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Israel, Ireland, and International Law by: Daniel Smith, July 18, 2008 Experts on Middle Eastern nuclear affairs met July 14 at the United States Institute for Peace (USIP) to discuss the September 2007 Israeli airstrike against Syria. Daryl Kimball, Executive Director of the Arms Control Association, described the event as “troubling”; David Albright and Avner Cohen discussed the “strange” and “bizarre” issues surrounding the event. Albright is the President of the Institute for Science and International Security and Dr. Cohen is a Senior Fellow at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Dr. Cohen encapsulated the chief concern among the panelists: the...

PARIS (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad warned on Monday that an assault on Iran over its controversial nuclear programme would have grave consequences for the United States, Israel and the world. "It will cost the United States and the planet dear," Assad said in an interview with France Inter radio. "Israel will pay directly the price of this war. Iran has said so." Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a senior official not to interfere in the nuclear dispute with the West, in what analysts see as a sign of internal concern that the president's hardline tactics are further isolating...

France kicked off Bastille Day celebrations on Monday in a whirlwind of controversy as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad joined dozens of leaders to watch the Champs Elysees military parade. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon was the guest of honour at this year's festivities and two units of UN blue helmets were to lead off the traditional march from the Arc de Triomphe down to Place de la Concorde. But President Nicolas Sarkozy's invitation to Assad has angered opposition politicians and some in the French military who served in a UN peace force in Lebanon, where Syria for years was...

Al-Qaeda Draws New Recruits Via Internet Al-Qaeda is using the Internet to recruit vulnerable young people to its terrorist network, according to a programme aired on Saudi Arabian TV late on Tuesday. Umm Osama, the founder of al-Qaeda's first women-only website, al-Khansa, joined several others on the programme to discuss how they renounced jihadist ideology. Among those who sought a response to this question was an imam from the Medina mosque, Saleh Ibn Awad al-Mudamsi, and the father of a young al-Qaeda suspect held in an Iraqi prison. Read More Qaeda Targets U.S. Oil Interests in North Africa U.S....

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said that he is ready to establish normal relations with Israel and to exchange ambassadors and sign bilateral agreements if a peace deal is reached between the two countries. “We have raised the matter of normalizing relations since the beginning of the peace talks,” Assad told Al-Jazzeera Television, adding that good relations between states entail setting up embassies and signing agreements. He said that relations could worsen or improve, turn friendly or be suspended, “but this a normal part of nationhood.” “The indirect talks with Israel will pave the way for direct talks or else negotiations...

The European Union and its Mediterranean neighbours launched a new platform for their relationship on Sunday at a summit boosted by a promise from Lebanon and Syria to open embassies in each other’s capital. Leaders of more than 40 countries attended the inaugural session of the Union for the Mediterranean, a project conceived by Nicolas Sarkozy, France’s president, as a way to bridge differences between the EU and the states of north Africa and the Middle East. As the ceremonies got under way at the majestic Grand Palais in Paris, the spotlight fell on Ehud Olmert, Israel’s prime minister, and...

In the past few weeks, Hezbollah at the behest of Iran and Syria has commandeered the 7,800-foot Mt. Sannine, a strategic asset capable of determining the outcome of the next war, as DEBKA-Net Weekly 356 revealed. Radar-guided missile positions and an early warning station have since been deployed on its summit, which are capable of monitoring and threatening US Sixth Fleet movements in the eastern Mediterranean and Israel Air Force flights. This development was serious enough for Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak to repeat three times in as many days that the IDF is keeping a close watch on events...

Serious peace negotiations between Syria and Israel will not take place until a new US administration is in place after the November election, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Saturday. "The current administration (of President George W. Bush) is not interested in the peace process," he told reporters at his Paris meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

BEIRUT, JULY 3 - The border between Israel and Syria, sealed for 60 years, has been opened exceptionally to allow the passing of some 80 Syrian students from the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel in 1967, who are preparing to start their university studies in Damascus, Syrian state-controlled daily al-Thawra reported today. The passing of the first 82 students took place yesterday in Quneitra, a "freed" Syrian town destroyed in 1973 in the war between Syria and Israel, thanks to the mediation of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF), the...

Signs Pointing to Damascus' Break with Iran July 10, 2008 Middle East Times Sana Abdallah Speculation is growing that Syria is ready to distance itself from Iran and come to the Western fold if the United States and its allies ultimately reward Damascus with political, financial and military support. Officially, Damascus insists that its third-party negotiations with Israel, which are held through Turkish mediation and expected to soon be upgraded to face-to-face talks, are not taking place at the expense of its strong strategic relationship with Tehran. But leaked information says otherwise. The latest such leak came from Alon Liel,...

Is Syria's President Bashar Assad about to switch sides? The answer given by the entourage of French President Nicolas Sarkozy is an empathic yes. And it has to be. After all, Sarkozy has invited the Syrian leader to sit next to him in the presidential niche during the July 14 military parade, the most important public holiday in France honouring the Great French Revolution. The invitation, a rare honour bestowed on few foreign leaders, is designed to transform Bashar from an international pariah into a valued partner not only for France but also for the European Union as a whole....

Syria's government has blamed prisoners serving sentences for extremism and terror for clashes with jail guards that left several inmates dead. Prisoners say the unrest began early on Saturday when guards began beating the mainly Islamist inmates in their cells. The government has denied this, saying the guards intervened to stop violence begun by inmates during an inspection. It remains unclear how many detainees were killed and injured in the unrest. A human rights group said 25 were dead. The Islamist prisoners were also reported to have taken a large number of other inmates hostage but it is not clear...

Barbara Walters: Syrian Dictator 'Charming,' 'Intelligent' By Justin McCarthy | July 7, 2008 - 15:31 Surprise! Barbara Walters visits an anti-American dictator and returns with very nice remarks about him. Returning from the week long break on "The View" July 7, Barbara Walters described how she spent America’s birthday, and the celebration of a document denouncing tyranny, with an anti-American tyrant.While most Americans celebrated Independence Day with fireworks and barbeques, Barbara Walters spent the occasion dining with Syrian leader Bashir al-Assad, whom Walters described as "intelligent" and "charming" who wants "very much to have good relations with us." Perhaps...

Israel has successfully tested a new defence system designed to intercept rockets fired from southern Lebanon and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, public radio reported on Sunday. The "Iron Dome" system is expected to be fully operational within a year and will be able to intercept the military-grade Katyusha rockets used by Lebanon's Hezbollah militia and the cruder Qassam rockets favoured by Hamas. Citing Israeli security officials, public radio said the system would also be effective against mortar fire which has a much smaller window of warning. In January Prime Minister Ehud Olmert viewed a prototype of the 200-million-dollar (140-million-euro) system,...

Syria is ready to break off its close links with Iran if America gives it financial and military backing, a former Israeli diplomat involved in unofficial peace talks has revealed to The Sunday Telegraph. According to the offical, who has been engaged in low-key "second track" discussions with Syrian representatives for many months, Syria's President Bashar Assad is increasingly open to a deal which would greatly weaken Iranian influence in the region. Alon Liel, a former director of Israel's foreign ministry, said the prospect of a peace agreement with Syria was growing, though it might require a new American president...

Syria is ready to break off its close links with Iran if America gives it financial and military backing, a former Israeli diplomat involved in unofficial peace talks has revealed to The Sunday Telegraph. According to the official, who has been engaged in low-key "second track" discussions with Syrian representatives for many months, Syria's President Bashar Assad is increasingly open to a deal which would greatly weaken Iranian influence in the region. Alon Liel, a former director of Israel's foreign ministry, said the prospect of a peace agreement with Syria was growing, though it might require a new American president...

Clashes between guards and prisoners at a jail in Syria have resulted in many deaths, a human rights group says. The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 25 people had been killed after military police fired live bullets at Islamist inmates. The Syrian authorities have not yet commented on the situation, which remains unclear. One inmate told the BBC he believed more than 25 had died. Prisoners said the clashes were sparked by raids in which guards beat inmates. They said the guards had also desecrated copies of the Koran. The prisoners said the early morning raids...

Around 2300 B.C., an acrobat was killed during a bizarre sacrificial ceremony in what is now northeastern Syria, according to a new study published in the current issue of the journal Antiquity. Gory evidence of the entertainer's death -- along with the remains of several rare horse-like animals which appear to have been sacrificed as well -- was found in the remains of a building at a site called Tell Brak, which was once the ancient city of Nagar. The findings suggest some ancient cultures may have sacrificed well-known public figures, as well as animals of great personal and monetary...

Have a look at this original video of a 2 year old girl being brainwashed right into Islam's hateful beliefs. The remarks on Jews and Christians alone is enough to send chills down your spine. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg3m3t87-dk

The Democrats now find themselves in a thoroughly uncomfortable dilemma over Iraq. Back in the early days of the American invasion, when things were going relatively badly, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced the war was "lost" and America's only recourse was to pull out. (This, of course, would have been an absolute political disaster for the Bush administration, as Mr. Reid no doubt knew and hoped.) In the subsequent months and years, when things there have gone substantially better, Mr. Reid has never retracted his highly premature conclusion but it is safe to say it is now "inoperative."...

Israel has a longstanding relationship with the Kurdish people. In the early 1960’s, Mustafa Barzani and his Peshmerga fighters received training and support in the Jewish State. David Ben Gurion, then Israel’s Prime Minister, possessed an acute vision and understanding of the regional geopolitics – so lacking in today’s realities. He reasoned that Arab hostility encircling Israel necessitated alliances with the leadership and people of non-Arab states like Iran, Turkey and the Kurds (understanding that the Kurdish connection needed to be somewhat secretive, as it continues to be today for fear of upsetting the Turks.) Israel’s military and diplomatic establishment...

VIENNA - Syria gave U.N. investigators a good look at the site of what Washington says was a secret nuclear reactor before Israel destroyed it, but initial checks were inconclusive and more are needed, they said on Wednesday. Chief U.N. inspector Olli Heinonen said his team was able to take extensive environmental samples at the remote desert location and the sensitive inquiry was off to "a good start", with Syria's cooperation generally satisfactory at this stage. Heinonen, speaking to reporters on his return to Vienna after four days in Syria, said it was "too early" to draw conclusions about the...

Who Were the Hurrians? Volume 61 Number 4, July/August 2008 New discoveries in Syria suggest a little-known people fueled the rise of civilization Excavations at the 3rd millennium city of Urkesh in Syria are revealing new information about the mysterious people who lived there, known as the Hurrians. This view of the city's royal palace shows the service area (left) and living quarters (right). (Ken Garrett) With its vast plaza and impressive stone stairway leading up to a temple complex, Urkesh was designed to last. And for well over a millennium, this city on the dusty plains of what is...

Israel believes that Syria was planning to supply Iran with spent nuclear fuel for reprocessing into weapons-grade plutonium from the site it bombed last September, and which is currently being inspected by the UN's nuclear watchdog. The claim from an adviser to Israel's national security council, came yesterday as speculation mounts about a possible Israeli attack on Iran. The Israeli government officially backs UN sanctions to force Tehran to halt its uranium enrichment but has little faith they will succeed. Details about the alleged Syrian reactor and the Israeli raid remain shrouded in secrecy. Syria denies it has or had...

VIENNA -- U.N. nuclear inspectors Monday examined a site in Syria that the United States says housed a secretly built nuclear reactor nearing completion when it was bombed by Israel nine months ago, a diplomat said. Syria denies that it has a covert nuclear weapons program and says the Israelis hit an ordinary military structure being built at Al Kibar, in the northeastern desert. Neither Syria nor the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency has issued any information about the visit of the inspectors since their arrival Sunday in Damascus, the Syrian capital. A senior diplomat in Europe familiar with the...

WMD: We wouldn't put up with crime scene investigations after suspects have been given months to dispose of evidence. Yet that's the approach the U.N.'s nuclear "watchdog" is taking toward Syria's nuclear program.British comic actor Peter Sellers has been dead a quarter-century, but the perfect successor to his portrayal of the bumbling Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther movies has emerged: the International Atomic Energy Agency's director general, Mohamed ElBaradei. His job is supposed to be to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons and stop such means of mass annihilation from slipping into the hands of aggressors and terrorists. So...

Large amounts of uranium may have gone missing from a nuclear technology company in Sweden. The American Central Intelligence Agency fears a worst-case scenario where the material has already fallen into terrorist hands, newspaper Expressen reports. "The company (Ranstad Mineral) is a security risk and we have taken the matter to top level to get the Swedes to stop them," a CIA spokesman told the Swedish newspaper. The CIA operative claims to know that the little Swedish company has educated Syrian nuclear physicists in the treatment of uranium. He also has information that a Swedish consultancy has sold nuclear equipment...

Syria, NKorea helped Iran develop nuclear programme: German report Sat Jun 21, 1:57 PM ET Damascus and Pyongyang helped Iran to develop its nuclear programme through the construction of a suspected nuclear site in Syria that Israel destroyed last September, Der Spiegel reported. But the Syrian president Bashar al-Assad is considering withdrawing his support for the Iranian programme, added the German newsweekly in its next edition out Monday, quoting German secret service reports. According to those intelligence reports, it said, a joint plan by Syria, North Korea and Iran for a nuclear reactor for military use was to have been...

The Olmert-Livni-Barak-Yishai government's liquidation sale of Israel's strategic assets opened officially this week. Iran's proxies have pounced on the merchandise. The first asset sold was the security of southern Israel. The Olmert-Livni-Barak-Yishai government's "cease-fire" with Hamas transferred all power to determine the fate of the residents of southern Israel to Iran's Palestinian proxy. Under the "agreement," Hamas will refrain from attacking Sderot, Ashkelon, Netivot and surrounding kibbutzim for as long as it serves its interests. Since temporarily halting its attacks on southern Israel is the only thing that Hamas has agreed to do, it will use the lull in fighting...

VIENNA - U.N. inspectors go to Syria on Sunday to probe allegations of covert nuclear work at a site where Israeli warplanes destroyed a desert complex at the heart of Western suspicions. But ferreting out the truth may be hard nine months after the attack. The International Atomic Energy Agency added Syria to its proliferation watch list in April after the United States passed on intelligence imagery said to show a nascent reactor that could have yielded plutonium for atom bombs. Washington said Syria, an ally of Iran whose shadowy uranium enrichment program has been under IAEA investigation for five...

Syria's suspected nuclear site, destroyed by an Israeli air raid last September, is once again under the microscope. The French daily, Le Monde, has published a report on the Al Kibar facility, confirming earlier US reports of a North Korean connection. The paper claims the UN's nuclear watchdog has information from several non-American sources that point to Pyongyang's involvement. Le Monde says that information includes satellite images provided by various countries. The International Atomic Energy Agency is to start inspecting Al Kibar next week. Part of its work will be to investigate on US intelligence alleging that Damascus had secretly...

A senior Syrian official has expressed confidence regarding the possibility that indirect peace talks with Israel will come to fruition, saying that a peace agreement would be a source of "bliss" in the Middle East. When people can move freely between Syria, Israel, Palestine, Jordan and Egypt, a great change will take place," Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal al-Miqdad told the Chicago Tribune. "Our people will enjoy life without bad dreams of the martyrdom of their children, we will improve living conditions and we will open up to the international community." "The impact of peace will be bliss for the...

North Korean missile engineers during a secret visit to Syria in mid-November discussed loading chemical warheads on ballistic missiles, the Sankei Shimbun reports from Washington. Quoting an unnamed source familiar with the political situation in the Middle East, the Japanese daily said cooperation in chemical weapons was evidence of close collaboration in the development of weapons of mass destruction between the two countries. The source claimed North Korean ground-to-ground missile engineers are helping Syria install chemical warheads on missiles. He added the North Korea-Syria discussions were apparently aimed at resuming missile tests after an explosion occurred during a test on...

For decades, Syria has portrayed itself as the "beating heart of Arab nationalism" - the torchbearer of resistance and defiance to the West. That stance has often put Damascus at odds with other Arab regimes, especially those allied with the United States. But Syria managed to keep a central role in Arab politics. After the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, the Bush administration turned its attention to Syria as another candidate for "regime change". The Syrian regime meddled in Iraq, nurtured Palestinian militants opposed to peace with Israel and dominated its smaller neighbour, Lebanon. For a country that is...

While media attention has been focused on the Palestinian track where no progress has been made and no real pressure applied, serious work has been going on with Syria. You will recall that the Iraq Study Group under Baker recommended in November ’06, that the US should engage Syria and Iran about Iraq without preconditions. While Bash and Rice rejected the recommendations publicly, they went about following them. The Annapolis Conference held one year later was part of that new dialogue. Syria was induced to attend because, there was added to the agenda, under the title “Comprehensive Peace”, the Syrian...

Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Fayssal Mekdad said on Saturday that Syria has the "non-peaceful" means to retrieve the Golan Heights - which Israel captured from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day War - should peace talks with Israel fail to achieve that goal. Mekdad, a former Syrian ambassador to the United Nations, told the Jordanian newspaper Ad-Dustour that Israelis living in the Golan Heights, whom he termed "settlers," must know that Syria would "defend its land within minutes." Mekdad also reiterated to Israelis living in the area that the Golan is Syrian territory and that they are "forbidden from raising children...

Libs. for Islamic Terrorists inc. - The "huffingtonpost" calls Iranian-Syrian invaders Hezbollah Islamists murdering Americans in Iraq, "resistance" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/05/27/hezbollah-sides-with-iraq_n_103692.html Hezbollah Sides With Iraqi "Resistance" _______ http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2030391/posts?page=1 IRAQ & US ACCUSE [SYRIA'S IRAN'S LEBANESE BASED] ISLAMIC HEZBOLLAH TERRORISTS OF CRIMES IN IRAQ

IRAQ & US ACCUSE [SYRIA'S IRAN'S LEBANESE BASED] ISLAMIC HEZBOLLAH TERRORISTS OF CRIMES IN IRAQ [Iraq] Talabani charges [Iran's Islamic Lebanese based terrorists] Hezbollah interference Published: May 30, 2008 at 8:23 BAGHDAD, May 30 (UPI) -- Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, in a Baghdad interview Friday, accused the leader of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah of meddling in Iraq's affairs.http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/05/30/Talabani_charges_Hezbollah_interference/UPI-44791212150201/ Commentary: Iraq ripe for Iranian [militant Shia Muslim] dominationMarch 4, 2008Richard Beeston, Foreign Editor of The TimesMahmoud Ahmadinejad was right to look smug at the end of his two-day state visit to Iraq. Not only did he become the first Iranian president to...

BERLIN - Threats to attack nuclear plants on suspicion they would one day make bombs could undermine the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the chief of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said. "Unilateral military action undermines the international treaty framework. We're standing at an historic turning point," Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told Der Spiegel magazine. A senior Israeli official said on Friday an attack on Iran looked "unavoidable" because U.N. sanctions seemed unable to prevent Tehran developing nuclear technology with bomb-making potential. ElBaradei said a growing threat to peace was coming from proliferation and an increasing readiness to consider...

BERLIN: The head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said he expects "absolute transparency" from Syria over allegations that a site bombed by Israel was a secretly built nuclear reactor, according to an interview published Sunday. The International Atomic Energy Agency announced last week that Syria had agreed to a check of U.S. assertions that the target was a plutonium-producing reactor that was near completion, and thus at the stage where it could generate fissile material for nuclear arms. The IAEA plans to visit June 22-24. "I expect absolute transparency from Damascus, also regarding other places beyond the destroyed complex to...

It is very doubtful that Syria will carry on serious negotiations without ensuring, first, that it has military leverage over Israel through the southern Lebanese border. Damascus may not necessarily want talks to reach a conclusion now, but it does have to prepare for the possibility of an eventual breakthrough. As far as President Bashar Assad is concerned, a Golan deal is important principally if Lebanon is part of the package. In other words, Syria gets the Golan but is also granted effective hegemony over Lebanon - an arrangement with which the Israelis have no problem, nor did when they...

CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez said Saturday he wants to work together with the next U.S. president and that Venezuela and the United States should cooperate to resolve problems including world hunger, energy shortages and climate change. But Chavez also warned that George W. Bush "will be much more dangerous during the last months that he has left" in the White House, and accused the outgoing U.S. president of attempting to orchestrate his assassination or spur a military rebellion in Venezuela. "Whoever is the next president of the United States, I'd like start preparing the way to start working...

There is no doubt that the bulk of the Middle East is in the middle of a two-step dance. The region, as a whole, stands on the brink of reforms and - using that massively popular catch word today - change. Whether those changes are for the good, only time will tell. But there is no doubt there are hotbeds of "talk" going on everywhere. Lebanon finds itself not only sans President, but slowly being devoured by Hezbollah, demanding and receiving legislative veto powers. Meanwhile Hezbollah and Israel came to terms, via a German broker, for a prisoner swap -...

VIENNA - The United States on Wednesday demanded Syria give free rein to U.N. nuclear investigators after diplomats said Damascus would bar access to some sites Washington believes are linked to a secret atomic reactor. The United States says Syria was close to completing a reactor with North Korean help that could have yielded plutonium for nuclear arms before it was bombed by Israel last September. The U.N. nuclear watchdog began an inquiry after receiving U.S. intelligence documentation in April. International Atomic Energy Agency director Mohamed ElBaradei said on Monday that Syria, which had not responded to IAEA requests for...

It's Time to Talk to Syria By JOHN KERRY and CHUCK HAGEL June 5, 2008; Page A19 After Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1991, President George H.W. Bush did the improbable and convinced Syrian President Hafez Assad to join an American-led coalition against a fellow Baathist regime. Today, these leaders' sons have another chance for a diplomatic breakthrough that could redefine the strategic landscape in the Middle East. The recent announcement of peace negotiations between Israel and Syria through Turkey, and the agreement between the Lebanese factions in Qatar – both apparently without meaningful U.S. involvement – should serve as a...

LONDON, June 4 -- For much of the world, Sen. Barack Obama's victory in the Democratic primaries was a moment to admire the United States, at a time when the nation's image abroad has been seriously damaged. From hundreds of supporters crowded around televisions in rural Kenya, Obama's ancestral homeland, to jubilant Britons writing "WE DID IT!" on the "Brits for Barack" site on Facebook, people celebrated what they called an important racial and generational milestone for the United States. "This is close to a miracle. I was certain that some things will not happen in my lifetime," said Sunila...

There are no campaign rallies or bumper stickers for him in Syria, no “Yes We Can” T-shirts on sale, but Obamamania has definitely infected the “beating heart of Arab nationalism,” as it once called itself. During my recent visit to Damascus, Syrian officials and the political elite seemed captivated by Barack Obama, well before it was clear that the Democrats’ charismatic young superstar would be the party’s presidential nominee. Partly, it’s Obama’s youth that makes him attractive to Syrians, roughly half of whom are under 18 and whose own president, Bashar Assad, is four years younger than Obama. “But it’s...

Baghdad: A proposed Iraqi-American security agreement will include permanent American bases in the country, and the right for the United States to strike, from within Iraqi territory, any country it considers a threat to its national security, Gulf News has learned. Senior Iraqi military sources have told Gulf News that the long-term controversial agreement is likely to include three major items. Under the agreement, Iraqi security institutions such as Defence, Interior and National Security ministries, as well as armament contracts, will be under American supervision for ten years. The agreement is also likely to give American forces permanent military bases...

VIENNA, Austria — Syria has told fellow Arab countries that it will not permit an International Atomic Energy Agency probe to extend beyond a site bombed by Israel, despite agency interest in three other suspect locations, diplomats have told The Associated Press. The agency's main focus on its planned June 22-24 visit to Syria is a building in the country's remote eastern desert that was destroyed in September by Israeli jets. IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei announced Monday that Syria had agreed to an agency check of U.S. assertions that the target was a plutonium-producing reactor that was near completion, and...

Syria has told fellow Arab countries that it will not permit an International Atomic Energy Agency probe to extend beyond a site bombed by Israel, despite agency interest in three other suspect locations, diplomats told The Associated Press on Tuesday. The agency's main focus during its planned June 22-24 visit to Syria is a building in the country's remote eastern desert that was destroyed by Israeli jets in September. IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei announced Monday that Damascus has agreed to an agency check of U.S. assertions that target was a plutonium-producing reactor that was near completion, and thus at the...