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Syria's Alawite community have been a key source of support for the regime. But even they could turn on him. BEIRUT—Since Syrian regime forces were accused of conducting a chemical-weapons attack on Saturday on Douma, the largest rebel town near Damascus to surrender, the world has waited anxiously for the U.S. response. In the aftermath of the suspected attack, President Donald Trump spoke of imminent retaliation and had tough words for Bashar al-Assad, the president of Syria, and his patron Russia; he has since hedged to say an attack could come “very soon or not so soon at all!” Still,...

Elham Ahmed confirmed that we are fully prepared for dialogue and starting direct negotiations with the Syrian regime if the latter is already ready to initiate such a step. Hawar news agency (ANHA) interviewed with the Co-chair of Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), Elham Ahmed about recent events that are taking place, said we are fully prepared to negotiate. Where Elham Ahmed said that the war and military option will not solve the Syrian crisis. "We from the beginning said and still say that we are ready for dialogue and start direct negotiations with the regime." Elham Ahmed said they were...

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said he needs the assistance of Iranian and Hizballah forces in Syria and they will stay for as long as they deem necessary. "Hizballah is a basic element in this war. The battle is long, and the need for these military forces will continue for a long time," Assad told Al-Alam. Assad stressed that he invited the allied fighters into his country and he would never ask them to leave, as the United States and Israel are demanding, even as part of any peace settlement. Israel sees Tehran as a mortal foe and has pressed...

Recent developments indicate a possible turnaround of events in the hotly contested Syrian war zones because of rethinking process of how best to achieve the aim of containing Iran. This seems to be imminent because of apparent cracks in the Russia-Iran alliance that has been shoring up Al Assad’s regime for the last three years at least. Two other players, namely Turkey and the US, have apparently reached what seems to be a workable level of understanding to coordinate their activities in the heavily Kurdish populated parts of Syria, particularly in Manbij area. Recent reports suggest that the US and...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday warned Syrian President Bashar Assad was “no longer immune” from retaliation, while declaring the Iran nuclear deal is over after Washington ditched the accord. “He is no longer immune, his regime is no longer immune. If he fires at us, as we’ve just demonstrated, we will destroy his forces." “Syria has to understand that Israel will not tolerate the Iranian military entrenchment in Syria against Israel,” Netanyahu added. “The consequences are not merely to the Iranian forces there but to the Assad regime as well,” he said, adding: “I think it’s something that he...

"Bashar al-Assad's father Hafez, met with the founder of the North Korean regime, Kim Il Sung, in the 1970s. As client states of the Soviet Union, both countries developed military-to-military ties. These diplomatic relations have endured to this day. And their governments have a history of sending each other messages of solidarity and support." - Ivan Watson Video at link.

Syria’s embattled government inaugurated a park in Damascus to honour North Korea’s founding father Kim Il-Sung. The 9,000-square-metre park (about 2.2 acres) lies in the southwestern Damascus district of Kafr Sousa, atop the ruins of recently bulldozed homes. The opening ceremony, which came as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria group militants battled rebels in a district in southern Damascus, was attended by deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Moqdad. He called Kim, described by rights organisations as a brutal dictator, “a historic ruler and leader, famous for his struggle to liberate and build his country” . “For this reason, he deserves...

Report: Assad to Meet With Kim Jong-un in North Korea By Benjamin Hart @realaxelfoley Syrian President Bashar al-Assad plans to visit Kim Jong-un in North Korea, according to a report on Sunday from the state-controlled Korean Central News Agency. Assad reportedly made the announcement of his visit on May 30, as he received the credentials of Mun Jong-nam, the new North Korean ambassador to Syria. The precise purpose of his trip is unclear, as is the timing. Syria is one of the few countries that has maintained cordial diplomatic relations with North Korea over the last few decades, with the...

Mr Assad's comment reportedly came as he met the North's new ambassador to Syria. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad plans to make a state visit to North Korea, the North's state news agency says. It would be the first time North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has hosted a head of state since assuming power in 2011. He has undertaken a flurry of diplomatic activity recently, meeting China's president in May, and is expected to attend a summit with Donald Trump this month. Syria, an ally of the North, has made no comment on the reported plan. The two countries have been...

<p>Remarks came after Assad told Russian broadcaster RT he would not hesitate to use force to retake the third of the country held by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).</p> <p>The SDF, dominated by the militia of a self-proclaimed Kurdish autonomous administration, has air support from the US-led coalition against Daesh and backing from US and French special forces on the ground.</p>

The Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad has been accused of using chemical weapons, barrel bombs and torture against its own people during a seven-year civil war. On Monday, it took up the rotating presidency of the United Nations-backed Conference on Disarmament. The move was met with outrage from Western governments, but there was little they could do to prevent Syria from taking over the world’s only permanent multilateral body for negotiating arms control agreements for four weeks.

Lebanon held on Sunday its first parliamentary elections in nine years, as citizens expressed cautious optimism that the country's rigid, oft-deadlocked sectarian political system could be swayed. Behind the scenes, however, one of the world's leading powers has quietly eyed the small state as a potential ground to project its power in the Middle East and into the Mediterranean. But it won't be easy. With Syrian rebels and jihadis at bay, and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government set to further extend its comeback, Russia has pursued a cautious overture across the border into Lebanon—a $1 billion dollar arms deal, including...

AMMAN (Reuters) - U.S-backed Syrian Democratic Forces said they expelled had Syrian troops that briefly took control of a string of villages in oil rich areas east of the Euphrates river near the Iraqi border on Sunday. SDF forces led by the Kurdish YPG militia said they had waged a counter-attack against Syrian troops it said were backed by Russian forces, adding they were driven “far away” from four villages they had seized earlier in the day. “Our forces regained the initiative,” they said in a statement.

Last week, the fact-finding mission of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) visited a site in the Damascus suburb of Douma to collect samples in connection with the alleged April 7 chemical attack. Chief of the Main Operational Directorate of the Russian General Staff Col. Gen. Sergey Rudskoy has announced that the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) had confirmed that there were no chemical weapons found at the Barzeh research center in Damascus despite the US officials' claims. The official further noted that thousands of people could have died if there was any chemical...

Dr. Assim Rahaibani, a Syrian doctor, has told journalist Robert Fisk, writing for the British publication, The Independent, that last week’s alleged chemical gas attack by the Assad government on civilians in Douma did not happen. The alleged chemical attack was the pretext for a combined bombing raid by the United States, France, and the United Kingdom. “I was with my family in the basement of my home three hundred meters from here on the night but all the doctors know what happened,” Rahaibani told Fisk. “There was a lot of shelling [by government forces] and aircraft were always over...

Dr. Assim Rahaibani, a Syrian doctor, has told journalist Robert Fisk, writing for the British publication, The Independent, that last week’s alleged chemical gas attack by the Assad government on civilians in Douma did not happen. The alleged chemical attack was the pretext for a combined bombing raid by the United States, France, and the United Kingdom. “I was with my family in the basement of my home three hundred meters from here on the night but all the doctors know what happened,” Rahaibani told Fisk. “There was a lot of shelling [by government forces] and aircraft were always over...

“The Turkish state is playing on a few tables at the same time. There is no politics that is so solid and primal. Turkey tries to protect its interests by building relationships with one of the other depending on the day.” After the accusation made by the US, England and France against the Syrian regime which, they said, had used chemical weapons in Duma, there was a new turn in the Syrian crisis, which saw new attacks carried out by US-UK and France while the Turkish state has been siding with Russia and Iran for the last two years. Aldar...

At least three civilians were killed and several others wounded on Monday night when two cars expoloded in the Syrian town of Douma, Eastern Ghouta, the site of a suspected chemical attack last Saturday. "Two cars exploded in Douma, which have killed three civilians and injured a number of others," local sources told al-Araby al-Jadeed The sources accused Syrian regime forces, who have now taken full control of the town, of carrying out the attack in order to delay the international investigation into the suspected use of chemical weapons by the Russian-backed Syrian regime which killed at least 49 civilians...

Revenues from oil and gas sold to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad are now the largest source of funds for the Islamic State (ISIS), as the militant group faces mounting military pressure in both Iraq and Syria. The Wall Street Journal reports that officials from the U.S. and Europe said the Assad regime, despite pronouncements that it is fighting the extremist group, is directly supporting ISIS through the purchase of energy, needed to power the Syrian capital Damascus and other parts of the country. Amos Hochstein of the U.S. State Department told the Journal that the group’s “revenue...

Pink Floyd founder, Roger Waters, a vocal advocate for boycotts of Israel, came under heavy criticism for promoting “Russian propaganda” after asserting that the rescue organization, White Helmets, that operates in Syria, were “fake” and encouraged terrorists, The Jerusalem Post reported Sunday. In a video posted by a group called Hands Off Syria, Waters spoke of an audience member who wanted to come up on stage and speak about the chemical weapons that had been used by the regime of Bashar al-Assad against civilians earlier this month in the Damascus suburb of Douma. “He is one voice, I personally think...