Introduction to the evening news 16-07-2012

Road cut-offs changed location this evening and moved to outside the Sarba barrack on the Sarba - Jounieh highway where relatives of the detained officers in the Kwaykhat case held a protest, backed by LAF supporters. This step came in response to the Akkar road cut-offs that resulted in the expansion of investigations and the re-arrest of the officers.         

As for the EDL issue, a counter protest was held by citizens in protest of the sit-in held by EDL contract workers who declared that they would be undergoing a hunger strike until further notice. After Christians politicians unanimously objected granting tenure to these workers, today was the turn of families to take to the streets and clash with the ISF.         

We can easily say that the calm that prevailed over the Koura sub-election is now in the past. The accrued files that were neglected or addressed in an improvised manner came back to the forefront. In addition to the EDL contract workers, and the Kwaykhat case, the case of Islamist detainees resurged today, as 4 detainees in the Nahr el Bared incidents were released.           

Separately, the Syndicate Coordination Committee announced that it will go back to boycotting the correction of official exams as of tomorrow, and public servants declared they will hold a strike in protest of the government’s failure to sign the ranks and salaries scale bill.         

“Assad will not leave” was the statement made by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on the eve of talks expected to be held between international mediator Kofi Annan and Russian president Vladimir Putin in Moscow. Lavrov accused the great western powers of using blackmail in the Syrian crisis by imposing economic sanctions as a pre-condition to extend the international observers’ mission.          

In the field, for the second day in a row, clashes erupted between opposition figures and government troops in Damascus, mainly in Kfar Sousa and al-Midan neighborhood.