The Obama administration has invested major diplomatic and military efforts into persuading the Persian Gulf emirs to unite in a federation and mutual defense treaty according to two alternative Saudi blueprints – a NATO or a EU style pact. But those efforts were met with extreme reluctance.

Iran was rattled by the United Arab Emirates air force war games over the Strait of Hormuz in conjunction with the US and France and Israel’s maneuvers in the Mediterranean. Its rejoinder was a maneuver of its own to practice offensive special operations raids for the first ...

Foreign intervention in Syria is expanding, hemming the Assad regime in with escalating bombing attacks, rebels armed with heavy weapons or a 17-nation special forces “exercise” across the border in Jordan. How will his backers in Tehran and Moscow react?

Beset on two fronts, Bashar Assad rushed his elite Presidential Guard to Damascus Thursday, May 10, as two massive car bombs demolished the command center of the Syrian military security service’s reconnaissance division in the al Qaza district killed 55 people and injured more than 300. Over to the southeast, debkafile reports 12,000 special operations troops from 17 nations, including the US, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, are poised on the Jordanian side of the Syrian border.

A law annexing the UAR islands of Abu Musa and the two Tunbs is on its way through the Majlis. The row will distract attention from international efforts to curb its nuclear program and support the transformation of the international waterway into Iranian territorial water.

By dragging the Iranian nuclear issues onto the hazardous ground of theological polemic on the value of Shiite fatwas, Obama has added to Israel’s mistrust and appalled the Arab world’s Sunni rulers and peoples, especially in the Gulf and Egypt, who accuse him of pro-Shiite bias which ...

Gulf tensions soared Monday, April 9, when Iran warned the US and the Gulf Arabs to halt their joint air-sea exercise, the biggest the Gulf has ever seen – or else. debkafile reports: 200 fighter-bombers launched the exercise Sunday - 100 taking off from the USS Enterprise and USS Abraham Lincoln, 100 contributed by the Saudi, UAE, Kuwaiti and Bahraini air forces. They are simulating war with Iran and an operation to reopen Hormuz in cause it is closed to traffic.

Bent on Bashar Assad’s ouster, the US and the Gulf Arab powers are swinging around an array of options – all of them military. The coming DEBKA-Net-Weekly out Friday weighs the chances of, say, an international militia, protected zones, a Western-Arab air umbrella for the Syrian resistance or, most probably, arming the Syrian Free Army with heavy weapons.
Decisions hinge heavily on the regional and international frictions pulling the US, Russia, the Sunni powers, Iran and Israel into the Syrian maelstrom.
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Military tensions in the Persian Gulf shot up again Thursday, Jan. 26, after Dubai police commander Gen. Dhahi Khalfan said an imminent Gulf war cannot be ruled out and first signs are already apparent. "The world will not let Iran block Hormuz, but Tehran can narrow the strait to the maximum," he said.  Saudi Arabia and Dubai doubt  the US Navy and Gulf forces can keep Hormuz open at all times. A war of attrition is therefore expected to unfold from February to July.

Saudi Arabia demands a precise, unequivocal US declaration of intent to prevent a nuclear Iran by a military strike if necessary. Riyadh doesn't trust sanctions to do the job – or Barak Obama to stick to the course of a military strike on Iran's nuclear sites without wavering.

Tehran is kicking back hard for Barack Obama's three-prong anti-Iran warfronts in the economic, covert and allied spheres. After having its horizon for expansion shrunk to its front door in the Persian Gulf, Iran's rulers are looking for trouble, hoping to provoke a limited military clash with the United ...

Against Tehran's bid to dictate the Persian Gulf's rules of navigation, the US and GCC are preparing to fight together or separately against any attempts to prevent free movement through the oil route. They would aim to recapture the three Persian Gulf islands held by Iran, which are the ...

The armies of Saudi Arabia and fellow GCC states stood ready Thursday Jan. 5, for Washington to stand up to Iranian threats and send an aircraft carrier or several warships through the Strait of Hormuz into the Persian Gulf.  Notwithstanding their military inferiority, the Iranians believe they can snatch a measure of success from a military confrontation now, which they expect to be limited – at least at first – and are therefore ratcheting up their belligerence day after day.

By a media trick, Tehran proved its claim that closing the Strait of Hormuz is as "easy as drinking water," debkafile reports.  First thing Saturday morning, Saturday, Dec. 31, Iran's state agencies "reported" long-range and other missiles had been test-fired as part of its ongoing naval drill around the Strait of Hormuz. At 0900, Tehran announced the test was delayed. But meanwhile, for five hours Saturday, not a single warship, merchant vessel or oil tanker ventured into the strategic strait, although not a shot was fired.

Gulf rulers led by Saudi Arabia say that by packing up its bags and leaving, the US military abandoned Iraq the country to an Iranian power grab led by Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and released its sectarian demons. They are therefore determined to go it alone against Iran.

The Assad regime suffered a shock Wednesday Nov.16 when self-styled "Free Syrian Army" deserters firing shoulder-borne rockets and heavy machine guns struck its biggest security complex at Harasta west of Damascus. This was the first rebel attack on a major strategic target and a potential game-changer. debkafile: It was undoubtedly part of a well-laid plan drawn up by Turkey, the Persian Gulf states led by Saudi Arabia and Qatar and Jordan to topple Iran's closest ally, Bashar Assad.

Monday night and Tuesday, Aug-29-30, three international heavyweights - Russia, the European Union and  key Muslim nations – gave Syrian President Bashar Assad tough ultimatums for ending his barbaric crackdown on protest. Nevertheless, on Monday, his troops shot dead 17 people in Syrian cities - even as he received Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov who arrived in Damascus with a last warning from President Dmitry Medvedev. Pushed into a tight corner, Assad may opt for war on his neighbors.

NATO, Britain and France are too broke to finish the job the started in Libya. The Saudi-led Gulf Cooperation Council is ready to provide financing but wants a NATO military arm for overthrowing the Assad regime in Syria and promoting its other interests. The Obama administration welcomes the hook-up to relieve ...