Syria, Egypt and Middle East unrest – live updates

• Assad supporters storm French and US embassies in Syria • Egypt’s interim government fails to quell public anger • US envoy tells Yemen’s President Saleh to stand down 3.24pm: Pro-regime supporters smashed windows at the US Embassy, scrawled graffiti on the walls and raised a Syrian flag , witnesses told AP reports. French Embassy security guards fired in the air to hold back supporters of Assad’s regime who were also protesting the French ambassador’s visit to Hama. One witness said three protesters were injured when guards beat them with clubs. The witness asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the situation. There was no immediate word on casualties at the American Embassy demonstration. Hiam al-Hassan, a witness, said about 300 people had gathered outside the French Embassy while hundreds others were at the American diplomatic compound. “Syrians demonstrated peacefully in front of the French embassy but they were faced with bullets,” said al-Hassan. The US state department is to have stern words with Syrian diplomats, according to Reuters: “We are calling in the Syrian charge (d’affaires) to complain,” said a US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “We feel they failed (in their responsibility to protect U.S. diplomats). We are going to condemn their slow response.” 3.05pm: The break-ins at the US and French embassies in the Syrian capital Damascus now appear to be over. Reuters reports: Unidentified people tried to break into France’s embassy in Syria on Monday but failed, the French Foreign Ministry said. The incident “is now finished,” spokesman Bernard Valero said in response to a query. He could not immediately give more details. This photograph of the incident at the US embassy (left) appears on a pro-Assad Facebook group. 2.51pm: More on the embassy raids from Reuters: French embassy guards in Damascus fired live ammunition to disperse loyalists to President Bashar al-Assad who tried to break into the compound on Monday and are still surrounding it, diplomats in the Syrian capital said. A similar crowd broke into the U.S. embassy but later left, they added. A US embassy official said the response of the Syrian authorities was “slow and insufficient”. 2.33pm: There is a photograph of pro-regime supporters scaling the US embassy fence in Damascus on the the Arabic website, Day Press News (via @LeShaque ). And over at the French embassy there’s been clashes between the security guards and pro-regime supporters, Reuters reports. President Assad loyalists try to break into French embassy compound in Damascus, confrontation erupts with embassy guards – Diplomats. The French ambassador to Syria accompanied Ford on his “solidarity” trip to Hama. The BBC claims security guards fired into the air at the French embassy . 2.19pm: Reuters news flash: President Bashar al-Assad loyalists break into U.S. embassy compound in Damascus-Diplomats in Syrian capital Yesterday, the US ambassador Robert Ford accused the Syrian authorities of failing to prevent a demonstration outside the embassy at the weekend. How ironic that the Syrian Government lets an anti-U.S. demonstration proceed freely while their security thugs beat down olive branch-carrying peaceful protesters elsewhere. Ford’s visit to Hama appears to be backfiring. On Friday an official said he left the demonstration “so as not to be a distraction during the weekly demonstrations” . But his motorcade was mobbed by protesters before he had a chance to leave. 1.46pm: Egypt’s interim government is struggling to contain anger at the slow pace of change, as protests continue in Cairo, Suez, and Alexandria and activists call for a million-person march tomorrow, writes Egyptian journalist Sara Elkamel. Headlines in the Egyptian press portray the public’s dissatisfaction with prime minister Essam Sharaf’s recent concessions. Sharaf has promised a cabinet re-shuffle in response to massive protests last Friday. But activists have rejected the offer as a feeble gesture that does not match their demands. Thousands of protesters continue to hold sit-ins, determined to see immediate reforms. According to the daily newspaper al-Ahram, Tahrir sqaure, more protests are expected tomorrow. The demands of groups leading the protests include the public trail of ousted president Mubarak and his family, along with the remnants of his party, and the police involved in the killing of protesters during the uprising. They also want the repeal of anti-strike and anti-demonstration laws, as well as a new state budget that does more to help the poor. Thousands of protesters have remained in Tahrir Square for a fourth consecutive day. And despite army efforts to disperse protests in Suez, demonstrators gathered near the Suez canal, calling for freedom and dignity and the public trail of Mubarak. Meanwhile, in Alexandria a rally blocked the Corniche Road . A tweet from activist R.Saro sums up the mood: “#Egypt is not back to Square one– Its back to #tahrir” . Elkamel is working for the Guardian this week. 1.26pm: Syrian activists claim that while the “dialogue” meeting has been taking place in Damascus, the security forces killed two people in a raid on the country’s third city of Homs. Activists have circulated video of the funeral of Afnan Khalid, who it said was killed in the city on Sunday. At least two people were killed and 20 wounded in the attacks in Homs , activists told AP. In Homs, an activist in the city told The Associated Press clashes occurred after security forces killed on Sunday the son of an anti-regime tribal leader. The unrest lasted until 5 am 9 (local time). Street lights were turned off then troops started entering neighborhoods, shooting with heavy machine guns atop Russian-made armoured personnel carriers, said the activist, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of government reprisals. Activists have also uploaded video of a Red Crescent ambulance riddled with bullet holes . They claim the vehicle was shot at in Homs. The Red Crescent has yet to respond to the footage. Sara Elkamel, provides this translation of the commentary on the video. “These are Bashar al-Assad’s reforms…Even the Red Cross ambulances could not escape them…do you see the bullets on the ambulances? Here are Bashar al-Assad’s reforms…” _ 12.06pm: US envoy John Brennan has now travelled to Yemen to continue to push for a transfer of power, AP reports. Yesterday Brennan was in the Saudi capital Riyadh for talks with President Saleh who continues to refuse to stand down, despite months of protests against his regime. Today Brennan is meeting Yemen’s caretaker president Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi in Sana’a to try to revive a Gulf Co-operation Council broker deal that involves Saleh’s resignation. 12.00pm: Diplomatic relations between France and Syria are tense after a troubled weekend, writes Angelique Chrisafis in Paris. The French foreign office summoned Syria’s ambassador to France on Sunday night to express its outrage over violent protests outside the French embassy in Damascus over the weekend. Demonstrators at the embassy and the French consulate in Aleppo had burned French flags, lobbed stones into the compound and destroyed cars in what France called “unspeakable acts” while the Syrian authorities stood by. The violence came after the French ambassador to Damascus, Eric Chevallier, and his US counterpart, Robert Ford, visited the northern city of Hama in a show of solidarity for protesters on Friday. The Syrian government objected to the ambassadors’ visits, calling them “blatant” interference in Syrian internal affairs. 11.13am: Yemen state TV has carried footage of President Saleh meeting US envoy John Brennan in Saudi Arabia. In the clip Saleh’s hands are covered in surgical gloves , and he still appeared to be ailing from the attack on his compound last month. _ The White House said Brennan urged Saleh to sign a Gulf Co-operation Council deal that would see him stand down in return for immunity from prosecution. Yemeni activist NoonArabia makes the obvious sick joke : With these hands #Saleh is unlikely to sign a #GCC initiative plan. Sorry #US #KSA he’ll just have to leave #Yemen asap! twitpic.com/5ob4pz The Yemen state news agency, Saba, indicated that Saleh again refused to agree to the GCC deal. It said Saleh pointed out that the “peaceful transfer of power in Yemen must be within the framework of democracy and the constitution” . 10.43am: UAE journalist and blogger Sultan al-Qassemi is hopeful of change from the new generation of Saudi leaders, but he says change needs to be gradual. When we mentioned on the blog on Friday that Qassemi would be coming to the Guardian offices, below the line littleriver asked us to challenge him on his assertion that Saudi Arabia is on the “cusp of major change “. I put that and some of littleriver’s other points to Qassemi in an Audioboo interview on Friday . He said: “Before 2020 you will see a shift to the third generation of Saudi leadership. Many of them have studied abroad … the current generation has not gone to university [or] interacted with the outside world.” He said Saudis educated aboard, won’t take to the streets, but will slowly take over the running of the country. “They will slowly recruit people who are like minded and that’s how I see change happening,” he said. Qassemi added that change in Saudi Arabia needed to be slow and manageable. He is more forthright about continuing protests in Egypt, which he describes as “a good sign”. “The [Egyptian] army should be kept on track. The army should not forget that it is the people who will rule Egypt and not them.” _ 10.13am: The Syrian state news agency, Sana, has acknowledged criticism of the regime at the “dialogue” meeting with some opposition figures. In an interesting write-up of the opening day of the talks, it rattles through a number of serious challenges to the government made at the talks. But it does not go into details and has few direct quotes. Here is a flavour of the tone of the report: Participants called for ending the ‘police state’ and working for a democratic civil state which enjoys party and political multilateralism and media freedoms … They urged for an immediate halt to violence and random arrests, lifting the ‘blockade’ on cities and setting up civil committees to organize visits to these cities and review the demands of their residents. 9.31am: Welcome to Middle East Live. There’s lots to catch up on after another busy weekend in the region. Syria remains the key place to watch as opposition activists boycott a second day of “dialogue” with the ruling Ba’ath party amid a continuing crackdown. Meanwhile, in Egypt more protests are planned as the interim government fails to quell growing frustration at the pace of change and lack of accountability for members of the old regime and its security forces. And on a trip to Saudi Arabia, the US envoy John Brennan has told Yemen’s President Ali Abdullah Saleh to stand down. Here’s a run down in more detail. Syria • Activist and opposition leaders in Syria are boycotting a second day of a “national dialogue” conference on reform with the ruling Ba’ath party. • The Local Co-ordination Committees of Syria, which says it has a list of the names of 1,963 people killed in the uprising so far, repeated its opposition to the talks, claiming the exercise was “nothing but a cover-up for violence committed against Syrian citizens”. • Opposition figures who have attended the talks have been allowed to make sweeping criticisms of the regime on state TV , the LA Times reports. It quotes comments made by Tayyeb Tizini, a professor of philosophy at Damascus University, who told a news conference: We should dismantle the security state that dominates the whole society. Now we are suffering the consequences of the police state. The police state will destroy every aspect of society as it keeps tabs on every Syrian citizen. And conference participant and parliament member Mohammed Habash said: A part of what is going on is a result of foreign intervention, but 80% of it is a result of internal congestion that comes as a result of oppression and the practices of the security apparatus. • A campaign has been set up to free the Syrian blogger and activist Anas Maarawi, who was arrested earlier this month in Damascus . • Human Rights Watch has gathered more evidence that the army has ordered to shoot protesters and shoot soldiers who refuse to do so , from those who defected from the military. One soldier, who defected after being deployed to Deraa, said: We received orders to kill protesters. Some military refused the orders and were shot with a handgun. Two were killed in front of me. Defectors also said they were banned from watching television in private to avoid any of them watching TV channels that aired anti-government information. • There are conflicting reports about whether an activist in central Damascus was killed after being shot in Friday’s protests. The Guardian quotes activists saying that 25-year-old Mohamed Dakdak died after being shot in the head , making him the first casualty of the uprising in the centre of the capital. But Syrian dissident Ammar Abdulhamid reported that an Ahmad Dakdak is still alive but in critical condition after twice undergoing surgery . • The US ambassador to Syria Robert Ford has condemned a pro-regime protests outside the US embassy after his visit to Friday protests in Hama provoked anger from the regime . Writing on the Damascus’s embassy Facebook page , Ford said: On July 9 a “mnhebak” group threw rocks at our embassy, causing some damage. They resorted to violence, unlike the people in Hama, who have stayed peaceful. Go look at the Ba’ath or police headquarters in Hama – no damage that I saw … And how ironic that the Syrian government lets an anti-US demonstration proceed freely while their security thugs beat down olive branch-carrying peaceful protesters elsewhere. The people in Hama have been demonstrating peacefully for weeks … And I saw no signs of armed gangs anywhere – not at any of the civilian street barricades we passed. Egypt •  Activists in Egypt have vowed to continued protests about the slow pace of change and lack of accountability for police violence. Egypt’s interim leader, Essam Sharaf, promised to to meet demands of the protesters who came out in force on Friday. But his speech failed to convince, as demonstrations broke out in Cairo yesterday and more demonstrations are planned for tomorrow. • The Egyptian army clashed with protesters in Suez on Sunday, the Washington Post reports. • The latest Arabist podcast discusses the increasingly fractured Egyptian opposition and shouting matches between Islamist and secularists in Tahrir Square on Friday. Yemen US counter terrorism chief John Brennan has urged Yemen’s President Saleh to step down and not return to Sana’a , the New York Times reports. In a written statement on Sunday, the White House said Brennan “called on President Saleh to fulfil expeditiously his pledge to sign” an agreement brokered by the Gulf Co-operation Council, which would lead to a transition ending his 33 years in office and grant the president immunity. Libya France has urged Libyan rebels to enter negotiations with Gaddafi’s regime , in a sign of Nato’s growing impatience with the conflict. Reuters quoted the French defence minister, Gerard Longuet, as saying: We have asked them to speak to each other. The position of the TNC (rebel Transitional National Council) is very far from other positions. Now, there will be a need to sit around a table. Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East Syria Bashar Al-Assad Egypt Yemen Libya Nato Matthew Weaver guardian.co.uk

Posted by on July 11, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.