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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Assad: Foreign Intervention May Fragment Region, Amplify Extremism

2011-09-19

[An Nahar] Syrian President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad One of the last of the old-fashioned hereditary iron-fisted fascist dictators. Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor... on Sunday warned against "any foreign intervention that threatens to fragment states in the region and increase the risk of extremism in them," in talks with a Russian delegation on a mission to help end the government crackdown on anti-regime protests. Assad also welcomed the "balanced and constructive Russian position toward the security and stability of Syria," the state-run SANA news agency reported. It said Assad denounced "attempts to destabilize Syria through armed terrorist operations targeting civilians, coppers, army troops and security personnel." Assad's government blamed the protests that began on March 15 on "armed terrorist gangs." Russia has continued to support Assad despite the crackdown on protests that the United Nations ...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks... estimates to have killed around 2,600 people, and has been a bulwark against any Security Council resolution condemning the regime. Ilyas Umakhanov, deputy head of Russia's upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, held discussions with Assad that were "open, trust-based and substantial," Russia's Interfax news agency said. "It confirmed that the country's leadership understands that one can only overcome a political crisis by uniting all the country's healthy political forces." "We once again saw for ourselves that the country's leadership intends to firmly move along the path of political reforms, create all the necessary conditions to consolidate society and all the patriotic forces of the country," the Russian senator was quoted as saying. The Russian delegation also is due to meet parliament speaker Mahmoud al-Abrash, and plans to visit the flashpoint town of Daraa and opposition cities of Homs and Hama, according to Interfax. The Russian delegation arrived on Saturday to try to initiate a dialogue between the government and opposition. The opposition, meanwhile, called in Damascus ...The City of Jasmin is the oldest continuously-inhabited city in the world. It has not always been inhabited by the same set of fascisti... on Sunday for the continuation of popular protests to overthrow the "tyrannical" regime.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Ahmadinejad calls for new world order

2010-01-08

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Iran and Syria should help create new world order by increasing cooperation. President Ahmadinejad made the remarks in a meeting with visiting Syrian Parliament Speaker Mahmoud al-Abrash in Tehran on Thursday. "Iran and Syria have a joint mission to set up new world order on the basis of belief in God, justice and humanity," said the Iranian president. He added that "the future of the world depends on the developments in the Middle East." President Ahmadinejad stressed that the two allies should boost bilateral cooperation at the present juncture. "Iran and Syria have similar viewpoints, interests and enemies," he said. "The resistance of the nations like those of Iran and Syria has caused the global arrogance to reach a dead end in its Middle East policies," the President said. For his part, the Syrian speaker said that Tehran and Damascus, in a united front, would side by side continue resistance against the global arrogance. He added that the two countries should boost ties in order to defuse the plots hatched by the enemies against their respective nations.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Syrian MPs: Try Khaddam for treason

2006-01-01

I know Seafarious was all over this yesterday, but it's too much fun to let drop... Syrian lawmakers have voted unanimously to call on the government to put Abdel-Halim Khaddam, the former vice-president, on trial for treason after he publicly broke with Bashar al-Assad, the president. "We call on the justice minister to try Abdel-Halim Khaddam for grand treason and to take the necessary measures," Mahmoud al-Abrash, the parliament speaker, said at the end of a televised session on Saturday. Since he's now (somewhat) safely ensconced in Gay Paree, that will presumably involve sending somebody there to boom his car or help him commit suicide. That may be too much even for the Frenchies. Their military could end up mistaking Damascus for Ivory Coast or someplace. Speaking from Paris, Khaddam on Friday launched an unprecedented attack on al-Assad, saying he had threatened Rafiq al-Hariri, the former Lebanese prime minister who was assassinated in February. Khaddam, who moved to Paris after resigning in June, accused the government of making political blunders in Lebanon and of failing to deliver economic and political reforms at home, leaving millions of Syrians to go hungry. That confirms the story about Pencilneck threatening Hariri, of course. The rest of it's self-evidently true — the regime's bitch isn't that it's true, but that he's talking about it. Legislator Umeima Faddoul told the parliament session: "I ask the Syrian leadership to try him ... for humiliating 10 million Syrians when he said half of the Syrian people are eating from the garbage. I tell him, those who eat from the garbage are traitors like you ... Treason is the darkest shade of black." So he admits that they're eating from the garbage? Khaddam, a veteran aide to the president's father, the late Hafez al-Assad who ruled Syria for 30 years, would not speculate on who had ordered al-Hariri's murder, saying "we must wait" for the results of a UN inquiry that has already implicated senior Syrian officials. So far who dunnit looks pretty obvious. I suppose he could have cheesed off the local crooks, but that wouldn't account for the subsequent booms of people who griped about the Syrians. For that matter, it wouldn't account for the people who were boomed before Hariri, to include Hariri's teevee station. Legislator after legislator stood up in parliament to accuse Khaddam of corruption and treason during four decades as a senior official in Syria. So why didn't they hang him at any point during those four decades? Presumably he was available... Some also accused him of betraying his country by moving to France. Where he's (somewhat) out of reach of the car boomers' corps... "You don't deserve to be a Syrian," said a lawmaker, who did not give his name. "You can go to hell because no Syrian will forgive you, who hoped to return to your country one day on an American tank." Or a French tank... Another lawmaker said: "His comments last night constitute a criminal offence that reaches the level of treason and we demand he be put to trial before the Syrian security high court." Recipe for rabbit stew: First catch a rabbit... Khaddam's comments are likely to intensify international pressure on Damascus which has been mounting since the Beirut truck bombing that killed Hariri and 22 others. Syria has denied involvement but pulled its troops out of Lebanon in April after a 29-year military presence. Gone before 9-11-06.

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Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Assad sez Syria and Iran will not be intimidated

2005-10-03

yrian President Bashar Assad told the speaker of Iran's Parliament that the international pressure on Syria and Iran aims at intimidating the two countries, something that would never happen, an Iranian official said. Assad, during a meeting in Damascus with Gholam Ali Haddad Adel, said some international powers were seeking to isolate Iran and Syria, but those efforts would not be successful, according to the official, who is a member of the Iranian delegation. Both Iran and Syria are under U.S. sanctions. The United States accuses them of supporting Palestinian resistance groups and the Lebanon's Hizbullah. It also accuses Iran of seeking to build nuclear bombs and Syria of allowing insurgents to cross into Iraq. Iran and Syria deny the charges. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, quoted Assad as saying that the campaigns against Syria and Iran by the United States and other Western countries aimed at "creating fear and permanent concern among those two countries." Haddad Adel said his visit to Syria is aimed at sending off a joint Syrian-Iranian message, which is that "the two countries' relations would remain strong." Syria's official news agency SANA said Assad discussed with Haddad Adel "the relations of friendship and cooperation between the two countries." The Iranian official said Assad also raised the issue of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination, reiterating Syria's innocence. Assad, according to the official, said those who plotted for Hariri's assassination wanted to "create a rift between Syria and Lebanon and expand the circle of tension in the region." Following an earlier meeting with his Syrian counterpart Mahmoud al-Abrash, Haddad Adel warned Israel against attacking his country's nuclear facilities. "If Israel does something stupid and attacks our nuclear facilities like it did in Iraq, we promise to teach it a lesson it will never forget," he said.

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