{"id":69916,"date":"2016-02-22T12:00:50","date_gmt":"2016-02-22T12:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=69916"},"modified":"2016-02-17T16:16:50","modified_gmt":"2016-02-17T16:16:50","slug":"big-war-lords-playing-brinkmanship-game-in-syria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/02\/big-war-lords-playing-brinkmanship-game-in-syria\/","title":{"rendered":"Big War Lords Playing Brinkmanship Game in Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"baher-kamal\"<\/a>15 Feb 2016 <\/em> – When 25 million Syrians\u2013half of them refugees abroad or at home and the other half terrorised by daily bombing, learnt that major world leaders in their meeting in Germany launched an unprecedented confrontation threatening with unleashing World War III, instead of easily agreeing on a ceasefire to alleviate their inhumane suffering, they most probably fell into an even deeper desperation. See what happened.<\/p>\n

The biggest \u201cofficial\u201d warlords on Earth\u2014the Russian military apparatus and the US Pentagon and its \u201callies\u201d\u2013Europe, the US-led NATO, the Saudi Arabia-led Gulf countries, and Turkey, have just walked a step closer to the edge of the Middle East abyss over the weekend during their Munich Security Conference<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On the one hand, Moscow has just warned Washington and Ryad against starting a \u201cpermanent war\u201d if they launch a ground intervention in Syria.<\/p>\n

Russian prime minister Dmitry Medvedev on 12 February told Germany\u2019s Handelsblatt<\/a> newspaper that sending foreign troops into Syria could unleash \u201cyet another war on Earth.\u201d The warning followed recent statements from Saudi Arabia, joined later by other Gulf states and Turkey, that they were ready to send ground troops to Syria, should Washington lead the way.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll sides must be compelled to sit at the negotiating table, instead of unleashing yet another war on Earth,\u201d Medvedev said. \u201cAny kinds of land operations, as a rule, lead to a permanent war. Look at what\u2019s happened in Afghanistan and a number of other countries. I am not even going to bring up poor Libya.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Americans and Arab partners must think well: do they want a permanent war? Do they think they can really quickly win it? It is impossible, especially in the Arab world. Everyone is fighting against everyone there,\u201d Medvedev added.<\/p>\n

\"Fighter<\/a>

Fighter aircraft from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and the United States attacked oil refineries in eastern Syria controlled by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, Sept. 24, 2014. | Credit: DoD graphic<\/p><\/div>\n

A New World War?<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWe must make everyone sit down at the negotiating table\u2026rather than start yet another world war,\u201d the Russian prime minister added.<\/p>\n

Titled: \u201cExclusive: Russia\u2019s Medvedev Warns of New World War<\/a>\u201d Handelsblatt ran the interview on the eve of the Munich Security Conference<\/a>\u2018s International Syria Support Group meeting, where the cessation of hostilities in Syria became a top item on the agenda.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, the US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter was lobbying for an ample NATO participation in the so-called war on Islamic State (IS).<\/p>\n

The Pentagon-NATO Axis<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In fact, Ashton Carter on 11 February, following a NATO meeting in Brussels, said that this military alliance is considering joining the US-led coalition fighting Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq.<\/p>\n

\u201cThanks to the leadership of NATO (secretary general) Jens Stoltenberg, we are exploring the possibility of NATO joining the coalition as a member itself,\u201d Ashton Carter said.<\/p>\n

The alliance can bring \u201csignificant development\u201d and \u201cunique capabilities\u201d which include \u201cbuilding partner capacity, training ground forces and providing stabilization support,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The day after, that\u2019s on 12 February, NATO member states agreed to send AWACS surveillance aircraft to gather intelligence on IS over Iraq and Syria, replacing US jets. According to Ashton Carter, this will \u201cincrease the ability of the coalition to degrade and destroy the terrorist group.\u201d
\n
\nSyria\u2019s Battlefield<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the military situation in Syria has been escalating, as Bashar al Assad\u2019s army made further advances in the northern city of Aleppo.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the predominantly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces recaptured a former military airbase in the Aleppo province, from jihadists near the Turkish-Syrian border, reportedly with the support of Russian air strikes.<\/p>\n

NATO Warships to Aegean Sea to Combat \u201cMigrant\u201d Trafficking <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

On 11 February, NATO sent war ships to the Aegean Sea to help Turkey and Greece deal with people smugglers and stem the flow of migrants, the alliance\u2019s top commander has announced.<\/p>\n

Three NATO\u2019s military vessels have been ordered to \u201cstart to move now\u201d and head for the Aegean sea to conduct reconnaissance and surveillance operations, NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg on 11 February said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is about helping Greece, Turkey and the European Union with stemming the flow of migrants and refugees and coping with a very demanding situation,\u201d Stoltenberg said, describing the situation as a \u201chuman tragedy.\u201d Stoltenberg also said that the alliance\u2019s forces would be monitoring the land border between Syria and Turkey for people smugglers.<\/p>\n

Saudi Jets on Syria<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Parallely, Ankara announced that Saudi Arabia will deploy military jets and personnel to Turkey\u2019s Incirlik Air Base in the south of the country. The base is already used by the US Air Force for their sorties in Syria.<\/p>\n

The deployment is part of the US-led effort to defeat the Islamic State terrorist group, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt every coalition meeting, we have always emphasized the need for an extensive result-oriented strategy in the fight against the DAESH terrorist group,\u201d he said, referring to IS by an Arabic-language acronym for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.<\/p>\n

Cavusoglu spoke to Turkish Yeni \u015eafak newspaper after addressing the Munich Security Conference. \u201cIf we have such a strategy, then Turkey and Saudi Arabia may launch a ground operation,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, Saudi Foreign minister, Adel al-Jubeir, in an interview with the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung<\/a> on 13 February, said \u201cthere will be no Bashar al-Assad in the future\u2026 It may take three months\u2026 it may take six months or three years, but he (al Assad) will not assume any more responsibility in Syria.\u201d
\n
\n\u201cDon\u2019t Go There,\u201d Russia, Iran<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Earlier, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates heralded their readiness to contribute troops for a ground operation in Syria on the condition that the US would lead the intervention.<\/p>\n

Syria and its regional ally, Iran, warned that such a foreign force would face strong resistance. And Russian prime minister called on his Western counterparts in Munich Security Conference \u201cnot to threaten a ground operation\u201d in Syria, stressing that Moscow is doing its utmost to pave the way for a lasting peace in the war-torn country.<\/p>\n

Further on, Medvedev on 13 February said that the relationships between NATO and Russia have slid down toward a new Cold War, while describing NATO\u2019s policy as \u201cunfriendly and not transparent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAlmost every day we are referred to as the most terrible threat to NATO as a whole or to Europe, America and other countries specifically,\u201d Medvedev said. \u201cAlthough actual threats that exist in our small world \u2013 and I hope, you understand that \u2013 are absolutely different.\u201d<\/p>\n

In short, in less than one week, largest military powers have been threatening with invasions in Syria and armed interventions in Iraq, as their answer to the ongoing human tragedy.<\/p>\n

Apparently there would be no problem with more unarmed, civilian populations being killed in all such military operations\u2013it would probably be about a high official just saying: \u201csorry for this collateral damage.\u201d<\/p>\n

___________________________________<\/p>\n

Baher Kamal, Egyptian-born, Spanish national secular journalist. He is founder and publisher of\u00a0<\/em>Human Wrongs Watch<\/a>. Kamal is a pro-peace, non-violence, human rights, harmonious coexistence defender among human beings and with Nature, with more than 43 years of professional experience. With these issues in sight, he covered practically all professional posts, from correspondent to chief editor of dailies and international news agencies.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 ipsnews.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The biggest \u201cofficial\u201d warlords on Earth\u2014the Russian military apparatus and the US Pentagon and its \u201callies\u201d\u2013Europe, the US-led NATO, the Saudi Arabia-led Gulf countries, and Turkey, have just walked a step closer to the edge of the Middle East abyss over the weekend during their Munich Security Conference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[204],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69916","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-syria-in-context"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69916","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69916"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69916\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69916"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69916"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}