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.

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.

Egypt's Mubarak won't receive Assad, but Medvedev will soon pay his first Middle East visit to Damascus to Washington's surprise. Why?

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.

 

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.

 

In a cool message to Washington through Paris, Syria insists its ties with Iran are strategic and dictated by the need for "resistance" to Israel. Heavy Syrian missiles supplies will continue to cross the border to Hizballah, except for the sophisticated Russia anti-air Gecko - for now.

The Obama administration does not propose to let Bashar Assad go scot free for publicly poking fun at America as he stood side by side with the Iranian president. Syrian ambassador Imad Moustapha was left guessing about the shape of the punishment to come.

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.

 

A North Korean shipment of 45 tons of yellowcake, enough for several nuclear bombs, was on its way to the nuclear plant under construction in northern Syria when it was destroyed by Israel in September 2007. Two years later, the consignment turned up in Iran, attesting to their closely integrated nuclear programs and hidden, undeclared stocks of high-grade nuclear fuel.

 

Iran last week further consolidated its anti-US coalition and honed its hard edge against Israel by important defense treaties with Syria (covering Lebanon) and Qatar, home to the biggest US air base outside America. These treaties open doors for Iranian troops to be stationed in all three countries. debkafile's military sources say they have already arrived in Syria and Lebanon.

The Iranian president remarked "the ...

The Ahmadinejad-Assad summit in Damascus brought a showdown with Israel on four fronts a step closer. Tehran would like its allies to strike first to pre-empt an Israeli attack on its nuclear sites.

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. 

 

Saudi king Abdullah and Syrian president Bashar Assad have no qualms about sending al Qaeda and ex-Baathist gangs out of their Syrian havens to slaughter Shiite pilgrims in Iraq in their determination to prevent prime minister Nouri al-Maliki's election in March.
The US is too busy organizing its ...

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. ...