This massive fortification will run from Rashaya Al Wadi on the western slopes of Mt. Hermon in the south to the Lebanese Beqaa Valley town of Aita el-Foukhar, in the north, debkafile's military sources reveal. When finished, the 22-km long structure running parallel to the Lebanese-Syrian border will be one of the biggest fortified structures in the Middle East, designed to block off any Israeli tank thrust through Lebanon to Damascus, and strengthen Syria's grip on ...

Symptoms of approaching war proliferate around Israel, Syria and the Lebanese Hizballah this week. After Israel called up its reservists for a major war game, Hizballah accelerated the building of new fortifications in Lebanon.

Iran wound up its biggest ever naval exercise Wednesday, May 12, by simultaneously firing 30 short-range, surface-to-surface Fajr missiles of the same types as the brand-new weapons in the Lebanese Hizballah's armory, debkafile's military sources report. This was Tehran's way of advising Israel of the heavily upgraded capabilities Hizballah has in store for the Jewish state.
The IDF is dismantling its large logistic bases and scattering essential stores among smaller, better protected facilities, logistics chief Brig. Gen. Nissim Peretz reports.

Israeli Military Intelligence Research Director Brig. Gen. Yossi Baidatz warned Tuesday, the day before proximity peace talks are launched by US envoy George Mitchell, "We do not recognize in Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas a true attempt to be flexible on the core issues." He will stall and then blame Israel.

The MI officer also told a Knesset panel the long-range solid-fuel rockets Syria has transferred to Hizballah can be launched from deep inside Lebanon.

US and Israeli defense chiefs Robert Gates and Ehud Barak told reporters at the end of their talks in the Pentagon on April 27: "Syria and Iran are providing Hizballah with rockets of ever-increasing capability...  and we're watching it very carefully" - Gates; and "We do not intend to provoke any kind of major collision in Lebanon or with Syria, but are watching closely..." - Barak.

debkafile: Neither sounded ready to halt the headlong Iranian-Syrian-Hizballah drive for a summer war.

Syria has smuggled three consignments of disassembled Scud A ground missile components to the Lebanese Hizballah, debkafile discloses from Middle East intelligence and military sources. They do not add up to a complete set of parts for an operational Scud missile. However, another five shipments, awaiting handover at Syrian border bases will provide the missing elements for complete weapons.

Tehran urges Syria to hurry up deliveries.

debkafile's military sources disclose a master-plan charted in Tehran and Damascus for transforming the 25,000-strong Hizballah terrorist militia into an organized, mobile army with a whole range of sophisticated missiles and other weapons. The new Hizballah is being trained to carry out such offensive operations as capturing parts of Israel's Galilee and equipped with the hardware for knocking out warplanes, warships and armored strength. Deliveries have begun.

 

The Syrian ruler Bashar Assad is afraid to strengthen his own armed forces lest they overthrow his regime in a coup d'etat. He is therefore building Hizballah up into a modern army as the shield for Damascus and his regime.

Syria has not actually handed Scud missiles, A or SS-1B, to the Hizballah in Lebanon - only positioned them on the border ready for transit - and taught two Hizballah brigades how to use them, debkafile's military sources report, refuting the flurry of press reports that these ground missiles are already in Lebanon.
Israel has warned Damascus via Washington that their crossover into Lebanon in violation of UN resolutions would spark military action on both sides of the Syrian-Lebanese border.

 

debkafile's military sources: The first major Palestinian defection to the Shiite Hizballah of 2,000 armed men has given Iran and its proxy a large foot inside Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah organization in Lebanon and the West Bank and swelled Hizballah's fighting strength by some 15 percent.

Hizballah ran to Tehran for a bailout after its funding sources were hit by three disasters: Imad Mughniyeh's fund-raising contacts dried up with his death, the organization fell victim to a pyramid fraud and its overseas financial agents died in the Ethiopian Airline crash near Beirut.

Syria has defied Israel's caution that handing over new strategic weapons to the Lebanese Hizballah would cause Israel to strike targets inside Syria. debkafile's military sources disclose that Damascus has just smuggled across the border a number of Russian-made IGLA-S surface-to-air missiles for intercepting low-flying F-16 warplanes, drones, helicopters, cruise missiles, and surveillance aircraft day or night.

 

Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak warned that Hizballah and its 45,000 rockets - including "some which many sovereign countries do not have" - are directed by Iranian and Syrian civilian and military officials already present in Lebanon.  He termed the differentiation between Hizballah terrorists, the state of Lebanon and their sponsors artificial. Iran's nuclear program aims at jumping straight into the second- or second-and-a-half generation of nuclear warheads."

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's talks with Syrian president Bashar Assad in Damascus Thursday, Feb. 25, are aimed at coordinating practicalities to bring Iran's secret military pacts with Syria, Hizballah and Hamas a step closer to fruition. A possible Middle East war would become more tangible. 

 

debkafile Iranian and military sources report the new war threats from Damascus are backed by massive Iranian airlifts for boosting Syria's missile arsenal. Fresh supplies have also reached Hizballah and Hamas. Syrian war rhetoric was fanned by the delivery of 100 new medium-range surface-to-surface missiles from Iran. The Syrian foreign minister publicly confirmed debkafile's disclosure in December of a secret mutual defense pact binding Iran, Syria, Hizballah and Hamas. ...

Iranian Guards train 5,000 Hizballah fighters to capture and hold five Israeli towns and regions ifs nuclear sites are attacked - or some other pretext. Syria would be involved.

If attacked, Iran will send thousands of Hizballah raiders across the border to capture and hold five sectors of northern Israel. They will be supported by missile barrages on Israeli military facilities and backed up by Syria.