Colonel Qassem Saad al-Deen says the Free Syria Army's commitment to the ceasefire is dependent on the Syrian regime also abiding by it.
"The joint command of the Free Syria Army inside Syria announces it's complete commitment to the UN envoy...
(CNN) -
One day shy of a deadline for Syria to pull its forces from cities across the country, the violence instead seemed to be spreading -- even reaching across the border into Turkey.
Seventy-five people were killed in Syria on Monday, according...
Syrian forces have fired across the border at protesters at a refugee camp in Turkey, wounding a Turkish translator and at least two Syrian refugees, in the first such attack since Turkey began sheltering thousands of refugees last summer.
A government...
The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, has condemned the Syrian government for fresh military assaults despite agreeing to a deal to withdraw from rebel areas of the country.
Ban said the ceasefire deadline, which calls for President...
BEIRUT (AP) -- The U.S. is warning Syria it won't be able to deceive the world about compliance with a cease-fire that is just days away.
The warning from Ambassador Robert Ford came as regime forces pounded more opposition strongholds in an apparent...
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey's prime minister has warned of as yet unspecified "steps" if the government of neighbouring Syria fails to abide by an April 10 deadline to cease violence, local media reported on Sunday.
"We will patiently follow the process...
DAMASCUS, April 7, (AFP): More than 100 people were reported killed across Syria on Saturday, 74 of them civilians, as regime forces pressed a protest crackdown three days ahead of a deadline to cease fire and pull back.
Monitors reported the escalation...
BEIRUT (AP) — Syria rejected international envoy Kofi Annan's call for the regime to halt violence first just days after the government agreed to a cease-fire plan. A senior official declared victory over the opposition.
It was the government's...
(Reuters) - International peace envoy Kofi Annan was expected to head to China on Monday after asking Russia to back his mission to end fighting in Syria despite Moscow's differences with Western and Arab states over who is to blame for the conflict.
Russia...
The president's endorsement on Sunday of a US proposal to ferry medical aid and communications equipment to the faltering rebel movement came amid signs that Turkish plans to impose a buffer zone within Syrian territory were gaining traction.
US...
DAMASCUS, Syria — Two "terrorist explosions" struck security targets in Syrian capital Saturday morning, killing a number of civilians and security forces, the state news agency said
The report said preliminary information indicated the blasts were...
MOSCOW - (AP) -- Russia said Friday it has encouraged the Syrian government to cooperate with Kofi Annan, the envoy charged with trying to help end the violence there, and urged the West to do the same with the Syrian rebels.
Moscow and Beijing...
Abdo Hussameddin, Syria's deputy oil minister, has announced his resignation in a video posted online, saying he will be joining the anti-government revolt against President Bashar al-Assad.
Abdo Hussameddin, 58, one of the highest ranking Syrian...
Four more high-ranking officers have defected from the Syrian armed forces and joined the year-old uprising against President Bashar al-Assad's rule, two rebel groups said on Thursday.
The men fled over the past three days to a camp for Syrian...
Syrian opposition activists have angrily rejected calls by Kofi Annan, the UN and Arab League envoy to Syria, for dialogue with the government.
The leader of the main opposition, Burhan Ghalioun, said the comments were "disappointing" when Syrians...
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Denmark’s foreign minister, whose country chairs the rotating EU presidency, said Friday that sanctions against Syria appear to be working, but he urged Russia and China to condemn the Syrian government’s bloody crackdown on...
OTTAWA — Canada has closed its embassy in Syria, an announcement made the same day that the federal government said it would try to further put the financial squeeze on the country's leadership.
The closure of the embassy follows similar moves...
(Reuters) - Syria's military pursued a crackdown on rebels on several fronts on Monday, days after eliminating an opposition bastion in the central city of Homs following a 26-day siege, activists said.
Troops kept the Red Cross out of the wrecked...
The Red Cross is due to enter the Baba Amr district of the Syrian city of Homs on Friday to deliver food and medical supplies after a month-long siege.
The International Committee of the Red Cross is to enter the area with the Syrian Red Crescent,...
Vladimir Putin last night signalled a dramatic shift in Russia’s policy on Syria as he said it did not have a special relationship with President Assad.
The Russian Prime Minister said it was up to the people of Syria to decide who should rule...
Prime Minister David Cameron, speaking in Brussels, has said "dreadful" Syrian regime will face "day of reckoning".
"One day, no matter how long it takes, there will be a day of reckoning for this dreadful regime," Cameron said as he joined European...
Saudi Arabia has backed the arming of Syria's opposition guerrilla army in remarks that could signal an intervention by the Sunni Muslim superpower in the Assad regime's crackdown against the uprising.
The Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal,...
Two Iranian warships sent by Tehran to the Mediterranean last week to help “train the Syrian navy” entered the Suez canal early on Tuesday on their way back to Iran, a canal authorities source told AFP, as Tehran warned it would take pre-emptive...
A main opposition group says the death toll in Syria has risen to 50, including 30 in the battered city of Homs.
The activist group Local Coordination Committees gave the figures, but they could not immediately be confirmed by others.
The report...
Syrian forces have intensified their attack on rebel-held areas of the besieged city of Homs, activists say.
Hundreds of shells were fired at the city in a two-hour period earlier, with reports that buildings were razed, 16 people killed and scores...
(Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces, disregarding U.N. condemnation of their violent suppression of a nationwide revolt, renewed a bombardment of the opposition stronghold of Homs and attacks on rebels in Deraa on Friday.
Demonstrations...
UNITED NATIONS -- The U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly Thursday for a resolution backing an Arab League plan calling for Syrian President Bashar Assad to step down and strongly condemning human rights violations by his regime.
The vote...
Less than five months ago, this poor rural town on the outskirts of Homs was a passive place whose residents vented their anger at Bashar al-Assad at weekly rallies; never through the barrel of a gun.
An army attack on 23 September changed all...
Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia was studying a new Arab League initiative for the body to form a joint peacekeeping force with the United Nations, adding that Moscow had questions about certain points.
"We are studying this initiative...
BERLIN — As tensions mount between Western nations and Syria, the German authorities said Thursday that they had ordered the expulsion of four Syrian diplomats after arresting two men accused separately of spying on opponents of President Bashar...
Twenty-five people died this morning after two explosions hit security compounds in the Syrian city of Aleppo, state media reported.
Reports said at least 175 were wounded in the city - which has thus far largely supported President Bashar al-Assad...
President Obama has accused Syrian government forces of responsibility for "outrageous" bloodshed and called again for Bashar al-Assad to step down, as troops sealed off a rebel stronghold in the city of Homs and launched a bombardment using tanks,...
ELEANOR HALL: The United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, says the UN is discussing joining the Arab League in reviving an observer mission to Syria, as the situation there continues to worsen.
Hundreds of people have died in the city of...
The UN's failure to agree a resolution on Syria is "disastrous" for the country's people, the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon has said as President Assad's government launched its most intense bombardment so far of rebel-held areas.
Speaking...
The Syrian army has resumed shelling in Homs killing at least 20 people so far on Thursday, activists say.
With several districts controlled by rebel forces, Syria's third-largest city is a major focus of unrest against President Bashar al-Assad's...
The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms the escalation of the Syrian regime’s violent and brutal attacks on its own people. In the past few days we have seen intensified Syrian security operations all around the country which...
Diplomats at the UN Security Council have watered down a resolution on Syria in an apparent attempt to overcome Russian objections to an earlier draft.
The revised text - seen by the BBC - drops the call for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to...
Syria launched a major military offensive to seize back parts of Damascus under de facto rebel control on Sunday, a day after the Arab League said it was abandoning its monitoring mission in the face of out-of-control violence.
Government forces...
High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights....
DAMASCUS — Syrian troops stormed Hama following large protests in the flashpoint central city on Tuesday, as three people died in violence elsewhere in the country, activists said.
"The Syrian armed forces stormed the neighbourhoods of Bab Qubli...
ALBANY, New York (AP) – The United States would hit Syria with trade sanctions as long as it continues a violent crackdown on protesters under sanctions proposed by two U.S. senators.
The bill, to be released Sunday by Democratic Senators Charles...
(AP) GENEVA — Two Swiss journalists said Sunday that Syrian authorities were to blame for the death of award-winning French TV reporter Gilles Jacquier, who was killed earlier this month in the restive city of Homs.
The 43-year-old correspondent...
The Arab League has outlined a series of reforms it wants Syria to undertake to end the violence in the country.
After a meeting in Cairo, the league called on the Syrian authorities to form a national unity government to include the opposition...
(CNN) -- Seventeen "army martyrs" were laid to rest in Syria on Saturday, state news reported, and an opposition activist group said four people died following recent violence.
Reports of carnage mount every day despite the presence of observers...
On Monday, a unity agreement between Syria’s two main anti-regime groups collapsed over the issue of foreign military intervention in the country’s 11-month-old internal conflict. As anti-government demonstrations and police violence continue, there...
Istanbul (CNN) -- Iran's embassy in Turkey has issued a formal statement denying reports Tehran was shipping weapons through Turkey to Syria.
"We deny such claims and we would like to state that the Islamic Republic of Iran sees people's demands...
(Reuters) - Protests against President Bashar al-Assad erupted in several Syrian cities Friday, activists said, and the Arab League chief said he feared the bloody unrest could degenerate into a civil war with ill effects for the wider region.
Security...
Russia's apparent military support for the Syrian regime emerged on Wednesday when a Russian ship carrying 60 tonnes of arms for Damascus was stopped in Cyprus.
The MV Chariot, which set off from St Petersburg in early December, was forced to...
The US and France have condemned a speech by Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad which blamed an "external conspiracy" for the mass uprising against his rule.
The US state department said President Assad had thrown "responsibility on everybody but back...
TANYA NOLAN: European leaders are demanding an investigation into the first killing of a western journalist inside Syria.
French TV reporter Gilles Jacquier was killed in the central city of Homs while on a trip sanctioned by the Syrian government.
He...
Opposition activists in Syria have accused the government of deceiving Arab League monitors.
Military vehicles have been replaced to make it look as though the army has left city centres as required by an Arab League peace plan, activists said.
At...
(CNN) -- Arab League monitors remain in Syria, and more are on the way, a top official with the Arab body said, despite a call by an Arab League advisor to pull the observers out.
An advance team of monitors returned to Cairo on Sunday after 10...
DAMASCUS — Activists piled pressure Monday on Arab monitors to do more to prevent Syrian forces pursuing their brutal crackdown against pro-democracy protesters, amid fresh criticism of the observer mission.
The Arab League insisted however it...
The government had promised to release more than 700 detainees from jails last week as part of a peace plan drawn up by the Arab League.
Under the plan monitors have also been allowed to observe confrontations on Syria's streets between protesters...
NICOSIA: More than 250,000 people rallied across the Syrian region of Idlib on Friday as security forces shot dead at least five demonstrators and fired nail bombs at a crowd elsewhere, a watchdog said.
The anti-regime protests in the flashpoint...
Syrian security forces have reportedly clashed with protesters, leaving at least 10 dead, as tens of thousands took to the streets across the country.
Activists said several people were injured when troops opened fire to disperse a demonstration...
BEIRUT—Arab League observers arrived in the restive city of Homs on Tuesday as a massive protest against the government erupted and deadly clashes with security forces left more than a dozen people killed, according to Syrian human-rights organizations.
The...
The Department of Foreign Affairs on Tuesday said that although most of the 5,000 Filipinos in strife-torn Syria are undocumented, the Philippine government will not discriminate in its mandatory repatriation program and will extend aid to all Philippine...
Thousands of demonstrators have rallied in the Syrian city of Homs, activists said, as Arab League peace monitors arrived in the protest flashpoint.
The observers are verifying compliance with an Arab League peace plan that requires an end to...
(VATICAN CITY) — Pope Benedict XVI called for an end to the bloodshed in Syria and the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in his Christmas message Sunday, an appeal for peace that was challenged by deadly attacks on Nigerian churches....
(Reuters) - A Sudanese general flew to Damascus Sunday to head an Arab League mission that will check Syria's compliance with an Arab peace plan to halt a nine-month crackdown on unrest in which more than 5,000 people have been killed.
General...
OTTAWA -- Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird has announced new measures against Syria's totalitarian regime, while upbraiding the UN for its failure to act decisively in the face of what he calls clear human-rights violations.
Canada is freezing...
SYRIA'S Muslim Brotherhood has claimed responsibility for suicide bombings in Damascus that killed 44 people, saying they were the first step in liberating the capital and that more attacks were to come.
The claim on Saturday contradicted assertions...
They arrive in the midst of a new international uproar over activist reports that government troops killed more than 200 people in two days, with Turkey condemning President Bashar al-Assad over the "bloodbath."
The opposition suspects Assad's...
SYRIA- The U.S. embassy in Syria is pulling out some of its staff due to the deteriorating security situation in the country, the State Department announced Wednesday.
U.S. Ambassador Robert Ford remains in country and officials say there has...
A team of Arab observers have headed to Syria as neighbouring Turkey condemned President Bashar Assad for turning his country into a "bloodbath" after the regime killed more than 200 people this week.
The latest deaths in the nine-month uprising...
The Syrian National Council, an alliance of opposition groups including the Muslim Brotherhood, opened its first office, located in Istanbul, a member of the bloc said.
The council plans to hold a vote for a parliament in exile, said Motee al-Bateen,...
BEIRUT: Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri said Wednesday that he “openly and proudly” supports the uprising of the Syrian people, one day after Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah repeated his support for the Syrian regime.“If Hezbollah openly...
Jordanian officials have struck down the possibility of establishing a buffer zone along the Kingdom's border with Syria amidst growing calls from the international community for greater efforts to protect Syrian civilians.
According to Minister...
Syria says it has responded "positively" to an Arab League demand to let observers into the country to verify a pledge by President Bashar al-Assad to stop a deadly crackdown on a pro-democracy uprising.
Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad...
French authorities have increased security for Syria">Syrian opposition members, who have come here, for helping them to be exempt from threat, the interior minister said Friday.
Claude Gueant did not specify the nature of the threats or of the...
American vice president Joe Biden was today holding urgent talks with Turkish president Abdullah Gul over Syria's future.
Thousands of Syrian refugees have been pouring over the border into Turkey over recent weeks fleeing president Bashar al-Assad's...
A special session of the UN Human Rights Council has been asked to adopt an independent report that the Syrian regime has committed multiple crimes against humanity in its crackdown on protests.
Navi Pillay, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human...
Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa said Indonesia had recalled the Indonesian ambassador to Syria following escalating tensions in the Middle Eastern country.
“This shows our concern for what happen in Syria,” Marty said on Thursday as quoted by...
The Russian government announced Tuesday that from December, a flotilla of warships will be sent to the naval base that it has in Syria.
Russian warships were sent to the military base in Syria. The fleet is led by the aircraft carrier Admiral...
BRUSSELS (AP) — Britain's foreign minister accused Iran's government Thursday of supporting repression in Syria, as he and European Union counterparts discussed imposing more sanctions on both countries.
Mobs stormed the British Embassy in Tehran,...
DUBAI — Bahrain and Qatar on Sunday called on their citizens to leave unrest-swept Syria after the United Arab Emirates also advised its citizens to stay away.
The call, issued on the day the Arab League was deciding on sanctions against Damascus...
Members of the Arab League are set to vote on an unprecedented array of economic sanctions against Syria.
The proposals include the halting of dealings with the Syrian central bank, the suspension of commercial flights and a travel ban on senior...
BEIRUT — The European Union said Thursday that protecting civilians caught up in Syria's crackdown on anti-government protests "is an increasingly urgent and important aspect" of responding to the bloodshed there. At least three more people were...
Ankara could be forced to launch a cross-border operation against Syria if Damascus were to allow the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) to attack Turkey from its territory, President Abdullah Gül has said during a state visit to Britain.
“I...
Arab League ministers are discussing possible economic sanctions against Syria over its violent crackdown on opposition protests.
The meeting in Cairo comes after the government of President Bashar al-Assad objected to the league's plan to deploy...
“Sadly, things in Syria have reached a dead end and unfortunately things do not look bright in Syria. We have never wanted Syria to come to these days. That's why we shared our opinions with our Syrian friends, both publicly and behind closed doors,...
BEIRUT — Syria faced renewed international pressure Sunday as the Arab League said it would meet this week to consider new moves against the country, after a deadline for the government to end a crackdown on protesters and admit international monitors...
Despite strained diplomacy between France and Turkey, the two nations have found mostly common ground in supporting Syrian opposition.
A French objection to Ankara's bid to join the European Union has severely strained ties between the powers,...
Syrian troops have stormed a central town and a north-western region in search of regime opponents, activists said, a day after the government agreed in principle to allow the Arab League to send observers to oversee a peace plan proposed by the...
Canada is watching violence in Syria but stepping in would require more thought and possibly a UN resolution, Defence Minister Peter MacKay says.
MacKay spoke about Syria hours before meeting with Israeli counterpart Ehud Barak to talk about regional...
Russia's Foreign Minister has said the situation in Syria is beginning to resemble civil war after defected soldiers attacked a key army base.
Sergei Lavrov said the Arab League must call on all sides to end the violence.
Last month Moscow...
The Arab League gave Syria three days to end an eight-month crackdown on protests and allow in teams of observers, signalling its patience with Damascus was running out. League foreign ministers meeting in Morocco said in a statement they had also...
Syria has been told it will be suspended from the Arab League – and faces the threat of sanctions in the Arab world – if it does not agree to end its bloody crackdown on anti-government protesters. The vote in Cairo took place after Syria had failed...
Saudi Arabia has condemned an attack on its embassy in Damascus by supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The Saudi and Qatari embassies were stormed by crowds after both countries voted to suspend Syria from meetings of the Arab League.
Saudi...
Syrian tanks mounted with machine-guns opened fire in the city of Homs yesterday, killing at least nine people, activists said.
The shooting came in defiance of a day-old agreement between the Syrian government and the Arab League to end nearly...
Telegraph , 02/11/2011
On the pavements and at the roundabouts, there are sandbagged army encampments. As you pass, the soldiers follow you with the barrels of their rifles.
High above, on the old Byzantine citadel, the regime has set up sniper positions, so it can...
KHARTOUM Oct 28 (Reuters) - Hundreds of Sudanese Islamists and others staged a rare demonstration in central Khartoum on Friday in solidarity with Syria's anti-government protesters and called for an end to President Bashar al-Assad's crackdown.
Large...
At least 37 people have been killed in crackdowns during protests calling for the downfall of the government held across Syria after Friday prayers.
The deaths took place mostly in Homs and Hama as protesters called for a no-fly-zone to be imposed,...
Dead Sea, Jordan (CNN) — No one has any idea how to deal with what’s happening in Syria, Jordan’s King Abdullah told CNN, saying he has “great concern” about how things will develop there.
“I don’t think there’s anybody in the region or outside...
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Robert S. Ford, the American ambassador to Damascus, who has been outspoken in criticizing Syria’s crackdown on popular protests, has left the country because of what American officials called threats to his safety.
Enlarge This...
DAMASCUS — Syria's military clampdown on protest hubs, and skirmishes pitting soldiers against armed gunmen, believed to be defectors, killed at least 11 people dead on Saturday, activists said.
Meanwhile, Iran, Syria's key ally, took a tougher...
The international acclaim for the Libyan revolution is being tempered by growing revulsion at the treatment of the bodies of Muammar Gaddafi and his son Mutassim.
As investigations continue into the circumstances of their deaths, their bullet-ridden...
The top U.S. diplomat in Syria warned Friday that rising violence in Syrian cities is fueling concerns of civil war, and he accused the Syrian government of deliberately exacerbating tensions between ethnic and religious groups.
U.S. Ambassador...
The Foreign Office rebuked Syria's ambassador on Thursday over the alleged intimidation dissidents in Britain as growing anger with the scale of bloodshed triggered moves to freeze the assets of a major Syrian bank.
William Hague, the Foreign Secretary,...
The United Nations has said the death toll in seven months of protests in Syria against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad has reached 3,000.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said at least 187 children were among the dead and...
Reporting from Beirut—
More than six months after mass protests began spreading through the streets of Syria, activists say they remain committed to a peaceful rebellion against the government of President Bashar Assad, despite a rising death toll,...
(Reuters) – The U.S. State Department on Friday accused the Syria government of escalating acts of intimidation against prominent opposition leaders, as part of a deadly crackdown on protests against President Bashar al-Assad.
Pro-government gangs...
Bashar al-Assad can feel satisfied that powerful allies have stood by him and prevented international action that might just have given him pause for thought as he pursues his vicious crackdown on Syria's protest movement.
The veto by Russia and...
ISTANBUL — Syrian opposition movements announced the formation of a "historic" united front against President Bashar al-Assad's regime at a meeting in Turkey on Sunday.
Syrian troops, meanwhile, have taken control of the central city of Rastan...
Syrian security forces killed at least 17 protesters yesterday as Europeans in the United Nations Security Council moved toward agreement with Russia and China on a resolution pressing Syria to halt the violence.
The killings took place yesterday...
NEW YORK — US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged China to back a strong UN Security Council resolution on Syria when she met Monday with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi, a senior US official said.
Their conversation "had to do with...
The Daily Telegraph has witnessed devastating scenes from the key city of Al Rastan – a city which bridges the country’s north-south divide – in which tanks and other heavy weapons are being used against schools and homes.
Armed opposition groups...
David Cameron will today demand swifter military action and sanctions against rogue states and dictators that slaughter their own people.
In his first speech to the United Nations, the Prime Minister will say that the organisation needs to stop...
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan lashed out against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad Friday, saying the era of oppressive dictators is over.
Erdogan is in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, Friday as he completes a tour of North African countries....
Russia has rejected calls from the United States and Western Europe for greater sanctions against Syria for its violent crackdown on protesters.
"Tough" but "balanced"
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Monday there is no need for additional...
The UN Human Rights Council has appointed three experts who are to examine human rights violations in Syria, as mandated during an August session.
The panel includes Yakin Erturk of Turkey, Sergio Pinheiro of Brazil, and Karen Abu Zeid of the...
Americans told stories of loved ones, read from Scripture and waved the flag Sunday as they honored the memories of those who died in the Sept. 11 attacks a decade ago and rekindled the sense of unity that cut through the sorrow that day.
At...
(Reuters) - Syria has repeatedly blocked United Nations requests to admit human rights monitors, said a U.N. official who stressed that regional bodies such as the Arab League are key to reaching a long-term political solution to the crisis.
U.N....
Reuters) - Syrian forces stepped up raids across the country to arrest activists on Sunday after one of the bloodiest weeks in the six-month uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, residents and activists said.
Dozens of people were seized in...
Syrian security forces killed 18 people yesterday, even as Arab League Secretary-General Nabil el-Arabi said President Bashar al-Assad agreed on measures to implement political changes.
Twelve protesters died in the central region of Homs, three...
Alain Juppe, France's foreign minister, has stepped up pressure on veto-wielding Russia to support a UN Security Council resolution against the Syrian government's bloody crackdown on protests.
Speaking during a visit to Australia on Sunday, Juppe...
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Syria opened its main prison in Damascus on Monday to a delegation from the International Committee of the Red Cross for the first time since the uprising started in mid-March, amid hopes that the move could begin to reveal the...
A further 17 people were wounded as gunmen ambushed the bus near Hama, Sana reported, adding that three gunmen were killed in an ensuing gunfight.
Syria blames foreign-backed armed groups for the ongoing protests against the rule of President...
BEIRUT—The European Union banned all import of Syrian crude oil on Friday to protest Damascus's violent suppression of demonstrators, but the standoff between protesters and President Bashar al-Assad's government showed no signs of subsiding.
Security...
VIENNA (AP) — Syria has reneged on a promise to quickly cooperate with a U.N. probe of its nuclear activities, saying it won't be able to provide more information to challenge an assessment that it tried to build a plutonium-producing reactor until...
BEIRUT (AP) — Syria faced international calls for tougher sanctions as anti-government protesters vowed Friday they will choose death over humiliation at the hands of the regime.
The 5-month-old uprising in Syria shows no sign of slowing down,...
A Russian envoy called on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to halt violence against protesters immediately and implement promised political changes.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov delivered the demands in a message from President...
Syrian security forces have reportedly killed one person and wounded several others protesting at a mosque in the capital, Damascus.
Activists said "thousands" of people took to the streets in Kafarsouseh, a western suburb, to protest against...
A UN investigative team has wrapped up its visit to Syria, concluding that "there is an urgent need to protect civilians" from excessive force.
The team, the first Syria has allowed in since a deadly crackdown on protests began in March, said...
In a combative and score-settling new book, former vice-president Dick Cheney reveals how he unsuccessfully tried to persuade his boss George W Bush to bomb a suspected Syrian nuclear site, and takes sharp aim at his "moderate" rivals of the time,...
Reuters) - The U.S. and European push to impose U.N. Security Council sanctions on Syria for its bloody crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators is meeting fierce resistance from Russia and China, U.N. diplomats said.
The United States, Britain,...
At least 15 people have been killed in the past 24 hours in the continued crackdown on protesters by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, as the European Union and United Nations planned more sanctions against his regime.
EU governments are likely...
Beirut --
Syrian security forces fired on protesters in the central province of Homs on Saturday, killing two people and wounding at least eight, as President Bashar Assad pushed ahead with a brutal crackdown despite assurances to the U.N. chief...
Reuters , 22/08/2011
(Reuters) - Syria was in the dock at an urgent session of the U.N. Human Rights Council which began on Monday and which the U.S. envoy said underscored the growing international isolation of President Bashar al-Assad.
The United States, the European...
Syrian security forces killed at least 25 protesters yesterday, activists said, as UN officials prepared to advise the Security Council that President Bashar al-Assad’s five-month crackdown has violated international law.
At least 15 people were...
Barack Obama has led a demand by world leaders for the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, to surrender power. The US president declared that the "sustained onslaught" of Assad's regime against pro-democracy protesters had cost it all legitimacy.
The...
BEIRUT: Syrian security forces, cracking down on opposition strongholds in the city of Latakia, herded thousands of people into a stadium after taking away their identification cards and mobile phones, activists said.
Iranian snipers have also...
Syrian security forces are pounding the port city of Latakia for a fourth straight day as part of the government's widening crackdown on dissent.
Activists and residents say at least five people were killed Tuesday in Latakia. They say security...
As the Assad regime on Sunday escalated its brutal crackdown by sending gunboats to shell the coastal city of Latakia, yet the rebellion shows no sign of abating despite at least 1,700 deaths so far, Syria's fate may come to rest less in the hands...
Syrian gunboats firing heavy machine guns have pounded impoverished districts of Latakia.
Activists said at least five people were killed in a renewed assault on the Mediterranean coastal city.
As the gunships blasted waterfront districts,...
A doctor in the Syrian city of Hama has told the BBC that medical services there have been severely affected by recent government attacks.
The doctor, who cannot be named for his safety, said two hospitals were closed and one had been stormed...
At least 14 protesters have been killed in a fresh crackdown by security forces in Syria during another day of anti-regime demonstrations, human rights groups say.
Tens of thousands of people gathered in the capital Damascus, as well as Homs,...
DAMASCUS — Syrian forces killed at least 10 people on Thursday while the army stormed another two towns in pursuit of anti-regime protesters, defying Western calls for action after a "chilling" UN Security Council briefing.
The killings occurred...
President Barack Obama is expected to issue the first explicit demand for regime change in Syria within the next few days in a fresh attempt to escalate the pressure on Mr Assad, CNN quoted administration officials as saying.
The announcement...
DAMASCUS — Syrian forces killed five people Thursday as they stormed another two towns in pursuit of anti-regime protesters, defying Western calls for action after a "chilling" UN Security Council briefing.
The killings occurred soon after columns...
Syrian tanks stormed two northwestern towns near the border with Turkey, expanding its military offensive to crush protests, local residents said, a day after Ankara pressed Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to end killings of civilians.
The Syrian...
Pressure is mounting on Syrian president Bashar al-Assad as key leaders in the region have moved to strongly condemn ongoing violence in the country.
Kuwait's foreign minister announced on Monday that his country would be recalling their ambassador...
Syrian forces killed more than 50 people yesterday as they launched full-scale military assaults on two towns that had seen major protests in opposition to the Assad family's four-decade rule.
The relentless crackdown was swiftly followed by a...
Mr Hague's comments came after bodies littered the streets of Hama on Sunday as the Syrian army launched major tank offensives across the country in a fresh bid to crush the uprising against President Assad.
Speaking on Radio 4's Today programme...
UN Security Council is expected to meet to discuss the worsening violence in Syria, which saw one of the bloodiest days on the streets of Syria since an anti-government uprising began more than four months ago.
Human rights groups say around 140...
Syrian security forces have fired at demonstrators in the southern city of Deraa as tens of thousands again took to the streets across the country after Friday prayers to demand the downfall of President Bashar al-Assad, witnesses and activists said.
"They...
BEIRUT – A global campaigning organization said Thursday that one person disappears in Syria every hour and that almost 3,000 people have gone missing since the start of the uprising against President Bashar Assad more than four months ago.
The...
By closing its embassy in Damascus and calling back its ambassador to Doha, Qatar is contributing to Syria’s growing international isolation, says political scientist Karim Sader. By Marc DAOU (text) On Monday July 18, Qatar, one of Syria’s solid...
Syria's deteriorating economy is expected to have a negative impact on banks in neighbouring Lebanon, says Moody's Investors Service. Lebanon's banking sector has increased its exposure to Syria in recent years. Bank Audi, Blom Bank and to a lesser...
ISTANBUL, July 16 (Xinhua) -- Top U.S. and Turkish officials on Saturday called on the Syrian government to implement reforms immediately and stop the use of excessive force against citizens.
"The Syrian people are demanding reforms. We saw the...
(CNN) -- Syrian forces moved into a city near the Lebanese border Sunday, detaining dozens of people, residents said.
Tanks rumbled in before dawn into Zabadani, about 25 miles north of Damascus.Residents of the city had called for the ouster...
Security forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad met antigovernment protests throughout the country with violence Friday in defiance of increased Western pressure on the regime to radically reform.
At least 27 people were reported killed,...
Many say they are fleeing the town of Jisr al-Shughour ahead of an expected military assault after dozens of soldiers were reportedly killed there.
Residents who stayed in the town have set up road-blocks in an attempt to stop security forces from...
David Cameron today warned Russia and China not to block international moves to condemn the violent suppression of anti-government protests in Syria.
The Prime Minister confirmed that Britain and France would be formally tabling a draft resolution...
Senior Foreign Office sources said that there is "credible information" that Tehran is providing riot control gear and paramilitary training to Syrian security forces.
Moreover, members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard have been providing technical...
Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd has called on the United Nations to refer Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to the International Criminal Court.
Mr Rudd on Wednesday announced he had widened Australia's sanctions against Mr Assad's regime as Syria...
The new face of the Syrian revolution is chubby, has a winning smile and belongs to a 13-year-old named Hamza al-Khatib.
The boy, from a village called al-Jizah near the southern city of Deraa, has become the most famous victim yet of Syria's...
European states have submitted a draft resolution to the United Nations security council condemning Syria for its deadly crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, diplomats said.
Britain, France, Germany and Portugal circulated the resolution to...
At least 11 mourners have been killed and at least 27 wounded in Homs after security forces opened fire on a massive funeral procession, according to human rights activists.
More than 40,000 people gathered in Homs on Saturday for the funerals...
Syria's security forces opened fire on demonstrators in a Damascus suburb and at least two other cities Friday, killing 21 people, according to a human rights group, as President Bashar al-Assad continues to defy U.S. pressure to stop the violent...
.Syria intensified a crackdown on anti-government protesters with a coordinated attack on several suburbs of the capital, Damascus, and on a city in the southern governorate of Daraa, where the unrest began two months ago.
The suburbs of Kanakir,...
"We will be taking additional steps in the days ahead," US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said after talks with EU top diplomat Catherine Ashton.
The US and EU have already imposed sanctions on some members of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's...
Thirteen bodies have been retrieved from a mass grave in Deraa, the hub of Syria's protest movement, according to residents cited by rights organisations.
People from the southern city say hundreds are unaccounted for since a crackdown on protests...
(Reuters) - Heavy gunfire was heard in the Syrian border town of Tel Kelakh on Sunday, residents said, and authorities in neighboring Lebanon tightened security after hundreds fled from Syrian troops deployed to crush protests.
The town, just...
DAMASCUS : At least five people were killed in Syria, activists said, despite an order from President Bashar al-Assad for security forces not to open fire on protesters and an offer of dialogue.
Friday's bloodshed cast a pall over the government's...
This is the moment a Syrian soldier stamps on the bodies of handcuffed residents who were laid out on the ground during a brutal military crackdown on protests.
Thousands of people had gathered across the Middle Eastern country to voice their anger...
Syrian security forces are continuing their crackdown on anti-government protests across the country, with army tanks shelling the third city of Homs.
Several reports say the residential district of Bab Amro came under attack in the early hours...
Sami Khiyami’s invitation to the royal wedding was rescinded yesterday morning amid mounting criticism of the Syrian regime’s killing of hundreds of civilian protesters in recent weeks.
The Foreign Office had originally defended his invitation...
DAMASCUS — Activists called for "day of rage" protests across Syria after the Friday weekly Muslim prayers, piling pressure on President Bashar al-Assad as his regime pressed a violent crackdown on dissent.
The looming showdown comes as the UN...
WASHINGTON — The White House Friday expressed concern over the violence in Syria and called on all sides to stop the unrest, as rights groups said Syrian forces killed more than 70 people during protests.
"We deplore the use of violence," White...
Mr Assad responded to growing popular pressure by lifting Syria’s draconian 1962 emergency laws. But the president’s apparently conciliatory gesture failed to signal a softening of the regime’s determination to crush dissent.
Across the country,...
An opportunistic proponent of the mass anti-government protests sweeping the Middle East and North Africa, Iran is discovering that they constitute a mixed blessing.
For months, the Islamic republic touted the protests that toppled the leaders...
CAIRO — Weeks of clashes in Syria between protesters and the government intensified on Monday and early Tuesday as security forces fired on a crowd of thousands of demonstrators in the central square of the city of Homs, witnesses said.
The crowd...
Tens of thousands of people chanting "Freedom!" have held protests in several Syrian cities to demand greater reforms than the limited concessions offered by president Bashar Assad.
The largest protests were on the outskirts of the capital, Damascus,...
A man in a white shirt lies motionless, apparently dead, on an otherwise empty road, his arms and legs splayed at awkward angles. Intense gunfire crackles as four black-clad anti-riot policemen in helmets and shields run up to the body, several beat...
Syria is in its fourth week of unrest as anti-government protests persist, and the death toll climbs with 171 killed thus far according to Amnesty International.
Conflicting reports emanating from Syria provide an unclear picture as to who is...
THOUSANDS of women staged a sit-in yesterday on a main highway in north-eastern Syria to demand the release of hundreds of people arrested in protests in the region.
''More than 5000 women are gathered on the main road linking the towns of Tartus...
The National Oganisation for Human Rights in Syria said 26 were killed in the southern city of Deraa and two in the central province of Homs.
A spokesman for the group said security and police forces had "dispersed peaceful gatherings in a number...
Dubai: Supporters of the March 14 coalition gathered at Beirut's Martyrs' Square Sunday morning, to attend a rally to mark the sixth anniversary of the founding of the alliance.
The rally is aimed at sending a message to the Hezbollah alliance...
Cairo (Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - Syria's Permanent Representative to the Arab League (AL), Yousef Ahmad, on Saturday stressed that any resolution adopted by the League should take into consideration, in a practical, clear-cut, and methodological...
Syria has been enigmatic about its nuclear program ever since Israeli air force jets destroyed a reactor in the middle of the night in September 2007. Mystery surrounded the incident. Even the U.S. took weeks to confirm that what had been hit was...
The United States has threatened Syria with an international isolation similar to that of Iran and North Korea. Washington and the International nuclear watchdog IAEA have demanded that Damascus should allow IAEA inspectors visit sites which intelligence...
DAMASCUS — Twelve Syrian human rights organisations called on the government on Tuesday to scrap the state of emergency which has stifled civil society for almost 50 years.
"The state of emergency affects human rights and public freedoms which are...
DAMASCUS, Syria -- Syria released a leading lawyer and human rights activist who was imprisoned since 2009 for "spreading false information" after giving a television interview that criticized excessive government security and corruption, human rights...
VIENNA — Syria has agreed to a vist by inspectors from the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency to a nuclear site for the first time since June 2008, diplomats said Wednesday.
The site, at Homs in the west of the country, is known to...
Following developments in the Middle East, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said he is willing to open peace negotiations with Syria but that ceding the Golan Heights is not an option. In closed talks with senior officials in the international...
NICOSIA — A Facebook page has called for mass protests in Syria and in several Western countries against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad.
The organisers of the page, which had 25,000 fans early on Saturday, said the date for demonstrations...
The Obama administration should adopt further economic penalties against Syria following reports that another site in the Middle Eastern nation might have been involved in undisclosed atomic work, U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee...
Tensions are mounting in the Syrian capital, Damascus, after the third peaceful demonstration in three weeks was violently dispersed on Wednesday. There are increasing reports of intimidation and blocking of communications by secret services in the...
WASHINGTON – Syria established four additional nuclear facilities aside from the one bombed by Israel in 2007, the US Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) reported late Wednesday.
The report, which was published alongside a report...
DAMASCUS — A jailed Syrian Kurdish blogger and rights activist, Kamal Hussein Sheikho, is on a hunger strike, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
"He began a hunger strike five days ago in protest of his detention," said the...
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accuses Iran of exploiting Egypt's political crisis by sending two warships through the Suez Canal.
Suez Canal officials in Egypt identify the ships as a frigate and a supply ship on their way to Syria....
Phone from a mobile or landline International calls for less www.DialToSave.co.uk/Syria
Damascus, Feb 20 (IANS) The Syrian government has started giving out cash payments to thousands of poor people in an effort to tackle the high levels of...
It was a small protest by Tunisian or Egyptian standards, only 1,500 people, but the spontaneous gathering in Damascus on Thursday may turn out to be the spark that ignites mass demonstrations in Syria.
It began with a Syrian man and traffic police...
JERUSALEM—Israel's foreign minister on Wednesday accused Iran of staging a "provocation" by sending a warship on a course to sail through the Suez Canal and past Israel's Mediterranean coast to Syria.
Israel's defense minister and U.S. officials,...
DAMASCUS // Syria has rebuffed an unprecedented personal request from the director general of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog for more cooperation in an ongoing investigation.
A series of news reports this week revealed that Yukiya Amano,...
WASHINGTON — Washington on Saturday called on Damascus to release Tal Al-Mallouhi, a young female blogger US officials say was prosecuted in a "secret trial" on accusations that she spied for the United States.
"The United States strongly condemns...
BEIRUT – Internet users in Syria say Facebook and YouTube are available for the first time in three years amid signs Damascus may be lifting its ban on the websites.
The Syrian government does not comment on its Internet restrictions. But several...
Calls for protests in Syria are spreading on social media websites, following popular uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.
Organisers say protests will be staged in front of the parliament in the capital, Damascus, on Friday and Saturday, and at Syrian...
The political quarreling over President Obama’s appointment of Robert Ford as U.S. Ambassador to Syria distracts from the original reason for the decision. Rather than focus on the process of Ford’s appointment, the debate should center on the strategic...
It has been almost six years since a brutal bombing in Beirut killed Lebanon's Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and 22 others on Valentine's Day 2005. This week, the UN prosecutor overseeing the investigation finally submitted sealed indictments to the...
Damacus raises heating oil allowance by 72 percent
* Gov't hitherto had been slashing subsidies
* Syrian media blame Tunisia disorder on closeness to West
By Khaled Yacoub Oweis
DAMASCUS, Jan 16 (Reuters) - Syrian authorities sharply...
TUNIS — Power in Tunisia changed hands again Saturday morning in the aftermath of President Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali’s flight from the country as soldiers kept the city under a tight lockdown, sporadic nighttime riots simmered down and clouds of smoke...
A senior Syrian source told Ahram Online that the newly appointed US Ambassador to Damascus Robert Ford is already in Syria and will begin his work officially on Saturday. The source said that Syria considers Ford’s appointment “a very positive step...
BAGHDAD — Syria's prime minister arrived Saturday in Baghdad for a two-day visit — a major step toward improving relations that were strained by Iraqi allegations that the Syrians were harbouring Iraqi insurgents.
Government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh...
DAMASCUS — Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt was in Damascus on Saturday for talks with President Bashar al-Assad on the political crisis sparked by the collapse of Saad Hariri's government in Lebanon, state news agency SANA reported.
Political...
DAMASCUS, Syria — Syria has ordered the sentence for those convicted of honor killings tripled to between five and seven years.
The local press reported Monday that President Bashar Assad amended the current law which stipulated a jail sentence...
Malcolm Hoenlein, a prominent U.S. Jewish leader, secretly visited Damascus about two weeks ago and met with Syrian President Bashar Assad and Foreign Minister Walid Moallem, the Israeli daily Yediot Achronot reported.
Hoenlein, the executive...
DAMASCUS - A casino opened without fanfare near the Syrian capital on Christmas Eve, in a bending of the rules in a secular country seeking to lure tourists but where gambling is banned out of respect for Islam.
"The casino was packed, the money...
Jewish American leader says during Damascus meeting with Assad he requested information on missing Sultan Yacoub soldiers, asked that Syria allow Eli Cohen's bones to be brought to Israel
Senior US Jewish leader Malcolm Hoenlein secretly visited...
The Republicans claimed the appointment of Robert Ford, a career diplomat, would inappropriately reward Damascus while it still has strong ties to Hizbollah, the paramilitary group.
Mr Obama used the opportunity of a Congress in recess to appoint...
Kuwaiti paper 'Al-Rai' reports Syrian officials told Dennis Ross they are prepared to distance themselves from Iran, Hizbullah and Hamas and cooperate with the war on terrorism; US pressuring Israel to make concessions.
The US has been secretly...
DAMASCUS // More than a million Syrians enduring the driest winter in decades are facing "disaster", a United Nations agriculture official has warned.
Syria's eastern "breadbasket" region has already suffered four consecutive years of drought...
A U.S. diplomatic cable appearing on the Wikileaks website says Syria promoted violent protests against controversial cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad four years ago in which European embassies in Damascus were attacked.
The cable quotes the U.S....
President Obama on Wednesday appointed the first U.S. ambassador to Syria since 2005, using a recess appointment to bypass opposition from Senate Republicans.
Because he was appointed while the Senate is in recess, Robert Ford, a career diplomat,...
Beirut media outlets report compromise offer drafted by King Abdullah, Assad calls on Lebanese premier to reject probe into his father's assassination in exchange for Hezbollah guarantee he would not be harmed
Media outlets in Beirut reported...
Newly-leaked US government cables are showing that Syria supported the attacks on the Scandinavian embassies in its capital four years ago.
The attacks on the embassies of Denmark and Norway in early 2006 came amid violent protests over the publication...
Israel destroyed a secret Syrian nuclear reactor in September 2007, according to a US diplomatic cable cited Friday in the Israeli Yediot Ahronoth daily.
The cable, which the Israeli paper said it had obtained ahead of its publication by WikiLeaks,...
22 December 2010 – The Security Council today extended the mandate of the United Nations force observing the ceasefire between Israel and Syria on the Golan Heights for a further six months, until 30 June 2011.
The 15-member body took that action...
A WikiLeaks document released Thursday night reveals that the United States had asked the Indian government to intervene in a potential deal between local companies and the Syrian Scientific Research Council, a body directly involved in the country's...
NEW YORK — Human Rights Watch called on Friday for Syrian authorities to release an opposition activist who criticised last year's presidential poll in Iran, an ally of Damascus.
"Syrian authorities should not prosecute a political activist for...
Tuesday, 30 December 2008, 14:27
S E C R E T STATE 135048
SENSITIVE
SIPDIS
EO 12958 DECL: 12/23/2033
TAGS PARM, ETTC, SY, IN, PREL
SUBJECT: SHIELD S04B-08: SYRIA ARRANGING TO ACQUIRE CW
EQUIPMENT FROM TWO INDIAN COMPANIES
Classified...
DAMASCUS – Syria's capital was on Sunday lashed by a snowstorm which disrupted traffic but brought some relief from a drought which has gripped the country for the past four years.
Mount Qassioun, on the edge of Damascus, was covered in a light...
Another leaked U.S. diplomatic cable reveals that Damascus told a senior Iranian delegation to Damascus that it would not assist Iran in retaliating for an Israeli strike against Iranian nuclear facilities.
The cable, dated December 20, 2009,...
that it would not assist Iran in retaliating for an Israeli strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, according to an American diplomatic cable published on Wednesday by WikiLeaks.
Written by the US Embassy in Damascus, the cable, dated December...
American diplomatic cables released on the WikiLeaks site reveal diplomatic efforts to prevent a flare-up between Israel and Syria last February due to the movement of long-range Scud D missiles from Syria to Hezbollah.
The secret cables reveal...
Thursday, 01 May 2008, 12:17
S E C R E T SECTION 01 OF 03 BEIRUT 000586
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
NSC FOR ABRAMS/SINGH/YERGER/GAVITO
USUN FOR WOLFF/PHEE/KUMAR
EO 12958 DECL: 04/30/2018
TAGS PGOV, PREL, KJUS, UNGA, SY, LE
SUBJECT: LEBANON: JUMBLATT...
IN BEIRUT Syria's fresh interference in Lebanon and its increasingly sophisticated weapons shipments to Hezbollah have alarmed American officials and prompted Israel's military to consider a strike against a Syrian weapons depot that supplies the...
Reporting from Beirut — Syrian President Bashar Assad described Hamas as an "uninvited guest" in his country in confidential conversations with American lawmakers, and appeared to suggest he would be willing to give up the alliance in exchange for...
In a February meeting with US Senators, Syrian President Bashar Assad maintained that IAEA monitoring of Iran's nuclear program would ensure that the Islamic Republic's pursuit of nuclear power was for civilian purposes only. The comments were revealed...
US Senator John Kerry said he believed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu needs to compromise and work the return of the Golan Heights to Syria into a formula for peace. Kerry made the statement to the Amir of Qatar in a February meeting between the...
A source has reported that young blogger Tal Al Mallouhi has been transferred to the state security court in Damascus, and that "she has been interrogated a week ago in court." The source added, youngest conscience prisoner in the world "is now awaiting...
The United States is about to push for so-called special inspections in Syria by the U.N. nuclear watchdog, a rarely used tool to seek access in a country that otherwise denies entry to sensitive sites, diplomats familiar with the issue say.
After...
Syria played a major role in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in February 2005, and the UN probe into the murder is wrongly absolving it of guilt, Western intelligence sources familiar with the probe told Haaretz.
The...
Syria is refusing UN nuclear inspectors access to multiple suspect sites and has provided scant or inconsistent information about its atomic activities, an International Atomic Energy Agency report showed.
For over two years Syria has blocked...
(Reuters) - The ancient Inezi tribe of Syria reared camels in the sandswept lands north of the Euphrates river from the time of the Prophet Mohammad. Now water shortages have consigned that way of life to distant memory.
Drought in the past five...
DAMASCUS, (SANA)- UN Human Rights Special Rapporteur on Health Anand Grover on Sunday appreciated the health policy adopted in Syria and its laws which frankly stipulate for the right of every citizen to get medicine in addition to its care for the...
The head of the UN nuclear watchdog said he could demand intrusive inspections of Syria's atomic activities because of its refusal to give access. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) wants access to get to the Dair Alzour desert site that...
The Iranian intelligence minister has arrived in the Syrian capital of Damascus to hold talks with the country's officials on bilateral relations.
"Iran and Syria have achieved success in their cooperation and relations in the past…and we hope...
The United States unleashed a unusually brusque diplomatic fusillade at Syria on Thursday, with Susan E. Rice, the American ambassador to the United Nations, accusing Damascus of working in cahoots with Iran to destabilize Lebanon by arming Hezbollah...
Russia does not have a contract to supply MiG-31 Foxhound fighter jets to Syria, the head of the Russian state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport said on Wednesday.
Media rumors about the sales of at least six MiG-31 aircraft to Damascus under...
The Obama administration is justifiably proud of how it has managed to "reset" relations with Russia, and how it has managed to build international pressure against Iran after its efforts at engagement were spurned.
But the reset button for Syria...
French newspaper Le Figaro published a special in-depth report Tuesday, revealing how Syria and Lebanon are both allowing and aiding Hezbollah in building up its arsenal.
The report unveils three Hezbollah logistical units based in Syria and Lebanon,...
Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe on Friday concluded a two-day visit to Syria where he focused on strengthening ties between the two countries, the presidency said.
He signed two deals to improve investment ventures Ä the Agreement on Economic...
Semi-official Saudi Arabian sources recently informed Syria that Prosecutor in the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, Daniel Bellemare, is expected to postpone issuing the indictment in the investigation into the assassination of former Prime Minister...
Mexico City
Yesterday he was in Syria. Wednesday he was in Iran. That was after visiting Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine. Now he is off to Libya and Portugal.
And all within 10 days.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez's world tours, often to...
AR RAQQAH, Syria — The farmlands spreading north and east of this Euphrates River town were once the breadbasket of the region, a vast expanse of golden wheat fields and bucolic sheep herds.
Now, after four consecutive years of drought, this heartland...
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met yesterday in Damascus. During the meeting the two countries agreed to co-operate in the campaign against terrorist activities staged by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers'...
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki headed to Syria in his first visit to the Syrian capital since the years long diplomatic crisis with Damascus.
Prime Minister Al Maliki is due to meet Syrian President Bashar Al Asad and Prime Minister Mohammed...
Syrian president says envoys from two countries trying to accommodate Syria's demands for Golan Heights return and Israel's security objectives.
Syrian President Bashar Assad said Thursday that the chances of renewing peace talks with Israel are...
A teen blogger who had been held for nine months in Syria’s Duma women’s prison has been charged with espionage, according to several media outlets.
Syrian Intelligence Services summoned Tal al-Mallouhi, 19, in December to interrogate her about...
Syria has accused a young woman blogger of spying for a foreign power after human rights watchdogs raised her case as an example of unjustified restrictions on freedom of expression.
The Associated Press today quoted an unnamed official in Damascus...
Syrian ambassador Ali Abdul Karim Ali called for dialogue among the various Lebanese political leaders to find a way out of the crisis that is looming over the possible indictment by the International Tribunal of Hizbullah members in the murder of...
Authorities in Piraeus today were to continue their inspection of a German-flagged French-owned vessel that had been en route to Syria from North Korea with a cargo believed to comprise banned weapons.
Following a tip-off from another country,...
New York - The new Middle East peace talks are a "dead letter" because of Israel's renewed settlement building in occupied Palestinian territories, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said on Tuesday.
"In Israel there is much talk about peace...
Frail 19-year-old held incommunicado without charge for nine months
Amnesty International is demanding the release of a 19-year-old blogger and student detained in Syria without charge or access to the outside world since the end of last year.
The...
MP Bahia Hariri and Syrian First Lady Asma Assad have held talks on the sidelines of the yearly consultative council meeting of World Links organization in Damascus on Friday, pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat reported.
The newspaper quoted sources...
senior U.S. official said Friday that the United States saw Syria as an essential component in the path to achieving a comprehensive Middle East peace, ahead of a meeting between the U.S. and Syria, scheduled for Monday.
Syria's President...
US Secretary of State will hold rare meeting with Syrian counterpart, in sign of increasing US interest in reviving Israeli-Syrian peace efforts.
Talkbacks (1)
WASHINGTON – US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will hold a rare meeting with her...
Syria’s nascent bourse has not attracted a single non-resident foreign investor since the government allowed non-Syrians to own listed stocks a year ago, the head of the bourse said in remarks published on Thursday.
Mohammad Jleilati told the...
A comparative survey conducted by Nidaasyria correspondent in Damascus showed that General Institution for Social Insurances has recently committed another crime against workers by covering up again for insurance evaders.
From the latest releases,...
Iran seeks to expand cooperation with Syria in education sector
Damascus - The president of an Iranian university on Wednesday met with Syrian officials to discuss ways to boost bilateral cooperation in the fields of education and religious sciences,...
Italian authorities have seized seven tonnes of powerful RDX explosive being shipped from Iran to Syria, police said yesterday.
Anti-mafia police found the cargo, hidden in a consignment of powdered milk, in a container on a Liberian-registered...
Russia will complete the delivery of anti-ship missiles to Syria this year and may sell more arms to the Mideast nation after assessing the impact on the regional balance of power, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said.
The U.S. and Israel...
Russian-made mobile anti-ship missile systems sold to Syria could be used to protect a Russian naval supply and maintenance site near Syria's Mediterranean port of Tartus, a Russian arms trade expert said on Monday.
Russia earlier announced it...
During meeting with Chairman of the German Bundestag's Committee on Foreign Affairs Ruprecht Polenz on Monday, President Bashar al-Assad stressed the necessity for Europe in general and Germany in particular to play a more prominent and effective...
A delegation of 697 people of the occupied Syrian Golan including 200 women on Thursday arrived in Quneitra city for a 5-day visit to their home country.
In a speech on behalf of the delegation, Sheikh Sakr abu Saleh stressed commitment to the...
TEHRAN – President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made short stops in Damascus and Algiers on Saturday for talks with his Syrian and Algerian counterparts before flying to New York for the UN summit.
Ahmadinejad discussed the latest regional and international...
The United States assured Syria on Thursday that its focus on a securing a peace deal between the Palestinians and Israel would not deflect Washington from pushing for an Israeli-Syrian agreement.
"Our effort to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli...
The Lebanese prime minister, Saad al-Hariri, created a stir with a forthright interview published on 6 September by Asharq Al-Awsat, the London-based Saudi daily. "At a certain point we made a mistake in accusing Syria of assassinating the martyred...
Free Tal Campaign
13/09/2010
An effective campaign started by a group of Syrian activists is calling for the immediate release of the 19 years old Syrian student blogger Tal Malouhi. The statement issued by the campaign group is as follows:
"We...
VIENNA (AFP)--The United Nations atomic watchdog convened Monday to discuss the latest developments in its long-running probes of disputed nuclear drives in Iran and Syria, with chief Yukiya Amano set to address the closed-door assembly.
The...
DAMASCUS - Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri this week put an end to an ongoing saga in his country's relationship with Syria, saying that the Syrians had not killed his father, Rafik al-Hariri, on that fateful day on February 14, 2005.
Those...
DAMASCUS — Four consecutive droughts since 2006 have triggered "significant losses" of crops and livestock in Syria, mostly in the northeast of the country, a UN official said on Tuesday.
Olivier De Schutter, the UN special rapporteur on the right...
DAMASCUS — President Bashar al-Assad and Jordan's King Abdullah II met in Syria on Monday for talks on the resumption of direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, SANA news agency reported.
The king -- who attended Thursday's US-brokered...
BEIRUT — Lebanon's prime minister says it was a mistake to accuse Syria of being behind the 2005 assassination of his father.
The statement is a major turnaround for Saad Hariri, who for years has blamed Damascus for his father's death in a massive...
The Nidaasyria correspondent in the Syrian capital Damascus reported that the responsibility of licensing Internet cafés had been shifted to the Military Security after being assumed by the Political Security over the past decade.
According to...
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near East Affairs Jeffery Feltman stated Friday that the United States wants peace in the region to include Lebanon and Syria, but added that there are great problems and challenges thwarting this aim.
Addressing...
Major-General Yuri Ivanov, 52, was the deputy head of Russia’s foreign military intelligence arm known as GRU which is thought to operate the biggest network of foreign spies out of all of Russia’s clandestine intelligence services.
His badly...
Syrian sources have warned that any Israeli aggression on its Arab neighbors or Hizbullah and Hamas would be faced with a strong counterattack.
"If Israel takes military steps in the region against Syria or resistance movements in Lebanon or the...
A well-informed source in the Ministry of Local Administration reported that the Ministry had received the European expert team that was working on an organization plan for Damascus, or what is known as French Ecochard’s urban master plan, designed...
(New York, August 14, 2010) – President Bashar al-Asad of Syria should immediately release from prison the prominent lawyer and human rights activist Haytham al-Maleh, Human Rights Watch said today. Al-Maleh, who will celebrate his 80th birthday...
Lebanon is braced for another political crisis as a special tribunal set up to try the killers of Rafiq Hariri, the former prime minister, appears to be heading towards indicting members of Hizbollah, the Shia militant group.
Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah,...
DAMASCUS — Syria released from jail on Wednesday the opposition figure and former MP, Riad Seif, at the end of a sentence for damaging the image of the state and publishing lies, a rights group said.
Seif, 64, was among 12 people who signed what...
DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Reports that authorities had banned fully veiled Muslim women students from university campuses have caused a rare public debate in Syria.
Two Syrian websites reported that the Ministry of Higher Education last week prohibited...
Well-informed military sources told Nidaasyria website that the General Staff Command of the Syrian Ministry of Defence had begun this month to call up enlistees to join army units as reservists.
Our correspondent in Damascus reported that these...
Analysts stress Syria is not out of the eye of the storm despite rapprochement with West.
By Roueida Mabardi - DAMASCUS
After years of enduring intense international pressure, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has engaged in a process...
On February 16, 2010, President Barack Obama announced his intention to nominate Robert Stephen Ford as the next U.S. ambassador to Syria. This was a significant gesture because the United States has been without such an official for five years,...
Transocean, the world's largest drilling company and owner of the exploded Deepwater Horizon drilling rig leased by BP, conducts business with some pretty bad people.
The NYT report adds that Transocean is not only under investigation for skirting...
With economic and political ties cemented over the last 12 months, the Syria-Turkey alliance has now appeared to move on to the realm of security. Reports from Turkish state media say Syria has arrested around 400 Kurds with links to the Kurdistan...
MADRID, July 6 (UPI) -- Peace in the Middle East is a long way off because of the simmering dispute between Israel and Turkey, the Syrian president said in Madrid.
Syrian President Bashar Assad met with Spanish leaders in Madrid following his...
OTTAWA — Canada on Tuesday urged Damascus to release 79-year-old Syrian human rights lawyer Haytham al-Maleh on humanitarian grounds, charging that he had been jailed merely "for practicing his right to peaceful and free expression."
Maleh, who...
Syrian military court sentenced a 79-year old lawyer to three years in prison on charges of "weakening national morale", defence lawyers said.
A Syrian military court on Sunday sentenced a 79-year old lawyer who campaigned for decades to lift...
WASHINGTON — Iran has moved radar to Syria that could provide early-warning against a possible surprise Israeli air attack against Tehran's nuclear sites, a US defense official said on Friday.
The radar transfer was first reported in the Wall...
President Shimon Peres met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the President's Residence in Jerusalem and reminded him that Russian committed in 1998 not to sell arms to countries in the region that would alter the balance of power.
...
WASHINGTON — When two young State Department officials took a delegation of Silicon Valley executives to Syria recently, they billed it as a chance to use the promise of technology to reach out to a country with which the United States has long had...
A report by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center reveals the true organizers and supporters of the Lebanese provocation flotilla to the Gaza Strip
"We estimate that the purchase of the ships and the organization of the flotilla...
DAMASCUS — The World Food Programme said on Sunday that it has begun handing out food to almost 200,000 people in severely drought-stricken northeast Syria.
More than 2,900 tonnes of food rations, made possible by a two-million-euro donation (2.5...
The Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, today said Israel's raid on an aid flotilla bound for Gaza had wrecked the chances of a peaceful settlement in the region and increased the risks of war.
The Israeli commando attack on the flotilla, in which...
Main Points Reported:
- About 17000 missing; 1000 died in Palmyra massacre (1980); 16000 believed liquidated in regular organised executions.
- Women are the most vulnerable immediate victims of forced disappearance.
- Astounding legal...
Three Syrian dissidents were released from jail on Sunday after serving 30-month jail terms for signing a declaration that called for sweeping democratic reforms in the country, the London-based group Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said in a...
The Middle East Newsline has confirmed that Syria has established an arsenal of extended-range Scud-class ballistic missiles along the border with Lebanon.
Western intelligence sources said the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad has overseen...
Editor’s note: The following are excerpts from testimonies given by various experts and members of the State Department before the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in a hearing to assess the strength of Hizbullah on Tuesday.
Ambassador...
DAMASCUS // Syria’s imposing statues and ubiquitous poster-portraits serve as a constant reminder of the late president, Hafez Assad, physical relics of a man whose spirit remains woven into the fabric of this country.
More than that, he remains...
DAMASCUS - Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem has held talks with visiting North Korean deputy foreign minister Kim Hyong-Jun on bolstering bilateral ties, officials said on Monday.
The meeting, which took place in Damascus on Sunday, was centred...
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency has singled out Iran as a "special case" for his monitoring teams because of Western suspicions that it might be hiding nuclear weapons programmes.
IAEA chief Yukiya Amano faulted both Islamist...
Reuters) - Ibrahim Issa, a jovial Syrian taxi-driver who wears a blue robe over an ample belly, has nine children from two wives. He plans to marry a third wife soon.
He says it is up to Allah whether more children arrive, and not for him to...
BEIRUT: Lebanese-Syrian relations were once again the center of attention at a talk held on Wednesday.
At a discussion organized by the Issam Fares Center for Lebanon, entitled: “What does Syria want from Lebanon? – a Lebanese Perspective,”...
A major conventional threat to Bulgaria’s national security are missile attacks against strategic establishments on Bulgarian soil, according to Defense Minister Anyu Angelov.
Speaking about the development and adoption of a national security...
VIENNA — Syria has told the UN atomic watchdog about past nuclear experiments, but is still refusing to cooperate over allegations that it was building a secret nuclear reactor with North Korea's help, a new report revealed Monday.
In a restricted...
The Syrian Foreign Minister, Walid al-Mo'allem's speech yesterday was not mere statements, while expressing the Syrians' grave concern over the Israeli military exercises, dubbing it "beating the drums of war".
Al-Mo'allem's statements came after...
Satellite photos show that Hizbullah terrorists have been living in armed bases stocked with surface-to-surface missiles in Syria, The Times of London reported Friday.
The photos show the Hizbullah members moving freely at a base in the Syrian...
North Korea is exporting nuclear and ballistic missile technology and using multiple intermediaries and overseas criminal networks to avoid UN sanctions, a report has said.
A UN panel monitoring the implementation of sanctions against North Korea...
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Iran supported his country’s decision to pursue indirect peace talks with Israel two years ago, adding that he’s ready to re-start the negotiations.
“Iran supported our efforts to achieve, to get back our...
Reuters) - Lebanon's Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said on Tuesday the Shi'ite guerrilla group would attack all military, civilian and commercial ships heading toward Israel's Mediterranean coasts in any future war.
World
"If you...
DAMASCUS,Syria — After delivering a lecture on the increasing role of private banks in Syria, economist Mohammed Ayman al-Maydani got an uncomfortable request from members of the audience to elaborate on a brief reference he made to corruption in...
By: H. Varulkar and N. Mozes - The Memri , 25/05/2010
Introduction
"...[Syria's] political return to Lebanon is taking place slowly but surely, by means of its allies in [this country], whose numbers are growing and whose voice is becoming stronger. It is regaining its influence [over Lebanon] quietly...
Syrian President Bashar Assad said Monday that the United States has lost its influence in the Middle East due to its failure to contribute to regional peace, in an interview with the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
U.S. President Barack Obama...
Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem denied that Damascus had transferred Scud missiles to Hizbullah and said the Assad regime will not act as a policeman for Israel.
"Did Israel ever stop arming itself, did it stop instigating violence or making...
U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to raise Washington's concerns about Syria arming Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon when he meets Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri on Monday, a U.S. official said last week.
Hariri's first official...
Reuters) - President Barack Obama is likely to raise U.S. concerns about Syria arming Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon when he meets Lebanese Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri on Monday, a U.S. official said on Friday.
Politics
Hariri's first official...
This has been a busy month so far for the Syrians. The US Congress blocked Obama's attempt to appoint Robert Ford as ambassador following reports of Syrian Scud missiles being transferred to Hezbollah, and on 3 May Washington renewed economic and...
Damascus // Syria and Lebanon have agreed they will present a united front of opposition to Israel and support for Hizbollah, when the Lebanese prime minister, Saad Hariri, travels to Washington next week.
Syria’s president, Bashar Assad,...
NEWTOWN, Conn. | A visit last week to the Syrian capital of Damascus by Russian President Dimitri Medvedev signaled Russia's continued interest in cementing itself as a fixture in Middle East power politics. The Russia-Syria relationship stretches...
DAMASCUS — Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri arrived in Damascus on Tuesday ahead of a planned trip to Washington, which accuses Syria of supplying Lebanon's Hezbollah with missiles.
Hariri, who has rejected those claims, met Syrian President...
President Shimon Peres sent a message to Syria, offering to return the Golan Heights in exchange for a promise that Damascus would sever its ties with Iran and various terrorist groups, Syrian President Bashar Assad told the Lebanese As-Safir paper...
The Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Sunday criticized Russia for supplying warplanes to Syria, claiming that the move did not bring peace to the region.
The statement came after a top military official told Russian news agency ITAR-Tass...
Muhammad Naji al-Otari says Jewish state knows it will suffer greatly should it decide to attack his country. Allegations regarding smuggling of Scud missiles to Hezbollah 'preposterous', he adds
Syrian Prime Minister Muhammad Naji al-Otari threatened...
Russia will supply Syria with warplanes, artillery systems and anti-aircraft missiles, Mikhail Dmitriyev, head of the Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation told media Friday night.
Israeli officials reacted angrily to the...
Reuters) - The United Nations torture watchdog urged Syria, Yemen and Jordan Friday to investigate what it called numerous and credible allegations that their police and prison authorities routinely tortured detainees.
Its 10 independent experts...
The United States indicated yesterday that it was uncomfortable with the idea of Russia exploring areas for nuclear collaboration with Syria, which Washington has suspected of operating illicit atomic activities (see GSN, May 11).
"What concerns...
Beirut: A leading Syrian opposition figure said on Wednesday that the West, which is seeking better relations with Damascus, has turned a blind eye on what he called Syria's "worsening" human rights record.
Maamoun Al Homsi, a former deputy who...
Golan Heights residents stuck in Syria for more than six weeks after visiting family members in Suwara.
Five Druze residents of the Golan Heights have been stuck for more than six weeks in Syria after Israeli authorities denied them permission to...
OTTAWA — The U.S. government is urging the Supreme Court to reject an appeal from Canada's Maher Arar, who wants to sue Washington for sending him to Syria where he was tortured.
The Ottawa engineer was the victim of what's known as ``extraordinary...
Syria and Russia have discussed nuclear energy co-operation as Moscow seeks to boost its position in a region dominated by the US, Israel's principal ally.
Speaking after talks with Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, Russian president Dmitry...
JERUSALEM, May 10 (UPI) -- Israel doesn't want a confrontation with Syria nor is it interested in escalated tensions along the Israeli-Syrian border, Israeli President Shimon Peres said.
Peres made the comments during a meeting Sunday in Moscow...
RUSSIA may help build a nuclear power plant in Syria, president Dmitry Medvedev said yesterday, a step that could upset the West due to unresolved allegations Damascus tried to construct a potential nuclear weapons facility in secret.
In 2007,...
Damascus: In an unprecedented visit by a Russian leader, President Dmitri Medvedev visits Syria tomorrow as observers say that this could be a way to pressure US and Israel for failure to advance peace talks.
Another possible aim would be to convince...
"Syria has said it is ready to resume talks where they were left off," Gul told a news conference. "However, we have not heard from the Israeli side. It is up to them."
Speaking alongside Gul, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said he was ready...
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's Republican foes in the US Senate blocked a Democratic attempt Friday to confirm his nominee to be ambassador to Syria, amid an election-year feud over policy towards Damascus.
Democrats sought to confirm...
The White House Press Office released Monday a message to the Congress of the United States on continuation of the national emergency with Syria.
“I have sent to the Federal Register for publication the enclosed notice stating that the national...
US President Barack Obama has renewed sanctions against Syria, saying it supported terrorist groups and was pursuing weapons of mass destruction.
In a statement, he said Syria "continues to pose... an extraordinary threat" to US security and...
North Korea has dropped tantalizing hints about rejoining the six-party talks on its nuclear program, having walked out of the talks in 2009. There is at least one catch: After its two nuclear tests, Pyongyang wants to rejoin as a nuclear weapon...
Jerusalem — The Middle East Newsline newsletter has uncovered a U.S. State Department which documents that it has detected Syrian efforts to bypass U.S. sanctions imposed on Damascus over the last decade.
In that report, the department's inspector-general...
PARIS — France wants Syria to guarantee security on its border with Lebanon, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Sunday after Israel accused Damascus of supplying missiles to Hezbollah.
"The situation is serious, dangerous," Kouchner told Europe...
Iran has pledged to "cut off Israel's feet" if it attacks Syria, fuelling tensions over one of the Middle East's most combustible flashpoints after the US publicly warned Damascus not to risk starting a war.
Mohammad Rida Rahimi, the Iranian vice-president,...
According to many sources and studies, Syrians have become victims of heinous exploitation by the two cellular phone companies in Syria, which vampire Syrians day and night since mobile phones were introduced into Syria about nine years ago. Besides,...
oldiers from the Syrian and Turkish armies are conducting joint military drills this week to improve security cooperation on their shared border. The warming relations between Ankara and Damascus are raising concerns in Israel.
The drill’s specific...
Washington (UNN) Iran and Syria are providing Hezbollah militants in Lebanon with improved rockets and missiles that threaten to destabilize the Middle East, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said.
Gates did not elaborate on the types of missiles,...
Joint military exercise, similar to one held a year ago, signals tightening of ties between Ankara, Damascus. Israeli state officials fear Turkey may transfer Israeli technology to Syria
joint Turkish-Syrian drill along the border the two countries...
The Media Institute of the Federation of Western Kurdistan Society announced on 23 April 2010 that a funeral was held for 19 freedom fighters who have been killed over time. It was arranged to take place in Hassei village in the Afrin area on 16...
WASHINGTON - Syria is providing a "wider array" of missiles to Hezbollah, a US diplomat said Friday, while stopping short of accusing Damascus of supplying Scuds to the Lebanese Shiite militia.
"We are concerned with the broadening nature of...
WASHINGTON—The State Department summoned Syria's top diplomat in Washington to express the Obama administration's concerns about intelligence indicating Damascus transferred long-range guided missiles to the militant Lebanese organization Hezbollah.
The...
DAMASCUS, Syria — The U.S. Embassy says Syria has allowed the reopening of an American school in Damascus that was shut down two years ago.
The decision is the latest indication of improving ties between the two countries.
Assistant public...
Israel has tried to justify a war on Syria, claiming it could be attacked by Syrian-supplied missiles of Lebanon's Hezbollah resistance movement.
Based on allegations that Syria is equipping Hezbollah with Scud missiles, Tel Aviv communicated...
International and regional changes show signs of bright future for Arabs and the region as a whole, Presidential Political and Media Advisor Bouthaina Shaaban said on Thursday.
"These challenges are in favor of Syrian vision to restore Arab rights,"...
Mr Ahmadinejad used a television interview on Tuesday night to draw a direct link between pressure on Iran's nuclear programme and its support for "resistance" - a codeword for Islamic militant groups such as Hizbollah and Hamas, and anti-American...
Hizbullah sources confirmed Thursday that the terror group received a shipment of Scud missiles from Syria, the Kuwaiti paper Al-Rai reported.
According to the report, the missiles were claimed to be old and unusable. Hizbullah also accused...
According to Kuwaiti newspaper, Syrian army transferred medium-long range Scud missiles to Shiite group in Lebanon, trained operatives on weapons' operation. Strategic balance hasn't been broken, however Hezbollah has become only non-governmental...
BEIRUT: A landmark gathering of the Phalange Party on Sunday featured strong doses of rhetoric aimed at Hizbullah and local politicians eager to “crawl” toward Syria, ahead of a scheduled session of National Dialogue later this week.
Phalange...
The authorities arrested Haitham al-Maleh in October after he criticized the ruling Baath Party and the state of emergency it imposed after taking power in a 1963 coup. He has also called for greater government efforts to curb corruption.
"He...
VIENNA (Reuters) - U.N. inspectors have been able to revisit a Damascus nuclear research reactor as part of a probe into possible covert atomic activity in Syria, diplomats said on Tuesday.
But Syria continues to deny inspectors follow-up access...
Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee John Kerry held a “long and comprehensive” discussion with Syrian President Assad. The U.S. is restoring relations with Syria.
Kerry praised progress in Syria-Lebanon relations but the U.S....
As Safir has reported that after his meeting with Syrian president Bashar al Assad progressive Socialist party leader MP Walid Jumblatt drove his car on the way back as Hezbollah Secretary-General’s Political Assistant Hussein Khalil occupied the...
BEIRUT — Democratic US Senator John Kerry on Wednesday began a visit to the Middle East for talks with top Lebanese and Syrian officials on the stalled Arab-Israeli peace process.
"We remain extremely hopeful that in the weeks ahead we can find...
A severe drought in Syria has forced more than 300,000 people to leave their homes, with thousands of farmers in drought stricken areas forced to sell their animals for slaughter, their crops perished.
Malcolm Borthwick looks at the drought's...
Day by day, Syrians are growing more certain that the two cell phone companies are over the government and no law regulates their business. All means are available for them to exploit people, amidst the successive Baathist governments' silence about...
Day by day, Syrians are growing more certain that the two cell phone companies are over the government and no law regulates their business. All means are available for them to exploit people, amidst the successive Baathist governments' silence about...
BEIRUT- An unnamed source told Al-Liwaa newspaper in an interview published on Tuesday that Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs Saud al-Faisal’s visit to Syria on Monday was to ensure Lebanon’s participation in the Arab League Summit to take place...
Words have been given to block journals and ban journalists.
In a move to curb the journalistic activity in Syria, showing how clogged and plagued the Baathist circles are, Dr Muhsin Bilal, Director of Media Station, gave a new oral notification...
The campaign against President Michel Suleiman was seen as a drive orchestrated by Syria's allies in Lebanon that could well pave the way for the launch of a new group of Damascus allies made up of non-parliamentary members.
An-Nahar newspaper on...
WASHINGTON – Robert Ford told US senators at a confirmation hearing Tuesday on his nomination as the next US ambassador to Syria that the US would not relax sanctions on Damascus as long as the government continues to support Islamic militant groups.
Scrapping...
In a striking development in the domestic policy, "the security apparatuses were given presidential instructions to tighten their grip during the next phase to repress any civil activity, even if it comes to liquidation threat!" said NidaaSyria sources....
DAMASCUS — Twelve pro-democracy Syrian activists, jailed after calling for greater democracy, lost their petition for early release and will have to serve their full 30-month sentence, a human rights group said on Wednesday.
"The Court of Appeal...
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey's prime minister said Tuesday that Israel had accepted that his country again mediate talks with Syria but the Israeli prime minister said no decision had been made.
"Syria wants Turkey's mediation," the state-run Anatolia...
Syria (Al-Hasakeh) With the support of the EU, the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has started distributing emergency food assistance to almost 200,000 people in the rural northeast of Syria, where the drought of 2009 has severely affected...
The diplomatic crisis following allegations that the Mossad assassinated Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai has come on top of what looks like ongoing deadlock in the two-state talks between Israelis and Palestinians. But the hysteria of conflict and the...
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has called on the 27-nation European Union to throw its weight behind indirect Damascus-Tel Aviv peace talks to be aided by Ankara.
During a meeting with visiting Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger...
US President Barack Obama’s decision to re-appoint an ambassador to Syria was a “mistake,” US Congressman Eliot Engel (D-New York) told The Jerusalem Post.
Engel was the sponsor of a 2003 bill calling for sanctions against Syria if it doesn’t...
Syria has accepted Washington's nominee for the first US ambassador to Damascus in five years. US State Department had announced 10 days ago that it submitted to Damascus the name of the nominee for this position to Damascus and said that it is still...
Israel's deputy foreign minister said on Saturday that Syria's war of words with the Jewish state was meant to help Tehran divert attention from its nuclear drive.
"I hope that Syria will not let itself get carried away by the bellicose statements...
(CBS) Five years after the United States pulled its envoy from Damascus in response to the assassination of Lebanon's prime minister, Washington is prepared to fill the post of Ambassador to Syria, CBS News has learned.
The U.S. had not had...
Reuters quotes Turkish FM as saying that "If the two countries agree to restart it, we can do it"; Assad: Israel must "declare frankly" it wants peace.
Talkbacks (6)
is ready to try again to broker a peace agreement between and if both countries...
LONDON (Reuters) - Turkey is ready to try again to broker a peace agreement between Israel and Syria if both countries agree to resume the stalled initiative, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Friday.
Davutoglu said Israel's 2008...
NICOSIA — Damascus has jailed two Syrians convicted of seeking to foment unrest in Iraq for nine and seven years, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Thursday.
"The state security court on January 26 sentenced two Syrians,...
Reuters and AlertNet are not responsible for the content of this article or for any external internet sites. The views expressed are the author's alone.
(Beirut)-Middle East governments repressed efforts to promote human rights and backed away from...
Scores of illegal migrants arrested after arriving in France on a people smuggling boat were free to head to Britain after being released without charge.
A series of administrative blunders ensured that at least 94 of the 124 men, women and children...
(IsraelNN.com) Tensions have escalated along the Israeli-Lebanese border and Syria has begun calling up troops from its Fourth Reserve, sources told the pan-Arab daily Asharq Al-Awsat.
The newspaper, printed on four continents, reports that the...
DAMASCUS, Syria – Four Iranian pilgrims were killed and 40 others wounded as a bus veered off the road near Damascus, Syria, on Friday morning.
The bus was heading to Damascus from the northwestern city of Tabriz when the driver lost control...
PARIS — A boatload of 124 refugees, many of them apparently Kurds from Syria, were discovered Friday morning on a beach in southern Corsica, the local police said. It was the first time that illegal immigrants were able to land on the island, a part...
Back in the 1950s, as a lawyer and a judge, Haitham Maleh began promoting human rights in Syria.
In the 1980s he was detained without trial for seven years.
Since then he has been tried three times by military tribunals and only last year,...
A US official discussed reviving peace talks between Israel and Syria Wednesday with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, who said Israel had to “declare frankly” it wants peace.
George Mitchell, President Barack Obama’s Middle East envoy, said the...
U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell said Wednesday that Syria and Lebanon were key to achieving peace in the Middle East.
Mitchell was in Beirut on Tuesday and Wednesday and traveled to neighboring Damascus at the start of a regional tour aimed...
Syria's foremost Muslim leader declared on Tuesday that Islam commands its followers to protect Judaism, according to Army Radio.
"If the Prophet Mohammed had asked me to deem Christians or Jews heretics, I would have deemed Mohammed himself a...
Turkish State Minister Hayati Yazici met with the Syrian Minister of Finance Muhammad al-Husayn in Damascus on Tuesday.
In a press release issued, the Turkish State Ministry said that Yazici is on a two day official trip to Syria to discuss joint...
The killing of Rafic Hariri, Lebanon's former PM, sparked international outrage, but five years on investigators are no closer to establishing who was behind the assassination. There has been little progress, initial suspects have been cleared, and...
DAMASCUS — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday named a woman to head the economy and trade ministry, the state-run SANA news agency reported.
Lamia Assi will replace Amer Hosni Lotfi who was appointed head of the state planning authority,...
According to a Kuwaiti media report, Israel and the United States have learned the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has opened up an area to permit Hizbullah militiamen to train with anti-aircraft weaponry.
The report adds that Israel sent a warning...
An American source told Kuwaiti newspaper al-Rai that according to intelligence reports, Syria allowed Hezbollah members to train on its territory using anti-aircraft SA-2 missiles.
The American source noted that Israel had warned Syria not...
Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt says Lebanon's Druze residents are close to a reconciliation with Syria. "I think that three-quarters of the road to Damascus are open," he told AFP. "There remains the final act that depends on timing."
Last...
Damascus - US Middle East envoy George Mitchell is expected in Damascus next week for talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Western sources said Saturday. Mitchell will discuss developments in the peace process with al-Assad, as well as bilateral...
Saudi monarchy welcomed Syrian President Bashar Assad to Riyadh to discuss Palestinian issues and emerging trends in Yemen.
Syrian and Saudi Arabian relations were strained in the wake of a U.N. resolution calling for the disarming of Hezbollah,...
BEIRUT: Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt’s recent spate of reconciliation meetings with March 8 figures betray his avid hunger to cozy up to a resurgent Syria, a number of analysts told The Daily Star on Friday. Jumblatt, a political...
Riyadh - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday arrived in Riyadh for talks with Saudi King Abdullah bin Abdel-Aziz, the satellite news channel al-Arabiya reported.
The talks, the latest sign of the thaw in relations between the two countries,...
“The continuing arbitrary arrests of journalists in Syria are disturbing,” Reporters Without Borders said. “The authorities provide no information about the legal grounds for these arrests and or the subsequent place of detention. This complete lack...
It has been a few months since visa requirements were removed for travel between Turkey and Syria and the doors have opened wide for both sides, not just for trade but also for tourism. With its exquisite history, amazing archaeological sites, mind-blowing...
Iran and Syria plan to create a new world order, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday.
"Iran and Syria have a joint mission to create a new world order on the basis of justice, humanity and belief in God," Ahmadinejad told visiting...
Hopes that an ongoing deadlock between the EU and Syria might meet an early resolution were dashed earlier this month, as the Syrian government announced it was demurring on signing an association agreement (AA) with its largest trading partner....
London: The youngest son of Osama Bin Laden, Bakr, has arrived in Damascus towards the end of December after being held in captivity in Iran for eight years, reported the London-based Arabic daily Asharq Al Awsat.
Bakr, along five other siblings...
TEHRAN (ISNA)-Syria’s nation would stand behind Iran’s Islamic Revolution and considers it a pattern for regional Muslim nations, said Syrian Parliament Speaker.
Mahmoud al-Abrash who was speaking in Iran’s Parliament session on Wednesday, said...
Damascus - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad met with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal in Damascus Tuesday, in a further sign of thawing relations between the two countries.
The Saudi minister had arrived in Damascus from Egypt, where...
ISLAMABAD—President Asif Ali Zardari is to pay visits to Syria and Turkey for talks with the leaders of these countries on situation in Afghanistan and middle east and on bilateral relations. Official sources said the President during his two day...
chinaview , 03/01/2010
El-ARISH, Egypt, Jan. 3 (Xinhua) -- "Viva Palestina 3" humanitarian aid convoy arrived in Egyptian port of El-Arish Sunday evening coming from Syria, an official from El-Arish port told Xinhua.
A Turkish ship, which carries the convoy from...
The US has tightened security procedures for airline passengers travelling into the country, with particular attention to those arriving from seven other nations.
All air passengers bound for America from foreign countries will face increased random...
Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat said Sunday he was waiting for the right moment to visit Damascus, a move welcomed by Tawheed Movement leader Wiam Wahab who stressed the MP would travel to Syria because he is courageous.
Jumblat...
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Sunday declared that Turkey had no place in mediating peace talks between Israel and Syria, despite "hints" to the contrary made by his government colleagues.
Lieberman lambasted Defense Minister...
Turkey aims to focus on high-speed train service in 2010 and plans to invest around 3.5 billion USD next year to improve country's railroad network, head of Turkish State Railways, or TCDD, said on Wednesday.
Today's interactive toolbox...
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has said that Paris rejects canceling U.N. Security Council resolution 1559 because it hasn't been fully implemented.
"The resolution's clauses haven't been fully implemented," Kouchner told a press conference...
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in Syrian capital Damascus on a two-day official visit.
Prime Minister Erdogan is set to attend the first prime ministerial meeting of Turkey-Syria High Level Strategic Cooperation Council....
Beirut - The Lebanese army said Wednesday it has arrested the man who opened fire on a Syrian bus in northern Lebanon earlier this week, killing an 18-year-old Syrian worker. A Lebanese army statement said the man confessed that he had "personal...
Syrian and Turkish officials opened a new railway border crossing on their common border as well as a new border gate at the crossing on Tuesday, hours before Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan arrived in Damascus for an important official...
Unknown attackers in northern Lebanon have raked a bus from Syria with gunfire, killing one person and wounding several others, a security official says.
The bus, carrying 25 Syrian labourers, was travelling near an army checkpoint along the main...
Damascus - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey is due to arrive in Damascus Tuesday for a two-day official visit, state media in Damascus reported Monday.
The visit is expected to see the signing of 56 new agreements, while...
Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has met President Bashar Assad in Damascus, Syria, amid efforts to ease tensions between the two neighbours.
Mr Hariri said the talks were friendly, open and positive. It was his first official visit there since...
Beirut, Lebanon (CNN) -- Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri arrived in Damascus on Saturday for his first meeting with Syrian President Bashar Assad, Hariri's press office said.
The talks could signal a thawing of icy relations between the neighboring...
DAMASCUS, Syria — Former Syrian President Amin Hafez, who was brought to power by a military coup only to be overthrown three years later, has died at the age of 89.
One of those who served as an adviser to the former strongman, Monzer Mosaly,...
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al Maliki offered a reward of 100 million Iraqi dinars to anyone who can help lead security forces to garages or other hideouts where extremists assemble car bombs.
Al Maliki stressed that terrorism targeting Iraq and Iraqis...
Syria has separated the issue of warrants against a number of Lebanese officials over a lawsuit filed by Maj. Gen. Jamil Sayyed from a visit to Damascus by Prime Minister Saad Hariri.
Sources close to Hariri told daily As-Safir in remarks published...
Iranian-Syrian relations are regressing due to Turkish-Syrian closeness; Italian News Agency AKI quoted Former Syrian Minister Marwan Habash as saying.
The regression is due to Syria’s dissatisfaction over Iran’s interference in Iraq’s internal...
Lebanese President Michel Suleiman is due to visit Syria this weekend, local newspaper al-Manar reported on its website on Wednesday.
Hezbollah's paper al-Manar said that Suleiman would visit Damascus this weekend to extend condolences to...
The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously Wednesday to extend the more than 1,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force along the Israeli-Syrian border for six months.
The U.N. Disengagement Observer Force was established in 1974, following the 1973...
Three people were killed after an explosion near a bus in the Syrian capital, Damascus, today.
The blast occurred at about 7.30am (GMT) near a coach in the Sayeeda Zeinab area of the city, according to the Arab broadcaster al-Jazeera. After conflicting...
U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman said Washington has "normal" relations with Syria.
"The long time spent to form the new Lebanese Cabinet may have left a positive impact on the Lebanese because it...
Majd al-Assad, the younger brother of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad died on Saturday, state media reported.
"Majd Hafez al-Assad died this morning in Damascus after a long illness," the official news agency SANA said, without giving further...
BEIRUT – Lebanese Forces executive council president Samir Geagea insured on Monday that the Syrian judicial summons were purely political.
Speaking to the National News Agency (NNA), he stated that power separation principle was not implemented...
BAGHDAD — Iraqi Interior Minister Jawad Bolani told parliament on Monday that a suicide bomber who attacked the foreign ministry in August made a phone call to Syria before detonating his payload, an MP said.
"He told us that the security services...
Committee of Torture Victims in the prisons of Syr , 12/10/2009
Committee of Torture Victims in the prisons of Syrian System
We invite you in the occasion of the Human Rights World Day 2009 to attend the sit-in to which citizens and activist of liberties and human rights, who were imprisoned, tortured...
Israeli media sources reported that Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, stated that Syria dropped an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Golan Heights as a precondition to resume indirect peace talks.
Netanyahu told the Foreign and Security...
Twelve people were killed and seven injured in a collision in thick fog on Sunday between a bus and a truck headed for Iraq in northeast Syria, the official news agency SANA reported.
"A bus transporting dozens of passengers to Damascus collided...
Witnesses in Syria's capital say a blast hit a bus that had been carrying Iranian Shi'ite pilgrims. Three people were killed and dozens of others wounded. The explosion coincided with a visit to Damascus by a top Iranian official.
The suburban...
DAMASCUS // Conditions have deteriorated for Syria’s Kurdish minority in the past year, with increased restrictions on cultural and political activities and deepening poverty, according to a Kurdish political activist in Damascus.
Abu Juwan,...
Former Syrian spy Mohammed Zuheir al-Siddiq is accused of purjery.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) says it will not extradite a former Syrian spy accused of misleading a UN probe into the murder of late Lebanese premier Rafiq al-Hariri.
"There...
Inspectors have found unexplained traces of uranium at the site, as well as at a nuclear research reactor in Damascus.
UN atomic watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei complained Thursday that his agency had made "no progress" in its investigation into...
PHILADELPHIA — A scheme to transport stolen cell phones, laptops and video game systems that evolved into a plot to ship machine guns and anti-aircraft missiles to Syria was broken up with the arrest of a central figure in the plan, according to...
The Facility for Euro-Mediterranean Investment and Partnership (FEMIP), the European Investment Bank’s (EIB) financial arm for the Mediterranean Region, has today provided the Syrian Ministry of Local Administration with a EUR 50 million loan, corresponding...
Something is cooking between Washington and Damascus. U.S. President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have been talking a lot about regional peace and not just an Israeli-Palestinian peace accord. In addition, Syrian President...
Iraq on Sunday for the first time said that the bombers who killed more than 150 people in Baghdad on October 25 came from neighbouring Syria, but steered well clear of accusing Damascus of collusion.
"The group came from Syria but we are not...
The March 14 Forces after the Formation of the New Lebanese Government: From Electoral Victory to Political Defeat and Disintegration Within Five Months
Introduction
On June 7, 2009, the March 14 Forces won the Lebanese parliamentary elections....
The Syrian authorities have arrested Yousef Abdallah Dib, a member of the Islamic-democratic stream in the National Council of the Damascus Declaration, an umbrella organization of oppositionist forces in Syria. Dib joins 12 other senior members...
Islam AL-Modalal The Palestine Telegraph, 22/11/2009
Nuclear-armed US seeks 'credible explanation' for Syrian uranium following IAEA report.
The United States on Tuesday said it hopes for a reasonable explanation from Syria on how traces of uranium were found at a nuclear research reactor in Damascus.
"That's...
Don Belt/National Geographic magazine , 17/11/2009
There's a passage in The Godfather in which a young Michael Corleone, living abroad, realizes that with his older brother suddenly and violently deceased, he now stands anointed—doomed is more like it—to take over the Mafia empire his aging father...
VIENNA — The UN atomic watchdog said on Tuesday it was inspecting a nuclear research reactor in Damascus because it had doubts about Syria's explanation as to how traces of uranium got there.
In its latest report on Syria, circulated to member...
REBECCA ANNA STOIL AND TOVAH LAZAROFF /The Jerusal , 17/11/2009
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman called on Monday for direct talks with Damascus, two days before his meeting with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner, whose country has worked to jump-start negotiations on the Syrian track.
"I'm ready...
BEIRUT- Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Boutros Sfeir said on Monday that for him to visit Syria is “out of the question.” He also said that Hezbollah “is an armed party with known motives.”Sfeir said that he is against Palestinian naturalization, highlighting...
Western diplomat in Damascus tells Alrai newspaper former Syrian customs official would leave border unsupervised for hours at a time, allowing for infiltration of Israeli agents responsible for assassination of Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh...
From the heart of Damascus, Haitham al-Maleh, lawyer and human rights activist, spoke by phone on Oct. 12, 2009 to the presenter of the Panorama show on the Barada television channel about the intensifying security grip in Syria. Two days after the...
(New York) - The Damascus Bar Association should reverse this week's decision to permanently disbar the lawyer and rights activist Muhanad al-Hasani, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch also urged Syrian authorities to free al-Hasani,...
(New York) - The Damascus Bar Association should reverse this week's decision to permanently disbar the lawyer and rights activist Muhanad al-Hasani, Human Rights Watch said today. Human Rights Watch also urged Syrian authorities to free al-Hasani,...
WASHINGTON — Disputing an assertion by the top U.S. general in Iraq, Syria's ambassador to Washington on Wednesday denied that his government allows foreign fighters to cross the Syrian border into Iraq.
Ambassador Imad Moustapha said his government...
It's been an almost endless summer in Lebanon, with beach weather and relative political harmony continuing well into November. The only thing marring what could have been a perfect year for a country more accustomed to serving as a battleground...
Agence France Presse (AFP)/The Daily Star , 08/11/2009
PARIS: Turkey is ready to oversee a new stage of secret peace talks between Israel and Syria, resuming a role it had played until last year, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said here Friday. Historically Israel’s only friend in the Middle East,...
Five hundred Golan Arabs visited Syria. There they declared hope that the Golan would be restored to Syria. Syria called the Golan “occupied.”
The visitors were happy to meet with their relatives in Syria, and asked humanitarian organizations...
Diplomatic sources said Russia would begin deliveries of the Yakhont missile as part of expanded naval cooperation with Syria.
They said Syria has agreed to allow the Russian Navy use of the port of Tartous as well as the expansion of logistic services...
The Syrian authorities must immediately release veteran human rights lawyer Haytham al-Maleh, and drop all charges against him, Amnesty International said, as he appeared before a military judge in Damascus on Tuesday.
He was charged with "conveying...
The Syrian authorities must immediately release veteran human rights lawyer Haytham al-Maleh, and drop all charges against him, Amnesty International said, as he appeared before a military judge in Damascus on Tuesday.
He was charged with "conveying...
The Syrian authorities must immediately release veteran human rights lawyer Haytham al-Maleh, and drop all charges against him, Amnesty International said, as he appeared before a military judge in Damascus on Tuesday.
He was charged with "conveying...
The Syrian authorities must immediately release veteran human rights lawyer Haytham al-Maleh, and drop all charges against him, Amnesty International said, as he appeared before a military judge in Damascus on Tuesday.
He was charged with "conveying...
Globes' correspondent4 Nov 09
The IDF spokesman said that on Tuesday a special force of the Navy detained and boarded a merchant ship carrying the flag of Antigua about 100 miles west of the coast of Israel. After an initial inspection carried out...
Globes' correspondent4 Nov 09
The IDF spokesman said that on Tuesday a special force of the Navy detained and boarded a merchant ship carrying the flag of Antigua about 100 miles west of the coast of Israel. After an initial inspection carried...
Don Belt National Geographic magazine , 04/11/2009
There's a passage in The Godfather in which a young Michael Corleone, living abroad, realizes that with his older brother suddenly and violently deceased, he now stands anointed—doomed is more like it—to take over the Mafia empire his aging father...
Don Belt National Geographic magazine , 11/04/2009
There's a passage in The Godfather in which a young Michael Corleone, living abroad, realizes that with his older brother suddenly and violently deceased, he now stands anointed—doomed is more like it—to take over the Mafia empire his aging father...
BEIRUT — Hezbollah's backers Iran and Syria are hindering the formation of a cabinet in Lebanon, which has been without government since a general vote in June, Christian leader Samir Geagea said on Monday.
"The regional forces that support the...
Jerusalem – Against the backdrop of tensions along the northern border, a surprising exchange of messages has occurred between Israel and Syria over the possibility of renewing peace negotiations between the two countries.
In the course of a visit...
The Lockerbie investigation has never been formally closed off, but until now there had been little evidence that it was active. For the victims’ families, the news that the Scottish authorities are reassessing the evidence will be welcome. At the...
After five years of patient negotiation, Syria is finally getting what it wants from the EU. Earlier this month Brussels announced that it would sign the long-awaited association agreement with Damascus as soon as 26 October. The agreement, which...
WASHINGTON — The United States on Saturday called on Syria to release 78-year-old detained human rights lawyer Haitham Maleh and end its practice of "arbitrary arrests" of activists.
"We join the United Kingdom, France and other concerned international...
A new U.S. congressional report claims North Korea is transferring weapons technology to Syria through Iran.
In the report, the Congressional Research Service, an entity that works exclusively for the U.S. Congress, revealed that Iran was assisting...
DAMASCUS, Oct 21 (Reuters) - A Syrian military prosecutor interrogated a 78-year-old dissident on Wednesday and placed him under official arrest despite international condemnation, his lawyers said on Wednesday.
Security officials last week detained...
Damascus has announced Turkey will hold military exercises with Syria, shortly after canceling maneuvers with Israel.
It's feared the move will revive the cooler relations between Israel and NATO member Turkey. But both have denied the cancellation...
BAGHDAD — The U.S. military has established new links between leading Iraqi insurgents and 'external actors' in neighboring Iran and Syria.
Officials said Sunni and Shi'ite militia chiefs have been shuttling between Iraq and its neighbors for funding...
BEIRUT: US soldiers discovered several containers of ammunition aboard a German ship bound for Syria and possibly Hizbullah earlier this month, German news magazine Der Spiegel reported on Monday. US troops stationed in the Gulf of Suez boarded the...
In the aftermath of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Syria has found an array of powerful actors on its borders. The American forces in Iraq are on one side, while the European Union projects its influence through Cyprus and, by extension, Turkey. Israel...
BRUSSELS — The European Union will sign a partnership deal with Syria later this month, a diplomat told AFP Thursday, after years spent fretting over human rights concerns in Damascus.
"The deal is due to be signed with Syria on October 26 in...
DAMASCUS: Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah held talks on Wednesday with President Bashar Assad to heal a rift that has aggravated Arab discord over Iran, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Lebanon. Abdullah’s visit to Damascus, his first as king, coincides...
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia began his first visit to Syria as head of state on Wednesday, in a further sign of improvement in a prickly relationship.
Following are some of the issues that have divided Syria and Saudi Arabia over the past five...
BEIRUT — When Syria's vice president recently boasted that his country is now stronger than ever in Lebanon, many Lebanese dismissed his words as wishful thinking. Months of political stalemate in Beirut may show how right he was.
Lebanon's pro-Western...
BAGHDAD — Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari on Tuesday said attempts at mediation with neighbouring Syria had failed because Damascus had not taken the talks seriously.
"After four meetings it is clear there is a lack of seriousness on the...
Syria and Jordan ratified a number of accords concerning water resources, borders' demarcation and customs.
The two sides decided, at meetings, to boost economic cooperation between Syria and Jordan, Syrian Minister of Economy and Trade Amir Lutfi...
DAMASCUS, Sept 27 (Reuters) - The United States has invited a Syrian official to Washington for the first time in five years as part of its efforts to improve relations with the Damascus government, a U.S. official and diplomats said on Sunday.
Deputy...
Baghdad: Iraq's prime minister is feeling a backlash over a bitter fight he picked with Syria, which he accuses of harbouring Saddam Hussain loyalists suspected in deadly bombings in Baghdad.
Critics say he just wants to divert attention from...
UNITED NATIONS — The first UN team that probed the 2005 murder of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri sought to falsely implicate Damascus, Syria said in a letter seen here Thursday.
The letter from Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said former...
The foreign ministers of Iraq and Syria have met for talks in Turkey to defuse tensions following a diplomatic row.
The neighbours recalled their envoys last month after a series of bomb attacks in Baghdad that killed nearly 100 people.
Iraq...
JERUSALEM (JTA) -- Syria reportedly plans to block Facebook after the site began allowing users to designate some Golan Heights communities as being in Israel.
The Arabic newspaper Al Kuds Al Arabi reported Wednesday that Internet surfers in Syria...
Damascus has filed a complaint with the U.N. against former chief investigator Detlev Mehlis and his aide Gerhard Lehmann for allegedly trying to frame Syria in the assassination case of ex-Premier Rafik Hariri, an official source in New York told...
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Talks between Iraq and Syria over Iraqi charges that Damascus is harboring militants involved in deadly bombings in Baghdad have failed and will not be repeated, the Iraqi government spokesman said on Wednesday.
The talks in Ankara,...
Ned Parker and Caesar Ahmed in Baghdad , 07/09/2009
Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki has turned the heat up on his Arab neighbors after last month’s double bombings at the foreign and finance ministries, which killed about 100 people. Maliki and his government have repeatedly accused Syria of providing...
ANKARA — Turkey cannot give more water to Iraq and Syria, Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said Thursday as officials from the three neighbours met here to discuss the sharing of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.
The Ankara talks follow Iraqi accusations...
STOCKHOLM, Sept 4 (Reuters) - The European Union is close to agreeing an offer to Syria of closer ties, the 27-country bloc's commissioner for external relations, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, said on Friday.
An association agreement between Syria and...
By Massoud A. Derhally - Bloomberg.com , 03/09/2009
Sept. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will start a two-day visit to Syria tomorrow and meet with his counterpart, Bashar al-Assad, Syria’s SANA news agency said.
Chavez, who was in Tripoli yesterday for celebrations of Libyan...
MOSCOW — A top Russian official confirmed the existence of a contract for the supply of MiG-31 fighter jets to Syria but said work on the planes had been frozen, the daily Kommersant reported on Thursday.
"A few years ago, two contracts were signed:...
Cyprus President Demetris Christofias has expressed satisfaction over the results of his official visit to Syria, underlining that his visit constitutes a milestone in the relations between the two countries, both as regards politics and exchanges...
BEIRUT: Syria’s ambassador to Lebanon Ali Abdel Karim Ali hoped following a visit to former Prime Minister Salim Hoss on Tuesday that warming inter-Arab ties would have positive repercussions on Lebanon. “Syria is keen on seeing internal dialogue...
Turkey has begun mediation between Iraq and Syria amid a deepening diplomatic row over insurgency bombings in Iraq.
Iraq accuses Syria of hosting camps to train insurgents and harbouring those responsible for recent bombings.
Syria has condemned...
Syrian Defense Minister Ali Habib called on his troops to increase their training "for the challenges and dangers ahead."
Speaking at a ceremony marking the 61st anniversary of the establishment of the Syrian Navy, Habib said that "the Zionist...
Asharq Al-Awsat- While Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki hinted that Syria shoulders responsibility for Wednesday's bombings and that Iraq would have responded in the same way "were it not for our values, concern, and desire to reach an agreement...
DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syria's Health Ministry has confirmed the country's first death from the H1N1 influenza virus.
The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) on Wednesday quoted the Health Ministry as saying a Syrian man had died of the strain.
It...
PARIS — President Nicolas Sarkozy will lay out his diplomatic strategies for Iran, Syria and other key areas, in a speech to France's ambassadors Wednesday overshadowed by the uncertain plight of two Frenchwomen charged in Iran with fomenting unrest.
Sarkozy...
BAGHDAD, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Iraq and Syria recalled their ambassadors on Tuesday after Baghdad demanded Damascus hand over two people it says masterminded bombings in the Iraqi capital last week which killed almost 100 people.
Iraq's Shi'ite-led...
DAMASCUS — Syrians are getting hot under the collar about a major shortfall in electricity supplies which is forecast to get worse rather than better over the next few years.
The government aims to double electricity production capacity by 2015...
DAMASCUS — Syria has embarked on a delicate diplomatic offensive aimed at shedding its long-standing image as Middle East pariah while at the same time maintaining firm ties with its closest ally Iran, analysts say, pointing to Washington as the...
BAGHDAD — Iraq's prime minister is asking Syrian officials to hand over people suspected of links to insurgent attacks in his country and to stop fighters from crossing its border into northern Iraq, one of his advisers said Tuesday.
Nouri al-Maliki...
TEHRAN — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad arrived in Iran on Wednesday to congratulate his counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his re-election.
He will hold talks with Ahmadinejad, who is due to unveil his cabinet on Wednesday, and other high-ranking...
BAGHDAD — Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki will visit Damascus on Tuesday to hold talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on border security and other key topics.
His trip comes just days after a senior US military delegation visited Syria...
DAMASCUS (Reuters) - A U.S. security delegation will visit Syria on Wednesday in a sign of growing cooperation between the two countries since U.S. President Barack Obama started talking with the Damascus government, diplomats said.
The delegation...
Syrian human rights activists fear that even narrow margin of liberty still open to them will soon be closed.
DAMASCUS - Syrian civil rights groups say the arrest of a prominent human rights advocate is a worrying sign that the authorities...
WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. intelligence chief said Sunday that internal Hezbollah groups or Syria may be to blame for the killing of a Hezbollah commander that has led the FBI to put domestic terror squads on alert in the United States.
Director...
Daily Al-Safir wrote today on Monday, August 10 that Iran has sent the PSP leader a letter welcoming him in the Islamic Republic following his visit to Damascus.
The newspaper revealed that Iran expressed her satisfaction to the Jumblat’ return...
The United States has alerted Syrian diplomats that America has decided to lift various embargos against Syria, with more suspensions of embargos on the way.
Dr. Imad Mustafa, Syria’s ambassador to Washington, told Syrian television that President...
DAMASCUS, Aug 2 (Xinhua) -- A forest fire erupted Sunday afternoon in the forests of Abu Kbeis in Hama Governorate in central-western Syria and north of Damascus, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported.
Fire fighters, civil defense teams...
If Monday was any indication, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman will continue making foreign policy pronouncements despite the indictment cloud hovering over him.
Just prior to saying he would resign as foreign minister, quit the Knesset and...
DAMASCUS, Syria, July 31 (UPI) -- UNICEF and its local partners in Syria used a new model to address looming refugee issues by incorporating community volunteers, the aid group says.
Syria hosts a significant number of Iraqi refugees, with roughly...
WASHINGTON — US President Barack Obama extended sanctions against Syrian or pro-Syrian personalities for provoking instability in neighboring Lebanon, despite some positive recent signs from Damascus, the White House said.
"In the past six months,...
In the last two parts of this paper the history of U.S.-Syrian ties and the possible economic incentives that the West can offer Syria have been examined. The concluding part of the series will examine the future scenarios taking into account today’s...
DAMASCUS — US Middle East envoy George Mitchell held talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday as Washington stepped up its push for peace with Defence Secretary Robert Gates also due in the region.
Mitchell arrived overnight for his...
WASHINGTON — US envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell visits Syria for talks on peace with Israel, a spokesman said.
It will be Mitchell's second visit to Syria since mid-June and is aimed at "trying to see what Syria's prepared to do... to...
WASHINGTON — The U.S. State Department says the Obama administration's special Middle East envoy is heading to Syria.
State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley says George Mitchell plans to arrive Friday for his second visit in Damascus since he...
* PM says Turkey has a "responsibility" in peace process
* Netanyahu aide questions Ankara's mediation
(Adds reaction from Israeli official)
ANKARA, July 22 (Reuters) - Turkey is ready to resume its role as mediator in suspended indirect...
Syrian authorities begin allowing visits to detainees in Saydnaya prisona a year after deadly riots.
DAMASCUS - The Syrian authorities are again allowing visits to one of the country's largest prisons more than a year after banning them...
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is to visit neighboring Syria amid speculations that he would make an attempt to revive talks between Israel and Syria.
The Turkish Sabah daily speculated that Erdogan's visit is linked to Fred Hof's...
MOSCOW, July 20 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Navy will expand and modernize its Soviet-era naval maintenance site near Tartus in Syria to support anti-piracy operations off the Somali coast, a high-ranking navy source said on Monday.
About 50 naval...
JERUSALEM, July 15 (Reuters) - Israel played down prospects for renewed peace negotiations with Syria on Wednesday after hosting a top adviser to U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell.
Fred Hoff met several Israeli officials during a four-day...
DAMASCUS (AFP) — A Syrian appeal court has upheld 30-month jail terms slapped on 12 opposition figures who called for democratic reforms, a human rights group said on Tuesday.
"The appeal court rejected the motion submitted by defence lawyers...
The previous government held indirect talks with Syria, assumed to be based on returning the Golan Heights, occupied in 1967, in return for peace.
In June, Syrian President Bashar Assad said there was no partner for talks on the Israeli side....
A Saudi diplomat said Monday that the kingdom has appointed a new ambassador to Syria, the strongest sign yet of the solidifying reconciliation between the two rival Arab nations.
The United States and its Arab allies, including Saudi Arabia, have...
Syria, not only has set conditions, but reportedly wants a price beforehand to facilitate formation of a new Lebanese government.
Pan-Arab daily al-Hayat on Friday, which carried the report, said Syria has proposed that the various Lebanese parliamentary...
Washington has stressed that cabinet formation in Lebanon was an internal matter and U.S. President Barack Obama's visit to Damascus is conditional on ending interference in Lebanon.
"They elected their MPs on their own and named their prime minister....
The Israeli daily Haaretz on Sunday said Saudi Arabia and the United States are pressing Syria to demarcate its border with Lebanon, in order to allow for the beginning of an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Shaba Farms area, straddling the border...
Damascus has pledged that its Lebanese allies would facilitate the launching of a new government without calling for veto power, diplomatic sources told the daily An-Nahar on Sunday.
The sources said Syrian President Bashar Assad made that point...
PARIS (AFP) — Two top aides to President Nicolas Sarkozy held talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad this week, the foreign ministry said Wednesday, in the latest sign of improved ties between France and Syria.
The meeting in Damascus on...
Bashar al Assad told Sky's Middle East correspondent Dominic Waghorn he wanted to meet the US President on Syrian soil to discuss peace in the region.
He asked Sky News to relay the invitation to Mr Obama.
When asked when the visit could take place,...
Syria has scrapped a law limiting the length of sentences handed down to men convicted of killing female relatives they suspect of having illicit sex.
Women's groups had long demanded that Article 548 be scrapped, arguing it decriminalised "honour"...
Syrian officials including Syrian President Bashar Assad were at a ceremony on Saturday when a member of a group made comments indicating w willingness to reengage with Israel in war.
A member of the group Syrian Committee for the Liberation of...
DAMASCUS - Syria's ruling Baath party is considering a renewal process to meet a growing gap between the socialist nature of the regime and the market-oriented reality on the ground, observers say.
Despite previous attempts, the party has so far...
U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Michael Williams said that Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem personally told him that Syria considers the Shebaa Farms Lebanese territory, meaning Syria would turn the farms over to Lebanon within days...
WASHINGTON (AFP) — The United States said it will send an ambassador back to Syria after a four-year absence, as Washington tries to engage with a former foe in a bid to revive Arab-Israeli peace talks.
The news comes as Syria's ally Iran, which...
JERUSALEM (AFP) — Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Thursday insisted Israel wants unconditional and direct talks with Syria, effectively rejecting calls for a relaunch of indirect negotiations.
"Israel wants direct negotiations as soon as...
AFP , 26/06/2009
JERUSALEM (AFP) — Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman on Thursday insisted Israel wants unconditional and direct talks with Syria, effectively rejecting calls for a relaunch of indirect negotiations.
"Israel wants direct negotiations as soon as...
A MANCHESTER man is threatening to take legal action after he was stranded in Syria when airport authorities accused him of having a fake passport.
Ali Arteh, of Tyldsley Street, Moss Side, arrived home eight days later than planned.
He says...
PARIS (AFP) — Syrian President Bashar al-Assad outlined "conditions" for cooperating with the UN special court probing the murder of Lebanon's ex-premier Rafiq Hariri, in a French television interview Monday.
Asked whether he was ready to assist...
DAMASCUS (AFP) — Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad voiced common concerns on Saturday about the policies of the new right-leaning Israeli government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, official media reported.
"Assad...
OTTAWA–A parliamentary committee is poised to recommend that the government compensate and apologize to three Canadians who were jailed and tortured in Syria, says a key source.
The public safety committee's report due tomorrow will reportedly...
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Turkey said on Thursday it was willing to resume mediating suspended indirect peace talks between Israel and Syria, although both sides have expressed pessimism about the chances of that happening.
The previous centrist...
TEHRAN, June 17 (Reuters) - In the aftermath of disputed presidential elections, Iran is experiencing its worst unrest since the 1979 Islamic revolution as opposition protesters take to the streets in a rare challenge to authorities.
Supporters...
Two years after Israeli jets knocked out what was alleged to be a controversial plutonium-producing plant placed in the rural site on the Euphrates River near the village of al-Kibar, close to the Turkish border, there are now revelations surfacing...
Can President Obama rescue the American image which was so badly tarnished over the last eight years of misunderstanding and misguided rhetoric? Will the President's trusted messenger to the Middle East, George Mitchell, be able to start a new chapter...
In a sign of improving relations between Washington and Damascus, the United States is sending a military delegation to Syria in the coming weeks to discuss Iraq, U.S. and Syrian officials said on Wednesday.
Separately, the Obama administration's...
By J. Scott Carpenter Washington Institute, 21/04/2009
U.S. and European observers believe that Israel's new government will seek peace with Damascus in an attempt to pry the Syrian regime away from Tehran. Pursuing the Syrian track would also give the Obama administration an outlet for its peacemaking...
Two months away from Lebanon's elections, we can begin to discern clarity amid the vapors of boiling ambition. Over 700 candidates are registered to contest 128 parliamentary seats, but the real story lies elsewhere. Whether it is the March 14 coalition...
Israel has test fired its Arrow II ballistic missile system to be prepared to counter what it calls Iranian and Syrian missile threat.
The defense ministry said Tuesday that it had carried out a successful test of its Arrow II interceptor missile...
Riad Seif's plight is a reminder of Syria's view of human rights, and what the Obama administration faces in dealing with Damascus.
Reports from Damascus say Syria's leading dissident is on his deathbed. Riad Seif, 62 and suffering from prostate...
Beirut - Robin Vincent , the Registrar of the Special International Tribunal has said that failure by Syria to hand over witnesses to the assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister Rafik Hariri could compel the court to conduct trials in absentia.
If...
Bashar al-Assad's ascent to power following the death of his father, Hafiz al-Assad, on June 10, 2000, surprised no one. It had been an open secret in Syria for some years that this was Hafiz al-Assad's wish.[1] Nevertheless, President Assad's decision...
Ten Nazi war criminals are still at large and on a "most wanted" list published by Israel's Simon Wiesenthal Centre.
Top of the list and still thought to be living and sheltered in Syria is Alois Brunner, a "key operative" of Adolf Eichmann, the...
MOSCOW — On Jan. 12, a task force from the Russian Navy's Northern Fleet arrived in Tartous, Syria from Turkey, which hosted a naval exercise with Moscow.
Russian officials said the navy plans to modernize Tartous over the next few years. They...
Syria was trying to bully its antagonists in the March 14 coalition by airing on state television "confessions" of alleged Fatah al-Islam members last week linking the group to March 14's Future Movement, a number of analysts told The Daily Star...
"Not talking doesn't make us look tough--it makes us look arrogant," President-elect Barack Obama declares. Throughout his campaign, he has promised renewed engagement after eight years of moribund diplomacy. Chief among his diplomatic targets is...
The White House Thursday said Syria engages in "systematic repression of its own citizens," as it condemned a 30-month prison sentence handed down to 12 Syrian opposition activists and called for their immediate release.
"The United States condemns...
UK Foreign Secretary David Miliband today criticised a court decision to imprison 12 pro-democracy opposition leaders in Syria.
He said “Yesterday's sentencing of the twelve members of the Damascus Declaration group sends a bad message about Syria's...
In a statement issued by the German foreign ministry, Dr. Frank-Walter Steinmeier condemned the prison sentence against the 12 Damascus Declaration leaders and said that efforts by the German government to secure their release will continue.
The...
On Wednesday, 12 Syrian dissidents were sentenced to two-and-a-half years each by the National Security Court in Damascus. The 12 were held behind a cage in a court room packed with family members and well-wishers. After the sentences were read out,...
A criminal court in Damascus has today convicted the 12 Damascus Declaration leaders of fomenting sectarian strife and has sentenced them to two and a half years in prison.
They were charged with spreading false information, belonging to a secret...
Britain and Syria cancelled a planned joint press conference of their foreign ministers in London today as the fall-out continued over an American military raid into Syrian territory that left eight civilians dead.
The attack threatens to overshadow...
National Organization for Human Rights , 02/05/2008
The Syrian blogger Tarek Biassi is still kept in detention by the Syrian authorities who arrested him on 7/7/2007 after one of the security agencies in Tartus summoned him and hasn’t been released yet.
It is believed that the reason for his detention...
Syrian authorities have ordered internet cafe users to reveal their identity, the latest measure in their "iron censorship" of cyberspace, a Syrian monitoring group said.
Security officials ordered internet cafe owners this week to take down the...
The Secretary General of the Arab League Amr Moussa should raise the case of detained political and human rights activists in his meetings with Syrian President Bashar al-Asad during the Arab Summit in Damascus on March 29-30, Human Rights Watch...
A human rights group in Syria says one of its members has been detained for documenting alleged human rights abuses and criticizing a government minister.
The National Organization for Human Rights in Syria says security agents detained 59-year-old...
The dictatorial regime in Syria has carried out a heinous crime last week in Sidnaya political prison reminiscent of the massacre committed in Tadmor Prison in 1980.
The Movement for Justice and Development has learned from special sources that...
A human rights groups says that Syria's State Security Court has sentenced a Syrian poet and writer to four years in jail on charges of releasing false information.
The National Organization for Human Rights in Syria, or NOHR, says in a statement...
Reports of unrest and a fire at the Saidnaya military prison underscore the need for more transparency about the conditions in Syrian prisons, human rights activists and family members of prisoners say.
Numerous reports surfaced this week of disturbances...
Germany condemned Syria on Wednesday for extending the prison sentence of an opposition activist, Kamal Labwani. The German Foreign Ministry said he had only spoken out for democracy and freedom of opinion.
In a statement in Berlin, the ministry...
The United States said Wednesday that Syria's treatment of political prisoner Kamal Labwani flouts international standards of human rights and the rule of law.
Labwani is among six government critics and human rights campaigners arrested since...
Amnesty International today launched an urgent appeal for Mahmoud al-Najjar, a primary school teacher from Syria, who was arrested last week.
The 48-year-old has a chronic lung infection, joint pain and a slipped disc. His whereabouts are unknown,...
At least 25 inmates were shot dead by Syrian security forces during a riot by political detainees at a prison in mountains outside Damascus on Saturday, a human rights group said.
"Islamist prisoners started a riot inside the prison this morning,"...
International human rights organizations have urged the French president to raise the issue of human rights with Bashar Assad, who is invited to attend National Day celebrations in Paris on 14 July.
Below is the text of the open letter:...
Over the last months the Syrian government has arrested dozens of dissidents who were demonstrating against the authorities. The latest crackdown coincides with the preparations for the festival of 'Damascus, cultural Capital of the Arab world...
Last month, Syria's leading dissident went to jail again. Riad Seif's arrest didn't come as much of a surprise; the former member of parliament and longtime human rights advocate had devoted much of the past two decades to criticizing the authoritarian...
Imad Mughnieh's body may be back in Beirut and the tangled wreckage of his bombed car towed away by the police but the shattering fallout of the Hezbollah commander's assassination in Syria was still reverberating through the increasingly isolated...
The Bush administration yesterday froze the U.S. assets and restricted the financial transactions of Syrian businessman Rami Makhluf, a powerful behind-the-scenes middle man for the Syrian government, in a move targeting the political and economic...
Has the Syrian regime succeeded in plagiarizing the Chinese development model in which economic liberalization and growth goes hand in hand with political dictatorship and oppression of civil rights? In recent years, economic growth has been a good...
Jiri Paroubek, leader of the opposition Czech Social Democrats (CSSD), today called on Syrian President Bashar al-Asad to make a humanitarian gesture toward imprisoned dissident Riyad Saif, party spokeswoman Kveta Kocova told journalists.
German...
Relations between the European Union and Syria have deteriorated in the last year and are increasingly of concern, Germany's foreign minister said on Friday at an informal meeting with EU counterparts in Slovenia.
'We are certainly in a more...
If the US helps facilitate billions of dollars in business for Syria and builds up Damascus as the primary American ally in the Arab world in place of Saudi Arabia, the Syrians would be willing to discuss scaling back alliances with Iran and making...
DEBKAfile’s Middle East and intelligence sources report that President Bashar Assad has fallen out with his brother-in-law Gen. Asif Shawkat, sacked him as military intelligence chief and appointed Gen. Ali Younes in his place.
Shawkat has not...
With negotiations on the Palestinian track limping along unproductively, Israeli leaders have again begun talking about renewing peace negotiations with Syria. But at the same time they are keeping a wary eye on new deployments by the Syrian military.
"Israel...
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice Wednesday rejected the notion of excusing Syrian leaders from scrutiny in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. In Senate testimony, Rice also ruled out unconditional U.S. talks...
Officials following contacts between Israel and Syria say significant US involvement will probably be necessary for negotiations to move ahead, and that Syria is still demanding such involvement.
Both Israeli and foreign experts on Syria told...
The director of the CIA has accused North Korea of helping Syria to build a nuclear reactor.
North Korean involvement would violate international agreements
Michael Hayden said there was evidence of North Korean workers and technology on...
Three years after Syria ended its near 30-year military presence in Lebanon, Damascus stands accused of still pulling strings there and leaving its tiny neighbour paralysed by political deadlock.
On April 26, 2005, Syria withdrew the last of its...
Is Ehud Olmert serious about returning the Golan Heights to Syria?
When President Bashar Assad said Turkish intermediaries forwarded him a message from the Israeli prime minister about giving back the strategic plateau, government officials in...
The following is a text of an editorial in Voice of America which reflects the Views of the United States Government:
The Syrian government continues to crack down hard on human rights and democracy advocates. Most recently, a Syrian military...
Many contradicting trends and confusing political signals have been exchanged in recent months in the Middle East, making it a daunting task to untangle the intertwining motives in the region.
The revelation of talks between Israel and Syria...
As Turkey works to hold meeting between Israeli, Syrian officials, source in Damascus tells Egyptian newspaper there is no chance for such a session, as real talks can only begin under new US administration
Turkey is interested in getting senior...
President George W. Bush said Wednesday he was extending US sanctions against Syria following Washington's charge that Damascus had been building a nuclear reactor with North Korea's help.
Bush announced his decision to continue for one year a...
Shortly after the Prime Minister's Office announced the commencement of indirect peace talks with Syria via Turkey, leading Israeli academics and Middle East experts expressed doubts and disagreement about the prospect of successful negotiations....
Shortly after the Prime Minister's Office announced the commencement of indirect peace talks with Syria via Turkey, leading Israeli academics and Middle East experts expressed doubts and disagreement about the prospect of successful negotiations....
Truth be told, the most dramatic element about the Prime Minister Office's formal announcement on Wednesday of indirect peace negotiations with Syria was not the content of the statement, but the statement itself.
"Syria and Israel have started...
UN atomic watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei on Monday urged "full disclosure" from Iran over its nuclear programme and said he was sending experts to Syria to probe allegations of a secret nuclear reactor.
In his opening address to the summer meeting...
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice escalated the Bush administration's anti-Iran rhetoric on Tuesday, accusing its government of pursuing nuclear weapons and calling any dialogue with its leaders pointless until they suspend the country's enrichment...
French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner says he is not comfortable with a decision to invite the Syrian president to Paris next month.
Mr Kouchner said he was not "especially amused" - though he acknowledged that such visits helped to...
A senior United Nations official has harshly criticized Israel's indirect negotiations with Syria, whose second round ended yesterday, charging that "Israel has given Syria a huge gift, without thus far receiving anything in exchange."
Terje...
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad will be joining Israel's leader at a summit to launch a new Mediterranean Union in Paris next month, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Tuesday.
"The Syrian president will be there, sitting next to,...
Syria's foreign minister said on Monday he wished his country could match Israel's atomic arsenal, but denied U.S. allegations that it had been building a secret nuclear reactor at a site bombed by Israel last year.
Walid al-Moualem, making Syria's...
Syrian dissidents are demanding an international investigation into riots in a Syrian prison, in which several dozen people have reportedly been killed.
Legal experts and Syrian opposition parties are condemning what they call the deteriorating...
Those who believe Nicolas Sarkozy is a bit of a show-off may have their suspicions confirmed this weekend when the French president welcomes about 40 heads of government, including all the EU's leaders, to the Arc de Triomphe in Paris for the extravagant...
Syria's president urged France and the United States on Saturday to contribute to efforts toward Syrian-Israeli peace talks, but suggested little progress was likely before the United States elects a new leader.
"In all frankness, this (U.S.)...
The opening of diplomatic relations between Syria and Lebanon is a major strategic shift, but analysts say it remains to be seen whether Damascus' influence over its smaller neighbor has really ended.
The move, announced by French President Nicolas...
Military trucks carrying an estimated 1000 soldiers (a full brigade) in full combat fatigues were seen travelling north west of the village of Menin towards the military prison of Sednaya.
Sources who have spoken to the Movement for Justice and...
Former US envoy to the United Nations John Bolton says neither diplomacy nor Israeli-Syria talks will move Damascus away from Tehran.
"I don't really understand why he (Ehud Olmert) is engaging in these talks. Israel should be isolating the Syrian...
Analysts in Syria have largely welcomed the news that Syria and Lebanon plan to open embassies in each other’s capitals.
French president Nicolas Sarkozy announced the development after he met Lebanese president Michel Suleiman and Syrian leader...
Lebanon's MP Akram Chehayyeb called for demarcation of borders with Syria before establishing diplomatic relations and embassies in both capitals and also called for scrapping the Lebanese Syrian Treaty of Brotherhood, Cooperation, and Coordination...
The U.S. State Department on Wednesday canceled plans to meet three Syrians making a private visit to Washington and gave no detailed explanation of its abrupt reversal.
"Representatives from the State Department will not meet with this group...
President George W. Bush on Thursday urged his successor to carry on what he called his "freedom agenda" of promoting human rights, democracy, and free trade around the world.
Bush, with six months left in office, peppered a speech to mark "Captive...
Iranian president plays host to Syrian FM, pledges no changes in bilateral relations with Damascus despite its recent renewal of peace negotiations with Israel.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met on Tuesday evening with visiting...
Twelve Syrian dissidents went on trial on Wednesday for signing a declaration calling for democracy in Syria in what a human rights group said was the biggest such case in seven years.
The 12 denied all charges, which include harming the state...
President Bashar al-Assad is once more one of the "triple pillars" of the Middle East. We may not like that. George Bush may curse the day his invasion of Iraq helped to shore up the power of the Caliph of Damascus. But Mr Assad's latest trip to...
The ongoing impasse over the appointment of the next Lebanese president, after Emil Lahoud stepped down on November 24, is the product of Syrian machinations and interference in Lebanese politics. The agreement reached on Sunday in Cairo may finally...
Brussels, 31 December 2007
16858/07 (Presse 308)
Declaration by the Presidency on behalf of the European Union on the situation of Human Rights Defenders in Syria
The EU is deeply concerned about the recent detention of members of...
Syria will have few friends at the table Sunday when Arab foreign ministers convene in Cairo to discuss the crisis in Lebanon, which has been without a president for six weeks.
Most Arab governments blame Syria for the political impasse in Lebanon,...
A demoralizing aspect of much international political behavior, commentary, or policy counsel on Syria in the past two years has been the extent to which it has fed off amnesia.
Almost nobody, it seems, recalls that the Syrian-Lebanese crisis...
US President George W. Bush called on Syria Friday to immediately release dozens of opposition activists reportedly arrested this week amid events marking International Human Rights Day.
"All those detained should be released immediately," Bush...
The New York Times, Thanassis Cambanis, 14/12/2007
Syrian authorities this week arrested more than 30 people who had been working for political change, escalating a crackdown on dissent just a week after critics elected a leadership committee in an unusually direct and public challenge to President...
In a move which signals a new level of engagement with the opposition in Syria, Members of the European Parliament issued a statement today condemning the recent arrest of over 40 pro-democracy activists.
In a busy press conference, Jana Hybášková...
Syrian secret police agents raided the homes of at least 30 pro-democracy activists in Syria and led them to security headquarters for interrogation.
The 30 activists, all members of the National Council of the Damascus Declaration, were arrested...
In an unprecedented step, the Damascus Declaration for National Democratic Change held a meeting on 1 December 2007 to officially launch the next phase of the Declaration's strategy for change in Syria.
The announcement of the National Council...
Situation in the Middle East has not improved substantially since September 2000. September 11 and following Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom operations have not brought positive change. Postcolonial disarray did not allow for Middle Eastern societies...
Deep in a tunnel under Mount Myohang, in North Korea, its regime has preserved as a museum piece the Kalashnikov assault rifle and pistols sent as gifts from President Hafez al-Assad of Syria to Kim Il Sung in the early years of their friendship....
NEW YORK - The victory by the Lebanese Army over Fatah al-Islam is a victory for the state over the militias and states-within-a-state. The Lebanese Army crushed these "red lines," which the secretary general of Hizbullah, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah,...
The French president, Nicola Sarkozy, has offered Syria Franco-Syrian talks in return for facilitating the presidential elections in Lebanon. Guessing the Syrian response, however, will not be an easy task.
Damascus can claim that it has nothing...
Hey, you, you're making me nervous!
SOME Israeli security officials think that Syria might want war. Or that Syria might think that Israel wants war. Or that Syria thinks that Israel might think that Syria wants war. And any of these trains of...
ANKARA - Israel should not view Syria as a branch of Iran because Tehran and Damascus differ on regional issues, Turkish officials trying to jump-start peace talks between Syria and Israel told Haaretz this week.
Amid rising tensions between...
Summary
Talk of Russia making a grand return to the Mediterranean by developing a naval base off the Syrian coast has given Syria a unique opportunity to play off a resurrection of Cold War tensions between Washington and Moscow. Though a Russian...
