Despite the differences between the Soviet involvement and today’s Russian adventure in Syria, the latter is reminiscent of Caucasus 1 and 2. It is estimated that by December 2013, Iran has had approximately 10,000 operatives in Syria including thousands of Iranian paramilitary Basij fighters, Arabic speaking Shiite volunteers and Iraqi Shiite combatants. “We believe that it is needed to unite sound forces inside Syria as well as worldwide forces to confront the main threat”, she said. Since the beginning of the war in Syria, Kurds have been using it as an opportunity to obtain more autonomy within the Syrian state.
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The Russian presence in Syria has several motives.
Putin’s ludicrous claim that Mos-cow had been “deceived by the United States” with regard to Iran’s nuclear programme was a crude at-tempt at covering his government’s support for imposing UN Security Council sanctions on Iran while simultaneously extracting money and political concessions from Tehran in return for blocking even harsher resolutions against Iran.
In a few regions, it is more hard to defeat the jihadists.
“I wouldn’t underestimate U.S. Special Forces and the President expects they will have an effect in the campaign of building the capacity of the Iraqi forces on the ground”.
With elections in Turkey just days away, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is stepping up his government’s attacks on Kurds in Turkey, Iraq and Syria, hoping to beat back gains made in elections last June by the Kurdish-based People’s Democratic Party (HDP) and regain a parliamentary majority to strengthen the president’s powers.
In Washington, officials said the new US forces will work from headquarters locations and won’t move to the front lines or be used to call in airstrikes.
But as recently as yesterday CNN reported Russian submarines were detected close to vital undersea cables near U.S. waters.
The U.S. is not abandoning the Middle East, but it is certainly reducing its footprint in the area and turning its strategic gaze to the Far East, in response to China’s growing military and economic power. This means doing more to help the Kurds and select Sunni tribes, as well as continuing to attack Daesh from the air. By arming the Iranians and preserving Alawite Syria and Shiite Iraq, including through the announcement of a four-way intelligence-sharing agreement between Iraq, Iraq, Russian Federation and Syria – Moscow is aligning with an Islamic fundamentalist regime that likely sees itself as a rising power in the region.
He added that Russian support for the campaign is rooted in a national identity that takes pride in seeing the military deployed in action, regardless of the reason or cause.
At present, there are no signs that the Russian intervention is a game changer from a tactical perspective.
Referring to Russia’s own air strikes on the “Islamic State” (IS) militant group, which are running alongside air assaults by the global coalition against IS, he said: “We must merge the two coalitions into one”. On October 23 the Iraqi government authorized Russian airstrikes against Islamic State within its borders.
The rebels point to Assad’s early release of large numbers of jihadist prisoners at the start of the revolution, a maneuver to distort the rebellion and then be able to claim it was extremist in nature all along.
Defence ministry statements have referred to air strikes carried out by Russian Su-24, Su-25, Su-30 and Su-34 warplanes.
“Heavy fighting continues in the Eastern Ghuta district of Damascus”. But one week on, Abu Ahmed said the situation had improved.
Last Friday, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov announced that a coordination mechanism (similar to the one Russian Federation has with Israel – Y.M.) was being set up with Jordan to avoid clashes over Syria. However, Saudi Arabia and possibly Qatar are a bigger obstacle.
With so many nations involved in the Syrian Civil War, many have been left wondering who is fighting who in Syria.
The Kremlin’s ultimate goals also differ.
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“He’s very much in, sort of, a decisional bubble”, Clapper said of Putin’s “cloistered” inner circle of advisors who have a tendency to shield him from bad news. It doesn’t take others into account, not even Israel. He noted that Russia’s influx of military support to Syria had a “dual purpose” – to secure the position of the faltering Assad regime and to combat ISIS.
