Epstein Secrets

East Update [[email protected]] Middle East Update - May 25-31, 2011 Middle East Update May 25-31, 2011 Syria International pressure on Damascus is mounting. After the US imposed sanctions on the Syrian leadership earlier in May, the EU foreign ministers agreed to impose travel bans and to fre

ign in an attempt to end the protests. Tens of people were killed or wounded over the weekend and tanks have entered two suburbs of the city of Homs, Rastan, and Talbiseh. The heavy-handed repression by police and military officials may lead demonstrators to consider a recourse to arms. The government is

, whose regime has reportedly killed more than 1,100 opponents since March, Turkey and Syria have established close relations. In 2009, Ankara and Damascus signed a strategic cooperation agreement, conducted joint military exercises, and launched military industrial cooperation. They also introduced vi

-- have been furiously buying smuggled weapons since the crisis began. Last week for the first time, anti-regime activists reported that people in Rastan and Talbiseh were meeting tanks with rocket-propelled grenades. Some of the conflicting reports from Jisr al-Shaghour, the besieged town near the n

th change; it would make its peace with the status quo, renewing its partnership with friendly autocrats even as it engaged the hostile regimes in Damascus and Tehran. The United States was to remain on the Kabul hook for a while longer, but the greater Middle East would be left to its Furies. When a

Arabs. It erupted in Dara'a, a remote provincial EFTA_R1_00234072 EFTA01845126 town in the south, then spread to Hamah, Homs, Jisr al- Shughour, Rastan, Idlib, and Dayr az Zawr -- skipping over Kurdish and Druze areas and the mountain villages and coastal towns that make up the Alawite strongholds.