Posted on 11/01/2019 8:01:39 AM PDT by mac_truck
AMMAN (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said on Thursday that his government’s ultimate goal was to restore state authority over Kurdish controlled areas in northeast Syria after an abrupt U.S. troop withdrawal but he expected it to happen gradually.
In a state television interview Assad also said that a deal between Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin to drive out the Kurdish-led YPG militia from a 30 km (19 mile) “safe zone” along the border was a “positive” step that would help Damascus achieve its goal.
“It might not achieve everything ... it paves the road to liberate this area in the near future we hope,” said Assad, who has remained in power in Damascus through a more than eight-year-long civil war with the backing of Russia and Iran.
The U.S.-allied Kurdish YPG militia reached a deal with Damascus to take up positions near the border after U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement in early October that he was withdrawing American forces from northeast Syria. The YPG is the main fighting element of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that has beaten back Islamic State in the region.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
The US would do well to help that happen.
Which is why we need to stop claiming we are keeping troops there and keeping the Syrian oilfields to “ protect” them
From the govt of Syria
Assad now has the dominant military ground force in Syria, especially with the Russian support.
We need Assad and the Syrian Kurds as a check against Turkish imperialism and a check against Iranian aggression against Israel and as a check against the remaining AQ/ISIS/salafist jihadists.
But the Kurds are poor and need much more training and military hardware and military bases. They need armor and artillery and helo assault forces.
If we can hold onto the Omar oilfields for them, the Kurds can afford all that.
The oilfield belongs to the government of Syria.
We should turn it over to them the very instant they can hold it.
If we donate any hardware to anyone it should be the government of Syria, not the Kurds.
US interests are served ONLY by government control over every square inch of Syrian territory.
*** But the Kurds are poor and need much more training and military hardware and military bases. They need armor and artillery and helo assault forces.
If we can hold onto the Omar oilfields for them, the Kurds can afford all that. ***
I hope you would be all “rah, rah, go Mexico” if all the Mexican Nationals took West Texas’ oilfields because they are poor, and deserve autonomy. The Mexican Military can send troops onto US soil to assure the success of the theft.
Yeah, but the devil is in the details...
Kurds want some local power. Assad doesn’t want them to have any.
Any place but the Mideast would come to a compromise, but.
Kurds should accept full integration into Syria military (they want some separation), and Syria should allpow more federalism.
“We need Assad and the Syrian Kurds as a check against Turkish imperialism and a check against Iranian aggression against Israel”
That is totally unrealistic. Whatever Assad is he is not a check against Iranian agression against Israel. Both Russia and Iran’s Quds force commanders are embeded in the Syria government armed forces, and many levels including leadership levels and even leading commands as well. As the Iranians in Syria are today, together with Assad they are not being checked in terms of real and potential Iranian aggression against Israel. While Hezbolla (Iran’s proxy in Syria) has been helping Assad against his oponents, they have become the largest force in Syria across the border from Israel.
“But the Kurds are poor and need much more training and military hardware and military bases. They need armor and artillery and helo assault forces.”
That is not going to be coming from the U.S. now.
“If we can hold onto the Omar oilfields for them, the Kurds can afford all that.”
We are not holding the Omar oil fields “for the Kurds”. We are still there to keep them out of the hands of ISIS. By bet is that as soone as Assad/Russia can consolidate control of northern Syria - howver long it takes - we will hand off control of the Omar fields to the government of Syria. From then on it will be up to them to keep them out of ISIS hands.
THAT may be where the Kurdish fighters might manage to get some autonomy from Assad, by doing the heavy lifting in any fighting to protect the Omar oil fields, for Syria, so they don’t fall back into ISIS hands.
Their choice is to live under the pluralistic, minority-protecting Syrian government or under the genocidal Muslim Brotherhood Turks.
I’d go with door #1 myself.
They couldn’t hold the oilfields from ISIS. They still can’t hold them from Turkey and the SAA.
Bad neighborhood.
No army in the world would get a mile across the border before a horde of pickup trucks full of cowboys and rifles wiped them out. That Alamo thing........
*** No army in the world would get a mile across the border before a horde of pickup trucks full of cowboys and rifles wiped them out. That Alamo thing........ ***
The Mexican Army has made more than a few incursions into Texas in the near past. Texas’ response was nada, zip, nothing. Enjoy your fantasy scenario about Texas and Cowboys.
In the Middle East our NATO ally is our greatest enemy.
Middle East has no shortage of rifles and pickup trucks. Other guys has tanks and aircraft and kill the first group by tens of thousands.
Go tell that to anyTexan. Ya better do it walking or long distance.
Turkey is our legal ally, but not our friend.
The Syrian Kurds are our friends but not our ally.
Ethnic tribalism is all that matters in the sandbox.
*** Go tell that to anyTexan. Ya better do it walking or long distance. ***
Lol, my people were in Texas when it was a Republic. I am from and in Texas.
Best bumper sticker from Texas:
“We don’t care how you did it up north.”
Which is why we should end these regime change Neocon wars.
Yup, no more intervening in civil wars unless they are of a direct national interest, like Mexico.....
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