Headlines:

• Russia Threatens to Bomb Qatar and Saudi Arabia
• Syria is a 10-year Issue, says Top US General
• US Told Morsi to Go an Hour Before His Ouster: Report
• Karzai Wants Pact with US Against Pakistan

Details:

Russia Threatens to Bomb Qatar and Saudi Arabia

A senior source in the Russian Air Force told to Moscow website Telegrafist that Russia had plans to bomb Qatar and Saudi Arabia. He claims that the combat mission can be done by a unit of Su-27s, as well as by modern bombers Su-34s with extra fuel tanks, accompanied by the Su-27s. "Today, the situation is such that even in case if the Su-34s do not have enough fuel to get out of Iran's airspace on return flight, they will be able to land right there," he said, "a combat radius of the Su-27s allows fly to the capital of Qatar and Saudi Arabia and return, the Su-34s do not have such radius". On the question when and why these plans developed, the Russian Air Force officer replied: "Saudi Arabia is a key US ally in the region, not Israel, as many suggest, namely the regime of King Abdullah who is willing to get involved where you want to please his masters, so of course the Soviet Union (They mean Russia) was preparing plans for the destruction of this regime because without it - Saudi Arabia will no longer be an integral state and Washington will get hordes of barbarians who destroy their bases by using the same US military hardware." The Russians also claimed they needed no more than 24 hours for the entire operation to destroy the ruling circles of the two monarchies from the air. [Source: Telgrafist]

Syria is a 10-year Issue, says Top US General

The United States faces "a 10-year issue" in Syria as it weighs how deeply it wants to get involved the country's civil war, the top U.S. military officer warned in an interview that aired Sunday. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey told CNN's State of the Union that the conflict is entwined in a regional issue that is now spilling over into both Lebanon and Iraq, and those underlying causes "will persist for 10 years." "It is related -- not exclusively -- but related to a competition at best and a conflict at worse between the Sunni and Shia sects of Islam, and it's been hijacked at some level on both sides by extremists -- al Qaeda on one side and Lebanese Hezbollah and others on the other side," said Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He added, "This is about a 10-year issue, and if we fail to think about it as a 10-year regional issue, we could make some mistakes." But Dempsey, Obama's principal military adviser, told CNN the war in Syria is "not a simple matter of stopping the fight by the introduction of any particular U.S. capability." "It seems to me that we need to understand what the peace will look like before we start the war," he said. [Source: CNN]

US Told Morsi to Go an Hour Before his Ouster: Report

U.S. National Security Advisor Susan E. Rice had told deposed Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi's team that the president would leave office an hour before his ouster by the military, a report says. An Arab foreign minister had called Morsi as an emissary of the United States to give him one final chance to make changes to his cabinet to end the standoff with the military, The New York Times reported on Saturday. Senior advisors with Morsi said the minister, not named in the report, made the call several hours before the announcement of the president's ouster by the military on Wednesday to ask for the appointment of a new prime minister and cabinet. The new cabinet would have assumed all legislative powers and replaced Morsi's appointed provincial governors. Morsi's top foreign policy adviser, Essam al-Haddad, who was with Morsi when the call came through, then left the room to call U.S. ambassador to Egypt Anne W. Patterson to notify Washington that Morsi had refused to comply, the U.S. Daily said. Upon returning to the room, Haddad said he had called Susan Rice, Morsi's aides said. "Mother just told us that we will stop playing in one hour," read a text message sent by an aide to his associate, referring to "Mother America," the Egyptians' sarcastic name for the Western power that has for years supported the Egyptian military with billions of dollars in aid. Gen. Abdul-Fattah al-Sisi, the Egyptian Defense Minister and the country's top military commander, announced on Wednesday that the army had removed Morsi from power. After the TV announcement, the military said Morsi, Egypt's first democratically-elected president, had "failed to meet the demands of the Egyptian people." [Source: New York Times/Press TV]

Karzai Wants Pact with US against Pakistan

Afghan President Hamid Karzai wants to sign a long-term bilateral security agreement with the United States of America in a bid to compel it to protect Afghanistan from Pakistan. Officials close to President Hamid Karzai quoted by US newspaper, The New York Times, said that Karzai also seeks direct military action by the US against Taliban havens on Pakistani soil. The officials further said that Karzai is keen that US should deal with the militant groups for peace in Afghanistan on his terms. According to the New York Times the sudden return of the Taliban group in peace talks back in June seemed like a potential coup for the American diplomacy and now persuading a "frustrated" Karzai to restore his delegation to talks would most likely take more than the United States would be willing to deliver. President Hamid Karzai also wants a firm commitment on the number of American troops that would stay in Afghanistan past next year, and a lead role in peace efforts, officials close to Karzai said. "All of that is rooted in one of Mr. Karzai's core beliefs, according to those who know him: that the central challenge facing his government is not the Taliban insurgency, but rather in bringing the United States around to his way of thinking,"  The New York Times noted in its report. An Afghan official told the Times, "Assurances that America will take care of us will no longer do for the president. To move forward, Karzai wants ‘certainties'." According to the New York Times, the developments around the Qatar peace opening seemed to be ripped directly from Karzai's personal nightmare script: that his government would be marginalised in Washington's endgame in Afghanistan. [Source: The News International]

Abu Hashim