"You will hear of wars and rumors of wars"

Lets take a look at Matthew 24:6 before proceeding into today's news:

"You will hear of wars and rumors of wars but see to it that you are not alarmed"

In one day of news we can see Jesus' prophecy come alive.

Iran, Russia Naval Presence In Syrian Waters Message To U.S.

A senior Iranian lawmaker says the presence of Iranian and Russian naval forces in Syria’s coastal waters is a clear warning to the US to refrain from any possible military adventurism.

“The United States should take Iran’s warning about [refraining from any possible] military intervention in Syria seriously,” Hossein Ebrahimi, deputy chairman of Iran Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said Sunday.

He added that in the event of a US strategic mistake in Syria, Washington may receive a crushing response from Iran, Syria and a few other countries.

Russia To Put More RS-24 Missiles On Combat Duty In 2012

A second regiment of the Teikovo Missile Division in central Russia will be fully equipped with Yars mobile ballistic missile systems in 2012, Strategic Missile Forces (SMF) spokesman Col. Vadim Koval said on Thursday.

Russia fully deployed the first Yars regiment consisting of three battalions in August 2011, and put two battalions of the second regiment on combat duty on December 27 last year.

“The deployment of the third battalion of the second regiment will complete the rearming of the Teikovo division with Yars systems,” Koval said.

Iran Warns Of Counter-Strike If Attacked By West

Iran will counter any Western military action against it, Iran’s ambassador to Moscow said on Thursday.

The United States would be making a mistake if it attacked Tehran, Iran’s envoy said.

“If they hit us from any location we will strike back from any location,” Iranian ambassador Seyed Mahmoud-Reza Sajjadi told a news conference in Moscow.

Speculation has also been growing in recent weeks that Israel may be preparing to attack OPEC’s No. 2 oil exporter to counter what it views as a serious threat to its national security. The United States has also refused to rule out force.

Hague Warns Israel

The United States has been increasingly concerned that Israel may launch a military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities. For this reason, Dempsey visited Israel last month and met with high-ranking officials on the issue.

Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg, recently said he has concerns there could be a military conflict with Iran over its disputed nuclear program.

Asked if he feared Israel could launch an attack against Iran, Clegg said, “Of course I worry that there will be a military conflict and that certain countries might seek to take matters into their own hands.”

Showdown In Syria

The architects of the Libyan disaster in France, the UK, the United States and Qatar have decided that Syria is the next step in replacing dictators with Muslim Brotherhood allied “democratic” parties. But no matter how eager they are to roll the Arab Spring forward with a month of bombing raids, this won’t be a relative cakewalk like Syria.

Gaddafi isolated Libya through his own craziness and then his alliance with the West, which left him with no friends when Sarkozy, Cameron and Obama turned on him in the name of Arab Democracy. Assad is often described as isolated because the Arab League has taken a firm stand against him, but he has a firm ally in Iran, which has few options and is likely to do whatever it takes to keep him in power.

Next up is Russia, which has lost most of its Middle Eastern allies and doesn’t have that many options besides Syria, where it has a naval base and any number of secret and not so secret outposts. That will provide a pipeline of advanced technology, including the kind that can endanger NATO planes.

And there’s one more catch. The wildly unpopular Russian government might just be itching for a small scale conflict, especially one with the United States. A few planes lost on both sides and the Russians can claim victory. It wouldn’t be a particularly smart move by Moscow from our point of view, but from the point of view of a government that only rules due to massive fraud and force, a heavy dose of patriotism for the motherland might be just what the spin doctor ordered. A direct confrontation between Russian and NATO planes would be a milestone for Russia’s recovery and a way to wash away the shame of Yugoslavia and Pristina Airport.

Syria has an extensive WMD program, it has nerve gas and if things get bad, it may be willing to deploy chemical weapons against its enemies, the way its fellow Baath Party did across the border in Iraq. Those programs will be the first targets of NATO strikes, regardless of whatever the official statement about the No Fly Zone will be, but if the other side aren’t idiots, then finding those weapons will be as hard as it was in Iraq.

That brings us to the showdown. NATO has become the arsenal of the Arab Spring, much as Al Jazeera has become its propaganda arm. But this time around the scenario is much more complex than a loony colonel with an army that couldn’t beat African militias. And there is no telling who will win or what the cost will be.

Hard Talk With U.S. Officials On Iran Fails To Move Israel From Military Option

White House National Security Adviser Tom Donilon faced an acrimonious Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in two hours of stormy conversation in Jerusalem Sunday, Feb. 19, according to updates reaching senior US sources in Washington. The main bones of contention were Iran’s continuing enrichment of uranium and its ongoing relocation of production to underground sites.

According to DEBKAfile’s sources, Netanyahu accused the Obama administration of drawing Iran into resuming nuclear negotiations with world powers by an assurance that Tehran would be allowed to continue enriching uranium in any quantity, provided it promised not to build an Iranian nuclear weapon. The prime minister charged that this permit contravened US administration guarantees to Israel on the nuclear issue and, moreover left Tehran free to upgrade its current 20 percent enrichment level to 90 percent weapons grade.

This Israel cannot tolerate, said Netanyahu, so leaving its military option on the ready.

He warned the US National Security Adviser that no evidence whatsoever confirms Washington’s claim that Tehran intends suspending enrichment and other nuclear advances when negotiations begin. Quite the contrary: Even before the date was set, Iran started working at top speed to build up its bargaining chips by laying down major advances in its nuclear program as undisputed facts.

Israel Vows To Defend Itself As Iranian Warships Enter Suez Canal

ISRAEL will ultimately decide on its own whether to strike Iranian nuclear facilities, its military chief of staff says, as a senior US official arrived for talks on Iran.

''Israel is the central guarantor of its own security; this is our role as army. The State of Israel should defend itself,'' Lieutenant-General Benny Gantz told state-owned television.

Tensions between Iran and Israel have been simmering, with Iranian warships entering the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal in a show of ''might''. It was only the second time since the Islamic revolution in 1979 that Iranian warships had passed through the canal.

Reports suggested they had docked in Tartus, the main port for Iran's embattled ally regime, Syria.

A recent article in The Washington Post said that US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta believed Israel might strike Iran's nuclear installations in the coming months.

According to General Gantz, Iran was ''a world and regional problem''.

Former Member Of Russian Joint Chiefs Of Staff: Russia Is Ready To Use Military Power To defend Iran And Syria

Interviewer: "Dr. Leonid, do you think that these preparations and very large maneuvers, which will soon be conducted by Russia, are meant as preparation for war, or rather, a military strike against Iran?" […]

Leonid Ivashov: "These maneuvers and training will demonstrate Russia's readiness to use military power to defend its national interests and to bolster its political position. The maneuvers will show that Russia does not want any military operations to be waged against Iran or Syria. I assume that the people in the West and in Israel who design the schemes for a large geopolitical operation in the greater Middle East region draw a direct connection between the situation in Syria and in Iran. Indeed, these two countries are allies, and both are considered guaranteed partners of Russia. The only question, therefore, is who they will try to destroy first as a stable country: Syria or Iran. […]

"A strike against Syria or Iran is an indirect strike against Russia and its interests. Russia would lose important positions and allies in the Arab world. Therefore, by defending Syria, Russia is defending its own interests.

Turkey And China "Helping Iran Evade UN Sanctions"

In an attempt to escape the effects of the wide-ranging sanctions imposed over Iran's illegal nuclear programme, Iran's central bank is using a number of financial institutions in China and Turkey to fund the purchase of vital goods to keep the Iranian economy afloat.

According to Western security officials China, which is Iran's largest oil trading partner, is playing a major role in helping Iran to avoid the sanctions.

North Korea Tells South Korean Islanders To Evacuate

North Korea's military has warned South Koreans living on islands near disputed Yellow Sea waters to evacuate the area to avoid possibly being shelled. Pyongyang is threatening retaliation if shells fired during the South's planned naval exercises Monday cross into the North's territorial waters.

A Sunday radio broadcast carried a message from North Korea's military with an unusual “open notice” to those residing on five South Korean-held islands: leave by nine a.m. Monday to avoid possibly being shelled.

That, according to the announcement, is when South Korea is to begin a maritime firing exercise. The notice was aired on radio broadcasts from Pyongyang and was also carried by the North's official news agency (KCNA).

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