Saudis Forces Mass On Jordanian, Iraqi Borders, While Turkey, Syria Reinforce Strength
The Syrian crisis was Friday, June 29, on a knife edge between a
Western-Arab-Turkish military offensive in the next 48 hours and a big
power accord to ward it off.
debkafile’s military sources report heavy Saudi troop movements
toward the Jordanian and Iraqi borders Thursday overnight and up until
Friday morning, June 29, after King Abdullah put the Saudi military on
high alert for joining an anti-Assad offensive in Syria.
The Saudi units are poised with tanks, missiles, special forces and anti-air batteries to enter Jordan in two heads:
One will safeguard Jordan's King Abdullah against potential Syrian or Iranian reprisals from Syria or Iraq.
The second will cut north through Jordan to enter southeastern
Syriam, where a security zone will be established around the towns of
Deraa, Deir al-Zour and Abu Kemal – all centers of the anti-Assad
rebellion. The region is also the home terrain of the Shammar tribe,
brethren of the Shammars of the Saudi Nejd province.
The Saudi units deployed on the Iraqi border are there to defend
the kingdom against potential incursions by Iraqi Shiite militias
crossing into the kingdom for reprisals. The Iraqi militias are well
trained and armed and serve under officers of the Iranian Al-Qods
Brigades, the Revolutionary Guards’ external arm.
Western Gulf sources report that Jordan too is on war alert.
Following the downing of a Turkish plane by Syria a week ago,
Turkey continues to build up its Syrian border units with anti-aircraft
guns, tanks and missiles towed by long convoys of trucks.
A Free Syria Army officer, Gen. Mustafa al-Sheikh, reported Friday
that 170 Syrian army tanks of the 17th Mechanized Division were massed
near the village of Musalmieh northeast of Aleppo, 30 km from the
Turkish border. He said they stood ready to attack any Turkish forces
crossing into Syria.
As these war preparations advanced, US Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton arrived in St. Petersburg Friday for crucial talks with Russian
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. They meet the day before the new
UN-sponsored Action Group convenes in Geneva to discuss UN-Arab League
envoy Kofi Annan’s latest transition proposal for Syria. He hopes for a
political settlement that will ward off military intervention.
Invited to the meeting are the five veto-wielding UN Security
Council members plus Turkey and Arab League envoys from Qatar, Kuwait
and Iraq.
Annan proposes forming a transitional national unity government in
Damascus that includes the opposition and excludes unacceptable regime
members.
It was widely reported Thursday that Russia had agreed to this
formula, even though it entailed evicting Bashar Assad from power.
However, Lavrov stepped in to correct the record, stressing in reference
to the Annan proposal that Moscow would not lend its support to “any
outside interference or imposition of recipes in Syria.”
This position is doubly aimed at the intensive military movements afoot around Syria.
Clinton and Lavrov are therefore expected to go at the Syrian
issue hammer and tongs. The outcome of their meeting will not only
determine the course of the Action Group’s discussions but, more
importantly, whether the Western-Arab-Turkish alliance goes forward with
its military operation against Syria.
US-Russian concurrence on a plan for Assad’s removal could avert
the operation. The failure of their talks would spell a worsening of the
Syrian crisis and precipitate Western-Arab military intervention, which
according to military sources in the Gulf is scheduled for launch
Saturday, June 30.
source prophecy news watch
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