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Israel continues to develop its military operations in Syria as the United States begins to engage with the new government of the war-torn country.
On December 20, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) entered the town of al-Rafid in the southern al-Quneitra countryside, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Videos posted to social networks showed Israeli troops inspecting houses and collecting weapons from former rebels and the positions of the now dissolved Syrian Arab Army (SAA).
Separately, at least one person was wounded after Israeli troops opened fire on demonstrators in the western Daraa countryside.
According to the local Daraa 24 outlet, residents of towns in the Yarmouk River basin gathered near a former SAA post close to the town of Ma’ariya to protest against the IDF presence in the region. The outlet said IDF troops opened fire in the air to stop the demonstrators from approaching, and one person was hit directly and wounded.
This was the first such incident since the IDF launched its ground operation in southern Syria after the collapse of the Assad regime on December 8.
Turkey, which is close to the new government in Syria, does not appear to be pleased by Israel’s recent moves in the country.
Speaking to a group of journalists on December 20, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that the U.S. and Western powers have a “responsibility to stop Israel” from operating in Syrian territory.
“It must be declared loudly that Israel’s occupation of Syrian territories is unacceptable,” he said.
Meanwhile, the U.S. does not appear to be concerned with Israel’s operation in Syria. Washington is in fact working to take advantage of the current situation to boost its influence in the country.
On December 19, the Pentagon revealed that the U.S. has more than doubled the number of its forces in Syria to fight ISIS.
The U.S. had said for years that there were about 900 troops in Syria, but Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon press secretary, acknowledges there are roughly 2,000 there now.
Speaking at a Pentagon press conference, Ryder said that the additional forces have been in Syria “at a minimum of some months, it’s been going on for awhile.” He added he only just learned the new number and that the increase is not related to the ouster of Assad or any hike in attacks either by or against ISIS.
Ryder blamed the secrecy on “diplomatic considerations” and sensitivities but declined to be more specific. The defense official also noted that he is “not tracking” any additional adjustments to the force numbers in the future.
Separately, the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced on December 20 its forces conducted a strike that killed ISIS leader Abu Yusif in the eastern Syria governorate of Deir Ezzor. One other ISIS operative was also killed in the strike, according to the command.
“As stated before, the United States — working with allies and partners in the region — will not allow ISIS to take advantage of the current situation in Syria and reconstitute. ISIS has the intent to break out of detention the over 8,000 ISIS operatives currently being held in facilities in Syria. We will aggressively target these leaders and operatives, including those trying to conduct operations external to Syria,” says CENTCOM Commander Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla.
Also on December 20, the U.S. made its first engagement with the new Syrian government which is led by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, a designated terrorist group according to Washington.
U.S. Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf held a meeting in Syria with Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, the leader of HTS in the Syrian capital, Damascus. A planned press conference by Leaf’s delegation visiting Damascus was reportedly “canceled due to security concerns.”
Al Jazeera reported that during the meeting, the two sides discussed the possibility of removing international sanctions against Syria and dropping HTS from the US designated terror list. It is unclear yet if an agreement was reached, especially that the U.S. presented a set of conditions.
All in all, both Israel and the U.S. appear to be the main beneficiaries of the collapse of the Assad regime. The new government is still working to solidify its control and does not appear to be in a position to resist pressure, especially from Washington. This could hurt the influence of both Turkey and Russia.
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if turkey and iran stay on the same side after what turkey did to iran, it will be the most stupid decision by iran’s leadership. moves which have been done by turkey, like backstabbing and kicking while one is on the ground, must have consequences. so far we can see business as usual concerning iran’s leadership towards turkey.
the axis of resistance is done with…
the middle east needed to be seen as full of conflicts to justify the artificial prices for their oil barrels it’s business basically .with layers of avenues to maximise profits from.human resources imo allegedly
and yet jewystan won’t dare attack iran without its brainle$$ amerikan golem which is stretched more than a tel aviv backstreet hoe’s …stretchmarks.
after all the pain & sorrow caused by iranian revolutionary guards, i hope turkey will help syrian people to recover & make a living in their home country. moreover, it may be beneficial for refugees’ homecoming.
lol you make me laugh boy. that was a good joke 👍😁
ur nickname sounds better joke, you sucker, laugh hard
that’s nice of you to be so hopeful.
are you having a laugh?
shut the hell up u dumb illettrete what donu know about syria u satanic zionist slave
haters gonna hate, go & bark somewhere else, you dawg
hello do the background the cia put the ayatollah in, according to masses of informed voices on google’s wealth of wisdom . .they set the whole middle east situation up to be how it is .they aren’t amateurs at war games they’ve been at it for for thousands of years you know.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyavhujk4na
“this video isn’t available any more”
you cannot decide what a country would do about a relationship with a neighbor, guess iran would keep the good standing relationship with turkey. everything would be alright, syria cannot survive in the age of wars. guess turkey would be the next to suffer a coupdetat, because the westeners empire only want lackeys and vassals, and erdogan is not listening to the masters commands and orders so erdogan would be removed in a few years.
iran just sitting back watching… i hate to say this but the middle east is done with.
not really it’s appearances,image that’s everything to them .prince mbs who is 4 times richer than melon is busily westwrnising his kingdom asap in anticipation of the new world order .
if that fat $atan is in syria patting his belly to the carnage he created, why hasn’t he been whacked by russian intel???… payback for maidan 2014 and beyond!… it only gets worse if the tactics they employ are not reciprocated!!!
you tube has an interesting g documentary up yesterday called something like ,the jesuits 100 year plan to have satan take over the vatican .something like that.
if you were smart anyone, you would know youtube is a tool of propaganda. maybe some true you can find there, but you should be very clever to find it out. the propaganda generation.
yes, they use their ai algorithm to supply people with what they want to see…not necessarily what is or is not. it’s a great echo chamber if nothing else. the only one i found who has been consistently right in prognostications is brian berletic. he saw oct 7 for what it really was and called it correctly on the first day. ditto for syria. but most of utube is propaganda to encourage division and false narratives.
russia knows the game, they were playing geopolitics even before usa pilgrims started the thirteen colonies. maybe usa empire is playing well in the russia contention tactics in the western hemisphere but i think in the east usa empire would retreat sooner or later, pakistan is the enslaved goverment infiltrated by usa empire in asia, remove them and the empire would lose their biggest asset in middleeast and asia mainland.
there will be no place for these sirians in the lands taken by the zionist regime. soon they will be like the palestinians, without land, without a homeland and without a place. this is a lesson even for the russians.
its for the world there will be no racial.or religious national identity in the new world wverywhere will be multi cultural and ones ” identity ” will be a legal notion based on location nothing else
in other words buogy will be irrelevant and that’s why it’s curious that they claim to be respecting ancient history for coloured people now since they are white supremacists really .imo .
it’s somewhat like prison identification regardless of ethnicity whatever cell block you’re allowed sanctuary or residence in ,your citizenship , will be who are .
if the reformed, new and improved leader of hts, his majesti ahmed al-sharaa al-julani is smart, he should let russians stay and keep their bases in syria at least for a while, so as to keep israeli invading war criminals from bombing, destroying whatever is left of naval, air&military bases in syrian territory.
yes he is so smart, to let the israhellis bomb everything there is to bomb, so they don’t have anything left to bomb! he is a genius 😂
all jolani’s heachoppers know how do is shoot ak47s from the hip or blow themselves up. they can’t use modern air defenses that’s why israel has blown up so much in syria. israel won’t dare attack the russian naval base or the khmeimim air base while there’s russians there. i bet the new damascus regime will let the russians stay to baby-sit those military bases indefinitely.
reconstruction contracts worth trillions are the outcome .
he’s a pawn .imo
chief headchopper julani will do whatever he is told by his zio and neocon paymasters.
turkey can f itself in the a*s. all the sh*t happing now is because of their backstabbing. they are hand in hand with their beloved allies israhell and usa. so f you turkey. thanks for nothing!
syria was finished. the alawites had fallen out with assad. i suspect the russians and iranians thought the country wasn’t worth the bones of a pomeranian grenadier. syria is really the middle east equivalent of the balkans. the anti assad forces and their allies will soon enough be killing one another. already happening.
just wait to 2025 summer syria will get chaos
anyone with a brain saw this coming from the little pasha. russia was no help in the long run, they were there only to kill those who would eventually be used against them. that was their only concern. syrians being bombed into the stone age for years? no problem. this led assad to look to the arabs, a dead strategy in the end. it was a ruse from israel/u.s. and gulf states to undermine assad and it worked…but assad was pushed to this by their ‘ally’.
if ertogan was really serious about stopping this israeli aggression, wouldn’t he just stop selling them oil?
life wasn’t meant ti be easy .
who in their right mind believes anything erdo says? he is a consummate liar equaled only by nutsack and trump. everyone in the area are sporting turkish knives in their backs.
could sutprise. what will they think of next .?
i have to laugh, israel moves further into syria, what the fuck did those morons who fought against assad think would happen? are they retarded?
this was the plan all along. use their pet proxy throat slitters to turn syria into another iraq or libya.
2025 summer syria will get chaos
no, they’re allies of israel, turdky and u.s. their only motivation is financial. islam is just a tool for them. they can be re-branded into anything for western media.
fsa people are retarded
🇷🇺=🏃♂️🤡 😆😆😆
nato is “pushing deeper” into russia’s azzhole…heheheh
exactly right. this was the plan from before 1990. lebanon, syria and iran are just stepping stones to the real objective…which was the only reason russia ever ventured into syria. it certainly was not to keep syria intact. if it was, russia would never have allowed israel free rein in syria, but they did, didn’t they? when it comes to syria, it seems all were involved in it’s fall.
the empire would take the land as expected. the first head of the snake goverment of the xxi century will be placed in damascus. western values will be pushed in that land, do, after killing all fathers and virtue in the land, they will only accept children and women to the glory of israel. the usa empire of exceptionals are moving towards iran. persia cannot be defeated by the corruption of the world.
the jooz come for tea with their treacherous head-choppers. aint zionazi demokkkracy wonderful
i would laugh at the whole situation were it not so bad. hezbollah and iran knew this was a war of attrition…they just didn’t realize the ‘attrition’ was not referring to weapons, but the population. israel hit their desired targets, the ‘soft underbelly’ and it worked very well. hezbollah and iran struck military targets here and there, trying hit weapons and installations…which were replaced in short order as none of the damage was terminal.
sadly, the lebanese didn’t have the stomach for destruction. hezbollah and iranian strategy didn’t account for israeli bloodlust and complete western indifference. hamas is damaged and hezbollah all but defanged, as israel destroys decades of preparations as they continues to ravage lebanon with impunity. idf is moving north, west of damascus, to flank hezbollah forces, then they will attack again and try to wipe them out. so much for ceasefire, not that israel ever stopped.
taking the ceasefire was the end of lebanon to come. did the cease fire stop israel? no, and they won’t stop either. hezbollah will be forced to reply sooner or later, which is the plan, then israel can restart their full aggression with an excuse. they will hit hezbollah from many sides at once and that will be that. resistance wasted their resources doing potshots and not irreparable damage. they will realize their mistake, but it is far too late.
now it is up to iran, but they do not inspire confidence with their new president. if true promise 3 goes ahead, will it be yet another exercise in showing ‘an example’ of their power? or are they going to do what they claimed every time before, actually scare the israelis and do some real strategic and irreparable damage to assets? if they are to be successful, they will have to inflict some real, massive and undeniable harm.
maybe the lesson is just kill as many civilians as you can. it seems to work for israel and the jewsa.
nutteryahoo wants to grab the whole of syria. it is all part of israel because moses had a crap there 10,000 years ago or something. anyway the whole planet is for the exclusive use of the chosen folk.
last evening 2 mulattos sawyer and ramses push deeper into my rectum and squirt fluid in me–in amewrika all genders can make babies
Best experience with IPTV Italia estero, the streaming is excellent.