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… one rationale for Russia agreeing to this truce is presented in the very last sentence of this video:
“… the Syrian Arab Army and its allies need time to regroup forces and facilities to continue the fight against the terrorists. …”
Whether there might also be other compelling reasons behind the Russian decision, we can only speculate.
» The formal side of the statement brings up an issue hidden by the mainstream media: If the main task force and the ceasefire agreement is set up between the U.S. and Russia, who is at war with whom in Syria? … «
Hmmm … an interesting perspective!
Perhaps the inference has to be that each side (USA and Russian Federation) is the captain of its team of proxies.
So, Russia is captain for Syria and its allies.
USA is captain for the terrorist groups, SA, Turkey, etc. All of the others.
But Russia is in Syria, and, ergo, at the conference table, legally.
So, what validity does this agreemnt have? I guess it has some kind of imprimateur from the UN, but that seems like a figleaf.
So, it does seem like a weird setup for an agreement or a ceasefire.
I also don’t get the functionality of the point about establishing what territory is currently held by ISIS, etc. What purpose does that serve? To validate in some way their current positions? NOw does the USA say, our guys are among those guys, so don’t bomb there!
That sounds like the “human shield” argument applied to terrorists, i.e., the US advisers are providing a human shield for head choppers etc.
Katherine
It would seem that discretion is the better part of valor here for the ascendant side here. Clearly the risks of a greater war are being pragmatically weighed in Moscow. I don’t know if they will be able to keep the “good guys” honest for long, but Oded Yinon’s underwear must feel tight today. :)
Last battle before the ceasefire coming?
Tue Feb 23, 2016 2:31
Syria: Gov’t Forces Preparing to Launch Imminent Operation at Lattakia-Idlib Border
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13941204000973
right near that western Syria-Turkey border.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Rxr4HttRHyA/U9pwwLbHdRI/AAAAAAAABiU/m4_PFkyXbaQ/s1600/Numbered+Idlib+Map-01.png
TEHRAN (FNA)- The Syrian Army announced on Tuesday that it has dispatched a large number of fresh forces to the Northeastern heights of Lattakia province near the border with Idlib province to join an imminent anti-terrorism operation.
“The Syrian Armed Forces have been transferring fresh soldiers to the Kabani front, where they are likely to launch an assault in the coming days to break the last line of defense of Jeish Al-Fatah militants in Lattakia,” the army said.
More “consolidation of position” last minute battles ongoing, likely everywhere.
Tue Feb 23, 2016 7:16
SDF Repels ISIL’s Heavy Attack near Tishreen Dam in Aleppo
TEHRAN (FNA)- Tens of the ISIL Takfiri terrorists were killed West of the Tishreen Dam in Northern Aleppo province in a massive, but fruitless, attack on the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) positions in the region on Monday night.
The Kurdish fighters, backed by US coalition air support, fended off the ISIL’s attempted attack on SDF positions in Sa’din village, West of Tishrin Dam, and forced them back from the battlefield.
“Scores of terrorists were killed or wounded under the SDF heavy fire near the Tishreen Dam,” Source told FNA on Tuesday afternoon.
The source said that the last night’s attack of the ISIL militants was the third in less than seven days.
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13941204001466
dam is 90 km E of Aleppo city, Aleppo province.
http://i2.wp.com/www.petercliffordonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Syria-Map-of-Northern-Syria-Showing-Tishreen-Dam.png
Fisk has perhaps the most interesting article on where the refugees came from.. We all knew they came because of war.. But nothing more…. It seems the ethnic cleansing was done on purpose and includes everyone more or less.. The terrorists targeted the poor who had no choice but to run away and like in all countries the poor make up the vast majority of the people.
On the Road to Aleppo. Where People Have Abandoned all in the Shadow of Isis By Robert Fisk
The moral of the story is simple: you will learn a lot about Syria’s tragedy on the way, and about the dangers of rockets, bombs and IEDS, and you must drive fast – very fast – if you want to reach Syria’s largest and still warring city without meeting the sort of folk who’d put you on a video-tape wearing an orange jump suite with a knife at your throat.
These are not the gaunt, hanging six-storey blocks of central Hama. They are the suburbs and the surrounding villages where the revolution began almost six years ago and where it metamorphosed from the ‘Free Syrian Army’ of which Dave Cameron still dreams – all 70,000 of them – into the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra and then, like a Victorian horror novel, into Isis. For all of those 30 miles – perhaps 40 if you count some outlying hamlets in the dust-storms that blow across the desert – I saw only feral children, two makeshift sweet stores and a few still-standing homes. The rest is crumpled concrete, sandwiched roofs, weed-covered and abandoned barricades from wars which no reporter witnessed and of which there is apparently no visual record. They are the homes of the poor, those who had no chance of salvation in their own country.
Then the wreckage starts. A burned-out bus on my side of the car – “38 passengers were killed in that bus,” Mohamed says, but he can’t remember if it was hit with rocket-propelled grenades or drove over a hidden mine left for the army. Mohamed’s wife is in the back of the car and points east across the grey desert to a swaddle of concrete two miles to the east. “That’s al-Mabouji,” she says quietly. “Isis went in there six months ago and massacred 65 civilians and took eight women away as slaves. No-one has seen them since.” Another road sign. Raqqa 219 kilometres.
There’s another village close by – Khanaifis – which Isis shelled several weeks ago in an attempt to cut our road, killing 45 civilians, mostly women and children. “Raqqa”, says the next infuriating sign. “167 kilometres”. And I remember that somewhere over there to the east, on grey sand looking identical to the stony earth around us, Isis put to death those poor Western men on the videotapes with knives to cut their heads off. The Syrians have built little fortresses beside the highway now, tiny castles of sand and concrete sprouting with machine guns, a few Katyusha batteries and an occasional tank. It becomes an obsessive task to count these little protective ramparts. Could they really disgorge a Syrian version of the US Cavalry if the black flags of Isis suddenly appeared on the road? The black flags did appear about a month ago but the Syrians drove to the road-block and killed every armed member of the world’s most fearful cult.
A thousand people have been killed by violence on this road in two years. Isis desperately want to take it back.
No longer. The city is reborn. There are smart military policemen in red berets on the checkpoints, Who would believe we could be so happy to see this dangerous old city and its burned medieval market and decrepit hotels? Now that tells you something about the war in Syria.
more http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article44279.htm