Listen to this segment | entire program

Casualty reports from Syria yesterday put the number of dead at close to 60 people as fighting continues between government forces and Syrians who have mounted a nearly one year long effort to oust President Bashar al-Assad. The fighting took place at the same time that the UN Security Council was debating competing resolutions on Syria. One resolution, backed by the Arab League and a majority of the 15 member Security Council, including the United States, demands that Assad resign. Russia has said it would veto this if passed by a vote, calling it a Western-led attempt at regime change. Russia has put forward its own resolution calling for a cease fire and negotiations between Assad and the Syrian opposition. Syria’s representative on the Security Council said earlier this week, “[t]he wild tendency of some Western countries to interfere in our internal and external affairs by all means is not new or accidental,” and called attempts to push out Assad a “threat to Syrian sovereignty.” Hilary Clinton this week stated there are no plans for a Libya-style NATO intervention in Syria and called Russia’s comparison of international intentions “a false analogy.”

The Syrian city of Homs continues to be the site of the most intense fighting, but violence has erupted nationwide over the past 10 months and the United Nations estimates 5,400 people have been killed since the beginning of the uprising. A month-long Arab League observation of the situation ended last week when violence throughout the nation overwhelmed the 166 observers stationed in 15 cities, leading to an order that they stay in their hotel rooms until safe passage out of the country was arranged. The group issued an 18 page report on its mission, which is being viewed as a failure by many. Mission chief Gen. Mohammed Ahmed al Dabi concluded his team was understaffed by at least 100 observers and that many members were not properly trained. The Assad government also obstructed the ability of the team to collect information by confiscating Arab League communication equipment and making travel around the country difficult.

Meanwhile, a popular uprising in the Gulf Arab nation of Bahrain is almost one year old but has received little attention from the United States. The US has been criticized for providing arms to the ruling Sunni monarchy in Bahrain, backed by Saudi Arabia.

GUEST: Stephen Zunes, Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of San Francisco, where he chairs the program in Middle Eastern Studies

Visit www.stephenzunes.org to read Zunes’ work.