All Posts Tagged With: "Lebanon"
U. S. Warns Syria Against Attack On Lebanon
Is Syria posturing a second front to reduce the chance of Israel striking Iran?
Washington warned Syria last Sunday not to attack Lebanon and accompanied this warning to Damascus with its first explicit threat of military intervention to aid Lebanon should Syria go through with its planned incursion of the North.
Syria has concentrated 10,000 troops on the Lebanese border. First it denied it then saying it was to prevent smugglers. The latter idea is scoffed at by analyst pointing out that many troops and assets are clearly war preparations.
The stern warning was delivered on Sunday, Sept. 28 by U. S. secretary of state Condoleezza Rice to the Syrian foreign minister Walid Mualem.
With Russian and North Korean personnel all over Syria and its warship lying at anchor in its Mediterranean Sea port a U. S. counterattack would quite possibly result in casualties among those foreign forces.
It is possible that Syria, an Iranian vassal, is posturing a second front to reduce the chance of Israel striking Iran’s nuclear bomb factories.
Move In Lebanon Called Preparation for War
Iran, Syria and Hezbollah Install Base in Lebanon Threatening Israel and U. S. Navy
With the encouragement and support of Syria and Hezbollah, Iran has commandeered the 7,800-foot Mt. Sannine peak in southern Lebanon, one the most prized strategic assets in the region, providing Iran, Hezbollah and Syria with the perfect vantage point for radar-guided anti-air missiles and an early warning station to cover US Sixth Fleet movements in the eastern Mediterranean and menace Israeli Air Force operations.
Radar-guided missile positions and an early warning station have been deployed on its summit. The move places Israeli security at a grave disadvantage, and has to be considered as a preparation for war against Israel. Senior Israeli Defense Force officers said late last week “if the new military facts on the ground in Lebanon are allowed to stay in place, the next war Hizballah launches with Syria and Iran will find Israel’s ground, sea and air forces at a grave strategic disadvantage.” That begs the question of whether Israel will preemptively remove this latest Iranian threat.
Iran and Syria have established and control a radical government in Beirut dominated by two terrorist groups under their control.
This is expected to figure large in the talks French president Nicolas Sarkozy holds with visiting Syrian ruler Bashar Assad this week. Middle East sources report that Sarkozy promised US president George W. Bush and Israel’s Olmert to take up the belligerent movements in Lebanon with Syria’s Assad and the Lebanese president Michel Sleiman. The move takes advantage of U. S. President Bush’s lameduck status; Israel Prime Minister Olmert’s troubles with corruption charges, and the possibility of a more sympathetic Barack Obama administration in the U. S.
“Before the enemies touch the trigger, Iran’s armed forces will cut off their hands,” President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said, according to the state-run IRNA news agency, Sunday, July 13.