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Bashar Al-Assad Tell NBC U.S. Is ‘Not Serious’ About Defeating ISIS

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assad nbcby Bill Neely

DAMASCUS, Syria — A defiant Bashar al-Assad expressed confidence that Syria’s bloody war could be won within months, saying Russia’s intervention has helped tip the scales toward victory.

Assad spoke exclusively to NBC News on Wednesday at his office in Damascus in a wide-ranging interview about the Syrian war, ISIS, the U.S. and his legacy.

He was unruffled by the State Department branding his vow to retake every inch of Syria as “delusional,” saying it was only a matter of time until he regained full control of his country.

The Syrian army has made a lot of advancement recently,” Assad told NBC News. “It won’t take more than a few months.”

Assad’s tone was strikingly different from a year earlier, when he was short of troops and losing territory to rebels and ISIS. The battlefield shifted, according to Assad, for one reason.

“The Russian support of the Syrian army has tipped the scales against the terrorists,” he said. “It was the crucial factor.”

His forces were teetering on the brink of defeat before Russia’s military intervention got underway in September. Since then, they’ve made significant territorial gains — like retaking the ancient city of Palmyra from ISIS.

While Russia has insisted its operations targeted terrorists, the West has accused Russian forces of bombing civilian targets and Assad’s moderate enemies — not jihadis.

Russia’s influence with Assad is in focus Thursday as Secretary of State John Kerry heads to Moscow for talks with Putin. Syria is high on the agenda — as is speculation of a backchannel deal involving Assad giving up power.

WATCH: NBC News’ Full Interview with Syrian President

Assad however dismissed those rumors unequivocally, telling NBC News he was confident that Russia had his back.

“The Russian politics is not based on making deals — it’s based on values,” he said.

And according to Assad, the “very frank” relationship he has with Putin is rooted in their shared values and common interest: defeating terrorists.

The Syrian president claimed that’s far from true of the U.S., which he accused of not truly wanting to see ISIS’ defeat.

“They’re not serious,” Assad said.

Turkey with two faces Committing crime face Peace Face, now want relation with Syria

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Turkey with two facesTurkey’s Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has said his country will aim to develop relations with Syria, the BBC reports.

Mr Yildirim said Turkey needed to boost diplomatic relations in the region.

His televised speech appears to suggest a sharp U-turn by the government. Diplomatic ties between Turkey and Syria were severed after the Syrian conflict began in 2011.

Turkey has long said the only solution for regional peace would be for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to go.

Mr Yildirim said the stability of Syria and Iraq were crucial for the success of counter-terrorism efforts.

The news comes at a time of great political instability in the country, says the BBC’s Katy Watson in Istanbul.

In the past year, Turkey has been hit by a wave of bombings from both Kurdish militants and the so-called Islamic State.

Russian Long-range bombers flying from Russia destroy ‘major’ ISIS camp in central Syria

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long range bomberSix Tupolev Tu-22M3 strategic bombers have delivered massive airstrikes against a major Islamic State camp and ammunition depots in Syria, Russia’s Defense Ministry says. The aircraft flew from Russia and returned home after the operation.

The bombers, based at one of Russian’s southern air bases, took off on Tuesday morning, passed through Iranian and Iraqi airspace and delivered concentrated high-explosive ammunition airstrikes on terrorist targets east of the towns of Palmyra and As Sukhnah, and the village of Arak.

All aircraft have successfully returned to home base, the ministry said in a statement.

The Russian military stated that the information on the eliminated targets was acquired over the last several days and confirmed through several intelligence channels.

The US-led international antiterrorist coalition was notified of the airstrikes in advance, the ministry says.

“The strike resulted in the destruction of a large militant field camp, three depots of arms and munitions, three tanks, four infantry combat vehicles and eight vehicles fitted with heavy machine guns, also neutralizing a large number of enemy fighters,” the statement says.

Syrian Kurdish-led forces enter Islamic state-held Manbij city

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Manhij cityBEIRUT,— A US-backed Kurdish-led alliance forces pushed Thursday into the Islamic State group’s bastion city of Manbij in northern Syria, a monitoring group said.

Fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces SDF managed to enter the city with support from air strikes by a US-led coalition, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

“The SDF entered Manbij from the south under cover of coalition air raids,” said Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman, whose Britain-based group relies on a broad network of sources inside Syria to monitor the country’s conflict.

He said there was “fierce street fighting between buildings” and that at least two SDF fighters had died when a bomb went off in a residential building.

Abdel Rahman said the SDF was able to break through IS defences a few hours after taking control of a village on the city’s southwestern outskirts.

He said progress was likely to be slow as SDF forces were facing booby-traps “planted by the jihadists to try to prevent the loss of the city.”

The SDF has faced fierce resistance from IS since launching the assault to take Manbij on May 31. It managed to encircle the city earlier this month but its advance slowed as IS fought back, including with almost daily suicide bombings.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) is an alliance, formed in October 2015, from the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) with smaller Arab, Christian and Turkmen militias in a coalition intended to take on Islamic State.

The SDF has over 30,000 Kurdish fighters and about 5,000 Arab fighters.

The Kurdish YPG forces, which the U.S. and Russia consider an ally in the fight against Islamic State, are the most effective group fighting IS in Syria, as the Kurdish militia has seized swathes of Syria from Islamic State.

The jihadists have held the city since 2014, the year IS seized control of large parts of Syria and neighbouring Iraq and declared its “caliphate”.

Manbij, which had population of about 120,000 before the start of Syria’s civil war in 2011, is a key stop on IS’s supply route from the Turkish border to its de facto Syrian capital of Raqa.

Erdogan ‘Kissing the Hand He Tried to Break’ in Secret Syria Talks to Destroy Kurd

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Erdogan kissing

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Relations between Ankara and Damascus have improved in recent secret talks, as both sides are showing willingness for dialogue, Turkish mediator Ismail Hakki Pekin told Sputnik Turkey.

The governments of Syria and Turkey are engaging in dialogue and both sides are showing a willingness to negotiate their differences, the Turkish military’s former intelligence chief Ismail Hakki Pekin told Sputnik Turkey.

According to a recent report by Algerian newspaper Al Watan, there has been contact between the two governments mediated by the Algerian government. 

Pekin is the leader of a delegation from Turkey’s Vatan party, whose members regularly visit Syria. He said that he has also been mediating between the two governments, and noticed a change in both sides after his most recent visit.

“We have been systematically working to normalize relations between Turkey and Syria for a long time, and came up with an initiative to provide the necessary basis for dialogue between the Turkish and Syrian leadership,” he explained.

“In my last trip, I noticed a softening from the Syrian side, and a similar tendency in representatives of the Turkish Foreign Ministry, when I told them about the outcome of our delegation’s visit. The Foreign Ministry as a whole received my information favorably. They used to reject everything out of hand.”

Pekin said the most pressing issue on the agenda during talks is improvement in the region’s security situation, which requires compromise from both sides.

“Security is of prime importance, the issue of ensuring the integrity of Syria and, related to that, the question of closing the Turkish border.”

“Turkey wants the Syrian leadership not to give support to the Democratic Union Party (PYD, a Kurdish opposition party in northern Syria) and prevent the strengthening of the Syrian Kurdish position in the region. But for that, Turkey has to help Syria,” Pekin explained.

“Turkey has to close the border, stop supporting opposition groups. Just that on its own would create the preconditions for a huge breakthrough in relations.”

According to Pekin, the governments have started to soften their positions because of the region’s changing geopolitical situation, and Ankara’s belated realization that stability is key.

“The integrity of Syria means the integrity of Turkey. If the US were to succeed in its project to split up Syria into pieces, the situation in Turkey would be much more unstable than today. The amount of terrorist attacks would increase significantly.”

“However, the US has been defeated in the region, and in these circumstances relations with Assad inevitably improve. Tayyip Erdogan will kiss the hand he tried to break.”

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ISIS terrorist attack targets Armenian and Assyrian Genocide commemoration ceremony

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isis armeian-assyrianA terrorist attack occurred in Syria’s Qamishli during a religious ceremony commemorating the 101 anniversary of the Ottoman genocide against Armenians and Assyrians.

A suicide bomber from the Islamic State blew off his explosive belt, killing at least 3 guards and injuring dozens of civilians, Horizonweekly reported quoting Almasdar News.

Moran Mor Ignatius Aphrem II, the patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox Church, was holding a special ceremony commemorating the 101 anniversary of Ottoman genocide against Armenians and Assyrians of Qamishli.

 

Turkish border guards kill 9 Syrian refugees

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Syrian refugees are seen at the Bab al-Salama refugee camp, near A'zaz, Syria, next to the Turkish crossing gate, February 6, 2016. ©AFP

Syrian refugees are seen at the Bab al-Salama refugee camp, near A’zaz, Syria, next to the Turkish crossing gate, February 6, 2016. ©AFP

(Presstv) Turkish border guards have killed nine members of a Syrian family, who were trying to cross the frontier and take refuge in the neighboring country.

The deadly incident took place near the village of Kherbet Eljoz in Syria’s Idlib Province on Saturday night as the Turkish forces opened fire on the refugees, leaving eight more Syrians injured.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a source told The New Arab news website that the victims were among several families displaced from the city of Jarablus in Syria’s Aleppo Province.

“Turkish border guards opened fire on them indiscriminately, killing nine people and wounding eight others,” the source said, adding that the dead were “all from one family – three children, four women and a man,” who fled Jarablus due to fighting.

It was not the first time that the Turkish border guards employed force against Syrians uprooted from their homes, with activists saying that at least 50 asylum seekers have been killed on the Turkish border in the past few months.

Back in May, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a report that in March and April 2016, five people, including a child, were killed and 14 others were seriously injured as a result of Turkish soldiers’ shootings and beatings.

Gerry Simpson, senior refugee researcher at the New York-based rights organization, said the Turkish soldiers are “killing and beating” refugees.

“Firing at traumatized men, women, and children fleeing fighting and indiscriminate warfare is truly appalling,” he added.

Turkey, however, rejected the accusation, claiming that it is welcoming Syrian refugees.

Syria has been gripped by foreign-backed militancy since March 2011. Damascus regards a number of countries as the main supporters of the militants fighting the government forces in the Arab country.

Turkey, which is hosting 2.7 million Syrian refugees, closed its borders to the asylum seekers around a year ago, but permitted entry for critical medical cases and humanitarian organizations.

Ankara and the European Union sealed a contentious agreement in March in a bid to tackle Europe’s worst refugee crisis since World War II.

Under the deal, the 28-nation bloc will take in thousands of Syrian refugees directly from the country and in return will reward Ankara with money, visa exemption and progress in its EU membership negotiations.

Ankara is known as a staunch supporter of the terrorist groups operating to topple the Syrian government.

Turkey: No cooperation with ‘terrorists’ in Syria

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6Prime Minister Binali Yildirim says Turkey will not allow cooperation with terrorist organizations in Syria, referring to Kurdish groups which the US supports. 

Ankara and Washington have long been at loggerheads over the role of a US-backed Syrian Kurdish militia.

Turkey says the fighters are a terrorist organization affiliated with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) but the US sees them as a partner in Syria operations.

In a speech to his ruling AK Party in parliament on Tuesday, Yildirim said Turkey won’t allow formation of new states in Syria, echoing suspicion that the Kurdish campaign was aimed at establishing a separate state.

Turkey has been shelling the positions of Kurdish fighters in northern Syria.

Last month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan angrily denounced US troops for wearing insignia of Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Unit (YPG) during an operation in Syria.

In his Tuesday speech, Yildrim also said Turkey will never change its anti-terrorism laws, even if it would mean a collapse in a deal with the EU to secure visa-free travel for Turks to Europe.

Turkey and the EU have been discussing visa liberalization since 2013 and agreed in March to go ahead with it as part of a broader deal to halt refugees from Turkey to the EU.

But progress stalled when Brussels insisted that Ankara must also reform its tough anti-terror laws.

Ankara is under fire for its heavy-handed crackdown on the country’s Kurdish minority in the southeast.

Last month, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu ruled out any potential alteration of the law.

source: presstv

Armenia’s work with refugees model for other states – Hranush Hakobyan

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f5756e4e4dccee_5756e4e4dcd29.thumbSyrian Armenians’ desire to leave Armenia for Canada that was seen three or four months ago has now faded out, Armenia’s Minister of Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan told Tert.am.

Some families had to reunite and they left for Canada.

“Some other people were happy to leave for Canada due to simplified visa requirements. However, on arriving they saw that, in contrast to Armenia, they had no opportunities or privileges to settle down there,” Ms Hakobyan said.

And not so many Syrian Armenians are leaving Armenia now.

About 20,000 Armenians arrived in Armenia from Syria. Seventeen thousand of them have settled down in the country, while 3,000 regularly leave and return to the country.

“And the problems in Syria force many Armenians to come to Armenia even now,” the minister said.

The Armenians that have come to Armenia are sure their Arab neighbors are in a grave situation in Syria now. They are living in camps on less than US $1 a day.

“The refugees that have fled Syria have found themselves in a disastrous situation. More than two million refugees are half-starved or have drowned in the sea. So Syrian Armenians are now comparing their conditions with the situation their neighbors have found themselves in,” Ms Hakobyan said.

Syrian Armenians are living and working in the same conditions as Armenian citizens.

“The Armenian state has done its best, and the United Nations has now made Armenia a model for other countries in terms of working with refugees. Refugees are viewed as a negative factor in other countries, whereas in our country they are considered a positive one because they are involved in developing the country’s economic and social life,” Ms Hakobyan said.

As regards integration problems, the minister said that Syrian Armenians are fully integrated in terms of education, healthcare social security.

“Thirteen thousand Syrian Armenians have acquired Armenia’s citizenship during the past five years, and 1,800 have been granted residence permits, which is evidence of integration level,” Ms Hakobyan said.

Economic integration continues because not all employable Syrian Armenians have found jobs or are satisfied with their current employment. However, Armenia-based business are facing the same problems.

Coming Close to Raqqa: This is How Daesh May Lose Battle for its ‘Capital’

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End of raqqaClashes are underway in northern Syria over the strategic town of Manbij where Daesh terrorists come to via Turkey. The liberation of Manbij, located on the way to Raqqa, would cut off supply lines for the terrorists.

The Syrian Army backed by allied militia forces for the first time in two years entered the province of Raqqa. As the regional capital, the city of Raqqa is considered the de-facto capital of Daesh.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) mainly composing Kurdish militia fighters are carrying out an operation to liberate Tabaqah, Manbij and Raqqa. At the same time, from the south the Syrian Army is advancing on Raqqa.

Manbij is located between Raqqa and the Turkish-Syrian border. Arms supplies to the Daesh capital reportedly come via Manbij.

Local residents told RT about the rules the terrorists have imposed in Manjib.

SDF fighters rescued thousands of refugees from the Daesh-seized surroundings of Manbij and Mascana. They are hiding in the village of Tal-Arsh.

“We were rescued by the Syrian Democratic Forces. I hope we will never meet terrorists again. They did not let us leave the town, they killed people. Smoking was prohibited. The terrorists forced us to grow beards,” a refugee said.

Among the refugees in Tal-Arsh are women, children and the elderly. Their goal is to save their lives from the terrorists.

“Civilians are suffering from Daesh’s atrocities. Look what’s happening out there! Daesh is to blame for this! Its ideology has nothing to do with Islam. People are suffering. They left their homes and have to live without water. The terrorists did this. But we’ll liberate Syria from them,” a fighter from the Manbij military committee said.

Within a few days, the Syrian Democratic Forces backed by a US-led coalition’s airstrikes liberated a number of villages near Manbij.

“Our goal is to liberate Manbij from Islamists. Now we’re pursuing the rest of the enemy near the village of Mubalgam. Then we’ll continue our offensive on Manbij,” a militia fighter said.

Manbij is a strategic town where Daesh militants come to from Turkey. The restoration of control over the town would also facilitate the liberation of Aleppo Province.

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source::sputniknews.com