The New "Regime Change" Plan - Attack Damascus From The South
There are serious active preparations for a new attack on Damascus. Anti-government forces, including the Al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra, have been trained and equipped in Jordan and are now moving into their starting position in Quneitra governate in south-west Syria. (A similar plan in spring 2013 was only partially executed and later aborted,)
Quneitra governate is a strip next to the Israel occupied Golan heights with a southern border to Jordan and a north western border with Lebanon.
The anti-government forces cooperating for this operation are the Syrian Revolutionaries Front (SRF), which is backed by the United States, assisted by the Islamic Front, backed by Saudi Arabia, and al-Qaeda's Jabhat al-Nusrah which just received some $20 million from Qatar. These forces infiltrated from Jordan through Daara and then up north-westward along the border with Israel. This movement, during which some UN observers were kidnapped by these forces, was supported by Israeli artillery strikes against Syrian units that tried to prevent it. The sole border station between Israel and Syria is now in the hands of the anti-government forces. The Israeli military is also providing medical support to these anti-government forces. The UN has pulled out all peacekeepers from the Syrian side of the Golan height demarcation line.
The anti-government forces now control a 40 miles (70km) long, three miles (5km) wide strip from Jordan along the Golan frontier up to Lebanon. This strip can be used to infiltrate into Hizbullah territory in south Lebanon but its main purpose is likely an attack on Damascus from the south. The Syrian military would have great difficulties to dislodge the anti-government forces from this strip as it is covered by Israeli anti-air and artillery fire.
There are rumors that Jabhat al-Nusra is leaving positions it has been holding in Hama governate in north Syria. It's groups are pulling back into Turkey to be transferred to Jordan and then as reinforcements into Quneitra.
The rather empty Quneitra area makes little sense to conquer except to be used as a launching pad for an attack from the south towards Damascus. The distance to the capital is only some 40 miles (60km). While two Syrian army divisions are stationed between Quneitra governate and Damascus coordinated air attacks against them could open and secure a route from Quneitra governate into the capital. Recent truce agreements between the U.S. supported Syrian Revolutionary Front and ISIS in the area south of Damascus may have been concluded with these attack plans in mind.
The U.S. military in the joint Arab-American operations room for the Syrian insurgency in Amman Jordan may well plan to use the murky new "war on ISIS" as pretext for attacks on the Syrian army divisions protecting Damascus from the south. Coordinated with a ground attack by Jabhat al-Nusra and others from Quneitra such air attacks would seriously degrade the Syrian forces and enable a destructive push into Damascus.
(update) Obama already announced the escalation path for such air attacks:
He made clear the intricacy of the situation, though, as he contemplated the possibility that Mr. Assad might order his forces to fire at American planes entering Syrian airspace. If he dared to do that, Mr. Obama said he would order American forces to wipe out Syria’s air defense system, which he noted would be easier than striking ISIS because its locations are better known. He went on to say that such an action by Mr. Assad would lead to his overthrow, according to one account.
The stampede to attack ISIS may have been pure maskirovka to hide this violent regime change attack plan against Syria under some "anti-terrorism" label. This at the same time as the plan is coordinated with and actively supported by Jabhat al-Nusra, al-Qaeda's affiliate in Syria, and made possible through truce agreements with ISIS.
Posted by b on September 15, 2014 at 15:42 UTC | Permalink
« previous pagePosted by: somebody | Sep 16, 2014 12:36:04 PM | 91
comical
Posted by: brian | Sep 17 2014 1:36 utc | 102
to outraged @ 71 --
I agree with really @ 78, well said.
Back folks into a corner, they'll fight, even or perhaps if the odds don't seem good. You can't use force to ensure compliance indefinitely, what goes around comes around.
Posted by: rufus magister | Sep 17 2014 3:47 utc | 103
oops, correcting myself at 103 "eve or perhaps especially if the odds don't seem good."
Posted by: rufus magister | Sep 17 2014 3:50 utc | 104
Syrian amabassador to UN
Israel Helping Golan Rebels, 'Playing with Fire'
Posted by: somebody | Sep 17 2014 5:19 utc | 105
From the above link to an Israeli site
In essence, Syria appears to be alleging that Israel, Jordan, and Qatar and the United Nations are conspiring to enable Israel, in Amb. Ja’afari’s words, “to fight a war of attrition against Syrian forces,” similar to that which Israel fought against Lebanon during the 90’s.
I guess Israel might have second thoughts.
Posted by: somebody | Sep 17 2014 5:42 utc | 106
This here is vice news
The UN reports the IDF has quietly made contact with Islamists groups, meeting them at points along the extremely narrow southern portion of the disengagement zones - where the two lines are but a few hundred meters apart - to exchange wounded and convalescent individuals.
Posted by: somebody | Sep 17 2014 6:00 utc | 107
And now Fox News quotes an American Zionist blaming Qatar
“The Qataris have clearly indicated that they don’t mind Islamic radicals running rampant over neighboring countries,” Weinberg said. “Formally they are part of the anti-Islamic State coalition, but they are among the actors most responsible for radical Islamists becoming the most dominant element of the Syrian opposition.”Israeli leaders have long called out Qatar as a prime sponsor of international terrorism and asked Western governments to take appropriate action, something that has not yet happened due to, according to some experts, Qatar’s now far-reaching influence on international business and the world of finance. But its shadowy relations with Sunni terror groups around the world are hard to square with its claims to be a broker of peace.
“Qatar has leverage with Al Nusra, which has been designated a terror group by the U.S., and other hard-line Islamist rebel factions in Syria because of the military and financial aid Doha provided to many of these groups,” the Abu Dhabi-based The National reported last month. “Qatar is reported to have cut off much of this assistance after demands by Washington. Yet, Qatar’s history in Syria and close ties to Islamist political and militant groups across the Muslim world has left Doha vulnerable to a chorus of accusations that it directly or indirectly funds the Islamic State.”
Weinberg charged that Qatar is working to undermine the U.S. on another front, as well. The oil-rich nation owns Al Jazeera, and the news network is relentless in its criticism of U.S. ambitions for energy independence, Weinberg notes. Basing its opposition to fracking in the U.S. on environmental concerns is phony, given Qatar's dominance in the fossil fuel arena, he said.
“Qatar has spent at least half a billion dollars launching the Al Jazeera network here in the U.S. which is virulently opposed to American energy independence,” Weinberg said. “To see the Qataris funding an outlet that is obviously expressing disingenuous concern on their part about greenhouse gasses and global warming, when Qatar is the world’s No.1 liquid natural gas exporter and the No.1 source per capita of greenhouse gases, is clearly a foreign policy power bite.”
oh yeah. pop corn please.
Posted by: somebody | Sep 17 2014 6:09 utc | 108
@105, the speech to the un from the syrian ambassador says a lot.. thanks for pointing that out.
Posted by: james | Sep 17 2014 6:25 utc | 109
More pop corn. The people trained by "the West" to threaten Assad happen to be Palestinian.
With the news that the terrorist organization Jabhat al-Nusra (al Nusra Front)1 is one of the organizations that took control of the Kuneitra Crossing on the Golan Heights on August 27, 2014, attention should be paid to the close ties between al-Nusra and Hamas, specifically the role played by Khaled Mashaal in establishing and directing the terror groups.
Israel charges Iran, Qatar, Turkey renewing aid to Hamas: ‘Where is the world?’
Posted by: somebody | Sep 17 2014 6:35 utc | 110
More new Iran axis Iran Qatar plan joint free trade zone
From last year: US will up support for Syria rebels
US president speaks with emir of Qatar, another backer of Syrian opposition, during latter’s visit to the White House
Posted by: somebody | Sep 17 2014 6:55 utc | 111
@ 111.
The Iranians are beginning to look (almost) as smart as Russians.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Sep 17 2014 7:37 utc | 112
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Sep 17, 2014 3:37:28 AM | 112
They are in place to be the mediator in Syria.
There is also this Pepe Escobar - energy ballet
So in a sense the Supreme Leader has it all covered. If Rouhani shines and there is a final nuclear deal, the economic scenario will vastly improve, especially via massive European investment. If Washington scotches the deal over pressure from the usual lobbies, Tehran can always say it exercised all of its “heroic flexibility,” and move on – as in closer and closer integration with both Russia and China.
And of course this
SAUDI Arabia is turning to its biggest crude oil customer, China, for help in developing domestic nuclear and renewable power as the oil-rich kingdom seeks to diversify its own energy base.Saudi Arabia may spend up to $US80 billion on nuclear power plants and $US100 billion on solar power projects between now and 2032, making the country’s energy sector one of the biggest investment opportunities in the world.
Under an agreement signed in Beijing last week), state-owned Chinese National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) and Saudi Arabia’s energy research centre, known as the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (K. A. CARE) agreed to cooperate on developing and producing nuclear and renewable energy to meet Saudi domestic demand.
The arrangement will build on a nuclear cooperation agreement reached by the two countries in 2012.
Posted by: somebody | Sep 17 2014 8:02 utc | 113
plus 112
They have been renowned for strategy since 480 BC. Russia learnt it from Prussia doing Clausewitz. Does not come close.
Posted by: somebody | Sep 17 2014 8:11 utc | 114
It was only 12 months ago that Obama tried and failed to create the political conditions for US air strikes against the Assad regime, making allegations of the use of nerve gas weapons that were later discredited. Now Obama is seeking to achieve the same goal by a different route, using ISIS as a pretext to get American military forces into Syria, where they will become the spearhead of the campaign to oust Assad and install a pro-US stooge regime in Damascus.”" - See more at: http://en.alalam.ir/news/1631627#sthash.KGo9I12C.dpuf
Posted by: Tom Murphy | Sep 17 2014 9:03 utc | 115
A deal has been struck: autonomy for South Eastern Ukraine for a piece of Syria and autonomy for the Kurds. UK/US can't wait to get some return on the heavy investments they've made in Iraqi Kurdistan.
And if by any chance the Syrian gov would disagree with the new Sykes-Picot, he has a few oil fields to lose around Deir al Zor.
Posted by: Mina | Sep 17 2014 9:07 utc | 116
Posted by: Mina | Sep 17, 2014 5:07:47 AM | 116
I doubt it. Russia would not be interested in this type of deal. They are negotiating for a European Russian integration that respects their interests and their security concerns.
Kurdish independence would upset Iran, Iraq, Syria and Turkey, which would be/is a huge unifying factor much like IS is a unifying factor now.
Barzani went to Turkey to discuss it and did not cut any ice it seems
After Rouhani's recent visit to Ankara, comments by a senior Iranian official that Turkey and Iran share a “strategic horizon” about a Kurdistan state in the region attracted attention.“US President Barack Obama is against the division of Iraq and the emergence of an independent Kurdish state," wrote Yavuz Baydar in Today's Zaman. Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for African and Middle Eastern Affairs Hossein Amir Abdollahian claimed July 14 that the division of Iraq is an Israeli plan that Iran will never allow to happen. Abdollahian also said that Tehran and Ankara are on the same page strategically with regard to an independent Kurdish state in the region.
and
On July 12, the Kurdistan Communities Union (KCK), the umbrella group of the PKK and its affiliates, issued a strong warning to Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) government. Firat News Agency reported that it read, “The AKP must abandon its 'three monkeys' policies. The settlement process in [Turkey's predominantly Kurdish] north and support of IS in Rojava [northern Syria’s Kurdish area] cannot go together. The AKP should either support IS or respect the spirit of the peace process. Otherwise, the spillover of the revolution from Rojava to the north or vice versa will be inevitable. No force will be able to stop this.”The KCK and PKK resorted to reasoning that could best be treated as a conspiracy theory that supports a direct connection between the Erdogan government and IS. According to Firat, the warning added, “IS gangs are crossing the Iraq-Turkey borders and attacking our people. There is a sinister and dangerous plan in the works. IS has made a deal with the AKP state. Seizing Kobani (Ayn al-Arab) and wiping out the Rojava revolution is the joint strategy of both sides. The basis of such an accord is the release of Turkish consulate personnel. … The attack against the Rojava revolution and Kobani is organized by the AKP state.”
Posted by: somebody | Sep 17 2014 9:55 utc | 117
just change "independent" with "within a federated iraq",
you think they've organized school curriculums for christians in their own chaldean/syriac language and attracted all the people who didn't want to find refuge in syria or jordan for the latest decade to no avail?
Posted by: Mina | Sep 17 2014 10:33 utc | 118
Posted by: Mina | Sep 17, 2014 6:33:17 AM | 118
Iraq already is a federation, Germany by the way, too, there is nothing terrible about it.
The conflict, I understand, is local control of oil resources.
Posted by: somebody | Sep 17 2014 10:43 utc | 119
Western nihilism remains the best recruitment factor for IS and others
http://www.lemonde.fr/idees/article/2014/09/17/pierre-torres-j-ai-commis-l-erreur-de-collaborer-avec-les-services-de-l-antiterrorisme-francais_4488696_3232.html
Posted by: Mina | Sep 17 2014 11:47 utc | 120
Notes of the Obama - Erdogan meeting revealed
Good explainer of ISIS and Erdogan's policies.
Posted by: somebody | Sep 17 2014 12:11 utc | 121
"Lest we forget, from the outset of the war on Syria in March 2011, the US and its allies supported so-called “Freedom fighters” largely composed of the Al Nusrah and ISIS brigades. Trained in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, these pro-democracy terrorists were routinely involved in atrocities including beheadings directed against Syrian civilians."
Read more: http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-history-of-isis-beheadings-part-of-the-training-manual-of-us-sponsored-syria-pro-democracy-terrorists/5402566
Posted by: Kathryn | Sep 19 2014 20:15 utc | 122
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And here is the other part :-))
Now, who is facing Israel in Qneitra, al Nusra, ISIS or "moderate rebels"? What was this thing about the UN peacekeepers and the demand to put Al Nusra off the terrorism list?
Posted by: somebody | Sep 16 2014 21:49 utc | 101