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Turkish Intervention - Hostile to Assad AND the US

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Turkish Intervention - Hostile to Assad AND the US

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Hundreds of Syria Kurds rally to demand Turkey withdrawal

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Hundreds demonstrated in Syria's northeastern city of Qamishli on Saturday, in response to a call by Kurdish authorities for global protests against Turkey's military presence in the flashpoint Afrin region.

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Russian aid to Donbass - confrontation w/ Gov troops

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Russian aid to Donbass - confrontation w/ Gov troops

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According to intelligence data, two militants were killed, while three others were wounded.

"There have been no casualties among the Ukrainian servicemen over the past 24 hours and since the beginning of the current day. According to intelligence data, two militants were killed, while three others were wounded," the press center of Ukraine's Joint Forces Operation (JFO) said in an update on Facebook as of 07:00 Kyiv time on May 19, 2018.
Read also Terrorist leader Girkin expects Ukraine army may soon liberate several settlements in Donbas
Active military operations continued in the Luhansk sector near the town of Popasna, and the villages of Novozvanivka and Troyitske.

In the direction of the town of Horlivka, the enemy was active near the villages of Zaitseve and Zalizne, as well as near the Avdiyivka industrial zone and the village of Pisky, which are in the Donetsk sector.

In the Mariupol sector, the hostilities continued near the villages of Vodiane, Lebedynske and Shyrokyne.

"A sniper pair was spotted near Vodiane. The fire was quickly suppressed by counter-sniper measures," reads the report.

If you see a spelling error on our site, select it and press Ctrl+Enter

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JFO: Russian-led forces mount 43 attacks on Ukraine army in Donbas in past day

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According to intelligence data, two militants were killed, while three others were wounded. "There have been no casualties among the Ukrainian servicemen over the past 24 hours and since the beginning of the current day.

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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad flew to Russian leader Vladimir Putin's summer residence on the Black Sea for talks on Thursday about the Syrian conflict, the Kremlin said, a visit that underscored Moscow's status as Assad's chief backer.

Since fighting broke out in his country in 2011, Assad has traveled only rarely, but has made three publicly-acknowledged visits to Russia, each time for meetings with Putin.

Russia's entry into the conflict in 2015 turned the tide of the conflict in Assad's favor, and established Russia as a powerbroker in the Middle East.

At the meeting, in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Assad congratulated Putin on his new term as president, after he was re-elected in March, and thanked the Russian military for its support in Syria.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the meeting, which had not been announced in advance, took place on Thursday.

"Stability is improving, and all that opens the doors to the political process, which we started a while ago," Assad told Putin, according to a transcript of the opening remarks from the meeting posted on the Kremlin website.

"I have always said, and I repeat it again, that we have always wholeheartedly supported the political process, which should proceed in parallel with the war on terrorism."

"We know that will not be easy, since there are countries which do not want stability to return to Syria. However, together with you and our other partners and friends, we will move firmly forward with the peace process," Assad was quoted as saying.

Russia said it intervened militarily in Syria to defeat violent Islamist extremists who had taken control over parts of the country and were launching bomb and gun attacks in other parts of the world.

Critics of Russia's action, among them the United States and European states, say it is propping up an Assad leadership that has lost its legitimacy, and that its air strikes have killed large numbers of civilians. Russia says it never targets civilian areas.

In remarks cited by the Kremlin, Putin congratulated the Syrian leader on what he said were significant successes on the battlefield achieved by the Syrian military.

"The terrorists have laid down their arms in key locations in Syria, which has allowed for the restoration of Syrian infra-structure," Putin was cited as saying.

"And of course now, after these military successes, additional conditions have doubtless been created for the renewal of a fully-fledged political process."

Assad was making his second visit to see Putin in Sochi. The previous occasion was in November last year. He also visited Putin in Moscow in October 2015, soon after Russia launched its military operation in Syria.

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Syria's Assad flies to Russia for talks with Putin: Kremlin

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MOSCOW (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad flew to Russian leader Vladimir Putin's summer residence on the Black Sea for talks on Thursday about the Syrian conflict, the Kremlin said, a visit that underscored Moscow's status as Assad's chief backer.

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Russia leading deal w/ Iran - Friction w/ Israel

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Russia leading deal w/ Iran - Friction w/ Israel

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Tougher Israeli Posture in Syria Tests Russia-Iran Alliance

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The Kremlin's military alliance with Tehran in Syria is showing cracks after fierce Israeli strikes against Iranian forces, testing the limits of the relationship.

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BEIRUT - Syria's military on Monday captured an enclave in southern Damascus from Islamic State militants following a ruinous monthlong battle, bringing the entire capital and its far-flung suburbs under full government control for the first time since the civil war began in 2011.

The gains freed President Bashar Assad's forces to move with allied militiamen on remaining rebel-held territory in the south near the border with Israel, as Syria's chief ally Iran comes under growing pressure from the Trump administration to withdraw its troops from the country.

Iranian-backed militias, including the Lebanese group Hezbollah, have been instrumental in helping Assad's over-stretched forces recapture huge areas around Damascus and in the country's center and north, building a military presence that has alarmed Israel and its U.S. ally, which is now looking to constrain Iran's activities.

Iranian officials have vowed to stay on in Syria for as long as needed, setting the stage for a potential confrontation as Washington seeks to tighten the screws on Tehran following the U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal brokered with Iran under President Barack Obama and world powers.

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo threatened Iran with the "strongest sanctions in history" if Tehran doesn't change course. In his first major foreign policy speech since taking the post as the top U.S. diplomat, he issued a list of demands that he said should be included in any new nuclear treaty with Iran, including that it "withdraw all forces" from Syria, halt support for Hezbollah and stop threatening Israel.

Iran and Russia have joined forces in Syria, providing crucial military support to Assad's forces and giving them the upper hand in the civil war.

Russian President Vladimir Putin told Assad at a meeting last week that a political settlement in Syria should encourage foreign countries to withdraw their troops from Syria. Putin's envoy to Syria, Alexander Lavrentyev, said Putin was referring to Iranian forces, among others.

Iran says it is in Syria at the behest of the Assad government and says it is fighting "terrorism" in the form of Islamic extremists, including the Islamic State group and al-Qaida.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi told reporters that no one can force Tehran to do anything it doesn't want to do.

"Our presence in Syria has been based on a request by the Syrian government and Iran will continue its support as long as the Syrian government wants," he said, speaking shortly before Pompeo made his remarks.

The recapture of IS-held pockets in the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk and the nearby Hajar al-Aswad district in southern Damascus came after a massive bombing campaign that has all but decimated what was left of the residential area on the edge of the capital, once home to about 200,000 Palestinian refugees.

The camp has been deserted by most of its inhabitants following years of siege, and the few remaining residents fled to nearby areas in the last days of the bombardment.

The last push on the Yarmouk camp came after a group of civilians was evacuated overnight. State TV showed images of troops moving in, waving the Syrian flag and flashing victory signs atop wrecked buildings in the destroyed neighborhood. Some fired in the air in celebration.

The move boosts morale and security in Assad's seat of power, putting it out of range of insurgents' mortar fire and shells for the first time in nearly seven years.

With Iran's help, Assad's forces have been making steady gains since 2015, when Russian launched an air campaign on behalf of his forces. In December 2016, government forces captured rebel-held eastern neighborhoods of the northern city of Aleppo, in Assad's biggest victory since the conflict began.

With a mix of military pressure and surrender deals brokered by Russia, thousands of opposition fighters capitulated and were evacuated in March and April from Damascus suburbs known as eastern Ghouta after a crushing government offensive.

Syrian troops and their allies are expected to turn their attention to opposition-held parts of southern Syria, including Daraa province, in a push that could bring allied Iranian forces even closer to the increasingly tense frontier with Israel. Idlib, in the north, remains a major rebel bastion, but government forces are expected to leave that confrontation to a later stage.

Israel has warned Iran and its proxies to stay away from the border and has carried out a series of airstrikes on Syrian air bases where it believes Iranian troops maintain a presence. Earlier this month, it launched a blistering bombardment of Iranian positions in Syria after an alleged Iranian rocket barrage toward its positions on the annexed Golan Heights.

Gen. Ali Mayhoub, a Syrian army spokesman, declared Damascus and its surroundings "completely secure" on Monday.

A war monitoring group said about 1,600 people, including hundreds of IS gunmen, left the area Saturday and Sunday, heading toward the desert in the east of the country following a deal with the government. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the month of fighting left scores of dead on both sides.

Syrian TV earlier quoted an unidentified Syrian military official as saying the two-day truce had been in place to evacuate women, children and the elderly Sunday night from Hajar al-Aswad. Syrian state media denied a deal was reached to evacuate the militants.

"The Daesh terrorist organization was wiped out in Hajar al-Aswad," an unidentified Syrian soldier told state TV, using an Arabic acronym to refer to IS. "We will keep marching until we liberate all parts of Syria."

Associated Press writers Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, Albert Aji in Damascus, Syria, and Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.

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Syrian government declares capital fully under its control

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BEIRUT - Syria's military on Monday captured an enclave in southern Damascus from Islamic State militants following a ruinous monthlong battle, bringing the entire capital and its far-flung suburbs under full government control for the first time since the civil war began in 2011.

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This past week President Trump dropped a hand-grenade on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), leaving European leaders scrambling to keep the deal intact as the United States moves to re-impose unilateral sanctions against Iran. Europe's leaders must balance the strategic security of keeping Iran's nuclear program at bay or risk further political fallout with the United States, possibly jeopardizing EU-US business interests.

Although the text of the JCPOA is somewhat convoluted, and there are clearly faults in terms of what happens after the agreement, the bargain itself is simple: In exchange for US, UN, and EU sanctions relief, Iran agrees to curb its nuclear program. Thus, without sanctions relief, Tehran would have little interest in keeping its end of the bargain. In order for the European Union to assure Iran of continued sanctions relief, it will need to find a way to protect EU business from potential secondary sanctions-that is, US unilateral financial or economic sanctions imposed on EU companies for conducting business with Iran. In his statement on Tuesday, President Trump threatened secondary sanctions, noting: "Any nation that helps Iran in its quest for nuclear weapons could also be strongly sanctioned by the United States."

So far, there seems to be a strong lobby in favor of protecting EU business interests in Iran by proposing sanctions-blocking measures to guard against US secondary sanctions. Ultimately, however, it will be business, not political decisions, that will spell the end of the JCPOA- a lesson almost learned in 1982.

Are there any lessons from 1982? In the early 1980s, the Soviet Union began constructing an ambitious pipeline that would connect its western-Siberian gas fields to European distribution networks, increasing its production by almost 40 percent. In order to reduce costs and improve efficiency, as well as lay the groundwork for a much larger footprint in the Western European energy markets, the Soviet Union began contracting with European suppliers and financiers.

Fearing increased Western European energy dependence on the Soviet Union, President Reagan moved to restrict US companies from working on the pipeline project. Using the Soviet Union's harsh crackdown on pro-democracy movements in Poland as a pretext, the Reagan administration imposed strict trade controls, under the Export Administration Act, to suspended the export licensing for any US firm trading in pipeline-related goods and services. This also included several US subsidiary firms operating in Europe, like Dresser SA-a subsidiary of Texas-based energy services and technologies supplier, Dresser Industries.

Europe was not happy. The sanctions were seen as an extraterritorial extension of US jurisdiction, and the issue was brought before the European Council for a legal resolution. In August 1982, France ordered Dresser SA to proceed with its shipment, in direct violation of US law. By September, the United Kingdom had also ordered its companies to comply with its contracts and fulfill pipeline-related orders. As tensions mounted and with no legal resolution in sight, President Reagan eventually backed down and repealed the sanctions before events spiraled further out of control. Unfortunately, because this dispute was solved politically instead of through legal processes, the question of secondary sanctions and extraterritorial jurisdiction remains largely unaddressed. If the Trump administration decides to aggressively enforce secondary sanctions against UK and EU firms for their business dealings with Iran, it will likely test the legal boundaries of US extraterritorial jurisdiction.

But how far will the United States go? Cooler heads prevailed in the early 1980s-qualities that are seemingly absent in Trump's administration. Whether or not the Iran deal stays intact largely depends on how the Trump administration decides to enforce re-imposition of sanctions. Prior to the JCPOA, US sanctions against Iran were a mish-mash of executive orders, legislation, and regulations that targeted Iranian oil, shipping, insurance, and re-insurance sectors, and blocked Iran from accessing the US financial system, as well. Coupled with UN and EU sanctions, Iran saw major declines in its oil production and was eventually cut off from the global financial system. Ultimately, this pressure from the United States and global partners contributed to Iran's decision to negotiate with the P5+1 (US, UK, France, Russia, China, and Germany).

Under the JCPOA, the United States removed sanctions against several designated entities, such as the National Iranian Oil Company, and promised to issue waivers against enforcing many of the secondary sanctions against Iran's financial, energy, shipping, and insurance sectors-many of which were found in the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions Divestment Act of 2010 and the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012. However, other sanctions regimes remained in place, such as those targeting terrorism, human rights violations, and trafficking in proliferation-sensitive goods and technologies.

Traditionally, in terms of enforcing secondary sanctions, the United States has taken a rather conservative approach, recognizing the potential blowback against American economic and security interests. In fact, prior to the JCPOA, the United States had only enforced secondary sanctions against two banks-Kunlun Bank in China and Elaf Bank in Iraq-for facilitating transactions on behalf of sanctioned Iranian banks. Although a provocative move-to impose US jurisdiction against non-US bank-the political and economic fallout was tempered by the sanctioned banks' relatively small footprint on the US and global financial system, as well as broader international support in terms of isolating Iran from the global banking system.

How the Trump administration will administer its re-imposition of sanctions against Iran is slowly coming into focus. Shortly after Trump's announcement, the Secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, noted that companies will be given a wind-down period of anywhere from three-to-six months to end previously existing contracts with Iran.

Does the EU have any options? Since then, the political dynamics have changed. While the United States has unilaterally withdrawn from the JCPOA, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom have expressed their commitment to remain in the deal. French finance minister, Bruno Le Maire, has proposed measures to protect French and EU business from US secondary sanctions such as a legal basis to ignore US sanctions and decisions by foreign courts.

Such measures are similar to those imposed during the 1981-82 trans-Siberian pipeline debacle, where French and UK governments ordered their companies to comply with contractual arrangements with the Soviet Union. Given the interconnectedness between US, EU, and UK economies, however, these approaches are likely to be ineffective. Recent cases, such as the civil asset forfeitures against China-based North Korean financial networks and major fines and penalties imposed against Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE show that few companies and individuals exist beyond the long arm of US jurisdiction.

If the Trump administration aggressively targets EU or UK firms, the EU may move to insulate its economic interests from US jurisdiction by lessening its dependence on the US dollar and the US financial system. However, developing alternative banking channels is no easy task. But given recent de-risking trends, which seek to avoid-rather than try to deal with-the risks associated with anti money-laundering and know-your-customer regulations, there may be a growing appetite for such alternatives.

The EU does have a few big guns it could employ in response to Trump's actions. For example, the EU could freeze US assets. Alternatively, the EU could block US financial institutions from SWIFT-the Belgium-based global financial communications system, which blocked Iran in 2012. These scenarios, however, are unlikely and riddled with political and economic landmines.

The end of the deal. Simply put, whether or not Iran remains committed to the JCPOA now rests largely in the UK and the EU's ability to uphold their commitments. To do so, however, means that UK and EU firms fulfill existing and future contracts with Iran, as well as continuing to permit Iran's access to the global financial system-possibly violating US sanctions. In the end, however, this is an economic decision, not a political one, and it is unlikely that the EU's bulwark is strong enough to restrain multinational corporations' economic interests for the sake of keeping political commitments to Iran. Germany's trade with Iran, for example, sits at approximately $3.8 billion-less than 2 percent its of trade with the United States. It would be economically unwise to put those business relationships in jeopardy. It is this reality that will force the EU and the UK to concede to US unilateral sanctions. A bitter pill to swallow, indeed, and one that forces the JCPOA to collapse.

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This past week President Trump dropped a hand-grenade on the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), leaving European leaders scrambling to keep the deal intact as the United States moves to re-impose unilateral sanctions against Iran. Europe's leaders must balance the strategic security of keeping Iran's nuclear program at bay or risk further political fallout with the United States, possibly jeopardizing EU-US business interests.

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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said the world will "not accept" US unilateralism just hours after Washington laid out a series of tough demands to be included in a potential new nuclear treaty with Iran.

In remarks carried by Iran's ILNA news agency on Monday, Rouhani said the era of the US making decisions for the rest of the world was "over".

"Countries are independent ... We will continue our path with the support of our nation," Rouhani said.

"Who are you to decide for Iran and the world?"

Earlier this month, US President Donald Trump's defied efforts by European allies and announced Washington's withdrawal from a landmark multinational pact signed with Iran in 2015 and a decision to impose tough sanctions on Tehran.

In announcing the new US strategy towards Iran, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday warned Washington "will apply unprecedented financial pressure on the Iranian regime" unless it complied with a list of 12 conditions, which must be met before any new deal can be reached.

The demands include giving the International Atomic Energy Agency a full account of the country's former nuclear military programme, withdrawing its forces from Syria and ending what Pompeo described as Iran's "threatening behaviour" towards its neighbours.

Also responding to Pompeo, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif accused the US of a "regression to old habits", saying Washington's diplomatic efforts were a "sham".

"It repeats the same wrong choices and will thus reap the same ill rewards. Iran, meanwhile, is working with partners for post-US JCPOA solutions," Zarif said in a tweet on Monday.

US diplomacy sham is merely a regression to old habits: imprisoned by delusions & failed policies-dictated by corrupt Special Interest-it repeats the same wrong choices and will thus reap the same ill rewards. Iran, meanwhile, is working with partners for post-US JCPOA solutions.
- Javad Zarif (@JZarif) May 21, 2018

Political analyst Jamal Abdi said the US knew that Iran could never agree with such demands.

"[It's a] smokescreen of 'We want to handle this diplomatically', but I think this is all about paving a path towards confronting Iran militarily - whether that's through covert action or an overt escalation in the region."

Pompeo's comments were welcomed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said the demands amounted to "the only policy that could ultimately guarantee the security of the Middle East".

"We call on the entire international community to join this American position," Netanyahu said on Monday.

Anwar Gargash, the United Arab Emirates' minister of state for foreign affairs, also said Washington was taking the correct stance on Iran.

"Uniting [our] efforts is the correct path for Iran to realize the futility of its incursions and expansionism ... The Pompeo strategy requires wisdom and a change of the Iranian compass," Gargash said in a tweet on Monday.

EU diplomacy

Under the 2015 deal with six world powers - China, France, Russia, the UK, the US and Germany, as well as the European Union - Iran scaled back its enrichment of uranium and vowed not to pursue nuclear weapons in exchange for sanctions relief.

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has repeatedly confirmed that Tehran has been meeting its nuclear commitments enshrined in the deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), fully.

The spat comes after several European companies expressed concern about continuing business with Iran following the US exit, raising further doubts about the viability of the deal.

Danish shipping giant Maersk Tankers, German insurer Allianz and Italian steel manufacturer Danieli have all announced plans to halt, or wind down altogether, operations in the country.

French energy giant Total has also warned it will pull out of a multibillion-dollar project to develop Iran's vast South Pars gas field unless granted a waiver by US authorities.

Despite recent efforts from EU leaders to safeguard the 2015 deal, Zarif has accused the bloc of not doing enough to preserve its future, saying it "needs to take more practical strides and increase its investments in Iran if it is to continue its economic cooperation with the Islamic Republic [Iran]".

Reacting to Pompeo's comments, Boris Johnson - foreign secretary of Britain, which is party to the 2015 nuclear deal - said the "jumbo negotiation" sought by Washington would be extremely difficult to achieve within a "reasonable timetable".

"I think in the end, we will get back to the kind of additions to the JCPOA that we initially envisaged - but it may take a long time," Johnson said on Monday ahead of a G20 foreign ministers summit in Argentina, at which discussions about the nuclear deal are expected to take place.

Britain has vowed to honour the 2015 agreement, which Johnson said had "protected the world from an Iranian nuclear bomb, and in return [given] the Iranians some recognisable economic benefits".

Federica Mogherini, the European Union's foreign policy chief, told reporters later on Monday there is "no alternative" to the deal.

On Thursday, the European Commission said it would launch the process of activating a law that bans European companies and courts from complying with US sanctions against Iran.

Jean Claude Juncker, the commission's president, said it has a "duty to protect European companies" from Washington's punitive fiscal measures.

The options being considered by the bloc to keep Tehran in the nuclear deal reportedly include new credit lines, increased energy cooperation and implementing EU laws to block European firms from caving in to US sanctions.

EU trade with Iran has increased dramatically since the sanctions on its economy were lifted as part of the 2015 deal.

Last year, trade between the bloc and Iran totalled over 20bn euro ($23.5bn), with most exports being machinery and transport goods and the majority of imports being energy-related products.

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'Who are you?' Iran hits back at US demands

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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has said the world will "not accept" US unilateralism just hours after Washington laid out a series of tough demands to be included in a potential new nuclear treaty with Iran. In remarks carried by Iran's ILNA news agency on Monday, Rouhani said the era of the US making decisions for the rest of the world was "over".

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WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday presented a lengthy list of grievances against the Iranian government and vowed to forge a new, better nuclear agreement - but he offered few details on how the United States would accomplish that goal without support from European allies, Russia or China.

"The bet that the [2015 Iran nuclear deal] would increase Middle East stability was a bad one for America, for Europe and for the rest of the world," Pompeo said during his first major speech in his new role, promising that the new deal would address not only the Islamic Republic's nuclear program but also its ballistic missile program, its interventions in Syria, Yemen and Lebanon, and its repressive treatment of its own people.

"We will track down Iranian operatives and their Hezbollah proxies operating around the world and crush them," Pompeo added, referring to the Lebanese armed group that is Iran's chief ally in the region. "Iran will never again have carte blanche to dominate the Middle East."

The original deal ― negotiated between Iran, the U.S., the U.K., France, Germany, China and Russia ― focused only on Iran's nuclear program, and some of its provisions would expire 10 to 15 years after it took effect. State Department officials had described Pompeo's speech as an opportunity for the secretary to present a diplomatic roadmap to achieving a better deal with Iran two weeks after President Donald Trump announced plans to violate the international nuclear agreement by pulling out.

But the secretary offered few clues about how Washington might convince Tehran to sign on to a tougher accord. Pompeo's chief proposal ― fresh sanctions that would force the Iranians to negotiate ― depends on cooperation from Russia, China and Europe, which, unlike the U.S., do significant business with Iran. Obama administration officials spent years building a sanctions framework with those governments before attempting the nuclear diplomacy.

Pompeo repeatedly blasted President Barack Obama's team as naive and even once suggested they actually sought to help the Iranian government. But it's unclear how the Trump administration believes it will prove more successful than its predecessor in bringing aboard other international powers. Since Trump announced the U.S. withdrawal from the deal, the other countries involved in it have scrambled to ensure that Iran continues receiving economic benefits so that it will continue upholding its end of the deal, which they say is essential to global security.

Pompeo has not outlined a strategy, but rather a grab bag of wishful thinking that can only be interpreted as a call for regime change in Iran. Suzanne Maloney, a former State Department official at the Brookings Institution.

The European Union has already started the process of insulating European countries from U.S. secondary sanctions, which punish companies in other countries for doing business with Iran. Russian aircraft manufacturers moved to sell planes to Iran after the Treasury Department announced it would cancel licenses that allowed Boeing and Airbus to sign deals with Iran. And China is eyeing opportunities to replace Total on a massive Iranian gas field expansion project if the French energy giant pulls out of the country under pressure from the U.S.

The Trump administration's contradictory approach to Iran ― exemplified in Pompeo's speech by his saying Tehran negotiated in bad faith and simultaneously arguing Trump wants to create a grand bargain with it ― has convinced partner governments they need to develop their own policies without looking for leadership from the U.S.

The EU, the closest American partner in diplomacy with Iran, has been unusually blunt in recent days. "Looking at latest decisions of @realDonaldTrump someone could even think: with friends like that who needs enemies," Donald Tusk, the president of the European Council, tweeted last week.

Pompeo attempted to downplay the rift. "From my conversations with Europeans friends, I know that they broadly share these same views, of what the Iranian regime must do to gain acceptance in the international community," he said. But like hawkish national security adviser John Bolton has, Pompeo also warned that the Trump administration would be willing to punish European businesses dealing with Iran.

The Europeans have already been burned. Over the past several months, the State Department's director of policy planning, Brian Hook, led negotiations with U.S. allies aimed at creating parallel agreements to supplement the 2015 nuclear accord, part of an effort to entice Trump to stay in the deal. State Department officials say they were close to reaching an agreement - but Trump seemed to have not even known about the effort.

Pompeo specifically referenced cooperating with the few American partner governments who praised Trump's Iran deal decision: Saudi Arabia, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. Some of them and other pro-U.S. nations like Qatar have supported the Trump administration's anti-Iran actions since the announcement on the deal, including placing new sanctions on Iran-linked figures and entities.

But it's unclear how far Gulf countries will go to pressure the Islamic Republic, particularly if Europe, Russia and China try to sustain significant international economic activity with Iran. The UAE and Qatar have their own strong economic ties to Iran, and officials around the region are wary of sparking fresh tensions between the few remaining stable governments there.

Pompeo tried to justify his case by repeatedly referencing the plight of ordinary people: Iranians themselves, Middle Easterners at risk from Iranian-backed Houthi and Hamas militants and Syrians suffering because of Iran's support for the brutal Assad regime. (In Trump-era style, he both spoke of Syrians as victims and then repeated the misleading populist argument that Syrian refugees flowing into Europe include many terrorists.)

Yet so far, the effects of Trump's decision are hitting the individuals Pompeo mentioned the hardest ― making it more difficult for Iranians to buy vital goods and for U.S. officials to use diplomacy to help the American prisoners held in Iran.

Tensions between the U.S. and Iran will likely only grow in the months ahead as hard-liners there gain power by pushing the narrative that the West cannot be trusted and the Trump administration continues to try and look tough.

Experts who watched Pompeo's speech called his demands unrealistic and some predicted that when Iran inevitably fails to meet them, the U.S. will use it as justification for military intervention.

"Pompeo has not outlined a strategy, but rather a grab bag of wishful thinking that can only be interpreted as a call for regime change in Iran," tweeted Suzanne Maloney, a former State Department official during the George W. Bush administration.

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Mike Pompeo Promises To 'Crush' Iran And Achieve A Better Deal

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WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday presented a lengthy list of grievances against the Iranian government and vowed to forge a new, better nuclear agreement - but he offered few details on how the United States would accomplish that goal without support from European allies, Russia or China.

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Israeli Intervention against Iran and Syria

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Israeli Intervention against Iran and Syria

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The Israeli military said it struck dozens of Iran-linked military targets in Syria on Thursday in response to rocket fire, marking a significant escalation in regional hostilities a little more than a day after the United States withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal.

Israel said the attacks followed a volley of rockets directed at Israeli positions in the Golan Heights, which caused no casualties.

The Israeli military blamed the attack on Iran's Quds Force, a special forces unit affiliated with Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, and said this marked the first time that Iranian forces have fired directly on Israeli troops.

Syrian and Iranian news outlets accused Israel of firing the first shot, saying it was Syria that had responded after Israel targeted the Syrian town of Quneitra with artillery fire and missiles. There was no official response from the Iranian government.

The rocket fire was followed by Israel's largest intervention in neighboring Syria in decades. Jets headed for Syria screamed over northern Israel for more than four hours, and about 70 previously identified targets were hit, according to the Israeli military.

"This was by far the largest strike we have done, but it was focused on Iranian sites," said Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, an Israeli military spokesman. Syrian antiaircraft batteries were also targeted after they fired on Israeli planes, he added.

In a statement carried by Syria's state news agency, an unidentified Syrian Foreign Ministry official described Israel's overnight attacks as a "new phase of aggression."

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitoring group based in Britain, said that at least 23 people were killed in Thursday's Israeli strikes across Syria. The group said five Syrian soldiers and 18 allied militiamen died, without specifying whether any of the militiamen were Iranian. The Syrian army, however, said that only three people died in the strikes and claimed that most of the Israeli missiles were intercepted.

For residents of Damascus, it was a sleepless night. "The intensity of the blasts and their repetition was stressful," said one resident, who declined to be named for security reasons. He said that he was not fearful but that many of those close to him were. "They said that a war with Israel would be much scarier than a war with other proxies," he said.

Although the fighting raised concerns of further escalation, it remained relatively contained. Rockets fired from Syria were aimed only at targets in the occupied Golan Heights and not inside Israel's internationally recognized borders. Schools and shops in the area were open as normal Thursday, while some tourists appeared unconcerned. The altercation also did not spread to Lebanon, where Israel has fought repeated battles in recent years.

Israel and Iran have been on a collision course in Syria in recent months, as Israel has vowed not to let Iran build an expanded military presence there and has escalated attacks against Iranian targets across the border. Iran threatened retaliation after seven of its soldiers were killed by an Israeli airstrike in April.

From a viewing point on Mount Bental in the Golan Heights, Conricus pointed out where he said an Iranian rocket salvo was fired toward Israel just after midnight. Four of the 20 rockets were on target, he said, but were then intercepted, while the rest fell short.

"We saw it was very clear what the Iranians were doing, attacking Israel from Syrian soil," he said.

Israeli officials have downplayed a link between the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal and the immediate escalation in tensions, though Israelis in the Golan Heights were ordered to open their bomb shelters at the very moment President Trump made his announcement.

Before the United States made its decision about the nuclear accord, Iran faced a "strategic uncertainty" over what would happen and did not want to take the risk of striking back, said Michael Horowitz, a senior analyst at Le Beck International, a Middle East-based geopolitical and security consulting firm. "That encouraged Tehran to be careful."

Israel, meanwhile, was looking for a chance to press its efforts at rolling back the Iranian presence in Syria, he said. "Israel was searching for an opportunity to really escalate its efforts."
[Mideast allies pressed Trump to ditch the Iran deal. Are they ready for what's next?]
An evening earlier, Israel had struck targets in Syria after detecting what Israeli officials said were suspicious military movements, reportedly killing an additional eight Iranians.

Horowitz said Israel's strategy is twofold. In part, Israel wants to delay Iranian entrenchment in Syria as much as possible and make sure it comes at the highest cost possible. At the same time, Israel is trying to back up its diplomatic efforts aimed at getting Russia and the United States to rein in Iranian expansionism.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated that point Thursday. "The international community should prevent the entrenchment of the Iranian Quds Force in Syria. We have to unite to cut off the arms of its spreading evil there and everywhere," he said, adding that Israel had responded after "Iran crossed a red line."

In Washington, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders condemned Iran's "provocative rocket attacks from Syria against Israeli citizens" and supported Israel's "right to act in self-defense."

"The Iranian regime's deployment into Syria of offensive rocket and missile systems aimed at Israel is an unacceptable and highly dangerous development for the entire Middle East," Sanders said in a statement. "Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) bears full responsibility for the consequences of its reckless actions."

The statement called on Iran and its proxies "to take no further provocative steps."

Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz, who served as intelligence minister at the time the Iran nuclear deal was negotiated and remains a member of Netanyahu's security cabinet, said that the attacks were only indirectly related to Trump's announcement.

The more direct reason for the attack, Steinitz said, was that the IRGC had deployed armed drones, ballistic missiles and short-range rockets capable of reaching Israel on Syrian soil over the past two months. "We saw that the Iranians were going beyond planning and beginning to execute their plans to start building bases and air defense systems . . . with the clear aim to be able to threaten Israel in the future," he said.

U.S. and Israeli intelligence had detected increased movement of such weaponry into Syria earlier this year, according to U.S. officials, and had anticipated such an attack launched from Syria late last month. "It didn't happen," Steinitz said, "because Israel managed to intercept and prevent or destroy some of the efforts."

He said that Israel's actions sent a "clear message" to the Iranians that Israel won't allow it "to transform Syria into an Iranian military [base] to attack Israel."
[The shadow war between Israel and Iran takes center stage]
Russia, which has installed its own sophisticated air defense systems inside Syria, apparently did not activate them. Moscow's failure to become involved or even to issue a strong statement of criticism toward Israel, Steinitz said, was "a tacit message to the Iranians that Russia is not in their pocket" in Syria.

Netanyahu met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday in Moscow, and afterward Netanyahu said he had explained that Israel had the right to defend itself against Iranian aggression.

Russian reaction to the strikes was muted Thursday. "Moscow is concerned about the growing tensions and hopes that all parties will show restraint and resort exclusively to political and diplomatic means to solve all existing problems," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the Russians have "emphasized the need for avoiding any mutually provoking moves." Both Iran and Israel, Lavrov said, "have assured us that there are no such intentions. Nevertheless, such incidents do occur."

Russia released an analysis of the attack, saying it was carried out by 28 Israeli fighter jets firing 60 missiles and an additional 10 surface-to-surface missiles, with Syrian air defenses intercepting half of them.

Among the targets that were hit were a logistics headquarters belonging to the Quds Force, a military logistics compound in Kiswah, an Iranian military compound north of Damascus, munition storage warehouses of the Quds Force at Damascus International Airport, intelligence systems and posts associated with the Quds Force, and observation and military posts and munitions in the buffer zone between the Golan Heights and Syria proper, the Israeli army said.

Tehran's strong support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has let Iran deepen its foothold across Syria, but Iranian media downplayed Tehran's role in the violence, depicting the clashes instead as between Israel and Syria.

In the Golan Heights, where residents have become accustomed to air raid sirens due to errant fire during Syria's long civil war, things felt a little different this time.

On Thursday, the sirens sounded shortly after midnight.

"It does make you stressed," said Maayan Ben Dor, 33, a resident of Neve Ativ. "It's not Hezbollah or Hamas, it's something else."

Eglash reported from Jerusalem and Loveluck from Beirut. Suzan Haidamous in Beirut, Erin Cunningham in Istanbul and Brian Murphy, John Wagner and Karen DeYoung in Washington contributed to this report.

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Israel launches massive military strike against Iranian targets in Syria

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The Israeli military said it struck dozens of Iran-linked military targets in Syria on Thursday in response to rocket fire, marking a significant escalation in regional hostilities a little more than a day after the United States withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal.

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Al-Assad forces and planes from the Russian Air Force conducted joint military air maneuvers near the Syrian Golan Heights, hours after Israel carried out its fourth raid this month against targets within the areas controlled by the Pro-Assad forces. Explosion at HTS warehouses north of Idlib

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