Moscow has sold Iran the highly-advanced Avtobaza truck-mounted systems capable of jamming aircraft radar and the electronic guidance instruments of attacking missiles. The deal, announced in Moscow Tuesday, Oct. 25, substantially boosts Russian military assistance to the Islamic Republic, especially of defensive weaponry.  The US and Israel suspect the Avotbaza jammers are only the first installment of the complete  ELINT-electronic signals system for disabling planes and missiles over the entire Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea.

Just two days after two Iranian warships reached the Syrian port of Latakia via the Suez Canal, an Iranian-Syrian naval cooperation accord was signed Friday, Feb. 25  providing for Iran to build its first Mediterranean naval base at the Syrian port, debkafile's sources reveal. It will include a large Iranian Revolutionary Guards weapons depot, anchorage for large warships and submarines and logistical infrastructure for incoming Iranian troops. The Syrian Navy chief said the move would "cripple Israel."

debkafile's Washington and military sources report Russian president Dmitry Medvedev's first visit to Damascus is expected to produce major arms deals, also providing a back door for Iran to receive sophisticated Russian hardware thus far withheld. The Russian president's three-day visit is seen as an important boost for Bashar Assad and the Iran-Syria-Hizballah-Hamas bloc versus pro-Western Middle East powers and a failed mark for the Obama-Clinton drive to woo the Syrian ruler.