JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER.
1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)
COUNTRIES WITH ISRAEL AND THE WEST
EZEKIEL 38:10-19
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11 And thou shalt say,(RUSSIA,ARAB,MUSLIMS) I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.
13 Sheba, and Dedan,(SAUDIA ARABIA)(JORDAN) and the merchants of Tarshish,(ENGLAND) with all the young lions thereof,(USA,CANADA,AUSTRALIA,NEW ZEALAND,EU,ENGLAND,ENGLISH SPEAKING shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?
14 Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it?
ISRAEL-WEST ENEMIES EZEK 38:4-6,15-19
4 And I (GOD) will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,(GOD FORCES THE RUSSIA-MUSLIMS TO MARCH) and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia,(IRAN,IRAQ) Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer,(GERMANY) and all his bands; the house of Togarmah (TURKEY) of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.(AFRICAN MUSLIMS,SUDAN,TUNESIA ETC)
15 And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts,(RUSSIA-ARAB/MUSLIMS) thou, and many people with thee,(AFRICAN ISLAMIC COUNTRIES) all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army:
16 And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.
17 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them?
18 And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that my fury shall come up in my face.
19 For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel;
DANIEL 11:44 (CHINA WITH RUSSIA-MUSLIMS)
44 But tidings out of the east(CHINA) and out of the north(RUSSIA, MUSLIMS WHATS LEFT FROM WAVE 1) shall trouble him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.( 1/3RD OF EARTHS POPULATION)
EZEKIEL 39:1-6 ISRAELS ENEMIES DESTROYED
1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog,(LEADER OF RUSSIA) and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech (MOSCOW) and Tubal: (TUBOLSK)
2 And I will turn thee back,(RUSSIA-ARAB MUSLIM ISRAEL HATERS) and leave but the sixth part of thee,(5/6TH OR 300 MILLION DEAD RUSSIAN/ARAB/MUSLIMS I BELIEVE) and will cause thee to come up from the north parts,(RUSSIA) and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:
3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands,( ARABS) and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
6 And I will send a fire on Magog,(NUCLEAR ATOMIC BOMB) and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
Abbas: Allow Palestinian refugees from Syria into West Bank-PA leader to urge UN, EU to pressure Israel to allow those fleeing civil war to cross; plea follows Herzog’s appeal to take in Syrians-By Times of Israel staff September 5, 2015, 9:38 pm 35
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called Saturday for the absorption of Palestinian refugees fleeing war in Syria into the West Bank.According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, Abbas instructed the Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, to cooperate with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon “in taking appropriate and necessary action to absorb displaced Palestinian refugees into the occupied Palestinian territories.”Abbas urged Mansour to work with the UN and the EU to pressure Israel to let Palestinian refugees from Syria cross into Palestinian areas.According to Wafa, the Palestinian Authority seeks international help “to stop the Palestinians’ plight of displacement, death and dispersal in world countries due to the current difficult conditions in the region.”“The Palestinian presidency deems this mission not just a humanitarian mission, but a right of every Palestinian living in exile and refugee camps [to return],” the statement said.There are 13 refugee camps in Syria, with the largest being the Yarmouk Camp in Damascus. The camp was established after Israel’s War of Independence in 1948 as a community outside Damascus, but with the Syrian capital’s urban development it became part of the city.At its peak the population of Yarmouk amounted to some 150,000 people but the camp was bombed by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad after the start of the Syrian civil war. In April this year, Islamic State fighters laid siege to the camp and then overran it. There are an estimated 18,000 people or less remaining in the camp.The comments by Abbas came soon after Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog said Israel had a moral obligation to take in some Syrian refugees. Herzog did not refer specifically to Palestinian refugees.In January 2014, an Israeli columnist known for his usually hawkish views wrote a surprising column in which he said Israel should help the Palestinians in Yarmouk because of its indelible historical link to the Palestinian people.“According to different reports, we’re talking about 20,000 people who are in a terrible danger of massacre and are starving. [The numbers] are not anything Israel cannot handle,” columnist Amnon Lord wrote in a column published in Ma’ariv, a Hebrew-language paper.“Why not say this out loud: Israelis care about Palestinians more than about other population groups […] with all the accusations that Israel has against Palestinian actions, there is a closeness that can be admitted and accepted. We lived with them and in their proximity from a young age,” he wrote at the time.
Putin confirms Russian involvement in Syria’s civil war-President says Moscow gives Assad’s army ‘training’ and ‘logistics'; other sources cite deeper role, including troop deployment-By Times of Israel staff September 5, 2015, 10:54 pm 6
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday for the first time acknowledged that his country was involved in the Syrian civil war, telling RIA Novosti, a Russian news agency, that Russia is providing “serious” training and logistical support to the Syrian army.Earlier this week, the website The Daily Beast ran a piece entitled “Russia puts boots on the ground in Syria,” which claimed the Russians were doing much more than training soldiers and providing logistical support.The piece cited unnamed sources saying that Russian pilots are flying sorties on behalf of Assad, bombarding from the air enemies of the Bashar Assad regime including Islamic State and other rebel groups.Speaking to RIA Novosti, however, Putin said direct military intervention was “so far premature.”“To say we’re ready to do this today — so far it’s premature to talk about this. But we are already giving Syria quite serious help with equipment and training soldiers, with our weapons,” the British Telegraph quoted Putin as telling RIA Novosti.According to the report – and contradicting the report in the Daily Beast — Putin was coordinating his moves with the US. “We really want to create some kind of an international coalition to fight terrorism and extremism. To this end, we hold consultations with our American partners — I have personally spoken on the issue with US President Obama,” he said.The Daily Beast in the middle of last week quoted a blog tracking military dynamics in the Middle East and Africa as reporting that at least one BTR-82A has turned up in Latakia, in west-northern Syria.The BTR-82A is the latest iteration of Russia’s domestically-produced armored personnel carrier and has only been unveiled in 2009. The Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) was first used in the Russian military in 2014.The Syrian army relies heavily on Russian technology – most of it outdated equipment dating back to when Bashar’s father, Hafez Assad, was on good terms with the Soviets.A YouTube clip posted by the “National Defense Forces,” a channel affiliated with the Syrian army, shows the BTR-82A deployed in combat in Latakia. According to a translation posted on the Daily Beast, the clip includes dialogue in Russian in the background – indicating that the machine is operated by Russian soldiers, not Russian-trained Syrians.In mid-July, the website Business Insider quoted US President Barack Obama as saying that he “was encouraged by the fact that Mr. Putin called me a couple of weeks ago,” pointing out that Putin initiated the call to talk about Syria.“I think they get a sense that the [Bashar] Assad regime is losing a grip over greater and greater swaths of territory inside of Syria [to Sunni jihadist militias] and that the prospects for a [Sunni jihadist] takeover or rout of the Syrian regime is not imminent but becomes a greater and greater threat by the day,” Obama said. “That offers us an opportunity to have a serious conversation with them.”A statement from the State Department indicated that Putin’s comments on Saturday referred to the conversation in early July and that since then Russian-US coordination on Syria was not continuous.Secretary of State John Kerry called his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov to express “concern” regarding the Russian intentions to increase involvement in Syria, according to the statement.Kerry “called Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov this morning to discuss Syria, including US concerns about reports suggesting an imminent enhanced Russian military build-up there,” the statement said.Kerry “made clear that if such reports were accurate, these actions could further escalate the conflict, lead to greater loss of innocent life, increase refugee flows and risk confrontation with the anti-ISIL Coalition operating in Syria.“The two agreed that discussions on the Syrian conflict would continue in New York later this month,” the brief statement concluded.
Russia 'is building military base in Syria'-American officials express concern about latest intelligence suggesting Moscow is preparing to send hundreds of personnel to prop up Assad regime-By Rob Crilly, New York-5:53PM BST 05 Sep 2015-the telegraph
Russia is building a military base in Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s heartland, according to American intelligence officials, in the clearest indication yet of deepening Russian support for the embattled regime of Bashar al-Assad.The anonymous officials say Russia has set up an air traffic control tower and transported prefabricated housing units for up to 1,000 personnel to an airfield serving the Syrian port city of Latakia. Russia has also requested the rights to fly over neighbouring countries with military cargo aircraft during September, according to the reports.The claims, which will raise fears that Russia is planning to expand its role in the country’s civil war, will ratchet up tensions between Moscow and Washington over the future of Syria and its brutal ruler.Mr Obama on Friday met King Salman of Saudi Arabia to repeat their demand that any lasting settlement in Syria would require an end to the Assad regime.It leaves the US and Russia implacably opposed in their visions for Syria.John Kerry, Secretary of State, telephoned his Russian counterpart to express US concerns on Saturday."The secretary made clear that if such reports were accurate, these actions could further escalate the conflict, lead to greater loss of innocent life, increase refugee flows and risk confrontation with the anti-Isil coalition operating in Syria," the department said.The new US details came in the week that Vladimir Putin gave his strongest admission yet that Russia was already providing some military and logistical support to Syria.“We are already giving Syria quite serious help with equipment and training soldiers, with our weapons,” he said during an economic forum in Vladivostok on Friday, according to the state-owned RIA Novosti news agency.Until now, Russia's backing has included financial support, intelligence, advisers, weapons and spare parts. Mr Putin insisted it was "premature" to talk of a direct intervention.However, images emerged last week that appeared to show a Russian fighter jet operating over Syrian soil and videos of combat troops speaking the Russian language.Russian troops are said to be 'fighting alongside Assad's army against Syrian rebels'Russian troops are said to be 'fighting alongside Assad's army against Syrian rebels' Photo: @ValkryVSyrian state television showed images of an advanced Russian-built armoured personnel carrier, the BTR-82a, in combat. Videos also began circulating in which troops shouted orders to one another in Russian.Last week the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth cited Western diplomatic sources saying that Russia was on the verge of deploying “thousands” of troops to Syria to establish an airbase from which the Russian air force would fly combat sorties against Isil.Those details appear to be backed by satellite images of a Russian base under construction near Latakia, according to anonymous intelligence officials quoted by several American newspapers."If they're moving people in to help the Syrian government fight their own fight, that's one thing,” one told the Los Angeles Times. “But if they're moving in ground forces and dropping bombs on populated areas, that's an entirely different matter."Moscow increasingly justifies its support for the Assad regime by pointing to the rise of violent jihadists in Syria.The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) has captured a swath of territory since Arab Spring protests in 2011 provoked a heavy-handed regime crackdown.The conflict is one of the key drivers for the wave of refugees arriving in Europe. It was from Kobane that Aylan Kurdi and his family set out for Europe. The discovery of three-year-old's body on a Turkish beach this week has provoked a change of attitudes towards migrants.This week, Isil stepped up its programme of cultural cleansing, blowing up temples in the historic city of Palmyra.And fresh clashes along the border with Turkey claimed the lives of 47 fighters at the weekend, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.Syria is already home to Russia’s only base outside the former Soviet Union – a naval station in Tartus.The reported build-up of military activity, centred on Latakia and Idlib province, is in areas dominated by the Alawite sect, which counts President Assad among its number.
Tehran brags at superpowers’ ‘surrender’ in nuclear deal-Khamenei website publishes poster hailing Iran as foremost regional power; defense minister crows about humbling of ‘regime of arrogance’-By Times of Israel staff September 5, 2015, 6:53 pm
Iran’s defense minister hailed the nuclear accord struck with world powers as a “surrender” by “the superpowers” to “the majesty” of Iran, a watchdog group said. The website of Iran’s leader, meanwhile, published a poster hailing Iran as the region’s “foremost military power.”Speaking at an armed forces ceremony, Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan declared: “Today, Iran has attained such status that the superpowers have surrendered to it, because of its majesty, its steadfastness, its resistance and its unity.“ Despite their great pride, the regime of the arrogance [the West, led by the US] sat humbly behind the negotiating table and obeyed the rights of the Iranian nation,” Dehghan went on.His speech was delivered on Sunday and translated on Friday by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).On August 24, MEMRI also said the website of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei published a poster, entitled “The Iron Fist,” asserting Iran’s strength in the wake of the nuclear deal. The text on the poster states, according to the MEMRI translation: “Those who leveled sanctions against us yesterday are dying today, because Iran has become the region’s foremost military power. The Islamic Republic of Iran has proven that it works diligently to defend itself. The entire nation unites as a solid fist, standing fast against the aggressors who lack all reason.”The poster shows a clenched fist adorned with Iranian flags breaking through clouds. The fist itself is made up of military equipment, including missiles, jets, ships and tanks.US President Barack Obama claims the July deal closes off all Iranian paths to the bomb. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says it is a historic mistake. Congress is to vote on it later this month.Iran was reported to be launching war games Saturday involving a range of aircraft, in which the primary focus was on air combat and destroying targets in the air and on the ground.Israel’s Channel 10 reported Tuesday that Iran has bolstered defenses at its nuclear facilities, introduced new radar systems and “raised its alert” for fear of an Israeli attack. The regime has also being carrying out a series of drills and exercises, including testing anti-aircraft missiles above its Bushehr reactor, the report said.
COUNTRIES WITH ISRAEL AND THE WEST
EZEKIEL 38:10-19
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11 And thou shalt say,(RUSSIA,ARAB,MUSLIMS) I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.
13 Sheba, and Dedan,(SAUDIA ARABIA)(JORDAN) and the merchants of Tarshish,(ENGLAND) with all the young lions thereof,(USA,CANADA,AUSTRALIA,NEW ZEALAND,EU,ENGLAND,ENGLISH SPEAKING shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?
14 Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it?
ISRAEL-WEST ENEMIES EZEK 38:4-6,15-19
4 And I (GOD) will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,(GOD FORCES THE RUSSIA-MUSLIMS TO MARCH) and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia,(IRAN,IRAQ) Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer,(GERMANY) and all his bands; the house of Togarmah (TURKEY) of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.(AFRICAN MUSLIMS,SUDAN,TUNESIA ETC)
15 And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts,(RUSSIA-ARAB/MUSLIMS) thou, and many people with thee,(AFRICAN ISLAMIC COUNTRIES) all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army:
16 And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.
17 Thus saith the Lord GOD; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them?
18 And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that my fury shall come up in my face.
19 For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel;
DANIEL 11:44 (CHINA WITH RUSSIA-MUSLIMS)
44 But tidings out of the east(CHINA) and out of the north(RUSSIA, MUSLIMS WHATS LEFT FROM WAVE 1) shall trouble him:(EU DICTATOR IN ISRAEL) therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.( 1/3RD OF EARTHS POPULATION)
EZEKIEL 39:1-6 ISRAELS ENEMIES DESTROYED
1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog,(LEADER OF RUSSIA) and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech (MOSCOW) and Tubal: (TUBOLSK)
2 And I will turn thee back,(RUSSIA-ARAB MUSLIM ISRAEL HATERS) and leave but the sixth part of thee,(5/6TH OR 300 MILLION DEAD RUSSIAN/ARAB/MUSLIMS I BELIEVE) and will cause thee to come up from the north parts,(RUSSIA) and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:
3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands,( ARABS) and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
6 And I will send a fire on Magog,(NUCLEAR ATOMIC BOMB) and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
Abbas: Allow Palestinian refugees from Syria into West Bank-PA leader to urge UN, EU to pressure Israel to allow those fleeing civil war to cross; plea follows Herzog’s appeal to take in Syrians-By Times of Israel staff September 5, 2015, 9:38 pm 35
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas called Saturday for the absorption of Palestinian refugees fleeing war in Syria into the West Bank.According to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, Abbas instructed the Palestinian ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, to cooperate with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon “in taking appropriate and necessary action to absorb displaced Palestinian refugees into the occupied Palestinian territories.”Abbas urged Mansour to work with the UN and the EU to pressure Israel to let Palestinian refugees from Syria cross into Palestinian areas.According to Wafa, the Palestinian Authority seeks international help “to stop the Palestinians’ plight of displacement, death and dispersal in world countries due to the current difficult conditions in the region.”“The Palestinian presidency deems this mission not just a humanitarian mission, but a right of every Palestinian living in exile and refugee camps [to return],” the statement said.There are 13 refugee camps in Syria, with the largest being the Yarmouk Camp in Damascus. The camp was established after Israel’s War of Independence in 1948 as a community outside Damascus, but with the Syrian capital’s urban development it became part of the city.At its peak the population of Yarmouk amounted to some 150,000 people but the camp was bombed by forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad after the start of the Syrian civil war. In April this year, Islamic State fighters laid siege to the camp and then overran it. There are an estimated 18,000 people or less remaining in the camp.The comments by Abbas came soon after Zionist Union leader Isaac Herzog said Israel had a moral obligation to take in some Syrian refugees. Herzog did not refer specifically to Palestinian refugees.In January 2014, an Israeli columnist known for his usually hawkish views wrote a surprising column in which he said Israel should help the Palestinians in Yarmouk because of its indelible historical link to the Palestinian people.“According to different reports, we’re talking about 20,000 people who are in a terrible danger of massacre and are starving. [The numbers] are not anything Israel cannot handle,” columnist Amnon Lord wrote in a column published in Ma’ariv, a Hebrew-language paper.“Why not say this out loud: Israelis care about Palestinians more than about other population groups […] with all the accusations that Israel has against Palestinian actions, there is a closeness that can be admitted and accepted. We lived with them and in their proximity from a young age,” he wrote at the time.
Putin confirms Russian involvement in Syria’s civil war-President says Moscow gives Assad’s army ‘training’ and ‘logistics'; other sources cite deeper role, including troop deployment-By Times of Israel staff September 5, 2015, 10:54 pm 6
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday for the first time acknowledged that his country was involved in the Syrian civil war, telling RIA Novosti, a Russian news agency, that Russia is providing “serious” training and logistical support to the Syrian army.Earlier this week, the website The Daily Beast ran a piece entitled “Russia puts boots on the ground in Syria,” which claimed the Russians were doing much more than training soldiers and providing logistical support.The piece cited unnamed sources saying that Russian pilots are flying sorties on behalf of Assad, bombarding from the air enemies of the Bashar Assad regime including Islamic State and other rebel groups.Speaking to RIA Novosti, however, Putin said direct military intervention was “so far premature.”“To say we’re ready to do this today — so far it’s premature to talk about this. But we are already giving Syria quite serious help with equipment and training soldiers, with our weapons,” the British Telegraph quoted Putin as telling RIA Novosti.According to the report – and contradicting the report in the Daily Beast — Putin was coordinating his moves with the US. “We really want to create some kind of an international coalition to fight terrorism and extremism. To this end, we hold consultations with our American partners — I have personally spoken on the issue with US President Obama,” he said.The Daily Beast in the middle of last week quoted a blog tracking military dynamics in the Middle East and Africa as reporting that at least one BTR-82A has turned up in Latakia, in west-northern Syria.The BTR-82A is the latest iteration of Russia’s domestically-produced armored personnel carrier and has only been unveiled in 2009. The Armored Personnel Carrier (APC) was first used in the Russian military in 2014.The Syrian army relies heavily on Russian technology – most of it outdated equipment dating back to when Bashar’s father, Hafez Assad, was on good terms with the Soviets.A YouTube clip posted by the “National Defense Forces,” a channel affiliated with the Syrian army, shows the BTR-82A deployed in combat in Latakia. According to a translation posted on the Daily Beast, the clip includes dialogue in Russian in the background – indicating that the machine is operated by Russian soldiers, not Russian-trained Syrians.In mid-July, the website Business Insider quoted US President Barack Obama as saying that he “was encouraged by the fact that Mr. Putin called me a couple of weeks ago,” pointing out that Putin initiated the call to talk about Syria.“I think they get a sense that the [Bashar] Assad regime is losing a grip over greater and greater swaths of territory inside of Syria [to Sunni jihadist militias] and that the prospects for a [Sunni jihadist] takeover or rout of the Syrian regime is not imminent but becomes a greater and greater threat by the day,” Obama said. “That offers us an opportunity to have a serious conversation with them.”A statement from the State Department indicated that Putin’s comments on Saturday referred to the conversation in early July and that since then Russian-US coordination on Syria was not continuous.Secretary of State John Kerry called his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov to express “concern” regarding the Russian intentions to increase involvement in Syria, according to the statement.Kerry “called Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov this morning to discuss Syria, including US concerns about reports suggesting an imminent enhanced Russian military build-up there,” the statement said.Kerry “made clear that if such reports were accurate, these actions could further escalate the conflict, lead to greater loss of innocent life, increase refugee flows and risk confrontation with the anti-ISIL Coalition operating in Syria.“The two agreed that discussions on the Syrian conflict would continue in New York later this month,” the brief statement concluded.
Russia 'is building military base in Syria'-American officials express concern about latest intelligence suggesting Moscow is preparing to send hundreds of personnel to prop up Assad regime-By Rob Crilly, New York-5:53PM BST 05 Sep 2015-the telegraph
Russia is building a military base in Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s heartland, according to American intelligence officials, in the clearest indication yet of deepening Russian support for the embattled regime of Bashar al-Assad.The anonymous officials say Russia has set up an air traffic control tower and transported prefabricated housing units for up to 1,000 personnel to an airfield serving the Syrian port city of Latakia. Russia has also requested the rights to fly over neighbouring countries with military cargo aircraft during September, according to the reports.The claims, which will raise fears that Russia is planning to expand its role in the country’s civil war, will ratchet up tensions between Moscow and Washington over the future of Syria and its brutal ruler.Mr Obama on Friday met King Salman of Saudi Arabia to repeat their demand that any lasting settlement in Syria would require an end to the Assad regime.It leaves the US and Russia implacably opposed in their visions for Syria.John Kerry, Secretary of State, telephoned his Russian counterpart to express US concerns on Saturday."The secretary made clear that if such reports were accurate, these actions could further escalate the conflict, lead to greater loss of innocent life, increase refugee flows and risk confrontation with the anti-Isil coalition operating in Syria," the department said.The new US details came in the week that Vladimir Putin gave his strongest admission yet that Russia was already providing some military and logistical support to Syria.“We are already giving Syria quite serious help with equipment and training soldiers, with our weapons,” he said during an economic forum in Vladivostok on Friday, according to the state-owned RIA Novosti news agency.Until now, Russia's backing has included financial support, intelligence, advisers, weapons and spare parts. Mr Putin insisted it was "premature" to talk of a direct intervention.However, images emerged last week that appeared to show a Russian fighter jet operating over Syrian soil and videos of combat troops speaking the Russian language.Russian troops are said to be 'fighting alongside Assad's army against Syrian rebels'Russian troops are said to be 'fighting alongside Assad's army against Syrian rebels' Photo: @ValkryVSyrian state television showed images of an advanced Russian-built armoured personnel carrier, the BTR-82a, in combat. Videos also began circulating in which troops shouted orders to one another in Russian.Last week the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth cited Western diplomatic sources saying that Russia was on the verge of deploying “thousands” of troops to Syria to establish an airbase from which the Russian air force would fly combat sorties against Isil.Those details appear to be backed by satellite images of a Russian base under construction near Latakia, according to anonymous intelligence officials quoted by several American newspapers."If they're moving people in to help the Syrian government fight their own fight, that's one thing,” one told the Los Angeles Times. “But if they're moving in ground forces and dropping bombs on populated areas, that's an entirely different matter."Moscow increasingly justifies its support for the Assad regime by pointing to the rise of violent jihadists in Syria.The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) has captured a swath of territory since Arab Spring protests in 2011 provoked a heavy-handed regime crackdown.The conflict is one of the key drivers for the wave of refugees arriving in Europe. It was from Kobane that Aylan Kurdi and his family set out for Europe. The discovery of three-year-old's body on a Turkish beach this week has provoked a change of attitudes towards migrants.This week, Isil stepped up its programme of cultural cleansing, blowing up temples in the historic city of Palmyra.And fresh clashes along the border with Turkey claimed the lives of 47 fighters at the weekend, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.Syria is already home to Russia’s only base outside the former Soviet Union – a naval station in Tartus.The reported build-up of military activity, centred on Latakia and Idlib province, is in areas dominated by the Alawite sect, which counts President Assad among its number.
Tehran brags at superpowers’ ‘surrender’ in nuclear deal-Khamenei website publishes poster hailing Iran as foremost regional power; defense minister crows about humbling of ‘regime of arrogance’-By Times of Israel staff September 5, 2015, 6:53 pm
Iran’s defense minister hailed the nuclear accord struck with world powers as a “surrender” by “the superpowers” to “the majesty” of Iran, a watchdog group said. The website of Iran’s leader, meanwhile, published a poster hailing Iran as the region’s “foremost military power.”Speaking at an armed forces ceremony, Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan declared: “Today, Iran has attained such status that the superpowers have surrendered to it, because of its majesty, its steadfastness, its resistance and its unity.“ Despite their great pride, the regime of the arrogance [the West, led by the US] sat humbly behind the negotiating table and obeyed the rights of the Iranian nation,” Dehghan went on.His speech was delivered on Sunday and translated on Friday by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).On August 24, MEMRI also said the website of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei published a poster, entitled “The Iron Fist,” asserting Iran’s strength in the wake of the nuclear deal. The text on the poster states, according to the MEMRI translation: “Those who leveled sanctions against us yesterday are dying today, because Iran has become the region’s foremost military power. The Islamic Republic of Iran has proven that it works diligently to defend itself. The entire nation unites as a solid fist, standing fast against the aggressors who lack all reason.”The poster shows a clenched fist adorned with Iranian flags breaking through clouds. The fist itself is made up of military equipment, including missiles, jets, ships and tanks.US President Barack Obama claims the July deal closes off all Iranian paths to the bomb. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says it is a historic mistake. Congress is to vote on it later this month.Iran was reported to be launching war games Saturday involving a range of aircraft, in which the primary focus was on air combat and destroying targets in the air and on the ground.Israel’s Channel 10 reported Tuesday that Iran has bolstered defenses at its nuclear facilities, introduced new radar systems and “raised its alert” for fear of an Israeli attack. The regime has also being carrying out a series of drills and exercises, including testing anti-aircraft missiles above its Bushehr reactor, the report said.
