ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Click to see the full-size image On January 10, the Greek authorities seized the Tanzanian-flagged ship “Andromeda” that was carrying explosive materials on its way to the Libyan city of Misurat, according to Reuters. The Greek authorities reportedly found 29 containers carrying ammonium nitrate, non-electric detonators and 11 empty liquefied petroleum gas tanks while inspecting the ship after it had been intercepted near the Greek island of Cretet. Greek Navy Rear Admiral Ioannis Argiriou told reporters that the materials that were sized on the ship could be used “for all sorts of work, from work in quarries to making bombs and acts of terrorism”. The investigation revealed that the ship was loaded with the explosive materials in the Turkish ports of Mersin and Iskenderun. Moreover, the ship operators hid its real destination by providing a fake path toward Djibouti and Oman. The Libya city of Misurat is under the control of the Libyan Government of National Accord (LGNA)

An interesting theme concerning Syria is the involvement of the People’s Republic of China in the conflict. While China’s diplomatic and economic assistance has been constant, its military contribution to Syria is less known. It is important for China and Russia to contain and defeat the terrorist phenomenon in the Middle East, as well as to defang the strategists in the US deep state who are unceasing in their efforts to employ jihadism as a weapon to destabilize Eurasia’s integration projects. The Jihad International, under the economic and strategic guidance of the United States, has recruited tens of thousands of terrorists over the years and sent them to Syria. Among these, a significant number come from the Uighur ethnic group, situated in the autonomous Chinese province of Xinjiang, particularly from the city of Kashgar, geographically located in the extreme west and close to the borders of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. The employment of ethnic and religious minorities to de

The analysis of  unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) involved in the January 6 attack on Russia’s bases in Syria  has shown that they cannot be made in an improvised manner, Head of the Russian General Staff’s department for the development of unmanned aerial vehicles Maj. Gen. Alexander Novikov said on September 11, according to the Russian state-run media. “ The creation of drones of this class is impossible in an improvised manner. Their development and usage involved specialists, who had undergone special training in the countries manufacturing and using systems with unmanned aerial vehicles ,” Novikov said adding that assembly and usage of UAVs is an engineering task that demands “special training, know-how in various scientific areas and practical experience in creating these devices.” The UAVs also cannot be used without special software and such attack requires the info about exact target location of the targets and such parameters as altitude, flight and wind speed. This in

Members of the Fatemiyoun Brigade during the Palmyra offensive in December 2016 Over 2,000 Afghans have been killed and about 8,000 have been injured fighting in Syria on the side of the Damascus government, according to media reports. “This brigade has given more than 2,000 martyrs and 8,000 wounded for Islam,” Zohair Mojahed, a cultural official in the Fatemiyoun Brigade, said in an interview to the Iranian newspaper Shargh. According to the official, members of the Fatemiyoun Brigade have been fighting in Syria for five years. The Fatemiyoun Brigade is one of the biggest and most effective Iranian-backed units operating in Syria.  Members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards play role of military advisers within Fatemiyoun units. The brigade supported operations of the Syrian Army in the provinces of Homs, Hama and Aleppo.  Now, the group’s members assist army troops operating in Idlib province .

FILE IMAGE Written by  Paul Craig Roberts ; Originally appeared at  paulcraigroberts.org In 1953 Washington and Britain overthrew the democratically elected government of Mohammad Mosaddegh and installed a dictator to rule Iran for the benefit of Washington and the British. In declassified documents, the CIA has admitted its role in overthrowing the Iranian government. The overthrow pattern is always the same. Washington hires protesters, then introduces violence, controls the explanation, and unseats the government. Ever since the Iranian Revolution that overthrew the Washington-installed dictator in1979, Washington has been trying to regain control of Iran. In 2009 Washington financed the “Green Revolution,” which was an attempt to overthrow the Ahmadinejad government. Today Washington is again at work against the Iranian people. It is difficult to believe that any Iranian, after watching what Washington-organized protests have done to Honduras, Libya, Ukraine, and Syria,

Mossad chief Yossi Cohen Israel has agents spying on the ground in Iran, Mossad chief Yossi Cohen said during a closed session at the Finance Ministry, Israel National News reported on January 9. “We have eyes and ears, even in Iran,” the media outlet quoted Cohen. He also warned that Iran is expanding further in the region. “The Iranians are spreading across the Middle East with a vast array of forces, and there is little holding them back.” The Mossad chief added that Teheran is en route “to realize its dream of creating what almost amounts to a land and air bridge allowing them to dump troops across the Middle East.” Cohen’s comment came just hours after reports that  the Syrian Air Defense had thwarted an Israeli missile attack on military targets in the Damascus countryside  and days after  Iranian public prosecutor, Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, accused CIA, Israel and Saudi Arabia of fomenting the unrest which has swept across Iran.

Click to see the full-size image The Iranian authorities placed former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad under house arrest after he had publicly criticized the current Iranian government, according to a report of the UK-based al-Quds al-Arabi on January 6. According to al-Quds al-Arabi, Ahmadinejad accused the government of Iran President Hassan Rouhani of mismanagement and criticized it during a public speech in the southern city of Bushehr on December 28. “Some of the current leaders live detached from the problems and concerns of the people and do not know anything about the reality of society … What it suffers Iran today is mismanagement and not lack of economic resources,” Ahmadinejad said in his public speech, according to al-Quds al-Arabi. The al-Quds al-Arabi report suggested that Ahmadinejad’s statement was likely a response to President Rouhani, who accused him earlier of planning to confront the Iranian government. Western and Arab media linked the suppo

Click to see the full-size image On January 7, a heavy VBIED exploded in al-Thalathin street in the western part of Idlib city. The Lebanese al-Mayadeen TV said that the VBIED targeted the headquarters of the al-Qaeda-affiliated Ajnad Caucasus group. 25 civilians and fighters of Ajnad Caucasus were killed and many others were injured in the VBIED attack, according to local sources. Al-Mayadeen said that opposition activists accused Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham of carrying out the VBIED attack as a punishment against Ajnah Caucasus because they fled the battlefield in the southeastern Idlib countryside. During the last few days, several prominent figures of the Syrian opposition and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) accused HTS of handing over its positions in southeastern Idlib to the Syrian Arab Army (SAA). On the other side, pro-HTS activists accused FSA groups and even the locals of supporting the SAA, especially after the Syrian Arab Air Force Intelligence (SyAAFI)  leaked photos f