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.

The big news on Syria this week is the surreptitious pact forged in Beirut by Russia’s visiting deputy foreign minister Mikhail Bogdanov witgh Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah which covers their collaboration in the war for keeping Bashar Assad in power and guarantees Hizballah a Russian shield against a potential Israeli ...

The thousands of Israeli military reservists rushed to the Syrian and Lebanese borders this week were told they would take part in a drill starting next Sunday. In fact, they opened up the border outposts and other facilities which had been shuttered for years and reactivated them as backing for ...

As Obama ponders his options on Syria and is increasingly abandoned by allies, Putin pushes supplies of heavy weapons to the Syrian army, along with high-class intelligence for Assad and his high command and a cooperation deal with Hizballah.

The Israeli reserves call-up for the Syrian and Lebanese borders will continue until the end of the week, ready for a "military maneuver" next Sunday, May 5, debkafile reports.
 

President Barack Obama faced a tough decision Friday, April 26, after warning that Bashar Assad’s use of chemical weapons would be “game changer.” His failure to take firm action would render the US president’s red lines meaningless. Israel is concerned by the application of this loss of credibility to a nuclear Iran.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s Middle East trip was supposed to present the $10 billion US arms sales to Israel, Saudi Arabia and the UAE as a signal for deterring a nuclear Iran. The Boston bombings shifted the onus of his trip to Syria and al Qaeda. Russian cooperation was a vital source of intelligence for nabbing the two bombers, Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Friday, April 19. Russian President Vladimir Putin will almost certainly claim his quid pro quo in Syrian currency.

Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal sat down with President Obama two days after the Boston bombings to discuss how to take the heat off the Saudi connection and possible deport the bombers.

Although Obama has approved the deployment of 200 US troops to Jordan, no one knows whether he will order enough military strength to save King Abdullah if his kingdom comes under Syrian attack.

Israel’s leaders are again talking about a unilateral strike on Iran after discovering that contrary to US reports, its nuclear program has picked up speed and after watching the tame US handling of the Korean crisis.

US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel announced Wednesday, April 17, that 200 troops of the US 1st Armored Division had been sent to Jordan to give the United States the ability to "potentially form a joint task force [with Jordan] for military operations, if ordered" by the President.  debkafile’s military sources report that they are ranged on the Jordanian-Syrian border to counter a potential Syrian attack. In a potential war between Syria and Jordan backed by US troops, Israel would almost certainly become involved.

FBI Special Agent Richard Deslauriers told reporters Tuesday, April 16, that the probe had no leads 18 hours after two explosions blew up at the annual Boston Marathon’s finishing line, killing three people and injuring 176 – 17 critically. debkafile discloses that suspicion has fallen on a terror cell of three Saudi nationals, very possibly tied to Al Qaeda in Arabia, who shared an apartment outside Boston. Two are in police hands – one of them with badly burned hands in hospital – a third is on the run.

The FBI is investigating the two explosions at the elite Boston Marathon Monday, April 15, as a “potential” act of terror. The casualty toll rose to three dead and 140 runners and spectators injured – 11 of them in critical condition after many lost limbs. President Obama, said: “We don’t know what happened, but we will find out and the perpetrators will feel the full weight of justice.”  Heightened terrorism alert remains in Boston, Washington and New York. Boston-New York air links were suspended.

Amid detailed coverage of Korean crisis through North Korean and American moves, important Chinese and Russian military movements are ignored. Moscow and China are unlikely to bring Kim Jong-Un to heel until Washington agrees to link the Korean case to its disputed policies on Iran and Syria.