Iranian Drones over Syria and Israel

News out of Syria today includes photos alleged by the militant leadership to be drones firing on targets in Aleppo. The UN has issued the following assessment: "there is credible evidence that Iran is supplying military support" to the al-Assad regime. The "military support" appears in released photos - drones made in Iran. There are photos taken this week in Aleppo showing an undamaged downed drone with a manual bearing the Iranian Ayatolleh's image on the cover. Meanwhile, diplomats continue to "bicker" - the word used by CNN - about what to do in Syria. This is not the first evidence of Iranian drone activity in the Middle East. Last week, an Iranian parliament member announced that Iran has photos of sensitive Israeii military installations taken by unmanned drones launched from Lebanon by Hezbollah. The drones were downed by Israel earlier this month. The Iranian lawmaker's claims are the latest boast from Teheran about purported advances its unmanned aircraft program. The Iranian Mehr news agency reported: "The pictures of forbidden sites taken and transmitted by this drone are now in our possession." The Iranian parliament's defense committee said Hezbollah is "definitely" equipped with more sophisticated drones, but gave no further details. Hezbollah "won't announce it as long as it doesn't see the need to do so....that's why we say we will respond to Israel inside (its) territory, should it take any action against us," said a former commander of the powerful Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah has said the Ayub drone was manufactured in Iran and assembled in Lebanon. Last month it claimed to have started producing a long-range missile-carrying drone with a range of 2,000 kilometers (1,250 miles). This means that most of the Middle East, including Israel, would be reachable by this drone that nearly doubles the range of previous drones produced by Iran, which has often used reverse engineering to copy downed military hardware. It is not clear whether the new drone contains reverse-engineered elements of an unmanned CIA aircraft that went down in eastern Iran last year. Iran said it has recovered data from the RQ-170 Sentinel and has claimed to be building its own replica. While none of these claims can be independently verified, dear readers, it is clear that Iran has undertaken a drone program that, along with its nuclear enrichment program, is meant to enhance its strategic position in the region. Israel is more and more the target of Iran's aggression and needs to be supported. The problem, however, is that President Obama has given the impression that he does not support Israel, thus giving Iran the sense that it can menace Israel with impunity. This only serves to further destabilize a region already balanced on the edge of chaos.