Trump recognizes Golan to counter Iran’s first steps for annexing Lebanon to Syria

 

US President Donald Trump’s declared recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan on Thursday, March 21, had a time-sensitive object, unconnected to the Israeli election or Binyamin Netanyahu’s run for reelection, as his rivals contended. DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources reveal that it was an arrow aimed by the US president at Iran, Syria, Iraq and Hizballah, and the machinations plotted at Syrian President Bashar Assad’s meeting with Iran’s supreme leader ayatollah Ali Khameini on Feb. 25. Present at their meeting, our sources reveal, were two figures, Al Qods chief Qasem Soleimani, supreme commander of Iran’s Mid East fronts, and, for the first time, a high-ranking Hizballah military official, who is a senior strategic adviser to Hassan Nasrallah.

As Gaza front cools, Iran and Syria move on their next flashpoint – Quneitra

 

Hours after the Palestinians paused on Wednesday, May 30, in their broadest rocket/mortar assault on Israel in four years, their Iranian backers were already moving on the Golan. Under cover of the deafening Gaza clash, Iran, Syria and Hizballah began marching military units on the road to Quneitra opposite Israel’s Golan border.

Russia to modernize weaponry for Crimea, Arctic forces

 

The Kremlin plans to modernize weaponry and equipment issued to Russian forces in Crimea and the Arctic regions.

Russian defense officials disclosed the move during a Defense Ministry Board meeting in Moscow on Wednesday. Discussions focused on an armament program set to take place from 2018 through 2025.

S-400 Will be Deployed at Syrian Airbase Hmeymim – Russian Defense Minister

 

Russia is deploying S-400 Triumf (NATO reporting name: SA-21 Growler) next generation surface-to-air missile systems to the Hmeymim airbase in Syria where the Russian Aerospace Forces group is stationed, according to Russian Defense Minister Gen. Sergei Shoigu.

Russia, China plan joint naval drills in Mediterranean Sea, Pacific Ocean in 2015

After talks with his Chinese counterpart, the Russian defense minister, Army Gen. Sergei Shoigu, recalled that in May 2014 the two countries successfully held their third consecutive naval exercise, Maritime Cooperation, which saw the two countries’ sailors training as part of mixed squadrons of ships for the first time.