Russia's build up to war
Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2017 7:23 pm
How Russia Is Turning Syria into a Major Naval Base for Nuclear Warships (and Israel Is Worried)
Michael Peck
March 18, 2017
During the 1970s, the Syrian naval base of Tartus became a major port servicing warships of the Soviet Union’s Fifth Mediterranean squadron.
The Soviet Union is gone, and so is Syria as a unified nation. But Russia is back, and it’s building up Tartus again as a naval base that can handle Russia’s largest nuclear-powered ships.
Already, Israel says the Tartus base is affecting its naval operations. U.S. and NATO operations could be next.
Under the forty-nine-year agreement inked late last year by Russia and Syria, “the maximum number of the Russian warships allowed at the Russian naval facility at one time is 11, including nuclear-powered warships, providing that nuclear and ecological security rules are observed,” according to Russia’s RT news site. Russia will also be allowed to expand port facilities to accommodate the vessels.
The specification allowing nuclear-powered warships means that Russia wants to be able to base in Syria large surface ships, namely Kirov-class nuclear-powered battle cruisers, as well as nuclear submarines.
In addition, the treaty allows “Russia is allowed to bring in and out any kind of ‘weaponry, ammunition, devices and materials’ to provide security for the facility staff, crew, and their families throughout the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic ‘without any duties or levies,’” according to RT.
Expansion of the port will take about five years, according to an anonymous source cited in Russia’s Sputnik News. “The source added that the works would focus on dredging operations to allow cruisers and even possibly aircraft carriers to use the facility’s infrastructure,” Sputnik News reported. “According to the source, Russia also needs to develop the facility’s ground infrastructure, through construction of canalization, electricity generation facilities and barracks for the servicemen.”
Sputnik News also listed other provisions of the agreement. These include:
• Russia will be responsible for sea and air security of the base, while Syria handles the land defenses.
• Russia can deploy “temporary mobile outposts” beyond the base, as long as they coordinate them with the Syrians.
• Russia can renovate the base at will, including underwater construction, and build offshore platforms.
• Upon Syrian request, Russia will send specialists to service Syrian warships, conduct search and rescue in Syrian waters, and organize the defense of Tartus.
• Syria agrees not to “make any objections related to the military activities of the base, which will also be beyond Damascus’ jurisdiction.”
• “Syria also pledges to solve any conflicts that may arise if a third party objects to the activities of the base.”
The Tartus deal is significant on several levels. For starters, the explicit mention of Tartus servicing nuclear-powered ships suggests that Russia may operate its biggest ships in the eastern Mediterranean, such as the nuclear battle cruiser Peter the Great. At the least, it indicates that nuclear submarines could be based at Tartus.
That Russia can put deploy outposts beyond the base suggests that Russia will take an expansive view of defending Tartus against rebel attacks. Russia will also be responsible for sea and air security at Tartus. Yet since the Syrian rebels don’t have a navy or air force—but the Americans and the Israelis do—this indicates that Moscow is eyeing Tartus through the lens of a possible conflict with outside powers.
However, the agreement also contains two contradictory provisions. On the one hand, it bars Syria from objecting to Russian military activities at the base, which will not be under Syrian jurisdiction. So, if Russian ships and aircraft ever decide to harass NATO and Israeli forces in the Mediterranean—just as Russia has done in the Black Sea—then Syria can’t stop them.
On the other hand, Syria is obligated to “solve any conflicts” if a “third party” objects to the activities at the Tartus base. If this means that the United States or Israel complains, then Syria must resolve the problem—even though it has no jurisdiction over the base or operations conducted from there.
In any event, Israel has gotten the message. “There have been instances in which we assessed the situation and changed or chose not to carry out operations,” Rear Adm. Dror Friedman, Israeli Navy chief of staff, told the Jerusalem Post.
“You see their activities in the field and you see them putting down roots, you see their activities in the Port of Tartus and you understand that this isn’t the activity of someone who is planning to pack their bags and leave tomorrow morning.”
Michael Peck is a contributing writer for the National Interest. He can be found on Twitter and Facebook.
Image: Russian nuclear-powered guided missile cruiser Admiral Ushakov and the guided missile cruiser Marshal Ustinov in 1992. Wikimedia Commons/U.S. Navy
http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-bu ... hips-19813
Israel threatens to destroy Syrian air defenses
By Oren Liebermann, CNN
Updated 1:50 PM ET, Sun March 19, 2017
Israel threatens to destroy Syrian air defense
Russia, Syrian military sources and rebel officials confirmed that a new agreement had been reached after a first evacuation plan collapsed the day before amid fresh fighting. Syrian state television reported that some 4,000 rebels and their families were to be evacuated.
Wounded Syrians and their families gather at the rebel-held al-Amiriyah neighbourhood as they wait to be evacuated to the government-controlled area of Ramoussa on the southern outskirts of the city on December 15, 2016.
Russia, Syrian military sources and rebel officials confirmed that a new agreement had been reached after a first evacuation plan collapsed the day before amid fresh fighting. Syrian state television reported that some 4,000 rebels and their families were to be evacuated.
Jerusalem (CNN)Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman has warned Syria that Israel will destroy its air defense system if Syria fires an anti-aircraft missile at Israeli aircraft again.
Speaking on Israel public radio Sunday morning, Liberman said, "The next time the Syrians use their air defense systems against our airplanes, we will destroy all of them without thinking twice."
His threat comes after Syria fired anti-aircraft missiles at Israeli military jets overnight Thursday into Friday.
The Syrian military said the jets struck a military site near Palmyra, while Israel says they targeted a weapons shipment to Iran-backed Hezbollah. Syria claims their missiles downed one Israeli jet and hit another, which Israel rejected as "absolutely untrue."
"Our central problem, and this above and beyond all of the other issues, is the transfer of advanced weapons from Syria to Lebanon," Liberman said.
"Every time we identify a transfer like this, we will work to prevent the transfer of game-changing weapons. On this issue there will not be any compromise," the outspoken Defense Minister added.
Liberman has not shied away from threatening rhetoric since taking over the Defense Ministry last year.
Rising tensions
Friday's encounter was the most serious clash between Israel and Syria since the start of the Syrian civil war six years ago. Tension between the two countries de-escalated as the conflict progressed, but the threats have increased between the two countries in recent months., along with Israel's reported strikes.
An airstrike near Palmyra would be one of the deepest inside Syria since the beginning of the fighting.
The military actions did not go unnoticed both in the Middle East and further afield.
In a sign of Russia's displeasure with the strike, Moscow summoned Israel's ambassador to Russia, Gary Koren, less than 24 hours after it happened.
It is the first time in recent years that Moscow has summoned Israel's envoy over a strike in Syria, and it comes one week after Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Russian President Vladimir Putin to reaffirm coordination between the Israeli and Russian militaries over Syria.
The two countries established coordination last year to avoid conflicts in Syrian airspace, ostensibly to allow both countries to operate freely.
Palmyra, once held by ISIS and retaken by the Syrian government, is strategically important to both the regime and its opponents.
The intercept triggered alarm sirens in the Jordan Valley and shrapnel from the explosion, which was heard as far south as Jerusalem, landed in western Jordan, the Jordanian military said.
Most of Israel's reported strikes have been around the Syrian capital of Damascus, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria during the Six-Day War in 1967.
Weapons
Israel denies Syrian claim it downed Israeli plane 02:32
In December, Liberman told a delegation of European Union envoys that Israel will "prevent the smuggling of sophisticated weapons, military equipment and weapons of mass destruction from Syria to Hezbollah."
It was another acknowledgment of Israel's ongoing operations in Syria. Last April, Netanyahu confirmed that Israel had struck Syria "dozens of times," breaking with the policy of remaining quiet about involvement in its war-torn northern neighbor.
In a video statement released Friday, Netanyahu was adamant in his defense of Israel's move to prevent weapons being supplied to Hezbollah. "When we identify attempts to transfer advanced weapons to Hezbollah and we have intelligence and it is operationally feasible, we act to prevent it," he said.
"That's how it was yesterday and that's how we shall continue to act," he added.
"We are fully determined and the evidence of that is that we are acting. Everybody must take that into account -- everybody."
Hezbollah
Hezbollah is a Lebanese militant group and political party, funded and supplied by Iran. The group is at odds with Israel over territory located along the Lebanon-Israel border. It also supports the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad, committing thousands of fighters to battle alongside Assad's forces. The United States, Israel, and the Arab League consider Hezbollah a terrorist organization while the European Union classifies Hezbollah's military wing as a terrorist group.
As recently as late February, Syrian media reported that Israeli jets hit military positions and weapons convoys near Damascus.
In November 2012, Israel fired warning shots toward Syria after a mortar shell hit an Israeli military post, the first time Israel had fired on Syria across the Golan Heights since the 1973 Yom Kippur War.
Israeli jets have been hitting targets in Syria since at least 2013, when US officials told CNN they believed IDF jets had struck inside Syrian territory. In 2014, the Syrian government and an opposition group both said an IDF strike had hit Damascus' suburbs and airport.
Israeli strikes have also gone after ISIS fighters inside Syria. Late last year, IDF troops operating in the disputed Golan region came under fire from militants of the ISIS affiliate Khalid ibn al-Walid Army, Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Peter Lerner said.
The soldiers fired back, triggering an exchange of gunfire. A subsequent Israeli airstrike destroyed a vehicle carrying four militants, Lerner said.
http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/19/middleeas ... -liberman/