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Pence Moves Visit Date a 2nd Time, Hoping to Be Hosted in Bethlehem

Mike Pence speaks at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, US July 20, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Mike Pence speaks at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, US July 20, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
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Pence Moves Visit Date a 2nd Time, Hoping to Be Hosted in Bethlehem

Mike Pence speaks at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, US July 20, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Mike Pence speaks at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio, US July 20, 2016. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst

Israeli political sources blamed US Vice President Mike Pence’s decision to postpone his scheduled visit to the Middle East, which starts in Egypt and ends in Israel, mid-this month, mainly to Palestinians refusing to host him and rejecting US mediation in negotiations to settle the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Palestinians took a definitive stance against US mediation following the United States showing bias and recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

These sources said that Pence shifting the visit’s time for the second time in the past two weeks confirms that the Americans still hope "the Palestinians change their position and receive him in Bethlehem, with the aim towards resolving the differences arising from the promise US President Trump made and to examine the possibility of resuming negotiations."

Initially, the visit was scheduled for December 20, and was postponed until further notice.

The White House then announced that the postponement is so that Pence could stay in Washington until the vote on the "tax cuts" bill was finished.

Later on, the White House confirmed that the visit would take place on January 14, however the list of officials expected to arrive in the country this month in Tel Aviv, did not include Pence.

Israeli authorities said "Pence's visit to Israel, which was scheduled for mid-January, did not show up on the list of foreign officials visiting Israel during this month due to a number of difficulties regarding the overall agenda”.

Although the White House made it clear that the vice president plans to arrive in Israel at the end of this month, Israeli sources have questioned it actually taking place, asserting that PM Benjamin Netanyahu plans to visit India, Munich and Davos by the end of January.

Pence’s visit will be the first of a senior US official to Israel since Trump announced on December 6 Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

If received by the Palestinians, it will be the first public meetings between them and US officials after the announcement.

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Syria: Elaborate Military Tunnel Complex Linked to Assad's Palace

A fighter affiliated with Syria's new administration carries the decapitated head of an equestrian statue of Bassel al-Assad, brother of toppled president Bashar al-Assad, removed from the abandoned Republican Guard base on Mount Qasyun. Bakr ALKASEM / AFP
A fighter affiliated with Syria's new administration carries the decapitated head of an equestrian statue of Bassel al-Assad, brother of toppled president Bashar al-Assad, removed from the abandoned Republican Guard base on Mount Qasyun. Bakr ALKASEM / AFP
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Syria: Elaborate Military Tunnel Complex Linked to Assad's Palace

A fighter affiliated with Syria's new administration carries the decapitated head of an equestrian statue of Bassel al-Assad, brother of toppled president Bashar al-Assad, removed from the abandoned Republican Guard base on Mount Qasyun. Bakr ALKASEM / AFP
A fighter affiliated with Syria's new administration carries the decapitated head of an equestrian statue of Bassel al-Assad, brother of toppled president Bashar al-Assad, removed from the abandoned Republican Guard base on Mount Qasyun. Bakr ALKASEM / AFP

On the slopes of Mount Qasyun which overlooks Damascus, a network of tunnels links a military complex, tasked with defending the Syrian capital, to the presidential palace facing it.
The tunnels, seen by an AFP correspondent, are among secrets of president Bashar al-Assad's rule exposed since the opposition toppled him on December 8.

"We entered this enormous barracks of the Republican Guard after the liberation" of Damascus sent Assad fleeing to Moscow, said Mohammad Abu Salim, a military official from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the dominant group in the alliance that overthrew Assad.

"We found a vast network of tunnels which lead to the presidential palace" on a neighboring hill, Salim said.

During Assad's rule, Qasyun was off limits to the people of Damascus because it was an ideal location for snipers -- the great view includes the presidential palaces and other government buildings.

It was also from this mountain that artillery units for years pounded opposition-held areas at the gates of the capital.

An AFP correspondent entered the Guard complex of two bunkers containing vast rooms reserved for its soldiers. The bunkers were equipped with telecommunications gear, electricity, a ventilation system and weapons supplies.

Other simpler tunnels were dug out of the rock to hold ammunition.

Despite such elaborate facilities, Syria's army collapsed, with troops abandoning tanks and other gear as opposition fighters advanced from their northern stronghold to the capital in less than two weeks,.

On the grounds of the Guard complex a statue of the president's brother Bassel al-Assad, atop a horse, has been toppled and Bassel's head severed.

Bassel al-Assad died in a 1994 road accident. He had been the presumed successor to his father Hafez al-Assad who set up the paranoid, secretive, repressive system of government that Bashar inherited when his father died in 2000.

In the immense Guard camp now, former opposition fighters use pictures of Bashar al-Assad and his father for target practice.

Tanks and heavy weapons still sit under arched stone shelters.

Resembling a macabre outdoor art installation, large empty rusted barrels with attached fins pointing skyward are lined up on the ground, their explosives further away.

"The regime used these barrels to bomb civilians in the north of Syria," Abu Salim said.

The United Nations denounced Bashar's use of such weapons dropped from helicopters or airplanes against civilian areas held by Assad's opponents during Syria's years-long civil war that began in 2011.