Originally Posted by
CrowBat
This is actually hard to explain...
This op is financed by Saudis and supported by Jordanians. Both are providing air cover, training, and weapons too. Under US supervision, of course.
Aims are three-fold, for the start:
- please Washington
- get the Daesh away from Jordanian border (and thus distract from fighting in Irbid)
- get FSyA units to fight Daesh, but NOT Assadists.
So, there are plenty of compromises and nonsense there.
The area... or shall I say: 'operational zone'... is largely empty gravel desert, quite flat too. Barely populated (if at all, primarily by traditional Bedu tribes grazing their sheep around). Semi-official aim is 'secure Daesh-controlled zone between Palmyra and Dayr az-Zawr'; 'cut off the Daesh supply line for Palmyra etc., i.e. 'fight Daesh, not anybody else'.
I don't believe this is going to really work. At least not over a longer period of time. Namely, involved Syrian insurgents 'understand' this differently. Their standpoint - or their preferences - would be something like: 'liberate Palmyra (staunchly anti-Assad place) before the regime can do so', 'establish link with insurgents in Dmeyr' (already held by FSyA and connected to a liberated zone comparable in size to the Ra'astan-Talbiseh Pocket north of Homs), 'advance on Dayr az-Zawr' (another staunchly anti-Assad place), etc. They can't do all of this openly, and even less so at the same time, though. Right now they've got to accept they're overdependent on pleasing Americans. Indeed, knowing how eager are their CYA-tails to cut off all supplies if they breach any of agreements... well, we'll not hear anything dependable about this before they've achieved and established a 'few facts on the ground'.
