Page 12 of 157 FirstFirst ... 210111213142262112 ... LastLast
Results 221 to 240 of 3136

Thread: Syria in 2016 (January-March)

  1. #221
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    CrowBat --what do you think of this article........?

    http://www.businessinsider.de/how-sa...16-1?r=US&IR=T

    How Saudi Arabia 'pulled a proxy out from under Iran's wing'

    Armin Rosen

    The latest round of tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia is unsettling what little is left of the Middle East's regional order.

    Saudi Arabia's execution of the country's most prominent Shi'ite cleric on January 2nd triggered the apparently state-sanctioned burning of Saudi diplomatic facilities in Tehran and Mershad, a breach of international order that in turn resulted in Saudi Arabia cutting ties with their Persian Gulf neighbor.

    Luckily, in the past Saudi Arabia and Iran have demonstrated at least a limited ability to keep their animosity in check.

    The countries didn't go to war when an Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the US at an upscale Washington, DC restaurant was revealed in 2011. It's unclear what if any long-term impact the latest series of incidents will have.

    But they're likely to have one lasting effect, a political development that could tangibly shift hte terms of the Middle East's sectarian divide.

    On January 4th, Sudan announced that it was also severing diplomatic ties with Iran. This move denied Iran of its sole Sunni Arab ally, undercutting the Tehran regime's argument that Iran's Islamic revolution is capable of transcending sectarianism and uniting the world's Muslims.

    More practically, the freeze in relations also closes off the Red Sea port of Port Sudan to Iranian warships and weapons shipments, takes away a staging area for Iran's regional arms pipeline, ends a partnership with a fellow revolutionary Islamist regime, and flummoxes whatever remained of Iran's efforts to win over potential supporters in the Sunni world.

    The relationship between Iran and Sudan stems from the National Islamic Front's elevating to power after the 1989 military coup in Khartoum, an event that marked the first instance of a revolutionary Islamist movement taking power in an Arab country.

    Over the next decade, Sudan's government sheltered Osama bin Laden, attempted to assassinate the anti-Muslim Brotherhood Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak, and tried to impose Islamic law throughout what was then the territorial ly largest country in the African continent.

    Even if these measures turned Sudan into an internationally sanctioned rogue state, they created an opportunity for a partnership with a fellow revolutionary regime in Tehran, which had been the world's only revolutionary Islamist government between 1979 and 1989.

    The relationship paid off: Iran provided Sudan with weaponry and expertise that allowed the country to set up a fairly extensive domestic arms industry, giving it the capability of building its own automatic weapons, rocket launchers, and even tanks.

    The Sudanese regime lost many of it its Islamist trappings. The Islamic Movement changed its name to the National Congress Party (NCP) in the late 1990s and began evolving into a somewhat more conventional dictatorship in hopes of improving the country's economy and relations with the west.

    But Sudan maintained close ties with Iran. International isolation over the government's conduct in wars in Darfur and South Sudan gave Sudan the added incentive to deepen ties with a fellow sanctioned regime. Iran and Sudan completed a military cooperation agreement in 2008, while the Sudanese military has deployed Iranian-built drones in both Darfur and the south of the country. The two governments were allies through 2014.

    That began to change as the NCP began to faced steep financial crisis — and as Saudi Arabia began mobilizing the Sunni Arab states against Tehran.

    The NCP, which is still under international sanctions related to the Sudanese government's human rights abuses in Darfur, had faced a prolonged economic drought after the southern third of the country became the independent state of South Sudan in 2011. Khartoum and South Sudan failed to reach a durable compromise over the post-independence split of South Sudanese oil revenues (the oil's export is dependent on an oil transit infrastructure in the north of Sudan). Oil from the south had previously constituted nearly the entirety of Sudanese government revenue.

    At the same time, the Middle East ignited. The escalating conflict in Syria sharpened the region's sectarian divisions, and events like the Yemeni civil war and the thaw in Iran-US relations heightened the competition between Riyadh and Tehran.

    These tensions raised made a potentially swing state like Sudan even more important.

    As Alberto Fernandez, current Vice President at the Middle East Media Research Institute and the Charge d'Affaires at the US embassy in Khartoum from 2007 to 2009 explained to Business Insider, amid both domestic and regional turmoil the increasingly pragmatic regime in Khartoum began to realize that its survival depended more on Saudi largess than on its relationship with Iran.

    "These guys have been in power now for 26 years," Fernandez says of the NCP. "They're no longer the revolutionaries that they were. They're now a regime that wants to hold onto power. And in that sense they were fruit ripe for the plucking by the Saudis."

    The thaw culminated in Sudan's March 2015 decision to join the Saudi-led anti-Houthi rebel coalition in Yemen, which is fighting to restore Yemen's internationally recognized government after an Iranian-supported Shi'ite militant movement deposed it in early 2015.

    By that point, the NCP had determined that the Saudis had the unrivaled resources and willingness to secure the regime's long-term survival. "The Saudis can still outbid the Iranians," says Fernandez. "The Iranians have technical expertise and other things they can offer, but they're not swimming in cold hard cash the way the Saudis are."

    The move has strategic implications for Iran. Sudan's partnership was more than just a symbolic victory for Iran, 0r a sign that the the Islamic Republic's state ideology was capable of resonating with Sunni Arab Islamists too. It also gave Iran a strategic way-point for weapons trafficking into both the Gaza Strip and Central and East Africa.

    Sudan was a frequent staging area for Iranian weapons shipments heading north, to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Gaza. Sudan gave the Iranian arms industry, and the Iranian regime, access to regions of strategic and possibly commercial concern. Suspected Israeli attacks targeted Hamas weapons shipments or facilities in Sudan in 2009, 2011, and 2014. And as a 2012 study by Conflict Armaments Research detailed, Iranian munitions have been found throughout Africa, in places spanning from South Sudan to Cote D'Ivoire.

    Iran also helped seed a Sudanese domestic weapons industry purported to be the third-largest in Africa, behind only Egypt and South Africa. According to a 2014 Small Arms Survey report, Iran owns a 35% stake in the Yarmouk industrial facility in Khartoum, which is believed to produce artillery, rocket launchers, and military-grade firearms.

    Iran's Yamrouk investment hasn't been cost-free for the Sudanese regime: in October of 2012, the Israeli air force attacked the site, likely in order to destroy Iranian-supplied long-range rockets bound for Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Yarmouk was also cited in a 2006 US diplomatic cable published by WikiLeaks for its alleged connection to activities "that have the potential to contribute materially to WMD, missile, or certain other weapons programs in Iran or Syria."

    As the Small Arms Survey recounts, Sudanese weapons factories produce a range of armaments, including light weaponry and small rocket launchers of Iranian design. Sudan has flown military drones of Iranian origin, and Patrick Megahan, a research associate for military affairs at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, noted in an email to Business Insider that Sudan's state weapons enterprises had exhibited "a copy of an Iranian remote weapons station" at an international defense exhibition in Abu Dhabi in early 2015.

    Emile Lebrun, the editor of the Small Arms Survey's Human Security Baseline Assessment for Sudan and South Sudan, speculates that Iranian assistance "was already very limited before the Yemen campaign was underway."

    But it's still "unclear," he wrote to Business Insider in an email, "whether the Iranian technicians working in the Sudanese arms factories (some hundreds of workers, according to reports) can be replaced with local specialists."

    Sudan's value as a strategic asset to Iran, and Iran's role in helping Sudan establish a domestic arms production capability, suggest that the relationship between the two countries may continue in some more muted, sub-official form. There might be some enduring (if informal) cooperation between officials from the two countries regarding weapons trafficking or continued Iranian involvement in the arms sector.

    "My sense is that we're going to see Sudan inch away from Iran but Iran will maintain lingering assets in the country whether Sudan likes it or not," says Jonathan Schanzer, vice president of research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

    But on the geopolitical level, Saudi Arabia was able to ply away Iran's only Sunni Arab ally — a country that enjoyed longstanding military and strategic ties with Tehran.

    "It looks like the Saudis have outmaneuvered the Iranians," Schanzer told Business Insider. "They pulled a proxy out from under Iran's wing."
    Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 01-09-2016 at 08:31 PM.

  2. #222
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    This woman, Taryn Fivek, is a current press officer at the UN (@IOMatUN) while denying the starvation of Madaya

    Official #Islamic agency (#IRNA) today praises #US media for taking #Tehran's side in diplomatic tussle with #Riyadh over embassy attack.

  3. #223
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    Nusra have reportedly kidnapped the activists Hadi al-Abdallah (@HadiAlabdallah) and Raed Fares (@RaedFares4) in Kafranbel

    Eliot Higgins @EliotHiggins
    The Russian MoD's own airstrike videos show around 15% of those targets are in ISIS territory
    https://twitter.com/EliotHiggins/sta...73287856762880

    Few Russian strikes in Syria are against Islamic State, U.S. official says http://reut.rs/1PUZP4i via @Reuters

    Check out the latest data on Russia airstrikes in Syria on our @SilkDotCo powered database
    http://russia-strikes-syria.silk.co/
    pic.twitter.com/ZOWQHkKiZA

    Russia Has Killed Far More Syrian Civilians Than Fighters -
    http://www.vocativ.com/news/266014/r...than-fighters/
    Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 01-10-2016 at 07:55 AM.

  4. #224
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    Again indications of Iranian non linear warfare UW hard at work....and largely ignored in US MSM and the WH/Obama in their drive for the Iran Deal....would have believed it possible that the "legacy drive of an outgoing US President" would be the key driver of US FP.....

    Iraq faces take-over by Iran-backed militias if Islamic State is defeated, coalition commanders fear via @Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...089119/Iraq-fa... …

    US MSM and the Obama WH has evidently also overlooked that right now inside Syria there are a total of 30 Iraqi Shia militias fighting for Assad and against the anti Assad forces....instead of fighting inside Iraq against IS and receiving RuAF ground support as well.
    Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 01-10-2016 at 07:55 AM.

  5. #225
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    Faylaq al-Sham & Sultan Murad supported by Turkish artillery expelled #ISISL frm Qarah Kubri & Khirbat north #Aleppo
    http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=36...84100&z=16&m=b

    Obama's big think is discredited. The nuclear deal empowered Iran’s hard-liners, not the imaginary moderates.
    http://on.wsj.com/1RzognK

    ISIS has seized control of al-Duwah west of #Palmyra after Assad forces withdraw towards the Jahar field area.

    Rebels declare full control of #al_Khirbat and #al_Qarah villages w/ the bridge
    #Aleppo CS #Syria JAN 10
    Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 01-10-2016 at 08:07 AM.

  6. #226
    Council Member CrowBat's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    Haxbach, Schnurliland
    Posts
    1,563

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09 View Post
    CrowBat --what do you think of this article........?

    http://www.businessinsider.de/how-sa...16-1?r=US&IR=T

    How Saudi Arabia 'pulled a proxy out from under Iran's wing'

    Armin Rosen
    ...that it's about one year late.

    Namely, Saudis successfully (and literaly) bought Sudan out of alliance with Iran already in late 2014 and early 2015 - as became clear when Khartoum decided to send four Su-24Ms of its air force to join the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen.

  7. #227
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by CrowBat View Post
    ...that it's about one year late.

    Namely, Saudis successfully (and literaly) bought Sudan out of alliance with Iran already in late 2014 and early 2015 - as became clear when Khartoum decided to send four Su-24Ms of its air force to join the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen.
    CrowBat---just a side question....any idea why it is about a year late....?

    Is it that MSM just felt a year ago it was not news worthy and would not sell newspapers or no interest from decision makers at the western leadership levels?

  8. #228
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    With these raving successes in the Obama Syria strategy NOT sure why he needs more messaging....he is doing great with his non actions and his silence already....

    CORE Obama Syria strategy problem is with his junior partner Putin who for the life of the Russian AF cannot seem to kill IS fighters where there are an estimated 25-60K of them alone in Syrian BUT all the while the Obama junior partner seems intent on just killing civilians much like he did in Chechnya.......

    EVEN MORE civilians were killed in this Russian air strike yesterday....
    SCD continues Rescue Op. since y'day,#Russia airstrikes on #Maarat_al_NOuman,86 killed so far
    #Idlib #Syria JAN 10

    Russian AF is still carrying on with their Syrian civilian starvation campaign in order to create more refugees for Europe and to ethnically cleanse major Sunni areas...and to create a non Sunni area for Assad to expand his control over as a rump state

    BREAKING
    #Russia Cruise Missiles targeted the Humanitarian Relief Warehouse #IHH @ihhinsaniyardim in #Turkmen_Mount
    #Latakia #Syria JAN 10

    EVEN MORE RuAF air strikes on civilians....
    SCD HEROES rescue operation aftermath #Russia airstrikes on #Kafr_Hamra
    #Aleppo cs #Syria JAN 10

    RUSSIA WARPLANES CARRIED OUT AIRSTRIKES TARGETING #KAFR_HAMRA
    #ALEPPO CS #SYRIA JAN 10

    More #RUssia airstrikes on #SHeikh_Meskin, more than 25 airstrikes since morning
    #Daraa #Syria JAN10

    US_COALITION CARRIED OUT AIRSTRIKES TARGETING #AL_HAMIDIYAH NEIGHBORHOOD
    #DEIR_EZZOR #SYRIA JAN 10

    RUSSIA AIRSTRIKES ON #AL_RASTAN
    #HOMS #SYRIA JAN 10

    SAA terrorists helicopters dropped the 18th Barrel Bomb on #Darayya
    #Damascus #Syria JAN 10


    CHILDREN LOOKING UP WATCHING THE NEXT #ASSad BARREL BOMB TO FALL ON #DARAYYA
    #DAMASCUS #SYRIA JAN 10

    MARTYRS AS #ASSad BARREL BOMBS FALL ON #DARAYYA
    #DAMASCUS #SYRIA JAN 10

    ASSAD is now having his SAA which is neither Syrian no Arabic BUT Shia mercenaries.....shell IDPs......
    SAA terrorists shelling Grad Rockets on the Displace civilians at #al_Yamadaya

    Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes on #Al_Lataminah
    #Hama cs #Syria JAN 10
    #Latakia cs #Syria JAN 10

    SMOKE DUE #RUSSIA AIRSTRIKES ON #DOUMA MOMENTS AGO, MORE THAN 9 AIRSTRIKES SO FAR
    #DAMASCUS CS #SYRIA JAN 10

    RUSSIA WARPLANES CARRIED OUT AIRSTRIKES ON #TALBISEH CAUSING A MASSACRE
    #HOMS #SYRIA JAN 10

    SCD @SyriaCivilDef Rush to the ambulance w/little girl victim of #Russia airstrikes on #Talbiseh
    #Homs #SYria JAN10

    RUssia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Moadamiyah_Al_Sham
    #Damascus #Syria JAN 10

    SAA mercenaries terrorists shelling Mortars on #Erbeen
    #Damascus cs #Syria JAN 10

    Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes on #Daraa_al_Balad neighborhood
    #Daraa cs #Syria JAN 10

    Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Busrah_Al_Sham village
    #Daraa cs #Syria JAN 10

    Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #al_Bab town

    FSA TOW hit on tank.....
    FSA destroyed #SAA Tank killing a number of it's mercenaries while hidden behind of it at #Darayya
    #Syria JAN10
    #Aleppo cs #Syria JAN 10


    SAA helicopters dropped barrel bombs on #Busr_al_Harer
    #Daraa cs #Syria JAN 10

    SAA helicopters dropped barrel bombs on Taybah village
    #Daraa cs #Syria JAN 10

    Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Deir_Foul village
    #Homs cs #Syria JAN 10

    Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Qonitrah village
    #Homs cs #Syria JAN 10

    Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes targeting #Ebtaa village
    #Daraa cs #Syria JAN 10

    Russia warplanes carried out airstrikes on #Nawah town
    #Daraa cs #Syria JAN 10

    Rebels inside #Qarah village, after heavy clash w/ #isis terrorists.
    #Aleppo cs #Syria JAN10
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Szc74qo3ZxE

    STARVATION as a weapon by Assad and Putin---and by not saying anything Obama becomes complicit a well in this starvation campaign...by his non actions.....no comments....

    Essa stills waiting for food..
    #Madaya.. #Damascus cs #Syria JAN 10

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFx2EweLuK4

    JaN kidnaps activists.....
    Assad couldn't kill them & ISIS couldn't silence them. So Jolani's thugs kidnapped @HadiAlabdallah & @RaedFares4
    Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 01-10-2016 at 03:19 PM.

  9. #229
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    Al Arabiya English ✔ @AlArabiya_Eng
    #BREAKING Egypt FM reaffirms support for Saudi Arabia in row with Iran

    Syrian troll activity.......actually maybe a Russian troll.....
    An advocate of starving & killing civilians/children in #PT, #Assad fanatic @IvanSidorenko1, is now deleting tweets.
    pic.twitter.com/7p5meD5gXA

    Footage
    (Most probably) #Assad's bombs hit #Talbisah in besieged #Homs province.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oHx7pJbQ6sQ
    pic.twitter.com/cGZw6WbrKZ
    Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 01-10-2016 at 03:31 PM.

  10. #230
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    Humor........

    Russian priests arrive in #Syria, ready to end the suffering of starving civilians

    pic.twitter.com/U5oPfHjTIZ

    ROCs version of a "Holy War" they called for........

  11. #231
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    Footage
    Not only Russian jets, but also "Russian spy plane" over #SheikhMaskin.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYcsHjGNTqY
    pic.twitter.com/v6weSoD8HK

    Most likely it is the aircraft An-30b "83" red

    Footage
    #RussianAirstrikes keep hitting #SheikhMaskin where rebels fight pro-#Assad forces
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzALRWhyuHs … pic.twitter.com/tCTHZQg1Kd

    Notice that there is not a single (Sunni) civilian left in the former 8.000 inhabitants towns.
    pic.twitter.com/Ti3sfPehZc
    Last edited by OUTLAW 09; 01-10-2016 at 03:56 PM.

  12. #232
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    Those Syrian strategy successes just keep on keeping on.........after this particular success MAYBE the Obama WH does in fact truly need some messaging.

    Breaking
    #Hezbollah al-Nujaba leader Sheikh Akram Al-Kaabi visits invasion forces in Al-Eis

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2OcGNvrK20
    pic.twitter.com/94RDK1LW57

    AND who is exactly the God Father to Hezbollah......AND who wants to maintain a land corridor through Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon??

    BUT WAIT that Iranian Deal was to ensure the "moderates take over" right???

  13. #233
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    Confirmed:Faylaq Al-Sham and Firqat Al-Sultan Murad have recaptured Al-Khirbah,Qurah Mazraah,Qurah Kubri and Qizil Mazraah from ISIS.

    Here are the facts on #Assad blocking aid deliveries
    https://twitter.com/fordrs58/status/685968383947485185

    Footage
    #Assad's terrorism in #Daraya, W of #Damascus, continues.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txaFgKWbk6M
    pic.twitter.com/QmU0lAyc4Z

  14. #234
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09 View Post
    Those Syrian strategy successes just keep on keeping on.........after this particular success MAYBE the Obama WH does in fact truly need some messaging.

    Breaking
    #Hezbollah al-Nujaba leader Sheikh Akram Al-Kaabi visits invasion forces in Al-Eis

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2OcGNvrK20
    pic.twitter.com/94RDK1LW57

    AND who is exactly the God Father to Hezbollah......AND who wants to maintain a land corridor through Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon??

    BUT WAIT that Iranian Deal was to ensure the "moderates take over" right???
    More information on him:
    http://musingsoniraq.blogspot.de/201...kaabi-and.html
    and his de facto Iranian-led militia:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haraka...llah_al-Nujaba

  15. #235
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    Very interesting!
    Hundreds of #FSA troops arrived in Hawar Killis yday, before the anti-#ISIS push N of #Aleppo.

    News
    Syrian rebels took Qarah Mazr'ah, 1800 meters from the Turkish border, for the 3rd time in 4 weeks from #ISIS

    Interesting, seems @EjmAlrai deleted this tweet detailing #Assad's bombs. Said too much?
    https://twitter.com/EjmAlrai/status/461962789473751040

    US-backed Harakat Nour al-Din al-Zenki shows of their Volcano-like IRAM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WoYwflfF2I

  16. #236
    Council Member CrowBat's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2010
    Location
    Haxbach, Schnurliland
    Posts
    1,563

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by OUTLAW 09 View Post
    CrowBat---just a side question....any idea why it is about a year late....?

    Is it that MSM just felt a year ago it was not news worthy and would not sell newspapers or no interest from decision makers at the western leadership levels?
    I have no clue, and can only guess here.

    I guess they simply didn't pay attention, or at least lacked any 'reporters' that could tell them about what was going on in relations between Khartoum and Riyad, the last two or so years. Perhaps it is also so that the author missed all of that and only now - when Sudan closed its embassy in Tehran - came to the idea to prepare a 'write up' of related affairs. Kind of, 'oh, something is going on there after all, better write a few sentences'...

    Even then, he missed most important details, though.

    Namely, it was already in autumn 2014 that Riyad sent a big delegation to Khartoum with intention of driving Sudan away from Iran. When Saudis made plenty of promises about multi-billion investments in local economy, Bashir and his clique were so flabergasted by all the zeros on the paper in front of them, they very quickly forgot their 'everlasting Sudanese-Iranian friendship'.

    There was lots of activity during the following weeks and months. For example, I can recall that Bashir flew to Riyadh in early April and again in late May 2015 - i.e. two times within six weeks. By the time, even his election banners were soon showing UAEAF F-16s - just no SuAF aircraft....

    Of course, official Sudan still 'despises West', but it was obvious already then that not only its regime but also its military were thrilled about opportunity to join their forces with those of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. Bosses in Khartoum were even more thrilled about opportunity to stuff their pockets too...

    That said, this with economic cooperation was easy for both, Sudanese and Saudis - because there was actually never a lot of such cooperation between Khartoum and Tehran.

    On the contrary, the two cooperated nearly exclusively on military-related affairs, and it was exclusively in this regards that a lot was going on in recent years. For example, the SAFAT (something like 'Sudanese Aircraft Industries') received plenty of support from Iranian companies like IACI, IHSRC and Pars Aviation in regards of learning how to overhaul and manufacture spares for its aircraft and helicopters of Western origin, in period 2009-2013. In 2010, SAFAT contracted IACI to overhaul four surviving C-130s of the SuAF (and their engines), perhaps even eight surviving Sudanese F-5Es (stored at Wadi Sayyidna since ages). IACI completed the work on at least three of C-130s by 2013; don't know if it overhauled the fourth Hercules too...

    Meanwhile, IHSRC helped SAFAT overhaul Mi-2s, Mi-17s and Mi-24/35s (at approx one fifth of price Russians would have charged), a few Bo.105s, perhaps one or two of their SA.330 Pumas too.

    Much of work was possible only thanks to supplies of spares and tooling from Iran, and thanks to Iranian companies that helped construct additional runways, hangars etc.... and when overhauls were complete it was IRIAF pilots that test-flew all of these, because SuAF has not a single pilot qualified to test-fly aircraft...

    But otherwise, Iranians never invested into Sudanese economy, or vice versa. So, no big issue for Khartoum, actually - even more so since I'm next to sure that - regardless of 'improved ties' to Saudi Arabia & Co - the Sudanese didn't cut off relations between their Military Industry Complex and Iran 'over the night'. Certainly enough, it got extremely quiet about SAFAT ever sicne 2014 (especially in comparison to period 2009-2013), but this must mean nothing: Saudis surely have enough money to pay somebody else to help maintain C-130s (or overhaul) remaining F-5s, Su-24s, Su-25s, MiG-29s etc.

  17. #237
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    Here you can see @smd1900 deny civilians starved by his cult leader #Assad & the terrorist organization #Hezbollah.
    pic.twitter.com/mMoS5WCroh

    Guardian news ✔ @guardiannews
    Murder in Istanbul: Kremlin's hand suspected in shooting of Chechen
    http://d.gu.com/DDrSNM

    I went to Istanbul to look into a murder that has it all: Chechen fighters, al-Nusra, Syria, Ukraine, Russian agents http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...P=share_btn_tw

  18. #238
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    https://www.yahoo.com/news/pakistan-...144318541.html

    Pakistan says it will respond to any threat to Saudi Arabia

    ISLAMABAD (AP) — Any threat to Saudi Arabia's territorial integrity will evoke a strong response from Islamabad, Pakistani army chief Gen. Raheel Sharif said Sunday.

    Sharif made the remarks in a statement after Saudi Deputy Crown Prince and Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman met with him in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, adjacent to the capital.

    Salman earlier arrived in Islamabad, making him the second top Saudi official to visit Pakistan in a week amid growing tension with Iran over Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr's recent execution.

    Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir visited Pakistan a couple of days ago.

    The visits came after Saudi Arabia and several of its allies announced the severing or downgrading of diplomatic relations with Shiite powerhouse Iran. Protesters in Tehran stormed the Saudi embassy and a Saudi consulate elsewhere in the country after Saudi Arabia executed al-Nimr, a prominent Shiite cleric and opposition leader earlier this month.

    Pakistan, a predominantly Sunni state, also has a large Shiite population. Pakistan has had a history of sectarian violence where Sunni and Shiite militants have reportedly been funded and supported by Gulf states for their proxy wars.

    The deputy crown prince later called on Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif.

    The people of Pakistan would always stand with the people of Saudi Arabia, said Sharif in a statement after the meeting. Pakistan has previously agreed to become part of a Saudi-led counter-terrorism alliance. Sharif welcomed the initiative and informed the prince about Pakistan's support for efforts to oppose terrorism and extremism. It was agreed that the two countries would cooperate in developing an effective counter narrative to defeat the extremist mindset, said the statement. It said Pakistan also expressed its readiness to offer its offices to brotherly Muslim countries for resolution of their differences through peaceful dialogue and reconciliation.

    Pakistan hold its defense ties with Saudi Arabia in highest esteem, said Sharif, the army chief. He said Pakistan attached great importance to the security of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries.

  19. #239
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    Nusra has released @HadiAlabdallah and @RaedFares4.

  20. #240
    Council Member
    Join Date
    Nov 2013
    Posts
    35,749

    Default

    CrowBat---anything to this comment...??

    If Turkey is helping Azaz/Mare rebels to break through against IS, we could end up with rebels, YPG/SDF and regime all converging at Al Bab

Similar Threads

  1. Syria in 2016: an exchange on what to do
    By mwe12 in forum Middle East
    Replies: 61
    Last Post: 02-06-2016, 12:43 PM
  2. EUCOM Economic Analysis - Part I
    By AdamG in forum Europe
    Replies: 519
    Last Post: 08-03-2015, 06:36 PM
  3. Counterinsurgency exercise, near Boston, 8 March
    By Meh in forum RFIs & Members' Projects
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 02-22-2009, 03:03 AM

Tags for this Thread

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •