Originally appeared at Veterans Today:
[ Assad has gotten out in front of the upcoming peace talks. Despite the ongoing process to negotiate moving foreign jihadis to Idlib province, to facilitate the evacuated areas to begin rebuilding and their residents returning, he is in no way planning to allow Idlib to be set up a Jihadi Disney World inside Syria. He has closed that door be stating that all of Syria must be “liberated”.
Assad has also skillfully slipped in a precondition that while his status is “open”, that any changes have to be constitutional ones, meaning that he will abide by a referendum vote on his status but not let a peace conference decide.
He is using the constitution for what it was meant for, and he has Russia’s consistent backing via its long declared opposition to all unconstitutional regimes changes.
This of course put him at eternal odds with the West and NATO, where regime change is something they feel is included in Western constitutions, in invisible ink.
And lastly, Assad has thrown out a major curve ball in stating that he will only be negotiating “everything” with opposition parties that have a grass roots basis among the Syrian, people. So that would seem to put groups like the Saudi rump group one, the High Negotiating Committee (HNC). out of the picture, when we all know they would only be participating anyway to disrupt the talks.
With this position Assad has refocused attention on the Western and Gulf State proxy terrorist coalition, and put it front and center as the major threat to a peace settlement, and in effect saying that he will not be negotiating with terrorists and their supporters.
This is a great way to start out the new year, and Assad will have a lot of worldwide grass roots allies to fight against the fake democracies involved in doing what the Nazi brass were hanged for at Nuremberg, “waging an offensive war”… Jim W. Dean ]
Originally appeared at PressTV:
Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad says the armed forces will fight until the liberation of “every inch” of the homeland from militant and extremist presence.
Assad made the remarks in a statement given to French media, the full version of which was published by the official Syrian Arab News Agency on Monday.
“Of course it’s our mission, according to the constitution and according to the laws, that we have to liberate every inch of the Syrian land,” he said.
Assad had been asked whether the country had any plans to liberate Raqqa from the Daesh Takfiri terror group, which has named the northern city as its so-called headquarters in the Arab country.
“We do not consider that (retaking Aleppo from the militants) as a victory because victory will be when we have eliminated all the terrorists,” Assad said, adding however, that “it is a critical moment in this war because we are on the path to victory.”
‘Everything can be negotiated’
He also said that the Syrian delegation was prepared “to negotiate everything” in the upcoming talks with the opposition, which is to be held in the Kazakh capital of Astana with the mediation of Russia, Turkey and Iran.
Asked if the government was ready to discuss Assad’s position as president, he said “yes, but my position is linked to the constitution.”
“If they want to discuss this point, they must discuss the constitution,” he said.
The Syrian head of state also said any constitutional matter should be put to a referendum, adding that he would willingly step down if the results of a public referendum on his continued tenure obliged him to do so.
“The president is related to the ballot box. If they (the Syrian people) don’t need him, let’s go to the ballot box,” he said.
Late last year, the Syrian army managed to liberate the eastern sector of Aleppo, the country’s second-largest city, which had fallen to Takfiri groups back in 2012.
Government forces later secured the evacuation of remaining civilians and armed groups from the city under a ceasefire deal with the militant groups, brokered by Russia and Turkey. The Aleppo deal set the stage for a landmark all-Syria truce deal between Damascus and foreign-backed militant groups operating in the country.
The diplomatic achievements were made following high-level trilateral talks involving Russia, Iran and Turkey over the Syria crisis in Moscow. President Assad had earlier hailed the victory in Aleppo as “history in the making” and “a huge step” in bringing the war in Syria to an end.
‘Opposition should be genuine’
Assad, however, insisted that the opposition side attending the Astana talks had to have “grassroots in Syria, not Saudi one or French one or British one – it should be Syrian opposition to discuss the Syrian issues.”
The West, mainly the United States, and the Persian Gulf monarchies of Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been generously supporting the militants fighting against the Syrian government in the hope of ousting Assad. Tens of thousands of the militants are foreign nationals.
Let’s hope the best and be prepared for the worst. Don’t trust this so called western “elite”. Let’s be prepared, that they maybe plan something, before they will lose their puppet Obama and the vasalls in West Europe. Assad, SAA, Putin and RuArmy: Thank you. God bless you.
Well the first part of Syria that was conquered was the most important part of Syria, the Golan Heights. So is Assad telling the truth? Or is he lying? That means the Syrian army must fight Israel to liberate the heart of Syria, the “Golan Heights” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4jxsHlp1to
Andrea, The Golan issue is an excellent point. But Assad can only do that with a coalition, and Putin would be the key there, and Turkey…with Iran best staying out of it. Even getting the discussion of Golan on the table brings nuclear weapons Israel with it, never a bad thing to have in the news. If Israel refused to negotiate then having “nuclear parity” might come into the equation.
put up a new face? how much is gonna last?
Assad us just blowing hot air. Syria, as it was, is gone forever and can’t be put back together again without massive outside help (like a massive full scale Russian intervention) which is not going to happen. At best Syria will survive as a much diminished country because internal divisions are too great. It lacks the strength to completely defeat ISIS (as long as it receives western backing) let alone retake territory controlled by Israel, Turkey, and the Kurd’s.
I concur. The Syrian armed forces were and mostly still are a sham. It ranked only barely above the Saudi’s as a joke and ithas been considerable bled white over the years. Taking on Israel over the Golan? They can barely handle the Jihadists in Idlib. Or the Jihadists around Daraa. Or the many Jihadi enclaves around Damascus. And that’s excluding ISIS. Too many fronts, never enough troops. If Turkey can keep the Idlib headchoppers in check, and the YPG can keep ISIS distracted, then maybe the SAA can clear enough enclaves around Damascus and free enough troops in time before the shits starts hitting the fan again on the Idlib and ISIS fronts. And God forbid if Idlib and ISIS start coordinating offensives as divide and conquer is the only chance Assad has of coming out on top. And that still leaves the Kurds. Of course the political usefulness of the Syrian Kurds to the Americans ends with the defeat of ISIS. The hatred of Turkey towards them however is eternal. In that sense at least they are the least of Assad’s many problems.
The SAA can only hope to defeat one enemy at a time. It has more troops then the YPG, it has better and heavier arms then the YPG, it gets more air support then the YPG, and yet the YPG is far more successful in its offensives. Taking more ground in less time. It has to be that the average YPG soldier is better motivated, better trained and receives better leadership. Maybe if the SAA military and politically leadership were less busy lining their pockets, less busy playing political games and more busy providing good leadership and logistical support this war would have been over years ago.
You are correct here.
YPG, SDF are heavily recruiting and combined with an effective conscription system and many arabs joining, they are well on their way to parity with the SAA (excl. NDF).
For Assad to really win, he would need a new ally. By making at least a partial deal with SDF, he might get one.
Is the syrian “regime” really that “corrupt”? Some say it´s a rather “popular” gov. and that the military is very “popular” (even if it could be more effective). So what are all the existing allies doing there, just keeping the “balance” in a terrible war that might threaten them too in the end, or trying their best in a complicated situation to win in an “optimum” way…?
Actually Assad controls all the major cities and the majority population centres. ISIS controls swathes of open desert terrain with sparse population, but most of the resources infrastructure. Whilst the NATO/GCC backed militants are ever increasingly herded into Idlib – a large rural backwater with a strong religious bent. The Syrian state is not broken, Russian intervention stabilized the government’s position, but the country is a complete mess, and is not aided by NATO’s vengeful insistence on regularly bombing remaining Syrian infrastructure. The ability of militants to transit back and forth into Jordan, Turkey and to lesser extent Israel is what makes the fight so difficult for Syrian army. It has to contend with an enemy that has out of bounds safe havens, supply networks, and military control rooms in the neighboring states, and uncontrollable manpower flows (mercenaries) from those same external states. But reports on Syrian internal divisions are not always as great as media implies – in Idlib dissent is certainly high – but rest of country far less so. The ‘FSA leadership’ are all based in Turkey not Syria, under foreign GCC sponsorship, and it is really foreign backing from NATO/GCC – wages and weapons – that likewise keeps militants on the ground active.
SDF leadership is based within Rojava, Syria, and it has a large following within its territory. The opposition towards the SDF within Rojava consists mainly of KNC parties who are even more anti Assad then the SDF.
SDF, Rebels, IS control several large cities like Qamishli, Idlib, Raqqah, Hassakah and up to 40 to 45% of the population.
All in all, Syria is indeed a mess and a military solution, even if realisable, will only result in more destruction, more loss of life.
It is time for negotiations, for real negotiations, not mr Assad deciding who he would like to talk with but all parties except for IS.
http://www.syrianews.cc/top-opposition-figure-nawaf-al-bashir-repents-returns-syria/
Something to follow if this is true….
Syria would benefit from foreign security support…until it recruits and trains To meet its security requirements. With Empire/CIA running around blowing up infostructure …it’s a concern Syria can stay ahead of that. If Assad steps down….that might be the end of everything….unless Russia knows Empire will let it keep the Naval annex. One day it seem like Syria is going to be saved,….the next….a B 52 flies over and Bombs Syria like it was Ho Chi Minh Trail.