Following last year’s Israeli bombing of a suspected Syrian nuclear facility, Damascus has reportedly restarted its nuclear weapons program, but is now following the Iranian model of housing the program at numerous different locations.
Read More…

read more....

The hysteria over the expected arms deal between Russia and Syria should be directed elsewhere. Israel may indeed find it harder to strike Syria every time it feels like “sending a message” to Damascus. What should worry Jerusalem more, however, is the fact that it, and Syria, are now at the center of the great [...]

read more....

Syria and Iran may be better friends than many thought. Reports indicate that the two might have been cooperating on nuclear weapons research. Now, though, Damascus may be rethinking those ties and looking for friends in the West. more…

Interview with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert: ‘We Want Genuine Peace’
Interview with IAEA Boss Mohamed ElBaradei: ‘If [...]

read more....

Damascus and Pyongyang helped Iran to develop its nuclear programme through the construction of a suspected nuclear site in Syria that Israel destroyed last September, Der Spiegel reported.
…
he reports cited by Der Speigel claimed that North Korea was to help Iranian scientists to advance their nuclear programme, and that Al-Kibar was to have been used [...]

read more....

Damascus suspects Israel decided to return to negotiations due to its failings in the Second Lebanon war and the realization that it could not live securely among its neighbors without peace, Syrian President Bashar Assad told an Indian newspaper.
“The Israelis used to think that with time they were going to be stronger and any opposition [...]

read more....

Almost two years have passed since Israel’s war against Hizballah in 2006, and the balance of power is far from positive from an Israeli point of view. One of the major remaining questions is that of deterrence. Although the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) performed disappointingly during the war, the army’s image and its deterrent capability [...]

read more....

The report stated that Assaf Shawkat, Syrian military intelligence chief and Assad’s brother-in-law, planned to sieze control of the government while the president was hosting a meeting of the Arab League in Damascus in February. Shawkat was detained along with a hundred other Syrian intelligence officers.
According to Die Welt, Assad was informed of the turnover [...]

read more....

Iran and its close ally Syria have signed a new defence cooperation pact, Iranian media reported on Wednesday, just a week after news broke that Israel had begun indirect peace talks with Damascus.
“The two countries pledge their mutual support regarding territorial independence and integrity in terms of international and regional authorities,” the state-run IRNA news [...]

read more....

Shrugging off Bush’s warning against “appeasing” its enemies by negotiating with them, the Israeli government is engaging in Egyptian-brokered cease-fire talks with Hamas, the militant Islamic rulers of the Gaza strip. At the same time, through Turkish diplomats, it is sending out feelers to Damascus to discuss Israel’s possible return of the Golan Heights in [...]

read more....

Damascus continues to strengthen Hizbullah, and “plays a significant role in transferring weapons to the south of Lebanon,” Head of Military Intelligence research division Brig.-Gen. Yossi Baidatz told the Knesset on Monday.
He added that “at the same time as negotiating with Israel, Syria is working diligently on its own army, especially in terms of missiles [...]

read more....

When Damascus confirmed peace talks with Israel on May 21, a secret high-powered military purchasing delegation, headed by air force-air defenses commander Gen. Akhmad Ratyb, was already in Moscow. With a $5 billion allocation in hand from Tehran, the delegation was bidding for the most advanced products of Russia’s munitions industry.
The six main categories of [...]

read more....

Lebanon’s factions appear to have halted a nascent civil war — at least temporarily — with an agreement struck Wednesday in Qatar between the Western-backed government of Fouad Siniora and the Syrian-backed Shiite Muslim militia Hezbollah. But the peace deal cannot fairly be called a compromise. Hezbollah won That’s the result of its stunning military [...]

read more....

Unfortunately for the Lebanese, their leaders are almost certainly coming back soon, and probably without a workable agreement. That’s because 18 months into the stalemate between the U.S. and Saudi-backed government on the one hand and the Syrian- and Iranian-supported opposition on the other, the differences between the two camps appear to be irreconcilable for [...]

read more....

Rick: “Sam, if it’s December 1941 in Casablanca , what time is it in New York ?”
Sam: “Um, my watch stopped.”
Rick: “I bet they’re asleep in New York . I’ll bet they’re asleep all over America .”
You bet America is asleep. The entire western world is asleep. Sitting back now will cost us big time [...]

read more....

But some observers see other motives in pulling back Syria’s nuclear curtain. Andrew Semmel, the former top State Department official for nonproliferation, tells Voice of America the release may have been aimed at “putting a positive spin” on intelligence that was bound to leak. Dar Al-Hayat columnist Elias Harfoush sees the disclosure as an attempt [...]

read more....

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 officials who had reigned as the true powerbrokers in Beirut, as the final 14,000 troops of a [...]

read more....

(Video) Qatari newspaper al-Watan reports of Syrian preparations against Israeli strike during coming summer; says Israel looking to May, June as possible window for attack
According to the report, the nationwide emergency drill held by Damascus in response to a similar drill held by Israel last week, is one of the preemptive steps taken by Syria, [...]

read more....

As tensions rise with Syria, fears have mounted in the defense establishment that Hizbullah may fly an explosives-packed drone into Israel in retaliation for the February assassination of Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
Read More…

read more....

Afraid at first, then welcome, welcome, welcome
I have to admit that before I came to Syria, I was afraid of the place. All I knew about it was what I had read beneath newspaper headlines: Terrorist cells. Hezbollah. Car bombs. Unsanctioned nuclear power sites. Mysterious Israeli bombings in the middle the night. The attack on [...]

read more....

Iran’s direct investment in Syria is at an all-time high, reaching $1.5 billion over the past year, according to Iran’s ambassador to Damascus, Mohammad Hassan Akhtari. That figure could increase to as much as $3 billion in the coming year.
By the end of this year, 1 in 10 cars sold in Syria will be Iranian. [...]

read more....