The delays and uncertainty surrounding the two Iranian warships' transit of the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean are the result of a standoff between them and five US warships deployed in recent days at and around the waterway, debkafile's sources disclose. A battle of nerves is underway since Friday, Feb. 18, when  the USS Enterprise carrier, escorted by the USS Leyte Gulf and USNS Arctic, cornered the Iranian Navy's Kharg cruiser and Alvand missile destroyer at the Red Sea entrance. The USS Kearsarge reached the Bitter Lake first. 

Gates' objections to military action against Iran shows Tehran that Washington speaks in two voices and that the Defense Secretary is ready to flout the White House. Against credible intelligence evidence, Gates believes Iran has not yet acquired an N-bomb.

The US, France, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Israel are openly coordinating war preparations after the White House laid the military option against Iran on the line. France and Egypt are deploying fleets at the new UAR base of Fujairah opposite the Strait of Hormuz.

The US is building up naval, air force and marine strength around Iranian shores as Barack Obama's aide Dennis Ross reiterates his determination to keep the Islamic Republic from acquiring nuclear arms. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Israel, Iran, Hizballah and Hamas are also deep in military preparations, fearing a war eruption in weeks or months - as DEBKA-Net-Weekly reveals in its coming issue out Friday with hitherto unpublished disclosures. 
Don't miss this exclusive survey of a region in the grip of a mounting war scare.

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Obama's emissary Frederic Hof failed to sway Assad on getting the Iranian president's trip to Lebanon called off or on Iraq.

Mullen's military map for attacking Iran consists of 22 targets in the southern oil-rich Khuzestan town of Ahwaz, revealed for the first time by DEBKA-Net-Weekly.

The Japanese supertanker M. STAR was damaged in an attack near the Strait of Hormuz Wednesday, July 28. One lifeboat was blown off the ship and a large dent made in its hull.
debkafile: Most unusually, US Navy and Iranian officials agreed that the the damage to the tanker, the first attacked in the strategic straits, was caused by an explosion by an unknown hand and must be contained before it gets out of control.

Obama has informed P5+1 group plus Saudis and Israelis that he has abandoned his former willingness to accept a limited Iranian nuclear arsenal and is now ready to fight to stop Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon.

The Obama administration admits that there is no point in diplomacy and sanctions will have to be enforced against Iran, starting with searches of its ships and planes for contraband. Since Iran has announced it will resist, a naval clash appears almost inevitable.

Military tensions rise in Iraq as pro-Iranian Shiite militias appear to be planning attacks on American forces, debkafile's exclusive sources report. Tehran is furious over Washington's decision to retain a number of US troops in Iraq, possibly as UN peacekeepers, after the pullout pledged by President Barak Obama to start on September 1. 

US commander in Iraq Gen. Ray Odierno names three Shiite militias recently trained in Iran for a new collision course aside from the nuclear controversy.

The riddle of Iranian nuclear physicist Shahram Amiri, who disappeared in June 2009 while on a pilgrimage to Mecca, was never solved - even when he turned up in Washington and flew home to Tehran on July 14.  The glimpses into his story DEBKA-Net-Weekly provided Friday in its latest issue fit a Cold War espionage scenario much more closely than this week's US-Russian spy swap in Vienna, because it brought the undercover war between the American CIA and the Iranian MOIS to a new climax.

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Feverish preparations are afoot in Tehran for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's first visit to the Lebanese capital. Reporting this, debkafile's Iranian sources define the trip's purpose as a confrontational exercise to warn the US and Israel that full implementation of the tough new UN, US and European sanctions will provoke an Iranian war on Israel - waged from Lebanon. Ahmadinejad's trip is expected before September - with the Syrian and Qatari rulers in tow.

Analyzing the new US military buildup around Iran, DEBKA-Net-Weekly - in its latest issue out Friday - evaluates where Hillary Clinton's whirlwind trips to Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia starting July 1 fit into Washington's overall Iran strategy. How much cooperation can Washington expect from Moscow in a Caspian-based operation?
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Riyadh re-ran its offer of an air corridor for an Israel strike on Iran's nuclear facilities (London Times), hoping to egg the US and Israel on to use it and recover their diminishing weight in the Middle East. Arab capitals are badly rattled by the thrusting partnership of the non-Arab Iran and Turkey and want to prod Washington and Jerusalem into action and out of their preoccupation with probing the flotilla incident. Jerusalem spurns the US demand to question Israeli servicemen as fueling the drive against Israel's legitimacy.

A US Carrier Strike Group headed by the Harry S. Truman sails out of Norfolk, Virginia Friday, May 21, as the first element of a new American military buildup in the Middle East, determined by President Barack Obama. It will reach peak level of four-to-five aircraft carriers, most stationed opposite Iranian shores, in late July.
This is reported by debkafile's military sources.

By fleet diplomatic footwork, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton submitted a sanctions package to the UN Security Council Tuesday, May 19, that Western diplomats admitted contained few new measures but gained the reluctant assent of Russia and China, as well as the UK, France and Germany.
To gain this endorsement, the original draft was heavily diluted out of a necessity to salvage the last vestige of the US administration's sanctions strategy from the assault mounted by a Brazilian-Iranian enriched uranium deal.

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.

Chinese president Hu Jintao was taken by surprise by the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority Mahmoud Abbas's plea to support tough sanctions against Iran's nuclear program when they met in Shanghai Saturday, May 1, debkafile's Middle East sources reveal. A Middle East war, a real peril in the absence of sanctions, would cost the lives of many Palestinians who would be caught in the middle.
Abbas said he spoke for most Arab rulers.

The US and Iran are racing ahead towards their next moves in case sanctions fail to deter Iran from building a nuclear bomb. DEBKA-Net-Weekly's coming issue out this Friday opens a window on President Barack Obama's new Iranian policy and Iran's plans to loose its allies against Israel in August - or sooner.
Don't miss our detailed analysis of the buildup for a Middle East war this summer and its prospects.

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The Obama administration appeared torn by internal debate when Wednesday, April 21, US deputy defense secretary Michele Flournoy said: "The US has ruled out a military strike against Iran's nuclear program any time soon " - only to be contradicted a few hours later when the Pentagon spokesman denied the United States had dropped its military option.
Iranian officialdom believes the debate is a trick to put them to sleep, while the US gradually builds up its Persian Gulf forces to peak in two or three months.