Talk:Syria news/Current


 * ''for discussion older than December 2018 see the Archive

December 2018 - Turkey threatens and US withdraws
This latest development is really stunning. If the Rojava Kurds have any sense left after Trump's announcement of withdrawal and Erdogan's threats, they must run as fast as they can to Damascus and invite the SAA to return to Rojava on almost every terms. That's IMHO the only way to avoid a Turkish invasion which would be a terrible massacre, the end of all their achievements and the end of Syria in the current borders. --CE (talk) 12:16, 20 December 2018 (UTC)

Western mainstream media attacked the decision. Which was floated in Trump's election campaigns, then repeated and abandoned in alteration, in between two Tomahawk strikes, over some Russians. Until that Erdogan's shtick in the news?

In Russian sources, some doubt this is for real, and not different from what it seems. With the Kurds, likely initial/natural sympathy but after they caused a strike killing 2 to 3 hundred Russian contractors, as per Strelkov and friends (+ them controlling the richest oil fields, as far as the bosses are concerned) there may be little enthusiasm to specially defend them. It is likely that it will be left for Assad to do; the latter will require Syrian state in control. Such negotiations happened in the past, without an agreement. Some patriotic opposition figures praised Trump as an example to Putin to follow the suit and get out of Syria. --Resup (talk) 12:38, 20 December 2018 (UTC)

October 2019 - Deja-Vu
Kurdish allies? US has a history of abandoning (Kissinger's “covert action should not be confused with missionary work”); in Trump's version, they are "special people and wonderful fighters", and "we are helping the Kurds financially/weapons!". Israelis, sympathetic, but won't fight for them (comments noted to the effect that days when Americans are expected to sort out things are gone). Armenia, not enough weight/resources to take it on. Russia may be, abstractly, lukewarm positive, but with Kurds controlling oil resources, + Turkey an important (economic) partner, Russia will look the other way (+ earlier comment on causing death of hundreds of Russian contractors still applies, as far as Russian vets/patriotic movements, and by extension the ordinary people are concerned). US vets, commoners, and whether it's relevant, unsure --Resup (talk) 23:25, 8 October 2019 (UTC)

I can only repeat what I wrote last time. And the signs are a bit better than last time (as they should, how stubborn can the Kurds be?) - Russia has forced both AA and the Government, and Intelligence of Syria and Turkey, to negotiate and it even has opened a military bridge over the Euphrates in recent days. --CE (talk) 12:10, 9 October 2019 (UTC)

Pierre Piccinin da Prata

 * Syria Times, 16 March, 2019
 * Pierre Piccinin da Prata, the Belgian War reporter and Editor-in-Chief of The Maghreb and Orient Courier, held hostage with Italian war reporter Domenico Quirico by Syrian ‘rebels’ for five months, eavesdropped a conversation through a closed door- between their jailers about the chemical weapon attack and saying that President al-Assad was not responsible for Ghouta Sarin gas attack.

This may add to what's known, but some problem with the way it is published, no video, Syrian original source (then reposted elsewhere). Critics may say, what they usually say (propaganda, variant Stockholm syndrome, etc). It would be better if coming from him directly, best on video, especially since he is an editor of some info-resources 1, 2. Could not quickly located this on his pages. --16:22, 24 March 2019 (UTC)


 * I've posted this already where it belongs. --CE (talk) 17:13, 24 March 2019 (UTC)

Prigozhin?
11 Jan. 2020 Russian and German media report that Evgenii Prigozhin is arrested in Munich, each quoting the other as the source --Resup (talk) 14:36, 11 January 2020 (UTC) The news was later denied

"On the road to Damascus
''Assad joked, suggesting that "if Trump passes along this road, everything will become normal with him too." Vladimir Putin immediately responded: "Invite him, he will come." “I'm ready,” Assad said. “I'll tell him,” Putin assured. Presidents also visited the Umayyad Mosque, known as the Great Mosque of Damascus'' - here --Resup (talk) 14:22, 12 January 2020 (UTC)

Turkey

 * Sultan and Tomatoes -Putnik1, 12 Feb. 2020
 * Erdoğan's Idlib statement: We will shoot regime forces everywhere - tele1.com.tr, 12 Feb. 2020 --Resup (talk) 15:50, 14 February 2020 (UTC)

As robo-translated. The headlines from Erdogan's statement are as follows:

“With the last attack, the number of martyrs we have given in Idlib has reached 14 and the number of injured 45 to date. Turkey will remain a spectator to this situation. In Idlib, most of the attacks, along with the regime and the Russians , target civilian people, not terrorists. The aim is to move the people of the region to the border of our country in order to occupy easily, to empty the field. ”

'We will hit the regime powers everywhere' “For a while these attacks started to target our soldiers directly. If this is the case, we will act according to the facts on the field, not just words. We are determined to pull the regime behind our observation limits by the end of February. We will do this without any distraction. We will do whatever we need to do immediately, without waiting for the results of the endless meetings. We have given the message that the opposition groups in the region will act uncorruptedly and treat those who attack the regime without compromise. We will no longer tolerate anyone's provocations. ”

“I declare that if our soldiers at the observation points and elsewhere suffer the slightest damage, we will shoot regime forces everywhere without being bound by the Idlib and Sochi memorandum.”

Opolchenie people (Strelkov) continue to express criticism and concern over a possibility of a direct clash between Russian and Turkish forces. A view is expressed that neither side really wants this to happen. Advances in Saraqib are attributed to Hezbollah (like in MEM here) + Russian PMC + SAA, with some support by the Russian airforce. --Resup (talk) 19:54, 4 March 2020 (UTC)

Missile marking appears to be 9M78M or 9M79M. The latter would be Tochka U; the former is a less known Soviet cruise missile (оперативно-тактическая крылатая ракета С-5М. Usage: РК 2К17М (ФКР-2М)), according to contemporary indexation. Greater resemblance with Tocka, I'd say --Resup (talk) 14:41, 6 March 2021 (UTC)