Posted on 06/15/2018 12:59:09 PM PDT by CondoleezzaProtege
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has said he needs the assistance of Iranian and Hizballah forces in Syria and they will stay for as long as they deem necessary.
"Hizballah is a basic element in this war. The battle is long, and the need for these military forces will continue for a long time," Assad told Al-Alam.
Assad stressed that he invited the allied fighters into his country and he would never ask them to leave, as the United States and Israel are demanding, even as part of any peace settlement. Israel sees Tehran as a mortal foe and has pressed for removal of the Iranian military presence in Syria in talks with Russia and the United States, as well as targeting Iranian fighters and facilities in Syria in a series of deadly air raids this year.
Assad told Al-Alam that Syria's relationship with Iran "will not be part of any settlement" and was "not in the international bazaar."
He said friendly forces will remain in Syria until "terrorism" has been rooted out. Assad frequently refers to his armed rebel opponents as "terrorists," even those not designated as terrorists by the United Nations or other official organizations.
(Excerpt) Read more at rferl.org ...
Obama legacy.
Assad seems like he’s on his last legs.
Your call Assad,
But when Israel is fired on again from your territory.
Don’t be surprised when you get blown up.
Sounds like he is being propped up and needs to go. Where are the Rooskies in his strategery?
RFE/RL = CIA
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_Free_Europe/Radio_Liberty
Trying to lie us into more war, as usual.
OP is a relentless Deep State propaganda poster, check his post history.
Assad is Shia and needs Iranians and Hezbollah in a country that is (or was) 75% Sunni.
Heck I understood Iran already began pulling it’s forces out a week or so ago because they can’t pay them with the new sanctions biting as they are. Sounds like Assads begging them to stay anyway.
He’s not lying.
Without Iran and Hezbollah’s support (as well as Russian airpower), Assad would have been hanging from a lightpole some time ago.
Assad is NOT Shia. He is Alawite which is allied with Shia Iran for Iran’s own purposes as a buffer state and a springboard. Alawites are arguably not even Moslem and Assad and his father before him ruled with the non Sunni minorities as their power base. That has included Shias, Christians, Jews , Yazidi, Sufis, etc. He protects them against the Sunni majority and as the minorities contain the bulk of the talent in Syria (Islam is a tremendous force for stifling talent other than that for war and mayhem) they have been a bulwark against the Sunni majority. His brutality and totality reactions against Sunni opposition has cemented his rule. As Syria has kicked out its Jews and as the other majorities have fled from the ISIS depredations, Assad has lost some of his support and is much weaker now than previously.
Iraq, Egypt, Libya, and Syria were fine as status quo until the United States decided to take a big dump on them. Bush, Obama, Clinton and McCain took turns. The dictator is the only stability for that region. Selling Democracy is folly. What replaces dictators is Islam fighting Islam with the various factions, alliances and proxy wars.
Let(help) them kill each other.
Who are the Alawites?
The Alawites are an offshoot of Shia Islam who revere Ali, the Prophet
Mohammed’s cousin and son-in-law. However, they have added to their
religion aspects of other faiths, including Christianity, and have a Holy
Trinity of their own, comprising Mohammed, Ali, and Salman the
Persian, a Companion of the Prophet. They used to call themselves
Nusayris, after their founder, Ibn Nusayr. Their practices are socially
liberal, with women not covering their hair and alcohol consumed.
- from Who Are the Alawites
No, actually Assad is an Alawite. The Alawites are a syncretic sect that combines elements of Islam, Christianity and Neoplatonism. In the 1970s, his father bribed some Shiite imams to say that the Alawites were a branch of the Shiite Islam.
“Assad stressed that he invited the allied fighters into his country and he would never ask them to leave, as the United States and Israel are demanding”
If someone is there because you invited them there to protect you, and the people who want to remove you are demanding they leave, I know I would refuse to do it.
It’s like gun control. When Hillary and democrats appear desperate to take my guns, it makes me LESS inclined to part with them.
“But when Israel is fired on again from your territory.
Don’t be surprised when you get blown up.”
That seems quite fair.
No sh%$#t.
On the other hand, if Assad had not hung on, the “moderates” in Syria would have been overwhelmed by the collective weight of all the Islamists and the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood.
For the west, Syria was always a case of damned if we do (help the “opposition”) and damned if we don’t.
“Sounds like he is being propped up and needs to go.”
Probably propped up less than we are propping up the rebel jihadis.
The whole place is Sick.
Maybe after McLame is gone we can stop helping the jihadis.
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