debkafile exclusive: In the last 48 hours, Europeans and NATO have delivered to the Syrian rebels shipments of the long-demanded anti-air and tank missiles as well as recoilless 120 mm cannons.They landed in Turkey and Jordan and were transferred to southern Syria and Aleppo, where Syrian rebels are poised to fend off a major Syrian army offensive backed by 2,000 Hizballah troops. Accordingly, the Obama-Putin meeting went badly at the G8 summit in Northern Ireland. Widely expected Russian reprisals portend a longer Syrian war.

The conditions Vladimir Putin will lay down for a G8 consensus on Syria are that Bashar Assad remains in power in any political solution and Iran be part of that solution. He will address the summit opening Monday in Northern Ireland in the interests of his allies, Bashar Assad, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Hassan Nasrallah and demand that the summit acknowledge them as winners of the war. Putin will block any attempt by Barak Obama to use the election of Hassan Rouhani as Iran’s president to counter those successes.

The Obama administration and Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon on a visit to Washington backed away Friday, June 14, from any effective response to the Syrian ruler’s proven use of chemical weapons against rebel forces. On the ground, debkafile’s military sources reported Hizballah and Syrian army movements were detected heading toward the Golan and the Jordanian border from the military concentrations building up in the last two weeks around the nearby town of Deraa. Those sources also concluded that Hizballah has been awarded “limited-use” chemical weapons

The White House said Friday that the US would provide “direct military support” for the first time to the Syrian opposition after obtaining proof that the Syrian government had used the chemical weapon sarin against rebel forces. The nature of the package was not specified. The rebels responded to this apparent evasion by demanding anti-aircraft and other advanced arms against deadly Syrian air bombardments. An earlier White House statement amounted to President Barack Obama’s refusal to step in to save Aleppo and Idlib from a decisive Syrian army defeat.

Barack Obama has left it too late to change the course of the Syrian war by saving the rebels from defeat at the hands of the Syrian army. The Russians are already lined up counter-measures for stalling US aid to the rebels and step into its shoes.

The battle for Aleppo opened up the last window for US to influence the course of the Syrian war by establishing a limited no-fly zone over the battle arena to deprive the Syrian army of air support. This too was rejected Thursday by Barack Obama.

The request to Binyamin Netanyahu from Ali Khamenei was routed through Barack Obama. Its outcome was a flood of harsh US sanctions and Washington’s nod for a unilateral Israeli attack on Iran.

Barack Obama’s new appointees, Susan Rice, National Security adviser, and Samantha Power, ambassador to the UN, favored US intervention in Libya but not Syria. They prefer to help the president achieve his pivot to Asia, but neither al Qaeda nor Iran will give them the chance.

Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, the target of the turbulent unrest sweeping Turkey, is also President Barack Obama’s foremost ally in the Muslim world. The latest DEBKA-Weekly out last Friday examined this and other repercussions of the Turkish ferment, like the posting of Revolutionary Guards on the streets of Iran, and impact on the Syrian war. Has an outside hand been feeding the flames of domestic disaffection? And why is Israel concerned? Discovered also was a possible shifting of ground between Iran and Israel, Bashar Assad’s new bankroller, and Hizballah’s creeping takeover of Syria.

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Word from Moscow Friday, May 31, of a new contract discussed for the sale to Syria of MiG-29 M/M2 fighters, was a Russian tactic to disguise the next Syrian war moves. debkafile: The MiG 29 is the tool Bashar Assad needs to try and overcome the Israeli Air Force’s electronic superiority.

Moscow is challenging Israel to make good on its threats to knock out the S-300 or lose credibility. But Israel needs a US guarantee of military backup in case its action spirals into a major conflict with Syria and its allies.

Iran has discovered the attractions of its new unmanned aerial vehicles and is using them for increasingly reckless missions over strategic Middle East sites, including US forces, oil sites, army bases and Israel.

Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah vowed Saturday night, May 25, to expand his movement’s military role in the Syrian civil war and muster tens of thousands of volunteers. Al Qaeda fighters were streaming into Syria, and Israel planned more attacks, he warned. 

Israeli leaders play down the approaching menace of the Syrian-Hizballah war of attrition backed by Tehran. Bt Prime Minister Netanyahu has set up a war room in his Jerusalem office for keeping track.

The Obama administration has maneuvered itself out of a major role in reaching a political solution to the Syrian conflict. Bashar is building on his battlefield successes to demand a key role in any settlement.

The Syrian war is set for its next stage, the spillover of hostilities from Syrian Golan into Israel. debkafile: This is the consequence ...

In its air strike on Syria on May 3, Israel fired stand-off missiles, a tactic for avoiding sending planes into Syrian airspace. This tactic, which Moscow judged to be the precursor for an attack on Iran, will be thwarted by the 200-kilometer range of the S-300 anti-air missiles in Syria.

John Kerry finds the ground slipping from under his feet as he pursues Middle East peace initiatives on behalf of a boss beleaguered by scandal.

Saudi Arabia is exploring dialogue with its great regional rival Iran for ending the Syrian conflict and assuring Lebanon’s political stability, after giving up on US policy for Syria, debkafile’s Gulf sources report. Monday, May 13, the Saudi and Iranian foreign ministers got together in Jeddah.

Israel insists its  air force attacks on Syria targeted Hizballah and its Iranian weapons shipments. This does not cover explain the targeting Sunday, May 5, of Mt. Qassioun, moving Assad to threaten a war of attrition. The US plans to follow the Israeli operation with arms supplies for Syrian rebels and US air strikes.