Middle East War Games for Iran, Syria, Russia and China?

Russia, Syria deny war games with China, Iran; Syria exposes cool spots in US-Russia ties‎

Staff Report

JERUSALEM, ISRAEL - While thousands of protesters in Egypt have occupied Tahrir Square, protesting the Egyptian military's "coup" in that country, there have been reports of massive war games involving Russia, China, Iran and Syria.

What started as a report from "certain unofficial sources" in the Iranian Fars News service quickly spread around the Internet. However, today, Russia and Syria are denying that any war games in the Middle East are on the horizon.

The Jerusalem Post wrote:

Late Tuesday afternoon, Russia's Interfax news agency reported that a political and media adviser to Assad had denied that the war-games would take place.

"Nothing of the sort will happen. This is one of those mendacious reports that is being disseminated [about Syria]," adviser Bouthaina Shaaban said, according to Interfax.

Interfax cited a report by pan-Arab news agency al-Arabiya which it said was based on the Fars News article.

Russia's RIA Novosti news agency reported late Tuesday afternoon that a Russian Defense Ministry spokesman also dismissed reports of the Syrian war games as attempts to "further escalate the situation in Syria."

Meanwhile, CNN has an in depth piece about cooling ties between US and Russia.