Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Martin Dempsey met yesterday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on a range of issues The Israeli leader afterward declared in a press conference that Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons “dwarfs” other regional threats. Yaakov Lappin, the Jerusalem Post’s defense correspondent, had contextualized Dempsey’s trip...

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A series of setbacks are complicating attempts by rebels, who have seen their positions steadily erode in recent months, to regain momentum in the Syria’s protracted conflict. Over the weekend rebels launched an offensive against the eastern city of Deir el-Zour, part of a series of moves by opposition groups...

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Foreign Sunni fighters continue to pour into Syria, and are carving out areas that are being used as havens by jihadists: As foreign fighters pour into Syria at an increasing clip, extremist groups are carving out pockets of territory that are becoming havens for Islamist militants, posing what United States and...

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Syrian Christians are experiencing their own version of what the Associated Press describes – in the context of Egypt – as a “stepped-up hate campaign” by Islamists. In Egypt the pretexts used by Islamists are political. Supporters of former Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi have leveled conspiracy theories linking the country’s...

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Samir Geagea, the leader of the Lebanese Forces party, last week became the latest in an increasingly diverse group of Lebanese political leaders to blast Hezbollah for undermining the country’s stability. Domestic critics of the Iran-backed terror group have become open in demanding that it untangle itself from the Syrian...

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Hezbollah has taken more than one diplomatic hit for the critical support that it has provided to the Bashar al-Assad regime, which has allowed Syrian forces to erode two years of rebel gains. Militarily, however, the Syrian war has disciplined the group and hardened its fighters. The result – for...

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Open and even virulent criticism of Hezbollah for providing critical assistance to Syria’s Bashar al-Assad regime has become a mainstay of Arab discourse. Now that sentiment is taking hold in the group’s home country of Lebanon. Former Lebanese president and current Phalangist leader Amin Gemayal called this week for Hezbollah...

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Hezbollah’s intervention into Syria on behalf of the Bashar al-Assad regime has triggered a severe deterioration in the group’s stature in the Middle East, to the point where the anti-Israel rhetoric that has traditionally rallied support to the group is falling flat in the Arab world. Shiite Hezbollah has proven...

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Recently inaugurated Iranian President Hassan Rouhani pledged this week to “stand by [the Bashar al-Assad regime] in facing all challenges,” adding fuel to a fiery debate raging in the foreign policy community over the degree to which the revolutionary cleric is willing or able to alter Iran’s confrontational posture toward the West....

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President Barack Obama on Monday extended a freeze on the assets of individuals who are linked to activities that undermine Lebanese stability. The extension lasts for one more year. The president’s reasoning was candid: In a letter addressed to the speaker of the House of Representatives and the president of the...

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