Submitted by: M Mulukin
The Israel-Iran Shadow War Locks in on South-eastern Syria.
14 December 2020
In what could possibly be the last weeks of the Trump administration, Israel is fast-tracking the military drive to push Iran and its helpers back from their advance on southern Syria and the Golan border.
The IDF is urged to hurry up in case the Biden administration decides that Iran’s presence in Syria need not be addressed by the US in a potential renegotiated nuclear deal with Tehran.
Iran is using the uncertain transition period to advance on the Syrian-Israel Golan border by infiltrating and hiding behind Syrian army positions in the southern Syrian provinces of Deraa, Quneitra and Sweida.
The Iranians are also practicing clandestine tactics on the Syrian Golan with the help of a special Hizballah unit and dozens of local armed groups and soldiers, taking advantage of the overall chaos prevailing in the region.
The IDF is hitting back by expanding the targets of its air strikes to include the Syrian regime army positions hosting or covering Iranian Revolutionary Guards or Shiite militia forces in the south and the east.
The success of the IDF’s ramped-up operations to counter Iran’s strategy was indicated by IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Aviv Kochavi in an end-of-year summary last Thursday, December 10. “Iran has begun cutting back on its military presence in Syria as a result of our operations,’ he said, “but there is still a long way to go before the job is done.”
The tempo and quality of Israeli strikes against Iranian assets in Syria, including kinetic operations, the general said, have been enhanced this year, “along with more numerous covert and clandestine missions.”
Iran had also significantly stalled its cargo airlift for smuggling weapons into Syria, General Kochavi revealed.
This came as a result of the destruction by aerial bombardments in recent months of vast quantities of advanced weaponry, that were to have been handed over to Iran’s proxy, Hizballah, for using in Lebanon as a convenient forward base for attacking Israel.
To escape Israel’s air strikes, Iran has moved its bases, camps and headquarters out of the line of Israeli fire around Damascus towards the northern and eastern parts of Syria. Iranian forces have also been drawn down. Hizballah and Syrian armed units have been left to anchor Iran’s presence in the south.
Moreover, reported IDF air strikes on IRGC positions at Abu Kamal in eastern Syria on the sensitive border with Iraq showed Israel to be undeterred by the proximity of US bases.
Tehran is acting on the assumption that Israel is intent on provoking a major clash to provide Donald Trump with justification for clobbering Iran or its interests in the waning days of his presidency.
Tehran is therefore at pains to avoid overt or extreme response to the intensified IDF campaign. Its presence in South Syria is denied except for “a few advisers.” Reported casualties are dismissed as “Zionist propaganda.”
The IDF is using Tehran’s caution to seriously bludgeon its assets and collaborators in Syria for the purpose of driving home Israel’s determination to drive them out.
How Russia is preparing in Syria for a Possible Biden presidency.
Moscow is hoping the final months of a possibly outgoing President Donald Trump presidency will allow it an opportunity to reinforce its positions in Syria.
While Russian foreign policy circles have noted reasons why President-elect Joe Biden’s administration may see the Middle Eastern theatre relegated further down the list of American policy priorities, Moscow sees the lame-duck period of Donald Trump’s presidency as an opportune time to shore up its positions in Syria.
This gap between the analysts’ expectations and the Kremlin’s real agenda is hardly surprising.
One key feature of Russian policymaking in the Middle East is its fragmentation, with the opinions of the security services and private military organizations carrying the greatest weight. President Vladimir Putin remains the ultimate authority and beneficiary of the Russian strategy and has the last say on all the key decisions.
In this scheme of things, the expert community is not supposed to advise the Kremlin or even explain its actions. All that is expected of experts, instead, is validating and justifying the authorities’ decisions post-factum.
The Russian military’s decision to set up positions around the northeast Syrian town of Ain Issa is one manifestation of Moscow’s activity during the current turbulent period. The move became possible thanks to the deal Russia made with the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The deal’s aim is to reduce attacks from nearby areas controlled by Turkey and the opposition. However, few entertain illusions that the deal amounts to an improvisation on the part of the Russians in order to ease tensions in the region.
Russia and Turkey coordinated their efforts to undermine the SDF, even when the tensions between the two countries had escalated after the shoot-down of a Russian SU-24 aircraft. Moscow also facilitated contacts between Ankara and Damascus on the Kurdish issue on different platforms, including through Algeria.
According to a source knowledgeable on Russian military activities in Syria, Ankara and Moscow are doing their best to avoid provoking the Kurds and the Americans in the region to limit the possibility of a conflagration.
Instead, they act in a somewhat "hybrid" fashion, the source said. Thus, soon after Turkey’s attempt to press the Kurds in Ain Issa, Russia suggested the SDF either vacate the region or transfer it under the control of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Yet in the end, the two sides agreed that there would be a presence of Russian forces in those territories. This way of resolving the situation appears palatable to Ankara, as it gives it greater leverage in negotiations with Moscow, even though stationing Russian military elements in Ain Issa may spawn new contradictions between the two sides, the same source said.
Apart from that, Moscow is taking a more active stance in eastern Syria.....
Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord God; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it. And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army: And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.
President Joe?
15 December 2020
The electoral college on Monday voted in all 50 states and the District of Columbia to make Joe Biden formally now the president-elect of the United States.....
The self-proclaimed prophets and the YouTube prognosticators are silent tonight as the Electoral College has just officially and formally made Joe Biden the president-elect of the United States. Despite the claims for weeks now that Trump would emerge victorious because 'God showed it to me in a vision', Donald Trump will not serve another 4 years in the White House.
But take heart, God used Donald Trump to declare Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and bring in the beginning of the end times peace treaty that will lead to a rebuilt Jewish Temple and the Daniel 9:27 peace covenant before it's all over. Yep, that's what the Abraham Accords really are.
President Trump is still challenging the results of the election in several states, many of which saw Republicans slate or attempt to slate alternative electors in case his as-of-yet unsuccessful challenges end up eventually succeeding. Trump’s challenges remain ongoing.
So what happens now? Loads of stuff, lots and lots of end times events are right now loaded and waiting to be fired across the prophecy timeline. When they come, it will be in a seemingly endless battery and barrage of things that will be truly challenging to keep up with, and on many levels already is.
So let's get on with the program, shall we?
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