person:assad

Si Assad s’empare d’Alep, il y aura « un massacre partout dans la ville »
▻http://www.middleeasteye.net/fr/reportages/si-assad-s-empare-d-alep-il-y-aura-un-massacre-partout-dans-la-ville-

#Syrie #Libye_bis

Oulala ! La meute aboie à tout va et dans tous les sens. La Syrie, maintenant l’Ukraine mais avec pour leitmotiv « y’a pas bon Assad et les russes ». Une coïncidence
▻http://www.liberation.fr/planete/2016/09/28/le-mh17-a-bien-ete-abattu-par-un-missile-achemine-de-russie_1513520

Assad takes revenge on the lifesavers of Aleppo | World | The Times & The Sunday Times
▻http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/assad-takes-revenge-on-the-lifesavers-of-aleppo-p388w3jbd

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/imageserver/image/methode%2Ftimes%2Fprod%2Fweb%2Fbin%2Fa4783476-81a1-11e6-9862-c87336845bcf.jpg?crop=1999,1125,0,104

Rescue efforts by the White Helmets ground to a halt in Aleppo yesterday after Syria’s celebrated humanitarian volunteers were targeted in airstrikes marking the start of an all-out offensive for the city.

Three of their four rescue centres in the city were hit in the strikes, which came a day after the group was named as co-winner of an award known as the “alternative Nobel peace prize”.

The White Helmets, also known as Syria Civil Defence, were cited by the Right Livelihood Award Foundation for “outstanding bravery, compassion and humanitarian engagement in rescuing civilians”.

The group, comprising about 3,000 unpaid…

Le top 10 des mensonges occidentaux sur le conflit syrien — RT en français
▻https://francais.rt.com/opinions/26129-10-mensonges-syrie

1. L’Occident n’a pas pu intervenir en Syrie - et c’est ça le problème
2. Le conflit est la faute du méchant Assad (et de la Russie puisqu’elle le soutient)
3. Le président Assad bénéficie de peu de soutien en Syrie
4. Assad n’a pas fait de concessions et n’est pas intéressé par la paix et la réconciliation
5. Le conflit en Syrie est uniquement sectaire
6. C’est un fait établi que Assad / le gouvernement syrien a utilisé des armes chimiques à la Ghouta
7. La Russie et le gouvernement syrien ont aidé Daesh
8. L’Occident est du côté des « bons » en Syrie
9. Il y a 70 000 rebelles modérés en Syrie
10. Les intentions occidentales en Syrie sont humanitaires, alors que la Russie poursuit son propre intérêt

#syrie juste pour mémoire

Assad pays his war-debts: phosphate, telecom concessions to Iran
▻https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2016/8/19/assad-pays-his-war-debts-phosphate-telecom-concessions-to-iran #Iran #Syria

BOOM! Wikileaks Confirms Hillary Sold Weapons To ISIS
▻http://redstatewatcher.com/article.asp?id=32072

http://noiimages.s3.amazonaws.com/images/redstate/20160805-1322979705.jpeg

Although Hillary Clinton has repeatedly denied that she sold weapons to the Islamic Stats while serving as Secretary of State, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange claims he has proof to the contrary. Thepoliticalinsider.com reported: In Obama’s second term, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton authorized the shipment of American-made arms to Qatar, a country beholden to the Muslim Brotherhood, and friendly to the Libyan rebels, in an effort to topple the Libyan/Gaddafi government, and then ship those arms to Syria in order to fund Al Qaeda, and topple Assad in Syria.

#isis #daesh

The Case for (Finally) Bombing Assad - The Washington Institute for Near East Policy
▻http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/policy-analysis/view/the-case-for-finally-bombing-assad

Les experts US ont tout plein de solutions et j’espère qu’ils se font payer très cher. Denis Ross, il est bien connu depuis le temps de Reagan, c’est dire ! Quant à Andrew Tabler, il a longtemps vécu à Damas en jouant les journalistes (il dirigeait un hebdo éco implanté dans une zone franche du temps où Assad était persona grata chez les Occidentaux.)

There is an alternative: Punish the Syrian government for violating the truce by using drones and cruise missiles to hit the Syrian military’s airfields, bases and artillery positions where no Russian troops are present.

Opponents of these kinds of limited strikes say they would prompt Russia to escalate the conflict and suck the United States deeper into Syria. But these strikes would be conducted only if the Assad government was found to be violating the very truce that Russia says it is committed to. Notifying Russia that this will be the response could deter such violations of the truce and the proposed military agreement with Moscow. In any case, it would signal to Mr. Putin that his Syrian ally would pay a price if it did not maintain its side of the deal.

If Russia does want to limit its involvement in Syria, the threat of limited strikes should persuade it to make Mr. Assad behave. Conversely, if the skeptics are right that Mr. Putin will get serious about a political solution only if he sees the costs of backing Syria’s government increasing, the threat of such strikes is probably the only way to start a political process to end the war.

Mr. Obama and Mr. Kerry have long said there is no military solution to the Syrian conflict. Unfortunately, Russia and Iran seem to think there is — or at least that no acceptable political outcome is possible without diminishing the rebels and strengthening the Syrian government. It is time for the United States to speak the language that Mr. Assad and Mr. Putin understand.

L’échec du putsch en Turquie ravit l’Arabie saoudite... et désole le régime syrien
▻http://www.lemonde.fr/proche-orient/article/2016/07/19/l-echec-du-putsch-en-turquie-ravit-l-arabie-saoudite-et-desole-le-regime-syr

Paywall

هل الرئيس الاسد هو الرابح الاكبر من الانقلاب التركي الفاشل؟ وما هي المفاجأة التي يحضّر اردوغان لتفجيرها الاربعاء؟ وكيف نفسّر هذا الفتور والارتباك السعوديين تجاه انقرة؟ ولماذا تصاعدت آمال الجبير فجأة بحل للازمة السورية؟ | رأي اليوم
▻http://www.raialyoum.com/?p=480547

Edito ABA : "Le président Assad est-il le grand gagnant de l’échec du coup en Turquie ? Quelle sera la surprise qu’Erdogan fera exploser mercredi prochain ? Comment expliquer la perplexité molle des Saoudiens vis-à-vis d’Ankara ? Pourquoi Jubeir (min des AE saoudien) formule-t-il désormais l’espoir d’une solution à la crise syrienne ?

En gros : ABA précise qu’il laisse de côté tout ce qui se passe en Turquie pour se concentrer sur la question des relations syro-turques. Après plusieurs déclarations du PM turc, c’est désormais Erdogan qui a annoncé pour mercredi une décision importante qui concernera sans doute la question syrienne, le principal problème de « voisinage » que veut régler désormais la diplomatie turque, les autres (Irak, Egypte, Iran, Russie, Saoudie) en dépendant. Pour lui (ABA), de nombreux signes annoncent un renversement d’alliance décisif par rapport à l’avenir du conflit syrien, où Assad ne serait plus autant qu’avant « le problème »...

#syrie

U.S. and Russia Agree on Steps to Combat ISIS in Syria - The New York Times
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/16/world/middleeast/us-and-russia-agree-on-steps-to-combat-isis-in-syria.html

MOSCOW — The United States and Russia announced a tentative deal on Friday to coordinate airstrikes against the Islamic State and the Nusra Front , Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria.

[...]

Mr. Kerry made clear that defeating the Nusra Front was a major American priority.

“So if some critic is criticizing the United States or Russia for going after Al Nusra, which is a terrorist organization, because they’re good fighters against Assad, they have their priorities completely screwed up,” Mr. Kerry said. “The fact is that Nusra is plotting against countries in the world. What happened in Nice last night could just as well come from Nusra or wherever it came from as any other entity. Because that’s what they do.”

[...]

The United States has carried out occasional strikes against what have been described as senior Qaeda figures in Syria. But it has refrained from systematic attacks against the Nusra Front, whose ranks are heavily Syrian, including many who left less extreme rebel groups because Nusra was better armed and financed.

Israel Just Took Over the Golan Demilitarized Buffer Zone
By osnetdaily -
July 13, 2016
▻http://osnetdaily.com/2016/07/israel-just-took-golan-demilitarized-buffer-zone

Debka File

Israeli military bulldozers backed by tanks have crossed into the demilitarized zone dividing the Israeli and Syrian Golan borders. They are building a line of fortifications and anti-tank trenches 300-500 meters inside the DMZ.

This is the first time in the six-year Syrian war that the IDF has openly operated on the Syrian side of the border. The force has not so far run into opposition- or indeed any word of protest – or even mention – by Assad regime officials in Damascus.

The sole reference to Israeli military movements in the DMZ has come from a small Syrian rebel group which described them.

debkafile’s military sources report that the IDF operation was still going forward Wednesday, July 12, on a patch of terrain facing the Israeli Golan village of Ein Zivan, on the one hand, and the Syrian town of Quneitra, on the other.

Angry Arab: The moral outrage of 50 US diplomats
▻http://angryarab.blogspot.fr/2016/06/the-moral-outrage-of-50-us-diplomats.html

How brave of them. 50 US diplomats defied the conventional wisdom and called for more US bombing of an Arab country. How much courage this has taken. I mean, for a group of US diplomats to toe the line of AIPAC requires an unusual amount of courage. In the past, the courage of US diplomat was (rarely) displayed when an individual—not group like this case—defied US policies in favor of Israeli aggression and occupation. Almost to a diplomat, those cases of courage (George Ball and others around the Washington Report) were displayed only after those diplomats retired from service, when their usefulness was quite limited. So this time 50 US diplomats (who deal with diplomacy) felt that their government was not doing enough in terms of bombing in the Middle East against yet another Arab country. Those 50 US diplomats—mind you—never bothered to utter a word against the Israeli war crimes in Gaza or Lebanon, and they never felt courage against GCC-US war crimes in Yemen. But they were so compelled to call for US bombing of Syria. Of course, those 50 US diplomats were never concerned about the inevitable civilians who die from US bombing of Arab countries. And can those 50 US diplomats point to one case in which US bombing advanced the cause of peace and democracy, or to a case where US bombing or even occupation replaced a dictatorship with a better form of government? Leave to the US to be able to replace Qadhdhafi’s dictatorship with a worse regime. The US has singlehandedly succeeded in turning many Iraqis into nostalgia for the regime of Saddam Husayn. But that does not matter: 50 US diplomats want US to bomb Syria, and they mean business. Here, an objective neutral observer speaks on behalf of the 50 US diplomats in the New York Times: “There is an enormous frustration in the bureaucracy about Syria policy,” said Andrew J. Tabler, a Syria expert at the Washington Institute for Near Eastern Policy." Also, did any of the US diplomat speak against the US relations with the Syrian regime when the two sides were allies? Just as no US diplomats ever spoke against US alliance with Saddam Husayn during the honey moon years. Those 50 US diplomats have as much courage and as much moral fortitude as Hillary Clinton when she calls for more aid to Israel.

51 U.S. Diplomats Urge Strikes Against Assad in Syria
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/17/world/middleeast/syria-assad-obama-airstrikes-diplomats-memo.html

Why Iran still doesn’t trust Russia on Syria
▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/06/iran-russia-syria-defense-ministers-tehran-meeting.html

Several important political and field developments over the past two months have made Iran more suspicious of its Russian strategic partner. These developments include a reported secret agreement between Russia and the United States regarding the Free Syrian Army, Russia accepting the cease-fires without informing Iran and Lebanon and a temporary halt in Russian airstrikes against the moderate Syria opposition and Jabhat al-Nusra.

Iran’s main objective in hosting the gathering was to convey to its Syrian and Russian partners that it is still the main player in the Syrian war and it is not willing to retreat because of Assad or Russian President Vladimir Putin until all its objectives have been realized.

Read more: ▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/06/iran-russia-syria-defense-ministers-tehran-meeting.html#ixzz4Bt28RiTU

Alaistair Crooke dans le Huffington Post s’interroge sur la cause de la narrative étroitement confessionnaliste qui est faite ici, à l’instar des médias du Golfe, des combats pour la reprise de Falloujah, narrative qui peut se résumer en « les Chiites attaquent les Sunnites de Da’ich » (voir à tire d’exemple ce signalement d’@nidal : ▻http://seenthis.net/messages/495898 ).
Crooke, à partir d’une analyse d’un document du Center for a New American Security, groupe bipartisan de membres de l’establishment de la politique étrangère US, donne une explication de cette narrative qui résiderait dans la convergence de vues entre néo-cons et libéraux interventionnistes (à la Hillary) sur le fait que l’Iran reste le problème fondamental, plutôt que l’idéologie takfiriste d’inspiration wahhabite. Ces deux courants partage une même opposition au désengagement relatif des USA du Moyen-Orient proclamé par Obama et veulent maintenir une domination sur cette zone pour laquelle la puissance iranienne est un obstacle, et d’autre part partagent le même biais pro-Israël pour qui, dans le contexte d’une volonté de normalisation des Etats du Golfe avec lui, l’axe Iran/régime syrien/Hezbollah reste l’ennemi. Raison pour laquelle ce document du CNAS désigne l’Iran et Da’ich comme ennemis mais aucunement la branche syrienne d’al-Qaïda qu’il passe sous silence.

▻http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alastair-crooke/hillary-foreign-policy_b_10338608.html

In short, the ephemeral global narrative does not relate well to the facts on the ground where there is much less sectarianism than this Western-Gulf narrative purports to exist.
But let that pass. This narrative, echoed widely beyond the Financial Times, is Orwellian in another way. It serves another deeper purpose. It has much to do with finding and articulating, as Jim Lobe notes, the point of intersection between liberal interventionism and neoconservatism. This intersection is the subject of a May 16 report from the Center for a New American Security, which was drawn up by a bipartisan task force of 10 senior members of the U.S. foreign policy establishment and augmented by six dinner discussions with invited experts.
Their approach is to cast Iran as the source of all ‘regional tensions’ and to hold onto America’s Gulf bases in order to be a ‘force that can flex across several different mission sets and prevail.’
It is, in a sense, the riposte from the two interventionist wings of American politics to Trump’s iconoclasm in foreign policy. And, Lobe writes, “it’s fair to predict that the above-mentioned report is likely to be the best guide to date of where a Hillary Clinton presidency will want to take the country’s foreign policy.”
The report is all about how to maintain America’s benevolent hegemony — or how to maintain and expand today’s “rules-based international order,” which implies maintaining and expanding the geo-financial order as much as the political order. As we saw in U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton Carter’s interview with Vox, there are clear, though somewhat cushioned, echoes of the 1992 U.S. Defense Planning Guidance. [...]
Another gloss in the CNAS report is striking: while ISIS as a threat is made much of, and a call is issued to “uproot” it, when it comes to Syria, the report simply states that “it is also essential to assist in the formation of a Sunni alternative to ISIS and the [Syria President Bashar] Assad regime” and to create “a safe space ... where moderate opposition militias can arm, train, and organize.” Yet there is no mention of Jabhat al-Nusra, al Qaeda’s Syria wing. Its role simply is not addressed. This conscious lacuna suggests that the authors do not want to embarrass Saudi Arabia for all its fired-up Sunni jihadist tools. The old Western standby of using psychologically inflamed Sunni radicalism as a means to weaken opponents seems like it won’t be dismantled completely. It is fine, evidently, to make a hoo-ha about ISIS while Nusra is to be slipped quietly into the Syrian calculus in order to shift the military balance and convince Assad that he cannot remain in power. [...]
It is not that the report’s authors don’t grasp these points, but if the neocons have one constancy, it has been their unwavering support for Israel. They think that the Gulf states are ready for a normalization with Israel and wish to do profitable business with it. What stands in the way of this rapprochement, in the neocon view, is Iran, Syria and Hezbollah’s vehement opposition — and their ability to ignite public opinion across the Muslim world on behalf of the Palestinians.

Participation directe de forces spéciales anglaises à des combats auprès de la « New Syrian Army » en ligne de front aux confins des frontières jordanienne et irakienne en Syrie (poste-frontière de Tanf) - et pas seulement de l’entraînement de combattants en Jordanie - selon le Times :
▻http://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/news/brit-special-forces-in-syria-gvtn97nbg

British special forces are on the front line in Syria defending a rebel unit under daily attack by Isis, military commanders have told The Times.
The operation marks the first evidence of the troops’ direct involvement in the war-torn country rather than just training rebels in Jordan.
British special forces based in Jordan frequently cross into Syria to assist the New Syrian Army (NSA), which has been holding out in the southeastern village of al-Tanf. The rebel unit, made up of former Syrian special forces who defected from President Assad’s army, was retrained by the British and Americans.

L’essentiel de l’article du Times sous paywall mais le Telegraph en reprend des éléments :
▻http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/06/06/british-special-forces-operating-inside-syria-alongside-rebels

First Lieutenant Mahmoud al-Saleh said British forces frequently crossed the border to help the New Syrian Army (NSA), comprised of former Syrian special forces, as it defends the south-eastern village of al-Tanf.
“They helped us with logistics, like building defences to make the bunkers safe,” he said.

Sujet déjà évoqué à plusieurs reprises sous l’angle de cette « New Syrian Army » fonctionnant surtout comme couverture de forces spéciales jordanienne et occidentale, ce que cet article semble, au moins en partie, confirmer avec une implication décrite comme importante et active de ces forces anglaises : ▻http://seenthis.net/messages/494075
►http://seenthis.net/messages/474150 ►http://seenthis.net/messages/468261
#new_syrian_army

Sunday, May 29, 2016
ISIS and Israel
▻http://angryarab.blogspot.fr/2016/05/isis-and-israel.html

There is a strange relationship between Israel and a small sect of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) based next to the Golan Heights. The very presence of a group like ISIS so close to Israel poses many questions. Firstly why has ISIS not attacked Israel – a country they have sworn to destroy – from said base? Similarly why has the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) not attacked this small and weak group of extremists on their border? The answers to such questions show the truth behind the rhetoric all actors use in this conflict...Israel is focused not on ISIS and Sunni groups, but on the Shia groups in Syria. Israel’s airstrikes have hit Assad’s Shia-backed regime and Hezbollah, not ISIS or al-Nusra. Correspondence between the then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and political advisor Jacob Sullivan about Israel’s aims in the region tried to rationalise why Israel ignores ISIS." (thanks Helena)
Posted by As’ad AbuKhalil at 2:22 PM

Correspondence : ▻http://graphics.wsj.com/hillary-clinton-email-documents/pdfs/C05791550.pdf

Ca va pas fort pour les rebelles de la poche d’Azaz qui après avoir pris du territoire à Da’ich risquent de voir leur microterritoire coupé en 2 par les offensives de Da’ich et perdre la ville de Mare. Reste que la ligne de front ne cesse de bouger dans cette zone et donc que rien n’y est fait :

http://i.imgur.com/uWCrzP6.jpg

Cela dans les contexte où on évoque la création d’une armée « Armée du Nord » (Jaych al-Chamal) sous le patronage turco-américain qui aurait pour but d’empêcher les Kurdes de faire la jonction Kobané-Afrin en prenant du territoire à Da’ich au Nord à partir de la poche d’Azaz, et également de combattre al-Nousra dans la province d’Idlib afin d’aider la rébellion à se distancier du groupe selon les souhaits des Russes - et, semble-t-il, des Américains (mais soyons prudents...) :
▻http://www.thearabweekly.com/?id=5153

The plan was reportedly formu­lated at a meeting May 9th in Turkey and included intelligence officials from the United States, Turkey, Sau­di Arabia and Qatar, in addition to leaders of the rebel groups. Turkish officials bluntly told the insurgents that if they refused to join the pro­posed alliance they would be brand­ed as terrorists.
The Americans are to provide the new force with advanced weaponry. Saudi Arabia and Qatar would cover financial costs. Military operations could start within two weeks. Air cover would be provided by the coa­lition countries while Turkey would offer artillery support from across the border.
According to a field commander with al-Zenki, the plan involves three phases, starting with the an­nouncement of the creation of Jaish al-Shamal. The second step includes moving the groups’ fighters and their weapons via Turkish territo­ries to northern Aleppo. The third phase is the fight itself.
He noted that opposition groups had begun on May 13th mov­ing fighters and heavy weaponry through Bab al-Hawa, a border crossing between Syria and Turkey.
Al-Zenki group is to lead the bat­tle, which is meant to fight ISIS, evict al-Nusra Front from Idlib, lib­erate the town of Al Raii, capture the area to the east of city of Azaz and then the city of Mare’.
The plan was confirmed by US Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who declared at a May 13th news conference in Washington that the United States and Turkey share the objective of clearing the area from ISIS.
However, the fact that the plan does not refer to fighting troops loy­al to Assad has aroused suspicions among rebel groups of the existence of a prior agreement between the United States and Russia on the for­mation of the new alliance.
“We fear that the US conditions limit the mission of this (new) army to fighting ISIS,” an al-Zenki com­mander said. “Is there a US-Russian understanding with the Syrian re­gime to avoid fighting between the Northern Army and the Syrian regu­lar army as well as the Kurdish fight­ers who are attempting to control the area?”
It seems opposition groups have no alternative but to go along with the US plan of fighting ISIS out of fear that they will lose land to ad­vancing Assad troops, backed by Iranian and Hezbollah fighters un­der Russian air cover, and also their only supply route from Turkey, which threatened to consider them terrorists if they fail to comply.
Nonetheless, the US-sponsored plan seems to serve the goals of Turkey, which according to high-ranking Syrian opposition sources, “is facing an embarrassing situa­tion” after the killing of more than 25 people and the injuring of dozens of others by ISIS bombardment from Syria on the Turkish town of Kilis.

Juan Cole dans The Nation pose la question que l’on se pose depuis 5 ans :

Why Is Washington Supporting Fundamentalist Jihadis in Syria ?
A CIA-backed rebel group has joined with Al Qaeda in attacking another rebel force—the one leading negotiations in Geneva.
▻http://www.thenation.com/article/why-is-washington-supporting-fundamentalist-jihadis-in-syria
Résumé : l’article part des combats récents entre différents groupes dominant la Ghouta orientale (est de la région de Damas). Pour une vue d’ensemble et ses probables implication étrangères on pourra lire ce récent article d’Aron Lund : ▻http://carnegieendowment.org/syriaincrisis/?fa=63512 .
En gros des combats très violents ont opposé Jaych al-Islam, d’une part, et d’autre part un groupe lié à l’ASL, Faylaq al-Rahman, ainsi que la coalition menée par al-Nousra dans la région : Jaych al-Foustat (JAN + Ahrar + Fajr al-Oumma). Enjeu : le contrôle de zones et des taxes sur les tunnels et du leadership sur la Ghouta orientale.
Donc d’un côté le wahhabisme de JAI, soutenu par les Saoudiens, et dont un des commandants, Mohammed Alloush, est le chef des négociateurs de du HCN à Genève. Et de l’autre un groupe théoriquement lié à l’ASL, recevant l’aide des USA (dont des missiles TOW), et qui s’est allié avec la coalition salafiste comprenant la branche syrienne d’al-Qaïda le premier :

Now there is a problem. In the past month the Rahman Corps has flipped, joined with Al Qaeda, and begun attacking Alloush’s group, the Army of Islam.
That’s right: The leader of the negotiating team at Geneva on behalf of the rebels is now besieged by one of his own US-backed constituents, which is likely using CIA-provided weapons against him. And it is doing so in a battlefield alliance with Al Qaeda.
In the East Ghouta pocket, Nusra ally the Rahman Corps and the Fustat Army Operations Room (led by Al Qaeda) have been ranged against the Army of Islam. Fighting between the fundamentalists intensified Saturday night, but it has been raging for twenty days and has killed 300. Most of the dead were members of the Army of Islam and Al Qaeda, though dozens were from the Rahman Corps. The preachers of Al Qaeda, or the Nusra Front, were said to be inciting the killing of members of the Army of Islam.

A cela il faut ajouter le récent massacre de civils du village alaouite de Zaraa par al-Nousra mais aussi Ahrar, dont JAI est aussi un allié :

On Thursday, the Nusra Front, along with its ally, the Freemen of Syria (Ahrar al-Sham), also attacked in another part of Syria, the Alawite Shiite village of Zara, south of Hama. There, they stand accused of butchering at least 19 civilians and of desecrating the bodies of the dead Alawites, who mostly support the government of Assad (himself an Alawite). The villagers maintain that the invading insurgents slit the throats of their victims in their homes, and that those killed included children, women, and the aged. The Freemen of Syria denied targeting civilians. The Alawites comprise some 10 to 14 percent of Syria’s population. Remember that the Army of Islam of Mohammad Alloush, the lead negotiator in Geneva, is allied with the Freemen of Syria and that Alloush’s family has been vitriolic against Syrian Shiites.

Ceci amène Juan Cole à la conclusion suivante :

The Assad regime is guilty of crimes against humanity, and many of the groups that took up arms against it were fired by a desire for a more just society. But many of the supposed friends of the United States in Syria’s opposition have an unsavory ideology, unsavory friends, or are themselves guilty of war crimes. Washington has to stop arming these groups if there is ever to be peace in Syria, and it needs to pressure Saudi Arabia to cease trying to push Syria to the far right. The weaponry sent in by Saudi Arabia on Washington’s behalf in any case often makes its way to Al Qaeda or ISIS. The Army of Islam shouldn’t be the lead negotiator in Geneva! The leftist Kurds need to be brought into the negotiations if the northeast is to remain part of Syria, and their voice on the opposition side is important to offset the powerful megaphone of the minority Salafis.

Article très intéressant d’Elijah Magnier sur les divergences actuelles entre Damas, Téhéran et le Hezbollah d’un côté et la Russie de l’autre quant à la cessation des hostilités :
Russia equivocates in Syria, Iran is confused and al-Qaeda takes the initiative
▻https://elijahjm.wordpress.com/2016/05/11/russia-equivocates-in-syria-iran-is-confused-and-al-qaeda-takes-
Morceaux choisis :

The Damascus and Moscow alliance faced with the cooperation of the Middle Eastern regional countries and the United States in Syria is failing at the moment. Al-Qaeda in al-Sham (Jabhat al-Nusra) although excluded from the Cease-fire, grabbed the initiative on the ground and counter attacked south of Aleppo with many allies: Ahrar al-Sham, Jund al-Aqsa, Jaish al-Sunnah and the Turkestan forces (all not excluded from the Cease-fire) fighting within the ranks of Jaish al-Fateh, the “army of conquest,” which includes more jihadist organizations and others more moderate.[...]
Now that over 97 cities and towns are engaged in the cessation of hostilities (COH), the Russian President Vladimir Putin needs a strong case to return to the Syrian arena in full force. Today, Moscow has placed itself alongside flexible American diplomacy, which in Syria changes according to developments and is unwilling to re-initiate a military campaign that could be considered aggressive to various countries in the Middle East. Such a flexible Russian attitude has angered Tehran and Damascus and their proxy allies, forcing them to alter plans of deployment.[...]
Decision makers in Syria say “Moscow gave the time for rebels to regroup and reorganise their offensives. There is no point in fighting and dying in areas we don’t need to hold on to. Before the Russian intervention, we were defending the main cities and no force could have managed to break in. Now we are on several fronts without serious coordination between all forces. It is time to change tactics and reduce military deployment”.[...]
“Countries in the region are prepared to wait seven more months for a new U.S. President who would interact with Assad more aggressively than President Barack Obama. These countries will continue supporting the rebels in the next 7 months, sending money and weapons so they are prepared for another confrontation. The allies of Damascus consider Russia has repeated what the late President of Egypt Anwar al-Sadat did in 1973 when he stopped the war suddenly and gave Israel the opportunity to regroup its forces, returning to regain the initiative and overcome the Egyptian third army, all of which resulted in the Camp David agreement”.[...]
It is therefore expected that Hezbollah, a strong and effective ally of Damascus, will modify its deployment plans on the battlefield to mitigate the human losses as long as there is an unclear horizon and that Russian politics in Syria are unclear, say the sources. Six months ago, Damascus and its allies decided to retreat to the main cities and abandon distant and rural areas, difficult to supply logistically and considered less strategic. Today, Hezbollah refuses to engage in all on-going battles when military plans are drawn up but not implemented, even with limited officers. If Russia is willing to hit only ISIS in the East of Syria and refrain from hitting al-Nusra and other jihadists spread in vast area around Aleppo, Hezbollah is not willing to lose more men to keep a status quo. There will be no withdrawal from Syria but redeployment and reduce participation in many forthcoming battles, according to sources on the ground.
A fuzzy future is overwhelming Syria. It seems that the appeasing Russian policy of appeasement with regard to Jahbat al-Nusra, Ahrar al-Sham and other jihadists will negatively affect the Syrian army provided that there are no other changes in the Syrian dynamic. The war in Syria is not expected to end soon.

Article original en arabe dans le journal koweïtien al-Raï ici : ▻http://www.alraimedia.com/ar/article/special-reports/2016/05/10/678502/nr/syria

(Du 30 avril) On the Ground in Aleppo: Bloodshed, Misery and Hope
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/01/world/middleeast/syrian-city-torn-by-war-shows-jarring-resolve-to-try-to-live-normally.html

Mr. Assad, the president, faced new accusations of war crimes after airstrikes hit Al Quds hospital, on the rebel side of Aleppo, on Wednesday night. By Friday, rescuers said they had pulled 55 bodies from the rubble, including 29 children and women, some of whom had been in labor, according to one aid group. Doctors Without Borders, which had been supporting the hospital, denounced the bombing as “outrageous.”

Residents in government-controlled areas have learned to fear the “hell cannon,” an improvised form of rocket fashioned from modified propane gas cylinders and packed with explosives and metal objects that is used by some insurgent groups, including those that receive American assistance.

Both sides have been ravaged by bombardments, although only the government has fighter jets and helicopters at its disposal, which have reduced broad swaths of rebel territory to rubble.

Disregard for civilian life is universal. On Thursday, after the hospital attack, rebel rockets rained on virtually every district of government-controlled Aleppo in a fierce barrage that claimed dozens of casualties. Taxis and ambulances screeched to a halt outside the city’s Al Razi hospital as desperate relatives rushed bloodied and dust-covered people, many of them children, into the emergency ward.

L’histoire et les éléments à charge après étude de milliers de documents extraits de Syrie et actuellement aux mains de Chris Engels et de la Commission for International Justice and Accountability prouvant l’implication de Assad et son régime dans la torture et le meurtre de milliers d’opposants et citoyens Syriens

The Assad Files - The New Yorker
►http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/04/18/bashar-al-assads-war-crimes-exposed

http://www.newyorker.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Taub_Syria-Social-Share_FB.jpg

The Assad Files
Capturing the top-secret documents that tie the Syrian regime to mass torture and killings.

#Assad #Syrie
#Tortures
#Engels

Derrière les rideaux, Russes et Américains continuent de collaborer
Le Temps / 23.04.16
▻http://www.letemps.ch/monde/2016/04/23/derriere-rideaux-russes-americains-continuent-collaborer
Résumé : réunion discrète entre Américains et Russes dans un « pays arabe voisin de la Syrie », sans les autres pays de la « Task Force » et en marge de Genève pour discuter de l’effondrement de la cessation des hostilités et des questions militaires.
Dans les déclarations, semble-t-il une relative compréhension entre Russes et Américains sur la nécessité de réduire la présence d’al-Nousra à Alep.
Rencontres également en aparté à Genève sur les questions plus politiques avec des rumeurs d’un projet de duplication des postes en flanquant Assad de trois vice-présidents durant la « transition » :

Ainsi, un peu sur le modèle libanais, il pourrait être question de « dupliquer » certains postes, afin de les partager entre les tenants du régime et les différentes oppositions. Endossée par un opposant politique (qui n’est pas membre du Haut comité aux négociations, le HCN, soit la branche soutenue par Washington), une esquisse de ce modèle serait arrivée sur le bureau de Staffan de Mistura – concrètement, un président Assad flanqué de trois vice-présidents. Le responsable de l’ONU a mis cette proposition sur le compte d’un « expert » qu’il n’a pas nommé. Mais elle a contribué à mettre en colère l’opposition du HCN, la convaincant, parmi d’autres raisons, à « suspendre » sa présence à Genève. Il est peu vraisemblable que Russes et Américains n’aient pas été associés à la démarche.

Le porte-parole de l’opération Inherent Resolve juge que les bombardements russes contre Alep ne compromettent pas (« it’s complicated ») l’accord de cessez-le-feu du fin février, arguant que c’est principalement (« primarily ») al-Nusra qui tient Alep, et que Nusra ne fait pas partie de l’accord… (Ça me semble suffisamment important pour que tu n’en entendes plus parler.)

Defense Department says Nusra in Aleppo
▻http://uk.businessinsider.com/defense-department-nusra-aleppo-putin-assad-2016-4

US Army Col. Steve Warren, the spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq, was asked whether Russian airstrikes on Aleppo, the current epicenter of the war, meant that Moscow was preparing to end the cessation of hostilities (CoH) agreement between government forces and the opposition signed on February 29.

Warren responded that it was “complicated” because al-Nusra “holds Aleppo” and is not party to the agreement.

Warren said of Russia:

I’m not going to predict what their intentions are. What I do know is that we have seen, you know, regime forces with some Russian support as well begin to mass and concentrate combat power around Aleppo. ... That said, it’s primarily al-Nusra who holds Aleppo, and of course, al-Nusra is not part of the cessation of hostilities. So it’s complicated.

The Defense Department made a big gaffe that helps Putin and Assad in Syria
▻http://www.businessinsider.com/defense-department-nusra-aleppo-putin-assad-2016-4

(Au passage, cet article est la preuve s’il en faut que le journalisme mainstream n’est pas « #objectif »- comme il se plaît à s’auto-décrire- puisque s’il se fait un devoir de souligner les « #gaffes », c’est qu’il tait les #omissions par pur esprit partisan.)

US Army Col. Steve Warren, the spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq, was asked whether Russian airstrikes on Aleppo, the current epicenter of the war, meant that Moscow was preparing to end the cessation of hostilities (CoH) agreement between government forces and the opposition signed on February 29.

Warren responded that it was “complicated” because #al-Nusra “holds Aleppo” and is not party to the agreement.

#objectivité #excuses_bidon

Quel sera le thème des manifestations spontanées de vendredi prochain? Syria protesters brave streets after five years of carnage
▻http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/d18bec4c-0617-11e6-a70d-4e39ac32c284.html#axzz46dOwyGbK

In an echo of the 2011 mass protests that swept Syria before the uprising degenerated into civil war, some towns have even revived the custom of naming their Friday demonstrations; last week’s theme was: “By unifying our ranks we will topple Assad”.

[…]

Like most other things in Syria, protests have changed over five years. One activist from northern Idlib province said he has become disillusioned by their politicisation. “We used to go out and protest without anyone asking us, or telling us what to do,” says Abu Mohammed, who asked not to be identified by his real name. “Now it is all politicised . . .  whatever backer is giving the opposition money influences what we name our Friday.”

«#spontanéité»