Über den Verlauf des Krieges in der Ukraine und die humanitäre Situation im Land werden wir jeden Tag im von ARD und ZDF informiert, wobei allerdings vieles ausgelassen und nicht die ganze Wahrheit erzählt wird. Vergessen scheint der sogenannte Bürgerkrieg in Syrien, der nun schon mehr als 12 Jahre andauert und weitaus mehr Opfer gefordert und unendliches Leid verursacht hat. Die katastrophale humanitäre Situaation wird nun noch durch das Erdbeben verschlimmert. Deshalb habe ich meiner Doku über Syrien dieses Kapitel hinzugefügt und es an den Anfang meiner Dokumentationen gesetzt.
Please Help the People of Syria!
Um den Opfern des Konfliktes in Syrien persönlich und unmittelbar helfen zu können, hat sich eine Gruppe von Ärzten, Ingenieuren, Archäologen, Lehrern und Künstlern entschieden, den gemeinnützigen Verein SyrienHilfe e.V. zu gründen.
Der Verein ist seit 2012 aktiv.
Wir leisten vorrangig innerhalb Syriens, aber auch in den Nachbarländern Libanon und Türkei, humanitäre Hilfe und Nothilfe für die syrischen Flüchtlinge, unterstützen oder realisieren verschiedene Selbsthilfe-Projekte und (Aus-) Bildungsprojekte und kümmern uns im Rahmen unserer Möglichkeiten um die medizinische Versorgung von Kranken und Behinderten.
The Challenge of Rebuilding an Earthquake-Hit Syria
Pierre Boussel|29 May 2023
The earthquake affected both areas controlled by the Syrian regime and the armed opposition, including Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which dominates the Idlib province (northwest), where 4 million people live.
Four months after the earthquake, the emergency has become the norm in Idlib. Construction is taking place and access to building materials remains a daily challenge, including water, essential for making concrete.
Damascus does not want to encourage too much humanitarian aid, as this would stabilize the internal situation in Idlib and strengthen the HTS leadership.
It is not so much the earthquake that is dramatic as the juxtaposition of natural, humanitarian, security, and political crises in Syria.
Four Syrian regions were affected: Aleppo, Hama, Latakia, and Idlib. After several weeks, the counting of the victims has finally established the human toll of the tragedy: 4,256 dead, 67 missing, and more than 11,000 injured. Around 47,000 buildings were affected in Syria, of which 2,171 were destroyed. The World Bank estimated the cost of the damage at US$ 5.2 billion. Rebel estimates put the number of families in need at 5,800.
The earthquake affected both areas controlled by the regime and the armed opposition, including Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which dominates the Idlib province (northwest), where 4 million people live. Almost half the population under HTS control was displaced and living in unhygienic camps. On the morning of February 7, they had no choice but to welcome to the camps an influx of survivors who had lost everything in a matter of hours.
Documentary: “Crimes Against Syria”
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Via Eva Bartlett
The West Appears to be Preparing Another Regime Change ‘Uprising’ in Syria
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There are new signs of a foreign-sponsored destabilization with the intent to repeat the 2011 ‘revolution’
Twelve years on, the West’s war on Syria continues, with seemingly new plans to destabilize the country and overthrow its leadership. This after years of brutal sanctions against (and crocodile tears for) the Syrian people.
Syrian and Russian Armies Bomb NATO Forces in Idlib and Hama
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Syrian Arab Army units in southern Idlib and the Russian Air Forces of Hmeimim air base carried out a series of pinpointed bombings against the dens of NATO proxy forces in Idlib countryside, reports of a large number of terrorists eliminated in the bombing that started late yesterday evening.
Arab League Reiterates its Demand for Withdrawal of All Unauthorized Foreign Troops from Syria
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The Arab League Contact Group meeting in Cairo, Egypt, issued a statement on Tuesday, August 15, demanding the withdrawal of all unauthorized foreign troops from Syria as per international law and in line with the UN charter and reiterated the need for a political solution.
The Axis of Evil
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In the Last 24 Hours: Army Liberates 22 Towns, Advances Towards Sarakeb in
February 4, 2020
Nasrallah: Syria Triumphed Over Terrorism, Al-Quds Will Return to its Palestinian People
Syria in the Last 24 Hours: Army Regains Control Over New Neighborhoods in Deir Ezzor
“Diplomatic Relations with Syria Should Be Restored and Sanctions Lifted”
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Video: “Crimes Against Syria” Produced by Mark Taliano
By Mark Taliano Global Research, June 26, 2023
Trailer to the documentary, “Crimes Against Syria”, featuring Global Research, One America News Network, Eva K. Bartlett, and Syrian performer, Treka.
Video: Crimes Against Syria
By Mark Taliano Global Research, May 30, 2023
Washington-led Empire’s criminal war on Syria is a war against civilization itself.
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on JUNE 18, 2023
Syria intends to join BRICS+ which will help facilitate the reconstruction of the country amid 12 years of US-led regime change war and draconian sanctions on the Syrian people.
Syrian, Russian Planes Strike HTS Stronghold in Idlib
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The US Kept the Middle East Destabilized to Profit the Military Industrial Complex
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The Middle East is entering a new era, which is has seen the US side-lined while China and Saudi Arabia take new leadership positions. Gone are the days when a Middle Eastern monarch marched to orders written in the Oval Office. Newly exerted independence and diplomacy tracks have led to paths designed to support peace and prosperity in the region.
Steven Sahiounie of MidEastDiscourse has interviewed Kevork Almassian, Syrian political commentator and founder of Syriana Analysis.
Terror Group Transporting Toxic Materials Within Syria
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Local sources in the Idlib countryside tell Russian media that Jabhat Al-Nasra terrorists transported some 20 containers containing toxic materials from their headquarters to another location.
For How Long Will US Forces Continue to Plunder Syrian Oil?
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According to the Syrian Ministry of Oil and Mineral Resources, 235 of its cadres were killed, 112 of them were kidnapped, and the sector’s loss amounted to 111.9 billion dollars.
US Continues to Smuggle Syrian Oil into Iraq
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The US convoy consisted of 40 trucks, and left through Iraq via the illegal Mahmoudiya border crossing
According to a report by Syrian state-run news agency SANA, US occupation troops smuggled crude oil from Syria’s northeastern Hasakah province to its bases located in northern Iraq using dozens of tanker trucks.
Citing sources from the Syrian town of al-Yarubiyah, a convoy consisting of 40 trucks and nine oil tankers passed through the town from the Jazira district in Syria’s eastern region, leaving for Iraq via the illegal al-Mahmoudiyah border crossing on 1 June. The convoy reached the Iraqi border and was subsequently escorted by a second convoy.
The US military frequently loots Syria’s oilfields, accompanied by the western-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), without the approval of the Syrian government. This is considered illegal under international law.
Assad Hails ‘Historic Opportunity’ for Regional Shift in Arab League Speech
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Syrian President Bashar al-Assad arrives in Jeddah for Arab League summit. 18 May, 2023. (Photo credit: Reuters)
The 32nd summit of the Arab League kicked off on 19 May in Saudi Arabia’s city of Jeddah, with several representatives and leaders of Arab states present, most notably Syrian President Bashar al-Assad – who attended the summit for the first time since before US-sponsored war against Syria.
During the summit, Assad made a speech highlighting the opportunity that the region faces in rearranging its position away from western dominance and interference.
“Today we are facing an opportunity to change the international situation that appears in the form of a unipolar world, a result of the dominance of the West, who lack all ethics and principles,” the Syrian president said.
This “historic opportunity” requires the Arab World to reposition itself and invest “in the positive atmosphere of reconciliation that preceded today’s summit,” Assad added, referring to recent diplomatic endeavors which resulted in the kingdom’s resumption of ties with Tehran and Damascus.
US Training Daesh Terrorists at Syria’s al-Tanf Base to be Sent to Ukraine
Railway of Resistance: A Grand Project to Connect Iran, Iraq, Syria
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on Mohamad Hasan Sweidan
Beyond its positive economic implications, the railway project connecting Iran, Iraq, and Syria will be a geopolitical game changer by connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf.
West Asia connected by railway
In July 2018, Saeed Rasouli, head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways (RAI), announced the country’s intention to construct a railway line connecting the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea, the Iran-Iraq-Syria railway link. This ambitious project would run from Basra in southern Iraq to Albu Kamal on the Iraqi-Syrian border and then extend to Deir Ezzor in northeastern Syria.
Russia is Finding New Solutions to the Syrian Crisis
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The destabilization of the military-political situation and the provoked civil war in Syria, which has been going on since March 2011, have become another consequence of the US regional policy of reformatting the Middle East region and establishing its own monopoly. The strategy of “controlled chaos” with the use of radical forces and internal political contradictions was a hackneyed product of American diplomacy and intelligence.
The Syrian conflict is an echo of the “Arab Spring” and a reflection of multi-layered ethno-religious contradictions, which, starting with a local civil confrontation, eventually grew into an uprising against the regime of Bashar al-Assad and involved the main countries of the region and world powers. The parties to the conflict receive military and political support from various external players. In particular, Russia and Iran provide support to pro-government forces and Shiite groups, the forces of the motley opposition from Western countries (in particular, the same Kurds), Turkey and the Arab monarchies of the Persian Gulf (including Turkomans and Sunni Arabs).
The degree of involvement of foreign states in the Syrian crisis has turned out to be so high that experts often characterize it as a proxy war between regional powers. The radicalization of religious contradictions brought international terrorist groups and organizations to the forefront of the Syrian theater, where ISIS (an international terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation) especially showed its cruelty and expansionism. Such a fragmentation of the united Syrian opposition and the turn of events have become the reason for the entry into the conflict of external forces (the United States, Russia, Iran, Turkey) in 2014. The war in Syria has spawned a multi-million army of refugees and a migration crisis in Turkey and Europe.
For objective reasons, the countries of the Middle East (primarily Iran, Turkey, the Arab monarchies of the Persian Gulf and Israel) show special attention to the Syrian conflict. The latter is motivated by considerations of geographical proximity, religious contradictions between Sunnis and Shiites, ethnic differences (especially regarding the fate of the Kurdish issue in the region), possible territorial transformations and the redrawing of borders.
Since the autumn of 2015, Russia has been forced to enter this conflict at the invitation of the Syrian government, because Moscow has traditionally played a stabilizing role in the region and acted as a strategic partner of the Syrian Arab Republic (SAR). The objectives of the Russian peacekeeping operation in Syria were:
the fight against the forces of international terrorism and the suppression of their activity on the distant approaches to our borders;
providing friendly assistance to the people of Syria to restore the territorial integrity of the country and political stability in the region;
preservation of the naval and air base of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation in the SAR as a guarantor of peace and security.
Taking into account the successes of the Russian peacekeeping mission in Syria, Russia’s authority in the Middle East has significantly increased, Moscow has initiated the formation of a new platform for political negotiations on the Syrian crisis in Astana and Sochi with the participation of interested Middle Eastern players (including Syria, Turkey and Iran).
The drama of the Syrian conflict is aggravated, as you know, by the issues of control of local oil resources and strategic transit communications passing through Syria. War often gives rise to chaotic and uncontrollable processes of plundering the economic resources of the occupied and controlled territory. In addition to this, the Kurdish ethno-political issue, the prospect of the separation of part of the SAR and the formation of a new Kurdish autonomy (or an independent state) in the north and northeast of the country are particularly acute for the countries neighboring Syria (in particular, for Turkey).
Ankara is objectively concerned about such a scenario of the Kurdish question in Syria with the external military and political and financial support of the US and Israel. Turks believe that the Kurdish formations of Syria (in particular, the military alliance “Syrian Democratic Forces” – SDF) are actively cooperating with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party banned in Turkey, which Ankara has listed as an international terrorist organization, and can transfer the flame of local conflict to Anatolia.
It is known that under this very motivation Turkey has conducted four military operations in Syria since 2016 in coordination with Russia (“Euphrates Shield”, “Olive Branch”, “Peace Spring”, “The Claw-Lock”). Ankara’s goal is to form a 30 km buffer zone along the Turkish-Syrian border deep into the Kurdish-populated areas, pushing local groups out and establishing its own control and Turkish-Russian patrolling. As a result, a number of Syrian settlements came under the control of the Turkish military (including Jarablus, El-Bab, Afrin, Ras al-Ain and others).
Turkey, under the guise of contradictions with the US in terms of the prospects of the Kurdish question in Syria is trying to continue to push for new territorial acquisitions and ethnic cleansing in terms of the displacement of Kurds from the border area. At the same time Ankara shows special attention to Turkic-speaking Turkomans and pro-Turkish Sunni groups in order to change the ethnography of the occupied territories in the north of Syria, which fits into the framework of the Turkish doctrine of Neo Pan-Turkism.
However, the fighting resistance of the Kurds, supported partly by the Syrian government and partly by the United States, has created a somewhat different disposition of forces, with the entire northeast actually under the control of the Kurdish SDF group and a large part in the north and northwest controlled jointly by pro-government and Kurdish formations.
Recently, within the framework of the pre-election struggle and radical rhetoric, Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu, who is counted among the supporters of Neo Pan-Turkism, accused the US of supporting the forces of international terrorism and creating a terrorist state with an emphasis on the Kurdish factor in Syria. In this case Soylu, who will run for the parliamentary elections on behalf of the ruling AKP (as you know, President Recep Erdoğan announced that all the ministers in his cabinet would run for the parliament), said that Turkey, continuing the fight against the forces of terrorism, was in fact fighting the United States.
But the day after such a strong accusation against the Americans, President Recep Erdoğan suddenly fell ill for reasons unknown at the moment, had to interrupt a live broadcast on local television and canceled several events the next day related to electoral matters. Erdoğan’s condition, according to official figures from his administration, is stable. Although there were conflicting reports throughout the evening of April 26: some of them claimed that Erdoğan had a slight stomach flu, while other sources made public information about a myocardial infarction and Erdoğan’s urgent hospitalization.
We wish the Turkish president good health and a speedy recovery. In this regard, it is a strange and coincidental coincidence that Erdoğan’s breakdown happened for some reason on the eve of the launch of heavy fuel for Turkey’s first nuclear power plant Akkuyu in Mersin, built by Russia. Isn’t this unexpected attack a consequence of American sabotage against the out-of-control President Recep Erdoğan, whose ministers (e.g., Süleyman Soylu) are already fighting the US and accusing them of terrorism? As a result, two presidents (Erdoğan in Turkey and Putin in Russia) for different reasons (in particular, one due to a slight cold, the other due to a busy work schedule) will take part in this event, which has an important political significance on the eve of the general elections, via an online video link.
Meanwhile, Turkey’s repeated attempts in 2022 to launch a new military operation in Syria (including both air and ground) were localized mainly by the efforts of Russian diplomacy. Thanks to Russia, on April 25 this year in Moscow there were held quadrilateral talks of the defense ministers of Russia, Iran, Syria and Turkey, which were highly appreciated by Turkey’s defense minister Hulusi Akar.
The subject of the Moscow meeting were “practical steps” to strengthen security in Syria, further fight against extremist groups and normalization of the whole complex of Syrian-Turkish relations (including preservation of territorial integrity of Syria and early return of Syrian refugees from Turkey). By recognizing the territorial integrity of Syria, the participants in the Moscow meeting (including Ankara and Damascus) exclude any options for the formation of an independent Kurdish state and the preservation of the ground for terrorism.
The defense ministers meeting can be considered to be just the beginning of a broader Turkish-Syrian dialogue within the Middle East Quartet (Russia, Iran, Syria, Turkey). Similar talks are planned at the level of the heads of foreign intelligence and the Foreign Ministry, which will make it possible to consider the whole range of issues and prepare for a meeting of the heads of states. Such dynamics and intensity of the negotiation process with the Moscow initiative testifies to the success of Russian diplomacy, capable of finding new solutions to the protracted Syrian crisis.
Iraq and Syria to Re-Open Crucial Oil Pipeline
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The Kirkuk-Baniyas pipeline revival.
An end to US regional resource piracy is finally in sight with Russia and Iran alliance
According to various media reports– negotiations are ongoing to revive the strategic Iraqi Kirkuk to Syrian Baniyas oil pipeline. Iraqi Trade Minister Atheer Al Ghurairy has intimated increased efforts by Iraq to develop energy cooperation with Syria in the coming months and years.
During a meeting with the Syrian Oil and Mineral Resources Minister Firas Hassan Kaddour views were exchanged on the launch of investment in oil and energy fields in both countries. Despite the current US military and proxy occupation of Syrian oil resources, Kaddour presented a strategy to facilitate investment by Iraqi companies in the Syrian oil industry. On the table was the restoration of the Kirkuk-Baniyas oil pipeline which would re-connect Iraqi oil fields with Syrian maritime ports and crude oil refineries.
This would resolve some of Syrian energy deprivation issues and provide Iraq with a more expedient oil transport route to refineries in Syria that could process the 12% of total Iraqi oil reserves that originate in Kirkuk.
The reactivation of the Kirkuk-Banias oil pipeline will be “crucial” for Syria as it would end the country’s power crisis, the minister said, adding that the pipeline is of an “exponential importance” for Iraq as it could cut the cost of exporting oil.
For Syria, added benefits would include a stimulation of trade in Syrian ports by increasing maritime traffic despite the threat of punitive US Caesar sanctions that target sovereign nations trade or collaboration with Syria. The Syrian economy would receive a boost from such trade and industry revival.
Atheer said that initial assessments indicate that the oil pipeline, which was heavily damaged during the war in Syria and recent conflicts in Iraq, is in need of extensive maintenance with a high cost. According to the minister, one possible scenario to solve this issue is for each country to bear the cost of fixing the damage on its part of the pipeline. (SouthFront)
History of Kirkuk-Baniyas pipeline and its geopolitical importance
The 800-kilometer long pipeline, which can discharge 0.3 million barrels of oil per day, was constructed by the globalist US Bechtel Corporation in 1952.
The major reason for the U.S. invasion in March 2003 was to get control of Iraq’s oil. A related factor was the intention of the ruler of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, to sell Iraq’s oil in Euros rather than U.S. dollars, which would have encouraged other oil producers to do the same, thereby endangering the dollar’s position as the world’s reserve currency, which is crucial to the U.S.’s economic viability. The genocidal invasion and preceding sanctions killed three million Iraqis, including half a million children, and totally destroyed a relatively advanced developing country whose people were largely prosperous| Asad Ismi
After the pre-planned and unlawful invasion of Iraq launched by the US in March 2003, Bechtel Corp. was one of the primary benefactors of the US savagery with and estimated $ 3 billion in Iraq reconstruction contracts. It is worth noting that military industrial complex leader Lockheed Martin was handed “more than $ 11 billion increase in sales and contracts worth $ 5.6 million with the US Air Force in Iraq.” Bechtel made it onto the Business Pundit’s list of the ‘25 most vicious Iraq war profiteers’.
The pipeline was commissioned in 1952. Between 1982 and 2000 the pipeline was shut by Iraq, due to Syrian support to Iran during the Iran–Iraq war, and its later support for the liberation of Kuwait campaign. During the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the pipeline was damaged by United States airstrikes and remained out of operation since then.| SouthFront
Syria and Iraq made several attempts to reactivate the strategic oil pipeline between 2007 and 2010. However, technical and political hurdles kept the pipeline shut down.
Pumping was resumed in 2010 but did not last long due to the start of the regime change war against Syria and the occupation of much of the route by ISIS terrorist groups. The US also destroyed sections of the pipeline allegedly in its war on terror/ISIS which has been proven to be a fraudulent claim.
The Russia and Iran element
For some time Russia has been trying to secure an influential role in Iraq via the oil industry route amongst others. Russian oil companies have invested in many of Iraq’s oil fields since 2010.
In 2019 Moscow was planning to help Baghdad to transport Kirkuk’s oil to the Mediterranean sea. In 2007 Russian Gazprom was scheduled to repair the pipeline but Iraqi lack of finances were an obstacle. In 2010, as mentioned, Iraq and Syria attempted to get the pipeline up and running again.
The first pipeline was supposed to carry 15 million barrels of heavy crude oil per day, and the second pipeline was supposed to carry 125 million barrels of lighter crude oil per day.| Geopolitics
Back in 2019 Russia was trying to convince Iraqi and Syrian governments that it “can successfully implement the Kirkuk-Baniyas project”.
According to Iraqi academic and author Diyari Salih in 2019:
“The activation of this pipeline will reshape the relations between Baghdad and Erbil. Baghdad will get rid of its unilateral dependence on the transfer of oil to Turkey through the IKR. This will reduce the geostrategic importance of this region’s location. This option will also affect Erbil’s ambitions to control Kirkuk again. In such a situation, Baghdad thinks that it will have more futuristic opportunities to make Erbil leave the dream of separation from Iraq. Baghdad knows well that this Kurdish dream cannot be done without annexing Kirkuk to the imagined Kurdish state. As a result, Baghdad and its allies will tighten their grip on this vital city. Hence, the Kirkuk-Baniyas pipeline might lead to postponing this Kurdish aspiration, at least, for decades to come.”
This pipeline track will also have potential to strengthen the Iranian-Russian alliance. Before ISIS took control of Mosul in 2014 there had been intensive discussions on an Iranian desire to build a pipeline connecting Iranian oilfields to the Kirkuk-Baniyas pipeline.
From a geopolitical perspective the US regional resource piracy would inevitably come to an end. “There is a hope that this pipeline will link the fate of Iran, Russia, Iraq, Syria and even Lebanon economically and militarily” while squeezing the US and its Kurdish Contra proxies (Iraq and Syria) out of the equation.
The threat of a US-managed ISIS revival is also to be countered, with terrorist sleeper cells still embedded and active in Iraq and Syria but a united axis of terror-adversaries including Iran and Russia would be able to combat such a risk to the pipeline renewal.
Syrian and Iraqi efforts to reactivate the Kirkuk-Banias oil pipeline will likely face several obstacles, mainly sanctions imposed by the U.S. and the European Union. However, Syria’s recent rapprochement with key regional allies of the West, including Saudi Arabia, Iraq’s special relations with Iran, and the current global energy crisis could allow the two countries to reach a deal on the pipeline.| SouthFront
As Robert F Kennedy JR wrote in 2016 for Politico Magazine – “Why the Arabs don’t want us in Syria”:
They don’t hate our freedoms. They hate that we have betrayed our ideals in their own countries – for oil
Let’s face it; what we call the “war on terror” is really just another oil war. We’ve squandered $6 trillion on three wars abroad and on constructing a national security warfare state at home since oilman Dick Cheney declared the “Long War” in 2001. The only winners have been the military contractors and oil companies that have pocketed historic profits, the intelligence agencies that have grown exponentially in power and influence to the detriment of our freedoms and the jihadists who invariably used our interventions as their most effective recruiting tool. We have compromised our values, butchered our own youth, killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people, subverted our idealism and squandered our national treasures in fruitless and costly adventures abroad. In the process, we have helped our worst enemies and turned America, once the world’s beacon of freedom, into a national security surveillance state and an international moral pariah.
Over the past seven decades, the Dulles brothers, the Cheney gang, the neocons and their ilk have hijacked that fundamental principle of American idealism and deployed our military and intelligence apparatus to serve the mercantile interests of large corporations and particularly, the petroleum companies and military contractors that have literally made a killing from these conflicts.
It’s time for Americans to turn America away from this new imperialism and back to the path of idealism and democracy. We should let the Arabs govern Arabia and turn our energies to the great endeavor of nation building at home. We need to begin this process, not by invading Syria, but by ending the ruinous addiction to oil that has warped U.S. foreign policy for half a century.
Syria is Officially Welcomed Back into the Arab League
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The return of Damascus to the Arab body is reportedly dependent on a number of conditions, including elections and the safe return of refugees
The spokesman for Iraq’s Foreign Ministry, Ahmad al-Sahhaf, announced that the Arab foreign ministers who met on Sunday behind closed doors in the Egyptian capital Cairo have agreed on the return of Syria to the Arab League after nearly 12 years of suspension.
Sources told Russian news outlet Sputnik earlier on 7 May that after consultations among the foreign ministers, the “majority” supported the return of Syria to the Arab League.
According to an anonymous Egyptian diplomat, Syria’s return to the organization will be “conditional” and must depend on “the return of Syrian refugees without retributions, a credible political process that leads to elections and steps to end the smuggling of narcotics from Syria into neighboring countries,” The National reported.
Lebanese news agency LBCI reported that during the meeting, it was agreed that Lebanon would join a ‘crisis resolution committee for Syria,’ which includes Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Jordan, and Egypt.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said during the session that a political solution was the only way forward. A military solution in Syria is “unrealistic,” Shoukry said.
However, he also stressed the utmost importance of securing “the elimination of terrorism” in Syria, which is still a major issue given the control of extremist armed groups over certain areas in the country.
On Friday, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said that Syria had secured enough votes from the 22-member Arab body.
“Symbolically, it will be important, but that is only a very humble beginning of what will be a very long and difficult and challenging process, given the complexity of the crisis,” Safadi told CNN.
The decision comes several days after a meeting of regional diplomats in Jordan’s capital Amman, which was also attended by Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad. The meeting focused on the importance of solving the humanitarian, political, and security crises in the country.
It also paved the way for Sunday’s official decision to reinstate Damascus into Arab League.
As a result of the closed-door meeting in Egypt – which is expected to be followed up with a public session – many expect that Syria will be present at this month’s Arab League summit in the Saudi capital Riyadh.
This is the latest step in the Arab world’s recent embrace of Syria, which has seen Saudi Arabia – once a principal backer of the US-sponsored war against the country – lead a regional initiative to end the crisis.
However, Washington and a few Arab states, namely Qatar, continue to stand against normalization with the Damascus government.
Foreign Ministry: Syria Receives with Interest the Decision on its Resuming Participation in the Arab League
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BREAKING NEWS – Arab League readmits Syria as relation
THE GREATER MIDDLE EAST PROJECT
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Will Syria’s return to Arab League lead to stability? | Inside Story
Assad’s Grand Plan to Reunite Syria With the Arab World | WSJ
Wall Street Journal 4,121.03.2023 #Syria#BasharAlAssad#WSJ
Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad pushed for an end to sanctions following the devastating Turkey-Syria earthquake. Now, Arab neighbors who snubbed Assad for waging a war against his own people are negotiating deals with him. WSJ’s Benoit Faucon explains the main reasons behind the shift in diplomacy and how Syria is slowly reintegrating with nations in the Middle East like Egypt, Jordan and Oman.
Arab nations embracing Syria | The West Asia
WION 25.03.2023 #syria#uae#westasia
Just weeks after the devastating earthquake hit Syria, president Bashar al-Assad visited the UAE this week. He received a warm welcome in Abu Dhabi signalling UAE’s efforts to re-integrate Syria back into the Arab world.
Syria, Saudi Arabia Peace Deal Brought to You by Russia | Vantage with Palki Sharma
Firstpost 25.03.2023 #palkisharma#Syria#vantageonfirstpost
Syria, Saudi Arabia Peace Deal Brought to You by Russia | Vantage with Palki Sharma It seems peace is coming to West Asia. Leading this charge is Saudi Arabia. Earlier, it re-established diplomatic ties with Iran – a deal brokered by China. Now, it’s Syria and Riyadh that are heading in the same direction with Russia’s help. What does it mean for the region? Palki Sharma tells you more.
Gravitas: Syrian President visits UAE | Iran’s President to visit Saudi Arabia
Syria: A New Reality in the Region
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Viktor Mikhin
According to numerous reports in the Israeli media, the resumption of ties and normal relations between Saudi Arabia and Syria has caused a state of discontent, severe anxiety and even dismay among the Israeli leadership. These troubles, as noted by the Israeli newspaper World Israel News, have added to the problems that have suddenly presented themselves in all their glory to Tel Aviv of late. Saudi Arabia’s moves to fully restore diplomatic relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran and Riyadh’s cease-fire efforts in Yemen are also a major concern for Israel and the United States, which is rapidly losing influence in that part of the world. According to US media, in this regard, dissatisfaction with the policy of Joe Biden’s administration was also expressed by American arms manufacturers, which began to lose a very promising and rich Middle Eastern market.
The Israeli Kan TV channel assessed the change in Saudi policy toward Syria, Iran and the Palestinian resistance movement: “When we compare all the points of view regarding Riyadh’s reconciliation with Iran and rapprochement with Syrian President Bashar Assad and Sanaa, this, from our perspective, from the Israeli perspective, is definitely a cause for deep concern.” The channel called the visit of Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud to Damascus “historic,” saying it was the first visit since the start of the war in Syria 12 years ago.
It should be recalled that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad held talks with the Saudi foreign minister at the presidential palace. A statement from the Syrian government said that President Assad assured the Saudi foreign minister that “a healthy relationship between Syria and the Kingdom is a normal state, and also reflects Arab and regional interests.” He also quoted the Saudi as expressing his country’s confidence in Syria’s ability to overcome the consequences of the war, stressing that “the Kingdom stands with it.” A high-ranking Saudi diplomat earlier described Arab attempts at dialogue, which will “inevitably” take place with Damascus in consultation with the international community, saying that “there is a permanent dialogue to bring Syria back into the arms of the Arabs.”
The Saudi foreign minister’s travel to Damascus came days after his Syrian counterpart, Faisal al-Mikdad, visited Riyadh for the first time in more than 12 years. In the Saudi capital, he held very active and positive talks about efforts to achieve a political solution to the Syrian crisis, to facilitate the return of Syrian refugees to their homeland and to ensure the delivery of humanitarian aid to the affected areas of the country. This, in turn, came after Iran and Saudi Arabia announced in an April 6 joint statement in Beijing the resumption of diplomatic relations in response to Chinese President Xi Jinping’s initiative.
According to Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi’s state visit to China earlier this year led to “new and very serious” talks between Iranian and Saudi delegations that have had a favorable impact on the improvement of situation in Syria and Yemen. Saudi Arabia’s positive efforts to bring about a cease-fire in Yemen were also a direct result of these agreements. After three days of prisoner exchanges, more than 100 Yemeni prisoners of war were released with the help of Riyadh and Sanaa. According to world media reports, the situation in Yemen is now somewhat stabilized and there is talk of negotiations between the warring parties to end the civil war.
According to the state-run Saudi Press Agency (SPA), Brig. Gen. Turki al-Maliki said this was part of “efforts to stabilize the ceasefire and create an atmosphere of dialogue between the Yemeni sides to achieve a comprehensive and sustainable political solution that will end the Yemeni crisis.” But the International Committee of the Red Cross called the move by Saudi Arabia, which seeks a permanent ceasefire in Yemen in its own interests, “one-sided.”
It is interesting that the Committee is completely under the influence of the United States, and this assessment of the Saudi actions clearly shows the course of Washington to provoke a civil war in Yemen. There is no need to talk about the peace-loving actions of the United States, which at every turn talks about its efforts to “take care” of the peace in different regions of the world. One might recall how the “peaceful and democratic” US is pumping weapons into the neo-fascist Ukraine, pitting its leadership against Russia to wage war until the last drop of Ukrainian blood. At the other end of the globe, Washington is doing all it can to create tension and military action in Taiwan against China.
A Saudi delegation has just been to Sanaa in an effort to establish a longer cease-fire. Although various discussions ended without a truce, agreement was reached on a new meeting and new talks. According to the kingdom, the additional release was meant to help the cease-fire efforts. The two sides will continue their talks after Eid al-Fitr, the holiday celebrated this week at the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
It is only natural – and there is ample evidence of this – that talks between a high-ranking Saudi diplomat and the Syrian president in Damascus will further anger and enrage the “peace-loving” United States, which opposes any Arab revival of ties with Damascus. CIA Director Bill Burns confusedly told Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman that Washington feels “stunned” by Riyadh’s actions to re-establish ties with Iran and Syria because the Kingdom is pursuing a foreign policy that is not aligned with the West. From this episode alone, one can understand the very essence of the decisions of the American leadership, which is still thinking in terms of the rulers of the world.
But threats, demands, and appeals from Washington have gone unanswered, as the government of President Assad has witnessed a diplomatic surge in the normalization of Syria’s relations with several other Arab countries in recent months. The Saudi foreign minister’s trip was the first visit by a senior Saudi diplomat to Damascus since ties had been severed 12 years ago when the Syrian civil war had began with widespread foreign intervention, primarily by the United States and its local satellites.
The meeting, as reported by Saudi state media, discussed the steps needed for a political solution to the conflict in Syria that would preserve its Arab identity and return it to an “Arab environment.” Assad noted at the talks, and this is his firm view, that the kingdom’s “open and realistic policy” has benefited not only his country, but the entire region. For its part, the official Saudi Press Agency SPA reported: “At the beginning of the reception, the Saudi foreign minister conveyed to the Syrian president greetings from the keeper of the two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud, and their wishes for the brotherly government of Syria and its people for security and stability.” The agency stressed that “during the reception, they discussed efforts to achieve a political solution to the Syrian crisis that preserves unity, security, stability, Arab identity and territorial integrity.” The Saudi foreign minister emphasized to the Syrian president “the importance of ensuring proper conditions for aid to reach all regions of Syria, creating the necessary conditions for the return of Syrian refugees and displaced persons to their areas, ending their suffering, enabling them to return safely to their homeland and taking further measures that would contribute to the stability and situation throughout Syrian territory.”
However the statement did not mention the Arab League summit to be hosted by Riyadh this May. But Damascus has repeatedly stated that fraternal ties with neighboring countries are more important than its return to the Arab League, because an invitation to the League of Arab States (LAS) would be meaningless if relations with Arab states remain cold and normal fraternal relations with other Arab states are not resumed. In this regard, Syria’s foreign minister, who recently visited Saudi Arabia, Algeria and Tunisia, among others, said that his country’s return to the Arab League would be “almost impossible until bilateral relations are mended.” This could explain the rapid diplomatic meetings between Damascus and its Arab neighbors, on which Assad initially insisted.
All these facts and active diplomatic activity show quite clearly the failure of the Western policy, led by the US, aimed at maintaining a hotbed of tension around Syria. At the same time, it is obvious that Syria will be accepted as a member of the LAS at its next meeting, and normal relations will be resumed between the Syrian Arab Republic, which will help to improve the situation in this complex region of the world.
The Qatar-Syria Stand Off: Enemies to the End
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The Cradle’s Syria Correspondent
For various reasons related to political leverage, regional grandstanding, and outright animosity, Qatar is likely to remain the last Arab state to return to Syria.
Please Help the People of Syria!
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The Remaining Christians in Idlib Are Deprived of Celebrating Their Feasts
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A new year is to be added to the previous ten years during which the feasts passed by the remaining Christians in Idlib silently with no joy, no decorations, and no ringing bells.
A new year is to be added to the previous ten years during which the feasts passed by the remaining Christians in Idlib silently with no joy, no decorations, and no ringing bells because the celebration of Easter in public is considered a “violation of Islamic law,” according to “Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham” (formerly the Al-Nusra Front) that is still extending its control on the region of Idlib.
According to local sources, the number of Christians today in Idlib and its countryside does not exceed 200 people, most of whom are elderly, compared to more than 10,000 people before 2011. Most of them belong to the Greek Orthodox sect and are distributed in Jisr Al-Shughur and the villages of Al-Qunya, Al-Yaqubiyyah, Al-Jadida, Haluz, and Al-Ghassaniya.
International Aid to Idlib, Syria is Controlled by the Terrorists
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on Steven Sahiounie
Politics are first and foremost in the international humanitarian response to the 7.8 magnitude earthquake which devastated Turkey and Syria on February 6. The western humanitarian aid groups, and their partners in the western media, have lavished all the attention and aid on one small province alone in Syria: Idlib.
With so much valuable aid pouring in through the border with Turkey, the terrorist group which controls tiny Idlib is now overwhelmed with the excess aid. The entire population of the Idlib province is estimated at 3 million. The aid arriving in cargo trucks far exceeds the needs of the population.
Sanctions are Killing People in Earthquake-Hit Syria
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ISIS Terrorist Attack in Homs Governorat Leaves 53 Dead
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US Bombs Syria’s Deir Ezzor After Rocket Attack Targets Occupation Base
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US Troops Conduct New Oil Theft Operation in Northeast Syria
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