Crossfire War – London Watch – West Asia Theatre: London – Washington – Canberra – Berlin – Moscow/Ankara – Tehran – Muscat – Doha – Riyadh; London in Desperation Turns to Ankara for Assistance in Crisis – Russian Intelligence Reports U. S. Military Forces Build Up Near Iran Border – Russia Pacific Fleet Begins Maneuvers in Sea of Japan
Night Watch: ANKARA – “We will appreciate any effort of Turkish officials to solve the crisis.” That was a quote from British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett in Ankara on a two day visit.
AKI reports that with her was Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul who responded by saying he hoped the crisis between Britain and Iran, over the 15 British saliors-marines seized Friday, ends peacefully. But I suspect Gul had difficulty maintaining a straight face as he said so. Ankara supports the Jihad just as much as Tehran but not as obviously. Turkey, as the vast majority of Islamic governments, want the West to have less influence in the affairs of the region, and they know that can’t be accomplished peacefully. [AKI]
Ankara has provided no real support for the UK/US occupation of Iraq and is poised to invade the Kurdish part of the country as is Tehran. It is Tehran-Riyadh-Damascus, Ankara is cooperating with, not Brussels-London-Washington. But with the United Kingdom operating completely in the dark, due to the enormous corruption revolving around its decision to have no embargo against Iran, London has no idea of the deceptive international reality they are caught up in. It was that decision which enabled engineering services, based in San Francisco, to construct bases for Iran, the decision that halted the coalition outside Baghdad in 1991. Now London is engaged in this pathetic diplomatic shadow boxing, clutching at straws, completely out of its depth.
In the meantime RIA reports Russian Intelligence has detected a major build up of U.S. military forces near Iran’s border and in the Persian Gulf. “The latest military intelligence data point to heightened U.S. military preparations for both air and ground operations against Iran. That would enable the Americans to bring the country to its knees at minimal cost,” the official said. The Vice-President of the Academy of Geo-Political Sciences, Colonel-General Leonid Ivashov stated the Pentagon is planning to attack Iran’s military infrastructure in the near future. [RIA]
But when U.S. President George W. Bush started discussing “options on the table” when asked about an attack on Iran, after Saddam had been removed, Iran’s Defense Ministry stated they will not let the U.S. attack first. One of Iran’s Defense officials said, even more recently, the U.S. is facing a strategic ambush. As crossfirewar.com mentioned last week, Tehran is conducting offensive naval maneuvers in the Persian Gulf that are due to end Friday, just as the Pentagon has begun two days of maneuvers also in the Gulf, but outside Iran territorial waters.
In the meantime Russia’s Pacific Fleet has begun anti-submarine exercises in the Sea of Japan. A press release stated, “The exercises, which marks the end of winter combat training, will feature missile and artillery firing, and the search and destruction of submarines.” [RIA]
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