Moscow, Damascus and Ankara have agreed to conduct a joint military operation in order to take al-Bab city in northern Syria.
Moscow, Damascus and Ankara have agreed to conduct a joint military operation in al-Bab city in northern Syria, which involves usage of the Turkish Air Force, the Russian Aerospace Forces and the Syrian Army, activists of social networks reported on Friday, citing Arab journalist Hosein Mortada.
Reportedly, the operation will be aimed against terrorists of the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham (previously known as the al-Nusra Front) terrorist group. The decision was made in the frameworks of the peace talks in the Kazakh capital, Astana.
Agreement between Russia and Turkey to halt Turkish incursion into Al Bab, and make it a Syrian army operation. https://t.co/aJkjc1Goal
— Bassem (@BBassem7) January 20, 2017
#حسين_مرتضى
الإتفاق يشمل عملية جوية مشتركة بين الطيران الروسي و التركي تستهدف “جبهة فتح الشام” في الشمال السوري بعد مؤتمر الأستانة.— #حسين_مرتضى (@HoseinMortada) January 20, 2017
This decision indicates that Turkey is not able to recapture the city, operating by itself. The last offensives in the region and active involvement of the Russian air power are the main reason for discussing the opportunity of cooperation between the two sides.
So what about the Syrian government? It’s only by their permission that Russian forces are legally there. Buy leaving them out, the Russians are undermining the Syrian government’s position at the bargaining table!
I read somewhere that the Syrian Government has given permission for this operation. Seems to me a little trust is starting to build momentum.
Assad will do what Putin decides. Putin is doing the bargaining for him, I think it’s for the best, too. It allows other parties to save face.
South Front; Is Jabhat Fateh al-sham in Al Bab? You may be referring to another operation or plan.
This is ISIS occupied al Bab. Yet the opposition is described as Nusra (alQaida).
Nusra fighters and ISIS fighters are interchangeable. The two coordinate their offensives against the SAA, their fighters constantly move to either side as needed, and they bring their weaponry with them. In this case they brought considerable expertise in ATG weapons. The command structure may be different, but they share the same taqfiri ideology and share the same goal of erasing indigenous religions in syria , including islamic ones, with a saudi salafism.
Islam has major division into sects, primarily sunni and shia.
Each sect is divided into schools of jurisprudence. These schools interpret sharia laws and can range from liberal, like the Maliki of North africa, to conservative like the hanbali of saudi arabia.
Each school has movements, the hanbali school is famous for two movements, the 18th century wahhabi movement and the 20th century salafist movement. Not all followers of a school follow a movement.
The wahhabi movement was a reaction to the spread of shia sect in arabia. The saudi royal family was founded on the wahhabi movement and they reversed the spread of shia in favor of sunni islam. The hanbali clergy supported by the kingdom enforce the movement to this day.
Salafism is the extremely rigid form of Islam originating in saudi arabia in the 20th century as a reaction against the ottoman young turks movement (which wanted to liberalize society and remove the influence of religion in government). Salafist are reactionary. They only represent a fraction of saudi’s muslims, but starting in the 1980s they began to be more influential with the saudi monarchy and have been given considerable support in state sponsored clergy since they are seen as natural enemies of any wahhabi that want more liberal politics. By endorsing a more conservative movement the monarchy can tighten their grip on power. Anyone petitioning for reform can be declared to be immoral.
Taqfiri is the more extreme form of salafism that says all other muslims must be forcefully converted to salafism or be killed as apostates. Taqfiris originated with alqaida in the 1990s, with encouragement from the saudi government to recruit muslim mercenaries to wage war on other muslim countrise to set up pro-saudi theocracy and expand saudi arabia’s sphere of influence.
Syria, is majority sunni muslim, and their school of Islam is hanafi. The saudis do not consider hanafi true muslims, and want to re-write the Islam in syria by installing a theocracy that mirrors saudi arabia (without the benefit of trillions of oil dollars to placate an oppressed populace). The result would be to turn syria into another taleban run afghanistan. Taleban means student, their teachers were the state sponsored saudi clergy.
Thanks Xantos , you are a fountain of knowledge , the only Muslims you did not mention are the Sufi’s , are they Shia , or Sunni . And any knowledge on MKO ?
Sufis are an extention that can be applied to all sorts of Islam, like monk orders. They are project-oriented, not primitively political, so they shouldn’t be compared to political factions. They are more like design bureaus of wisdom capable of gathering army and equipping it with futuristic weaponry, but the more advanced they get the lesser their interest in actual struggle for political power becomes.
Time for the Neocons in the U.S. to howl that this is awful because we weren’t there to call the shots. After all, a rules based world order means that the U.S. has to authorize every troop movement on the planet. I really hate those jerks, all they care about is power while braying about freedom.
There is a new administration in Washington DC and many of the screamers are now without a job and even more are no longer financed by Saudi. It will be interesting to see how different things are going to be, with regards support for the Qatar to Europe Pipeline Security Services?
and israel’s expansion?
1691
“…and israel’s expansion?…”
It will be steady, most of Palestine will disappear in a 100 years time.
Why not go for Deir Hafer instead? That would cut the ISIS supply lines.
I personally doubt this information… Sounds more like rumor thrown as a provocation to cast some mess among Turkish supported armed terrorist groups.