Syria-Iran Chemical Weapons Experiment Kills dozens

JPost: Dozens died in Syrian-Iranian chemical weapons experiment’
“Proof of cooperation between Iran and Syria in the proliferation and development of weapons of mass destruction was brought to light Monday in a Jane’s Magazine report that dozens of Iranian engineers and 15 Syrian officers were killed in a July 23 accident in Syria.” Link through Freida.

Related: All from A Jacksonian's blog:

Monzer al-Kassar and Transnational Terrorism
[The following is a 'rush job', so spelling and syntax are not what I would like them to be] Previous post in the series is here. First in the series is here. So, just who *is* Monzer al-Kassar? We get a look into his life in the larger ...
Posted byA Jacksonian on10 June, 2007 18:17
The Rising Power Inside Iran
Now what does the structure of the IRGC tell us? In this Iran Focus Article of 20 AUG 2005 we learn a bit on that internal structure:. Tehran, Iran, Aug. 20 – Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered on Saturday a key ...
Posted byA Jacksonian on08 April, 2007 10:49
Foreign policy antics
Some very interesting things got said on the way to Damascus, Syria, home of a tyrant assiduously creating WMDs and long range missile capacity. The flavor of it is pure domestic politics, but the realm is wholly foreign... which is not ...
Posted byA Jacksonian on05 April, 2007 14:01
A Jacksonian posts on Syrian WMD capability
Syrian WMD Sites - The Basic List:. First, and most importantly, is that the phosphate deposits in Syria are a multi-part threat. Phosphates, of course, are used in agriculture for fertilizer and in the steel and glass-making businesses ...
Posted byFausta on28 March, 2007 07:27
Syrian weapons purchases: the unbarked dog
An interesting thing happens when Syria purchases some weapons: people start to say Syria is 'arming up' against Israel. Well it is purchasing arms, but for what requires a bit of a look. So lets get some details from that UPI story: ...
Posted byA Jacksonian on22 February, 2007 12:14
Examining Jamaat ul-Fuqra from Gates of Vienna views
Part of my views on many things in general happenings requires that events not be taken as 'incidents' but that they get some contextual analysis based on available data, historical background and a look at multiple other players in any ...
Posted byA Jacksonian on21 February, 2007 06:48
The Middle East Act II, Scene i : The Winds of Baghdad
To those of you coming late to the play, Act I was a well produced but poorly staged affair with little to recommend it in the beginning. So take a seat and I will catch you up as best I can. In that first Act Radical Islamists started ...
Posted byA Jacksonian on19 January, 2007 15:37

Read more!

"Bashar Al-Assad and Ahmadinejad are Working to Ignite Region For Own Interests

http://www.ikhwansyria.com/ (Syrian Muslim Brotherhood website)

Syrian Muslim Brotherhood Website: Syria, Iran Working to Ignite Region For Own Interests

In an article posted on the website of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood(www.ikhwansyria.com ), Faisal Al-Sheikh Muhammad, a movement member and regular contributor to the site, harshly criticized the policies of Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad and of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Al-Sheikh Muhammad wrote that Assad and Ahmadinejad were sabotaging all attempts to reduce tension in Iraq and Lebanon, and were even threatening to ignite the entire region in order to divert world attention from the Iranian nuclear issue and from the issue of the international tribunal for the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Al-Hariri.

The following are excerpts: [1]


"They Are Holding Cards That Are Affecting The Region"

"At his inauguration [for his] second [term in office], Bashar remarked that, in the next few months, the region and the whole world would change, while the Iranian president warned that the summer would be hot.

"These two individuals do not usually issue such warnings for nothing: The truth is that they are holding cards that are affecting the region - each according to his ability and power. While Ahmadinejad is brandishing his nuclear plans, which scare the West, as well as the issue of the Iraqi quagmire into which the U.S. military is sinking, Assad is flaunting the Lebanese case, along with the terrorist organizations which he has established, financed, and armed, and which he has the power to deploy whenever and wherever he wants.

"We already know that Tehran and Damascus are trying to impede and sabotage any consensual solution in Iraq and Lebanon that will calm the situation in the region, gradually stabilize security, and reestablish peaceful coexistence within the Lebanese and Iraqi societies. The agenda of both Ahmadinejad and Assad is [to leave] the two countries in the grip of destructive anarchy... in order to keep the U.S., Europe and the world occupied, thus preventing them from confronting the Syrian and Iranian leaders, [as would occur] if [any] settlement were reached in Lebanon and Iraq.


"Soul-mates Ahmadinejad and Bashar are Playing for Time and [Taking] Preventive Steps to Preserve the Status Quo on Iraq and Lebanon"

"The world's continued preoccupation with Beirut and Baghdad - the two hotspots which are, in effect, a powder keg that endangers the region and the whole world, and which Ahmadinejad and Assad are threatening to blow up - is bound to turn the entire region into a bloodbath, should any degree of success be attained in [the efforts to] sabotage the Iranian nuclear project or to thwart Damascus's attempts to prevent the establishment of the international tribunal [for the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Al-Hariri].

"Soul-mates Ahmadinejad and Bashar are playing for time, and [taking] preventive steps to preserve the status quo in Iraq and Lebanon. Everything we hear about meetings between Iranian and U.S. representatives over the situation in Iraq is nothing but another diplomatic game [played] by Iran, contemptible but ever brilliant at fraud and deception.


"They are Deviously and Malevolently Aspiring to Destroy This Region, With Which They Feel Neither Affinity Nor Kinship"

"The same goes for Damascus, which announces at every opportunity that it is in favor of any agreement acceptable to the Lebanese for solving their problems and [reaching] internal consensus, while [in reality] both its reasoning and actions are against [a solution in Lebanon].

"Ahmadinejad wants to buy time in order to obtain nuclear weapons and to force the world to face this as a fait accompli. Indeed, yesterday he declared that the world must accept Iran as the ninth nuclear country (after the five superpowers, India, Pakistan, and North Korea). Bashar, in turn, wants to convince the world that [the road] to peace and security in Lebanon passes through Damascus.

"It appears that what the allies Ahmadinejad and Bashar are proclaiming is no secret: the region is sitting on a powder keg, whose explosion would alter the geopolitical situation of the entire area… They are aware that the focal points of the explosion, as well as the means and tools for its execution, are in their hands. They are deviously and malevolently aspiring to destroy this region, with which they feel neither affinity nor kinship."

Read more!

a billion dollars from Iran to Syria — payment for refusing to talk peace.

Meir Jevadanfar: Sooner or later, Syria will have to start paying a higher price for its friendship with Iran by reducing its assistance for these militants.
It may seem like a nice gift for now, but the $1 billion assistance package from Tehran may very well turn into an Iranian leash for Syria in the near future. There’s no such thing as a free lunch. And here is the rest of it.

Read more!