Syrian Affairs
Saudis forces mass on Jordanian, Iraqi borders. Turkey, Syria reinforce strength
The Syrian crisis was Friday, June 29, on a knife edge between a Western-Arab-Turkish military offensive in the next 48 hours and a big power accord to ward it off.
Syria’s Assad says duty to “annihilate terrorists”
(Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al Assad said in a rare interview broadcast on Thursday that his government had a duty to “annihilate terrorists” to protect its people and ruled out any solution to the crisis imposed from outside the country.
Syrians defiant as world powers plan talks
As the protests unfolded, the opposition Local Coordination Committees urged officers and soldiers to defect, as many already have. “If you defect in greater numbers and sooner rather than later, you can spare Syria from further tragedies and pain,” the LCC said in an appeal to the army. “Syrian young men, defect from the regime’s […]
Syria shelling kills dozens in rebel town
Government troops rained tank and artillery shells down on a rebellious suburb of the Syrian capital of Damascus Friday, killing at least 43 people over two days, opposition groups and activists said.
For Barack Obama, Syria is best forgotten this election year
The ordeal of Syria has been a rebuttal of what the diplomacy of Barack Obama once promised and stood for. It is largely forgotten now that Syria and Iran were the two regimes in the Greater Middle East that Obama had promised to “engage.”
Do not rule out military action in Syria
Over the past few months analysts and commentators in and outside the US have been busy trying to determine whether the Obama administration will or will not intervene in Syria before the November 2012 US presidential elections.
Vatican, initially silent on Syria, steps up condemnation of violence
[tags VATICAN,Pope Benedict XVI, syria, violence VATICAN CITY — The Vatican is stepping up its condemnation of violence in Syria with Pope Benedict XVI calling for urgent humanitarian aid to reach residents.
Syria Expels Jesuit Priest Who Spoke for Change
The Rev. Paolo Dall’Oglio traveled to Beirut, Lebanon, last week after Syria expelled him over his increasingly active role in criticizing the violence. BEIRUT, Lebanon — Thick wooden beams barred the doors of St. Cyril’s Church in Damascus when friends of Bassel Shahade, a young opposition filmmaker killed in Homs in late May, arrived for […]
U.N.: Syria monitoring mission has outlived its usefulness
Speaking to the press outside the U.N. Security Council in New York on Tuesday, Gen. Robert Mood, the head of the U.N. observer mission in Syria, and U.N. peacekeeping chief Herve Ladsous, put on a brave face, assuring the Syrian people that the United Nations would not abandon them in their hour of need.
Syrian Affairs 