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...
The Obama administration on Wednesday announced sanctions against Syrian President Bashar Assad and six other senior Syrian officials, taking an unprecedented step to isolate the regime over its brutal crackdown on protesters.
The sanctions mark...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
DAMASCUS, Syria — Human rights groups say a Syrian activist arrested earlier this month for calling for anti-government protests has been released because of health problems.
In a statement, nine local rights group said Wednesday that Ghassan...
DAMASCUS, Syria — Human rights groups have expressed deep concern over the deteriorating health of a Syrian activist who was arrested earlier this month after he urged his fellow countrymen to stage protests.
In a statement issued Sunday, nine...
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,...
Media outlets in Beirut reported that Syria and Saudi Arabia are formulating a compromise offer in an attempt to prevent unrest in Lebanon following the publication of the indictments against those involved in the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese...
Since the early 1980s, the Syrian regime murdered, methodically, more than 30 Lebanese leaders and public figures, and nobody dared to say anything, The Israeli website Ynet News has said.
Under the headline "Everyone scared of Syria," Ynet said...
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,...
The Syrian leadership in Damascus told a senior Iranian delegation to Damascus last year that it would not assist Iran in retaliating for an Israeli strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, according to an American diplomatic cable published...
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...
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...
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...
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...
(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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
A 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...
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,...
The Syrians 'accepted the idea, but said they need to study the issue carefully,' the Iranian source told the German Press Agency dpa.
The university, which was established after Iran's Islamic Revolution, has around 50 offices around the world,...
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 ship that docked in Gioia Tauro in southern Italy last month and said it was enough...
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...
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...
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Monday that coordination with Turkey was the key to help relaunch peace talks with Israel, the official SANA news agency reported.
Assad made the comments in talks with French presidential envoy Jean-Claude...
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 — 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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Syria (Damascus) - German Researchers said the jasmine fragrance can be used as a substitute of the drug valium.
Instead of a sleeping pill or a mood enhancer, a nose full of jasmine from Gardenia jasminoides could also help: in collaboration...
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...
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 leading Syrian lawyer who won an international human rights award for defending opposition figures has been sentenced to three years in prison.
Mohannad al-Hassani, 43, was arrested last year after campaigning against the charge on which he...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Economic cooperation between Syria and Kuwait has been rapidly growing as a number of economic agreements have been signed in order to activate trade exchange and increase joint investment, The Syrian News Agency reported.
The Syrian-Kuwaiti Economic...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
MOSCOW, May 10 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev will go on a three-day Asian tour Monday to visit Syria and Turkey. High on the agenda of his talks in the countries is economic and humanitarian bilateral cooperation, development of...
"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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
Syrian Ambassador to the United Nations Bashar Jaafari criticized the "logical framework" approach of U.N. Special Envoy Terry Rod Larsen's budget for the implementation of Resolution 1559.
"Syria looks to the secretariat general of the U.N....
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...
Member of the Syrian parliament (Majlis al-Sha’ab) stressed on Wednesday that any effort made by the U.S., the Zionist regime or other countries to damage Iran-Syria relations is doomed to failure.
“Syria would never give in to the will of big...
Security arrangements for an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights considered by prime ministers Binyamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak in the late 1990s would not provide Israel with sufficient security, a new paper being released by the Jerusalem...
Syrian Oil and Mineral Resources Minister Sofyan al-Alaw Monday night emphasized need for taking advantage of Iran's experience in turning gasoline run vehicles' engines into systems capable of using condensed natural gas (CNG).
Al-Alaw expressed...
A mother has been missing for more than two weeks since her arrest in Syria, her British husband has said.
Maryam Kallis, 36, was handcuffed on a busy street in Damascus in front of her young son and has not been seen since, her husband Masood...
Syria has nominated its first ambassador to Syria since the two countries formally obtained independence over sixty years ago, reported the Lebanese television station LBC.
The broadcaster specified that the Lebanese president, Michel Suleiman,...
Security forces defused Tuesday night an explosive device in a vehicle parked near Phalange party leader Amin Gemayel's home in Bikfaya and arrested its Syrian driver.
The Phalange party issued a statement after midnight, saying Gemayel's security...
In a statement, the Lebanese Hezbollah slammed the Monday assassination of the deputy head of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in Lebanon, Kamal Medhat, and his companions.
The resistance force called for those behind the assassination...
Syria has appointed its first ambassador to Lebanon and Lebanese President Michel Suleiman accepted his diplomatic accreditation Tuesday, according to a statement from the Lebanese presidency.
The Lebanese presidency named the diplomat as Ali...
While Syria will face the twin challenges of falling domestic oil production and lower crude prices this year, the government has moved to reinforce the competitiveness of the national energy sector by improving efficiencies within the country's...
LAKE ZARZAR, Syria: Nine schoolgirls drowned Thursday in a lake near the Syrian capital when a boat they were on sank, witnesses said.
Around 40 girls from a Damascus girls school, mostly aged around 14, were on the overloaded boat on lake Zarzar....
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad arrived in Amman Friday for talks with Jordan's King Abdullah II on means of closing Arab ranks ahead of the regular Arab summit conference in Doha at the end of March.
The visit is the culmination of moves by...
The distance between Tehran and the Moroccan capital of Rabat is no less than 5200 kilometres and Morocco is the furthest Arab country away from Iran. Yet the Moroccan government has complained about Iranian interference. How has a country of such...
Syria and Saudi Arabia have agreed to remain "neutral" toward Lebanon's upcoming elections and believe that the country can only be governed through national consensus, As-Safir daily reported Thursday.
Last week Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah...
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says he is ready to act as a go-between for Iran and the West if a 'concrete proposal' is offered to Tehran.
Assad said in an interview with the Italian daily La Repubblica published on Wednesday that his country...
A European delegation on Saturday met with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal in Damascus in the first announced visit of a European delegation to meet with Hamas leaders, Democracy Now! reported Monday.
Members of the delegation included British Parliamentarian...
Lebanon opened an embassy in Damascus for the first time on Monday, after international pressure on Syria to establish diplomatic ties and treat its smaller neighbor as a full sovereign country.
"The embassy demonstrates the strong and historic...
Syrian prime minister’s removal of customs chief accused of corruption fails to inspire public confidence.
DAMASCUS -The recent dismissal of a high-ranking official accused of embezzlement is seen by many as a token move by authorities reluctant...
Damascus says it will not abandon its strategic ties with Tehran, despite reports of a Saudi and Egyptian effort to distance the two allies.
Syrian presidential adviser Bouthaina Shaaban, who recently accompanied Bashar Assad on a visit to Riyadh,...
SYRIAN PRESIDENT Bashar al-Assad made it clear yesterday that he is prepared to negotiate peace with an Israeli government formed by Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu.
Dr Assad told the Sharjah-based al-Khaleej Arabic daily that there is little...
A delegation from the US Congress headed by the House intelligence committee chief Dianne Feinstein is scheduled to pay an official visit to Syria soon, Syria's Al-Watan newspaper reported Sunday.
The anticipated visit to Damascus coincides with...
A Syrian court sentenced a 64-year old dissident on Sunday to three years in jail for "weakening national feelings" after he published articles critical of the political system, human rights activist said.
The sentencing of Habib Saleh, who had...
People are incredibly generous. Last night I attended a concert to raise money for the children of Gaza. Sir Colin Davis, the 81-year-old conductor, and the English Chamber Orchestra gave their services free, and the Barbican in London provided the...
By Tariq Alhomayed
In a joint-press-conference with Syrian Prime Minister Mohamed Naji al-Otari, Iranian Vice President Parviz Davoudi called on Syria to be "more alert to the enemies' tricks." But the question is; who are these enemies?
Of...
Russian warships have returned to the naval base in the Syrian port of Tartus, used by the Soviet Union since the late sixties, after more than a decade of absence.
In August 2008, Syrian president Bashar Assad, during his visit to Russia, pointed...
Four top Lebanese generals arrested over the 2005 murder of former billionaire premier Rafiq Hariri have been languishing in jail for going on four years without ever being indicted, much less tried.
Another three suspects were only just released...
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton says it is too early to tell if Washington and Damascus can improve frosty relations, although a senior U.S. official was meeting with the Syrian ambassador Thursday.
Syrian Ambassador Imad Moustapha was...
Syria has told the UN nuclear watchdog that a suspect site bombed by Israeli planes in 2007 is now a missile facility, diplomats close to the IAEA revealed Wednesday.
The head of Syria's Atomic Energy Commission, Ibrahim Othman, made the revelation...
Human Rights Watch has urged Syria to lift its state of emergency and abolish the State Security Court.
A report by the New York-based group describes the court as "one of Syria's main pillars of repression".
HRW also called on the EU and US...
Syria may be coming in from the cold but we should not ignore the regime's human rights abuses
President Bashar al-Assad of Syria may be feeling the effects of President Obama's promised "change". After years of US-imposed isolation, Assad has...
2/22/2009
Nadim Houry
Syria may be coming in from the cold but we should not ignore the regime's human rights abuses
President Bashar al-Assad of Syria may be feeling the effects of President Obama's promised "change". After years of US-imposed isolation,...
By Tariq Alhomayed
What is currently taking place in Lebanon from the firing of rockets, to kidnapping and murder, can only be described as an indication of impending danger. The greatest indication [of looming danger] can be seen with the rockets...
The Iranians continue to enrich uranium, and have hidden 209 kilos of it. They now have a ton, enough to make a bomb. It seems increasingly probable that the Syrians were building a secret nuclear reactor.
Vienna (AsiaNews/Agencies) - In all likelihood,...
Syrian President Bashar Al Assad said that he expects US President Barack Obama to send an Ambassador to Syria soon to make good on a dialogue offer to countries previously shunned by Washington. In an interview with The Guardian British newspaper...
Truckloads of apples were sent from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to Syria on Tuesday after Israel authorised the export of 8,000 tonnes to its longtime foe.
The first shipments went through the Kuneitra crossing on Tuesday morning, a military...
WASHINGTON
is leading a congressional delegation to Israel and Syria.
The delegation, which left Thursday, will meet leaders of the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority while in Jerusalem, and plans to meet with Syrian President Bashar...
A senior Israeli official has warned that Tel Aviv is on the verge of a military confrontation with Syria should peace efforts fail.
"We're on a collision course with Syria," said Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amos Gilad, who heads the Defense Ministry's Diplomatic-Security...
Syria spends 90% of its water on industry and agriculture, while Damascus residents are forced to buy water in black market, fear catastrophe. Transporting from Euphrates River costs $2 billion, can only be executed if funded by Japanese government...
(RFE/RL) -- U.S. President Barack Obama has told Al-Arabiyah television that his message to Muslims is that "Americans are not your enemy" -- and said he stands ready to be judged by his actions.
Obama chose the Saudi-owned television station...
LONDON, Jan 27 (Reuters) - The fate of inmates at a Syrian jail where guards used lethal force to quell unrest last year remains cloaked in secrecy and there have been reports of more violence at the prison, Human Rights Watch said on Tuesday.
The...
Blackout on July Unrest at Sednaya Amid Reports of More Violence
(New York) - Syrian authorities should make public the fate of prisoners at Sednaya against whom military police used lethal force during unrest in early July 2008, Human Rights...
SYRIAN WAY: Syrian Prime Minister Mohammed Naji Utari (left) speaks as Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono listens during a joint press conference after a meeting at Merdeka palace in Jakarta on Monday. AP/Achmad Ibrahim
The Indonesian...
