LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
October 17/2019
Compiled & Prepared by: Elias Bejjani
The Bulletin's Link on the lccc Site
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Bible Quotations For today
If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin;
but now they have no excuse for their sin.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint John 15/22-27:”If I had not come
and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for
their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them
the works that no one else did, they would not have sin. But now they have seen
and hated both me and my Father. It was to fulfil the word that is written in
their law, “They hated me without a cause.” ‘When the Advocate comes, whom I
will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who comes from the Father,
he will testify on my behalf. You also are to testify because you have been with
me from the beginning.
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese
Related News published on October 16-17/2019
Calm mobilization after devastating fires
Lebanon’s fires bring Lebanese citizens together to assist victims
Aoun follows up on fire damages, prepares for Lebanese-Irish summit tomorrow in
Baabda
President tackles fire damages with delegation from Damour
Al Hassan meets British delegation over women empowerment
Lebanesew Cabinet adopts important reforms and follows-up on the fire causes and
damages
NNA Director meets WLCU Secretary General, Youth Council head
Berri hails Lebanese peoples' solidarity during wildfires
Bassil Meets Hariri, Says Ties are 'Always Fine'
Khattar Assures New Blazes Under Control
Kataeb Party chief MP Sami Gemayel Requests Parliamentary Probe into Idle
Firefighting Planes
Hizbullah, PSP Officials Agree to Continue Dialogue, Communication
ISF Says Beaten Man in Video Not Involved in Wildfires
Israel Resumes Blocks Installations near Wazzani
Abou Faour Calls for 'Reforestation' Plan after Wildfires
Neutralize Lebanon
Titles For The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports
And News published on October 16-17/2019
UN Security Council concerned by situation in northeast Syria
Turkey Defiant on Syria Operation as U.S. Demands Ceasefire
Despite Erdogan’s bravado, his Syrian offensive is squeezed in a US-Russian hug
Trump says Kurdish PKK ‘probably more of terrorist threat’ than ISIS
Trump downplays Turkey’s assault in Syria, touts sanctions over fighting
Syrian government forces enter the boder town of Kobani: Monitor
Hundreds of Syrian Kurds seek refuge in Iraq
Syrian army takes control of military bases left behind by US forces: Report
France: Syria’s Kurdish-run Camps Not ‘Currently’ Under Threat
Turkish presidency says Erdogan will meet Pence on Ankara visit
Erdogan Tells Kurds to Quit Northeast Syria by Wednesday Evening
France, Iraq to mull framework for extremist trials
Turkey’s Erdogan rules out talks with Syrian Kurdish forces
Iran State Television Airs 'Confession' of Exiled Journalist
France says Iran must stop ‘particularly worrying’ nuclear reductions
Iran President's Brother Starts 5-Year Jail Term
Kuwait’s Emir Returns Home after Medical Checkups
Egypt: Army Thwarts Terrorist Attack in N. Sinai
Libya’s Haftar Asserts Ability to Liberate Capital in 2 Days
Pakistan Says Talks with Riyadh, Tehran 'Encouragin
Titles For The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources published
on October 16-17/2019
Calm mobilization after devastating fires/Christy-Belle Geha and Nassab Helal/Annahar/October
16/2019
Lebanon’s fires bring Lebanese citizens together to assist victims/Nessryn
Khalaf/Annahar/October 16/2019
Lebanesew Cabinet adopts important reforms and follows-up on the fire causes and
damages/NNA /October 16/2019
Neutralize Lebanon/Dr. Hicham Hamdan/October 16/2019
Despite Erdogan’s bravado, his Syrian offensive is squeezed in a US-Russian hug/DEBKAfile/October
16/2019
What If Poor Nations Were Paid to Take in Refugees?/Stephen
Carter/Bloomberg/October, 16/2019
How Erdogan Planned This Ethnic Cleansing All Along/Malcolm Lowe/Gatestone
Institute/October 16/ 2019
Turkey, Russia, Iran: Filling the Vacuum/Erick Stakelbeck/Gatestone
Institute/October 16/ 2019
The Kurds are being massacred and the world is silent/Ben-Dror Yemini/Ynetnews/October
16/2019
Pence and Pompeo to Push Erdogan for Pullback From Syria/Katie Rogers and Eric
Schmitt/NYT/October 16/2019
The Latest English LCCC Lebanese & Lebanese Related News
published
on October 16-17/2019
Calm mobilization after devastating fires
Christy-Belle Geha and Nassab Helal/Annahar/October 16/2019
Coastal temperature is expected to be lower for today, ranging between 24 and 31
degrees Celsius.
BEIRUT: After surviving two whole days of strong fire blazes, Lebanon witnessed
sudden rains that helped repress the flames. New fire ignitions broke through in
Daqqoun, Hammanah, and Baawerta instigating a state of frenzy among Lebanese
citizens. The Lebanese people are standing in solidarity with one another as
many donations are being gathered and citizens are opening their own houses for
those affected by the fire with open arms. A Molotov cocktail was found in
Ajaltoun, the simplest form of which consists of a stoppered bottle filled with
a combustible liquid with fuel stuffed in the neck of the bottle.
Coastal temperature is expected to be lower for today, ranging between 24 and 31
degrees Celsius. Balamand University announced that the fire that ignited on
Tuesday night in their Akkar campus is now under control around Issam Fares
Faculty of Technology and that it didn't cause any injuries or deaths.
Deir Nbouh’s inhabitants suspect the cause of fire to be natural, because “no
firefighter could reach the origin of the fires as it was so deep in the valley,
so the fire couldn’t have been generated from the chemical interactions between
glass bottles left after picnics, because the road is not accessible to
pedestrians,” said Jamil Derjani, a resident in Deir Nbouh, Danniyeh. Derjani
also told Annahar that the fire in their area is under control with no reported
casualties. Na’ameh has also recovered from the fire with zero casualties as
confirmed by lawyer Charbel Mattar. Mattar also explained that Na’ameh’s
municipality is now proceeding in cleaning up and doing statistics of the total
damages. Locals who left their houses are back. Aloe-Vera Resort in Jiyyeh
hosted many students from the Beirut Arab University campus in Debbieh who fled
their dorms. The resort’s director Rajab El Hajj noted to Annahar that all hotel
guests checked out on Wednesday morning. Carmel St. Joseph school in Mechref is
reopening its doors on Monday. Students and their parents are working towards
planting trees, similarly to all local initiatives.
Lebanon’s fires bring Lebanese citizens together to assist
victims
Nessryn Khalaf/Annahar/October 16/2019
The destructive wildfires have also ignited an altruistic sense of
humanitarianism in the hearts of Lebanese people as organizations and
independent citizens have already started campaigns to aid the victims of the
fires.
BEIRUT: Vast areas of Lebanon were engulfed in flames over the last several days
as dry weather and gusty winds contributed to carrying burning embers across
long distances. However, it seems the flames have also ignited an altruistic
sense of humanitarianism in the hearts of Lebanese people as organizations and
independent citizens have already started campaigns to aid the victims of the
fires. The Social Work Club at the Lebanese American University is organizing a
fundraising event for the Civil Defense on Wednesday and Thursday. Nadine El
Amine, the club’s president, told Annahar that the Civil Defense is in urgent
need of help from every Lebanese citizen. All of the university’s students and
staff members are encouraged to contribute with any monetary amount possible but
people who are not associated with the university are also welcome to help. “All
the money raised will be put in a box which the university will then donate to
the Civil Defense in Chouf, and our only wish is to help those in dire need of
aid,” El Amine added.
The DAFA campaign is providing assistance and relief to all those affected by
the blazes. One of DAFA’s volunteers explained to Annahar that most of the
victims are in urgent need of water, food, clothing, and shelter. The volunteers
are also gathering people in affected areas and taking them to safe spaces, and
all those able to contribute are asked to contact DAFA. Allo Taxi, a taxi
service company in the country, is picking up donations from people as well and
the drivers are delivering everything to the centers where victims are gathered.
The Aloe Vera Resort in Jieh has also opened its doors for those who lost their
homes or who simply have nowhere else to go. A hotel employee noted that “we
have received many students from the Beirut Arab University in Debbieh who were
fleeing the fires and the toxic smoke. Many had actually inhaled a lot of smoke
and were in need of paramedics; luckily, that was possible because we have many
volunteers working nonstop to help the victims.”Furthermore, Live Love Beirut, a
nongovernmental organization in Lebanon started selling Live Love Forest
bracelets online for $10 each. All of the proceeds will go to the Lebanese Civil
Defense whose men and women have intrepidly been risking their lives to save and
protect civilians since the fires began to spread with escalating intensity.
Tyeb El Eid, a renowned nonprofit organization in Lebanon has also pledged to
keep its doors open to all those affected and who are in need of clothing. The
Lebanese Food Bank is contributing as well by collecting food donations and
delivering help to victims in the Damour and Mechref areas.
A few benevolent volunteers from the village of Aytit in South Lebanon are
providing victims from nearby areas with free housing units where they can stay
until the problem is resolved. One volunteer told Annahar that “we could not
just stand still in the face of adversity watching people’s pleas and cries for
help.”
Several other housing units in Bekaa, Nabatieh, Sarafand, and Debbieh are also
available for the victims. No matter how ominous the hardships ahead may seem,
the Lebanese people never fail to help one another. That was evident throughout
Tuesday evening when a group of young adults gathered under the Cola bridge in
Beirut to catch a bus to the most fire-ravaged areas in order to assist Civil
Defense members and provide them with water and food.
“The Lebanese Civil Defense members have been exhausting themselves to ensure
our protection and have been working uninterruptedly without even eating
properly, so the least we could do is provide them with food,” explained Khaled,
one of the volunteers.
In addition, Lebanese individuals living abroad are also perturbed by the
environmental emergency in Lebanon, causing many of them to send donations.
Dhalia Nazha, a 22-year-old student in Canada’s Concordia University, started an
online fundraiser on Tuesday morning and has already managed to raise over
$65,000.
Nazha said that “I felt very compelled to help upon the sight of the horrific
images people were sharing of the catastrophic fires. Although I am very far
from my home country, I knew I had to do something to help because sharing
information without doing anything is unavailing.”
She added that people from many countries including Canada, the U.S.A., Britain,
Lebanon, and others are donating, showing that humanitarianism knows no
nationality or race. The money raised will then be transferred to trustworthy
people who will purchase supplies and recruit volunteers to help the victims
directly without any government intervention. Multifarious initiatives across
the country and abroad are growing stronger by the minute as volunteers are
working incessantly to ensure the victims are provided with the necessary aid
and have adequate shelters to rest in. Reforestation measures are also thriving
as the Lebanon Reforestation Initiative is holding its National Awareness
Campaign on the 3rd of November in Maaser el Chouf. The objective is for people
from different backgrounds to unite to preserve their country’s greenery and
honor the Cedar, the Lebanese national emblem, by planting 5,000 trees. Both
Minister of Environment Fadi Jreissaty and Major General Mohammad Al Kheir are
working on replenishing all the burnt down lands by providing seedlings and
other necessary agricultural tools.
Aoun follows up on fire damages, prepares for
Lebanese-Irish summit tomorrow in Baabda
NNA - Wed 16 Oct 2019
President of the Republic of Ireland, Michael Higgins, will arrive in Beirut
this evening on a state visit to Lebanon, upon the invitation of President
Michel Aoun. The guest president will be accompanied by Irish First Lady Sabina
Marie Higgins and an official and administrative delegation.
President Aoun is scheduled to meet with his Irish counterpart at noon tomorrow,
where they will hold bilateral talks, followed by an extended meeting with the
official delegation accompanying the guest president. The meetings will be
succeeded by a joint press conference, after which a luncheon will be hosted at
the Baabda palace in honor of the Irish delegation. Earlier this Wednesday,
President Aoun tackled developments related to the fires that swept through a
number of Lebanese areas on Tuesday. He was also briefed on preliminary
information on the damages caused by the flames and the details of firefighting
and land cooling in the fire ravaged areas. President Aoun praised the
solidarity expressed by a number of countries that were quick to assist the
Lebanese authorities in extinguishing the fires, especially Cyprus, Jordan and
Greece.
President tackles fire damages with delegation from Damour
NNA - Wed 16 Oct 2019
President Michel Aoun received a delegation from the town of Damour in the
presence of MP Mario Aoun, with talks touching on the damages left across the
town and its neighborhood as a result of the fires that engulfed the area
yesterday.
Al Hassan meets British delegation over women empowerment
NNA - Wed 16 Oct 2019
Interior and Municipalities Minister Rayya El Hassan welcomed in her office at
the Ministry a British delegation, including Member of the House of Lords,
Liberal Democrat Lord Jeremy Purvis, former Home Secretary, House of Commons
member Jacqui Smith, and the Regional Director for the Middle East and North
Africa of the International Partners Foundation. Discussions reportedly touched
on the program for enhancing the role of women at the political levels and
relevant quotas in accordance with legislative reforms aimed to encourage women
to further engage in the Lebanese political life.
Minister El Hassan later met with a delegation of west Beqa, led by MP Henry
Chedid, with talks touching on developmental and services' affairs pertaining to
west Beqa.
Lebanesew Cabinet adopts important reforms and follows-up on the fire causes and
damages
NNA - Wed 16 Oct 2019
When the Cabinet meeting chaired by the President of the Council of Ministers
Saad Hariri at the Grand Serail ended, Information Minister Jamal Jarrah said:
“At the beginning, Prime Minister Hariri and the ministers expressed their
condolences to the families of martyrs Abu Mujahid and Sareini, who passed while
helping to extinguish the fires that swept through many areas of Lebanon. Prime
ministers Hariri and the Council of Ministers also thanked the countries that
stood with Lebanon, most importantly: Greece, Cyprus, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi
Arabia, Egypt and Italy, for their efforts and assistance during the fires.
We thank, of course, the Lebanese citizens and institutions that helped and
stood by the official institutions, such as civil defense, fire brigade and the
security forces, and helped them in all fields, turning it into a near consensus
among the Lebanese people to help as much as possible, to extinguish the fires.
We also thank the reporters who were injured during their coverage of the fires,
and we wish them a speedy recovery, as well as all the media working all the
time to inform the citizens.
The HRC was tasked with carrying out the necessary statistics to determine the
damage, and the Ministry of Justice opened an investigation into the cause of
the fires. The Ministries of Interior and Defense were asked to report to the
Council of Ministers on the causes of these fires, the obstacles they faced and
the steps the Council of Ministers should take to prevent them from happening
again.
As for the reforms adopted today, which are very important, a decision was
issued by the Minister of Finance to raise fees on imported and locally produced
tobacco, and approved the installation of scanners at the border to control
smuggling, and asked all public institutions and utilities not to make any
additional investment expenditure, except after the approval of the Council of
Ministers, and the transfer of the surplus of these institutions on a monthly
basis to the Lebanese treasury, provided that the duration of this decision is a
year, and the Council of Ministers will name these institutions and bodies.
The Council of Ministers also approved the principle of corporatization of the
port and other institutions, and a list will be issued. Electricity was
postponed due to the absence of the concerned minister. We also approved the
cancellation and integration of some institutions and public utilities that are
unnecessary or can be included in other ministries.
The Minister of Finance was also tasked with conducting an inventory of the
state’s real properties in preparation for a decision on its use. We also passed
a law program over 3 years worth 470 billion Lebanese pounds, in order to
implement the investment projects approved in Parliament amounting to $ 3.3
billion dollars.
This will be a very important boost to the economy when projects worth $ 3.3
billion are injected into the Lebanese economy. A list of CIP projects was
distributed to determine the priorities and start the implementation, because
there is $ 1.2 billion ready to be spent according to the priorities and
importance of projects.
The Ministers of Labor and Parliamentary Affairs were tasked with following up
the law known as the pension law, which had already been approved by the Council
of Ministers and sent to the Parliament. The Minister of State for Parliamentary
Affairs should follow up the matter with the Minister of Labor to quickly place
it on the agenda of the Parliament. Ministers were also asked to make
suggestions about a draft World Bank study on reforms. It was also decided to
give a 5% subsidy to factories on additional exports. If this factory exports
this year goods worth $ 1 million, and exports next year goods worth 1.2
million, it gets a 5% subsidy on the additional 200 thousand to encourage
industrial exports.
There is also a research on agriculture and other issues. It was agreed to
transfer the McKinsey plan to the Economic Commission for consideration, and
adhere to Prime Minister Hariri's circular on buying national products so they
get priority in public institutions and ministries.
The issue of medicine is also very important, and it was requested to reflect on
tenders for all State administrations importing medicines, giving priority to
generic and locally manufactured medicines. As for fuel, it was decided to buy
them from the General Petroleum Corporation. Implementing regulations for
electronic transactions were approved, as well as restructuring the public
sector, a paper on displaced persons and approving the export declaration of
origin, i.e. issuing a statement of origin describing the goods, to adopt the
customs duties accordingly, to prevent smuggling and evasion of customs.
Tomorrow, we will hold a cabinet meeting at 2:30 in the afternoon, we will
finish the agenda and then we will continue to discuss the budget”.
Question: What about determining the value-added tax?
Jarrah: We postponed the discussion until tomorrow.
Question: Does the decision you made mean that the state will import oil?
Jarrah: Establishments usually import fuel oil, and when the state wants to buy,
it makes contracts with the facilities. The other topics are discussed, which
are gas and gasoline. We are talking about state contracts. For example, the
army began to implement these contracts and allowed oil installations to
participate in tenders for fuel oil.
Question: In the paper of Minister Gibran Bassil, he requested to abolish some
institutions, such as the Council of the South and the Fund for the Displaced,
did you decide on that?
Jarrah: In principle, a number of institutions have been chosen because they do
not work. As for the rest of the institutions, there is a list submitted to the
Council of Ministers, each of which has its own procedures. Therefore, we should
examine the procedure and their importance and need and then take a decision.
Question: Will you discuss tomorrow tax procedures?
Jarrah: Tomorrow we will continue the study, and there are laws that we will
refer to Parliament. There are reforms that will be introduced in the budget and
others that need decrees.
NNA Director meets WLCU Secretary General, Youth Council head
NNA -Wed 16 Oct 2019
National News Agency Director, Laure Sleiman Saab, welcomed this Wednesday at
her office in the Ministry of Information the Secretary General of the World
Lebanese Cultural Union, Roger Hani, and the President of the Union's Youth
Council, Sergio Feghali. The WLCU delegation thanked Sleiman for NNA's media
coverage of the recent visit by the Lebanese youth and emigrants to Lebanon in
the aim of exploring their homeland's archaeological and heritage sites.
On behalf of the Union, the delegation presented to Sleiman a shield as a token
of appreciation and recognition.
Berri hails Lebanese peoples' solidarity during wildfires
NNA - Wed 16 Oct 2019
House Speaker, Nabih Berri, on Wednesday hailed the solidarity demonstrated by
the Lebanese people on the issue of the wildfires that ravaged regions of
Lebanon, saying such solidarity has reflected a high national spirit. Speaker
Berri's words came during his weekly "Wednesday Gathering" with lawmakers at his
Ain Tineh residence, to discuss most recent developments. Berri called on the
concerned officials to finalize the budget and reform dossiers in the next two
days, bringing to attention the unanimous consensus reached at the Baabda
meeting on 22 items, including reforms ranging from budget to electricity and
the use of gas in power plants. Berri also talked an array of developmental and
services' affairs with his visiting lawmakers, including the issue of gov-run
hospitals in general and Jezzine hospital in particular.
Bassil Meets Hariri, Says Ties are 'Always Fine'
Naharnet/October 16/2019
Prime Minister Saad Hariri met Wednesday at the Grand Serail with Foreign
Minister Jebran Bassil and discussed with him the latest political and economic
developments in the country, the premier’s office said. Asked about the talks,
Bassil told MTV that his ties with Hariri are “always fine.”LBCI TV meanwhile
quoted sources as saying that the meeting tackled “boosting the government’s
productivity and expediting the discussion of the state budget based on the
agreed reforms.”Informed sources also denied to LBCI reports claiming that
Hariri is mad at Bassil over allegations that the latter “has changed his stance
on some reforms.” The TV network added that the meeting did not tackle the fiery
stances that Bassil voiced last week.
Khattar Assures New Blazes Under Control
Naharnet/October 16/2019
Civil Defense Director General Raymond Khattar on Wednesday said new “limited”
blazes were reported in several Lebanese regions and that efforts are underway
to extinguish them. “In cooperation with the Lebanese army, efforts are underway
to extinguish new limited wildfires that erupted in Kfarmata, Daqoun, Kornet al-Hamra,
al-Zireh, al-Mtayleb, Baawarta and Mazraat al-Dahr,” said Khattar to LBCI TV
station. He stressed that the situation is under control. Wildfires that spread
across vast areas of Lebanon started to subside Tuesday evening with the fall of
rain, amid strenuous efforts by the Civil Defense and firefighters and
volunteers from across the country. By 7:00 pm, blazes were still raging in
Chouf's al-Dibbiyeh and Dmit and Aley's Kfarmatta as rain contributed to
containing the flames in ِAley's Baawarta and south Lebanon. A major fire that
had been raging since Monday night in the Chouf area of Mechref was put out
earlier in the day with the help of UNIFIL forces. UNIFIL peacekeepers, vehicles
and firefighting vehicles later moved to Mazraat al-Dahr and al-Dibbiyeh to
contribute to firefighting efforts there. New fires were meanwhile reported in
the evening in the northern Metn area of Mazraat Yachouh and the Keserwan area
of Ghazir. The wildfires forced some residents to flee their homes in the middle
of the night on Monday, while others were stuck inside as the flames reached
villages south of Beirut, especially in the Chouf and Aley regions. A heat wave
in the region coupled with strong winds intensified the fires that began a day
earlier in mostly pine forests around the country and three provinces in
neighboring Syria. A man died of a heart attack after taking part in the
firefighting efforts in Chouf as several injuries were reported.
Kataeb Party chief MP Sami Gemayel Requests Parliamentary Probe into Idle
Firefighting Planes
Naharnet/October 16/2019
Kataeb Party chief MP Sami Gemayel on Wednesday filed a request for the
formation of a parliamentary panel of inquiry to probe why Lebanon’s three
firefighting planes have been unfunctional since 2014, a day after wildfires
engulfed the country and prompted Lebanon to ask Cyprus, Greece, Italy and
Jordan to send firefighting aircraft.“Fires destroyed vast areas of forestland
due to the government’s shortcomings and negligence in performing maintenance on
the firefighting planes, leaving a lot of Lebanese areas and citizens under the
mercy of the flames that besieged their homes, centers and vehicles,” Gemayel
said at a press conference in Parliament. The state has been widely criticized
by residents because Lebanon bought three aircraft several years ago to be used
in extinguishing fires but they have been parked at Beirut's airport with no
money to maintain them. “We demand the formation of a parliamentary panel of
inquiry to investigate the negligence… and the endangering of the lives,
properties and environment of the Lebanese,” he added. Wildfires spread through
parts of Lebanon on Tuesday after forcing some residents to flee their homes in
the middle of the night, while others were stuck inside. A heat wave in the
region coupled with strong winds intensified the fires that began a day earlier
in mostly pine forests around the country and three provinces in neighboring
Syria. A volunteer firefighter was killed and several people were injured in the
fires -- among the worst to hit Lebanon in years.
Fire crews were overwhelmed by the flames in the Mount Lebanon region early
Tuesday, forcing the Interior Ministry to send riot police with engines equipped
with water cannons to help. Two small aircraft were sent from the nearby
Mediterranean island of Cyprus to help put out the flames.
The U.N. peacekeeping force UNIFIL also dispatched crews and firefighting
vehicles. Prime Minister Saad Hariri said if the fires turn out to be
intentional those behind it "will pay a price." President Michel Aoun and Hariri
said that an investigation will be opened to know what caused the fires.
Hizbullah, PSP Officials Agree to Continue Dialogue, Communication
Naharnet/October 16/2019
A meeting was held Tuesday evening at the residence of former minister Ghazi
Aridi , as part of regular meetings between the leaders of Hizbullah and the
Progressive Socialist Party. The discussions focused on the need for an
agreement to address the general political situation and the serious economic,
social and financial crisis in Lebanon, a PSP statement said on Wednesday. The
two sides agreed to promote direct dialogue and communication, and to stabilize
cooperation in governmental, parliamentary and union fields, added the
statement. The meeting was held in the presence of Hizbullah figures: Hajj
Hussein el-Khalil, political assistant to Hizbullah Secretary General, Minister
Mohammed Fneish, MPs Ali Ammar, Hussein Hajj Hassan and Hassan Fadlallah. On the
PSP side: Ministers Akram Sehayyeb and Wael Abou Faour, MPs Hadi Abulhasan and
Bilal Abdullah, Secretary General Zafer Nasser, and others.
ISF Says Beaten Man in Video Not Involved in Wildfires
Naharnet/October 16/2019
The Internal Security Forces on Wednesday denied reports claiming that an arson
suspect was arrested Tuesday in connection with the massive wildfires that
engulfed the country. “A video showing a municipal policeman beating up a person
has been circulated on social media and reports said that the beaten person was
setting up fires,” the ISF said in a statement. “After an investigation was
carried out by the Brummana police station, it turned out that Syrian national
H.M., who works at a construction site in the Metn town of Baabdat, had burned
garbage consisting of nylon bags, paper and carton in the site’s vicinity, after
the constriction site’s owner asked him to get rid of the material,” the ISF
said in a statement. “Municipal police arrived on the site and the flames were
doused,” the ISF added, noting that “two policemen beat up the worker after he
tried to escape.”
“H.M. was arrested for burning trash and entering the country illegally, as the
two municipal policemen were released on bail at the request of the competent
judicial authorities,” the ISF said. Wildfires spread through parts of Lebanon
on Tuesday after forcing some residents to flee their homes in the middle of the
night, while others were stuck inside. A heat wave in the region coupled with
strong winds intensified the fires that began a day earlier in mostly pine
forests around the country and three provinces in neighboring Syria. A volunteer
firefighter was killed and several people were injured in the fires -- among the
worst to hit Lebanon in years.Fire crews were overwhelmed by the flames in the
Mount Lebanon region early Tuesday, forcing the Interior Ministry to send riot
police with engines equipped with water cannons to help. Two small aircraft were
sent from the nearby Mediterranean island of Cyprus to help put out the
flames.The U.N. peacekeeping force UNIFIL also dispatched crews and firefighting
vehicles. Prime Minister Saad Hariri said if the fires turn out to be
intentional those behind it "will pay a price." President Michel Aoun and Hariri
said that an investigation will be opened to know what caused the fires.
Israel Resumes Blocks Installations near Wazzani
Naharnet/October 16/2019
Israeli troops resumed installations on Wednesday of a cement barrier between
Lebanon and the occupied territories of Palestine, the National News Agency
reported. Using a large crane, Israeli troops resumed the installation of
concrete blocks near the military road off the town of Wazzani, NNA said.
NNA said Israeli soldiers were also seen mounting earthen barricades facing
Wazzani Parks.
Abou Faour Calls for 'Reforestation' Plan after Wildfires
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/October 16/2019
Industry Minister Wael Abou Faour on Wednesday stressed the need to kick start a
forestation plan in the aftermath of wildfires that spread throughout parts of
Lebanon, pointing out that efforts will be joined to compensate for those
affected. At an emergency meeting on wildfires in the Economic and Social
Council, Abou Faour said the need calls today for “forestation” to replace burnt
trees, pointing out that Prime Minister Saad Hariri confirmed that the state
will compensate for those affected. He pointed out that the main objective of
the meeting is to place a mechanism for the contribution of industrialists and
traders with municipalities to provide aid for affected towns and areas.
Wildfires that spread across vast areas of Lebanon started to subside Tuesday
evening with the fall of rain, amid strenuous efforts by the Civil Defense and
firefighters and volunteers from across the country. Thick smoke had been seen
drifting over the outskirts of Beirut, the mountainous Chouf region to its
southeast, and the southern city of Saida. In the Chouf, an area famed for its
forests, a volunteer firefighter lost his life trying to put out the flames, his
family said. In an area south of Beirut, firefighters have for two days been
unable to stop the blaze, which has burnt four homes to the ground and caused
dozens to suffer breathing difficulties, NNA said. Lebanon has turned to its
neighbours for help as Cyprus dispatched assistance and Greece and Jordan
followed suit. Personnel from UN peacekeeping force UNIFIL, who usually patrol
the country's southern border with Israel, have also joined in the efforts, the
agency said.
Neutralize Lebanon
د.هشام حمدان: ضرورة تحييد لبنان
Dr. Hicham Hamdan/Toronto/Published on October 16, 2019
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/79531/dr-hicham-hamdan-neutralize-lebanon/
I spent many years trying to convince Western democratic leaders that they had
made a serious mistake when they sacrificed the only democratic Arab state in
the East and almost destroyed its unique model of coexistence among
civilizations and its role as a cultural bridge between the Christian West and
the Muslim East.
Today, I am very pleased to hear Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern
Affairs David Schenker stating officially, in a live television interview, that
his country “will not repeat what happened in 1991 when it miscalculated with
Lebanon and was handed over to Syria”. I hope that the United State
Administration will bring forward the declaration made by US President George W.
Bush and French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Washington 2007 that Lebanon should
be saved. I also hope that the United States will, in practice, and seriously
translate its support for Security Council resolution which endorsed the 2012
Baabda Declaration on Neutralizing Lebanon. I also hope that the Americans will
listen to President Bill Clinton's advice when he told a leadership conference
in Dallas in 2015, that a successful leadership in America includes helping
restores stability in Lebanon. Republicans and Democrats agree then that Lebanon
should be saved.
We also hope that the United States will not repeat its miscalculations with
Lebanon; a distinctive democratic homeland in the East and the country whose
name has been mentioned 75 times in the Bible, and allow Lebanon to become again
an open territory for a bloody solution to another Israeli problem in the
region. Lebanon must not be an Iranian-Israeli war arena. The US allowed in
1969, converting Lebanon to be a bloody arena, to resolve the Arab-Israeli
conflict. The United States could have then prevented the fateful Cairo
agreement of that year, which gave the Palestinians, under Arab pressure and
international silence, an unlawful right, to use southern Lebanon as a passage
in their little warfare and military struggle against Israel, while the rest of
the Arab fronts shut them down. Thus, Turning Lebanon into an Arab, Israeli and
international arena to tackle the Palestinian cause and its legitimate demands,
which was publicly confrontational, and has accordingly, shifted the burden of
carrying the results of these confrontational policies, to Lebanon and thus
facilitated transforming Lebanon into a battle field. Yes, our people in Lebanon
have sinned and are still wrong, because some believe that they can "verbally
and emotionally sway" the world. We paid the heavy price, of converting others
battles in Lebanon to an existential crisis that quickly erupted into a
devastating civil war.
Lebanon needs a US-European pressure movement in cooperation with the Russian
Federation and China to turn Lebanon into a neutral country. Austria was
neutralized in 1945 based on an agreement between the United States and its
allies on the one hand and the Soviet Union and its allies on the other hand. We
call on the US Government to work together with the Russian Federation to bring
forward the Security Council resolution and neutralize Lebanon. Such agreement
would put pressure on regional powers, especially Iran and Syria and thus
facilitate the elaboration of this resolution, which is overwhelmingly supported
even implicitly by the Lebanese.
*- Hicham Hamdan (PH.D)/Founder and President of the Executive Council at
Lebanese Center for the Service of the Arab-LatinAmerican relationship.
*Ambassador (R)
*Visiting Scholar at UT Austin
The Latest English LCCC Miscellaneous Reports And News published on October 16-17/2019
UN Security Council concerned by situation in northeast
Syria
Reuters, United Nations/Wednesday, 16 October 2019
The UN Security Council said on Wednesday that it was concerned by the risks of
a deterioration in the humanitarian situation in northeast Syria and the escape
of ISIS fighters, but made no reference to a Turkish assault on Syrian Kurdish
militia in the area that began a week ago. The 15-member council agreed the
brief statement after meeting for the second time behind closed doors since the
Turkish operation began, forcing tens of thousands of civilians to flee and
raising doubt about the fate of thousands of ISIS fighters in Kurdish jails. US
Ambassador to the United Nations Kelly Craft said separately after the council
meeting that the United States called on Turkey to “cease undermining the
campaign to defeat ISIS, cease endangering civilians, cease threatening peace,
security and stability in the region, cease its offensive and declare a
ceasefire immediately.”
The Turkish assault forced the United States to pull its forces out of northern
Syria. Syrian government forces, backed by Washington’s adversaries Russia and
Iran, have swiftly advanced into territory formerly patrolled by US troops.
The UN Security Council “expressed deep concern over the risk of the dispersion
of terrorists from UN-designated groups, including ISIS, and are also very
concerned over the risk of a further deterioration of the humanitarian
situation.”
Such Security Council statements are agreed by consensus. An attempt last
Thursday to produce a statement failed, diplomats said. Russian UN Ambassador
Vassily Nebenzia told reporters at the time that the council “should take into
account other aspects of the Syrian crisis not just the Turkish operation.”
The council met on Thursday last week and on Wednesday at the request of its
European members Germany, France, Belgium, Britain and Poland. They jointly
called on Turkey to stop its military action. “We deeply regret that Turkey has
not responded yet to these repeated appeals from its allies as we do not believe
Turkey’s unilateral military action will address its underlying security
concerns,” the European members said in a joint statement on Wednesday after the
Security Council meeting. “Turkey’s ongoing military action seriously undermines
the stability and security of the whole region, resulting in more civilian
suffering, displacement and the severe hindering of access to humanitarian
assistance,” they said. Turkey has justified its action under Article 51 of the
UN Charter, which covers an individual or collective right to self-defense
against armed attack. It told the UN Security Council in a letter last week that
its military operation in northern Syria would be “proportionate, measured and
responsible.”Earlier on Wednesday, US President Donald Trump played down the
crisis in Syria touched off by Turkey’s military operation against US-allied
Kurdish forces, saying the conflict was between Turkey and Syria and that it was
“fine” for Russia to help Damascus.
Turkey Defiant on Syria Operation as U.S. Demands Ceasefire
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/October 16/2019
Turkey rebuffed international pressure to curb its military offensive against
Kurdish militants in Syria on Wednesday as US President Donald Trump dispatched
his deputy Mike Pence to Ankara to demand a ceasefire. President Recep Tayyip
Erdogan vowed Turkey's operation -- which has been facilitated by the withdrawal
of U.S. troops from northern Syria -- would continue. The only way to solve
Syria's problems, Erdogan told parliament, was for the Kurdish forces to "lay
down their arms... destroy all their traps and get out of the safe zone that we
have designated." But clashes continued across the region, with Kurdish fighters
in the border town of Ras al-Ain burning tyres in a bid to blind Ankara's
warplanes and digging in against a ground offensive by Turkish-backed Syrian
rebels. "We are fully prepared to wage battles," an official from the
Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) told AFP. "The real battle has yet to
start."Having struck a deal with Damascus over the weekend, Kurdish forces have
joined with Syrian troops to take an abandoned US base between Kobani and Ain
Issa, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The Turkish
operation, now in its second week, has triggered a flurry of diplomacy among
major powers. Trump sent Pence along with his top diplomat Mike Pompeo to Turkey
amid the greatest crisis in relations for decades between the NATO allies, with
talks due in Ankara early Thursday. Facing a barrage of criticism in Washington
for abandoning the Kurds, Trump has slapped sanctions on three Turkish ministers
and raised tariffs on its steel industry. Pence's office said the U.S. would
pursue "punishing economic sanctions" unless there was "an immediate
ceasefire."But Trump again dismissed the idea that pulling out 1,000 troops --
practically the entire U.S. contingent in the region -- had been a betrayal of
Kurdish militants who bore the brunt of the fight against the Islamic State
group in recent years. "The Kurds are very well protected," Trump told reporters
at the White House. "By the way, they are not angels."Russia steps in Moscow has
stepped into the void left by the US withdrawal, deploying patrols to prevent
clashes between Syrian and Turkish forces. Russian TV showed its forces
alongside Syrian government troops taking up positions in and around the town of
Manbij. The Kremlin said it would host Erdogan for a meeting with his Russian
counterpart Vladimir Putin in the coming days, to ensure the operation does not
turn into all-out war between Turkey and Syria. The Turkish government can count
on widespread support for its operation at home, where decades of bloody
insurgency by Kurdish militants have killed tens of thousands of people. But
Western powers fear it will endanger the battle against the Islamic State group.
Thousands of IS prisoners are held in Kurdish-run camps in the region. Europe
has taken an increasingly tough line with Turkey and several countries,
including Britain, France and Germany, have imposed arms embargoes on Turkey
over the operation.
Battle for border town
The Kurdish-led SDF has mounted a desperate defense to the east of Ras al-Ain,
using tunnels, berms and trenches. A Syrian fighter serving alongside Ankara's
forces said his forces were trying to cut Kurdish supply lines from nearby
Hassakeh to facilitate their advance on the town. Since launching their assault
on October 9, Turkey and its Syrian rebel proxies have secured more than 100
kilometers (60 miles) of border, but Ras al-Ain has held out. Erdogan, who like
Trump faces political difficulties at home, wants to create a buffer zone
stretching 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border into Syrian territory. He
wants to destroy Kurdish hopes of an autonomous enclave that could serve as a
launching pad for attacks in Turkey, and to resettle some of the 3.6 million
Syrian refugees Ankara is hosting. Erdogan said that once the safe zone was
established, "stretching from Manbij to the Iraqi border", then the operation
would have "ended on its own."The offensive has left dozens of civilians dead,
mostly on the Kurdish side, and displaced at least 160,000 people.
Despite Erdogan’s bravado, his Syrian offensive is squeezed
in a US-Russian hug
DEBKAfile/October 16/2019
US-Russian coordination for holding back Turkey’s operation against Syria’s
Kurds goes forward smoothly amid a flurry of talks. On Tuesday, Oct. 15, the US
secretary of state held talks with his Russian counterpart, as did the two
defense chiefs. That night, Turkish President Recep Erdogan held phone
conversations with both US President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
Putin invited him to visit Moscow before the end of October, while Trump
informed him that Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary Mike Pompeo would be
arriving in Ankara on Thursday, Oct. 17. They would be coming with national
security adviser Robert O’Brien and special Syrian envoy James Jeffrey. Erdogan
was quoted as refusing to receive the Vice President, but the highly volatile
Turkish leader may have backtracked on this snub. Very little was disclosed
about the content of this burst of high wire parleys. DEBKAfile’s sources have
learned that Putin warned Erdogan that if the Turkish army attacked the Syrian
forces which arrived to defend Kurdish districts against a Turkish onslaught,
the Russian air force would intervene. Trump is believed to have focused his
warning against a Turkish assault on the key SDF-held town of Kobani and its
environs. He demanded a pledge from Erdogan to stop his forces and allied Syrian
militias from entering this town and to halt attempts to seize control of the
strategic M4 highway. The Turkish leader demanded as a quid pro quo that the US
president guarantee that the Syrian forces not far from Kobani won’t enter the
town. However, since Moscow holds the whip hand over the Syria army, it was
necessary for the American and Russian foreign and defense ministers to confer
on this. For now, the SDF retains control of the town, shielded by Russian
special forces.
Erdogan finds his troop movements increasingly constricted by the tough dictates
coming at him from Washington and Moscow. They are operating in concert in a
still unpredictable, inflammable situation.
Trump says Kurdish PKK ‘probably more of terrorist threat’
than ISIS
AFP/Wednesday, 16 October 2019
US President Donald Trump said Wednesday the Kurdish PKK militia, who have waged
a decades-long insurgency against Ankara, was “probably” a bigger terror threat
than ISIS.“The PKK, which is a part of the Kurds, as you know, is probably worse
at terror and more of a terrorist threat in many ways than ISIS,” Trump told a
news conference at the White House. Tens of thousands have died since the
Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984. The
PKK is considered a terror group by Ankara, the United States, and the European
Union. Under fire for abandoning America’s Kurdish allies in the anti-ISIS fight
to face a Turkish assault in northern Syria, Trump disparaged the Kurds earlier
Wednesday saying they “are not angels.”
Trump downplays Turkey’s assault in Syria, touts sanctions
over fighting
Reuters, AFP/Wednesday, 16 October 2019
US President Donald Trump on Wednesday played down the crisis in Syria touched
off by Turkey’s military operation against US-allied Kurdish forces, saying the
conflict was between Turkey and Syria and that it was “fine” for Russia to help
Damascus. Trump, speaking to reporters at the White House, said imposing US
sanctions on Turkey would be better than fighting in the region. Kurdish-allied
forces, backed by American troops, had been a strategic US partner in the fight
against ISIS in northeastern Syria before Turkey launched an offensive in the
area following a phone call between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and
Trump last week. Trump said the Kurdish rebel PKK, who have waged a decades-long
insurgency against Ankara, were “probably” a bigger terror threat than ISIS.
“The PKK, which is a part of the Kurds, as you know, is probably worse at terror
and more of a terrorist threat in many ways than ISIS.”
Tens of thousands have died since the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) took up arms
against the Turkish state in 1984. The PKK is considered a terror group by
Ankara, the United States and the European Union. The Kurds are “not angels,”
Trump said. “They fought with us. We paid a lot of money for them to fight with
us, and that’s okay. They did well when they fought with us. They didn’t do so
well when they didn’t fight with us.”Trump has faced harsh criticism for his
handling of the situation, including from fellow Republicans. He is scheduled to
host congressional leaders at the White House later on Wednesday as lawmakers
ready sanctions against Ankara. “I viewed the situation on the Turkish border
with Syria to be for the United States strategically brilliant. Our soldiers are
out of there. Our soldiers are totally safe. They’ve got to work it out. Maybe
they can do it without fighting,” he told reporters. “We’re watching and we’re
negotiating and we’re trying to get Turkey to do the right thing, because we’d
like to stop wars regardless,” Trump said. President Trump denied that he had
given Turkish President Erdogan a “green light” to launch operations against the
Kurdish militants in Syria.
“President Erdogan’s decision didn’t surprise me because he’s wanted to do that
for a long time,” Trump told reporters. “He’s been building up troops on the
border with Syria for a long time.”“I didn’t give him a green light,” Trump
said. “Just the opposite of a green light,” according to AFP.
On Monday, US President Donald Trump demanded Turkey stop its military operation
in Syria and imposed new sanctions on the NATO ally as Trump scrambled to limit
the damage from his much-criticized decision to clear US troops from Turkey’s
path. Vice President Mike Pence said Trump had told Turkish President Tayyip
Erdogan in a phone call to agree to an immediate ceasefire. He also said he
would travel to the region soon to try to mediate the crisis. Meanwhile and
despite an earlier statement by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday that
he would not meet visiting US Vice President Mike Pence, his office said the
meeting would go ahead after all.
Syrian government forces enter the boder town of Kobani:
Monitor
AFP, Beirut/Wednesday, 16 October 2019
Syrian regime troops and Russian soldiers on Wednesday entered the key border
town of Kobani also known as Ain al-Arab, following a deal struck with Kurdish
authorities amid a deadly Turkish offensive, a war monitor said. “Syrian regime
and Russian troops have entered the town of Kobani,” the Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights said. Earlier on Wednesday, the Syrian army has taken control of
military bases in northeast Syria that were abandoned by US forces, according to
a report by Russian state TV. On Tuesday, Russia said that Syrian government
forces had taken control of the city of Manbij, after Damascus deployed troops
to the country’s north to contain a Turkish offensive. “The Syrian government
army has full control over the city of Manbij and nearby settlements,” the
Russian defence ministry said in a statement.
Hundreds of Syrian Kurds seek refuge in Iraq
AFP, Arbil/Wednesday, 16 October 2019
Hundreds of Syrian Kurds entered neighboring Iraqi’s Kurdish autonomous region
on Wednesday, fleeing a Turkish offensive in northeast Syria, an official said.
“On Wednesday, about 800 Syrian refugees entered Iraqi Kurdistan,” said Rashid
Hussein of the refugee authority for the autonomous Kurdish region.
The new arrivals, mostly women and children, were being taken to Berdarch camp
in Dohuk province, he told AFP, as the fighting in nearby northeastern Syria
entered its second week. Iraqi Kurdistan previously hosted millions of Iraqis
who fled fighting with ISIS who occupied much of the country’s north between
2014 and 2017. Many of them are still housed in camps for the displaced. NGOs
operating in the region said they had been on alert since Ankara launched its
operation on October 9 against Kurdish militants, following an abrupt US
withdrawal. On Saturday evening, 182 Syrian Kurds started crossing the border
into Iraqi Kurdistan “to escape bombardments in northeastern Syria,” the
International Organization for Migration said. Dohuk province’s humanitarian
affairs chief Ismail Ahmed said the first group included “Syrian Kurds already
living in Iraqi Kurdistan, who went to visit relatives in Syria before returning
because of the bombardments.”On Wednesday, fresh fighting was reported in
northern Syria pitting Turkey’s Syrian proxies against Kurdish forces backed by
the Syrian army. Damascus deployed troops to Kurdish-held areas that had been
outside its control since 2012 under an accord with Kurdish authorities
announced on Sunday.
Syrian army takes control of military bases left behind by
US forces: Report
Reuters, Moscow/Wednesday, 16 October 2019
The Syrian army has taken control of military bases in northeast Syria that were
abandoned by US forces, Russian state TV reported on Wednesday. President Tayyip
Erdogan has dismissed US calls for a ceasefire in northeast Syria despite Russia
ratcheting up international pressure on Ankara over its “unacceptable” week-long
military operation against Kurdish-led forces.
France: Syria’s Kurdish-run Camps Not ‘Currently’ Under
Threat
Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 16 October, 2019
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Wednesday that the Kurdish-run
camps in northern Syria, where thousands of ISIS militants are held, are not
"currently" under threat from the operation led by Turkey. Le Drian said that
nine French women had already escaped on Sunday from the Ain Issa camp in
northwestern Syria. Kurdish officials have said almost 800 people fled that camp
after Turkey's offensive targeted the area. But “to my knowledge, the Turkish
offensive and the positioning of the SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces) have so far
not led to the safety and security of these camps... currently being
threatened," Le Drian told French broadcaster BFMTV and RMC radio. He said he
would discuss a judicial framework for putting militants on trial during an
upcoming visit to Iraq, as calls grow for an international court to judge the
extremists.
"We need to work things out with the Iraqi authorities so that we can find the
ways to have a judicial mechanism that is able to judge all these fighters,
including obviously the French fighters," he told BFMTV, without specifying when
he would go to Baghdad. European states are trying to fast-track a plan to shift
thousands of foreign ISIS militants out of Syrian prison camps and into Iraq,
after the outbreak of fresh conflict in Syria raised the risk of extremists
escaping or returning home. Seven European countries -- France, Britain,
Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark -- have during the last
months been discussing setting up an international court in Iraq for putting the
militants on trial. Officials from all seven countries took part in a technical
mission to Baghdad to assess the situation. In a joint statement they said they
had learned from the Iraqi authorities about "the daunting task they are facing
in bringing ISIS to justice and rebuilding the society."
Turkish presidency says Erdogan will meet Pence on Ankara
visit
Agencies/Wednesday, 16 October 2019
Despite an earlier statement by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday that
he would not meet visiting US Vice President Mike Pence, his office said the
meeting would go ahead after all. “Earlier today, the President told @SkyNews
that he won’t receive a US delegation that is visiting Ankara today. He does
plan to meet the US delegation led by @VP (Pence),” wrote Erdogan’s
communications director Fahrettin Altun on Twitter. “I am standing tall. I will
not meet with them,” he told Sky News, referring to Pence and Secretary of State
Mike Pompeo. “They will meet with their counterparts. I will speak when Trump
comes,” he said. Pence said he will travel to Turkey Wednesday as scheduled even
though Erdogan has said he will not meet with him, a spokeswoman for Pence said.
“The vice president is traveling to Turkey today,” spokeswoman Katie Waldman
said. The White House had hoped Pence and Mike Pompeo would meet with Erdogan
Thursday to demand a ceasefire in Turkey's assault on Kurdish forces in
northeastern Syria. Erdogan said on Wednesday that he would decide whether to go
ahead with a planned visit next month to the US after meetings with an American
delegation in Turkey this week. Speaking to reporters in parliament, Erdogan
said he would re-evaluate the trip because “arguments, debates, conversations
being held in Congress regarding my person, my family and my minister friends
are a very big disrespect” to the Turkish government.
Erdogan Tells Kurds to Quit Northeast Syria by Wednesday
Evening
Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 16 October, 2019
Turkey's offensive will end if Kurdish fighters leave a designated border area
in northeast Syria, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday,
but warned that no power could stop it until then. Erdogan said the quickest
solution was for fighters to drop their weapons and pull back from the area by
Wednesday evening. The operation will end when the "safe zone" is established,
he said, and Turkey was not open to negotiating this. Erdogan made the comments
in Parliament amid pressure for him to call a ceasefire and halt its incursion
into Syria, now into its eighth day. He made clear Turkey would not bow to
pressure and would press ahead with the military operation until Turkish troops
reach a depth of some 30 or 35 kilometer inside Syria. He also called on the
world to support Turkey's battle against Kurdish groups. The Kremlin said on
Wednesday that Turkey's military operation should not damage the political
process in the country and that Ankara's actions there should be proportional.
Speaking to reporters on a conference call, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov
said, however, that Moscow respected Turkey's right to defend itself. The
Kremlin said it would host Erdogan for a meeting with his Russian counterpart
Vladimir Putin in the coming days, to ensure the operation does not turn into an
all-out war between Turkey and Syria. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov
also said that Moscow is committed to mediating between the Syrian government
and Turkey in order to ensure security in the region. Lavrov said in remarks
carried by Russian news agencies that Moscow will also continue to encourage
Syria's Kurds and government to seek rapprochement after the withdrawal of US
troops from the northern border area. Russia moved quickly Tuesday to fill the
void left by the US troop pullout, deploying its military to act as a buffer as
Syrian government forces moved north under the deal with the Kurds, who have
sought protection from the Turkish offensive. Lavrov blamed the US and Western
nations for undermining the Syrian state, thus "pushing the Kurds toward
separatism and confrontation with Arab tribes."
France, Iraq to mull framework for extremist trials
AFP, Paris/Wednesday, 16 October 2019
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Wednesday that he would
discuss a judicial framework for putting extremists on trial during a visit to
Iraq, as calls grow for an international court to judge extremists. “We need to
work things out with the Iraqi authorities so that we can find a way to have a
judicial mechanism that is able to judge all these fighters, including obviously
the French fighters,” he told BFM-TV. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe later said
that Le Drian would head to Iraq “as soon as tonight” to work on potential means
for trying detained insurgents. “A certain number of those held in Syria by the
Kurds committed crimes in Iraq, which means that they can be held accountable
there,” he said. Seven European countries - France, Britain, Belgium, Germany,
the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark - have been discussing in recent months the
creation of an international court in Iraq for putting foreign ISIS fighters on
trial. Officials from all seven countries took part in a technical mission to
Baghdad to assess the situation.
They said they had learned from the Iraqi authorities about “the daunting task
they are facing in bringing Daesh (ISIS) to justice and rebuilding the
society.”A major issue will be Iraq’s use of the death penalty, which is
outlawed throughout the EU. Hundreds of foreigners have been sentenced to death
or life imprisonment in Iraq for belonging to ISIS. A dozen French extremists
held by Kurdish forces in northern Syria were already handed over to the Iraqi
authorities at the end of January to be put on trial, though Le Drian said
further transfers were not planned at the moment. Eight French citizens have
been sentenced to death in Iraq but none of the executions have been carried
out. The technical mission said it had reiterated opposition to the death
penalty “in all places and in all circumstances” to the Iraqi authorities.There
have been concerns that the Turkish offensive in northern Syria targeting
Kurdish forces could lead to a mass prison breakout of extremists captured by
the Kurds. But Le Drian said that the security of Kurdish-run prisons holding
suspected extremists in northern Syria was “currently” not threatened by the
Turkish military operation. “To my knowledge, the Turkish offensive and the
positioning of the SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces) have so far not led to the
safety and security of these camps... currently being threatened,” he said.
Turkey on Monday accused Kurdish forces of deliberately releasing ISIS prisoners
held at a prison in the Syrian border town of Tal Abyad “in an attempt to fuel
chaos in the area.”
Kurdish officials claimed that Turkish bombardments had allowed nearly 800
relatives of foreign ISIS fighters escape from a camp for the displaced.
Turkey’s Erdogan rules out talks with Syrian Kurdish forces
AFP, Ankara/Wednesday, 16 October 2019
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday firmly ruled out any
negotiations with Kurdish-led forces in Syria as the US pushed for a ceasefire.
“There are some leaders who are trying to mediate ... There has never been any
such thing in the history of the Turkish republic as the state sitting at the
same table with a terror organization,” Erdogan said in a speech to parliament.
Erdogan said the quickest solution was for fighters to drop their weapons and
pull back from the area by Wednesday evening. The operation will end when the
“safe zone” is established, he said, and Turkey was not open to negotiating
this.
Iran State Television Airs 'Confession' of Exiled
Journalist
London - Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 16 October, 2019
Iranian state television aired Monday footage showing Rouhollah Zam,
editor-in-chief of the Paris-based Amadnews website, after he was arrested by
the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as part of a “complicated
intelligence operation.”A short video showed a man blindfolded and handcuffed to
the back seat of a car, which the television claimed to be taken after Zam’s
arrest, according to Agence France Presse (AFP). After that, the same man
appeared sitting in an armchair next to the flags of Iran and IRGC. The man
identified himself as Zam and “the founder of Amadnews”, a Telegram channel that
the Iranian authorities accuse of having played a major role in the protests
that broke out in December 2017. Zam said he regrets “what has happened in the
past three or four years,” and admitted he was wrong to have trusted other
governments, namely the French government. In another clip, Zam does not appear
to be handcuffed and avoided looking directly at the camera, indicating that it
is not right to trust governments, especially governments that show they do not
have good relations with Iran, including the US, Israel, Saudi Arabia and
Turkey. He then apologized to the whole Iranian political regime, reported AFP.
The Revolutionary Guard announced Monday the arrest of Zam describing him as a
“counter-revolutionary” who was directed by France's intelligence service. IRGC
didn’t specify when or where Zam had been arrested. He had been reportedly
living in exile in Paris. Telegram shut down Amadnews which had around 1.4
million followers after Iranian authorities demanded the messaging application
remove the account for inciting “violence.”Amnesty International has repeatedly
urged Iranian authorities to stop broadcasting “confessions” of suspects, saying
they violate the “defendants' rights.”
France says Iran must stop ‘particularly worrying’ nuclear
reductions
Reuters/Wednesday, 16 October 2019
France said on Wednesday that Iran must refrain from a new phase of
“particularly worrying” reductions to its nuclear commitments. “Iran must
abstain from crossing an especially worrying new phase of new measures that
could contribute to an escalation in tensions,” French foreign ministry
spokeswoman Agnes von der Muhll told reporters in a daily briefing. She was
responding after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Monday that Tehran was
working on advanced IR-9 centrifuges for uranium enrichment. Those centrifuges
do not appear in the 2015 accord. Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said on Monday
that Tehran would continue to scale back its commitments to the 2015 nuclear
agreement until the European Union fulfils promises it made under the deal. Iran
has gradually scaled back its nuclear commitments since May. Rouhani, speaking
on state television, also said Iran would start working on more advance uranium
enrichment centrifuges.
Iran President's Brother Starts 5-Year Jail Term
London- Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 16 October, 2019
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's brother entered prison Wednesday to begin a
five-year sentence after he was convicted of corruption, the semi-official ISNA
news agency reported, citing his lawyer. Hossein Fereydoun, who served as an
aide to the president, was arrested in July 2017 and put on trial in February
this year on allegations of financial violations. In a final ruling, his
sentence was reduced to five years from seven and he was ordered to pay a fine
as well as bribes he was convicted of receiving, the judiciary said on October
1. His lawyer said he entered Tehran's Evin prison on Wednesday. "This morning
Mr Fereydoun together with myself were present at the prosecutor's office,"
Hossein Sartipi said, quoted by ISNA. "After legal procedures were completed, he
was taken to Evin prison and was admitted to the prison," he added. Fereydoun
acted as a key adviser and gatekeeper to the president before his arrest. The
brothers do not share the same name because Rouhani changed his when he was
younger to a word meaning "cleric".
Kuwait’s Emir Returns Home after Medical Checkups
Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 16 October, 2019
Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah returned home on Wednesday
after undergoing medical checkups in the United States, state news agency KUNA
said. The checkups “ended successfully,” it said. Kuwait state media showed the
Emir on his arrival Wednesday in Kuwait City. Upon arrival, the Emir was
received by Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, National
Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim, the President of the National Guard, Sheikh
Salem Al-Ali Al-Sabah, and Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad
Al-Sabah.
Egypt: Army Thwarts Terrorist Attack in N. Sinai
North Sinai/Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 16 October, 2019
Egyptian army thwarted a “terrorist attack” on a military post on al-Arish-Qantara
international road in North Sinai, during which three recruits were injured. In
details, a number of terrorists opened fire on a military post, which prompted
the army forces to respond to the source of the attack, thwarting the terrorists
from further advancing into the area, security and tribal sources told Asharq
Al-Awsat. The units, on the outskirts of Musafaq village of Bir al-Abd, tracked
the perpetrators who fled deep in the mountainous region towards the south.
Hasan Salam, one of the villagers, reported that he heard gunshots near the
post, followed by heavy gunfire, after which ambulances were seen rushing to the
scene. In February 2018, Egyptian army and police launched an operation against
the militants in North Sinai to cleanse the region from extremists affiliated
with ISIS. A security source, who declined to be named, told Asharq Al-Awsat
that the army forces stationed in Musafaq military post thwarted an armed attack
by the terrorists, wounding three recruits who were transferred to Bir al-Abd
hospital for treatment. Bir al-Abd Hospital received 3 recruits of various
injuries, confirmed a medical source to Asharq Al-Awsat.
The attack came about three days after five army recruits were injured by
shrapnel, when an explosive device planted by gunmen targeted an armored
vehicle, south of Bir al-Abd. In addition, hundreds of Sinai residents attended
the funeral of 9 family members of al-Bayadeyya tribe who were killed in an
unidentified shelling on their bus. The group was in Tuffaha village and on
their way back from olive picking when a shell targeted their bus killing them
and injuring 6 others.
Libya’s Haftar Asserts Ability to Liberate Capital in 2
Days
Cairo - Khalid Mahmoud/Asharq Al-Awsat/Wednesday, 16 October, 2019
The Libyan National Army has denied targeting civilians, saying it prioritizes
the security of citizens in its operation to liberate the capital Tripoli which
LNA commander Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar says can be done in two days. Haftar
told Russian agency Sputnik that the army places citizens' safety above all
else, noting that the LNA aims at defending Tripoli residents from militia
violence, but not entering the capital “at any cost.” He indicated that the war
can be ended in two days, but it would lead to the destruction of the city and
heavy civilian casualties. Haftar denied knowing the whereabouts of Saif
al0Islam Gaddafi, son of late Libyan leader Muammar. He also said there was no
communication between them, adding that Gaddafi is a Libyan citizen and has the
right to participate in the elections. “If the legal conditions are met, it is
his natural right,” said Haftar in reference to Gaddafi’s recent statement on
running in the upcoming presidential election. However, the LNA commander
explained that ending the military operations doesn’t automatically mean the
atmosphere will be ready for elections. Asked about running in the polls, Haftar
indicated he was not concerned about that, asserting that the country needs to
enhance its security and socioeconomic conditions first. Meanwhile, head of the
Government of National Accord (GNA) Fayez al-Sarraj visited the location of an
airstrike in Tripoli’s al-Fernaj neighborhood where a woman and three of her
children were killed, and many others injured. In a statement, he extended his
condolences to the woman’s husband. He also inspected abutting buildings,
including the headquarters of the Ministry of Health and a mosque, which were
damaged by the strike. Following the attack, the United Nations Mission in Libya
(UNSMIL) issued a statement expressing its shock, and condemning “in the
strongest possible terms the reckless disregard for the lives of innocent
people." It called for the immediate cessation of such indiscriminate attacks.
“It is particularly egregious that the attack comes a few days after the attack
on the Equestrian Club in Tripoli which also injured a number of children,” the
mission said. UNSMIL reaffirmed that it will not stand idly by and watch war
crimes being committed, and innocent lives being lost, almost every day. US
Ambassador to Libya Richard Norland also in a statement, said the Embassy was
“sickened by reports that three young sisters were killed in an aerial bombing
conducted in Tripoli by forces laying siege to the capital.” It indicated that
these “tragic and senseless” deaths must unite everyone in calling for an
immediate end to the fighting and the start of a political process leading to
lasting peace in Libya."The LNA leadership denied responsibility for the
bombing, and accused armed militias loyal to the GNA of being behind the attack.
LNA spokesman Major General Ahmed al-Mesmari said the army’s air strikes and
ground operations are highly accurate.
He also denied bombing any civilian targets, saying the “gangs” are fabricating
baseless allegations.
Pakistan Says Talks with Riyadh, Tehran 'Encouraging'
Agence France Presse/Naharnet/October 16/2019
Pakistan's foreign minister said Tuesday that Prime Minister Imran Khan's talks
with Tehran and Riyadh had been "encouraging" after visits to try to defuse
rising tensions in the Gulf. Khan traveled to Iran and Saudi Arabia as a
"facilitator" between the arch-rivals, following a series of attacks on oil
infrastructure and tankers in recent months that have raised fears of war. "Our
talks have been encouraging and the response that we got in the two countries
was beyond our expectation," Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told a press
conference in Islamabad after Khan's visit to Riyadh. "Iranian leadership told
us they don't want escalation and wish to resolve the issue peacefully," he
said. Iran's leaders "said they are also mentally prepared for a dialogue,
either direct or with third-party facilitation", Qureshi added. Earlier this
week Khan held talks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani at the presidential
palace and later met Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. It was Khan's
second visit this year to Iran, which shares a border of about 1,000 kilometers
(620 miles) with Pakistan. Tensions in the Gulf spiked last month after attacks
on Saudi oil facilities that halved the kingdom's crude output and set oil
markets alight.
Tehran has denied involvement and warned of "total war" in the event of any
attack on its territory. On Tuesday, Khan went to Riyadh and met King Salman bin
Abdulaziz and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. "We conveyed to Saudi leadership
Pakistan's position on the issue and Iran's sentiments," said Qureshi, who
accompanied Khan on the visit. "I am quite satisfied to say that the clouds of
war and conflicts that hovered lately are clearing," he added. "A good beginning
has been made... There is a mechanism to move forward and we are engaged in
discussion on this." Pakistan has strong relations with Saudi Arabia, with more
than 2.5 million of its nationals living and working in the kingdom, but it also
maintains good relations with Iran and represents Tehran's consular interests in
the United States.
The Latest LCCC English analysis & editorials from miscellaneous
sources published
on October 16-17/2019
What If Poor Nations Were Paid to Take in Refugees?
Stephen Carter/Bloomberg/October, 16/2019
Much of the commentary about Michael Kremer, named this week as one of three
winners of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, has justifiably
celebrated his pioneering work in studying poverty — even now, many of us
believe, the planet’s greatest moral challenge. But an important 2011 Kremer
paper, overlooked in the celebration, helps to shed light on another great
challenge of our day: refugee policy.
His work helps explain the immigration pressures that have been roiling politics
around the world. In the wake of the disaster in Syria and other crises,
refugees have flooded Europe. Nationalist parties have responded by playing to
the sentiment that migrants are stealing jobs. They promise tougher standards
for immigrants, a stance with the potential to harm migrants fleeing
persecution. The United Nations puts the number of people seeking refuge in the
tens of millions.
In the US, worries about immigration helped swing the 2016 presidential
election. The fear that economic migrants hurt wages among blue-collar workers
may not be well-founded, but in recent years has been widely shared. Polling
data suggest that sentiment may be changing, but to the extent that the fear of
economic loss becomes the basis of immigration policy, refugees are likely to
suffer from it.
“The Economics of International Refugee Law,” which Kremer co-authored with Ryan
Bubb and David I. Levine, presents a useful model to explain why refugee policy
tends to become such a mess, even if everyone starts out with the best of
intentions.
Kremer and his co-authors begin with a reminder that a nation that chooses to
accept migrants fleeing political prosecution provides a public good from which
other countries will benefit. The larger the number of countries that provide
asylum, the less the incentives for others to do the same. This free-rider
problem arises even if all nations are altruistic with respect to political
refugees. Because admission is not costless to the host nation, a country that
might otherwise accept a large number of refugees may nevertheless consider
itself better off if those who fear persecution find asylum somewhere else.
This creates a problem: The countries that admit political refugees become
overburdened and reduce the number of refugees they admit. As a result, even if
every country is altruistic, the number of refugees left to be persecuted in
their home countries increases.
The optimal solution, the authors note, is cooperation among host nations. Under
this theory, the 1951 Convention Relation to the Status of Refugees may be
viewed as a compact under which all signatories, by agreeing to accept political
refugees, jointly supply the public good and increase the chances that any
particular refugee will find a host.
So far, so good. The trouble is that it can be difficult for a potential host
nation to tell whether a particular migrant is fleeing persecution or seeking
economic opportunity. Nations tend to be less open to economic migrants because
of a fear that the migration will hurt the opportunities for their own citizens
and impose other economic costs. This fear of admitting economic migrants will
reduce the willingness to admit political refugees.
The result is the same even if a country would like to grant political asylum to
all who deserve it. The difficulty of discerning an individual applicant's
likelihood of persecution means a system of adjudicating claims will be
necessary; the fear of admitting a large number economic refugees will lead to a
high standard of proof. Other governments will respond by toughening their own
standards for political asylum. The predictable result is a race to the bottom
in which, worldwide, fewer refugees are admitted. This leads to the breakdown of
the system envisioned by the 1951 treaty.
How do Kremer and his co-authors propose to solve the problem? They quickly
dismiss the establishment of a centralized authority by whose decisions on
refugee status the signatories to the convention would all be bound, and indeed
such a solution would be politically impossible (and a quite bad idea). After
reviewing the literature, they endorse an important proposal floated back in the
1990s: Wealthy countries should pay poorer countries to accept more migrants. In
return, the poorer countries would agree to allow the refugees freedom of
movement (no refugee camps) and the right to earn a living. Refugees, in turn,
might be afforded a degree of choice over which nation to enter. Meanwhile,
wealth would be transferred from developed to developing countries.
In today’s fractious era, many on the left and right alike will surely dismiss
such a suggestion out of hand. But whatever your view of the paper’s solutions
(the authors propose several), the deeper analysis of why immigration policy is
so hard to fix deserves close attention. In common with the work for which the
Nobel was awarded to Kremer and his fellow laureates, the paper on immigration
represents a thoughtful and serious effort to use the tools of his trade to
grapple with a pressing moral challenge. That’s a welcome contribution at a time
when serious thought in public debate remains in tragically short supply.
How Erdogan Planned This Ethnic Cleansing All Along
مالكولم لوي/معهد جيتستون: قُدم وتجذر وشيطانية خطط اردوغان للتطهير العرقي في شمال
سوريا
Malcolm Lowe/Gatestone Institute/October 16/ 2019
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/79517/%d8%a5%d8%b1%d9%8a%d9%83-%d8%b3%d8%aa%d8%a7%d9%83%d8%a8%d9%8a%d9%83-%d9%85%d8%b9%d9%87%d8%af-%d8%ac%d9%8a%d8%aa%d8%b3%d8%aa%d9%88%d9%86-%d8%aa%d8%b1%d9%83%d9%8a%d8%a7-%d9%88%d8%b1%d9%88%d8%b3%d9%8a/
As the Voice of America itself reported on January 23, Erdogan’s plan was to
resettle three million or more refugees from other parts of Syria in this
“security zone” extending twenty miles deep into Syria. Twenty miles may not
sound much, but – the VOA omitted to mention – almost all the Kurdish towns of
northeastern Syria lie within that area. So Erdogan’s intention to annihilate
the Kurdish presence in that area and replace it with others has been manifest
ever since the beginning of 2019.
A whole series of Trump’s Republican supporters in the Senate expressed outrage
over his decision, starting with Lindsey Graham (“Pray for our Kurdish allies
who have been shamelessly abandoned by the Trump Administration”) and continuing
with Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, who remarked: “As we learned
the hard way during the Obama Administration, American interests are best served
by American leadership, not by retreat or withdrawal.”
It is now clear that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan intended the
annihilation of the Syrian Kurds already two years ago. (Photo by Getty Images)
It is now clear that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan intended the
annihilation of the Syrian Kurds already two years ago. Moreover, his plans
became evident to the US military by the beginning of 2019 and were conveyed to
President Trump at that time.
In order to disguise his plans, Erdogan revealed them stage by stage, by making
first lesser and then greater demands on the US military, to which Trump agreed
— sometimes in the course of telephone conversations with Erdogan. So Erdogan
was able to hoodwink the US military up to January 2019 and to hoodwink Trump up
to the current invasion: Trump resolutely defied contrary advice from the
military (and from everyone else).
At first, Erdogan demanded the removal of Kurdish militias only west of the
Euphrates river. This was the proclaimed aim of his so-called Operations
Euphrates Shield and Olive Branch (the expulsion of hundreds of thousands of
Kurds from the Afrin area). With that accomplished, he began demanding a
Turkish-controlled “security zone” east of the river, to be 32 kilometers deep.
The US responded by agreeing to joint US-Turkish patrols in the area. Erdogan
demanded that the Kurdish towns in the area should dismantle the fortifications
that they had raised to defend themselves from the Islamic State (ISIS). The
Kurds agreed, reassured by the US military that this step would remove any
excuse for a Turkish invasion.
Finally, in October 2019, Erdogan asked Trump in a further telephone call to
remove US troops from the patrols and Trump agreed, believing that by
threatening Turkey on Twitter, he could deter a Turkish invasion. The invasion
started forthwith. It has been stalled, maybe, now that the Kurds have invited
the army of the Assad regime to deploy throughout northeastern Syria up to the
Iraqi frontier. If so, the beneficiaries will include Iran, America’s arch
enemy, which can now see its yearned-for highway all the way from Tehran to
Quneitra on Israel’s border.
Timetable to Annihilation
In this timetable, there is no need document with links information that has
been reported many times in many media. To be recommended, however, are
especially the articles of Seth Frantzman, who personally knows well both the
area and the leading Kurdish partisans.
September 2014-April 2015. The Kurdish town and area of Kobani were assailed by
ISIS forces with the flight of 400,000 Kurds. But a Kurdish militia, the Kurdish
People’s Protection Units (YPG), succeeded (with US Air Force support) in
driving ISIS out – albeit with great casualties and the destruction of most of
the town. Now (October 2019) Turkey has attacked Kobani and residents have fled
again.
October 2017. After a long campaign, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) – a
coalition of the YPG and other Arab and Christian militias – captured the ISIS
capital of Raqqa. In subsequent operations, the SDF captured all other ISIS
strongholds and imprisoned thousands of ISIS terrorists and their families. Some
11,000 Kurds sacrificed their lives. They had been supported by US air power and
a tiny ground force of US, French and UK special forces units, which suffered
few casualties. All this time, however, Erdogan claimed that the SDF were
terrorists as wicked as ISIS, alleging – without any evidence of note – that its
YPG component was simultaneously fomenting rebellion among Kurds in Turkey.
January-March 2018. Supported by Turkish air power, artillery and armour, the
Free Syrian Army (FSA) – a militia trained in Turkey and composed of Islamist
refugees – conquered the area of Afrin, the town at the westernmost end of those
parts of Syria which contain a large Kurdish population. Since 2012, under the
protection of the YPG and later SDF, Afrin had been one of the few peaceful
enclaves during the horrific civil war in Syria. The Turkish-backed invasion
expelled not merely the SDF militia but an estimated 400,000 civilian Kurds. In
their former homes, Turkey’s Free Syrian Army settled like-minded Islamist
refugees who had been driven out of Eastern Ghouta by the Syrian regime with
Russian assistance. The newcomers instituted a harsh Sharia regime that forced
also local Christians to flee. This was a dress rehearsal for the current
Turkish offensive of October 2019.
April 2018. President Trump announced his intention to withdraw all US forces
from Syria. His own Defense Secretary James Mattis, his personal advisors and
his chief supporters in Congress, such as Senator Lindsey Graham, urged him at
least to wait. A Gatestone article asked: “Is Trump About to Repeat Obama’s
Worst Mistake?” It forecast that the result would be a Turkish attempt to
annihilate the entire Kurdish presence in Syria. The article added that, since
Iran had denounced the Turkish operation in Afrin, Iran might be the very
country, through its presence in Syria, to which the Kurds would be forced to
turn for salvation. The chief allies of the USA, in order to survive, might have
no choice but to go over to the chief adversary of the USA.
December 2018. Turkey threatened to repeat its Afrin operation in Manbij near
the west bank of the Euphrates. The US military dithered over how to protect its
SDF allies and the Kurds of Manbij. It was then surprised and dismayed when the
SDF invited the army of the Syrian regime, with Russian support, to take over
its positions. Turkey gave up on its plans, but today it is threatening Manbij
again. Another Gatestone article was titled “America’s Loyal Syrian Kurdish
Allies Evade Annihilation – While US forces in Iraq face expulsion.” It rejected
Trump’s claim that he could somehow control events in Syria at a distance via
the US presence in Iraq; it noted that precisely this presence could end anytime
on account of local opposition there, leading to a collapse of US policy in the
Middle East. Trump’s claim was immediately refuted in October 2019. As for a
collapse of US policy, Trump’s recent tweet that “Turkey, Europe, Syria, Iran,
Iraq, Russia and the Kurds will now have to figure the situation out” indicates
that he does not care.
January 2019. After Mattis resigned as Secretary of Defense over Trump’s Syria
policy, Erdogan announced his intention to create a “security zone” of 32
kilometers beyond Turkey’s border with Syria. As the Voice of America itself
reported on January23, Erdogan’s plan was to resettle three million or more
refugees from other parts of Syria in this “security zone” extending twenty
miles deep into Syria. Twenty miles may not sound much, but – the VOA omitted to
mention – almost all the Kurdish towns of northeastern Syria lie within that
area. (The only noteworthy exception is Hasaka, which includes many Kurds.) So
Erdogan’s intention to annihilate the Kurdish presence in that area and replace
it with others has been manifest ever since the beginning of 2019 at least.
October 2019. Urged by Erdogan in a telephone call on October 6, Trump decided
to remove the tiny number of US soldiers engaged in the joint US-Turkish patrols
(not more than 50) to the complete surprise of (among others) Secretary of
Defense Mark Enser and Jim Jeffrey, the Administration’s Special Representative
for Syria Engagement. The Turks quickly invaded, using the Free Syrian Army as
its ground force, supported by artillery and bombing from the air. Kurdish
leaders complained that the US military had not merely abandoned them, but was
preventing them from turning to Russia and the Syrian regime (as in the case of
Manbij). Then hundreds of inmates of a Kurdish-run prison camp for ISIS captives
were set free by Turkish bombing of the area or by an attack by the Free Syrian
Army (accounts differ). Enser, realizing that even thousands more ISIS captives
could soon be on the loose, hastily evacuated the remaining thousand or so US
personnel in the area. With that obstacle removed, the Kurds invited the Syrian
regime to arrive with Russian assistance. It should be said that, however much
people may detest Bashar Al-Assad, who is responsible for mass murder, one hopes
that he will again rescue America’s abandoned allies.
Impotent Tweets and Republican Outrage
This is the pair of tweets with which Trump thought that he could frighten off
Erdogan from his genocidal plans:
“As I have stated strongly before, and just to reiterate, if Turkey does
anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I
will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey (I’ve done before!).
They must, with Europe and others, watch over…
“… the captured ISIS fighters and families. The U.S. has done far more than
anyone could have ever expected, including the capture of 100% of the ISIS
Caliphate. It is time now for others in the region, some of great wealth, to
protect their own territory. THE USA IS GREAT!”
It is hardly possible to find anything in those tweets that is not subject to
great doubt. The glee can be imagined with which Erdogan showed disdain for
tweets on Twitter and hastened to implement his carefully prepared plans. As for
“great and unmatched wisdom,” so many of Trump’s erstwhile advisors and
supporters saw confirmed their fears of unmatched folly.
The ISIS captives have already begun to run free. They consist of 11,000
fighters and 70,000 family members, who were being supervised by thousands of
SDF soldiers. Those SDF soldiers will now need to defend their own homes and
families. How little US ground forces contributed to the capture of the Islamic
Caliphate, and how great were the sacrifices of the Syrian Kurds, has already
been noted. The wealthy Gulf sheikhdoms, in some of which foreigners make up 80%
or 90% of the population, are protected from Iran only by US bases. Saudi
Arabia, which has a substantial military, is struggling to make way against the
Houthis in Yemen. And the throwing of the USA’s faithful Kurdish allies to the
dogs is not a proof of the greatness of the USA.
Once the vanity of threatening Erdogan with tweets was exposed, Trump spoke in a
press conference, in which he sought to besmirch the name of the Syrian Kurds by
complaining that in World War II they had not participated in the Normandy
landings. Whatever he knows or not about today’s Syria, he knows nothing of
Vichy Syria, the regime of French collaborators with Germany that ruled Syria
after the collapse of France in 1940. When British Empire forces invaded Syria
and deposed the Vichy regime there, they had no means to replace it and so
allowed Syrian politicians to declare independence. Under both Syrian regimes,
the Kurdish minority had neither the opportunity nor the training nor even a
pointless invitation to fight in Europe.
In the same press conference, Trump confusedly claimed that the USA had been
working in Syria with the PKK, a Kurdish terrorist organization in Turkey –
exactly what Erdogan alleges as the excuse for his invasion. Trump also claimed
to have showered the Syrian Kurds with weapons to defend themselves. Turkey, of
course, is employing tanks, artillery and aircraft, against which the Kurds have
no answer.
A whole series of Trump’s Republican supporters in the Senate expressed outrage
over his decision, starting with Lindsey Graham (“Pray for our Kurdish allies
who have been shamelessly abandoned by the Trump Administration”) and continuing
with Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, who remarked: “As we learned
the hard way during the Obama Administration, American interests are best served
by American leadership, not by retreat or withdrawal.” Both they and leading
House Republicans made haste to introduce sanctions on Turkey and Erdogan.
Military figures added their criticisms of Trump, starting with James Mattis,
but including Joseph Votel, the general who headed US Central Command from March
2016 to March 2019 and supervised collaboration with the Syrian Kurds, and
four-star Marine General John Allen, who said that the consequences of Trump’s
decision were “completely foreseeable” and that:
“There is blood on Trump’s hands for abandoning our Kurdish allies. I said there
would be blood, but could not have imagined this outcome. There was no chance
Erdogan would keep his promise, and full blown ethnic cleansing is underway by
Turkish supported militias. This is what happens when Trump follows his
instincts and because of his alignment with autocrats.”
Those are recently retired senior officers. Add to them a series of messages
relayed by Jennifer Griffin, reporting on the ground, from an active-duty
Special Ops Officer (whose name she obviously could not disclose). This was one
of the thousand US personnel who, as we saw, had to be withdrawn suddenly from
the area:
“I am ashamed for the first time in my career. Turkey is not doing what it
agreed to. It’s horrible. We met every single security agreement. The Kurds met
every single agreement. There was NO threat to the Turks – NONE – from this side
of the border. This is insanity. I don’t know what they call atrocities but they
are happening. [Trump] doesn’t understand the problem. He doesn’t understand the
repercussions of this. Erdogan is an Islamist, not a level headed actor. The
Kurds are as close to Western thinking in the Middle East as anyone. It’s a
shame. It’s horrible. This is not helping the ISIS fight. Many of [the ISIS
prisoners] will be free in the coming days and weeks.”
Also Evangelical Christians, hitherto among Trump’s strongest supporters, are in
dismay. They include Mike Huckabee, Pat Robertson (Trump is “in danger of losing
the mandate of heaven”), John Stonestreet and Tony Perkins. Their concern echoes
messages from Syrian Christians in the Kurdish areas:
“It is very possible that the American withdrawal from the region will lead to
the extinction of Christianity from the region”
“Turkey aims to kill and destroy us and to finish the genocide against our
people”
“The Turkish regime is based on armed extremist and radical groups that commit
crimes against civilians and humanity. Such threats endanger the life of Syriac
people in the region.”
Over now to Fox News, on which Trump relies more than most for a fair and
accurate hearing. So how has Fox News reacted?
A look through reactions to Trump’s decision in its opinion section reveals the
following (in order of appearance):
Tucker Carlson (“Outrage over Trump’s Syria decision shows Washington’s perverse
priorities”)
James Carafano (“Is Trump serious about Syria? Here’s what you must always
remember”)
Marc Thiessen (“Trump’s abandonment of the Kurds is a recipe for endless war,
not a strategy to end one”)
Jim Hanson (“To halt fighting between Turkey and Kurds in Syria and prevent
return of ISIS, US must do THIS”).
The very titles of Thiessen’s article shows that he dissents from Trump’s
wisdom. Carlson, while defending Trump, noted:
“We’d love to tell you that it was just the lefty hacks on CNN demanding that we
stay in Syria forever. But unfortunately, it was not. Not even close. A ton of
Republicans on Capitol Hill made exactly the same point.”
Carafano asked, “So the question is, does the Turkish operation, if conducted in
the manner in which the Turkish government claims, threaten any of the U.S.
interests in Syria?” and answered “Arguably not.” (In the meantime, of course,
Trump himself does not believe that the operation is being “conducted in the
manner in which the Turkish government claims.”)
Hanson’s “THIS” consists of demanding a ceasefire, sanctions against Turkey,
refugee camps for fleeing Kurds, enforcing no-fly and no-drive zones on Turkey
in Syria, and seeking “approval of a U.N. Security Council resolution condemning
Turkey’s war crimes and ethnic cleansing.” Yet he also insists: “Turkey is
America’s NATO ally and if we are forced to choose between the Kurds and Turkey
we must lean to the side of Turkey.” Evidently, Hanson is perplexed, asking the
USA both to lean heavily on Turkey and lean to its side.
The noted jurist Andrew McCarthy has sympathy for Trump’s desire to abandon
faraway wars. But his emphasis lies elsewhere: Noting that it is senior
Republicans who are now furious with Trump, he continued:
“By redeploying a few dozen American troops in Syria, the president acceded to a
Turkish invasion of territory occupied by the Kurds….
“There is rage over Trump’s decision. It is rage over a policy choice, not over
high crimes and misdemeanors. Only the most blindly angry can doubt the
lawfulness of the commander-in-chief’s movement of U.S. soldiers, even though it
rendered inevitable the Turks’ rout of the Kurds… What matters is that President
Trump has damaged his support among Senate Republicans. How badly remains to be
seen.”
Trump has not acknowledged any blemish in his “unmatched wisdom;” instead he
disparages anyone, starting with the brave Syrian Kurds themselves, who calls
his wisdom into question.
*Malcolm Lowe is a Welsh scholar specialized in Greek Philosophy, the New
Testament and Christian-Jewish Relations.
© 2019 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No
part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied
or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
Turkey, Russia, Iran: Filling the Vacuum
إريك ستاكبيك/معهد جستون: تركيا وروسيا وإيران وملء الفراغ في شمال سوريا
Erick Stakelbeck/Gatestone Institute/October 16/ 2019
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/79517/%d8%a5%d8%b1%d9%8a%d9%83-%d8%b3%d8%aa%d8%a7%d9%83%d8%a8%d9%8a%d9%83-%d9%85%d8%b9%d9%87%d8%af-%d8%ac%d9%8a%d8%aa%d8%b3%d8%aa%d9%88%d9%86-%d8%aa%d8%b1%d9%83%d9%8a%d8%a7-%d9%88%d8%b1%d9%88%d8%b3%d9%8a/
The U.S. Congress is looking to push back against Erdogan’s brazen foray into
northeastern Syria. For months, there has been a bi-partisan effort on Capitol
Hill to convince the Trump administration to implement sanctions on Turkey in
the wake of its purchase of the Russian S-400 missile system. The events of this
past week will likely only escalate pressure by Congress against the Erdogan
regime.
“We defeated ISIS,” a Peshmerga general said, “only to see Iran and its Shia
militias become stronger. They are filling the vacuum.”
Islamist-led Turkey has now joined those same Iranian-led forces in filling that
vacuum — with the full acquiescence of the United States.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s longstanding threat to invade
northeastern Syria — under the pretext of targeting terrorists from the
Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) — has become a reality. Pictured: Smoke from
battle explosions rises over the Syrian town of Ras al-Ain, near the Turkish
border, on October 15, 2019. (Photo by Burak Kara/Getty Images)
On the Iran-Iraq border a few weeks ago, I found myself just a few hundred
meters from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), standard bearers of
a regime that has practically copyrighted the phrases, “Death to America” and
“Death to Israel.”
At the Kurdish Peshmerga military base stood a series of small, white structures
spread out across the mountaintops on the Iranian side of the border.
“IRGC observation posts,” said one of my Kurdish hosts, eying the mountains
warily.
The Pershmerga generals interviewed in Iraqi Kurdistan seemed eager to talk
about the threat posed by the IRGC and the Iranian regime—not only to the Kurds,
Israel and the broader Middle East, but also to the United States.
They were understandably more reticent, however, in discussing the other looming
threat in their immediate neighborhood — an increasingly aggressive Turkey, led
by Islamist strongman President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Erdogan’s longstanding threat to invade northeastern Syria — under the pretext
of targeting terrorists from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) — has become a
reality. Following the sudden announcement by the White House that U.S. troops
would “no longer be in the immediate area,” and that Turkey would be “moving
forward with its long-planned operation into Northern Syria,” Erdogan’s forces
made their move. If reports are accurate, their targets, predictably, reach far
beyond the PKK and prove that Erdogan had much bigger designs all along.
Turkish forces are reportedly shelling Kurdish areas in northeastern Syria
indiscriminately, threatening the area’s large Christian minority and
deliberately targeting fighters from the U.S.-aligned Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF),
a group comprised mainly of Kurdish fighters.
In recent years, these same SDF forces, assisted by American air support, took
the lead role on the ground in crushing the ISIS caliphate that had once covered
34,000 square miles of territory across Iraq and Syria. Now they’re once again
defending their homes and neighborhoods against jihadists — this time, from the
Free Syrian Army (FSA), which has aligned itself with Turkish forces in the
invasion.
A humanitarian crisis seems all but imminent, with more than 160,000 people
having already been displaced by the fighting, according to the UN.
A distraught U.S. Special Forces member on the ground in Syria who witnessed the
Turkish invasion up close told Fox News that “atrocities…are happening,” and
that U.S. forces, their hands tied by the White House’s abrupt decision, are
“sitting by and watching it unfold.”
With President Trump’s announcement last weekend that all U.S. forces are
withdrawing from northern Syria, and with Turkish forces driving ever further
into Syrian territory, the Kurds, in desperation, have now cut a deal with
Russia and the regime of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in hopes of finding
some protection from Erdogan’s expansionism. To see a longtime, loyal U.S. ally
forced to turn to two anti-American regimes for survival is particularly
troubling. As that same U.S. Special Forces member told Fox News, “The Kurds are
as close to Western thinking in the Middle East as anyone.”
Erdogan, by contrast, moves further from the West and Turkey’s all-but-erstwhile
NATO allies seemingly by the day. In response to European leaders’ concerns over
the Turkish invasion, Erdogan has threatened to allow 3.6 million Syrian
refugees to flood Europe— echoing a similar threat he made last month.
While the White House announcement last week stated that, “Turkey will now be
responsible for all ISIS fighters in the area captured over the past two years,”
it was Erdogan who allowed the Turkish-Syrian border to become a virtual sieve
and transit point for thousands of jihadi foreign fighters to enter Syria during
the height of the ISIS caliphate.
Trusting Erdogan — a committed Islamist in the Muslim Brotherhood mold — to
oversee the thousands of ISIS prisoners currently held in northeastern Syria
creates an instant fox-guarding-the-hen-house scenario. Already, there are
reports that more than 785 ISIS fighters have escaped prison and detention camps
in northeastern Syria amid the chaos of the Turkish invasion. Their swift
recapture is likely not high on Erdogan’s priority list.
Erdogan, has, in fact, openly harbored members of ISIS, as well as the
Palestinian terrorist group Hamas on Turkish soil. Erdogan, who lamely insists
that Hamas is not a terrorist organization, has repeatedly slammed Israel as a
“terrorist state” and engages in some of the most vicious anti-Israel rhetoric
by a world leader this side of Iran’s mullahs.
His budding alliance with Iran and Russia, and his sweeping crackdowns on
Turkish dissidents and journalists, have made Turkey’s shift to the East all the
more pronounced. In short, Turkey, under Erdogan’s radical leadership, can be
best described today as NINO, or NATO In Name Only.
The U.S. Congress is looking to push back against Erdogan’s brazen foray into
northeastern Syria. For months, there has been a bi-partisan effort on Capitol
Hill to convince the Trump administration to implement sanctions on Turkey in
the wake of its purchase of the Russian S-400 missile system.
The events of this past week will likely only escalate pressure by Congress
against the Erdogan regime.
Meanwhile, as Syria’s Kurds try desperately to stave off a massacre at the hands
of Turkish forces, Iraqi Kurdistan lies directly in the line not only of Turkish
but also Iranian fire. As the Iranian regime continues — through Shia militias
and other proxies, including the Houthis and Hezbollah — aggressively to expand
its influence across Iraq, Yemen, Syria and Lebanon, the Iraqi Kurds interviewed
fear that they could be next in Iran’s crosshairs.
In September 2018, for instance, IRGC forces fired seven missiles into Kurdistan
in what Iran’s regime claimed was an attack on Iranian Kurdish dissidents based
there. At least 11 people were killed in the strike, which occurred just a short
distance from a Peshmerga military position visited by the author.
Today, the U.S. troop withdrawal from neighboring Syria, combined with the
glaring lack of response by the West in the face of escalating Iranian and
Turkish aggression in the region, have left Iraq’s Kurds and other U.S. allies
in the Free World feeling more exposed than ever to the expansionist aims of
both Erdogan and Iran’s mullahs.
Given the Kurds’ painful history, including genocide at the hands of Saddam
Hussein, and the threats they currently face, it’s no wonder that many shared an
affinity for Israel — and a concern for the future.
“We defeated ISIS,” a Peshmerga general said, “only to see Iran and its Shia
militias become stronger. They are filling the vacuum.”
Islamist-led Turkey has now joined those same Iranian-led forces in filling that
vacuum — with the full acquiescence of the United States.
*Erick Stakelbeck is Director of Christians United for Israel’s Watchman Project
and Host of The Watchman show, seen weekly on TBN and the Fox Business Network.
© 2019 Gatestone Institute. All rights reserved. The articles printed here do
not necessarily reflect the views of the Editors or of Gatestone Institute. No
part of the Gatestone website or any of its contents may be reproduced, copied
or modified, without the prior written consent of Gatestone Institute.
بن درور يميني/يديعوت أحرونوت: العالم صامت في حين أن الأكراد
في شمال سوريا يذبحون
The Kurds are being massacred and the world is silent
Ben-Dror Yemini/Ynetnews/October 16/2019
http://eliasbejjaninews.com/archives/79525/%d8%a8%d9%86-%d8%af%d8%b1%d9%88%d8%b1-%d9%8a%d9%85%d9%8a%d9%86%d9%8a-%d9%8a%d8%af%d9%8a%d8%b9%d9%88%d8%aa-%d8%a3%d8%ad%d8%b1%d9%88%d9%86%d9%88%d8%aa-%d8%a7%d9%84%d8%b9%d8%a7%d9%84%d9%85-%d8%b5%d8%a7/
Opinion: The American military presence in Syria was supposed to counter Turkish
President Erdogan's expansionist aspirations, but Donald Trump's decision to
abandon the Kurdish people leaves them in grave danger
The Kurds weren't in Normandy on D-Day, as U.S. President Donald Trump argued
when explaining why he had abandoned them, but neither was Israel.
In those days there was no Kurdish state, and there still isn't. There wasn't
even an autonomy with a military force – but now there is.
During the six years of fighting between the Kurds and Islamist factions in
Syria, especially the Islamic State, the Americans assisted the Kurds with
intelligence and air strikes.
The Americans hardly put any boots on the ground, and if so, they mainly served
as consultants, far away from the battlefront and the casualty count is in
accordance: American casualties stand at six soldiers and two civilians.
The Kurds carried most of the burden - they fought on the ground and suffered
11,000 casualties. Much more than all American casualties in Iraq and
Afghanistan combined.
The Kurds did the dirty work for themselves, but also for the free world. They
established an autonomy called Rojava, which officially calls itself the
Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (NES).
Given the powers operating in the area, this autonomy is - or was should we say,
a bit peculiar. It was characterized mainly by the principles of religious
freedom, equality for women, direct democracy, and possibly even
anti-capitalism.
The latter principle did not interfere with cooperation with the United States.
Given these principles, if Trump's move is not a betrayal - then it's unclear to
me what a betrayal is.
In any case, during the past year there have been only 1,000 American soldiers
on Syrian soil.
They weren't supposed to fight. Their presence in the region was supposed to
restrain Turkish President Erdogan's expansionist aspirations, but Trump has
decided to abandon the Kurds.
The Kurds have a grim history. Under the Syrian Mandate, which was implemented
in 1921, the country was divided into six different entities, each under a
separate banner.
Two of them were Sunni (Damascus and Aleppo), one Druze (Jabal Druze State), one
Alawite (the Alawite State in the Latakia region), Alexandretta (which the Turks
annexed and renamed Iskenderun) and Lebanon (which became independent) – but the
Kurds were left out in the cold.
The situation of the Kurds worsened under Syrian rule. They have suffered
decades of systematic and institutional discrimination as part of the attempts
to Arabize the region.
The use of the Kurdish language was banned, 120,000 Kurds were stripped off
their citizenship, local authorities seized massive swathes of Kurdish land and
handed it over to Arab hands and much more.
The autonomy that emerged in northern Syria could have been partial compensation
for an historical injustice.
The demand for Kurdish independence also occasionally arises in Israel. There
are those who compare them to the Palestinians but this comparison is ludicrous.
The Kurds of Rojava are not asking for independence, they are not demanding the
dissolution of Syria and they declare that they want to live under the Syrian
flag.
The Palestinians, unlike the Kurds, have repeatedly been offered proposals for
independence and the establishment of a separate state but they declined time
and time again.
The Kurds never received such an offer, but it did not stop the Palestinians
from becoming the world's darling and that also didn't stop some idiots whose
connection with reality was always a bit wonky from depicting Israel as a
carbon-copy of Turkey.
Have the Kurds ever threatened to eradicate Syria, Iraq or Turkey? Have they
ever launched rockets at population centers? Are their educational systems laden
with jihadist racist propaganda?
The invasion is intended, among other things, to create a "safe zone" in which
Turkey could settle Syrian refugees who fled due to the civil war raging in the
country, but in the meantime, it also creates a new wave of hundreds of
thousands of refugees. Where exactly will they run to?
We live in a world where atrocities against Muslims are firmly condemned – they
were slaughtered in Darfur, they faced ethnic cleansing and massacres in
Myanmar, they are locked up in re-education camps in China – these were always
condemned with the support of the Arab and Muslim world.
But now when it is the Kurds, again the Kurds, who are facing a new wave of war
crimes, the world keeps silent.
Pence and Pompeo to Push Erdogan for Pullback From Syria
Katie Rogers and Eric Schmitt/NYT/October 16/2019
WASHINGTON — Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will
meet with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey in Ankara on Thursday to
relay President Trump’s demand that Mr. Erdogan negotiate a cease-fire in Syria
and to reiterate the president’s threat to impose economic sanctions if he does
not comply.
The president’s sending of the delegation — to also include his national
security adviser, Robert C. O’Brien, and the State Department’s special envoy
for Syrian affairs, James F. Jeffrey — is part of a scrambled effort to wrest
back control of a chaotic situation in Syria that has endangered American forces
there even as they prepared to leave.
“We want to bring our soldiers back home after so many years,” Mr. Trump said in
an appearance on Tuesday in the Rose Garden. “And they’re the greatest warriors
in the world.”
Mr. Trump surprised his own military when he ordered the immediate withdrawal of
all 1,000 American troops in northern Syria, who had been fighting Islamic State
militants alongside Syrian Kurds. The forces’ withdrawal, ahead of Turkey’s
cross-border offensive, has prompted the Syrian Kurds to turn for support to the
Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad and the Russians.
The risk to American troops became evident on Tuesday, when the American
military ordered Apache helicopter gunships to conduct a low-flying show of
force to warn off Turkish-backed militia members who were approaching, an
American military official said.
Mr. Trump has long viewed his personal relationships with leaders, including Mr.
Erdogan, as key to accomplishing his foreign policy goals. But Mr. Trump’s
failure in an Oct. 6 phone call to outline the consequences for Mr. Erdogan if
he moved his troops into Syria has forced the White House to deal with the
consequences.
“The administration is resolved to maintain security in the region, the safety
of civilians, and the continued detention of ISIS fighters,” Mr. Pence said
Tuesday in a statement.
Mr. Pence does not have broad experience negotiating with Mr. Erdogan. This trip
will be his first diplomatic visit to Turkey, but he has been repeatedly used as
an emissary for Mr. Trump.
The addition of Mr. Pompeo, who has maintained that the president did not give
Mr. Erdogan a “green light” to proceed into Syria, is intended to add diplomatic
weight to the proceedings. And Mr. O’Brien, in his former role as the State
Department’s hostage negotiator, helped secure the release last fall of Andrew
Brunson, an American pastor who had been detained in Turkey for two years,
leading to a diplomatic truce between the two countries.
Administration officials have sought in recent days to play down the idea that
Mr. Trump’s decision to pull American troops from northeast Syria had
contributed to a rapid destabilization of the area. One senior official likened
it on Monday to a matter of moving “a couple of dozen guys around.”
But developments on the ground reflected growing security concerns for United
States military officials stationed there.
In describing the Tuesday episode in Turkey, officials said that Turkish-backed
fighters, who have formed the vanguard of the offensive, violated an agreement
not to threaten American troops, who were about four miles away, when they
advanced west of Ain Issa, Syria. The official spoke on condition of anonymity
to discuss confidential intelligence reports.
The episode, which was first reported by Fox News, represented the second time
in a week that Turkish forces or their proxies had threatened American forces
caught in the mayhem of the offensive. American troops came under artillery fire
last Friday from Turkish positions. The artillery struck a few hundred yards
from the Americans, whose location had been relayed in advance to the Turkish
military command.
Gen. Mark A. Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said on Friday
that commanders up and down both American and Turkish chains of command had been
alerted to where American forces were. “Everyone has been told,” General Milley
told reporters at the Pentagon.
At the same time, American troops across northeastern Syria continued to flow
south, packing up equipment and weaponry, and moving away from the advancing
Turkish offensive. A video posted online Tuesday showed a Russian journalist
standing in an abandoned American outpost west of Manbij that was the closest
one to Syrian government troops.
A spokesman for the American-led coalition based in Baghdad confirmed that
withdrawal on Tuesday on Twitter. “We are out of Manbij,” wrote the spokesman,
Col. Myles B. Caggins III.
The United States has pulled out of about half a dozen bases or outposts in the
past week, and continues to operate at eight to 10 more outside the immediate
conflict zone. Military officials described one incongruous scene in which
Syrian government forces — which this week struck a deal with Syrian Kurds, the
erstwhile American ally — advanced north to fill positions vacated by American
troops moving south on the same highway.
The Pentagon has not received a final deadline for pulling troops from northern
Syria. For the moment, the military is planning on “weeks, not days” to complete
the withdrawal, according to one officer briefed on operational planning. Most
of the American troops are expected to leave by transport planes or helicopters,
or by convoy into neighboring Iraq.
A small number of allied Special Operations forces from countries like Britain
and France that have been conducting missions in the northeast alongside the
Americans are expected to leave under the United States logistical umbrella,
officials said.
Hundreds of American troops in the region are standing by to provide security
for the retreating ones now that most Syrian Kurdish forces, which had provided
security at bases and roadways, have been redirected north to confront the
Turkish invasion, military officials said.
Dozens of American warplanes and armed drones that had been conducting other
missions, including counterterrorism operations, have in the past several days
been reassigned to watch over the departing troops.
Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper said in a statement on Monday night that the
Turkish incursion had “resulted in the release of many dangerous ISIS
detainees.”
But an American military official said that the Syrian Kurds, using minimal
manning levels, continued to detain more than 10,000 ISIS fighters, including
2,000 foreigners, at roughly two dozen makeshift prisons around the area.
*Katie Rogers is a White House correspondent in the Washington bureau, covering
the cultural impact of the Trump administration on the nation’s capital and
beyond. @katierogers
*Eric Schmitt is a senior writer who has traveled the world covering terrorism
and national security. He was also the Pentagon correspondent. A member of the
Times staff since 1983, he has shared three Pulitzer Prizes. @EricSchmittNYT