News about the pending removal of foreign forces from Syria that you will not get…from Western mainstream
Happy New Year 2023 to one and all. With some luck we may all make it through the next 12 months intact.
My purpose in violating the sanctity of New Year’s Day is to bring to your attention news from the Middle East that has been posted by an authoritative newspaper from the region, Al-Watan, of Doha, Qatar, but seems not to have been picked up by mainstream Western media. My knowledge of it came from the so-called Free Press (Свободная Пресса) portal in Russia. I’d have learned about it sooner from the much better known RIA Novosti news agency, which also carried a lead story on the subject, but, sadly, RIA Novosti is banned in the European Union. Brussels obviously prefers for ours to be the Dark Continent where public opinion is manipulated from the offices of the Commission.
The news in question is about the announced results of negotiations held in Moscow two days ago between representatives of Russia, Syria and Turkey. That such a three-way meeting was possible was due to the recent decision of Turkish President Erdogan to finally recognize the legitimacy of the Bashar Assad government in Damascus. In this connection, it has also been reported in Russian media that a face to face meeting of Erdogan and Assad is expected to take place in the second half of 2023.
The outcome of the negotiations in Moscow was Turkey’s announcement that it is about to withdraw all of its troops from Syria. As you may know, these troops had crossed over into Syria more than a year ago partly to seal the border from infiltration by jihadists but more importantly to separate and better control the Kurdish populations on both sides.
The pending removal of the Turks, presumably in exchange for certain Russian –backed guarantees on security and tighter administration of the Kurdish population in northeast Syria, leaves only the Americans as illegitimate occupiers of Syrian soil today.
The American operations in their country were recently denounced by Damascus for their plundering the oil wells and harm done to the entire economy of southeastern Syria. Meanwhile, for the Turks, sensitivity to the Kurdish population in Syria is a significant contributing factor to their prickly relations with NATO generally. Ankara never accepted American sponsorship of the Syrian Kurds as a tool to be used against Damascus.
In the past few days there have been missile strikes against American forces in Syria from unidentified sources. In light of the new agreements between Turkey, Syria and Russia, we may assume that the military pressure on the Americans to evacuate will only increase in the weeks and months to come.
©Gilbert Doctorow, 2023