Another urgent bid for the US to lead an allied offensive against Syria’s ruling regime fell on deaf ears. It came Tuesday, June 26, from Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who is spoiling for action over the Syrian shoot-down of a Turkish military plane last Friday. Obama turned him down and urged US, British, Turkish and French covert operations to continue. Erdogan is forced to resort to the strategy employed by Binyamin Netanyahu on a nuclear Iran - tough rhetoric accompanied by inaction.

British and Qatari special operations units are operating under cover with rebel forces in the Syrian city of Homs, debkafile’s exclusive sources report. They are not engaged in direct combat with the Syrian forces bombarding Syria's third largest city, but serve as tactical advisers and logistical aides. Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan is using this foreign military presence in Homs, revealed here for the first time, as grist for his own Syrian initiative.
More about this in the coming  DEBKA-Net-Weekly issue out Friday.
 

Two unforeseen events Friday, June 3 rekindled Syrian protests with full force - just as Syrian President Bashar Assad was preparing to celebrate the suppression of the uprising against his regime with active Iranian and Hizballah help: The leaders of the Syrian opposition-in-exile meeting in Antalya under Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's aegis struck a deal with the Muslim Brotherhood which brought 100,000 Brotherhood loyalists back on the streets in Hama and evoked a fresh bloodbath.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu rejected the accord initialed by the two Palestinian rivals Fatah and Hamas in Cairo April 27 before the ink had dried. "You can't have peace both with Israel and Hamas," he warned the Fatah-led Palestinian Authority, although at least three previous pacts vanished without a trace. He was not alone in being caught napping by the fast work in Cairo; so too were Washington and Ankara, although both are running Palestinian back channels.

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.

The US military engineers helping Egypt build a steel anti-smuggling wall along the strategic Philadelphi Route dividing Gaza from Sinai were suddenly recalled this week, debkafile's military sources report, during the talks President Joe Biden and Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak held in Sharm el-Sheikh. Anxious to placate Turkey, Washington abandoned its half-a-billion dollar investment in the steel wall and turned to reviewing the Netanyahu government's future.

After four calls to change course from Gaza to Ashdod were ignored, Israeli troops boarded the Irish-flagged Rachel Corrie some 28 miles out to sea and sailed it to the Israeli port of Ashdod. The ship's pro-Hamas activists were determined to break the Israeli blockade. No violence or injuries were reported.
The US said the siege was unsustainable but urged Rachel Corrie to put in at Ashdod.

Turkey threatened Friday, June 4 to break off relations unless Israel apologizes for the commando raid on its flotilla as prime minister Recep Erdogan hurled more abuse on Jerusalem and declared: "I do not think Hamas is a terrorist organization." Earlier, Israel offered offer to allow pro-Hamas activists aboard the Rachel Corrie to monitor its civilian freight's entry to the Gaza Strip - to no avail. A tape just released recorded Turkish activists on flotilla as saying before attacking Israeli commandos: "Remember September 11."

Washington seems to be in two minds on key aspects of Iran's nuclear and missile programs, providing momentum for the Brazilian and Turkish leaders to promote their mediation bid in Tehran Sunday, May 16, debkafile reports from Washington and Tehran. Obama administration spokesmen offer contrasting views on the state of Iran's uranium enrichment process and ballistic missile capabilities amid the latest bid to bridge the gaps between the West and Iran.