Tag Archive for Syria Unrest

| June 5, 2012
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PM: Iran giving Assad ‘personnel’ to kill his own people

Netanyahu tells German daily that Iran, Hezbollah supporting “brutality,” “butchery,” says Syria has “perfected the technique” for shelling its own civilians; avoids answering if West should intervene.

Iran is providing Syrian President Bashar Assad with both arms and personnel to butcher his people, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said in an interview published Tuesday in the German daily Bild.

“I think what is happening in Syria is awful, it is wholesale murder,” Netanyahu said. “And you have to understand who is supporting this brutality, this butchery – it is Iran and Hezbollah. I mean supporting them physically. Killers supporting killers, giving them weapons, personnel to actually do the killing.

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| 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 »

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| June 3, 2012
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CAROLINE B. GLICK’S Column One: The reign of the fantasists

The Obama administration insists on clinging to the fantasy that it can convince the Iranians to give up their nuclear weapons program.

Defense  Minister Ehud Barak has done it again. Speaking on Wednesday at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, Barak warned that if Israel can’t cut a deal with the Palestinians soon, it should consider surrendering Judea and Samaria in exchange for nothing.

Iran nuclear talks in Istanbul -Photo: REUTERS/Tolga Adanali/Pool
Iran nuclear talks in Istanbul -Photo: REUTERS/Tolga Adanali/Pool

Even the diehard leftists in the media had a hard time swallowing his words. After all, when Barak was premier, he oversaw Israel’s unilateral surrender of south Lebanon in 2000. Continue Reading »

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| June 2, 2012
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Hizbullah Wants to Move Far-Reaching Scuds from Syria

Hizbullah looking to move Scud D missiles, which can reach Eilat, and modern anti-aircraft equipment from Syria to Lebanon.

The Hizbullah terror group wants to move Scud D-type missiles and modern anti-aircraft equipment from Syria to Lebanon, Channel 2 Newsreported on Thursday.

Scud missile reportedly in Hizbullah arsenal

According to the report, the group fears the weapons may come into the hands of the rebels against Syrian President Bashar Assad.

The report said that Hizbullah has recently been considering moving to Lebanon the modern weapons it already owns but which are being kept in the group’s bases in Damascus. Channel 2 noted that the Scud D missiles are considered quite sophisticated and have the ability to reach as far as the city of Eilat.

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| June 1, 2012
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Israeli officials link Tehran to Assad’s massacres

“The Iranian regime is in a very concrete manner lending its support to the Syrian government’s murder of the Syrian people.”

 

A day after Ali Larijani, the speaker of Iran’s parliament, said a Western military intervention in Syria would “engulf” Israel, Israeli government officials tried to shine the light on Iranian involvement in the Syrian bloodshed.“The Iranian regime is in a very concrete manner lending its support to the Syrian government’s murder of the Syrian people, and this is part of their very aggressive and dangerous behavior in the region,” one official said.

 

If this is what Iran does without atomic weapons, the official added, “what would Iranian behavior look like if they had nuclear capabilities?”Meanwhile,

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| May 31, 2012
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World may have to act without Security Council on Syria, says America’s UN envoy

Susan Rice thinks Bashar Assad is unlikely to abide by UN peace plan

 

UNITED NATIONS — US Ambassador Susan Rice said on Wednesday the worst and most likely scenario for Syria is that Kofi Annan’s peace plan will fail, spreading conflict and creating a major crisis across the region.

 

US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice (photo credit: courtesy UN)
US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice (photo credit: courtesy UN)

 

Speaking after a closed-door briefing to the UN Security Council by one of Annan’s deputies, Rice said that the Syrian government was unlikely to immediately implement the Annan plan.

If all other ways to resolve the crisis fail, member nations will have to decide whether they are ready to act “outside of the authority of this Council,” she said. Continue Reading »

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| May 26, 2012
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Arab World: Warning signs in Lebanon

The spillover from the violence in Syria has escalated and grown more complex.

The situation in Tripoli in northern Lebanon is now calm after several days of fierce fighting. The clashes pitted Alawi supporters of the Assad regime in Syria against Sunni Islamist partisans of the rebellion against his rule. At least 11 people were killed in three days of violence. A few days after the Tripoli incidents, clashes also took place between pro and anti-Assad Sunnis in the Lebanese capital, Beirut.

This followed the death, in unclear circumstances, of anti-regime cleric Sheikh Ahmed Abdul- Wahid at a Lebanese Army checkpoint in the north.

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| April 28, 2012
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Lebanon intercepts Syria-bound smuggling ship

Authorities in Beirut say they discovered rocket-propelled grenades, rifles in ship that was sailing from Libya via Egypt.

 

BEIRUT – Lebanese authorities have found weapons on board a ship intercepted in the Mediterranean which may have been trying to supply Syrian rebels, security sources said on Saturday.

illustrative photo - Photo: Andreas Manolis / Reuters

illustrative photo - Photo: Andreas Manolis / Reuters

They said the ship, the Lutfallah II, was on its way to Lebanon’s northern city of Tripoli when it was intercepted and taken to Selaata port, north of Beirut, for inspection.

An overnight search uncovered weapons including rocket-propelled grenades and rifles in three freight containers, the sources said. Continue Reading »

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| April 27, 2012
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Syria’s Grand Mufti Blames Arab Spring on West, Israel

The Grand Mufti of Syria says the Arab Spring is nothing but a Western plot that will “benefit the Zionist entity”.

The Grand Mufti of Syria, Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun, has described the battle that is currently taking place in Syria as a “battle against our roots” and has claimed that the Arab Spring is nothing but a Western plot.

Smoke rises from Syrian shelling of Homs

Smoke rises from Syrian shelling of Homs - Photo by Reuters

According to a report on Thursday in the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, Hassoun said that “if Syria collapses, this will lead to the collapse of neighboring states, starting with Lebanon and ending with Saudi Arabia, through Jordan and Iraq; this is because the plan for the Arab and Islamic world is to ensure that no strong state remains, and for our people to kill one another.” Continue Reading »

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| April 8, 2012
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Erdogan: Turkey will take ‘steps’ if Syria disregards ceasefire deadline

Turkish PM does not specify what measures Turkey could take; Ankara has in the past floated the idea of creating a buffer zone inside Syria.

Turkey’s prime minister says the country will wait “patiently” to see if Syria abides by a cease-fire deadline, but may take certain “steps” if the violence does not stop after that.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan did not specify Saturday what measures Turkey would take. But Ankara has in the past floated the idea of creating a buffer zone inside Syria if refugee flows become overwhelming.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan - Reuters - 5.4.2012

Recep Tayyip Erdogan addressing the media in Ankara - Photo by: Reuters

Officials say nearly 700 Syrians have crossed into Turkey since Friday, raising the number of refugees to 24,324. Continue Reading »

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| March 11, 2012
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Assad tells Annan ‘terrorists’ block Syria solution

Syrian president claims country ready for ‘any honest effort’ to end year of unrest, as bloody crackdown continues

 

UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday to press for a political solution to Syria‘s year-long uprising and bloody crackdown in which thousands of people have been killed.

UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan Photo: EPA

UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan - Photo BY EPA

Assad told Annan his country was ready for “any honest effort” to end a year of unrest, but blamed “terrorist groups” for blocking a solution, the state news agency said.

“Syria is ready to make a success of any honest effort to find a solution for the events it is witnessing,” SANA quoted Assad as saying. Continue Reading »

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| 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 »

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