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A Battle to pluck One Horn called Lebanon!

Things are heating up in Lebanon-Syria-Hizbullah Battle for Lebanon!

October 22, 2007

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Daniel 7:8 – I considered the horns, and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.

Things are heating up in the Middle East and Syria is imbedded in the midst of it all, as the three following articles attest.

Begin Haaretz Article

Report: Lebanese Druze leader to seek Barak’s help in toppling Syria gov’t

By Yoan Stern and Shmuel Rosner, Haaretz Correspondents

October 21, 2007

Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt will seek Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s help in toppling the Syrian government, the Syrian-based Web site “Sham Press” reported Sunday.

According to the report, Jumblatt will ask Barak to use his influence in Washington to work toward bringing down the Damascus regime during a meeting expected to take place in the United States.

The report also said that Barak and Jumblatt, who are currently visiting the U.S., will hold talks with the aid of an American of Lebanese origin, and with support from Vice President Dick Cheney.

In the past, Jumblatt was harshly criticized in Lebanon for his meetings with senior Israeli officials while traveling abroad.

Lebanese law forbids meetings with Israelis.

Barak left last week for an official visit to the U.S. On Friday, he left Washington D.C. for New York, where he met with UN Chief Ban Ki-Moon. This marks Barak’s first U.S. trip since taking office four months ago.

Barak met with senior congressional officials and discussed security issues in the Middle East, primarily the Iranian nuclear threat and the current tensions between Israel and Syria.

He also discussed security relations between Israel and the United States and the peace process with the Palestinians.

On Thursday Barak met with President George W. Bush for an hour-long meeting. The meeting, which was not originally scheduled for Barak’s U.S. visit, took place in the office of Stephen Hadley, the U.S. National Security Advisor, with whom Barak had planned to hold talks.

Begin Turkishnews.com Article

Assad: If Iraq Splits Up, The Region Will Explode

BY ERGUN BABAHAN

October 21, 2007

SABAH- Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is uncomfortable about a possible military operation by Turkey into Iraq.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that he supports the terrorist PKK.

He’s afraid that such an operation could irreversibly upset the regional balances. In his own words, he doesn’t believe that Turkey has designs on Iraq. But he would prefer that the problem be solved through political, not military, means.

So when he was told about Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari urging the terrorist PKK to leave Iraq, he smiled and called this an important step.

Assad believes that the US is planning to establish an independent Kurdish state in the region. Calling the possible disintegration of Iraq a bomb which would blow up the Middle East, he urged all countries to support Iraq’s unity. He denied that in past years Syria served to headquarter the PKK. Stating that they were ready to discuss this issue, Assad tried to put a clear distance between himself and terrorism. He says that convicted PKK head Abdullah Ocalan was in Syria back in the ‘90s but that his country didn’t support him with money or weapons, unlike the actions of others today.

Assad summed up his attitude by saying that when Turkey expressed its discomfort about the PKK being on Syrian soil, Damascus asked itself if this matter was important enough to lose Turkey’s friendship, and so chose this friendship.

Now, some 10 years later, we have come to face new tensions over a neighboring country and terrorism, and the threat of using force has again forced the host country to act.

Unfortunately, the region we live in doesn’t make it easy to solve problems through political means. In this atmosphere, saber-rattling might be more effective than diplomatic methods. We hope the Iraqi administration understands Turkey’s determination. Actually, its ability to take effective measures against the terrorist PKK in northern Iraq is debatable.

But it’s even an important development that the people living in the region now see that they might be in trouble due to the terrorist group.

Here it’s very significant that it supports trying to cut monetary and military support to the group. A terrorist group whose financial and military support is cut is unlikely to survive for long. And obviously, there are a great many things which can be done about this by Washington.

Begin BBC News Article

Talabani chides Syria over Kurds

October 20, 2007

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani has criticised Syria for its support for a possible Turkish intervention against Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq.

Mr Talabani, himself a Kurd, said comments by his Syrian counterpart, Bashar al-Assad, represented “a dangerous crossing of red lines”.

The Turkish parliament has authorised cross-border raids, but the government says action is not imminent.

Ankara blames the rebels for attacks on soldiers and civilians inside Turkey.

Both the US and Iraq have urged Ankara to avoid military action which they fear could destabilise the entire region.

The president of the Kurdish region in northern Iraq, Massoud Barzani, has rejected accusations that his government provides cover for Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) fighters.

Arab unity ‘broken’

Mr Talabani’ s remark

s were published in the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat on Saturday.

“President Assad’s remarks are dangerous and run contrary to the spirit of Arab solidarity,” the Iraqi president said.

“Usually I would refrain from commenting on Syrian positions in order to preserve our historic ties, but this time I am unable to support this dangerous crossing of red lines.”

Mr Assad backed the Turkish threat during his visit to Ankara three days ago.

“It would have been better for him [President Assad] to say what the Americans and the Europeans have said, that it is better to adopt a political solution despite his understanding of the Turkish stance,” Mr Talabani said in his interview.

The Turkish prime minister has renewed calls on Washington and Baghdad to take action against the fighters, threatening to authorise military action if they do not.

But there is still more time and room for diplomacy, says the BBC’s Ian Pannell.

Turkey is hosting an important regional conference on Iraq early next month and it is difficult to see how Ankara could order its troops across the border before this takes place, our Middle East correspondent says.

The PKK has been fighting for autonomy in south-eastern Turkey since 1984 and more than 30,000 people have been killed in the conflict.

The PKK has been labelled a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US and the EU.

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Ahmadinejad seems to still be in Charge in Iran!

October 22, 2007

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Begin DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

Ahmadinejad’s Aggressive Nuclear Policy Prevails in Tehran

October 20, 2007, 2:37 PM (GMT+02:00)

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has laid down the gauntlet.

Having prevailed over the more pragmatic elements of the Islamic Republican regime headed by supreme ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, he and his Revolutionary Guards are challenging the United States to do its worst.

Saturday, Oct. 20, the fire-eating president succeeded in removing the formidable Ir ani

an nuclear negotiator, head of the National Security Council, Ali Larijani, from his path. He then sent the Revolutionary Guards missile and artillery commander, Gen. Mahmoud Chaharbaghshe, to warn that, in the first minute of an attack on Iran, the Islamic Republic would fire 11,000 missiles and mortars against enemy (US and Israeli) bases. The scale of ordnance threatened implied Tehran’s certainty that Syria, Hizballah, Hamas and the pro-Iranian militias in Iraq would join the assault.

DEBKAfile’s Iran sources report that the president’s venture into brinkmanship points to his confidence that neither the US not Israel can or will dare to strike at Iran’s clandestine nuclear facilities. Khamenei h as shown no sign

as yet of reining him in.

The Russian president Vladimir Putin’s visit last week to Tehran was a disappointment to the clerical rulers. Contracts for the Russians to complete the Bushehr atomic reactor and supply the fuel for its activation were not signed during that visit, although they had been drawn up previously between Larijani and the head of the Russian Nuclear Energy Commission Sergei Kiriyenko in Moscow.

At the last minute, Ahmadinejad, backed up by the IRGC chiefs, put his foot down against Putin’s pre-condition which was incorporated in the contract for a joint Russian-Iranian mechanism to oversee the reactor and guarantee its non-use for weapons production.

Putin made a last attempt to talk Tehran round in a long conversation with the supreme ruler Wednesday, Oct.

17, before he flew out of Tehran.

Initially, there were reports that

the Russian president had presented new proposals for solving the crisis, which Khamenei promised to seriously examine. The Iranian News Agency IRNA then quoted Khamenei as saying noncommittally: “We will ponder your words and proposal.”

However, on Friday, Oct.

19, Ahmadinejad made remarks which contradicted statements by the supreme ruler and Larijani.

He denied that Putin had brought any new proposals to Tehran on the Bushehr nuclear reactor. This denial had the effect of presenting Larijani as a failure.

His efforts to achieve a new set of Iranian-Russian nuclear contracts and a breakthrough for Tehran that would have kept Moscow in the international camp opposed to tougher UN Security Council sanctions were shown up as useless.

The Iranian president had manipulated the episode in such a way as to leave the nuclear negotiator no option but to quit.

In contrast to the ultra-radicals, Larijani is described by DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources as a practical diplomat who believed in a compromise that would let Iran continue its uranium enrichment process and develop its nuclear program, up to the point of weapons capability, without taking the final step of actually making a bomb.

His humiliation marks the further rise in Ahmadinejad’s influence and his unimpeded drive to go all the way to a military showdown with the United States and Israel over Iran’s nuclear ambitions. In private conversations in Tehran, the president argues that neither is in a position to go to war against the Islamic Republic.

Our military sources stress that the Iranian nuclear program no longer relies exclusively on uranium enrichment to attain a weapon, but has also turned to plutonium as an alternative path to a weapons capacity. The Bushehr reactor is a matter or national pride in Iran, but whether or not it is activating does not affect its military nuclear plans one way or another.

The production of plutonium for weapons is relatively simple and cheap, a fact that was exposed by Israel’s air strike in northern Syria on Sept. 6.

If even Syria can build a small nuclear reactor for plutonium production with North Korean help, there is no reason to assume that Iran has not built an active reactor of this kind and is hiding it underground.

While much has been made of North Korea’s input for Syrian’s nuclear activities, little has been said about Iran’s assistance, which DEBKAfile’s intelligence sources estimate as far more substantial.

In other words, North Korea is not the only nuclear proliferators; Iran is consistently violating its commitments under the Non-Proliferation Accord by passing its military nuclear secrets to Syria.

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The Pros and Cons of a Military Strike against Iranian Sites

October 21, 2008

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I am including Special Prophecy Update 147E from our Archives be fore three excerpts from the Jerusalem Center

for Public Information Daily Alert for October 19, 2007

SPECIAL PROPHECY UPDATE NUMBER 147E

November 26, 2003

Israel Warns Iran for the Second Time

When Saddam Hussein was close to developing the first Islamic nuclear bomb, Israeli jets flashed across the desert skies and destroyed his large nuclear complex. The United Nations and its member nations supplied a long line of vocal denouncements of what Saddam was doing, but not one of them took any action. Israel issued its second announcement to Iran and the United Nations early this week – It is prepared to take unilateral action against Iran’s nuclear facility IF the international community fails to stop the development of nuclear weapons at any of the units that make up its atomic energy complex. In 1981 Israel bombed Iraq’s big nuclear reactor near Baghdad, and they are not in the habit of making threats void of eventual fulfillment.

The International Atomic Energy Agency is meeting this week to discuss the situation in Iran. It is meeting in the face of what some have labeled as a warning of “unprecedented severity” toward Iran by Israel Defense Minister Shaul Mofez. At the time of the Iraqi attack, Israel defended its action by claiming it had dealt a devastating blow to Saddam’s goal of developing nuclear weapons. Israel views Iran’s goals as being the same as those of Saddam. Last week, during his visit to the United States, the Israel position was made crystal clear to officials when he stated.

“under no circumstances would Israel be able to tolerate nuclear weapons in the possession of the Iranians.” Mofez went on to state, that in 2004, Iran’s drive for nuclear weapons would “reach the point of no return.”

Meir Dagan, the head of Mossad (Israel’s secret services), backed up the Defense Minister’s statements. Dagan claimed a development of nuclear weaponry in Iran represented the greatest threat Israel had faced since the founding of the Jewish state in 1948. He also said the Iranians were developing ground-to-ground missiles that could hit Israel as well as all of Europe.

The claim of Iran, that it has no plans to develop nuclear bombs to put on its existing long-range missiles, is an out and out lie.

Iran has long made the claim its reactor at Bashir is to be used solely for the production of electricity for peaceful purposes, but its output of 100 megawatts is much too large for that purpose alone. Iran’s uranium enrichment facility at Kashan is nearing completion and, with enriched uranium, an output of 100 megawatts can produce 10 nuclear bombs a year. Israel and the U.S. are both well aware of this potential. In 1956 Israel asked France to help build a nuclear reactor in the Negev for them in return for Israel having helped France in the 1956 Suez recovery campaign. So, in 1957, France began to build Israel a 24-megawatt nuclear reactor at Dimona in the Negev wilderness.

A 24-megawatt reactor can produce a lot of electricity for peaceful purposes, but it cannot produce an atomic bomb. Israel and France both assured the United States, who opposed Israel having the nuclear reactor, that it would never be used to produce nuclear weapons. We knew they were lying, and they both knew they were lying, but that’s the way it goes in world politics. There was more to it than that, but if I said any more about it I might be guilty of violating national security, and I don’t want to be thrown in jail.

The sand from the Negev left by the feet of the French technicians had not settled following their exit in 1960, before the Israelis had jacked the reactor up to 150 megawatts to produce atomic bombs. In 1964 the first Israeli atomic bomb was ready.

I will not reveal where, how, or when it was tested. In 1967 Israel, for the first time in its history, launched a preemptive strike against the Arab countries surrounding it – Why? The Egyptians had obtained some Russian copycats of our highflying RB-70 aircraft, and were flying over Dimona above maximum jet altitudes of Israeli fighters.

The Israelis were afraid of these aircraft being used to direct a three-prong air strike from Egypt, Jordan, and Syria against Dimona, so they attacked them first to preclude such a possibility. Israel had a few atomic bombs at that time but did not use them. It is against Israeli War Contingency Plan directives to launch weapons of mass destruction, unless they are first launched against them.

However, they had no need to use them because they mopped up the Arab armies in six days.

By 1968, since Israel already had atomic bombs, the United States helped them to get a hydrogen bomb. I will not reveal the particulars of how all this came to pass because of national interest. I will tell you that the U.S. was not directly involved in its development. The Germans supplied the yellowcake (crude uranium), and it was smuggled by night on a Liberian tanker into the port of Haifa in December of 1968. In 1969 Israel made its first hydrogen bomb. I will not reveal where, how, or when the bomb was tested.

In 1973 Israel was caught napping on Yom Kipper, and the well-planned surprise attack by Syria, Egypt, and Jordan met with great success in its initial stages, with their armies making solid incursions across the Golan, into Sinai, and across the Jordan.

However, it is significant that Israel did not use its numerous nuclear weapons under such a shocking initial scenario. Israel will not use weapons of mass destruction against any one unless they are first launched against it.

Israel now has some 200 well-concealed Jericho missile silos in the Negev, some 300 Jericho missiles, and more than 300 warheads containing the elements of weapons of mass destruction. These missiles are capable of reaching all targets in the Islamic kingdoms of the Middle East. The main reason I wanted Saddam Hussein to be deposed in Iraq had nothing to do with any possibility of a democratic state being established there. That is impossible. Saddam is a megalomaniac with illusions of power, grandeur, wealth, and dreams of divinity.

Had he developed a nuclear bomb, and a missile capable of delivering it, he would have launched it against Israel, no matter what the consequence to his own people for his having done so. None of the other Islamic leaders are megalomaniacs. If they do not launch weapons of mass destruction again Israel, then Israel will not launch the same against them.

The next Arab war against Israel will be a war of conventional weaponry. Weapons of mass destruction will not be used against Israel, because it would cause the full destruction of all Islamic nations, and they jolly well know it.

The sooner we catch Saddam and Osama, then get out of Iraq, the better off we, and the rest of the world, will be.

Begin Three Excerpts from Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs Daily Alert

Begin Jerusalem Post Excerpt

The Military Option Is Now on the Table

Herb Keinon

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert sat in the Kremlin on October 18 and told Russian President Vladimir Putin the Iranians needed to fear that if they continued with their nuclear march, “something will happen to them that they don’t want.” That was on October 18, 2006.

Exactly a year later, Olmert was back in the Kremlin. The urgent manner in which Olmert dropped everything and jetted off to Moscow Thursday for a three-hour meeting with Putin indicates that Israel has changed phases. It has gone from treating the Iranian problem as an international one, that the world has to deal with, to taking steps indicating that it sees it increasingly as an Israeli problem, that might necessitate an Israeli solution.

Nobody is tiptoeing around the possibility of military action against Iran any more. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner raised the possibility of war a few weeks ago. Even British Prime Minister Gordon Brown didn’t rule anything out in comments he made in October, and President George W. Bush said Wednesday a nuclear Iran could trigger World War III.

Regardless of comments Putin made in Iran that there was no concrete evidence Teheran is after nuclear weapons, the former KGB man knows full well what the

Iranians want. Putin knows the facts, and the problem is not with Moscow’s intel. The problem is with Russia’s own interpretation of its interests. (Jerusalem Post)

Begin Haaretz Excerpt

Striking Iran’s Nuclear Facilities: A Complex, But Not Impossible Mission

Amir Oren

According to Brig.-Gen. Yohanan Locker of the Israel Air Force, the IAF is preparing for three kinds of missions: a potential war with a country that borders on Israel, an operation in Gaza, and actions against distant targets deep in enemy territory. Israel has declared in every possible language that it will see a military nuclear device in the hands of a hostile Iran as a red line. In the Iranian context, Israel is hoping for an American operation, but is prepared to assume that in Washington they will ultimately not have the nerve to opt for one.

In the air force they like to note that the physical area of Iran is like that of Germany, France and Britain combined.

A mission would be complex, but not impossible, and – in the opinion of a clear majority at the top of the defense establishment – essential. (Ha’aretz)

Begin Second Haaretz Excerpt

From Israel, It Looks Different

Aluf Benn

This is the assessment of the situation at the top diplomatic and military levels in Israel: Iran is moving, unhindered, toward a nuclear bomb. Blocking it with economic sanctions has failed, mainly because Russia, Germany and Italy refuse to stop doing business with the Iranians.

Two options remain on the table: to come to terms with Iran’s nuclearization because there is no alternative, or to stop it by force. The chances of an American attack appear small. Israel, it seems, is waiting for Bush’s decision, which will be taken during the coming year, before it decides to attack Iran itself.

From Jerusalem, the Iranian threat looks much more palpable and scarier and the response much simpler and more focused.

Presumably, Iran, like Iraq and Syria in their turn, will find it hard to respond.

Perhaps it will launch some missiles at Israel plus Hizbullah rockets from Lebanon, and perhaps it will initiate a terror attack on an Israeli target abroad. This would be painful but bearable and would be perceived as a justified price for getting rid of an existential threat.

Someone who lives in Chicago or Miami can live comfortably with an Iranian bomb, just as he lived under the Soviet threat. An inhabitant of Tel Aviv must be far more worried. In its refusal of sanctions and serious organization against Iran, the world is quietly pushing Israel toward a decision to attack. (Ha’aretz)

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Syria and Hizbullah will now redouble Efforts to Bring down Lebanese Government!

October 20, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

The recent announcement that the Lebanese government will allow the U.S. to reactivate an old Air Base in northern Lebanon for their use, and the article which follows, is putt

ing Syria and Hizbullah unto a new frenzy to topple the existing government as quickly as possible before it gains strength through the efforts of a union with America. Syria and Hizbullah have been assassinating anti-Syrian delegates of the Lebanese Parliament at an alarming rate, such that its majority has been cut to a razor thin edge.

The second Article from the Lebanese Daily Star was received during the morning hours after the previous paragraph was written. It also shows the intensity of Syria’s purposes in deposing the present Lebanese government to replace it with one controlled by Hizbullah.

Begin Jerusalem Post Article 1

Hizbullah slams US call for “strategic partnership” with LAF

Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST

October 19, 2007

Hizbullah on Friday denounced a senior Pentagon official’s call for a US “strategic partnership” with Lebanon’s army, saying American attempts to boost military ties were a ploy for domination and could turn the country into another Iraq.

Washington has dramatically increased military aid to Lebanon’s pro-Western government over the past year. On Thursday, Eric Edelman, undersecretary of defense for policy, said the US wants to make military ties even closer, with a “strategic partnership” to strengthen the country’s forces.

Edelman said in an interview with Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. television that the building up of the military would mean the Shiite Muslim guerrilla group Hizbullah would have no excuse to bear arms.

He comments c ame on the s

ame day that a Lebanese newspaper reported that Washington is proposing a treaty with Lebanon that would make it a strategic partner and lead to the creation of American bases.

The Lebanese government and the US ambassador in Beirut denied the report in the opposition-leaning As-Safir newspaper, and Edelman made no mention of bases in his comments.

The comments and the newspaper report brought quick condemnation from Hizbullah, which is an ally of Syria and Iran and leads Lebanon’s political opposition to the anti-Syrian government. The opposition, which is locked in a power struggle with the government, already accuses Prime Minister Fuad Saniora of being too close to the United States.

In a statement Friday, Hizbullah said the American efforts were “part of a comprehensive plan to link Lebanon with the American project for the region … under deceitful banners such as strategic partnership,” it said.

Hizbullah, which Washington accuses of being a terrorist organization, accused the United States of “interference” in Lebanese affairs, saying the American plans “and the dangers it encompass could turn the country into another Iraq.”

It did not elaborate. Some in Leb anon h

ave expressed fears that a foreign military presence could attract al-Qaida and other militants, as has happened in Iraq.

Syria, meanwhile, accused the United States of threatening Lebanon’s stability with its backing of the government in the country’s political turmoil. In a letter sent to the United Nations on Thursday, it said US interference “has so far deepened divisions” by “clearly and openly siding with one Lebanese side after the other.”

The United States – and anti-Syrian politicians in Lebanon – accuse Damascus of fueling Lebanon’s instability with its backing of Hizbullah, and say Syria is trying to restore the political domination it held over Lebanon for nearly 30 years until 2005.

The opposition, in turn, accuses Saniora’s government – which came to power after the end of Syrian rule – of putting Lebanon in the US camp. The opposition has tried for months to remove his government and the two sides are in a dangerous deadlock over the choice of the country’s next president.

After last year’s war between Hizbullah and Israel, the United States sharply increased its military assistance to Lebanon to US$270 million in 2007 – more than five times the amount provided a year ago – in a show of support to Saniora.

The military in Lebanon has long been weak, numbering 56,000 personnel, with about 220 battle tanks, no effective air power and no air defense system. Hizbullah guerrillas are widely considered a stronger, more experienced force, and they were able to fight Lebanon’s military to a standstill last year.

Since the battle with Israel, Lebanese forces and UN peacekeepers have deployed in the south – Hizbullah’s stronghold – in part with a mandate to prevent new arms flows to the guerrillas. But they have not taken steps to disarm Hizbullah.

Asked whether helping the Lebanese army aimed at eventually taking on Hizbullah, Edelman said that as the army strengthens its capabilities “there will be less excuse for other armed groups to continue to bear arms.”

Begin Daily Star Article 2

Syria ‘open’ to diplomatic ties with Lebanon

Damascus ready to start relations with a ‘friendly’ new government

By Rym Ghazel

Daily Star Staff

Saturday, October 20, 2007

IRUT: Syria reiterated on Friday that it respects Lebanon’s independence and is ready to open diplomatic relations, but only if the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora is replaced by a more courteous government. In a letter sent to UN chief Ban Ki-moon and published by the state-run news agency Thursday night, Syria said it respected Lebanese sovereignty and independence and was not interfering in Lebanon’s presidential elections.

The Syrian letter to the UN is a response to an earlier letter sent by Siniora to Ban last week in which the Lebanese government accused Syria of interfering in Lebanon’s internal stability and funding the Al-Qaeda inspired Fatah al-Islam group that was crushed by the Lebanese military two months ago.

“Lebanon requests the help of the Arab League and the UN to preserve its independence and stability

and to protect it from domestic and foreign dangers,” Siniora said in his letter to the UN and the Arab League.

Syria, which dominated its smaller neighbor from 1976 until 2005, has never established diplomatic relations since colonial power France granted Lebanon independence in 1943.

In addition to calling for a different Lebanese government, Syria also accused the United States of interfering in Lebanese internal politics, saying its bias for one side against the other threatens Lebanon’s security and stability.

“The well-known blatant foreign interference by a superpower, which has so far deepened divisions between the Lebanese … poses a direct threat to Lebanon’s security and stability because it [the US] is clearly and openly siding with one Lebanese side over the other,” the letter said.

The US openly backs the government of Siniora and Washington has recently seen several high-profile visits by politicians from the parliamentary majority. After meeting with the head of parliamentary majority leader MP Saad Hariri, US President George W. Bush warned Syria last month against interfering in Lebanon’s presidential elections. http://www.dailystar.com.lb

In the letter, Syria also accused Siniora and his supporters of “harming Syria’s image” and provoking Western countries against it.

But how seriously the letter by Syria will be taken by the UN is a matter of speculation, with some experts viewing this as an attempt by Syria to show good “faith and face.”

“Syria will have to prove the credibility of its declaration,” political analyst Shafiq Masri told The Daily Star.

Masri noted that Syria currently is playing a “triple” track game, with its recent efforts with Turkey and Iran on the one hand, and the peace conference in the US and the Lebanese-Syrian relations.

“Syria is trying to regain its political power,” said Masri, “but before it can do that, it has to prove it means what it says.”

“The UN wants Syria to prove what it is saying as so far there is evidence that arms smuggling is ongoing along its borders,” said Masri.

Both the UN and US has called on Syria to implement resolutions 1559 and 1701, both demanding an end to arms smuggling to militant groups in Lebanon, particularly Hizbullah and the Palestinian militias.

At the same time, Syrian President Bashar Assad was quoted as telling the Al-Hayat newspaper on Friday that he supports “any consensus president that believes in having positive relations with Syria.”

Assad also warned that “any explosion” in Lebanon, or Iran or Palestine or Iraq, “will spread beyond the Middle East.”

“It could reach as far as Europe,” he said. – With agencies

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Welcome to the Land of Wonder Why!

Syria. Former Supporter of Kurdish Rebels, now Supports Turkey!

October 19, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Begin Article Published by Taipei Times

Syria backs Turkey on incursion

MILITARY ACTION: The Turkish parliament yesterday began debating a government motion on a possible operation in Iraq to pursue separatist Kurdish rebels

AFP, ANKARA

Thursday, Oct 18, 2007, Page 1

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said yesterday he would support a Turkish incursion into northern Iraq against Kurdish rebels, as the parliament in Ankara met to vote for military action.

“We support the decisions the Turkish government has put on its agenda against terrorism and terrorist activities,” Assad told reporters after talks with Turkish President Abdullah Gul. “We see this as Turkey’s legitimate right.”

He was speaking shortly before the Turkish parliament was expected to approve a government motion seeking authorization for cross-border operations into neighboring northern Iraq to pursue Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) rebels based there.

Turkey says around 3,500 PKK militants enjoy a safe haven in autonomous Kurdish-held northern Iraq, which they use to launch attacks on Turkish territory.

The PKK, listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and much of the international community, has been fighting for Kurdish self-rule in sou

theast Turkey since 1984.

The conflict has claimed more than 37,000 lives.

Ironically, Turkey threatened Syria with military action in 1998 over Damascus’ alleged support for PKK rebels and the safe haven PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan enjoyed in Syria. Tensions ended the same year when Damascus forced Ocalan out and signed a security cooperation agreement with Ankara, resulting in a significant improvement in bilateral ties.

Ocalan was captured in Kenya in 1999, tried and jailed for life.

Iraq and the US both strongly oppose any Turkish military action in northern Iraq, but Turkey says it is left with no other choice in the face of escalating PKK violence and what it sees as a lack of cooperation by Washington and Baghdad.

Assad said US-led forces in Iraq were to blame for the war-torn country becoming a haven for armed rebels.

“The forces occupying Iraq are responsible in the first degree for the terrorist activities there because they are in control of the country,” he said.

The Syrian leader also called for groups in Iraq that “support and protect terrorist activities” to be exposed.

Ankara says PKK rebels in northern Iraq are tolerated and even supported by local Kurdish leaders.

The Turkish government is expected to easily secure parliament’s approval for an incursion into northern Iraq, but Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said thay there would be no rush to military action.

Turkey has also stressed that any cross-border operation will target only the PKK and given assurances that Ankara

has no territorial ambitions in Iraq.

“We agreed that Iraq’s territorial integrity must be protected,” Assad said.

Syria and Turkey both oppose any Iraqi Kurdish attempt to break away from the central government in Baghdad, fearing that this could encourage the separatist aspirations of their own sizeable Kurdish communities.

Assad said he and Gul also discussed the Middle East peace process, Lebanon, the Palestinians and the roles their respective countries could play in the region.

Assad is also scheduled to travel to Istanbul before wrapping up his visit tomorrow

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