Revenge of the Bear: Russia Strikes Back in Syria

President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation has drawn a line in the sand over Syria, the government of which he is determined to protect from overthrow. Not since the end of the Cold War in 1991 has the Russian Bear asserted itself so forcefully beyond its borders in support of claims on great power status. In essence, Russia is attempting to play the role in Syria that France did in Algeria in the 1990s, of supporting the military government against rebels, many of them linked to political Islam. France and its allies prevailed, at the cost of some 150,000 dead. Can Putin and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad pull off the same sort of victory?

Even as Damascus pushes back against the rebels militarily, Putin has swung into action on the international and regional stages. The Russian government persuaded U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry to support an international conference aimed at a negotiated settlement. Putin upbraided Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over his country’s air attacks on Damascus. Moscow is sending sophisticated anti-aircraft batteries, anti-submarine missiles and other munitions to beleaguered Assad, and has just announced that 12 Russian warships will patrol the Mediterranean. The Russian actions have raised alarums [sic] in Tel Aviv and Washington, even as they have been praised in Damascus and Tehran.

What Would Happen if Israel Nuked Iran

Given the fact that the Obama administration is using stall tactics just as much as Iran, one shouldn’t be surprised if nukes aren’t eventually pulled out. There’s only so much time before Israel fights for its very existence. Naturally, there would be tremendous backlash from the rest of the world against Israel, and as the Obama administration has made it clear, they’re no favorites of the USA at the moment either. So long as the Obama strategy is to continue allowing the threat to grow, there’s an increasing likelihood of Israel having no choice.

A strike on Tehran could kill an estimated 5.6 million and

injure 1.6 million.

In those first minutes, they’ll be stunned. Eyes fixed in a thousand-yard stare, nerve endings numbed. They’ll just stand there. Soon, you’ll notice that they are holding their arms out at a 45-degree angle. Your eyes will be drawn to their hands and you’ll think you mind is playing tricks. But it won’t be. Their fingers will start to resemble stalactites, seeming to melt toward the ground. And it won’t be long until the screaming begins. Shrieking. Moaning. Tens of thousands of victims at once. They’ll be standing amid a sea of shattered concrete and glass, a wasteland punctuated by the shells of buildings, orphaned walls, stairways leading nowhere.

This could be Tehran, or what’s left of it, just after an Israeli nuclear strike.

Saudis explore Iranian options for Syria & Lebanon in talks with Iran’s Salehi

Saudi Arabia has decided to explore dialogue with its great regional rival Iran for ending the Syrian conflict and assuring Lebanon’s political future, debkafile’s Gulf sources report. They have given up on US policy for Syria in view of Russian and Iranian unbending support for Bashar Assad; his battlefield gains aided by Hizballah and Iranian Bassij forces; and Turkey’s inaction after Saturday’s terrorist bombings in the town of Reyhanli near the Syrian border which caused 46 deaths.

Iran’s Nuclear Submarine Gambit

The first and most serious one was an announcement by the head of the Iranian Atomic Energy Organization, Fereydoon Abbasi-Davani, that Iran may seek nuclear submarines in the future. This is significant because nuclear submarines require nuclear fuel that is enriched to anywhere between 45 and 90 percent levels, the latter being bomb-grade.

“At present, we have no enrichment plan for purity levels above 20 percent, but when it comes to certain needs, for example, for some ships and submarines, if our researchers need to have a stronger underwater presence, we will have to make small engines which should be fueled by 45 to 56 percent enriched uranium,” Abbasi-Davani said on Tuesday.

Iran says enhanced missiles could destroy Tel Aviv, Haifa

NICOSIA — Iran claims to have reached the capability to destroy Israeli cities.

Officials said the Iranian military has enhanced its ballistic missile arsenal that could target major Israeli cities. They said Teheran has tested indigenous missiles and rockets with enhanced guidance systems.

…

In a briefing on April 15, Hejazi, in charge of defense research, said Iran could fire missiles that could destroy Haifa and Tel Aviv. He said Iran’s military has deterred Israel and the West from attacking Teheran’s nuclear facilities.

From Sea to Shining Sea

Eighteen miles. That’s the width of the Bab el-Mandab passageway, the narrow stretch of ocean separating Djibouti from Yemen that connects the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean to the Red Sea. In strategic terms, this passage is crucial. Control the Bab el-Mandab passage and you control the eastern half of one of the most important shipping lanes in the world.

That is exactly what Iran is looking to do. Few recognize it—but it’s happening under our noses. All you have to do is look at Yemen.

Tehran: Our commanders now authorized to open fire. Go home, Obama!

According to an authoritative leak, Washington has effectively cancelled the Europe-based missile shield system that was designed to protect that continent and Israel against Iranian ballistic missile attack. The cancellation was part of the plan announced by Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel last week to install 14 additional missile interceptors in California and Alaska to build up United States defenses against a threatened North Korean attack.

Not only has the Obama administration reduced its missile defense commitment to Europe and Israel, debkafile notes that Washington persists in overlooking the tight coordination in tactics and diplomacy on nuclear issues between Pyongyang and Tehran.

Iran Launches Destroyer in the Caspian Sea

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated the guided-missile destroyer Jamaran-2 in the port city of Anzali, about 250 kilometers (150 miles) northwest of Tehran.

After final tests, the report said, Jamaran-2 will join Iran’s naval fleet in the sea in coming months.

The 1,400-ton destroyer, which has a helicopter landing pad, is 94 meters (yards) long and can cruise at 30 knots. It is equipped to surface-to-surface and surface-to-air missiles as well as anti-aircraft batteries and sophisticated radar and communications terminals, the report said.

‘Nuclear Iran would permanently change region’

Italy’s foreign minister on Wednesday said that a nuclear Iran would permanently change the political landscape of the Middle East and urged immediate action to prevent a regional nuclear arms race.

Speaking at the 2013 Herzliya Conference in the eponymous Tel Aviv suburb, Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi di Sant’Agata said that even if a nuclear-armed Iran were to act rationally, it would still constitute an unacceptable international threat.

U.S. Warned: Al-Qaida Hit-Squads Coming

A senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander has warned America and Europe that al-Qaida operatives will soon attack them.

And a source in the Islamic regime’s Intelligence Ministry told WND that another terror team is about to enter the United States. Should the West not accept Iran’s rights to its nuclear program within six months, the terrorists will attack, he said.

The potential targets in the U.S. include high-voltage towers to create blackouts, cell towers, water supplies, public transportation and various buildings belonging to the Defense Department and military.

Iran threatens to knock Israel ‘comatose’ for Syria strike

As a top security official from Tehran arrived in Damascus to show support for the regime of President Bashar Assad, a senior Iranian military chief warned that there will a massive response to Israel’s alleged attack on a Syrian research facility last week, Iranian Press TV reported on Sunday.

“Syria’s response to the recent aggression of the Zionist regime against this country will send this regime into a coma,” Brig. Gen. Masoud Jazayeri, the  deputy chairman of the Iranian Armed Forces, said on Saturday.

Iranian-Hizballah convoy blown up on Syrian Golan. Border tensions shoot up

In the view of a Jordanian military source, this attack by an unknown hand has delayed Bashar Assad’s advanced preparations for an all-out armored offensive to finally crush the revolt against his regime. His first targets were to have been the rebel-held villages along the Israeli and Jordanian borders.

The Syrian ruler was working to a plan of operations his generals had drawn up with Iranian Al Qods Brigades strategists.

Saturday, Ali Akbar Velayati, an aide to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned that Iran would consider any attack on Syria an attack on itself: “Syria has a very basic and key role in the region for promoting firm policies of resistance [against Israel]… For this reason an attack on Syria would be considered an attack on Iran and Iran’s allies.”