The Syrian opposition are upset about the USA's outreach to Syria (Bill Burns the US State Department heavy is visiting Damascus). They are concerned that it means we no longer oppose the Syrian government. But we have bigger fish to fry and that means bringing Syria back into the Western camp at almost any cost because that will weaken Iran. But does weakening Iran reduce the risk of another Mid East war - or increase it?
The Obama administration last week made a major diplomatic opening to Syria. It dispatched Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs William Burns to Damascus for talks, thereby elevating the level of diplomatic contact and further making good on a pledge to engage with countries that George W. Bush s administration shunned.
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Well this about beats all when it comes to conspiracy theories. What do you think? This was sent over to us by RPS (the Syrian opposition group):

Assad's Intelligence Services Helped Kill al-Mabhouh
"If you question what Assad has given-up in return for US appeasement, then look no further than the killing of al-Mabhouh RPS believes was facilitated by Syrian intelligence in cooperation with the west. Notice the silence of the Iranian regime due to Iranian coordination with Assad knowing that less pressure on Syria will help Assad, clandestinely, further Iranian influence as we have seen in Syrian training on the SA-2 missiles of Hezbollah on Syrian soil and Syrian intransigence on a nuclear program Iran may well be the ultimate beneficiary."

In a country that boasts being a signatory of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and The Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women, a recent decision made by a Syrian court was made in direct violation of the Syrian constitution, which guarantees the right to live to all citizens, male or female, and therefore undermining the position of women, and honour killings in Syrian society.

A Syrian judge acquitted a young man who killed his sister. Due to the fact that the murder was motivated by honour (because the brother argues that his sister fled with her lover), his sentence has reduced. However, he had already spent some time in custody- which counted towards his punishment. Therefore he was free to walk the streets straight away. This is irrespective of the fact that the murder was premeditated- as the brother had bought a razor to kill his sister before travelling to Damascus to commit the crime.

No justice has been brought to the sister- whose killer is now able to walk the streets of Damascus. This is due to an oversight by the judges who gave more merit to the argument of a motivation of honour killings than the cold hard facts of the case.