IRANIAN MISCHIEF

Teheran Behind Escalation of Violence from Gaza; Officials Fear Longer Range Rocket Fire - Yaakov Katz, Khaled Abu Toameh, and Rebecca Anna Stoil
Iran's fingerprints were all over the recent escalation in Gaza and the Palestinian rocket attacks, Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh said Monday. Teheran ordered the terrorist groups to escalate the conflict in an effort to distract the world's attention from its nuclear program, he said. "Everything is being organized by Iran," Sneh said. "All of the terrorist groups are supported directly by Iran, which pays for all of the military training and the weapons."

Government officials expressed concern that Palestinian rockets could reach southern Ashdod and the western reaches of Beersheba. "We are getting ready for the possibly that the range will increase," Sneh said. "They can increase the range and we need to be ready." A Hamas official in the Gaza said on Monday: "We call on our fighters to launch rockets attacks on the settlement of Ashkelon....We will force the settlers to run away from Ashkelon as they have already done in the settlement of Sderot. We will continue to fight until the Jews leave all of Palestine."

The IDF Home Front Command began distributing pamphlets to residents of Netivot and other southern towns on Monday, explaining what to do if the rockets come. Sneh said that fear of longer-range rockets was behind the decision to distribute the pamphlets throughout southern Israel. (Jerusalem Post)

Jane's: Iran to Buy Russian Arms via Syria (Reuters/Asharq Alawsat-UK)
Syria has agreed to supply Iran with at least 10 out of 50 Pantsyr-S1E air defense systems that Damascus is in the process of buying from Russia, Jane's Defense Weekly reported. Iran would take delivery of them in late 2008. To reward Syria, Tehran would part-finance Syria's Pantsyrs as well as paying for its own.

Syria struck a $730 million deal with Russia earlier this year for the self-propelled short-range gun and missile air defense systems. A Security Council resolution in March urged all states to exercise "vigilance and restraint" in the supply, sale or transfer of weaponry to Iran, including missile systems.

Iran's Secret Plan for Summer Offensive to Force U.S. Out of Iraq - Simon Tisdall (Guardian-UK)
Iran is secretly forging ties with al-Qaeda elements and Sunni Arab militias in Iraq in preparation for a summer showdown with coalition forces, U.S. officials say.

"They [Iran] are behind a lot of high-profile attacks meant to undermine U.S. will and British will....The attacks are directed by the Revolutionary Guard who are connected right to the top [of the Iranian government]," a senior U.S. official in Baghdad warned.