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Barak Says Israel Tracking Possible Transfer of Hizbullah Arms from Syria

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Tuesday that the Jewish state is taking precautions and is tracking the possible transfer of arms from Syria to Hizbullah.

Touring the Golan Heights, Barak said Israel is concerned that Hizbullah is planning to move advanced weaponry out of Syria to prevent it from being captured by opposition groups if the Assad regime collapses.

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7 Syrians Killed as Activists Say 34 Abductees Found Dead

Thirty-four Syrians abducted by pro-regime "shabiha" militiamen were found dead on Monday in the flashpoint central city of Homs, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

The Britain-based watchdog said an activist on the ground reported seeing "the bodies of 34 civilians, in a square in the pro-regime neighborhood of al-Zahra, who had been abducted by the shabiha on Monday."

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Jordan Rejects to Impose Trade Sanctions on Syria

Jordan has told the Arab League it does not want to impose trade sanctions and a flight ban on neighboring Syria, the foreign ministry said on Monday.

"We asked the Arab League ministerial committee in Doha last Saturday to exclude Jordan's trade and aviation sectors from the sanctions," foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Kayed told Agence France Presse.

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Muallem: Syria Wants Arab Sanctions Lifted upon Signing Protocol

Syria said Monday it will accept observers as part of an Arab League plan to end deadly unrest if its conditions are met, in a last-ditch bid to stave off crippling sanctions.

"The Syrian government responded positively to the signing of the protocol" on the dispatch of observers "based on the Syrian understanding of this cooperation," foreign ministry spokesman Jihad Maqdesi told reporters.

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Sanctions-hit Syria Eyes Lebanon, Iraq Corridors

As Syria staggers under unprecedented Arab and global sanctions, Lebanon and Iraq are poised to provide economic corridors for their crisis-hit neighbor without explicitly breaching the restrictions, experts say.

"Lebanon and Iraq could turn into Syria's lungs, as it were, allowing it to breathe under the sanctions," said Lahcen Achy, economic analyst at the Carnegie Middle East Center.

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Syria Arrests Blogger Razan Ghazzawi

Syrian authorities on Monday arrested blogger Razan Ghazzawi at the border with Jordan as she headed to Amman to take part in a workshop on press freedom in the Arab world, activists said.

The Syrian Centre for Media and Free Expression called for the release of Ghazzawi, who was to represent the group at the forum, and for the authorities to halt "the repression of bloggers and journalists" in Syria.

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Feltman in Beirut on Wednesday, Says U.S. Has Evidence that Hizbullah Helping Assad

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Feltman has said Washington has evidence that Tehran and its Lebanese ally Hizbullah are bolstering Syria’s Assad regime.

Speaking in Amman, Feltman told reporters that Syrian President Bashar Assad is pegging his ruling Alawite minority against other sects and implementing his "own prophesy, which is moving Syria into more chaos and a civil war."

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Turkey Says Suspension of Free Trade Pact will Harm Syrians

Syria is punishing its own people by suspending a free trade agreement with Turkey in retaliation for Turkish sanctions against the Damascus regime, the Turkish economy minister said Sunday.

By cutting off bilateral trade, "the Syrian government punishes its own people, industrialists, exporters and entrepreneurs," Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan said in a statement carried by the state-run Anatolia news agency.

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Syrian Forces Kill 29 in Homs, Including 3 Children

Three children and their father were among at least 30 civilians killed on Sunday as Syrian security forces pressed on with an almost nine-month clampdown on dissent, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

In the flashpoint city of Homs, "a man and three children aged 11, 14 and 16 were killed at dawn in the al-Waer district when the Shabiha (pro-regime militia) opened fire on their cars," said the Observatory.

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Jumblat: STL Could Become Minor Issue in Case of Civil War

Progressive Socialist Party chief Walid Jumblat brushed off the bickering between the March 8 and 14 forces on the international tribunal, saying they should instead avert a possible Lebanese civil war over the crisis in Syria.

“What’s happening in Lebanon, around us and in Syria could turn the tribunal into a minor issue if there was strife in Lebanon,” Jumblat said as he laid a wreath on the grave of his slain father Kamal Jumblat on the occasion of his birthday.

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