Bashar al-Assad - Page 7

The Syrian military recently deployed additional air defenses near the border with Israel amid heightened tensions over Iran’s presence in Syria, a commander in the pro-regime coalition told the Reuters news agency Tuesday.

Lebanon’s Iran-backed terrorist group Hezbollah will remain in Syria as long as Syrian President Bashar al-Assad wants it there, the group’s leader said on Friday, defying renewed US and Israeli pressure to force Tehran and its allies to quit the country.

In a ploy to try to reduce pressure from Israel, Iranian-backed forces, including from the Hezbollah terror group, have withdrawn their forces from areas in southern Syria, only to later return posing as Syrian military units, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), backed by the United States, reportedly expressed a desire this week to negotiate the future of the swathes of territory it controls in northern Syria with the Iranian- and Russian-backed regime of dictator Bashar al-Assad.

Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad reaffirmed his support for the North Korean regime on Tuesday, declaring his belief that the young tyrant Kim Jong-un “will realize the reunification of Korea without fail.”

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad plans to visit North Korea for a personal meeting with leader Kim Jong-Un, Pyongyang’s state media reported Sunday.

Contents: Syria’s al-Assad makes delusional threats to US military; Israel and Russia reach agreement to keep Iran out of Syria’s south

Syrian dictator Bashar Assad gave an interview to Russia’s RT television on Thursday in which he said the United States is “losing its cards” on the civil war battlefield and must withdraw all forces from his country or risk a conflict with the Syrian military and Russian forces.

The Foreign Ministry of Turkey condemned Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad Wednesday for what it labeled a “clear violation” of international law in recognizing the sovereignty of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, two Georgian breakaway regions invaded by Russia in 2008.

The US should learn the lesson of Iraq, President Bashar al-Assad said on Thursday, threatening to expel American troops from Syria and retake areas from its Kurdish allies.

BEIRUT — A Syrian state-run newspaper says Damascus will keep fighting the country’s rebels — or “terrorists” as the government calls opposition fighters — despite U.S. warnings against a new offensive in southern Daraa province.

Contents: U.S. threatens ‘firm measures’ against al-Assad’s military action in Deraa, Syria; US State Department warns the Syrian regime of ‘firm and appropriate measures’; Syria passes new ‘Law #10’ to block refugees from returning home after the war

Syrian anti-government rebels have been accused of digging up graves in a  refugee camp cemetery near the capital Damascus while searching for the remains of three Israeli soldiers missing since the early-1980s.

MOSCOW – Syria’s deputy foreign minister said Wednesday Damascus did not envisage Iran and Hezbollah participating in the withdrawal of foreign forces from the war-torn country as announced last week by Russia.

Forces loyal to dictator Bashar al-Assad this week deemed Damascus and its countryside “completely clear” of Sunni jihadists, including the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL), an alleged victory that puts the territory in and around the Syrian regime’s seat of power under its full control for the first time since the civil war erupted in 2011.

Contents: Stage is set for a new humanitarian catastrophe in Syria’s Idlib province; Turkey warns Syria’s Bashar al-Assad not to attack Idlib province

BEIRUT — A Syrian war monitoring group said Sunday a cease-fire between government forces and Islamic State militants in the southern neighborhoods of Damascus has held for 24 hours, and that some of the fighters have been allowed to leave.

TEL AVIV — A series of blasts were reported on Friday in the vicinity of a military airbase that is reportedly controlled in part by Iran in Hama in northwestern Syria.

MOSCOW — The Kremlin said Syrian President Bashar Assad met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at his summer residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Recep Akdag said on Tuesday that it is “completely inconceivable to return Afrin back to the control of the Syrian regime” after Turkey invaded the northern border region in January.

In an extensive interview published Thursday covering his ties to Iran, accusations of chemical weapons use, and a potential meeting with President Donald Trump, Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad referred to the U.S. military as “terrorists,” alongside the Turkish and Saudi armies.

Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad said in an interview Thursday with Greek newspaper Kathimerini that he is not interested in meeting President Donald Trump to discuss an end to the civil war in his country because Trump has no real power in the United States.

Contents: Turkey tightens grip on Syria’s Afrin, and continues to threaten Manbij; Israel-Iran missile barrages in Syria take a pause on Thursday

BEIRUT –  United Nations peacekeepers in Lebanon said Friday they were keeping a close eye on the southern border with Israel, but the area was “quiet” after strikes on suspected Iranian positions in Syria.

TEL AVIV — The ongoing proxy war that Iran has been waging on Israel for years exploded into open, direct confrontation last night when Iranian forces reportedly fired a volley of about 20 rockets aimed at IDF positions in the Golan Heights.

JERUSALEM – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu headed to Moscow on Wednesday for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, hours after US President Donald Trump announced he would pull out of the Iran nuclear deal.

TEHRAN – A senior Iranian official on Tuesday hailed the “victory” of Hezbollah in Lebanese elections as a success in the “fight against Israel” and the United States, the state broadcaster reported.

An Israeli minister on Monday threatened that the Jewish state could kill Syrian President Bashar Assad if his regime doesn’t prevent Iranian forces from launching attacks against Israel from his territory.

The regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad announced Monday that it had awarded North Korean Ambassador to Damascus, Jang Myong Ho, Syria’s “Order of Merit of Excellent Degree” in honor of his work to bring Assad deeper in the orbit of dictator Kim Jong-un.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach assessed the state of peace talks with North Korea on Friday’s Breitbart News Daily with SiriusXM hosts Alex Marlow and Frances Martel. He acknowledged the necessity of dealing with North Korea to remove the nuclear threat it poses, but was uncomfortable with legitimizing the hideous Kim regime and excusing its crimes.

Turkey said in remarks this weekend it will not choose between its Western allies, including the United States; Russia; and Iran, particularly in the ongoing Syrian civil war, where Iran has a significant stronghold.

WASHINGTON, DC — The Trump administration is “going to expand” American military operations against the remnants of the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) in Syria, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis told lawmakers on Thursday when asked about the president’s suggestion that the United States would be pulling out of the conflict.

TEL AVIV — Russian plans to possibly supply Bashar Assad’s regime with new air defense systems can only be viewed as defiance of the West and an expression of Moscow’s willingness to aid Iran in solidifying its military infrastructure in Syria.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani expressed in a letter to Syrian President Bashar Assad on Saturday his country’s willingness to aid in the post-civil war reconstruction of Syria, Iran’s Tasnim news agency reported.

TEL AVIV – If the U.S. really wants to stop the massacres in Syria, it needs to target President Bashar Assad’s palace in Damascus, an article published in Saudi’s government daily said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Friday denied allegations that Russia is working with the Syrian government to keep international inspectors away from the chemical weapons attack site in Douma so the evidence can be destroyed.