Analysts are increasingly drawing attention to tics and quirks in the behavior of Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad, above and beyond the dictator’s alleged willingness to order Syrian troops to gas to death thousands of his country’s civilians. Evaluating a recent Fox News interview with the Syrian strongman, Richard Grenell –...

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Following repeated and explicit statements of support from Iran’s newly inaugurated President Hassan Rouhani, Iran is moving to dramatically deepen its activities on behalf of Syria’s Bashar al-Assad regime. The Wall Street Journal reports that Shiite recruits from across the Middle East are being indoctrinated to wage a sectarian war...

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A car bomb exploded yesterday at a border crossing between Syria and Turkey, injuring a dozen people and heightening long-held fears that the Syrian conflict would spread to Turkey. The explosion came a day after a Turkish fighter jet shot down a Syrian military helicopter that Ankara reported had entered Turkish airspace and ignored repeated...

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The United Nations investigation into the August 21 chemical weapons attack on rebel-controlled Damascus suburbs more or less conclusively demonstrated that the regime was behind the launch. The rocket trajectories led back to Syrian army positions. The chemical components point to Syrian army sophistication. Pentagon sources were even able to...

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The Wall Street Journal over the weekend evaluated the prospects for the Syrian chemical weapons disarmament deal struck by Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. The odds of success are, per four distinct scenarios unpacked by the paper, not great: But the road map unveiled...

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Reuters reports Syrians are growing increasingly aware of extensive Israeli efforts to treat victims of the two and a half year conflict raging inside the Arab country. Israel set up a field hospital early in the conflict. Within a few months Syrians were being transported to regular Israeli hospitals –...

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A leaked United Nations report, likely set for publication on Monday, piles on evidence linking the Bashar al-Assad regime to the August 21 mass chemical attack on opposition-controlled Damascus suburbs. While the report will not explicitly implicate the regime, it will get pretty close: The UN inspectors left Syria on...

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Israeli officials reemphasized today that Jerusalem would enforce its long-established “red line” against any Syrian efforts to transfer advanced weapons, including portions of Damascus’s chemical weapons arsenal, to the Bashar al-Assad regime’s Hezbollah allies: “Our red lines have not changed,” said an Israeli official. “Assad should understand already that he...

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More than one faction within the Syrian opposition has committed to attacking Israel, and fears have only deepened as jihadists moved to seize areas near Israel’s border with Syria. A Syrian opposition activist stationed in Europe, however, is suggesting that there might be a different future for Israeli-Syrian relations should...

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Russian media outlets are reporting that the country’s president Vladimir Putin has authorized an $800 million sale of advanced S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Tehran, potentially setting up a scenario in which Iranian airspace would be denied to Israeli aircraft conducting a military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities. Analysts fear that the introduction of the...

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