Mid-East including Israel on high alert after Obama’s failed last-ditch bid for Syria deal with Iran
Mid-East including Israel on high alert after Obama’s failed last-ditch bid for Syria deal with Iran.
Monday night, Aug. 25, saw one Middle East country after another, including Israel, going on high military alert after they learned that US President Barack Obama had failed to come to an understanding with Tehran on Syria and so avert a US-led operation against Syria over its chemical attacks.
Obama had hoped this understanding would also pave the way to direct dialogue on the nuclear issue with the new Iranian president Hasan Rouhani.
debkafile’s intelligence sources report that the US president delegated two emissaries for two separate tracks.
He found cause for optimism in Tehran’s consent to receive Jeffrey Feltman, UN Deputy Secretary, Monday, Aug. 25, although in his former capacity as US Undersecretary of State and US ambassador to Damascus, Feltman was viewed as an adversary of Iran, Syria and Hizballah.
Feltman arrived suddenly in Tehran Monday and was received by Foreign Minister Javad Zarif without delay.
The other intermediary was Sultan Qaboos of Oman, who arrived in Tehran Monday for a visit with Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
He too made no headway in his attempt to persuade his host that the US was amenable to a last-minute understanding on Syria for holding back an attack.
Khamenei responded with a cold threat: If the Americans attack Syria, “the entire Middle East will suffer from burns,” he said.
This response was the signal for orders to American military assets in the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf to go on a state of high preparedness Monday night, debkafile’s military sources report. Iran, Russia and Syria deployed their forces in readiness for a US-led attack on Syria. Syrian units were ordered to leave their bases and spread out across the country’s broad open areas.
The ten military chiefs meeting in Amman focused on coordination of the joint operation against Syria which is expected to begin very shortly.
Participating in the meeting chaired by US chief of staff Gen. Martin Dempsey were the top commanders of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Canada.
The powerful message coming from US Secretary of State John Kerry and the White House spokesman Jay Carney Monday night indicated that the Obama administration was not about to back off its promise of consequences for those responsible for using chemical weapons against civilians and “shocking the world’s conscience.”
Both bluntly accused the Assad regime of the heinous crime of chemical warfare on civilians. “Our understanding is grounded in facts and common sense,” Kerry said: This regime held custody of those weapon stockpiles, had the rockets to use them and was capable of doing so. “Basic humanity is offended by this crime and even more by the attempts to cover it up.
Kerry added: “We have additional information about these attacks. It is being reviewed with our partners and will be released in the coming days.”
WarSclerotic 
August 26, 2013 at 11:24 PM
Once again, Iran is succeeding in staying out of the spotlight. On top of it all, Iran may even succeed bogging down her Western enemies in yet another long and deadly campaign compliments of Syria. Meanwhile, their nuclear weaponry development and ‘research’ spins on in thousands of underground centrifuges. Are we destined once again to be manipulated in this manner or is there a game-changer afoot?
August 27, 2013 at 12:00 AM
Some members of Congress are already demanding that the President seek Congressional approval prior to committing Americans to any type of combat concerning Syria. I think you will see more and more members joining this chorus. For the President to commit troops to combat without Congressional approval he will have to declare a national emergency. Such a declaration would be difficult to defend.
A month from now we will still be the President pondering the situation.
August 27, 2013 at 2:56 AM
It seems based on what’s visible, there will be an attack on Syria. If it occurs what will Syria do? Depends, if Assad believes it’s his death blow or not. If it’s a half measure he may ride it out and do nothing. He should know an attack on Israel only puts his life in more jeopardy than rideing it out. If the attack goes after him or is of long duration and he’s going down, he’ll take it all with him. I expect a short intense blow to his military assets thus aiding the rebels in his ultimate demise.
August 27, 2013 at 9:58 AM
Again : no proof whatsoever about who launched this chemical attack.
Al-Qaeda and all the other guerrilla groups (the “good” guys, hum hum) supported by the U.S. oligarchy and their allies were losing against Assad supported by his allies (bad guys no doubt, on this we agree), so a justification was needed for a joint U.S.-French-British attack. Did Assad provide this justification stupidly ? He did not need to use gas, he was winning. A logical explanation is that Al-Qaeda or the FSA did it, with the help of the CIA, as they desperately needed the full U.S. empire’s military support to stop losing. It happened so many times in the history of the USA’s agressive manipulative imperial foreign policy that I find it pathetic that everyone on this site is buying it without a single doubt.
Or maybe you care more about the destruction of Assad’s chemical arsenal. I understand that. But then this is just one more propaganda site on internet. Not a website dedicated to find the truth through the obfuscation of reality organised by the mass media, as explained by Guy Debord and many other admirable intellectuals. Anyway, this site has always published 99% articles from the mass media or Debka, e.g. by the oligarchy or parts of the power structure, and almost never articles from really independent sites. So what did I expect ?
I will go elsewhere in my quest to find out the truth about this world.
August 27, 2013 at 10:49 AM
By the way, “Foreign Policy” magazine (part of the U.S. oligarchy, now owned by the Washington Post) just published this :
“In 1988, during the waning days of Iraq’s war with Iran, the United States learned through satellite imagery that Iran was about to gain a major strategic advantage by exploiting a hole in Iraqi defenses. U.S. intelligence officials conveyed the location of the Iranian troops to Iraq, fully aware that Hussein’s military would attack with chemical weapons, including sarin, a lethal nerve agent.
The intelligence included imagery and maps about Iranian troop movements, as well as the locations of Iranian logistics facilities and details about Iranian air defenses. The Iraqis used mustard gas and sarin prior to four major offensives in early 1988 that relied on U.S. satellite imagery, maps, and other intelligence. These attacks helped to tilt the war in Iraq’s favor and bring Iran to the negotiating table, and they ensured that the Reagan administration’s long-standing policy of securing an Iraqi victory would succeed. But they were also the last in a series of chemical strikes stretching back several years that the Reagan administration knew about and didn’t disclose.”
Regardless of the posturing America takes regarding the use of chemical weapons, the reality is evident – unacceptable for our enemies, acceptable for our friends. So in the future, or really the now, it would be advisable to look at the complete picture of a conflict before pretending that certain “red lines” such as the use of chemical weapons wholly drive policy decisions. It is a line America doesn’t mind everyone crossing. In fact, the USG will even help you under the right circumstances.
August 27, 2013 at 12:43 PM
Regardless, the cesspool that’s the Middle East needs to be scrubbed clean!
August 27, 2013 at 1:47 PM
@ John: Be that as it may, why should the US do the scrubbing, it’s not our problem, and doing so causes us nothing but trouble; why don’t we just mind our own damn business; if they’re so determined to kill each other, let them! If we’re going to try scrubbing any cesspools, we should start with Washington!