WarSclerotic

Azerbaijan Considering Helping Israel in Iran – Defense/Security – News – Israel National News.

Israeli F-16

Israel news photo: Flash 90

Azerbaijan has looked into the possibility of assisting Israel with a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities, a report Sunday by Reuters reveals.

The report, published by correspondent Thomas Grove, is based on “local officials with extensive knowledge of Azerbaijan’s military policy.” According to these sources, Azeri authorities have, along with Israel, looked into how Azeri air force bases and the drones at its disposal could help the IAF to carry out attacks in Iran.

“That is a far cry from the massive firepower and diplomatic cover that Netanyahu wants from Washington. But, by addressing key weaknesses in any Israeli war plan — notably on refueling, reconnaissance and rescuing crews — such an alliance might tilt Israeli thinking on the feasibility of acting without U.S. help,” says the report.

However, noted the report, Israel will along the way have to overcome many Azeri concerns, as it is uncertain whether the president of Azerbaijan would risk harming his country’s oil industry. In addition, support by Azerbaijan for an Israeli strike may trigger a revolt in the Arab and Muslim world, noted the report.

At the same time, two Azeri former military officers with links to serving personnel and two Russian intelligence sources told Reuters that Azerbaijan and Israel have been looking at how Azeri bases and intelligence could serve in a possible strike on Iran.

“Where planes would fly from — from here, from there, to where? – that’s what’s being planned now,” a security consultant with contacts at Azeri defense headquarters in Baku said. “The Israelis … would like to gain access to bases in Azerbaijan.”

Rasim Musabayov, an Azeri lawmaker and a member of parliament’s foreign affairs committee, told Reuters that he understood that Azerbaijan would probably feature in any Israeli plans against Iran, at least as a contingency for refueling its attack force.

Several months ago, the Iranian Foreign Ministry called in the Azerbaijani ambassador to protest Baku’s alleged cooperation with Israel’s Mossad.

The meeting was apparently inspired by a report in the London Times that Mossad agents were using Azerbaijan as a “hub” from which to conduct operations and spy on Iran. The report quoted an anonymous alleged agent who called himself “Shimon,” who said that Azerbaijan was “ground zero for Israeli intelligence work. Our presence here is quiet, but substantial. We have increased our presence in the past year, and it gets us very close to Iran. This is a wonderfully porous country.”

Foreign Policy magazine reported in March that Israel has purchased an Azeri airfield on Iran’s northern border, prompting the United States to watch very closely, believing Israel may use the site as a springboard for an attack on Iran’s nuclear plants, or as a landing and refueling spot following one.

Azeri president Ilham Aliyev later dismissed speculation that Israel would use four abandoned bases in his country to launch strikes on Iran’s nuclear program.

“Azerbaijan’s territory will never be used to launch an attack against its neighbor, Iran,” Aliyev’s office said in a statement.

(Arutz Sheva’s North American Desk is keeping you updated until the start of Sukkot in New York. The time posted automatically on all Arutz Sheva articles, however, is Israeli time.)

Russia evacuates citizens from Syrian base | The Times of Israel.

Moscow pulls armored vehicles and military personnel out of Tartus, rebels claim

A Russian-built, Kilo-class diesel submarine (photo credit: Courtesy US DoD)

Russia was completing the withdrawal of its citizens and military personnel from its naval base in Syria, Saudi daily Al Watan reported on Sunday.

Free Syrian Army Major Maher al-Naimi told the paper that Russian and Cypriot ships docked at the port in order to evacuate the remaining Russian technicians as well as 52 of the 72 armored vehicles from the military installation.

Al-Naimi said the Syrian opposition considers the Tartus base as part of Syria that is occupied by Russia and that it will be liberated once the Russian military leaves. He claimed that Russia was evacuating because they recognized the Syrian opposition’s military upper hand.

He added that the Syrian opposition would not continue Damascus’s level of strategic partnership with Moscow, Tehran, and Beijing, and that the Russian military “was not welcome” in Syria.

In August, Russia sent 11 warships to the Mediterranean, some of which were bound for the Tartus naval facility. The New York Times reported that “nearly half of the ships were capable of carrying hundreds of marines.”

Moscow has operated the naval facility at Tartus since signing an agreement with Damascus in 1971. Although it is merely a ship repair and refueling station with a limited military presence, it is the sole remaining Russian military base outside of the former Soviet Union.

Ahmadinejad: Nuclear talks will … JPost – Iranian Threat – News.

Turkish pilots killed by Assad, not crash: leaked documents.

By Al Arabiya
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As political tensions mount between neighboring Syria and Turkey, newly-leaked Syrian intelligence documents obtained by Al Arabiya disclose shocking claims shedding light on the dreadful fate of two Turkish Air Force pilots.

Contrary to what was publically claimed, the documents reveal that the pilots survived the crash, but were later executed by the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad!

Picture of the highly confidential document sent from the office of the Syrian president confirming the capture of the two Turkish pilots (Al Arabiya)

The file therefore reveals two critical reports. First, the pilots were still alive after the plane had crashed. And second, that Russia held its share of involvement in this secretive mission.

The same document orders the concerned parties to treat both Turkish pilots according to the protocol of war prisoners, as instructed by the president.

It also requests that both men be investigated about Turkey’s role in supporting the Free Syrian Army (FSA), the country’s main armed opposition group.

The report also suggests the possibility of transferring the pilots into the neighboring Lebanese territory, leaving them in the custody of Assad’s ally, Hezbollah.

However, if the Turkish air commanders were not killed upon the crash of their F-4 Phantom, further leaked documents confirm that their death was inevitable.

A copy of the presidential order for the killing in a “natural way” of two Turkish pilots. (Al Arabiya)

The report insists that the Syrian leadership should hasten and make a formal apology to the Turkish government for bringing down the plane, which would embarrass the Turks and win the support of international public opinion. As such, the Syrian Regime did apologize.

Al Arabiya’s exclusive series on the newly-leaked Syrian security documents