Tag: DEBKA

Washington will seek to make Israel to follow its lead in accepting a nuclear-armed Iran and firmly oppose a military strike.

The name and policies of the occupant of the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem do not matter – any more than Tehran’s determination to complete its nuclear weapons program in defiance of the world, or even its first A-bomb test in a year or two, for which intelligence sources report Tehran is already getting set.

Obama’s Washington believes America can live with a nuclear-armed Iran.

But Israel cannot, and may have no option but to part ways with the Obama administration on this point. As a nuclear power, Iran will be able to bend Jerusalem to the will of its enemies, make it unconditionally give Syria the Golan plus extra pieces of territory, tamely accept a Hamas-dominated Palestinian West Bank louring over its heartland and let the Lebanese Hizballah terrorize Galilee in the north at will. All three would make hay under Iran’s nuclear shield, while Tehran lords it over the region in the role of regional power conferred by Obama’s grace and favor.

In no time, Israel would be stripped of most of its defenses.

US-Iranian reporter victim of Iranian extremists’ bid to block talks with US
DEBKAfile Special Report 19 April: In the course of opening up US relations with Iran, the Obama administration was confronted April 18 with an unforeseen obstacle: A Tehran court convicted the US-born American-Iranian journalist Roxana Saberi of spying for the US and sentenced the 31-year old to eight years in jail. Her attorney was barred from attending the one-day trial behind closed doors.

DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources explain the timing of the Saberi case as an attempt by wildly anti-US elements inside Tehran’s power structure, possibly in the Revolutionary Guards Corps and clergy, to choke off an Iranian-US rapprochement. Already, some political circles in Washington are up in arms over the heavy sentence, embarrassing the White House at the very moment it is extending a hand to Iran, reported to entail acceptance of its nuclear program.

This policy has encountered little open criticism at home till now.

Twenty-three diplomats storm out of UN Racism conference as Ahmadinejad condemns Israel as “racist”

20 April: Protesters constantly disrupted the speech as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad condemned Israel for “racism” at the Anti-Racism conference which opened in Geneva Monday, April 20.

Some were bundled out. He went on to denounce the US invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan as an arrogant drive to “expand its sphere of influence.”

April 20 Briefs: – Israel marks annual Holocaust Remembrance and Heroism Day.
– Events dedicated to one-and a-half million children who died at Nazi hands.
– Netanyahu vows Holocaust deniers will never be allowed to carry out another holocaust against the people of Israel.
– Israel recalls ambassador from Bern for consultations after Swiss president meets Ahmadinejad in Geneva.
– Excavation to begin at Jamlitz on Berlin’s outskirts for remains of 753 Jewish inmates of Lieberose subsidiary camp shot by Nazis in 1945.
This would be largest Jewish mass grave outside main concentration camps.
– President Peres: The Nazis were defeated, anti-Semitism lives and breathes —
– New Holocaust museum inaugurated in Chicago.

India puts an Israeli all-weather spy satellite in orbit Monday 20 April: DEBKAfile’s military sources report India rushed through its order for the Israeli Aerospace Industries all-weather, 24-hour surveillance TecSAR after 10 gunmen murdered 165 people in Mumbai last November, including five Israelis.

The Israeli satellite is considered one of the most advanced in the market, capable of seeing through clouds and carrying out day-and-night all-weather imaging. It is the first time an acquisition of this nature has gone through within five months of ordering.

The ten gunmen, members of Lashkar-e-Taibe, an operational branch of al Qaeda, landed in Mumbai from the Pakistani port of Karachi after seizing an Indian vessel on the Arabian Sea. Their undetected landing showed New Delhi a big hole remains in its defenses against terrorists.

Cheney steps into row over CIA’s grilling methods as Obama moves to calm crisis 21 April: Former Vice President Dick Cheney formally asked for the declassification of legal memos which proved that the CIA’s interrogation techniques such as water-boarding worked. He said that last week’s decision by Obama to release memos which bared the harsh methods the CIA employed for extracting information from terrorists was a mistake.

Cont. Next Column

This morale-booster, unusually broadcast live, came after the criticism voiced by former agency director Gen. Michael Hayden of publication of the memos, which covered “waterboarding”, week-long sleep deprivation, forced nudity and painful positions.
Hayden had insisted that the release would make it more difficult to get useful information from suspected terrorists. “I think that teaching our enemies our outer limits, by taking techniques off the table, we have made it more difficult… for CIA officers to defend the nation,” he said.

Iran could produce first nuke in 60 days with 7,000 centrifuges working 24/7 – Western experts DEBKAfile’s military sources predict that Iran could turn out nuclear weapons some time in the next 12 months. This estimate is based on Tehran’s announcement that 7,000 centrifuges are in operation to enrich uranium. If all those machines were to work at top speed day and night, seven days a week, they could produce enough weapons-grade uranium to build a bomb in 60 days, say some intelligence sources. According to American experts, given the current rate of the program’s development, Iran will be in a position to manufacture as many as 60 nuclear bombs and warheads in 12 to 18 months.

This judgment was confirmed by Israel’s military intelligence (AMAN) chief, Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin in his latest briefing to the cabinet Monday, April 20. He reported that Iran is going all-out for enriched uranium from overseas to shorten the process.

Barak seeks US anti-Qassam missile Vulcan Phalanx after Israeli Iron Dome fails 21 April: The population of southwestern Israel will remain vulnerable to attack after eight years should Hamas revive the Qassam missile blitz from the Gaza Strip.

Defense minister Ehud Barak, after finally accepting that the Iron Dome still under development will not be up to the task, applied to Washington to purchase Vulcan Phalanx systems worth $25 million each. Raytheon recently tested a new version fitted with a solid-state Laser Area Defense System (LADS). It outdid expectations by intercepting 60mm mortar shells fired from a distance of 450 meters.

Israel’s Red Color warning system works for missiles only – not mortar attack. However, Israeli cannot expect to obtain the Vulcan Phalanx any time soon; the US army ordered all the Raytheon manufacturers’ product for years ahead and our Washington sources doubt that in the current cool climate governing relations, US defense secretary Robert Gates will be too forthcoming.

Israel shocked by Obama’s approval of large Turkish arms sale to Lebanon
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report 22 April: DEBKAfile describes senior Israeli military circles as staggered by the discovery that US president Barack Obama had approved a large Turkish arms sale to the Lebanese army, including the services of Turkish military instructors, without informing Jerusalem. This was taken as further proof that the US president is deaf to Israel’s immediate security concerns. When he signed the arms deal in Ankara Tuesday, April 21, Lebanese president Gen. Michel Suleiman once again pledged publicly to place the Lebanese army at the disposal of the Shiite terrorist Hizballah in any confrontation with Israel.

More than 50 percent of Lebanon’s fighting manpower are Shiites loyal to Hizballah.
The conviction is growing in Jerusalem that the US president endorsed the transaction as a means of breaking up the long-standing military pact between Israel and Turkey, because it interferes with his Middle East objectives.

Suleiman coordinates Egyptian-Israeli positions for talks with Obama
Invites foreign minister Lieberman to Cairo
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report 23 April: Egypt’s senior negotiator, intelligence minister Gen. Omar Suleiman met the prime minister, defense minister, foreign minister, opposition leader and president in Jerusalem Wednesday, April 22, and brought Avigdor Lieberman an invitation to visit Cairo.

After exposing Hizballah’s Iranian-backed machinations to destabilize the Egyptian government, Cairo finds it is fighting an enemy shared with Jerusalem. The Egyptian visitor and his Israeli hosts therefore sought to define common interests ahead of the separate White House talks Netanyahu, Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas will hold between late May and early June.

Barack Obama announced the invitations after his conversation with the visiting King of Jordan, Abdullah II at which he accepted the extended Arab peace plan initiated by Saudi Arabia and reaffirmed at an Arab foreign ministers’ conference in Amman this month. He will present this formula to his three Middle East visitors as the starting point for the diplomatic process.

Three major flies in Washington’s peacemaking ointment are, one, the rival Palestinian Hamas and Fatah factions failed to achieve a power-sharing accord and so Abbas represents only one Palestinian faction – and not necessarily the largest one. Second, Syria stands opposed to the Arab peace initiative.

Netanyahu will lay emphasis on Iran’s aggressive posture, military nuclear program and sponsorship of rejectionist and terrorist Middle East elements as the major

On May 3, Netanyahu is due to visit Washington for talks with US president Barack Obama. On April 16, US Middle East envoy George Mitchell arrives in Jerusalem for his first talks with the new Israeli government.

April 7 briefs: – Palestinian rock-throwers injure Israeli motorist on West Bank road.
– Border Guards detain Palestinian carrying four firebombs into Hebron’s Cave of Patriarchs.
– Palestinian driver shot dead after running down and injuring three Israeli police officers at Jerusalem village of Tsur Baher Tuesday.
The police were there to seal off home of Palestinian who killed three Israelis with bulldozer last year on Jerusalem high street.

Saudis also dismayed by Obama’s seeming tolerance of Iran’s nuclear drive 07 April: On the sidelines of the G20 summit in London, Saudi King Abdullah took the US president sternly to task over his emerging policy on Iran, Syria and Iraq, accusing him to giving the Islamic Republic free rein for its nuclear, expansionist and terrorism-sponsoring Middle East policies.

As for Israel’s concerns, President Shimon Peres pointed out to visiting US congressmen in Jerusalem Monday that Iran had hoodwinked the entire world in its drive for a nuclear bomb whose main target would be the Jewish state; Israel’s population is short of adequate means of self-defense.

Deputy Chief of Staff, Maj. Gen. Dan Harel warned that a nuclear-armed Iran would shield Middle East terror groups, so magnifying the threat to Israel manifold.

But, he added, the IDF was fully capable of backing up any government decision to tackle this existential threat.

Kazakhstan bids for Israeli role in Baikonur, Russia buys Israeli drones 08 April: Kazakhstan is negotiating for Israel to launch its communications satellites from Baikonur to help turn this space launching facility into a going international business venture long term.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Russia, which built the satellite launching station in 1955 for its own use, does not object, because it is constructing a replacement cosmodrome on its own soil and also developing its own military and aviation industrial ties with Israel.

Moscow has bought its first unmanned aerial vehicles from Israel for $50 million, the first of more purchases to come. They are Israel Aerospace Industries’ Bird-Eye 400 for escorting ground units and surveillance, I-View MK150 – a short range UAV system intended for operation with medium tactical echelon levels, and Search MK II, an unmanned air vehicle armed for combat (UCAV).

Jerusalem stammers, Washington deaf to Iran’s race for nuke
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis 10 April: For most of the past decade, Washington and successive Israeli governments have shunted aside to “the international community” and “diplomatic engagement” Iran’s hellbent race for nuclear armament and the missiles for its delivery. New administrations have just taken over in the United States and Israel – but nothing has changed.

Thursday, April 9, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced Iran had completed the nuclear fuel cycle and produced two new high-capacity enrichment centrifuges. He had no fear of retribution.

Astonishingly, US secretary of state Hillary Clinton said his claims were not a rebuff to the offer of five Security Council permanent members and Germany of talks in which the US would be fully engaged.
Her consignment of Iran to insuring that the UN International Atomic Energy Agency was “a source of credible information…” must have amused veteran Iranian hands even in Washington.

For nine years or more, the IAEA has missed every twist and turn on the roads to a bomb followed by Iran and North Korea, starting from the nuclear black market run by Pakistan’s Dr. A.Q. Khan for the benefit of Iran, North Korea and Libya, then North Korea’s nuclear arsenal and ballistic development, followed by Syria’s plutonium reactor. Now come Iran’s nuclear advances in barefaced defiance of the “international community,” a week after North Korea test fired a long-range missile which the US and its allies failed to deter or intercept.

As for Jerusalem, a “top source” said “Israel does not object to talks between the West and Iran as long as Iran does not take advantage of these talks” – which is exactly what Tehran has been doing for years. Israel expects the international community [again] to act firmly to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons,” and will discuss he issue in Netanyahu’s talks with Obama next month, the source said. Oh yes? Isn’t that where we came in three governments ago?

11 April: Shimon Shiran, 57, died of wounds suffered 7 years ago in a Palestinian suicide attack on Haifa Matza restaurant. In dying he raised the death toll from that attack to 16, including his 17-year old daughter.

Washington Helps Curtail Iran’s Covert Thrust into Egypt
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report11 April: Israel has repeatedly warned Egypt that an Iranian multi-branched covert ring would undermine Egyptian security in Sinai and the Suez Canal before turning against Egypt proper. From early 2006, Egyptian and Western security services and Israeli intelligence have been aware of Hizballah’s smuggling operations for Hamas on behalf of Tehran and Iran’s covert networks in Sinai and the Suez Canal cities of Port Said, Suez and Ismailia.

Last Wednesday, April 8, Cairo disclosed that Egyptian security forces had arrested 49 men, 41 Egyptians, seven Israeli Arabs, and one Lebanese citizen on charges of supporting Hamas and Hizballah. Iran was not mentioned. The arrests had begun last November and were continuing.

The disclosure sparked a slanging match between Cairo and Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah. The latter admitted that the network’s head, Sami Shehab, belonged to Hizballah and had provided Hamas with money and logistical support, “for which we are not ashamed.”

He thus confirmed a long-held Israeli intelligence contention.

An Egyptian source shot back by calling Nasrallah an Iranian agent and accusing him of organizing subversion against the Cairo government to divert attention from Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. Neither party spoke of a major undercover Iranian network operating in Egypt for three years, eventually to hook up with clandestine Iranian cells in Somalia and Sudan, an outer safety belt as a counterweight to the US naval presence and deterrent against a strike on its nuclear facilities.

Six months ago, Cairo began rolling up the Iranian ring, but only after the US beefed up its naval strength in the Gulf of Suez and Red Sea and assured Cairo that more would be done.

April 12 briefs: – Netanyahu tells Abbas he will resume talks and cooperation to promote peace.
– Palestinian leader called him with Passover greetings, later called President Peres.
– Jewish Priests Blessing was celebrated at Jerusalem’s Western Wall on fifth day of Passover.
– Jerusalem’s Christian shrines packed with Easter pilgrims of many denominations.

13 April: Egyptian security forces are closing in on a secret Iranian-Hizballah headquarters in central Sinai which has been organizing the flow of smuggled arms to Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Cairo’s intelligence points to three possible locations: Wadi Umar or neighboring Nahel, Beir Hasneh and Badr al Hittain.

As part of the operation, a 500-strong Egyptian force in armored vehicles carried out a surprise raid on Bedouin territory Monday, April 13. They found nothing but sparked a confrontation with the tribes. The Bedouin chiefs accused Cairo of violating the treaty between them by entering their territory without warning; they threatened a general lockdown in reprisal.

Under the same treaty, the chiefs are obliged to report to the Egyptian authorities on any foreigners present. Cairo suspected them of holding back this information and covering up for the Iranian-Hizballah smuggling command center.

Palestinian remote-controlled explosives boat intercepted near Israeli shore 13 April: Israel’s chief of staff Lt. Gen. Gaby Ashkenazi said the unmanned Palestinian “fishing boat” from the Gaza Strip which exploded 400 meters from the Israeli coast Monday, April 13 was heading for an Israeli naval vessel packed with hundreds of kilograms of explosives. DEBKAfile’s military sources report that it was detonated by remote control from the shore.

Israeli counter-terror forces have been on the alert on air, sea and land for the eight-day Passover festival which ends Wednesday. They suspect Palestinian terrorists of trying out a new method of attacking Israeli coastal targets or offshore Israeli Navy units by means of exploding sea craft driven by remote control.

Palestinian sources claimed earlier that it was a regular fishing boat which came under Israeli naval fire. They do not explain why it was unmanned.

Peres threatens military strike
DEBKAfile Special Report 13 April: Sunday, Israeli President Shimon Peres told an Israeli radio interviewer that if President Barack Obama’s diplomatic efforts to prevent Iran from going nuclear failed, “We’ll strike him,” referring to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Later senior Iranian negotiator, Said Jalili phoned EU official Javier Solana to correct the impression by saying Tehran “welcomed talks”, but he did not contradict the conditions laid down by his superior.

Ali Larijani, speaker of the Iranian parliament (Majlis) who said: “The Iranian government will only conduct international negotiations on the nuclear issue that are approved by the parliament and the legislature will closely monitor all such talks.”

He then added: “The proposal by some members of the 5+1 group calling for more intrusive inspections of Iran’s nuclear activities is not legal.”

In 2007, the Majlis banned the cessation of uranium enrichment and prohibited concessions on Iran’s nuclear program.

Iran plans a second, bigger satellite launch 14 April: Tuesday, April 14, as North Korea reactivated its nuclear weapons facilities in defiance of UN resolutions, Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinjad announced plans to send a second satellite into space, this one on a rocket with a range of 1,500 km.

The launch of its first home-made satellite Omid in February, ostensibly for “peaceful telecommunications,” demonstrated Tehran’s acquisition of long-range ballistic technology usable for delivering nuclear warheads. The next satellite would be bigger than Omid and have a longer range.
Tuesday, North Korea decided to expel international inspectors and reactivate its nuclear facilities in retaliation for the UN Security Council’s c unanimous condemnation of its long-range Taepodong 2 missile launch last week. Pyongyang also announced its withdrawal from the six-power talks on its nuclear program.

Clearly, both North Korea and Iran are moving ahead on parallel courses, impervious to Western condemnation (of North Korea) and concessions (to Tehran) for the sake of diplomatic engagement.

Their courses undoubtedly intersect. Of late, a ship that travelled from North Korea to Iran last December is suspected of having several dozen tons of enriched uranium hidden in its cargo.

Ahmadinejad boasts Iran forced Washington to retreat on enrichment halt 15 April: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad crowed Wednesday, April 15: “Iran’s resistance and progress in nuclear technology forced Washington to retreat from its position…” Following the suggestion that the six powers’ could waive the US demand for Iran to give up enriching uranium as a pre-condition for talks, the Iranian president said: “You know well that today you are suffering from weaknesses. You have no choice.”

He said contemptuously that Tehran was preparing a “new package” in response to the US, Britain, China, France, Germany and Russia’s invitation to negotiations and “When it is ready we will present it to you.”

Israel has military resources to destroy Iran’s nuclear sites – Washington sources 15 April: A prestigious Washington think tank – the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) – has concluded by means of detailed research and analysis that Israel is militarily capable of destroying Iran’s nuclear program. This view is shared by the Adm. Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint US Chiefs of Staff, who asked recently if Israel could carry off an attack on Iran, replied tersely: “Yes.”

Sole surviving Mumbai massacre suspect goes on trial, as India goes to polls

15 April: Mohammed Aimal Kasab, 21, a Pakistani, faces possible execution five months after a terrorist siege in which he and 10 gunmen took part killed more than 160 people. The dozen charges include murder, conspiracy to wage war and terrorism. The court sacked his defense lawyer over a conflict of interest, delaying the trial. A replacement must be found by Legal Aid before the trial can proceed.

The trial opened the day before 700 million Indians begin month-long polling for a new leader and the lower house of parliament. Security was high on the campaign agenda. Indian Army Chief Gen. Deepak Kapoor warned that women are being trained “on the other side” to infiltrate into Jammu and Kashmir.

Gates totally opposes Israeli strike on Iran 16 April: The US defense secretary Robert Gates Said again Wednesday: “A strike probably would delay Tehran’s nuclear program one to three years, it would unify Iranians, cement their determination to have a nuclear program and also build into the whole country an undying hatred of whoever hits them.”

Taking issue with Gates, DEBKAfile’s military sources note that he avoided spelling out the words “nuclear weapon” – as though to blur the fact that this is Iran’s goal. As for his use of “undying hatred,” in the future tense, he may not have noticed that the radical Islamic regime bombards its people night and day with their undying hatred for Israel and calls to “wipe the Jewish state off map.”

This was the first time a Russian figure had predicted Iran would be nuclear-capable within so short a period, DEBKAfile’s Moscow sources stress. Its correlative linkage to a heightened threat from Hamas and Hizballah has never been heard from Moscow, or even explicitly from Washington or Jerusalem.
Without mentioning Israel, this Russian warning implicitly put the Jewish state on notice, as the only country threatened by Hizballah and Hamas, that time was running out.

It was the second pointer to a tougher Russian stance on Iran’s nuclear weapon aspiratoins. On March 10, the Russian news agency Interfax quoted an unnamed Moscow source as stating that “Russia may shelve delivery of its advanced S-300 air defense missile system to Iran” – if decided at the political level.

France to help develop Saudi, Egyptian, Gulf nuclear programs 13 Mar.: France has injected fresh momentum into the Middle East nuclear race by inviting Gulf nations to take a minority stake in the French nuclear giant Areva (CEPFi.PA), DEBKAfile’s military sources report.

After a meeting with French president Nicolas Sarkozy Friday, March 13, the emir of Kuwait, Sheikh Jaber Moubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah, said the two leaders discussed the possible purchase of French military materiel and the issue of energy and nuclear reactors. He also referred to Kuwait and other Gulf countries taking a one-to-five percent stake in the world’s biggest builder of nuclear reactors.

Paris has a separate deal with Egypt.

The Bush administration signed contracts for building nuclear power-generating industries with Saudi Arabia (Dec. 2, 2008) and the United Arab Emirates (Jan. 15, 2009).

DEBKAfile: Potential Gulf involvement in the French nuclear industry has four key aspects:
1. A one-to-five percent stake may only be the starter for more substantial control.
2. Paris is ready to open its international nuclear establishment for Arab interests to come in by the front door.
3. The Gulf states can be expected to use this access to win a dominant role in the world’s two leading energy markets – oil and nuclear power.
4. They can also use their access to advanced nuclear technology for creating the infrastructure for developing a military nuclear industry to rival Iran’s.

US-born Somalis go missing, feared recruited for jihad
DEBKAfile Special Report14 Mar.: DEBKAfile’s sources in the US Minneapolis-St. Paul area report that the disappearance of dozens of young US-born Somali men in this area since last fall is under investigation by anti-terror authorities concerned they have been recruited to fight with al Qaeda-linked Islamist terrorists to topple the transitional federal government in Mogadishu. Some may return home trained to form America’s first homegrown Islamist terrorist cell. The probe, triggered by a group of concerned ex-US military officers, has spread to Somali communities in other parts of America and, according to our sources, Canada too.

Suspicions were aroused when last December, Shirwa Ahmed, a naturalized US citizen, died in a suicide bombing in northern Somalia. Ahmed, 27, was a 1999 graduate of Minneapolis’s Roosevelt High School.

US law enforcement agencies are concerned that young jihadists could return to the US and follow a similar path to the British Pakistanis who carried out the London bombings of July 2005 after visiting radical mosques in Pakistan. British Muslim extremists were also suspected of involvement in the Mumbai terrorist outrage last November.

March 14 Briefs: – Nine nations agree to share intelligence on Hamas arms smuggling activity – especially by sea.
They are committed to refrain from using force to thwart smuggling.
– UK denies visa to Hizballah activist notorious for anti-Semitic statements who was invited to lecture at London University.
– Nasrallah says never in a thousand years will Hizballah recognize Israel’s right to exist.
– Three Palestinian missiles fired from Gaza explode on open ground Saturday.

Two Israeli police officers die of injuries in Jordan Valley shooting
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

15 Mar.: DEBKAfile’s military sources report Israeli and Jordanian army units in a big manhunt on both sides of the border for the gunmen who shot dead two Israeli police officers in an ambush of their van on Highway 90 near Masuah in the Jordan Valley Sunday night, March 15. “The Imad Moughniyeh Martyr’s Brigades” claimed the attack in an anonymous call to the French News Agency, but military sources say this is a fabricated name.

The incident is under investigation, including the possibility that the assailants infiltrated from Jordan, a hypothesis borne out by the professional way the attack was carried out, indicating a better standard of military training than displayed in terrorist attacks by West Bank Palestinians.

The perpetrators set their ambush at a bend in the road where conditions force traffic to slow down and waited in a dark spot far from the nearest habitation for a police or military vehicle to pass by.

Even in the nearest houses no one heard the shots.
It was only some time later, that a passing motorist came upon the overturned police car. His alert brought large military and police forces to the scene.

Al Qaeda: We shot the Israeli policemen near Masuah

16 Mar.: Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the murder of two Israeli policemen Sunday night outside Masuah in the Jordan Valley Sunday night, March 15, DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources reveal.

The claim appeared Monday in a leaflet circulated in Jordan and the West Bank announcing that the shooting of the two Israeli policemen was al Qaeda’s first operation “on the West Bank” and there were more to come.

The victims were David Rabinovich, 50 from Rosh Ha’ayin and Yehezkiel Ramzarkar, 42, from Maale Ephraim.

“Our team waylaid the Israeli security vehicle on Highway 90 and killed its passengers,” the leaflet stated.

It also revealed that the killers set out on their mission immediately after Osama bin Laden’s last tape was aired by Al Jazeera Saturday, “to carry out his orders.”

It does not specify whether they came from Jordan or the West Bank. Bin Laden stated that, as the Americans start pulling out of Iraq, jihad must be relocated to “the Palestinian territories.”

DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources point to his key phrase as being: “Jordan… is the best and widest front, and from Jordan the second launching will be toward the West Bank.”

– Ex-president Khatami pulls out of Iran’s presidential race leaving Ahmadinejad virtually unchallenged for second term.
– Eleven people killed in suicide attack in S. Afghanistan’s Helmund province.
– Zardari acts to stem political turmoil in Pakistan.
– He reinstates sacked judges, reviews of court ruling disqualifying opposition leader Nawaz Sharif from public office.
– Five killed in Pakistan’s North West Frontier by missile fired by sixth drone attack since Obama took office.
– Israel’s top soldier Ashkenazi cuts short Washington visit.
– Netanyahu’s Likud signs first accord for new government coalition with rightist Israel Beitenu. Lieberman is designated foreign minister, Uzi Landau infrastructure, Yitzhak Aharonovich internal security and police.

Prime Minister Olmert: No more concessions to Hamas for Gilead Shalit’s release 16 Mar.: Outgoing prime minister Ehud Olmert explained in a dramatic address to the nation Tuesday night, March 17, why last-ditch negotiations for Gilead Shalit’s release after three years in captivity had failed. He said Hamas had spurned Israel’s latest offer to release many hundreds of convicted prisoners, including terrorists guilty of murdering many Israelis.

That was it, he said; the list is final. Any more would cross a red line and hazard Israel’s national security. Hamas spokesmen responded: We can wait for Binyamin Netanyahu [the PM-designate who is due to establish a new government within days].

The Palestinian radical group is demanding the freedom of 1,500 convicted terrorists, including 450 hard-case multiple murderers. Israel has offered to free 325 hard-cases, of whom 144 must be exiled to the Gaza Strip or abroad, for fear their presence on the West Bank will re-ignite the Palestinian suicide terror industry which Israeli put down two years ago.

Monday night, when Olmert’s envoys to the indirect negotiations, Shin Bet director Yuval Diskin and special negotiator for prisoners Ofer Dekel, returned empty-handed, Olmert accused Hamas of hardening its position, reneging on past understandings and raising new, excessive demands. He was taken aback, DEBKAfile revealed, after receiving word from Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak that Syrian president Bashar Assad had ordered the extremist Hamas to drop its all-or-nothing ultimatum and lower its demands form 100 to 90 percent. This hope was dashed when put to the test.

Labor’s Barak’s tempted by Netanyahu’s four-portfolio proposition 18 Mar.: Ehud Barak, defense minister and Labor leader, is close to a decision to take his party into Binyamin Netanyahu’s coalition government, tempted by his latest offer, according to DEBKAfile’s political sources. He is battling fierce opposition inside his party but believes he can swing round the majority of the central committee when it meets next week.

Netanyahu will next week ask the president for more time for coalition negotiations. Although he has ratcheted up a majority of 61-65 Knesset members, Israel’s prime minister-in-waiting is very reluctant to lead an administration made up of right-of-center, nationalist and religious parties. To lure Labor, our sources report he is offering that party the ministries of defense, social welfare, pensioners and one without portfolio, two deputy ministers and two powerful parliamentary chairs – Finance and Constitution.

The designated prime minister is willing to pick Israel’s ambassador to Washington together with the Labor leader.

Saudis create anti-Israeli Palestinian “militia” in Gaza to combat Hamas
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report18 Mar.: DEBKAfile’s military sources disclose that Saudi intelligence services are deep in recruitment for a new radical Islamist terrorist militia in the southern Gaza Strip towns of Deir al Balakh, Khan Younes and Rafah, with Egyptian blessing. More than 1,000 Palestinians have joined up in two weeks, poached from the extreme Hamas fringes and the Salafi sects of the South.

Recruiters promise greater militancy against Israel than Hamas and Jihad Islami combined.

The new Gaza group is intended to complement the pro-Saudi organization established in southern Lebanon in January, part of a new Riyadh project to establish a chain of Islamist, Taliban-style fighting cadres under Saudi control for combating the pro-Iranian and al Qaeda terrorist organizations strung across the Middle East. This grand design is the brainchild of the Saudi intelligence chief Prince Muqrin Abdul Aziz.

High Russian official: Moscow is gradually fulfilling S-300 air defense contract with Iran 18 Mar.: According to Western intelligence sources, Moscow keeps on changing its position on delivery of five sophisticated Russian S-300 anti-missile, anti-air missile systems sold to Iran for $800 million for four reasons:

1. Fluctuating levels of tension ahead of the first summit between the Russian and American presidents in London on April 2.
2. US and Israeli intelligence proofs that the Russians started supplying Iran with parts of the S-300 systems at the end of January and during February – despite its promise to Washington to freeze delivery.
3. Dmitry Medvedev is reluctant to have Barack Obama ask him how, in the light of this breach, Washington can trust Moscow to honor agreements.
4. The Kremlin is itself divided on whether to make good on the S-300 contract.

Wednesday, March 18, an unnamed official of Russia’s Federal Service of Military-Technical Cooperation issued another muddled statement: “Russia has not delivered the S-300 air defense systems” – then: “Meanwhile the contract is being fulfilled gradually,” followed by:”Further fulfillment of the contract will mainly depend on the current international situation and the decision of the country’s leadership” and “Russia has no intention of giving up the estimated hundred million-US dollar contract.”

March 18 Briefs:– Israel High Court allows demolition of home of first “tractor terrorist” who killed three people in Jerusalem in July 2008.
– Israeli panel reviews jailed Palestinians’ privileges as pressure on Hamas to free Gilead Shalit.
– Medvedev orders new nuclear arsenal to meet expanded NATO presence around Russian borders —
– Hamas’ Hayman Taha threatens to kidnap more Israeli soldiers to free jailed Palestinians.

Incoming FM Lieberman urges strategic partnership between Israel and Russia19 Mar.: Tapped as foreign minister in the future Netanyahu government, Avigdor Lieberman says relations between Israeli and Russia “must and can rise to a level of strategic partnership.” In an unusual interview with the Russian Interfax news agency, the leader of the right-of-center Israel Beitenu said Wednesday, March 18: “However paradoxical it may seem, the global economic crisis gives Israel new opportunities to reach the Russian market after many Western companies abandoned it.”

He added: “The same refers to military-technical cooperation. Israel has quite a few things to offer Russia in this sector – from electronic systems for fighter jets to drones.”

Israel Beitenu came third in the February general election.

The prime minister’s trial is subject to a special hearing, thereby launching the legal battles ahead of him. Another major case inquiry pending against him relates to suspicions that he fraudulently doubled-billed sponsors for air tickets. Olmert stepped down as prime minister last year amid these corruption scandals, prompting the February 2009 general election. He is serving as caretaker until the Likud leader designated prime minister is able to form a coalition, possibly within days.

US actress Annette Bening hopes Tehran visit kick-starts US-Iran dialogue 01 Mar.: In a brief statement Sunday, March 1, US film actress Annette Bening, in Tehran with a Hollywood delegation, said: “I hope we can be a bridge to open a dialogue between out two countries.”
This statement confirmed DEBKAfile’s report that president Barack Obama had launched his bid for talks with Iran with a piece of “Hollywood diplomacy,” mirroring Richard Nixon’s ping-pong diplomacy which opened the door to China 38 years ago.

The American visitors were greeted with a demand from president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s art adviser that Hollywood apologize for 30 years of “insults and slanders” about Iranians in their films. He cited the 2007 war epic “300” for its portrayal of their ancestors as “bloodthirsty” in the Greco-Persian wars and “The Wrestler” for the tearing of the Iranian flag in by the 2009 Oscar nominee Mickey Rourke.

“We will believe in Obama’s policy of change when we see change in Hollywood too.” said the Iranian official.

International aid to Gaza will end up with Hamas and… in Tehran
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report 02 Mar.: After the 80 delegations, led by US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, leave Sharm e-Sheikh Monday, March 2, the $4.5 billion they pledged to aid Gaza’s reconstruction may be channeled through the Palestinian Authority, but it will eventually end up strengthening Hamas and paying Iran for arming the Palestinian Islamist terrorists. No more than 15 c in the dollar will reach the Gaza populace.

This is the money trail followed by DEBKAfile.
The truism that Hamas controls everything that moves in Gaza was amply borne out by the Quartet’s envoy Tony Blair. He postponed entering Gaza for months over threats to his life. He finally went in – albeit not too far in – Sunday, March 1 under the protection of an armed Hamas escort.

While there, he may well have heard the whistle of the five missiles Hamas and its ilk fired into Israel that day, one destroying an Ashkelon school.

Ironically, Israel is one of the donors.

The free world and its donors are not contesting their division of labor with Iran – they put up the cash, part of which is diverted to this terror sponsor par excellence for missiles. The delegations meeting in Sharm e-Sheikh prefer to go home feeling virtuous, having shown their support for the most fashionable international aid cause in the world.

Hamas and its sponsors can then drop their public pose as victims and have a good laugh over the Western world’s gullibility.

Gaza Hamas leader keynote speaker at Iran anti-Israel conference 03 Mar.: DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources that Gaza’s Hamas strongman Mahmoud A-Zahar was given an Israeli safe passage to travel from Gaza to Cairo in mid-February.

He made straight for Damascus and Tuesday, March 3, was flown to Tehran to deliver the keynote speech at a conference called by the Islamic Republic as a counterweight to the international donors’ conference sponsored by the US and Egypt this week.

The draft resolution prepared for endorsement Wednesday calls for Israeli leaders to be prosecuted for “war crimes” in the Gaza Strip.

DEBKAfile notes that Barak let A-Zahar leave Gaza against a promise by Egyptian intelligence minister Gen. Omar Suleiman that the Hamas leader would be willing to sign onto a long-term truce in the Gaza Strip, a process that would bring forward the release of the captive Israeli soldier Gilead Shalit.

Barak still believes this will happen notwithstanding evidence to the contrary – including daily missile fire from the Gaza Strip.

Five Pakistani police killed, 7 Sri Lanka cricketers injured in suspected Lashkar a-Taibe ambush 03 Mar.: DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources report: The attack by 14 gunmen on the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore was better planned and organized than the terrorist attack on the Indian town of Mumbai last November albeit by the same hand. In Mumbai nine of the 10 assailants were killed; in Lahore, they all got away unhurt.

The outrage which cancelled an important Test match between two of the finest cricket teams in the world was also a setback to the policy advanced by the new US presidential envoy Richard Holbrooke for patching up the Pakistan-Indian quarrel in order to bring New Delhi into the Afghanistan peacemaking process.

Like their Mumbai fellows, the gunmen carried big backpacks but in addition to automatic rifles and explosives they also packed grenades, rockets, RPGs and a large shoulder-borne missile.

DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources disclose that most of the Lashkar e-Taibe’s commanders and members pulled out of Pakistan in early 2008 and relocated at al Qaeda hideouts in Afghanistan. But they enjoy enough popularity in the Pakistan street to operate in almost any part of the country and then go safely to ground.

The Sri Lankan convoy’s route to Lahore stadium was changed at the last minute but the terrorists nonetheless received a tip-off in time for their ambush.

They are the State Department’s top Middle East official, Jeffrey Feltman, and Dan Shapiro from the White House national security council.

In her meetings with Israel leaders, she pledged “everything we can to ensure Israel’s security now and into the future” and repeated her warnings that rocket attacks from Gaza “must cease.”

She also said she shared “Israel’s concern about Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and continued financing of terrorist organizations.”

There is no time to waste, said Clinton, before engaging the Palestinians and achieving a stable ceasefire in Gaza which is only possible of the rocket fire stops. “The inevitability of a two-state solution is inescapable,” she said.

But she also assured that any possible differences of opinion on that vital issue with any Israeli government would not harm the friendly relations.

Israel’s designated prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu has shied away froma two-state solution to the Middle East conflict. He stressed to Clinton that Iran is blocking the Palestinian and all other Middle East issues. Therefore dealing with Tehran and its determination to attain a nuclear bomb is the overriding priority.

A “malicious” source in Iran accessed data on helicopter in Obama’s fleet 03 Mar.: Employees at the data monitoring firm Tiversa discovered last week that the blueprints and other sensitive data of a helicopter in President Barack Obama’s fleet had been gained online. The US Navy is investigating how a “malicious” source in Iran accessed the information.

Iran’s leaders: Israel cancerous tumor, Obama pursues same wrong path as Bush 04 Mar.: Leading a concentrated outpouring of venomous hate, Iran’s supreme ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared Wednesday, March 4, that President Barack Obama is pursuing the same “wrong path” as his predecessor George W. Bush in supporting Israel – “a cancerous tumor” – and he saw no change.

At a conference in Tehran on the Palestinians, he said: “Another big mistake is to say that the only way to save the Palestinian nation is by negotiations.” Negotiations with whom?” he asked. “America and Britain committed the biggest sin in creating and support this cancerous tumor…
“The way to save [the Palestinians] is by standing firm and resisting [euphemism for terror].”
President Mahmoud Ahmandinejad told the conference: “The story of the Holocaust, a nation without a homeland and a homeland without a nation… are the biggest lies of our era.”

4 March Briefs:

• The Arab League is “greatly disturbed” by the internal criminal court’s warrant to arrest the Sudanese president Omar Sharif.

  Clinton after talks with Palestinian leaders: “Obama administration is vigorously engaged in forging lasting peace in Middle East.

  French delegation will walk out of Geneva racism conference if anti-Israel- or anti-Semitic statements or proposals made.

Labor edges towards joining Netanyahu government 05 Mar.: DEBKAfile’s political sources report that the Histadrut Trade Unions leader, Ofer Eini, who has emerged as supreme national fixer in the ongoing crises over business closures and layoffs, threw his support behind the outgoing defense minister Ehud Barak’s bid to join Binyamin Netanyahu’s Likud-led government. Eini’s backing, voiced in a radio interview Thursday, March 5, is helping Barak buck the revolt of stalwarts who insist on taking the part into opposition. It also edges Netanyahu closer to his goal of a broad national government.

Netanyahu is playing on widespread reports of his impending offer of the foreign affairs ministry to Avigdor Lieberman, head of the right-wing Israel Beitenu foreign affairs, in order to bring Labor and Kadima to the table. If they step in, he would likely drop Israel Beitenu.

March 5 Briefs:

• Four Qassam missiles from Gaza explode harmlessly at Sdot Hanegev and Shear Hanegev Thursday.

• Two Palestinians killed, 2 injured, while firing anti-tank missiles at an Israeli armored force near Kissufim. An Israeli air strike took them out.

• US will not deal with Hamas in Palestinian unity administration before Israel recognition.

• UK mulls direct contacts with Hizballah’s “political wing.”

• Sen. Kerry reports Damascus would go back to indirect talks with Israel.

Israel must agree to Saudi peace plan, restoration of Golan.

Rampaging Palestinian tractor driver shot in central Jerusalem

05 Mar.: The Palestinian tractor driver hoisted a police van, injuring two police officers, in heavy traffic near the Jerusalem Malha shopping mall. As the tractor driver tried to toss the police van with his shovel onto a bus packed with schoolgirls, a passing taxi driver pulled a gun and shot him dead, cutting the rampage short before it claimed more victims on the gridlocked highway.

This was the third time a Palestinian terrorist used a tractor to attack highway traffic in downtown Jerusalem.

The UN’s nuclear watchdog reported Thursday Iran has stocked more than one tonne of low enriched uranium hexafluoride at Natanz alone. If enriched, it could produce more than 20 kilos of fissile material – enough for a bomb. French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner spoke Friday of a new enrichment plant capable of housing thousands of centrifuges the Iranians had built at a secret site, confirming long-held suspicions of sites hidden from the UN inspectors.

This week Dr Mohammed ElBaradei, the international nuclear agency’s director said: “Iran right now is not providing any access, any clarification with regard to the whole area of the possible military dimension.”
The UN report also disclosed a dome Iran had built to conceal its Arak heavy water reactor, which is the core of a program for processing plutonium for military purposes.

All these developments mean that Iran has reached a “breakout capacity” – a stage that would allow it to produce enough fissile material for a bomb. This crosses a “red line” that for years Israel has said it would not accept.

British Muslims suspected of sending Taliban roadside bombs gadgets 21 Feb.: British troops told British foreign secretary David Miliband during visit to Helmand, Afghanistan, that British Muslims were smuggling devices which enable Taliban fighters to detonate roadside bombs by remote control to Afghanistan. They were either sent to sympathizers in the region or carried by volunteers who fly to Pakistan and then make their way across the border.

Three Israelis injured in Katyusha rocket attack on Maalot 21 Feb.: One rocket fired from Lebanon early Saturday, Feb. 21, hit a building in the West Galilee town of Arab Christian town of Mailiyeh, a second fell on the Lebanese side of the border. Three civilians hit by shrapnel, two suffered shock. Hizballah has denied responsibility for the attack.

Israeli artillery returned the fire emanating, according to Lebanese sources, from al-Qulaila and al-Mansouri, near the Lebanese border town of Naqoura.

New pro-Saudi terrorist group suspected of Katyusha attack from Lebanon
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report 21 Feb.: The rocket attack of Saturday, Feb. 21 is attributed by DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources to the “Jihad Movement for Gaza” – a new terrorist organization operating out of the Ain Hilwa refugee camp near the South Lebanese town of Sidon. No organization has taken responsibility for the attack.

This ragtag group of Palestinian, Syrian, Lebanese and Iraqi terrorists is headed jointly by Jamail Hamad, a Palestinian Sunni Moslem, and Gandi Suhmurani, a Lebanese Shiite, with funding from Saudi intelligence to buy recruits, weapons, explosives and rockets.

Saudi intelligence is investing in the new group to create a militia for challenging Hizballah’s sole grip on South Lebanon and Iran’s inroads on Lebanon. To win recognition and legitimacy, the Jihad Movement for Gaza is trying to seize the war initiative against Israel and show Hizballah up as all talk and no action.

Iran’s first nuclear reactor starts “pilot stage” at Bushehr Wednesday
DEBKAfile Special Report 22 Feb.: The preliminary phase of Iran’s first reactor, built with Russian help at the southern town of Bushehr, was to be marked by a ceremony Wednesday, Feb. 25, attended by. Our sources report that Iranian nuclear teams will first activate the 1,000-MW reactor’s sections in sequence with the help of advanced Russian computers flown in to monitor their progress. The head of Iran’s nuclear commission, Gholamreza Aghazadeh and the head of Russia’s state Rosatom Atomic Corporation, Sergey Kiriyenko will be on hand.

Iranian and Western nuclear experts say this stage is a vital step forward to making the Bushehr reactor operational. Barring hitches, it will be ready for full operation by August 2009.

It was hoped in Washington and Jerusalem that after 10 years of Russian delays, the reactor would never be finished – at least until the US and Russian presidents Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev met for the first time on April 2, at the G-20 summit.

Feb. 23 Briefs

• Israel forces drive back Hamas bombers trying to plant device on Gaza border fence near Kissufim.-
  The air force strikes their getaway vehicle.–
  This was Hamas’ second attempt to blow up border fence this week.
  The Hague court subpoenas four Lebanese generals suspected of abetting 2005 Rafiq Hariri assassination.
  US pledges $100m aid to Jordan, $900m for Gaza’s reconstruction.
  Israel’s bank interest slashed by 0.25% to all-time low of 0.75%.
  Netanyahu assures trade unions leader he will pursue a policy of dialogue with labor.
  Clinton visits Israel, Palestinian Authority Monday, March 2 —
  Northern Israeli town Hatzor Haglilit in shutdown over closure of only place of employment, a fruit cannery.

Livni blocks unity government on pro-Palestinian pretext, Abbas frees Hamas terrorists
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report and Analysis 23 Feb.: DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Sunday, Feb. 22, the Palestinian Authority on orders from chairman Mahmoud Abbas began releasing Hamas terrorists who were detained as part of his commitment to join forces with Israel to combat Palestinian terror.

Abbas did not consult Israel before freeing the first batch of 21 prisoners or the second batch of 41.
In the Gaza Strip, Hamas began releasing activists of Abbas’ Fatah.

Our sources reveal that, under pressure from Washington, prime minister Ehud Olmert and foreign minister Tzipi Livni agreed to their transfer to the West Bank in the face of warnings from the military against reopening the Gaza-West Bank corridor for the movement of terrorists.

The Palestinian Fatah and Hamas are on a fast-moving secret track towards a power-sharing accord with Hamas is pinning Abbas down to giving up his security ties with the United States and Israel.

Nonetheless, Kadima’s leader Tzipi Lilvni tried to force Binyamin Netanyahu to endorse her two-state approach to negotiations with the Palestinians. The prime minister-designate countered that the Olmert-Livni talks with Abbas over many months got nowhere, while the perils posed by Iran and its advance on Israel’s borders were existential and much more immediate.

Netanyahu and Livni agreed to meet again although prospects for a unity government have receded.

24 Feb.: Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad signed a series of accords with Djibouti president Ismail Omar Guelle Tuesday, Feb. 24, establishing technical and vocational centers in the East African state and supporting development projects. A new protocol opened an Iranian credit line for Djibouti, whose president commended the cooperation between two nations belonging to the “great Islamic Ummah.”

DEBKAfile: Tehran continues its expansionist drive beyond the Middle East to the Horn of Africa, including Somalia and Eritrea.

Feb. 14 Briefs

• North Korea prepares to launch a satellite from its NE coast.
  Five US soldiers, an Iraqi policeman, two interpreters fatally shot in separate incidents in Iraq Tuesday in the Mosul region.
  Monday, three US soldiers killed in Diyala north of Baghdad —

Netanyahu weighs Nathan Sharansky for foreign minister
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report 24 Feb.: After Labor and Kadima leader Ehud Barak and Tzipi Livni refused to join his wall-to-wall government, Israel’s designated prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu launched negotiations for a centrist government coalition supported by a parliamentary majority of 65 members of the right-of-center and religious parties. Three or four ministers will be drawn from outside political parties: Nathan Sharansky is Netanyahu’s choice for the foreign ministry.

Sharansky, a respected world figure whom the Soviet government sentenced to hard labor as a human rights activist and founder of the Jewish Refusenik movement in Moscow, was released in East Germany in 1986 and settled in Israel. He served in various cabinet posts until 2006. Sharanksy has won several bipartisan US honors.
The Likud leader is still in the early stages of lining up his cabinet.

A new Israel killer drone can take out S-300 anti-air missile acquired by Iran 25 Feb.: The Israeli air industries first unveiled its new Harop “loiter drone” for taking out ground-to-air missiles before it enters attack mode at the annual Aero-India 2009 air show in Bangalore.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that while Iran has contracted to buy from Russia five S-300 batteries worth $800 m, classified as a game-changer, to defend its nuclear sites against potential aerial attack, India and Turkey are interested in Israel’s Harop killer-drone.

Once it penetrates Iranian airspace, the Harop can silence surface-to-air batteries and open the skies to aerial and missile attack. It can travel 1,000 km to patrol an assigned area until a hostile target is exposed. Its 23-kilo warhead then strikes the target before it is activated. The Russian S-300 missile is one such target. The expendable Harop can sustain a mission of several hours over an assigned area. Operated by electro-optical sensors, the drone can detect weapons systems in inert mode, weapons on the move and radar installations switched off to avoid detection.

Obama avoids naming presidential envoy for Iran

25 Feb.: Contrary to widespread speculation, veteran diplomat Dennis Ross has been named special adviser to secretary of state Hillary Clinton for counsel on the broad area between Afghanistan and Egypt, according to Washington officials.

President Barack Obama has decided not to appoint a special presidential envoy for Iran, a post which Ross had been expected to fill.

For now, he will not be involved personally in the Iranian issue.

DEBKAfile’s Washington sources report that Obama is signaling that for the time being the direct open talks with Tehran promised in his campaign are not about to take off.

Feb. 25 briefs:

• Since Israel’s Jan. 18 ceasefire Hamas managed to smuggle into Gaza anti-air missiles, quantities of Grad rockets, C-4 explosives for missiles.
• No date for completing Iran’s reactor at Bushehr from Russian nuclear chief Kirienko.
• Barak: Time is running out fast, even sanctions will not halt Iran’s nuclear progress/
• Iran promises “good nuclear news again ” on April 9 (Day 1 of Jewish Passover) —

Netanyahu’s three candidates for defense 25 Feb.: Sources close to prime minister-designate Binyamin Netanyahu’ reported Wednesday night, Feb. 25, that his three candidates for defense are in descending order the incumbent Ehud Barak, head of the Labor party, or two former chiefs of staff, Shaul Mofaz of Kadima or Moshe Yaalon of Likud.

The final choice depends on the coalition accords still in the making with other parties. The sources stressed that those three were the only candidates and ruled out the candidacy of Dan Meridor.

Netanyahu’s Likud began formal negotiations for a coalition Wednesday with right-of-center Israeli Beitenu and ultra-religious Shas after he was rebuffed by Kadima’s Tzipi Livni and Labor.

Damascus may heat up Syrian-Lebanese-Israel borders over Hariri tribunal
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report 26 Feb.: Washington and Jerusalem are bracing for a flare-up on the Syrian and Lebanese borders with Israel as the international tribunal prosecuting Rafiq Hariri’s assassins starts sittings next Sunday, March 1.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has engineered a delay by insisting on tight security measures for the court. But Washington has refused to postpone its hearings which Syrian president Bashar Assad sees as a ticking bomb for his regime. He may therefore retaliate.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Israel’s armed forces, the four Syrian divisions arrayed along Lebanese and Israeli borders, the Lebanese army, the United Nations peace force and Hizballah are all in a high state of suspense for trouble.

On the surface, hectic US diplomatic activity presages a thaw in relations with Damascus. But when it comes down to brass tacks, Barack Obama is not letting the Syrian president off the hook on longstanding bones of contention: Damascus’ support for terrorist groups, its acquisition of nuclear and nonconventional weaponry, interference in Lebanon, ties with Iran and worsening human rights.