Expanded Russian military support for the Assad regime was underscored by the deployment Friday, Dec. 16, of advanced Moscow-supplied Yakhont (SSN-26) shore-to-sea missiles along Syria's Mediterranean shore to fend off a potential invasion by sea. Last week, Russia airlifted to Syria 3 million face masks against chemical and biological weapons; and the Admiral Kutznetsov strike group headed out to Syria's Mediterranean port of Tartus. US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta arrived in Ankara; Syrian Vice President Farouk a-Shara in Moscow.

Syria has moved Scud missiles, some tipped with chemical warheads, to its border with Turkey, reinforced its tank units on the Jordanian border and airlifted from Russia three million face masks against chemical and biological weapons.

By deploying US troops on the Jordanian-Syrian border, the Obama administration played the last piece of its master game for Bashar Assad's ouster – in conjunction with Turkey, France, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Qatar. DEBKA-Net-Weekly's latest issue out Friday offers glimpses of covert US action in Syria alongside counter-steps pursued by Damascus, Tehran and Hizballah.
The next in our series of US RQ-170 exclusives reveals not just how Iran tampered with the stealth drone technology but also with the satellite controlling it.

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Units of US troops evacuated from Iraq have been diverted to positions in Jordan opposite a Syrian tank concentration building up across the kingdom's northern border, debkafile reports.The incoming US contingents are housed at the King Hussein Air Base of al-Mafraq, 10 kilometers from the Syrian border. They are the first US boots to hit the ground directly opposite Assad's army, brought there by Bashar Assad's threat to set the Middle East on fire if the pressure against him persists.

In the last 48 hours, the Syrian engineering corps has laid minefields along the Jordanian, Turkish borders to cut down on the influx of weapons and armed manpower supporting the anti-Assad opposition and the outflow of army deserters.  debkafile's military sources add: By this action, Syria also aims to seal itself off against foreign military intervention. Since Muammar Qaddafi's death, Bashar Assad fears he is facing Arab military incursions backed by NATO.

Egyptian natural gas is flowing again to Jordan – but not to Israel, debkafile reports. Cairo and Amman are keeping quiet about the resumption of supplies through the Sinai pipeline which was sabotaged five times since February. Cairo has broken off negotiations with Jerusalem on new prices - so making sure that supplies to Israel are cut off for good. As Egypt pulls away from peace ties with Israel, security is breaking down on their common border and the Israeli ambassador's return to Cairo indefinitely postponed.

Turkey sharply ratchets up its threat of war with Israel. Three Turkish frigates were ordered to the eastern Mediterranean and instructed to disable Israeli military ships if encountered outside Israel's 12-mile territorial waters. This was reported by Turkish naval sources Sept. 12 as Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan was due in Cairo for a controversial visit - in defiance of the Egyptian government's effort to cool the crisis in relations with Israel.

The pipeline carrying Egyptian natural gas to Israel and Jordan via Sinai was blown up early Monday, July 4, for the third time in six months. All three attacks were carried out according to debkafile's military sources, by a special Hamas pipeline sabotage unit working with al Qaeda-allied Bedouin smugglers.This time, the Hamas retaliated for the stoppage of the international flotilla before it could set out to break the Israeli naval blockade on the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinian Authority is broke. Prime Minister Salam Fayyad appealed to "donors and our Arab brothers" Sunday, June 3, for urgent assistance after being forced to halve civil servants' July wages. The US, Turkey and Saudi Arabia could save the PA from bankruptcy – in theory. But, debkafile reports, the Saudis prefer to channel cash to Jordan and Washington's bailout is conditional on Mahmoud Abbas dropping his unilateral UN initiative and going back to negotiations with Israel.

Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan is traveling far and wide to build an international Muslim army on call for rapid deployment to parts of the Muslim and Arab world deemed threatened by Riyadh and for containing Iranian expansion. He is buying arms in China, raising recruits in Pakistan, Malaysia ...

With a new strategic partner in hand after losing Turkey and Mubarak's Egypt, the Israeli prime minister was in a position to underline Israel's continued adherence to its military option against Iran acquiring nuclear weapons. Secret Saudi-Israeli intelligence parleys are now joined by Jordan.

The Middle East and North Africa are beset with two civil wars, have brought to power two military juntas, imperil seven regimes, including Pakistan and provided Al Qaeda with fresh fields to conquer.

Egypt's suspension of gas supplies to Israel after the North Sinai pipeline was blown up Saturday, Feb 5 has suddenly cut Israel off from 25-30 percent of its gas needs and 80 percent of Jordan's. After the blast, Egyptian Prime Minister Ahmad Shafiq announced that gas supplied to both countries under contract would henceforth be diverted to domestic requirements. Israel is also deeply concerned by spreading Hamas occupation of North Sinai and on high alert for more sabotage of its power installations.

Egypt, one of the only two Arab states to sign peace with Israel, is wobbling dangerously on the brink of revolutionary change. This week, Israel was dismayed to find itself looking suddenly at three latently hostile fronts about to spring up around its borders: After Lebanon was dropped into the Iranian orbit, Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood gained altitude, and Hamas, its Palestinian offshoot in Gaza, is making hay, puffing itself up as an important new Middle East player.

Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali has been overthrown in a military coup. Friday, Jan. 14 he fled his riot-stricken country in the middle of his fifth term as president, handing interim authority to Prime Minister Mohammad Ghannoushi. debkafile's sources report the real power in the land is the army.

Arab regimes were dismayed by the fall of the Tunisian president, the first Arab ruler to be overthrown by street demonstrations making way for a military coup. Tourists are being evacuated and European flights to Tunis cancelled.

Hard-pressed by Syrian and Turkish rulers, Jordan's King Abdullah II has sharply reduced the kingdom's military and intelligence collaboration with Israel after 60 years. debkafile's intelligence sources disclose Jordan has whittled cooperation down to the narrow border strip cutting down the middle of the Jordan River, retaining it only because it is a barrier against the flooding of the kingdom with hundreds of thousands of West Bank Palestinians. Abdullah next plans a state visit to Iran.

If Jordan finally goes over to the Iranian-led radical bloc, it will open the door to reviving the old Eastern Front against Israel and adding an Iranian military presence around its borders. Obama is concerned but fears any Israeli military action would jeopardize his nuclear dialogue with Iran.

Jordan's Abdullah II has mobilized his security services and ordered an urgent crackdown against a rising terror threat after two serious breaches caught them napping: The Jordanian triple agent Khalil Al-Balawi, who blew himself up at the CIA Forward Base Chapman in Afghanistan on Jan. 14, killing seven US agents and a Jordanian intelligence officer, and the roadside blasts which just missed Israeli diplomatic vehicles on a Jordanian road last Friday, Jan. 15

Taliban-Pakistan released a video clip Saturday, Jan. 9, showing Hammam Khalil al Balawi, the suicide bomber who killed eight people at a CIA base in Khost, Afghanistan on Dec. 30, with the Taliban-Pakistan leader before the attack. He is filmed in Pashtun dress vowing to avenge the late Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud and referring to the Nigerian Umar Abdulmutalleb who subsequently failed to blow up a More...