Syrian War Report – Jan. 9, 2019: Turkey Wants US Military Bases In Northern Syria
Ankara has asked the US to hand over 16 of its military bases in northern Syria to Turkey or to local authorities in the region after the U.S. withdraws, presidential spokesperson İbrahim Kalın said on January 8 after discussions with U.S. officials.
“We are pleased with Trump’s decision for withdrawal [from Syria], but it needs to be clarified as to what kind of structure will be left behind, what will happen to the heavy weapons that have been deployed, the fate of American military bases and logistics centers. In this meeting we discussed these in detail,” Kalın stressed.
He added that the US withdrawal should not allow “new opportunities for terrorist organizations or other elements, including the PYD/YPG.”
Earlier, Ankara repeatedly vowed that the US has to collect the weapons and equipment, which they had supplied to Kurdish armed groups in Syria. However, this demand as well as the transfer of US infrastructure to Turkey seems unrealistic.
These statements are a public part of the ongoing negotiations between Turkey and the US over the situation in northern Syria, primarly in Manbij. Similar negotiations are now ongoing between the Russian-Iranian-Syrian alliance and Turkey as well as between the alliance and Kurdish armed groups. However, the sides have achieved no significant progress thus far. This can be tracked by monitoring the current areas of the Syrian Army and Russian military police deployment near Manbij. They still only control several positions west of the town. If they withdraw, this would mean that the Kurdish leadership has once again rejected all proposals from Damascus and its allies. If they enter Manbij or expand their control near it, this would show progress.
In the Idlib de-escalation zone, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham has captured several new areas from Turkish-backed factions in northwestern Hama and southern Idlib establishing control of about a dozen of villages.
Meanwhile, pro-government forces have repelled several fresh infiltration attempts by militant groups in northern Hama, in the area close to the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham-held area. Attacks were carried out from the directions of al-Latamina, Mourek and Ma’arkiba. According to Syrian state media, militants have suffered significant casualties and failed to capture any positions.
Syrian state-run media reports on ceasefire violations by militant groups operating in the Idlib de-escalation zone on a constant basis. In turn, the “opposition” also accuses the Damascus government of violating the ceasefire.
However, this situation could change in the nearest future in the event of further Hayat Tahrir al-Sham expansion in southern Idlib. If the terrorist group consolidates its gains and expands areas under its control across the de-escalation zone, the situation in the demilitarized zone near the province of Idlib will likely deteriorate further. This development would undermine all the previous efforts of Damascus, Russia, Iran and Turkey to de-escalate the situation in this part of the country.
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Al Nusra (Hayat Tahrir al-Sham) is very close to losing connection with life on Earth. The time has run out for Turkey to protect them.
Russia and Syria will take them down, liquidate them and cleanse their areas of Idlib.
During these months of allowing Turkey to deal with them, the Russia forces have mapped all the strategic locations of their leadership, all their logistics caches and their ratlines. If you look at a map, they are in self-made boilers.
They will be bombed, shelled, sniped and decimated. It will be costly. Syrians will die. Some innocents will die.
But these terrorists will be destroyed in place.
Blessings and prayers for the Russians and Syrians and their allies in this holy mission against these animals.
Larchmonter: Sir, I believe you are correct. Many criticised Putin’s failure to act immediately on Idlib. But as usual he was several moves ahead, pinning both the terrorists and Turkey with one piece.
Turkey calls for Russia, Iran joint control after US troop retreat from Syria (video)
https://mobile.almasdarnews.com/article/turkey-calls-for-russia-iran-joint-control-after-us-troop-retreat-from-syria-video/
“Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the US withdrawal process from Syria should be controlled by Turkey along with Russia and Iran to prevent “terror organisations” from taking up the vacated space, during a press conference in Ankara on Wednesday.
“We see that the US is having difficulties in pulling out. It is not that easy to leave after you get engaged, intertwine that much with a terror organisation,” Cavusoglu said referring to the Democratic Union Party (PYD), the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
“We want to coordinate this process with Russia and Iran, with whom we have been working together since the Astana process,” Cavusoglu added.
Cavusoglu visited Moscow in late December to discuss the situation in Syria.”
One would expect the US to do everything possible to make sure the US Presidential order to remove US troops is never done, cause the opposite of the conditions today, destroying all gains done by Russia and it’s allies.
If this scenario is enabled, one could expect the EU with the rest of Europe to implode as more regime change war, all US led, could destroy Europe. As the US has intended for more than 50 years.
Still waiting for the Saker to publish Peter Koenig’s latest piece pushing for a Kurdistan.
We all know TPTB want to partition Syria, so why the delay in the propaganda?