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Egypt’s abrupt shutdown of operations against tunnels revives missile flow to Gaza
Tuesday, Nov. 18, Egypt’s special forces and engineering units suddenly shut down operations against the smuggling tunnels to Gaza without warning to Washington or Jerusalem, DEBKAfile‘s military sources report. US and Israeli requests for clarifications from Cairo were not answered. So the Obama administration signaled Egypt that if it continues to violate international accords, there will be consequences.
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Denied Russian S-300 missiles, Iran cannot protect nuclear sites
Iran launches its huge Modafean-e (Defenders) Aseman-e-Velayat air defense exercise Sunday, Nov. 22, to protect its nuclear sites, after failing to persuade Russia to deliver the linchpin of its air defenses, S-300 missiles.
Our sources report that, aside from the Russian-made Tor-M 1 short-range interceptor, Iran’s air defense systems are outdated and pretty useless against US stealth bombers or the Israeli air force’s electronic jamming instruments.
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Iran is advancing on dual nuclear bomb track: uranium plus plutonium
- November 25, 2009
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DEBKAfile‘s military sources report that the UN inspectors’ October visit to Iran turned up dual-track progress in support of its nuclear weapons program: Feverish activity was registered in the production of plutonium at Isfahan as an alternative to the Fordo enriched uranium plant near Qom which starts up in 2011.
The IAEA experts discovered 30 metric tons-IS of heavy water hidden in 600 tanks, each holding 13 gallons.
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Obama’s Iran sanctions strategy is routed by Chinese, Russian rebuffs
- November 25, 2009
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Chinese president Hu Jintao said clearly after meeting US president Barack Obama in Beijing Tuesday, Nov. 17, that their governments disagree on tougher sanctions for Iran – or any other issue relating to the Islamic republic. In Moscow, foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said it was too soon to talk about stepping up sanctions on Iran, if at all.
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Netanyahu reconsiders nixed Turkish role in talks with Syria
- November 24, 2009
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Israeli emissaries head out to Cairo and Ankara next week to prise open doors for restarting peace talks with Palestinians and Syrians. Nicolas Sarkozy would welcome a mediation role for France but he has put Syria’s Bashar Assad on notice that he must ease his ties with Tehran if he seeks diplomatic progress with the US and Israel.
And if Assad poses a precondition for talks, so too does Binyamin Netanyahu.
Read DEBKAfile‘s Exclusive Analysis below on this new initiative.