Tag Archive for Bashar Assad

| September 8, 2012
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Canada says Tehran ‘most significant threat’ to world peace, recalls Ambassador, Closes Iran Embassy

 

Citing hostility to Israel, assisting Assad & its nuclear program, Foreign Minister John Baird said Canada will expel all Iranian diplomats within 5 days; Netanyahu: Canada took a moral step.

Canada has closed its embassy in Iran and will expel all remaining Iranian diplomats in Canada within five days, Foreign Minister John Baird said on Friday, denouncing Tehran as the biggest threat to global security.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - AP.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks at Iran’s nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz. – Photo by AP

Baird cited Iran’s nuclear program, its hostility toward Israel and Iranian military assistance to the government of President Bashar Assad in Syria, which is locked in civil war with rebels, as the reasons for suspending diplomatic relations. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , , ,
| August 17, 2012
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Diplomatic Sources say Securing Syria’s chemical weapons could take 60,000 troops

Washington & European Allies discuss possibility if Assad regime loses control of WMDs; American official: U.S. still has no plans to put troops on the ground in Syria.

By Reuters

 

The United States and its allies are discussing a worst-case scenario that could require tens of thousands of ground troops to go into Syria to secure chemical and biological weapons sites following the fall of President Bashar Assad’s government, according to U.S. and diplomatic officials.

Syria - AP - 15.8.2012

Syrian children playing near a destroyed military tank next to the rubble of a damaged building in town of Azaz on the outskirts of Aleppo, Syria – Photo by AP

These secret discussions assume that all of Assad’s security forces disintegrate, leaving chemical and biological weapons sites in Syria vulnerable to pillaging. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: ,
| August 9, 2012
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Tehran reports Iranians kidnapped by Syrian rebels are alive & well

Syrian rebels seized a busload (48) of religious Iranian pilgrims in Damascus on August 4 on suspicion of being military personnel.

By Reuters

All the Iranians kidnapped by Syrian rebels last week are alive and well, an Iranian foreign ministry official said, contrary to statements by rebels holding them that three of the captives had been killed in an air attack.

Bashar Assad and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Syrian President Bashar Assad and Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (2nd R) review the guard of honor in Damascus January 19, 2006. – Photo by Reuters

Syrian rebels waging an uprising against the government of President Bashar Assad seized a busload of 48 Iranians in Damascus on August 4 on suspicion of being military personnel. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , , ,
| August 4, 2012
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21 dead in Damascus’ Palestinian refugee camp after being hit by mortar shells

Unclear if Palestinians were fired on by Assad’s forces or opposition, says Syrian activists.

 

 

Mortar shells rained down on a crowded marketplace in a Palestinian refugee camp in the Syrian capital, killing 21 people as regime forces and rebels clashed on the southern outskirts of Damascus, activists said Friday.

Shelling in Homs, Syria.

Shelling in Homs, Syria. – Photo by AP

The Britain-based Syria Observatory for Human Rights, which reported the deaths, said the shells hit Yarmouk camp Thursday as shoppers were buying food for the evening meal. The activists would not speculate on who was firing.

“We don’t know where the mortars came from, whether they were from the Syrian regime or not the Syrian regime,” said Rami Abdul Rahman, director of the Observatory. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , , ,
| July 28, 2012
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Syria’s Assad loosing support from the Golan Heights Druze

Druze families in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights are divided between supporters of the revolt and backers of the regime.

By The Associated Press

 

The raging civil war just across the cease-fire line in Syria is posing an uncomfortable political choice for the Druze people in the Israeli-annexed Golan Heights.

Do they maintain their traditional loyalty to the government of Bashar Assad, whose family has vowed to take back the territory? Or should they support the burgeoning Arab revolt against Assad’s harsh rule?

In the shifting sands of the Middle East, the Druze again find themselves a people caught in the middle. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , ,
| July 9, 2012
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Syria’s Assad says not afraid of meeting same fate as Mubarak, Gadhafi

In rare interview with Western media, Assad says the U.S. ultimately bears responsibility for the deaths of innocent civilians in the Middle Eastern nation.

 

Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an interview broadcast Sunday that he is not afraid of meeting the same fate as the deposed and disgraced leaders of Libya and Egypt, saying he has nothing in common with them.

In one of his rare interviews with Western media since the deadly uprising in Syria erupted last year, Assad brushed off a question about whether he feared for his family, including his wife and three children. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: ,
| June 9, 2012
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Likud MK: Israeli doctors treating Syrians wounded in uprising

Deputy Minister Ayoob Kara says that Assad regime has used chemical weapons against men, women, and children during its violent suppression of uprising.

By Haaretz

Deputy Minister Ayoob Kara (Likud) said in an interview on Israel Radio on Saturday that Israeli doctors in the Turkey-Syria border area are treating Syrians wounded in the uprising against the Bashar Assad regime.

Likud MK Ayoob Kara Jan. 2, 2012 (Shiran Granot)

Likud MK Ayoob Kara - Photo by Shiran Granot

Kara, a member of Israel’s Druze community, said that Israel is prepared to absorb Syrians wounded in the unrest in that country and also to send doctors to Jordan to treat the wounded. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: ,
| June 4, 2012
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Stopping Syria’s chemical weapons from spreading

Analysis: IDF beefing up defenses along border by laying new minefields, fortifying security fence.

When considering the potential fallout from Bashar Assad’s downfall, at the top of Israel’s list of concerns is the possibility that Syria’s chemical weapons will fall into rogue hands, possibly al-Qaida or even Hezbollah.

That is why – depending on developments in Syria – the day may come soon when Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu will need to make a critical decision if presented with intelligence that the weapons are on the verge of proliferating.

Started in the mid-1970s, Syria’s chemical weapons program is run by the Scientific Studies and Research Center and includes the industrial production of Sarin and VX nerve agents as well as mustard gas, all deployable in warheads that can be carried by its operational Scud missiles. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , ,
| March 27, 2012
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‘Syrian troops enter Lebanon, clash with rebels’

Residents of rural area in northern Lebanon say Syrian forces destroying farm building, clashing with Syrian rebels who fled country; opposition forces in Istanbul seek to show alternative to Assad.

 

Syrian troops advanced into north Lebanon on Tuesday, destroying farm buildings and clashing with Syrian rebels who had taken refuge there, residents said.

“More than 35 Syrian soldiers came across the border and started to destroy houses,” said Abu Ahmed, 63, a resident of the rural mountain area of al-Qaa.

Syrian soldiers (illustrative) - Photo By Reuters

Syrian soldiers (illustrative) - Photo By Reuters

Another resident said that the soldiers, some traveling in armored personnel vehicles, fired rocket-propelled grenades and exchanged heavy machine-gun fire with rebels.

Continue Reading »
Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , ,
| March 14, 2012
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Report: Iran officials told Assad to focus on Israel to divert attention from Syria crisis

Emails said to have been intercepted by Syria opposition and released by the Guardian show advisers indicated Syrian President should verbally attack Israel, center on Palestinian cause in a planned speech.

Syrian President Bashar Assad was advised by Iranian officials to divert attention toward Israel and the Palestinian cause in an effort to deflect criticism of his brutal crackdown, emails said to have been intercepted by Syrian opposition and released by the U.K.’s the Guardian indicated on Wednesday.

Bashar Assad and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

Syria President Bashar Assad and Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad - Photo: AP

According to the Guardian, the messages were said to have been intercepted by the opposition’s Supreme Council of the Revolution between June of 2011 and February 2012, and include missives from Assad’s private account as well as that belonging to his wife, Asma.

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Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , ,
| March 4, 2012
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Assad Threatens Israel With Missiles if Syria is Attacked

Report: Assad has ordered his military to hit Israel with a barrage of missiles should there be any foreign intervention in Syria.

Syrian President Bashar Assad has ordered the heads of his military to hit Israel with a barrage of missiles should there be any foreign intervention in Syria, a Jordanian news website reported on Saturday.

According to the site, Our Country’s News, Assad gave the order in a secret meeting with the heads of the Syrian army last Thursday, in light of his fear of a U.S. military strike in Syria.

The report said that Assad ordered that if any military action is started against Syria, the Syrian army should respond by firing missiles in Israel, with a particular emphasis on Israeli military airports. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , , , ,
| March 3, 2012
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Lieberman: Israel ready to provide aid to wounded Syrians

FM says Israel willing to supply Syrians wounded in uprising against Assad ‘all humanitarian aid at any minute it is requested.’

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Friday that Israel is ready to help treat Syrians wounded in the uprising against President Bashar Assad.

lieberman

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman - Photo by: Daniel Bar-On

A Friday statement from Lieberman’s office quotes him as saying that Israel is willing to provide wounded Syrians “all humanitarian aid at any minute it is requested.”

Lieberman’s spokesman Tzachi Moshe says Israel would provide the aid through the United Nations or other international organizations. The aid would be purely humanitarian, and Israel would not get involved in Syria’s affairs.

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