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Syria: Massacres, False Flags, Backroom Diplomacy & Endtimers

A new report, by Amnesty International, confirms the devastation of Raqqa by the illicit 'Coalition' ; accusations met by the former's usual denials, a US military making a revelatory statement by issuing that «we served the people of Raqqa to the best of our ability» ; yes, indeed ! :
https://www.rt.com/uk/428743-isis-syria-bomb-death-amnesty/

‘They bombed trapped civilians’: Amnesty’s damning report on UK, US, France destruction in Raqqa
Published time: 5 Jun, 2018 09:14 Edited time: 6 Jun, 2018 11:53
https://on.rt.com/96tj
  • UK, US, and French bombs inflicted mass loss of civilian life in ISIS-held Raqqa, according Amnesty International. A new report has also accused coalition forces of bombing areas where they knew civilians were trapped.
    During the four-month operation to eradicate the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) in the Syrian city of Raqqa, the US-led coalition – which includes British forces – killed hundreds of civilians and injured many more, says Amnesty International.

    According to its damning report into the coalition forces, residents were trapped as fighting raged in the streets between IS militants and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who were supported by coalition airstrikes. Escape routes for civilians were riddled with IEDs, put there by Islamic State, which also positioned snipers to shoot those trying to flee.

    The Hashish family lost 18 members, mostly women and children, over a two-week period in August. A coalition airstrike killed nine, while seven died as they tried to flee via a road that was laid with IS mines, and two others were killed by a mortar launched by the SDF.

    “Those who stayed, died; and those who tried to run away, died,” said Munira Hashish. “We couldn’t afford to pay the smugglers; we were trapped.” Hashish said that she and her children eventually managed to escape through a minefield “by walking over the blood of those who were blown up as they tried to flee ahead of us.”

    Senior Crisis Response Adviser at Amnesty International Donatella Rovera is calling on the coalition forces to launch an investigation into the bombing campaign that left Raqqa devastated.

    “When so many civilians are killed in attack after attack, something is clearly wrong, and to make this tragedy worse, so many months later the incidents have not been investigated,” she said. “The victims deserve justice.

    “The coalition’s claims that its precision air campaign allowed it to bomb IS out of Raqqa while causing very few civilian casualties do not stand up to scrutiny. On the ground in Raqqa, we witnessed a level of destruction comparable to anything we’ve seen in decades of covering the impact of wars,” she continued.

    “IS’s brutal four-year rule in Raqqa was rife with war crimes. But the violations of IS, including the use of civilians as human shields, do not relieve the coalition of their obligations to take all feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians.

    “What levelled the city and killed and injured so many civilians was the US-led coalition’s repeated use of explosive weapons in populated areas where they knew civilians were trapped. Even precision weapons are only as precise as their choice of targets.”

    Rovera added that the level of devastation and destruction in Raqqa is worse than anything they have seen in decades, quoting a senior US military officer as saying that “more artillery shells were launched into Raqqa than anywhere since the end of the Vietnam war.”

    The Amnesty International report, based on 112 interviews and visits to 42 strike locations, has already been slammed by a coalition spokesman – even before it was published.

    US forces fired 100 percent of the artillery rounds used against Raqqa and over 90 percent of airstrikes. British and French aircraft were also involved, with the UK’s Ministry of Defense admitting that Britain carried out 275 airstrikes. The UK claims that no civilians were killed as a result of their bombs.

    The human rights group claim that there is strong evidence that coalition air and artillery strikes killed and injured thousands of civilians, including in disproportionate or indiscriminate attacks that violated international humanitarian law. Despite pledges that civilian loss of life would be thoroughly investigated by coalition forces, Amnesty says there is no sign of this happening.

    Middle East Researcher at Amnesty International Benjamin Walsby has questioned why the coalition felt the need to bomb the city in ruins if “the coalition and their SDF allies were ultimately going to grant IS fighters safe passage and impunity.” He added: “What possible military advantage was there in destroying practically an entire city and killing so many civilians?

    “Raqqa’s civilians are returning home to ruins, pulling loved ones out of rubble, and facing death or injury from mines, IEDs and unexploded ordnance,” Walsby said. “The coalition’s refusal to acknowledge its role in creating this catastrophic situation adds insult to injury.”

    An MoD spokesman said: “Keeping Britain safe from the threat of terrorism is the objective of this campaign and throughout we have been open and transparent, detailing each of our nearly 1,700 strikes, facilitating operational briefings and confirming when a civilian casualty had taken place.

    “We do everything we can to minimize the risk to civilian life through our rigorous targeting processes and the professionalism of the RAF crews but, given the ruthless and inhuman behavior of Daesh, and the congested, complex urban environment in which we operate, we must accept that the risk of inadvertent civilian casualties is ever present.”

    US Army Colonel Sean Ryan has denied accusations made by Amnesty International of disproportionate bombing and unlawful killing.

    “I think we served the people of Raqqa to the best of our ability and against an enemy that has used tactics that no one even suspected they would use,” Ryan said. “We’re the ones who liberated Raqqa and did it come at a price? Sure – but it's a time of war, and that's what happens sometimes. We go to extreme levels to avoid innocent civilians.”
 
A new illicit strike, targetting Iraqian troops fighting Daesh on the Syria-Iraq border, resulting on strange consequences :
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201806181065498477-usa-bombs-syrian-positions/
US-Led Coalition Aircraft Bombs Syrian Military Positions -
01:27 18.06.2018(updated 03:47 18.06.2018)

A US-led coalition aircraft has bombed one of Syrian military positions, local media reported citing a source in the military. Pentagon denied the coalition's involvement in the reported airstrike.

Syrian SANA news agency reported, citing a military source that one of US-led coalition aircraft had made an airstrike on the positions of the Syrian troops in al-Harra settlement, which is southeast of Al Bukamal, killing several servicemen and injuring others.

The Syrian city of Al Bukamal is apart of Deir ez-Zor Governorate and is situated near the border with Iraq.

US Department of Defense spokesman Adrian Rankine-Galloway told Sputnik later that neither Washington nor the US-led coalition was behind a reported attack on the Syrian troops.

"Not a US or Coalition strike," Rankine-Galloway said Sunday speaking about the reported attack.

Washington Threatens to Respond in Case of Gov't Offensive in Syria's Southwestern De-Escalation Zone
Previous month, Iran's Fars news agency cited sources as saying that a new US military base was being set up in the Deir ez-Zor province. The base, which, according to reports is located in the Badiyeh al-Sha'afa area, was to be equipped with "advanced military tools and systems".
The US-led coalition has been making airstrikes against what it calls Daesh* targets in Syria since 2014. The coalition's mission was approved neither by Damascus nor the UN. Currently, about 2,000 US troops are deployed in Syria.
The US chose to blame their close ally Israel, as the consequences were serious, with a risk to accelerate the departure of US troops from Iraq, tired by the multiplicity of US agressions ; but the ally proved itself to be not very compliant :
https://sputniknews.com/military/201806191065530446-israel-syria-iraq-strike/

Israel Did That! US Official Blames Syria Strike on IDF
02:18 19.06.2018

What Sputnik reported earlier as a US-led coalition strike on Syria has turned out to be an Israeli airstrike - at least according to one US official who spoke with CNN.

Israel, not the US, is responsible for an airstrike that killed dozens near the Syria-Iraq border, an anonymous US official said Monday, CNN reported. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, the official told reporters that the Pentagon is going out of its way to publicly make clear that it was not involved in the attack.

Pentagon Denies Involvement in Reported Airstrike on Syrian Army in Deir ez-Zor
As Sputnik reported earlier, the Sunday night airstrike targeted positions in the Syrian settlement of al-Harra, which is southeast of Abu Kamal, near the border with Iraq. An unnamed commander of forces in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told Reuters that "probably American" drones bombed the positions between Abu Kamal and al-Tanf.
According to Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces, 22 of its members were killed, while estimates by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights say the total death toll was 52 people, Haaretz reported.

"At 22:00 last night, a US plane hit a fixed headquarters of the Popular Mobilization Forces' 45th and 46th brigades, defending the border strip with Syria, using two guided missiles which led to the martyrdom of 22 fighters," Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces said in a statement Monday, demanding an explanation from the United States.

"Among [those killed] are at least 30 Iraqi fighters and 16 Syrians, including soldiers and members of loyalist militias," Syrian Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told reporters.

US Department of Defense spokesman Adrian Rankine-Galloway immediately denied involvement by either the US or the US-led coalition against Daesh in the attack.

"Not a US or coalition strike," Rankine-Galloway said Sunday.

"No member of the US-led coalition carried out strikes near Abu Kamal," Major Josh Jacques, a US Central Command spokesperson, told Reuters.

According to the anonymous US official who spoke with CNN, the US military is concerned the Iraqi Mobilization Forces might retaliate against US troops stationed in Iraq, which the current government, led by cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, has publicly called an "occupation." The official said that the Pentagon is doing everything it can to minimize the risk of retaliatory action.

In the meantime, Iraq's Foreign Ministry issued a statement, in which it expresses rejection and condemnation of any air operations that target forces fighting Daesh, be it in Iraq or Syria, PressTV reported.
An Israeli military spokesperson refused to comment on the issue, the Jerusalem Post noted Monday.

"We do not comment on foreign reports," the spokesperson said.

However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly said this weeked during his phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin and US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo that Israel will conduct strikes against what it sees as "entrenchment" by Iran and its allies in Syria.

"We will take action, and are already taking action, against the attempted military entrenchment of Iran and its proxies, both close to the border and deep within Syria," he is quoted by the Jerusalem Post as saying.

"Iran must clear out of all of Syria," the head of the Israeli government added.
 
At the same time, another sign of the US growing ediginess :
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201806141065418791-us-white-helmets-funding/
US Plans to Resume Support for White Helmets Despite Alleged Ties to Jihadists
21:51 14.06.2018

Washington has been supporting the controversial NGO since 2013, but has recently stopped financing it, citing a need to review government spending. Moscow and Damascus have on multiple occasions drawn the international public's attention to the fact that the White Helmets have been spotted working with terrorist groups like Al-Nusra Front*.

State Department Spokeswoman Heather Nauert announced that the US will resume its funding of the White Helmets and will issue some $6.6 million for this purpose. She also confirmed that Donald Trump had approved the financial help to the group, which has allegedly "saved over 100,000 lives."

Earlier in May, reports surfaced that the US State Department had halted its funding to the NGO, which was later explained by White House plans to reduce government spending and redistribute part of the costs to its allies in the Middle East.

READ MORE: Here's How White Helmets Used to Get Funding

The White Helmets have on numerous occasions been spotted working with Al-Nusra Front* and other terrorist groups in Syria. The group claims that its mission is saving the lives of ordinary citizens and reporting about chemical attacks allegedly conducted by Damascus. However, the Russian Defense Ministry uncovered evidence and found witnesses suggesting that one of their latest reports about an alleged chemical attack in Douma was a fake.

The Nusra Front (also known as Jabhat al-Nusra, Jabhat Fatah al-Sham) is a terrorist group banned in Russia.
A Syrian Human Rights activist tries to give an explanation : the move could be part of a wider strategy by the state bandits of further destabilization and warmongering ; but, indeed, why being scandalised or surprised ? Terrorists funding terrorists is in the natural order of things !
https://sputniknews.com/analysis/20...ts-us-funding-resumption-damascus-commentary/
Syrian Rights Group Reveals Why US Resuming Funding for Notorious White Helmets
21:36 16.06.2018(updated 21:38 16.06.2018)

Washington announced the resumption of $6.6 million in funding for the White Helmets NGO this week in spite of evidence from Damascus and Moscow that the group has links to al-Qaeda.

Speaking to Sputnik, Syrian Human Rights Network head Ahmad Kazem said that the resumption of funding was logical, since it will allow Washington to fulfill tasks through a group that Western intelligence services created in the first place.

"It's long become clear to everyone who the White Helmets really are," Kazem explained. "Their roots go back to the intelligence services of the US, Britain, France, Israel and Turkey. Therefore, it's only natural that the US finances them, in effect fueling international terrorism. [The terrorists] are financed to a great extent by Saudi money, and so long as this is the case, the US has no problems with this," he added.

Douma Doctors, Witnesses Reveal Lies Behind White Helmets' Provocation During Russian Press Briefing (VIDEO)
The activist believes that the US finances some terrorists in an effort to change the balance of forces on the ground, which in the future would allow them to impose conditions in Syria which are beneficial to the West and to Israel.
"I cannot exclude the possibility that President Trump is preparing the groundwork to declare the Golan Heights to be Israeli territory, similarly to what happened with the Jerusalem [embassy], and in violation of international law and human rights," Kazem said.

At the same time, Kazam argued that Western intelligence services' cooperation with groups like the White Helmets also play a crucial domestic role. "The work of the special services is now among the most important. It is aimed at changing peoples' thinking and making structural changes in society in an effort to control people's minds," he explained.

Read More: The Violent Reality of 'Western Propaganda Construct' White Helmets

Washington temporarily halted State Department funding for the White Helmets in May. The 'rescue group' has been repeatedly spotted working with Al-Nusra Front*, the Syrian branch of al-Qaeda*, and other terrorist groups in Syria. In April, the US, UK and France launched missile strikes against Syria on the basis of a White Helmets report that the Syrian Army had used chemical weapons in the city of Douma. The Syrian government, Moscow and doctors and eyewitnesses from Douma have since revealed that the alleged 'chemical attack' was a fake.

*Terrorist groups banned in Russia.
 
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More than one year later, Russian specialists come back to the subjectivity of the OPCW and their refusal to conduct a valid investigation on the Khan Shaikhoun attack ; a subjectivity that amounts in fact to an intent to try to protect Western governments, as was shown by their lack of will to investigate the labs and storage sites held by the rebels ; although the first investigators to come had been subject to rebel fire, it emerges that there is more than security reasons to their refusal to come to examine them, as they had already been secured :
https://www.rt.com/news/430560-syria-chemical-lab-hardware/

Militants manufactured poisonous agents in Syria using Western-made hardware – Russian military
Published time: 22 Jun, 2018 13:58 Edited time: 23 Jun, 2018 14:30
https://on.rt.com/9880
  • Russia’s Defense Ministry has revealed that equipment manufactured by the EU and US was found in a terrorist chemical lab in Syria, which was used to produce explosives and poisonous agents.
    The statement was made at a joint briefing by the Russian Foreign and Defense Ministries on Friday, when they displayed the equipment that spokesperson Maria Zakharova said was found in the Syrian town of Douma, near the capital Damascus.

    Major General Igor Kirillov, chief of Russia’s Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense Troops, said a lab rigged with explosives was discovered in Douma on April 17, along with a store of chemicals.

    The equipment was used to produce PETN explosives, and substances that can be used to produce mustard gas were also found. Some parts of the equipment were produced in the EU and the US, Kirillov said. He added that both the lab and the storage site were shown to OPCW mission that arrived in Douma to investigate an alleged chemical attack, “but did not draw their interest.”

    Zakharova added that Russia is ready to present this evidence to other countries. The Russian military say they found more than 40 tons of chemical agents in total in areas freed from terrorists in Syria.
    Kirillov also claimed that the “imitation” of a chemical attack in Khan Shaykhun in 2017 was staged by the controversial group the White Helmets. A shell hole on the site had characteristics of a small ground-based explosion, and not a bomb dropped by aircraft, he said, adding that the crater was filled with concrete even before the OPCW investigation.
    He also referred to the images that were made in the initial hours following the incident, which showed people at the site of the ‘attack’ not wearing protective gear. This would have been impossible if sarin had been used, Kirillov said.

    READ MORE: White Helmets: A tool for ‘regime change’ in Syria that’s too important to stop funding?

    He proceeded to criticize reports produced by the OPCW on Syria, which he accused of an “unprofessional approach” for investigating and making conclusions in relation to incidents in Khan Shaykhun, Saraqib and Al-Lataminah without dispatching experts on the ground.

    It is not surprising that the OPCW reports are often riddled with words like ‘allegedly’ or ‘reportedly,’ he added, saying: “Such lexicon is unacceptable for a serious document, which is supposed to be based on irrefutable evidence.”

    Both Damascus and Moscow repeatedly asked the OPCW to send its fact-finding mission to Khan Shaykhun, but the organization refused to do so “for security reasons.”

    “The long-distance nature of investigations, as well as the collection, analysis and the usage of documents acquired without the experts actually arriving at the sites of alleged chemical attacks, constitutes a direct violation of the [Chemical Weapons] Convention,” Kirillov stated.
 
More than one year later, Russian specialists come back to the subjectivity of the OPCW and their refusal to conduct a valid investigation on the Khan Shaikhoun attack ; a subjectivity that amounts in fact to an intent to try to protect Western governments, as was shown by their lack of will to investigate the labs and storage sites held by the rebels ; although the first investigators to come had been subject to rebel fire, it emerges that there is more than security reasons to their refusal to come to examine them, as they had already been secured :
https://www.rt.com/news/430560-syria-chemical-lab-hardware/

Militants manufactured poisonous agents in Syria using Western-made hardware – Russian military
Published time: 22 Jun, 2018 13:58 Edited time: 23 Jun, 2018 14:30
  • Russia’s Defense Ministry has revealed that equipment manufactured by the EU and US was found in a terrorist chemical lab in Syria, which was used to produce explosives and poisonous agents.
    The statement was made at a joint briefing by the Russian Foreign and Defense Ministries on Friday, when they displayed the equipment that spokesperson Maria Zakharova said was found in the Syrian town of Douma, near the capital Damascus.

    Major General Igor Kirillov, chief of Russia’s Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense Troops, said a lab rigged with explosives was discovered in Douma on April 17, along with a store of chemicals.

    The equipment was used to produce PETN explosives, and substances that can be used to produce mustard gas were also found. Some parts of the equipment were produced in the EU and the US, Kirillov said. He added that both the lab and the storage site were shown to OPCW mission that arrived in Douma to investigate an alleged chemical attack, “but did not draw their interest.”

    Zakharova added that Russia is ready to present this evidence to other countries. The Russian military say they found more than 40 tons of chemical agents in total in areas freed from terrorists in Syria.
    Kirillov also claimed that the “imitation” of a chemical attack in Khan Shaykhun in 2017 was staged by the controversial group the White Helmets. A shell hole on the site had characteristics of a small ground-based explosion, and not a bomb dropped by aircraft, he said, adding that the crater was filled with concrete even before the OPCW investigation.
    He also referred to the images that were made in the initial hours following the incident, which showed people at the site of the ‘attack’ not wearing protective gear. This would have been impossible if sarin had been used, Kirillov said.

    READ MORE: White Helmets: A tool for ‘regime change’ in Syria that’s too important to stop funding?

    He proceeded to criticize reports produced by the OPCW on Syria, which he accused of an “unprofessional approach” for investigating and making conclusions in relation to incidents in Khan Shaykhun, Saraqib and Al-Lataminah without dispatching experts on the ground.

    It is not surprising that the OPCW reports are often riddled with words like ‘allegedly’ or ‘reportedly,’ he added, saying: “Such lexicon is unacceptable for a serious document, which is supposed to be based on irrefutable evidence.”

    Both Damascus and Moscow repeatedly asked the OPCW to send its fact-finding mission to Khan Shaykhun, but the organization refused to do so “for security reasons.”

    “The long-distance nature of investigations, as well as the collection, analysis and the usage of documents acquired without the experts actually arriving at the sites of alleged chemical attacks, constitutes a direct violation of the [Chemical Weapons] Convention,” Kirillov stated.

The problem here is that Russia lies about everything, so very few people are going to take this seriously.

I mean doping in athletics, MH17, war in Ukraine, murders in Kyiv, poisonings, murdered journalists, terrorist attack on Mariupol market, using stills from video games and claiming they show real world activity and so on to which the answer is always it wasn't us.

Here for example are some more http://www.russialies.com/russias-top-180-lies-about-ukraine/

And here are another 280 lies Russia tells about everything the international edition http://www.russialies.com/russias-top-280-lies-international-edition/

Most of which comes from your favourite news sources being RT and Sputnik which are of course state owned propaganda machines

So when Russia publishes "evidence" a long time after the fact purporting to show western malfeasance in Syria I do not believe it and nor should you
 
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The problem here is that Russia lies about everything, so very few people are going to take this seriously.

I mean doping in athletics, MH17, war in Ukraine, murders in Kyiv, poisonings, murdered journalists, terrorist attack on Mariupol market, using stills from video games and claiming they show real world activity and so on to which the answer is always it wasn't us.

Here for example are some more http://www.russialies.com/russias-top-180-lies-about-ukraine/

And here are another 280 lies Russia tells about everything the international edition http://www.russialies.com/russias-top-280-lies-international-edition/

Most of which comes from your favourite news sources being RT and Sputnik which are of course state owned propaganda machines

So when Russia publishes "evidence" a long time after the fact purporting to show western malfeasance in Syria I do not believe it and nor should you
If you take as the ultimate source of information the present Ukrainian government, born from a coup started with a false-flag attack, and that has since produced its own propaganda, at least on a par with the one from Russia, I understand what your problems are.
280 lies may seem much, but it needs to be put in perspective. The feeling I have is that RT and Sputnik are more agressive and less concerned with the truth at home, where they sometimes unleash crude propaganda, than in Western Europe and North America ; which, indeed, does a difference with the Western press, unconcerned both at home and overseas. And in the last two years only, and refering only to the Syrian crisis, the number of lies spread by Western officials and press exceeds this amount.

I viewed some of the purported fake news. Some involved indeed the recycling of web hoaxes, as does the Western press, some other ones I don't know, other accusations are based only on unchecked claims from military or diplomatic sources, dubious by nature. Other accusations are themselves fake, or at least very disputable
No, the 'Holodomor' was not a genocide of Ukrainians, it was a famine caused by an inept nationalisation of farmlands during the dekulakisation, and extended well beyond Ukraine (the gretatest toll was in Kazakhstan). It remains under discussion if the Soviet government tried to aggravate it to submit some rebellious areas. Other accusations are in fact crude attempts to restore discredited low-grade Western propaganda, like the debunked assertions that Russian Air Force was bombing Syrian 'opposition' (sic), that all Russian satellite photos are from video games, or that a majority of refugees in Europe are from Syria. When they don't themselves come in support of the Western policy, as in the case of the return of refugees to Syria, which had began but indeed dried up, because of the dubious activities of the UNHCR, trying to disuade refugees to go back to their country. For this reason, the Lebanese government recently forbade UNHCR employees to work in their country, as long as they will follow this policy.
http://www.gdnonline.com/Details/36...minister-escalates-refugee-row-with-UN-agency

As for the matter of the Shaikhun attack, no, it didn't take them a long time to publish their evidence, as they had made the information available in the following months – while the whole 'evidence' that Western governments presented came from social networks or was laundered under the petty « it's classified » argument. The mere fact that people could stay at the site of the alleged sarin attack shortly after without any protective gear is alone a definitive proof that the whole thing was faked, the rest is GIGO (well, maybe you'll find a bogus, paid expert to say the contrary, but all what it would prove is that he would be a bogus, paid expert, as they infest the mainstream media).

I used to be good for Fortean stories though, same as the Mail and Express.
Do not worry, you may find plenty of Fortean material in the so-called respectable press. In fact, between tabloids and The New York Times and the Financial Times, there is no real difference, they're all trash papers.

At the same time, a true progress towards peace, as some rebel groups have agreed to side with the Syrian Army. Negotiating with terrorists is what many other governments did to end conflicts, including the British with IRA.
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201806241065720847-fsa-russia-syria-army-south-syria/
FSA Rebel Units Join Syrian Army to Fight Daesh, Nusra Terrorists - Russian MoD

11:48 24.06.2018(updated 12:44 24.06.2018)

The statement comes just a day after the Syrian army and the FSA jointly repelled an attack by over a thousand of al-Nusra Front terrorists in the Syrian southern de-escalation zone.

The Russian Defense Ministry has announced that the units of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels had joined the government forces in 11 settlements in the south of the country in order to fight al-Nusra Front* and Daesh** militants.

According to the Russian military, 10 populated areas in Syria's south have voluntarily come under the control of the government over the past 24 hours.

The Syrian army is currently conducting an anti-terrorist operation in the southern de-escalation zone in parts of the country's Daraa and Quneitra provinces. The day before, the government forces, together with FSA detachments, managed to repel over a thousand al-Nusra Front attacks in the area.

Two Peas in a Pod: White Helmets Shared Buildings With Al-Nusra in Syria – Bolivian Filmmaker
Most of Syria's territory has already been liberated by the government army with the Russian aerial support, however, some terrorist pockets located mainly in the southwest US-controlled areas still remain.
Four Syrian de-escalation zones were created during the Astana talks on Syrian reconciliation, including the one in the country's south. Russia, Iran and Turkey serve as guarantors of the de-escalation agreements, which do not apply to terrorists in the region.
 
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If you take as the ultimate source of information the present Ukrainian government, born from a coup started with a false-flag attack, and that has since produced its own propaganda, at least on a par with the one from Russia, I understand what your problems are.
280 lies may seem much, but it needs to be put in perspective. The feeling I have is that RT and Sputnik are more agressive and less concerned with the truth at home, where they sometimes unleash crude propaganda, than in Western Europe and North America ; which, indeed, does a difference with the Western press, unconcerned both at home and overseas. And in the last two years only, and refering only to the Syrian crisis, the number of lies spread by Western officials and press exceeds this amount.

I viewed some of the purported fake news. Some involved indeed the recycling of web hoaxes, as does the Western press, some other ones I don't know, other accusations are based only on unchecked claims from military or diplomatic sources, dubious by nature. Other accusations are themselves fake, or at least very disputable
No, the 'Holodomor' was not a genocide of Ukrainians, it was a famine caused by an inept nationalisation of farmlands during the dekulakisation, and extended well beyond Ukraine (the gretatest toll was in Kazakhstan). It remains under discussion if the Soviet government tried to aggravate it to submit some rebellious areas. Other accusations are in fact crude attempts to restore discredited low-grade Western propaganda, like the debunked assertions that Russian Air Force was bombing Syrian 'opposition' (sic), that all Russian satellite photos are from video games, or that a majority of refugees in Europe are from Syria. When they don't themselves come in support of the Western policy, as in the case of the return of refugees to Syria, which had began but indeed dried up, because of the dubious activities of the UNHCR, trying to disuade refugees to go back to their country. For this reason, the Lebanese government recently forbade UNHCR employees to work in their country, as long as they will follow this policy.
http://www.gdnonline.com/Details/36...minister-escalates-refugee-row-with-UN-agency

As for the matter of the Shaikhun attack, no, it didn't take them a long time to publish their evidence, as they had made the information available in the following months – while the whole 'evidence' that Western governments presented came from social networks or was laundered under the petty « it's classified » argument. The mere fact that people could stay at the site of the alleged sarin attack shortly after without any protective gear is alone a definitive proof that the whole thing was faked, the rest is GIGO (well, maybe you'll find a bogus, paid expert to say the contrary, but all what it would prove is that he would be a bogus, paid expert, as they infest the mainstream media).


Do not worry, you may find plenty of Fortean material in the so-called respectable press. In fact, between tabloids and The New York Times and the Financial Times, there is no real difference, they're all trash papers.

At the same time, a true progress towards peace, as some rebel groups have agreed to side with the Syrian Army. Negotiating with terrorists is what many other governments did to end conflicts, including the British with IRA.
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201806241065720847-fsa-russia-syria-army-south-syria/


You wrote

"If you take as the ultimate source of information the present Ukrainian government, born from a coup started with a false-flag attack, and that has since produced its own propaganda, at least on a par with the one from Russia, I understand what your problems are."

The coup you refer to is another Russian invention.

A coup is defined as "a sudden, violent, and illegal seizure of power from a government." Ukraine has a democratically elected government in which the right wing has no representation as they did not achieve the minimum 5% in the last election. Compared, for example to France, where almost half the country voted for Marine LePen
.
This coup business is completely false, I know, I was there in Maidan with my huge British flag on a long bendy flag pole along with hundreds of thousands of other people.

What false flag attack are you referring to? There is plenty of video evidence of Yanukovich's black helmeted Berkut storm troopers shooting people dead. My colleagues and I were shot at by Berkut and the husband of a good friend was killed by gunfire, it was at this moment I bid a hasty retreat I might add and watched the rest of the story unfold on live internet television.

Are you telling me that those Berkut who were shooting at us were in fact Americans in disguise? I know what I saw I was there, you on the other hand just have your Russian propaganda to go by in which everyone who doesn't want to be ruled by Putin is a Nazi.

Some of the bullets they used can be found here

https://euromaidanpr.wordpress.com/...rt-proves-live-ammunition-used-by-the-police/

in fact I have one of those engine piercing bullets (top photo) at home in my flat, I picked it up as I was leaving Maidan for the last time and there were hundreds of them on the ground.

As to propaganda from the Ukrainian side, you have to bear in mind that it is Russia that has attacked Ukraine and even with the football world cup underway right now Russia continues to kill Ukrainians in Donbas with its invading forces.

You seem to spend a huge amount of time supporting Russia here on the FT message board just out of interest do you work for the Internet Research Agency as I can't believe you go to all this effort to promote Russian propaganda for free.

Anyway thanks for looking at the links I sent, even though you dismiss them I hope I may have planted a small seed of doubt in your mind the next time you read a Russian article about Ukrainian nazi zombies eating young children and spitting out their bones.

Greetings from a free Kyiv
 
In fact, nobody has claimed that the Berkut were US or British agents. The gunshots and fights between the police and some demonstrators were all too real, but they were initiated by members of the opposition, belonging to Svoboda and Parvy Sektor (whose importance in the change of regime is well attested), and falsely attributed to governmental forces to blame Yanukovich. Plenty of evidence has been provided, from multiple sources and inquiries. There is a thread wher it was detailed, I consider the matter as settled, but I suppose the evidence has not been relayed on the Ukrainian media ! As for the matter of foreign (mainly US and British) interference in Ukrainian politics, before the coup and after, it is also an open secret (and is now exerted in plain sight, unashamedly).

http://forum.forteantimes.com/index.php?threads/ukraine.55822/

(Svoboda did not reach 5 % at the national level of Ukraine, but as far as I know, had six MPs elected, all from the West and Kiev, where the contestation began (Svoboda earning more than 35 % in Galicia, 17 % in Volhyni and 17 % in Kiev in the legislative elections of 2012)).
The tactic of infiltrating snipers in demonstrations to open fire on police officers, or on demonstrators froom roofs, to have the demonstration degenerate into an armed battle and blame security forces has become a classic of Western intelligence agencies, it was used in Ukraine, it seems at the same time in Venezuela, in 2011 in Libya, in 2015 in Macedonia, maybe presently in Nicaragua, and its use is definitively established in Syria in 2011. The major difference between Ukraine and Syria is that the policy of regime change led by Western rulers failed in the latter country, to their anger.
In addition, I find your attitude in Maidan as a British citizen (as I suppose you are) very disturbing. You are complaining of Russian interference in other countries, but you yourself, just like your rulers, you have no trouble with interfering in the politics of other countries.

At least, Western interference in the largest part of Syria is now widely disbanding, Deraa is now back under Syrian control, the minions of the West and Israel are in full rout. And guess what ? The dogs go back to their master :
https://www.rt.com/uk/434021-white-helmets-granted-asylum/

‘They may be jihadists but they’re our jihadists’: White Helmets' UK resettlement policy attacked
Published time: 23 Jul, 2018 14:04 Edited time: 24 Jul, 2018 07:37

The UK is to offer asylum to members of western-backed White Helmets group, that operates in Jihadists-held areas in Syria. The move has prompted dire warnings about who exactly Britain might be admitting.
  • Some 98 White Helmets members were rescued by the Israel Defense Forces on Saturday night, as part of an evacuation mission that saw a total of 422 people collected from Syria and transferred across Northern Israel and into Jordan at three points, the Guardian reports.

    The paper claims that the UK is prepared to offer asylum to up to 500 White Helmets members or relatives of the group, officially known as the Syria Civil Defence. The proposed resettlement of members of the group has divided opinion.

    READ MORE: Israel evacuates White Helmets from Syria to Jordan

    Critics of the move have raised doubts around the White Helmets' legitimacy as a human rights organisation, accusing them of containing within their ranks jihadists who are now set to be welcomed to Britain.

    There are those such as UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt who has heaped praise on the organization – which is funded heavily by the UK government – claiming Saturday night's evacuation carried out by Israel was "fantastic news" as the White Helmets were the “bravest of the brave.”

    Former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan-turned blogger Craig Murray has not been so glowing about the prospect of White Helmets members being granted resettlement in Britain.

    He told his social media followers: “They may be jihadists but they are our jihadists.” Fascinating that the ‘White Helmets’ are being brought straight to the UK with families when the Afghan and Iraqi military interpreters were not. The British government does not do this from humanity or obligation."

    Murray is not alone in voicing such brutal skepticism. Dr Marcus Papadopoulos, London-based editor of Politics First, a self-described non-partisan, bi-monthly magazine, has remarked that resettling these volunteers would be like allowing "murderers" to "freely walk the streets" of the UK.

    Papadopoulos tweeted: "Resettling members of the ‘White Helmets’ in the UK is akin to allowing murderers and other hardened criminals to freely walk the streets of British towns and cities."

    Others on social media poked fun at the elevated status the volunteer group were being given and asking "what could possibly go wrong?"

    The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, Seymour Hersh recently told RT's 'Going Underground,' that although some members of the Western-supported White Helmets may be in the business of saving lives, the group is also a “propaganda organization.”

    “Too many times we've seen the same child in photographs, year after year, always covered in dust,” Hersh said, adding that the White Helmets "do engage in anti-Assad [activities]." He insisted that such a tactic is "very easy" because Assad is "hated" by so many.

    Hunt and International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt, issued a joint statement on Sunday outlining the proposed resettlement of the White Helmets and their relatives.

    Israel had originally calculated numbers evacuated at 800, but that figure was revised downwards by former MI5 officer James Le Mesurier, recognized as the founder of the White Helmets which he formed in Turkey in 2013. The Guardian reports that as many as 800 others failed to escape or chose not to be evacuated.

    READ MORE: Another ‘fake chemical attack’ would trigger major crisis in Syria, UK ex-envoy to Damascus tells RT

    The White Helmets have on several occasions been the first to provide footage from the sites of alleged chemical attacks and the purported aftermath in Syria, including the Khan Shaykhun and Douma incidents.

    The self-styled volunteer first-responders operate in militant-held areas of Syria, and its members have repeatedly been photographed and filmed fraternizing with jihadists, including those linked to Al-Qaeda.

    Major General Igor Kirillov, chief of Russia’s Radiological, Chemical and Biological Defense Troops, has claimed that the “imitation” of a chemical attack in Khan Shaykhun in 2017 was staged by the controversial group.

    Witnesses of the alleged chemical attack in Douma, including 11-year-old Hassan Diab and hospital staff, told reporters at The Hague in April that the White Helmets video that was used as a pretext for a US-led strike on Syria was, in fact, staged.
 
Whatever some may say, RT is not there to charge at Western powers or incriminate them, on the contrary they are trying to downplay the situation and are giving an edulcorated account of their responsibilities, in order to spare them. Others have no such restraint, and are asking the right questions. In any case, we have one more confirmation of the obvious, that the White Helmets were only a tool of Western agencies :
https://orientalreview.org/2018/07/25/they-knew-too-much/

They Knew Too Much
Written by ORIENTAL REVIEW on 25/07/2018
More in Chaosistan:
The countries of the West used Israel to evacuate members of the White Helmets from southern Syria. They couldn’t be allowed to fall into the hands of the Syrian government — at least, not while they are still alive.

Essential human-rights defenders
Damascus is almost finished liberating southwestern Syria. The military’s Operation Basalt was extremely successful, allowing them to regain control of the occupied provinces of Quneitra and Daraa (at present the Syrian army has only a small chunk of land left to liberate from the jihadists). Many of the local gangs simply surrendered. Those militants who wanted to remain underwent a procedure of reconciliation with the authorities, while the others were put onto green buses and sent to Idlib.

However, those militants included some very valuable specimens — members of the “Syrian civil defense”, or, as they are more simply known, “the White Helmets.” If they were taken prisoner, that would be a serious problem for the US and its allies, since the members of that organization might have a lot to say once they were in front of the cameras. And the damage caused by their statements would be far worse than the fallout over the admissions made by Hassan Diab — the boy the “helmets” named as a victim of a chemical attack in Douma, who admitted that the attack had been staged for the photographers. And it would be so much worse, simply because the White Helmets — or at least their leaders — knew so much more.

This is not Aleppo, Syria, but rather the streets of Europe where a “save Aleppo” protest was staged. Actors posing in fake dust and blood proved just how easy it is for anyone to create “war victims” anytime, anywhere.
The White Helmets have been the West’s most important weapon on the propaganda front of the Syrian war. They have acted as the local human-rights activists who have been snapping photos and shooting videos about the “chemical attacks” that that “bloody tyrant” has carried out against his own people. And based on precisely these facts, the US and its partners imposed sanctions against Damascus and have carried out acts of revenge in the form of attacks that would have been nothing less than carpet bombing, had Moscow not been careful to issue stern warnings about the consequences of these attacks.

They’ve gotten out of hand
The Syrian authorities, as well as Moscow, Tehran, and anyone else who gives it a minute’s thought, have naturally cautioned that this data is unreliable and that the White Helmets are, in fact, a PR service for terrorists, whose members chop off their captives’ heads once they take off those helmets, just as their un-helmeted counterparts do. And in order to rein in any growing doubts, the West began to create an image for the White Helmets as heroes without fear and above reproach — as fighters for human rights, who rescue ordinary Syrians from the rubble that was created when Assad’s troops bombed peaceful villages According to the official legend, the White Helmets have saved a total of 80,00 lives since 2012 -and some of them right in front of the cameras, after which the “seriously wounded” then stood up and ran somewhere else so they could be heroically saved again. A movie about them even won an Oscar. This means that no decent, upright person (including experts from the OPCW) should harbor any doubts that those pictures — taken from mobile phones somewhere or other, filming something or other — delivered to them by the White Helmets are anything other than real evidence of chemical attacks by Assad.



Over time, relations between Americans and the Helmets have deteriorated — in part because the new White House administration understood the futility of the Syrian front in the battle against Iran and did not want to get entangled in it. Fulfilling the orders of those who were, in contrast, interested in sucking the US further in, the Helmets staged more and more fake stories, trying to drag Trump into the war, which was the only chance the anti-Assad resistance had for victory. It was no surprise that the United States first stopped funding the organization, and then, when the progressive-minded public was outraged by this infringement of the rights of the heroes of the fight against that bloody tyrant, Washington agreed to allocate several million dollars anyway, so that the “heroes” could keep working until the end of the year. However, Washington was not ready to leave them in the lurch — those people know too much, and must not end up in Bashar al-Assad’s hands.

Let’s kill guys
In fact, a few other options did exist. For example, they could order a few killings and then claim those snipers had been employed by that “bloody tyrant,” who had apparently decided to take revenge on the Syrian heroes for exposing his crimes. That would be both cheaper and safer. But there were two problems with that. First of all, there were hundreds of people involved. Someone might dodge a bullet and scamper off to Assad. Second, pulling that tool out of their kit would damage their reputation – other potential tools in other conflicts would simply be too afraid to work with them in the future. To paraphrase Roosevelt, “They might be bastards, but they’re our bastards.”

And this is exactly why the West decided to pull the White Helmets out of southwestern Syria anyway. And they had to be pulled out as quickly as possible — the Syrians had taken control of the Jordanian border, and the “PR reps” were trapped on a small strip of land along the Golan Heights. And according to Benjamin Netanyahu, it was faced with this situation that US President Donald Trump and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau asked him to arrange the evacuation of the White Helmets and their family members, since “the people who saved lives were now under life-threatening danger.” The Israelis first brought them into their own country, before turning them over to the Jordanians.

A total of 422 people (the White Helmets and the members of their families) were pulled out, according to official figures. Now they are being held in a secret shelter inside Jordan, and in three months they will be resettled in Britain, Canada, and Germany. Far from the cameras. And since the data on their subsequent whereabouts will be strictly classified, no one will be able to stop the West from quietly killing off the most important and most dangerous of them. Just to be on the safe side.

Reposts are welcomed with the reference to ORIENTAL REVIEW.
 
The UK and other western countries are voluntarily giving asylum to 100% certified jihadis. Won't be long before they bite the hands that feed and shelter them.
 
Who says that it bothers them ? It may very well be what they want, justifying the voting of even more repressive laws, as they've already done in the last years.

And speaking of true refugees, it seems that now, they are starting to come back en masse to Syria. It appears also that it shows, 1) that the HCR was indeed obeying to its true masters, and 2) who its true masters really are.
Trump authorizes those that fled Syrian to return under the protection of President al Assad
Voltaire Network | 31 July 2018
ligne-rouge.gif


Following the Nato Summit and the Helsinki Summit, Russia and the United States have agreed to evacuate Western personnel from Syria and to repatriate Syria refugees.

The Russian President Vladimir Putin and his US partner Donald Trump have agreed to consider only a very small minority (less than 50,000) of those that fled the Syrian Arab Republic to be asylum seekers fleeing persecution. They have also agreed that the motive for which the vast majority (more than 2 million) did so, was to escape fighting and destruction.

However there is a third category of people that fled Syria: many people in Northern Syria fled to Turkey, incentivized by the carrot held out by the Turkish government. When the collapse of the Syrian regime appeared inevitable before the Nato onslaught, Ankara pledged to help those seeking temporary refuge (a couple of months) on Turkish soil. The Heads of State opted to ignore the motive of these “asylum seekers”, a motive that is bound up to the military strategy of Nato to let the Syrian Arab Republic exsanguinate [1].

Most Syrians that have fled Syria have been accepted by the neighbouring countries (except Israel): Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. Joint Commissions will be created in each country to regulate problems of repatriation. Each joint commission will include representatives from Moscow, Washington and Damascus.

For the moment, it is uniquely a matter of repatriation for humanitarian reasons and these Commissions do not signify the reestablishment of diplomatic relations. Notwithstanding this, it clearly appears that normalization is underway.

In the first phase, 890,000 Syrians from Lebanon, 300,000 from Turkey, 150,000 from Jordan and 100,000 from Egypt and Iraq will return to their country of origin.

If this renvoi sur place en masse materializes, it will contradict the entire Western narrative of the war against Syria.

Translation
Anoosha Boralessa

[1] “The phoney « refugee crisis »”, “How the European Union is manipulating the Syrian refugees”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Pete Kimberley, Voltaire Network, 7 September 2015 and 2 May 2016.
 
A perspective on the battles to come ; what is to be learnt from recent events : the Syrian Army is now much more efficient than it was three years ago ; Turkey does not really have the means to opposer the battle of Idlib ; Trump nor has the means neither, nor really the will to ; Kurds of the YPG will have to negotiate with the Syrian, and the US will have to leave :
https://ejmagnier.com/2018/07/24/th...ia-finish-off-isis-and-then-on-towards-idlib/
The last southern battle in Syria: finish off ISIS and then on, towards Idlib
Posted on 24/07/2018 by Elijah J Magnier

By Elijah J. Magnier: @ejmalrai

Southern Syria is surrendering to the forces of the Syrian army: deals have been concluded between the Syrian government and the militants, including jihadists belonging to Jabhat al-Nusra (aka Hayat Tahrir al-Sham). The main deal, supervised by the Russian forces, allows whoever is willing to go to the northern city of Idlib, which is becoming the largest gathering of jihadists, to join the caravan and board the green buses, carrying their personal light weapons.

The Syrian army is facing a real logistic challenge, its forces did not expect the fall of the southern front so quickly. Therefore, the military command is asking militants and jihadists to stay in their villages until their turn comes to be evacuated or to be reconciled with the authorities.

The aim is also to prevent ISIS, occupying the enclave in al-Yarmouk Basin, from expanding its control over nearby abandoned villages where jihadists were based and are today unwilling to fight.

The only pocket remaining is the one of “Jaish Khaled bin al-Waleed”, ISIS-Huran, where the Syrian army and its allies have initiated an attack after surrounding the area from all sides, with the exception of the west flank bordering the 1974 line with Israel.

Although there is no time allocated to end the ISIS pocket, military commanders believe it might take less than two months to end ISIS’s control completely. That is also linked to the following battle expected in the north of Syria after the month of September, where preparations are ongoing for the biggest, last battle in Syria.

Russia is already preparing for its share in rural Lattakia and the high ground surrounding Jisr al-Shoughour and the Lattakia province under the control of Jabhat al-Nusra. The reason why the Russians are determined to liberate the area is mainly due to repetitive armed drone attacks against its main military base and airport in Hmaymeem, also the centre of coordination with Moscow.

The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned Russia that the Astana deal will be in jeopardy if ever the de-confliction zone in Idlib is attacked. Turkey, Russia and Iran deployed 12 observation points along the de-confliction zone in rural Idlib to prevent ground attacks from Jihadists.

However, sources close to the Syrian President said “Bashar al-Assad will not abide by any deal with Turkey or the US that allows these two countries to occupy Syrian territory, even if Russia signed the deal”.

Assad and his allies – Iran and Hezbollah – believe they are capable of liberating the city of Idlib since most of Syria is now liberated. Therefore, Assad insists on liberating the occupied north and has asked his allies to be prepared to send more forces for the next operational stage.

Sources on the ground said “Hezbollah will be present with large forces to participate in the elimination of al-Qaeda and other foreign fighters and jihadists based in the north of Syria”.

Russia and Damascus have agreed to open safe corridors for all civilians willing to leave Idlib into the secured area under the Syrian army control or to reconcile with the government of Damascus as was the case for tens of thousands of militants all over Syria. The number of inhabitants of the city of Idlib (and its rural area) is estimated to be around two million (1.5 before the war), including internally displaced refugees.

Russia wouldn’t mind seeing the Syrian army recover Idlib to protect eastern Aleppo and its rural area that is still under jihadist control. President Erdogan may show a lot of anger when the liberation of Idlib begins, due to his close ties with the militants and jihadists. However, all proxies have become a burden on their backers as the Syrian war is evolving.

Turkey would be happy to control the Kurdish area to prevent the Kurds from having their mini-state. The Kurds, the biggest losers in this war, have earned the animosity of both Erdogan and Assad due to their implicit approval of the partition of Syria and for allowing the US to use them as shield in north-east Syria.

The US forces occupy al-Hasaka and part of Deir-ezzour province. They have established military bases and airports and allowed Israel, according to sources in the area, to use the US military facilities to attack Syria and Iraq (Hashd al-Shaabi).

The battle of Idlib is not going to be a walkover since it is the last significant battle in Syria. Al-Qaeda and other jihadists and the thousands of foreign fighters are not expected to surrender. Russia vows to eliminate al-Qaeda unless Turkey finishes these off. It is most unlikely that President Erdogan will start a war against al-Qaeda, he who has supported them for years and allowed the jihadists to occupy Idlib years back. Nevertheless, it is a time for ending the war in Syria, and Turkey is no longer willing to keep these jihadists under its wing.

It is the last battle this year. The Syrian army shall not attack the US occupation forces face to face but will support local resistance if ever these forces don’t pull out. Once the battle of Idlib is over, Syria can begin “the mother and father of all battles”, reconciliation and reconstruction. The world has failed to change the Syrian regime and the US’s plan for a new Middle East is over. There is no meaning for any occupation forces to remain in the Levant and it is time for Syrians to lick their wounds- and start all over again.

Proof read by: Maurice Brasher
 
Implausible ? Well, with the HCR, we had a precedent for a UN agency following the Western agenda, so, the policy it was enforcing may have originated from the highest ranks of the UN :
https://www.rt.com/news/436411-secret-directive-un-syria-russia/

‘Secret directive’ bans UN agencies from helping rebuild Syria until ‘political transition’ – Lavrov
Published time: 20 Aug, 2018 17:08 Edited time: 21 Aug, 2018 08:45
  • Washington’s “absolutely deconstructive” stance is hampering the rebuilding of Syria and constricts the UN in aiding the country until a so called ‘political transition’ takes place, Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s Foreign Minister, said.
    “We addressed UNESCO on how they plan to implement the longtime talks, the longtime understanding on attracting the potential of this organization to rebuilding Palmyra,” an ancient city, regarded by the agency as a World Heritage Site, Lavrov said. “From the explanations of why UNESCO has still been unable to get involved in this process actively, we took that there was some kind of a directive from the United Nations headquarters in New York.”

    He said that the UN Secretariat, which is the organizations’ executive arms, has “actually issued and distributed a secret directive throughout the UN system in October last year that prohibited the agencies included in this system from participating in any kind of projects aimed at restoring the Syrian economy.”

    Read more
    UK cuts funding for Syrian opposition group claimed to be under jihadist control
    “Only humanitarian aid and nothing more” was allowed, the minister told the journalists after talks with Lebanese counterpart, Gebran Bassil, in Moscow. “A term was put forward that restoration of Syria would only be on the agenda after a certain progress is made in the so-called political transition” in the country, he added.

    The Russian Foreign Ministry also said that due to the “absolutely deconstructive” stance of the US one also shouldn’t expect any positive decisions on rebuilding Syria and return of refugees to the country from the UN Security Council.

    He reminded that following the talks between US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, and UN Special Envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, last week, Washington said that that “any discussion of reconstruction was premature absent a political solution” in Syria.

    Lavrov pointed out that such demands are only put forward by the Americans for areas liberated from terrorist and controlled by the Syrian government in Damascus.

    “As for the areas held by often non-constructive opposition forces, cooperating with the US… the restoration processes there is, on the contrary, in full swing. Furthermore, the US attracts a number of its allies to funding these activities,” he said.

    According to the minister, Washington’s actions contradict the UN Security Council Resolution 2254 from 2015, which stressed the “critical need to build conditions for the safe and voluntary return of refugees… and the rehabilitation of affected area” in Syria.

    Moscow is going to continue working with the countries that “understand the urgency of the proposed measures for the return of refugees and creation of necessary conditions for them,” Lavrov said. He mentioned Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey as well as the European countries, in which “there is a growing awareness of the need for concrete steps” in Syria, among such states.

    Resolution 2254 speaks about a constitutional reform and free election in Syria, but the US and its allies have been pushing for President Bashar Assad to be removed from the process, despite him being a democratically elected leader, whose popularity only increased after most of the country was liberated from terrorists with help of Russia, Iran and other allies.
 
Russian officials issued a series of accusations on recent days against the same NATO countries trying to set up a new false flag attack to justify a new agression on Syria ; the tone used by Trump's goons and the petty Macron has certainly changed. A new dangerous escalation in perspective, after the last false falg chemical attack in April, when we came probably close of a Thord World War :
https://www.rt.com/news/436933-us-fake-attack-syria/

US plans to use fake chemical weapons attack to strike Syria – Russian MoD
Published time: 27 Aug, 2018 12:11 Edited time: 28 Aug, 2018 10:44
https://on.rt.com/9d51
  • The US may have plans to use a fake chemical attack in Syria to hit government forces with airstrikes, the Russian Defense Ministry has said. Washington is already building up strike capability in the Middle East, it said.
    The warning comes a day after the Russian military said it had information about a looming provocation in Syria’s Idlib governorate, which would involve a staged chemical weapons attack. The US earlier warned it would respond to a chemical weapons attack by Syrian government forces with retaliatory strikes, which would be stronger than those conducted by the US, the UK and France in April.

    Read more
    ‘Foreign specialists’ may stage chemical attack in Syria in 2 days to frame Assad – Russian MoD
    In a statement published on Monday, the Russian MoD said it noted the deployment to the Mediterranean last weekend of the missile destroyer USS Ross carrying 28 Tomahawk cruise missiles on board. It came after a similar move of the USS The Sullivans to the Persian Gulf and the rebasing of a B-1B Lancer strategic bomber to an air base in Qatar. The Russian ministry said the “preparations are the latest evidence of the US intention to use the” expected provocation.

    The statement reiterated that the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham militant group, previously known as Al-Nusra Front, was preparing a staged chlorine attack in a city in Idlib. It alleged that a group of jihadists, trained in the handling of chemical weapons by the British private military contractor Olive Group, has already arrived in Jisr al-Shughur. The group will “stage decontamination of victims of a staged chemical weapons attack posing as members of the notorious White Helmets group,” the ministry claimed.

    “The implementation of this provocation, which is being conducted with the assistance of the British intelligence services, is meant to serve as the latest pretext for the US, Britain and France to deliver a missile strike against state and economic facilities in Syria,” said General Igor Konashenkov, spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry.

    On August 22, US National Security Advisor John Bolton stated that “if the Syrian regime uses chemical weapons, we will respond very strongly and they really ought to think about this a long time.”

    In April, a reported chlorine attack in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta neighborhood served as justification for the US, UK, and France to attack what they claimed to be sites involved in a clandestine Syrian chemical weapons program. The missile attacks came just as a team of international inspectors was set to arrive at the scene to collect evidence of the supposed attack.

    Later, residents of the area told journalists that the footage of the treatment of the alleged victims of the attack was filmed by the White Helmets group after they orchestrated a panic at a local hospital. The patients there were not poisoned by chlorine, local medics said. The footage was presented by the mainstream media as proof that an attack took place.
 
While the last US attempt to sponsor a coup using what accordingly to usual Western definitions are terrorists and criminals has just been reppeled in Nicaragua, US manipulations to protect their Islamist assets awaiting to be redeployed in other thaters of operation are still unravelling in Syria. As it comes from a government outlet, the tone used is a measured one, out of scale with the seriousness of the pseudo-coalition's actions. Interestingly, as had been predicted by 'conspiracists', Daesh is now on the rise in Afghanistan, fuelled by militants from the Iraq-Syria front, despite that all escape routes had alledegdly been monitored by 'coalition' forces.
https://www.rt.com/news/437057-rukban-misinformation-ryan-syria/

US army accuses RT of ‘ridiculous misinformation’ over Syria, but not UN or NBC
Published time: 28 Aug, 2018 14:28 Edited time: 29 Aug, 2018 09:51
A US Army colonel has accused RT of ‘ridiculous misinformation’ for reporting a Russian government suggestion that Islamic State is operating inside a US-controlled zone in Syria, despite the UN and NBC reporting the same.

On Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told journalists that Moscow has received information that armed members of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) and the Al-Qaeda proxy group Jabhat al-Nusra had found shelter in the Rukban refugee camp, located in the southwest Al-Tanf region of Syria, and that the US knows the terrorists are there.

Army Colonel Sean Ryan who is the spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR), the snappy name for the US-led coalition against IS, took to the one battleground that really matters, Twitter. He accused RT of ‘ridiculous misinformation’. It’s not entirely clear which part of the report he believes is misinformation; the fact that the Foreign Ministry said the statement in the first place, that terrorists are operating in Rukban, or that the US knows all about it.

If he’s got a problem with the information coming from Russia’s Foreign Ministry, then he should direct his objections that way. It is generally accepted in the world of journalism that quoting the statement of a government official is not ‘misinformation’, it’s actually just reporting the news. Attempting to undermine good faith reporting, well that actually is ‘misinformation’.

More worrying would be if Colonel Ryan is saying the US actually knows nothing about terrorists operating in and around the Rukban refugee camp, because that would make the US military the only organisation in the region that hasn’t noticed. That’s even more concerning when you consider the stated US goal of being in Syria is to fight IS rebels.

Read more
ISIS given ‘breathing space’ in parts of Syria under US-backed forces' control

For the benefit of Colonel Ryan, here are a few people who have noticed the slightly dodgy looking gun-toting terrorists who appear to be putting together cells under their noses.

NBC’s Bill Neely was given access to the area around the Rukban camp, but he reported that his Jordanian helicopter pilot refused to fly over it “for fear of being shot down by ISIS cells in the camp.”

The NBC report goes on to quote the commander of Jordan’s army in the area as saying “militants there have whole weapons systems … small arms, RPGs, anti-aircraft.” Brigadier General Sami Kafawin describes how the militants “consider the camp a safe haven. We consider it an imminent threat.”

Jordan is a US ally at the last time of checking, perhaps Colonel Ryan should phone someone up there.

Earlier this month, the UN named the Rukban refugee camp as being among hotspots ripe for the reemergence of IS. For the sake of Colonel Ryan, he can find a link to the UN report here.

The camp is close to the Jordanian border which was closed because of constant terrorist activity. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that terrorists working in such a remote region might see some opportunities in a nearby camp of 80,000 desperate people.

So, what’s really going on here? When a report from RT is branded misinformation by a US colonel who is responsible for less-than-transparent operations in a distant part of Syria, readers may be well advised to read the contents of that report, and future reports, very carefully. Serving military leaders are not well known for being open with information. However, it’s nice to see that Colonel Ryan is getting some of his news from RT.com.

Publicly criticising outlets like RT has nothing to do with pointing out misinformation, but everything to do with undermining different sources of information which are not singing to your tune.

RT has written to Colonel Ryan in an attempt to clarify his comments, but has not received a reply at the time of writing. It can’t be ruled out that he hasn’t noticed the email.
 
Russian officials issued a series of accusations on recent days against the same NATO countries trying to set up a new false flag attack to justify a new agression on Syria ; the tone used by Trump's goons and the petty Macron has certainly changed. A new dangerous escalation in perspective, after the last false falg chemical attack in April, when we came probably close of a Thord World War :
https://www.rt.com/news/436933-us-fake-attack-syria/

US plans to use fake chemical weapons attack to strike Syria – Russian MoD
Published time: 27 Aug, 2018 12:11 Edited time: 28 Aug, 2018 10:44
  • The US may have plans to use a fake chemical attack in Syria to hit government forces with airstrikes, the Russian Defense Ministry has said. Washington is already building up strike capability in the Middle East, it said.
    The warning comes a day after the Russian military said it had information about a looming provocation in Syria’s Idlib governorate, which would involve a staged chemical weapons attack. The US earlier warned it would respond to a chemical weapons attack by Syrian government forces with retaliatory strikes, which would be stronger than those conducted by the US, the UK and France in April.

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    ‘Foreign specialists’ may stage chemical attack in Syria in 2 days to frame Assad – Russian MoD
    In a statement published on Monday, the Russian MoD said it noted the deployment to the Mediterranean last weekend of the missile destroyer USS Ross carrying 28 Tomahawk cruise missiles on board. It came after a similar move of the USS The Sullivans to the Persian Gulf and the rebasing of a B-1B Lancer strategic bomber to an air base in Qatar. The Russian ministry said the “preparations are the latest evidence of the US intention to use the” expected provocation.

    The statement reiterated that the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham militant group, previously known as Al-Nusra Front, was preparing a staged chlorine attack in a city in Idlib. It alleged that a group of jihadists, trained in the handling of chemical weapons by the British private military contractor Olive Group, has already arrived in Jisr al-Shughur. The group will “stage decontamination of victims of a staged chemical weapons attack posing as members of the notorious White Helmets group,” the ministry claimed.

    “The implementation of this provocation, which is being conducted with the assistance of the British intelligence services, is meant to serve as the latest pretext for the US, Britain and France to deliver a missile strike against state and economic facilities in Syria,” said General Igor Konashenkov, spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry.

    On August 22, US National Security Advisor John Bolton stated that “if the Syrian regime uses chemical weapons, we will respond very strongly and they really ought to think about this a long time.”

    In April, a reported chlorine attack in Syria’s Eastern Ghouta neighborhood served as justification for the US, UK, and France to attack what they claimed to be sites involved in a clandestine Syrian chemical weapons program. The missile attacks came just as a team of international inspectors was set to arrive at the scene to collect evidence of the supposed attack.

    Later, residents of the area told journalists that the footage of the treatment of the alleged victims of the attack was filmed by the White Helmets group after they orchestrated a panic at a local hospital. The patients there were not poisoned by chlorine, local medics said. The footage was presented by the mainstream media as proof that an attack took place.


Look on the bright side, at least the Russians didn't use stills from a video game this time. Instead they used out-takes from a Syrian movie.

Still you don't care about that do you Analis, anything that supports the Russian story you will post here whether it is a pack of lies or not.

https://www.polygraph.info/a/fact-c...s-misleading-photo-about-syria-/29458058.html


On August 27, the official Twitter account of the Russian Embassy in South Africa tweeted a photo of what appears to be actors on a film set. This image accompanied a claim that “English-speaking foreign specialists” had arrived in Syria to stage a chlorine chemical attack in Hama province.


View image on Twitter


Russia in RSA

✔@EmbassyofRussia


Russian Defence Ministry: English-speaking “foreign specialists” have arrived in #Syria to attempt staging chlorine chemical attack early this week. Latest intel indicates the hoax is planned to take place in the village of Kafr Zita (Hama province) #HoaxAlert


The photo does indeed show a film set, but not “foreign specialists.” In fact, the photo is of the set of Revolution Man, a film produced by Syrian state media.



Russia in RSA

✔@EmbassyofRussia

· Aug 27, 2018

Russian Defence Ministry: English-speaking “foreign specialists” have arrived in #Syria to attempt staging chlorine chemical attack early this week. Latest intel indicates the hoax is planned to take place in the village of Kafr Zita (Hama province) #HoaxAlert pic.twitter.com/JfK5eveca7






Have some shame at least, this is a set photograph from the Syrian government film "Revolution Man" https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2018/04/13/doumafakenews/ …

6:22 PM - Aug 27, 2018

The Douma Chemical Attack - Fake News about Fake News on Russia's Fake News - bellingcat
With any war crime in Syria receiving significant media coverage, there has been a concerted effort by pro-Kremlin and pro-Assad individuals and media outlets to spread claims attacking the Syrian...



The film’s plot involves a journalist who goes to Syria to take award-winning photos, but, having failed to do so, resorts to staging a chemical attack. In other words, it is a propaganda film which makes the same allegations that the Syrian government and its Russian allies have made after numerous real chemical attacks.

Russia’s government and state media have repeatedly claimed that Syrian rebels, or rescue workers from the White Helmets group, stage chemical attacks to frame the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. While they have yet to provide any evidence for these claims, United Nations investigations have confirmed that the Assad regime used chemical weapons in more than two dozen cases. In October 2017, Russia used its vote on the U.N. Security Council to veto a resolution that would have extended the mandate of the Joint Investigative Mechanism between the U.N. and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). The vote took place shortly before the release of a report on the chemical attack in the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhoun, where more than 80 men, women, and children were killed.

Chlorine has been used in multiple attacks in Syria, a recent one taking place in the town of Douma this past April. Polygraph.info documented how Russian media repeatedly spread disinformation about that attack, including another instance in which photos from a film set were presented as “proof” that the attack had been staged. Those photos turned out to be from the making of an independent film shot in 2016.
 
Well, polygraph.info should have guessed twice before writing their article, it would have spared them talking nonsense. The photo was also used by RT, but as the common trick of using a photo from a fictionnal film to illustrate a viewpoint ; exactely as stills from Jurassic Park are used to illustrate an article on dinosaurs, or from The day the Earth stood stil or Independance Day with an article on the search for extraterrestrials. Here, the authors are using these stills to underline their contempt for the true (western) manipulators.

For the rest, they repeat discredited fake news, and their claims are also laughable, as «while they have yet to provide any evidence for these claims» (sic ; they do sound like a funny New York Times article on the JFK assassination), or the anti-scientific claims by the OPCW on the Douma attack I had mentioned a few posts earlier. As hunters of fake news and lie detectors, they are awful, and a good illustration directed at this class of people who fancy themselves as righters of lies, that they are themselves among the best providers of fake news. But well, eveybody knows that polygraphs do not work...
 
You seem to spend a huge amount of time supporting Russia here on the FT message board just out of interest do you work for the Internet Research Agency as I can't believe you go to all this effort to promote Russian propaganda for free.

Still you don't care about that do you Analis, anything that supports the Russian story you will post here whether it is a pack of lies or not.

You've posted some interesting material for which readers are grateful.
There's no need to sour this by making it personal.
 
You've posted some interesting material for which readers are grateful.
There's no need to sour this by making it personal.

I live in Ukraine I would suspect that Analis lives in Russia. He wna
You've posted some interesting material for which readers are grateful.
There's no need to sour this by making it personal.


Not making it personal I deal only in facts.
You've posted some interesting material for which readers are grateful.
There's no need to sour this by making it personal.


Ok I have put him on ignore so I will not be tempted to reply to his fantasies anymore
 
Let's not forget the fake stories about the White Helmets posted on rt.

https://medium.com/dfrlab/syriahoax-part-two-kremlin-targets-white-helmets-c6ab692d4a21

"One recent example was an article published by the Kremlin-funded RT on February 13. The article described an anonymous “tip-off” allegedly received by the Russia’s Center for Reconciliation in Syria, which accused the White Helmets of working with Al-Nusra and planning a chemical weapon “provocation”."
 
Well, polygraph.info should have guessed twice before writing their article, it would have spared them talking nonsense. The photo was also used by RT, but as the common trick of using a photo from a fictionnal film to illustrate a viewpoint ; exactely as stills from Jurassic Park are used to illustrate an article on dinosaurs, or from The day the Earth stood stil or Independance Day with an article on the search for extraterrestrials.
They are using those photos because there are no photos of dinosaurs of extraterrestrials. When things exist, you don't have to use fake photos of them.
 
Let's not forget the fake stories about the White Helmets posted on rt.

https://medium.com/dfrlab/syriahoax-part-two-kremlin-targets-white-helmets-c6ab692d4a21

"One recent example was an article published by the Kremlin-funded RT on February 13. The article described an anonymous “tip-off” allegedly received by the Russia’s Center for Reconciliation in Syria, which accused the White Helmets of working with Al-Nusra and planning a chemical weapon “provocation”."
Well, both accusations were true...

They are using those photos because there are no photos of dinosaurs of extraterrestrials. When things exist, you don't have to use fake photos of them.
This is irrelevant. Plenty of photos of much more accurately reconstructed dinosaurs exist. And another good comparison is of photos of fictionnal gangsters or spies from movies published as illustrations of articles on gangsterism or espionage, despite that actual gangsters and spies do exist. It is just that it is extremely difficult to have photos of real gangsters and spies in action. Same here (but they do have published some of the pictures of White Helmets involved in a false flag attack). Additonnally, fictional photos appeal more to the public, it is an unfortunate bit of demagogy, but not very serious.

Ok I have put him on ignore so I will not be tempted to reply to his fantasies anymore
I've never put anybody on ignore, although I've been tempted but it is just not constructive and an admission of weakness. But as it doesn't interest me to discuss with somebody who is not interested in facts, it will be fine for me.
 
I live in Ukraine I would suspect that Analis lives in Russia. He wna



Not making it personal I deal only in facts.



Ok I have put him on ignore so I will not be tempted to reply to his fantasies anymore

Strange layout of this post, I did not expect it to look like I had answered your comment 3 times, anyway not to worry.
 
Indeed, there does seem to be once again sounds of marching feet, the US position having changed once more, Trump's obsession with Iran being maybe the leading factor. Importantly, the US and Israel have again bombed an Iraqi militia at the Syria-Iraq border. As a consequence, Syria and Iran are tightening their ties :
https://www.strategic-culture.org/n...fense-agreement-defying-outside-pressure.html

Peter KORZUN | 29.08.2018 | WORLD / Middle East
Syria and Iran Sign Defense Agreement: Defying Outside Pressure
Iranian Defense Minister Amir Hatami visited Damascus Aug. 26-27 in order to have a new military cooperation agreement signed. The move is evidently a response to US and Israeli demands to withdraw Iranian forces from Syria. No details have been provided about the document’s content but it’s logical to surmise it contains a list of mutual obligations in the event that the Iranian military is attacked in Syria.

The deal mentions Iran’s role in the reconstruction of Syria’s defense industry, thus ending any hopes that its military presence in that country will end. According to the Iranian defense chief, the "defense and technical agreement" provides for the continued "presence and participation" of Iran in Syria. He added that an agreement had been reached with Syria that Iran would have “presence, participation, and assistance” in the reconstruction and that “no third party will be influential in this issue.”

The agreement was signed just as the Russia-Turkey-Iran summit was announced, which is scheduled for Sept. 7 in Tehran. Such events normally require thorough preparations. The parties are expected to reach an agreement on further joint steps to achieve progress in Syria. It’s important to align their positions before the UN talks in Geneva, which are slated for Sept. 11-12. UN Special Envoy Staffan de Mistura has invited the “big three” to participate. They can come up with joint initiatives while the US has nothing to offer but its demands for Iran’s withdrawal. It risks being left out in the cold, while diplomatic efforts initiated by other states bear fruit.

This turn of events will hardly be welcome news for those who would like to stymie the peace efforts and impose their own conditions for reaching any settlement of the problem.

The need to end Iranian assistance to Lebanon’s Hezbollah was emphasized during last week’s visit of US National Security Adviser John Bolton to Israel. The parties did not declare war on Iran, but there is no way to stop the supplies from reaching Hezbollah in Lebanon without cutting off the land routes going through Syria. The US official insisted before the visit to Israel that the withdrawal of Iran’s forces from Syria is a prerequisite to any resolution of the conflict.

The US and its allies in Syria find it important to scuttle Syria’s plans to liberate the province of Idlib from the rebels. A false-flag chemical attack is expected to be staged soon, to create a pretext for military action. Once Syria and Iran are in the same boat, it makes no difference which of them is attacked first or where. There have been media reports that a large-scale military operation is in the works and can be expected in August or September.

There is no way to know what exactly Mr. Bolton discussed with the Israeli authorities during his visit to Jerusalem on Aug. 19 but the reports about the military activities at the US al-Shaddadi base in the Syrian province of al-Hasakah emerged soon afterward. The facility has been reported to have been updated to enable the landing and takeoff of heavy cargo aircraft. Ayn al-Arab (Kobani) has also been expanded. In August, shipments of ammunition and military hardware were delivered to several US-controlled facilities in Syria and Iraq. Radars have been transported to the SDF-controlled areas east of the Euphrates River.

Meanwhile, several thousand militants with heavy weaponry and armored vehicles in Syria’s Idlib province are getting ready to launch an offensive against government-controlled regions of Hama and Aleppo. The attack will be targeted at Syrian as well as Iranian and pro-Iranian forces that have been invited in by the Syrian government.

It looks like plans are underway to force Syria to plunge into turmoil once again. In reality, the combat actions have already started. The US and Israel conducted their first joint operation against the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Quds Force and the Iraqi Shiite Khata’ib Hezbollah, their allies, on Aug. 23 near Abu Kamal, which is situated on the highway between Syria and Iraq. President Trump has said so many times and on so many occasions that he wants the Americans to leave Syria but US foreign policy is known for its flip-flops. Whatever is said today may be forgotten tomorrow.

This time, Lebanon may become a new front. It’s widely believed that a war between Israel and Hezbollah is inevitable. In February, US and Israeli troops held an exercise to practice for a potential war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, a country that holds a military agreement with Russia. The offshore drilling contracts Lebanon has signed with other countries, without solving its border dispute with Israel, are spurring the war preparations.

Syria and Iran have defied pressure and demonstrated their resolution not to bow but to protect their right to make independent decisions. They are offering a challenge. If the defense agreement just signed between those two allies provokes a military conflict, it will most certainly spill over to other countries, such as Yemen, Lebanon, and Iraq. It would lead to a long, protracted, and costly war.
 
The situation has evolved and remains clearly very dangerous, the USA and their allies had warned that they could launch an attack in the case of a campaign against Idleb in any case, it seems that the prospect of a new fabricated chemical attack was deemed by the powers that be as not credible enough anymore (although I have no doubt that as gross and plainly visible as it would be, some would still believe it). Additonnally, it could explain the recents attacks by John Bolton on the ICC. But the recent move by Russians and Turks had de facto countered the threats, by allowing a direct disarmament of rebels groups, with the perspective that the area will come back under the Syrian government's control (which shows that it was not so difficult once the Turks had agreed to remove their support to rebels).
https://www.rt.com/news/438652-putin-erdogan-syria-idlib-demilitarized/

Putin & Erdogan agree Idlib buffer zone to avert new Syria crisis
Published time: 17 Sep, 2018 16:23 Edited time: 18 Sep, 2018 10:51

  • Russia and Turkey have agreed a “demilitarized zone” between militants and government troops in Syria’s Idlib, President Vladimir Putin said after hours-long talks with Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan focused on solving the crisis.
    “We’ve focused on the situation in the province of Idlib, considering presence of large militant groups and their infrastructure there,” Putin said at a press conference after the talks.

    “We’ve agreed to create a demilitarized zone between the government troops and militants before October 15. The zone will be 15-20km wide, with full withdrawal of hardline militants from there, including the Jabhat Al-Nusra.”

    As part of solving the deadlock, all heavy weaponry, including tanks and artillery, will be withdrawn from the zone before October 10, Putin said. The zone will be patrolled by Turkish and Russian military units.

    Before the end of the year, roads between Aleppo and Hama, and Aleppo and Latakia must be reopened for transit traffic, he said.

    The agreement has received “general support” from the Syrian government, according to Putin.

    The deal and other issues of Russian-Turkish ties apparently took almost 5 hours to hammer out. In what appears to a breakthrough solution, Putin and Erdogan have agreed to ensure peace with the help of Russian and Turkish troops.

    “The territory controlled by the Syrian opposition must be demilitarized and the Syrian opposition that is holding these territories will remain there. But together with Russia we will make efforts to clear these territories of radical elements,” Erdogan said.

    The agreement is designed to prevent a new “humanitarian crisis” in Syria, Erdogan stressed, and will help Turkey to avoid an even more “difficult situation.” He had previously warned of a surge in refugees hitting the country should a full-blown war break out in Idlib.

    The plan is major landmark for Syria, where the standoff in the last militant stronghold of Idlib has threatened to turn into a major international crisis in recent weeks. The US and other NATO countries backing anti-government forces had repeatedly warned Russia and Syria not to launch any new offensive in the region. US President Donald Trump tweeted earlier this month that to do so would be a “grave humanitarian error,” while US envoy to the UN Nikki Haley outright said that any Russian attack on Idlib would provoke “dire” consequences.

    About 70 percent of Idlib province is controlled by various terrorist factions, including Al Qaeda’s Syria affiliate Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (formerly known as the Al-Nusra Front), according to the Russian military. At the same time, both Turkey and the West support various militant groups they consider as “moderate” opposition to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces.

    This turned out to be a dilemma for Ankara, with Turkish president simultaneously worried about Russia and Syrian action weakening the rebel groups, but also having concerns over the spread of terrorists and the potential influx of new refugees into areas bordering Turkey.

    Now it appears that despite the rocky last few years of Russian-Turkish relations, the mutual trust built up between Putin and Erdogan has allowed them to overcome a clash of interests and reach a compromise.
 
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