Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad, aged 33, will be the youngest ruler in the Persian Gulf. He will have to juggle between the tiny emirate’s relations with Washington, Tehran and the Muslim Brotherhood, with several powerful weapons to hand, including al Jazeera TV.

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 UN rejected President Vladimir Putin’s offer Friday, June 7 of Russian peacekeepers to replace the Austrian contingent to be withdrawn from the Golan. debkafile: Putin saw an opportunity to place Russian troops face to face with the Israeli army as a barrier against anti-Assad military intervention from Israel. 

The widening military intervention by Russia, Iran, Hizballah and latterly Iraq has turned Syria’s civil war into a Russian-West contest and is propelling Iran up to the top regional power spot. All four are winning by default against an unresisting US-led West and Israel.

Russia has claimed it has penetrated the US missile shield and it no longer poses a military threat to Moscow. If this is true, Israel and the Gulf emirates are exposed to Iranian ballistic missiles unless because their early warning systems are integrated in the US network.

Under the plan, which Barack Obama has approved, Israeli military and intelligence officers will establish, arm, fund and train local militias to police the two enclaves under their command

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.

Korean tensions again shot up Tuesday, April 9, with Pyongyang’s warning of a ballistic missile launch Wednesday at the Pacific and advice to foreigners to leave the South in case of war. In Tehran, the president unveiled two additional uranium-processing facilities at the central town of Ardakan, 120 km from large uranium mines in Saghand. Iran now threatens to quit the Non-Proliferation Treaty and so, debkafile reports, carry on developing nuclear weapons away from international oversight like its North Korean partner.

As Israeli offshore gas came on stream, the jockeying for a stake was in full spate. Netanyahu is believed to have been hustled by Washington into picking Turkey as Israel’s energy partner rather than Russia.

Iran and Russian step up their cooperation for boosting Assad’s army with continuous airlifts of war materiel, landed close to the war arenas against a prospective Western invasion of Syria. This could bring US and Israeli troops into direct confrontation with Iranian combatants.

After sustaining a succession of setbacks and rejections in the Arab Revolt, Hizballah faces its most agonizing debacle at the hands of its sworn enemies, Israel and the United States, if they go ahead with an operation against Assad’s chemical weapons.

Moscow talks delayed as Assad holds out for victory in the coming chemical war. The rebels are meanwhile receiving financial aid for buying arms from US and Russia alike.

The Syrian and Israeli armies have been on a high state of preparedness for two months ready a) for Assad to pay Israel back for its attack and b) for Israel to strike weapons transfers to Hizballah in Lebanon. Israel meanwhile imposes no-fly zones over three Syrian borders.

Turkish interior minister Moammer Guler identified the suicide bomber who detonated an explosive Friday, Feb. 1 at the US embassy in Ankara, killing a Turkish security guard, as Ecevit Sanli, 31, a member of the Revolutionary People’s Liberation Party/Front (DHKP/C), an outlawed left-wing terrorist group.  He was released from Turkish jail eight months ago. debkafile: The DHKP/C, which is associated with Lebanese terrorist groups and Syrian left-wing factions, was suspected of the attack killing five Israeli tourists in Burgas, Bulgaria last July.

The Israeli air strike on a military site near Damascus announced by Syria Wednesday, Jan. 30, was strongly condemned by Moscow as “blatantly violating the UN Charter and unacceptable, no matter the motives to justify it.“ debkafile: High military alerts declared across the region including Syrian Golan units, the Turkish, Jordanian, Lebanese and Israeli armies, US units in Turkey and Jordan and Russian warships off Syria. Western intelligence agencies predict more military action between Israel, Syria, Hizballah and possibly Iran.

The Al Qaeda group which seized hostages from 10 nations at the remote Algerian gas field in In Aminas Wednesday, Jan. 16, has addressed its first demand to the United States: The release of two American hostages for two high-profile Islamist terrorists jailed in the US: Egyptian Omar Abdel-Rahman, the Blind Sheikh convicted of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and Pakistani-American neuroscientist Aafia Siddiqui, convicted for trying to kill US troops and FBI agents in Afghanistan in 2009. Algerian forces still battle terrorists holed up with hostages..

It was the first time in military history that any army had used the state-of-the art Airborne Radar Platform for repulsing a concerted enemy missile attack. Israel unveiled its Regional Airborne Radar Platform C2 in the Gaza operation to show its mettle against a blanket of Hamas missiles. It ...

The Al Qods Brigades Chief Gen. Qassem Soleimani beat the US to the draw in Cairo. He arrived in the last week of December and discussed with President Mohamed Morsi’s top advisers how his organization could help the Muslim Brotherhood build their own militia-cum-secret service.

“Syria’s chemical weapons are under control for now, but no one can tell what the situation will be five minutes from now,” a senior Israeli defense official told debkafile Tuesday, Jan.8. “The situation is dangerously fluid because there is no certainty about who is in control at any moment.” In late November, Israel sent the US satellite imagery showing a secret Syrian unit mixing sarin and filling 500-pound bombs for airplanes. debkafile: Those bombs are still active and ready for use at two hours' notice.

The evidence is piling up that the US, Russia, the European Union and even China are luring al Qaeda and affiliated jihadists to Syria to vent their trouble-making capabilities on its killing fields in the hope that they will not return.