As a result of a number of meetings including Syrian and Russian officers and legal figures from the Al-Bekaa area in Lebanon, including Al-Hajj Muhammad Jaafar, a joint Syrian-Lebanese force was established to fight both ISIS and Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham in the Syrian section of Jaroud Arsal. The decision was made after the continued attacks by these terrorist organizations on civilians in the Lebanese Bekaa from the direction of Jaroud Arsal.
The force will include some 400 Lebanese fighters from 14 Lebanese border villages in the Bekaa region and an unknown number of Syrian volunteers from several villages in the countryside of Qusayr. The force will be led by Haj Mohammed Jaafar. The force will named “the Homeland Shield Forces – Special Tasks”. Russia will provide financial and military support, working on the Syrian side of the border for now.
Meanwhile, Security Forces of the Lebanese Army are being deployed in the camp of Ain al-Hilweh in Sidon Albben, a week after the clashes between Fatah forces and the ISIS-linked group called “the group of Bilal Badr”.
The Lebanese government is in a serious mood to deal with terrorist groups. The decision to launch a military operation to remove them from the border town of Arsal will likely be taken soon. Many of the groups linked to ISIS or Nusra are also overlooked in several Palestinian camps inside Lebanon.
“…The Lebanese government is in a serious mood to deal with terrorist groups…”
Good for them, but surely they realize they’re about to be invaded by Israel and the US? Lebanon has rudely decided to locate their entire country right in the way of Bibi’s Leviathan Pipeline, trampling all over Israel’s rights to earn a profit. The only fair way to deal with this is to partition Lebanon – that’s why Israel has been trying to do it for the last thirty years or so.
What earthly reason makes you think that Israel needs an overland pipeline thru Lebanon? So the Lebanese can have a LNG plant and export terminal on their coast? They may go for that if Israel pays for it.
Overland? Nothing is flat in Lebanon. They need a near-offshore pipeline before crossing to Cyprus so they don’t have to spend a colossal amount on an impossibly-deep one in the middle of the Mediterranean. https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/mgg/ibcm/bathy/IBCM-Bathy-5M-254m-Shaded.jpg
Why can’t Qatar and Sauds invest in LNG as opposed to spending billions of dollars to defeat Syria? Is the proposed gas pipeline 10 years away? It defies common sense !!!!
LNG is something like 3x the cost of piped gas when infrastructure and transportation are figured in. Makes sense in certain places like Japan (no pipelines possible) but the overall market is small and payback (considering infrastructure needed) – is long. The most profitable market for the foreseeable future will be piped gas to Europe. China and India are not far behind, but less profitable. Even Iran wants to go to Europe even though it could sell everything it could produce to India and China.
I did not know about the price differential. Perhaps this is a good time for Trump to launch WW3! You are very smart, but are you sane? (most on this site hope for war)
Price differential is on the producer’s side: produce, compress, transport, decompress and store. That makes it more expensive on the consumer’s side, but they’re not willing to pay 3x more. End result is less profit percentage-wise for gas producers even though they have the same (or more) initial investment than pipeline-transported gas.
“…but are you sane? (most on this site hope for war)…”
You said that before, PZIVJ1943. I disagree. People interested in the geopolitics and mechanics of conflict do not necessarily wish for war. In fact, I would trust that they understand the insanity of it more than the average person with their head in the sand. My comments about the seeming inevitability of new/more war does not mean I wish it, I simply expect it. Our governments are broken and our leaders are psychopaths.
exactly bro im not at all hoping for more war, i just hope the demons pushing for it because of their insane greed and apathy for human life are eliminated
The processing and shipping costs for LNG remain the same as the price for NG on the spot market fluctuates. NG is cheap for now in the US since we have a huge number of producing wells in old established fields and the new shale plays. Nobel discovered the Leviathan Field and announced it’s potential reserve before all the fighting started in Syria. Then they started to speculate that the play extended up the coastline off Lebanon and Syria. At the same time there were worries about Russian gas supplies to Europe being disrupted so Iran proposed a major gas pipeline that would run across Iraq and into Syria. I don’t know where it was to go from there but am pretty sure that the possibility of offshore deposits and the pipeline revenues got the Syrian Sunnis excited enough to try taking over the government so they’ll be in charge of the country’s new revenue stream.
The Iran-Iraq-Syrian ‘Friendship Pipeline’ was to go to Europe one way or another. Erdogan wanted it to run through Turkey to Europe (for a price, of course).An undersea pipeline offshore from Latakia to Cyprus and/or Greece would have avoided that.
i just hope for the ones hoping for war for their insane greed are eliminated
The pipeline is a pipe dream. Not only would they have to remove Assad, but also the Baath Party and all Alawite rule. The pipeline would cross Latakia province too. The Russians would have to be evicted and all Iranian influence. Hezbollah understands that would be the end of them too. Its a Qatari pipeline and to Saudi Arabia this is not a priority. In fact there is a lot friction between Saudi Arabia and Qatar with the former preferring the Salafist HeadChoppers and the latter Muslim Brotherhood HeadChoppers.
The Saudi Armed Forces and all her paid mercenaries are an absolute joke. They cannot handle Yemen. In fact if Russia and Iran could get more support to Yemen they could probably threaten the Saudi Oil Fields. If Saudi Forces entered the Syrian Battlefield they would be entirely savaged. Putting a blind man in F1 Mclaren does not turn him into Ayrton Senna. No matter how much military equipment Saudi Arabia buys from the US and UK it makes no difference.
T
“…The pipeline is a pipe dream…”
A profitable pipe dream. Why would you underestimate greed? And the US would love for anyone to take any of the gas market away from Russia and Iran. I’m sure my Israeli-firster politicians will stab the Saudis/Qataris in the back and do everything possible to get the Leviathan pipeline built. Hell, I might even end up paying for it. I pay for damn near everything else in Israel.
“The pipeline would cross Latakia province too.”
Tripoli to Cyprus minimizes the deep leg without having to run up past Syria and Turkey. They would save billions having a near-shore pipeline leg in Lebanese waters. Of course it’s all speculation, but Israel (in their mind) is losing money every day they’re not piping Leviathan gas to paying customers. The wells are producing now and the gas is starting to go onshore to drying plants. They needed to have a pipeline yesterday.
“…Not only would they have to remove Assad, but also the Baath Party and all Alawite rule. The pipeline would cross Latakia province too. The Russians would have to be evicted and all Iranian influence. Hezbollah understands that would be the end of them too…”
They? Israel doesn’t fight its own wars – that’s what the US is for. And ‘Assad must go’ necessarily means the US wants to destroy the Baath party and purge the government of most Alawites. If it can’t do that, then it will partition Syria so all the natural resources in the east are denied to population centers and Assad’s government in the west. An impoverished, resource-starved west Syria will be easier to destabilize with re-branded head-choppers. The US hasn’t nearly run out of ‘crazy’ yet – we’re just getting started. There’s a new orange-haired evil clown in charge, and he’s got some sort of penis issues. That’s always bad – pretty much for everybody.
we have to stop them
The Qatari’s proposed a gas pipeline running thru Saudi Arabia to Syria before all the fighting started. The Saudis told them to run it underwater to Iraq instead so that project never reached the planning stage.
hahahahah yessss they are pieces of shit saudi scumbags
There’s a good market for LNG. Europe relied upon LNG for the longest time so have the facilities on hand to receive shipments. There’s plenty of other countries and islands that rely upon LNG, even the USA. They should be done with a $1 billion LNG facilty on the Louisiana coast that be shipping LNG to New England states that use it for power generation and heating. There’s a shitload of NG coming out of the Marcellus Shale Play just west of them yet the fools refuse to have pipelines ran thru their states.
why to europe is most profitable? i thought india and china are the top growing energy consumers now
Pipelines are in long term far cheaper and more efficient distribution systems. LNG requires shipping, mass storage depots and loading piers and similar infrastructure destinations to arrive at, it’s lot of extra and expensive steps in process. Qatar uses LNG shipping now, but the shipping distances and market competition from Russia make it too costly for any European sales. Consider that, that kind of LNG infrastructure sitting on Israel’s sliver of a Mediterranean coastline, would firstly, be at very eastern most edge of Mediterranean Sea for any shipping, and secondly, also be a vulnerable and perennial target for both sabotage and retribution.
Israel has had oil refineries and gas plants along their coast for the longest time and none ever suffered any damage from terror attacks or war. I live in the East Texas oil and gas fields so am quite familiar with pipelines since they’re all over place. We have a huge refinery that processes NG into a staggering verity of plastics, resins and chemicals. Lots of LNG shipments wind up at similar refineries around the world where the value of their finished products offsets the additional shipping costs plus they’re not in direct competition for local NG supplies which is often limited. We don’t have that problem here except for the NE states that won’t allow new NG pipelines thru to their cities. There’s a few small old ones which haven’t been able to handle the increasing demand so they ship in LNG from the Gulf Coast.
In fact, Israel does not need an LNG plant. Egypt has a new and unused plant on its shore and there is already a (ruptured) gas pipeling between Israel and Egypt.
A chance for both of them to make a buck?
Thought the same thing, dutchnational. Still a lot of tension there, but both have a big incentive now.
A few billion reasons, all starting with $
whats LNG?
Are you a moron? Did you forget there is Hezbollah? Your bullcrapt with everything is Israel’s plan doesn’t work. They are just pathetic pawns.
It was sarcasm, Pavel.
Ooh-aah Hezbollah, I say ooh-aah Hezbollah. That is all.
you are partially right, but for situation in leban have pretty big fngers also the syrians. i remeber, assads ancsetor was 1 of destroyers of the flourishing lebanon.
Are the Lebanese fighters regular soldiers or paramilitaries?
Paramilitary local militiamen. Not a bad idea since they’re accustomed to the terrain and fighting in it.
This is a wise move since there’s plenty of trapped ISIS fighters in Western Syria that may attempt a mad rush to Lebanon where ISIS is in control. It’s really not that far away for them and could stand a good chance to make it if the SAA has second-rate units guarding the villages and towns along the way.
First I’ve heard of ISIS being on the boarder of Syria / Lebanon , Al Nusra held territory to my knowledge .
They’re next to the region mentioned in the article and probably slip into Lebanon when the SAA or Hezbollah comes by during patrols.
Why is this happening now? Bcs Aoun is president. Finally a worthy man!
If russia is searching for allies to help assad, Lebanon is not enough. With trump sending thousands of troops to syria, the only thing that can help russia now is intervention from the Shanghai cooperation club.
China is staying neutral, doing arms deals with syria, isreal, and saudi arabia at the same time. And belarus, kazakhstan, and cuba are all not sending troops because they have no money, and russia is tight on funds to pay for them.
The chronic shortage of manpower is only getting worse for assad. Trumps airstrike has raised enthusiasm in Ankara and Riyadh to spend more money and raise new units of terrorist armies for the syrian war. Ten days ago, the saudis considered removing assad a lost cause. Now they’re tasting victory.
You have been fooled by fake news reports of US sending in “boots on the grond” YPG and SDF will take care of Raqqa before the “US build up can occur in time”.
More help from Iraqi Shia Militias is expected as their war winds down. Believe it or not, Yemen contributes fighters to the SAA. Next to Hezbollah, the Houthis are probably the best on the battlefield.
China should do more, but probably will not. Its unknown how the chinese armed forces will perform given no experience. They have their own problems these days with North Korea, but I would never count on them for anything. They wish to be the economic masters of the world but I wonder if they understand that is not going to be given to them without a war.
China is doing a terrible job of building a sphere of influence or undermining their rivals sphere of influence. Because of this error, They will never be able to afford to match US military research, not when dictators like the gulf monarchs are giving american arms manufacturers hundreds of billions of dollars buying overpriced equipment.
The last time the Chinese Army fought was decades ago against the Vietnamese and got their butts kicked. Think it was over a border dispute in the late 70’s so the Vietnamese Army still had plenty of experienced soldiers that were using left behind US tanks and artillery.
Largest military defeat in history after Germany in St. Petersburg . 250, 000 troops surrounded and given the option of laying down their guns or be annihilated . They wisely laid down their guns and walked back to China.
anything is better than nothing
JOINT SYRIAN-LEBANESE FORCE ESTABLISHED TO DEFEAT TERRORISTS AT SYRIAN-LEBANESE BORDER.
Its a good news for Lebanese and Syrians to get ride of Israeli backed terrorists. They want to divide countries and rule on the Middle East. These Middle East countries people are devastated due to US, UK and Israeli interventions.
JOINT SYRIAN-LEBANESE FORCE ESTABLISHED TO DEFEAT TERRORISTS AT SYRIAN-LEBANESE BORDER
Its a very good news for Lebanese and Syrians, be united and defeat common proxy threats of US, UK and Israhell.