DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Israel has placed its military and air forces on its northern borders on high alert after Iran and Syria ignored Jerusalem’s warning, relayed to Washington, that the continued presence of Iranian, Syrian and Hizballah officers on the strategic Lebanese Sannine peak may spark a military clash.
Monday, July 14, two days [...]

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In the past few weeks, Hizballah at the behest of Iran and Syria has commandeered the 7,800-foot Mt. Sannine, a strategic asset capable of determining the outcome of the next war, as DEBKA-Net-Weekly 356 revealed.
Radar-guided missile positions and an early warning station have since been deployed on its summit, which are capable of monitoring and [...]

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A Global Approach to Iranian Nuclear Ambitions
Over the last few years, the United States has lost considerable influence and trust in the Middle East and other regions, undermining the expectations and power of US leadership in the eyes of the world. Today, Iraq remains mired in political discord combined with a tenuous security situation. At [...]

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Israel believes that Syria was planning to supply Iran with spent nuclear fuel for reprocessing into weapons-grade plutonium from the site it bombed last September, and which is currently being inspected by the UN’s nuclear watchdog.
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Damascus and Pyongyang helped Iran to develop its nuclear programme through the construction of a suspected nuclear site in Syria that Israel destroyed last September, Der Spiegel reported.
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he reports cited by Der Speigel claimed that North Korea was to help Iranian scientists to advance their nuclear programme, and that Al-Kibar was to have been used [...]

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Last September, a couple of Israeli army planes bombed a mysterious structure in Syria. Later it was officially confirmed that it was a Syrian nuclear reactor, built with assistance from North Korea. NTD Israel reporters interviewed two senior experts, who say that the Chinese regime also has a connection.
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The CCP and Syrian nukes: an [...]

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The Golan Heights, whose 1981 annexation by Israel remains unrecognized by the world, is widely considered the most gorgeous part of the country. Rising from the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee to Mount Hermon, it is about the size of Los Angeles but has only 40,000 residents—half Israeli settlers, half Druze Muslims who, [...]

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The Golan Heights, whose 1981 annexation by Israel remains unrecognized by the world, is widely considered the most gorgeous part of the country. Rising from the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee to Mount Hermon, it is about the size of Los Angeles but has only 40,000 residents—half Israeli settlers, half Druze Muslims who, [...]

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‘If We Fail, Humanity’s Survival Will Be on the Line’
IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei talks to SPIEGEL about Israel’s propensity for unilateral action against countries like Syria, the US’s tendency to keep the IAEA in the dark and the threat of nuclear terrorism. more…

Photo Gallery: The Growing Nuclear Threat
Alarming Test Results: Iran Could Have Enough [...]

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Almost two years have passed since Israel’s war against Hizballah in 2006, and the balance of power is far from positive from an Israeli point of view. One of the major remaining questions is that of deterrence. Although the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) performed disappointingly during the war, the army’s image and its deterrent capability [...]

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In itself, Iran’s recent application for membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) is probably little more than diplomatic posturing. But coupled with the end of Lebanon’s political stalemate, Turkey’s mediation between Israel and Syria, and Egypt’s attempts to broker a truce in Gaza, it can be seen as part of a new dynamic that [...]

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The rest of the report speculates on various other assorted scenarios for Mid-East Armageddon. Syria, generally assumed to be many years away from possessing a nuclear capacity, might, for some reason, decide to launch a CBW (chemical, biological weapon) missile strike on Israeli population centers.
Israeli dead under this scenario would once again be between 200,000 [...]

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Syria is not seeking nuclear weapons but wants to have access to atomic energy for peaceful purposes through a collective Arab project, President Bashar al-Assad said in remarks published on Tuesday.
U.S. intelligence officials in April said they believed Syria had built the suspected reactor with the assistance of North Korea, which later also helped [...]

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At the Euphrates site, Mr. Albright said, the agency’s inspectors should look for evidence like special piping, old foundations and chemical traces of graphite, a basic reactor building material.
“If the Syrians think that a quick visit and some interviews” will clear up the nuclear suspicions, he said, “they’re sadly mistaken.”
The senior official in Vienna said [...]

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A new civil war has been averted in Lebanon, and Israel and Syria are back at the negotiating table. But Hezbollah is stronger than ever, and its arsenal is brimming with weapons — partly because the United Nations monitoring program has failed. By Daniel Steinvorth and Alexander Szandar more…

Possible Prisoner Exchange: Deal Imminent between Israel [...]

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An examination of the economic relations between the two countries reveals that, beyond their propaganda value, these relations are of small benefit to Syria and of negligible benefit to Iran. The alliance is driven first and foremost by political and strategic interests, not by economic considerations. While Syria has benefited from Iran’s economic support, this [...]

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Equipment bound for Syria which could be used to test ballistic missile components was intercepted during a previously undisclosed mission, the United States has announced.
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Missile-related shipment to Syria stopped, U.S. says
“One example of its success occurred in February 2007, when four nations represented in this room worked together to interdict equipment bound for Syria [...]

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Iran and its close ally Syria have signed a new defence cooperation pact, Iranian media reported on Wednesday, just a week after news broke that Israel had begun indirect peace talks with Damascus.
“The two countries pledge their mutual support regarding territorial independence and integrity in terms of international and regional authorities,” the state-run IRNA news [...]

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At least three sites have been identified by U.S. officials and passed along to the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is negotiating with Syria for permission to conduct inspections in the country, according to U.S. government officials and Western diplomats. U.S. officials want to know if the suspect sites may have been support facilities for [...]

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Shrugging off Bush’s warning against “appeasing” its enemies by negotiating with them, the Israeli government is engaging in Egyptian-brokered cease-fire talks with Hamas, the militant Islamic rulers of the Gaza strip. At the same time, through Turkish diplomats, it is sending out feelers to Damascus to discuss Israel’s possible return of the Golan Heights in [...]

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Damascus continues to strengthen Hizbullah, and “plays a significant role in transferring weapons to the south of Lebanon,” Head of Military Intelligence research division Brig.-Gen. Yossi Baidatz told the Knesset on Monday.
He added that “at the same time as negotiating with Israel, Syria is working diligently on its own army, especially in terms of missiles [...]

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