WarSclerotic

DEBKA.

Iran is finally ready to dump its leading ally, Syrian President Bashar Assad. This falling-out eluded every effort of US diplomacy for decades. The rift burst out into the open Tuesday, October 25, when Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi‘s scheduled visits to Syria and Lebanon were abruptly cancelled without explanation.
The events leading up to the rupture are outlined by DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s Iranian sources:
Intensive deliberations at Iran’s National Security Council and private consultations between Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the council chairman Ali Akbar Velayati led Iran’s ruler to the conclusion that Bashar Assad’s rule of Syria is in imminent danger of collapse. Ergo, Tehran’s relationship with Damascus must be reconstructed on new foundations.
Khamenei accordingly instructed foreign minister Salehi to travel to Beirut, Damascus and Riyadh for top-level discussions on the Syrian crisis, thereby performing the spadework for a new policy. The Supreme Leader banked on this single stroke of diplomacy achieving all his objectives: Iran’s strategic alliance with Syria would be preserved while Assad would be cut off from his ties with the Lebanese Hizballah and hemmed in by a strengthened line-up of governments able to force him to resign. After that, a new Syrian president would step up and act to co-opt the Syrian opposition to his government.
Iran’s new Syrian policy unveiled to Americans
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad outlined Tehran’s revamped attitude towards its favorite ally Saturday, Oct. 22, in an unusually long CNN interview. After receiving a surprise request from his office, the network conferred with the White House and then sent its senior correspondent Fareed Zakaria to the Iranian capital to hear what the president had to say.
Ahmadinejad used the occasion to unveil Tehran’s updated strategy for Damascus.
“Nobody, nobody, nobody has the right to kill others, neither the government nor the opponents,” said Ahmadinejad to the interviewer.
“Our recommendation is very clear and it is a recommendation for all… for the United States: Instead of capturing or arresting people, they should hear the voice. They should listen to the people and they have things to say. And they should pay attention to their demands and needs. We say that governments must be responsible for the needs and desires of their own peoples, the security of the people and their rights. And this is general for Iran, for Libya, for Syria, for Europe, United States, Africa, everywhere. And this is a general rule for all. We have announced that many times.”
He then got down to specifics: “And we are going to make greater efforts to encourage the government of Syria and the other side, all parties, to reach an understanding. But I think and we believe that there should be no interference from outside.”
Iran may jump aboard the anti-Assad coalition
Bashar Assad, understanding that his best friend was telling him to stop killing and heed the opposition’s demands for a place in government, reacted typically straight from the hip: Just hours after the CNN interview, he cancelled Salehi’s visit to Damascus. He also leaned hard on the Lebanese government to boycott him if he arrived in Beirut.
But although Friday, Oct. 21, the visit was confirmed in a meeting between the Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Ghazanfar Rokn-Abadj and the Lebanese foreign minister, Beirut caved in under the pressure from Damascus and cancelled the visit.
Beirut later explained that President Michel Suleiman and Prime Minister Najib Miqati would be away on the date attending the funeral of Saudi Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz in Riyadh on Tuesday.
In this way, the Syrian president managed to shoot down the Iranian initiative before it took wing and hit him where it hurt.
But at the same time, DEBKA-Net-Weekly’s Middle East sources stress, there was no way Assad could erase the fact that Tehran had turned against him and his regime and taken up a position much like that of the Turkish government and its prime minister, Tayyip Erdogan.
Since on Syria, Erdogan lines up with US President Barack Obama, a formidable diplomatic coalition is closing ranks against Assad for the first time since the Syrian uprising began eight months ago. It has enough clout to force him out of the presidency.
A coalition too holey to work
Iran is now part of that alignment, but our sources stress that getting rid of Assad may not be plain sailing given the holes gaping in the emerging anti-Syrian coalition.
Iran and Turkey are drawing close to a rapprochement on Syria after a year of vitriolic exchanges which hit rock bottom when Tehran threatened to punish Ankara with missile attacks on its army bases if Turkish troops entered Syria.
Putting this unpleasantness behind them, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu met Salehi in Ankara Friday, Oct. 21 to discuss their shared Kurdish problem.
They agreed on military and intelligence cooperation in the fight against Turkey’s Kurdistan Workers’ Party-PKK and its Iranian wing, the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan-PJAK.
Right after this accord, heavy Turkish armored forces invaded northern Iraq to attack PKK mountain strongholds.
But the Iranian minister did not miss the chance of his conversation with Davutoglu for a dig at the United States.
Last week, dozens of Turkish soldiers were killed in a rash of PKK attacks in the southern region with heavy weapons. According to Salehi, those deaths could have been saved had the Americans warned Ankara about the large-scale Kurdish insurgent infiltrations. The Iranian was implying that Turkish leaders should stop relying on US intelligence tips and for their own good, lean more on Iran. Washington is hardly likely to go along with a rapprochement that hinges on Iranian efforts to displace US influence in Turkey.
Another wing in the anti-Assad coalition is also in question.
Assassination plot preys on US-Saudi willingness to work with Iran
The US and Saudi Arabia remain furious over the Iranian-instigated Al Qods plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to Washington. Two weeks have gone by since the accusation was first aired, yet neither Washington nor Riyadh has indicated how they mean to respond to an offense Washington called an act of war.
It is therefore hard to tell if the Americans and Saudis are ready to push aside their accusation for the sake of a joint effort with Iran for Assad’s removal.
The assassination conspiracy also figures large in Tehran’s power struggle.
Supreme Ruler Khamenei’s clique strongly disapproved of Ahmadinejad’s CNN interview and his message of condolence to Riyadh on the death of Crown Prince Sultan.
They angrily questioned such actions at a time when Saudi Arabia was accusing Iran of plotting a terrorist operation on US soil and threatening war on the Islamic Republic.
Adding insult to injury, the Iranian president addressed Saudi King Abdullah as Kahdem al-Haramein al-Sharifein (Guardian of the Holy Places of Mecca and Medina). The founder of the Shiite Revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini banned the use of this title in reference to the Saudi royal rulers, an issue that has preyed on Tehran-Riyadh relations ever since.
Ahmadinejad is therefore in hot water at home, accused by the Supreme Ruler’s faction of acting rashly and compromising Iran’s reconfigured policy for removing the Syrian president instead of taking it one careful step at a time.

Clinton: Iran morphing into milit… JPost – Diplomacy & Politics.

    Iran is morphing into a military dictatorship, US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said in a Thursday interview with BBC Persian.

“It’s been a little confusing because we’re not quite sure who makes decisions anymore inside of Iran,” Clinton said.

“There is a lot of evidence,” to support the allegations, Clinton said, citing: The confession of Manssor Arbabsiar, the 56-year-old Iranian American held in custody for the plot, information from the supposed Mexican gang member that the Arbabsiar tried to hire to carry out the assassination, phone records between the two and overseas money wires traceable to the Quds Force in Iran.

The Quds Force is a shadowy subset of the powerful Revolutionary Guard in Iran charged with “exporting” the Islamic revolution beyond Iran’s borders.

Addressing the bizarre nature of “what seems like the most absurd” plot, Clinton pointed to “a pattern of increasingly reckless behavior by the Quds Force over the past years,” including the use of proxy terrorist groups like Hezbollah.

Clinton also said there was “reason to believe” that the Quds Force was involved in the assassination of Saudi security official Hassan al-Qahtani in Karachi, Pakistan on May 16.

While the problems with Iran are immense, nuclear negotiations are not off the table, Clinton said.

“We do not want a conflict with Iran but we do want to see the rulers of Iran change their outlook and their behavior.”

Hamas boosting anti-aircraft arsenal with looted Libyan missiles – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

Anti-aircraft missiles smuggled into Gaza at Iran’s initiative, but fall of Muammar Gadhafi regime provided Hamas with higher quality missiles; rocket hits south Israel Wednesday night after period of relative calm.

By Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff

A rocket fired by Palestinians from Gaza Wednesday night landed between Ashdod and Gedera, in the first such attack after a two-month period of quiet. Sirens sounded in Ashdod and nearby communities and residents were told to enter protected rooms and shelters. There were no injuries.

Since the terrorist attack on the Egyptian border near Eilat that killed eight on August 18, the Gaza border has been relatively calm with only a few rocket launches, most directed at small communities near the Gaza Strip. Last night’s rocket, fired around 11:10 p.m., landed in a field. It seems to have been fired from the northern end of the Gaza Strip, from a distance of about 30-35 kilometers . The explosion was heard clearly all over Ashdod, which means it had a relatively large warhead.

	Emergency personnel at the site of a direct Grad rocket hit on a home in Be’er Sheva, in which one person was killed.
	Photo by: Eliyahu Hershkovitz

It was not clear last night which Palestinian organization fired the rocket, though Israeli intelligence officials believed that in recent months Hamas had little incentive to launch such attacks and cause an escalation. It is possible a small faction fired the rocket in defiance of Hamas, which is trying to leverage its success in freeing prisoners in the Gilad Shalit swap.

Libyan anti-aircraft missiles reach Gaza

The improved quality of anti-aircraft missiles held by Hamas in Gaza is increasingly worrying the Israeli defense establishment. Hamas recently managed to smuggle relatively advanced Russian missiles, which were looted from Libyan military warehouses, into the Gaza Strip. Israel is worried about the presence of the missiles, both because they curb the air force’s almost unlimited freedom of movement over Gaza today, and because of their possible use against civil aviation in Eilat.

Shoulder-fired anti-aicraft missiles have been smuggled into Gaza in recent years at Iran’s initiative. But the fall of Muammar Gadhafi’s regime has enabled Hamas to bring in much higher quality missiles – and in much larger quantities.

Rings of smugglers utilized the riots in Libya to break into military storage facilities and steal large quantities of weapons, some of which have relatively advanced capabilities. The weapons were then sold to terrorist organizations, first and foremost to various Palestinian factions. It seems that extremist Islamist organizations in Somalia also bought large quantities of weapons.

The United States is also worried by the developments. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who visited Libya last week, announced the U.S. would grant the new Libyan regime millions of dollars in aid in an attempt to fight the arms smuggling. American experts expressed their fears in particular over the transfer of shoulder-launched missiles to terrorists, and said the aid was intended to allow the Libyans to locate where such weapons are stored – and destroy them.

There have been previous reports of the smuggling of Russian SA-7 anti-aircraft missiles into Gaza. Now there are reports of more advanced missiles.

A few weeks ago, the cabinet discussed the issue of protecting civilian aviation in Eilat, including the possible purchase of systems to defend planes against anti-aircraft missiles. The issue has been put off for nine years since the failed attempt by an al-Qaida faction to shoot down an Israeli passenger plane in Mombasa, Kenya.

In the August 18 battle between the IDF and terrorists, the terrorists fired a missile at an Israeli attack helicopter. The missile missed. But the Air Force has been operating for a number of years over Gaza on the assumption that various Palestinian factions possess anti-aircraft missiles.

The anarchy in Sinai in recent months has allowed the Palestinians in Gaza to operate almost without interference, and improve their training and weaponry.

IDF sets up Magic Wand Unit – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Air Force lays groundwork for new operational unit that will protect central Israel against medium, long-range missiles aimed at country’s ‘soft belly’

Yoav Zitun

The IDF is perparing to establish a new unit that will address missile threats on densely populated areas in central Israel.

After the deployment of the Iron Dome missile defense system, which has provided southern Israel with limited yet efficient protection from Qassam and Grad missiles, the defense establishment is forging ahead with developing the Magic Wand system, designed to thwart mid and long-rage missiles.The Iron Dome and Magic Wand are two of the three systems Israel is developing and deploying as part of its multilayered missile and rocket defense apparatus. A third system – “Arrow 3” – is designed to thwart ballistic missiles outside the atmosphere, which carry nuclear heads.

Over the past few weeks, the Air Force has completed laying the groundwork for the Magic Wand Unit, which will operate the new missile defense system.

An official with the IAF noted that the unit’s personnel were already working alongside the defense industries, which are developing the system, in order to ensure its compatibility with the operational needs on the ground.

Magic Wand will be able to operate under all weather conditions, and its own intercepting missiles will be capable of changing course in mid-flight. The system is mostly designed against long-range missiles fired from Gaza and Lebanon.

Like the Iron Dome defense system, Magic Wand will also be deployed according to operational needs and Israel’s current threats.

The information about the launching of a missile from enemy territory will be delivered to the Magic Wand system from the ballistic imaging center, which can detect the launching of projectiles toward Israel from all fronts, and determine which defense system should be activated.

Defend Israel’s ‘soft belly’

According to defense establishment assessments, Hamas and Hezbollah already possess medium-range missiles, which can reach Israel’s “soft belly” and can potentially be intercepted by the Magic Wand system. Defense officials are not ruling out the possibility that these missiles could be used against Israel should another conflict erupt.

  The Magic Wand system will also be able to intercept long-range missiles, including the Iranian Shahab, if it is not intercepted in space beforehand.

The price for a single Magic Wand projectile can reach up to $1 million, but the defense establishment stressed that the cost in damages created by a missile that could be intercepted by the system, is greater.

Since the deployment of Iron Dome, the IDF has reported a sharp increase in demand for operational positions relating to the defense system, and is estimating that the Magic Wand will also become especially popular among new recruits.

J’lem sends aid as Ankara calls f… JPost – Diplomacy & Politics.

(Got to pay your dues if you wanna sing the blues, and you know it don’t come easy… – JW)

    The first of several expected civilian planes full of Israeli earthquake relief set off for Turkey on Wednesday, even as Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu kept up his tough rhetoric against Israel.

The 747 plane chartered by the Defense Ministry carried seven prefabricated homes that have all the necessary electric wiring and can be lived in immediately by people who lost their homes in Sunday’s earthquake that devastated the eastern province of Van and killed more than 460 people. The plane, which will land in Ankara, is also carrying warm clothes, blankets and mattresses.

A Defense Ministry official said that one, and possibly two more planes will be sent on Thursday. The official said the ministry chartered a civilian plane not because of a Turkish ban on IDF planes flying over Turkey, but rather because the 747 could carry more than an IDF transport plane.

But even as the plane was being loaded, Davutoglu – on a visit to Jordan – called for forceful pressure on Israel, saying that only such pressure would force Jerusalem into giving up on a number of principles and making it easier to establish a Palestinian state.

“We believe that if we will press hard enough on Israel, we will bring it to a situation where it will be convinced that it needs to carry out its part of moving the diplomatic process forward and establishing a Palestinian state,” Israel Radio translated and quoted Davutoglu as saying.

His words, meanwhile, did not surprise officials in Jerusalem who had low expectations that the humanitarian aid would significantly improve the badly strained relationship with Ankara.

Josh Hantman, a Defense Ministry spokesman, said the aid was “not a diplomatic matter, but a humanitarian one aimed at keeping men, women and children safe and warm.”

Another government official said the shipment represented “good neighborly relations. I don’t want to raise expectations. The Turks helped us battle the Carmel forest fire [in December], and while that was greatly appreciated, it didn’t improve the ties. We want to be realistic. This is about neighbors helping neighbors.”

DEBKAfile, Political Analysis, Espionage, Terrorism, Security.

DEBKAfile Special Report October 26, 2011, 2:52 PM (GMT+02:00

The Russian Aztobaza-ELINT radar jammer

Moscow has sold Iran the highly-advanced Avtobaza truck-mounted systems which are capable of jamming aircraft radar and the electronic guidance instruments of attacking missiles. This deal, announced in Moscow Tuesday, Oct. 25, substantially boosts Russian military assistance to the Islamic Republic.

debkafile’s military sources: These radar jammers are a component of Russia’s most sophisticated anti-aircraft and electronic warfare system for the early warning of approaching assault planes and missiles.
Avtobaza is only part of the complete system. Its job is to transmit incoming information via optic fibers to separate electronic command centers and central air defense commands which then act to foil air or missile attacks.

Arguing that the weapon is purely defensive, Moscow claimed its sale to Iran does not violate the UN Security Council weapons embargo against Iran.

However, the US and Israel are reported to suspect a Russian stratagem whereby the Avotbaza jammers are only the first part of the deal, to be followed by the delivery to Iran of the full ELINT-electronic signals intelligence system. The full system would enable Iran to identity and react to any aerial or missile movements – not only over its territory but in the skies of the entire Persian Gulf and the Caspian Sea.
debkafile’s military sources describe the Avrobaza system as able to simultaneously detect and electronically jam 60 targets within a 150-kilometer radius at angles ranging 360 degrees on 20 minutes notice.

Western suspicions were alerted by the way the Russians announced the transaction.

It was made by Konstantin Biryulin, head of a department in the Russian Defense Ministry, a departure from the usual practice of announcing these transactions through spokesmen of Russia arms export industry agencies outside the government ministry.

debkafile’s sources in Moscow take this to mean that the Kremlin will henceforth treat arms sales to Iran as a strategic matter for senior security echelons to handle. They expect such deals with Syria to be upgraded in the same way.

In his statement, Biryulin stressed, “Russia has sent a set of mobile radar jammers to Iran and is negotiating future deliveries.”  He did not say how many jammers were in the contract or what other weapons were under negotiation with Tehran.

American and Israeli notice was also piqued by another of Biryulin’s remarks:
“We are not talking about jets, submarines or even S-300 (missile) systems,” he said. “We are talking about providing security for the Iranian state.”

Our Moscow sources take this also as the Kremlin’s notice that this time it will not surrender to US and Israeli pressure for calling off the Avtobaza deal in the same way as it revoked its contract with Iran for supplying S-300 missiles. From now on, Russia is undertaking responsibility for providing Iran with the defensive hardware it needs for its national security.

Implied in this undertaking is another message: Russia will not stand for American or any other Western attacks on Iran or Syria like the NATO operation which overthrew Muammar Qaddafi in Libya.

France FM: Fall of Assad government in Syria ‘unavoidable’ – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe says pressure of protests and sanctions will eventually oust Bashar Assad from power but process will take time due to complexity of internal and regional politics.

By Reuters

The government of Syrian President Bashar Assad will almost certainly fall under the pressure of protests and sanctions, but it will take time due to the complexity of internal and regional politics, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said on Wednesday.

With a crackdown on pro-democracy protests in Syria now seven months old, Western powers including France are relying on a combination of sanctions and diplomatic pressure to weaken Assad’s hold on power.

	Syrian President Bashar Assad, June 2011.
	Photo by: AP

The European Union widened sanctions against Assad and the Syrian state after China and Russia blocked an attempt by Western powers to bring about a UN Security Council resolution condemning violence against protesters.

“It’s true that in New York (at the United Nations) we were blocked, and that is a stain on the Security Council, which said almost nothing about this barbaric repression,” Juppe said on France Inter radio.

“This will end with the fall of the regime, it is nearly unavoidable, but unfortunately it could take time because the situation is complex, because there is a risk of civil war between Syrian factions, because surrounding Arab countries do not want us to intervene.”

Assad, who says his government is serious about political reform, will meet an Arab League committee in Damascus on Wednesday. The six-nation committee includes Algeria, Oman, Sudan and Yemen — countries seen as sympathetic to Syria.

Juppe said that while most Arab nations opposed action against Syria, Turkey was moving closer to the Western position and had begun to exert pressure on the Syrian government to stop the crackdown.

After months of clashes between protesters and security forces, which have killed 3,000 people, according to a UN estimate, Syrian army deserters have formed the beginnings of an armed insurgency against the state.

Opposition abroad to the Syrian government has begun to coalesce under the Syrian National Transition Council. France has stopped short of recognizing the body, but signalled its support earlier this month when Juppe shook hands with its leader in Paris.

Israel may lose German sub deal – Israel News, Ynetnews.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s frustration over new east Jerusalem housing plans may jeopardize Israel’s chances of getting new Dolphin class submarine

Shimon Shiffer

Germany is “reconsidering” its decision to sell Israel a sixth Dolphin class submarine, Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Wednesday.

According to the report, the move was prompted by the tensions between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Merkel’s frustration over the new housing plans approved in east Jerusalem.

Top political sources said that Merkel was irked with Netanyahu, who “gave her the impression that he would be willing to suspend settlement expansion in order to push the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.”

Israel’s recent approval of 1,100 housing units in the Gilo neighborhood in Jerusalem led Merkel to announce that Netanyahu “cannot be taken seriously and has no intention of complying with the basic terms needed to renew the negotiations with the Palestinian.”

Merkel and Netanyahu shared strident words following the decisions, and relations between Jerusalem and Berlin have been strained since.

Disconcerting trend

Defense officials expressed concern over Berlin’s intention to suspend and possibly cancel the submarine sale: According to foreign media reports, the new Dolphin was slated to join Israel strategic fleet.

Earlier in 2011, Germany announced that it would grant Israel a €135 million aid package to build its sixth submarine. German funding has been a significant part in the creation of the Israeli Navy’s submarine crops.

The Navy currently has three Dolphin class submarines, and is expected to receive two new ones, currently under construction in Germany. According to foreign media sources, the new submarines will be equipped to carry nuclear warheads.

The deal was originally approved by former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, despite initial concerns that such ballistic capabilities may upset the nuclear balance in the region.

Senior defense officials refused to comment directly, saying only that “The subject of the sixth submarine is currently being negotiation between the (Israeli and German) governments. It is inappropriate to hash the matter out in the media.”

The Prime Minister’s Office was unavailable for comment.

Russia says UN Iran report to st… JPost – Iranian Threat – News.

    MOSCOW – Russia warned the UN on Tuesday against publishing a report which is expected to heighten suspicion over Iran’s nuclear program, saying to do so will strain diplomatic efforts to resolve the major powers’ dispute with Tehran.

The Foreign Ministry said the timing of the UN nuclear watchdog’s report, due next month, could block any chance of serious talks.

It urged greater delicacy surrounding the publication and chided the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) information about the subject and tone of its upcoming quarterly report.

“It would without a doubt strain the atmosphere and may hinder the start of serious negotiations,” the Russian ministry said in a statement on its website.

“This sensitive topic requires unbiased, delicate and responsible handling, which can hardly be possible given the promotional hype that began even before the publication (of the) IAEA director general’s report,” it added.

The IAEA is expected to release a strongly worded document spelling out in detail why it voiced mounting concern last month that Iran may be seeking to build an atom bomb.

Western powers suspect Iran is using its nuclear program to develop nuclear missiles, but Tehran says it needs to refine uranium for a planned network of nuclear power plants.

Moscow, which has long-standing commercial and diplomatic links with Iran, has positioned itself as a mediator in the search for a solution to Teheran’s nuclear row with the six major powers – the United States, China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany.

Turkey says ‘yes’ to Israeli eart… JPost – Diplomacy & Politics.

    Turkey on Tuesday finally accepted Israel’s earthquake aid, two days after a devastating temblor hit eastern Turkey, and following a number of rebuffed Israeli government offers of assistance.

According to a Foreign Ministry spokesman, the Turks made a request through Israel’s embassy in Ankara for Israel to send mobile homes to the devastated Van province where the earthquake hit.

The Defense Ministry chartered a civilian 747 plane Tuesday night to take seven mobile homes to Turkey on Wednesday. According to a Defense Ministry official, this will be the first of a number of planes that will be sent carrying aid.

The official would not comment on whether the reason a civilian plane was hired, and that an IDF transport plane was not being used, was because of a Turkish ban on Israeli military flights over Turkey since the Mavi Marmara incident in May 2010.

Since the earthquake hit on Sunday, both President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu contacted their Turkish counterparts and offered assistance.

At this point the Turks have not asked for Israeli personnel to help rescue and recovery efforts. After a massive earthquake there in 1999, Israel dispatched a  search and rescue team of some 250 people, plus a field hospital.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak set up a small team in the ministry on Tuesday to look at what other aid can be supplied, and how to best to get it there.

One foreign ministry source warned against reading any diplomatic significance in the Turkish acceptance of the Israeli assistance, saying all this showed was that there was a massive humanitarian tragedy in Turkey and a real need for help dealing with it. The number of dead in the earthquake rose Tuesday to over 430, with that number expected to grow in the coming days.

Turkey sent a firefighting airplane to Israel in December to help put out the Carmel Forest fire. This gesture did not lead to a breakthrough in thawing the tensions between Israel and Turkey, though initially there was some hope it would do so.