Syria crisis: Kofi Annan proposes unity government

Syria crisis: Kofi Annan proposes unity government - live updates:

• Russia keeps diplomats guessing on its backing for Assad
• Moscow ready to deliver repaired helicopter gunships
• Activists in Egypt meet president-elect Mohamed Morsi
10.01am: Bahrain: Faced with a steady flow of activist videos showing brutality against protesters, Bahrain's police have now joined the YouTube war.
The video above is said to show houses being raided in a search for explosives. Possibly this is one of the ideas from former London police chief John Yates who has been advising the Bahraini government on police reform.
In an interview with the Guardian last April, Yates cited YouTube as evidence that suspects were not being tortured between their arrest and their arrival at a police station. He said:

There's allegations that people are arrested and not taken to the police station but go to these holding sites where allegedly terrible things happen. But that would be on YouTube. That would be posted.

The video was also shown at a news conference yesterday when the chief of public security announced that more than five tonnes of "explosive material and 110 litres of chemicals" had been seized.
9.48am: Syria: Three diplomats have told Bloomberg that Russia has endorsed Kofi Annan's plan for political transition in Syria.
The agency says this is a sign that Bashar al-Assad has lost the support of a key ally.
Bloomberg says it has seen a copy of Annan's plans for a unity government which appears to deliberately fudge the issue of whether Assad will be involved in the proposed unity government.

The Annan document, which was reviewed by Bloomberg News, says a transitional government may include members of Assad's government and opposition and other groups, although not "those whose continued presence and participation would undermine the credibility of the transition and jeopardize stability and reconciliation."

It adds:

The shift by Russia, which until now has shielded Assad with UN security council vetoes, could be the beginning of the end to a lengthy stalemate over how to halt the escalating violence. In February, Russia resisted Annan's first effort to map a transition.
Even with the apparent international agreement, ushering Assad out and a transitional government in will be difficult, if it's possible at all, the US and UN officials acknowledged.
Among the difficulties, the US officials said, will be bringing the warring Syrian parties together to reach an agreement on a transitional government; defining who would control Syria's military, intelligence and security services; neutralizing the Alawite militias and the armed opposition; and providing multinational aid to encourage a transition toward elections.

9.20am: Syria/Turkey: State TV in Turkey says anti-aircraft weapons are being deployed along the Syrian border after the shooting down by Syria of a Turkish jet last Friday.
AP said:

TRT television says several anti-aircraft guns have been positioned the border on Thursday.
Turkey has warned Damascus that it would not tolerate any violation of the border by Syrian forces.
Private Dogan news agency also showed footage of a military convoy, including one multiple rocket launcher, heading toward the Syrian border.

Turkish journalist Mahir Zeynalov tweeted an image of a military convoy heading towards the border.

Long military convoy, including tanks and jammers, are now headed to Turkish province of Kilis on Syrian border yfrog.com/es6jzzhj
— Mahir Zeynalov (@MahirZeynalov) June 28, 2012

A Turkish official has confirmed the deployment of troops along the border, Reuters reports.

"I can confirm there are troops being deployed along the border in Hatay province. Turkey is taking precautions after its jet was shot down," the official said on condition of anonymity.

8.29am: (all times BST) Welcome to Middle East Live.
Russia is keeping diplomats guessing on whether it will back a proposed unity government in Syria that excludes President Bashar al-Assad.
Here's a roundup of the latest developments:

Syria

• Russia has hinted that it will support Kofi Annan's idea of a Syrian national unity cabinet that could exclude president Bashar al-Assad. The idea will be discussed at a crisis meeting in Geneva on Saturday. The proposed coalition does not explicitly exclude Assad but suggests as much, a diplomat told Reuters. But another diplomat said Russia's acceptance of Annan's proposal did not mean it has abandoned Assad. "I don't see the Russians giving up on Assad," he said.
• A Russian official has confirmed that three repaired attack helicopters are ready to be delivered on time to Syria, RIA Novosti reports. "Syria is our friend, and we we fulfil all our obligations to our friends. According to the 2008 contract, we repaired three Mi-25s and are ready to deliver them on time," said Alexander Fomin, director of the federal service for military technical co-operation.
• Annan invited the five permanent members of the UN security council with Turkey and three Arab states to the Geneva conference, but excluded Iran and Saudi Arabia to secure the participation of the US and Russia, writes Ian Black.

The novelty of this event will be participation by Russia and China, which have vetoed action against Assad at the UN and shunned the western-Arab Friends of Syria grouping on the grounds that it is working against the Assad regime.
It is unclear, however, whether Moscow will accept the western view that Assad must step aside in favour of a transitional national unity government. Russia has always insisted it would not countenance regime change in Damascus.

• Nobody is expecting the meeting of Annan's action group to make much difference, according to Tony Karon in Time magazine.

The parties that will meet with Assad in Geneva have different ideas on resolving the crisis, but none appears to have decisive leverage to bring to bear in order to shape its preferred outcome. The US insists that the conflict can't be resolved while Assad remains in power; the Russians point out that Washington has no credible plan for dealing with the fallout that would follow the regime's precipitous collapse. For much of the past year, officials in Washington have speculated that Russia might break with Assad, but the passage of time has made those claims look Pollyannaish.

• The Syrian government said armed gunmen stormed a television station in a suburb of Damascus, killing seven people, but opposition fighters said the attackers were military defectors, the New York Times reports.

Rebels disputed the official account of the attack, saying the killers were defectors from Syria's elite Republican Guard, considered the most loyal core of defenders of Assad's inner circle. If the rebel version is confirmed, the attack would constitute a significant breach of security for those close to Assad, who said on Tuesday that Syria was now in "a state of war."

Libya/Tunisia

• The lawyer acting for Libya's former prime minister Al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi, who was extradited to Tripoli from Tunisia at the weekend, claims his client has been tortured. Libya's government denied he had been mistreated. Tunisia's president, Moncef Marzouki, has branded the extradition illegal, saying it was done behind his back. Mahmoudi's extradition has sparked a political crisis in Tunisia, pitting parliament against the president. Government officials insist the extradition came after it was ensured Libya could guarantee a fair trial. They say they did not need presidential permission for the move to return him.

Egypt

• Prominent activists, including Wael Ghonim, have met President-elect Mohamed Morsi to discuss how he can implement the goals of the revolution, the Egypt Independent reports. Meanwhile, a close associate of reform leader Mohammed ElBaradei has denied that the Nobel laureate was offered the job of prime minister, according to Ahram online.

Bahrain

• The prominent Bahraini human rights activist, Nabeel Rajab, has been freed after three weeks in detention, the BBC reports. Rajab was detained on 6 June on suspicion of using social networking websites to publicly insult residents of a Sunni-dominated district for their ties to the royal family. After his release he pledged to "keep defending the people's rights".

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