ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

Written by  Matthew Jamison ; Originally appeared on  strategic-culture.org The recent  shredding  of over  70 years  of  American  foreign  policy  with regards to the  location  of the US Embassy in the State of Israel has been a  major   catastrophic   inflection  point in the tortured history of the State of Israel, the Arab-Israeli conflict and the American/Israel uber-special Alliance. It has also been a  crystallization  moment for many such as myself who once were unwavering and unquestioning supporters of Israel and defenders of Israel in an overwhelmingly hostile anti-Israel environment in the UK and Europe. I was always pro-Israel alongside being pro-Palestinian State and believed strongly in Israel’s right to exist and the creation of a State of Palestine living side by side a State of Israel. I believed passionately in the policies and leadership of the likes of Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin – the Oslo peace process – along with the heirs to such traditions in the form

Back in April, we  discussed  how the U.S. Army M1 Abrams tank, an American third-generation main battle tank, was in the process of being upgraded with an invisible missile shield that will destroy all chemical energy anti-tank threats and other threats before reaching the vehicle. It is part of a modernization program that the Pentagon is preparing its main battle tank for the next evolution of hybrid wars, expected to start in the mid-2020s, or before. According to  The Times of Israel , the U.S. Army awarded a contract worth $193 million for Israel’s TROPHY Active Protection System (APS) for its Abrams tanks “in support of immediate operational requirements,” Rafael Advanced Defense Systems announced. Designed to block incoming anti-tank missile threats, the Trophy system has four radar antennas and fire-control radars to track incoming threats such as anti-tank-guided-missiles (ATGMs), and rocket-propelled grenades (RGPs). Once the system detects a projectile, it will aut

FILE IMAGE: Bloomberg The Btirish Air Force directly targeted Syrian govrnment forces near the border with Iraq and Jordan last month, the Sunday Times reported citing a spokesman for the British Defence Ministry. According to the report, a British Typhoon fighter jet dropped a 500lb Paveway IV bomb on pro-government forces during a firefight near a British and US Special Forces base in the desert near al-Tanf in the border area. “As an act of collective self-defence, RAF Typhoons dropped a single Paveway IV on the position, which successfully removed the threat to our coalition partners,” the spokesman said. This was the first time when the British military bombed Syrian forces since it took part in a series of the US-led strikes on Syrian government forces in April. The area of At Tanf, located at the Damascus-Baghdad highway, is occupied by the US-led coalition and its proxies. The coalition claims that this is a “de-escalation zone” and it has to keep its military p

 

By Vladimir Isachenkov MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin boasted about his country's prospective nuclear weapons Thursday, saying they are years and even decades ahead of foreign designs. Speaking before the graduates of Russian military academies, Putin said the new weapons represent a quantum leap in the nation's military capability. "A number of our weapons systems are years, and, perhaps, decades ahead of foreign analogues," Putin told young military officers who gathered in an ornate Kremlin hall. "Modern weapons contribute to a multifold increase in the Russian military potential." The tough statement comes as Putin is preparing for a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump set for July 16 in Helsinki, Finland. Russia-U.S. relations have plunged to post-Cold War lows over

SLF fighters before the attack on HTS Russian officials and commanders of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) failed to reach an agreement on southern Syria during a recent meeting, which was held in the town of Bosra al-Sham in the eastern Daraa countryside, the Syrian pro-opposition news outlet Enab Baladi reported on June 30. Abu Shaima, a spokesman for the FSA operations room “al-Buniyan al-Marsus,” told Enab Baladi that the Russian delegation insisted during the negotiation that the FSA should surrender to the Syrian Arab Army (SAA). The Russian side didn’t even offer an evacuation agreement to the FSA, according to Abu Shaima. The Hammurabi’s Justice News blog, which is linked to the US-led coalition and the FSA, reported that a new round of negotiation will be held on July 1. According to the pro-opposition blog, Russia will bring a new offer to the table in the upcoming round. The FSA will likely accept any Russian offer that would allow it to withdraw to the opposition-held

EPA/MOHAMMED BADRA Militants in the settlements of Umm Walad, Atbaa and Jebb in southern Syria have surrendered to the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), Major General Alexei Tsygankov, chief of the Russian center for reconciliation of conflicting sides in Syria, told media on June 30. According to Major General Tsygankov, at least 250 militants have surrendered  their weapons to the SAA and have decided to settle their status. “Three populated localities – Umm Walad, Atbaa and Jebb – have joined the ceasefire regime in the southwestern de-escalation zone. At least 250 militants stopped resisting to government forces and voluntarily decided to verify their status,” he said. “They handed over 118 pieces of weapons, three vehicles and a lot of various ammo.” Meanwhile,  militants in the town of Bosra al-Sham are about to make the same decision . However, the deal there has not been implemented yet. Despite all these developments groups of  the Free Syrian Army and the Syrian governm

On June 29, the Saudi-led coalition and its Yemeni proxies launched a new attack on the district center of al-Tuhayat and the town of Zabid along the western coast of Yemen, according to the Sky News Arabia TV. Yemeni sources told the UAE-based TV channel that coalition forces advanced more than 30km towards the two positions. Sky News Arabia said that Saudi-led coalition captured 60 fighters of the Houthis and killed many others during its advance towards al-Tuhayat and Zabid. Meanwhile, the Yemeni al-Masirah TV reported that Houthi fighters destroyed two armored personnel carriers (APCs) and three vehicles of the Saudi-led coalition during clashes around the village of al-Faza, which is located 15km west of al-Tuhayat. Earlier this week,  the Saudi-led coalition recaptured the town of al-Faza and reopened a supply line for their units south of the city of al-Hudaydah . This allowed the coalition to launch this new attack along the western Yemeni coast. However, it appears th