Posted on 07/23/2018 12:35:57 AM PDT by Cronos
Defeated Syrian rebels near the border with the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights are preparing to evacuate the region and cede control of the frontier to Bashar al-Assad, securing a key victory for the Syrian president, whose forces are on the verge of concluding a swift campaign to reclaim control of southern Syria.
..It marks a key milestone and victory for the Assad regime, which launched a major offensive a month ago to reclaim control of all of southern Syria – a region that includes Deraa, which borders Jordan, and Quneitra, which borders the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Deraa is considered the birthplace of the Syrian uprising, where protests against the regime’s torture of teenagers who scrawled anti-government graffiti in 2011 spread nationwide.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
A weakened Assad poses no threat to Israel.
Assad is not worthy of even the least bit of praise, but our President Trump is. And he and Defense Sec Mattis are doing a great job balancing things given terrible cards they were dealt.
Are you nuts? Why is having Iran and hezbollah on Israel’s Syrian border a good thing? Have you ever talked to an Israeli?
“Syrian school textbooks under Assad preach jihad and hatred of Israel.”
It will be interesting to see what becomes of Syrian youth who have experienced all this war and who they blame if anyone.
Assad is a fracking puppet of Iran. Even Kurds talk directly to Iran and not Assad for negociations in Syria
Assad is a clown douche pulpet
They blame the US and the West and also Saudi for supporting sectarian radical terrorists vs the people of Syria.
A big question is whether Assad can maintain control over his own military and govt corruption and retain the loyalty or at least acceptance of the people in the liberated areas who suffered under often brutal occupation by the “ rebels”
Other questions are the role of Turkey and the US in areas they control and whether the govt can turn the Kurds into accepting Assad and what status for Kurdish areas
Assad pledges no stop until all of Syria is again liberated
On the flip side, once Assad has assumed total control, there will be no one else to blame and stronger counter attacks will be warranted....as will be our assistance in helping our ally Israel....
I’m not sure Assad’s goal was to kill Christians, per se; but the major areas in which the rebels did occupy were also Christian areas. That’s one of the reasons why the Russians are involved in Syria - to safeguard the orthodox congregations. Syria has the largest number of orthodox believers outside Russia.
From my reading of the Israeli press last week, it appears one of the major agreements from Helsinki was that Putin agreed to guarantee that all the Iranian forces that had been building up along the Syrian border with Israel would be removed and the Russians would keep them away. The arrangement that Trump discussed was done with the agreement of the Israeli government.
Assad is worthy of praise that he is the only protection for middle eastern christians
Assad has arrived at a deal with Israel to not let Irani or Hizballah soldiers near the border with Israel
The Israelis supported the jihadis (as did the USA) - my first concern is for Syria's ancient Christians, secondly for Israel. In the case of Israel, it is far better to have a weak Assad to the north rather than the Islamix state
If Israel plays its card right, it can secretly prop up Assad whiel making him dependent on them.
Maybe. What I care about is that he protects the Christians there. it ain’t done out of the goodness of his heart, but he is doing it to protect himself.
Alawites are not Moslems but a syncretic religion mixing up Shia'ism, Christianity and pre-Christian beliefs. The Islamic portion is purely in name
Assad must become a humanitarian or end up like Bangladesh and he and others will all die.
Are you nuts? Why is having Iran and hezbollah on Israel’s Syrian border a good thing? Have you ever talked to an Israeli?
**********Iran wouldn’t be there if the US (instigated br McCain), other foreign powers, and ISIS had not been meddling in that land. Due to these interventions, Assad believed that his forces were on the verge of defeat, and he had nowhere else to turn. However bad he may be, he’s better than ISIS and the pro-Turk rebels. And at least the Christian’s will avoid extermination.
Yes, I know about Assad’s religion. However, there was horrific fighting in Christian areas during this Civil War which DID result in Christians being killed and or displaced. While generally Christians do support Assad, and the Syrian government is not against them as a group, there have been some Christians involved in the opposition.
https://www.academia.edu/13307166/Christians_in_Syria_and_the_civil_war
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