DOHA, July 23, (Agencies): The State of Kuwait has warned of imminent flare-up of full-scale civil war in Syria and expressed concern that such dire eventuality would lead to dramatic repercussions at the regional and Arab levels.

Regretfully, indications of an imminent all-out civil warfare in Syria “have started to surface,” said Sheikh Sabah Khalid Al-Sabah, Kuwait’s Deputy Prime Minister, Foreign Minister and current Chairman of the Arab Ministerial Committee, addressing the extraordinary session of the Arab League Council, held here late on Sunday.

“We have repeatedly warned of such civil war in many previous meetings .. Such a negative and dangerous development will threaten not only unity and entity of Syria and its people but also states of the region, as well as the regional Arab order due to Syria’s status within this regime.

“The international community represented by the Security Council should take more effective measures to halt the acts of violence in Syria.” The Kuwaiti warning coincided with reports about ongoing violence in various parts and cities in Syria and indications that the death toll of the 16-month fighting might soar to 20,000, soon.

The Arab League continues to exert substantial efforts to resolve the crisis, Sheikh Sabah Khalid said, indicating at several previous Arab resolutions aimed at nudging the Syrian government honor its obligations. “However, the situation in Syria has remained tragic with advent of the holy month of Ramadan, with deteriorating humanitarian and living conditions and expansion of scope of destruction and genocides against humanity.

Sheikh Sabah Khalid indicated at efforts that had been exerted at the Security Council to issue a resolution, regarding the Syrian situation, under Chapter VII, and praised the council decision 2029 extending mission of the UN observers in the troubled country for a month.

The Kuwaiti minister praised outcome of the international friends’ of Syria convention, recently hosted by Paris, as well results of the international action group on Syria, held in Geneva, where conferees agreed on principle of peaceful transition of power in Syria.

Moreover, he praised efforts of the Arab League Secretariat General to ensure success of the Syrian opposition conference, held in Cairo on the 2nd of the past month. Finally, he welcomed a call by Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz to hold an extraordinary Islamic solidarity conference during Ramadan in the Holy City of Makkah.

Power
Arab nations have called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to swiftly give up power as his troops launched a fresh assault on rebels in Damascus and the second city Aleppo.
Fighting raged Sunday despite claims by the rebel Free Syrian Army that Assad’s regime was “collapsing”.
In a joint statement issued early Monday after their meeting in Doha, Arab League foreign ministers called on Assad to “renounce power,” promising that he and his family would be offered “a safe exit”.
“There is agreement on the need for the rapid resignation of President Bashar al-Assad,” Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani told journalists after the Arab League meeting wound up in the small hours Monday.
The Arab League called on the Free Syrian Army rebels and the opposition to form a transitional government of national unity along with the “de facto national authority”, without detailing who that authority might be.
The Arab nations also called for an extraordinary meeting of the UN General Assembly to work towards creating “security zones” and “humanitarian corridors” in Syria.
The United States declared Sunday that it would “hold accountable” any Syrian official involved in the release or use of the country’s chemical weapons.
Fears have been rising in the West after reports that Assad might be prepared to use his arsenal of chemical weapons to save his embattled regime.
Sheikh Hamad urged Assad to “stop the destruction and the killings by taking a courageous decision” to cede the power he has wielded since 2000.
On the ground the feared regime forces led by Assad’s brother used helicopter gunships Sunday in a new assault on rebels in Damascus, activists said, as clashes also raged in Syria’s second city Aleppo.
Government forces mounted an offensive in the Damascus neighbourhood of Barzeh, triggering an exodus of residents, as a rebel commander appeared in a video saying the battle to “liberate” Aleppo had begun.
The official SANA news agency announced that government forces had “cleansed” the capital’s Qaboon neighbourhood of “terrorists”, the regime’s term for rebel fighters.
And state television aired footage reportedly from Qaboon showing dead bodies and weapons, communications equipment and money it said was captured from rebels.
It said some of the rebels killed held identity cards from Jordan and Egypt, accusing foreign countries of training and sending in insurgents.

But it denied helicopter gunships were being used inside the capital.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said “the feared Fourth Brigade” commanded by Assad’s powerful younger brother Maher was carrying out the Barzeh attack.
“Troops have stormed the northwestern Barzeh district of Damascus with tanks and armoured personnel carriers,” the British-based group’s director Rami Abdel Rahman said, adding that snipers were deployed on rooftops.

Nationwide, 123 people were killed in violence on Sunday, 59 of them civilians, the observatory said.
The watchdog group said that more than 19,000 people have been killed since the uprising against Assad’s regime began in March 2011.
The rebel Free Syrian Army’s military council head General Mustafa al-Sheikh told AFP “a real war of attrition” was underway in Damascus.
“The regime is collapsing, the speed at which it is falling has increased. That means it will use greater violence in order to try and save itself,” said Sheikh.
On Syria’s borders, rebels battled troops for control of border crossing posts with Turkey, Iraq and Jordan, as Turkey moved batteries of ground-to-air missiles to its frontier with the Arab state.

Chemical
Syria admitted on Monday it possesses chemical weapons and warned it would use them if attacked though not against its own civilians, as regime troops battled rebels in Damascus and Aleppo.
The warning by foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi comes amid growing international concern that Damascus is preparing to deploy its chemical arsenal in the repression of a 16-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad.
“Syria will not use any chemical or other unconventional weapons against its civilians, and will only use them in case of external aggression,” Makdissi told a news conference.
“Any stocks of chemical weapons that may exist, will never, ever be used against the Syrian people,” he said, adding that in the event of foreign attack, “the generals will be deciding when and how we use them.”
Makdissi stressed later in an email that Syria would “never use chemical and biological weapons during the crisis... and that such weapons, if they exist, it is natural for them to be stored and secured.”
Kassem Saadeddine, spokesman for the joint command of the rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA), said Makdissi’s remarks gave cause for concern.
“The regime admits having chemical weapons, and as it has not signed any treaties. That proves that it will not hesitate to use them,” Saadeddine told AFP.
Makdissi’s comments come a day after the United States said it would “hold accountable” any Syrian official involved in the release or use of the country’s chemical weapons.
The ministry spokesman also said Syria firmly rejected a demand by the Arab League that Assad step down.

“We are sorry that the Arab League has descended to this level concerning a member state of this institution,” he said.
“This decision only concerns the Syrian people, who are the sole masters of the fate of their governments.”
The United States warned Syria Monday not to even consider using chemical weapons after Damascus raised the possibility of employing its stockpile of unconventional arms in the case of an outside attack.
“They should not think one iota about using chemical weapons,” Pentagon press secretary George Little told reporters.
“We have been very strong in our statements inside the US government on the prospective use of chemical weapons and it would be entirely unacceptable,” Little said.
European Union foreign ministers branded as “monstrous” and “unacceptable” a threat by Syria on Monday that it would resort to the use of chemical weapons in case of a foreign attack.
“Threatening to use chemical weapons is monstrous,” said German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle in a statement.
“It is unacceptable to say they would use chemical weapons under any circumstances,” echoed British Foreign Secretary William Hague.
In a statement issued after talks, the bloc’s 27 foreign ministers said: “The EU is seriously concerned about the potential use of chemical weapons in Syria.”

Executed
At least 23 people were “summarily executed” by regime forces in two Damascus neighbourhoods on Sunday, the head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog told AFP on Monday.
“Sixteen people, most of them younger than 30, were summarily executed by shooting on Sunday in Mazzeh,” Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said, referring to an upscale district in western Damascus.
The bodies of some of those killed showed signs of torture.
Seven others were executed in a similar fashion in Barzeh in the city’s northeast, he said.
It was unclear whether the executions were of civilians or rebel fighters.
The heads of two of the victims had been crushed by vehicles, and one was shot through the eye, the Britain-based Abdel Rahman said.
Three of the dead were found with their hands tied, and the bodies of some had been pierced by bayonets, he added.
Overnight, Syrian state television reported an assault on Mazzeh, calling the operation “targeted and quick.”
Fifteen unidentified bodies were also found Monday in Maadamiyat al-Sham village near Damascus, the Observatory said. Some of them had their hands tied, while others showed signs of having been stabbed.
For its part rights watchdog Amnesty International urged regime and rebel forces to “respect the rules of international humanitarian law which aim at sparing civilians and others not directly participating in the fighting and minimising human suffering.”
“Superiors and commanders have a duty to prevent and, where necessary, to suppress war crimes by those under their command or who they otherwise control; and they may be held criminally responsible if they fail to do so.”
Syria rejects a call by the Arab League for President Bashar al-Assad to give up power, foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said at a media conference on Monday.
“We are sorry that the Arab League has descended to this level concerning a member state of this institution,” he said. “This decision only concerns the Syrian people, who are the sole masters of fate of their governments.”
“If the Arab nations who met in Doha were honest about wanting to stop the bloodshed they would have stopped supplying arms... they would stop their instigation and propaganda,” he said. “All their statements are hypocritical.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned on Monday of a protracted civil war in Syria should President Bashar al-Assad be “unconstitutionally” removed from power by rebel fighters.
“We are afraid that if the country’s current leadership is removed from power unconstitutionally, then the opposition and today’s leadership may simply change places,” Russian news agencies quoted Putin as saying.
“One will become (the new) leadership and the other — the opposition,” Putin was quoted as saying after talks with visiting Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti.
Putin warned that in that case “a civil war will stretch on for who knows how long”.
“We do not want the situation to develop according to the bloody scenario of civil war and continue for no-one knows how many years as it happened in Afghanistan,” Putin was quoted as saying in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Embargo
The European Union tightened an arms embargo on Syria and expanded other sanctions on Monday as the conflict between President Bashar al-Assad and rebels escalated towards civil war.
The new embargo rules require EU countries to search planes and ships if they have “reasonable grounds” to suspect they are carrying arms, dual-use goods or equipment used for repression to Syria.
“These sanctions are important because they will allow ships to be examined to see what cargo they’re carrying, and that will prevent, I hope, any arms reaching Syria,” EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said before the meeting in Brussels where foreign ministers agreed the measures.
The EU decision sharpens differences with Russia which has blocked Western moves to get a United Nations Security Council resolution threatening Syria with sanctions.
All 27 EU countries must enforce the sanctions, including Cyprus which some Western diplomats suspect is used by Russia as a shipment route to supply arms to Assad, something Cyprus’s President Demetris Christofias has dismissed as “fairy tales”.
The tighter EU sanctions could also make it more difficult to supply weapons to Assad’s opponents. US intelligence officials say weapons funded by sympathisers in Saudi Arabia and Qatar are crossing the Lebanese border to the rebels.
The new sanctions include a ban the Syrian national airline which will prevent the flag carrier landing at EU airports, although it will be able to fly over EU countries and make emergency stops.
Ministers added 26 people, mostly military officials, to a list of those subject to EU travel bans and asset freezes. The EU had already imposed sanctions on 49 organisations and 129 people in Syria.
With violence escalating, Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal said the presence of chemicals weapons in Syria was a key concern.
“The turmoil could also expand to the stocks of chemical weapons,” he said. “The sense of urgency is only on the increase. The stocks of chemical weapons are part of the story.”
An Israeli government official says the country’s leaders have discussed with American envoys how to manage a Syrian government collapse.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that his country would “have to act” if necessary to keep Syria’s vast stockpile of chemical weapons from falling into the hands of militants should the regime in Damascus crumble.
With the bloodshed in Syria intensifying, President Basher Assad’s hold is looking tenuous.
Asked if Israel and the US had discussed managing a Syrian collapse, the Israeli government official said on Monday, “You can presume that these sorts of issues came up with American officials when they visited recently in Israel.”
He gave no details and spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the contents of confidential discussions.