Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Turkey have alerted Washington to intelligence reports that Iranian Al Qods Brigades operatives are heading their way to blow up oil installations and American targets. They ask how the US intends to respond. For the second time in a week, a US spokesman Washington disclosed Jan 17 that Al Qods commander Gen. Qassem Soleimani secretly visited Damascus. debkafile reports: Part of his mission was to synchronize these Al Qods attacks with backing for Assad's crackdown on protest.

The USS Harry S. Truman carrier Strike Group of 60 warplanes and 6,000 seamen has turned course from the Persian Gulf and deployed in the Mediterranean within easy reach of potential flare-ups, debkafile's military and Washington sources report. Ankara's determination to break the Gaza siege by force was backed up Wednesday, June 16, by Iran's parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani, who threatened to retaliate against Persian Gulf and Mediterranean shipping for any interference with Iranian Gaza-bound vessels.

Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani and foreign affairs and security committee chairman Alaeddin Boroujerdi are preparing an epic descent on the Gaza Strip - at earliest next Saturday, June 19 - and a tour of the Israeli border debkafile's Iranian sources reveal. Tehran has applied to Cairo for visas for 200 Iranian lawmakers, leaning hard on Cairo for its assent - up to and including President Hosni Mubarak.

The first Iranian aid ship for Gaza set ...