Syria: Assad regime is making gains and ‘planning a major push’

Recent military victories have severed rebel supply and retreat routes, allowing the regime to plan a major push to to crush divided opposition forces, a senior British security source told The Daily Telegraph.

“The Syrian opposition is doing badly and there is a risk of [further] defeats, although Assad cannot ultimately win,” the source said.

Tension mounts between Bahrain and Iran, it is politically-motivated says the UAE

The tensions have moved a rung over the last few days, after Iran officially condemned “a raid by Bahraini forces on the house of prominent Shia cleric Ayatollah Sheikh Isa Ahmed Qassim.” The Iranian government denounced the raid as continued and deliberate violence on behalf of the Bahraini government against the Shia community. According to Tehran, Sheikh Qassim was targeted because he “has repeatedly criticized Manama over its violent crackdown on protests.”

IAF Chief: S-300 is En Route to Syria; Surprise War is Possible

IAF Commander Eshel says IAF can deal with all weapon systems. “The question is only — at what cost.”

IAF Commander, Major General Amir Eshel, spoke Wednesday about the IAF’s preparedness for a surprise war scenario with Syria, and said that the S-300 anti-aircraft system is on its way to Syria.

Syrians reported attacking the Israelis on daily basis along Golan Heights

Western diplomatic sources said Israeli and Syrian forces were battling on a nearly daily basis along the Golan Heights. They said the fighting often began with Syrian Army or proxy attacks on Israel Army outposts and vehicles.

Entangling the dragon in Middle-Eastern quicksands

The quicksands of the Arabian Desert are notorious for swallowing up anyone trying to control the area. Historically, that’s what happened to Turkey, Britain, France, Russia and the US. Sooner or later, all discovered that instead of dominating the Middle East, they ended up being dominated by the region’s never-ending problems.

And that may also be the fate of China, the latest power to be lured by the idea that it has to engage in Middle-Eastern diplomacy. Unless decision-makers in Beijing are thoroughly prepared for what awaits, they will also find that the region can absorb all their energies, and usually for no practical effect.

Massing on the Heights — Hezbollah forces mass on Israel’s northern border

Iran and its terror proxy Hezbollah are building a military force on Israel’s northern border in the Golan Heights in order to wage “popular resistance” against the Jewish state, according to areport released Tuesday.

Military forces constituted by both Syrian and non-Syrian forces have been amassing near the Golan Heights and are waiting for an attack order, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), which has collected and translated a number of Arab media reports on the matter.

Threat from Within — U.S. military braced for surge in Taliban ‘insider’ attacks after recent statement

Taliban insurgents recently vowed to carry out new “infiltration” attacks aimed at killing and demoralizing U.S., allied, and Afghan military forces as part of the spring military offensive, according to U.S. officials.

The expected increase in what the Pentagon calls “insider” attacks by Taliban sympathizers or infiltrators followed an April 27 statement by the Islamist terror group.

Report: Syria aims half-ton warhead missiles at Tel Aviv

Sunday Times reports the deployment of Syria’s advanced Tishreen missile batteries, which carry 500-kilogram (1100-pound) warheads and have standing orders to fire at Tel Aviv if Israel carries out any military strike on Syrian territory.

After the al Qusayr victory, Syria and Hizballah plan war on Israel

Syria and Hizballah, flushed with the success of breaking the rebel hold on the strategic town of al Qusayr, Sunday, May 19, are making no secret of their plans for the “great confrontation,” i.e. military confrontaiton with  Israel after they win the Syrian civil war.  Israel’s military leaders are taking with the utmost seriousness the words of Ibrahim al-Amin, editor of the Hizballah organ Al Akhbar, and a close buddy of Syrian president Bashar Assad, who wrote Monday:

“The rope is taut. It is taut to the limit. Anyone at either end [Israel at one end, Syrian and Hizballah, at the other] need only flex a finger and it will break, and the great confrontation will take place. This is neither a threat, nor an exaggeration or interpretation. This is the situation on the enemy’s northern front. Now means today; it means this hour,” al-Amin wrote.

Report: Assad preparing missile strike against Tel Aviv in case attacked again

The Syrian army is deploying advanced surface-to-surface missiles aiming at Israel in the aftermath of the alleged Israeli strikes, The Sunday Times reports.

Syria is making preparations to strike Tel Aviv in case Israel launches another attack on its territory, The Sunday Times reported on Sunday.

Syrian-Israeli war of words via Putin edges into Syrian-Hizballah war of attrition.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Netanyahu ended their three-hour meeting in Sochi Tuesday, May 14, at loggerheads on Syria. In fact, Putin warned his guest that Israel and its army, the IDF, were heading for war with Syria in which Russia might well be involved – and not just through the advanced S-300 anti-air missiles supplied to the Assad government. The case Netanyahu and Military Intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi put before Putin and Russian foreign intelligence chief, SVR Director Mikhail Fradkov, fell on deaf ears.

‘Assad said Hezbollah may fight Israel from Golan’

Report: Iran persuaded Syria to open a “new front” in the Golan for all Arabs and Muslims wanting to fight Israel.

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According the report, an Iranian source told the newspaper that Tehran is determined to prevent the fall of Assad’s regime in Damascus, because the Syrian president has been convinced to open the Golan to all Arabs and Muslim wanting to fight Israel.