Bashar al-Assad - Page 28

CNN reports: The political future of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is non-negotiable, his chief envoy said Saturday, undercutting a chief demand of rebels who are scheduled to attend negotiations next week aimed at defusing a brutal five-year war. Assad’s status is

Syria has lost millions of citizens since the civil war started, but the last known American citizen in Damascus will not leave.

TEL AVIV – Russia has exploited the United States’ near-complete absence in Syria to wield its influence beyond President Bashar al-Assad’s regime, including to the heretofore Western-backed Syrian opposition, an Arab intelligence source told Breitbart Jerusalem. The Russian-controlled Hmeimim airbase,

On Tuesday, the Iranian government test-fired ballistic missiles in violation of international agreements. When called on it, they threatened to walk away from a deal cut with the Obama administration and the G5+1 last year that freed the country of sanctions in return for commitments to stop nuclear arms development.

TEL AVIV – Jordanian authorities are looking into an alleged plan by Islamic State militants to conquer the Jordanian town of Irbid near the Syrian border, an Arab intelligence source told Breitbart Jerusalem. Four jihadi militants and a Jordanian security officer were killed early on Wednesday when troops clashed with gunmen in the kingdom’s second-largest city.

Contents: India about to deploy its first nuclear-armed submarine, in challenge to China; China’s military takes control of another Philippines fishing ground; Mideast Sunni-Shia split grows as GCC says Hezbollah is terrorist organization

Fox News reports:  Despite the fragile “cessation of hostilities” over much of Syria, a steady barrage of Russian air strikes is still aimed at moderate and U.S.-supported rebel forces, further complicating desperately strained humanitarian relief efforts and preparing the way

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the opposition have accused each other of breaking a three-day ceasefire imposed to help end the five-year civil war.

Contents: Bulldozers bury the ‘Jungle’ refugee camp in Calais France; Russian and Syrian war crimes are ‘weaponizing’ the refugee crisis for Europe

Most reporting on the Syrian Kurds depicts them as fairly unified behind their Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia against the menace of the Islamic State. In truth, there are Kurdish opposition parties, and they have been complaining about the PYD using heavy-handed tactics to suppress them.

Iran, prompted by a decision reached by the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani, is reportedly withdrawing 2,500 Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGCs) and Basiji paramilitary combat soldiers deployed to Syria.

TEL AVIV – Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has turned to yet another Israel critic for foreign policy advice, this time a former U.S. official who espoused the conspiracy theory that Israel may have carried out chemical attacks in Syria as a false-flag operation against the Assad regime.

A Turkish court determined authorities violated the rights of Cumhuriyet editor-in-chief Can Dündar and Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gül during their arrest, releasing the men on Friday.

The Pentagon and CIA do not believe Russia will honor the ceasefire agreement in Syria arrived at this week, according to sources speaking to The Wall Street Journal.

Contents: China building powerful new radar system in South China Sea; Report: China’s military buildup neutralizes America’s aircraft carriers; John Kerry and Russia announce a new Syria peace plan

Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon said on Monday he was sceptical that a Syria ceasefire announced for February 27 by the United States and Russia will succeed. He also said that both Washington and Moscow recognise Israeli freedom of action

The Kurdish militia known as the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and rebel opposition forces are reportedly fighting each other in the small Syrian town of Marea, north of Aleppo.

Contents: Latest Syria peace plan officially fails; Shifting alliances across the Mideast

At least 46 people were killed in twin car bomb blasts that hit Syria’s Homs on Sunday in one of the deadliest such attacks in the city in five years of civil war, a monitoring group said, and state media

The Russian government has promised to increase military cooperation with Iran as both countries continue to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The U.S. State Department has asserted that any Russian arms sales to Iran without approval from the Security Council would violate the United Nations arms embargo.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan intensified his denunciation of the Syrian Kurdish militia as “terrorists” responsible for this week’s Ankara bombing, and called on the U.S. to renounce support for the Kurds. The U.S. government refused these demands and said it would continue supporting Kurdish forces against the Islamic State in Syria.

A former Colombian drug lord who has been freed after serving an 18-year sentence in the U.S. prison system has accused Diosdado Cabello, a senior official in Venezuela’s socialist government, of leading a drug cartel that has sold cocaine to the Islamic State and al-Qaeda.

Turkey launched airstrikes against Kurds in northern Iraq overnight, as Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu claimed the terrorist who carried out Wednesday’s deadly bomb attack in Ankara was linked to the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, a vital U.S. ally in the war against the Islamic State.

The Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) has released a report concluding that Russian airstrikes have killed more Syrian civilians than the Syrian forces or the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) in January.

Airstrikes hit four hospitals and a school building in northern Syria Monday, killing at least 50 people, according to various media reports.

Contents: Missile strikes on Syria’s hospitals and schools called ‘war crimes’; China to substantially increase military budget as army restructures; China’s massive lending binge: four times as much as forecast

The Jerusalem Post reports: If the Syrian regime wins the civil war and Iran ends up on the Golan, Israel could have difficulty defending itself, said a former White House official on Monday. Michael Doran called for a US policy

Forces loyal to Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, backed by Russian airstrikes, are reportedly advancing towards the city of Raqqa, which has long served as the de facto capital of the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL).

In a sign of escalating tensions, Russia and Turkey have begun accusing each other of supporting “terrorist” organizations in Syria.

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said that relations between Russia and the West have evolved into a “new Cold War.”

The volatile situation in Syria took a dangerous turn over the weekend, as Turkey began shelling Kurdish YPG militia forces in Syria, the same militia America has been relying upon as frontline ground forces against the Islamic State. Turkey is also a U.S. ally and a member of NATO.

Contents: Turkey doubles down on shelling Kurds in Syria; Qatar says it will join Saudi Arabia, UAE sending troops to Syria; John Kerry suggests that al-Assad and the Russians are delusional

JAFFA, Israel – The Islamic State released photos of the public punishment of a Syrian man convicted of theft, which included chopping off his hand with a machete. The punishment was carried out in Raqqa, Syria, the so-called Syrian capital

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel voiced doubt on Sunday that an international ceasefire plan for Syria would work, with one senior official suggesting a sectarian partition of the country might be preferable. While formally neutral on the five-year civil war wracking

During Saturday’s Republican presidential debate on CBS, GOP presidential candidates Donald Trump and former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-FL) battled over Russia’s involvement in taking down ISIS. First, Bush said he would take down Syrian President Bashar Assad and it would be