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Assad replaces fugitive PM, Aleppo rebels pull back

Free Syrian Army members shout Islamic slogans as they prepare to move into Aleppo's district of Salah Edinne August 9, 2012. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra (SYRIA - Tags: POLITICS CONFLICT CIVIL UNREST TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY)

A Free Syrian Army fighter fires an anti-aircraft gun as a Syrian Air Force fighter bomber fires rockets during an air strike in the village of Tel Rafat, some 37 km (23 miles) north of Aleppo, August 9, 2012. REUTERS/Goran Tomasevic

ALEPPO, Syria (Reuters) - President Bashar al-Assad named a new prime minister on Thursday to replace Syria's most senior government defector as his forces pushed rebels back from a strategic district in Aleppo.

Assad appointed Wael al-Halki, a Sunni Muslim from the southern province of Deraa where the Syrian uprising erupted 17 months ago, to head the government after Riyad Hijab fled on Monday after spending only two months in the job.

Hijab's dramatic escape across the border to Jordan dealt another blow to Assad's authority, already shaken by the assassination last month of four of his top security officials and by rebel gains in Damascus, Aleppo and swathes of rural Syria.

Assad has shrugged off the setbacks and persevered with a desperate contest with his mostly Sunni opponents, who are seeking to end half a century of Baathist rule and topple a system dominated by members of the president's minority Alawite sect.

He has focused his fierce army counter-offensive on Syria's two main cities, reasserting control over much of Damascus before taking the fight to the northern commercial hub.

Rebels fighting in the Aleppo district of Salaheddine, a southern gateway to the city, said they had been forced to fall back from frontline positions on Thursday by a fierce bombardment which had reduced buildings to rubble.

"There have been some withdrawals of Free Syrian Army fighters from Salaheddine," rebel commander Abu Ali said. Others said the main frontlines in the area, which had been held by rebels for more than a week, were now deserted.

The center of the district, near Salaheddine mosque, was abandoned when Reuters journalists visited on Thursday. The only sound was the constant echo of artillery shelling. There were no rebels, no security forces, and only a few residents darting in and out to pick up belongings - while evading army snipers.

Rebels stopped a man trying to go and check on his house. "They are targeting anyone they see. Go back for your safety for God's sake," said one rebel to the man, who turned back.

The streets were covered in glass and rubble. Cars had been smashed by falling debris and the stench of uncollected rubbish and dead bodies permeated the area.

One rebel field commander, who did not want to be named, said 250 people had been killed in Salaheddine in the last three days, mostly by shelling and air attacks.

As the battle for Aleppo raged, Iran, Assad's closest foreign backer, gathered ministers from like-minded states for talks about how to end the conflict.

Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi called for "serious and inclusive" talks between the Syrian government and opposition groups. Assad has repeatedly said he is ready for dialogue, but has vowed to crush the armed rebels he says are terrorists.

Assad's opponents say he must step aside before they enter into talks, saying negotiations would be meaningless while the bloodshed persists.

AIR ATTACK

Assad cannot afford to lose Aleppo if he is to remain a credible national leader. Already stretched by rebel activity in many parts of the country, the military, despite its advantage in tanks, warplanes and helicopters, has had to cede ground elsewhere as it struggles for control of Syria's biggest city.

As part of a broader army offensive, Assad's forces attacked rebels on several fronts including a neighborhood near the airport in southeast Aleppo, several eastern districts, and a town on Aleppo's northwestern outskirts, state media said.

Despite the violence, the Red Cross delivered food and medical supplies to Aleppo, the first time one of its aid convoys managed to enter the city in several weeks.

Reuters journalists in Tel Rifaat, 35 km (20 miles) north of Aleppo, watched a Syrian air force jet diving and firing rockets, causing villagers to flee in panic.

Explosions rang out and black smoke billowed from an olive grove. A truck was engulfed in flames. Six children and a crying woman fled their tiny home. One woman held the Koran above her head, kissing it, and another banged her head with her hands. Men stared at the sky and threw their arms up in despair.

Though sympathetic to the rebels, Western powers, Turkey and Sunni Arab states have not intervened militarily. Russia and China have blocked United Nations action against Assad, while Iran has tried to bolster the Syrian leader in an Arab world where many view non-Arab, Shi'ite Iran as a menace.

TEHRAN MEETING

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad billed the Tehran meeting of a dozen countries as an opportunity "to replace military clashes with political, indigenous approaches to settle the disputes". Those attending would have "a correct and realistic position" on the Syrian conflict, a senior Iranian diplomat said this week, indicating a one-sided discussion.

"The Islamic Republic's support for Assad's regime is hardly compatible with a genuine attempt at conciliation between the parties," said one Western diplomat based in Tehran. It showed Iran was "running out of ideas", he added.

Syrian rebels, who have accused Iran of sending fighters to help Assad's forces, seized 48 Iranians in Syria on August 4, saying they were members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.

An Iranian Foreign Ministry official said on Thursday that all the prisoners were alive, contrary to statements by their captors that three had been killed in an air raid.

Foreign Minister Salehi has acknowledged that some of the men were retired soldiers or Revolutionary Guards, but said they were religious pilgrims, not combatants.

Damascus and Tehran accuse Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Western nations of stoking violence by backing Syrian rebels.

Turkey's foreign minister accused Syria in turn of arming the Kurdistan Worker Party (PKK) a Kurdish militant group that has fought the Turkish state for decades.

"Assad gave them weapons support. Yes - this is not a fantasy. It is true. We have taken necessary measures against," Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told Turkish media.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based opposition watchdog, said more than 70 people had been killed across Syria on Thursday. It put Wednesday's death toll at 170, including 33 civilians in Aleppo.

The violence in Syria has forced tens of thousands of people to flee into neighboring countries, and about 2,400 refugees, including two generals, arrived in Turkey on Tuesday night.

Near the Syrian border town of al-Dana, a crowd of refugees from Aleppo piled through a frontier fence as Turkish soldiers tried to keep order. "We could not endure anymore," Ahmad Shaaban, a grocer from Salaheddine, told Reuters.

"We have been deprived of everything. They have burnt our homes and have deprived us of our livelihood."

(Additional reporting by Yeganeh Torbati and Marcus George in Dubai, Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Philippa Fletcher)

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Iran tries to calm Syria crisis as violence rages

Syrians throw the earth over the grave of 29 year-old Free Syrian Army fighter, Husain Al-Ali, who was killed during clashes in Aleppo, after they buried in the cemetery in the town of Marea on the outskirts of Aleppo city, Syria, Thursday, Aug. 9, 2012. (AP Photo/ Khalil Hamra)

BEIRUT (AP) — As Syrian forces struggled to drive rebels from the country's largest city, the regime's key ally Iran tried Thursday to start an alternative political process to address the crisis.

Iran gathered an array of nations ranging from strong supporters of Damascus to far-flung nations a world away from the Syrian civil war.

The one-day forum is unlikely to result in any international consensus, but it shows Iran's resolve to stand by President Bashar Assad as his forces try to crush the 17-month-old uprising.

On Thursday, Syrian rebels said they were low on ammunition but still managed to put up resistance against a regime ground offensive in the city of Aleppo, a center of fighting for more than two weeks.

Tehran billed Thursday's conference as a way to focus on dialogue — an alternative to Western-led initiatives that call for Assad to give up power.

Iran has said in the past that the Syrian regime's critics fail to take into account violence by the rebels.

"Iran is against the killing of unarmed people and citizens by any side," Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said at the gathering.

He also warned that sending weapons to the opposition will only fuel the crisis, and he accused rebels of using civilians as "human shields."

Syrian rebels last week intercepted a bus carrying 48 Iranians in a Damascus suburb and seized them. Rebels claimed the men are military personnel, including some members of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard, who were on a "reconnaissance mission" to help Assad's crackdown.

Iran, however, says the 48 were pilgrims visiting a Shiite shrine in Damascus. Salehi said Wednesday that some of the pilgrims are retired members of the army and Revolutionary Guard.

The overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim rebels have also seized 11 Lebanese Shiite pilgrims who have been held in northern Syria since May.

Salehi said some 30 countries attended the meeting, including Russia and China, as well as far-offBenin, Cuba and Mauritania. The meeting was called at short notice, and most countries were represented at the ambassador level.

Russia in the past has urged the West to allow Tehran to take part in international discussions on how to settle the Syrian crisis, arguing that the Islamic republic could play an important role. Moscow has been the main protector and ally of Assad's regime, shielding it from U.N. sanctions over its brutal crackdown on an uprising that has evolved into a full-blown civil war.

The U.S. dismissed the Iranian gathering.

"We think the Iranian behavior in Syria is destructive," State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell said. "It's just hard for us to imagine that after putting so much effort into keeping Assad in power ... how they can be a constructive actor in facilitating a political solution to the crisis."

On Thursday, government troops and rebels clashed in opposition bastions of Aleppo, a city of 3 million people.

The state news agency claimed Wednesday that Assad's force had regained control of the Salaheddine neighborhood, the main rebel area in Aleppo. But activists said rebels were still putting up a fight there on Thursday.

"The battle is still going on in the streets of Salaheddine and in other neighborhoods in Allepo," rebel spokesman Abdel Azziz Salameh told The Associated Press. "Our fighters have a shortage of ammunition but they have not withdrawn."

The regime has been trying to drive rebels out of Aleppo for two weeks. But the blistering attacks on rebel positions from the ground and the air appear to be only slowly chipping away at the opposition's grip on its strongholds.

Aleppo-based activist Mohammad Saeed said troops were using warplanes and tanks to shell the towns of Hreitan and Tel Rifat north of Aleppo, from where most of the rebels converged on the city.

"They are trying to cut the main lines from Tel Rifat to Aleppo," Saeed said.

Aleppo holds great symbolic and strategic importance. Some 25 miles (40 kilometers) from the Turkish border, it has been a pillar of regime support during the uprising. An opposition victory there would allow easier access for weapons and fighters from Turkey, where many rebels are based.

Syria's close ties to Iran and the Islamic militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon mean that the conflict has the potential to draw in the country's neighbors.

On Thursday, Lebanese officials arrested Michel Samaha, a former Lebanese minister and parliament member, who is one of the most ardent Lebanese supporters of the Syrian regime.

Samaha often appeared on local TV stations as an analyst and spoke out in favor of the regime. His wife, Gladys, told local media that security agents kicked in the front door early Thursday and pulled Samaha from his bed. She called his arrest a purely political detention because of his political position.

But Lebanese officials said only that he was arrested for "security" reasons. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not allowed to speak to the media.

Also Thursday, Assad appointed a new prime minister to replace the one who defected to neighboring Jordan this week. State-run news agency SANA said he appointed Health Minister Wael Nader al-Halqi, a Sunni member of the ruling Baath party from the southern province of Daraa, the birthplace of the revolt.

Al-Halqi replaces Riad Hijab, whose defection was a humiliating blow to the regime. Like nearly all prominent defectors so far, Hijab is a member of Syria's majority Sunnis — the Muslim sect which forms the bedrock of the uprising.

Still, power remains closely held within Assad's inner circle and the most significant leadership is dominated by members of the ruling elite's minority Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

___

AP writers Zeina Karam in Beirut and Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.

White House mum on reported new Iran nukes warning

By Olivier Knox, Yahoo! News | The Ticket – 3 hrs ago

President Barack Obama steps off Marine One on the South Lawn of the White House on July 25 (Pete Marovich/Getty …

The White House refused to comment Thursday on a bombshell Israeli media report that President Barack Obama recently received an updated intelligence assessment that Iran has made surprising strides towards being able to build a nuclear weapon.

The Haaretz newspaper reported that Obama had received a new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE)—the consensus assessment of the American intelligence community—that "Iran has made surprising, notable progress in the research and development of key components of its military nuclear program." The daily cited unnamed "Western diplomats and Israeli officials."

Asked about the report, White House press secretary Jay Carney replied: "I don't comment on intelligence matters or intelligence reports the president may or may not have received."

"I can tell you that the president remains committed to preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon," he said aboard Air Force One as Obama campaigned in the swing state of Colorado.

"We are leading an international effort to impose upon Iran what even the Iranian president has identified as the most stringent sanctions ever imposed on any country," Carney said. "And that effort is designed of what we believe remains to be a window of opportunity to persuade Iran through these sanctions and through diplomatic efforts to forgo its nuclear weapons ambitions and live to its international obligations." He added that "hardly a week goes by" without the economic vise tightening further.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak told Israeli Radio that there was "apparently a report by American intelligence agencies" that was "making the rounds of high offices" and has heightened American worries about Iran's nuclear program.

"As far as we know, it comes very close to our own estimate, I would say, as opposed to earlier American estimates. It transforms the Iranian situation to an even more urgent one, and it is even less likely that we will know every development in time on the Iranian nuclear program," Barak said,according to a CBS report on the interview.

Israel, widely thought to be an undeclared nuclear power, has warned it cannot tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran and reserves the right to use military force to prevent that outcome. Obama has repeatedly said America shares Israel's concerns but has pleaded for time to let the sanctions and diplomatic efforts work. Iran has steadfastly denied that it seeks the bomb, but reports from the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency have cast doubt on those claims.

If the Haaretz report is correct, the new NIE would be yet another shift in American intelligence agencies' assessment of just what Tehran is doing. A 2007 NIE said Iran had halted its military nuclear program in 2003 and that there was no clear evidence that those efforts had resumed. Some American officials speculate that Iran wants the ability to build a nuclear weapon, not necessarily to actually acquire an atomic arsenal.