Assad runs brutal war: ex-top official

Syria’s ex-deputy oil minister, who lives under the protection of the Turkish government, says the Syrian regime is using oil to fuel its brutal campaign

 

Buildings damaged during clashes between Syrian rebels and government forces are seen in the Al Qusour neighborhood of Homs. Ex-deputy oil minister Hussameddin.

Buildings damaged during clashes between Syrian rebels and government forces are seen in the Al Qusour neighborhood of Homs. Ex-deputy oil minister Hussameddin talks to Hürriyet Daily News reporter İpek Yezdani in Istanbul.

Abdo Hussameddin, Syria’s former deputy oil minister, who defected four months ago, said the Syrian regime operates two large oil refineries in Homs and Banis, using oil produced in these refineries mostly to fuel the Syrian army.

“[President Bashar] al-Assad is securing his brutal campaign through these refineries. These days no oil is imported from outside [the country], and he is using oil produced inside the country to fuel his tanks and military vehicles rather than for his people,” Hussameddin told the Hürriyet Daily News in an interview yesterday.

Hussameddin announced his defection from his post March 8 via a video on Youtube, and defected to Jordan from Syria. He recently came to Turkey and has been living in Istanbul under the protection of the Turkish government for some time.

“The regime has been slaughtering people in a very brutal way. I couldn’t accept the situation there and I decided to leave my position and defect with my family. After I left Syria with my wife and children they confiscated all my property there,” Husameddin said.

“Assad could destroy the oil fields at Deir ez-Zor”

Clashes between Syrian and revolutionary forces have been accelerating in the eastern city of Deir ez-Zor, where many oil fields are located, Hussameddin said. “If the regime loses control in the villages of Deir ez-Zor then they will certainly burn and destroy the oil fields there.” Nawaf al-Bashir, a prominent Syrian opposition figure and leader of Syria’s largest tribe, Al-Baqqara, said more than 400 people have been killed in the last 20 days, with more than 3,000 people killed by the regime in Deir ez-Zor since last spring.

During a press conference held in Istanbul yesterday, al-Bashir said around 20,000 people have been arrested, and 60 percent of families have fled to other cities from Deir ez-Zor. As a government insider from al-Assad’s inner circle, Hussameddin said he didn’t think al-Assad would ever step down.

“I know him and people around him; neither he nor the people around him would ever think of giving up leadership in Syria,” Hussameddin said. Hussameddin was appointed by al-Assad as deputy oil minister in June 2009.

Syria's downing of Turkish jet an 'escalation': Iraq

Iraqi Foreign Affairs Minister Hoshyar Zebar.

Syria's downing of a Turkish plane marks a serious escalation of the Syrian conflict, Iraq's foreign minister said on Saturday, saying he feared a spillover of the crisis into neighbouring countries.

Syria shot down a Turkish jet over the Mediterranean yesterday and Ankara has said it will do whatever is necessary after the incident that threatened to open a new dimension in the 16-month revolt against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

"Our main concern is the spillover of the crisis into neighbouring countries," Hoshiyar Zebari told a news conference with his Swedish, Bulgarian and Polish counterparts in Baghdad.

"No country is immune from this spillover because of the composition of the societies, the extensions, the connections, the sectarian, ethnic dimensions," he said.

If the conflict were to slide into an all-out sectarian or civil war, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey would all be affected, he said. "This is not an excuse to do nothing about Syria, no. But there will be an impact."

He said the crisis had intensified in recent days with the shelling of civilian residential areas, increase in the number of demonstrators killed and the defection of a Syrian pilot who flew his plane to Jordan.

"The shooting down yesterday of a Turkish aircraft over Syrian territorial waters - this is a serious escalation and indication that the conflict would have (a) far bigger impact than (on) Syria itself," Zebari said.

Zebari was speaking after a meeting with the three other foreign ministers who are on an EU-backed mission to help seek solutions to the Syria crisis. Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt and his Bulgarian and Polish counterparts were in Lebanon on Friday.

Syria UN mission headed by spy?

The UN mission chief in Syria Major General Robert Mood

A Jordanian UN observer in Syria says the head of the United Nations Surveillance Mission (UNSMIS) in the country is a spy. The monitor claims General Robert Mood is gathering critical coordinates and visiting military bases for his own purposes.

­The claims have appeared in Syrian state media, indicating that security circles have signaled their consent to publication in Damascus.

Sources say Norwegian General Mood took his convoy to the city of Tartus last Friday, where no violence was reported. The group visited no less than four military installations of the Syrian Army there without any sanction through the General’s UNSMIS mandate.

Moreover, the same Friday the convoy went to the Rastan area, where it did not drive close to the fighting zone, but went straight to the Syrian Army’s military installation, again without any apparent connection to Mood’s mandate.

Syrians suspect that geographical data is being collected for purposes not related to UNSMIS – perhaps collateral data to already existing files. Syrian officials suspect furthermore that Mood might be looking for locations where Syrian authorities are keeping prisoners of war.

All in all, many analysts are recalling questionable UN observer behavior in the times of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

 As to prisoners of foreign origin in official Syrian custody, UN observers are trying to find and supply exact coordinates.

It seems all the German prisoners are German citizens, including foreign-born German citizens. All are employed by a German private security company based in Stuttgart.

The Germans were deployed to Libya five months ago and captured north of the Syrian port of Tartus around two weeks ago. They were offloading weapons and ammunition from a commercial vessel waiting in international waters using two speed boats. Syrian analysts are convinced that the German government did not pursue this operation on its own, but was acting on behalf of Washington – and that the German opposition would have done the same, had they been under that kind of pressure.

West Seeks to Disrupt Annan's Plan – Syrian Envoy to Russia (as Russia continues to Support Syrian State Slaughter)

Western and Arab countries continue to supply arms to Syria in attempts to destroy a peace plan backed by UN and Arab League envoy Kofi Annan, Syrian Ambassador to Russia Riyad Haddad said on Thursday.

“Some western countries, including France and Arab states, are doing everything to disrupt Annan’s peace plan…They continue to arm and fund terrorist groups,” Haddad said.

The diplomat’s statement comes amid a new wave of Russian-U.S. tensions over Syria that have mounted after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton claimed that Russia was supplying attack helicopters to Syria. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday dismissed the allegations, saying that Moscow was “completing the implementation of contracts that were signed and paid for a long time ago” and adding that the contracts "concern exclusively anti-aircraft defense.”

“We all heard Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaking yesterday at the news conference in Tehran where he said that Russia was selling arms to Syria under contracts signed many years ago. This weaponry does not fall under any sanctions and does not contradict UN requirements. It’s defensive arms.”

Clinton, however, also dismissed claims about U.S. assistance in arming the Syrian opposition, saying that the United States has only provided medical and humanitarian aid to the Syrian opposition, “things like communications gear.”

Syria is one of Russia’s major weapons clients, and Moscow has opposed proposals for an arms embargo on Damascus, saying this would give rebel forces an unfair advantage in the conflict.

Haddad also confirmed that Russia was printing Syrian currency.

"Our Russian friends help us with everything and that includes economic matters," Haddad said during a press conference in Moscow. "If our Russian friends help us print our currency, and the West declined that request, it means Russia is helping us," he said.

According to UN estimates, over 10,000 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Syria and tens of thousands displaced since the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began about 15 months ago.