Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke Sunday by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin. During the call, Erdogan reportedly called for Russia to move toward a cease-fire in Ukraine, to open humanitarian corridors for the Ukrainians and to sign a peace agreement.
I am under no illusions that President Vladimir Putin will ever negotiate terms of peace, at least not in good faith. Nor will he ever admit defeat in Ukraine. I would say he has a spartan view of war (“Come back with your shield or on it”) except that it denigrates the Spartans to compare them to the Russian president. The Spartans did their own fighting, while Putin phones in his kill orders from the safety of a gilded villa.
Hate and war
The only things we got today
An’ if I close my eyes
They will not go away
You have to deal with it
It is the currency
Hate, hate, hate, the hate of a nation
A million miles from home
On Thursday, the city of Qamishli, north of Hassakeh, witnessed an intense security alert of the Russia-backed National Defense Forces militia and pro-Iran militias affiliated with the IRGC. This came after armed clashes took place between the two sides.
Syrian government forces used automatic weapons to attack a military checkpoint in the village of Kozliya in the northern countryside of al-Hassakeh governorate. The outpost was run by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which is backed by the Washington-led International Coalition.
The attack resulted in the death of a government officer and soldier and two SDF fighters.
A legendary Syrian rebel fighter has offered his expertise to the Ukrainian army in helping them roll back a Russian invasion. Suhail al-Hamood – nicknamed Abu Tow after the anti-tank missile – is said to have destroyed more than 100 Russian-made tanks in Syria during the Free Syrian Army’s battles against Assad regime forces.
Zaman al-Wasl learned that Iran supplied allied militias in Syria, particularly the Syrian desert with quality weapons, including anti-armor machine guns amid mounting attacks by the Islamic State on Wednesday.
A well-informed source told Zaman al-Wasl that the IRG delivered advanced weapons to its points and to the Afghan Fatemiyoun militia based in the Palmyra and Arak desert in the eastern countryside of Homs province.
The War in Ukraine is occupying all the headlines. Seen as the downfall of the European state system, its repercussions are believed to be mostly focused inside the old continent. However, the repercussions of the Russian war extend to Syria as well through many channels. Among these, it provides a perfect opportunity for Iran, Russia’s partner, to gain some ground in the country.
Russia’s Invasion Could Unleash Forces the Kremlin Can’t Control
Russian forces have struck targets across Ukraine and seized key facilities and swaths of territory. The Ukrainian military is no match for this Russian juggernaut. Although some reports suggest Ukrainian troops have rebuffed attacks in certain parts of the country, it seems more likely that Russian President Vladimir Putin will decide just how far Russia goes into Ukraine. As a retired Russian-speaking CIA operations officer who served in Central Asia and managed agency counterinsurgency operations, I did not think Putin would have attacked Ukraine unless he had already devised a reliable end game, given the costs of an intractable conflict. But Putin’s best-laid plans might easily unravel in the face of popular Ukrainian national resistance and an insurgency.