Free Republic

Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki stressed Tehran's right to civilian nuclear technology, after talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad during a surprise visit to Damascus, AFP reported. "We reiterated our indisputable right to peaceful nuclear technology," he said at a joint press conference with his Syrian counterpart Walid al-Muallem. The Iranian foreign minister also said that he would visit Kuwait on Saturday as part of regular consultations with Iran's Arab neighbours across the Persian Gulf. "I will tell them (Kuwaiti officials) that the Bushehr nuclear plant (under construction in southern Iran) is in keeping with the highest international norms...

Damascus: The Syrian government has officially asked interpol to arrest former vice President Abdul Halim Khaddam so he can face charges of treason and corruption. The request states that he should be turned over to Damascus so he can be questioned for charges including inciting a foreign country to attack Syria. Khaddam, who lives in France, gave an interview in December in which he said that Syrian president Bashar Al Assad had threatened former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri just months before he was assassinated. It is unlikely that France will agree to the request as Khaddam has lived...

Plot for revenge attacks on WestIRAN’S president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, attended a meeting in Syria earlier this year with one of the world’s most wanted terrorists, according to intelligence experts and a former national security official in Washington. US officials and Israel intelligence sources believe Imad Mugniyeh, the Lebanese commander of Hezbollah’s overseas operations, has taken charge of plotting Iran’s retaliation against western targets should President George W Bush order a strike on Iranian nuclear sites. Mugniyeh is on the FBI’s “Most Wanted Terrorists” list for his role in a series of high-profile attacks against the West, including the 1985 hijacking...

Reacting to a recent wave of arrests of activists and others in Syria and yesterday's sentencing of a civil society activist to five years in prison, Amnesty International today called on the Syrian government to immediately release all those arrested for peacefully expressing their opinions. "This new crackdown on suspected government opponents is deeply troubling," said Malcolm Smart, Director of Amnesty International's Middle East and North Africa programme. "We are particularly concerned that many of these people are being held in incommunicado detention, where they are at risk of torture." Scores have been arrested from across the social and political...

WASHINGTON Feb 27, 2006 (AP)-- Eleven cities have shown interest in playing host to the 2008 Democratic National Convention, twice the number of cities that applied to get the 2004 gathering. The DNC initially sent out letters to more than 30 cities, giving them an overview and finding out their level of interest. The 11 cities that said they were interested: Anaheim, Calif.; Dallas; Denver; Detroit; Las Vegas; Minneapolis; New Orleans; New York; Orlando, Fla.; Phoenix and San Antonio. Some of the cities are in critical swing states like Florida and Arizona, while others are in population centers like New...

DAMASCUS, Syria - Thousands of Syrians enraged by caricatures of Islam's revered prophet torched the Danish and Norwegian embassies in Damascus on Saturday — the most violent in days of furious protests by Muslims in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. In Gaza, Palestinians marched through the streets, storming European buildings and burning German and Danish flags. Protesters smashed the windows of the German cultural center and threw stones at the European Commission building, police said. Iraqis rallying by the hundreds demanded an apology from the European Union, and the leader of the Palestinian group Hamas called the cartoons "an...

Hamas' victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections is already being sanitized by the politically correct, despite the terrorist group's bloody track record and its fallacious and dubious historical claims to the land of Israel. Thankfully, some Western leaders are condemning the selection of murderers by Palestinians for their government. At the top of a BBC article yesterday regarding the Hamas terrorist group winning Palestinian elections: The win poses problems for efforts to restart peace talks with Israel, say analysts. Israel insists it will not deal with an authority including Hamas. So this is all just Israel's problem/fault because the majority of...

Saddam's nephew finds sanctuary in Syria By Con Coughlin in Baghdad (Filed: 18/05/2003) A leading member of Saddam Hussein's family has been discovered living in Damascus under the protection of the Syrian government after fleeing Iraq last week, The Telegraph can reveal. Fatiq al-Majid, one of Saddam's nephews, entered Syria last Monday after leaving Iraq at the al-Rabie'a checkpoint, which is under the control of American troops. Majid was given a Syrian visa and made his way to Damascus, where he is now living in exile. Majid confirmed his presence in Damascus when contacted by telephone by The Telegraph last...

<p>The former number two official in Saddam Hussein's Iraqi air force claims the former Iraqi dictator moved weapons of mass destruction from Iraq to Syria in the months preceding the current Iraq war.</p>

AP News Alert BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) -- A U.N. spokesperson says the U.N. commission investigating the assassination of a Lebanese politician wants to question Syria's president.

CAIRO , December 31, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) - The bombshell dropped by former Syrian vice-president Abdel Halim Khaddam on a possible Syrian role in the assassination of Lebanese ex-premier Rafiq Hariri has sent seismic waves in Damascus and would tighten the noose around the Arab country, experts agreed on Saturday, December 31. “Khaddam’s testimony at this critical juncture in Syrian history has, in effect, sent shock waves across the country’s political landscape and ushered in grave consequences,” Syrian opposition writer Akram Al-Beni told IslamOnline.net. Speaking from Paris, where he has lived since resigning as vice-president in June, Khaddam said in...

Syrian lawmakers on Saturday accused former Vice President Abdel Halim Khaddam of treason and demanded action against him after he implicated President Bashar al-Assad's regime in the assassination of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri. "I demand, in my own name and the name of the people that Khaddam is judged because he has attacked the dignity of Syria and humiliated milliions of Syrians," said MP Umeima Khudur. In an explosive interview with Dubai-based Al-Arabiya television, Khaddam said Assad had threatened Hariri just months before his February murder.

Veteran Syrian Vice President Abdel Halim Khaddam, widely regarded as the architect of his government's Lebanon policy before its troop pullout in April, announced his resignation on Friday. "I have decided to resign," he told the Dubai-based satellite television Al-Arabiya in an interview from Paris. Khaddam first asked to resign at a congress of Syria's ruling Baath party in June, but there had been no word since on whether President Bashar al-Assad had accepted the resignation. At the time, he criticised Syrian foreign policy leading up to the withdrawal from Lebanon after a 29-year deployment under international pressure over...

Tougher U.S. approach needed to curb Mideast radicalism An unbelievable provocation. That's the reasonable meaning of the anti-Semitic outburst emanating in recent days from Tehran - the world has not heard such statements from so senior a leader since World War II – as well as the provocation coming from Damascus. Iran and Syria carry on like this because they know they will suffer no consequences from the United States or the world. If two years ago these regimes were scared of U.S. military prowess, today their self-confidence allows them to spread radicalism around the entire Middle East, and their...

It all started as a rather pleasant, if not exciting evening. We had heard a speech from British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw once again trying to "explain" the evil of Islamofascim in pseudo-theological, rather than political, terms. But that had been compensated for with a poem from the great mystic poet Roumi recited by Iranian journalist Nazanin Ansari. Apart from the usual contingent of "the great and the good" most of the 800 or so people present were media people and their friends, come to cheer or boo as the Foreign Press Association in London distributed its annual prizes. The...

BEIRUT: It would be "hard" for the UN probe into the murder of former Lebanese Premier Rafik Hariri to "give a definitive recommendation" on the case, according to U.S. Ambassador to the UN John Bolton. Bolton, who hoped the investigation "doesn't take too long to resolve," said he was concerned the probe's mandate might expire before it arrives at a conclusion. "Days go by, and we are getting close to the end of the probe's mandate on December 15," Bolton said, adding: "Each day that goes by makes it harder for UN chief investigator Detlev Mehlis and his colleagues to...

The UN Security Council approved a resolution Monday demanding Syria co-operate with a UN investigation into the assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister, threatening further action against Damascus if it continues to stonewall. Syrian border police keep watch. INDEPTH: Syria The resolution was unanimously approved by the 15-member council after the threat of economic sanctions was dropped from a previous resolution, co-sponsored by the U.S., France and Britain. Russia and China had objected to the initial text which called for the threat of economic sanctions unless Syria co-operated with an investigation into the bombing that killed Rafik Hariri and 20...

In assessing the current phase of events in the Middle East, it is essential to link events in Syria with events in Iran. These, in turn, must be linked to the state of the war in Iraq and conditions in the Arabian Peninsula. The region is of one fabric, to say the least, and it is impossible to understand unfolding events -- the pressure against Syria involving the murder of a former Lebanese prime minister; feints and thrusts with Iran and talk of direct political engagement with the United States; the emergence of a new government in Baghdad, or obstacles...

United Nations — The United States, France and Britain on Tuesday demanded that Syria detain government officials suspected of involvement in the assassination of a former Lebanese prime minister and ensure their co-operation with a UN probe or face possible sanctions. The call was contained in a strongly worded draft resolution that orders Syria to make the suspected officials or individuals “fully and unconditionally available” to investigators who have accused Syria of obstructing their work. That language was a clear attempt to pressure Syria into giving the probe access to top security officials — possibly including the brother-in-law of President...

(AP) -- President George W. Bush on Friday called on the United Nations to convene a session as soon as possible to deal with a U.N. investigative report implicating Syrian officials in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. "The report strongly suggests that the politically motivated assassination could not have taken place without Syrian involvement," Bush said after helping dedicate a new pavilion at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Southern California.