MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

We’re already there, Peter.  It’s now just a matter of time before others join the fray …

By Peter Goodspeed – “As Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad clings to power with the quiet backing of regional powers Iran and Russia, the Middle East may be sliding slowly into war.

Squeezed between the rebellions of a bloody Arab Spring and growing fears of a possible military response to Iran’s growing nuclear threat, the region is becoming increasingly unstable.

‘I would be very surprised if it turned into a Russian-American war, but this could be a Mid-East war: Hezbollah, Hamas, Iran, Syria, Israel all having at each other,’ said Jack Granatstein, military historian and senior research fellow at the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute.

Ramazan Gözen, an international relations expert at Abant İzzet Baysal University wrote this week in the Turkish newspaper Zaman, ‘A process of steadily sharpening polarization is being experienced … [and] it does not bode well…. In short, the polarization over Syria and Iran can turn into an uncontrollable conflict between the polarized countries and their supporters.’

Russia and the United States are bracing for a naval confrontation, unprecedented since the Cold War, in the eastern Mediterranean, just off the coast of Syria.

Iran, worried over a possible pre-emptive strike against its nuclear facilities, has threatened to attack NATO’s new missile defence shield in Turkey if it is attacked by either Israel or the United States. It has also said it will soon stage a navy drill to practise closing the Strait of Hormuz, through which 40% of the world’s oil travels.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, has raised the possibility of a Turkish military incursion into Syria to create safety zones for refugees, if Mr. Assad doesn’t stop killing civilians.

Syria responded last weekend by staging a massive live-fire military exercise, near the north-central desert town of Palmyra, that, according to Syrian state TV, was designed to test “the capabilities and readiness of missile systems to respond to any possible aggression.”

On Tuesday, under the headline ‘U.S. troops surround Syria on the eve of invasion?’ the online Russian news channel RT.com reported U.S. troops withdrawn from Iraq are secretly being transferred to northern Jordan and taking up positions opposite Syrian tank formations along the border.

There have been reports NATO forces in Turkey may be Read more…