Syria: Opposition chief Khatib calls it quits

Reeling from devastating atrocities carried out by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad that have left over 500 dead in the past five days, the Syrian opposition is experiencing another serious blow as its leader, Mouaz Khatib, has announced yet again that he will be resigning from his post, Arab media outlets relate.

The Dubai-based media channel Al-Arabiya reports that during particularly violent fighting in Jdeidat Artouz, a western suburb of Damascus, Assad’s troops burned the bodies of hundreds of the dead, many of whom were killed execution-style, and dropped them in the streets to rot among their living countrymen.

Whole families were wiped out indiscriminately, with the carnage leaving behind a humanitarian disaster for the 100,000 people who live in the area.

Abu Ahmed, a Syrian opposition activist, told the London-based Al-Hayat, “Over 28 people were shot dead in the makeshift hospital alone after the regime’s forces entered the neighborhood. We fear the real number of victims is much greater than the 500 reported.”

These atrocities are spurring many Syrians, including those at the helm of the Syrian opposition movement, to ask why the rest of the world isn’t doing more to help them oust Assad once and for all.

The leading article in the Saudi-owned A-Sharq Al-Awsat, “Khatib renews his resignation under pressure to dismiss Hitto,” says that “Syrian National Council President Mouaz Khatib announced at the Friends of Syria conference in Istanbul that he refuses to be a false witness to what’s going on (in Syria) and criticized the international community for its failure to fulfill its duties to the Syrian people.”

Khatib’s resignation coincides with calls for Prime Minister Ghassan Hitto to step down as well over his failure to build a government or even a basic consensus among the Syrian opposition groups.

“The Syrian opposition must receive heavy weapons in order to defend itself,” said Marwan Hajo, another member of the Syrian National Council. “Anything short of that is a mockery of our cause.”

‘The Syrian opposition must receive heavy weapons in order to defend itself. Anything short of that is a mockery of our cause’

In response to Khatib’s resignation, US Secretary of State John Kerry has already pledged an additional $250 million in non-combat aid to opposition forces.

The Doha-based media network Al-Jazeera states Khatib will not be resigning from all his posts. He intends to stay on as a representative to the Syrian National Council from Damascus, which is where he’s from.

Khatib was elected president of the coalition after its formation in Qatar last November. He submitted his resignation for the first time on March 24, criticizing the West for “taming the Syrian people and trying to minimize the revolution.”

Mamoun Fandy, an Egyptian-American scholar known for holding conservative views, writes in an op-ed in A-Sharq Al-Awsat of his skepticism over what Western intervention in Syria could really achieve at this point.

“It seems that the notion of intervention in Syria has passed the point of possibility and now would only compound the killing and suffering the Syrian people are now experiencing,” Fandy writes. “In previous wars waged by democratic states to overthrow authoritarian regimes, these governments were forced to explain the rationale to their peoples. . . After what has happened in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Libya, countries fear that their efforts will be found futile.”

“Analysts ask themselves how Syria moved from a state of revolution to a state of war,” Fandy continues. “Now they are asking how Syria moves from a state of war to a state of uncontrollable regional conflict.”

Saudi researcher discovers site of Noah’s flood

A Saudi researcher claims he has discovered the exact site where the Koranic (and biblical) story of Noah’s Ark first transpired in the Sarawat mountains along the western coast of Saudi Arabia.

Al-Hayat reports that Dr. Muhammed Bastawisi from Umm Al-Qura University in Mecca found the precise spot where the flood began using Koranic verses, hydrological studies, and satellite images of the region. To start with, Bastawisi located a notable volcano that is supposedly mentioned in the Koranic version of the story.

He noted that there is evidence that a great flood at some point in history covered an area of over 1 million square kilometers between Hejaz mountain range and the Tawfik barrier extending deep into central Saudi Arabia. The run water apparently ran off northwards into the rest of the Levant.

Dr. Bastawisi has been invited to lecture on his research at Oxford University in the United Kingdom in July.