Free Republic

ROME (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said he hoped to meet U.S. President Barack Obama and expressed his willingness to help mediate between the West and Iran. Assad, in an interview with Italian newspaper La Repubblica published on Wednesday, also confirmed he was ready to resume peace negotiations with Israel but expressed concern about the political climate there. "With the pullout in Iraq, the will for peace, the closing of Guantanamo, (Obama) has shown himself to be a man of his word," he said, referring to the U.S. naval base in Cuba where hundreds of suspected Islamist militants have...

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad is being actively courted by the new US administration, the EU as well as fellow Arab leaders making ­Damascus the Middle Eastern ­city to visit. In a rare and ­exclusive ­interview he talks to the ­Guardian's Middle East editor, Ian Black, in the Syrian capital. Bashar al-Assad, the ­Syrian president, sits back on a smart leather sofa in his honey-coloured hilltop palace, and gestures expansively - his fists visibly unclenched - as he explains his country's indispensable role in the Middle East in the hopeful era of Barack Obama. Assad is a busy man. Hours before...

Despite the cease-fire between Israel and Hizbullah, the IDF is allowed to destroy Syrian weapons convoys that cross into Lebanon to reach Hizbullah guerrillas, a top IDF officer said Tuesday. At the same time, the officer said, the IDF will do its best to uphold the cease-fire until the newly upgraded UNIFIL deploys in southern Lebanon together with the Lebanese Army. "We see ourselves allowed to strike at convoys moving into Lebanon," the officer said. During the 34 days of fighting, the IAF attacked such convoys on an almost daily basis. On Tuesday, the cease-fire that went into effect a...

Just saw on Fox that the IDF is monitoring unusual activity on Syrian border in the Golan Heights...tanks there, they are removing land mines at the border...not up on their website yet