Thousands of Christians run for their lives

Some military analysts and human rights groups say that the Syrian civil war may soon be over – but that reassurance isn’t enough to prevent the country’s Christians from fleeing from the violence.

Dutch journalist and human rights analyst Martin Janssen reports from Jordan that Christians are fleeing Syria in record numbers. Janssen says the Christian refugees first fled because of an ultimatum.

“An exodus of Christians is taking place in Western Syria,” Janssen said. “The Christian population has fled the city of Qusayr, near Homs, following an ultimatum issued by the military chief of the armed opposition, Abdel Salam Harba.

“This is what local sources told Vatican news agency Fides, pointing out that since the conflict broke out, only a thousand of the city’s 10,000 faithful, were left, and they are now being forced to flee immediately,” Janssen said.

Janssen says the city’s mosques have reissued the ultimatum for the Christians to leave.

“Some of the city’s mosques have issued the message again, announcing from the minarets: ‘Christians must leave Qusayr within six days, ending Friday,’” Janssen said. “The ultimatum therefore expired on June 8 and spread fear among the Christian population.”

Open Doors USA spokesman Jerry Dykstra confirms the Christians’ desire to flee the violence but says there are few places to which they can go.

“Although Christians in Syria and leaders do not desire or want to leave, yet the question still prevails, ‘What is the free world doing to prepare for that exodus?’ a Christian from Syria asks,” Dykstra said.

“Who is going to welcome the Syrian Christians?” Dykstra asked. “One Syrian source says that the churches in Syria know very well what happened to the Iraqi Christians.

“They were in many countries not really welcome, so we are afraid that the same will happen to Syrian refugees, and that would be a disaster,’” Dykstra said, quoting the Syrian source.

Dykstra says the pressure to flee comes in many forms.

“Protests, assaults, bombings, thefts [and] kidnappings are all part of daily life in Syria,” Dykstra said. “The almost 10 percent Christians of the Syrian population fear for the future, many are already thinking of leaving the country.

“Christians in Syria wonder what will happen with their daily life, when a new government will come to power,” Dystra continued. “This uncertain and unknown future might lead to an exodus of Christians from Syria (like what happened to Iraqi Christians), and that is what Syrian Church leaders do expect.”Dykstra compares the Syrian Christians’ plight to the Iraqi Christians who fled Iraq after Saddam Hussein was overthrown.


WND

Spain Jobless Reaches Post-Franco Record

Spanish unemployment rose to the highest on record after Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy made it easier to fire workers while implementing the steepest budget cuts in the country’s recent democratic history.

Unemployment, already the highest in the European Union, rose to 24.6 percent in the second quarter from 24.4 percent in the prior three months, the National Statistics Institute said in Madrid today. That was the largest proportion since at least 1976, the year after dictator Francisco Franco died, prompting the transition to democracy. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of nine economists was 24.7 percent.

The Bank of Spain said this week that the nation’s recession deepened in the second quarter as the government intensified efforts to reduce a budget deficit almost as large as Greece’s. Spanish ministers are focusing on reducing the nation’s debt burden while arguing that the euro area’s monetary policy isn’t helping them to revive its fourth-largest economy.

“We are pessimistic,” said Jose Antonio Herce, a Madrid- based economist at Analistas Financieros Internacionales. “There is every reason to believe activity will contract 2 percent this year and push unemployment to 26 percent.”

Rajoy’s seven-month-old People’s Party government last week gave up on its forecast for the economy to return to expansion next year, replacing a 0.2 percent growth estimate with a prediction for a 0.5 percent contraction. Officials anticipate the economy will shrink 1.5 percent this year while unemployment will peak at 24.6 percent.

Bloomberg

Euro zone crisis heads for September crunch

(Reuters) - Over the past couple of years, Europe has muddled through a long series of crunch moments in its debt crisis, but this September is shaping up as a "make-or-break" month as policymakers run desperately short of options to save the common currency.

Crisis or no crisis, many European policymakers will take their summer holidays in August. When they return, a number of crucial events, decisions and deadlines will be waiting.

"September will undoubtedly be the crunch time," one senior euro zone policymaker said.

In that month a German court makes a ruling that could neuter the new euro zone rescue fund, the anti-bailout Dutch vote in elections just as Greece tries to renegotiate its financial lifeline, and decisions need to be made on whether taxpayers suffer huge losses on state loans to Athens.

On top of that, the euro zone has to figure out how to help its next wobbling dominoes, Spain and Italy - or what do if one or both were to topple.

"In nearly 20 years of dealing with EU issues, I've never known a state of affairs like we are in now," one euro zone diplomat said this week. "It really is a very, very difficult fix and it's far from certain that we'll be able to find the right way out of it."

Since the crisis erupted in January 2010, the euro zone has had to rescue relative minnows in Greece, Ireland and Portugal as they lost the ability to fund their budget deficits and debt obligations by borrowing commercially at affordable rates.

Now two much larger economies are in the firing line and policymakers must consider ever more radical solutions.

If Spain, the euro zone's fourth biggest economy and the world's 12th, loses affordable market financing the next domino at risk of falling is Italy - the euro zone's third biggest economy and a member of the G7 group of big wealthy nations.

A bailout of Spain would probably be double those of Greece, Ireland and Portugal combined, while Italy's economy is twice as large as Spain's again.

The European Union has already agreed to lend up to 100 billion euros to rescue Spanish banks. One euro zone official said Madrid has now conceded that it might need a full bailout worth 300 billion euros from the EU and IMF if its borrowing costs remain unaffordable.

European officials have spent the past few days issuing a series of statements declaring they will act to halt the crisis.

In the latest, issued on Sunday, Chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Minister Mario Monti "agreed that Germany and Italy would do everything to protect the euro zone".

The wording was similar to remarks by European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi last week prompted buying in financial markets on the expectation that the bank would take steps to lower the cost of borrowing of Spain and Italy.

DEFLATING LIFE RAFT

The euro zone does not seem to have enough cash in the current setup to deal with a scenario of Spain and Italy needing a rescue, and a sense of doom is growing among some policymakers. Fighting the crisis, said the euro zone diplomat, is like trying to keep a life raft above water.

"For two years we've been pumping up the life raft, taking decisions that fill it with just enough air to keep it afloat even though it has a leak," the diplomat said. "But now the leak has got so big that we can't pump air into the raft quickly enough to keep it afloat."

Compounding the problems, Greece is far behind with reforms to improve its finances and economy so it may need more time, more money and a debt reduction from euro zone governments.

If Greek debt cannot be made sustainable, the country may have to leave the euro zone, sending a shockwave across financial markets and the European economy.

September 12 is a crucial date in the European diary. On that day the German Constitutional Court is scheduled to rule on whether a treaty establishing the euro zone's permanent bailout fund, the 500 billion euro European Stability Mechanism (ESM), is compatible with the German constitution.

A positive ruling is vital, because Germany is the biggest funder of the ESM, and the euro zone would be powerless to protect Spain or Italy without the ESM.

On the same day, parliamentary elections are held in the Netherlands where popular opposition to spending any more money on bailing out spendthrift euro zone governments is strong. The Dutch vote may complicate talks on a revised second bailout for Greece, which also has to be agreed in September.

Athens wants two more years than originally planned to cut its budget deficit to below 3 percent of GDP, so as not to impose yet more spending cuts on a country which is already in a depression.

This would mean Greece's 130 billion euro second bailout package may need to be increased by 20-50 billion euros, according to estimates by some euro zone officials and economists, and there is no appetite in the euro zone to give Greece yet more extra money.

More importantly Greece needs to bring its debt, which is equal to 160 percent of its annual economic output, under control. This means euro zone governments, which own roughly two thirds of it, may need to write part of it off.

Private creditors have already suffered a huge writedown in the value of their Greek debt holdings but so far euro zone taxpayers have not lost a cent on any of the bailouts.

Reuters

Syria has expanded chemical weapons supply with Iran’s help

Syria has expanded its chemical weapons arsenal in recent years with help from Iran and by using front organizations to buy sophisticated equipment it claimed was for civilian programs, according to documents and interviews.

The buildup has taken place despite attempts by the United States and other Western countries to block the sale of precursor chemicals and so-called dual-use technology to Damascus, according to the documents.

As recently as 2010, documents show that the European Union provided $14.6 million in technical assistance and equipment, some intended for chemical plants, in a deal with the Syrian Ministry of Industry. Diplomats and arms experts have identified the ministry as a front for the country’s chemical weapons program.

Recognizing the potential for Syria to divert equipment to the weapons program, the E.U. stipulated that it be allowed to conduct spot checks on how it was used. But the inspections were halted in May 2011 when the organization imposed sanctions on Syria after the crackdown on opposition groups.

Concerns about Syria’s chemical weapons arsenal took on new significance this week when a top Syrian official warned that the regime of President Bashar al-Assad would use them “in the event of external aggression.”

U.S. officials have expressed concerns over whether Assad would authorize using the weapons against his own people as a last-ditch effort to remain in power. Similarly, officials have said they worry about the security of the arsenal if Assad’s government falls.

The portrait of Syria’s efforts to develop a larger chemical weapons program emerged from E.U. documents, a handful of little-noticed State Department cables released by WikiLeaks and interviews with outside experts.

Arms experts say Syria has pursued a two-pronged strategy to build and grow its chemical weapons stockpile: overt assistance and procurement of chemical precursors and expertise from Iran, coupled with the acquisition of equipment and chemicals from seemingly unwitting businesses in other countries, in many cases through a network of front organizations.

The materials are often dual use, with purposes in civilian plants and in weapons facilities.

The Washington Post

Iran begins stockpiling 3 month food supply

An Iranian news agency is reporting the country has begun to stockpile a three-month supply of foodstuffs for its population.

The Friday report by semi-official Mehr quotes deputy industry minister Hasan Radmard as saying the country has been buying wheat, cooking oil, sugar and rice for the food reserve.

Radmard said the decision came based on a decree by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in recent weeks. Part of the purchased foodstuffs has already been imported, he added.

Iran's trade with other countries has been hindered since the United States and the European Union imposed a banking and insurance embargo on Tehran over its disputed nuclear program.

The West suspects Iran is pursuing nuclear weapon, a charge Iran denies.

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Christian, Muslim villagers clash in Egypt

An Egyptian security official says Muslim and Christian villagers hurled fire bombs at each other south of Cairo after a Christian laundry worker burnt a Muslim's shirt.

The official says Muslim villagers set fire to Christians' homes on Friday, prompting authorities to deploy forces at the village of Dahshour in Giza province. One man was injured and several from both sides were detained. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press.

It is the first incidence of sectarian violence since the election of Egypt's first civilian President Mohammed Morsi, of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Coptic Christians, who make up nearly 10 percent of Egypt's 82 million people, fear the Islamists rise to power after last year's uprising may further curtail their rights.

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