Amid another peak wave of violence in Syria, Washington has quietly withdrawn from its waters the USS Eisenhower aircraft carrier and its Strike Group and the USS Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group with 2,000 Marines aboard. Russian vessels have meanwhile unloaded at Tartus a large consignment of arms for Assad’s army. Adding to stresses around Syria, Ahmadinejad cancelled a scheduled trip to Turkey, citing the warning by Iran’s military chief that the deployment of Patriots in Turkey heralded world war.

The Black Sea Fleet's naval task force has been ordered  to remain in the eastern Mediterranean ready to evacuate Russian citizens from the Gaza Strip. debkafile: Moscow used the same pretext as Washington, readiness to evacuate nationals in an emergency, to account for the presence last week of the USS Iwo Jima and two other warships in the east Mediterranean. Both flotillas are in fact on standby for developments in the Syrian crisis. The Iwo Jima has since moved quietly into waters off Syria.

The US embassy guard in Tel Aviv was injured by a man with an axe and knife Tuesday, Nov. 20. The man was captured.
The US has returned three amphibious warships with 2,500 Marines aboard for standby off Israel’s shore in case US citizens need to be evacuated. They were sailing west of Gibraltar on their way back to Norfolk, Virginia, when they were turned around. debkafile: Washington evidently does not share the optimism in some Israeli quarters about an imminent ceasefire with Hamas but rather envisages a general conflagration.

The armies of Saudi Arabia and fellow GCC states stood ready Thursday Jan. 5, for Washington to stand up to Iranian threats and send an aircraft carrier or several warships through the Strait of Hormuz into the Persian Gulf.  Notwithstanding their military inferiority, the Iranians believe they can snatch a measure of success from a military confrontation now, which they expect to be limited – at least at first – and are therefore ratcheting up their belligerence day after day.

By a media trick, Tehran proved its claim that closing the Strait of Hormuz is as "easy as drinking water," debkafile reports.  First thing Saturday morning, Saturday, Dec. 31, Iran's state agencies "reported" long-range and other missiles had been test-fired as part of its ongoing naval drill around the Strait of Hormuz. At 0900, Tehran announced the test was delayed. But meanwhile, for five hours Saturday, not a single warship, merchant vessel or oil tanker ventured into the strategic strait, although not a shot was fired.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague stated Wednesday, June 29:  "Iran has been carrying out covert ballistic missile tests and rocket launches, including testing missiles capable of delivering a nuclear payload in contravention of UN resolution 1929." Hague was the first Western leader to confirm debkafile's disclosures in the past year. He spoke as American naval, air and marine forces built up in the Mediterranean, the Aden and Oman straits, the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea.  

The Syrian army went into action Tuesday, June 21, the day after the Assad speech, to drive back to their homes the nearly quarter of a million civilians who fled towns and villages on the Turkish border to escape military persecution. Syrian President Bashar Assad remains undeterred by the risk of a showdown - even after the ominous phone conversation between US President Barack Obama and Turkish Prime Ministeror and Obama's demand that his regime end the "outrageous" violence now.

Early Sunday, June 18, NATO bombers struck an apartment building in Tripoli - killing, according to government sources, up to 9 civilians. NATO later admitted civilian casualties caused by a missile after its earlier denial.  The conviction in Arab and African capitals is gaining credence in the West that NATO has made regime change its primary goal. It is feared in Congress that the White House may let America's  mightiest air carrier, USS George HW Bush, be drawn into the last coalition shot to finish Qaddafi off.

Egypt and its population of 82 million are on the point of a calamitous breakdown as large sections of the economy are shut down by strikes against state-appointed managements and Vice President Omar's Suleiman's leadership. As protesters continue to fill Cairo's Tahrir Square, trains have stopped running, food is running low and lifeline highways are blocked by protesters. Egypt's Foreign Minister Abul Gheit called on the army Wednesday, Feb. 9, to take over government and save Egypt from total anarchy.

A fresh surge of popular anti-Mubarak protest ripping across Egypt Tuesday, Feb. 8 – from the Western Desert to North Sinai - has brought the country close to a military coup to stem the anarchy. Vice President Suleiman conveyed this warning to a group of Egyptian news editors as the disorders began their third week began to spread to places of work. In Cairo, rebellious staff sacked state-appointed managements and set up "revolutionary committees" to run them.

After laying hands on the record-breaking 61.5 mph speedboat, built for a British sporting adventurer, the Iranian navy plans to arm it with the reputedly fastest torpedo in the world, the Russian-designed Shkval (Squall), which moves at speeds of 360 kph. debkafile's military sources report Tehran is aiming for a seaborne weapon able to sink a US carrier in the Persian Gulf.