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With conditions continuing to deteriorate in Syria, the Obama administration is making a major policy shift by agreeing for the first time to allow thousands of new Syrian refugees into the United States, The Cable has learned. The numbers are relatively small: just 2,000 refugees, compared to an estimated two million people who have fled Syria during the civil war. But it's a significant increase from the 90 or so Syrian refugees who have been permanently admitted to the U.S. in the last two years. And it's not entirely uncontroversial. The refugees, mostly women and children, will be screened for...

The FSA's statement said that three military officers, one of them a colonel, were killed. The Free Syrian Army (FSA) shot down a helicopter and 3 military officers in the helicopter were killed. According to a written statement by the FSA, the FSA's troops shot down a military helicopter with a missile near the International Damascus Airport. The statement said that three military officers, one of them a colonel, were killed. There was no statement or comment from the Syrian administration about the incident.

In wake of Tuesday’s decision by police officials in charge of the Temple Mount to ban non-Muslims entrance to the holy site, some two hundred protesters stood Wednesday morning at the foot of the Mugrabi entrance seeking to reverse their exclusion. The mass protest was prearranged following an announcement by Police Commander Avi Bitton that the Temple Mount will remain closed to Jews and tourists at least until after the end of Ramadan’s closing festival of “Eid” which is to be next Sunday, the 11th of August. video .....

The top US military officer is scheduled to arrive in Israel and Jordan next week, in a visit which will focus in part on Iran and the war in Syria, the US military said Wednesday. General Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, will meet in Israel with his counterpart, IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz, to discuss advances in Iran's nuclear program, which Israel regards as an existential threat, given the Islamic regime's declared ambition of destroying the Jewish State, and continued support for anti-Israel terrorist groups. "In Israel, the chairman expects to discuss the United States'...

...Those who talk about a durable peace are by definition giving up on Palestine...

Editor's note: Below is Thomas Joscelyn's testimony to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism, Nonproliferation, and Trade, on al Qaeda, the nature of the group's central command and its relationship with its affiliates, and the future challenges the West faces in battling the terror organization. Chairman Poe, Ranking Member Sherman and members of the Committee, thank you for inviting me here today to discuss the threat posed by al Qaeda. We have been asked to "examine the nature of global al Qaeda today." In particular, you asked us to answer the following questions: "What is [al...

On the same day that the U.S. Department of State issued a global terrorism warning, a message suspected to be from al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was posted on multiple jihadist web forums on Friday. In the 14-minute audio message, the 62-year-old al-Zawahiri criticizes the ouster of Muslim Brotherhood-backed former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy, blaming the military coup that resulted in his removal on Americans and 'Zionists.' The crusaders, the seculars, the Americanized army, (former Egyptian President Hosni) Mubarak's thugs and some members of Islamic parties with the support of Gulf money and American plotting, all agreed to topple Mohamed...

SNIP Sissi: The dilemma between the former president and the people originated from [the Muslim Brotherhood’s] concept of the state, the ideology that they adopted for building a country which is based on restoring the Islamic religious empire. That’s what made [former president Mohamed Morsi] not a president for all Egyptians, but a president representing his followers and supporters. Weymouth: When did that become obvious to you? It was obvious on the first day – the day of his inauguration. He started with offending the judiciary and not giving them the appropriate treatment. The Brotherhood experience in ruling a country...

Olmert: Syrian peace overtures not genuine PM Olmert says Israel is for making peace with all its neighbors, describes Assad's peace overtures as false pretenses Ronny Sofer Latest Update: 12.20.06, 15:16 Prime Minister Ehud Olmert renewed his opposition to peace talks with Syria , describing recent peace overtures by Syrian President Bashar Assad as false pretenses. "Syria continues to support terror in Iraq, is collaborating with the Iranian President and is sparing no effort to topple the government of (Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad) Siniora," Olmert said during a joint press conference with his Norwegian counterpart Jens Stoltenberg in Jerusalem. "We...

There would be sweet Zionist vindication were the Dead Sea rehydration project to actually be implemented with full Jordanian, Palestinian and world partnership. After all, the vision of refilling the Dead Sea, using water from the Mediterranean, was floated back in Theodor Herzl's seminal 1902 Altneuland. True, Herzl envisioned the project for generating hydroelectric power, while today's updated version of his dream would call for channeling Red Sea water for desalination purposes. Yet there's no denying that the very notion captures the imagination and raises our hopes of peaceful cooperation belying the ever-rampant regional belligerence and boldly charting the mutually...

A large amount of weapons and ammunition were seized in the northern border near Syria, the Jordanian Armed Forces said in an official statement aired on the country’s official TV Thursday. “Border guards on the northern frontier – near border city of Al-Ramtha – confiscated large quantities of weapons, ammunition and drugs,” the statement said. The Jordanian Armed Forces, meanwhile, didn’t give further details on the type of weapons that were confiscated. The people attempting to smuggle these weapons were also arrested but their identities were kept anonymous as well. In July, Jordan’s King Abdullah said the kingdom was ready...

U.S. embassies in a slew of Muslim countries will close on Sunday due to a credible and serious security threat. The embassies will close in response to "a specific threat against a U.S. embassy or consulate," according to a senior U.S. official, who called it a "concerted effort" to target an embassy or consulate in a Muslim country. "We just don't know which one," the official told ABC News. "There could be other targets, not just embassies," another U.S. official said. The threat is considered to be throughout the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. Some of the biggest...

If a light bulb goes out somewhere in the Middle East, someone will come forward to blame a Jewish conspiracy. So when the Muslim Brotherhood's man is forced from office in the wake of massive Egyptian opposition rallies, it can't be due to his failings in office. Rather, Mohammed Morsi is the victim of a "Zio-American" scheme, senior Hamas official Salah Bardawil told Jordan's al-Sabeel newspaper earlier this week. The goal is not only to wipe out the Muslim Brotherhood, Bardawil said, but to destroy Egypt "in service of the Zionist project in the region," al-Sabeel wrote. The newspaper is...

Israeli intelligence satellites have spied the loading of rockets and other material in Iran believed to be destined for the Gaza Strip, the UK-based Sunday Times reported, citing Israeli officials. According to the report, Iran began preparing the weapons shipment around the same time Israel and Hamas negotiated a cease-fire late last week. The shipment is said to include Iranianmade Fajr-5 medium-range rockets, the same model that was fired toward Tel Aviv and Jerusalem during Operation Pillar of Defense, the Sunday Times reported.

Those who get their news from the mainstream media (or the Guardian) could be forgiven for believing that there are nearly 5 million Palestinian refugees from the 1948-49 Arab-Israeli War. So often is that figure bandied around that most don’t understand that it only reflects the number of Palestinians qualifying for “refugee” benefits under the bizarre formula of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency by which the children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren (ad infinitum) of actual refugees continue to inherit this status. This designation is even bestowed upon those Palestinians who are already citizens of other countries. (Using such demographic...

The Kurdish militia captured the border town of Ras al Ayn on Sunday, which had been under rebel control since last November. A day later, the United States said it was "very concerned" at reports that the militia was about to declare self-rule in northern Syria. "Such a declaration is highly provocative, as it will certainly exacerbate tensions between Arabs and Kurds," Jen Psaki, a State Department spokeswoman, said Monday. Turkey, which embarked on a broad peace process in March with Kurdish militants at home, has warned that it won't tolerate an autonomous Kurdish province across the Syrian border. This...

Egypt’s deeply troubled president, Mohamed Morsi, proved to be too uncreative compared to his Turkish brothers in arms when he blamed the mass protests against his Muslim Brotherhood regime on foreign countries only. He could have been better inspired by his Turkish comrades. Even Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Beşir Atalay was able to add some (well, the usual) sauce on his "evil foreign powers recipe": The Turkish unrest had been sparked by the Jewish diaspora. So, where, President Morsi, in your assessment of "Tahrir Square – Revisited," are the Jewish conspirators, Western capitals, financial lobbyists, global capitalists, BBC, CNN International,...

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, an outspoken supporter of Egypt's ousted President Mohamed Mursi, lashed out at the European Union and others for failing to condemn strongly enough the killing of dozens in Cairo earlier on Saturday. Security forces shot dead dozens of Mursi supporters on Saturday, days after the army called for a popular mandate to wipe out "violence and terrorism" following its removal of Egypt's first democratically government on July 3. The EU's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, said she "deeply deplores" the deaths and called for a halt in violence. But Erdogan, who has recently faced large...

Two spectacular al Qaeda prison breaks in Iraq, freeing over 500 of its members in two separate prisons simultaneously this week, demonstrate the group is back with a vengeance. Al Qaeda’s Iraq branch is also the moving force behind the jihadist success in Syria. The resurgence of al Qaeda in Iraq has sobering implications for what is likely to follow the drawdown of NATO forces in Afghanistan for the al Qaeda mother ship in Pakistan. The double jailbreaks at Abu Ghraib and Taji prisons were massive attacks. Suicide bombers, teams of attackers using mortars and small arms, and two dozen...

Sen. Lindsey Graham told a "cheering" audience Tuesday that if the relationship between the U.S. and Iran doesn't improve by the end of summer, he will ask Congress to authorize going to war."If nothing changes in Iran, come September, October, I will present a resolution that will authorize the use of military force to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear bomb," the South Carolina Republican said, according to a post on CQ Roll Call, at a conference for members of Christians United for Israel today. "The only way to convince Iran to halt their nuclear program is to make it...

In an almost palpable irony, Russian and U.S. officials simultaneously announced their intent to move forward with controversial arms transfers to opposing sides in the Syrian civil war Monday.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel warned on Monday that U.S. troops are “close to the breaking point,” after many deployments — and Congress risks worsening the situation if it doesn’t help the Pentagon with its budget. “Our people are strong and resilient after 12 years of war, but they are under stress — and so are the institutions that support them,” Hagel told the Veterans of Foreign Wars at the group’s annual convention in Louisville, Ky. “Last week at Fort Bragg’s Soldier and Family Assistance Center, I met a first sergeant who told me that in Afghanistan, he froze up and...

A day ago, Senator John McCain told Newsmax that the US needs to impose a no-fly zone in Syria to “negate Bashar Assad’s power” and force the regime to the negotiating table. Hours later, after McCain and Carl Levin demanded answers from the Joint Chiefs on why the military has not recommended this option, Joint Chiefs chair Martin Dempsey responded that a no-fly zone would cost between $500 million and $1 billion a month — and would largely be a non-sequitur anyway: "The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has told the Senate Armed Services Committee that establishing a...

The nation's top military officer has laid out five options the Obama administration is considering on Syria, including "limited" strikes against the Assad regime and an all-out campaign to secure chemical weapons that includes "thousands" of U.S. forces. Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, revealed the options in a letter to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich. The letter was sent Monday as, on the other side of the Hill, the House Intelligence Committee signed off on the administration's call to arm the Syria opposition -- though the committee, which held that up for...

The House and Senate intelligence committees have approved CIA weapons shipments to opposition fighters in Syria, allowing the Obama administration to move ahead on the stalled program, senior congressional and administration officials said Monday. Despite ongoing “very strong concerns about the strength of the administration’s plans in Syria and its chances for success,” the House committee reached consensus “after much discussion and review,” Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) said in a statement. Both the House and Senate panels voted on the administration’s plan last week, officials said. The agreement allows money already in the CIA’s budget to be reprogrammed for the...

The Obama administration has quietly presented a plan in which the Palestinian Authority and Jordan will receive sovereignty over the Temple Mount while Israel will retain the land below the Western Wall, according to a senior PA negotiator speaking to WND.

Palestinians put off a decision on Thursday on whether to resume peace talks, with a senior official saying Israel needed to meet their terms before negotiations could resume. The Palestinian stance suggested that US Secretary of State John Kerry's sixth peacemaking visit to the region since March was likely to end inconclusively on Friday, when an aide said he would fly home after talking to both sides once more. In Washington, President Barack Obama telephoned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to urge him to keep working with Kerry "to resume negotiations with the Palestinians as soon as possible," the White...

Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad recently transferred two shipments of chemical weapons to Lebanon-based Hizbullah, the Syrian rebels are claiming. Fahad al Masri, a spokesman for the Western-backed Free Syrian Army, told the Lebanese news website El Nashra on Thursday that “the Syrian regime managed to deliver shipments of chemical weapons to Hizbullah.” He added that the weapons were delivered from an area near the capital Damascus and arrived in Lebanon sometime in the past several weeks. The transfer of the weapons, al Masri told El Nashra, was coordinated by Syria and Iran. …

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced on Friday the resumption of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. "I'm pleased to announce that we've reached an agreement that establishes a basis for resuming final status negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis," Kerry told reporters in Amman, Jordan, according to AFP. The top U.S. diplomat added that PLO chief negotiator Saeb Erekat and Israeli negotiator Justice Minister Tzipi Livni would meet him in Washington "to begin initial talks within the next week or so." In his brief comments to the press, Kerry praised the courage of PA Chairman...

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced on Friday the resumption of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. "I'm pleased to announce that we've reached an agreement that establishes a basis for resuming final status negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis," Kerry told reporters in Amman, Jordan, according to AFP. "This is a significant and welcome step forward,” he added. “The agreement is still in the process of being finalized so we are absolutely not going to talk about any of the elements now." The top U.S. diplomat added that PLO chief negotiator Saeb Erekat and Israeli...

SNIPPET: "The U.S. Attorney's Office in Tampa announced Thursday that a grand jury has indicted Shelton Thomas Bell, 19, of Jacksonville, on charges of conspiring and attempting to provide material support to terrorists. He faces up to 15 years in prison for each of the two charges. According to the indictment, Bell had planned to travel to the Arabian Peninsula and join Ansar Al-Sharia, which is an alias for al-Qaida there. The group has taken responsibility for multiple attacks on Yemeni forces, including a suicide bombing during a parade in May 2012, which killed more than 100 Yemeni soldiers. The...

A fascinating new poll is out today that shows Barack Obama's foreign policy approval rating has plummeted over the last two months. On May 1 the Quinnipiac poll found that 47 per cent of Americans approved of Mr Obama's handling of foreign policy, while 43 per cent disapproved. Two months later the same pollster has Mr Obama running a 12-point negative rating – 52 per cent disapprove, compared with 40 that approve. This is not about having naive expectations, but matching the expectations of the American public, who for all their war-weariness still feel in their bones (like it or...

The Movement of the Taliban in Pakistan has sent "experts in warfare and information technology" to Syria to establish a base and monitor the fighting there. The disclosure of the existence of the Pakistani Taliban's Syrian cell occurred just two days after a group that bears the same name as an al Qaeda unit in Pakistan claimed to have executed an attack on Hezbollah in Beirut. The Pakistani Taliban sent 12 "experts in warfare and information technology" to Syria in the past two months to aid Syrian jihadists, while the base was established in Syria six months ago, the BBC...

(CNN) -- The battering that the U.S. image is taking in Egypt these days reflects that the sources of anger against America in the Middle East run deep. We're not the primary reason the Middle East is so screwed up. The Arabs themselves need to own up to that. Just take a look at Syria and Egypt. But we are still a big part of the story. Some extremist Muslims hammer us because they don't like Western values; others see the conspiratorial hand of America everywhere -- sucking the life out of Arab and Muslim independence, pride and dignity. But...

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John Kerry speaks on his latest trip to Israel. Photo: Israel Hayom video.This week the Turkish Deputy Prime Minister blamed mass protests in his country on the ‘Jewish Diaspora.’ Millions of Egyptians took to the streets demanding the ousting of President Morsi who was subsequently removed from power by the Egyptian military. Jordan blocked 254 news websites and Iran was discovered to be importing missile-grade ore from Germany and France. The world was also reminded of the savagery that is Syria’s civil war when a video of rebels decapitating a Catholic priest with a kitchen knife went viral.And John...

The military's overthrow of Mohammed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood's fall from power in Egypt have sent Islamist parties around the region scrambling to preserve gains made in the Middle East and North Africa as a result of the Arab Spring uprisings. The stunning reversal has instilled caution among some Islamists against pushing their agenda too hard, but it has also strengthened hard-liners long opposed to democracy....

"Islamic Awakening" was the Iranian establishment's term of choice for the popular uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa that began in late 2010. Tehran described the unrest as a sign of the defeat of U.S. influence and of people's desire to embrace Islam. Now, the crisis in Egypt has posed a fresh challenge for Iran, sending it scrambling to explain how Egypt's "Islamic Awakening" went wrong. Tehran has so far said little about the crisis, with the Foreign Ministry calling simply for the Egyptian people's "legitimate demands" to be fulfilled and warning of "foreign and enemy opportunism." Iran’s...

It seems as though everyone has an opinion on what the Egyptians should do with their country and government. Iran wants the Muslim Brotherhood restored to power; Russia is worried about civil war; most of the West wants new elections and an end to military rule. The US is currently debating on whether to call the coup a coup at all, as that designation would force a suspension of American aid to the Egyptian military. The Obama administration demanded the restoration of “a democratically elected civilian government� rather than “the democratically elected civilian government,� a nuance that was not lost...

Iran’s Foreign Ministry on Sunday criticized the Egyptian military’s toppling of the nation’s Islamist president, calling the move improper in its first official reaction. “We do not consider proper the intervention by military forces in politics to replace a democratically elected administration,” said ministry spokesman Abbas Araghchi, according to the official news agency IRNA. Egypt’s military ousted Mohammed Morsi Wednesday after four days of mass protests against him. …

Radical Muslim preacher Abu Qatada was deported early Sunday from Britain to Jordan to face terror charges, ending over a decade-long battle to remove a man described as a key al-Qaida operative in Europe.

CAIRO (AFP) – Militants in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula bombed a gas pipeline to Jordan on Sunday, witnesses said, amid a surge in attacks on police and soldiers since Islamist president Mohamed Morsi's removal from office. Witnesses told AFP the blast took place near the North Sinai provincial capital of El-Arish, scene of major disturbances since Morsi's overthrow by the military on Wednesday. On Friday, armed Morsi supporters stormed the provincial headquarters, raising the black banner of Al-Qaeda-inspired militants, an AFP correspondent reported. A Jordanian government official confirmed that gas supplies to the energy-poor kingdom were cut. "The gas supplies to...

Were it not for the high walls and watchtowers, it could easily be mistaken for a recreational centre or private boarding school. With its volleyball and basketball courts, and visitors' garden complete with bubbling fountain, Muwaqqer prison, in Jordan, is a world away from the harsh regimes associated with Arab jails. The comfortable, airy cells of this newly-built facility will be where Abu Qatada, 53, be held after he touches down in Jordan on Sunday after his long-delayed deportation from Britain. Last week, Britain and Jordan signed an extradition treaty that paved the way for the cleric's departure by guaranteeing...

'Abu Qatada will be moved to RAF Northolt in west London and deported to Jordan in the early hours of Sunday morning. It marks the end of a near decade-long legal battle to remove the preacher, who the Government has described as a "truly dangerous individual" and a "key player" in al Qaeda-related terrorism. Sky News understands the 51-year-old will be driven from Belmarsh prison in southeast London to RAF Northolt around midnight tonight. A military aircraft will be waiting to take off around 2am on Sunday, heading for an isolated airstrip near the Jordanian capital Amman. The cleric will...

Two ranking Republican members of the US Senate Armed Services Committee urged the Obama administration on Sunday evening to take “decisive” action against the Assad regime in Syria. Senators John McCain of Arizona and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina spoke at a news conference in Jerusalem after meeting with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders.

Drawn from deep in the Mediterranean Sea, the water has flowed through pipelines reaching almost 4,000 feet off of Israel's coast and, once in Israeli soil, buried almost 50 feet underground. Now, it rushes down a tube sending it through a series of filters and purifiers. After 90 minutes, it will be ready to run through the faucets of Tel Aviv. Set to begin operating as soon as next month, Israel Desalination Enterprises Technologies' Sorek Desalination Plant will provide up to 26,000 cubic meters -- or nearly 7 million gallons -- of potable water to Israelis every hour. When it's...

Patriots and F-16s Deployment to Jordan: A beachead or UmbrellaI? The U.S. Positions Patriot Missiles, F-16 Fighter at Bases Jets in Jordan U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel has approved a request from the Kingdom of Jordan to keep a detachment of F-16s and Patriot Missiles in Jordan following the conclusion of Exercise ‘Eager Lion’ taking place in the Kingdom this month. Eager Lion is held annually training a coalition of air forces in irregular warfare. This year the exercise more than 8,000 service members from about 19 countries participated in the exercise, running from June 9 to 20. “All other...

Syrian war: Iraqi fighters swell Iran 'foreign legion' by Staff Writers Beirut, Lebanon Jul 3, 2013 Hezbollah's deployment of thousands of its fighters in Syria's civil war to aid the Iranian-backed Damascus regime has been widely criticized because it intensified the sectarian nature of the 28-month-old conflict that's becoming a template for a regional conflagration. But the largely overlooked presence in Syria of growing numbers of Iraqi Shiites, battle-hardened veterans of Iranian-backed militias that fought the Americans, underlines how Tehran is forming a "foreign legion" that's spreading across the troubled region. As the war drags on, Iran is reported to...

Syria army renews assault on central Homs: NGO by Staff Writers Beirut July 04, 2013 NATO chief urges speedy return to civilian rule in Egypt Brussels (AFP) July 04, 2013 - NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen on Thursday called for a quick return to civilian government in Egypt. "I am gravely concerned by the situation in Egypt and ... reports of fighting and deaths" given the country's "vital role" in the region, Rasmussen told a news conference. "I call on everyone to exercise restraint and refrain from violence, to respect human rights, including the rights of minorities, and the...

Jordan air force captain joins Syria jihadists: sources Amman July 01, 2013 - A Jordanian air force captain has allegedly "deserted" and joined Syria's jihadist Al-Nusra Front to fight against President Bashar al-Assad's forces, a member of his family and a Salafist leader said on Monday. "Ahmad Atallah Shbeib al-Majali, born in 1984, took a leave from his job last Wednesday and travelled to Turkey on Friday and from there he went to Syria to join the rebels," the family member told AFP on condition of anonymity. The relative added that Majali was promoted just two weeks ago. The Jordan...