WarSclerotic

A rocket fired from Syria fell in the Golan Heights near Tel Fares on Tuesday evening, Israeli media reported. No injuries or damage were reported.

The IDF could not confirm the reports, and was sweeping the area in search of the rocket’s possible landing site.

It is still unclear whether the rocket was intentionally fired at Israel, or was a result of fighting between the Syrian army and rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad.

Earlier on Tuesday, a Palestinian projectile fired from Gaza exploded in the Eshkol Region of southern Israel. The explosion occurred in an open area, and did not cause any injuries.

The IDF said it did not immediately know if the projectile was a mortar shell or a rocket.

Earlier on Tuesday, a Palestinian mortar fired at Israel failed to cross the border, and fell inside the Gaza Strip.

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon toured the Golan Heights on Tuesday afternoon, and vowed that Israel would prevent the proliferation of weapons “that could threaten us in the future” to radical elements in Syria.

The comments came hours after Arab media reports said Syrian rebels, including the jihadi Jabhat Al-Nusra group, seized the town of Al-Safira near Aleppo, which is reportedly close to a large military facility that stores chemical arms.

The area has been marked by previous fighting between the Syrian army and rebel forces in recent months.

Despite the report, the IDF has not raised its level of alert at this time.

During his tour, Ya’alon was briefed by IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz, the head of the Northern Command, Maj.-Gen. Yair Golan, and the commanders of northern army divisions.

“I’ve arrived to tour the Northern Command, here at the Golan Heights, to monitor from up close the developments over the border,” Ya’alon said.

The defense minister noted that a brutal civil war is raging in Syria that has led to tens of thousands of casualties, adding that thousands were being killed every month.

“But we’re not getting involved so long as this does not harm our interests. When it harms our interests, whether through Grad rocket fire from over the border, whether it is intended to hit our territory or not, we respond in order to silence the source of the fire, as occurred last week,” Ya’alon added.

Israel is also closely monitoring the potential proliferation of strategic weapons to groups “from Hezbollah in Lebanon to terror organizations that are active here in Syria. We’ve acted against this in the past and we’ll act to ensure that these types of weapons don’t reach irresponsible hands,” the defense minister said.

According to foreign media reports, on January 30, just before dawn, , the Israel Air Force struck a convoy in Syria carrying advanced anti-aircraft systems to Hezbollah.

Ya’alon said on Tuesday that the Golan region is calm, and called on tourists to continue to visit the area this spring and summer “to enjoy the beautiful views here.”

At the end of March, the IDF twice came under cross-border fire from the Syrian army, prompting it to fire a Tamuz guided surface-to-surface missile at a Syrian army post in response.

The missile struck its target, reportedly wounding two Syrian soldiers at a machine-gun nest.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has decided to rein in the country’s nuclear progress in order to avoid passing the “red line” put forth by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu ahead of elections in the country, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday, citing Israeli, US and European officials.

According to the officials, the move is designed to avert an international crisis ahead of the Iranian presidential election set for June.

Khamenei desires to replace outgoing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad with someone who is more amenable to his positions. While it was originally feared that the Iranian supreme leader would intensify nuclear efforts in order to precipitate a showdown with Israel and the US and thus gain electoral support for his candidate, thus far he has taken the opposite tack, the officials stated.

Iran has kept its stockpile of uranium enriched to 20 percent below 250 kilograms, the amount that would be needed, if further processed to weapon grades fuel, to make one nuclear bomb, according to the report.

The 250 kilogram mark was also noted as the “red line” for a military strike which Iran should not be allowed to pass by Netanyahu in his speech to the UN General Assembly in September.

The International Atomic Energy Agency stated in a report released in December that the Islamic Republic had amassed 232 kilograms of uranium enriched to a 20% fissile concentration, however it was converting 100 kilograms of that amount into plates for its medical research reactor in Tehran.

Iranian representatives and officials of the P5+1 group of world powers were scheduled to meet for nuclear talks in Kazakhstan later this week.

A former senior White House adviser said Monday that he doesn’t expect a breakthrough in upcoming talks with Tehran and certainly no deal reached before Iranian presidential elections in June.

Gary Samore, until recently the White House coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction, predicted that “ups and downs and differences and frustrations are going to continue for the foreseeable future” in world powers’ negotiations with Iran.

At the same time, Samore observed that the Iranians are slowing down aspects of their nuclear program for the time being.

“Even if there isn’t a formal deal, I do think the Iranians are exercising some constraints on their program for political reasons,” said Samore, who was speaking at the Brookings Institution.

He assessed that Khamenei was being careful not to come near the red line of advanced uranium enrichment that Netanyahu laid down at the UN in the fall, since he doesn’t want to trigger more sanctions or a military attack before the elections are held.

WASHINGTON – A former senior White House adviser said Monday that he doesn’t expect a breakthrough in upcoming talks with Tehran and certainly no deal reached before Iranian presidential elections in June.

Gary Samore, until recently the White House coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction, predicted that “ups and downs and differences and frustrations are going to continue for the foreseeable future” in world powers’ negotiations with Iran.

At the same time, Samore observed that the Iranians are slowing down aspects of their nuclear program for the time being.

“Even if there isn’t a formal deal, I do think the Iranians are exercising some constraints on their program for political reasons,” said Samore, who was speaking at the Brookings Institution.

He assessed that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei was being careful not to come near the red line of advanced uranium enrichment that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu laid down at the UN in the fall, since he doesn’t want to trigger more sanctions or a military attack before the elections are held.

In the context of Iran’s careful political calculations and what Samore described as “a fundamental disconnect” between Tehran and world power negotiators, the former White House official said it would be “unrealistic to expect there would be some kind of breakthrough in these talks” at the end of the week.

Samore also said he didn’t think a military attack would be an impossible scenario so long as talks were going on. Instead, he suggested that more important than what’s happening at the negotiating table in determining a strike would be the situation on the ground.

Samore was joined at Brookings by Javier Solana, former foreign policy chief for the European Union and the lead negotiator with Iran from 2003 to 2009 on behalf of the so-called P5+1 of the US, France, the UK, Germany, Russia and China.

Solana maintained that dealing with Syria was essential to getting results on Iran’s nuclear program since the two countries are deep allies.

“Without solving that problem, it will be very difficult to get the negotiations moving,” said Solana, who pointed to the importance of pressuring Russia to exercise leverage on Damascus.

Solana warned that the “level of consistency and coherence of the P5+1 is diminishing” in part because of the different goals regarding Syria that the member countries now have.