Syria: U.S., Israel Supporting Rebels

This story is highly significant because of Assad's warnings to strike Israel if there is any "foreign intervention" in this internal conflict taking place in Syria. This is the first time an official from Syria has made the formal declaration of such. Could this be a prelude to war against Israel?

Syria: U.S., Israel Supporting Rebels From Bases In Turkey

In letter to UN Security Council, Syrian envoy claims intelligence services of Israel, US, Saudi Arabia and Qatar running military operation centers in Turkey used to oversee rebels' battles in Aleppo, other cities.

Syria has accused Israel, the United States, Saudi Arabia and Qatar of running military operation centers in Turkey to support the rebels by overseeing battles in Syria's 17-month conflict.

In a letter to the UN Security Council released on Friday, Syrian UN Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari also again blamed Qatar, Turkey and Saudi Arabia of "harboring, funding and arming the armed terrorist groups."

"Turkey has established within its territory military operations centers that are run by the intelligence services of Israel, the United States, Saudi Arabia and Qatar," Ja'afari wrote in the letter dated Aug. 2.

"Those centers are being used to oversee battles that are being waged by the terrorists against Syrian citizens in Aleppo and other Syrian cities and the massacres the terrorists are perpetrating after entering Syria in large numbers," he said.

"Those shedding tears over what is occurring in Aleppo and demanding that the Security Council should be convened are the very same parties that caused the tragedy through their support of terrorism and arming of terrorist groups," Ja'afari said.

He said the United States, France, Britain and Turkey were leading a campaign "to alter the balance in the region and force its countries to comply with the hegemonic policies and bend to the will of those Western states."

Ja'afari called on the UN Security Council to pressure those countries to stop supporting, arming and funding the rebels and facilitating their operations.

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"Hezbollah Can Hit Europe Any Time Without Warning"

Hezbollah could attack Europe at any time and with little to no warning, US State Department's counter-terrorism coordinator Daniel Benjamin said Friday according to AFP, shortly after the US Treasury announced a fresh round of economic sanctions against the Lebanon-based terrorist group.

"Our assessment is that Hezbollah and Iran will both continue to maintain a heightened level of terrorist activity and operations in the near future," Benjamin said at a conference call with reporters. "Hezbollah maintains a presence in Europe and its recent activities demonstrate that it is not constrained by concerns about collateral damage or political fallout that could result from conducting operations there... We assess that Hezbollah could attack in Europe or elsewhere at any time with little or no warning."

Benjamin warned that Hezbollah could become increasingly violent as international sanctions threaten Syria and Iran, its patron-states.

"Hezbollah believes there have been sustained Israeli and western campaigns against the group and its primary backers Iran and Syria over the past several years and this perception is unlikely to change. Both remain determined to exact revenge against Israel and to respond forcefully to the Western-led pressure against Iran and Syria," he said.