Word: syria
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...Damascus Engaging Syria U.S. officials confirmed that the Obama Administration will attempt to mend frayed ties with Syria by appointing an ambassador to the pivotal Middle Eastern state after a four-year hiatus. Analysts say the gambit, which follows special envoy George Mitchell's visit to Syria earlier in June, is intended to soothe regional tensions and combat Iranian influence. The U.S. had withdrawn its ambassador after the 2005 assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, a crime many suspected Syrian intelligence officials of orchestrating...
...same time, the State Department sanctioned Namchongang Trading Company, based in Pyongyang, for being involved in the purchase of aluminum tubes and other equipment "specifically suitable for a uranium enrichment program since the late 1990s." The State Department believes the company may also have been involved in assisting Syria to build a covert nuclear reactor - one that Israel ultimately destroyed in September...
...antipathy, though, scapegoating the U.K. may have as much to do with Iran's reluctance to lay into the U.S. President Barack Obama's overtures to the wider Middle East - Washington announced on June 24 plans to return an ambassador to Syria for the first time in four years - and the specific offer of talks with Tehran "has wrong-footed the regime," says Adam Hug, policy director at London's Foreign Policy Centre. In that context, "Britain's closeness to the U.S. enables it to be used as a proxy - 'Little Satan' to America's 'Great Satan...
...there are limits. The U.S. Administration has broached to Beijing the possibility of participating in the Proliferation Security Initiative, which aims to block suspected shipments of weapons and nuclear matériel from states such as North Korea, Iran and Syria. The program has had its successes. Last September, acting on intelligence from the U.S., India denied overflight rights to an aircraft that took off in Burma and was thought to be transporting North Korean missiles or other weaponry to Iran. The flight never made it to Tehran, U.S. intelligence officials say. But until very recently, even South Korea hesitated...
...Beirut March 14 Madness Lebanon's ruling March 14 alliance won a surprise majority in the country's hotly contested June 7 parliamentary elections, upsetting an opposition coalition led by the Shi'ite paramilitary group Hizballah. The pro-West, anti-Syria alliance's victory was lauded by the U.S., which had threatened to withhold financial aid to Lebanon if the Iran-backed opposition triumphed. Negotiations on the creation of a national-unity government are set to begin in the coming weeks, though Hizballah's insistence on retaining legislative-veto power is expected to be a source of contention...