In fact an Iranian-Syrian-Russian military axis is evolving on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. Washington’s hands for combating this alliance today, are tied by its secret dialogue with Tehran on a deal to inhibit Iran’s progress towards attaining a nuclear bomb. The Americans are therefore turning a blind eye for now.
In fact this latter development might also influence the Kurdish situation we reported on less than a month ago here:
Turkey has moved two armored divisions from positions just inside the frontier of Iraqi Kurdistan to points further south. According to Kurdish leader Talabani, the Turkish divisions are now deployed between 20 and 30 km inside Kurdistan. He is quite sure that the Turkish troop movement is designed to forestall an American-Iranian deal and a probable understanding on the Kurdish question.
An Iranian-Syrian military cooperation treaty signed by the two defense ministers Mostafa Najjar and Hassan Turkman in Tehran Thursday, June 15. Since Syrian generals can hardly be put in command of Iranian Revolutionary Guards units, the purpose of this accord is to regularize the de facto set-up at Syrian high staff: Several hundred Iranian officers go to work every day in the various staff departments of the Syrian air force, armored corps and intelligence services. The Iranian officers sit in on operational meetings of the top Syrian brass and are employed in operating Syrian early warning and eavesdropping electronic centers.
Tehran and Damascus agreed that their air forces and navies will hold their first joint maneuvers. They will take place at the end of summer 2006 in Syria and its Mediterranean waters. To avoid attracting the attention of Western and Israeli military watchers, the maneuver will consist of a search-and-rescue exercise at sea. This will be followed in the fall by joint Iranian-Syrian exercises in different parts of Syria. For the first time, Iranian naval units will operate out of Syrian marine bases on the Mediterranean coast. It will also be the first time for Iranian RG contingents to camp in Syria. A special department for Syrian officers will be established at the central military academic in Tehran. Classes will be held in Arabic. This is the first time Iranians have agreed to forego the use of their cherished Farsi which is mandatory in all parts of the military establishment – and only for the sake of a military partnership with an ally.
Neither Iran’s
nuclear ambitions nor the Iraq war has inhibited the Kremlin’s willingness
to sell the Iranian army the most sophisticated weapons in its arsenal
for use in a potential military clash with the West. Iran has allocated
$7 bn for arms procurement from Russia. Some of the orders Moscow has already
filled include anti-air, nuclear-capable Tor-M1 cruise missiles, considered
by experts the most advanced of its kind in the world. Iran has purchased
these missiles to secure the Bushehr atomic reactor and other nuclear sites.
Iran has dropped
hints that if the Russians are forthcoming on this missile technology,
Iran will continue to buy large quantities of conventional weapons on the
scale of the Georgian consignment.
US intelligence sources told us yesterday that they are looking into the information that Armenia allowed Russian weapons shipments bound for Iran to transit its territory in return for Moscow’s guarantees of the safety and rights of the Armenian community in Georgia after the Russian pullout. This guarantee applies most directly to the Armenian population of Akhalkalaki and the personnel employed at the Russian base.
The Armenian
leadership in turn was motivated by concerns about two potential
hazards:
One, that as
soon as the Russians are out of the way, the Georgians will hound the Armenian
minority; Two, that Georgia will hand the two evacuated bases to NATO,
thereby bringing Turkish troops too close for comfort to the Armenian border.
Alongside Iran’s massive incursion into Syria, Russia is revealed as having targeted another strategic Syrian resource, its naval bases at Latakia and Tartus. They report 600 Russian naval officers, engineers and technicians busy at work on transforming the two bases, which the Soviet Union made good use of in the 1960s and 1970s, into thoroughly up-to-date installations capable of accommodating submarines.
Consequently, a powerful Iranian-Syrian-Russian military axis is evolving on the eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea under the noses of America and Israel. And where Israel is preoccupied with its faltering war on Palestinian terror, and as mentioned above, Washington’s hands are tied by its secret dialogue with Tehran on a deal to inhibit Iran’s progress towards attaining a nuclear bomb.
