All Security Watch
- Manaf Tlass: Being groomed as the Syrian Ahmed Chalabi?
Manaf Tlas, a defector from the Assad regime, has it all: money, foreign friends, and a secular outlook. Now he's being pushed forward by foreign groups as Syria's strongman in waiting.
- From the people who brought you the Iraq war...
... a call for US military intervention in Syria that's straight out of the neocon playbook. What could go wrong?
- In Aleppo, rebels brace for full force of Syria's Assad regime
With Syrian Army forces withdrawing from locations across the country and heading toward Aleppo, rebels there are preparing for a fierce battle for the strategic city that few expect them to win.
- Fearing spillover, Turkey closes border with Syria as Aleppo braces for war
Thousands of Syrian troops are headed toward Aleppo, where rebels have taken over some neighborhoods. Many Syrians never expected the fighting to reach the regime stronghold.
- Does the CIA really have no idea about the nature of Syria's rebels?
It's hard to believe, but so say anonymous officials in a Washington Post article published yesterday.
- Deadly Iraq bombings and a reawakening insurgency
The Iraq war is over for the US, and the country is a more stable place than at the height of its civil war. But the Sunni insurgency never really died, and Syria is adding some fuel.
- Chemical weapons? Syria 'backpedaling furiously' over weapons threats
One day after threatening to unleash chemical weapons if it were invaded, Syria denies having unconventional weapons, and says West is preparing an Iraq-style intervention.
- Syria's war reaches solidly pro-Assad Aleppo
Assad's forces retook some parts of Damascus over the weekend, but in a potentially more telling sign, rebels brought the fighting to previously quiet Aleppo.
- Israelis fear more attacks abroad in wake of Bulgaria bus bombing
Confidence appears to be growing that the Bulgaria bus bombing was part of an Iranian and Hezbollah campaign against Israeli interests abroad.
- Iran denies involvement in Bulgaria bus bombing
The attack yesterday on a bus carrying Israeli tourists in Bulgaria killed seven people.
- As Syrian conflict intensifies, UN prepares to extend its mission
Today's assassination of two top government officials in Damascus raises the stakes of Syria's conflict yet again. Will the UN vote to continue its observer mission, or give it more teeth?
- Syria's top defector says Assad not afraid to use chemical weapons
Syria is believed to have the Arab world's largest stockpile of chemical weapons. An ex-official warned that Assad would use them if backed into a corner.
- Syria war deepens: Damascus sees worst fighting yet
Fighting has intensified in the capital, a day after the Red Cross declared the conflict a 'civil war' and reminded combatants of the rules of war.
- British spy chief says Iran is two years from nuclear bomb
Sir John Sawers, the head of MI6, said the British spy agency has tried unsuccessfully to thwart Iran's efforts to develop a nuclear weapon and warned that US and Israeli retaliation was likely.
- Days after woman executed, Karzai asks Taliban to enter politics
Afghanistan's President Karzai encouraged the Taliban to disarm and join the political process. His police, meanwhile, have been blaming the group for the public execution of a woman.
- Russia drafts new UN resolution on Syria, meets Syria opposition
Underscoring its central role, Russia met with opposition Syrian National Council in Moscow today to discuss a new proposal.
- Not so defiant: Egypt's parliament meets for 5 minutes
Egypt's parliament defied a military order for its dissolution and convened briefly today, but did so merely to determine how to respond to a Supreme Court ruling declaring the parliament invalid.
- Lobbyists for listed Iranian terror group face new scrutiny
Retired US politicians, generals, and officials have been lobbying on behalf of the Iranian group MEK, listed as a terrorist group by the State Department.
- Mass hysteria blamed for Afghan schoolgirl 'poisoning,' not the Taliban
The Afghan school girl 'poisonings' bear a striking resemblance to past cases of mass hysteria, particularly one in Palestine in 1983.
- Annan and Bashar al-Assad agree on 'new approach' to Syrian conflict
Support for further negotiated solutions with the Assad regime in Syria appears to be waning among world powers, however.