Persian Gulf & Middle East Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

ShahryarHedayat

Junior Member
Dramatic scene...:(
14 SAA / NDF soldiers entrenched in building in Idlib....Surrounded by Al-Nusra and refused to surrender.
The building blown up by Terrorists and 4 of the soldiers survived,but trapped in the ruins,and talks with the rebels.
WARNING : GRAPHIC IMAGES
My respect to those soldiers who refused to surrender.

 

ShahryarHedayat

Junior Member
It's a lot easier to tunnel under the walls and across the Syrian boarder then to tunnel through the Straight of Hormuz.

As you know ,Iranian engineers are very smart:cool: and they did manged to dug a tunnel from Tehran to Latin america

:D:D:D




Russia, China, Iran establish military presence in Latin America

Reports from around the world have noted Tehran’s growing military presence in the Western Hemisphere. Germany’s Die Welt newspaper described the Islamic Republic’s construction of intermediate range missile launch pads on Venezuela’s Paraguana Peninsula

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IRAN BUILDING SECRET ARMY IN LATIN AMERICA?

Iran is building an “extensive intelligence and terrorist network” in Latin America that the Obama administration is negligent in ignoring, claims a U.S. congresswoman.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., is chair of the House Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee and, incidentally, as a Cuban immigrant, the first Hispanic woman elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.

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New photos reveal expanding reach of Iran in Venezuela and other parts of Latin America


Humire found other examples, in Bolivia, with photos showing a government site, alleged to have received backing from Iran. Before 2011, it housed a UN Peacekeeping unit, but since it has been replaced by an air defense command that is heavily secured, with some areas strictly off limits.

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Bolivia facility (Photo courtesy Center for a Secure Free Society)

Venezuela%20Iran%20facility%20(1).jpg


Bolivia facility (Photo courtesy Center for a Secure Free Society)

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After the 2008 Gaza War, Iran
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rehabilitation of tunnels destroyed or damaged in the fighting. During the Muslim Brotherhood one-year rule in Egypt (2012 to 2013), Iran accelerated transfer of rockets to Gaza by sea and land (Sudan and Sinai).

In his new book
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, Alan Dershowitz states that the 2014 War in Gaza required Israeli ground forces to gain access to the tunnels and shut them down. Israel was unable to determine their routes and exit ramps because they were too deep underground and not detectable from the air.

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Miragedriver

Brigadier
Israel premier expresses 'deep concern' on pending Iran deal

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that he has "deep concern" over a pending nuclear deal the West appears close to signing with Israel's arch-enemy Iran.

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Netanyahu said that he conveyed those fears to visiting American lawmakers, warning that the looming deal appears to "corroborate all our concerns and then some."

Netanyahu has been a fierce critic of American-led efforts to reach a nuclear deal with Iran and publicly has clashed with the administration of U.S. President Barack Obama over the issue.

Negotiators in the Swiss town of Lausanne are working on an initial agreement just three days before their self-imposed deadline.

"The Iran-Lausanne-Yemen axis is very dangerous for humanity and must be stopped," the Israeli premier said, referring to Iran's backing of Shiite rebels who have conquered most of Yemen.

The West fears Iran's nuclear program will allow it to build an atomic bomb. Iran says its nuclear research is for peaceful purposes.

Netanyahu depicted Israel and Middle Eastern countries as unified in their view of Iran's involvement in the Yemen unrest as "a strategic move to dominate the region." He criticized continued negotiations with Iran at a time when "Iran is rampaging through Yemen," saying that "talks continue as usual and go on, on a deal that from everything that we hear paves Iran's way to the bomb."

Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said Iran was responsible for the fall of the pro-Western government in Yemen, and "instead of punishing it for that, Iran is getting a prize" with the negotiations.

"The West is allowing Iran through the front door of the family of nations," Yaalon said.

Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell, heading a delegation of U.S. senators visiting Israel, said the delegation supported legislation to require Congress to approve any agreement on Iran's nuclear program, or to increase sanctions on Iran if no agreement is reacher

In my personal opinion this deal is to get help in the fight against ISIS who is on the move and performing some very inhuman deeds. Since Iran is “less” fundamentalist, they're the lesser of the two evils right now. If they allow the kind of inspections that Saddam Hussein never did, then all will be well. The people in the IAEA are not idiots and between them and the American spy system in the Mideast there is no way Iran will be able to produce a nuclear bomb without the USA knowing about it--so long as the IAEA and America gets access to the sites. That is my opinion at least


Back to bottling my Grenache
 

Franklin

Captain
Hot water

Yemen: Egyptian Navy Chases Iranian Warships to Retreat from Port of Aden

Senior editor of Saudi online paper Arab News, Siraj Wahab, has just tweeted that Egyptian ships forced Iranian retreat from Bab Al-Mandab strait near the Port of Aden.

A statement issued by the Egyptian Foreign Ministry stated that Egypt is coordinating with Saudi Arabia, together with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) for the participation of its Air Force, Navy, and ground forces, should it prove necessary.

However, it should be noted that Iran threatened Saudi Arabia today (Thursday), announcing that its foray into Yemen would end up costing it dearly.

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Commander Rejects Claims on Iranian Warships Leaving Gulf of Aden

TEHRAN (FNA)- Iranian Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari categorically rejected some media reports alleging that Iranian warships have been driven out of the Gulf of Aden by Egyptian warships.
Rear Admiral Sayyari's remarks came after a news website of a Persian Gulf Arab state claimed that the Iranian warships were forced to leave the region after receiving a warning from Egyptian warships.

"The Iranian Navy warships are patrolling in the Northern Indian Ocean and fulfilling their missions with full force and observing the international laws … and they do not allow any foreign warship to warn them and shoo them away …"

On Friday, Commander of Iran's 33rd fleet of warships Commodore Ahmadi Kermanshahi also rejected the report, saying the Iranian warships had no contact with Egyptian vessels and when the website was making these allegations, they were in India's Cochin port.

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ShahryarHedayat

Junior Member
Iran's power rises, with or without deal


By Stephen Collinson, CNN


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Washington (CNN)Deal or no deal in the Iranian nuclear talks, Tehran is already behaving like it's made a killing.

Sure, U.S. and international sanctions inflicted staggering damage on Iran's economy, convincing the longtime American foe to join talks aimed at limiting its nuclear program. Those talks face an important Tuesday night deadline.

But it's not just Iran's nuclear aspirations that have everyone's attention -- though just the fact that Iranian officials are at the table with the world's most powerful countries has elevated Iran's international status.

Getting the bomb would greatly magnify its regional -- even global -- role, but Tehran is also making big moves in a tumultuous Great Game of Middle East geopolitics that is challenging U.S influence and prestige and chilling Washington's allies.


As it engages on its nuclear program, Tehran has exploited the divisions of the Arab Spring and the power vacuum of America's downgraded involvement in the region. It has also taken advantage of the leeway the United States offered in prioritizing a nuclear deal over attempts to restrain Tehran's proxies that could risk breaking up the negotiations.

The result is that Iran -- often through militant groups it sponsors -- has become a key player in conflicts in neighboring states all the way to the edge of the Mediterranean.

Its drive for regional pre-eminence is becoming an increasing problem for the Obama administration as it contemplates selling a nuclear deal -- which is already drawing considerable skepticism -- to opponents in Congress and to anxious allies like Saudi Arabia and Israel, who are watching Iran's maneuvering up close.


Critics are accusing President Barack Obama of turning a blind eye toward Iran's nefarious motives and proxy wars in the Middle East to safeguard a legacy-enhancing push for a deal that could lift his presidency's historic potential after decades of hostility between Washington and Tehran.

They fear Iran is not only about to walk away with a deal that leaves its nuclear infrastructure intact, but that it is also playing the United States for a fool by using the talks to shield its hegemonic ambitions in the Middle East.

"They have completely schooled the American and European diplomats," said Michael Rubin, an Iran analyst and critic of the administration at the American Enterprise Institute.

"The Iranians used to brag that they play chess and we play checkers. It turns out that they play chess, while we play solitaire."




Iranian proxies

Iran has used its Revolutionary Guard Corps and a host of proxies to fill the power gap left by the U.S. departure from Iraq and the political tumult stirred by the collapse of authoritarian governments felled by now-defunct popular reform movements.

"Iran was destined to expand its influence one way or the other, and the U.S. was not going to prevent that, especially because of the cost involved in trying to pacify Iraq," said Reva Bhalla, vice president of global analysis at Stratfor, a global intelligence and advisory firm.

"Iran benefited from the Arab Spring as well."

Iran has also seen an opportunity in the U.S.'s shifting policies and interests in the region. The George W. Bush administration pushed out the regional strongman in Iraq, Saddam Hussein, who kept Iran in check through a hostile balance-of-power arrangement. The subsequent collapse of the Iraqi state left a festering sectarian stew that Tehran was quick to use to forge links in Shiite areas.

And Obama, in addition to withdrawing American forces from Iraq, has sought a lighter touch in hot spots like Syria, Yemen and Libya, where chaos has created an opening for outside fighters and radical domestic groups to swoop in.

The regional meltdown that has seen governance collapse and national borders redrawn on sectarian lines has provided a potent breeding ground for radical, stateless Islamic groups — like ISIS -- to grow and threaten both U.S. and Iranian national interests.

So the Obama administration also sees a common interest with Iran in fighting ISIS. But some critics say its desire to do so has blinded it to Iran's activities elsewhere.




White House assessments

This has left the White House in the uncomfortable position of having to explain why the United States appears to be tacitly cooperating with Iran, with which it has waged a de facto ideological war for 30 years.

Senior U.S. officials deny they are going soft on Iran to keep Tehran sweet on nuclear talks. They say the negotiations are walled off from concerns about Iran's aggressive moves elsewhere. And they point out that Tehran would be much more dangerous to its neighbors if it were able to build a bomb.


"Even if a nuclear deal is reached, our concerns about Iran's behavior in the region and around the world will endure," White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough told the J Street policy conference last week, slamming Iran as a state sponsor of terrorism, a proliferator and a gross violator of human rights that seeks to destabilize its neighbors.

Several U.S. allies in the region, watching Iran's growing influence, worry that whatever berth the United States is giving Iran, it goes well beyond the nuclear talks and the fight against ISIS.

Instead, they fear the beginning of a wider détente with Iran that some are calling a "Persian pivot."



Saudi concerns

Saudi Ambassador to the United States Adel al-Jubeir told CNN that Riyadh was "concerned about the interference by Iran in the affairs of other countries in the region, whether it is in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen."

Obama's domestic foes are less diplomatic.

"I heard repeatedly from leaders in the region that they believe we are forming some kind of Faustian bargain with the Iranians which would then lead to great danger to those countries," Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona said last week.

"They believe that we are siding with Iran."

The former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, warned on Fox News on Sunday that Iran was "on the march" across the Middle East and that the administration response was one of "willful ignorance."

But a senior Obama administration official on Monday denied that Washington wanted the wider accommodation with Iran that its allies fear.


"The critics look at this as some part of a grand détente or reconciliation -- that by getting this deal we will turn another cheek or grant them carte blanche," said the official, who was not authorized to talk publicly about the nuclear talks.

"We have been and we remain just as concerned."

And at the same time that it holds marathon talks with Iran, Washington is backing its ally Saudi Arabia and a Sunni coalition that is bombarding Iranian-backed Shiite Houthi militias in Yemen.

In Syria, the United States wants close Iranian ally President Bashar al-Assad gone after his murderous rampage against his own people.

But many Washington observers believe the United States has stepped back from the region and interpret the increasingly assertive military actions of Sunni states such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt as a sign that they feel Iran already has the upper hand. They see the Saudi coalition's assault on the Houthis as a signal, not just to Iran, but to Washington.

"Our traditional Arab allies are apoplectic. We are involved against ISIS in Syria but essentially did nothing in the past three years as the Houthis took over Yemen," said David Schenker, a former Bush administration official now with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.


The Saudis are using Yemen to send messages "to Iran and to a lesser extent to us about their lack of confidence in the American security blanket being able to protect them from Iran's machinations in the region," said Stephen Seche, a former U.S. Ambassador to Yemen.

The White House said it has no illusions on Iran's motives, but argued that the painful lessons of the last decade show a huge U.S. military operation in the Middle East is unlikely to reshape its politics.

"It's definitely a regional power struggle," said the senior administration official, stressing that Iran's strategy dates from well before either the Arab Spring or the Iraq war, all the way back to the 1979 Islamic Revolution itself.

"It's a geostrategic play to use these groups as pressure points, in some cases playing on Shiite grievances but also just to increase pressure on the Saudi border," said the official.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has been spearheading negotiations on a possible deal to rein in Iran's nuclear program.

The administration insists that a large-scale reintroduction of U.S. forces to the Middle East is not the correct policy response.

"It is going to be dictated by individual countries and the particular circumstances and what is the U.S. interest there," the official said.

And the administration is not alone in believing the United States has a limited ability to influence what happens in the region.

"We can do things at the margins to help this side, reinforce that side, train another, arm another. So the U.S. position is likely to be quite modest," said Richard Haass, chairman of the Council of Foreign Relations.

And Justin Logan, a specialist in geopolitics at the Cato Institute, warned that the United States must not get involved in the "pathological politics" of the region.

The idea that a proxy struggle between the Persian Gulf Arabs and the Iranians can be effectively managed by the United States defies both logic and history," he said.

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ShahryarHedayat

Junior Member
'Iran is placing guided warheads on Hezbollah rockets'

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Col. Aviram Hasson, of the Defense Ministry's missile defense administration says Hezbollah gets a lot of accurate weapons from Iran.

Iran is placing guided warheads on its rockets and smuggling them to Hezbollah in Lebanon, a senior Defense Ministry official said Tuesday.

Speaking at the Israel Air and Missile Defense Conference in Herzliya, Col. Aviram Hasson, who is involved in preparing IDF air defenses, said Iran was converting Zilzal unguided rockets into accurate, guided M-600 projectiles by upgrading their warheads.

Hasson, who is in charge of upper-tier missile defenses at HOMA – part of the Defense Ministry’s Administration for the Development of Weapons and Technological Infrastructure – described Iran as a “train engine that is not stopping for a moment. ;)
It is manufacturing new and advanced ballistic missiles and cruise missiles. It is turning unguided rockets that had an accuracy range of kilometers into weapons that are accurate to within meters.”

Hezbollah, he continued, “is getting a lot of accurate weapons from Iran. It is in a very different place compared to the Second Lebanon War in 2006.”

For Israel, the “ultimate defense is a combination of counter-attack, active defenses, and passive defense [civilian compliance with Home Front Command safety instructions],” he argued.

Riki Ellison, founder and chairman of the US Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance, also spoke at the conference, which was organized by the iHLS defense website and the Israel Missile Defense Association.

The alliance is a nonprofit organization advocating for the deployment and development of missile defenses.

Ellison said the US always kept at least one warship in the Mediterranean with an Aegis naval missile defense system to ensure that Israel was protected against long-range Iranian ballistic missiles.

“It can stand off the coast and shoot long-shots coming in from Iran,” he said.

The US is keen to see Israel complete its multi-layered blanket of missile defenses, which would enable it to defend against Iranian missiles without the Aegis and thereby free up the US Navy’s ships for deployment elsewhere, he added.

Ellison told the delegates that the US remained firmly committed to Israel’s security, irrespective of recent disagreements between President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

He added that the US could deploy its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) batteries “if necessary, to come into Israel to support your country’s defense.”

America is “fully supportive” of Israel getting fully capable Arrow 3 and David’s Sling defense systems, Ellison said.

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ShahryarHedayat

Junior Member
First on CNN: Iranian aircraft buzzes Navy helicopter in Persian Gulf


CNN ^ | March 31, 2015 | Barbara Starr

Posted on ‎3‎/‎31‎/‎2015‎ ‎1‎:‎32‎:‎18‎ ‎PM by don-o

An Iranian military observation aircraft flew within 50 yards of an armed U.S. Navy helicopter over the Persian Gulf this month, sparking concern that top Iranian commanders might not be in full control of local forces, CNN has learned.

The incident, which has not been publicly disclosed, troubled U.S. military officials because the unsafe maneuver could have triggered a serious incident.

It also surprised U.S. commanders because in recent months Iranian forces have conducted exercises and operations in the region in a professional manner, one U.S. military official told CNN.

"We think this might have been locally ordered," the official said.


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