It reenforces to Assad how much he needs Russia to stay in power and also helps drive up the price of Russia’s main export(oil, not mail order brides).
I’m sure in return Bibi wets the beak with US secrets/intelligence also. Israel has been backdoor selling US weapons/secrets to China alone for 30+ years now
2013: https://www.military.com/defensetec...srael-passes-u-s-military-technology-to-china 1993: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/israel-accused-of-selling-us-secrets-to-china-1510406.html
This short clip (it's fast forwarded) sums up these morons well "we don't know if these prophecies will happen in our lifetime but they could, because they haven't happened yet"
Seems crazy that Bahrain would openly support Israel here, particularly when it comes to defending the Golan Heights, but that's the Middle East in 2018.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/09/world/middleeast/iraq-isis-islamic-state-arrest.html BAGHDAD — Five senior Islamic State officials have been captured, including a top aide to the group’s leader, in a complex cross-border sting carried out by Iraqi and American intelligence, two Iraqi officials said Wednesday. The three-month operation, which tracked a group of senior Islamic State leaders who had been hiding in Syria and Turkey, represents a significant intelligence victory for the American-led coalition fighting the extremist group and underscores the strengthening relationship between Washington and Baghdad. Two Iraqi intelligence officials said those captured included four Iraqis and one Syrian whose responsibilities included governing the Islamic State’s territory around Deir al-Zour, Syria, directing internal security and running the administrative body that oversees religious rulings.
part of Assad's interview with a Greek newspaper, full transcript is in the second link https://sana.sy/en/?p=137019
I admit I haven't followed politics in Iraq since I was out of school (~2012) but I feel like the idea of al-Sadr having this sort of political presence in 2018 would have been considered joke in bad taste, or at the very least a bad joke
That a large number of Palestinians are dead at the hands of the IDF is not propaganda and is fairly relevant to this thread. The propaganda part is where Hamas intentionally orchestrated this for propaganda purposes. They basically sent a bunch of people to try to breach the Israel-Gaza border knowing that Israel would have no choice but to shoot them and that they'd subsequently be able to use any deaths for propaganda purposes with claims that Israel was massacring unarmed protestors.
Good article on Syrians fleeing the country or hiding to escape conscription. It's not as dire as before due to the decrease in the number of fronts and the thousands of soldiers who were freed up after Ghouta was captured. https://www.theatlantic.com/interna...a-assad-conscription-refugees-lebanon/560282/
Daraa (where the Syrian conflict started) will be the target for the next regime offensive starting soon
U.S. warns Syria of 'firm' measures for ceasefire violations https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...asures-for-ceasefire-violations-idUSKCN1IR03V Spoiler WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States warned Syria on Friday it would take “firm and appropriate measures” in response to ceasefire violations, saying it was concerned about reports of an impending military operation in a de-escalation zone in the country’s southwest. FILE PHOTO: Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as seen in Damascus, Syria November 14, 2017. SANA/Handout via REUTERS Washington also cautioned Syrian President Bashar al-Assad against broadening the conflict. “As a guarantor of this de-escalation area with Russia and Jordan, the United States will take firm and appropriate measures in response to Assad regime violations,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said in a statement late on Friday. A war monitor, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, reported on Wednesday that Syrian government forces fresh from their victory this week against an Islamic State pocket in south Damascus were moving into the southern province of Deraa. Syrian state-run media have reported that government aircraft have dropped leaflets on rebel-held areas in Deraa urging fighters to disarm. The U.S. warning comes weeks after a similar attack on a de-escalation zone in northeastern Syria held by U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces. U.S. ground and air forces repelled the more than four-hour attack, killing perhaps as many as 300 pro-Assad militia members, many of them Russian mercenaries. Backed by Russian warplanes, ground forces from Iran and allied militia, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah, have helped Assad drive rebels from Syria’s biggest cities, putting him in an unassailable military position. They have recaptured all remaining insurgent areas near Damascus in recent weeks, including the densely populated eastern Ghouta area, as well as big enclaves in central Syria. The government is now in its strongest position since the early months of the war in 2011, although still a long way from achieving Assad’s aim of reasserting sway over all of Syria. Anti-Assad rebels still control two large contiguous areas of territory in the northwest and southwest. Kurdish and allied Arab militia backed by the United States hold the quarter of Syria east of the Euphrates. Trump's summit exit may strain China ties The government’s gains have brought it to a point where any new military campaign risks putting it in conflict with foreign powers.
I phrased it that was because I was wondering if Jax Teller thinks the infant was murdered in cold blood, as was initially suggested by a number of outlets. Otherwise I'm not sure what the relevance of the post is. Frequently in this conflict, Western media takes some crazy story that makes Israel look bad, usually from a Hamas-affiliated source, and without doing any verification reports it as fact. In this case, the story then became that the child died from inhaling tear gas. And subsequently even the Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas, walked back that story after a Gazan doctor told the AP that the child had a pre-existing condition and did not believe the child died from inhaling tear gas. The Gaza Health Ministry now has taken her off of their list of "martyrs". But by that time, the narrative that Israel had murdered an infant was already out there.
The point stands. It’s gross. Actually, your block of text here makes it even more gross. Fuck you and people who share your mindset.
Things are starting to pop off between Hamas and Israel. Hamas is firing rockets into Israel, while Israeli jets are bombing Gaza. Red alert sirens are going off in Israel pretty much non stop now
Hamas mortar hit an Israeli kindergarten earlier. Ofer Zalzberg is right; the status quo in Gaza is just kicking the can down the road politically, a Bibi specialty:
SAA preparing for operation in Southern Syria without Iranian help per agreement between Israel and Russia, wouldn't have been possible without the regime controlling all of Damascus which freed up thousands of soldiers
siap Assad tells US to leave Syria Spoiler By Tamara Qiblawi and Mohammed Tawfeeq, CNN Updated 1001 GMT (1801 HKT) May 31, 2018 In a picture released on January 20, 2014, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad gives an interview to AFP at the presidential palace in Damascus on the weekend. (CNN)Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said the United States has "lost its cards" in Syria, calling on America to leave the country in an interview with Russia Today. "The Americans should leave. Somehow, they're going to leave. They came to Iraq with no legal basis, and look what happened to them. They have to learn their lesson. Iraq is no exception. Syria is no exception. People will not accept foreigners in this region any more," Assad said. The Syrian president said his government had "opened doors to negotiation" with US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a predominantly Kurdish group that controls parts of northern Syria. The SDF, which Assad dubbed the "only problem left in Syria," would be confronted with force if negotiations fail, the president said. Assad has been battling rebels opposed to his rule since a popular uprising seven years ago plunged the country into civil war. Government forces lost large swaths of territory, but Russian intervention on behalf of Assad in 2015 helped turn the tide of the war in his favor. Iran and Israel draw closer to war than ever This month, government forces pushed all rebels out of the Syrian capital of Damascus, marking a major turning point in the war. But Russia's intervention turned Syria into a powder keg for world powers. In the interview with RT, Assad said Russia and the US came close to a confrontation in Syria. "We were close to have direct conflict between the Russian forces and the American forces," Assad said. "Fortunately, it has been avoided, not by the wisdom of the American leadership, but by the wisdom of the Russian leadership," he added. Months after an alleged chemical attack by government forces prompted US President Donald Trump to call the Syrian president "Animal Assad" in a tweet, Assad said he had no nickname for Trump. "This is not my language, so, I cannot use similar language. This is his language. It represents him," Assad said. "Somebody like Trump will move nothing for me," he added. In April, the US, UK and France conducted joint airstrikes in Syria in response to reports of a chemical attack in the Syrian town of Douma in which dozens of people died, according to rescue workers.
Assad will negotiate with the Kurds and we'll likely withdraw once that's done. He's way too weak to really go after them and it's so far away from Russia's main interests that they likely wouldn't support it.
What do you see the negotiations with the Kurds looking like? And what kind of say or impact do you think Turkey will have on that?
Just speculating but I think a possible scenario is the Kurds having more autonomy and possibly a cut of Syrian oil revenue in exchange for handing over the oil fields they have to the regime. Turkey's proxy forces can't control the whole border so not much they can do except complain.