Archivo de la etiqueta: Syria

Israel stirs the pot in Syria

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Israel stirs the pot in Syria

by , Mondoweiss, June 17, 2013

For much of the past two years Israel stood sphinx-like on the sidelines of Syria’s civil war. Did it want Bashar al-Assad’s regime toppled? Did it favour military intervention to help opposition forces? And what did it think of the increasing visibility of Islamist groups in Syria? It was difficult to guess.

In recent weeks, however, Israel has moved from relative inaction to a deepening involvement in Syrian affairs. It launched two air strikes on Syrian positions last month, and at the same time fomented claims that Damascus had used chemical weapons, in what looked suspiciously like an attempt to corner Washington into direct intervention.

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Rebels carry out sectarian cleansing in eastern Syria

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syria_hatla_620x350 A Sunni Muslim militant from Kuwait boasts of killing Shiites in the Syrian village of Hatla, and warns he and his men are about to find more Shiites in their homes and kill them, in a video posted to YouTube on June 11, 2013. / YouTube/CBS

Rebels carry out sectarian cleansing in eastern Syria

Hassan Hassan blog, 12 Jun 2013

A rebel armed group calling itself “As-Sadiq Al Ameen” has committed what appears to be a massacre against Shia civilians in Deir Ezzor.

According to a video that emerged on Tuesday, the group targetted the civilians because they are Shia. Residents say the group is still chasing other “Shia” who had escaped the carnage – the Syrian opposition needs to intervene, through Deir Ezzor representatives, to prevent more killing.<

UPDATE: Another video shows fighters from Jund Al Rahman rebel group were also involved, along with “several other groups”. Click here for a comprehensive playlist of the videos related to the events, by Brown Moses.The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said 60 Shiites were killed in the attack – at least 10 rebels were killed.

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Iran invited to Syria peace conference

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Iranian_AAEEIranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi (Reuters)

Iran invited to Syria peace conference: official

The Daily Star, June 11, 2013 04:46 PM

MOSCOW: Iran has received a verbal invitation to attend the proposed peace conference on Syria, the Islamic Republic’s deputy foreign minister said on Tuesday without specifying who extended the invitation.

“Ten days ago, we received a verbal invitation to take part in this conference,” Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian told reporters in Moscow.

“The conference will be successful if all the influential countries take part.”

Russia has backed Iran’s representation at the so-called Geneva 2 talks, meant to push forward a political transition in Syria after negotiations in the Swiss city failed to achieve tangible results last June.

But Western countries, including the United States and France, have questioned Iran’s participation because of its strong alliance with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and links to the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.

The fate of the Geneva 2 talks seems to be hanging in the balance because of the major nations’ failure to agree on a list of participants and the Syrian opposition’s refusal to attend the meeting at a time of significant reverses on the ground.
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)

Syria Is Now Saudi Arabia’s Problem

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Salim_Idris Brigadier General Salim Idriss

Syria Is Now Saudi Arabia’s Problem

The battle for a town on the Lebanese border marks the kingdom’s first attempt to lead Syria’s fractured opposition.

By Hassan Hassan | June 6, 2013

Hezbollah can finally claim a victory in Syria. The town of Qusayr, adjacent to the Lebanese border, has fallen to the Lebanese militia after nearly a month of fierce battles with Syrian rebels. Dozens of Hezbollah’s fighters have been killed, despite air cover and ground support from Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

The Qusayr battle has been constantly, and wrongly, described as a turning point in the Syrian war. Why has this small town of some 30,000 residents become “strategic,” as it is constantly described in the press, all of a sudden? The town had previously been run by its Sunni residents for more than a year, with little mention of its strategic benefits.

Hezbollah’s open military intervention in Syria partly explains the publicity the Qusayr battle has received. As a result, the “Party of God” has lost much of its political and ideological capital in the region — a capital the militia had painstakingly acquired from its three-decade career of “resisting” Israel.

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Istanbul, Gezi Park: TINA vs. NAIT?

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Gezi_Park_gases Personalized attention to every citizen: one of the most infamous pictures of the protests in Istanbul

Istanbul, Gezi Park: TINA vs. NAIT?

Francisco Veiga, Eurasian Hub, June 2, 2013

It seems evident that the revolt in Istanbul’s Gezi Park has been a true “Black Swan”. According to author Nassir Nicholas Taleb, who coined this concept, a “Black Swan” event would be a completely unexpected phenomenon, deemed highly improbable and of great magnitude and significant consequences.

Since the different actors involved –including the Turkish government itself- are at a loss to fully understand what is happening, some media have been quick to say that the growing evidence of mobilization of the citizenship are the seeds of a true “Turkish Spring”. In the battle of headers which followed, some media took for granted that a true “Turkish Spring” was in the offering.

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