Syrian rebel fighters raise their weapons as they head to fight government forces in Aleppo. Photograph: Muhammed Muheisen/AP Photograph: Muhammed Muheisen/AP
Syrian rebel fighters raise their weapons as they head to fight government forces in Aleppo. Photograph: Muhammed Muheisen/AP Photograph: Muhammed Muheisen/AP
The UN refugee agency says the number of Syrian refugees seeking its help now tops a quarter of a million – 85,197 in Jordan, 78,431 in Turkey, 66,915 in Lebanon and 22,563 in Iraq.
Al-Hajar Alaswad district of Damascus has come under heavy shelling by warplanes, mortars and tanks for the second day, a resident told the Guardian – adding that the last remaining hospital in the area had been hit.
Syrian defector Gen Manaf Tlas has said that French secret agents helped him flee Syria in early July, the BBC reports. Tlas also suggested the Damascus regime might resort to "limited" use of chemical weapons if subjected to more pressure but said he was "against foreign intervention of any shape or form in Syria".
The Lebanese army has freed four Syrians kidnapped by the Meqdad clan, during a raid on Beirut's southern suburbs.
Actress Angelina Jolie has been visiting the Zaatari camp in Jordan, which hosts about 27,000 Syrians displaced by the conflict. Jolie, a UN "goodwill ambassador", met Syrian refugee women separately and toured the sprawling tent city, AP reports.
President Bashar al-Assad has told Russia he would be ready to step aside if Syrians choose another leader in an election, Russian deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov said in remarks published by the French newspaper Le Figaro.
Nearly 300 Filipino workers have returned home from Syria in the biggest single repatriation negotiated between the two governments.
WikiLeaks has released a batch of more than 32,000 emails relating to the Syrian foreign ministry.
Yemen
An explosion near the cabinet office in Sanaa apparently targeted the Yemeni defence minister. The minister survived but the interior ministry said 12 people were killed.
Egypt
Ahmed Shafiq, who was defeated by Mohammed Morsi in Egypt's presidential election last June, has been referred to Cairo criminal court on corruption charges, the justice ministry said.
Another ominous turn of events in Yemen. Journalist Sadeq al-Wesabi says the General People's Congress – the party still headed by ex-President Saleh – has called a counter-demonstration.
GPC called on its supporters to gather in Al-Sabeen Square in response to anti-Saleh demonstration #Yemen
Meanwhile, everyone is looking for someone to blame for the bomb attack earlier today. Depending on your political views, you can choose from a list of suspects that includes al-Qaida, supporters of ex-President Saleh, the traditionalist/Islamist Islah party, and the United States:
Huthis accusing #US behind the explosion,Islah& youth accusing Saleh, Saleh's supporters r accusing Islah, Gov is accusing#AQAP. #Yemen
Realising that neither a full-scale military intervention nor Libya-style air strikes are feasible options for Syria, some western politicians are considering a Yemeni-style transition of power in Damascus, Khaled Fattah writes in an article for Comment is free.
It might seem a tempting prospect, but Fattah argues that it won't work.
The three main aspects of the Yemeni model were based on granting immunity to the Yemeni leader from persecution, transferring his political power to his deputy, and forming a national consensus government, with half of the ministers from the ruling party. For many reasons, however, such a model would be difficult to implement in today's explosive and badly traumatised Syrian socio-political arena.
Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Iran will pursue contacts on a solution to Syria's conflict after launching talks in Cairo that grouped one ally and three opponents of President Assad, a senior diplomat told Reuters today.
The diplomat, who was involved in the talks, did not elaborate on further gatherings ...
Analysts are sceptical that any tangible agreement on action can be reached between Iran, a staunch supporter of Assad, and the three other states which have all called for him to quit.
Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran have tussled for influence in recent years in sectarian conflicts across the Middle East. Tehran accuses regional states like Saudi Arabia and Turkey of assisting Syrian rebels fighting to topple Assad.
"It provided a useful exchange of views and perspectives on the situation in the region. The parties will maintain their consultations," the senior diplomat said of Monday's quartet talks. "The talks were positive and useful."
The Egyptian hosts did not issue any official statement after the meeting.
The Iranian Fars news agency says Iran "voiced its agreement with the general points of the Egyptian offer and the statement issued by the Egyptian foreign ministry at the meeting".
However, Fars says Iran has also asked to include Venezuela and Iraq in the contact group – a move that will probably not be acceptable to the other members.
Al-Hajar Alaswad district of Damascus is under heavy shelling by warplanes, mortars and tanks for the second day, a resident says. Our colleague Mona Mahmood spoke via Skype to the resident, who gave his name as Majdi Salim:
Today the Syrian army shelled the last surgical private hospital working in the district. The hospital contains about 30 beds. Two people have been killed and 24 wounded. A few houses were destroyed by the shelling too.
There were two private hospitals in the district, al-Bra'a which was destroyed at the first incursion of the Syrian army a few months ago and today they destroyed the last one. The hospital no longer had any doctors but there was a nursing team offering medical aid for the people, but now it does not work any more.
A video, said to have been filmed in the area today, has been posted on YouTube:
Ahmed Shafiq, who was defeated by Mohammed Morsi in Egypt's presidential election last June, has been referred to Cairo criminal court on corruption charges, the justice ministry said today.
According to officials, the charges relate to a period in the 1990s when Shafiq, as chairman of a housing association, allegedly sold plots of land at a fraction of their value to Mubarak's sons, Gamal and Alaa.
Shafiq, who was Mubarak's last prime minister, left Egypt for the UAE shortly after losing the election and looks set to remain there.
A team from the World Health Organisation that visited Homs province last week found a humanitarian situation that is "grave and continues to deteriorate", with one in four residents in need of humanitarian aid, the WHO said today.
Half the province's public hospitals and three-quarters of its private hospitals are out of action and those that remain open are working at reduced capacity and are overwhelmed, Tarik Jasarevic, a WHO spokesman, told a news briefing in Geneva.
He said most doctors had left and that the largest hospital in Homs, with 350 beds, had been completely destroyed.
"It has been reported that there are only three surgeons left in the governorate (province)," he added.
Out of the province's population of 2.2 million, the WHO estimates that 550,000 need humanitarian aid. As well as healthcare, there is an urgent need for food, shelter, water, sanitation and education, Jasarevic said.
The UN refugee agency says the number of Syrian refugees seeking its help now tops a quarter of a million – 85,197 in Jordan, 78,431 in Turkey, 66,915 in Lebanon and 22,563 in Iraq.
Syrian defector Gen Manaf Tlas has said that French secret agents helped him flee Syria in early July, the BBC reports. Tlas also suggested the Damascus regime might resort to "limited" use of chemical weapons if subjected to more pressure but said he was "against foreign intervention of any shape or form in Syria".
The Lebanese army has freed four Syrians kidnapped by the Meqdad clan, during a raid on Beirut's southern suburbs.
Actress Angelina Jolie has arrived at the Zaatari camp in Jordan, which hosts about 27,000 Syrians displaced by the conflict. Jolie, a UN "goodwill ambassador", met Syrian refugee women separately and toured the sprawling tent city, AP reports.
President Bashar al-Assad has told Russia he would be ready to step aside if Syrians choose another leader in an election, Russian deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov said in remarks published by the French newspaper Le Figaro.
Nearly 300 Filipino workers have returned home from Syria in the biggest single repatriation negotiated between the two governments.
WikiLeaks has released a batch of more than 32,000 emails relating to the Syrian foreign ministry.
Yemen
An explosion near the cabinet office in Sanaa apparently targeted the Yemeni defence minister. The minister survived but at least six people are reported dead.
President Obama is pledging American support for Arab Spring countries seeking to recover assets from their toppled regimes, AP reports.
Obama says the return of the money which he estimates could be billions of dollars is needed to help rebuild and stabilise countries such as Egypt, Libya and Tunisia.
Obama delivered the message on Tuesday in a video address of a conference on ways to track and reclaim state funds from the deposed rulers. The three-day meeting in Qatar's capital Doha includes senior US envoys and delegates from around the Middle East.
Marwan Yousif, owner of a demolished workshop in the Qaboun district of Damascus, has been talking about the destruction of businesses in his area. Our colleague Mona Mahmood interviewed him via Skype.
I have an auto repair shop at the industrial area of al-Qaboun district. A month ago without any advance notice, the Syrian army came with a single tank and 10 bulldozers and began to level the shops where I work.
They arrested a few shops owners who dared to question the reason behind the destruction. They were taken to the Air Force Intelligence branch.
More than 500 shops have been levelled up to now and the destruction is still going on. Every time the Syrian army come, they level about 20 shops to come back again after. I did not dare to say a single word though my shop was one of the first to be levelled. I felt it is useless and will end in jail.
We were working inside the shops when the army cam and said: "You have to leave. We will start to destroy shops, leave everything and go away." They did not give us any deadline to evacuate and save what we had.
We all have these shops in a legal way and have documents to prove that they are either owned or rented. Those owners who were detained are still in jail. I cannot mention names for their safety. There are few houses adjacent to the shops that were levelled too.
We believe the reason behind the destruction is to clear the area as it is close to the Air Force Intelligence branch. The other reason is that the shops owners are supporting the FSA financially. FSA men would come to the shops owners and ask for their help – not by force but willingly. All the shop owners donate money in support of the revolution. It is a mass punishment for all the people who work in the industrial district in al-Qaboun.
There are informants who work in the shops and collaborate with the Syrian army. They are paid for their work by the Syrian army. They tipped off the Syrian army who came to take revenge.
I myself could not donate a penny, I'm not that rich and hardly can afford the living of my family. But I know that some of the owners have paid like 50,000-100,000 Syrian pounds ($740-$1,480). Sometimes a few owners pay 300,000.
Now, I have no work to do after the destruction of my shop. My family is made up of five members but I know others who have even bigger families and they lost their shops too. The FSA tried to help us but they themselves need a help. FSA do not have that much money to help the families.
Still, the FSA gave me 10,000 Syrian pounds to get food for my family. I did not ask them but they offered to help. I cannot do anything to restore my shop as snipers are based in the area now. I'm looking for any work to do but still cannot find anything.
The latest word is that the minister, Mohammed Nasser Ahmed, survived the attack but several of his guards were killed.
This comes a day after government officials said the No2 leader of al-Qaida in Yemen had been killed – though it's unclear if the two events are connected.
It seems that Palestinian protesters may have won a concession from the prime minister – but it's not clear how big the reduction in fuel prices will be.
#BreakingNews: Palestinian PM announces the reduction in fuel prices after protests. #Palestine
The king of Bahrain met British defence secretary Philip Hammond yesterday, the government-run Bahrain News Agency reports.
His Majesty discussed with Hammond means of bolstering ties especially those related to defense and security affirming the importance of such exchange of visits by senior officials from both countries. His Majesty highlighted the efforts exerted by the United Kingdom and world countries towards achieving security, stability and peace in the region.
He also reviewed the British defence secretary the latest developments regional and on the Arab level along with topics of mutual interests. Meanwhile, His Majesty hosted a dinner banquet in honour of the visiting British defense secretary and his accompanying delegation.
The Lebanese army freed four Syrians kidnapped by the Meqdad clan during a raid on Beirut's southern suburbs earlier today, the Lebanon Daily Star reports.
In a statement, the army said it “freed four kidnapped Syrians after raiding a location in Hay al-Sellum following surveillance and follow-ups.”
The army unit and Directorate of Intelligence arrested two people “without any resistance” in the same area. The two are suspected of involvement in the kidnappings.
Soldiers also raided the neighbourhood of Haret Hreik and detained several people suspected of involvement in the kidnappings. The detainees are being interrogated.
The Meqdad clan spokesperson, Maher, said that the Army raided four neighborhoods in total that are home to members of the clan's so-called "military wing".
"The Syrians were freed but I was told that [Aydin Tufan] Tekin was shot either in the chest or shoulder during the raid. We do not know who fired the shots but I'm sure it is not the army," Maher told The Daily Star.
The fate of the Turkish businessman abducted by the same clan is still unknown.
Turkey believes the Syrian regime is now portraying the country's crisis as a Sunni-Shia conflict to mask President Assad's loss of political authority, according to a senior adviser to prime minister Tayyip Erdogan.
This "neo-sectarian" approach aims to rally Syrian Shia to Assad's side and explain away opposition to him by majority Sunni states in the region, Ibrahim Kalin told Reuters.
But Syria's Sunnis and Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ism to which Assad belongs, are not fixed blocs and Turkey does not see the crisis in sectarian terms, Kalin said at a weekend conference of Muslim and Christian religious leaders from the Middle East.
"The Assad regime, because it has lost its political legitimacy, is now trying to present this as a sectarian conflict," he said. "They claim that those who oppose the Assad regime do so because they are Sunnis and they hate Sha.
"The good news is that the vast majority of the Sunnis and Shia don't buy this argument and realise these are political decisions, not a sectarian conflict."
Kalin described as "neo-sectarianism" the growing emphasis on religious identities across the Middle East, but said these trends - while real - were still mostly secondary to the political struggles driving events in the region.
The UN refugee agency says the number of Syrian refugees seeking its help now tops a quarter of a million. Agency spokesman Adrian Edwards says 253,106 people have registered or are awaiting registration as Syrian refugees.
Edwards told reporters Tuesday in Geneva there are 85,197 in Jordan, 78,431 in Turkey, 66,915 in Lebanon and 22,563 in Iraq as of this week, AP reports.
Officials acknowledge, however, the real number of Syrian refugees is likely far higher since tens of thousands are believed to have not yet registered with authorities.
Edwards says the refugees say artillery and air attacks are continuing in villages and towns close to the Jordanian border.
UNHCR special envoy Angelina Jolie meets refugees on the Jordanian border minutes after 200 of them crossed from Syria on September 10, 2012. Photograph: Reuters/Jason Tanner/UNHCR Handout Photograph: HANDOUT/REUTERS
BBC journalist Paul Danahar reports a fairly small turnout for today's protest outside the Palestinian prime minister's office. For background, see yesterday's live blog.
Welcome to Middle East Live. Here is a summary of the latest developments:
Syrian defector Gen Manaf Tlas has said that French secret agents helped him flee Syria in early July, the BBC reports.
In an interview with BBC Arabic and a French TV channel, Tlas said French "services" had helped him escape but refused to be drawn on how, only thanking the French government.
He also suggested the Damascus regime might resort to "limited" use of chemical weapons if subjected to more pressure but said he was "against foreign intervention of any shape or form in Syria".
Actress Angelina Jolie has arrived at the Zaatari camp in Jordan, which hosts about 27,000 Syrians displaced by the conflict.
Jolie, a UN "goodwill ambassador", met Syrian refugee women separately and toured the sprawling tent city, AP reports.
President Bashar al-Assad has told Russia he would be ready to step aside if Syrians choose another leader in an election, Russian deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov said in remarks published by the French newspaper Le Figaro.
"Assad told us himself. But I don't know how sincere he is," Bogdanov said. "But he clearly told us that if the people didn't want him, and if they chose a different leader in an election, he would go."
New York Times journalist C J Chivers comments:
Sounds reasonable. Except the rules of the system make it impossible. "Assad would leave if voted out" reut.rs/OlJBmU
Nearly 300 Filipino workers have returned home from Syria in the biggest single repatriation negotiated between the two governments.
The workers, all of them young women who worked as babysitters and maids, say they were scared for their safety and could not sleep at night because of aerial bombardments, AP reports. They sought shelter at the Philippine embassy in Damascus last week.
WikiLeaks has released a batch of more than 32,000 emails relating to the Syrian foreign ministry.
Qatar
Qatar has reportedly agreed to expel Sakhr el-Materi, the son-in-law of ousted Tunisian president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali.
Materi, once regarded as a likely successor to Ben Ali, took refuge in Qatar after the Tunisian revolution last year.
According to a statement from the presidential office in Tunis, the emir of Qatar has agreed to "the popular request" of Tunisians to expel him. The Qatari authorities are also said to be ready "to provide all technical and legal assistance in order to secure Tunisian assets and smuggled money".
Materi's extravagant lifestyle during the Ben Ali era, including his keeping of a pet tiger, was described in a WikiLeaks document released shortly before the uprising.
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