On November 30, 2022, the Islamic State (ISIS) spokesman Abu ‘Umar Al-Muhajir announced the death of ISIS leader Abu Al-Hasan Al-Hashemi Al-Qurashi in battle and the appointment of a new leader, fourth since the inception of the organization, known as Abu Al-Husayn Al-Husayni Al-Qurashi.[1]
The top Turkish diplomat aired a rare complaint over the Russian stalling of constitutional talks between the warring Syrian actors, calling on Moscow to allow the process to resume.
A high-level Russian diplomatic delegation is heading to Turkey on Thursday for talks amid repeated Turkish threats of a new ground offensive against the Kurdish groups in northern Syria.
The delegation led by Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin will hold talks with their Turkish counterparts headed by Turkey’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Onal, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said.
The visit comes as Ankara threatens to launch a new ground operation against the Syrian Kurdish groups in northern Syria. “Someone comes out and says: ‘You can’t do this in Kobani, you can’t do that in Kobani.’ Kobani is finished,” Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday in reference to the Syrian Kurdish town that remains under Russian military influence. “We’ve been taking the necessary measures both in Idlib and Kobani and we will continue to do so,” he added.
Turkey, which backtracked from its ground operation plans in July amid strong Russian and Iranian objections, brought the matter back onto its agenda after the bomb attack in Istanbul last month. Ankara has accused the Syrian Kurdish groups of being behind the attack and launched a massive air campaign against the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) positions. The US-allied SDF flatly denied any involvement in the attack.
The visit also comes as Erdogan has been expressing fresh interest in a meeting with the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. However, citing two Turkish sources, Reuters reported on Dec. 2 that Damascus was resisting the Russian efforts to broker a summit between the two leaders.
Asked about the Russian delegation’s visit on Wednesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu stopped short of repeating Ankara’s threats, but aired a rare complaint over the Russian stalling of the constitutional talks between the warring Syrian actors.
“We know that Russia does not want to go to Geneva, Switzerland, by citing visa problems. We are also working on alternatives,” Cavusoglu said during a joint presser with his Moldovan counterpart. “But the political process must be accelerated. We’ve been stressing how important this is for the sake of permanent stability.”
He added that the war in Ukraine, Libya and bilateral issues would also be discussed during the talks. “We have clearly not been on the same side with Russia on these issues, but our engagements are proceeding and we have seen its benefits.”
The eighth round of the Syrian talks, held in May, aimed to draft a new constitution in a bid to find a political settlement to the civil war. Since then, Russia has refused to send a delegation to the talks between the rebel groups and the Syrian government held under the auspices of the UN in Geneva, Switzerland. Syrian Kurdish groups controlling a large chunk of territory in northern Syria have been excluded from the talks by Ankara’s veto.
Russia’s special envoy for Syria Alexander Lavrentyev said in June that Switzerland lost its neutral status after the country joined the Russian sanctions slapped on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
UN special envoy for Syria Geir Pedersen, in turn, said Nov. 29 that the Russian concerns over the venue “were comprehensively addressed” by the Swiss authorities, but that “a further issue has now been raised which is not in Swiss hands,” without elaborating.
On March 22 of 2021, several of the world’s most dangerous men descended on Beirut’s historic seaside Summerland Hotel — not to swim in the Mediterranean or explore the sumptuous resort’s “Le Beach Pop Up,” but to talk Turkey.
The meeting was a secret one, between a delegation of senior Iranian military and government officials and a business group from Turkey led by a confidant of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Both sides were keen to deepen their partnership smuggling Iranian oil to buyers in China and Russia to raise funds for Tehran’s terror proxies, according to Western diplomats.
Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old young woman, was arrested by the morality police for the crime of improper hijab. Her arrest and death in detention fueled nationwide protests in Iran. Protesters came to the streets with the central slogan “Women, Life, Freedom” in protest against the performance, laws, and structure of the regime. The following 486-page report is dedicated to the statistical review, analysis, and summary of the first eighty-two days of the ongoing protests (September 17 to December 7, 2022). In this report, in addition to the geographic analysis and the presentation of maps and charts, the identity of 481 deceased, including 68 children and teenagers, an estimated of 18,242 arrested along with the identity of 3,670 arrested citizens, 605 students and 61 journalists or activists in the field of information is compiled. In addition, the report includes a complete collection of 1988 verified video reports by date and topic. The report examines protests across 1115 documented gatherings in all 31 provinces of the country, including 160 cities and 143 universities.
Introduction
As the fighting in Syria enters the fifth year, it is evident to all that what is happening is not a local civil rebellion against a tyrannical regime, but a war in which both the Syrian regime and the Syrian opposition are being actively supported by numerous regional and international forces. The most prominent foreign element involved in this war is Iran, which is throwing its entire weight into ensuring the survival of the regime. In addition to providing economic aid, arms, and advice, its support for Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad includes combat forces – from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), from Hizbullah in Lebanon, and from the Iraqi, Afghan and Pakistani Shi’ite militias that are loyal to Iran.
On September 4, 2022, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the Iran-backed Afghan Shi’ite militia, the Fatemiyoun Brigade, had begun training its fighters to operate drones at the airport at Palmyra in Syria.[1] The Syrian opposition website also noted that officials from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) were training the militia.
Speaking ahead of the Finnish defense chief’s visit to Turkey, the top Turkish diplomat has complained that his country is still under de facto defense sales restrictions from Finland.
Finland has yet to lift arms embargoes against Turkey, a pledge that both Stochkholm and Helsinki made under a deal paving the way for the Nordic enlargement of NATO, the top Turkish diplomat said, speaking ahead of the Finnish defense chief’s visit to Ankara this week.
Mevlut Cavusoglu has stepped up rhetoric over Aegean islands that Ankara says should be free of Greek arms.
Turkey’s feud with neighbor and fellow NATO member Greece resurfaced Tuesday as Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu threatened to “do whatever is necessary” unless Athens reverses the militarization of its islands off the Turkish coastline.
The Russians don’t seem too keen at the moment to send Syrian fighters to Ukraine, Danny Makki reports for al-Araby al-Jadeed.
Russia’s assault on Ukraine has been viciously raging for approximately two months, leaving little gains to show in the grand scheme of things.
In Syria, opponents found in oil a rare point of consensus to cooperate and pick clean the country’s wealth and revenues, according to Ibrahim Hamidi for Asharq al-Awsat.
With the war in Syria now in its twelfth year and with the US-Russian conflict still ongoing to control the oil sector and its potential, local belligerents and regional opponents have found in oil a rare point of consensus to cooperate and pick clean the country’s wealth and revenues.