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Russia sent troops to the Golan Heights in Syria. Will the Israeli attacks stop?

Bulgarian Military News — Sat, 12 Dec 2020 20:33:36 +0000

DAMASCUS, (BM) – BulgarianMilitary.com continues to monitor the situation in the hot spots of the planet, such as Syria’s situation. According to an official statement from the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Russian Ministry of Defense, Moscow has decided and sent its troops to the Golan Heights. Russian troops will patrol with Syrian soldiers directly on the Bravo Line, which currently separates Syrian and Israeli troops in the region.

One of the Russian brigades’ commanders told TASS that joint exercises are currently being held between the Russian and Syrian military. The primary purpose of the practices is evacuation training, tactical reinforcements, and repulsed by enemy attacks. “Our mission is to monitor the ceasefire, show the Russian military presence and protect the Russian military,” he said.

After some time ago, the Syrian military managed to drive out several terrorist armed groups loyal to Turkey. The Russian military police took control of the patrol. Russia currently has five observation and reconnaissance military posts in the area, monitored by UN peacekeepers.

It is unclear how Israel will react to Russian actions in the region and whether this will not affect future Israeli attacks. Israel continues to claim that it is in this area of Syria that Iranian forces and their supporters are operating. However, Russia has decided to send troops to the place, aiming to prove the truth of Israeli allegations. The presence of Russian forces ensures that there will be no future armed clashes in the region.

Israel launched massive airstrikes on Syrian targets, Damascus says

The Syrian Ministry of Defense has confirmed on November 25 that the Israeli Air Force has launched multiple airstrikes against targets along the Quneitra-Damascus line. This was also reported by the Lebanese news agency Al-Masdar News, citing military sources.

The Ministry of Defense of the Syrian Arab Republic [SAR] informs: “Exactly at 23:50 [local time – ed.] on the night of November 25, the Zionist enemy launched an airstrike from the Israeli-occupied Golan towards southern Damascus, and the losses were limited by material means”. Other agencies report that heavy attacks by Israeli strike aircraft have targeted the Jabal El Mania Heights [south of Damascus] and the vicinity of Al Quneitra. Photos of IDF Air Force attacks have appeared online. Some photographs taken from a distance show that Israeli planes hit their intended target.

Experts note that the Israeli military is seeking to squeeze out the Iranian troops and the Tehran-controlled Shiite militia цHezbollah and others; from the SAR, as soon as possible, or, at least, have time to inflict unacceptable damage on them. This rush is timed to coincide with the assumption of the presidency of the United States, Joe Biden, as Israel does not count on the support of his administration. Moreover, Jerusalem fears a resurgence of the nuclear deal and Washington’s relationship with Iran, which is Israel’s existential enemy.

BulgarianMilitary.com recalls that on November 18 according to the Syrian state news agency SANA, the Israeli air force has carried out large-scale airstrikes on positions of the Syrian army and Iranian special forces Al-Quds in the area of the Syrian capital Damascus.

The strikes took place early at the morning [November 18 – ed.] and were confirmed by the Russian side, as a number of media officially quoted a press release from the Russian Ministry of Defense, including the Russian media RIA Novosti. According to the Syrian news agency SANA, earlier this morning the Syrian air defense managed to repel another Israeli attack.

Syria claims the strikes began in the Golan Heights and so far the Syrian army has lost three soldiers who were killed in the strikes. Israel has not clearly violated the airspace of the Arab Republic and may have used the F-16, and with the precise use of air-to-surface missiles has managed to strike the positions of the Syrian army and Iranian special forces Al-Quds. Al-Quds is a special unit of the Iranian army that is responsible for Iran’s operations outside the country.

Military experts say Israeli strikes on November 18 were a response to Syrian actions until days ago when Bashar al-Assad’s army installed and loaded highly destructive explosive devices along the border between the two countries, better known as the Alpha Line.

Syria and Israel have not had diplomatic relations since the creation of the two countries. The military conflict between the two countries has been going on for decades, mostly over the ownership of the Golan Heights. Israel periodically launches airstrikes on the Syrian army or on Syrian army positions around Damascus. Tel Aviv is also trying to destroy the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, which is based in Syria and is supporting the Syrian army.

War in Syria

In February, Turkey lost at least 62 troops killed in Syria, nearly 100 soldiers were wounded, dozens of Turkish armored vehicles were destroyed and more than ten drones, including drones, were shot down. Washington has repeatedly accused Moscow of involvement in the deaths of Turkish soldiers, Russia rejects these allegations.

In early March, the presidents of Russia and Turkey, Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, concluded an agreement according to which a ceasefire came into force in the Idlib de-escalation zone. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad later said that if the US and Turkish military did not leave the country, Damascus would be able to use force.

The reason for the Russian-Turkish negotiations was a sharp aggravation of the situation in Idlib, where in January a large-scale offensive by the Syrian army against the positions of the armed opposition and terrorists began.

Government forces recaptured nearly half of the Idlib de-escalation zone and left behind a number of Turkish observation posts. After that, Ankara sharply increased its military contingent in the region and launched the operation “Spring Shield” to push the Syrian troops. Turkey is also supported by militants loyal to it.

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Source: https://bulgarianmilitary.com/2020/12/12/russia-sent-troops-to-the-golan-heights-in-syria-will-the-israeli-attacks-stop/

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Russia: Venezuela hasn’t asked for military assistance

Daily Mail — Mon, 11 Feb 2019 12:56:48 +0000

MOSCOW (AP) – A senior Russian diplomat says Venezuela hasn’t asked Russia for military assistance amid the South American country’s political crisis.

Alexander Shchetinin, the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s Latin America department, said Monday that Moscow hasn’t received any such request from Caracas, according to Russian news reports.

Asked to compare the situation in Venezuela to Syria, where Russia has waged a military campaign to shore up President Bashar Assad’s government, Shchetinin said “there is a big difference” between Syria and Venezuela but wouldn’t elaborate.

At the same time, the Russian diplomat strongly warned the U.S. against making calls on the Venezuelan military to drop support for President Nicolas Maduro, saying it represented an “unthinkable meddling into foreign affairs of a sovereign nation.”

Venezuelan Bolivarian Army soldiers stand guard at the Tienditas International Bridge that links Colombia and Venezuela, near Urena, Venezuela, Friday, Feb. 8, 2019. As humanitarian aid kits were being packed into individual white bags in the city of Cucuta, just across the river from Venezuela, U.S. officials and Venezuelan opposition leaders appealed to the military to the let the aid through. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-6691249/Russia-Venezuela-asked-military-assistance.html

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Analysis Iran’s Soleimani Seeks New Balance of Terror With Israel. For Now, He Failed

Amos Harel — Fri, 25 Jan 2019 11:34:09 +0000

Netanyahu and new army chief reap benefits from Syria strikes – but who will sound the alarm bells when Israel approaches the precipice of war?

Office of the Iranian Supreme Le

Political advisers in the country, currently busy promoting Knesset candidates, would give anything for someone to love their clients the way the Israeli media loves its chiefs of staff. The series of blows exchanged between Israel and Iran in Syria earlier this week was described by one newspaper as a resounding Israeli victory, and by another as a brilliant ambush that the new Israel Defense Forces chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, set for his adversary, the Iranian general Qassem Soleimani. In Haaretz, too, cartoonist Amos Biderman depicted Kochavi piloting a warplane and bombing Soleimani with missiles, while the latter wonders whether this is what a vegetarian chief of staff looks like.

So, on the domestic propaganda front, the IDF chalked up a victory. That narrative was fondly adopted by the newspapers and the electronic media. Kochavi, who is far from enthusiastic about the frequent mention of his dietary preferences, set out to correct any false impression during the ceremony marking his installation, when he talked about his wish for the IDF to be a “lethal army, efficient and innovative.” The attacks in Syria and the reports that followed also helped the cause.

>> In its battle against Iran, Israel is dependent on Russia’s plans for Syria | Analysis ■ Why the rebuilding of Syria isn’t going to happen | Opinion ■ Israel hit several Syrian air defense batteries in Sunday’s strikes <<

The operation the Israel Air Force launched, according to Syrian sources, at midday on Monday in the vicinity of the Damascus airport was apparently based on intelligence received about concerning new Iranian arms shipments. The Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, of which Soleimani is the commander, responded with a move that had been planned some time in advance: by firing an intermediate-range, surface-to-surface missile into northern Israel. The IDF, too, appears to have planned for such a scenario: The Iron Dome system intercepted the lone missile successfully. A few hours later, there was a fierce Israeli response in the form of an extensive attack, in which various Iranian targets in the Damascus area were bombed and Syrian air-defense batteries were knocked out of action after they opened fire at the Israeli aircraft.

This sequence of events is not very different from what occurred last April-May, when the Iranians and the Syrians sustained casualties in a series of Israeli attacks. They tried to respond at that time, too, by means of a series of operations that the IDF preempted. And back then, as well, a final Iranian act of vengeance failed, when a volley of dozens of rockets aimed at Israel met a frustrating end, as far as Soleimani was concerned: Most of the rockets landed on the Syrian side of the border, on its part of the Golan Heights, and the few that got through were intercepted by Iron Dome.

Indeed, in May, the media also praised the heroism and wisdom of the army’s commanding officers – although it’s now all the more clear that nothing was decided: The Iranians did not abandon their efforts to smuggle weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon via Syria, or to widen their military foothold in Syria. And then this week too Soleimani tried – and failed again – to impose a new deterrent balance in the area by signaling to Israel that when it decides to attack in Syria, it must take into account not only Syrian antiaircraft fire but also the possibility of a heavy missile being launched into Israeli territory.

Israel’s victory in May was thus less clear-cut than many tended to believe. Nothing has been settled yet. What’s underway now is an exchange of blows amid an overall, lengthy campaign, most of it at taking place at relatively low intensity, far from public scrutiny.

According to IDF Brig. Gen. (res.) Shimon Shapira, an expert on Iran and Hezbollah who is now a senior research associate at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, this week’s events show that the Iranians are willing to take risks against Israel, even to the point of precipitating a limited confrontation with the IDF.

“From Iran’s perspective,” Shapira says, “the Israeli attacks cannot be countenanced, certainly in light of the end of the Israeli policy of ambiguity and its readiness to assume direct responsibility for attacking targets in Syria.”

Political security

Another puzzling issue concerns the scale of Iran’s arms-smuggling efforts and its attempt to entrench itself in Syria. Just last month, the IDF claimed that those efforts had been substantially diminished, in the wake of pressure from Moscow on Tehran. Russia, it was explained, is apprehensive that military friction between Iran and Israel on Syrian soil will hinder the continued stabilization of President Bashar Assad’s regime. Accordingly, the Russians were said to be trying to restrain both Iran and Israel. Now we’ve had two Israeli attacks in the Damascus area within 10 days. Was this an urgent operational need in light of a change that occurred on the ground, or an attempt to change the rules of the game (and preserve freedom of maneuver) in the skies of the north?

For some months, the chiefs of staff – first Gadi Eisenkot and now his successor, Kochavi – have appeared to be fully coordinated with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Initially, this situation prevailed to the chagrin of the defense minister, Avigdor Lieberman, who subsequently resigned. Lieberman pushed for a broad operation against Hamas in the Gaza Strip; Netanyahu and Eisenkot preferred to focus on the north, first in Operation Northern Shield, to destroy the attack tunnels dug by Hezbollah below the Lebanon border, and afterward in the ongoing resoluteness in Syria.

The developments of the past few months in the north benefited Netanyahu throughout: The situation did not lurch out of control and so far things have not deteriorated to the brink of war. The security-based agenda serves him vis-a-vis the public, given the double challenge he faces of the police investigations and the looming election. The IDF, too, would like to maintain good working relations and common interests with the prime minister, especially considering he is also the defense minister. Just as the operation against the underground tunnels supplied something of a militant finale to Eisenkot’s tenure, the attacks in Syria are now helping to establish an aggressive image for his successor.

AFP

This is all the more pertinent with Kochavi facing a more important and more urgent mission, for which he will need Netanyahu’s full support: the formulation of a new force-building plan for the IDF. There are multiple advantages inherent in close cooperation between the political and military arenas. Yet, a different question arises: With the continuation of the attacks in Syria being convenient to both of them, will there be someone to sound the alarm if the confrontation with the Iranians escalate to the point at which we are liable to lose control?

On Wednesday, following two days of silence, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry condemned the latest attack in Syria and called on Israel to desist from further such operations. It’s possible that these bombing runs – and the scrapping of the policy of ambiguity, in the form of declarations by Eisenkot and Netanyahu (the latter even tweeted that he had “renovated the airport in Damascus”) – went too far from the perspective of Moscow and Tehran. The result could be a strategic misstep, to which the IDF will also have contributed its part.

A very similar process, in which a security problem is intertwined with political needs, is also underway with regard to the Gaza Strip. Neither the prime minister nor the army want a war there and therefore both agreed to an arrangement whereby Qatar would inject $15 million a month into the Strip – even though it’s clear that part of that money ultimately makes its way to Hamas. But Netanyahu wants to be elected to a fifth term as premier, and Lieberman’s persistent sniping about how Israel is paying protection money to Hamas doesn’t help him among right-wing voters.

As a result, the latest monthly transfer of Qatari money, which is brought in in the form of cash in suitcases, was delayed for two weeks. Then this week, Islamic Jihad, for reasons of its own, initiated two attacks along the Israel-Gaza border fence and exacerbated the dilemma. It was even less convenient for Israel to approve the transfer of the money following the shooting incidents, but a delay in delivery would increase the chance of a violent clash with Hamas, which is also dangerous for Netanyahu during an election campaign. (Late Thursday, the cabinet approved a transfer of funds to Hamas, which immediately announced its refusal to accept it.)

Missed opportunities

Stanley McChrystal, the retired U.S. Army general who was commander of American forces in Afghanistan and before that of special ops in Iraq, apparently didn’t read the latest reports from Israel about Qassem Soleimani’s painful defeat. An article he published this week in Foreign Policy contains surprising praise for the Iranian general.

The tone McChrystal takes in writing about Soleimani, who is responsible for the deaths of no few Americans and Israelis, borders on admiration: “The humble leader’s steady hand has helped guide Iranian foreign policy”; and also, “there is no denying his successes on the battlefield”; and even, “Soleimani is running the Syrian civil war.” “Arguably,” McChrystal adds, the Quds Force commander is “the most powerful and unconstrained actor in the Middle East today.”

The American general describes the Iranian adversary as a combined product of the Islamic Revolution in his country and of the protracted Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s. Iran’s complex political arena has allowed him to head the force for 21 consecutive years. His success is due to his skills, but also to the stability afforded by such a lengthy tenure, the kind that American commanders can only envy. Soleimani, McChrystal writes, is an extraordinarily dangerous person – and he occupies a position that could affect the future of the Middle East.

In 2007, McChrystal relates, U.S. forces under his command tracked a convoy in which Soleimani was traveling from Iran to the Kurdish city of Erbil in northern Iraq. “There was good reason to eliminate Soleimani,” whose troops were building the roadside bombs that were activated by Shi’ite militias and ravaging American convoys in Iraq at the time. In the end, however, the decision was made not to liquidate him. The Americans observed the convoy until it reached Erbil, by which time “Soleimani had slipped away into the darkness.”

That wasn’t the only time Soleimani was in the crosshairs of either the Americans or other foes. A year later, in February 2008, Imad Mughniyeh, who was described as the commander-in-chief of Hezbollah, was assassinated in Damascus. In 2015, The Washington Post quoted American intelligence personnel as saying that Soleimani had been standing next to Mughniyeh when the latter got into a jeep in which a bomb had been planted. According to the paper, the assassination was a joint Israeli-American operation, and it was the Americans who at the last minute vetoed the killing of Soleimani as well, on the grounds that he was not an original target of the operation.

In his exit interviews with Israel’s TV news programs, Gadi Eisenkot was asked over and over about the possibility of Israel deciding to assassinate Soleimani. Eisenkot chose not to respond.

Source: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-iran-s-soleimani-seeks-new-balance-of-terror-with-israel-for-now-he-failed-1.6872615

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The post Analysis Iran’s Soleimani Seeks New Balance of Terror With Israel. For Now, He Failed first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Russia Blasts Israel: You’re to Blame for 15 Russians Killed During Syria Strike

Reuters and Yaniv Kubovich — Tue, 18 Sep 2018 10:50:09 +0000

Russia blames downed military aircraft on Israel’s ‘deliberate provocations’ striking Syria ■ France denies involvement, U.S. says plane shot down by Syrian air defense systems.

Kirill Naumenko/Wikipedia

–‘Israel launches series of strikes on targets near Syria’s Latakia’
–Russia says Syrian Idlib offensive off the table, Erdogan and Putin agree on buffer zone
–The heart of the Russian air force: The Syrian fighter jet downed by Israel in the Golan Heights

Russia on Tuesday accused Israel of a “hostile provocation” in striking the Syrian port city of Latakia and threatened retaliation after Moscow blamed Israel for indirectly causing a Russian military plane with 15 servicemen on board to be shot down near Syria’s Mediterranean coast.

Russia’s defense ministry accused Israeli military planes of creating a “dangerous” situation in Latakia, near where the aircraft was downed by Syrian air defense systems, as it claimed Israel warned Moscow about the planned operation one minute beforehand, adding that it was not enough time to get the the plane to safety.

The defense ministry said 15 Russian military service people died because of Israel’s “irresponsible actions,” adding that it reserves the right to take appropriate measures after Israel’s hostile actions.

Russian Defence Ministry: Russian Ilyushin Il-20 plane was downed by Syrian Air Defence missile after Israeli F-16 pilots used it as cover thus setting it up to be targeted by AA defence. Such actions can only be classified as a deliberate provocation https://t.co/qBcqPz2en6 pic.twitter.com/21mTTNXmpd

— Russia in RSA ?? (@EmbassyofRussia) September 18, 2018

According to the ministry, the Israeli F-16 jets carrying out the air strikes used the Russian plane as a cover to allow them to approach their targets on the ground without being hit by Syrian anti-aircraft fire.

Russian Defense Ministry

“Hiding behind the Russian aircraft, the Israeli pilots put it in the line of fire of Syrian anti-aircraft systems. As a result the Il-20 … was shot down by the (Syrian) S-200 missile system,” Konashenkov said.

He said the Israeli pilots “could not have failed to see the Russian aircraft, as it was coming in to land from a height of 5 km (three miles). Nevertheless, they deliberately carried out this provocation,” Konashenkov said.

Israeli Ambassador to Russia Gary Koren was summoned to the Russian Foreign Ministry following the incident, and Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu informed his Israeli counterpart, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, that Moscow holds Israel wholly to blame for the shooting down of a Russian military plane near Syria.

The Kremlin was extremely concerned by the incident and President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences for those who were killed, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

The Russian Defense Ministry said a recovery operation in the Mediterranean Sea is underway and that it has already located the wreckage in the sea and has retrieved some bodies and some fragments of the plane.

Twitter

A U.S. official earlier said Washington believed the aircraft, which is an Il-20 turbo-prop plane used for electronic reconnaissance, was inadvertently shot down by anti-aircraft artillery operated by Moscow’s ally, the Syrian government.

Around the time the plane disappeared, the Syrian coastal city of Latakia, near a Russian airbase to which the Il-20 was returning, came under attack from “enemy missiles” and missile defence batteries responded, Syrian state media reported.

The defense ministry in Moscow said the aircraft was returning to the Russian-run Hmeymim airbase in Latakia province when, at about 11 P.M. Moscow time (20:00 GMT), it disappeared from radar screens.

The plane was over the Mediterranean Sea about 35 km (20 miles) from the Syrian coastline, Russia’s TASS news agency quoted the ministry as saying in a statement.

“The trace of the Il-20 on flight control radars disappeared during an attack by four Israeli F-16 jets on Syrian facilities in Latakia province,” the statement was quoted as saying.

“At the same time Russian air control radar systems detected rocket launches from the French frigate Auvergne which was located in that region.”

The fate of the 14 people on board the missing plane is unknown, and a rescue operation has been organized out of the Hmeymim base, the ministry said.

The Israeli military had no reaction, saying it does not comment on “foreign reports.” French military spokesman Colonel Patrik Steiger told Reuters. “We deny any involvement.”

A series of unusual airstrikes on Syria were attributed to Israel on Monday night. The official SANA news agency reported that ten people were injured in the attack, eight of whom were shortly discharged after being admitted to a nearby hospital.

According to Syrian media, missiles were fired toward military targets close to three large cities in the north of Syria: Lattakia, Homs and Hama.

In recent weeks there has been a significant uptick in the amount of reports attributing attacks to Israel. Previous attacks, according to foreign media, mostly targeted the area of the Damascus International Airport.

Source: https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/russian-military-aircraft-believed-to-be-shot-down-by-syria-defenses-1.6489773

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The post Russia Blasts Israel: You’re to Blame for 15 Russians Killed During Syria Strike first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Putin, Trump to have summit in Helsinki on July 16

Hawaii News Now — Thu, 28 Jun 2018 07:04:28 +0000

MOSCOW (AP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump will hold a summit in Helsinki on July 16, a long-expected encounter that comes amid spiraling tensions between Moscow and Washington.

A terse synchronized statement issued by the Kremlin and the White House said Putin and Trump will discuss bilateral issues and international relations. The announcement comes a day after Trump’s National Security Adviser John Bolton held talks with Putin in Moscow to lay the groundwork for the summit.

“I’ve said it from Day One, getting along with Russia and with China and with everybody is a very good thing,” Trump said Wednesday. “It’s good for the world. It’s good for us. It’s good for everybody.”

He said they would discuss Syria, Ukraine and “many other subjects.”

Finland has been a favored location for U.S.-Russian summits since the Cold war times, a role helped by its efforts to maintain neutral friendly ties with its huge eastern neighbor.

The summit will offer Putin a chance to try to persuade Washington to lift some of the sanctions imposed on Russia over its 2014 annexation of Crimea, its support for separatists fighting the government in eastern Ukraine and its alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

During Wednesday’s meeting with Bolton, Putin argued that U.S.-Russian relations were at a low point because of American political infighting and expressed a desire to “restore full-fledged relations based on equality and mutual respect.”

Putin had two brief meetings with Trump on the sidelines of international summits last year, but plans for a full-fledged summit had been delayed amid the FBI and Congressional probes into alleged Russia-Trump ties that Trump has dismissed as a “witch hunt.”

Russian officials and lawmakers warned against excessive optimism about the summit — a cautious stance reflecting Moscow’s failed expectations for rebuilding ties after Trump’s victory.

Trump has called for improving relations with Moscow, but his administration has imposed an array of new anti-Russia sanctions.

During Thursday’s briefing, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova warned against waiting for any quick breakthroughs resulting from the summit, noting that Moscow has “pragmatic and realistic” expectations for the meeting given the scope of issues to be addressed.

She said Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo could meet as part of efforts to prepare for the summit.

Ahead of the announcement, Trump repeated Russian denials of election interference, tweeting “Russia continues to say they had nothing to do with Meddling in our Election!”

Trump has continually parroted the Kremlin’s denial of election interference, a move that has put him out of step with the findings of the U.S. intelligence community and nearly all Democrats and Republicans in Congress, who say there’s clear evidence of Russian efforts to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.

Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said after Putin’s meeting with Bolton that the issue of alleged Russian meddling in the U.S. presidential election was raised in the meeting and the Kremlin reiterated its denial of any interference with the U.S. vote.

“It was stated clearly by our side that the Russian state hasn’t interfered with the U.S. domestic politics, moreover hasn’t interfered in the 2016 election,” Ushakov said.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg welcomed the U.S.-Russian summit, saying that “for me, dialogue is not a sign of weakness. Dialogue is a sign of strength.”

“It’s absolutely, totally in line with NATO policies to talk to Russia, to meet with Russian leaders. We don’t want a new Cold War. We don’t want to isolate Russia. We want to strive for a better relationship,” Stoltenberg said.

Finland served as a venue for a 1975 meeting between U.S. President Gerald Ford and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev and also hosted a summit between U.S. President George H.W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev in 1990. In 1997, President Bill Clinton met his Russian counterpart Boris Yeltsin in Helsinki.

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev said Helsinki summit could go down in history as a major landmark if Putin and Trump make steps toward cooperation. Russian lawmakers were also positive about the meeting.

“The decision on holding a full-fledged summit is a very positive development,” Russian upper house speaker Valentina Matvienko said Thursday in remarks carried by Russian news agencies. “We hope it will play a very important role in helping begin the normalization of Russia-U.S. ties.”

___

Jari Tanner in Helsinki contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/38530896/putin-trump-to-have-summit-in-helsinki-on-july-16

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Israel on high alert in anticipation of Iranian retaliation for air strike

Middle East Monitor — Thu, 12 Apr 2018 23:20:54 +0000

Israeli military jets [U.S. Air Force/Wikipedia]

The Israeli government is taking seriously Iran’s threats to retaliate for an air strike against a Syrian airbase which killed seven Iranian advisors, Haaretz reported on Wednesday.

Israel declared a state of high alert on its northern border with Syria and Lebanon following threats by Iranian officials on Tuesday who vowed to “respond to the Israeli crime”. This was a reference to the missile strikes against T4 Airbase in central Syria, for which, alleged Russia, Israel was responsible.

According to the newspaper, the Israeli army has deployed the Iron Dome missile defence system in anticipation of any retaliatory strike. It noted that the alert was also in place due to the increasing possibility of a US missile attack on military positions in Syria following allegations of a chemical attack carried out by the Syrian regime in the city of Douma in Eastern Ghouta.

“If Iran moves against Israel from Syrian territory, Assad and his regime will pay the price,” warned Israeli military sources. “We advise Iran not to do so because Israel is determined to go until the end.”

Read: Four Iranians ‘killed in Israeli airstrike’ on Syrian airbase

Israeli security officials said that they hoped that the head of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Hasan Nasrallah, will not be dragged into this battle if it breaks out. “We have no intention of expanding the front, but if that happens, Nasrallah must know that his fate will not be different from Assad’s fate and he will pay the price very dearly,” they insisted.

The Russian Foreign Ministry summoned the Israeli ambassador to Moscow on Tuesday for clarification about the strike against the T4 Airbase.

Source: https://www.middleeastmonitor.com/20180412-israel-on-high-alert-in-anticipation-of-iranian-retaliation-for-air-strike/

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In Call to Netanyahu, Putin Urges Israel Not to Take Action in Syria

Haaretz and Reuters — Thu, 12 Apr 2018 02:48:41 +0000

Netanyahu told Putin: Israel will not permit Iran to set up military presence in Syria ■ Israel is on high alert for any Iranian retaliation after direct threat from Iran ■ Trump warns Syria of possible attack ■ Russia to Trump: We don’t do Twitter diplomacy.
Alexander Zemlianichenko/AP

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke on Wednesday, and the Russian leader urged Israel not to take action in Syria and to threaten its security. Israeli officials confirmed the call took place and said that Netanyahu told Putin that Israel will not permit Iran to set up a military presence in Syria.
Emil Salman

The news of the telephone call between Netanyahu and Putin appeared as Netanyahu took the stage in Israel’s main Holocaust memorial event and issued a threat to Iran not to “test Israel’s resolve.” The Russians announced the call in statement on the website of the Kremlin, which specified that Putin insisted it is “important” to maintain Syria’s sovereignty.

Israel is on high alert for any Iranian retaliation after Tehran’s direct threat Tuesday, as well as any possible U.S. strike against Syria’s Assad regime in retaliation to the chemical attack at Douma.

Netanyahu lashed out at Iran during his Holocaust memorial speech, saying it was still intent on destroying Israel. Netanyahu also ripped into the landmark nuclear accord reached between Teheran and world powers and said: “I have a message for the leaders of Iran: Don’t test Israel’s resolve.”

Netanyahu also took the opportunity to condemn the Syrian regime and the recent chemical attack in Syria, saying that “murderous evil that is not stood up against spreads rapidly.”

President Donald Trump appears to be closer to taking action in Syria after Saturday’s deadly chemical attack, for which he vowed “animal Assad” would “pay a heavy price.”

Trump tweeted early Wednesday morning, “Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and ‘smart!’ You shouldn’t be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!”

Trump followed that tweet with an assessment of U.S.-Russia relations, writing, “Our relationship with Russia is worse now than it has ever been, and that includes the Cold War. There is no reason for this. Russia needs us to help with their economy, something that would be very easy to do, and we need all nations to work together. Stop the arms race?”

The Kremlin took a jab at Trump in response, saying it did not engage in “Twitter diplomacy”. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying that care should be taken not to aggravate the situation in Syria.

“We do not participate in Twitter diplomacy,” Peskov was quoted as saying by Interfax. “We support serious approaches. We continue to believe that it is important not to take steps that could harm an already fragile situation.”

A Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson responded to Trump’s tweet, saying that “smart missiles should fly toward terrorists, not a legal government,” adding that it could be a U.S. attempt to destroy evidence of the alleged chemical attack on the ground.

As Trump ramped up his threats, the Syrian military has repositioned some air assets to avoid the fallout from potential missile strikes, U.S. officials told Reuters on Wednesday.

The officials declined further comment and it was not clear whether the Syrian moves would impact U.S. military planning for potential action against Syria over a suspected poison gas attack.

Source: https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/syria/in-call-to-netanyahu-putin-urges-israel-not-to-take-action-in-syria-1.5992415

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The post In Call to Netanyahu, Putin Urges Israel Not to Take Action in Syria first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Russia escalates row in spy case

Arkansas Online — Sat, 31 Mar 2018 09:04:57 +0000

PHOTO BY AP/DMITRI LOVETSKY

A man carries boxes from the U.S. Consulate in St. Petersburg, Russia, as a Russian police officer guards the entrance Friday.

MOSCOW — The crisis between Russia and the West over the poisoning of a former double agent in Britain grew Friday as Russia ordered new cuts to the number of British envoys in the country.

Russia also summoned 23 foreign ambassadors to inform them that some of their diplomats would be expelled, a day after ordering 60 U.S. diplomats to leave and demanding that Washington’s consulate in St. Petersburg close on short notice.

The expulsion of diplomats on both sides has reached a scale unseen even at the height of the Cold War.

Two dozen countries, along with NATO, ordered out more than 150 Russian diplomats this week in a show of solidarity with Britain over the nerve-agent poisoning of Russian ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Britain that London blamed on Russia.

Moscow has vehemently denied involvement in the March 4 nerve-agent attack in the English city of Salisbury and announced the expulsion of the same number of diplomats from each nation.

The ministry escalated its response Friday, saying it has ordered Britain to reduce the number of its diplomats in Moscow to the level that Russia has in London. The exact number wasn’t immediately clear, but state news agency RIA Novosti agency quoted an unidentified Russian diplomat as saying the number of British diplomatic personnel in Russia exceeds the number of Russian envoys in Britain by more than 50 people.

The ministry said it summoned the British ambassador to hand him a protest over the “provocative and unsubstantiated actions by Britain, which instigated the expulsion of Russian diplomats from various nations for no reason.” It gave London a month to reduce its diplomatic personnel in Russia.

Adding to the tensions, the ministry said late Friday that a plane belonging to Russian state airline Aeroflot was being searched by police in London. Ministry spokesman Maria Zakharova said there was no explanation given for the search, which she called “the latest provocation.” The plane left London’s Heathrow Airport for Moscow about three hours behind schedule.

Commenting on the Russian move to expel more U.K. diplomats, a spokesman for the British Foreign Office said “it’s regrettable, but in light of Russia’s previous behavior, we anticipated a response.”

“However, this doesn’t change the facts of the matter: The attempted assassination of two people on British soil, for which there is no alternative conclusion other than that the Russian state was culpable,” she said. “Russia is in flagrant breach of international law and the Chemical Weapons Convention, and actions by countries around the world have demonstrated the depth of international concern.”

A hospital treating the Skripals said Thursday that the 33-year-old daughter Yulia was improving rapidly and was now in stable condition, but her 66-year-old father remained in critical condition.

Speaking to reporters Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov insisted that “Russia didn’t start any diplomatic wars” and “remains open for developing good ties.”

He added that Russia has called a meeting of the international chemical weapons watchdog next week to press for an “unbiased and objective investigation.”

Russia has accused Britain of failing to back up its accusations with evidence and refusing to share materials from the probe. The Foreign Ministry said it told the British ambassador Friday that Moscow is ready to cooperate in the investigation.

Earlier this week, the Russian Foreign Ministry alleged that British special services could have been involved in the poisoning and claimed that Britain, the U.S., the Czech Republic and Sweden all have researched the class of nerve agent that London said was used to poison Skripal.

Britain and its allies have rejected the Russian nerve-agent claims.

The countries informed Friday by Russia of diplomat expulsions were Australia, Albania, Germany, Denmark, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Canada, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Moldova, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Ukraine, Finland, France, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Sweden and Estonia.

The Foreign Ministry added that it would also consider mirror expulsions of diplomats from Belgium, Hungary, Georgia and Montenegro.

Bulgaria announced it would not expel any Russian diplomats. The country is heavily dependent on Russian gas supplies and tourists.

President Donald Trump drew bipartisan praise in Washington this week for its expulsions, days after he was criticized for congratulating Russian President Vladimir Putin on his re-election in a phone call.

The American president has been faulted by lawmakers for voicing continued optimism about improving relations with Putin while questioning the finding of U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.

In response to the U.S. move earlier this week to close the Russian Consulate in Seattle, Moscow also shut the U.S. Consulate in St. Petersburg, giving it until today to vacate the premises.

“There is no justification for this response” because Russia was “responsible for that horrific attack on the British citizen and his daughter,” State Department spokesman Heather Nauert told reporters in Washington. The U.S. isn’t ruling out further steps against Russia, Nauert said.

The confrontation “looks not so much like a cold war than a fight without rules,” said Konstantin Kosachyov, head of the foreign affairs committee of the Russian upper house of parliament. “One in which the bully himself complains when he gets a taste of his own medicine.”

Russia last year also ordered staff numbers slashed by nearly two-thirds, or 755 positions, at the U.S. Embassy and consulates as tensions flared over the alleged Kremlin hacking in the presidential election.

Information for this article was contributed by Vladimir Isachenkov, Gregory Katz, Irina Titova, Jim Heintz and Nataliya Vasilyeva of The Associated Press and by Henry Meyer, Mike Dorning, Larry Liebert, Stepan Kravchenko and Olga Tanas of Bloomberg News.

Source: http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2018/mar/31/russia-escalates-row-in-spy-case-201803/

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Russia to expel 23 British diplomats, close consulate in escalating row over poisoned ex-spy

Matthew Bodner and Karla Adam — Sat, 17 Mar 2018 08:57:46 +0000

MOSCOW — Russia will expel 23 British diplomats and close the British Consulate in St. Petersburg as part of its response to London’s decision to expel Russian diplomats in an escalating row over the poisoning of a former spy and his daughter in Britain earlier this month.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said Saturday that “23 diplomatic personnel from the British Embassy in Moscow have been declared persona non grata” and have one week to leave. The closure of the consulate in St. Petersburg was not given a firm deadline, with the Foreign Ministry saying only that consulate employees will be given sufficient time to finish their work.

The move comes a day before Russia’s presidential election, which President Vladimir Putin is expected to win.

Britain on Wednesday ordered the expulsion of 23 Russian diplomats, many of whom were said by Prime Minister Theresa May to be Russian intelligence officers, after Moscow ignored an ultimatum to provide an explanation for how a Russian nerve agent came to be used in the poisoning of a former spy on British soil.

The spy, 66-year-old Russian double agent Sergei Skripal, and his 33-year-old daughter, Yulia, were found slumped on a park bench in Salisbury on March 4. After several days of investigation, British authorities determined that they were poisoned with a nerve agent known as Novichok, believed to be unique to Russia.

The Skripals are reported to be in critical condition, but British authorities have provided no further information about their status. Russia has demanded consular access to Yulia Skripal, a Russian citizen, and complained that Britain has not responded to that request. Russia’s Investigative Committee opened a criminal case Friday into Yulia Skripal’s attempted murder.

[Perspective: What a brave Russian scientist told me about Novichok]

The British government said it was expecting the retaliatory expulsions from Russia.

Speaking at her party’s spring forum in London, May said Britain would “consider our next steps in the coming days, alongside our allies and partners.”

“We will never tolerate a threat to the life of British citizens and others on British soil from the Russian government,” she said, prompting applause.

The British Foreign Office offered its own harsh words.

“Russia’s response doesn’t change the facts of the matter — the attempted assassination of two people on British soil, for which there is no alternative conclusion other than that the Russian State was culpable. It is Russia that is in flagrant breach of international law and the Chemical Weapons Convention,” the Foreign Office said in a statement.

Russia was slow to respond to May’s decision, spending Thursday and Friday promising a swift and strong response. When Moscow finally made its announcement Saturday, it went slightly beyond strictly reciprocal measures.

The Foreign Ministry said it would also order an end to all activities in the country of the British Council, Britain’s international organization for cultural relations and educational opportunities, and warned London that “if any further unfriendly actions are taken against Russia, the Russian side reserves the right to take other retaliatory measures.”

This is not the first time the British Council, an organization that promotes cultural exchange, has been caught up in retaliations. In 2008, the British Council’s regional offices in St. Petersburg and Yekaterinburg were closed, leaving only the head office in Moscow open.

The closure of the offices, ordered by Russia’s Foreign Ministry, followed the expulsion of Russian diplomats in Britain over the 2006 poisoning of ex-KGB operative Alexander Litvinenko in London.

Stephen Kinnock, a British lawmaker who was the director of the British Council in St. Petersburg before it closed, told the BBC that the latest move shows “how mean-spirited and vindictive the Putin regime really is.”

Vladimir Dzhabarov, first deputy of the foreign affairs committee in Russia’s upper house of parliament, told Moscow-based Interfax news agency that the British Council was used as a cover organization for British intelligence officers.

“Those measures should sober British politicians up,” Dzhabarov said, “primarily Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who dared to make an offensive statement regarding the head of a great state, virtually accusing him of ordering the poisoning of Skripal.”

Johnson on Friday had said it was “overwhelmingly likely” that it was Putin’s decision “to direct the use of a nerve agent on the streets of the U.K.”

[Britain’s top diplomat accuses Putin of being behind Russian spy poisoning]

Alexei Chepa, deputy head of the foreign affairs committee in Russia’s lower house of parliament, said Saturday that he expected additional measures to be taken by the British government in response to Russia’s actions today. “Now we are warning the [British] that we will respond in an adequate manner to all further steps of this nature.”

Britain had been widely expecting a robust response from Russia, but it was immediately unclear whether there would be further retaliatory moves.

When asked what Britain should do next, Tom Tugendhat, a Conservative lawmaker and chair of the foreign affairs select committee, told the BBC: “I think what we got to do is focus entirely on the Putin regime, the Putin family and the Putin henchmen, and focus on their money, much of which is hidden in Western Europe.”

Others warned against a drawn-out standoff.

Roderic Lyne, Britain’s former ambassador to Russia, told the BBC: “I don’t think it would be sensible to get dragged down into a mud-wrestling battle with a gorilla.”

Adam reported from London.

U.S., France and Germany join Britain in saying Russia likely responsible for chemical attack against former spy

Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/russia-to-expel-23-british-diplomats-and-close-consulate-in-escalating-row-over-poisoned-ex-spy/2018/03/17/db431216-29c8-11e8-874b-d517e912f125_story.html?utm_term=.b9f056ac6de4

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The post Russia to expel 23 British diplomats, close consulate in escalating row over poisoned ex-spy first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Iran’s Intensifying War with Israel

James Phillips — Wed, 21 Feb 2018 03:19:32 +0000

The Trump administration should publicly warn Russia and Iran that the United States will respond forcefully to future threats in Syria.

The February 10 military clash between Iran and Israel ushered in a new phase of the Syrian war. Iran for the first time challenged Israel directly instead of attacking indirectly through surrogates, such as Hezbollah.

The Syrian civil war—the world’s bloodiest conflict in recent decades—has evolved into a proxy war that could easily escalate into a much broader regional war. Iran’s provocative violation of Israeli airspace with an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) set off a chain reaction that is accelerating this transformation. The mission of the Iranian UAV—a Shahed 171, which Tehran apparently reverse engineered from a downed U.S. RQ-170 Sentinel drone that crashed in Iranian territory in 2011—remains unclear. Launched by Iranian Revolutionary Guards from the Tiyas air base in central Syria, the UAV crossed into Israel over the Jordanian border at an unusually low altitude, perhaps to avoid detection.

Although Hezbollah and Hamas have deployed Iranian-made UAVs over Israel in the past, this was the first known attempt by Iran to penetrate Israeli airspace.

The UAV was intercepted and destroyed by an Israeli Apache helicopter, and Israel responded with an airstrike on the Iranian command-and-control trailer in Syria that remotely controlled the UAV.

An Israeli F-16 fighter involved in that operation was shot down by Syrian anti-aircraft missiles and crashed inside Israel, injuring the pilot. It was the first Israeli fighter plane lost in combat since the 1982 war in Lebanon.

Israel responded by launching a second wave of attacks on twelve Syrian and Iranian targets in Syria. Among those hit were Syrian SA-17 and SA-5 anti-aircraft batteries and Iranian forces deployed in the country to support Syrian dictator Bashar Assad.

The Israeli military estimated that the retaliatory strikes destroyed nearly half of Syria’s air defense missile batteries. The reprisals also hit Iranian and Syrian targets close to Russian military positions at Tiyas air base and elsewhere, a factor that led Russian president Vladimir Putin to call Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to avert further escalation.

The Russian Foreign Ministry quickly issued a statement: “We urge all sides to exercise restraint and to avoid any actions that could lead to an even greater complication of the situation.”

The fact that Israel, Iran and Syria all subsequently de-escalated the confrontation underscored the fact that Putin’s assertive intervention in Syria has established Russia as the prime arbiter of Syria’s future. Israeli journalist Amos Harel wrote that: “The quiet after the Netanyahu-Putin phone call shows once again who’s the real boss in the Middle East.”

Moscow has its own reasons for tamping down Iranian-Israeli hostilities. It wants to avoid collateral damage to Russian forces, prevent further losses to its Syrian client regime and consolidate a more favorable military outcome in Syria. But Moscow’s agenda is jeopardized by Tehran’s competing goals, which have put Iran on a collision course with Israel and the United States in Syria.

Iran’s Rising Threat in Syria

Having tightened its grip on strategic areas of Syria, Iran now is willing and able to use these locations as staging areas for operations against Israel. Although direct action against Israel is risky, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards may have calculated that the presence of Russian military personnel at the Tiyas air base and elsewhere in close proximity to Iranian personnel would deter an Israeli counterattack.

Iran’s intentions were foreshadowed last month, when a senior Iranian official visited the Lebanese side of Lebanon’s border with Israel and made provocative comments about the liberation of Jerusalem.

Ayatollah Ebrahim Raisi— the hardline cleric who lost Iran’s presidential election last year but might still be in line to become the next supreme leader—was escorted within a United Nations buffer zone by Hezbollah officials who were uniformed and armed. This incident, which violated UN Security Council resolutions that established a demilitarized zone in Lebanon, prompted Israel to warn the Security Council that Iran was subverting the UN’s peacekeeping role in Lebanon and destabilizing the region.

Iran has replicated its proxy strategy of using Hezbollah in Lebanon, by creating a wide array of Shia militia groups directed by the Quds Force, the elite special forces of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. This foreign legion of militias recruited from pro-Iranian Iraqis, Afghans and Pakistanis has advanced closer to the Israeli border.

Harakat al-Nujaba (“Movement of the Noble”), an Iranian-backed Iraqi militia fighting in Iraq and Syria, announced that it stands with Syria to confront the Israeli “aggression and cowardly massacre.” The group—also known as Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba—is an independent unit that is part of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Forces, which was created in 2014 to fight ISIS.

The group operates in both Iraq and Syria under the control of the Quds Force. Last March it announced formation of a “Golan Liberation Brigade.” Its goal: to help the Syrian regime take back the Golan Heights, which Israel seized in the 1967 Six-Day War.

Israel’s “War Between the Wars”

Israel has avoided intervening in Syria’s complex, multisided civil war, but it has been drawn into a deepening confrontation with Iran and its Hezbollah surrogates, who have exploited the Syrian war to open up a new potential front with Israel and boost the flow of sophisticated weaponry to expand Hezbollah’s military threat to Israel.

In what Israeli military leaders have called “the war between the wars,” Israel has launched over one hundred air strikes to destroy Iranian-supplied arms inside Syria before they could be transferred to the Lebanon-based terrorist group. But none of those strikes was as large as the February 10 attacks.

Hezbollah has almost thirty thousand fighters—up to a third of them now deployed in Syria to prop up the Assad regime. The terrorist group is thought to have amassed an arsenal of up to 150,000 rockets, which it has dispersed amid civilian buildings and underground bunkers covertly built in Lebanon. Iran has provided the bulk of these weapons, including increasingly accurate longer-range missiles capable of targeting most of Israel.

Perhaps motivated by steady losses of arms and equipment due to Israeli air strikes, Iran reportedly is building at least two weapons factories in Lebanon to assemble advanced missiles, anti-tank weapons and UAVs. Israel is likely to target these facilities in future rounds of fighting with Iran and Hezbollah.

Iran’s Challenge to the United States in Eastern Syria

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards also have threatened U.S. military forces and their allies, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), in eastern Syria. On February 7, an armored column of Iranian-led militias, including Afghan Shia fighters and local Arab tribal fighters, advanced along with Russian private military contractors from the Wagner Group, toward a SDF base where U.S. special operations forces were stationed.

After the column fired artillery rounds toward the base, U.S. forces responded with air strikes, UAV missile strikes and artillery fire, killing scores of fighters, including many Russian military contractors.

In crossing the Euphrates River, the ground offensive violated the deconfliction agreement reached between Moscow and Washington. It also inserted Iran directly into the intensifying competition between the U.S.-backed SDF and the Iranian/Russian/Syrian forces trying to gain control over eastern Syrian oil fields formerly controlled by ISIS.

Moscow may have calculated that using military contractors in this Iranian-led operation would give it plausible deniability sufficient to avoid broader consequences for its actions. Washington cannot afford to let Russia or Iran off the hook for this direct challenge to U.S. forces.

The Trump administration should publicly warn Russia and Iran that the United States will respond forcefully to future threats in Syria and strongly support Israeli military efforts to blunt threats emanating from Syria. If Moscow is not willing or able to restrain Iran in Syria, it must share the responsibility—and bear consequences—for Iran’s destabilizing actions in Syria.

James Phillips is the senior research fellow for Middle Eastern affairs in The Heritage Foundation’s Allison Center for Foreign Policy Studies.

Image: An Israeli Air Force F-35 fighter jet flies during an aerial demonstration at a graduation ceremony for Israeli Air Force pilots at the Hatzerim air base in southern Israel, December 27, 2017. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

Source: http://nationalinterest.org/feature/irans-intensifying-war-israel-24592

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