On April 27, before Israel embarked on action against Syria, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov forged a new Russian alliance with Hizballah in Beirut. This was Putin’s answer to Obama’s direct appeal for a partnership in the effort to terminate the Syrian conflict.
Obama’s rejoinder was the green light he gave Israel to go for Iranian and Hizballah targets in Syria.
The claim by a “senior US intelligence official” that Israel did not apprise Washington before embarking on its Syrian operation does not hold water. The Netanyahu government might have embarked on a “justifiable” operation against advanced Iranian arms for Hizballah on its own, but would not have stuck its neck out to strike Syria’s elite troops on Mt. Qassioun without first clearing it with the Obama administration.
But the new direction now iddicated may derail Washington’s plan for a superpower deal to bring the horrendous Syrian crisis to a close. The local players, Khamenei, Assad and Nasrallah, are getting ready to grab the wheel and push the US and Israel off the driving seat.
But the new direction now iddicated may derail Washington’s plan for a superpower deal to bring the horrendous Syrian crisis to a close. The local players, Khamenei, Assad and Nasrallah, are getting ready to grab the wheel and push the US and Israel off the driving seat.
Assad warned Moscow Monday of his plan for a war of attrition against Israel, using Palestinian fighters as cutouts, while Iran, Syria and Hizballah turned their missile batteries around to face Israel.
Having taken the calculated risk that Syria would be too busy with its own war to embark on a major reprisal, Israel Sunday night placed the country’s northern borders and region, including the big port town of Haifa - and its early warning systems - on the highest level of war alert, closed its northern airspace to civilian traffic for a couple of days, stationed Iron Dome anti-missile batteries at vulnerable points, and advised local authorities to go on standby.
All the parties concerned, from Washington and Moscow, to Jerusalem, Tehran, Damascus and Beirut, were waiting Monday on tenterhooks to see who made the next move.
All the parties concerned, from Washington and Moscow, to Jerusalem, Tehran, Damascus and Beirut, were waiting Monday on tenterhooks to see who made the next move.
Preparedness at Israeli embassies was stepped up on Sunday over fears that Hezbollah may stage an attack as retaliation for Israeli airstrikes on Syria over the weekend.
In Israel, requests for gas-mask kits were up fourfold as fears grew of a possible Syrian response, though officials said the likelihood of a Syrian response is low.
Is this Syria’s “doomsday ” weapon? Intelligence sources say that the Syrian air force has adapted an old Russian made MIG-21 fighter aircraft to fly unmanned and carry chemical warfare materials. This information is now being investigated by a number of intelligence organizations.
A Syrian MiG-21, that landed in Jordan in June 2011 flown by a Syrian air force colonel, had been adapted to fly unmanned and carry a “deadly volume of chemical weapons.
According to intelligence sources there are indications that Russian engineers helped with the upgrade.
The Syrian pilot colonel Hassan Hamada, took off in his MiG-21 from al-Dumair military airport northeast of Damascus and flew to King Hussein Air Base just across Syria’s southern border with Jordan. Upon landing in Jordan, Hamada removed his rank and requested political asylum.
The Syrian regime immediately admitted the pilot had defected and called him a traitor. But unlike in earlier defections Syria has put heavy pressure on Jordan to return the MIG-21.
On a visit to the Pakistani capital Islamabad in 2006, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, then a Republican senator from Nebraska, warned that “a military strike against Iran, a military option, is not a viable, feasible, responsible option.”
Hagel reiterated that view in November 2007 in a speech to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. “The answer to dealing with Iran will not be found in a military operation,” he cautioned.
And it isn’t just then-senator Hagel.
“We’ve thought about military options against Iran off and on for the last 20 years,” former top White House counterterrorism official Richard Clarke admitted that same year, “and they’re just not good, because you don’t know what the endgame is. You know what the first move of the game is, but you don’t know what the last move of the game is.”
That was six years ago, but it’s a view that hasn’t changed in much of Washington. American politicians regularly threaten Tehran with severe consequences for its pursuit of nuclear weapons, and habitually announce that “all options are on the table.” But privately, many concede there is little stomach in the US for yet another Middle Eastern war that could sink the country down a rabbit hole of unintended consequences and commitments.
It’s not that American leaders and planners, even the “realists” among them, disagree with Israel about the dangers posed by a nuclear Iran.
As Hagel himself noted in that 2007 speech, during what may have been his most skeptical and realist period, “In the Middle East of the 21st century, Iran will be a key center of gravity… and remain a significant regional power. The United States cannot change that reality….
Iran: Quake Rattles Region Near Nuke Reactor
Netanyahu Lands In China Amid Criticism Over Syria Strike
Israeli Airstrikes Prompt Threats, Anger In Syria
Also see:
Benghazi Insider Speaks
Netanyahu Lands In China Amid Criticism Over Syria Strike
Israeli Airstrikes Prompt Threats, Anger In Syria
Also see:
Benghazi Insider Speaks
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar