1WC'sChannel REVIEW 2012: Iranian 200-kilometre (120-mile) range Qader (Ghader) ground-to-sea missile is launched on the last day of navy war games near the Strait of Hormuz in southern Iran. (TINJAUAN 1WC'sChannel 2012: Iran 200 kilometer (120 batu) pelbagai Qader (Ghader) peluru berpandu (ground-to-sea missile) dilancarkan pada hari terakhir war games tentera laut berhampiran Selat Hormuz di selatan Iran) (AFP Photo/Jamejamonline./Ebrahim Noroozi)
Iran mengancam untuk 'menyerang' pada sebarang campur tangan di Syria
Rejim Presiden Bashar al-Assad, mempunyai rakan-rakan di rantau ini bersedia "untuk membatalkan" sekiranya campur tangan ke Syria, kata seorang komander Pengawal Revolusi Iran. Amaran itu dihantar ke negara-negara "benci" Negara-negara Arab. "Tiada kawan-kawan Syria atau depan rintangan besar lagi telah memasuki tempat kejadian, dan sekiranya ini berlaku, tegas bertiup akan melanda pada musuh, terutamanya raja-raja Arab yang dibenci," Jeneral Masoud Jazayeri, seorang jurucakap Bersama Ketua-ketua negara Staf, memberitahu agensi berita Fars.
Tiada negara khususnya telah disebut. Iran kekal sebagai sekutu utama rasmi Damsyik, manakala pemimpin-pemimpin negara-negara Teluk seperti Arab Saudi, Jordan atau Qatar secara terbuka menyokong pemberontak Syria. Retorik agresif yang mendengar dari Iran datang di atas pertukaran ke atas kimia dan Syria senjata biologi yang negara Arab berikrar hari Isnin untuk tidak menggunakan terhadap penduduk sendiri, tetapi hanya untuk memerangi "penceroboh asing."
Ini adalah kali pertama senjata Syria menjadi realiti rasmi, sejak negara adalah salah satu daripada hanya 6 yang bukan penandatangan Konvensyen Senjata Kimia tahun 1992. Stok penimbal berupa Syria agen saraf, termasuk gas mustard, serta peluru berpandu Scud yang mampu penghantaran aman mengikut kepada Kementerian Luar. Laporan media mengatakan senjata sedang beralih dari tapak pertempuran antara rejim pro-dan pasukan pembangkang yang teruk.
Torrent amaran membanjiri Damsyik ekoran kenyataan, sebagai pegawai dari EU dan PBB menyuara-kan kebimbangan mereka tentang kemungkinan penggunaan senjata kimia. Pada hari Selasa, Rusia berkata ia berharap Syria akan mematuhi oleh protokol Geneva yang disahkan oleh negara Arab pada tahun 1968. Dokumen itu melarang penggunaan, pengeluaran atau menyimpan senjata kimia. Kementerian Luar Rusia berkata, "mendakwa bahawa pihak berkuasa Syria akan terus ketat mematuhi obligasi anggapan antarabangsa."
Presiden Amerika Syarikat Barack Obama dan Pentagon serta-merta memberi amaran kepada Damsyik terhadap "kesilapan tragik" yang menempatkan senjata-senjata seperti itu dengan Obama yang mengesankan pada rejim Assad, bahawa "DUNIA sedang menonton." Pada masa yang sama, Israel telah telah membayangkan pada campur tangan untuk menjamin senjata jika runtuh rejim Assad. Kementerian Luar Israel mengakui "bukan sistem senjata konvensional keseluruhan adalah di bawah kawalan penuh rejim (Syria)." Tetapi pengetahuan ini nampaknya tidak membubarkan imej Hizbullah meletakkan tangan pada senjata.
Untuk melengkapkan pertukaran ini, Iran Jazayeri juga menolak Selasa keupayaan "musuh" untuk menggulingkan kerajaan Syria. "Rakyat negara ini dan rakan-rakan tidak akan membenarkan 1 langkah untuk berlaku," katanya. Namun, ramai yang mengiktiraf corak perang psikologi. Paul Lashmar, seorang wartawan penyiasatan dan akademik di Universiti Brunel London, berkata tuduhan itu boleh mensasarkan 1 matlamat: untuk mewujudkan imej Syria berbahaya, yang tidak dapat menjalankan kawalan ke atas dirinya sendiri.
"Senjata kimia dan biologi adalah tidak baik terhadap unit pemberontak yang berjuang dalam pertempuran dari rumah ke rumah. Ini adalah senjata yang anda menggunakan negara terhadap negara dalam pertempuran berskala penuh. Hakikat bahawa Amerika dan negara-negara lain mendapat begitu prihatin adalah untuk meletakkan penekanan kepada Syria sebagai sebuah negara penyangak. Apa yang sedang berlaku adalah untuk menekankan bahawa ini adalah sebuah negara dengan senjata kimia dan biologi yang muncul untuk menjadi luar kawalan, "Lashmar kepada RT.
Sementara itu, PBB menganggarkan kebangkitan 17 bulan di Syria telah mengambil lebih 15,000 nyawa, Kesatuan Eropah (EU) mengetatkan sekatan senjata ke atas Syria. Sekarang negara-negara EU yang diperlukan untuk mencari pesawat dan kapal-kapal jika mereka mempunyai "alasan yang munasabah untuk mengesyaki mereka membawa senjata, barangan dwi-guna atau peralatan yang digunakan untuk" penindasan "ke Syria. Senarai hitam, sudah mengandungi 49 organisasi dan 129 orang, juga telah diperluaskan kepada 26 orang, kebanyakannya: pegawai tentera. Bermula hari Isnin mereka diharamkan daripada memasuki Kesatuan Eropah (EU) dan aset mereka telah dibekukan.
Iran threatens to ‘strike out’ at any
intervention in Syria
President Bashar al-Assad’s regime has friends in the region poised “to strike out” in the event of an intervention into Syria, says a commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guards. The warning was particularly sent to “hated” Arab countries. “None of Syria's friends or the great front of resistance has yet entered the scene, and in the event that this happens, decisive blows will be struck at the enemy, especially the hated Arab rulers,” Gen. Masoud Jazayeri, a spokesman of the country's Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Fars news agency.
No country in particular was mentioned. Iran remains a key ally of official Damascus, while leaders of such Gulf countries as Saudi Arabia, Jordan or Qatar openly support Syrian rebels. The hawkish rhetoric heard from Iran comes on top of the exchange over Syria’s chemical and biological arsenal, which the Arab country pledged Monday not to use against its own population, but only to combat “foreign aggressors.”
This was the first time Syria’s arsenals became an official reality, since the nation is one of just six non-signatories to the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1992. Syria’s purported stockpiles of nerve agents, including mustard gas, as well as Scud missiles capable of delivery, are secure according to its Foreign Ministry. Media reports say the weapons are being moved away from sites of severe clashes between pro-regime and opposition forces.
A torrent of warnings flooded Damascus following the statements, as officials from the EU and UN voiced their concerns over the possible use of the chemical arsenal. On Tuesday, Russia said it hoped Syria would abide by a Geneva protocol ratified by the Arab country in 1968. The document bans the use, production or stockpiling of chemical weapons. Russia’s Foreign Ministry said it "presumes that the Syrian authorities will continue to rigorously abide by its assumed international obligations."
US President Barack Obama and the Pentagon immediately warned Damascus against the “tragic mistake” of deploying the weapons as such with Obama impressing on Assad’s regime that “the world is watching.” At the same time, Israel has been hinting at an intervention to secure the weapons if Assad’s regime collapses. Israel’s Foreign Ministry admits “the entire non-conventional weapons system is under the full control of the (Syrian) regime.” But this knowledge apparently did not dissolve the image of Hezbollah laying its hands on the arsenal.
To complete this exchange, Iran’s Jazayeri also dismissed Tuesday the ability of “enemies” to overthrow the Syrian government. “The country's people and its friends will not allow such a move to take place,” he said. Still, many recognize the pattern of a psychological war. Paul Lashmar, an investigative journalist and academic at London’s Brunel University, says the accusation may be targeting one goal: to create an image of dangerous Syria, which cannot exercise control over itself.
“Chemical and biological weapons are no good against rebel units that are fighting in a house-to-house combat. These are weapons you use nation against nation in a full scale battle. The fact that Americans and other countries are getting so concerned is to put the emphasis on Syria as a rogue nation. What is going on is to emphasize that this is a country with chemical and biological weapons that appears to be out of control,” Lashmar told RT.
Meanwhile, as the UN estimates the 17-month uprising in Syria has taken over 15,000 lives, the EU tightens an arms embargo on Syria. Now the EU countries are required to search planes and ships if they have "reasonable grounds" to suspect they are carrying arms, dual-use goods or equipment used for “repression” to Syria. Blacklists, already containing 49 organizations and 129 people, were also expanded to 26 people, mostly military officials. Starting Monday they are banned from entering the EU and their assets have been frozen.
WORLD News ‘Umum teratas, kawan
presiden Syria, kecacatan
BEIRUT (AP) - jet pejuang melepaskan lonjakan sonik dan gunships helikopter strafed pemberontak kerana mereka ditekan perjuangan mereka Selasa ke kejiranan baru di Aleppo, bandar terbesar di Syria. Seterusnya Jauh ke selatan, tentera darat Damsyik disapu selepas kekalahan yang hampir lengkap serangan pemberontak terbesar lagi kepada ibu negeri.
Selepas beberapa siri kekecewaan, angkatan Presiden Bashar Assad, perbekuan cengkaman mereka ke atas Aleppo dan Damsyik, mengetahui bahawa kejatuhan mereka hampir pasti akan mengeja akhir rejim. Rejim muncul akan mendapatkan kembali momentum selepas beberapa siri kekecewaan yang meletakkan ia dalam situasi bertahan. Tetapi manakala pasukan dengan mudah outgun golongan pemberontak di konfrontasi langsung, pemberontakan itu telah merebak mereka - menunjuk ke perang lukisan keluar sivil.
2 terbesar bandar Syria, rumah lebih daripada 1 pertiga rakyat 22 juta dan pusat negara kehidupan politik dan ekonomi yang, telah kekal sebahagian besarnya terlindung daripada pergolakan itu yang telah melanda seluruh negara semasa konflik 16 bulan .
Tetapi bulan ini, pemberontak dari kawasan sekitar telah mendorong kepada kedua-dua, membawa pertempuran jalan sebelum menenangkan kejiranan bandar. Pertempuran di setiap bandar telah mengikuti skrip yang serupa. Selepas membina angkatan mereka di kawasan luar bandar dan bertempur dengan tentera kerajaan di sana, pemberontak yang ditekan ke Damsyik awal minggu lepas, mencetuskan pertempuran di sekitar bandar dengan tentera kerajaan.
Pembangkang mendarat 1 tamparan keras Julai 18, apabila bom yang mengoyakkan melalui mesyuarat keselamatan peringkat tinggi, membunuh 4 pegawai teratas Assad penasihat keselamatan termasuk menteri pertahanan dan suami kakaknya itu. Semua telah menjadi arkitek utama usaha kerajaan untuk membatalkan pemberontakan.
Tetapi pertempuran bertukar apabila rejim dikerahkan daya hangat ia telah digunakan untuk meng-hancurkan pemberontak di tempat lain, serangan kawasan perumahan dan mensasarkan pemberontak dengan mesingan dan peluru berpandu yang dilancarkan dari helikopter serangan.
Pada hari Selasa, kerajaan muncul sebahagian besarnya telah diambil semula ibu negeri. Aktivis dilaporkan serangan dan pertempuran yang sporadis antara tentera dan pemberontak di dalam dan sekitar bandar, tetapi mengakui bahawa kebanyakan pejuang telah ditarik balik.
"Mereka terpaksa berundur kerana mereka kekurangan peluru dan organisasi, kerana rejim itu adalah lebih kuat dan kerana mereka tidak mahu untuk mencederakan orang awam," Aktivis Damsyik Mohammed Saeed berkata melalui Skype.
Pertempuran yang memberikan kesan yang besar, menjadikan Jun 1 bulan dahsyat dalam konflik bahawa aktivis mengatakan telah membunuh lebih daripada 19,000 orang. Kira-kira satu pertiga daripada 150 orang yang terbunuh di dalam seluruh Syria pada hari Isnin atau berhampiran Damsyik, berkata Balai Cerap Syria bagi Hak Asasi Manusia yang berpangkalan di Britain.
Video amatur yang dihantar online Selasa menunjukkan selepas: bangunan yang dikurangkan kepada runtuhan oleh cengkerang kerajaan, helikopter berlegar atas dan tiang yang berasap naik dari kawasan yang masih di atas api. Video lain menunjukkan kereta kebal di jalan-jalan dan ramai askar berjalan kaki menyapu kawasan-kawasan yang pernah diadakan oleh pemberontak.
Perkhidmatan berita negeri Syria berkata tentera mengejar "pengganas bersenjata" dari beberapa daerah selepas membunuh dan mencederakan ramai di antara mereka dan masih mencari kawasan-kawasan lain. Syria menyalahkan pengganas yang disokong oleh kuasa-kuasa asing untuk pemberonta-kan.
Video dan tuntutan tidak boleh secara bebas disahkan. Kerajaan Syria menghalang media kebanyakan daripada beroperasi di negara ini. Walaupun rejim menegaskan kawalan di ibu negara, pemberontak di utara melancarkan serangan ke atas Aleppo pada hujung minggu. Mereka menolak ke dalam kawasan kejiranan di pinggir selatan dan timur laut bandar dan memusnahkan sekurang-kurangnya 3 tangki kerajaan.
Pertepuran yang berkembang pada hari Selasa, dengan pertempuran yang merebak ke dalam kawasan kejiranan ke atas kedua-dua pihak bandar lama yang bersejarah dan ke dalam beberapa kawasan lain, kata aktivis. Kerajaan bangkit sebagaimana banyaknya yang berlaku di Damsyik, menembak peluru meriam pada kawasan pemberontak dan mengejar pejuang dengan helikopter serangan. Penduduk juga melaporkan jet pejuang swooping atas bandar, memecahkan halangan bunyi menyebabkan lonjakan sonik dalam menunjukkan kekerasan.
"Ini adalah hari terburuk berjuang di Aleppo setakat ini, tetapi saya tidak boleh memberitahu apa yang berlaku di tanah atau yang dalam kawalan," kata seorang penulis tempatan yang bercakap yang tidak mahu dikenali kepada tindakan balas. "Ini adalah tidak baik kerana pada akhirnya ia orang awam yang akan membayar harga pertempuran jalanan ini."
Banduan di penjara Aleppo juga merusuh semalaman, dan aktivis yang berkata pasukan pemerintah membunuh sekurang-kurangnya 8 daripada mereka. Pengawal menghentikan 1 lagi rusuhan penjara di bandar berhampiran Homs dengan gas pemedih mata dan peluru hidup.
Sekurang-kurangnya 26 daripada lebih daripada 110 orang yang terbunuh di seluruh negara pada hari Selasa wilayah di Aleppo, Balai Cerap Syria. Selasa, komander tertinggi tentera dan rakan rapat Presiden Syria Bashar Assad juga mengesahkan Pembelotan daripada rejim.
Brig. Jeneral Manaf Tlass, anak bekas Menteri Pertahanan, berkata dalam siaran video pada Al-Arabiya TV bahawa Syria mesti bekerja bersama-sama membina sebuah negara baru. "Saya bercakap kepada anda bukan sebagai seorang pegawai, tetapi sebagai seorang anak Syria, sebagai seorang anak tentera Arab Syria yang telah menolak program jenayah jika ada rejim rasuah ini," Tlass berkata, berpakaian baju biru muda dengan kolar terbuka , uban tussled.
"Bertugas hari ini kami sebagai Syria adalah untuk menyatukan untuk 1 matlamat, dan itu adalah untuk menjadikan negara kita bebas dan demokratik," katanya. Ia adalah penampilan pertama beliau awam sejak beliau meninggalkan Syria awal bulan ini. Pegawai - pegawai Kerajaan Perancis kemudian mengesahkan bahawa beliau adalah di Perancis.
Senyap yang panjang itu menimbulkan persoalan mengenai sama ada beliau telah menyertai kebangkitan anti-Assad, atau semata-mata melarikan diri dari perang saudara. Tlass adalah penyeberang peringkat tertinggi dari rejim Syria sejak awal konflik.
Dia adalah seorang ahli elit Pengawal Republikan dan anak bekas Menteri Pertahanan, Mustafa Tlass, yang berkhidmat di bawah bapa Assad. Pemberontakan Syria bermula apabila protes politik Mac 2011 bertemu dengan tindakan kerajaan yang keras. Sebagai penyebaran kritikan dan angka kematian meningkat, ramai pembangkang mengambil senjata dan konflik itu berubah menjadi perang saudara.
Kedudukan Syria sebagai persimpangan geografi dan politik untuk Timur Tengah dan seterusnya telah diberi resonans konflik jauh di luar sempadannya. Amerika Syarikat dan banyak negara-negara Barat telah berkata bahawa Assad mesti pergi, manakala Rusia dan China telah berdiri oleh rejim dan dilindungi daripada kritikan antarabangsa oleh Majlis Keselamatan Pertubuhan Bangsa-Bangsa Bersatu.
Iran juga mengira Assad sebagai sekutu rapat dan jambatan kepada kumpulan militan Hizbullah Lubnan, dana dan senjata. Pada hari Selasa, komander Pengawal berkuasa Revolusi Iran, Kejadian Masoud Jayazeri, memberi amaran tindakan balas jika mana-mana negara Arab campur tangan di Syria.
Walaupun Assad menerima kritikan yang semakin meningkat, negara tidak kelihatan bersedia untuk campur tangan ketenteraan untuk menolak beliau daripada kuasa. Masih, seorang pegawai Syria pada hari Isnin mengancam bahawa Syria boleh menggunakan senjata kimia atau biologi jika ia telah diserang dari luar.
Rusia pada hari Selasa menegur Syria bagi ancaman, mengingatkan Damsyik bahawa ia telah meratifi-kasikan konvensyen global yang mengharamkan penggunaan senjata kimia. 1 kenyataan Kementerian Luar, berkata Syria mesti "unfailingly menghormati obligasi antarabangsa."
Di Israel, yang berkongsi sempadan tertutup dan bermusuhan dengan Syria, ketua tentera memberi amaran kepada kerajaan sendiri bahawa serangan Israel ke atas depot senjata kimia Syria boleh mengheret negara Yahudi ke dalam perang yang lebih luas.
Pegawai Israel telah menyatakan kebimbangan bahawa huru-hara di Syria boleh membenarkan senjata bukan konvensional untuk sampai kepada orang-orang yang akan menggunakan mereka menentang Israel. Israel mesti bergerak dengan berhati-hati untuk mengelakkan "serangan yang lebih luas daripada kita merancang," kata Leftenan Jeneral Benny Gantz, mengikut laman web tentera.
Ia masih tidak jelas jika pemberontak di Aleppo akan bertahan lebih lama daripada rakan-rakan mereka lakukan di Damsyik. Tetapi walaupun aktivis yang mengakui kehilangan ibu negeri berkata pertempuran yang lebih besar telah memenangi. Buat kali pertama, imej Damsyik sebagai berdiri di luar pemberontakan telah berkecai, kata Rami Jarrah, ketua yang berpangkalan di Kaherah- Persatuan Berita Aktivis.
"Jika ini berlaku sekali, ia boleh berlaku lagi," katanya. "Tetapi pada masa yang akan datang," katanya pemberontak, "mereka akan menjadi lebih bersedia."
Associated Press penulis Zeina Karam di Beirut, Albert Aji di Damsyik, Amy Teibel di Yerusalem dan Isachenkov Vladimir di Moscow menyumbang kepada laporan ini.
WORLD News ‘Top general, friend of Syrian
president, defects’
BEIRUT (AP) - Fighter jets unleashed sonic booms and helicopter gunships strafed rebels as they pressed their fight Tuesday into new neighborhoods in Aleppo, Syria's largest city. Farther south, ground troops combed Damascus after the nearly complete rout of the largest rebel assault yet on the capital.
After a series of setbacks, President Bashar Assad's forces are solidifying their grip on Aleppo and Damascus, knowing that their fall would almost certainly spell the regime's end. The regime appears to be regaining momentum after a series of setbacks that put it on the defensive. But while its forces easily outgun the rebels in direct confrontations, the rebellion has spread them thin - pointing to a drawn-out civil war.
Syria's two biggest cities, home to more than one-third of the country's 22 million people and centers of its political and economic life, have remained largely insulated from the unrest that has ravaged much of the rest of the country during the 16-month conflict.
But this month, rebels from surrounding areas have pushed into both, bringing street battles to previously calm urban neighborhoods. The fighting in each city has followed a similar script. After building up their forces in the countryside and clashing with government troops there, rebels pressed into Damascus early last week, sparking clashes around the city with government troops.
The opposition landed a harsh blow July 18, when a bomb tore through a high-level security meeting, killing four top Assad security advisers including his minister of defense and his older sister's husband. All had been key architects of the government's efforts to quash the uprising.
But the battle turned when the regime deployed the overwhelming force it has used to crush rebels elsewhere, shelling residential areas and targeting rebels with machine guns and missiles fired from attack helicopters.
On Tuesday, the government appeared to have largely retaken the capital. Activists reported shelling and sporadic clashes between troops and rebels in and around the city, but acknowledged that most fighters had withdrawn.
"They had to withdraw because they lacked ammunition and organization, because the regime was stronger and because they didn't want to hurt civilians," Damascus activist Mohammed Saeed said via Skype.
The fighting took a huge toll, making June one of the deadliest months in a conflict that activists say has killed more than 19,000 people. About one-third of the 150 people killed across Syria on Monday were in or near Damascus, said the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Amateur video posted online Tuesday showed the aftermath: buildings reduced to rubble by government shells, helicopters hovering overhead and columns of smoke rising from areas still on fire. Other videos showed tanks in the streets and crowds of foot soldiers combing areas once held by rebels.
Syria's state news service said troops chased "armed terrorists" from some districts after killing and wounding many of them and were still searching other areas. Syria blames terrorists backed by foreign powers for the uprising.
Videos and claims could not be independently verified. The Syrian government prevents most media from operating in the country. While the regime asserted control in the capital, rebels in the north launched an assault on Aleppo over the weekend. They pushed into neighborhoods in the southern and northeastern edges of the city and destroyed at least three government tanks.
The fighting expanded on Tuesday, with clashes spreading into neighborhoods on two sides of the historic old city and into a number of other areas, activists said. The government fought back much as it did in Damascus, firing artillery shells on rebel areas and pursuing fighters with attack helicopters. Residents also reported fighter jets swooping over the city, breaking the sound barrier to cause sonic booms in a show of force.
"It's the worst day of fighting in Aleppo so far, but I can't tell what's happening on the ground or who's in control," said a local writer who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. "This is bad because in the end it's the civilians who will pay the price of this street fighting."
Prisoners in Aleppo's jail also rioted overnight, and activists said government forces killed at least eight of them. Guards quelled another prison riot in the nearby city of Homs with tear gas and live ammunition.
At least 26 of the more than 110 people killed nationwide on Tuesday died in Aleppo province, the Syrian Observatory said. Also Tuesday, a top military commander and close friend of Syrian President Bashar Assad confirmed his defection from the regime.
Brig. Gen. Manaf Tlass, son of a former defense minister, said in a video broadcast on Al-Arabiya TV that Syrians must work together to build a new country. "I speak to you not as an official, but as a son of Syria, as a son of the Syrian Arab army that has rejected the criminal program if this corrupt regime," Tlass said, dressed in a light blue shirt with an open collar, his gray hair tussled.
"Our duty today as Syrians is to unify for one goal, and that is to make our country free and democratic," he said. It was his first public appearance since he left Syria earlier this month. French officials later confirmed that he was in France.
His long silence raised questions about whether he had joined the anti-Assad uprising or merely fled the civil war. Tlass is the highest-level defector from the Syrian regime since the conflict's start.
He was a member of the elite Republican Guard and son of former Defense Minister Mustafa Tlass, who served under Assad's father. Syria's uprising started when political protests in March 2011 met a harsh government crackdown. As dissent spread and the death toll rose, many in the opposition took up arms and the conflict transformed into a civil war.
Syria's position as a geographic and political crossroads for the Middle East and beyond has given its conflict resonance far beyond its borders. The U.S. and many Western nations have said that Assad must go, while Russia and China have stood by the regime and protected it from international condemnation by the United Nations Security Council.
Iran also counts Assad as a close ally and a bridge to the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which it funds and arms. On Tuesday, the commander of the Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guards, Gen. Masoud Jayazeri, warned of retaliation if any Arab countries intervened in Syria.
Despite rising condemnation of Assad, no country appears ready to intervene militarily to push him from power. Still, a Syrian official on Monday threatened that Syria could use chemical or biological weapons if it were attacked from outside.
Russia on Tuesday rebuked Syria for the threat, reminding Damascus that it had ratified a global convention banning the use of chemical weapons. A foreign ministry statement said Syria must "unfailingly honor its international obligations."
In Israel, which shares a closed and hostile border with Syria, the military chief warned his own government that an Israeli attack on Syria's chemical weapons depots could drag the Jewish state into a broader war.
Israeli officials have expressed fears that chaos in Syria could allow non-conventional weapons to reach those who would use them against Israel. Israel must move cautiously to avoid "a broader offensive than we planned," Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz said, according to the army's website.
It remains unclear if the rebels in Aleppo will hold out longer than their colleagues did in Damascus. But even activists who acknowledged the loss of the capital said a larger battle had been won. For the first time, the image of Damascus as standing outside of the uprising has been shattered, said Rami Jarrah, head of the Cairo-based Activists News Association.
"If this happened once, it can happen again," he said. "But next time," he said of the rebels, "they'll be more prepared."
