Haaretz reports: “Syria will not negotiate with Israel over letting it keep the Golan Heights, President Bashar al-Assad said, days after Israel’s prime minister expressed interest in resuming talks with Damascus.

In a statement on Syrian army day published in official media, Assad repeated his assessment that the possibility of another Middle East war was rising in the absence of what he called Israel’s willingness to make peace.

‘If anyone thinks that Syria might negotiate over its occupied land then they are mistaken,’ Assad said.

‘The liberation of the Golan is a deeply ingrained right. Peace requires restoring all the occupied soil until the line of June 4, 1967,’ he added.

The Six-Day War broke out a day after this date and Israel swiftly defeated the armies of Syria, Jordan and Egypt.

Syria lost the Golan Heights to Israel, which annexed the territory in the early 1980s but did not build settlements on it as heavily as in the West Bank. A United Nations Security Council resolution declared the annexation illegal.

Assad said that while Syria was sticking to its pursuit of peace with Israel the army had to be prepared for war.

‘The world is certain now that Israel is the one putting obstacles in front of peace and its requirements,’ Assad said.

‘The specter of real peace in the region is disappearing and the possibility of war is increasing,’ he added…” (This war is presently in its planning stages and Syria is one of its warmongers. Syria will be destroyed – Isaiah 17:1.)

YnetNews.com reports: “A former fighter in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) turned US spy offered a rare glance into one of the most complex countries in the Middle East.

During a conference held at The Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Reza Kahlili (pseudonym) estimated that Iran will eventually attack Israel, Europe and the Persian Gulf states. He called for a preemptive strike on the regime in Tehran, but not on the Iranian people or the country’s infrastructure.

Kahlili accused the Obama Administration of being naïve. According to him, the American overtures are viewed by the Iranian regime as a sign of weakness, while the Iranian people consider the efforts to engage the regime an act of betrayal against their struggle for freedom.

‘This is a messianic regime. There should be no doubt – they are going to commit the most horrendous suicide bombing in human history. They will attack Israel, European capitals, and (the) Persian Gulf region at the same time,’ said Kahlili in one of his first public appearances to promote his new book ‘A Time To Betray: The Astonishing Double Life of a CIA Agent inside the Revolutionary Guards of Iran’.

Kahlili said he joined the Revolutionary Guard following the Islamic revolution of 1979, but volunteered to work for the CIA when he became disillusioned with the Khomeini regime after witnessing acts of rape, torture and murder…” (President Ahmadinejad has an unholy task. He must destroy Israel before his messiah Mahdi will return. Thank God the Christian Messiah is Jesus, the God of love and peace – John 13:35; Luke 6:27 – 29; I John 4:8; Isaiah 9:6. See also the next three reports.)

Fars News Agency reports: “A senior Iranian military commander warned the United States against any potential attack on Iran, warning that any enemy aggression will be reciprocated by a crushing response.

‘Any insane move will bring the US nothing but regret and they will get our final response in the scene of action,’ Lieutenant Commander of Iran’s Ground Forces Brigadier General Mohammad Hassan Baqeri said in comments about the recent remarks of US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen.

Mullen said that the US military had a plan to attack Iran, although he thought a strike was probably a bad idea.

Baqeri noted that the US supported former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during the war Iraq imposed on Iran from 1980 to 1988 and the experience has shown that it will achieve nothing but defeat if it takes a military action against Iran.

‘Iran’s defense readiness, three or four decades ago, was not at the level that it is today,’ the Iranian general said.

‘Today, Iran’s Ground Forces are at a high level (of readiness), both from the training and military hardware aspects,’ Baqeri said…”

Israel National News reports: “Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu instructed the IDF to respond forcefully to any further aggression from Lebanon, and laid the blame for the deadly incident on the government of Lebanon.

‘Israel views the attack on IDF soldiers with great gravity,’ Netanyahu said in a formal statement. ‘This is a grave breach of [United Nations] Security Council Resolution 1701,’ he said. ‘I see the Lebanese government as directly responsible for this violent provocation against Israel. Israel has responded forcefully and will do so in the future as well, against any attempt to break the peace on the northern border and to harm the residents of the north and the soldiers who defend them.’

Defense Minister Ehud Barak called the incident a ‘murderous terror attack’ and warned the Lebanese government against ‘continuing to provoke the IDF as they have been doing recently.’ He demanded that the Lebanese Army investigate and find out who was responsible for the attack.

The United States said that it is ‘extremely concerned’ about the violence on the Lebanon/Israel border. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the U.S. was in touch with both governments to try and establish what exactly happened…”

YnetNews.com reports: “Iran’s UN Ambassador Mohammed Khazaee said that should Israel attack his country’s nuclear facilities ‘Tehran will burn down Tel Aviv.’ The ambassador, currently visiting Iran, told local press that preoccupation with an Israeli attack signifies ‘the enemies’ fear.’

Tensions surrounding Iran’s nuclear program grew in recent weeks mainly over sanctions imposed by the UN, United States, European Union and other countries following Tehran’s refusal to meet the Security Council’s demands.

According to the envoy, the West uses the nuclear issue as an excuse. ‘Should we announce we’re withdrawing the nuclear program and uranium enrichment, actions against Iran will not stop and they will find a new excuse to confront Iran every day.’

He further noted that should the Islamic Republic back out on the program, ‘enemies would only find other excuses to terrorize the Iranian regime.’…”