Syria wants Iranian troops guaranteed for front against Israel

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, after again warning Iran's allies this week that Israel is poised to attack them, finds them less inclined to act as Tehran's surrogates in a potential conflict and more insistent on equality as partners.
Thursday, Feb. 25, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad drops in on President Bashar Assad in Damascus for what their spokesmen have called coordination talks attesting to the strong relations between their two governments. According to debkafile’s Iranian and military sources,  their conversation will focus on how to implement the secret military pact their two governments signed in December 2009, which commits each, as well as co-signatories Hizballah of Lebanon and the Palestinian Hamas, to come to the other’s aid if any is attacked by the United States or Israel.
Ahmadinejad's talks in Damascus Thursday are causing concern in Washington and Jerusalem because they are designed to take Iran's secret military treaties a step closer to fruition.