“They want the Islamic State to reach all of Iran’s borders and even within Iran itself. "
http://yalibnan.com/2016/05/12/hezbo...-a-us-product/ …
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“They want the Islamic State to reach all of Iran’s borders and even within Iran itself. "
http://yalibnan.com/2016/05/12/hezbo...-a-us-product/ …
For hose that understand US internal politics...there might in fact be something to this following comment......
"I believe that [US Sen] Bob Menendez [D-NJ] was indicted solely on the crime of opposing the President on Iran" - US Sen Mark Kirk (R-IL)
FOLLOWED by this Kerry statement which makes one think JUST what did he give away in the Iran Deal that Rhodes spun for the Obama WH.....
Kerry’s peculiar message about Iran for European banks
http://on.wsj.com/1WtJ0Rs
HSBC basically just said that the US position on Iranian financial activities and sanctions makes no sense.
DeirEzzor: More photos of pro-#Assad forces, killed by #ISIS between Sham Gas Station and Panorama Driving School.
Big Aamaq claim: 4 Russian assault helicopters and 20 trucks with ammo explode in T4 airbase as a result of fire
Lesson of Arab spring is that brute force (i.e. killing your citizens) + US/international acquiescence is usually enough to stay in power.
Kyle W. Orton @KyleWOrton
Baffling that #Iran/#Hizballah (and Badreddine personally in most obits) get a pass for Unit 3800 that maimed and murdered 1,000 US soldiers
Hizballah has barely clashed with IS and isn't primarily focused on Jabhat al-Nusra, just for starters.
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, one of #Iran's men in #Afghanistan, being reconciled to the US-backed government.
Hassan Hassan @hxhassan
http://www.thenational.ae/opinion/co...egacy-unpicked
Quote:
Obama’s complex foreign policy legacy unpicked
Hussein Ibish
May 14, 2016 Updated: May 14, 2016 06:18 PM
The battle to define the policy legacy of any two-term American presidency usually emerges as the election for a successor begins in earnest. Ever the astute campaigner, Barack Obama initiated the current debate through a series of interviews to The Atlantic magazine, published as The Obama Doctrine. The conversation has just been significantly extended by a profile in The New York Times of White House communications guru Ben Rhodes.
Mr Obama was elected with a mandate to correct a Bush-era foreign policy characterised by excessive interventionism, overreach and even hubris. As former Obama CIA director and defence secretary Leon Panetta puts it, he was “the guy who’s going to bring these wars to an end".
Yet in Samuels’s account, Mr Obama is depicted as single-minded and inflexible in a manner surprisingly reminiscent of George W Bush. Bush-era recklessness has given way to a very different, but also profoundly dangerous, risk aversion.
It’s pointless to debate whether Mr Obama’s sins of omission have been as harmful as Mr Bush’s sins of commission. That’s totally subjective and can only be based on counterfactual scenarios. Moreover, it’s irrelevant, because even if Mr Obama’s worst errors prove less costly than the flabbergasting blunder of the Iraq war, they’re still highly damaging failures.
Mr Bush’s exit was haunted by the spectre of Iraq, which helped bring his Republican party crashing down to a historic defeat in 2008. Although its political fallout will be less dramatic, Mr Obama’s failure to act in Syria eventually may similarly define his foreign policy in largely negative terms.
Mr Obama is counting on the Iran nuclear deal to secure a historical legacy of at least relative success. But if the agreement doesn’t prevent the emergence of either a nuclear-armed Iran or a military confrontation, he will have lost the legacy gamble.
And a Syria policy that has killed more than 250,000 people and displaced millions, one of the worst terrorist organisations in history empowered, and parts of the Middle East and even Europe destabilised, will be hard to frame as anything other than a devastating moral and political failure.
Samuels’s article illustrates the monomaniacal groupthink dominating elements in the present White House: “Iraq is his [Mr Rhodes’] one-word answer to any and all criticism."
Moreover, he presents Mr Rhodes, and by implication Mr Obama, as being fatalistically convinced – largely, and perhaps entirely, based on the American experience in Iraq – that there was nothing at all Washington could have done to improve the situation in Syria.
“I profoundly do not believe that the United States could make things better in Syria by being there," Samuels quotes Mr Rhodes. “And we have an evidentiary record of what happens when we’re there – nearly a decade in Iraq."
This echoes Mr Obama’s evidence-free assertions that Russia’s intervention in Syria is, by definition, a crippling failure and sign of weakness.
But of course, Syria isn’t Iraq. 2003 isn’t 2012. And these two realities are radically different in almost every respect. Only the most superficial and confused reading would conflate the challenges they posed to policymakers.
This is precisely the kind of amateurish error that would seem entirely convincing, and profoundly appeal, to those who just don’t know much about Iraq and Syria. Yet this excruciatingly facile analogy appears to have been definitive for the Obama administration.
An unnamed former senior Obama administration official told Samuels he thought the debate in 2012 about Syria was “honest and open" but has changed his mind. He says that, like Mr Bush, Mr Obama sticks with his existing beliefs no matter what the realities or “costs to our strategic interests" prove to be. Samuels insightfully notes both men “projected their own ideas of the good on to an indifferent world".
Mr Panetta says he used to believe Mr Obama was prepared to act militarily to prevent Iran from gaining a nuclear weapon, but now thinks that’s “probably not" true. Instead, he suggests that Mr Obama is so attached to the idea of ending wars that he wouldn’t have actually launched such an action, or even authorised increased sanctions on Tehran (which Mr Obama did oppose).
He adds that this mentality also helps explain American reticence on Syria. He explains Mr Obama’s calculations thus: “If you ratchet up sanctions, it could cause a war. If you start opposing their interest in Syria, well, that could start a war, too."
Samuels’s article confirms some of the worst fears about how foreign policy is sometimes being poorly manufactured and cynically marketed by the current administration.
Mr Obama has correctly chided Donald Trump that the presidency is “not a reality show". Yet Mr Rhodes boasts about having “created an echo chamber". Unfortunately, behind such Machiavellian messaging lies not reassuringly sincere policy confidence, but a disturbingly absolutist certainty.
Ideologically-driven dogmatism isn’t restricted to past administrations. And no need of Trumpery – serious issues are already being addressed through openly contemptuous, reality TV-style manipulation rather than genuine persuasion. These attitudes and practices may, alas, prove inseparable from the rest of the Obama foreign policy legacy.
Assad's Forces Regain Assad Hospital in Deir Ezzor
Fierce clashes broke out this morning between ISIS and Assad's...
http://fb.me/7T6wHQzy9
IS retake Assad Hospital in #DeirEzzor at southern city entrance.
DeirEzzor: #ISIS recaptured the entire #Assad Hospital from pro-#Assad forces after lost it before. #ISIS used a massive VBIED.
Rebels securing further #Azaz pocket by seizing Ferziyah from #ISIS, N. #Aleppo.
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=36....145462&z=12&m …
Aleppo Pic from Fayruziyah village after rebels expelled #IS
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=36...45333&z=15&m=b …
Pro-Assad Arab Nationalist Guard cmdr Hussein Eissa was reportedly killed attacking #Daraya in #Damascus yesterday
Assad regime waged a large-scale attack on #Daraya , breaking the cease-fire since yesterday.
Syria ~20 airstrikes on northern #Homs towns & villages
incl. 12 on Zara villages- captured by rebels some days ago
Kerry meets Saudi king to discuss Syria before Vienna talks
http://reut.rs/22azoev
Not so subtle Saudi critique of Kerry's constant meetings with absolutely no results .......
Dr Jaber Alsiwat @jsiwat
US Secretary of State @JohnKerry is in Jeddah for meetings with Saudi officials. Too many meetings with no tangible results.
Assad-forces try to regain Turdah Mountain south of #DeirEzzor from #IS
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=35...20697&z=13&m=b …
Not related to Syria but to the combat capabilities of IS in general.........
ISIS repelled an #Peshmerga offensive north of #Mosul and captured many #EU weapons, including G36 assault rifles from #Germany.
Compelling, rare reporting from war-torn #Aleppo by @TomCoghlan via @thetimes #Syria
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/wh...hing-hn0qz6nj0 …
Russian K9s in cages directly under the sun and without AC? good luck trying to use them to detect explosives
Iranian/Iraqi Shia militia activities in Syria are no different than those they carry out in Iraq towards Sunni's.....
Iraq: #Iran|ian soldier burned #Sunni civilian and dragged his body with a car
#Baghdad #Mosul
Sham Front destroyed with a #TOW a bulldozer on the East side of #KhanTuman, S. #Aleppo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_8IZo3uYqU …
Lots of cluster munitions (Most likely Uragan) used currently in assadi shelling on #Lattakia
First Hezbollah blames the Israeli's then JaS and now today the Israeli's...how about an internal killing by Hezbollah itself????
AKI (Ar) cites “Syrian military sources” who claim that the Badreddine hit was identical to the Kuntar hit. Adds: based on prelim info
Badreddine was killed with a SPICE guided missile. The sources said Badreddine was staying in a concealed location in a residential area
Assad barrel bombs on Kabanah in Jabal Akrad, rural #Latakia again today
ISIS kills Assad regime General Mohamed Jouria Abu Wa'el in Tadmur
Funerals today in Iran for 4 Iranians & Afghani's killed in Syria
ISIS alegedly slay doctors in regime held hospital in Deir Ezzor
http://www.alhayat.com/Edition/Print/15614219 …
Quneitra: dozens of Assad forces killed on outskirts of Maskara
Buildings in Daraya catch fire after Assad forces fire surface-to surface missiles and other artillery at city
ISIS killed 125 pro-#Assad forces in #DeirEzzor since yesterday
Not a single comment from the entire western leadership especially nothing from Kerry and Obama in the continuous Russian air strikes on a Syrian IDP camp....NOT even the so called UNSC......
BREAKING: Pro-regime Russian warplanes over Aleppo now. Eight attacks so far on Handarat IDP camp and area around the Canadian Hospital.
So the Obama Iran Deal was to support the development of Iranian moderates????
Khamenei visiting Afghan of #IRGC's Fatemiun: -You were injured where? -Nubl&Zahra(Aleppo) -So I must kiss you again
Interesting comment as there has been no such video released as of yet by any of the groups including IS who is famous for such videos ...was one initially of two POWs being paraded by JaF fighters but then no more were received......
Amir Taheri
@AmirTaheri4
Iranians shocked by videos of captured #Iranian fighters near #Aleppo, bound by ropes and kicked like animals #Khamenei's promised "victory"
Such images can sicken a nation or drive it towards escalation in search of revenge - one to watch in Iran and ESPECIALLY who is driving this narrative..........
Ayatollah Kermani calls for withdrawal of Muslim money from US banks. But Imam Account, opened by Khomeini, still active in Bank of America.
Ayatollah Alam Al-Hoda:Thanks to wisdom of "Supreme Guide" Iran is only secure place in the world, even #Europe and #US are no longer safe.
Instead of making speeches #Gen.#Rezai should set to work to:1- Repatriate #Iranian corpses from #Syria, 2- Secure release of war prisoners.
Amir Taheri
@AmirTaheri4
One word describes the confusion that has struck the leadership in #Tehran after massive losses in #Syria: Cacophony! (Who's in charge?)
Amir Taheri @AmirTaheri4 · May 13
Despite lobbying by #John #Kerry for #Islamic Republic, #HSBC chief Levy says no plans to trade with #Iran for fear of #US punitive action.
Dr Jaber Alsiwat @jsiwat · May 13
@AmirTaheri4 I think it's not fear from US punitive actions. That's just an excuse. Bankers and business leaders don't trust the mullahs
Evidently faced with humiliation in KhanTouman bluster is the only exit strategy General Rezia could think of #Allepo
Gen. #Rezai today: We'll liberate #Aleppo,though it won't be easy because it can be supplied by #Turks from north and by #Arabs from south.
Ah again those Arab and Turkish Kafirs
Amir Taheri
@AmirTaheri4
#Gen. Mohsen #Rezai today: We lost Khan-Touman (#Syria) to forces led by #Turkish & #Saudi generals.But we'll soon take it back, #Inshallah!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/majid-..._9977768.html?
Iran Breaches the Nuclear Deal and UN Resolutions for Third Time
Dr. Majid Rafizadeh,Huffington Pos
Quote:
Iranian leaders have breached both the resolutions and the nuclear agreement for the third time since the nuclear deal went into effect in January 2016. Iran has repeatedly test-fired, long-range ballistic missiles and laser-guided surface-to-surface missiles.
In October and November, just after the nuclear deal was reached, Iran tested a new ballistic missile capable of carrying multiple warheads.
In March, Iran again test-fired two ballistic missiles.
More recently and for the third time, the Iranian government fired a test missile two weeks ago which was accurate to 25 feet, which is characterized as zero error, according to the Brigadier General Ali Abdollahi, the Iranian military’s deputy chief of staff, and Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency.
The range of existing Iranian ballistic missiles has grown from 500 miles to over 2,000 kilometers (roughly 1,250 miles), which can easily reach Eastern Europe as well as countries such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Israel and Yemen.
Iranian leaders dismiss the notion that the Revolutionary Guard Corps military activities are breaching the nuclear agreement as well as several of the UN Security Council resolutions. World powers appear to acquiesce to Iran’s stance as well.
But, the United Nations Security Council resolution (Paragraph 3 of Annex B of resolution 2231, 2015) is clear. The resolution “calls upon Iran not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology.”
The second UN Security Council resolution 1929 indicates “Iran shall not undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using ballistic missile technology, and that States shall take all necessary measures to prevent the transfer of technology or technical assistance to Iran related to such activities”.
In addition, the Joint Plan of Action Agreement (JCPOA) of the nuclear agreement between P5+1 and Iran is crystal clear in stating that Iran should not undertake any ballistic missiles activity “until the date eight years after the JCPOA Adoption Day or until the date on which the IAEA submits a report confirming the Broader Conclusion, whichever is earlier.”
Global Powers’ reluctance
The five members of the UN Security Council have not reacted forcefully or taken appropriate measures to hold the Iranian government accountable for the violations. Generally speaking, China and Russia, which enjoy their strategic, geopolitical and economic alliance with Tehran and favor Iran’s counterbalance stance against the US and its allies, have used Iran’s line of argument for launching the ballistic missiles.
France, Britain and Germany, which are much to the left of the US, or sometimes follow in the footsteps of Washington’s policy towards Iran, have not taken these military maneuvers seriously.
Although according to a report obtained by AP, the launches are “destabilizing and provocative” and that the Shahab-3 medium-range ballistic missile and Qiam-1 short-range ballistic missile fired by Iran are “inherently capable of delivering nuclear weapons”. The US has been trivializing the issue, failing to hold Iran accountable, and only playing with rhetoric.
For example, even though Iranian generals have admitted launching ballistic missiles, the White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said this week “We’re still trying to get to the bottom of what exactly transpired.” This is an approach designed to dodge dealing with the real issue.
The US has stopped short of calling Iran’s actions as violations of UN Security Council resolutions. President Obama will continue to overlook Iran’s belligerent actions, including ballistic missile launches and the detention of US sailors by the Iranian forces, until he leaves office. He desires what he sees as his crowning foreign policy “achievement”, the nuclear agreement, to remain intact.
President Obama is concerned that holding Iran accountable for these violations might force the Iranian leaders to abandon the nuclear deal, thus causing its failure.
Furthermore, France, Britain and other European countries have less incentive to publicly hold Iran responsible, because of the increasing economic and trade ties with Tehran particularly in the energy sector (oil and gas).
For the Iranian government, advancing its ballistic missile program is a core pillar of its foreign policy after the nuclear program. Iran possesses the largest ballistic missile arsenal in the region. By launching ballistic missiles, Iran also seeks the opportunity to project its power in the region and reassert its hegemonic power.
Since Iran is certain that launching ballistic is not going to elicit robust reaction from the US and other members of the UN Security Council, the IRGC is more likely to continue its advancement and launching of ballistic missile activities more publicly
Rebels have also regained control of Tal Hussein from #ISIS in north rural #Aleppo
ISIS recaptured On several locations In the vicinity of AlMazar Mount. 4 km Northwest of #Palmyra.
And the #SAA warplanes bombed the area
Aamaq: IS forces overrun the Christian cemetery in Deir Ezzor and kill 10 soldiers trapped there since yesterday
Map showing recent Rebels gains vs #ISIS in N. #Aleppo (Tell Hisn/Hussein also seized). Seems new approach underway.
Appears CIA/CENTCOM/Obama finally got their Kurdish proxy a little under control.........
YPG & rebels will finalize an agreement to end the conflict in northern Aleppo. YPG are to open supply routes & withdraw from certain areas
Claims of it being an accident and an attack, yet two days after not a single pic?
Bayan Radio confirms: 4 Russian helicopters & 20 ammo trucks destroyed in a fire in T4 airbase due to IS shelling
Map.
The approximate situation in #DeirEzzor city, after a recent IS offensive.
HD -
http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/af8...dbvu8vwdzg.jpg …
Assad-forces failed to regain Zara village in northern #Homs despite massive (#Russia'n) airstrikes
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=de&lat=34...59575&z=14&m=b …
Assad forces retake Panorama RB in #DeirEzzor
Syria #SAA General Zahreddine with HealthDirector at road to #Palmyra at southern outskirts of #DeirEzzor today
http://www.thenational.ae/opinion/co...r-against-isil
Kurdish tensions undermine the war against ISIL
Hassan Hassan
May 15, 2016 Updated: May 15, 2016 04:35 PM
Hassan Hassan @hxhassanQuote:
Amnesty International has in seven months issued two major reports highlighting allegations of war crimes by rebel and Kurdish forces in northern Syria. The two reports are related to a secondary conflict brewing between Arabs and Kurds from Hasakah to Qamashli to Aleppo, which could easily spin out of control and add to the many conflicts that already plague the country.
The United States has an unintentional hand in this new conflict, and de-escalation hinges largely on whether Washington is willing to review its strategy in northern Syria, which sometimes privileges the appearance of success in the battle against ISIL over sustainable policies.
On Friday, Amnesty published a damning new report accusing rebel factions in Aleppo, organised under the Army of Conquest, of committing acts that may amount to war crimes. The rights group said it gathered strong evidence of indiscriminate attacks that killed at least 83 civilians, including 30 children, in the Kurdish-dominated Sheikh Maqsoud between February and April.
On October 13 last year, Amnesty issued a report, Forced Displacement and Demolitions in Northern Syria, accusing the Kurdish political party PYD, the Democratic Union Party, of carrying out a wave of forced displacement and home demolitions that it also said may amount to war crimes. The shelling of civilians by rebel forces cannot be justified, and perpetrators must be punished and restrained by their regional backers. The attacks on Sheikh Maqsoud were encouraged by some supporters of the opposition living abroad, after the PYD’s military wing, the YPG, attacked the rebels in February. Worse, such calls continue to be heard and more indiscriminate attacks can be expected.
Clashes between the rebels and the YPG are not new. Bad blood between the two sides goes back to 2012, when the rebels were attacked by the YPG as they carried out raids against government bases in northeastern Syria. Tensions between the rebels and the YPG destroyed any hope for cooperation between the two sides.
Additionally, Turkey, a key backer of the opposition in the north, vehemently opposes the dominance of the YPG, an offshoot of the terrorist-designated PKK, near its southern border. For Turkey, the YPG’s ambitions in northern Syria are a matter of national security, and Ankara is unlikely to compromise on what it views as a direct threat, even if it often bows to American pressure as the anti-ISIL fight continues.
But it does not have to be an either/or situation. A third track exists: thousands of Syrian Kurdish fighters have been stranded in northern Iraq since 2012, waiting for a green light from the US to be deployed inside Syria to fight alongside the YPG and the opposition. According to several sources, including high-level Kurdish leaders from northern Syria, the 5,000 fighters were funded and trained by Iraq’s Kurdish Regional Government (KRG), when hundreds of Kurdish youngsters started heading to northern Iraq after anti-regime Kurdish activists called on fellow Kurds to defect or refuse to join the army.
“Some of the trained fighters returned to Syria to form cells that would serve as supporting forces to the 5,000 fighters when they are deployed inside Syria," one prominent Kurdish activist told us. “But there was confrontation with the PYD militias, which dug a trench between [Iraqi] Kurdistan and Malikiyah [in Syria] to prevent our entry."
The Kurdish source said the two rivals negotiated under the auspices of the KRG president, Massoud Barzani, and they reached two agreements, the Hewler (another name for Erbil) agreement in July 2012 and the Dohuk agreement last October.
“The two agreements stipulate that we form joint political and military forces," the source said. “When they returned to Syria, they would abandon the agreement. Now they reject our return categorically. We spoke to the Americans last May and they promised to do something."
The US fears that the return of fighters would create disruptive tensions between the Kurdish sides. Rivalry between the two is already felt inside Syria. A source inside Qamashli spoke of constant intimidation by the YPG against their rivals. Also, recent battles in Aleppo included clashes with fellow Kurds who fight on the rebel side.
The strength of the anti-PYD Kurdish fighters is that their leaders are part of the Kurdish National Council, which is part of the opposition’s National Coalition. Turkey views them as potential allies. The trick is for the US to exert serious effort to bring the two Kurdish rivals closer, which will help build a bridge with the Syrian opposition, and reassure its Nato ally to focus on the ISIL fight. Many of the YPG’s commanders have a clearly expansionist and exclusivist agenda, viewed suspiciously not only by Turkey and the Syrian opposition but by the Kurdish leadership in Iraq.
The US may not want to jeopardise its relationship with a force that has helped it win key tactical battles against ISIL in Syria. But the unconditional support for the YPG is irresponsible because it creates unnecessary conflicts and undermines the long-term war against extremists.
I & @syriacham on a critical issue: 5000 Syrian Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq the YPG doesn't want them in Syria