, would not ask his armed group to intervene should a military conflict erupt with Israel.

“Some are wondering what would happen if Israel bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities, and although I rule out this possibility I assure you that the Iranian leadership will not ask Hezbollah to do anything.

“On that day, we have to sit down and think before we decide what to do,” Nasrallah said.

The weapons according to experts are smuggled into Lebanon through the porous border with Syria, whose regime is also a staunch Hezbollah supporter.

Turning to Syria, Nasrallah denied reports that Hezbollah militants were fighting alongside government troops to put down a revolt that has claimed the lives of at least 6,000 people since mid-March, according to opposition activists.

“Part of the Syrian people are still with the regime and there is an opposition movement comprising popular, political and armed elements. Right now, there are several armed clashes while a vast part of Syria is enjoying stability. As to the outside forces, does anyone doubt that all the world powers are seeking to topple the regime in Syria?” Nasrallah said.

“They are saying that it’s too late to make reforms but how is it too late and there is a war in Syria?” he wondered, noting that “it’s not true that there is a sectarian war because most of those killed by the armed groups are Sunnis.”

Nasrallah stressed that those keen on Syria “should resort to dialogue.”

“What would help Syria now is a real dialogue table and betting on the U.S. would lead to further killing and civil strife,” he added.

Hezbollah is the only party in Lebanon that refused to surrender its weapons after the country’s 1975-1990 civil war on the grounds they are needed to protect the country from Israeli aggression, but in 2008 Hezbollah pointed its guns against the Lebanese and last year it toppled the the government of of former PM Saad Hariri

“We are going to continue to work with international allies … to put the pressure required,” White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters.

Carney reiterated that the Obama administration was not weighing the prospects of arming anti-government forces seeking to topple Assad. But without offering details, he said: “We are exploring the possibility of providing humanitarian aid to Syrians.”

Reuters

British PM David Cameron gave the green light to a three point plan to force Syrian dictator Bashar Assad to quit yesterday, approving plans to train spin doctors to help the Syrian opposition win support.

British officials will help opposition leaders draw up a joint platform for the future of their country and then train them in how to win over the Syrian people.

Details of the plan were signed off yesterday when the Prime Minister chaired an hour-long meeting of the National Security Council.

Mr Cameron vowed to back fresh sanctions by the European Union to freeze the assets of key regime figures and ban them from travelling.

He also said Britain would back Arab League efforts to finalise a deal which would see Mr Assad hand over power to a national unity government ahead of elections.

The crunch meeting came as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov travelled to Syria in a bid to strike a deal.

He said Mr Assad was ready to end the bloodshed, which has claimed more than 5,000 lives over the last 11 months, and hold a referendum on constitutional reforms.

During a visit to Damascus, Mr Lavrov said he had received assurances from Mr Assad that he was ‘completely committed to the task of stopping violence regardless of where it may come from’.

A spokesman said: ‘Our position hasn’t changed. We will continue to judge the Syrian regime by its actions not its words.

‘Reports that President Assad is ready to talk to all the political forces in Syria to end the violence and set a date for a referendum for a new constitution stand in stark contrast to the actions they are taking and their savage attempt to crush the peaceful protests in Homs.’

At the NSC meeting in London , politicians and defence chiefs ruled out arming the opposition but agreed they would do more to help.

A No 10 spokesman said: ‘The work is going to focused on three tracks: firstly, support to the Arab League; secondly, further sanctions to increase the pressure on the Assad regime; and thirdly, work with the Opposition to encourage them to set out a clear vision for the future, for a unified and peaceful Syria.’

A Whitehall security source said: ‘The training is taking place on a one to one basis with opposition leaders outside Syria. We are teaching them how to be their own spindoctors to help them agree a message and then get it out to the people.’

Britain’s skepticism was shared by prominent members of the Arab League, who have called for President Assad to relinquish power.

Members of the six-nation Gulf Co-operation Council – Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates – are pulling their ambassadors from Syria because of Mr Assad’s refusal to accept Arab attempts to end the country’s bloodshed.

Efforts to help the Syrian opposition will gather pace at a contact group meeting being planned for the next few weeks which will bring together a ‘coalition of the willing’ of countries who want to help.

But Mr Cameron was warned that it could take a long time to see the Assad regime fall. Part of the Prime Minister’s briefing yesterday was to emphasise the strength of the Syrian armed forces.

‘They can keep up these attacks for a long time,’ one source said.

Photo: Standing guard: A member of the Free Syrian Army watches over anti-regime protesters holding a demonstration in the city of Idlib

dailymail.co.uk

“Someone is trying very hard to drive a wedge between Russia and the Arab world,” Churkin told reporters in New York, citing unidentified media reports that he threatened and was rude to Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani in private meetings last week.

Churkin said he had a saying for “those in the Arab world that may be upset about our positions” on Syria: “don’t spit in a well, you may well need it for a drink of water.”

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