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Palestinian leader insists Palestinian refugees have right to return after talks with Lebanese counterpart.

BEIRUT - Palestinian refugees in Lebanon should not be permanently resettled in the country, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas said on Thursday after talks in Beirut with Lebanese President Michel Sleiman.

“The Palestinians have the right of return and this is an issue we are discussing with the Israelis,” Abbas told a media conference after the meeting.

“We are against the resettlement of Palestinians in Lebanon,” he added.

An estimated 400,000 Palestinian refugees live in 12 camps in Lebanon. According to the United Nations agency responsible for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), there are around 4.6 million Palestinian Read more »

DAMASCUS - When the armies of Israel, France and Great Britain began a massive operation on Egypt in October 1956, to punish Gamal Abdul-Nasser for nationalization of the Suez Canal, the first world leader to visit the Kremlin was Syrian president Shukri al-Quwatli. He pleaded with Nikita Khrushchev to send in “the great red army that defeated [Adolf] Hitler”.

Fifty-two years later, the Georgian army rumbled into the breakaway Georgian area of South Ossetia on August 7, with the blessing of the United States, making the Russians very angry. The “great red army that defeated Hitler” responded by large-scale bombardment, then invaded South Ossetia, Read more »

Syria was a close ally of the Soviet Union during the Cold War Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is holding talks with his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev, in the Black Sea resort of Sochi in Russia. Before starting his visit, Mr Assad said the speeding up of military and technical co-operation would top the agenda of the talks. The two countries are preparing deals on anti-aircraft and anti-tank missile systems, reports say. Israel and the US have been critical of Russian arms sales to Syria. Syria was a close ally of the Soviet Union during the Cold War. Support over Georgia Relations between Moscow and Damascus have been getting closer recently - this visit is Mr Assad’s third to Russia in three years. Mr Assad said on Thursday Russia’s military campaign in Georgia

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DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — Syria agreed Thursday to a longtime Lebanese demand to negotiate the demarcation of their border a day after the countries said they would establish full diplomatic relations for the first time.

The agreements are a victory for Lebanese President Michel Suleiman, who traveled to Syria Wednesday in a landmark visit — the first by a Lebanese head of state to Syria in more than three years.

”This announcement is a historic step toward rectifying relations,” said Saad Hariri, who heads the Western-backed, anti-Syrian majority in parliament. ”It is time … for (Syrian) tutelage to end once and for all,” said Hariri, son of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, who was killed in a 2005 bomb attack that many in Lebanon blamed on Syria.

The border has been poorly defined since the two countries became independent from French rule in the 1940s. Lebanon’s anti-Syrian factions have long demanded demarcation along with diplomatic ties as recognition by Syria of Lebanon’s sovereignty and independence.

Syria controlled Lebanon for nearly 30 years, after sending its army in as peacekeepers Read more »

TEHRAN — Iran warned Monday that it could easily close a critical Persian Gulf waterway for oil shipments and claimed possession of a new long-range naval weapon that could sink enemy ships nearly 200 miles away.

It was unclear what provoked the warning, made by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, but it followed the weekend expiration of an informal deadline for Iran to respond to incentives from world powers to curb its uranium enrichment activities. The United States, which has warships deployed in the Persian Gulf, has said new sanctions should be imposed on Iran for failing to respond to the deadline.

The Iranian warning coincided with word that Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, spoke by phone on Monday with the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana. Mr. Solana was expected to report back on the conversation to the representatives of the six countries — the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany — that are leading the demands that Iran stop enriching uranium, Agence France-Presse reported.

In comments carried by the semiofficial Iranian news agency Fars, Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, the head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, said that Iran was capable of imposing “unlimited controls” at the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf, an important international oil route.

“Closing the Strait of Hormuz for an unlimited period of time would be very easy,” he was quoted as saying.

General Jafari gave no details about the type of naval weapon involved in the recent test, but he said it was Iranian-built and “unique in the world.”

He said it would have the range to reach enemy warships in the Persian Gulf, an apparent reference to United States warships which have been conducting naval maneuvers in the Gulf.

“The Guards have recently tested a naval weapon which I can say with certainty that the enemy’s ships would not be safe within the range of 300 kilometers,” Read more »

Mohammed Suleiman was said to be close to President Bashar al-Assad A senior military official close to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been assassinated, according to Arab media reports. The official, identified as Brig Gen Mohammed Suleiman, was shot dead on Friday night at a beach resort near the port city of Tartus, the reports say. Damascus has so far refused to comment on the alleged shooting. The Free Syria website, which opposes the Syrian government, described him as President Assad’s top security adviser. Pan-Arab newspapers al-Hayat and Asharq al-Awsat say Mr Suleiman had responsibility for sensitive security issues. Mr Suleiman was also reported to serve as Syria’s liaison officer to Hezbollah - a powerful political and military organisation of Shia Muslims in Lebanon. Report details The circumstances of the alleged shooting remain unclear. The first report of Mr Suleiman’s death appeared on Saturday

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Informed sources say Israeli agents are behind the assassination of Syrian president’s security advisor and liaison officer to Hezbollah. Mohammad Suleiman, who was a Syrian top security official and the officer in charge of liaison with Lebanon’s Hezbollah movement, was shot by a sniper on the coast of Syria’s Tartous port on Friday. According to independent sources in Syria, the sniper was an Israeli agent. Suleiman’s body was buried overnight. In February, Imad Mughnyiah, a prominent Hezbollah figure, was murdered in a car bomb explosion in the Syrian capital. The Israeli regime extended the tenure of Mossad chief Meir Dagan for a second term following the successful assassination of Mughniyah.

Source: PressTV

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