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  • Russian radar in Armenia to block an US/Israeli strike on Iran from

    Russian radar in Armenia to block an US/Israeli strike on Iran from the north

    DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis April 8, 2012, 12:26 PM (GMT+02:00)


    Moscow has stepped into the vacuum created by US President Barack
    Obama's decision to stay out of any potentially incendiary Middle East
    involvement while campaigning for a second term. After blocking the
    way to direct Western and Arab military intervention in Syria through
    the Mediterranean, Russia sent its Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov last
    week on a round trip to the capitals of Armenia, Azerbaijan,
    Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan - an expedition designed to
    secure Iran against a potential US/Israeli attack via its northern and
    eastern neighbors, debkafile's military sources report.
    On his return to Moscow, April 6, the Russian army let it be known
    that highly-advanced mobile S-400 surface-to-air missiles had been
    moved into Kaliningrad, the Baltic enclave bordered by Poland and
    Lithuania, its response to US plans for an anti-Iran missile shield
    system in Europe and the Middle East.
    In Yerevan, the Russian minister finalized a deal for the
    establishment of an advanced Russian radar station in the Armenian
    mountains to counter the US radar set up at the Turkish Kurecik air
    base, our sources disclose.

    Just as the Turkish station (notwithstanding Ankara's denials) will
    trade data on incoming Iranian missiles with the US station in the
    Israeli Negev, the Russian station in Armenia will share input with
    Tehran.
    Moscow remains deeply preoccupied in Syria, successfully fending off
    Western and Arab pressure against its ruler Bashar Assad. debkafile's
    sources hear that Assad will not meet the April 10 deadline for moving
    his heavy armor and battalions out of Syrian cities. Monday, April 8,
    he sent his foreign minister Walid Moallem to Moscow for instructions
    for getting him off the hook of failing to comply with his commitment
    to the UN envoy Kofi Annan's peace plan, starting with a truce.
    Lavrov, rather than US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton is
    evidently regarded these days as the senior Middle East power broker.
    In a thumbs-down on Russia's deepening footstep in the region, the
    London-based Saudi Sharq al Awsat captioned a Sunday op-ed item, `Nor
    do we want a `Sheikh' Lavrov.'
    For the first time since the Cold War ended, the management of a major
    world crisis has passed into the hands of the Kremlin in Moscow and
    the UN Secretariat in New York.
    Weeping crocodile tears, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said
    Saturday that the April 10 date for a Syrian truce `was not an excuse
    for continued killing' by the Syrian regime, ignoring the fact that
    `the continued killing' could have been avoided were it not for the
    strategy pursued by Kofi Annan, the special envoy he shares with the
    Arab League, with Moscow's back-stage wire-pulling.
    This is because President Barak Obama is advised by his campaign
    strategists that the way to the American voter's heart in November is
    through burnishing his image as a `balanced and responsible'
    multinational diplomat, in contrast with his Republican rivals'
    hawkish support of an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear program.
    In the case of Syria, the White House finds itself on the same side as
    the UN and the Kremlin. They all share the common goal of obstructing
    Western and Arab military intervention in Syria at all costs.

    Hundreds of Syrian protesters are still paying the price in blood -
    although its dimensions of the butchery are frequently exaggerate by
    the opposition. After brutalizing his population for thirteen months,
    Bashar Assad is more or less on top of the revolt in Syria's main
    cities, excepting the Idlib province and one or two pockets in and
    around Homs. He used the extra days afforded him by Kofi Annan's
    deadline for the ruthless purge of the last remnants of resistance in
    small towns and villages, cetain that Moscow, the UN secretary - and
    Washington, by default - would do nothing to stop him.

    Should current circumstances shoot off in unforeseen directions - for
    instance, a Syrian government poison chemical or biological weapon
    attack causing hundreds of dead, over and above the 9,000 confirmed by
    UN figures - Obama might be forced to resort to limited military
    action, pulling in the Turkish army. This has not yet happened.
    That the Russians are not letting the grass grow under their feet,
    turning Middle East bushfires to their advantage and closing one
    American Middle East option after another, appears to be a minor
    consideration in Washington up until November.


    From: Baghdasarian
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