Clinton says some Arab changes may come slowly
By Bradley Klapper – Associated Press – October 11, 2011

WASHINGTON—The Obama administration’s top diplomat suggested Tuesday that the Arab Spring has entered difficult and uncharted territory between dictatorship and democracy, and that some changes would have to come slowly.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the United States would continue to pressure long-time leaders to leave power in Syria and Yemen, and ensure chaos is averted in Egypt, where demonstrators have succeeded in ousting an autocrat. But she cautioned against overly optimistic forecasts for how quickly each country could make its break with the past.

“How long? When?” Clinton said about possible regime change in Syria. “I cannot predict these to you.”

The message was similar for ending Yemen’s civil strife as for ensuring that Egypt makes a successful transition in its post-Hosni Mubarak era toward real democracy. She said each country faces difficult challenges.

On Syria, she voiced support for the burgeoning opposition against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, but said the primarily Sunni protesters “have a lot of work to do internally” toward becoming a truly national opposition movement that also represents the aspirations of Syria’s minorities.

“It is not yet accepted by many groups within Syria that their life will be better without Assad than with Assad,” Clinton said. “There are a lot of minority groups that are very concerned.”

She urged the anti-Assad camp to maintain the “moral high ground” of nonviolence and reach out to Syria’s minorities, and expressed optimism that the tide was turning against Syria’s government.

She pointed specifically to last week’s assassination of Mashaal Tammo, a Kurdish opposition leader. Tammo’s son has since called on members of his ethnic group to join the 7-month uprising against the Assad regime, and Clinton predicted a similar shift from Druze, Christians, business leaders and other groups who have so far been reluctant to join the revolution.

Tammo’s killing “seems to have been just a spark to the tinder because that goes right at one of those groups that up until now had been kind of on the sidelines,” she said. “As this goes on, I really believe there will be more support for change.”

But the U.S. cannot speed that process along. “It cannot be accelerated from the outside,” Clinton told the AP. “The single message that comes through loudly and clearly from everyone associated with the opposition is that they do not want foreign intervention.”

Clinton suggested the U.S. was facing a similar period of waiting with Yemen, where American, Arab and European officials are trying to persuade President Ali Abdullah Saleh to leave power.

Eight months of mass protests has evolved into an armed standoff between government and opposition forces, though Clinton said the situation hasn’t descended into an all-out civil war. Saleh, in power since 1978, recently returned from three months of treatment in Saudi Arabia after being severely wounded in an attack on his presidential palace, and has offered no concrete indication that he is willing to step down. …more

Iran/Mexican Drug Cartel Terror Plot Disrupted
By: David Dayen Tuesday October 11, 2011 12:18 pm – FireDog Lake

As Marcy Wheeler says, this plot has it all – Mexican drug cartels, Iran, assassinations, attacks on the Saudi AND Israeli embassies. You name it, it’s in there.

FBI and DEA agents have disrupted a plot to commit a “significant terrorist act in the United States” tied to Iran, federal officials told ABC News today.

The officials said the plot included the assassination of the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States, Adel Al-Jubeir, with a bomb and subsequent bomb attacks on the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington, D.C. Bombings of the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Buenos Aires, Argentina, were also discussed, according to the U.S. officials.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said in an announcement today that the plan was “conceived, sponsored and was directed from Iran” by a faction of the government and called it a “flagrant” violation of U.S. and international law.

“The U.S. is committed to holding Iran accountable for its actions,” Holder said. He said the White House will be meeting with federal agencies before announcing “further action” in regards to Iran.

Holder pushed the Iran issue hard in his announcement. It all seems very convenient, a kind of Legion of Doom of perceived US enemies rolled into one, attacking perceived US allies on US soil. And they throw in Buenos Aires for good measure, the site of a 1992 bombing of the Israeli embassy, claimed by Hezbollah in concert with Iran.

Two Iranians who are dual citizens of Iran and the US — Manssor Arbabsiar, and Gholam Shakuri – have been charged in the case. The plot was broken up after Arbabsiar unwittingly hired a DEA informant to carry out the attack for $1.5 million. While Arbabsiar has been captured, Shakuri is still at large.

A couple other things here. One, this is yet another example of intelligence and law enforcement work disrupting a terrorist plot, assuming this all turns out to be true. Fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan had nothing to do with disrupting this plot.

The second is that this also appears to be another example of US law enforcement agents sticking themselves into a plot and turning it from something aspirational to something more. We’ve seen this over and over again in the post-9/11 age, and I’m not sure it makes us safer to have DEA or FBI find and pump up low-lifes who had no ability to carry out attacks in the first place. Josh Marshall has more on this aspect.

I don’t know if the disruption of this plot makes America safer, but it sure does help out an argument about perceived enemies in Mexico and Iran. ..source

The Iranian Plot: Bank Transfers of Mass Destruction
Posted on October 11, 2011 by emptywheel

I’m sorry, but I’m having a really difficult time taking this latest terrorist plot seriously. Not just because the story is so neat, tying together all the enemies–the drug cartles and Iran–we’re currently supposed to hate, but because it elicited such comical lines from Eric Holder and NY US Attorney Preet Bharara about assassinating other government’s officials (like, say, Qaddafi’s son) and doing battle on other country’s soil (like, say, the entire world) and not taking sufficient precautions to prevent civilian casualties.

But just to unpack what the government claims it found, here’s the amended complaint.

The big action that, the government suggests, proves the case involves two bank transfers:

On or about August 1, 2011, MANSSOR ARBABSIAR, a/k/a “Mansour Arbabsiar,” the defendant, caused an overseas wire transfer of approximately $49,960 to be sent by a foreign entity from a bank located in a foreign country to an FBI undercover bank account (the “UC Bank Account”). Before reaching the UC Bank Account, the funds were transferred through a bank in Manhattan, New York.

On or about August 9, 2011, ARBABSIAR caused an overseas wire transfer of approximately $49,960 to be sent by a foreign entity from a bank located in a foreign country to an FBI undercover bank account (the “UC Bank Account”). Before reaching the UC Bank Account, the funds were transferred through a bank in Manhattan, New York.

And based on those transfers, one unsuccessful attempt to enter Mexico, and a lot of talk between an informant and one of the defendants, we’ve got another terrorist plot.

Admittedly, there’s a backstory to how that $100,000 got transferred.

As the FBI tells it, back in May, Manssor Arbabsiar traveled to Mexico to meet with a guy he thought was a member of Los Zetas but was instead a narcotics convict-turned-informant I’ll call “Narc.” As always with these narratives, the FBI doesn’t explain how Arbabsiar happened to choose Los Zetas for his hit squad, as implausible as that is. It says only that Arbabsiar’s cousin told him that people “in the narcotics business … are willing to undertake criminal activity in exchange for money.” How plausible would a drug hit on the Saudi Ambassador be? Furthermore, don’t Iranians have their own more subtle ways of working?

Nevertheless, we’re led to believe it is plausible and not at all overdetermined that the cousin of an Iranian spook would launder their assassination through a Mexican drug cartel. …more

Uber-Plot: Iran, Mexican Drug Cartels, Koch Brothers, and Republicans
Posted on October 11, 2011 by emptywheel

This plot has it all: an informant posing as a member of a Mexican drug cartel, Iranians targeting Saudis in DC’s streets, and even its own “Operation” name already.

FBI and DEA agents have disrupted a plot to commit a “significant terrorist act in the United States” tied to Iran, federal officials told ABC News today.

The officials said the plot included the assassination of the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States, Adel Al-Jubeir, with a bomb and subsequent bomb attacks on the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington, D.C.

[snip]

The new case, called Operation Red Coalition, began in May when an Iranian-American from Corpus Christi, Texas, approached a DEA informant seeking the help of a Mexican drug cartel to assassinate the Saudi ambassador, according to counter-terrorism officials.

You couldn’t make up a more convenient plot if you tried!

But I’m going to push it further. As Bloomberg reported last week, the Koch Brothers have illegally traded with Iran, selling them petrochemical equipment Iran needs to keep pumping oil to pay the state’s bills. So doesn’t think make the Koch Brothers accessories to this alleged terrorist plot?

Further, the Koch brothers are dumping big money into Republican causes. So doesn’t that mean the Republican Party is being funded by terrorists?

That’s the way material support laws work, after all, at least if you’re a brown person.

Ah well, I assume everyone will ignore the corporations (which include JP Morgan Chase) that have been doing business with Iran and instead march off towards the next war. …source

Two Men Charged in Alleged Plot to Assassinate Saudi Arabian Ambassador to the United States
U.S. Department of Justice October 11, 2011
New York field office

Office of Public Affairs (202) 514-2007/TDD (202)514-1888

— filed under: New York Top Stories, Press Release

WASHINGTON—Two individuals have been charged in New York for their alleged participation in a plot directed by elements of the Iranian government to murder the Saudi Ambassador to the United States with explosives while the Ambassador was in the United States.

The charges were announced by Attorney General Eric Holder; FBI Director Robert S. Mueller; Lisa Monaco, Assistant Attorney General for National Security; and Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York.

A criminal complaint filed today in the Southern District of New York charges Manssor Arbabsiar, a 56-year-old naturalized U.S. citizen holding both Iranian and U.S. passports, and Gholam Shakuri, an Iran-based member of Iran’s Qods Force, which is a special operations unit of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that is said to sponsor and promote terrorist activities abroad.

Both defendants are charged with conspiracy to murder a foreign official; conspiracy to engage in foreign travel and use of interstate and foreign commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire; conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction (explosives); and conspiracy to commit an act of international terrorism transcending national boundaries. Arbabsiar is further charged with an additional count of foreign travel and use of interstate and foreign commerce facilities in the commission of murder-for-hire.

Shakuri remains at large. Arbabsiar was arrested on Sept. 29, 2011, at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport and will make his initial appearance today before in federal court in Manhattan. He faces a maximum potential sentence of life in prison if convicted of all the charges.

“The criminal complaint unsealed today exposes a deadly plot directed by factions of the Iranian government to assassinate a foreign Ambassador on U.S. soil with explosives,” said Attorney General Holder. “Through the diligent and coordinated efforts of our law enforcement and intelligence agencies, we were able to disrupt this plot before anyone was harmed. We will continue to investigate this matter vigorously and bring those who have violated any laws to justice.”
[Read more →]

The Iranian-Saudi cold war heats up
Posted By David Kenner Tuesday, October 11, 2011 – 5:36 PM Share

With Attorney General Eric Holder’s announcement today that the U.S. government had thwarted an Iran-backed plot to assassinate the Saudi envoy to the United States in a Washington restaurant, we asked FP contributor Simon Henderson for his take on the implications of this surprising escalation. Here’s what he had to say:

By Simon Henderson
Baker Fellow, Washington Institute for Near East Policy

The extraordinary detail of the alleged Iranian-backed plot to assassinate Saudi ambassador to the United States, Adel al-Jubeir, revealed today by Attorney General Eric Holder, raises all sorts of questions. Why would Iran have wanted to carry out such a killing here in the United States, where its “fingerprints” on such a plot would have had – indeed, will have — such an impact on U.S. policy toward Iran?

If, as the now-unsealed amended complaint reveals, there had been “a hundred, a hundred and fifty” people killed and injured, including “senators”, there would have been huge political pressure on the White House to order a retaliatory military strike on Iran. An Iranian spokesman has responded by rejecting the charges as a “ridiculous show” – but will the Islamic Republic persist in what certainly appears to be a newly aggressive policy?

And what will be the reaction of Saudi Arabia – where Prince Nayef’s Interior Ministry last week warned rioting Saudi Shiites not to act “at the behest of a foreign country” (code for Iran) and promised that Saudi Arabia “would strike with an iron fist” against disaffected citizens to preserve the “security and stability” of the kingdom. The news of the Iran plot may have already driven the United States and Saudi Arabia closer together: King Abdullah and Jubeir met with National Security Advisor Tom Donilon on Oct. 1 to discuss “a number of issues of mutual interest” — we now know what at least one of those items must have been.

More trivially, one could facetiously point out that targeting Jubeir would have problematic because he often seems to be out of Washington. Indeed, he seems to spend a huge amount of time back in Saudi Arabia, where he is King Abdullah’s favorite English-language translator.

And, the issue that will intrigue Washington society as well as its political class: Which was the restaurant where Jubeir was going to be “hit” where he ate “like two times a week,” according to the indictment. My bet is on Café Milano in Georgetown. It’s known to be one of al-Jubeir’s favorite haunts — even if prosciutto di parma and Pinot Grigio aren’t obvious fare for a Saudi diplomat.
…source

Iranians charged in U.S. over assassination plot
By Jeremy Pelofsky and Basil Katz – WASHINGTON/NEW YORK – Oct 11, 2011

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK (Reuters) – The United States accused Iran on Tuesday of backing a plot to kill the Saudi ambassador to Washington, escalating tensions with Tehran and stirring up a hornet’s nest in the Gulf, where Saudi Arabia and Iran have long jostled for power.

U.S. authorities said they had broken up a plot by two men linked to Iran’s security agencies to assassinate Saudi Ambassador Adel al-Jubeir. One was arrested last month while the other was believed to be in Iran.

DOJ wins Royal Horse Shit Award

Iran denied the charges. But President Barack Obama called the plot a “flagrant violation of U.S. and international law” and Saudi Arabia said it was “despicable.”

Revelation of the alleged plot, and the apparent direct ties to the Tehran government, had the potential to further inflame tensions in the Middle East, and the United States said Tehran must be held top account.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a Reuters interview, expressed hope that countries that have hesitated to enforce existing sanctions on Iran would now “go the extra mile.”

At a news conference, FBI Director Robert Mueller said the convoluted plot, involving monitored international calls, Mexican drug money and an attempt to blow up the ambassador in a Washington restaurant, could have been straight from a Hollywood movie.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder alleged that the plot was the work of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which is the guardian of Iran’s 32-year-old revolution, and the Quds force, its covert, operational arm.

“High-up officials in those (Iranian) agencies, which is an integral part of the Iranian government, were responsible for this plot,” Holder told the news conference.

“I think one has to be concerned about the chilling nature of what the Iranian government attempted to do here,” he said.

QUDS FORCE CONNECTION

The primary evidence linking the Iranian government to the planned attempt on al-Jubeir’s life are the words of one of the alleged plotters, who told U.S. law enforcement agents after his arrest that he had been recruited and directed by men he understood were senior Quds Force officials.

The Quds Force has not previously been known to focus on targets in the United States.

Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein, was said she was briefed on intelligence about the plot, said “it looks like it’s the Quds Force, the IRGC.”

“We do not know that it went up above the IRGC” to higher levels of the Iranian government, Feinstein told reporters. “I just don’t see how this could be done any other way, that even the Quds force would go out and do something on their own to assassinate somebody who represented a country, not even in that country but in a third country.

There are no formal diplomatic ties between the Islamic republic and Washington, which accuses Tehran of backing terrorism and pursuing nuclear arms, a charge Iran has denied.

Iran already faces a raft of tough economic and political sanctions and Washington slapped further economic sanctions on five Iranians including four senior members of Quds.

Iran and Saudi Arabia have likewise long been at odds. The Saudis, who see themselves as the center of the Sunni sect of Islam, have been alarmed by what they see as expansionist tendencies by majority Shi’ite Iran, whose people are primarily Persian rather than Arab.

U.S. officials said there had also been initial discussions about other alleged plots, including attacking the Saudi and Israeli embassies in Washington, however no charges for that were revealed on Tuesday.

Rejection the allegations, Iran’s state English language Press TV said: “The Islamic Republic of Iran has rejected U.S. accusations of the country plotting to assassinate the Saudi envoy to Washington as a prefabricated scenario.”

Last month hopes were raised of improved ties when Iran released two U.S. hikers accused of spying when they were arrested on the Iran-Iraq border in 2009. Holder said there was no link between the hikers’s case and the alleged plot.

U.S. SAYS AMBASSADOR NEVER IN DANGER

U.S. officials identified the two alleged plotters as Gholam Shakuri, who is a member of the Quds force, and Manssor Arbabsiar, who was arrested on September 29 when he arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport from Mexico.

Arbabsiar, 56, who is a naturalized U.S. citizen and holds an Iranian passport, initially cooperated with authorities after being arrested at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on September 29.

He made calls to Shakuri after being arrested and acted as if the plot was still a go, court documents said.

Arbabsiar made a brief appearance in a Manhattan courtroom on Tuesday where he was ordered detained and assigned a public defender. He appeared in blue jeans and a dress shirt, thinning gray hair and a scar on the left side of his face.

Officials said that the Saudi ambassador, Al-Jubeir, who is close to King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz and has been in his post since 2007, was never in danger. President Barack Obama was briefed in June about the alleged plot and through a spokesman expressed gratitude for it being disrupted.

The assassination plot began to unfold in May 2011 when Arbabsiar approached an individual in Mexico to help, but that individual turned out to be an informant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

The confidential source, who was a paid informant but not identified, immediately tipped law enforcement agents, according to the criminal complaint. Arbabsiar paid $100,000 to the informant in July and August for the plot, a down payment on the $1.5 million requested.

LIKE A “HOLLYWOOD MOVIE”

Shakuri approved the plan to kill the ambassador during telephone conversations with Arbabsiar, the complaint said.

As part of the plot, the informant talked to Arbabsiar about trying to kill the ambassador at a Washington, D.C. restaurant he frequented, but warned him that could lead to dozens of others being killed, including U.S. lawmakers.

The criminal complaint said that Arbabsiar responded “no problem” and “no big deal”.

After Arbabsiar was arrested in New York, he allegedly confessed and provided U.S. authorities with more details about the Iranian government’s alleged involvement, Holder said.

Court papers say in a monitored phone call Shakuri allegedly confirmed to Arbabsiar the plot should move forward as quickly as possible, stating “just do it quickly, it’s late.”

Mueller said in this case “individuals from one country sought to conspire with a drug trafficking cartel in another country to assassinate a foreign official on United States soil.”

He added: “Though it reads like the pages of a Hollywood script, the impact would have been very real and many lives would have been lost,” he said.

The men are charged with one count of conspiracy to murder a foreign official, two counts of foreign travel and use of interstate and foreign commerce facilities in the commission of murder for hire and one count each of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and conspiracy to commit an act of terrorism.

Authorities said no explosives were acquired for the plot and the weapon of mass destruction charge can range from a simple improvised device to a more significant weapon. They face up to life in prison if convicted.

(Additional reporting by James Vicini, Mark Hosenball, Tabassum Zakaria, Matt Spetalnick and Andrew Quinn in Washington; Editing by David Storey)

More Details About Iranian Cousins Accused in Assassination Plot
by: Farrah Fazal – by: Jordan Williams – Last Update: 5:54 pm – KRGV TV

Federal officials say an assassination attempt on a Saudi ambassador in the United States was planned right here in South Texas and in Reynosa.

Two cousins, Manssor Arbabsiar and Gholam Shakuri, and a group of Iranians came up with a plan to kill Saudi ambassador Adel al Jubair. One of them met a DEA informant in Reynosa.

We started digging into Arbabsiar’s background and here’s what we found out. He has dual citizenship; he is an American and an Iranian. He has a Texas driver’s license and lives in Round Rock. His roommate may be a man from Mexico.

Federal prosecutors say Arbabsiar met twice in July with a DEA informant in Reynosa. He thought the informant was a Zeta Cartel member. Investigators say he negotiated a $1.5 million payment for the assassination of the Saudi ambassador. He didn’t know he was putting the money in an FBI undercover bank account.

“This case illustrates we live in a world where borders and boundaries are increasingly irrelevant, a world where individuals from one country sought to conspire with a drug cartel in another country to assassinate a foreign official on U.S. soil. And though it reads like a Hollywood script, the impact would have been very real and many lives would have been lost,” says FBI Director Robert Mueller.

Investigators say Shakuri, the other cousin, is on the run. Investigators say they have no idea where he is. They know he was getting his assassination orders directly from the Iranian government. Federal investigators believe he is hiding somewhere in Iran.

According to a federal criminal complaint, Shakuri is a member of Iran’s special forces called the Qods, though it’s also sometimes spelled Quds. The Qods are a faction of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

The revolutionary guard is an arm of the Iranian military. According to the feds, the Qods conduct covert operations abroad, including terrorist attacks, assasinations and kidnappings. They provide weapons and training to Iran’s terrorist and militant allies, including the Taliban.

The Qods are also accused of carrying out attacks on coalition forces in Iraq. Experts say the Qods are also connected to Hezbollah. That’s significant because Hezbollah is funded by the Iranian government. Hezbollah is a very sophisticated terrorist organization. We’ve told you Hezbollah has operations in Mexican border towns, including Reynosa. …source

Iran assassination plot: Terrorists join forces with Mexican drug cartels?

It’s doubtful, experts say, despite reports that Iranian plotters tried to hire members of a Mexican drug cartel to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the US in Washington.

By Sara Miller Llana, Staff writer / October 11, 2011

Journalists wait outside Manhattan federal court Tuesday, where two people, including a member of Iran’s special operations unit known as the Quds Force, were charged in what Justice Department officials say was a plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States.

Mexico City

Looking to carry out an assassination or set off a bomb on US soil? Look no farther than Mexico, where murderous drug traffickers abound, ready and willing to take money for brazen acts of violence.
Skip to next paragraph

That may be the takeaway for those in the US increasingly wary of the security threat posed by its southern neighbor, after news that the agents tied to Iran sought the help of a Mexican drug trafficking group to carry out a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the US.

Already, presidential hopeful Gov. Rick Perry (R) of Texas had said he would consider sending troops to Mexico to contain drug violence.

But are Mexican cartels really linking up with terrorists?

Mexicans, fiercely opposed to any type of US military intervention despite its growing violence, say the connection between terrorism and drug traffickers is already being overblown, and this will just add to the fodder.

“For a long time the US security apparatus … has been trying to see if there is any connection between organized crime in Mexico and terrorist organizations,” says Alejandro Schtulmann, head of research at the Emerging Markets Political Risk Analysis consulting firm in Mexico City. “Mexican criminal groups have no interest in upsetting the US.”
Plot foiled

US officials say the two agents contacted the drug trafficker in northern Mexico, offering $1.5 million for the assassination. But that trafficker turned out to be an informant for the Drug Enforcement Agency, foiling a plot that FBI director Robert Mueller said today could have cost many lives.

One of the agents reportedly met twice with the trafficker during the summer in the violence-ridden northern city of Reynosa. The accused plotter was unaware that he was actually dealing with an informant.

Little information is known about the informant. ABC News reports that he was a member, or posing as a member, of the Zetas cartel. …more

U.S. Arms Bahrain While Decrying Russian Weapons in Syria
By Thalif Deen – IPS

UNITED NATIONS, Oct 11, 2011 (IPS) – Peeved at Russia’s Security Council veto derailing a Western- sponsored resolution against Syria last week, U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice implicitly accused the Russians of protecting the beleaguered government of President Bashar al-Assad primarily to safeguard their lucrative arms market in the Middle Eastern country.

But around the same time, the United States was evaluating a 53- million-dollar weapons contract with Bahrain, where political unrest has claimed the lives of 34 people, mostly civilians, at least 1,400 others have been arrested, and more than 3,600 dismissed from their jobs for participating in street demonstrations demanding a democratic government.

“The U.S. government appears hypocritical when it condemns the use of force against Syrian protestors but condones similar behaviour in Bahrain,” Dr. Natalie J. Goldring, a senior fellow with the Center for Peace and Security Studies in the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, told IPS.

Sadly, she said, the administration of President Barack Obama is on shaky ground when it lectures other countries about their arms transfers.

“Its recent announcement of proposed weapons sales to Bahrain signals business as usual, at a time when we should be doing the opposite,” she said.

The proposed arms contract, which has triggered strong protests from human rights groups, includes 44 armoured high mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles (HMMWVs), wire-guided and other missiles and launchers, along with related equipment and training.

Maria McFarland, deputy Washington director at Human Rights Watch, said, “It will be hard for people to take U.S. statements about democracy and human rights in the Middle East seriously when, rather than hold its ally Bahrain to account, it appears to reward repression with new weapons.”

Goldring pointed out that Ambassador Rice said the opponents of the U.N. resolution would rather sell arms to the Syrian regime than stand with the Syrian people.

“Transferring weapons to Bahrain leaves the U.S. government vulnerable to the same accusation that we would rather sell arms to the Bahrain regime than to stand with the people of Bahrain.” she added.

The Obama administration would be in a much stronger position to influence other countries behaviour if it stopped selling weapons to countries that abuse their citizens’ human rights, Goldring said.

Although a majority of the Security Council members – nine out of 15 – voted in favour of last week’s resolution, qualifying it to be adopted, the two vetoes by Russia and China negated the positive result.

The draft resolution, which strongly condemned the continued grave and systematic human rights violations by Syrian authorities, drew positive votes from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Colombia, France, Gabon, Germany, Nigeria, Portugal, the UK and the United States.

The countries abstaining were India, Brazil, South Africa (collectively known as IBSA) and Lebanon.

The resolution, which was co-sponsored by France, Germany, Portugal and the UK, also called on Syria to immediately cease the use of force against civilians.

If Syria failed to do so within 30 days, the Security Council would consider “other options”, a euphemism for economic and military sanctions.

Pieter Wezeman, a senior researcher in the Arms Transfers Programme of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), told IPS Russia is Syria’s most important arms supplier.

In the past five years, he said, Russia delivered an estimated 36 Pantsyr-S1 mobile air defence systems and a quantity of Igla-S man portable surface-to-air missiles.

All indications are that more is on order and to be delivered, including reportedly 24 MiG-29SMT combat aircraft, a Bastion coast defence system with Yakhont missiles, several Buk longer range surface-to-air missile systems and an unknown number of YAK-130 combat trainer aircraft.

“Altogether the Syrian orders make up a significant amount in revenues for the Russian arms industry,” Wezeman said. …more