Israeli strike on Syrian town kills 5 pro-regime forces
Beirut: An Israeli air strike on a Government-held village on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights ceasefire line killed five pro-regime forces on Wednesday, a monitoring group said. “An Israeli plane hit a car inside the town of Hader, killing two men from (lebanese Shiite group) Hezbollah, and three men from the pro-regime popular committees in the town,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Kerry: Nuclear deal not intended to ‘reform’ Iran regime
Washington: The Iran nuclear deal is not intended to push Tehran’s regime to reform but to prevent it building a bomb, Secretary of State John Kerry told skeptical US lawmakers on Wednesday. In his second appearance before Congress in a week, America’s top diplomat stressed that the plan reached this month with Tehran was the best deal achievable. The suggestion by his Republican critics that a tougher US negotiating stance could have forced a complete climb-down by the Iranians was, he argued, naive wishful thinking. “let me underscore: the alternative to the deal that we have reached is not some kind of unicorn fantasy that contemplates Iran’s complete capitulation,” Kerry warned before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.