Syria

Video: Atrocities in Syria

by News Sources 05.19.2013
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Obama says U.S. won’t act alone on Syria

by News Sources 05.19.2013

The Los Angeles Times reported: President Obama on Thursday ruled out unilateral U.S. military action in Syria even if proof emerges that Syrian forces have used lethal chemical weapons. “This is … an international problem,” Obama said at a White House news conference with visiting Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. “It’s not going to [...]

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Bashar al-Assad: ‘We can’t negotiate with fragmented rebels’

by News Sources 05.18.2013

The Observer reports: Syria’s embattled leader Bashar al-Assad has used a rare interview – carried out amid the sound of artillery fire resounding through his presidential palace in Damascus – to warn the United States and Russia that their efforts to bring about talks will do little to halt the civil war laying waste to [...]

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‘Israel prefers Bashar al Assad to Islamist rebels’

by News Sources 05.18.2013

The Times of Israel reports: A weakened Bashar Assad is preferable for Syria and the whole region, to a takeover by rebel forces increasingly ruled by Islamic extremists, Israeli officials said overnight Friday-Saturday. “Better the devil we know than the demons we can only imagine if Syria falls into chaos and the extremists from across [...]

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Israel-Syria tensions reminder of pre-1967 war period, says ex-intel chief

by News Sources 05.18.2013

The Times of Israel reports: Underlining growing concerns over friction between Jerusalem and Damascus, the highly-respected former head of the Israeli army’s Military Intelligence hierarchy on Friday compared current Israeli-Syrian tensions to the strains that presaged the 1967 Israel-Arab war. He also said Moscow, by continuing to stand by President Bashar Assad, was signaling to [...]

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U.S. should heed Russia, include Iran in Syria talks

by News Sources 05.18.2013

Barbara Slavin writes: After opposing the inclusion of Iran in negotiations over Syria for more than two years, the administration of US President Barack Obama may finally decide to change course. Secretary of State John Kerry, appearing on Wednesday, May 15, at a press conference in Sweden with counterparts from Sweden and Russia, stood silently [...]

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Pressure of war is causing Syria to break apart

by News Sources 05.17.2013

The New York Times reports: The black flag of jihad flies over much of northern Syria. In the center of the country, pro-government militias and Hezbollah fighters battle those who threaten their communities. In the northeast, the Kurds have effectively carved out an autonomous zone. After more than two years of conflict, Syria is breaking [...]

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Russia sends more advanced missiles to aid Assad in Syria

by News Sources 05.17.2013

The New York Times reports: Russia has sent advanced antiship cruise missiles to Syria, a move that illustrates the depth of its support for the Syrian government led by President Bashar al-Assad, American officials said Thursday. Russia has previously provided a version of the missiles, called Yakhonts, to Syria. But those delivered recently are outfitted [...]

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America’s hidden agenda in Syria’s war

by News Sources 05.16.2013

The National reports: It was some six months ago that Syrian rebel commanders met US intelligence officers in Jordan to discuss the status of the war and, the rebels hoped, to secure supplies of the sophisticated weapons they need to overthrow President Bashar Al Assad. But according to one of the commanders present at the [...]

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The threat of ethnic cleansing in Syria

by News Sources 05.16.2013

Joshua Landis writes: The likelihood of ethnic cleansing in the coastal regions is high. It will rise even higher should Assad’s troops begin to lose. The Sunni populations of the coastal cities will be the first to be targeted by Assad’s military, if it is pushed out of Damascus. Should the Alawites be compelled to [...]

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Outrage at Syrian rebel shown ‘eating soldier’s heart’

by News Sources 05.16.2013

Time magazine reports: The video starts out like so many of the dozens coming out of the war in Syria every day, with the camera hovering over the body of a dead Syrian soldier. But the next frame makes it clear why this video, smuggled out of the city of Homs and into Lebanon with [...]

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Saudis overtaking Qatar in sponsoring Syrian rebels

by News Sources 05.16.2013

Hassan Hassan writes: Last week, a 12-member delegation from the Syrian opposition visited Saudi Arabia, for an unprecedented two-day official meeting. Saudi authorities had consistently declined to meet the opposition, despite repeated requests. This was partly because the kingdom has opposed Muslim Brotherhood dominance in the Syrian National Council and then the National Coalition, owing [...]

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Syria: the first conflict of the post-superpower era

by News Sources 05.14.2013

John Kampfner writes: As Turkey threatens reprisals for bombings that have left up to 50 dead, Syria’s war is already sucking in the wider Middle East. But the one country on which all sides would previously rely for leadership is paralysed with indecision. The most striking aspect of the Syrian imbroglio, as I have discovered [...]

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Netanyahu told Assad: I’m ready to discuss Golan withdrawal, if you cut Iran, Hezbollah ties

by News Sources 05.14.2013

Haaretz reports: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu relayed a message to Syrian President Bashar Assad in January 2011, saying that he would be ready discuss Syria’s demand for a full Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights, to June 4 1967 lines, on the condition that Syria agree to abandon its alliance with Iran and Hezbollah. The [...]

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Hundreds of armed groups hold swathes of north Syria, says Red Cross

by News Sources 05.14.2013

Reuters reports: Syria’s rebels are fragmented into hundreds of armed groups who control swathes of the north, while government forces appear to have consolidated their hold on the capital, a senior Red Cross official said on Monday. Marianne Gasser, who left Syria 10 days ago after completing a term as head of the International Committee [...]

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Struggling to adapt: The Muslim Brotherhood in a new Syria

by News Sources 05.12.2013

A report on the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, by Aron Lund, makes these findings: The Syrian Brotherhood is not as strong as commonly believed. The incessant focus on the Brotherhood by the Assad regime, Western nations, and rival opposition groups has helped it build a fearsome reputation. Its actual political and organizational capability appears to [...]

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Car bombs in Turkey kill at least 42 near Syria border

by News Sources 05.12.2013

The Los Angeles Times reports: At least 42 people were reported dead Saturday in a pair of car bombings in the southern Turkish town of Reyhanli, the latest apparent example of spillover violence from the conflict in nearby Syria. More than 140 people were injured, with at least 20 in critical condition, according to Turkish [...]

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Video: Interview with outgoing president of the Syrian National Coalition

by News Sources 05.11.2013
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Israel has no desire for Assad to fall

by News Sources 05.10.2013

Efraim Halevy, the former chief of Mossad, writes: In October 1995, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin telephoned Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to inform him that peace was at hand between Israel and Syria. Two weeks later, Rabin was dead, killed by a reactionary Jewish Israeli fanatic; the peace agreement that Rabin referenced died not long [...]

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Hezbollah and Israel spar as Syria’s conflict threatens to spin out of control

by News Sources 05.10.2013

Nicholas Blanford writes: A dangerous game of brinkmanship is unfolding in the Middle East pitting Israel against Syria and its militant Shi‘ite ally Hizballah in what threatens to expand the two-year Syrian civil war into a full-blown regional conflict. On three separate occasions since January — two of them within 48 hours of each other [...]

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The U.S. can’t remake Syria

by News Sources 05.09.2013

Andrew J. Bacevich writes: As you contemplate the ongoing violence in Syria, here are the three things to keep in mind. First, the United States undoubtedly possesses the wherewithal to topple the regime of Bashar Assad. On this score, the hawks are surely right. Whether acting alone, with allies, or through proxies, Washington over the [...]

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Video: Obama under pressure to seek regime change in Syria and Iran

by News Sources 05.08.2013
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Lessons from a massacre that Assad looks to exploit

by News Sources 05.08.2013

Hassan Hassan writes: The details of the human carnage in western Syria over the weekend, in which hundreds of civilians were slaughtered apparently by pro-regime militias, remain shrouded in mystery. But sufficient testimonies, pictures and videos point to a deliberate act of sectarian cleansing in the Alawites’ heartland. It is remarkable that the regime’s media, [...]

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Decade after Iraq, right-wing and liberal hawks reunite over Syria

by News Sources 05.08.2013

Jim Lobe reports: Ten years after right-wing and liberal hawks came together to push the U.S. into invading Iraq, key members of the two groups appear to be reuniting behind stronger U.S. military intervention in Syria. While the liberals appear motivated by a desire to stop the violence and prevent its spread across borders, their [...]

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