Report: Israeli intel prompts Russia to freeze missile delivery to Iran - Jerusalem Post Israel News
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Jerusalem Post Israel News |
Report: Israeli intel prompts Russia to freeze missile delivery to Iran
Jerusalem Post Israel News Russian President Vladimir Putin has suspended the transfer of S-300 surface-to-air missiles to Iran in light of Tehran's violation of an earlier pledge not to provide sophisticated Russian-made weaponry to the Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah ... and more » |
Russian President Vladimir Putin has suspended the transfer of S-300 surface-to-air missiles to Iran in light of Tehran’s violation of an earlier pledge not to provide sophisticated Russian-made weaponry to the Lebanese Shi’ite group Hezbollah, according to a report Saturday in the Kuwaiti daily Al Jarida.
A senior source told the newspaper that the Russian leader elected to punish the Iranian regime after Israel supplied him with clear-cut evidence that Tehran had given its proxy Hezbollah SA-22 surface-to-air missiles.
The intelligence information was corroborated by reports from Russian pilots flying their fighter jets over Lebanon and Syria.
A senior source told the newspaper that the Russian leader elected to punish the Iranian regime after Israel supplied him with clear-cut evidence that Tehran had given its proxy Hezbollah SA-22 surface-to-air missiles.
The intelligence information was corroborated by reports from Russian pilots flying their fighter jets over Lebanon and Syria.
The Russian air force anti-missile radars were able to detect SA-22 systems stashed in regions of Lebanon that are under the control of the Shi’ite militia.
During his speech before the United Nations General Assembly this past fall, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed a number of new details regarding Hezbollah’s re-stocking of its weapons arsenal with the help of Iran and Syria.
The premier said that Hezbollah had managed to smuggle advanced SA-22 missiles into Lebanon as well as Yakhont surface-to-sea precision missiles.
Foreign media reports from April of last year indicate that Israel’s air force attacked Hezbollah bases in Lebanon that were outfitted with SA-22.
The Israeli military is hardly concerned about the older SA-5 model surface-to-air missile that is currently rusting in Hezbollah’s stockpiles, for these are considered unreliable and ineffective.
SA-22 missiles, however, could pose a threat to Israeli fighter jets who enjoy relative freedom of operation in the skies over Lebanon.
The senior source told the Kuwaiti newspaper that the Kremlin has been adamant that Iran withdraw its forces backing President Bashar Assad from Syria.
According to the report, Moscow has told the Iranians that it has no need for their support given its interest in reaching a political settlement that would put an end to the five-year civil war in Syria.
The Russians have reportedly told Iran that their interests are not identical when it comes to Syria.
Russia canceled a contract to deliver the S-300 advanced anti-missile rocket system to Iran in 2010 under pressure from the West following UN sanctions imposed on Iran over its nuclear program.
Tehran agreed to the deal on curbing its nuclear work in July last year and international sanctions were lifted in January. But tensions with Washington have remained high as Tehran continues to develop its military capabilities.
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Foreign Affairs that the Kremlin’s incursions into Crimea, eastern Ukraine, and Syria should not come as a surprise, as they were driven by geopolitical interests. In Foreign Policy, Tatia Lemondjava explains the logic behind Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov’s recent announcement that he will resign in April. Meanwhile, in the Russian media, Sergei Medvedev discusses why the national media barely covered two tragedies that shook the Runet (the Russian Internet)—the mining disaster in Vorkuta and the murder of a four-year-old in Moscow.
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Turkey Seizes Newspaper, Zaman, as Press Crackdown Continues by SAFAK TIMUR and TIM ARANGO
The move highlighted President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s campaign against opposition journalists and the followers of Fethullah Gulen, a cleric.
The Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helú’s holding company Inversora Carso said on Friday that it would start a full takeover bid for the Spanish building and infrastructure company FCC.
“The Revolution Continues” was the slogan as demonstrators, taking advantage of a partial truce, came out in their largest numbers in years.
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- Ceasefire between rebel groups and Syria does not include Isis militants
- 135 people were killed in the first week of the fragile truce agreement
The US and its allies struck 12 Islamic State targets in Iraq and two in Syria on Friday, the US military reported on Saturday as human rights group reports civilians killed in ceasefire violations.
Two of the strikes in Iraq were near Ramadi, hitting two Islamic State tactical units and a tunnel. One of the strikes in Syria destroyed two Islamic State fighting positions near Palmyra, according to the Pentagon.
Continue reading...Russia ‘stoking refugee unrest in Germany to topple Angela Merkel’ by Daniel Boffey in Riga
Analysts at Nato centre claim to have found evidence of ‘information war’ over migration crisis with links to Vladimir Putin
Russia is trying to topple Angela Merkel by waging an information war designed to stir up anger in Germany over refugees, Nato’s most senior expert on strategic communications has claimed.
The attempt to provoke the removal of the German leader, who has been a strong supporter of sanctions against Vladimir Putin’s regime, is said to have been identified by Nato analysts.
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Russia is deploying social media trolls in an attempt to effect political change, and Britain is not immune
Jānis Sārts’s grandfather was sent to Siberia by the Russians. His wife’s aunt was unlucky enough to be deported from Latvia, not only in 1946 but again in 1949 after a short reprieve. Sārts, now the director of Nato’s strategic communications command in Riga, responsible for recording and responding to enemy propaganda methods, remembers the long queues for sausage and bread under the Soviet Union. “Sausage you would have once a month,” he recalls.
Sitting at a long table in a conference room at the whitewashed Nato headquarters, Sārts cannot see the logic of Russia invading Latvia in the near future, as it did Georgia and Ukraine, but he will not beat around the bush: “It is not at all impossible.”
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Росбалт.RU |
Госдеп: У США и РФ разный взгляд на урегулирование в Сирии
Росбалт.RU Официальный представитель Госдепартамента США Джон Кирби заявил, что Россия взяла на себя ведущую роль в Международной группе поддержки Сирии. «Они были полезны, они сотрудничали, и они участвовали в прекращении военных действий», — приводит слова Кирби ... Госдеп признал: Без России переговоры по Сирии невозможныПравда.Ру Дружба вопреки: Госдеп признал ведущую роль России в межсирийских переговорахМосковский комсомолец Госдеп США признал ведущую роль РФ в переговорах по СирииВести.Ru NEWSru.com -РБК -Official web-site of radio Vesti FM Все похожие статьи: 131 » |
Вести.Ru |
США выделили четверть миллиарда на безопасность Украины
Вести.Ru Киев получил от Конгресса США дополнительные 250 миллионов долларов на расходы по безопасности, сообщает РИА Новости. Об этом заявил Майкл Карпентер, заместитель помощника министра обороны США, отвечающий за Евразию, Россию и Украину. С начала вооруженного ... США выделили на оборону Украины еще четверть миллиарда долларовРосбалт.RU Америка отказалась повышать градус напряжённости по крымскому вопросу и зафиксировала статус-квоНовый День - Крым Пентагон объяснил отказ от поставок оружия УкраинеВзгляд Новости 24 часа - MyNewsOnline24.ru -Газета.Ru Все похожие статьи: 184 » |
Коммерсантъ |
Шахту «Северная» решили затопить
Коммерсантъ Штаб по ликвидации аварии на шахте «Северная» АО «Воркутауголь», где из-за взрыва метана погибли 36 человек, принял окончательное решение о ее затоплении. Операцию планируется выполнить в течение 60−80 дней. После ее окончания будут возобновлены работы по разбору ... Принято окончательное решение о затоплении аварийной шахты в ВоркутеРБК Принято решение затопить шахту "Северная"РИА Новости Аварийную шахту «Северная» затопят в ближайшие часыРосбалт.RU BBC Russian -Интерфакс Все похожие статьи: 147 » |
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РИА Новости |
СМИ: жители сирийской Ракки восстали против боевиков ИГ
Газета.Ru Согласно информации очевидцев агентства Sputnik, жители самопровозглашенной «столицы» террористической группировки «Исламское государство» города Ракка восстали против боевиков и вывесили государственные флаги Сирии в нескольких кварталах, передает РИА ... Чагаев собирается опротестовать результат боя с БрауномРосбалт.RU Жители Ракки подняли восстание против ИГИЛРБК Жители Ракки восстали против боевиков ИГПравда.Ру Lenta.ru -НТВ.ru -Вести.Ru Все похожие статьи: 78 » |
The strait that separates the Black Sea from the Mediterranean is where Putin flaunts Moscow's naval prowess
German chancellor has been a leading advocate of economic sanctions against Vladimir Putin's regime
CNBC |
Oil prompts Moody's reviews for Russia, Saudi Arabia
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Sputnik International |
Confidential: NATO Report Praises Russia's Superiority in Syria
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'Efficient, accurate': Russian air warfare in Syria praised in classified NATO report
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Alexei Bayer: Russia offers a cautionary tale for Americans
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What Role Will Russia Play in the US-Chinese South China Sea Drama?
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Jerusalem Post Israel News |
Report: Israeli intel prompts Russia to freeze missile delivery to Iran
Jerusalem Post Israel News Russian President Vladimir Putin has suspended the transfer of S-300 surface-to-air missiles to Iran in light of Tehran's violation of an earlier pledge not to provide sophisticated Russian-made weaponry to the Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah ... and more » |
The National Interest Online |
How to Lose a Proxy War with Russia
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EurasiaNet |
Russia Gives Kyrgyzstan $30M Lifeline
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Military Times |
The Pentagon starts planning to base more troops in Europe
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Clumsy state-owned industrial firms stagnate as private companies race into the global market.
An Afghan government delegation recently met the Taliban in Qatar to discuss efforts to end the country’s long-running war, according to officials, after peace talks collapsed last year.
President Barack Obama will visit the Argentine tourist city of Bariloche on March 24, the 40th anniversary of the military coup in this South American country, officials said Friday.
China has cut this year’s growth target for its slowing economy to 6.5 to 7 percent and promised to press ahead with painful reforms aimed at boosting productivity and incomes.
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Police, using tear gas and water cannons, on Friday raided the headquarters of Turkey’s largest-circulation newspaper, hours after a court placed it under the management of trustees. The move against the paper, which is linked to an opposition cleric, heightened concerns over deteriorating press freedoms in the country.
Police question Brazil’s ex-president in corruption probeby Mauricio Savarese and Jenny Barchfield | AP
Brazilian police hauled former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva from his home and questioned him for about four hours Friday in a sprawling corruption case involving state-run oil company Petrobras that has already ensnared some of the country’s most-powerful lawmakers and businessmen.
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China is kicking off its rubberstamp parliament session, the main event on its political calendar, on Saturday. The gathering of nearly 3,000 delegates in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People comes amid slowing growth in China’s economy and tension over competing territorial claims in the South China Sea. The session will end March 16.
Secret detentions, deaths raise alarm over Egyptian policeby Maggie Michael | AP
The 32-year-old Egyptian government engineer disappeared in mid-January when, according to witnesses, masked police burst into his office in the southern city of Beni Suef and dragged him off in handcuffs in front of his co-workers.
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Putin’s Syria campaign is win-win for most Russiansby Katherine Jacobsen | AP
For most Russians, there’s little not to like about their country’s military operation in Syria.
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Police have erected fences and are standing watch in front of the headquarters of Turkey’s largest-circulation newspaper a day after it used tear gas and water cannons to storm the building and enforce a court-ordered seizure.
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Each month, the country has a $4 billion salary bill but is earning only half that.
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Face-to-face talks were supposed to take place in Islamabad.
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Former Iran president banned from wedding partyby Associated Press
Iranian authorities have prevented former reformist President Mohammad Khatami from attending the wedding party of an opposition leader’s daughter.
While suffering recent setbacks, ISIS still controls large swaths of Syria and Iraq.
Afghan President Ashraf Ghani says the Islamic State group has been defeated in eastern Afghanistan, where it had taken over some remote districts.
Iraqi officials: Suicide attack against checkpoint south of Baghdad kills at least 11 people, wounds dozens.
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Lyubov Kostyrya’s job is to track why 83 percent of Russians approve of their leader.
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Iraq: Suicide attack kills at least 11 south of Baghdadby Sinan Salaheddin | AP
Iraqi officials say a suicide bomber has blown up an explosives-laden fuel truck south of Baghdad, killing at least 11 people.
Brazil's Silva Denounces Detention in Corruption Probe
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China Tries to Reassure on Economy as It Cuts Growth Targetby Joe McDonald, Louise Watt / AP
(BEIJING) — China’s leadership tried to quell anxiety about its slowing economy following financial turmoil and rising labor unrest as it cut its growth target Saturday and promised to open oil and telecoms industries to private competitors in sweeping industrial reforms.
Premier Li Keqiang (pronounced “Lee Kuh-chiang”) announced a growth target of 6.5 to 7 percent in a report to the national legislature on Beijing’s plans for the year. That was down from last year’s “about 7 percent” and reflects the ruling Communist Party’s marathon efforts to replace a worn-out model based on trade and investment with more self-sustaining growth driven by consumer spending.
Li, the top economic official, warned China faces “more and tougher problems” including weak export demand. But he expressed confidence communist leaders can maintain stable growth.
“China has laid a solid material foundation and its economy is hugely resilient,” the premier said in an address to nearly 3,000 delegates to the National People’s Congress. “As long as we work together as one to surmount all difficulties, we will definitely achieve the targets for economic and social development in 2016.”
In Li’s broad-ranging speech, which listed accomplishments of the past year and priorities for the coming year, the premier also said that Beijing will “oppose separatist activities” in Taiwan, the self-ruled island Beijing claims as part of its territory. He announced no new initiatives following the January election of Taiwanese President Tsai Ying-wen, who takes office in May.
A separate budget report released Saturday confirmed a 7.6 percent increase in military spending, which comes at a time of tension with China’s neighbors over disputed portions of the South China Sea.
The premier promised more measures to clean up China’s badly polluted air, water and soil and more spending on science and industrial research and development to create new technology and better-paid jobs.
Chinese leaders are struggling to reassure their public and global markets about their ability to steer the world’s second-largest economy following a plunge in stock prices and currency turmoil. Spreading protests by laid-off workers have fueled questions about whether Beijing can manage its ambitious economic transition.
The latest growth target is the minimum Chinese leaders say is required to achieve the official goal of doubling incomes per person from 2010 levels by 2020. Economists warn anything higher could set back reforms by forcing Beijing to prop up growth with more wasteful investment.
Last year’s economic growth declined to a 25-year low of 6.9 percent. Private sector forecasts suggest even achieving Li’s lower target will be a challenge. The International Monetary Fund expects this year’s growth to drift down to 6.3 percent.
The party’s reform plans require it to cut the dominance of state companies that dominate industries from banking and telecoms to oil and steel and give entrepreneurs a bigger role.
Li promised to open electric power, telecoms, transportation, oil, natural gas and municipal utilities to private competition, though he failed to say whether foreign companies might be allowed in. He said private companies would receive the same treatment as state-owned enterprises in project approval, finance and tax policy.
“We must deepen reform across the board,” the premier said. He said the market “must play a decisive role.”
Li promised to open service and manufacturing industries wider to foreign investors, though he gave no details. He promised regulations would be made “more fair, transparent and predictable” to attract investment. Business groups have complained Chinese regulators are hampering access to promising sectors in violation of its free-trading pledges.
Much of China’s slowdown has been self-imposed as regulators clamped down on a building boom and nurtured retailing, tourism and other service industries. An unexpectedly sharp downturn over the past two years has raised the risk of politically dangerous job losses and prompted Beijing to shore up growth with mini-stimulus efforts.
Widespread expectations, despite repeated official denials, that Beijing will weaken its yuan to boost exports that forecasters predict shrank by as much as 20 percent in February has driven an outflow of capital that spiked to a record $135 billion in December.
This week, Moody’s Investors Service cut its outlook on China’s government credit rating from stable to negative, citing rising debt, capital outflows and “uncertainty about the authorities’ capacity to implement reforms.”
A Chinese deputy finance minister retorted that Moody’s was wrong and shortsighted in comments Friday reported by the government’s Xinhua News Agency.
Communist leaders have tried in recent years to shift public attention away from the growth target. They say their priority is jobs and so long as the economy generates enough they will accept slower growth.
The downturn and Beijing’s reforms have wiped out jobs in mining, steelmaking and other industries.
Retailing, e-commerce and other service industries are growing and absorbing some idled workers but others are struggling to find work. The government says the economy created 13 million new jobs last year but has not said how many were lost at the same time.
The China Labour Bulletin, a research group in Hong Kong, reported 2,606 labor disputes last year, nearly twice as many as 2014’s 1,379.
The premier pledged to boost consumption in areas such as elder care and health services and to link traditional businesses to the Internet. China has the biggest population of Internet users and investors are pouring billions of dollars into developing online and smartphone-based ventures for food delivery, movie ticketing, travel and other services.
The government hopes such services can help propel consumption that grew to 44.5 percent of the economy last year from 2014’s 36.8 percent.
Li said the government hopes to generate at least 10 million new jobs this year as part of plans to create 50 million in the five years through 2020.
The premier pledged to accelerate “supply-side reform,” or the painful process of shrinking bloated industries from steel to cement and aluminum. That glut has led to price-cutting wars that are driving companies into bankruptcy. Steel producers have responded by exporting their surplus, prompting complaints by China’s trading partners.
Li said Beijing will promote mergers and shut down “zombie enterprises” — companies that are kept afloat by cheap loans from state banks.
The premier said targets will include the coal and steel industries, for which plans already were announced in February, but didn’t give details of other sectors that will be affected.
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Detention of Brazil’s Former President Could Mark the End of a Dynasty by Matt Sandy / Rio de Janeiro
RIO DE JANEIRO – The detention today of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s former president and favored son, could be a key moment in the fall of a political dynasty that has this century reshaped Latin America’s largest nation.
The 70-year-old former metal worker, who is universally known as Lula and left office in early 2011 with an approval rating of 83% to be succeeded by his hand-picked successor Dilma Rousseff, spent four hours being questioned by Federal Police in São Paulo after being detained by officers in a dawn raid at his home.
Federal prosecutors are investigating whether he was involved a corruption scandal centered on state oil giant Petrobras, in which scores of politicians, including many from Lula’s ruling Workers’ Party, and businessmen are said to have siphoned off billions of dollars in bribes. The former president denies any wrongdoing.
“Lula, besides being party leader, was the one ultimately responsible for the decision on who would be the directors of Petrobras and was one of the main beneficiaries of these crimes,” a police statement said. “There is evidence that the crimes enriched him and financed electoral campaigns and… his political group.”
The police are also examining $8 million in speaking fees and donations to Lula’s institute by construction firms ensnared in the scandal, and whether renovations carried out at his properties were favors for political benefit.
The allegations had lapped ever closer to the former president in recent weeks, with the arrest of his former campaign strategist João Santana, but the raids at four properties linked to him were still a political earthquake in Brazil.
Rousseff, his chosen successor, is not being investigated in the case but faces impeachment proceedings in Brazil’s congress over government accounting irregularities. The Petrobras scandal and political turmoil has contributed to a deep recession in Brazil, with the country facing its worst slump in 25 years.
For Lula, it might be the moment his reputation and that of the Workers’ Party he founded under Brazil’s dictatorship in 1980 became damaged beyond repair. He became Brazil’s first working-class president in 2003, having left school early and worked as a shoeshine boy, lost a finger in an industrial accident and been jailed for leading a strike while a trade union activist.
He promised a new era of social justice, and Lula’s welfare programs lifted tens of millions out of poverty as his budget surpluses during Brazil’s long boom put paid to the initial concerns of international markets and the IMF. Lula became a unifying figure in a deeply unequal country and even a previous congressional corruption scandal that implicated his chief of staff hardly dented his popularity.
Lula lobbied for Rousseff, a bureaucrat who had never previously held elected office, to succeed him as the Workers’ Party candidate in 2010, and as recently as last week was discussing running for the presidency once again in 2018.
“Lula was an icon but he is no longer untouchable,” says David Fleischer, a professor of politics at the University of Brasilia. “His image has been severely damaged and his hopes of being elected in 2018 have been destroyed.”
Without a viable alternative candidate the party is all but certain to lose power, he adds, even if Rousseff survives the impeachment proceedings this year and a separate attempt to overturn her narrow 2014 victory in an electoral court.
The Petrobras investigation, known as Operation Car Wash, has ensnared scores of this generation of Brazil’s political class including the conservative speaker of the lower house, Eduardo Cunha, who it was ruled this week will face trial.
Prosecutors say they believe more than $2 billion was paid in bribes by businesses to obtain contracts and that some of the money made its way to political parties, including the Workers’ Party, to fund political campaigns.
It comes as Brazil faces its worst recession for decades, with falling commodity and oil prices hitting the economy hard. Cunha is leading the effort to impeach Rousseff, whose approval ratings amid the scandal have fallen to 11%.
Brazil’s institutions, especially its independent body of federal prosecutors, have won praise for their ability to investigate the ruling party. “Among emerging markets, the power of rule of law and an independent judiciary in Brazil is remarkable,” said Ian Bremmer, a political science professor at New York University.
However, the detention of Lula came just days after Rousseff announced she would replace her justice minister, a move interpreted as perhaps opening the door to political interference in the high-profile investigation, which began as a probe into money laundered through a gas station in the south of Brazil.
On a live appearance on television, a visibly angry Lula said he was facing “prejudice as a working-class man” and that he “feared nothing” while Rousseff herself said the detention was “unnecessary” while adding she continued to back the investigation. Lula’s lawyers asked the Supreme Court to suspend the investigation into him.
And as the scandal played out at full volume on television all day, there were signs the mood was turning ugly. Clashes broke out between Silva’s supporters and detractors outside the ex-president’s apartment in São Paulo state and large-scale street protests are planned by both sides in the coming days.
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Police in Istanbul raid the headquarters of Turkey's largest-circulation newspaper in a move described as "all-out despotism".
The premier receives glowing praise for his economic strategy despite having to downgrade the country's growth target for 2016.
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More than 100 people are killed in areas covered by the partial truce - and another 552 elsewhere in the country.
In a warning that carries echoes of Iraq, top analysts and officials say Washington's estimates of Islamic State's strength in Libya are overblown - and that a large scale intervention could just fan the country's conflict
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Many Republicans desperately hope that Trump can somehow be deprived of the nomination at the convention itself
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Militant group says it has not authorised anyone to attend negotiations broked by Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and the United States
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Pakistani Jailed for 13 Years for Facebook Postby webdesk@voanews.com (VOA News)
A Pakistani man has received a 13-year prison sentence for allegedly posting religiously offensive material on his Facebook page, according to lawyers in the case. Rizwan Haider, 25, was accused of publishing a post referring to the Prophet Muhammad. An anti-terrorism court Thursday convicted Haider of three charges, including promoting sectarian hatred, Aleem Chatta, deputy public prosecutor for Punjab province, said in an interview with VOA's Urdu service. Chatta said the case...
Ukraine Peace Process Floundersby webdesk@voanews.com (Nike Ching)
There has been no breakthrough in the latest diplomatic attempt to implement a peace deal in eastern Ukraine, but observers say the so-called Minsk agreements are not "dead" yet. In Paris on Thursday, foreign ministers from France, Germany, Russia and Ukraine — the so-called Normandy Format — tried to get the peace process back on track. The terms agreed to in Minsk during February of 2015 were not fully carried out by the deadline, which was the end of last year. Analyst...
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