Moderators: Elvis, DrVolin, Jeff
by tapitsbo » Sun Feb 14, 2016 2:41 pm
by Nordic » Mon Feb 15, 2016 2:43 am
by zangtang » Mon Feb 15, 2016 5:04 am
by seemslikeadream » Mon Feb 15, 2016 9:24 am
by parel » Mon Feb 15, 2016 9:43 am
Communist Youth of Syria: 'We will never give up!'
Special interview with Wessam Kahel, member of the International Relations Committee of the Communist Youth Union of Syria-Bakdash.
ICP, 9th February 2016
ICP: How would you consider the internal dynamics and the positions of the subjects in Syria today?
WK: I would like to give some information from the last events. Syrian army recently has progressed in different places. As you know, it is a quite large country. So, the Syrian army cannot spread all its forces to all places. This progress should be considered due to Russia, on which we will talk about later.
Aleppo for example, the south of Aleppo is mainly controlled by the Syrian army and the reactionary rebels have all been swept away. This powerful and fast progress of the Syrian army was supported by Russia. More than 75 places in south of Aleppo are controlled by the Syrian army now. It is not the city, but the wide countryside. In some small cities, the army swept the rebels away just in a few hours. We were surprised by this very fast progress.
Also in the west of Aleppo, important progress has been made against Daesh this time.
In south, there is the main terrorist organisation, the Front of Nusra which is affiliated to Al-Quaida, and also some other smaller terrorist organisations controlled by this Front of Nusra.
West of Aleppo, there have also been progressions towards al Rakka, the so-called capital of Daesh.
We are all very surprised about this progress and we are very hopeful as well.
Also around Damascus, where most of the places are in the government's control, in the countryside and exactly in the west, there is the Islamic Front, an organisation controlled by the Saudi-Arabia. The leader of this organisation has been killed in an operation of Syria and Russia. His name was Zehran Hallush. This clearly means a very big problem for this organisation since they depend only on one person, not on an ideology.
South of Damascus, Dara, near to Jordan and Israel, where there is also Front of Al-Nusra, the Syrian army has regained control of some big cities and important places. This is a very broad region but Syrian army has done many progressions in all of these places.
In the middle of Syria, in Homms, there was a very small base where the rebels were grounded. Syrian army has circled them, fought and made these rebels leave the city. Homms is now clear. The countryside towards Liban is also clear.
ICP: What about Palmira?
WK: Unfortunately, you know that there has been a big attack from hundreds, maybe a thousand of rebels to get this small city. It is a very important city since it is a historical place. Syrian army has drawn back as they did not want the artifacts get damaged. It is still under the control of ISIS, but the Syrian army is positioned around 10 km above. It is not the most important place for now though, there are many big cities that the Syrian army tries to deal with.
ICP:Has there been any damage to this ancient city?
WK: Yes, unforunately... As you know, Daesh and the other organisations have no ideology, no humanity, no reason; they kill and fight, they destroy every historical thing, this is because they are reactionary organisations with reactionary ideas which could also be called a fascist ideology. “If you don't come with us, I kill you” or “If this place belongs to your ideology, I destroy it” this is how they act.
ICP: As communists who are struggling in such difficult conditions, how do you consider the Russian intervention and the roles of some others like Hizbullah, or Iran, who say they are opposing the American imperialism?
WK: We recognise that Russia is now a capitalist country, it is not USSR anymore. But we also know that the actual enemy now is the US imperialism,which is what we must be against for today. We consider the Russian intervention as a positive intervention because it gave and is still giving the Syrian army and the people of Syria more and more power against the organisations fighting our people and our army.
From the beginning of this military intervention, it has been legitimate because it was the Syrian government who invited Russia to interfere. So we cannot call it an invasion or attack. It has been very helpful. From the very beginning of it, there had been many positive activities, important progress for the Syrian army. Also a similar role has been played by Hizbullah and Iran. We have received supporting military activities, supporting positions for the Syrian army and for the Syrian people. We consider that all of this until now has been very positive for us, since it has been a support for struggling against the imperialist attack. (And also it provides us some time.)
ICP: What about the activities of the Union? We assume that you are actively involved in the defence of the country, and today it is a reactionary position to be against Assad, but one day it will change. Can you tell us about a future strategy for your organisation?
WK: In some places, we cannot move, cannot do anything, it is “die or leave”. There, we have to hold a position together with the army, and we do not have any activity of our own in these places. But in places which are controlled by the government, by the Syrian army, as you said, we are active as we were before the war. I will divide our activities in two parts: First part is under the big banner “Syria will not kneel” which was created by our historical leader Halid Bakdash many years before. This patriotic banner is still up to date. Under this banner, we continue our struggle, we support the Syrian army, support the resisting people of Syria. We share this banner not only with the communists, our union or our party, but also with other important national forces which share this patriotism. We consider this as not only our national or class duty, but also an international duty since Syria represents an international struggle against the global imperialist attack.
And the second part is under the banner: “Defence of rights of the Syrian youth”. It is related to our economical and social struggle against the economical liberalism of our government. We are against the liberal activities of the government in health, in education, and in everything. We try to maintain the gains in health, in education, and in other areas. We also continue our struggle to get more social and progressive rights in housing and in employment of the young generations. We also support the nationalisation of the production for the country because we believe that is an important economic factor to support Syria.
We also have some other events. Before the war, we had the central carnival for all the country. But now, because of this situation, it has to become local. Another activity is the yearly cultural “Halid Bakdash meetings” in which we invite progressive artists, singers. Also as the organisation, we have discussions and analysis about the current issues.
We also have an exclusive school for our party and for our union members.
In our universities, especially in Damascus and in Aleppo, we represent our Union in most of the colleges and also in “Syrian Students' Union”. This way we can get close to the students' demands and we can spread our ideas as communists, our analysis and opinions with other students, as our first duty. The second duty is about communicating demands of the students and the youth in general.
We try to continue our struggle despite the war and we will never give up...
by parel » Mon Feb 15, 2016 10:01 am
by parel » Mon Feb 15, 2016 10:04 am
Russia: Aleppo militants lay down arms
Thu Feb 11, 2016 1:24PM
HomeMiddle EastSyria
Syrian soldiers patrol Ratian north of Aleppo, after retaking the village, Feb. 6, 2016. (AFP photo)
Russia says some opposition groups in the Syrian city of Aleppo are breaking ranks with militants and cooperating with the government.
In Dara'a Province, several groups have agreed to lay down their arms, Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov told reporters in Moscow on Thursday.
"Syrian opposition groups have been productively sharing intelligence with us. Many are shifting to cooperation with the Syrian government," he said.
Aided by Russian airstrikes, the Syrian army is closing in on the last pockets of militant positions in Aleppo which borders Turkey.
Konashenkov said terrorists are trying to flee to Turkey, "blending into" civilians as they know Russian jets won't attack peaceful population, the Tass news agency reported.
"Mass desertion is fixed among gunmen groups operating in the area of Aleppo. Terrorists intimidate local population and use force to drive people to the Turkish border," he said.
He said terrorists were dropping their weapons and trying to hide among the civilians.
The spokesman also turned the tables on the US over allegations that two hospitals had been targeted in Russian airstrikes in Aleppo.
US warplanes, he said, had flown from Turkey to hit targets inside Aleppo on Wednesday.
“Only, aviation of the anti-ISIS [Daesh] coalition flew over the city yesterday,” Konashenkov said in a statement.
“At 13:55 Moscow time, two US Air Force A-10 attack aircraft entered Syrian airspace from Turkish territory. Reaching Aleppo by the most direct path, they made strikes against objects in the city,” he added.
The statement came after the Pentagon accused Russian and Syrian government forces of destroying two main hospitals in Aleppo in air raids.
Konashenkov said Russian warplanes only hit targets some 20 km (12 miles) from the city on Wednesday.
He said Russian armed forces and their partners "have deployed a multi-layered intelligence system that ensures reliable detection of targets."
"Only after multiple checks of the obtained data and ruling out any risks for peaceful civilians, airstrikes are delivered at those targets," he told reporters.
The US has been carrying out airstrikes inside Syria since September 2014 without any authorization from the Syrian government or a UN mandate.
Brett McGurk, special envoy of US President Barack Obama, said Wednesday Russian airstrikes around Aleppo “directly promote” the rise of Daesh.
Syria's government advances and militant losses have unleashed a chorus of warnings by the West and its regional allies about a new wave of refugee influx.
On Wednesday, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) warned that the humanitarian situation is rapidly deteriorating in Aleppo, saying the surge in fighting has displaced about 50,000 people.
by seemslikeadream » Mon Feb 15, 2016 10:06 am
by parel » Mon Feb 15, 2016 10:11 am
seemslikeadream » Mon Feb 15, 2016 9:06 am wrote:are you now or have you ever been a member of the communist party?
by seemslikeadream » Mon Feb 15, 2016 10:41 am
09 February 2016 17:04
350,000 Saudi Arabia Soldiers Maneuver, Preparing for Syria War?
Thousands of soldiers from regional countries are set to participate in a military maneuver in Saudi Arabia, media reports say.
Saudi media said some 350,000 forces from the Persian Gulf Arab states and a number of other countries will take part in the Saudi-led military maneuver in the area of Hafer al-Batin in northern Saudi Arabia.
Some 2,540 warplanes, 20,000 tanks and 460 helicopters will also participate in the exercise, dubbed “North Thunder.”
In 18 days of maneuvers, the airspace over northern Saudi Arabia will be closed.
Media reports say the maneuver will be the largest throughout the history of the region.
Egypt, Sudan, Pakistan and Persian Gulf Arab states are among the 25 countries that will take part in the military exercises.
The maneuver comes at a sensitive time after Saudi Arabia announced readiness to participate in any ground incursion in Syria if the US-led coalition decides to start such an operation.
Saudi Arabia is a member of the US-led coalition that has been conducting air raids inside Syria. The airstrikes have been going on without any authorization from the Syrian government or a UN mandate since September 2014.
The Saudi maneuver is believed as preparation for a possible ground incursion into Syria.
Reacting to a potential troop deployment, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem said Saturday, “Let no one think they can attack Syria or violate its sovereignty because I assure you any aggressor will return to their country in a wooden coffin.”
Pavel Krasheninnikov, a deputy of Russia’s State Duma, has warned Saudi Arabia that any military ground operation in Syria without Damascus’ consent would amount to a declaration of war, Press TV reported.
by seemslikeadream » Mon Feb 15, 2016 11:22 am
The Syrian Endgame, “A Lost War is Dangerous”. US-NATO, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, “Losers on The Rampage”
By Prof. Tim Anderson
Global Research, February 14, 2016
Region: Middle East & North Africa
Theme: US NATO War Agenda
How a war is lost is a serious and dangerous business. After Henry Kissinger helped sabotage the 1968 Paris peace talks, for domestic political reasons, the War in Vietnam raged for another seven years. In the end Washington’s loss was more humiliating, and millions more lives were destroyed.
The Geneva process over Syria is in many respects different, because it is a charade. The NATO and Gulf monarchy sponsors pretend to support Syrian ‘opposition’ groups and pretend to fight the same extremist groups they created.
Yet the dangers are very real because the Saudis and Turkey might react unpredictably, faced with the failure of their five year project to carve up Syria. Both countries have threatened to invade Syria, to defend their ‘assets’ from inevitable defeat from the powerful alliance Syria has forged with Russia, Iran, Iraq and the better party of Lebanon.
It should be clear by now that every single anti-government armed group in Syria has been created by Washington and its allies. Several senior US officials have admitted the fact. Regime change has always been the goal. Nevertheless, the charade of a ‘War on ISIS’ goes on, with a compliant western media unwilling to point out that ‘the emperor has no clothes’.
Click image to order Prof. Tim Anderson’s book on Syria
Geneva 3 has actually brought some results. First, none of the NATO-backed ‘opposition’ groups managed to show a credible face. Second, and more importantly, the US and Russia kept talking and actually developed another de-escalation plan. It is not conclusive but it is encouraging.
The ‘moderate rebel’ masks are down, we now know who they are: the internationally proscribed terrorist group Jabhat al Nusra (al Qaeda in Syria) and its long term Salafist allies Jaysh al Islam (the Army of Islam) and Ahrar as Sham. The latter two are the remnants of the Syrian Salafist groups. In northern Syria they are also welded together by Turkey and the Saudis into the very non-moderate-sounding Jaysh al Fatah (the Army of Conquest).
These extremist groups represent very few in Syria, as MINT Press journalist Mnar Muhawesh pointed out in her editorial piece ‘The Syrian Opposition’s NATO Sponsored Apocalyptic Vision For Syria’: In ideology they are no different to ISIS.
(See: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvq0JmzqR_8).
It may be stating the obvious to say that al Qaeda groups have poor negotiating skills. In any event, they proved it in Geneva. Losing on the battlefield they demanded capitulation in Geneva, then stormed out.
Foreign backed terrorists aside, who are the real Syrian opposition?
Firstly, they are the groups that created the 2005 Damascus Declaration but who sided with the state and the army in early 2011, when the Salafist insurrection hijacked the reform demonstrations.
Some of them like Haytham Manna and former minister Qadri Jamil appeared in Geneva. Others like the powerful Syrian Social National Party (SSNP) backed Bashar al Assad’s government, back in 2011.
Still others sat on the sidelines, frustrated at the Muslim Brotherhood’s violent hijacking of the reform movement. Sharmine Narwani’s piece at RT ‘Will Geneva talks lead right back to Assad’s 2011 reforms?’ illustrates this very well. As the Damascus Declaration made plain, most of the Syrian opposition rejected both foreign sponsorship and violent attacks on the state.
Second are the Syrian Kurds, who were open to foreign assistance but rejected attacks on the Syrian Army and state. They have received most of their arms from Damascus. Prefering to side with the Syrian Army than the Salafists, their presence in Geneva was not tolerated by Erdogan or his clients.
That left Russia and the USA to discuss their supposed common goals (destroying terrorists) while Erdogan and the Saudis seethed. The aims of the two big powers are worlds apart. Hat difference is seen in the loss of Washington’s proxies in Syria in face of the rise of the 4+1 (Russia, Syria, Iran, Iraq and Hezbollah).
That shift, in turn, threatens to derail the Bush plan for a ‘New Middle East’. The US wanted to control the entire region, now it faces losing it all.
Russia for its part has pursued its own interests in the region, backing its allies in accordance with international law. Its use of air power in Syria followed the Syria-Iran-Iraq-Hezbollah accord on ground power forces. That is the force currently prevailing on Syrian soil.
The good news is that, despite these widely differing aims, Washington and Moscow have kept talking and managed a provisional agreement at Geneva, with three heads.
The first agreement is over humanitarian aid, which faces serious obstacles due to the series of sieges taking place. Some of these are al Qaeda groups’ sieges, such as that on Foua and Kafraya in the north; but increasingly they are becoming Syrian Army sieges on al Qaeda fighters who hole up in towns and cities, such as Madaya and Eastern Aleppo. Most ground aid is going in through the Government-supervised Syria Arab Red Crescent, but air drops are being organised for Deir eZorr, and some other places.
Second, there is a political process which (it has been agreed) must be exclusively between Syrians, unconditional and inclusive. Contrary to many outside reports, there is not yet any framework for this, nor plans for early elections. The Syrian position, backed by Russia, is that the Syrian constitution (and the legally mandated schedule of elections) prevails until the Syrian people vote to change it.
Finally the agreement on ‘cessation of hostilities’, due almost immediately, has a task force to oversee the details. This ceasefire does not apply to any group identified by the UN Security Council as a terrorist group. That immediately rules out ISIS or Jabhat al Nusra. The major obstacle here is that Russia wants Jaysh al Islam and Ahrar as Sham (which have both collaborated with al Nusra for many years) added to the UNSC list. If Washington agrees to this, they will virtually abandon their ‘moderate rebel’ option. There is no other force of substance on the ground. The Saudis and Erdogan would be furious.
How will the US manage these tensions? The Obama administration has always approached the Syrian conflict in an arms-length way, reminiscent of the CIA’s ‘plausible deniability’ over its death squads in Latin America. But credibility problems have grown and Washington does seem more concerned at finding a way out rather than risking a new desperate gambit. That would certainly lead to serious escalation, and without any guarantee of success.
Would Washington allow Erdogan and the Saudis to initiate a major escalation, without US approval? I think not. Obama resisted Saudi and Israeli provocations, when the Iran deal was imminent. Even Bush could not be provoked into a confrontation with Russia, when invited by Georgia’s Mikheil Saakashvili.
For its part, Russia is well prepared for a provocation across the Turkish border. Logic suggests that the losers must lose. But this is a dangerous time.
by AlicetheKurious » Wed Feb 17, 2016 6:31 am
by Joe Hillshoist » Wed Feb 17, 2016 7:01 am
The only question is whether they will be allowed to do this, or whether saner voices will prevail over those of the Zio-American empire, which are urgently egging them on.
by seemslikeadream » Wed Feb 17, 2016 9:17 am
AlicetheKurious » Wed Feb 17, 2016 5:31 am wrote:Slad, that is one of the most accurate and rational analyses I've read recently, of what's happening with Syria.
Also, if Saudi Arabia does carry out its threat to send ground troops (read: mercenaries from Columbia, Honduras, Sudan, Blackwater, etc., and/or more "Al-Qaeda", "ISIS" terrorists -- as it has been doing in Yemen), this will initiate a massive escalation that will engulf the region and possibly the world in the Neocons' feverish lust for "creative chaos and destruction", the first target being Saudi Arabia itself, which will have dug its own grave as well as the graves of so many other states. The consequences will make the current violence and bloodletting seem in retrospect like an idyllic prelude. This is not in doubt. The only question is whether they will be allowed to do this, or whether saner voices will prevail over those of the Zio-American empire, which are urgently egging them on. Appallingly, the Saudi Foreign Minister has stated openly that the Saudis' final decision on whether to invade Syria with ground troops is pending the US government's official approval. Somebody should tell him the story of Saddam Hussein and April Glaspie.
by AlicetheKurious » Wed Feb 17, 2016 10:15 am
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 161 guests
