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Target Syria NWO's next acquisition The Middle East- WW III - Muslim Civil War

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March 27, 2024, 12:55:24 pm Mark says: Shocked Shocked Shocked Shocked  When Hamas spokesman Abu Ubaida began a speech marking the 100th day of the war in Gaza, one confounding yet eye-opening proclamation escaped the headlines. Listing the motives for the Palestinian militant group's Oct. 7 massacre in Israel, he accused Jews of "bringing red cows" to the Holy Land.
December 31, 2022, 10:08:58 am NilsFor1611 says: blessings
August 08, 2018, 02:38:10 am suzytr says: Hello, any good churches in the Sacto, CA area, also looking in Reno NV, thanks in advance and God Bless you Smiley
January 29, 2018, 01:21:57 am Christian40 says: It will be interesting to see what happens this year Israel being 70 years as a modern nation may 14 2018
October 17, 2017, 01:25:20 am Christian40 says: It is good to type Mark is here again!  Smiley
October 16, 2017, 03:28:18 am Christian40 says: anyone else thinking that time is accelerating now? it seems im doing days in shorter time now is time being affected in some way?
September 24, 2017, 10:45:16 pm Psalm 51:17 says: The specific rule pertaining to the national anthem is found on pages A62-63 of the league rulebook. It states: “The National Anthem must be played prior to every NFL game, and all players must be on the sideline for the National Anthem. “During the National Anthem, players on the field and bench area should stand at attention, face the flag, hold helmets in their left hand, and refrain from talking. The home team should ensure that the American flag is in good condition. It should be pointed out to players and coaches that we continue to be judged by the public in this area of respect for the flag and our country. Failure to be on the field by the start of the National Anthem may result in discipline, such as fines, suspensions, and/or the forfeiture of draft choice(s) for violations of the above, including first offenses.”
September 20, 2017, 04:32:32 am Christian40 says: "The most popular Hepatitis B vaccine is nothing short of a witch’s brew including aluminum, formaldehyde, yeast, amino acids, and soy. Aluminum is a known neurotoxin that destroys cellular metabolism and function. Hundreds of studies link to the ravaging effects of aluminum. The other proteins and formaldehyde serve to activate the immune system and open up the blood-brain barrier. This is NOT a good thing."
http://www.naturalnews.com/2017-08-11-new-fda-approved-hepatitis-b-vaccine-found-to-increase-heart-attack-risk-by-700.html
September 19, 2017, 03:59:21 am Christian40 says: bbc international did a video about there street preaching they are good witnesses
September 14, 2017, 08:06:04 am Psalm 51:17 says: bro Mark Hunter on YT has some good, edifying stuff too.
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Author Topic: Target Syria NWO's next acquisition The Middle East- WW III - Muslim Civil War  (Read 44515 times)
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« Reply #420 on: May 30, 2013, 07:42:23 pm »

SYRIA'S ASSAD 'CONFIDENT IN VICTORY' IN CIVIL WAR

Syrian President Bashar Assad said in an interview broadcast Thursday that he is "confident in victory" in his country's civil war, and he warned that Damascus would retaliate for any future Israeli airstrike on his territory.

Assad also told the Lebanese TV station Al-Manar that Russia has fulfilled some of its weapons contracts recently, but he was vague on whether this included advanced S-300 air defense systems.

The comments were in line with a forceful and confident message the regime has been sending in recent days, even as the international community attempts to launch a peace conference in Geneva, possibly next month. The strong tone coincided with recent military victories in battles with armed rebels trying to topple him.

The interview was broadcast as Syria's main political opposition group appeared to fall into growing disarray.

The international community had hoped the two sides would start talks on a political transition. However, the opposition group, the Syrian National Coalition, said earlier Thursday that it would not attend a conference, linking the decision to a regime offensive on the western Syrian town of Qusair and claiming that hundreds of wounded people were trapped there.

Assad, who appeared animated and gestured frequently in the TV interview, said he has been confident from the start of the conflict more than two years ago that he would be able to defeat his opponents.

"Regarding my confidence about victory, had we not had this confidence, we wouldn't have been able to fight in this battle for two years, facing an international attack," he said. Assad portrayed the battle to unseat him as a "world war against Syria and the resistance" — a reference to the Lebanese Hezbollah, a close ally.

"We are confident and sure about victory, and I confirm that Syria will stay as it was," he said, "but even more than before, in supporting resistance fighters in all the Arab world."

Assad has said he would stay in power at least until elections scheduled in 2014, but he went further in the interview, saying he "will not hesitate to run again" if the Syrian people want him to do so.

Taking a tough line, he also warned that Syria would strike back hard against any future Israeli airstrike.

Earlier this month, Israel had struck near Damascus, targeting suspected shipments of advanced weapons purportedly intended for Hezbollah. Syria did not respond at the time.

Assad said he has informed other countries that Syria would respond next time. "If we are going to retaliate against Israel, this retaliation should be a strategic response," he said.

Russia's S-300 missiles would significantly boost Syria's air defenses and are seen as a game-changer, but Assad was unclear whether Syria has received a first shipment.

Earlier Thursday, Al-Manar had sent text messages to reporters with what it said was an excerpt from the interview.

The station quoted Assad as saying Syria had received a first shipment of such missiles. The Associated Press called Al-Manar after receiving the text message, and an official at the station said the message had been sent based on Assad's comments.

In the interview, Assad was asked about the S-300s, but his answer was general.

He said Russia's weapons shipments are not linked to the Syrian conflict. "We have been negotiating with them about different types of weapons for years, and Russia is committed to Syria to implement these contracts," he said.

"All we have agreed on with Russia will be implemented and some of it has been implemented recently, and we and the Russians continue to implement these contracts," he said.

Earlier this week, Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said Israel considered the S-300s in Syrian hands a threat and signaled it was prepared to use force to stop delivery. Israel had no comment Thursday.

The S-300s have a range of up to 200 kilometers (125 miles) and can track and strike multiple targets at once. Syria already possesses Russian-made air defenses.

The U.S. and Israel had urged Russia to cancel the sale, but Russia rejected the appeals.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov this week that the U.S. is concerned about Moscow's continued financial and military support for the Assad regime, said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

Meanwhile, Assad dismissed Syria's political opposition as foreign-directed exiles who don't represent the people of Syria.

The Syrian National Coalition has been meeting for more than a week in Istanbul to expand its membership, elect new leaders and devise a strategy for possible peace talks.

Coalition members got bogged down in personnel issues for much of the time. On Thursday, they announced that under current circumstances, they will not attend peace talks.

In the interview, Assad reiterated that the Syrian government is ready to attend in principle, though he said any agreement reached there would have to be put to a referendum.

"We will go to this conference as the legitimate representatives of the Syrian people. Whom do they represent?" he said of the opposition.

"We know that we are going to negotiate with the countries that stand behind it (the opposition) and not to negotiate with them. When we speak with the slave, we are indirectly negotiating with the master," he added.

The coalition's decision not to attend the talks could torpedo the only peace plan the international community has been able to rally behind, although prospects for its success appeared doubtful from the start.

Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman, said she hoped it was not the coalition's final word on the Geneva conference. She said Robert Ford, the U.S. ambassador to Syria, is in Istanbul trying to help the opposition sort through its internal problems. Once members have decided on issues such as expanded membership and leadership, the U.S. hopes they will recommit to peace talks, Psaki said.

Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, accused the coalition of trying to set preconditions, by demanding that Assad's departure from office must be the focus of any peace talks. He called such a demand "unrealistic."

He urged the U.S. and Europe to "restrain those who are encouraging such unacceptable and aggressive approaches on the part of the National Coalition."

If the diplomatic option is now off the table, following the opposition's decision, the West, including the U.S., will have to come up with a new approach. President Barack Obama could face renewed pressure to help the rebels militarily.

The opposition linked its decision to stay away from the conference to an ongoing battle for the strategic town of Qusair and the role of Hezbollah in helping Assad.

Iranian-backed Hezbollah is heavily involved in the 12-day-old push to drive rebels from the town. Coalition officials said Thursday that hundreds of peopled wounded in the fighting were trapped in the town.

"The talk about the international conference and a political solution to the situation in Syria has no meaning in light of the massacres that are taking place," coalition spokesman Khalid Saleh told reporters. He said the group will not support any international peace efforts in light of the "invasion" of Syria by Iran and Hezbollah.

Both sides value Qusair, which lies along a land corridor linking two of Assad's strongholds — Damascus and an area along the Mediterranean coast. For the rebels, holding the town means protecting their supply line to Lebanon, just 10 kilometers (6 miles) away.

More than 70,000 people have been killed in the 26-month-old Syrian conflict that has had increasingly sectarian overtones. Members of Syria's Sunni Muslim majority dominate the rebel ranks and Assad's regime is mostly made up of Alawites, an offshoot sect of Shiite Islam.

http://bigstory.ap.org/article/lebanese-tv-syria-has-received-russian-missiles
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« Reply #421 on: May 31, 2013, 12:40:22 am »

http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Assad-Arab-world-prepared-to-join-fight-against-Israel-314961
Assad: Arab world ready to join fight against Israel
5/30/13

Syrian president says Russia committed to military deals, claims that government forces are gaining upper hand in fighting rebels.

Syrian President Bashar Assad told Al-Manar TV on Thursday that “there is pressure by the people to open a new front on the Golan.”

“Even among the Arab world there is a clear readiness to join the fight against Israel,” he added in his interview with the Hezbollah TV station.

Assad stated that Hezbollah is involved in fighting the Israeli enemy and its agents in Syria and Lebanon, according to the text of the interview on the Al-Manar website. He attributed the failure of the Syrian opposition to its dependence on outside funding and said that it failed to create a real rift in the country.

Assad also said that he sees the balance of power in Syria shifting to the government’s side. And this despite the fact that the “terrorists” – how Assad refers to the rebels – are smuggling fighters and weapons through all of the borders.

In relation to Israel, he said, “If we want to respond to Israel, the response must be strategic.”

Earlier on Thursday, Lebanese newspaper al-Akhbar quoted Assad as saying that Syria had already received the first shipment of Russian antiaircraft S-300 rockets.

Speaking about the delivery of the S-300 to Syria, Assad told Al-Manar that Russia is “committed to the deal and neither [Prime Minister Binyamin] Netanyahu’s visit nor the current crisis will influence the importing of arms.”

“The contracts with Russia are not linked to the crisis and Russia is committed to implementing these contracts,” he said. “Everything we have agreed on with Russia will take place, and part of it has already taken place.”

More of the missiles would arrive soon, he was quoted as saying.

A source close to Russia’s Defense Ministry said there had been a “bank transfer” in connection with the S-300 transaction, but that Russian banks were becoming increasingly nervous about dealing with Assad.

Israel spoke with Russia on Thursday morning amid reports that Assad’s forces had received a shipment of S- 300 missiles from Moscow.

Jerusalem has yet to confirm the arrival of the missiles, which have a 200-km. range with the capacity to hit planes in northern Israel. It would create a no-fly zone that would make it impossible for the Israel Air Force to operate along the Syrian and Lebanese border, precisely at a moment when both countries are more volatile.

Israel is investigating the report, while Channels 2 and 10 reported they did not believe the missiles had arrived.

Netanyahu personally asked Russian President Vladimir Putin not to deliver the missiles when he visited Moscow earlier this month.

On Thursday morning, Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz held a prearranged meeting with Russian Ambassador to Israel Sergey Yakovlevich and raised the issue of the S-300s.

Russia has maintained that the missiles are defensive and are needed by Assad’s forces in their battle against rebel groups in that country. On Wednesday, Steinitz said the missiles could also be used as offensive weapons.

At the end of Steinitz’s meeting with Yakovlevich, his office said that the men discussed bilateral and strategic issues in the region. They agreed that Israel and Russia would “maintain an ongoing dialogue and cooperate,” his office said.

Steinitz’s office released the positive message, even though Russia had announced only on Tuesday that it intended to ship the S- 300 to Syria.

There is some speculation that Moscow did so in direct response to the European Union’s decision on Monday to lift its arms embargo to Syrian rebel forces.

Earlier on Thursday, Netanyahu spoke of the dangers facing Israel from missile attacks from the Syrian, Lebanese and Gazan borders when he attended a meeting of the Emergency Economy Committee, where they discussed Tuesday’s national emergency drill.

“We are deep in the era of missiles that are aimed at civilian population areas,” Netanyahu said. “We must prepare defensively and offensively for the new era of warfare. The State of Israel is the most threatened state in the world. Around us are tens of thousands of missiles and rockets that could hit our home front.”

Russia’s sale of the S-300 missiles has not stopped it from working with the United States to hold an international peace conference in Geneva that would include representatives from Assad’s government and the rebel forces.

“On June 5 in Geneva, US, Russian and UN officials will hold a three-way meeting to further the preparations for the international conference on Syria,” a spokesman for UN chief Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday.

US Sen. Robert Menendez (D-New Jersey), who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said he did not understand how Russia could both arm Assad and work toward a peace conference.

The S-300 is an offensive weapon, said Menendez, who opposes its shipment to Assad.

“It changes the equation,” Menendez said, who visited Israel this week and spoke with Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres about regional threats from Syria and Iran.

Menendez said that he supports sending arms and supplies to the moderate rebel forces fighting Assad and added that, at this point, the different groups in Syria were well known and that it was possible to send arms to specific groups.

It was his understanding from speaking with the Israelis that they are not involved in Syria, Menendez said.

But, he said, Israeli officials led him to believe they would act in response to a direct threat.

Jonathan Schanzer, vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told The Jerusalem Post from Washington on Thursday night, “Assad would be off his rocker if he were to start a war with Israel right now and he knows it.”

Assad is barely containing the war in his own country and “the idea that he would add a war with Israel makes no sense,” he said.

This seems to be more rhetoric, he said adding a caveat that things could change.

Asked by the Post about the feeling in Washington over the increasing tensions in the region over the past couple weeks, Schanzer said that it has definitely been noticed in the US capital.

“There is a sense that no good options are left for the US to pursue – a sense of paralysis,” he added. There seems to be a growing isolationist tendency in both parties.

He also said that Hezbollah has a lot to lose if it goes to war with Israel now, because it is stretched thin as they have 3,000-4,000 fighters in Syria. Schanzer concluded, “If Israel is able to confirm that they have the S-300 on the ground, I can’t see them remaining there for more than 24 hours.”
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« Reply #422 on: May 31, 2013, 03:44:27 am »

Disturbing images not shown

Members of the Free Syrian Army reportedly attacked the Christian-dominated al-Duvair village in Reef on the outskirts of Homs on Monday, where they massacred its citizens, including women and children, before the Syrian Army loyal to Bashar al Assad intervened on behalf of the Christians.
This reported attack comes shortly after intense fighting in the city of al-Qusseir over the weekend, in which Bashar Al-Assad’s forces inflicted heavy casualties on the rebels.

Assad’s forces launched an offensive in April in an effort to cut off supply lines to the rebels by taking the city and its surrounding areas from the rebel groups that had been entrenched there since last year. Two weeks ago, the Syrian forces reached the center of the city
While the sources describing Monday’s massacre are supportive of Assad, it’s possible that it occurred since the rebel groups fighting the Assad regime are composed mainly of members of al-Qaeda and al-Qaeda affiliated groups and have committed war crimes and atrocities in the past.
Jabhat al-Nusra, the branch of al-Qaeda that fought and killed American and allied troops in Iraq, have positioned themselves in Syria and control the rebel movement.

The U.S. and other Western governments that are backing the FSA have acknowledged the presence of jihadists but insist that they’re only a small part of the rebel movement. However, al-Qaeda and other Islamic extremist groups have been at the front of the rebel movement since day one of the Syrian war that began two years ago. According to German intelligence, 95 percent of the rebels aren’t even Syrian.

“Nowhere in rebel-controlled Syria is there a secular fighting force to speak of,” the New York Times reported last month.
In April, Abou Mohamad al-Joulani, the head of al-Nusra, pledged allegiance to Ayman al-Zawahri, the head of al-Qaeda.
Members of the FSA have admitted that their plan is to institute sharia law, and the rebels now have a brigade named the Osama bin Laden Brigade.
Despite the evidence of al-Qaeda connections, the U.S. government continues to support the FSA.

Last week, Sens. Robert Menendez, D.-N.J., and Bob Corker, R-Tenn., drafted a bill that, if passed, would directly arm the Syrian rebels with lethal weaponry. The U.S. government has so far only provided non-lethal supplies and humanitarian aid.

On Monday, Sen. John McCain made a surprise visit to Syria where he met with Gen. Salem Idris, the leader of the Supreme Military Council of the FSA. McCain has also called for arming the rebels as well as direct U.S. military intervention in the war.

https://shariaunveiled.wordpress.com/2013/05/29/u-s-backed-obama-supported-fsa-syrian-rebels-massacre-an-entire-christian-village/
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« Reply #423 on: May 31, 2013, 11:59:20 am »

http://www.timesofisrael.com/russian-manufacturer-to-sell-10-migs-to-syria/
Russian manufacturer to sell 10 MiGs to Syria

Amid reports of a delay in delivery of advanced S-300 air-defense missiles to Assad, new fighter jets deal could prove deadly to rebels

5/31/13

MOSCOW — A Russian arms manufacturer says it is signing a contract to deliver at least 10 fighter jets to Syria.

Sergei Korotkov, general director of the MiG company that makes the jets, told Russian news agencies Friday that a Syrian delegation was in Moscow to discuss terms and deadlines of a new contract supplying MiG-29 M/M2 fighters to Syria.

Korotkov did not specify how many MiGs Syria is buying, but says it will be “more than 10.”

Russia has previously said that it would only fulfill outstanding arms contracts with Syria.

Syrian rebel commander Brig. Gen. Salim Idris urged the international community to prevent the transfer of MiGs, indicating that the sale would further tip the scales in Assad’s favor. The announcement of the pending deal comes at a time when the Lebanese-based terrorist group Hezbollah has upped its forces in Syria, fighting alongside the embattled regime.

The Lebanese newspaper al-Diyar reported Friday that Israel had succeeded in thwarting a deal to deliver advanced Russian S-300 air-defense systems to Syria by threatening to start an all-out war.

The report also claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin offered to compensate Assad with the delivery of other “effective and powerful weapons,” including modern aircraft and helicopters, to use against the Syrian rebels.

Over 70,000 people have died in the two-year-long Syrian civil war.
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« Reply #424 on: June 01, 2013, 10:12:26 am »

Russia Ready For War, Orders Thousands Of Troops To Border

PICS MAPS LINKS: http://countdowntozerotime.org/2013/05/30/russia-ready-for-war-orders-thousands-of-troops-to-border/

Escalation??

Russia to send nuclear submarines to southern seas

 Russia plans to resume nuclear submarine patrols in the southern seas after a hiatus of more than 20 years following the break-up of the Soviet Union, Itar-Tass news agency reported on Saturday, in another example of efforts to revive Moscow's military.

The plan to send Borei-class submarines, designed to carry 16 long-range nuclear missiles, to the southern hemisphere follows President Vladimir Putin's decision in March to deploy a naval unit in the Mediterranean Sea on a permanent basis starting this year.

"The revival of nuclear submarine patrols will allow us to fulfill the tasks of strategic deterrence not only across the North Pole but also the South Pole," state-run Itar-Tass cited an unnamed official in the military General Staff as saying.

The official said the patrols would be phased in over several years. The Yuri Dolgoruky, the first of eight Borei-class submarines that Russia hopes to launch by 2020, entered service this year.

Putin has stressed the importance of a strong and agile military since returning to the presidency last May. In 13 years in power, he has often cited external threats when talking of the need for a reliable armed forces and Russian political unity.

Fears of a nuclear confrontation between Russia and the United States has eased in recent years, and the Cold War-era foes signed a landmark treaty in 2010 setting lower limits on the size of their long-range nuclear arsenals.

But the limited numbers of warheads and delivery vehicles such as submarines that they committed to under the New START treaty are still enough to devastate the world. Putin has made clear Russia will continue to upgrade its arsenal.

Russia's land-launched Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs) would fly over the northern part of the globe, as would those fired from submarines in the northern hemisphere.

Both the Borei-class submarines and the Bulava ballistic missiles they carry were designed in the 1990s, when the science and defense industries were severely underfunded.

Russia sees the Bulava as the backbone of its future nuclear deterrence, but the program has been set back by several botched launches over the past few years.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/06/01/us-russia-submarines-patrol-idUSBRE95007V20130601
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« Reply #425 on: June 01, 2013, 01:52:11 pm »

'Open-ended' Syrian conflict draws in region

Rocket attacks in Lebanon. Car bombs in Turkey. Israeli airstrikes in Syria. oh my

In the two-plus years since President Bashar al-Assad's crackdown on "Arab Spring" demonstrations, observers say the civil war that grew out of it has now become a multi-sided conflict that threatens to set the wider Middle East ablaze.

"The Syrian conflict is no longer an internal struggle between Assad and the internal opposition," said Fawaz Gerges, director of the Middle East Center at the London School of Economics. "It's an open-ended war by proxy -- Iran, Hezbollah and Syria, Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, plus Russia and the United States."

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/01/world/meast/syria-proxy-war/?hpt=hp_c1
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« Reply #426 on: June 01, 2013, 05:36:50 pm »

"And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all [these things] must come to pass, but the end is not yet." Matthew 24:6 (KJB)
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« Reply #427 on: June 02, 2013, 01:57:17 pm »

Islamic cleric decrees it OK for Syrian rebels to **** women

An Islamic cleric has cleared the path for rebels in Syria, who are trying to oust President Bashar Assad, to **** women, so long as they’re non-Sunni.

Salafi Sheikh Yasir al-Ajlawni, who hails from Jordan but who lived in Damascus for 17 years, sent a message via YouTube: It’s a “legitimate fatwa” for Muslims waging war against Mr. Assad and trying to put in place a Sharia government to “capture and have sex with” Alawites and other non-Sunni, non-Muslim women, Human Events reports. Mr. Assad is part of the Alawites sect.

In the video, the cleric called non-Muslim women by their Arabic term, “melk al-yamin,” Human Events reports. The term is from the Koran and refers to non-Muslim sex slaves, Human Events says.

This isn’t the first time Islamists have called for the raping of women.

A preacher in Saudi Arabi, Muhammad al-Arifi, sent forth a fatwa a few months ago giving jihadi fighters the right to have “intercourse marriage” with Syrian women they caught, and for that act to take enough time “to give each fighter a turn,” Human Events reports.


Read more: http://p.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/apr/3/islamic-cleric-decrees-it-ok-syrian-rebels-****-wo/#ixzz2V5RKYHHY
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« Reply #428 on: June 02, 2013, 04:13:40 pm »

Muslim Brotherhood cleric calls for Sunni jihad in Syria
The spiritual mentor of the worldwide Muslim Brotherhood movement has risked further inflaming sectarian tension across the Middle East by using highly charged religious rhetoric to call for a Sunni "jihad" in Syria.


Yusef al-Qaradawi, who is based in Qatar and has been a leading voice supporting the Arab Spring, warned that Iranian Shia were trying to "eat" Sunni Muslims, who are a majority in the Muslim world.

He referred to Alawites, the followers of the Muslim sect to which President Bashar al-Assad of Syria belongs, as being "worse infidels than Christians or Jews". He also used the deliberately contemptuous term "Nusayris" when talking about them.

He was particularly critical of the roles played by Iran, which is largely Shia, and the Lebanon Shia militia Hizbollah whose name translates as Party of God but which he called "Party of Satan", in supporting the Assad regime.

"There is no common ground between the two sides because the Iranians, especially conservatives, want to eat the Sunni people," he said.

The Syrian opposition is dominated, like Syria itself, by Sunni Muslims, but also includes a number of Christians, Alawites and other minorities.

However, Alawite militias loyal to the Assads have been responsible for sectarian attacks on Sunni villages, while there are also increasing reports of sectarian attacks by militant Sunni jihadists, many of whom regard the Shia and Alawites as heretics.

In recent days, a number of Shia shrines have been attacked and desecrated in rebel-held territory, including the tombs of Ammar ibn Yasir in Raqqa and of Hujr bin Uday al-Kindi near Damascus.

Alawite leaders have openly called for Sunni areas to be "cleansed" - coinciding with attacks by Alawite militias on civilian Sunni towns near Baniyas which killed 300 people.

The Muslim Brotherhood, though a Sunni, Islamist movement that has given birth to a number of jihadist offshoots, has been held up as a "moderating" force within Arab Spring countries with which the West "can do business".

Egypt has a Muslim Brotherhood president, while the coalition government in Tunisia is led by a Brotherhood-linked organisation backed by Dr Qaradawi.

Dr Qaradawi himself, who is Egyptian by birth but has lived in Qatar for many years and is regarded as a key factor in the active role the Qatari royal family has played in backing the Arab Spring uprisings with arms and money, has a controversial record in the West.

However, his latest comments, made in a mosque in Qatar on Friday, go beyond his previous political sermons. He himself acknowledged he had become more radical. "People involved in reconciliation between the sects... said that I used to be the one calling for reconciliation and doctrinal unity. They asked why I don't take up that call again.

"Well, I called for reconciliation but I found it did not bring the sects closer. They benefited from it and we failed to take advantage."

He also apologised for his past words in favour of Hizbollah. "The Shia deceived me," he said. "I was less mature than the Sunni scholars who were aware of the truth of that party."

He said Sunni Muslims around the world should not wait for the West to help the rebel cause against the "Nusayris", the Iranians and "the party of God". "They are the party of Satan, the party of the tyrant," he said. "The party of God does not kill Muslims, and these people draw close to God by killing Muslims."

The war in Syria has split the region largely along sectarian lines, with Sunni Gulf and North African states largely supporting the rebels, and Shia Iran and Shia communities in Lebanon and Iraq supporting the regime.

The city of Tripoli in northern Lebanon has already seen fighting between Sunni and Alawite districts, while there has been a rise in sectarian violence in Iraq where many Sunnis have tribal links to Syria but the government represents the majority Shia community and is close to Iran.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/10094590/Muslim-Brotherhood-cleric-calls-for-Sunni-jihad-in-Syria.html
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« Reply #429 on: June 03, 2013, 10:34:43 am »

Syria uprising

Russia says it has blocked a UN Security Council declaration on Syria - @Reuters

Russian foreign ministry: Syrian army is launching an operation to combat terrorism in Al-Qusayr - @AlArabiya_Eng


http://www.breakingnews.com/
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« Reply #430 on: June 03, 2013, 11:49:14 am »

http://www.timesofisrael.com/no-s-300-for-syria-this-year-israels-defense-minister-assesses/
No S-300 for Syria this year, Israel’s defense minister assesses

Moshe Ya’alon says Bashar Assad in control of only 40% of his country; Liberman: Israel faces ‘biggest security threats’ ever

6/3/13

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon on Monday said that if Russia ultimately decides to transfer its state-of-the-art S-300 anti-aircraft missile system to Syria, “it will happen only in 2014.”

Speaking during a meeting of the influential Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Ya’alon said that “we are closely following the possibility that Russia may send the missiles to Syria.”

While he repeated the oft-reiterated Israeli policy that “we are not involving ourselves in the Syrian civil war,” Ya’alon emphasized that Jerusalem would nevertheless protect its own interests, and ensure that “advanced arms, missiles and chemical weapons” do not reach the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah.

Ya’alon also said that President Bashar Assad only controls some 40 percent of Syria’s territory, and even in the capital of Damascus, rebels now hold at least four neighborhoods.

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« Reply #431 on: June 03, 2013, 12:20:11 pm »

Quote
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon on Monday said that if Russia ultimately decides to transfer its state-of-the-art S-300 anti-aircraft missile system to Syria, “it will happen only in 2014.”

wonder what the truth is, as Russia said they delivered the first batch already.
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« Reply #432 on: June 03, 2013, 12:43:20 pm »

The governments of the world seem to be playing games with the viewing public!

It's an illusion designed to deceive, which results in people taking sides, and dividing households.

"Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you, Nay; but rather division:" Luke 12:51 (KJB)
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« Reply #433 on: June 04, 2013, 02:36:53 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/france-says-tests-confirm-sarin-gas-used-syria-164453014.html
France says tests confirm sarin gas used in Syria
6/4/13

PARIS (AP) — Samples taken from Syria and tested in France have confirmed that sarin gas has been used there multiple times, at least once by Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime and its accomplices, France's foreign minister said Tuesday.

Laurent Fabius said the tests carried out by a French laboratory "prove the presence of sarin in the samples in our possession." He said France "now is certain that sarin gas was used in Syria multiple times and in a localized way."

The brief statement concluded: "It would be unacceptable that those guilty of these crimes benefit from impunity."

Fabius later said on the TV station France 2, "We analyzed Le Monde samples and other samples, and it is clear: there is sarin gas." He said the lab analyzed two sets of samples, one gathered by Le Monde reporters and another he didn't identify.

Asked about their origin, he said: "In the second case, there is no doubt that it is the regime and its accomplices. We have integrally traced the chain, from the attack, to the moment people were killed, to when the samples were taken and analyzed."

Questioned about how his government would respond, the minister said: "All options are on the table. That means we could decide not to intervene, or we could decide to intervene, including militarily, where the gas is produced or stored."

French military authorities had said they were analyzing medical samples from patients hospitalized after inhaling poison gas in Syria to determine whether chemical weapons were used. Le Monde newspaper had said its reporters who traveled to Syria recently submitted the samples to France's government for analysis.

The daily had said the samples were taken by Syrian doctors, and that the patients' symptoms "resemble the effects produced by neurotoxic agents present in the Syrian chemical arsenal."

Earlier Tuesday, a U.N. report on Syria said there are "reasonable grounds" to believe that limited quantities of toxic chemicals have been used as weapons in at least four attacks in Syria's civil war, but that more evidence is needed to determine the precise chemical agents used or who used them.

The U.N. Commission of Inquiry said conclusive findings can be reached only after testing samples taken directly from victims or the site of the alleged attacks. It called on Damascus to allow a team of experts into the country, saying lack of access continues to hamper the commission's ability to fulfill its mandate.

President Barack Obama had previously declared the use of chemical weapons his "red line" for forceful U.S. intervention in Syria. He has since come under pressure to take action amid mounting allegations that Assad's regime has crossed that line.

The U.N. report appeared to strengthen the Obama administration's argument that that the existing evidence is insufficient.

The commission's report to the Human Rights Council on violations in Syria's conflict accused both sides of committing war crimes. In an apparent message to European countries considering arming Syrian rebels, the report warned that the transfer of arms would heighten the risk of violations, leading to more civilian deaths and injuries.

"War crimes and crimes against humanity have become a daily reality in Syria where the harrowing accounts of victims have seared themselves on our conscience," the report said. "There is a human cost to the increased availability of weapons," it added.

The commission said it relied for the report on first-hand accounts to corroborate incidents, and carried out 430 interviews in the region and from Geneva, including via Skype and over the telephone, with victims and witnesses inside the country.

It also collected photographs, video recordings, satellite imagery and medical records. Reports from governments and non-government sources, academic analyses, and U.N. reports, including from human rights bodies and humanitarian organizations, also formed part of the investigation.

U.N.-Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has appointed a U.N. team to investigate alleged chemical weapons attacks in Syria after the government in Damascus asked him to investigate a purported attack by rebels on March 19 on Khan al-Assal village near the northern city of Aleppo. But the Syrian government insists that a probe be limited to that incident.

Syrian soldiers were reportedly killed and injured in the incident, which the rebels blame on government forces. Opposition activists have claimed there have been more than six instances when regime forces used chemical weapons.

Ban is insisting on a broader investigation, which would also include a December incident in Homs. He appointed Swedish chemical weapons expert Ake Sellstrom to lead a U.N. investigation. Syria has refused to allow his team into the country.

Last week, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said Iraq under Saddam Hussein inadvertently paved the way for the 2003 U.S.-led invasion by allowing U.N. inspectors into the country, and suggested Syria is not about to make the same mistake. "We will not allow teams of inspectors to come to Syria to do whatever they want," he said in a TV interview.

Syria is widely believed to have one of the world's largest arsenals of chemical weapons, including mustard and nerve gas. The Assad regime has denied using such weapons during the civil war.

The confirmed use of chemical weapons could escalate the international response to the more than two-year-long conflict, which has killed more than 70,000 people, according to the U.N. Obama has said their use would be a "red line," but the administration says it still looking for solid evidence.

Explaining its position in an April letter to two U.S. senators, the administration referred to intelligence assessments concluding "with varying degrees of confidence" and based in part on physiological samples that the regime has used chemical weapons on a small scale, specifically the nerve agent sarin. The letter said such assessments are not sufficient grounds for action because it is not clear how the exposure occurred and under what circumstances.

Since then, the governments of Britain, France and Turkey have also said there are indications of chemical weapons use, but that more testing is required.

"There are reasonable grounds to believe that chemical agents have been used as weapons," the report said. "It has not been possible, on the evidence available, to determine the precise chemical agents used, their delivery systems or the perpetrator."

The report said there are allegations of government forces using chemical weapons in four instances, but also did not rule out rebels using them.

"It is possible that anti-government armed groups may access and use chemical weapons .... though there is no compelling evidence that these groups possess such weapons or their requisite delivery systems," the report said.

"Conclusive findings — particularly in the absence of a large-scale attack — may be reached only after testing samples taken directly from victims or the site of the alleged attack," it said.

The report, covering the period from mid-January to mid-May, accused both sides of committing war crimes. On the government side, the report accused government forces and affiliated militia of committing torture, ****, forcible displacement and enforced disappearance. On the rebel side, the report accused armed groups of carrying out sentencing and execution without due process, as well as committing torture, taking hostages and pillaging.

It said violations and abuses by the rebels "did not, however, reach the intensity and scale of those committed by government forces and affiliated militia."

"A dangerous state of fragmentation and disintegration of authority prevails in areas under anti-government armed groups control, despite attempts to fill the vacuum left by the withdrawal of the state through creating local councils," it said.
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« Reply #434 on: June 05, 2013, 12:23:07 pm »

http://www.ynetnews.com/Ext/Comp/ArticleLayout/CdaArticlePrintPreview/1,2506,L-4388427,00.html
US considers stationing F-16s, Patriot missiles in Jordan

State Department says 'if requested,' American weapons may remain beyond conclusion of military exercise 'to assist Jordanian armed forces'

The United States will send a Patriot missile battery and F-16 fighters to Jordan for a military drill and may keep the weapons there to counter the threat posed by Syria’s civil war, officials said Monday.

The Patriot missile launchers and F-16 warplanes “were approved for deployment to Jordan as part of Exercise Eager Lion,” said Lieutenant Colonel T.G. Taylor, spokesman for US Central Command based in Tampa, Florida.

“In order to enhance the defensive posture and capacity of Jordan, some of these assets may remain beyond the exercise at the request of the Government of Jordan,” Taylor said in a statement.

US officials declined to say how many F-16 fighter jets would be taking part in the joint exercise or how many aircraft might stay in Jordan afterwards.

The United States backed a similar move earlier this year in Turkey, with the NATO alliance deploying Patriot missile batteries along Turkey’s volatile border with Syria.

The deployment of a Patriot anti-missile battery comes after warnings from Washington to President Bashar Assad’s regime against shipping advanced missiles to terrorists in Lebanon’s Hezbollah Shiite group, which is now openly taking part in the war in support of Damascus.

Israel has reportedly carried out airstrikes in Syria in a bid to disrupt the possible delivery of missiles to the Hezbollah movement.

The decision to possibly station F-16s and missile batteries in Jordan will fuel speculation on a potential US military intervention, which the White House so far has described as a remote possibility.

“Given our strong alliance with Jordan and in light of circumstances in the region and escalating violence along Jordan’s borders, if requested some (weapons) may remain beyond the conclusion of the exercise to assist the Jordanian armed forces,” said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki.

“But no decision has been made yet on that,” she told reporters.

Jordan has hosted two previous “Eager Lion” exercises, involving more than 19 countries, including the United States.

The US Patriot batteries are designed to shoot down Scud or other short-range missiles, known to be in the Assad regime’s arsenal, and could also be employed as part of a no-fly-zone or other air operation.

The Pentagon already has sent about 200 troops to Jordan, including an element of a US Army headquarters, to help the country prepare for possible military action in Syria, including scenarios to secure the regime’s chemical weapons stockpiles.

Fighting raged Monday in Syria, with regime aircraft pounding the embattled town of Qusair near the border with Lebanon, in a three-week-old offensive backed by Hezbollah forces.
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« Reply #435 on: June 06, 2013, 10:03:07 am »

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/06/18797185-israel-hit-by-missiles-from-syria-as-civil-war-flares-in-golan-heights?lite=
6/6/13
Israel hit by missiles from Syria as civil war flares in Golan Heights



Two missiles from Syria landed in Israel Thursday as fighting between President Bashar Assad’s forces and rebels raged on the Golan Heights.

The Israel Defense Forces said that a “closed military zone” was declared near the Quneitra border crossing in response to the fighting. People were not being allowed inside the area and locals were warned not to work in the fields.

No one was injured on the Israeli side, but two wounded Syrians who came to the border were taken to hospitals in Israel, an IDF spokeswoman said.

“There were two projectiles that landed earlier in open areas in the north and central Golan Heights near the border of Israel and Syria,” she said.

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« Reply #436 on: June 06, 2013, 10:05:47 am »

Pentagon official: Russian warships may be carrying weapons to Syria
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/06/05/world/meast/syria-russia-shipments/index.html?hpt=hp_t1
6/5/13

(CNN) -- CNN has learned that U.S. intelligence agencies have identified three Russian amphibious warships in the eastern Mediterranean that are believed to be carrying weapons shipments that might be used to resupply the Syrian regime, according to a Pentagon official.

The official declined to be named due to the sensitive nature of the information.

The United States has been tracking the ships since they left Russian ports several days ago. U.S. satellites were able to see some indications of containers being loaded onto the ships. Although it's not confirmed, it's believed the ships may be carrying some components of the controversial Russian S-300 air defense missile system and other weapons for the regime.

The United States has been pressing the Russians for weeks to not deliver that system to Syria because of the threat it would pose by upgrading Syria's already robust air defense system. The United States believes it would give the Syrian government a much greater ability to target U.S., Israeli, NATO or other aircraft that may try to strike targets on the ground in the future.

The official said the United States did not see any military helicopters being loaded; it is believed the Syrians want to add the helicopters to their inventories.

The Russians have kept a regular naval presence in the eastern Mediterranean so they can move in and out of the port of Tartous, where they have facilities.

Several sensitive military assets are in the region this month as well. In the next two weeks, the U.S. Navy aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower will also be in the region on a scheduled rotation as it returns to its home port on the East Coast. A U.S. Patriot missile battery and F-16s are heading to Jordan for a training exercise, though the Jordanians have asked for the Patriots to remain after the exercise concludes at the end of the month.
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« Reply #437 on: June 06, 2013, 07:42:03 pm »

After Qusair, Syrian army sets sights on heartland
http://news.yahoo.com/qusair-syrian-army-sets-sights-heartland-205614240.html
6/6/13

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — With fresh momentum from the capture of a strategic town in western Syria, President Bashar Assad's forces have turned their sights to driving rebel fighters from the country's densely populated heartland, including the cities of Homs and Aleppo.

The latest battlefield success, due in large part to Lebanese Hezbollah fighters' increasing role and the West's continued reluctance to arm the rebels, raises the possibility that Assad can cling to power for years, even if he won't be able to recapture all of the country.

Government troops pressed ahead Thursday with an aggressive military offensive in Homs province, seizing control of the village of Dabaa just north of Qusair, near the border with Lebanon. Hundreds of rebel fighters who had been entrenched in Qusair for more than a year fled Wednesday after a punishing three-week assault, retreating to surrounding areas.

The regime triumph in Qusair, a key crossroads town of supply lines between Damascus and western and northern Syria, showcased the potentially game-changing role of Hezbollah in Syria's civil war and was openly celebrated in the militant group's strongholds in Lebanon and in Damascus, the seat of Assad's power.

Syrian state-run media portrayed Qusair's fall as a turning point in the more than two-year civil war that has killed more than 70,000 people.

In reality, though, it's unlikely that Assad will be able to roll back rebel gains across the country. Dozens of rebel fighter brigades have taken unquestioned control of huge swathes of territory in the country's north and east, setting up local councils and Islamic courts to administer affairs in towns and villages. Kurds have all but carved out their own separate existence in the country's northeast.

At best, Assad will continue to preside over a divided country, with armed militias ruling over ethnic fiefdoms. A violent insurgency is likely to continue even in areas where the regime regains control.

But if the regime continues to enjoy the strong backing of allies Hezbollah, Russia and Iran, Assad could try to reassert himself in much of Syria, even if he can't win back all of the country.

Josef Holliday of the Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said he believes Assad is not aiming for outright victory over the rebels in all of Syria. "The objective is survival in what they (regime loyalists) consider the strategically important parts of Syria, with the majority of the population," he said.

Following the victory in Qusair, the regime's next targets are rebel-held areas in and around the city of Homs, a government official told The Associated Press. As Syria's third-largest city and one-time epicenter of the uprising, Homs holds both strategic and symbolic importance for the regime.

In April 2011, one month after the uprising against Assad began, protesters gathered at central Clock Square in Homs, bringing mattresses, food and water in hopes of emulating Cairo's Tahrir Square during the Egyptian revolution.

The peaceful, mass protests eroded Assad's narrative that the uprising was the work of "terrorists" and "armed thugs," and were quickly put down. Since then, the predominantly Sunni city, with Christian and Alawite minorities, has come under crushing attack on numerous occasions.

"The (army) command has put forward a plan, which is being executed," said the government official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to divulge details about ongoing military operations.

He said the army was carrying out "quick, successive attacks" to secure the northern entrance of Homs city and seized the village of al-Khaldiyeh along the way Thursday. It also intends to regain the rebel strongholds of Rastan and Talbiseh, towns just north of Homs city.

Securing Homs could boost the momentum for Syrian troops in rolling back rebel gains in other parts of the country, including northern Syria, where the sides have been locked in a stalemate for months. Pro-regime media outlets have said government forces are preparing to move to retake the contested northern city of Aleppo next.

Aleppo, Syria's largest city and commercial hub, was overrun by rebels last summer, and remains one of the country's bloodiest battlegrounds as rebels and regime forces fight over it.

Hezbollah fighters were instrumental to the regime victory in Qusair, but it's not clear whether they will participate to the same extent in future battles deeper inside Syria.

Qusair is close to the Lebanese borders, making it easier for Hezbollah to ship fighters and weapons from the Lebanese side of the border. The militia has also sent fighters to two areas near Damascus, just a two-hour drive from the Lebanese border, while many of the rebel-held areas are more remote and more difficult for Hezbollah to reach.

The level of Hezbollah's future involvement might depend, at least in part, on the backlash in Lebanon. The militia's involvement, particularly since the start of the Qusair offensive, has led to growing clashes between Assad opponents and supporters in Lebanon, raising fears of a spillover into a fragile country scarred by its own 15-year civil war.

Hezbollah has justified its involvement in the fight for Qusair by saying it was protecting Lebanon from Sunni extremists among the ranks of rebels fighting Assad.

It's unclear whether the Shiite militant group will be willing to stray so far from the Lebanese border, although there are unconfirmed reports that its fighters took part in an assault on two Shiite villages in Aleppo province.

Jeff White of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy said the rebels were in for trouble, unless they improve their military and political command structure and get more weapons.

"The regime has laid down the challenge, and the rebels will have to respond, or they will have a bleak future ahead of them," he said.

The West, particularly the United States, has been reluctant to send more sophisticated weapons out of fear they might fall into the hands of Islamic extremists fighting in the rebel ranks, including members of Jabhat al-Nusra, which has sworn allegiance to al-Qaida.

It remains to be seen whether Hezbollah's military engagement alongside the Syrian regime will prod the West to arm the rebels, who are no match for Hezbollah's military power and the regime's aerial superiority. A European arms embargo expired last week, freeing up individual nations to arm the rebels unilaterally.

The recent military gains are also bound to harden regime positions if talks on a peaceful transition ever get off the ground.

A U.N.-sponsored international conference that was to bring representatives of the Assad government and the opposition together for negotiations has now been put off to at least July.

The regime has confirmed it will attend, albeit with conditions, while the main opposition group has gotten bogged down in discussions over who might attend, in part a reflection of rivalries between backers Saudi Arabia and Qatar, instead of devising a strategy for talks. Turkey, another country backing the rebels, has been distracted by large-scale anti-government protests at home.

All the while, Assad ally Russia has never wavered in its support of the Damascus government.

Holliday, the analyst, said that although Assad may succeed in expanding his control and cling to power, the conflict in Syria is likely to go on for a long time.

"No one is going to win this war. It's going to go on for a while," he said.
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« Reply #438 on: June 06, 2013, 07:45:42 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/look-latest-syria-developments-200148296.html
A look at the latest Syria developments
6/6/13

BEIRUT (AP) — Here are the latest developments in the Syria crisis:

— Austria announces it is withdrawing 377 U.N. peacekeepers from the Golan Heights after Syrian rebels briefly overran a crossing point near the border with Israel, deepening concerns the civil war is spreading to neighboring countries. The Israeli Foreign Ministry said it regretted the decision and hoped that it would not lead to "further escalation in the region." Fighting between President Bashar Assad's forces and mainly Sunni rebels has already spilled over into Turkey and Lebanon.

— Al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri taps into the deepening Sunni-Shiite rift stemming from the conflict, calling on Sunnis everywhere to devote their lives, money and expertise to the overthrow the regime, set up Islamic rule in Syria and prevent a U.S.-allied government from taking over after Assad, whose regime is dominated by the Alawite sect — an offshoot of Shiite Islam.

— Jordan's Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh warns the Syrian ambassador there to stop criticizing his host country or risk expulsion. Syrian ambassador Bahjat Suleiman is an ardent critic of Jordan's policies toward his country, accusing it of siding with anti-Assad forces.

— Aid group Doctors without Borders warns that the needs of civilians in Syria and neighboring countries far outstrips the relief currently being supplied, urging the international community to ramp up its aid supply a day before a humanitarian conference in Geneva.

— A Filipino U.N. peacekeeper is wounded in the leg by an artillery or a mortar shell that landed at Camp Ziouni, a logistics base in the Golan Heights, during fighting between the Syrian government and rebel forces.

— A Turkish soldier is wounded by shots fired at a military patrol along the Syrian border, prompting soldiers to return fire at assailants among a larger group of about 500 people trying to cross into Turkey. The Turkish military statement suggests that those who fired at the soldiers were smugglers.

— The European Union commits 400 million euros ($525 million) more in aid to deal with the humanitarian crisis caused by the civil war.
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« Reply #439 on: June 07, 2013, 07:55:17 am »

Russia's President Putin says Russia is ready to replace Austrian peacekeepers in the Golan Heights - RIA via @Reuters

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« Reply #440 on: June 07, 2013, 10:03:57 am »

Russia's President Putin says Russia is ready to replace Austrian peacekeepers in the Golan Heights - RIA via @Reuters

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Yeah, I read yesterday over the Austrian "peacekeepers" leaving the Golan Heights yesterday - kinda see why now...
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« Reply #441 on: June 07, 2013, 10:09:17 pm »

http://news.yahoo.com/u-n-says-cant-accept-russias-offer-golan-020058178.html
U.N. says it can't accept Russia's offer of Golan troops
6/7/13

UNITED NATIONS/MOSCOW (Reuters) - The United Nations said on Friday it could not accept Russia's offer to replace peacekeepers from Austria in the Golan Heights because an agreement between Israel and Syria bars permanent members of the Security Council from the U.N. observer mission.

The United Nations expressed appreciation for the Russian offer, made on Friday by President Vladimir Putin after Austria said it would recall its troops from a U.N. monitoring force due to worsening fighting in Syria.

Austria, whose peacekeepers account for about 380 of the 1,000-member U.N. force monitoring a four-decade-old ceasefire between Syria and Israel, said it would pull out after intense clashes between Syrian government forces and rebels on the border.

Russia is a longtime ally and arms supplier to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose forces are fighting rebels trying to overthrow him in a civil war.

The fact that Russia has been backing Assad means Russian troops might not be seen as neutral by Syria's rebels, which could invite opposition attacks on the U.N. Golan force, a diplomat said.

U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said it was impossible at the moment for the United Nations to accept the offer from Russia, which along with the United States, Britain, France and China is a permanent, veto-wielding member of the 15-nation Security Council.

"We appreciate the consideration that the Russian Federation has given to provide troops to the Golan," he told reporters.

"However, the Disengagement Agreement and its protocol, which is between Syria and Israel, do not allow for the participation of permanent members of the Security Council in UNDOF," Nesirky added, referring to the peacekeeping contingent known as the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force.

British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant, president of the Security Council this month, said after a special council session on the UNDOF crisis that the force should remain in place, even if its numbers were temporarily reduced.

The U.N. peacekeeping department is asking the other countries in the force, the Philippines and India, if they would increase their troop contributions and was also looking at the possibility of new countries sending troops, Lyall Grant said.

"At the same time (they are) trying to encourage the Austrians to slow down their departure from the theater and dissuade any other troop contributors from withdrawing troops," he said. U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous had talked about increasing the force back to its mandated figure of 1,250, Lyall Grant said.

'TIMES HAVE CHANGED'

One council diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity that Ladsous had made clear while briefing the council behind closed doors that allowing Russian peacekeepers might be too complicated legally and he would prefer to find other troop contributors.

Fiji has said that it will send troops to replace a Croatian contingent that has already pulled out. Japanese troops have also been withdrawn because of the violence.

Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said his country was well aware of the limitation in the document signed four decades ago, which is why Putin had said it would depend on whether countries in the region - namely Syria and Israel - and the United Nations, wanted Russian troops there.

"We believe that times have changed," Churkin told reporters, adding that it was theoretically possible to amend the protocol that bars permanent council members from UNDOF.

"The document was signed 39 years ago at the height of (the) Cold War and the whole context of the (Arab-Israeli) war in 1973," he said. "Now the context is completely different and UNDOF seems to be in dire straits. So we are offering essentially to rescue UNDOF."

He said U.N. legal experts had been asked to look at whether a new resolution would be needed if the Russian offer of troops was taken up because the original agreement to create UNDOF did not allow permanent council members to contribute.

The departure of the Austrians is the latest blow to the monitoring force. In addition to the increased fighting in its zone of operation, there have been several recent incidents in which Syrian rebel forces have detained UNDOF monitors.

Since 1974, UNDOF has had the task of monitoring the "area of separation" between Syrian and Israeli forces, a narrow strip of land running 45 miles from Mount Hermon on the Lebanese border to the Yarmouk River frontier with Jordan. The force has helped keep the area relatively stable, U.N. diplomats say.

Russia has been trying along with Western powers to bring the warring sides in Syria together for talks on a solution to a conflict that has lasted more than two years. A planned Geneva peace conference has been delayed until July at least.

(Additional reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Will Dunham, David Brunnstrom and Lisa Shumaker)
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« Reply #442 on: June 09, 2013, 05:22:09 pm »

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/06/09/18866371-jordan-hosts-us-jets-and-missiles-in-drills-in-syrias-shadow?lite=
6/9/13
Jordan hosts US jets and missiles in drills in Syria's shadow

U.S. troops equipped with Patriot missiles and fighter jets began military exercises in Jordan that have drawn condemnation from Russia, which accuses the West of fanning the conflict in neighboring Syria.

Washington confirmed last week it was sending the F-16 jets and missiles — which can be used against planes and other missiles - to its ally Jordan, and said it may consider keeping them there after the drills.

Both Washington and Amman said on Sunday the Eager Lion exercises were not related to the war in Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad's air power has given him an edge over lighter-armed rebels.

But the Damascus government, and its most powerful ally Moscow, have been sensitive about any transfer of Western arms closer to the conflict, particularly any gear that could be used to enforce a no-fly zone.

More than 4,500 American troops, around 3,000 Jordanians, and 500 soldiers from Britain, Saudi Arabia and other countries were taking part in the exercises, less than 75 miles from the Syrian border, said military officials.

"The drills having nothing to do with any objective related to what is happening in Syria," the top army commander in charge of Jordanian troops, Major General Awni al-Adwan, told reporters during the launch of the exercises on Sunday.

U.S. Major General Robert G. Catalanotti told a joint news conference the Eager Lion events would increase "our ability to operate together in any upcoming contingency."

The exercises also involved a number of F-18 jets from bases in the Gulf and drills on handling chemical strikes, which Syria's government and rebels have accused each other of carrying out.

PRIVATE REQUESTS
Jordan is one of a number of Arab countries that have lent support to the Syrian opposition, caught up in the two-year-old civil war.

Jordan, like Syria's other neighbors, is increasingly nervous that the fighting will spill over and ignite a regional conflict.

U.S. President Barack Obama has been reluctant to become involved despite having called for Assad to resign and hinting at military action if the Syrian government crossed a "red line" by using chemical weapon. He has shown some willingness to protect friends in the region.

Jordanian officials privately say they requested that at least two Patriots are kept after the end of the exercises to guard against any missile attack from Syria.

Western diplomats say Washington has favorably responded to the request to bolster its ally's security.

Moscow complained vociferously last year when the United States, Germany and the Netherlands deployed Patriots on Syria's northern border in Turkey, a NATO ally.

Russia complained again after Washington confirmed its deployment of missiles and jets to Jordan last week.

"We have more than once stated our opinion on this - foreign weapons are being pumped into an explosive region," Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said in a statement on June 4.

"This is happening very close to Syria, where for more than two years the flames are burning of a devastating conflict that Russia and its American partners are trying to stop by proposing to hold an international peace conference as soon as possible."
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« Reply #443 on: June 14, 2013, 10:30:22 am »

Russia Hits Back at U.S. Over Syria

The Kremlin Friday dismissed as unconvincing evidence that U.S. officials provided of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad's alleged use of chemical weapons and criticized Washington's decision to arm Syrian opposition fighters, but stopped short of threatening to deliver air-defense missiles to the Assad government in response.

A senior Kremlin official said Moscow is "not yet" discussing the delivery of the advanced air-defense system in the wake of the U.S. decision. Last month, Russian officials threatened to fulfill the 2010 contract for the S-300 missiles as a way to deter potential outside military intervention in the two-year-old Syrian civil war. Western powers and Israel have staunchly opposed the sale of the system.

Both Moscow and the U.S. are pushing the warring sides in Syria to enter peace talks in the coming months. But opposition forces have appealed for more weapons and support in recent weeks as they've lost ground against Mr. Assad's troops and their allies from the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group. The Kremlin opposes any international action against its longtime client, Mr. Assad, and has been skeptical of past Western claims that his forces were using chemical weapons.

Thursday, President Barack Obama authorized the U.S. administration to arm fighters against the Assad regime, reversing a long-running policy of giving only nonlethal support to the country's opposition. The White House cited confirmation that Mr. Assad's regime had killed up to 150 people with chemical weapons as the reason for its about-face.

Russian officials say the evidence isn't rock solid. "I want to confirm that we had a meeting with American representatives in which Americans tried to present information to us about the regime's use of chemical weapons, but frankly speaking, the evidence Americans set out looks unconvincing," Yuri Ushakov, the Kremlin's top foreign-policy aide, said Friday, according to Russian news agencies.

Mr. Ushakov cited the flawed intelligence assessment from the administration of former President George W. Bush about weapons of mass destruction in the run-up to the Iraq war but said he didn't want to "draw any parallels."

Other Russian officials were more direct. "The data on Assad's use of chemical weapons is fabricated just like the lies about weapons of [Saddam] Hussein's weapons of mass destruction," read a tweet on the feed of Alexei Pushkov, chairman of the Russian parliament's international relations committee. "Obama is going down the path of G. Bush."

Ben Rhodes, the White House Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications, said the conclusion that Mr. Assad's regime has wielded chemical weapons was based on physical samples taken from Syria. He said the U.S. relied on "multiple, independent streams of information" and has "high confidence" in the assessment. He cited four dates and locations during which the U.S. thinks Mr. Assad's regime employed chemical weapons.

Mr. Ushakov, who long served as the Russian ambassador to the U.S., said any extension of the White House's support for Syria's opposition fighters won't help a joint effort by the U.S. and Russia to bring the bloody conflict's opposing sides to the negotiating table.

Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Alexander Lukashevich said the move suggests U.S. efforts to bring the opposition to the peace talks had stalled. He said pumping arms into Syria will increase "the level of armed confrontation and violence against civilians" and reiterated Russia's commitment to a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

The U.S.'s decision to arm Syria's opposition fighters could change the balance of power on the ground in the war-torn country, where Mr. Assad's troops recently have been gaining an edge over beleaguered opposition fighters. U.S. officials have stressed that Mr. Assad, backed by Hezbollah, has been making gains more than two years into a violent conflict that has left more than 90,000 people dead, according to United Nations figures.

The U.S. move comes ahead of a high-stakes meeting between Mr. Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G-8 summit in Northern Ireland that starts on June 17. Syria will be at the top of the agenda for the sidelines meeting.

The Syrian regime is a longtime Kremlin ally dating back to the days of the Cold War. Mr. Putin has opposed outside military intervention in the Syrian conflict, and Russia has joined China in vetoing three UN resolutions that were aimed at forcing Mr. Assad to step down.

Mr. Ushakov stressed that the U.S. and Russia aren't "competing on Syria," and are trying to find a constructive way to solve the problem in the region.

Syria's government signed a contract in 2010 to buy four S-300 batteries with 144 missiles for $900 million, and the first deliveries were scheduled to start in summer 2013. The weapons could change the power dynamic in the Middle East and help the Assad regime prevent the sort of military campaign Western governments organized to aid rebels fighting Col. Moammar Gadhafi in Libya.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323734304578545062769525132.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LEFTTopStories
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« Reply #444 on: June 14, 2013, 03:52:36 pm »

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57589299/polls-open-in-irans-presidential-election/

Quote
AP/ June 14, 2013, 2:18 AM

Polls open in Iran's presidential election

There will be a new leader in Iran shortly.

Quote
...Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who cannot run for a third consecutive term.
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« Reply #445 on: June 14, 2013, 07:34:02 pm »

Quote
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who cannot run for a third consecutive term.

i am so going to miss him...  Cry
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« Reply #446 on: June 14, 2013, 07:37:48 pm »

While flipping channels last night I stopped by TBN, they had what I would explain as a prophecy show. They said that the leader of Iran wouldn't have much power, something to that effect. Because the leading Muslim religious leaders have the power there.
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« Reply #447 on: June 14, 2013, 08:16:02 pm »

TBN really?  Cheesy lol

Anyway, Ahmadinejad has taken Iran from a joke 3rd world country to a modern world power. He is also a full time Antichrist follower and i will not be surprised if the next president of Iran is very similar to Ahmadinejad. The supreme leader has recognized this and has given the President extreme leeway.

Im still going to miss him, some of my favorite news stories are about him. 
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« Reply #448 on: June 14, 2013, 08:18:13 pm »

He is also a full time Antichrist follower

One of his many "talents"  Grin
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« Reply #449 on: June 14, 2013, 09:48:58 pm »

i am so going to miss him...  Cry

Eh...whoever the next guy is, he'll be more wicked and evil than him.
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