One of Spain's leading newspapers, El País, sat down with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus for an interview [21 Feb 2016] about what lies ahead for Syria. We've compiled some highlights below: 

Q. A truce was announced by Russia and the United States. Is the Syrian government willing to respect the cessation of military operations in Syria? 

A: Definitely ... A ceasefire is about - if you want to say ceasefire, it's not the correct word, because a ceasefire is between two armies or two countries - it's better to say cessation of hostility, or, let's say, stopping the operations ... It's about preventing other countries, especially Turkey, from sending more recruits, more terrorists, more armaments, or any kind of logistical support to those terrorists. There is a United Nations resolution, or Security Council resolution, regarding this point that's not implemented. If we don't provide all these requirements for the ceasefire, it will be against the stability; it's going to make more chaos in Syria, it may lead to a de facto division of the country. 

Q. Russia has started an aggressive campaign of aerial bombings here in key opposition strongholds. This has been a turning point in the conflict. Some claim that you have the upper hand now. Do you think you could have made it without foreign help? 

A. Definitely the Russian and the Iranian support were essential for our army to make this advancement. To say that we couldn't have made it is a hypothetical question, because it's an "if," so nobody knows the real answer of the "if." But we definitely need that help for a simple reason: because more than 80 countries supported those terrorists in different ways, some of them directly with money, with logistical support, with armaments, with recruitments. Some other countries supported them politically, in different international forums. Syria is a small country. We could fight, but in the end, there's unlimited support and recruitment for those terrorists. 

Q. Regarding these Russian aerial bombings, are you concerned about civilian casualties? On Monday, there was a bombing in a hospital and 50 people were killed. The United States has claimed that the Russians caused it. 

A. Some other officials in the United States said they don't know who did it, that's what they said later. These contradictory statements are common in the United States, but no one has any proof about who did it and how it happened. 

Q. So, how do you explain to your people, to the Syrians, that there is a foreign army carrying out operations here that can cause civilian casualties? 

A. No, no. We don't have any evidence that the Russians attacked any civilian targets. They are very precise in their targets and they always attack, every day, the bases or the targets of the terrorists. Actually, it's the Americans who did this, who killed many civilians in the northeastern part of Syria, not the Russians. Not a single incident has happened regarding the civilians so far, because they don't attack in the cities; they attack mainly in the rural areas. 

Comment: As Russia and Syria continue to win the war against ISIS, the West now tries a new narrative of Russia bombing civilians to justify their war of aggression 

Q. Talking about foreign armies, how would you react if Turkey and Saudi Arabia follow through with their statements that they plan on sending troops here to allegedly fight the Islamic State? 

A. ...If it happens, we're going to deal with them like we deal with the terrorists. We're going to defend our country. This is aggression. They don't have any right to interfere, politically or militarily, in Syria. This is a breach of international law, and as Syrian citizens, the only option we have is to fight and defend. 

Q. Turkey has started bombing from their territory into Syria. 

A. Exactly, and before that bombing, Turkey was sending the terrorists, it's the same, the same goal, the same effect, in different ways. So, Turkey has been involved in Syria since the very beginning. 

Comment: Captured ISIS terrorist: 'We are trained in Turkey, then weapons follow us into Syria' 

Q. Regarding this, what do you think attracts so many foreigners into Syria right now? 

A. Mainly the support they've been sent. It's active, not passive, it's actually active from the outside. Saudi Arabia is the main financier of those terrorists. They put them in airplanes, send them to Turkey, and through Turkey to Syria. 

Comment: Investigating Saudi Arabia's sponsorship of Turkish politics, terrorism, and the frenzied conflict in Syria 

Q. Let me read from a United Nations Human Rights Council report that was published on February 3, and it said "detainees held by the government were beaten to death or died as a result of injuries sustained due to torture." They say war crimes have also been committed. What do you have to say to this? 

A. That's based on what the Qataris made about a year ago or more, when they forged a report made of unverified pictures of injured people and unverified sources and sent it to the United Nations, and this is part of the propaganda against Syria. That's the problem with the West and propaganda; they use unverified information to accuse Syria and to blame it and then to take action against it. 

Q. So, from your perspective, from the very beginning you labeled those protests that were in Daraa and Damascus as terrorism, as infiltrated by foreign powers. How do you view those first demonstrations against the government? 

A. At the very beginning, you had a mixture of demonstrators. First of all, Qatar paid those demonstrators in order to put them on Al Jazeera and then to convince the international public opinion that people are revolting against the president. The highest number of those were 140,000 demonstrators all over Syria, which is nothing, as a number, that's why we weren't worried. So, they infiltrated them with militants to shoot at the police and to shoot at the demonstrators, so you have more revolts. When they failed, they moved to send the tools to support the terrorists.

 

 

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https://www.sott.net/article/312722-Assad-The-West-and-it-Arab-client-states-manufactured-Syrian-conflict-over-80-countries-are-supporting-terrorists

 

 

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The Syrian army said on Monday that Israel had carried out a missile strike on Damascus International Airport and put it out of service, the latest in a string of strikes targeting Iran-linked assets.

 

A volley of air-launched missiles had hit the airport at 2 am, the army said in a statement. They had come from the direction of Lake Tiberias in Israel.

Missiles had also hit targets in the south of Damascus, killing two members of the Syrian armed forces and causing some damage, the army said.

Earlier, two regional intelligence sources said the strikes had hit an outpost near the airport of Iran's Quds Force and militias it backs. Their presence has spread in Syria in recent years.

The Israel Defence Force did not immediately comment on the attack.

Last year, Israel intensified strikes on Damascus International and other civilian airports to disrupt Tehran's increasing use of aerial supply lines to deliver arms to allies in Syria and Lebanon, including Hezbollah.

Syria halted flights to and from the airport in June for nearly two weeks after Israeli strikes caused extensive damage to infrastructure, including a runway and a terminal.

Israel fired missiles at Damascus International again in September, when it also struck the country's second-largest civilian airport, in the northern city of Aleppo, putting it out of operation for several days.

Western and regional intelligence sources say Tehran has adopted civilian air transportation as a more reliable means of ferrying military equipment to its forces and to allied fighters in Syria, following Israeli disruption of ground supply.

Israel has repeatedly bombed Iran-backed militia targets in Syria in recent years, saying its goal is to erode Tehran's military presence, which Western intelligence sources say has expanded in the war-torn country.

 

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https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20230102-israeli-missile-strikes-put-damascus-airport-out-of-service-says-syrian-army

 

 

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NOTE: WITHOUT THE US EMPIRE AND THE ZIONISTS FROM ISRAEL INTERFERING ALL THE TIME, SYRIA WOULD NOT BE "WAR TORN" WHICH IT IS NOT ANYWAY.....

 

 

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MK-ULTRA used psychoactive drugs, electroshock, sensory deprivation, and other torture modalities to turn the unwitting test subject’s psyche into mush and reconstitute it into a malleable control panel. Rather than creating the perfect Manchurian Candidate, the CIA program only managed to produce psychologically wrecked headcases. MK-ULTRA officially lasted from 1953 to 1973. Instead of shelving this crime against humanity, the US Empire retooled it for mass consumption. MK-ULTRA never ended. It just went mainstream.

To gain full spectrum dominance over its test subjects, MK-ULTRA not only used trauma-level psychological manipulation tactics, but also administered physical agents directly into the body. The covid pandemic was the Deep State’s big-screen adaptation of this double play. I’d prefer to miss their Jaws II sequel, but theater attendance is mandatory.

In an article series that would have put him on the Pulitzer Prize shortlist in a non-Fake News world, technology entrepreneur, publisher, free speech activist, journalist, and writer Ron Unz laid out in brilliant depth how covid was a Deep State bioweapon attack against China. Like the international banking hydra, covid has many heads. This MK-ULTRA viral mutation also includes biometric IDs, NWO digital wallets, Stasi border control, depopulation, DNA hijacking, transhumanism, and wealth transfer.

The most powerful weapon in cognitive warfare is fear. Covid offered plenty of that. An invisible ubiquitous pathogen that fast-tracks you to the ICU or morgue rattles most people’s nerves. Constant corporate media fear-mongering and counting “slip and fall” deaths as covid to inflate the numbers added to the panic. I’m not saying covid isn’t a real bioweapon. I think it is. However, it’s also highly survivable- at least at this juncture. I prefer to handle covid with natural immunity versus the DARPA vax. If you believe that covid was a Deep State/Big Pharma/DARPA/neocon/Davos bioattack, then why trust the same entities offering up the cure? Problem-reaction-solution, to borrow from David Icke.

In a clinical trial, there is a control group (placebo) and a treatment group (those who get the actual drug or varied concentrations of it). In this case, it appears that the real-world mRNA vaccine rollout was the clinical trial, which means there were different batches. If true, that’s good news for some who received the jab. A percentage of vaccine recipients dropped on the spot, or suffered serious side effects or death days or months later. Other vax takers appear to be perfectly healthy. The control-treatment model hypothesis would explain the wide discrepancy in symptomatic response.

Those who refused to comply passed round one of “Squid Game.” Congratulations chum. But don’t pop the Dom Pérignon cork yet. Round two is going to be a real nitroglycerin firecracker. If you took the vax and suffered no ill effects, you picked the lucky numbers. That makes you eligible for round two. Don’t make the same mistake twice, as next time the control group could be much smaller. For those who took the vax and got injured, your best hope is that a maverick scientist is working on a cure in his secret underground lab. Don’t expect help from the mainstream medical industry. Your next best hope is sweet vengeance.

9/11 was another MK-ULTRA inspired stunt that used fear to gain mass compliance. By pumping up the nation’s cortisol levels, the neocons induced the test subject population to accept permanent war as the new normal and exchange their constitutional rights for security state protection. Like the guy on the hundred-dollar bill said, “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” If you believe Franklin’s quote, then America deserves what’s coming.

Voting in a rigged uniparty system is another MK-ULTRA psyop. The illusion of choice gives the test subject false hope and diverts energy away from meaningful action. Voters become windup toys who perennially repeat a ritual that brings no results. A variation of praying to false idols. I wasn’t going to discuss voting, as I devoted an entire article to it titled, “Breaking the Voting Psyop Addiction.” However, RockaBoatus wrote a piece titled, “To Vote or Not to Vote,” and mentioned my article. That got me thinking a bit more about the subject.

RockaBoatus’ basic stance was that while the current Red/Blue system is corrupt, participation in it holds strategic value. RockaBoatus strikes me as an honorable fellow with good intentions. I still maintain that voting for a Red or Blue pageant contestant is a waste of time and only empowers the system.

I will add a side note caveat to my original position. If a legit third party ever came along, I might consider backing it. After Ross Perot got close to the White House, the oligarchy filled the field with punji stick booby traps to ensure a third party never gained traction. In the current uniparty system, third parties can’t win. What an organized third party could potentially do is act as a megaphone to take the message to the masses and create chaos within the system. That might be good for a few laughs.

However, if the third party reached nuisance level, the feds would shut it down and ship everyone to the sandbox to play with the poor Jan. 6 suckers. To borrow from Johnny Cash, to stay alive, the third party would need to “walk the line” -and an anorexic one at that. If the organization held tight until the ATMs became unreliable and the system’s nuts and bolts started popping out, the party would be primed and ready to put in work. Apologies for the detour, back to MK-ULTRA.

In my original voting article, I gave general reasons for boycotting the electoral farce. I’m going to personalize my perspective to better align it with the MK-ULTRA theme of this piece. When Cortés landed in the New World (I don’t condone his treatment of indigenous peoples), he burned all his ships. The obvious message was, “victory or death.” If a group tries to genocide you, even if it’s occurring at an incremental pace, the fight or flight response enters your brain’s neuroplasticity network. Even if on a subconscious level, by choosing survival, the “victory or death” message gets implanted into your psyche. To utilize this survival mindset, you need to keep your head tight. The false hope that voting offers makes my head wobbly. In the Rothschild-Rockefeller Satanic Matrix, there is no hope- there is only “this.”

The divide & conquer “culture war” is another MK-ULTRA bat that escaped from the lab. People get super touchy when it comes to their personal culture war favorites. Nothing fills the sky with hate bombs faster. I support free speech, so lock and load. When it comes to “hate speech,” I gravitate toward the “sticks and stones” philosophy. Mean words don’t bother me too much. A tire iron is another story.

Transgender bathrooms, gay marriage, abortion, flag burning, the War on Christmas. Ka-boom. You might be twisting and turning over those issues, but Goldman Sachs and the MIC don’t give a rat’s gluteus maximus about them. They only care about vacuuming the last coins from underneath the US sofa cushion and putting the finishing touches on concentration camp America. When people tire of the “woke” scam, Raytheon can peel off the #BLM and rainbow flag stickers off their missiles and replace them with the Cross and American flag decals.

Do you think a drag queen performing cabaret in a gay dive bar used magic fairy dust to take over the public school system and implement “Drag Queen Storytime?” Do you believe the trans community, a historically vulnerable and marginalized group, has enough clout to force Raytheon to celebrate “Trans Day” or mass-brainwash “woke” parents into allowing chemical and surgical experimentation on their kids? This is all a Davos-Deep State operation. I don’t blame the organic gay & trans community for any of it.

Human sexuality is a complex subject. I’m too stupid to understand what it all means. I’ll let the biologists, psychologists, sexologists, porn stars, clergy, and songwriters hammer out the definitive instruction manual. However, I do possess enough neural function to realize that the Deep State shouldn’t be weaponizing sexuality. My simplistic take on the sex controversy morass is that when it comes to the personal lifestyle choices of consenting adults, I don’t play morality cop. It’s not in my code. Whether a consenting adult is gay, trans, or likes to dress in a Yogi Bear costume and swing from a trapeze- I don’t care. And I’m certainly not going to war over it.

Pierre-Joseph Proudon’s “freedom of association” handles culture war conflict. If a dude likes to walk around in a beehive hairdo and assless chaps, run the Village People program in Gayville. For those who don’t dig that scene nor want their kids around it, run the Norman Rockwell program in Straightville. The problem is everyone’s trying to run everyone else’s program instead of their own. In Muslim theological parlance- it’s your jihad, or struggle/exert. Sentience from point A to point B means choices. Consent or don’t.

“What about abortion?” someone asks. “A fetus can’t consent to getting sucked out of its cozy uterine domicile.” Valid point. I believe that industrialized mass abortion karmically crashes a civilization. However, I also think that if a woman gets gang raped by feeb head asylum escapees, abortion becomes a benevolent act. Whichever way you view it, don’t fret too much. Between the mRNA vaccines, 5G, electro-magnetic fields, GMO foods, environmental toxins, and Fukushima radiation release, by 2030 most people in the West will likely be sterile. Problem solved.

How about those kids who got MK-ULTRA convinced they’re the wrong gender and asked Santa for a sex change operation? Anyone with a molecule of humanity knows that a minor can’t consent to a life-changing procedure of that magnitude. From my perspective, the whole child transgender push constitutes Yuval Noah Harhari inspired predictive programming designed to gain public acceptance for body-invasive nanotechnology, DNA hijacking, brain chipping, and other transhumanist modalities. Globalists who push their sexual agenda on children deserve the same treatment as the playground pedo. However, in actual numbers, how many kids in America have undergone sex reassignment surgery? 5? 500? 5000? 50,000? I don’t know.

The globalists want to get the world population into the 500 million to 1 billion range. With AI and robotics, at some point, they won’t need human labor or billions of useless oxygen suckers hanging around. I’m not a Bill Gates or an Oprah. Nor am I a Big Tech CEO, Chelsea Clinton, or EU technocrat. By Davos standards, I don’t qualify for a place “under the dome.” Most likely, neither do you. I look at it through a M*A*S*H unit triage lens. Save who can be saved first. Many won’t pass through the Great Reset filter. You need to process that data if you plan on remaining mentally and physically viable.

Some might think my point is that culture doesn’t matter. Wrong. It’s the myths, narratives, and customs of a people that protect them from spiritual and physical decimation. An integral part of the Native American genocide involved stripping them of their language and religion. Why do you think Netflix Viking and Elizabethan princess lead roles are now played by People of Color? They’ve been running the MK-ULTRA program on Black people for a while. Remember the Tuskegee Experiment? Now everyone gets to play guinea pig for Rockefeller Foundation scientists. Like the Niemöller poem said, “First they came for the socialists…” You know the rest.

If Davos dystopia comes to full fruition and you find yourself scavenging for food in the city dump while killer drones circle overhead- gay marriage, trans bathrooms, and the War on Christmas will be the least of your concerns. Obsessing over hot-button social issues is a luxury for people with stocked refrigerators and working power grids. Enjoy ZioCorp’s manufactured outrage while you can. Before the war, neocon propaganda got the Ukrainians all jazzed up. Look how well that turned out.

I could write a tome on the 24/7 MK-ULTRA assault on minds and bodies. Cognitive-level examples include Fake News, Hasbara troll comment section disruption, public school reprogramming, CIA-scripted Hollywood superhero movies, and Google algorithm censorship. This is first and foremost a war on the human mind.

Stress suicide by Fox Business News “pick yourself up by your bootstraps you lazy goldbricking bastard” controlled scarcity capitalism moves things into the physical realm. The Sackler opioid crisis Rust Belt soft genocide added a complimentary adjunct. From there it continues with over-prescribed mental meds, bioweapon attacks, mRNA vaccines, chemtrails, global supply chain disruptions, and Monsanto GMO food tampering. In the not-too-distant future, “consumers” will stand in line for hours to become the first Apple Store brain chip recipients.

The goal of MK-ULTRA was to replace the test subject’s reality with one crafted by the clinician. They want to break you down to where you’ll smilingly walk into the death chamber and press your delete button as Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” plays in the background. A crazy fantasy? Check out the eight months pregnant Blue and Yellow flag emoji virtue signaler posing for her 57th booster social media selfie.

We’re living in a toxic beta-wave lucid dream. Hindu spiritual texts refer to this dream as “the world of illusion” or Maya. To borrow a documentary film title- Exit through the gift shop. Or collapse the dream. Or nightmare, depending on your perspective.

The Chinese curse goes, “May you live in interesting times.” I’m stupid. The more “interesting” the times become, the stupider I get. That’s why I follow the Tao. Tao is simple because it’s too complex to understand. Use whatever flying car best navigates you through the illusion. To take artistic license with Guns N’ Roses’ “Welcome to the Jungle”- You know where you are? You’re in the Rothschild-Rockefeller Satanic Matrix, baby.

For a more in-depth look at the original MK-ULTRA and related CIA programs, I recommend Chris Hedges’ article, “Our Invisible Government.” Hedges’ books contributed to my political awakening. I spoke to him for a few minutes after one of his lectures. I like Chris.

In an MK-ULTRA society, the test subject population inevitably suffers spiritual, mental, or physical destruction. Under my code, trying to “destroy” me is the same as trying to kill me. Whether I’m dealing with a loose tiger that pulled off a zoo jailbreak or a code yellow Deep State bioweapon attack- I run the “life and death” program. What’s the “life and death” program? Whether you knew it or not, you’ve probably run it at one time or another.

It’s 2am and you’re riding mass transit through the dodgy part of town. It’s just you in the car. At the next stop, a predator enters. Not the chomo or rapey kind, but one who follows the Darwin code. He sits across from you. His carnivore eyeballs connect hard. The doors close.

He’s built solid. Not the type of physique that comes from hitting the gym, but from endless reps of pushups and crunches in a prison cell. The gears in his head reverberate loud enough to transcribe his thoughts: “Him, or hold off and wait for a soft juicy gazelle?”

 

The predator has keen senses. He’s tuned into your eye movement, body language, breathing, and on a subconscious level, your body’s electrical field. No CCW permits issued in this territory chum. If it goes down, this dance is going to be hard and fast and up close and personal. The wrong move, even the wrong emotion, could result in program termination.

 

That’s the sped-up version. With the globalists, it’s slower and more incremental. That doesn’t make it less deadly. Run your program. Follow your code. Everyone gets an entry ticket to the MK-ULTRA funhouse. Not everyone exits.

 

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https://www.unz.com/article/mk-ultra-never-ended-it-just-went-mainstream/

 

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BY Malek al-Khoury

 

The newly-initiated Syrian-Turkish rapprochement talks are headed in Damascus’ favor and the “Turkish concessions” derided by opponents are just the start, insiders tell The Cradle.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has already abandoned his dream of “praying in the Umayyad Mosque” in Damascus. But sources say this will be swiftly followed by further concessions that will throw a wrench into the ambitions of Syria’s opposition factions.

 

An undivided Syria

There will be no “federalism” or “confederation” – western codewords for the break up of the Syrian state – at these talks, but rather a “Turkish-Russian” acceptance of Damascus’ conditions.

For starters, Ankara plans to open the strategic M4 highway – which runs parallel to the Turkish border and connects all the vital Syrian cities and regions – as a prelude to opening the legal border crossings between Syria and Turkiye, which will re-establish trade routes between the two countries.

This move, based on an understanding between Damascus and Ankara, will essentially close the door on any opposition fantasies of breaking Syria into statelets, and will undermine the “Kurdish-American divisive ambition.”

It is not for nothing that Washington has sought to thwart communications between Ankara and Damascus. Under the guise of “fighting ISIS,” the US invested heavily in Syrian separatism, replacing the terror group with “Kurdish local forces” and reaped the rewards in barrels of stolen Syrian oil to help mitigate the global energy crisis.

Now Turkiye has closed the door to that ‘federalization’ plan.

 

A Russian-backed proposal 

The Syrian-Turkish talks in Moscow on 28 December focused mainly on opening and establishing the necessary political, security, and diplomatic channels – a process initiated by their respective defense ministers.

While resolving the myriad thorny files between the two states is not as easy as the optimists would like, it is also nowhere as difficult as the fierce opponents of rapprochement try to suggest.

The Moscow discussions centered on mild, incremental solutions proposed by Russia. The Kremlin understands that the minefield between Ankara and Damascus needs to be dismantled with cold minds and hands, but insists that the starting point of talks is based on the political formulas of the Astana peace process that all parties have already accepted.

On the ground, Moscow is busy marketing satisfactory security settlements for all, though those on the battlefield appear to be the least flexible so far. The Russian plan is to “present security formulas to the military,” intended to be later translated into the integration of forces – whether Kurdish fighters or opposition militants – into the ranks of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA).

This will be achieved via committees led by both Syrian and Turkish intelligence services, a Russian source involved in coordinating the talks tells The Cradle.

 

Co-opting the Kurds

The Russian proposals, according to the source, rely on two past successful models for reconciliation on the battlefield. The first is the “Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood model in northern Aleppo,” an area once controlled by Kurdish forces who began to coordinate with the SAA after the sweeping 2016 military operation that expelled opposition militants from the eastern neighborhoods of the city.

The Russian source says that the “Sheikh Maqsoud” model succeeded because of “security coordination,” revealing that “Syrian state security is deployed at the entrances to the neighborhood with checkpoints that coordinate with the Kurdish forces inside – in every way, big and small.” This security coordination includes “arresting criminally wanted persons, and facilitating administrative and service services” in coordination with Damascus.

The second reconciliation model used by Russian forces in Syria succeeded in bringing together the SAA and Sheikh Maqsoud Kurdish militias in a joint military maneuver conducted near the town of Manbij in the countryside of Aleppo last August.

While the Russian source confirms that the experience of “security coordination” between the SAA and the Kurdish forces was “successful,” he cautions that these models need “political arrangements” which can only be achieved by “an agreement in Astana on new provisions to the Syrian constitution, which give Kurds more flexibility in self-governance in their areas.”

 

Opposition amnesty 

A parallel proposal revealed to The Cradle by a Turkish source, approaches ground solutions from a “confederation” angle, anathema to the Syrian authorities. According to him, “Damascus must be convinced of sharing power with the qualified factions of the (Turkish) National Army for that.”

While the Turkish proposal tried to move a step closer to Damascus’ aims, it seems that Russian mediation contributed to producing a new paradigm: This would be based on the tried-and-tested Syrian “military reconciliation” model used for years – namely, that opposition militants hand over their arms, denounce hostility to the state, and are integrated into the SAA.

Turkiye’s abandonment of its “demand to overthrow the regime” applies also to its affiliated military factions inside Syria, as the latter’s goals have dwindled to preserving some areas of influence in the north of the country. This is the current flavor of Turkiye’s reduced “confederation” ambitions: To maintain Turkish-backed factions within “local administrations” in northern areas where Turkiye has influence. This, in return for giving up on Ankara’s political ambition of “regime change” in Damascus and redrawing Syria’s northern map.

The solution here will require amending the Syrian constitution, a process that began several years ago to no avail.

From the Syrian perspective, officials are focused on eliminating all opposing separatist or terrorist elements who do not have the ability to adapt to a “unified” Syrian society.

Therefore, Damascus rejects military reconciliation proposals for any “sectarian” separatist or factional militias. Syrian officials reiterate that “the unity of the lands and the people” is the only gateway to a solution, away from the foreign interests that promote “terrorism or secession” – a reference to the Turkish and American role in Syria’s war.

 

Reconciliation on Damascus’ terms 

There is no “confederation” in the dictionary of the Syrian state, and it is determined to stick hard to the principle of Syrian unity until the end. Damascus is intent on one goal: Reconciliations based on surrendering arms in the countryside of Latakia, Idlib, Aleppo, Raqqa, Hasakah, Qamishli, and al-Tanf, which are the areas that are still outside the control of the state.

According to the Turkish source, Syria refused to discuss anything “outside the framework of reconciliations and handing over weapons and regions,” which he says “makes it difficult for Ankara to undertake its mission,” especially in light of the fact that the Al Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front controls large parts of these target areas.

A Syrian source tells The Cradle that the “Qamishli model” of military reconciliation is the closest one that applies to this case: Wherein “the SAA and national defense forces (the majority of which are pro-Damascus Kurds) coordinate fully.”

He makes clear that Damascus has already provided ample self-governance mechanisms for Kurds in the country’s north:

“The (Kurdish-run) Autonomous Administration in Syria already exists. It deals directly with Syria’s Ministry of Local Administration (in Damascus) and has multiple agencies that work through local representative councils to implement government plans in terms of security, tax collection, and services,” and of course it consists of the people of the region – Kurds.

The recent statement of top Erdogan advisor Yassin Aktay may throw a wrench in those works. His insistence that Turkiye should maintain control over the city of Aleppo – Syria’s second most populous, and its industrial heart – did not come out of nowhere.

Ankara considers that its repatriation of three million Syrian refugees should start from “local administrations run by the (Turkish-backed) Syrian National Army (a rebranded version of the opposition ‘Free Syrian Army),” says the Turkish source.

He is referring to Idlib, Aleppo, and their countrysides, and the areas in which Turkiye launched its “Olive Branch” and “Euphrates Shield” military operations. These locales in Syria’s north include the northern and eastern countryside of Aleppo, including Azaz, Jarabulus, al-Bab, Afrin, and its environs.

Turkiye may consider gradually handing over these strategic zones to its allied Syrian militias, he says.

“Call it confederation or not, these areas should be controlled by the Syrian National Army factions instead of the Al-Nusra Front – in order to ensure the safe return of the refugees.”

 

Steady progress

In short, the Russian mediation to bring Damascus and Ankara closer is moving slowly, but according to the Turkish source, “it is closer to reconciliation because the Syrian Ministry of Local Administration is beginning to take charge of regional affairs after holding new local council elections – in compliance with plans forged in the Astana process.”

Regarding Astana, the Turkish source says, “Let the Syrians treat the Kurdish and opposition areas as one, if the Kurds agree to dismantle their factions and join the Syrian army within a certain equation, the opposition factions will also accept.”

Regarding the complicated geopolitics of Syria’s east – currently occupied by US troops and their proxies – a high-ranking Syrian official who recently visited Saudi Arabia and Cairo, proposed “Arab intervention with the Syrian tribes to disengage tribe members in the Al-Tanf region from the US forces.” But according to the official, this would be subject to “the progress of relations between Damascus, Riyadh, Cairo, and possibly even Jordan.”

A few days ago, a video message was sent by Nusra Front leader Abu Muhammad al-Julani, in which he thundered: “Where are the armies of the Muslims?” It is a topical message from Al Qaeda’s Syria boss, who is angling to maintain his sectarian “area of ​​influence” in northwest Syria – strategic Idlib on the Turkish-Syrian border. Julani’s destructive narrative may be the last barrier to break for Damascus, Ankara, and Moscow to strike a deal on the ground.

 

The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of The Cradle.

 

 

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UNLIKE THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION BOOFHEADS WHO STILL INVENT CRAP TO DESTROY SYRIA, THIS IS SERIOUS DIPLOMACY.

 

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by Jonathan Cook

The United States said it wanted to free the Syrians from a tyrant. Then they are ready to let them die of cold and starvation. The truth is that for the West, Syria is only a matter of domination.

US President Joe Biden's administration relented last Thursday and eventually lifted sanctions on Syria. The change in policy came after four days of relentless and shocking images from the disaster area of ​​southern Turkey and northern Syria following a 7,8 magnitude earthquake.

It seems that Washington felt it could no longer maintain its embargo as tens of thousands of bodies were exhumed from the rubble and millions more struggled with cold, hunger and the scars.

The United States could not afford to appear to stand alone in the face of a global outpouring of compassion and concern for the devastated populations of Syria and Turkey.

Under the new waiver, the Syrian government will be able to receive relief in the event of a new earthquake for the next six months, before the embargo is applied again.

But no one should be fooled by this apparent change in attitude.

Immediately after the earthquake, the State Department's first reaction was to reaffirm its policy. Spokesman Ned Price rejected the possibility of lifting the sanctions, claiming that he would be « counterproductive...to reach out to a government that has brutalized its people for a dozen years now ».

The truth is that the sanctions regime imposed by the United States and its European, Canadian and Australian allies was a criminal policy long before the earthquake. A brief and late exemption from sanctions – under international pressure – does not fundamentally change this picture.

Western claims for humanitarian intervention in the oil-rich Middle East have always been a lie. All it took was one earthquake to make it crystal clear.

collective punishment

Sanctions are a form of collective punishment towards the whole population. The West has punished the Syrians for living under a government they did not elect but which the United States is determined to bring down at all costs.

The Western embargo was imposed alongside a civil war, which quickly escalated into a Western proxy war, which ravaged most of the country. The United States and its allies have fueled and stoked the war, by sponsoring rebel groups, in particular jihadists, who ultimately failed to oust the government of Bashar el-Assad.

Many of these extremist groups have flowed in from neighboring countries, where they have been sucked into the vacuum left by the earlier so-called "humanitarian" operations of overthrow regimes led by the West.

To avoid the fighting, millions of Syrians have been forced to flee their homes, leading to rampant impoverishment and malnutrition. Although the fighting has died down, the Syrian economy has continued to sink, not only because of Western sanctions, but also because the United States and other countries have seized of  oil fields and the best agricultural land in Syria.

This entirely man-made disaster preceded and aggravated last week's earthquake. Already destitute, hungry and isolated, Syrians now face a new calamity.

macabre politics

The logic behind the impoverishment policy of Syria, implemented for ten years according to a model that Washington regularly applies to its official enemies, is simple: the desperate Syrians would be incited to rise up against their leaders in the hope of an improvement of the situation.

But the project has visibly failed – just as it has so often failed in designated enemy states, such as Cuba andIran. Nevertheless, the deprivation program continued to be applied in the name of “humanitarianism”.

When Syria was hit by a 7,8 magnitude earthquake last week, Washington's insistence that sanctions stay in place took the policy from merely inhuman to positive. macabre.

But rather than imagining any benevolence on the part of the United States for the temporary lifting of sanctions, it is worth remembering the reason for their existence.

The logic of the Western position was as follows: the lifting of sanctions requires recognition of the Assad government, which would be an admission of defeat in the war to overthrow it. The protection of theego of Washington officials has taken precedence over the endless torment of millions of Syrians.

This in itself contradicts any claim that the United States and Europe, in their fight to overthrow the Assad government, ever really cared about the Syrian people.

It also offers a telling counterpoint to the treatment of Ukraine. Apparently, nothing will be spared to save the Ukrainians” European in appearance of the Russian invasion, even at the risk of a nuclear confrontation.

But darker-skinned Syrians will be left to their fate as soon as the crumbling buildings are no longer on our television screens.

Since when can this kind of racist discrimination be called humanitarian?

No, it is not compassion that motivates the West to arm Ukraine – any more than before, it was not compassion that motivated the West to sponsor a Syrian opposition that was quickly dominated by the same groups that the West elsewhere labeled terrorists.

Battle for supremacy

The so-called humanitarian instincts of the West can only be truly understood by digging deeper. Much deeper...

Helping the Ukrainians by arming them with tanks and jets, while depriving the Syrians of the bare necessities, are not as opposed positions as they seem at first sight. The inconsistency cannot even be called a double standard, seen from Western capitals.

Both policies pursue the same objective, which has nothing to do with the well-being of Ukrainians or Syrians. That goal is Western supremacy. And in both cases, the official enemy that the West wants to see definitively “weakened” is more or less visible in the background: Russia.

The Syrian government was one of the last in the Middle East to support Russia, including allowing the Russian Navy to access the Mediterranean through the Syrian port of tartus. This is one of the main reasons why the West was so eager to see Assad's government overthrown, and why Moscow supported Damascus militarily against the Western-backed rebels, thus frustrating these goals.

Meanwhile, Ukraine was gradually transforming into a forward base unofficial NATO on Russia's doorstep – a reason why Russia wanted kyiv weakened and why the United States is so eager to support it militarily.

Punishing Syria is not an ethical foreign policy. It is rationalized by viewing the world and its peoples through a single lens: how they can serve the overt interests of Western and, primarily, American power.

As always, the West is playing its Great Colonial Game – power intrigues to align its geostrategic chess pieces in the most advantageous arrangement possible. And those interests include global military dominance and control of key financial resources like oil.

supreme crime

As Syria struggles to cope with the earthquake, the first instinct of the United States and its allies has not been to alleviate the suffering of Syrians. They preferred to play the game of deception and diversion. Damascus has been blamed for not allowing aid to reach some of the northern regions hardest hit by the earthquake. These include areas still in rebel hands.

Mark Lowcock, the former UN humanitarian affairs chief, complains . " It will take Turkey's consent to get aid to these areas. The Syrian government is unlikely to do much to help. »

The first shipments arrived via a passage from Turkey last Thursday, and the Syrian government also approved the delivery of humanitarian aid to areas not under its control in the northwest of the country, affected by the earthquake.

In response, a spokesman for the militant group HTS [Tahrir al-Sham], which controls much of Idlib, told to Reuters that he would not allow the arrival of aid from government-held areas of Syria, because " we will not allow the regime to take advantage of the situation to show that it is helping ».

But whatever the Western rhetoric, the blame game over aid funneling into northern Syria is not simply the result of Damascus belligerence.

Today, the Assad government may have secured the majority of Syrian territory, but it is far from controlling the Syrian nation.

The United States has helped create a large area outside of Damascus' control in the northeast of the country for the benefit of the Kurdish population, and other parts of the north are in the hands of an alliance of radical groups , dominated by offshoots of al-Qaida as well as remnants of the Islamic State (IS) group and Turkish-backed fighters.

This fragmentation is a major obstacle to relief operations, and by nature governments wish to assert their sovereignty over all of their territory.

But the Assad government has other reasons to worry. It is very dangerous for him to let the local establishment of al-Qaeda and other rebel groups take all the credit for handling the emergency. This is not just a public relations battle, because if Al-Qaeda is ever considered to have brought relief to desperate communities in northern Syria, this organization risks winning the sympathies of ordinary Syrians. – and Arabs more broadly.

If Al-Qaeda is allowed to take over the relief operations, Damascus will lose its authority with much of the local population. This could serve as a prelude to a renewed civil war in Syria and plunge Syrians back into fighting and bloodshed.

"Evil as a Whole"

The question is not whether Assad and his government should be held accountable or not. It is that, whatever Western orthodoxy may say, the interference of external powers to overthrow governments never leads to humanitarian results. This is true even if a regime-overthrow operation can be achieved quickly – unlike the ongoing stalemate in Syria.

It was largely for this reason that the Nuremberg trials of Nazi leaders after World War II declared aggression against another nation's sovereign territory to be the " supreme international crime and that it "contained within itself the accumulated evil as a whole".

Attacks on sovereign states lead to a loss of the glue that binds a population together, even imperfectly, and produce their own consequences, generally unpredictable.

The 20-year Western occupation of Afghanistan has created a crony state, where corrupt local officials have siphoned off US state-building funds and served as puppets for regional warlords .

The violent chaos unleashed by Washington paved the way for the return of the Taliban.

The 2003 US and UK invasion of Iraq and subsequent dismantling of the Iraqi military and police failed to deliver on any of Washington's promises of 'freedom and democracy' . On the contrary, it created a power vacuum that tore the country apart and led Iran and radical groups to vie for power.

In 2011, when the West overthrew the government of Muammar Gaddafi, Libya became a country of slave markets, as well as a sanctuary for extremists and a conduit for arms trafficking to other conflict zones, such as Syria.

Today we see in Syria the legacy, once again, of “humanitarianism” in the Western way. Weakened by years of proxy warfare and a sanctions regime, power in Damascus is far too fragile and fearful to risk ceding any of its limited powers to its adversaries.

Those who will suffer once again – this time from the earthquake – are not the governments in Washington, the European capitals or Damascus. It will be ordinary Syrians – the very people the West claims it wants to save.

source: Middle East Eye via Chronicle of Palestine

 

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By News Desk- February 17 2023

 

 

Since a 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit Turkiye and Syria on 6 February, killing over 40,000 thousand people and leaving millions homeless, western media has placed a disproportionate emphasis on how the government in Damascus will presumably use the crisis to “rehabilitate” its image on the international stage.

With headlines ranging from “Syria’s Assad Uses Disaster Diplomacy to Inch Back Onto World Stage” to “Bashar al-Assad does not want to let a calamity go to waste,” western media outlets have joined hands in making claims that the devastating quake is somehow beneficial for the Syrian government.

“A powerful earthquake last week catapulted Syria’s authoritarian president, Bashar al-Assad, into the global spotlight, creating an opportunity for him to inch further back onto the international stage through disaster diplomacy,” writes Declan Walsh for the New York Times (NYT), before lamenting how the Syrian leader “received a steady flow of sympathy, aid, and attention from other countries.”

“A tragedy for Syrians is a boon for Assad because nobody else wants to manage this mess,” an analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London told the NYT.

Similarly, Washington Post writer Ishaan Tharoor warns that “natural sympathy for the Syrian plight may lead to a regime once ostracized by much of the international community coming out of the cold” before citing members of US and UK-based think tanks who claim Bashar al-Assad is “exploiting” the catastrophe to “rehabilitate his image.”

The Economist posits that the choice between helping Syrians or leaving them to continue suffering from the effects of western sanctions is a “horrible dilemma.”

“Western governments are loth to channel money to Mr. Assad to help him rebuild; they are also anxious to avoid blocking that rebuilding entirely. In working out how to help the people living amid the devastation of Syria while not rehabilitating a blood-soaked regime, there are no easy answers,” the historically pro-war outlet concludes.

The editorial line adopted by these and several other western outlets is indistinguishable from the official stance of the US government.

When asked last week why the White House wasn’t contacting Damascus or considering lifting sanctions, State Department spokesman Ned Price brushed off the suggestions and said that “it would be quite ironic, if not even counterproductive, for us to reach out to a government that has brutalized its people.”

But days later, Washington had to relent and offer a 180-day sanctions waiver to allow humanitarian assistance to enter Syria. Despite being forced to do this, US officials continue to allege crushing sanctions have had “no effect” on the civilian population of Syria.

“As you saw, we did execute a general license a week ago that will allow even more humanitarian assistance to flow, not that the humanitarian assistance wasn’t flowing already, even with the sanctions in place. When people are dying, and when people are in need, the United States will answer that need,” National Security Council coordinator John Kirby said on 16 February.

Despite these claims, countless reports have shown that sanctions negatively affect all vital sectors of Syria’s economy, from medicine to education, energy, communications, agriculture, and industry. On top of this, Washington’s military occupation of Syria has crippled the nation’s economy and undermined its ability to respond to major natural disasters.

 

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https://thecradle.co/article-view/21568/western-media-declares-earthquake-devastation-a-boon-for-syrian-president

 

 

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ALL IN MARGARET "NOGOOD"'S FOOTSTEPS.....

 

 

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THIS ARTICLE IS A DISGRACE BUT IT COMES FROM THE BROOKINGS INSTITUTE, SO ALL IS FORGIVEN:

 

Editor's [BROOKINGS] Note: 

This piece is part of a series titled "Nonstate armed actors and illicit economies in 2023" from Brookings's Initiative on Nonstate Armed Actors.

In Syria’s civil war, now entering its 12th year, the state/nonstate divide has become increasingly blurred. Nowhere is this more evident than in the practices adopted by ruling elites in regime- and opposition-held areas to ensure access to resources. Over time, both state actors and nonstate armed groups have produced parallel, interconnected, and interdependent political economies in which the boundaries between formal and informal, licit and illicit, regulation and coercion have largely vanished. Border areas in Syria now constitute a single economic ecosystem, linked by dense ties among networks of traders, smugglers, regime officials, brokers, and armed groups. Competing zones of political control have had little effect on economic collaboration across conflict lines. When it comes to trade, pragmatism reigns.

 

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https://www.brookings.edu/blog/order-from-chaos/2023/01/27/syrias-dissolving-line-between-state-and-nonstate-actors/

 

THE BIGGEST "BLURRER OF LINES", THE BIGGEST SMUGGLER, THE BIGGEST SHIT-STIRRER IN SYRIA IS... THE AMERICAN MILITARY. END OF DISSERTATION. (READ FROM TOP)

 

 

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It's potentially the biggest seizure of amphetamines in history — and it allegedly comes from a source that might surprise many people.

Key points:

• Captagon is a stimulant sometimes referred to as 'the drug of Jihad'
• It is popular in the Middle East, including in war-torn areas
• Reports say IS was trying to sell the drug to fund militant activities

 

Italian police have discovered 14 tonnes of the drug Captagon hidden inside machinery and paper cylinders, on container ships in the port of Salerno.

They say the stimulant drugs were allegedly produced in Syria by the Islamic State (IS) group, and had a street value of about 1 billion euros ($1.6 billion).

Captagon, a brand name for the amphetamine drug fenethylline hydrochloride, was originally marketed as a treatment for conditions like narcolepsy, depression and hyperactivity, but has been banned in most countries since the 1980s.

Counterfeit versions of the drug have remained popular in the Middle East, where its fear-inhibiting and stimulating effects have also proved useful during protracted firefights in war-torn areas — it is not, however, widely used in Europe.

Reports in recent years have suggested that Syria has become a major production area for counterfeit Captagon pills, including by IS, which Italian authorities said was seeking to sell the drugs to fund its militant activities.

So what is a religious extremist terror group doing manufacturing and using illegal drugs, and why would they be trying to export it to Europe, of all places?

 

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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-02/italy-drug-bust-captagon-how-is-it-linked-to-islamic-state/12414804

 

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BIDEN IS A HYPOCRITE FOR BLAMING ASSAD.....

 

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Syria's return to Arab rule was only a matter of time. It is now effective, on the initiative of Saudi Arabia and its de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed Ben Salman, anxious to appear as the new metronome of the Middle East.
The reintegration of Damascus into the Arab League, announced on May 7, definitively consecrates the triumph of counter-revolutions, after the shaking of the "Arab Spring" of 2011. Bashar Al-Assad had then shown that he was ready to anything to maintain his rule over his country, whatever the cost. He had made the choice of an excessive repression which had rolled an initially peaceful and citizen protest. Jihadist groups, including that of the Islamic State, had thrived in this chaos.

A great beneficiary of the Western indecision which had opened the door in 2013 to Iranian and especially Russian interventions, the master of Damascus had ended up turning the situation around. He had crushed under the bombs, with the help of his allies, the areas which had escaped his control, and made thousands of opponents disappear in the Gehennas that are Syrian prisons.

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Bashar Al-Assad's Syria reinstated in the Arab League

The results of this scorched earth policy on the scale of an entire country have now been established. A good part of Syria is in ruins, deprived moreover of its living forces forced into exile. Having become the scene of proxy conflicts led by the main regional powers, Turkey, Iran and Israel, the country is now only the shadow of the one who played as a virtuoso of strategic rent in the time of the father of the current dictator. .
The latter now only has nuisance capabilities, such as the instrumentalization of millions of Syrian refugees, who are less and less accepted in neighboring countries, and the threat posed by a synthetic drug, captagon, with which it floods the region. .

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Syria, the hub of Captagon trafficking, the "cocaine of the poor"

Syrian normalization is the decision of regimes that have all concluded that it would benefit them, or that it would represent a lesser evil for their interests. It is carried out over the peoples, starting with the Syrians themselves.

 

BS at Le Monde:

https://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2023/05/09/la-ligue-arabe-blanchit-le-regime-assad_6172599_3232.html

 

OBIOUSLY LE MONDE HAS NEVR HEARD OF ISIS AND LAFARGE.... AND THE USA FUNDING AL QAEDA, ETC....

NOR HAS LE MONDE HEARD OF MI6 FOMENTING THE "ARAB SPRING"....

 

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LE MONDE IS A HYPOCRITE FOR BLAMING ASSAD.....

 

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