Saturday In The News

Putin Slams West For Plan To Arm Syrian Rebels

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the West on Friday against arming the Syrian rebels, which he said included terrorist groups, and a hasty exit by Syrian President Bashar Assad, which would lead to a political vacuum, according to Putin.

“If the United States … recognizes one of the key Syrian opposition organizations, al-Nusra, as terrorist … how can one deliver arms to those opposition members? Where will they end up? What role will they play?” asked Putin during a press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

The Russian president charged that the rebels have been receiving weapons and support from the West for some time and that Syria would not be in the situation it is in without outside intervention.

Putin’s criticisms came hours after a report in the Los Angeles Times claiming the US has been secretly providing arms training to the Syrian opposition since late 2012, in US training bases run by CIA operatives and special operations troops in Jordan and Turkey.

So while we have the money to spend supporting radical Islamic extremists in the Middle East, support for Israel diminishes:

U.S. Cuts Military Aid To Israel

The planned cuts will likely affect Israel’s ability to purchase advanced F-35 stealth fighters, according to the report, 19 of which were supposed to be delivered by the US in 2016. Because of budgetary cuts in Washington, the Pentagon has slashed production of the F-35s, from 2,500 to 1,200 planes, thereby making each fighter more expensive.

The cuts are expected to affect future joint military exercises between the two countries, and funds for joint missile defense development programs — except for Iron Dome — will be cut, reported Maariv.

News of the planned cuts comes as Israel faces a rising threat from the two-year-old Syrian civil war, with Syrian President Bashar Assad and Iranian proxy Hezbollah threatening to open a new front on the Golan Heights.

Israel, U.S., Jordan Reportedly Coordinating Attack On Syrian Weapons

While the U.S. administration has officially adopted the position that the Syrian regime used chemical weapons and has declared publicly that it will provide the rebels with military aid, it appears that behind-the-scenes preparations are still being made for a much larger move.

Israel, Jordan, and the U.S. are jointly planning an attack aimed at destroying the unconventional weapons stockpiles in Syria,Time magazine reported over the weekend.

According to the report, which was based on interviews with senior Israeli military and intelligence officials, such an attack would follow several scenarios, one of which is Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s removal from power, either if he is killed, flees the country or simply disappears. These scenarios, according to the Israeli sources, would prompt the allies to attack the estimated 18 depots and other sites where weapons of mass destruction are stored. Search-and-destroy operations would also reportedly be called into action if the weapons appeared to be on the cusp of falling into the hands of Islamist rebels.

The Israeli officials, however, stressed that it had not been decided whether Israeli or U.S. forces would act, or who would do what, according to the Time report. But the U.S. plans, said the Israeli officials, call for deploying ground forces in addition to the airstrikes, to assure that the chemical and biological components are neutralized.

“Things are happening behind the scenes,” another Israeli official told Time. “Things are really happening.”

The Israeli officials pointed to the U.S. stationing of F-16 fighter jets and Patriot missile batteries in neighboring Jordan earlier this month, ostensibly for a joint military exercise (“Eager Lion”) set to take place next week, as “a clear, purposeful, presence of a strike force near the border of Syria.”

“I think it’s a message, a clear message,” the official told Time, adding that the move was also meant as a message to Iran. “It’s only a short leap to the Gulf,” the official said.

MEPs Want 'United States Of Europe' - Even Without The UK

More than 50 per cent of MEPs would haved liked to have seen the development of a 'United States of Europe', while 20 per cent thought that the European Union would have been 'better off' if the United Kingdom had left the EU – according to research from British polling firm ComRes. The survey of 100 MEPs was targeted across all major political groups and member states.

"Although 48 per cent of MEPs strongly disagree that the EU would be better off, a significant minority are sanguine about the prospect of the UK leaving," said a ComRes spokesman. "Mediterranean MEPs are the least likely to hold a positive view of continued UK membership with almost two in five – 38 per cent - agreeing that the EU would be better off if the UK left. The largest support for continued UK membership lies with MEPs from northern regions, with nine in 10 disagreeing that that the EU would be better off without the UK."

On attitudes towards the EU more generally, a majority of MEPs wanted the EU to work towards becoming a fully federalist union – "a statistic which will do little to allay the fears of Eurosceptics in the UK and elsewhere" said the Comres spokesman, adding: "There are striking regional differences on this issue with Mediterranean and northern MEPs holding polarised opinions.

"Almost nine in 10 Mediterranean MEPs agree that the EU should be working towards becoming a unified state while almost nine in 10 northern MEPs disagree that this should be the model that the EU should aim for. A majority of MEPs across all three main parties think that the EU should be aiming to become a unified state, with support particularly strong among MEPs on the political left."

U.S. Troop Buildup In Jordan After Turkey Shuts U.S.-NATO Arms Corridor To Syrian Rebels

We shouldn't be the least bit surprised at this development - we know that Turkey will be aligned with Iran and Russia at the time of the Gog-MaGog invasion of Israel, as these nations will be united in their hatred of Israel:

The US decision to upgrade Syrian rebel weaponry has run into a major setback:DEBKAfile reveals that Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan phoned President Barack Obama in Berlin Wednesday, June 19, to report his sudden decision to shut down the Turkish corridor for the transfer of US and NATO arms to the Syrian rebels.

Erdogan’s decision will leave the Syrian rebels fighting in Aleppo virtually high and dry. The fall of Qusayr cut off their supplies of arms from Lebanon. Deliveries through Jordan reach only as far as southern Syria and are almost impossible to move to the north where the rebels and the Hizballah-backed Syrian army are locked in a decisive battle for Aleppo.

The Turkish prime minister told Obama he is afraid of Russian retribution if he continues to let US and NATO weapons through to the Syrian rebels.

Until now, the Erdogan government was fully supportive of the Syrian opposition, permitting them to establish vital command centers and rear bases on Turkish soil and send supplies across the border to fighting units. He has now pulled the rug out from under their cause and given Assad a major leg-up  

President Obama reacted by topping up the US deployment in Jordan by 700 combat-equipped troops to 1,000. Patriot missile interceptors and F-16 fighter jets are left behind from their joint war game for as long as the security situation requires. DEBKAfile: The joint US-Jordanian maneuver was in fact abruptly curtailed after two weeks although it was planned to continue for two months until the end of August.

The widening disruptions of the surging Syrian war are on the point of tipping over into Jordan and coming closer than ever to Israel.

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