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While the US has certainly made some epic strategic blunders in Syria that raise serious questions about just how “intelligent” US intelligence actually is, there’s little doubt that if one were to look behind all of the media parroting, the Pentagon and Langley understand all too well what’s going on in the Middle East. That is, the significance of the Russia-Iran “nexus” in Syria isn’t lost on anyone in the US military and you can bet there have been quite a few high level discussions over the past 72 hours about the best way to counter Moscow and Tehran’s powerplay...

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders said Saturday that he supports the U.S.'s continued arming and funding of so-called moderate rebels fighting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad but contrasted himself with front-runner Hillary Clinton by opposing the establishment of a unilateral American no-fly zone in the country. -snip- No-fly zones have also been proposed recently by Republican presidential candidates Carly Fiorina, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

MINSK, Belarus (AP) — About 1,000 opposition activists on Sunday protested Russia's plans to establish a military air base in Belarus, saying it would turn the former Soviet republic into a Kremlin "vassal." They claim the base would add to regional tensions already heightened by the conflict in Ukraine, and make it impossible for Belarus to maintain neutrality between Russia and the West. Belarus borders Russia, Ukraine and three members of the European Union and NATO: Lithuania, Latvia and Poland. Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has refrained from commenting on Russian President Vladimir Putin's initiative to establish the base. Analysts say...

There are high expectations for the next UN climate summit taking place in Paris in late November and early December. Obama is determined to get a “binding” international treaty to succeed the failed Kyoto Protocol. One of the major sticking points all along has been the reluctance of developing nations, especially China and India, to commit to significant emissions reductions which would reduce their economic growth. So China, India, and other nations were exempted from the Kyoto Protocol, and now China is the top emitter of greenhouse gases in the world. The strategy for the next treaty will be not...

BELGRADE – DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources report that China sent word to Moscow on Friday, October 2, that J-15 fighter bombers would shortly join the Russian air campaign that was launched Wednesday, September 30. Baghdad has moreover offered Moscow an air base for targeting the Islamic State now occupying large swathes of Iraqi territory, debka.com reports. The J-15 warplanes will take off from the Chinese Liaoning-CV-16 aircraft carrier, which reached Syrian shores on September 26, according to DEBKAfile. This will be a landmark event for Beijing: its first military operation in the Middle East as well the carrier’s first...

Russian fighter jets launched from a new airbase in Syria have persuaded western critics to mute their demands for the removal of President Bashar al-Assad, but another group of his opponents sees Moscow’s intervention as more provocative than decisive. Regional powers have quietly, but effectively, channelled funds, weapons and other support to rebel groups making the biggest inroads against the forces from Damascus. In doing so, they are investing heavily in a conflict which they see as part of a wider regional struggle for influence with bitter rival Iran. In a week when Russia made dozens of bombing raids, those...

Russian fighter jets launched from a new airbase in Syria have persuaded western critics to mute their demands for the removal of President Bashar al-Assad, but another group of his opponents sees Moscow’s intervention as more provocative than decisive. Regional powers have quietly, but effectively, channelled funds, weapons and other support to rebel groups making the biggest inroads against the forces from Damascus. In doing so, they are investing heavily in a conflict which they see as part of a wider regional struggle for influence with bitter rival Iran. In a week when Russia made dozens of bombing raids, those...

The conventional wisdom is that Vladimir Putin has blindsided Barack Obama in the Middle East, catching the U.S. off-guard. It’s another Obama “failure,” we’re told. “Obama administration scrambles as Russia attempts to seize initiative in Syria,” is how a Washington Post headline described it. A popular cartoon shows Putin kicking sand in the faces of Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry on a beach. - snip - Here’s how her story began: “Moscow’s rapid military buildup in Syria is a result of the ‘reset’ in relations forged with the Russian and Iranian governments by the Barack Obama administration. The...

LONDON: Russian President Vladimir Putin is reportedly sending 150,000 soldiers to Syria to wipe out the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). According to The Daily Star, he is apparently mounting an enormous military mission to take control of the terror group's stronghold of Raqqa. Raqqa is the self-declared capital of ISIS which is patrolled by as many as 5,000 jihadi members. Putin is set to mobilise 150,000 reservists whom he conscripted into the military earlier this week.

Russia's intervention in Syria will curtail the spread of terrorism and help deal a fatal blow to Islamic State in the war-torn country, Egypt's Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said on Saturday. Russia launched air strikes in Syria on Wednesday in its biggest Middle East intervention in decades, marking a dramatic escalation in a more than four-year-old civil war in which every major country in the region has a stake. "Russia's entrance, given its potential and capabilities, is something we see is going to have an effect on limiting terrorism in Syria and eradicating it," Shoukry said in a televised interview...

On Thursday, in “Mid-East Coup: As Russia Pounds Militant Targets, Iran Readies Ground Invasions While Saudis Panic”, we attempted to cut through all of the Western and Russian media propaganda on the way to describing what Moscow’s involvement in Syria actually portends for the global balance of power. Here are a few excerpts that summarize what’s taking shape in the Middle East: Putin looks to have viewed this as the ultimate geopolitical win-win. That is, Russia gets to i) expand its influence in the Middle East in defiance of Washington and its allies, a move that also helps to...

Over the last few months it seems that maps have been all the rage. We here at List25 decided to jump on the bandwagon and highlight some of our favorites. These are 25 maps that will change the way you see the world.

U.S. President Barack Obama warned Russia on Friday that its bombing campaign against Syrian rebels will suck Moscow into a "quagmire," after a third straight day of air raids in support of President Bashar al-Assad. At a White House news conference, Obama frequently assailed Russian President Vladimir Putin, who he accused of acting out of a position of weakness to defend a crumbling, authoritarian ally.

Hundreds of Iranian troops have arrived in Syria to join a major ground offensive in support of President Bashar al-Assad's government, Lebanese sources said on Thursday, a sign the civil war is turning still more regional and global in scope. Russian warplanes, in a second day of strikes, bombed a camp run by rebels trained by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, the group's commander said, putting Moscow and Washington on opposing sides in a Middle East conflict for the first time since the Cold War. Senior U.S. and Russian officials spoke for just over an hour by secure video conference...

WASHINGTON — The already fragmented battlefield in Syria grew even more complicated on Friday, as Russia and Iran expanded their military efforts to defend the beleaguered Syrian government in defiance of President Obama, who predicted that their actions would lead only to a “quagmire.” In his first comments since Russia began airstrikes on Syrian targets this week, Mr. Obama said that Moscow was acting “not out of strength but out of weakness.”

Russian jets are bombing ISIS targets, and Western nations (the US, France and Britain) are denouncing Putin for those attacks. It is obvious some governments of the Western world want ISIS to win and take over the Middle East. For Heaven's sake, Putin is the only major world leader who is outspoken in defending the Christians in the Middle-East. Western governments do not care about Christians, whether in the Middle-East, or in America and Europe.

(Original title too lengthy: The Largest US Foreign Policy Blunder Since Vietnam Is Complete: Iran Readies Massive Syrian Ground Invasion) On Thursday, in “Mid-East Coup: As Russia Pounds Militant Targets, Iran Readies Ground Invasions While Saudis Panic”, we attempted to cut through all of the Western and Russian media propaganda on the way to describing what Moscow’s involvement in Syria actually portends for the global balance of power. Here are a few excerpts that summarize what’s taking shape in the Middle East: Putin looks to have viewed this as the ultimate geopolitical win-win. That is, Russia gets to i) expand...

In Washington’s ongoing attempt to discredit Russian airstrikes in Syria, a senior US Air Force official has claimed Moscow lacks the technology for precision-guided missiles. Footage of the strikes proves his statement to be demonstrably false. Read more: http://sputniknews.com/middleeast/20151002/1027943624/USAF-Slam-Moscows-Dumb-Bombs.html#ixzz3nS4vsfYD

Vladimir Putin is meeting western leaders for the first time since Russia launched airstrikes in Syria, amid a growing rift over who it is targeting.

Saudi Arabia has expressed deep concern over Russia’s airstrikes in Syria, saying there was no evidence of Daesh operating in the areas targeted and that innocent civilians had been killed. Russia launched several strikes in Hama and Homs on Thursday, the second day of operations, with Kremlin officials saying that they targeted members of Daesh. Russian warplanes bombed a camp run by CIA-trained rebels, the group’s commander said. Abdullah bin Yahya Al-Moallemi, the Kingdom’s permanent representative to the UN, criticized Russia’s actions in a speech delivered at the Security Council on Wednesday. “As for those countries that have claimed recently...