Free Republic

Saudi Arabia has ruled out a deal by major producers to cut oil output and warned high-cost operators such as US shale drillers to trim costs or go bust in a stark message that triggered fresh pressure on crude prices. Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi said a lack of trust between the world's biggest producers meant a cut in production "is not going to happen". He said the kingdom would instead push for a co-ordinated production freeze to help balance a market swamped with an excess of crude which has taken oil prices to their lowest level in more than...

Turkish PM Ahmed Davutoglu said the government expects Russian tourists to come despite tensions between Ankara and Moscow, as shrinkage in the sector was "unexpected." Russia earlier urged tourists not to visit Turkey, citing security concerns. Speaking at a news conference on Monday, Davutoglu announced an action plan to provide support for the tourism industry, including an $87-million government grant and setting up a facility to allow travel firms to restructure their debts. "We believe Russian tourists will start coming back to Turkey," he was quoted as saying by the Daily Sabah, an English-language newspaper published in Turkey. Davutoglu added...

Assad has done some bad things in his day. There is no doubt about that. What choice did he have? The Alawaites are a tiny minority group (12%) surrounded by a sea of intolerant radical Sunni Arabs. He has made deals with horrible people. As an Israeli, I know this all too well. At the same time, I can take a step back and understand that the Middle East is a tough place and tough places call for tough measures. As I mentioned above the Alawites are a 12% minority. Most of their neighbors consider them pagans who worship the...

Russia has ramped up its air war in Syria—big time. And it’s starting to show. Relentless and indiscriminate, Moscow’s bombing runs have devastated military and civilian strongholds and cleared a path for Syrian regime forces to counterattack against ISIS militants and rebels. Five months after the first Russian warplanes slipped into Syria to reinforce the embattled regime of President Bashar al-Assad, the Kremlin’s air wing near Latakia—on Syria’s Mediterranean coast in the heart of regime territory—has found its rhythm, launching roughly one air strike every 20 minutes targeting Islamic State militants, U.S.-backed rebels and civilians in rebel-controlled areas.

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini warned on Tuesday that Russia and Turkey are headed towards a "hot war," as she voiced concerns that the growing tensions between the two on the Syrian border risk spilling over into open warfare. Speaking at a debate at the European Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee in Brussels, Mogherini said, "we are always referring to Syria as a proxy war among regional actors. This risks to become something bigger than this." "I'm not thinking of a cold war. No, we risk a hot war among different actors than the one we always think of. Not...

The US investigative journalist Robert Parry has made an astonishing claim - and one has gone completely unnoticed. He is reporting that the Russian government has warned Erdogan that Russia is prepared to use tactical nuclear weapons to defend its Syrian strike force from Turkish attack. Parry's exact words are as follows: "A source close to Russian President Vladimir Putin told me that the Russians have warned Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Moscow is prepared to use tactical nuclear weapons if necessary to save their troops in the face of a Turkish-Saudi onslaught. Since Turkey is a member of...

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday he and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, had reached a provisional agreement on terms of a cessation of hostilities in Syria and the sides were closer to a ceasefire than ever before. Meanwhile, violence continued to rage in Syria. Multiple bomb blasts in a southern district of Damascus killed at least 87 people on Sunday, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, and twin car bombs killed at least 59 people in Homs, the monitoring group said. Russian air strikes launched in September against rebels fighting President Bashar al-Assad have...

Russian airstrikes in Syria forced "Jabhat al-Nusra" to seek help at the UN, writes Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten with reference to Reuters. The Syrian opposition has asked for a "two to three week-long truce" and as a pre-condition demanded not to attack the terrorist group. The militants asked for this step so they could take a breather and regroup, preventing its complete destruction, says the author of the article. To promote their interests in Syria, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia have long supported "Jabhat al-Nusra", writes Deutsche Wirtschafts Nachrichten. They supply the group with arms and money, whilst Western politicians are...

Turkey is confronting what amounts to a strategic nightmare as bombs explode in its cities, its enemies encroach on its borders and its allies seemingly snub its demands. As recently as four years ago, Turkey appeared poised to become one of the biggest winners of the Arab Spring, an ascendant power hailed by the West as a model and embraced by a region seeking new patrons and new forms of governance. All that has evaporated since the failure of the Arab revolts, shifts in the geopolitical landscape and the trajectory of the Syrian war. Russia, Turkey’s oldest and nearest rival,...

Dozens of people were killed in separate car bomb and suicide attacks in Homs and southern Damascus on Sunday, Syrian state media reported, citing local officials and security sources. ISIS claimed responsibility for the Sayyidah Zaynab and Homs attacks via the Telegram messaging app.

The administration’s Syria policy has been a joke for years, and it’s getting even worse: Officials with Syrian rebel battalions that receive covert backing from one arm of the U.S. government told BuzzFeed News that they recently began fighting rival rebels supported by another arm of the U.S. government. In this case, a Syrian rebel group that the CIA has been arming in collusion with other governments came under attack from the Kurdish YPG that the Pentagon has armed to fight ISIS. U.S. support for one group is now directly undermining its effort to support another, and that’s happening because...

The majority of Syrian people support Moscow's anti-terror campaign, the top Catholic bishop in Syria said in an interview with RT, adding that it's not only military assistance, but the promotion of peace process by Russia that they pin their hopes on. "We see Russia's military operation as a real effort to fight terrorism. What is especially important is that this military campaign goes in parallel with promotion of peace process," Most Reverend Georges Abou Khazen, Apostolic Vicar of Aleppo for the Latins who was appointed by Pope Francis in 2013, told RT in a telephone interview. "We really hope...

Islamic State fighters are commonly referred to as 'ISIS rats' on the internet. That unflattering designation may have gone from being one of mere pejorative to one being literally true. It is being reported that the Syrian Arab Army has seized the last remaining village along the Aleppo-Raqqa Highway, thus completing the encirclement of 800 ISIS members in East Aleppo and trapping them like, well, rats. It is an especially cruel and ironic twist of fate for these sad souls as a great number of them were no doubt part of the siege of the Kuweires airbase located in the...

Gwynne Dyer: Turks and Saudis know any Russia fight will be lonely one 9:32 AM Wednesday Feb 17, 2016 Between last Thursday and Monday, the Turkish government, in league with Saudi Arabia, made a tentative decision to enter the war on the ground in Syria - and then got cold feet about it. Or more likely, the Turkish army simply told the government that it would not invade Syria and risk the possibility of a shooting war with the Russians. The Turkish government bears a large share of the responsibility for the devastating Syrian civil war. From the start, Turkey's...

Thu Feb 18, 2016 9:07am EST Turkey blames Kurdish militants for Ankara bomb, vows response in Syria and Iraq ANKARA/ISTANBUL | By Ercan Gurses and Humeyra Pamuk Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu blamed a Syrian Kurdish militia fighter working with Kurdish militants inside Turkey for a suicide car bombing that killed 28 people in the capital Ankara, and he vowed retaliation in both Syria and Iraq. A car laden with explosives detonated next to military buses as they waited at traffic lights near Turkey's armed forces' headquarters, parliament and government buildings in the administrative heart of Ankara late on Wednesday....

According to Turkish Ulke TV station, the victims of the February 17 terrorist attack in Ankara include 22 Turkish Air Force pilots, out of 28 total fatalities. Turkish government has not issued an official confirmation but, according to Turkish media, Erdogan is deliberately trying to conceal that fact. The explosion took place next to the Turkish Armed Forces headquarters building, as well as the parliament and government buildings. The fatalities included 26 military and 2 civilians. Another 60 people were wounded. No terrorist organization accepted responsibility.

Feb 16 2016 STATEMENT BY SASC CHAIRMAN JOHN McCAIN ON BOMBING OF SCHOOLS & HOSPITALS IN SYRIA Washington, D.C. ­– U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, released the following statement on the recent airstrikes on schools and hospitals in Syria: “The intensification of Russian airstrikes in Syria over the past two days, including the bombing of schools and hospitals, is tragically unsurprising. After all, none of it violates the recent agreement for a cessation of hostilities, which permits Russian forces and its proxies to continue fighting for another week. As expected, our adversaries in...

While you are enjoying your Sunday, the insane neoconservatives who control Western foreign policy and their Turkish and Saudi Arabian vassals might be preparing the end of the world. Any person who relies on Western media has no accurate idea of what is happening in Syria. I will provide a brief summary and then send you to two detailed accounts. The neoconservative Obama regime set-up the Syrian government headed by Assad for overthrow. A long propaganda campaign conducted in Washington's behalf by the Western media portrayed the democratically-elected Assad as a "brutal dictator who uses chemical weapons against his own...

World | Wed Feb 17, 2016 10:19am EST Kurds' advance in Syria divides U.S. and Turkey as Russia bombs ISTANBUL | By Daren Butler The rapid advance of U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, taking advantage of Russian air strikes to seize territory near the Turkish border, has infuriated Ankara and threatened to drive a wedge between NATO allies. Washington has long seen the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its YPG military wing as its best chance in the battle against Islamic State in Syria - to the chagrin of fellow NATO member Turkey, which sees the group...

Turkey, Saudi Arabia and some European allies want ground troops deployed in Syria as a Russian-backed government advance nears NATO's southeastern border, Turkey's foreign minister said, but Washington has so far ruled out a major offensive. Syrian government forces made fresh advances on Tuesday, as did Kurdish militia, both at the expense of rebels whose positions have been collapsing in recent weeks under the Russian-backed onslaught. The offensive, supported by Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias as well as Russian air strikes, has brought the Syrian army to within 25 km (15 miles) of Turkey's frontier, while Kurdish fighters, regarded by Ankara as...