Behind the Jerusalem impasse, US president Barack Obama is pushing the Middle East hard into another sweeping territorial redesign as the cure-all for all its troubles. The unpublished details of Obama's super-plan are revealed in DEBKA-Net-Weekly's coming issue out next Friday - together with the reasons why Israelis, Palestinians and other Arab forces will reject it.

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In introductory interviews to Islamist websites, Saleh Al-Qaraawi, the newly-appointed al Qaeda chief in the Levant (Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and the Palestinian territories) threatens to loose a fresh wave of attacks on US and Israeli targets as well as UN peacekeepers in South Lebanon. debkafile's counter-terror sources report Al Qaraawi is presented as Commander of the "Abdullah Azzam Brigades" and an appointee of al Qaeda's No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri.  
 

After laying hands on the record-breaking 61.5 mph speedboat, built for a British sporting adventurer, the Iranian navy plans to arm it with the reputedly fastest torpedo in the world, the Russian-designed Shkval (Squall), which moves at speeds of 360 kph. debkafile's military sources report Tehran is aiming for a seaborne weapon able to sink a US carrier in the Persian Gulf.

Chinese president Hu Jintao indicated a willingness to consider abstaining on a UN Security Council vote imposing sanctions against Iran - if the United States reciprocated by withholding its veto on sanctions against Israel over construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.  debkafile's sources report US president Barack Obama did not reject the idea.

 

A submarine-launched US ballistic Trident missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads was test-fired from Saudi territory during a joint military exercise last week -  the first time a nuclear-capable missile was fired from the oil kingdom toward the Persian Gulf and Iranian shores.  A US defense spokesman denied the Trident's launch Wednesday, April 1, but Saudi security sources stand by the report.
DEBKA-Net-Weekly out Friday discusses this game-changer's strategic aspects. To subscribe to DEBKA-Net-Weekly, click here

Indian defense ministry circles reveal a huge order of three types of armed unmanned aerial vehicles they have placed with Israel for deployment on the Indian-Pakistan border in readiness for the possible supply of American drones, including armed Predators, for which Pakistan is pushing hard. New Delhi seeks to counter their potential threat with Israeli Heron MALE, Searcher-II and Harpy killer drones.

 

The Gaza Strip's 1.2 million inhabitants are described by foreign visitors with great pathos as starving, homeless and hopeless - and all because of the Israeli embargo. A new Egyptian report cited by debkafile presents facts and figures exposing the Palestinian territory's hidden economic boom, engendered by the huge "tunnel industry" and Israeli cash, which fill the markets with luxuries and enrich the Hamas rulers.

Shortly after the flare-up of a US-Israel row over new homes in East Jerusalem, US president Barack Obama ordered a consignment of Joint Direct Attack Munitions- JDAM already on its way to Israel to be diverted to the US Air Force base on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia. This step in mid-March, the pointer to a US arms embargo for preventing Israel attacking Iran's nuclear sites, is first revealed here by debkafile's military sources.

All the fine words about America's friendship and strategic support for Israel melted away in the flames of the rift between the Obama administration and Israel which burst out in the open during the Israeli prime minister's visit to Washington. President Barack Obama made it brutally clear that the Netanyahu government is an obstacle to his Mid East goals. He therefore has no qualms about seeking regime change in Jerusalem - even ahead of Tehran.
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US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates arrived in Riyadh Wednesday, March 10, flying in unexpectedly from Kabul in Afghanistan, after the Saudis demanded urgent clarifications of the Obama administration's Iran policy. debkafile's military sources report the demand followed the failure of US Vice President Joe Biden's talks with Israeli leaders to resolve their differences on Read more