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Found 1295 articles

Iran Challenges Obama by Hiking Tensions on Israel’s Borders

January 10, 2009, 11:59 PM (GMT+02:00)

Israeli tanks in Gaza

The strategy the Islamic regime has charted for the new US president hinges on fanning tensions on Israel’s northern and southern borders while putting a damper on the various Middle East peace initiatives. Syria was therefore discouraged from returning to its indirect peace track with Israel and Hamas ordered to boycott Egypt’s bid to patch up the quarrel between the Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah. Tehran’s object is to show Barack Obama who holds the whip hand in the Middle East and force him to seek urgent talks to defuse rising tensions. Iran’s rulers want to force the new US president to seek them out for a back-door channel of communications before entering the White House and acknowledge them as the prime Middle East power. DEBKAfile’s Exclusive military sources disclose that Iranian agents, aided by Hizballah, are enlisting Palestinian militias in the big Lebanese Ain Hilwa refugee camp near Sidon and other camps for terrorist missions on Israel’s northern border.
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US forecasts: Iran will have makings of 3 A-bombs by end of 2009

January 5, 2009, 12:25 PM (GMT+02:00)

Sejil: Iran's newest test-fired ballistic missile

The most up-to-date intelligence predictions of US nuclear experts is that by the end of 2009, Iran will have stocked enough weapons-grade fuel to build three nuclear bombs. So what happened to the pledges made by the world powers over the years to keep nuclear weapons out of the Islamic Republic’s hands, including declarations by US and Israeli leaders that their military options remained “on the table?” Those pledges came from Israeli leaders on both sides of the aisle – prime minister Ehud Olmert, foreign minister Tzipi Livni (who has replaced him as Kadima chairman), defense minister Ehud Barak and opposition Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu. DEBKAfile’s political analysts comment: Their pledges have turned out to be as credible as the subsequence assurances of Olmert and his finance minister Ronnie Bar-On that the global economic crisis had skipped Israel and the public’s savings and investments were safe. This week, Israelis woke up to find one-third of their pension funds wiped out - and a nuclear-armed Iran on their horizon. It will be left to the Israeli voter to decide how far he and she are ready to be gulled again when they go to the polls in February.
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Netanyahu Reshapes Likud, Builds Shadow Cabinet

December 20, 2008, 5:04 PM (GMT+02:00)

Moshe Yaalon, a hawk from the kibbutz movement

Former prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, energized by more than two years in opposition, is launching his Likud party into Israel’s general election campaign with a new look and a new top echelon. DEBKAfile’s political sources report he is remolding it into a center-right party with a new leadership made up of the middle generation of Likud stalwarts and an infusion of outsiders from non-political occupations, rival parties, and at least two ex-generals. Yaalon, designated for the key slot of defense minister, is a critical piece in Netanyahu’s jigsaw puzzle. A member of Kibbutz Grofit, the former chief of staff may bring Likud its first substantial contribution from the kibbutz movement. It consists of the Labor and Kadima factions, which seriously question the two-state solution of the Israel-Arab dispute propounded by President Bush and embraced by prime minister Ariel Sharon and his leading disciples, foreign minister Tzipi Livni and Ehud Olmert.
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Syrian Troops Enclose Lebanon, Rice Contacts Hamas

December 13, 2008, 4:41 PM (GMT+02:00)

To subscribe to DEBKA-Net-Weekly click HERE . As part of the incipient thaw in US relations with Damascus, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has relayed a friendly message to Hamas political leader Khalid Meshaal through Syrian foreign minister Walid Muallem’s aides. The message, described by Moussa Abu Marzouk, one of the heads of Hamas’ Damascus headquarters, as a “verbal communication.” was received as four Syrian divisions completed their deployment on Lebanon’s borders last week (see exclusive map). In the message, Rice praised the Palestinian terrorist group for halting its missile fire into Israel. DEBKA-Net-Weekly 369 of Oct. 24 exposed the complete deployment - from the Syrian 4th Division along Lebanon’s northern border and the 10th, 12th and 14th Divisions on Lebanon’s eastern frontier opposite the Hermil mountains and the Beqaa Valley, and down to the Hermon Mountains facing South Lebanon and northern Israel.
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Russians, Syrians discuss missile shield – initially for Tartus port

December 8, 2008, 3:17 PM (GMT+02:00)

Russian Iskander-E missile

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that a large-scale arms deal for Syria, paid for by Iran, is in advanced negotiation in Moscow and Damascus. It includes fighter-bombers and an assortment of anti-air, anti-missile and anti-tank missiles, as well as substantial upgrades of Syria’s antiquated Russian tanks. Our sources disclose that the S-300PMU-2 and Iskander-E are still on the list under discussion. In the broader context of its contest with Washington, the Kremlin regards the American FBX-T anti-missile radar system installed in the Negev in September to be an integral part of the US missile shield deployed in the face of Russian protests in Poland and the Czech Republic. The advanced missiles to Syria would be part of its payback.
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Rescue the Old World Financial Order or Build a New One

November 24, 2008, 7:35 PM (GMT+02:00)

Bush leaves G7 meeting on financial crisis

This weekend sees make-or-break efforts by Western finance ministers and international financial institutions to produce a plan that will drag their economies back into equilibrium before the world’s markets open Monday, Oct. 13. They are working to the dread drumbeats of turmoil, panicky investors and looming recession, which some economists predict will be more disastrous than the 1930s slump which led to World War II. In their statement Saturday, the G7 said that they were working on a rescue package tailored for each country within a common framework that would include recapitalizing banks, ensuring strong deposit insurance to protect savers and restarting frozen credit and mortgage markets. Many leading Western economists strongly doubt that these measures will do the trick. Matters have gone too far and the looming leadership vacuum is fueling financial fears.
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Russian live missile fire air exercise near Alaska

November 22, 2008, 12:10 PM (GMT+02:00)

Not since 1984, just before the fall of the Soviet Union, has Russia ventured to launch dozens of nuclear bombers for an exercise in which Tu-95 Bear bombers will fire live cruise missiles. Exercise Stability 2008 will take place Oct.-6-12 over sub-Arctic Russia uncomfortably close to the US state of Alaska, and Belarus. DEBKAfile’s military sources report that the exercise is part of a month-long war game described by Russian air force spokesman Col. Vladimir Drik as “practicing the strategic deployment of the armed forces including the nuclear triad.” As part of the exercise, our sources reported exclusively on Oct. 1, that Russian ships armed with nuclear missiles will dock at Syrian ports Oct. 8, on the eve of Yom Kippur, before continuing to the Caribbean for joint maneuvers with Venezuela.
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Israel backs Georgia in Caspian Oil Pipeline Battle with Russia

November 8, 2008, 8:16 PM (GMT+02:00)

Georgian tanks and infantry, aided by Israeli military advisers, captured the capital of breakaway South Ossetia, Tskhinvali, early Friday, Aug. 8, bringing the Georgian-Russian conflict over the province to a military climax. DEBKAfile’s geopolitical experts note that on the surface level, the Russians are backing the separatists of S. Ossetia and neighboring Abkhazia as payback for the strengthening of American influence in Georgia. However, more immediately, the conflict has been sparked by the race for control over the pipelines carrying oil and gas out of the Caspian region. Jerusalem owns a strong interest in Caspian oil and gas pipelines reach the Turkish terminal port of Ceyhan, rather than the Russian network.
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Iranian Early Warning Station, Anti-Air Base on Lebanese Peak

November 1, 2008, 4:20 PM (GMT+02:00)

Mt. Sannine, Central Lebanon

To subscribe to DEBKA-Net-Weekly click HERE . In the past few weeks, Hizballah at the behest of Iran and Syria has commandeered the 7,800-foot Mt. Sannine, a strategic asset capable of determining the outcome of the next war, as DEBKA-Net-Weekly 356 revealed. Radar-guided missile positions and an early warning station have since been deployed on its summit, which are capable of monitoring and threatening US Sixth Fleet movements in the eastern Mediterranean and Israel Air Force flights. This development was serious enough for Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak to repeat three times in as many days that the IDF is keeping a close watch on events in the northern front, especially the deepening ties between Syria and the Lebanese Hizballah. Barak travels to Washington this week.
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