Tag Archive for Syria

| May 30, 2012
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Iran official: Fallout from western military action in Syria will bury Israel

Iranian Parliamentary Speaker and top aide to Supreme Leader Khamenei says Syrian crisis is not similar to situation in Libya, warning West of their ‘dangerous game.’

A western military intervention in war-torn Syria will result in a regional upheaval that would undoubtedly engulf Israel, a senior Iranian official said on Wednesday, following a massacre in the Syrian city of Houla, which garnered severe criticism in the West.

Syria - AP - 23.5.2012

Image released by Shaam News Network, purporting to show a building on fire from shelling in Homs province, Syria - Photo by AP

Russia said on Wednesday that the UN Security Council should not consider new measures to resolve the crisis in Syria at this point and signaled it would block any effort to authorize military intervention, the Interfax news agency reported. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: ,
| May 27, 2012
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Netanyahu: Iran, Syria are part of atrocities in Syria

After Houla massacre, prime minister expresses revulsion over Assad’s forces ongoing violence against civilians

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressed disgust Sunday over Friday’s Houla massacre and said that Iran and Hezbollah are part of the atrocities in Syria.

 

Dead bodies following the assault on Houla, Syria on Friday. The UN estimates some 100 people died, including 32 children. (photo credit: AP/Shaam News Network. AP cannot independently verify this photo)
Dead bodies following the assault on Houla, Syria on Friday. The UN estimates some 100 people died, including 32 children – Photo: AP/Shaam News Network.

 

He accused Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces of perpetrating ongoing violence against innocent civilians.

“Iran and Hezbollah are an inseparable part of the Syrian atrocities and the world needs to act against them,” Netanyahu added. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , ,
| May 20, 2012
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Lebanese soldiers kill two anti-Assad group members

Residents of northern region of Akkar block off roads to protest deaths of Sunni cleric and anti-Assad activist; Switzerland opens investigation in Syrian money laundering.

 

TRIPOLI, Lebanon – Lebanese soldiers shot dead a Sunni cleric and a second member of an anti-Assad Lebanese political alliance in northern Lebanon on Sunday, security sources said.

Sheikh Ahmed Abdul Wahid and Khaled Miraib, members of the the March 14 alliance, were shot in their car as they sped through an army checkpoint without stopping, the sources said.

Residents of the northern region of Akkar said that they had blocked off roads to protest against the deaths.

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Category: Mid-East News | Tags: ,
| May 16, 2012
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Israeli group wins terror suit against Syria, Iran

Washington court finds Iran, Syria guilty of supporting Islamic Jihad in attack which claimed 11 lives; awards Israeli advocacy group $323 million in damages

 

An Israeli advocacy group won a $323 million judgment in a US court against Iran and Syria for supporting Palestinian militants that killed an American teenager and ten others in a 2006 bombing, the group’s director said Tuesday.

Nitsana Darshan-Leitner of the Shurat HaDin Israel Law Center that represents victims of Palestinian violence said Tuesday that the group had won courtroom victories against Iran but never before against Syria.

The center was representing the family of 16-year-old Daniel Wultz of Florida, who was among 11 killed when an Islamic Jihad suicide bomber set off his explosives at a Tel Aviv restaurant six years ago. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , ,
| May 16, 2012
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‘Israeli prison 5-star hotel compared to Syria jail’

Turkish journalist recently released from Syrian prison and formerly held in Israel over participation in flotilla compares jailing experiences

 

A Turkish journalist compared his experiences in Israeli and Syrian jails having recently been released from a Syrian prison after a two-month detention period.

Adam Özköse returned to Turkey on Monday and gave his account about his incarceration experiences in Syria and Israel, where he was briefly held in June 2010 together with other activists who arrived in Israel on board the Marmara ship.

Israeli prison (archive) Photo: Ido Erez

Israeli prison (archive) - Photo: Ido Erez

“Compared to Syria, Israeli prisons are 5-star hotels,” he said. Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: ,
| May 16, 2012
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Israel’s Military Intelligence chief visited U.S. for secret talks on Iran, Syria

Maj. Gen. Kochavi, warns against Hezbollah’s increasing strength in south Lebanon, says he sees possibility for convincing Russian President Vladimir Putin to cooperate with the west against Assad.

 

Military Intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi made a secret visit two weeks ago to Washington and to UN headquarters in New York, where he discussed the Iranian nuclear program, the Syria crisis and Hezbollah’s increasing power in Lebanon, a senior Israeli official has said.

Kochavi met in Washington with senior White House and State Department officials, as well as senior officials in the Defense Department Intelligence agency and the CIA.

Military Intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi

Military Intelligence chief Maj.

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Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , , ,
| May 13, 2012
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Israel to Search for Oil on the Golan Heights

Report: Israel has decided to search for oil on the Golan Heights after 20 years of delay due to objections from Syria.

Israel has decided to search for oil on the Golan Heights after 20 years of delay due to objections from Syria, according to Globes, which quoted the Hebrew daily Yediot Aharanoth.

After Israel formally took sovereignty over the strategic area in 1980, the Petroleum Act was applied to the area, allowing for the search for oil.

If Israel were to discover oil on the Golan Heights, Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad would undoubtedly launch an international crisis. The international community, including the United States, does not recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan, despite the absence of any communities in the area when it was under Syrian occupation. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , ,
| May 6, 2012
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Syria Moving Scuds to Israel, Turkey Borders – Report

Jordanian news site says western spy satellites show hundreds of Scud launchers moving south and north.

Jordanian news site Ahbar Baladna reports that western spy satellites have recently spotted movements of Syrian heavy missile launchers northward and southward, toward Syria’s borders with Turkey and Israel.

Bashar Assad

Bashar Assad - Reuters

The site says hundreds of high-caliber launchers are being moved, and that these could only be long range Scud missile launchers.

Syria has threatened in the past that in the event of foreign military intervention on its soil, it will not hesitate to fire missiles at Israel and Turkey in order to ignite a large scale regional war. Continue Reading »

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| May 3, 2012
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IDF Calls Up 6 Battalions to Guard Egyptian, Syrian Fronts

The IDF has issued call up orders for six battalions to guard the Egyptian and Syrian borders, with authorization for 16 more.

The IDF has issued call up orders for six battalions to guard the Egyptian and Syrian borders, with authorization for more if needed. The orders were approved by the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee as part of a request to call up as many as 22 battalions.

Egyptian Soldiers Lost Control of Sinai

Egyptian Soldiers Lost Control of Sinai - Photo by Reuters

The call up came following intelligent assessments calling for increased deployment of more troops, an IDF spokesperson said.

Former deputy IDF chief of staff Dan Harel said Wednesday night the call-up meant the IDF views the Egyptian and Syrian borders as a “potential source of greater threat than in the past.”  Continue Reading »

Category: Israel News | Tags: , ,
| April 25, 2012
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Obama announces new Iran, Syria technology sanctions

During his first visit to the Holocaust museum as President, Obama introduces a new set of sanctions against entities aiding the regimes of Iran and Syria to use technology to target citizens and erode their human rights.

United States President Barack Obama on Monday announced new sanctions on people and entities in Iran and Syria who have deemed to use technology to target citizens and erode their human rights.

Obama

President Barack Obama speaking at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington - photo by AP

Speaking at the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. before a crowd of Holocaust survivors, administration officials, members of Congress, and leaders of Jewish organizations, Obama commented on the situation in Syria and Iran.

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Category: Mid-East News | Tags: , , ,
| April 20, 2012
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Syrian Opposition Leader Says Syrian People Want Peace

One of the leaders of the Syrian opposition is saying that the Syrian people will seek regional peace, including with Israel.

Syrians Protest for Freedom

Syrians Protest for Freedom - Photo by Reuters

In an interview with Kol Yisrael radio, portions of which were released on Friday, Nofal al-Dawalibi, said that if Presdient Bashar Assad’s regime falls, the Syrian people will realize their deprived rights and will seek peace in the region.

Speaking from Paris, al-Dawalibi said that the Friends of the Syria conference which was held in Paris this week does not bode well for the Syrian people, and that it offered no practical solutions for the ongoing crisis in the country. Continue Reading »

Category: Mid-East News | Tags:
| April 10, 2012
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Israeli officials see Syria falling into battle between al-Qaida, Iran

Israeli officials are also concerned about reports showing Syrian weapons falling into Hezbollah’s hands, though it is still unclear whether the Shi’ite organization has gotten hold of chemical weapons.

Israeli officials are very skeptical the Syrian government and opposition will stick to the cease-fire that UN envoy Kofi Annan hopes will take hold on Tuesday.

Funeral in Syria.

Funerals in Syria. Photo by: AP

Annan, a former UN general secretary, has been traveling to Syria for several weeks in an attempt to broker a truce between President Bashar Assad and opposition forces, after many months of unrest.

Human rights reports show that more than 100 civilians have been executed so far this year, and the opposition says more than 150 civilians – including 17 children – were killed on Monday alone.

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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.

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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 9, 2012
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UN women’s rights panel due to culminate annual session by condemning Israel

Israel’s envoy to UN Prosor bemoans Commission on the Status of Women ‘obsessive’ preoccupation with Palestinian issue, while ignoring women being ‘butchered, tortured, raped’ in Syria.

The United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), scheduled to wrap up its annual session on Friday, is expected to pass a resolution condemning Israel’s part in the degrading of living conditions for Palestinian women, while failing to mention the mistreatment of women in the ongoing crisis in Syria.

Friday’s session will include such professional resolution as concerning “woman and natural disasters,” “women hostages,” women and girls and AIDS,” and “mortality among women.

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