Posted on 09/18/2015 7:37:11 AM PDT by Wilderness Conservative
On Thursday evening, we detailed a Reuters report which suggested that the influx of Russian technical and logistical support to Bashar al-Assad’s depleted army at Latakia might have breathed new life into the regime as it seeks to rout Islamic State and a whole host of other armed groups fighting for control of Syria. “Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem said on Thursday Russia had provided new weapons and trained Syrian troops how to use them,” Reuters said, before describing what certainly sounds like an invigorated air campaign against the de facto ISIS capital at Raqqa.
Importantly, al-Moualem also indicated that Syria would be willing to make an official request for Russian combat troops “if needed.”
Now clearly, it seems likely that Russian troops have already joined the battle and indeed, when the bullets start flying, the distinction between “logistical” support and “combat” support quickly becomes blurred, but through all the sabre rattling and back-and-forth banter between Kerry and Lavrov, both sides are still keen to at least pay lip service to the unwritten rules of international diplomacy which is why before Russia can admit that its troops are actually on the ground to fight, they’ll be a charade where Syria will pretend to be raising the issue with the Kremlin for the first time at which point the Kremlin will take a few days to “consider” things. As of Friday, it appears as though that process has begun. Here’s Bloomberg:
(Excerpt) Read more at zerohedge.com ...
Which grownups would that be?
Pingsky.
Someone in US Government should go and talk to the Russians and see how we can get together to hit ISIS.
What a terrible choice we have in Syria...
On one hand, we have Assad who’s backed by Russia and Iran.
On the other hand, we have ISIL/ISIS.
If Isis, Assad, Iran, Al Qaeda and Russia want to kill each other, I say get out of their way and pass the popcorn.
Some people have this need to find the good guys in any situation. A lot of times in the real world there aren’t any.
Russia doesn’t want to kill ISIS. They want to kill secular opposition to Assad and block the Gulf gas pipeline route to Europe.
Beirut: Syrian regime aircraft Friday carried out at least 25 strikes on Daesh (the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Syria and the Levant)-controlled Palmyra, the country’s famed ancient city, with eight civilians among the dead, a monitoring group said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the raids killed “at least eight civilians and many members” of Daesh.
The aerial barrage was “one of the strongest attacks by Syrian warplanes against positions in Palmyra since Daesh captured it” on May 21, according to Observatory head Rami Abdul Rahman
http://gulfnews.com/news/mena/syria/syria-regime-in-wave-of-air-raids-on-palmyra-1.1586149
Someone in our US Government doesn’t want to hit ISIS.
If that were all that were involved fine, but somehow I think one of them is going to try to involve Israel. Then we will be be in a pickle.
It has nothing to do with gas pipelines. Syria has been Russia’s ally/client for over 50 years. The Russians, whatever their flaws, stick with their allies until the last dog dies. Look at Cuba.
And there is no secular opposition to Assad. Whatever there was wouldn’t have lasted two minutes against ISIS. There are assorted jihadists and Assad.
We should all be thankful that the Islamists all despise each other, and even more so that a microscopic amount would be willing to accept Hussein Soetoro as their caliph. Otherwise, the official language of Europe and America would already be either Farsi or Arabic.
A Gulf gas pipeline removes Russian monopoly on the European market. Of course they are very interested in stopping that.
Syria is Russia’s toe hold in the ME. They’ll dump Assad in a second if it furthers Putin’s interests. You think they care about him? LOL.
They care about being seen as a reliable ally. Unlike the USA which eventually sells out ours. I actually can’t think of any time they abandoned one.
Whatever his public image, Putin is consistent---if nothing else.
Putin also decried Christian slaughter by Muzzies in Egypt and defended Egyptian President al-Sisi in his efforts to drive the Muslim Brotherhood out of Egyptian politics.
Putin was there for al-Sisi when al Sisi vowed to rebuild the 63 churches torched by Christian-hating Muslims who rampaged over Christian homes and businesses in Egypt.
Book of Revelations ping...
Russian troops in the Middle East? We just thought we had problems there.
ISIS is a creation of the US government. Obama has plans for it.
Netanyahu is going to Putin to make sure that Israel’s interests (Hezbollah and Iran) do not conflict with Russia’s ISIS. Israel wants to be able to hit targets in Syria without having to deal with Russia’s mil who are already heavily engaged in the fighting. The bullets have been flying for a while now. And ISIS is hurting as it looses US heavy weapons and M1A1s taken from Iraq.
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