From South Front, on April 30th:
The Syrian pro-government blog “Encyclopedia of Syrian military” has noted an interesting fact in the photos appearing from the site of the last night Israeli strike on Syria.
According to the report, the photos may show the wreckage of the GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb (SDB). The GBU-39 SBD is a (110 kg) precision-guided glide bomb designed by the US to provide aircraft with the ability to carry a higher number of more accurate bombs.
The GBU-39 SBD can be used against stationary targets such as ammo depots, bunkers, etc.
From AMN, on April 30th:
The rebel delegation in northern Homs just announced that a ceasefire agreement has been reached between their forces and the Russian Reconciliation Centre.
According to the details of the agreement, all parties will adhere to a 24 hour ceasefire in order to discuss terms of surrender in northern Homs.
From MoA, on April 30th:
Yesterday former CIA director and now Secretary of State Pompeo visited Israel. A few hours later Israel bombed two ammunition depots in Syria which are supposedly related to Iran. This was a clear attempt to provoke Iran into some reaction…
Behind Trump, Netanyahoo and Bolton is one financier, the militant Zionist and casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. He financed Trump’s and Netanyahoo’s election campaigns and the various think tanks that create anti-Iranian propaganda and paid Bolton.
From MEE, on April 30th:
US-led coalition fighter jets reportedly bombarded pro-Syrian government forces on Sunday, rolling back their advance into oil-rich areas held by the Syrian Democratic Forces in eastern Syria.
At least nine pro-government fighters were killed in the operation, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights activist group said, hours after the Syrian army claimed it had “liberated” four villages in Deir Ezzor province from the US-backed SDF.
If confirmed, the attack would be a significant departure from the international coalition’s stated mission of battling the Islamic State group (IS) in Syria, instead seeing the US-led force fighting over territory not currently contested by the group.
From AntiWar.com, on April 30th:
Unnamed Iranian officials were quoted in the Tasnim news agency denying reports earlier Monday that an overnight Israeli attack on Syria hit Iranian bases and killed “mostly” Iranians. They said the claims were “baseless” and no Iranians were killed at all…
[T]he habit has been to portray Shi’ite militia members supporting the Assad government as “Iranians,” even though large numbers are from Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.
From EJ Magnier, on April 30th:
Hezbollah has accomplished its mission in Syria and its presence on the battlefield is no longer necessary. Thus, in coordination with the Syrian government, Hezbollah has moved the majority of its forces into Lebanon, particularly as the Syrian army has recovered and regained its military strength and increased its combat capability…
Hezbollah has pulled in its core fighters and elite forces and is deploying these to positions that the leadership considers sensitive in the unlikely but possible event of an Israeli aggression on Lebanon…
[T]he US – so the sources believe – is ready to offer support from aircraft carriers and battleships to participate in an attack against Hezbollah, to build a steel-umbrella over Haifa and Tel Aviv, to hunt down missiles fired at Israel, offer all intelligence information, and share banks of objectives.
From AMN, on May 1st:
According to a military source in Damascus, the Russian Aerospace Forces have launched nonstop airstrikes over Hajar Al-Aswad and the Yarmouk Camp this afternoon, paving the way for the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and their Palestinian allies to advance against the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists.
From Thierry Meyssan, on May 1st:
Western aggression began with the assassination of Lebanese ex-Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, in 2005.
The US ambassador in Beïrut at that time, Jeffrey Feltman – who probably organised this crime himself – immediately accused Presidents Bachar el-Assad and Emile Lahoud…
13 years later, Jeffrey Feltman is the number 2 of the United Nations, and the business at hand is the alleged chemical attack on the Ghouta.
From Nauman Sadiq, on May 1st:
What defies explanation for the April 14 strikes against a scientific research facility in the Barzeh district of Damascus and two alleged chemical weapons storage facilities in Homs is the fact that Donald Trump had already announced that the process of withdrawal of US troops from Syria must begin before the midterm US elections slated for November…
This seems like a last-ditch attempt by Israel to further escalate the conflict and to force the Trump administration to abandon its plans of withdrawing US troops from Syria.
From Laurent Guyénot in 2013:
Neoconservatism is essentially a modern Jewish version of Machiavelli’s political strategy…
First, nations derive their strength from their myths, which are necessary for government and governance. Second, national myths have no necessary relationship with historical reality: they are socio-cultural constructions that the State has a duty to disseminate. Third, to be effective, any national myth must be based on a clear distinction between good and evil; it derives its cohesive strength from the hatred of an enemy nation.
From MoA, on May 1st:
The dog and pony show the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahoo provided yesterday (video, slideshow) was not based on material Israeli secret services acquired in Iran, but most likely from data Iran provided to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) during the implementation period of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action(JCPOA, pdf).
From Alexander Mercouris, on May 1st:
Iran’s nuclear weapons programme was put on hold in 2003, and has not been pursued since, and nothing Netanyahu said yesterday in any way casts doubt on that fact…
Even the generals in the Pentagon favor continuing [the JCPOA].
From Russia Today, on May 1st:
The US and its allies intend to occupy the eastern part of Syria and partition the country, in order to “use the Sunnis in East Syria and West Iraq to form a barricade to stop any Iranian influence and cut off supplies to Hezbollah.”
From Jonathan Broder, on May 1st:
The country is already host to one war between government troops and Sunni rebels; another between a U.S.-trained Arab militia and the Islamic State militant group (ISIS); and a third pitting invading Turkish troops against Kurdish fighters. Yet even after seven years of fighting that have left half -million dead and uprooted two-thirds of Syria’s 18 million people, the country is bracing itself for a fourth war, this one between Israel and the Iranian forces that have established a sizable military presence in Syria…
Over the past five years, Israeli warplanes have bombed [Hezbollah] weapons convoys more than 100 times, Israeli officials now acknowledge…
Iranian military leader, General Qassem Soleimani, will press ahead with his strategy to turn Syria into a missile platform against Israel…
The role of the estimated 2,000 Iranian troops now in Syria, he adds, is to set up the military infrastructure for that endeavor, including factories to produce sophisticated GPS-guided missiles with increased accuracy to hit high-value military and economic targets in Israel. Once this has been accomplished, he said, Soleimani will turn these bases over to Hezbollah and allied Shiite militias. “The goal is to surround Israel on almost every side with proxies equipped with rockets to be able to bombard Israel.”..
Trump’s threats to pull out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and reimpose sanctions on Tehran play into the hands of Iranian hard-liners like Soleimani, who never trusted the United States in the first place and sees the Quds Force as the spearhead of Iran’s drive to dominate the Middle East and confront Israel.
From Pepe Escobar, on May 3rd:
China is Iran’s top trading partner – especially because of its energy imports. Iran for its part is a major food importer…
China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) took a significant 30% stake in a project to develop South Pars – the largest natural gas field in the world. A $3 billion deal is upgrading Iran’s oil refineries, including a contract between Sinopec and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) to expand the decades-old Abadan oil refinery….
For Beijing, Iran is an absolutely key hub of the New Silk Roads, or the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). A key BRI project is the $2.5 billion, 926 kilometer high-speed railway from Tehran to Mashhad; for that China came up with a $1.6 billion loan – the first foreign-backed project in Iran after the signing of the JCPOA….
The Export-Import Bank of China so far has financed 26 projects in Iran – everything from highway building and mining to steel producing – totaling roughly $8.5 billion in loans…
Aseman Airlines decided to buy 20 Sukhoi SuperJet 100s while Iran Air Tours – a subsidiary of Iran Air – has also ordered another 20…
[T]he 2014 Moscow-Tehran oil-for-goods deal, bypassing the US dollar, is finally in effect, with Russia initially buying 100,000 barrels of Iranian crude a day…
Russian investment in developing Iran’s oil and gas fields could reach more than $50 billion…
Barely certified as the new US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo’s first foreign trip – to Saudi Arabia and Israel –amounts in practice to briefing both allies on the imminent Trump withdrawal of the JCPOA on May 12…
[T]he JCPOA was the product of a strenuous seven-country negotiation over many years.
From Lee Camp, on May 2nd:
[L]ast week, Iran finally did it: It switched from the dollar to the euro. And sure enough, this week, the U.S. military-industrial complex, the corporate media and Israel all got together to claim that Iran is lying about its nuclear weapons development.
Bad Republic 