Tag Archives: Bashar Al-Assad

‘Beyond a Red Line’: Trump Might Just Launch Surprise Attack on Syria

Despite no hard evidence yet about who is behind horrific chemical-related massacre, president indicates he will just do whatever he wants

By Jon Queally, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 4-5-2017

Photo: Screenshot

Does President Donald Trump assume his administration can just launch a surprise, unilateral military attack against Syria?

The clear impression he left during a Wednesday afternoon press conference at the White House, as he stood alongside Jordan’s King Abdullah II, is that he can—and that he just might—but that he won’t tell “you” about it.

Just hours after the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations appeared to threaten unilateral action against Syria, Trump said he considers the alleged use of chemical weapons on Tuesday “beyond a red line” that “would not be tolerated” but refused to offer any clarity on what actions his administration would take in response. Continue reading →

Calls for Accountability, Probe, After Dozens Killed in Suspected Chemical Attack

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Children made up a third of the victims, according to Save the Children, which also reported a second likely gas attack

By Lauren McCauley, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 4-4-2017

Victims of Syrian Gas attack. Photo: A_Almghyr/Twitter

The international community sat aghast on Tuesday as images emerged of Syrian children choking to death after a suspected chemical attack killed dozens of people in the rebel-controlled northern province of Idlib.

According to reporting, at least 60 were killed and hundreds more are being treated for exposure. Survivors of the attack said that war planes dropped toxic gas at dawn over the village of Khan Sheikhun, where, the Guardian notes, “there are thousands of refugees from the nearby province of Hama who have fled recent fighting” between government forces and the Islamic State (ISIS). Continue reading →

Why the U.S. Is Really Putting Boots on the Ground in Syria

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By Darius Shahtahmasebi, Published 3-14-2017 by The Anti-Media

Photo: Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Though a number of U.S. soldiers were previously deployed to Syria under the Obama administration, the U.S. government has just sent an additional 400 troops to Syrian territory without congressional approval, without approval from the Syrian government, and without approval from the U.N.

Given the illegality of the move, the real question regarding the operation must focus on the motive. Why is the United States military, under a president who ran on a campaign of focusing less on wars abroad, sending more troops to Syrian territory? Trump supporters often argue this is to fulfill his campaign promise to defeat ISIS. Continue reading →

Turkey Looks to Join Russia-China Alliance, Snubbing the US and Europe

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By Darius Shahtahmasebi. Published 11-22-2016 by The Anti-Media

Photo: Emre Uslu/Twitter

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan recently said Turkey does not need to join the European Union “at all costs.” Instead, he is looking to become part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

The Shanghai Cooperation Organization is a Eurasian political, economic, and military bloc originally founded in Shanghai by China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan.

Although Turkey is a member of NATO, 11 years of negotiations aimed at the country’s entrance into the E.U. have almost fallen flat. A proposal for Turkey to take a certain number of refugees from Europe with hopes this would lead to E.U. membership failed earlier this year. Continue reading →

The US Edges Dangerously Closer to War with Russia: What You Aren’t Being Told

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By Darius Shahtahmasebi. Published 10-7-2016 by The Anti-Media

Barack Obama and Vladmir Putin at G8 summit 2013. Photo by ShadowNinja1080 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons

As hawkish as presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton may be, the fact the Obama administration is pressing for direct war in Syria before she even has a chance to be elected raises serious questions about the urgency underpinning the U.S. establishment’s push to unseat Syrian president Bashar al-Assad from power.

Just this week, Russia deployed its S-300 surface-to-air missiles to Syria’s western coast in a move to preemptively counter any threat from U.S.-coalition airstrikes. The move came shortly after a number of reports surfaced in the corporate media claiming the Obama administration was mulling over attacking Syrian troops directly. Continue reading →

The West’s Silence Is Deafening as Worst Nightmare Unfolds in Post-Coup Turkey

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By Darius Shahtahmasebi. Published 7-28-2016 by The Anti-Media

Tayyip Erdogan, John Kerry and Barack Obama; Wales, 2014. Photo: Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

The Turkish mission to weed out every possible element of dissent continues, with the government of Turkey reportedly dismissing close to 1,700 military personnel and shutting down 131 media outlets throughout the country.

Of the servicemen recently fired in Turkey, 149 were generals and admirals, meaning approximately 40 percent of all of generals and admirals in Turkey’s military are now without jobs. Continue reading →

‘A gift from God’: Erdoğan will strike back with an iron fist

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Whoever was behind the failed coup attempt, one thing seems clear: Erdogan will use it as a pretext to concentrate and consolidate even more power.

By Jerome Roos. Published 7-17-2016 by ROAR Magazine

Photo: blazingcatfur

The images beamed from across the Bosphorus this weekend were surreal. For a few terrifying hours early on Saturday, no one really knew who was in control of the second largest military power in NATO. As tanks took up strategic positions in Istanbul and Ankara and the embattled President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan addressed an anxious nation from an undisclosed location via FaceTime, it briefly looked like the country might be in the throes of yet another full-blown and irreversible military coup. Continue reading →

Read This Before The Government Uses the Orlando Shooting to Start Another War

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By Claire Bernish. Published 6-17-2016 by The Anti-Media

Syria civil war victims. Photo: By محمد السعيد (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yp_Ju6742Z0) [CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Syria civil war victims. Photo: By محمد السعيد [CC BY 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Late Thursday evening, the Wall Street Journal reported, 51 State Department officials signed a statement condemning U.S. policy in Syria in which they repeatedly call for “targeted military strikes against the Damascus government and urging regime change as the only way to defeat Islamic State.”

“In other words,” as Zero Hedge summarized, “over 50 top ‘diplomats’ are urging to eliminate [Syrian Pres. Bashar al] Assad in order to ‘defeat ISIS’, the same ISIS which top US ‘diplomats’ had unleashed previously in order to … eliminate Assad.” Continue reading →

Failed US Policy in the Middle East

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By Ellen Rosser. Published 2-29-2016 by Common Dreams

(Photo: Mark Holloway/flickr/cc.)

The United States has been involved in the Middle East for almost one hundred years because of the vast oil reserves there, and the US has been militarily involved since 1967, when the US began supplying Israel with weapons with which to defend itself. However, the US has only been involved in the “quagmire” of Middle East wars since 2001. Continue reading →

Russia and Turkey Exchange Threats as War Tensions Reverberate Along Syrian Border

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‘What happens next is anything but clear.’

By Jon Queally, staff writer for Common Dreams. Published 2-17-2016

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey pictured in January 2016. (Photo: EPA)

A bomb blast in the Turkish capital of Ankara on Wednesday—which killed dozens of people and injured scores of others—arrived alongside increasing global worries about how Turkey is responding to shifting developments on the other side of its border with Syria where a brutal civil war and international fight against the Islamic State continues.

Over the recent days and weeks, the Syrian armed forces of President Bashar al-Assad, backed by Russian airstrikes and the Syrian Kurdish milita known as the YPG, have closed off vital supply routes of ISIS and opposition fighters while capturing long-held territory near the strategically-situated town of Azaz and the rebel stronghold of Aleppo in northwestern Syria. Continue reading →

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Tag Archives: Bashar Al-Assad

‘Beyond a Red Line’: Trump Might Just Launch Surprise Attack on Syria

Despite no hard evidence yet about who is behind horrific chemical-related massacre, president indicates he will just do whatever he wants

Why the U.S. Is Really Putting Boots on the Ground in Syria

The US Edges Dangerously Closer to War with Russia: What You Aren’t Being Told

The West’s Silence Is Deafening as Worst Nightmare Unfolds in Post-Coup Turkey

‘A gift from God’: Erdoğan will strike back with an iron fist

Whoever was behind the failed coup attempt, one thing seems clear: Erdogan will use it as a pretext to concentrate and consolidate even more power.

Read This Before The Government Uses the Orlando Shooting to Start Another War

Russia and Turkey Exchange Threats as War Tensions Reverberate Along Syrian Border

‘What happens next is anything but clear.’