Author: M Barbu

Turkey’s military and political backing of Damascus has proven decisive in strengthening the Syrian government’s hand against the SDF

Syria just experienced the deadliest clashes yet between the post-Assad interim government of President Ahmed Al-Sharaa and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

Turkey has banned all gatherings in a southeastern province for six days following an outpouring of anger over an offensive against Syrian Kurdish fighters

Turkish officials in the southeastern Mardin province bordering Syria on Monday announced a six-day ban on gatherings following an outpouring of anger over an offensive against Kurdish fighters across the border.

Iran’s geography has turned it into a strategic hinge – one that anchors Russia’s southern depth and gives China an escape from US maritime containment.

In the corridors of US strategic decision-making, Iran is no longer treated as a discrete regional file. Dealing with Tehran has become inseparable from great-power competition itself. Coordination between Iran, Russia, and China has moved beyond situational alignment, coalescing into what western analysts increasingly describe as a form of “structural synergy” that undermines Washington’s ability to isolate its rivals.

The recent demonstrations in Iran that may have killed more than 5,000 civilians and security officers changed from largely peaceful to violent when a number of “agitators” got involved and sought to turn the gatherings focused on the poor economy into a drive to bring about regime change. It has been suggested that the sometimes-armed outsiders who stirred the pot were organized and trained by foreign intelligence services, most specifically the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Israeli Mossad. In the event, the apparent plan to bring down the Iranian government failed when Tehran’s own intelligence and security services were able to intercept and decode the Starlink communications that the plotters were using after the phones and internet were turned off. Armed with information on who, what when and where the authorities were able to make mass arrests and shut down the planned insurgency.

Kurdistan Democratic Party leader Masoud Barzani warned against any move to target Kobani (Ayn al-Arab), the last point held by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in eastern Aleppo’s countryside (northern Syria).

Speaking at a press conference in Italy on Friday, 23 January, Barzani said Kobani is “a Kurdish city that must not be touched,” adding that he would do “everything necessary if the Kurds are attacked.”

Les justifications de la guerre avec l’Iran ne cessent de changer. Ce sont d’abord les armes nucléaires, puis les missiles conventionnels, puis les manifestants, et maintenant c’est de nouveau le cas des armes nucléaires. Il semble que la guerre avec l’Iran soit en soi l’objectif, et ils inventent simplement des excuses pour y parvenir.

EU foreign ministers agreed Thursday to designate Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a “terrorist” group, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said.

“Any regime that kills thousands of its own people is working toward its own demise,” she said.

Iran’s foreign minister warned Wednesday its forces would respond immediately and forcefully to any US military operation after President Donald Trump declared time was running out to avoid one, but did not rule out a new deal on Tehran’s nuclear program.

The Islamic republic’s top diplomat Abbas Araghchi warned its forces have their “fingers on the trigger” to “powerfully respond” to any US strikes, but also used language strikingly similar to Trump’s to describe a possible agreement to defuse the stand-off through a new nuclear deal.