Special to WorldTribune.com NICOSIA — President Bashar Assad has launched what the opposition termed a sustained counter-insurgency campaign to quell the revolt throughout Syria. Meanwhile, defectors reported exhaustion within the Assad regime which, on Feb. 7, was scheduled to conduct high-level consultations with the Kremlin. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said he and Foreign Intelligence […]
Sol W. Sanders Looking around the world, the striking characteristic is waiting out a number of crises. Their outcome seems almost artificially suspended, and their interaction on one another and their ultimate effect on the world is at issue. We start with the Euro. Chancellor Angela Merkel’s supplications in Beijing were perhaps laudable but a […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Geostrategy-Direct TEL AVIV — Israel regards a new Russian missile exported to Syria as a weapon that could change the balance of power between the Jewish state and its Arab neighbors. A report by Haim Rosenberg, a former Israeli defense official, said the Iskander-E rocket, known in the West as SS-26, would […]
Special to WorldTribune.com MOSCOW — Russia said it intends to complete additional weapons deliveries to the embattled regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad. The Kremlin said Moscow would fulfill several unidentified defense contracts with Syria in 2012. Officials said Russian weapons exports to Damascus have not been banned by the United Nations. “As of today […]
Lev Navrozov In my columns, I have been writing a lot about PRC’s aggressive policies, its growing military might, and its global ambitions. Today’s PRC’s dictators are not as stupid and naive as was Stalin, who kept his country isolated from the entire world. Nobody, except Soviet spies and high-post ambassadors he sent abroad to […]
Special to WorldTribune.com WASHINGTON — The U.S. intelligence community has assessed that a fragmented opposition and powerful foreign support could sustain the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad throughout 2012. Officials said the assessment took into account the strong military, intelligence and financial support the Damascus regime has received from China, Iran and Russia. The […]
Special to WorldTribune.com MOSCOW — A leading Russian defense contractor has reported the loss of contracts in Libya. The state-owned Russian Tactical Missiles has lost nearly $800 million in contracts with the Libyan military. The company, which reported $390 million in sales last year, attributed the losses to the revolt that overthrew and killed Col. […]
Special to WorldTribune.com Gregory Copley, Global Information System By the start of 2012, the U.S. had seen a precipitous decline in its real strategic dominance of the Arabian Peninsula, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf, and in its ability to reach and influence Central Asia. It had taken less than two decades for the […]
Special to WorldTribune.com JERUSALEM — Israel’s government has been divided over policy toward Russia. Officials said the government dispute pits the Defense Ministry against the Foreign Ministry. They said the Defense Ministry has insisted on a strict policy of reciprocity while the Foreign Ministry was urging quiet diplomacy to resolve tension with the Kremlin. “We […]
Special to WorldTribune.com MOSCOW — The regime of President Bashar Assad has ordered Russian military aircraft for the Syrian Air Force. Russian industry sources said Syria has ordered the Yak-130 combat air trainer from the Yakovlev Design Bureau. They said the Syrian Air Force would receive 36 Yak-130 aircraft as part of a $550 million […]