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Syrian Tinderbox: Israel Threatens Intervention

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Photo Credit: Amos Ben Gershom

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has affirmed that Israel is prepared to conduct military action inside Syria to keep “game-changing” weapons out of terrorists’ hands. In an interview with the BBC in London Wednesday, Netanyahu also warned of a possible backlash if the international community decides to arm rebel groups.

“The main areas of concern to us are the arms that are already in Syria — these are anti-aircraft weapons, these are chemical weapons and other very, very dangerous weapons that could be game-changers,” he said. “They will change the conditions, the balance of power in the Middle East. They could present a terrorist threat on a worldwide scale. It is definitely our interest to defend ourselves, but we also think it is in the interest of other countries.”

Netanyahu was in London to attend the funeral of Baroness Margaret Thatcher, and after the ceremony met with UK Prime Minister David Cameron at Downing Street.

Israel has been training a wary eye on developments in Syria, and particularly on the Golan Heights, where the fighting has on several occasions spilled across the border in the form of stray mortar rounds and sporadic fire on Israeli soldiers. Last week, IDF troops fired a guided missile at a Syrian army post after shots from the position damaged an IDF vehicle. Earlier in the month, IDF tanks fired at a Syrian position after small arms fire was directed at Israel.

The prime minister warned of possible dangers should the international community begin to supply rebels with weapons in addition to training and the nonlethal equipment, such as vehicles and communications devices, that has already been deployed in the field..

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Obama Now Appears to be Allied With Al-Qaeda in Syria

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Iraq’s al-Qaeda wing has united with a kindred Syrian group in the front line of a struggle to oust President Bashar al-Assad, sharpening a dilemma for nations that back the revolt, but fear rising Islamist militancy. The leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, said his group had trained and funded fighters from Syria’s al-Nusra Front — which is blacklisted by the United States — since the early days of the two-year-old uprising.

He said in a statement posted on Islamist websites and seen by Reuters on Tuesday that the two groups would operate under the joint title of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

“It’s now time to declare in front of the people of the Levant and the world that al-Nusra Front is but an extension of the Islamic State of Iraq and part of it,” Baghdadi said.

“We thus declare . . . the cancellation of the name of the Islamic State of Iraq and the name of al-Nusra Front and grouping them together under one name, the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant,” he added.

The militant Islamist element of the Syrian conflict poses a quandary for Western powers and their Arab allies, which favor Assad’s overthrow but are alarmed at the growing power of Sunni Muslim jihadi fighters whose fiercely anti-Shiite ideology has fueled sectarian tensions in the Middle East.

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Kerry Warns Iraq on Iranian Flights to Syria

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Photo Credit: Talk Radio News Service

Just days after the 10th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry confronted Baghdad for continuing to grant Iran access to its airspace and said Iraq’s behavior was raising questions about its reliability as a partner.

Speaking to reporters during a previously unannounced trip to Baghdad, Kerry said that he and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki had engaged in “a very spirited discussion” on the Iranian flights, which U.S. officials believe are ferrying weapons and fighters intended for the embattled Syrian government.

Kerry said the plane shipments – along with material being trucked across Iraqi territory from Iran to Syria – were helping President Bashar Assad’s regime cling to power by increasing their ability to strike at Syrian rebels and opposition figures demanding Assad’s ouster.

“I made it very clear that for those of us who are engaged in an effort to see President Assad step down and to see a democratic process take hold … anything that supports President Assad is problematic,” Kerry said at a news conference at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad after meeting separately with Maliki at his office. “And I made it very clear to the Prime Minister that the overflights from Iran are, in fact, helping to sustain President Assad and his regime.”

The overflights in Iraq have long been a source of contention between the U.S. and Iraq. Iraq and Iran claim the flights are carrying humanitarian goods, but American officials say they are confident that the planes are being used to arm the support the Assad regime. The administration is warning Iraq that unless action is taken, Iraq will be excluded from the international discussion about Syria’s political future.

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Justifying Another War: Head of Intel Committee Says Syrian “Red Line” Crossed (+video)

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Photo Credit: FreedomHouse

There’s mounting evidence that over the last two years the Assad regime has used “at least a small quantity” of chemical weapons against rebel forces in Syria’s raging civil war, House Intelligence Committee chair Mike Rogers, R-Mich., said today on “Face the Nation,” adding that the time is now for U.S. intervention.

Amid debate over an alleged chemical weapons attack out of Syria last week, President Obama during a visit to Israel doubled down on his claim that such an attack would be considered a “game changer” for his administration, but qualified that it’s important to find out “precisely whether or not this red line was crossed” before making a decision that could lead to an act of war.

“I think that it is abundantly clear that that red line has been crossed,” Rogers said. “There is mounting evidence that it is probable that the Assad regime has used at least a small quantity of chemical weapons during the course of this conflict.”

Though a senior administration official has said intelligence this week suggests weaponized chemicals were not used in the recent strike, Rogers said the fact that President Bashar al-Assad has ordered scud missile attacks on civilians “in and of itself should prompt action.” The “wholesale slaughter” of Syrian rebels and civilians, he said, “is now spilling up to the doorstep of Israel.”

“This is a growing, destabilizing event in the Middle East,” Rogers continued. “Our Arab League allies talk to us frequently, and they are as frustrated as I have seen them because of the lack of U.S. leadership at the time table.” Senior Arab diplomats this morning announced the Arab League has decided to transfer Syria’s seat away from Assad and to opposition forces.

Watch video here:

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Israeli Chief Of Staff: Syria ‘Could Blow Up At Any Moment’

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Photo Credit: Front Page Mag

One doesn’t know what to make of murky reports this week about the U.S., Britain, and France training a small force of purportedly moderate Syrian rebels in Jordan—especially with the Obama administration taking the official line that it does not directly aid the Syrian opposition.

If there was ever a time to build a coherent, more or less trustworthy, genuinely moderate Syrian opposition to replace the Assad regime—and it is a questionable proposition—that time would appear to have passed, as the Syrian chaos worsens and the radicals gain strength by the day.

How badly the situation has deteriorated was evident from a report in Israel Hayom on Monday that “Syrian rebels…near the border with Israel threatened…to fight to regain the Golan Heights from Israel following the toppling of Syrian President Bashar Assad.”

The report includes a video in which a “rebel fighter” in the Syrian part of the Golan—just across from the Israeli part—declares:

These lands are blessed and the despicable Assad family promised to liberate them, but for 40 years the Syrian army did not fire a single bullet. We will open a military campaign against Israel. We will fire the bullets that Assad did not and we will liberate the Golan.

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Countdown To Launch Former Iranian Official Launches ‘Countdown To An Attack On Israel’

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Photo Credit: Free BeaconAn ally of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has launched a “countdown to an attack on Israel” following the Jewish state’s launching of an operation to destroy weapons in Syria last month.

Alireza Forghani, a Khamenei confidant and former governor of Iran’s Kish province, published an article arguing that Tehran and Syria should launch a tag-team attack aimed at the total “eradication [of] Israel from the planet.”

“There remains no excuse for not [waging] a total multipartite attack on Israeli soil, with hopes of completely eradicating Israel from the planet (Allah willing),” Forghani wrote, according to a new translation of his Jan. 29 essay by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

“Attacking and completely eradicating Israel from the planet is the only solution to this problem,” Forghani wrote. “If this problem isn’t resolved with this golden opportunity, it is not known when there may be another.”

Iran has provided logistical support for embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as he battles rebel forces and is well positioned to provide more assistance.

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U.S. Offers Training and Other Aid to Syrian Rebels

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WASHINGTON — The United States is significantly stepping up its support for the Syrian opposition, senior administration officials said on Wednesday, helping to train rebels at a base in the region and for the first time offering armed groups nonlethal assistance and equipment that could help their military campaign.

The training mission, already under way, represents the deepest American involvement yet in the Syrian conflict, though the size and scope of the mission is not clear, nor is its host country. The offer of nonlethal assistance is expected to come from Secretary of State John Kerry at a meeting on Thursday in Rome with opposition leaders. Mr. Kerry is also expected to raise the prospect of direct financial aid, though officials cautioned that the White House still had to sign off on all the elements.

Before arriving in Rome on Wednesday, Mr. Kerry declared in Paris that the Syrian opposition needed additional assistance and indicated that the United States and its partners planned to provide some.

Under a broad definition of “nonlethal,” assistance to the opposition could include items like vehicles, communications equipment and night vision gear. The Obama administration has said it will not — at least for now — provide arms to the opposition.

One major goal of the administration is to help the opposition build up its credibility within Syria by providing traditional government services to the civilian population. Since the conflict erupted two years ago, the United States has sent $365 million in humanitarian aid to Syrians. American officials have been increasingly worried that extremist members of the resistance against the government of President Bashar al-Assad, notably the Al Nusra Front, which the United States has asserted is affiliated with Al Qaeda, will take control of portions of Syria and cement its authority by providing public services, much as Hezbollah has done in Lebanon.

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Airstrike Embroils Israel in Syrian Conflict

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Photo Credit: muffinnJERUSALEM — With the attack in Syria, Israel took its first overt military step into the “Arab Spring” unrest that has destabilized its neighbors and left Israelis feeling more vulnerable than they have in decades.

Israel’s goal was apparently to deny sophisticated weapons to Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, and may not have been intended to stir the pot in Syria. But whether by intent or circumstance, Israel has inserted itself into a civil war that thus far had very little to do with it — and which other Western nations, including the U.S., have kept at arm’s length out of concern that military engagement could only make things worse.

“Until now, Israel avoided becoming involved in this quagmire in Syria,” said Moshe Maoz, a former government security advisor and a Syria expert at Hebrew University. “Now this may be the first sign that Israel has decided to escalate actions to cause [President Bashar] Assad’s downfall.”

Other analysts disagreed that Israel was intending to undermine Assad, especially since any successor to the Syrian leader could prove to be even more hostile. Still, the Syria strike may signal a new willingness by Israel to intervene in the region’s problems.

Israel has not confirmed or denied the reported attack, which took place early Wednesday. News accounts based on anonymous sources from the United States and elsewhere suggested that Israeli fighters struck a military convoy with weapons destined for Hezbollah, which is closely allied with Damascus. The arms were said to include Russian SA-17 antiaircraft missiles, which could significantly boost Hezbollah’s defensive capabilities.

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‘Panicked’ Iran Makes Power Move After Nuke-site Loss

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Two days after WND’s exclusive report on the devastating explosions at Iran’s Fordow nuclear site, Tehran informed the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog it was going to install thousands of modern centrifuges at another of its nuclear facilities in an apparent move to restore its bargaining position.

In a Jan. 23 letter to the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency, the IAEA, Iran said it plans to install thousands of its upgraded centrifuges at the Natanz facility. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Moscow today that Iran has every legal right under its obligations to the IAEA to enrich uranium, even with the more modern centrifuges.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Moscow today that Iran has every legal right under its obligations to the IAEA to enrich uranium, even with the more modern centrifuges.

Iranian media viewed Lavrov’s remarks as supportive of the decision. But the Russian minister also urged the Islamic regime to “freeze enrichment operations” during the negotiations with the 5-plus-1 countries, the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council plus Germany.

The White House this afternoon called Iran’s decision “provocative.”

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Syria Bombs Damascus Suburbs to Keep Rebels Out

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BEIRUT (AP) — The Syrian government bombed areas around Damascus on Monday as part of its push to keep rebel fighters out of the capital, leaving many children among the dozens killed, anti-regime activists said.

An international aid organization cited such raids, along with rape and widespread destruction, as key factors in the exodus of more than a half-million Syrians to neighboring countries since the conflict began in March 2011.

The International Rescue Committee said it could be “months, if not years” before the refugees can return home, and the organization warned that Syria’s civil war could inflame tensions in the Middle East.

After nearly two years of violence, it appears unlikely the war will end soon. Although rebels seeking to oust President Bashar Assad have made gains in the country’s north and east and outside Damascus, they have yet to seriously challenge his hold on the capital or other parts of the country.

Earlier this month, Mr. Assad dismissed calls from the U.S. and others that he step down and vowed to keep fighting until the country is free of “terrorists” — his government’s shorthand for rebels.

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