From: [email protected] To: Middle East Update [email protected]; Subject: Middle East Update - May 25-31, 2011 Sent: 6/1/2011 10:47:23 PM Middle East Update May 25-31, 2011 Syria International pressure on Damascus is mounting. After the US imposed sanctions on the Syrian leadership earlier in May, the EU foreign ministers agreed to impose travel bans and to freeze the assets of President Assad and nine other Syrian senior officials. Within days of the EU announcement, Canada invoked similar travel and economic sanctions. While Russia blocked any reference in the G8 communiqué to the possibility of deferring the issue of Syria to the UN Security Council, the communiqué’s compromise language illustrates the international community’s increased pressure on the regime. The G8 leaders stated that they were “appalled” by the death of peaceful protesters and called on the Syrian leadership to immediately stop using force against its people or the G-8 countries would “consider taking further measures”. At the same time, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah—the leader of the Lebanese party Hizbullah—called on the Syrian people to give the government time to effectuate reforms, arguing that President Assad believes in reforming the system and is determined to implement change. The Hizbullah leader denied that his party has dispatched fighters to assist the Syrian regime in quelling the protest movement. Anti-Iran and -Hizbullah slogans were chanted in a number of Syrian cities in response to Nasrallah’s defense of the regime and his pictures were burned in Deir Ezzor in eastern Syria. Syrian protesters declared Friday “the day of the Guardians of the Homeland”—a reference to the Syrian armed forces—in an effort to encourage the army to join the uprising. Security and military forces appear, however, to be stepping up their campaign in an attempt to end the protests. Tens of people were killed or wounded over the weekend and tanks have