Turkish authorities seized weapons hidden among construction materials on a Syria-bound train from Iran after Kurdish guerrillas bombed and derailed the train, a prosecutor said Wednesday.
President Bashar al-Assad won 97.6 percent of the vote in a national referendum on Sunday that anointed him to a second seven-year term, officials said. The 41-year-old president was the only candidate allowed to put his name forward in the procedures leading to the vote. Parliament held a session to ratify the results. Then all 250 members rose and chanted ?Syria has only God and Bashar!?.
Syria said on Wednesday that an international tribunal, passed by the UN Security Council earlier, to try suspects in the murder of former Lebanese premier Rafik Hariri violated the sovereignty of Lebanon and might destabilize the country.
Syria rejects on Wednesday the U.S. criticism of its recently held referendum on extending Bashar al- Assad's presidential term for another seven years, saying Washington should solve its own problems in Iraq first.
BERLIN, May 29 -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday cautioned against a growing sentiment in Israel to pursue peace with Syria instead of with warring Palestinian factions, saying there is "no substitute" for creating a Palestinian state.
Syria said a United Nations special court for the Hariri case passed by the Security Council on Wednesday violated Lebanese sovereignty and could plunge Lebanon into further instability.
"We have nothing directly to do with the court. Any cooperation requested from Syria that compromises national sovereignty is totally rejected," Assad told a parliament session in the Syrian capital.
The chaos in Iraq has emboldened Bashar Assad's authoritarian regime and given Syria new power to meddle in the Middle East.
The United States derided Syria's Bashar al-Assad Tuesday for claiming to have won a second seven-year mandate as president in a referendum boycotted by the opposition.
Syria's President Bashar al-Assad has won a second seven-year mandate after netting 97 percent of the vote in a referendum boycotted by the opposition, officials announced on Tuesday.