Syria's Bashar al-Assad won't fall soon, Jordan's king says
updated 5:32 PM EST, Fri January 25, 2013
Member of Free Syrian Army holds burning portrait of President Bashar al-Assad in Al-Qsair, January 25, 2012.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Nations recognizing opposition coalition will meet in Kuwait on Monday
- Jordan's King Abdullah says the al-Assad regime has strength to last months longer
- He calls for international help to stave off a looming humanitarian crisis
- As many as 36,000 Syrians have fled to Jordan since January 1
"Anyone who says that
Bashar's regime has got weeks to live really doesn't know the reality on
the ground," he said during a panel appearance with CNN's Fareed
Zakaria at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
"They still have capability. ... So (I expect) a strong showing for at least the first half of 2013."
Nonetheless, fears are growing that Syria may implode as the protracted conflict gets nastier.
Any fragmentation of the
country into small states would be "catastrophic and something that we
would be reeling from for decades to come," Abdullah said.
Thousands of Syrians stream into Jordan in days
Syrian refugees could face catastrophe
Syrian civil war stuck in stalemate
Challenges feeding 1.5M Syrian refugees
He also warned of the threat of foreign jihadist fighters now in Syria.
Al Qaeda has been established there for the past year and is getting support "from certain quarters," the king said.
"They are a force to
contend with, so even if we got the best government into Damascus
tomorrow, we have at least two or three years of securing our borders
from them coming across and to clean them up," he said.
Comparing the militant
threat with that seen in Afghanistan, Abdullah said that "the new
Taliban that we are going to have to deal with will be in Syria."
Abdullah appealed for
greater international help for more than 300,000 Syrian refugees who
have already fled over the border into Jordan and are suffering in the
grip of a cruel winter.
He also urged the
stockpiling of humanitarian supplies that could be taken across Syria's
borders, to try to keep people from leaving -- and to win hearts and
minds.
"If these people start
to starve and they don't have fuel and electricity and water, and
hospitals are not running, that's when radicalization comes in and take
advantage," he said.
The number of Syrians
fleeing to a Jordanian desert in the dead of the night continues to
skyrocket, as officials warn of dwindling resources and a prolonged
humanitarian crisis.
About 3,280 Syrians
crossed into the Zaatari refugee camp overnight on Thursday, said Anmar
Hmoud, a Jordan government spokesman for Syrian refugee affairs.
A day earlier, nearly 3,000 refugees arrived in Jordan, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
"Indicators show they keep coming and it's much more than we're used to," Hmoud said.
As many as 36,000 Syrians have crossed into Jordan since January 1.
And as more people take refuge from the upheaval, the escalating numbers are straining resources, officials said.
About 350,000 Syrian
refugees have fled to Jordan since the conflict began, a number
described as "staggering" by Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh.
"The weakest refugees
are struggling now just to survive this year's harsh winter," Abdullah
said. "More international support is desperately needed.
"Here I cannot emphasize
enough the challenges that we are all facing, both in Jordan and
Lebanon. And it's only going to get worse."
He urged the
international community to come together "decisively" to end the
bloodshed and come up with a solution that gives all Syrians a stake in
their country's future.
"The situation is now
very volatile security wise. Parts of the country are changing hands at a
very rapid basis," said Valerie Amos, the U.N. emergency relief
coordinator. "We are trying to get to as many people as we can because
people cross the borders when they really reach a desperation stage,
where they can't get food, they can't get medical supplies."
About 700,000 Syrian refugees have left for neighboring nations since the conflict began, Amos said.
The International Rescue
Committee has noted that in Jordan and other countries, a majority of
Syrian refugees are living outside of camps -- in cities and towns where
social services, schools and even trash and waste systems are not
equipped to meet the needs of a suddenly inflated population.
Amos urged donors to
help, saying she hoped a Wednesday conference in Kuwait would yield some
of the $1.5 billion in aid requested by humanitarian groups.
That money would help
Syrians displaced within their own country and those who have fled to
neighboring nations for six months, she said.
"If we do not receive
these funds, we will not be able to reach the poorest and most
vulnerable families who so desperately need our help," she said.
Zaatari is in Jordan's northern desert, northeast of Amman.
Enterprising Syrian
refugees, many of whom arrived with nothing, have set up their own
retail avenue amid dusty tents and prefabricated metal shelters. The
facilities are providing a small source of income and -- perhaps more
importantly -- something to do to stave off the boredom and discomfort
of camp life.
The United Nations estimates 60,000 people have died in nearly two years of fighting between the rebels and government forces.
Violence continued in
Syria on Friday, with three people killed in clashes nationwide,
according to the opposition Local Coordination Committees. Heavy
shelling continued in the Damascus suburbs, the group said.
Elsewhere, rebels raided the Idlib Central Prison and freed 300 prisoners, the LCC said.
Video purportedly taped by rebels showed them using pipes to pry the prison's barred windows away from the wall.
"Be patient, be patient," a man behind the camera shouts at the inmates, with one waving his hand out the cell bars.
Rebels were engaged in
firefights Friday with government security forces at the prison, and the
rebels managed to cross some prison walls, the Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights said.
Freed, wounded prisoners
and injured rebels were treated at a makeshift clinic in Amaaret
Misreen about 6 miles (9 kilometers) outside Idlib, an opposition
activist said.
The rebels' assault on
the prison began Friday and they were in control of 60% of the facility,
though fighting continued over two major buildings, said opposition
activist Omar Abu Al-Huda. He told CNN he witnessed the offensive.
The inmate population
includes political prisoners, and the prison is considered the last
major government position in western Idlib, Al-Huda said.
Government forces have an army position, with tanks and heavy machine guns, inside the prison.
CNN cannot independently
verify many claims from Syria, as the government has severely
restricted access by international journalists.
On Monday,
representatives from 50 countries and organizations will meet in Kuwait
with two vice presidents of the National Syrian Coalition, a spokesman
with the French Foreign Ministry said.
The meeting will be a
follow-up to a December 12 gathering in Marrakech, Morocco, where United
States, Britain, France, Turkey and the Gulf Cooperation Council
recognized the opposition coalition, the spokesman said.
The meeting will address
greater recognition for the coalition, confirmation of financial
pledges to it, and the humanitarian situation in Syria, the spokesman
said. Refugee camps in neighboring countries will also be discussed, the
ministry said.
CNN's Larry Register, Michael Pearson, Yousuf Basil and Michael Martinez contributed to this report.
end quote from:
I was thinking about the fact that if Syria's Assad only really completely controls Damascus and sometimes not even all of that that he only controls about 2% of Syria. So, it is like he is in control only of a city State sort of like Athens in Ancient Greece or something like East Berlin during the Iron Curtain days and the Berlin Wall. Because de facto 98%of Syria appears to be permanently under the Control of the Rebel Army. So, if we come back 20 years from now is it still going to be like this? It's hard to say. This reminds me of the old Cold war from the 1950s through Glasnost around 1990 because of 30,000 Russians either married to Syrians or soldiers or diplomats there now being evacuated if they wish. And now China is in Egypt with Cosco and it's military ships. What is this 'Cold War 2' or something else entirely?
repeat quote from above:
repeat quote from above:
He also warned of the threat of foreign jihadist fighters now in Syria.
Al Qaeda has been established there for the past year and is getting support "from certain quarters," the king said.
"They are a force to
contend with, so even if we got the best government into Damascus
tomorrow, we have at least two or three years of securing our borders
from them coming across and to clean them up," he said. end repeat quote from:
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