Bruce Plante Cartoon
US President Donald Trump is ordering the Pentagon and State Department to develop a series of “safe zones” for refugees fleeing violence in Syria, according to reports.
Reuters reported on Wednesday:
U.S. President Donald Trump said he “will absolutely do safe zones in Syria” to protect people fleeing violence there.
“I’ll absolutely do safe zones in Syria for the people,” Trump said in an interview with ABC News broadcast on Wednesday.
“I think that Europe has made a tremendous mistake by allowing these millions of people to go into Germany and various other countries,” he said.
The agency also said that, according to a draft document, Trump is going to order the Pentagon and the State Department in coming days to craft a plan for setting up the “safe zones.”
“The Secretary of State, in conjunction with the Secretary of Defense, is directed within 90 days of the date of this order to produce a plan to provide safe areas in Syria and in the surrounding region in which Syrian nationals displaced from their homeland can await firm settlement, such as repatriation or potential third-country resettlement,” the draft order reportedly said.
There are no details on what would constitute a safe zone, where they might be created and who would defend them.
The reports still have to be confirmed, officially. Furthermore, the reports about the draft document originally appeared in Reuters, an agency which worked very close with other mainstream propaganda outlets oposing Trump during the US Presidential Election 2016.
On Thursday, spokesman for the Turkish Foreign Ministry, Huseyin Muftuoglu, said Turkey is waiting to see the outcome of Trump’s idea.
“Setting up of safe zones is something Turkey has advocated from the start. The best example is in Jarablus,” he said, referring to a town near the Turkish border that was seized from ISIS by the Turkish Armed Forces and pro-Turkish militants..
The Kremlin said Thursday that the US has to calculate all the possible risks of creating these zones in Syria (TASS):
The Kremlin calls on the United States to calculate all the possible risks of creating ‘safe’ zones for Syrian refugees not to deteriorate the situation, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
“It is important that this does not worsen the situation with the refugees,” Peskov told reporters. “All the possible consequences should be considered,” he stressed.
Peskov also said the US partners had not consulted with Russia before announcing the decision.
Syrian government held areas are “safe zones” , jihadist rebel held zones are not safe .
Well-said!
Exactly, within Syria, when given the choice 85% of displaced persons flee INTO government controlled districts to escape jihadis. This happened over 4 years in Aleppo as east Aleppo was slowly depopulated by locals moving west.
Many tens of thousands fled to SDF, just in 2016 40.000 to Sjeikh Maqsud, some 40.000 to Afrin, some 30.000 to Shadaddi and on top of that some 50.000 iraqis to Al Houl.
Earlier many fled from Aleppo to Afrin, hundreds of thousands.
Also, some 4 to 5 million fled the country. Say 6 million fled abroad, SDF and rebel and even some IS held.
If that is just 15%, then 85/15 times 6 million is equals 34 million fled to Assad held territory, that is 50% more than the total population 2011 and 3 times more then the present population of Assadistan, including the original people there.
This is all rubbish. I would say up to some 50% of the displaced people went to Assadistan, the present ministatelet of government Syria.
I think most likely US-backed safe zones will be in Turkey, also probably Jordan or Lebanon. Less likely are safe zones in Turkish-held territory in Syria or SDF or Army held areas. Pretty sure where they wont pop up are Raqqa, Deir Ez Zor and Idlib governorates since they’d just be flattened before anybody would move in.
I wish that Trump had a diversified reading list. He should know that Syria already has three safe zones. 1. Govt held areas, 2. Kurdish held territory, and 3. Turkish held territory around Jarabulus for the rebels.
What do these guys need, ocean front property?
US has already established multiple bases and I’m getting the feeling they are looking for an excuse to mount some sort of major propaganda stunt involving their airborne/airlanding assets sitting idle in Iraq. In any case this is beginning to look like the permanent loss of all Syrian territory north of 36.5 degree N Latitude, with dual US/Turkey control under some fake “safe haven status “, while the PYD/SDF get their own protected statelet in Hasakah/N Raqqa. I predict the deployment of a US airborne/airlanding Taskforce, drawn from elements already in theatre (Iraq) in the guise of creating a humanitarian “safe haven” The break-up of Syrian into ethno-sectarian statelets remains the goal of US/GB/FR/Israel – this is happening right now, can anyone seriously think that Turkey will politely withdraw back into Turkey from the lands now seized and occupied ? Syria is being used as a wargamers playground by US/GB/FR and other NATO bit-players (BE,DA,AUS), none of whom have any justification for military involvement in Syria, but have troops on the ground, combat air strikes, bombings, logistics and intel support to jihadis because they can – apart from Syrian Armed Forces who will take on any member of this evil cabal NO-ONE !
Excerpt wiki The Fourth Crusade is considered to be one of the final acts in the Great Schism between theEastern Orthodox Church and Roman Catholic Church, and a key turning point in the decline of the Byzantine Empire and Christianity in the Near East.
The Vatican along with Venetian Bankers/Blind Doge, Raise a Crusade army from Europe, Instead of Crusade in Holy Land, ….the Blind Doge attacks Constantinople.
The faux missile defence shield pushing on Russia under the lie of protecting Europa From Iranian missiles. Vatican and Zionist… (note …Venetian bankers eventually pissed everyone off,…even The Pope….they were run out into the Amsterdam region…afterward, They jumped the channel to become The City of London, That show also is Wallstreet.
So in a sense….it’s Still. ….Vatican and Venetian bankers.
Excellent. All roads lead to Rome.
To call the SDF held territory as statelet is somewhat denigrating.
Many arab states have a smaller surface and or smaller population, as do many european countries. On top of that, SDF does not propose becoming independent. They want a federal state within Syria.
Arab states should concentrate on cooperation, starting with economics and maybe, for a generation or two, forget internal power politics.
This is not new. Last time it was Obama and Kerry, but General Martin Dempsey reminded them it would cost them a billion a month, they would be carpet-bombing Syria, they would certainly lose planes and pilots — and that was in 2013, before the Russians intervened. Then, it would’ve been a trigger for World War Three. Now, it WOULD be World War Three. Now, look at the flimsy report by the insidious Reuters org, doubtless a nest of CIA assets in there somewhere. No document shown. Looks like a CIA worms’ work. And The Donald might just be stupid enough to fall for it. Let’s face it — anything the Turks say is a good idea, is NOT.
Haven’t a majority of Syrians refugees already left for Europe? The only safe zone in Syria would be for Turkey and the US to pack up and leave Syria and take their proxy armies with them, then all of Syria would be a ‘safe zone’. Trump is turning out to be the neocons and war mongers best friend.
Syria will have one big safe zone after the CIA leaves. As for the Turks, they will depart with the rest of the CIA menagerie.
I have to say, I’m all in favor of creating such a Safe-Zone. In fact, that Safe-Zone should cover the entire sovereign territory of Syria including the Golan.
You create such a zone by killing every last foreign merc, Wahhabi whack-job and jihadi head-chopper on Syrian soil. The $1.2 trillion or so in war reparations from the U.S./GCC/Israeli cabal can be used to rebuild the infrastructure intentionally destroyed by them – a Syrian Marshall Plan. And then ban the U.S./GCC/Israel and their stooge NGOs from ever setting foot on Syrian soil again – ever.
Make Syria Great Again, Trump.
https://i0.wp.com/osnetdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Aegis-Umbrella-diagram.png?zoom=2&resize=484%2C327
If we add the land based Aegis in Poland/Romania….the Coverage gap near Syria/Iraq comes into view. Yes…the US would want Missile Shield coverage for that. ..yet Israel more?.
Just an aside thought,… The Sunni Kookistan/Saudi Qatar pipeline route via Der Ezzor province. The entire show if falter….creates the chaos for US to justify Bases in NE Syria Where they are at present. The kook terror show misdirection? ….as US gets Missile Shield after the game turn ends.
While it may seem like Putin is showing weakness…He understands the Entire Missile hegemon gambit is slow cycle turns over many years. Unless He can get US to withdraw missiles from Poland,Romania etc,….the End Game is On.
A counter to Future US missile umbrella in NE Syria,Or NW Iraq,or Jordan, Could fall to Iran…IE. ..Russia giving Iran S 500 or whatever is needed. While Syria does offer some energy windfall if control was taken by US, It is more value in strategic position on behalf of Israel and the US Aegis missile Shield.
John Batchelor program has been pushing Iran Ballistic missile hysteria . Mad Dog and Flynn must stop Iran Terror.
The armies allied with the internationally-recognized Syrian government have been creating them for quite some time.
Trump has started slowly but surely to show his idiocy. Noting will ever change America until the Second Coming of The Word of God.
It’s interesting suddenly Iran has become main exporter of terrorism according to Trump and Pence. However no ban on immigration from KSA, Qatar and UAE. All those countries where US staged regime change by generous help from gulf littoral states are on the list of the banned. Has anything changed in US foreign policy?