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The A-O Report's

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Middle East News Spotlight

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For September 26, 2010

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Editor's Note: See also our A-O Special Coverage articles on "Mideast Peace Talks Collapse," "Iran Under Cyber War Attack," "Crisis in Lebanon, Coup or Civil War?" along with our RED ALERT advisory article. LINK.

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Jordan's King Abdullah warned this week that the Middle East stands on the edge of war and believes that it is likely for war to break out in the Middle East before the end of this year. More details, including video link of King's remarks - LINK HERE.

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Iran's President Ahmadinejad gave his annual speech to the global body last week, prompting a mass exodus by diplomats from around the world who walked out in protest against his various, outrageous remarks. For more details on his speech, check out FOX News coverage, LINK HERE.

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Russia's Defense Minister announced last Friday (9/17) that the Russian government had agreed to sell its P-800 Yakhont Cruise Missile to Syria. The news came as something of a surprise to Israelis as peace talks between Prime MInister Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority Chairman Abbas were reportedly making some progress after additional meetings were moved from Sharm El Sheik, Egypt to Jerusalem.

Anatoly Serdyukov, Russia's Minister of Defense was quoted by the Russian TASS News Agency that:  "We will supply Yakhont to Syria, we will fulfill the contract.".The sale was agreed to in priniciple but reportedly had never been finalized, but the Russian Defense Chief stated to Tass that indeed the agreement of sale had been signed back in 2007 and would finally be honored. Then President Bush had objected to such a sale and the Russians had reportedly agreed to not finalize the sale. It now appears that Russia has gone back on its word.

With such sophisticated, offensive missiles in Syria's possession, the balance of power in the Middle East could be altered, giving Syria a powerful, first-strike capability against Israel.

Oddly enough, the Defense Chief's comments came as he was in Washington, meeting with top Pentagon officials. Under such circumstances is it possible that an "illuminated hand" might be involved in this announcement?

In the past three years, Russia has taken steps to revitalize Syria's military capabilities. We'll have more on this story in our next A-O Intelligence Digest Report.

For more on the Russian sale announcement, LINK HERE.

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Russia announced last week that it was cancelling its arms sale of the S-300 air defense systems to Iran. Russian officials cited the UN sanctions as the reason for the cancellation of the sale. The S-300 air defense system would have made any air strikes against Iran very difficult, even for U.S. war planes and cruise missiles. For more details on this story, LINK HERE.

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Syria is experiencing an acute drought that is aggravating extreme poverty in Syria. The drought situation could further affect Syrian politics to the point where Syrian leadership might engage in war as an excuse to quell any uprising by thirsty people, desperate for water and food. For more details, LINK HERE.

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