Russian politicians meet with al-Assad in Syria as OPCW probe gets set to start

April 15, 2018 By administrator

OPCW probe gets set to start

Visiting Russian politicians shared Syrian President al-Assad’s view that the recent airstrikes had been an act of aggression. Chemical weapons investigators are set to begin probing the alleged gas attacks in Douma.

Russian politicians met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday, one day after joint airstrikes by the US, UK and France targeted centers related to suspected chemical weapons use by the Syrian government. Russia, an ally of al-Assad, condemned the strikes.

Al-Assad praised the Soviet era-air defense system that Syria had reportedly used to shoot down around 70 of the 100 missiles fired during the strikes, Russian news agencies said. He also described the airstrikes as an act of Western aggression, a view which the visiting lawmakers shared.

“From the point of view of the president, this was aggression and we share this position,” Russian lawmaker Sergei Zheleznyak said after his meeting with al-Assad, according to Russia’s TASS news agency.

The visiting Russians described al-Assad as in a “good mood.” The Syrian president also reportedly accepted an invitation to visit Siberia, though it was not clear when the visit would take place.

On Saturday, a draft resolution brought by Russia before the UN Security Council condemning the air attacks failed to pass.

OPCW work in Douma gets underway

The politicians’ visit came as the Agence France-Presse news agency reported that inspectors from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) were set to start their fact-finding mission on whether the chemical weapons of chlorine and sarin gas had been used against civilians in an April 7 attack in the town of Douma.

Assad: Reconstruction of Syria will cost $400bn and will take 15 years

April 15, 2018 By administrator

Assad: Reconstruction of Syria

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday revealed his country’s need for $ 400 billion for the reconstruction of infrastructure, stressing that the reconstruction process could take 10 to 15 years Nenosplace.forumotion.com reports.

“Repatriation of the infrastructure will cost at least $ 400 billion, and this needs 10 to 15 years,” the Russian news agency Sputnik quotes Assad as saying during a meeting with Russian parliamentarians.

On Sunday, Assad met with a group of Russian parliamentarians, including a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Duma, Sergei Glyzinak.

“The meeting of Russian parliamentarians with President al-Assad was constructive and important on both sides,” he said.

At the time of the Syrian Army General Command announced that the triple strike included the launch of about 110 rockets towards Syrian targets in Damascus and outside, and that the Syrian air defense system confronted and dropped most of it.

US, UK, France launch strikes on Syrian UK Fabricated chemical weapons capabilities

April 14, 2018 By administrator

In retaliation for a chemical weapons attack in Douma, US President Donald Trump has said the US military launched strikes on Syrian chemical weapons capabilities. Russia has warned of “consequences” for the strikes. but did nothing to stop it.

The US, UK and France have launched precision airstrikes on military and chemical research sites in Syria in retaliation for the Syrian government’s alleged use of chemical weapons on civilians last week.
Both the Syrian government and its ally Russia have condemned the attack as a violation of international law.
The US has said that any future strikes would depend on whether or not further chemical attacks are carried out but that the country does not seek an “indefinite presence” in Syria.

President Donald Trump announced on Friday that the United States, United Kingdom and France had launched precision strikes on Syrian military sites believed to be housing chemical weapons facilities following last week’s chemical weapons attack in Douma, which the US said was carried out by Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces.

“The evil and the despicable attack left mothers and fathers, infants and children thrashing in pain and gasping for air,” Trump said of the attack. “These are not the actions of a man. They are crimes of a monster instead.”

Assad say military attacks will fail to weaken Syrian resolve in anti-terror fight

April 14, 2018 By administrator

President Bashar al-Assad says the missile strikes by the US, the UK, and France will only strengthen Syria’s resolve to keep its fight against terror groups and “crush terrorism in every inch of the nation.”

The Syrian leader made the comments in a phone conversation on Saturday with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, his office said.

Rouhani, in turn, told Assad that Iran would continue to stand by Syria, expressing his confidence that this aggression would not weaken the determination of the Syrian people in its war against terrorism.”

In the early hours of Saturday, the three Western states launched a barrage of missile attacks against Syria in response to what they claim to be a chemical attack in the town by Damascus on April 7. Syria has no chemical arsenal and has rejected any role in the suspected gas attack.

Syrian air defenses, however, responded firmly, shooting down most of the missiles fired at the country.

Army goes ahead with operations

As the situation in Damascus and other towns and cities returned to normal, Syrian forces went ahead with their anti-terrorism campaign.

Syrian soldiers entered the Eastern Ghouta town of Douma for clean-up operations days after they fully retook the entire suburban area near Damascus from foreign-backed militants.

The German stance on Syria: Ready to help, but not militarily

April 12, 2018 By administrator

Chancellor Angela Merkel has shed some light on Germany’s position as tensions flare in Syria. She said Germany stood ready to assist its allies, but that Germany’s military would not be involved.

Angela Merkel twice stated that Germany’s military “will not participate in possible military actions” in Syria during a press conference on Thursday, but stressed that Berlin supported the need to “send a clear signal that the use of chemical weapons” is unacceptable.

“Just doing nothing at all is also difficult,” the chancellor said, adding that if the US, UK and France were to take military action, Germany would seek non-military ways to help.

Merkel also criticized Russia, albeit gently, saying that Moscow blocking a full OPCW investigation into the alleged Syrian chemical weapons attack “does not cast Russia in a positive light.”

The chancellor’s comments followed a bilateral meeting with her Danish counterpart Lars Lokke Rasmussen, who said that Denmark’s stance on the issue was comparable with its neighbor to the south.

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said earlier on Thursday that neither France nor the US had yet asked Germany for any assistance in Syria.

“But if we want to maintain the pressure on Russia, then Western partners cannot start going their separate ways,” Maas said.

Transatlantic communication ‘a development that concerns us’

Twice, Merkel was also asked about the language of US President Donald Trump’s tweets, and whether these made diplomacy more difficult. She sidestepped the question in both instances.

But Germany’s new government coordinator for Transatlantic relations, Peter Beyer, told DW that Trump’s unusual style of presidential communication posed “new challenges” for Germany.

“First of all, the United States remain the most important partner of Germany and Europe as a whole on a global scale,” Beyer said. “On the other hand, we see in the past a development that concerns us, that brings a change to how we communicate across the Atlantic as compared to former times. So we’re facing new challenges.”

Beyer described military intervention in Syria as the “ultima ratio,” but said that the “barbaric, inhumane” gas attacks in Douma “need an answer.”

White House steps back, saying all options on table and nothing decided

Trump on Thursday rowed back somewhat from Wednesday’s explosive tweet telling Russia to “get ready” for “nice and new and ‘smart'” missiles.

“Never said when an attack on Syria would take place,” Trump said. “Could be very soon or not so soon at all!”

Trump: US will withdraw from Syria ‘very soon’

March 30, 2018 By administrator

US will withdraw from Syria

US President Donald Trump said Thursday that the US would “be coming out of Syria like very soon,” just hours after the Pentagon highlighted the need for US troops to remain in the country for the immediate future, the CNN reports.“We’re knocking the hell out of ISIS. We’ll be coming out of Syria like very soon. Let the other people take care of it now,” Trump told supporters at an Ohio event on infrastructure.”We are going to have 100% of the caliphate, as they call it, sometimes referred to as land … But we are going to be coming out of there real soon. We are going to get back to our country, where we belong, where we want to be,” Trump added.

One US defense official directly familiar with the ISIS campaign said it is unclear what the President meant by the comments.

The military’s current assessment is that now is not the time to consider withdrawal, citing numerous challenges in Syria.

The official pointed to several challenges, including figuring out what to do with the some 400 foreign ISIS fighters currently being held by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces as one example of the obstacles to a US withdrawal.

The official also noted that the US still needed to decide on a policy with regard to the future of Syrian President Bashar al Assad and Russia’s continued military presence in the county as additional complicating factors.

Senior administration officials have been discussing for some time the way ahead in Syria and what conditions would need to be met to permit a US withdrawal, the official said, but added that while Trump could decide at any time to pull out, military commanders were not recommending that course of action at this time.

A second defense official told CNN earlier that senior officials have had meetings to discuss the US role in Syria and the challenges facing US policy there.

Trump’s remarks on pulling out of Syria were made just hours after Chief Pentagon spokesperson Dana White told reporters that “important work remains to guarantee the lasting defeat of these violent extremists” in the country.

Despite Trump’s focus on the terror group’s dwindling control of territory, White said the military was focused on more than just ISIS-controlled areas, saying “our commitment to win must outlast the so-called physical caliphate, and the warped ideas that guide the calculated cruelty of ISIS.”

“We must not relent on ISIS or permit these terrorists to recover from their battlefield loses,” she said, noting that the group still poses a threat.

And while Trump said the US would soon have total victory over ISIS, US defense officials have recently publicly acknowledged that progress against ISIS has been largely halted due to Turkey’s recent military incursion into Afrin, Syria, an operation that has caused US-backed Kurdish fighters to divert from the ISIS fight.

“The Turkish actions in northern Syria — let me be specific here — Afrin area have distracted the (Syrian Democratic Forces) from the fight going against the remnants of ISIS,” Secretary of Defense James Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon Tuesday.

“We are no longer in an offensive effort on the ground against them as this has drawn off the attention,” Mattis added.

Asked about Trump’s comments, State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert said that she had not seen the comments but was not aware of any plan for the US to pull out.

“As a general matter, this administration looks to other countries to help out,” Nauert said.

The President’s apparent desire to exit Syria as soon as possible is likely to raise concerns among US allies in the region, particularly the Syrian Democratic Forces, and could embolden the forces of the Syrian regime, Iran, and Turkey, all of whom have mostly resisted attacking US allies in Syria due to concerns about US retaliation.

Russian airstrikes hammer militant positions in Idlib

March 29, 2018 By administrator

Russian Aerospace Forces

For the third straight day in a row, the Russian Aerospace Forces have conducted airstrikes over the northern province of Idlib, Al-Masdar News reports.

Russian jets flying out of the Hmaymim Military Airport in southwest Latakia reportedly carried out a dozen airstrikes over the southern countryside of the Idlib Governorate, a source in Damascus told Al-Masdar News this morning.

The source added that airstrikes reportedly targeted the positions of Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham near the key town of Khan Sheikhoun in southern Idlib.

Over the last 72 hours, the Russian Aerospace Forces have conducted at least 50 airstrikes over the Idlib Governorate, with most of the strikes focusing on the defenses of Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham.

Turkish Invasion displaces 167,000 in Syria’s Afrin: UN

March 24, 2018 By administrator

People walk near a damaged car in Syria’s northwestern city of Afrin on March 22, 2018. (Reuters photo)

The UN has warned that 167,000 people have been displaced in Syria’s northwestern Kurdish region of Afrin since Turkey launched its offensive against the enclave.

On Friday, the UN warned that the new massive influx of refugees is posing health risks to the host communities in the surrounding area and villages.

The vast majority of refugees have fled from Afrin to the towns of Tal Rifaat, Nubul and Zahraa.

According to the UN children’s fund, UNICEF, nearly 100,000 still remain in Afrin region, nearly 50,000 to 70,000 of whom are in the city of Afrin, the main population center of the region.

In Nubul and Zahraa, people are sheltered in collective shelters in schools, mosques or stables with the lowest level of access to health services, UNICEF said.

The nearest medical facility is an insufficiently equipped field hospital three kilometers away. Those who need to go to a hospital in Aleppo, nearly 25 kilometers away, need to obtain special authorization.

Destruction of world heritage sites

On Thursday, Syria’s antiquities department said Turkish airstrikes against the area have damaged the ancient Christian heritage site of Brad south of Afrin.

The UNESCO world heritage site includes many Byzantine churches and monasteries as well as tombs dating back to the Roman period.

The airstrikes have destroyed many important archaeological sites, including the tomb of Saint Maron of the Maronite community, which is considered as one of the most beautiful pages of the history of Christianity, as well as the 4th century Julianus Church, which is one of the oldest Christian churches in the world, the head of Syria’s antiquities department, Mahmoud Hamoud, noted.

The Syrian official had earlier voiced concern over the fate of 40 ancient villages in the Afrin region, which UNESCO calls “Ancient Villages.”

Turkey and its allied militants with the Free Syrian Army (FSA) launched the so-called “Operation Olive Branch” against the nearby Syrian region of Afrin on January 20.

The offensive came after the United States said it sought to create a 30,000-strong force near the Turkish border in Syria with the help of the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militant group, which is mainly comprised of Kurdish forces of Peoples’ Protection Units (YPG).

Later, Turkey threatened to move as far as Manbij, where American forces are also present, adding that Ankara would monitor the return of weapons given to the YPG by the United States.

The US’ arms and training support for the YPG, whom Turkey ties to the anti-Ankara Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) separatist group, has long been a bone of contention between the two sides.

The Syrian government has already condemned the Turkish offensive against Afrin as an act of aggression. Nearly 300 civilians have lost their lives since the offensive began, according to the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).

Turkish Syria Invasion force shell Afrin, try to enter town from north: Reports

March 16, 2018 By administrator

Turkish-backed terrorist are seen in the town of Jandairis in the northern Syrian region of Afrin,

Turkish shelling and airstrikes have reportedly killed at least 20 people in Syria’s Afrin as its forces warn the Kurdish militants there to surrender amid their push to make their way into the northern town.

Redur Khalil, a spokesman for the Kurdish militants said said 30 people have been wounded as Turkish forces shelled the Ashrafieh neighborhood of the town on Friday.

“They are shelling in order to storm” the Afrin town from its north, Brusk Hasakeh, a spokesman for the Kurdish militants, known as the People’s Protection Units (YPG).

The Turkish military also warned residents to stay away from “terrorist positions.”

It dropped leaflets on the town that urged the militants to lay down arms, reading, “Come surrender! A calm and peaceful future awaits you in Afrin.”

Turkey has been attacking Afrin since January in an attempt to clear Syria’s northern region of the Kurdish militants that it views as terrorists and linked to the homegrown Kurdistan Workers’ Party.

Syria regards the offensive as an act of aggression and has sent reinforcements to the region to defend its population.

Hasakeh said the YPG and its all-female affiliate, the YPJ, are engaged in battles with the Turkish forces and their allied militants.

Meanwhile, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said hundreds of families had fled Afrin towards nearby villages, which are held by Damascus-allied forces, overnight.

It said the families left the region in buses and cars towards the Shia villages of Nubl and al-Zahra.

On Thursday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed that Turkish troops would continue the operation until the mission was completed.

“Don’t get your hopes up. We will only leave Afrin once our work is done,” he said.

UN human rights chief paints bleak picture of violations around the globe

March 7, 2018 By administrator

Zeid: ‘Catastrophic course’ in Syria

From Syria to Yemen and the US, the UN human rights body has delivered a scathing annual report on violations and threats to rights around the globe. Syria and Myanmar have some of the worst conditions.

Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, painted a bleak picture of human rights violations in more than 50 countries in his annual report delivered on Wednesday.

From “apocalypse” in Syria and “ethnic cleansing” in Myanmar, to the rising tide of right-wing politics in Europe and anti-migrant policies in the United States, no stone was left unturned by the UN human rights chief, who is not known for mincing words.

Key points of the address

In his speech to the UN Human Rights Council, Zeid:

Highlighted violence against civilians in Syria.
Expressed concern about rising hatred and xenophobia in Europe.
Criticized the United States’ anti-migrant clampdown.
Warned crimes against humanity may be committed in Venezuela.
Described Myanmar’s military operations against Rohingya as possible “acts of genocide.”

Syria

Escalating violence across Syria threatens millions of civilians. Of particular concern is the ongoing regime offensive in eastern Ghouta and Idlib province, as well as the Turkish military operation against the Kurdish enclave of Afrin.

Beyond the latest hotspots, Zeid said that somewhere else soon civilians will face “an apocalypse intended, planned and executed by individuals within the government with apparent full foreign backing,” a reference to Iran and Russia.

On eastern Ghouta, Zeid called the regime and Russian justification to indiscriminately bomb heavily populated civilian areas to fight a few hundred fighters “legally, and morally, unsustainable.”

“When you are prepared to kill your own people so easily, lying is easy too. Claims by the government of Syria that it is taking every measure to protect its civilian population are frankly ridiculous,” he said.

Myanmar

Echoing previous statements, Zeid warned of a “continuation of ethnic cleansing in Rakine state” where the Myanmar military has expelled hundreds of thousands of Rohingya Muslims, burned villages and killed thousands.

Myanmar may be committing “acts of genocide,” he said.

There is also a “deliberate attempt by the authorities to destroy evidence of potential international crimes, including possible crimes against humanity.”

Europe

More than two-thirds of national parliaments in EU countries include parties with extreme positions on migrants, Muslims and other minorities. In particular, Zeid singled out right-wing parties in Italy, Austria, Hungary and Poland.

Zeid said: “This discourse based on racism, xenophobia and incitement to hatred has now expanded so significantly that in several countries it is dominating the political landscape.”

In Poland, the ruling PiS government’s reforms of the judicial system and other moves have “severely weakened checks and balances” and strengthened control over media, civil society and public life. The government also “frequently takes a passive approach to the growing number of hate crimes and incidents of hate speech against minority communities and migrants.”

In Hungary, Zeid said he was “shocked at the contempt for migrants, and more broadly for human rights, expressed by senior government officials.”