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.

Riverbend: An Iraqi Refugee in Syria tells her story

Riverbend is an Iraqi female blogger who has kept an online account of her life in Iraq since the American invasion.  She and her family have become one of 1.5 million people to take refuge in Syria.  She wrote eloquently about her life as a refugee in a foreign country just yesterday.  Here is an excerpt:

 By the time we had reentered the Syrian border and were headed back to the cab ready to take us into Kameshli, I had resigned myself to the fact that we were refugees. I read about refugees on the Internet daily… in the newspapers… hear about them on TV. I hear about the estimated 1.5 million plus Iraqi refugees in Syria and shake my head, never really considering myself or my family as one of them. After all, refugees are people who sleep in tents and have no potable water or plumbing, right? Refugees carry their belongings in bags instead of suitcases and they don’t have cell phones or Internet access, right? Grasping my passport in my hand like my life depended on it, with two extra months in Syria stamped inside, it hit me how wrong I was. We were all refugees. I was suddenly a number. No matter how wealthy or educated or comfortable, a refugee is a refugee. A refugee is someone who isn’t really welcome in any country- including their own… especially their own.

Read the full excerpt here.

Syria meets with North Korean official

Admidst the speculation surrounding the Sept. 6 airstrike on a military facility in northeastern Syria, Syrians officials met with a North Korean official as planned.  Both countries say they are meeting to discuss ways of furthering the relationship between the two countries. Many countries suspect that North Korea may be assisting Syria in developing nuclear capabilities. North Korea has provided military technology to the country in the past.

UN Agency investigates satellite photos of Syrian site

UN experts admitted to the AP that they received satellite photos of the Syrian military facility that was attacked on Sept. 6, and are investigating the photos for signs that it is a nuclear facility.

The Washington Post on Friday cited anonymous American officials as saying the site in Syria’s eastern desert near the Euphrates River had characteristics of a small but substantial nuclear reactor similar to North Korea’s facility.

Other news outlets report another theory. The Raw Story reported other American officials as indicating that the target was not a nuclear facility as Israel claims, but a stockpile of North Korean missiles.

Nuclear or not? Rumours swirl about Syrian site

Another week is gone, and rumors continue to swirl around the globe as to what, exactly, the Israelis hit in a Sept. 6 airstrike on Syrian soil. The Israelis maintain that it is a nuclear facility, and are reporting that Syria is now dismantling the site. The Syrian government continues to deny all accusations–with the Syrian ambassador to the U.S. reiterating the denials to an audience in Texas this week.

Meanwhile, a U.N. interpretor mistranslated the words of Bassam Darwish, a Syrian representative, seemingly confirming to the U.N. that the site was a nuclear project.  A flurry of damaging media reports emerged, heightening concerns around the region and the world that Syria has nuclear ambitions.

Soon after, it was revealed that the interpretor had been mistaken. The same interpretor will now face disciplinary action.

The mystery remains.

Broke Iraqi refugees leave safety of Syria, return to uncertainty in Iraq

The belief that Iraqi refugees have money seems a  prevalent idea in Syria.  One man even confided to me his theory that many Iraqis in Syria were looters that had brought platinum bars into Syria which they use to live very nice lifestyles in Damascus.

The truth is that most Iraqis are not wealthy.  They are living on savings and are charged exorbitant fees for housing, food, and even taxi rides.  Some have exhausted their resources, and, unable to work legally in Syria–are being forced to return to Iraq.