Syria

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Re: Syria

Post by blindpig » Mon Sep 10, 2018 1:32 pm

Washington’s Long War on Syria Isn’t About to End: On the Contrary, the White House Has Blessed Pentagon Plans for More Aggression
September 10, 2018

By Stephen Gowans

The United States has a new strategy for Syria, according to The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. The new direction, however, is simply the old, largely unrecognized, one, transformed from a de facto status to official one by presidential authorization. In other words, an aggressive US policy on Syria will continue to be implemented—one the US president had, for a time, openly mused about reversing, but has now accepted.


http://www.barakabooks.com/

The strategy, crafted by “the steady state”, and now acquiesced to by the US president, features the continued illegal and indefinite occupation of roughly one-third of Syrian territory by US forces as well as US interference in Syrian attempts to liberate Idlib from the control of Al Qaeda forces allied to Washington, its Arab monarchist collaborators, and their partner, Israel. It also features US pressure, military and otherwise, to confront Iranian forces and to drive them out of Syria. The overarching goal of the strategy, clearly articulated by US officials, is to dictate the form, nature and raison d’être of the Syrian state, the self-appointed prerogative of a globe-girding dictatorship. In the words of US officials, Washington seeks to build “a stable, nonthreatening government acceptable to all Syrians and the international community”. The goal, redolent with the stench of imperialism, can be challenged on democratic and liberal grounds, as well as on legal and moral ones.
First, it might be noted that almost every state in the Arab world was created by the dominant imperialist powers of the day, Britain and France, to serve their own interests at the expense of the Arabs they subordinated to their rule, occasionally directly but usually indirectly. London and Paris partitioned West Asia and North Africa without the slightest regard to the aspirations of the people who inhabited these regions, and imposed rulers upon them, quislings who collaborated with their imperial patrons in plundering the region’s resources. Washington’s plan to establish a government in Syria acceptable to the international community, i.e., the United States, continues a long imperialist tradition of indirect rule by outside powers.

Partisans of democracy should object to this plan for three reasons.

First, a Syrian government doesn’t have to be acceptable to the United States or any other country. It only needs to be acceptable to Syrians.

Second, democracy has both intra- and inter-national aspects. Internationally, it means that peoples have the right to organize their own affairs, free from the interference of foreign states. Governments need only answer to their own people; not to Washington. While the point should be obvious, it is studiously avoided in public discourse and therefore needs to made: US “leadership” and democracy are antitheses.

Third, there can be no democracy intra-nationally, if a government has been imposed on a people by outside powers, as provided for in Washington’s plan. Clearly, a government acceptable to Washington would be a government willing to do Washington’s bidding; one that would assent to reshaping Syria’s economy and politics to comport with US business and military-strategic interests, not with the interests of Syrians. There are already too many quisling governments in the Arab world; another is not needed.

Washington’s objection to the Assad government is of a piece with its fierce opposition to Nasser’s Egypt, Saddam’s Iraq, and Gaddafi’s Libya. All these governments pursued the Arab socialist project of breaking the control of the region’s wealth by the Western oil companies and their Arab Petains in order to direct it to the uplift of Arabs. While the Western-backed emirs, kings and sultans built pharaonic palaces and lived lives of luxury in exchange for allowing Western oil corporations to pile up a Himalaya of profits, their subjects wallowed in poverty. Meanwhile, in Iraq, during the 1970s, the Arab socialists used their country’s oil wealth to build a Golden Age. In Libya, Muamar Gaddafi, inspired by Nasser’s Arab socialism, built a society beyond the dreams of his compatriots who had lived lives of stark under-privilege under the tyranny of the Western-imposed King Idris I. In Syria and Egypt, Arab socialists implemented social reforms to uplift the poor, and asserted the right of women to equality. At the same time, they brought large parts of the economy under public control and implemented plans to overcome the economic legacy of colonialism. In Egypt, the president Gamal Abdel Nasser, the most popular Arab since the Prophet Mohamed, lived in the modest house he occupied as an army colonel, while sending his children to public school. He threatened the West by proclaiming the democratic slogan “Arab oil for Arabs”. All these governments were assisted ably by the Soviet Union. Syria’s government stands in this tradition. It is the only Arab socialist government that has withstood the anti-democratic designs of Washington, Israel and the Saudi kings, to bring the entire Arab world, from the Atlantic to the Gulf, under their uncontested domination.

As part of its campaign to topple the last force of Arab independence, the United States currently controls about one-third of Syrian territory, by means of an unspecified number of US service personnel who direct a mercenary force of Kurds, and some traitorous Arabs under Kurd control. The Pentagon says there are some 2,500 US troops in Syria, but acknowledges the number is higher, since covert forces and aircrew are not counted. The Pentagon, then, is running a semi-covert war on a sovereign Arab state, having obtained no legal authorization for its actions, either from the United Nations Security Council or the US Congress. The point is only partly relevant, since even if the Pentagon had obtained legal authorization for its actions, the legal cover would in no way justify the occupation. Still, failure to obtain legal authorization is significant in bringing to the fore the question of why US forces are in the country. Trump raised the question, though predictably not on moral or legal grounds, but in relation to the implications that US entanglement in Syria have for the US Treasury. This, of course, reflects Trump’s Mattis-identified inability to grasp the subtleties of US imperial strategy.

The ostensible purpose of the US presence in Syria is to defeat ISIS. Washington says that it must maintain its presence in the Levantine country to prevent an ISIS resurgence. This implies an indefinite occupation, based on the pretext of the occupation acting as an anti-ISIS prophylaxis. But US officials acknowledged earlier this year that the Pentagon plans to occupy the territory to a) prevent its recovery by the Syrian government; b) to create administrative structures, i.e., to impose a government on the US-controlled portion of a partitioned Syria; and c) to rebuild the territory under US control, using Saudi financing, while denying reconstruction funds to Damascus.

Another plank of the US strategy is to interfere in the Syrian government’s campaign to liberate Idlib from Al Qaeda. The joint Syrian-Russian campaign will resemble other campaigns that have been waged by Syria, Russia, the United States and Iraq to wrest control of territory captured by Islamist guerillas. What has distinguished these campaigns is not the military methods used, but the way they have been presented by the Western media. Western news organizations have condemned ISIS as the bad jihadists and lionized Al Qaeda as the good ones. The US-directed campaigns in Mosul and Raqqa to wrest control of these cities from ISIS were portrayed as laudable US-Iraqi military victories against a foe of ineffable depravity. In contrast, the Russia-Syria campaigns in Aleppo and now Idlib have been painted as murderous projects aimed at good jihadists and innocent civilians.

Added to the patent double standard is a clear attempt to build public support for US intervention against the Idlib campaign and therefore on behalf of Al Qaeda by announcing that the United States has information that Damascus is planning to use chemical weapons in liberating Idlib. Making the allegation appear credible to an all too frequently lied to public is facilitated by the single voice with which the Western media proclaim matter-of-factly that Damascus has built a track record of using chemical weapons in the long-running war. And yet the only so-called evidence presented of Syrian chemical weapons use are assessments by US officials that amount to: “We believe the Syrians have used chemical agents, but have no definitive evidence to back up our claim; still this is the kind of thing the evil Assad would do.”

Inasmuch as the Syrians dismantled their chemical weapons under an internationally supervised process and inasmuch as no credible evidence exists that they have retained or regained access to weaponized chemicals, any discussion of the possible future use of chemical arms by the Syrian military represents a decent into a world of fantasy.

Lest we take Syria’s previous possession of chemical weapons as emblematic of a unique Syrian evil and menace, we ought to give the matter some thought.

First, Israel, with which Syria remains in a state of de jure and de facto war, has its own stock of chemical weapons. If Syria’s former possession of chemical weapons makes it evil, then what are we to say of Israel?

Second, the United States and its satraps, Israel included, use their military superiority to dominate, oppress, and exploit poor countries. What options are open to Syria to defend itself? Achieving parity in conventional arms is out of the question. On top of monopolizing the world’s wealth, the United States and its allies monopolize the world’s weapons systems. Syria can’t hope to compete with the United States or US-subsidized Israel in conventional military terms.

Israel’s function within the US Empire is to weaken Arab and Islamic nationalism and prevent either from becoming a significant force that would challenge US control of the Arab world’s oil resources. As the last bastion of Arabism, Syria quite naturally is a target for Israeli aggression. Munificent US military aid has made the Jewish nationalist settler colonial state into the region’s military Leviathan. Not only is it more formidable than every Arab country in conventional arms, it is also much stronger militarily than the Persian country, Iran. Additionally, Israel holds a regional nuclear weapons monopoly, and boasts stocks of chemical and biological weapons. The only way Syria can defend itself against the imperialist predations of the United States and its Jewish nationalist janissary, both bursting at the seams with the world’s most sophisticated conventional arms and formidable collections of WMD, is to develop an equalizer. That means nuclear weapons, or, failing that, chemical and biological arms.

We’re taught to shudder at the idea of chemical weapons (that is, when they’re used by a country that defies the international dictatorship of the United States, not when they’re used in its service, as they were in the 1980s by Iraq, then a temporary US ally of convenience against Iran, a US target. Washington accepted Iraq’s use of the chemical weapons it had helped the Arab state acquire.) But why should we shudder at the thought of chemical weapons any more than we do at cruise missile strikes, the Pentagon’s Mother of All Bombs, the incendiaries fighter pilot John McCain dropped on Vietnamese peasants and light bulb factory workers, Israeli snipers gunning down unarmed Palestinians in Gaza demanding their internationally-recognized right of return, and so on? In all these cases, the outcome is death or disability, often brutal, regularly painful, and frequently prolonged. Does it matter how the death was brought about? The United States doesn’t use guillotines on the battlefield to kill quickly, painlessly and humanely; it maims, crushes, pulverizes, vaporizes, incinerates and leaves bodies to slowly bleed to death. And it reserves to right to use nuclear weapons, and assorted other WMD.

Shuddering at the methods available to the weak, the oppressed, the exploited, and the plundered, to fight back and defend themselves while accepting the more formidable weapons of the strong as legitimate makes no sense. Insisting we shudder at one but not the other is part of a class war of the oppressors against the oppressed, of tyrants against the tyrannized, carried out at an ideological level. To deplore the weapons of the weak is to concede ground in this war of class. Syria hasn’t a stock of chemical weapons to use, but if it did, far from condemning their use, the only defensible course would be to welcome it as one of the few effective means by which a secular, republican, Arab socialist state can assert its independence and preserve its freedom against the intolerable despotism and anti-democratic machinations of the world’s paramount tyranny, the United States.

https://gowans.wordpress.com/2018/09/10 ... ggression/
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Re: Syria

Post by blindpig » Tue Sep 11, 2018 10:27 am

Venezuelan Official: US Tried to Stage Coup, Kill Maduro

Image

TEHRAN (FNA)- Diosdado Cabello, the speaker of the ruling Constituent Assembly of Venezuela stated that the US was behind the failed drone assassination of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
"The presidential assassination that was stopped was led by the United States. Is there anyone who has any doubt?" Cabello exclaimed at an event held by the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) on Monday, presstv reported.

The US "acknowledges having met at least three times with military coup leaders to carry out a coup" Cabello added, linking the failed assassination to a recent report that revealed US interest in instigating a coup against the Venezuelan president.

Cabello's remarks come after Venezuela's Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza had denounced what he alleged as US cooperation with anti-government rebels in the country.

"We denounce before the international community the intervention plans and the support of military plots against Venezuela by the United States government," the foreign minister said in a tweet, adding that "Even in the US media, new and blatant evidences have come to light".

The Venezuelan minister's statement was made in reference to a New York Times revelation that claimed that the Donald Trump administration officials had discussed toppling the Venezuelan president with insurgent Venezuelan military officers.

The piece alleged that three meetings were held between mutinous Venezuelan military officials and an American diplomat, after Trump had signaled US interest in military interference by declaring that the US had a “military option” for Venezuela, last August.

The Americans never contributed or clearly endorsed the rebels' plans; however, the meetings were seen by the rebels as a subtle sign of US approval.

The report comes amid increased speculation among Venezuelan officials of the US being behind recent armed attacks on the Venezuelan government.

A rogue faction of Venezuelan police attacked the country’s Supreme Court in Caracas last year, dropping grenades on the building. Two drones also targeted an assembly addressed by Maduro on August 4. Independent observers have suspected possible US involvement.

American officials have openly talked about military intervention and coups in Venezuela.

http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13970620000111
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Re: Syria

Post by blindpig » Thu Sep 13, 2018 7:07 pm

Syria - Turkish Tantrum Delays Liberation Of Idleb
Turkey is again turning to the U.S. to achieve its aim of controlling and annexing north Syria.

At the Tehran summit of the Russian, Iranian and Turkish presidents, Turkey presented a (likely U.S. induced plan) for Idleb governorate:

It included:
prolongation of the deescalation ceasefire
12 armed groups, including Hayat Tahrir al Sham to be disbanded
Turkey will train a new rebel force to control Idleb under Turkish command
Groups who resist will be targeted in counter terrorism operations
...
Russia and Iran rejected the plan. Idleb is controlled by Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) (vid) which is an internationally banned terrorist group affiliated with al-Qaeda. Turkey had over a year to solve the HTS problem under the existing de-escaltion agreement and failed.

HTS, foreign Jihadis, as well as 'moderate' Islamists affiliated with Turkey prevent civilians from leaving and terrorize the population:

As a possible showdown approaches, the rebels have arrested and tortured people they accuse of conceding defeat, sowing fear in the local population. A doctor was recently pulled from his home at night, witnesses said. A pistachio peddler was arrested as masked men patrolled the street.
...
Monitoring groups and local residents put most of the blame on HTS, formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra, but say the Turkish-backed fighters have also arrested dozens of people.
...
[R]ebel groups have embarked on their wave of ­arrests, accusing those they ­detain of secret communications with government representatives. Many have been taken to secret prisons and tortured, groups documenting the arrests say.
...
“Although this is certainly why some people have been arrested, the problem now is that it is also being used by al-Nusra to arrest the people who criticize their behavior, or to arrest their opponents,” said Fadel Abdul Ghany, director of the Syrian Network for Human Rights, a monitoring group.
After the Tehran summit the Syrian and Russian operation to liberate Idleb was to commence. The troops were in place, air as well as artillery attacks to 'shape' the battlefield were ongoing.

But Erdogan again turned on his partners and is back flirting with the U.S. he otherwise despises. In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal he begged for U.S. and NATO help:

All members of the international community must understand their responsibilities as the assault on Idlib looms. The consequences of inaction are immense. We cannot leave the Syrian people to the mercy of Bashar Assad.
...
It is crucial for the U.S., which has concentrated on chemical attacks, to reject its arbitrary hierarchy of death. Conventional weapons are responsible for far more deaths. But the obligation to stop the next bloodshed is not the West’s alone.
...
If the international community, including Europe and the U.S., fail to take action now, not only innocent Syrians but the entire world stands to pay the price. Turkey has done everything in its power to stop the bloodshed next door. To ensure that we succeed, the rest of the world must set aside narrow self-interest and throw its weight behind a political solution.
At the same time Erdogan is pushing the U.S. to do his bidding in northwest Syria, he accuses the Trump administration of supporting anti-Turkish PKK/YPK terrorists in northeast Syria. Turkey also continues to insist on buying Russian air defense systems instead of a U.S. produced one.

To halt the Idleb Dawn operations Erdogan shipped new weapon supplies to insurgent groups affiliated with Turkey:

Senior rebel officials said Turkey had sent more military aid to rebels in and around the Idlib region since a summit meeting with Iran and Russia last week failed to agree a deal to avert a government offensive into the area.
...
“They pledged complete Turkish military support for a long, protracted battle,” a senior FSA commander who was privy to talks in recent days with senior Turkish officials said, requesting anonymity as he was not authorized to speak publicly.
All border areas between Idleb and Turkey are under control of HTS. It takes a share of every load that comes through the border. Turkey is effectively arming the organization it is supposed to eliminate. Turkey also sent reinforcements to its observation posts in Idleb, including tanks (vid).

Erdogan claims that he fears a new wave of refugees coming towards Turkey. He uses this to press the European Union to support his position:

Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said a refugee influx across Turkey’s borders would have international repercussions.
...
“The global community also needs to take responsibility,” Kalin said after a Cabinet meeting Tuesday. “Another migrant wave coming to Turkey at a time when we already host millions of refugees will cause other complications,” he said. “This will spread from here to Europe and other countries.”
But the concern over a new refugee wave is exaggerated and likely a diversion. The real plan seems to be much larger. Turkey wants to annex Idleb.


Image
The new Turkish 'plan' for Idleb which it offered to Russia and Iran is said to include:

no Syrian army attacks on Turkish supported groups
no Syrian army entry in areas controlled by Turkish supported groups
Turkey and Russian troops are to enter to eliminate HTS
Turkey and Russia will police the areas after HTS is cleared out
Turkey will only leave when the Kurdish YPG, the U.S. proxy force in northeast Syria, is dismantled
The YPG in Syria, which operates as the PKK terror organization in Turkey, is under U.S. protection. It can not be disbanded. The condition Turkey sets out is unfulfillable.

Moreover Turkey is preparing a 'legal' claim on Idleb. It uses its proxies in Idleb to claim 'Ottoman' ownership of the areas they control and to installs its own state structures there:

[T]he sources confirmed to the Syrian Observatory that there are 15 villages in the south-eastern sector of Idlib countryside, in the area between Maarrat Al-Nu’man and Sinjar area, including Al-Sayyadi, Barsah, Khyara, Seraa and Saree, have been owned by the Turks, since the time of the Ottoman presence in the area, which pushed the Turks, according to the sources, to interfere strongly and bring grand military forces and large numbers of members, equipment, ammunition and vehicles in addition to fortifying their military posts stationed in Idlib, Hama and Aleppo.
...
Turkey depends to prove that it owns these areas, on titles and deeds of ownership of these villages, and what supports this claim is that Turkey deliberately established 3 observation posts in the east of the International Highway which passes through Idlib province and links between the Syrian – Turkish border and the Syrian – Jordanian border, and Turkey also depends on similar proofs to prove its ownership of other areas such as Jarabulus, Manbij and the areas where Ottoman commanders had been buried
...
Turkey will work on preventing the regime forces from starting any battle in the western countryside of Idlib, and will not allow this to happen along with requesting the factions to be completely ready in the case that any changes that may take place, while a request will be submitted to Ankara for the services and the restoration of schools, as well as a request that will be submitted about the demanding of the return of Jabal Al-Akrad and Jabal Al-Turkman and putting them under the Turkish protection and the return of their residents to them.”
The claims are of course ludicrous. The Ottoman empire is gone and the territory is internationally recognized as part of Syria.

Russia seems to be willing to give Turkey more time:

“We are saying the situation in Idlib should be settled most preferably in a peaceful way. It is possible to abstain from using military force,” Alexander Lavrentiev, Russia's Syria envoy, told reporters after talks in Geneva with U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura.
“Idlib province is...a sort of zone of responsibility of Turkey; it is their responsibility to separate the moderate opposition from the extremists, from Jabhat al-Nusra and other groups, other terrorist groups,” he said.

Syria and Iran will be very unhappy about this delay but they need Russia's backing to proceed.

Russia anticipates that the 'west', with the help of Turkey, will try to use the Syrian liberation of Idleb for an all-out attack on the Syrian government. The Russian Defense Ministry continues its warning of another fake a chemical incident which would be a pretext for a 'western' attack on the Syrian government. For the last 48 hours, all Syrian and Russian air attacks on the terrorists in Idleb have stopped. This is probably to prevent that such strikes are used to claim a 'chemical bombing':

Another U.S. attack on Syria would help U.S. President Trump on domestic issues, most importantly in the upcoming elections for Congress. In two weeks Trump will chair a UN Security Council meeting which he could use to propagandize against an Idelb attack. It is possible that Russia will hold back until these events are over.

For Russia this is a tricky situation. Erdogan can probably be pressured into retreat. But Russia also wants to prevent that it falls back into the U.S. fold. The typical Russian reaction in such a situation is to hedge, to play for time and to hope that some other incident happens which then helps to turn the situation. Such an event may come sooner than expected.

This morning Erdogan called on the Turkish central bank to lower its interest rates. He believes that high interests rates drive high inflation. The Turkish Lira fell 3%. Two hours after Erdogan's call the Central Bank raised the interest rate by 625 basis points to 24% and the Lira rallied. This will over time bring down the inflation rate but Turkey's economy will stall.

Such economic turmoil increases Turkey's dependence on Russia and Iran which are the main energy suppliers to Turkey. The Central Bank move is also a threat to Erdogan's personal authority which he can not to let unanswered. But attacks on the independence of the Central Bank will bring 'western' punishment. Who will then back him if not Russia and Iran?

Posted by b on September 13, 2018 at 07:13 AM | Permalink

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/09/sy ... idlib.html

Erdogan will not attack his proxies. Remains to be seen if this delay is not another case of Russia currying favor with US....something apparently invisible to 'b'.
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Re: Syria

Post by blindpig » Fri Sep 14, 2018 1:58 pm

← Sina’at al-Fikr: “The mujahideen at this stage shouldn’t defend according to the principle, ‘Until the last man, and the last bullet.'”
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham’s Abu Akramah al-Urduni on Idlib protests: “Brothers, a very important issue…”
Posted on September 14, 2018 by Sam Heller
Below are translations of two voice recordings purported to be of Tahrir al-Sham emir “Abu Akramah al-Urduni,” via anti-Jabhat al-Nusrah/Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group “JAN Violations.” The voice messages are notable for their apparently acute sensitivity to the optics of Idlib’s protests and those protests’ portrayal in foreign media, which Abu Akramah sees as directly linked to action against Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. Abu Akramah coaches his Tahrir al-Sham audience on flexibility and subtlety in dealing with protesters in order to avoid embarrassing anti-Tahrir al-Sham scenes.

Idlib is primed today for another Friday of protests against a Syrian military offensive on the province. But Tahrir al-Sham seemingly recognizes that those protests can be turned against it, either spontaneously or by outside hands.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham emir Abu Akramah al-Urduni, voice message 1: “Brothers, a very important issue: We don’t want it to be come out in the Western media that the people opposes us, and that the people brought down our banner and stomped on it. Pay attention: If the banner is raised, there will be people placed just to pull away the banner and stomp on it. And it will appear in the Western media that they stomped on the Hayah’s banner. This is a big issue, brothers. It means that the battle will be against us, in the future. They’ll say that the people is ready now to announce the battle in these protests. Because these protests are what, the people, the public. If the people and the public pull away our banner in front of the media and stomp on it, that means the battle is ready against us now.”

Abu Akramah al-Urduni, voice message 2: “Peace and God’s blessings be upon you, something very important to say: Coordinate with those responsible for these protests and say to them, ‘We’re with you, your brothers, and whatever you need, we’ll walk with you. And for your protection.’ Talking is free, brothers. Why not speak to them kindly. They’ll say, ‘God reward you, we don’t need anything.’ Tell them, ‘Okay, we’ll walk with you. We’re Muslims, too, and we demand the toppling of the regime.’”

Original tweet/audio:

هذا ماقاله المدعو أبو عكرمة الأردني أحد أمراء هيئة تحرير الشام
فما رأيك؟!#JNV pic.twitter.com/BQSt7gIOD0

— انتهاكات جبهة النصرة (@JAN_Violations) September 13, 2018

https://abujamajem.wordpress.com/2018/0 ... ant-issue/
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Re: Syria

Post by blindpig » Fri Sep 14, 2018 8:15 pm

U.S. marines conduct big drills with rebels in southern Syria
Suleiman Al-Khalidi
4 MIN READ

AMMAN (Reuters) - A Syrian rebel commander said on Thursday rare military exercises with U.S. marines in southern Syria sent a strong message to Russia and Iran that the Americans and the rebels intend to stay and confront any threats to their presence.

Colonel Muhanad al Talaa, commander of the Pentagon-backed Maghawir al Thawra group, told Reuters the eight days of drills that ended this week at the U.S. military outpost in Tanf were the first such exercises with live-fire air and ground assault, involving hundreds of U.S. troops and rebel fighters.

“These exercises have a big importance and have beefed up the defences of the area and raised the combat capabilities and morale and that of civilians in the area,” Talaa told Reuters by phone from Tanf, near Syria’s borders with Jordan and Iraq.

A U.S. military spokesman said the exercises were a show of force and that the Pentagon had notified Moscow through “deconfliction” channels to prevent “miscommunication or escalate tension”.

“The exercise was conducted to reinforce our capabilities and ensure we are ready to respond to any threat to our forces within our area of operations’” Colonel Sean Ryan told Reuters in an email response to a question on the exercises.

Russia and the Syrian government have repeatedly called on Washington to pull out its troops from Tanf base, where it has declared a 55 km (35 mile)-radius “deconfliction zone” off-limits to others.

Rebels say hundreds of U.S. marines arrived this month in Tanf to join special operations troops already based in the garrison and participate in the drills, amid heightened U.S.-Russian tensions in Syria and a naval buildup in the Mediterranean.

The “deconfliction zone” has become a safe haven for at least 50,000 civilians who live in the Rukban camp that lies within it. Russia’s defence ministry in August repeated an accusation that Washington has been harbouring Islamic State militants within the zone.

“We are staying whether the Russians or Iranians want or not,” the rebel commander added.

The outpost, surrounded by desert, was established during the battles against Islamic State militants who used to control eastern Syria bordering Iraq.

After Islamic State were driven out, U.S.-led coalition warplanes struck Iranian-backed militias on several occasions to prevent them advancing, in what Washington has described as self-defence.

Tanf lies on the strategic Damascus-Baghdad highway, once a major supply route for Iranian weapons into Syria.

This makes the base a bulwark against Iran and part of a larger campaign against Iran’s military expansion in the Middle East.

Control of the area has long been a goal of the Syrian government and its Russian and Iranian allies.

Rebels say the U.S. military’s new policy to bolster Tanf’s capabilities is a big shift.

“The American position has changed completely towards the Iranians. Before it was just putting a line to the Iranians not to approach the areas,” Talaa added.

Tehran’s failure to end its military presence in Syria could provoke a U.S. military response, Talaa added.

“If Tehran does not respond to the demands of the Americans there is a big likelihood they will be hit. It’s inevitable the Iranians leave Syria. This should happen quickly and in a decisive way,” he added.

https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-midea ... ce=twitter

US Marines holding joint exercises with Al Qaeda, nice. The jar heads will be the shield for the Al Qaeda sword. The sheer arrogance of this piece, that the Syrian government has no business reclaiming it's territory from terrorists, boggles the mind but I think we better get used to it.

They better leave.
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Re: Syria

Post by blindpig » Mon Sep 17, 2018 5:39 pm

White Helmets stealing children for 'chemical attack' theater in Idlib
Vanessa Beeley

Vanessa Beeley is an independent investigative journalist and photographer. She is associate editor at 21st Century Wire.
Published time: 17 Sep, 2018 16:08
Edited time: 17 Sep, 2018 16:12

White Helmets stealing children for 'chemical attack' theater in Idlib

Image
A family of a kidnapped Syrian boy: Wafaa, Mohammed Ibrahim, Lotfe and Hamza © Vanessa Beeley.

“Leave our children in peace. Let our children play, stop ‘playing’ with our children.” These are the words of a mother whose child was stolen and is being imprisoned in Idlib by terrorist groups and the White Helmets.
I met Wafaa at her home with her husband Mohammed Ibrahim and her two sons Hamza, 9, and Lotfe, 14. Both Wafaa and Mohammed are lawyers, they met while studying at the same university. Wafaa is strong, her expression is defiantly hopeful and optimistic despite fears for her kidnapped son, Ahmed, who is now 11.

“Ahmed was born mute, he couldn’t speak,” she told me. “I believe this is why he was taken from us, because he cannot protest or resist.”

Ahmed was kidnapped by terrorist groups only 200 meters from his home one year ago. The location of their home will not be disclosed to protect the security of the family, but they know that Ahmed is now being held with other children in Idlib. The locations change regularly, according to information the family has received from friends and family still trapped inside Idlib.

Image
Collage of photos of Ahmed supplied by the family © Vanessa Beeley

On August 30, 2018, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem stated that the US Coalition-sponsored White Helmets had kidnapped 44 children in order to use them as ‘props’ in the staging of a chemical weapon attack in Idlib. The White Helmets have a history of providing the scenarios required to precipitate FUKUS aggression against Syria.

Their most recent chemical attack hoax attempt in Douma in April 2018 was proven unreliable by the OPCW interim report. Sensationalist suggestions of sarin use by the Syrian government during the last moments of the liberation of Douma from the murderous Jaysh al-Islam fanatics was dismissed by the findings in the report. The chlorinated elements detected in the samples taken by the OPCW could come from any manner of household items and no conclusions of chlorine use by the Syrian government have been drawn. Western media and their governments have ignored the findings of the OPCW and are once more preparing the ground for a “chemical attack” in Idlib to enable further unlawful aggression against Syria during the Arab Army’s campaign to cleanse Idlib of the terrorist infestation.

Wafaa’s greatest fear is that Ahmed will be used alongside other children as actors in such a staged chemical attack.

“I stopped working when Ahmed was taken from us. About six months ago, a friend came from Turkey to Idlib. As they were crossing the border between Syria and Turkey, they stopped to rest. Their son knows Ahmed very well. Ahmed has a particular way of communicating by making a sound that is very recognizable by those who know him. Their son heard Ahmed making this sound. He told his parents that Ahmed was close by,” she said.

Wafaa’s voice trembled as she described this identification of her son. At least he was alive. Shortly after the family were given this information, an alleged chlorine gas attack was carried out in Saraqib to the east of Idlib city. A recent OPCW report on this alleged incident concludes that:

“Chlorine, released from cylinders through mechanical impact, was likely used as a chemical weapon on 4 February 2018 in the Al Talil neighborhood of Saraqib.”

However, the FFM (Fact-Finding Mission) was unable to enter Saraqib due to the risk of being executed or kidnapped by the “moderate” fanatics occupying the area. They instead relied entirely on “open-source” testimonies and evidence provided by compromised sources such as the White Helmets.

“Shortly after the Saraqib reports of a chemical attack, we received a phone call from the groups who were holding Ahmed. The man told me that the reason for kidnapping Ahmed was gone and that he would probably be returned soon,” Wafaa informed me.

I asked her if they knew who was holding Ahmed captive.

“Shortly after Saraqib happened, some women who managed to leave Idlib came to me. They told me that Al-Nusra Front (Al-Qaeda in Syria) were in charge of the children and the White Helmets were helping them with this. When I reported it, the White Helmets accused me of being ‘Shabiha.’ This is a death sentence if you are caught by the armed groups.”

Wafaa still has a sister in Idlib who is able to pass some information on to her directly or to people leaving Idlib via the Russian/Syrian established humanitarian corridors, which evacuate civilians to safety ahead of the ground campaign to liberate Idlib commences.

“Abu al-Duhur corridor is going to reopen, but we know that the terrorist groups are charging civilians 300,000 Syrian Pounds ($600) to leave by these corridors. People are leaving with nothing except the clothes on their back and yet we are told these monsters bring us ‘freedom and democracy.’”

Wafaa described the foreign fighters occupying Idlib: “Most people in Idlib avoid the foreign fighters, they are very extreme and dangerous. My sister told me that a few days ago she walked past some Uyghur children in her district. They started taunting her because the hem of her skirt was too high. People see the White Helmets in the same way. They are foreign, and they are well paid. They are wealthy like the foreign extremists. Most people in Idlib don’t allow their children to go to school because they fear that the White Helmets will kidnap them.”

Wafaa explained that the White Helmets don’t ask for money for the safe return of the children, which was the practice of the armed groups earlier in the conflict, according to her family.

“Why don’t they ask for money? This means they want to use the children for something else. They call anyone who questions them “shabiha” because they need to keep their image clean in the West. They are not ‘humanitarians,’ they are terrorists in a uniform, that’s all.”

Wafaa is terrified that these US coalition proxies, which include the White Helmets, have already used Ahmed for one of the reportedly staged events that have been prepared in advance, in order to criminalize the Syrian government and its allies as soon as the SAA liberation campaign begins in earnest.

“Ten days ago, a woman came to see me. She had just arrived from Idlib. She showed me a photo of Ahmed and confirmed he is still alive but imprisoned with many other children. She told me that the White Helmets move the children from place to place depending upon where the attacks might be staged. They are kept in prisons all the time. I worry so much that he is sick or scared and he can’t speak. I am convinced I will see Ahmed’s face in one of these chemical attack videos or reports,” said Wafaa.

As we were talking about Ahmed, his younger brother Hamza was reacting strongly and becoming increasingly agitated.

“He does this every time we discuss his brother, Ahmed. He is deeply disturbed by the loss of his brother,” Wafaa explained. “I used to take more care of Ahmed because he had special needs but now I try to protect Hamza more also.”

Throughout the interview, Wafaa remained composed and eloquent. She presented facts in a considered and objective way. Her child has been abducted, he is imprisoned by some of the most brutal extremist groups in Syria, but Wafaa displayed a fortitude that defied fear or pity. She remained proud and resilient. Mohammed Ibrahim, Ahmed’s father, was quieter and more withdrawn but the unbreakable bond between the couple and Ahmed’s brothers was evident. They were united in hope and determination that Ahmed will survive his ordeal and will be returned to them.

“If Idlib is liberated, we know that our army will bring Ahmed home to us. They will rescue him.”

Wafaa’s first display of anger and frustration came when I asked her to describe the reality of the “moderate” occupation of her homeland to people in the West.

“We have no voice. We are the forgotten Syrian people. Nobody listens to us when we tell the world that these monsters are killing us, killing our children, stealing our lives and destroying our homes. These ‘moderates’ don’t bring freedom or democracy, they bring only bloodshed, fear and loss. We want Idlib cleansed of their presence, we want the West to take their terrorists out of our country. What did we do wrong to deserve this? Why should my son suffer, for what? Please bring this to an end, let us live in peace as we did before 2011.”

Just before I left this family, I filmed Wafaa as she gave perhaps the most powerful message of her interview – “Leave our children in peace. Let our children play, stop ‘playing’ with our children.” In Syria, children have been cruelly exploited to promote war to ensure the deaths of more children. Wafaa is demanding that people in the West recognize this fact and do all they can to prevent more children suffering at the hands of the Western client fanatics and affiliated White Helmets. We should hear her plea and act upon it before it’s too late for Ahmed and all the other children who will suffer the same fate if we do nothing.

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/438645-childre ... lib-syria/
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Re: Syria

Post by blindpig » Tue Sep 18, 2018 1:05 pm

Syria - Israel Provocation Kills Russian Soldiers - Moscow Will Take Political Revenge
Yesterday Turkey and Russia agreed on a further de-escalation in Idelb province in Syria (see the update here). This agreement takes away the chance of an imminent wider war in which the U.S. and some of its allies would use a fake 'chemical attack' as a pretext to launch missiles against a large number of Syrian government targets and military positions.

A peaceful solution of the Idleb situation is unsatisfying for Israel. The successful Syrian defeat of the Jihadi enemy inside the country would allow Syria and its allies to concentrate their forces against Israel. Israel wants the Syrian government destroyed and the country in chaos.

On Sunday September 16 Israel hit an Iranian Boeing 747 freight plane at Damascus airport. The plane allegedly carried an Iranian copy of the Russian S-300 long range air defense System for the Syrian army.

On Monday around 10:00pm local time 4 F-16 jets of the Israeli airforce coming from the sea launched missiles against at least three targets on Syria's coast. The strike came only hours after Israel released satellite images of what it called "strategic targets" in Syria. The integrated Syrian and Russian air-defenses responded.

The Israeli air force had warned the Russian forces in Syria only one minute before the strike. A Russian IL-20 electronic warfare airplane (red line) was preparing to land at the Russian airport near Latakia just as the Israeli attack (blue) happened.

Image
Source: Russian defense Ministry

The IL-20 was hit 35 kilometers off the coast by a S-200 air-defense missile fired by the Syrian military towards the Israeli attack. There were 15 Russian soldiers on board of the plane which were likely all killed. Russian ships search for survivors. Some wreckage of the plane was found at sea 27 kilometers west of the village of Banias.

Image
IL-20 electronic warfare version - bigger

The Israeli attack came out of the same direction as the Russian IL-20. The large 4 propellor plane creates a much bigger radar reflection than the small F-16s fighter jets. The S-200 missiles have a semi-active radar homing seeker. These are passive detectors of a radar signal which is provided by an external (“offboard”) source, in this case the Syrian and Russian radars on the ground. The seeker mistook the large radar reflection of IL-20 for the intended target.

At the same time as the Israeli air force attacked, a Russian frigate (red) near the coast detected missile launches from the French Frigate Auvergne (blue) nearby. The French frigate carries air, ship and land attack missiles. France denied "any involvement in the incident."

The Russian Defense Ministry accuses the Israeli government of a deliberate set up:

"Israel did not warn the command of the Russian troops in Syria about the planned operation. We received a notification via a hotline less than a minute before the strike, which did not allow the Russian aircraft to be directed to a safe zone," Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said.
After the Israeli attack the Syrian state TV showed the headquarter of the Technical Industries Agency near Latakia on fire. Other targets were near Jableh and Homs. At least ten people were wounded due to the attack.

The Russian military spokesman accused Israel of "hostile action" against Russian forces:

"We see these provocative actions of Israel as hostile," Konashenkov said, adding that 15 Russian servicemen were killed as a result of the "irresponsible actions" of Israel's Defense Forces, which violated "the spirit of the Israeli-Russian partnership."
According to the spokesman, the Russian Defense Ministry reserves the right to an "adequate response" following the Israeli attack.
Israel (and France?) are deliberately provoking the Syrian and Russian forces. It hopes for a response that allows it play the victim and to call on U.S. President Trump for help and protection. The help would come in the form of a U.S., British and French attack on the Syrian government and Syrian military targets.

Russia will certainly take revenge for the Israeli provocation, but will likely do so in the political arena. On Netanyahoo's personal request Russia had stopped the delivery of original Russian S-300 long range air-defense missiles to the Syrian military. In consequence a Iranian 747 was damaged and 15 Russian soldiers were killed. Netanyahoo can forget about any further such 'favors' from Moscow.

Posted by b on September 18, 2018 at 06:09 AM | Permalink

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/09/sy ... venge.html

Good reportage and questionable analysis, par for 'b'. After Putin's betrayal of Donbass I trust him to do the right thing as far as I can throw him. Shooting down Israeli aircraft when violating territory or attacking, without hesitation, is the answer but doubt we'll see that.
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Re: Syria

Post by blindpig » Mon Sep 24, 2018 4:49 pm

Ambassador Ala: Israeli attacks on civilian facilities in Syria indicative of Israel’s transition to new phase of state terrorism

24 September، 2018

Geneva, SANA- Syria’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Ambassador Hussam Eddin Ala affirmed that the Israeli attacks on scientific and civilian facilities in Syria indicate that the Israeli entity has moved into a new phase of state terrorism after years of supporting terrorist organizations and supplying them with logistical support, direct military support and efforts to prevent their defeat.

In a statement delivered before the 39th session of the Human Rights Council, dedicated to discuss the situation of Human Rights in the occupied Syrian Golan, Ambassador Ala said that there is no doubt that Israel would not have continued its aggressive behavior without the cover and protection from accountability provided by the US and its allies at international forums, including within the Human Rights Council, where the US pressure to cancel item 7 continues as the British resort to voting down all resolutions condemning the Israeli practices.

“Some countries in this Council defend the Israeli occupation and its extreme racist practices and violations of the obligations imposed on it under international humanitarian law, and its daily violations of all the rights of the Palestinians and the Syrians in the occupied Syrian Golan, which makes these countries partners in these violations,” Ala said.

The Ambassador pointed out that the occupation army continued its practice of indiscriminate killing, in addition to its attempt to forcibly deport the residents of al-Khan al-Ahmar village east of occupied al-Quds (Jerusalem), keeping in place and the suffocating siege and collective punishment of about two million people of the Gaza Strip and adopting a legislation that codifies the apartheid, all examples of the extent to which the occupying powers disregard all international laws.

Ambassador Ala noted that “the Israeli occupation authorities in the occupied Syrian Golan continue to impose arbitrary measures to punish the people of the Golan, in addition to imposing an arbitrary siege on them by preventing them from using the Quneitra crossing to continue their studies in Syrian universities, visiting their families and marketing their agricultural products in the Syrian markets in the context of a systematic policy aimed at severing their bonds with their homeland.

“The Israeli authorities continue their attempts to perpetuate their occupation of the Syrian Golan by continuing to build and expand the settlements and plans to increase the number of settlers to 100,000 over the coming ten years, Ala said.

He added that the occupation authorities continue to hold on to the illegal decision to hold elections for the local councils in the occupied Syrian Golan, a decision categorically rejected by the people of the Golan as an attempt to legitimize the occupation and a blatant infringement on their belonging to motherland Syria.

“Syria stresses on the role of the Council and its responsibilities in ensuring Israel’s commitment to protecting Syrian and Palestinian civilians, and punishing those responsible for ongoing violations for five decades of despicable colonial occupation, affirming that the silence of some countries over the arbitrary detention of thousands of Palestinian and Arab detainees in Israeli prisons exposes the hypocrisy and falsity of those bragging about being human rights defenders,” the Ambassador added.

He reiterated Syria’s adherence to its sovereign right to restore the entire occupied Syrian Golan back to June 4, 1967 line and its demand for full Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian and Lebanese territories, affirming the firm Syrian position in support of the legitimate national rights of the Palestinian people, foremost of which is the right to establish their independent state with al-Quds (Jerusalem) as its capital and guaranteeing the right of return for Palestinian refugees in implementation of resolution 194.

Manar al-Frieh/Manal

https://www.sana.sy/en/?p=147544

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

US-led Coalition transfers leaders of “Daesh” terrorists from Deir Ezzor countryside to unknown destination

22 September، 2018

Deir Ezzor, SANA – The US-led “International Coalition” carried out an air landing operation in the southeastern countryside of Deir Ezzor Province, transferring terrorists who belong to Daesh terrorist organization.

Identical local and media reports told SANA that helicopters which belong to “the International Coalition” carried out Saturday an air landing operation at the outskirts of al-Marashida village located in the pocket where the Daesh terrorists spread in the southeastern countryside of Deir Ezzor, transferring a number of Daesh leaders to an unknown destination.

Rasha Milhem

https://www.sana.sy/en/?p=147438

The absolute shamelessness of it all, the complete confidence these actions, far from the first of it's kind, will be completely ignored by Western news orgs and if hinted at can be blithely dismissed as 'fake news' makes ya wonder what in the hell it's gonna take.

Generations force-fed Orwell's anti-communist screed '1984'completely incapable of recognizing the same but different management of mass perception hiding right out in the open. I am sick of their pitying looks.
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Re: Syria

Post by blindpig » Wed Sep 26, 2018 1:46 pm

NETANYAHU: WE WILL CONTINUE TO ATTACK SYRIA & WHATEVER ELSE IS NECESSARY
By Joaquin Flores On Sep 26, 2018

The Zionist strongman ruling the Israeli regime says that Tel Aviv will not stop carrying out military operations in Syria, despite Russia holding the settler-colonial responsible for the downing of the IL-20 off the Syrian coast last week.

The Israeli ruler had made these incendiary remarks just Tuesday, as he prepared to board a flight to New York to address the UN General Assembly, a city disproportionately administered in all spheres of civic, financial, and political life, by his coreligionists.

“We will continue to act to prevent Iranian military entrenchment in Syria and we will continue the military coordination” between the Israeli military and that of the Russia, said Netanyahu as he prepared to get on his plane.

He makes this statements as Iran is assisting the lawful Syrian government, upon the invitation of the democratically elected Syrian president, Assad. Iran like Russia has been playing, formally, an advisory military role in the Arab country, as it fights against a foreign invasion supported by Israel, the United States, and other countries in the region such as KSA, Qatar, UAE, and Turkey. Unlike Iran, Russia has had its airforce also deployed in Syria since 2015. The role of Turkey and Qatar have begun to shift towards a pragmatic one of vacillation, while the KSA has had its hands tied in Yemen in its losing, though bloody, effort to stamp out a Yemeni sovereign-national movement led by Houthis.

The support by Tehran and Moscow has enabled the Syrian army to speed up its gains on various fronts against Takfiri militants.

As a result of the support from Tehran and Moscow for the Syrian Arab Republic, the Syrian Arab Army has been able to turn the tide from a virtual stalemate against the Salafist invaders, and make a significant series of now unstoppable victories. The final liberation of the country is now only a matter of time, so long as a major shift in geostrategic or diplomatic balance does not take place in the interim.

On the contrary, Israel has frequently attacked military targets in Syria during the past several years in what is considered as an attempt to prop up terrorist groups that have been suffering heavy defeats against Syrian government forces. It has also been providing weapons to anti-Damascus militants as well as medical treatment to the Takfiri elements wounded in the Arab country.

In contrast to this, and contrary to Netanyahu’s statements, it is Israel that has been attacking Syria for the last few years. Israel has been propping up radical Islamic terrorist groups, ranging from ISIS to Al Qaeda spin-offs, which in the region is referred to as critics all together as ‘Daesh’. Syria has not launched any attacks upon Israelis on the Palestinian lands which the Zionist-settler-colonial entity occupies, but Israel has, on many documented occasions, and admittedly so, attacked Syria.

Unlike the FUKUS states involved in this war, and unlike the nominally Muslim regional powers involved as well, Israel stands alone in feeling the impunity to aggressively attack Syria with not even a pretense of a legal reason or framework. France, UK, and the US have engaged ostensibly to ‘protect civilians’, and to ‘fight ISIS’. Gulf monarchies and Turkey have generally failed to admit even supporting the Salafist terrorists at all, though now that Turkey has played a vacillating role, it has essentially admitted that it controls a part of the ‘Free Syrian Army’, reformed in Idlib as the ‘Syrian National Army’. It is neither national of Syria, nor an army.

Israel’s brazen defiance of international law is meant to bring international hatred upon Israel, to invoke widespread condemnation, which Netanyahu and Zionist propaganda networks will use to ‘note a spike in antisemitism in the world’. The Zionist entity’s criminal and unhidden, unapologetic attacks upon a sovereign state without even the pretense of a reason, are meant to provoke global hatred against Israel. This will be transformed, by Zionists, into the very reason that Israel – and the Jews it falsely claims to uniformly represent – needs to exist. They create their own reason for existing by simply making brazen moves which stoke criticism of Israel. By controlling western socio-political discourse, Zionists have succeeded in getting numerous academic institutions and now several governments, such as France, to legally and openly consider criticisms of Israel to be a form of antisemitism, punishable by law. This is meant to both silence criticisms, and to make criticisms even more heart-felt and ‘real’, and then this is used to justify the existence of the Israeli regime and the racist, supremacist ideology of Zionism which it is founded upon.


.

Israel has been rightly blamed for the downing of the IL-20, though the FUKUS and Israeli planners of the attack were dumbstruck that Israel, and not France or perhaps England, were blamed for the downing of the plane. They were further surprised that the Russians simultaneously agreed with false western accounts that the SAA ‘pulled the trigger’ that took down the IL-20, and yet also held Israel ‘fully responsible’.

“We will do whatever is necessary to protect Israel’s security,” Netanyahu further said before leaving for the United States.


.
It should be noted that here Netanyahu does not say that the Israeli airforce will continue to strike Syrian targets. If the S-300’s are in fact delivered to Syria and additionally made fully operational to the Syrians, that is, that Syrians are ‘allowed’ by Russia to in fact target Israeli jets, then these jets will surely be shot down. The S-300 is a superior system than whatever defensive mechanisms or maneuvers the F-16’s, etc. are capable of.

This means any number of things, and could include that Israel plans to step up its direct support for Salafist groups in Syria. As noted, KSA and others have begun to ‘break’ and ‘vacillate’, whereas the Zionist regime hasn’t put forward any of its own risks or resources into this fight yet, even though this fight chiefly revolves around the realization of their regional hegemonic goals, related to, or close to the well-known Yinon Plan.

https://www.fort-russ.com/2018/09/netan ... ew-article

Netanyahu this & that, he's still a dog on the US chain.
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Re: Syria

Post by blindpig » Thu Oct 18, 2018 1:04 pm

HERE ARE THE 5 GOALS OF THE NEW U.S STRATEGY IN SYRIA
By Paul Antonopoulos On Oct 18, 2018

The media reported that the administration of US President Donald Trump is developing a new strategy of action in Syria involving the application of sanctions against companies from Russia and Iran that are involved in the reconstruction of Syria. Russian political scientist Vladimir Bruter explained what lies behind this initiative.

Previously, the North American channel NBC said that the US strategy includes preventing the recovery of areas where Iranian and Russian contingents are present. Washington also plans to impose sanctions on Russian and Iranian companies working to rebuild Syria.

Political scientist Vladimir Bruter listed the objectives of this strategy.

According to the expert, the US will continue to put pressure on Russia, always and in every possible direction for them, with Syrian not being an exception, to achieve a series of objectives.

First, the US increases pressure on Russia to hamper action. Second, they create obstacles to strengthening the positions of Syrian President Bashar Assad and Iranian influence in Syria.

“The third goal is that, since the restoration of Syria is an expensive thing, and it is not a secret that Russia would like Western countries to join in, the US does everything to stop it,” he said.

The fourth objective is Washington to try to maintain internal tensions in Syria and support the groups that stand against Assad.

“The last reason is that these measures are part of the White House’s anti-Iranian program, which of course will become broader. It is no coincidence that for several days it was stated that Iranian oil exports should be cut to zero. This is evident and along with the pressure in the Syrian direction, this should create problems for Iran, at least Washington believes in this,” concluded the analyst.

Iran and Syria are targeted by the US as they are the main bulwark states that prevents the US and Israel from having complete hegemony over the Middle East.

https://www.fort-russ.com/2018/10/here- ... ew-article
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