Lots happening that's for sure...So we are going to have a news round up!Is a narrative being prepped for an Israeli move on Lebanon and Syria, simultaneously? hattip anonymous
AnonymousSeptember 14, 2016 at 6:28 PMhttp://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2016/Sep-14/371933-fresh-s… strike coming?
Check these news items?Escalation On Syrian-Israeli Border Could Be Part Of An Iranian Plan To Take Over Syrian Golan HeightsBlaming Iran so the Israeli move can be presented as defensive? As a re-action? Rather then a desired action?
US issued a travel warning: The latest attack led to a temporary closure of the main highway on the eastern part of the Golan Heights and caused the State Department to issue a travel warning for U.S. citizens and a temporary travel ban on the mountainous plateau for all U.S. personnel in Israel. U.S. government employees requested to refrain from “personal travel into the area north of Route 87 and east of Route 918 in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights,” the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv said in a statement.
Israel conducts largest evacuation exercise ever. The question is, why?
On Tuesday, the Israeli army practiced its largest evacuation exercise ever, simulating the clearance of dozens of Israeli towns near the border with Lebanon.IDF simulates evacuation of Israeli pop. from northern border in largest exercise to date. https://t.co/Z4zuh6YE0p— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) September 14, 2016The exercise was carried out to test the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) preparedness “for an irregular, large-scale emergency,” said a post on the IDF’s blog.The IDF cited Hezbollah’s “stockpiling” of missiles as well as its activity in southern Syria, which borders the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, as justification for its evacuation exercise. The IDF is also installing concrete barriers and clearing cliffs along the Lebanese border in anticipation of a possible Hezbollah infiltration, according to the liberal Israeli daily Haaretz.Israel and Hezbollah have not been at war for a decade, so in some ways the IDF’s evacuation exercises and other activities seem like the products of paranoia. However, last week, Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency reported that Hezbollah forces were preparing to move into Quneitra province in southern Syria, which borders northeast Israel.
Swaggering Syria Shoots at Israeli Jets, Flying Toward War? (Russia included)
Does Russia really want a dogfight with Israel over Syria?
Syria shot two surface-to-air missiles at Israeli jets—and they shot at the Israeli jets not even over their own air space.
Not even over their own air space? I'm going to check into this?S-200
These were not errant missiles or spillover shots which is military parlance for mistakes. These missiles were calculated and intentionally targeted shots from an S-200 Russian missile system aimed at Israeli jets that were, quite frankly, targeting Syrian rocket launchers.The reason Syria feels it can engage Israel is very clear. One word—Russia. Syrian leadership believes that Russia will protect them from Israel.Until now Israel had a carte blanche to fly over Syrian airspace. They did as they wished, and there was no significant response. Israel had a relatively free hand. That ended on Tuesday when Syrian President Bashar Assad began implementing his decision to change the entire status quo and push Israel out of Syrian airspace and off the offensive.
Hmmmm... thought this took place NOT in Syrian airspace?
We know that Russia has given Syria the green light in many areas. I cannot imagine, however, that Russia signed off on this latest adventure. Russia does not want to test its technological military prowess against Israel over Syria.
The potential embarrassment to Russia would be so humiliating to them and jeopardize their entire Middle East plan. Imagine if there engaged in a dog fight over Syria or the Mediterranean and Russia took more losses than Israel. The entire episode would take only a few seconds—blink and it’s over. If Israel were to emerge victorious, which is highly probable, not only would Russia lose face but the ripple effect of that encounter in the Arabic and Muslim world would turn Israel into a superpower even greater than the Arab world already believes her to be.Russia cannot afford that kind of risk. They are playing for the long run in the Middle East. This was an amateur move on Syria’s part. There will be repercussions.
Recall? Russia did have it's most advanced spy plane in Syria. Is it still in the area?Wow, that's a whole lot of bravado! Setting that puffing aside for now, there is certainly plenty going on at the border. My earlier post today, which included additional back links to other news on the Golan situation
Israel - Annexing all of Golan via their Terror Proxies. Demolitions/Harming Druse
More news on Syria. The Ceasefire. Turkish & Russian Generals Meeting. Aleppo live!*Turkey and Russia’s top generals are to meet in Ankara on Thursday, the Russian Defense Ministry saidCoordination?
Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar will meet Gen. Valery Gerasimov to discuss Syria and also to talk about military cooperation, a spokesman said.Although Russia is one of the main backers of Syrian regime leader Bashar al-Assad while NATO member Turkey backs opposition forces such as the Free Syrian Army (FSA), both sides are targeting Daesh terror group in Syria.Operation Euphrates Shield to remove Daesh from the northern border region has seen Turkey back FSA forces on the ground with special forces, tanks, artillery and airpower.A US-Russia-brokered cease-fire that began Monday evening is largely holding across Syria and has been extended for a further 48 hours.Relations between Ankara and Moscow have been repaired since Turkey shot down a Russian warplane over the Syrian border in November last year for violating Turkish airspace, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan meeting President Vladimir Putin on 9 August in St. Petersburg and Russia lifting sanctions against Turkey and restoring economic ties.
* Russian military: U.S. not implementing its part of Syria ceasefire plan
Russia's Defence Ministry said on Thursday the United States was using "a verbal smokescreen" to hide its reluctance to fulfil its part of a ceasefire agreement on Syria, including separation of moderate opposition units from terrorist groups.
After the third day of the ceasefire which came into force on Monday evening, only Syria's government forces are observing the truce, the ministry said in a statement. It said that units of the opposition "controlled by the U.S." have intensified their shelling of civilian residential areas.
*Russian Defence Ministry to Telecast Situation in Aleppo - Starting Today
The Russian Defense Ministry will be telecasting the situation in Syria’s Aleppo live using both cameras on the ground and installed on a drone, Foreign Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told the media on September 15, TASS reported."In order to ensure the transparency of compliance with the cessation of hostilities regime by all parties concerned in the territory of Syria the Russian Defense Ministry’s website on September 15, 2016 started telecasting the situation in Aleppo using video cameras," Konashenkov said."On-line telecasting is already in progress from two cameras on the ground. Also, for the first time there has begun open on-line telecasting of the situation in the eastern part of Aleppo from a drone," Konashenkov said.In the longer term more monitoring posts will be created.
*France Wants Ceasefire Details. The US isn't Sharing.
France on Thursday called on the United States to share details of a ceasefire deal it struck with Russia on Syria saying that the information was crucial to ensure Islamist militants and not mainstream rebels were being targeted on the ground.
In other words, France doesn't know who or where to bomb. And the US is telling!There arevvery dangerous dealings going on
Under the deal, the U.S. and Russia are aiming for reduced violence over seven consecutive days before they move to the next stage of coordinating military strikes against the former Nusra Front and Islamic State, which are not party to the truce.However, while the general lines of the agreement have been made public, other parts have yet to be revealed raising concerns among some of Washington's allies."The Russians cannot unilaterally continue to bomb saying that they are only striking terrorist groups," Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said in remarks confirmed by his entourage."The agreement with the Americans, for which we don't know all the details - and that's the problem actually - makes provisions so that the Americans and Russians can check exactly location by location on a map where the terrorists we need to strike are located," he said."But if there is confusion... then there is a also a risk of the moderate opposition being hit. At one point we're going to be asked to support in greater detail this Russo-U.S. plan, so to do that we will need to have all the information," Ayrault said during a visit to Ukraine
* URGENT - Russia says US not fulfilling Syria ceasefire obligations
CNN) -- Russia's Defense Ministry said Thursday that the US is not fulfilling its obligations under the Syrian ceasefire agreement, while denying accusations that its own forces have violated the pause in the conflict. In a statement, the Ministry said that US-led "moderate opposition forces" had increased the "number of attacks on residential neighborhoods."