There is little to no media coverage of the Hamas/Israeli conflict which is quietly in cease-fire talks…..
Israli bombing Syraian military targets…
The Israel Defense Forces said in a statement Tuesday that warplanes had launched 350 strikes on Syrian territory since Sunday, destroying dozens of missiles, an airfield, weapons production sites across five cities, and 15 naval vessels — effectively eliminating the Syrian navy.
Images of the aftermath on Syrian television showed sunken boats and smoldering wreckage in the western city of Latakia, the country’s main port and a former stronghold of Assad and his minority Alawite base. Other videos showed scorched buildings, a destroyed aircraft hangar and loud explosions from the heavy bombardment.
Israeli officials have characterized the extensive strikes as preemptive in nature, protecting the country from future attack rather than responding to a current threat. They invoked a similar rationale Monday in defending the movement of troops beyond a U.N.-monitored buffer zone in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.
“I approved the air force bombing of strategic military capabilities left by the Syrian military so that they will not fall into the hands of the jihadists,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a video addressTuesday….
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US looking for new Government in Syria…
In a statement, Blinken called for a “Syrian-led and Syrian-owned political transition.” He said that the “process should lead to credible, inclusive and nonsectarian governance that meets international standards of transparency and accountability.”
Were the United States to recognize a future Syrian government — and potentially to lift sanctions that have long crimped the country’s economy — it would be a significant boost to Syria’s leaders. The Biden administration is using that promise as leverage at a moment when Syria’s future is deeply uncertain and in an effort to get Middle Eastern nations to do the same….
Iran……
Beyond Syria, the country most affected by Assad’s dramatic fall is Iran. The regime in Tehran long saw in Assad’s Syria not just a committed partner, but the crucial beachhead for its strategy of “forward defense” — a staging ground for Iran’s network of proxy groups locked in a sprawling shadow conflict with Israel and other regional rivals. Syria was a thoroughfare for materiel and personnel that bolstered the Lebanese Shiite organization Hezbollah’s ability to threaten Israel. Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon were also instrumental in securing Assad’s fragile victories in earlier stages of Syria’s civil war….
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The Iranian regime has “repeatedly miscalculated over the past 15 months” following Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, assault on southern Israel and the conflict that has ensued, said Sanam Vakil, director of the Middle East program at Chatham House, a British think tank, speaking at a high-level Middle East forum in Doha, Qatar’s capital, over the weekend.
In part as a result of these “strategic misreadings,” Vakil said, Iran has seen Hamas and Hezbollah dealt devastating blows, its ally Assad toppled and its own vulnerabilities to Israeli long-range strikes and covert espionage laid bare. “Rather than deterring its foe, Iran’s direct attacks on Israel have only exposed greater weaknesses,” my colleagues wrote….
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The big question is what Iran will do in response to the setback. Some analysts believe a weakened Tehran could push for constructive talks with an incoming Trump administration that’s eager to show an ability to bring peace to the region. In his previous term, though, President-elect Donald Trump unilaterally scrapped the nuclear deal forged between Iran and world powers, a move that convinced many in Tehran of the futility of dealing with Washington and saw the Iranian regime restart enrichment of high-level uranium….
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The Iran of 2015 has nothing to do with Iran of 2025. Iran is starting production of 60 percent [uranium] at a much higher level of production, which means they will have the amounts necessary — if they so choose — to have a nuclear device in a much faster way.”…
Senior Syrian officials from the deposed Bashar al Assad regime have begun to transfer power to the HTS-led interim government as of December 10. Outgoing Prime Minister Mohammed al Jalili reported that former Assad officials are working with the interim government to preserve state institutions and government workers’ jobs. The chief executive of Sawsan Abu Zainedin—an umbrella group of 200 Syrian civil society groups—emphasized that the interim government would refrain from the “de-Baathification” of the Syrian state.
Russia’s force posture around Syria continues to reflect the Kremlin’s current cautious and indecisive response to the fall of Bashar al Assad’s regime. Sentinel-2 satellite imagery from December 10 shows that Russian ships have still not returned to Syria’s Port of Tartus and that the Russian Mediterranean Sea Flotilla is still in a holding pattern about eight to 15km away from Tartus. Open-source analyst MT Anderson identified four Russian ships within this radius as of December 10—the Admiral Golovko Gorshkov-class frigate, the Admiral Grigorovich Grigorovich-class frigate, the NovorossiyskImproved Kilo-class submarine, and the Vyazma Kaliningradneft-class oiler.
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I’d bet I’m NOT the only one that thinks that Israel and maybe even the US for that amtter will NOT produce a working nuclear bomb….
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