US and France warn Syria: don’t meddle in Lebanon elections

The U.S., France and the League of Arab Nations warned Syria on Saturday not to meddle in the upcoming Lebanese presidential elections.

Here’s a clip from the article explaining the conflict:

Presidential elections in Lebanon have been twice deferred because of a lack of consensus over who should replace the pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud, whose term expires on November 24.  Fears are running high in Beirut that the standoff between the pro- and anti-Syrian camps could lead to two rival governments, a grim reminder of the end of Lebanon’s 1975-1990 civil war when two administrations battled it out.

The opposition has refused to recognize the legitimacy of the Western-backed government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora since six pro-Syrian ministers quit in November last year.

United States invites Syria to Peace Party

The United States announced on Sunday that Syria is welcome to participate in the peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, but only if it agrees to focus on Palestinian-Israeli issues, not on the Golan Heights.  Israel, Palestine and the U.S. are planning to meet to re-open the “roadmap to peace”  between the two nations.

Syria and Israel have remained officially at war since Israel captured the Golan Heights from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967. Syria has said it will not participate in any peace talks unless the Golan Heights is on the agenda.

Nearly 2 months on, all parties are silent on Syrian air strike

Nearly eight weeks have passed, and all is remains quiet regarding a Sept. 6 Israeli air strike on a Syrian military facility.  Many players have a lot at stake, including Syria, Israel, the US and North Korea.  Washington Post Deputy Editor Jackson Diehl spells out the diplomatic quandry in his editorial today:

“Now Israeli and U.S. officials are quietly debating whether to go on the record and allow those shock waves to explode across the Middle East and beyond. At stake are not only Israel’s tense relations with Syria, which so far has chosen not to retaliate, but a host of other pressure points: Israeli-Palestinian negotiations; the integrity of the International Atomic Energy Agency; Western leverage over Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad; and — not least — the fragile U.S. nuclear bargain with North Korea, which is believed to have aided the secret construction.”

Read the entire editorial here-

Syrian police kill a PKK demonstrator

The Syrian police killed one Kurdish demonstrator at a pro-PKK rally outside the Syrian village of Qamishli over the weekend. About 200 kurds had gathered there to show support for their PKK allies in northern Iraq and southern Turkey. The PKK, which advocates for a kurdish state in the region, has been involved in military skirmishes with the Turkish government after the PKK killed a dozen Turkish soldiers and kidnapped several others.  They have since been released.

Syria has strengthened its ties with Turkey recently. The two countries are discussing opening their borders for trade as Turkey clamps down on its own border with Northern Iraq, where the PKK is headquartered.

Syria has a sizeable kurdish population in the northern part of the country.

Syria won’t hold anti-Palestinian Authority conference

In response to outside pressure, Syria has forbidden a summit of Palestinian factions that was scheduled to be held in Damascus at the same time as the Annapolis Peace Conference. The factions included members of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, which opposes the leadership of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Both groups are on the US Department of State’s list of terrorist organizations.

Abbas is scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Condoleeza Rice in Annapolis. The three will be attempting to reinitiate the “Roadmap to Peace”, a plan co-created in 2003 by the US, Europe and the UN.

Palestinian Authority to Syria: Don’t host HAMAS meeting

The Palestinian Authority travelled to Damascus on Sunday to urge Syria not to host a gathering involving Hamas and others opposed to a peace conference with Israel to be held soon in the United States.

“Hosting this meeting in Damascus would deepen Palestinian divisions and harm Arab efforts to overcome the crisis that led to the separation of Gaza and the West Bank”, said Saleh Ra-Fat, one of three envoys sent by President Mahmoud Abbas.

Hamas ran President Abbas’ forces out of the Gaza Strip in June.  Several Hamas leaders are living in Syria in exile.

Israel to Turkey: Sorry, we might have invaded your airspace

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert apologized to Turkey on Sunday for possibly invading Turkish airspace. Mr. Olmert refrained from admitting that it was during a Sept. 6 air strike on a Syrian military site.

Israel has yet to officially admit it carried out the strike. Turkish authorities have complained that Israel dropped fuel tanks on the country during the operation.

“If Israeli planes indeed penetrated Turkish airspace, then it was without prior intent or any intent to infringe upon or undermine Turkish sovereignty, which we respect,” a statement from Olmert’s office cited him as telling the Cabinet. In a conversation with Turkey’s prime minister last week, Olmert “expressed Israel’s apologies to the Turkish government and the Turkish people for any harm that might have been caused,” the statement said.

IAEA chief criticizes Israel for strike on Syria

Mohamed ElBaradei, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, criticized  Israel in a CNN interview for it’s Sept. 6 airstrike on a facility in Syria, saying that Israel’s pre-emptive strike “is very distressful because we have a system.  If countries have information that the country is working on a nuclear-related program, they should come to us.”

ElBaradei told CNN that the IAEA has not received any information about secret nuclear activity in Syria and that Israel’s strike will make it more difficult to investigate or resolve any suspicions.

Photos said to show Israeli strike site

U.S. security analysts say they believe they have satellite photos of the site in northeastern Syria which was the target of a Sept. 6 Israeli airstrike.

Both U.S. and international experts said the site is similar to that of a nuclear facility in North Korea. The photos depict a compound with a tall chamber that could possibly house a gas-graphite reactor.

Syria has consistently denied any rumors that it is developing nuclear technology, stating only that the site is an out-of-use military facility.

UN and Syria will count all Iraqi refugees

The United Nations Development Program and Syria signed an agreement on Sunday to count displaced Iraqi citizens who are residing in Syria, and to determine what socioeconomic effects they may be having on the country. It is rumored that up to 1.5 million Iraqi refugees are living in Syria, more than any other country.

Syrian citizens have complained that the Iraqis are driving up food, electric, gasoline and real estate costs. The Syrian government has asked for assistance from the international community in the past to help deal with the humanitarian crisis.

The UN Development Program project is expected to last about seven months and is jointly financed by Denmark.