USAF RQ-4A Global Hawk high-altitude surveillance UAV… no doubt, the US is passing intel on to its Islamist allies on the ground. Don’t forget, if you support the rebels, you support the massacre of the Alawi population and the certain expulsion of the Christian population. Ask yourself, “Why do both the Neocon Republicans and Interventionist Democrats want to place an anti-Christian junta in power?” The answer’s not very reassuring, is it?
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On Sunday, NBC reported, referring to Pentagon officials, that unmanned US military and intelligence drones fly missions over Syria to monitor developments. It said, “A good number of American drones operate in Syrian skies, monitoring the Syrian military’s attacks against opposition forces and innocent civilians alike”. Pentagon officials say this surveillance isn’t a preparation for US military intervention. The Obama administration hopes to use visual evidence and intercepts of Syrian government and military communications to “make a case for a widespread international response”. NBC stated that the US government held some discussions about possible humanitarian missions in Syria but “US officials fear that those missions couldn’t be carried out without endangering those involved and would almost certainly draw the United States into a military role in Syria”.
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On Sunday, al Jazeera television reported that Syria recalled its ambassador to Egypt over Cairo’s withdrawal of its envoy in Damascus. The move came as Syria’s violent crackdown against opposition groups continued. On Sunday, Egyptian Foreign Ministry spokesman Amr Rushd said in a statement that Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr “summoned the Egyptian ambassador to Damascus … and decided that the ambassador would remain in Cairo until further notice”. Earlier, a number of Western and Arab countries also recalled their ambassadors in Syria. On Sunday, Syrian opposition activists called for a “Day of Defiance” after security forces killed at least one person at a funeral in Damascus on Saturday. The shooting came during a visit by a Chinese envoy, who called on all sides in the conflict to end the violence. Zhai Jun, China’s Vice Foreign Minister, also backed government plans for a referendum on a new constitution and subsequent elections. Meanwhile, government forces continued their bombardment of the opposition stronghold of Homs.
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On Sunday, Iranian media reported that Iranian warships docked in the Syrian port of Tartus. Al Jazeera television reported that the Mehr News Agency said the deployment caused “extreme worry for Zionist forces”. Iranian officials usually refer to Israel as the “Zionist régime”. The Iranian English-language TV outlet Press TV said that two Iranian ships arrived on 17 February at the port, which is the location of the only Russian naval base in the Mediterranean. It also cited Hossein Ebrahimi, the deputy chairman of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of the Iranian parliament, as saying that the presence of Iranian naval forces in Syrian waters was a clear warning to the United States to refrain from military intervention in Syria. On Saturday, Admiral Habibollah Sayari, the commander of the Iranian Navy, announced that the country’s “strategic navy” passed through the Suez Canal for the second time since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Sayari did not specify how many vessels were in the operational force. Violence in Syria has continued over the weekend.
19 February 2012
RIA-Novosti
http://en.rian.ru/world/20120219/171397363.html
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