SAA/SDF cooperation against Turks is working

"The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) entered late on November 7 new villages in northern al-Hasakah, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).

“Syrian Arab Army units widen their deployment in the villages of Umm Shuaiyfah, al-Faysaliyah, al-Manakh and al-Mahmoudiyah on the axis of Tell Tamr-Ras al-Ayn,” the SANA’s reporter in al-Hasakah said.

Militants of the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) launched a large-scale attack on these villages last month, capturing most of them. Back then, the SAA was forced to withdraw from the nearby town of Tell Tamr.

The villages were recaptured by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) within a few days, with SNA militants retreating to their original positions around the border town of Ras al-Ayn.

The SAA’s deployment in these village is likely aimed at deterring Turkish-backed militants, who are still launching limited attacks in northeast Syria. Army units entered the region last month to prevent such attacks following an agreement with the SDF."  sf

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SAA troops are now operating in close cooperation with the SDF Kurdish and Arab forces for the purpose of resisting the Turkish backed Syrian National Army (SNA) of jihadis.  The Turkish Army stands behind the SNA and has supported them with artillery fires and air attacks but has not itself advanced beyond urban areas right on the border.  Evidently the blandishments of both the Russian and US governments have kept them from trying to advance farther into Syria.  This development indicates the possibility of further progress in re-uniting Syria politically.

The bizarre neocon attempt to withhold Syria's small  oil deposits from the national government is bound to fail.  It represents the fading effect of neocon arguments made by people like Keane and Pompeo.

Meanwhile, the R+6 continue to prep the battlefield in western Idlib and eastern Latakia for a renewal of the effort to recover that territory for the Syrian government.  IMO the ground effort when it comes will be toward Jisr as-Shugur from the west and north up the Al-Ghaab Valley.  pl

 

https://southfront.org/syrian-army-enters-new-villages-in-northern-al-hasakah/

Comments

[d74]

In 1967, Mustapha Barzani, also known as Mullah Barzani, explained to a journalist, René Mauriès, that the dream of a Kurdish state under the Treaty of Sèvres, ( 1920, where Iran (Persia) was not a party) was now dead and buried. The countries in question are frozen (Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Iran apart), so it is impossible to disrupt the Middle East. On the other hand, Kurdish autonomy, cultural and political, was what he was fighting for. And that is what the Kurds in Iraq got. The Barzani family (Barzan tribe) still holds the handle, a great continuity.
The other Kurdish authority on this issue, Ocalan, is not saying anything else, but for different reasons.
Let us conclude: the Kurds, from west to east, do not want a state. They want recognition of their specificity, with the local freedoms that go with it. This objective is achievable as the Kurds of Iraq show. And as the Rojava has shown, weapons in hand against Daesh, for about 5 years.
There is nothing here that threatens the stability of these countries, except perhaps Turkey. From 1860 to 1923, Turkey managed minority issues through the most extreme violence. That's what makes her weak. In 2019, this is no longer acceptable.

Unfortunately, I have little valid information about Iran.

[BABAK MAKKINEJAD]

No, Iran was occupied by UK, USSR, and US at the time; invaded against International Law.

What was the difference between Germany invading a declared neutral country - Belgium, and Allies invading Iran?

[d74]

Our host replied, and I quote:
"I would abandon the regime change policy with regard to Syria and make a deal with the Syrian government that includes protection for our Kurdish allies and a continuation of the war against the jihadis."

Moreover, persuading Turks to return home should not be an insurmountable task for the State Department. They often have persuasive means for "allies".

[BABAK MAKKINEJAD]

What was the position of Protestant Churches in US on the invasion of Iraq?

On Destablization of Syria?

On Destruction of Libya?

On the disposition of Palestine?

On Israeli invasion of Lebanon?

[JP Billen]

Thanks Babak - I had no idea. But had to look him up after your comment. Where I found that there is now a 'Dr Samuel M. Jordan Center for Persian Studies and Culture' at the University of California in Irvine. And there is still a statue of him at Amirkabir University in Tehran. Perhaps at some time in the distant future there might be a reduction in sword waving between our two countries.

[BABAK MAKKINEJAD]

When Iranians took away American College at Tehran from its American founders, they split it into two pieces - with a brick wall in between.

One became Alborz High school and the other Amirkabir (Technical University).

There is still a Jordan Hall there.

I will not be alive when that sword beating begins - 37 years from now.

[BABAK MAKKINEJAD]

There are no articles of alliance obtaining between the United States and Syrian Kurds; they were using US and US was using them. Each of them got something in return.

It is up to Syrian Kurds to decide what is more important; living their lives - like the Armenians do - within Syria or to go again for the unreachable goal of destroying the Turkish and Syria states.

[elaine]

Just to free associate off your mention of Armenia, the largest Yazidi temple in the world was recently built in Armenia,funded primarily by a Yazidi businessman from Moscow.

The largest Yazidi presence in the U.S. is in Lincoln, NB. If what has & is being done to these ppl in the M.E. is not an attempted genocide I don't know what a genocide is. All this slaughter,enslavement,destruction
justified by some purported concept that these ppl are "devil worshippers" even though they behave primarily in a very peaceful manner & don't proselytize.

I'm trying to grasp exactly what your post is recommending to counter the
atrocities being committed against Christians in many parts of the M.E, (Africa & Asian countries also) primarily by Islamists; it sounds like hands off, keep quiet, let nature take it's course or risk making it worse b/c 'Christianity is associated with colonialism.' Except in the case of Israel where it appears you'd prefer some intervention.
That is what you're saying, isn't it?

[JP Billen]

Babak - What is the significance of the 37 years you mention?

By the way, I understand another Prespyterian missionary founded Iran's first modern medical school in Urmia.

[Leith]

The invasion and occupation was done by the UK and USSR. The American troops there came later as part of the Military Railway Service to maintain the rails and stock, and other engineering troops for road and port construction.

Of course there were American civilian contractors from Douglas, Studebaker, and other companies that helped to build assembly factories for warplanes, trucks and much war material. Those factories were run by Iranians, and after the war became the nucleus for Iranian industry.

[d74]

Îlham Ehmed is like the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Arab-Kurdish entity of North-East Syria, to which Rojava is a party. She was in Washington, D.C. (State Department) recently.

Rojava Network‏ @RojavaNetwork 12 nov.
Îlham Ehmed to the quastion if SDC want establish an Western Kurdistan: "We do not want to create an Kurdish unit and rojava is not an national project, but we have national rights as a Kurdish people and we have rights as a Syrian people."

This is only one of the many many statements made by Kurdish leaders on the issue, all in the same direction: no Kurdish state.

The latest interview with Bashar El Assad is encouraging on the Kurdish , saying that the bridges have never been broken between them. It appears that the inevitable return of the Syrian State to the area will be done with caution and understanding. Let's note that this is due to the Turkish aggression!

The question is still pending but its answer is certain: the 2 parties are condemned to agree, between Syrians national that they have never ceased to be. Necessary compromises are inevitable. War and suffering make you realistic. The Kurds have shown that they are realistic.

N.B.: I agree with you about the pseudo-alliance between Kurds and USA. That is a rhetorical question now. The United States is roasted in the north of Golan Heights. Everything happens as if they no longer matter. They retain a certain capacity for nuisance, at most. The Kurds are very polite about USA , but their politeness is not misleading. They went off the band-wagon just in time… And the Russians are not far from suffering the same "politeness".

[BABAK MAKKINEJAD]

Some months ago I posted an application of Bayesian statistics to the duration of confrontation between USA and Iran. That was the number that I computed for the remaining years.

[BABAK MAKKINEJAD]

If you believe Elham Ehmed, I have a bridge to sell you right here in Michigan.

[d74]

Considering the state of my wallet, even a bridge below 2 feet is out of reach! It would have to be 4200 miles long to get us closer.
And I believe her. In this lying poker mess, she and the people she represents still lie the least.

I have just learned that US officials strongly advise against Kurds negotiating with Damascus. Hassle, nothing more.

[BABAK MAKKINEJAD]

That is the problem with you guys.

You are going among foreigners who lie to you and tell you what you want to hear - to manipulate you to do their bidding.

Israelis, Turks, Arabs, Kurds, Indians, Pakistanis, Afghans - it matters not. They know you more than you know them and they know which buttons to push.

[Leith]

D74,

Pompeo's State Dept is pushing back against Kurd/Damascus talks. One of his point men, Joel "Jihadi" Rayburn, went spastic trying to get the SDF to make nice with the Turk backed SNA in order to oppose Iranian presence in Syria. The idiot apparently does not understand that many of those Turkish mercenaries are former members of ISIS or other terrorist groups like Ahrar al-Sharqiya, Nour al-Din al-Zenki, and others. SDF, or at least the Kurdish and Christian components, would never ally with those headchoppers and liver eaters.

On the other hand there have been statements by senior US flag officers from the Pentagon and from within the coalition that we would never interfere with the SDF making deals with Assad. Or with the Russians. And the Pentagon has video footage from drones showing Erdogan's proxies committing war crimes per the Wall Street Journal.

I don't think the left hand knows what the right hand is doing.

Meanwhile Trump repeated today, that he only is keeping troops there for the oil. His words from todays press conference: "We're keeping the oil, we have the oil, the oil is secure, we left troops behind only for the oil".

Speaking of oil, the SDF is still continuing to send oil to Assad's refinery via Raqqa middlemen.

[turcopolier]

Babak

Agree. Most Americans will believe any kind o nonsense that they are told by "the natives."

[Babak Makkinejad]

Exactly so. Like Margaret Meade who soaked up all the fairly tales that her Samoan informers were telling her about the sexual utopia that they were inhabiting.

[turcopolier]

Babak

One of my boring lecture points is the difference between "emic" data (what people tell you about themselves) and "etic" data (that which you come to believe is true).