Free Republic

Egypt’s President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said in an interview that the Mideast region needs to cooperate to defeat a worsening terrorist threat that has led to a “ferocious war” in Egypt and created the danger of some countries “sliding into failure.” In a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press Saturday night, el-Sissi also said that Syria should not be divided after its civil war, that the Egyptian military needs to be “augmented” to defeat terrorists fighting in the Sinai and Western Desert, and that efforts should be renewed to solve the Palestinian issue and expand Egypt’s nearly 40-year-peace with Israel to...

...In an interview with American media ahead of Putin's meeting with US president Obama tomorrow, the Russian leader said: "In my opinion, provision of military support to illegal structures runs counter to the principles of modern international law and the United Nations Charter." US-Russian relations have slumped to a post-Cold War low over the Ukraine crisis, though the two sides share concerns about the threat posed by Islamic State, while disagreeing on the approach. Putin says Damascus should be included in international efforts to fight ISIS - a demand the America rejects, and he heavily criticised US plans to train...

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday branded U.S. support for rebel forces in Syria as illegal and ineffective, saying U.S.-trained rebels were leaving to join Islamic State with weapons supplied by Washington. In an interview with U.S. networks recorded ahead of a meeting with U.S. President Barack Obama, Putin said Syrian President Bashar al-Assad deserved international support as he was fighting terrorist organizations. Obama and Putin are scheduled to talk on Monday after Putin addresses the United Nations, although White House and Kremlin officials have disagreed on what the two leaders will discuss and even who initiated the meeting. "In...

Donald Trump on Friday accused his GOP rivals of seeking to “start World War III over Syria” and suggested the U.S. let Russia take up the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) "They want to start World War III over Syria. Give me a break," Trump said at the State Fairgrounds in Oklahoma City. "You know Russia wants to get ISIS right. We want to get ISIS. Russia’s in Syria. Maybe we should let them do it?," he continued. "Let them do it. What the hell are we crazy?" Trump's statements come as Russia builds up...

US Secretary of State John Kerry has blocked a meeting between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas, senior Palestinian and Israeli officials say. During a meeting with four retired Israeli ambassadors in Paris last Monday, Haaretz reported, Abbas said that despite his willingness to meet with Netanyahu, "a third party who is not Israeli" had recently prevented the meeting. Netanyahu has reportedly been sending Abbas messages for weeks about reviving the long-stalled peace process amid escalating Arab violence and Abbas' threat to suspend key clauses of the Oslo Accords during his visit to the United...

Secretary of State John Kerry said he sees a "major opportunity" to bring Iran into efforts to end the Syrian civil war as he met his Iranian counterpart ahead of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. "I view this week as a major opportunity for any number of countries to play an important role in trying to resolve some of the very difficult issues of the Middle East," Kerry told reporters alongside Iranian Minister Javad Zarif. "We need to achieve peace and a way forward in Syria, in Yemen, in the region itself. And I think there are...

This spring, many Syrian Christians rejected protestors' demands for embattled president Bashar al-Assad to resign. But Christians did broadly endorse democratic reforms that would bring an end to dictatorship. "We do not support those who are calling for the fall of the regime, simply because we are [for] the process of reform and changes," said Yohanna Ibrahim, Syrian Orthodox Metropolitan of Aleppo, at a religious summit in France. In late May, International Christian Concern, an evangelical ministry to the persecuted church, released to Christianity Today an anonymous open letter from a "trusted Syrian source" that explains why many Syrian Christians...

https://www.trunews.com/russian-marines-join-hizballah-in-first-syrian-battle-a-danger-signal-for-us-israel/ Russian marines join Hizballah in first Syrian battle – a danger signal for US, Israel Capture Before dawn on Thursday, Sept. 24, Russian marines went into battle for the first time since their deployment to Syria, DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources reveal. Russian Marine Brigade 810 fought with Syrian army and Hizballah special forces in an attack on ISIS forces at the Kweiris airbase, east of Aleppo. This operation runs contrary to the assurances of President Vladimir Putin to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sept. 21 – just three days ago – that Russian forces in Syria were only...

'Coordinating' with the Russians over Syria doesn't seem to be so much fun after all. According to this story (translated from an Arabic original here), the Russians have, in essence, threatened to shoot down any IAF jets targeting weapons convoys moving from Assad forces in Syria to Hezbullah in Lebanon. “Moscow imposed on Tel Aviv a military coordination in advance for any military operation carried against Syrian military targets or against Hezbollah in Syria, to prevent any fatal accident. Senior military officers on both sides will maintain regular meetings and contacts to allow a smooth Russian military presence in...

Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah on Friday welcomed Russia's military buildup in Syria in support of common ally President Bashar al-Assad, saying it was the failure of a U.S.-led campaign against Islamic State that had forced Moscow's hand. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in a three-hour interview with the group's al-Manar TV that increased Russian support for Assad included highly advanced weapons systems, warplanes and helicopters. Russia has stepped up its military involvement in Syria while pressing for Damascus to be included in international efforts to fight Islamic State, a demand Washington rejects. By raising the stakes in Syria's four-year conflict,...

Two days after the disbandment of the second U.S. backed “moderate” rebel militia in six months, the Syrian Al-Qaeda branch “Jabhat Al-Nusra” (Al-Nusra Front) seized a large cache of TOW (wire-guided anti-tank) missiles inside Regiment 46 Base in southwestern Aleppo after defeating Harakat Hazzm (Movement of Steadfastness) in a short battle. Images of Jabhat Al-Nusra fighters with the U.S. supplied TOW missiles surfaced on Monday morning, as they paraded around the captured Regiment 46 Base, posing for pictures in front of boxes with the U.S.’ insignia. The growing fear of hardline Islamist groups getting ahold of these potent weapons has...

The recent arrival of the Russian Marines and Air Force to the Syrian port-city of Tartous has generated a significant amount of interest around the world, as the possibility of Russia’s direct military intervention becomes the focal point of the war on ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham). [....] Instead, the Russians appear to have a contingency that involves another world power that was absent from the U.S. led Anti-ISIS Coalition: China. On Tuesday morning, a Chinese naval vessel reportedly traveled through Egypt’s Suez Canal to enter the Mediterranean Sea; its destination was not confirmed. However, according to a...

BOGUCHAR, Russia (Reuters) – Russia is planning a second major military base near the border with Ukraine, where NATO accuses Russian troops of helping pro-Moscow separatists fight Kiev’s forces.The new base will house 5,000 soldiers and heavy weaponry, according to public documents and people working at the site.It is further east than one under construction in Belgorod region reported by Reuters earlier this month but still close to the border with separatist-held parts of Ukraine’s eastern Luhansk region, where there has been heavy fighting.The bases are part of a Russian military buildup along a new line of confrontation with the...

RUSSIA to send 95,000 troops, 170 bombers and 700 tanks to Syria to crush anti-Assad opposition - Official Iran TV reports.

U.S. officials have begun to reveal the kinds of military equipment Russia has been moving into Syria, leaving little doubt that they are establishing an air base in the war-ravaged country. Moscow’s movements have been closely watched by the international community over the last few weeks, as observers debate whether the rapid buildup of weapons, troops and supplies near the Syrian coastal city of Latakia is presumably meant to aid diplomacy that will end the years-long civil war or to prop up the regime of embattled President Bahar al-Assad. Asked if the White House has gleaned Russia’s intent with the...

A Ukrainian website has created a comprehensive list of Ukraine's supposed 'enemies'. The eclectic list naturally includes a slew of Ukrainian and Russian statesmen and public personalities, but also, more surprisingly, nearly two dozen foreign figures, from Xi Jinping and Nicolas Sarkozy to Steven Seagal and even Donald Trump. After quickly gaining widespread media attention in Ukraine, the highly stylized website, which had a kyiv.ua domain, was quietly taken down, but not before internet archive Wayback Machine managed to index some of its content. Ukrainian media reported that the comprehensive list was prepared on the basis of an anonymous survey...

While the tweeted images have no landmarks on the ground as reference points, the Iranian state-sponsored FARS news agency released a report that Syrian aircraft bombed opposition forces in Idlib, including al-Nusra fighters on Wednesday. The possible sighting of Russian aircraft in Syrian skies comes just two days after the Jerusalem-based newspaper YNET released a report indicating that Russian pilots and aircraft would be arriving in Syria in “the coming days” with the purported mission of flying airstrikes against the Islamic State and opposition forces that are threatening the Assad regime.

This past weekend, the Russian Air Force was given full access to the Hmaymat Military Airbase inside the Latakia Governorate’s western countryside after the Syrian Arab Army’s Central Command approved the Russian Navy’s recent delivery of Sukhoi fighter jets through the Syrian port-city of Tartous. The Hmaymat Military Airbase is located inside the Bassel Al-Assad International Airport, which sits just east of the densely populated coastal city of Jableh in western Latakia. With full access to the Hmaymat Military Airbase’s airfields, the Russian Air Force possesses a temporary airbase to begin their aerial operations above the Islamic State of Iraq...

Is a Top American Diplomat a Russian Agent? John R. Schindler November 4, 2014 November 3, 2014 - Today the Ukrainian news website GORDON ran an interview with the Russian businessman and sometime politician Konstantin Borovoy. A harsh critic of Vladimir Putin — he recently said Russia’s president is “mentally unstable” while a year ago he pronounced the collapse of Putin’s corrupt dictatorship to be “inevitable” — Borovoy is something of a gadfly. A parliamentarian of independent views in the Yeltsin era, he served as an intermediary between Moscow and the rebels in the First Chechen War, and was assessed...

Moscow will reportedly provide Russian troops in Syria with an advanced antiaircraft missile system as part of its military support for Syrian president Bashar Assad. "This system is the advanced version used by Russia, and it's meant to be operated by Russians in Syria," a Western diplomat who is regularly briefed on US, Israeli, and other intelligence assessments told Reuters. And as The Daily Beast's Michael Weiss points out, any antiaircraft missiles deployed by Russian troops in Syria won't be directed at ISIS, since ISIS has no air force. In fact, none of the rebels do — only government forces...