Excerpts: Safe exit for Assad proposed.AFP re Obama.Arab League re Syria
May 24, 2013

+++SOURCE: Saudi Gazette 24 May ’13:”’Safe exit’for Assad proposed”
SUBJECT:’Safe exit’ for Assad proposed
QUOTE:”Syria’s outgoing opposition chief published an initiative . . .that
would grant President Bashar Al-Assad a safe exit”
FULL TEXT:BEIRUT — Syria’s outgoing opposition chief published an initiative
for his war-torn country Thursday[23 May] that would grant President Bashar
Al-Assad a safe exit, and urged dissident factions to adopt his plan.

Ahmed Moaz Al-Khatib published his initiative on Facebook, as the main
National Coalition he headed until March gathered in Istanbul to choose a
new leader and discuss a US-Russian peace initiative dubbed Geneva 2.

Under Khatib’s initiative, Assad would have 20 days from Thursday to give
“his acceptance of a peaceful transition of authority”.

After accepting, Assad would have one month to hand over power to either
Prime Minister Wael Al-Halqi or Vice President Farouq Al-Shara’a, who would
then govern Syria for a transitional period of 100 days.

As part of the transition Khatib envisages, Assad would “leave the country
along with 500 people whom he will select, along with their families and
children, to any other country that may choose to host them”.

This is the first time one of Syria’s opposition chiefs has made an offer of
political immunity to Assad and key members of his regime.

While calling on dissident groups to adopt the initiative “as a way out from
the catastrophe that has struck our nation”, Khatib also said the
international community should “oversee it and ensure that it is
implemented”.

This would be accompanied by the release of all political prisoners in
Syria, Khatib wrote.

The initiative gives Assad a month to “completely hand over authority”, and
stipulates that while parliament should be dissolved, all of its powers
should be handed to Assad’s replacement.

Over the same 100-day period, an interim government would “restructure the
security and military” apparatus in Syria, said Khatib.

The three-day meeting in Istanbul began as rebels face a massive onslaught
from the Syrian government forces and the Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah
in the insurgent bastion of Qusayr.

More than 90,000 people have been killed in the spiraling fighting between
Assad’s regime and the rebels battling to overthrow it.

Some opposition members have openly expressed reservations over the
US-Russian plan for a new international peace conference dubbed Geneva 2.
“We don’t have a clear picture on Geneva 2. We don’t have a list of
attendees, we don’t know what countries are going to attend, what’s the
agenda, what’s being proposed, what are the final goals,” Coalition
spokesman Khaled Al-Saleh told reporters.

The Istanbul meeting began after backers of the anti-Assad uprising —
including US Secretary of State John Kerry and his British counterpart
William Hague — met in Jordan Wednesday to push for peace. In its closing
statement, the Friends of Syria group told Assad to commit to peace, warning
that it would boost its backing of the opposition if he failed to negotiate
a political transition. — Agencies

+++SOURCE: Naharnet (Lebanon) 24 May ’13:”Questions Obama Dodged in Terror
Speech”, Agence France Presse
SUBJECT: Agence France Presse re Obama
QUOTE:” Obama left(out) the specifics and timelines for action, by which his
success or failure can be measured”

FULL TEXT:U.S. President Barack Obama set out Thursday[23 May] to redefine
the U.S. fight against global terrorism.

But despite calling for a more targeted and not "boundless" theater of
global operations, Obama left the specifics and timelines for action, by
which his success or failure can be measured, out of his big speech.

Here are some critical questions Obama did not raise or answer in the
address at the National Defense University.

Guantanamo Bay timeline

Obama renewed his call for the closure of the Guantanamo Bay camp for terror
suspects in Cuba.

But he did not provide a timeline for doing so -- other than saying that if
the camp were open 10 or 20 years from now it would be antithetical to U.S.
values.

The president appears to have learned a lesson from his first term, when, in
one of his first acts as president, he ordered the camp closed within a
year. His failure to follow through remains a blemish on his presidency.

Detention without release

Obama also did not specify what he would do with Guantanamo Bay inmates who
are deemed too dangerous to release -- but who cannot be tried because
evidence against them came from coercive interrogations and is not
admissible in court.

Even if most Guantanamo inmates are shipped out, a small number of such
detainees face detention without trial in perpetuity and no legal framework
yet exists to govern their plight.

Obama simply said he was "confident" that the issue could be worked out
according to the rule of law.

When will the war end?

Obama warned that a "perpetual" global war against terrorism would be
self-defeating for the United States.

Though urging the adoption of new strategies to tackle burgeoning franchises
that pledge allegiance to al-Qaida but are not in its command structure, and
homegrown radicals, he did not put an end date on the war on terror.

Still Obama's critics quickly accused him of "winding down" US anti-terror
operations that have been in place since the September 11 attacks in 2001,
and accused him of not taking the diffuse global threat sufficiently
seriously.

Opacity on drones

Obama gave his most public, detailed, justification of the U.S. drone war
against al-Qaida and other Islamic extremist groups yet but left many
questions unanswered.

He did not for instance say he would cede the right to use drone strikes as
he sees fit, despite unveiling new guidelines for their use.

Though admitting he was "haunted" by civilian deaths in drone strikes, he
did not give details on how many unintended victims there had been. He did
argue that there was a "wide gap" between government assessments of
casualties and those of independent groups who say thousands of civilians
may have died.

It also remained unclear whether the White House or the Pentagon will in
future confirm details about suspected drone strikes.

Previously, government spokespeople have refused to tell journalists any
details of the covert program when asked to confirm reports of strikes
reported by authorities in other countries like Pakistan or Yemen.

Obama did not, as some observers expected, announce that the CIA role in
drone strikes (mostly over Pakistan) would be ceded to the U.S. military --
likely because operations by the spy agency remain classified.

The president also did not define the concept of an "imminent threat" to
U.S. security that he says a terror suspect must pose to be the target of a
U.S. drone strike abroad.

Some human rights groups say the term is elastic and unspecified and leaves
the government far too much latitude in mounting drone strikes overseas.

+++SOURCE: Jordan Times 24 May ’13:Arab League to submit Syria proposals to
UN council, Agence France Presse

SUBJECT: Arab League proposals re June conference on Syria

QUOTE:” The Arab League …will submit to the UN Security Council a list of
proposals for a June peace conference aimed at ending the conflict in Syria”

CAIRO — The Arab League said on Thursday[23 May] it will submit to the UN
Security Council a list of proposals for a June peace conference aimed at
ending the conflict in Syria.

The pan-Arab body’s Syria committee, which met in Cairo on Thursday[23 May],
agreed on “several points to help the next international conference in
Geneva succeed”, it said in a statement without elaborating.

Qatari Prime Minister Hamad Bin Jassem Al Thani, who heads the Syria
committee, and Arab League Secretary General Nabil El Araby are to “submit
the points to the five permanent members of the Security Council”.

Since the Syrian conflict erupted in March 2011, more than 90,000 people
have been killed in the spiralling fighting between President Bashar Assad’s
regime and the rebels battling to overthrow it.

The United States and Russia, which back opposite sides in the conflict,
earlier this month proposed a peace conference dubbed Geneva II to bring
together rebels and representatives of Assad’s regime.

Officials who attended Thursday’s[23 May] meeting in Cairo told AFP on
condition of anonymity that the committee would submit a plan for a
political solution to the conflict.

This would include forming a temporary national unity government and
deployment of a UN peacekeeping force in Syria “to guarantee stability
during the transitional period”.

The committee members also agreed to hold an extraordinary meeting of Arab
foreign ministers in the first week of June, to define the Arab position
ahead of Geneva II.

Syria’s main opposition, the National Coalition, began a three-day meeting
in Istanbul on Thursday[23 May] to discuss peace talks with the regime.

The opposition’s agenda for Istanbul is packed with controversial questions,
and whether the group can make a final decision on Geneva II remains
doubtful, opponents say.

It is under pressure from its international backers to talk to the Assad
regime, but if it complies it risks losing what little legitimacy it has
left on the ground.

==========
Sue Lerner - Associate, IMRA