Syria

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Re: Syria

Post by blindpig » Mon Feb 13, 2023 2:53 pm

Quake Displaces 5.3 Mln People in Syria: UNHCR

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This photo taken on Feb. 9, 2023 shows the rubble of collapsed buildings in Latakia, Syria. | Photo: Str/Xinhua

Published 10 February 2023

The UNHCR is now focusing on the provision of shelter and relief items to ensure that the centers for the displaced have adequate facilities, such as tents, plastic sheeting, thermal blankets, sleeping mats and winter clothing.


An estimated 5.3 million people in Syria may have been left homeless by the earthquake that struck the country and Türkiye earlier this week, a United Nations (UN) official said on Friday.

Sivanka Dhanapala, the UN Refugee Agency's (UNHCR) representative in Syria, told a press briefing via video link from Damascus that "We have just had a preliminary estimate that 5.37 million people affected by the quake will need shelter assistance in the whole of Syria."

"That is a huge number and comes to a population already suffering mass displacement," he added.

He said that the UNHCR was now focusing on the provision of shelter and relief items to ensure that the centers for the displaced had adequate facilities, such as tents, plastic sheeting, thermal blankets, sleeping mats and winter clothing.

"For Syria, this is a crisis within a crisis. We've had economic shocks, COVID, and are now in the depths of winter, with blizzards raging in the affected areas," he said.

He told reporters that several UN local staff were sleeping outside their homes because they were worried about the structural damage to their houses.

"This is just a microcosm of what is happening throughout the affected areas," he noted.

Catharina Boehme, a senior official from the World Health Organization (WHO), told Friday's press briefing that the situation was desperate, and it was a race against time.

She said that WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was due to meet with local partners and affected people in Aleppo on Friday.

According to the official, the WHO has already dispatched medical and surgical supplies to 16 hospitals in northwest Syria.

"The WHO has released some 3 million U.S. dollars from its contingency funds but much more is needed," she said.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Qua ... -0015.html

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Northern Syria Threatened by Floods Following Deadly Earthquake
FEBRUARY 11, 2023

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Young person wading through recent flooding in northern Syria. Photo: Getty Images.

Despite damaging crops and threatening food security, officials have suggested that the floods may enhance the region’s water availability, which has been scarce as a result of Turkish water cuts in Syria’s north.
Syrian media reported that on 9 February, water from the Khabur tributary of the Euphrates River – which originates in Turkiye and flows around the Syrian town of Ras al-Ain into the Hasakah region – began rushing into northern Syria from the river’s Turkish side for the first time in seven years.

This comes as the rivers and dams of Syria’s predominantly US-occupied Jazira region, which lies in the Kurdish-led Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), witnessed an unprecedented rise in water levels following months of droughts and water scarcity.

“Water levels of the Khabur River rose as a result of the torrents descending from the valleys of Jabal Abdel Aziz and Wadi Shallah in the countryside of Ras al-Ain, and from the rise of water levels in its tributaries, which are the Jarjab and Zarkan rivers … The abundance of the Khabur River in the Tal Tamr area reached 15 cubic meters per second, following scarcity during the past three seasons,” the Director General of Water Resources in the Hasakah governorate, Abdel Aziz Amin, told Sputnik on 8 February.

According to officials, however, the rise in water levels is strictly due to recent heavy rains and not the 6 February earthquake, as some have rumored.

Amin added that the flooding of the rivers, particularly Khabur, is an important development that may enhance water availability in the region. However, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), countless winter crops in the Hasakah countryside were flooded and potentially destroyed, threatening food security in Syria, which is already at risk.

The flooding of these tributaries comes in the midst of a crisis across northern Syria, which has been caused by Ankara’s monopolization and weaponization of water accessibility, given that most of these river branches originate in Turkish territory.

Since 2019, Turkey and allied factions of the Syrian National Army (SNA) have been cutting the people of Hasakah off from water to put pressure on the Kurdish People’s Defense Units (YPG). In August, Damascus began installing desalination plants to battle the severe shortages across Hasakah.

The floods also come amid accusations, speculation, and theories that the Turkish dams and artificial lakes built by Ankara on the Euphrates River may have caused the earthquake.

Ebrahim Said, a geography professor at Damascus University, said following the quake that “the huge amount of water in the Atatürk Dam caused the earthquake, which collected 48 billion cubic meters of Euphrates water. This dam is a violation of nature and of the water rights of Iraq and Syria.”

Additionally, the deputy director of Iraq’s Seismological Center, Hasnain Jassim, said in the aftermath of the disaster: “Turkey has built 2,000 dams, reservoirs, and artificial lakes, some of which are near the epicenter of the earthquake … this is one of the reasons for the activation of the earth.”

https://orinocotribune.com/northern-syr ... arthquake/

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In Douma Cover-Up, OPCW’s New Smoking Gun Backfires
FEBRUARY 11, 2023

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Fabricated photo of the supposed chemical attacks in Douma, Syria. Photo: The Grayzone.

By Aaron Mate – Feb 3, 2023

In a new phase of a multi-year cover-up, the OPCW has accused Syria of a chemical attack in Douma. But to make the case, the OPCW breaks its own rules and offers an argument that its own findings undermine.

In the latest chapter of an international cover-up scandal, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has directly accused Syria of committing a deadly chemical attack in the town of Douma. A new report from the chemical watchdog’s Investigation and Identification Team (IIT) alleges that Syrian forces dropped two chlorine gas cylinders and killed 43 civilians on April 7, 2018.

The report received an immediate and unequivocal endorsement from the US Department of State, the British Foreign Office and French Foreign Ministry – the diplomatic branches of the countries that rushed to bomb Syria in response to the events in Douma.

The IIT’s conclusion follows years of refusal by OPCW leaders to account for the suppression of the Douma probe’s initial findings.

The OPCW’s first report, finalized in June 2018 by a separate Fact-Finding Mission (FFM), raised doubts that a chemical attack occurred in Douma. It also left open the possibility that the incident was staged, presumably by insurgents who controlled the area at the time. Leaked documents reveal that this original report was doctored, and, along with other critical material, concealed from public view. The following month, a delegation of US officials lobbied the FFM team to conclude that chlorine gas was used as a weapon in Douma and that the Syrian government was responsible. A follow-up report, released in March 2019, omitted the original’s key findings and endorsed the US-led narrative of a chlorine attack.

The manipulation of the Douma probe was challenged by OPCW inspectors who deployed to Syria for the mission. OPCW Director General Fernando Arias has refused to meet with them or address their concerns.

The US, UK, and France have declared that the IIT report “refutes the Russian claim” that insurgents faked the use of poison gas use in Douma to frame the Syrian government. They also touted what they called “the independent, unbiased, and expert work of the OPCW staff.”

Yet the IIT report fails to address the concerns of the dissenting OPCW staffers who originally investigated the Douma incident. It does not resolve the identified suppression, inconsistencies, and errors across key areas of the probe, including toxicology; chemical analysis; ballistics; and witness testimony. Instead, after burying the original findings and stonewalling calls for accountability, the OPCW has doubled down on the deception in Douma.

This first installment of The Grayzone’s review of the IIT Douma report focuses on the core investigative pillar of chemical analysis, which heavily factors in the IIT’s conclusions.

In Douma, OPCW discovers a Magic Marker

The IIT claims to have confirmed the 2019 Fact Finding Mission’s (FFM) conclusion — which was challenged by the dissenting inspectors — that chlorine gas was “likely” used in Douma, and that there is no evidence of chemical staging.

In Douma, the first gas cylinder was found at an apartment building identified as “Location 2,” where 43 dead bodies were filmed. The bodies were strewn about the floors below a gas cylinder that was positioned atop a crater on the roof. The cylinder, it is alleged, caused the crater and then remained poised over the hole as it dumped its chlorine payload into the rooms beneath. A second gas cylinder was found on a bed at a different apartment building identified as “Location 4”, where no fatalities were reported.

To assert that chlorine gas most definitely struck Location 2, the IIT relies on finding what it calls a “marker” chemical, tetrachlorophenol (TeCP), in a single sample of concrete debris. The presence of TeCP in that sample, the IIT states, “specifically points to the exposure to chlorine gas.”

But to make that case, the IIT violates the OPCW’s own evidentiary protocols, and makes an argument that its own findings undermine.

– The supposedly incriminating concrete sample has appeared out of the blue. The IIT claims that the sample was received and analyzed by an OPCW Designated Laboratory in July 2018. But the OPCW FFM’s March 2019 report – released more than seven months later – makes no mention of this sample’s existence. Nearly four years later, the Douma probe’s most consequential sample is therefore being disclosed for the first time.

– The TeCP-containing sample was not collected by OPCW inspectors. It was instead collected by an unidentified third party in direct violation of the organization’s chain of custody rules.

– The third party that collected the sample is in all likelihood the White Helmets. While claiming to be a neutral rescue organization, they are anything but. The White Helmets closely cooperate with anti-government insurgents in Syria and are funded by foreign states active in Syria’s post-2011 proxy war, including the United States and the UK. The White Helmets have also been credibly accused of staging a chemical decontamination scene in a nearby hospital at the time of the alleged Douma attack.

– In violation of its own protocols, the OPCW gave full evidentiary status to this externally collected sample of uncertain origin. By contrast, a similar sample collected at the same Douma location by the organization’s own inspectors was inexplicably disregarded and not even analyzed.

– The OPCW offers no explanation for these evidentiary breaches. And even if all of them are put to the side, the IIT’s assertion that the sample reveals a chemical weapons smoking gun is contradicted by the OPCW’s own findings. The IIT somehow overlooks that TeCP was also found in a sample from a different location, where no chlorine gas is reported to have been present.

In short, to reach its conclusion that a chlorine gas attack occurred in Douma, the OPCW is relying on a newly introduced, highly dubious sample, and a scientific argument that is fatally flawed.

“Concrete” Proof

The IIT claims that its Douma probe is “based on the findings” of the OPCW’s original Fact-Finding Mission (FFM), which released a final report in March 2019. That report concluded that there are “reasonable grounds” to believe that a chemical weapon was used in Douma, which was “likely” chlorine gas. When it comes to the chemical analysis, the FFM based its claims “primarily on the detection of bornyl chloride and/or trichlorophenol” in wood samples, after it had excluded other possibilities like household bleach.

Although the FFM did not name the alleged perpetrator, it strongly suggested the Syrian army.

The FFM’s conclusions were challenged in a leaked letter sent to OPCW chief Fernando Arias in April 2019 by Dr. Brendan Whelan, a veteran OPCW inspector and Douma team member. Whelan was the chief author of the team’s original report and oversaw the scientific investigation that produced it. The letter criticized what Whelan called “unsubstantiated and scientifically irresponsible” findings, and “the way the facts have been misrepresented.”

Nearly four years later, in what amounts to a tacit acknowledgement of Whelan’s objections on the chemical analysis, the IIT has introduced a new line of argument.

The IIT report makes a new case for a chlorine gas attack primarily based on detecting what is described as a “marker” chemical called tetrachlorophenol, or TeCP. According to the IIT, “the presence of TeCP clearly points to chlorine gas as being the chlorinating agent present at the scene, and in very high concentrations.” The IIT additionally claims that the detection of TeCP helps determine that the chlorine gas came from the two cylinders found in Douma, and negates the possibility that the incident was staged.

These are very different justifications to those contained in the March 2019 FFM report. For example, the FFM in that report rejected any staging with bleach on the grounds that “there were no visible signs of a bleach agent or discoloration due to contact with a bleach agent.” One of the known OPCW whistleblowers has rejected this argument as “tenuous and unscientific.” By omitting it in its latest report, the IIT apparently agrees.

At Location 2, the apartment building where the 43 dead victims were filmed, the key TeCP chemical was identified in just one sample. According to the IIT, it comes from concrete debris collected on April 8 2018 “in the room under the crater and the cylinder.”

But the sample’s path from purported collection in April 2018 to purported smoking gun in January 2023 raises multiple red flags.

The sample now said to contain the incriminating TeCP is conspicuously absent in the OPCW’s March 2019 final report on Douma. A full list in that report of the “samples collected or received by the Fact-Finding Mission” makes no mention of the IIT’s newfound sample.

Yet according to the IIT, the TeCP sample was “first received and analysed by an OPCW designated laboratory on 24 July 2018.” Taking that timeline at face value, an obvious question arises: why was this critical sample not considered of interest – or even acknowledged — in the March 2019 final report? The IIT makes no effort to answer this question, or to explain how such a consequential sample was not disclosed until now.

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January 2023: despite not being mentioned in the March 2019 FFM report, the IIT claims that the TeCP sample was “first received and analysed by an OPCW designated laboratory on 24 July 2018.”

The IIT’s supposed smoking gun becomes even more suspect when we learn how it was obtained.

The all-important TeCP sample is not only missing from the OPCW’s March 2019 final report; it was also not collected by the OPCW. The IIT states that the sample was “collected by a third party” on April 8th 2018, days before the OPCW inspectors even arrived in Syria.

The IIT claims that it was “able to reconstruct” the sample’s chain of custody “between the date it was collected and the date it was first received” in July 2018. But as The Grayzone has previously reported, the OPCW’s use of external actors to collect chemical samples in Syria violates its foundational rules, which require full control of the chain of custody from start to finish.

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If a “sample was not under OPCW custody” at any point during a mission, OPCW policy states that it “will not be accepted for OPCW verification purposes.” As a spokesperson explained in 2013, the OPCW “would never get involved in testing samples that our own inspectors don’t gather in the field, because we need to maintain chain of custody of samples from the field to the lab to ensure their integrity.”

In Douma and other probes by the OPCW in Syria before it, that bedrock policy has been quietly discarded.

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If a “sample was not under OPCW custody,” OPCW policy states, it “will not be accepted for OPCW verification purposes.” (QDOC/LAB/WI/OSA3)

The IIT does not name the “third party” that collected the concrete sample, but it is undoubtedly a group known as the White Helmets. In a public statement on the IIT report, the White Helmets claimed that they “collected samples” in Douma “and submitted them to the OPCW.” As The Grayzone reported last year, the OPCW has used the White Helmets to collect samples and other purported evidence in multiple Syria chemical weapons probes.

In enlisting the White Helmets, the OPCW has not only flouted its own evidentiary protocol, but partnered with a non-neutral actor. The White Helmets extensively cooperate with armed anti-government insurgents, prompting one Syrian Al Qaeda leader to describe their members as “hidden soldiers.” The group is also funded by the same foreign state belligerents, including the US, that armed the insurgency and bombed Syria over the Douma allegations. According to witness testimony and several media sources, including a BBC journalist who conducted a lengthy investigation, the White Helmets staged a chemical decontamination scene in a Douma field hospital around the time of the alleged chemical attack.

The IIT’s reliance on a previously undisclosed sample provided by a third party is additionally called into question by yet another unexplained decision. The OPCW’s Douma team collected an almost identical sample from the exact same spot at Location 2, yet did not analyze it. The IIT describes the extraordinarily useful TeCP sample as having been taken from concrete located “in the room under the crater and the cylinder.” Yet the OPCW’s March 2019 final report shows that the watchdog’s own inspectors also collected concrete located “in the room under the cylinder.” (Entry #28, p. 90).

Whereas the OPCW did not analyze the concrete sample that it collected in Douma, it inexplicably did analyze the sample collected from the same place by an external source. That this previously unknown sample happened to produce the OPCW’s newfound smoking gun is either an extraordinary coincidence, or yet another deception.

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March 2019: the OPCW FFM’s final report shows that the watchdog’s own inspectors collected concrete located “in the room under the cylinder.” Yet the IIT relied on an externally collected, previously undisclosed sample from the same location instead.

The New Smoking Gun

The IIT’s inexplicable reliance on a previously undisclosed sample whose collection was outsourced to an external actor directly tied to armed insurgents is but one glaring aspect of a report shot through with flaws. Putting aside the sample’s suspicious timeline and compromised chain of custody, the significance of the analytical findings assigned to it does not pass muster.

The IIT authors report that chemicals they call “highly chlorinated phenols, namely trichlorophenol (TCP) and TeCP, were found in samples that were gathered close to the cylinder that had lodged on the roof of Location 2. Out on the street, three floors below, they found related chemicals which they describe as “low-chlorinated phenols” MCP and DCP. They did not find TeCP or TCP.

The IIT argues that these “highly chlorinated phenols”, TeCP and TCP can only be formed if samples originally containing a chemical called phenol had been exposed to a high concentration of chlorine gas. “The production of TCP, and in particular TeCP from phenolic precursors, requires the presence of a high concentration of chlorine gas,” the report states. (emphasis added)

According to the IIT’s rationale, because only the “low chlorinated phenols,” MCP and DCP, were found in samples taken from the street far from the cylinder on the roof, that means that the concentration of chlorine gas in the street just in front of Location 2 had to have been much lower. This in turn means that the gas release had to have originated on the roof, where the gas concentration would have been highest if the cylinder lodged there were the source:

The pattern of detected chlorinated phenols at the scene is consistent with the hypothesis that the cylinder on the roof was the source of the released gaseous chlorinating agent. This is indicated by the presence of highly chlorinated phenols TCP and TeCP at the sampling locations close to the cylinder (i.e. at the crater on the roof and in the room under the cylinder), as opposed to the least chlorinated phenols MCP and DCP on the street far away from the cylinder.

The finding also leads the IIT to conclude that the TeCP found in the concrete sample from the third-party allows them to “rule out the hypothesis that the incident may have been ‘staged’ using household bleach products or pesticides.” That is because, in their view, “to produce TeCP… [t]he high reactivity of chlorine gas is required.” In other words, bleach is not strong enough to make TeCP – leaving chlorine gas as the cause.

The IIT rules out pesticide as a possible source by considering a hypothesis whereby the TeCP might have originated in the sample because of contact with a pesticide called PCP, which, the IIT says, is normally contaminated with considerable amounts of TeCP. They eliminate that hypothesis, however, because “PCP was not detected in any sample from Location 2,” which they say “strongly indicates that the TeCP was produced in situ” — i.e. where it was detected in Location 2 — “due to the action of chlorine gas.”

In sum, the IIT’s findings regarding the TeCP in the concrete sample at Location 2 purport to resolve three main chemical issues: proving that chlorine gas was used; ruling out a staged event with household bleach; and even establishing that the yellow gas cylinder on the roof of Location 2 was the source of chlorine gas. TeCP, it would seem, is the veritable smoking gun needed to establish a chemical attack in Douma as fact.

All is not as it seems, however. In its attempt to rely on a “new” discovery, the IIT has overlooked what the OPCW already found.

Tunnel Vision

Upon scrutiny, it becomes clear that the Investigation and Identification Team has jumped to baseless conclusions about the TeCP’s significance. The IIT’s claim that the TeCP’s presence “clearly points to chlorine gas… and in very high concentrations” — and debunks any possibility of staging with household bleach — is scientifically unsupported. Moreover, the IIT has somehow missed that its claim to a smoking gun is explicitly contradicted by the OPCW’s own findings.

The report’s authors have also overlooked the fact that their new incriminating chemical TeCP (tetrachlorophenol), along with TCP (trichlorophenol), – what they describe as “the highly chlorinated phenols” — were also found in a Douma sample gathered far from any gas cylinder.

According to the FFM’s March 2019 report, those same chemicals, tetrachlorophenol (TeCP) and trichlorophenol (TCP) were detected in the tunnel deep underneath the field hospital in Douma, identified by the OPCW as “Location 1.” (Final Report, Annex 5, page 49, Entry #26).

When the White Helmets were not busy collecting game-changing samples on the OPCW’s behalf, they were using this same hospital to film dramatic scenes of themselves dousing civilians, including children, with water, claiming they were treating victims of a Syrian government chemical attack. (In February 2019, the BBC’s Riam Dalati claimed that he can “prove without a doubt that the Douma Hospital scene was staged.” He fell silent immediately after his astounding claim and has not released his reporting).

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Sample taken from the tunnel underneath the hospital at Location 1 (FFM Report, Annex 5)

Recall that the IIT has just claimed that for TeCP and TCP to form “in situ,” it “requires the presence of a high concentration of chlorine gas.” Recall also, that the IIT dismissed the possibility that the TeCP found at Location 2 could have come from the pesticide PCP, because no PCP was found in the sample where TeCP was found. The same argument applies to the tunnel sample, where no PCP was found either.

There have been no reports of any chlorine attack or chlorine gas release in the tunnel beneath the hospital, let alone in “high concentration.” Because of the distance of the tunnel from the two gas cylinders — and contradicting the IIT’s own logic — the presence of TeCP and TCP in the tunnel sample cannot have been a result of exposure to chlorine gas, yet alone exposure to high concentrations of it, from an alleged chlorine gas attack on April 7 2018.

If the TeCP found in the tunnel did not come from pesticides, or did not result from exposure to high concentration of chlorine gas, what was its source? Chlorinated water or the natural environment are among several possibilities. TeCP clearly has other sources, and is not the unique “marker” of chlorine gas that the IIT has deemed it to be. As such, it cannot be used as a diagnostic tool for chlorine gas exposure in the Douma investigation, and the IIT’s argument collapses.

Engaging the experts

To reach its findings about the TeCP, the IIT claims that it “engaged a well-established chemist with specific expertise in the analysis of chlorine markers.” This supposed expert has only established a need for the IIT to engage in a little scientific curiosity – specifically to read the OPCW’s own lab results, which undermine the explosive conclusions that the IIT report has drawn.

The same need could be identified for an OPCW leadership that has refused to address the complaints of the original Douma team whistleblowers.

In an April 2019 letter to the OPCW Director General Arias, Dr. Brendan Whelan, the FFM team’s scientific coordinator and chief author of the original report, flagged multiple issues that take on newfound significance in light of the recent IIT report.

The March 2019 final report, Whelan wrote, “altered” the “key conclusions” of the June 2018 original report, even though “no substantive or valid new information, particularly with respect to the sampling and analysis results, has been gathered since.” Additionally, the OPCW “prioritized the analysis of samples… for which no chain of custody could be assured,” thereby downgrading “samples which had been collected by the FFM team and therefore had full chain of custody.” Finally, Whelan argued that the OPCW’s conclusions about the samples are “unsubstantiated and scientifically irresponsible given the information the team possessed.”

Nearly four years later, the OPCW has responded to the scientific and ethical violations that Whelan identified by committing even more. The result is an IIT report that offers a disqualifying chain of custody, conclusions contradicted by the OPCW’s own information, and a newfound smoking gun that backfires in spectacular fashion.

(The Grayzone)

https://orinocotribune.com/in-douma-cov ... backfires/.

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64 suspected looters arrested after earthquakes in Türkiye

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that security patrols have increased and recalled that the country is in a state of emergency. | Photo: EFE
Posted February 13, 2023 (7 hours 24 minutes ago)

Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag announced that prosecutors started legal proceedings against the suspects for 75 incidents.

Türkiye security forces have arrested at least 64 people suspected of looting after the earthquakes on February 6 that left more than 29,600 dead, official sources reported on Sunday.

The Turkish Minister of Justice, Bekir Bozdag, announced that the prosecutors began legal proceedings against the suspects for 75 incidents, which have been registered in the southeastern areas of the country devastated by the earthquakes.

"So far, 64 suspects have been prosecuted for 75 separate incidents in these regions. Of these, 57 suspects have been arrested and another seven have been sentenced to judicial control precautionary measures," the official explained.

Last Saturday, Turkish authorities issued a decree authorizing prosecutors to hold looting suspects under arrest for seven days instead of four.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that security patrols have increased in light of these problems and recalled that the country is in a state of emergency.

"This means that from now on, the people involved in looting or looting should know that the firm hand of the State is on them," said the ruler.

Türkiye was shaken on February 6 by two earthquakes, the first measuring 7.8 and the second measuring 7.6, which affected more than 13 million people in 10 provinces in the south of the country.

The telluric movements were also felt in neighboring countries such as Lebanon and Syria, the latter also causing serious human and material damage.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/turkiye- ... -0001.html

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blindpig
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Re: Syria

Post by blindpig » Wed Feb 15, 2023 3:53 pm

Calls to withdraw sanctions on earthquake-hit Syria grow louder

Despite the US announcing temporary exemption from its sanctions on Syria, no Western country except Italy has come forward to provide any kind of assistance to Syria’s earthquake relief efforts

February 14, 2023 by Peoples Dispatch

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Aleppo, Syria. (UNICEF/Muhannad Al-Asadi )

On Monday, February 13, Syrian Permanent Representative to the United Nations (UN) Bassam Sabbagh stated before the UN Security Council (UNSC) that all countries should provide humanitarian assistance to all those affected by the earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria on February 6 and avoid all kinds of politicization. He also reiterated Syria’s position that “Western imposed illegal coercive measures” have caused delays in support for earthquake relief in the country.

Sabbagh was speaking during the special meeting called by the UNSC to discuss the impact of the earthquake on Syria. While Turkey has received aid and relief from multiple countries including the US, no Western country except Italy has come forward to provide help to Syria so far.

However, various developing nations, such as Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, Palestine, and Algeria, among others, have extended their helping hand to Syria and sent relief material and volunteers including doctors to earthquake-affected areas in the country. China too has sent relief material worth USD 4.4 billion to Syria already.

More than 31,000 people have been killed in Turkey and over 5,800 in Syria due to the earthquake. According to the UN, the earthquake, which was centered in Kahramanmaras in southern Turkey, has affected more than 50,000 square kilometers of area covering at least 10 provinces in both Turkey and Syria. The UN also claimed that at least 6,000 high-rise buildings have been damaged in the earthquake and the hundreds of aftershocks. It is likely that the total death toll will continue to go up in the coming days.

According to some initial estimates, the earthquake has caused damage of around USD 85 billion in Turkey, or around 10% of the national GDP. The value of the economic damage in Syria is still unclear.

War and sanctions have weakened Syria’s health sector
Sabbagh pointed out that the impact of the sanctions has been as devastating for Syrians as the earthquake, SANA reported. He highlighted that the health sector in the country has been “weakened and depleted” due to sanctions and war. He said that Syria faces “great shortage of medical equipment and medicines,” and therefore is unable to provide adequate relief during emergencies like the pandemic and the earthquake.

“Syria alone did not have the capacity to face this unprecedented catastrophe due to the repercussions of the terrorist war waged against it for 12 years and the suffocating blockade imposed on its people as a result of Western unilateral coercive measures,” Sabbagh emphasized.

Over a dozen leftist groups and human right organizations in West Asia and North Africa issued a joint statement last week and demanded to immediately lift “the unjust siege on Syria, restore diplomatic relations with it and drop the imperialist Caesar Act.”

The signatories include the Tunisian Workers’ Party, the Workers’ Democratic Way Party of Morocco, and the Lebanese Communist Party, among others. The letter condemned “the policy of double standards practiced by imperialism and official international institutions, including in dealing with disasters and pandemics, which confirms their aggressive and brutal nature that contradicts all human values and principles.” [Full statement below]

China also came forward and demanded on Monday that the US lift all the sanctions on Syria. It called the temporary easing of sanctions announced by the US last week a ”political show.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said that “US military intervention and illegal unilateral sanctions against Syria over the years have severely aggravated the crisis in the economy and people’s livelihood in Syria, and greatly weakened Syria’s ability to cope with disasters,” Global Times reported.

Syria agrees to open more border crossings
Meanwhile, responding to UN appeals, the Bashar al-Assad government in Syria on Monday agreed to open two more border crossings with Turkey in the region for three months. The decision was welcomed by the UN Secretary General, who claimed that it will allow the “timely delivery of humanitarian aid.”

As per a UNSC resolution in January this year, only the Bab al-Hawa border crossing between Turkey and Syria was allowed to function to facilitate cross-border aid delivery into rebel held areas in northwest Syria. The Assad government had opposed all cross-border aid delivery earlier, claiming that it bypasses the legitimate government and violates Syria’s sovereignty. The Assad regime has been demanding that all foreign aid to Syria be coordinated through its government.

As per the new arrangement, two more border crossings—Bab al-Salam and Al Ra’ee—will be open for aid delivery through the Turkish border, in addition to Bab al-Hawa.

Certain rebel groups and organizations working in the rebel-held areas of Syria have questioned the UN’s attempts to mobilize the Assad government’s support for coordinating better relief operations in Syria’s northwest. These groups claim that this will provide political advantage to the Assad government, Al-Jazeera reported.

Responding to these claims, Sabbagh said that the region “is part of [Syria’s] national territory and the population there is part of the Syrian people.” He added that the Assad government will not accept any attempt by “terrorist groups” to divide the country.

Joint statement:

The Syrian and Turkish territories, especially the Kurdish areas, were subjected to a violent earthquake whose victims have so far exceeded thousands of victims, wounded and displaced persons in very harsh climatic conditions, and while the peoples and some humanitarian bodies moved in solidarity with the two afflicted peoples, imperialism, international official institutions and most Arab regimes dealt again with double standards, as they sent aid to the Turkish regime while perpetuating the unjust siege against Syria, which its people have been suffering for more than ten years, which is the age of civil war and aggression. Imperialist and regional Arab and Zionist.

The undersigned parties and organizations, affirming their unconditional solidarity and sympathy with the brotherly peoples of Syria and Turkey,:

Strongly condemn the policy of double standards practiced by imperialism and official international institutions, including in dealing with disasters and pandemics, which confirms their aggressive and brutal nature that contradicts all human values and principles.

– Call on the masses and national forces to organize all forms of pressure on the Arab regimes in order to immediately lift the unjust siege on Syria, restore diplomatic relations with it and drop the imperialist Caesar Act.

– Participate in all forms of material and moral support for the two brotherly peoples, and call on all free people in the world to organize all possible support in order to devote to the unity and solidarity of humanity.

Signatory Parties and Organizations:

1- Workers’ Party-Tunisia

2- Workers’ Democratic Way Party – Morocco

3- Jordanian Democratic People’s Party (Hashad)

4-We Can-Mauritania Movement

5- Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine

6- Lebanese Communist Party

7- Jordanian Democratic Popular Unity Party

8- Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine

9- Bahraini Progressive Platform

10- Association of Sahrawi Human Rights Defenders in Western Sahara CODESA

11- Socialist Popular Alliance Party – Egypt

12-Kuwait Progressive Movement

13- Palestinian People’s Party

14- Sudanese Communist Party

15- Jordanian Communist Party

16- Qutb Party-Tunisia

17- United Democratic National Party-Tunisia

18- Arab and Maghreb Student and Youth Front against Normalization and Support for the Palestinian Cause

19- Egyptian Communist Party

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/02/14/ ... ow-louder/

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Group of Belarusian doctors leaves for Syria

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The Syrian ambassador to Belarus met with officials from the Ministry of Defense and the Foreign Ministry to express his appreciation for the gesture of support for Syria. | Photo: BELTA
Posted February 14, 2023 (10 hours 50 minutes ago)

The Syrian ambassador to Belarus, Muhammad Al-Amrani, participated in the farewell ceremony for the doctors, including surgeons and nurses.

A group of Belarusian doctors left that nation located in eastern Europe this Wednesday for Syria in order to offer emergency aid to the victims of the earthquakes that affected that country a week ago.

"Today 45 Belarusian doctors left for Syria to provide humanitarian and medical assistance to the victims of the disaster," the Belarusian embassy in Bulgaria reported.

For its part, the SANA news agency reported that the Syrian ambassador to Belarus, Muhammad Al-Amrani, participated in the farewell ceremony for the doctors, including surgeons and nurses.


The diplomat met with several officials of the Belarusian Ministry of Defense and Foreign Affairs to express his gratitude for the gesture and unconditional support for Syria.

The Belarusian side confirmed that its friends, including the Syrian people and government, will not be abandoned by them in difficult times, challenges and crises.

Between Syria and Türkiye, the number of deaths exceeds 35,000, while the number of injured exceeds 85,000 due to the earthquakes that occurred on Monday, February 6.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/medicos- ... -0033.html

Google Translator

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GoFundMe Refusing to Fund Syria Relief Effort, Funding White Helmets
FEBRUARY 14, 2023

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Photo composition: A rescuer carries in his arms a girl rescued from the earthquake, in the background the ruins of buildings, in front the word GoFoundMe and the forbidden sign. Photo: Al Mayadeen.

GoFundMe is refusing to send aid to Syria over sanctions from the US Treasury despite the devastating earthquake that struck the country earlier in the week.

GoFundMe, a proclaimed leading platform for fundraising, has been found to be complicit in the US-waged war on Syria, complying with US sanctions prohibiting aid from making it to the disaster-stricken country.

Several social media users went on Twitter to report on the issue after the fundraising firm suspended the fundraisers for Syria after the earthquake struck the country, with many highlighting the severe repercussions that the sanctions on Syria have been carrying for the Syrian health sector and rescue efforts.


An activist, Kevork Almassian, the founder of Syriana Analysis, reported that the company “temporarily suspended our crowdfunding for the people affected by the earthquake in Syria!”

They claimed that they wanted to ensure that the aid was going to a humanitarian organization and that it was making it to its hands.


Another user posted a screenshot of an email they received from GoFundMe saying: “Thank you for your efforts to help those affected by the earthquakes in Turkey, Syria, and Lebanon. GoFundMe is closely monitoring events in the region, and we are committed to helping people help those in need.”

The twist came in the following paragraph, in which the email read: “As a U.S. company we are required to follow our Terms of Service, payment industry requirements, and applicable laws, including those set by the US Treasury Department, which prohibit GoFundMe from allowing fundraisers meeting this criteria to raise money on our platform.”

“For this reason, we are writing to let you know that your GoFundMe account has been closed due to sanctions involving an unsupported country and a violation of the Prohibited Conduct section of our Terms of Service,” the email concluded.

“I am absolutely disgusted and enraged by this,” the user commented.

Image

Another user reported in German that they set up a GoFundMe and managed to collect some €10,000, but their bid to raise funds for Syria fell flat after the firm sent them an email informing them that the fundraiser was suspended “because you appear to be raising funds for a cause in a location currently subject to economic sanctions by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control) or other relevant Government agencies.”

“We are not even allowed to donate to those in need. Unbelievable. I’m angry & speechless,” the user said.


Many other prominent activists, such as Max Blumenthal and Hadi Nasrallah highlighted the fact that the West was not allowing Syria to receive funds after having funded terrorist organizations in the country.

“Thanks to criminal Western sanctions, international cargo planes can not land at Syrian airports and Syrians can not use Gofundme or credit cards. Meanwhile, the US military occupies 1/3 of the country, stealing Syria’s oil – a key source of revenue it uses to buy food and aid,” Blumenthal said on Twitter.


“GoFundMe is suspending fundraisers for Syrians in the regions under the “Sanctions act”. Aleppo included. Thousands of dollars have been frozen because someone somewhere in the US said Syrians must be punished,” Nasrallah pointed out.


All the while, as GoFundMe was prohibiting aid from making it into Syria, the fundraising organization was flaunting that more than $100,000 were raised to support the White Helmets, an NGO organization operating in Syria that has been accused of colluding with the West and terrorist organizations to commit and stage human rights violations in the country.


This comes after the United Nations stressed on Thursday the need to avoid “politicization” of aid to earthquake victims in Syria and urged Washington and Brussels to ensure there were “no impediments”.

Western countries are not providing necessary aid to the Syrian government, which is dealing with the fallout of the devastating earthquake, and only send them to areas in Syria that are controlled by militant terrorist groups, the Syrian Presidency’s Special Advisor Bouthaina Shaaban said on Thursday.

“Unfortunately, the West only cares about areas where the terrorists are – where the White Helmets are – but they do not care about the areas in which most Syrian people live… Most of the money and all of the equipment have been dispatched to Turkey from Europe and from the US. Nothing to Syria from Europe, at all,” Shaaban told British broadcaster Sky News.

This is happening as thousands, including children, are still calling for help from under the rubble in Syria. However, the rolling crises through which most Syrians are living didn’t gain international support mainly due to the US draconian sanctions.

Moreover, officials say it will be years before the streetscapes of the stricken areas bear any resemblance to their old selves. As such, rebuilding is going to take a very long time. Some buildings may look okay from the outside. However, certain structural components might have been damaged to the extent that some of these buildings will have to be torn down; a process that alone could take years.

The crisis resulting from the war on Syria prompted civilians to seek refuge in damaged or somewhat destroyed buildings lacking basic infrastructure and services.

The war-stricken country’s infrastructure is quite lacking, as a war that has lasted for more than a decade has ravaged the country’s capabilities and eaten at its machinery and adequate equipment.

Terrorist groups and foreign aggression destroyed all of Syria’s capabilities, from vehicles to cranes and bulldozers, among other equipment, at a time when the competent authorities need them because people are trapped under the rubble.

Earlier, the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC) and Red Crescent Societies said US draconian sanctions against Syria raise prices and hamper humanitarian operations.

In an interview for Sputnik, Xavier Castellanos, IFRC Under-Secretary-General for Operations Coordination, said, “Sanctions do have these unintended consequences. And if I summarize, [it] increases the prices on everything that we do, takes more time to deliver the humanitarian services, it sometimes requires private supplies that could again increase the cost and there is this level of fear sometimes to facilitate the existing procedures [with regard to] sanctions.”

It is noteworthy that in 2020, then-US President Donald Trump signed into law the so-called Caesar Act, under which Congress authorized severe economic sanctions against Syria. In accordance with the sanctions, anyone doing business with the Syrian authorities is potentially exposed to travel restrictions and financial sanctions.

The US claims that “the Caesar Act and other USW Syria sanctions do not target humanitarian assistance for the Syrian people” and that Washington will continue sending its alleged humanitarian assistance to Syrians. However, this was not the case following the devastating earthquake that struck Syria and was not mentioned anywhere in Biden’s remarks.

To add salt to injury, Damascus International Airport is still undergoing repairs and maintenance following the most Israeli airstrike on the facility on January 2. The airport is the target of repeated Israeli occupation assaults and airstrikes that put it out of service. This fact cannot be ignored as any humanitarian aid to land in the country will definitely be hindered.

On Monday, a magnitude 7.8 quake struck Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, and Palestine, killing thousands, mainly in Turkey and Syria, and leveling houses and other facilities, including public infrastructure.

The death toll from the devastating earthquake in Syria has risen to more than 2,800, while rescue teams continue extensive search efforts to find survivors under the rubble.

Following the earthquakes, several Western countries mobilized rapidly to send aid and rescue workers to Turkey but decided to exclude Syria and neglect it, by only offering condolences and merely expressing readiness to support the affected Syrians, with nothing done on the ground, in a clear show of double standards.

(Al Mayadeen – English)

https://orinocotribune.com/gofundme-ref ... e-helmets/

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Türkiye's Quake Death Toll Exceeds 35,000

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Rescuers search for earthquake survivors, Türkiye, Feb. 13, 2023. | Photo: Twitter/ @DailyWorld24

A total of 105,505 people were injured in the tremors, of whom 13,208 are still receiving treatment in hospitals, President Erdogan said.


The death toll from last week's powerful earthquakes in southern Türkiye rose to 35,418 on Tuesday, while intensifying diplomacy between Türkiye and its previous foes helps further ease their ties.

A total of 105,505 people were injured in the tremors, of whom 13,208 are still receiving treatment in hospitals, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said, adding that the number of people rescued from the rubble was over 8,000.

His administration has provided shelter for a total of 1.6 million earthquake victims, while Qatar has been sending 10,000 containers, which will be turned into shelters. So far, teams from 84 countries have participated in the quake rescue efforts in Türkiye.

At least 47,000 buildings were severely damaged in the quake-hit zone, the Turkish president said, pledging to start the construction of 30,000 new housing units in early March. It is estimated that over 2 million people evacuated from the quake zone, which is home to nearly 13 million people.

Türkiye was hit by two massive earthquakes measuring 7.7- and 7.6-magnitude on Feb. 6, which affected a 500-km-wide region spanning 10 Turkish provinces.


With foreign rescue teams flocking to the country to aid the rescue efforts and world leaders extending condolences to the Turkish victims, the earthquake diplomacy paved the way for pushing forward Türkiye's normalization processes with its foes.

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias visited the Turkish quake-hit zones on Sunday, accompanied by his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu. Meanwhile, Erdogan had phone talks with Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

The two neighbors have been at odds over territorial claims in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean.

Cavusoglu will hold a press conference with his Armenian counterpart Ararat Mirzoyan in the capital Ankara on Wednesday. The two top diplomats met on the sidelines of an international conference last year to discuss ways of ending their decades-old hostilities.

The relations between Türkiye and Armenia were severed in 1993 during the first war between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh when Ankara closed the border with Armenia in support of Azerbaijan. The two neighbors have stepped up the normalization dialogue since last year.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Tur ... -0004.html

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Romanian Aid arrives Beirut for quake victims in Syria

Image

15 February، 2023

Beirut, SANA- An aircraft belonging to the Romanian Air Force arrived Lebanon, loaded with relief aid to the Syrians affected by the devastating earthquake on February 6.

The aircraft arrived Wednesday afternoon at Beirut Air Transport Base as its destination.

Kinda Almahmoud/ Baraa Ali

More aid sent for afflicted by devastating quake in Syria, Kadyrov announces

Image

15 February، 2023

Grozny, SANA- President of Chechen Republic, Ramzan Kadyrov has announced Wednesday sending more relief aid to the quake-affected in Syria

some 35 tons of humanitarian aid have been sent for the affected people by the quake hit Syria last week, through the campaign organized by Ahmad Kadyrov Association, including winter cloths, blankets, children food, tents and many other aid’, Sputnik quoted Kadyrov as saying in a statement on telegram on Wednesday

Kadyrov added that Chechen Leadership, in cooperation with charities, have collected financial aid in order to buy temporary habitats for 9,000 families.

He also stressed that his country will send 72 tons of humanitarian aid for Syria in the near future.

Rafah al-Allouni/ Hala Zain

https://www.sana.sy/en/?p=300639

Three relief aid planes from Belarus and Jordan arrive Syria for quake- affected people

Image

15 February، 2023

Damascus, SANA- Three planes from Belarus and Jordan arrived Wednesday at the international airports of Aleppo and Damascus, carrying relief aid for those affected by the earthquake.

“The two Belarusian planes carry supplies for field hospital and medications , with forty doctors on board of various specializations to provide assistance to those affected by the earthquake”, said Colonel Andrei Gorinovich, head of the medical team for special missions of the Belarusian army, indicating that within two days, a mobile hospital will be equipped in Ismailia town of Aleppo to receive 70 cases per day for medical operations and consultations.

“All shelters in that area will be visited to reach the largest possible number of affected people” he added.

The Colonel pointed out that Belarus is always ready to help the brothers in Syria and will continue to provide assistance to overcome the repercussions of the earthquake.

The Jordanian consul in Damascus Anwar Badawi, for his part, said that the Jordanian plane is the second to land at Damascus International Airport, carrying 12 tons of medical aid, pointing out that Jordan also sent two convoys consisting of 14 trucks two days ago through Nassib border crossing loading food and medical supplies, adding that there will be more aid in the coming days.

Badawi underlined that the visit of Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi to Syria Wednesday is to confirm Jordan’s support for the brothers in Syria.

Bushra Dabin / Baraa Ali



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Re: Syria

Post by blindpig » Thu Feb 16, 2023 3:20 pm

New aid route to Syria opens as earthquake toll tops 41,000
China Daily | Updated: 2023-02-16 07:08

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People who lost their homes in the earthquakes line up to receive aid supplies at a makeshift camp in Iskenderun, southern Turkiye, on Tuesday. HUSSEIN MALLA/ASSOCIATED PRESS

ANTAKYA, Turkiye — An aid convoy has passed through a newly reopened border crossing into northern Syria, where help has been slow to arrive since last week's earthquakes that killed more than 41,000 in the region.

Rare survivors were still being pulled from the debris on Tuesday, eight days after earthquakes and their aftershocks struck Syria and Turkiye, but the focus has switched from rescue to providing food and shelter to millions in need.

A caravan of 11 United Nations trucks entered Syria through the reopened Bab al-Salam border point.

Before the earthquakes struck, almost all the crucial humanitarian aid for the more than 4 million people living in northwest Syria was being delivered through just one crossing.

The trucks were loaded with essential humanitarian assistance, including shelter materials, mattresses, blankets and carpets, said Paul Dillon, a spokesman for the UN's International Organization for Migration.

On Tuesday the UN launched an appeal for $397 million to help quake victims in Syria, where the disaster has killed thousands of people and left millions more in desperate need of aid.

The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, announcing the appeal at UN headquarters in New York, said the funds would bring "lifesaving relief" for nearly 5 million Syrians and would cover three months. The UN was in the final stages of a similar appeal for Turkiye, he said.

The second shipment of humanitarian aid provided by the Red Cross Society of China for the quake-stricken areas in Syria arrived in the capital, Damascus, on Monday.

The supplies, including cotton tents, relief packages for families, thermal jackets and medicine, will meet the needs of more than 10,000 victims, the Red Cross Society of China said.

Cross-border delivery

The World Health Organization has urged governments and civil society to work together to ensure cross-border delivery of humanitarian aid between Turkiye and Syria and within Syria.

The WHO's Regional Director for Europe, Hans Kluge, called the earthquakes "the worst natural disaster" in the region in a century, and emphasized the importance of all parties cooperating on aid delivery.

The WHO also warned that there were growing concerns over health risks related to cold weather, hygiene and sanitation, and the spread of infectious diseases. With 80,000 people now in hospitals, the Turkish health system is under enormous strain after many of its buildings suffered significant damage in the disaster.

The WHO has launched an appeal for $43 million to help with the response, and Kluge said this amount was likely to double in the coming days because of the huge scale of need.

In Turkiye, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that more than 35,000 people had died in his country as a result of the quakes, making it the deadliest in its modern history.

Teams from 84 countries have been taking part in relief efforts in the country, he said.

Qatar has been shipping 10,000 containers to Turkiye that will be turned into shelters.

Greece's Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias visited the Turkish quake-hit zones on Sunday, accompanied by his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu. The two neighbors have been at odds over territorial claims in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean.

Israel's Foreign Minister Eli Cohen visited the Turkish capital, Ankara, to show solidarity with the country on Monday, as the two sides continued the momentum of normalizing strained ties. Israel sent a 450-member rescue team on the first day of the earthquakes and established a field hospital in the affected region, Cohen said.

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202302/ ... af031.html

Chinese Red Cross hard at work in quake-struck Syria
By Hou Liqiang | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2023-02-15 21:13

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Workers with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent receive relief supplies donated by the Chinese community in Syria, in Damascus, capital of Syria, Feb 12, 2023. [Photo/Xinhua]

The second batch of humanitarian aid from the Red Cross Society of China arrived in Syria at 1 pm Monday local time, as the organization strives to meet the urgent needs of people in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake.

The country and its neighbor Turkiye were hit by a 7.8-magnitude quake on Feb 6, which was followed by a 7.5 magnitude jolt and hundreds of aftershocks.

After the Red Cross' first donation, which contained 5,000 medical items, the new batch of relief includes medicine for epidemic diseases that are common after natural disasters such as cholera, as well as tents, hardshell jackets and household first-aid kit, aid worker Guo Minghong said.

Guo arrived in Syria with four of his colleagues and the first batch of aid on Thursday.

He said the main tasks of his team are to receive, transport and distribute relief supplies. They also need to assess the needs of Syria and collect information to support the group's decision-making.

The demands of Syrians affected by the disaster have been gradually met as aid from different countries arrived, Guo said.

However, he also noted some challenges for the rescue operation.

The quake struck a vast area, covering the country's northwestern and northeastern regions that have been plagued by civil strife for a long time, he said. Many roads in affected areas were damaged, further hindering rescue efforts.

He said makeshift residences such as tents, cold-proof life necessities like hardshell jackets and first aid medicine are still among the items victims urgently need.

With emergency search and rescue operations coming to an end, post-disaster reconstruction work concerning transportation, hygiene, water consumption, school and housing will need to be rolled out, he said.

To address the shortage of personnel and the language barrier, he said, his team has made intensified efforts to communicate with representative offices of organizations under the global Red Cross network in Syria and make better use of volunteers from local branches.

The efforts have helped the team advance its work steadily, he said, adding they have been working around the clock.

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202302/ ... aefde.html

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Thousands of Syrian Pregnant Women Are at Risk: UNFPA

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Families shelter at a mosque in Aleppo, Syria, Feb. 2023. | Photo: UNHCR

Published 16 February 2023

The death toll from the earthquakes that struck Syria and Türkiye has already exceeded 41,000.


On Wednesday, the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) warned of the situation faced by some 40,000 pregnant Syrians who must give birth in the next three months.

As a result of the earthquakes, many health facilities are destroyed or lack the necessary basic supplies, UNFPA Regional Director Laila Baker said after visiting Aleppo, one of the hardest-hit areas.

Currently, many Syrian health centers lack medicines to treat basic illnesses and adequate conditions to perform operations such as caesarean sections.

"We visited a maternity hospital in Aleppo where we saw a lack of sheets. The staff are doing 18-hour shifts. There are people doing volunteer work and a lot of solidarity. However, a huge amount still needs to be invested to reach the most vulnerable communities," Baker said.


UNFPA has appealed to donors for US$24 million in funds over the next three months to support Syrians, who are already living in a very difficult situation after a decade of war.

According to the latest media reports, the death toll from the earthquakes that struck Syria and Türkiye has already exceeded 41,000.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) holds that close to nine million people in Syria are affected by the aftermath of the earthquakes.

"More than 4,700 buildings have been destroyed, entire streets have been demolished, and 4.2 million people in Aleppo, and another three million in Idlib, have been affected," the UN said.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Tho ... -0002.html

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Three planes from Chechnya and UAE arrive at Lattakia International Airport, loaded with relief aid

Image

16 February، 2023

Lattakia, SANA- Three planes arrived at Lattakia International Airport on Thursday, two of them from the Republic of Chechnya and the third one from the UAE.

The Three planes carry relief aid for those affected by the earthquake hit Syria last week.

“Upon directives of the Chechen President, we have collected aid for the Syrian people to face the repercussions of the earthquake,” head of the Chechen delegation accompanying the two planes, Osman Usmanov said.

Usmanov added that the two planes carry 98 tons of relief materials, including clothes, tents, blankets, baby food, powdered milk, electricity generators and lighting devices.
He added that his country stands by Syria and will continue to provide aid to it.

In turn, Director of Lattakia Airport, Eng. Ziyad al-Tawil, said that the UAE plane was carrying 25 tons of foodstuffs for those affected by the earthquake.

Nisreen Othman / Hala Zain

https://www.sana.sy/en/?p=300790

Aerial scenes show the volume of destruction from the earthquake in Jableh of Lattakia

Image

14 February، 2023



https://www.sana.sy/en/?p=300492
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Re: Syria

Post by blindpig » Fri Feb 17, 2023 3:44 pm

Search and rescue tasks complete in Syria after earthquake

Image
The head of state highlighted the response capacity of the Syrian people despite the magnitude of the challenge. | Photo: Syrian Presidency
Published 17 February 2023

Syrian President Bashar Al Asad thanked the countries that provided their solidarity assistance from the first hours of the disaster.

The Syrian authorities announced this Friday that the search and rescue operations for survivors of the earthquake registered last week were completed while they are currently working on the removal of rubble.

Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad highlighted the response capacity of the Syrian people despite the magnitude of the challenge during his first speech since the earthquakes that have left more than 44,000 deaths in this nation and Türkiye.

"The country is the home and its protection is a duty regardless of the type and magnitude of the challenge, and regardless of whether the capacities are many or few, and that was what was demonstrated from the first moments of the earthquake," said the president. .


The head of state pointed out that although the war has had an impact on the availability of resources and capacities, it offered Syrian society the experience to respond effectively to the earthquake when more than 6,000 deaths are reported in the country.

"We will not forget those who mobilized with great enthusiasm and zeal to defend the true image of the Syrian society in the various media, who did not allow the distorted image, which some tried to spread, to damage our reputation as a society," he stressed. Al-Assad.

At the same time, he thanked the countries that provided their solidarity assistance from the first hours of the disaster, meanwhile, he stressed the importance of unity to overcome the complex circumstances.

Finally, the president concluded that “faith in God, in the country and in the will, which is capable of performing miracles. Syria will remain worthy with her people, strong with her history, rich with her dignity, and capable with her will.”

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/presiden ... -0006.html

Google Translator

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Syria Held Hostage by the US And Its Allies
FEBRUARY 16, 2023

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An aerial view shows the destroyed buildings in the rebel-held town of Jindayris on February 9, 2023, three days after a deadly earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria. Photo: Omar HAJ KADOUR /AFP.

By B. Nimri Aziz – Feb 13, 2023

Perhaps the most agonizing experience for a family, for any bystander, even for humanitarian professionals, is a double tragedy—a death or calamity where they are refused access, where they are forced to helplessly witness suffering, unable to offer succor. This is surely what faces millions of able-bodied Syrians today. It affects Syrians within the stricken nation along with their faraway relatives and friends.

Anyone seeing suffering is involuntarily driven forward– to assist. Yet Syrians globally, those most affected by the agonizing images and stories emerging from the earthquake sites, feel both immobilized and shy behind their tears and frustrations. It’s not any threat of personal danger in a war zone that inhibits them from joining the rescue. It’s the international embargo against Syria.

Given the strict measures imposed by the U.S. and its allies on the Syrian government, even those eager to arrange help are hesitant to gather urgent support at such a critical time. This includes me, unable during the past decade to even send a gift to my close friends.

From my longtime association with Syria, and from regular talks with people residing there, I keep abreast of the toll the war and blockade are taking. I know economic and health conditions well. I know how, month after month, rising food prices mean more citizens go hungry. I know that medicines are in desperately short supply, whereas Syria was once an exporter of pharmaceuticals. I know that the rich farmland of Northeast Syria, breadbasket of the region, is under U.S. occupation, making its wheat crop inaccessible to Syrians. I know too that Syria’s oil from that same NE region is commandeered by foreign companies under U.S. military protection. I know that most young men are now outside the country; the same for doctors who may manage to find a country to use their talent and training. (Syria, once celebrated for its high medical standards, had had a surplus of doctors.) I know that no foreign exchange is permitted with Syrian banks, so that anyone wanting to send funds to a family left behind, cannot do so. I know that Syrian homes have electricity for barely a few hours daily because the electricity system is in disrepair, unfixable without imported parts. I know that Lebanon, which had been helping thousands of Syrian families, can hardly continue this because of its own economic collapse. Humanitarian aid from Iran too has dwindled due to its domestic problems. Whoever can leave do, risking the flight to neighboring countries, including Turkey, then venturing further afield. For over 12 years their absence has drained the nation of its professionals– writers and artists, filmmakers and pharmacists, scientists and social workers, teachers and IT experts. What is more, the country is regularly bombed by Israel.

These conditions are disturbingly and piteously similar to those ravaging Iraq throughout the 1990s, a saga I myself chronicled. That nation was shredded by years of embargo, leading up to the U.S.-led military assault and occupation in 2003.

Whether or not the destruction following the February 6th earthquake is as extensive in Syria as in Turkey is irrelevant. Urgently needed assistance to Syria is being held up or inhibited, largely by cumulative U.S. embargoes imposed during almost twenty years of its hostile policy towards the country. Algeria, one of the few nations supportive of Syria, has pledged $15 million in aid, noting that this gift is “to the brotherly Syrian people, in solidarity”. Algeria will have to overcome U.S.-created hurdles to ensure needed supplies get to Damascus. Meanwhile a United Nations aid convoy to Syria was evidently assigned only to “the rebel-held areas” (no questions raised about that!) where the much-heralded White Helmets operate. As far as we know, relief from 74 nations reportedly rushing supplies and technical assistance to Turkey might not be shared with devastated parts of Syria administered by Damascus (and thereby embargoed).

But that may change. On Thursday, February 9th the U.S. Dept. of Treasury, the agency that stringently monitors compliance with U.S. policy embargoes, announced that it would suspend some sanctions for relief that’s directed toward earthquake issues. Doubtless there will be close monitoring, with bureaucratic delays. And individuals eager to send aid directly to family or to particular charities in Damascus could face time-consuming formalities. We don’t yet know whether this temporary U.S. license permits Syria’s embassies and consulates to work with American donors to funnel relief aid to the country. And will organizations and individuals be able to transfer funds from abroad directly to Syrian banks? That is unclear too.

Syrians have a long and unassuming tradition of charity. They also are among the most economically successful of immigrants, wherever they reside. They will, if allowed, prove, like New Jersey doctor Souheil Saba, they’re ready to join others leading aid efforts from abroad. (Although Saba will reach Damascus only by road from Beirut, after flying there via Istanbul.)

How one decides which Syrian charities will be authorized and which banks cleared to receive funds will consume precious time. Syrians and their supporters eagerly wait for instructions and clearances. Like their Turkish counterparts, they must now turn all efforts to the injured, homeless, hungry and cold survivors.

https://orinocotribune.com/syria-held-h ... ts-allies/

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Zakharova: There is clear politicization by the West in delivering humanitarian aid to Syria

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17 February، 2023

Moscow, SANA- There is a clear politicization by the West in delivering humanitarian aid to Syria, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said at press conference on Friday.

“There is clear politicization by the West in delivering humanitarian aid to Syria, as Turkey received assistance from 21 countries in the European Union, while only a few provided assistance to Syria, which is unacceptable in the humanitarian field,” Zakharova said.

Rendering emergency humanitarian assistance to Syria is a priority, given the destruction caused by the earthquake, the Russian diplomats indicated.

“We stress the importance of lifting unilateral restrictions from Syria to simplify relief efforts,” Zakharova added.

Russia will continue to provide humanitarian assistance for the quake- affected people in Syria, adding that the Russian rescuers returned from Syria after completing the search-and-rescue operation in the earthquake- affected area, Zakharova said.

Shaza Qreima

https://www.sana.sy/en/?p=300885

Two aftershocks hit northwestern Idleb and northwest of Lattakia

Image

17 February، 2023

Damascus, SANA- Two aftershocks hit on Thursday, northwest of Idleb, and northwest of Lattakia.

National Earthquake Center stated in a statement to SANA reporter on Thursday that an aftershock measuring 5.4 magnitude on the Richter scale took place northwest of Idleb, at 22:47 p.m. (local time), at latitude 36.11, longitude 35.99, and a depth of 18.8 km.

The center said in a second statement that an aftershock measuring 3.4 magnitude on the Richter scale struck northwest of Lattakia at 23:17 local time.

The center noted that the quake occurred at a latitude of 35.94, a length of 35.56, and a depth of 46 kilometers.

Nisreen Othman / Mazen Eyon

https://www.sana.sy/en/?p=300856

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Sanctions are killing people in earthquake-hit Syria



Rania Khalek of BreakThrough News explains how Western sanctions on Syria are leading to deaths, obstructing aid, and preventing reconstruction in the aftermath of the horrifying earthquake

February 16, 2023 by Peoples Dispatch

Rania Khalek of BreakThrough News talks about the brutal impact of sanctions on earthquake-hit Syria. She explains how these extensive sanctions are leading to deaths, obstructing vital aid, and preventing reconstruction efforts, even as their authors, the US and its European allies, deliver homilies about democracy. She also talks about how the ‘easing’ of sanctions by the US is not having any significant impact.


https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/02/16/ ... hit-syria/
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Re: Syria

Post by blindpig » Mon Feb 20, 2023 4:58 pm

After the earthquake, Syria faces new health concerns
The earthquake that hit Syria and Turkey on February 6 added to the stress shouldered by health workers and services in Syria, already weakened by sanctions and conflict

February 18, 2023 by Ana Vračar

Image
February 6 earthquake response in Sarmada town, north west Syria. (Photo: OCHA/Ali Haj Suleiman)

Healthcare delivery in Syria remains under threat after two earthquakes hit the northwest of the country and parts of southern Turkey on February 6. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported that over 50 health facilities in Syria have been damaged or completely destroyed in the earthquakes, adding to pre-existing problems caused by sanctions and armed conflict.

In September 2022, the Syrian Ministry of Health reported an outbreak of cholera in the Aleppo region, which was still ongoing at the time the earthquakes hit. Since February 6, access to clean water and sanitation has worsened in comparison to previous months: by February 12, around two-thirds of Aleppo had no access to drinking water due to damage to water infrastructure, warned OCHA. In combination with a lack of food, shelter, and heating materials, this is almost certain to lead to an increase in cholera cases, as well as the spread of other diseases.

According to Fee Baumann, coordinator at the Kurdish Red Crescent (KRC), it is difficult to collect reliable data at this time, since all of northern Syria is struggling with the effects of the earthquake. “The northwest of the country is too damaged, and there are so many different health needs which need to be targeted. In the eastern part, there are generally not enough capacities to confirm the cases. This problem was already there earlier, and now it might get worse,” says Baumann.

Obstacles in the way of delivering humanitarian relief
After the earthquakes a wave of humanitarian relief from around the world was sent to the affected regions, yet—in comparison to Turkey—resources dripped, rather than flowed, into Syria. Sanctions meant that countries from the Global North ignored the needs of the Syrian people and focused on delivering donations to Turkey, whose government apparently holds a better track record in the West despite numerous accounts of attacks on basic rights and freedoms.

Even after the sanctions were temporarily suspended and additional entry points into Syria were approved on February 13, the delivery of humanitarian relief is still slowed down by the presence of numerous checkpoints and discrimination against specific population groups. This has proven particularly true in Kurdish areas, where the delivery of help is being obstructed by both Turkish and Syrian authorities, according to activists. Information collected by the KRC shows that at least 3,000 people left the predominantly Kurdish neighborhood of Sheik Maqsoud in Aleppo in the aftermath of the earthquake. Having just lost their homes or being too scared to live in their houses, the inhabitants of Sheik Maqsoud turned to the camps in Shahba instead of waiting for help that was apparently nowhere on its way. The number of people who choose to do the same will only increase in the coming days in case things do not change, warns Baumann.

Health system starved of resources
Most hospitals in Syria operate on generators and diesel stations because of the limited availability of electricity. As highlighted by the UN Special Rapporteur on unilateral coercive measures and human rights, Alena Douhan, relying on generators means frequent disruptions that impact medical procedures, damage equipment, and patients’ lives. Blocking fuel from reaching the generator-operated hospitals, however, has even more dangerous consequences, leading to people having no access to the most basic care when they need it most.

While the earthquakes definitely dealt additional blows to an already weakened health system, Baumann warns that the situation was so bad to begin with that this is not as visible as one would expect. “There is no significant change in the health system. It is still lacking everything such as medicines and medical supplies, medical equipment and also educated medical staff,” she says.

The general outpouring of solidarity has brought some hope to those hit by the earthquake, but it is essential that this solidarity is translated into concrete action and does not fade away in a matter of weeks. “Even if it is just warm words, it is helping people to resist these inhuman circumstances. We hope that this will continue,” says Baumann.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/02/18/ ... -concerns/

Syria just suffered a devastating earthquake but Israeli bombing does not stop
Israeli attacks on Syria continue even as Syria struggles with the aftermath of the February 6 earthquake, in which over 5,800 were killed.

February 20, 2023 by Peoples Dispatch

Image
(Photo: SANA)

Thousands of Syrians took to the streets on Monday, February 20, to protest against repeated Israeli aggression directed at the country. Protesters also chanted slogans against the unilateral coercive measures (sanctions) imposed against Syria by the US and its allies, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported.

At least five Syrians were killed and 15 wounded when missiles fired by Israeli warplanes landed inside the densely populated Kafr Sousa neighborhood in capital Damascus on Sunday, February 19. According to SANA, all but one of those killed were civilians. The Syrian military claimed that its air defense had intercepted some of the Israeli missiles.

The attack—carried out in the middle of the night—caused a number of residential buildings, including a 10-story structure, to collapse.

Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad met foreign diplomats and ambassadors in Damascus and called the attacks “a crime against humanity,” especially at a time when the country was “racing against time to address the catastrophic consequences of the devastating earthquake.”

Nearly 47,000 people have been reported dead so far from the February 6 earthquake—41,000 in Turkey and more than 5,800 in Syria, with the latter struggling to keep up the pace of rescue operations due to war, sanctions, and a lack of adequate international support.

Mekdad called for global and “urgent condemnation of Israeli aggression to deter it from killing civilians and violating the sovereignty of states.”

He added that “the continuation of Israeli brutal attacks, and crimes against the Palestinian and Syrian people, constitutes an explicit threat to peace and security in the region and beyond.”

There has been no comment from Israel yet regarding the airstrike.

The attacks were condemned by Russia, Iran, Cuba, and several other countries.

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/02/20/ ... -not-stop/

*************************

Daesh Terror Attack Leaves Over 50 Dead in Central Syria

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Daesh terrorists attacked locals picking truffles with machine guns, a SANA reporter said. Feb. 17, 2023. | Photo: Twitter/@sham_syrianews
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Published 17 February 2023

53 people were killed when Daesh terrorists "attacked them with machine guns for a long time."


According to the Syrian news agency SANA, an attack by the Daesh terrorist group perpetrated on Friday in eastern Homs province left 53 dead and 5 others injured.

Dozens of locals were picking truffles in the Palmyra desert in the Dabayat area, southeast of al-Sukhna city in the eastern province of Homs, a SANA reporter said.

The 53 killed were victims of Daesh terrorists, who "lashed out at them with machine guns for a long time." Daesh members also set fire to the victims' vehicles at the site of the attack, said one of the survivors.

According to the director of Palmyra hospital, Walid Odeh, among the dead, 46 were civilians and 7 soldiers. The director also said that five other bullet injured were received at the hospital.


"The wounded received the necessary first aid at Palmyra hospital and were then transferred to other hospitals in Homs," the official said.

The southern city of Palmyra, east of Homs province, was the scene last Monday of a similar attack perpetrated by Daesh terrorists. This time, four people were killed and ten others wounded.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Dae ... -0016.html
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Re: Syria

Post by blindpig » Thu Mar 16, 2023 2:35 pm

THE US OCCUPATION OF SYRIA WILL CONTINUE
MK Bhadrakumar

Mar 14, 2023 , 5:31 p.m.

Image
US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley (left) made an unannounced visit to an illegal US military base in northeastern Syria on March 3, 2023 (Photo: Reuters )

The sudden unannounced arrival of senior US military officer General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, at a dusty US military base in remote northeast Syria on Friday may bring to mind a famous quote from Dick Cheney, vice president during George W Bush's term: "The good Lord did not see fit to put oil and gasoline only where there are democratically elected regimes and friends of the United States. From time to time we have to operate in places where, in general, one normally I wouldn't choose to go. But we go where the business is."

According to eyewitness accounts last week, on February 27, US troops transported at least 34 tankers full of stolen Syrian oil through the illegal Al Mahmoudiya border crossing to their bases in Iraq. In the estimate of the Syrian Foreign Ministry, the cumulative losses suffered by the country's oil and gas sector due to theft and other US actions amounted to $107 billion in August last year.

Petroleum is a unique hydrocarbon that anesthetizes thought, clouds vision and corrupts. But according to a Reuters report , Milley's visit was about more than oil, reportedly with a view to "assessing efforts to prevent a resurgence" of the Islamic State militant group and "reviewing safeguards for US forces against attacks." including the drones of Iranian-backed militias."

Now, that's overkill for two reasons: One, there are only about 900 total US troops in Syria, and Milley doesn't have to undertake such a routine mission; two, there is actually no history of the Islamic State (ISIS) ever attacking US forces in Syria.

Rather, the folklore among countries in the region is that the United States mentors ISIS, training cadres of the shadowy militant group at the remote US base in Al-Tanf on the Iraqi-Syrian border, and even providing logistical support for the group's operations in the Syrian desert region.

It is not clear if Milley met with commanders of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which have been the main allies of US groups in northeast Syria.

One plausible explanation would be that Milley arrived on instructions from the White House in the context of legislation to end US involvement in Syria due for a vote in Congress this week. Rep. Matt Gaetz, a Florida Republican, who introduced a war powers resolution last month ordering President Joe Biden to withdraw the US military from Syria, has attacked Milley's visit head-on.

Gaetz said in a statement Friday: "If General Milley wants this war so badly, he should explain why we are fighting and why it is worth American treasure and blood. America's foreign policy first demands realism, rational thinking, and seriousness".

He noted that "Syria is a powder swamp. The United States has no discernible interest in continuing to fund a fight where alliances change faster than the desert sands."

But Milley is unfazed. Asked by reporters if she thought the deployment to the Arab country was worth it, Milley said: "I think it's important." She also added: "I think a lasting defeat of ISIS and continuing to support our friends and allies in the region (...) I think those are important tasks that can be done."

Congressman Gaetz introduced the bill after a press release issued by the US Central Command on February 17 announced that four service members were injured during a helicopter strike in northeastern Syria when an explosion was triggered from soil.

The bottom line is that there is no reason other than geopolitical considerations for the continued US occupation of around a third of Syrian territory. They are mainly:

*The need to maintain a US presence in the strategic eastern Mediterranean.
*America's troubled relations with Turkey.
*Israel's security.
*Russian bases in Syria.
*The Russian-Syrian-Iranian axis and, most importantly:
*The geostrategy to keep Syria weak and divided for the foreseeable future.

A comment last year in the government-owned China Daily poignantly captured the Syrian tragedy: "The alleged looting of Syrian oil by the United States and its proxies will only worsen conditions in a country battered by 'sanctions' while struggles to rebuild itself years after the war (…) The consumption of Syria's limited resources by the hegemonic power and its proxy groups in the troubled nation will encourage militancy and undermine efforts to stabilize the region more broadly."

The comment quoted the Syrian foreign minister as saying that the presence of US forces in the northeast of the country and the looting of Syrian oil is an attempt to obstruct a political solution, and undermines stability and security. He said: "The way Washington is acting and its unlimited support for terrorist groups shows the hypocrisy of the United States in the region, a situation that is no longer acceptable, morally or politically."

The Assad government's normalization process with states in the Gulf region—particularly Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar, as well as Egypt and Turkey—has put the United States in a difficult position. It is particularly galling to them that Russia is mediating the Turkish-Syrian rapprochement.

Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov announced on Monday that his country, Turkey, Iran and Syria are organizing a meeting between their respective foreign ministers: "We are working on it. I can say that we agreed not to disclose details for the At the moment, not everything is so simple, we must work discreetly on the principles of quiet diplomacy," he added, indirectly referring to the twisted attempts to derail the process.

Suffice to say, Washington is left with fewer and fewer options but to cause trouble in Syria again and create confusion in order to produce an alibi for continuing the occupation of that country. The Syrian government has drawn attention to this in a statement condemning Milley's "illegal visit to an illegal US military base."

The statement alleges that "the international community knows very well that Daesh (ISIS) is an illegitimate offspring of US intelligence (...) And the support provided by US forces to terrorist and separatist militias in the areas of their occupation is a declared American position, aimed at prolonging the terrorist war against Syria for objectives that are no longer hidden from anyone".

Milley himself has been candid that the military occupation must continue. Given Milley's professional reputation as an assertive man, who is well aware of the "wind factor"—as the Chinese would say—in the [Washington] DC corridors of power at any given time, it's entirely conceivable that President Biden will now get exactly the comments and recommendations you need to block momentum in Congress working to pull US troops out of Syria.

The Moscow daily Vedmosti reported today, citing an informed diplomatic source, that Assad plans to pay an official visit to Russia in mid-March. The Syrian president last visited Russia in September 2021.

The Russian newspaper estimated that humanitarian issues related to the recent earthquake and Russian assistance could be at the center of the talks, but it is also "important that the parties compare each other's position and develop common approaches" on a variety of political issues. . Russia, Turkey, Iran and Syria have a common interest calling for an end to the US occupation of Syria for 7 years .

MK Bhadrakumar is a retired ambassador with a 30-year diplomatic career in the Indian Foreign Service and a columnist for the Indian newspapers Hindu and Deccan Herald , Asia Times and Strategic Culture Foundation . He specializes in the following research areas: Indian Foreign Policy, Russian-Indian Relations, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia, Energy Security, Asia-Pacific and Western Asia.

This article was originally published in English on Indian Punchline on March 6, 2023 , the translation for Misión Verdad was done by Camila Calderón.

https://misionverdad.com/traducciones/l ... continuara

Google Translator

*********

Syrian Government Condemns Visit of General Mark Milley and Accuses U.S. Occupying Forces of Stealing Country’s Oil
By Jeremy Kuzmarov - March 13, 2023 0

US forces steal 53 tanks loaded with Syrian oil, take them to Iraq

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U.S. occupation soldiers in Al-Hasakah Province in northeastern Syria, October 2020. [Source: english.almayadeen.net]

On March 4, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Mark Milley, made a surprise visit to U.S. troops stationed in northeast Syria to the chagrin of the Syrian government, which said the visit was “illegal” and a “flagrant violation of the country’s sovereignty.”

The Syrian Foreign Ministry said that Milley’s visit would “not make Damascus stop its fight against terrorism. The U.S. and its allies put boots on the ground in Syria in 2014 under the pretext of fighting Daesh. The Takfiri terrorist group had emerged as Washington was running out of excuses to extend its regional interference. The U.S.-led coalition keeps its illegal presence on the Arab country’s soil, although Damascus and its allies defeated Daesh in late 2017.”

Image
U.S. Joint Chiefs Chair Army General Mark Milley speaks with U.S. forces in Syria during an unannounced visit, at a U.S. military base in northeast Syria, March 4, 2023. [Source: gazette.com]

Who is the Real Thief?
As Syria struggles to recover from a devastating earthquake on February 6, Biden administration officials are warning that Bashar al-Assad’s government will take advantage of the easing of banking restrictions to funnel money into its own coffers, and will divert humanitarian aid, like food and tents, being sent to victims of the natural disaster for its own uses.[1]

The Syrian Oil Ministry, however, has accused U.S. occupying troops in northern Syria of stealing an average of 66,000 barrels of oil per day, about 80 percent of Syria’s oil production, which if true means that the U.S. is the real thief.

Three-quarters of Syria’s oil is located in that portion of the northeastern governorate of Deir Ezzor, east of the Euphrates River, which is under the control of the U.S.-backed Kurdish militia, the Syrian Democratic Front (SDF).[2]

The United States has 500 of its 900 forces in Syria in the Deir Ezzor oil fields, from which the oil is being allegedly stolen. (There are also crucial wheat fields there, which the U.S. is likewise stealing, according to the Syrian government.)

Image
U.S. occupation forces near Deir Ezzor, east of the Euphrates River. [Source: marktaliano.net]

According to the Lebanese-based news network Al-Mayadeen, Syrian government accusations of theft have been confirmed by Russian intelligence operating in Syria.

The US, a bandit in Syria

Image
The Russian conclusion is not really contestable in light of the fact that when he was President, Donald Trump admitted that stealing Syria’s oil was a main goal of the U.S. military occupation.

In October 2019, Trump told a gathering of police chiefs in Chicago that “we’re keeping the oil [in Syria]—we want to keep the oil. Forty-five million dollars a month? Keep the oil. We’ve secured the oil.”

Image
[Source: app.hedgeye.com]

Seconding Trump’s pitch for exploiting Syria’s war-blasted oil fields was Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a hawk on Syria who said: “This doesn’t violate any law, in my view. This is a win-win: The SDF will get more money if we can modernize the oil fields. We’re not going over there to enrich America—we’re over there to help our allies, deny our enemy resources that will allow them to get stronger over time and finally—and this is OK—to lower the cost to us.”

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Lindsey Graham waving a phony peace sign. Really he is a man of war. [Source: middleeasteye.net]

Graham was mistaken about the oil theft being legal. As National Public Radio (NPR) reported in a rare critical piece on the topic, an important precedent was established at the Nuremburg tribunal following the end of World War II when Walther Funk, the chairperson of the Continental Oil Company, was convicted of pillaging oil throughout occupied Europe because the German army expropriated it for the purposes of the Nazi apparatus.

Image
Walther Funk at the Nuremburg dock on the right. [Source: collections.ushmm.org]

Another Criminal Operation
Convoys of U.S. military vehicles, including tankers loaded with stolen oil from oil fields occupied by U.S. forces in Syria, are frequently seen by locals crossing toward northern Iraq, in addition to trucks loaded with military equipment.

Image
[Source: thecradle.co]
On August 15, 2022, the U.S. occupation forces brought out a convoy of 100 tankers filled with Syrian oil from Al-Hasaka countryside to its bases in the Iraqi lands through the crossing, local sources from the Al-Yaarubiyah countryside told the Syrian Arab News Agency.

Image
[Source: english.almayadeen.net]

The Cradle, a news outlet from Southwest Asia reported that employees working for private U.S. security firms who travel in four-wheel drive vehicles under U.S. air cover, are responsible for securing the transportation of the stolen Syrian oil to Iraqi territory—even though their mandate is solely to transport logistical equipment belonging to the international coalition.

Image
[Source: thecradle.co]

Shepherds in the region corroborate these claims, and indicate that the Syrian oil is transported to the Harir military site in Erbil, the capital of the Kurdistan region of Iraq (KRI), for the benefit of the Kurdish oil company KAR Group, owned by Sheikh Baz Karim Barzanji, who is close to the family of the head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP), Massoud Barzani.[3]

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Sheikh Baz Karim Barzinji, CEO of the Iraqi Kurdish oil company KAR group. [Source: kurdistan24.net]

The U.S. military claims to be performing “advisory work” in Iraq in order to provide Iraqi forces with some satellite images of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) presence in the mountains in northern Iraq.

However, this information is arguably already attainable by Iraqi authorities without U.S. help, according to sources in the military joint operations room, the highest military and security authority in Iraq.

An alternative motive may be to help oversee the oil theft transfers and profit from them while sustaining a U.S. military footprint in a vital geo-strategic region.

“Continuing What ISIS is Doing…”
In September, Syrian Ambassador to China Mohammed Hasanein Khaddam told Global Times that “The U.S. stealing Syrian national treasure is a long-time crime. In fact, the U.S.’ occupation forces on Syrian territories have continued what ISIS was doing—stealing and destroying oil fields and pipelines machinery. The U.S.’ occupation forces learned all that from ISIS, and followed the same ISIS deeds, no difference whatsoever, to steal the Syrian oil in tanks on a weekly, and sometimes daily basis, and smuggle it outside the country.”

Khaddam continued:

“Just search on the net you will read many quotes by former U.S. president Donald Trump saying that the U.S. army is in Syria for oil, while the current U.S. administration has its own claims. The two administrations have been stealing Syrian oil and gas, the same way ISIS did. What matters for the Syrian people is they are deprived of their natural wealth, which is stolen midday. The crime is stealing, and the thief is ‘the leader of the free world’ or the worst terrorist group. They share the same vision and policies and commit the same crimes. Please notice that the U.S. is the richest country in the world, stealing [from] a third world country, and imposing illegal unilateral measures to suffocate the economy and people of this country, and ‘starve and freeze the people to death’ as one U.S. politician described U.S. policies in Syria.”

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Mohammed Hasanein Khaddam [Source: globaltimes.cn]

Khaddam made clear the enormous losses suffered by the Syrian people whose legal government could use the oil revenues for the country’s development.

He states: “There are direct losses of $24.2 billion until the end of the first half of 2022. Among them, $18.2 billion result from extraction, smuggling and illegal trade in Syrian oil, gas and mineral resources under the auspices, protection and support of the U.S. forces illegally present in Syria. $3.2 billion result from sabotage and theft of facilities for the extraction and transportation of Syrian oil, gas and mineral resources by armed terrorist groups, and $2.8 billion result from bombing and aggression carried out by the forces of the so-called illegal ‘international coalition’ on the Syrian oil and gas facilities.”

Before 2011, Syria produced 385,000 barrels/day, nearly five times today’s production.

Much of Syria’s 2011 production capacity was bombed or shut down during the Anglo-American 2011 regime-change war, that along with their Islamic State and al-Nusra assets sought to overthrow al-Assad.

Prior to 2011, Syria ran an oil production surplus, and exported oil and natural gas. But the effect of the war, the Caesar sanctions (with a follow-on specifically targeting the Syrian oil industry), and apparent theft of oil today, is devastating.

Ambassador Khaddam reported: “The U.S. aim of stealing Syrian oil is to cut Syria from its own oil. While we used to export electricity to Jordan and Lebanon, now we don’t have the oil to generate electricity. We were sufficient in gas. Now gas is a treasure for Syrian families…. In winter nights, the temperature is always minus in many parts of Syria. It’s really cold. We don’t have the heating oil, and we don’t have the electricity to use for heating and cooking.”

Former U.S. Ambassador to Syria Adds Voice For Withdrawal
Robert Ford, the Obama administration’s ambassador to Syria who once favored an aggressive confrontation with Bashir al-Assad, is among those now calling for the U.S. to end its military occupation of Syria.

Ford supported a bill initiated by Matt Gaetz (R-FL) demanding the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria within 180 days, which was rejected in a 321-103 vote in the House of Representatives last Wednesday.[4]

In a letter to Congress,, Ford wrote that the U.S. mission has no clear objective and that leftist Kurdish forces in Syria, with U.S. support, had claimed the last piece of ISIS territory in March 2019 and the Pentagon has assessed that ISIS now lacks the capacity to strike the U.S. at home.

If the U.S. withdrew, Ford said that the Kurdish separatists, while enjoying significant amounts of autonomy, would be pushed into direct talks with the Syrian government over a power-sharing agreement, which the Turks would likely support.

Ford has also said it is now time to take a hard look at whether U.S. economic sanctions were working and at what cost. “…the sanctions are not delivering political concessions from Bashar al-Assad. And…it’s disingenuous for those who justify the sanctions to say that they don’t harm ordinary Syrians living in government-controlled territories. They obviously do. All I can say is we’re inflicting pain without getting much for it.”

Image
Robert Ford [Source: cbsnews.com]

U.S. Troops in Syria: “A Recruiting Tool For ISIS”
Despite the defeat of his bill, Matt Gaetz said that he was encouraged that his Syria legislation “may lead us to a broader discussion about the 2001 AUMF [Authorization for the Use of Military Force],” which has been used to validate U.S. troop deployments across the Middle East.

According to Gaetz, having U.S. troops in Syria “is a recruiting tool for ISIS.” “We have to also acknowledge, Syria and Iraq are the two countries on the planet Earth where we have done the most to fund ISIS. We give weapons to these so-called moderate rebels—which I actually thought was an oxymoron—and it turns out they’re not that moderate. Sometimes the rebels we fund to go fight Assad, turn around and raise the ISIS flag. And so it’s quite silly to be saying we have to withdraw to stop ISIS when it is our very presence in Syria in some cases that has been the best gift to ISIS,” he said.

Gaetz further mentioned Al-Nusra, and the numerous other groups within Syria. “There’s no real clear delineation as to what the ‘enduring defeat of ISIS’ means,” he said. This is not our role, and our vision of democracy has not worked: “We have tried this time and again, to build a democracy out of sand and blood and Arab militias, and time and again, the work we do does not reduce chaos. Oftentimes, it causes chaos—the very chaos that then subsequently leads to terrorism.”

Gaetz also hit at the narrative that the U.S. is upholding the “balance of power” in the region, promulgated by what he identified as “Georgetown School of Foreign Service” acolytes: “You go tell that to the parents of the Americans who have to sleep tonight in Syria, who have to guard oil fields with Iranian drones coming at them—that they’re necessary to preserve the balance of power.”

Further, Gaetz gave an interesting comment given to The Intercept regarding his future plans: “Syria is my leadoff hitter. We’re going to take a trip around the globe. We may go to Yemen. We may have stops in Niger. We may have stops in Sudan. Maybe ultimately, we’ll end in Ukraine”[5]

Image
[Source: nypost.com]

The U.S. Occupation is Illegal
According to The Intercept, the legal rationale for U.S. occupation is dubious at best.

With ISIS suppressed, the administration has suggested the purpose of the occupation is to act as a bulwark against Iran.

Giving voice to this view, The Washington Post reported: “The balance of power in Syria’s multi sided conflict depends on the American presence. Where U.S. troops retreat, American officials see an opening for the Syrian military or forces from Russia or Turkey to advance. Some U.S. officials have stressed that the American deployment precludes Iranian forces from establishing a ‘land bridge’ that would allow them to more easily supply weapons to their Hezbollah allies in Lebanon. ‘It’s about keeping a balance,’ said one senior official, speaking on condition of anonymity.”

The Intercept pointed out, however, that Iran already has a direct “land bridge” through eastern Syria to Lebanon; the U.S. occupation merely adds some time to the Iranian truckers’ journey. More to the point, as Ford emphasized, there is no authorization to deploy troops overseas to counter Iran. “The 2001 authorization of the use of military force was all about Al Qaeda and, to a secondary extent, the Taliban and Afghanistan,” he said. “It wasn’t about Iranian or pro-Iranian militias in eastern Syria.”


*The U.S. media have widely condemned Assad for allegedly blocking humanitarian aid from getting to the needy in rebel held areas, claiming that Assad is channeling all aid through Damascus and taking his cut. The media at the same time fail to discuss the ravaging effects of U.S. sanctions in compounding the misery of Syria’s people and fact that U.S. occupying forces stood by and allowed people to die. A characteristically one-sided and possibly defamatory piece is Jane Ferguson, “How Assad Blocked Aid to Syrian Earthquake Victims,” The New Yorker, February 13, 2023. ↑

*In December 2022, protesters demanded the expulsion of the SDF from Syria and the holding of its leaders accountable for committing crimes, and for plundering national wealth, which they deliver to the U.S. ↑

*Barzani maintains a strong relationship with the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Syria, whose members have been protecting convoys of Syrian oil tanks. Sheikh Baz came under some scrutiny in March when one of his villas, reportedly used as a safe house by Israel’s Mossad spy agency, was struck by Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) missiles, killing and injuring agents inside. At the time, Kurdish politician Hiwa Seid Salim told The Cradle he suspects the reason for the Iranian attack on Sheikh Baz’s villa was due to his business activities, which Iranian security sources say includes selling Iraqi (or Syrian) oil and gas to Israel. ↑

*Gaetz introduced his resolution, which was backed by the Progressive Democratic Party Caucus along with libertarian conservatives and right-wingers like Marjorie Taylor-Greene (R-GA), after four U.S. soldiers were wounded in a raid in February. On the House floor, Gaetz said American troops in Syria were trapped in a “hellscape” of war and meddling from various foreign nations and the American counter-terrorism operations in the country have “no end in sight.” Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY), the ranking Democrat on the House Foreign Relations Committee, said he does not support an “indefinite” presence in Syria, but the resolution was “premature” and would leave partner forces “out to dry.” That argument was backed by Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC), who said a withdrawal would lead to a “much larger, more complex problem at a higher cost and threat to Americans worldwide.” “We don’t need to repeat 9/11,” Wilson said. “Peace is best maintained through strength.” ↑

*Max Blumenthal of The Grayzone Project tweeted on March 9: “Americans who want to see an end to the U.S. occupation and plunder of Syria owe Matt Gaetz and his partners in the Congressional Progressive Caucus a debt of gratitude for their effort. A similar coalition has driven Rage Against The War Machine and anti war efforts across Europe.” In the past, Gaetz, like some other Republicans, has claimed that concerns about Russian threats to national security are “phony,” though has also warned about China posing the most serious threat to U.S. national security and advocated for an expansion of the U.S. military buildup in the Asia-Pacific. Gaetz and other MAGA Republicans furthermore overplay the threat of illegal immigration, obscuring its root cause, and support the militarization of the U.S. Mexican border; building a border wall and cruel policies directed against immigrants. ↑

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Re: Syria

Post by blindpig » Sat Mar 25, 2023 2:35 pm

Syrians Have Every Right To Attack US Occupiers: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

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The western world is solemnly commemorating the 20th anniversary of the Iraq invasion by blindly following the US into more conflict and militarism while repeating all the same kinds of mass media malpractice.



If you think it’s a coincidence that the western world suddenly got super–duper interested in China’s human rights record right when China began threatening US planetary domination, then you’re a bootlicking moron who deserves to be shamed in public.

A leaked 2017 State Department memo explicitly acknowledged that it’s US government policy to ignore the human rights violations of US-aligned nations while attacking them in nations like China, Russia, North Korea and Iran. Stop buying into this performance.

China has been sorting out China’s internal affairs for thousands of years; they don’t suddenly need help from a bunch of white stuffed shirts in Washington, London and Canberra just because a few sociopathic think tankers say so. Leave China’s issues to the Chinese to address.



People who live in the Middle East have every right to attack the occupying forces there whose presence they oppose, and those occupying forces do not have any legitimate right to retaliate.


Every American who is killed or injured by those opposing US military occupations was killed or injured because the US empire put them there. What happens to them is the empire’s fault, not the fault of those rightfully resisting a hostile occupation.

Claims that attacks on US occupiers in Syria are “backed” by Iran should never be taken on blind faith, but to be clear it is entirely legitimate for Iran to involve itself in this conflict. Iran is an ally of Syria and is in Syria with the Syrian government’s permission; neither of these things are true of the US. Perhaps more importantly, Iran is in the Middle East, and therefore has infinitely more legitimacy than the US in making the Middle East its business.



Even if everything US pundits and politicians are saying about TikTok is true (and of course it isn’t), it’s still far less scary than what the US government does to us with American apps, and it’s still far less scary than giving the White House massive new censorship powers. If you live anywhere under the thumb of the US empire, then any information-gathering or censorship policies the US government sets for itself have real relevance to your life, because the US government has actual power over you. The Chinese government does not. This is obvious to anyone who doesn’t have soup for brains.

It’s crazy how the First Amendment explicitly says “Congress shall make no law” abridging freedom of speech or freedom of the press, and yet congress is preparing to do literally exactly that with all American TikTok users.

It’s also crazy that US congressmen who don’t understand any technology more advanced than a shovel and think the internet comes from magic beans are making decisions about online platforms that affect everyone.




The problem is not that Australia’s corrupt media are saying the nation will have to follow the US into war with China, the problem is that they’re almost certainly correct. This means Australians must demand we immediately exit our alliances with the US that would lead to this. They’re not being dishonest when they say we’ll have to follow if the US goes to war against China, they’re being dishonest in their failure to immediately begin asking “Okay, so how do we GET THE FUCK OUT OF THIS BAT SHIT INSANE SITUATION RIGHT THIS VERY INSTANT?”

Because that’s the only sane response to finding out that your nation will have to go to war with its primary trading partner to facilitate some dopey agendas cooked up in Washington, Arlington and Langley: asking how the fuck do we get ourselves the fuck out of this situation? What do we need to do? What alliances need to be shredded? Whose offices do we need to storm and whose desks do we need to pound on? Failure to ask these questions is malpractice. Because going to war with China will destroy our country. Absolutely destroy it. It cannot happen.

The Australian media aren’t criminal in telling us the US is going to drag us into a war of unimaginable horror, the Australian media are criminal for telling us we just need to accept that and get comfortable with the idea. Fuck you. No. Get us out of this World War III trap immediately.

Never in history has hard-hitting, adversarial journalism been so urgently needed in Australia as it is right now, and never in history have the Australian media been less fit for the job.

If you’re wondering why I’ve been writing so much about my home country lately instead of focusing on the hub of the empire in the US like I usually do, that’s why. It’s because our worthless, bootlicking press aren’t doing their fucking jobs right when it’s most urgently important that they do.

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US occupation plunders hundreds of tons of Syrian oil

25 March، 2023

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Hasaka, SANA- The US occupation forces continued to steal Syrian oil from al-Jazeera fields, as on Saturday they transferred dozens of tankers loaded with hundreds of tons of stolen oil, in addition to vehicles carrying military equipment towards their bases in Iraq.

‘A convoy comprising 148 vehicles affiliated to the US occupation, among them 80 tankers for transporting stolen crude oil, and 60 vehicles of refrigerators and trucks, accompanied by eight military armored vehicles, headed from the Syrian territory via the illegitimate al-Walid border crossing to northern Iraq’, local sources from AL-Yarubiya area told SANA.

On March 4th, the US forces brought out two convoys containing 57 vehicles that included covered trucks and tankers filled with stolen oil headed to Iraq via the illegitimate crossings of al-Mahmoudiya and al-Walid in al-Yarubiya countryside.

Rafah al-Allouni/ Hala Zain

https://www.sana.sy/en/?p=304479

Sabbagh: Terrorist war has caused enormous damage to water sector in Syria

24 March، 2023

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New York, SANA- The terrorist war imposed on Syria since 2011 has caused more than $1.2 billion worth of damage to its water sector, Ambassador Bassam Sabbagh, Head of the Syrian delegation to the UN conference entitled “Water for Sustainable Development”, has affirmed.

Sabbagh denounced in his speech before the Conference that illegal Western coercive measures impeded the efforts of the Syrian State to secure financing for water projects and restricted the importation of equipment necessary to restore damaged facilities, maintain the projects that are in operation and develop the infrastructure of this vital sector.

He said that the percentage of damage in the water sector in Syria amounted to 41 percent and affected water sources and facilities that supply more than 75 percent of the population, condemning the use of drinking water as a weapon by terrorist groups in Hasaka province in recent years, which caused enormous suffering to the citizens.

Sabbagh stressed that the devastating earthquake hit Syria on February 6 caused the destruction of many infrastructure facilities related to the water sector, such as 80 water tanks that supply drinking water to one and a half million people in six governorates.

Finally, he denounced that Israeli occupation continues to steal water from the occupied Syrian Golan, ignoring international laws and regulations.

“The occupation authorities are exploiting the waters of Lake Tiberias and the Banyas River and their springs, as well as looting the water of the Raqqad basin, a tributary of the Yarmouk basin,” Sabbagh concluded.

Fedaa al-Rhayiah/ MHD Ibrahim

https://www.sana.sy/en/?p=304432

Journalist debunks OPCW’s latest attempts to whitewash cover-up of its investigation into alleged Douma incident

25 March، 2023

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New York, SANA-American Journalist, Aaron Maté, said that the alleged chemical attack in Douma, Damascus countryside of 2018 has occurred to accuse the Syrian government of the incident.

“The apparent symptoms pf the victims won’t meet a mere drama with the effects of chlorine use,” Mate said on Friday at UNSC unofficial session.

Aaron Maté debunked the OPCW’s latest attempts to whitewash the cover-up of its investigation into the alleged April 2018 chemical attack in Douma, Syria.

“Two experts of the OPCW, who have 30 years’ experience of work, were among the team who made the investigation into Douma accident that was sent to Syria,” Mate said, clarifying that they want to express their opinions, but the OPCW supressed, rejected to interview them and defamed them in front of public opinion.

“So long as the OPCW continues to suppress the science, the Douma victims will remain without justice.” He said.

Speaking to the United Nations Security Council, Aaron Maté of the Grayzone called out the OPCW’s ongoing cover-up of its investigation into the alleged April 2018 chemical attack in Douma, Syria.

Aaron also debunkd the latest efforts by the OPCW, in a new report put out by the watchdog’s Investigation and Identification Team (IIT), to whitewash the scandal.

Mazen Eyon

https://www.sana.sy/en/?p=304466
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Re: Syria

Post by blindpig » Tue Apr 25, 2023 2:17 pm

SYRIA DEMANDS US COMPENSATION FOR ILLEGAL OIL EXPORT
24 Apr 2023 , 11:35 am .

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For some time now, the systematic theft of the Arab country's natural wealth by the United States has been denounced (Photo: AP)

Syria calls on the international community to put an end to the systematic looting of its natural wealth by the US occupation forces and its terrorist allies, the country's Foreign Ministry has declared.

"Syria condemns the actions of the US occupation forces and demands compensation for the economic losses inflicted as a result of illegal oil exports from fields in the north-east of the country," the ministry said .

For some time now, the United States has been denouncing the plundering of the wealth of the Arab country, which, according to the authorities of that country, "contradicts international humanitarian law and leads to the impoverishment and suffering of its citizens."

"The US must stop supporting terrorist and separatist teams and withdraw troops from Syrian territory," the ministry added.

Several large batches of Syrian oil have been transferred to Iraq and Turkey since early April. According to the institution, Syria's losses in the oil and gas sector amounted to 107.1 billion dollars at the end of 2022.

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Echoes of Taif: Syria and Saudi Arabia Reconcile
APRIL 23, 2023

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Photo edit of Bashar al-Assad (left) and Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud (MbS, right), leaders of Syria and Saudi Arabia, respectively. Photo: The Cradle.

By The Cradle – April 16, 2023

Syria-Saudi relations leap forward with joint statements, bilateral meetings, and, for the first time in 12 years, a shared vision for resolving the crisis in Syria.

During his visit to Moscow in mid-March, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad announced that Saudi Arabia no longer seeks to interfere in Syria’s internal affairs and has ended support of armed opposition militias.

In the same Russia Today interview, Assad declared his refusal to meet with Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan without the withdraw of Turkish military forces from the lands it occupies in Syria.

These two statements clearly underline Damascus’ policy approach to “reconciliations” taking place across West Asia. Assad’s change in stance towards Saudi Arabia came only after Riyadh completely withdrew its military presence from Syria.

Notably, rapprochement efforts took a big leap forward two days ago when the Saudis, for the first time since the Syrian war’s onset, received Syria’s Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad in Riyadh.

Failed regime change plans
Since 2012, the Saudis had taken the lead in regional and international efforts to arm Syrian opposition groups across the spectrum, including the Muslim Brotherhood, Salafists, and al-Qaeda.

This sensitive information was disclosed by former Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al-Thani during an interview on the Kuwaiti Al-Qabas channel in May 2022, as he sought to distance Doha from the NATO-Persian Gulf alliance that financed and armed the Syrian conflict with the aim of overthrowing the government.

Sheikh Hamad claimed that in 2011, the late Saudi King Abdullah asked Qatar to lead operations rooms to support the armed Syrian opposition and later that year, two operational centers were established in Jordan and Turkiye by the allied states to coordinate their efforts on multiple fronts.

Saudi Arabia was present in both centers, along with the US, Qatar, Jordan,and Turkiye. In 2012, after Saudi Prince Bandar bin Sultan was appointed to head Saudi intelligence, he personally took charge of the operation to overthrow President Assad.

As Sheikh Hamad describes, Prince Bandar drew up military plans to occupy Damascus and the Syrian presidential palace and requested an exorbitant amount of money — $2 trillion dollars.

Syria and its allies already had documented information about the role of Bandar bin Sultan in terror attacks on the Syrian capital between mid-2012 and mid-2013. The year-long campaign of intense bombing and armed assaults on Damascus did not succeed, and the alliance of states supporting Syrian militant groups began to acknowledge that regime change would not be as easy as anticipated.

Riyadh’s role in US occupation of Syria
The Saudi role started to diminish as the factions it backed suffered battlefield losses in central and southern Syria. This decline was not due to Riyadh’s desire to de-escalate, but rather because of these losses.

The trend of defeats for the Saudi-backed factions stopped after the assassination of Zahran Alloush on 25 December, 2015). Alloush was the leader of the so-called “Jaysh al-Islam” in the Damascus countryside, a faction that was a Saudi spearhead directed towards the Syrian capital until it was eventually expelled by the Syrian army and its allies.

The defeats of the Saudi factions in Syria coincided with changes in the leadership in Riyadh led by the new crown prince, Muhammad bin Salman (MbS). MbS focused his country’s armaments and financial efforts on the war on Yemen.

However, this did not mean Saudi Arabia’s complete withdrawal from the Syrian conflict. To the east of the Euphrates River, Saudi oil money was spent on strengthening the presence of the US occupation army who continue to plunder the country’s oil wealth.

Thamer Al-Sabhan, the former Minister of State for Arabian Gulf Affairs, coordinated with both the US occupation forces and tribal sheiks in that region from 2017 to 2019. During that time, Saudi Arabia secured funds for a continued US presence in Syria.

The Saudi involvement in the north was revealed by then-US President Donald Trump in 2018, when he explicitly stated that Saudi Arabia was interested in his decision to withdraw US forces from Syria (a decision he later abandoned) and that it must pay for the continuation of the occupation—which it did.

Furthermore, MbS had previously stated before that the US should remain in Syria for a long time to counter Iranian efforts in West Asia.

Shift toward diplomacy with Damascus
After Trump left the White House in 2021, Russian President Vladimir Putin initiated a reconciliation process between Damascus and Riyadh.MbS came to the conviction that investing in the Syrian war was no longer feasible for his country, as he discovered the limits of his power—first in Yemen, second in Syria, and third against Iran. He started negotiations with the latter in Iraq and Oman, before agreeing to the China-brokered normalization deal with Tehran.

Riyadh resumed security talks with Damascus in 2022, but without fully restoring their political relationship. Saudi Arabia initiated the policy of “zero problems” after failing to achieve political changes through military means and realizing that its continued hostility with its neighbors undermined its major economic and tourism projects under MbS’ Vision 2030.

Indeed, Riyadh has taken positive steps towards Damascus, most notably in humanitarian support following the February 6, 2023 deadly earthquake, in addition to “undeclared Saudi support” that reached the Syrian state, according to The Cradle’s political sources close to Damascus and others close to Riyadh.

But for Syria, the closing statement of the joint Syrian-Saudi meeting in Jeddah—following the visit of the Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad on 12 April—are what Damascus has sought since the beginning of the war: to reach a political solution to the Syrian crisis that preserves Syria’s unity, security, and stability, and ensure the Arab identity of the state and its territorial integrity.

Finding a political settlement
The joint Syrian-Saudi statement on Syrian territorial integrity stands in stark contrast to US policy, which actively supports separatist Kurdish forces in eastern Syria.

The joint statement also highlighted that the two sides discussed necessary steps to achieve “a comprehensive political settlement to the Syrian crisis that ends all its repercussions.”

The use of the term “repercussions” indicates that all the political and territorial changes caused by the Syrian war are on the negotiating table, and must be tackled in order to achieve a comprehensive political settlement.

This alignment of Riyadh and Damascus’ vision for resolving the crisis is a major turning point in Saudi policy towards the Syrian crisis, as it places Saudi Arabia on the same side as Syria in seeking a resolution to the conflict.

Syria’s approach to Arab League return
The return of Syria to the Arab League is not seen as a primary objective by Damascus, as Assad made clear during his interview with RT. The president instead emphasized his priority of restoring bilateral relations with Saudi Arabia as the first stage of Syrian reintegration into the region.

Syrian sources affirm that Damascus considers its return to the Arab League as an inevitable outcome of normalizing relations with other Arab countries.

The Jeddah statement did not, however, mention specific political solutions that have been previously proposed by peacemakers in Geneva and Astana, or in UN Resolution 2254.

Instead, it emphasized addressing the “repercussions” of the crisis and ending the presence of “armed militias and external interference,” which mirrors the Syria approach to resolving the conflict.

Mekdad’s visit to Jeddah—a mere two days before the meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries to discuss the issue of Syria’s return to the League of Arab States—has slammed the door shut on those who oppose it.

The re-established “hotline” between Damascus and Riyadh, which has helped to prevent regional crises in the past, indicates the willingness of both parties to reduce tension in the region and find common solutions, reminiscent of the Taif Agreement in 1989, which brought an end to the Lebanese civil war.

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Re: Syria

Post by blindpig » Tue May 09, 2023 1:50 pm

Arab League votes to withdraw Syria’s 12-year long suspension

Syria was suspended from the Arab League in 2012 after war broke out in the country. Several members of the League supported anti-government forces which included Islamist militias

May 08, 2023 by Peoples Dispatch

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Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad visited the United Arab Emirates, March 20, 2023. (Photo: SANA)

In a significant step in the ongoing process of Syria’s reintegration in regional politics, the council of the Arab League voted on Sunday, May 7, to readmit it as full member of the group.

Though only 13 out of the 22 League members were present in the meeting at its headquarters in Cairo, all voted unanimously in favor of Syria’s re-admission into the regional group founded in 1945.

Syria was one of the founders of the group. Its membership was suspended following the outbreak of the war in the country in 2011. Several members of the League accused the Bashar al-Assad government of violating human rights and went on to support anti-government forces, including Islamist forces.

Syria will be able to participate the upcoming Arab League summit in Saudi Arabia on May 19.

Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said that Assad is welcome to join the upcoming summit “if he wishes to, because Syria, starting from this evening [May 7], is a full member of the Arab League, and from tomorrow morning they have the right to occupy any seat,” Al-Jazeera reported.

Syria’s rejoining the Arab League is the most significant step yet in the process of its reintegration into regional politics. Various Arab countries such as Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE, among others, have already reestablished bilateral relations with Syria, and some are in the process of doing so.

Regional and global reactions
While confirming the decision by the Arab League, the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates reiterated the need for dialogue and joint action by all countries in the region to face common challenges, Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported.

Syria’s close ally Iran also welcomed the decision. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said that reconciliation and collaboration to resolve disputes in the region “will deliver favorable results for collective stability and peace and will pave the way for reducing foreign profit seeking interference in regional affairs,” Press TV reported.

The US, which has imposed illegal unilateral sanctions on Syria, had earlier expressed its opposition to Syria’s reintegration into regional politics, claiming that it was a “rogue state.” It also refused to recognize the reconciliation process initiated by individual Arab countries.

Meanwhile, Russia has welcomed the decision of the Arab League. In a statement, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said that the move demonstrates the wish of the Arab countries to be independent from external interference and reflects their “aspiration to bolster coordination of actions in the interest of settling pertinent regional and international issues.”

Zakharova also emphasized that the decision “will facilitate a healthier atmosphere in the Middle East region and the swift overcoming of the consequences of the Syrian crisis,” TASS reported.

Some Arab countries—such as Qatar, which still backs anti-Assad forces in Syria, and Kuwait—have refused to normalize their relations with the country, so far. Qatar issued a statement on Sunday claiming that normalization of relations with Syria is conditional to finding a political solution to the war in the country, Reuters reported.


https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/05/08/ ... uspension/

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MAY 8, 2023 BY M. K. BHADRAKUMAR

Syria’s return to Arab League is a big deal

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Emergency meeting of Arab League foreign ministers agreed to readmit Syria, Cairo, May 7, 2023

When a mere subplot overnight assumes habitation and a name, it becomes more fascinating than the main plot itself. Syria’s return to the Arab League after its decade-long exclusion can be regarded as a sub-plot of the China-brokered rapprochement between Saudi Arabia and Iran. But then, China and Iran are not per se party to the process.

Syria’s return to the Arab League is seen as an Arab initiative, but it is quintessentially a project Riyadh steered through in close consultation and coordination with Damascus, ignoring some murmur by a clutch of Arab States and patently in defiance of Washington’s trenchant opposition.

Against the backdrop of the epochal struggle for a new world order characterised by multipolarity and resistance to Western hegemony, Russia and China quietly encouraged Riyadh to move in such a direction.

A riveting thing about the decision taken by the foreign ministers of the seven Arab League nations at the meeting in Cairo on Sunday is its sweet timing. For, this is the 80th anniversary of the establishment of the Ba’ath Party in Damascus in 1943, which espoused an ideology of Arab nationalist and anti-imperialist interests that have lately re-appeared in the geopolitics of West Asia.

Syria has a tradition of strategic autonomy. Through the past decade, it was preoccupied with fighting off the US-sponsored regime change project, with help from Russia and Iran. As it turns the corner and is stabilising, Syria’s strategic autonomy will be increasingly in evidence. This is one thing.

However, the strategic relations with Russia and Iran will continue to remain special and there should be no misconceptions on that score. But Syria is capable of ingenuity and diplomatic acumen to create space for itself to manoeuvre, as geopolitics takes a back seat and Assad prioritises stabilisation and reconstruction of the economy, which requires regional cooperation.

The recent visit by Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi to Syria testifies to Tehran’s “soft diplomacy,” exuding pragmatism that on the one hand made it clear that despite the recent rapprochement between Damascus and Arab countries, Syrian-Iranian ties are still strong and even highlighted Syria’s role in the resistance to Israel — with Raisi holding a meeting in Damascus with senior Palestinian officials, including leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad — while on the other hand, the negotiations with the Syrian leadership was largely about economic cooperation.

Raisi said Iran is ready to take an active part in the post-war reconstruction of Syria. Iran faces competition from Gulf countries that have deep pockets. Meanwhile, the warming of relations between Syria and Turkey is also on the agenda, which is sure to lead to increased trade and spur investment flow.

To put matters in perspective, Iran’s exports to Syria currently amount to a paltry sum of $243 million. However, since the beginning of the conflict in Syria, Iran has been a key sponsor of the Syrian authorities. In January 2013, Tehran opened the first credit line of $1 billion for Damascus, which was under international sanctions, thanks to which the government was able to pay for imported food. This was followed by a loan of $3.6 billion for the purchase of petroleum products. The third loan of $1 billion was extended in 2015. Tehran also allocated funds to Damascus to pay salaries to civil servants, which helped preserve state institutions. In 2012, a free trade agreement began to operate between the countries. Iran is also spending billions to finance Shiite militias in Syria and supply them with weapons. Naturally, Tehran would like to recoup some of these investments.

Syria is assessing, rightly so, that normalisation with the Arab neighbours and Turkey will be a game changer. But, while everyone is talking about Syria’s “readmission to the Arab family” as a concession, Damascus reacted to the Arab League decision in a measured way.

The Syrian Foreign Ministry statement said on Sunday, “Syria has been following the positive trends and interactions that are currently taking place in the Arab region, and believes that these benefit all Arab countries and favour the stability, security and well-being of their peoples.

“Syria has received with interest the decision issued by the meeting of the Council of the League of Arab States.” The statement went on to stress the importance of dialogue and joint action to confront the challenges facing the Arab countries. It recalled that Syria is a founding member of the Arab League and always had a strong position in favour of strengthening joint Arab action.

Most important, the statement concluded by reaffirming that the next stage requires “an effective and constructive Arab approach on the bilateral and collective levels on the basis of dialogue, mutual respect, and the common interests of the Arab nation.”

From all appearance, the Arab League statement itself was a “consensus statement” drafted with great sensitivity by Saudi Arabia.

In an interview with Al-Mayadeen, Raisi said prior to his departure for Damascus that “Syria has always been on the axis of resistance… We unequivocally support all fronts of the axis of resistance, and my visit to Syria is within the framework of this support, and we are working to strengthen the resistance front, and we will not hesitate in this.” In fact, Raisi’s arrival in Syria coincided with increased Israeli attacks by Israel on Iranian military facilities, including on Aleppo airport.

Without doubt, Iran remains Syria’s main ally and Iranian influence in Damascus is still strong. Iran views Syria as its strategic territory through which Tehran can establish ties with Lebanon and confront Israel.

What works to Syria’s advantage here is that the Saudi-Iranian detente is based on a common view in Riyadh and Tehran that they have to coexist in one form or another, since their enmity and regional rivalry turned out to be a “lose-lose” proposition that didn’t improve their regional standing. Suffice to say, their national interest resulting from their rapprochement overrides past rivalries. Syria will be a testing ground where each other’s true intentions as well as conduct will come under close scrutiny.

The good part is that the Saudis have concluded that President Assad is firmly in the saddle, having weathered the most devastating war since World War 2, and mending relations with Damascus can be a “win-win” for Riyadh.

That said, Syria is a strategic hinge where Riyadh will need to balance its strategic ties with the US and its tacit ties with Israel. But then, Saudi Arabia’s new strategic calculus also includes China and Russia. When it comes to Syria, Russia is an anchor sheet for Assad, while China has been all along on the right side of history.

The Biden Administration is driven into frenzy by the winds of change sweeping the region — the conclusive death to the neocon agenda of Arab Spring in Syria; the groundswell of Arab nationalism and the growing resistance to western hegemony that create new requirements of pan-Arabism; the hidden charms of multipolarity; the rise of China; the existential crisis in Israel; the dialectics of tradition and modernity in the regional states amidst the aspirations of youthful societies and so on. Paradoxically, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Assad would have common interests today on many of these fronts.

Biden who is like a beached whale on West Asia’s political landscape, has deputed his National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan to rush to Saudi Arabia, holding the hands of his Indian and Emirati counterparts for company to save face and salvage the wreck of the US’ regional strategies!

Wisdom lies in Washington using Saudis (and Emiratis and Indians) to open a line to Damascus. However, Assad will set the very same non-negotiable condition to Washington for normalisation that he insisted with Turkey — vacation of US occupation. Beyond that lies, of course, Israel’s annexation of Golan Heights.
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Re: Syria

Post by blindpig » Sat May 27, 2023 2:34 pm

US IS BUILDING ANOTHER MILITARY BASE IN NORTHERN SYRIA
May 26, 2023 , 2:41 p.m.

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US soldiers patrol the Suwaydiyah oil fields in Hasakah province, northeast Syria (Photo: AFP)

The United States is building a new military base in Raqqa province in northern Syria, Antiwar reports from a source close to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The justification would be to consolidate an anti-ISIS coalition.

According to the outlet, the United States backs the SDF and maintains around 900 soldiers in eastern Syria, allowing it to control around a third of Syrian territory. The report notes that there are currently around 24 US-run military sites spread across eastern Syria.

For the United States, its presence in the Arab country has always been justified by the fight against ISIS. But his stay is part of the economic war against Damascus, which includes the theft and sale of Syrian oil. For its part, the government of that country, and its allies, continue to fight against the terrorist group without the help of the US military.

The construction of this new base reveals US plans to continue the occupation indefinitely. In March, the House rejected a resolution introduced by Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) that would have ordered President Biden to withdraw from Syria. The legislation failed in a vote of 103-321, with 56 Democrats and 47 Republicans voting in favor of the bill. The House also recently voted to uphold the "sanctions" with only two members of Congress speaking out against the legislation.

The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has been recovering its place of influence in the territory. Now, thanks to the return of diplomatic ties with Saudi Arabia, it has rejoined the Arab League despite the objection of the United States.

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US occupation plunders tons of Syrian oil from al-Jazeera region

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Archive

17 May، 2023

Hasaka, SANA- The US occupation troops continued to plunder Syrian wealth, as over the past hours, tanks loaded with hundreds of tons of stolen oil from al-Jazeera region headed towards Iraqi territory.

A US convoy, composed of 42 tankers loaded with stolen Syrian oil left al-Jazeera fields in batches through the illegitimate al-Mahmudiyah crossing towards the occupation bases in Iraqi territory, local sources from al-Yarubiaya countryside told SANA reporter

The sources added that the occupation, in cooperation with QSD militia, has intensified plundering oil over the recent weeks from al-Jazeera fields, deliberately transferring the stolen quantities to its bases in Iraq through batches and intermittent times.

Rafah al-Allouni/ Hala Zain

https://www.sana.sy/en/?p=308674

US-backed QSD militia kidnaps several citizens from Hasaka and Raqqa countryside

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11 May، 2023

Hasaka, Raqqa, SANA- The armed groups of US occupation-backed QSD militia stormed several villages near Tal Hamis town and Tabqa city in the countryside of Hasaka and Raqqa, under the pretext of searching for wanted people.

Local sources told SANA that “the heavily – armed groups encircled Ghassan and al-Zahra villages in Tal Hamis town in the southern countryside of Qamishli, and stormed into many houses under the pretext of searching for wanted persons with the support of US occupation forces, meanwhile, the occupation forces’ helicopters were flying to the west of Raqqa city .

The so-called “military police” of the QSD militia carried out a campaign of raids in Tabqa city , kidnapping a number of young men with the aim of recruiting them in their ranks.

Hybah/ Mazen

https://www.sana.sy/en/?p=308279

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France’s foreign policy towards the Arab world is colonial, backward, and detached from reality, says Syria

Former colonial power France had supported the anti-Assad forces in Syria with the objective of regime change, which prolonged the war in the country. France also became part of the US-led illegal unilateral sanctions regime against Syria

May 25, 2023 by Peoples Dispatch

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France’s Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna. (Photo: France Diplomacy/Twitter)

In a strongly worded statement on Wednesday, May 24, Syria claimed that French policies towards the country were “isolated and detached from reality,” and asked it to review its policies as people across the world have discarded the era of colonialism and domination by the West.

In the statement, Syria’s Foreign and Expatriate Ministry claimed that France needs to discard its dreams of restoring “legacies of colonial era and domination of people” as the world today is based on multipolarity, rejection of immoral and inhuman economic sanctions, and respect for sovereignty and independence and equality of states, Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported.

The statement was a response to French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna’s claims a day earlier, where she said that the Syrian president was responsible for killing thousands of people and must be tried for his crimes.

Colonna was speaking to a French TV channel on the political scenario following Syria’s re-induction into the Arab League and the increasing normalization of Syrian diplomatic relations with other Arab countries after over a decade of isolation.

France ruled over Syria between 1919 and 1946 as a mandate created by the victors of the First World War.

Colonna also accused Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of using chemical weapons, and claimed that until he mends his ways, France will not have any dealings with Syria. She demanded that Assad agree for a “reconciliation, and to fight against terrorism and the illegal drug trade.” She also called Assad an “enemy of his people.”

France’s active involvement in Syrian war
Rejecting Colonna’s claims, Syria reminded France of how it had unsuccessfully tried to change the regime in the country through the use of terrorism. After the outbreak of the war in Syria in 2011, France, along with the US and other NATO countries, backed the anti-Assad forces and provided them with weapons, money, and training.

Even now, France, along with the US, has been supporting the separatist Kurdish forces in Syria’s oil rich eastern parts in the name of fighting ISIS.

France, the US, and other NATO countries have also imposed numerous economic and political sanctions against Syria, crippling its economy and reconstruction efforts.

The unilateral punitive measures—as these sanctions are recognized in international law—are illegal. The UN and other human rights groups have asked the US, France, and others to withdraw them, noting that they cause and prolong the suffering of millions of Syrians affected by war.

Over a decade-long war and Western sanctions have led to the deaths of over half a million Syrians. Almost half of the country’s pre-war population has been displaced and its economy is destroyed. Some parts of Syria are still under rebel control or foreign occupation.

France and its allies refused to lift the sanctions even after the devastating earthquake in February which killed over 5,000 Syrians and displaced hundreds of thousands, impacting the relief work.

France and its Western allies like the US have also criticized Syria’s re-induction into the Arab League and threatened Arab countries against such moves. However, most of the Arab states—except Kuwait, Qatar and Morocco—have ignored these threats and are currently at different stages of normalizing their bilateral relations with Syria.

Calling French policies towards it “backward,” Syria recommended that France “must review its positions as their era of domination is discarded by the people around the world and particularly so after the Arab League summit in Saudi Arabia.”

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2023/05/25/ ... ays-syria/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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