WarSclerotic

Analysis: Syria to pursue crackdown undeterred by sanctions | Reuters.

(Reuters) – Seven weeks of protests in Syria. Seven weeks of bloody repression.

International criticism has mounted. The United States has tightened sanctions. The European Union may impose its own.

But President Bashar al-Assad is battling to maintain his family’s four-decade-old grip on power and will not let outside pressures deflect him from crushing Syrian demonstrators demanding freedom, like so many others across the Arab world.

“U.S. and EU sanctions have more a psychological effect than a tangible one,” said Murhaf Jouejati, Professor of Middle East Studies at George Washington University.

Senior Syrian officials whose assets have been frozen under new U.S. sanctions have none in the United States, and the EU, considering an arms embargo, does not sell weapons to Syria, he said, adding that travel bans have a bit more of a bite.

“Sanctions alone will not deter Syrian leaders from using deadly force against protesters as they feel the survival of the regime is at stake. The U.S. and the EU will have to do better if they want to rein in the Assad regime,” Jouejati said.

Failing U.N. action, he suggested extra measures such as a total freeze on the assets of Assad and his allies, a travel ban on senior Syrian officials, the withdrawal of ambassadors and reduced diplomatic relations. Syria should also be barred from seeking a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Commission.

At least 560 civilians have been killed in the protests that began on March 18, rights groups say. Syrian authorities put the death toll at 148, including 78 members of the security forces.

Assad, condemned by Western leaders for his handling of the unrest, has also received scoldings from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who had forged strong trade and political ties with its neighbor.

The Turkish leader has urged Assad to reform before it is too late and warned him against “another Hama” — referring to the Syrian city where Assad’s father crushed an armed Islamist revolt in 1982, killing many thousands of civilians.

LIP SERVICE

“Syria will pay lip service to the Turks, but Assad cannot usher in the sort of reforms that Erdoghan has brought to Turkey without ending his regime,” said Joshua Landis, associate professor of Middle East studies at Oklahoma University.

Although Assad has sent tanks into the city of Deraa and other protest flashpoints, he has found Russia, China and Lebanon still willing shield Syria from verbal rebuke by the United Nations Security Council, let alone sanctions.

“It will be interesting to see if resistance from Russia, China and Lebanon melts away in the face of increased death tolls,” said Andrew Tabler, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “Other measures could include bringing the Assads to the International Criminal Court.”

Mindful of the pain inflicted on Iraqis by a 12-year U.N. embargo that failed to alter the behavior of then President Saddam Hussein, few world leaders are pushing for broad trade sanctions on Syria, another Baathist-ruled Arab country.

Two influential U.S. lawmakers urged the United States on Thursday to intensify unilateral sanctions on Syria, initiated in 2004 for various alleged offences, such as Syrian support for the Palestinian Hamas group and Lebanon’s Hezbollah guerrillas.

But new measures seem unlikely to influence Assad and his inner circle, particularly during the immediate crisis.

“The pressure placed upon the Syrian government following the Hariri assassination was, in many ways, far more severe than the current package, and Assad managed to withstand it quite handily,” said Elias Muhanna, a Middle East scholar at Harvard.

Washington, Paris and Riyadh led an outcry over the 2005 killing of Lebanese statesman Rafik al-Hariri, in which Damascus denied any hand. Under pressure, Syria pulled its troops out of Lebanon in line with a Security Council resolution, but it has since worked assiduously to regain influence in its neighbor.

ARAB LEAGUE PARALYSED

Lebanon, occupying the Arab seat on the Security Council, is ill-placed to criticize Syria, even if the Arab League had any appetite for penalizing repressive Syrian measures akin to those many of its members are pursuing against their own dissenters.

The League has acted only against Libya, suspending its membership over Muammar Gaddafi’s handling of protests.

“The Arab League failed to criticize Syria because most of its component units are themselves authoritarian regimes,” said Jouejati.

Arab leaders treated Libya differently because most had no respect for Gaddafi or interests in his country.

Libya is also on the Arab world’s periphery, not right at its center like Syria, which sits on many of the Middle East’s conflict faultlines. Instability or the collapse of 48 years of Baathist rule in Damascus could reverberate far and wide.

“The Arab League worries that a power vacuum in Syria could be deeply destabilizing for the whole region,” Muhanna said.

“They fear that ethnic and sectarian conflicts, should they emerge in Syria, would metastasize over its borders into Lebanon, Iraq, and perhaps even Turkey. For this reason, they are treating the Syrian case with kid gloves.”

Landis, describing Syria as “too big to fail,” said: “If the revolution succeeds, Syria’s state institutions may well collapse as did both Lebanon’s and Iraq’s.”

A breakdown of order could trigger a surge of refugees, many of whom would head for Europe via Turkey, which has an 800 km (500 mile) border with Syria and no visa requirements.

“No one wants this. Europe is already choking on its Muslims. Syria’s neighbors fear a flood of refugees and chaos.”

‘Forces fire at protesters as unrest spreads in Syria’.

  Protests broke out across Syria on Friday, with thousands calling for freedom in the Kurdish east and dozens briefly marching in Damascus to demand the ousting of President Bashar al-Assad, activists and witnesses said.

But the army, which stormed the southern city of Deraa last month to crush resistance in the cradle of the seven-week uprising, deployed tanks in the central city of Homs and security forces quickly dispersed the Damascus protest.

Witnesses said security forces also opened fire at protesters in the town of Tel, just north of the capital, wounding demonstrators.

Activist Wissam Tarif said protests also took place in the southern town of Jassem, coastal Banias, and Amouda in the east.

Human rights campaigners say army, security forces and gunmen loyal to Assad had killed at least 560 civilians during pro-democracy demonstrations that started in March. Thousands have been arrested and beaten, including the elderly, women and children, they said.

Officials give a much lower death toll and say half the fatalities have been soldiers and police, and blame “armed terrorist groups” for the violence.

The United States, which called the army crackdown in Deraa “barbaric”, imposed further targeted sanctions last week against Syrian officials and Europe’s main powers have been pushing for similar European Union measures.

Is Iran revolution in cards? – Israel Opinion, Ynetnews.

Op-ed: As Arab regimes are toppled, Iranian people will likely aim to do same soon

Avi Yesawich

One can only imagine how many Iranians feel as they watch Arab regimes in the region collapse.

Thus far, the people of Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen (ostensibly) have liberated themselves from their tyrannical and oppressive dictatorships. Libya is in the midst of a civil war, and protests in Syriaare currently in full throttle, propelled by Bashar Assad’s murderous and maniacal suppression of his own population. Demonstrations still linger in Bahrain as well.

Yet one prominent regional nation has been surprisingly silent, one that is certainly responsible, at least partially, for inspiring the Arab revolution with its own massive street protests two years ago: Iran.

The Iranian situation is startlingly ironic. On June 13, 2009 hundreds of thousands of Iranians flooded major population centers in Iran, displaying a sense of passion and fervor not witnessed since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. These Iranians, of varied political, religious and ethnic orientations, were united in their demand for an answer to a meaningful question: “Where is my vote?”

However, the regime responded swiftly and brutally to repress what were largely peaceful, non-violent protests, resulting in dozens of deaths and hundreds of innocent casualties. Some 18 months after the initial demonstrations, Iranians watched as their repressed Arab neighbors initiated popular, largely successful revolts against authoritarian regimes.

During a recent discussion with an Iranian colleague, I asked how most Iranians felt about the ongoing Mideast turmoil. She said many Iranians were envious while watching their Arab neighbors securing unanticipated freedom and relief from years of cruelty and oppression. While her countrymen are joyful and supportive of the Arab nations’ successes, she said, Iranians continue to suffer under their theocratic regime’s iron grip.

“Of course we are upset,” she added, “the sense of irony is practically intolerable.”

My colleague also quipped that many Iranians can’t help but joke about the Iranian government’s overt hypocrisy in supporting the Arab revolutions while systematically crushing any such local attempts. Indeed, this bitter irony must be a heavy burden to endure. However, she assured me that the Iranian people are resilient, and their hope for change remains steadfast even in the face of enormous adversity.

Syria first, Iran next

Unlike Egypt, Tunisia and Yemen, where the military played a neutral or even active role in propagating regime downfall, in Iran and Syria the military apparatus has no qualms about executing diabolical orders. The political elite is conspicuously detached from the popular will of its citizenry and display zero hesitation in using force to massacre innocent men, women and children crying for freedom. Nevertheless, these protests have now reached the point of critical mass and are unlikely to dissipate until the desired outcomes are achieved.

The Syrian regime is possibly the most repressive in the Arab world, perhaps even more malicious than Iran. Until now, the Syrian army, comprising mostly Sunni recruits but dominated by the Alawite elite, has been consistent in following Assad’s orders, resorting to murder and violence at every possible opportunity. However, the cracks in Assad’s regime are widening, and will soon become impossible to seal.

Hundreds of Baath Party members and religious clerics recently resigned to protest the carnage in Syrian towns and the number of military defections is rising.

The fall of the Syrian regime would be a catastrophe for Iran, resulting in the loss of one of its most important allies in the region. This is confirmed by the numerous reports of Iranian and Hezbollah agents in Syria attempting to assist Assad in violently suppressing the demonstrations. In response, chants of “Neither Iran, nor Hezbollah” are being heard frequently on Syria’s streets.

Meanwhile, international condemnations are flowing in from all over the globe, and NGOs and human rights groups are screaming foul over the massive civil rights abuses on the streets of Deraa, Homs, Latakia, Aleppo and other municipalities.

Syria acts as Iran’s bridge to the Arab world, and Assad’s downfall could have powerful ramifications not just for Iran’s foreign policy, but for its domestic stability as well. Feelings of discontent and impatience towards the Tehran regime are festering and are liable to explode at any moment.

The Iranians are a cultured, diverse, intelligent and exceptionally proud nation. Some of the population is clearly disillusioned with the current government, perhaps now more than ever. As nearly every major Arab government around them falls to popular revolt, will the Iranian people stand by idly while the extraordinary opportunity to reclaim their freedom from tyranny passes them by?

The Arab spring may soon breathe life into the Green Movement, providing it with the inspiration to recapture the essence of the 2009 protests and finish the transition that began nearly two years ago. As prominent Iranian-Canadian journalist Maziar Bahari stated, “In all but name, the Islamic Republic is long gone. Khamenei just doesn’t seem to know it yet.”

Avi Yesawich is currently studying to receive his MA in Conflict Resolution and Mediation at Tel Aviv University. He is a graduate of Cornell University, former IDF combat soldier, and contributor to IDF activism website http://www.friendasoldier.com.

For 1st time since 2006: IDF holds logistics drill – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Hanan Greenberg

For the first time since the 2006 Second Lebanon War, the IDF has deployed all the logistic equipment needed for battle on the northern front. Within the framework of an extensive military exercise, it established a stationary logistics center which is supposed to supply troops with all the equipment necessary – from food to ammunition.

The logistics center which was first used in battle during Operation Cast Lead is meant to prevent delays in transportation of equipment to combat regiments. The soldiers will be able to take equipment from the center to the front while the General Staff will be able to keep an eye on the inventory.

The goal is to enable the soldiers to do their duty at the front continuously without their ever lacking in anything,” Lieutenant Colonel Ronen Cohen deputy commander of the Northern Command logistics support unit told Ynet.

During the Second Lebanon War there was harsh criticism of the lack in logistical supplies. Food, ammunition, fuel and medical equipment failed to reach the troops in time if at all. In addition, various IDF units had to go through the different storage facilities throughout the country in order to get the necessary supplies.

Establishing the stationary logistics center in wartime allows the military to gather all the equipment in one place and shortens the transfer time from home front to battlefield.

Critical role

“Over the past few days we have carried out extensive exercises meant to give our reserve forces the tools to establish stationary logistics centers, operate it efficiently and even deal with the possibility that the center itself can come under threat,” Lieutenant Colonel Cohen said.

According to Cohen, in battle the regiment transfers an equipment list to the supervising headquarters and after receiving approval, representatives make their way to the center and take the necessary equipment straight to the troops at the front.

This is also the first time that the logistics center has operated a computerized system which keeps tabs on the inventory and registers information about the amount of equipment taken and those requesting it. Until now, all the information was saved in documents.

“Over the past few months we have developed a unique system that significantly shortens the waiting time for the units at the center,” said Lieutenant Colonel Aner Gottlieb, head of the Technological and Logistics Directorate.

“Logistics has a critical role in warfare and the stationary logistics center is a key stage in emergency situations,” Chief Logistics Officer Brigadier General Mofid Ganem noted.

“We have undergone logistics training programs on the subject, including the deployment of the stationary logistics centers in their final configuration and we all understand the importance of the situation.”

Tanks take up position throughout Syria ahead of protests.

  AMMAN – Security forces have moved into central Syria and coastal areas before Friday prayers in a test of will for demonstrators determined to maintain protests against the rule of President Bashar Assad.

In a show of force, tanks have taken up positions near the urban centers of Homs, Rastan and Banias in the past two days.

The Syrian activists were preparing to take to the streets in what they were calling a “day of defiance,” the BBC reported.

Last week, Assad ordered the army into Deraa, cradle of the uprising that began with demands for greater freedom and an end to corruption and is now pressing for his removal.

An ultra-loyalist division led by his brother Maher shelled and machine-gunned Deraa’s old quarter on Saturday, residents said. Syrian authorities said on Thursday the army had begun to leave Deraa, but residents described a city still under siege.

Troops were also deployed in the Damascus suburbs of Erbin, Saqba, Douma and in the town of Tel, north of the capital.

A senior diplomat said demonstrations after Friday prayers, the only chance Syrians have to gather legally, were expected to increase “incrementally, not massively” in numbers compared with a week ago when tens of thousands took to the streets.

Human rights campaigners say security forces killed at least 62 civilians, including 17 in Rastan alone, during those protests.

A doctor who planned to take part in Friday’s demonstrations said: “Indiscriminate killings and inhumane arrests have generated total disgust among the average Syrian.”

“Soldiers with rifles no longer deter people. The propaganda that this regime is the only guarantor of stability no longer washes,” he said.

The United States, which had joined a European drive to improve ties with Assad under the Obama administration, called the attack on Deraa “barbaric

Too soft on Syria? No, says the United States. Assad’s forces ready for more protests.

Al Arabiya

Friday, 06 May 2011

Syrian protesters, with the Syrian flag painted on their faces, take part in a protest calling for Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad to step down. (File Photo)

The Obama administration has defended itself against charges in Congress it has been too soft with the Syrian government over its deadly crackdown on pro-democracy protests.

Senior State Department official Michael Posner dismissed a lawmaker’s suggestion that Washington take a tougher stand by withdrawing its ambassador from Damascus, saying the envoy acted as a key defender of Syrians’ rights, according to Agence-France Presse.

Before the current unrest hit Syria, Robert Ford arrived in Damascus in January 2011 as the first US ambassador to Syria in five years, the fruit of the Obama administration’s new policy to engage a longtime foe.

The unrest gripping Syria comes as President Obama pursues a new US policy of engaging with a former foe in a bid to promote a broader Arab-Israeli peace by driving a wedge between Syria and its ally Iran.

Analysts said early last month that the administration might be hedging its bets because it will still have to deal with the regime if President Bashar al-Assad and his powerful security forces end up crushing the unrest, according to AFP.

A Syrian opposition figure told Reuters: “The international response is intensifying. But President Assad will spill more Syrian blood before the world wakes up.”

Human rights campaigners say army, security forces and gunmen loyal to Mr. Assad had killed at least 560 civilians during seven weeks of pro-democracy demonstrations. Thousands of people had been arrested and beaten, including the elderly, women and children, they said.

The authorities blame “armed terrorist groups” for the violence, including the killings of civilians and members of the security forces.

President Assad, 46, said the protesters were part of a foreign conspiracy to cause sectarian strife in the country of 23 million people.

His father, the late President Hafez al-Assad, used similar language when he crushed Islamist and secular challenges to his rule in the 1980s, culminating in the violent suppression of an uprising in the city of Hama in which 30,000 people were killed.

The late president lost two wars to Israel, as defense minister in 1967 and as president in 1973. He maintained Syria’s position as a relevant player in Middle East geopolitics by building ties with Shiite Iran and backing Palestinian guerrilla forces.

The younger Mr. Assad has reinforced the anti-Israeli alliance with Tehran, despite disquiet on the part of Syria’s majority Sunni population.

Meanwhile, security forces have moved into central Syria and coastal areas ahead of Friday prayers in a test of will for demonstrators determined to maintain protests against the autocratic rule of President Bashar al-Assad.

In a show of force, tanks have taken up positions near the urban centers of Homs, Rastan and Banias in the last two days.

Last week, Mr. Assad ordered the army into Deraa, cradle of the uprising that began with demands for greater freedom and an end to corruption and is now pressing for his removal.

An ultra-loyalist division led by his brother Maher shelled and machine-gunned Deraa’s old quarter on Saturday. Syrian authorities said on Thursday the army had begun to leave Deraa, but residents described a city still under siege.

Troops were also deployed in the Damascus suburbs of Erbin, Saqba, and Douma and in the town of Tel, north of the capital.

A senior diplomat said demonstrations after Friday prayers, the only chance Syrians have to gather legally, were expected to increase “incrementally, not massively” in numbers compared with a week ago when tens of thousands took to the streets, according to Reuters.

Human rights campaigners say security forces killed at least 62 civilians, including 17 in Rastan alone, during those protests.

A doctor who planned to take part in Friday’s demonstrations said, “indiscriminate killings and inhumane arrests have generated total disgust among the average Syrian.”

“Soldiers with rifles no longer deter people. The propaganda that this regime is the only guarantor of stability no longer washes,” he said.

The United States, which had joined a European drive to improve ties with Mr. Assad under President Barack Obama’s administration, called the attack on Deraa “barbaric.”

Diplomats said the European Union could reach a preliminary agreement on imposing sanctions on Syria’s ruling hierarchy on Friday, but had yet to decide whether President Assad should be included.

Iran, which the United States accused of helping President Assad in his efforts to crush the demonstrators, said Syria’s rulers were aware of plots by the US and Israel to destabilize its only Arab ally.

(Abeer Tayel of Al Arabiya can be reached at: abeer.tayel@mbc.net)

With bin Laden dead, Iran is Israel’s greatest fear, PM says – CNN.com.

DEBKA.

With every passing day, Syrian President Bashar Assad loses ground.
Tuesday, May 3, he announced that the army had ended its operations in the southern province of Horon and its anti-regime protest center Daraa and would withdraw “very soon.” Two days later, on Thursday, Syrian generals stated that the withdrawal has begun.
DEBKA-Net-Weekly‘s military sources report that they lied; the forces responsible for shooting protesters at point blank range were still in place in Daraa.
The Syrian ruler shows no sign that he is conscious of the hate his brutal crackdown has generated across his country. When he spoke to visitors to Damascus from the northeastern provinces Tuesday, he remarked coolly that what was happening in Syria could take place in any country.
But the numbers of dead at the hands of his security forces have reached the point where his acts of repression will forever stain the annals of Syrian history: The uprising in Egypt, which has a population of 90 million – more than triple Syria’s 26 million inhabitants – left 860 dead. In the ten days since Assad sent the army into disaffected cities, 780 Syrian civilians have been killed and the number rises daily.
His remarks indicate either that he is a cold fish or that his close aides are too scared to tell him that with every passing day he loses the support of more and more army units. This week, no more than 20 percent of the soldiers deployed in the cities obeyed orders to shoot protesters; eighty percent were not even prepared to mount charges against the demonstrators as they did in the first week of the uprising.
Military units refuse to fire. Tanks won’t advance on demonstrators
Our military sources recall the conduct of the Egyptian army in January during the uprising against Hosni Mubarak. The brigade commanders there didn’t even bother to relay orders to the officers to have their men open fire and break up the demonstrations because those orders would have been flouted and resulted in a breakdown in discipline and order. (Incidentally, this is still the case in most Egyptian units.)
In Syria, only 34,000 troops are still obedient. They are members of the 4th Division under the command of Assad’s younger brother, Gen. Maher Assad, parts of the 14th Division and units of the Republican Guard. However, since the beginning of the week, the remaining 176,000 soldiers, the bulk of the Syrian army, are defying orders to fire live ammunition at protesters, whether to shoot them in the legs or even in the air to break up rallies.
The defiant units take up positions against the demonstrators when ordered to do so but then remain passive. Tank units, heavy armored carriers and armored infantry line up in columns. But when ordered to advance on demonstrators, they remain stationary.
Our military sources exclusively name the insubordinate units:
The 5th Syrian Division stationed in the Horan province and its capital Daraa near the border with Jordan –where the uprising against the Assad regime started and which became its epicenter.
Our sources reveal that the commander of this division, General Rifai Mohammed, has been missing for several days and no one knows where he is.
Assad’s big test Friday in Aleppo
The demonstrators, who have learned to identify the various armored units by their insignia and emblems,
know that the vehicles of this division will not attack them. So when they appear, they clamber atop the vehicles, wave flags and placards and shout ‘”The people and the army are one!'”
When Assad said the army has completed its mission in Daraa, he must have been covering up for his loss of control.
The 7th Syrian Division stationed in Homs is in the same situation: Its members are refusing to confront the demonstrators. On Wednesday, May 4, Assad deployed tanks and soldiers he believed would obey him around Al-Rastan, a town near Homs.
The 11th Syrian Division stationed near Aleppo, the second biggest city after Damascus with a population of nearly 3 million, is showing signs of insubordination among its officers and men. Friday is the main day of protest in Syria. This week it will be the big test for Aleppo and this division. If large-scale rallies take place there for the first time and if the 11th division refuses to break them up, a very large new nail will have been hammered into Bashar Assad’s coffin.
The Syrian ruler tried to restore his grip on Damascus, the capital, with mass arrests in its suburbs Thursday, May 5, after he was forced in mid-week to withdraw army units from the capital’s outlying districts and towns for refusing to fight the demonstrators. This means that control of the greater Damascus area and its population of about two million has passed to his opponents. In readiness for the regular outbreaks after Friday prayers, he has positioned 70 armored carriers and 30 tanks of the still-loyal Republican Guard on the main roads around Damascus. They stand ready to roll back into those urban areas and recapture them from the rebels.
Assad is deaf to advice from close advisers to halt crackdown
In the broad reaches of eastern Syria between Abu Kamal on the junction of the Syrian, Jordanian and Iraqi borders up to Al-Azur in the north, not a single Syrian soldier is to be seen.
Assad just doesn’t have enough loyal forces to send there.
DEBKA-Net-Weekly‘s intelligence sources report signs that support for the regime is also crumbling among the ruling Syrian Ba’ath party elite. Diplomats who are party members, high-ranking bureaucrats and senior party activists, once glad to present the ruler’s case to the Western and Arabic media, are suddenly too shy to speak on camera and don’t return media phone calls.
Some don’t conceal their disgust with the Assad regime’s harsh means of suppression.
The Syrian Ambassador to Jordan, Bahjat Sulaiman is one of the most prominent Assad loyalists turned critic.
Sulaiman is not just a run-of-the mill diplomat. For many years he headed Syria’s powerful intelligence services and was one of Bashar Assad’s father President Hafez Assad‘s closest associates.
Jordan’s King Abdullah II, who is very concerned that the Horan unrest will spill over into the Hashemite Kingdom, this week asked some prominent Jordanians to approach the Syrian ambassador and ask him to go to Damascus and tell Assad he must abandon his crackdown and stop the bloodbath engulfing Syria.
But the ambassador replied there was no point. Assad and the incumbent intelligence director, Gen. Ali Mamluk, are fixated on their mistaken course, Sulaiman explained, and refuse to heed any advice to the contrary.

Report from Congressional panel says Iran’s Revolutionary Guard helps Al-Qaeda.

Al Arabiya

Thursday, 05 May 2011

The Congressional report pointed out to strong links between the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps force and Al-Qaeda. (File photo)

Israel finalizes purchase of sixth German-made submarine – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

Price negotiations had balked last year when Berlin, beset by budgetary constraints, would not sell the submarine with the deep discount provided for the first three vessels of the Dolphin fleet.

By Reuters

Israel has finalized the purchase of a sixth submarine from Germany, with payment to be spread over several years, an Israeli official said on Thursday.

The proposed expansion of the diesel-powered Dolphin submarine fleet, considered Israel’s vanguard against foes like Iran, had been held up by wrangling with Berlin over the $500 million to $700 million price tag.

	One of the navy’s Dolphin submarines off the Israeli coast in 2008.
	Photo by: Tomer Appelbaum

Israel currently operates three Dolphins and has two more on order from Germany with delivery expected in the next two years.

Dedicated to the security of the Jewish state founded in the wake of the Holocaust, Germany had sold those submarines at deep discounts. But Berlin, beset by budgetary constraints, balked in talks last year at similarly underwriting the sixth Dolphin.

“It’s finalized – we will be getting another submarine from Germany, with payments spread over several years,” an Israeli official briefed on the negotiations said.

The official did not immediately say how much the Dolphin would cost Israel or whether Germany would arrange a discount.

The spokeswoman for the German embassy did not immediately return a call for comment. The Dolphins are manufactured by Howaldtswerke-Deutsche Werft (HDW), which is owned by ThyssenKrupp Marine Systems.

Political turbulence in the Middle East and Iran’s nuclear program have led Israel to float higher defense spending, which may have allowed it to absorb more of Dolphin’s price.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who hosted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month, has been sympathetic to his regional concerns and championed international diplomatic campaigns to rein in Tehran.

But Berlin has in the past heard misgivings from German opposition parties about exporting weapons to crisis areas. Israel is reputed to have the Middle East’s only atomic arsenal, including submarine-fired nuclear missiles.