What Really Happened at the Port of Beirut?

Source: BESA

By Lt. Col. (res.) Dr. Mordechai Kedar

August 7 2020

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: On August 4, 2020, a massive explosion occurred at a warehouse on the waterfront of the Port of Beirut, Lebanon. It killed at least 135 people, wounded at least 5,000, left approximately 300,000 people homeless, and devastated the port region of the city, causing damages estimated between $10 billion and $15 billion. The Lebanese authorities are blaming the explosion on mismanagement by port officials, but there is reason to suspect that it was the result of Hezbollah negligence.


The official report of the Lebanese authorities on the massive August 4 explosion at the Port of Beirut is that a warehouse near the water containing 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate exploded. They claim that this material had been in the warehouse for over six years, with the approval of the court, and confirmed this claim with documentation.


With all due respect to the Lebanese authorities, I do not buy this story. I believe that explosives, ammunition, and missile fuel (which are highly volatile and flammable substances) were stored by Hezbollah in this warehouse after being shipped from Iran. There are several reasons why I believe this.


There was a series of at least three explosions, each of which had a different result. The first created a gray column of smoke that remained for several minutes. The second, a column of red smoke, also remained for several minutes, while the third created a white mushroom cloud that dissipated within seconds. This suggests that at least three different materials were stored in that warehouse (see video).


Anyone familiar with how a port operates knows that the front row of warehouses, which are closest to the water, are used for short-term storage. Cargo that is meant to be stored long-term is moved to warehouses further away from the water.


Anyone who ships sensitive cargo and does not want it to be seen, photographed, or targeted by others from air, space, or ground tries to hide it as close as possible to the water. The warehouse that exploded was on the water’s edge.


After Israel (according to foreign sources) attacked the warehouses at Damascus Airport several times, Beirut Seaport replaced Damascus Airport as the destination for Hezbollah’s ammunition and explosives imports from Iran. What used to arrive at Damascus Airport by air is now brought to Beirut by ship. For Hezbollah’s purposes, the warehouses at the port of Beirut have replaced the warehouses of Damascus Airport.


What probably happened on August 4 was an explosion of volatile and flammable materials that were incorrectly stored by Hezbollah for at least a day in a metal, non-airconditioned warehouse. As it is midsummer, temperatures are very high. I believe missile-fuel fumes evaporated from a container and touched the hot wall or ceiling, where they ignited and caused a chain reaction of explosions.


Less than an hour after the explosions, Hezbollah announced that the exploded material was ammonium nitrate. Hezbollah was the first to report it. The reason: Hezbollah was looking for a way to cover up its own negligence and establish an official version that deflected attention away from itself, because no one in the government would dare contradict them.


I suspect that very few people in Lebanon buy Hezbollah’s version of the story. I think Hassan Nasrallah is viewed by the Iranians and, indeed, by his own friends in Hezbollah as personally responsible for this disaster. I would not be surprised to hear that he has suffered a “heart attack” and is thus ending his role as Hezbollah’s secretary general. Perhaps the “heart attack” will be fatal.


Note: This is an edited version of a post from the Facebook page of Mordechai Kedar.


Lt. Col. (res.) Dr. Mordechai Kedar is a senior research associate at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies. He served for 25 years in IDF military intelligence specializing in Syria, Arab political discourse, Arab mass media, Islamic groups, and Israeli Arabs, and is an expert on the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups.

Report: 2008 Mughniyeh hit was joint CIA-Mossad operation

The late Hezbollah international operations chief Imad Mughniyeh

Πηγή: Israel Hayom
Feb 1 2015

Washington Post: CIA and Mossad worked together to kill Hezbollah's international operations chief Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus in February 2008 • According to report, CIA spotters were watching Mughniyeh when Mossad detonated bomb that killed him.

The 2008 killing of Hezbollah's international operations chief Imad Mughniyeh was a joint CIA-Mossad operation, The Washington Post reported on Friday.

Mughniyeh was killed on February 12, 2008 in Damascus, Syria by a bomb planted in a vehicle that was detonated as he passed by on foot. Hezbollah blamed Israel for Mughniyeh's death and vowed revenge. Israel never officially confirmed or denied its involvement in Mughniyeh's death.

According to the Washington Post report, the bomb that killed Mughniyeh was detonated remotely by Mossad agents in Tel Aviv, who were in communication with CIA spotters on the ground in Damascus. The U.S. reportedly helped build the bomb, which was tested numerous times at a CIA facility in North Carolina to make sure the potential blast area was limited, which would keep collateral damage to a minimum.

Former U.S. officials cited in the report said Mughniyeh was directly connected to the arming and training of Shiite militias in Iraq that were targeting U.S. forces.

According to the report, the authority to kill Mughniyeh required a presidential finding by then-President George W. Bush. A former U.S. intelligence official said the attorney general, the director of national intelligence, the national security adviser and the Office of Legal Counsel at the Justice Department signed off on the operation.

Former U.S. officials told The Washington Post that the CIA and Mossad worked together to monitor Mughniyeh's movements in Damascus for months ahead of the killing.

The CIA declined to comment on the Washington Post report.

Israeli Airstrike in Syria Targets Arms Convoy, U.S. Says

In East Jerusalem, Israelis distributed gas masks on Wednesday as worries about security spread.

Πηγή: New York Times
By ISABEL KERSHNER and MICHAEL R. GORDON
Jan 30 2013

JERUSALEM — Israeli warplanes carried out a strike deep inside Syrian territory on Wednesday, American officials reported, saying they believed the target was a convoy carrying sophisticated antiaircraft weaponry on the outskirts of Damascus that was intended for the Hezbollah Shiite militia in Lebanon.

The American officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, saidIsrael had notified the United States about the attack, which the Syrian government condemned as an act of “arrogance and aggression.” Israel’s move demonstrated its determination to ensure that Hezbollah — its arch foe in the north — is unable to take advantage of the chaos in Syria to bolster its arsenal significantly.

The predawn strike was the first time in more than five years that Israel’s air force had attacked a target in Syria. While there was no expectation that the beleaguered Assad government had an interest in retaliating, the strike raised concerns that the Syrian civil war had continued to spread beyond its border.

In a statement, the Syrian military denied that a convoy had been struck. It said the attack had hit a scientific research facility in the Damascus suburbs that was used to improve Syria’s defenses, and called the attack “a flagrant breach of Syrian sovereignty and airspace.”

Israeli officials would not confirm the airstrike, a common tactic here. But it came after days of intense security consultations with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding the possible movement of chemical and other weapons around Syria, and warnings that Jerusalem would take action to thwart any possible transfers to Hezbollah.

Thousands of Israelis have crowded gas-mask distribution centers over the last two days. On Sunday, Israel deployed its Iron Dome missile defense system in the north, near Haifa, which was heavily bombed during the 2006 war with Lebanon.

Syria and Israel are technically in a state of war but have long maintained an uneasy peace along their decades-old armistice line. Israel has mostly watched warily and tried to stay out of Syria’s raging civil war, fearful of provoking a wider confrontation with Iran and Hezbollah. In November, however, after several mortars fell on Israel’s side of the border, its tanks struck a Syrian artillery unit.

Several analysts said that despite the increased tensions, they thought the likelihood of retaliation for the airstrike was relatively low.

“It is necessary and correct to prepare for deterioration — that scenario exists,” Danny Yatom, a former chief of the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, told Ynet, a news Web site. “But in my assessment, there will not be a reaction, because neither Hezbollah nor the Syrians have an interest in retaliating.”

Syria’s president, Bashar al-Assad, “is deep in his own troubles,” Mr. Yatom said, “and Hezbollah is making a great effort to assist him, in parallel with its efforts to obtain weapons, so they won’t want to broaden the circle of fighting.”

In the United States, the State Department and Defense Department would not comment on reports of the strike.

The episode illustrated how the escalating violence in Syria, which has already killed more than 60,000, is drawing in neighboring states and threatening to destabilize the region further.

Iran has firmly allied itself with Mr. Assad, sending personnel from its Islamic Revolutionary Guards Quds Force to Syria and ferrying military equipment to Syria through Iraqi airspace.

Hezbollah, which plays a decisive role in Lebanese politics and has supported Mr. Assad during the uprising by providing training and logistical support to his forces, has long relied on Syria as both a source of weapons and a conduit for weapons flowing from Iran. Some analysts think Hezbollah may be trying to stock up on weapons in case Mr. Assad falls and is replaced by a leadership that is hostile to the militia.

One American official said the trucks targeted on Wednesday were believed to have been carrying sophisticated SA-17 antiaircraft weapons. Hezbollah’s possession of such weapons would be a serious worry for the Israeli government, said Matthew Levitt, a former intelligence official who is at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

“Israel is able to fly reconnaissance flights over Lebanon with impunity right now,” Mr. Levitt said. “This could cut into its ability to conduct aerial intelligence. The passing along of weapons to Hezbollah by the regime is a real concern.”

While some analysts said the Assad government might be providing the weapons to Hezbollah as a reward for its support, others were skeptical that Syria would relinquish such a sophisticated system.

Hezbollah has boasted that it has replenished and increased its weapons stocks since the 2006 war with Israel. During that war, Israeli bombardments destroyed some of its arms, and other missiles were used in a barrage that killed Israelis as far south as Haifa and that drove residents of northern Israel into shelters.

The Syrian statement, carried by state television, said an unidentified number of Israeli jets flying below radar had hit the research facility in the Jimraya district, killing two people and causing “huge material damage.” It cast the attack as “another addition to the history of Israeli occupation, aggression and criminality against Arabs and Muslims.”

“The Syrian government points out to the international community that this Israeli arrogance and aggression is dangerous for Syrian sovereignty,” the statement said, “and stresses that such criminal acts will not weaken Syria’s role nor will discourage Syrians from continuing to support resistance movements and just Arab causes, particularly the Palestinian issue.”

The Lebanese Army said in a statement on Wednesday that Israeli warplanes had carried out two sorties, circling over Lebanon for hours on Tuesday and before dawn on Wednesday, but made no mention of any attacks.

Israel has long maintained a policy of silence on pre-emptive military strikes. In October, officials refused to discuss an accusation by Sudan that Israeli airstrikes had destroyed a weapons factory in Khartoum, its capital. Israel also never admitted to the bombing of a Syrian nuclear reactor in 2007; Syria kept mum about that attack, too, and the ambiguity allowed the event to pass without Damascus feeling pressure to retaliate.

Amnon Sofrin, a retired brigadier general and former Israeli intelligence officer, told reporters here on Wednesday that Hezbollah, which is known to have been storing some of its more advanced weapons in Syria, was now eager to move everything it could to Lebanon. He said Israel was carefully watching for convoys transferring weapons systems from Syria to Lebanon.

Israel has made it clear that if the Syrian government loses control over its chemical weapons or transfers them to Hezbollah, Israel will feel compelled to act. Avi Dichter, the minister for the home front, told Israel Radio on Tuesday that options to prevent Syria from using or transferring the weapons included deterrence and “attempts to hit the stockpiles.”

“Everything will have ramifications,” Mr. Dichter said. “The stockpiles are not always in places where operative thinking is possible. It could be that hitting the stockpiles will also mean hitting people. Israel has no intention of hitting residents of Syria.”

Hezbollah says it's ready to attack Israel

Πηγή: UPI
Feb 5 2012

DAMASCUS, Syria, Feb. 5 (UPI) -- Hezbollah is ready to attack Israel if the West interferes in President Bashar Assad's regime in Syria, a Lebanese Hezbollah spokesman said Sunday.

The unnamed spokesman said the Shiite group supports a compromise based on reforms and "easing the crisis" between the Assad government and internal anti-government forces, but believes a Middle East war could save the government, and warned it is prepared to attack Israel if Western powers attempt to intervene in domestic affairs, the Palestinian News Network reported.

Hezbollah has been one of the few forces in the Arab world supporting Assad's regime.

Two hundred people were killed last week in an overnight military assault on citizens in the Syrian city of Homs.

Israel has claimed Hezbollah and Iran are supplying arms to help Syria suppress its restive opposition activists.

"As time passes Iran and Hezbollah increase the efforts to help the Assad regime survive by providing knowledge, weaponry and other capabilities," Israeli head of military intelligence Aviv Kochavi told The Jerusalem Post in January.

Official: Iran issues indictments on 15 CIA spies

Πηγή: Trend
By D.Khatinoglu

Dec 13 2011

Indictments has been issued on 15 people charged in spying for the CIA and Mosad, Mehr News Agency quoted Tehran prosecutor Jafar Dolatabadi as saying on Tuesday.

Iranian Intelligence Minister Heidar Moslehi said on Nov.28 that the 12 CIA spies who were recently arrested in Iran ran espionage operations in all various grounds. Answering a question about the operations of these 12 agents recently arrested in Iran, Moslehi said "these individuals were spying in all fields," Fars News Agency reported.

Several foreign spies working for the CIA had been captured by Hezbollah in Lebanon in recent months as well.

On May 21, Iran's Intelligence Ministry issued a statement saying that it had uncovered and dismantled an espionage and sabotage network and arrested 30 individuals suspected of spying for the United States.

The Intelligence Ministry also stated that 42 CIA operatives were identified in connection with the spy network.

According to the statement, the CIA operatives had gathered information from universities and scientific research centers and the nuclear energy, aerospace, defense, and biotechnology industries.

AP Exclusive: Spies outed, CIA suffers in Lebanon

Πηγή: AP
By ADAM GOLDMAN and MATT APUZZO

Nov 21 2011

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The CIA's operations in Lebanon have been badly damaged after Hezbollah identified and captured a number of U.S. spies recently, current and former U.S. officials told The Associated Press. The intelligence debacle is particularly troubling because the CIA saw it coming.

Hezbollah's longtime leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, boasted on television in June that he had rooted out at least two CIA spies who had infiltrated the ranks of Hezbollah, which the U.S. considers a terrorist group closely allied with Iran. Though the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon officially denied the accusation, current and former officials concede that it happened and the damage has spread even further.

In recent months, CIA officials have secretly been scrambling to protect their remaining spies - foreign assets or agents working for the agency - before Hezbollah can find them.

To be sure, some deaths are to be expected in shadowy spy wars. It's an extremely risky business and people get killed. But the damage to the agency's spy network in Lebanon has been greater than usual, several former and current U.S. officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about security matters.

The Lebanon crisis is the latest mishap involving CIA counterintelligence, the undermining or manipulating of the enemy's ability to gather information. Former CIA officials have said that once-essential skill has been eroded as the agency shifted from outmaneuvering rival spy agencies to fighting terrorists. In the rush for immediate results, former officers say, tradecraft has suffered.

The most recent high-profile example was the suicide bomber who posed as an informant and killed seven CIA employees and wounded six others in Khost, Afghanistan in December 2009.

Last year, then-CIA director Leon Panetta said the agency had to maintain "a greater awareness of counterintelligence." But eight months later, Nasrallah let the world know he had bested the CIA, demonstrating that the agency still struggles with this critical aspect of spying and sending a message to those who would betray Hezbollah.

The CIA was well aware the spies were vulnerable in Lebanon. CIA officials were warned, including the chief of the unit that supervises Hezbollah operations from CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., and the head of counterintelligence. It remains unclear whether anyone has been or will be held accountable in the wake of this counterintelligence disaster or whether the incident will affect the CIA's ability to recruit assets in Lebanon.

In response to AP's questions about what happened in Lebanon, a U.S. official said Hezbollah is recognized as a complicated enemy responsible for killing more Americans than any other terrorist group before September 2001. The agency does not underestimate the organization, the official said.

The CIA's toughest adversaries, like Hezbollah and Iran, have for years been improving their ability to hunt spies, relying on patience and guile to exploit counterintelligence holes.

In 2007, for instance, when Ali-Reza Asgari, a brigadier general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps of Iran, disappeared in Turkey, it was assumed that he was either killed or defected. In response, the Iranian government began a painstaking review of foreign travel by its citizens, particularly to places like Turkey where Iranians don't need a visa and could meet with foreign intelligence services.

It didn't take long, a Western intelligence official told the AP, before the U.S., Britain and Israel began losing contact with some of their Iranian spies.

The State Department last year described Hezbollah as "the most technically capable terrorist group in the world," and the Defense Department estimates it receives between $100 million and $200 million per year in funding from Iran.

Backed by Iran, Hezbollah has built a professional counterintelligence apparatus that Nasrallah - whom the U.S. government designated an international terrorist a decade ago - proudly describes as the "spy combat unit." U.S. intelligence officials believe the unit, which is considered formidable and ruthless, went operational in about 2004.

Using the latest commercial software, Nasrallah's spy-hunters unit began methodically searching for spies in Hezbollah's midst. To find them, U.S. officials said, Hezbollah examined cellphone data looking for anomalies. The analysis identified cellphones that, for instance, were used rarely or always from specific locations and only for a short period of time. Then it came down to old-fashioned, shoe-leather detective work: Who in that area had information that might be worth selling to the enemy?

The effort took years but eventually Hezbollah, and later the Lebanese government, began making arrests. By one estimate, 100 Israeli assets were apprehended as the news made headlines across the region in 2009. Some of those suspected Israeli spies worked for telecommunications companies and served in the military.

Back at CIA headquarters, the arrests alarmed senior officials. The agency prepared a study on its own vulnerabilities, U.S. officials said, and the results proved to be prescient.

The analysis concluded that the CIA was susceptible to the same analysis that had compromised the Israelis, the officials said.

CIA managers were instructed to be extra careful about handling sources in Lebanon. A U.S. official said recommendations were issued to counter the potential problem.

But it's unclear what preventive measures were taken by the Hezbollah unit chief or the officer in charge of the Beirut station. Former officials say the Hezbollah unit chief is no stranger to the necessity of counterintelligence and knew the risks. The unit chief has worked overseas in hostile environments like Afghanistan and played an important role in the capture of a top terrorist while stationed in the Persian Gulf region after the attacks of 9/11.

"We've lost a lot of people in Beirut over the years, so everyone should know the drill," said a former Middle East case officer familiar with the situation.

But whatever actions the CIA took, they were not enough. Like the Israelis, bad tradecraft doomed these CIA assets and the agency ultimately failed to protect them, an official said. In some instances, CIA officers fell into predictable patterns when meeting their sources, the official said.

This allowed Hezbollah to identify assets and case officers and unravel at least part of the CIA's spy network in Lebanon. There was also a reluctance to share cases and some files were put in "restricted handling." The designation severely limits the number of people who know the identity of the source but also reduces the number of experts who could spot problems that might lead to their discovery, officials said.

Nasrallah's televised announcement in June was followed by finger-pointing among departments inside the CIA as the spy agency tried figure out what went wrong and contain the damage.

The fate of these CIA assets is unknown. Hezbollah treats spies differently, said Matthew Levitt, a counterterrorism and intelligence expert at the Washington Institute for Near East Studies who's writing a book about the terrorist organization

"It all depends on who these guys were and what they have to say," Levitt said. "Hezbollah has disappeared people before. Others they have kept around."

Who's responsible for the mess in Lebanon? It's not clear. The chief of Hezbollah operations at CIA headquarters continues to run the unit that also focuses on Iranians and Palestinians. The CIA's top counterintelligence officer, who was one of the most senior women in the clandestine service, recently retired after approximately five years in the job. She is credited with some important cases, including the recent arrests of Russian spies who had been living in the U.S. for years.

Officials said the woman was succeeded by a more experienced operations officer. That officer has held important posts in Moscow, Southeast Asia, Europe and the Balkans, important frontlines of the agency's spy wars with foreign intelligence services and terrorist organizations.

CIA Criminal Revolving Door: CIA Officer “Albert” Involved in False Intelligence Linking Al-Qaeda to Iran, Iraq

Πηγή: boilingfrogs
By Kevin Fenton

Oct 25 2011

A recent book by former FBI agent Ali Soufan shows that the same CIA officer was involved in generating intelligence that falsely linked al-Qaeda to first Iran and then Iraq. The officer was also involved in a notorious torture episode and was reprimanded by the Agency’s inspector general.

The officer, who Soufan refers to as “Fred,” but whose real first name is “Albert” according to a February 2011 Associated Press article, served at the CIA station in Jordan in 1999. During that time, al-Qaeda, aided by a collection of freelance terrorists headed by Abu Zubaidah, attempted to commit a series of attacks in the country, known as the Millennium Plot. However, the attacks were foiled by the local Jordanian intelligence service, working with the CIA and FBI.

During the investigations of the plotters, Albert drafted a series of official cables that were later withdrawn. Although the withdrawing of the cables was first mentioned in a July 2006 article by Lawrence Wright for the New Yorker, Wright did not mention what was in the cables or by whom they were drafted. The content of one of them and the drafter were first revealed upon the publication of Soufan’s book in mid-September 2011.

According to Soufan, one of the twelve withdrawn cables falsely stated that the group of terrorists later arrested for the Millennium Plot in Jordan was linked to Iran. Albert’s reasoning for this was that the group had trained in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, an area of high activity by the Iranian-backed militant group Hezbollah. Therefore, the group in Jordan had to be working with Hezbollah and be backed by Iran.

Soufan was also sending reports to Washington, and someone in DC noticed that Albert claimed a link to Iran while Soufan did not. An investigation followed and Soufan was proved right—the Millennium Plot had nothing to do with Iran—leading to the withdrawal of Albert’s cables. In his book, Soufan attributes Albert’s error to “a tendency to jump to conclusions without facts.”

Albert had previously worked with the FBI as a translator, but had failed to make agent status, and Soufan says he was reputed to bear a grudge against the Bureau for this slight.

The contents of the other eleven cables that had to be withdrawn are unknown.

The second episode, where Albert played a part in the generation of false information that helped justify the invasion of Iraq, is notorious. Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, a senior militant training camp commander in Afghanistan, was captured by US forces and turned over to the FBI towards the end of 2001. Al-Libi was being interrogated by George Crouch and Russell Fincher, an FBI agent a group of CIA officers had withheld information from in the run-up to 9/11. Al-Libi was co-operating with Crouch and Fincher, and had even provided information about an ongoing plot in Yemen.

Albert burst into the interrogation room, told al-Libi that information about plots in Yemen was meaningless, and made threats against him. As a result of this, al-Libi clammed up and refused to provide more information that day. Albert was subsequently banned from Bagram air base, where the interrogation was being conducted.

However, Albert’s superior, CIA Chief of Station in Afghanistan Richard Blee, complained to Washington about the alleged lack of information from the interrogation of al-Libi and initiated a turf war between the Bureau and the Agency. The CIA won and Albert returned to Bagram, taking control of al-Libi.

At one point, Albert threatened to rape al-Libi’s mother. According to Jane Mayer’s The Dark Side, Albert screamed, “You’re going to Egypt! And while you’re there I’m going to find your mother, and fuck her.” Soufan’s book contains a slightly different quote: “If you don’t tell me about what you are planning [redacted, evidently “in Egypt”], I’m going to bring your mother here and fuck her in front of you.”

Al-Libi was shipped to Egypt, where, under torture, he invented all kinds of information linking al-Qaeda to Iraq. The information later formed a key segment of Colin Powell’s infamous presentation to the UN justifying the Iraq invasion.

Analysis shows that Albert was also the CIA officer who used a handgun and electric drill in an attempt to scare another detainee, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri. These events became the centre of media attention when the CIA inspector general’s report into the agency’s torture program was released.

Finally, Soufan places Albert at the initial interrogation of 9/11 coordinator Ramzi bin al-Shibh and an unnamed high-value associate in September 2002, although he does not say that Albert played any specific role in their interrogation.

According to the Associated Press, Albert was reprimanded by the Agency for the “mock execution” of al-Nashiri. He later retired from the CIA, but then returned as a contractor.

Turkey raising naval presence amid tension with Israel

Πηγή: Reuters
By Pinar Aydinli
Tue Sep 6, 2011

Turkey said on Tuesday it was freezing defense trade with Israel and stepping up naval patrols in the eastern Mediterranean, highlighting a potentially destabilizing rift between the two major U.S. allies in the Middle East.

Prime Minister Yayyip Erdogan's threat to send warships into waters where Israel's navy operates raises the risk of a naval confrontation between two powers whose friendship soured because of Turkish outrage over Israeli policies toward Palestinians.

"The eastern Mediterranean is not a strange place to us. Aksaz and Iskenderun -- these places have the power and opportunity to provide escorts," Erdogan told reporters in Ankara, referring to two Turkish naval bases. "Of course our ships will be seen much more frequently in those waters."

Asked about his remarks, an Israeli government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: "Israel does not want to see further deterioration in its relationship with Turkey."

On Friday, Turkey announced it was expelling Israel's ambassador and other senior diplomats, downgrading relations after the release of a U.N. report on the killing of nine Turks during an Israeli commando raid on an aid flotilla bound for the Israeli-blockaded Palestinian enclave of Gaza last year.

Israel's refusal to apologize for the deaths has angered Turkey, a NATO member with the alliance's second biggest military, and Erdogan's government argues that Israel's blockade of Gaza lacks legitimacy.

Erdogan also said Turkey was preparing more sanctions against Israel, and specifically said defense industry ties would be frozen. "Trade ties, military ties, regarding defense industry ties, we are completely suspending them. This process will be followed by different measures," Erdogan said.

An official at Erdogan's office told Reuters the prime minister was referring to military and defense trade ties only, not overall trade, which last year reached a total bilateral volume of $3.5 billion.

Economy Minister Zafer Caglayan said on Monday Turkey would do nothing "for now" to change its economic ties with Israel.

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, which monitors arms sales worldwide, Israel delivered 170 rebuilt Turkish M-60A1 tanks to Turkey in a $688 million dealbetween 2005 and 2010. It also sold 10 Heron drones to Turkey in 2010 for $183 million.

CYPRUS GAS DEALS

Israel has expanded patrols in the eastern Mediterranean to enforce a blockade on Gaza it says is needed to prevent arm smuggling to the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas and for fear of Lebanese Hezbollah militant attacks on gas platforms.

Turkish media reported that Erdogan held a meeting with Turkey's chief military commander, General Necdet Ozel, on Tuesday to discuss developments with Israel.

Some Turkish and Israeli commentators have suggested Turkey might use the feud with Israel to build up naval patrols in seas between the Jewish state and the divided island of Cyprus.

Turkey has bitterly complained about recent Cypriot-Israeli energy deals and the presence of Turkish ships would have a menacing effect.

Turkey and Cyprus have been at odds for decades over the ethnically split island, whose internationally recognized Greek Cypriot government is an EU member. Turkish Cypriots live in a breakaway state in northern Cyprus only recognized by Turkey.

Asked about exploratory drilling for natural gas by Greek Cypriots, Egemen Bagis, Turkey's European Union minister, told Turkish media last week: "It is for this (reason) that countries have warships. It is for this (reason) that we have equipment and we train our navies."

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak, in remarks broadcast before Erdogan's announcement on Tuesday, urged the two states to act with calm. "Israel and Turkey are the two strongest and in many respects the most important countries in the Mideast.

"We have our differences, but in differences too it is important that both sides act using their heads and not their gut -- that will be best for us all and best for regional stability and restoring things," said Barak.

Erdogan also said he might visit Gaza during a planned trip to nearby Egypt, but would decide after consulting the Egyptian government. Erdogan plans to visit Cairo later in September.

He will also attend the U.N. General Assembly in New York later this month where he is likely to speak strongly in support of Palestinian efforts to win U.N. recognition for a state they aim to create in Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

As its relations with Israel have deteriorated, Muslim Turkey has racheted up diplomatic support for the Palestinians.

Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, speaking at a joint news conference in Ankara with Nabil Shaath, an envoy of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, said on Monday the recognition of a Palestinian state was "the most natural right of Palestinians, a debt the world must pay to the Palestinian people."

Turkey plans to apply this week to the International Court of Justice for an investigation into the legitimacy of the Israeli blockade of 2 million Palestinians in Gaza.

Turkey has also said it will also seek prosecution of Israeli officials responsible for the killing of the pro-Palestinian activists aboard the Mavi Marmara ship.

Israel says it regrets the loss of life, but maintains that its naval commandos defended themselves against violent activists after boarding the vessel.

New Loyalties and Old Feuds Collide in Syria

A Syrian Army tank outside Homs, where demonstrators have clashed with security forces. 

Moises Saman for The New York Times

Πηγή: New York Times
By ANTHONY SHADID
Published: July 24, 2011


HOMS, Syria — On the birth of his daughter this month, a young activist in this central city bestowed on her a name that had little resonance until not so long ago. Dara’a, he called her, the namesake of the southern Syrian town where the antigovernment uprising began.

Syria is awash in such stories of solidarity these days, bridging traditional divides that have colored the country’s politics for generations. But far from disappearing, the old divisions of geography, class and, in particular, religious sect are deepening.

Syrians offer different explanations. Protesters blame the cynical manipulation of a government bent on divide and rule, and the government points to Islamist zealots seeking to impose a tyranny of the majority.

Which prevails — new loyalties born of revolution, or old rivalries entrenched in smaller identities — may decide the fate of Syria’s four-month revolt.

Colliding along the front lines of the uprising, and especially here in Homs, these forces suggest a grim reality of the revolt against President Bashar al-Assad: the longer his government remains in power, the less chance Syria has to avoid civil strife, sectarian cleansing and the kind of communal violence that killed at least two dozen people in Homs last week. Unlike in Egypt, and despite the protesters’ hope and optimism, time is not necessarily on their side, a point that some of them admit.

“If the government keeps playing the sectarian card, they’re going to get what they want,” said Iyad, 27, the activist who named his daughter after the cradle of the uprising. “If this regime lasts, there’s absolutely going to be a civil war, absolutely.”

That is not to say that anyone really knows what kind of state the protesters want. In Homs last week, pious activists debated the differences between an Islamic and civil state, both of which they said should rely on religious law. Minorities fear militant currents within the Sunni Muslim majority. Sunnis seethe at the injustice of living for decades under a state endowed with a remarkable capacity for violence and led by the Alawite minority, a heterodox Muslim sect. Even some activists celebrating the unity that the revolt has brought warn that repression is breeding strife.

“The government is going to push us in the direction of violence,” said a former Republican Guard officer who has joined the ranks of protesters in Homs, Syria’s third-largest city, with a Sunni majority and Alawite minority. “A lot of guys think it’s almost over, but I don’t. The situation, very regrettably, is going to become a crisis,” by which he meant bloodshed.

As was the case in Iraq, a sectarian lens is often unfairly imposed on Syria’s diversity, with its sizable communities of Christians, Alawites and ethnic Kurds. Other divisions are no less pronounced — between cities like Damascus and Aleppo, among classes, between the countryside and urban areas and within extended clans, especially in eastern Syria. Residents of Hama said they long felt discriminated against, especially in the military, which carried out a brutal crackdown there in 1982. Hama and Homs were traditional rivals in central Syria.