Al-Monitor Originals

/originals

  • Fatah officials defy Abbas on Temple Mount crisis
    http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/07/israel-palestinians-mahmoud-abbas-mahmoud-al-aloul-fatah-idf.html

    Al-Monitor has learned that Israel presented the Palestinians with a list of Fatah members allegedly escalating the situation on the ground and inciting youths to confront the Israeli military. They are headed by Mahmoud al-Aloul, Abbas’ deputy and former head of the Tanzim, and Abbas adviser Sultan Abu al-Einein. I have written in Al-Monitor in the past about the duplicitous game Aloul is playing in Fatah. On the one hand, Abbas pushed hard for Aloul to be appointed his deputy at the Fatah convention held in February, managing to sideline the better-known and more popular candidates, including senior Fatah officials Jibril Rajoub and Barghouti.

    Since taking office, the deputy Fatah leader has been operating counter to Abbas’ policies. The prisoners’ hunger strike, which Aloul supported, is one such example, and recent events in Jerusalem even more so. A blowup between Israel and the PA involving violence could jeopardize Abbas’ hold on power.

    Aloul was the person behind the calls for Wednesday’s Day of Rage. He was also behind the call to young residents of the West Bank to clash with Israeli soldiers at roadblocks during the April hunger strike. That was the first time since the end of the second intifada, in 2005, that Fatah had openly called on Palestinian youths to confront Israeli soldiers at roadblocks. The paradox about the hunger strike Day of Rage was that Abbas ordered PA forces to curb demonstrations and disrupt his own movement’s call for confrontations.

    Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/07/israel-palestinians-mahmoud-abbas-mahmoud-al-aloul-fatah-idf.html#ixzz4o

  • Uighur students in limbo after crackdown in Egypt

    Mehmet Nur has been hiding out, spending time in mosques, living at friends’ houses and avoiding police at all costs since Egyptian authorities began a crackdown on Uighur residents, arresting scores of them in July.

    http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/08/egypt-uyghur-community-crackdown-arrests.html

    #ouïghours #Egypte #migrations #étudiants #limbe #arrestations #répression #migrants_ouïghours

  • Embassy killings fuel Jordan-Israel tensions
    Osama Al Sharif | Posted July 27, 2017
    http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/07/jordan-israel-embassy-shooting-tensions-aqsa-clashes.html

    Two days after an Israeli Embassy guard shot and killed two Jordanians on July 23 in what appeared to be an argument over the installation of bedroom furniture at the assailant’s apartment, a talk-show guest on Jordan’s government-run TV station described Israel as “the usurper Zionist entity." Public acrimony against Israel has transcended even the usual scorn often directed at the Jewish state that one can hear on private TV and radio stations and read on social media platforms and local news websites.

    #Jordanie #Ziv

  • Six years later, film on January 25 Revolution reaches Egypt’s masses
    http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/07/egypt-movie-revolution-january-25-movie-youtube-censorship.html

    “18 Days” is not only the duration of the 2011 January 25 Revolution but also the title of one of the most controversial films in the history of Egyptian cinema.

    A film focusing on the January 25 Revolution produced in 2011, which was never screened in Egypt, is now stirring controversy after appearing online.

    Oddly, the Egyptian film premiered at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival but did not reach the Egyptian masses until July 3, 2017.

    The film did not stir controversy because it is political or because it focuses on one of the most sensitive political events in Egyptian history; in fact, many films have been stricken by bans in Egypt because they are political. Instead, it is controversial because its lack of screening in Egypt is so mysterious.

    On dirait bien que dans l’article il y a un lien qui permet de le visionner, avec des sous-titres en français.

    #cinéma #égypte #18days

  • Saudi Arabia’s dependent fees leave Egyptian expats in dire straits

    http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/07/saudi-arabia-fees-egypt-expats-economic-trouble.html

    Egyptian workers along with other expatriates in Saudi Arabia expressed their concerns over the Saudi government’s recent decision to impose new fees on the dependents of foreign workers, in a move to boost state revenues that have been hit by the decline in oil prices. Feeling the pinch of the increased fees, many Egyptians are planning to send their families back home to avoid this extra financial burden that will swallow their salaries.

    SUMMARY⎙ PRINT
    Dependents of expat workers in Saudi Arabia will be charged a dependent fee starting in 2017, which is a further strain on the salaries of foreign workers and will likely result in large numbers of families going back home.
    AUTHOR
    Amira Sayed Ahmed
    POSTED
    July 16, 2017
    The newly introduced levy, which went into effect July 1, came as part of Saudi Arabia’s fiscal balance program adopted in December. The program aims to strike a balance between revenues and expenditure by 2020.

    The monthly fee will begin at 100 Saudi riyals ($26.65) per dependent in 2017. This amount is expected to increase gradually every year until 2020. It will double to 200 riyals in 2018. Then, it will increase up to 300 riyals and 400 riyals in 2019 and 2020, respectively. The passport department, meanwhile, announced that the fees are mandatory and need to be paid before residency permits can be renewed, and exit/re-entry visas issued.

    According to official statements, the expat dependent fees will help the government yield total revenues of 1 billion Saudi riyals by the end of this year and 65 billion riyals by 2020.

  • Next Israel-Hezbollah confrontation could be in Syria
    http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/07/syria-south-ceasefire-israel-hezbollah-confrontation.html

    Yet the Russian and Iranian agendas are on opposite sides of the spectrum. In March, an Iranian-backed Iraqi Shiite militia, the Al-Nujaba’a Brigade, announced it had formed a military force to “free the occupied Golan Heights.” In addition, Israeli officials have also criticized the deal, telling the Israeli Haaretz newspaper that the Americans and Russians had ignored Israel’s position almost completely. One official explained that the agreement was bad and “doesn’t take [into account] almost any of Israel’s security interests," and it creates a disturbing reality in southern Syria because it doesn’t include a “single explicit word about Iran, Hezbollah or the Shiite militias in Syria.”

    Such a volatile context increases the chances of war in southern Syrian unless Russia is capable of reasoning with its two eternally at-odds allies, namely Iran and Israel. While many experts have been predicting a war between Hezbollah and Israel in southern Lebanon, the danger of a conflict may loom farther to the east in southern Syria.

    Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/07/syria-south-ceasefire-israel-hezbollah-confrontation.html#ixzz4nXlXVsLM

  • The real reason Hamas is flirting with dismissed Fatah leader
    http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/06/hamas-rapprochement-fatah-dahlan-egypt.html

    Hani al-Masri, the head of the Palestinian Center for Policy Research & Strategic Studies - Masarat, told Al-Monitor, “Hamas and Dahlan were somewhat forced to come together in light of their growing rivalry against Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Hamas was left with no choice in light of Abbas’ measures against Gaza, and Dahlan can only get closer to Hamas to overcome the bitterness of the dismissal of his supporters from the Fatah movement during its seventh general conference in Ramallah back in November 2016.”

    On June 19, Azzam al-Tamimi, the head of the London-based Al-Hiwar TV channel that is close to Hamas, warned of a nationally rejected rapprochement with Dahlan. In a TV interview on Al-Hiwar June 19, he described this rapprochement as a big mistake and political suicide for Hamas.

    Meanwhile, a member of Fatah’s Central Committee told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “Hamas’ rapprochement with Dahlan is suicide. It is well aware of his close security connections with Israel and anti-Hamas regional countries, particularly Egypt, the UAE and Saudi Arabia. Hamas will soon realize that instead of providing the movement with a lifeline, Dahlan is pushing it under.”

    Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/06/hamas-rapprochement-fatah-dahlan-egypt.html#ixzz4lwLyOohV

  • Hamas hedging its bets in region
    http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/06/hamas-israel-egypt-iran-hezbollah-hassan-nassrallah.html

    Senior Hamas official Mousa Abu Marzouk met in mid-June in Beirut with Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah. Abu Marzouk arrived in Beirut following the expulsion from Qatar of several other top Hamas officials, most of whom had settled in the Gulf state after being freed from Israeli jails in the 2011 prisoner exchange for the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Qatar had recently ordered them to leave, under pressure from Sunni Muslim states that regard the emirate as supporting terror.

    Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/06/hamas-israel-egypt-iran-hezbollah-hassan-nassrallah.html#ixzz4kjIYecFL

  • #Turquie : réunion de l’#opposition au bord d’une route

    Le chef du principal parti d’opposition turc a dirigé mardi une réunion de groupe parlementaire inhabituelle, au bord d’une route, au sixième jour d’une « marche pour la justice » en défi au président Recep Tayyip Erdogan.


    http://www.courrierinternational.com/depeche/turquie-reunion-de-lopposition-au-bord-dune-route.afp.com.201
    #manifestation #résistance

  • Dani Danon Elected Deputy President of UN General Assembly - Breaking Israel News | Latest News. Biblical Perspective.
    https://www.breakingisraelnews.com/88934/dani-danon-elected-deputy-president-un-general-assembly

    Dani Danon Elected Deputy President of UN General Assembly

    Un faucon nommé vice-président de l’Assemblée générale des Nations_Unies.

    Au passage, on note une énième recomposition « politique », la Syrie, l’iran et le... Qatar ayant rejeté cette décision, rappelant notamment qu’israël récuse les décisions de l’AG des NU depuis des dizaines d’années :

    UN : Rejection of Israel as General Assembly Vicepresident
    United Nations, May 31 (Prensa Latina) Iran, Qatar and Syria rejected the election of Israel as one of the State Vice Presidents of the General Assembly.
    http://www.plenglish.com/index.php?o=rn&id=13622&SEO=un-rejection-of-israel-as-general-assembly-vi

  • Syria’s reconstruction plans take shape
    http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/05/syria-war-reconstruction-process-regime-opposition.html

    La guerre est un simple prolongement de l’#urbanisation par d’autres moyens. (Ibn Clausewitz) #syrie

    Basateen al-Razi in southwest Damascus used to be one of the countless informal settlements — slums — that developed on the outskirts of Syria’s cities after the 1960s. In 2011-2012, protests against President Bashar al-Assad spread and eventually became armed clashes once the army stepped in. Thousands fled as a result.

    Using legislative decree 66/2012, originally signed by Assad in September 2012 to “clear and redevelop unplanned housing and informal settlements,” Damascus province has begun work restoring farmland and demolishing homes in Basateen al-Razi to make way for comprehensive reconstruction of the area that will create housing for an estimated 60,000 people, shopping precincts, shiny office spaces and even a multistory mall complex, according to government plans.

    Decree 66 will mandate construction projects in former opposition bastion Daraya and several satellite towns south of the southern ring road that marks the outer limits of southwest Damascus.

    “It’s a good engine for the economy,” pro-government analyst Ammar Waqaf of the London-based Gnosos Institute told Al-Monitor. He said the model “facilitates reconstruction … [and] provides the legal ground for companies to come and have their share in reconstruction.”

  • What’s keeping Syria’s Palestinian refugees from returning to camps?
    http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/05/syria-palestinian-refugee-camps-return-clashes.html

    Khaled Abdul-Majid, secretary of the Palestinian Revolution Factions Alliance in Syria, told Al-Monitor no one has returned yet because militants remaining in southern Damascus and nearby areas could infiltrate the camp again.

    Abdul-Majid said negotiations are underway to remedy the situation. Meanwhile, the residents remain in the nearby town of Sahnaya on the outskirts of Damascus in shelters provided by the Syrian government and the UNRWA.

    “We have established contact with the concerned state authorities to accelerate the process and have people immediately return,” he added.

    However, Ayman Abu Hashim, general coordinator of the Free Palestinian Syrian Assembly, told Al-Monitor, “The regime forces controlling the Sabina refugee camp are the ones obstructing the return of refugees.”

    “Families might return to the camp, but the regime forces are failing to take any serious steps in this regard,” Abu Hashim added.

    As the Sabina camp awaits the return of its residents, Palestinian families have started to move in and out of the Khan al-Shih refugee camp southwest of Damascus, which had a population estimated at more than 19,000 in 2011, per the latest UNRWA statistics.

    Ahmed al-Majdalani, envoy to Syria for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and a member of the PLO’s Executive Committee, told Al-Monitor that Khan al-Shih, unlike the Sabina camp, had not been fully deserted. The Syrian government reached an agreement back in November with the gunmen, who gradually left the camp heading toward Idlib and Daraa. Majdalani said forces of the PLO-affiliated Palestine Liberation Army and Syrian army are working on logistic arrangements aimed at restoring normal life there.

    Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/05/syria-palestinian-refugee-camps-return-clashes.html#ixzz4gwziLt00

  • Are Hezbollah, Israel heading for a third war?
    http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/05/lebanon-hezbollah-israel-war-iran-us.html

    Yet the most important development in Hezbollah’s military capability is the unprecedented opportunity that came with its participation in the Syrian war. It now has the ability to train thousands of its fighters, who are rubbing shoulders with Syrian, Iranian and Russian elite special forces, while also developing its telecommunications, logistics, and command and control capabilities to handle a situation where hundreds of its fighters can fight nonstop for weeks and months in a vast, hostile environment. This is a huge leap from 2006, when Hezbollah only deployed independent small fire teams and squads in defensive fortified positions, in a friendly environment, while awaiting the advance of Israeli infantry and armor units.

    Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah’s threat in 2011 to invade northern Israel is no longer so far-fetched, neither are his threats to hit the nuclear facility in Dimona. Israel takes these threats very seriously, hence the fortification works along the Blue Line. Hezbollah’s plan is simple and bold: Saturate Israel’s multi-layered air defense with hundreds of rockets and missiles while its fighters go on the offensive across the Blue Line — and perhaps even the Golan Heights.

    According to sources familiar with Hezbollah, “A wider front will force Israel to spread out thinner, so now having the front expanded from Naqoura on the sea all the way to the end of the Golan Heights will prove to be more difficult for Israel in the event of a war.”

    Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/05/lebanon-hezbollah-israel-war-iran-us.html#ixzz4gwyhSx85

  • Palestinians flock to first Palestinian bank in Jerusalem
    http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/05/palestine-the-national-bank-branch-jerusalesm-first-1967.html

    Haj Ali indicated the bank decided to open the new branch due to the longstanding lack of services for the Palestinian residents of Jerusalem, pointing out that many Palestinian Jerusalemites have been forced to deal with Israeli banks, as they had no other option in the absence of a Palestinian alternative.

    As for the economic outcome expected from this step, he said the branch will contribute to financing the residents’ small- and medium-sized projects, which could curb unemployment and poverty.

    He also noted that TNB launched a program to empower women economically by granting loans that will enable women to achieve their ambitions and projects, which could directly improve households’ income and help integrate Jerusalemite women into the labor market, pointing out that the poverty rate among Arabs has reached about 53%, according to 2016 statistics by the National Insurance Institute of Israel.

    He said loans and financial aid will empower Jerusalemites to survive life crises with a better quality of life, which would encourage them to remain in Jerusalem and claim their right to the land.

    Haj Ali asserted that the residents of Jerusalem and its environs have substantial financial and banking needs. “They are in dire need of Palestinian banks to meet these needs. The residents of Jerusalem had to travel for several hours and cross Israeli checkpoints to reach Palestinian banks in the Palestinian territories for a simple financial transaction that would have taken them few minutes if a branch existed on the Israeli side. Since the opening, customers have been flocking to open accounts, although the branch did not resort to any advertising activity.”

    He said the branch’s ATM is connected to the Palestinian national monetary system and customers of other Palestinian banks can use it; he said opening a TNB branch will facilitate the opening of branches of other Palestinian banks.

  • Help comes with dangerous strings for Syrian Druze town
    http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/04/syria-druze-golan-heights-regime-opposition-israel.html

    Hadar, a Druze town with a population of 10,000, according to local officials, has a unique story. Nestled on the Syrian face of Jabal al-Sheikh, Hadar directly faces the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, where the Shouting Valley separates it by just a few hundred meters from the Israeli-occupied Druze town of Majdal Shams. A few hundred meters up Jabal al-Sheikh, perched on its peak, sits one of Israel’s largest military intelligence stations. It carefully monitors all activity in the Golan on one side and in Lebanon’s Shebaa and beyond on the other.

    Hadar’s other neighbors are armed groups belonging to both the Jordanian-backed Southern Front and the al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra, now also known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham. Between them, they control the villages and the remaining mountaintops overlooking Hadar.

    Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/04/syria-druze-golan-heights-regime-opposition-israel.html#ixzz4fL8n6v1b

  • Is Saudi Arabia really willing to normalize ties with Iraq?
    http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/04/better-saudi-iraqi-ties-faced-by-growing-iranian-influence.html

    On March 23, Iraq’s Foreign Ministry had leaked that Riyadh had promised to resume direct flights between the two countries and cancel the debt Iraq had incurred in waging the Iraq-Iran War. A week later, however, on March 30, the Saudi Press Agency tweeted a quote from the Saudi Foreign Ministry denying that the government intended to cancel Iraq’s $30 billion deb

  • Hezbollah’s No. 2: US strike on Syria mere ‘muscle flexing’
    http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/04/lebanon-hezbollah-syria-war-israel-us-military-strikes.html

    Al-Monitor: That means that Hezbollah is not planning on creating a “new resistance front” in the Golan Heights?

    Qassem: The question of the Golan Heights concerns the people of the Golan and Syria. If the people there decide to start a resistance or a similar action, this would be their call and the call of people working on the ground. But we do not want to discuss Hezbollah’s position in this regard.

    Al-Monitor: A recent report by the International Crisis Group said that Hezbollah’s alliance with President Bashar al-Assad has become a burden, and the party is now seen as a Shiite militia. What do you think of this statement?

    Qassem: Hezbollah is a resistance fighting to bring down the Israeli project and is now fighting [in Syria] to put an end to the new takfiri project, which emanates from the Israeli plan. When we fight, we cooperate with all concerned parties, be they Sunnis, nationalists, secularists, Christians or any other national affiliations, according to the place, time and circumstances. Therefore, Hezbollah is a resistance project, and everyone knows that. Hezbollah’s network of contacts, be it in the Lebanese or Syrian arena, or anywhere it is needed, goes beyond sects and factions. These inaccurate reports have no weight on the ground and are only part of the political media lobbying to harm Hezbollah, but they are ineffective.

    Read more: http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/04/lebanon-hezbollah-syria-war-israel-us-military-strikes.html#ixzz4eaxKbZ7

  • What did Tillerson’s Russia trip achieve?

    http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/04/tillerson-lavrov-russia-meeting.html

    ❝Moscow also seized the moment of direct contact with the top US diplomat to clarify its own positions. On Syria, the departure of President Bashar al-Assad was and remains a non-starter for Russia. What neither Lavrov nor Putin would probably say to Tillerson, but do expect him to understand, is that Russia has invested so much into Syria now, politically and militarily, that Moscow’s primary concern is less about Assad than about the principle, power and prestige of maintaining its position. Hence, any plan that might move Moscow from this standing would have to involve some face-saving mechanism that the Kremlin could package as a win-win internationally, and as a “decision made in Russia’s best interest” domestically.

    So far, the US vision has been to get Russia on board by offering Moscow an opportunity to “play a constructive role in the humanitarian and political catastrophe in the Middle East.” That approach misses a critical point in Russian political psychology: The Kremlin believes it has already stepped up as a constructive player to counter the increasingly destructive forces unleashed by the United States. This belief — no matter how uncomfortably it sits with anyone — is not entirely groundless. Many players in the region perceive Russia in this capacity, even if it’s just for their own political reasons.

    A senior Russian diplomat speaking with Al-Monitor not for attribution said: “[Russia] stepping aside from Assad would mean, among other things, an ultimate win for the US regime-change policy. It would indicate that no matter how long you resist this policy, you’ll be made to surrender. That’s a serious red line in Russia’s foreign policy thinking, the one that President Putin cannot afford to be crossed — not for all the tea in China, or should I say, a chocolate cake in Mar-a-Lago?”

    Therefore, Tillerson’s statement on the importance of Assad’s departure in a “structural, organized manner” is seen in Moscow as a positive outcome. It leaves open the prospect of returning to the political process that was underway for several months before the gas attack and the airstrikes.

    However, it might be much more difficult to achieve now, as the parties focus on reinforcing their respective and contradictory narratives. Reports of US intelligence intercepting communications between Syrian military and chemical experts about preparations for a sarin nerve gas attack in Idlib are a powerful argument for the audience that shares the “American narrative” — as Moscow sees it. However, it is producing counternarratives on the Russian side. One such narrative, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, suggests that of all “12 facilities that stored Syrian chemical weapons, 10 were destroyed in the timeline between 2013 and 2016 under the watch of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons … [while] the remaining two compounds are out of reach for the Syrian government since they are located in the territory controlled by the so-called opposition.”

    Also, as Putin’s press secretary, Dmitry Peskov, put it: “The recitation of mantras on the necessity of Assad’s departure” won’t budge Moscow’s position an inch, nor will it help with a political solution to the Syria crisis. On the contrary, it will only reinforce Russia’s position on Assad. So far, Moscow has been operating on the principle of presumed innocence and calling for an “unbiased probe” into the Syria attack. To Russia, a refusal to have such an investigation would show that the case against Assad is being pursued for political rather than humanitarian reasons.

    Remarkably, a recent Mir interview with Putin indicates Moscow hasn’t reached a concrete conclusion on exactly who perpetrated the attacks. Putin’s statement that it could have been the Syrian opposition or the Islamic State (IS) is based primarily on the opposition’s hope of saving itself in a losing battle and on previous IS chemical attacks in Iraq. On factual grounds, however, Russia’s arguments look as shaky as the West’s “confidence” that Assad did it. Yet this state of affairs leaves enough space for US-Russia cooperation on investigating the case, if only inspired by a solid political will.

    Though it seems counterintuitive, Russia’s veto of the UN resolution on Syria proposed by the United States, the UK and France hours after the Tillerson-Lavrov press conference is an important sign of Russia’s commitment to work with the United States. Deputy Russian UN Ambassador Vladimir Safronkov explained the veto by saying the resolution assigned guilt “before an independent and objective investigation” could be conducted.

    However, Russia probably had decided to veto the resolution even before Tillerson and Lavrov met, to give itself more time to think through the negotiation results. Moscow wanted to come up with a fresh proposal at the UN that would reflect a more engaging approach for both US and Russian interests. Hence came Safronkov’s heated and scandalous lashing out against British diplomat Matthew Rycroft, whom he accused of trying to derail a potential agreement on Syria and Assad’s fate that Moscow had hoped to reach with Washington. "Don’t you dare insult Russia!” he said at the UN Security Council meeting April 12.

    Rycroft had accused Moscow of supporting Assad’s “murderous, barbaric” regime.

    In general, the visit left a feeling in Moscow that the initiatives Lavrov and Tillerson discussed will face intense scrutiny in Washington. The confrontational rhetoric flying from both capitals will remain prevalent. But the parties have articulated a need and agreed on some — though not many — concrete steps toward managing the situation. It’s not likely to lead to a “great-power alliance” or help both parties accomplish much together. But it might be just what’s needed to take the two back from the brink of a direct military clash and spare the world even more uncertainty. Given the current circumstances, this might be the most comfortable paradigm for the bilateral relations — at least until Putin and Trump meet face to face.

    MAXIM A. SUCHKOV
    Editor, Russia-Mideast 
    Maxim A. Suchkov, PhD is the Editor of Al-Monitor’s Russia-Mideast coverage as well as an expert of the Russian International Affairs Council. He is also an Associate Professor of International Relations and Deputy Director for Research at the School of International Relations, Pyatigorsk State University based in the North Caucasus, Russia. Formerly he was a Fulbright visiting fellow at Georgetown University (2010-11) and New York University (2015). He is the author of the “Essays on Russian Foreign Policy in the Caucasus and the Middle East.” On Twitter: @Max_A_Suchkov

    #Russie #Syrie #Etats-Unis

  • Russia ’furious’ with Assad over gas attack

    http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/04/russia-us-chemical-weapons-attack-assad-putin-tillerson.html

    WASHINGTON — Privately, Russian officials are furious with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad for a suspected April 4 chemical weapons attack in Idlib province that killed over 80 people, Russia analysts said. They see it as threatening to sabotage the potential for US-Russia rapprochement ahead of US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s first visit to Moscow this week.

    Syria’s alleged chemical weapons attack in Idlib province has threatened to sabotage potential US-Russia rapprochement, and Russia is privately furious with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
    Author Laura Rozen Posted April 10, 2017

    But Russia is also confused by what it perceives as contradictory statements from various top Trump Cabinet officials on whether US policy is shifting to demand Assad’s ouster, to what degree does the United States think Russia is culpable for Assad’s behavior, and more broadly, who from the administration speaks for Donald Trump, they said.

    “Assad committed suicide here,” Michael Kofman, a Russia military expert with the Kennan Institute, told Al-Monitor in an interview April 10. Russia “will never forgive him for this.”

    The suspected April 4 nerve gas attack on rebel-held Khan Sheikhoun that killed over 80 people, many of them children, “is a complete disaster” for Russia, Kofman said. “It destroyed the legacy of the 2013 deal [to remove Syria’s chemical weapons] that both countries [the United States and Russia] certified. So it made liars of both of us.”

    He noted, “It provided all the ammunition to sabotage rapprochement between the United States and Russia. Look at the atmospherics. It caused public embarrassment. [Russian President Vladimir] Putin has to swallow US cruise missile strikes. Notice he has not defended Assad. It looks bad for Russia.”

    Kofman added, “It demonstrates … in terms of Putin being a power broker … that the Russian role is very aspirational. It prevented him from doing this.”

    “The Russians weren’t happy about what happened,” Nikolas Gvosdev, a Russia expert and professor at the US Naval War College, told Al-Monitor, referring to the April 4 chemical weapons attack. “They don’t like unpredictability … when things happen that throw what they are planning off course.”

    “The Russians don’t like to be surprised,” Gvosdev added. “They don’t like … [to be made to] look like they can’t enforce agreements or don’t have as much influence over Assad as they were suggesting.”

    Trump discussed Syria during a phone call with British Prime Minister Theresa May on April 10, and according to the British readout, the two leaders said they saw an opportunity to press Russia to break its alliance with Assad.❞
    #Russie #Syrie #armeschimiques

    • @biggrizzly Oui ce qui est tendancieux, car ils appartiennent l’Institut Kennan de Mr Kennan qui a organisé le containment de l’Urss depuis le début de la guerre froide. Il vaux mieux passer par d’autres sources pour avoir l’avis réel des russes et mieux pour lire entre les lignes de cette affaire qui ressemble à un « casus belli » comme en 2013 ! Pour ceux que ça interesse les mensonges d’Eliot Higgins et Daniel Kaszta sur le présumé « smocking gun » contre Assad lors d’un tir de « gaz sarin » dont on sait que ce sont les djihadistes les vrais responsables : https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1B_DCeZ6N6OTlRpMFAtV1VEZGM/view
      Tant qu’on est dans les mensonges pour appuyer une nouvelle guerre, repensons a Collin Powel et sa fiole d’Anthrax dont on sait maintenant que les CIA et FBI étaient derrière l’intox :
      iecesetmaindoeuvre.com/IMG/pdf/L_anthrax_et_Wired.pdf
      Et dès 1982 les Usa dont la DIA avait le projet d’attaque la Syrie laique des Assad en se servant des Frères Musulmans comme chair à canon pour créer une guerre religieuse et ethnique :
      https://syria360.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/dia-syria-muslimbrotherhoodpressureintensifies-2.pdf
      Exactement ce qui se passe à l’heure actuelle ...

    • Sur France inter à 19h réquisitoire assez convaincant contre la Russie ; puis on passe à la situation du Yémen, où « la violence de la guerre » et « la famine » menacent des centaines de milliers de personnes. Là par contre je n’ai pas entendu les mots « Arabie saoudite » ou « États-Unis ». C’est juste « la guerre » qui est mise en cause.