Egyptian ruler Hosni Mubarak is determined to go down fighting – or not at all – even if Egypt is plunged in civil war. He is mustering his financial, military and mental sources for the battle of his life. The figure rising to prominence from the turbulence is new ...

Wednesday, Feb. 2, President Barack Obama delivered an ultimatum to Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman and the army and security chiefs: Remove Mubarak in the coming hours or else US aid to Egypt will be cut off, debkafile reports exclusively from Washington. The White House said: "Transition must begin now." The first violent collision between pro- and anti-Mubarak activists in Cairo left 30 dead, 2000 injured, and threatens more civil bloodshed. The last Israelis were evacuated from Egypt, including news correspondents.

In a speech to the nation Tuesday night, Feb. 1, President Hosni Mubarak defied the demands of President Barack Obama and his army generals to quit at once and leave Egypt and said he would serve out his term until September and not run again. He also swore to die in Egypt – meaning no exile for him.  Mubarak said he would devote his remaining months to the peaceful transition of power. But his role was over.
Ambassador Frank Wisner delivered Obama's message to Mubarak as four million protesters marched against him. 

In its latest issue out Friday, DEBKA-Net-Weekly goes behind the scenes of the Egyptian uprising to discover what the prime movers are after now. Hosni Mubarak, the object of popular rage, was the first to recover his wits and is trying to keep his regime afloat.  President Barack Obama publicly sided with the protesters' cause, but is secretly helping the army play for time and keep Mubarak going for the interim.  Israel has joined the effort.

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In his first public appearance in four days of violent protests against his rule,  Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said after midnight Friday, Jan. 28, he would not resign. He had sacked his cabinet, would form a new one Saturday and promised democratic reforms. President Obama then called him to tell him he must deliver on reforms and give up violence. Mubarak's speech showed he had bowed to US terms for his survival and defied the protesters' demands for his resignation.

President Barack Obama is about to withhold the US veto from a Palestinian-Arab motion due to be tabled at the UN Security Council condemning Israel for its settlement policy in the West Bank and Jerusalem, debkafile's Washington sources report. If he does, he will be the first US president to let an anti-Israel motion go through the Security Council and building on the West Bank and even in the forty-year old suburbs of East Jerusalem would become illegal.

Despite the ill-fated American involvement in Lebanon of former years, the Obama administration believes he can beat Tehran at its own game by backing the pro-Western coalition headed by Saad Hariri and bringing his father's assassins, Hizballah, to justice. Tehran is banking on Hizballah's prowess as the strongest military ...

President Barack Obama is bent on bringing Hizballah officials to justice for their role in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in Beirut five years ago – even after they toppled the Lebanese government.  If a transitional government in Beirut declares the international tribunal – STL – invalid, Washington intends to obtain its authorization for trying Hizballah suspects in abstentia, debkafile reports. Prime Minister Hariri flew Thursday from Paris to Ankara.

Backed from Tehran, Hizballah and its Christian ally Michel Aoun abruptly quit the Lebanese unity government Wednesday, Jan. 12, to pave the way for their seizure of power in Beirut. They struck as the Special Tribunal for Lebanon's prosecutor prepared to hand over "within hours or days" indictments naming Hizballah officials in the Hariri assassination. The US and France are bolstering their naval units ready for a showdown over Beirut. Israel is on standby.

Shortly before the Six Power talks with Iran resumed this week, US President Barack Obama ordered the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier to withdraw from Guff waters opposite Iran and redeploy in the Aegean Sea. This action signaled Washington's switch to the search for middle ground on the nuclear controversy through diplomatic engagement - just six weeks after he opted for a build-up of military pressure on Tehran, debkafile's military sources report.

debkafile's Washington sources disclose that the three-month settlement construction freeze-for-incentives deal Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu discussed with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Friday, Nov. 12, also included a commitment to hold negotiations with the Palestinians during that period on final borders. Assuming the talks collapse, the Obama administration will itself chart those borders and present an American map to both sides before the three months are up. This map will closely adhere to Palestinian aspirations.

Before taking off for Asia Saturday, Nov. 6, President Barack Obama ordered the Pentagon not just to beef up American and NATO military pressure on Iran but to do so as conspicuously as possible, debkafile's Washington and military sources report.  In the last few days, three aircraft carriers, four nuclear submarines and several marine assault units have piled up opposite Iranian shores. US Sen. Lindsey Graham has called for US to strike Iran's navy, air force and Revolutionary Guards.

The Obama-Clinton Grand Middle East design falls foul of four players who have suddenly stepped out of position: Hassan Nasrallah, Mahmoud Abbas, Nouri al-Maliki and Hosni Mubarak.

Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair has carved out for himself a role at Barack Obama's right hand - uniquely for a non-American politician. In its latest issue out Friday, DEBKA-Net-Weekly looks behind Tony Blair's astonishing rise to the top of the White House team of policy-makers, especially on the Middle East and Iran. His popularity in Washington is matched inversely by his falling stakes at home and in Europe.

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How did US President Barack Obama come to misjudge the cost of assenting to the start-up of Iran's first nuclear reactor? In its latest issue out Friday, DEBKA-Net-Weekly  disclosed how Iran swiftly cashed this blank check in terms of boosting its nuclear bomb program and regional standing whereas Binyamin Netanyahu was left watching his policies vis-à-vis Iran and the Arab go into the red.
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Spurred by the power vacuum in Baghdad, Iraq's Shiite, Sunni and Kurdish leaders are set to leap into inter-communal warfare with regional fallout after Aug. 31 when the US pulls the bulk of its combat troops out as President Barack promised.
In its latest issue out last Friday, DEBKA-Net-Weekly runs an exclusive on their plans for conflicts from which the US and its Transitional Force will not be able to stand aloof - especially if assigned the role of UN peacekeepers.
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debkafile's Iranian sources quote President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying: "We have precise information that the Americans have devised a plot, according to which they seek to launch a psychological war on Iran. They plan to attack at least two countries in the region within the next three months," he said, without specifying which countries were the subjects of the alleged conspiracy, only hinting that Israel was directly involved.

A US-Iran showdown loomed closer early Friday, July 2, when President Barack Obama signed into law a series of energy sanctions, the toughest yet, against Iran's nuclear weapons program. Iran's defense minister Gen. Ahmad Vahidi warned that searches of its ships or planes would have "dire consequences" for world security and the Middle East in particular.

The law shuts US markets to firms that provide Iran with gasoline and jet fuel as well as shipping and insurance services.

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahuhas his hands full calming the uproar in his cabinet over infrastructure minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer's failed meeting with Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmed Davutoglu in a bid to narrow the widening rift between their governments. debkafile reports the prime minister has four days to stabilize his government before flying off to Washington.
Erdogan is exploiting the upset in Jerusalem to intensify his smear campaign against Israel.

The US military engineers helping Egypt build a steel anti-smuggling wall along the strategic Philadelphi Route dividing Gaza from Sinai were suddenly recalled this week, debkafile's military sources report, during the talks President Joe Biden and Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak held in Sharm el-Sheikh. Anxious to placate Turkey, Washington abandoned its half-a-billion dollar investment in the steel wall and turned to reviewing the Netanyahu government's future.