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The Syria War Will Not Be a Quagmire -- Because Putin and Assad Are Winning 02/08/2016 12:13 pm ET | Updated 15 minutes ago Alastair Crooke: Fmr. MI-6 agent; Author, 'Resistance: The Essence of Islamic Revolution' BEIRUT -- Late in the night on Feb. 2, the news hit: "all communication and supply line[s]" between Turkey and Aleppo had been severed, according to a Elijah Magnier, a renowned Arab war correspondent with Alrai Media Group. It seems to be so: the Syrian army and allied militias, backed by Hezbollah and Russian air power, took control of a tendril of territory that...

An Iranian official on Monday rejected reports that Tehran has ceased funding the Palestinian terror group Hamas, claiming that supporting the fight against Israel remains a "principled policy," the semi-official Tasnim news agency said. Speaking at his weekly press conference in Tehran, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari rejected media reports that funding for the Gaza-based group ceased in 2009. Ansari said that supporting "Palestinian resistance movements" is part of Iran's foreign policy, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency. He called the Palestinian issue "pivotal and basic" for Muslims, according to the agency. ...

Russia's FSB security service said on Monday it had arrested seven Islamic State militants in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg who it said had been planning bomb attacks in Moscow, St Petersburg and the Sverdlovsk region. The group included Russian nationals and citizens of Central Asian states, the FSB said in a statement, saying it had charged the group with terrorism, and the illegal possession of weapons and explosives. It said it had uncovered a bomb-making laboratory during searches of the suspects homes and had found detonators, guns, grenades and extremist literature.

Since Russia began its air campaign, most of its strikes have been on cities and towns held by the rebels in western Syria. These are not areas where ISIS has much of a presence; al Nusra, Ahrar al Sham and elements of the Free Syrian Army are the main groups. In the process, senior rebel commanders have been killed in Homs, Idlib and Aleppo provinces. "Their ultimate objective is to force the world to make an unconscionable choice between Assad and ISIS," says Hokayem. For now, ISIS is waiting out the battle for Aleppo and watching its rivals get pummeled....

The Syrian army advanced toward the Turkish border on Monday in a major offensive backed by Russia and Iran that rebels say now threatens the future of their nearly five-year-old insurrection against President Bashar al-Assad. "Our whole existence is now threatened, not just losing more ground," said Abdul Rahim al-Najdawi from Liwa al-Tawheed, an insurgent group. "They are advancing and we are pulling back because in the face of such heavy aerial bombing we must minimize our losses." The Syrian military and its allies were almost five km (3 miles) from the rebel-held town of Tal Rafaat, which has brought...

In a January 22 Al-Majd TV interview, Palestinian scholar Samir Said talked about what he called the "criminal and Satanic nature" of the Jews and said that they were "the enemies of Mankind," who had "killed 70 prophets in a single day." Said is a member of the Jerusalem Committee of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS). Following are excerpts: Interviewer: Let's talk about the well-known history of Jewish crimes, since the days of the Israelites, and their crimes against the most noble people of those times – the prophets and messengers, against whom they committed grave crimes, including...

Iran wants to recover tens of billions of dollars it is owed by India and other buyers of its oil in euros and is billing new crude sales in euros, too, looking to reduce its dependence on the U.S. dollar following last month's sanctions relief. A source at state-owned National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC) told Reuters that Iran will charge in euros for its recently signed oil contracts with firms including French oil and gas major Total, Spanish refiner Cepsa and Litasco, the trading arm of Russia's Lukoil. "In our invoices we mention a clause that buyers of our oil...

European Union foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini says she is preparing to visit Iran following the implementation of a landmark nuclear deal between Tehran with world powers. Mogherini said Saturday there was no set date had been set, but that preparations with Tehran were well underway. She insisted all 28 EU nations were backing the opening with Iran. ...

The European Union on Saturday called on Israel to halt the demolition of illegal Palestinian buildings, some of which are EU-funded, and reiterated its opposition to building Jewish homes in Judea and Samaria. "In the past weeks there have been a number of developments in Area C of the West Bank, which risk undermining the viability of a future Palestinian state and driving the parties yet further apart," the EU diplomatic service said in a statement. It referred to Israel's decision on January 25 to declare 154 hectares (380 acres) of land near Jericho in Judea as state land, with...

Jerusalem is bracing for a series of Palestinian statehood initiatives in various international forums, including resolutions at the United Nations Security Council, Israel's ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said Thursday. "The Palestinians are increasing their involvement and activity in the international arena in a bid to internationalize the conflict," he told The Times of Israel. There are several initiatives calling for the creation of a Palestinian state circulating among UN diplomats, and while they recently received less exposure due to the world's focus on fighting the Islamic State terror group, these resolutions are anything but forgotten, he indicated. ...

Saudi Arabia's fresh public willingness to send ground troops into Syria is drawing ridicule from the kingdom's chief regional rival. The commander of Iran's revolutionary guard on Saturday mocked Saudi Arabia's declaration that it is prepared to commit ground troops to fight ISIS in war-torn Syria. "They claim they will send troops (to Syria), but I don't think they will dare do so," Maj. Gen. Ali Jafari told reporters in Tehran, according to Iran's semiofficial Fars news agency. "They have a classic army and history tells us such armies stand no chance in fighting irregular resistance forces." "This will be...

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad could make his biggest gains in the country’s long civil war—and potentially tip its outcome in his favor in a matter of weeks—by wresting control of the city of Aleppo from opposition forces, two U.S. military officials told The Daily Beast on condition of anonymity. If government forces are able to successfully encircle the city and hold it, and control the province around it, “the war is essentially over,” said one of the senior defense officials.

RAMZAN KADYROV has few inhibitions. Last week, just before the first anniversary of the murder of Boris Nemtsov, a liberal Russian opposition leader, by a member of Mr Kadyrov’s security services, the Chechen strongman posted a video on his Instagram page. It depicted Mikhail Kasyanov, a former prime minister, in the crosshairs of a sniper rifle. “Kasyanov is in Strasbourg to get money for the opposition,” Mr Kadyrov commented under the video, in a clear warning to opposition politicians. “Whoever still doesn’t get it, will.” Mr Kadyrov has been ratcheting up the invective for a while. Last month he called...

Armin Rosen Febuary 5, 2016Russia's submarine fleet is more active than it's been in decades in a strategically vital body of water — and US military planners can't seem to figure out why. US Navy Vice Admiral Clive Johnstone, also head of NATO's maritime command, told IHS Jane's that the US has seen "more activity from Russian submarines than we've seen since the days of the Cold War" in the North Atlantic. While Johnstone didn't specify which parts of the North Atlantic have seen this uptick, nearly the entirety of the area between North America, the Western European coastline, and...

For over four years, an article of faith for senior Western politicians has been that there is no military solution to the crisis in Syria. Properly translated this mantric assertion, still being chanted in 2016, would read as follows: “We in the West will not lift a finger militarily to stop, complicate, or mitigate mass murder in Syria so long as the perpetrators are Bashar al-Assad and his external enablers: Iran and Russia. Therefore someone ought to resolve this odious crisis diplomatically.”

Russian 'SPETSNAZ' commandos on the ground in Syria to crush ISIS as 70,000 refugees flee RUSSIAN 'Spetsnaz' special forces troops have surrounded the Syrian city of Aleppo amid fierce fighting in the besieged city, according to reports. By Tom Batchelor PUBLISHED: 00:00, Fri, Feb 5, 2016 | UPDATED: 18:01, Fri, Feb 5, 2016 Commandos sent by the Kremlin are apparently working covertly to support Syrian government forces who say they are close to retaking parts of the city from Islamic State control. Russian airstrikes have intensified in recent days in a bid to crush ISIS and rival rebel groups that...

On Thursday we brought you the latest from Syria, where Hezbollah and the IRGC have encircled Aleppo and cut off rebel supply lines to Turkey. It was months in the making, but it now appears that the city - Syria's second largest - will soon be retaken by forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad. As we've explained in the past, that would effectively restore the President's grip on power as he would effectively control most of the country’s urban centers - even if that "control" is tenuous. Eastern Syria is of course a different story entirely, as ISIS is dug in...

In a serious blow to the rebellion, the Syrian regime has severed the main insurgent supply line from Turkey to long-contested Aleppo, Syria’s second city. This is the culmination of several tactical regime victories against the opposition in recent weeks, largely due to Russian air support. Although some Western policy-makers (and many opposition supporters) continue to insist that Russia and its allies are sinking into a quagmire in Syria, the facts on the ground indicate that it is the insurgency and its backers who are stuck in a morass. Since the beginning of February, the regime took several towns north...

The head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, is to meet his Roman Catholic counterpart, Pope Francis, during a historic visit to Latin America. The groundbreaking meeting is to happen in mid-February in Cuba. The meeting between heads the two major Christian churches would be an unprecedented move to mend a millennium-long rift between the Western and Eastern branches of the religion, which started with the Great Schism of 1054. The upcoming meeting confirms Russia's status in the Christian world, according to Alexandr Avdeev Russia's ambassador to the Holy See. "In light of the Western sanctions, the meeting between...

Swedish officials say Russian military aircraft frequently infringe Swedish airspace. In 2014, the country was transfixed for a week by reports that a Russian submarine was lurking in the shallow waters of the Stockholm archipelago. "What we can see is that there are more exercises, more military activities in the Baltic Sea," Defence Minister Peter Hultqvist tells me. "We can also see more proactive activities, flying close to our aircraft." It's one thing to see what the Russians are doing, but what does it all mean? No-one in Sweden believes that Russia would launch an unprovoked attack on a country...