Free Republic

If there’s one thing you can say about Bashar al-Assad, it’s that he has staying power. For more than two years, the Syrian president has defied predictions that his downfall is imminent. His regime has certainly suffered many setbacks during the brutal civil war that shows no signs of ending, but it's clear right now that Assad and his followers have been gaining momentum. The most recent example came just a few days ago, when Syrian forces took control of a town near the highway that links Damascus to neighboring Jordan. After battles with the opposition, government troops reopened the...

ordan's tourism minister said Thursday that her country was seeking the help of Western nations to regain possession of the Dead Sea Scrolls Israel seized from a Jerusalem museum during the 1967 Mideast war. Maha Khatib said Jordan has given up hope that Israel would directly give back the more than 2,000-year-old scrolls and now hoped Western nations would return them to the Arab kingdom when they host them in exhibitions. Israel rejected the Jordanian claim to the scrolls, which include the earliest known version of portions of the Hebrew Bible and have shed important light on Judaism and the...

An international poll has revealed the world’s least tolerant countries—with Hong Kong at the top of the list and Britain near the bottom. The global social attitudes study claims that the most racially intolerant populations are all in the developing world, with Bangladesh, Jordan and India in the top five. By contrast, the study of 80 countries over three decades found Western countries were most accepting of other cultures with Britain, the U.S., Canada and Australia more tolerant than anywhere else. …

Fig. 1. Map of the Harrat in Syria, Jordan and northern Saudi Arabia. Stephan F.J. Kempe1, Ahmad Al-Malbeh21: Technische Universität Darmstadt, Germany; 2: Hashemite University Zarka, Jordan The eastern “panhandle” of the kingdom of Jordan is partly covered by a vast and rugged lava desert, the Harrat, covering about ca. 11.400 km2 (Fig. 1). Scoured by wind in winter and scorched dry by the sun in summer, the surface is covered by black basalt stones, making this area seem as uninviting, hostile and inaccessible as is imaginable.Nevertheless this modern day desolate desert proves to be as rich in archaeological heritage...

WASHINGTON: The problems that plague the Middle East, including Iran's nuclear ambitions and Syria's civil war, require "political, not military" solutions, US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday. Saying the "old order" was vanishing in the region, Hagel stressed in a speech that the United States would work to promote democratic reform while bearing in mind the "limitations" of American power. Although the Pentagon chief made clear that Washington had not ruled out potential military action against Iran or Syria, his remarks highlighted President Barack Obama's cautious stance on resorting to armed force in the volatile region. He said that...

ROME — The Obama administration is providing $100 million in new Syria aid, U.S. officials said Wednesday, but the money is for humanitarian purposes only and not linked to any decision on arming Syrian rebels. The announcement will be made by Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday in Rome, where his diplomacy includes a meeting with Jordan’s foreign minister, the officials said. The new funds will help support 1.4 million Syrian refugees, including many in U.S. ally Jordan, and hundreds of thousands of other civilians still trapped by the violence inside Syria’s border. Total U.S. humanitarian assistance in the...

More than 1,000 Jordanians have signed a petition opposing the idea of a confederation between the kingdom and a future Palestinian state. The petition also opposes using Jordan as a launching pad for Western military intervention in Syria. … Some Palestinians have also voiced opposition to the confederation idea, saying it should be discussed only after the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital. …

May 5, 2013 Rival Clans Vying for Power in Jordan By JanSuzanne Kranser The recent violence at two universities in Southern Jordan, Mu’tah University and Al Hussein bin Talal, along with clashes taking place off campus, may in fact be a sign that much worse is about to happen in Jordan. But the American news media are not doing much reporting on the story as they focus on the “Arab Spring” and relentlessly cover the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. On March 28, riots broke out at Mu’tah University after the student union elections. A few days later, more violence broke out wherein...

Syria accused Israel of supporting "terrorists" including al-Qaeda, threatening retaliation for Israeli air strikes on military bases that have drawn the Jewish state deep into the civil war raging across the border. The strikes north of Damascus, in the early hours of Sunday morning, lit up the night sky and felt "like an earthquake", according to residents. Continuing explosions suggested weapons and ammunition facilities were hit, in line with Israel's policy of preventing heavy arms transfers to Hizbollah, Syria's ally in neighbouring Lebanon. Israeli officials refused to comment, but the strikes went beyond the claims made for a previous major...

Egypt condemned an Israeli attack on Syria on Sunday, saying it complicated a crisis that Cairo was trying to help resolve. Israel carried out its second air strike in days on Syria, targeting Iranian-supplied missiles headed for Lebanon's Hezbollah, a Western intelligence source said. In a statement, Egypt's presidency said the attack was a violation of international law and a threat to regional security and stability that "made the situation more complicated". Egypt's Islamist leaders came to power last year after a popular uprising in 2011 and have been critical of the Syrian government's efforts to put down an insurgency...

British newspaper reports Israel will agree to joint effort with regional powers to counter Iran, "fundamentalist crescent". Israel has been working toward a cooperative agreement in compliance with Turkey and three Arab states to implement an allied system of detection technologies to defend against Iranian ballistic projectiles, British newspaper The Sunday Times reported. The initiative, termed "4+1", reportedly proposes joint efforts to be taken by Israel along with Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Jordan to share access to radar and anti-missile technologies, according to the Times. Under the initiative, Israeli technicians would gain access to data from...

(Reuters) - Israeli jets devastated Syrian targets near Damascus on Sunday in a heavy overnight air raid that Western and Israeli officials called a new strike on Iranian missiles bound for Lebanon's Hezbollah. As Syria's two-year-old civil war veered into the potentially atomic arena of Iran's confrontation with Israel and the West over its nuclear program, people were woken in the Syrian capital by explosions that shook the ground like an earthquake and sent pillars of flame high into the night sky.   "Night turned into day," one man told Reuters from his home at Hameh, near one of the...

"...I say that America is an enemy to appease you, and I say it is a friend in order to get you food. Which do you prefer?"

Israel bombed a warehouse in Syria overnight believed to contain chemical weapons.

My love is enduring and so it must be with you "My children" for I AM a just and loving God visiting these Virtues upon those that choose love in an enduring manner, for to see My River of Life "TRULY" flow through you there can be NO Guile or sorrow, no hopeless desires for My hope in you "IS" Christ Jesus and his desire is My will and My will alone and so as you enter into my will all guile and tribulation begins to subside and a new and fresh awakening begins. So take on my will for...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State John Kerry met a group of senior Arab officials on Monday as he sought to build regional support for any fresh push for Israeli-Palestinian peace. Kerry has made no secret of his hope to revive peace talks, which broke down in 2010, but it remains unclear whether U.S. President Barack Obama will decide to back a major U.S. effort. In convening the group, Kerry is trying to ensure that a new peace process would have the backing of the Arab states, who, if they were to offer Israel a comprehensive peace, hold a powerful...

Obama Orders 20,000 “Surge” Troops to Jordan They will be lodged at Mafraq Air Base facing the Syrian border.

BEIRUT, Lebanon, April 24 (UPI) -- Syria's top rebel commander is reportedly seeking Western support for taking over oil fields held by Islamist factions but the real conflict over Syria's energy resources is likely to be vast natural gas fields under the eastern Mediterranean. Whatever is under the seabed in Syrian waters remains undiscovered but in the wake of major strikes by Israel and Cyprus, and Lebanon supposedly sitting on similar prizes, it's a pretty good bet Syria has significant gas holdings. There seems little doubt that Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime will eventually be displaced as rebel forces, disunited...

Jordanian Journalist: The Jews And The American Right Are Behind Boston Bombing, Just As They Were Behind 9/11 In an article titled "The Boston Explosions – Look For Jews" on the Jordanian website Ammon News, Palestinian-born Jordanian journalist As'ad Al-'Azouni, known for his antisemitic articles, wrote that the Jews and the "American right" were behind the recent Boston bombing, just as they had been behind the attacks of 9/11. He claimed that the bombing was meant to prevent U.S. President Barack Obama from discharging his second term in office in peace. Al-'Azouni, several of whose articles have been translated and...

President Barack Obama delivered an impassioned speech Thursday at the memorial service for victims of the Boston Marathon bombing. But that was to be expected. We all know Obama can give a stem-winder. What wasn’t expected was that this would be by far the toughest week of the Obama presidency—the first time I can remember the president being dealt an unequivocal policy defeat. Only the “shellacking” of the 2010 midterm comes close, and even there a case can be made that achieving the decades-old progressive dream of universal health care was worth losing the House of Representatives and a filibuster-proof...

Jordanian Journalist: The Jews And The American Right Are Behind Boston Bombing, Just As They Were Behind 9/11 In an article titled "The Boston Explosions – Look For Jews" on the Jordanian website Ammon News, Palestinian-born Jordanian journalist As'ad Al-'Azouni, known for his antisemitic articles, wrote that the Jews and the "American right" were behind the recent Boston bombing, just as they had been behind the attacks of 9/11. He claimed that the bombing was meant to prevent U.S. President Barack Obama from discharging his second term in office in peace. Al-'Azouni, several of whose articles have been translated and...

Iran has reportedly been training pro-government Syrian militia groups at a secret base inside Iranian borders. It is allegedly an “open secret” within the Syrian government that the Iranians are helping train at least 50,000 militiamen, although both governments have denied the allegations. A member of one of the pro-Assad militias said of the training that “it’s the same course Hezbollah operatives normally do…the course teaches you the important elements of guerrilla warfare, like several different ways to carry a rifle and shoot, and the best methods to prepare against surprise attacks.” Irregular militia groups have recently played a prominent...

Washington (CNN) -- In a critical indication of growing U.S. military involvement in the civil war in Syria, CNN has learned Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is ordering the deployment of up to 200 troops to Jordan, according to two Defense Department officials. The troops, which will come from the headquarters of the 1st Armored Division at Fort Bliss, Texas, "creates an additional capability" beyond what has been there, one official said. The group will give the United States the ability to "potentially form a joint task force for military operations, if ordered," he said. The new deployment will include communications...

Mohammad al-Chalabi, the head of the extremist Jordanian Muslim Salafi group, said ‘Let the Americans feel the pain we endured by their armies occupying Iraq and Afghanistan and killing our people there.’ The group has not been linked to the attack. --snip-- “American blood isn’t more precious than Muslim blood,” said Mohammad al-Chalabi, who was convicted in an al-Qaida-linked plot to attack U.S. and other Western diplomatic missions in Jordan in 2003.....

The head of an extremist Jordanian Muslim Salafi group said early Tuesday that he was "happy to see the horror in America" after the explosions in Boston. ... A Mideast counterterrorism official based in Jordan said the blasts "carry the hallmark of an organized terrorist group, like al-Qaida." ... one can say it was a well-coordinated, well-targeted and near-simultaneous attack

JORDANIAN police said on Sunday they found the burned body of a pregnant woman whose throat had been slit and belly cut open showing her four-month-old foetus, in an apparent "honour killing". "We found the body of the woman at dawn in Ruseifeh (east of Amman). Her throat was slit in a hideous way. The body was burned after the murder," a police spokesman said. "We believe it was an honour crime. The belly of the woman, who was in her twenties, was cut open and we could see her four-month-old unborn child, who was dead too. Investigations are still...

Occupy Wall Street activist Carne Ross and his consulting firm, Independent Diplomat, have a new job. Rather than champion for members of the world’s 99 percent, Ross and co. will now be lobbying for the National Coalition of Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces, which TheBlaze revealed this week may have ties to al-Qaeda. Russia Today reports that legal registration papers provided by the U.S. Department of Justice this week confirm Independent Diplomat’s role advising the Syrian rebel forces opposing the Bashar al Assad regime. According to lobbying papers filed on April 8, 2013, Independent Diplomat “will provide information on and...

More than two years after the start of the Syrian uprising, the BBC has spoken exclusively to some of the boys whose actions helped spark the country's revolution. Inspired by some graffiti in Deraa, celebrating the Arab Spring, the boys added their names and messages calling for the fall of Bashar al-Assad's regime. Fifteen other boys from their school were arrested and tortured as a result, leading to some of the biggest demonstration the regime had faced. Some local boys were killed, others were forced into exile. As Fergal Keane reports, children on both sides of the regime have been...

An internet petition is calling upon Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to take action to prevent the release of the Jordanian who cold-bloodedly gunned down seven Jewish schoolgirls at Naharayim in 1997. A total of 110 out of 150 members of the lower house of Jordan's parliament signed a petition to free Ahmed Musa Dakamsa, who is serving a life sentence for the multiple murders. The Jordanian justice minister, too, has voiced support for releasing Dakamsa, calling him "a hero." The families of the murdered girls have asked the public to assist them in preventing the release of Dakamsa. On March...

A historic agreement signed in Amman Sunday, March 31, between Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan’s King Abdullah II takes a new stand on Jerusalem - one of the core issues subject to negotiation with Israel - by accepting the king as Custodian of the city’s Holy Sites. The Palestinians agreed that Abdullah “will oversee and manage the Waqf (Muslim religious authority) in Jerusalem” and represent the interests of the Holy Sites “in relevant international forums… through feasible legal means.” Where the Palestinian (Wafa) and Jordanian (Petra) versions of the same agreement differ is over the definition of “Palestinian sovereignty.”...

United States Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel will visit Israel April 21, according to IDF Radio. … According to IDF Radio, the subject of Iran will likely top the agenda of the visit, as will the deterioration in Syria. Hagel will likely use the visit to try and shake free of his anti-Israel image, the radio station added. …

An Iraqi official said yesterday Amman and Baghdad have signed a deal to extend an $18bn pipeline to the Red Sea city of Aqaba to export crude and supply Jordan with oil and gas. “The two countries have signed an agreement to build a 1,700km pipeline from Basra to Aqaba,” Nihad Musa, director of State Company for Oil Projects, told Jordan’s official news agency Petra in Amman. “The designs and technical studies, which are currently being conducted by a Canadian company, are scheduled to be done by the end of this year.” Musa said Iraq “is serious about implementing the...

TEL AVIV – The U.S. in recent weeks aided in the transfer of shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles, or man-portable air-defense systems, to the Syrian rebels, according to informed Middle Eastern security officials. The arming of Syrian rebels is considered highly controversial. A major issue is the inclusion of jihadists, including al-Qaida, among the ranks of the Free Syrian Army and other Syrian opposition groups. The Middle Eastern security officials speaking to WND said the latest U.S.-facilitated weapons transfers signify the most advanced deliveries yet to the Syrian rebels. The officials said the deliveries included man-portable air-defense systems, or MANPADS, which are...

Secretary of State John Kerry in Turkey Sunday condemned the “cowardly terrorists” who killed a young foreign service officer in Afghanistan and referred to Kurdish terrorism against Turkey, but when asked minutes later about Hamas – the Palestinian terrorist group embraced by his Turkish hosts – he chose to comment only indirectly. The incident provided a fresh example of the Obama administration’s reluctance to tackle Turkey’s Islamist government in public over its support for Hamas, even as it partners with Ankara in its centerpiece counter-terror initiative (which excludes Israel). During a joint press appearance in Istanbul with his Turkish counterpart...

This has not been a very good cyber war for Anonymous hackers against the Jews of Israel. As we reported earlier, their own site was humiliatingly hacked just hours after declaring their cyber war, dubbed #OpIsrael. Now, the apparently not so Anonymous hacktivists have been arrested in Jordan. Weasel Zippers has the story. Jordanian security forces arrested several youths who are suspected of attacking Israeli internet sites as part of the large scale cyber attack on Israel declared by the group called Anonymous. This has really upset the hacker community, who is now threatening to attack Jordan. They’ve also declared...

Israel's apology to Turkey over the 2010 Mavi Marmara incident was a result of a pact made between Jerusalem and Ankara against Syria, Syrian President President Bashar Assad said in an interview with Turkish Ulusal Kanal television channel that was aired on Friday... "The question is why didn't [Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu] apologize in years passed. What has changed? It's the same Erdogan, it's the same Netanyahu. What has changed is the situation in Syria," Assad said... The United Nations says at least 70,000 people have been killed in Syria's conflict. Daily death tolls of around 200 are not uncommon......

Syrian President Bashar Assad warned in comments broadcast Friday that the fall of his regime or the breakup of his nation will cause a “domino effect” that will fuel Middle East instability for years, in his sharpest warning yet about the potential fallout of his country’s civil war on neighboring states.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmud Abbas signed an agreement on Sunday confirming their “common goal to defending” Jerusalem and their opposition to efforts to “Judaize” the eternal capital of Israel. Palestinian Authority Religious Affairs Minister Mahmoud al-Habash said the agreement confirmed Jordan’s role as protector of the city’s holy sites and “Palestinian sovereignty over all of Palestine, including its capital East Jerusalem,” the Ma’an news agency reported. …

Jerusalem, Israel --- March 24, 2013 … Russian media sources have confirmed that Syria President Bashar Assad was shot by an Iranian bodyguard Saturday night. "The lone assassination pumped several bullets at point blank range into Assad," said the source. "Assad was rushed to Al-Shami Hospital in Damascus in critical condition. He died on the operating table from heart failure resulting from massive blood loss." An Israeli security analyst believes the report to be accurate. "In the last 24 hours have we seen Assad? Any photographs or video? No. Nor will we see any as loyalists who are closest to...

WASHINGTON -- The United States is training secular Syrian fighters in Jordan in a bid to bolster forces battling President Bashar Assad's regime and stem the influence of Islamist radicals among the country's persistently splintered opposition, American and foreign officials said. The training has been conducted for several months now in an unspecified location, concentrating largely on Sunnis and tribal Bedouins who formerly served as members of the Syrian army, officials told The Associated Press. The forces aren't members of the leading rebel group, the Free Syrian Army, which Washington and others fear may be increasingly coming under the sway...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States is training secular Syrian fighters in Jordan in a bid to bolster forces battling President Bashar Assad's regime and stem the influence of Islamist radicals among the country's persistently splintered opposition, American and foreign officials said.The training has been conducted for several months now in an unspecified location, concentrating largely on Sunnis and tribal Bedouins who formerly served as members of the Syrian army, officials told The Associated Press. The forces aren't members of the leading rebel group, the Free Syrian Army, which Washington and others fear may be increasingly coming under the sway...

Al Qaeda brigade captures Syrian-Israeli-Jordanian border junction Al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra fighters on Golan March 25, 2013 - "The highly strategic intersection of the Syrian, Israeli and Jordan borders, just east of the Golan, was captured by the Al Musanna Brigade of al Qaeda’s Syrian arm, Jabhat al-Nusra on Passover Eve, Monday, March 25 ... This put the jihadists directly opposite 14 Israeli southern Golan villages and at a distance of 5-6 kilometers from one of Israel’s earliest kibbutzim, Ein Gev, on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. ... this sensitive area fell to al Qaeda in a fierce battle...

With help from the C.I.A., Arab governments and Turkey have sharply increased their military aid to Syria’s opposition fighters in recent months, expanding a secret airlift of arms and equipment for the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, according to air traffic data, interviews with officials in several countries and the accounts of rebel commanders. The airlift, which began on a small scale in early 2012 and continued intermittently through last fall, expanded into a steady and much heavier flow late last year, the data shows. It has grown to include more than 160 military cargo flights by Jordanian, Saudi and...

Syrian rebel forces have seized a 25-kilometer (15 mile) buffer zone stretching from the Jordanian border to the Golan Heights. According to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights watchdog agency, “Fighters loyal to Al Nusra Front, Al Yarmuk Brigade, Al Mutaz Billah Brigade and others took control of Al Rai military checkpoint” east of Sahem al-Golan, in the Dara'a province. snip The rebel forces referred to in the statement are part of the radical jihadist group known as the Islamic Front for the Liberation of Syria, which despises what it considers the rival Western-backed Syrian National Council, the larger...

In the first meeting of its kind by Alawites who support the revolt, delegates distanced themselves from Assad's crackdown against an uprising in which 70,000 people have been killed. "We call on our brothers in the Syrian army, specifically members of our sect, not to take up arms against their people and to refuse to join the army," the delegates said in a statement after two days of meeting in the Egyptian capital. Alawite domination of the officer army corp is one of the pillars of Assad's control."The Syrian regime is not an Alawite sectarian regime ... the Alawite sect...

A day after Israel apologized to Turkey over the Mavi Marmara incident, its Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Saturday that he will visit Gaza. “I may eventually visit Gaza and the West Bank in April. This visit would take place in the context of a general effort to contribute to the resolution process,” Erdogan told reporters, according to a report in the Turkish daily Hurriyet. Hamas’s Prime Minister in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, had already announced on Friday that Erdogan would visit Gaza in the near future, the report said. Hamas spokesman Taher al-Nunu had confirmed that "Recep Tayyip...

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu expressed satisfaction on Friday with Israel’s apology for the 2010 Mavi Marmara incident. Davutoglu, who just recently hinted there was a “secret deal” between Israel and Syria, said that all of Turkey's fundamental demands had been met with the apology. Earlier, Netanyahu spoke on the phone with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and apologized for the deaths of nine Turks during Israel’s 2010 raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla. Channel 10 News reported on Friday the details of the agreement between Israel and Turkey. Netanyahu, in addition to the apology, has agreed to compensate the...

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry held talks with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Saturday evening, after earlier discussing ways to push a new peace plan with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, U.S. and Israeli sources said. A radio report said Netanyahu and Kerry had a first round of private talks and were then joined by Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, Netanyahu's personal envoy Yitzhak Molcho and his national security adviser Yaakov Amidror. Channel 10 News reported that Kerry is planning on offering Israel and the PA an outline which would see Israel releasing terrorists from its prisons and transferring areas...

President Barack Obama repeated his call for regime change in Syria, but stressed he does not want to see Syrian President Bashar Assad replaced by another despot. “What I am confident about is ultimately what the people of Syria are looking for is not replacing oppression with a new form of oppression,” Obama said Friday during a joint press conference with Jordan King Abdullah II in Amman, Jordan. …

US President Barack Obama has pledged to Jordan an additional $200m (£131m) to help deal with the growing number of Syrian refugees in the country. After talks in Amman, Mr Obama said the funds - if backed by Congress - would help provide more humanitarian aid. Some 450,000 Syrians have fled to neighbouring Jordan since the unrest began in 2011, putting huge pressure on the Jordanian authorities. Meanwhile, Jordan's King Abdullah ruled out closing Jordan's border with Syria. President Obama said he would ask Congress to provide additional funds as "budget support" to help the Syrian refugees. He said this...