Israel bombed Damascus residential neighborhoods after midnight, the Syrian Arab Army’s air defense units managed to shoot down some incoming missiles, others caused damage to buildings, the story is developing.
Syrian Arab Army air defense units addressed an Israeli bombing targeting the upscale Kafr Soussah, Mazraah, and Baghdad Street neighborhoods in Damascus, with reports of several casualties among the civilians in the targeted neighborhoods.
At least one of the missiles struck a residential building, eyewitnesses confirm, and columns of fire and fumes of smoke could be seen from kilometers away, I was still working on an update to yesterday’s horrific massacre committed by the US-sponsored ISIS terrorists in the central Syrian desert killing 53 farmers and at least 5 policemen who came to the rescue.
Eyewitnesses from the site targeted by the Israeli bombing say there were casualties, dead and injured, from this aggression.
5 were killed and 15 wounded in the heinous Israeli bombing with barrages of missiles of the residential neighborhoods in Damascus and its outskirts shortly after midnight.
A Syrian military spokesperson said in a statement carried by the Syrian news agency SANA:
“At exactly 22:00 in the morning today, the Israeli enemy carried out an aerial aggression with bursts of missiles from the direction of the occupied Syrian Golan, targeting some points in the city of Damascus and its surroundings, including residential neighborhoods inhabited by civilians, and our air defense media intercepted the missiles of aggression and shot down most of them.”
The military spokesperson concluded: “The aggression led, as a preliminary outcome, to the death of five martyrs, including a soldier, and the wounding of 15 civilians, including critical cases, and the destruction of a number of civilian homes, and material damage to a number of neighborhoods in and around Damascus.”
Israel bombs Damascus residential district
Israel bombs Damascus residential district
Israel bombs Damascus residential district
Israel bombs Damascus residential district
Israel bombs Damascus residential district
Israel continues to enjoy the privileges in its aggression against Syria provided to it by Russia, one of Syria’s main allies in the war on terror, as the anti-Jewish Zionist state coordinates with the Russian military before bombing sites in Syria based on a weird agreement between them, and Russia’s withholding the activation of its outdated S300 air defense systems it delivered to Syria in September 2018 only after Israel used a Russian plane as a human shield to bomb Syria killing 15 Russian servicemen on that plane.
Russia had earlier postponed the delivery of the same systems bought by Syria in 2010 upon a request from Israel, the system, if it was in Syria and was operational when it was supposed to be delivered, would have not invited the evil forces of NATO and Israel to wage their now 12 years war of terror and attrition against the only country that never stabbed Russia in the back and never made deals on the account of Russia.
On the contrary, Syria rejected a very sweet deal to allow the passage of natural gas from Qatar to Europe to bypass Russia and starve Russian and Iranian economies back in 2007. Syria’s refusal of that offer angered the USA and its European and Gulfies lackeys and at the same time allowed Russia and Iran to build and diversify their economies to sustain the current western sanctions and hybrid wars.
It’s about time that Syria develops its own air defense and other weapons aside from what it buys from Russia, obviously, the Russian air defense systems are incapable of protecting the Syrian capital from Israeli bombing.
لم تحد بوصلتنا يوماً منذ بدء الحرب الكونية على سورية العربية، ولم يغب وعينا، ولم نتأثر بالآلة الإعلامية الجهنمية الجبارة التي يستخدمها العدو الأميركي، لتزييف وعي الرأي العام العالمي بحقيقة ما يحدث على الأرض العربية السورية، وكنا منذ اللحظة الأولى في طليعة من حذر أهالينا في الإقليم الشمالي أولاً، ثم الرأي العام العربي ثانياً، ثم الرأي العام العالمي ثالثاً، بأنّ ما يحدث على الأرض العربية السورية هو مؤامرة كبرى يقودها العدو الأميركي، في محاولة لتركيع سورية العربية الحصن الأمين للمشروع القومي العروبي المقاوم، والتي وقفت في وجه كلّ المشاريع الاستعمارية، وفي مقدّمتها المشروع الصهيوني المدعوم أميركياً…
ففي الوقت الذي هرولت العديد من البلدان العربية للتطبيع مع العدو الصهيوني ووقعت الاتفاقيات معه برعاية أميركية، رفضت سورية العربية ذلك، وعندما دخل القائد المؤسّس حافظ الأسد مفاوضاته مع هذا العدو في العقد الأخير من القرن العشرين رفض التفريط في شبر واحد من الأرض العربية السورية، وفضل أن يورث شعبه قضية يناضل من أجلها عن أن يورثهم سلاماً مذلاً مع هذا العدو.
وعندما جاء من بعده الرئيس البطل بشار الأسد سار على نهجه المقاوم للعدو الصهيوني، وعندما فشلت أميركا في استمالة الرئيس الأسد والتأثير على قراره السياسي الوطني والقومي، قرّرت الدخول في هذه الحرب الكونية التي دخلت الآن عامها الثاني عشر.
وبدأت الولايات المتحدة المعركة بطريقة غير مباشرة أولاً، وذلك عن طريق الوكلاء الإرهابيين، فقد قامت بتجنيد الجماعات التكفيرية الإرهابية التي تعمل تحت رعايتها تاريخياً، وساعدتهم في الدخول للأرض العربية السورية عبر وكلائها من الأنظمة المتاخمة للحدود العربية السورية، وبالفعل تمّ جلب آلاف الإرهابيين من كلّ أصقاع الأرض لخوض حرب شوارع وعصابات في مواجهة جيشنا الأول (الجيش العربي السوري) حماة الديار، في معركة يعلم الأميركي جيداً أنها لن تكون في صالح جيشنا النظامي، فقد هُزم الجيش الأميركي بقواته النظامية في فيتنام ثم في أفغانستان ثم في العراق، في مثل هذا النوع من الحروب، لكن خاب ظنّ العدو الأميركي حيث نجح الجيش العربي السوري في مواجهة جحافل الإرهاب وتمكّن من تجفيف منابع الإرهاب على كامل الجغرافيا العربية السورية، في معركة سوف تُدرّس في كبرى الأكاديميات العسكرية العالمية، ومع فشل الوكلاء الإرهابيين على الأرض حاول الأميركي تجنيد بعض القوى الداخلية الخائنة والعميلة والتي باعت وطنها لصالح العدو الأميركي، ولم يكتف العدو بذلك بل قام بإدخال قواته العسكرية ليحتلّ بعض الأراضي العربية السورية ويفرض سيطرته على بعض الموارد الاقتصادية الهامة للدولة العربية السورية وفي مقدمّتها مصادر الطاقة، وقام بفرض حصار اقتصادي رهيب وفرض عقوبات اقتصادية ظالمة.
وقاومت الدولة العربية السورية شعباً وجيشاً وقيادة كلّ هذا الظلم ولم تستسلم للعدو الأميركي، وجاء الزلزال المدوّي خلال هذا الأسبوع والذي يعدّ كارثة إنسانية بكلّ ما تحمله الكلمة من معنى، ووجدنا العالم يتعاطف مع تركيا، في الوقت الذي لم نجد تعاطفاً مماثلاً مع سورية العربية، ورغم أنّ المنظمات الدولية كالت بمكيالين ضاربة بحقوق الإنسان عرض الحائط إلا أنّ العدو الأميركي استغلّ الكارثة الطبيعية لممارسة عدوان جديد على الدولة العربية السورية، ففي الوقت الذي قرّر تخفيف العقوبات الاقتصادية على سورية، والسماح بإرسال المساعدات والتمويلات، إلا أنه قرّر أن لا يكون ذلك عن طريق الدولة العربية السورية، بل عن طريق من يسمّيهم بالشركاء على الأرض وهم الإرهابيين والخونة والعملاء، وبذلك يشرعن الأميركي الإرهاب على الأرض العربية السورية، ولم يكتف العدو الأميركي بذلك بل يطالب الدولة العربية السورية وحكومتها الوطنية بفتح كلّ المعابر أمام المساعدات والفرق التي ستأتي، والعدو بذلك يقوم بإلغاء دور الدولة الوطنية، ويحاول أن يرسل رسالة للرأي العام الداخلي والخارجي أنّ الدولة ترفض المساعدات، لكن الشعب العربي السوري على وعي تام بالمخططات الأميركية العدوانية ولن يقبل بالتفريط في سيادته الوطنية التي خاض من أجلها كلّ هذه الحرب، ولن يسمح للعدو الأميركي استغلال الكارثة الجديدة ليشرعن الإرهاب الذي انتصر عليه جيشنا العربي السوري، وقدّم آلاف الشهداء من فلذات أكباد الوطن، فلتذهب المساعدات الأميركية إلى الجحيم، ويبقى الوطن حراً ومقاوماً ومنتصراً، اللهم بلغت اللهم فاشهد.
شريان الأخوّة العربية الى سورية المنكوبة والمتدفّق من لبنان وفلسطين والعراق ومختلف الدول العربية، حكومات وشعوباً، منظمات وأفراداً، يتجاوز في أهميته البعد الإنساني الى أبعاد قومية وإسلامية، أخلاقية وسياسية.
فهو على الصعيد الإنساني تأكيد على عمق الروح الإنسانية في أمتنا، والتي تتجاوز في عمقها ودلالاتها، كل محاولات التفرقة بين أبناء أمة واحدة، بل تؤكد انّ أمتنا ما تزال تولي الاعتبارات الإنسانية ما تستحقّه من اهتمام يتجاوز كلّ الحساسيات والحسابات الضيقة.
وهو على الصعيد الأخلاقي يعبّر عن مدى ما تتمتع به شعوبنا من وفاء تجاه سورية التي ـأسماها يوماً الرئيس الخالد الذكر جمال عبد الناصر «قلب العروبة النابض». فالفلسطينيون رغم ظروفهم الصعبة التي يفرضها عليهم الاحتلال، من عنف يومي، وإغلاق مناطق ومخيمات وحصار مستمر منذ حوالي العقدين على غزة، لا ينسوا أن الشيخ عز الدين القسّام جاء من جبلة، وان سعيد العاص الشهيد على أرض فلسطين جاء من حماة، وأن مطران القدس المقاوم ايلاريون كبوجي جاء من حلب، وأنّ البحار الشهيد جول جمال جاء من اللاذقية، وانّ سورية بكلّ مناطقها قد فتحت أبوابها لعشرات الآلاف من الفلسطينيين الذين شرّدتهم نكبة 1948، وانّ سورية قدّمت آلاف الشهداء في معارك الصراع مع الاحتلال الإسرائيلي، وانّ أبناء الجولان السوري يشاركون الفلسطينيين عذابات الاحتلال منذ 55 عاماً، وانّ المقاومة الفلسطينية قد أنطلقت من قلب سورية عام 1965، وأنّ سورية بقيت أمينة على هذه المقاومة، فلسطينية أو لبنانية أو عراقية…
أما لبنان فلا ينسى أهله تلك العلاقة المميّزة، بينه وبين سورية، وهي علاقة مصير ومسار واحد، كما لا ينسون تضحيات الجيش العربي السوري على أرض لبنان في بيروت والجبل والبقاع والجنوب في وجه الاحتلال الإسرائيلي، كما لا ينسون كيف فتحت مدن سورية ذراعيها لمئات الآلاف من اللبنانيين في كلّ اللحظات الصعبة التي مرّوا بها خلال الحروب التي عاشها لبنان، لا سيّما يوم اضطر الآلاف منهم للجوء الى سورية خلال حرب تموز 2006، ناهيك عن دور سورية في احتضان المقاومة اللبنانية، الوطنية والإسلامية، الباسلة قبل التحرير وبعده.
أما العراقيون فكيف ينسون موقف سورية، شعباً وقيادة ورئيساً، في رفض الحصار والحرب والاحتلال عام 2003، والتي جسّدها خطاب الرئيس بشار الأسد في قمّة شرم الشيخ في 1/3/2003، وكيف وجد أكثر من مليوني عراقي في دمشق والمدن السورية ملاذاً آمناً لهم بعد احتلال بلدهم، وكيف واجهت دمشق تهديدات واشنطن للامتناع عن دعم مقاومة الشعب العراقي ضدّ الاحتلال، كما لا ينسى العراقيون لجان نصرة العراق في سورية قبيل الاحتلال عام 2003، والتي كان يرأسها المناضل العروبي الكبير منصور سلطان الاطرش (رحمه الله) والتي عمّت كلّ الأراضي السورية.
وفي الجزائر، التي كانت طائرتها هي الأولى التي نزلت الى مطار دمشق بعد الزلزال المدمّر لتعبّر عن وفاء الجزائر لدعم سورية اللامحدود لثوراتها التحررية وآخرها عام 1954، وحيث توجه العديد من شباب سورية، الى معسكرات الثورة ليشاركوا أشقاءهم الجزائريين في ثورتهم التاريخية..
ومصر لا تنسى سورية الإقليم الشمالي في الجمهورية العربية المتحدة ، وشريكتها في التصدي للعدوان الثلاثي على مصر، ودور أبطالها في تلك المواجهة (جول جمّال وتفجير بارجة جان بارت) وقبله سليمان الحلبي الذي اغتال القائد العسكري البريطاني كليبر، ناهيك عن شراكة مصر وسورية في نكسة حزيران 1967، كما في انتصار تشرين الأول 1973، كما في يوم أزمة القمح عام 1976 حين تبرّعت سورية بنصف مخزونها الاحتياطي لنجدة مصر المحاصرة آنذاك.
وتونس الخضراء لا تنسى موقف سورية «يوم الجراد» الذي قضى على محصول القمح التونسي كله، فكان القمح السوري هو البديل.
وفي اليمن، فكيف ينسى اليمنيون الطائرات العسكرية التي انطلقت الى صنعاء يوم حصارها المشؤوم عام 1968، كما لا ينسى اليمنيون احتضان سورية لثورتهم في جنوب اليمن ضدّ الاستعمار البريطاني…
اما شعوب الخليج والجزيرة العربية فلا تنسى مواقف سورية الى جانبها في العديد من الأزمات التي واجهتها عبر العقود الماضية، فيما لا تنسى دول المغرب العربي والسودان وقفات دمشق الى جانبهما في معظم المعارك التي فرضت عليهم..
انّ هذا التفاعل والتضامن العملي بين سورية وأشقائها العرب وقضاياهم هو الذي جعلها هدفاً دائماً للحروب والفتن والحصار الاستعماري ـ الصهيوني عليها، والتي بلغت ذروتها في الحرب الكونية عليها وفيها، والمستمرة منذ 12 سنة، والتي لم تكن تستهدف تدمير سورية الدولة والمجتمع فقط، بل تدمّر علاقة سورية بهويتها العربية وهي التي كانت تدرك على الدوام أنّ العروبة ليست مجرد هوية ثقافية وتاريخية وحضارية لها فحسب، بل العروبة هي ضمان أمنها الاستراتيجي وأفقها الاقتصادي ونهوضها الحضاري..
واذا كانت المساهمات من دول عربية وإسلامية وصديقة عبّرت عن مكانة سورية في الأقليم والعالم، فإنّ المطلوب استكمال هذه المساهمات بالانخراط في المعركة العربية والإقليمية والعالمية لكسر الحصار على سورية الذي حذرّنا منذ سنين من مخاطره وآثاره الضارة على الشعب السوري، وجاء الزلزال المدمر ليوضح فداحة هذه المخاطر والأضرار ويتسبّب بارتفاع أعداد ضحاياه ومشرّديه الى أرقام كبيرة..
واليوم تشكّل هذه الهبّة الشعبية العربية لإغاثة سورية، حقيقة إنّ سورية بالفعل هي قلب العروبة النابض وأنّ ما قدمته لأشقائها دون منّة أو استعراض لا يمكن لهم أن ينسوه، بل أن هذه الهبّة الشعبية العربية والإسلامية، ولأبناء الدول الصديقة ستستكمل بمعركة إسقاط الحصار على سورية، وإسقاط الهيمنة الاستعمارية والصهيونية على الأمّة والعالم.
فيديوات متعلقة
Special coverage to monitor the arrival of humanitarian aid planes for those affected by the earthquake at the airports of Damascus and Aleppo
Last week’s devastating earthquake has shined a spotlight on Washington’s brutal economic sanctions on Syria while encouraging solidarity between the country and its neighbor Iraq
Popular Mobilization Unit fighters march during a parade marking the annual Quds Day, Baghdad June 2017. (Photo credit: AFP)
ByNews Desk-
A member of the Syrian People’s Assembly, Mohammed Fawaz, lauded Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) for their success in breaking the harsh economic sanctions imposed on Syria by the United States. The PMF sent aid and delegations to Syria to assist in the wake of last week’s devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake.
Fawaz said on Monday 12 February that, “Iraq is the strategic depth of Syria and its back, and this was embodied by the entry of the Popular Mobilization convoys into Syria, breaking the unjust siege on the Syrian people and in defiance of the Caesar Act.”
He added that “the visit of the Iraqi deputies to the Syrian People’s Assembly came as a political condemnation of the inhumane sanctions on the Syrian people and raised the voice from Damascus of the need to speed up the lifting of this ban.”
Another member of the Syrian People’s Assembly, Nasser Youssef, praised the PMF and called for strengthening cooperation between the brotherly countries of Syria and Iraq.
US planners imposed additional harsh sanctions on Syria in 2019 through legislation known as the Caesar Act. These were added to sanctions imposed at the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011 to complement the US-backed jihadist insurgency in the country.
The act was named after a report issued in 2014 claiming to show evidence of “industrial scale killing” by the Syrian government. The report, authored by the UK law firm Carter-Ruck, claimed to verify photographic evidence provided by a defected Syrian Arab Army (SAA) photographer, known as “Caesar,” who had smuggled 55,000 photographs out of Syria. These photographs allegedly documented the Syrian government’s torture and killing of some 11,000 detainees.
However, as journalist Rick Sterling has detailed, over 46% of the photographs (24,568) did not show people tortured to death by the Syrian government. Rather, they showed dead Syrian soldiers and victims of car bombs and other violence. Thus, nearly half the photos showed the opposite of what was alleged.
After reviewing the Carter-Ruck report, Dan Murphy of the Christian Science Monitor similarly concluded that the Carter-Ruck report and allegations made by Caesar were not credible.
In addition to the US-imposed sanctions on Syria, US planners have sought to block trade and cooperation between Syria, Iraq, and Iran by maintaining a military base on the Syria-Iraq border at al-Tanf, while the Israeli air force has regularly bombed PMF and SAA targets on the same border further to the north, near the town of Al-Bukamal, with US approval.
The western sanctions weapon is not new to Syria, but since 2019 it has become a lethal one, destroying entire Syrian sectors and killing its people.
Some 83 years after being employed against Germany in 1940, economic sanctions have become the most widely-used tool in Washington’s arsenal to coerce adversarial states. Sanctions have become a parallel or alternative policy to military invasions, especially after the dollar solidified as the world’s dominant currency by being pegged to oil in 1975 – and further strengthened by the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
This US financial and economic weapon has caused Syria suffering for decades, but its impact has become lethal in recent years, particularly after 2019.
Sanctions negatively affect all vital sectors of the economy, from medicine to education, energy, communications, agriculture, and industry – all the way to dealing with emergency disasters, such as the earthquake that struck Syria and Turkiye in the early morning of 6 February, which has so far led to the death of 1,300 civilians, mass injuries, and the destruction of thousands of homes.
The impact of western sanctions and the US military occupation of Syria has crippled the nation’s economy and undermined its ability to respond to major natural disasters of this kind. The situation issue pressing that the Middle East Council of Churches issued a demand on 6 February for the immediate lifting of sanctions on Syria so that Damascus can deal with the humanitarian fallout from the tragic earthquake.
In 1979, Syria was subjected to Washington’s sanctions for the first time when it was designated a state sponsor of terrorism, and banned from exporting goods and technology to the US. This came as punishment for Syria’s support of Iran during the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988), leading also to a suspension of financial aid from Persian Gulf monarchies (approximately $1.5 billion annually) and a suffocating economic crisis, known as the “crisis of the eighties.”
Less than a decade after a short period of economic prosperity in Syria (the net domestic product increased by about 49 percent between 2000 and 2010), the 2011 foreign-backed war was launched, wreaking havoc on the Syrian economy. Widespread damage was inflicted both by the direct destruction of economic facilities and sectors during combat operations, and by a series of US-driven sanctions, which reached their peak with the 2019 Caesar Act and last year’s Captagon Act that targeted Syria’s indigenous pharmaceutical and healthcare industries.
A double stranglehold
In contrast to most cases in which the US and its EU and NATO allies employ economic sanctions to impose an external economic blockade on nations, the sanctions against Damascus are accompanied by a further internal blockade.
This is achieved by foreign military control over oil resources and critical agricultural fields in northeastern Syria – the “bread basket of the Levant” – which are under the control of the US-backed and Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the “Autonomous Administration” areas.
Damascus is thus subjected to a double stranglehold by depriving it of its oil (the main source of foreign exchange). Energy sales constitute about a quarter of Syria’s export earnings, and covers 90 percent of its domestic market needs. Before the war, in 2010, Syria produced 4 million tons of wheat, a strategic agricultural staple which provides food self-sufficiency and domestic sustenance, about a quarter of which is then exported.
Today, the country has not only lost access to its vital agricultural lands, but western sanctions prevent Damascus from importing these essential staples to feed its population.
This has exacerbated the effects of the blockade on the Syrian people, who are currently going through one of the most severe living, economic, and health crises in their modern history, and are left unable to secure basic daily needs of bread and medicine.
Informed sources tell The Cradle that Damascus is incurring double burdens to secure basic commodities – because these cannot be imported directly – which forces the Syrian government to resort to brokerage firms to circumvent US and European sanctions.
The sources point out Russia’s critical role in securing wheat for Damascus, but this too comes with a financial burden of high shipping fees. Similarly, while Iran provides oil to Syria through a credit line, its transportation is carried out by private companies that face harassment from US authorities – whether by detaining shipments (e.g. in Gibraltar and Greece) or by including participating oil tankers to US sanctions lists.
Under sanctions, Syria is facing great difficulties in rebuilding its key agriculture, industry, energy, education, and healthcare sectors which were destroyed in a war in which Washington played a leading role. Damascus has been reduced to seeking out regional alternatives and intermediary companies to circumvent its stranglehold, or receiving help from friendly countries such as Russia or Iran.
This, of course, comes with its own downsides for the US, as it helps forge closer Syrian political and economic ties with Washington’s adversaries. Today, it is Iranian companies, for example, that carry out maintenance operations and construct new power plants in Syria.
Sanctions upon sanctions
Most of the unilateral sanctions against Syria date back to 2011 when then-US President Barack Obama expanded existing punitive measures under the Syria Accountability Act (2004). The new sanctions included a ban on flights, restrictions on oil exports, financial restrictions on entities and individuals, freezing Syrian assets abroad, travel bans on Syrian officials and business leaders, and severing diplomatic relations with Damascus.
In 2019, the US enacted the Syria-specific Caesar Act, granting Washington the authority to impose sanctions on anyone – regardless of nationality – who conducts business with Syria, participates in infrastructure and energy projects, provides support to the Syrian government, or supplies goods or services to the Syrian military.
The Captagon Act, passed by the US Congress in 2022 to combat the illicit trade of a drug made famous by foreign-backed jihadists in Syria, has the temerity to blame Damascus for the origins of Captagon, and seeks to destroy what is left of the country’s renowned pharmaceutical industry.
In 2011, the EU banned exports of weapons, goods, and energy technology to Syria. It also imposed a ban on the import of Syrian oil and minerals, and any commercial and financial transactions with the Syrian energy sector. These sanctions were expanded in 2018 to include asset freezes and travel bans on individuals and entities allegedly involved in the use of chemical weapons.
Britain imposed parallel sanctions on Syria after its exit from the EU, with several allied states jumping the bandwagon, including Canada, Australia, and Switzerland. Arab countries, including Qatar and Saudi Arabia who financially and materially assisted in the war against Syria, have imposed their own variation of sanctions on Damascus too.
A Humanitarian crisis
The horrifying deterioration of Syria’s humanitarian and living conditions – as a direct result of oppressive unilateral sanctions that violate international laws and conventions – prompted the United Nations to dispatch UN Special Rapporteur on Unilateral Coercive Measures and Human Rights, Alena Douhan, to Damascus between 30 October and 10 November, 2022, to assess the impact of sanctions.
In a statement after her 12-day visit to Syria, the Special Rapporteur presented detailed information about the catastrophic effects of unilateral sanctions across all walks of life in the country.
Douhan reported that a startling 90 percent of Syria’s population was currently living below the poverty line, with limited access to food, water, electricity, shelter, cooking and heating fuel, transportation, and healthcare, and warned that the country was facing a massive brain-drain due to growing economic hardship
“With more than half of the vital infrastructure either completely destroyed or severely damaged, the imposition of unilateral sanctions on key economic sectors, including oil, gas, electricity, trade, construction and engineering have quashed national income, and undermine efforts towards economic recovery and reconstruction.”
The UN rapporteur said that the blocking of payments and refusal of deliveries by foreign producers and banks – coupled with sanctions-induced limited foreign currency reserves – have caused serious shortages in medicines and specialized medical equipment, particularly for chronic and rare diseases.
She warned that rehabilitation and development of water distribution networks for drinking and irrigation had stalled due to the unavailability of equipment and spare parts, creating serious public health and food security implications.
“In the current dramatic and still-deteriorating humanitarian situation as 12 million Syrians grapple with food insecurity, I urge the immediate lifting of all unilateral sanctions that severely harm human rights and prevent any efforts for early recovery, rebuilding and reconstruction.”
“No reference to good objectives of unilateral sanctions justifies the violation of fundamental human rights, she added, insisting that “the international community has an obligation of solidarity and assistance to the Syrian people.”
Calls to lift Syria’s sanctions
The UN report sheds further light on sanctions-targeted Syrian sectors, revealing that the Syrian economy has contracted by more than 90 percent, and that prices have risen more than 800 percent since 2019.
Hundreds of thousands of jobs have been lost, and sanctions block the importation of “food, medicine, spare parts, raw materials, and items necessary for the country’s needs and economic recovery,” Douhan reports. In addition, Syria “pays more than 50 percent higher prices compared to neighboring countries to obtain its food needs.”
The UN rapporteur has called for the unilateral sanctions that the US and EU have imposed on Syria to be lifted immediately, stressing that they are illegal under international law. “I urge the international community, and the sanctioning states, in particular, to pay heed to the devastating effects of sanctions and to take prompt and concrete steps to address over-compliance by businesses and banks,” she stated.
Her report illustrates clearly that the tightening of unilateral sanctions and trade restrictions have generated a long-term economic crisis in Syria, with an increasing rise in the level of inflation and a continuous decline in the value of the local currency from 47 Syrian lira against the dollar in 2010 to more than 5,000 lira in 2022.
Electricity and water
The sanctions have also prevented Damascus from rebuilding damaged infrastructure especially in remote and rural areas, and have caused a “shortage of electricity,” leading to daily blackouts.
The UN’s report made particular mention of the deterioration of the public water supply and irrigation systems, whose rehabilitation has stalled due to the unavailability of equipment and spare parts, with serious implications for public health and food security. It stated that the lack of drinking water in vast swathes of Syria is the cause behind the current cholera outbreak in the country.
Healthcare Sector
Douhan’s report also shows that power outages led to the failure of sensitive and expensive medical equipment, for which spare parts could not be purchased due to commercial and financial restrictions. It reveals that 14.6 percent of Syrians suffer from chronic and rare diseases, and that there are foreign-made obstacles to purchasing medicines – especially for patients with cancer, dialysis needs, high blood pressure, and diabetes, in addition to anesthetics – due to the withdrawal of foreign drug producers from Syria, and the inability to import raw materials and laboratory reagents to produce medicines locally.
Although medicines and medical devices are not directly subject to sanctions, the ambiguity and complexity of licensing processes, and the producers and suppliers’ fear of penalties, ensures that access to life-saving solutions becomes very difficult – especially after the adoption of Washington’s Captagon Act.
Agriculture and food security
Due to water and energy shortages, and financial and trade constraints, the amount of agricultural inputs such as fertilizers, seeds, pesticides, fodder, and spare parts for agricultural machinery have decreased. Syria’s agricultural crop production declined from 17 million tons annually in 2000-2011 to 11.9 million tons in 2021.
Wheat harvests have decreased from 3.1 million tons in 2019 to less than 1.7 million tons in 2022. While Syria was historically an exporter of wheat, it is now importing it through a network of intermediaries, which increases Damascus’ financial burden significantly.
A strategy to serve Israel’s interests
The US and its allies justify their Syria sanctions as a means of exerting pressure on “rogue” countries to force an alteration in their policies. The extensive experience of this US policy in numerous countries, however, clearly shows that sanctions are mainly a political tool used to subdue governments by devastating their populations.
The sanctions against Syria have resulted in a serious food crisis, with 12 million Syrians – over half of the population – facing food insecurity and 2.4 million suffering from severe food insecurity, according to the World Food Programme (WFP).
These sanctions are depleting the life resources of the Syrian people, which Damascus believes is largely related to its conflict with Israel, with Tel Aviv being seen as the biggest beneficiary of Syria’s slow destruction. The UN Special Rapporteur on Unilateral Coercive Measures and Human Rights will present her final report on the impact of the sanctions to the UN Human Rights Council in September 2023.
Featured Image: A 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Turkey reverberated through northern Syria and left buildings in ruin.
Steven Sahiounie is a Syrian American award-winning journalist based in Syria. He is specialized on the Middle East. He has also appeared on TV and radio in Canada, Russia, Iran, Syria, China, Lebanon, and the United States.
The outrage was prompted after Washington and eight European countries issued travel warnings over possible terror attacks in Turkey. The U.S. and its western allies have attempted to connect a recent Quran burning in Sweden with travel danger inside Turkey. Muslim countries worldwide have denounced the burning as hate speech, not free speech, but this has no apparent connection to travel safety issues inside Turkey.
The U.S. travel warning is tantamount to a declaration of economic war on Turkey who is in an economic downturn of its tourism sector, which was 11 % of the GDP in 2019, representing $78.2 billion, and rose to $17.95 billion in the third quarter of 2022, of which 85.7 percent came from foreign visitors. In 2018, tourism directly accounted for 7.7% of total employment in Turkey.
“Every American ambassador wonders how they can hurt Turkey. This has been one of Turkey’s greatest misfortunes over the years. It gathers other ambassadors and tries to give them advice. They are doing the same thing in Europe, the American embassy is running Europe,” said Soylu.
Soylu has criticized the U.S. and blames Washington for the 2016 Turkish regime change attempt, and has accused the U.S. of ruling Europe. In foreign policies, the EU follows U.S. directives implicitly.
“I’m being very clear. I very well know how you would like to create strife in Turkey. Take your grinning face off from Turkey,” said Soylu.
Ankara warned its citizens abroad to be aware of possible anti-Islamic attacks in the U.S. and Europe following the burning of the Quran in Sweden. Turkey later summoned the nine ambassadors, including Flake, for talks over the warnings.
Soylu condemned the European consulate closures in Turkey as an attempt to meddle in campaigning for Turkey’s presidential and parliamentary elections, which are scheduled for May 14.
Soylu and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have suggested that the western states had issued the security warnings in order to pressure Turkey to tone down its criticism of the Quran burning and resolve the NATO dispute in which Erdogan has voiced opposition to Sweden joining the bloc.
After a right-wing Swedish Radical Christian burned the Quran in front of the Turkish embassy in Stockholm, Erdogan threatened that he would never consent to Swedish accession.
Sweden previously has refused to extradite the 120 terrorists Turkey has demanded, and the U.S. Senate has made it clear that if Turkey does not approve Swedish accession, arms sales to Turkey, specifically F-16s, will not be authorized.
Turkish elections
Turkish elections are scheduled for May 14, and will be the toughest reelection fight of Erdogan’s career, and he and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) may lose the election.
The six-party opposition coalition, composed of two larger and four smaller parties, has managed to present a unified front. The opposition to Erdogan support the restoration of Turkey’s parliamentary system and the curtailment of presidential powers.
Erdogan’s fear has grown so strong that he used the courts to ban a leading potential opposition candidate, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, from running for the CHP. However, polls suggest that Ankara’s mayor, Mansur Yavas, could beat Erdogan.
The state has more overtly targeted some political parties, especially the pro-Kurdish, People’s Democracy Party (HDP). This left-leaning party was not invited into the opposition coalition, but HDP supporters will vote against Erdogan.
Biden supports opposition to Erdogan
U.S. President Joe Biden hosted an emergency meeting on Nov. 16 in Bali, Indonesia, with NATO and EU leaders to discuss a response to a missile blast in Poland, but Turkey was not invited. The meeting was held during the Group of 20 summit, and Turkey was present, but Biden snubbed them from the emergency meeting.
Turkey has been a full-fledged member of North Atlantic Treaty Organization since 1952, commands its second-largest military and has protected the southern flank of the alliance for 70 years.
Erdogan was again snubbed by Biden in December 2021 at the U.S. hosted virtual ‘Summit for Democracy’. In a New York Times interview published in 2020, the then candidate Biden called Erdogan an “autocrat.”
“What I think we should be doing is taking a very different approach to him now, making it clear that we support opposition leadership,” Biden said.
“He has to pay a price,” Biden said, adding that Washington should embolden Turkish opposition leaders “to be able to take on and defeat Erdogan. Not by a coup, not by a coup, but by the electoral process.”
Turkey recognized a clear attack by Biden using election meddling as a tool.
The main opposition CHP party quickly distanced themselves from Biden’s remarks of election meddling, calling for “respect for the sovereignty of Turkey”.
Turkey’s six-party opposition will select its candidate to run against Erdogan on February 13, CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said.
Obama and Erdogan
When President Obama conceived of his attack in Syria for regime change in 2011, using Radical Islamic terrorists as his foot soldiers, he called upon Erdogan to play a crucial role. Turkey hosted the CIA office which ran the Timber Sycamore program which trained and provided weapons for the Free Syrian Army. Erdogan also took in over 3 million Syria refugees fleeing the violence. Erdogan authorized his security forces to transport weapons to the terrorists in Syria.
Erdogan was a follower of the Muslim Brotherhood who provided the political ideology for the Free Syrian Army (FSA), who were terrorists attacking unarmed civilians, but were reported by the U.S. and western media as ‘rebels’.
However, the FSA disbanded due to lack of public support in Syria, and Al Qaeda stepped in the take its place, and finally ISIS emerged as the toughest terrorist group.
In 2017, President Trump cut off the CIA program in Turkey, and supporting of the Al Qaeda branch in Idlib, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham was left to Erdogan. The U.S.-NATO attack on Syria failed to produce regime change, but the country was partly destroyed in the process. Now, Erdogan proposes a reset in relations with Damascus, and is on track to establish business and diplomatic ties once more.
The U.S. State Department has issued warnings and threats to Erdogan if he follows through on his plan to have a neighborly relationship with Syria. Erdogan needs to make peace with Syria to return the 3.6 million Syrian refugees back home, and revive exports to Syria which will be a huge boost to the Turkish economy. If he accomplishes this soon, he has a good chance at winning reelection in May.
Kurds-PKK-YPG
A deadly terrorist bombing of a shopping district in Istanbul last November was carried out by a Syrian Kurd. The message was directed at Erdogan: don’t attack the YPG in north east Syria, or else. Those Kurds are supported by the U.S. military illegally occupying parts of Syria.
The U.S. partnered with the YPG to fight the ISIS, and both Erdogan and the opposition view that as a betrayal of a fellow NATO member, and U.S. ally. The YPG is directly linked with the PKK, an internationally designated terrorist organization and a threat to Turkey’s national security.
Erdogan has threatened a new military operation in Syria to disarm the YPG regardless of their U.S. partnership. The Syrian special enjoy under Trump, James Jeffrey, advised the Kurds to repair their relationship with Damascus, as the U.S. was not going to fight any war to defend them. The Kurd’s usefulness to the U.S. was over. Recently, the Turkish air force has been bombing them, with shells falling a few hundred feet from U.S. personnel stationed there.
Erdogan has asked Russian President Vladimir Putin for a green light to attack the Kurds in Syria, but was cautioned against it. However, the time might be ripe for a Turkish attack on the Kurds, which would disarm them and probably would lead to a withdrawal of the 200 American troops.
Turkey removed M4 outpost
On February 2, Turkish troops in Syria evacuated a military outpost near the M4 highway that connects the cities of Aleppo and Latakia. The former Al Qaeda branch in Syria, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), occupy Idlib, the last terrorist controlled area in Syria.
Turkey had been defending the HTS from attacks from Syrian Arab Army, and the Russian military. However, Erdogan has decided to drop his support of the armed opposition as he repairs his relationship with Syria.
On January 31, Ankara informed the HTS leadership of its plan to conduct patrols on the HTS-controlled portion of the M4 (Aleppo-Latakia) road, which “may be followed by joint patrols with Russia, and eventually with Syria.”
It’s getting harder to ignore. The persistent ISIS presence in the Syrian desert only serves US aims to continue its military occupation and support for Kurdish separatism.
In March 2019, former US President Donald Trump startled Washington’s war establishment by announcing that the mission of “eliminating terrorism” had been accomplished in Syria.
Seven months later, Trump solidified his claims by celebrating the assassination of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi by a US special forces operation in rural Idlib, in the north of the country.
In reality, the US president had been angling to exit Syria for some time, and the absence of terrorism provided that excuse. Trump had promised his voter base to wind down expensive foreign military adventurism, and viewed the high cost of military deployment in Syria as disproportionate to the gains realized.
But while withdrawing US forces from various locations in Syria’s north and northeast, the American president was pressured to maintain a small number of troops in the oil-rich countryside of Hasakah and Deir Ezzor, and in the Al-Tanf base, an area crucial to Israel’s strategic interests as it is located on the border with of Iraq and Jordan, and on the hypothetical road that connects Tehran to Beirut.
Trump, known for his brazen proclamations, publicly stated that “oil interests” were the reason for keeping this small contingent of US troops in the embattled Levantine state. The wholesale exit of US forces would have paved the way for Syrian and Russian troops to take back control of the northeast, and for Moscow to move forward with its peace plan through the Astana Process with Iran and Turkiye.
The facade of ‘fighting terror’
With the arrival of Democratic President Joe Biden to the White House, Washington shifted its priorities and sought to maintain a protracted presence in Syria under the pretext of “fighting terrorism.” ISIS cells were magically reactivated in the Syrian desert, a development heavily circulated in US media through “intelligence sources.” This prompted accusations from Moscow that Washington is supporting terrorism from its Al-Tanf base, which Russian planes bombed last July.
Amidst escalating hostilities between the US and Russia over Ukraine, Syrian field sources have informed The Cradle of the existence of communication channels between the Al-Tanf base and ISIS cells that carry out scattered attacks in the Syrian Desert against the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and its allied, Iran-backed factions.
The sources have also noted a marked shift in both ISIS tactics and the terror group’s access to advanced weapons and modern communication equipment that have been discovered in their hideouts. Given Iraq’s stringent measures on all border crossing with Syria – digging a trench along the border, building a separation fence, and installing surveillance cameras and checkpoints – it is unlikely that ISIS could obtain these resources without support from a powerful nation.
Kurdish forces employ the ISIS threat
During every Turkish threat to attack US-backed Kurdish forces in the country’s northern provinces, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) raises the specter of ISIS and its expansion, which is used to justify the continued Kurdish occupation of northern Syria to repel these attacks.
This pattern repeated itself during the 2016-2017 Turkish Euphrates Shield operation against ISIS and Kurdish targets, the 2018 Olive Branch operation when Turkish forces invaded Afrin in Aleppo’s countryside, and the 2019 Turkish offensive called the Peace Spring operation.
The trend continued last December, when Ankara threatened to attack Kurdish-held territories in Syria’s north. The SDF, which had halted operations against ISIS, quickly reversed its decision two days later.
In addition to playing the ISIS card to justify its relevance, the SDF – which is affiliated with the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) which Ankara considers an extension of the terrorist-designated Kurdistan Worker’s Party (PKK) – has another lever it frequently employs.
The Kurdish group controls dozens of prisons that house thousands of ISIS leaders, fighters, and their families, the most notorious of which are Al-Hol camp near the Iraqi border, and Al-Sinaa prison in the Hasakah Governorate.
And the SDF, in coordination with US strategists, have employed this leverage to release ISIS members and their families from camps or to allow prison breaks at important junctures.
So why are ISIS attacks on the rise?
A clear correlation can be observed between the rise in ISIS attacks and US attempts to fortify its presence in Syria in order to ‘fight terror.’ After a period of relative decline during Trump’s presidency, the terrorist organization has regained strength, ironically, following Biden’s decision to expand operations against ISIS.
In early 2022, ISIS launched an attack on Al-Sinaa Prison, which holds prominent ISIS leaders and fighters. The operation came less than three weeks after several noteworthy developments: First, international coalition forces brought in large shipments of weapons, including Bradley vehicles and anti-tank weapons; Second, coalition forces returned to the Lafarge base on the strategic international M4 highway north of Aleppo; Third, western forces had just completed maintenance operations for the oil fields.
Notably, the attack also took place after US Caesar Act sanctions were lifted from areas controlled by the SDF and Turkiye.
US support for the SDF through exempting Kurdish areas from the Caesar Act demonstrates Washington’s goal of solidifying the Kurdish Autonomous Administration in SDF-controlled areas. This serves to ensure a continued US presence and foothold in resource-rich northeastern Syria in the event of a future withdrawal of troops – and ongoing obstruction of Russian peace efforts to stabilize the country.
Terrorism: a tool for US expansionism
As soon as Ankara voiced its willingness to reconcile with Damascus, the US began preparing for a new troop deployment to fortify its position in Syria, particularly since rapprochement – backed by Russia and Iran – hinges on several key agreements, the most prominent of which requires the exit of US forces from the country as a necessity for a political solution.
The new US military expansion – which is essentially a redeployment – returns troops to previous bases in former ISIS-stronghold Al-Raqqa Governorate all the way to the border with Turkiye, restructures and revitalizes the jihadist-aligned Raqqa Revolutionaries Brigade (Liwa Thuwwar al-Raqqa), and provides them with weapons and equipment to form an SDF-like force in this predominantly Arab province.
In December 2022, ISIS launched a series of attacks in Raqqa, which served as the necessary pretext for the US and SDF to launch a large-scale security operation in and around the governorate. The US military used the attacks as an opportunity to reposition its forces, bring in heavy machinery, and rehabilitate helicopter airstrips.
Similarly, US-led coalition forces and the SDF launched the Al-Jazeera Thunderbolt security campaign in and around Al-Hasakah early this year, which resulted in the arrest of 154 ISIS members – according to an SDF statement on 7 January. However, these figures were questioned by locals, who accused the SDF and coalition forces of arresting countless innocent civilians in the Tel Hamis area.
Local sources accuse the SDF of drawing up indiscriminate lists that include personal targets, which have led to accusations against innocent people, the arrest of US occupation opponents who have nothing to do with ISIS, and a desire to increase detainee numbers as part of “the show” that accompanies all US operations.
In light of these facts, Syrian military sources in the eastern desert anticipate an increase in ISIS attacks – particularly as Syrian-Turkish reconciliation talks progress and exert negative pressure on US ambitions in Syria’s north. The sources says that the connection between the US and ISIS, which is used opportunistically and strategically to achieve political goals, is no longer a secret and will only gather further steam in the months ahead.
The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of The Cradle.
سربت أنقرة تصريحات تفيد بموافقتها على الانسحاب من سوريا جزئياً أو كلّياً وفق جدول زمني محددّ (أ ف ب)
على رغم العقبات الكثيرة التي تعترض طريق التطبيع السوري – التركي، تشير المعطيات المتوافرة كافة إلى أن أنقرة متمسّكة بهذا المسار، وهو ما أنبأ به مثلاً تسريبها حديثاً لأحد مسؤوليها عن استعدادها للانسحاب الكلّي أو الجزئي من الشمال السوري. ولعلّ ذلك التمسّك يفسّر جانباً من «الهَبّة» الأميركية، متعدّدة الأشكال والمستويات، لعرقلة عملية الانفتاح على دمشق، بدءاً من محاولة حشْد المعسكر الغربي بأكمله ضدّها، مروراً بالاشتغال على الربط الاقتصادي بين مناطق سيطرة «الإدارة الذاتية» وتلك الخاضعة لسلطة أنقرة، وليس انتهاءً بالعمل على تهشيم «الائتلاف» ومحاولة استنبات تشكيلات معارضة بديلة
قُبيل زيارة وزير الخارجية التركي، مولود تشاووش أوغلو، لواشنطن، ولقائه نظيره الأميركي، أنتوني بلينكن، عقد ممثّلو دول الاتحاد الأوروبي اجتماعاً في العاصمة البلجيكية بروكسل، بدعوة من المبعوثة الأوروبية لمنطقة الشرق الأوسط وشمال أفريقيا، هيلين لوكال، لمناقشة الأوضاع في سوريا، ليخلص الاجتماع إلى تأكيد استمرار موقف الاتحاد الأوروبي القائم، والمتمثّل في رفْض أيّ خطوات تطبيعية مع دمشق، ورفْض رفْع العقوبات عن الأخيرة، كما ورفْض إعادة الإعمار، الأمر الذي يتماشى مع حملة التصعيد التي تقودها واشنطن في الملفّ السوري هذه الأيّام. كذلك، سارعت الولايات المتحدة، التي لمست رفضاً قاطعاً من أنقرة لخطّتها القديمة – الجديدة للربط بين مناطق «الإدارة الذاتية» التي تقودها «قوات سوريا الديموقراطية» الكردية (قسد) والشمال السوري الذي تسيطر عليه تركيا، كبديل للانعطافة التركية نحو دمشق، إلى الإعلان عن اجتماع تشاوري في جنيف لممثّلي الدول التي تماثلها في مواقفها من الأزمة السورية، في إشارة إلى التحالف السياسي الذي تقوده ضدّ روسيا، حيث تربط واشنطن بين ملفَّي سوريا وأوكرانيا، وتَعتبر أيّ تقدّم في الملفّ السوري نجاحاً لموسكو، وفق مصادر سورية معارضة، تحدّثت إلى «الأخبار».
المصادر ذكرت أن جدول أعمال اللقاء لم يتبلور حتى الآن، غير أن المؤكد أنه سيستمرّ ليومَين: اليوم الأوّل (يُتوقّع أن يكون الإثنين القادم) يناقش فيه المجتمعون الخطوات الموحّدة التي يمكن اتّباعها لمنع أو تخفيف أيّ آثار للانعطافة التركية، وإعادة تقييم قانون العقوبات الأميركية على سوريا، ومدى إمكانية تنفيذ بنود منه ضدّ الدول التي انفتحت أو تسير نحو الانفتاح على دمشق، على أن يُعقد في اليوم التالي اجتماع مع الأمين العام للأمم المتحدة، أنطونيو غوتيريش.
استبَقت واشنطن زيارة أوغلو بجولة لمنسّق البيت الأبيض للشؤون الأمنية للشرق الأوسط وشمال أفريقيا شملت الأردن والعراق
واستبَقت واشنطن زيارة وزير الخارجية التركي بجولة قام بها منسّق البيت الأبيض للشؤون الأمنية للشرق الأوسط وشمال أفريقيا، بريت ماكغورك، شملت الأردن والعراق، حيث ناقش المسؤول الأميركي ملفّات عدّة من بينها الموضوع السوري. وبحسب مصادر كردية تحدّثت إلى «الأخبار»، فإن ماكغروك ناقش مع أربيل سُبل التنشيط الاقتصادي لمناطق «الإدارة الذاتية»، والاستفادة من استثناءات قانون عقوبات «قيصر»، والتي تشمل مناطق «الذاتية» وأخرى تسيطر عليها تركيا في الشمال السوري باستثناء إدلب وعفرين. في المقابل، أشار أوغلو، قبل انطلاقه إلى واشنطن، إلى أن الملفّ السوري سيحتلّ حيّزاً رئيساً من مباحثاته هناك، مضيفاً أن ملفّ طائرات «F16» سيكون حاضراً أيضاً، علماً أن الولايات المتحدة استثمرت هذا الملفّ مرّات عدّة للضغط على تركيا، بعد إخراجها إيّاها من مشروع تطوير طائرات «F35» إثر شراء الأخيرة منظومة «S400» الدفاعية الروسية.
وبالإضافة إلى الحراك السياسي والميداني (عبر إعادة نشْر القوّات الأميركية وتوسيع رقعة تمركزها، ومحاولة إحياء فصائل عربية تابعة لها في مناطق نفوذ «قسد»)، أعلنت الخارجية الأميركية ضخّ 15 مليون دولار لدعم ما سمّته «مكافحة التضليل، وتوسيع بثّ وسائل الإعلام المستقلّة، وتعزيز مبادئ حقوق الإنسان». ويتوافق ذلك مع التحرّكات الأميركية الأخيرة لخلق معارضة سورية بديلة لـ«الائتلاف» تنشط من نيويورك، تمهيداً لسحب البساط من تحت أنقرة، وإنهاء «الائتلاف» الذي يمثّل واجهة سياسية للمعارضة تتحكّم بها تركيا، علماً أن حملة كبيرة بدأت تَظهر بالفعل عبر وسائل الإعلام ومواقع التواصل الاجتماعي ضدّ هذا التشكيل. وفي المقابل، وفي تصريحات يبدو أنها تهدف إلى الضغط على واشنطن، سرّبت أنقرة إلى وسائل إعلام تركية تصريحات لمسؤول تركي كبير لم تُسمّه، أعلن خلالها موافقة بلاده على الانسحاب من سوريا جزئياً أو كلّياً وفق جدول زمني محدَّد، في ردّ مباشر على مطالب دمشق. كذلك ذكر المسؤول التركي أن بلاده متّفقة مع الجانب السوري على عدم وجود أيّ خطوط حمراء لا تمكن مناقشتها، الأمر الذي يعني إصراراً تركياً على الانفتاح على دمشق، خصوصاً بعد الزيارة التي أجراها وزير الخارجية الإيراني، حسين عبد اللهيان، لأنقرة قادماً من سوريا، وإعلانه دعم بلاده هذا الانفتاح، واستعدادها للانضمام إليه وتحويله إلى لقاءات رباعية تضمّ روسيا وإيران وتركيا وسوريا، وفق «مسار أستانا» الذي تحدّث عن إمكانية تعديله وتحديثه أيضاً. بدورها، أكدت موسكو مضيّها في تقريب وجهات النظر بين أنقرة ودمشق، حيث أعلن وزير الخارجية الروسي، سيرغي لافروف، استمرار العمل لإجراء لقاء على مستوى وزيرَي خارجية سوريا وتركيا، مرحّباً في الوقت ذاته بالمسار التركي للحلّ في سوريا.
ميدانياً، تابعت «هيئة تحرير الشام» (جبهة النصرة) هجماتها التصعيدية لتسخين جبهات القتال، عن طريق إرسال «إنغماسيين» إلى محاور «خفض التصعيد» في إدلب. وأفادت مصادر ميدانية بأن هجوماً جديداً شنّه عدد من «الجهاديين» على محور قرية معرة موخص في ريف إدلب الجنوبي، ردّ عليه الجيش السوري بقصف مكثّف على مواقع المسلحين، الأمر الذي أدّى إلى مقتل عدد منهم، عُرف منهم «أبو عبيدة النعماني» و«أبو جهاد الحلبي»، وهما من فصيل «أنصار التوحيد».
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 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.
هؤلاء الذين يضحّون بأنفسهم ليصنعوا تاريخ بلدانهم المشرّف ينتظرون على الأقلّ أن ننصفهم ونسجّل ونوثّق ما حدث وألّا نسمح للأعداء أن يصادروا حقيقة ما جرى.
مــعــارك السّرديّات
تشعر وأنت تقرأ مقال توماس فريدمان في جريدة نيويورك تايمز، بتاريخ 15/12/2022 أنّك كنت غائباً عن هذا العالم أو نائماً نومة أهل الكهف، وأنّ هذا المقال يفتح عينيك على كلّ ما يجب أن تعرفه عن آخر الأحداث في فلسطين، وإن كان عنوان مقاله: «ماذا في العالم يحدث في “إسرائيل”»؛ أي أنّه ومن العنوان لم يعترف بفلسطين ولا بالحقّ الفلسطينيّ، وكي يزيد ثقتك بأنّ هذا هو النصّ الوحيد الذي عليك أن تقرأه كي تفهم القصّة المعقّدة لما يجري في فلسطين المحتلّة، أضاف إلى العنوان المضلِّل عنواناً فرعياً، وهو أنّه تمّ تحديث هذا المقال كي يأخذ بعين الاعتبار تطوّرات الأخبار.
وقد نفى في بداية المقال إمكانية حلّ الدولتين، الذي أصبح شبه مستحيل، ولكن مخيلته جادت بحلول قد توهم غير المهتمّين حقيقةً والمتابعين للشأن الفلسطينيّ بدقّة بحرصه على حل هذه “المسألة” على أسس إنسانية وواقعيّة ولمصلحة الطرفين “المتخاصمين”، وبعض القواعد التي استند إليها للتوصّل إلى حلوله المقترحة المتخيَّلة هي أنّ المجتمعين الفلسطينيّ و”الإسرائيلي”، ورغم بعض الأحداث، قد عاشا في حالة من التوازن منذ اتفاقيات أوسلو عام 1993، والشكر يعود للاقتحامات “الإسرائيلية”، وعمل السلطة الفلسطينية، والنموّ الاقتصادي، ومجموعة كبيرة من المهادنات “وضبط النفس” التي قامت بها جميع الأطراف.
ولإعطاء روايته مصداقية، يشير إلى إحصائية «منظّمة بتسليم الإسرائيلية» أنّه في العام الماضي “مات 20 إسرائيلياً”، و”150” فلسطينياً في أحداث عنف. لقد أعلنت منظّمات حقوق الإنسان التابعة للأمم المتحدة ومهتمون كثر أنّ عام 2022 كان الأعنف الذي أعدمت فيه مخابرات وجنود الكيان الصهيونيّ رقماً قياسياً من المدنيين الفلسطينيين، وخاصّة الشباب والأطفال، والذي هو الأعلى منذ عقود. وأيضاً، وفي محاولة تضليلية أخرى، يعتبر الأقصى أيضاً مهمّاً للمسلمين، العبارة التي توحي أنّ أهميته الأولى هي للطرف الآخر، وأنّ الإرهابي العنصريّ بن غفير محقّ فيما يقوم به، مع أنّ جنوده العنصريين رفعوا شعار “طلقة واحدة يجب أن تقتل، من دون أسف، نحن أصحاب القرار”.
ثمّ يروي للقارئ كيف أنّ عدداً من الإسرائيليين اليساريين ذهبوا لدعم الفلسطينيين في مواجهة اليمين المتطرّف، الذي أصبح الجزّار بن غفير الإرهابي قائداً رسمياً له، وأنّ “القضاء” الصهيونيّ قد حكم على الجندي الذي قتل فلسطينياً بالسجن ثلاثة أشهر، ليقنع القارئ أنّ هذا الكيان يطبّق “القانون” وإلى ما هنالك من سرديات مضلّلة هدفها الأساس هو الدعاية لتغطية جرائم هذا الكيان الصهيوني العنصريّ، وتشوّيه أصول الحقّ الفلسطينيّ، وتبرير الجرائم التي تُرتكب بحقّ هذا الشعب يومياً من قبل قوات نظام الأبارثايد الصهيوني، والتي يجب أن يندى لها جبين أيّ إنسان، وهو يتفادى ذكر جرائم الأبارثايد الصهيوني في تدمير القرى الفلسطينية لمرّات من قبل قوّات الكيان العنصريّ، فيقول فريدمان إنّ المجتمعات “البدوية” والمدارس العامة في الجنوب قد عانت من بعض الإهمال.
السبب في أنني أتناول هذا المقال المسيء جداً للحقّ الفلسطيني والحقّ العربي، والمشوِّه لحقيقة الإجرام العنصري الذي يتمّ ارتكابه من قبل العصابات الصهيونية في الاستيلاء على الأرض، وقتل الشباب الفلسطيني بدم بارد، واقتطاع عقود من عمر شباب وشابات في الأسر، هو أنّ مثل هذه السرديات لا تهدف فقط إلى تشويه الحاضر في أذهان القرّاء، وإنما تهدف أيضاً إلى تثبيت سرديات تاريخية في أذهان الأجيال القادمة، فتكون مثل هذه المواد متاحة للباحثين والكتاب المهتمين بهذا الشأن، وتصبح المستند الذي يبنون عليه استنتاجاتهم البحثية، وينالون شهادات الماجستير والدكتوراه في إعدام آخر ليس فقط للشباب الفلسطينيّ، وإنما لحقّ أبنائهم في محاكمة القتلة واسترداد حقوقهم ولو بعد حين.
وكمثال قريب لم يمضِ عليه زمن، فقد تداول بعض القرّاء مؤخراً مقالاً نشرته مجلّة النيويورك تايمز عام 2016، وأفردت له مساحة كاملة بعنوان: «الأرض المتصدّعة: كيف تُمزّق العالم العربي». وتصدّر هذا النصّ مقدمة من قبل رئيس تحرير المجلة جيك سيلفرستون، أشار فيها إلى عدد المراسلين من دول مختلفة الذين ساهموا في إنتاج هذا النصّ، والمصوّرين، وحرصهم على أن يقولوا حقيقة ما حدث، واعتذارهم عن طول النصّ الذي تمّ تكريس عدد المجلة كاملاً له في 2016، ويركّز على حياة أناس من دول مختلفة، وكيف أنّ هذا الغزو الأميركي الغاشم للعراق قد غيّر حياة كثيرين، وأنهى حياة أكثر من مليون عراقي.
ومع أنّ البعض محقّ في القول، إنّهم على الأقلّ يعترفون بما فعلوه ولو بعد حين، ولكن لا بدّ من ذكر أمرين اثنين هنا: أولاً أنّ اعتراف مجلّة أميركية معادية للعرب ببعض من كارثة دمويّة غير مبرّرة حلّت ببلد غني عريق مثل العراق، لن يغنيَ أهله عن شيء، وخاصّة أنّ الاستهداف مستمرّ على المستوى السياسيّ، وأنّه من الممنوع على العراق حتى اليوم أن يتواءم مع جارته سوريا على سبيل المثال، أو أن يخرج من العباءة الطائفية التي خطّها بريمر لمستقبل العراق والعراقيين.
ولكن الأمر الآخر والأهمّ هو أين هي الرواية الدقيقة الكاملة لما حدث في العراق، والتي تمّ توثيقها من قبل مرجعيّة عربية تعلم علم اليقين أبعاد ما حلّ بالعراق، وتلقي ضوءاً على ما كان للعراق والشعب العراقيّ من خير وثروات وقوّة اقتصادية وفكرية. ولا شكّ أنّ تدمير هذه البنية كلّها لم يكن ضرورياً حتى لتغيير نظام سياسيّ، مع أنّ هذا ليس من مسؤولية الولايات المتحدة التي تذرّعت بذرائع كاذبة لغزو العراق، والذي لم يذكره مثل هذا الاستقصاء الذي لاقى المديح حتى من كتاب ومثقفين.
لقد اعتبروا أنّه دلالة على الإعلام الحرّ، وأنّ الآخرين يكتبون ويعترفون بأخطائهم ولكنَّ الولايات المتحدة اليوم، ومنذ غزو العراق، تنهب نفط العراق، وتمنع أيّ استقرار سياسي في العراق كي لا تعود ثروات هذا البلد ليد أبنائه، ولخدمة ورفاه شعبه. أي أنهم يذكرون بعض ما حدث من دون كشف الغطاء عن جوهر ومنطلق وهدف العملية برمّتها.
الاستنتاج من كلا البحثين اللذين تمّ الترويج لهما في بلداننا العربية هو أنّه لا يجوز ولا بأيّ شكل أو منطق أن تقرأ تاريخك بأقلام وأعين أعدائك، وأنّ من أول واجبات أصحاب القضية، أيّ قضية، ليس فقط أن يدافعوا عنها، وإنما أن يخطّوا سردياتها بأقلامهم هم، وأن يسجّلوا تاريخها للأجيال القادمة احتراماً وإنصافاً لمن ضحّوا من أجلها، وحرصاً على أن تأخذ الأجيال القادمة حقّها في الثّأر لآبائها وأجدادها، أو في تصويب المسار والسمعة والسردية التي قد يجود بها المؤمنون بخدمة أهدافهم الاستعمارية المعادية للعرب.
لقد ناضلت كلّ دولنا العربية لنيل استقلالها من المحتلّ الاستعماري لكنّها لم تولِ تسجيل الأحداث الأهمية التي تستحقّها وما زال هذا النقص قائماً في ثقافتنا، وهو نقص خطير يؤثّر ليس فقط على المرجعية المستقبلية، وإنما على المرجعية الراهنة، وحتى على سير المعارك إذا كان الصراع ما زال قائماً كما هو الحال في الشأن الفلسطيني وشؤون أخرى في الواقع العربي بحاجة ماسّة إلى تخصيص موارد لدعم إحقاق الحقوق إعلامياً وتاريخياً وفكرياً.
هؤلاء الذين يضحّون بأنفسهم ليصنعوا تاريخ بلدانهم المشرّف ينتظرون على الأقلّ أن ننصفهم ونسجّل ونوثّق ما حدث وألّا نسمح للأعداء أن يصادروا حقيقة ما جرى، ويسجّلوا الوثيقة التي تخدم أهدافهم، وتبخس نضالنا وتضحياتنا ودماء أبنائنا المؤمنين بأوطانهم والصادقين.
إن الآراء المذكورة في هذه المقالة لا تعبّر بالضرورة عن رأي الميادين وإنما تعبّر عن رأي صاحبها حصراً
While Damascus is open to negotiations with Ankara, it is wary of being used as a Turkish pre-election political ploy.
On 15 December, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that his government planned to schedule a tripartite mechanism with Russia to work toward Syrian-Turkish rapprochement.
Initially, he suggested the establishment of meetings between intelligence agencies, and defense and foreign ministries, to be followed by a meeting of the respective leaders. “I offered it to Mr Putin and he has a positive view on it,” the Turkish president was cited as saying.
In the past few months, Erdogan has displayed an increasing interest in meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whom he characterized as a “murderer” only a few short years ago.
Diplomatic developments
Early signs of rapprochement between Ankara and Damascus are already evident in multiple, ongoing meetings between their respective intelligence agencies.
Somer Sultan, a Turkish journalist residing in Syria, told The Cradle that recently the level of talks between intelligence services has been raised.
According to Sultan, one of the outcomes of these talks is the establishment of the 25th Special Mission Forces Division of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) – commonly known as the ‘Tiger Forces’ – on the Turkish-Syrian border in many areas evacuated by the US-backed Kurdish militia, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
It also appears that – at least for now – Russia and the US have blocked a new Turkish ground offensive in Syria against SDF/YPG Kurdish militias, which Erdogan has been threatening to launch for several months.
Meeting of the US, SDF, and PUK
Two days before Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and his US counterpart Antony Blinken met on 22 December, an interesting meeting was held in Syria.
US General Matthew McFarlane, the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) leader and the son of Jalal Talabani, Bafel Talabani, and SDF leader Mazloum Abdi participated in this meeting. During his visit to North Syria, Bafel Talabani also met with PYD co-leaders Asya Abdullah and Salih Muslim.
It is important to note that Turkiye has recently threatened the PUK-held Sulaymaniyah in northern Iraq, and accused the PUK of supporting the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a group viewed as a terrorist organization by both Washington and Ankara.
So far, the US and Russia have managed to deter Turkiye from launching a ground incursion into Syria. However, a new Turkish security concept, “meeting and eliminating threats across borders,” continues in Iraq and Syria whereby PKK targets continue to be identified and eliminated.
Turkish journalist Murat Yetkin quotes a senior Turkish security officer as saying that Ankara has warned the US to stop escorting PKK/YPG elements in Syria. According to this officer, Turkiye has advised the US forces to affix a UN or US flag on their cars to avoid any friendly fire.
What does Turkiye offer?
Relations with Syria, its related refugee conundrum, and generalized economic crisis are among the most heated topics in Turkiye’s domestic politics. Indeed, several Turkish opposition parties have attributed the refugee problem as a direct consequence of Erdogan’s misguided Syrian policy – a popular view in Turkiye today.
Former Turkish Ambassador Ahmet Kamil Erozan, now a deputy of the opposition IYI (Good) Party, revealed to The Cradle that Turkiye has thus far not made any serious offer to the Syrian side.
“What the government says in public is the threat of YPG/PKK,” Erozan said. “But we, IYI Party, think that this is not enough. Idlib is the hotbed of terrorism and AKP (Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party) has not touched upon this topic during the negotiations yet.”
He believes that Erdogan does not have an exit strategy from Syria, and is biding his time on this issue until Turkiye’s next key elections in June 2023.
Erozan says that the IYI Party, as a potential ruling party after the elections, will seek to make direct contact with the Syrian government. “We wrote a letter to our foreign ministry about our intention to visit Syria and waited for a response until December 15. They did not respond and now we will try to contact Bashar al-Assad on our own,” he said.
If the Assad government accepts, Erozan said, then they are open for dialogue with Damascus even before the elections, at any time and in any place.
“When we are in power, we are going to raise the dialogue level in our negotiations,” Erozan claimed. He said that the most important point is to solve the urgent Syrian refugee question, and then the difficult issues about the PKK/YPG and Idlib.
When asked whether his party has a plan to withdraw Turkish troops from Syria, he said this could be negotiable. According to Erozan, the Erdogan government has itself not yet put the withdrawal of the Turkish troops from Syria on the table.
However, it is unclear whether the Syrian government would accept IYI’s offer — Somer Sultan thinks that the party’s offer would not satisfy Damascus “because IYI wants the Syrian government to accept an alliance against the PKK/YPG but for other terrorist organizations they want a ‘common approach.’ This is not acceptable for Syria.”
The view from Syria
A Syrian source with close ties to the government told The Cradle that in a closed meeting Assad assured his audience that he will not meet Erdogan prior to Turkiye’s elections.
However, according to Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, the Syrian president has also said that the level of dialogue between intelligence agencies will rise in the near future – which has, in fact, recently happened. Assad also said Syrians will continue to keep an eye open regarding the Turkish government’s intentions.
Editor-in-Chief of the Syrian newspaper Al-Watan and a close Assad confidante, Waddah Abdrabbo, wrote an editorial in a similar tone: “No pro bono gift for Erdogan.”
Abdrabbo said that the Syrians are waiting for a concrete step from Ankara. “Syrians want territorial integrity, end terrorism, and lifting sanctions,” he stressed.
Despite Erdogan’s overtures and Assad’s willingness to expand dialogue with Ankara, Syria is cautious about her neighbor’s intentions and does not intend to play a hand in Erdogan’s electoral ambitions.
Rapprochement scenarios
For both Turkiye’s ruling AKP and its opposition, any possible Syrian-Turkish reconciliation process must include a settlement on the Syrian refugee problem. One of the ostensible reasons for all Turkish ground offensives into Syria after 2016 has been the safe repatriation of the Syrian refugees.
However, Erozan is doubtful about Assad’s intentions: “He may not accept all refugees to his country.” When reminded that Syrian refugees in Lebanon had already started to return, he stated that Lebanon is a different case.
IYI’s negotiation plans depend on Damascus’ signals. Last September, the party convened a “Migration Doctrine”conference and announced that through negotiations with the Syrian government and the participation of the EU, refugees will be able to return to Syria. If the plan does not go ahead, then Turkiye would take matters into its own hands and create a safe zone in Syria. It appears, on the surface, to be a carbon copy of Erdogan’s post-2016 policies.
While it is inevitable that high level negotiations will eventually take place between Syria and Turkiye, Damascus’ primary condition will always remain the withdrawal of Turkish troops. If a future Turkish government can view this condition as negotiable, things can rapidly improve on the rapprochement front.
For Syria, reclaiming territory from Turkiye, but also from the US-backed SDF, is of utmost importance. Securing Turkish cooperation against the SDF (and the US) would be a huge achievement for Damascus. However, the Syrian leadership evaluates the US presence in Syria as ephemeral. Therefore, cutting a deal with a powerful neighbor like Turkey is more important than to drive out American forces first.
Second, although the SDF poses a mutual threat for both countries, Syria and Turkiye have starkly different views on Islamist groups. Regaining Idlib, the northern Syrian governorate which remains the last bastion of extremist militants, is not just a question of territorial integrity for Syria – it also illustrates continued Turkish support for armed Islamist militias. Therefore, Ankara severing ties with those takfiri-salafist groups could provide an important basis for high level negotiations.
Whether the AKP or its opposition can provide this outcome is doubtful. Erdogan is not a reliable partner for Damascus for obvious reasons, but the opposition coalition also hosts some dubious figures, such as Erdogan’s former foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, a champion of the catastrophic Syrian war.
For now, both countries choose to maintain their mutual talks at a certain level, and it seems unlikely that the Syrian question will be resolved until after the Turkish elections.
Russian military police accompany SAA troops into Deraa al-Balad. (Photo credit: @syrseal44)
Moscow has been mediating talks between Damascus and the Kurdish groups present on the border with Turkiye
ByNews Desk-
On 30 November, Russia reportedly sent reinforcements to the Tal Rifaat region, about 15 kilometers from the Turkish border. The region is under the control of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Moscow’s move is a response to a looming Turkish ground invasion, which seems more likely after Turkiye sent reinforcements to the Syrian border and advised the Syrian National Army (SNA) to prepare for an attack.
According to The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), Russian forces have increased their presence in Kurdish-controlled areas since Turkiye launched a series of airstrikes on targets in northern Syria and Iraq in response to a bomb attack in Istanbul.
Residents from Tal Rifaat reported that Russian reinforcements have arrived and set up new barricades between Kurdish and pro-Turkish areas in the region. According to Al-Arabiya news, Tal Rifaat, which is controlled by Kurdish forces, is surrounded on one side by the Syrian army, and on the other by Turkish-backed opposition forces.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) also stated that Russian forces had consolidated their presence at the Menagh military airport close to Tal Rifaat, controlled by the Syrian Arab Army (SAA).
SOHR also noted that the Russians are reinforcing their forces near Kobani. “The purpose of these reinforcements may be to hinder or delay the Turkish military operation,” SOHR security official Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
Anonymous Turkish sources also revealed to Al-Quds Al-Arabi on 30 November that serious talks mediated by Russia are taking place to ensure the withdrawal of the Kurdish units and the deployment of the Syrian Arab Army on the border with Turkey, in an effort to prevent the Turkish ground offensive.
Russian military officials have reportedly been meeting with senior SDF commanders on a regular basis over the past few days.
A Russian military base was reportedly struck on 23 November in the latest wave of Turkish air strikes in northeast Syria, according to a Kurdish official.
The air strike, which targeted a base in the Hasakah province, reportedly killed one Kurdish fighter belonging to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and wounded three others, said SDF chief Farhad Chami.
The Turkish military struck nearly 500 Kurdish targets in Iraq and Syria since it began a series of airstrikes as part of Operation Claw-Sword, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said in a press conference, according to The New Arab.
On the other hand, on 22 November, the White House National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, John Kirby, endorsed Turkey’s attacks on northern Syria, saying the country has a right to defend itself.
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The ‘Jewish’ Israel bombed several posts in central and coastal Syria in the early hours of the morning today, Saturday, November 19, a Syrian military spokesperson said in a statement carried by the Syrian news agency SANA.
In its report, strangely not the website’s main headline, SANA quoted the Syrian military spokesperson:
“At about six thirty in the morning, the Israeli enemy carried out an air aggression from over the Mediterranean Sea from the direction of Baniyas, targeting some points in the central and coastal region, and our air defenses intercepted the incoming missiles of aggression and shot down most of them.”
The Israeli aggression killed four soldiers and injured one more in addition to causing material damage, the military spokesperson’s statement concluded.
This is the second Israeli aggression against Syria in the past 6 days, the previous aggression killed and injured Syrian army soldiers.
The Israeli (Read: NATO and the collective West through Israel) aggressions are blatant violations of International Law, the UN Charter, and the May 31st, 1974 ‘Separation of Forces Agreement between Israel and Syria,’ dozens of useless UN peacekeepers (UNDOF) were deployed since on the Golan to observe the agreement whose role is just to count the Israeli aggressions and report it to the UNSC which in turn calls for peace in useless statements.
The role of Russia remains very strange in the continuous Israeli aggressions, the Russian military has an agreement with Israel on non-confliction over Syria’s skies, and holds back weapons Syria purchased over a decade ago under request from the Israelis despite the fact that some of those dated weapons like the S300 are very much available in NATO countries including NATO’s launchpad post against Russia, Ukraine.
Moreover, Russia offered its more advanced S400 to countries hostile to it like Saudi Arabia and Qatar, and actually sold it to other countries in its opponent camp like Turkey, all of which are parts of the US-led war of terror and attrition against the Syrian people.
The least that Russia can do in light of the repeated Israeli aggressions is not some empty words of condemnation by its foreign ministry, but rather withdraw itself from the weird agreement of coordination with Israel over Syria, which itself is against international law that Russia is saying it wants to preserve, draw down its diplomatic ties with the ‘Jewish’ state, or pressure the Israelis with fewer revenues through trade and tourism if the Israelis continue their breach of the UN Security Council resolutions which Russia is one of 5 permanent members of.
The same, above, goes for China, another permanent member of the UNSC that has very large economic and military ties with Israel.
That is if Russia does not want to sell its advanced weapons to Syria and actually allow the Syrian people to defend themselves with the weapons it delivered earlier.
The ‘Jewish’ state of Israel that commits crimes against the real Semites, the people of the Levant around the clock including on Sabbaths, needs wars to continue its illegal occupation of land, peace will force its criminal leaders to look after the Jews expelled from Europe and from Russia and shipped into Palestine to serve the overall Zionist dream of building the antiChrist’s kingdom.
Israel is an anti-Jewish Zionist entity
Will Syria be able to restrain itself before retaliating militarily against Israel and its regional sponsors and causing mutual destruction to all parties, not only to Syria alone, is no longer a question, it’s a matter of when the retaliation strikes will start, Syria has nothing further to lose, unlike all its foes who contributed to its destruction.
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The Russian Defense Ministry revealed on 14 November that members of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) extremist group are planning to carry out a false flag operation in Syria’s northern Idlib governorate in coordination with the White Helmets, with the aim of pinning the blame on Syrian and Russian forces.
“The Russian military has received information that Hayat Tahrir al-Sham terrorists, in cooperation with White Helmets representatives, intend to carry out provocations in the Idlib de-escalation zone,” Major General Oleg Yegorov, the head of the ministry’s Reconciliation Center, said.
Yegorov added that the operation is meant to target densely populated civilian areas within Idlib.
Since the start of the Syrian war, false flag operations and staged attacks have been a common method used by the US-backed opposition in order to push for regime change or attacks against Damascus.
These operations are commonly carried out in coordination with the White Helmets, a western-funded group posing as the Syrian Civil Defense.
The White Helmets – founded in 2014 by a former British intelligence officer – have taken part in street executions, have been spotted operating freely in ISIS-controlled territory, and have even been implicated in organ trafficking networks within Syria.
In April of 2018, Damascus was accused of a chemical attack against civilians in the city of Douma, resulting in illegal US military strikes against Syrian government positions. But just a year later, a report by MintPress News revealed that several journalists from a number of mainstream agencies had come to the conclusion that the Douma attack was staged with the help of the White Helmets.
Russian media also disclosed that year that the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) concealed the results of its own fact-finding mission that was deployed to Syria to investigate the purported attack in Douma. The report contained information that questioned the alleged attack, and was initially brought to light by an OPCW whistleblower.
In 2017, a deadly chemical attack in Idlib’s Khan Sheikhoun town was also blamed on the Syrian government. Resulting in at least 80 deaths, and taking place at a time when the Syrian army was in an offensive position and had liberated significant swathes of territory, experts suggested that Damascus had no motive in launching the attack.
“With their backs against the wall, they have next to no chance of opposing the regime militarily… such actions make it possible for anti-Assad groups to receive further support,” Günther Meyer, the director of the Research Center for the Arab World at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, said at the time.
Syria gave up all chemical weapons in 2013 and joined the Chemical Weapons Convention, after a sarin attack in the southwestern town of Ghouta left dozens dead. The attack was widely believed to be carried out by the Syrian government, who placed the blame on extremist opposition groups.
Coming one year after the announcement of former President Barrack Obama’s “Red Line” policy, which promised military action against Damascus in the event of a chemical attack, many believed that the opposition took advantage of this, carrying out the sarin attack and blaming it on Damascus.
In 2014, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh published an article citing documents from the US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), which claimed that the Nusra Front Al-Qaeda affiliate – the predecessor of HTS – was in possession of sarin gas at the time of the attack.
According to the Russian Reconciliation Center, HTS is not the only group with current plans to carry out false flag attacks.
On 18 September, Yegorov was quoted by Russian media as saying that the CIA-trained Maghawir al-Thawra (MaT) armed group is preparing to launch indiscriminate attacks on residential areas in order to pin them on the Syrian Arab Army (SAA).
Syrian and Russian armies carried out a retaliatory attack against the NATO/ Turkey-sponsored al Qaeda terrorists in Idlib countryside killing 93 of them including commanders and injuring 135 with serious wounds, both Syrian and Russian militaries stated.
The qualitative coordinated retaliatory bombing of al Qaeda (Nusra Front – Jabhat Al Nusra – al Qaeda Levant) training camp and underground facilities in the ‘Ashkhani Takhtani’ area between the towns of Murin and Kafr Jalis in the northwestern countryside of Idlib yesterday, 6 November morning, came after the NATO proxy terrorists launched a massive drone attack targeting the Syrian army’s positions and killing five Syrian soldiers violating the de-escalation agreement, aka Idlib agreement, signed by their political leader the Turkish madman Erdogan.
“As a result of the continuous violations of the de-escalation agreement in Idlib countryside and the repeated attacks by armed terrorist organizations on the safe areas and the sites of our armed forces, which recently led to the rise of a number of civilian and military martyrs, units of our valiant armed forces, in cooperation with the friendly Russian aerospace forces, carried out a qualitative operation targeting the command headquarters and training camps of these terrorist organizations.”
The Syrian military statement also spoke of the intensive monitoring of the targeted site before the Syrian Arab Army, SAA’s artillery delivered a salvo of its missiles on the site while the Russian Aerospace fighter jets were pummeling the sites from the sky.
Terrorists who fled the bombing were monitored and subsequent missile and air strikes destroyed the shelters they fled to leading to the elimination and wounding of a large number of terrorists, the military statement added and named among the eliminated terrorists: Abdel Moneim Muati (most likely Egyptian), Radwan Hussein Mihania, Abu Daoud Al-Filistini (Palestinian), Muhammad Ali Al-Quddour, Abu Hussein Raddad, Abu Hajar Al-Chadi (from Chad in Africa), Amr Abu Laith Al-Iskandarani (from Alexandria – Egypt), and Muhammad Suleiman Al-Ali.
On its part, the Russian Reconciliation Center in Hmeimim, Lattakia quoted its deputy chief Oleg Yegorov in a statement carried by the Russian news agency Tass:
“Syria’s missile and air forces delivered a strike at the facilities of the Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist group in response to a massive drone attack staged by terrorists on the positions of Syrian government troops near Salma in the Idlib de-escalation zone, which claimed the lives of five Syrian soldiers.”
The Russian statement detailed the facilities destroyed by the retaliation strike as: “a training camp, a drone workshop, a mobile radar station, and up to 40 ready-to-use combat drones,” and named al Qaeda field commanders so-called Saddam al-Dedali and Abdullah al-Ahmed among the eliminated terrorists in the strike.
Meanwhile, the al Qaeda propaganda arm, the so-called White Helmets issued a statement claiming instead that the target of the Syrian and Russian armies’ strike was a refugees camp in Idlib countryside, they showed a couple of destroyed shelters in their statement and alleged that those killed in the strikes were 9 civilians including 3 children and a woman in addition to injuring 70 others.
Usually, lying has a limited period of time, a limited time of repetitions by the liars before they render untrustworthy, and a scope for the lies, however, throughout our very long experience with western audiences, the consumers of propaganda circulated by western mainstream media and their proxies, the western public prove time and again they can be easily lied to no matter how absurd the lie is and how much blinding and deafening the truth exposing that lie is.
Yesterday’s bombing of al Qaeda’s quarters in Idlib countryside and the killing and wounding of 228 al Qaeda terrorists delivers an unmistakeable message to the Turkish madman Erdogan and his handlers, the best way for madman Erdogan is to withdraw his forces, the Turkish army, and the various al Qaeda and ISIS terrorists from northern Syria in implementation of the Idlib agreements he signed and was supposed to implement over 3 years ago.
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Syrian security units with the help of locals eliminated an ISIS terrorist group on the outskirts of Al Sadd Road in the city of Daraa in southern Syria, the security units seized a massive quantity of weapons and munitions from the dens the terrorists were hiding in.
The Syrian news agency Sana reported the qualitative operation quoting a security spokesperson who confirmed the killing of an unspecified number of ISIS (ISIL – Daesh) terrorists during severe clashes in the Al Sadd Road where the US-created, funded, armed, trained, and politically sponsored ISIS terrorists holed in houses and farms which they turned into fortresses.
Local sources reported hearing heavy clashes from the early hours of dawn of today Monday, 31st October, in the area in the south of the city of Daraa, and the clashes continued to the time of this report.
The local sources added that dozens of former fighters in the NATO-sponsored ISIS terrorists joined the security agencies within the ranks of the Eighth Brigade of the Fifth Corp of the Syrian Arab Army in protecting their city against the ISIS terrorists.
The Fifth Corps comprises mainly former fighters who were either forced to join some of the many terrorist groups of the so-called FSA, an umbrella for a variety of Al Qaeda-affiliated terrorists dubbed by NATO officials and Pentagon stenographs as Moderate Rebels. Other fighters were subjected to heavy propaganda that brainwashed them and thought that betraying their country for foreign powers, killing their own brethren, and destroying their own cities and towns is a patriotic act.
After the liberation of Daraa province from the NATO-sponsored Al Qaeda and ISIS terrorists, the vast majority of the fighters joined the reconciliation process, dropped their weapons, and either returned to their normal lives or joined the Fifth Corps to fight the real terrorists.
The latest escalation comes after an ISIS terrorist blew himself up in the Arba’een neighborhood in Daraa Balad in a house on the 28th of the month killing four civilians and injuring others.
The United States of America’s war ministry, the Pentagon vowed to revive ISIS terrorist groups in late September 2019 after the backbone of the terrorist organization was defeated in both Syria and Iraq, one of the early steps the USA took was committing the unprecedented war crime of killing Iranian General Qassim Soleimani and Iraqi PMU Deputy Leader Abu Mahdi Al Muhandis at Baghdad Airport on the 3rd of January 2020. Both commanders were instrumental in combating ISIS in the region.
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You can also donate with Cryptocurrencies through our donate page. Thank you in advance.
Israel’s Mossad is increasingly turning to social media in order to recruit agents to gather intelligence on Syria, a crucial hub in the Axis of Resistance
The war raging between Israel and Iran is not as inconspicuous as it may seem. It is taking place on a wide front that not only includes Iran, but also Turkey, Iraqi Kurdistan and other regional states.
Syria, however, remains the main battlefield in this war, given the fact that it represents the vital geographical artery between Iran and the Lebanese resistance Hezbollah, through which arms, food, fuel, and other commodities flow.
Tel Aviv routinely bombs airports in Damascus and Aleppo when allegedly Iranian planes carrying members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) arrive or depart.
Israel also claims to target missile shipments on route to the resistance in Lebanon, but per their unofficial rules of engagement, they avoid causing resistance casualties. This is in compliance with the red line drawn by Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, who has vowed to retaliate in kind if Hezbollah members are killed.
As a result, Israel’s current modus operandi is to launch warning missiles near trucks carrying weapons, bombing them only after the drivers leave their vehicles.
Online operatives
The acts of aggression don’t just end there: another obscure war of espionage and counter-espionage hums constantly in the background. The prevalence of Israeli spy networks operating in Syria is certainly not a recent development. Recall Eli Cohen, the Mossad agent who penetrated senior Syrian circles in the 1960s, for which he was captured and hung with great fanfare in a public Damascus square.
Today, however, the use of social media has made recruiting far easier and more difficult for states to detect.
Israel employs social media networks to covertly penetrate Lebanon and Syria for the purpose of recruiting spies and informants – with a particular emphasis on infiltrating the Syrian Arab Army (SAA).
The most recent Israeli security operation to be foiled was the recruitment of a Sweden-based Syrian doctor and his two brothers – both officers in the Syrian army – to work for Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad.
One of the two brothers, who held a brigadier general rank, worked in the SAA’s Surveying and Topography Department, and was assigned to provide the Mossad with maps of the city of Damascus and its surroundings, including details of roads, highways, and bridges.
This particular espionage operation was uncovered by Lebanese security services, who managed to follow online accounts allegedly used by Mossad officers to recruit previously arrested agents. Investigations revealed a connection between these accounts and a person close to Beirut International Airport, using Syrian and Swedish phone numbers between 2020 and 2022.
Following the probe, it was discovered that these numbers belonged to Syrian doctor Moeen Youssef, who resides in Sweden and had previously travelled to Syria via Lebanon. He heads the nephrology department at a Stockholm hospital for a monthly salary of $7,300.
The security services arrested Youssef at Beirut International Airport last August on charges of working for the Mossad. During his interrogation, he informed investigators that an individual named “Christopher” contacted him via e-mail in 2018, claiming to work for environment and water purification companies, and offered to help him implement a free water purification project in Syria.
After communicating directly by phone, they met about a month later at the Sheraton Hotel in Stockholm, allegedly to discuss the water project. At that time, the doctor recommended that “Christopher” work with his two brothers inside Syria, Louay and Mazen.
Groomed by Mossad
Louay is a retired colonel in the Syrian army and Mazen was the brigadier general serving in the Topographical Engineering Department who retired early this year. His brother’s wife, a civil engineer working in the Damascus municipality, appears to have also been part of the project.
For two years, the Israelis worked to gain the trust of the Syrian doctor, before revealing their identity. During this span, several meetings were held with him in Sweden, Switzerland, Italy and the Czech Republic. The “company” even covered his travel expenses for these encounters.
At the last meeting in Switzerland, in August 2020, Youssef was asked to obtain a map that revealed the distribution of Syria’s water network over the entirety of its territory. He was paid 2,500 euros to purchase a cell phone with a Swedish chip and a laptop with encryption software for sending maps/documents, to lease an office in Syria run by his brother, and to buy a ticket to Beirut via Rome.
Youssef was also told to activate the WhatsApp application on the Swedish mobile line for communicating with his brother Mazen, and was trained to take security precautions to protect them both – under the pretext that his brother would not be exposed because he would be the recipient of confidential documents.
During interrogation, Youssef confessed that at that point, he realized he was communicating with an Israeli Mossad officer. Upon his return to Syria, he informed his father and two brothers, Louay and Mazen, of his suspicions. He added, “A discussion took place between us and we decided to continue communicating with him.”
Even the army has been compromised
Youssef admitted that he transferred sums of money in stages to his two brothers and father, in addition to modest gifts, and was also promised finances for a cement factory owned by his father.
After his arrest in Beirut, Syrian intelligence arrested four officers in the Syrian army and a large number of soldiers suspected of ties with the Israeli enemy. Yousef’s father, Omar, appeared in a recorded video where he repudiated the “heinous accusation.” After all. dealing with the Israeli enemy is a crime of high treason in Syria, punishable by death.
Lebanese security sources informed The Cradle that Hezbollah’s security apparatus provided logistical assistance to Syrian intelligence in pursuing these local agents. Hebrew websites published news of the subsequent arrests, naming officers from the SAA’s air force and military units in Tartus, and claiming that members of Hezbollah interrogated the detainees.
Modern recruitment methods
Investigations conducted by the Lebanese security services have revealed a new method of operation for the Mossad. Previously, spies were recruited through deception by women – “honeytraps,” as the practice is popularly known – or through extortion, after obtaining personal information about local targets.
Today, the Mossad casts a wider, less discerning net: most of the recent recruitments have taken place via social media platforms, where money acts as the primary incentive for a large number of collaborators living in financially distressed countries. This indiscriminate method also exposes Israeli intel to the intelligence agencies of targeted states more readily, as recruits could easily act as double agents for those same incentives.
One peculiar instance of an attempt to recruit a Hezbollah official was through a delivery service employee. A woman called a delivery business and offered $100 for its employee to purchase a book from a Beirut bookshop and deliver it by hand to an address in Bir al-Abed, a mostly pro-Hezbollah area in the city’s southern suburbs
The woman asked the deliveryman to place inside the book a letter she emailed that included the phrase “contact us,” with a phone number and an e-mail connected to the Mossad. She also asked him to photograph the building to make sure it was the correct address.
As it turned out, the intended person was not at home, so the courier delivered the book to his wife instead. After reviewing surveillance footage, the Lebanese General Security Service arrested the young man, who confirmed that the woman who asked him to deliver the book was Russian and that she had spoken to him in Modern Standard Arabic. At the time of writing, the courier is still under arrest pending further investigation.
The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of The Cradle.
The resumption of ties between Hamas and Syria is a symbolic victory for the resistance, as relations were strained for years following the start of the war
GAZA CITY, THE GAZA STRIP, PALESTINE – 2018/12/16: A masked Palestinian seen holding a flag during the rally.
Palestinians take part in a rally marking the 31st anniversary of Hamas’ founding, in Gaza City. (Photo by Mahmoud Issa/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
On 20 October, the US denounced and warned against the current reconciliation process between Syria and Palestinian resistance movement Hamas, stating that the group’s communication with Damascus will reinforce its “isolation” and undermine the interests of Palestinians.
“The Assad regime’s outreach to this terrorist organization only reinforces for us its isolation,” State Department spokesman, Ned Price, told media.
“It harms the interests of the Palestinian people and it undercuts global efforts to counterterrorism in the region and beyond,” he said, adding that Washington will “continue rejecting any support to rehabilitate the Assad regime, particularly from designated terrorist organizations like Hamas.”
Relations between Damascus and the Palestinian resistance group took a sour turn in 2012, a year after the start of the US-backed war in Syria, when Hamas publicly denounced the Syrian government and announced its solidarity with the opposition that had by that time already become aligned with extremist elements.
In 2013, Hamas operatives fought alongside the Free Syrian Army (FSA) factions and Jabhat al-Nusra against Hezbollah and the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) during the battle of al-Qusayr, in western Syria near the Lebanese border.
The ties between Hamas and the axis of resistance were strained for years after the group’s involvement in the Syrian war. Regardless of this, Hezbollah never condemned Hamas for what was seen by many as a huge betrayal, and in 2013 held meetings with the group’s representatives in a bid to ease tensions.
In recent years, Hamas made a number of attempts to resume ties with the Syrian government, despite the non-compliance of Damascus. On 25 July, however, Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah revealed to Al-Mayadeen his personal interest in bringing the two together.
Relations between Hezbollah and Hamas had already thawed at this point, especially in light of the high-level coordination which took place between the two groups during the 2021 Sayf al-Quds battle fought between the Palestinian resistance factions and Israel.
In June of this year, a Hamas delegation reportedly visited Syria and met with officials in a bid to rebuild their relationship.
On 15 September, Hamas disclosed in a press statement that it has officially resumed its relations with Syria after ten years of tension. A month later, President Bashar al-Assad received a Hamas delegation and held a “warm” meeting in Damascus.
“The meeting with Assad is a glorious day, and from now on, we will resume our presence in Damascus to work alongside the Syrian people to regain the country’s stability,” the group’s deputy leader, Khalil al-Hayya said at the time, denouncing all aggression and threats against the country’s territorial integrity.
The reconciliation between Hamas and Syria signifies the return of Damascus into the regional fold, and is expected to be met with further criticism and rejection by Washington and its allies, particularly Israel.
On October 10, a US-led coalition drone strike killed an IS terrorist in northeastern Syria. The terrorist was riding a motorcycle in a village occupied by Radical Islamic mercenaries employed by Turkey near Tel Albyat.
Since the defeat of ISIS in Syria in 2019, the terrorist group now referred to as IS has some sleeper cells in the desert, and is especially prevalent in Idlib, which is protected by Turkey, and supplied with humanitarian aid by the United Nations.
IS terrorists killed in Syria by the US
On October 6, the US Central Command (CENTCOM) issued a statement saying that US helicopters descended on Muluk Saray village in Hassakeh province, near Qamishli, and deployed US commandos who killed a member of IS and wounded and captured others. Rakkan Wahid Al-Shammri, an IS official known to facilitate the smuggling of weapons and fighters, were killed and one of his associates was wounded and two others were detained by US forces. The two men taken into custody are an Iraqi national and a commander of a “military security faction”. The area is partly held by the Syrian Arab Army, and the US-partnered Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). According to residents, three US helicopters carrying troops landed in the village after midnight and told residents by loudspeaker to stay indoors and keep their lights off with the operation lasting several hours.
Also on October 6, the US military launched a precision airstrike just after 6 p.m. local time in northern Syria, killing two more high-ranking IS officials. CENTCOM said the strike killed Abu ‘Ala, described as one of the terror group’s “top five,” who served as the deputy leader of IS in Syria. A second IS official, Abu Mu’Ad Al-Qahtani, said to be responsible for prisoner affairs, was also killed.
In June, US forces captured an IS bomb-maker in an Aleppo area village controlled by Turkish-backed terrorists, the same group that is in Idlib.
Also in June, US forces captured Hani Ahmed Al-Kurdi, described as an IS senior leader, during a helicopter raid in Jarablus, in northwestern Syria, not far from Idlib.
On July 12, the US said a drone strike near Jindayris, in northwestern Syria, had killed another “top five” IS leader, Maher Al-Agal, described as the terror group’s top Syrian official.
In October 2019, Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, the head of ISIS was killed by a special US military operation ordered by President Trump. Baghdadi was also killed in Idlib, in the village of Barisha on the Turkish border. Both of the top IS leaders sought shelter in the northern province of Idlib, controlled by Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), the former Al Qaeda affiliate in Syria.
Who controls Idlib?
The US has provided $1.5 billion in humanitarian assistance in Syria in 2022 alone, but that aid is strictly within those areas occupied by terrorists, such as Idlib, and some aid going to the SDF. Syria is a big country, and 96% of the residents have never received even a loaf of bread from the US because the vast majority of the Syrian territory is under the administration of the central government in Damascus.
James Jeffrey, a special envoy for Syria under former US President Trump, saw HTS as an asset. Jeffrey told PBS in an interview that while the group would remain listed as a terrorist organization, it was not on the United States’ target list. This statement serves as evidence of the double standards the US uses when dealing with, and utilizing terrorists as an American tool.
Aaron Stein, director of research at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, said “I think the general assessment is HTS is made up of jihadists that have American blood on their hands.”
Daniel Milton, director of research at the Combating Terrorism Center at the US Military Academy, said the fact that two IS leaders had been hiding out in Idlib “ought to cause us to reassess how we are thinking about the relationships between these [HTS, al Qaeda, and Islamic State] groups.”
The US policy has been to facilitate the provision of humanitarian aid to 3 million Syrians under HTS occupation in Idlib while letting Turkey manage all sorts of terrorist groups.
Turkey coordinates and cooperates with HTS, and is not targeting either al Qaeda or IS, and experts feel that there is no solution to Idlib but to eliminate all the terrorists. However, the US is opposed to any military action to liberate Idlib from terrorist control.
The Kurds and Al-Hol prison
Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are military allies of the US in northeastern Syria. The SDF administers a displaced-persons camp and the attached Al-Hol prison holding IS terrorists. In January 2022, IS attacked the Al-Hol prison to free jailed comrades, leading to a 10-day battle with the SDF that left some 500 dead.
Saleh Moslem, a politician from the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, spoke to Foreign Policy and said that according to the SDF most of the hundreds of fighters from the group who recently attacked Al-Hol prison crossed over from HTS-controlled Idlib to free their fellow terrorists. “HTS is the remains of ISIS,” said Moslem.
The SDF and Turkey are enemies; however, the US-sponsored SDF fought and died in the battles to defeat ISIS. Turkey supports and protects HTS in Idlib, which follows the same ideology and agenda as IS. “HTS should be dismantled,” said Moslem, and added, “The US forces should target HTS too.”
What should be done?
The Biden administration should develop a plan with Turkey and Russia to bring Idlib under the control of the Syrian government. The US support and protection of terrorists should stop. The US-NATO attack on Syria for regime change, which began in 2011, has failed. It is time to allow the Syrian people to rebuild their lives free of protected terrorist enclaves.
Steven Sahiounie is a Syrian-American journalist; political commentator; chief editor of MidEastDiscourse News
Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham expands its control in the Olive Branch area at the expense of the armed factions affiliated with Turkey
UPROOTED PALESTINIANS: SALAM ALQUDS ALAYKUM 