A conference on freedom of the press in Syria has strongly condemned a resolution by the US Congress which calls for a ban on a number of Middle Eastern channels.

Participants in the Damascus conference urged international support for the Gaza-based al-Aqsa, Lebanon’s al-Manar and the Iranian-based al-Alam TV networks, included in the resolution.

Some lecturers said the move was rooted in Zionism and described it as an effort to cover up Israeli crimes in the Palestinian territories.

The bill, endorsed by an overwhelming majority of US congressmen in December, calls for punitive measures against television networks in the Middle East.

In late January, the Saudi-run satellite operator Arabsat took off air the Arabic-language al-Alam television network without prior notice.

The network was also temporarily off the air in November, when Arabsat and Cairo-based Nilesat dropped it without prior notification.

The move was criticized by several regional and international media and political activists who condemned the move for violating freedom of expression.

Al-Alam officials also said the removal is in violation of the satellite’s obligation to the network.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem has expressed his country’s willingness to resume indirect peace talks with Israel under Turkish mediation in order to achieve peace and stability.

“Damascus is enthusiastic about a new round of Turkish-mediated indirect peace talks to reach a comprehensive peace agreement,” Muallem told Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg in Oslo on Tuesday.

Under the auspices of Turkey, Israel and Syria launched peace talks in May 2009, seeking to reach a comprehensive peace agreement.

However, negotiations reached a stalemate in September after the resignation of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Syria later withdrew from the talks in objection to the Israeli onslaught on Gaza war in December 2008 that left at least 1,400 Palestinians, mostly civilians, dead.

Syria has called for an Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights as a precondition for peace between Damascus and Tel Aviv. Israel seized the Golan Heights in the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed the Syrian territory in 1981.

Raising Damascus’ ire further, Israeli warplanes destroyed Syria’s al-Kibar military site in 2007, accusing the country of harboring a nuclear reactor there — a claim Syria has fiercely rejected.

Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has expressed opposition to Turkey’s continued role as a mediator in indirect talks with Syria.

“After all the verbal attacks and insults toward us expressed by the Turks, they cannot be considered mediators between us and the Syrians,” Lieberman said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also claimed that Turkey would not be an ‘honest broker’ in any renewed peace talks with Syria, adding that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan was not a ‘fair mediator.’

Tensions flared between Ankara and Tel Aviv in October 2009 after Turkey banned Israel from participation in a NATO air force drill.

Ankara strained relations further when it refused to take a television drama depicting Israeli soldiers killing Palestinian civilians off the air.

Last December, the Turkish ambassador to Tel Aviv, Oguz Celikkol, was given an official reprimand by the Tel Aviv regime in a fury over the Turkish television drama “Valley of the Wolves,” which depicted Israeli diplomats as masterminds of a child abduction ring.

Iraqi Vice President has arrived in Damascus as Iraq’s relations with its neighbors have emerged as an influential factor in the country’s upcoming elections.

Al Hashimi is expected to discuss Iraq’s March 7 parliamentary elections with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his three-day visit to Iraq.

He says he has a message from the Iraqi government for Assad. The Iraqi vice-president is also expected to meet with representatives of his country’s expatriates ahead of Iraq’s March 7 parliamentary polls.

Some 800,000 Iraqi nationals live in Syria.

The eagerly-anticipated poise is seen as an acid test for the reconciliation between Shia and Sunni politicians in the Iraqi parliament.

High ranking officials, including Iraqi President Jalal Talabani and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki have warned of obtrusive efforts by outlawed Baath Party loyalists to disturb the electoral process.

More than 500 candidates have been disqualified from taking part in the event due to their alleged links to the party which was once led by the deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

The Baath Party members are infamous for enforcing Saddam’s ruthless rule over the country, which included mass killings of dissidents, chemical bombings against Kurdish towns and executions of suspected opponents.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calls on regional nations to remain vigilant against oppressive powers, saying that the Israeli regime will collapse if it repeats its previous mistakes.

“The recent threats by the Zionist regime [Israel] show the weakness of its officials. As time goes by, the resistance powers and free and independent nations near victory while the oppressive system is declining,” Ahmadinejad said in a meeting with Hezbollah Secretary General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah in the Syrian capital of Damascus.

The Iranian president stressed the importance of strengthening national unity in Palestine.

Ahmadinejad and Nasrallah exchanged views on the latest developments in the Middle East, the role of resistance forces in the region and the Israeli threat against both Lebanon and Syria.

Nasrallah said resistance forces are closely monitoring regional developments and are ready to counter all threats by the Zionist regime.

He added that resistance movements would give a crushing response to any possible Israeli attack.

Nasrallah has recently warned that the movement will strike Israeli infrastructure including the Ben Gurion International airport in Tel Aviv in the event of any Israeli attack on Lebanon.

“If you hit Rafiq al-Hariri international airport in Beirut, we will hit Ben-Gurion airport in Tel Aviv,” he said. “If you hit our ports, we will bomb your ports, and if you hit our oil refineries, we will bomb your oil refineries.”

The US State Department spokesman says President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to Syria will undermine Damascus’ position in the Middle East.

Philip Crowley told reporters on Thursday that the US has expressed concerns to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad about his country’s relationship with Tehran.

“This is ultimately a decision that Syria has to make,” dpa quoted Crowley as saying.

“But I think as President Assad assesses Syria’s long-term interest, he need only look around the region and recognize that Syria is increasingly an outlier,” he added.

Ahmadinejad and Assad held a joint news conference in Damascus on Thursday.

The Syrian president said at the joint news conference that he was “surprised” at US calls for Syria to distance itself from Iran.

“I am surprised by their call to keep a distance between the countries … when they raise the issue of stability and peace in the Middle East, and all the other beautiful principles,” al-Assad told reporters.

President Ahmadinejad for his part said that “relations between Syria and Iran are brotherly, deep, solid and permanent.”

A new Middle East is in sight where trails of Zionists or Arrogance no more exists, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a joint news conference with his Syrian counterpar tBashar Assad in Damascus on Thursday.

He added Tehran and Damascus are determined to boost bilateral relations.

Ahmadinejad went on to say that the whole world and region are at the verge of a great development, adding the relations which ruled the world during the past few decades are reaching the end and the Zionist regime’s file is closing.

“If the Zionist regime wants to repeats its past errors, its death will be inevitable,” said the Iranian President.

The Syrian President for his part said that President Ahmadinejad’s visit was proof that Iran and Syria were united and counter against enemy divisive plots.

He said the region was undergoing special conditions with some trying to stir Islamic communities as they did to African countries.

He regretted that some ignorant entities in the region were abusing the plots.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said Tehran-Damascus ties are as “solid” as ever despite the US calls on Syria to distance itself from the Islamic Republic.

“Relations between Syria and Iran are brotherly, deep, solid and permanent … Nothing can damage these relations,” President Ahmadinejad said at a joint press conference with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad in Damascus on Thursday.

The Iranian president further pointed out that Israel was “on the path to disappearing.”

“If the Zionist entity wants to repeats its past errors, its death will be inevitable,” Ahmadinejad said.

The Syrian president said at the joint news conference that he was “surprised” at US calls for Syria to stop its relations with Iran.

“I am surprised by their call to keep a distance between the countries … when they raise the issue of stability and peace in the Middle East, and all the other beautiful principles,” al-Assad told reporters.

“We need to further reinforce relations if the true objective is stability. We do not want others to give us lessons on our region, our history,” he added.

The Syrian leader also defended Iran’s right to pursue uranium enrichment, despite the threat of new sanctions against Tehran over the country’s nuclear program.

“To forbid an independent state the right to enrichment amounts to a new colonialist process in the region,” the Syrian president concluded.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has arrived in Damascus to discuss with his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad the threat that Israel poses to the Middle East and beyond.

Before leaving Tehran on Thursday morning, the Iranian president announced that his talks with Assad in the Syrian capital would focus on regional and global developments.

Ahmadinejad added that Israel’s efforts to destabilize the region would also be one of the main topics of their discussions.

He mentioned that Iran and Syria already share the same stance on regional and global issues, noting that both countries stood in “the front line of standing up to” Israel.

“These days, the Zionists are constantly threatening countries and nations surrounding Palestine. They intend to drag the region into an atmosphere of serious tension,” he said

“That is why it is necessary for our two countries to begin a new series of negotiations,” he added.

Winding up, the Iranian president pointed out that talks on economic cooperation and joint investment projects would also be a part of his discussions with his Syrian counterpart.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has called on the 27-nation European Union to throw its weight behind indirect Damascus-Tel Aviv peace talks to be aided by Ankara.

During a meeting with visiting Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger on Saturday, President Assad called for the establishment of a lasting and comprehensive peace in the Middle East region.

He also urged Europe to continue its objective role by supporting Turkey as a mediator.

Spindelegger, for his part, expressed the support of his country and the EU for all efforts which contribute to the resumption of peace negotiations and to stability in the Mideast.

Under Ankara mediation, Israel and Syria last May launched peace talks aimed at reaching a comprehensive peace agreement.

Negotiations reached a stalemate in September after the resignation of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Syria then withdrew from the talks in protest at the latest Israeli military operations in the Gaza Strip — in December 2008 and January 2009 — where at least 1,330 Palestinians, a large number of them women and children, lost their lives to the three-week offensive.

The US state department has lifted its advisories warning American travelers of security concerns in Syria.

“After carefully assessing the current situation in Syria, we determined that circumstances didn’t merit extending the travel warning,” said Tracy Roberts Pounds, a spokeswoman at the US Embassy in Damascus.

Though Washington tries to boost ties with a country viewed as a key to peace in the region, Syria remains on the US-made list of the “countries sponsoring terrorism,” a designation made in 1979.

US observers have long insisted that the so-called US list of the states sponsoring terrorism, which included Iran, Syria, Cuba, and North Korea, is a political tool to punish states that do not submit to US regional interests.

The country also remains under US sanctions, first imposed by former US President George W. Bush and renewed by President Barack Obama in May.

The US continues to claim concerns about Syria’s nuclear activity, although the US President Barack Obama announced this week that a nominated career diplomat will become the first US ambassador to Damascus since 2005.

“We are going to have an ambassador there who will engage Syria on the full range of issues, those areas where we think there’s opportunity for cooperation and those areas where we have concerns about Syria’s ongoing activity,” Obama told reporters Friday in Washington.

After the release of the latest UN nuclear watchdog’s report on Iran’s nuclear work, Syria says it seeks to engage Iran and the West in a “constructive” dialogue.

“We are trying to engage a constructive dialogue between the two parties in order to reach a peaceful solution,” Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said on Saturday.

He expressed Syria’s opposition to impose fresh Iran sanctions, saying, “Sanctions are not a solution (to the standoff) between Iran and the West.”

He rejected Western allegations that Iran is seeking atomic weapons and said, “Iran does not have a nuclear military program.”

On Thursday, the new head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Yukiya Amano issued a two-sided report about Iran’s nuclear program.

The report, while critical of some aspects of Iran’s uranium enrichment, once again verified the non-diversion of declared nuclear material in the country.

Iran, a signatory to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), says its nuclear program is directed at the civilian applications of the technology. However, the West accuses the country of conducting a covert military nuclear program particularly after Iran started earlier this month to enrich uranium to the 20-percent level.

The IAEA report also confirmed that Iran is enriching uranium to the 20-percent level, required for the fuel used in the medical research reactor in Tehran.

France blasts the alleged Israeli-run terror operation against a senior Hamas commander in Dubai, rejecting ‘murder’ as a solution in international relations.

“Murder is not the way one should conduct international relations,” said the visiting French Prime Minister Francois Fillon in the Syrian capital, Damascus on Saturday, AFP reported.

“France condemns this murder,” he added in condemning the January terrorist killing of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, the co-founder of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas’ armed wing, Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades.

Earlier in the day, the Dubai Police Chief Dahi Khalfan Tamim said that new evidence, including records of credit card payments and phone calls made by the suspects, confirmed the involvement of the Israeli Spy Agency, Mossad, in Mabhouh’s terror operation.

“Like the British and like the Germans, we have asked for explanations from the Israeli authorities since a French passport has been used in this operation,” the premier added, referring to the international police warrants issued by that the United Arab Emirates alleging that passports used by the terror suspects to enter the country had been issued in European countries.

Fillon, however, did not elaborate on the response of the Israelis on the use of a French passport in the suspected terror operation.

The Syrian president has urged European countries to force Israel to commit to a peaceful path during a meeting with the visiting French prime minister.

Syrian chief executive Bashar al-Assad during the Friday meeting further pointed out that peace requires true will, which he said Israel lacks.

Assad and French Prime Minister Francois Fillon discussed regional issues, especially occupied Palestinian lands and the stalled peace process. The two officials also conferred about means for nudging relations between Damascus and Paris forward.

According to the official Syrian news agency SANA, the two discussed “Israel’s repeated threats against the region’s countries and Israel’s extremism which threatens to foil chances of peace, by igniting the region with wars and leading it into the unknown.”

Fillon, the first French head of state to visit Syria in 33 years, arrived in the Syrian capital Damascus on Friday in an attempt to bolster diplomatic ties and forge new economic relations.

“My visit is aimed at sealing our relations and allowing them to take a new step forward,” Fillon said.

In a meeting with the Czech deputy prime minister, Syria’s president said Thursday that peace will not be realized in the Middle East because Tel Aviv is not interested in ensuring regional stability.

President Bashar al-Assad said Syria believes that stability will not be established under Israel’s disingenuous approaches toward peace.

Czech Deputy Prime Minister Jan Kohout, who also serves as minister of foreign affairs, expressed appreciation on Syria’s active role in finding solutions to the regional problems, voicing his country’s willingness to play a positive role in resolving Middle East problems.

He also expressed his country’s desire to see an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Golan Heights and returning it to Syria in line with the UN Security Council and the international resolutions, ISRIA reported.

Syria maintains that Israel’s withdrawal from Golan Heights is the precondition for peace between Damascus and Tel Aviv.

Israel captured the Golan Heights following the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed the Syrian territory in 1981. In 2007, Israeli warplanes destroyed Syria’s al-Kibar military site blaming the country of harboring a nuclear reactor there — a claim rejected by Syria.

In February 2007, Israel and Syria launched Turkey-mediated indirect peace talks aimed at reaching a comprehensive peace agreement.

Syria later withdrew from the talks in protest at Israel’s December 2008-January 2009 all-out military strike on the Gaza Strip, where at least 1,400 Palestinians lost their lives under three weeks of non-stop fire.

Hamas political chief Khaled Meshaal has called on Palestinian fighters to retaliate for Israel’s assassination of the movement’s top commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai last month.

“The time for promises and talk of revenge is done. Now is the time for action,” Mashaal said in a televised address from Damascus on Wednesday.

Meshaal also denounced what he termed as Israel’s terrorist activities against the Palestinians, saying Israel’s failure in its December-January 2008 war in the Gaza Strip revealed its “fake existence.”

Calling on the world to blacklist Israel as a terrorist entity, Mashaal said the regime would not get legitimacy and stability through terrorism.

Meanwhile, thousands of Palestinians rallied in honor of the assassinated leader of Hamas.

“The decision to avenge the martyr Mahmoud al-Mabhouh has been taken,” Abu Obeida, a spokesman for the Hamas armed wing, told the crowd.

Mabhouh, a senior commander in the armed wing of the Islamist movement, was assassinated last month in Dubai by a hit squad of at least 11 people carrying forged European passports, according to the Dubai police.

A top US official has met with Syrian President as US President Barack Obama is trying to reach out to the Middle Eastern country after several years of strained relations between Washington and Damascus.

William Burns, the US undersecretary of state for political affairs, met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Wednesday to discuss bilateral ties and regional issues.

The visit came on the heels of the appointment of Robert Ford as the next American ambassador to Syria by Obama.

Burns characterized Ford’s appointment as a positive step by the Obama administration.

“This is a clear sign after five years without an ambassador in Damascus of America’s readiness to improve relations and to cooperate to pursue a just and comprehensive peace between Arabs and Israelis,” Burns was quoted by AFP as saying.

The White House is eager to “make progress on all tracks in the peace process and to pursue regional peace and stability,” the US diplomat told journalists after meeting with Assad.

“There are challenges on the road but my meeting with President Assad leaves me hopeful that we can make progress together in the interest of both our countries,” he said.

Washington recalled its envoy to Damascus in 2005, after former Lebanese Premier Rafiq Hariri was assassinated in a bombing blamed on Syria, which denied any involvement in the incident.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs says Ford has many years of experience in the Middle East.

He says Ford, now the US embassy chief in Baghdad, may be called on to mediate enhancing Syria-US relations.

US President Barack Obama nominates Robert Ford as Washington’s first ambassador to Syria in five years as Damascus emerges an influential peacemaker in the Middle East.

Washington recalled its envoy after Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri was assassinated in early 2005 in a bombing the West blamed on Syria.

Obama’s choice now awaits the Senate’s approval to become the diplomat to formally launch the resumption of diplomatic ties between the US and Syria.

The White House announcement comes a day before top State Department official William Burns went to Syria as part of Washington’s efforts to expand dialogue with Damascus on “all aspects” of a strained relationship.

Obama has recently turned to Syria for help with mediating between Palestinians and Israel after his tantalizing first year in office saw no breakthrough out of the current deadlock in the Middle East peace process.

The US President, however, renewed sanctions against Syria last May, accusing it of supporting terrorism, pursuing weapons of mass destruction and destabilizing neighboring Iraq.

The reopening of the US embassy in Damascus and Washington’s mellowing tone is also viewed to be part of an effort by the United States to coax Syria away from its regional ally, Iran, which Western analysts see as a ‘herculean, if not impossible mission,’ for Ford.

Former ambassador to Algeria, Ford is currently the deputy chief of mission in the US embassy in Baghdad. He has also served in Turkey, Bahrain and Egypt in his 25-year career in the US Foreign Service.

Syria’s Foreign Ministry has once again condemned Israeli policies, saying Tel Aviv is not interested in peace in the Middle East.

In a statement issued on Thursday, the ministry said that the Israeli parliament is pushing legislation for tax benefits to some 30 Israeli communities settled in the Golan Heights.

The bill “is a new sign of the true intentions of Israel, which rejects peace,” the foreign ministry statement said.

It added that the move is an illegal measure, which adds to an extensive series of violation of international law and UN resolutions by Israel.

Tension between Damascus and Israel soared earlier this month after Hawkish Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said any new conflict between the old foes would lead to the removal of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power.

“When there is another war, you will not just lose it, but you and your family will lose power,” Lieberman said early in February.

Israel captured the strategic Golan Heights from Syria in the 1967 war and annexed it in 1981, in a move never recognized by the international community.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Sunday that Damascus would stand by Beirut, should Israel launch another war on Lebanon.

“Syria will stand alongside the government and people of Lebanon against any possible Israeli aggression launched on Lebanon,” Assad said Sunday in a meeting with visiting Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri in Damascus, AFP reported.

Assad and Berri discussed “repeated Israeli threats on countries in the region and Israeli extremism which can kill chances for peace and bring war to the region,” official Syrian Arab News Agency reported.

Officials in Tel Aviv recently reiterated threats of war against both countries, which still have parts of their territories occupied by Israel.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has recently said that Syria should clinch a peace deal with Israel or find itself in a “full-fledged war” with Tel Aviv. A few days later hawkish Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman threatened Assad with another war in which “his family will lose power” on top of a military defeat for the country.

Late last month, an Israeli minister predicted a third attack on Lebanon, which has already suffered deadly Israeli raids in 2000 and 2006.

The head of Lebanon’s Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) Walid Jumblatt recently said they would stand by Syria in the face of what he called ‘a frenzied Israeli attitude.’

The Leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah has also expressed his support for Syria’s anti-Israeli stance.

The Leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah movement Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah has expressed his support for Syria’s anti-Israeli stance.

According to Nasrallah, Syria’s stance against Israel is of great significance in the current situation of the region.

The comments came after Israeli officials threatened Syria with war.

On Thursday, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman threatened to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad.

“When there is another war, you will not just lose it, but you and your family will lose power,” Lieberman said. “There must be a correlation, because unfortunately, until now a military defeat did not mean a loss of power,” he added.

The remarks came three days after Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Syria should clinch a peace deal with Israel or it would find itself in a “full-fledged war” with Tel Aviv.

Nasrallah also pointed out that Washington and Tel Aviv had a hand in Wednesday’s major blast in Karbala.

A bomb planted on a parked motorcycle exploded on the outskirts of the holy city of Karbala, killing at least 23 Shia pilgrims and leaving more than 147 others wounded amid tight security before the huge religious procession on Friday.

The bomb exploded at about 11 a.m. (0800 GMT) in an area known as Ibrahimia, near the east entrance into Karbala, about 80 km (50 miles) south of the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

In another incident on Monday, at least 41 people were killed in northeast Baghdad when a bomb was detonated in a crowd of pilgrims heading to Karbala.

They were among hundreds of thousands of pilgrims who are walking to Karbala this week to observe the 40th day after the anniversary of Imam Hossein’s (PBUH) death.

For the commemoration, the pilgrims will converge on the city where Imam Hossein is buried after being slain over thirteen centuries ago.