"And I have found both freedom and safety in my madness, the freedom of loneliness and the safety from being understood, for those who understand us enslave something in us. But let me not be too proud of my safety. Even a Thief in a jail is safe from another thief. "

Khalil Gibran (How I Became a Madman)

Lübnan Marunîleri / Yasin Atlıoğlu

Lübnan Marunîleri / Yasin Atlıoğlu
NEWS AND ARTICLES / HABERLER VE MAKALELER

Wednesday, June 03, 2015

Iraq, Iran fighters deployed to defend Damascus: security source- Daily Star

BEIRUT: Thousands of Iranian and Iraqi fighters have been deployed in Syria in past weeks to bolster the defenses of Damascus and its surroundings, a Syrian security source told AFP Wednesday.
 
"Around 7,000 Iranian and Iraqi fighters have arrived in Syria over the past few weeks and their first priority is the defense of the capital. The larger contingent is Iraqi," the source said on condition of anonymity.
 
"The goal is to reach 10,000 men to support the Syrian army and pro-government militias, firstly in Damascus, and then to retake Jisr al-Shughur because it is key to the Mediterranean coast and the Hama region" in central Syria, he added.
 
Syria's government lost control of Jisr al-Shughur in northwestern Idlib province on April 25, as a coalition of opposition forces including Al-Qaeda affiliate Al-Nusra Front swept through the region.
 
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İsrail, Suriye’de Türkiye-Suudi Arabistan işbirliğine nasıl bakıyor?- Şalom

Türkiye’nin de destek verdiği Sünni Blok’un yanı sıra bölgede İran’ın artan gücünden rahatsızlık duyan bir diğer aktör de İsrail. Bir süredir göreceli olarak sakin seyreden Türkiye-İsrail ilişkilerini ve İsrail-Suriye sınırında son zamanlarda artan askeri hareketliliği göz önüne alarak İsrail’in böylesi bir işbirliğine nasıl bakacağını araştırdık. Bu kez sözü hem İsrailli hem de İsrail’i yakından tanıyan uzmanlara bıraktık.
 
Hay Eytan Cohen Yanarocak
 
Moshe Dayan Ortadoğu ve Afrika Araştırmaları Merkezi Tel Aviv Üniversitesi
 
Gerek Türkiye, gerekse İsrail, İran’ın bölgede ve özellikle Suriye’de güçlenmesini arzu etmiyor. Türkiye, Esad rejimi ile olan ilişkilerini liderler arasındaki kişisel ilişkilere endeksleyerek Suriye konusunda Türk dış politikasını ciddi anlamda çıkmaza soktu. Türkiye, Arap Baharı’nın sonrasında güç kazanan ve özellikle Sisi’nin yaptığı darbeye kadar, Mısır’da iktidarı ele geçirmeyi başaran Müslüman Kardeşler oluşumunun bir kopyasının Suriye’de başa geçmesini arzu ediyor. AKP hükümeti ile söz konusu hareket arasında sıkı bir bağ olduğu yadsınamaz.
 
İsrail açısından bakarsak Esad hükümeti gerek Lübnan Hizbullah’ı ile, gerekse de İran ile girdiği çok yönlü ittifak dolayısıyla İsrail’in kara listesinde. İsrail güçlü bir Esad istemiyor. Buna karşın İsrail kendini Suriye’de savaşan gruplardan herhangi birine de yakın  hissetmiyor. Tarafların birbirlerini yıpratması ve dikkatlerini İsrail’e yöneltmemeleri İsrail’i memnun eden bir faktör. İsrail ılımlı olarak tabir edilen Arap Baharı karşıtı Ürdün, Mısır ve Suudi Arabistan gibi ülkelerle Suriye’ye aynı açıdan bakıyor. Türkiye’nin arzu ettiği gibi Müslüman Kardeşlerin bir başka şubesinin Şam’a egemen olmasını istemiyor. Buna karşın güçlü bir Esad da istemiyor. Kısa vadede Türkiye ile İsrail’in menfaatlerinin örtüştüğünü söyleyebiliriz. Buna karşın uzun vadede her iki taraf oyunun sonunun farklı bitmesini istiyor gibi.
 
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Al-Nusra Beheads Tribal Leader’s Sons- The Syrian Observer

Al-Nusra Front has executed the sons of a tribal leader on charges of collaborating with Syrian regime forces in the northern province of Idleb, activists said on Tuesday.
                 
Nayef and Abdulhai al-Jerkh, sons of Sheikh Nouri Nawaf al-Jerkh of the Hadedeyin tribe, were beheaded on charges of smuggling food and aid to pro-Assad fighters inside the Abu Dhour military airport, which has been under siege by al-Nusra forces over the past months.
 
The Hadedeyin tribe holds significant influence in the provinces of Hama, Homs and Idleb and is considered to be amongst Assad’s most loyal clans.
                 
Syrian Defense Minister Fahd Jasem al-Fraij and the commander of the strategic Dumeir military airport, Jayez Mousa, are members of the Hadedeyin tribe.
 
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Hezbollah seizes 15 positions on Arsal's outskirts- Daily Star

BEIRUT/BAALBEK: Hezbollah fighters Wednesday seized at least 15 positions from militants on the outskirts of a volatile northeastern border town, killing at least 11 militants, a security source said.
 
The source told The Daily Star Hezbollah fighters captured positions on the northern and southern outskirts of Lebanon's Arsal along the porous mountain range on Syria's western border.
 
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah last month vowed to oust jihadi militants from Arsal's outskirts if the Lebanese Army failed to take action, sparking a heated debate between political rivals.
The party's opponents in Lebanon have demanded that Hezbollah stay clear of Arsal and its outskirts, describing the region as a red line.
 
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Journalist: Syrian economy ‘teetering, but not in state of complete collapse’- Syria direct

The Syrian foreign ministry issued a decree on April 24 to its embassies, instructing them to issue and renew passports and travel documents to Syrians abroad regardless of status, reported Al-Arabiya on April 25.
Nearly four million citizens have left Syria since the beginning of the war and now live abroad. At least 1.5 million of them need to renew their passports, reported SAS News late last month, citing statistics from economic analyst Mohammad Khalil. Passport renewals now cost $400, up from $200.
The government decree on passports is one of the measures the Syrian regime has taken to accumulate revenue. But while observers have looked to shaky data as a sign of its imminent collapse, the Syrian economy, and by extension, the regime, is still far from falling apart, says Iyad al-Jafari, the editor-in-chief of the pro-opposition economic news site Economy: Syrians’ Money and Jobs.
“We cannot say that the Syrian economy is in a state of complete collapse until the state treasury can no longer pay state employees’ salaries or finance state institutions,” al-Jafari tells Syria Directs Mohammed al-Haj Ali.
Here, al-Jafari, whose news site is an affiliate of Zaman al-Wasl, explains that even if the government cannot cover public-sector salaries, “this will not lead to a complete regime collapse, but rather will result in its reduced influence within Syria’s political arena and make it nothing more than a faction among several warring factions.”
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Syrian Army Strengthens Supply Lines to Idlib; Numerous Hills Captured- Al-Masdar News

It did not take long for the Syrian Armed Forces to capitalize on the Syrian Al-Qaeda group “Jabhat Al-Nusra’s” poor frontline defenses near the strategic town of Zayzoun, as soldiers from the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and National Defense Forces (NDF) surprised the enemy combatants with another night assault in the Idlib Governorate’s countryside.
The small offensive near Zayzoun was led by the Syrian Arab Army’s “Tiger Forces” and the 87th Brigade of the 11th Tank Division, while under the direct command of Colonel Suheil Al-Hassan (Tiger Forces) and Captain Lu’ayy Al-Sleitan (Tiger Forces); this assault was conducted at night to evade the powerful anti-tank TOW missiles used by the western-backed Islamist militias.
With dusk descending over the Idlib Governorate, the Tiger Forces – in coordination with the 87th Brigade, the National Defense Forces (NDF) and the 45th Regiment of the 1st Armored Division – overpowered Jabhat Al-Nusra and Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham militants at Tal Sahhan, Al-Zayadiyah, and Sarareef after a series of firefights at these hills and villages near the city of Jisr Al-Shughour.
The Syrian Armed Forces capture of Tal Sahhan is perhaps the most important hill they seized control of in the Idlib countryside because this area was used by the western-backed Islamist militants to fire their anti-tank TOW missiles on Syrian Arab Army tanks that operate along the rugged terrain.
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Russia mulls strategy to solve Syrian conflict (Vitaly Naumkin- Al-Monitor)


The well-known recent gains by jihadists in Syria and Iraq, both in the military and the political spheres, have become an issue of serious concern for the Russian leadership. Unlike the West and many regional partners in the fight against terrorism, Russia continues to see Syrian President Bashar al-Assad — possibly to an even greater extent than before — as an important ally in this struggle, and one who is almost single-handedly leading the fight. This is not the main point of contention, however. If those who refuse to cooperate with the government in Damascus on this basis believe that the jihadist wave will subside with Assad’s departure, in Moscow they are convinced that this will mean victory for Islamist radicals who will come to power in Damascus and then expand.
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Tuesday, June 02, 2015

Syrian insurgent advances put Assad under pressure- Reuters

Steady advances by insurgents on key fronts in Syria mean President Bashar al-Assad is under more military pressure than at any point in the four-year-old war.
 
Losses in the north, east and south to groups including al Qaeda's Syrian arm and Islamic State may test Assad's hold over western parts of the country that are the most crucial to his survival.
 
After his loss of Palmyra, a symbolic and militarily strategic city, and nearly all of Idlib province, he appears to be circling his wagons more closely to a western region that includes Damascus, Homs, Hama and the coast.
 
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Sources familiar with the thinking in Damascus acknowledge that pressure is growing but say the government is confident the army can defend crucial territory with the help of its allies.
 
Assad still controls areas in more far-flung parts of Syria, but these are dwindling in number. His decision to maintain forces in places such as in Deir al-Zor, Hasaka and Aleppo suggests he still wants to preserve a nationwide presence, rejecting Syria's de facto partition.
            
Sources familiar with the government's thinking say Assad is confident about standing his ground: extra support is expected from Iran, his strongest ally, which said on Tuesday it would continue to stand by Syria. The Lebanese group Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran, is more widely deployed in Syria than ever.
 
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Terrorism will backfire on regional supporters: Rouhani- PRESS TV

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has reaffirmed the Islamic Republic’s support for Syria in its battle against terror, stressing that certain regional supporters of terrorism will eventually see a backlash from their approach.
 
“Some regional countries have unfortunately made miscalculations and think that terrorist forces are always a means in their hands to achieve their goals. However, they will suffer backlash of terrorism sooner or later,” Rouhani said in a meeting with Speaker of the Syrian People's Assembly Mohammad Jihad al-Laham in Tehran on Tuesday.
 
He also commended the resistance of the Syrian government and people in the face of terrorism over the past four years and expressed confidence that foreign countries could not impose their will on the Arab nation.
 
“The Syrian people have been gripped by an unwanted war by certain countries and terrorist groups, but when a nation wants, it can resist all complicated plots,” the Iranian president said.
 
He added that the Iranian government and nation have never neglected their "moral and humanitarian duty" to support the Syrians despite the sanctions imposed on Tehran over its nuclear program.
 
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Islamic summit urges politicians to avoid sectarian rhetoric- Daily Star

BEIRUT: The spiritual leaders of the main Islamic sects in Lebanon warned after an “urgent summit” Tuesday against fueling sectarian tensions in the country, underlining that inter-Muslim violence is forbidden.
 
The summit was headed by Grand Mufti Abdel-Latif Derian, Deputy Chief of the Higher Islamic Shiite Council Abdel-Amir Qabalan, Druze spiritual leader Naim Hassan and the religious head of Lebanon’s Alawite community Assad Assi.
 
The summit was held at Dar al-Fatwa's headquarters in Beirut and was attended by a number of religious figures from all four sects.
 
The representatives of the four Islamic groups voiced in a joint statement their “concern over the allegations exchanged between political officials that are taking sectarian natures.”
 
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Conflicting reports over Israeli airstrike on east Lebanon border area- Daily Star

BEIRUT: Lebanese media reported that Israeli jets carried out an airstrike in an eastern Lebanese border area Tuesday, which was later denied by Hezbollah's TV channel and security sources.
 
Local media channels reported that an Israeli raid targeted a Hezbollah outpost on the outskirts of the Bekaa Valley town of Brital.
 
However, a security source denied that any raid occured, saying Israeli jets only hovered over the area without bombing any targets.
 
Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV also denied that an Israeli raid targeted any of its positions in the Bekaa or Syria's Qalamoun region.
 
Another source had told The Daily Star that the raid occurred on the high-altitude hills between the Lebanese villages of Ham and Maaraboun.
 
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Iran’s Soleimani vows- NOW

BEIRUT – Iranian Revolutionary Guards Quds Force chief Qassem Soleimani has vowed that upcoming developments in Syria will soon “surprise” the world, Al-Quds al-Arabi reported.
 
“The world will be surprised by what we and the Syrian military leadership are preparing for the coming days,” the state Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) quoted Soleimani as saying, according to the London-based daily.
 
The Quds Force commander’s comment comes after a recent visit to Syria where he toured the Latakia region, which has come under threat from rebels after they seized the nearby Idlib province last week following months of sweeping victories against the regime.
 
Al-Quds al-Arabi reported that Soleimani “began his trip in Jourin, which lies on the contact point with the opposition forces that form the Army of Conquest.”
 
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Translation: Interview with Abu Muhammad Al-Joulani on Al-Jazeera (Part 1)- Al-Minara

Ahmad Mansour: “May peace be upon to you and the mercy of Allah and His blessing. I greet you and welcome you in a new episode of the program ‘without borders’ from one of the liberated territories in North Syria. Were the recent military victories took place, which were achieved by Jaysh Al-Fath by its shadow on the battlefield in and outside Syria, and Jabhat An-Nusra is considered as one of the essential pillars of Jaysh Al-Fath. Although it is described different from the others by the US, saying it is a terrorist organization.
 
In the same time the Syrian regime is bombing the bases of Jabhat An-Nusra and its men, the American planes and the US coalition planes are also bombing the same targets. The bases of Jabhat An-Nusra and its leaders were hit by these missiles, after the US places Jabhat An-Nusra and IS (the Islamic State) in the same scale, despite the big differences between them in thought and beliefs and even military.
 
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Washington: Yabancı savaşçılar Suriye'ye, Türkiye üzerinden geçiyor- Sputnik Türkçe

ABD Başkan Barack Obama'nın IŞİD'le mücadele koalisyonu özel temsilcisi Orgeneral John Allen'ın yardımcısı Brett McGurk, Irak Şam İslam Devleti'ne katılmak isteyen yabancı savaşçıların Suriye'ye Türkiye sınırından girdiğini öne sürdü.
McGurk, Washington'daki basın toplantısında, "Bu militanların hemen hemen hepsi Türkiye'den geliyor. Bunu biliyoruz" dedi.
 
Öte yandan ABD'li yetkili, Türkiye'ye her gün çok sayıda yabancının giriş yapmasına rağmen Türk yetkililerin sınırlarından geçiş yapmak isteyen teröristleri belirlemek için aktif olarak önlemler aldığını da sözlerine etkiledi.
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Lebanon tightening noose on terrorism funding- PRESS TV

The central bank of Lebanon is taking steps to tighten financial security precautions in a bid to stamp out terrorism funding and money laundering.
 
“Lebanon is fully committed to all international decisions and resolutions in terms of money laundering and terrorism funding. We won’t accept any account of individual or group which is linked to terrorism activity and all banks are abiding by these guidelines,” said Riad Salameh the head of the Bank of Lebanon.
 
Salameh also pointed out that the central bank is monitoring closely all cash transactions inside and outside the country, especially those involving large amounts of money.
 
The Lebanese banking institutions have been under pressure from the US and its Western allies to tighten measures against the movement of cash in and out of the country.
 
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US accuses Syria of backing ISIS Aleppo advance- Daily Star

BEIRUT: The United States has accused the Syrian military of carrying out airstrikes to help ISIS fighters advance around the northern city of Aleppo, messages posted on the U.S. Embassy Syria official Twitter feed said.
 
ISIS fighters pushed back rival insurgents north of Aleppo Sunday near the Turkish border, threatening their supply route to the city, fighters and a group monitoring the war said.
 
Fighters from Levant Front, a northern alliance which includes Western-backed rebels and Islamist fighters, said they were worried ISIS was heading for the Bab al-Salam crossing between Aleppo and the Turkish province of Kilis.
 
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Al-Rahi to Attend Christian Summit in Damascus- Naharnet

The Mariamite Cathedral of Damascus is set to host an inter-Christian summit next week to discuss the situation of Christians in the Orient, An Nahar daily reported on Tuesday.
 
The newspaper said that Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi will attend the summit on June 8.
It will be hosted by Greek Orthodox leader Youhanna X Yazigi, it said.
 
This will not be the first time that al-Rahi travels to Damascus as a patriarch. He visited the Syrian capital around two years ago when he attended Yazigi's enthronement.
 
The summit is expected to be followed by ceremonies, including the inauguration of several sections at the patriarchate.
 
http://www.naharnet.com/stories/en/180739
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Monday, June 01, 2015

If Syria and Iraq Become Fractured, So Too Will Tripoli and North Lebanon- The Huffington Post

BEIRUT -- The talk now is all about whether Syria and Iraq will end up as divided states. The impetus for such speculation derives firstly from the latest Saudi, Qatari and Turkish joint resolve to mount huge numbers of jihadists on Syria's borders. According to two senior political figures I spoke to, up to 10,000+ Wahhabist/Salafists (predominantly An-Nusra/Al Qaeda) have been gathered by the intelligence services of these latter states, mostly non-Arabs from Chechnya, Turkmenistan, etc. Plainly, Washington is aware of this (massively expensive) Saudi maneuver and equally plainly it is turning a blind eye to it. 
 
Secondly, the speculation about a coming fractured Iraq has gained big momentum from ISIS's virtually unopposed walk-in to Ramadi. The images of long columns of ISIS Toyota Land Cruisers, black pennants waving in the wind, making their way from Syria all the way -- along empty desert main roads -- to Ramadi with not an American aircraft in evidence, certainly needs some explaining. There cannot be an easier target imagined than an identified column of vehicles, driving an arterial road, in the middle of a desert. 
 
Do these two cases of a Nelsonian "blind eye" have something to do with persuading the GCC at Camp David to sign up to the statement that they accepted that an agreement with Iran on its nuclear program was in their "security interests"? After all, Obama desperately needs it to paint Netanyahu as the isolated outlier on the Iran deal issue and thus undercut his ability to influence Congress.
 
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News, Kidnapping and Looting: How ISIL Controls Life Under the Caliphate- Sputnik News

As ISIL militia continue fighting against government forces and rebel groups in Syria and Iraq, the terrorist group's hierarchy has ramped up its recruitment efforts in Europe and the Middle East through a combination of propaganda, power and persecution.

In a revamp of previous propaganda attempts, ISIL officials have tweaked their efforts to attract would-be western jihadists through the use of media-savvy, professional-sounding news broadcasts.
ISIL's Al-Bayan radio, which features smooth media broadcasts in various languages, including English, is one such measure used to spread the group's extremist rhetoric to an audience outside of the Middle East.
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'An army boot is placed on the face of the dead men': General Ghassan of the Syrian Army on the war against Nusra (Robert Fisk- The Independent)

Above us, white clouds graze the top of Tel Moussa, 9,400 feet of red rock above foothills of granite and valleys of innocent cherry orchards. Colonel Median of the Syrian Army’s 3rd Armoured Division stands on the dry, cold earth below, sun-shades above his stubble beard; he does not know the identity of the ancient Moussa who blessed this mountain with his name, but he knows how to curse him. “If I could catch him, I would hang him because he is the source of torture for me and many of my men.”
Across the gaunt peaks and caves of the Qalamoun range east of the Lebanese border, a kind of victory has been celebrated by the Syrian army after the sudden collapse of Palmyra to the “Islamic State”, a loss which – as they both admit freely — deeply shocked Median and his senior officer, General Ghassan. Months of fighting west of the town of Yabroud have freed a 25-mile front from the Nusra Islamists right up to the Lebanese frontier, and Ghassan’s 130-mm artillery are now dug in on the Syrian side of the border, scarcely 12 miles from the Lebanese city of Baalbek.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/an-army-boot-is-placed-on-the-face-of-the-dead-men-general-ghassan-of-the-syrian-army-on-the-war-against-nusra-10289588.html
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