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DEBKAfile Exclusive Report June 14, 2011, 6:46 PM (GMT+02:00)

The USS Bataan opposite Syrian coast

debkafile‘s military and intelligence sources report that Monday, June 13, the US deployed the USS Bataan amphibian air carrier strike vessel opposite Syria’s Mediterranean coast with 2,000 marines, 6 war planes, 15 attack helicopters, including new V-22 Ospreys,  and 27 choppers for landing forces aboard.Also this week, US naval units went operational in the Aegean, Adriatic and Black Seas as part of the joint US-Ukrainian Sea Breeze 2011 exercise.
The USS Monterrey cruiser armed with Aegis surface missile interceptors has additionally been stationed in the Black Sea. Western sources additonally report a build-up of ship-borne anti-missile missile strength in the Mediterranean basin.

This huge concentration of naval missile interceptor units looks like preparations by Washington for the contingency of Iran, Syria and Hizballah letting loose with surface missiles against US and Israeli targets in the event of US military intervention to stop the anti-opposition slaughter underway in Syria.
Moscow, Tehran and Damascus, in particular, are taking this exceptional spate of American military movements in and around the Mediterranean as realistically portending American intervention in Syria.

This concentration of US might also the effect of deterring the Turkish government from going through with its decision to send Turkish troops into Syria. The plan was to create a protected buffer zone where the thousands of refugees in flight from the Assad regime’s military crackdown would be kept safe on Syrian side of the border and out of Turkey.
Turkish Prime Minister Tayyep Erdogan is averse to be seen working hand in glove militarily with any US interference in Syria. At the same time, Western intelligence sources in the Persian Gulf are sure Washington is coordinating its military movements with Ankara and that Erdogan quietly agreed to place Turkish bases at US disposal for an operation in Syria.
debkafile‘s military sources also report that Monday, June 13, Hizballah began shifting the long- and medium-range rockets it had stored in northern Lebanon to locations in the center of the country. Western military sources first thought the Lebanese Shiite group was taking the precaution of keeping its arsenal safe from a spillover of violence from Syria. Tuesday, however, they learned that Iranian intelligence had advised Hizballah to remove its rockets out of range of a possible American operation in Syria.
Tuesday, Iran capped these events with three separate warnings to the Obama administration against military interference in Syria.

Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast said Tuesday: “The Americans are not allowed to launch a military intervention in any country of the region including Syria.”

He accused “Israel and the USA of standing behind the riots in Syria, Iran’s closest ally in the Arab world… with particular aims…of provoking terrorist groups in Syria and in the region to carry out terrorist and sabotage operations.”

Another spokesman warned: “Western attempts to set the model of Libya in Damascus are doomed to failure.”

Iranian Vice President Reza Rahimi accused the United States of preparing and executing “the slaughter of Muslims” worldwide.

Iran’s ground forces commander Brig. Gen. Kioumars Heidari added this threat: Any new military move by the US in the region will impose heavy costs on the country far greater than the costs it paid in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Iran accuses West, Israel’s allies, of med… JPost – Middle East.

  TEHRAN – Iran accused Israel’s allies on Tuesday of interfering in Syria after Western countries said Tehran may be helping crush dissent there.

“Some regimes, especially America and the Zionist regime, with particular aims, are provoking terrorist groups in Syria and in the region to carry out terrorist and sabotage operations,” Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told a news conference.

Iran, which crushed its own anti-government protests after the contested re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009, has voiced support for uprisings in most of the Arab world, but not Syria with which it has what it sees as a “line of resistance” against Israel as both support Hamas and Hezbollah.

Mehmanparast backed the Syrian government’s assertions that the three-month-old protests are part of a conspiracy backed by foreign powers.

“The Zionist regime and its advocates are seriously threatened, that is why they are doing all they can to crush this resistance line standing against the aggression of the Zionist regime.”

Britain has said there is “credible information suggesting Iran is helping Syria with the suppression of protests there, including through the provision of expertise and equipment,” a charge Tehran denied.

Syrian rights groups say 1,300 civilians have been killed since the start of the uprising. One group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, says more than 300 soldiers and police have also been killed.

“What is happening inside Syria is an internal issue. The government and the people of Syria are politically mature enough to resolve their own issues,” Mehmanparast said.

The spokesman warned against any overt military action by the West.

“We think that the Americans in no way have the right to have any military interference in any country within the region, namely Syria. We acknowledge this as a wrong act … which can have consequences for the region,” he said.

Report: Document reveals Nakba Day clashes planned by Syria government – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

In his blog on the website of the U.K.’s Daily Telegraph newspaper, Michael Weiss reveals official Syrian document describing the dispatch of 20 buses sent to infiltrate Israel’s border with Syria on the day when Palestinians mourn the creation of Israel.

By Haaretz

New evidence in the form of an official Syrian state document suggests that the Syrian regime purposefully orchestrated last month’s Nakba Day clashes on the border with Israel, Michael Weiss reported in his blog on The Telegraph website on Monday.

Weiss, who is the spokesperson of Just Journalism, an organization that monitors coverage of Israel in British media, said that he was forwarded an official Syrian state document describing a meeting between Syria’s chief of staff and chiefs of the Syrian military intelligence branches in the province located on the Israel-Syria border.

The document describes 20 buses which were to be dispatched on May 15, also known as Nakba Day, when the Palestinians mourn the creation of the State of Israel.

Two people were killed near Majdal Shams on the Syrian border and between three and 10 people were killed in Maroun a-Ras on the Lebanese border during the protests last month when demonstrators attempted to breach Israel’s border.

The document says “Permission is hereby granted allowing approaching crowds to cross the cease fire line (with Israel) towards the occupied Majdal-Shamms, and to further allow them to engage physically with each other in front of United Nations agents and offices. Furthermore, there is no objection if a few shots are fired in the air.”

The document goes on to describe a specific captain “from the military intelligence division” who is appointed to “the leadership of the group assigned to break-in and infiltrate deep into the occupied Syrian Golan Heights with a specified pathway to avoid land mines.”

Those involved with the plan are then reminded not to carry any identification with them to the protest.

The IDF said that Syrian soldiers in the area did not get involved in the incident. Following the Nakba day incidents, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel was determined to defend itself and its sovereignty.

	Palestinian and Lebanese demonstrators running for cover during clashes with troops near the Israel border at Maroun al-Ras, Lebanon, 15.5.2011
	Photo by: Reuters