The European Union yesterday formally blacklisted the military wing of Hezbollah – the Iran-backed Shiite organization which has been critical in enabling the Bashar al-Assad regime to steadily erode two years of opposition gains – as a terror organization. The Western-backed umbrella group representing the rebels evaluated the decision and...

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Last week saw top U.S. military and intelligence officials openly worrying that the momentum in the Syrian conflict had shifted in favor of the Bashar al-Assad regime. Violence this weekend seemed to grimly confirm that the regime was consolidating gains it had made in recent months, during which support from the Iran-backed...

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During reconfirmation hearing this week, Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Martin Dempsey was asked this week to evaluate the current prospects of the Syrian opposition seeking the overthrow of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria. His response was  grim: Dempsey acknowledged in response to a question from Sen. Lindsey Graham,...

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Iranian President-elect Hassan Rouhani this week pledged support for the embattled regime of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and for the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah. The Iranian proxies were celebrated by the Iranian official, who many had hoped would emerge as a moderate and a reformer, because of their willingness to...

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Critics who have been blasting Hezbollah for its involvement in the Syrian conflict have outlined an array of fears regarding the consequences of the Iran-backed terror group’s actions. The regional consequences of the group’s actions – Hezbollah risks creating a crescent of Sunni-Shiit conflict from the Mediteranean coast into Iraq...

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Tuesday saw a variety of potentially escalatory fire from across the Syrian border into Israel. Unidentified gunmen firing on Israeli troops who were investigating an infiltration into Israeli territory by Syrian suspects. Dozens of blasts being linked to mortars fired across the border. The situation is not, in other words, stable. The...

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European countries are rushing to head off what’s being labeled “jihad tourism,” as evidence emerges that radicalized Europeans are traveling to Syria to fight against the Bashar al-Assad regime. Officials are expressing concerns that their citizens will eventually come home as battle-hardened jihadists: Mounting evidence of a growing number of...

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There are growing worries that the Syrian opposition may splinter, after top Free Syrian Army (FSA) commander Kamal Hamami was killed Thursday by Al Qaeda-linked militants in northern Syria. He was meeting with them so that the Sunni factions could coordinate moves against the Shiite-backed regime of Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad....

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Syrian government troops continued their assault on Homs this week, threatening to fully wrest control of the strategic city from rebels who have used it to threaten the regime’s supply lines between Syria’s capital, Damascus, and the Mediterranean Sea. Syrian government troops unleashed a major artillery barrage on the city of Homs...

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Joint Chiefs Chairman Martin Dempsey was interviewed by CNN over the weekend and asked to evaluate the trajectory of the conflict in Syria. Describing how the conflict has been polarized along sectarian lines by battling Shiite and Sunni extremists, Dempsey projected that warfighting may last a full decade: The United...

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