ISIS update 1/26/2016..Syria talks delayed until Friday over who should be invited
International Military Review – Syria, Jan. 26, 2016
US war against Daesh terrorists a complete farce: Analyst
Syria talks delayed until Fri. over who should be invited
Middle East analyst Wardah Khalid on challenges of the Syria Peace Talks
Geneva: As the clock ticks towards Syrian peace talks, question of who will attend still unclear
Syrian Peace Talks to Start January 29
Syrian Peace Talks to Start January 29
by Stephen Lendman
On Monday, Arab League/UN envoy to Syria Steffan de Mistura announced the date without indicating who’ll participate.
From what’s known, US/Saudi-backed terrorist groups will be involved, including Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam).
It operates like ISIS, equally ruthless, responsible for the August 2013 Ghouta, Syria chemical weapons attack, killing scores, injuring numerous others, Assad wrongfully blamed for its high crime.
What other US/Saudi-backed terrorist groups will participate remains for de Mistura to name them, begging the question.
How can peace talks be legitimate when one side is committed to Syria’s destruction, its popularly elected government replaced by one decided by outside forces – Syrians having no say over who’ll lead them?
How can they succeed when Obama and rogue allies want endless war until achieving regime change – using ISIS and other terrorist groups as imperial foot soldiers?
Geneva I and II talks failed. Expect this round to fare no better, de Mistura admitting things will be “uphill” at best, mission impossible most likely.
Proximity talks are planned, shuttle diplomacy, mediated by Western-controlled UN negotiators, not both sides meeting face-to-face – a process to last at least six months, maybe much less if intractable deadlock occurs.
Initial talks for several weeks will focus on increasing humanitarian aid, combating ISIS, and negotiating a ceasefire with selected opposition terrorist groups – committed to continue fighting.
Anti-Assad moderate combatants don’t exist. Perpetuating the myth otherwise persists. De Mistura claiming “suspensions of fighting” can be negotiated with US/Saudi-backed terrorists is pure fantasy.
Nearly five years of Obama’s terror war with no foreseeable end speaks for itself. Syrian UN envoy Bashar al-Jaafari will head his government’s delegation.
A so-called High Negotiations Committee opposition coalition named serial killer Mohammed Alloush to head its side, a key Army of Islam terrorist, drawing sharp criticism, perhaps rendering peace talks dead-on-arrival.
Who can negotiate with someone holding a knife to his throat, guilty of gruesome atrocities, showing no signs of ending them, enjoying full US/Saudi support?
It bears repeating what earlier articles stressed. Chances for restoring peace and stability to war-ravaged Syria any time soon are virtually nil.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at [email protected].
His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”
http://www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
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Geneva Talks Delay Exposes US Terror Links
By Finian Cunningham
“American Herald Tribune” – As is often the case, you have to read between the lines to parse the truth about Syria –or indeed many other issues –as reported in the Western mainstream media. With a discerning eye the truth can be found. But that’s why it is played down, sanitized, half-told or frosted with banality. Because the truth is pretty shocking.
This week, UN-backed political talks were scheduled to begin in the Swiss city of Geneva between the Assad government and various so-called opposition groups. The talks did not take place as planned on Monday, January 25, and it is unclear if they will even go-ahead this week.
The stumbling block is finding agreement on which opposition groups are to be admitted to the negotiations. The Western news media won’t spell it out. But the main problem resides with the United States and Saudi Arabia both insisting that two militant groups should be part of the opposition to the Syrian government. Those groups are Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam) and Ahrar al-Shams (Nation of Syria).
Both are connected logistically and ideologically with Al Qaeda terror groups, including the so-called Islamic State. They are bankrolled by the like-minded Wahhabi regime in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf Arab dictatorships, and supplied with weapons and training by the American CIA.
The delay in the Geneva talks getting underway is because the Syrian government and its foreign ally, Russia, stipulate that neither Jaish al-Islam nor Ahrar al-Islam are allowed at the negotiating table. Because they are terrorist organizations.
That’s an objective definition for these groups. Their Wahhabi ideology has “justified”brutal violations of Syria’s civilian population, whether Muslim, Christian or Druze, simply on the basis of being labelled as “infidels”. Beheadings, crucifixions, kidnappings, rape are standard means of terror for the militants that Washington and its Saudi ally want at the negotiating table.
The purpose for their inclusion is to expedite Washington’s agenda of regime change in Syria, and has nothing to do with finding a genuinely peaceful settlement.
Jaish al-Islam is linked to the East Ghouta chemical weapons atrocity carried out in August 2013, in which several hundred civilians were killed in a district outside the Syrian capital Damascus. The atrocity was wrongly blamed on the Syrian army and nearly served as a pretext for American military intervention in the Syria conflict. But it was a false flag event aimed at prompting US intervention.
East Ghouta remains under control of Jaish al-Islam although it is undergoing evacuation in a siege-breaking deal with government forces, as are several other locations under the control of militants. On December 25, a Russian air strike on East Ghouta killed the militants’commander –Zahran Alloush.
Alloush had previously called for the “extermination”of those whom he considered infidels. He personally carried out executions during the Adra massacre in December 2013 against Alawites and Druze.
On December 29, four days after the Russian air strike on East Ghouta, the Saudi foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir publicly criticized Russia for the assassination of terror commander Alloush.
The other group mentioned above, Ahrar al-Shams, has an equally repugnant track record of violations. It is currently involved in holding the northern Syrian towns of Foua and Kefraya under siege in a reign of terror, where the civilian population are kept as human shields to prevent the Syrian army from liberating the locations.
Steffan de Mistura, the UN envoy to Syria who is convening the talks process, last week briefed the Security Council on why the negotiations were being delayed. The envoy said it was the Saudis who were trying to sabotage the process by insisting on which groups would comprise the opposition. Drawing up negotiating parties is De Mistura’s official mandate, but the Saudis are undermining him, according to a report in Foreign Policy.
None of the Western media outlets will tell you any of this in plain language. For instance, Voice of America reported on the talks impasse thus: “There is widespread disagreement over which opposition groups should take part in the UN talks, and officials say the meetings [this] week cannot proceed until there is a mutually acceptable list of which anti-Assad factions will take part.”
Note how VOA is careful to not specify who the problematic “opposition groups”are and who their backers are. Meaning is sterilized, as in all Western mainstream media outlets.
What the media should be saying is that the political talks on Syria are being held to ransom by the insistence of including terrorist groups in the negotiations. And the people insisting on the terror groups partaking are Washington and its regional Arab allies.
That truth is far too grim to admit to public knowledge and discussion. For such truth would indict Washington as a terror sponsor, answerable to international law. And so the Western media fulfill their assigned function –of concealing damning truth and keeping the public oblivious. That makes them equally complicit in the criminality of their government. Finian Cunningham
EXCLUSIVE: Hezbollah Fighters Enter Terrorist-Controlled Areas in Syria’s Idlib Province
Hundreds of Fresh Forces Join Army for Massive Operation in Northern Syria
ISIL Pulls Back Forces from More Lands near Aleppo North of Syria
All Members of Terrorist Group Killed in Battle with Syrian Soldiers in Dara’a
Syria in Last 24 Hours: Army Close to Winning Back Strategic City in Dara’a Province
The Syrian army and popular forces advanced further in Dara’a province and seized back major parts of a highly strategic city over the past 24 hours.
The Syrian forces took control of 90 percent of Sheikh Meskeen city in the Northern part of Dara’a province in fierce clashes with the militants.
The Syrian troops also inflicted heavy losses on the militants in other provinces.
Dara’a
During the battles to liberate the Sheikh Meskeen city, the Syrian army forces killed dozens of Wahhabi-Takfiri terrorists, who were equipped with an array of heavy and light weaponry.
A local terrorist group acknowledged on its social media webpage that it has lost 15 members, including a local top militant, during the Syrian army operation in Sheikh Meskeen.
The “Saif al-Sham Brigades” operating in the region described the attack in Sheikh Meskeen, and admitted that the leader of the organization, nom de guerre Abu al-Ghaith, was killed during the clashes.
Aleppo
The Syrian army, popular forces and Hezbollah fighters liberated an important district Northwest of Kuweires airbase in Aleppo province, an informed source said on Monday.
“Pro-government troops set Arbid Al-Judaydah district free following several hours of heavy fighting in the region,” the source said, adding that the ISIL terrorist group sustained several casualties in the attack.
Deir Ezzur
The Syrian army foiled several attempts by the ISIL terrorists to capture the hilltops overlooking the coastal area of Baqaliyeh town in Deir Ezzur province, inflicting heavy losses on the militants.
Scores of ISIL militants were killed and many more were wounded in several hours of fierce clashes with the Syrian army.
Meanwhile, a suicide bomber who was trying to attack the Syrian army’s military positions in Deir Ezzur province was killed as he crossed a minefield only 200 meters away from his target.
Idlib
The Russian fighter jets pounded the venue of a meeting held between Al-Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham terrorist groups in Idlib province to discuss overcoming their differences, killing nearly two dozen militant commanders.
At least 20 militants from Al-Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham were killed in the Russian airstrike hitting their meeting in Salqin region of Idlib province, the Arabic-language service of Russia Today reported on Monday.
The Faliq al-Sham terrorist group had organized the meeting between the Al-Nusra Front and Ahrar al-Sham in a bid to mediate between them and urge them to put aside their differences.
Homs
The Syrian Army, in several attacks on Monday, inflicted heavy damage on Takfiri terrorists’ weapons and their hardware near the city of Palmyra and in al-Bayyarat district in the Eastern countryside of Homs province.
Syrian Army units also razed several ISIL terrorist hideouts and concentration points in Rahoum village East of Homs city, destroying some of their vehicles.
In a separated development in al-Tuloul al-Soud area in al-Qauryatayn Southeast of Homs, another Syrian army unit destroyed ISIL vehicles in strikes on their hideouts and movements, while other units targeted hideouts and concentrations of al-Nusra and other Takfiri-Wahhabi groups in Talbiseh and al-Ghanto in the province’s Northern countryside, reducing a number of their hideouts to rubble.
Lattakia
The Syrian Army’s General Command said in a statement that the army forces in cooperation with popular defense groups managed to liberate over 18 towns and villages in the Northern countryside of Lattakia province.
Syria’s Army General Command in its statement mentioned the most notable of the emancipated towns and villages are al-Ghnaimiye, al-Qalai’e, Beit Sukkar, al-Ouainat, Khan al-Joz, Beit Riha, Bradon, al-Souda, al-Khadra, Reef Mekhtaro, al-Jamousiye, al-Saraya, al-Rayyana, al-Shakria, and a number of vantage points and hills covering an area of over 120 square kilometers, adding that the liberation was achieved after eliminating large numbers of terrorists while others fled towards the Turkish borders as their ranks suffered a complete breakdown.
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Source: http://blogdogcicle.blogspot.com/2016/01/isis-update-1262016syria-talks-delayed.html
