Syria conflict: Troops recapture key southern town

[bemildred]

Sheikh Miskeen, which lies on one of the main routes from Damascus to the city of Deraa and the Jordanian border, fell after a month-long battle.

Russian warplanes were reported to have played a key role in the offensive.

Russia's foreign minister meanwhile declared its intervention had changed the course of the conflict in Syria, ahead of the start of peace talks.

Sergei Lavrov also warned it would be impossible to negotiate a political settlement without allowing Kurdish groups to attend.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-35409423

[bemildred]

1. Moscow defends Syria intervention

Air strikes supporting President Bashar al-Assad loyalists have helped turn the tide in Syria, Russia's foreign minister says. Moscow says Kurdish militants must be included in peace talks.

Moscow has no regrets for its military intervention in the Syrian conflict, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday. The comments came Tuesday during Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's annual press conference with international media.

"The actions of the Russian air force, in response to the request of the Syrian leadership -- have really helped to turn around the situation in the country, helped towards reducing the territory controlled by terrorists," Lavrov said.

Forces backing Assad have recently made several key gains on the ground as the Syrian conflict enters in fifth year and claimed more than a quarter million casualties.

http://www.dw.com/en/moscow-defends-syria-intervention/a-19004423

[bemildred]

2. Some in Syria process 'behave capriciously' by refusing to talk: Lavrov

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Tuesday that some participants of the Syria peace process had been "capricious" by refusing to negotiate.

"When there are attempts to put conditions for collective fight against terrorism, conditions that are irrelevant, such as 'if you agree to a regime change, for example, in Syria, then we will for real begin to fight terrorism collectively' ... that is, I believe, the biggest mistake," Lavrov told a press conference.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-russia-negotiations-idUSKCN0V40NA

[bemildred]

16. Turkey wants Kurds in Syria talks, not PYD: PM

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has strongly reiterated his government’s categorical objection to the participation of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) in U.N.-backed talks on Syria planned for later this week.

“We believe there should be a table where Kurds, Arabs, Turkmens, Sunnis, Nusayris [Arab Alevis] and Christians are all together. The Kurds’ presence at the table is necessary,” Davutoğlu said Jan. 26 at a meeting with deputies of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

On the same day, the office of the U.N. special envoy for Syria said it had sent out invitations for peace talks in Geneva to start on Jan. 29, without specifying to whom.

“A table without Kurds will be lacking. However, we are against the [People’s Protection Units] YPG and the PYD, who repress Kurds, being at the table, but not against Kurds,” Davutoğlu said.

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/turkey-wants-kurds-in-syria-talks-not-pyd-pm.aspx?pageID=238&nID=94356&NewsCatID=338

[bemildred]

3. Russia and Syria Kurds in coordination talks: report

Al-Akhbar claimed that Moscow offered to help the Kurds seize the ISIS-held border town of Jarabulus.

BEIRUT – Top ranking Russian officers have met with Syrian Kurdish officials in northeastern Syria to hold preliminary talks on military coordination, according to a leading pro-regime daily.

"At the beginning of last month a Russian general accompanied by four officers visited the city of Qamishli and met with Kurdish officials," Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar reported Tuesday morning.

The report added that the Russian officers had conducted a tour of the People's Protection Units (YPG) forces positions in the Hasakeh province as well as Syrian army positions in the region.

https://now.mmedia.me/lb/en/NewsReports/566532-russia-and-syria-kurds-in-coordination-talks-report

[bemildred]

4. Russia Says Syrian Kurds Must Be Invited to Talks

MOSCOW—Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday it was essential to invite Syrian Kurds to talks aimed at ending the country's crisis.

A round of talks between the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and the Syrian opposition are set to begin on Friday in Geneva, with invitations being sent by U.N. envoy Staffan de Mistura on Tuesday. The talks had been postponed after disagreements about who should be invited from the opposition.

Speaking at an annual news conference, Mr. Lavrov said it was essential to invite the Kurdish Democratic Union Party, the political wing of the Syrian fighters who have gained ground against Islamic State.

Turkey is strongly opposed to the involvement of the Syrian Kurds in the nascent peace process. Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has said that Turkey views Kurdish militants and their political affiliates in Syria as indistinct from the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, an outlawed group described by Turkey, the European Union and the U.S. as a terrorist organization.

http://www.nasdaq.com/article/russia-says-syrian-kurds-must-be-invited-to-talks-20160126-00238

[bemildred]

5. To salvage Syria talks, US must confront Russia

The prospects for successful peace talks to end the horrific conflict in Syria are in serious jeopardy because the Syrian government and their Russian accomplices smell blood.

In the run-up to the Geneva negotiations, ongoing attacks on civilians and restrictions on humanitarian access stand in gross violation of the U.N. Security Council resolution in December that called for the start of a peace process. Russia, especially, has increased the scope and lethality of its attacks on civilians, something one of us (Dr. Sahloul) witnessed on a just-completed trip to Syria. On the ground there earlier this month, one could glimpse the toll of the daily rampage of Russian jets in the towns of Marr'a, Ariha and Sarakeb in the governorates of Idlib and Aleppo.

The military result of this bludgeoning is a more confident Syrian government and one whose gains as a result of the assaults may give them little reason to yield.

In his final State of the Union speech a week ago, President Obama touted the success of his Syria strategy and held up America's role in seeking "a lasting peace" without mentioning these ongoing attacks on civilians. Obama's failure to forcefully address Russian misconduct not only demonstrates a reluctance to speak the truth but could also undermine the very talks his own diplomatic team is working feverishly to preserve. Syrian opposition groups have threatened to boycott negotiations, and who can blame them when civilians remain targets and are allowed to die for lack of aid? Even if they do participate, U.S. reticence has dramatically weakened their position.

http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/international/266995-to-salvage-syria-talks-us-must-confront-russia

[Jesus Malverde]

9. Articles like this are a joke...nt

[bemildred]

12. I like to keep track of what they think they think.

It helps me figure out what they think they are trying to do. And that helps me figure out what all the bizarre threats, whining, lies, and omissions are about, whose butt is being covered, whom they will arm next, who they are pissed-off at and who is in cahoots under the table or screwing over an "ally".

[bemildred]

6. US ‘carrying dictates of Syria and Iran’ - Syria opposition

Kerry reportedly threatened Syria opposition against boycott of talks

New York: US Secretary of State John Kerry told Syrian opposition leaders that they risked losing their funding if they did not attend peace talks, according to Syrian opposition leaders and administration officials.

On Saturday in Riyadh, Kerry met representatives of the High Negotiating Commission, the opposition’s representatives, to meet this week in Geneva with the Syrian regime. Afterwards, opposition leaders faulted Kerry’s efforts, saying he had tried to “pressure” them into giving up longstanding demands. They have insisted that the Syrian dictatorship stop aerial bombardment and starvation sieges of civilian towns, before the opposition sits down with the regime.

Arabic press reports portrayed Kerry as “carrying the dictates of Russia and Iran” and trying to impose them on the Syrian opposition. They said Kerry was moving towards the Russian-Iranian position in several ways, including by expressing support for a “government of national unity” that would usher in elections in which the current president, Bashar Al Assad, could run.

http://gulfnews.com/news/mena/syria/us-carrying-dictates-of-syria-and-iran-syria-opposition-1.1660363

[bemildred]

15. Has the West betrayed the Syrian people?

Marwan Bishara

Listening to Staffan de Mistura during Tuesday's press conference, I could only shake my head in amazement. The charming UN mediator has tried to fudge and blur the true nature of the diplomatic process he's fronting, but he left little doubt in my mind as to who's dictating the preconditions for a Geneva-3.

The Swedish Italian diplomat insisted that there would be no Syrian precondition to the kicking off of what he called "proximity talks" between the regime and various delegations, but he neglected to mention that the entire diplomatic process has been hostage to Russian-Iranian preconditions.

The shift in the West's approach to Syria started on September 30, 2015, with the Russian military intervention on the side of the weakened Syrian regime.

The Obama administration's timid reaction to the Russian aerial bombings of the Syrian opposition groups, many of whom it presumably supported, only emboldened and expanded Moscow's role in the ruined nation.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2016/01/west-betrayed-syrian-people-160126112200747.html

[bemildred]

7. Juan Cole: Top 5 Ways Putin Has Won Big in Syria and Why Europe Is Embracing Him

Russia is so far winning big in Syria, and making Moscow’s projection of force in the Middle East a reality that the other great powers have to recognize. As Russia has emerged as a major combatant against Syrian al-Qaeda and against Daesh (ISIS, ISIL), it is being accepted back into a Europe traumatized by two major attacks on Paris. France is signalling that it hopes to end sanctions on Russia over Ukraine by this summer. While the Minsk peace process is going all right, the motivation here is to ally more closely with Moscow against Muslim radicals in the wake of Russia’s successes against them in Syria.

Russia’s intervention in Syria last October was in many ways a desperate measure and a gamble. It is said that in mid-summer of 2015, Iranian special forces commander Qasem Soleimani flew to Moscow with a blunt message. The Syrian regime was going to fall if things went on the way they were going and Iran did not have the resources to stop it.



Vladimir Putin, still smarting from having lost Libya as a sphere of influence, was determined to stop the fall of Syria.

The regime of Bashar al-Assad has to to control a y-shaped area and set of transportation routes if it is to survive. The ‘Y’ is anchored at the bottom by Damascus, the capital. In its metropolitan area, given shifting population, live around 5 million Syrians who are afraid of the two major forces battling the regime, al-Qaeda (the Nusra Front) and Daesh (ISIS, ISIL).

http://www.juancole.com/2016/01/top-5-ways-putin-has-won-big-in-syria-and-is-being-embraced-by-europe.html

[bemildred]

8. . nt

[bemildred]

10. Deadly Blasts Kill 20 in Syrian City Ahead of Peace Talks

BEIRUT — Multiple bombings targeted a government-run security checkpoint in the central Syrian city of Homs on Tuesday, killing at least 20 people and wounding over a hundred amid intense political jockeying ahead of U.N.-backed peace talks scheduled to begin in Geneva Friday.

With just three days to go, the opposition is still undecided about whether it will attend the talks, throwing diplomatic efforts into question even as the U.N.'s special envoy to Syria was preparing to send out invitations.

The talks are meant to start a political process to end the conflict that began in 2011 as a largely peaceful uprising against Assad's rule but escalated into an all-out war after a harsh state crackdown. The plan calls for cease-fires in parallel to the talks, a new constitution and elections in a year and a half.

The attack in Homs, which was claimed by the Islamic State group, came as government forces retook a strategic town from opposition fighters and militants in the south of the country.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/01/26/world/middleeast/ap-ml-syria.html?_r=0

[leveymg]

11. Back to the beginning, Dera'a. What has this mission accomplished, other than to bleed Syria?

I'm beginning to believe that results pretty well match up with intentions in this case. Zero Footprint is just Securing the Realm in slow motion. Put another notch on the belts of the authors of "A Clean Break."

[bemildred]

13. Lose-lose all the way, that's been Syria.

Except you would need a whole oil tanker full of those "loses" arranged in a vast network of losers.

However, I don't see that the Neocons and interventionists (or much of anybody) are at all happy about the situation they have created.

The winners seem to be Russia, China, and Iran, and India I suppose for having the wit to stay out of it, and Latin America for being very far away and having the wits to stay out of it too.

[bemildred]

14. Dutch Labour party backs air strikes in Syria, creating parliamentary majority

The Dutch Labour Party, the junior partner in the coalition government, now supports extending air strikes against Islamic State to Syria, creating a parliamentary majority for approval, an official said on Tuesday.

The Dutch government, which already approved sending warplanes to target Islamic State in Iraq under a U.S.-led bombing campaign, has been weighing the possibility of expanding its role for months.

"We discussed the issue today and decided to support efforts to intensify the fight against Islamic State," party spokesman Michiel Selten said. "It is now up to the Cabinet to come up with a proposal, but we are willing."

The Netherlands contributes a squadron of six F-16 aircraft to the bombing of the Islamist group's positions in Iraq, but Labour is traditionally warier of foreign military engagements than the larger conservative Liberal coalition partner.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mideast-crisis-syria-dutch-idUKKCN0V41HM?rpc=401