"Of course we condemn violence from whichever side it comes, but we must not behave like a bull in a china shop. We need to allow people to decide their own fate independently," Putin said in televised remarks.

The Russian strongman, who is standing for a third presidential term on March 4, spoke after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for talks in Damascus on Tuesday.

Talking to religious leaders during his presidential campaign, Putin warned that intervention in Syria could lead to a situation similar to that in Libya after the overthrow of its leader Moamer Kadhafi.

"I know very well the quality of the regime in Libya and it was talked about a lot. But today for some reason no one shows or talks about what is happening in Sirte and other cities that supported the former leader," he said.

"Terrible crimes are happening there... These are the awful consequences of outside interference, most of all when it is armed."

"No doubt we should give the peoples of these countries an opportunity to decide these problems independently," he was quoted as saying, referring to both Syria and Libya.

"Our task is to help them do it without any outside interference," he said.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev later Wednesday urged further efforts to find a solution to the Syrian crisis, including at the United Nations Security Council.

Medvedev stressed "the necessity of continuing -- including at the UN Security Council -- a search for coordinated approaches to help the Syrians regulate the crisis themselves" , the Kremlin said in a statement.

In a phone call with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Medvedv said that the crisis must be resolved "without outside interference, with complete respect for the sovereignty of Syria," the Kremlin said.

Russia last week used its veto at the Security Council to block UN action on Syria, a decision that Medvedev described as justified, arguing the resolution would not have promoted a peaceful conclusion to the conflict.

The proposed resolution "did not allow us to make unbiased assessments of the situation in Syria or to ensure that the call for a ceasefire and an end to bloodshed was addressed to both sides," Medvedev was quoted as saying.

"Such a resolution would not have promoted the search for a peaceful way out of the crisis."

Russia's top diplomat Lavrov at a news conference earlier Wednesday after his return to Moscow from his talks in Damascus pointedly sidestepped a question from a reporter who asked him whether Russia had asked Assad to go.

"Any outcome of national dialogue should be the result of agreement between the Syrians themselves and should be acceptable to all Syrians," Lavrov told journalists.

All those who have influence over the Syrian opposition forces should urge them to start negotiations with Assad's government, he added.

Lavrov, who was given a hero's welcome by Assad's supporters in Damascus, also said that recalling envoys from Damascus would not help the Arab League's plan.

"I do not think that recalling ambassadors helps create conditions that would be favourable to the realisation of the Arab League's plan, he said.

He said the Syrian people themselves must decide his fate and called for Syrian opposition forces to start negotiations with Assad's government to come up with a solution to the conflict that was acceptable to all Syrians.

Lavrov defended Russia's decision to reject the latest draft resolution, saying Moscow had prevented opposition armed units from taking control of more cities in Syria.

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:07:28 AEST London (AFP) Feb 8, 2012 - Britain's armed forces, strained by steep cuts in defence spending, would struggle to mount another military operation on the scale of the Libya intervention, British lawmakers said on Wednesday.

The British government would face "significantly greater challenges" if it launched a second Libya-style mission, the Commons Defence Committee said.

Britain was at the forefront of international efforts to support Libya's rebels against Moamer Kadhafi's regime, launching UN-mandated military action with France and the United States in March before NATO took over.

The country's final bill for the operation, codenamed Ellamy, was at 212 million pounds ($337 million, 254 million euros) far higher than the tens of millions the government estimated at the start of the campaign.

And the operation was launched before key cuts in the government's Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) -- which slashes defence spending by eight percent over four years -- had come into force, the committee said.

"We believe the government will face significantly greater challenges should an operation of similar size be necessary in the future and it will need to be prepared for some difficult decisions on prioritisation," the lawmakers said.

"We consider that Operation Ellamy raises important questions as to the extent of the United Kingdom's national contingent capability."

The Libyan conflict forced Britain's Royal Air Force to delay the decommissioning of its ageing Nimrod R1 spy planes while the Royal Navy had to divert resources from counter-drugs operations, the MPs said.

But they added that Britain had been right to take military action against the Kadhafi regime.

After the SDSR was carried out in 2010, Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government said it would cut 17,000 jobs from the army, navy and Royal Air Force over four years.

The review has also seen Britain, which still has more than 9,000 troops in Afghanistan, give up its flagship aircraft carrier.

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:07:28 AEST Brick, N.J. (UPI) Feb 7, 2012 - An opinion piece written for The Atlanta Jewish Times by the owner and publisher, Andrew Adler suggested three possible options to ensure Israel's security in the Middle East.

They all called for the use of force. First attack Hamas and Hezbollah, Second attack Iran, and the last, most peculiar of the options, that Israeli Mossad agents in the United States assassinate U.S. President Barack Obama.

Publically advocating the murder of an American president is a crime. Adler made the threat, if it could truly be considered a threat, publicly in his newspaper.

Adler was not arrested. Adler was not sent to the miltiary prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He resigned from the paper and went home.

More importantly than the witless threat is that the options reveal the opinion the American Jewish community has of this president. They are displeased with Obama. They are displeased because Obama is resistant to Israel's demands to engage U.S. military force against Iran and his attempt to stop further settlement by Israel on Palestinian lands.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been relentless in his demands that Obama use military force against Iran. The stated reason is to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. The true reason is the failure of the grand design Netanyahu had for Israeli dominance of the Middle East.

While serving as an adviser to the first Netanyahu administration 1996, Richard Perle a well-known neo-conservative, and former undersecretary of defense in the Reagan administration, created a grand design for Israel's dominance of the Middle East.

Called "A clean break, a new strategy for securing the realm" the plan called for a series of military conquests, in cooperation with the United States, which would ensure Israel's absolute dominance of the region. The conquest and occupation of Iraq and Iran and the overthrow of the remaining governments of the Middle Eastern states by less obvious methods would allow Israel's domination.

Netanyahu has consistently advocated the use of force to insure the safety of Israel. In his 1993 book "A Durable Peace" he argued that peace with the Palestinians is meaningless. He believes peace wouldn't be a palliative to the belligerent Arab states. Iraq and Iran would remain in confrontation and continue to pose a threat to Israel's existence.

Israel couldn't hope to engage the Arab states alone. The difficulty for Israel was how to induce the United States to implement the plan for Israel's domination of the Middle East.

The neo-cons/Israeli lobby, the point of origin for the grand design, enjoyed enormous influence in the Bush administration. The plan to ensure Israel's domination of the Middle East began with their successful agitation for the invasion of Iraq.

The invasion of Iraq has proved an utter, tragic failure. The failure was compounded by the abject stupidity of the occupation. The neo-con blueprint had fundamental flaws. The most egregious was their failure to properly understand the dynamics, and potential of the Arab world. They dramatically underestimated the capacity of Iran to exploit plans made in ignorance of the realities of that world. Unexamined potentials and variables, defy all planning.

Iranian domination of Iraq was ensured by the premature elections for the governing body of Iraq. The Bush administration demanded elections be held immediately following a self-defined, return to stability, to show the world that the United States had established a free and democratic Iraq. The Shiite majority of the population, allied with Iran, and supported by Iranian money, won easily.

Iranian Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is now little more than an Iranian puppet. He has made no effort to disguise his allegiance. In January he pledged the support of Iraq to Bashar Assad in Syria, another Iranian client state. U.S. influence over the government of Iraq is non-existent. The only option left for Israel to succeed in mastering the Middle East is to eliminate Iran.

Netanyahu remains an apostolate of a greater Israel, first dreamed of by his mentor, Menachem Begin. Greater Israel requires the absorption of the West Bank and Gaza into the present territory of Israel to recreate the wholly fantasized biblical Kingdom of David.

The Kingdom of David glimpsed through the mist of millennia imagines the realm as the glorious Kingdom of God. Scripture demands that the kingdom be reborn to fulfill the prophecy of salvation.

King David's ethereal kingdom was in truth a small number of city states, generally at odds with one another, with no cohesive element, not even a religious commonality, which could serve to qualify it as a kingdom. Myth, fervently believed, is a powerful aphrodisiac for those who dream of Gods glory extant.

Obama has also made it very clear to Netanyahu that Israeli settlements in Palestinian territory must stop. This thwarts Netanyahu's abiding obsession. Netanyahu will use the influence and money available from the Israeli lobby in this country to defeat him in the coming election.

The Arab Spring provides hope that Israel could find a more congenial neighborhood in which to experience existence without threat of ruin. Netanyahu has publically stated that he is opposed to the liberation of the Arab people from tyrannical regimes. He would rather the people of these countries suffer violence and oppression than provide a potential threat to Israel through a democratic rebirth.

An inexplicable and contradictory position for him to hold. He would prefer that the Arab states remained as antagonists so that Israel, or rather the United States, could destroy them and their tens of thousands of innocent citizens.

Israel has an unknown number of nuclear weapons, including small tactical devices, and long range ballistic missiles. Which for some obtuse reason the United States refuses to acknowledge. Iran could never hope to acquire sufficient technology to match the Israeli arsenal.

There is a good deal of nonsense in the current attitude toward Iran. External as well as internal pressures will finally force Iran to abandon further attempts to acquire nuclear weapons. The people of Iran, as well as the leadership, know well that possessing nuclear weapons makes them a succulent target for Israel.

There is nothing to be gained for this country by attacking Iran. We shouldn't allow Israel to draw us into another disastrous war in the Middle East solely for its benefit.

(Morgan Strong is a former professor of Middle Eastern History, and was an adviser to "60 Minutes" on the Middle East.)

(United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:07:28 AEST Damascus (AFP) Feb 7, 2012 - Moscow's top diplomat arrived in Syria Tuesday for talks with embattled President Bashar al-Assad, state television reported, as regime troops besieging Homs renewed heavy shelling of the protest city.

Thousands of regime supporters waving Syrian flags lined the streets as Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's motorcade travelled through Mazzeh neighbourhood on its way from the airport, television footage showed.

Many chanted, "Thank you Russia, thank you China."

"I want to thank Russia and China for their stand in support of the Syrian people," one woman said.

The Russian foreign ministry confirmed the arrival of Lavrov and Russian Foreign Intelligence Service head Mikhail Fradkov but gave no further details on the visit, the precise purpose of which has been kept tightly under wraps since it was first announced at the weekend.

Ahead of their arrival, reports had said that Lavrov and Fradkov could try to persuade Assad to quit.

However the defiant regime, which has been rocked by an uprising for almost 11 months, was in no mood to make any concessions.

Government troops on Tuesday renewed their deadly assault on Homs for a fourth day, targeting parts of the city under the control of army defectors with rockets and shells.

And in a statement carried by SANA state news agency, Syria's interior ministry vowed to push on with its onslaught on Homs in a bid to rid the region of what it said were "armed terrorist gangs."

"Operations to hunt down terrorist groups will continue until security and order are re-established in all neighbourhoods of Homs and its environs and until we overcome all armed persons terrorising citizens and threatening their life," it added.

Shooting thought to be from outgunned rebels echoed across the Homs neighbourhood of Baba Amr in the morning in response to the new wave of shells and rockets.

Abu Rami, an activist AFP reached by telephone from Beirut, said the explosions had continued through the night.

"There are about four blasts every five minutes," he said. "Since this morning the shelling has been concentrated in the neighbourhoods of Baba Amr, Inshaat and Jubar.

"The humanitarian situation is dire. No one can move around. There are snipers everywhere," he added.

Other activists reached by telephone have said food and medicine were in short supply.

The clashes come a day after nearly 100 civilians were killed across Syria, activists said, with the majority dying in the fierce onslaught on Homs and its environs, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Rights groups say more than 6,000 people have been killed since the outbreak of the revolt mid-March.

A resident of Homs told AFP that Monday's assault was unprecedented. It had began at around dawn, with barrages of rockets, mortar rounds and artillery shells.

"What is happening is horrible, it's beyond belief," said activist Omar Shaker, reached by telephone as loud detonations were heard in the background. "There is nowhere to take shelter, nowhere to hide."

Lavrov's trip comes days after Russia disgusted the West and Syrian opposition activists Saturday by vetoing along with China a UN Security Council resolution condemning the Assad regime's crackdown on protesters.

Speaking to reporters on Monday, Lavrov refused to divulge the purpose of the mission.

"When you go on a mission on the order of the head of state then the purpose of the mission is usually only revealed to the person it is addressed to. If I tell you everything now, then what is the point?" he said.

Russia has so far offered no clues on the role to be played by Fradkov, who heads an ultra-secret organisation that is the successor to the KGB.

Western powers were outraged at the vetoes of Russia and China, with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling them a "travesty."

US President Barack Obama shied away from talk of military intervention and vowed to pursue diplomatic means.

"It is important to resolve this without recourse to outside military intervention and I think that's possible," he said in an NBC television interview.

Russia and China both defended their vetoes, with Lavrov on Monday saying that the reactions from Western capitals were "indecent and bordering on hysteria."

Beijing expressed hope that Lavrov's visit to Damascus would succeed, and said it was considering sending its own envoys to the Middle East to help resolve the conflict.

Meanwhile, the Syrian opposition urged businessmen across the strife-torn country and throughout the Arab world to fund rebel forces seeking the overthrow of Assad's regime.

"We are sending a warm appeal to Arab and Syrian businessmen to take part in an efficient and direct way in the legitimate financing of self-defence operations and the protection of civilian areas carried out by the Free Syrian Army," a joint statement issued by the Syrian National Council and the FSA said

burs/dv/bpz

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:07:28 AEST Beirut, Lebanon (UPI) Feb 8, 2012 - The double veto by Russia and China of a U.N. Security Council resolution on political transition in strife-torn Syria appears to sound the death knell for a diplomatic solution and herald an all-out civil war that will destabilize the Middle East.

Lebanon and probably Iraq, Syria's neighbors where sectarian tensions are already high and getting worse, will more than likely be dragged into the maelstrom.

Israel, which sees itself facing an unprecedented threat from a sustained missile bombardment by its foes, is also jittery that the Persian Gulf confrontation between the West and Iran, Syria's ally, could trigger a region-wide conflict in which it will be a target.

Israel's political and military leaders have escalated threats to unleash pre-emptive military strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities, sharply heightening regional tensions.

All in all, the Middle East, a crucible of war for more than 60 years, has been gripped by alarm and uncertainty as it's convulsed by the political upheaval of the Arab Spring in which four tyrants have been toppled by their own, long-downtrodden people.

The 11-month-old uprising in Syria, with an estimated body count of 6,000, has become the bloodiest front line of the Arab Spring.

And unless Moscow and Beijing can soon convince Syria's embattled president, Bashar Assad, whose father founded the regime in Damascus in 1970, on some kind of transition of power, the country may explode into a sectarian conflict between the ruling Alawite minority and the Sunni majority.

Indeed, Western analysts say the double veto will only accelerate the slide toward civil war.

That could, in the end, play into U.S. hands and Washington's desire for regime change in Damascus to block Iran's drive to establish an arc of influence through Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

Russia and China saw the U.N. resolution as the precursor of Libya-style Western intervention to achieve political and economic objectives -- a pattern they feared could work against them in the future.

In the run-up to Saturday's Security Council vote, Assad, possibly encouraged by the backing of Moscow and Beijing, ordered his forces to unleash artillery and tank fire on key centers of the uprising, reportedly killing 200-300 people.

U.S. President Barack Obama branded the slaughter an "unspeakable assault" but the double veto left the international community bitterly divided and seemingly helpless as the bloodletting intensified.

It may not have been solely coincidence that the sustained shelling marked the 30th anniversary of the massacre of up to 30,000 Sunni Muslims in the city of Hama in western Syria by Assad's strongman father, Hafez Assad.

On Feb. 3, 1982, Hafez Assad sent thousands of troops into Hama to begin a bloodbath that crushed an uprising by the Muslim Brotherhood. His forces shelled Hama for three weeks, razing much of the old city.

Even in the violence-plagued Middle East, the Hama slaughter was mind-numbing in its obliterating intensity.

In recent weeks, Hama has been the scene of bloody fighting as anti-regime forces, which launched the uprising with unarmed street protests, increasingly take up the gun.

In the wider, geopolitical context, the Russia-China double act points to trouble ahead as Moscow and Beijing strive to fill the vacuum left by the United States' ebbing power in the Middle East.

The events unfolding in Syria and the Persian Gulf are linked. If Assad falls, Iran loses its gateway to the Levant and its expansionist thrust westward.

"In the expansion of Iranian influence, Syria is now the major battlefield," observed U.S. security consultancy Strafor.

Russia is backing Assad, including with the supply of advanced weaponry, because he's Moscow's last chance of restoring its Cold War influence in the Arab world. China supposedly just wants access to the oil.

Now, says veteran Indian analyst M.K. Bhadrakumar, "with the double veto, the only option available for the U.S. and its allies in Syria is to flout both international law and the U.N. Charter and overthrow the regime in Damascus."

In that regard, Philip Giraldi, a former CIA officer, writes in The American Conservative that "unmarked NATO warplanes are arriving at Turkish military bases close to Iskenderun on the Syrian border" where the rebel Free Syrian Army is based.

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:07:28 AEST Beijing (AFP) Feb 6, 2012 - China on Monday denied US accusations it was protecting the Syrian regime, after drawing international criticism for vetoing a UN resolution condemning a deadly crackdown on protests by Damascus.

Beijing called on both sides in the conflict to halt violence, after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton accused China and Russia of "protecting the brutal regime in Damascus", calling their veto of the resolution a "travesty".

"China does not accept the accusations" of the United States on the Syrian veto, foreign ministry spokesman Liu Weimin told reporters.

"China does not have its own selfish interest on the issue of Syria. We don't shelter anyone, nor do we intentionally oppose anyone. We uphold justice and take a responsible attitude."

Thirteen countries voted for the UN Security Council resolution Saturday, which aimed to give strong backing to the Arab League's plan to end the crackdown in Syria, where opposition groups say at least 6,000 people have been killed.

The Russian and Chinese vetoes came hours after the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) reported a "massacre" in the central flashpoint city of Homs with more than 230 civilians killed during an overnight assault by regime forces.

The rare double veto drew international condemnation, with Syria's opposition saying Beijing and Moscow had handed President Bashar al-Assad's regime a "licence to kill".

But Liu said China -- which has a consistent policy of non-interference in other countries' internal affairs -- had decided to veto the resolution because of the strong divisions within the Security Council on the issue.

The People's Daily newspaper, the mouthpiece of China's Communist Party, added passing the resolution would have led to a "new disaster" in Syria.

"The current situation in Syria is extremely complex," the newspaper said in a signed commentary.

"Simply supporting one side and pressuring the other seems like a way to help bring a turn for the better, but actually it is planting the roots of a new disaster."

However, some Chinese bloggers condemned Beijing's decision to veto the latest resolution.

"The Syrian people are being slaughtered. But China cast an opposing vote in the Security Council," said ArshavinThe23, who is based in the central Chinese province of Hunan, on his weibo -- Chinese microblogs similar to Twitter.

"I just want to say, dictator supported dictator," added Qiao Baibai on the popular Sina microblog service.

Another state media outlet, the nationalistic Global Times, said Monday the veto showed that China was displaying a new confidence in international affairs.

"Abstaining is no longer always a choice as China is forced to speak out. China needs to speak out," the English-language edition of the newspaper said.

"The veto may have its consequences, but the Chinese people are willing to face it together."

Western powers have vowed to seek new ways to punish Damascus after the double veto -- the second by China and Russia on Syria.

Clinton said the United States would "work to seek regional and national sanctions against Syria and strengthen the ones we have", while France said that Europe would also strengthen sanctions against Damascus.

A top Chinese diplomat said over the weekend that other nations had failed to take account of "reasonable" revision proposals suggested by Russia.

Moscow has also defended its UN veto, saying Western powers had refused to reach a consensus.

"The authors of the draft Syria resolution, unfortunately, did not want to undertake an extra effort and come to a consensus," Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov wrote on Twitter.

Outrage as Russia, China veto UN move on Syria
Damascus (AFP) Feb 6, 2012 - Western powers vowed to seek new ways to punish Damascus amid growing outrage after Russia and China blocked a UN resolution condemning Syria for its deadly crackdown on protests.

The vetoes wielded by Beijing and Moscow at the UN Security Council on Saturday handed President Bashar al-Assad's regime a "licence to kill" according to the opposition.

The rare double veto also drew international condemnation, with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton calling it a "travesty" and vowing to push for new sanctions on Syria.

"Those countries that refused to support the Arab League plan bear full responsibility for protecting the brutal regime in Damascus," a forceful Clinton told a news conference with Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov in Sofia.

Faced with a "neutered Security Council" she promised to redouble efforts outside of the UN.

"We will work to seek regional and national sanctions against Syria and strengthen the ones we have," Clinton added,

Echoing Washington's sentiments, France said Europe would strengthen sanctions against Damascus.

"Europe will again harden sanctions imposed on the Syrian regime. We will try to increase this international pressure," French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said.

He also said France would "help the Syrian opposition to structure and organise itself."

Russia defended its UN veto, saying Western powers had refused to reach a consensus.

"The authors of the draft Syria resolution, unfortunately, did not want to undertake an extra effort and come to a consensus," Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov wrote on Twitter.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Foreign Intelligence Service chief Mikhail Fradkov are preparing to visit Damascus on Tuesday, amid reports that the mission could try to push Assad to quit.

"Russia strongly intends to achieve a rapid stabilisation of the situation in Syria through the rapid implementation of much-needed democratic reforms," the Russian foreign ministry said.

Meanwhile US Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich said Sunday the United States could take covert action to help oust Assad, without using US troops.

Gingrich, who is struggling to keep up with frontrunner Mitt Romney in the Republican race, told the CBS programme "Face the Nation" that Washington should act to help remove the Syrian leader blamed for a deadly crackdown on opponents.

"I think there are a lot of things we could do covertly in terms of supplying weapons, supplying -- helping people in the region supply advisers," the former House speaker said.

The Russian and Chinese vetoes came hours after the opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) reported a "massacre" overnight Friday in the central flashpoint city of Homs with more than 230 civilians killed during an assault by regime forces.

On Sunday, activists reported more shelling in the city, with at least 56 civilians and 28 regular army troops killed the day after 48 people were reported dead.

Army deserters destroyed a military control post in the northeast village of Al Bara, killing three officers and capturing 19 soldiers, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Monday.

The weekend death toll was one of the bloodiest since the uprising against Assad's regime erupted almost 11 months ago.

Opposition groups say at least 6,000 people have now been killed.

The second UN double veto in four months also fuelled fears among Syrian activists of a new surge of violence that would once again target Homs.

"The SNC holds Russia and China accountable for the escalation of killings and genocide, and considers this irresponsible step a licence for the Syrian regime to kill," it said in a statement.

In Libya, crowds of Syrians chanting anti-Russian slogans entered Moscow's Tripoli embassy and replaced the Russian flag with the new Syrian flag while hundreds protested outside the Russian embassy in Beirut.

And Turkish police fired tear gas to disperse protesters seeking to storm the Syrian consulate in Istanbul.

Iran, however, welcomed the veto on the resolution condemning its ally Syria and accused the Security Council of attempting to interfere in the country's internal affairs

Assad's troops shelled Homs overnight Friday, killing at least 260 civilians, the SNC said, while the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said about 100 women and children were among its toll of 237 dead.

The tolls could not be independently confirmed. Damascus denied responsibility, blaming the deaths on rebels seeking to swing the UN vote.

The UN resolution -- approved by 13 of the 15-member Security Council -- was proposed by European and Arab nations to give strong backing to an Arab League plan to end the crackdown.

On Sunday, League chief Nabil al-Arabi said the bloc would press on with mediation efforts to find a political solution and avoid foreign intervention in Syria.

Syrian government mouthpiece Tishrin called the veto "a catalyst" and said it would help accelerate reforms in the country.

Tunisia urged other Arab nations to follow its lead after it said on Saturday it was expelling Syria's ambassador and withdrawing its recognition of the Assad government.

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:07:28 AEST Jerusalem (AFP) Feb 5, 2012 - Israel on Sunday named 52-year-old former fighter pilot Amir Eshel as the next head of its air force, as speculation grows about an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities.

A military statement said Major General Eshel was selected by the armed forces chief, Lieutenant General Benny Gantz, and that Defence Minister Ehud Barak approved the appointment.

He replaces Ido Nehushtan, who ends his four-year term in May.

Though commentators have cautioned against interpreting the appointment as an indication of Israel's intentions towards Iran, the key post is being filled at a time of increasing regional tensions.

Israel's chief of military intelligence said on Thursday that Iran has enriched enough uranium to build four nuclear devices and its strategic affairs minister warned that no Iranian nuclear facility was immune to attack.

Israel and much of the international community fears that Iran nuclear programme mask a weapons drive, a charge denied by Tehran.

The Washington Post last week reported that US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta believes there is a "strong possibility" that Israel will strike Iran's nuclear installations this spring.

The Jewish state is widely believed to have the Middle East's only, albeit undeclared, nuclear arsenal, which international experts believe contains between 100 and 300 nuclear warheads.

It has never confirmed or denied such reports.

In 2007, Israeli aircraft struck an alleged nuclear facility in Syria, although it never officially confirmed the raid.

Like Nehushtan before him, Eshel is currently head of the military's planning and policy directorate.

He commanded Phantom and F-16 squadrons and fighter groups, ran air bases and served as air force chief of operations in the 1990s, according to Haaretz newspaper.

The son of Holocaust survivors, in 2003 Eshel led a formation of three Israel air force jets in a historic flight over Auschwitz death camp in Poland.

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:07:28 AEST Brasilia (AFP) Feb 3, 2012 - European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton will begin an official visit to Brazil Sunday for wide-ranging talks, notably on the civil strife in Syria and the Iranian nuclear crisis, the foreign ministry said Friday.

A ministry spokesman said Ashton would meet Brazilian Foreign Minister Antonio Patriota here Monday for talks that will also touch on the Eurozone debt crisis, the stalled Middle East peace process, talks on a trade agreement between the EU and the South American trade bloc Mercosur and preparations for next June's Rio summit on sustainable development.

The EU's top diplomat also hopes to meet President Dilma Rousseff.

Tuesday, Ashton is to travel to Sao Paulo before wrapping up her visit the next day.

Ashton's visit comes as the UN Security Council is struggling to agree a resolution that would condemn the violence in Syria, which, according to rights groups, has killed at least 6,000 people since it erupted in March.

Veto-wielding council member Russia, an ally of Damascus, signaled Friday that it could not support the latest UN draft resolution on Syria .

That draft does not explicitly call on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to step down or mention an arms embargo or sanctions, though it "fully supports" an Arab League plan to facilitate a democratic transition.

On Wednesday Ashton urged the Security Council to stand by the people of Syria and act immediately to stop violence there.

Ashton was also likely to raise the heightened tension over Iran's nuclear ambitions amid speculation that Israel was contemplating air strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities, with or without US help.

Western nations, who accused Tehran of seeking a covert nuclear weapons capability, have ramped up economic sanctions against Iran over the past three months, since the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, issued a report saying it had evidence the Islamic republic appeared to be conducting research on atomic warheads.

The United States and the European Union have imposed sanctions on companies dealing with Iran's financial sector, and an EU ban on Iranian oil imports is being phased in over the next five months.

Tehran insists its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes.

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:07:28 AEST Gaza City, Palestinian Territories (AFP) Feb 3, 2012 - Two Palestinians in the Gaza Strip were wounded by Israeli air-strikes early Friday morning, Palestinians said, only hours a visit of the UN chief to the Hamas-controlled territory.

According to a spokesman for Gaza emergency services, a three-and-a-half-year-old girl was seriously wounded by an air strike at a home in the northern Gaza Strip town Beit Lahiya, which also left a man moderately wounded.

Five other attacks in the central and southern Gaza Strip targeted tunnels and fields, as well as another house in Jablais in the northern Strip.

The Israeli military confirmed the attacks, which "targeted two weapon storing facilities in the northern Gaza Strip, three terror tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip and a weapon manufacturing facility in the central Gaza Strip," a statement read. "Direct hits were confirmed as well as secondary explosions at several targets."

"These sites were targeted in response to the rocket fire on communities in southern Israel," the statement noted.

On Wednesday night, Palestinian militants fired eight rockets into southern Israel from Gaza, all of which hit open fields and caused no damage.

The Israeli attack came hours after UN chief Ban Ki-moon visited Gaza on Thursday, part of his visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories in a bid to convince the two sides to continue direct meetings, as the international community seeks a way to kick-start direct negotiations.

]]> Thu, 09 FEB 2012 09:07:28 AEST Brussels (UPI) Feb 3, 2012 - Fears of a Russian veto of a U.N. Security Resolution on Syria mellowed European positions on ways to defuse the violent government-opposition showdown in the Middle Eastern country only days after the European Union issued tough sanctions against Iran.

The contrast between the EU's resolute stand on Iran and Brussels' readiness to compromise and accommodate Russian demands was seen by analysts as a last-minute attempt to avert a Russian veto that could undo weeks of mediation by European and Arab League negotiations.

The resulting text of the U.N. resolution removes most of the key conditions set out by the West, including President Bashar Assad's departure from power.

It also opens the way for Assad's government to try and manage reforms and, eventually, some sort of transition. The Russians reportedly insisted on refashioning the text to ensure any transition would be "Syrian-led" and not open the way for outside intervention.

Russian objections center on Moscow's contention that last year's U.N. authorization of a no-fly zone was used as a loophole by NATO to launch military strikes that helped unseat Moammar Gadhafi and install a pro-West national transitional coalition in Tripoli.

However, deep suspicions and uncertainties remain over the anti-Assad rebel presence in Syria amid reports the so-called Free Syria Army is receiving large quantities of weapons from unknown sources.

Assad's government is also continuing to receive large arms shipments from Russia as part of what Moscow maintains are agreements reached before the uprising began last year.

Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov said Thursday that arms deliveries to Syria will continue despite the ongoing violence.

"As of today there are no restrictions on the delivery of weapons, and we must fulfill our obligations," Antonov said. "And this is what we are doing."

Analysts said a deepening stalemate and continuing violence in Syria risked opening new fronts as increasingly armed rebels and government forces confronted each other, with thousands of unarmed pro-democracy activists caught in the middle.

The arms build-up means that a bloodier confrontation could still erupt in Syria no matter what a U.N. resolution did or did not include in the text. This week's diplomatic efforts were focused on Russian attempts to water down the resolution and strip it of any text that, in Russian view, opened the way to regime change in Damascus.

The resolution must be approved by the Security Council's 15 members, including Russia, which vetoed a similar proposal in October.

The new resolution condemns the violence on both sides and would adopt across-the-board steps to end the bloodshed that the Arab League has demanded since November.

They include ending all violence, releasing detained protesters, withdrawing Syrian troops from civilian areas and guaranteeing the right to peaceful demonstrations.

However, analysts said, enforcement of such an ambitious brief was in doubt.

Even if Assad agreed to pull back his forces the disarming of disparate rebel groups would remain a major challenge in the absence of a U.N. or international peacekeeping presence in Syria to see to an implementation of the resolution's key provisions.

The United Nations stopped estimating the death toll from the uprising after it passed 5,400 in January, saying it was too difficult to confirm numbers.

The Syrian government says at least 2,000 members of its security forces have been killed combating "armed gangs and terrorists." The opposition Friday cited more than 6,000 deaths since the protests began last year.

Analysts say the outcome in Syria would also influence the crisis over Iran's nuclear program, and vice versa, because of close strategic ties between the two countries and Syria's dependence on Iran's economic, military and political aid.

Activists daubed red paint in the streets to symbolize blood and staged demonstrations after the Friday prayers to mark the anniversary of a 1982 uprising crushed by Bashar al-Assad's late father Hafez al-Assad, the former president. The government crackdown then caused the deaths of up to 40,000 civilians in Hama, according to international rights groups.

Activists in Hama painted roads red and led a general strike, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

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