Sumiman hands strong link to Mugniyeh and Hizbollah : Here is the Iranian "press" on this Israel implicated in Suleiman shooting Mon, 04 Aug 2008 11:47:42 Informed sources say Israeli agents are behind the assassination of Syrian president's security advisor and liaison officer to Hezbollah. Mohammad Suleiman, who was a Syrian top security official and the officer in charge of liaison with Lebanon's Hezbollah movement, was shot by a sniper on the coast of Syria's Tartous port on Friday. According to independent sources in Syria, the sniper was an Israeli agent. Suleiman's body was buried overnight. In February, Imad Mughnyiah, a prominent Hezbollah figure, was murdered in a car bomb explosion in the Syrian capital. The Israeli regime extended the tenure of Mossad chief Meir Dagan for a second term following the successful assassination of Mughniyah.

before the regime collapses and is replaced by Islamic fanatics like Al Queda.

the Syrian regime's days are numbered.

"The Syrian source ruled out the possibility that Suleiman was assassinated on the backdrop of political aspirations, due to the fact that he had more strength than any other politician". Can anyone explain the above to me? As I understand it, you shoot people in higher positions and not lower, unless you feel that they are dangerous and about to overtake you. Something which is not suggested here. Mike

Israel cannot be reconciled with the Mafia regime of Assad. Syria will wait till the moment that it sees chances of defeating Israel. Syria cannot efford good relations with Israel. The Assad family has established a hereditary dynasty shored up by repression within, and confrontation and terror abroad. The rule of the Assads is not aimed at improving the lot of their people or forwarding a particular ideology. They changed ideology from secular Arabism to a seemingly impossible confection of pan-Arabism and Islamist extremism because it was expedient to do so. Hafez Assad came to power following a dizzying succession of coups that had made Syria the most unstable regime in the Middle East. The Assads are seated atop a bucking bronco. They are members of the Allawi religious minority who are usually not even considered to be Muslims. They rule a country of disparate minorities with a potential for chaos almost as great as that of Iraq. The radical Muslim Brotherhood is always there, threatening to take over the country by fair means or foul, and the usual Ba'th party rivalries that have plagued all such regimes are also a threat to Assad family rule. Their rule is not about improving living standards for Syria. Syrian living standards have fallen behind the none-too-glamorous ones of Jordan or Egypt. It is not about democracy, a Western luxury Syria can't afford, according to Bashar Assad. The Assad regime is about stability, and it is about money and power for the Assad family. The regime is comparable in every way to the fictional Corleone Mafia family. Prosperity and peace would ruin the Assad regime. Therefore, Western assumptions that Syrian leadership must want peace and prosperity are mistaken, and it is pointless to "engage" Syria in dialogue except insofar as it is possible to confront them with their violations and insist that they mend their ways as explained at : http://xrl.us/bjcsd

You take out the main men first and then it's easier to finish off the Syrian dentist ? Looks like the war has already begun ?

Who is next !? If I were Assad I would be worried and thinking about a plea for asylum with other undesirables in the UK or perhaps France

Some say this could be a payback from Hizbullah, which indirectly accuses syrian intelligence of involvment in Imad Mughniyah's assassination.

and this was a tit-for-tat killing exacted by Hizbullah. There is no doubt that the Syrian security apparatus is full of secular Sunni Baathists who despise the growing Shi'ite fundamentalist influence of Hizbullah and Iran in Syria itself.

WIth this hit and Mughniyya getting taken out in Syria Hizbullah now says to only attack Israel in Israel. Sounds like somebodys getting nervous in Beirut. Wait until Iran nuke centers get hit!! Dont mess with Israel.