Nato not even thinking of Syria operation: Top general

[tabatha]

BRUSSELS (AFP) - Nato is not planning or even 'thinking' of intervening in Syria, the alliance's most senior officer said on Thursday, days after a top Russian official said such plans were in the making.

'There is no planning and we are not thinking about an intervention,' General Knud Bartels, head of Nato's Military Committee, told a news conference after a two-day meeting of the alliance's military chiefs.

During the talks, he said nations from Nato's Mediterranean Dialogue - a forum including Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Mauritania, Morocco and Tunisia - 'expressed their concerns about the upheaval we are seeing in the region.' 'But there was no dicussion at all of a military intervention,' said Gen Bartels, the former head of Danish armed forces, who replaced Admiral Giampaolo Di Paolo in January after the Italian officer became defence minister.

http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/World/Story/STIStory_757836.html

[pampango]

1. Russia vows to block ‘intervention’ in Syria

Syria’s powerful allies in Russia are vowing to block any Western attempts to intervene militarily in Syria as Damascus fights off an increasingly chaotic 10-month-old revolt against President Bashar Assad.

The support came as Assad was showing fresh confidence that he can ride out the uprising with the help of a small — but influential — set of friends in Russia, China and Iran.

Iran also gave Syria another boost Wednesday. According to Iran’s semiofficial ISNA news agency, when the commander of Iran’s Quds Force, Brig Gen Qasem Soleimani, said Assad’s government enjoys public support and won’t collapse.

Assad, a 46-year-old authoritarian leader who inherited power from his father in 2000, has made two public appearances last week, where he vowed to strike back with an “iron hand” against the “conspiracy” behind the uprising. Assad has rarely turned up in public during the uprising and his appearances showed he was still firmly in charge.

http://www.arabtimesonline.com/NewsDetails/tabid/96/smid/414/ArticleID/178637/reftab/36/Default.aspx

Syria rejects calls for Arab Intervention

The Syrian government rejected a call from Qatar to for Arab troops to intervene in the country to end the violent crackdown on protesters and military defectors, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.

"The Syrian people reject any foreign intervention in its affairs, under any title, and would confront any attempt to infringe upon Syria's sovereignty and the integrity of its territories," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Such a move would "worsen the crisis ... and pave the way for foreign intervention".

http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/obama-to-step-up-pressure-on-syrias-assad-20120118-1q567.html

Sounds like Assad has his bases covered in terms of any outside intervention. Like most dictators, once you prevent outside intervention, he just has to hope that his security forces can suppress peaceful domestic protests (which they have been woefully unable to do after 10 months) and Assad will continue to rule (which to him means that 'national sovereignty' will have been protected).