UN Security Council was briefed today on the ongoing violence in Syria. This after the UN envoy Kofi Annan left Syria on Wednesday to attend talks with Jordanian officials. A U.N. official said the international envoy did not secure any major steps from the Syrian government to implement a faltering peace plan for the country.
The Iranian government said Tuesday it has produced an antivirus program capable of fighting what computer experts are calling "the most sophisticated cyber weapon yet unleashed."
The data-stealing virus has been infecting computers in Iran and other parts of the Middle East.
In Egypt, when el-Sayyed heard that the Supreme Presidential Electoral Commission (SPEC) had rejected all appeals challenging last week’s election results, thus pitting Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi and Mubarak minister Ahmed Shafiq against each other in the runoff, he came straight to Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
Details after the break.
Syria
The deputy to international envoy Kofi Annan, Jean-Marie Guéhenno, has briefed the U.N.'s 15-nation Security Council on the envoy's visit to Syria, prompting one diplomat to call the current situation a "low point in the conflict."
After Wednesday's closed briefing, Germany's ambassador to the United Nations, Peter Wittig, told reporters that he hoped the "flagrant violations" like the recent massacre in Houla was an "eye opener for some members of the council." He added that Germany is "against the militarization of the conflict."
Mr. Annan left Syria on Wednesday to attend talks with Jordanian officials. A U.N. official said the international envoy did not secure any major steps from the Syrian government to implement a faltering peace plan for the country.
"After 15 months of violence, only very strong signals will have an impact," Guéhenno told reporters. "Small diplomatic steps will not suffice."
Russia's U.N. ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, whose country says it will veto any Security Council resolution that authorizes foreign military intervention in Syria, said after the briefing that Moscow is dissatisfied with the "current state of things."
The U.N. observer mission in Syria confirmed the killings of 13 people in the northeastern province of Deir el-Zour. The mission said U.N. monitors found the bodies late Tuesday, with some of the dead appearing to have been shot in the head from short range and all having their hands tied behind their backs.
U.N. observer chief, Norwegian General Robert Mood, said he is "deeply disturbed by this appalling and inexcusable act." He called on all parties "to exercise restraint and end the cycle of violence."
International community outraged
Handout photo released by Syrian opposition's Shaam News Network shows UN observers at hospital morgue before their burial in central Syrian town of Houla on May 26, 2012.International outrage has mounted since a massacre of more than 100 civilians took place in the central Syrian town of Houla last week.
Diplomats in Geneva said the U.N. Human Rights Council plans to hold an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss the massacre. They said the United States, Turkey and Qatar led the push for the special session.
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak urged the international community to take tougher action against Bashar al-Assad's government.
"The events in Syria mean the world must take action -- not only by talking, but by acting," Barak said. "These are crimes against humanity, and it is impossible that the international community stand aloof."
The U.S. Treasury on Wednesday announced it will freeze the assets of the Syrian International Islamic Bank to tighten economic pressure on the Syrian government.
Several countries are expelling Syrian diplomats in protest of the Houla massacre. Japan and Turkey announced the step on Wednesday. They joined the United States, Australia, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain, which announced the expulsions of Syrian diplomats on Tuesday
Diplomatic blows
The Syrian government retaliated on Wednesday by ordering the Dutch charge d’Affaires to leave Syria within 72 hours.
Russia's U.N. ambassador on Wednesday called expulsions a "bilateral matter," but warned that they could be "misinterpreted by those who want to see foreign military intervention and fighting in Syria."
In Beijing, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Liu Weimin said he is not aware of any Chinese move to expel or disrupt the work of Syrian diplomats in the country. "China opposes military intervention in Syria and opposes regime change by force," Weimin said.
Annan's plan called on the Syrian government to withdraw heavy weapons from civilian areas and abide by a truce with rebels. But attacks by both sides have continued.
Syrian activists said fighting between government and rebel forces on Wednesday killed at least nine people, five of them in the Damascus suburb of Douma. They said government troops shelled Douma and the central city of Homs, which also is an opposition stronghold. The casualties could not be independently confirmed.
Abu Orouba, a media liaison for the opposition Local Coordination Committees of Syria, told VOA the situation across the country is dire.
"Annan’s plan is a real failure. As a Syrian citizen, I see that it failed to produce any result - actually none of its articles were implemented. Even the cease-fire requirement was not met," Orouba said. "If Annan’s plan is still on the table and the U.N. observers are still on the ground, why did this massacre take place? Why is there no cease-fire?"
Political scientist Alexei Malashenko of the Carnegie Center in Moscow says the situation in Syria is so dead-locked that a solely diplomatic solution is becoming impossible.
“[President Assad] is a nervous man, and, it seems, is so confident in himself that he has gone over the top in his actions,” Malashenko said. “The massacre in Houla is only the beginning; it will continue to get worse.”
Iran
The Iranian government said Tuesday it has produced an antivirus program capable of fighting what computer experts are calling "the most sophisticated cyber weapon yet unleashed."
The data-stealing virus has been infecting computers in Iran and other parts of the Middle East.
Iran's Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Center (CERTCC) said Tuesday the antivirus tool can identify and remove the sophisticated spyware, identified a day earlier by a Russian Internet security company. The Iranian ministry did not say if the virus had done any damage.
Russia's Kaspersky Lab dubbed the virus "Flame" and described it as a malicious program whose "complexity and functionality exceed those of all other cyber menaces known to date." It said the virus has stolen information from computers in Iran, Israel and other parts of the region.
In a separate report, the Hungarian Laboratory of Cryptography and System Security named the virus "sKyWIper" and said Hungarian computers also have been infected.
The spyware works by copying files and activating computer microphones to record conversations before sending the data through a series of servers to the program source.
No one has claimed responsibility for the computer attacks.
But Israeli Vice Premier Moshe Yaalon said Tuesday cyber weapons such as Flame are a "reasonable" tool for any nation trying to "hobble" the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran. He also said Israel is a "technologically rich" nation whose tools "open up all sorts of opportunities."
Tensions between Iran and Israel have increased steadily in recent months, as has speculation about a possible Israeli strike against Iran's nuclear sites. Iran says its controversial nuclear program is peaceful. But talks have been continuing with world powers to curb Iran's weapons capability.
Iran suffered a major cyberattack in 2010 when a virus known as Stuxnet knocked out computers at its nuclear facilities. Tehran has blamed the Stuxnet attack on Israel and the West, whom it accuses of trying to sabotage the Iranian nuclear program.
The head of science, technology and security at Tel Aviv University, Isaac Ben-Israel, said the Flame virus uses a different software language from Stuxnet, making it unlikely the two are related. He also said Flame is the largest virus of its kind ever detected with a file size of 20 megabytes.
Ben-Israel said Flame is not the most dangerous virus because it steals information rather than causing damage in the physical world.
"If you speak about danger, the real danger in using cyber technology is damaging computers which control physical systems like trains and power production," he said.
Ben-Israel said the virus appears to be the work of a government with sufficient resources to invest in gathering intelligence from the Middle East. He said 60 to 70 countries have such capabilities, but doubted the Israeli government is responsible because Israel is among the nations whose computers have been infected.
Egypt
Mohamed Ibrahim el-Sayyed, 42, lost a lot to Egypt’s revolution - his brother was killed during the initial 18-day uprising that led to former president Hosni Mubarak’s ouster, and his son was killed in one of the many bouts of clashes between protesters and police that have marked the post-Mubarak transitional period. So when el-Sayyed heard that the Supreme Presidential Electoral Commission (SPEC) had rejected all appeals challenging last week’s election results, thus pitting Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohamed Morsi and Mubarak minister Ahmed Shafiq against each other in the runoff, he came straight to Cairo’s Tahrir Square.
“Disqualify Shafiq!” he chanted, raising his shoe in the air. El-Sayyed, who voted for Nasserist candidate Hamdeen Sabahi in the country’s first post-Mubarak presidential elections, said that Egypt would not tolerate a return of the old regime. He was joined in Tahrir by hundreds of other Egyptians enraged by the realization of what many called the “nightmare scenario:” a contest for the country’s top post being played out between an Islamist and a felul, or “remnant” of the old regime, thus sidelining more secular, independent forces.
Demonstrators chanted slogans against Shafiq, Morsi, and the currently ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), and held signs bearing the crossed-out faces of the top two presidential contenders.
Among the protesters was Khaled Ali, himself a contender in the election’s first round and champion of leftists and liberals, who took just half of one percent of votes.
In addition to peacefully demonstrating in Tahrir, protesters reportedly cut off power to two buildings with Shafiq billboards, chanting, “Lights out for Shafiq,” and set fire to Shafiq’s campaign headquarters in the Cairo neighborhood of Dokki.
As early as last Friday, voters knew that Morsi and Shafiq would likely face each other in the runoff. However, after runner-up candidates registered appeals with the SPEC, many Egyptians held their breath for a different outcome. The appeals cited allegations that names were added to the voting rolls and that hundreds of thousands of policemen and soldiers – who are not allowed to vote in national elections - unlawfully received voter registration cards, and then were pressured into voting for Shafiq.
Demonstrators said that none of these claims were seriously investigated.
In its announcement Monday, the SPEC simply reaffirmed that Morsi had come in first place with 24.78 percent of the vote and Shafiq in second place with 23.66 percent. Following behind were Hamdeen Sabahi, moderate Islamist Abdel Moneim Aboul Fotouh, and former Arab League head Amr Moussa.
Election monitors, including the U.S.-based Carter Center, gave the voting and counting process generally positive marks. But for many in Tahrir, whether or not there was massive fraud or only minor violations is beside the point. As the Carter Center noted, a bigger cause for concern was “the broader context in which these elections were held.” Most notably, the highly controversial Article 28 of the SCAF-issued Constitutional Declaration makes all decisions by the SPEC final and immune from appeal. Issandr el-Amrani, who blogs as The Arabist, wrote, “[the SPEC’s] ruling is not appealable, it has a past record of dubious decisions, and it behaved suspiciously by distributing last minute supplementary voter lists and blocking access to observers to counting rooms. The [S]PEC had no credibility even before the vote was cast."
In addition to grievances against the SPEC, the Carter Center cited the never suspended Emergency Law, which “continues to stifle democratic debate [and hinder] the full enjoyment of electoral rights,” as a barrier to holding free and fair elections.
The fire at Shafiq headquarters in Cairo was confined to a garage out back. (Elizabeth Arrott/VOA)Others in Tahrir lamented how elections could even he held under military rule. Mostafa Salah, 22, said the people should have demanded a civilian caretaker government to oversee the electoral process, to ensure that the military would not rig the process in order to protect its own interests.
Where to go from here
On how to move forward, the mood in Tahrir was divisive: some demonstrators said that faced with such an impossible choice, they would boycott the second round of elections. Some said that although they do not want an Islamist government, they would vote for Morsi just to keep the old guard out of power, while others said the opposite: despite Shafiq’s shadowy past, they would do anything to keep the Islamists from having control of both the legislative and executive branches of government.
Still others maintain that street politics are the best route. Some activists called for a million-man march to take place on Tuesday. “The streets are the answer,” tweeted well-known activist Ahmed Aggour, known as “Psypherize”. Aggour supports a boycott of the next round of elections, and predicted that Egyptians would come out into the streets en masse and hold another “Friday of Rage,” a reference to a key day in the 18-day uprising which ousted Mubarak a year and a half ago.
VOA News reports.
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