Prepare Now for the Coming Middle East War

[American Patriot]

Hundreds die: Pentagon secret war game runs Israeli strike on Iran

http://www.rt.com/news/israel-iran-war-exercise-990/




Published: 20 March, 2012, 16:48
Edited: 20 March, 2012, 21:29




An F/A-18F fighter jet launches off the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis during maneuvers. (Reuters / U.S. Navy/Benjamin Crossley / Handout)


An Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear sites may quickly spiral out of control and result in a large regional war, a Pentagon war game predicts.



American casualties would be counted in hundreds at least.


The two-week game held by Central Command called Internal Look played on a scenario in which Israel carried out an air strike on Iranian facilities.



In retaliation Iran strikes both the Jewish state and the American forces in the region. Game results were classified, but according to leaked details Iran managed to sink at least one American warship in the Persian Gulf, killing 200 crew, reports The New York Times. Separate strikes by Israel and the US managed to delay Iran’s nuclear program by just three years.

The simulated conflict escalated into a wider regional war, demonstrating that a possible attack on Iran would likely have uncontrollable consequences. The result has allegedly raised concern among US military and civilian officials who are skeptical of Israel’s ability to deal a serious blow to Iran’s nuclear facilities.


US officials stressed that the exercise was not a rehearsal for American military action. It was rather aimed at testing internal coordination between the Pentagon and various staff in the Gulf region. The simulation also assumed a single scenario, and results of a real conflict may differ, the military said.

The exercise has been held since the Cold War era, when US troops drilled a Soviet offensive in the Middle East. Internal Look was also used to test America’s readiness for the coming invasion of Iraq.

[vector7]

American fighter F-22 Raptor at just 350 kilometer stretch from Iran

04/29/2012 02:17.
20 comments

Secretly transferred to Al Dhafra air base in the United Arab Emirates



* Move 'a number' of combat aircraft in the UAE immediately began to be associated with a possible attack by the US-Israeli attack on Iran

* F-22 manufacturer, Lockheed Martin company, claims that the F-22 aircraft ready for action against the targets contained in a well protected area, such as Iran or North Korea

* The project is worth 80 billion dollars (so much has been invested in the Raptor) failed because most of these supersavremenih aircraft - due to problems with the supply of oxygen to the burner - fell, a few pilots and died

* High maneuver the aircraft reached the possibility of effective integration of the aerodynamic configuration with the use of a very powerful engine, so the quality scale gained weight and thrust. Apparently the scale of the weight and thrust is 25 to 30 percent better than the Eurofighter Typhoon fighter

* F-22 Raptor for the defense and the attack has air-air missiles: two infrared-guided missiles AIM-9H (range approximately 15 km) and six radar guided missiles AIM-120C AMRAAM range of about 50 km

* Special opsnost F-22 for the Russian digital VHF radars, which are the death of stealth aircraft because they allow their monitoring over long distances and accuracy in determining the target

The American magazine "Aviješen vik" published information that the U.S. air base at Al Dhafra in the UAE transferred a number of fighters F-22 Raptor.

This is, of course, immediately began to be associated with a possible attack by the US-Israeli attack on Iran, which is the base located only 350 kilometers.

This, according to the same magazine, not the first time that this type of G-22 found in the Al Dhafra base after it spent three years ago.

U.S. conceal the reason for transfer, and a number of aircraft that were sent to the UAE. Portpraol U.S. Navy Aviation, John Dorian, only a scant U.S. media said that the transfer of `early 'planned activities.

The media is more interested in `case` Al Dhafra as a project worth 80 billion dollars invested in Raptor failed, because most of these aircraft - due to problems with the supply of oxygen to the burner - dropped a couple of pilots was killed.

Although operating for seven years, Raptori did not participate in any intervention, even in Libya, where international experts expect their involvement, as Libya to Western armaments industry had become a `showcase 'polygon.

F-22 manufacturer, Lockheed Martin company, claims that the F-22 aircraft ready for action against the targets contained in a well protected area, such as Iran or North Korea.



Al Dhafra

Because of news topics, the order is to introduce this technological marvel that has wasted $ 80 billion, although the Raptor production halt.

Lockheed Martin / Boeing F-22 Raptor, despite its many faults is one of the most advanced fighters 21st century part of the U.S. Air Force.

The idea of ​​planes labeled ATF, which was later called the F-22, implemented in 1981. the last century, when the military-political and geo-strategic position in the world were very different.

It was a period of constant tension between the U.S. and the Soviet Union and the incredible arms race. In the then Soviet Union appeared fighter aircraft MiG-29 and Su-27 tactical bomber Tu-22M and possibly add Frontovski Su-24, a protivazdušna defense of the USSR began to introduce modern anti-aircraft weapons.

At the same time the Americans began to introduce the use of a multi-purpose fighter aircraft F-15, which should be ready to provide the resistance range of Soviet fighters. They soon, however, appeared requirements for the modernization of combat aircraft in the future. That is why the project is running ATF advanced combat fighter aircraft, which will be the early 21st century to replace fighters F-15.

New hunter immediately set a series of requirements that must be met: very low radar, visual, thermal and acoustic reflection, the possibility of super cruise (must exceed the speed of sound without the involvement of additional combustion chamber); excellent maneuvering characteristics (as in the subsonic, and supersonic speeds), a large range and use a wide range of the latest weapons.

In the competition for the project included the ATF were two teams: Lockheed Martin / Boeing F with the project-22 and Northop / McDonell Douglas F with the project-23. Both teams are the 1985th received substantial funding to build two prototypes that. technology demonstrator and YF-22 YF-23.

The first comparative study of both aircraft carried out in 1990. , and Already in 1991. was decided on the winner of the new USAF fighter. It was the F-22 Company Lockheed Martin / Boeing, whose first portotip YF-22 took off 7th September 1997. year.

The end of the Cold War and the loss of ideological opponents have led to difficulties with the military budget, and the change of potential risks to the security of the United States. Many critics, fascinated by the new situation, they believed that the F-22 is unnecessary, and that the existing F-15 fighter can successfully accomplishes all planned tasks, and that there is no need to spend money on something new. It was decided to shift money into modernization `fifteenth '.



The Pentagon is starting narudžbnu of 648 aircraft reduced to 227, in 2006. years this figure is only samnjena 181 aircraft. USAF uproks is considered that the cuts they need for operational use 381 aircraft, in order to maintain supremacy in aviation over all adversaries.

The turning point for the new fighter created al-Qaeda attack on New York 2,001th The entry of the United States in the war against terrorism. At the Pentagon suddenly found the money for projects of high technology, so suddenly the future F-22 was much more evident.

Final tests were hastily completed and the first examples of F-22 met in operational use since 2003, and received the first aircraft 325th fighter regiment based at Tindal in Florida in which was conducted training pilots and technical staff. A number of aircraft based at the ending Nelis for research and training in the use of these tactics, combat fighter aircraft.

The United States since 2007. The Raptor prenaoružale with three eksdrona with the first 24 aircraft fighter regiment based in based in Langley, Virginia.

Description Raptor:

Aerodynamics of the F-22 is a classic concept with conventional wing and tail surfaces. In front of the aircraft are located cockpit, engines and air intakes and the rear of the tail stabilizer. Under the fuselage there is a space for storing weapons.

All parts of the aircraft shall mean the harmonious whole made up of slopes with no sharp surfaces and gaps that could give an unfavorable radar. Delta wings with flaps at the ends, which enables high efficiency of aircraft operations at low speeds. A large spreading of the wings further reduces glare engine, a built-in stabilizers direction sensors provide low radar. They are positioned vertically, and large areas are used for data collection purposes and to maintain communication.

Demanding high maneuvering capabilities of aircraft reached the integration of effective aerodynamic configuration with the use of a very powerful engine, so the quality scale gained weight and thrust. Apparently the scale of the weight and thrust is 25 to 30 percent better than the Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jet.

The plane was made of polycarbonate, titanium, aluminum and composite materials, and to reduce radar and infrared reflection absorption covered with special material.



Predator with Pratt and Whitney F119-P & W-100

The Raptor are the largest so far built two turbofan engines Pratt and Whitney F119-P & W-100 of the 156 kN with afterburning. When compared with its thrust Motorised F100-P & W-200, which is installed on F-15 - he is a hundred percent more powerful without additional combustion and 50 percent more powerful application of an additional combustion. What makes this different from other engine aircraft engines in use, and speed is the replacement for the old motor-trained technicians can replace new for 20 minutes.

During the growth engine is not everything went smoothly because of the rivalry of two manufacturers Pratt and Whitney and General Electric, but he was first elected to the manufacturer. Initially, the development of engines, a couple of problems. For example, the turbine had to be modified due to high vibration.

Fan and compressor discs are made of one piece, with which to avoid duplication of air flow, which indirectly reduced the power of the engine. Compressor blades are slim and mobokristalne turbine has blades that are double-covered and very solid.

With such powerful engines, F-22 can cruise at about Mach 1.5 without additional combustion and enters the maneuver Simultaneously with optrećenjem of 9 G.

Izduvnici sanbdeveni engines are two-dimensional device for changing the thrust vector.

Heart multipurpose aircraft avionics

F-22 Raptor fighter jets, among other distinguished `integration` pilot and aircraft.

Cockpit was conceived as a 'job', where the integrated electronic systems do not burden the pilots and thus increase the efficiency of pilot-aircraft links. The integrated avionics sensor operates over a certain limit the physical abilities of pilots.

The pilot has the option to request specific information, their quantity and order number, a system has the task of the information in the shortest time give to the pilot.

The system has the ability to himself, without pilot intervention, self-assessment of the tactical situation in the air, and propose the most optimal use of weapons.

Integrated electronics is fully automatic via sensors and six LCD cursor to the liquid crystal. All data is transmitted through fiber optic cable and are connected to the computer technology and high reliability.



Avionics system is integrated in the JIAWG (Joint Intergrated Avionics Working Group), which is compatible with other systems used on other planes and helicopters, as well as shut down the project RAH 66 Comanche. NNS system allows data processing in real-time identification of aircraft and display the overall tactical situation.

JIAWG system consists of three subsystems: a multifunctional radar AN/APG-77, the most modern type and a small radar reflection, which allows the pilot the use of arms before the opponent observe the system for conducting the war that the electron sastaljen of the radar receiver aircraft operations and air missile detector air-and ground-to-air and komunikacijko / identifiable / navigation system, which includes information about the aircraft, tactical aircraft and the position detector for sensing a-strange.

The control signals of all active and passive sensors, the system performs Emson, and for aircraft flight control system was installed VMS, which operates 14 aircraft-surface horizontal tail surfaces, tillers direction on both the vertical tail, wing flaps, wings and slats.


Combat arms

F-22 Raptor for the defense and the attack has air-air missiles: two infrared-guided missiles AIM-9H (entered into weapons 2011th and in conjunction with sight-navigation system mounted on a flight helmet, which is capable of lateral engagements (range about 15 km) and six radar guided missiles AIM-120C AMRAAM range of about 50 km. Otherwise, all air-to-air missiles are located inside the fuselage.

Bomber weapons this aircraft is very sparse and consists primarily of two air bombs GBU-31, 32 JADAM.

"Faux century"

In mid-March, the flight carried a copy of the last F-22 Raptor, and five copies of which are in the final review stage will enter the U.S. Air Force weapons by the end of May 2012th year.

Interestingly, the American aviation experts believe F-22 `failure` century for several reasons: too expensive production, a small series of ordered aircraft, pilot training is reduced, likely shooting targets on the rigged exercise that no one can confirm it will actually happen, Features stealth F-22 as just another myth because as soon as the aircraft included radar - becomes visible due to the large number of cracks and gaps that increase radar reflection (usinici air, for example.).

As a special opsnost alleged Russian digital VHF radars, which are the death of stealth aircraft because they allow their monitoring over long distances and accuracy in determining the target.

A.M.

[vector7]

2012-06-26
War Clouds over the Greater Middle East

Just as he has lost control to Israel of U.S. foreign policy when it comes to Iran, so Obama has collapsed in front of the Greater Israel ambitions of Israel’s Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, argues Patrick Seale.

Middle East Online

Six conflict-zones of the Greater Middle East are in danger of erupting into fresh violence. In all six, the United States and its allies seem unable -- or perversely unwilling -- to contribute to a peaceful solution. Instead, in each case, they are adding fuel to the fire.

When President Barack Obama assumed office on January 20, 2009, he had a chance to put an end to America’s 30-year estrangement with Iran. There was even talk of a grand bargain which would have resolved fears about Iran’s nuclear programme and stabilised the Gulf by recognising Iran’s legitimate place and role in it. There was also a chance that U.S. engagement with Iran would calm Sunni-Shi‘i tensions across the region brought to boiling point by the Iraq war.

These hopes have proved vain. Instead, the United States has chosen to wage an undeclared war on Iran. It is crippling its economy by means of sanctions and has joined with Israel in subverting its nuclear and oil installations with cyber-attacks.

Moreover, in this year’s three rounds of talks between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany (the so-called P5+1), the United States has refused to compromise. A deal was on offer whereby Iran would give up enriching uranium to 20% in exchange for an easing of sanctions and a recognition of its right under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to master the nuclear fuel cycle for peaceful purposes. Instead, the United States has hardened its position by embracing Israel’s demand that Iran be forced, by means of further sanctions and military threats, to suspend all enrichment.

In piling on the pressure, the real goal of the United States and its Israeli ally would seem to be regime-change in Tehran, rather than putting an end by negotiation to Iran’s so far non-existent nuclear weapons programme. Israel’s friends in the U.S. Congress are already pressing the Obama administration to suspend the talks with Iran and resort instead to military measures. Just as Israel’s friends in George W. Bush’s administration pushed the United States into destroying Iraq, so the aim now would seem to be to push the U.S. into destroying Iran. Needless to say, if Iran is pressed too hard, the danger of a hot war breaking out is ever present.

The United States has also entered the fray in Syria, where the beleaguered Asad regime is facing a widespread urban guerrilla war together with terrorist attacks -- suicide bombings, assassinations, destruction of public buildings -- in large cities, including Damascus. All the major U.S. media – Fox News, Time, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Christian Science Monitor, the Wall Street Journal – have reported that CIA officers in southern Turkey are ‘coordinating’ arms shipments from Saudi Arabia and Qatar to the Syrian rebels, especially, it would appear, to armed Islamic groups. Needless to say, arming the opposition is undercutting Kofi Annan’s peace plan for Syria.

It is Russia rather than the United States that is calling most urgently for a negotiated settlement of the crisis. In the Huffington Post of June 21, Russia’s foreign minister Sergei Lavrov wrote: “We need to bring all the weight to bear on both the regime and the opposition and make them cease fighting and meet at the negotiating table.” He called for the convening of “an international conference of the states directly involved in the Syrian crisis....

Only in this way can we keep the Middle East from sliding into the abyss of wars and anarchy.” Lavrov rightly sees the assault on Syria as “an element of a larger regional geopolitical game.” Indeed, instead of joining Russia in pressing for an evolutionary transition of power in Syria, the United States has adopted as its own the Israeli ambition of bringing down the whole so-called “resistance axis” of Iran, Syria and Hizballah, which has dared make a dent in Israel’s regional hegemony.

Campaigning for re-election and under intense pressure from the Israeli lobby and from a pro-Israeli Congress, Obama is silent when it comes to Israel’s continuing land grab on the West Bank and the unpunished violence of fanatical settlers against helpless Palestinians. Just as he has lost control to Israel of U.S. foreign policy when it comes to Iran, so Obama has collapsed in front of the Greater Israel ambitions of Israel’s Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu.

Some commentators are already predicting the outbreak of a third intifada. Palestinian frustrations are very great. They know that Israel will not grant them a state unless it is forced to do so. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, has protected Israel from Palestinian militants but has received absolutely nothing in return. His Hamas rivals in Gaza have, for their part, been greatly encouraged by the election to the Egyptian presidency of Muhammad Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood. The coming phase could be very bloody.

The fourth, fifth and sixth conflict-zones in the Greater Middle East are in Afghanistan/Pakistan, Yemen, and increasingly in the Sahel, where NATO’s violent overthrow of Muammar Gathafi has had the unforeseen consequence of spreading mayhem in Mali, Niger and other countries bordering the Sahara. Hungry violent men, once recruited as mercenaries by Gathafi, have now returned home with their weapons. In Mali, the northern half of the country has fallen to a Touareg rebellion stiffened by armed Islamist groups close to al-Qaida. Algeria and all the West African states are deeply concerned by these developments but do not quite know what to do about them. It will no doubt not be long before U.S. drones carry out targeted assassinations in the region.

In Afghanistan, Pakistan and Yemen, long-distance killings by U.S. drones have become the instruments of choice in America’s counter-terrorist operations, to the rage of local populations and the loss of legitimacy of their leaders. In American thinking, drones and cyberwarfare are now a substitute for large-scale military operations -- and also a substitute for negotiations and the peaceful resolution of conflicts.

In Pakistan, a Taleban commander has banned polio vaccinations in the tribal belt of North Waziristan until the CIA halts its drone campaign. This is because a CIA agent, Dr. Shakil Afridi, ran a vaccination campaign in Abbottabad, which helped lead the United States to Osama Bin Laden’s hiding place in that city, and his subsequent killing by U.S. Special forces in May last year. Dr Afridi has been convicted by a tribal court in Pakistan to 33 years in prison.

American practices of doubtful legality have provoked a despairing cry from former President Jimmy Carter who, in an article in the International Herald Tribune of 25 June, declared: “As concerned citizens, we must persuade Washington to reverse course and regain moral leadership according to international human rights norms that we had officially adopted as our own and cherished throughout the years.” Is Obama listening? Or is he thinking only of his re-election?

[vector7]

Saudi readies oil line to counter Iran Hormuz threat




Related News

• Oil steady as U.S. storm fears ease, eyes on EuropeMon, Jun 25 2012
• Japan, China to import Iran oil after EU banWed, Jun 20 2012
• Brent crude dips as Iran, West plan July talksTue, Jun 19 2012
• Oil falls on euro zone worry, fading stimulus hopeMon, Jun 18 2012
• Prince Salman named Saudi heir at time of turmoilMon, Jun 18 2012

By Amena Bakr and Daniel Fineren
DUBAI | Thu Jun 28, 2012 3:37pm EDT

(Reuters) - Saudi Arabia has reopened an old oil pipeline built by Iraq to bypass Gulf shipping lanes, giving Riyadh scope to export more of its crude from Red Sea terminals should Iran try to block the Strait of Hormuz, industry sources told Reuters.


Riyadh took the step as international pressure grows on Iran to curb a nuclear program that Western powers say has a covert military purpose. A European Union embargo on buying Iranian oil takes full effect on Sunday, cutting Tehran's income.

With the sanctions regime tightening on Iran, grains traders said its attempts to secure millions of metric tons (1.1023 tons) of wheat through barter deals with India and Pakistan are failing, and Tehran is about to pay premium prices on international markets to secure food supplies and stave off popular unrest.

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili warned world powers on Thursday against adopting "unconstructive measures" that harm talks, state television reported. "Those who replace logic in talks with illegitimate tools are responsible for harming the constructive trend of talks," Jalili wrote to EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.

The effects of tensions have been diverse, with Saudi Arabia's decision to widen its export routes the latest evidence of states in the region preparing for difficulties.

The Iraqi Pipeline in Saudi Arabia (IPSA), laid across the kingdom in the 1980s after oil tankers were attacked in the Gulf by both sides during the Iran-Iraq war, has not carried Iraqi crude since Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990.

Saudi Arabia confiscated the pipeline in 2001 as compensation for debts owed by Baghdad and has used it to transport gas to power plants in the west of the country in the last few years.

Iran threatened in January to block the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for U.S. and European sanctions that target its oil revenues in an attempt to stop the nuclear program.

An EU ban on Iranian oil starts on Sunday and Israel has threatened military action against the country's nuclear facilities if talks with Western powers fail to stop uranium enrichment.

Alarmed, Saudi Arabia has now quietly reconditioned IPSA to carry crude, test pumping along the line over the last four to five months, several sources with knowledge of the project say.

"The testing started because Saudi Arabia wanted to secure alternative routes to export oil," an industry source in Saudi Arabia said.

Western industry sources said the tests through the 1.65-million barrel-a-day line had delivered into storage facilities at Mu'ajjiz near Yanbu on the Red Sea for at least four months.

More than a third of the world's seaborne oil exports pass through the narrow Strait of Hormuz from the oilfields of Saudi Arabia, Iran, Kuwait, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Qatar's liquefied natural gas exports are all shipped through Hormuz.

PETROLINE

Worried about its reliance on Gulf shipping, Saudi Arabia increased its capacity in 1992 to pump oil from fields predominantly clustered in the east across the country to the Red Sea. Capacity rose to about 5 million barrels a day through two parallel pipelines known as the Petroline.

Saudi crude exports run as high as 8 million bpd but rising demand for its crude in Asia, shipped out of the Gulf, and falling demand from Europe, usually sourced from Red Sea ports, meant Petroline's pumping capacity was never fully used.

The smaller Petroline pipeline was converted to carry natural gas from the east to booming industrial centers in the west a few years ago, slashing Saudi's east-west crude transport capacity to Red Sea ports.

Saudi Red Sea industries are now reliant on gas fed from fields over 1,000 km away and the prospect of cutting them off to export crude through Petroline during a Gulf shipping blockade is not an attractive option.

Until recently the Saudi government had considered the risk of such a disruption in the Gulf too small and its western gas needs too great to switch Petroline fully back to oil. But as tensions over Iran's nuclear program rose, it decided to put IPSA on standby to transport more crude west in an emergency.

The United Arab Emirates has built its own Hormuz bypass pipeline, which is due to start exporting from the Gulf of Oman next month.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^>

With its oil income crimped by embargoes and its ability to import essential products curtailed by sanctions targeting its banking system, Iran had turned to India and Pakistan for wheat to meet some of its needs, but grain traders say talks with both Delhi and Islamabad are deadlocked.

Food is not targeted under Western sanctions aimed at deterring Iran's nuclear program, but in recent months it has paid high prices for grain to work around a freeze on financial transactions due to the measures.

"There is great doubt in the market about whether the Indian deal will happen. They are never going to get the phyto-sanitary standards worked out," a European grains trader said. "The Indian wheat cannot reach the standards the Iranians traditionally demand."

As Iran's second-biggest crude client, India hoped to reassure Tehran on quality and secure wheat sales to help settle part of its $10 billion a year-plus oil import bill through a barter-style mechanism using rupees.

India said last week it can export up to 3 million metric tons of wheat if supplies are requested.

In Washington, sources said the Obama administration is expected to extend exceptions on Iran financial sanctions to China and Singapore, perhaps as early as Thursday.

"There should be an announcement today," on China - Iran's top buyer of crude - and on Singapore which buys fuel oil from the OPEC member, said one of the sources who works in the U.S. government. Earlier this month the administration granted exceptions to India and six other economies.

Japan and 10 EU countries got the exceptions in March.

Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qasemi warned South Korea on Thursday that Tehran would reconsider ties with Seoul if the country stopped importing oil from Iran, the official IRNA news agency reported.

South Korea announced on Monday it would halt imports of Iranian crude from July 1 due to an EU ban on insuring tankers carrying Iranian oil, becoming the first major Asian consumer of Iranian crude to announce suspension of crude imports.

[samizdat]

oil up, stocks up

Saudis forces mass on Jordanian, Iraqi borders. Turkey, Syria reinforce strength
DEBKAfile Special Report June 29, 2012, 11:02 AM (GMT+02:00) Tags: Syria Saudi army Turkey military operation Hillary Clinton Sergey Lavrov Bashar Assad

Turkey deploys anti-aircraft guns
The Syrian crisis was Friday, June 29, on a knife edge between a Western-Arab-Turkish military offensive in the next 48 hours and a big power accord to ward it off.
DEBKAfile’s military sources report heavy Saudi troop movements toward the Jordanian and Iraqi borders Thursday overnight and up until Friday morning, June 29, after King Abdullah put the Saudi military on high alert for joining an anti-Assad offensive in Syria. The Saudi units are poised with tanks, missiles, special forces and anti-air batteries to enter Jordan in two heads:
One will safeguard Jordan's King Abdullah against potential Syrian or Iranian reprisals from Syria or Iraq.
The second will cut north through Jordan to enter southeastern Syriam, where a security zone will be established around the towns of Deraa, Deir al-Zour and Abu Kemal – all centers of the anti-Assad rebellion. The region is also the home terrain of the Shammar tribe, brethren of the Shammars of the Saudi Nejd province.
The Saudi units deployed on the Iraqi border are there to defend the kingdom against potential incursions by Iraqi Shiite militias crossing into the kingdom for reprisals. The Iraqi militias are well trained and armed and serve under officers of the Iranian Al-Qods Brigades, the Revolutionary Guards’ external arm.
Western Gulf sources report that Jordan too is on war alert.
Following the downing of a Turkish plane by Syria a week ago, Turkey continues to build up its Syrian border units with anti-aircraft guns, tanks and missiles towed by long convoys of trucks.
A Free Syria Army officer, Gen. Mustafa al-Sheikh, reported Friday that 170 Syrian army tanks of the 17th Mechanized Division were massed near the village of Musalmieh northeast of Aleppo, 30 km from the Turkish border. He said they stood ready to attack any Turkish forces crossing into Syria.
As these war preparations advanced, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in St. Petersburg Friday for crucial talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. They meet the day before the new UN-sponsored Action Group convenes in Geneva to discuss UN-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan’s latest transition proposal for Syria. He hopes for a political settlement that will ward off military intervention.
Invited to the meeting are the five veto-wielding UN Security Council members plus Turkey and Arab League envoys from Qatar, Kuwait and Iraq.
Annan proposes forming a transitional national unity government in Damascus that includes the opposition and excludes unacceptable regime members.
It was widely reported Thursday that Russia had agreed to this formula, even though it entailed evicting Bashar Assad from power. However, Lavrov stepped in to correct the record, stressing in reference to the Annan proposal that Moscow would not lend its support to “any outside interference or imposition of recipes in Syria.”
This position is doubly aimed at the intensive military movements afoot around Syria.
Clinton and Lavrov are therefore expected to go at the Syrian issue hammer and tongs. The outcome of their meeting will not only determine the course of the Action Group’s discussions but, more importantly, whether the Western-Arab-Turkish alliance goes forward with its military operation against Syria.
US-Russian concurrence on a plan for Assad’s removal could avert the operation. The failure of their talks would spell a worsening of the Syrian crisis and precipitate Western-Arab military intervention, which according to military sources in the Gulf is scheduled for launch Saturday, June 30.

couldn't find a US comment: only RT and south of border news...

http://www.rt.com/news/clinton-lavrov-syria-talks-103/

[American Patriot]

The media is keeping this crisis pretty quiet it seems.

Most Americans don't have a clue what is coming down the road at them.

Too bad, I love America. I hate to see it a smoldering ruin after the nukes start flying.

[American Patriot]

Report: Iran to fire missiles during military drills

By the CNN Wire Staff
updated 4:58 PM EDT, Sun July 1, 2012

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• The "war games" are expected to begin Monday, the Mehr News Agency reports
• The missiles will target bases made to look like airbases of "extra-regional powers," it says
• The announcement comes the same day an EU oil embargo takes effect

(CNN) -- Iran will test-fire missiles during "war games" planned this week, the semiofficial Mehr News Agency reported Sunday.
The three-day exercise, expected to begin Monday, will target desert bases made to look like airbases of "extra-regional powers," the agency said.
"During the war games, long-range, medium-range, and short-range missiles will be used and will be fired from different points across the country at 100 designated targets," Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh told reporters, according to Mehr.
The point of the exercises, he said, is to give experts the chance to assess the "precision and efficiency of warheads and missile systems," the agency reported.
The announcement came the same day that an embargo of Iranian oil from the European Union takes effect. The full embargo and other sanctions are meant to pressure Iran into giving up its nuclear program. Some 80% of Iran's foreign revenues are derived from oil exports,
Iran has repeatedly insisted that its nuclear program is for peaceful, civilian energy purposes only. But it has rebuffed demands to halt its production of enriched uranium, and a November 8 report by the United Nations' nuclear watchdog found "credible" information that Tehran has carried out work toward nuclear weapons -- including tests of possible bomb components.

[vector7]

Obama said he was going to retire the tomahawk cruise missiles.

Even after Libya he said he wasn't going to replace the 162 fired on 20 targets. By contrast, 288 Tomahawks were fired in the whole 1991 Gulf War.

Then a couple of weeks ago the Administration commissions 361 new Tomahawk cruise missiles, 238 of them are being moved to the Fifth Fleet, which is based in Bahrain, east of Iran.

The deal may suggest that the U.S. is gearing up soon for a possible military campaign against the Islamic Republic.

According to the articles below...right before the election 2012.

Obama “reconsiders” military attack on Iran

DEBKAfile DEBKA-Net-Weekly June 26, 2012, 10:28 AM (GMT+02:00) Tags: Barack Obama Iran nuclear military option Saudi Arabia


Leon Panetta with Saudi intel chief Prince Moqrin

In the wake of failed diplomacy, US President Barack Obama is in the process of “reconsidering” his decision to hold off on military action against Iran. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta was in Riyadh to sound out Saudi rulers on a combined US-GCC operation.

In its latest issue, out last Friday, DEBKA-Net-Weekly explores the prospects of this operation, along with revelations about President Vladimir Putin’s talk with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. From Jerusalem, Putin issued his “most striking warning to Obama.”

To subscribe to DEBKA-Net-Weekly, click here.

Saudis Preparing for US to Strike Iran in October

DEBKA.

DEBKA-Net-Weekly #547 June 28, 2012


F-22 Raptors

The last ten days have seen a shift in US President Barack Obama’s negative position on military action against Iran’s nuclear program.

Saudi King Abdullah and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu have been informed that Obama is in the process of “reconsideration.” His aides amplified this with a couple of ifs: If the state of nuclear diplomacy between the six world powers and Iran remains unchanged – that is, inert; and if the Syrian crisis remains unresolved, the US president will reach a final decision on the use of force against Iran in the first half of October – three and a half months hence.

In private conversations, high-ranking Saudi princes, some connected to military and intelligence circles, were confiding last week to Western and Arab visitors to Riyadh their certainty that, at last, the US and maybe Israel would soon resort to military action against Iran, according to DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s military and intelligence sources.

“It is already decided,” one prince told a visiting European official. But what if President Obama changed his mind? The prince replied: “Anything can happen, of course. But this time we’re sure the American decision to attack is final and we are already making appropriate preparations. The question now isn’t if the Americans will attack Iran, but when,” he said.

He was less sure about whether the US operation would take place before or after the US presidential election on November 6.

The pipeline bypassing Hormuz is up and running


Saudi preparations, our sources say, are going forward on two tracks (click on the map to enlarge):

1. The defense of government, military and oil targets. These focus on guarding the two main Saudi oil exporting terminals at Ras Tanura on the Persian Gulf coast and Abqaiq on the Red Sea against the contingency of Iranian reprisals for a US attack by missile strikes on the two terminals and raids by Iranian special forces trained in sabotage tactics.

2. A Saudi counterattack on Iranian targets. Their air, naval and special operations units will stand ready to hit back at strategic targets within Iran if Saudi territory comes under Iranian attack.

Strongly tying in with these preparations was the announcement Wednesday, June 27, by Sheikh Hamad bin Mohammad al-Sharqi, ruler of Fujairah that the Habshan-Fujairah pipeline which bypasses the Strait of Hormuz goes into operation this month.

Fujairah is one of the princedoms making up the seven United Arab Emirates. The UAE has built the pipeline to pump most of its oil exports from the east coast terminals to Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman, away from the Strait of Hormuz chokepoint controlled by Tehran.

It has an initial capacity of 1.5mn bpd rising to 1.8mn bpd, which represents the bulk of the UAE’s current production of around 2.5mn bpd, Sheikh Hamad said.

A palpable sense of anticipation was also reported this week by DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s intelligence sources among US ground, naval and air forces stationed in the Middle East.

Iran is too rich to be deterred by new sanctions



The die is cast, the Saudis believe, because US and European oil sanctions, presented by Washington as the ultimate weapon for bringing Iran to heel by choking off funding for its nuclear program, have completely missed their aim. Iran is flush with cash and has plenty put by to keep its nuclear projects rolling forward in the face of international penalties.

Internal US administration reports reveal that the soaring oil prices of recent years were a bonanza that filled Tehran’s pockets.

Even after the recent leveling-out of prices, their revenues still stand at “only” four times the August 2002 volume.

Last August, prior to the latest rounds of sanctions, the International Monetary Fund estimated Iran would earn $104 billion from its oil exports in 2012-2013. That figure is four and-a-half times the Islamic republic’s 2002-2003 receipts of $23 billion.

Even if export volumes were to drop by half and prices plummeted to $50 per barrel, Iran’s inflation-adjusted oil earnings would still be higher than they were a decade ago.

The Saudis conclude that the failure of sanctions has left only one way open to halt Iran’s momentum toward a nuclear bomb and that is a military offensive.

Will a US-Israel maneuver be a launching-pad against Iran?



The impression of an operation’s imminence was also gained by American Jewish leaders during recent visits to the White House. In the last DEBKA-Net-Weekly issue (No. 546 from June 22), we reported that President Obama has been inviting Jewish leaders to visit him in the Oval Office in an effort to stanch the loss of Jewish support and Jewish contributions draining away from his election campaign.

Like the Saudi princes, the Jewish leaders came away with a strong sense that the president had made up his mind to attack Iran.

Israel and the US are set to conduct their largest ever military exercise in October, according to a report published in Israel Monday, June 25, which instantly caught the eye in Tehran and Riyadh.

The maneuver will feature 3,000 American and thousands of Israeli troops, advanced anti-missile defense systems and other measures for countering simultaneous fire from Iran and Syria. The drill will simulate this fire, with tens if not hundreds of rockets and missiles filling the air.

The commander of the 3^rd Air Force, Lt.-Gen. Craig A. Franklin, was in Israel to establish a joint planning committee with IDF to coordinate the details of the exercise.

Israel will test its upgraded Arrow 2 defense system, while the US will deploy the Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense System and PAC-3 Patriot air defense platforms.

The drill is codenamed Dress Rehearsal. The Iranians and Saudis are convinced by the name that the exercise will be the opening shot of the attack on Iran in October.

[American Patriot]

More lying from the White House:

Jerusalem official accuses White House of lying about requested Netanyahu-Obama meeting

Despite US denials, senior official insists the prime minister asked to see Obama on sidelines of UN General Assembly

By Raphael Ahren September 12, 2012, 4:13 pm

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President Barack Obama with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington, DC in March (photo credit: Amos Ben Gershom/GPO/Flash90)

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• Israel-US relations
• Barack Obama
• Benjamin Netanyahu

The Israeli government on Wednesday accused the White House of lying by denying that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had requested to meet US President Barack Obama later this month in the US.
The accusation will likely serve to further escalate diplomatic tensions between the two countries, which have ramped up in recent days.
“We requested a meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York and also suggested that the prime minister could come to Washington,” for a meeting, a senior government official in Jerusalem told the German DPA news agency on Wednesday.
White House spokesman Tommy Vietor had said earlier that no such request was made or rejected.
On Tuesday evening, after reports surfaced claiming Obama refused to meet Netanyahu during his short US trip later this month — reportedly due to a scheduling issue — it seemed like bilateral relations were headed toward a serious crisis.
But later that night, the president called Netanyahu and the two leaders spoke for about an hour, seemingly calming the situation.
According to a statement the White House published after the conversation, Netanyahu and Obama agreed to continue holding “close consultations” regarding the Iranian nuclear program in the future.
Both Jerusalem and Washington fear that Tehran is pursuing nuclear weapons and agree the regime should be prevented from reaching that goal. The two governments differ regarding the means to achieve this, though. While Netanyahu seems to favor a preemptive military strike some time soon, Obama wants to first exhaust diplomacy and sanctions aimed at convincing Iran to give up on its nuclear ambitions.
Earlier on Tuesday, Netanyahu launched an unprecedentedly bitter attack on the US administration, saying that countries that refused to set deadlines for Iran to give up its nuclear program have no right to tell Israel to hold back on taking preemptive military action to thwart the regime’s nuclear ambitions.
“The world tells Israel to wait because there is still time. And I ask: Wait for what? Until when? Those in the international community who refuse to put red lines before Iran don’t have a moral right to place a red light before Israel,” Netanyahu said.
His statement constituted a harsh rebuttal of comments made by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who said on Sunday that the US will currently not set deadlines or give ultimatums regarding Tehran’s refusal to curb its nuclear program.

[Ryan Ruck]

Saudi Arabia Accuses Lebanon Of Declaring War

November 6, 2017

Saudi Arabia on Monday accused Lebanon of declaring war against the monarchy following attacks on the Kingdom by the Lebanese Shi‘ite group Hezbollah.

Saudi Gulf affairs minister Thamer al-Sabhan told Al-Arabiya TV that Saad al-Hariri, who announced his resignation as Lebanon’s prime minister on Saturday, had been told that acts of “aggression” by Hezbollah “were considered acts of a declaration of war against Saudi Arabia by Lebanon and by the Lebanese Party of the Devil."

With tensions rising in the region, the Saudi-led military coalition fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen said Monday it would close all air, land and sea ports to the Arabian Peninsula country to stem the flow of arms to the Houthis from Iran.

The move, which follows the interception of a missile fired toward Riyadh on Saturday, is likely to worsen a humanitarian crisis in Yemen that the UN says has pushed some 7 million people to the brink of famine and left more than half a million infected with cholera.

“The Coalition Forces Command decided to temporarily close all Yemeni air, sea and land ports,” the coalition said in a statement on the Saudi state news agency SPA.

The UN and international aid organizations have repeatedly criticized the coalition for blocking aid access, especially to north Yemen, which is held by the Iran-aligned Houthi rebels battling the Saudi-led coalition.

Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab allies have made clear they view Iran as mainly responsible for the Yemen conflict, in which more than 10,000 people have been killed in the past two years.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said Monday on Twitter that Riyadh reserved the right to respond to what he called Iran’s “hostile actions.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif responded that Saudi Arabia was blaming Tehran for the consequences of its own “wars of aggression.”

The escalating tensions came during a period of upheaval for the US ally.

On Saturday, 11 Saudi princes, including the country’s most prominent businessman, Alwaleed Bin Talal, were arrested on corruption charges.

Four government ministers and dozens of ex-ministers and government officials were also detained.

The moves were supposedly part of an anti-corruption crackdown but were widely seen as a plot by Crown Prince and heir apparent Mohammed Bin Salman to eliminate rivals and consolidate his power, Slate reported.

The country is facing the transition from King Salman to his son, Mohammed bin Salman.

Since the death of the country’s founder, Abdulaziz, in 1953, all of his successors have been much older men who ruled for relatively short reigns.

The crown prince is only 32, and his elevation over more senior and experienced uncles and cousins has caused resentment, according to the website.

But Saudi law states that the king has to be a male heir of Abdulaziz, who had 45 sons by 22 wives.

The arrests are likely a signal that the young future king is not waiting until he inherits the throne to start exercising power.

In a tweet Monday night, President Trump said he has “great confidence in King Salman and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, they know exactly what they are doing . . . Some of those they are harshly treating have been ‘milking’ their country for years!”




Saudi Arabia Charges Iran With ‘Act of War,’ Raising Threat of Military Clash

November 6, 2017

Saudi Arabia charged Monday that a missile fired at its capital from Yemen over the weekend was an “act of war” by Iran, in the sharpest escalation in nearly three decades of mounting hostility between the two regional rivals.

“We see this as an act of war,” the Saudi foreign minister, Adel Jubair, said in an interview on CNN. “Iran cannot lob missiles at Saudi cities and towns and expect us not to take steps.”

The accusation, which Iran denied, came a day after a wave of arrests in Saudi Arabia that appeared to complete the consolidation of power by the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, 32. Taken together, the two actions signaled a new aggressiveness by the prince both at home and abroad, as well as a new and more dangerous stage in the Saudi cold war with Iran for dominance in the region.

“Today confrontation is the name of the game,” said Joseph A. Kechichian, a scholar at the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, who is close to the royal family. “This young man, Prince Mohammed bin Salman, is not willing to roll over and play dead. If you challenge him, he is saying, he is going to respond.”

The accusations raise the threat of a direct military clash between the two regional heavyweights at a time when they are already fighting proxy wars in Yemen and Syria, as well as battles for political power in Iraq and Lebanon. By the end of the day Monday, a Saudi minister was accusing Lebanon of declaring war against Saudi Arabia as well.

Even before the launching of the missile on Saturday, which was intercepted en route to Riyadh, the Saudi capital, the crown prince had staged another surprise demonstration of the kingdom’s newly aggressive posture toward Iran and Lebanon. The prince hosted a visit from Saudi Arabia’s chief Lebanese client, Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who stunned the region by announcing his resignation, via video from Riyadh, in protest against Iran’s undue influence in Lebanese politics.

Even some of Mr. Hariri’s rivals speculated that his Saudi sponsors had pressured him into the statement. Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia, said over the weekend that the Saudis had all but kidnapped Mr. Hariri. Mr. Nasrallah urged Mr. Hariri to return to Lebanon for power-sharing talks “if he is allowed to come back.”


On Monday, Saudi Arabia released a photograph of Mr. Hariri meeting with King Salman that was widely seen as an effort to contradict the theory that the prime minister was effectively a hostage.

The Saudi claims that Iran had provided the missile could not be independently verified.

Mr. Jubair, the foreign minister, said the missile had been smuggled into Yemen in parts, assembled in Yemen by operatives from Hezbollah and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of Iran, and fired from Yemen by Hezbollah.

A statement from the Saudi Arabian news agency said “experts in military technology” had determined from the remains of that missile and one launched in July that both had come from Iran “for the purpose of attacking the kingdom.”

Citing allegations of Hezbollah’s role, Thamer al-Sabhan, minister of state for Persian Gulf affairs, said Monday that Saudi Arabia considered the missile attack an act of war by Lebanon as well.

“We will treat the government of Lebanon as a government declaring a war because of Hezbollah militias,” Mr. Sabhan told the Saudi-controlled Al Arabiya network. “Lebanon is kidnapped by the militias of Hezbollah and behind it is Iran.”

The top commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps in Iran called the accusation of Iranian involvement in the missile attack “baseless.”

“These missiles were produced by the Yemenis and their military industry,” the commander, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, told the semiofficial news agency Tasnim.

Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, accused Saudi Arabia of “wars of aggression, regional bullying, destabilizing behavior & risky provocations,” in a statement on Twitter. Saudi Arabia “bombs Yemen to smithereens, killing 1000’s of innocents including babies, spreads cholera and famine, but of course blames Iran,” Mr. Zarif said.

American officials have previously accused Iran of arming its Yemeni allies, the Houthis. But it was unclear how Saudi experts would know how or why Iran provided the missiles.

With help from allies including the United Arab Emirates and the United States, Saudi Arabia has enforced a sea and air blockade around Yemen since it launched an attack on the Houthi forces there more than two years ago.

In Saudi Arabia, Prince Mohammed’s grip on power tightened further on Monday. American officials tracking the situation said that as many as 500 people, including at least 11 princes, had been rounded up in a wave of arrests directed by Prince Mohammed in the name of a crackdown on corruption.

Some are expected to face undisclosed criminal charges while others may be pressured to testify about their roles in corruption schemes. Men were sleeping on mats on the floor of the lobby of the Ritz-Carlton, which has been transformed into a singularly luxurious prison to house the detainees.

The arrests cemented Prince Mohammed’s dominance over military, foreign, internal security, economic and social affairs inside the kingdom, freeing him to pursue an aggressive confrontation with Iran. That posture has been a hallmark of his rise over the two and a half years since his father, King Salman, 81, took the throne.

Prince Mohammed has sharply escalated a cold war with Iran, stepping up Saudi Arabia’s efforts to push back Iranian influence in the Syrian civil war, plunging the kingdom into a protracted military conflict against Iranian-allied forces in Yemen, and isolating neighboring Qatar in part for being too close to Iran.

His hawkish stance toward Iran also appears to have formed the basis for a close bond with President Trump, who visited Riyadh this year and maintained a conspicuous silence over the weekend about Prince Mohammed’s campaign of arrests. On Tuesday while traveling in Asia, he praised the arrests, saying the king and crown prince “know exactly what they are doing.”

Mr. Trump’s adviser and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, recently left Riyadh after his third visit this year. Prince Mohammed and Mr. Kushner stayed up talking together until the small hours of the morning at a ranch in the desert, according to an American official briefed on the trip.

Mr. Kechichian, of the King Faisal Center, said the arrests and the confrontation with Iran represented the convergence of two long-term agendas for Prince Mohammed.

“Inside he has been able to put his men into positions of influence and he has pushed aside his rivals,” Mr. Kechichian said. “And ever since President Trump’s visit to Riyadh there has been a very consistent policy with the essential coordination of the United States, and Iran is in the bull’s-eye.”

Robert Jordan, a former American ambassador to Saudi Arabia who now practices law in the region, said Prince Mohammed’s aggression was “compounded somewhat by what people would call a green light from President Trump.”

Mr. Trump has encouraged Saudi Arabia and its allies “to be more forceful against Iran, and to take more charge of their own neighborhood, and they have taken that to heart,” Mr. Jordan said. “They know America will have their back.”

Saudi Arabia also said Monday that it would “temporarily” close Yemen’s land, sea and air ports of entry in response to the missile firing, in order to tighten inspections and stop any weapons shipments. It pledged to provide for “the continuation of the entry and exit of humanitarian supplies and crews.”

However, the United Nations said that two aid flights scheduled for Monday had not been allowed to depart for Yemen.

“We’re trying to see whether we can get our normal access restored,” Farhan Haq, a United Nations spokesman, said at a daily briefing. “We underscored to all parties the need for regular humanitarian access.”

The United Nations considers Yemen, the Middle East’s poorest country, one of the world’s biggest humanitarian emergencies. Roughly 17 million people — 60 percent of the population — need food assistance, and seven million are at risk of famine. Nearly 900,000 Yemenis have been sickened by cholera.

Saudi Arabia accompanied its accusations against Iran with the announcement that it would pay bounties of up to $30 million for information leading to the capture of 40 Houthi leaders in Yemen.

“We fear nothing,” one leader on the list, Mohammad Ali al-Houthi, said in a defiant speech on Monday in the Yemeni capital, Sana.

He called the arrests ordered by Prince Mohammed “a coup leading to the throne” and invited any dissident Saudis to take refuge in Yemen. “We tell the citizens and princes in Saudi Arabia that the Yemeni people are opening their arms to you. None will endure injustice.”

Yemen’s Houthi-controlled Defense Ministry said over the weekend that its forces had targeted Riyadh’s airport with a long-range missile. Immediately after the firing, the Saudi-led coalition hit Sana with the heaviest barrage of airstrikes in more than a year.

With the support of Iran, the Houthis overthrew the internationally recognized government of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi in early 2015, and they have controlled much of the country since.

While the Houthis have long had loose ties to Iran and have received some support, there has never been proof that they were proxies under the direct command of Tehran, as the Saudis assert, analysts say. But the Saudi intervention appears to have unintentionally brought the Houthis and Iranians closer together, Mr. Jordan, the former ambassador, noted.

The Saudi claim about Iran’s responsibility for the missile attack was difficult to evaluate in part because of the long and complicated history of illicit weapons shipments to Yemen.

South Yemeni forces acquired Soviet missiles during their civil war with what was then North Yemen before it ended in 1994, and the subsequent national government of Yemen, whose institutions are now under the control of the Houthi faction, had said as long ago as 2002 that it had bought a shipment of Scud missiles from North Korea.

State Department cables published by WikiLeaks indicate that Yemen had resumed buying North Korean missiles as recently as 2009. But the Houthi alliance with Iran makes it impossible to rule out the possibility that Tehran provided or procured the missiles, even if they were manufactured in North Korea.

Analysts at IHS Jane’s say that it would be difficult for Iran to ship whole missiles to Yemen, but that the missiles could have been acquired from North Korea before the current conflict started.

Riyadh has been attacked twice before with missiles from Yemen, in February and March. The Saudi border area, including military bases in the southern city of Jizan, has also been targeted several times.

[Ryan Ruck]

In the last few hours, the Syrian Armed Forces violated the 1974 ceasefire by strengthening a military post in the demilitarized zone between Syria & Israel. In response, an IDF tank fired a warning shot towards the area

— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) November 19, 2017