Syrian forces patrolling the areas along the border between the provinces of Hama and Homs stumbled upon a subterranean base which had previously been used as a hospital by militants.

Syrian troops aided by Russian military police uncovered a facility in the township of Tallaf that was recently liberated from terrorists, which contained an underground hospital and was stocked with medical equipment and supplies stored in boxes bearing the UNICEF logo, FARS news agency reports.



Earlier Syrian forces also found a large quantity of weapons and a stockpile of chlorine stored in a militant depot in Homs province.

Iran's military presence in Syria is misinterpreted by Israel amid escalating tensions, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem said on Saturday.

"Iran's presence does not exist in a way of military presence on the ground in Syria - these are tales told by Israel," Muallem said at a press conference.

Instead, Tehran's presence in Syria is limited to the work of its military advisers on the Syrian Army's side, according to the official.

Operatives of the crumbling Islamic State in Syria and Iraq (ISIS) are moving to new battlegrounds near the Russian border, intelligence sources have revealed.

They travel by sea to Pakistan and then north to the northern Afghan border, aiming to infiltrate the republics of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.

Sources in Russian military and intelligence agencies actually warn that the preparation of a full-scale offensive operation against Russia through Tajikistan and Uzbekistan is in its final phase.

Citing data from closed communication channels of the defense ministries of China, Pakistan and Afghanistan, they say that Afghanistan acts as the cornerstone of this plan.

NATO's secretary-general says the Western military alliance would not come to Israel's defense in case of any possible attack by Iran against the occupying regime.

Israel has repeatedly threatened Iran with military action and Iranian officials have pledged a "crushing" response to any act of aggression against the country.

Jens Stoltenberg told the German Der Spiegel magazine in comments published Saturday that Israel is a partner, but not a member and that NATO's "security guarantee" does not apply to the regime.

Stoltenberg said NATO was involved neither in peace efforts nor in conflicts in the Middle East.

Ukrainian authorities claim they have uncovered a hit-list of 47 people -- mostly journalists -- who are potential Russian assassination targets as a result of their sting operation staging the faked murder of exiled Russian journalist Arkady Babchenko.

Prosecutor-General Yuriy Lutsenko wrote on Facebook on June 1 that the controversial operation, which involved top officials lying to the media and public about Babchenko's death, had helped security services uncover a list of 47 mainly Ukrainian and Russian-emigre journalists who he said "could be the next victims of terrorists."


The number of people Lutsenko claimed the Russian secret service is targeting is significantly higher than the 30 people Ukrainian authorities earlier had said were likely assassination targets.

Lutsenko said all 47 have been informed they are on the alleged hit-list, and arrangements are being made for their safety.

Russia did not immediately respond to Ukraine's claims.

Kyiv-based journalist Matvei Ganapolsky, who works for Ekho Moskvy radio, told the station that he and another prominent journalist Yevgeny Kiselev had both been summoned by the Ukrainian security service and warned of potential risk to their safety.

Ganapolsky said he was also shown additional materials on the Babchenko attack that showed "this is all serious and a real attack was in fact being prepared. They were planning to kill him."

Syrian President Bashar Assad says Moscow deterred the West from launching a devastating country-wide air strike last month, and believes that Damascus has nearly won the seven-year war, despite continued US "interference."

"With every move forward for the Syrian Army, and for the political process, and for the whole situation, our enemies and our opponents, mainly the West led by the United States and their puppets in Europe and in our region, they try to make it farther - either by supporting more terrorism, bringing more terrorists to Syria, or by hindering the political process," Assad told RT correspondent Murad Gazdiev, during a sit-down interview in Damascus, noting that without outside funding his opponents inside the country could be subdued "within a year."

After having to switch its support between the various anti-Assad factions, and the recapture of the key cities of Aleppo and Deir ez-Zor by government forces over the past two years, Washington, the Syrian leader believes, is "losing its cards" and can be brought to the negotiating table.

There could be widespread ramifications from US energy independence and looming US sanctions on Iran and Russia; states in Central Asia could be hit hard, as well as serious possible impacts on global oil production and the West.

Russia and Saudi Arabia are in deep debate on whether to raise OPEC and non-OPEC oil production by 1 million barrels a day to offset the drastic plunge in Venezuela's production plus possible shortfalls when new US sanctions on Iran kick in in November.

The problem is that even a production raise would not be enough, according to Credit Suisse; only 500,000 barrels a day would be added to the global market.

Oil has spiked as high as $80 a barrel - unheard of since 2014. A production spike could certainly halt the trend. At the same time, key supply players would rather keep crude futures at $70-$80 a barrel. But the price could even hit $100 before the end of the year, depending on the impact that US sanctions have.

The US economy and its financial structures have never recovered from the great financial meltdown of 2008 despite the passage of ten years. Little discussion has been given to the fact that the Republican Congress last year abandoned the process of mandatory budget cuts or automatic sequestration that had been voted in a feeble attempt to rein in the dramatic rise in US government debt. That was merely an added factor in what soon will be recognized as a classic debt trap. What is now looming over not just the US economy but also the global financial system is a crisis that could spell the end of the post-1944 dollar system.

First some basic background. When President Nixon, on advice of Paul Volcker, then at US Treasury, announced on August 15, 1971 the unilateral end of the Bretton Woods gold-dollar system, to replace it with a floating dollar, Washington economists and Wall Street bankers realized that the unique role of the US dollar as leading reserve currency held by all central banks and the currency for world commodity and other trade, especially oil, gave them something that appeared to be a gift from monetary heaven.

So long as the world needed US dollars, Washington could run government deficits without end. Foreign central banks, especially the Bank of Japan in the 1980's and since the turn of the century, the Peoples' Bank of China, would have little choice but to reinvest their surplus trade dollar earnings in interest-bearing AAA-rated US Treasury securities. This perverse dollar system allowed Washington to finance its wars in faraway places like Afghanistan or Iraq with other peoples' money. During the Administration of George W. Bush, when Washington's annual budget deficit exceeded annually one trillion dollars, Vice President Dick Cheney cynically quipped, "debt doesn't matter; Reagan proved that." Up to a point that appeared so. Now we are getting dangerously near to that "point" where debt does matter.

Saudi Arabia has reportedly threatened "military action" against Qatar should its neighbor acquire Russian S-400 missile defense systems, according to Le Monde, citing a letter from King Salman to the French presidency.

In June 2017, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE, and Egypt, among other Gulf states, cut off diplomatic relations with Qatar, accusing it of supporting and funding terrorism. Doha was also accused of "meddling" in the internal affairs of its neighbors and of expressing support for Saudi Arabia's historic rival Iran.

Now Riyadh is reportedly worried that Doha's planned acquisition of Russia's S-400 surface-to-air missile units will jeopardize the "national security" of its Persian Gulf neighbors. According to information obtained by Le Monde, King Salman has recently sent a letter to the French presidency, where he expressed his "deep concern" vis-à-vis the ongoing S-400 negotiations between Doha and Moscow.

Rear Admiral Douglas Fears has been named the new homeland security and counterterrorism adviser to the US president, filling the seat left vacant since his predecessor resigned shortly after John Bolton's appointment.

"Doug Fears brings more than three decades of experience across a range of vital homeland security areas including counterterrorism, cybersecurity, and disaster response to the NSC," White House national security adviser John Bolton said in a statement.

Fears, who spent more than 30 years in the US Coast Guard, currently serves on the National Security Council staff as a special assistant to the president acting as a senior director for resilience policy. Just prior to that, he served as Chief of Staff for the US Coast Guard (2015-2017) where he managed more than 24,000 members of the force. A graduate in public administration of Harvard Kennedy School, Fears also has a degree from the US Naval War College.