Syria gives Russia 'evidence' rebels behind chem attack

The Syrian regime has handed Russia new materials implicating rebels in a chemical attack outside Damascus on August 21, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said after talks in Damascus.

"The corresponding materials were handed to the Russian side. We were told that they were evidence that the rebels are implicated in the chemical attack," Ryabkov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies after talks with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem.

Ryabkov also said Russia was disappointed with a UN report into the chemical weapons attack, saying it was selective and had ignored other episodes. "Without a full picture... we cannot describe the character of the conclusions as anything other than politicised, biased and one-sided," he said.

On Tuesday the United States accused Russia of ignoring the facts surrounding the poison gas attack in Syria, highlighting tensions between the West and Moscow over how to eliminate the country's chemical weapons.

Despite a weekend agreement between the Cold War rivals aimed at dismantling Syria's chemical arsenal by mid-2014, the two sides remain poles apart in their assessment of the August 21 gas attack which left hundreds dead.

Russia insists the attack on the Damascus suburb of Ghouta was a "provocation" by opponents fighting Syria President Bashar al-Assad's regime designed to trigger military strikes by the United States.

The United States and France maintain the attack was carried out by Syrian government forces, and believe an assessment by UN experts released on Monday backed their view.

On Tuesday, after meeting French counterpart Laurent Fabius in Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov repeated Moscow's allegation that the August 21 attack was carried out by Syrian rebels.
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Israeli Airstrike Inside Syria Concerns Russia

An Israeli soldier stands guard next to an Iron Dome rocket interceptor battery deployed near the northern Israeli city of Haifa, January 28, 2013.

Russia is expressing concern about an alleged airstrike by Israeli warplanes inside Syria.

The Russian Foreign Ministry says such action, if confirmed, amounts to "unprovoked attacks" against a sovereign nation, in violation of the United Nations charter.

Differing accounts of the Wednesday airstrike have emerged, with Syrian authorities saying Israeli jets fired on a military research facility near Damascus, killing two people.

Israeli and Western news media reported an Israeli airstrike at a different location, close to the Syrian-Lebanese border.  They say the target was a convoy delivering missile parts to Hezbollah, the strongly anti-Israel Shi'ite militia based in Lebanon.

Hezbollah condemned the attack in a statement Thursday and expresses its "full solidarity" with Syria.

The conflicting reports could not be resolved or independently confirmed by early Thursday and it remains unclear whether one or two separate strikes occurred.  Israel routinely declines to acknowledge preemptive military actions and refused all comment Wednesday.

In recent weeks, Israeli officials have warned that they will not tolerate any transfer of Syrian weapons to militants such as Hezbollah.

The former head of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, Amnon Sofin, says Israel's greatest concern is that Syrian chemical weapons could come under control of Hezbollah militants dug in along the Lebanese border.

Sofin told reporters Wednesday that Hezbollah already has rockets and launchers and there are fears that such missiles could be fitted to carry chemical warheads.

A statement from Syria's military command describes the early-morning Israeli attack as "a direct strike on a scientific research center." It says the strike followed months of "botched attempts" to seize control of the facility by "terrorist groups" - the government's label for rebels trying to topple President Bashar al-Assad. The Israeli pilots are said to have flown into Syria at low altitude, to evade detection.

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Russia and China blocked a UN Security Council resolution condemning Syria

 Russia and China blocked a UN Security Council resolution condemning Syria 

(CNN)-- The death toll from fighting between Syrian government forces and civilians rose steadily Sunday, a day after the United Nations Security Council failed to approve a plan seeking to halt the violence.
The Arab League said Sunday it would continue to work with the Syrian government and opposition to stop the killing despite the Security Council vote, and it urged the government to "heed the people's demands."



At least 31 people, including five children, were killed by security forces Sunday, according to the Local Coordination Committees of Syria, a network of opposition activists. The group said 18 of the deaths happened in Homs, where hundreds have been killed in recent days in violence that opposition groups blame on the government.



Five of the deaths happened in the Damascus countryside, and one each happened in Aleppo and Daraa, the group said.
The LCC said another six were killed in the northwestern city of Idlib, where clashes broke out Sunday between government forces and defectors. At least nine Syrian army troops were killed in those clashes and 21 others were injured, according to Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition activist group.

The observatory also said a 14-year-old child was killed when security forces used gunfire to disperse a demonstration in suburban Damascus.

The Local Coordination Committees announced plans for a two-day civil strike starting Sunday as a way to mount more pressure on President Bashar al-Assad's government.

Arab League Secretary-General Nabil el-Araby insisted that despite the developments in the Security Council, the Arab League and the international community will continue to seek a resolution to the crisis, according to an Arab League official who could not be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

"The Arab League aims to avoid military intervention in Syria and continues to probe for an Arab solution to the Syrian crisis," el-Araby said, according to the official.

The Arab League suspended its mission in Syria a week ago because of a recent sharp escalation in violence, with hundreds killed in clashes.

The mission would have monitored whether al-Assad was abiding by an agreement to end the crackdown, which has resulted in an estimated 6,000 deaths, according to the United Nations.

Protesters and rebel fighters have been demanding an end to al-Assad's rule and true democratic elections.

Saturday, Russia and China used their veto power in the Security Council to defeat a draft resolution that would have demanded al-Assad stop the killing and answer calls aimed at finding a Syrian-led solution to the 11-month crisis.

The other 13 council members voted in favor of the resolution.

"What happened yesterday at the United Nations was a travesty," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Sunday, saying the veto left the world "faced with a neutered Security Council."

She said the international community has to "redouble our efforts outside of the United Nations with those allies and partners who support the Syrian people's right to have better future. We have to increase diplomatic pressure on the Assad regime and work to convince those people around President Assad that he must go, and that there has to be a recognition of that and a new start to try to form a government that will represent all of the people of Syria."

The Russian and Chinese ambassadors said they support the cessation of violence but did not agree with the text of the resolution, which they said would have complicated the issue and sent conflicting signals to both sides.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is scheduled to visit Damascus on Tuesday to meet with al-Assad, Russian Ambassador Vitaly Churkin said.

Ambassadors from the three other permanent members of the council -- the United States, France and the United Kingdom -- said they were furious at Russia and China for failing to halt the violence that has consumed Syria.

U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice told CNN that Russia and China "will have any future blood spill on their hands." She said the United States was "disgusted" by the veto.

British Ambassador Mark Lyall Grant said his country was "appalled" by the veto, and French Ambassador Gerard Araud said Russia and China have aligned themselves with a regime that is massacring its people.

In the past few days, more than 300 civilians have died and hundreds have been wounded in Homs, in eastern Syria, north of Damascus. The opposition blames the government for the attacks.

Residential buildings and homes were bombed in what the opposition Syrian National Council called a "massacre."

CNN cannot independently confirm opposition or government reports from Syria because the government has restricted journalists' access to the country.

Syria's U.N. ambassador, Bashar Jaafari, said the crisis has been manufactured and that there is a media campaign to make the Syrian government look bad. The Syrian government has consistently blamed "armed terrorist groups" for the violence.

Referring to the deaths in Homs, Jaafari asked, "Is there a sensible person who would believe a government commits massacres in a given city on a day when the Security Council is scheduled to hold a meeting to examine the situation in that country? Would any entity put itself in such a position?"

Russia: Attack on Tehran is Attack on Moscow

Russia: Attack on Tehran is Attack on Moscow

Russia has given Iran its bear hug and warns Israel and the West that an attack on Tehran would be considered an attack on Moscow.

By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu

First Publish: 1/15/2012, 12:28 PM

Moscow's Kremlin

ITAR-TASS/Russian Federation

Russia has given Iran its bear hug and warns Israel and the West that an attack on Tehran would be considered an attack on Moscow. The threat heightens the prospect of World War III in the event of a military strike on Iran.

“Iran is our neighbor,” Russia's outgoing ambassador to NATO, Dmitry Rogozin, told reporters in Brussels. “And if Iran is involved in any military action, it’s a direct threat to our security.”

Kremlin Security Council head Nikolai Patrushev accused Israel of provoking the United States towards war against Iran, the Russian Interfax news agency reported Friday. “But at the same time, we believe that any country has the right to have what it needs to feel comfortable, including Iran," he added.

Rogozin warned on Friday that more attacks on Iran could cause "a scorching Arab Summer." 

Russia also has come to the defense of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, warning Western nations not to intervene in Syria with military forces. Russia is a major arms supplier to Syria and has a heavy investment in Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Japan also is drifting towards Iran, backtracking from its promise last week to back American sanctions aimed at persuading Iran to halt its unsupervised nuclear development.

Last week’s assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist has aroused more “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” protest rallies in Iran, where the scientist was buried on Friday.

Iranian state radio said the 32-year-old scientist was involved with enriched uranium, a key ingredient for a nuclear weapon. source:

Ezekiel 38 says that Gog will come with PERSIA, Cush and Put...that translates to this: Russia will come with IRAN, Ethiopia and Libya... 

two other mentions...first, Beth-togarmah is TURKEY and GOMER is Germany

Eze 38:5  Paras(Iran), Ethiopia and Put (Libya) are with them, all with breastplates and helmets; 
Eze 38:6  Gomer (Germany) with all its troops; the house of Togarmah (Turkey) in the far reaches of the north, with all its troops - many peoples are with you.

Gomer, and all his bands,.... Or all his army, as the Targum. Gomer was the eldest son of Japheth,Genesis 10:2, from whom descended the people called by the Greeks Galatians, or Galio-Grecians, as Josephus (i) says, who before were from him called Gomarians: others think that Phrygia, and the inhabitants of it, are meant; but, whether one or the other, they were both people of the lesser Asia, which is now in the hands of the Turks:

the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands; Togarmah was one of the sons of Gomer, Genesis 10:3 whose posterity, according to the Greeks, as Josephus (k) says, were the Phrygians; but others rather think the Cappadocians descended from him; and that Togarmah designs their country, which also is a part of the Turkish dominions; See Gill on Ezekiel 27:14. Several moderns, as Calmet (l) observes, believe that the children of Togarmah peopled Turcomania in Tartary, and Scythia, and which he approves of; and the Turks are mentioned by Ben Gorion (m) as one of the ten families of Togarmah. The Targum renders it here the province of Germany