Former Mossad Direct Meir Dagan's campaign against an Israeli strike on Iran and his miscalculation of the rate of Iran's progress toward a nuke have brought down on him the ire of his predecessors on the job and former foreign colleagues in Western intelligence. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ...

debkafile offers exclusive details on the British Foreign Secretary William Hague's allegation Wednesday, June 29, that Iran has carried out secret tests of missiles capable of delivering a nuclear payload in breach of UN resolution 1929: Three of those tests, four in all, were carried out between October 2010 and February 2011and the fourth on Tuesday, June 28, in the course of the Prophet Mohammed war games currently in progress. Three tests by Sejjil and Shahab-3 Kadar were successful.

After sitting on the fence for six months amid the Arab uprisings, Moscow now takes a stand, capitalizing on the positions slipping out of the United States grasp in the turbulent slipstream of the Arab Revolt.

Russia's Vladimir Putin has reached out to the beleaguered Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri to get in on the ground floor of the as-yet untapped Lebanese offshore energy fields, debkafile reports. He has also tested the ground for dipping into the Israeli gas bonanza, while offering Turkey substantial benefits in Moscow's Lebanese scheme. If Putin's multi-faceted plan works, Russia and Turkey will have a stake in Hariri staying in power and a stable Lebanon.

Russia's decision to finish and activate Iran's atomic reactor in Bushehr - despite prime minister Vladimir Putin's promises to President Barak Obama and prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu - hit secretary of state Hillary Clinton when she arrived in Moscow, Thursday, March 18. This was the second contretemps of her trip after she failed to bring Russia aboard on tough sanctions for Iran.