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Iranian Ships Reach Syria as China Warns of Civil War
Khaled Yacoub Oweis & Angus MacSwan | February 20, 2012

Demonstrators holding a placard as they gather during a protest against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Kafranbel near Idlib, Syria, on Sunday. The sign reads: ‘Occupied Kafranbel.’ (Reuters Photo) Demonstrators holding a placard as they gather during a protest against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Kafranbel near Idlib, Syria, on Sunday. The sign reads: ‘Occupied Kafranbel.’ (Reuters Photo)
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Amman/Beirut. China accused Western countries of stirring civil war in Syria as two Iranian warships docked at a Syrian naval base, underscoring rising international tensions over the near year-long crisis.

Despite pursuing a sustained military crackdown on the opposition in cities across the country, President Bashar al-Assad forged ahead with plans to hold a referendum at the end of the week.

Activists in the western city of Hama said troops, police and militias had set up dozens of roadblocks, isolating neighborhoods from each other.

“Hama is cut off from the outside world,” an opposition statement said. “There is no landlines, no mobile phone network and no internet. House-to-house arrests take place daily.”

Government troops extended their control in Hama after an offensive last week that concentrated on neighborhoods that have provided shelter for Free Syrian Army rebels.

Government forces also maintained their siege of pro-opposition neighborhoods of Homs, south of Hama on the Damascus-Aleppo highway.

The Monday actions followed a weekend which saw one of the biggest demonstrations yet in the capital as the pro-democracy uprising against Assad’s 11-year rule neared its first anniversary.

Security forces have killed at least 5,000 people, according to rights groups, in a campaign to crush the revolt, while the Assad regime says it has lost more than 2,000 regime troops in what it describes as a struggle against foreign-backed terrorists.

The conflict has also pitted Western and Gulf-led Arab powers against Assad allies Russia, China and Iran.

The former have condemned Assad for the bloodshed and called for him to step down. Beijing and Moscow say all sides are to blame for the violence and the crisis should be resolved through talks, not foreign intervention.

China’s Communist Party mouthpiece the People’s Daily said in a front page commentary on Monday: “If Western countries continue to fully support Syria’s opposition, then in the end a large-scale civil war will erupt and there will be no way to thus avoid the possibility of foreign armed intervention.”

A Chinese envoy met Assad in Damascus on Saturday and backed his plan to hold a referendum this coming Sunday on a new constitution which would lead to multi-party parliamentary elections within 90 days.

The West and Syrian opposition figures have dismissed the plan as a joke, saying it is impossible to have a valid election amid the continuing repression.

Meanwhile, two Iranian naval ships docked at the Syrian port of Tartous on Saturday, Iran’s state-run Press TV reported. The ships were said to be providing training for Syrian naval forces.

With Shiite-led Iran already at odds with the United States, Europe and Israel over its nuclear program, the deployment was likely to add to Western concerns that the Syria crisis could boil over into a regional conflict.

Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor, asked about the Iranian move at briefing in Jerusalem, said Assad was supported by Iran and the Hizbollah militant group and that Russia and China had given him “a license to kill.”

Reuters