ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Members of the Ukrainian armed forces ride on armoured personnel carriers near Debaltseve, eastern Ukraine, February 12, 2015. Photo by Gleb Garanich/Reuters The recent military escalation in eastern Ukraine  has drawn attention of the UN Security Council (UNSC). The UNSC found the situation in the region very tense and adopted a statement on June 6 encouraging all parties in Ukraine to recommit to a 2015 peace agreement. The statement also expressed a “grave concern” at deteriorating situation in the Donbass  region, where the conflict is developing. All 15 UNSC members including the US and Russia agreed on the statement, which was the first pronouncement by the UNSC on Ukraine since January 2017. The UNSC condemned “continuous violations of the ceasefire regime, especially the use of heavy weapons prohibited by the Minsk agreements, responsible for tragic deaths, including among civilians. ” Last week, UN political chief Rosemary DiCarlo told the UNSC that “the relative

Russia’s MiG-31 with a Kinzhal hypersonic missile. Photo: Aleksandr Shukhov On June 7, Russian President Vladimir Putin announce that all the recently unveiled state-of-the-art Russian weapons will be put into service in time addign that some are already adopted. The announcement was made during his annual Q&A session in Moscow. “The hypersonic air-deployed Kinzhal system – the missile which can travel at 10 Mach speed – is already used by our troops in the South Federal District,” the president said. “A laser combat system is in service as well.” The hypersonic system Avangard and Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) will be put into service in 2019 and 2020 respectively. “I don’t think that any other country will develop such weapon [as Avangard]. Naturally, it will emerge at some point, but, as I’ve said already, it won’t bother us, since we already have it,” Putin added. He also revealed that an nuclear unmanned underwater vehicle and cruise missil

A photo from the site Pro-government forces have uncovered an ISIS training camp for children, according to a video released by the Russian state-run news agency Sputnik. The military training base has been found in the eastern part of the province of Hama. A damaged armored military Humvee was also spotted at the entrance. According to Sputnik’s report, the camp included everything necessary for military training – obstacle courses, battle practice grounds and classrooms. A similar training camp for children was discovered in southern Damascus after government forces had liberated the Yarmouk camp area from ISIS.

FILE IMAGE: Desert Hawks Brigade members The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) is papering to lunch a military operation to eliminate a small pocket of ISIS in the eastern al-Suwayda countryside, which includes the villages of Tell Sa’d, Tamutha, Ashrfya and Aura, the Syrian pro-government blog Muraselon reported on June 6. According to Syrian opposition sources, warplanes and attack helicopters of the Syrian Arab Air Force (SyAAF) carried out a series of airstrikes on ISIS positions in these four villages on June 5 and 6. Muraselon said that the pocket hosts hundreds of ISIS fighters who had withdrawn from their positions in the Yarmouk refugee camp and several districts south of the city of Damascus under an agreement with the Damascus government in late May. A military source told Muraselon that several unit of the SAA Republican Guard were deployed around ISIS pocket in the eastern al-Suwayda countryside during the last few days. These units will participate in the upcoming attack

Illustrative image On June 6, the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) artillery shelled several positions of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and its allies in the town of Khirbat Marata in the southwestern Aleppo countryside and in the district of al-Zahra west of the city. The Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) said that the shelling was response to an attack of HTS on a position of the SAA in the area of Khan Touman on June 5. Back then,  the attack failed and the SAA managed to kill and injure 15 fighters of HTS . In related development, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that warplanes of the Russian Aerospace Forces carried out a series of airstrikes on positions of the al-Qaeda-affiliated militant group Horas al-Din in the towns of Urum al-Jawz, Bsheiriyeh and Ariha in the northwestern Idlib countryside. According to the SOHR, these airstrikes were a response to an attack of Horas al-Din on a position of the SAA in the area of Ard al-Wata in the northern Lattakia coun

Written by  Whitney Webb ; Originally appeared at  MintPress Saudi interest in developing nuclear weapons dates back to the 1970s, when the kingdom learned of major steps taken by both Israel and India in the development of nuclear armaments. The Israeli government  has begun selling  the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia information on how to develop nuclear weapons, according to a senior official at the Israeli military organization iHLS (Israel’s Homeland Security). Ami Dor-on, a senior nuclear commentator at the organization — which is  partially funded  by U.S. weapons-giant Raytheon – came forward because of his concern over the emerging nuclear arms race in the region. The cooperation between the two countries in helping the Saudis to develop a nuclear weapons program is just the latest sign of their warming relationship, with Israel  recently calling  the Saudi crown prince “a partner of Israel.” Israel has been  a nuclear power  for decades, though its nuclear arsenal is undecl

A U.S. defense official Monday told  CNN’s Washington bureau  that  two nuclear-capable U.S. Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bombers flew very close to the heavily contested and militarized Spratly Islands in the South China Sea. The aggressive flybys come days after Secretary of Defense James Mattis warned of “ consequences ” if Beijing continues weaponizing the South China Sea, further accusing China of “intimidation and coercion” in the Indo-Pacific region, which he specifically made clear that Washington has zero plans on leaving the heavily disputed area. His speech, well, it promoted an angry Chinese response during IISS Shangri-La Dialogue, a civilian and military defense summit in Singapore, where Lieutenant General He Lei told reporters, “Any irresponsible comments from other countries cannot be accepted.” As we explained on Saturday during the IISS Shangri-La Dialogue,” The United States and China appear to be headed for a military collision in the Southeast Asia region

AFP By Daniel Edgar The following is a translation of a recent article by a Mexican journalist who travelled to Venezuela to investigate the atmosphere in the country during the presidential elections. For those who are interested, at the end of the article are some links to a couple of other articles in English on economic and political developments in Venezuela by academics and journalists with many years’ experience in the country and the Latin American region. They are older but remain as relevant now as when they were written. (For those who prefer to receive all their information from the New York Times, CNN, Fox ‘News’, etc, (or shills?) and find other points of view disturbing, you may as well go straight to the comments section and note your complaints and insults…) *** “Venezuela: Chronicle of a Triumph and an Announced Attack” By Gerardo Szalkowicz (28 May 2018) “Mrs Carmen arrives slowly, hobbling, to Manuel Fajardo College in the crowded and mythical ne