March 23rd, 2012 by Oman Views

Russian Anti-Terror Troops Arrive in Syria

A Russian military unit has arrived in Syria, according to Russian news reports, a development that a United Nations Security Council source told ABC News was “a bomb” certain to have serious repercussions.

Russia, one of President Bashar al-Assad’s strongest allies despite international condemnation of the government’s violent crackdown on the country’s uprising, has repeatedly blocked the United Nations Security Council’s attempts to halt the violence, accusing the U.S. and its allies of trying to start another war.

Now the Russian Black Sea fleet’s Iman tanker has arrived in the Syrian port of Tartus on the Mediterranean Sea with an anti-terror squad from the Russian Marines aboard according to the Interfax news agency. The Assad government has insisted it is fighting a terrorist insurgency.

The Iman replaced another Russian ship “which had been sent to Syria for demonstrating (sic) the Russian presence in the turbulent region and possible evaluation of Russian citizens,” the Black Sea Fleet told Interfax.

RIA Novosti, a news outlet with strong ties to the Kremlin, trumpeted the news in a banner headline that appeared only on its Arabic language website. The Russian embassy to the US and to the UN had no comment, saying they have “no particular information on” the arrival of a Russian anti-terrorism squad to Syria.

Moscow has long enjoyed a cozy relationship with the Assad regime, to which it sells billions of dollars of weapons. In return Russia has maintained a Navy base at Tartus, which gives it access to the Mediterranean.

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By KIRIT RADIA and RYM MOMTAZ | ABC News

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March 23rd, 2012 by Oman Views

Israel using Gaza as trial run for Iran strike: Hamas

Israel is using the the Gaza Strip as a testing ground for a possible military strike on its arch foe Iran, the head of the radical Palestinian movement Hamas said on Monday.

“Israel is warming up the region for a possible war against Iran,” Khaled Meshaal said in an interview with Turkey’s Anatolia news agency.

Accusing Israel of pursuing “state terrorism” in Gaza, Meshaal defended the Islamist group’s firing of rockets into southern Israel from the impoverished coastal strip which is run by Hamas.

“The only purpose of these rockets is to defend ourselves. Israel is attacking us and naturally our brothers in Gaza are exercising their right to self-defence,” said Meshaal, who is the head of the powerful Hamas politburo.

Militants in Gaza reached a truce with Israel last week after four days of violence in which 25 Gazans died and 200 rockets were fired at the Jewish state.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has consistently warned that he will not tolerate a nuclear-armed Iran, saying the country had a “duty to defend” itself from any existential threat.

During an unannounced visit to Turkey, Meshaal met on Friday with Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Although Turkey was once seen as Israel’s closest ally in the Muslim world, relations have chilled under Erdogan who has been particularly outspoken in his criticism of Israel’s bombing of Gaza.

Hamas is considered a terrorist organisation by Israel and many Western countries, but not by Turkey.

The head of the Hamas government in Gaza, Ismail Haniya, received an enthusiastic welcome on a visit to Turkey in January as part of his first regional tour.

AFP

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March 23rd, 2012 by Oman Views

Sexy photo in hacked Assad emails causes comment

LONDON (Reuters) – A provocative photograph of a near-naked young woman appears among e-mails apparently sent to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and hacked by opposition activists who shared them with Western media.

On Saturday, London’s Daily Telegraph published an edited version of the photograph, which has been seen by Reuters among the original e-mails. It speculated on the state of his 11-year marriage to British-born Asma al-Assad, who has stood by her husband during a year of protests that come close to civil war.

The cache of some 3,000 e-mails dated for about nine months until early February has not been repudiated by the Assads or the small circle of aides and contacts who sent them since details were first published by Britain’s Guardian on Thursday.

There is no way to be certain, however, that all the content is genuine, nor to be sure that Assad’s enemies, at home and abroad, are not seeking to use material to their advantage.

E-mails seen by Reuters indicate a generally affectionate and light-hearted tone between Syria’s first couple and among the mostly English-speaking advisers sending messages to these private e-mail accounts. Some comments sent by female aides to the president gush with admiration: “miss uuu” writes one.

“So cute,” says another young woman when sending the 46-year-old Assad a photograph showing him in his younger days.

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By Alastair Macdonald | Reuters

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