Russian Military Aerospace Commander Colonel Oleg Viktorovich Pechevisty (Олегом Викторовичем Печевистым) was killed by a terrorist group sponsored by NATO in Syria last Thursday, 25 May 2023, multiple sources reported.
NATO Turkey-sponsored Al Qaeda Levant (aka Nusra Front – HTS – and Jabhat Nusra) did not claim responsibility for the killing of the Russian Colonel, however, it has bragged about bombing a site in Latakia countryside which some observers place Col. Pechevisty in at the time of the bombing.
Other reports, including some Russian-based social media accounts, claim that the Russian commander was killed in a terrorist attack carried out by NATO US-sponsored ISIS (ISIL – Daesh) near the Syrian city of Al Sukhna in the eastern Homs countryside.
Russian Military Aerospace Commander Colonel Oleg Viktorovich Pechevisty killed by NATO in Syria
Whether the Russian top commander was killed by Al Qaeda Levant or by ISIS, the killing was done based on intelligence information gathered by a NATO military and passed on to a terrorist group created, trained, armed, smuggled into Syria, and commanded by a NATO member state, Turkey or the USA.
The Russian Army has lost several officers and soldiers in the US-led war of terror and war of attrition against the Syrian state, the sacrifices of the Russian servicemen in Syria will be always cherished by the Syrian people and the free people of the world.
Definitely, the heroism and sacrifices of the Russian Army servicemen in Syria will always be highly praised by the Russian people, those servicemen killed, wounded, and even served without injury while combating the world’s evil powers have defended their motherland in Syria before and broke the backbone of those evil powers before reaching Russia as we see in the current conflict in Ukraine.
We should also remember the Russian diplomats who also played an important part in defending their country, Syria, and the whole of humanity, and some of them were killed like the Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov who was killed by a supporter of the Turkish madman Erdogan in the Turkish capital Ankara in December 2016.
We at Syria News salute the Russian heroes who fought alongside their Syrian Arab Army brethren to save the world from the servants of the Antichrist, the armies of NATO, the ‘defensive’ alliance, the Zionists, the Nazis, and their anti-Islamic Muslim Brotherhood and Wahhabi criminals. May their memory be immortal.
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You can also donate with Cryptocurrencies through our donate page. Thank you in advance.
For various reasons related to political leverage, regional grandstanding, and outright animosity, Qatar is likely to remain the last Arab state to return to Syria.
While most Arab countries have already moved to reestablish relations with the Syrian government – in line with a regional and international recognition of the failure to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad after a dozen years – some Arab states, led by Qatar, are out of sync, opposing rapprochement with Damascus.
Doha’s ongoing refusal to normalize ties with Damascus raises many questions, especially as it contradicts the trend of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, under Saudi leadership, to restore relations with Syria to their pre-war levels.
It also contradicts the attempts of Qatar’s only regional strategic ally, Turkiye, to resolve its differences with Damascus, abandon its decade-long enmity with Syria, in a Russian-mediated effort to solve a wide range of problems between the two neighbors. The most prominent of these issues is the removal of Turkish troops from northern Syrian territories, the crisis of Syrian refugees and displaced civilians on both sides of the border, and the growing capabilities of US-backed, secessionist Kurds leading a “self-administration” project inside large swathes of eastern and northern Syria, which Turkiye sees as a threat to its soft underbelly.
Today, Qatar appears to be virtually the only Arab regional state actively toeing the rejectionist position of the US and EU in refusing to open up to the government in Damascus.
The Qatari betrayal of Syria
With the ascension of President Assad to power in 2000, Syrian-Qatari relations witnessed a significant improvement, reaching a climax with Israel’s July 2006 war on Lebanon and then its 2008 war on the Gaza Strip.
Qatar’s public posture appeared firmly supportive of both the Lebanese and Palestinian resistance, and Doha became a major funder of the post-war reconstruction of areas destroyed by Israeli attacks. This coincided with the improvement of relations between Qatar and Hamas, the Palestinian resistance’s most prominent faction.
Between 2000 and 2011, relations between Doha and Damascus strengthened outside of the conventional political arena. Assad and former Emir of Qatar Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani struck up a personal relationship, and the latter paid numerous visits to Damascus.
With the 2011 outbreak of unrest in Syria, signs of a clear and unexpected Qatari shift began via Al-Jazeera – Doha’s most prominent media outlet – and its biased, often inciteful coverage of events in Syria. Sequentially, the political stances of Qatar, Hamas, and Turkiye began to change, with Doha and Ankara pressing for Damascus to alter its position on the banned Syrian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood – designated a terrorist organization – and to include it in governance.
When Damascus completely rejected the Qatari and Turkish demands, the unrest in Syria turned from civil disobedience to armed assault, which began to expand rapidly throughout the country. Turkiye opened its borders to foreign fighters from all over the world, with Arab states of the Persian Gulf funding – initially led by Qatar – amounting to billions of dollars, according to the Financial Times.
As the war on Syria expanded, a US-led alliance was formed to train Syrian fighters, and two command centers were established, “MOC” (Military Operations Command) in Jordan, and “MOM” (Müşterek Operasyon Merkezi) in Turkiye.
The task of overthrowing the Syrian government was transferred to Riyadh, led by former intelligence chief Bandar Bin Sultan, who demanded a budget of $2 trillion, according to Bin Jassim. With the growing emergence of “jihadi” terrorist organizations, led by ISIS and the Nusra Front, Syrian authorities lost control over massive swathes of territory and a partial blockade was imposed on Damascus.
The Syrian war entered a new phase in 2015, after Russian military forces intervened at the request of Damascus. Less than a month later, the US launched an “international coalition” to militarily intervene in Syria under the pretext of fighting ISIS. This changed the contours of the war map. With the help of foreign allied forces, including Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah, the Syrian government regained control of much of the country, and established the ‘Astana process’ with Russia, Turkiye, and Iran to demilitarize areas outside of US and Kurdish separatist control.
Qatar’s continued Syrian role
Despite an ostensible decline in Qatar’s role in the Syrian war, Doha has not followed in the footsteps of most Gulf countries, who recognized their efforts to unseat Assad had failed. Even the Saudis, who played an oversized role in the assault against Damascus, dialed down their rhetoric against Syria in recent years, and have now moved to reconcile with Assad and his government.
Instead, Qatar’s adversarial footprint in Syria has continued unabated. It maintains its relationships with various Syrian opposition factions, including the Al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front (which controls Idlib and areas in the countryside of Aleppo), and has transformed the Syrian embassy in Doha into an operations room for adversaries of Syria.
Syrian opposition sources tell The Cradle that Doha continues its ties with all the armed factions in northern Syria, including the Levant Front, the National Army – which it co-funds with Turkiye – and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham.
These relationships guarantee Doha – which has pumped billions of dollars into the Syrian war – a desirable modicum of influence in northern and northwestern Syria. The Qataris have bet heavily on the jihadist factions there; these militias are less expensive to maintain because of their efficiencies in self-financing and on the battlefield. Furthermore, the jihadi groups have ultimately proven to be more loyal to Qatar’s interests, especially Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the former Al-Qaeda affiliate in Syria.
Likewise, the presence of more than a million Syrians in hundreds of encampments near the Turkish border provides Doha – which has financed the construction of towns for the displaced in this region – with additional leverage to be used on Damascus when the moment arises.
This partially explains the reasons for Qatar’s continued refusal to restore relations with Damascus and approve the return of Syria to the Arab League. Doha seeks to exert leverage and extract a price from the Assad government in any future Syrian solution. But there are several other factors that impact Qatari intransigence on the Syrian issue:
First, Qatar currently hosts the largest US Central Command (CENTCOM) military base in West Asia, and Washington outright rejects any and all rapprochement initiatives with Damascus.
Second, is Assad’s refusal to normalize relations with Turkiye pending a wholesale withdrawal of Turkish military forces from occupied Syrian territories. So long as Syrian-Turkish differences remain unresolved, Doha will not move to improve its own ties with Damascus.
Third, is Syria’s own refusal to normalize relations with Qatar without the latter paying a substantial price for its role in inciting, expanding, and militarizing the conflict. Qatar is a small, wealthy emirate, far from Syria’s borders. Unlike other regional supporters of opposition militias – such as Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, and the UAE, who exercise substantial regional influence – Qatar has little value for Damascus other than the outsized wealth it can contribute to Syria’s reconstruction.
However, these deeply-embedded Syrian-Qatari differences do not preclude Syria’s return to the Arab League fold, from which it was suspended in 2011. Qatar cannot afford to exercise a veto on Syria’s return all by itself, nor will the organization tolerate being held up on this critical inter-Arab issue solely based on Doha’s stubborn refusal.
On 7 May, Arab foreign ministers will meet in Cairo specifically to discuss Syria’s Arab League restitution. Arab diplomatic sources inform The Cradle that the mere convening of the League Council at this extraordinary political level means that there is an agreement to endorse the Syrian return. They say that the council is likely to discuss two proposals: The first, submitted by Saudi Arabia, will require Qatar to abstain from voting, and the second is for Syria to initially return to the League as an “observer,” with the provision that it regains its full membership next year.
As for Kuwait and Morocco, which also ostensibly reject Syria’s return, the diplomatic sources reveal that Saudi Arabia has managed to persuade them not to oppose its proposal, which will make it easier for Doha “not to oppose what the member states of the Arab League are unanimously agreed upon.”
The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of The Cradle.
The war in Ukraine was planned to extend to Syria. Leaked secret documents revealed the Ukrainian military were planning to attack Russian troops stationed in Syria in an effort to distract Russia and cause losses and casualties far from the battlefield in eastern Europe.
Jack Teixeira, a young member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard, was arrested by the FBI in the investigation of leaked classified military intelligence which were viewed on the Discord chat platform.
Among the documents were details of the planning and assessment of attacks on Russian military capabilities in Syria, to be carried out by the US military partner there, the SDF.
The SDF control the northeast quarter of Syria and the troops are made up of about one-third Kurds and two-thirds Arab tribal members. The Kurdish semi-autonomous region in Syria was created by the US alliance with the Communist administration of the Kurds under Ilham Ahmed and General Mazloum Abdi.
The area the US-Kurdish alliance controls is not populated by a majority of Kurds, but the Kurds do represent a sizable ethnic population. Once they became financially and militarily supported by the US, the Kurds were able to carry out a program of ethnic cleansing which displaced the original inhabitants from their homes, lands and businesses.
The SDF working alongside the US occupation forces in Syria were planned to be supplied with drones and other equipment to attack the Russian troops in Syria. The Russian airbase on the coast in Latakia was cited to be attacked as well as other areas.
The Ukrainian military intelligence had planned the attacks in Syria, using the US allied paramilitary force the SDF, for the purpose of opening a second front in the war with Russia. The planning strategized that Russia would be distracted by attacks on its forces in Syria, and become weaker in their military capabilities.
Ukrainian President Zelensky, a former TV comedienne, cancelled the operations while still in the planning stages.
The Russian military was invited into Syria in October 2015, when the terrorist group Jibhat al-Nusra was at its height and threatened to over-run the coastal region. After the Russian military arrived in Syria, the Russian forces alongside the Syrian Arab Army were successful in pushing the terrorists back. Today, the central government in Damascus controls almost all of Syria with the exception of the Kurdish region previously described, and the small province of Idlib in the north west which is under the occupation of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the current name of Jibhat al-Nusra. Mohammed al-Julani is in control of Idlib. He started off in Iraq with Al Qaeda, then was sent to Syria by the leader of ISIS, and finally is holding about 3 million civilian hostage in Idlib, while being supplied with humanitarian aid by the US, UN, EU and other charities.
The Russian presence in Syria today can be termed a peace-keeping mission. They still attack ISIS and terrorist positions, but most of their presence is in holding the peace between the Kurds and their sworn enemy, Turkey. If it was not for the Russian military presence in Syria, Turkey would have invaded even further into the Kurdish region, and there could have been massacres.
Russia has a working relationship with Syria, Iran and Turkey and has been negotiating for a peaceful settlement to the Syrian crisis.
Turkey had been an US ally, but has felt betrayed by the US support of the Kurdish paramilitary SDF, which consists of the core military group YPG, which is aligned with the PKK, a terrorist group responsible for about 30,000 deaths over decades.
Had the Ukrainian plan to attack Russians in Syria been carried out, the response could have been a joint Turkish-Russian military operation against the Kurds, which could have resulted in US military deaths or injuries, and would likely have ended with the US occupation forces withdrawal to Iraq.
If Zelensky hadn’t stopped the plans, Syria could have regained the north east quarter from the Kurds, and Turkey could have vanquished the SDF and YPG. That would then leave Idlib and the terrorists sitting on the border without their US supporters. It could have resulted in Idlib’s terrorist occupiers fleeing under cover of darkness, and the 3 million hostages being set free after more than a decade of captivity.
Under the plan, the SDF asked for protection that they would not be revealed as the source of the planned attacks on the Russian military in Syria, and instead make it appear that the US protected terrorists holding Idlib would be blamed.
Turkey has military troops occupying Idlib, and should the plan have been carried out, Russia could have attacked Idlib as the source of the planned attacks, and this would have been a direct confrontation between Turkey and Russia on Syria soil.
The US may have ordered Zelensky to halt the planned attacks on Russians in Syria. Washington, DC. is insisting to remain occupying bases in Syria to prevent Syria from access to its energy resources, and thus preventing Syria from recovery from the US-NATO attack on Syria beginning in 2011. The US has failed in their plan to install an American puppet in Syria, but they were successful in making sure they have a compliant and easily manipulated leader in Ukraine.
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NATO-sponsored Al Qaeda terrorists in northwestern Syria carried out waves of terrorist attacks against the Syrian Arab Army posts in the southern Idlib countryside and northern Latakkia countryside, the Syrian army repelled the attacks successfully.
Avenging the bombing of northern ‘Israel’ yesterday, the NATO-sponsored Turkish army-affiliated Nusra Front (al Qaeda Levant) and the Turkistan Islamist Party (ISIS) attacked the Syrian Arab Army posts in two different axes in the northwest of Syria consecutively, in both attacks the vigilant Syrian Arab Army SAA units repelled the attacks and inflict serious casualties among the attackers.
Shortly after midnight, on the al Fatatra axis in southern Idlib, the SAA units protecting the liberated villages managed to kill several terrorists and wound many others of the Nusra Front (aka HTS) with help of the SAA artillery shredding the attackers and their dens they launched their attacks from.
Who finances and arms these terrorists on the United Nations Security Council’s terrorist list with all the advanced weapons and communication devices?
Local sources reported dense clashes in the area, the Syrian Ministry of Defense later confirmed in a statement carried by the Syrian news agency SANA the reports and pointed to the coordinated involvement of the SAA artillery in these clashes.
In northern Latakia countryside, northwest of Syria, the Syrian Arab Army units repelled an attack by a group of the NATO-sponsored Turkistan (anti-Islamic) Islamist Party (ISIS – ISIL – Daesh) terrorists, the attack was foiled and several terrorists were killed including a so-called Abu Qutada, a commander in the terrorist group.
The body of the killed commander was taken by the SAA for further investigations with the Russian authorities, and most likely with Chinese security. The CIA with the help of ‘intelligence’ agencies from a number of Gulfies states and the Turkish MiT recruit terrorists for this Turkistan Islamist Party from Central Asia all the way from the Chinese Uighur to northern Turkey, Washingnton’s created Green Belt that surrounds southern Russia and west of China.
Both of the terrorist groups in these two attacks in southern Idlib countryside and northern Latakia countryside are the most ideologically loyal to the Turkish madman Erdogan and his anti-Islamic Muslim Brotherhood organization. Nothing stops this madman Erdogan from spilling the blood of innocent people, especially mainstream Muslims, and Christians even in Islam’s holiest Ramadan fasting month, just like his masters in Tel Aviv.
The Russian Ministry of Defense, on its part, reported the attack of the anti-Islamic Turkistan Islamist Party foiled by the Syrian Arab Army in northwest Syria, the Russian sources added that 3 of the attackers were killed in this attack.
Analysts in northern Syria connected these attacks with the overall NATO escalation across the globe as their Ukraine project is failing miserably, and the analysts link the timing of these particular two terrorist attacks to the bombing of northern ‘Israel’ – occupied Palestine yesterday pointing to the close relationship between the terrorist groups in Syria and Israel.
Syria News is a collaborative effort by two authors only, we end up most of the months paying from our pockets to maintain the site’s presence online, if you like our work and want us to remain online you can help by chipping in a couple of Euros/ Dollars or any other currency so we can meet our site’s costs.You can also donate with Cryptocurrencies through our donate page. Thank you in advance.
لم يَخرج اللقاء الرباعي الذي عُقد على مستوى نواب وزراء خارجية كلّ من سوريا وتركيا وروسيا وإيران، بأيّ جديد يُذكر، وسط إصرار سوري واضح على التمسُّك بثلاثة بنود رئيسة تعدّها دمشق «ثوابت أساسية» لأيّ انفتاح محتمل على الجارة الشمالية، تتضمن: جدولاً معلناً لانسحاب القوات التركية من الشمال السوري، وعدم التدخل في الشؤون الداخلية السورية، والتعاون في مجال مكافحة الإرهاب. غير أن هذه المطالب قوبلت، دائماً، بمماطلة تركية مقرونة بوعود شفهية بانسحاب مشروطٍ بمتغيّرات دولية، ما يعني تالياً تعثّر جولة المفاوضات الأولى ضمن الإطار الرباعي، على رغم استعجال موسكو في إعلان بدء التحضير للقاء سيجري، في وقتٍ لاحق، على مستوى وزراء الخارجية
بعد تأجيل اللقاء الذي كان مقرّراً في شباط الماضي، نتيجة الزلزال الذي ضرب تركيا وسوريا بدايةً، ورفْض الأخيرة الانخراط في المسار قبل أن تتحدّد أرضية واضحة تفضي إلى انسحاب القوات التركية من المناطق التي تنتشر فيها شمال البلاد، عُقد اللقاء الرباعي على مستوى نواب وزراء خارجية كلّ من سوريا وتركيا وروسيا وإيران؛ علماً أنه كان من المفترض أن يجري على مستوى وزراء الخارجية، قبل أن يخفّض مستوى التمثيل، كخطوة أولى يمكن أن تمهّد للقاءات على مستويات أعلى، غير أن مخرجات اللقاء لا تُظهر أيّ تقدُّم يُعتدُّ به.
المسار الذي أعلنت دمشق سابقاً رفضه، من دون وضع أجندة واضحة له، يمثّل انسحاب القوات التركية هدفها النهائي، عادت للانخراط فيه بفعل ضغوط إيرانية وروسية، وعلى أُسس «واضحة ومعلَنة» تدور جميعها في فلك تحويل الوعود الشفهية التركية بسحب القوات، إلى جدول أعمال مكتوب وواضح، على أن تلعب كلّ من طهران وموسكو دور الضامن لتنفيذه، وذلك بالتوازي مع الاتفاق على تنفيذ خطوات مشتركة من شأنها حلّ أزمة اللاجئين، والتعاون في مجال ضبط الحدود. وتلك نقاط تشي تصريحات نائب وزير الخارجية السوري، أيمن سوسان، الذي رأَس وفد بلاده، بأنه لا محلّ لها على أرض الواقع، بعد عقْد ثلاثة اجتماعات على مدى يومَين (اجتماعان سوري – روسي وسوري – إيراني، وثالث رباعي). وإذ أشار سوسان، في الكلمة التي ألقاها خلال الاجتماع الرباعي، إلى أن «التوصيف القانوني للوجود العسكري غير الشرعي على الأراضي السورية سواء في شمال شرقي سوريا (قواعد التحالف الذي تقوده واشنطن)، أو في شمال غربها (القواعد التركية)، ومِن قِبَل أيٍّ كان، واضح للغاية (…) ينتهك أحكام القانون الدولي، ويخالف مقاصد ومبادئ ميثاق الأمم المتحدة، كما يتعارض مع علاقات حسن الجوار والمبادئ الناظمة للعلاقات السلمية بين الدول، ومع كلّ قرارات مجلس الأمن ذات الصلّة بسوريا»، فهو فتح الباب أيضاً أمام تعاون كبير مع الجارة الشمالية، لا سيما في مسألتَي المخاطر الأمنية واللاجئين. وأوضح أن «وجود أيّ خطر إرهابي يَفرض عمليّاً وقانونيّاً التعاون والتنسيق مع الدولة المعنيّة لمواجهته (…) يمكن التعاون في موضوع عودة اللاجئين السوريين من تركيا إلى أماكن إقامتهم الأصلية في سوريا، وهذا الأمر يتطلّب العمل على توفير المتطلّبات والبيئة اللازمة لذلك، بما فيها تحقيق الأمن والاستقرار عبر بسْط سلطة الدولة على أراضيها وتهيئة البنى التحتية والتمويل اللازم، والجانب السوري مستعدّ لاتخاذ الإجراءات التي تقع على عاتقه بناءً على ذلك». وفي كلمته، أعاد رئيس الوفد السوري التذكير بوعود تركية سابقة بسحب قوّاتها من الأراضي السورية، والتزامها بحلحلة ملفّ إدلب، وهو ما لم تفِ به، قائلاً: «لم نرَ حتى الآن أيّ مؤشرات إيجابية بخصوص انسحاب القوات التركية من سوريا، أو بخصوص محاربة الإرهاب والقضاء عليه في شمال غربي سوريا، وبالأخصّ في منطقة إدلب، وإعادة بسط سلطة الدولة على هذه المنطقة، لا بل إن تركيا لم تلتزم حتى بالتفاهمات التي تمّ التوصل إليها في إطار أستانا أو مع الجانب الروسي»، فاتحاً الباب أمام تعاون جدّي تكون هذه المرة موسكو وطهران شريكتين فيه، ضمن خطّة تتضمّن انسحاباً دقيقاً للقوات التركية من إدلب، واستعادة الجيش السوري السيطرة عليها بشكل سلس.
بدأت «هيئة تحرير الشام» إشعال الشمال السوري بمعارك على جبهات عدّة
الاجتماع الذي جاء بعد يوم من عقْد الوفد السوري لقاءات ثنائية مع الجانبَين الروسي والإيراني، أعادت خلالهما دمشق التشديد على ثبات مواقفها، تحوّل بمجمله إلى طاولة لطرْح الأفكار، حيث قام كلّ وفد بتقديم ما لديه، على أن يتمّ تحديد موعد للقاء آخر، أَعلنت الخارجية الروسية أنه سيكون على مستوى وزراء الخارجية، موضحةً أن المشاركين في الاجتماع الرباعي عرضوا مواقفهم بصورة مباشرة وصريحة واتّفقوا على مواصلة الاتصالات، وأن المشاورات بحثت مسائل الإعداد للقاء بين وزراء خارجية هذه الدول. وتضع المخرجات الضئيلة للاجتماع، وتمسُّك دمشق بثوابتها، الانتقال إلى خطوة لاحقة أكبر على عاتق أنقرة، التي باتت بحاجة ماسة إلى هذا الانفتاح لتعزيز حظوظ الرئيس رجب طيب إردوغان في الفوز، لا سيما وأن الملفّ السوري يلعب دوراً حاسماً فيها. وبطبيعة الحال، تدرك الحكومة التركية هذه النقطة، إذ أعلنت في مرّات عدة سابقة نيّتها سحْب قوّاتها من سوريا، وهو ما لا تنظر إليه دمشق بتفاؤل نتيجة تجارب سابقة غيّرت أنقرة خلالها مواقفها ونكثت بعهودها، ما يفسر أيضاً إصرار الحكومة السورية على الخروج ببيان مكتوب تضمنه إيران وروسيا، ويتضمّن تنفيذ التعهّدات، ويمنع حكومة «حزب العدالة والتنمية» من الالتفاف عليها، كما يضمن أن تكون هذه التعهّدات صادرة عن الدولة التركية، أيّاً كانت نتيجة الانتخابات الرئاسية.
اللقاء الذي جاء بدفع روسي واضح، يهدف، بمحصلته، إلى تحقيق قفزة على طريق حلّ الأزمة السورية، وفق المسار الروسي، وبوساطة إيرانية، يمكن النظر إليه على أنه خطوة أولى صغيرة، نجحت فيها موسكو وطهران في رفع مستوى التواصل بين سوريا وتركيا، من المستوى الأمني والعسكري إلى المستوى السياسي، على أمل أن تحقّق قفزات أوسع في المرحلة المقبلة. ويحتاج ما تقدَّم إلى مباحثات دقيقة بين الأطراف الأربعة، نتيجة تغوّل الدور التركي في الحرب السورية طيلة السنوات الـ12 الماضية وتشعّبه، بشكل يعيد الأوضاع إلى ما كانت عليه قبل اندلاع الحرب. ويعني هذا، في حال التوافق على مسألة إدلب والشمال السوري، الانتقال إلى مرحلة لاحقة يشكّل فيها التخلّص من الوجود الأميركي هدفاً مشتركاً للأطراف الأربعة.
ميدانياً، وبينما كانت الوفود الأربعة تعقد جلستها المطوّلة في موسكو، بدأت «هيئة تحرير الشام»، التي تستشعر ارتفاع الخطر مع كل خطوة تقرّب وجهات النظر السورية – التركية، إشعال الشمال السوري بمعارك على جبهات عدّة، آخرها إعزاز التي تَشهد اشتباكات عنيفة بين فصائل تابعة لـ«الجيش الوطني»، وأخرى بايعت زعيم «الهيئة»، أبي محمد الجولاني، تضمّ كتائب تابعة لـ«فريق ملهم التطوعي» الذي يتمتّع بعلاقات قوية مع رجل «القاعدة» السابق. ويؤكد هذا المسار مواصلة «تحرير الشام» تنفيذ مخطّطها لقضم الشمال، وصولاً إلى معبر «باب السلامة» مع تركيا في إعزاز، والمعابر التي تصل مواقع سيطرة الفصائل في ريف حلب مع مناطق سيطرة «قسد»، وأبرزها معبر «الحمران» في جرابلس، حيث تشهد مواقع سيطرة الفصائل في ريفَي حلب الشرقي والشمالي حالة استنفار كبيرة، وسط معارك تزداد كثافتها بشكل يومي قد تنتهي بفرض «الجولاني» نفسه «أميراً» على ريف حلب، تمهيداً لأيّ تطوّرات قد تجبره على التخلّي عن إدلب.
Head of the Syrian delegation, Assistant Foreign and Expatriates Minister, Dr. Ayman Sousan , affirmed that Turkey’s formal and unequivocal announcement that it will withdraw its forces from all Syrian lands, and to start withdrawal from these lands, is “the gateway to re-establish communication between the two sides,” stressing that restoring the situation in the northeast and northwest of Syria to what it used to be requires conditions can be realized by preserving Syria’s sovereignty and unity, withdrawing of illegal forces, combating terrorism, and restoring of the Syrian state’s control over all its territory.
Sousan noted in a speech before the quadripartite meeting of the assistant foreign ministers of Syria, Russia, Iran and Turkey, which is being held in the Russian capital, Moscow, that Syria has been subjected to an unprecedented terrorist war during the past 12 years, with full and unlimited planning and support from some Western, regional and Arab countries, where the foreign terrorists came from more than 100 states, according to UN reports. “Unfortunately, this was through neighboring countries,” he added.
“We thank the Russian and Iranian friends for their valuable assistance to Syria in confronting terrorism, and we appreciate their supportive position throughout these years, but on the other hand, we cannot overlook the fact that other countries have taken a different path, as they took advantage of the situation created by this war to illegally send their forces to Syria and be present on its territory without any invitation or coordination with the legitimate government, not to mention their support to terrorist groups in Syria.” , Sousan said.
The illegal military presence on Syrian territory violates the provisions of international law
Sousan added that the legal description of the illegitimate military presence on Syrian territory, whether in the northeast or northwest of Syria and by whoever, is very clear, as this presence violates the provisions of international law and violates principles of the UN Charter, as well as contradicts good-neighborly relations and the principles regulating peaceful relations between states and all Security Council resolutions related to Syria.
Sousan pointed out that there are no international legal provisions that give the right to any country to violate the sovereignty of other countries or to intervene militarily in their territories without the consent of the concerned country, under any pretext, including combating terrorism.
The existence of any terrorist threat requires practically and legally cooperation and coordination with the concerned country to confront that, and Syria has repeatedly expressed its readiness for such cooperation as long as it takes place within the framework of respecting its sovereignty and territorial integrity, Sousan noted.
Sousan stressed that Syria does not look back as much as it looks forward, and it is with dialogue and building bridges of communication with all countries, even those that had negative roles during the years of the crisis, based on its national principles and based on its concern for the interests of the Syrian people and its quest to realize security and stability in this volatile region, establishing the best relations with neighboring countries to serve the interests of their peoples.
“This, of course, includes Turkey, with which a long common borders brings us together , as the earthquake incident that struck Syria and Turkey on the last February 6th affirmed that politics cannot ignore the facts of history, geography, common interests, strong bond between the two friendly peoples.
Syria dealt positively with the efforts of the Russian and Iranian friends aimed at restoring communication between Syria and Turkey
Sousan affirmed that Syria dealt positively and openly with the efforts of the Russian and Iranian friends aimed at restoring communication between Syria and Turkey, but reaching this goal has objective conditions and requirements that must be met, and there must be a real will and serious dialogue to reach that, as it is clear that the first of these conditions and requirements is the full adherence to Syria’s sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and unity, and that this fundamental principle should be put into practice immediately.
Sousan noted that this principle remains meaningless if it is not translated and embodied by starting the withdrawal of all illegal foreign forces from Syrian territory, including Turkish forces, and not obstructing the efforts of the Syrian state to re-establish its authority over all its territory, including terrorist-held areas, the stop of interfering in Syria’s internal affairs and providing support and protection to terrorist groups there, especially in Idleb, which has become a base and protectorate for terrorists on Syrian territory, which threatens security and stability and endangers the lives of civilians there.
Sousan said that Turkey did not even abide by the understandings reached within the framework of Astana or those with the Russian side. Sousan pointed out to Syria’s readiness to coordinate with Russian and Iranian friends and with the Turkish side on the various practical aspects related to the withdrawal of its forces from Syrian territory, including the entry of the Syrian Arab Army forces into the areas from which these forces will withdraw to ensure that this process is completed smoothly and that the terrorist groups do not gain control.
Fighting terrorism in all its forms is a common interest for all
Sousan noted that combating terrorism in all its forms until eradicating it represents a common interest for all, whether this terrorism is represented by “Daesh” ,“Jabhat al-Nusra” and other organizations or The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the organizations and groups linked to it.
Sousan added that this will open the door for coordination and joint action to confront separatist plans and entities in northeastern Syria, as well as addressing related joint security problems, including working to control common borders and taking joint measures to prevent smuggling and the infiltration of terrorists across them.
Border control between neighboring countries is a joint responsibility
The responsibility for controlling borders between neighboring countries is a joint responsibility, and it is carried out with cooperation, not through unilateral, intrusive or illegal measures, as combating terrorism is not selective either, Sousan stated. Sousan Pointed out that within the framework of the aforementioned points, it is possible to cooperate on the issue of the return of Syrian refugees from Turkey to their original places of residence in Syria, and this matter requires work to provide the necessary requirements and environment for that, including realizing security and stability by extending the state’s authority over its territory and preparing the necessary infrastructure and financing. The Syrian side is ready to take the measures that fall upon it accordingly, he stressed.
Russian Federation | The quartet meeting of the assistant foreign ministers of Syria, Russia, Iran and Turkey begins in Moscow
“No external factor enables a government or an army to stabilize, unless this government and this army enjoy a popular support that safeguard them.”
Egypt’s former Assistant Foreign Minister Hussein Al-Haridi in a recent interview
The pre-planned war in Syria has spanned twelve years and is still ongoing. It is well known that this warfare is not limited to battlegrounds but rather takes various economic, social, and political forms, in a bid to deplete President Bashar Al-Assad’s government. Surprisingly, all of these endeavors, however, were futile.
The Gloomy Tunnel
The arrest of two men in Daraa in March 2011 and the eventual outbreak of sporadic demonstrations in several regions, formed the full-fledged launch of a bloody scenario or even a global war that later appeared that it has been previously plotted. That was at a time when the entire region was experiencing “revolutions” dubbed as the “Arab Spring.”
It has been clear that all intents and schemes including the normalization of ties with the Zionist enemy- through subduing all resistance movements- as well as compensating for the defeat in Iraq, pass through Syria.
Soon after, Western powers, led by the United States, joined Arab countries in raising slogans such as “the freedom of the Syrian people” and “human rights in Syria.” Such moves were aimed at overthrowing the Syrian government’s legitimacy, neglecting thousands of Syrians who protested in support of President Al Assad.
In June 2012, world powers assembled in Geneva to declare “the necessity of a political transition.”
This declaration was only a pretext for escalating the demonstrations into a major military clash, resulting in the formation of organizations such as the “Free Syrian Army” (FSA) and the ” Jaysh al-Islam” (Army of Islam). These organizations comprised Syrians as well as a significant number of mercenaries from other Arab and Western countries, all with diverse backgrounds and agendas, who flocked to attack Damascus.
Since then, Syria has entered a dark tunnel: the country’s unity and sovereignty have been shattered, with almost all areas divided into pro and anti-regime factions. The emergence of Takfiri factions such as “Jabhat Al-Nusra” and “Ahrar Al-Sham” on the battlefield heightened the tensions.
Then in January 2014, the ISIL terrorist group took control of Raqqa and set out to govern vast areas of Syria and Iraq. Backed by regional and Western governments, these organizations have committed the most heinous terrorist acts against the Syrian people, as well as looting riches and systematically destroying the country’s infrastructure.
In addition to the military conflict, fierce media campaigns have intensified, relying on false flag chemical attacks in a bid to defame the Syrian government while disregarding the crimes committed by so-called “opposition factions.”
Syria Battles Bravely
Amid this reality, the Syrian state and its army stood firmly to protect the governing system and fortify Damascus, which had become a target for terrorists. The fall of the capital would have dealt President Assad a tremendous blow.
In September 2014, the US directly engaged in the struggle, organizing a coalition and assisting Kurdish factions under the pretext of eradicating “ISIL” in northern Syria. Later in 2015, and under the request of the Syrian government, Russia joined the war in a bid to aid Damascus in counter-terror operations.
This was a crucial turning point in the warfare, along with Iran’s and Hezbollah’s key roles in the battlefield and victories in more than one strategic battle, such as the clashes of Qusayr and Aleppo.
This video diplays scene of the couter-terror operations in Syria.
Such turning point reflected on Damascus’ recontrol of swathes of the Syrian territory, as well as keeping the threat of terror away from the capital and Aleppo. This was in addition to preventing Turkey, which aided the armed groups, from reaching its aim of dominating that region and eventually beating “ISIL” in the Syrian Badiya battles.
At the time when the military developments were unfolding in Syria, there was a political course emerging. Hence, when Russia, Iran, and the Syrian Army imposed a new status quo in the battlefield, the “Astana Talks” was established. The peace process came after the West and the UN yielded no substantive progress in the negotiations between the government and the so-called opposition, which remained split and withdrew the battlefield in favor of terrorist organizations.
Wary of Kurdish presence in Syria’s north, Turkey joined, afterwards, the Astana Talks as a guarantor state. This political process, which culminated in several rounds, concluded in a settlement, primarily brokered by the Russians and Turks in September 2018. The settlement involved Idlib and the northwest, which has been under terrorist control, resulting in a halt to fighting on those fronts.
Syria’s Outlook in 2020
On the eve of 2020, the Syrian state maintained control, as it had not done for the past nine years, except in the north, where the conflict created a kind of status quo represented by the limited presence of the US forces through several military bases. Undoubtedly, those bases were later utilized as a springboard for stealing oil and wheat. Also, there was a limited Turkish presence in the area under the pretext of countering the so-called Kurdish expansion.
On the other hand, the Israeli enemy found no means to voice concern over the failure of its allies and the victory of its foes. Thereupon, it occasionally breaches Syria’s airspace and launches strikes.
Despite this scenario in the country’s north, almost 12 years of war did not affect Syria’s Arabian identity, as the idea of its federalization had been buried.
This war has resulted in creating a powerful “Axis of Resistance” that extends from Iran through Iraq to Syria, then to Lebanon and Palestine. Consequently, Washington unleashed an economic warfare through the “Caesar” sanctions, depleting the Syrians who stood by their government.
Illustrative photo displaying flags of movements within the Axis of Resistance.
In mid-2020, the Coronavirus pandemic spread all over the world, resulting in a stalemate in the Syria negotiations. Yet, the sanctions remained the most prominent feature in Syrians’ diaries.
Then in 2022, when the pandemic subsided, the war between Russia and the West in Ukraine commenced, casting a shadow across the entire world. The impasse was broken here by multiple communications reaching the gates of the presidential palace in Damascus, indicating what may be dubbed the “great turning point.” So, what happened, and what were the causes and effects?
“No external factor enables a government or an army to stabilize, unless this government and this army enjoy a popular support that safeguard them.”
Egypt’s former Assistant Foreign Minister Hussein Al-Haridi in a recent interview
The pre-planned war in Syria has spanned twelve years and is still ongoing. It is well known that this warfare is not limited to battlegrounds but rather takes various economic, social, and political forms, in a bid to deplete President Bashar Al-Assad’s government. Surprisingly, all of these endeavors, however, were futile.
The Gloomy Tunnel
The arrest of two men in Daraa in March 2011 and the eventual outbreak of sporadic demonstrations in several regions, formed the full-fledged launch of a bloody scenario or even a global war that later appeared that it has been previously plotted. That was at a time when the entire region was experiencing “revolutions” dubbed as the “Arab Spring.”
It has been clear that all intents and schemes including the normalization of ties with the Zionist enemy- through subduing all resistance movements- as well as compensating for the defeat in Iraq, pass through Syria.
Soon after, Western powers, led by the United States, joined Arab countries in raising slogans such as “the freedom of the Syrian people” and “human rights in Syria.” Such moves were aimed at overthrowing the Syrian government’s legitimacy, neglecting thousands of Syrians who protested in support of President Al Assad.
In June 2012, world powers assembled in Geneva to declare “the necessity of a political transition.”
This declaration was only a pretext for escalating the demonstrations into a major military clash, resulting in the formation of organizations such as the “Free Syrian Army” (FSA) and the ” Jaysh al-Islam” (Army of Islam). These organizations comprised Syrians as well as a significant number of mercenaries from other Arab and Western countries, all with diverse backgrounds and agendas, who flocked to attack Damascus.
Since then, Syria has entered a dark tunnel: the country’s unity and sovereignty have been shattered, with almost all areas divided into pro and anti-regime factions. The emergence of Takfiri factions such as “Jabhat Al-Nusra” and “Ahrar Al-Sham” on the battlefield heightened the tensions.
Then in January 2014, the ISIL terrorist group took control of Raqqa and set out to govern vast areas of Syria and Iraq. Backed by regional and Western governments, these organizations have committed the most heinous terrorist acts against the Syrian people, as well as looting riches and systematically destroying the country’s infrastructure.
In addition to the military conflict, fierce media campaigns have intensified, relying on false flag chemical attacks in a bid to defame the Syrian government while disregarding the crimes committed by so-called “opposition factions.”
Syria Battles Bravely
Amid this reality, the Syrian state and its army stood firmly to protect the governing system and fortify Damascus, which had become a target for terrorists. The fall of the capital would have dealt President Assad a tremendous blow.
In September 2014, the US directly engaged in the struggle, organizing a coalition and assisting Kurdish factions under the pretext of eradicating “ISIL” in northern Syria. Later in 2015, and under the request of the Syrian government, Russia joined the war in a bid to aid Damascus in counter-terror operations.
This was a crucial turning point in the warfare, along with Iran’s and Hezbollah’s key roles in the battlefield and victories in more than one strategic battle, such as the clashes of Qusayr and Aleppo.
This video diplays scene of the couter-terror operations in Syria.
Such turning point reflected on Damascus’ recontrol of swathes of the Syrian territory, as well as keeping the threat of terror away from the capital and Aleppo. This was in addition to preventing Turkey, which aided the armed groups, from reaching its aim of dominating that region and eventually beating “ISIL” in the Syrian Badiya battles.
At the time when the military developments were unfolding in Syria, there was a political course emerging. Hence, when Russia, Iran, and the Syrian Army imposed a new status quo in the battlefield, the “Astana Talks” was established. The peace process came after the West and the UN yielded no substantive progress in the negotiations between the government and the so-called opposition, which remained split and withdrew the battlefield in favor of terrorist organizations.
Wary of Kurdish presence in Syria’s north, Turkey joined, afterwards, the Astana Talks as a guarantor state. This political process, which culminated in several rounds, concluded in a settlement, primarily brokered by the Russians and Turks in September 2018. The settlement involved Idlib and the northwest, which has been under terrorist control, resulting in a halt to fighting on those fronts.
Syria’s Outlook in 2020
On the eve of 2020, the Syrian state maintained control, as it had not done for the past nine years, except in the north, where the conflict created a kind of status quo represented by the limited presence of the US forces through several military bases. Undoubtedly, those bases were later utilized as a springboard for stealing oil and wheat. Also, there was a limited Turkish presence in the area under the pretext of countering the so-called Kurdish expansion.
On the other hand, the Israeli enemy found no means to voice concern over the failure of its allies and the victory of its foes. Thereupon, it occasionally breaches Syria’s airspace and launches strikes.
Despite this scenario in the country’s north, almost 12 years of war did not affect Syria’s Arabian identity, as the idea of its federalization had been buried.
This war has resulted in creating a powerful “Axis of Resistance” that extends from Iran through Iraq to Syria, then to Lebanon and Palestine. Consequently, Washington unleashed an economic warfare through the “Caesar” sanctions, depleting the Syrians who stood by their government.
In mid-2020, the Coronavirus pandemic spread all over the world, resulting in a stalemate in the Syria negotiations. Yet, the sanctions remained the most prominent feature in Syrians’ diaries.
Then in 2022, when the pandemic subsided, the war between Russia and the West in Ukraine commenced, casting a shadow across the entire world. The impasse was broken here by multiple communications reaching the gates of the presidential palace in Damascus, indicating what may be dubbed the “great turning point.” So, what happened, and what were the causes and effects?
The temporary lifting of Washington’s sanctions on earthquake-stricken and war-torn Syria is ‘misleading’ at best, and stands in the way of relief efforts.
Four days after the devastating earthquake that struck southern Turkiye and northern Syria on 6 February, the US announced it would temporarily ease its Syrian sanctions in an effort to speed up aid deliveries to the country.
Specifically, the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) issued Syria General License (GL) 23, which allows a 180-day Syrian sanctions exemption for “all transactions related to earthquake relief efforts.” The EU followed suit later by also freezing some of its sanctions on Damascus.
But do these measures really represent a comprehensive freeze on sanctions against Syria? And are these partial suspensions proportional to the scale of the disaster that leveled the Syrian north?
A more detailed examination of these US “sanction exemptions” reveals that this humanitarian gesture was little more than a public relations stunt to placate growing Arab and Global South displeasure with Washington’s efforts to starve out Syria – sentiments that spiked quite notably after the earthquake.
The US sanctions suspension, for all practical purposes, is limited to the sending of emergency funds from “acceptable” sources. Washington, after all, still controls the process entirely – sanctions can be imposed on remittance senders at any time.
Furthermore, US sanction exemptions have not reduced the reluctance of foreign institutions and individuals to participate in Syria’s economy – even in sectors that are not explicitly targeted by the US and EU. The UN calls this unfortunate byproduct of western sanctions regimes “excessive compliance with sanctions,” because of the fear of running afoul of western financial regulators.
Suffocating sanctions
Damascus has been targeted by US sanctions since 1979 for siding with Tehran in the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988). With the outbreak of the war in Syria in 2011, US President Barack Obama expanded previously imposed sanctions under the Syria Accountability Act (2004) as part of a western effort to create political, economic, and military pressures on the Syrian government.
These new sanctions covered practically all sectors, imposing financial restrictions on individuals, entities, facilities, institutions, ministries, the medical sector, and state banks. They were pervasive and punished all Syrians: banning passenger flights, restricting oil exports (the US, through its Kurdish proxy, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), controls the oil fields in northeastern Syria), preventing the export or re-export of US goods to Syria, preventing the export of Syrian products overseas, freezing Syrian assets abroad, and severing diplomatic relations with Damascus.
This sanctions overload reached a climax with the ominous Caesar Act (2019) and Captagon Act (2022). The former granted Washington the power to impose sanctions against any individual or entity, regardless of their nationality, who engages with Syria in infrastructure and energy projects, provides financial, material, or technological support to the Syrian government, or provides the Syrian military forces with goods or services.
In 2022, the US Congress passed the Captagon Act, which targeted Syria’s pharmaceutical industry, one of the country’s most successful commercial sectors, which provides more than 90 percent of Syria’s medicine needs. This US domestic legislation grants itself the authority to monitor Syrian borders, and seeks to “legitimize” its military forces’ illegal presence in Syria.
License to chill
On 10 February, the administration of President Joe Biden issued Syria General License (GL) 23, which temporarily eases sanctions on Syria and allows for the additional flow of much needed humanitarian aid into the country. However, the statement issued alongside the decision indicates that this “exemption” has many limitations.
While removing sanctions entirely requires US congressional approval, suspending the ban on certain financial transactions with Syria for a short duration is the prerogative of the American president, and is often used as leverage to gain political concessions from US-sanctioned states.
An example of this is the 2015 nuclear negotiations with Tehran, when Obama issued licenses to freeze some US sanctions on Iran before his successor, Donald Trump, withdrew from the agreement in 2018 and reactivated the sanctions.
A press release issued by OFAC stated that GL 23 “provides the broad authorization necessary to support immediate disaster relief efforts in Syria.” It added that “U.S. and intermediary financial institutions should have what they need in GL23 to immediately process all earthquake relief transactions.”
The GL 23 “authorized all transactions related to earthquake relief efforts in Syria that would be otherwise prohibited by the Syrian Sanctions Regulations (SySR).” Importantly, it also states that “US financial institutions and US registered money transmitters may rely on the originator of a funds transfer with regard to compliance with this general license, provided that the financial institution does not know or have reason to know that the funds transfer is not in compliance with this general license.”
This language ensures that Washington retains the authority to investigate any transfers and punish money senders at any later date, on charges that the transfers are not related to relief efforts.
Another caveat, as per OFAC’s press release: “The Department of the Treasury will continue to monitor the situation in Syria and engage with key humanitarian and disaster assistance stakeholders, including NGOs, IOs, and key partners and allies.”
This essentially excludes dealings with Syrian government institutions, and prevents money transfers directly to state entities, including the Central Bank of Syria. Keep in mind that the distribution of all international humanitarian aid is directed via the Syrian government, as per the regulations and laws of the state.
This US “sanctions relief” caveat elicited a high-pitched response from the Syrian Foreign Ministry, in which it described Washington’s offering as “misleading, and aims to give a false humanitarian impression.”
Last May, the US lifted sanctions on foreign investments in areas outside of Syrian government control. The Treasury Department issued an authorization that now allows for “activities” in 12 different economic sectors in parts of northeast and northwest Syria without fear of US sanctions. This move was aimed at stimulating economic growth in areas controlled by US-backed Kurdish militias and Turkish-backed militants.
Hindering relief efforts
Washington’s sanctions have had direct consequences on international relief efforts following the earthquake. The United Nations and relief organizations were delayed in providing urgent life-or-death assistance to Syria, which the UN blamed on road and infrastructure obstacles and a “lack of fuel” – an implicit reference to the western sanctions that have deprived the country of its critical oil wealth.
Syria’s entire health sector has suffered directly from US sanctions because of power outages and the inability to purchase vital medical equipment needed to treat patients. According to estimates by the World Health Organization (WHO), around 20 medical facilities were damaged by the earthquake and need rehabilitation, but US sanctions prevent the restoration of these facilities, either through a direct ban or because foreign medical companies fear sanctions repercussions for dealing with the Syrian Ministry of Health.
Sanctions have doubled the suffering of Syrian earthquake survivors in terms of securing urgent relief materials and rehabilitating their damaged housing units. As such, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for the lifting of sanctions that impede relief efforts.
“This is a moment in which everybody has to make very clear that no sanctions of any kind interfere with relief to the population of Syria in the present moment,” he said.
A Syrian relief source, who asked not to be named, informs The Cradle that the response of international organizations to the Syrian disaster still remains below standard due to poor funding and the difficulty of sending relief and medical materials because of the sanctions.
He explains that the impact of the US exemption license is almost negligible, as “the disaster will have a very long term impact. In normal circumstances, we need years of work, let alone the [additional burden of] sanctions.”
US ignores global calls to lift sanctions
In her preliminary report after a 12-day visit to Syria in November 2022, UN Special Rapporteur on Unilateral Coercive Measures and Human Rights Alina Dohan presented detailed information about the catastrophic effects of unilateral sanctions on Syrian citizens and the decline in their living standards.
Douhan called for the western sanctions imposed on Syria to be lifted immediately and stressed that they are illegal under international law.
The goal of US sanctions is to continue the wholesale destruction of a regional adversary that it wasn’t able to achieve during a decade-long, brutal war. Millions of Syrians were killed, injured, and displaced in a conflict funded and armed by external parties.
The February earthquakes just exacerbated the suffering that Syrians have endured for years, with official Syrian statistics claiming around half a million people affected, in addition to the damage of tens of thousands of housing units.
In a preliminary report, the World Bank estimates the direct damages of the earthquake in Syria at $5.1 billion. The destruction has affected four of Syria’s 14 governorates, which are home to approximately 10 million of the country’s population. These include Aleppo, Hama, and Latakia, which are under the control of the Syrian government, and Idlib, which is under the control of Al-Qaeda-affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. Aleppo, with a population of 4.2 million people, was the most affected ($2.3 billion), followed by Idlib ($1.9 billion) and Latakia ($549 million).
Despite exemptions for humanitarian aid, the impact of US sanctions on Syria has been significant, hindering the ability of humanitarian organizations to operate effectively in the country. The negative impact of these sanctions undermines any claims by Washington to support the Syrian people, especially in light of the ongoing humanitarian crisis.
The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of The Cradle.
في أيلول 2014، استخدمت الجماعات التكفيرية في سوريا العمليات الانتحارية وسيلة أساسية لتوجيه ضربات إلى بيئة المقاومة وجمهورها رداً على الدور المركزي لحزب الله في الحرب السورية. وكانت تلك الجماعات تدور في فلك تنظيم «القاعدة»، قبل أن تأخذ مسميات مختلفة، من بينها «جبهة النصرة» التي استقطبت قيادات كثيرة في التنظيم الأم، وتنافست مع تنظيم «داعش» على آخرين.
كان عالم هذه المجموعات ضيقاً للغاية في بلادنا. وحتى المقاومة لم تكن تخصص له حيّزاً كبيراً من عملها. لكن ذلك تغيّر جذرياً بعد اندلاع الأزمة السورية وتفاقم الأوضاع في لبنان والعراق. وحتّمت شراسة المعركة على الأرض، طريقة مختلفة وأكثر سرعة في العمل. وكان الشهيد مصطفى بدر الدين يتولى المسؤولية المباشرة عن عمل هذه المجموعات. وهو، عندما تولى القيادة الميدانية في سوريا، شكّل فريق عمل ذا معرفة وخبرة بالساحتين السورية والعراقية من جهة، وعلى تواصل وتنسيق مع أجهزة وقوى معنية في البلدين، إلى جانب العلاقة العملانية مع قائد فيلق القدس الشهيد قاسم سليماني.
(الأخبار)
اختار الشهيد ذو الفقار الحاج صالح بناء على تجربة سابقة، وعلى أدوار أدّاها في مراحل مختلفة من عمل المقاومة في لبنان، وفي برامج دعمها لقوى المقاومة خارج لبنان. ساعد الحاج صالح «السيد» في أمور كثيرة، وتولّى عمليات التنسيق المنهكة، سواء داخل الجسم أو مع الأصدقاء والحلفاء. وكان صالح، المعروف بهدوئه، يشارك في النقاش وفي وضع تصورات وخطط للعمليات وكيفية توفير مستلزماتها العملانية، مع ما يعنيه ذلك من إنجاز عملية التنسيق ذات الدور المركزي، خصوصاً أن الحرب في سوريا، كما في العراق، تطلّبت وجود مقاتلين من قوى عدة، ومن جنسيات مختلفة، وكانت هناك حاجة إلى تبادل الخبرات من جهة، وإلى عمليات فرز للاستفادة إلى الحد الأقصى من الموجود، وتقليل حجم التضارب أو الخسائر.
في تلك الفترة، عمل الحاج صالح مع الشهيد ذو الفقار على تنسيق مهام والقيام بخطوات في إطار الحرب المفتوحة ضد الجماعات التكفيرية. لم تكن هذه المعركة محصورة في المواجهات العسكرية، بل تطلب الأمر قفزة نوعية في العمل الأمني، لتحقيق هدفين: الأول وقائي يستهدف خرق هذه المجموعات وتوفير مصادر بشرية من داخلها للتعرف إلى هيكلياتها وتفكيرها وآلية عملها، والثاني إحباط عملياتها لا سيما ضد المدنيين من خلال التعرف إلى طريقة التخطيط للعمليات ذات الطابع الأمني.
(الأخبار)
وقد أُتيح للحاج صالح أن يكون شريكاً وشاهداً على عمليات التخطيط. وإذا كان دوره التنسيقي أساسياً في إنجاح العمل، فإن ثقة ذو الفقار به، معطوفة على ثقة جيل من القادة العسكريين والأمنيين في المقاومة، لا سيما بعد عمله مع الشهيد عماد مغنية، سمحت له بالعمل على مشاريع كثيرة، من ضمنها متابعة الجهود الخاصة بحماية المقرات والقواعد العسكرية التي أقامتها المقاومة داخل الأراضي السورية. وهو بقي يساعد ذو الفقار حتى استشهاده، فأُسندت إليه المسؤولية المباشرة والكاملة عن عمل الوحدة 9000 المعنية بالعمل الأمني في سوريا، والمتخصصة في مكافحة الاختراقات من جهة، وفي الفصل وحماية الجسم المقاوم والمساعدة على تأهيل كوادر انضمت إلى قوات الحزب في سوريا، إضافة إلى التنسيق مع الأجهزة الأمنية والعسكرية السورية والمتابعة اللصيقة لملف التجسس الإسرائيلي الذي نشط بقوة في الساحة السورية، مستغلاً الفوضى التي تسبّبت بها الحرب، ومكملاً لما تقوم به أجهزة استخبارات العدو في لبنان وفي بلدان أخرى من بينها العراق وإيران.
(الأخبار)
في خضم هذه المواجهة، قررت المقاومة تحقيق اختراقات فنية وبشرية لجسم الجماعات التكفيرية، وتمكّنت خلال وقت قصير من الوصول إلى عناصر فاعلة، بعضها مقرر وبعضها تنفيذي في جسم هذه المجموعات. وكانت مهمة الفريق العامل تحت إشراف السيد ذو الفقار، وكان الحاج صالح واحداً منهم، تنفيذ خطة لتوفير حماية خاصة للمتعاونين مع المقاومة من الطرف الآخر، وصولاً إلى تنفيذ عمليات وهمية لإقناع قيادات الجماعات التكفيرية بمصداقية هؤلاء الأشخاص لتعزيز موقعهم داخل هذه الجماعات. وقد أتاحت هذه المهمة الوصول إلى مراكز عمل المجموعات المعنية بالتفخيخ وتجهيز الانتحاريين وتوجيه ضربات قاسية إليها، سواء عبر عمليات خاصة قامت بها مجموعات من المقاومة، أو بتوجيه ضربات بالمسيّرات عندما كانت الظروف الميدانية تعيق المواجهة المباشرة.
في أيلول 2014، انتشر عبر وسائل الإعلام اللبنانية والعربية والدولية خبر مفاده بأن سيارة يقودها انتحاري هاجمت حاجزاً عسكرياً يقيمه عناصر من حزب الله في نقطة قريبة من الحدود مع لبنان. وجرى التداول بمعلومات عن سقوط قتلى وجرحى خلال الهجوم. لكن بخلاف التفجيرات الأخرى، لم يكن بمقدور أحد الوصول إلى موقع التفجير ولا التصوير أو الاطلاع على حقيقة ما حصل تلك الليلة.
نجح في اختراق المجموعات التكفيرية لتوفير مصادر بشرية من داخلها وإحباط عملياتها
يومها، نفّذ فريق الشهيد ذو الفقار، وبينهم الحاج صالح، عملية وهمية قضت بنشر مقاتلين للحزب قبل نقطة التفجير المزعوم، وتسريب الخبر إلى وسائل إعلام في لبنان، فيما تولى أمنيون تسريب معلومات عن سقوط قتلى وجرحى، قبل أن تعلن «جبهة النصرة» تبنّيها للعملية التي استهدفت حزب الله. حصل الشخص الذي كان مكلفاً أساساً القيام بهذا العمل على تنويه من قيادة الجماعة الإرهابية، ما أتاح له مواصلة العمل والحصول على كم من المعطيات سهلت للمقاومة إعداد برنامج للمواجهة انتهى بعملية عسكرية واسعة أنهت وجود كل هذه الجماعات على الحدود مع لبنان.
كان الحاج صالح واحداً من فريق لا يزال الأحياء فيه يعملون بصمت، تماماً كالصمت الذي سكنه لسنوات كثيرة، وهو الذي لم يكن يهتم فقط بالأمن العسكري، بل حرص على منع عمليات استغلال الحرب السورية من قبل مافيا كان بينها لبنانيون حاولوا انتحال صفة القرب أو الانتماء إلى المقاومة. وفي كتابه الكثير من الحكايات التي لا
نعرف متى تقرر المقاومة الحديث عن تفاصيلها…
صالح، شأنه شأن الكثيرين من المجاهدين الذين لا يتعرف الناس إليهم إلا شهداء… وله بقيته في الأرض وبين البشر، وله من يحفظ الدرس والمهمة من دون حياد!
Close to 9 million people in Syria have been affected by the 7.8 magnitude earthquake, 65 seconds in duration on February 6, that Turkish President Erdogan has compared with the power released by atomic bombs. The hardest hit areas are Latakia, Aleppo, and Idlib.
The UN estimates that more than 4.2 million people have been affected in Aleppo province with 400,000 homeless, and 5,000 buildings declared unlivable. Aleppo has more than 1,600 dead and 10,000 injured.
The province of Idlib is a total population estimated at 3 million, but because there is no government or authority there, we can only guess how many have been affected.
UAE Aid plane landing in Aleppo International Airport
The UN says 5.5 million Syrians are without a home after the earthquake, with more than 7,400 buildings having been destroyed completely, or partially in Syria.
In Latakia, there are 820 dead, 142,000 homeless, and over 2,000 injured, with 102 buildings completely collapsed, and others condemned.
A total of 58 trucks have crossed from Turkey to north-west Syria through the Bab al Hawa crossing point over the past five days, carrying aid such as food, tents, and medicines. Those trucks are solely supplying Idlib, under the occupation of the armed group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham. Eleven trucks have gone through the newly opened border crossing of Bab al Salam today, carrying non-food items such as blankets, and mattresses.
Iraqi AAid plan landing in Damascus international Airport
Location matters in this quake
The map will show that Aleppo, Syria is just south of Gaziantep, Turkey which was the epicenter. Aleppo was heavily damaged in the earthquake, adding more misery to a city that was under the occupation of Al Qaeda terrorists in the eastern section until being liberated in December 2016.
Looking at a map, you see that Latakia is a 2 ½ hour drive west of Aleppo on the M4 highway. It seems like a long distance, but the power of the 7.8 magnitude brought the epicenter and Latakia together because they share the same fault line, which Aleppo does not.
Tunisian Aid plane landing in Aleppo International Airport
UN: no roadblocks to aid, no politics
Rula Amin, UN Refugee Agency Senior Communications Advisor, urged cooperation among nations to help Turkey and Syria. She said there should be no roadblocks to assistance for people in need. Referring to the UN and western aid coming almost exclusively to Idlib, and by-passing those in need in Latakia and Aleppo, she urged all to put politics aside, and focus on getting aid to those in need regardless of whether they are in the US-EU supported area in Idlib, or whether they live in Aleppo and Latakia under the Syrian administration from Damascus. Amin is no stranger to Syria. In March 2011, Amin was one of the very first international journalists in Deraa, covering what she had claimed was a ‘popular uprising’, and even interviewed the cleric who was the key player of the Obama-designed US-NATO attack on Syria for ‘regime change
.’ She did not go as far as to demand the lifting of all US-EU sanctions on Syria to send aid, but her meaning was clear. The sanctions prevent aid from arriving in Damascus. On February 9 the US Department of the Treasury issued General License 23, which allows for a humanitarian waiver of supplies to government-controlled areas in Syria, but must be received by an NGO and not the Syrian government. The 180-day waiver is far too short, as the need is enormous, and will people will need years to grapple with the damages. Rebuilding homes and businesses may take a decade or more. Also, most governments abroad would be sending official aid to Syria through a government-to-government mechanism, and using an NGO is a tedious stipulation designed to discourage aid from being sent.
Jordanian Aid plane landing in Damascus international Airport
Italy sent two planeloads of aid to Beirut, Lebanon to be transported to Syria by land. This demonstrates the extreme fear that western allies of the US have of the sanctions. By sending the aid to Lebanon, which is not sanctioned, Italy feels more comfortable that the US Treasury will not issue massive penalties against them.
Who refused aid to Damascus?
The US, the EU, and all US allies such as Canada have sent nothing to Syria for the earthquake-ravaged zones of Latakia and Aleppo. According to America, the European Union, the United Kingdom, and the allies of the US, there is no place called Syria. There is only a small, rural agricultural province called Idlib. Syria is 10,000 years old, and Damascus and Aleppo both tie as the undisputed oldest inhabited cities on earth. But the great minds in Washington, DC. only acknowledge the tiny area called Idlib. The terrorist-controlled Idlib is suffering, and has innocent unarmed civilians in need of help; however, Latakia, and Aleppo are far bigger and have sustained more deaths, injuries, and structural damages than Idlib. The US and the west have used politics to judge who gets helped, and who is forgotten. The Syrian people will never forget this. The US and EU sanctions have made life unbearable in Syria before the earthquake of the century, and now when politics should be set aside for humanitarian needs, the US doggedly holds on to their dogmatic ideology to make sure the Syrian people know the full disdain of the American government. The Foreign Minister of the United Arab Emirates visited Damascus and met with President Assad after the quake, in an act of defiance of US-dictated policy.
Algerian aid plane in Aleppo International Airport
Where is Government controlled Syria?
The US-NATO attack on Syria beginning in March 2011 has resulted in three separate administrations in Syria. The biggest territory, about 75%, is the central government in Damascus. Aleppo and Latakia are the two hardest hit by the earthquake which is under the Damascus administration.
The second administration is the province of Idlib, which is an olive-growing region between Latakia and Aleppo. There is no government there. The 3 million persons there live under the occupation of an armed terrorist group, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly called Jibhat al-Nusra, the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda. The terrorists embedded themselves there in 2012, and until now are safe from attack because the US, EU, and UN all lobby for their protection, and aid. The US supports the Al Qaeda terrorists because they represent the US interests in Syria to be decided upon in a final political settlement in Syria under the auspices of the UN.
The third administration is the Kurdish self-proclaimed region of the northeast, where the US military is occupying the Syrian oil wells, and allowing the Kurds to sell the stolen oil in Iraq to cover their expenses. This area was not affected by the earthquake. This administration exists separate from Damascus only because of the US military illegal occupation
Where is Idlib?
Many of the residents of Idlib most affected by the earthquake have had to sleep outside among the olive groves, in freezing temperatures. The UN acknowledged the international response to Idlib has been a failure.
Raed al-Saleh, head of the White Helmets, an award-winning video troupe headquartered in Washington, DC. has denounced the UN as incompetent in their response to the needs in Idlib. The White Helmets work solely in Idlib and have international donors. Al-Saleh was angry after UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Syrian President Assad had agreed to allow UN aid deliveries to the area through two border crossings from Turkey for three months. The White Helmets and the terrorists do not recognize the Syrian government. Damascus had tried to send aid to Idlib, but the terrorists turned it back saying, “We don’t want help from the enemy.” Previously the UN trucks of aid to Idlib were also stalled after the terrorists demanded a $1,000 fee for each of the 10 trucks.
Why are the borders controlled?
The Syrian government has controlled the border crossings of Syria for security reasons. Serena Shim, an American journalist from Detroit, witnessed and reported seeing a UN food truck carrying Al Qaeda terrorists, and their weapons, from Turkey into Syria near Idlib. She was murdered in Turkey just days after publishing her report.
The terrorists in Idlib are contained in a small area and have weapons including missiles which have frequently been directed at Latakia, and Kessab, a small Christian Armenia village just north of Latakia. The Syrian government wants to keep the weapons from flowing into Idlib while allowing UN, and other humanitarian aid to flow into the 3 million civilians who are held there as human shields.
Steven Sahiounie is a two-time award-winning journalist
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ــ في المشهد الإجمالي للمنطقة سؤال كبير يطرح اليوم، بعد كارثة الزلزال، ما هي الفائدة التي يمكن أن تجنيها تركيا من بقاء قواتها في سورية، وتركيا تكتشف مع الزلزال حاجتها لحشد إمكاناتها لسنوات قادمة على عملية إزالة آثار الزلزال، وحاجتها لفعل ذلك إلى أفضل العلاقات مع دول الجوار، وها هي تسعى لتطبيع العلاقات مع اليونان كما قال الرئيس التركي رجب طيب أردوغان، بينما كان أردوغان قد دعا الى هذا التطبيع مع سورية في مرحلة سابقة على الزلزال، بنية التخفف من أعباء العبث الذي بدّد الكثير من قدرات تركيا ومكانتها، وجلب الخراب والإرهاب الى سورية، فكيف بعد الزلزال؟ ومعلوم أن أي علاقة طبيعية بين تركيا وسورية مشروطة بانسحاب تركيا من الأراضي السورية.
ــ ليس من متابع للملف التركي السوري إلا ويعلم أن ما بدأ مع اكتمال عقد الرباعية الروسية التركية الإيرانية السورية كان مقرراً له قبل الزلزال أن يترجم بعقد لقاء أمني عسكري رباعي لمناقشة آليات معالجة الوضع الشاذ في شمال غرب سورية، بعدما تمت مناقشة الوضع المشابه في شمال شرق سورية. وهذا يعني أن الانشغال بكارثة الزلزال وما فرضه ايقاع الأيام الأولى لن يدوم طويلا قبل أن يصبح المضي قدماً بهذه الخطوة حاجة ملحة في ضوء التداعيات التي ترتبت على الزلزال. وهذا يعني وضع مستقبل كانتون شمال شرق سورية وكانتون شمال غرب سورية على طاولة البحث، لارتباطهما عضوياً بقرار الانسحاب التركي من سورية، حيث تسعى تركيا لربط هذا الانسحاب بإنجاز أمني تقول بموجبه لشعبها إنها أنهت تحدي الكانتون الكردي، وتربط سورية تعاونها في إنجاز هذه المهمة سياسياً وأمنياً بالتزام تركي بالتعاون في إنهاء الكانتون شمال غرب سورية، وتقف موسكو وطهران في هذا الشأن مع دمشق.
ــ السؤال الذي يطرح نفسه هنا، هو ما هي خطة القيادات السياسية السورية التي تحمل ألقاباً فخمة في مواقع قيادة ثورة مزعومة، وما هو موقع تمسكهم بالكانتون في شمال غرب سورية في رؤيتهم المستقبلية لسورية، وهل هم يملكون أصلا هذه الرؤية، وقد بات أكيداً أن الحديث عن عمل عسكري يتيح التوسع والتمدد في مناطق سورية تحت سيطرة الدولة، لم يعد قابلا للنقاش حتى على سبيل الهلوسة، وهل يجرؤون على إعلان نيتهم اقامة دولة مستقلة في المنطقة الخاضعة لسيطرتهم، وهل هم يسيطرون عليها فعلاً، أم أن السيطرة هي لتشكيلة تضم عصابات مسلحة متعددة الانتماءات، تمسك بالمنطقة التي تربط الطريق الدولي بين أوروبا والخليج مرورا بتركيا وسورية، لفرض الخوة المالية على العبور، ويسرقون المعونات الإنسانية ويبيعونها للسكان، الذين يعيش أغلبهم من التمويل السياسي الآتي من بعض دول الخليج، وبعض الجمعيات التي تشجع على التطرف في دول أخرى من الخليج، بالإضافة لما تبقى من التنظيم العالمي للإخوان المسلمين، لكنهم يعلمون أنه دون العباءة التركية لا مستقبل لهذا الكانتون. فهل فكروا بالإجابة عن سؤال كيف سوف يتعاملون مع الانسحاب التركي عندما تدق ساعته، وقد باتت قريبة؟
ــ في شمال شرق سورية صورة مشابهة، فلا أفق عسكري يمكن أن يراهن عليه قادة تنظيم قسد لتوسيع دويلتهم، والقول إنهم جزء من حركة سورية تسعى للسيطرة على كامل الجغرافيا، ولا هم قادرون على إعلان دويلتهم في هذه المنطقة وإعلان الانفصال عن سورية، ولا هم قادرون على توظيف هذه السيطرة لتفاوض يتجاوز سقف الدولة السورية الواحدة نحو صيغ من الفدرالية. فماذا سيقولون لمن يسألهم عن استراتيجيتهم، إذا ما تم الاتفاق بين الدولتين السورية والتركية بشراكة روسية إيرانية على إنهاء الكانتون، والجواب هو أنهم لا يملكون قرارهم، فهم مجرد تتمة شكلية لبقاء الاحتلال الأميركي يزولون متى زال، وحتى ذلك الحين يتعيشون على فتات الاحتلال بمشاركته بسرقة النفط والقمح، وهذا يجعلهم كنظرائهم الذين يسيطرون على شمال غرب سورية، نماذج لا أخلاقية ساقطة للعمل السياسي. ولعل ما تحمله وقائع الأبنية التي تهدمت مع الزلزال، داخل تركيا وداخل سورية، أنها جميعاً بنيت خلال سنوات الحرب، سواء في مناطق شمال غرب سورية، أو في شرق حلب خلال سيطرة الجماعات المسلحة عليها، أو في المناطق التركية للمتاجرة وبيع بعضها للسوريين، والحصيلة كانت كارثة سببها لا أخلاقية معايير البناء.
ــ مع السقوط الوطني والأخلاقي لهذه الجماعات، آن الأوان للقول كفى للكانتون في إدلب والكانتون في القامشلي، فمواجهة الكوارث وتداعياتها تحتاج دولاً حقيقية، والعصابة لا تتحول إلى دولة.
A NATO Turkey-sponsored Al Qaeda commander was killed along with some sheep in a bombing by a drone in a village in the eastern countryside of Aleppo, north of Syria Wednesday, 25 January 2023.
Local sources in Al Bab city in the eastern countryside of Aleppo said that so far, nobody claimed responsibility for the killing of the Al Qaeda commander Saddam Al Mousa aka Abu Adi, and at least 2 sheep near his house in the village of Al Hadath in the early evening hours of Wednesday.
The bombed terrorist had earned many enemies throughout his terrorist career, and any of those enemies are capable of drone-killing him with the sheep.
Some of the local sources in Al Bab said the terrorist was eliminated after refusing to share the spoils he extorted from the Syrian locals crossing at the Al Hamran makeshift checkpoint in the same area where he was killed with another NATO Turkey-sponsored terrorist group dubbed the National Army, one of the dozens of the Turkey-sponsored terrorist groups operating in northern Syria who are constantly fighting over territories and spoils of war.
Other local sources said the terrorist might have been killed by the Turkish ‘intelligence’ for refusing to hand over the checkpoint to another Turkey-sponsored terrorist group.
Among the jobs this killed terrorist had during his criminal life was as an investigator at the infamous makeshift Jarabulus security prison, he later joined the fight against the US-sponsored ISIS terrorists over some territories in Al Bab city in 2016. The last post the terrorist had was the commander of the ‘Ahrar Aolan Brigade’ of the ‘Ahrar Al-Sham’ organization, an affiliated group with the so-called HTS aka Nusra Front aka Al Qaeda Levant.
Reactions among the terrorists in the different branches, affiliated groups, offshoots, and rivaling factions of Al Qaeda in northern Syria over the killing of this Al Qaeda commander varied between delighted and extreme anger, some of the terrorists were considered colleagues of the terrorist and others were already eyeing the checkpoint he was controlling.
In general, one less terrorist from any of the groups working for NATO countries Turkey or the USA, or for other terror-sponsoring countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Israel, is a blessing for the Syrian people, the sad part is the sheep who were killed with this one as collateral damage.
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Covert training camps in the Jordanian desert are currently the site of British and American trainers developing young Lebanese men, loyal to the Christian warlord, Samir Geagea, according to chief editor of Al Mariah magazine, Fadi Abu Deya. In an interview given to Al Jadeed TV, Abu Deya claimed Geagea is sending fighters to Jordan for military training which is supported by the US and UK. Gegea’s media office has denied this allegation and has threatened to file a lawsuit against Abu Deya. The militia is allegedly tasked with attacks on Hezbollah, the Lebanese resistance group.
However, from a reliable source inside Lebanon, Israel’s Mossad are training fighters loyal to Geagea in his headquarters at Meraab, Baalbek, and Dahr Al Ahmar.
In May 2008, Geagea told the Lebanese media Al Akbar that he had 7,000 to 10,000 fighters ready to face off with Hezbollah, and was asking for US support. Lebanon continues to be one step away from a new civil war along sectarian lines.
Geagea is supported by Saudi Arabia who demand Hezbollah to be demilitarized. The US shares this view with Saudi Arabia and Israel, who view the group as a terrorist organization. Saudi Arabia is willing to help Lebanon with their financial recovery, but their condition is that Hezbollah must be weakened.
Geagea is one of the most powerful politicians in Lebanon, despite being sentenced to life in prison for murder in 1995. He killed his political opponents, and blew up a church full of worshippers, even though he is Christian to whip up sectarian hatred.
Recently, he came under scrutiny for a new militia called “God’s Soldiers” who are located in Ashrafiah, a neighborhood of Beirut. These are young Christian men who most often work as security guards and look like they are professional body builders or wrestlers. Defenders of the group claim they are simply a neighborhood watch group protecting property from robbery. However, Geagea has a past history of heading a group known as “Young Men” who were fighters during the civil war.
Hezbollah is not only a defense force, which has prevented a second Israeli invasion of south Lebanon, and a resistance force demanding the withdrawal of Israelis from the occupied Shebaa Farms, they are also a political party with a sizable elected membership in parliament in the free democratic elections held in May. Most Lebanese, regardless of their support of Hezbollah, agree that Hezbollah has been the only defense force capable of defending the southern border.
Lebanon is now referred to as a failed state. Once called the ‘Switzerland of the Middle East” for its private and secure banking services, and its winter ski resorts in the mountains, it began a financial collapse in 2019 which has seen the country hit rock-bottom currently. Wealthy Arabs from the Persian Gulf used to flock to Lebanon for their famous nightclubs and Casino. The tourists are gone from Lebanon amid the financial collapse which has seen Lebanese migrants leaving in small boats to find a better life in Europe.
Protesters began street violence in 2019 demanding the ruling political elite step down. These politicians included remnants of the war-lords of the 1975-1990 civil war, like Geagea.
The Governor of the Central Bank of Lebanon, Riad Salameh, has been discovered to have run the bank for decades in a Ponzi scheme, which wiped out hard currency, and caused the banks to freeze accounts. Some Lebanese became so desperate to access their own money, they resorted to armed hold-ups to get their own funds released. In several cases, the funds were needed for emergency medical care as there are no public hospitals in Lebanon.
European countries began issuing arrest warrants for Salameh on charges of money laundering, corruption, and personal enrichment of public funds. He has remained free, and still holds his position in charge of all the public funds for Lebanon, while enjoying the protection of the US Ambassador to Lebanon, Dorothy C. Shea who has said removal of Salameh is a ‘red line’. European charges relate to billions of dollars that Salameh and his brother have deposited abroad. Recent rumors floated that the US was promoting Salameh to become the next president.
In 2016, Salameh hosted a conference at the US Embassy in Lebanon. The Financial Action Task Force was set up to stop money laundering to safeguard the integrity of the banking sector. Salameh was the fox in the henhouse.
The US-NATO attack on Syria began in 2011 for regime change. The US and their western allies, including Israel, wanted to break the political alliance between Syrian president Bashar al-Assad and Hezbollah. In 2012, the CIA began a covert training operation in the Jordanian desert, and in 2013 President Obama signed approval of the operation which trained young men to fight in Syria.
In 2013, former deputy CIA director Michael J. Morell said in a CBS interview that the most effective fighters on the battlefield in Syria are the Radical Islamic terrorists. “And because they’re so good at fighting the Syrians, some of the moderate members of the opposition joined forces with them,” he said.
The Syrian refugee camp Zatari in Jordan was the home base of the fighters, who would train with the CIA and slip over the border into Syria and later return to their families safe in the camp.
In 2017, President Trump shut down the $1 Billion CIA program in Jordan. From the beginning, many advisors had cautioned that the weapons the US was supplying to the ‘rebels’ would later fall into the hands of terrorists following Radical Islam, such as Al Qaeda, Jibhat al-Nusra and ISIS. Their warning became reality, after the ‘rebels’ became partners with the Radical Islamic terrorists who did not fight for freedom, or democracy, but for the goal of establishing a government in Damascus following the political ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood (MB). Obama had promoted the MB in the US, Libya, Egypt, Tunisia and Syria. The political platform of the MB is identical to Al Qaeda. The big difference is that ISIS carries black flags and the MB wear suits and ties. Eventually, the Obama-backed MB was defeated in Egypt, Tunisia and Syria. In Libya, the MB control the Tripoli administration backed by the UN. The armed conflict in Syria finished by 2017 with the US supported Al Qaeda affiliate, Jibhta al-Nusra, only in control of an olive growing province, Idlib.
Jordan’s King Hussein was one of the first Arab leaders to call for the Syrian President to step down. Jordan is one the largest recipients of US foreign aid, which was a reward for their peace treaty with Israel. King Hussein supported the US-NATO attack on Syria and hosted the terrorist training camps in the desert as well as a huge Syrian refuges camp which was used to house and feed the wives and children of the terrorists being trained. But, the US-NATO attack on Syria failed. In September 2021, the border crossing between Syria and Jordan re-opened. On October 4, 2021 the King spoke with Assad by phone in the first phase of a reconciliation between Amman and Damascus, similar to the repair in relations between Syria and Bahrain and UAE. Turkey is now in the same process, and reports suggest Saudi Arabia may follow. Arab leaders realize that they must not blindly follow orders by Washington to start or support wars in the Middle East which end up in failure.
Steven Sahiounie is a two-time award-winning journalist
The British government covertly trained Jordanian security services in techniques known as “digital media exploitation” which has been used to monitor, manipulate, and disrupt dissent in the kingdom.
Leaked documents reviewed by The Cradle reveal that Britain secretly trained Jordanian security services in techniques used by the notorious UK security and cyber agency GCHQ, which provides signals intelligence to the British government and its armed forces.
Over three intensive, week-long, Foreign Office-funded training sessions conducted between June 2019 and March 2020, members of the Public Security Directorate’s shadowy Special Branch, handpicked by the British Embassy in Amman, were taught the finer points of “digital media exploitation.”
In theory, the purpose of the exercise was to assist “evidence gathering agencies in Jordan to effectively extract data from digital devices” to enhance their investigative capabilities, and improve the standard of prosecutions, particularly in the field of terrorism.
This would in turn enable enhanced sharing of evidence between Amman and London, “and lead to increased operational cooperation.”
Tried and tested tactics
As readers of The Cradle will well-know by this point, the officially stated noble objectives of Whitehall’s assorted security support and reform programs in West Asia may not align with the underlying reality of these efforts.
For example, this outlet has previously revealed how British operatives and technology are placed in Lebanon’s intelligence services under the guise of teaching them how to use digital forensic tools. This allows London to closely monitor their activities – and Lebanese citizens.
Those programs are delivered by British government contractor Torchlight, a company staffed by UK military and intelligence veterans with high-level security clearances. The same company was also behind the training provided to Jordan’s Special Branch.
According to its submissions to the Foreign Office, based on a “comprehensive on-site visit” in 2018, the Directorate’s operatives were already “satisfactorily equipped in terms of hardware and software” to conduct “digital media exploitation.”
Spying on citizens
However, Torchlight felt that they were not “adequately trained to fully exploit the potential of the equipment they possess.” Given the resources available to the Directorate, this “potential” could be highly concerning.
For example, Torchlight has noted that Special Branch uses Cellebrite’s suite of digital intelligence products. Cellebrite, an Israeli company with clients including multiple repressive governments, produces technology capable of breaking into encrypted devices and extracting and analyzing all data within it.
While the firm has helped solve murky murder cases, overwhelmingly it is deployed to monitor the activities of human rights activists, journalists and dissidents.
The professional backgrounds of Torchlight staffers involved in the Jordanian training project raise additional concerns. It was led by the company’s Head of Digital Intelligence, Andy Tremlett, a cyber and electronic warfare specialist who spent over a decade in senior positions at GCHQ.
Along the way, he was “charged with the provision of support to the most specialized and discreet areas” of British Special Forces operations, and responsible for expanding the agency’s “overseas footprint” and “potential delivery platform.” These positions granted him “vast experience in how to use and exploit digital material,” and integrating different forms of intelligence in broader espionage operations.
‘Destroy, deny, degrade and disrupt’
Further details of Tremlett’s ability to “exploit” the private data of targets aren’t offered, although he is said to have “spent a significant portion of his career within the Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG).” The existence of this unit was exposed by US National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden in 2014, and the details of its operations are truly shocking.
JTRIG’s explicit mission is to employ a variety of dirty tricks to “destroy, deny, degrade and disrupt” enemies and “discrediting” them, by planting “negative information” about them online, and manipulating discussions on internet forums and social networks.
A leaked presentation on JTRIG’s covert activities shows this harassment extends to changing an individual’s social media profile pictures to take their paranoia “to a whole new level” or simply deleting their online presence, writing anonymous blog posts “purporting to be [by] one of their victims” to damage their reputations, emailing and texting their work colleagues, neighbors and friends, and arranging “honey trap” stings.
“A great option. Very successful when it works,” the presentation states in regard to the latter strategy. “Get someone to go somewhere on the internet, or a physical location to be met by a ‘friendly face.’ JTRIG has the ability to ‘shape’ the environment on occasions.”
Writing incriminating blog posts was said to have “worked on a number of different ops,” with “Iran work” cited as a particularly effective example, although this is not expanded upon. Elsewhere, it is disclosed that JTRIG “significantly” disrupted the Taliban’s communications network by bombarding them with phone calls, texts and faxes “every 10 seconds or so.”
Evidently, it was not digital forensics with which Torchlight’s training modules were primarily concerned. In fact, JTRIG operations related to “digital media exploitation” were, per the leaked presentation, primarily concerned with placing information on “compromised” electronic devices, including “damning information, where appropriate.”
Protecting the British-installed monarchy
In Jordan, criticism of King Abdullah II – a member of the Hashemite dynasty installed on thrones across West Asia by the British following World War I, and himself a British Army veteran – and government officials and institutions is a very serious crime.
Journalists are routinely subject to harassment, arrest and prosecution by authorities for even mildly critical reporting or social media posts. And protests over rising hardship among the general population are becoming more frequent.
The prospect of Amman’s secret police being proficient in JTRIG’s malicious methods is therefore disturbing by definition. The ease with which they could be abused to ruin the lives of objectors, and/or jail them on bogus charges, is clear.
Britain’s willingness to export these techniques to Jordan is not surprising. The strict and widely criticizedCybercrime Law, which restricts freedom of expression online and citizens’ right to privacy, makes the country a perfect staging ground for London’s nefarious activities elsewhere in West Asia, and helps keep their presence and intentions secret.
For example, from the early days of the Syrian crisis, Britain operated a site located 45 minutes from Amman where fighters in the proxy war were trained. Leaked files related to the project predicted that some of these individuals would go on to join Al-Nusra and ISIS and that equipment would be stolen and used by them.
Despite this, the Foreign Office was unconcerned about these prospects, likely because there was little risk that they, or the training program more generally, would ever be publicly exposed.
Russian-brokered Syrian-Turkish rapprochement will bury prospects of a divided Syria, with the potential for opposition factions to be co-opted into the armed forces.
The newly-initiated Syrian-Turkish rapprochement talks are headed in Damascus’ favor and the “Turkish concessions” derided by opponents are just the start, insiders tell The Cradle.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has already abandoned his dream of “praying in the Umayyad Mosque” in Damascus. But sources say this will be swiftly followed by further concessions that will throw a wrench into the ambitions of Syria’s opposition factions.
An undivided Syria
There will be no “federalism” or “confederation” – western codewords for the break up of the Syrian state – at these talks, but rather a “Turkish-Russian” acceptance of Damascus’ conditions.
For starters, Ankara plans to open the strategic M4 highway – which runs parallel to the Turkish border and connects all the vital Syrian cities and regions – as a prelude to opening the legal border crossings between Syria and Turkiye, which will re-establish trade routes between the two countries.
This move, based on an understanding between Damascus and Ankara, will essentially close the door on any opposition fantasies of breaking Syria into statelets, and will undermine the “Kurdish-American divisive ambition.”
It is not for nothing that Washington has sought to thwart communications between Ankara and Damascus. Under the guise of “fighting ISIS,” the US invested heavily in Syrian separatism, replacing the terror group with “Kurdish local forces” and reaped the rewards in barrels of stolen Syrian oil to help mitigate the global energy crisis.
Now Turkiye has closed the door to that ‘federalization’ plan.
A Russian-backed proposal
The Syrian-Turkish talks in Moscow on 28 December focused mainly on opening and establishing the necessary political, security, and diplomatic channels – a process initiated by their respective defense ministers.
While resolving the myriad thorny files between the two states is not as easy as the optimists would like, it is also nowhere as difficult as the fierce opponents of rapprochement try to suggest.
The Moscow discussions centered on mild, incremental solutions proposed by Russia. The Kremlin understands that the minefield between Ankara and Damascus needs to be dismantled with cold minds and hands, but insists that the starting point of talks is based on the political formulas of the Astana peace process that all parties have already accepted.
On the ground, Moscow is busy marketing satisfactory security settlements for all, though those on the battlefield appear to be the least flexible so far. The Russian plan is to “present security formulas to the military,” intended to be later translated into the integration of forces – whether Kurdish fighters or opposition militants – into the ranks of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA).
This will be achieved via committees led by both Syrian and Turkish intelligence services, a Russian source involved in coordinating the talks tells The Cradle.
Occupied areas of Syria, in 2023
Co-opting the Kurds
The Russian proposals, according to the source, rely on two past successful models for reconciliation on the battlefield. The first is the “Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood model in northern Aleppo,” an area once controlled by Kurdish forces who began to coordinate with the SAA after the sweeping 2016 military operation that expelled opposition militants from the eastern neighborhoods of the city.
The Russian source says that the “Sheikh Maqsoud” model succeeded because of “security coordination,” revealing that “Syrian state security is deployed at the entrances to the neighborhood with checkpoints that coordinate with the Kurdish forces inside – in every way, big and small.” This security coordination includes “arresting criminally wanted persons, and facilitating administrative and service services” in coordination with Damascus.
The second reconciliation model used by Russian forces in Syria succeeded in bringing together the SAA and Sheikh Maqsoud Kurdish militias in a joint military maneuver conducted near the town of Manbij in the countryside of Aleppo last August.
While the Russian source confirms that the experience of “security coordination” between the SAA and the Kurdish forces was “successful,” he cautions that these models need “political arrangements” which can only be achieved by “an agreement in Astana on new provisions to the Syrian constitution, which give Kurds more flexibility in self-governance in their areas.”
Opposition amnesty
A parallel proposal revealed to The Cradle by a Turkish source, approaches ground solutions from a “confederation” angle, anathema to the Syrian authorities. According to him, “Damascus must be convinced of sharing power with the qualified factions of the (Turkish) National Army for that.”
While the Turkish proposal tried to move a step closer to Damascus’ aims, it seems that Russian mediation contributed to producing a new paradigm: This would be based on the tried-and-tested Syrian “military reconciliation” model used for years – namely, that opposition militants hand over their arms, denounce hostility to the state, and are integrated into the SAA.
Turkiye’s abandonment of its “demand to overthrow the regime” applies also to its affiliated military factions inside Syria, as the latter’s goals have dwindled to preserving some areas of influence in the north of the country. This is the current flavor of Turkiye’s reduced “confederation” ambitions: To maintain Turkish-backed factions within “local administrations” in northern areas where Turkiye has influence. This, in return for giving up on Ankara’s political ambition of “regime change” in Damascus and redrawing Syria’s northern map.
The solution here will require amending the Syrian constitution, a process that began several years ago to no avail.
From the Syrian perspective, officials are focused on eliminating all opposing separatist or terrorist elements who do not have the ability to adapt to a “unified” Syrian society.
Therefore, Damascus rejects military reconciliation proposals for any “sectarian” separatist or factional militias. Syrian officials reiterate that “the unity of the lands and the people” is the only gateway to a solution, away from the foreign interests that promote “terrorism or secession” – a reference to the Turkish and American role in Syria’s war.
Reconciliation on Damascus’ terms
There is no “confederation” in the dictionary of the Syrian state, and it is determined to stick hard to the principle of Syrian unity until the end. Damascus is intent on one goal: Reconciliations based on surrendering arms in the countryside of Latakia, Idlib, Aleppo, Raqqa, Hasakah, Qamishli, and al-Tanf, which are the areas that are still outside the control of the state.
According to the Turkish source, Syria refused to discuss anything “outside the framework of reconciliations and handing over weapons and regions,” which he says “makes it difficult for Ankara to undertake its mission,” especially in light of the fact that the Al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front controls large parts of these target areas.
A Syrian source tells The Cradle that the “Qamishli model” of military reconciliation is the closest one that applies to this case: Wherein “the SAA and national defense forces (the majority of which are pro-Damascus Kurds) coordinate fully.”
He makes clear that Damascus has already provided ample self-governance mechanisms for Kurds in the country’s north:
“The (Kurdish-run) Autonomous Administration in Syria already exists. It deals directly with Syria’s Ministry of Local Administration (in Damascus) and has multiple agencies that work through local representative councils to implement government plans in terms of security, tax collection, and services,” and of course it consists of the people of the region – Kurds.
The recent statement of top Erdogan advisor Yassin Aktay may throw a wrench in those works. His insistence that Turkiye should maintain control over the city of Aleppo – Syria’s second most populous, and its industrial heart – did not come out of nowhere.
Ankara considers that its repatriation of three million Syrian refugees should start from “local administrations run by the (Turkish-backed) Syrian National Army (a rebranded version of the opposition ‘Free Syrian Army),” says the Turkish source.
He is referring to Idlib, Aleppo, and their countrysides, and the areas in which Turkiye launched its “Olive Branch” and “Euphrates Shield” military operations. These locales in Syria’s north include the northern and eastern countryside of Aleppo, including Azaz, Jarabulus, al-Bab, Afrin, and its environs.
Turkiye may consider gradually handing over these strategic zones to its allied Syrian militias, he says.
“Call it confederation or not, these areas should be controlled by the Syrian National Army factions instead of the Al-Nusra Front – in order to ensure the safe return of the refugees.”
Steady progress
In short, the Russian mediation to bring Damascus and Ankara closer is moving slowly, but according to the Turkish source, “it is closer to reconciliation because the Syrian Ministry of Local Administration is beginning to take charge of regional affairs after holding new local council elections – in compliance with plans forged in the Astana process.”
Regarding Astana, the Turkish source says, “Let the Syrians treat the Kurdish and opposition areas as one, if the Kurds agree to dismantle their factions and join the Syrian army within a certain equation, the opposition factions will also accept.”
Regarding the complicated geopolitics of Syria’s east – currently occupied by US troops and their proxies – a high-ranking Syrian official who recently visited Saudi Arabia and Cairo, proposed “Arab intervention with the Syrian tribes to disengage tribe members in the Al-Tanf region from the US forces.” But according to the official, this would be subject to “the progress of relations between Damascus, Riyadh, Cairo, and possibly even Jordan.”
A few days ago, a video message was sent by Nusra Front leader Abu Muhammad al-Julani, in which he thundered: “Where are the armies of the Muslims?” It is a topical message from Al Qaeda’s Syria boss, who is angling to maintain his sectarian “area of influence” in northwest Syria – strategic Idlib on the Turkish-Syrian border. Julani’s destructive narrative may be the last barrier to break for Damascus, Ankara, and Moscow to strike a deal on the ground.
The Kurds in northeastern Syria have established their semi-autonomous administration which they call “Rojava”. They are now under threat of an increased invasion and occupation by Turkish ground troops, which could end in ethnic cleansing and mass casualties.
Turkish President Erdogan has demanded for years that the US must stop supporting the Syrian Defense Forces (SDF) and their armed wing the Peoples Protection Units (YPG) which serve as the army of “Rojava”.
Although Turkey and the US are partners in NATO, and long-term allies, with a US military base in Turkey, the two sides have diverged sharply over the issue of the Kurds establishing an administration independent of Damascus in northeast Syria.
The Turkish view the YPG as an offshoot of the PKK, which is an internationally outlawed terrorist group, responsible for about 40,000 deaths in Turkey over three decades. Yet, the US partnered with the SDF and YPG in their joint attack to eradicate ISIS from Syria.
The Kurds have never been the majority of the population in northeastern Syria; however, they have a very sizeable community there, and in recent years they have carried out ethnic cleansing in the region with Syrian Arabs and Syrian Christian populations having been displaced.
The administration of “Rojava” is carried out by officials, such as Ilham Ahmed and General Mazloom Kobane, who follow the communist political ideology of the founder of the PKK, Abdullah Ocalan. Despite the American hatred of communism, the 30 years of US combat in Vietnam to eradicate communism there, and the current US antagonism with communist China, Washington, and the Pentagon put their hands firmly with the communist leadership of “Rojava”.
Syria is 10,000 years old and is home to multiple religions, and ethnicities. The Kurds are only one of many ethnicities, and before the outbreak of the conflict in Syria in 2011, the Kurds were full Syrian citizens with legal rights under the secular and socialist government in Damascus. The current narrative, used to defend their separatist aims, is that the Kurds were oppressed by the Damascus central government.
The US-NATO attack on Syria for ‘regime change’ beginning in 2011 presented an opportunity for the Kurds to use the chaos and destruction carried out by the terrorists following Radical Islam, to establish an Islamic government in Damascus. The terrorists attacking Syria were funded by oil-rich Arab Gulf countries, but the weapons, training, and logistics were supported by Washington through offices of the CIA in Turkey, which were finally shut down in 2017 by President Trump. With the US military and intelligence services already on the ground in Syria, the Kurds presented themselves as a military partner and fulfilled the long-term goal of the US to split Syria into smaller units, following the age-old military rule of “divide and conquer”. Idlib was divided from Damascus by the Al Qaeda branch in Syria, Jibhat al-Nusra, now branded as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS). HTS is supported by Turkey and the UN and other charities feed the terrorists, their families, and other civilians living there. The northeastern region was divided from Damascus by the Kurdish administration of “Rojava”, which is supported by the US.
The US partnered with the Kurds in ‘Rojava’, but never promised them support in their ultimate goal of a homeland for the Kurds. The US has consistently told the Kurds they need to seek to repair their relationship with Damascus to protect themselves from the threat of extermination at the hands of the Turkish government, and the HTS which are mercenaries for Turkey in Syria. The US has not had any plan to solve the suffering of the Syrian people and allow them to repair homes and lives. Instead, over the past years, the US has supported a status quo in Syria with the US, Turkey, Russia, and Iran all acting in various regions, but without a unified plan for recovery from a decade of war. The current US policy is to keep US-EU sanctions in place which prevent Syrian civilians from recovering.
Syria was self-sufficient in oil resources and wheat production. The Kurds in ‘Rojava’ stopped that by seizing control militarily and occupying those areas in cooperation with the US military occupation forces. Now, the main oil field of Al Omar and Conoco are producing oil which is shipped in tankers by the US Army to Iraq and processed in Erbil, in the Kurdistan Region (KRI), an autonomous region in Iraq comprising the four Kurdish-majority governorates.
The Baghdad government of Iraq has asked the US military to leave, but the US refused to end their occupation of Iraq and Syria. The US is directly connected to the Kurds in both countries. In Syria, the US objective is to prevent the Damascus government from benefitting from its oil resources, which has kept the Syrian people without electricity, home heating fuel, and gasoline. Some homes are without electricity, and others across Syria receive from one to four hours per day.
The largest wheat fields in Syria are under the occupation of the Kurds and the wheat is used for local consumption in “Rojava” and the rest is sold to the European Union or other buyers. Damascus has said it is running low on wheat supplies and cannot import. During the conflict years, the terrorists stole huge wheat supplies in Syria. They trucked them to Turkey, where Erdogan’s government re-sold the stolen wheat to the EU to produce French croissants and Italian pasta.
With the suffering of the civilians in Iraq and Syria, it is no wonder the people hold intense hatred towards the US. This hatred of Washington is not considered by the White House and Capitol Hill as American lawmakers are insulated in the hubris of a super-power, with no thought of generations to come, or the crumbling demise of the American Empire.
The world is watching violence and deaths in Iran in what appears to be an increasingly popular uprising against the Islamic government. The young woman who died was Kurdish and her death has sparked unrest in the western Kurdish region of Iran, which shares a border with the Kurdish region in Iraq, which in turn shares its border with “Rojava” in Syria. Looking at a map, we can see a straight line through northeast Syria, to northern Iraq and culminating in the west of Iran. The Kurds in Iran now have weapons, which were smuggled into Iran from the Kurds in Iraq, and the US military partners in “Rojava” in Syria. The increasing armed uprising in Iran will need more weapons and they will be supported by the US which has long sought a ‘regime change’ in Iran.
Israel has offices in Erbil and has conducted business openly with the Kurdish administration there. The Israeli offices there have come under attack presumably by Iranian forces. Iran has long been viewed by Israel as a prime threat. The recent change of government in Israel to an extremist right-wing alliance may produce increasing support for weapons smuggled from Erbil to Iran to fuel the revolution.
Turkey and Syria have a common enemy, the Kurds. Both countries are opposed to Kurdish independence, and both want to see the US break their alliance with the Kurds in Syria. With the new opportunity for ‘regime change’ in Iran, both Israel and their ally the US will want to stay on the ground to support the transfer of weapons into Iran through Iraq. Turkey may invade northeast Syria massively to upset the US-imposed status quo. Turkey may find old friends in Damascus to shore up their southern flank once the bombs start falling. The negotiations to save the Kurds in “Rojava” may see General Mazloom Abdi in Damascus asking for salvation at the same table as Turkey.
Steven Sahiounie is a two-time award-winning journalist and political commentator.
Wily Sultan is caught between his electorate, which favors a Syria invasion, and his extremely nuanced relations with Russia
There’s another Special Military Operation on the market. No, it’s not Russia “denazifying” and “demilitarizing” Ukraine – and, therefore, it’s no wonder that this other operation is not ruffling feathers across the collective West.
Operation Claw-Sword was launched by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as revenge – highly emotional and concerted – for Kurdish terrorist attacks against Turkish citizens. Some of the missiles that Ankara launched in this aerial campaign carried the names of Turkish victims.
The official Ankara spin is that the Turkish Armed Forces fully achieved their “air operation objectives” in the north of Syria and in Iraqi Kurdistan, and made those responsible for the terror attack against civilians in Istanbul’s Istiklal pedestrian street pay in “multitudes.”
And this is supposed to be just the first stage. For the third time in 2022, Sultan Erdogan is also promising a ground invasion of Kurdish-held territories in Syria.
However, according to diplomatic sources, that’s not going to happen – even as scores of Turkish experts are adamant that the invasion is needed sooner rather than later.
The wily Sultan is caught between his electorate, which favors an invasion, and his extremely nuanced relations with Russia – which encompass a large geopolitical and geo-economic arc.
He well knows that Moscow can apply all manner of pressure levers to dissuade him. For instance, Russia at the last minute annulled the weekly dispatch of a joint Russo-Turkish patrol in Ain al Arab that was taking place on Mondays.
Ain al Arab is a highly strategic territory: the missing link, east of the Euphrates, capable of offering continuity between Idlib and Ras al Ayn, occupied by dodgy Turkish-aligned gangs near the Turkish border.
Erdogan knows he can’t jeopardize his positioning as potential EU-Russia mediator while obtaining maximum profit from bypassing the anti-Russian embargo-sanctions combo.
The Sultan, juggling multiple serious dossiers, is deeply convinced that he’s got what it takes to bring Russia and NATO to the negotiating table and, ultimately, end the war in Ukraine.
In parallel, he thinks he may stay on top of Turkey-Israel relations; a rapprochement with Damascus; the sensitive internal situation in Iran; Turkey-Azerbaijan relations; the non-stop metamorphoses across the Mediterranean; and the drive towards Eurasia integration.
He’s hedging all his bets between NATO and Eurasia.
‘Close down all of our southern borders’
The green light for Claw-Sword came from Erdogan while he was on his presidential plane, returning from the G20 in Bali. That happened only one day after he had met US President Joe Biden where, according to a presidential Erdogan statement, the subject had not come up.
“We held no meeting with Mr Biden or [Russian President Vladimir] Putin regarding the operation. They both already know that we can do such things at any moment in this region,” the statement said.
Washington not getting briefed on Claw-Sword mirrored Erdogan not getting invited to an extraordinary G7-NATO meeting in Bali, on the sidelines of the G20.
Then-US vice president Joe Biden (L) speaks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at Beylerbeyi Palace in Istanbul. Photo: AFP / Bulent Kilic
That meeting was called by the White House to deal with the by-now notorious Ukrainian S-300 missile that fell in Polish territory. At the time, no one at the table had any conclusive evidence about what happened. And Turkey was not even invited to the table – which profoundly incensed the Sultan.
So it’s no wonder Erdogan, mid-week, said that Claw-Sword was “just the beginning.” Addressing AKP party lawmakers in Parliament, he said Turkey is determined to “close down all of our southern borders … with a security corridor that will prevent the possibility of attacks on our country.”
The ground invasion promise remains: It will begin “at the most convenient time for us” and will target the regions of Tel Rifaat, Mambij and Kobane, which the Sultan called “sources of trouble.”
Ankara has already wreaked havoc, using drones, on the main headquarters of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, whose commanders believe the main target of a potential Turkish ground invasion would be Kobane.
Significantly, this is the first time a Turkish drone targeted an area extremely close to a US base. And Kobane is highly symbolic: the place where the Americans sealed a collaboration with Syrian Kurds to – in theory – fight ISIS.
And that explains why the Syrian Kurds are appalled by the American non-response to the Turkish strikes. They blame – who else? – the Sultan for stoking “nationalist sentiments” ahead of the 2023 elections, which Erdogan now stands a great chance to win despite the catastrophic state of the Turkish economy.
As it stands, there is no Turkish troop buildup near Kobane – just airstrikes. Which brings us to the all-important Russian factor.
Manbij and Tel Rifaat, west of the Euphrates, are much more important for Russia than Kobane, because they are both vital for the defense of Aleppo against possible Salafi-jihadi attacks.
What may potentially happen in the near future makes the situation even murkier. Ankara intel may use Hayat Tahrir al-Sham jihadis – which have already taken over parts of Afrin – as a sort of “vanguard” in a ground invasion of Syrian Kurd territory.
Selling stolen Syrian oil to Turkey
The current fog of war includes the notion that the Russians may have sold out the Kurds by leaving them exposed to Turkish bombing. That does not hold – because Russia’s influence over Syrian Kurd territory is negligible compared with the US’s. Only the Americans could “sell out” the Kurds.
The more things change, the more they remain the same in Syria. It could all be summarized as a monumental impasse. This gets even more surrealist because, in effect, Ankara and Moscow have already found the solution for the Syrian tragedy.
The problem is the presence of American forces – essentially protecting those shabby convoys stealing Syrian oil. Russians and Syrians always discuss it. The conclusion is that the Americans are staying by inertia. They do it because they can. And Damascus is powerless to expel them.
The Sultan plays the whole thing with consummate cynicism – in geopolitics and geo-economics. Most of what is unresolved in Syria revolves around territories occupied by de facto gangs that call themselves Kurds, protected by the US. They traffic Syrian oil to resell it mostly to … Turkey.
And then, in a flash, armed gangs that call themselves Kurds may simply abandon their “anti-terrorist” fight by … releasing the terrorists they apprehended, thus increasing the “terrorist threat” all over northeast Syria. They blame – who else? – Turkey. In parallel, the Americans increase financial aid to these armed gangs under the pretext of a “war on terror.”
The distinction between “armed gangs” and “terrorists” is of course razor thin. What matters most of all to Erdogan is that he can use the Kurds as a currency in trade negotiations linked to bypassing anti-Russian embargoes and sanctions.
And that explains why the Sultan may decide to bomb Syrian territory whenever he sees fit, despite any condemnation by Washington or Moscow. The Russians once in a while retake the initiative on the ground – as happened during the Idlib campaign in 2020 when Russians bombed the Turkish military forces that were providing “assistance” to Salafi-jihadis.
A view of the site after attacks carried out by Assad regime in Syria on the city center of Idlib on September 7, 2021. Photo: Izzeddin Kasim / Anadolu Agency
Now a game-changer may be on the cards. The Turkish Army bombed the al-Omar oilfield north of Deir ez-Zor. What this means in practice is that Ankara is now destroying no less than the oil infrastructure of the much-lauded “Kurdish autonomy.”
This infrastructure has been cynically exploited by the US when it comes to the oil that reaches the border with Iraq in Iraqi Kurdistan. So in a sense, Ankara is striking against Syrian Kurds and simultaneously against American robbery of Syrian oil.
The definitive game-changer may be approaching. That will be the meeting between Erdogan and Bashar al-Assad, (Remember the decade-long refrain “Assad must go”?)
Location: Russia. Mediator: Vladimir Putin, in person. It’s not far-fetched to imagine this meeting paving the way for those Kurdish armed gangs, essentially played by Washington as useful idiots, to end up being decimated by Ankara.
The Turkish madman Erdogan sent hundreds of mercenaries of his most loyal terrorists of al Qaeda, ISIS, and their derivatives and affiliated terrorists from the Syrian province of Idlib under NATO Turkish occupation to Ukraine to fight the Russians.
Semi-official recruitment offices in Idlib were established in recent weeks and managed to send 800 terrorists with the help of Al Qaeda Levant (HTS – Nusra Front – Jabhat Nusra) to help the NATO-sponsored regime of Zelensky in Ukraine fight against Russia, news report.
Lebanese Al Mayadeen news channel quoted Sputnik Arabic news in this report:
Sources in Idlib told Sputnik news agency that the transfers (of terrorists) occurred during the past two weeks in the town of Sarmada and the Bab al-Hawa crossing with Turkey, in coordination with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, adding that most of the militants hold Syrian nationality and belong to pro-Turkish factions.
The sources indicated that Idlib’s semi-announced offices were set up to attract mercenaries to Ukraine in return for a monthly salary of up to US$5,000.
End of the transcript.
The Turkish madman Erdogan commands, with his sponsors in Washington and Tel Aviv, the world’s largest army of terrorists comprising tens of thousands of anti-Islamic suicide bombers and head-choppers of what western officials and mainstream propagandists dub ‘moderate rebels.’
Imported from all sides of the world, trained, armed, financed, and protected by NATO officers in Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and other places and deployed to Libya, Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, and Nagorno Karabach between Azerbaijan and Armenia, these terrorists are the backbone of NATO, an alliance of countries living off the resources plundered from weaker countries around the world.
The recycling of these terrorists occurs, sadly, with the acquiescence and direct participation of governments willingly or unwillingly under pressure from the USA, some officials in these countries think it is wise to rid their countries of the underprivileged uneducated brainwashed citizens to kill innocent people in other countries, those officials in these countries fail to comprehend one of the golden rules proven by history: whoever raises a monster, the monster will eventually eat him.
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Ambulance vehicles and emergency services rush to scene of blast in Istanbul (Sunday, November 13, 2022).
At least six people were killed and 81 others were wounded in an explosion in a busy area of central Istanbul, Turkish authorities have said on Sunday.
The blast happened at about 16:20 local time (13:20 GMT) on a shopping street in the Taksim Square area, the Turkish city’s governor Ali Yerlikaya said.
The area, in the Beyoglu district of Turkey’s largest city, had been crowded as usual at the weekend with shoppers, tourists and families.
Vice-President Fuat Oktay said the blast was thought to be a terrorist attack carried out by a woman.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said before his departure to the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Indonesia that the perpetrators would be punished.
Speaking at a news conference in Istanbul, he condemned what he called the “vile attack” and said “the smell of terror” was in the air.
Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag told Turkish media a woman had sat on a bench in the area for more than 40 minutes, leaving just minutes before the blast took place.
No one has so far claimed responsibility for the blast.
Government minister Derya Yanik wrote in a tweet that a government ministry employee and his young daughter were among the victims.
Source: BBC and Reuters
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