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Turkey is the scene of a flurry of high-level diplomatic traffic this week with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Ankara today to hold talks with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The two leaders will have tackled a broad range of bilateral matters, notably the conflict in Syria, energy and defense projects as well as the dispute over Jerusalem. Head of US Central Command Gen. Joseph Votel and head of US European Command Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti were also due in town later this week to discuss Syria and NATO-related business with Turkish Chief of General Staff Hulusi Akar ..

Sixty years havee lapsed since the Baghdad Pact which grouped together Turkey, Iran, Iraq and the West in an alliance against the Soviet Union and the concomitant Communist danger. Nowadays this Middle Eastern architecture has shifted 180 degrees to where Russia, Turkey and Iran are in an ad hoc alliance against Islamic State but which may turn against the West as well. Still, the new alliance might be termed as a marriage of inconvenience where each of the parties has different motives and is acting at cross purposes in partitioning the Syrian bear. Russia has fulfilled a long-held dream of...

The current year of AD 2017 is upon us, and with it comes several important historical anniversary dates for the nation of Israel specifically; and the Gentile nations in general. 2018 is a very significant year as well. August 31, 2017 marks the 120th anniversary of the First Zionist Congress organized by Theodore Herzl in 1897. Held in Basel , Switzerland , the gathering defied the purpose of Zionism as a movement aimed at obtaining a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. guaranteed by public law. Israel will celebrate the 100 year anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, which...

Turkey finds itself in conflict with Russia and Iran, at odds with Egypt's Sisi and has lost its standing with NATO and the US. Even if Israel and Turkey soon announce an end to their diplomatic crisis, which began almost six years ago as a result of the Mavi Marmara flotilla ship incident, relations between the two countries will not go back to how they once were. The golden era of cooperation in the security and intelligence fields between the two countries up until a decade ago will certainly not come back. Turkey was a large and important market for...

TEHRAN (FNA) - Informed sources revealed that Riyadh is holding training courses for 150,000 Saudi, Sudanese, Egyptian and Jordanian forces to prepare them for war in Syria. The Saudi sources told the CNN channel that the 150,000-strong army is now stationed in Saudi Arabia and will soon be dispatched to Syria. They also said that Morocco, Turkey, Bahrain, the UAE and Qatar will also deploy their forces to Syria through the Turkish borders, and Malaysia, Indonesia and Brunei will dispatch mercenaries to Saudi Arabia too. On Thursday, the Saudi Defense Ministry said it stood ready to deploy ground troops to...

According to a recent report by the Institute for the Study of War, Russia's involvement in the Syrian civil war has shifted the battlefield momentum in favor of President Bashar al-Assad. It reads, "In Aleppo province, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and associated proxy forces launched a multipronged offensive on Oct. 15 that has seized large swaths of rebel-held terrain in the southern countryside of Aleppo City." According to the same report, pro-regime forces achieved tactical gains against the opposition in northeastern Latakia province. The FSA is currently present in northern Syria around Aleppo and Hama as well as in...

Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord God; this is the day whereof I have spoken. And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves, and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire seven years: (Ezekiel 39:8-9)At long last the Day of the Lord comes near, the long dreaded and anticipated “Cloudy and rainy Day”, the Day of gloom and deep darkness, the time of Jacob’s trouble, also...

Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel: And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.(Ezekiel 39:1-3)Gog, the final representative of united Heathendom, the Agag, Pharaoh, Goliath and Nimrod, is...

And thou shalt say, 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, 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.(Ezekiel 38:11-12)More than 2,500 years ago, Ezekiel saw the coalition that we currently see forming now; Russia...

BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Islamic State registered significant gains on Friday in the area of northwestern Syria that Russian warplanes have been bombing, taking six villages near Aleppo and threatening to cut off an important route north to the Turkish border. Late in the day, there were reports that rebels had reasserted control in one village. The Kremlin has said its military had entered Syria to fight the Islamic State, but the Russian forces have concentrated much of their firepower on insurgent groups aligned against President Bashar al-Assad, including the Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, and relatively secular...

"Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city and will become a heap of ruins. The cities of Aroer are deserted; they will be for flocks, which will lie down, and none will make them afraid. The fortress will disappear from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus; and the remnant of Syria will be like the glory of the children of Israel, declares the Lord of hosts." (Isaiah 17:1-14) Rabbi Sholom Berger, the Mishkolitz Rebbe An important Hassidic rabbinical leader recently offered a surprising Biblical interpretation of the War of Gog and Magog. At the festive meal that concluded the...

<p>Warplanes have carried out air strikes in Hama, Homs and Latakia in what Russia's powerful Orthodox Church has termed a "holy battle".</p> <p>“Russian and Syrian airplanes carried out numerous strikes today against terrorist positions in Hama, Homs and Latakia provinces,” according to a Syrian security source.</p>

The Israeli military said Sunday it struck two Syrian army posts with artillery fire after rockets from the war-torn country landed in Israeli-controlled territory. The military said the two rockets, which landed over the last two days, were errant fire from the Syrian conflict. They caused no damage or injuries. Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman, said in a statement that Israel holds the Syrian military "responsible and accountable for any aggression emanating from Syria." Rami Abdurrahman, the head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said a Syrian army position in the Quneitra region of the...

EXCLUSIVE: Russian, Syrian and Iranian military commanders have set up a coordination cell in Baghdad in recent days to try to begin working with Iranian-backed Shia militias fighting the Islamic State, Fox News has learned.  Western intelligence sources say the coordination cell includes low-level Russian generals. U.S. officials say it is not clear whether the Iraqi government is involved at the moment.  Describing the arrival of Russian military personnel in Baghdad, one senior U.S. official said, "They are popping up everywhere."  The Russians already have been building up their military presence in Syria, a subject expected to factor prominently in...

Russian marines join Hizballah in first Syrian battle – a danger signal for US, IsraelSeptember 24, 2015 "Before dawn on Thursday, Sept. 24, Russian marines went into battle for the first time since their deployment to Syria, debkafile’s military and intelligence sources reveal. Russian Marine Brigade 810 fought with Syrian army and Hizballah special forces in an attack on ISIS forces at the Kweiris airbase, east of Aleppo. The offensive to regain Kweiris airbase that fell to ISIS in mid-June is the first step in the implementation of Russia’s operational plan for the Aleppo area. ...the Russian forces launched their...

U.S. officials have begun to reveal the kinds of military equipment Russia has been moving into Syria, leaving little doubt that they are establishing an air base in the war-ravaged country. Moscow’s movements have been closely watched by the international community over the last few weeks, as observers debate whether the rapid buildup of weapons, troops and supplies near the Syrian coastal city of Latakia is presumably meant to aid diplomacy that will end the years-long civil war or to prop up the regime of embattled President Bahar al-Assad. Asked if the White House has gleaned Russia’s intent with the...

Russia's military intervention in support of President Bashar al-Assad has dismayed Gulf Arab enemies of the Syrian leader who say it will prolong the war and keep Syria firmly in the orbit of their arch regional rival Iran. Russia says it is providing arms to the Syrian leader, a longtime ally, and has sent servicemen to advise on their use in the fight against Islamic State (IS) and other jihadist groups. Moscow has also staged naval exercises off Syria. Washington, which opposes both IS and Assad, says Moscow has also sent fighter jets, tanks and other heavy equipment to Syria....

WASHINGTON — Russia is using an air corridor over Iraq and Iran to fly military equipment and personnel to a new air hub in Syria, openly defying American efforts to block the shipments and significantly increasing tensions with Washington. American officials disclosed Sunday that at least seven giant Russian Condor transport planes had taken off from a base in southern Russia during the past week to ferry equipment to Syria, all passing through Iranian and Iraqi airspace. Their destination was an airfield south of Latakia, Syria, which could become the most significant new Russian military foothold in the Middle East...

Turkey has sent shock waves through the Middle East by preparing plans to send troops into Syria for the first time, turning the civil war into an international conflict on Europe’s borders. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has authorised a change in the rules of engagement agreed by the Turkish parliament to allow the army to strike at Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), as well as the Assad regime, according to local newspapers. The aim is to establish a buffer zone for refugees and against Isil, but Mr Erdogan has also suggested that the main target of the...

If you think Vladimir Putin has enough worries on his plate ..., the turmoil in Ukraine and Russia’s sputtering economy, think again. A new potential source of trouble is brewing out in the eastern Mediterranean — one that could not only undermine Putin’s efforts to rebuild Russia’s influence in the Middle East, but his current strong hand in Europe. The threat: Israel’s recently discovered offshore gas deposits — one of the biggest global finds of the past decade. Those fields, dubbed Tamar and Leviathan, promise Israel an unprecedented degree of energy independence and a lucrative export market to its Arab...