Syrian President Bashar al-Assad called on Tuesday for Israel's "massacres" in the Gaza Strip to stop, as he met visiting US Senator Arlen Specter, the official SANA news agency reported.

US complaints earlier this week about the “wholly inappropriate” IAEA aid scheduled to be provided to Syria have been rejected, and the agency has approved the $350,000 aid project to help the Syrian government select a site for a potential nuclear power plant.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem suggested Wednesday that Israeli bombs may be the source of uranium traces that diplomats at the UN nuclear agency said were found at a suspected nuclear site.

Moallem said the leaks by the diplomats about the traces found at the site that was reportedly targeted by Israeli warplanes in September 2007 were politically motivated and aimed at pressuring Syria.

The U.S. military has conducted nearly a dozen secret operations against al-Qaida and other terrorist groups in Syria, Pakistan and other countries since 2004, The New York Times reported Sunday night.

In a dangerous precedent that provides clear and explicit evidence of its eagerness to exploit the rights offered under the Security Agreement which is now under discussion, the American occupation has attacked one of Iraq's neighbors and violated sovereign Syrian airspace and land to conduct a military operation. Helicopters were used to ferry in troops to secure a civilian area, in the process of killing some civilians and wounding others in a contemptible attack that has yet to be explained.

Presidential-elect Barack Obama
has pledged to improve U.S. relations with Syria and Egypt.

US President George W. Bush suggested to Syrian President Bashar Assad that Israel would withdraw from the Golan Heights in exchange for a complete disbandment of the Syrian-Iranian alliance, Kuwaiti newspaper al-Jarida reported Friday.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon on Friday expressed regret over the US aggression on Syrian lands, saying "there was no justification to such act that unsettles atmospheres in the Middle East."

Tens of thousands of Syrians turned out Thursday for a massive government-orchestrated protest against a deadly U.S. raid near the Iraqi border.

A mile away, hundreds of Syrian riot police formed a protective ring around the closed U.S. Embassy, but the flag-waving crowds dispersed peacefully after a couple of hours later, with students heading to schools and employees to work.

"Why now at the end of the Bush administration, with Washington trying to play nice with Damascus and tensions easing throughout the region, would US forces stage such a gambit?" echoed Borzou Daragahi on the Babylon and Beyond blog at the Los Angeles Times website.

The U.S. embassy in Syria said on Wednesday that it may close to the public for fearing retaliation following a Sunday deadly raid on Syrian border by U.S. troops in Iraq.

The U.S. embassy made the warning in a statement on its Website, calling on Americans in Syria to remain alert to review their personal security.

Unforeseen events may cause the U.S. embassy in Damascus to close to the public indefinitely following the Sunday raid on eastern Syria blamed by Damascus on Washington, said the statement.

Belittled domestically, President Bush is flexing his last working muscle: His control over the nation's military. And in so doing, he is adding one last addendum to the ever-changing Bush Doctrine, establishing yet another de facto U.S. policy on his way out the door, and leaving his successor with yet another controversial precedent to wrestle with.

While the White House has declined comment and other US officials defended the strike on a Syrian border town yesterday which killed eight, international condemnation rained down on the strike from a number of sources.

The US commando attack inside Syrian territory appears to amplify an emerging message to countries giving safe passage to terrorists: Take action, or America will.

In the name of protecting its forces in Afghanistan and now Iraq, the United States appears to have begun to step up a bold gamble: conducting raids in countries it believes are not doing enough to fight extremist militants.

Unnamed US officials said the attack had targeted and killed a “smuggler of foreign fighters into Iraq” and said they didn’t kill any of the women and children found at the attacked site. US officials say the attack is justified under an “expansive definition of self-defense” similar to the argument made by Israel when it attacked a site in Syria last year.

Syria has condemned an alleged US raid that killed at least eight people in the country's east, close to the border with Iraq, calling it an act of "serious aggression".

(And isn't it remarkable how every single person killed by American forces in the global War on Terror is somehow "linked to al-Qaeda"? Even the children. I guess American bullets and bombs have some kind of super-secret al-Qaeda sorting software embedded in them, guiding the munitions directly to the evil ones -- including the little evil ones: the doctrine of "pre-emption" in its purest form -- and sparing everyone else.)

We are closer than ever before to serious conversations between Israel and Syria, Syria has recognized an international border with Lebanon for the first time in modern history, and this is horrifying to neoconservatives who ran Washington for the last decade. They need to use force and force only to conquer Iraq, Iran and Syria. And they need to promote a conception of the American presidency that is focused on the use of military force. It is vital to their conception of American hegemony.

Nine people were killed on Sunday when US helicopters attacked a village inside Syria along its border with Iraq, the private television channel al-Dunia reported on Sunday.

US President George W. Bush suggested to Syrian President Bashar Assad that Israel would withdraw from the Golan Heights in exchange for a complete disbandment of the Syrian-Iranian alliance, Kuwaiti newspaper al-Jarida reported Friday.

On September 20, Israel attacked Syria under mysterious
circumstances. Both Israeli and US governments maintained
silence on the nature of the attack and a compliant media
followed suit. But there were a few isolated reports in the media.

The attack occurred Saturday morning, near a major Syrian intelligence facility, although news reports in the West are focusing on the proximity of the Shi'ite shrine. Israeli media are emphasizing the possibility of an internal struggle within the Syrian regime itself, while the Iranians are saying the blast was the work of the Mossad and/or CIA.

Is it really necessary that we let Bush and Cheney destroy another innocent country before they pretend to leave the stage after Nov. 4? Does this Nation, which fancies itself as a great defender of freedom and democracy, intend to allow them do to our ally Pakistan what they have done to Iraq and Afghanistan? If we do not feel extreme shame for what is being done in our names there then perhaps it is true that we are something less than human, merely thinking cattle.

During a visit to Ramallah in Palestine on April 29, 2005, President Putin commented: "Expecting Mahmoud Abbas to fight terrorism effectively, we have to realize that a slingshot and a handful of stones won't do the job." Then Putin paused, before adding, "Which Israel clearly understands."

The UN atomic watchdog is still evaluating samples taken from an alleged nuclear site in Syria, but "so far we have no indication of any nuclear material," IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said Monday.

Partial results of samples from a Syrian site bombed by Israel show nothing to back up US assertions that the target was a secret nuclear reactor, diplomats said Saturday.

The Russians are making clear their intentions of using the large Russian naval presence in Tartus as a deterrent to Israeli air strikes against Syria using the powerful anti-air missiles on-board the Russian naval warships. These missile systems can sweep the sky over most of Syria and knock down Israeli F-15 and F-16 fighters. This changes the balance of power in the air over Syria.

It is the largest Syrian force to invade Lebanon since Damascus was forced to end its occupation of the country in May 2005, three months after former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri was assassinated.

The Syrian government daily Teshreen marked the seventh anniversary of 9/11 this week in a unique fashion: by publishing an article by Syria's former information minister blaming US intelligence agencies for the attacks.

A senior diplomatic source close to the Turkish-mediated talks between Israel and Syria said the United States has been persuaded that it should take part in the talks, but that France has "pushed itself" into Syria; and French President Nicolas Sarkozy's participation in talks in Damascus have led the U.S. to cancel its decision for now.

Fears that Russia might sell advanced weaponry to Syria kicked up a mini-storm of concern in Israel on Thursday.

Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, in Russia on a two-day visit, backed Moscow's military action against Georgia at talks with President Dmitry Medvedev that were expected to cover purchases of Russian arms.

The Russian aircraft carrier “Admiral Kuznetsov” is ready to head from Murmansk towards the Mediterranean and the Syrian port of Tartus. The mission comes after Syrian President Bashar Assad said he is open for a Russian base in the area.

Syria has recently test launched a series of surface to surface missiles and rockets, Channel 2 news reported Monday.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad says the conflict in the Caucasus underlines the need for Russia and Syria to expand military ties.

Informed sources say Israeli agents are behind the assassination of Syrian president's security advisor and liaison officer to Hezbollah.

Syrian President Bashar Assad's top aide and adviser, General Mohammed Suleiman, was assassinated on Friday, according to Arab news sources.

Syrian authorities tried unsuccessfully to prevent publication of the news. The country's Albawaba newspaper, which reported the incident, speculated that Israel might have been behind the killing.