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Hezbollah exploits religion to intervene in Syria, says Shiite cleric

Saturday, May 18th, 2013

Saturday, 18 May 2013

Ali Al-Amin, who was the former mufti of the city of Tyre and Mount Amil in southern Lebanon, criticized Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah. (Al Arabiya)

Lebanese Shiite party Hezbollah is exploiting religion to pursue its political agendas in Syria, a high-ranking Lebanese Shiite cleric told Al Arabiya in an interview on Saturday.

Ali Al-Amin, who was the former mufti of the city of Tyre and Mount Amil in southern Lebanon, criticized Hezbollah’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah for urging Shiites to head to Syria to defend the holy shrine of Sayyida Zainab.

Sayyida Zainab was the Prophet Muhammad’s granddaughter and her golden-domed tomb is considered to be one of Shiite Islam’s holiest sites.

Defending the shrine is not a “legitimate justification” to intervene in Syria, Amin said, adding that Shiite jihad should be in the homeland and not in the conflict-ravaged neighboring country.

“Our jihad is in Lebanon and that is to build our country amid national unity.”

At least 80,000 people having been killed since the start of the two-year Syrian conflict that started as a protest against President Bashar al-Assad’s regime but morphed into a civil war.

The conflict has polarized Lebanon between supporters and proponents of Assad’s regime, especially between Sunni and Shiite Lebanese.

Reports have indicated that Hezbollah fighters were fighting alongside Syrian forces against rebels in Shiite villages near the Lebanese border.

Earlier this month, Nasrallah made a strong indication that his group was ready to get more substantially involved in the neighboring country when he said that Syria’s friends would not let the Syrian regime fall.

“Syria has true friends in the region who will not allow Syria to fall into the hands of the United States, Israel and ‘takfiri’ groups,” he said, referring to Sunni Muslims fighting to overthrow Assad.

Meanwhile, Salafists in Lebanon expressed anger over the international community’s inaction to support the Syrian people’s struggle against Assad regime.

The Lebanese Salafits’ tone sharpened when they called for jihad in Syria against Damascus.

Al-Amin slammed the Salafists’ call for jihad as “sectarian.”

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Tags: Assad, Hezbollah, Iran, Islam, Jihad, Khamenei, Revolutionary Guards, Syria, Terrorism

Russia promotes Iranian role in solving Syrian conflict

Saturday, May 18th, 2013

RadioZamaneh

Fri, 05/17/2013

Sergei Lavrov

Russia has once again emphasized the need to include Iran in the International Conference aimed at ending the civil war in Syria.

Reuters reports that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Thursday March 16: “Our colleagues have a tendency toward shrinking the foreign participants in the conference, so basically the setup is to be carried out with a handful of countries in a framework that has been determined previously, and the negotiating groups, the agenda and perhaps even the outcomes are pre-set.”

Russia and the U.S. agreed this month to hold an international conference, which would include groups representing the Beshar Assad government and the opposition.

However, there has been no agreement on including Iran in the negotiations.

Lavrov said: “You can’t exclude Iran from this process because of one’s geopolitical preferences. Iran, as a foreign country, has an important role, but we have not reached consensus on this.”

The U.S. State Department spokesman has remarked that it is not the U.S. that will decide if Iran will participate or not, but rather its allies in the United Nations together with Washington will make the final decision.

Iran has remained a supporter of the Beshar Assad government throughout the conflict that has torn Syria for the past two years.

Iran has indicated that it is prepared to participate in the conference with an eye to resolving the conflict.

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Tags: Assad, Hezbollah, Iran, Islam, Jihad, Khamenei, Revolutionary Guards, Russia, Syria, Terrorism

U.N. and Russia call for urgent Syria conference

Friday, May 17th, 2013

Friday, 17 May 2013

AFP, Moscow -

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon shakes hands with Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (L) as they pose for a photograph at the U.N. headquarters in New York March 12, 2012. (Reuters)

U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon and Russia agreed Friday that a peace conference on Syria should be held “as soon as possible” even as Moscow defied growing global pressure over its arms supplies to the Damascus regime.

Ban met Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov ahead of talks later Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin about an impending international meeting on Syria that should include representatives of the two warring parties for the first time.

“There are high expectations and the meeting should be held as soon as possible,” Ban told reporters alongside Lavrov. Russia’s top diplomat added: “The sooner this conference is held, the better.”

But Lavrov still cautioned that it was too early to name the date of the Geneva talks — now expected for the first half of June — because the actual makeup of the Syrian delegations had not yet been decided.

“We have to come up with a decision about the Syrian delegations and the group of this conference’s participants,” Lavrov said. “Nothing is possible without this.”

The new talks are meant to include both the fiercest rebels and members of the regime — a difficulty considering some opposition members’ refusal to recognize Assad as a negotiating partner.

Moscow is also calling for the inclusion on this occasion of its trading partner Iran and U.S. ally Saudi Arabia as a counterweight.

U.S. President Barack Obama said Thursday that he will continue to press for Assad’s ouster even if this is no longer a a precondition of the Geneva talks — a point that Russia insisted on adamantly.

“We both agree that Assad needs to go,” Obama said after meeting in Washington on Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

“He needs to transfer power to a transitional body. That is the only way we’re going to resolve this crisis.”

The Geneva talks were agreed during a May 7 visit to Moscow by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and are seen as a joint peace push by the two former Cold War rivals some 26 months into the Syrian war.

But Obama has admitted that some mistrust lingers between Moscow and Washington and the world community remains particularly concerned by Russia’s arms deliveries to Syria — Assad’s most powerful ally.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged Putin in Sochi on Tuesday not to follow through with Russia’s reported decision to ship powerful S-300 surface-to-air missiles that can take out fighter jets.

The New York Times reported for its part on Friday that Russia has also sent the regime a new batch of upgraded Yakhont anti-ship missile systems that make a shipping embargo of Syria much more difficult to enforce.

Lavrov said on Friday that Moscow did not understand the international uproar created by its continuing arms supplies to Assad.

“I do not understand why the media is trying to create a sensation out of this,” he said.

Lavrov argued that Russia only supplied defensive weapons that could not alter the outcome of a conflict that a Syrian observers group said has claimed nearly 95,000 lives.

“This does not in any way alter the balance of forces in this region or give any advantage in the fight against the opposition,” Lavrov stressed.

Ban and Lavrov said they also discussed the suspected use of chemical weapons and Syria’s refusal up to this stage to allow U.N. weapons inspectors on the ground.

Russia has been reluctant to accept arguments that the regime was responsible for the nerve agents’ use. Yet Lavrov said on Friday that he had received Damascus’s assurance that progress on the issue of open U.N. access could be achieved soon.

The regime has thus far wanted to limit the inspection to one site near the northern city of Aleppo where rebels are accused of having used the chemical arms themselves.

“As far as we know, the Syrian government — we are working with it, on this subject included — has expressed a readiness, after there is an inspection of this place near Aleppo, to examine requests for inspections in other parts of Syria,” Lavrov said.

Ban for his part stressed that it was “very important” an investigation was conducted into the chemical weapons claims.

He added that a U.N. team could be ready to enter Syria within “24-48 hours” of having received permission from Assad.

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Tags: Assad, Hezbollah, Iran, Islam, Jihad, Khamenei, Revolutionary Guards, Russia, Syria, Terror Plot, UN

HRW: There’s evidence of torture by regime in Syria’s Raqa

Friday, May 17th, 2013

Friday, 17 May 2013

AFP, Beirut -

A Syrian protestor mocks being tortured during a sit-in to mark International Human Rights Day. (File Photo: AFP)

Documents and torture equipment found in Syrian security buildings in rebel-held Raqa show detainees were tortured when President Bashar al-Assad’s regime held sway over the city, Human Rights Watch said on Friday.

A team of researchers working for HRW toured Raqa in northern Syria in April, a month after the city fell into rebel hands, and found the incriminating evidence, the New York-based watchdog said in a statement.

“The documents, prison cells, interrogation rooms, and torture devices we saw in the government’s security facilities are consistent with the torture former detainees have described to us since the beginning of the uprising in Syria,” said HRW deputy Middle East director Nadim Houry.

Among the implements the watchdog said it found is a cross-shaped contraption known as “bsat al-reeh” (flying carpet), which “former detainees have said has been used to immobilize and severely stretch or bend limbs.”

Torturers used the device to “tie a detainee down to a flat board, sometimes in the shape of a cross, so that he is helpless to defend himself,” HRW said, citing former detainees.

“In some cases, former detainees said guards stretched or pulled their limbs or folded the board in half so that their face touched their legs, causing pain and further immobilizing them.”

HRW researcher Lama Fakih told AFP that although the watchdog has interviewed countless former detainees during the two-year conflict, “being inside the facility makes it so much more real.”

“We know people are still being detained and subjected to these practices,” she said.

One former detainee told HRW he and his brother were tortured “in turns.”

“They started torturing him with electricity for three, four hours, and then they threw him in a solitary cell… They wanted me to tell them who used to go out to demonstrate with me… and they would make me hear my brother’s screams,” said Ahmed, 24.

Abdullah Khalil, who now heads the opposition civilian council in Raqa, also testified to HRW.

The long-time human rights activist was detained by the security forces on May 1, 2011, less than two months into the uprising.

He was transferred to 17 different security branches while in detention, HRW said.

HRW last July mapped what it called Syria’s “torture archipelago,” where tens of thousands of detainees are believed to be held and mistreated.

It urged opposition groups now controlling Raqa to safeguard the evidence.

“Destruction or mishandling of these documents and material will weaken the possibility of bringing to justice those responsible for serious crimes,” HRW said.

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Tags: Assad, Hezbollah, Iran, Jihad, Khamenei, Revolutionary Guards, Suicide bomber, Syria, Terrorism

Russia promotes Iranian role in solving Syrian conflict

Friday, May 17th, 2013

RadioZamaneh

Fri, 05/17/2013

Sergei Lavrov

Russia has once again emphasized the need to include Iran in the International Conference aimed at ending the civil war in Syria.

Russia and the U.S. agreed this month to hold an international conference, which would include groups representing the Beshar Assad government and the opposition.

However, there has been no agreement on including Iran in the negotiations.

Iran has remained a supporter of the Beshar Assad government throughout the conflict that has torn Syria for the past two years.

Iran has indicated that it is prepared to participate in the conference with an eye to resolving the conflict.

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Tags: Assad, Hezbollah, Iran, Islam, Jihad, Khamenei, Revolutionary Guards, Russia, Syria, Terrorism

Syrian-Israeli war of words via Putin edges into Syrian-Hizballah war of attrition.

Thursday, May 16th, 2013

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report May 16, 2013, 10:58 AM (IDT)

USS Kearsarge which docked in Eilat

USS Kearsarge which docked in Eilat

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Netanyahu ended their three-hour meeting in Sochi Tuesday, May 14, at loggerheads on Syria. In fact, Putin warned his guest that Israel and its army, the IDF, were heading for war with Syria in which Russia might well be involved – and not just through the advanced S-300 anti-air missiles supplied to the Assad government. The case Netanyahu and Military Intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi put before Putin and Russian foreign intelligence chief, SVR Director Mikhail Fradkov, fell on deaf ears.

They found the Russian leader further infuriated by the docking that day at Israel’s Red Sea port of Eilat of the USS Kearsarge, carrying 1,800 marines and a consignment of 20 V-22 Osprey helicopters which US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel had promised to supply to Israel during his April visit.
Putin viewed the stationing of US forces in the Gulf of Aqaba just two hours away the Israeli-Syrian border for repelling Syrian-Iranian-Hizballah aggression against Israel or Jordan – signaled by the Kearsage’s arrival – as an act of bad faith by Washington. On the one hand, they want us to cooperate for an international conference to end the bloodshed in Syria, while on the other, they deploy military forces, he complained to Netanyahu.

The Israeli prime minister countered with a warning that Israel would continue to strike advanced weapons in Syria that were destined for Hizballah. And if President Bashar Assad hit back for Israel’s May 5 bombardment of weapons stores on Mount Qassioun near Damascus, Israel would intensify its bombardments of Syrian military targets and weapons until Assad was left to fight off rebel assaults empty-handed.
Putin rejected this threat as implausible.

Neither Putin nor Netanyahu put all their cards on the table, but the conversation ended with the Russian leader fully confident that his capabilities for safeguarding Assad were greater than Israel’s ability to destroy him.

In the end, Netanyahu and his party arrived home Tuesday evening with a bad feeling. They were certain that Moscow had given Assad the green light to go through with his threat to make the Syrian Golan and the Horan of southern Syria “a front for resistance” – i.e. the platforms for embarking on a war of attrition against northern Israel with the help of a flow of advanced weapons to Hizballah.
The Syrian ruler is strongly encouraged to adopt this path by Tehran. Hizballah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah has embraced it. And the radical Palestinian leader, Ahmed Jibril, head of the Assad-satellite Popular Front-General Command, has eagerly offered his services.

And indeed, Wednesday, the day after Netanyahu’s trip to Sochi, Jibril’s group let loose with mortar fire on the Israeli Mt. Hermon ski site, firing from a Syrian army position.

Israeli military sources confirmed later that these were no stray shells from a Syrian-army-rebel battle as in former cases, but a deliberate attack. In Jerusalem, it was taken as a direct consequence of Moscow’s account to Assad of the conversation between the Russian and Israeli leaders. They concluded that Assad took it for granted that he was now at liberty to go on the offensive against Israel.

Wednesday night, Netanyahu’s office reacted to this deterioration with a swift and strong warning.

Israeli media were informed bluntly that if the Assad chose to retaliate for Israel’s air strikes, he would be removed from power.
That same night, “a senior Israeli official” contacted The New York Times with a more detailed warning quoted by the paper: “If Syrian President Assad reacts by attacking Israel, or tries to strike Israel through his terrorist proxies, he will risk forfeiting his regime, for Israel will retaliate.”

Within hours, early Thursday morning, May 16, Jerusalem had its answer from Damascus.

A Palestinian group calling itself “Martyrs of the Abdel Qader al-Husseini Brigades” (named for the commander of a Palestinian force fighting Israel in its 1948 War of Independence) claimed responsibility for the “rockets” aimed at an Israeli military observation post in the Golan Heights. They were fired in honor of Nakba Day, said the statement released in Damascus “We are not celebrating but avenging the blood of our martyrs.”

A video showing the launch was appended.
Palestinian terrorist groups habitually use made-up names when claiming attacks, a practice often followed by al Qaeda, but this one was easily identified by Israel and taken to mean that Assad had begun using what the Israeli official referred to in The New York Times as “his terrorist proxies.”

Depending on the next move decided on by Prime Minister Netanyahu, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, this incident could mark the tipping-point of a slide towards a war confrontation against Israel by Syria, Hizballah and other Assad proxies.

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Tags: Assad, Hezbollah, Iran, Islam, Israel, Jihad, Khamenei, Revolutionary Guards, Syria, Terrorism, War

Report: Israel warns Syria to stop sending arms to Hezbollah

Thursday, May 16th, 2013

Thursday, 16 May 2013

Al Arabiya with AFP -

“Israel is determined to continue to prevent the transfer of advanced weapons to Hezbollah,” an Israeli official told the New York Times. (File photo: AFP)

Israel is warning Syria to stop transferring advanced weapons to Islamic militants and hinted it is considering more air strikes to achieve this, the New York Times reported Thursday.

“Israel is determined to continue to prevent the transfer of advanced weapons to Hezbollah. The transfer of such weapons to Hezbollah will destabilize and endanger the entire region ,” an Israeli official told the paper.

“If Syrian President [Bashar al-] Assad reacts by attacking Israel, or tries to strike Israel through his terrorist proxies,” the official said, “he will risk forfeiting his regime, for Israel will retaliate.”

The official contacted the paper Wednesday. He declined to be identified, citing what he called the need to protect internal Israeli government deliberations.

Israel twice last week carried out air strikes near Damascus, attacks a senior Israeli source said were aimed at preventing the transfer of sophisticated weapons to Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia ally of Assad and Israel’s arch-foe Iran.

The new Israeli warning to Syria via the Times came two days after Russian President Vladimir Putin warned against any moves that would further destabilize the situation in Syria. He spoke after talks in Moscow with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu had been expected to warn Putin against delivering advanced S-300 missiles to Syria which would severely complicate any future air attacks against the Assad regime.

Netanyahu in his public comments did not indicate whether he succeeded in convincing Putin to halt arms supplies to Syria or whether the two leaders reached any firm agreements.

The warnings also come after reports suggest that Iran persuaded Syrian Assad to allow Hezbollah to open a new front from which to attack Israel in the Golan Heights. Israel Radio reported the move on Wednesday, citing a report by the pan-Arab newspaper al-Hayat.

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Tags: Assad, Hezbollah, Islam, Israel, Jihad, Khamenei, Revolutionary Guards, Syria, Terrorism, War

Turkey arrests four over bombings near Syrian border

Thursday, May 16th, 2013

Thursday, 16 May 2013

Al Arabiya with Agencies -

The twin car bombings that rocked the town of Reyhanli in southern Turkey on Saturday killed 51 people and wounded dozens more. (AFP)

Four suspects were arrested in Turkey late on Wednesday in connection with car bombings that killed 51 people in a town near the Syrian border at the weekend, state-run Anatolian news agency reported.

The two bomb blasts in Reyhanli fanned fears that Syria’s civil war is dragging in neighboring states. Damascus has denied Turkish allegations it was involved in the blasts.

Turkish prosecutors sent eight suspects to a court in the southern city of Adana after questioning and the court released four, remanding the other four in custody, the agency said.

It was not clear what charges they were facing.

A total of 17 people have been detained in connection with the attacks and police were continuing to question the remaining suspects.

The arrests were made after Syria states its willingness to carry out a joint investigation with Turkey.

“If the government of [Prime Minister Recep Tayyip] Erdogan calls for a joint, transparent investigation by the two countries, we have no objection, in order to find the truth,” Syrian Information Minister Omran al-Zohbi said on Tuesday.

“The truth must be announced to the Syrian and Turkish people,” official media quoted him as saying.

His offer was firmly refused by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan later on Tuesday.

“The administration in power in Damascus is illegal … how can we recognize a structure that isn’t even recognized by its own citizens,” Erdogan told reporters before leaving for a meeting with U.S President Barack Obama in Washington on Thursday.

Ankara has sided with the rebels fighting to topple Assad’s regime and has taken in around 400,000 refugees as well as army defectors and repeatedly called on the international community to act on the unfolding crisis.

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Tags: Assad, Hezbollah, Islam, Jihad, Khamenei, Revolutionary Guards, Syria, Terror Plot, Terrorism, Turkey

Turkish PM meets with Obama on Syria

Thursday, May 16th, 2013

US president unlikely to respond, says analysts, while Turkey’s president condemns international inaction on refugees

Written by : Asharq Al-Awsat

on : Thursday, 16 May, 2013

US President Barack Obama (2nd R) meets Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan (L) as they sit with their delegations in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington May 16, 2013. (REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)

London, Asharq Al-Awsat—Turkish prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will meet President Obama in Washington today, with the crisis in Syria expected to be high on the agenda.While the visit was also promoted as an attempt to boost economic ties and persuade Washington to sign a free trade agreement with Ankara, the issue of Syria has taken on added importance following the car bombs that struck the Turkish town Reyhanli on the Syrian border last weekend, killing over 50 people.

Analysts say Erdoğan is likely to press Obama to take a more active role in ending the conflict in Syria.

Fadi Hakura, an associate fellow at the London-based foreign affairs think-tank Chatham House specializing in Turkish affairs told Asharq Al-Awsat that Erdoğan is most likely to press Obama to “try to implement a no-fly zone over Syria, to provide lethal assistance, by which I mean weapons, to the Syrian opposition, and generally to take a more active role.”

He added that Erdoğan was coming under increasing pressure over his stance on Syria.

“He calculated that [Bashar] Al-Assad would be deposed in a short time, but what he did what he did not foresee was the resilience and durability of Assad, and that has put a lot of pressure on the prime minister.”

Speaking on condition of anonymity, official Turkish sources told Asharq Al-Awsat earlier this week that Ankara will do “all it can” to support the American government should it decided to intervene by establishing of a safe zone or a no-fly zone. A source said: “There is a lot we are capable of doing. We are ready.”

Other sources said that Turkey will propose plans for securing weapons and training the Free Syrian Army as well as establishing safe passageways and no-fly zones at a meeting at the Pentagon with the US Secretary of Defense and senior US military commanders. Sources claimed: “These plans will be examined thoroughly in the Department of Defense and will be put into action once a political decision is made.”

However, experts cautioned that Erdoğan’s requests for greater US involvement were likely to fall on deaf ears, given Obama’s reluctance to intervene in Syria directly and Erdoğan’s limited influence over the American president.

Hakura said that Obama was likely to be “sympathetic” to Erdoğan’s appeals, but was not likely to change his mind.

“Obama has been very reticent towards Syria . . . Turkey does not have that much leverage to put pressure on Obama,” he added.

Meanwhile, in Turkey, President Abdullah Gül criticized the international community earlier today for its failure to do more to help Turkey accommodate refugees fleeing Syria, saying that its efforts had been dominated by “rhetoric.”

Turkey is currently home to approximately 400,000 Syrians.

On a visit to the town of Reyhanli, Gül said: “The international community’s contribution to Turkey’s financial aid to these people who are in a difficult situation is only symbolic,” according to the Reuters news agency.

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Tags: America, Assad, Hezbollah, Islam, Jihad, Khamenei, Revolutionary Guards, Syria, Terror Plot, Terrorism, Turkey, War

The John Batchelor Show

Wednesday, May 15th, 2013

The John Batchelor Show

Reza Kahlili, author, A Time to Betray, in re: The situation in Syria and the imminent attacks planned by al-Qaida, Quds Forces, Hezbollah. TERRORIST SUPER-AXIS TO STRIKE WITHIN U.S.

May 14, 2013

Listen Here

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Tags: America, Assad, Hezbollah, IAEA, Iran, Iranian nuclear program, Islam, Israel, Jihad, Khamenei, Revolutionary Guards, Sanctions, Syria, Terrorism, UN, War

Iran’s FM: Assad ‘Unimpressed’ by Israeli Attacks

Wednesday, May 15th, 2013

Iran’s Foreign Minister says Assad plans to retaliate the next time Israel attacks in Syria.

Israelnationalnews.com

By Elad Benari, Canada

First Publish: 5/15/2013, 1:28 AM

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi

Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi

AFP/File

Iran’s Foreign Minister says that Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad was unimpressed by recent alleged Israeli airstrikes in Damascus and plans to retaliate the next time such a strike takes place.

Speaking to the German weekly Der Spiegel, Ali Akbar Salehi said Assad “was unimpressed by the militarystrike. The man I met with is extremely determined and sticking to his course. I had the same impression six months ago, but this time the president seemed even more resolute. Those who believe that Bashar Assad is becoming fickle or that hisgovernment is collapsing are suffering from an illusion. The president is pleased with the progress his military is making. He says that his military leaders have the upper hand.”

Salehi rejected reports that the rebels appear to be advancing on Assad, saying, “I don’t believe that Assad is portraying the situation unrealistically. When the conflict began two years ago, many said that his government couldn’t last long. And now? He’s still there. Don’t underestimate Bashar Assad.”

He insisted that Assad’s failing to respond to recent Israeli airstrikes in Syria “isn’t a sign of weakness. The president responded levelheadedly. The next time Syria will strike back, he told me.”

“The president said that his people are literally urging him to defend himself, fiercely and immediately. The situation will escalate if the other side doesn’t hold back and continues to bomb the Syrians’ military and research facilities,” added Salehi, rejecting the argument that the Israeli airstrikes targeted weapons transports bound for the Lebanese terror group Hizbullah.

“You can claim everything is a Hizbullah facility in an attempt to justify intervening in Syria’s internal affairs,” he said, adding Hizbullah does not need any Iranian weapons that are transported through Syria.

“Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah said recently that he is very well supplied and has no need (for weapons),” Salehi told Der Spiegel. “Independent from that, Hizbullah is engaged in a resistance that we support. And the Syrians have little need for our help. President Assad has a large army with hundreds of thousands of men under arms. Over the decades, his government has armed itself against its ruthless enemy, Israel, and he doesn’t need a few guns from here or there.”

The Israeli attacks in Syria, claimed Salehi, were “a coordinated campaign between the rebels, who are losing ground, and the Zionist regime. The Israelis came to the aid of the rebels by attacking the Syrian army. It wasn’t about their positions or Hizbullah arms depots. I received reports that a rebel commander even publicly expressed his gratitude for the Israeli support.”

He added, “There will be serious consequences if Israel doesn’t exercise restraint. You can burn down an entire forest with a single match. However, an expansion of the conflict would be extremely dangerous for the Zionists, which is why they’ll think carefully about what they do.”

Syria’s Information Minister, Omran al-Zoubi, warned Israel this week that his country had a right to launch an operation against the Jewish State from the Golan Heights.

Al-Zoubi said that Israel committed an aggression against Syria recently by raidingmilitary sites near Damascus. With these acts, he said, Israel violated international commitments.

“Accordingly, Syria has the right at this time and at any other time to deal with the Golan issue in the way the owner has the right to deal with his property, because the Golan is and has always been a Syrian Arab land,” he said.

“Israel must understand that it can’t take a promenade in the Syrian sky because the Syrian land and sky are not a promenade for anyone,” he added.

The Iranian government has in the past confirmed sending troops to support Assad in his battle against rebels.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad personally sanctioned the dispatch of the experienced officers to ensure that the Assad regime survives the threat to its survival.

Iran has charged that Western media is creating a hype against Syria as a tactic aimed at diverting attention from “Israel’s crimes.”

(Arutz Sheva’s North American Desk is keeping you updated until the start of the Shavuot holiday in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)

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Tags: Assad, Hezbollah, IAEA, Iran, Iranian nuclear program, Islam, Jihad, Khamenei, Revolutionary Guards, Sanctions, Syria, Terrorism, UN

Fierce fighting erupts at Syria’s Aleppo prison, says NGO

Wednesday, May 15th, 2013

Activists say Syrian rebels have detonated two car bombs outside the main prison in the northern city of Aleppo. (File photo: Retuers)

Wednesday, 15 May 2013

Al Arabiya with Agencies -

Activists say Syrian rebels have detonated two car bombs outside the main prison in the northern city of Aleppo and are trying to storm the facility, where hundreds of regime opponents are believed to be held.

Around 4,000 prisoners including Islamists and common law criminals are held in the prison on the outskirts of the northern city, which is largely under rebel control, Rami Abdul-Rahman of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

He says around 250 of the prisoners are jailed for reasons related to the 26-month-old uprising against Assad’s regime.

The car bombs exploded simultaneously outside the walls of the central prison Wednesday morning, adds Abdul-Rahman.

He goes on to say the blasts are part of a coordinated rebel assault on the prison, and fierce clashes are raging between President Bashar Assad’s troops and opposition fighters around the detention center.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Elsewhere, violent clashes were reported in Idlib province of northwest Syria and in Daraa in the south.

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Tags: Assad, Hezbollah, Iran, Islam, Jihad, Khamenei, Revolutionary Guards, Syria, Terrorism