WASHINGTON, DC/ANNAPOLIS, Maryland (CI UKRAINE) – President Joe Biden and the EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen must call for the ouster of Russia from the Middle East Quartet made up of the United States, European Union, Russian and the United Nations to punish apparent Russian complicity in Hamas bloody terroristic attack, the worst military incursion and greatest intelligence failure for Israel after the Yom Kippur war on October 6, 1973.
[US Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro filmed by Capitol Intelligence/CI Ukraine using CI Glass during review of the Brigade of Midshipmen at the Annapolis Naval Academy on October 6, 2023 attended by Ukraine Naval Attache Captain Serhii Fedorchuk]
Not only does it appear that Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov tacitly green lighted the Hamas terrorist attacks killing more than 700 Israelis and the capture of at least 60 hostages but that the Hamas terrorists also received military training from Russia.
According to Ukraine military intelligence sources, Hamas received training from the Wagner PMC mercenary group of the late, Putin’s Chef, Yevgeny Prigozhin and the Redut private army founded by sanctioned Russian oligarch and former owner of the Geneva, Switzerland-based Gunvor commodity trading house, Gennady Timchenko and controlled by Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu.
On Sunday, Israel officially declared war on Hamas after launching “Operation Iron Swords” on Hamas operations in Gaza and Hezbollah attacks from Lebanon.
The Hamas devastating attack seemed to have taken everyone by surprise.
Not even US Navy Secretary Carlos Del Toro, who briefly broke off a Meet and Greet at an Annapolis Naval Academy event on Friday afternoon for urgent business, seemed aware that a deadly terrorist attack on Israel was in the air.
Officials at the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington DC said they had no information on possible Wagner or Redut involvement in training Hamas militants while Russian ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mikhail Ulyanov, declined to comment on Wagner and Redut involvement.
Russia has used Wagner and Redut assets in their military operations with Iran in support of the Syrian regime of Bashar Al-Assad. Military experts in the US and Europe claim that Hamas use of diversionary rocket attacks, combined with drones and surprise ground assault are all skills learnt from the Russo-Ukraine conflict.
Another factor pointing to Russian complicity in the Hamas attack was the lack of condemnation by either Russian president Vladimir Putin or even Lavrov for the attack, with the highest-level official, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov stating to the official government news service Tass: “This is a relapse of a 75-year-old conflict. Moscow is in contact with all parties, including the Arab states. We call for an immediate ceasefire and peace.”
The Iranian funded Hamas sent a delegation to Damascus on October 19, 2022, to effectively switch sides in the civil war after supporting anti-regime forces unlike the other Iranian backed group, Lebanon’s Hezbollah.
Lavrov publicly met Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh several times, twice in the last year with the last meeting in Moscow in September 2022. Lavrov, who considers himself the heir of Soviet diplomacy practiced by Andrei Gromyko and a Middle East expert on the lines of late Russian prime minister Yevgeny Primakov, may have committed his last fatal blunder as foreign minister by not forewarning Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu of the imminent attack of Hamas militants from the Gaza Strip.
While it is in Iran’s national interest to carry out any operation that could block US led efforts to enlarge the Israeli Abrahamic peace accords to include Saudi Arabia, the Hamas attacks are clearly counter to Russian national interest and that of its “partner without limits”, China.
China, which has courted Israel through investing in critical infrastructure such as the Port of Haifa and in Israeli-based VC/PE funds like Catalyst Investments, is loathed to see any dramatic spike in crude oil prices that would dramatically raise the cost of exports, Any surge of oil prices to over $150 a barrel would undoubtly trigger a global recession, with the worst impact on China’s already precarious economy.
Netanyahu, and previous Israeli governments, have until today taken a generally neutral position in the Russo-Ukraine war, arguing that it needed Russia’s help to thwart Iranian sponsored attacks from Syria and elsewhere. But following Russia’s failure to prevent, and probable complicity, in the Hamas attacks — Israel is now set to become Ukraine’s most important military ally in its war against Russia.
Rather than waiting months to fully train Ukrainian pilots or maintenance crews to operate Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter jets, Ukraine can almost immediately utilize Russian speaking Israeli fighter pilots and ground crew to end Russian air superiority. Between 15% to 20% of Israel’s population are Russian speakers
The Israeli Star of David is flying over Ukrainian streets from from Kiev to Kharkiv in spontaneous grassroot display of soldarity.
[Kharkiv shows support and solidarity for Israel after Hamas attack]
However, Biden and the EU can clearly bring home the point that Russia is truly the pariah nation with no business in global diplomacy by kicking the nation out of the Quartet, the body formed in Madrid in 2002 to advance the Palestinian economy and a two-state solution for Israeli-Palestinian peace, best known when led by former British prime minister, Tony Blair out of the American Colony hotel in East Jerusalem.
Just as Ukraine replaced Russia as a defacto G-8 member of the Group of Seven, Ukraine can replace Russia as a member of the Quartet, recognizing its successful role in bringing countries such as Saudi Arabia in the Ukrainian peace process while at the same time President Biden can keep his promise that Ukraine will have the same security guarantees that Israel has from the United States until it becomes a full NATO member.
By PK Semler in Washington, DC and Annapolis, Maryland. For more information, email pks@capitolintelgroup.com
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