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Syrian War Escalates After ‘Ceasefire’ Anouncement; Russia Warns Of World War III
News broke Friday that world powers had agreed on the “cessation of hostilities” in Syria. The announcement came after marathon talks in Munich aimed at facilitating the restart of the negotiations about a permanent cease fire in Geneva.
The first round of the UN-sponsored talks at the beginning of February ended abruptly after three days because the Russian/Iranian pro-Assad coalition started an offensive against rebels in Syria’s largest city Aleppo on the first day of the conference in the Swiss city.
After the announcement of the deal in Munich, the parties emphasized it’s not a formal cease fire, since the fight against Islamic State and al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra will continue, and Russian vowed to continue its bombing campaign against “terrorist” targets in Syria.
The deal should be implemented within one week. But immediately after the announcement of the agreement it became clear that, as Secretary of State John Kerry put it, “more work needs to be done.”
Kerry said during a press conference after the announcement of the deal that “what we need to see in the next few days are actions on the ground, in the field.”
If the actions on the ground are an indication, there’s little chance the agreement will be implemented at all.
Since Friday, the Russians stepped up their airstrikes against rebels that fight Assad’s army in Syria. On Saturday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov expressed pessimism about the chances the deal will achieve a cessation of the hostilities. He said the chances to implement the deal were “49 percent.”
At the same time the Russian-backed Syrian Army continues to advance north of Aleppo and has captured positions in the Raqqa Province the Islamic State stronghold in Syria. The government forces aim to advance in the direction of the ISIS capital in the coming days. A Syrian general said the Raqqa front is now open.
Meanwhile, Russia again vowed to continue airstrikes against the “terrorists.” This includes Western-backed rebel forces.
Kerry and other Western leaders such as French Foreign Minister Manual Valls now call on Russia to stop the “bombing of civilians” but it didn’t prevent them from agreeing to the deal. This is why Israeli Middle East expert Ehud Yari said Kerry sold out Aleppo and the pro-Western rebels by agreeing to the deal.
Also on Saturday, reports emerged about Turkish attacks on Kurdish YPG positions in Syria.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the artillery strikes were targeting the village of Malkiyeh and the Mannagh air base, which was captured by Kurdish fighters and their allies earlier this week.
Amer Hassan, an opposition activist based in the northern Syrian town of Azaz, confirmed Turkish troops have shelled the Mannagh air base, Associated Press reported.
The Turkish military action started immediately after Prime Minister Achmed Davutoglu threatened the Kurds with military action.
“We can, if necessary, take the same measures in Syria as we took in Iraq and Qandil,” Davutoglu said on Turkish television.
He was referring to the Turkish crackdown on the PKK in Iraq and its stronghold in the Qanndil mountains in the country. Davutoglu said he expected Turkey’s “friends and our allies will stand by us,” a reference to the Obama administration that is at odds with Ankara over the approach toward the Kurds in Syria and Iraq.
The U.S. sees the Kurds as an important ally in the battle against Islamic State, while President Erdogan of Turkey demands the Obama administration recognizes the Syrian Kurdish militia YPG as a terrorist organization. The YPG has ties with the Turkish Kurdish Workers Party PKK, which is designated as a terrorist organization by the EU and the United States.
Also on Saturday, Turkey announced it is coordinating with Saudi Arabia on a possible ground operation against “Islamic State” in Syria. The Turkish announcement came after the United Arab Emirates said it was willing to deploy ground forces in Syria to help rebels in the battle against Islamic State.
Adel al-Jubeir, the Saudi foreign minister, made clear what the real goal of the Turkish-Saudi cooperation is. “There will be no Bashar al-Assad in the future,” he said.
Both the UAE announcement and the Turkish-Saudi preparations for a ground offensive in Syria led to sharp-worded Russian statements about an impending “world war” and a return to the cold war.
“We can say it even more clearly: We have slid into a new period of Cold War,” Russian PM Medvedev said Saturday at the Munich Security Conference.
His comments cannot be dismissed as mere rhetoric. While Medvedev was referring to the NATO actions in Eastern Europe, the Russian intervention in Syria has caused a tectonic shift in the power balance in the region.
Russia has filled the vacuum in the Middle East that has been created by the Obama administration and is working to replace the United States as the dominant force in the region.
In Syria, Russia has already succeeded in changing the power balance and has tied the hands of other powers. The U.S.-led coalition, for example, has stopped manned flights over Western Syria and does not provide air support to pro-Western rebel forces in the region anymore.
The deployment of the S-400 air defense system means Russia is controlling all of Syria’s airspace and can even hit Israeli warplanes flying over the northern part of Israel.
Iranian media reported Saturday the deployment of the S-400 system will be followed by more advanced air defense systems that will make any foreign intervention in Syria much more complicated and increase the chances of further escalation in the powder keg the Middle East already is.
Source: http://www.westernjournalism.com/syrian-war-escalates-after-ceasefire-anouncement-russia-warns-of-world-war-iii/
