Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for October 04/12 
Romney the aggressor in debate fixed on economy
Iran riots: 150 merchants, protesters arrested
Iran pumps large Bassij militia forces into Tehran as riots flare
Iranian police clash with protesters over currency plunge
Khamenei on protests: Iran will never bow to pressure
Nuclear Threat: Why US won't attack Iran
Int'l Christian lawmakers vow to stop Iranian nukes
Op-ed: Erdogan's long-term plan 
Isreali PM hoping to restore relations with Turkey'
Vatican envoy: Church attacks harm Israel
Peace treaty: Morsi deceiving Israel
Report: Iran transfers $10 billion to Syria
Tension spreads to Assad’s hometown
Mortar from Syria kills at least 5 in Turkey
Turkey strikes targets inside Syria after mortar attack
Free Syrian Army (FSA) claims responsibility for killing of Hezbollah commander
Free Syrian Army FSA Promises Hizbullah 'Severe Retaliation' over 'Interference in Syrian Affairs'
Three Hezbollah fighters killed in arms depot blast
Lebanese Banks keen to uphold U.S. tax rules

FSA Promises Hizbullah 'Severe Retaliation' over 'Interference in Syrian Affairs'
Naharnet/03 October 2012/The rebel Free Syrian Army on Wednesday warned Hizbullah of a “severe and earthshaking retaliation,” after the Syrian opposition said Tuesday that a Hizbullah commander and several fighters were killed inside Syria.
“We promise the Hizbullah members who are deployed in Syria that they will face a severe and earthshaking retaliation over their interference in the Syrian affairs and aiding the regime of President Bashar Assad to kill the Syrian people,” the Joint Command of the Free Syrian Army in Syria said in a statement.
In the statement, the FSA also promised Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah "surprises that will deprive him of sleep."
"We announce to the great Syrian people the news of the death of the criminal Mohammed Hussein al-Hajj Nassif 'Shamas', aka Abou Abbas, the organizational leader of the operations of the terrorist Hizbullah militia in the Syrian interior,” added the statement.
“The criminal Abou Abbas was killed in the city of Qusayr in the countryside of the city of Homs, while several companions were wounded after they were lured into an ambush,” the statement went on to say. The rebels vowed that they “will not have mercy on anyone who directly or indirectly contributes to the killing or oppression of our revolutionary, steadfast people, whether they belong to Assad's gangs and Shabiha or to Iran's militias – the Revolutionary Guard, Hizbullah, the Mahdi Army and others.”
“We call on our Lebanese brothers – who belong to a certain religious community and who have strayed and believed the lies of the devil, Khamenei's agent in Lebanon – to return to the path of right before it's too late and not to let your siblings become the fuel of a war you are not part of,” the FSA added.
“Do not deprive yourselves of the lung you are breathing through and of your only land route in the region,” the FSA went on to say, addressing Hizbullah's supporters.
A Hizbullah commander and several fighters have been killed inside Syria, a Lebanese security official told the Associated Press on Tuesday.
Hizbullah has stood by Syrian President Bashar Assad since the uprising began 18 months ago, even after the group supported revolts in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Bahrain. The group says it is backing the Syrian regime because of its support for the anti-Israel resistance movements in Lebanon and Palestine and because it is willing to implement political reforms.
Assad's fall would be a dire scenario for Hizbullah. Any new regime led by Syria's majority Sunni Muslims would likely be far less friendly — or even outright hostile — to Shiite Muslim Hizbullah. Iran remains the group's most important patron, but Syria is a crucial supply route. Without it, Hizbullah will struggle to get money and weapons as easily.
The Syrian uprising has left Assad deeply isolated — making his remaining allies such as Iran and Russia all the more important. At last week's gathering of world leaders at the United Nations, dozens of nations excoriated the Assad regime for its role in a conflict that activists estimate has killed at least 30,000 Syrians.
It was not immediately clear how the alleged Hizbullah militants were killed or whether they had been fighting alongside the Syrian army. But Hizbullah's newspaper al-Intiqad said Hizbullah commander Ali Hussein Nassif, who is also known as Abu Abbas, was killed "while performing his jihadi duties." It did not say when or where he was killed.
A Lebanese security official told AP Nassif was killed in Syria and his body was returned to Lebanon through the Masnaa border crossing on Sunday. Speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media, the official said the bodies of several other Hizbullah fighters have been brought back to Lebanon in recent days.
Hizbullah spokesman Ibrahim al-Moussawi on Tuesday confirmed the deaths of the Hizbullah members but said he had no further information on where or how Nassif was killed. He declined further comment. The Syrian opposition has long accused the group of helping the Syrian leadership crack down on the uprising — a claim the group has repeatedly denied.
Nassif's funeral, which was held in the eastern town of Budai, near Baalbek, was attended by top Hizbullah officials including the head of the Sharia council and the political bureau, an indication of Nassif's high prestige, according to AP. On Tuesday, Hizbullah's al-Manar TV showed the funerals of at least two other Hizbullah members it said were killed while performing their "jihadi duty." Both funerals were attended by Hizbullah officials and commanders.The coffins of the dead were draped with Hizbullah's yellow flags and carried by militants in black uniforms and red berets. Hundreds of people marched in the funeral. Samer al-Homsi, an activist in Syria's central Homs province, which borders Lebanon, said Nassif was killed Saturday when a roadside bomb went off as the car he was in passed just outside the town of Qusayr. He said Nassif and several other people were killed in the blast. "His job was to coordinate with Syrian security agencies," al-Homsi told AP via Skype.He added that the rebels detonated the bomb "without knowing" that the target was a Hizbullah official. "We knew he was a Hizbullah official after it was announced by the group in Lebanon," he said. Al-Homsi's account could not be independently verified.

FSA claims responsibility for killing of Hezbollah commander
October 03, 2012 /The Daily Star /BEIRUT: The Free Syrian Army claimed responsibility for the death of a Hezbollah commander reportedly killed in Syria in remarks published in a Saudi newspaper Wednesday. “Members of the FSA ambushed Ali Hussein Nassif, also known as Abu Abbas, with an explosive device that killed him and two of his bodyguards in Al Qusayr area in Homs,” FSA commander Col. Riad al-Asaad told Okaz newspaper. An AP report Tuesday quoted a Lebanese security official saying that Nassif and several Hezbollah fighters had been killed in Syria. Hezbollah spokesman Ibrahim Moussawi confirmed the deaths of the Hezbollah members but said he had no further information on where or how Nassif was killed. According to Asaad, the FSA had planned the operation for two weeks. “Members of the FSA tracked Abu Abbas for days until they were able to kill him while he was on his way to one of Hezbollah and [President Bashar] Asaad's forces’ gatherings in the region,” Asaad said. The FSA commander also vowed to conduct more attacks against Iranian and Hezbollah elements allegedly participating in the clashes in Syria. “Anyone who supports the Assad regime is a partner in crime and deserves punishment,” he said. He said more than 300 people affiliated to Iran and Hezbollah had already been killed in Qusayr. Hezbollah, the primary ally of Syria and Iran in Lebanon, has long been accused by Syrian rebels of providing help to Bashar Assad and sending its fighters to support the regime forces in the war-torn country. However, the group has repeatedly denied such accusations. A broadcast on Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV Tuesday showed footage of the funeral held for the party commander in the eastern town of Budai, near Baalbek, in the presence of high ranking Hezbollah officials. The same day Al-Manar TV also aired what it said were the funerals of at least two other Hezbollah members killed while performing their “jihadi duty.”

Hezbollah says three fighters killed in munitions depot blast in east Lebanon
October 03, 2012/The Daily Star /BEIRUT: An explosion Wednesday at a munitions depot in east Lebanon killed three of the resistance party’s fighters, the group said in a statement. “The blast [in Nabi Sheet] led the unfortunate martyrdom of three of our Mujahedeen brothers as well as a number of wounded,” Hezbollah said. Security sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Daily Star that around midday an explosion at a four-story building in Nabi Sheet, Baalbek, killed at least three people and wounded four others. The sources said the building, which belonged to a man identified as Mohammad Adnan Mussawi, collapsed as a result of the magnitude of the explosion and that Hezbollah cordoned off the site soon after the blast.
The casualties of the explosion have yet to be identified, the sources added. They said it was not yet clear what triggered the blast. In its statement, Hezbollah said the blast took place at a munitions depot in its control. “As a clarification to what occurred today in Nabi Sheet, according to Hezbollah’s sources an explosion occurred at a munitions depot where old shells and ammunition as well as ordnance from the Israeli shelling of the area were gathered,” it said. “Work is under way with relevant authorities to deal with aftereffects of the incident," the statement added.Nabi Sheet lies 80 kilometers from Beirut. The town is known for its residents' staunch support of Hezbollah and was the hometown of former Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Abbas al- Mussawi

Syria widens Hezbollah’s contradictions
By Michael Young/The Daily Star
Reports that a Hezbollah member, Ali Hussein Nassif, was killed in Syria last week, along with other party members, should not surprise us. While Hezbollah has denied involvement in the Syrian conflict, the participation of its members in President Bashar Assad’s campaign of repression has been an open secret for some time in Lebanon. Hezbollah, through a party publication, announced the death of its members, but not their presence in Syria, saying only that they had been killed “while performing their jihadi duties.” The party, echoing the Iranian regime, has viewed events in Syria as an effort to undermine the axis of resistance against Israel. In other words the collapse of the Assads is a strategic threat to be prevented at all costs.
In this context, recently the commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, Gen. Mohammad Ali Jaafari, admitted that members of the Guard’s Quds force were present in Syria and Lebanon, albeit only as “advisers.” Tehran later disavowed Jaafari’s remarks, saying that he had been misquoted. However, no one doubted the veracity of his statement, given Iran’s perceptions of the stakes in Syria.
As Hezbollah’s role in Syria becomes clearer, and as the party continues to contribute to the Assad regime’s viciousness, its vulnerabilities will increase. However, the notion that the Shiite community will turn against Hezbollah is wishful thinking. If anything, as sectarian hostility rises in Syria, therefore in Lebanon, Hezbollah will find it easier to impose Shiite unanimity behind the party’s choices, no matter how repugnant its behavior in Syria.
But where Hezbollah will not escape blowback is in those aspects of its public image where, for years, it has put up façades of deception. The party has always asserted that it is on the side of the dispossessed and justice; it has systematically played down its image as a sectarian Shiite organization; and while it has always affirmed its loyalty to Iran and its supreme leader, the party has promoted an outlook that it has a wide margin of maneuver vis-à-vis Tehran.
All three of these arguments are disproven by Hezbollah’s actions in Syria. There the party is, plainly, on the side of the dispossessors and injustice. Drawing Arab attention back to Israel is not going to alter this. Strategic necessity has torn away the party’s mask of virtue. This virtuousness had already been dented in Lebanon, after Hezbollah worked hard to return Syrian hegemony over the country following the assassination of Rafik Hariri – a crime in which four party members stand accused of having taken part. Nor was there much moral decency on show when Hezbollah and its allies militarily occupied western Beirut in May 2008, killing dozens of civilians.
Strategic necessity is a reason why Hezbollah has supported Syria’s Alawite-dominated regime, but sectarianism is also a factor. In Syria, the Iranians and Hezbollah have played a game of paradox and nuance: They have sought, on the one hand, to portray themselves as avatars of pan-Arab impulses, above all opposition to Israel and the United States, thereby appealing to perennial “Sunni” ideological preferences. On the other hand, Iran and Hezbollah have pursued in Syria, as they have in Lebanon and Iraq, a policy of bolstering Shiite pre-eminence though political, military and financial means.
Few are fooled anymore. Gone are the days when Hezbollah and its leader, Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah, won popularity contests in Arab streets. Thanks to Syria, the Arab world has been cracked by the pulsations of sect. Hezbollah’s old partner Hamas has largely abandoned the Assads, as have the different branches of the Muslim Brotherhood, above all in Egypt. Long before Bashar Assad ordered his warplanes to bomb civilians, Syrians were already burning Iranian and Hezbollah flags, grasping that power politics, but also communal fear and solidarity (even if Shiites and Alawites remain considerably different), reinforced Shiite backing for the Alawites.
As for Hezbollah’s devotion to the Iranian leadership, the party’s growing isolation over Syria has strengthened the umbilical cord tying it to Tehran. It is nothing new for Hezbollah members to act as covert operatives for Iran. From Iraq to Latin America, and now in Syria, only the naive would insist there is much sunlight between Iranian military and security institutions and those of Hezbollah.
Party members have tried to suggest otherwise, usually by offering up a non sequitur: because Nasrallah is so respected in Tehran, Hezbollah cannot possibly be a mere accessory of the Revolutionary Guard and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Nasrallah is respected, and in Lebanon during the past months Hezbollah has had the latitude to act with subtlety in order to avert a Sunni-Shiite confrontation. And yet when it comes to the fundamental issues affecting Iran’s interests, such as deploying men on behalf of Assad rule or defending Iran’s nuclear program, that latitude suddenly and inexorably shrinks.
There is an erroneous conviction among March 14 leaders that Hezbollah may be irreversibly crippled by the fall of the house of Assad. The party will lose a great deal, but it will also retain a great deal, not least its formidable arsenal. Hezbollah’s declining reputation is one thing, but its effectiveness is something else entirely. With or without Syria it will have the ability to wreak havoc in Lebanon and elsewhere. So, take heart that the party’s contradictions are being exposed, but don’t assume Hezbollah is on its last legs.
*Michael Young is opinion editor of THE DAILY STAR. He tweets @BeirutCalling.

Nabi Sheet explosion bears all hallmarks of previous incidents
October 04, 2012/By Nicholas Blanford /The Daily Star
BEIRUT: The mysterious explosions in a building near Nabi Sheet Wednesday that reportedly killed three people is the latest in a series of blasts in recent years of suspected Hezbollah arms caches resulting from accidents or sabotage. The explosion reportedly occurred in a half-built house in the triangle formed by the Bekaa villages of Nabi Sheet, Khodr and Khreibe. Hezbollah admitted that three of its fighters were killed and said the blasts occurred in a “munitions depot” where old artillery shells and ordnance were stored.
The incident bears the hallmarks of a previous explosion in a half-built house on the outskirts of Khirbet Silm in the south in July 2009. Then, as on Wednesday, a series of blasts – up to 60 recorded by UNIFIL – shook the village for several hours early one morning, badly damaging the two-story building and hurling unexploded ordnance up to 200 meters away. It remains publicly unknown what caused the blasts. UNIFIL later determined that the munitions stored in the house were generally old, consisting of Israeli artillery shells, mortar rounds and 107mm Katyusha rockets. The arms cache was considered by the U.N. as a “serious violation” of U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, which forbids the storing of armaments south of the Litani river. Like its explanation for Wednesday’s blasts, Hezbollah said the armaments were leftovers from the 2006 war and had been stored for safekeeping.
Three months later, a small blast in a house in the southern village of Teir Filsay, also in the UNIFIL-patrolled border district, raised speculation that another arms dump had blown up. Israel released footage shot by an overhead drone purporting to show Hezbollah operatives removing what was described as a rocket from the building and transporting it to a garage in a neighboring village. In response, Hezbollah released video footage showing the “rocket” was nothing more than a rolled up metal door. No explanation for the blast has been given although UNIFIL noted the room where the blast occurred was torched with gasoline before any outside parties could inspect it.
Then, in September 2010, an unexplained fire broke out in a Hezbollah-owned house in Shehabiyah in the south. Once again, an Israeli drone was on hand to film suspected Hezbollah men removing unidentified equipment.
The unusual number of “accidents” at suspected Hezbollah arms stores between 2009 and 2010 spurred speculation that they could have been acts of sabotage by the Israelis. In the six years between Israel’s troop withdrawal from the south in May 2000 and the outbreak of war in July 2006, there was only one recorded instance in the south of an arms dump exploding. That incident occurred in February 2004 when a two-story building in Shehabiyah blew up. Sabotage was not suspected – the cause was put down to an electrical short circuit during a lightning storm.
Other than the comparative frequency of blasts in suspected arms dumps between 2009 and 2010, questions were raised about the speed with which Israeli drones were able to film the immediate aftermaths. More intriguing was a report published on the Khirbet Silm blast a month later by Israel’s Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, a group with close links to Israeli intelligence and run by Reuven Erlich, who in the 1990s, during the years of Israeli occupation in the south, was deputy to Uri Lubrani, the Israeli government’s coordinator for Lebanon.
The report described the incident in Khirbet Silm and accused Hezbollah of flouting Resolution 1701 by storing arms south of the Litani. But the telling part of the report was the inclusion of two photographs of the stricken building. One overhead photograph, clearly taken by a drone following the explosions, showed the damaged building. Beside it, however, was another photograph of the same building taken sometime earlier showing it intact. The angle of the second picture suggested it was not an aerial shot but taken from the ground on the other side of the valley.
The question raised by this second picture is why the Israelis had a photo of this specific house unless they knew or suspected it was a Hezbollah arms cache. And if they knew it was an arms cache, could the blasts that destroyed it have been the result of sabotage?
Similar questions were raised as long ago as November 2000 when a house outside Nabi Sheet, purportedly home to a Hezbollah bomb expert, was destroyed in a powerful blast. The Daily Star was able to gain access to the building at the time and found some circumstantial evidence of a possible missile strike from metal fragments (there also was heavy Israeli air activity in the Bekaa that day). Hezbollah played down the notion of an airstrike but admitted it suspected sabotage.
It is widely known that since the start of the uprising against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad the flow of arms from Syria to Hezbollah’s arsenals has accelerated. Israel has warned that it considers the provision of advanced anti-aircraft systems and chemical and biological weapons to Hezbollah as a “red line” that would require a forceful response. So far, the Israelis have stayed their hand.
Certainly, accidents do happen and it is possible Wednesday’s blast was nothing more than a deadly mistake. But if further mysterious explosions are recorded in the weeks and months ahead in areas under Hezbollah’s influence, it might suggest something more sinister.

Is Iran's Currency Crisis Evidence That Sanctions Are Working?
Michael Singh/Washington Institute
The regime is relatively sheltered from the current crisis, so Washington should be careful not to count on the sanctions alone to resolve the nuclear impasse.
Both the Obama administration and Iran's President Ahmadinejad have blamed the recent dramatic fall in value of Iran's currency on international sanctions. It is a convenient explanation for both -- for the White House, it suggests that U.S. strategy towards Iran is working; for Ahmadinejad, it deflects responsibility away from his own policy decisions and toward an external scapegoat.
But as my colleague Patrick Clawson explains, sanctions are only partly to blame for Iran's economic travails. The currency crisis and associated inflationary spiral has its origins in the Ahmadinejad government's mismanaged subsidy reform initiative. Sanctions have indeed exacerbated the problem, both by raising the cost to foreign firms of doing business with Iran and reducing the regime's foreign exchange earnings. The increasing threat of war has also played a role, deepening Iranians' worries about economic stability and increasing their inflationary expectations, and thus leading them to dump rials and seek safe haven in dollars and other hard currency to protect their savings.
However, the regime's maladroit domestic response to the sanctions (for example, its decision to set up "foreign exchange centers," which sparked the current run on dollars) and its loose monetary and fiscal policies have made matters far worse. This is arguably the result of years of economic mismanagement in Iran, particularly under Ahmadinejad, who has subverted what little independence the Central Bank previously possessed and drained it of economic expertise.
Ironically, however, the Iranian regime is relatively sheltered from the present crisis. Although sanctions have reduced its oil exports, they remain high at 1.2 to 1.5 million barrels per day, meaning that the regime's foreign exchange income is considerable, even if diminished. What's more, it has limited external liabilities, and in any event its oil income is dollar-denominated, protecting it from exchange rate risk. This means that as the rial plunges, the regime's fixed rial-denominated payments become effectively cheaper. Meanwhile, Iran's rampant corruption likely shields elites and their families from the worst of the country's economic woes, such as unemployment and increasing scarcity.
As a result, Iran's economic crisis is unlikely to directly cause the regime to change its nuclear calculus. Instead, the sanctions implicitly depend on domestic Iranian outcry -- or the regime's worries of unrest -- to cause the regime to make the desired strategic shift. However, as bad as Iran's economy is, there are few signs of major unrest, and fewer signs still that the regime is responsive to the concerns of the Iranian people (although this will further diminish Ahmadinejad's standing). This is, after all, the regime that showed no compunction in brutally putting down protests in 2009.
By implication, the United States and our allies should be careful not to count on the current sanctions to resolve the nuclear crisis by themselves. Nor should we abandon our focus on targeted sanctions in favor of a return to broad sanctions, which rarely succeed in inducing policy changes in autocratic regimes. Rather than hoping that giving current sanctions "time to work" will force Iran back to the negotiating table, the United States and our allies should add further pressure to the regime and the elites who comprise it, including through additional targeted economic sanctions, diplomatic isolation, bolstering the credibility of our military threat to the regime, and support for the Iranian opposition.
On their own, sanctions are unlikely to work. Instead, for the United States to succeed in its aims, sanctions must be just one part of a broad, coordinated, and disciplined policy which brings all policy tools to bear on the goal of preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
**Michael Singh is managing director of The Washington Institute

Iran pumps large Bassij militia forces into Tehran as riots flare
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report October 3, 2012, The Iranian government Wednesday, Oct. 3, invoked the emergency measures drawn up for the 2009 protests to deploy large-scale Bassij militia forces in the capital and put down the first angry protests against mounting economic hardship and the plummeting rial.  debkafile’s Iranian sources report two waves of riots swept through Tehran’s trading centers Wednesday: the stores trading gold coins and foreign currency on Fereowsi, Estanbol and Manoucheri Streets, and the celebrated gold jewelry market in the Tehran Bazaar.
Money changers and gold traders attacked police forces and torched their vehicles, playing cat and mouse with the officers after they arrested some of the money changers and accused them of black market dealings. This was part of the regime’s effort to curtail the steep plunge of the Iranian currency against the dollar. Wednesday, a dollar went for 40,000 rials compared with 37,500 rials Tuesday and 24,000 only a week ago. Fearing that the troubles Wednesday presaged a general strike shutting down the bazaar for an indefinite period, the authorities decided to draw the line before the unrest spread to the rest of the capital and other cities.Two teams are now at work to deal with the crisis before it gets out of hand: One is meeting at the office of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei; the second, including Interior Minister Mostafa Mohamnmad-Najjar and Revolutionary commander of the Tehran district, is working on ways to rein in the crisis in the presidential bureau of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
Both have received intelligence briefings, according to which there was a real risk of the Tehran merchants’ revolt igniting a popular uprising in Tehran that may well encompass the entire country.
The brutal Bassij militia were accordingly sent into Tehran. They were told to spread out early Thursday and force the merchants to open their shops. They were directed to act firmly but cautiously and avoid loss of life. Iran’s rulers are fully aware the any blood spilt at this stage would quickly inflame the masses.

Turkey strikes targets inside Syria after mortar attack
News agencies : 10.04.12, 02:02 / Ankara says military continues to pound Syrian army posts near border after mortar killed five Turks. NATO demands halt to 'aggressive acts' against alliance member; Turkey urges UN Security Council action Turkey's military struck targets inside Syria on Wednesday in response to a mortar bomb fired from Syrian territory which killed five Turkish civilians, Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's office said in a statement. "Our armed forces in the border region responded immediately to this abominable attack in line with their rules of engagement; targets were struck through artillery fire against places in Syria identified by radar," the statement said.Turkey will never leave unanswered such kinds of provocation by the Syrian regime against our national security."
Late Wednesday the Turkish army continued shelling Syrian army positions along the border between the two countries, the Anatolia news agency reported. The Turkish attacks, launched by a unit based in the city of Akcakale, near the border, caused heavy explosions on the Syrian side, according to the report. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu had spoken by telephone with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and the foreign ministers of several UN Security Council member countries about the incident, the statement said. NATO demanded an immediate halt to "aggressive acts" against alliance member Turkey.The shelling "constitutes a cause of greatest concern for, and is strongly condemned by, all allies", NATO ambassadors said in a statement, after they held a rare late-night meeting on Wednesday at Turkey's request to discuss the incident. "The alliance continues to stand by Turkey and demands the immediate cessation of such aggressive acts against an ally, and urges the Syrian regime to put an end to flagrant violations of international law," the statement said. On Wednesday night, Turkey asked the UN Security Council to take the "necessary action" to stop Syrian aggression and ensure that Syria respect its territorial sovereignty after a mortar bomb fired from Syria killed five Turkish civilians."This is an act of aggression by Syria against Turkey," Turkish UN Ambassador Ertugrul Apakan said in a letter to the president of the 15-nation Security Council, Guatemalan Ambassador Gert Rosenthal. "It constitutes a flagrant violation of international law as well as a breach of international peace and security." The Obama administration said it is "outraged" by the Syrian mortar shell that landed on a home in Turkey, killing at least five people. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the US is consulting its NATO ally on what she termed a "very dangerous situation."She plans to speak to Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu later Wednesday.Among the dead was a 6-year-old boy. Turkish state media reported angry townspeople marching to the local mayor's office to protest the deaths.Speaking in Washington, Clinton said Syria's leaders were causing untold suffering to their own people, driven solely by their desire to cling to power.She said responsible nations worldwide must band together to pressure Syria's government into a cease-fire and a political transition.AP, Reuters, AFP contributed to the report

Khamenei on protests: Iran will never bow to pressure
Dudi Cohen Published: 10.03.12, 19:28 / ynetnews
Amid economic protests in Tehran, supreme leader says West pressuring Iran because it is 'not bowing to the hegemonic system.' Top commander: We can destroy Israel in 24 hours
The Iranian regime "has not bowed and will never surrender to pressure, and this has made the enemy furious," Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Wednesday amid clashes between riot police and demonstrators in Tehran over the collapse of the country's currency, which has lost a third of its value against the dollar in a week.
According to the Fars news agency, Khamenei told a group of "young Iranian elites" in the capital that "during the last 33 years, Iran has been faced with a wide range of political, security, military and economic pressure and sanctions, but the Iranian nation has not only neutralized these pressures through resistance, it has grown more powerful through resistance."
The Iranian website Press TV quoted the supreme leader as saying that "the Iranian nation has never bowed to pressure and never will, and this is the cause of enemy’s fury."
He told the "young gifted talents" that "the cause of all these pressures is the Iranian nation’s independent position and not bowing to the hegemonic system."
Meanwhile, Khamenei’s representative in the elite unit of the Revolutionary Guards said it would take Iran 24 hours to destroy Israel should it launch an attack on the Islamic Republic's nuclear installations.
"If a war with Israel does happen, it wouldn’t be a long one, and it would benefit the entire Muslim world,” Hojjat al-Eslam Ali Shirazi said in an interview with Iran's Jahan News.
During Wednesday's clashes near Tehran's main bazaar, police fired tear gas to disperse demonstrators and merchants angered by the plunge in the value of the Iranian rial. The protesters yelled out slogans against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, saying his economic policies had fuelled the economic crisis.
Protesters further criticized the Iranian government for aiding the Syrian regime at the expense of dealing with the economic situation in Iran.
The rial has been plunging to record lows against the US dollar almost daily as Western economic sanctions imposed over Iran's disputed nuclear program have slashed Iran's export earnings from oil, undermining the central bank's ability to support the currency.
The protesters further criticized the Iranian government for aiding the Syrian regime at the expense of dealing with the economic situation in Iran.
News agencies contributed to the report

Obama's anti-Israel agenda
By: Dan Calic/10.04.12/ynetnews
Op-ed: Pre-election polls sad reflection of how unimportant Israel is to majority of US Jews
With American elections only weeks away, relations between Israel and the US have become a key issue in the campaign. Try as he might, President Obama can't do enough to hide how strained relations are between the two countries. The fact that the state of relations is being debated almost daily is enough of an indicator they are decidedly worse than prior to his presidency. In other words, when they are clearly good, there's no need to debate the issue. His dislike of Netanyahu is as clear as his love for the Muslim call to prayer, as he noted in his 2009 Cairo speech, when he called it the "sweetest sound on earth."At a time when tensions in the Middle East are as high as they've ever been, he rejected the request to meet with the leader of the only true democracy and America's best friend in the region, when both leaders were in the same city. Ultimately he did agree to a phone meeting, which lasted 20 minutes.
When interviewed on 60 Minutes this past week, he referred to Netanyahu as "noise" which he "blocks out," instead of a respectful comment such as "I'm always interested in hearing what the leader of our most loyal ally in the Middle East has to say."
He referred to Israel as "one of our closest allies in the region." In other words Israel is no closer than any other country? Please Mr. President, tell us who is as close as Israel?
When Netanyahu asks him to impose a "red line" on Iran, his response is "there is still time for sanctions to work." In almost four years of his administration sanctions have yet to work. In fact, not only have sanctions not worked, Iran has actually increased the pace of its nuclear program. Does he actually think sanctions will suddenly have their effect in the remaining weeks before the election? Moreover, when will Mr. Obama think time has run out? After Iran engages in a pre-emptive strike killing scores of Israeli civilians?
His UN speech was distinctly absent of passion, nor did he take advantage of the opportunity to invite the nations of the world to stand in unity against Iran's defiance. This shouldn't surprise us. Let's not forget this is a president who in 2010 openly and warmly welcomed Mahmoud Abbas to the White House, despite the fact Abbas has repeatedly said he will never accept Israel as a Jewish state. Conversely, Netanyahu was quietly shuffled into the White House through a side door, and in a clear statement of disrespect left on his own for dinner.
Rose-colored glasses
Also in 2010, 76 US Senators did something quite unusual. They were so disappointed in Obama's consistent unfair treatment of Israel they sent him a letter asking him to be more fair toward the Jewish State. No previous president has received such a letter. In 2011 Obama chose to undermine Netanyahu when he made his famous "1967 borders" speech as the Israeli PM was airborne en route to meet with him to explain, among other things, why '67 borders would be "indefensible."
Leaders of both Republicans and Democrats, Obama's own party, were so angry with the president's speech they publically spoke out to distance themselves from his comments about '67 borders. Just days later both parties sent him another strong message by giving Netanyahu 30 standing ovations when he spoke to a joint session of Congress.
Plus, after the two leaders met privately, Obama's clear bent against Israel left Netanyahu with no choice, but to tell the president, while the cameras were rolling, that Israel cannot return to indefensible borders and must reserve the right to decide when and how to defend itself. It's quite a sad moment when Israel needs to publically beg the US for the right to defend itself against a country which has repeatedly threatened to annihilate it and is unabatedly pursuing the very weapons to accomplish its oft stated goal.
More recently, Obama has been trying to put the brakes on Netanyahu's requests that he publically stand with Israel, and confront Iran. Obama had yet another opportunity during his UN speech, and once again stopped short of 'red lining' Iran.
I believe Obama's conduct is motivated by both political and personal reasons. The political aspect is that he is engaged in an election campaign, and doesn't want his chances for re-election damaged. If Israel and Iran tangle, he'll be under tremendous pressure from the American public, Congress and Western allies to support Israel, and possibly take military action. Should this happen it will damage relations with his other so-called "closest allies in the region." He also risks a hostile reaction such as another oil embargo, like the one imposed after the 1973 war, during which President Nixon re-supplied Israel's military.
On a personal level, given his background and upbringing, both of which have been significantly influenced by Islam, he doesn't want to damage the effort to reach out to the Muslim world, an effort which began with the 2009 Cairo speech and has continued throughout his administration.
One would think his anti-Israel agenda would be obvious and negate most of the 78% Jewish vote he received in '08. Not so. Polls predict that roughly 60-65% of Jews still support him. This is a sad reflection of how unimportant Israel is to the majority of American Jews. While many will outwardly claim they love Israel, and even argue with you over their support for Israel, at the end of the day, their votes reflect no difference from the average non-Jewish liberals who see Obama through rose-colored glasses.
It's difficult to imagine relations between Israel and the US getting worse, but should Obama win a second term and not need to worry about being elected again, it's highly likely his anti-Israel agenda will grow from a tropical storm to a category 5 hurricane.
To this I say Mr. Obama, you can run, but your attitude can't hide.