(AFP) – MOSCOW — Russia is supplying Syria with warplanes, armoured vehicles and air defence systems under existing contracts, ITAR-Tass news agency quoted the head of the country’s state military agency as saying.
Mikhail Dmitriyev, head of the Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, said Russia was selling Syria MiG-29 fighter jets, Pantsir short-range air defence systems and armoured vehicles.
Turkey Installs Anti-Aircraft Batteries Near Syrian Border
Thursday May 13, 2010 by Saed Bannoura – IMEMC & Agencies
Turkey has installed Anti-Aircraft Hawk Missiles at a village close to the Syrian border in an attempt to prevent Israeli war jets from violating Turkish Airspace in case of an attack against Iran or Syria.
A Turkish paper reported that Turkey will not allow Israel to use its Airspace to attack Iran, Syria or any other country, and will act against any such violations.
The Anti Aircraft batteries were installed in Kayeel village, south of Turkey and located close to the Syrian b14 Mayorder.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a Turkish military official stated that the batteries are meant to protect Turkey and its Airspace against any violations, including American or Israeli war jets should Israel or the United States decide to attack Iran or Syria.
Why Russia’s Dmitry Medvedev is visiting Syria
By Claire Duffett, Christian Science Monitor
…..In a joint press conference Monday evening, Mr. Medvedev, the first Russian head of state to visit Syria, said that Russia’s commitment to Syria was consistent despite “changes in the world.” President Assad, for his part, was quoted as saying that his country would “never forget how [Russia] stood by us during the battle for the Golan [Heights]” with Israel. He also requested Moscow’s continued support in demanding that Israel return the land it seized during the 1967 Six-Day War…. In addition to lauding their unwavering bond, the two leaders have used Medvedev’s visit to discuss increased economic ties. Russian gas giant Gazprom is expanding its presence in Syria with additional oil exploration and Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko accompanied Medvedev to discuss the project. The leaders also entertained possible atomic energy development. …
“US-Syrian relations have been deteriorating for some months now, and Syria is losing hope in any peace deal, and that means that there’s gong to be conflict between Syria and Israel,” says Joshua Landis, a professor at the University of Oklahoma. “Syria’s strategy is going to be to try to isolate the US in the Middle East, and to hang Israel around America’s neck.”
Russia seeks to become regional player in Middle East
Phil Sands, May 12. 2010, the National
DAMASCUS // The Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, yesterday criticised the United States for not doing enough to foster peace in the Middle East, warning that the regional situation was “dangerous” and could slip out of control….
Russia says may build nuclear power plant in Syria
Tue May 11, 2010
By Denis Dyomkin
DAMASCUS (Reuters) – Russia may help build a nuclear power plant in Syria, Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko told Reuters on Tuesday as the Kremlin moved to strengthen ties with a Soviet-era ally in the Middle East.
Repairs to Syrian planes to go ahead: The US has authorized the German company Lufthansa Technik to upgrade the engines of Syria’s Airbus 320 and Boeing 747 planes which were grounded in Germany while undergoing repairs.
Drawing the Poverty Line By Dalia Haidar – Syyia Today
CBS News: Israel: Syria Replaces Iraq in “Axis of Evil”
2010-05-12 09:35:29.899 GMT
Home World TOKYO, May 12, 2010 Israel: Syria Replaces Iraq in “Axis of Evil” Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman Says North Korea, Syria, and Iran Forging Dangerous Coalition Font size Print E-mail Share 0 Comments Israeli Foreign Minister …
Israel and Palestine: The two sides move crabwise as indirect negotiations begin
May 13th 2010 | JERUSALEM | From The Economist print edition
I never said freeze
THE long-awaited “proximity talks” between Israel and the Palestinians have started, but if the American State Department had not publicly announced them, few people would have noticed. …. Building would not, he insisted, be frozen anywhere in Jerusalem.
Turkey, Russia Sign Agreement on Oil Pipeline
Turkey, Russia sign deals on nuclear power plant, pipeline to carry Russian oil to Europe
The two leaders also signed an agreement to work on a pipeline project that would pump Russian oil from the Black Sea port of Samsun in northern Turkey to the Ceyhan oil terminal on the Mediterranean in southern Turkey, where an oil refinery would be set up. From there, the oil would be shipped to Europe.
The goal of the project is to bypass Turkey’s Bosporus strait to alleviate the congested oil tanker traffic through the narrow waterway that bisects Istanbul en route from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean.
Russia’s gas exports have made it the second largest trading partner of Turkey. Both sides have recently been working to improve their diplomatic relations and trade ties.
“By taking these steps, Turkey is taking its position as an energy hub to a much different level,” Erdogan said. “The solidarity with Russia on this issue is of utmost importance.”
On Wednesday, Turkey and Russia also agreed to mutually lift entry visa requirements for visits of up to 30 days in an effort to boost tourism and business. About 3 million Russian tourists visit Turkey annually.
Sex tape opens bright future for Turkey
Opposition leader Deniz Baykal’s resignation after a sex scandal removes the main impediment to democratic modernisation
Stephen Kinzer, guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 11 May 2010
Turkey is steadily strengthening its position as a regional power. Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, travelled to Turkey last week to discuss prospects for a new approach to Middle East crises. Russia’s president, Dmitry Medvedev, also turned up in Ankara, and proclaimed that the two countries had reached the point of “strategic partnership”. The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has joined with President Luis Lula da Silva of Brazil to shape a new compromise between Iran and the west on nuclear issues; Iranian officials welcomed it as “a good proposal for us” and said they were “optimistic we can reach an agreement”.
Republicans block Syria envoy confirmation motion Laura Rozen
Senate Republicans blocked a unanimous consent motion to confirm Obama’s nominee to be ambassador to Syria this afternoon. Coburn has objected to 108 Obama nominations (and still counting).
Why Syria will keep saying ‘no’ to Washington
The US must get real leverage before talking to its better-prepared and a tougher-minded adversary, Syria.
By Bilal Y. Saab / May 11, 2010
Washington’s strategy of selective engagement with Syria has not produced any tangible results. The question is: Why does Damascus continue to do the opposite of what the Obama administration wants it to?
There are two reasons:
First, Washington still lacks real leverage in its talks with Damascus. To make things worse, Syria currently enjoys a relatively comfortable position in the region, partly because of Washington’s lack of a coherent Syria policy but also because of its own efforts to develop its military alliance with Iran, enhance its political relations with Turkey and Iraq, and restore its power-broker role in Lebanese politics.
The second, and perhaps more important, reason why President Obama’s strategy has failed is because Syria is not interested in what Washington is currently selling.
Israel’s fated bleak future
By John J. Mearsheimer
May 9, 2010, Chicago Tribune
President Barack Obama has finally coaxed Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table. He and most Americans hope that the talks will lead to the creation of a Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank. Regrettably, that is not going to happen. Instead, those territories are almost certain to be incorporated into a “Greater Israel,” which will then be an apartheid state bearing a marked resemblance to white-ruled South Africa.
….. The best Obama can hope for is to push forward the so-called peace process, but most people understand that these negotiations are a charade. The two sides will engage in endless talks while Israel continues to colonize Palestinian lands. The likely result, therefore, will be a Greater Israel between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.
But who will live there and what kind of political system will it have?
Israel Accelerates planning for future settlements :
[S]ince the construction freeze was introduced, several major neighborhood plans for settlement where either approved or advanced in the relevant planning committees. Those plans include together thousands of housing units in extremely sensitive places, and some of them were pending for years while consecutive governments avoided advancing them. When negotiating the construction freeze, the U.S. administration did not listen to Israeli voices who repeatedly warned of the shortcomings in a construction freeze that did not include a planning freeze. The result, as anticipated, is severe, and its first signal arrived less than a week after the moratorium was declared: The West Bank planning committee approved a plan for a new neighborhood of 360 housing units in the Talmon settlement, deep in the West Bank. The plan retroactively Koshered 60 illegal houses already built and allowed the erection of hundreds of new ones. The plan was pending for years and the settlers have failed time and again to have it approved. In the same way other plans were advanced since the moratorium was declared, most of them far from the 1967 line and others in East Jerusalem.
The settlers are preparing for the day after the construction freeze; the day of the de-freeze. And when that day comes, they are certain a construction boom of significant scale will commence.
Hizballah Prepares for the Next War
By Nicholas Blanford / Jezzine, South Lebanon Monday, May. 10, 2010
….”The next war is coming, 100%, but we don’t know when,” says Ali, a thickly muscled university student. “We have big plans for it. God willing, you will see the end of Israel.” (See pictures of Lebanon in crisis.)Like all Hizballah fighters interviewed for this article, Ali requested anonymity, as he was not authorized to talk to the press. Although Hizballah and Israel both insist they do not want another war, neither side has disguised its preparations for that possibility. Since the end of its latest bout with the Israeli military, in July and August 2006, Hizballah has built new defensive lines and firing positions, the fighters say, in the hills flanking the Bekaa and along the rugged, mountainous spine running up the middle of southern Lebanon.
….But the resolve of the Hizballah combatants remains unshaken by Israeli threats…. Although last month’s Israeli claims that Syria transferred Scud ballistic missiles to Hizballah remain unsubstantiated — and some military analysts are skeptical, given the rocket’s size and cumbersome logistical requirements — the group is believed to have acquired Syrian-manufactured M-600 guided rockets. The M-600, a copy of an Iranian rocket, can carry a 1,100-lb. (500 kg) warhead a distance of 155 miles (250 km), and its guidance system allows Hizballah to target Israel’s Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv from hidden bases in the northern Bekaa Valley. (Read “Israel Claims Iran Weapons Intercept.”)
Hizballah’s possession of the M-600 is “just the tip of the iceberg,” Brigadier General Yossi Baidatz, Israel’s top military intelligence analyst, told a Knesset committee on Tuesday, May 4. “Hizballah currently has an arsenal of thousands of rockets of all kinds and ranges, including solid-fueled rockets, with a longer range and more accurate,” he said.
Besides seeking new weapons systems, the Shi’ite militia is also finding innovative ways to utilize older armaments, such as the guerrilla-standard RPG-7 grenade launcher and the recoilless rifle, a near obsolete antitank weapon. “The RPG-7 is old but still a good weapon,” says Ali. “It’s how you use them that counts. We are always studying new combat techniques.”
Israel’s heavily armored tanks are to receive a newly developed defense system that fires mini-interceptors to destroy incoming antitank missiles. Hizballah fighters, without revealing details, say they are training to overcome such sophisticated defenses by “swarming” Israeli tanks with low-tech antitank weapons.
Hizballah’s battle plans may also include having fighters infiltrate Israel to carry out raids and sabotage missions — a move that would be unprecedented in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Israeli doctrine is to fight its wars in the territory of its enemies rather than on its home front. Says Ali: “God willing, we will go into Palestine next time.”
Despite the mounting tension, Israel’s pledge — and vast capability — to inflict catastrophic damage on Lebanon and the scale of Hizballah’s arms buildup functions as a kind of mutual deterrence that has brought the usually volatile frontier its longest period of calm in 40 years.
NBC/ here
“… U.S. and Israeli intelligence sources tell NBC News that Hezbollah actually obtained the UAVs from Iran and that Iranian soldiers are stationed just across the border to help operate them. At an airshow in Iran earlier this year, an aviation official showed off Iran’s UAVs to NBC News.”When you turn on the engine, it takes off and flies,” Abbas Fallah of Iran Aircraft Manufacturing told us. “It’s so easy!” We asked Fallah if the UAV was a “weapon of mass destruction.” “I don’t think so!” he laughed.
Iranian officials have both taken credit for supplying the UAVs to Hezbollah and denied it… (sort of “Drone Ambiguity”, similar to Israel’s policies…) U.S. and Israeli intelligence believes Iran gave Hezbollah a half-dozen UAVs which feed live video and have sophisticated guidance systems……. “The danger is that Hezbollah will now have the capability to inflict greater damage on Israel by more precise targeting,” says Joseph Cirincione, a weapons expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “Israel cannot simply take those attacks.”
Already Israel’s vastly superior military is embarrassed that a terror group’s little unmanned spy plane has been able to penetrate Israeli airspace — twice.
WSJ(5/12) Russia, In Internal Report, Signals Shift
2010-05-11 23: WALL STREET JOURNAL
By Gregory L. White
MOSCOW — Russia outlined, in a confidential report, a shift toward a more pragmatic foreign policy aimed at building closer ties with the U.S. and Europe to help modernize its outdated industries. The program detailed a shift away from the more confrontational line the Kremlin had taken in past years. It singled out the Obama administration for praise for its more cooperative approach to Moscow.
A Russian official confirmed the authenticity of the document, which was addressed to President Dmitry Medvedev by Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. It was earlier reported by Russian Newsweek, which ran the document’s full text on its website. A Kremlin spokesman said the program, dated February, hasn’t been officially approved. But some elements, such as a deal with the U.S. to reduce nuclear weapons, have already been implemented. Its spirit was reflected Sunday, when U.S. and European troops for the first time marched alongside Russian forces during Moscow’s annual military parade marking the end of World War II.
“It’s a document that reflects the mainstream in today’s Russian political leadership,” said Dmitry Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center. The report also includes insights into Moscow’s relationships with former Soviet republics. It calls for taking advantage of the global financial crisis to acquire industrial and energy assets in the Baltics, Belarus, Ukraine and Central Asia — all areas where Russian influence is a sensitive political issue.
On many issues, the Kremlin hasn’t lined up completely with the West. On a visit to Syria on Tuesday, Mr. Medvedev suggested Moscow might be interested in nuclear-energy deals there. The U.S. has opposed any nuclear cooperation with Syria until Damascus allays international concerns a suspected nuclear-weapons program destroyed by an Israeli strike in 2007. On the issue of Iran’s nuclear ambitions, U.S. officials say Russia has largely come around to supporting Washington’s efforts to tighten sanctions on Tehran. But the report leaked Monday names Iran as a potential flash point for renewed conflict with the West in the event of a military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, which Moscow staunchly opposes.
DJ Israel’s Lieberman: North Korea Shipping WMDs To Syria
2010-05-11 12:11:11.687 GMT
JERUSALEM (AFP)–Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman Tuesday accused nuclear power North Korea of supplying Syria with weapons of mass destruction. Lieberman’s office quoted him as telling Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama at a meeting in Tokyo that such activity threatened to destabilize east Asia as well as the Middle East. “The cooperation between Syria and North Korea is not focused on economic development and growth but rather on weapons of mass destruction” Lieberman said.
In evidence he cited the December 2009 seizure at Bangkok airport of an illicit North Korean arms shipment which U.S. intelligence said was bound for an unnamed Middle East country. Lieberman said Syria intended to pass the weapons on to the Lebanese Hezbollah militia and to the Islamic Hamas movement, which rules Gaza and has its political headquarters in Damascus……
Missed Engagement: BY GARY ACKERMAN | MAY 10, 2010, Foreign Policy
In Congress, vitriol and partisan attacks are dominating the debate over the next U.S. ambassador to Syria.
Nuclear agency set to focus on Israel
The latest pressure is putting the Jewish state in an uncomfortable position. It wants the international community to take stern action to prevent Iran from getting atomic weapons but at the same time brushes off calls to come clean about its own nuclear capabilities. Additionally, Amano, in a letter obtained Wednesday by the AP, has asked foreign ministers of the agency’s 151 member states for proposals on how to persuade Israel to sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty…..
Turkish Fm on Tripartite Summit of Turkey, Syria and Qatar
Monday, 10 May 2010
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Sunday that Turkey, Syria and Qatar condemned the statements aiming to escalate tension in the region. … “The participants exchanged views on some very fundamental regional matters. The three countries primarily reaffirmed their support to both restoration of a fair and permanent peace between Palestine and Israel based on related UN resolutions and establishment of an independent Palestinian state,” he said…..
Saudi Arabia reiterates stand on nuke-free Mideast: The Kingdom has reiterated the importance of keeping the Mideast region free of nuclear weapons and has said stability and security never come through the acquisition of weapons of mass destruction….
WSJ(5/11) Column: What Is Happening To Turkey?
2010-05-10, (WALL STREET JOURNAL)
By Bret Stephens
Istanbul — Last week I asked Bernard Lewis where he thought Turkey might be going. The dean of Middle East historians speculated that in a decade the secular republic founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk might more closely resemble the Islamic Republic of Iran — even as Iran transformed itself into a secular republic. …..
Reading the news about Turkey from afar, it’s easy to see what Prof. Lewis means. Since coming to power in 2002, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has dramatically recast the traditional contours of Turkish foreign policy. Gone are the days when the country had a strategic partnership with Israel, involving close military ties and shared enemies in Syria and Iran and the sundry terrorist groups they sponsored. Gone are the days, too, when the U.S. could rely on Turkey as a bulwark against common enemies, be they the Soviet Union or Saddam Hussein’s Iraq.
Today, Mr. Erdogan has excellent relations with Syrian strongman Bashar Assad, whom the prime minister affectionately calls his “brother.” He has accused Israel of “savagery” in Gaza and opened a diplomatic line to Hamas…
So why do so many Turks, including more than a few secularists and classical liberals, seem mostly at ease with the changes Mr. Erdogan has wrought? A possible answer may be self-delusion: Liberals were also at the forefront of the Iranian revolution before being brutally swept aside by the Ayatollah Khomeini. But that isn’t
quite convincing in Turkey’s case.More plausible is Turkey’s economic transformation under the AKP’s pro-free market stewardship. Inflation, which ran to 99% in 1997, is down to single digits. Goldman Sachs anticipates 7% growth this year, which would make the country Europe’s strongest performer — if only Europe would have it as a member. Turks now look on the EU with diminished envy and growing contempt. One time arch-rival Greece mostly earns their pity.
Chief among the beneficiaries of this transformation has been the AKP’s political base: an Islamic bourgeoisie that was long shut out of the old statist arrangements between the country’s secular political and business elites. Members of this new class want to send their daughters to universities — and insist they be allowed to do so wearing headscarves. They also insist that they be ruled by the government they elected, not by the “deep state” of unelected and often self-dealing officers, judges and bureaucrats who defended the country’s secularism at the expense of its democracy and prosperity.
The paradoxical result is that, as the country has become wealthier and (in some respects) more democratic, it has also shed some of its Western trappings. Mr. Erdogan’s infatuations with his unsavory neighbors undoubtedly stems form his own instincts, ideology and ego. But it also reflects a public sentiment that no longer wants Turkey to be a stranger in its own region, particularly when it so easily can be its leader. Some Turks call this “neo-Ottomanism,” others “Turkish-Gaullism.” Whichever way, it is bound to discomfit the West.
The more serious question is how far it all will go. Some of Mr. Erdogan’s domestic power plays smack of incipient Putinism. The estrangement from Israel is far from complete, but an Israeli attack on Iran might just do the trick. And it’s hard to see why Mr. Erdogan should buck public opinion when it comes to Turkey’s alliance with the U.S. when he’s prepared to follow public opinion in so many other matters.
Most importantly, will the Erdogan brand of Islamism remain relatively modest in its social and political ambitions, or will it become aggressive and radical? It would be wrong to pretend to know the answer. It would be insane not to worry about the possibility.
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Israelis ready to sign a peace agreement with Syria but will not give up the Golan Heights, Israeli President Shimon Peres said addressing students at the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. Mr. Peres said that if Israeli troops leave the Heights, Hezbollah militants will immediately deploy its weapons there with thousands of missiles targeted against Israel. Commenting on the settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Peres said he approved a peaceful solution to it but added that Tel Aviv wants solid security guarantees.
BBC MidEast: Asif Shawkat identified as deputy chief of staff on Syrian TV
2010-05-09
Syrian Satellite Television leads its main evening newscast at 1730 gmt on 6 May with reports on the marking of Martyrs’ Day in Syria.
The channel reports that on this occasion President Bashar al- Asad visited the Martyrs Monument, where he placed a wreath after a 21-gun salute and the playing of the national anthem.
The channel reports that President Al-Asad shook hands with the high- ranking officials greeting him. Among those greeting him was Lt- Gen Asif Shawkat, who was identified as deputy chief of staff. This is the first official Syrian mention of the title and comes after Shawkat’s absence from the media scene for the past few months.
Shawkat had served as the head of the military intelligence until July 2009, when he was appointed as deputy chief of staff.
The channel adds that President Al-Asad held a lunch banquet in honour of the children of the martyrs on this occasion, which Shawkat attended as well.
Originally published by Syrian TV satellite service, Damascus, in Arabic 6 May 10.
Peace Now: Construction for largest East Jerusalem settlement has begun
Anti-settlement group says renovations within former police station did not require municipal building permits – official approval that could torpedo the new peace negotiations.
By Haaretz Service
The Israeli anti-settlement group Peace Now said Sunday that renovation work has recently begun for the construction of 14 housing units in an old Israel Police station in East Jerusalem, where plans are in the works for the largest Jewish neighborhood in that part of the city.
Some 50 Jewish families currently live in six buildings in Ras al-Amud, where an American Jewish millionaire has purchased land for Jewish settlement.
The plan calls for the construction of 104 housing units on the land where the former headquarters of the Judea and Samaria police was housed before it was moved to a new building in Area E-1.
The plan involves high-end housing and the complex will include a swimming pool, mini “country club,” community library and parking spaces. A synagogue, kindergartens and a mikveh (Jewish ritual purification bath) are also planned for construction there.
A foot bridge will connect the new settlement with existing ones on the other side of the road. The settlement of Ma’aleh Zeitim across the street currently houses 51 families and in its second phase of development, which is currently being completed, another 66 housing units are being built.
When the two neighborhoods are completed and linked, a Jewish settlement of more than 1,000 people will be situated in the heart of Ras al-Amud, a neighborhood comprising 14,000 Palestinians
Fatah: Israel planning mall in East Jerusalem
Published yesterday (updated) 11/05/2010 20:03
Jerusalem – Ma’an – Israel is planning to build a shopping mall in East Jerusalem on three dunums of land owned by the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Endowments, behind the US Consulate, Fatah Jerusalem Affairs official Hatem Abdul Qader said Tuesday.
The land’s trustee was handed down administrative orders, including eviction notices, from the director of the Israel Lands Administration, claiming the land as government owned rather than residential, Abdul Qader said.
The new building plan, filled as 4832 A in Israel’s Jerusalem Municipality, was ratified by all the necessary Israeli municipal departments and is prepared for implementation, he said.
The land tipped for evacuation and confiscation belongs to Ash-Sheikh Shams Ad-Din Al-Yamalli, and the land has been owned by the Islamic Waqf for over 400 years, the Fatah official added, and is being rented by three Palestinians.
“Turkish ambassador to Syria: Relations developing tremendously…” (Thanks to mideastwire.com)
On May 7, the Saudi-owned London-based Al-Hayat daily carried in its paper edition the following article by its correspondent in Damascus Ibrahim Hamidi: “Turkish Ambassador to Damascus Omar Onhon told Al-Hayat that Syria and Turkey have succeeded in building a strong partnership and that their bilateral relations should be taken as an example for good neighbor and regional cooperation. The ambassador was quoted by Al-Hayat as saying: “The relations we have with Syria are to be an example for the Middle East states…… This relationship is very important for the stability of the region and I can tell you that we are in agreement over most issues and share the same views over most developments. But this does not mean that we have formed an axis against any third party. Quite the contrary. Nonetheless, this region has always faced many problems and it is very healthy that the two nations get closer and resolve their problems peacefully….”” – Al-Hayat, United Kingdom
Human Rights Award Goes to Imprisoned Syrian Lawyer
2010-05-07 14:16:17.480 GMT
Geneva (dpa) — Muhannad Al-Hassani, a Syrian lawyer currently in prison, was awarded the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders, the committee announced Friday. Al-Hassani, president of the Syrian Organization for Human
Rights, “has bravely defended human rights and challenged the oppressive legal framework imposed by the Syrian government,” the prize’s jury said in its statement.
Syrian-Qatari Holding Signs Definitive Agreement to Develop Syria’s First World-Class Medical Center in Damascus
Mon, May 10, 2010,
The project is the first of its kind in Syria and based on international standards Under the supervision of some of the best Syrian doctors practicing in the USA. A significant rallying point for Syrian doctors living abroad. …The Medical City will be located in Damascus, in the West Mazzeh area……
…”The Heart Center, for instance, will provide the highest level of skills and expertise to treat a wide variety of cardiovascular diseases, utilizing the most advanced technologies available” says Dr. Kholoki, interventional cardiologist…..
The economic occupation of the Syrian Golan Al-Marsad – The Arab Centre for Human Rights in the Golan, December 2009.
Introduction ……………………………………………………………………………7
Section 1 : Annexation and Settlements – Paving the Way for Economic Exploitation .. 9
1.1 The occupied Golan – A Brief Geographical Overview …………………….10
1.2 The 1967 War and its Outcomes – The Road to Annexation ……………..17
1.3 Annexation – The Undermining of the Legal Status of the occupied Golan.. 21
1.4 The Settlements …………………………………………………………….33
Section 2 : The Business of Colonisation – The Untold Cost of the Settlement Industry.. 54
2.1 Economic Motivations Behind the Settlements …………………………..55
2.2 Economic Sanction and Restrictions Imposed on the Local Population…58
2.3 The Right of Sovereignty over Natural Resources ………………………..85
2.4 The Illegality of Settlement Products ………………………………………….87
Section 3 : Active Acquiescence – Settlement Products and the Failings of Europe.. 90
3.1 EU-Israel Trade Relations – A Brief Overview ……………………………91
3.2 Human Rights and EU-Israel Relations …………………………………..105
3.3 An Overview of Corporate Complicity …………………………………….114
3.4 Companies Linked to Settlement Production in the Golan ……………..117