Iranian Army said on Saturday that its air force will soon carry out the largest military maneuver in the Islamic Republic's history.
The army's Public Relation Department said in a statement that the air force will show off its defensive and combat capabilities on April 18, marking the National Army Day celebrations.
The statement pointed out that some 140 fighter jets will take part in the military exercise, including F4s, F5s, F7s, F14s, and MiG-29 aircraft, as well as the Russian Sukhoi aircraft and Boeing 707 and 747.
It expressed the air force's readiness to defend the country and to counter foreign attacks.
#2
Its massive military maneuver will consist of towing the jets around the airport in a big parade. Except for the F-14s, which will be towed on big dollies because the tires are all dry-rotted.
(I wish this was true, but afraid its just snark. But fun snark.)
#4
It would be the perfect day for the IAF to deal with the nuke issues, the Iranian airforce, the Iranian power grid, the iran refinery and anything else.
#5
If the Iranians do actually fly the planes in question, any guesses on how many will crash? The last time the Iranians had a big AF wargame, they lost 2 planes and had like 6 that could not take off.
The United Nations force in southern Lebanon is on its way to "disintegrating," senior defense officials warned on Saturday, after Poland announced it was withdrawing its troops from the peacekeeping force.
Polish Defense Minister Bogdan Klich announced on Friday during a visit to Lebanon that the 500 Polish soldiers currently assigned to UNIFIL would return home by the end of the year.
"Poland is more and more involved in NATO and EU missions. Thus we are returning from UN missions," Klich said, adding that "they ceased to play such an important role for the security of Poland as it has been the case in the past."
Last week, The Jerusalem Post reported on Israeli concerns that US pressure on European countries to expand their contribution to the NATO war in Afghanistan could lead these countries to downsize their UNIFIL contingents in southern Lebanon.
#2
An excellent opportunity for UNIFIL to be replaced by a few of the more orderly, mixed Iraqi divisions. Undoubtedly, Hizbollah would try it on against them, and the Iraqis would kick seven bells out of Hizbollah.
The Iraqis would demilitarize the heck out of southern Lebanon, and they know how. And the Lebanese Shiites would feel very safe with them instead of Hizbollah.
The Syrians wouldn't dare mess with the Iraqis. And even the Israelis would be sweetness and light to them.
By just being there, it would put a serious damper on Hamas as well. Egypt would be happier with less Iranian influence on their doorstep.
#3
The problem, Anonymoose, is that the Iraqis are not necessarily any fonder of Israel than the rest of the Muslim Middle East; Israel therefore cannot assume increased security as a result of Iraqi quashing of Hizb'allah nonsense.
#5
Oh, I'm sure the Iraqis have no great love for Israel, but this would be a national prestige assignment. The issue here really isn't Israel, but Sunni and Shiite, with a healthy dollop of Christian. In essence, what they left back home.
The situation they would be put in could be very carefully crafted, so that Iraqi Kurdish Peshmurga, who get along fairly well with Israelis, would be on the border proper. This might even result with some mutual diplomacy between the Israelis and the Kurds, which would be a good thing.
This would leave the Iraqi Shiite and Sunni to essentially take over the job of Hizbollah, being non-threatening to the Shiite Lebanese, while their Sunnis would reassure both the Sunni Lebanese and the Sunni powers that Lebanon wasn't going to be converted to a Shiite nation.
The Hizbollah would be on the outs, as would support for Hamas, and the Syrian Alawite Shiites would be wary of the the threat posed by their own Sunni majority.
Ironically, it might work very well, with the big losers being Iran and Syria. A more stable Lebanon would be the big winner.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
