Iran yesterday threatened that Western action against Syria would escalate into a regional war, pointedly warning of “perilous consequences” in the aftermath of harsh statements from the State Department and White House accusing the Bashar al-Assad regime of crossing Washington’s long-standing “red line” against the use of chemical weapons. Iranian foreign ministry...

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The West appears prepared to strike Syrian military infrastructure perhaps as soon as this week, amid threats by both Damascus and its Iranian patrons to respond to Western action by attacking Israel and with “surprises.”  Syria vowed defiantly to defend itself against any attack with “surprise” measures, while its close ally Russia...

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Sectarian violence inside Syrian is cascading across the Middle East. In Lebanon, Shiite Hezbollah and Sunni jihadists are locked in a spiral of violence. In Jordan, King Abdullah II is warning of sectarian “destruction.” Arabic media sources are openly worrying that Turkey will be pulled into a “sectarian swamp.” And...

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Syrian state television reported this weekend that the governor of the Hama region was killed in a car bomb, likely by rebels battling to overthrow the Bashar al-Assad regime. Though a Sunni, Anas Abdel Razzaq al-Naem was an Assad loyalist and Baath party member. The car bomb was one of...

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Secretary of State John Kerry this afternoon labeled Syria’s use of chemical weapons “undeniable,” declaring that U.S. officials will soon release “additional information” about what is widely believed to be a nerve gas attack conducted by the Bashar al-Assad regime against rebel-held suburbs of Damascus last week. “What we saw in...

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Iranian media outlets are bragging that the Iran-backed Syrian army has pacified portions of Homs and the adjacent countryside. The claims come weeks after fierce fighting triggered the detonation of an ammunitions depot in the strategic Syrian city, killing at least 40 people. Rebels were at the time firing rockets...

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Twin car bombings targeted Sunni mosques in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli on Friday, killing at least 42 people. A video showing the explosions is embedded below (age-restricted; please observe a strong content warning). The attacks came eight days after a car bomb detonated in Hezbollah’s southern Beirut stronghold...

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The United Nations Security Council convened yesterday and called for “clarity” regarding the latest alleged chemical attack by the Bashar al-Assad regime. While some details of yesterday’s chemical attack near Damascus remain murky – different groups have so far have offered different estimates of the casualties – the evidence was...

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The White House is blasting comments made by Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan blaming Israel for the Egyptian military’s actions against former president Mohammed Morsi. Erdogan had discovered a 2011 video of French-Jewish intellectual Bernard Henri-Levy calling on the military to block the Brotherhood from taking power, and based on that...

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Two car bombings have recently ripped through the Hezbollah-dominated Dahiyeh district of southern Beirut, months after Sunni rebels in Syria began threatening to retaliate against the Iran-backed terror group for providing troops to the Bashar al-Assad regime. Lebanese officials had become increasingly vocal in demanding that Hezbollah untangle itself and Lebanon from the...

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