Moscow has opened a new roundabout route for its ongoing military airlift from Sevastopol in Crimea and other bases in southern Russia to the Syrian Mezze Airbase in Damascus, DEBKAfile’s exclusive military and intelligence sources disclose.
This route runs over the Caspian Sea and northern Iran and Iraq and terminates with deliveries at Damascus and the new Russian air and ground base at Jablah, near the Syrian port of Latakia.
The Russians have in this way circumvented the strong US applications to Turkey, Greek, Bulgaria and Cyprus, to close their airspace to Russian shipments for its military buildup in Syria.
Washington’s actions had two results – one less and the other more desirable.
1. Tehran and Baghdad have both been pulled into directly supporting the Russian military interventkion in Syria, after Iraq was bullied by Iran to turn down the US request to close its northern skies to Russian shipments.
Washington refrained from addressing this request to Iran, in keeping with its policy of avoiding strains on relations until the nuclear deal was endorsed in Washington and Tehran.
As a result, heavy Russian transports are flying over parts of Iraq where US forces, including ground intelligence teams for guiding US air strikes against ISIS, are deployed. This makes accidental collisions in the sky a real danger. The Americans have therefore slowed down their aerial war on ISIS.
