ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Newly elected Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinian. SOURCE: THANASSIS STAVRAKIS, ASSOCIATED PRESS Written by  J.Hawk  exclusively for  SouthFront On the face of it, one should not be overly concerned with the events in Armenia on the grounds that “immutable structural factors” prevent Armenia from breaking off its relations with Russia and embracing the EU and even NATO. For starters, Armenia lacks its own equivalent of Galician nationalism. There were no Armenian Waffen-SS divisions, there is no Armenian Stepan Bandera. The memory of the Armenian Genocide, whose existence Turkey still denies, is a major barrier to moving toward the West because in practical terms it would mean moving toward Turkey, and into its neo-Ottoman, pan-Turkic sphere of influence where there is plainly no room for it. The conflict with Azerbaijan is still unresolved, as is the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, with periodic exchanges of fire between Armenian and Azeri troops making this the hottest post

On May 11, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) released a series of photos showing alleged Iranian facilities, which were targeted by the May 10 Israeli strikes on Syria.  MORE ABOUT THE STRIKE

On May 9, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and Liwa al-Quds backed by the Russian Aerospace Force continued their advance in the ISIS-held pocket between Homs and Deir Ezzor governorates reaching the al-Tamah area, 60km southwest of the city of Deir Ezzor, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA). SAA soldiers killed several fighters of ISIS during their advance. The SANA said that the SAA and its allies had liberated more than 15,00 km2 in the western and southwestern Deir Ezzor countryside from ISIS since  the begining of their military operation there on May 8 . Click to see the full-size image From its side, the ISIS-linked news agency Amaq has not released any report about the ongoing clashes between ISIS and the SAA in western Deir Ezzor. However, the source said that ISIS fighters had shelled several positions of the SAA around the city of al-Bukamal in the southeastern Deir Ezzor countryside with recoilless rifles. Syrian pro-government activists believe that t

Last night,  at least 20 rockets were launched from southern Syria  at positions of the Israeli military in the Golan Heights. The rocket was reportedly aimed at the following Israeli targets: A HQ of the border brigade 9900 A HQ of the border brigade 810 A technical and electronic survey facility A HQ of the EW jamming facility A communication and transmission facility A helicopters airfield An outpost at Hermon Mount Alpinist unit HQ The Israeli side accused Iran of conducting this attack, which some experts viewed as Teheran’s response to  the recent Israeli strikes on the T4 airbase in Syria  where some Iranian servicemen were killed. Some pro-Russian Telegram channels spread a following pic as an example of the damage caused by the rocket shelling.  It is fake . For example: In response, the Israeli military shelled positions of the Syrian Arab Army and the National Defense Forces near Hadar and Khan Arnabah in the southern Syrian governorate of al-Quneitra.

Written by  Brian Kalman  exclusively for  SouthFront ; Brian Kalman is a management professional in the marine transportation industry. He was an officer in the US Navy for eleven years. Like so many others that watched the unfolding U.S.-led cruise missile strike on Syria in the early morning hours of April 14 th , I was amazed by the brazen and ill-conceived nature of such an undertaking. Not only was the attack not based on any verifiable intelligence proving a chemical attack by Syrian governmental forces, the given reason for the justification of the attack, but it was extremely ill-advised from any military or political stand point. Was it imperial hubris on the part of the “leadership” of the sole “exceptional” nation, or a simple matter of poor military decision making that resulted in the approval of the strike?  A number of failures in executing the strike have come to light after the fact, not minor faults that have been magnified by Russian or Syrian government propagan