Iran receives verbal proposal to take part in int’l conference on Syria.

Iran receives verbal proposal to take part in int’l conference on Syria.(TI).

Iran received a verbal proposal to take part in the international conference on Syria just over a week ago, Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said at a press conference in RIA Novosti today. "We received a verbal proposal to participate in this conference 10 days ago," he said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry voiced the idea of holding "Geneva-2" international conference on Syria during a meeting in Moscow on May 7.Read the full story here.

Video - Syrian rebels open fire on convoy carrying Russian journalists.

Video - Syrian rebels open fire on convoy carrying Russian journalists.HT: RussiaToday.

The convoy shelled on Saturday was led by a Syrian army military vehicle, and consisted of several cars occupied by civilians, including one with Russian TV journalists. 

The shelling started when the cars were about 5 kilometers away from their destination – ‘Checkpoint Charlie’ – the only crossing between Syria and the Golan Heights, disputed territory claimed by both Syria and Israel.  

“The Syrian troops started to fight the rebels back, but the insurgents targeted the civilian cars,” said Evgeny Poddubny, the head of the Russian TV crew and special correspondent for Rossiya TV channel.

Throughout the fighting, a Russian cameraman kept filming; gunshots can be heard on the video for 15 minutes. The footage also features a Syrian army officer reporting to command that armed militants attacked first, that shelling was coming from both sides of the road.

“The convoy could not make it to the checkpoint, the rebels set an ambush on the road, fighting broke out, the military responded with heavy fire to cover the retreat of our TV crew, and then they retreated themselves. The militants were further confronted by the field artillery, which is deployed in the area,” Poddubny said.

No one was injured in the attack. A similar incident occurred recently in the Golan Heights buffer zone when Checkpoint Charlie was attacked and seized by rebels on Thursday, and quickly recaptured by government troops.

"The militants use the status of the territory; they hide in the buffer zone and are carrying out attacks like the one you’ve just witnessed. Then they retreat. And we cannot carry out special operations here – as that would be a breach of international agreements. Besides, the rebels are getting help from Israel – it supplies them with ammunition and even provides medical aid to terrorists in mobile hospitals,” Syrian army General Nasr Haidar, whose regiment is deployed in the area, told Rossiya.

Provocations by the insurgents are seen as major reason why international peacekeepers have been withdrawing from the area. Austrian troops, which accounted for 40 percent of the UN peacekeepers in the Golan Heights, have announced their withdrawal. Read the full story here.

Video - Combat Footage Shot From Syrian Government Tank Shows utter Devastation.

The footage below, uploaded to YouTube by the U.K.’s Channel 4, gives a startling glimpse into the Syrian war from an unusual perspective — the turret of a Syrian government tank.
The video shows Darya, a suburb of Damascus, nearly devastated with the Syrian regime patrolling and shooting at rebel positions.
The shocking footage first appeared on YouTube a few days ago and has a somewhat mysterious origin.HT: BusinessInsider.

Blood-soaked and cloaked? Angry Reactions to Jordan delegation honoring Assad.(Video)

Blood-soaked and cloaked? Angry Reactions to Jordan delegation honoring Assad.(AA).A Jordanian delegation, which visited Syrian President Bashar al Assad on Monday, came under sharp criticism after it handed the president an abaya (a traditional piece of clothing) that it described as the “Pan-Arabism abaya.”
According to the Syrian Arab News Agency, the delegation consisted of activists, politicians and lawyers.
Secretary General of the Jordanian Bar Association, Samih Khurais, requested Assad wear the abaya saying: “this abaya is worn by the tribe’s leader…the nation’s leader…It is worn by the pathfinder who is sincere towards his people.”
“Bashar al Assad is the pathfinder of the Sham countries…This is why the people in Jordan gave me this abaya (as a gift for you) to tell (you) that we are with you (all the way).”
A video showing Assad smiling while wearing the abaya went viral via social networking websites, sparking criticism of the delegation’s visit to the president who has been confronting a popular uprising since March 2011.
Thousands of people commented on the video condemning the delegation’s visit to Assad and voicing surprise that the president is smiling at a time when his country is witnessing armed clashes that killed and displaced thousands.
On the social networking website Twitter, one user tweeted: “we will not forget the Jordanians who (gave) Assad this Arabism abaya (to wear). We will record their names as inciters…to kill Syrians.”
Another wrote: “according to the fools of Jordan’s nationalists, Arabism is a piece of cloth called “abaya” used to cover the defectiveness of a criminal.”
A Jordanian man also condemned the delegation’s act tweeting: “I did not entrust anyone (to hand Assad an abaya!)”
Meanwhile, on The Syrian Revolution 2011 Facebook page, hundreds of users commented. One said: “these dogs do not represent the Jordanian people. They (only) represent themselves,” while another wrote: “so if he wears this (abaya), does he become the hero of Arabism?”Read the full story here.

'West worried by Syrian chemical site activity' .

'West worried by Syrian chemical site activity'.(JPost).Western intelligence officials have noticed new worrying signs of activity at chemical weapons sites in Syria, The New York Times reported on Saturday. The Syrian regime is "doing some things that suggest they intend to use the weapons," one American intelligence official told the Times, adding, "It's not just moving stuff around. These are different kind of activities." The officials were unsure of Syria's intentions regarding the work at the chemical sites, but said it is possible Damascus is preparing to use chemical weapons as a last-ditched effort to defeat rebels, according to the report. But the Syrians have yet to take the most crucial steps toward using their chemical weapons, or preparing them for firing in any way, the Times reported. Earlier this year, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Israel would weigh military action if it suspects Syria's chemical weapons could fall into the hands of a terrorist organization. “We will do everything that is needed” to ensure Syria’s WMD stockpiles are not transferred, Netanyahu said at a meeting with EU ambassadors stationed in Israel in October.Read the full story here.

NATO to ‘defend Turkey’ over Syria as border attacks intensify.

Picture source here.

NATO to ‘defend Turkey’ over Syria as border attacks intensify.(AA).NATO will defend alliance member Turkey, which struck back after mortar rounds fired from Syria landed inside its border, the alliance’s Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said at a meeting in Prague on Monday. “NATO as an organization will do what it takes to protect and defend Turkey, our ally. We have more plans in place to make sure that we can protect and defend Turkey and hopefully that way also deter so that attacks on Turkey will not take place,” he said. Rasmussen also welcomed a weekend agreement by Syrian opposition groups to put aside differences and form a new coalition.
A Syrian fighter jet on Monday bombed an area near the Turkish border, causing several casualties, officials and witnesses said. An Associated Press video journalist saw the plane bomb an area around the Syrian town of Ras al-Ayn, some 10 meters (yards) from the Turkish border. Meanwhile, the Free Syrian Army, the main armed opposition group, downed a regime helicopter flying above the al-Hamdan airport in the eastern province of Deir al-Zor on Monday, Al Arabiya reported. Last week the rebels overran three security compounds in the town, located in the predominantly Kurdish oil-producing northeastern province of al-Hasaka, wresting control from the regime forces. An official at the local mayor’s office said Turkish ambulances were carrying several injured Syrians to a hospital, across the border in the Turkish town of Ceylanpinar. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to reporters. The force of the blast shattered shop windows in Ceylanpinar, in southeastern Turkey, the official said. It was not clear if anyone in Ceylanpinar was injured in the bombing. The fighting in Ras al-Ayn touched off a massive flow of refugees two days ago, and more refugees were seen coming after the blast.Read the full story here.