International Crisis Group

Could Russia help push out al-Assad? | CNN

By Jill Dougherty

Last December, media reports surfaced in the Middle East that Russia had a plan to solve the Syrian conflict: have President Bashar al-Assad step aside for a transitional period and let his vice president, Farouk al-Shara, take over until elections could be held. Moscow would give al-Assad political asylum or find him a refuge.

Russian officials refused to confirm those reports but the plan got a spy-novel name - the Yemensky Variant - because of its similarity to the transition plan that led to the ouster of former Yemen president Ali Abdullah Saleh who handed over power to his vice president, clearing the way to elections.

Now, it appears, the “Yemensky Variant” is picking up steam.

After talking with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said “he (Lavrov) himself has referred to the Yemen example.”

With Yemen, she noted in her comments while in Stockholm on Sunday, “it took a lot of time and effort with a number of countries who were involved at the table, working to achieve a political transition. And we would like to see the same occur in Syria.”

“My message to the foreign minister was very simple and straightforward,” Clinton added. “We all have to intensify our efforts to achieve a political transition and Russia has to be at the table helping that to occur.”

FULL ARTICLE (CNN)

Photo: CNN

The Republic | Syrian opposition council appears to crumble

By Zeina Karam, AP

BEIRUT — Syria’s main opposition council is crumbling under the weight of infighting and divisions over issues that cut to the heart of the revolution, including accusations that the movement is becoming as autocratic as the regime it wants to drive out.

The slow disintegration of the Syrian National Council, which has become the international face of the uprising, could complicate Western efforts to bolster the opposition, just as President Bashar Assad’s regime gathers momentum in its crackdown on dissent.

On Thursday, SNC leader Burhan Ghalioun said he was ready to step down once a replacement is found, amid mounting criticism of his leadership.

The decision came just days after he was re-elected for a third, three month term during a council vote held in Rome. The council has said it would rotate the presidency every three months, so Ghalioun’s repeated appointments rankled some who wanted a new face.

“I will not accept under any circumstances to be a divisive candidate, and I am not after any post,” said Ghalioun, an exiled Syrian and professor at the Sorbonne in Paris. “I will resign as soon as a new candidate is picked, either by consensus or new elections.”

Ghalioun, a secular Sunni Muslim academic who has led the council since its formation in September, has been criticized by some opposition figures of being too close to the Muslim Brotherhood and of trying to monopolize power.

FULL ARTICLE (The Republic)

BBC | Jordan’s king under pressure as reforms stall

Pressure is mounting on King Abdullah of Jordan, a key US ally, to respond to similar popular demands that have turned the Middle East upside down over the past year-and-a-half.

Promised political and economic reforms appear to be stalling. Last week, King Abdullah appointed his fourth prime minister since the Arab Spring started here 17 months ago.

Protests erupted in the impoverished countryside south of the capital, Amman, last year before the uprisings which overthrew the presidents of Tunisia and Egypt.

While demonstrations have been generally smaller and more peaceful than elsewhere in the region, Jordanians have been pressing for greater political say - specifically the popular election of prime ministers - and demanding government corruption and unemployment be tackled.

The official unemployment rate stands at 11.4%, while unofficial estimates put it at 22%.

The rhetoric has also developed in restive areas, like Tafileh in the south, from calls for reform to calls for regime change.

Although the country has so far managed to weather the political turbulence of the Arab Spring that has seen other countries’ presidents ousted, time is now a premium for the king, who has shown a penchant for deflecting criticism about policies by firing prime ministers.

FULL ARTICLE (BBC)